Nightmare Fuel / Fire Emblem Heroes

Per troping policy, all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Ginnungagap, also known as the most bizarre Fire Emblem villain yet.

Even a more lighthearted crossover such as Fire Emblem Heroes can induce terror into the hearts of many fans with surprisingly creepy or outright horrifying moments.

---

Story

• Xenologue 1 shows that Veronica's contract isn't as cut-and-dry brainwashing as it seems. The person under her contract are perfectly aware what they are doing but if she commands them to do something, they have to do it. Example here being that if Ephraim doesn't do what Veronica says, she can easily demand him to kill Eirika with no remorse from Veronica's part.
• Book I's tensest moment occurs at the end of chapter 10 when you, the player, are trapped with Veronica at her creepiest, who threatens to remove your head like the dolls she used to play with.
• Book II Chapter 3 ends with a rather cuddly conversation where Surtr gleefully and sadistically describes how he's going to brutally murder a pre-teen child after she outlives her usefulness to him, complete with Slasher Smile.
• Book II Chapter 4 has Surtr describe to Alfonse how it feels to die by fire in a nauseatingly gruesome manner. Please bear in mind, he almost certainly killed Fjorm's mother in that way.
  Surtr: Let me tell you something you might not know... being burned alive is one of the most painful ways to die. (Cue Slasher Smile) First the skin burns off... Then the muscles themselves begin to fall apart. In the end, they all wail. "Please... kill me! Please!"
• Book II Chapter 7 has the joy of showing us Surtr killing Gunnthrá, Fjorm's sister, on screen. Thankfully, it isn't shown what happened to her explicitly.
• Book II Chapter 8 has Surtr make good on his promise from five chapters before. He plans to sacrifice Veronica for the Rite of Flame, with all the unpleasantness that it entails.
• During Book II, Chapter 13, Laegjarn's eyes are burned out from using the Flames of Múspell. Like Gunnthra above, we're spared from this visual.
• The Feh Channel that aired on November 7th, 2018 had a surprising scare, albeit at the end. Feh's broadcast starts to fizzle out right after she dozes off like usual, and after that, an ominous message fades into view: "That day, the light died." Next, we are treated to an equally ominous shot of Sharena reaching towards us with tears streaming down her face. All this to make players ready (and fearful) for Book III.
• A Wham Shot near the end of this video that looks back on Books I and II only adds to the Book III fears. In this wham shot is Alfonse with his back turned towards the viewer, standing over two bodies on the ground. And the body nearest to Alfonse seems to resemble Sharena.
• The official trailer for Book III introduces us to some eerie characters, including one with a visible rib cage... and the Feh Channel reveals her to be Hel, the ruler of the Realm of the Dead.
• Xenologue 4 begins with Surtr gathering his bearings after his defeat and death at the hands of Fjorm and the Order of Heroes. After he recalls everything that led up to his death, an unseen figure makes its voice heard, and music that invokes a great feeling of dread cuts in. It's worth mentioning that no music plays until the unseen figure starts to speak. Soon enough, the unseen figure introduces itself as Hel, ruler of the dead. Hel then goes on to say its next task is to take the lives of those that killed Surtr, even after Surtr himself says that they could defy death. Heck, the music itself that plays during that scene really will send shivers down your spine.
• Fáfnir introduces himself by seemingly showing himself to be invincible against the heroes and as they wonder what to do, he started making threats of ripping Sharena's eyes out and then force Alfonse to eat them, before then threatening to rip the Summoner's heart out to be shown all while sporting a deranged Slasher Smile. This is only his first meeting with the Order, by the way.
• The Book V Midpoint Movie shows Eitri corrupting Fáfnir into a horrific monster that would look right at home with the Demonic Beasts of Fódlan, and sporting a Slasher Smile afterwards.
• The Book V Ending Movie. Eitri is speaking to the Summoner gloating about how her Evil Plan worked out, all with her twisted expressions with laughter added! Additionally, she also manages to call out one particularly chilling "Not So Different" Remark: You, the Summoner, summoned other people as your own pawns, regardless of how you fight for the moral cause. You still yank people from their homes, and when your barracks get crowded, you had to send some heroes off and also maybe even sacrifice their existence for another hero... what makes you any different than her?
• It was one thing for Veronica to threaten death to the summoner and the Askrans, but it escalates to a new level of nightmarish when she does it with deathly, glowing red eyes in Book VI, because when this happens it's crystal clear she's not in control of herself.
