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There's something primal about saying "Doom". The deeper, more echoey, the better.
People also often forget that "doom" (related to "deem," i.e., "judge" or "estimate") comes from the idea in Old English and Norse mythology of an ultimate destiny, which need not necessarily be a bad one — you could re-translate the phrase "He met his doom" as "He met his fate". File that one away, fact fans! Another possible re-translation would be "He met his (ultimate) judgment.", as the Modern English word "doom" is derived from the Old English word "dōm" (pronounced like "dome"), meaning "judgment" or "law".
This trope is subverted and parodied easily and often, to the point that it has become an Undead Horse Trope.
Caution and clear diction must be applied when verbally calling this trope, lest Unfortunate Implications ensue.
Tropers are especially susceptible to this.
Trope names that have themselves met their doom[]
- Advancing Wall of Doom
- Amusement Park of Doom
- Artifact of Doom
- Butterfly of Doom
- Conveyor Belt O' Doom
- Comet of Doom
- Dandelion Of Doom
- Doomed Appointment
- Doomed by Canon
- Doomed Defeatist
- Doomed Hometown
- Doom It Yourself
- Doom Magnet
- Doomsayer
- Door of Doom
- Face Palm of Doom
- Falling Chandelier of Doom
- Ferris Wheel of Doom
- Finger-Poke of Doom
- Five Moves of Doom
- Fog of Doom
- For Doom the Bell Tolls
- Forehead of Doom
- Frying Pan of Doom
- Giant Eye of Doom
- Giant Hands of Doom
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom
- Gloved Fist of Doom
- Glowing Eyes of Doom
- High Collar of Doom
- Legion of Doom
- Lift of Doom
- Lottery of Doom
- Lurid Tales of Doom
- Messenger of Doom
- Operation Game of Doom
- Paper Fan of Doom
- Railroad Tracks of Doom
- Red Filter of Doom
- Rolling Pin of Doom
- Shadow of Impending Doom
- Shoulders of Doom
- Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom
- Sneeze of Doom
- Spikes of Doom
- Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom
- Temple of Doom
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom
- White Mask of Doom
- The World Is Always Doomed
Advertising[]
- This commercial. Just watch it, okay? "Take care of this package or we're... doomed!"
- DOOMED!!!
- ... doomed.
- DOOMED!!!
Anime & Manga[]
- Planet Doom from the Lion version of Voltron.
Card Games[]
- The card game Munchkin plays to this with the "... Of Doom!" card, which gives a bonus to any weapon item, and can (intentionally) lead to some interesting constructions: Cute Shoulder Dragon OF DOOM, Sword of Slaying Everything Except Squid OF DOOM, Rat on a Stick OF DOOM, etc.
- The "Duck of Doom" trap card. You should have known better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon.
- There is good satisfaction gained by adding ... of Doom! to The Other Ring. It sorta completes the circle.
- Munchkin Cthulhu has a card whose name is already the Sushi Knife of Doom. In a blender game, it could possibly become the Sushi Knife of Doom OF DOOM.
- Continuing with this trend, the in space version of this game has combinable gun cards, leading up to a "Bananafanafofaser Bobaser Dazer Maser Shmaser Raser... of DOOM", which actually would follow through with the 'of doom'ing as it would be insanely powerful.
- Magic: The Gathering features, as of this writing, a relatively modest ten cards with "Doom" in their name. This includes the Unhinged joke card Pointy Finger of Doom.
- Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game!s card game also features Doom a lot, even more so in the TCG version where "Death" tends to get replaced with "Doom".
Comics[]
- Dr. Doom (whose real name is Victor Von Doom, but who never actually finished his doctorate) of the Marvel Universe,
pictured above. He talks about himself in third person, too, which means he refers to himself as Doom. (Wouldn't you, if your name was Doom?) He was doing this before it became cool, and still does this even though it's long since become a Dead Horse Trope. Doom will change his ways for no one!- At one point in a Spider-Man cartoon, he replaced the U.N. Security Council with robots and was briefly "elected" as ruler of the world. Cue robot security council members chanting "DOOM! DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!..."
- Also from the Marvel Universe, the lead-up to one of their big Crisis Crossovers in the 1980s involved Surtur the fire giant forging Twilight, also called the Sword of Doom. For months before the series actually began readers saw him in various comics, striking the glowing sword blank on an anvil with a hammer that made a ringing "DOOM!" with each blow.
- Marvel Comics has the Elements of Doom. Basically, take the elements of the Periodic System, give them sentience and let them carry out the urge to Kill All Humans.
- An early issue of The Amazing Spider-Man has the title character remarking that he was always being "doomed" by every villain he met.
- Famously, Hellboy has his right hand of Doom. It's the literal Key to the Apocalypse.
- Doomsday, who is best known for killing Superman himself.
- An old British comics character named Disaster Des caused trouble wherever he went without meaning to. He had a habit of singing to himself, but instead of "dum dum dum" he always sang "doom, doom, doom".
- Johnny the Homicidal Maniac had its fair share of Dooms:
Satan:...they never know what they've been doomed to be. God I love that word. DOOM! |
- As Starr cracks up in Preacher (Comic Book) he decides he needs a much bigger gun (partly to make up for something he's lost) and begins posing with it, muttering "Doomcock..."
