Video Games[]
- Deadeus:
- Deadeus causes everybody to shake in their boots. Being able to destroy the world with very little effort will do that.
- Everybody is scared of the prisoner – at least the ones who know about him. The Sons of Deadeus reveal that they had to take the Sacrificial Knife away from him, because they do not want him killing everybody in the village. When the boy swipes the knife, one of the cultists will express great fear that it might have ended up back in the hands of the prisoner.
- 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 call you out on your crimes, and the guards will always do their best even when its a lost cause.
- Eventually, you'll end up becoming this in Far Cry 2.
- Giygas of EarthBound is a physical manifestation of people's fear.
- .hack//GU: Haseo, the hero, is nicknamed "The Terror of Death". Most Player Killers he runs into throughout the game will invariably be terrified at the sight of him, and even some random normal players will react in fear upon passing him in the streets. It doesn't help that he styles his usual look after The Grim Reaper and wields a massive Sinister Scythe as his weapon of choice.
- Amusingly enough, Haseo becomes the Epitaph User of Skeith, the first Phase of the Wave from the first series of games, whose boss subtitle was "The Terror of Death".
- All the protagonists of the Ace Combat games eventually grow into this. Just from the PlayStation 2 titles: Mobius One is known as "The Grim Reaper"; the Wardog Squadron are the Demons of Razgriz; Cipher is the Demon Lord of the Round Table.
- A particularly illustrative instance from The Unsung War: When the Wardogs are ambushed over November City and 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 opposite effect; the members of Wardog 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.
- A particularly illustrative instance from The Unsung War: When the Wardogs are ambushed over November City and 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.
- The phrase "It's Lu Bu!" strikes fear into even the mightiest player! And every other general on the field... "Do not pursue Lu Bu" indeed.
- In Final Fantasy VII, 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 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 Iosa The Invincible.
- Master Chief of Halo is eventually referred to as a "demon" by The Covenant. You get that kind of reputation after massacring hundreds of Covenant forces and utterly destroying one of their most sacred (and seemingly indestructible) installations.
- The Primordial/Captive/ Precursor/Gravemind could possible be considered one. He's not really a publicly known figure, but every single person who does know of him has Oh Crap moments upon realizing he's loose.
- Pyramid Head is this to the other monsters in Silent Hill 2. It's so bad that if James equips PH's Great Knife, turns off his flashlight and drags it along, the signature scraping sound will cause enemies to flee.
- Luca Blight from Suikoden II, a genuinely terrifying combination of Complete Monster, Ax Crazy, and One-Man Army. To the point that even his own kingdom fears him and hardened warriors such as Viktor and Flik, who in the previous game faced down an Eldritch Abomination, don't even consider battling him unless they have an entire army on their side.
- Assassin's Creed: Altaïr is implied to be viewed this way in general, but it's definitely shown how much he freaks some of his targets out the further you progress into the game, to the point where one of them is so paranoid that he brutally slaughters a defenceless, elderly scholar simply because the man is dressed in white.
- Assassin's Creed II: When it comes to his enemies, Ezio inherits Altaïr's genes of terror. He's not just an assassin, he's the Assassin, and even in a city as huge as Venice, finding out that the Assassin's come to town makes all of the remaining Templars a little nervous. At this point, Ezio is barely into his twenties and only four years into his Roaring Rampage of Revenge... which lasts for twenty-three years. There's a reason that some trained killers run like hell as soon as they see him. If they see him. As an individual, he's quite possibly more feared than Altaïr ever was, because the Templars know that it's only one man doing all of this, they know why he's doing it, and they know that he is never going to stop until they're all dead or he is. And Ezio is really hard to kill.
- In the sequels this is downplayed...since most of Ezio's enemies are dead. The only one left from the first game in Ezio's story is the only one with the good sense to avoid picking a fight with Ezio. The rest are either too arrogant, too stupid, or just ignorant of Ezio's reputation.
- Assassin's Creed II: When it comes to his enemies, Ezio inherits Altaïr's genes of terror. He's not just an assassin, he's the Assassin, and even in a city as huge as Venice, finding out that the Assassin's come to town makes all of the remaining Templars a little nervous. At this point, Ezio is barely into his twenties and only four years into his Roaring Rampage of Revenge... which lasts for twenty-three years. There's a reason that some trained killers run like hell as soon as they see him. If they see him. As an individual, he's quite possibly more feared than Altaïr ever was, because the Templars know that it's only one man doing all of this, they know why he's doing it, and they know that he is never going to stop until they're all dead or he is. And Ezio is really hard to kill.
- Nemesis from Resident Evil.
