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A form of Names to Run Away From Really Fast. But only really scary nouns count: Doom, hunter, death, cage; etc.
Doom[]
Sinister and striking enough to have its own page.
Comic Books[]
- Doctor Doom, of course.
- Doomsday from Superman, if his Obviously Evil appearance isn't enough.
Film[]
- Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: If you're a toon, Judge Doom is not someone you're going to want to hang around with. Or even if you're not, at that.
Music[]
- Rapper MF DOOM, whose persona is that of, well, a twisted genius hell bent on revenge against the industry that destroyed him. Possibly inspired by his real name Daniel Dumile, which is pronounced "Doom-i-lay".
Video Games[]
- Pokémon: Houndoom is a demonic-looking Dark/Fire canine.
- And how can we forget Evaccania Doom from Ketsui.
Western Animation[]
- Bonus points: Doomageddon of League of Super Evil combines doom and armageddon.
- Avenger Penguins: It's the end of the line for Caractacus Doom...
Hunter[]
In fact, the naming of someone as Hunter is apparently so iconic that some "tests" to determine the Mary Sue-ness of characters specifically have a point (or more!) for someone named Hunter. Jäger (German "hunter") likely counts.
Anime and Manga[]
- Bleach: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, with the triple whammy depending on how you spell his name.
Comic Books[]
- Also, Hunter Blackthorne is The Chessmaster from Noble Causes.
- "Hunter" is Robyn Canmore's alias in the Gargoyles spinoff comic book, Bad Guys.
Literature[]
- Hunter was also the name of the extremely intimidating Action Girl from Neverwhere.
Live-Action TV[]
- Subverted in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Squire of Gothos", with the meteorologist Karl Jaegar. Upon hearing his name, Trelane (a fanboy of Human military history) promptly squees: "Ein Deutsch Soldat, nein?"
Professional Wrestling[]
- Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a.k.a. Triple H, from WWE. Ironically, the name is a leftover from a previous gimmick as a snobby aristocrat, and was not originally given to the sledgehammer-wielding, water-spitting, all-ass-kicking-all-the-time Badass we know today.
Video Games[]
- Hunters in Marathon, Halo, Half Life, Resident Evil etc.
- Hunter-Killers in Spectre.
- Metal Gear Solid: Frank Jaeger, since it's derived from Jäger.
Web Comics[]
- Girl Genius: The Jägermonsters.
Western Animation[]
- Hunter Gathers from The Venture Brothers. Possibly parodied as it sounds like 'hunter/gatherer', which isn't that scary.
Real Life[]
- Hunter S. Thompson.
- Not to mention that 'jaeger' is also a certain ominous bird — a kleptoparasite that literally beats up other birds and steals their food.
Death (or "Deth")[]
A favored name component of villains and Evil Overlords, although such a name is usually not given to a character at birth, but acquired later once they've reached a certain level of "badassitude".
Anime and Manga[]
- Cancer Deathmask from Saint Seiya. The fact that his Zodiac Sign (Cancer) is also the name of a dreaded disease doesn't make him any more approachable.
- Not a person, but anything that goes by the name of Death Note is clearly not something to be trifled with.
- Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei gives us the eponymous teacher's older brother, Itoshiki Mikoto — better known as Zetsumei-sensei, or Dr. Death.
- Sekirei has Shiina who's name means "Death" for a very good reason despite his very sweet nature.
Comic Books[]
- DC villain Deathstroke: The Most Badass Name of All Time? As if that weren't enough, his full name is "Deathstroke The Terminator". His real name, Slade Wilson, isn't bad either, due to its similarity with the hard mineral slate.
- Judge Dredd: Sidney De'ath became known as Judge Death before he became an undead monstrosity.
- Marvel Comics' X-Men:
- Villainess Lady Deathstrike definitely qualifies.
- Death Adder. If the name isn't enough, he's a member of the Serpent Society.
- Deathbird, sister of Shi'ar empress Lilandra.
- Transformers Timelines gave the name Deathsaurus to a villain who was once the Big Bad of Transformers Victory.
