***DISTURBING TROPES***
Yes, I know we’re two months removed from Halloween and this
particular topic’s expiration date has passed. But then again, I don’t fucking
care! I see a lot of Author Tubers counting down lists of their favorite/worst
tropes depending on what the genre is. Jenna Moreci did a Worst Family Tropes
video and the final item on her list reminds me too much of Jeff Foxworthy’s
“You Might Be a Redneck” jokes. And then you have Erin Kinsella being as sweet
as can be when listing off her favorite romantic tropes. I don’t have a You
Tube channel, but I want to list off tropes of my own, so that’s why we’re
gathered here today, my dearly beloveds. Today I’m listing off my top six most
disturbing tropes in any genre. If you agree or disagree with anything on this
list, I’d love to hear it.
***LOSS OF INDIVIDUALITY***
Our minds are the last safe havens for us as human beings.
Without our individuality, we are nothing. In high school, I was very
protective of my individuality and I have Pink Floyd the Wall to thank for
that. The school kids in that movie lose their individuality and that’s why
they all wear creepy putty-faced masks: because they all look and act the same.
In this case, the teacher is responsible for their conformity because he’s a
bully. He reads Pink’s poetry out loud and humiliates him in front of the
classroom. Therefore, every time he writes poetry, he’s going to think of that
traumatic moment and not want to do poetry anymore, hence why he wears a
putty-faced mask. School is just one place where a child can lose his
individuality. It can also happen in church, in cults, and even in their own
homes. When you lose the ability to decide for yourself, you give up what makes
you special.
***ANIMAL TRANSFORMATION***
When I say animal transformation, I’m not talking about
shape shifters who willingly change into other species. I’m talking about when
it happens to somebody against their will. When you transform into an animal,
you lose all credibility as a human being and your individuality goes up in
smoke. We saw this with Disney’s version of Pinocchio when the kids were all
transformed into donkeys after partaking in “sinful” behavior. Believe it or
not, I can find an even more disturbing version of this trope. In Cowboy
Bebop’s fourth episode, Gateway Shuffle, an eco-terrorist group creates a virus
that transforms ordinary human beings into primitive monkeys. They decide to
use the virus on one of their own, Harrison ,
after he makes a mistake during an attack. Watching Harrison
locked in a small cage and transforming into a monkey was easily the most
disturbing moment in Cowboy Bebop. Yes, he’s a bad guy, but even I had to have
sympathy for him.
***FALSE IMPRISONMENT***
Prison by itself is a scary place to be. The guards are bullies,
the prisoners are bullies, and there’s no reprieve from the constant assaults.
The US
***SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, AND SNAKES***
The three S’s, ladies and gentlemen. The three motherfucking
S’s. They’re tiny, they’re creepy, and they love to bite and sting humans for
virtually no reason. One of the three S’s is bad enough on its own. But just
imagine the horror of being trapped in a room with hundreds of these disgusting
creatures. Crawling on your walls, crawling on your body, eating you alive as
you struggle to get them off. It’s the reason why I’ll never watch Something
Wicked This Way Comes or Eight Legged Freaks ever again, as they both have
spider scenes. What about that Indiana Jones movie where Indy is trapped
underground with a bunch of snakes? Fucking forget it, man! Yuck!
***HEAD VOICES***
As a schizophrenic, I have personal experience with this.
Disembodied voices telling you negative things? Creepy! Now imagine responding
to them out loud in a public place. Not only will the voices grow more
aggressive the more you fight them, but those who share the public space with
you will either give you funny looks or they’ll back as far away from you as
they possibly can. Even with those head voices, you’re the loneliest
motherfucker on planet earth. Luckily, I’ve never had to be institutionalized,
but if I was, that’d be yet another example of false imprisonment. Mental
hospitals are prisons for the psychologically ill. They committed no crimes,
yet they can’t leave whenever they want to nor do they get freedom or rights of
any kind. That’s a prison in my eyes.
***HEAD SHAVING***
When I say head shaving, I’m not talking about my bimonthly
visit to Hair Masters to get a buzz cut. I’m not even talking about cancer
patients having their hair fall out after chemotherapy. I’m talking about when
head shaving is done to an unwilling person as a way to humiliate and
dehumanize them. We saw this in V For Vendetta when Natalie Portman was
captured by the totalitarian government and had her head shaved completely
bald. We see this in prisons all the time when newbies get their heads shaved
for no other reason other than the fact that the guards are assholes. And going
back to that theme of loss of individuality, yes, head shaving can be yet
another way to make a large group of people look exactly the same. There’s
nothing inherently wrong with being bald, but against your will at another
person’s hands? Not cool. And definitely creepy as fuck.
***CONCLUSION***
So what about you guys? Do you have any tropes that you find
disturbing? Let me know in the comment section. I’m Garrison Kelly! Until next
time, try to enjoy the daylight! Hey, there’s another disturbing trope: the
theme music from Tales From the Dark Side!
***BEAUTIFUL MONSTER***
Over the past few days, I’ve been working on getting
Beautiful Monster in tiptop shape for yet another round of editing. I’ve
written a new prologue where Queen Llewellyn Xavier gives a Magetan sermon to
her flock and I’ve edited the newly minted chapter one where her brother
Windham Xavier has a traumatic episode prior to his stealth mission. Both
chapters have something in common: the main protagonists don’t act like
overdramatic babies anymore. Crying was such a common thing in my most recent
draft, so much so that the characters came off as drama queens rather than
people who are actually in pain. That’s something I intend to change as I’m
going through these chapters. That way, when Windham
***LYRICS OF THE DAY***
“Before you judge me, take a good hard look at yourself. You
don’t know me, but you’re draining me of mental health. A lie based on popular
opinion. I want to die, ‘cause I can’t be forgiven. The world is caving in all
around me. I see myself as a vulgar monstrosity. My mind collapsed into a
technical mess. I can’t deal with the guilt I have to ingest. Locked in a room
void of humanity. I’m in a black hole suffering endlessly. Opening my eyes is
worse than death. That’s why I keep on holding my breath.”
-Alien Weaponry singing “Holding My Breath”-
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