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It appears that many Nightmare Fuel pages have problems, including:
1. Listing non-scary things that made the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable at worst.
2. Having spoiler tags on them (which is against the page's guidelines).
3. Listing Fridge Horror and fan theories.
And much more!
On a few occasions, people from outside the site's community have pointed out our overly lax usage of Nightmare Fuel to make fun of us, meaning that it can legitimately harm our reputation to let this go unchecked.
The TRS thread
meant for redefining Nightmare Fuel started to become a place for cleaning up Nightmare Fuel pages in general, so we may as well move these discussions to Long Term Projects where they belong.
Here are the guidelines to determine whether something is Nightmare Fuel or not.
Nightmare Fuel rules
- This is a page whose name is intended to be taken more literally than most. It's not enough for material to be scary; to truly qualify, it has to be frightening enough to legitimately unnerve/disturb the viewer, with actually being nightmare-inducing as the ultimate endpoint.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- It left you feeling shaken even after the credits had rolled, you turned the last page, or are otherwise done with the work.
- You have a hard time falling asleep if you think about it at night, or have a literal nightmare about it.
- You dread that episode, scene, level, chapter, or song during re-watches, and consider skipping it.
- With that said, don't add something just because it happens to be your personal phobia. For example, spiders can be scary and many people have arachnophobia, but just because a spider happens to be in the work, it does not make a Nightmare Fuel entry. It needs to reasonably be scary to someone without the phobia.
- Don't confuse tension with fear. If the hero is in trouble, but you know he'll make it out okay at the end, it's probably not Nightmare Fuel unless the threat is especially disturbing.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- Explain WHY the entry scared you. Try to convey your sense of fear to your readers. Avoid putting up Zero-Context Examples.
- Remember that Weblinks Are Not Examples, and neither are quotes on their own. You should explain the horror in your own words, rather than rely on others to do so.
- Don't add things that might have scared someone. If it didn't scare you, and you don't personally know anyone else who was scared, you shouldn't be adding it to Nightmare Fuel.
- Nightmare Fuel should stick to you even after you're done with the work.
- If something is initially presented as scary but turns out to be harmless, it's most likely not Nightmare Fuel since The Reveal makes the scariness vanish.
- Jump Scares are a good source of Nightmare Fuel, but not all of them automatically qualify: being startled is not the same as being scared.
- Hypotheticals are not Nightmare Fuel:
- Remember that Trailers Always Lie: a scene that is presented as scary in the trailer could very well turn out to be inoffensive in the finished work. Only add examples from unreleased works if they were especially terrifying in the previews.
- Fan theories do not belong on the Nightmare Fuel page under any circumstance. No matter how much evidence they have to support them, don't add them until they've been officially confirmed. In the meanwhile, take them to Wild Mass Guessing.
- Fridge Horror goes on the Fridge page, not Nightmare Fuel. Don't add it unless it's Ascended Fridge Horror.
- Keep in mind the work's intended audience when considering whether or not something is Nightmare Fuel.
- If something is normal or expected in the genre, it does not automatically qualify. Violence in a Fighting Series or gore in a horror movie must be especially disturbing or gruesome by the work's standards to be Nightmare Fuel.
- Remember that Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films. If a work is rated PG-13 or higher but would only be scary to young children, it's not Nightmare Fuel.
- The standards on what qualifies as Nightmare Fuel are especially stringent on works aimed at children and pre-teens: kids have hyperactive imaginations, so even something benign can give them nightmares.
- Spoiler tags do not belong on Nightmare Fuel pages. Much of what scares us comes from inherently spoilery stuff such as death and the unknown, so finding spoilers on these pages should be expected.
- Nightmare Fuel is an Audience Reaction, so it needs to be scary for the audience. Describing how the characters react to something scary isn't needed. Just because something scares them, that doesn't mean it scares us as well.
- Nightmare Fuel is a No Real Life Examples, Please! page. Meta-examples involving the actors, production, or behind-the-scenes incidents are not allowed.
Guidelines when proposing cleanup of a page:
- Some rules are pretty objective. If you see a Zero-Context Example, Fridge Horror, Real Life example, speculation, In-Universe reaction that isn't scary to the viewers, examples that explicitly describe themselves as not being very scary (including "mildly creepy", "somewhat unnerving", and other synonymous phrases), or examples that are just scene summaries without going into detail about why it's so scary, you can (and should) remove them immediately without coming here to ask.
- You should also strip all spoiler tags from the page. Itty Bitty Wiki Tools has a tool for that, but it can cause problems, so if you use it be sure to preview the page and thoroughly look it over.
- Once you've fixed the objective issues with the page, bring it here so we can look at the more subjective problems, such as examples that may not be scary enough to qualify. If a consensus is reached that a certain entry does not qualify, it can be removed.
Edited by Zuxtron on Aug 1st 2020 at 9:40:30 AM
Redmess
#2102: Jan 17th 2020 at 2:42:25 AM
Sounds very dubious.
Optimism is a duty.
Hi
WarJay77
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
(Troper Knight)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#2104: Jan 17th 2020 at 10:58:19 AM
Yep.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Brainulator9
Short-Term Projects herald
from US
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
Short-Term Projects herald
#2105: Jan 17th 2020 at 2:09:09 PM
The only passable things that might count are:
- "Some viewers also had a childhood fear of the music that played when the Episode Code Number was shown at the end of older episodesnote . It didn't help that the oft-feared 1971 PBS Vanity Plate used to directly follow this."
- Not listed on the page, but does anyone know if the 5-episode "Conflict" story arc can even count? I might want to check it, just because it involves the characters nearly going into nuclear war. Probably not, given that this is Mr. Rogers we're talking about, but still...
Brainulator9
Short-Term Projects herald
from US
Since: Aug, 2018
Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
Short-Term Projects herald
#2106: Jan 17th 2020 at 2:30:45 PM
Just came across NightmareFuel.Franklin and it looks to be cuttable.
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
#2107: Jan 17th 2020 at 3:12:20 PM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Honestly, the first one can probably stay. As utterly mind-boggling as it is to me that anyone could be scared of something like that, IIRC we've had plenty of evidence brought to this of people finding vanity plates and the like scary.
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2108: Jan 17th 2020 at 3:26:41 PM
Alright, I've applied the changes to Avengers: Endgame, as well as trimmed down on the excess use of italics and bold text. I decided to keep the de-Cap-itation entry for now.
Does anyone mind looking through my comments on the Black Panther page to see if most of my desired cuts are justified?
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2109: Jan 17th 2020 at 3:44:16 PM
Looking through Avengers: Infinity War now. I already suggested beforehand that we can cut the Trailers/Meta folder on principle. But the film entries are a cesspool of Fridge Horror. I'm starting to think we should have an explicit rule on the main page where if your entry begins with "Think about it" or some variant thereof it should be disallowed on the spot.
Film
- Right off the very bat, the movie starts with a black screen... in complete silence. After a few seconds, the Marvel Studios logo begins, but its usual fanfare is also silent. Then, ominous music becomes audible, followed soon after by a distorted voice. It's a distress call from an Asgardian as everyone else is being slaughtered by the Black Order. Debatable keep.
"This is the Asgardian refugee vessel, Statesman! We are under assault, I repeat, we are under assault! The engines are dead, life support's failing. Requesting aid from any vessel within range. We are twenty-two jump points out of Asgard. Our crew is made up of Asgardian families, we have very few soldiers here. This is not a war craft, I repeat, this is not a war craft!"
- The Black Order. They may not be as unstoppable as Thanos, but they are equally remorseless and ruthless all the same. In particular is the hulking brute Cull Obsidian, and Ebony Maw with his telekinetic powers, including his (mentioned below and seen above) use of crystal needles against Doctor Strange. Not scary, and any validity is redundant with a later better entry. Delete.
- A quick thing to point out is how... out of place they feel. Sure, it's a comic book superhero movie, but if you put them side by side, the Black Order wouldn't seem so out of place in Warhammer 40,000 (Hell, Ebony Maw even looks and acts like a Water Caste Tau, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight have the look of Dark Eldar or Chaos Champions while the Outriders in general look like Genestealers◊). Uncanny Valley. Move to main YMMV page.
