The Dreaded

They should have fled.

"Keaton always said, 'I don't believe in God, but I'm afraid of Him.' Well, I do believe in God... and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Söze."

— Verbal Kint, The Usual Suspects

A villain or Anti-Hero whose primary characteristic is the fear the other side has of them.

To be the Dreaded, a character has to be far and away the most feared person in the story. These are people who make you quail not because of anything they are doing at that moment, but simply because you know who they are and what they're capable of... and sometimes the latter part is optional. Maybe this character has a reputation as a Hero Killer; a person who kills the other side's strongest and noblest supporters. Maybe they use fear as a magical effect which triggers panic in others. Maybe they've done so many horrible things that nobody ever wants to speak of them again. Maybe they are simply so mind-breakingly horrible even the strongest of hearts falter. But the defining trait of the Dreaded is that they are feared. Probably has a scary name, unless they use a really scary alias instead. If their ability in combat lives up to their reputation, then the only choice one has when facing them may be to Run or Die. When/if the Dreaded character dies, their death will almost certainly be followed by much rejoicing...if they're actually dead, that is.

One of the character's biggest advantages is how the terror they inspire in their opponents undermines the foes' ability and willingness to fight. If they end up fighting someone who is not afraid of them, the Dreaded's opponent might actually be able to fight them more evenly.

Although there are exceptions, (particularly on the other side of the fence) a key characteristic of this trope tends to be invisibility. In general, characters—villains, in particular—who conform to this trope will not be seen directly the first few times they are mentioned. The show will tend to work on building up their perceived threat in the minds of the audience: a dark, shadowy something that's out there somewhere, but you don't know where, who or what they are, or even whether or not they can be killed, at least at first. As such, it usually involves acceptable forms of Character Shilling. It is possible for them to remain this trope after they come out of the shadows, but if they do not then beware Villain Decay.

Additionally there is a heroic equivalent called the Terror Hero, when there is a hero so renowned that the enemy would rather flee than possibly encounter them. They tend to be anti-heroes of some kind though (ranging from grades 2-4), due to audiences seldom associating dread as an emotion a pure hero inspires. Some criminals also tend to go for this in order to prevent anyone from informing on them.

Note that it isn't the audience's reaction to the Dreaded that matters, but the other characters' reactions to the Dreaded. Other characters think this person is pure Nightmare Fuel, whether they deserve this reputation or not.

See also Mook Horror Show; when The Hero is the dreaded to his enemies, this is a common way of demonstrating it. For instances that mix this trope with Eviler than Thou, see Horrifying the Horror. Not to be confused with characters who are merely dreaded, although both tropes may apply to the same character. Compare/contrast Respected by the Respected, where a character is defined by the respect other respected characters have for them. See Supernatural Fear Inducer for when a character can literally induce dread. See Hope Crusher where a character excels at snuffing out hope and/or spreading despair. Extreme villainous version of this character is a Complete Monster.

---

Examples subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
  • The DCU
  • Marvel Universe
• Fan Works
• Films — Live-Action
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Tabletop Games
• Video Games
• Webcomics
• Web Original
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• One Seattle Mariners commercial portrayed Ken Griffey Jr. as being so terrifying that pitchers who had to face him ended up in therapy.
• In Where's the Beef? ads, Clara has become a dreaded figure among the competing restaurants, who hurriedly rush to close the drive-thru on sight of her.

Animation

• Mechamato: Sumorai is seen as the most dangerous of the robotic prisoners. With a reputation of having destroyed a whole military base along with its battalion of robot soldiers before being captured and held in the lowest level of the space prison, all the bad robots fear him. Subverted, he was reprogrammed for domestic use after work as a military robot had diminished, and he destroyed the base by complete accident in a cooking mishap. His actions throughout episode 13 are to protect Oyen-san, his Loyal Animal Companion, including keeping the facade of being intimidating.

Art

• Beast Fables: Ixandyr the Sea Lord was a Mosasaurus merman who conquered many merfolk settlements and unified them into an empire. Many warriors surrendered when his forces arrived; the only person who dared to fight him was Tyrant King Thunder.

