The Dreaded / Live-Action TV

The Dreaded in television.

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• The 100 has a group of creatures called "Reapers", a race so terrifying that even the Grounders, a tribe of hardened warriors who were trained on a hostile Death World, avoid them like the plague.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ghost Rider. Everyone is deathly afraid of him, from a combination of the fact that he's powerful as all hell (literally), a cold-blooded and merciless killer, and that virtually nothing is known about him, especially concerning his seemingly inexplicable powers. Coulson's team puts on a brave and commanding front, but even they know he's a time bomb best not set off. Coulson sells his continued participation to Director Mace as, more or less, "nothing we have can stop him." Fortunately, he's one of the good guys.
• Angel:
  • Has The Destroyer, a very powerful creature transfer over from the hell dimension Quor'toth, who is revealed to be Angel's son Connor.
  • Every employee of Wolfram & Hart is extremely afraid of any actual contact with a Senior Partner; they signed up to work for them as an absentee boss, but it's horrible when they come to this dimension personally. This forms most of the plot of the episode "Reprise," and in "Deep Down," even the CEO Linwood Murrow knew he was done for as soon as Lilah started bragging about having had a personal audience with a Senior Partner.
• Arrowverse:
  • Arrow:
    • Even before he actually showed up, the show established that Ra's al Ghul is so frightening that everyone who knows of him is terrified of him, even Season 1 Big Bad Malcolm Merlyn. And when he does finally show up in Season 3, it becomes clear that his reputation is not only well-founded, but an understatement.
    • Season 2: Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke also invoked a lot of fear, to the point that Oliver and Sara, two of the biggest badasses on the show, are utterly terrified when they realize he's in Starling City. Even Amanda Waller was reduced to tears when she found out he was alive.
    • Damien Darhk has such a reputation in the magical (under)world that even John Constantine was wary of him and told Oliver to be careful with this one.
    • Prometheus. Everyone but Team Arrow is scared of him, and that's because Team Arrow hates him to the very core.
  • The Flash (2014)
    • The Reverse-Flash, aka "The Man in the Yellow Suit", to those who know of his existence. Barry himself admits that he fears as much as he hates the Reverse-Flash, and it's that fear that has prevented him from leaving Central City and moving forward with his life.
    • Zoom. Earth-2 lives in such sheer fear of him that the police don't even bother opposing him anymore. He quickly became similarly feared on Earth-1 after he outright crushed the Flash in their first fight. It's implied that even the Season 1 Big Bad fears him, judging by how he took the appearance of Zoom's helmet as his cue to leave.
    • Savitar. The self-styled God of Speed is much faster than any speedster seen before, and his armor gives him a demonic/alien appearance. He also has a cult.
    • Cicada. Apparently, no one even in the future has figured out who he is or was able to catch him. This includes the Flash, Green Arrow, the Legends, Supergirl, and even the JLA. Then again, Nora's changes to the timeline mean that Cicada is now a completely different man than he was in hers. Also, Harrison Sherloque Wells has managed to identify and capture Cicada on 37 other Earths.
• Subverted in Barry. Chechen hitman Stovka is built up by Goran and Hank as a legendary killer, but when a captive Fuches meets him he turns out to be a feeble, suicidal old man who eventually shoots himself in front of him.
• BattleBots:
  • Tombstone is perhaps the most iconic bot of the ABC series, and for good reason. Its main weapon is a massive spinning blade with immense destructive power. Most robots win fights by hitting the other robot until it stops working. Tombstone wins fights by hitting the other robot until it isn't in one piece anymore. Tombstone was feared enough that despite not winning Season 1, it was given the top seeding in Season 2, which ended in Tombstone claiming victory. And every battle it fought in Season 2 until the semi-finals was won by knockout.
  • Minotaur gave Tombstone a run for its money, with a weapon that is similarly destructive, combined with the robot itself being small, fast, and very durable. Its own weapon sounds like a jet engine revving up, and left a trail of destruction in its wake comparable to Tombstone.
• Better Call Saul: Unless he really puts on the charm, Eduardo "Lalo" Salamanca has a tendency to unnerve anybody he is in a room with. His jovial and laid back demeanor usually only serves to enhance his menace and by the time of Breaking Bad, Saul is so terrified of him that he is still looking over his shoulder. What really defines him as this is that he is the only Salamanca, and arguably Cartel member, who puts Gustavo Fring on edge, due to Lalo's incredible intellect putting him on a level strategic playing field, in contrast with the rest of his family. When Gus learns that Lalo survived an assassination attempt he ordered on him, the otherwise superhumanly collected drug lord proceeds to turn into a Nervous Wreck over the thought of Lalo coming for him.
• Played for laughs with Tanya Lovewell in The Big Leap, who's meddling in her kids lives puts the crew of the in-universe reality show on edge after only meeting her once (and that's saying something, since their entire job in meddling in the cast's lives). When Simon finds one of her hair extensions on set he tells one of the APs "Mommy is here", leading to the phrase being repeated in a panic across all walkie talkies and Nick telling them to get security and a camera.
• The Boys (2019):
  • With few exceptions, everyone is scared of Homelander. Even Starlight, while able to stand up for herself and be confident towards the other members of the Seven, is scared silent when Homelander is lecturing her.
  • There's also Black Noir, the Batman Expy of the show. Homelander is at least a Villain with Good Publicity who keeps his more deranged side hidden behind closed doors (at least, at first) — everyone, friend, foe and civilian alike, knows what Black Noir is capable of. Even Billy Butcher, who shows absolutely no fear of Homelander (as confirmed by the man himself) or Soldier Boy, is unnerved at the prospect of Black Noir being in the same vicinity as him and his group.
  • Beating out both of the above (and who even they fear) is Soldier Boy, and this isn't the sniveling, pants-pissing coward from the comics. He's quite possibly THE strongest and toughest opponent shown thus far, and he's so mentally unstable and violent that Butcher has to keep him toked out during the entirety of their brief partnership together. He is, quite literally, a nuclear ticking time bomb that could go off at any minute. His return has Homelander and Black Noir legitimately scared for the first time in the series, and given what he does to the Crimson Countess upon his return, and what he did to Black Noir in the past, it's justified. Butcher^note Who took V24, temporarily giving him superpowers and Homelander are even forced into an Enemy Mine situation just to stand a chance against him in a head-on fight.
• Breaking Bad:
  • After the murder of Gus Fring, Walter White, by the name Heisenberg, is known and feared throughout the American southwest.
  • Jesse Pinkman also became feared for a time after the death of Spooge, who had stolen money from one of Jesse's friends. Of course, he didn't actually do it, and he became not-so-feared once Spooge's girlfriend fessed up to his death.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The big bads tend to be this to the heroes and usually for a really good reason. With the exception of Angelus in season 2 (who was himself quite strong and had an almost foolproof plan) all of the villains have been nigh unstoppable, cunning and highly destructive.
  • Most supernatural creatures are terrified of the Slayer. Even powerful vampires like Angelus and Darla preferred to avoid confronting Slayers and kept a low profile to avoid attracting their attention; Buffy even brags at one point that she's "the thing monsters have nightmares about." In demon society, succeeding in killing a Slayer is a major source of Villain Cred.