- There's the "Satanic Cheerleaders of Doom", the Fan Service minions of the Fan Service villaines latex in the Fan Service comic Three Little Kitten: Purr-fect Weapons, from the makers of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose.
- In Judge Dredd, during the "Judgement Day" arc, a movement arose in Mega-City One called the Doomsayers, who constantly ranted about how everyone was doomed, and doom had come to the city. Doom!
Fan Works[]
- The Brothers of Doom in With Strings Attached.
- In Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality, the marching song of the Chaos Legion is the Imperial March with words. The words are all "doom".
- The Doom Satellite from Calvin and Hobbes The Series.
Film[]
- C3P0 of Star Wars was quite fond of saying "We're doomed!" in the face of any small difficulty.
- A straighter example is in Revenge of the Sith where Grievous during his during his duel with Obi-Wan proclaims, after the cavalry arives, "Army of not, you must realize... you are DOOMED!"
- In The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price saying "Nine killed you, nine shall die and be returned your loss, nine times nine! Nine killed you, nine shall die, nine eternities in DOOM!"
- In the Hudson Brother's spoof movie Hysterical (1983), the village idiot-cum-prophet was prone to wander up to the heroes while riding his bicycle, pronouncing "You're DOOOOOMED!" in a loud and mournful tone.
- In The Color of Money, Vincent sits with his cased Balabushka watching Mozelle finish a match. Finally Mozelle walks over and says "What you got in there?" Vincent: "In here? (opens case, smirking even more) Doom."
- Cannibal! The Musical:
Ralph: [thrusts a pointing finger at the group] The Rocky Mountains. I gotta warn ya! You're doomed! Doomed! Doomed! [lowers the finger] You're doomed! [walks away] Doomed. [the man walks around the group. The miners follow his walk with their eyes] Turn back, while you still can. You're doomed. You're all doomed. |
- Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Gamebooks[]
- The Lone Wolf series and extended universe give us the Doomwolves, Doomstones, the Doomlands of Naaros in Southern Magnamund, and Book 4 is titled The Chasm of Doom (guest star: Barraka the Doomslayer).
Literature[]
- Lampshaded in Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, wherein Susan Sto Helit visits Death's home and expects it to "loom, and involve other words ending in 'oom,' like gloom and doom." She's in for a disappointment.
- Used frequently by Slartibartfast in Life, the Universe and Everything when describing the Krikkiters. On one occasion, it was an entire sentence.
- Aunt Ada Doom in Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, "There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm." The Parody of Gothic Horror.
- Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings, with the convention that the word keeps its original meaning of destiny, as in other names in the legendarium.
- And, of course, the Moria sequence with the "drums in the deep" going "doom, doom" — very effective.
- The actors in The Film of the Book seem to like saying "Doom" with all the weight they can.
- There is one half-serious reference to the One Ring as the "Ring of Doom". The Rankin/Bass animated version of Return of the King turned this reference into a song, showing that it wasn't a very serious adaptation.
- While more focused on in The Silmarillion, the mortality of mankind, first known as "The Gift of Men" soon became known as the "Doom of Men".
- The Silmarillion also has the Doom of Mandos (whose domain is sort of a combo of Death and Fate).
- Also, in case The Silmarillion was not confusing enough, in it the "Ring of Doom" refers to a completely unrelated meeting circle where the Valar hold council.
- Used memorably in The Horse and His Boy when Aslan confronts Rabadash: "The doom is nearer now. It is at the door; it has lifted the latch--"
- And of course, we have Thulsa Doom, the Evil Overlord's Evil Overlord from Conan the Barbarian, whose name comes from a King Kull story by Conan's creator Robert E. Howard, who was given to quite doomy and poetic descriptions.
- Unsurprisingly, a motif in H.P. Lovecraft's The Doom That Came to Sarnath, sometimes in all-caps:
And before he died, Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite with coarse shaky strokes the sign of DOOM. |
- The Wheel of Time: the Pit of Doom, underneath Shayol Ghul, a mountain. This is where the barrier that separates The Dark One from the world is at its thinnest.
- In A Song of Ice and Fire, repeated references are made to the Doom of Valyria. It's not clear what exactly this was, except that it was very hard on Valyria. Euron Crow's Eye claims to have "seen the Doom," so whatever-it-was may still be going on (although Euron shows every sign of being an inveterate liar). Given that Valyria seems to be the birthplace of the dragons, along with various references to smoke, fire, and poison, fans have speculated that the Doom was actually the eruption of one or more very large volcanoes.
- The Hendreck character from A Malady of Magicks and its sequels uses DOOM! as his catchphrase.
- John Moore's Heroics For Beginners uses this repeatedly, including the Castle of Doom (above the Village of Angst). The gift shop is shown to have the usual merchandise bearing the Castle of Doom logo.
- In The Third World War: The Untold Story, Minsk receives a "gigantic and hideous doom"... It gets nuked by four missiles.
