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Anime and Manga
He's the same as me. No... He's no beast...! He's... a demon who devours even despair!
You're not a boy. You're a monster!
— Cell to Gohan, Dragon Ball Z
Father once said there were two warriors in the universe I was never to challenge: Beerus the Destroyer and Majin Buu. You're telling me Goku beat that Buu?!
— Frieza after being revived, Dragon Ball Super
Carrera Maaka: GRRR! Are there any vampires lurking around here? If I find an evil vampire, BANG! I'll shoot them in the heart with a silver bullet! Then CHOP! Cut the corpse's head off with an axe! Then TWIST-TWIST! I'll yank their teeth out with pliers, and then I'll...!
8-Year-Old Karin: Stop, Mama! There's no such thing as Vampire Hunters, is there?!
— Karin listening to her mom read a scary story before bed
Haqua: To blackmail a demon... what a human.
Keima: To be blackmailed by a human... what a demon.
Haqua: Sh—shut up!
Keima: To be blackmailed by a human... what a demon.
Haqua: Sh—shut up!
Vampire King Izraf: S... spare... me... I... I'm... sorry...
Escanor: I've changed my mind. You've greatly fouled my mood.
Izraf: No, please... Wai...
Escanor: I've changed my mind. You've greatly fouled my mood.
Izraf: No, please... Wai...
Comic Books
We... we cannot know what feelings our enemies have... but we may be certain, at least, that Hyde taught them terror.
Fan Works
Light: (with glowing red eyes) I loved you, L, and you smashed my heart into a million pieces. I will never love again.
Ryuk: Light, uh... you're scaring me.
Light: Oh, Ryuk, I haven't even begun to scare you yet! (Evil Laugh)
Ryuk: Light, uh... you're scaring me.
Light: Oh, Ryuk, I haven't even begun to scare you yet! (Evil Laugh)
Toronto Magical Tribune:
ENTIRE BRITISH WIZENGAMOT
REPORTS SEEING 'BOY-WHO-LIVED'
FRIGHTEN A DEMENTOR
EXPERT ON MAGICAL CREATURES:
"NOW YOU'RE JUST LYING"
ENTIRE BRITISH WIZENGAMOT
REPORTS SEEING 'BOY-WHO-LIVED'
FRIGHTEN A DEMENTOR
EXPERT ON MAGICAL CREATURES:
"NOW YOU'RE JUST LYING"
When a pony stares into the abyss the abyss stares back; but when Pinkie Pie stares into the abyss, the abyss closes its eyes, sticks fingers in its ears and shouts, "LALALALALALALALALA," hoping Pinkie goes away.
Jiro the Yellow Spider: Cute, but let me ask you something, kid: you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Yami Yugi: As a matter of fact, I have - we were on a blind date. Unfortunately, he never returns my calls, says I'm too creepy.
Yami Yugi: As a matter of fact, I have - we were on a blind date. Unfortunately, he never returns my calls, says I'm too creepy.
— Yugioh The Abridged Series, Season 0
The Beowolf lunged, eager to sink its teeth into the huntsman's flesh, but was stopped with a yelp as Jaune shot his arm out, physically grabbing the Beowolf by the throat. The Grimm struggled and kicked, trying to flail its way out of his grasp, when it found itself surrounded by crackling red-and-black lightning.
For the first time in its life, this creature of Grimm, a predator of darkness, felt fear as the black-and-red energy began to course through it and it began to feel weaker and weaker. The powerful, muscular limbs of the Grimm began to wither and shrink, pristine bone plates became dull and cracked, and the bright, blood red glow of its eyes began to dim as Jaune Force Drained it.
For the first time in its life, this creature of Grimm, a predator of darkness, felt fear as the black-and-red energy began to course through it and it began to feel weaker and weaker. The powerful, muscular limbs of the Grimm began to wither and shrink, pristine bone plates became dull and cracked, and the bright, blood red glow of its eyes began to dim as Jaune Force Drained it.
[Hastur]'d never thought to remember that they had kicked Zirah out of Hell because they hadn't wanted him there. Because everybody was scared of him. Hastur had nearly forgotten all about how it'd been, before, but during his terrified flight the memories had started popping out, as if they'd been lying in wait for this very moment.
The way Zirah's face, oddly angelic even after the Fall, had looked in the light of the flames. How he'd curl his lip whenever there was a particularly juicy bit of torture going on, and then absent-mindedly tear out some sufferer's voicebox because its screaming was getting on his nerves. Beelzebub, saying, "Fuck, make Zzzzirah go up. Bloke givezzz me the williezz."
