The Dreaded: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A villain or [[Anti-Hero]] whose primary characteristic is the fear the other side has of them.

 

 

It is also possible for them to remain this trope after they come out of the shadows, and most of the heroic examples are not invisible; they're just so monumentally [[Badass]] that they generate the same level of fear in villains anyway. If a villain does keep this trope after coming out of the shadows, beware Villain Decay. The Borg from Star Trek are probably the single most prominent example of this trope later being emasculated, as mentioned below. Generally when it happens, it sucks.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Bleach]]'', strangely enough, it's the warm-hearted captain [[Team Mom|Retsu Unohana]] that has this effect on pretty much the entire soul reaper army. We've never seen exactly ''why'' this is so, so it remains a bit of a [[Running Gag]].

** [[All There in the Manual|Supplemental material]] has shown that she can be a nightmare if you ever dare speak ill of Squad Four. Also: she's the Captain of Squad Four - ''the '''only''' captain it's ever had''.

* Zebra from ''[[Toriko]]''. The entire world panics when he is released from prison. Just news of his release causes massive economic and social upheaval. And he hasn't even ''done'' anything yet.

** What he DID do to get him into prison was {{spoiler|Cause the extinction of 26 SPECIES. Said species were damaging the ecosystem, but still!}}

** Touma also has this effect to the magic side, to the point many magical organizations start sending assassins after him. All fail.

* [[Trigun|Vash the Stampede]] is well named, as whole townships have been known to evacuate at the rumor of his approach. He has defeated [[Mooks]] and resolved conflicts simply by announcing his presence. Not bad for a [[Technical Pacifist]] who just wants some donuts. (In the manga, it's not the man himself civilians are afraid of, but the [[Doom Magnet|terror and destruction that inevitably follow him]])

* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' this is a common reaction to finding out the title character was once Hitokiri Battousai.

* '''[[Memetic Mutation|"IT'S A]] [[Gundam]]!!!!"''' - inspiring this reaction in enemy [[Mooks]] since 1979.

** Other pirates of sufficient power can be this trope. The people of Fish-Man Island become terrified when they realize how close they are to experiencing the wrath of someone on Whitebeard's level of power. The marines of G5 (A Navy branch full of [[Jerkass]]' that love to torture pirates and refuse to obey headquarters) panic at seeing Trafalgar Law, a member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea who sent the Government 4 hundred hearts to join. Back in the East Blue, people are scared of the idea of pirates like Krieg and Arlong coming.

* {{spoiler|Seimei}} of ''[[Loveless]]'' is definitely the most feared of the series. Usually used with a pretty little topping of [[Oh Crap]]. What makes him even more creepy is that just about this entire trope applies to him. The [[Fearless Fool]] does indeed cry in fear, and [[The Pollyanna]] does indeed despair over [[The Stoic]] being defeated, who also lost his cool. In fact, his appearance alone isn't the ''only'' way he causes genuine fear - he uses words to, effectively, freak. People. Out.

* In ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', Kenshiro is known to most of his enemies as "the man with the seven scars", and mentioning this nickname is sometimes enough to make the mooks run in terror.

* [[Slayers|Lina Inverse]] the Dragon-Spooker. Pretty justified, considering the trail of destruction she leaves behind her and her [[Designated Hero|questionable motivations]].

* Yujiro Hanma from ''[[Baki the Grappler]]'' makes even strongest characters in the series poop their pants in fear. His presence alone has made polar bears and lions run away like puppies. The average human reaction to him ranges from wetting your pants in fear to instinctively punching yourself in the face so he won't do it himself.

 

* [[The Joker]] - just mentioning him to ''any'' superhero and villain in the DCU other than [[Batman]] (even to some of the most powerful villains and heroes in the DCU) instantly kills a conversation, and even supervillains keep healthy distance from him. As The Trickster said: "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories."