  • Lothos. He was famous for killing many past Slayers. Consider that Spike was considered a Badass Nonhuman for killing two.
  • The Master. In the Dreamverse, his escape from his can is one of Buffy's darkest nightmares and preventing his escape is Angel's top priority. The unspoken belief between them is that they won't be able to stop him if he gets out.
  • Angelus, despite not being as strong as the other villains, definitely qualifies as this; he's one of, if not the most dangerous vampires in the Buffyverse. Those around Angel have to live with the fact that, if just a few things go wrong, they might be facing "The Scourge of Europe", whose mere voice turns Cordelia into a whimpering, shaking mess. It's to the extent that Angel considers a willingness to kill him a very good quality in his allies and friends, should Angelus ever resurface.
  • The Mayor, perhaps not to the same extent as Angelus or The First but it is worth noting that he was able to freak out both Mr Trick and Deputy Mayor Alan Finch, and had control over his own personal army of vampires before he became invulnerable. Hell, he even freaked out the Scooby Gang when he casually walked into the library.
  • Severin is the prophecied Siphon, whose coming had long been feared among the magical community.
  • Faith is nine kinds of panicked when she sees Kakistos again, with Buffy even mentioning in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds that he was the one thing Faith was ever truly terrified of. Furthermore, his reputation is such that Giles immediately recognizes his name when Buffy, being Buffy, misidentifies him as "Kissing Toast."
• Burn Notice:
  • The main character develops this kind of reputation over the course of his spy work before the series starts. One character, a former Georgian government minister, says he thought "Michael Westen" was just a code name for a group, not an actual person.
    "I'm Michael Westen... yeah, that one."
  • In fact, Michael is considered a boogeyman to Russian special forces that when he told them his name, they backed right the hell down. It's one of the funniest moments in the show to hear a Spetsnaz operator practically crapping his pants:
    "He's Michael Westen! There are only four of us!"
  • In one episode, the main characters play up one of their cover IDs this way in a Whole-Plot Reference to The Usual Suspects.
• The Cape: Chess is this, the mere mention that he could possibly be alive being enough to spook public defender Dana Faraday.
• Charmed (1998): Piper's Mama Bear tendencies. To the point that, after two demons do the huge mistake of kidnapping her son Wyatt, and Piper responding with a rampage so brutal and extreme, the Evil Side feel the necessity to send her an emissary to calm her down and swear than no one will threat her son Wyatt again. Worth to notice that Piper managed to scare every demon alive so badly with just a single rampage, that they wanted to avoid another.
• Cheers: Norm became this in one episode, when the CEO of his company forced him to become the company's hatchet-man, essentially giving employees notice that they had been laid off. At the end of the episode he decided he could not keep this job with a clean conscience, so he decided to turn in his resignation. He tried calling his immediate supervisor and then said supervisor's secretary, both of whom hung up immediately; word had gotten out through the company grapevine that if you got a call from Norm Peterson, it meant you were being laid off. When he realized what was going on, he called up the CEO personally and greeted him with, "Hello, sir? This is NORM! PETERSON! MUAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
• Daredevil (2015):
  • Two words: Wilson Fisk. Until episode 3, he's an offscreen menace who has only ever interacted with people using James Wesley as his intermediary. After Matt Murdock defeats John Healy, he tries to squeeze a name out of him. Healy reveals Fisk's name, then promptly impales his face through a fence spike to keep Fisk from going after any of his family.
  • Frank Castle becomes one through the start of season 2. He is known to inflict cruel vigilante justice on those he comes across, and is scarily competent at tracking down targets no matter what they try to do to throw him off their trail. Matt might break a few bones and smash up your operations but Frank will send you to your grave without a second thought. This also makes him this to the police, since he can start gang wars by himself. In fact, in Luke Cage (2016), one of Blake Tower's arguments against arming ESU cops with the Judas bullets is because it's possible that a guy like Frank Castle might get his hands on it.
• The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: The Skeksis employ two beings that are this. The first is one of their own number, skekMal the Hunter. He's such a fierce killer even the other Skeksis are nervous whenever he's around. Then there's the "peeper beetle." Despite its silly name, all skekSil has to do is mention it as a possible means of punishment and skekTek goes into full-blown panic mode. It turns out to be a bug that eats your eyes, and is used in a scene that's reminiscent of the "boo box" in Hook and the Ceti Eel in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• Dark Matter (2015): The Raza, dreaded enforcers employed by Ferrous Corp. Rumors make them out to be seven-foot tall half-human, half-reptile aliens with skin that burns (in fact, they're just human Psychos for Hire). It's stated that no one has ever survived encountering them, and thus their true identity isn't known. They turn out to be the Amnesiac Hero protagonists. Raza is the name of their ship.
• Dexter: When one of George King AKA 'The Skinner''s employees is brought in for questioning about a series of murders, he has a near panic-attack, and would rather go to jail than convict him, and for good reason.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Daleks are treated by all who know them as the bogeymen of the Doctor Who universe. Even the Doctor, who's battled and defeated them uncountable times, always treats their arrival with a mixture of grim determination and just plain old fear.
    • Best seen in the end of the first part of "The Stolen Earth". When the first broadcasts of "EX-TERM-IN-ATE! EX-TERM-IN-ATE!" reach Earth, the former companions and allies of the Doctor such as Sarah Jane, Martha Jones, and even Jack Harkness — some of the bravest people in the universe, one of whom is outright impossible to kill — are stunned into a state of tearful panic.
    • When the Daleks are first encountered in the new series (in the eponymous episode "Dalek"), the Doctor reacts with sheer panic when he realizes the alien prisoner he is locked in with is (apparently) the last surviving Dalek.
    • The Daleks are so frightening that the mere resurrection of their home planet sends both the Doctor and Missy - two of the very few people that the Daleks fear or consider equals - into a barely concealed panic.
  • There is a very good reason why The Master is considered to be one of the Doctor's most dangerous foes. He may be a bit silly at times, but he's more than capable of bringing the Earth, Gallifrey, and ultimately, the entire universe, to its knees.
  • There is also the Valeyard. He starts off in "The Mysterious Planet" as an Amoral Attorney prosecuting the Sixth Doctor. It is finally revealed by the Master that they are an Enemy Without of the Doctor between his twelfth and final incarnations, and they're so terrible that the Master is scared of them. Taken further in the Expanded Universe: the Seventh Doctor locked away the Sixth Doctor's personality to prevent the Valeyard from existing, and Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound shows if the Valeyard had won he would have destroyed the Web of Time.
  • After the reboot of the universe, Rory Williams has been interwoven into the myths and legends of human history as "The Last Centurion". Woe betide anyone who threatens his loved ones:
    Rory: Where. Is. My. Wife.