Audio Plays

• Big Finish Doctor Who:
  • Zagreus. Even Death herself is frightened when she's suddenly humming his song, without any idea where it came from.
    Zagreus sits inside your head,
    Zagreus lives among the dead,
    Zagreus sees you in your bed,
    And eats you when you're sleeping.
  • The Dalek Time Controller is treated like this by the 8th Doctor, who considers them the most dangerous Dalek of all.
  • Then there are the Eminence, a Fog of Doom from the end of time who use the Breath of Forever to turn people into Zombies. They are so dangerous 8 is willing to work with the Dalek Time Controller against them, despite the Time Lords trying to use them against the Daleks.
• Played for laughs in The Thrilling Adventure Hour; Frank and Sadie Doyle fear only one thing, and that is the bumblebee that got into their apartment through an open window. Whenever it is spoken of or remembered it is with horror and terror.

Fairy Tales

• "The Soldier And Death": The soldier is able to strike fear into any demon, as well as Death himself. Unfortunately, this comes back to bite him when Death refuses to take him out of fear and the demons deny him access to Hell (as well as being too sinful to be allowed into Heaven) when he grows tired of living.

Films — Animation

• The Bad Guys (2022):
  • The titular Bad Guys are this to the entire city of Los Angeles. A Caper Crew consisting of five skilled but dangerous predators, their mere presence in public space causes people to panic and flee. In the opening sequence, an entire city block devolves into chaos when Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake cross the street.
  • The Crimson Paw is a legend in the criminal world and, among the police and citizens, is even more infamous and feared than the Bad Guys. They're described as the best thief in the world after stealing a legendary diamond twice (once for profit, once for fun), and later disappeared without ever being identified or caught.
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns:
  • As he used to do in his Glory Days, a big strategy that Batman employs for his return is to terrify criminals and Mutants who have so far been enjoying a free reign of mayhem in Gotham.
  • Selina Kyle is absolutely terrified when the Joker appears in front on her.
• The Horned King from The Black Cauldron: is ruthless and hideous, so all of his minions and everyone that sees the Horned King up close is almost paralyzed with fear. Considering he sought to turn all life into undead minions, so he can rule over them as a Physical God, it is not hard to see why.
• Played completely straight with Chakal from The Book of Life, but also parodied with a Running Gag where the same child announces that him and/or his bandits are coming to others, usually by bursting through a door and yelling.
• Mor'du from Brave. The giant Demon Bear has become the local boogeyman, and everyone is afraid of bears because of him by proxy.
• In A Bug's Life, the ants live in fear of the grasshoppers, who in turn are all afraid of their leader Hopper. However, everyone, including Hopper, is terrified of birds.
• Cats Don't Dance: Humans and animals alike fear Max, Darla Dimple's manservant, greatly, and for good reason. He's a horrifying cross between Frankenstein's monster and King Kong.
• Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters has Godzilla himself, especially after it's revealed that the 50-meter individual is not the original individual. Queue the OG Godzilla, now over 300 meters tall, bursting from a mountain. Keep in mind that when the original Godzilla was a 50-meter baby, he destroyed continents with his power. Godzilla: The Planet Eater features an even bigger bad in Ghidorah, the eponymous Planet eater: an eldritch energy being from another plane of reality that's been pulling the strings behind the trilogy for a long time and is now sizing up Earth as a meal.
• Night Furies from How to Train Your Dragon. Some vikings do not believe they exist, but those that do dread the idea of encountering one. They outrank nearly every other dragon in speed, strength, intelligence, etc. despite its size and they blend in with the dark. No one has ever encountered one and lived to tell the tale. Even the dragon manual says that should one ever encounter a Night Fury, they should "hide and pray that it does not find [them]", and this is a book that tells you that dragons that spit acid, turn you inside out and roar so loud that your ears explode should be "killed on sight."
  Hiccup: This thing never steals food, never shows itself and... never misses.
• Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney) is feared by just about everybody in Paris, particularly the Roma population.
• Shere Khan from The Jungle Book (1967). Nearly everyone is scared of him, and the rest are Too Dumb to Live. He's stripped of this status in the sequel, what with his humiliation at the hands of Mowgli, and goes full-blown Knight of Cerebus trying to get it back.
• Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, a rogue kung fu master so scary that an entire prison was built specifically to hold him. When he escapes from said prison, everyone in the Valley is afraid of him, including his former master and The Chosen One.
• The Land Before Time: Sharptooth, especially in the very first movie. The very word frightens any other dinosaur who hears it.
• The Pebble and the Penguin is one of the rare works that portrays Orcas as extremely dangerous predators, and they have some very effective buildup. Prior to their appearance, we see Drake, the monstrous Leopard Seal, and even the narrator mentioning that humans are worse than leopard seals. And Rocko, being the tough penguin that he is, isn't too afraid of them either, teaching Hubie how to fight them back. Until he brings up the killer whales, who mentions that they are much worse than the seal, being twice as big, twice as mean, and they always hunt in groups. He goes into despair the moment the Orcas show up, and they very quickly prove to be the most terrifying and dangerous presence in the entire movie, almost comparable to Sharptooth. Hubie even abandons the titular pebble that he risked his life to protect just to survive against the killer whales.
• Monstro from Pinocchio is known throughout the village and is famous for swallowing whole ships; even the mere mention of his name is enough to send other sea creatures fleeing.
• In Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, Abu Hassan is feared by the village he plunders. Even inanimate objects come to life to hide from him.
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: The Wolf becomes this to Puss after thoroughly trouncing him in their first fight. After that, Puss flees at the mere sight of him whenever he shows up again, at one point even having an outright panic attack in the process. It gets even worse when the Wolf reveals himself to be Death, come to claim Puss' final life.
• Rattlesnake Jake from Rango. Even the Big Bad's minions are deadly afraid when told to contact him.
• Ratatouille: Ego's taste buds are so hard to please that even Gusteau, Rémy's indirect mentor, couldn't do so. Ego is so infamously picky in Paris that if he announces his intentions to visit a restaurant, it's treated like the death knell of said restaurant's rating since absolutely no one has been able to satisfy him.
• The Sea Beast:
  • The Red Bluster is the largest and most feared of all the sea beasts, able to take out a ship with its massive horn with little difficulty. However, it's actually a Gentle Giant that won't hurt a soul unless provoked.
  • Gwen Batterbie the sea witch, a reclusive old woman with a talent for poisons and deadly weapons. It's said that her wares come with a steep, non-monetary cost, so the Code of the Hunters forbids turning to her.
• An example that lives up to the hype, The Secret of NIMH features The Great Owl. He is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, a gigantic barn owl made even bigger by being introduced relative the protagonist, a small field mouse.
• Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Her mere presence strikes fear in the hearts of everyone present, the queen fears her enough to call her "your excellency" to avoid offending her and the palace guards back down from their order to capture her simply because she raised her hands and commanded them to stand back.
  • Maleficent is so dreaded, in fact, that even Disney crossover materials go out of their way to show it—with other Disney villains, the reactions from the heroes tend to be mixed and often times they're confident enough to take chances. But when Maleficent shows up the response from everyone is almost universally pure terror. For example, in Fantasmic!, Maleficent's presence inspires more fear in Mickey than that of the Evil Queen, Genie!Jafar or Chernabog (who is pretty much Satan!).
• Toy Story:
  • Sid from the first film to all of Andy's toys, for his tendency to blow up toys and the obvious glee he takes in doing so. Reversed by the end of the movie, with Woody and Sid's own toys scaring the living daylights out of him.
    • Sid's dog Scud, on the other hand, remains a terrifying, vicious threat through the entire movie. Which means when Scud backs away in fear at the sight of Sid's dad, it speaks volumes about what the man is probably like.
  • The third film introduces us to the toddlers in the Caterpillar room by the veteran toys there cowering in fear under the shelves. Fear that is very quickly shown to be completely justified by... well, the fact that they're toddlers, and thus rather aggressive, shall we say towards the toys.
• Turning Red: Grandma Wu. It’s played with in her first scene when she calls Ming. It plays it like she's the Dragon Lady head of a Chinese Tong or Triad. However the reason she’s so dreaded to Ming is because of her upbringing and the incident where she attacked her in panda form years ago.
• Wreck-It Ralph: Because he's a video game villain with an intimidating appearance, other characters run from Ralph while he's walking through Game Central Station, shouting, "Bad guy coming!" and "Get out of his way!" He doesn't enjoy it.