Film[]
- Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Toht is an Anglicized spelling for the German word for "dead" ("tot").
- Todd, which sounds very much like German for "death", is a common name among badasses and horror characters (though in the latter, it's because they die).
- Dr. Totenkopf in Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow. Totenkopf is German for "skull" (but only when dead and by itself; literally a "dead's head").
- Star Wars: The Death Star.
Literature[]
- It is the middle name of detective Lord Peter Wimsey, although in his case it is pronounced "Deeth" (rhymes with "teeth"). The Wimsey books also include a psychotic neurologist named Sir Julian Freke.
- The Discworld novels, despite featuring Death Himself as a prominent good guy, had a villain named Edward d'Eath (no relation) in Men At Arms.
- There's also a De'Ath in Gormenghast.
- In Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, Édouard de Gex takes the alias Edmund de Ath after he fakes his death. Given how many people he ends up killing or causing the death of, it's quite symbolic.
- Patricia A. McKillip's Riddle of the Stars trilogy features a man named Deth whose true allegiance is ambiguous, but eventually turns out to be a good guy.
- Arawn-Death-Lord of Annuvin, from the Prydain Chronicles. Apparently Death-Lord itself is a title, as he usurped it from a previous Death-Lord (who wants it back).
- Death Eaters in Harry Potter. To a lesser extent Voldemort himself (though his name is basically misspelled French for Fly From Death or Lord "I'm terrified of dying" basically).
Live Action Television[]
- Deathgaia from Kankyou Choujin Ecogainder.
- Parodied in That Mitchell and Webb Look with Professor Death, a man who attracts military attention due to his invention of the Giant Death Ray — which turns out to be the world's first laser bar code reader.
Tabletop Games[]
- Warhammer 40000:
- Death Korps of Krieg.
- Deathwatch.
- Deathwing.
- Death Guard.
- Death Company.
- Deathskulls.
- And these are just the more notable organizations or groups with 'death' in their names. There are tons of less known ones like Death Mongers, Death Knights, Death Spectres and so on. Warhammer 40K also has weapons (like Deathstrike Missile, Deathspinner or Deathwind Missile Launcher), vehicles (Death Wheel or Deathstrike Missile Launcher for aforementioned Deathstrike Missile), occupations (Death Jester or Death Cult Assassin), ships (Agonising Death) and locales (Hive Death Mire (conveniently located on planet Armageddon near the River Insane) who fit this trope. And lets not forget the multitude of Deathworlds in the Imperium.
Video Games[]
- Dracula's right hand man "Death" in the Castlevania series; like the Discworld example he is the actual Grim Reaper but unlike that example he is definitely evil.
- Satirical example: Death Spank.
- Final Fantasy V: ExDeath. He might be a tree (specifically, a tree with countless evil spirits sealed within, but a tree nonetheless), but cross him, and you'll find yourself on a one-way trip to THE VOID.
- Battle Fantasia has, as its Final Boss, a monstrous suit of Animated Armor known as Deathbringer.
- .hack has Skeith, entitled "the Terror of Death". In G.U., Haseo bears the same title during his PKK days.
- Reaper from Devil Kings. His weapon, surprisingly enough, is a Sinister Scythe.
- Darkdeath Evilman, the Big Bad of Z.H.P.: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman.
- Thanatos from Resident Evil Outbreak is named after the Greek god of death.
- There's also Thanatos in Secret of Mana, who is generally considered by far one of the most evil villains in the series.
- F-Zero: Deathborn. You race him inside of a volcano. Or hell. Or something.
- Deathwing from World of Warcraft. Also Lady Deathwhisper.
Web Original[]
- Dr_Death from Neopets is a subversion. Eliv Thade, not so much.
- The Speculative Dinosaur Project has the penguins of DEATH!! (capitalization is actually part of the name.)
Western Animation[]
- An episode of the cartoon Mad Jack the Pirate featured a well-suited man called "Mr. D'eath". Jack remarks that his name sounds French until seeing the man upon which he realises the man is, in fact, Death.
