The Icons and Lore Thread

[Clive]

At a different level tho. Oddfellow is the first REAL icon since HHN 19.

Absolutely not. FEAR was the icon of 2010. Chance was the icon in 2016. Pumpkin Lord had his turn last year, Oddfellow gets his swing this year. The criteria of what constitutes an icon has always been fluid, but it's clear enough at this point that these characters are meant to be the faces of their respective years.

Editing to add that Lady Luck was the icon in 2011. There have been plenty of icons since 2009.

 

[Allison]

At a different level tho. Oddfellow is the first REAL icon since HHN 19.

Wrong.

 

[Kichkinet85]

Absolutely not. FEAR was the icon of 2010. Chance was the icon in 2016. Pumpkin Lord had his turn last year, Oddfellow gets his swing this year. The criteria of what constitutes an icon has always been fluid, but it's clear enough at this point that these characters are meant to be the faces of their respective years.

Editing to add that Lady Luck was the icon in 2011. There have been plenty of icons since 2009.

Really Fear lol. He’s not an icon in most people’s books. He has a crappy storyline and only appeared in the zone I believe. I didn’t start going till 2013 so I don’t can’t really say. But by what I heard he’s no icon to most. Him being a last minute replacement for Cindy(I think?) doesn’t help his story. He did appear in the Icon house in HHN 30 so he is an icon but not. Lady Luck was similar if I recall. Again I didn’t go her year. PL was a kinda icon. I love him and his story but he’s no icon like the others. I think you got what I’m saying wrong, Clive. I’m not saying PL isn’t an icon, I’m saying he’s not an icon on the LEVEL of Jack, Caretaker, Usher, …etc.

Wrong.

Got me there lol. I forgot about Chances year.

 

[Clive]

Really Fear lol. He’s not an icon in most people’s books. He has a crappy storyline and only appeared in the zone I believe. I didn’t start going till 2013 so I don’t can’t really say. But by what I heard he’s no icon to most. Him being a last minute replacement for Cindy(I think?) doesn’t help his story. Lady Luck was similar if I recall. Again I didn’t go her year. PL was a kinda icon. I love him and his story but he’s no icon like the others. I think you got what I’m saying wrong, Clive. I’m not saying PL isn’t an icon, I’m saying he’s not an icon on the LEVEL of Jack, Caretaker, Usher, …etc.

Got me there lol. I forgot about Chances year.

Just because you didn't care for the character doesn't mean they weren't an icon. Caretaker was a last-minute replacement for Cindy, too, and we still consider him an icon.

FEAR was in the commercial, was all over the website, had his own zone, was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park. He was all the creative team talked about.

Lady Luck was in the commercial, was all over the website, had her own zone, was tied into all of the houses (kinda like Oddfellow's tie-ins to all of the zones), was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park and in media appearances.

Pumpkin Lord got a scare zone, the front-of-the-park opening announcement, merchandise, and appearances in the lagoon show. His aesthetic defines the park-wide look and feel, making his presence felt throughout the event. Was it as much as some of the past icons? Maybe not, but his role in the event was clear. Oddfellow feels like they're dialing up the presence/involvement again, but time will tell.

 

[HHN Maddux]

Just because you didn't care for the character doesn't mean they weren't an icon. Caretaker was a last-minute replacement for Cindy, too, and we still consider him an icon.

FEAR was in the commercial, was all over the website, had his own zone, was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park. He was all the creative team talked about.

Lady Luck was in the commercial, was all over the website, had her own zone, was tied into all of the houses (kinda like Oddfellow's tie-ins to all of the zones), was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park and in media appearances.

Pumpkin Lord got a scare zone, the front-of-the-park opening announcement, merchandise, and appearances in the lagoon show. His aesthetic defines the park-wide look and feel, making his presence felt throughout the event. Was it as much as some of the past icons? Maybe not, but his role in the event was clear. Oddfellow feels like they're dialing up the presence/involvement again, but time will tell.

Pumpkin Lord also was tied to at least two zones (Conjure the Dark's ritual speech is the same as the one that summons him).

 

[Tbad556]

Just because you didn't care for the character doesn't mean they weren't an icon. Caretaker was a last-minute replacement for Cindy, too, and we still consider him an icon.

FEAR was in the commercial, was all over the website, had his own zone, was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park. He was all the creative team talked about.

Lady Luck was in the commercial, was all over the website, had her own zone, was tied into all of the houses (kinda like Oddfellow's tie-ins to all of the zones), was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park and in media appearances.

