Day 2: What is your earliest memory of enjoying whump?

Maybe a scene stuck with you from a cartoon or you were mesmerized by a piece of art you passed by as a kid, or maybe just a little while back you stumbled upon some prompts on Pinterest that made you feel the butterflies and you just had to see what that was about. In any case, we would love to hear!

I can’t remember what my earliest whump memory was, but one of my earlier memories of whump that always hits the spot for me was of part of a WITCH comic where taranee was trapped in a bubble and taunted with seeing a copy of her replace herself in the real world

I mightve talked about it before but idc. Im doing it again.

Day 2: What is your earliest memory of enjoying whump?

Day 2: What is your earliest memory of enjoying whump?

@whumpmasinjuly-archive

Okay, I know I've answered this before, either on this blog or the old one, but originally I couldn't remember. However, since then, I rediscovered a few things.

Like Record of Lodoss War. That I vividly now recall was a formative whump memory when Deedlit was getting sacrificed or something. Like, I have to finish watching the show to see it again, but I know this is the old anime I've been looking for.

Then there's Sleeping Beauty, the old Disney classic. I've seen a lot of like Prince Phillip in chains, which I do remember, but my favorite bit was the dramatic reveal of Aurora on the floor. And the spindle scene. Absolutely love those bits.

There's a few others, but I know young me was fascinated by these in particular, lol.

Day 2: Earliest Memory of Enjoying Whump

So, I have a couple different memories that come to mind here.

The first time I remember enjoying whump in media is when I was maybe nine or ten. My dad showed me Fullmetal Alchemist, the 2003 anime. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason I'm slightly unhinged to this day, because I was not old enough.

Anyways, that whole show is basically just a ton of Edward Elric whump, as far as I can remember, but the second episode is what always comes to mind. There's one section where Ed is captured and chained up, and uses that to defeat the villain. I just thought that was fascinating.

There's probably early instances of me enjoying whump media, I just don't remember them.

Now, the first time I created my own whump was when I was a little kid, maybe six or seven, and I decided that a Barbie doll needed to be rescued from an evil witch. Which, obviously to my little kid mind, meant that she had to be tied up. I found a piece of red ribbon on my floor and tied Barbie up, using the antenna of my radio to dangle her over a vat of acid.

Well, my parents ended up finding the whole set up before Barbie could be rescued, and they freaked out. In hindsight, I can understand why, but at the time I was just upset because I thought I had done something wrong. Eventually they came to realize that no, there was no deeper meaning, I just was playing "rescue the damsel in distress" with my Barbie and happened to have red ribbon in my room.

Earliest Whump Memory

I'd be lying if I said I remembered my earliest whump memory, but I'm almost 100% sure it was some Disney movie I watched as a child (Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Robin Hood, The Rescuers 2, and The Great Mouse Detective are my prime suspects XD).

I remember loving plushies, especially stuffed animals, since I was little. My younger sister and I would play and invent stories where each stuffed animal was a character.

Looking back, it was a very whumpy story, because I loved creating villains (mostly evil poachers) who hunted, captured, and kidnapped the characters, and then their friends had to go and save them.

I remember using fabric storage nets as hunting nets, toy boxes were cages, hair ties and ribbons were ropes and gags. Sometimes I would leave the stuffed animals hanging from the closet rod or hide them under the bed for my sister to search for and find.

It might sound a bit sadistic, but I remember that whenever one of the stuffed animals was "rescued," I also loved to imagine the other stuffed animals, or even myself, taking care of it and helping it overcome its traumas (because yes, they were left with traumas after those recurring experiences of distressed XD).

Whumpmas in July 2026

Day 2: What is your earliest memory of enjoying whump?

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There were several whumpy things that I locked in on as a kid and had no idea why until I realized in adulthood what whump was. I'm not sure which of these three was my first memory, but these are all super early whump moments in media that made little me go "Ohhhh....".

One was the movie "Benji" from 1974 (no, I'm not that old, but I rented it from the video store because it was a movie about a dog). I remember literally nothing about that movie except for the fact that the two main kids got kidnapped and the dog had to save them. I just rewatched those scenes back for this prompt and I'm laughing now because I recalled those scenes being so scary and intense as a kid, but compared to today's media it's so tame. The kids get cleave gagged in the kidnapping scenes and that's it... not even tied up. I only watched it once, but those scenes still stuck with me for decades afterwards all the same.

The second was an illustration from a Muppet Treasure Island activity book from McDonald's in Wal-Mart... or it could have been a coloring book perhaps? I can't for the life of me find the illustration, but I swear there was a drawing of Jim in distress getting captured and rowed in a boat. I can find no evidence of it existing now, but kid me was enamored with that drawing, and now I know why. I wish I could find it again.

Third is undoubtedly the most ridiculous, but it was also hands down the whump scene that I was most obsessed with as a kid. There's a Beatrix Potter cartoon that I had on VHS, and The Tale of Tom Kitten/Samuel Whiskers or "The Roly Poly Pudding" was on REPEAT in my house. I of course was constantly rewatching the scene where Tom gets captured and the rats are readying him to be made into a pudding. The dialogue was so good whump-wise. I also loved his sad little meows and struggling, plus when he gets butter rubbed on him. It all gave me such whumperflies before I knew what those were, I reenacted that scene SO MANY TIMES playing pretend. As a lover of happy endings, though, I did like that he got rescued in the end.

It cracks me up when people use the illustration from that book as a "wtf is this" image, because it really is so absurd in concept, but it was a very special whump scene to kid me lmao

Honorable mention, even though it came way later in my young life: The scene in Home Alone 3 where the nosy neighbor lady gets bound and gagged, then left to freeze in a snowy garage. That gave me HUGE whumperflies before I knew what that was. It was so sick and cold (no pun intended) and twisted and cruel, and the villain lady even gave her a little kiss before she left?! Just wow. (Don't worry, she gets saved later!)

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Deedoo's Whumpmas in July 2026 participation master list

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Day 2: What is your earliest memory of enjoying whump?

for @whumpmasinjuly-archive