Examples of this trope in Live-Action TV[]
- 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 panics.
- The Hands of Blue have a similar effect, at least on River, and they rapidly pick up this status with Jayne once he hears the effects of what they do to "witnesses."
- The Doctor in the new series of Doctor Who is referred to by even the Daleks as The Oncoming Storm. He is also known as the Last of the Time Lords, The Lonely God, The Trickster, The Phantom, and The Sainted Physician, and some languages translate his name to mean 'Warrior'. Some species, including living carnivorous shadow swarms, will run just at the mention of his name.
- At least part of this seems due to the Last Great Time War, the denizens of the universe coming to understand just how powerful the Time Lords could be. When there's a chance that the Time Lords might return to the universe in Series 7, half the universe pulls an Enemy Mine to bomb them out of existence.
- The Daleks, in turn, are treated by all who know them as the bogeymen of the Whoniverse. Even the Doctor, who's battled and defeated them uncountable times, always treats their arrival with a mixture of grim determination and just plain old fear. Best seen in the end of the first part of "The Stolen Earth". When the first broadcasts of "EX-TERM-IN-ATE! EX-TERM-IN-ATE!" reach Earth, the former companions and allies of the Doctor such as Sarah Jane, Martha Jones, and even Jack Harkness—some of the bravest people in the universe, one of whom is outright impossible to kill—are stunned into a state of tearful panic.
- In the post-Time War era of the universe, the Cybermen seems to have taken over the status as the Dreaded. Standard law is that if you can't instantly destroy a Cyberman, then destroy the planet you're standing on.
- Lex Luthor has evolved into this on Smallville. Simply knowing that he's out there and that he knows their secret identities has Clark, Oliver, and the rest of the Justice League shaking, and the possibility of his return is spoken of in tones usually reserved for The End of the World as We Know It. Not bad for a Badass Normal and (as of his last, Season 8 appearance) Evil Cripple.
- Season 10: Smallville's version of Darkseid. In fact, that's the whole point of him: as long as you have fear or doubt in your soul he can 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.
- The Borg Collective in various Star Trek series. Despite appearing rather infrequently in the series where they first appeared, their sheer implacability, utterly relentless nature, and single-minded goal to assimilate everyone and everything that they come across led to The Federation considering them, as Captain Picard puts in Star Trek: First Contact, "our most lethal enemy". Even Guinan is afraid of them, what with them having assimilated her home world. The suspense that builds up around their incursions into Federation space is particularly indicative of this. It's less so in Star Trek: Voyager, where Voyager encounters them so frequently without being in much danger that the Borg end up exhibiting Villain Decay.
- In the first season of TNG, the Ferengi were treated this way. It didn't last long.
- Kamen Rider Delta, initially.
- In Kamen Rider Kiva, Wataru develops into this after recovering from his Heroic BSOD, as demonstrated where he begins sends Fangires fleeing in terror simply by staring them down. Without transforming into Kiva.
- The Pirhana brothers, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, are so dreaded that when word gets out that they're out of prison, the totality of London's population scurries for safety.
- The main character in Burn Notice develops this kind of reputation over the course of his spy work before the series starts. One agent admits his agency always assumed "Michael Weston" was just a code name for a group.
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"I'm Michael Westen... yeah, that one." |
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- In one episode, the main characters play up one of their cover IDs this way in a Whole-Plot Reference to The Usual Suspects, mentioned above.
- Sylar from Heroes. When a gaggle of supervillains are released from their cells and have the chance to take revenge on Noah Bennett, the guy who locked them up, Noah only has to say one thing to scare them into teaming up with him: "Sylar's in the building."
- Bennett was pretty dreaded himself at first. He's a Badass Normal who used to work for The Company and was very good at it. Sylar is in fact the only thing more feared than "the man with the horn-rimmed glasses."
- Omar Little from The Wire. An absolutely Badass stick-up man who robs drug dealers for a living. The drug dealers generally see him as more of a force of nature. Even CHRIS AND SNOOP get shaken when they realize he's after them.
- By extension, Chris and Snoop also count.
- Brother Mouzone is possibly an even bigger one than all other mentioned. Even the thought of bringing this guy into help them scares the shit out of Stringer and Prop Joe.
- Theokoles, the Shadow of Death, from Spartacus: Blood and Sand. This giant, undefeated gladiator terrifies everybody when he's announced to be coming out of retirement. Everyone assumes that Spartacus and Crixus are doomed when they are announced as his opponents.
- From Dexter: When one of George King AKA 'The Skinner''s employees is brought in for questioning about a series of murders, he has a near panic-attack, and would rather go to jail than convict him, and for good reason.
- 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 badasses out there, but the scorecard says he is.
- In Fraggle Rock, a Poison Cackler is such a dangerous beast that simply discovering an unhatched Poison Cackler egg causes the Fraggles to evacuate until it hatches and leaves.