Yeah, Lady Luck and FEAR aren't even questions lol. As of 2021, HHN still explicitly considers both icons. From the HHN Icons: Captured blog writeup:

"the hellish amalgamation of features that has characterized the Icon of Fear"
"HHN legend says that the Icon Fear"
"Welcome to Fear’s Lantern, a prison that is the source of all of the evil ravished upon the unlucky guests of Universal Orlando every year. Surrounding these gates are seven totems, each one representing the most well-known Icons of HHN history: Lady Luck, The Director, Chance, Jack, The Caretaker, The Usher, and The Storyteller."

And so on. I mean, they were literally icons in the icon house lol.

Behind-the-Scares | HHN Icons: Captured at Halloween Horror Nights 2021

Behind the scenes details of HHN30's hit haunted house, HHN Icons Captured at Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios Florida

blog.discoveruniversal.com

 

[Kichkinet85]

Just because you didn't care for the character doesn't mean they weren't an icon. Caretaker was a last-minute replacement for Cindy, too, and we still consider him an icon.

FEAR was in the commercial, was all over the website, had his own zone, was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park. He was all the creative team talked about.

Lady Luck was in the commercial, was all over the website, had her own zone, was tied into all of the houses (kinda like Oddfellow's tie-ins to all of the zones), was on all of the merchandise, got the featured treatment at the front of the park and in media appearances.

Pumpkin Lord got a scare zone, the front-of-the-park opening announcement, merchandise, and appearances in the lagoon show. His aesthetic defines the park-wide look and feel, making his presence felt throughout the event. Was it as much as some of the past icons? Maybe not, but his role in the event was clear. Oddfellow feels like they're dialing up the presence/involvement again, but time will tell.

Again don’t think you are reading what I’m saying. I did say I didn’t got those years so I don’t know how involved they were. Just by word of mouth. I’m also not saying any of them are not icons, in fact I believe I said all they were.

PL is an icon(kinda, you really didn’t see him besides his one zone)

he is an icon but not.

Lady Luck was similar if I recall.

PL was a kinda icon.

What I’m saying is there not Icons like Jack, Caretaker, Usher, Etc. ,

, I’m saying he’s not an icon on the LEVEL of Jack, Caretaker, Usher, …etc.

And yes even now I don’t care about Fear and many other don’t as well, even Universal didn’t really care for him lol. They try to cover him up. Even know they r doing that. But he IS an Icon. I might not think of him as one, but he is. As for Caretaker at least he has a big backstory, what is Fears?

I’m just saying Dr. Oddfellow is r first ICON in years.

 

[HHN Maddux]

I've mentioned it before, but I really like the idea of HHN 40 being an epic battle between the old Icons and this seemingly new generation of Icons.

40 is when the Lantern naturally opens again lore-wise, Fear and the old Icons ready to have fun, only to see a new generation of Icons have taken over, leading to an epic battle between the two sides, with us stuck in the middle. Each Icon has a foil.

• Fear vs Pumpkin Lord
• Jack vs Oddfellow
• Caretaker vs Bone (a little meta wink to fans who know about 27's scrapped plans)
• Director vs Projectionist?
• Storyteller vs ???
• Usher vs... Major Sweets, a movie theater worker that poisons people, rude behavior that WON'T be tolerated!
• Lady Luck vs ???
• Chance vs ??? (maybe paired with Jack against Oddfellow? He is her father though (unless they're retconning that)).

 

[Jake S]

I’m just saying Dr. Oddfellow is r first ICON in years.

I'm just saying this doesn't make any sense, even based on the strange purity test you seem to be applying to certain icons. oddfellow is no more an icon based on event pervasiveness or media usage, as far as we know, than Lady Luck or Chance or Fear. if you're excited about Oddfellow, that's awesome, but let's pull the plug on this icon in name only stuff.

 

[Kichkinet85]

I've mentioned it before, but I really like the idea of HHN 40 being an epic battle between the old Icons and this seemingly new generation of Icons.

40 is when the Lantern naturally opens again lore-wise, Fear and the old Icons ready to have fun, only to see a new generation of Icons have taken over, leading to an epic battle between the two sides, with us stuck in the middle. Each Icon has a foil.

• Fear vs Pumpkin Lord
• Jack vs Oddfellow
• Caretaker vs Bone (a little meta wink to fans who know about 27's scrapped plans)
• Director vs Projectionist?
• Storyteller vs ???
• Usher vs... Major Sweets, a movie theater worker that poisons people, rude behavior that WON'T be tolerated!
• Lady Luck vs ???
• Chance vs ??? (maybe paired with Jack against Oddfellow? He is her father though (unless they're retconning that)).

