"What Do They Fear?" Episode: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"So suddenly everyone's having this big share-fest around the fire. Like Beth went on and on about how her mortal fear is being covered by bugs. Harold's afraid of ninjas, even Heather admitted that she's afraid of sumo wrestlers!"''|'''Gwen,''' ''[[Total Drama Island]],'' "Phobia Factor"}}
An episode where the cast conspires to find out what one of them (usually, [[The Stoic]]) fears the most, setting up various scares. They often fail but the audience does learn the answer, greatly humanizing [[The Stoic]] in their eyes.
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See also [[I Know What You Fear]], [[Face Your Fears]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Batman]]'' examples:
** Subverted in the ''[[
** In the same storyline, Batman's biggest fear is revealed to be Jason Todd's death - [[My Greatest Failure|which already happened]]. Cue [[Unstoppable Rage]] at Joker.
** Really, this happens to ''everyone'', heroes and villains, who comes into contact with fear gas. Bats has also been beaten with memories of his parents' deaths (in both ''[[The Long Halloween]]'' and ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''); Catwoman had a good ol' wrestle with her relationship with Batman in ''Catwoman: When In Rome''; and the Riddler is shit-scared of the Joker. (But then, [[Complete Monster|so is half the DC universe]].)
** Incidentally, if [[Blackest Night]] is to be believed, the only thing that scares Scarecrow is Batman. Literally, the ''only'' thing - using his fear gas so much has made Scarecrow not just [[Acquired Poison Immunity|immune to its effects]] but to feeling fear period. Except, as stated, the fear of Batman, to which there is no immunity.
** A unique example of this happens in the [[Catwoman]] story "I'm Only Happy When it Rains", which occurred slightly before ''[[Batman: No Man's Land]]''. The Scarecrow (yep, him again) is using the chaos caused by the earthquake to test a new, more potent fear serum that only works on women, but all his "test subjects" die, literally scared to death by the experience.So he tries to capture a strong-willed subject, meaning Catwoman. However, Selina find the idea of facing her fears amusing, so she subdues his mooks and then ''uses the serum on herself''. However, facing her fear is not what she expected, as it's {{spoiler|dependency, the inability to function alone without help. The result is a unique character study on Catwoman that, like most stories like this, explores the darkest parts of her psyche.}}
** A crossover with [[Judge Dredd]] had Scarecrow using his fear gas on Judge Death. It seems Death is afraid of plushies.
* This summer's [[Captain America (comics)]]/Thor centric Marvel [[Crisis Crossover]] ''[[Fear Itself (Comic Book)|Fear Itself]]'' looks to be one of these. The main plot involves [[Big Bad Duumvirate|Red Skull find the hammer of and resurrecting the spirit of the long dead of the Norse fear god]]. In the first issue as soon as Odin becomes aware of this he immediately [[The Worf Effect|tells Thor and the rest of Asgardians to pack their bags because they're leaving earth while they're still alive.]] Also, solicitations for tie-ins seem to indicate that there will be a lot of stories featuring the heroes of the Marvel universe facing their deepest fears head on.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[Harry Potter and
** There is a [[Tear Jerker]] echo much closer to the end of the series where [[Mama Bear]] Molly Weasley confronts a boggart who turns into her biggest fear - the dead forms of her beloved husband, her children, and Harry. {{spoiler|This turns out to be the most heartbreaking bit of [[Foreshadowing]] in the entire series, since one of her children is killed by Voldemort's forces later.}}
== Live
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]
** The season four finale "Restless" had this element too, being
* One episode of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' during the Third Doctor's tenure, ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S8/E02 The Mind of Evil|The Mind of Evil]]'', had him encounter a mental parasite that projected its victim's worst fear. His was the horrific memory of seeing a world burst into flames (from the serial ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S7/E04 Inferno|Inferno]]''). Later, the Master fell victim to it - his worse fear is the Doctor laughing at him.
** The Eleventh Doctor also had an episode of this, ''The God Complex.'' His worst fear is not shown, but the audience can hear the Cloister Bell ringing; and when he sees it, he is not surprised.
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** They're shown their fears by entering the room which contains it. Rory, rather than being shown a room, sees {{spoiler|an exit}}. Make of that what you will.
* Whenever Barbas is the [[Monster of the Week|Demon Of The Week]] in ''[[Charmed]]'', this is the basis of the episode. Well, he ''is'' the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Demon of Fear]].
* ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'' does an episode in which [[Sixth Ranger]] Genta develops a crippling phobia of sushi after the [[Nightmare Fuel|events of the previous episode]]. Each of the other teammates confronts his or her own fear, some of which (Ryuunosuke's fear of cacti after sitting on one as a kid) are lamer than others (Takeru's fear of horror houses, which causes him to ''faint'').
* Several episodes of ''[[Maury]]'' have guests who fear really odd and crazy things, ranging from balloons, pickles, cotton balls, birds, mustard, peaches, and other things. Usually played at the expense of the guests where Maury brings out the stuff they fear and they go running scared for a while.
* Sort of used in the ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' handles this, with one group member claiming to have exactly what [[The Stoic]] fears in a box. After the story is over (and [[The Stoic]] is incredibly rattled), the box is opened to reveal his biggest fear: [[Nothing Is Scarier|nothing.]]
* ''[[Chuck]]'' vs. the Aisle of Terror.
* ''[[Life]]'' episode "Not for Nothing" turned out to be this.
* ''[[Smallville]]'''s "Scare" involved an industrial toxin that caused everyone to experience their worst fear before falling into a lethal coma. Lex's was fun.
== Video Games ==
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* The Halloween episode of ''[[Lilo & Stitch: The Series]]'' focused on a experiment that could shapeshift into a person's deepest fears. Of them we learn Stitch is afraid of water (due to his creation excluding buoyancy), Lilo is afraid of Clowns (this from a girl who loves monster movies by the way), Jumba afraid of his ex-wife, Mertle and her posse Lilo herself (Though that could've been the costume she was wearing at the moment) and perhaps the most shocking Nani having Lilo taken away from her.
* In the ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters]]'' episode "Fear Itself", the titular Ghostbusters encounter a Ghost who can manifest their greatest fears; Gothgirl Kylie is afraid of Maggots, Tech-Guy Roland is afraid of [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|his own machines turning against him]], Slacker Eduardo is afraid of Death, and gung-ho Paraplegic Garrett is [[Claustrophobia|claustrophobic]], though he refuses to admit it. Also Slimer is terrified of... broccoli.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fear Tropes]]
[[Category:Characterization Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:"What Do They Fear?" Episode]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:What Do They Fear Episode}}
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