- During Thanos' massacres of the Zehoberei and the Asgardians, Ebony Maw can be heard speaking over the carnage, giving grand speeches about how the victims ought to be grateful that their lives have been sacrificed for "balance." One of these speeches, as Maw walks among dozens of murdered Asgardians, is the very first line of utterance in the film after the "Marvel Studios" title card. It comes off almost like something out of Jonestown, and makes Thanos's ideology seem much like the death-worship it was in the comics. Debatable but close enough to Fridge Horror that I'm leaning on deleting.
- A quick thing to point out is how... out of place they feel. Sure, it's a comic book superhero movie, but if you put them side by side, the Black Order wouldn't seem so out of place in Warhammer 40,000 (Hell, Ebony Maw even looks and acts like a Water Caste Tau, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight have the look of Dark Eldar or Chaos Champions while the Outriders in general look like Genestealers
- Just the way the first shots of the movie are filmed and the whole situation is revealed to the viewer bit by bit. We see the Asgardian ship getting fired at with its shields failing, and then we cut to someone's feet walking over Asgardian bodies while an ominous voice praises Thanos and declares that the dead should be grateful, until Ebony Maw's face is revealed. You can only imagine the massive massacre that happened prior to that (though you get hints of it seeing Corvus Glaive prowling amidst the corpses, finishing off the dying). The only Asgardian left standing is Loki, who stares petrified at someone in front of him, who is then revealed to be Thanos, reciting his sympathetic monologue. And then you realize that one of the bodies lying at Thanos' feet is an utterly beaten up Thor, who Thanos picks up by his collar and carries as if he's a small child. Some actual valid tense horror mixed with a ton of Fridge Horror. Trim.
- Thanos' monologue itself counts as well, as he outright compares himself to destiny itself, and painting himself as an unstoppable natural force. Not scary. Delete.
Thanos: I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you, to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am.
[shows a Psychotic Smirk as he reveals the Power Stone, already installed in the Infinity Gauntlet]
- Thanos' monologue itself counts as well, as he outright compares himself to destiny itself, and painting himself as an unstoppable natural force. Not scary. Delete.
- The way Thanos forces Loki to hand over the Tesseract; pressing the Power Stone to the side of Thor's head and just leaving it there, making Loki watch as it begins to steadily, painfully burn Thor alive like it did to the Collector’s servant girl back in Guardians of the Galaxy, heck Thor's skull begins to glow under the outburst of energy. No wonder Loki caves in. Unpleasant but not scary. Delete.
- What really sells it are Thor's screams. Now, when was the last time the strongest Avenger screamed his lungs out in pain? Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The fight between Thanos and the Hulk... if one can even call it a fight. At first, Hulk tears into the Mad Titan, pummeling him at full force, looking like he might win... and then Thanos starts fighting back. His strength proves to match if not surpass the Hulk's and with his superior combat skill, he absolutely wrecks him. Not scary. Delete.
- The Black Order don't even need to raise a finger, with Maw telling them to "let him have his fun." In other words, the Hulk never even stood a chance. This is the first time he has ever been so badly beaten. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Thor tries to attack Thanos with a piece of debris, but has no effect on him.
- The moment when Thanos shatters the Tesseract cube with one hand to obtain the Space Stone. The casual way he does it is chilling, as is the pervasive boom as it breaks. Not scary. Delete.
- Loki's death is horrifying. He pretends to side with Thanos to get close enough to stab him, but Thanos is prepared. He stops Loki's arm holding the dagger with the Space Stone and then effortlessly lifts Loki up by his throat with the hand that's wearing the Infinity Gauntlet and squeezes, with Loki desperately struggling against the grip, until his eyes start to become bloodshot and bulge out. And then he snaps his neck with a Sickening "Crunch!" while smirking sadistically and drops his body in front of Thor, who is restrained and can do nothing but watch. The strangulation before the neck snap is drawn out, with a good look at his kicking legs and his bloated face before it's over. It truly looks like an execution and might be the most realistically graphic and brutal death in the MCU so far. It's actually surprising that the death itself didn't give the film an R rating. Keep but trim to remove the Nightmare Porn.
Thanos: No resurrections this time.
- Look closely at Loki's face after he dies (if you have the stomach for it). His face isn't just bloated. Thanos strangled him with enough force to break blood capillaries in his face. And it gets worse. If you look at the exact moment Thanos snaps Loki's neck, blood begins to drip from his mouth, nose and eyes. See above.
- For a more psychological kind of horror, the heroes spend most of the film knowing that once Thanos gets all the Stones, he can kill any of them without even being present. They don't know how far he's gotten or what he's doing unless he's right in front of them, and Tony and Steve's teams spend the movie with no idea what, if anything, the other one is doing. The team going to Nidavellir probably has it the worst, because they don't have any of the Stones with them, and have no idea what's going on anywhere else. For all they know, they could all die at any moment during their mission. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- When Tony and Bruce are at the Sanctum in New York, commotion stirs outside, people panicking over something large, an aircraft, hovering over the city causing destruction. People were uncomfortable in theaters thinking back on 9/11 and the eerie parallels. In-universe, it's even worse, people in New York are reminded of 9/11 and the attack of 2012. Keep if that's how people really felt.
- When Peter senses and then sees the ship over New York City, he tells Ned to distract the others so he can slip out unnoticed. Ned sees the ship and immediately starts screaming "We're all gonna die!", alerting the other kids on the bus to the presence of the invaders. Ned isn't just creating a distraction for Peter; he's legitimately, pants-crappingly terrified. And for that matter, so are the other kids, who start screaming in horror at the sight of the ship hovering over NYC. In-universe. Delete.
- Vision getting impaled from behind by Corvus Glaive, with no warning whatsoever. Violence was pretty PG 13, but keep.
- The sight of dozens of Asgardian corpses floating in space when the Guardians arrive by is incredibly unsettling. The Guardians themselves, who were in the midst of arguing over the morality about asking for payments from a ship full of distressed refugees, are stunned into silence once they get there. Unpleasant but not scary. Delete.
- The attack on Gamora's homeworld. Not only is it immensely destructive and brutally indiscriminate, half of the remaining population afterwards is separated from the rest and then gunned down by Chitauri. In the background, you can hear Ebony Maw giving a demented "sermon", similar to the one he gave the Asgardians earlier on in the film, to the captive Zehoberei, demanding acceptance and even gratitude for the impending slaughter. Violent but not scary. Delete.
- Even though the scene where the huge Thanos leads the dainty child Gamora away by the hand seems cute and touching, it's anything but. With deceptive gentleness, Thanos is leading Gamora away from finding her beloved mother (who will likely die in the next few minutes if she isn't already dead), away from her life and childhood and innocence, away from her entire world, and into his own darkness. The faux gentleness of the scene between Thanos and Gamora undoubtedly makes it even more chilling. Gamora isn't calling for her mother anymore, but instead Thanos manages to completely distract her with the dagger while half of her people are slaughtered behind her back. Uncanny but not remotely scary. Delete.
- Though the effects are temporary, Thanos uses the Reality Stone to petrify and dice up Drax (who was attacking him) and turn Mantis (who was just standing there) into spools of fleshy (and still alive) threads. Fairly gruesome. Keep.
- The moment when Thanos tells Gamora that he knows that she lied to him about the location of the Soul Stone. She confidently assures that she never found it and apologizes for disappointing him, but Thanos just bows down to her and whispers in her ear that he indeed is disappointed, but not because she never found it, but because she did and lied to him. His demeanor is completely collected and Gamora is completely alone with him and at his mercy. At that moment, you really expect anything that Thanos could do to Gamora to make her talk and to punish her for lying. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- After thwarting her attempt on his life, Thanos has been keeping Nebula in a special magnetic torture chamber which simultaneously pulls all the cybernetic parts of herself (read: most of her) in different directions, causing her tremendous amounts of pain. If you look hard enough, you can see her brain. note In order to make Gamora tell him where the Soul Stone is located, Thanos then increases the force that's ripping Nebula apart at the seams, as Gamora weeps helplessly and her sister shrieks in utter agony. Tone down the Nightmare Porn, but keep.