** There's a reason [[Batman]] has been called "The Scourge of all Evil" and "the most dangerous man on the planet." Much like [[The Joker]], Batman is able to kill any conversation among villains, even many [[Superman]] villains. You'd think he wouldn't be so dreaded seeing that [[Thou Shalt Not Kill|he never actually kills anyone]]. His solution to this is to merely point out that if he ''has'' killed people, no one would ever know. The Joker, unfortunately, sees through this to Batman's true nature quickly.

* One of the requirements to be part of the [[Green Lantern/Characters/Sinestro Corps|Sinestro Corps]] is that you need the ability to inspire great fear. They aren't kidding. Their ranks include a hulking drill instructor who happily eats those who fail, an [[Cold Sniper|emotionally numb]] crustacean who can snipe from ''[[Improbable Aiming Skills|three space sectors away]]'', an alien who kills parents and takes their children, and an insectoid [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[Energy Being]] who possessed the [[Green Lantern]]'s greatest hero. And again, ''a Sinestro Corps Ring tried to recruit Batman.''

* [[The Incredible Hulk]] scares the ''hell'' out of the rest of the [[Marvel Universe]]. The most powerful heroes - even knowing full well he's not evil, just misunderstood - take his arrival as seriously as that of someone like [[Doctor Doom]], if not more. Given what a rampaging Hulk can do, it's not without reason. He could get angry, you see. And you wouldn't like him when he's angry.

 

* In ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'', the [[Warrior Monk|Black Hand]] inspire nearly reflexive terror in GDI troops, thanks to a combination of their fanaticism, combat skill, enormous black [[Powered Armor]] that resists anything short of anti-tank weapons, and [[Kill It with Fire|flamethrowers.]]

* In ''[[Nobody Dies]]'', Zeruel is this to the other Angels, the people of NERV that know of him, and the readers on the forum. So much so that when he showed up in chapter 65 and finally started trashing Tokyo-3 at the end of chapter 68, the ''[[Rebuild of Evangelion|Rebuild]]'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R110lcX_hnw track] for him was cited.

* Much like the Joker from [[DC Comics]], the hideous monstrosity called Psyko terrifies even the other hardened psychopaths of [[Ultimate Sleepwalker|Earth-2706.]] Psyko can emit deadly, murderous insanity, which causes the inanimate objects it affects to take on a twisted, perverted life of their own under his control, not unlike what Sleepwalker does with his own [[Reality Warper|warp vision abilities]]. It's even worse when he affects other living creatures with them, as his victims suffer a brutal [[Mind Rape]] that forces them to continually experience [[Your Worst Nightmare|their worst nightmares]] over and over again while he [[People Puppets|controls their bodies]]. His first attack on New York caused him to spread mass insanity and death across the city, and Sleepwalker only managed to subdue him after a bloodbath of a fight from which the alien hero emerged more dead than alive. For the second go-around, he mentally enslaved a horde of his fellow supervillains and turned them loose on New York City, even as he spread even more madness and suffering than he did the first time.

* The ''[[Touhou]]'' fanfiction ''[[Imperfect Metamorphosis]]'' has both Yuuka Kazami and {{spoiler|the Shadow Youkai}}. The former is an impossibly [[Time Abyss|ancient]] and [[Person of Mass Destruction|powerful]] force of nature that even the local [[Reality Warper]] has trouble dealing with, with numerous characters [[Oh Crap|voiding themselves]] at the very mention of her name, a reputation that she very much earns. And while the latter is known only by a few, having a habit of leaving no survivors of its rampages, as basically the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of death and destruction those that do know of it have no desire to face it again.

** The rare physical appearance of Fate and Destiny tends to get lesser gods on edge.

** [[Word of God]] also says that if Josh hadn't been killed in that final battle, he would have grown up to enslave the rest of the world with his power.

 

* Rattlesnake Jake from ''[[Rango]]''. Even the [[Big Bad]]'s minions are deadly afraid when told to contact him.

