Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) / Nightmare Fuel

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/MoonGirlAndDevilDinosaur2023

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Nightmare moments in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023).

NOT the smiles you wanna see at a carnival.

open/close all folders

Episode 1: Moon Girl Landing

Aftershock and Lunella’s first encounter ends with the power plant in flames, Devil seriously injured, and Aftershock seeing Lunella without her helmet.
Aftershock: Oh, I could never hurt a child… but I should at least try!
- It gets worse the next day when Aftershock shows up the next day at Lunella’s school as the new science teacher, letting her know that she will go after Lunella’s family if she doesn’t stand down.

Episode 3: Run the Rink

The roller rink being levitated into the sky by Gravitas. The villain is so obsessed with revenge on Moon Girl, he doesn’t care who gets hurt in the process.
- And as the rink drops from the sky and Lunella attempts to build a gadget to stop it, he grabs her. He doesn’t care if he gets killed as long as Moon Girl goes down with him.

Episode 6: The Beyonder

The Beyonder destroying Earth. The way he causes everything to crumble, fade, and glitch out of existence by conducting it like an orchestra. And Lunella and Devil, for all their fighting, cannot stop him. They are outclassed and ultimately left floating in a void… Granted, Beyonder was kidding and puts everything back, but just because everyone is safe this time, it doesn’t mean they’re out of danger.

Episode 11: Like Mother, Like Moon Girl

The sequence where the Muzzlers unleash the Ultra-Muzzler against Moon Girl and the LES. Everything, even the music, just going silent in one jarring moment and the people panicking over being unable to speak.

Episode 14: Coney Island, Baby!

The episode is all about Lunella's trauma and fears and is fittingly terrifying. The Beyonder, though Laughably Evil, chooses to take the role of antagonist just because Lunella caught his eye, and despite proclaiming himself a valuable teacher, his methods are to warp reality and endanger her family through speeding up rides, and even creating a gap in a rollercoaster at the risk of killing Casey and Mimi, along with a number of innocents. While he does succeed in helping her get past her trauma, his Blue-and-Orange Morality proves very disturbing in this episode.
Lunella's flashback to her biggest childhood trauma is a dose of Realism-Induced Horror. She gets lost at Coney Island and unwisely follows a balloon into a funhouse containing a Monster Clown prop, which then crashes and falls upon her, pinning her to the floor. While Mimi thankfully comes to save her, it's easy to see why Lunella has horrible memories of Coney Island.
The climax of the episode, in which the Beyonder traps Mimi in another dimension and forces Lunella to force her way through the funhouse. The patrons here have no eyes and unnaturally wide smiles, which are kept even as they corner Casey and Devil. Oh, and the Monster Clown? Courtesy of Beyonder, it's alive and pursues Lunella.
Beyonder pays Mimi a visit after the episode's events are done, and gives her a warning. Mimi's greatest fear is about to come true: "They" are coming.

Episode 15: OMG Issue # 1

The flashback in which Morlak's work is stolen by his superiors at the Enclave. Morlak activates the interdimensional portal and watches the superior and the military officer get dragged through by the monsters. While Mimi is fittingly horrified, Morlak simply watches the people who've wronged him with stoicism, and once the incident is over, he casually picks up the ring and declares himself the new leader of the Enclave.
The ending of the episode, in which Lunella races back to the lab to try and save Devil only to arrive too late, the bomb detonating and seemingly killing Devil.

Episode 16: OMG Issue # 2

When Lunella and Mimi defeat him and stop his monsters from invading, Morlak loses it, races down to the machine and turns it up to maximum power. Both he and Lunella end up sucked through the portal, with the 13-year-old Lunella ending the season lost in another dimension, quite possibly alone.

Episode 1: The Great Beyond-er!

The whole fight with Molecule Man is very disturbing. He thrashes Lunella around like a rag doll, and she would've died if the Beyonder hadn't swiped his wand. Lunella is clearly traumatized by this experience.

Episode 14: The Molecular Level

Molecule Man returns, and this time he's way more unstable and has no qualms about destroying Lunella's home and attacking her family. She is badly outmatched, made worse by the confined space of her family's apartment. Eventually, she is reduced to crying and begging the Beyonder to come back and save her family.
Lunella gets a Heroic Second Wind, but being filled with rage, she beats Molecule Man within an almost-literal inch of his life, using spike-tipped boxing gloves. Had she not come to her senses in time, she might have had a murder on her conscience.