— The Sacred and the Profane, Chapter 7
Film — Animated
Phew, this cat was sick before I even got here!
— Thrax after seeing Frank's nightmares, Osmosis Jones
Film — Live-Action
Viggo: I heard you struck my son.
Aurelio: Yes sir, I did.
Viggo: And may I ask why?
Aurelio: Yeah well, 'cause he stole John Wick's car, sir, and uh... killed his dog.
Viggo: ...Oh. [hangs up]
Viggo Tarasov: He once was an associate of ours. They call him "Baba Yaga."
Iosef Tarasov: The Boogeyman?
Viggo: Well, John wasn't exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the fucking Boogeyman.
Iosef: Oh.
Aurelio: Yes sir, I did.
Viggo: And may I ask why?
Aurelio: Yeah well, 'cause he stole John Wick's car, sir, and uh... killed his dog.
Viggo: ...Oh. [hangs up]
Viggo Tarasov: He once was an associate of ours. They call him "Baba Yaga."
Iosef Tarasov: The Boogeyman?
Viggo: Well, John wasn't exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the fucking Boogeyman.
Iosef: Oh.
"There are men in this world who go about demanding to be killed. They argue in gambling games; they jump out of their cars in a rage if someone so much as scratches their fender. These people wander through the streets calling out "Kill me, kill me." Luca Brasi was such a man. And since he wasn't scared of death, and in fact, looked for it... I made him my weapon. Because I was the only person in the world that he truly hoped would not kill him."
— Vito Corleone, The Godfather
Literature
Twoflower: But you're a demon. Demons can't call things "weird." I mean, what's weird to a demon?
Demon: Oh you know, things. Stuff.
Twoflower: What things?
Demon: (nervous cough) Oh, things. Evil things. Things we don't talk about is the point I'm broadly trying to get across, master.
Demon: Oh you know, things. Stuff.
Twoflower: What things?
Demon: (nervous cough) Oh, things. Evil things. Things we don't talk about is the point I'm broadly trying to get across, master.
And until this moment Thibor had not really known fear, but now he did. Thibor the Wallach – warlord of however small and ragged an army, humourless, merciless killer of the Pechenegi – utterly fearless Thibor, until now. Until now he'd not met a creature he feared. In the hunt, wild boar in the forests, which had wounded men so badly as to kill them, were 'piglets' to him. In the challenge: let any man only dare hurl down the gauntlet, Thibor would fight him any way he chose. All knew it, and none chose! And in battle: he led from the front, stood at the head of the charge, could only ever be found in the thick of the fighting. Fear? It was a word without meaning. Fear of what? When he had ridden out to battle, he'd known each day might be his last. That had not deterred him. So black was his hatred of the invaders, of all enemies, that it simply engulfed fear and put it down. No creature, or man, or threat of any device of men had ever unmanned him since ... oh, before he could remember: since he was a child, if ever he'd been one. But Faethor Ferenczy was something other than all of these. Torture could only maim and must kill in the end, and there's no pain after death, but what the Ferenczy threatened seemed an eternity of hell.
— Necroscope II: Wamphyri
Never had the aberration seen such demonic eyes. He'd never really believed it was possible to stare into someone's soul, but with the way Gohvis was looking at him, he was beginning to have doubts. In fact, he was starting to think it might be possible to look at someone to death.
— Ibai comes face-to-face with Gohvis, The Zombie Knight
When the horned head was just a few metres away, the kung whispered, "I'm told you can read minds."
"Just surface thought, lord."
"Read mine."
After a second, Sphandor's face was a mask of terror.
— Strata
At this new presence, the starving unseelie of the garden scattered in fear, because that which is supernatural and nasty knows supernatural and nastier when it sees it.
But slowly, her handlers began to speculate that highly intelligent Gretel had her own agenda. Their speculations reached a crisis point after the destruction of the invasion fleet bound for Britain. Gretel's very existence should have rendered such a loss impossible. Why would she let that happen? Marsh wondered.
And eventually they realized, however reluctantly and with no small amount of trepidation, that von Westarp had created a precognitive sociopath. The Reich's greatest weapon was a monster feared even by the Schutzstaffel.
Vermishank: I have heard that they approached daemons... and were refused help. Even at the highest bribery.
Derkhan: Why?
