History NightmareFuel / DarlingInTheFranxx

* Delta and Epsilon's deaths at the hands of Virm. It's gruesome and terrifying, straight up looking like something out of ''End of Evangelion''. And it just cements how high the stakes have become.

* Carrying on from the last episode, we were told that dozens of male partners were rounded up to be used by Zero Two for the coming mission... but it's offhandedly mentioned at the start of the episode that Zero Two has ''already'' [[DoomMagnet killed off]] [[UpToEleven all of her stamen before the mission]], devouring them en mass. It's given a little more than a [[AMillionIsAStatistic passing mention]] by the council and Papa, with Dr. Franxx more [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate disgruntled than horrified]].

** This scene gains another level when taken from her perspective: finding herself alone and hurt while trapped inside a cockpit with, what she assumes is a dead body. Said body being the person she thought would be with her, but has now left her all alone once again. All while a giant monster is trying to kill her as well. No wonder she's acting the way she was. And, considering her reputation as "Partner Killer", think of [[FridgeHorror how many times that has happened to her before]]...

* The little discovery of the abandoned modern city and Hiro's comment afterwards seems to imply that the reason humanity moved from normal but thriving cities into Plantations seems to be something far more sinister than just klaxosuars.
** The beginning of the manga itself explains that the barren wasteland of the planet is not the handiwork of klaxosaurs but rather the humans themselves who got too greedy extracting Magma Energy from the planet, letting everyone know what could have happened for real.

After ''Anime/KillLaKill'' and ''Anime/NinjaSlayer'', Creator/StudioTrigger seems to have decided to raise the stakes by producing an eerie {{Homage}} to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.

* The reamining Parasites are left stranded on a dying planet while an alien conflict carries on around them. There's shortage of food, the injuried are countless, people collapse of exhaustion on a daily basis, ''and they can't do anything about it''.

[[Header:Episode 22]]

* 001 and Hiro are getting their life slowly sucked out of them. The Klaxosaur Princess gives up resisting after a while, but Hiro holds on at the cost of worse pain.

* Aside from Squad 13, all the other Parasites on the battlefield have no clue what to do. They can only desperately call for Papa's help, not knowing they're being slaightered by the species of their protecor.

* The sheer realization that humanity was thoroughly suckered by APE. All that dystopian, 1984-style stuff and the destruction of the pre-Plantation civilization? ''VIRM did all of that to have a rematch with the klaxosaurs from their first defeat and are fully prepared to [[RageQuit blow up the Earth out of pure spite if they lose]].'' Even the ''rest of APE'' is shocked and horrified at the sheer ''[[BlueAndOrangeMorality inhumanity]]'' of how far they're willing to go.
* Possibly more horrifying is the implication that with the klaxosaurs having gone underground to prepare for the second war, to them humanity is basically just mold that grew on the walls of a house that's been left unattended for a while.

* Papa accepting Hiro's ultimatum regarding squad 13´s freedom and making their next mission their last. Considering what Papa's [[BlueAndOrangeMorality definition]] of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness "freedom"]] is, his stoic eagerness in response to Hiro's demands are bone-chilling to say the least.

** It's worth mentioned that Hachi most likely watched Mitsuru & Kokoro "going at it" in previous episode. Although Hachi appears have no emotion, this still count as [[{{Squick}} underage voyeurism]].

* All that happened to Nana and her former partner. Seeing her so cheerful on moment and then cutting to her FRANXX completely destroyed is already bad enough. Then we get to see her leaning over her partner, who's covered in blood.

* [[BigBrotherIsWatching Papa's rule is absolute,]] which Kokoro and Mitsuru learn the hard way when their makeshift wedding is crashed by Alpha-Nine, the two are captured, and then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia have their memories wiped of eachother]]. Whatever APE is up to, it clearly devalues the actual relationships of natural humans and crushes it underfoot for the sake of effective and sacrificial pawns.

* Zero Two's nightmare marks her as a full-blown ShellShockedVeteran. She sees the Stamens she killed in the past emerging from the floor of her room, bloodied and mindlessly reaching for her. She can't even fight back once they grab her and pin her to the floor because the giant Klaxosaur hand from Episode 15 emerges from the ground and squashes her. No wonder she buried herself in Hiro's arms when he snapped her out of it.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Red Eyes AND Red Horns, Take Warning.'']]

* The confrontation with Klakosaur Princess. It's not her appearance that is scary, no. She killed one of APE officer and whacked his mask off, revealing that he has ''no'' head. What the ''hell'' is wrong with APE?

** Then Episode 16 reveals that APE let it happened. What kind of a plan justify the destruction of ''all'' civilian quarters?