Jokes

• A typical feature of the main characters of Memetic Badass sites. Examples:
  • The most famous one: Bogeymen scare their children with stories about Chuck Norris.
  • The only reason Chuck Norris is afraid of death is because he knows Bruce Lee will be waiting for him.
  • The A-Team was originally composed of 6 versions of Mr. T, but they changed it after every criminal in the world was immediately vapourized in the first episode.
  • Neville Longbottom is the only thing that Dumbledore ever feared.
  • Death had to take him sleeping, for if Theodore Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight.
    • This wasn't intended as a joke - this was actually said about his death by Woodrow Wilson's vice-president, Thomas Marshall.
  • The reason why the attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson didn't work is because even the bullets are scared of him.
    • Similar to Roosevelt, Death had to take him sleeping cause even he's scared of having to fight Jackson.
  • Margaret Thatcher isn't in Hell because even Satan is scared of her.

Multiple Media

• BIONICLE:
  • Makuta Teridax, mainly in the more fantastical early years. This was invoked by the Turaga elders who had first-hand experience with him a thousand years prior and made him out to be a godlike evil entity in the legends they told to their villager folk, calling him The Makuta, the Spirit of Destruction.
  • The Turaga conconted similar legends of various beasts like the Manas crabs, the island-destroying Bohrok swarms and the Rahkshi, aka "the Makuta's Sons". And for good reason: the legends were based on truth, although the Bohrok and their hive queens eventually turned out not to be evil, the destruction they caused served a higher purpose.
  • Irnakk to the Skakdi race. Originally a folkloric figure, Irnakk became reality when six Skakdi, the ruthless and seemingly fearless Piraka gang entered a chamber that brought their worst nightmare to life. The boogeyman proceeded to kill them by exploiting their personal fears, until their gang boss Zaktan realized that his life had already been much worse than anything Irnakk could dish out, and that their fears can't be real if they're dead, making Irnakk disappear and undoing the chamber's effects.
  • Ancient ruler Karzahni in legends. In reality, Karzahni worked as a healer but was so incompetent that he made all his patients weaker and never let them back to their homes out of shame. After centuries, the rest of the world cut off all contact with Karzahni and his legend slowly became BIONICLE's version of Hell, a place where poor workers were sent as punishment.
  • The Visorak Horde and all that accompany their invasions. They level entire islands and either kill or horrifically mutate all who get in their way. When all else fails, the Visorak summon the Zivon, a giant scorpion beast that destroys everything in its path. In turn, the Visorak have a deadly fear of the Zivon, as the reward for its services to the Horde is to let it eat part of the Horde.

Music

• Mega Man is a figure of terror among some of the Robot Masters in the work of The Megas.
  Flash Man: Mega Man is so powerful/I feel my end is near.
  Quick Man: Is what they say true? Does death wear blue? Can he fall?
  Magnet Man: I am magnetically/Drawing my death to me/So why can't my body/Reverse polarity?
  Gemini Man: We're never gonna make it...
• The first Sniper is a figure of terrifying myth in Act 2 of The Protomen. Joe is notable because he's not afraid of him:
  They say your eyes are on fire. They say you'd kill a man for walking the wrong side of the line.