- Metalocalypse: Dethklok is all about this. Nathan Explosion, William Murderface, and Toki Wartooth all fit (and those are their birth names). Everyone that attends a Dethklok concert is required to sign a pain waiver.
- The Deathgleaner from The Future Is Wild.
Real Life[]
- Exception — De'Ath (not pronounced like you'd expect) was apparently a real English aristocratic name. Inspired Terry Pratchett for Edward d'Eath.
- The Totenkopf--German for dead man's head, or Death's head--is used as an insignia for many military units worldwide. Historically, it is probably most commonly associated with the German military. It's most notorious use, of corse, was the unit which takes its name from the symbol, the SS-Totenkopfverbände: The "Death's-Head Units" of the Schutzstaffel which was responsible for administrating Nazi death camps.
- The Death Cap, Amanita phalloides, which contains the same deadly poison as the Destroying Angel, and is said to have caused more deaths than any other mushroom species.
- Death camas.
Pain[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Naruto villain Pain, who destroyed Konoha Village.
Film[]
- Major Payne, featuring Damon Wayans as a Badass Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Also Howard Payne, villain of Speed.
- Kung Pow! Enter the Fist: Master Pain. Then he changes his name to Betty. It's one of those movies.
- Pain is the name of one of Hades's servants from Hercules.
Literature[]
- Payne in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series is Vishous' fraternal twin sister. She's a warrior and shares her brother's resentment for their mother.
- Harry Potter: Whip out your Spanish dictionary and you get Dolores Umbridge.
Video Games[]
- Max Payne, Anti-Hero and One-Man Army. Considering the Xtremely Kool X in his first name, the name's a double whammy ... If you mess with him, you will experience pain to the max.
- Then there's Paine from Final Fantasy X 2.
- The Lady of Pain, ruler of Sigil, from Planescape.
- The Pain from Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater.
- Doom: Pain Elemental — like the manual says: "What a name. And what a guy."
- Inverted with Winston Payne from the Ace Attorney series, whose name is a play on "winced in pain". But he is actually the least intimidating adversary of the series: He's the one who's usually wincing.
Web Comics[]
- Master Paine from Girl Genius. He is a good guy, but looks pretty scary.
Real Life[]
- Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet that started the American War of Independence.
- Odd real-life example: One of John Wilkes Booth's henchmen, Lewis Powell — a slow-witted, borderline Ax Crazy brute who had been assigned with killing the Secretary of State — traveled under the alias "Lewis Paine".
Blight[]
Film[]
- Honourable mention must go to the commander of the Bounty, who is exactly one crossed t short of this name, and would have (allegedly) more than lived up to it.
Video Games[]
- Suikoden II: Luca Blight.
Western Animation[]
- For far less intimidating versions, Captain Planet and the Planeteers's hottie villain Dr. Babs Blight (whose good sister is a member of the fluffy and safe naming trope, having been named Bambi).
- Batman Beyond: 'And behold, I shall be a Blight upon the land, and all I touch, shall wither and die!'
Blaze[]
A common, if generic, name for fire-type characters.
Comic Books[]
- Johnny Blaze of Ghost Rider.
Folklore and Mythology[]
- Merlin's mentor was named Blaise.
Video Games[]
- Blaze of Mortal Kombat.
- Blaze Fielding from Streets of Rage, though, is a heroine. In SOR 2 she gained the ability to shoot fireballs from her palm as a special move.
- Later Sega had a character named "Blaze the Cat" (Sonic the Hedgehog). Her powers are the same.
Jade[]
When a woman has this name, the chances of four things increase incrementally. One, she's Asian. Two, she's gorgeous. Three, she is an excellent fighter. Four, any combination of those three. When a man has that name, on the other hand, we really don't know what to think.
Comic Books[]
- DC Comics has two Jades, but only one qualifies: Jade Nguyen.
Literature[]
- Mara Jade from Star Wars Expanded Universe — red haired, green eyed assassin for the Emperor (and later wife to Luke Skywalker).