- Patricia C. Wrede's Book of Enchantments has a story set in the Enchanted Forest revolving around the Frying Pan of Doom. It's actually a mighty weapon, but surprisingly few heroes want to go into battle with it.
- Averted by The Domesday Book, which is simply a land survey and census — the original meaning of "doom" is "accounting" or "reckoning," and a doomsday was the day a lord would take stock of his landholdings' production, whence the metaphorical sense of "day of reckoning, Last Judgment."
- A Malady of Magicks and it two sequels have the heavy axeman wielding a Club Of Doom. Either because of this or simply as a predisposition to the word, he is constantly saying "DOOM", "Doomed", and "of Doom!" (And, memorable, "Doom doom de-doom doom.")
- The word doom appears in the Qur'an hundreds of times.
- It appears in that particular translation hundreds of times; there will be more or less doom depending on the translator.
- Frank McCourt, in Angela's Ashes cynically observes at one point: "Doom. The favourite word of every priest in Limerick." Or something to that effect.
- In Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories" a chapter is entitled "Four Stories about the Deep Doom of Dark Doorways" but none of the stories are dark, nor do they involve deepness, doom or doorways.
- In Susan Kay's Phantom Erik is know as "The Angel of Doom" in Persia.
- The word is often used in The Inheritance Cycle, in references to prophecy and fate, such as, "There is a doom upon you," or "Now Eragon's doom would be decided." Given the context, it is unclear whether it means "anyone's ultimate fate" or "a dark fate in specific" but it is definitely tied to destiny and prophecy. Also, Angela the herbalist provides us with this in Eldest, when Eragon asks what she thinks of Nasuada's plans: "Mmm... she's doomed! You're doomed! They're all doomed! ... Notice I didn't specify what kind of doom, so matter what happens, I predicted it. How very wise of me."
- In the Star Trek Novel Verse, Fabian Stevens of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers is fond of the trope. He's named one of his engineering breakthroughs the "Magical Paint of Doom", using it to good effect both in the series proper and in the novel A Singular Destiny.
- The main antagonist in the first two Septimus Heap books is called DomDaniel.
Live Action TV[]
- The Myth Busters crew frequently refer to their especially dangerous rigs as the "[Whatever] of Doom" (occasionally slipping in an "... of Death" to break up the monotony).
- The good folks at Television Without Pity have dubbed the Princeton Plainsborough Teaching Hospital MRI machine from House the "MRI... of DOOM" (ellipses mandated), because every time it's used, something invariably goes wrong.
- Private Frazer of Dad's Army had a great way of saying this in a Scottish accent while rolling his eyes madly.
- The resident Cloudcuckoolander of Power Rangers Mystic Force once gave the line "I hate to be a doomsayer, but, uh,... DOOM! Doom, doom, doom."
- Z'ha'dum, the planet of the bad guys (the shadows) in Babylon 5. How is it pronounced? "Za-ha-DOOM", of course.
- And it's a Shout-Out to the Lord of the Rings' Khazad-dûm, pronounced similarly but with two consonants swapped.
- The "of Death" variant, like so many tropes is Lampshaded in Eureka:
- From one particular bit on The Daily Show: Roombas of doom! Doombas!
- Doctor Who seems to prefer the words "death" or "evil" to spice up the title of a story, but they've throw a few dooms in over the years. There's "Doomsday", Four to Doomsday, The Seeds of Doom and the episode of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve called "Bell of Doom".
- Doom Melon?
- In Orgazmo, where Idiot Hero Orgazmo is held by the Ass-Fuck Twins, Natsuko und Haruka, who are speaking in a cutesy japanese accent: "Dere is no escapin us, Ohgazmo." "Plepare to meet cha dum!" (---> "Prepare to meet your doom!").
- Anything remotely scary on Top Gear becomes the "_____ of Death" (Plunger of Death, Ball of Death, etc.)
- "Oh my God, what can it be? We're all DOOMED, WHO'S FLYING THIS THING?" [1]
- The Buffy episode "Doomed" dealt with two plots: a) Buffy and Riley's budding relationship may be doomed, and b) the earth may soon be doomed by a group of demons.
- The unproduced season finale of The Middleman was called The Doomsday Apocalypse Armaggedon.
Music[]
- Doom Metal and its subsequent subgenres.
- The apotheosis of this genre, at least in terms of naming tendencies, is the doom metal solo project Doom:Vs. The etymology of this (quite ridiculous) name goes as follows: he chose the Latin word "domus", meaning house, then respelt it as "doomus" (meaning "doom house", one supposes), then respelt that as doom:us (meaning that we, "us", are doomed) then replaced the "u" with a "v", simply because a "v" looked so much... doomier than a "u".
- Actually, in Roman times, "u" and "v" looked the same when written. And since the "-us" part of domus is the ending (and thus, the part changed depending on usage), the name could actually have a fair amount of research behind it.
- The apotheosis of this genre, at least in terms of naming tendencies, is the doom metal solo project Doom:Vs. The etymology of this (quite ridiculous) name goes as follows: he chose the Latin word "domus", meaning house, then respelt it as "doomus" (meaning "doom house", one supposes), then respelt that as doom:us (meaning that we, "us", are doomed) then replaced the "u" with a "v", simply because a "v" looked so much... doomier than a "u".