Myths & Religion

• Beti-Pahuin Mythology
  • Ntoutoume Mfoulou was the great terror of Oku. Entire villages would evacuate in a panic when he was on the warpath.
• Classical Mythology:
  • Typhon likely doubles as the original Hero Killer, storming Olympus by himself and driving the gods into hiding. When he first showed up to fight Zeus, all of the other Olympians except Athena and Enyo immediately fled in terror.
  • Hades was this to the Greeks themselves; he's the yardstick by which terrifying creatures in myth (like Typhon) are compared to. Typhon is so bad that he was not only scarier than Hades, he frightened him. This is in spite of Hades being one of the most agreeable gods in the pantheon; the combination of being the guardian of Tartarus (meaning he was in charge of keeping creation's worst monstrosities locked up) and being a Consummate Professional immune to flattery, sweet-talk and general silver-tongue antics (very much unlike most of the pantheon) were more than enough reason to be wary. Death comes for all and cannot be reasoned with, and these traits very much extended to him.
  • The Queen of the Underworld, Persephone, was just as feared as her husband, Hades, was. There's a reason she was sometimes referred to as "dread Persephone".
  • Zeus was famous for always getting his way, but even he would not dare cross Nyx, the goddess of night. According to The Illiad, the mere thought of having to face her made him refrain from punishing Hypnos, the god of sleep and Nyx' son. Typhon might not scare the king of the gods, but Nyx certainly did.
• Zombies are always depicted as this. A walking, living, brain-eating corpse—any normal/sane person would definitely fear these creatures. And to make things worse, think of how many people have died, historically, and lie as waiting corpses beneath the ground... yes, consider us humans screwed.
• Norse Mythology:
  • Jormungandr, Fenrisulfr and Hel, the children of Loki, were feared by god and man alike. Of the three, one is a serpent that wraps entirely around the earth and will kill Thor, one is a wolf whose jaws open wider than the sky and will kill Odin, and one is the personification of ignominious, dishonorable death.
  • Odin was feared by mortal warriors on account of the fact that he was the Valfodr, the Father of the Slain, and constantly on the look-out for more warriors to pad out his ranks with for the upcoming battle come Ragnarok. Nothing guaranteed a shorter life than gaining Odin's favour.
  • Thor was feared by many for his prowess in battle to the extent that in some tales his antagonists — usually giants — run screaming when they realize who they're really messing with. He was friendly to mankind, though.
  • The most dreaded being in all of Norse Mythology was Níðhöggr, a Draconic Abomination that lived on the shores of Nastrond, the deepest, darkest recesses of Hel, where traitors and oathbreakers were sent. There Níðhöggr spent its days gorging itself upon the criminals and gnawing upon the roots of Yggdrasil, its poison seeping into the tree and befouling the world itself, all of it for the simple purpose of bringing down all of creation. Níðhöggr would not only show up for Ragnarok it would survive it, too! The monster was feared by everyone and everything, including the gods. If there is one Norse being you would rather never meet, it was Níðhöggr.
• Egyptian Mythology: Apep/Apophis. He was so terrifying, the Egyptians built temples to prevent him from coming to them.
• Many religions believe The Devil is especially this if not the original. One cannot help but wonder if there really is a creature of pure evil in this world. If so, then God help us all.
• The Bogeyman: Every child that has heard of him fears him, he can appear as the thing you fear most, and if you've been naughty, God have mercy on your soul.
• For generations, Vampires of all kind are personified as this trope too. They are based upon the fears of rape, sexual assault and cannibalism, which are all real terrors. To add more danger to the name, such beings possess powers of great intimidation from turning into wolves, to raising the dead.
• Native American Mythology: Skinwalkers are this to the Navajo and other tribes of the American Southwest. Shrouded in mystery (their true nature is generally only known to tribal shamans and medicine men, who are reluctant to share such information with outsiders), skinwalkers are, depending on the tribe and story in question, anything from a shapeshifting sorcerer who has renounced everything good about humanity to a Nigh-Invulnerable demonic demigod who is an avatar of death and malice. Even asking about a skinwalker is a good way to get a Navajo to say Screw This, I'm Outta Here and many stories of "victories" against skinwalkers merely involve the creature losing interest or turning away. In almost no stories can they be "defeated" conventionally like other monsters. Even outside of the tribes, skinwalkers have entered the folklore of the rural Southwest as the ultimate monster. If you live in a rural Southwest community (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, parts of Colorado) you will meet someone who swears to have encountered a skinwalker or to have had a friend/loved one who did the same. Such stories are considered happy if the person in question managed to escape, and always end with a few admonitions: a) don't take the legend lightly, and b) Don't Ask, Just Run is the only reasonable response to encountering one.
• Mesopotamian Mythology has Inanna, the Goddess of Love and War, due her great pride, her immense power, her habit to try and conquer everything she likes, and the fact that whenever she threatens to break the gates of the underworld and cause a Zombie Apocalypse she means it. Thankfully, she's also a Goddess of Justice so she has a code of honor and actually holds back her fury almost every time.^note The myth records only two instances where Inanna didn't hold back, namely when the other gods told her that Mount Ebih was more powerful than her and when the gardener Shukaletuda raped her in her sleep after she came down from heaven specifically to help him. Inanna destroyed the mountain and the passive effects of her wrath at Shukaletuda caused cataclysms while she was trying to find him
  • Surprisingly enough, the gods are scared of Mount Ebih, that is, well, a mountain. A mountain that disrespected the gods for untold eons and got away with it because they feared its power. Then it disrespected Inanna, and that's why there's no Mount Ebih anymore.