* Darth Vader. Throughout the course of the three original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies he actually does very little. He begins ''A New Hope'' with an established reputation and kills several people, but proceeds to exercise a hands-off management style in ''The Empire Strikes Back'' and ''Return of the Jedi.'' The expanded universe goes to great lengths to establish his awesomeness by making him a more active and dynamic character.

** ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' shows well how feared he is: when they see him on Cloud City, Leia and Chewbacca (who is a two-meters tall mass of muscles capable of ripping arms from a droid and has ''never'' showed fear before) immediately get an [[Oh Crap]] face. Han try and shoot him, but after seeing he can deflect blaster bolts with his bare hands ''and'' take the blaster from him starts getting scared too...

* Hickey from ''[[Last Man Standing (film)|Last Man Standing]]'' is widely feared by the Doyle and Strozzi gangs for being a [[Psycho for Hire]].

* ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]'': Nearly every character treats the transformation from Bruce Banner to [[The Incredible Hulk]] as a threat comparable to that of a nuclear bomb.

 

* Nazgul in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' do this because of their nature. They just scare people, it's what they do. Pretty awesome fighters in their own right, but their main application is to frighten the other side until they're too scared to think straight any more. Sauron also scares the pants off opposing forces, by reputation this time. And the ghosts Aragorn leads to battle have this effect by both reputation and appearance.

** It's a facet of all undead, Nazgul included, in Tolkien's legendarium. Their only true power is the fear that radiates from them, typically driving most of their foes insensate so that they are easily cut down/dragged into a barrow/etc. This fear is specifically noted to be the fear of death itself, and as such elves tend to be immune to it seeing as how they don't die (even if 'killed' they just 'respawn' back in Valinor).

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' city of Ankh-Morpork, criminals consider Sergeant Detritus to be this. Justified since he carries as a hand weapon a [[Automatic Crossbows|crossbow]] that would [[BFG|put a bazooka to shame]] and has chronic trouble with Mister Safety Catch, and on top of this he has been known to [[Berserk Button|nail drug dealers to the wall by their ears]]. Apparently small riots can be cleared by shouting that Detritus is on his way.

** Also, Commander Sam Vimes. The criminal underworld is so afraid of him that when he leaves town on a diplomatic mission, the crime rate goes ''down''. Why? Because if things fall apart while he's gone, when he gets back, he will ''not'' be pleased. "And when Sam Vimes is unhappy, he tends to spread it around with a big shovel." It gets to the point that the Assassins' Guild in town won't even take assignments out on him—both because he spends his free time turning his house into a deathtrap for anyone trying to sneak in, but also because they're terrified of what would happen if anyone got close. (They do, however, send overconfident Assassins in training after him, with instructions to just get him in crossbow sights... [[Crowning Moment of Funny|as a lesson in humility.]])

** [[Never Mess with Granny|Granny Weatherwax]]. Trolls refer to her as "She Who Must Be Avoided." In Dwarfish her name is "Go Around the Other Side of the Mountain." So yeah.

* Most monsters from the ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'' have this effect on humans. Speaking of that, so do [[Eldritch Abomination]]s in general, but these particular ones drive you insane at the sight of them.

**Simon Ilyan as one of the directors of ImpSec is of course this.

 

* ''[[Game of Thrones]]'': The White Walkers.

* The Reavers from ''[[Firefly]]''. Of note is that when the otherwise unflappable Operative is confronted by them, he outright ''[[Oh Crap|panics]]''.

** Season 10: ''Smallville'''s version of [[Ultimate Evil|Darkseid]]. In fact, that's the whole point of him: as long as you have fear or doubt in your soul he can [[Demonic Possession|control you]].

* Guerrero from ''[[Human Target]]'' has managed to interrogate people just by introducing himself. Of course, being prime time they have to keep most of the stuff that got him the reputation off screen.

** In the first season of TNG, the Ferengi were treated this way. It didn't last long.

* [[Kamen Rider Faiz|Kamen Rider Delta]], initially.

