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Paranoia Fuel

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"ALWAYS WATCHING
NO EYES"

When things that should be harmless, or on the viewer's side, turn nasty, stripping away all sense of safety.

How can a viewer sleep easy in their bed, when they've seen how toys can come alive when all is dark and wreak unspeakable vengeance? What trust can they have that anyone will protect them, when they've just seen some cheerful kid's program where a kid just like them was bloodily slaughtered by his own possessed mother as she sang a sweet lullaby?

This is perhaps the main reason why the Monster Clown, and especially Bad Santa, are Tropes unto themselves. He sees you when you're sleeping...

Paranoia, by definition, requires a level of suspicion and distrust. A monster chasing after you in broad daylight is probably not Paranoia Fuel, but a shape-shifting murderer targeting you who may be hiding among your friends or family or the clothes in your closet most likely is. A good rule of thumb is if a show or commercial makes you double check the people or objects around you (or triple check, or quadruple check, or...), then it fits here.

One of the most psychologically devastating forms of Nightmare Fuel, because of its mental persistence and perception of inescapable omnipresence. He knows where you live...

Other paranoia-inducing concepts include:

Fear of the dark is related, but falls under Primal Fears.

Not directly related to the game Paranoia. Or, at least, that's what they want you to think. See also The Paranoiac, for whom everything is Paranoia Fuel (and whose paranoia tends to be a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by virtue of making them evil jerks who anybody with any sense will want to slaughter ASAP lest the paranoiac slaughter them), and Improperly Paranoid, which is when paranoia drives a person to do something stupid and/or reprehensible without necessarily being a recurring occurrence.


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BEHIND YOU

... Sleep tight.


 
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We/He are Everywhere...

While Bond and the Judi Dench M are questioning Mr. White about who he (and by extension, Quantum) are working for, he laughs and says that his organization has people everywhere, asking "Am I right?" to Craig Mitchell, who reveals himself to be part of Quantum, and shoots the other bodyguard. When Bond sees him again face to face, he asks White, who is slowly dying from thallium poisoning, where he can find Blofeld, causing the former leader of Quantum, now a ex lackey of Blofeld to shout that he is everywhere, kissing one's lover, sitting at your desk, and/or having dinner with one's family.

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Main / IronicEcho

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