Podcasts

• Find Us Alive: The Medical department is described with a sense of biblical awe and terror akin to how one would describe an Eldritch Abomination. The entire site is terrified of them, especially the department head Dr. Gravett, who teaches herself brain surgery from a textbook and issues "cold, terrifying demands" to ensure the site's health.
  Harley: Engineering?
  Love: Worse.
  Harley: (dread.wav) ...worse?
  Love: Medical.

Pro Wrestling

• Monster heels are this by default, especially if they are inhumanly large. The definitive examples in the WWE would be The Big Show and Mark Henry.
• The Great Khali was a special example, at least during his heel runs. It wasn't just his colossal size and strength, or his barely being able to speak; opponents also had to fear his Psychopathic Manchild tendencies, which could easily be exploited by his handlers. Khali could be told to do anything terrible - and by God, he would do it. Knocking down Undertaker with a single blow also helped his rep a great deal.
• Brock Lesnar. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former NCAA Amateur Champion. The longest-reigning, defending, undisputed WWE Universal Champion. The destroyer of the Streak. And a bona-fide, certified badass. As CM Punk put it, for all his physical gifts, Lesnar's greatest weapon was the sheer fear all of his opponents had for him, whether they showed it or not.^note Punk himself was not intimidated, because he wasn't after Lesnar — to him, Lesnar was just another obstacle in the way of his real goal, Paul Heyman. In the words of Cracked's own Seanbaby:
  "Brock Lesnar is a human cheat-code. He is 300 pounds of muscle and judging by the way he darts around, I don't think mass and inertia were properly explained to him. He has so much wild animal meat inside him at any time that bears unsheath their penis bones when his scent catches the wind. Brock Lesnar is exactly what you would use if you were making an army of super clone soldiers, which explains why his outgoing voicemail message is, "I am one of you, ordinary human. You can tell me where the resistance is hiding after the beep.""
• Randy Orton is this for no other reason than his uncontrollable rage, his inability to be reasoned, and the fact that his finishing move can literally come out of nowhere. The fact that he Hates Everyone Equally means he's a danger to everybody, not just whoever has directly earned his ire at the time. He'll often RKO someone for no other reason than because they were hanging around the ring too long, or because the RKO has been banned at the next pay-per-view and he needs to get them "out of his system."
• The Undertaker. It doesn't matter who you are, even if you're the owner and chairman of the biggest wrestling promotion in history — you do NOT fuck with the Deadman.
• Vince McMahon is primarily this to authority figures, especially heel ones. For all their frequent abuses of power to stroke their own egos, as far as Vince is concerned, they are even more expendable than the talent on the roster and if they screw up, he has no issue making that very clear.
• Kana/Asuka is probably the closest you can get to having someone be a Wrestling Monster without actually looking like one. She is feared for her notoriously stiff style which involves things such as reversing a simple slap into a flying armbar, a hip attack that has legitimately injured people, and managing to win multiple victories by straight up knocking the opponent out with a kick to the head. Also her creepy smile and primal screams mid match probably doesn't help. In her NXT run, she's also undefeated; the only person who has managed to even come close to being on her level was Bayley, and considering she was the NXT Women's Champion at the time, she had the best chance of any competitor there.
• As far as stables go, The Shield. Comprised of Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns, all three future world champions, the Shield dominated WWE for the better part of two years, from their debut in late 2012 to their breakup in mid-2014. Every time their music aired, it would illicit an immediate Oh, Crap! from whoever was in the ring at the time. Even after they broke up, the idea of facing the full cohesive strength of all three members still terrified roster members who survived their Reign of Terror. In late 2017, when The Miz realized his actions caused them to reform, he went into a Villainous Breakdown, left completely agape outside the ring as they proceeded to destroy The Bar, and the Miztourage before finally turning their attentions to him.
• Braun Strowman has become this as well, having intimidated many superstars. The list of these superstars include Mick Foley, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon. Literally the second act of the reformed Shield was to take out Strowman, who had been a pain in the ass for all three members of the stable individually for months. That's how dangerous Braun Strowman is.
• VERY few opponents are willing to take the ginormous and dangerous WALTER, with some preferring to opt out of the ring the very moment Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 Step IV hits.
• Scott Steiner, both onscreen and allegedly in Real Life. If the rumors (which are mentioned in The Death of WCW and remain persistent even decades later) are true, then the reason why Steiner got such a massive push in WCW's twilight years is because most of the locker room and almost all of the management were legitimately terrified of him. Considering he was a large, muscular man with a notorious Hair-Trigger Temper that puts the above-mentioned Randy Orton's to shame, who also (again, allegedly) carried a gun, it's not hard to see why. Even when his already-outrageous behavior became too much for management to tolerate no matter how scared of him they were, they never really bothered to seriously punish him — the most he ever got was suspension with pay.
• He is the man who takes your best shots and laughs. He is the man who makes aces quake in fear. He is the man who defeated Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten in legitimate fights. And perhaps the one wrestler in the world whom Jon Moxley fears. He is Minoru Suzuki, and if you do not approach him with respect, be prepared to fight for your life.