- Ebony Maw attempts to coerce Strange into releasing the spell he has on the Time Stone by drilling a number of crystal needles into his flesh, one at a time, slowly. Condense and keep.
- The needles start to glow as they pierce his skin, giving the audience a nice, back-lit view of Strange's veins and arteries as he visibly tries not to scream. Condense and keep.
- This, from the hero who'd let himself be brutally killed so many times to save the universe before, mind you. And now he's going through it all over again, but without even the respite of actually dying. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Even worse, Maw specifically mentions that the needles were originally tools used for microsurgeries. Given Strange's former profession as a neurosurgeon, the thought of a life-saving medical tool being perverted for use as a torture implement would be some serious psychological warfare alongside the physical pain. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Nidavellir is such a vast place, but so desolate and lifeless. Once the forge where Mjölnir was built, the star it orbits is dying and its only surviving occupant is Eitri, whom Thanos forced to build the Infinity Gauntlet. Eitri had hoped the dwarves would be spared if he cooperated. The weapon was finished, but Thanos killed them all anyway. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- What's worse is that even though Thanos spares Eitri (presumably as reward for making the gauntlet), he ensures that the dwarf will never be able to make anything that can possibly counter the Infinity Gauntlet by ruining both Eitri's hands. Assuming that Eitri isn't affected by Thanos' culling of the universe, he's basically suffering from a Fate Worse than Death. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Seeing what looks like The Grim Reaper seemingly floating towards Thanos and Gamora is enough to make you wonder what fresh hell is coming... and then we see it's the Red Skull. Who has apparently been trapped on Vormir ever since the events of Captain America: The First Avenger back in the 40s. That's 70 years there... and he hasn't yet managed to escape. How many of those years did he spend in utter isolation, between trips from people seeking the Soul Stone? Why has he never hijacked a visitor's ship or stolen aboard — is there some kind of spell that prevents him from leaving the Stone? How does he know every detail about his visitors' lives? And just where the hell did that shroud come from? The unanswered questions are almost scarier than his actual appearance. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Think about this: He's been trapped on Vormir long enough to have lost most, if not all, of his German accent. This, with no one else to talk with, shows he's been conscious the entire time (not like Bucky, who was repeatedly frozen over time). Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Also, according to the Russos, now that Thanos has the Soul Stone, the Red Skull is free. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Gamora's death. She knows it's coming and tries to kill herself to avoid a worse fate, but Thanos prevents it from happening just so he can kill her himself to get the Soul Stone. You can feel her becoming terrified once she realizes Thanos does love her and therefore is ready to kill her, and there's nothing she can do about it. Kind of scary due to the tension? Keep but rewrite to shift the focus away from Fridge Horror.
- Or, rather, that she knows that Thanos doesn't truly love her - he abused the hell out of her for her entire life, after all - but that he believes he does. And she knows that he's willing to follow through on that destructive belief. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The reality subtext here will make any victim of abuse sick: Gamora's fate is shared by far too many abuse victims. Many live with the fear that their abuser will someday kill them for whatever reason, since an abuser sees their victim's life as belonging to them, like a possession. Gamora winds up experiencing one of an abuse victim's absolute worst fears: being murdered by their abuser without the opportunity to survive and thrive beyond everything done to them. It's even right down to the reality subtext that women who are murdered by their abusers are more likely to have this happen after they leave their abusers, which Gamora did - she escaped from Thanos, but he found her again anyway. And that she dies alone with her abuser (save for Red Skull, a witness who will not try to save her life) on a lifeless planet, away from everyone and everything she has ever loved makes it that much worse. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- There is also a Freeze-Frame Bonus on the shot of Gamora's lifeless body on the ground far below. A green puddle of blood around her head can be seen. Unpleasant but PG 13 violence. Delete.
- There also seem to be different colored stains from dried blood surrounding Gamora's body. Thanos is not the only one who's tried to get the Soul Stone. After the events of Avengers: Endgame, this becomes even more horrifying when we consider whose blood might well be on those rocks. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Or, rather, that she knows that Thanos doesn't truly love her - he abused the hell out of her for her entire life, after all - but that he believes he does. And she knows that he's willing to follow through on that destructive belief. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Planet Titan itself. When we first see it, it's already a shockingly empty-looking planet that has seen better days, but then Thanos himself shows up on it and shows us what it used to look like. The sheer force of difference between Titan as seen in a flashback — a lush, beautiful world dotted by oddly-shaped but futuristic buildings — and Titan as it exists now — a post-apocalyptic, brown-tinted, ruin-filled wasteland — is shocking. Shocking but not really that scare, especially in context. Delete.
- On Titan, Strange uses the Time Stone to try out different battle plans that he, Tony, Peter, and the remaining Guardians can use against Thanos. He burns himself out after living through over fourteen million scenarios. The number of options they can take where they can "win"? One. And it transpires that Strange wasn't entirely forthcoming as to what a "win" of that type entailed. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Strange had to watch over fourteen million potential outcomes of their fight to find the one future in which they actually beat Thanos. FOURTEEN. MILLION. Even then, it still requires Thanos acquiring all of the Infinity Stones and killing half the universe. One can only imagine how bad the other fourteen million outcomes are. Hell, it's a wonder Strange is still mentally stable after witnessing all that. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The Outriders pushing themselves through anything from the Wakandan energy field treats the viewers to a number of severe burnings and mutilations as the horde savagely tears holes through the barrier with the mangled bodies of their fellow soldiers. The look on Okoye's face as she sees this and comments on it really sells how terrifying it is to face an army that literally has no concept of self-preservation, almost like facing a horde of Zombies. PG 13 violence, not nearly as gruesome to audiences as the description suggests. Delete.
- Hell, put yourself in the shoes of a Wakandan warrior in that battle. Up until this point, their worst problem would be human invaders which was easily dealt with given Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. This time, they are facing a hell of an Outside-Context Problem — an army of mindless alien monsters, devoid of mercy, pity or remorse, driven only by the urge to kill, using technology that more than likely exceeds their own, lead by demigod generals in service to a god-like Evil Overlord, something they likely never had to think about about before. While the Wakandans welcome the challenge in true Proud Warrior Race Guy fashion, its telling that they do not expect to survive it as M'Baku tells T'Challa, or that the Dora Milaje believe they are facing their greatest ending. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The sight of the Outriders overwhelming Steve, T'Challa and Bruce is particularly scary as the creatures bring their prey down and either toss them about like ragdolls or start ripping and tearing at them with teeth and claws. Bruce's situation is particularly frightening, as the Outriders drag the Hulkbuster suit down through sheer weight of numbers, leaving Bruce trapped on the ground, only able to see dozens of snapping fanged mouths as the Outriders try to bite and claw their way through the suit to get at the human inside. Were it not for the timely arrival of Thor... Nightmare Porn and Fridge Horror. Delete.
Bruce Banner: [being overwhelmed by Outriders] There's too many of 'em!
- Iron Man's fight with Thanos is absolutely brutal. Poor Tony is hammered into the ground, tossed around like a ragdoll, and his desperate onslaught of attacks result in a single, miniscule cut on Thanos's face. What makes this scene different from most other fight scenes in the MCU is how clearly terrified Tony is of Thanos. He's fueled by pure desperation, fighting for his life, which is hammered home even more by the horrified look on his face every time Thanos tears his helmet off. Nightmare Porn. Delete.
- Not only that, Tony doesn't say a word during the fight. The MCU's greatest Deadpan Snarker, who is widely known for joking and taunting his enemies during fights, is stunned into complete silence by the brutality of it all. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The look of undiluted fury on Thanos's face when he uses the Power Stone to obliterate Titan's moon and fling the pieces at Tony and co is terrifying. It's pretty clear the Mad Titan is done playing around. Subjective but most people don't find Thanos's angry face particularly scary. Delete.
- Right after Tony manages to nick Thanos in the face, Thanos just smiles, wipes off the blood, and returns the favor with an absolutely vicious blow to the head. Even through Tony's armor, the hit inflicts massive, bloody gashes on his face. Not scary. Delete.
