Suggestion: Terrifying Tyrannosaur

The current image is a remnant of Terrifying Tyrannosaur's previous title, King of the Dinosaurs, which essentially amounted to T. rex being portrayed as awesome and fearsome in fiction. With the TRS refocusing the trope specifically on Tyrannosaurs being scary and antagonistic, the current image sells it somewhat short. A T. rex in broad daylight roaring at a lion seems more "cool" than scary. So, here are a couple alternative suggestions from two of my personal favorites:

From Fantasia:

1.1:

1.2:

From The Land Before Time:

1.3:

They're all on the dark side (no, not THAT Dark Side), but I think it works to the trope's benefit since it just makes the T. rex look scary and evil, while the key defining features (i.e. the teeth) are still recognizable. 1.1 is pretty straightforward, but 1.2 and 1.3 both offer the T. rex acting terrifying and meancing towards a sympathetic herbivore dinosaur, which plays into the trope's antagonistic angle.

Any thoughts or alternate suggestions?

The Tyrannosaurus rex should feature two claws on each hand, just to be clear it's not just a generic theropod. I would give to all images of Fantasia Tyrannosaurus.

I have more Sharptooth from Land Before Time that may scary some people.

Edited by Shadao on Feb 21st 2023 at 7:30:38 AM

No issue with any of the suggestions bar 1.3 since that's more or less the same shot of Awesome/TheLandBeforeTime

Here's another shot of the OG Sharptooth?

Tropes Are Flexible, and the page description notes that it can apply to other theropods.

1.1 and 1.3 seem like the most menacing so far. (3 distracted me trying to figure out that that was another dinosaur tangled in vines in the corner.)

Personally a big fan of 1.1. It has a nice composition and is the least busy.

I agree. The red eyes also add to it being menacing.

1.1. IDK much about dinosaurs so the claw thing doesn’t matter to me; it’s still recognizably T-rexy.

My vote goes to 1.3. The claw thing doesn’t really matter, even if it’s not the most anatomically accurate.

2.1 is my vote since it shows the Tyrannosaur actually terrifying people.

1.1

Yeah, the trope allows for other species of tyrannosaurus now, so the options in 1 are fine. I like 1.1

Well, I added in the description that people should expect older works to show T. rex with three fingered hands because people back then think it makes T. rex scarier (and to prepare for 1.1 landslide).

I've been looking for other potential scary T. rex images and I can only find one that really fits the bill beyond the ones already listed... which is Rexy from Camp Cretaceous.

Which is a shame, because there's a lot of good scary T. rex visuals like Prehistoric Beast. It's just that it's hard to find a good scary T. rex image that couldn't be mistaken for badassary or isn't a random paleoart that we need to find credit for on Google search.

Edited by Shadao on Feb 23rd 2023 at 12:22:08 PM

1.1 and 2.1 are my favorites. The former is set in a rainy place in the dark with a monstrous set of jaws and glowing red eyes, while the latter looks to be surrounded by flames as if it is a demon in dino form. Both give off the "scary" feeling

My vote goes for 2.1. The two terrified baby dinosaurs help selling the idea that it's a scary monster in-universe.

From Deems Taylor's opening narration before conducting the Rite of Spring for Fantasia:

"The worst of the lot, a brute named Tyrannosaurus rex, was probably the meanest killer that ever roamed the earth."

Edited by Shadao on Feb 28th 2023 at 4:26:20 AM

That’s good.

The quote being from the same work as the image is a big plus.

Edited by Snicka on Mar 1st 2023 at 4:51:48 PM