Sotenga
05-05-2007, 07:37 AM
Time to dive into my past and explain my fear and how I got over it. It took a bit of work to truncate it to only one page in 10-font text (and it's still about three lines over), but here's hoping it fits the bill and makes for a good read! :)
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“That Scary Green Guy”
We all get scared, especially as kids. Back when I was a young’un, I lacked courage and got scared fairly frequently. I was extremely fearful of mannequins, zombies, the darkness, and pretty much anything that either had no eyeballs or dead white eyes. I had the freakiest nightmares involving all of the things mentioned that would even make Vincent Price sweat in terror. And for the longest time, “That Scary Green Guy” plagued my nocturnal slumbers.
What scary green guy is that, you might ask? If you can believe it, it was Mabu, that weird alien that would laugh at you whenever you’d lose or wait too long at the attract screen in Rolling Thunder. I owned RT for the NES, and I often died before completing the first level. Still, it was fun to blast at evil terrorists that I had no idea at the time resembled the Ku Klux Klan. Ah, the innocence of youth.
Anyway, I remember first seeing that viridian mutant laughing at me with a digitized “Heh heh heh heh heh”. Mabu’s bizarre pointed head and blank white eyes (which, as I already established, give me the total jeeblies) coupled with that creepy laughter put the fear of some deity within me. I then turned off the system, waited until my pulse became normal again, and then turned it back on. I got right back into shooting and getting shot, doing my best not to die. It was inevitable that I would, but I kept a wary eye on how many lives I had left. When I finally ran out of them, I rushed right up to the system and pressed that power button with all of the force I could summon.
One night after encountering Mr. Mabu, I started to have a dream. I can’t ever remember what my dreams are all about, and this one is no exception. But what I could recall is that once I came to a TV screen, the television came on by itself, and there was that accursed alien staring right at me. However, he was different this time, with a more skeletal face, pointy ears that almost made him look like a jade Satan, vicious snarling fangs, and some black hair on his head for some reason that I’ll never figure out. In my dream, I was extremely freaked out that this cretin was now haunting me But the scariest thing was that his laugh now sounded more like…
“BWEH BWEH BWEH BWEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Oftentimes, my throat would let out a silent scream as I’d find myself flying towards the television. That bloody bastard sucked me into the television, probably because he wanted to eat my bones, but I always woke up with a panic after this would happen. Mabu had become my number one source of nightmares, and it was too bad, because I really liked Rolling Thunder otherwise.
See, my subconscious had painted an inaccurate portrait of Mabu, and after I had a few nightmares about him, I honestly started to think that he looked and sounded like this. Remember that I immediately turned off my NES and never good a good view of him again, and I intended to keep it that way. I’d always turn RT off the instant I lost all my lives, or I’d use the Game Genie to cheat with infinite lives. Anything to avoid that… THING.
But as you could probably guess, my fear of a videogame character persisted, and many of my nightmares would end with Mabu showing up and freezing me with utter fear. As I grew up, I started to reason to myself that it’s not healthy to have all of these nightmares, and it would be best if I faced my fear. Now that I was older, I decided to stare down that demon and cease my nightmares once and for all.
I decided to take it one step at a time, though. First, I turned RT on with the utmost of caution and kept my eyes clenched shut. I wanted to hear him before I saw him, and after waiting for a bit, the “Heh heh heh heh heh” passed through my ears. I then though to myself, “Hmm… that’s not quite as scary as I remember.” Then I turned the volume all the way down and got a good look at Mabu. Granted, the blank eyes were still freaky, but all other features weren’t quite as they appeared in my foul dreams. I turned the volume up, put the visual and aural aspects together, and beheld this Mabu fellow for all that he was. Older, wiser, and braver, I stared that son of a bitch in his nonexistent pupils. After our little showdown, he disappeared from the screen. There was only one thought on my mind after I had found the balls to go on and do this:
“THAT was the cause of my nightmares? You’ve got to be friggin’ joking!”
