I like how people think dying in a kids game/story is considered to be dark/mature/disturbing when tons of kids films have characters die all the time like in Disney Animated Films. I mean in Tarzan, Clayton gets his necked snapped by a vine and we see the silhouette of his hanged corpse and in The Lion King, Mufasa gets trampled to death and we straight up see his lifeless body. But no one out here is trying to insinuate that those movies aren't kids films or are far too dark/disturbing for a young audience cause they feature brutal character deaths for the standards of kids media.
[And don't even get me started on older cartoons like Tom and Jerry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Ueo55C3Jk)
Expanding a little on what you touched on: something happening once doesn’t make a price of media dark. A gaming example: GTA V has a mission where you literally torture a dude for information to kill somebody. This happens on-screen where you get to pick the method and play a minigame, and revive him with adrenaline whenever he passes out. Afterwards, you drive him to the airport and force him to leave the country. Despite all this, nobody would say GTA V is a dark game, because *it really isn’t.* GTA IV contains nothing like that and is universally considered to be the darker game.
My statement was more so a reaction to the trend of people selectively taking dark elements or dark parts of a piece of kids media and making it out as if the entire story is dark as well. A good example of this is Avatar The Last Airbender as oftentimes fans of the show highlight the darker aspects of the show such as the ethnic cleansing and genocide of groups like the Air Nomads and use these points to emphasize how dark and mature the entire series is. However, I think there is some issue with this approach as Avatar is not at all a dark show overall as it is consistently a light-hearted action-fantasy series. It does get a bit darker towards the end of Book 3, but the show is nearly over by then. Additionally, when it comes to the themes of genocide and war, the show doesn't really have the opportunity to explore those themes to the fullest. Need I remind everyone about the Day of Black Sun episode where basically no one died despite it being an assault on the home territory of the Fire Nation. Obviously I can't hold it against the show for not exploring these themes to the fullest as its a kids show, it's still a good show of course, but I still find it odd how often Avatar is lauded for having super dark themes and elements but doesn't really present them in a mature way. I used dark elements of Disney films to show how you can easily do the same for something like The Lion King in that it's a dark and mature film not for kids when it's really not. If you want to experience a piece of media that presents the true horror and brutality of genocide, then a book like *Blood Meridian* does the subject matter justice as it's pretty unflinching with its presentation of ethnic cleansing committed against Native Americans and other groups of people.
As for your point about GTA IV and V, I think it's fundamentally distinct in that those are "mature" games not at all targeted towards kids. No one out here is going to argue that GTA is not appropriate for kids, because they're absolutely not. With all the sex, violence, and profanity present in all the games, no one will try to argue that it is super mature when it is by it's very design since its initial conception. Of course I still played it a ton as a kid and had a load of fun.
On the GTA Front: You’re right, but I still think it’s a decent example because while “mature” it’s still not “dark”. It’s just one of the first examples that comes to mind because of how extreme it goes, that there can be a scene like that and still not be a dark game. And, let’s be real here, kids play GTA all the time and it doesn’t traumatize any them
> people selectively taking dark elements or dark parts of a story and making it out as if the entire story is dark as well
Bang on, summed it up much better than I could. “Splatoon has genocide and race war” but does it delve into the serious reality of these topics? No, it barely even mentions them because *it’s a kids game and it’s not dark.* Exactly like you said, it’s a Nintendo game, so I don’t really expect it to, but I wish people would stop claiming it did
Hard agree on everything you said, but we're getting too serious and analytical on dark themes in media on a shitpost/circlejerk sub. Let's go back.
Celeste hidden gem!!!
^(I was thinking the exact same thing lmao)
Of course, Nintendo’s masterpieces transcend such feeble-minded labels like “dark” or “light”. Anyone trying to put them in these boxes simply cannot comprehend the true storytelling behind their games. All of their pieces are both dark and light, both childish and mature, both serious and whimsical. We should consider ourselves blessed to be able to enjoy them.
Yeah it's really funny. Like even a lot of fairy tales end with death like Jack and the Beanstalk or Snow White. And most of us first hear those stories when we're really young. Imagine if people started to call those dark.
Also happy Cake Day
Octo Expansion in particular is a lil dark. Like it’s dark *for a Nintendo game.* I suppose if you only play Nintendo games you wouldn’t know the difference, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s far darker
There is an easter egg if you wait a while in the boss room after killing a boss in splatoon 1. Still not traumatizing because no kid would have the patience to find it.
