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Simone shaved 💔

but I don’t actually want canon pc x pc ships (aside from halsha, which is already established)

because for me it’s objectively funnier if brennan lee mulligan npc romances thirteen fucking player characters individually

“yeah can i get a deluxe quarter pounder with cheese?”

“absolutely, do you want the meal or just the sandwich?’

“uuuuuh hold on”

*fishes something out of my pocket*

“mikey what do i do?”

“get the fries. youll need the energy in the coming days”

*stuffs it back in my pocket*

like obviously the actual answer is that intended audience is a marketing category and so definitionally kids horror is any horror that can be successfully marketed towards a youth demographic, but what ive been thinking is like. what characteristics do i think sets apart good kids horror fiction from horror a kid just happens to stumble upon and enjoy? are these vaguely child-marketed mascot horror games bad or are they just not for my age demographic? does a distinction like this even maintain merit outside the context of consumer categories?

a couple folks in the notes have brought up the original five nights at freddys game, which stands out as a game not necessarily intended for children but which owes a large chunk of its overall success to its reception by young audiences and its decision to lean more and more heavily on its youth appeal as the series progressed. looking back on it i maintain that it is not a good example kids horror, in spite of its success with that demographic, not because its especially adult in its storytelling or contents but because i think that would be giving it too much credit.

in my opinion, kids horror should definitionally be horror that connects with its audience because it takes seriously childrens experiences with fear. it should respect and reflect those experiences in some aspect of its storytelling even if they dont necessarily take center stage. when i think about like goosebumps for example, those stories were about kids, and though the source of the horror was pretty much always something paranormal, they were also always undergirded with things like anxieties about school, failures to fit in with peers, conflicts with friends or bullies or siblings, desires for greater independence. maybe these subjects arent exclusive or inherent to childhood, but they are pretty common parts of it and, like many aspects of childhood, most adult media doesnt really reflect or appreciate the gravity of it as it is experienced in that specific context.

the presence of children and childhood in those stories was not incidental or a way of making the stories marketable, and the stories themselves didnt tend to be like light or bloodless or without the threat of deadly consequence. they didnt always wrap up neatly or pleasantly. i think theres a temptation to define the idea of kids horror by some absence of what we consider to be serious horror, and granted there are subjects that you can reasonably bet wont be touched upon, but like, shouldnt they be? if there were more stories that competently talked about the darkness- that kids are already not exempt from in real life btw- in a form that takes into account who is engaging with it and meets them where theyre at, wouldnt that be a good thing?