- Jadis, the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia.
Live Action TV[]
- Jade West of Victorious.
Video Games[]
- Jade from Mortal Kombat. Though she's black in the game, she was Asian in The Movie.
Western Animation[]
- Jackie Chan Adventures. She was too young to be "gorgeous" and that also meant her usefulness in a fight was debatable, though she was shown to be able to take down anyone her own size, and occasionally larger foes.
- Jezebel Jade from the original Jonny Quest. Beautiful, tough and smart, wouldn't charge her friends for favors...too much.
Savage[]
Comic Books[]
- One major villain in The DC Universe is named Vandal Savage. His daughter, named Scandal, is an angel compared to him, and she's still a ruthless Ax Crazy mercenary.
Western Animation[]
- Speaking of Savage, Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 will introduce a character named Savage Oppress, who happens to be Darth Maul's brother. Oh Crap...
Real Life[]
- Adam Savage from Myth Busters, on the other hand, is someone to run with. Chances are, he's either running away from something about to blow up, or towards something he just blew up (in which case you get to see cool wreckage).
Ravager[]
Film[]
- The tyrannosaurs in Peter Jackson's King Kong are classified as Vastatosaurus rex, meaning "Ravager-lizard king."
Tabletop Games[]
- The Dark Eldar Ravager in Warhammer 40000. Though, since the Dark Eldar have the fastest units in the game, running is useless.
Video Games[]
- That One Bonus Boss from Jade Empire.
- The name of the best halberd, possibly the best weapon in the game of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, as well as a fairly nasty demon you fight at one point.
- The name of planet-life-force-eating Dark Lord Darth Nihilus' flagship in Knights of the Old Republic. There also a mentor-turned-evil with the first name Saul, as in the Old-Testament King; see "Conquerors", above. (Incidentally, Saul met his doom at a place called Endor.)
- City of Heroes has Rularuu the Ravager, a godlike entity whose aspects also tend to have Names to Run Away From.
Plague[]
Literature[]
- Star Wars: Darth Plagueis.
Video Games[]
- Plague/Prague in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Changed to Petrine in English).
- Las Plagas in Resident Evil 4.
Vader[]
"Father" in Dutch, and also sounds like "invader".
Film[]
- Star Wars: You know who.
Professional Wrestling[]
- Pro wrestler Vader (known as Big Van Vader in Japan), who is similarly no one to be trifled with.
Hell[]
Anime and Manga[]
- The main villain of Mazinger Z was Doctor Hell. Somehow neither that, the Evil Laugh or the creepy purple skin were enough for people to figure out he was evil until it was too late.
- In Shin Mazinger, on the other hand, everyone was able to figure him out rather quickly, even before the purple skin.
Comic Books[]
- Hellboy.
- Anton Hellgate, recurring villain in Marvel's Ghost Rider comics during the 90's.
- Hellhound, used by two DC villains. The second bought the rights to the name.
Film[]
- Hell Tanner from Damnation Alley.
- Sam Hell (Rowdy Roddy Piper) in the B-classic Hell Comes To Frogtown.
Literature[]
- Possibly an allusion: Dr. Abraham van Helsing from Dracula. The anime Hellsing added an extra L, just to be clear.
- Nymeria from A Song of Ice and Fire picks up the nickname Hellbitch when she becomes alpha of a whole bunch of wolfpacks.
Live Action Television[]
- Abassador Hell from the original Kamen Rider.
Video Games[]
- Grom Hellscream from Warcraft II and III, and his son Garrosh in World of Warcraft.
Real Life[]
- Ur Example: Hel, Norse goddess[1] of the dead and the underworld, lent her name to Hell.
Grave[]
Comic Books[]
- Zebediah Killgrave from above becomes a twofer, so you know he's bad news (of course, Luke Cage beat the tar out of him last we saw of him).
- And from the DC side of things, we have Lex Luthor's assistant, Mercy Graves (who has no mercy).
- Also, One Hundred Bullets' Agent Graves.
Film[]
- Gustav Graves in Die Another Day.