  • It should be noted that, after a brief hiatus in Season 7 when he managed to erase himself from everyone's records for a while, the Doctor qualified for this trope. In that his name and history was enough to terrify plenty of alien races, and he's more than once exploited it by simply telling his latest enemy a) who he is, and b) to look him up. In one case, it was in a universal register that had files on everyone, so they simply said that they had files on everyone, until he corrected their search parameters from 'individual' to 'cause of death'. Their computer practically exploded and they ran for their lives.
    • This, irony abounding, includes the Daleks, considering that he's their bogeyman. The only thing that gives a Dalek pause is the Doctor's name. The only thing that scares them is a madman with a box, the one presence in the cosmos they would not wish to face. At the same time, "Asylum of the Daleks" implies that they find his hatred (of them) a beautiful thing, with the exceptionally creepy Dalek Prime Minister musing that perhaps this is why they have never managed to kill him — from their point of view, it would be destroying an artistic masterpiece. The Doctor finds this simultaneously horrifying, disgusting, and very creepy. Their names for him include 'Ka Faraq Gatri' (the Destroyer of Worlds) in the legends of ancient Skaro, and 'the Predator of the Daleks'. The Doctor himself once remarked in dark amusement to a dying Dalek, that he was nothing less than the Devil Himself. The Dalek's panicked and ineffectual screaming didn't exactly dispel the impression.
    • In fact, this is made especially clear in the Series 5 episode "The Pandorica Opens". The Doctor's enemies have designed a perfect prison to trap the Doctor in. Considering that, the legend surrounding the Pandorica reflects on what his enemies think of the Doctor:
    The Doctor: There was a goblin. Or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it or... reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
    • This is also aptly demonstrated in "The Eleventh Hour", in which the eleventh incarnation confronts the Atraxi with a series of questions - is Earth a threat to the Atraxi? Has any Earthling violated Atraxi laws? And finally - "Is Earth protected?" The Atraxi plays clips from prior series of the show, cycling through Doctors until reaching the 10th, at which point the 11th steps through the image.
      The Doctor: Hello. I'm the Doctor. Basically... run. (The Atraxi promptly follows his advice)
    • The Doctor's status as this is deconstructed in A Good Man Goes to War. Places like the Gamma Forest know him as a warrior first and foremost despite the fact he rarely ever fights, simply from how much of the universe he's uprooted and changed. The Papal Mainframe are so utterly horrified by him that they go to inhumane lengths to kill him, Kidnapping Amy and brainwashing her child into an assassin because the child is a Time Lord and they've seen what one of those can do first hand. When people in the Doctor's debt hear he's calling in old favors, they are horrified by what that means. The Doctor's assault on Demon's Run is completely bloodless, like usual, but collapses as the situation gets out of hand and eventually turns into a Phyrric Victory. Despite all the good the Doctor's done, his status completely warped most of the universe's perception of him and it did tremendous damage to people he cared about. This is part of why the aforementioned database wiping happened.
  • There are specific incarnations of the Doctor who are more feared than the rest. There is an incarnation those following the Eighth Doctor don't speak of: the War Doctor. He is notorious for breaking the promise bound to the name "the Doctor" by burning down Gallifrey and the Daleks with them. ^note Of course, then it's found out in the 50th Anniversary special that Gallifrey didn't burn and was instead preserved in stasis by all of the Doctors (It Makes Sense in Context), and the only reason the timeline still asserts the War Doctor as The Dreaded (to Nine and Ten) is because he and Ten forget they actually saved Gallifrey after they return to their own times.
    Gallifreyan Soldier: There was a saying, sir, in the Time War. The first thing you notice about the Doctor of War is that he is unarmed. For many, it's also the last.
  • In "The Day of the Doctor", we are treated to two back-to-back encounters of this: first, as a group of Daleks invade Arcadia, the second city of Gallifrey, a swarm of the Omnicidal Maniacs surrounding a group of unarmed, defenseless Gallifreyans, including scared, crying children, and then we get the second, as, before the Daleks can slaughter these people, they all detect the presence of the Doctor, and dare not waste even a minute fraction of their attention on anything but their long-hated foe, with not even one staying behind to finish off the helpless people. A few seconds later, there are only a bunch of dying or very, very dead Daleks.
  • The Time Lords as a whole become this. Initially, they're presented as a fusty old bunch who, despite the capacity to be very dangerous, generally aren't - "dusty old senators" is one description. The Doctor usually avoids them, but he doesn't really fear them, and the usual response is absent-minded respect or bemused apathy. But every now and then, there's glimpses of how dangerous they can be, including through the likes of the Doctor and the Master themselves, going right back to their first appearance in "The War Games", when they were treated as this by the Doctor and the War Chief. Then, they're upgraded to In-Universe Nightmare Fuel by the Last Great Time War, going from "dusty old senators" to "as bad as the Daleks", matching the Daleks for savagery at the very height of their powers, and nearly tearing apart the universe, both indirectly and (in The End of Time) almost succeeded in doing so on purpose. As the page quote for the Kardashev Scale by a Time Lord puts it, "most races pray to lesser beings than the Time Lords" — and while the finer details of the Time War are missed, no one in the universe ever forgets that fact afterwards. Even the Doctor makes clear that while he tries to remember them at their best, when they look like coming back in "The End of Time" he is terrified of the prospect. It gets to the point where the instinctive response to an untranslatable message of unknown origin that turns out to be coming from Gallifrey has everyone coming in weapons hot in abject terror.
  • "Demons of the Punjab": The Doctor has never previously encountered the Thijarians, but she's heard stories describing them as the universe's most deadly assassins, and has an Oh, Crap! moment when she figures out what they are.
• Father Ted:
  • Father Stone, who just likes to sit for hours on end and is impossible to have a conversation with, resulting in endless, soul-sucking silence whenever he visits. Just mentioning his name causes Dougal to faint and Jack to Megaton Punch Ted out of the parish house.
  • More seriously, Bishop Brennan, the protagonists' corrupt, abusive and short-tempered boss. He not only has authority over them, but is entirely capable of kicking Ted across the front lawn.
• Firefly:
  • The Reavers.
    Wash: Oh God! Oh God, oh God!
  • To explain some of their heinous acts, they rape people to death, skin them and wear their skin, and feast upon their organs. And as Zoe aptly put it "And if [you] are very lucky, they do it in that order".
  • The Hands of Blue have a similar effect, at least on River, and they rapidly pick up this status with Jayne once he hears the effects of what they do to "witnesses."
• Game of Thrones:
  • The White Walkers, the legendary and fearsome monsters from beyond the Wall. They had not been seen in thousands of years and considered a myth, a joke. Yet the Night's Watch still had a horn signal for such an event and when it's sounded everyone who hears it knows Don't Ask, Just Run, Run or Die.
  • Lord Tywin Lannister is arguably the most straightforward example in the series. After his utter annihilation of House Reyne for their attempted rebellion decades before, he became the single most feared man in Westeros during his life. He is known for being an utterly brilliant politician and completely ruthless in achieving his goals. Tywin's son, Tyrion, describes Westeros as "Seven Kingdoms united in fear of Tywin Lannister." He keeps Petyr Balish, Varys and Olenna from crossing him and even his complete psychopath grandson, King Joffrey Baratheon, is utterly emasculated whenever he is in the same room as his grandfather, despite the fact that Tywin is supposed to be the one serving him. Robb Stark likewise sees Tywin as his enemy.