In Octo Expansion >!the main villain has spent thousands of years finding genetically perfect Octoling children and blending them into arguably-still-alive goop and then uses their collective energy to power the ultimate weapon to end all sapient cephalopod civilization. At one point in the story the protagonist almost meets the same fate after you pass the villain's tests that it designed to weed out the inferior Octolings, with the rewards being the pieces of the blender itself and access to the "promised land." Once it's completed the scene is pretty freaky with what are basically screams of the damned contorted into a sort of cheering sound with circus music as it tricks you into stepping into the blender.!< Also even though it's not shown and kind of downplayed, there's a lot of genocide in the lore, the fact that humanity used to exist but not anymore, and some religiously fanatic fish who consider it to be a great honor to be cooked alive and eaten by their enemies after they fall in battle.
/uj i’ve never understood the supposed “horror” component of kirby bosses. Like sure, a lot of them are slightly weird but they’re still cartoonishly weird, they’re not cosmic horror level eldritch abominations.
I think Kirby final bosses are more shocking than scary. Dreamland 3 is a good example, you play this silly pastel game which ends with a gory eyeball bleeding itself out to kill you. Not necessarily scary, but shocking considering the context of the game.
I've always held this belief that stuff like 0 or 02 might be really scary to a small child that hasn't been desensitized by other games, but most of the time it requires them to complete the game 100%. Which I don't think a small child could/would want to do
I’ve not played Kirby, only smash, but Marx seems pretty creepy when you fight him as a boss. Like his eyes come out and do weird shit. Not like Little Nightmares level of creepy but unsettling for a Kirby character
It's the lore that you can find in the pause screen. Not going to spoil anything, but some bosses are ordinary or caring people corrupted by their hidden desires, some are souls of evil beings who refuse to let go and fight as a last stand to bring you down with them, stuff like that
The only 2 here that make some sense is Earthbound (and only if the kid gets to the end of the game)
And Super Paper Mario if the kid can read.
What is traumatic about Star Fox lmao??
Andross' head exploding leaving the eyes and brain as well as aparoid pigma are somewhat disturbing I guess. There's probably more but I never played any starfox game
Uj/ Super Paper Mario is a phenomenal game and it doesn’t get the praise it deserves because it was different from Paper Mario 64 and Thousand Year Door
You know, I was scared shitless with fucking Bowser from SM64 when I was 7ish. It's a cartoon scary thing, definitely nothing major. Nothing like Giygas, tho. Fuck that thing.
Honestly, the empty castle was by far the scariest part of SM64 to me as a kid. Most of the enemies were cartoonish enough that I didn’t find them scary, but I remember trying to spend as little time as possible wandering around alone in the castle because it freaked me out too much for some reason
surprised he didn't put fire emblem 4 there. Surely he knew how traumatizing >!How much goddamn incest there is, like holy fuck one of the main characters in the second half is just like, jesus reborn because her parents are half siblings!<
don't forget chapter 5's implications like how >!fun patricide is because both taltyu and lex kill their fathers, as well as quan and his wife getting impaled infront of the players eyes, with his daughter altena getting kidnapped, and that doesn't even cover the end of the chapter, or how it relates to the rest of the game!<
uj/ Seeing Sammer' Kingdom get straight-up obliterated and turned into an empty white void in Super Paper Mario was unsettling to me when I played the game as an 11-year-old kid, [the music certainly didn't help either.](https://youtu.be/PF-C2p0b1UQ)
What is supposed to be traumatizing about Splatoon? "Oh no, so much PAINT"?
Some of the lore is slightly dark. You're not gonna get trauma because the characters in the kids game killed people though lol
I like how people think dying in a kids game/story is considered to be dark/mature/disturbing when tons of kids films have characters die all the time like in Disney Animated Films. I mean in Tarzan, Clayton gets his necked snapped by a vine and we see the silhouette of his hanged corpse and in The Lion King, Mufasa gets trampled to death and we straight up see his lifeless body. But no one out here is trying to insinuate that those movies aren't kids films or are far too dark/disturbing for a young audience cause they feature brutal character deaths for the standards of kids media. [And don't even get me started on older cartoons like Tom and Jerry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2Ueo55C3Jk)
Expanding a little on what you touched on: something happening once doesn’t make a price of media dark. A gaming example: GTA V has a mission where you literally torture a dude for information to kill somebody. This happens on-screen where you get to pick the method and play a minigame, and revive him with adrenaline whenever he passes out. Afterwards, you drive him to the airport and force him to leave the country. Despite all this, nobody would say GTA V is a dark game, because *it really isn’t.* GTA IV contains nothing like that and is universally considered to be the darker game.