Theatre

• Bill Sykes in Oliver!. He gets a Villain Song that's all about how no one dares stand up to him due to his brute strength, and how they daren't even speak his name for fear of what he'll do if he hears them. Even his ally Fagin is terrified of him.

Visual Novels

• Reinhard Heydrich from Dies Irae has a tendency to invoke the feeling of fear in everyone who meets him. Even Wilhelm wasn't afraid to admit that he almost shat his pants first time he saw him. In fact he is so dreadful that simply having a premonition of being observed by him caused Ren to flee in a panic.
• Endless Summer: Estela's file in Chapter 6 has a warning not to approach her.
• In The Eden of Grisaia, during the climax, Yuuji invades the floating fortress of Heath Oslo. Heavily outnumbered and arriving almost unarmed, he goes out of his way to fight in as terrifying a way as possible in order to sow confusion. He baits people and then destroys them, completely crushing the morale of his opponents.
• The Ace Attorney series gives us Manfred von Karma. The most feared prosecutor in the series who has went forty years without losing a case (until Phoenix defeats him). Manfred is well known for his intimating behavior managing to even get the Judge to obey his every command. Even Edgeworth at the time knows that Manfred is someone not to be trifled with. The man is willing to kill someone and effectively kidnap his son over a penalty.
  • Actually, just about every prosecutor Phoenix Wright goes up against has a reputation as a terrifying, unstoppable badass who has never lost in court and will do anything to keep it that way. Even Butt-Monkey Winston Payne has the title "Rookie Killer", presumably for good reason (though we never get to see it). This even extends to Phoenix's ancestor, whose own rival prosecutor has a similarly dreaded reputation, though unlike the others it isn't because he's undefeated. Instead, every defendant he prosecutes who is found not guilty mysteriously winds up dead.
  • We also have Damon Gant from the first game as well. Given his position as the head of the police department, no one dares to speak against him. Not even Chief Prosecutor Lana Skye dared to speak ill of him and even did whatever he said, and took the blame for his murder of Goodman. Part of this is because he’s blackmailing her, though.
  • Shelly de Killer from the second game (and Investigations 2) is this to a number of people that know of him. He is a professional assassin that knows how to get the job done. Also, you do not want to piss him off and destroy his trust. He will hunt you down until you are dead. The last two known people to hire him did this and were pretty much screwed (and they were both Big Bads!).
  • Bruto Cadaverini, The Don of a major mafia family. His name is not to be uttered casually, and if he makes you owe him something, you will commit to it, as an otherwise-fearless Loan Shark thug learned the hard way when he got into an accident with Cadaverini's daughter Viola, causing said thug to owe one million dollars to cover her head surgery and work to make that money happen, even if murdering someone else is involved.
  • Phoenix himself is an odd case, in that he's technically feared but always treated with zero respect in court itself despite his record and the fact he's won against highly respected prosecutors and ended countless winning streaks. Thing is, that's actively part of the reputation, when one combines the infamy for bluffing and struggling with the "Turnabout Terror" reputation he has. Everyone that isn't feeling overconfident (which is many of them) knows that Phoenix's modus operandi is to flounder around helplessly 95% of the time, and suddenly latching on to a single thing and trashing the prosecution's entire case in a matter of minutes before anyone else can do anything, and even if it seems completely certain the Defense's lost. Everyone gets caught up in that initial 95% of relentlessly mocking him, but everyone knows he'll still win. In the sixth game’s final case, Apollo and Athena wind up facing him in court and are naturally terrified.
• Sunrider:
  • The PACT flagship Legion is a three-kilometre long dreadnought that dwarfs every other ship in the setting, has enough firepower to take on entire fleets singlehandedly, and is so heavily armoured and shielded as to be almost invincible. When it first appears during the Battle of Cera, the Ceran admiralty knows right away that they’re outmatched and urges the civilian government to issue an immediate surrender, not that it does them any good. During the Battle of Far Port it takes out most of the Alliance’s Second Fleet with a single shot, forcing the survivors to take cover inside PACT’s formation so that the Legion can’t fire on them again without hitting its own ships. Most characters are understandably reluctant to face the Legion in battle.
  • Sunrider Liberation Day has the Nightmare Ascendant, an ancient Ryuvian Ryder piloted by Veniczar Arcadius. While nobody from modern times recognizes this ancient war machine, Sola recognizes it immediately and reacts with fear to its sudden arrival—and for good reason, as it promptly devastates an Alliance fleet with one attack and No Sells a direct hit from the Sunrider’s Vanguard Cannon. She quickly explains that the Nightmare Ascendant ^note (or the Myr'lan'dur, as it was called in her time) was powerful enough to destroy a fleet of a thousand Ryuvian ships singlehandedly, and fears that the Sunrider and their allies won’t be able to defeat it. The Big Bad herself gleefully talks it up as being so powerful as to make all of PACT’s previous weapons — including the aforementioned Legion and the Paradox Core, a Doomsday Device that can destroy entire star systems — seem like toys in comparison.