- The fight ends with Tony being stabbed through the abdomen with his own nanobot-sword, so deep that it sticks out of his back. And as if that image wasn't enough, blood starts dripping from his mouth as he gasps and whimpers in pain and fear, and the look of pure and utter horror never leaves his face. Nightmare Porn. Delete.
- This is the fight that Tony has been dreading for six years, ever since the Battle of New York. He's wearing the most advanced armor he's ever developed, he has the support of people he didn't expect (like a Master of the Mystic Arts), and he has the guy outnumbered 6:1. The fight has finally come, and despite all of these advantages, he's losing. It's hard to imagine that kind of quick-sand despair. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- What really sells this is after stabbing Tony and taking the Time Stone Quill charges at Thanos guns blazing only for Thanos to teleport away. The look on Quill's face when he asks Stark "Did we just lose?" really cinches it. They had numbers, advanced weaponry, arguably some of the big heavy hitters, and they all still lost to Thanos. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- In The Avengers, Tony had a pretty snappy comeback for what he is without armor, and in Iron Man 3, he learned that Iron Man is himself, not his suits, a lesson he later passed along to Peter. As he begins to run out of nanobots and more and more of his body is left unarmored, this sentiment is quickly forgotten, and by the end of the fight, we are no longer watching a superhero fight a supervillain, just a 48-year-old man in nothing but his street clothes receiving the beating of his life and realizing he's going to lose. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- While the deaths of the Black Order are rightfully deserved and downright satisfying to watch, they're still incredibly grisly in their own right: Not pleasant but could keep with toned-down language. Although most of them feature Gory Discretion Shot to remain within typical PG 13 levels of violence.
- Ebony Maw is sucked into space and literally freezes into a cracking corpse.
- Proxima Midnight gets sawed in half by her own army's death wheels.
- Cull Obsidian is grinded across the inside of Wakanda's energy dome (partially incinerating the left-hand portion of his body) until he's blown apart.
- Corvus Glaive is painfully impaled by his own weapon.
- When Thanos arrives on Earth, Banner rushes him with the Hulkbuster armor. Bruce is subsequently neutralized when Thanos uses the Space Stone to turn him intangible and fuse him into a cliff. See below. Delete.
- Thanos arrival in general has a notable sense of dread as the wind starts to subtly pick up and the heroes realize someone powerful is coming and when Thanos arrives you can see that while they are trying to hide it well, our heroes are intimidated by this man whose feats Bruce probably already told them about. In-universe. Delete.
- We never see exactly what Bruce is experiencing in there. For all we know, his eyes might have landed inside a rock. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Thankfully, though overshadowed by the horror of half the universe dying, we see Bruce in the Hulkbuster in the last scenes, seemingly fine besides missing most of the armor above the shoulders. Justifying edit. Delete.
- With no other options, Wanda is forced to do what Vision has asked of her before and is begging her to do now — after losing her parents, her brother, her freedom, she now has to murder the man she loves in order to save half the universe. And after Vision's horrific death, Thanos simply undoes his destruction, only to callously rip the Mind Stone from him and toss his body aside like an empty soda can. Wanda had to watch her lover die twice, once at her own hands and once at the hands of Thanos; and Vision had to suffer the nightmare of being destroyed, only to be brought back to life and killed again. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The image of Thanos taking the Mind Stone is absolutely horrifying. When he takes out the stone, he also takes out part of Vision's skull, leaving him with a gaping hole in his forehead through which circuits and wires are clearly visible. The audience is essentially looking at the remains of Vision's brain after a brutal lobotomy. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Thanos reversing the process is also quite horrifying to watch. You can observe Vision's explosion in reverse, basically how the pieces of him that are shattered around assemble. All in slow-motion. And of course playing this in reverse shows exactly how he died. The only reason Disney could get away with it is because Vision is basically a robot. Debatable keep.
- A tamer example than most, but it's very apparent that as Thanos collects more Infinity Stones, the Infinity Gauntlet starts to give him more of an electric jolt. While it is prevalent when he gets the Time Stone, by the time he finally gets the Mind Stone, the Gauntlet electrocutes his body with its power, causing Thanos to audibly cry out as electric currents visibly flow through his arms. The Gauntlet is powerful enough to the point where its power causes harm even to its wearer. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- By the end of the film, Thanos succeeds in his goal of wiping out half of all life in the universe. Let this sink in, the combined efforts of nearly every hero in the MCU from the Avengers, to the Guardians, Wakanda, Strange and Spider-Man were not enough to stop him. To say this is the series' Darkest Hour would be a grand understatement. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The line uttered by Thanos before he performs his signature Badass Fingersnap, in how chilling and simple it is in conveying his victory and, by extension, Thor's screw-up. Not remotely scary. Delete.
"You should have gone for the head." (snaps finger)
- A moment before, Thor slices through a beam created by all six Infinity Stones before impaling Thanos through the chest using Stormbreaker. You might be cheering — but seeing the ice-cold rage on Thor's face in the next shot will stop you cold. He grabs Thanos' head and makes him look him in the eyes with an expression of pure Tranquil Fury as he continues to press the axe deeper into Thanos' chest. It should be noted that none of the antagonists in his own movie trilogy elicited this much hatred from Thor. Not even Malekith, who killed Thor's mother, or his own sister Hela, who destroyed Thor's eye and killed shedloads of Asgardians, including the Warriors Three. He really hates Thanos this much. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Pushing Stormbreaker deeper into him is enough to make Thanos scream in pain. This is the first time we witness him experiencing genuine pain, and it's not pretty. Not scary. Delete.
- Hell, Thor himself, from the point of view of Thanos' forces. Thor with Stormbreaker is one of an exceedingly small number of beings in the whole universe capable of genuinely threatening Thanos. The Black Order saw Thanos personally defeat Thor and leave him to die, but here he is still alive and more powerful than ever. And he's furious. In fact, he's so terrifying the Outriders actually try to flee. Thor, in his rage, smashes through their ships as they do. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The lead-up to the Snap is terrifying in its own right. Thor has impaled Thanos through the chest with Stormbreaker, and it seems like another victory for the Avengers; as Thor gives his Badass Boast and shoves the axe in deeper, Thanos stammers out what initially sounds like his last words...and then he gets the words out, and they turn out to be his Pre-Mortem One-Liner instead. The realization hits Thor just an instant too late. The camera shows Thanos's gloved hand, and Thor has just enough time to let out a panicked "NO!" before...*snap*. Not scary, just tense. Delete.
- Thanos and Gamora advertise his mass-murder of half the universe via the Infinity Gauntlet as an instantaneous and painless process. They're mistaken. While physically painless, the deaths of trillions involves the unlucky victims swiftly crumbling to cosmic dust — and not all at once, so even if you see it happen to someone else, there's a very dangerous and tense window of time where the same could happen to you. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Perhaps the very worst part, for the victims; your head is one of the last things to go, so if you're awake, you get to watch yourself disintegrating. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The music doesn't help. Meaning, there is no music at all. From the moment Bucky disintegrates to Steve mourning, most of the theaters are so silent you can hear a pin drop.note Too mild, but possible keep.
- The Stinger makes it even worse. Sure, the people go away painlessly. But they go away with no regards to the consequences their absences leave behind. A car swerves right in front of Nick Fury and Maria Hill as they're driving when its occupant dissipates, and when they get out, they see a helicopter crash into a building after losing its pilot. Imagine The Rapture only across the entire universe. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- A civilian behind Fury witnesses Maria Hill's disintegration, moments before he notices his body is disintegrating with his last words being "Oh my God..." as the man next to him watches in horror. Unpleasant but not scary. Delete.
- If you listen closely during the final moments of the post-credits scene, you can hear crowds of people screaming. Too mild. Delete.
