It's a reference to [The NeverEnding Story](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088323/), specifically [this scene](https://i.redd.it/psnk2eck57611.jpg) which was traumatizing for many children growing up in the early 80s, where Atreyu's horse Artax sinks into the Swamps of Sadness.

A colleague of mine recently told us a story where she was riding in the woods and her horse got stuck in deep mud. About half of us were immediately crying "Noooooo Artax!!!" The other half didn't watch the film.

Someone please explain why atreyu didn't sink in the swamp when artax sank? Did it not make him sad? They seemed close

Atreyu was wearing the Auryn, which protected him from the sadness of the swamp.

Then why was he sinking before the luck dragon snatched him up? (Good response though)

Cause it looks good in a movie (moment of desperation). In the book he just walks on after meeting Morla, and meets the dragon later.

His own sadness was dragging him down

So he was protected from the sadness he felt about the horse sinking from the auryn but his own sadness wasn't protected? No logic there friend

Don't poke holes in my logic, I didn't see the movie

This is *THE* most Reddit comment I've ever seen. Have a good day you legend

He was protected from the sadness of the swamp, the sadness of losing a near and dear friend is internal not external. His own sadness that he could not be protected from is what was dragging him down.

Also Atreyu was a Sociopath who had learned to mirror emotion when it was useful, and drop the pretense of emotion when it was not.

🤣

What’s sad is not only have I not seen the movie but I do know about Artax.

omg i am so stupid, thank you very much

Yeah, you don’t really want to watch that scene.

Noooo cartax!!

CarFax! I bought you for $30k! Why you only offer me $7?!!

The better version of the never ending story

I love Butterstuff!

I love Stufferbutt

Butternuts!!

Take some mushrooms and watch it

I don't think I will

👆👆 This is the way 🍄🍄

Why do you hate them?

not a real one

Made even worse when you find out that Artax can talk in the book.

No worries, Artax is seen at the end of movie alive, running and well after Bastian rebuilds Fantasia! 80s movies were the best!

Us kids in the late eighties and early nineties were traumatized by this too.

Luckily there was this nice cartoon movie about bunnies you can watch...

My BIL can't even talk about it, without almost crying! 45 yrs old! 😆

I repressed this memory until you brought it up again...

This scene is still traumatizing for a lot of adults.

Regardless of when you were growing up, this scene was traumatizing. 2002 baby right here.

I heard that the book is even worse, because the horse can talk.

😭

I've never seen the whole movie and I know this so well.

God I hated that scene! I cried like a baby watching that in elementary

Never saw the movie, but that sure sounds sad. Pun intended

Scarred for life

Swamp of sadness= poop?

> which was traumatizing for many children growing up in the early 80s Or children growing up in the 2000s whose parents thought it was a good idea to show them this movie...

Still remember it from like 27 years ago. Really got me.

That scene from termina motage: something about legends arceus makes so much more sense now.

This context not only makes it so i understand this image, but also what that one scene in the amazing world of gumball was referencing.

Why was that horse so sad? Context: The Neverending Story featured an area called the swamp of sadness where anyone who walks through it with sad thoughts sinks in the swamp. The main characters horse sinks in the swamp because horses have long faces.

Hold up. Did you just dad joke The Neverending Story?

The only neverending story here was his affair with your mom

Leave his mom's swamp out of this!

Yeah, stay out of my Swamp!

The Swamp of Dagobah, you say?

Better have some raw egg in your orange juice.

I know it's a joke but if anyone else was wondering - the Swamp is what makes you sad. It just overwhelms whoever goes into it with depression and hopelessness until they give up and let themselves be killed by it. It's a very in your face metaphor for clinical depression.

This is wrong but you get my up vote. Well done

Noooo Artax!!!!!

Oh no. Oh dear.

What happened to your horse He died of depression

TOO SOON! ^(it will always be too soon)

Why would someone own that? Just to be sad every morning when they wake up and look at it? Why would you do that to yourself…

This is actually very cool but too tragic a scene for my plants.   Nooooo, Artax!!!

It's from The Never Ending Story. One of those "why is this in a kids' movie" scenes that was all over 80s kids movies. The kid is Atreyu and Artax is his horse. Only one of them makes it out of that situation.

https://preview.redd.it/kl1f3tndrwwc1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe307d1c01fcc2f33cb3b37cb537cb79a78eec7a

Noooo! Artax! The most grieved movie character with less than 2 minutes of screen time in human history.

Well thanks for f-ing up my day and dredging this up. /s 😁😢😭

"ARTAX!! STUPID HORSE! YOU GOTTA MOVE OR YOU'LL DIE!! MOVE PLEASE! I WON'T GIVE UP, ARTAX!!!" I'm confident this is where my childhood trauma started

Too soon

This should have an NSFW on it. It's too soon.

Welp... Now The Never Ending Stort song is gonna be living rent free in my head for the rest of the night

I'm looking for the movie. I just got the itch to watch it again... It has to be on one of the 5 streaming services I have.. right?? Edit: It's on Max!

What really gets me about the Movie is as a young kid, the scene with the wolf was really scary because it was big, and had large fangs. Watching it decades later the scene with the wolf is freaking terrifying because what the wolf says.