  • The goddess Embla takes this even further when she assumes direct control of Veronica, speaking through her to whoever Veronica was nearby. Not only are Veronica's eyes redder than usual when Embla's controlling her directly, but her face becomes shaded as well. Letizia and Bruno receive this treatment as well, and Embla even has the gall to control Letizia's body after Letizia kills herself so she wouldn't be made to kill Veronica.
• Embla's beast form is significantly different from those of her retainer Elm and the generic bat enemies. While transformed, she hardly resembles a conventional animal; she maintains a vaguely humanoid form, and even keeps her long, unkempt hair. Everything else about the transformation is monstrous: bat's feet with blood-red claws; huge, hulking hands adorned with sharp-looking, golden finger armor; massive, somewhat holed wings that may be even bigger than her body, and a single, bloodshot eye with a red pupil. That eye is not in her head where one might think it'd be, but in her abdomen. Embla has no eye(s) in her head while she is transformed.
• Book VII begins on a terrifying Downer Beginning, with Gullveig using her Time Master powers to undo her defeat against the Order of Heroes, then reverse time for Anna, Sharena, and Alfonse to erase them from existence.
• Book VII, Chapter 9 is full of moments like these, also doubling as TearJerker due to the harrowing nature of the events:
  • First, Heiðr's curse worsens, and is painfully transformed into a beast resembling the Yamada-no-Orochi. Her in-game art is now changed to the point where there are golden crystals growing out of her body, all while she constantly cries in pain due to the Golden Seer's curse. A horrified Seiðr is given no choice but to put down her sister before things spiral out of control...
  • Things go From Bad to Worse from there, because as soon as Heiðr is dead and Seiðr mourns her sister, Njörðr reveals his true colors, thanking Seiðr for aiding him in his plans to turn her into Gullveig. Suddenly, The Reveal the stoic but reasonable king of Vanaheimr isn't who he seems to be makes his move to enact his master plan, complete with an unsettling Psychotic Smirk for extra creep factor as Seiðr can do nothing but wail as the curse is transferred to her.
  • It's even worse when you realize that Heiðr's title "Innocent Goddess" and the chapter name "The Innocent" takes on a whole new meaning: the poor goddess is so bubbly and naive, even when the curse transforms her into a giant snake monster. She dearly loves her sister Seiðr and thinks of Njörðr as a caring father figure to look after her and her curse, when in reality, Njörðr is a cunning, manipulative god who used her death as a stepping stone to create the Golden Seer. In the end, Heiðr lived a happy life despite her suffering, yet she is forever blissfully unaware of the truth about Njörðr, and will never know that her death was what caused Seiðr to become who she is in the future.
• Many Fire Emblem villains tend to be hideous and/or menacing in their physical appearance, but not bizarre to say the least, with even the likes of Fomortiis looking like a standard beast. And then there's Ginnungagap, the ruler of nothingness and the Arc Villain of the "Nihility & Dream" Tempest Trials series (pictured above), whose appearance alone could give the old design of Duma a run for its money. Ginnungagap is a Humanoid Abomination with a Celestial Body, with galaxy-patterned skin, no discernable facial features, and tentacles everywhere; on her lower body, her armor, and even her hair. Even worse, her "face" only has one eye, which makes her head resemble that of a Mogall. Her bizarre Non-Standard Character Design resembles something from a Cosmic Horror Story that would make H.P. Lovecraft blush rather than a Fire Emblem character, which all adds to just how inhuman and alien she really is.
  • Her combat art (attack, special, and damaged) manages to up the scare factor: Whereas other units' combat arts tend to face the enemy they are attacking, Ginnungagap does the same, with one noticeable difference: She's constantly looking at the player. No matter what she does, she never keeps her eye off of you, almost as if telling the player "you're next".
• Book VIII's introduction video starts off relatively tame in featuring off the new hero Ratatoskr seeing a picture of Alfonse and meeting the Order of Heroes, but when they greet her, she starts crying and hugs Alfonse which confuses everyone present (a very bad sign). Later into the video, Hræsvelgr and Níðhöggr each antagonize the heroes as per the norm with Níðhöggr targeting Veronica with a form of poisoning after having seen a picture of her earlier, making it abundantly clear that the Askrans and Emblian royals are actively being singled out and hunted down by malevolent forces rather than getting caught up in some realm-wide conflict, but the worst part comes at the end of the video; we see Henriette's picture within an empty room and watch as it promptly burns. That does not paint a pretty picture of Henriette's potential fate, marking her as a target—yet another Fire Emblem protagonist parent likely to die before the game's end after she and her children already lost Gustav way back in Book III (and with Henriette herself already having been targeted for assassination once before). One can only hope that she ends up averting the ignoble fate that so many other parents in the series seem to be unable to escape from.