- Rammstein's drummer, Christoph "Doom" Schneider. He took his nickname from the game of the same name, but lamented in a 2010 interview that he would have chosen a different nickname if he'd known it was going to be on every record Rammstein had ever done.
Pro Wrestling[]
- WCW once had a tag team called Doom, who were a pair of Scary Black Men in black masks. They were eventually unmasked as Ron Simmons and Butch Reed, but were no less scary, no less black, and no less men. And no less doomy, of course.
- They also had the infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom" match, which many fans consider the promotion's shark-jumping moment.
- Then there's the Legion of Doom, who already had a team name (The Road Warriors), but inherited the Legion of Doom name from a stable they were part of that imploded. The name was just too doomy to lose.
- And of course is itself a Shout-Out to the Superfriends villains.
- And we're forgetting the Dungeon of Doom, led by Kevin Sullivan?
Tabletop Games[]
- The Dungeons & Dragons spell "Doom" may be a bit of a subversion — it presumably fills its (single) target with appropriate dread if it works, but as it's only a first-level cleric spell, that basically means "only" a -2 penalty to most d20 rolls in terms of mechanics.
- The 1st and 2nd-edition spell "Creeping Doom", on the other hand, was seventh-level and conjured a quite deadly swarm of venomous bugs.
- The Dungeons & Dragons module, "The Red Hand of Doom".
- GURPS Thaumatology has a ritual named Doom that lives up to its name. It first makes you wish you were dead. Then it kills you.
- The Marvel SAGA game system has players use cards to determine the success of their characters' actions instead of dice. The card suits are: Intelligence, Willpower, Strength, Agility, and Doom. (Doom cards do not go back into the discard pile after being played, but get saved out by the GM, who can use them later to force villainous NPCs' actions to succeed.)
- The Skaven in Warhammer - Doomrocket, Doomwheel, Doomglaive, Doomflayer... plus of course "Your doom has come, man-thing!". Ahem.
- Warhammer 40000 has Doomrider NA! NA! NA!.
- No! To the Warp with Doomrider! DOOMBREED, greatest of Khorne's Daemon Princes and Genghis Khan in he 41st Millennium! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
- Deadlands authors love their doomy dooms. There are Tables o'Doom, a Canyon o'Doom, the blood magic spell Doom, and lots of other uses.
Theater[]
- In Finian's Rainbow, Og the Leprechaun wails about "doom and gloom — d-o-o-m and gl-o-o-m!"
- The Golden Apple, a scientist sings a perky, cheerful number explaining how the human race is "Doomed, Doomed, Doomed."
Video Games[]
- The computer game series Doom, naturally.
- This led to the odd situation where, during the time period that the in-vogue First-Person Shooter was a version of Quake, Moral Guardians tended to complain about Doom, report that violent teenagers were fans of the game, etc., simply because "Doom" sounds scarier than "Quake".
- The name Doom was chosen as an homage to the Tom Cruise film The Color of Money, where "Doom" is the name of the pool cue used by Cruise's character. The developers hoped that their game would have a similar effect on the entire gaming industry as the cue stick "Doom" had in the movie. Which it did.
- In a Shout-Out from Spyro: Year of the Dragon, a pair of Agent 9 sidequests are missions played from a first-person perspective. The mission names? "You're Doomed!" and "You're Still Doomed!"
- In a possible homage to Invader Zim, Deekin sings "Doom doom dooooom" while travelling in the Underdark in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark expansion. (One wonders why there isn't an option for the PC to complain to Deekin about that)
- Because if you're likely to complain about it, you probably found Deekin annoying enough to get rid of him long before going to the Underdark.
- Artix Entertainment's online games often take Refuge in Audacity, and the Doom weapons in Dragonfable are no exception. The description for one is just "DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" and another is "So much DOOM, it hurts!"
- And when you used them, the special status effect is called "Engulfed by DOOM! Hahahaha!" and for a few turns the opponent takes a bit of damage. From DOOM!
- Interestingly, the axe version of the Doom weapon actually has a backstory instead of just randomly shouting DOOOOOOOOOOOM!
- Curiously, there isn't much difference between the Doom Weapons and their "purified" counterparts, the Destiny Weapons. The Destiny Weapons deal light damage as opposed to darkness. Hilariously enough, the Destiny Weapons also inflict a special status effect, called "Engulfed by Destiny! Hahahaha!". Yes, the "good" counterparts of the Doom Weapons have the same Evil Laugh!
- Artix Entertainment's Mechquest also has weapons capable of inflicting DOOM! on enemies. These are the trademark of the main enemy faction the Shadowscythe.
- Let's not forget Sepulchre the Doom Knight, the Big Bad of Dragonfable, or his chatty Doom Blade that might be the one really calling the shots.
- Oddly enough, despite the vast time gap between Mechquest and the other two games, and the five year time difference (and implied reality break) between Dragonfable and Adventurequest, the same NPC (the Mysterious Stranger) is connected to matters of DOOM! in all of the games.