* In ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'', Wataru develops into this after recovering from his [[Heroic BSOD]], as demonstrated where he begins sends [[Our Vampires Are Different|Fangires]] fleeing in terror simply by staring them down. '''Without''' transforming into Kiva.

* [[Grimm (TV)|Grimms]] are The Dreaded of the Wesen world. Whenever someone realizes Nick is a Grimm for the first time, they are terrified and often beg not to be killed. Monroe explains it: "''You're'' the monster under the bed! [...] You're not ''real!'' You're a scary story we tell our kids! Be good or a Grimm will come and cut your head off..."

** And like Harry Dresden or the Doctor, he's beginning to earn a reputation for himself one encounter at a time as people get wind of what he went up against and what the outcome was. He'd deny being one of the baddest [[badass]]es out there, but the scorecard says he is.

 

* Typhon in [[Greek Mythology]], who likely doubles as the [[Ur Example|original]] [[Hero-Killer]], storming Olympus by himself and driving the gods into hiding. Hades was this to the Greeks themselves; he's the yardstick by which terrifying creatures in myth (like Typhon) are compared to. Typhon is so bad that he was not only scarier than Hades, he actually frightened him.

* [[Snakes Are Evil|Jormungandr]] and ''especially'' [[Big Badass Wolf|Fenrir]] in [[Norse Mythology]]. When there's prophecies running around about how you're going to end the world you tend to get this.

**Odin himself. If you see an old man with an eyepatch walking around, mind yourself.

 

* In ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'', the Simbul used to throw Red Wizards into mindless panic just by appearing. Mostly because of her bad habit of killing them on sight. That, and being probably the most powerful magic user on Toril. Others don't run for cover, but still instantly sober up at a mention that she may or may not be involved—like {{spoiler|Cormyreans}} did in ''All Shadows Fled''.

* Pick a name from ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' and you'll find a few billion people ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|and xenos]]), at least, shitting their pants in fear from the mere thought of them. Maybe a few [[Robot War|'Crons]], a few [[Horde of Alien Locusts|'Nids]], some Dark Eldar or someone straight from the [[Negative Space Wedgie|Eye of Terror]], and even heroes of great renown find that they have to draw on every ounce of their resolve not to run away or die.

** The Necron Pariahs have this as their entire hat. In a certain area around them, almost any creature experiences crushing, debilitating dread. In a [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel, the crack Stormtrooper squad that had been shown to be far and away more cohesive, ruthless, and cunning than any Guard squad Cain had ever fought with falls completely apart in the presence of Necron Pariahs, gibbering and crying and so forth while the Pariahs casually slice them apart.

 

* This is how the [[Karma Meter]] works in ''Medieval: [[Total War]]'', with a Chivalry-Dread axis. Generals earn Dread points by fighting dishonorably, executing prisoners of war, or exterminating the populations of captured cities. On the strategic map such characters will reduce a settlement's growth and tax income, but increase public order. On the battlefield Dreaded generals reduce the morale of opposing forces, and a sufficiently infamous general can cause ''entire armies to rout simply by charging''. These characters often pick up appellations such as "the Tyrant," "the Wrathful," or "the Merciless."

* Someone in ''[[Fable]]'' or its sequel who is both famous and evil will cause non-combatants to run at the sight of you. Particularly if you start attacking, or if you've just been for a bit of town-burning previously. You'll never be totally feared though, some brave (and foolish) soul will summon up the courage to [[What the Hell, Hero?|call you out on your crimes]], and the guards will always do their best even when its a lost cause.

** A particularly illustrative instance from ''The Unsung War'': When the Wardogs are ambushed over November City and {{spoiler|Chopper}} crashes, the three remaining planes ''scare away'' a virtual airforce of enemy fighters without any kind of ground support and even before the first reinforcements get there.

