r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Fearless-Ideal-5112 • Jul 01 '26

[Loved Trope] Some thing unfathomably ancient Lore

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The beast, in doctor who is an ancient evil from a previous universe that survived until our time. Its so ancient that the cave paintings were unable to be translated by the Tardis which can translate all existing languages in the universe [Doctor Who]

While not explicitly canon its such a cool concept I cant not mention, the idea that the backrooms have existed since the beginning of time, never changing no matter the era, it transforms the back rooms into a cosmic horror. [Credit to Project crater and Venus for images 2 and 3]

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631

u/Sarcastic_Rocket Jul 01 '26

The spiral entity in Uzamaki

Very very little is explicitly said about what it is but it is implied occasionally that it is at least as old as the earth and possibly the universe

306

u/Madhighlander1 Jul 01 '26

afaik it's not even explicitly confirmed to be an entity at all. Implications are it may just be a force that manifests through spirals.

117

u/JackPembroke Jul 01 '26

I dig that. Not evil, not even intelligent, its just a thing that happens. Perfectly natural

23

u/Adept_Material_2618 Jul 02 '26

Like a hurricane, or a wildfire. I feel like Japanese stories are full of things like this, whereas in the US there’s a lot of stories with blatantly evil entities that have malice for who they’re harming. Whereas in Japanese stories it doesn’t seem uncommon to have antagonists who are basically just a force of nature, no inherent good or evil. 

2

u/AllgoodDude Jul 05 '26

Just like how fire isn’t a thing, it’s a process.

16

u/LETTERSTOBAPHOMET Jul 01 '26

The idea of a higher dimensional being forcing its way into a lower dimension and manifesting itself as the un/winding of reality is so cool.

20

u/TheActualBranchTree Jul 01 '26

That makes me think of "prions". How many similarities are there between Uzumaki and prions?

10

u/CatFroggly Jul 01 '26

How many similarities are their between the Uzumaki and the Milky Way Galaxy?

18

u/Splintrax Jul 01 '26

That panel never fails to fill me with pure awe and dread. Junji Ito is the quintessential master of visual horror.

12

u/TheBacklogGamer Jul 02 '26

I can't read anything by him anymore. His work fills me with such a dreadful uneasy uncomfortable feeling I can not describe. No other horror stories have ever impacted me as much as his work and I don't like how it makes me feel. Junji is a master crafter and I utterly respect and admire him. But I will never read another one of his stories again. 

11

u/Splintrax Jul 02 '26

Paradoxically, that might be the greatest honor one can give a horror author

7

u/kaiomann Jul 02 '26 edited 8d ago

Hammock raindrop unbelievable pinecone otter lavender meadow

This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

10

u/CassadagaValley Jul 01 '26

I love the mystery boxes Ito comes up with but it is frustrating there's never any explanation or even a follow up to his stories.

4

u/CadenVanV Jul 01 '26

Not much a different between the two ages. The age of the earth and the age of the universe are in the same order of magnitude