- Although it might owe itself more to onomatopeia, there is a song in Pop'n Music 14 (part of a franchise that runs alongside Dance Dance Revolution and Konami's other music games) called "BBLLAASSTT!!". The associated character is an anthropomorphic drum set. Called DOOOOOM.
- The determinedly pessimistic pilot Doomsday from Wing Commander II.[2]
Doomsday: Now all we need is Maniac, so we can all die together. |
- The Warcraft III ultimate spell of the Pit Lord, which slowly kills the target and spawns a demon from the corpse? "Doom".
- The spell makes a return in World of Warcraft as the "Curse of Doom", but was nerfed and doesn't kill by default, reducing its doominess (Doomness?).
- Let us not forget that it's called this because the demon summoned is a DOOM GUARD. But if he's here, then who's guarding the doom?
- While we're at it, Thrall's weapon? The Doomhammer, the hammer wielded by the great Orgrimm Doomhammer.
- Props to the 'Pendulum of Doom.' Yes, a pendulum. Ok, it's an axe with a 4.0 speed, get over it. PENDULUUUUUUM.
- World of Warcraft has more items, creatures and spells with the word "Doom" in them than we could possibly count here. Let us only mention one more notable item: in the cult video "Leeroy Jenkins", the titular player's weapon was? The "Blackhand Doomsaw". In the occurence, Leeroy doomed his own guildmembers rather than enemies...
- But we can count them here.
- And who could forget Archimonde's timeless classic "Tremble mortals and despair, DOOM has come to this world!".
- Also, at one point in the fight, the members of the Twilight Counsil in the instance Bastion of Twilight in Cataclysm will yell: Behold your DOOM! with alot of emphesis on the word doom.
- In a parody of World of Warcraft in the comic strip FoxTrot, the main character (almost) gets the most powerful weapon in the game, "Doomulus Prime." An actual World of Warcraft weapon named Doomulus Prime was added to the game in homage, when the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened.
- Defense of the Ancients has a hero known as the Doom Bringer, who's ultimate spell is "Doom".
- The Sanctioned Psyker from the Warhammer 40000 RTS games Dawn of War: Winter Assault and Dark Crusade is famous for crying "Witness your dooooooom!!" when he attacks with the Lightning Arc ability.
- Altered Beast: while sound compression lead to infamous "WISE FWOM YOUW GWAVE!", the pre-Boss Battle "WELCOME TO YOUR DOOM!" is perfectly audible.
- The dreaded Barrel of Doom from Carnival Night Zone Act 2.
- The Doomlore Shrine in Guild Wars, which is the Town in the Charr Homelands.
- "The mustard of your doom!", perhaps?
- In Mario Party 2, when you land on a Bowser space, Bowser announces his entrance with "Doom doom doom DOOM!"
- Starting with the second game, the Master of Orion series has had the Doom Star, an Captain Ersatz of the Death Star. Like the Death Star it can turn planets into asteroid fields. Unlike the Death Star, you're never limited to just one at the time.
- In Knights of the Old Republic, Juhani's battlecry: "I vill be your DOOM!"
- Ketsui's True Final Boss is called "DOOM."
- The Tetris the Grand Master clone Heboris: Unofficial Expansion has "DEVIL-DOOM" mode, which replicates the Harder Than Hard "Shirase" mode from Tetris: The Grand Master 3.
- In the Soul Series: "This rod will be your doom!"
- From Crash Bandicoot, Doctor N. Gin loves this. "Adopt me... or I will put doom in you!!"
- Cespenar the imp in Baldur's Gate 2. His reaction to the artifact weapon "Hindo's Doom":
Cespenar: Hindo's Doom! Can you say it? Hindo's Dooooooooooooooooom... |
- Whenever there's a particularly large amount of complaining about a recent change on the City of Heroes official forums, veteran forumgoers cry DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! in mockery.
- Also, the indicators for whether an archvillain's super-resistance power is active have the Fan Nickname "Purple Triangles of Doom."
- Shoot'Em Up game Big Bang Mini names all of the bosses this way in the manual.
THE CRAZY 80'S PUNK WALRUS OF DOOOOOOM! |
- There are many one-use plants in Plants vs Zombies, mostly because they explode the instant they activate. The most powerful of these is called the Doom Shroom, complete with angry-looking red eyes. It has a huge blast radius and actually leaves a crater where it was planted.
- Additionally, the onomatopoeia for when they explode is... wait for it... "DOOM!"
- The main dungeon of Nethack is called the Dungeons of Doom.
- ADOM has the ring of doom, which is autocursing, almost worthless to shopkeepers, and gives you the "doomed" status when you put it on. Being doomed in this game should be taken seriously, as it gives a large negative modifier to most rolls and is very likely to get you killed.
- Angband has a type of cursed item called the Amulet of DOOM. It is the only item in the game which is capitalized like that.
- From Earthbound, the Plague Rat of DOOM!
- The World Ends With You gives us this memorable quote by Higashizawa - "The proof is in the pudding...the pudding of their DOOM!"
- In Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the final boss has a move with the Fan Nickname of the Red Rings of Death.
- Final Fantasy VIII has a summonable demonic Cool Train called the Doomtrain.
- There is also a Useless Useful Spell common throughout the series called simply "Doom".