Vermishank: Because the daemons were afraid. Do you understand that? They were afraid. Because for all their power and their presence... they think as we do. They are sentient, sapient. And as far as the slake-moths are concerned... they are therefore prey.
He had a vision, even then, in the midst of the most strenuous and lung-bursting fighting he had ever experienced, of thousands of warriors in this very mould, marching out from fortresses of unremitting bleakness, every one of them as unyielding and soul-dead and fanatical as this one, never giving up, not because of any positive cause in which they believed, but because they had literally forgotten how to cede ground. And he saw then how powerful that could be, and how long it could last, and what fresh miseries it would bring to a galaxy already reeling under the hammer of anguish without limits, and then he, even he, even Khârn the Faithful, shuddered to his core.
— Horus Heresy: Warhawk
Live-Action TV
Do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is? Nothing. That's what I found in the boy. No conscience, no fear, no humanity. Just a black void. [...] I just sat there and watched as he destroyed everything around him. Not from a belief in evil, not for any reason at all. That boy's mind was the blackest hell I've ever known. [...] I know you bring death. I do not fear it. All I have ever feared is in that house.
Generally speaking, when scary things get scared? Not good.
— Xander Harris, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I am the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now you and me are gonna show 'em why.
Elliot: Have you met monsters before?
The Doctor: Yeah.
Elliot: Are you scared of them?
The Doctor: Nah. They're scared of me.
The Doctor: Yeah.
Elliot: Are you scared of them?
The Doctor: Nah. They're scared of me.
The Doctor: It's just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry, everyone has nightmares. Even monsters under the bed have nightmares.
Young Reinette: What do monsters have nightmares about?
The Doctor: Me.
Young Reinette: What do monsters have nightmares about?
The Doctor: Me.
House: Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords.
The Doctor: Fear me. I've killed all of them.
The Doctor: Fear me. I've killed all of them.
— Doctor Who, "The Doctor's Wife"
I've been around the world. I've seen everything, things you couldn't imagine, and this... this is the only thing I've ever seen that terrifies me.
— Euron Greyjoy upon seeing a wight, Game of Thrones
The Clown: What will become of us? Of me?
Janeway: Like all fear, you eventually vanish.
The Clown: ...I'm afraid.
Janeway: I knoooow...
Janeway: Like all fear, you eventually vanish.
The Clown: ...I'm afraid.
Janeway: I knoooow...
— Star Trek: Voyager, "The Thaw"
"If the Continuum has told you once, they have told you a thousand times: DON'T PROVOKE THE BORG!"
— Q, Star Trek: Voyager, "Q2"
Castiel: Don't worry about the Winchesters.
Crowley, The King of Hell: Don't worry about... what, like Lucifer didn't worry? Or Michael, or Lilith, or Alistair, or Azazel didn't worry? Am I the only game piece on the board who doesn't underestimate those denim-wrapped nightmares?
Crowley, The King of Hell: Don't worry about... what, like Lucifer didn't worry? Or Michael, or Lilith, or Alistair, or Azazel didn't worry? Am I the only game piece on the board who doesn't underestimate those denim-wrapped nightmares?
— Supernatural, "The Man Who Would Be King"
Music
Reject, are you no one?
Feel you nothing?
You know, I'll bet you think
You have a good reason to be living
In the limelight of the fortunate ones
You're too weakened by the poison
That they feed you in the living lie
They don't believe you
Call to no one
Trust in nothing
Little impotent one
Feel you nothing?
You know, I'll bet you think
You have a good reason to be living
In the limelight of the fortunate ones
You're too weakened by the poison
That they feed you in the living lie
They don't believe you
Call to no one
Trust in nothing
Little impotent one
What a nightmare... who were those guys?!
— Freddy Krueger, "Dream Warriors" music video
Pro Wrestling
I'm a monster. I wear a mask. My only source of pleasure is eviscerating people... and even I find you mentally unstable.
Tabletop Games
Even other vampires grow uneasy around these eerie Kindred, and the clan's nickname of "Fiends" was given to it in nights past by horrified Kindred of other lines. The Tzimisce's signature Discipline of Vicissitude is the subject of particular dread; tales speak of crippling disfigurements inflicted on a whim, of ghastly "experiments" and tortures refined beyond human — or vampire — comprehension and endurance.
And from within the depths of the Dark World, Dethroned howl at the blackened sky, the fallen Nobles and near-gods to monsters, and the Darkspawns shiver, for there are things even monsters fear.