    • A major reason why Tywin Lannister is so feared is due to his control over Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, who is so notorious for his almost inhuman size and strength and cruelty, especially when he's leading his personal band of psychopaths throughout the Riverlands that even certified badasses like Bronn are unashamed to admit they fear to face him (and, to a lesser extent, Tywin's control over his younger brother Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, who is still more than capable of making an entire room full of happy go lucky Lannister soldiers go silent as the grave when he enters). Actually, a majority of the Lannister soldiers are portrayed as absolute monsters who use fear and violence to achieve goals. In Season 6, the Lannister soldiers ordered by Tommen/Kevan to keep Cersei in the Red Keep are clearly horrified at the sight of Gregor despite their superior number.
      Lord Tywin Lannister: Ser Gregor strikes terror into the hearts of our enemies and our friends.
  • After Flaying Alive a lord who didn't submit to his father's rule (as well as his wife and brother), Ramsay Bolton becomes feared throughout the North, and people are now submitting simply to avoid his horrific reprisals, a reputation he is clearly pleased with. His father on the other hand, despite the submissions, is less than pleased due to the long-term problems of dealing with bannermen in this manner, because it means that Ramsay is hated as well as feared. Sansa ends up running away in large part out of fear of what Ramsey could do to her, which as Roose points out, would invite rebellion from the North, and the wrath of the Iron Throne.
  • Stannis Baratheon has a reputation as a humourless, merciless and uncompromising Determinator, who is both leader and soldier, amongst his sensible enemies at King's Landing, and his resume includes holding Storm's End against all the power of House Tyrell with 500 men while being Reduced To Rat Burgers, storming the Targaryen island bastion of Dragonstone, smashing the ironborn fleet at Fair Isle, and subduing the island of Great Wyk. And that's just his Back Story… In current times, he has also developed the habit of burning his enemies alive. King Joffrey is an exception, eager to defy the good name of his uncle in the field of battle and give him a red smile. You can imagine Stannis's terror.
    Varys: I am trying.
  • The Blackfish's status as an in-universe memetic badass means Roose Bolton is quite concerned that he may have survived.
  • Tyrion's reaction to hearing Oberyn Martell is in town is a restrained Oh, Crap! Judging by his Establishing Character Moment, Oberyn has come by his reputation honestly.
  • The ruthless cutthroat Karl Tanner claims he was once known as "The Legend of Gin Alley," and definitely terrifies his companions.
  • The Iron Bank is infamous for funding the enemies of states and rulers who default on their loans. Tyrion is unnerved to learn Littlefinger has sunk the realm millions in debt to them and Olenna calls Tywin's bluff when he claims he's not worried about it, saying he's too smart not to be worried.
  • When Arya Stark confronts Melisandre, the red priestess seems to think so of Arya, being somewhat terrified of the sight of her. This is because she sees and knows what Arya will become.
  • Just Grey Wind's growls are enough to put Jaime Lannister on edge and Lannister troops tell chilling stories about him.
  • When he is forced to retire, Barristan Selmy draws his sword in court. This not only silences everyone's laughter, but provokes his fellow knights to draw steel as well and even The Hound goes for his sword. Even when he throws down his blade and tells Joffrey to melt it down and add it to the others on the Iron Throne, the look of shock on Joffrey's face says it all.
  • Euron Greyjoy is the terror of the 14 seas and the mere sight of his sails make grown men pray for their lives. Even the other Ironborn residents are somewhat afraid of him. Theon and Yara are understandably terrified when they see their mad uncle's sails attacking their fleet.
• On Gotham, Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska have this distinction among all of the villains of the show. Jerome is frightening enough by the age of twenty that when The Penguin hears his laugh in the cell next to him while he's in Arkham, and realizes who his neighbor is, the look on his face makes it apparent that he's obviously terrified. By season five, his brother Jeremiah has achieved this status, to the point that Harvey won't tell anyone that Jeremiah set him up to take the fall for a murder he didn't commit, because he is so afraid of what he will do if he doesn't give into his demands. On the hero's side: By the series finale, when Bruce finally starts taking on his role as Batman, his actions during the episode make Penguin and The Riddler afraid to put their plans into motion at night, when Batman would be more likely to notice their activities.
• Grimm: The Grimms are The Dreaded of the Wesen world. Whenever someone realizes Nick is a Grimm for the first time, they are terrified and often beg not to be killed. Monroe explains it best;
  Monroe: You're the monster under the bed! [...] You're not real! You're a scary story we tell our kids! Be good or a Grimm will come and cut your head off...
  • And like Harry Dresden or the Doctor, he's beginning to earn a reputation for himself one encounter at a time as people get wind of what he went up against and what the outcome was. He'd deny being one of the baddest badasses out there, but the scorecard says he is.
  • It helps that there seems to be something about Grimms that makes Wesen instinctively fear them. Many badass Wesen who never encountered a Grimm before, are paralyzed with fear the moment they see that Nick is a Grimm. It seems to be a supernatural element of being a Grimm but it has not been explained on the show.
    • Partially explained in Season 3, that when the Wesen woge they see the Grimm's eyes turn black and their true selves reflected in them.
• Hell's Kitchen: In Season 11, the remaining chefs face off against five previous winners of the season. One of those winners is The One-Armed Bandit Dave, who previously won the competition with one arm. Now he's back...with two working arms.
• Heroes: Sylar. When a gaggle of supervillains are released from their cells and have the chance to take revenge on Noah Bennet, the guy who locked them up, Noah only has to say one thing to scare them into teaming up with him: "Sylar's in the building."
  • Bennet was pretty dreaded himself at first. He's a Badass Normal who used to work for The Company and was very good at it. Sylar is in fact the only thing more feared than "the man with the horn-rimmed glasses." In fact, when an eclipse robs all of them of their powers for a few hours, Sylar has to run and hide from Bennet, who suddenly has the upper hand (well, a sniper rifle).
• Human Target: Guerrero has managed to interrogate people just by introducing himself. Of course, being prime time they have to keep most of the stuff that got him the reputation off screen.
• Intergalactic: Emma Grieves is treated this way by Commonworld officials, as she's a feared resistance fighter/terrorist notorious for fighting against them. They show visible fear after learning she's escaped. It turns out she's the founder of ARC, a militant group waging war on them.
• Another rare game show example: In Jeopardy!, there is a category called "The Dreaded Spelling Category", and it is dreaded, because the contestant does have to spell the word, exactly. (Not as easy as it seems.)
  • "The Dreaded Opera Category", as well, because very few people know it well enough to do well on it. Naturally, this was always saved for last.