I had finally conquered my fear, and I never had a nightmare about that freak ever since. Looking back on it, I guess I could see how he’d creep out a five-year old kid. But dammit, if I could stomach broccoli around this point in my life, I figured that it was high time to cease my paranoia of this fictional villain. I even went on to the end of the game to beat him… though, I believe I cheated to do so. Aw well. I got over my psychological fear of Mabu; now I just need to get over the frightening difficulty of Rolling Thunder itself and beat it in earnest!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
“That Scary Green Guy”
We all get scared, especially as kids. Back when I was a young’un, I lacked courage and got scared fairly frequently. I was extremely fearful of mannequins, zombies, the darkness, and pretty much anything that either had no eyeballs or dead white eyes. I had the freakiest nightmares involving all of the things mentioned that would even make Vincent Price sweat in terror. And for the longest time, “That Scary Green Guy” plagued my nocturnal slumbers.
What scary green guy is that, you might ask? If you can believe it, it was Mabu, that weird alien that would laugh at you whenever you’d lose or wait too long at the attract screen in Rolling Thunder. I owned RT for the NES, and I often died before completing the first level. Still, it was fun to blast at evil terrorists that I had no idea at the time resembled the Ku Klux Klan. Ah, the innocence of youth.
Anyway, I remember first seeing that viridian mutant laughing at me with a digitized “Heh heh heh heh heh”. Mabu’s bizarre pointed head and blank white eyes (which, as I already established, give me the total jeeblies) coupled with that creepy laughter put the fear of some deity within me. I then turned off the system, waited until my pulse became normal again, and then turned it back on. I got right back into shooting and getting shot, doing my best not to die. It was inevitable that I would, but I kept a wary eye on how many lives I had left. When I finally ran out of them, I rushed right up to the system and pressed that power button with all of the force I could summon.
One night after encountering Mr. Mabu, I started to have a dream. I can’t ever remember what my dreams are all about, and this one is no exception. But what I could recall is that once I came to a TV screen, the television came on by itself, and there was that accursed alien staring right at me. However, he was different this time, with a more skeletal face, pointy ears that almost made him look like a jade Satan, vicious snarling fangs, and some black hair on his head for some reason that I’ll never figure out. In my dream, I was extremely freaked out that this cretin was now haunting me But the scariest thing was that his laugh now sounded more like…
“BWEH BWEH BWEH BWEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEHEHEHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Oftentimes, my throat would let out a silent scream as I’d find myself flying towards the television. That bloody bastard sucked me into the television, probably because he wanted to eat my bones, but I always woke up with a panic after this would happen. Mabu had become my number one source of nightmares, and it was too bad, because I really liked Rolling Thunder otherwise.
See, my subconscious had painted an inaccurate portrait of Mabu, and after I had a few nightmares about him, I honestly started to think that he looked and sounded like this. Remember that I immediately turned off my NES and never good a good view of him again, and I intended to keep it that way. I’d always turn RT off the instant I lost all my lives, or I’d use the Game Genie to cheat with infinite lives. Anything to avoid that… THING.
But as you could probably guess, my fear of a videogame character persisted, and many of my nightmares would end with Mabu showing up and freezing me with utter fear. As I grew up, I started to reason to myself that it’s not healthy to have all of these nightmares, and it would be best if I faced my fear. Now that I was older, I decided to stare down that demon and cease my nightmares once and for all.
I decided to take it one step at a time, though. First, I turned RT on with the utmost of caution and kept my eyes clenched shut. I wanted to hear him before I saw him, and after waiting for a bit, the “Heh heh heh heh heh” passed through my ears. I then though to myself, “Hmm… that’s not quite as scary as I remember.” Then I turned the volume all the way down and got a good look at Mabu. Granted, the blank eyes were still freaky, but all other features weren’t quite as they appeared in my foul dreams. I turned the volume up, put the visual and aural aspects together, and beheld this Mabu fellow for all that he was. Older, wiser, and braver, I stared that son of a bitch in his nonexistent pupils. After our little showdown, he disappeared from the screen. There was only one thought on my mind after I had found the balls to go on and do this:
“THAT was the cause of my nightmares? You’ve got to be friggin’ joking!”
I had finally conquered my fear, and I never had a nightmare about that freak ever since. Looking back on it, I guess I could see how he’d creep out a five-year old kid. But dammit, if I could stomach broccoli around this point in my life, I figured that it was high time to cease my paranoia of this fictional villain. I even went on to the end of the game to beat him… though, I believe I cheated to do so. Aw well. I got over my psychological fear of Mabu; now I just need to get over the frightening difficulty of Rolling Thunder itself and beat it in earnest!