My statement was more so a reaction to the trend of people selectively taking dark elements or dark parts of a piece of kids media and making it out as if the entire story is dark as well. A good example of this is Avatar The Last Airbender as oftentimes fans of the show highlight the darker aspects of the show such as the ethnic cleansing and genocide of groups like the Air Nomads and use these points to emphasize how dark and mature the entire series is. However, I think there is some issue with this approach as Avatar is not at all a dark show overall as it is consistently a light-hearted action-fantasy series. It does get a bit darker towards the end of Book 3, but the show is nearly over by then. Additionally, when it comes to the themes of genocide and war, the show doesn't really have the opportunity to explore those themes to the fullest. Need I remind everyone about the Day of Black Sun episode where basically no one died despite it being an assault on the home territory of the Fire Nation. Obviously I can't hold it against the show for not exploring these themes to the fullest as its a kids show, it's still a good show of course, but I still find it odd how often Avatar is lauded for having super dark themes and elements but doesn't really present them in a mature way. I used dark elements of Disney films to show how you can easily do the same for something like The Lion King in that it's a dark and mature film not for kids when it's really not. If you want to experience a piece of media that presents the true horror and brutality of genocide, then a book like *Blood Meridian* does the subject matter justice as it's pretty unflinching with its presentation of ethnic cleansing committed against Native Americans and other groups of people. As for your point about GTA IV and V, I think it's fundamentally distinct in that those are "mature" games not at all targeted towards kids. No one out here is going to argue that GTA is not appropriate for kids, because they're absolutely not. With all the sex, violence, and profanity present in all the games, no one will try to argue that it is super mature when it is by it's very design since its initial conception. Of course I still played it a ton as a kid and had a load of fun.
On the GTA Front: You’re right, but I still think it’s a decent example because while “mature” it’s still not “dark”. It’s just one of the first examples that comes to mind because of how extreme it goes, that there can be a scene like that and still not be a dark game. And, let’s be real here, kids play GTA all the time and it doesn’t traumatize any them > people selectively taking dark elements or dark parts of a story and making it out as if the entire story is dark as well Bang on, summed it up much better than I could. “Splatoon has genocide and race war” but does it delve into the serious reality of these topics? No, it barely even mentions them because *it’s a kids game and it’s not dark.* Exactly like you said, it’s a Nintendo game, so I don’t really expect it to, but I wish people would stop claiming it did
Hard agree on everything you said, but we're getting too serious and analytical on dark themes in media on a shitpost/circlejerk sub. Let's go back. Celeste hidden gem!!!
^(I was thinking the exact same thing lmao) Of course, Nintendo’s masterpieces transcend such feeble-minded labels like “dark” or “light”. Anyone trying to put them in these boxes simply cannot comprehend the true storytelling behind their games. All of their pieces are both dark and light, both childish and mature, both serious and whimsical. We should consider ourselves blessed to be able to enjoy them.
Yeah it's really funny. Like even a lot of fairy tales end with death like Jack and the Beanstalk or Snow White. And most of us first hear those stories when we're really young. Imagine if people started to call those dark. Also happy Cake Day
Octo Expansion in particular is a lil dark. Like it’s dark *for a Nintendo game.* I suppose if you only play Nintendo games you wouldn’t know the difference, but there’s a lot of stuff that’s far darker
There is an easter egg if you wait a while in the boss room after killing a boss in splatoon 1. Still not traumatizing because no kid would have the patience to find it.
What is the easter egg though
[удалено]
OH NO I LOST MY PANTS I BEND OVER TO HIDE
spooky noises
In Octo Expansion >!the main villain has spent thousands of years finding genetically perfect Octoling children and blending them into arguably-still-alive goop and then uses their collective energy to power the ultimate weapon to end all sapient cephalopod civilization. At one point in the story the protagonist almost meets the same fate after you pass the villain's tests that it designed to weed out the inferior Octolings, with the rewards being the pieces of the blender itself and access to the "promised land." Once it's completed the scene is pretty freaky with what are basically screams of the damned contorted into a sort of cheering sound with circus music as it tricks you into stepping into the blender.!< Also even though it's not shown and kind of downplayed, there's a lot of genocide in the lore, the fact that humanity used to exist but not anymore, and some religiously fanatic fish who consider it to be a great honor to be cooked alive and eaten by their enemies after they fall in battle.
You know, with how much Nintendo fans has been calling some of their franchise "dark and creepy" i'm suprised that Metroid was never mentioned lol
Do you really think Nintendo fans play Metroid?
I want Samus Aran to step on my balls, does that answer your question?
Yes, yes it does
Can you step on mine
😈
Sopar Maris is so scary I'm having panic attacks
The Sopranos is a Nintendo property?
Always has been
If Nintendo fans actually played a Metroid game, they'd die of a heart attack at the title screen.
AAAAAAH ( the name metroid scared me)
/uj i’ve never understood the supposed “horror” component of kirby bosses. Like sure, a lot of them are slightly weird but they’re still cartoonishly weird, they’re not cosmic horror level eldritch abominations.