- Back when Thanos killed his victims directly, like Gamora's people, while it was still monstrous, bodies were left behind and the people could identify, bury, and mourn their loved ones. With the Gauntlet, nothing is left of the victim — their clothes and anything else on their person goes with them. Even the dust dissipates in seconds, meaning that unless one's death is directly witnessed by a survivor who knows who they are, that person is gone without a trace and nobody will ever know. Thanos graduated from mass murder to UnPersoning trillions. On the Avengers' level, Vision is the only one amongst their dead they're able to retrieve, while they have to live with their other dead teammates' ghosts haunting them. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- It's especially terrifying for the group on Titan. In Wakanda, everyone's so busy fighting that they don't have time to worry about the snap until it happens. The heroes on Titan have no such luck. They know Thanos only has one more stone to go, have no reason to hope that he won't get it, but they have nothing to distract them from what's coming. They know they've lost and all they can do is wait for it. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Peter says he doesn't feel so good. Why? His Spider-Sense was going off. Danger everywhere, and absolutely no way to avoid it. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Moreover, Peter — like Bucky — probably has some measure of super-soldier regeneration or quickened healing factor. Both of them stating that suggests that their heightened physiques were desperately trying to reconstruct and regenerate them even while in the process of being torn apart. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Similar to the above, Mantis seems to sense the emotional turmoil of the trillions of lives being affected across the cosmos, the psychic reverberations so hard to comprehend that she can only utter "something... is happening...", shortly before she herself disintegrates. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The scope of this atrocity cannot be overstated. Thanos committed the single largest act of genocide in existence. Earth's population is about 7.5 billion people of which half is now dead. Repeat for untold numbers of inhabited planets — most of which (Earth included) would have no idea why most of their population is suddenly disintegrating. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Part of the premise of the film is the fact that this is Tony Stark's worst nightmare brought to reality — he saw Thanos's forces on the other side of the wormhole in The Avengers, (canonically) six years before this film, and his PTSD took that horror and ran with it, causing his emotional/mental instability in Iron Man 3. Wanda was the cause of his vision of all the Avengers being dead in Avengers: Age of Ultron, likely bringing those nightmares back to the surface from whatever progress he may have made in the interim. And now, the nightmare that has been plaguing him is a reality. He says as much to Doctor Strange on Ebony Maw's ship that he's been plagued by the nightmare of Thanos for years. And now it's a reality. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Seeing people around you crumble to dust is already horrible enough, but looking at it from the point of view of Stark and Nebula is even worse: Everyone on Titan but them is wiped out. For all they know, it's an Everybody's Dead, Dave situation on an universal scale. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- It's bad enough from the perspective of a normal citizen. But now think of it from Fury's point of view. There's an alien invasion on, but at least he knows Wakanda and the Avengers will be there to meet it. But then his satellites indicate something unimaginably powerful shows up, and a minute later, half the people around him start to disintegrate, followed by himself. It's no wonder he called Captain Marvel. Every other time Earth was in danger, he had the Avengers, but apparently now they've failed. Captain Marvel is his last resort, because as far as he knows, this time the Avengers are dead. And he's half-right. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- And he can't even be sure the phone call will be answered. For all he knows, Captain Marvel herself may be disintegrating too. Fridge Horror and not true. Delete.
- One of the most terrifying things about Thanos's "keep the the universe balanced" theory is that he never once considers that there are so many other ways of fixing the Overpopulation Crisis. With all of the Infinity Stones, he could have reduced fertility rates or spread the universe's population out over more habitable planets. Instead, he stays fixated on the Kill Em All option. That should tell you something about his mental state. They don't call him The Mad Titan for nothing, after all! Fridge Horror. Delete.
- What's worse is that he may genuinely have considered other options, but decided against them because of what happened to his own people. The people of Titan destroyed themselves in their unchecked greed. To Thanos, any peaceful solution would've been met with defiance as people would refuse to limit themselves. But by force? Then they'll listen. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The remaining survivors after Thanos's snap head to Captain America, broken, and completely in despair as everyone else is. Steve Rogers' final, horrified and utterly stunned line sums everything up really, really well. In-universe. Delete.
Steve Rogers: Oh God.
- The final shot in the film before the post-credits scene? Thanos smiling calmly amidst a bright and beautiful landscape, set to a hauntingly beautiful score. What would usually be a closing shot for a hero who saved the day instead went to the villain who had just accomplished his goal of wiping out half of all life in the universe. Possible keep.
- There is no mid-credits scene. For that matter, there's no flashy credits sequence either, like in previous films. The major names merely appear and disappear, and the screen is black here too. Given the last thing that happened, it's as if they're being read off from a list of casualties. Then the title of the film pops up, before crumbling away into dust like the rest of our fallen heroes. It's a grim reminder of the shocking finale that we witnessed just moments ago and the horror doesn't end even in the after-credits scene. Though it does end on a somewhat optimistic note. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The "[X] Will Return" message seen after every post-credits scene gets a rather unique and horrifying twist this time. Unpleasant but not scary. Delete.
- Four simple words are the most horrifying thing of all: The Bad Guy Wins. Thanos lost everyone and everything he had, but he ultimately completed the Infinity Gauntlet, did his Badass Fingersnap, and killed half of all life in the universe. Whatever heroes are left are broken and hopeless, and he himself sits in a garden content. The Avengers, for the first time of their existence, have failed. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The revelation that Thanos, a godlike, alien being who wields ultimate power, commands a fanatically loyal army through unbeatable force and mesmerizing charisma, and strikes terror into the hearts of everyone who's unlucky enough to lay eyes on him... is, at the end of the day, just some guy. A person with basically altruistic motives who feels sadness and happiness at the same things most people do. His actions are pure evil, and his abilities are downright demonic, but his personality, however twisted and cynical, is identifiably, completely human. Thanos is no Eldritch Abomination; he's a reflection of the monster in all of us. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- He's also the way he is not because of some corrupting force or a twisted need to destroy anything because it's fun, he seriously believes he's doing what he does for the good of the universe. Imagine the power that Thanos wields today falling into the hands of a being more evil than he is. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Hell, the film's violence in general is pretty disturbing and unlike most of the violence portrayed in the main MCU. Along with Loki's aforementioned death, there's also Gamora's death, Tony being practically impaled by Thanos complete with Blood from the Mouth and blood all over Tony's face and hands, illusion Thanos having purple blood practically gushing out his throat when Gamora stabs him, mass genocide, being shredded by a giant wheel mechanism and the fact that every time Corvus Glaive stabs Vision (and when Vision does likewise) you hear what sounds like bones breaking. Probably the closest the MCU has gotten to an R rating so far. Valid but redundant with earlier entries. Delete.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 17th 2020 at 6:47:01 AM
chasemaddigan
I'm Sad Frogerson.
Since: Oct, 2011
I'm Sad Frogerson.
#2110: Jan 17th 2020 at 4:13:17 PM
Some of these cuts are okay, but there's a few I will contend with.
- Thanos torturing Thor with the Power Stone. It's not especially gruesome, but the fact the first time we see an Avenger in the film is when he's beaten, helpless, and nearly killed establishes early on that Thanos can easily kill anyone if he wants.
- The flashback showing Gamora's people getting massacred. This is the only time we see how Thanos's cullings worked before his search for the Infinity Gauntlet. Seeing his army force people to choose a side and kill one at random is pretty grim, and I can see how it can get under people's skin.
- While most of the entries focused on Tony's fight with Thanos can go, I'd say keep the part where Thanos stabs Tony through the chest. It's pretty brutal, even by the film's standards, and I remember some people thought Tony was actually just killed when they first watched the film.
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2111: Jan 18th 2020 at 6:41:22 AM
You make good points about the Gamora and Tony entries, although when I marked it for deletion because I considered it more shocking and surprising than fear-inducing.
I'm not so sure about the first one with Thor though, as I feel it's more of an "oh shit this film is going to be darker" moment than scary.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 18th 2020 at 9:43:55 AM
The Lego Maharajah
#2112: Jan 18th 2020 at 8:21:26 AM
Can someone take a look at RedLetterMedia? I'm only familiar with the Mr. Plinkett stuff so I don't know about the others. All I can say is that I think RedLetterMedia doesn't need one in general.
- Plinkett himself, of course. He starts out like any other armchair/nerd YouTube reviewer, but every so often we are...'treated' to a glimpse into his life as a centenarian serial killer who has killed his three wives, at least a dozen hookers and an entire Korean family. His methods are...unorthodox to say the least as they have involved such things as wells, cars, razors, Raid, cockroaches, and a rusty old refrigerator. Huh. Made worse by the fact that he seems to mention such atrocities in passing while he treats the Star Wars prequel series as a sort of cinematic holocaust.