• On Justified Theo Tonnin, The Don of the Detroit Mob, is portrayed like this. He has been the head of his crime family for over 30 years and the cops can't get any charges to stick. According to stories he likes to travel with a severed human ear in his pocket and if he pulls it out and starts talking to it, you know that he is really angry at whoever he is currently with. His mob lieutenants are shown to be Axe-Crazy psychos but they all adore/fear Theo and he manages to keep them in line (most of the time). This portrayal is helped by a large dose of Real Life Writes the Plot since the actor portraying Theo is very busy and could only appear sporadically on the show. The writers had to invent other mobsters to act as the Big Bad of a season which resulted in Theo being portrayed as someone even those guys are deathly scared of.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Kiva: Wataru develops into this after recovering from his Heroic BSoD, as demonstrated where he begins sends Fangires fleeing in terror simply by staring them down. Without transforming into Kiva.
  • Kamen Rider W: Ryubee Sonozaki, AKA the Terror Dopant. The Gaia Memories contain all of the world's knowledge on a single subject condensed down into a Transformation Trinket. In effect, this means that Ryubee is the living personification of fear, even when he's not transformed and posing as the kindly investor who runs Futo's natural history museum. When he's actually trying to scare you, he emits such Primal Fear that it can reduce even the bravest person alive into a gibbering, cowering mess.
  • Kamen Rider Drive: In the show's backstory, the Roidmudes' plan to freeze the Earth in time was thwarted by a lone warrior over the course of a single night, causing them to fearfully dub him "Kamen Rider". When policeman Shinnosuke Tomari first becomes Drive, the Roidmude he fights recognizes him as that same warrior^note Though in reality, he's the successor - the original was the prototype version of Drive, wielded by an entirely different person and panics about fighting the Kamen Rider.
    • Drive also has Mashin Chaser, a Roidmude enforcer whose job is to destroy rogue Roidmudes, earning him the nickname "Shinigami"; the fact that he can go toe-to-toe with Drive only adds to his reputation. He's actually a double example since he was Proto-Drive, the one who thwarted the Global Freeze and inspired the name "Kamen Rider", before the Roidmude Executives captured him and brainwashed him into obedience.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O: Oma Zi-O/Future!Sougo Tokiwa rules over the world with an iron fist after killing half of humanity for over fifty years. Because of the fact that he's far too powerful to attempt to confront him in any way at that point and time, multiple groups of his enemies have gone back to in time from before he ever became Zi-O in hopes that that they can prevent his rise to power in one form or another.
• Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances is a humorous, not physically dangerous version. Not downplayed, though. People are definitely scared of her — because she's so obnoxious they dread meeting her. She's guaranteed to make anyone uncomfortable with her disingenuous friendliness that's always spoiled by her Lack of Empathy; her obsessive self-aggrandizement; and her adamantine insistence that things be done her way even though she hardly understands how anything works and is usually Comically Missing the Point. People sneak around to avoid running into her and show signs of acute distress when they do.
• In Leverage, Eliot Spencer is a rare heroic example. Anyone who knows Eliot's reputation as a supreme badass takes him very seriously. When he announces himself by name to Moreau's bodyguards, an entire roomful of people draw guns on him and the closest ones actually look worried. Later on, Eliot proves they were right by mowing down a warehouse full of those same bodyguards by grabbing guns for the first time in the series.
  • In the sequel series, Leverage: Redemption, it's revealed that the team never pulls a job in Canada because they are stone-cold terrified of messing with what they openly call the most ruthless, fearsome and implacable law enforcement agency on the planet: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
  Eliot: They are not just cops on horses. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police department is the most feared law enforcement in the entire world.
  Parker: They are fast. They are ruthless. They will put you down politely and they will put you down forever.
  Eliot: They are Mounties. They never forget a face.
• Loki (2021): The TVA can handle gods, vampires, Titans (i.e. Thanos) and the Infinity Stones with ease. That their founder made them for the sole purpose of preventing one specific variant of himself from coming into existence ever again speaks of how much damage the first version of that variant unleashed, and what he'd do once he comes back. Understandable, since that person is Kang the Conqueror.
• Love and Destiny: Qing Yao is fearsome when she gets mad, and being a doctor means she knows how to really hurt people. It's not a good idea to get on her bad side.
• Though AT-STs in the Star Wars series were always a threat, they were rarely treated as such In-Universe and most audiences thought little of them since they were effectively and effortlessly taken down by Space Teddy Bears armed with sticks and rocks. Then The Mandalorian came along and promoted these things to utterly terrifying, depicting them as heavily armored giant monsters that can effortlessly slaughter an entire platoon of seasoned soldiers without scratching its paint job. Just look at the damned thing. Both The Mandalorian and Cara Dune are terrified of the thing, making it pretty clear that nothing on that planet can damage its legs and that without a very specific plan they have no hope in hell of taking the thing down.
  • Who frightens Smug Snake Moff Gideon so much that he immediately tries to off himself upon their arrival on scene? Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
• Merlin: Merlin's older alter-ego has this reputation towards Morgana in series four. While a heroic example, he's not a Terror Hero as this is completely unintentional on his part, and she's terrified because the gatekeeper of the spirit world told her that he is her destiny and her doom. Whenever she sees him in his aged form, she has Tears of Fear. It doesn't help that he commanded a dragon to burn her army, stripped her of her powers once, and in a magical battle, completely curbstomped her and tossed her aside like a rag doll.
  • Morgana's vision of the future plays this straight. She's lying wounded on a battlefield, littered with the remains of her dead soldiers. And then we see the older Merlin, standing over her triumphantly and seemingly all-powerful, furiously admonishing her for all of her crimes.
    Merlin: Is this really what you wanted, Morgana!
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: Everyone in London is terrified of Doug Piranha, including his brother and partner in crime Dinsdale. "I've seen grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug," Luigi Vercotti says. Doug's most horrifying technique? Sarcasm.
• Mr. Young: In the first episode, Derby describes Slab as a cross between Godzilla and Bigfoot. This becomes a plot point in "Mr. Hyde" when Adam develops a serum that makes him more confident, but also turns him into a monster whenever it takes effect, but finds that just looking at Slab scares him enough to turn him back.
• Odd Squad:
  • Orchid is a Bratty Half-Pint of an agent with a serious attitude problem who also doesn't do well with agents of higher hierarchial status than her within the organization. She will not hesitate to beat up those who oppose her, she and Otto have an implied bad history, and most everyone despises even having to interact with her (even the Mobile Unit, whom have never been revealed to know Orchid before). It gets to such a point that even Olympia — known for being a Genki Girl full of positive energy — manages to lose her cool with her in "Drop Gadget Repeat" after she and Otis try everything in their power to retrieve the #3 gadget from her.
  • Odd Todd, on the other hand, manages to be even worse than Orchid in every sense of the word. He is the former partner of Olive who is Good with Numbers, far exceeding that of any Odd Squad agent, and turned to the side of oddness once he became bored with solving cases at a rapidfire pace. His Face–Heel Turn was ultimately cemented by him attacking his co-workers and attempting to kill them with pies from a pienado that is stored in a vault, and while no one died (at least no one that we know of, anyway), it left a lasting impression on Precinct 13579 and its agents. None of the agents in Precinct 13579 even want to speak his name. Olive is shown to be the one suffering the most, however, as she deals with trauma from his actions that manifests in the form of her Absurd Phobia of pies.