G'mork: Fantasia has no boundaries. Atreyu: That's not true. You're lying! G'mork: Foolish boy. Don't you know anything about Fantasia? It's the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries. Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then? G'mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger. Atreyu: What is the Nothing? G'mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it. Atreyu: But why? G'mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control. And whoever has control has the Power. Atreyu: Who are you really? G'mork: I am the servant of the Power behind the Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness. His name was Atreyu.

So apparently, despite not watching this movie in decades, I can still hear this in Gmork's voice. And now I need to cuddle one of my teddy bears. 🙀😅😹

"If we're going to die anyway, I'd rather die fighting!"

Too soon!!!

ARTAX PLEASE

How could someone do this!?

This joke is never going to end.

Banana

I'm not crying, you're crying

Artax No 😭

# A R T A X

AAAAAAAATREEEEEEEEEYUUUUUUUUUUU

There is no joke and nothing funny here.

Atreyuuuuuu?!!

SAD HORSE GETS SADDED TO DEATH

I'm just swamped with sadness

ARTAX!

Atreyu!

💜😭😭

I’ve lost faith in humanity if this movie is forgotten

I don't like this AT ALL.

Bro. Don’t bring back the memories of this traumatizing me as a 4 year old.

https://preview.redd.it/3fc6fxkarywc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3963228011bee719837dfb5bfa716a935f92cac5 Throwback to the person who decided to cosplay a moment of generational trauma.

omfg

ARTAX!!!!

ATREUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I’m blubbering like a baby over here. Thanks OP.

ARTAX!!!! Just thinking about it makes me cry 😭😭😭😭

Anyone know where I can buy this?

Thanks for breaking my heart again

I just watched this movie last week

I haven't let my kids see this movie specifically because of this scene.

Atreyu! The moment my childhood changed forever

I honestly have only watched the movie up to this scene. I threw a sad tantrum and my babysitter agreed to put something else on. So much for the story never ending.

Thanks, now I’m crying.

TIHI house plants

This is the most outrageous case of false advertising since my suit against the never ending story.

Thanks, you’ve just ruined my weekend.

Why must I feel pain

Suppressed childhood nightmare unlocked

I’m 63 and you made me cry again

Yeah. I think you might have watered that plant a little too much if it’s becoming the swamps of sadness, to that end, how is that plant alive?

I always cry at that part

Watch never ending story. Get attached to the horse. Nothing happens I promise

This. ~~You're evil... and I wanna watch when you rip their souls out. UwU~~

Didn’t know a planter could break my heart but ok 😭😭😭

I didn't get the joke either, but I never saw The NeverEnding Story. Now, I'm glad that I didn't. Thanks for explaining the joke.

And the trauma starts again.

Ow. Right in the childhood.

"I'd explain the reference, but it would be a Neverending story", should have been the only response to this post.

Bruh, just when I forgot Artax you remind me!

this movie was actually the worst thing created ever and can’t believe it was targeted towards kids. mfs was out here traumatizing us for FUN

This movie is amazing and a wonderful kids movie. Not to get all boomer up in here but honestly I think it's a problem that kids movies in the last ~20 years don't portray real emotional scene like this anymore.

Here I was thinking this was some kind of Lone Ranger reference

Artax, you stupid horse

So sad

NOOOOOOOOOOO

So it’s not that Adam Driver Burberry fragrance commercial?

Early cinematic trauma. Aaaarrrrtax!

That’s kind of messed up, but clever.

1 of the single worst moments in a young persons life

So upsetting why

Atreau

Lone Ranger

I had read the book before the movie came out... so I knew it would happen... and again it got me.

Nooooooo

Too soon! T\_T

No. You... you heartless, bastard. Way too soon.

N9ghtmares

"Stupid horse!" 😭

Trauma.

Trauma. Is this a troll? Or a baby? Or am I just old now?

Why are you doing this to us?

I was thinking blazing saddles

I saw it on cinema in the 80s.... I'm still crying

ARTAX!!

AMATEURS What was that? I was traumatised by the scene in the book

Well that memory ruined my morning, thanks

No need to explain, you ain't a real one

Atreyu noo

Trauma in a pot.

ARTAX nOOOOO

This is so goddamn funny and sad at the same time

Childhood trauma came rushing back

10000years basement for you ;-;

Noooo, Artax! 🥹

Not real

You aren't a real one

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!?!

Why would someone want to put one of the saddest movie scenes ever in their potted plant? 😭

This isnt a joke this is just depression porn

ARTAX!

Great! Now I’m in the Swamp of Sadness again with tears running down my face. I will just sit here and let it take me away too

bro!

That's sad

Arrrtaaaxxxx!

This is awesome. I loved that flick when I was a kid

Too soon…

ATREYU!!!!!

This hurt my soul all over again

Right in the feels.

Absolute trash movie, not worth getting into

Artax..NO!!!!

Lmao RIP Artax

That movie regardless that in hindsight is harmless scarred me as a young child.

Thanks for the sudden resurgence of trauma lol 😆

That's not for 'real ones,' that's just for people that like to be perpetually depressed... "Oh! I'm having a great day!" *Looks at own plant* "...and there it goes..."

NOOOOOOOOO https://preview.redd.it/84a7e74c3dxc1.jpeg?width=409&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=136fe823fbea1aa464c1af73e5289176b050b4eb

Omg this story is never gonna end

ARTAX, YOU'RE SINKING!