MMORPGs[]
- Svala Sorrowgrave from World of Warcraft. Even though she's a relatively easy boss in a dungeon.
Video Games[]
- Beyond the Grave from Gungrave, who is an unstoppable zombie killing machine. The instruction booklet of the original game also says Grave is often called "Death" by his enemies.
- The Halo series has the Gravemind.
- League of Legends has, for a while now, Malcolm Graves. He's a shotgun-toting conman who was betrayed by a fellow conman who he'd made an arrangement with. One of his skills in the game is to fire a cone of three large bullets... but his gun only has two, straight, barrels... This troper has heard the crazy awesome, if impossible, explanation that he spits the third bullet from his mouth without anyone noticing Doesn't explain why the skill is cone-shaped, but eh. Not the gunman you want to meet in a dark alleyway, that's for sure.
Western Animation[]
- There was a truant officer named "Shallowgrave" on The Fairly Odd Parents.
Bane[]
Comic Books[]
Film[]
- Bane from The Matrix is not actually a bad guy until he gets possessed by Smith, at which point he becomes one.
Literature[]
- There's also Darth Bane from Star Wars. Not only was he a Sith, but he tricked the leader of the Sith into wiping out the rest of the order, including himself (that is to say, the leader of the Sith).
- The Bane, a gigantic Evil Albino rat from The Underland Chronicles.
- Harry Potter: the centaur Bane, like most of the rest of his herd, sees no reason to show humans any mercy.
Tabletop Games[]
- Bane from the Forgotten Realms setting and 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, the god of war, conquest and fear.
- Warhammer 40000: The Baneblade. Also, in the video game Dawn of War 2, there is a whole mission in which you have to actually run away from one of those monsters.
Video Games[]
- Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Ultimate Hellbane.
Real Life[]
- House Speaker John Boehner (baner).
Dark[]
Perhaps crossing into colours, 'Dark' in just about any usage. Examples are probably far too numerous to individually list here.
Anime and Manga[]
- Subversion: Dark of D.N.Angel, while a thief and a bit smug, works with the best of motivations. Then again, Evil Counterpart Krad plays it straight as can be.
Comic Books[]
Fan Fiction[]
- Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami has Dark Yagami himself.
Film[]
- Parodied with Mr. Furious in Mystery Men, who tries to give his secret identity as Phoenix Dark, among other variations. It doesn't work, and he finally concedes that his real name is Roy.
Video Games[]
- Dark Man from Mega Man 5, and the good guy Darkman.
- Solomon Dark, the Big Bad of Solomon's Keep.
Western Animation[]
- To the extent that, upon seeing the first episode of 80s cartoon Skeleton Warriors and hearing a character say "How can you think Baron Dark is our enemy?", one has to laugh.
Cinder[]
Unless it's a reference to Cinderella.
Video Games[]
- Cinder, of Killer Instinct fame.
- Cynder from the Legend Of Spyro Trilogy. Though she only has the matching personality when she was evil, after her Heel Face Turn she's quite nice.
Fury[]
Comic Books[]
Literature[]
- J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series has a character named Phury. In the series, he is the dark, evil Zsadist's twin brother.
Mythology[]
- The Furies, Hades's minions from Classical Mythology.
Video Games[]
- Bryan Fury from Tekken.
Tear[]
Video Games[]
- Surprising subversion in Chrono Trigger: Lucca Ashtear is a heroine, though it might relate to her advancement of technology at the cost of safety precautions.
Gore:[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Emperor Gore from Getter Robo.
Film[]
- Lt. Col. Kilgore from Apocalypse Now. Part Colonel Badass part not, but has a twofer name.
MMORPGs[]
- Teron Gorefiend from Warcraft II and World of Warcraft. Also, Razorgore the Untamed from World of Warcraft.
- Gwen from Guild Wars, going down in Charr history as Gwen the Goremonger.
Video Games[]
- Combat android Fulgore from Killer Instinct.
Dread[]
Comic Books[]
- As well as the mutation of the name in Judge Dredd.