*** A little bit more detail. The enemy fighters are at first ecstatic when they shoot down one of the famed "Demons of Razgriz", thinking that it will demoralize the remaining three. However, this quickly turns into absolute terror when they realize that it had the [[Oh Crap|opposite effect]]; the members of Wardog [[Tranquil Fury|go quiet, obviously trying to hold back tears, and begin effortlessly decimating the enemy forces.]] Over the radio, the enemy muses that they must really be fighting the Demons of Razgriz, the demons having taken over the pilot's bodies. Even Wardog's allies are freaked out.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', [[Big Bad|Sephiroth]] is spoken of with a combination of hate, reverence, and ''fear''; the suggestion of his presence is enough to cue an [[Oh Crap]] from the heroic characters, especially [[The Hero|Cloud]], who knows him best.

* The eponymous character in ''[[Iji]]''. As you progress through the game, the alien logs reveal many of their soldiers to be pants-wettingly terrified of the implacable "human anomaly", especially if you've been killing everything that moves. Also [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Iosa The Invincible.]]

* Bowser of ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' scares everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom who isn't named Mario, Luigi, or Peach. In ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' Bowser's presence in the party actually frightens away his former Mooks who have defected to Smithy. Yes, his mooks fear him more than they fear the living weapons factory from beyond the stars.

* By the time of ''[[Half-Life]] 2'', the feats of [[Badass Bookworm|Gordon]] [[One-Man Army|Freeman]] in the first game have been told and retold [[Shrouded in Myth|to such an extent]] that most of the planet is either in awe of him or intensely fears him, to the point where a mere ''glimpse'' of him in City 17 is enough to put the Combine on high alert.

* Play ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' right, and get the right perk(s), your character can ''become'' this for any one (or more) of the warring factions. The easiest group to do this with is the Powder Gangers when you attain the Villified Status, when one of them refers to you their personal "[[Grim Reaper|Grim]] [[Precision F-Strike|Fucking]] [[Grim Reaper|Reaper]]."

* In ''[[Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure]]'', Whirlwind's backstory mentions she went on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against the trolls who hunted both the species she's descended from. This earned her this trope among the forces of evil. Yes, [[Killer Rabbit|the dragon/unicorn hybrid whose main weapon are rainbows]] is The Dreaded.

* The Dragonborn in ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' is literally one to the Dragons, being a mortal who has all of their powers and the ability to devour their souls. Listen carefully during your first fight with one and you can hear it [[Oh Crap|realize]] who it's dealing with.

* Sepulchure in ''[[Artix Entertainment]]'' games fits this trope really well. In fact, anyone who isn't the hero or any of his/her allies or even King Alteon himself, or doesn't affilate with the Shadowscythe in any way is afraid of him. Even some of the Pactagonal Knights are scared shitless of him and his flying [[Dracolich]] fortress of Shadowfall.

* Diablo, the titular antagonist of the ''[[Diablo (series)|Diablo]]'' series. Appropriate, given that he's the Lord of Terror.

 

* [[Awesome McCoolname|Trace Legacy]] from ''[[Twokinds]]''.

* Kore in ''[[Goblins]]'' has a tendency to induce [[Oh Crap]] moments in those he meets, or even those who hear stories of him, particularly since [[Complete Monster|he has utterly no qualms about killing anyone]] [[Knight Templar|if he perceives them as evil,]] and is said to have [[One-Man Army|fought entire armies and won]].

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has a few people with fell enough reputation. Oglavia Spüdna (Gil's spy) turns out to have some book to her name - the title is open to wide interpretations, but [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20160330 a librarian's reaction] rates it very high (though [[Cheshire Cat Grin]] probably helps too).

 

* [[Implacable Man|The Meta]] from ''[[Red vs. Blue]]''. Given its utterly [[Determinator|ruthless demeanour]] in battle, the [[Grenade Launcher|massive gun]] it carries, and the [[Mega Manning|the variety of additional abilities it can avail of]] [[Powers as Programs|from the AIs that it captured]], it's understandable why the first instinct that many of the main characters who come across it is to run for the hills. It even manages to go toe-to-toe with [[Lightning Bruiser|Tex]], who's renowned in the series as being a [[Badass]] [[One-Man Army|One Woman Army]].