Slashers obsess over killing and very rarely expect their victims’ ghosts will seek revenge. Since a slasher relies on fine-tuning his ability to misdirect, charm and isolate his victims in an abandoned warehouse or deserted building, he’s often ill-prepared should the ghosts of his victims come back to punish him. Or worse – for his victims to rise from the dead and seek revenge. Some gangs of ghostwalkers go out of their way to hunt slashers and put them down. Permanently. [...] Since slashers are typically anti-social, their days are numbered should ghostwalkers and hunters start going after them together. Even physically brutal slashers, like Masks, are often horrified by what a group of angry ghostwalkers can do.
—Hunter: The Vigil: Mortal Remains
You don't want to look him in the eye, Bolgut, trust me on that. I saw 'im at the Battle of Blood Rock, and it weren't pretty. Skrag was all whirlin' cleavers, surrounded by a red mist. Chunks of flesh and bone were flying everywhere. 'Ee went through the Elves like a Sabretusk through a bag of Gnoblars. Spears was breakin' on his skin like 'ee was made of rocks. All the while those Elves was screaming and 'ee was choppin' em up and chuckin' the bits of their bodies into 'is pot.
That was when the Gorgers arrived, dozens of 'em. Sniffin' and gruntin' as they followed 'is scent. Then the real slaughter started...
—Gorg Three-Fingers, Ogre Maneater, on the infamous Skrag the Slaughterer, Warhammer: Ogre Kingdoms Army Book (8th edition)
The infamous Ork Hunters of the Armageddon Imperial Guard are afraid of one Ork and one Ork alone. In the dark nights of the steaming equatorial jungles between Prime and Secundus, these grizzled veterans whisper tales of Boss Snikrot. They tell of a killer who slips through the jungle like a ghost, who can pass through throttlevine groves without disturbing a single leaf. They tell of a savage hunter who lives for slaughter, whose eyes blaze with malice. Finally, they tell of his victims, left to bleed to death with their eyes torn out and their scalps ripped free from their skulls.
— Warhammer 40,000: Codex - Orks
Video Games
In the first age, in the first battle, when the shadows first lengthened, one stood. Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him... the Doom Slayer.
— Slayer's Testament I, DOOM
He is here!
— The Ruler of Hell, DOOM
Broly: What are you? WHAT ARE YOU?!
Super Saiyan God Goku: I'm in a world of power you will never know.
Super Saiyan God Goku: I'm in a world of power you will never know.
Caesar: You're the courier who's caused so much trouble for my Legion, and yet you dare come before me. Vulpes Inculta, the best of my frumentarii, is dead. All the bribes I sent to the Omertas ended up buying me nothing. The Great Khans aren't exactly clamoring to fight for my Legion now. The garrison I established at Nelson has been wiped out. Years of meticulous scheming to place a mole at Camp McCarran - wasted. The Kings of Freeside are cooperating with the NCR now, which frees up soldiers to defend the dam. You even disrupted a promising weapons deal with the Van Graffs. Is it any wonder my Legion has so little love for you? So tell me this, because I really want to know: I am feared - with good reason - but you of all people dare to come before me, the mighty Caesar. What were you thinking?
Courier: [Terrifying Presence] That I'd decorate this tent with your guts.
Caesar: Praetorians, to me!
Courier: [Terrifying Presence] That I'd decorate this tent with your guts.
Caesar: Praetorians, to me!
Eek! What's this?! Your face... It would even scare a ghost. How horrible! You've got it backwards...I do the scaring around here!
—King Boo to Wario, Super Mario 64 DS
None have possessed the strength in previous Cycles. Your own species could be destroyed with a single thought. But you are different. I have witnessed your actions in this Cycle: the destruction of Sovereign; the fall of the Collectors. The Reapers perceive you as a threat. And I must understand why!
— Leviathan, Mass Effect 3
You've got to figure "terrifying the piss out of werewolves" is a coup for any monster's CV.
— Kirsten Geary, The Secret World
How are you doing this?! You've ingested enough toxins to drive ten men insane! What are you?!
— Scarecrow, Batman: Arkham Asylum
No... Chuck, you met... you met... Her? Lilith... Lilith ... She walks like a centipede on seventeen names. Oh god. Oh lord. Oh Outer Ones. The things Marquard whispered in my ear... Dangerous. Even her memory is dangerous. Her memory could kill. Hide, Chuck! Hide!
We sense... something... something ancient... a sickly smell... a chilling wind. My ancestors scream from within their chambers in my mind... but I cannot understand their words. This feeling... a memory? It sickens us, and for the first time in our lives... for the first time in generations... we fear.