This is more a problem of Examples Are Not General. The whole show itself revolves around Black Comedy like South Park or Family Guy. I'm pretty sure people who have a problem with dark humor should not be watching this show.
- For some people, him juxtaposing Avatar and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie together.
"For some people,". Also, Zero-Context Example.
- The Phantom Menace 3D review has a few screamers fitted into it. If you're off your guard, they can be pretty effective.
Zero-Context Example. This comes off more of a surprise moment than Nightmare Fuel.
Page image looks okay I guess but I'm not sure if it was ever approved.
Yes, I am using a modded version of Lego Indy 1 for my avatar.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
#2113: Jan 18th 2020 at 10:11:18 AM
Yet another dubious example added to NightmareFuel.Mortal Kombat 11:
How detailed are the descriptions of Mr. Plinkett's crimes? Do we actually get to see them, or is it just him talking about killing people? If it's the latter, I agree that it's probably not enough. The other examples also sound very weak and have no context.
Yet another dubious example added to NightmareFuel.Mortal Kombat 11:
- One of the Joker's intros has him putting on some of his clown make-up. Specifically, his signature red lip-paint, using his own blood.
Given how this is MORTAL KOMBAT we're talking about, I can guarantee you that no one who plays this game will actually be disturbed by that tiny amount of blood.
The Lego Maharajah
#2114: Jan 18th 2020 at 10:46:32 AM
@Zuxtron
Plinkett's murders are usually offscreen from what I've seen. His three wives' deaths are never shown but we are treated to stock images of a bloody bathtub and a crashed car. I don't think we ever saw a hooker get killed in the show but I do remember seeing bones in his basement as mentioned in his Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review. The killing of an entire Korean family is mentioned by Plinkett but is never shown and he claims to do it by "accident" and we hear car crashing sounds with yelling (and maybe a picture of a crashed car). I do remember him threatening to put someone in the refrigerator in the Attack of the Clones review but Mr. Plinkett acts over the top in those scenes.
Most of the jokes in Mr. Plinkett Reviews use Crosses the Line Twice style of comedy. It seems that other RedLetterMedia shows also have entries that make no sense to me. I guess those other works are darker? From what I've seen, it seems to be that the other shows are somewhat of a lighthearted series like James & Mike Mondays.
Edited by legorunnerkid on Jan 18th 2020 at 11:32:29 AM
Yes, I am using a modded version of Lego Indy 1 for my avatar.
WarJay77
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
(Troper Knight)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#2115: Jan 18th 2020 at 11:22:36 AM
Right, Plinkett's actions are almost always off-screen, we only get quick snippets and references to what he's done, but we don't see any of it. If anything the most unsettling part of his reviews is when it pans over Nadine sitting in the basement, with no real fanfare, just a woman casually sitting in the dark alone... but for the most part, his actions are just referenced as jokes.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
That's Dr. Title, thank you!
#2116: Jan 18th 2020 at 11:39:59 AM
So, I noticed that a Papers, Please example was recently pulled for being Fridge Logic, namely the one that starts "Arstotzka is pretty much stated to be a hellhole. So why are so many people trying to get in?".
While that example calls itself Fridge Logic, I think it's more an example of Nothing Is Scarier; we know Arstotzka is pretty horrible in the game, and we know that there is a strong demand for people to immigrate to Arstotzka for some reason, and I think that some people are freaked out trying to figure out what would be driving that. The example might need some clean up, but I don't think it should have been cut.
WarJay77
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
(Troper Knight)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
#2117: Jan 18th 2020 at 11:41:03 AM
If that's the case, it should be rewritten. As written, it was Fridge Horror.
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2118: Jan 18th 2020 at 1:57:05 PM
Okay, I've applied the changes to Avengers: Infinity War.
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2119: Jan 18th 2020 at 5:18:00 PM
Taking a look through Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VI.
Final Fantasy IV
- When Rydia summons Titan and causes the earthquake that separates Cecil from Kain, this is already a fairly emotional moment given they accidentally torched her village and killed her mother. When the DS version added voice acting to this scene, however, Rydia screams at them while fleeing in an absolutely bloodcurdling and near-primal rage before Titan tears everything to shreds. Keep.
Rydia: Leave me alone! I HATE YOU!!
- Even worse, while appalled, Kain was willing to finish the job and outright kill Rydia with no questions asked. It took Cecil being willing to commit treason against Baron to keep him from doing so, and even then he's quick to recommend they use force if Rydia didn't come with them. Keep in mind that he is Cecil's best friend, and almost a co-protagonist up this point before all the brainwashing and Heel–Face Revolving Door antics. Meta. Delete.
- What happens with Rydia after Fabul is also surprisingly frightening, especially if you're a kid roughly as old as Rydia herself and playing the game spoilerless for the first time. The game actually does a fairly decent job maintaining the illusion that Rydia is gone - she's out of the party for longer than almost anyone else (four whole dungeons and all the content in between them and after Zot) and Edward at one point says he saw her be swallowed by Leviathan. Even in the SNES version, it is abundantly clear what all the adults think happened to their token child and they're all very shaken by it. Especially once you get to Troia, you're probably resigned to Rydia being dead forever (unless you're savvy enough to realize they wouldn't get rid of her so soon). Keep.
- Trap Doors. There's a whole dungeon with doors that cause difficult monster battles, although some will open without resistance. Still, a giant door with teeth whose only moves are to target a party member and kill them is kind of disturbing. At least in some types of the game (including After Years) they're vulnerable to Stop. Keep.
- From the DS version, after the first Trap Door dies, if you read Kain's thoughts:
Kain: Please tell me not all of the doors are like that!- At least in that version, they are.
- Several of those Trap Doors have absolutely nothing behind them, just an empty room.
- Calcabrina. From the mere knowledge of the fact that you're fighting possessed dolls, to them cheerily telling your heroes that they are out for their blood (paraphrased oh so slightly), to their general appearance and movement, to the incredibly apt sound of their theme music. The DS version just takes it up one more notch. Even worse once they fuse into one giant doll... Keep.
- Edge reunites with his lost parents in the Tower of Babil. Everything seemed fine, until they ask Edge to come with them, “To Hell!” Then they turn into grotesque monsters right before him. Keep, I guess.
- Zeromus is pretty scary. It's basically a dark elf with so much hatred that it can continue to live on as a grotesque monster after it dies. In fact, that was its backup plan. Its main plan was to hypnotize Cecil and Golbez into being its puppets. In the Play Station version, his response to Fusoya and Golbez fighting him is a simple "Die trying." Maybe focus more on the grotesque monster part. The rest can be tossed.
Zeromus: My name is Zeromus, and I am the hatred.
- Even more so in the Nintendo DS version, with a TERRIFYING voiced performance.
Zeromus: I am the wellspring of darkness, fueled by Zemus' unbridled hate! I am he who is called Zeromus! I am he who knows naught but HATE! - The Evil Masks/Wicked Masks you encounter during the final stretch of the final dungeon before fighting Zeromus were only made more horrifying in the DS version. Keep, but kind of ZCE.
- Kainazzo/Cagnazzo, particularly in the DS version, where he is disturbingly jittery, and... legs just should not bend that way. Keep.
- Evil Wall/Demon Wall. You get the last Dark Crystal, start to walk away, and all of the sudden, a grotesque demon partially emerges from the wall behind you and starts closing in! It doesn't help that it is a timed boss and once it reaches a certain point, it starts to kill off your party one by one. Not to mention the music, which really gets across the message that you have to finish it quickly, or bad stuff will go down. Keep.
- The Mom Bomb, an early and reasonably straightforward boss. Before you piss her off she just looks like your everyday Bomb... until she's about to explode, at which point she turns into this◊. ZCE. And the boss looks more cute than scary.
- And then there's Scarmiglione's One-Winged Angel form◊. ZCE. Also that image is not particularly scary.
- One name to fear them all: Doctor Lugae. Think about what he did to Edge's parents. ZCE. Delete.