  • Obfusco starts out as an agent who is feared by those such as Olive for his eccentricity and his confusing Word Salad Philosophy way of speaking, but eventually becomes someone who is nothing more than a nuisance rather than someone feared.
  • Parodied and later subverted with Rivka and Baby Genius, who roam the Odd Squad Warehouse. Many agents dread seeing Baby Genius in particular, to the point where the primary way to indicate someone should see him (at least for Oprah) involves holding up a yellow-and-red baby rattle and shaking it without saying a word. However, Baby Genius isn't shown to be a villainous or evil-hearted baby in the slightest, and by extension, the same goes for Rivka — they can be kind if they want to. "Two Agents and a Baby" even shows Rivka enlisting the help of Olympia and Otis to babysit Baby Genius while she goes Back to School for her pilot's license. Eventually, "Ocean and the Fly" reveals that Rivka intentionally keeps the Warehouse dark and mysterious because she thought that's how agents preferred their interactions to be, followed by Ocean telling her that it's creepy.
  • While Oprah is feared by a majority of her agents due to her short temper and her high strength, "Three's Company" is the most prominent example of this in action. Oprah is forced to come down to the bullpen and stay there temporarily while her office is in need of repairs from Odd Squad's IT department, and as a result, most everyone begins to panic. To make matters worse, she begins implementing various things she feels could improve the precinct, such as swapping chairs out for exercise balls (for better posture) and heading a strenuous step aerobics class (because she feels her agents aren't getting enough exercise). Not only that, but more and more problems are uncovered by the IT department, meaning that Oprah has to stay down in the bullpen longer and longer. It gets so bad that Olympia — the one who suggested Oprah work in the bullpen in the first place — begins to realize just what she's done when Oprah begins setting her improvements into motion.
    • Before that episode, "Odd Squad Needs You" also showed that no one (not even Oscar, who has worked under her for years) was willing to work with Oprah on filming a commercial of the same name, and the only one who didn't fear her was Otis, who steps up as the director of the commercial. However, unlike in "Three's Company", the reasoning behind why everyone fears her is more clear — it's because Oprah is all the agents' superior, and as Oscar says, "You can't boss the boss!" Truth be told, Otis has to walk on eggshells around Oprah when filming, and when he screens the commercial to the entire precinct, it's revealed to be a disaster (not helped by Otis's terrible video editing skills). Oprah chews him out and lectures him and her other agents on what Odd Squad is, and then it's revealed that Otis and Olympia tricked her with the poorly-edited commercial so they could film a more viable one. Her reaction is one of impression, and she praises Otis for knowing how to handle his actors.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Regina is feared by the citizens of Storybrooke, as is Mister Gold, for good reasons: Regina is the Evil Queen herself, a powerful sorceress who, while being deprived of her powers while the curse is still effective, has powerful connections and a tight grisp on her town as the mayor, and Gold is Rumpelstiltskin, who practically owns the place. Rumpelstiltskin in particular was the most dreaded of all, thanks to his powers as the Dark One in the fairy tail land.
  • Starting season 2, another character shows up who even Regina and Gold fear: Cora, Regina's mother, who is even more powerful than her daughter. Gold himself is willing to take extreme measures to make sure that she won't travel to Storybrooke (when the resident Magnificent Bastard and The Chessmaster of the show is scared of someone, you know things got very serious). The icing on the cake? She is the Queen of Hearts from Wonderlands. You may now panick.
  • Season 3 introduces the most unexpected character as the new Big Bad of the story, who also turns out to be absolutely amoral and feared by all: Peter Pan. Which lead to a very interesting Enemy Mine situation in which characters who previously hated each other are now teaming up together against him in order to save Henry. Considering how mischievous, smart and manipulative Peter Pan is, cooperation is mandatory.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: While Jafar is absolutely merciless and feared by most, turns out there is another being who is frightening enough to make all Wonderland citizens have a massive "Oh crap" moment when they realize it is released: the Jabberwocky, whose weapon is literally fear, and who is a master of Mind Rape. It will enter your mind, dig up your most secret fears and use them against you, making you wish it would just stop. The thing is, it doesn't even need to get physical: by just making you relive your fears, it can kill you. This creature is the master of Break Them by Talking speeches. You can't escape it. You can't hide your fears and most dark secrets. Once it gets a hold on your spirit, you are done, defenseless. And even if you somehow manage to fight back, you will soon find that it is useless, as the Jabberwocky is immortal, and there is only one weapon out there that can stop it. Sleep well.
• The Outpost: The black kinj, which gives its host the power to kill anything with a touch. Two admits that even though the Prime Order searched for it for centuries, they feared actually finding it.
• The Originals: It's been shown that the Mikaelson's very name is enough to make even older and violent vampires go pale and they more than back it up (especially Klaus) to ensure that if you cross them, you die very, VERY violently.
• Parks and Recreation: Ron Swanson's first ex-wife, Tammy One, is able to strike fear into the heart of even his Ax-Crazy second ex-wife.
• The Queen's Gambit: Beth quickly becomes this in the chess world after she starts playing professionally. It takes years before she ever loses a match, and she's known for being unflinching and a fierce competitor, all the way to the bitter end, causing many to dread going up against her. Even those that can match or even defeat her consider her to be an absolute force to be reckoned with. Just look at what happens when she arrives at a tournament and introduces herself to the very first person she'll be playing against:
  Beth: I'm Beth Harmon.
  Opponent: ...Shit. [resignedly begins to reset the board]
• Revolution:
  • "I'm Miles Matheson, and yes, all the stories you've heard are true." Cue terrified Eye Take from a Mook.
  • Sgt. Strausser is one the most feared members of the militia. Even Miles describes him as the only person he's afraid of.
• Rise of Empires: Ottoman: Vlad Dracula secures his throne by brutally wiping out his opposition and becoming the arch-nemesis of the Ottomans. He is the only man that Mehmet is shown to truly fear.
• Robot Wars:
  • Chaos 2, a Lightning Bruiser robot which zipped around at 20mph and was armed with a high-pressure air flipper that sent opposing robots Blown Across the Room. Curb Stomped every single opponent it faced in Series 3 and 4, and for nearly all of Series 5 until it was defeated by Bigger Brother. 24 wins, 9 losses, and the only double champion in the show's run.
    George Francis: If you know anything at all about Robot Wars then you already know who we are.
  • Hypnodisc, a robot named for a huge spinning disc which served as its weapon. Notable for literally ripping enemy robots to shreds. Its first fight ever had it inflicting, in the words of commentator Jonathan Pearce, ""the most complete destruction I think we've seen on Robot Wars ever." 22 wins, 12 losses.
    Peter Kinsley: We did not want to meet Hypnodisc... This machine was stunning for the amount of damage it dished out. The pits were very quiet when it was on.
  • Razer, a robot which had a large crushing "beak" and resembled a robotic bird-dinosaur. Razer's beak was capable of easily piercing even the thickest armour and damaging the internal workings of other robots. 40 wins and 6 losses - four to technical issues and one to a controversial judges decision, only Pussycat was ever able to decisively beat it^note Which it did twice.