** I almost see it backwards. Tex finally shows some of that [[Informed Ability]] by being able to go toe-to-toe with frickin META.

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Lord Vyce]]. Interestingly, virtually no one except Vyce himself has heard of the far more dangerous Entity he was battling.

 

* Megatron is this in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. The Autobots regard him as a bogeyman who is reputed to eat protoforms - [[Eats Babies|baby Transformers]], basically. The other Decepticons are viewed this way as well. The Autobot leaders are so afraid of them that Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime {{spoiler|would rather deny the Decepticon presence on Earth than cause a panic among the populace.}}

* General Grievous in ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]''. His near-victory against five (albeit exhausted) Jedi established him as a fearsome enemy. Count Dooku actually taught Grievous to use fear as a weapon, telling him that without it he wouldn't stand a chance against the best of the Jedi.

* Breach from ''[[Generator Rex]]'' becomes this in "Lions and Lambs". Everyone who knows what Breach can do fears her. When Six notices the Providence troops are trembling, he asks Rex if they have any experience with Breach. Rex says that's the problem, shuddering as he remembers what Breach did to him.

* In ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'', Amon the leader of the Anti-bending Equalists is this, thanks to a combination of his creepy masked appearance, his even creepier minions, and {{spoiler|his ability to permanently remove a person's bending.}} Korra is ''terrified'' of him and sees him in her nightmares.

 

* Vlad the Impaler (otherwise known as Vlad Dracula) achieved this reputation with the Ottoman Turks. According to records of the day, not undeservedly so. For example, he once stopped a Turkish army that greatly outnumbered his by ambushing its vanguard (away from the rest of the force) and mounting them all on spikes—not their heads, the entire person, usually still alive and screaming (hence Vlad's nickname). The rest of the Turkish army was so appalled at the sight that it decided it didn't want to fight anymore. The man was so dreaded that upon Vlad's death, the Ottomans had his head hung from the walls of Constantinople to help convince people he was actually gone for good.

** Although interestingly, his own people (the Wallachians) were quite fond of him, because of the various social and economic reforms he made. Well, the Wallachians that were Christian anyway (and thus were loved by him and not a subject of his wrath).

* [[Josef Stalin]] made a science of this trope. After he took control of the Communist Party, the show trials he arranged to execute his political opponents filled his cronies with such dread that they were terrified of invoking the wrath of the ''Vozhd'' ("Führer" in German or "leader" in English) and would never dare try to depose him. Rumors abound that Stalin eventually died from being poisoned, which is pretty much the only way anyone could have stood against him.

** There is also some evidence that his servants heard him dying but didn't summon any doctors [[Bad Boss|for fear of what would happen to them if they were mistaken]], making this something of a [[Deconstruction]] of this trope.

** Saddam Hussein was similarly surrounded by a group of yes men who were so terrified of displeasing him that they told him he could beat the [[Yanks With Tanks|US armed forces]]. In 2003. He couldn't.

*** He was so amazingly feared that during his trial, when he wandered in all disheveled and malnutritioned, the jury STILL reeled in horror. It's actually a testament to their courage they managed to find him guilty, so frightened were they of reprisals and reputation both. You can find accounts of the trial as footnotes in such books as Thieves of Baghdad, or on occasional history channel programs about Saddam post-war. Even after being found guilty Saddam felt he still had full control of his country and DEMANDED he be presented with a firing squad like a true soldier, but as we know, he didn't quite get his final wish.

* The [[Nepali With Nasty Knives|Gurkhas]]. The Pashtun of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan believe that the Gurkhas are immortal demons, who eat the bodies of the men they kill.

* [[Mossad]]. They are great believers in [[Revenge|Lex Talionis]] and have offed several terrorists as well as kidnapping Eichmann and bringing him to be hanged. Plus they have a really cool name.

* Leaflet raids often use this device. For instance a favorite tract dropped over Japan in 1945 said,"[[War Is Hell|The companion to war is disease".]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fear Tropes]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreaded, The}}