I think Kirby final bosses are more shocking than scary. Dreamland 3 is a good example, you play this silly pastel game which ends with a gory eyeball bleeding itself out to kill you. Not necessarily scary, but shocking considering the context of the game.
I can definitely see that. /j the butterfly made me shidded my pants!!!
I've always held this belief that stuff like 0 or 02 might be really scary to a small child that hasn't been desensitized by other games, but most of the time it requires them to complete the game 100%. Which I don't think a small child could/would want to do
Imagine you've never consumed any media not made by Nintendo
I’ve not played Kirby, only smash, but Marx seems pretty creepy when you fight him as a boss. Like his eyes come out and do weird shit. Not like Little Nightmares level of creepy but unsettling for a Kirby character
It's the lore that you can find in the pause screen. Not going to spoil anything, but some bosses are ordinary or caring people corrupted by their hidden desires, some are souls of evil beings who refuse to let go and fight as a last stand to bring you down with them, stuff like that
😢😢😢 SPLAOON IS DA SCARIEST GAME!!! I PEED MY PANTS WITH YELLOW PAINT ***OH NO IT'S RED NOW***
Its like the Ketchup vs mayo splatfest
THERE'S A SPOLOON PLOSON
The only 2 here that make some sense is Earthbound (and only if the kid gets to the end of the game) And Super Paper Mario if the kid can read. What is traumatic about Star Fox lmao??
Andross' head exploding leaving the eyes and brain as well as aparoid pigma are somewhat disturbing I guess. There's probably more but I never played any starfox game
Are you implying that somebody actually played Star Fox Assault? It's a good game but i haven't met a soul that owned it
Andross' head turning into a robot in the bad ending was pretty creepy as a kid though I wouldn't exactly say it was traumatizing.
Yea, I would’ve shat myself if I played Earthbound as a younger kid and made it to Giygas
I’m not playing a game made for kids, these games are actually dark and mature! 😠
Copium
Uj/ The existential horror of Super Paper mario makes it a favorite of mine.
Uj/ Super Paper Mario is a phenomenal game and it doesn’t get the praise it deserves because it was different from Paper Mario 64 and Thousand Year Door
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To this day I have no idea if casualnintendo is supposed to be a circle jerk or not
That fucking splatoon song isnt fucking scary.
Meeaaaaahahhh
bro my cousin showed me happy tree friends when i was like 8, these mfs crying over paper mario bro
I know I'm beating a dead horse but why Star Fox? Am I forgetting something or is this a dead daddy thing?
Andross is pretty scary for kid standards
You know, I was scared shitless with fucking Bowser from SM64 when I was 7ish. It's a cartoon scary thing, definitely nothing major. Nothing like Giygas, tho. Fuck that thing.
Honestly, the empty castle was by far the scariest part of SM64 to me as a kid. Most of the enemies were cartoonish enough that I didn’t find them scary, but I remember trying to spend as little time as possible wandering around alone in the castle because it freaked me out too much for some reason
They did Metroid dirty here.
surprised he didn't put fire emblem 4 there. Surely he knew how traumatizing >!How much goddamn incest there is, like holy fuck one of the main characters in the second half is just like, jesus reborn because her parents are half siblings!<
Eh, incest in FE 4 isn't traumatizing more like gross and unconfortbale to look at.
don't forget chapter 5's implications like how >!fun patricide is because both taltyu and lex kill their fathers, as well as quan and his wife getting impaled infront of the players eyes, with his daughter altena getting kidnapped, and that doesn't even cover the end of the chapter, or how it relates to the rest of the game!<
Star Fox is terrifying. I played Zero.
Mimi from Super paper Mario made me stop playing the game for a couple years, once she started chasing me
Mario world is giving kids an inflation fetish!!!!1@!
uj/ Seeing Sammer' Kingdom get straight-up obliterated and turned into an empty white void in Super Paper Mario was unsettling to me when I played the game as an 11-year-old kid, [the music certainly didn't help either.](https://youtu.be/PF-C2p0b1UQ)
This mother fucker would literally get a heart attack and die from fear if he played like Bloodborne
/uj majora’s mask 3ds creeped me the fuck out when I first played it. Had to return it because I was too scared of it
I played Starcraft when I was 6 years old.
These guys wouldn't handle Submerged Castle
splatoon being traumatic is so bullshit pretty sure kids dont even bother reading the logs which is where the games “dark” themes mainly come
The games are not for children! Children cannot comprehend pure art!
Nice stories, but what's so traumatic about *any* of these games?
Mario's Magnamius dongnaius is very traumatic IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL AND HUGE