  • Carbide became an absolute terror during Series 9, with a spinning bar that packs the same steel-rending capability that Hypnodisc used to have paired up with flipping resistance and a few upgrades that made it surprisingly unkillable for a thing that deadly. A Glass Cannon that covered its glassy weaknesses, it tore right through everyone during that series, and came out completely undefeated, with opponents being increasingly afraid of that unnerving hum that came from its bar gaining enough speed to rip its foe to pieces. That is Not Hyperbole, in at least one fight bits of the unfortunate adversary had to be pulled out of the plexiglass walls.
• Running Man: Every time Choi Min Soo is a guest star, the show becomes terrifying.
• Played for Laughs with the Janitor from Scrubs. Two different episodes show he has a crowd of people who do whatever he wants out of fear. He even invents a new word to describe himself: "fearitude".
• Smallville: Lex Luthor has evolved into this. Simply knowing that he's out there and that he knows their secret identities has Clark, Oliver, and the rest of the Justice League shaking, and the possibility of his return is spoken of in tones usually reserved for The End of the World as We Know It. Not bad for a Badass Normal and (as of his last, Season 8 appearance) Evil Cripple.
  • Season 10: Smallville's version of Darkseid. In fact, that's the whole point of him: as long as you have fear or doubt in your soul he can control you.
• Spartacus: Blood and Sand:
  • Theokoles, the Shadow of Death. This giant, undefeated gladiator terrifies everybody when he's announced to be coming out of retirement. Everyone assumes that Spartacus and Crixus are doomed when they are announced as his opponents.
  • In Vengeance The Egyptian is one. Ashur is currently looking for various psychos to help him, so he quickly recruits The Egyptian into his Quirky Mini Boss Squad.
    • Amusingly, the Egyptian is apparently only this to the Romans, who he is fighting alongside. There's no indication that the gladiators/rebels have even heard of him.
• Stargate-verse: The Goa'uld are usually this to most human civilizations. The likes of Sokar and Anubis are feared even by other Goa'uld, and until Anubis upgraded their technology in season 6, they were all afraid of the Asgard. The Wraith and Ori also have this reputation. On an individual level there's also Linea, seemingly an ordinary old human woman...who's a Mad Scientist known as "The Destroyer of Worlds" because she's singlehandedly genocided multiple planets with her experiments.
• Star Trek:
  • The Borg Collective in various series. Despite appearing rather infrequently in the series where they first appeared, their sheer implacability, utterly relentless nature, and single-minded goal to assimilate everyone and everything that they come across led to The Federation considering them, as Captain Picard puts in Star Trek: First Contact, "our most lethal enemy". Even Guinan is afraid of them, what with them having assimilated her home world. The suspense that builds up around their incursions into Federation space is particularly indicative of this. It's less so in Star Trek: Voyager, where Voyager encounters them so frequently without being in much danger that the Borg end up exhibiting Villain Decay. Before being Killed Off for Real, they were the main threat of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 with the Borg Queen trying to assimilate Starfleet's young to use as breeding stock before going on to eradicate anything that could threaten them, something Picard and the old crew of the Enterprise-D was able to stop.
  • In the first season of TNG, the Ferengi were treated this way. It didn't last long, thanks in large part to their rather unintimidating appearance and demeanor.
  • A non-villanious example is Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother. The crew of the Enterprise become very nervous whenever she arrives. Captain Picard, in particular, fears her, once hiding in a holodeck to avoid her and another time being tricked into taking a vacation when Counselor Troi lies about her mother's impending visit.
  • The Iconians were so feared that the other races in the galaxy banded together to wipe them out via orbital bombardment of their homeworld and called them "Demons of Air and Darkness". In Star Trek Online, the Iconians turn out to be not so extinct and they are responsible for the strife plaguing the sector. In their first appearance, a single Iconian casually vaporizes six people with a wave of her hand. Furthermore, the Dominion, The Empire that very nearly defeated the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians, simultaneously, is so afraid of the Iconians that their official policy for dealing with them is to give the Iconians anything and everything they want, hoping they will go away.
  M'Tara: We give you a single warning: do NOT attract our attention again.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dax is notorious among Trill initiates for being one of the worst mentors for an initiate to be assigned to. Dax is infamous for have broken more initiates (thus ending their chance of becoming Joined Trill) than any other Joined Trill. Being assigned to Dax is therefore regarded as practically a death sentence by most Trill initiates.
    • Ex-Obsidian Order operative Garak is well known by not only just about every major government, but even by individuals as someone utterly terrifying. Incredibly well-connected, an excellent shot with a phaser, capable of going toe-to-toe with a Klingon in hand-to-hand combat, so good at lying no one really knows whether he is or not, and an expert in torture. But perhaps his most scary skills are his planning skills and his ability to be absolutely amoral.
  • Kai Winn is this to Captain Sisko. It's a minor Running Gag that if Sisko's having a bad day, Winn shows up and makes it worse.
  • A variation occurred in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Face of the Enemy", where Troi was kidnapped by a Romulan underground movement, and subjected to surgery so she could assume the identity of an operative in the Tal Shiar, the Romulan Secret Police, named Major Rakal. (The real Rakal had been covertly killed by members of the movement for this very purpose). Troi quickly found that other members of the Romulan crew were terrified of her because of the reputation of both Rakal and the Tal Shiar; apparently, they have the authority to execute other Romulan officers for any reason they see fit, and are quite liberal (and at times cruel) with this privilege. In fact, that's the exact reason resistance member N'Vek chose her for the part; he thought that she could play the role well and not give herself away, and in fact, they never suspected a thing until it was too late, with N'Vek making a Heroic Sacrifice to finish the mission and get Troi back to the Enterprise.
  • In Star Trek: Voyager there was Species 8472, a race of aliens that even the Borg were terrified of; Janeway had to form a truce with the Borg to fight them, which is how they met Seven of Nine. (While originally presented as Omnicidal Maniacs, a later retcon made Species 8472 Not Evil, Just Misunderstood (despite the fact that before this, they had no qualms about destroying inhabited planets, and Kes clearly saw murderous intent when she read their minds). And they were retconned back to the cruel beings they first were in the game Star Trek: Armada II.
  • Khan Noonien Singh is the leader of the surviving members of the augmented humans who were the reason for the policy banning human genetic augmentation. In the 1990s Eugenics Wars, he was able to take over at least a quarter of the Earth, managed to escape to space when normal humans deposed the other augments, and later proved a match for James Kirk, Starfleet's resident Memetic Badass. Even a century after his death, Starfleet is still absolutely terrified of another Khan rising from illegal genetic engineering programs, and in Star Trek Into Darkness, Spock Prime swore to secrecy about the Trek timeline until he finds out that the crew is facing Khan again. Even though he'd survived, Spock was still haunted by what it took to defeat him.
  • Everyone aside the Klingon tread lightly when dealing with the Romulans, even if their schemes rarely obtain something. We see exactly why in two occasions:
    • In the original series, a single bird-of-prey, fusion powered (compared to the Federation's use of antimatter as fuel) violating the Neutral Zone sent the Enterprise's crew in Oh, Crap! mode before they realized the little ship actually outgunned the larger Federation vessel. Kirk has to use all his wits to take that one down...
