An Expansion of Space

Okay, in saying the following, I recognize that this is going to sound pretty “out there”, especially if you’re someone who is younger on the internet.

And I will preface what I am about to say with some credentials: I am an Internet Old. I am also someone who is paid professionally to work in the horror genre from time to time. I am also someone who has studied psychology, as well as studying some NLP-type shit (that I do not find ethical in the slightest, as an aside, and I quickly noped out of)…

I also want to let you know upfront that what I will tell you is NOT to make you worry or feel afraid. I am sharing this info only so that you can “see through the curtain” as it were, and recognize media and stories like this for what it actually is.

The tl;dr is - please be very criticial of any online horror story that does not provide a sense of catharsis or release at the end, or at the very least a sense of closure or ending. Or anything that is about someone giving up control.

Why? Because creepypasta stories like this may seem merely surreal and/or hilarious to you, but shit like this is actually subliminally priming you to be more easily manipulated and controlled.

And a lot of these types of stories are absolutely aimed at teens and pre-teens, or college kids, fyi. There is also a really good video here by Ann Reardon about of stories being told over brightly coloured baking videos. Mostly though, these stories are about and aimed at WOMEN.

Basically, this story is linking a fear response (a sewer man! - that sounds bad and weird at first) with a violent action - or a taking away of rights/possessions (the coffee that gets poured in the sewer) that comes from someone with power (the soldier) who is “solving a problem” (thinking rationally - how would coffee dumped in the sewer fucking help anyone?!?!) where the victim (the woman) is shown how the solider is “right” to do what he did.

The subliminal lesson here is that the solider does what he wants to do, because “he knows better” than the civilian girl. This story basically ends on the action of “the soldier did the right thing” and there is no real catharsis or sense of ending. You know, the kind of message that implies “be scared, rely on those in power”. The idea that we should just comply.

And, as a thought exercise: the story would be so, so much different if it were a sweet little old lady that took the coffee. The initial scare/weirdness factor could still be there, but it wouldn’t have that same ‘heaviness’ feeling to it, you know?

By the way, I am the creator of the Sewer Man post, and here is the ONLY creepy pasta I have ever written:

You know what? Good job.

Other people said this post had thousands of notes in their mind, but only contributed two notes.

You? You said that it had 100k gators to you.

And then you did it.

If you're uncomfortable with the human cost of war and don't want to glorify it... good news, you don't have to! A tournament arc gives you all the fun of competition and rivalry and struggle to improve, without the uncomfortable knowledge that your protagonist's subordinates are likely doing awful things offscreen.

Similarly, if you like getting into your antagonists' heads and humanizing them, but don't like writing the kind of monster that makes a good high fantasy antagonist- good news! In a tournament arc, the only thing that makes an antagonist an antagonist is that they want the same thing Blorbo wants and are fighting them to get it.

Struggle to come up with a plot? Tournament arc has defined beats. Struggle with making high stakes feel cool and not corny? Tournament arc. Want to write a big ensemble cast? Tournament arc.