Characters

• Sigurd establishes that he's aware of his ultimate fate, which means he likely knows that he's going to die by Arvis's Valflame.
• You know how healer units have unused skill quotes that can only be heard either before starting with one on your team/brigade or during a Tap Battle? Well, one of Ethlyn's is her screaming "I'll protect you!" desperately. Considering how she normally sounds like in-game, it can come out of absolutely nowhere (especially before battle) and be very shocking to hear. The inspiration for the line likely doesn't help, given that it's likely what Ethlyn screamed to Altena (her young daughter) when Travant was about to kill her and Quan, and then proceeded to kidnap Altena and raise her as his own.
• All of the Fallen Heroes in general fall under this typically with a dark purple aura surrounding them and the occasional Slasher Smile or Psychotic Smirk, but there are a few standouts:
  • Fallen Berkut, aka Berkut after his Villainous Breakdown-induced Deal with the Devil with Duma, is unique among playable units in that he actually has an idle animation. That animation? Limply swaying on his horse while cackling madly.
  • Ever wonder what the Risen would sound like if they could speak? Fell Exalt Chrom says hi. Although his lines are still clear enough to understand, they have an extremely heavy metallic reverb coupled with Voice of the Legion, and even though he retained enough of his intelligence to speak, he still has the same raspy snarls that the other Risen are known for. Oh, and to really remind you that he's a walking corpse, his skin has become a hideous shade of gray, something not even Fallen Gustav shows. Makes you wonder...how long was Chrom dead before Grima revived him?
  • Fallen Female Byleth is already unsettling due to how cold, demanding and violent Sothis is, but her appearance in Forging Bonds is even more so. Remember, in this scenario this is supposed to be the mainline Byleth from Three Houses, not the Byleth consumed by grief in the Three Hopes routes where Shez kills Jeralt. As such, her relationship with Sothis is far more cordial and respectful then it was portrayed as in Hopes, but when an enemy ambush forces Sothis to take direct control of Byleth, she suddenly becomes ruthlessly pragmatic, accusing Sharena of luring her into a trap and threatening to execute her before being calmed down.
• Jugdral's Hilda makes her appearance as a Grand Hero Battle, and right off the bat, one of her voicelines is both utterly horrifying and rage-inducing.
  "Tailtiu was a waste of space. I made her suffer day in and day out. Hoho! Those were such amusing times."

Other

• Some weapons can inflict a status effect that can prevent the afflicted target from either counterattacking or using Assists. The sound effect that plays when the status effect occurs however, is quite grotesque and unnerving.