History Main / StaringDownCthulhu

* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** The rare-but-powerful "Conqueror's Haki" grants the ability to do this to anyone who has it. With a sufficiently powerful stare, the user can cause giant monsters to back down in fear, and even cause those with weak constitutions to faint.
** Big Mom's YourSoulIsMine abilities work best if the victim is afraid of her. Jimbei's faith and conviction in Luffy was so strong that Big Mom was unable to take his soul, shocking everyone. Especially notable as Charlotte Moscato, one of her own ''children'', had tried to do the same, but got scared at the last minute and got his soul ripped out to fatal results.

* This is how the ''Manga/FairyTail'' team, battered and barely able to stand, defeats a still fresh and well-rested Sting in the last day of the Magic Games: they stare him down until he realizes beating them like this wouldn't help him in the slightest and surrenders.

And in the other corner, we see Bob, alone and defenseless, seconds away from complete and utter doom, standing with his eyes fixed directly on what's going to kill him. He stares straight ahead, unaffected, unafraid; at the hungry lions, at the EvilOverlord, even at that hideous, inhuman '''''[[EldritchAbomination thing]]'''''.

The seconds tick by. The forces of evil start to squirm a little bit. The lions don't move in for the kill. The villain stops his insane cackling. It... hesitates. The hero, through sheer badassery, has intimidated something which had an infinitely superior advantage over him.

* A literal instance of this trope occurs in Cthulhu's reveal trailer for ''{{VideoGame/Smite}}''. From [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus]] nonetheless.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Doctor, although [[TheDreaded dreaded]] by many of the universe's most dangerous beings, is by himself (or herself) just a HumanAlien who's not ''that'' physically dangerous in person and also [[BewareTheSillyOnes often seems too weird to be that dangerous]]. But then they'll turn on the DeathGlare and let evil ''know'' he means business, and the OhCrap moments will come. For instance, he once made [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead a swarm of living shadows]] retreat just by telling them to look him up, and made ''them'' blink.

** At the beginning of "Blackwater", Bronn stares down Sandor Clegane, who's intent is very much to murder him. He later ends up saving Clegane himself during the ensuing battle.

** Also demonstrated in ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies''. Every other villain and hero on earth is consumed by hunger when bitten. Reed Richards takes it like something that he needs to spread, Colonel America starts chowing down on government officials hidden in presidential bunkers, Thor's hammer abandons him, and Spider-Man's first meal as a zombie is Aunt May and Mary Jane. Doom? He calmly helps Ash from ''Evil Dead'' escape, only revealing he's been bitten and zombified just before Ash is teleported to another dimension. "Doom is no slave to hunger."