Web Animation

• Dreamscape: Melinda! Even arrogant, prideful characters like Melissa and Ethan (who mistook Melissa for Melinda in 'Possessor of a Dimension') are terrified of her.
• Manga Soprano: In A misunderstood woman who pretends to be a lover when she is not even in a relationship, Alto is a feared businessman whom the employees call "The Devil Nobleman".
• In RubberFruit's videos, Painis Cupcake tends to play this role. This is most prominent in Heavy's Tiny Picnic Adventure -- Part 6, where the introduction of Painis Cupcake causes everyone to panic and stop their current petty conflict to help each other run for their lives.
• RomCom Manga Chan: In this story, Mary Toyota is a notorious delinquent who never lost a fight. However, she is naïve concerning romance and love.
• RWBY: Salem is a dark and dangerous being who controls the world-dominating Grimm. Her existence is not public knowledge because her arch-enemy Ozpin has created a global conspiracy network to prevent global panic by fighting her in secret. Among her subordinates, Emerald and Mercury are terrified of her presence while Watts, Hazel and even the enthralled Tyrian fear her wrath. Among the heroes, Qrow descrbes her creations as fear itself, Raven abandoned Ozpin's cause when she concluded Salem's unstoppable, Leo is so terrified that Salem turns him into a mole against his oldest friend, and Ironwood obsessively builds up his army to oppose her. Even Ozpin secretly believes she cannot be destroyed, a revelation that demoralises the heroes, breaks Ozpin, and transforms Ironwood into a villain who lashes out at everyone in his desperation to protect Atlas from her.
• Fazbear and Friends (ZAMination): William Afton being a bully, terrorizes the animatronics by playing practical jokes on children, wow! not even the animatronics had been so afraid of him.
  • Shadow Bonnie also counts because he harasses Freddy throughout the pizzeria when he is cleaning the tables and eating mustard and do you know what is the most scary of him? Has a British accent.

---