- The Clue Finders' 3rd grade adventure involved entering a place called the Bottomless Pits of Doom.
- For some reason "Nintendo is always doomed!", even while it's having 60% market share of total video game sales...
- Blaz Blue has the character Mu-12, whose Leitmotif is titled "Sword of Doom".
- In Fable III, during "The Game", the PC gets attacked by
cutefire-breathing chicken of Doom - From Marvel vs. Capcom 3, we get this gem from Doctor Doom:
Doctor Doom:FAILURE IS BENEATH DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!. |
- Sam and Max Bright Side of the Moon: in order to get the Computer Obsolescence Prevention Society's magic trick, you have to help them test their ultimate AI in a game of TIC TAC DOOM!
- The SNES game Lufia and The Fortress of Doom
- You need the PLUNGER OF DOOM!
- All of Bowser's mini games in Mario Party 4 are called [something] of doom. Darts of Doom, Fruits of Doom, Balloon of Doom...
- The Sims Medieval includes top-tier gear like Doomplate, Doomsword, and Doomstaff.
- Kingdom of Loathing has the Dungeons of Doom, and the skill Disco Dance of Doom. And lots of things in the game are doomed.
"Its power would consume us, and we would be known as the Kee-Blurr Elves, doomed to forever bake the cookies of evil." |
Web Animation[]
- The 2009 Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon is called "Doomy Tales of the Macabre."
- And let's not forget the Evil Machine Thing O' Doom from The Demented Cartoon Movie.
Web Comics[]
- See this map and the Cave Of Doom in The Heroes of Middlecenter.
- In Brat-halla, during the Pantheon Games, Odin revealed a move that he'd learned from his kids: the Twirl Wedgie... of Doom.
- The Unspeakable Vault of Doom.
- In Questionable Content, the coffee shop that half the cast works at is called Coffee Of Doom!
- And also has a Toilet Of Doom!
- Which is also known as the Cave of Twenty/Forty Asses.
- And also has a Toilet Of Doom!
- An apropos Unsound Effect in Erfworld page 107.
- Played with in the "Radio Play" based on the Web Comic Girl Genius, Minor Heroes:
Squib: You've doomed us all... doomed us all... Doomed us all! |
- Also, the Doom Bell.
- The Doom Bell has been rung! DOOM!
- The title of this incredibly Genre Savvy and trope-savvy episode of Darths and Droids.
- In Neglected Mario Characters, the Anti-Villain Dr. Donez has a Secret Evil Lab of Doom. A variant example is the tendency of Fred the Spanyard's abilities to have the word "death" in their names, leading to the "Death Ray", "Ray of Death", "Spanyard Flight of Death", and the most extreme, the "Deathly Deathray of Deathly Deathness".
- In the sequence of parodying Lord of the Rings in Irregular Webcomic, the party must cross the bridge of Khazad-Doom. Khazad-Doom, not Khazad-dûm. Not quite subtle, hm?
Dwalin: We dwarves are nae a soobtle race. |
- In Goats, maniacal geneticist Gregor Mendel offers a scone. A scone of doom.
- Later, a villainry contest is won by a Delicate Lemon Custard of Doom.
- And Lampshaded:
Fineas: Your meal of doom is getting cold. |
Drizz'l: To put quite simply, you're doomed. |
- Another comic had the "heroes", while in a volcano, encounter a "Fire Dragon (possibly a guardian) of Doom (probably ours)".
- The DOOM Army
- El Goonish Shive loves this.
- Precocious: Muffins of doom.
- From Phil Likes Tacos:
Manager: Is there a problem here? |
- The Way of the Metagamer.
- played with in the webcomic Once Upon A Table
"everything's better when you add 'of doom' to the end" |
- Order of the Stick has a chapter titled "Interlude of Dooooooom!"
- Full Frontal Nerdity falls afoul of the power of the word "Doom". "Don't make me get the fire hose."
- In an early episode of Goblins, two low-level clerics assail each other with D&D spells. When the goblin cleric casts Doom, the dwarf cleric cringes to hear her invoke such a grim-sounding spell name, then Lampshades how poorly it lives up to its title (see "Tabletop Games", above).
- Squid Row Evil death cat of doom.
- Girls With Slingshots features a ghost kitty which likes to say dooom
Web Original[]
- The video podcast Tiki Bar TV features an episode where the guest star — Cally from Battlestar Galactica — plays an alien who must return to space, "or else... doom..." Cut to the unperturbed main characters, one of whom says lightly, "Doom is not a good thing."
- The book review blog Bookshelves of Doom.
- The Loading Ready Run's Trick or DOOM video involved an evil villain's series of Halloween schemes codenamed "Trick or DOOM". Most of them had nothing to do with neither tricks nor doom.
- Doom House, naturally. Among other things, the protagonist develops a habit of incredulously asking, "A Doom House?" to the point of total non-sequitur.
