Every year the online video game Fortnite has an event called Fortnitemares. It’s a time when players can enjoy new quests, costumes, and challenges. This year players can do things like engage with Billy from the Saw movies to earn loot or use a chainsaw hack to destroy enemies.
It’s all in good fun for the season right? But one update to this season’s version has some people concerned: You can visit the “devil” to barter for perks. The cost? Your “soul,” or more specifically HP. More specifically than that, at a cost of 99 HP, you can resurrect a fallen teammate, which in conservative terms equates to “selling your soul.”
In reality, the “devil” in this case is actually the demon Mephisto from the Marvel Universe. But that isn’t stopping some from making their inferential leaps. Like this guy:
@zaereacts Fortnite needs to be cancelled #fortnite #creepy #demonic #satanic #viral #trending #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #greenscreenvideo #greenscreen ♬ Occult/Mystery/Horror Suspense(844669) – ｍｍ
We took to Reddit to see what real fans of the game had to say about the controversy:
“One main point people are missing. This is a VIDEOGAME and he is a MARVEL comic crossover/If people can’t detach reality from a work of digital art etc../ Then we are truly lost.. sure kids you go drop people with those assault weapons but make sure you don’t worship a made up comic book character!! Oh and don’t forget to emote after every kill to show how good you are!! God dammit people need to get a grip.” — Khimsince86
“I swear a lot of those people completely lack media literacy. He’s EVIL. He’s a VILLAIN. Obviously he’s going to do evil shit. It’s like those people who call DOOM satanic because it has demons in it, despite completely disregarding the fact the whole point of the game is to kill them. Genuine snowflakes. — HannahOwO88
“I mean, I’m Christian and I don’t see a problem with it because he’s a villain. If they were glorifying this stuff by calling him a hero then that’d be different, but he’s obviously portrayed as evil, so what’s wrong with making a demon-adjacent character that’s evil?” — xKNYTEx
@clearlynews Parents are boycotting fortnite over fortnitemares update #fortnite #news #fortnitemares ♬ original sound – Eric Howell
One Redditor even posted this scene from the reality show Trading Spouses as a joke in reference to how they feel some people are reacting to the in-game devilish content:
This Fornite special Halloween event will continue until the end of Chapter 5 Season 4, reportedly on November 2.