Basic Trope: A heroic character who exploits the villains' fears.
- Straight: Night Walker is a Master of Illusion who preys upon criminals and big villains with convincing illusions, Gaslighting, and other tricks to unnerve them and make them panic. He's still a good guy, even though the villains see him as The Dreaded.
- Exaggerated: Night Walker is an Eldritch Abomination who targets villains exclusively and subjects them to extreme Mind Rape, Paranoia Fuel, and Fates Worse Than Death without actually hurting them physically.
- Downplayed: Night Walker is a Stealth Expert who occasionally likes to make enemies freak out so he can get the drop on them better.
- Justified:
- The Godzilla Threshold of the story has been reached, and Night Walker uses techniques like these to ensure the enemy will think twice about hurting him and his friends.
- Night Walker was born with his powers over fear and illusions. Why not use them to maximum effect?
- Night Walker is an Anti-Hero with a Sadist streak.
- Night Walker understands human psychology, knowing that exploiting the villains' fear makes them less effective in combat.
- Night Walker wants To Win Without Fighting.
- Inverted: Night Walker lulls villains into a false sense of security, so that he can strike when they think they're invincible and fearless.
- Subverted: Night Walker's exploitation of fear works... until he meets an enemy who is genuinely fearless and undaunted.
- Double Subverted: Night Walker discovers a weakness in said enemy and exploits that.
- Parodied: Night Walker's enemies' fears include outlandish phobias like rubber duckies, salt, video game consoles. Sometimes all at once!
- Zig-Zagged: Some enemies succumb to fear easy, some are truly fearless.
- Averted: Night Walker does not use his powers to attack the enemy's mind.
- Enforced: The boss wants to Follow the Leader of another similar show and demands Night Walker to be written as such.
- Lampshaded: When asked why he uses fear as a weapon, Night Walker answers, "You can defeat an enemy and claim victory, but to truly break and neutralize their will to fight, you must attack their darkest fears and insecurities."
- Invoked: After a particularly brutal fight, Night Walker gets the idea of targeting the enemy's fears after noticing one of them backs away in horror.
- Exploited: Queenpin, a mob boss, hires Night Walker in order to take out a rival mob in ways that don't physically hurt them, but ensure that they'd rather die before ever thinking of opposing her. This way, if police investigate, there's less of a chance to find evidence that links back to her or Night Walker.
- Defied: Night Walker deliberately avoids trying to scare people with his powers, not wanting to be lonely.
- Discussed: "Man, imagine if Night Walker could actually weaponize their fear... he could win the war for us without even trying."
- Conversed: "Jesus, he's terrifying. Wonder if that'll backfire in a later episode..."
- Deconstructed:
- Night Walker suffers from Power Incontinence. Therefore, everyone in his vicinity is subject to having their fear and paranoia ramped up, even when he doesn't want it.
- Night Walker can exploit the villains' fear... but that's all he can do. The Big Bad, Evulz, realizes that Night Walker has no actual strength, so the next time they meet, Evulz simply guns Night Walker down.
- Reconstructed: Night Walker trains and hones his powers to activate only when he wants them to.
- Played For Laughs: See Parodied.
- Played For Drama: Night Walker's abilities end up Gone Horribly Right when he uses them on someone who, instead of falling into panic, is enraged and attacks him in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Played For Horror: See Deconstructed.