    • In Deep Space 9 the Dominion apparently plans to deal with the Federation and the Klingon at the same time before getting in a war with the Romulans. Then the Federation tricks the Romulans into thinking the Dominion plans to attack them... And, a few weeks later, the Romulans have single-handedly beaten the Dominion forces back in the pre-war Cardassian space, before actually bothering to contact their new allies-partly because they have to give them back the worlds they "liberated".
  • In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, we have the Gorn. Unlike the lumbering hulk that Captain Kirk fought in "Arena", the Gorn shown here are sleek, cunning and vicious. They ravage the Enterprise after luring it to a colony and the poor ship barely makes it out alive. They killed La'an's family and force Chief Engineer Hemmer to perform a Heroic Suicide, an action that haunts poor Uhura the next season. This is so bad that Starfleet has given their ships special weapons to deal with the Gorn.
• Supernatural has a few, depending on the season. In the first season, demons are nigh-unstoppable. In the first episode with one, Sam and Dean have serious trouble exorcising a single demon—it could be anyone, conventional weapons are all useless (the only thing that can hurt it is holy water), and, to kill it, they have to enable it to possess the plane itself. When they learn it was a demon that killed their mother, they become very unnerved. Once they get their hands on the Colt (a gun that can kill anything) and learn how to make devil's traps, demons become a lot less threatening, though are still highly feared, until...
  • Season 4 shows that angels are this to demons: a group of demons harass Sam and Dean shortly after Dean is mysteriously brought back from Hell, but Sam points out that the demons don't know how Dean is alive, either, and are more afraid than they are, because it means there might be a bigger fish. Later, Sam goes back to kill them and finds that their eyes were burnt out because they saw what it really looked like. The only survivor is gibbering about how the end is upon us and how everything is going to die. When it turns out that nothing Sam and Dean have or can do will hurt an angel and sometimes angels can go bad and/or insane, things escalate quickly. Upping the ante from there, regular angels fear archangels, who can smite their lesser brethren into nothing with apparently little effort.
  • Season 7 ups the ante with the Leviathans, who can regenerate from just about anything, shape-shift into someone perfectly (as long as they have a tiny DNA sample), tear through just about anything and anyone, are immune to angels, demons, monsters, Eve, weapons (can't hurt them permanently), fire, iron, salt, and silver. The only things that can hurt them are...Borax-based cleaning products. Decapitation slows them down, but they can only be killed by being eaten by another Leviathan, being forced to eat themselves (used as a punishment for failing their leader), or being stabbed by a "bone of a righteous mortal, soaked in the bloods of the three fallen" (a fallen angel; "the father of fallen beasts", an Alpha; and "the ruler of fallen humanity", the King of Hell). The head Leviathan is this to his subordinates, as his very name is enough to make them shake in their boots. He plans to kill every monster, demon, and angel he can and change human physiology—to make us live longer, be more disease resistant, and much fatter—and psychology—to make us passive—so the whole planet becomes a buffet for the Leviathans.
  • Hellhounds. These mutts even scare angels, and for good reason. Once they're sicced on someone, that someone is screwed. They're invisible, super-strong, nigh-invulnerable, and never, ever stop hunting their prey. After being introduced in season 2, they were the harbinger of doom: when they appeared, a character was going to die messily, and the heroes don't get to kill one until season 8.
  • The Darkness is the epitome of this trope. Even Lucifer, and the Archangel Michael, seem afraid of her. Considering she's the source of all evil in the universe and equal to God in power, it's not surprising.
  • Death tops them. He is the only being in creation that can honestly make the claim that, one day, he will reap God Himself.
  • The Winchester brothers themselves are becoming this to the supernatural community—mostly demons and angels, who know about all the stuff they've done.
    • Dean Winchester, even before... everything. Also,he killed Death.
      Roy: Killing Sam was right but Dean...
      Walt: He made us and we just snuffed his brother, you idiot. You want to spend the rest of your life knowing Dean Winchester’s on your ass? ‘cause I don’t. Shoot him.
• That '70s Show sees Eric Forman's father feared by not only he and his friends, but even adults, as he scared away a cop who caught him and Kitty making out and a labor board mediator (which Red didn't take offense to when the mediator informed him about it). Even two other cops pitied Eric upon learning his Red's son.
• The Thick of It: Not widespread, but everyone in Whitehall is afraid of Malcolm Tucker. From the movie:
  Simon: Who was that [on the phone]?
  Judy: [whispering] Malcolm. He's coming to see you.
  Simon: Oh, shit, he's still alive. When's he due?
  Malcolm: Now. And don't say you weren't prepared, because I rang ahead.
• Twin Peaks: Bob. An evil spirit that raped and murder Laura Palmer, possessed Leland and murdered Maddi.
• The Wire:
  • Omar Little. An absolutely badass stick-up man who robs drug dealers for a living. The drug dealers generally see him as more of a force of nature than a man, and the vast majority won't even try to put up a fight when Omar robs them. Even CHRIS AND SNOOP get shaken when they realize he's after them.
  • And speaking of them, Chris and Snoop also count. The two are the chief assassins of Marlo Stanfield, the most ruthless, sociopathic, and murder happy drug kingpin Baltimore has ever seen. Despite the fact that Snoop is Hot-Blooded and she frequently seems to be a wrong word away from killing someone, it's the calm and disciplined Chris who is more feared on the streets. Chris has such a reputation that in one scene a group of kids from the neighborhood speculate that he has supernatural powers.
  • Brother Mouzone is possibly an even bigger one than all the others mentioned. The mere thought of this guy being brought in to interfere with their plans scares the shit out of Stringer and Prop Joe.
    Prop Joe: You think I'm going to send any of my people up against Brother? Shit, that man got more bodies on him than a Chinese cemetery.
    • Though, to be fair, only certain people (like Joe and Stringer) seem to know who Brother Mouzone is due to his usual territory being NYC. Omar, who's seemingly never left Baltimore, apparently didn't know him. Cheese suffered a great deal of pain and humiliation for his ignorance.
• Wayne may not look all that intimidating, but most of the other kids in his hometown know better than to get on his bad side as he's a Bully Hunter Combat Pragmatist with a stupidly high pain tolerance.
• Wonder Woman:
  • The Zardor from "Mind Stealers From Outer Space" was designed to be this. It was a large, nearly mindless humanoid monster that the Skrill alien race only kept with them for the few threats that they couldn't overwhelm with their laser weapons or mind-stealing technology.
  • Also seen with the shape-changing alien in "The Boy Who Knew Her Secret". When it transforms into its final form, Wonder Woman visibly shudders with fear as it advances towards her.^note  Bear in mind that Wonder Woman is amazingly powerful and courageous. She once stopped a tank with her bare hands, and seemed to do so with almost no effort. She once let someone fire a machine gun at her for a charity event. Few things can hurt her, and even fewer things can scare her. If Wonder Woman seems to be afraid of something, you know it's dangerous.

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