Literature[]
- As in John "Dread" Wulgaru of Otherland — Ax Crazy, Serial Killer, Psycho for Hire, Complete Monster at your service.
Chaos[]
Literature[]
- Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
- Discworld: Ronald Soak, eternal milkman and Fifth Horseman of the Apocralypse (he left before they got famous). Originally named Kaos.
Mythology and Religion[]
- Chaos, the void before the earth appeared, from Classical Mythology.
Video Games[]
- The One-Winged Angel of Garland from Final Fantasy I who also reappears as the ultimate Big Bad in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
- There's also Argosax the Choas in Devil May Cry 2.
- Chaos from Sonic Adventure (especially in his/its One-Winged Angel form).
- For a double example of this, you've got the villain called KAOS (yes, all caps) in Donkey Kong Country 3 (and Donkey Kong Land 3). K name, and Chaos. And the level it's first found in is called 'KAOS Karnage', which has got to be a name to run from even faster.
Despair[]
Comic Books[]
- The Despair from The Sandman (two of 'em, to be exact), who initiated the chain reaction that led Superman to Earth.
- Marvel Comics has recurring villain D'Spayre, a dream-demon.
Fan Fiction[]
- One of the main antagonists of Christian Humber Reloaded.
Video Games[]
- The Despair Embodied of Devil May Cry 2, the One-Winged Angel and Bishonen Line (with a touch of Viewer Gender Confusion and Ambiguous Gender) of the above Argosax the Chaos and perhaps the only real challenge in the game.
- Also, there's D'Sparil, the Big Bad of Heretic.
Agony[]
Video Games[]
- Lord Agony from Locks Quest. Their most powerful archineer was named Agonius and they didn't expect him to create a robot army?
Other[]
Anime and Manga[]
- Fullmetal Alchemist: EVERY homunculus. Come on, they're called after the seven deadly sins. How bad can you get?
- Subverted in Darker Than Black: "Havoc" is definitely a run away name, but she's actually The Atoner. It fit before her De-Power, though.
- Blood Plus Corpse Corps, anyone? Although by the time you get to the end, you'd run away from the Chevaliers.
- Eureka Seven: As if Anemone's mecha didn't already cue you in with it's black paint job, lots and lots of eyes, and frantic, slasher movie-esque theme song that it's something you should stay far, far away from, there's the fact that it's named the END.
Comic Books[]
- Hero For Hire: Luke Cage, Power Man. He was so cool that Nicholas Coppola changed his own last name to match his.
- Psyko from the Marvel Comics Sleepwalker series. He's a Serial Killer and Mind Rapist who likes to drive everyone around him insane literally just by looking at them, try to manipulate them into committing murder, and is more or less a Complete Monster.
- Atrocitus, perhaps the only Green Lantern villain who can give Sinestro a run for his money in the evil name department. It's appropriate, since he's literally a space demon.
- The Violator from Spawn.
Fanfic[]
- Holocaust and Necrosis from Three of Heart, One of Blood. Necrosis causes any living object he touches to decompose, cell by cell. Doryn from the same series is an in-universe example: his name is Zuzenai for 'essence of terror'.
- In the Pony POV Series, this seems to be the natural naming scheme for the Draconequi. The ones named thus far were Discord, Strife, Pandemonium, Destruction (also goes by Disaster), Anarchy Entropy, and Havoc. However, Discord and Destruction are the only ones who are actively destructive, and of the two, Discord is the only one who is truly evil.
- Torment, from the Spyro Madness Saga. Cynder's Super-Powered Evil Side and a Manipulative Bitch who loves to reak carnage just because she thinks it's funny.
Film[]
- Scanners: Vale.
- The villain (played by Bela Lugosi) of the 1932 horror movie White Zombie is called "Murder Legendre." So much for subtlety.
- Sheriff Freak in Troll 2.
- The Rancor in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Literature[]
- General Woundwort from Watership Down; it's a plant (virtually all rabbits in the book are named after plants), but it contains "wound". Also, "General" as a title.