- Strong Bad of Homestar Runner once left the following message on Marzipan's answering machine:
"Hello, Marzipan! This is Professor Tor Coolguy! I was just calling to see if you'd be interested in PREPARING FOR YOUR DOOM!! Er...e... not really calling to see, uh... I shouldn't have really given you a choice, I mean, uh... you should just go ahead and prepare for your doom. Cause it's on its way, man. It's gonna be some doom." |
- Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation, faced with a Nazi Flak tower in Medal of Honor: Airborne (which he didn't realise was real until he received a barrage of e-mails informing him it was), referred to it as a "Doom Fortress".
- Boy, does Neopets have fun with this trope. First off there is the Lever of Doom that steals your neopoints if you pull it, as well as plenty of items. To give you a taste, there is the Evil Toy of DOOM, Ice Lolly of Doom, Immense Rubber Axe of Doom, and Nimmo of Doom (a book).
- From the Downfall parodies, Hitler's Pencil of Doom.
- An enemy in Gaia Onlines 2010 Halloween event (a near-universally-mourned stack of buttermilk pancakes that was left on the counter overnight, in case you were wondering) has an attack named "Wail of Syrupy Doom".
- Podiobook Death By Cliche has Convenient Plot Exposition Man, a one-shot NPC who gives the party the adventure hook for the main quest, before collapsing and apparently dying from the effort of screaming DOOOOOOOOOM! so much and so hard. His catchphrase is used as a Credits Gag, as well as a Running Gag on the remaining episodes' "Previously On...".
- Doom House. Enough said.
Western Animation[]
- "Doom" is Invader Zim's FAVORITE word. (Well ... second to his own name.)
- The Mega Doomer Humongous Mecha (... er, that needs to be plugged in) from Invader Zim. From the same show we have hyper dimwit robot GIR's "Doom Song", to wit, "Doom doom doom doom doom!" ad nauseam. In the pilot it is the crowner for both the show and the trope. In universe, it lasts for six. MONTHS. And, in fact, the show seems to be overly fond of the term doom in general, stuffing it in where-ever it fits, and even where it doesn't, such as the episode titles "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" and "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom." Not to mention Miss Bitters...
- The show had a total of 10 episode titles (including the non-produced ones) with the word 'doom' in it.
- A version of the Invader Zim theme song was recorded and released by a group called the Bass Kittens, who labeled it "The Impending Doom Mix".
- Jhonen Vasquez, the show's creator, has certain words he likes. Besides "doom", he uses "piggy", "weenies", and "taco". He is also fond of !s. Really, really fond of them.
- I dare you to play the Invader Zim Drinking game. Take a shot every time Doom is said. Your liver will die in minutes.
- So my liver is DOOMED?!?!?
- The Mega Doomer Humongous Mecha (... er, that needs to be plugged in) from Invader Zim. From the same show we have hyper dimwit robot GIR's "Doom Song", to wit, "Doom doom doom doom doom!" ad nauseam. In the pilot it is the crowner for both the show and the trope. In universe, it lasts for six. MONTHS. And, in fact, the show seems to be overly fond of the term doom in general, stuffing it in where-ever it fits, and even where it doesn't, such as the episode titles "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom" and "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom." Not to mention Miss Bitters...
- Paranoid and hypochondriac Stork says "We're doomed!" in almost every Storm Hawks episode. Slight variation in episode 29, "Stratosphere": "Our next stop will be the Cyclonian battle platform... of DOOM."
- And how could one forget those "doom-laden weather baloons of doom"?
- Bender from Futurama seemed fond of this. In one memorable example, after Earth is invaded by aliens, this exchange took place:
Professor Farnsworth: Dear Lord, they're back! |
- Not to mention "The Farnsworth Parabox", in which Bender and his glorious golden opposite hold each other and yell "Doooooomed!" in unison.
- The movie Bender's Big Score actually has a meter that measures levels of doom. Also replicates made by time-travel are exclusively refered to as "doomed".
- The meter uses a unit of measurement known as "millidooms." Apparently, emitting ten times the background level of milidooms is quite alarming.
Nibbler:Alas! Our Kitten-class attack ships were no match for their mighty chairs! The universe is doomed! Doomed!! |
- As was Chuckie Finster on Rugrats. Lampshaded when he met another:
Kid: This is very bad. Without the sacred water fountain, we are doomed! Doomed! Doomed I tell you! |
- The Earthworm Jim cartoon used this so often and in so many variants it was virtually a Couch Gag; "We're doomed! Doomed, I tell ya! Doomed, from the middle English meaning condemned to ruination or death! DOOOOOOOMED!" Variations such as "Doomed, in case you weren't paying attention!" and "Doomed, for those of you at home keeping score!" are almost certainly Lampshade Hanging.
- Fans of Transformers: Beast Wars referred to Rhinox's weapons "Chainguns of Doom". Transmetal Tarantulus's new gun was dubbed "Pizza Cutter of Doom".
- Several Episodes of Kim Possible make reference to "spinning tops of doom", which are... well, pretty scary for spinning tops, I guess, but also apparently an extremely desirable evil gadget.
- Somewhat ironic as they were invented by the main characters sidekick.