Morena: Its power flows through the world, taking hundreds of lives with every step it takes. I handle souls. I harvest them. I cut and I cull. But this thing doesn't do that. All it does is consume them. It's.. impossible. That's not what happens to souls! But it pulls them from my grasp and consumes them anyway, as if it wasn't even a thought. Almost an unconscious action, like walking or blinking.
Vikenti: What happens to a consumed soul?
Morena: It makes a noise. A horrible, dreadful noise. And every moment this thing is around I hear it constantly. It just keeps eating, as thoughtless an action as breathing. Feeding itself off the world, the stars, everything. I tried to stop it once. But I got too close, and I heard the noise louder than before. And it was coming from me. It turned its horrible gaze upon me, and I felt myself unwinding. I dare not step close again, and this knowledge shames me. Is it unnatural for Death itself to fear death?
Vikenti: What happens to a consumed soul?
Morena: It makes a noise. A horrible, dreadful noise. And every moment this thing is around I hear it constantly. It just keeps eating, as thoughtless an action as breathing. Feeding itself off the world, the stars, everything. I tried to stop it once. But I got too close, and I heard the noise louder than before. And it was coming from me. It turned its horrible gaze upon me, and I felt myself unwinding. I dare not step close again, and this knowledge shames me. Is it unnatural for Death itself to fear death?
When the Alpha Legion found themselves standing above the cold necropolis that had emerged from the Imosan sands, they saw not just a foe, but the one thing which — in their mad power and zeal — they feared and abhorred: subservience, silence, the void.
—Chaos Space Marines vs Necrons, Dawn of War: Soulstorm
Saint Carmen: The Sea Terrors do not feel fear.
Kal'tsit: But they do know how to seek advantage and avoid disadvantage. Their base instincts have taught them to hunt cautiously.
Saint Carmen: ...They have been taught fear. These creatures may not know what a country is, let alone laws and morals. But they have learned to fear the High Inquisitor.
Kal'tsit: But they do know how to seek advantage and avoid disadvantage. Their base instincts have taught them to hunt cautiously.
Saint Carmen: ...They have been taught fear. These creatures may not know what a country is, let alone laws and morals. But they have learned to fear the High Inquisitor.
— Arknights, Stultifera Navis
"Damn kids are gonna give ME nightmares!"
— A Monster after getting attacked, South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Visual Novels
I meet someone that's scarier than that nightmare.
It runs. The thing that never felt fear ran away from the person. Golden hair and red eyes. The person that has the same smell as me. The golden Servant that...
The thing panics and flees into the back alley. But that's the end.
Web Comics
Lyra: Thistle, what happened? It practically ran into my arrow.
Thistle: [From out of sight] um. He ripped my hood. He saw me.
[Stunned Silence from Orrig and Lyra]
Thistle: [From out of sight] um. He ripped my hood. He saw me.
[Stunned Silence from Orrig and Lyra]
Web Original
Yes, Parody Janeway is crazy, but there was always a method to her madness, while Regular Janeway feels madness by itself is just fine, thank you very much. She has stared into the abyss as it has stared into her... and the abyss said, "JESUS!"
— Chuck Sonnenburg, SF Debris review of "Year of Hell"
Web Video
"The Ocean House Hotel is there to remind you that just because you're a spooky bloodsucker doesn't mean you're not capable of terror."
— SsethTzeentach on the ocean hotel stage in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Western Animation
Vilgax: "I did not come here to battle, but you leave me no choice. This alien MUST be subdued!"
Ben: "What's so special about this alien?"
Vilgax: "It will destroy you and every other living thing on this planet! Including ME!"
"He's a LUNATIC!"
— The Joker on The Creeper, Batman: The Animated Series, "Beware the Creeper"
Man, I do not want to meet the kid that dreamt those things up.
— Jason Voorhees reacting to the Woodland Critters's plan, South Park, "Imaginationland, Episode II"
I know I'm the ghost, but right now you're scaring me.
— Scratch to his co-protagonist, The Ghost and Molly McGee
Mike the TV: Don't touch that dial! You're tuned to The Commercial Channel! All commercials, all the time! An eternity of useless products to rot your skeevy, little mind... forever.
Evil Bob Clone: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! (retreats)
Evil Bob Clone: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! (retreats)
— ReBoot, "Wizards, Warriors and a Word from Our Sponsor"