I love this idea. We need more new icons so more years with that first r welcomed!!

Chance’s and Jack’s relationship is confusing. Some portray them like that and some portray them in more of a relationship way.

. oddfellow is no more an icon based on event pervasiveness or media usage, as far as we know, than Lady Luck or Chance or Fear.

Exactly what I have been saying!

 

[Tbad556]

Twitter thread from Aiello on his take on the "Icon" debate:

 

[Brian G.]

While I get his overall point, I disagree with what he seems to be implying - “anything can be an icon”.

But I ain’t tryna yuck anyone’s yum, and Aiello is “GOD” so.

 

[Tbad556]

While I get his overall point, I disagree with what he seems to be implying - “anything can be an icon”.

But I ain’t tryna yuck anyone’s yum, and Aiello is “GOD” so.

I agree with bits and pieces, specifically the whole "the event has changed and so should the definition of an icon" part. Definitely not to the extreme he took it though hah.

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Twitter thread from Aiello on his take on the "Icon" debate:

Okay first of all, people said this before but branding Twitter to an X is a horrible, horrible mistake. I still don’t get why the hell they did this.

Second of all, for me an “icon” is basically the “main villain” of the whole HHN event. To elaborate; yeah there are some characters used in the adverts like the Asylum Patient for 2004 and the Eyegore demon; but those were just advertisements, they didn’t really pan out for the event itself. For a character to really count as an “icon”; either the marketing or the storylines for the event have to sell that this specific character is the icon for HHN. I don’t remember if I wrote about this before, but here’s my long rambles on characters and their status as “icons”.

• Jack and the Caretaker didn’t really have any “storylines” for their respective events in 2000 and 2002 (not counting their backstories), likewise with the scrapped Eddie icon. The Director’s stories for 2003 and Hollywood 2006 were that all the mazes and streets were just a bunch of scary films the Director were filming “on location” at the parks. And Chance’s story was based on a “theatre of the mind”. Still all 4 of them were front and center at the marketing, it was clear by those ads that they were running the show, and all of them had houses (and a Terror Tram for the Director).
• Fear’s kinda murky as the adverts kept him hidden (though the merchandise didn’t), but still he along with Lady Luck are icons despite the many setbacks for them those years. Both had merchandise and were featured at their own zones.
• The Cryptkeeper from 1995 and Bloody Mary are odd cases as both are licensed so Universal can’t really refer to them as icons because of that. But still the Cryptkeeper was all over the marketing for 1995 I’m sure, and he hosted the Dungeon of Terror that year. Bloody Mary was the marketing selling point too, she had the house and a mini zone near the entrance, was on the video that played on the main gate, the story for 2008 was that it was all behind her world in the mirror, and her backstory itself was crucial to the Legendary Truth game. And while the former wasn’t the icon for 1996 it would have been easy to mold him into one that year, as Cryptkeeper had the house, hosted the parade and had at least one piece of merch. Most of the icons had a house and at least one physical appearance in either a show or zone.
• Speaking of licensed properties, Hollywood used the characters of Freddy Krueger and Jigsaw for their 2008 and 2009 events and when you compare that to some of Orlando’s icons, Freddy and Jigsaw work pretty well as icons. Both had houses and street presence. The marketing made it clear that Freddy was the main danger above everything else with taglines like “Freddy’s loose on the backlot” and those pillow ads, I don’t think the marketing really clarified that about Jigsaw but still there was a SAW house, two zones (one at the beginning and one near the SAW house), and Jigsaw himself hosted the Terror Tram. The story for 2009 was pretty clear that Jigsaw summoned all these movie monsters for his tests that were specifically themed to horror movies.
• The Usher is kind of a murky point as Uni didn’t really use him for a lot of the adverts in 09, but still the backstory made it clear that he was behind all the hauntings, he had the maze and there were projections throughout the parks which featured him.
• (As a side note, can someone who remembered those years tell me what the Bloody Mary and Usher projections were like? I’ve seen photos of them, but what were they actually doing in them, even it was something simple like magical laughter?)
• Also murky is the Storyteller and Terra Queen in 2005, as the former was shoehorned in as execs didn’t think the latter would work so the latter didn’t really get a lot. But either way the storyline made sense either as a bloodthirsty civilization ran by an evil queen or a telling of a story of said bloodthirsty civilization ran by said evil queen. And I saw through photos online that there were merchandise and some signs in the park which prominently featured the Terra Queen in 2005 so maybe she was an icon after all? IDK.
• I see through several opinions online (like the HHN Wiki) that some consider the Mummy to be the icon for 1999’s Last Gasp, but was that really the case? Yeah there was a house about the Mummy but the marketing didn’t really refer to him as the head honcho and most importantly the key art for that year. It looks nothing like the Mummy from the 1999 film, and I know that director Stephen Sommers specifically wanted to avoid bandages for its title character. Most likely there was a random Mummy for 1999’s posters as an homage mascot rather than an actual icon.
• I’m still bugged on the Pumpkin Lord. Yeah he hosted the main announcement and had the zone, but so did Bone in 2017 and if I recall correctly Universal themselves really did not like when someone referred to Bone as an icon, I think I remember the HHN Twitter even directly telling someone that no he wasn’t an icon. So why does Bone not count yet Pumpkin Lord does when they’re practically the same? And I don’t remember Pumpkin Lord being in the lagoon show nor do I understand his ties to the other zones in 31.
• And of course Oddfellow this year, his connections to the zones seems more tangible than Pumpkin Lord and of course he has the house. So yeah I can buy he’s the icon this year.