- Metroid Prime uses its Pirate Logs to refer to Samus as "The Hunter." They are absolutely terrified of her, and will resort to all manner of desperate measures merely to slow her down - and for good reason. Pirate Command policy is to consider any unit sent to engage Samus to be assumed lost right out of the gate, and in the sequel, their Oh Crap reaction on finding out about Dark Samus and thus realizing there is another Hunter is priceless. "Truly, we are cursed."
- Judging by the Enemy Chatter, Commander Shepard has become one in Mass Effect 2, though his/her reputation was probably soiled by the Plotline Death. This explains why there are still Mooks suicidal enough to attack even after recognizing him/her and shrieking in terror.
- In the Arrival DLC, the ELITE Project troops swiftly realize how overmatched they are, as they're taking on Shepard by him/herself.
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Project Guard: Shepard is tearing us apart! |
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- Later on, a Project guard manages to trap Shepard in a maintenance area - for all of a few seconds.
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Williams: I've got Shepard sealed in the maintenance tunnels. S/He's not going anywhere. (Shepard comes around the corner) Shepard's out! GET ME SOME BACKUP! |
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- It's gotten to the point that the Reapers are doing everything they can think of to kill off Shepard, and have finally gone from taunting her/his insignificance to admitting their extreme annoyance.
- Shoting a soldier on foot with a giant beam meant to destroy dreadnaughts in a single hit sometimes is justified.
- The fact that no one questions the fact that Shepard is back from the dead when told tells you all you need to know about his/her status as The Dreaded and Living Legend: everyone, including the Reaper who arranged for the killing in the first place, assumes that of course death should only be a minor inconvenience to someone like that.
- Mass Effect 3 also gives you a moment of this, right after you take down a Reaper on Rannoch
- It's gotten to the point that the Reapers are doing everything they can think of to kill off Shepard, and have finally gone from taunting her/his insignificance to admitting their extreme annoyance.
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Destroyer: Shepard. |
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- The first time you encounter Cerberus troops in Mass Effect 3 one of them screams "Holy shit, it's Shepard!"
- Made more impressive that they're revealed to be heavily indoctrinated, having next to no free will by this point. The sheer sight of you showing up still manages to utterly terrify them.
- The first time you encounter Cerberus troops in Mass Effect 3 one of them screams "Holy shit, it's Shepard!"
- In Yggdra Unison, most people who are not Bronquian or didn't serve alongside Gulcasa at some point are scared shitless of him—and this reaction is fairly well-deserved. Being Unison, this is Played for Laughs—most notably in how Pamela tries to turn tail and run every time they meet, even when she's the one invading his land.
- Nathyrra in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark used to be one, before her Heel Face Turn.
- The Darkspawn of Dragon Age. Their numbers, sheer evil, hideous appearance, and the plague they carry are just some of the reasons ordinary people are terrified of them.
- The player character gradually becomes one of these as the game progresses, to the point where they can scare off attackers by identifying themselves, though it backfires once or twice, either with characters who try to collect the bounty on your head or who attack you out of sheer panic.
- The best example of this is in the Expansion pack, Awakening, where merely mentioning your name to a group of hostage takers will send several of them jumping off a cliff, rather than fight you.
- Hawke in Dragon Age 2, to a lesser degree, as the enemies are usually smaller groups that Hawke slaughters before they have a chance to shit themselves, but the Arishok certainly fears Hawke enough that the first move of his attempted conquest of Kirkwall is trying to neutralize him/her. An odd example too, since in Qunari culture fear and respect often go hand in hand.
- The player character gradually becomes one of these as the game progresses, to the point where they can scare off attackers by identifying themselves, though it backfires once or twice, either with characters who try to collect the bounty on your head or who attack you out of sheer panic.
- The Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Darksiders scare everyone. Heaven, Hell, and even their own superiors fear and respect their terrible power. The entire plot of the game takes place because nobody wants to cross all four of the Horsemen. In-game when Mooks encounter War their reaction is basically a Mass "Oh Crap" while they desperately charge you.
- 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 Gordon Freeman in the first game have been told and retold 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.
- F.E.A.R. 3 has The Creep. How bad is he? Alma is afraid of him. ALMA. For a good reason, too. It is the personification of the worst traits of her father, Harlan Wade.
- 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 Fucking 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, 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 realize who it's dealing with.
- Both subverted and justified with Valvatorez. Subverted in the fact that he is actually a very nice fellow to be around. Justified in the fact that he REALLY IS powerful enough to warrant that reputation. Infinitely more so in his Tyrant state.
- 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. Appropriate, given that he's the Lord of Terror.