- Rydia's Disney Death, which involves her falling off a ship and Yang failed to save her. Keep in mind that she was only a seven-year-old child at that time. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The Count spell, also known as Doom. While the game is full of unique spells with fantastic special effects and bizarre results, Count/Doom is especially nefarious: Its nightmarish animation shows a Grim Reaper rising from the inflicted character (which is also used in Death's animation) as a countdown appears over their head, killing them instantly once it reaches 0. There's absolutely nothing in the game quite like this spell, and the only enemies that can use it are found in two rooms midway through the final dungeon, so running into it is sure to incite panic in players. To top it all off, the sound it makes sounds a bit too human to be in this 16-bit game that otherwise uses no audio samples. Keep.
Final Fantasy V
- Castle Exdeath, the Disc-One Final Dungeon, starts off as a fairly standard-looking castle. But when the illusions are dispelled on the second visit, it becomes a horrifying Womb Level. The castle is constructed entirely out of the breathing corpses of Exdeath's victims. The walls visibly pulsate and the background music changes from the heroic "The Dawn Warriors" associated with Galuf to its own sinister tune. Also, this monstrous construction is thirteen stories tall and one of the biggest structures on the overworld. All made out of fused corpses. This also emphasizes the next point.... Trim down Nightmare Porn, but keep.
- Exdeath himself pretty much darkens the tone of the game whenever he's around, despite having a second-in-command who is a walking, talking Funny Moment. He's a tree. Seems harmless enough. Except that he's a tree that was used to seal countless monsters and demons. The souls of these demons became so smashed together and compact that they fused into one blasphemous warlock that was so powerful, the four greatest warriors in the world couldn't even kill him and had to settle for sealing him somewhere else. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Pictured is Exdeath's form once he gains the power of the Void: An Eldritch Abomination of a tree that looks more like brain matter than wood, with an inhuman face on the trunk and his familiar torso armor sticking out of his head, giving the impression that he's taken root. After the Void turns against him, his body implodes and then spills out with a legion of demonic horrors fused together that could either be his original demons or the other horrors sealed in the Void, or both. And it takes up most of the battle screen. Keep.
- Mirage Village is a village that is trapped between dimensions. No time passes inside, and the village itself is hidden in a lush forest with no sprite on the overworld that indicates its existence, but when you step on its tile on the overworld, you don't simply enter it — the game's Fight Woosh plays beforehand. But, if you go to the place through the Rift, you will see every single being that lives inside are frozen; not by ice but by time. And from some NPC, it can be indicated that their frozen selves are their original form and they are aware of the phenomena. The village is one big habitat of the And I Must Scream! And the creepy "Book of Sealings" music that plays in the background of what otherwise looked like a perfectly normal town.... Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Moogle Eaters. Does somebody have to explain why they might have that name? ZCE. Delete.
- In the Great Sea Trench, there are four types of enemies you can fight. All four are called "Unknown". Here's◊ how◊ they◊ look.◊ What are these?!?! Undead, mutated corpses whose main attacks are to vomit on you, and kill you instantly! Their existence combined with the hazardous floor of that dungeon and the annoying boss compound to make the area terrifying. These monsters wouldn't be out of place in a Splatterhouse game, yet here they are in a fantasy RPG like FFV. Keep.
- The Interdimensional Rift can get incredibly creepy at times, especially thanks to the music. Though it's not as mindbending or disgusting as some of the things detailed above, the Castle area should be mentioned—most players will have the Thief's Find Passages as a passive ability by this point, showing all the paths around the floating platforms in the sky. But it's a little unsettling not to have it and imagine how it must be for the characters, walking around on invisible paths over a bottomless sky. Fridge Horror. Keep the music part, delete the rest.
- Omega and Shinryu, both of which are implied to be the strongest beings in the franchise. Fridge Horror. Delete this and the following.
- Shinryu is an immensely powerful dragon that traverses the various worlds, either searching for Omega or pulling a Dissidia on whatever place he ends up in.
- Omega was created by a civilization from another world specifically to destroy Shinryu. Only problem; it was so powerful and dangerous that it was banished to the Rift after causing mass destruction on the world it originated in.
- For added nightmares, these things travel the entire Final Fantasy multiverse in search of each other. Should they ever come in contact...
- Before beating the game, the door to the Bonus Dungeon in the GBA version isn't locked. Instead, opening the door will result in an unnerving noise, the screen going dark, and a dialogue box saying only "It is pitch black inside. You cannot enter." And then there is the dungeon itself. Remember feeling nervous when trying to sneak past Omega? Here, have an entire floor full of them! Keep.
- There is a family of undead enemies that take the form of a floating head with the face ripped off and floating in front of the skull and an elongated tongue feeding from the skull's mouth through the mouth of the face in front (and little stringy bits connecting it to the rest of the flesh on the skull). Keep.
- If you've never played the 2D versions of Final Fantasy IV or Final Fantasy III, you might get an Uncanny Valley feeling off of Krile's 3/4 view battle sprite. (But if you have... well, you still might, but you'll also know it's their standard child sprite.) Weaksauce, but the entry justifies itself. Debatable keep.
- The mobile versions renders the monsters in high-quality sprites that fully match their original concept artwork. This allows players to see a number of really horrifying details that had previously been obscured by pixellation. Kinda ZCE and weaksauce, but debatable keep.
Final Fantasy VI
- The game makes it clear from the title screen that something bad will happen down the line. The title screen starts in pitch darkness as an Ominous Pipe Organ is heard in the background. The darkness then gives way to a blood red sky as the pipe organ gets louder and louder, and finally the title card appears in the midst of flames as the organ reaches an earsplitting crescendo. Not as scary as the entry makes it sound. Delete.
- One of the most prominent examples is the fate of the Returners. They are never seen again in the World of Ruin and the fates of the officials such as Banon are never revealed. Just what happened to them? Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The Cultists' Tower. First off, its theme is fucking disturbing; it sounds like some religious death march music with some eerie chanting in the background. Next, we have an entire cult that sprung up out of complete fear of Kefka and they march in a circle in front of this tower without end. The most disturbing thing? Strago is amongst them; believing Relm to be dead, he was so overcome with grief he actually turned to worshiping the same man that caused her "supposed" death. She's alive, of course, and comes to snap him out of it, but damn. Keep.
- The poisoning of Doma Castle. This is where Kefka firmly first establishes himself as such an utter and soulless psychopath that even his Emperor doesn't look fondly on this action. Granted, his dialogue is a little over-the-top and enjoyable, but then you see the water turn purple and all the citizens of the castle dropping dead. It's not a pleasant sight. But the worst is when Cyan, retainer of the castle, finds not only his king, but his wife and child all dead due to the poisoning. Seriously messed-up. Tragic and a Tear Jerker, but not Nightmare Fuel. Delete.
- Doma Castle in the World of Ruin, and Cyan's Dreamscape, where you have to venture into the guy's dreams and literally help save his soul from these psychopathic triplets who want it. Even worse, he was willing to relinquish it out of deep despair, and it takes the souls of his wife and kid to snap him out of it. Keep.
- Kefka's backstory is quite terrifying. He was the first test subject of the Magitek Knight program and was flooded with magical power, but it led to the secondary side effects of losing his sanity and empathy (oh, and thinking he was a ''god''). Kefka's insanity and nihilism, and everything he has done, are result of an imperfect experiment. Kefka most likely was decent - or at least sane - but due to this experiment he turned into the psycho clown he is in the game. It is frightening just to think that Celes could have become like him had she been the first test subject. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Shadow's various Flashback Nightmares, especially if you didn't know about them, happen to sleep in an inn with Shadow in the party, then hear that godawful buzzing sound.... Keep.
- The scene after the three-team battle in the fields of Narshe provides a bit of Nightmare Fuel. Right after the fight, your team goes to examine the Esper they just saved. However, Terra, reacting to the Esper, blasts them instinctively, all of them either knocked out or hanging off the edge of a cliff. Then a faux battle starts, complete with creepy music, and Terra transforms into another being entirely. Battle ends, Terra spins around a bit, and then unleashes a BLOODCURDLING scream and flies away. Scariness is overstated due to the style IMO. Delete.