And I’m sorry, but no. Boris Shuster is not an icon . He’s not even a bad guy.

 

[Legacy]

I’m preparing a thesis.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

Ight, we gotta talk about Oddfellows lore.

I think it’s great! What I heard through the podcast story and how they have described the Scarezones in their sneak peak podcast it seems like they are gonna really push the “It was Oddfellow all along” narrative on some originals from the past, which I think is cool!
But it is looking to be remotely clear that this year is gonna tell a very in-depth story involving this guy. They literally want you to “relive” Oddfellow’s life through these zones, so you better believe there will be some analysis of each individual zone and the characters present.

Since Shipyard has old original creatures from the past in it, maybe it will be easy to connect the dots between the events of the characters events in old original houses featuring them.
Nevertheless, I am excited to see the effort put into his story.

The biggest question is how did Oddfellow get the cane of souls? It’s revealed in the audio story that Jack had it AFTER he “killed” Oddfellow. Have they already duked it out and we just don’t know?

 

[Kichkinet85]

Ight, we gotta talk about Oddfellows lore.

I think it’s great! What I heard through the podcast story and how they have described the Scarezones in their sneak peak podcast it seems like they are gonna really push the “It was Oddfellow all along” narrative on some originals from the past, which I think is cool!
But it is looking to be remotely clear that this year is gonna tell a very in-depth story involving this guy. They literally want you to “relive” Oddfellow’s life through these zones, so you better believe there will be some analysis of each individual zone and the characters present.

Since Shipyard has old original creatures from the past in it, maybe it will be easy to connect the dots between the events of the characters events in old original houses featuring them.
Nevertheless, I am excited to see the effort put into his story.

The biggest question is how did Oddfellow get the cane of souls? It’s revealed in the audio story that Jack had it AFTER he “killed” Oddfellow. Have they already duked it out and we just don’t know?

Love how Oddfellow is the new Fear. This year is shaping up to be like an older year of HHN, and I love that. The podcast were amazing and can’t wait for the next one.

I really love the idea of us going through Oddfellow past/lore with the zones.

 

[Legacy]

Ight, we gotta talk about Oddfellows lore.

I think it’s great! What I heard through the podcast story and how they have described the Scarezones in their sneak peak podcast it seems like they are gonna really push the “It was Oddfellow all along” narrative on some originals from the past, which I think is cool!
But it is looking to be remotely clear that this year is gonna tell a very in-depth story involving this guy. They literally want you to “relive” Oddfellow’s life through these zones, so you better believe there will be some analysis of each individual zone and the characters present.

Since Shipyard has old original creatures from the past in it, maybe it will be easy to connect the dots between the events of the characters events in old original houses featuring them.
Nevertheless, I am excited to see the effort put into his story.

The biggest question is how did Oddfellow get the cane of souls? It’s revealed in the audio story that Jack had it AFTER he “killed” Oddfellow. Have they already duked it out and we just don’t know?

My headcanon at this moment is that he finds the Cane of Souls in the Jungle.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

My headcanon at this moment is that he finds the Cane of Souls in the Jungle.

That may be its origin, good thinking.

But how did Oddfellow get the cane back? It’s said that Jack has it in 07 and it’s back in Oddfellow possession currently.

 

[Legacy]

That may be its origin, good thinking.

But how did Oddfellow get the cane back? It’s said that Jack has it in 07 and it’s back in Oddfellow possession currently.

Also headcanon, this entire year takes place before 2007. No zone or house attached to Oddfellow takes place after 1969. Jack dies in the 30s.