The act of erasing a character's defining lore/personality for the sake of having them be an irredeemable antagonistic threat.
The term comes from Youtube horror thumbnails in which a character is heavily edited to look 'scarier' and 'evil'. This depiction is commonly seen with bloodied eyes, creepy smiles, and some sort of violent object in the character's hand. (Most usually a knife or severed head.)
Two examples of characters that experience this are Bucky the Beaver from Shipwrecked 64, and Dandy from Dandy's World.
The term comes from Youtube horror thumbnails in which a character is heavily edited to look 'scarier' and 'evil'. This depiction is commonly seen with bloodied eyes, creepy smiles, and some sort of violent object in the character's hand. (Most usually a knife or severed head.)
Two examples of characters that experience this are Bucky the Beaver from Shipwrecked 64, and Dandy from Dandy's World.
"People always write this character as a villain even though they aren't one! Why are they putting them through Youtube Thumbnail-ification?"
by 12ed_alert March 24, 2026
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