- The Batman: The Animated Series episode "Almost Got 'Im" had Villains Playing Poker and swapping stories. Cue the Penguin's story:
The Penguin: (narrating) Welcome, my ebon-winged adversary. You have taken the bait, just as I knew you would. Now, prepare to meet your end within my Aviary of Doom! |
- The 1982 Rankin/Bass Productions movie The Flight of Dragons includes a very nice doom speech by Ommadon, voiced by James Earl Jones, emphasized by Doomy Drums of Doom.
- The Legion of Doom! Dreaded foes of the Super Fools! The originals, accept no substitutes. Or Solomon Grundy will crush you!
- The League of Super Evil's Team Pet "Doomageddon".
- Doom Kitty from Ruby Gloom. Much like her owner Ruby, her name is less an indicator of actual doom than an excuse to pair them as "Gloom & Doom".
- The Brothers Flub had many Doom gags, usually in the character Fraz. One of the show's VHS collections is entitled "Doom Wears Funny Tights!".
- Avenger Penguins has as its main villain 'Caractacus P Doom', and thus many of the episode titles had the 'Of Doom' tag.
- All Yin Yang Yo villains love the word "doom", but Carl the Evil Coakroach uses it so much that it's downright aggravating.
- The people behind Star Wars: The Clone Wars are fond of this word, sprinkling it liberally through episode titles and sometimes even the opening of the episode narration.
- In the story-telling episode of Angry Beavers, the tendency for Large Ham villains to keep saying "doom" was parodied in the Animesque story portion of Treeflower.
Villain: "Prepare to meet your dome!" |
- In episode XVI of Samurai Jack.
Arena Master: "Welcome... to the Dome... of DOOM!" |
- Jimmy Two-Shoes: When he discovers the last challenge in a series he's trying to fail at is eating a cupcake in one minute, Beezy correctly states "I'm doooooomed!"
- "Dog, prepare to meet your doom!"
- In the "Death Punchies" episode of Regular Show, the martial art of Death Kwon-Do uses the 'Of Death' version. Moves include Death Jump, Death Punch of Death, and Pelvic Thrust of Death. The sensei at the Dojo even threatens to beat up Rigby if he's not gone by the time he counts to "3 of Death", then proceeds to count by adding "Of Death" to each of the numbers.
- Mucha Lucha once had a wrestlier named Doomien who is new to their school. During the match it turns out that Doomien is actually an evil demon.
- Fij Fij of Maryoku Yummy often proclaims that they are all doomed, even when the circumstances are rather benign.
- Phineas and Ferb
- From the episode, The Beak:
Phineas: (upon completing the construction of a very elaborate skate track) Here it is! The Phineas-and-Ferb-edge-of-insanity-kiss-your-butt-goodbye-gravity's-a-stone-cold-sucker-nightmare-rail-skate-track-obstacle-course of doom!
Phineas: Y'know, it occurs to me we could get hurt. I guess the "of doom" in the name should have tipped us off. |
- From the episode Phineas and Ferb Busters:
Baljeet: It is called "spinning tops." |
- And of course, the movie:
Doofensmirtz-2: Send them to their doom! |
Real Life[]
- One columnist for Computer Shopper magazine has dubbed his basement computer lab the "Basement of Doom and Pepsi-Cola".
- There is a professor at Wright State University named Dr. Travis Doom. On his webpage, he stated that one of the reasons he got his doctorate was just so he could be called Dr. Doom.
- Probably the archnemesis of Professor Steel? Seriously, the man was in charge of blowing up asteroids.
- The infamous hacker group the "Legion of Doom", again taking the name from Superfriends.
- The rapper (and sometime voice actor) Daniel Dumile, better known as MF DOOM. Inspired by Dr. Doom, he performs in a metal mask. He has also recorded as "Viktor Vaughn" among other aliases.
- The Russian parliament is called Duma, and pronounced, yes, you guessed it, DOOMER.
- The term "doomcock" was coined on a Live Journal group to refer to the Bigger Is Better in Bed trope in Fanfic — it itself is a reference to a character from Preacher (Comic Book) who uses big guns because he's literally Compensating for Something.
- Australian Wildlife was damn weird in the past, too. Case in point: Bullockornis planei, probably better known as the Demon Duck Of Doom. (Seriously, it's called that.)
- The Blue Screen of Death, an error screen on Windows operating systems that usually comes out of nowhere and forces you to shut down or restart your computer. Thankfully, it is much less common now than it was ten years ago, due to newer versions of Windows being far more stable.
- And simply rebooting instead of showing the old BSOD.
- Mac users have been known to refer to the "spinning pinwheel of doom," which serves much the same purpose as the blue screen of death.
- In French, a similar expression could be translated by "...of death". Sometimes elongated as "...of murderous death". Yeah...
- Out of sheer coincidence (or thanks to an editor with a werid sense of humor), the Romanian Dictionary of Ortography Orthoepy and Morphology (the newest rules of written and spoken Romanian language, released around 2005) is a large black book with DOOM written on it in red letters.
- In Sweden, it's not uncommon to find a centuries old "Church of Doom" in any given village, town or city. Technically just a local variant of the Latin Domus Dei, "God's house", but you take a look at the word Domkyrka and judge for yourself.
- Admit it. Now that you've read this page, you are going to walk around randomly saying "Dooooom!" all day. As am I.