- Fear Street, with the nearby Fear Forest and Fear Lake. All of which are named after the Fear family. Plus the town is called Shadyside, which is at least gloomy by itself.
- Invoked in Artemis Fowl by LEP Officer Trouble Kelp, who chose his first name during his coming-of-age ceremony.
- Mistborn has the Omnicidal Maniac Ruin. Also from Brandon Sanderson, in The Stormlight Archive we have Odium. Both are Shards of Adolnasium, cosmic concepts personified.
- The Enemy in the Doctor Who quasi-spinoff Faction Paradox, so-called because giving it a real name would only make you underestimate the sheer scope of its power. Also arguably something there's no point running from unless you have a handy universe stored away.
- Oh, and the Homeworld. Compassion too, come to think of it, and Antipathy, and... just about all the timeships, really. Then there's the Grandfather. Faction Paradox likes to do this a lot, is what we're saying.
- Dr Grief from Point Blanc.
Live-Action TV[]
- Doctor Who has Omega, whose name is the last letter in the Greek alphabet, thus implying "the end". The trope is also parodied in the episode Closing Time when Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All is the name a three month old baby wants people to call him by. His actual name is Alfie.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki: Kamen Rider Ouja's fusion Advent Beast, Genocider. It's name comes from Genocide, as in wiping out an entire race or species. And it's every bit as dangerous as its name implies it to be, it has a BLACK HOLE IN ITS CHEST!
Music[]
- Sir Nose D'Voidofunk, Star Child's unfunky nemesis in the George Clinton Parliament universe.
Toys[]
- Obscure bad-ass synonym version: Ruination, the gestalt form of the Decepticon Commandos from Transformers.
Video Games[]
- The last boss in Smash Bros Brawl would be mentioned, but his name is a rather... taboo.
- The Nightmare, from Metroid. An extremely creepy-looking cyborg monster that can manipulate gravity and shoot lasers all over the place, and if you blow its faceplate off (which looks bad enough on its own), its actual face is just... eurgh. The Psycho Strings that play in its theme song in Other M do not help matters.
- From Neopets, we have the Hopeless Boss Fight known as Oblivion. He may just be the Ultimate Evil of Neopia!
- Oblivion, the Eldritch Abomination in the Turok series and Big Bad of the third game.
- Most monsters in the original Quake: Scrag, Shambler, Fiend, Vore, Spawn, etc...
- Abyss, the Big Bad of Marvel vs. Capcom 2; also the name of the Big Bad in Soul Calibur III.
- Scumocide/Genocide in Captain Commando.
- Any Servant from Fate Stay Night, but especially Berserker.
- The big bad of Mass Effect, Sovereign, has a name halfway between noun and title, and boy, is it an Entity To Avoid Like The Plague. Same with Sov's boss, Harbinger, and his boss, the Catalyst.
- Juggernauts (described in a terminal as "the big floaty thing that kicks our asses") in Marathon.
- Queen Cadavra from Bug!!, a fat, evil, obnoxious black widow spider queen.
- In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations: Violetta/Viola Cadaverini.
Web Comics[]
- Subverted in this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal strip.
Western Animation[]
- Vendetta and her assistant Grudge in Making Fiends.
- Rampage — immortal, murderous, psychopathic Predacon from Beast Wars that feeds on fear and likes to go on, well, a rampage.
- South Park: Chef doesn’t know what Mecha-Streisand is, but he says it doesn’t sound good. Spoiler: It’s not.
- Nightmare Moon.
- Discord.
Real Life[]
- In which case, there's the real-life Mick Jagger — a bad-ass rocker if ever there was one. (The Rolling Stones, in their early days, made a point of not being nice guys like The Beatles.)
- Nick Cave, as well as a few of his bandmates: Conway Savage, Roland Wolf, Hugo Race, Tracy Pew. Their music is quite often very scary.
- Any of several warships bearing the name HMS Terror, but especially this one.
- ↑ Strictly speaking, it must have been her Anglo-Saxon counterpart.