- This piece◊ of official artwork is even more scary. At least Terra's morphed sprite doesn't have burning yellow eyes and a snarling, fang-filled mouth... Not really that scary IMO, and also possibly too meta. Debatable delete.
- This piece
- The death of General Leo. Kefka says he's going to "exterminate a traitor," leaps into the air, and drives his sword home, as the screen turns blood red, and Kefka stands laughing and saying "DIE...DIE...DIE!" Not that scary IMO. Debatable delete.
- Some of the enemy sprites in this game are pretty nasty. Humpties◊ are pretty grotesque, looking like round, wrinkly, naked humanoid shapes, and they also use hugs/their own odors as a special move, which is so disgusting it confuses whoever they try it on. Brainpans◊ could easily be images from a drug-induced nightmare, honestly being smiling flying zombie Buddha heads, and Crullers◊ resemble twisting intestines covered in discolored tumors. Keep.
- The World of Ruin. The music, with that bone-scrapingly discordant pipe organ. Keep.
- In the original release and the Game Boy Advance version, the waters of the World of Ruin were a sort of rust-brown, giving the impression they were filthy and polluted. Th iOS remake of the game, the water looks like an ocean of vibrant blood.◊ Keep.
- Peepers, the squirrel-like monsters on the first island of the World of Ruin. The way they just... die without being hit. It really hammers home the fact that this world itself is dying.note Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Returning to Narshe, a bustling mining town in the World of Balance and the first town in the game, only to find a monster-infested ghost town with only one human inhabitant left. It doesn't help that the music changes to the same eerie ambience as the World of Ruin's map theme. Keep.
- In the original release and the Game Boy Advance version, the waters of the World of Ruin were a sort of rust-brown, giving the impression they were filthy and polluted. Th iOS remake of the game, the water looks like an ocean of vibrant blood.
- The cutscene at the end of the Floating Continent, which depicts most of the world being destroyed. An entire continent is split in half by massive, city-sized explosions and people fall into the created chasms to their deaths. The entire thing is driven home when we see the explosions visible from space as the music fades out.... The intro to the World of Ruin just adds more despondent salt in the wounds. Keep but delete the following due to Fridge Horror.
- If you look closely at the scene when the giant chasm appears and the people fall in, you can notice that the spilt pieces of earth slam back together as people fall through them. That's just terrifying with all the Fridge Horror applied to it.
- The scene that probably horrified players the most was watching the party's airship split and all of them falling from the sky and scattering down to the earth. When Celes is the character the player first takes control of and she's stranded on a deserted island by herself, save for Cid IF you manage to save his life in time, you know something is wrong. Keep.
- Celes's attempt at SUICIDE! That's right, SUICIDE in a Final Fantasy game. While this scene only occurs if you failed to save Cid, the fact that it's easy to fail to save Cid means it's common for players to see it. Celes barely even knew the truth about him being her uncle until now and yet is so overcome with grief she attempts it. You even watch as she takes the jump off the cliff. She lives, but still, yikes. More Tear Jerker than scary, but keep.
- There is also the text that appears when she ascends the cliff. When depression overcame the other survivors, they would jump from the cliff and "it perked them right up!" Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The Light of Judgement. Kefka uses it in the World of Ruin to destroy any town or any person that opposes him (or even just For the Evulz), destroying them instantly, and he can direct it towards any part of the world. More scary in-universe than out of. Delete.
- FFVI is full of creepy bosses. One of them is Chadarnook. It is a painting of a sexy woman◊ that transforms into a freaking demon◊. Jump Scare. Keep.
- The location where it's found, Owzer's Mansion is also really unsettling, since the paintings come to life without warning, there's a Creepy Changing Painting of Maria (Celes' lookalike opera singer), and you get sucked into one painting of a chair, where an old woman takes the chair. Keep.
- Also, thanks to certain "liberties" with translating the script, what Kefka tells the Esper reinforcements when they arrive in Thamasa in the SNES and PlayStation versions absolutely reeks of Nightmare Fuel. He says "I'd say you're all charged up, boys and girls... or whatever... Say, remind me to show you my magicite collection! You might find a few familiar faces!!!", the implications being that, after killing the Espers, he's showing them other Espers that he killed that they knew personally, which would be a terrifying thought to imagine. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- The backstory of Thamasa. The town was founded by human mages who survived the great War of the Magi, who were then blamed for causing it and fled the following persecution. When you first arrive, they try, without much success, to hide that they have magic, and this is Played for Laughs — but when you think about it, these people are very much afraid that outsiders will find out about their powers and decide to finish the job that nearly killed off their ancestors or try to exploit their powers for selfish gain. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- Figaro Castle in the World of Ruin. The castle is intact, but the engines are gunked up by tentacle plants and can't move because of it. Everyone on the castle is stuck underground and are slowly suffocating from the lack of air due to either the underground not having enough oxygen, the tentacles absorbing the oxygen, or both at once. To make matters worse, the tentacles can poison you to make you suffocate even more and squeeze the life out of you (from a battle standpoint at least). The whole scenario is basically a horrifying version of being Buried Alive. Fridge Horror to make a mildly uncomfortable scenario seem worse than it is. Delete.
- Zozo is a town of thieves, liars, and criminals, and it's always raining there. Random encounters are found in the streets and buildings, and on your first visit the giants and dancers can use magic to annihilate the party. Furthermore, if you talk with one of the people in Jidoor, you learn that the people in Zozo are all lower-class citizens who were expelled from Jidoor. Moderate unpleasantness and Fridge Horror. Delete.
- There also people lying in the streets who are obviously mugged by the residents of Zozo. You can even spot a young woman lying in a gutter. The implications are not sweet. Fridge Horror. Delete.
- On the Floating Continent, Gestahl invites Celes to return to his side. In the GBA version, his plans involve Celes and Kefka conceiving children together to populate the new Magitek empire. If Celes had returned to Gestahl's side, Gestahl would expect her to sleep with Kefka. Brrrrr... Fridge Horror. Delete.
- And what are the odds that Gestahl or Kefka would take "no" for an answer? See above.
- Even ignoring all the terrible things he does throughout the game and his psychopathic, nihilistic personality, Kefka still manages to be terrifying just by laughing. WOO HOO HOO HOO Most people find this amusing, not scary. Delete.
Edited by AlleyOop on Jan 18th 2020 at 8:22:04 AM
Klavice
Since: Jan, 2011
#2120: Jan 18th 2020 at 8:29:21 PM
@Alley Oop: Could you do Zelda Ocarina of Time next? I think most of it (besides a few enemies) can stay but it is plagued with Natter and FH.
Edited by Klavice on Jan 18th 2020 at 8:31:52 AM
The Lego Maharajah
#2121: Jan 19th 2020 at 11:11:36 AM
Do you guys think the page image for Happy Tree Friends looks a little too NSFW? I mean this is Happy bloody Tree Friends we're talking about.
Yes, I am using a modded version of Lego Indy 1 for my avatar.
#2122: Jan 19th 2020 at 11:32:31 AM
That's an issue for Image Pickin'
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
#2123: Jan 23rd 2020 at 7:44:25 AM
This was added to NightmareFuel.My Hero Academia:
spoiler
- After finding out Kurogiri is actually essentially the desecrated corpse of his old friend, Present Mic sports a mild Nightmare Face while lying facedown on a couch in Chapter 256. He's so pissed off that he wants to find the perpetrator and challenge them to a "karaoke contest." note
It's a good guy sporting a "mild Nightmare Face" and making a humorous threat. Also, he doesn't specifically challenge the perpetrator to a karaoke contest, the exact wording is "I'd run outta here and have a karaoke contest".
#2124: Jan 23rd 2020 at 9:13:52 AM
I am unfamilliar with that franchise, but that entry sounds like a cut
AlleyOop
Since: Oct, 2010
#2125: Jan 23rd 2020 at 10:29:36 PM
So if nobody has any objections to my Final Fantasy listings, should I go ahead and make the changes?
Total posts: 5,760
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]")
The ones that don't lack context sound like they're overthinking things. I'm having trouble trouble wrapping my head around the idea that anything created by Fred Rogers is scary, considering he was, well, Fred Rogers.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.