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| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
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| 5 | %% Note: short stories get double-quotes; novels and series get italics |
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| 9 | %% Image chosen via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions108 |
| 10 | %% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700 |
| 11 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 13 | [[quoteright:280:[[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chr_7.png]]]] |
| 14 | |
| 15 | ->''"The Reapers are cunning in their deception. Allowing life to flourish, century upon century, letting us believe ourselves the masters of the cosmos...Then the truth becomes known: there are monsters hiding in the dark spaces. And we are their prey."'' |
| 16 | -->-- '''Javik''', ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' |
| 17 | |
| 18 | The plot that seemed to be going has been abruptly overshadowed by the revelation that the setting you thought you were reading about is merely an infinitesimal fraction of a universe that actually teems with [[EldritchAbomination overwhelming otherworldly menace]]. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The threat this reveals is likely to virtually overshadow all the more mundane players you already knew about; at the very least, [[WhamEpisode it substantially alters both the reader's and the characters' understanding of their world]]. The rebellious factions in TheFederation are actually being controlled by an unusual artifact, just shipped back from recent excavations in a fringe system. The CorruptCorporateExecutive and ProfessionalKiller are its cultists. The EvilOverlord you just defeated was the CosmicKeystone keeping it out, or the whole point of his brutal tyranny was [[HadToBeSharp to harden everyone for the terrors to come]], or his EvilPlan was to unleash the SealedEvilInACan, or [[GodEmperor he himself is the eldritch horror]]. The reveal of the Cosmic Horror angle may be accompanied by TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, or a revelation that the story [[ItHasOnlyJustBegun is truly getting started]]. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | The plot probably didn't completely GenreShift into CosmicHorrorStory, but at the very least, [[GenreBlending it just received a very noticeable transfusion]] -- it could almost be seen as the CosmicHorrorStory genre itself [[ViralTransformation invading the more traditional settings we know, parasitising them, and altering their realities to one that suits it better]]. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This can be]] either a [[DiabolusExMachina very cheap or very shocking]] way for [[FromBadToWorse things to get worse]]. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Subtrope of OutsideContextProblem, and sometimes TheManBehindTheMan. Compare GenreShift, GenreBlending, and GoingCosmic. Contrast GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere and DiabolusExNihilo, wherein the unexpected threat is not necessarily a thing from beyond, and whatever it is is completely unrelated to the extended plot. Can be LovecraftLite when the Cosmic Horror reveal is basically similar to a new narrative boss fight or background detail rather than a major revelation. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | !!''[[AC:Warning:]]'' This is a SpoileredRotten trope, which means that '''EVERY SINGLE EXAMPLE''' on this list is a spoiler by default and most of them will be unmarked. [[Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned This is your last warning]]; only proceed if you really believe you can handle this list. |
| 29 | ---- |
| 30 | !!Examples: |
| 31 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 32 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 33 | * ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' inverts this. It starts off being very upfront about the [[CosmicHorrorStory Cosmic Horror]] elements with Guts' battles against the Baron and the Count, and depicting how [[MarkOfTheBeast the Mark of Sacrifice]] has made his life a living hell. Then, the story flashes back to [[HowWeGotHere the Golden Age arc]], which largely focuses on courtly intrigue and battles between medieval armies up until [[WhamEpisode the Eclipse]]. The inversion goes twofold if one takes into account the omitted chapter, where it is revealed that instead of an EldritchAbomination in your standard CosmicHorrorStory, the [[GodIsEvil Idea of Evil]] is borne out of humanity's shared desire for a reason behind their suffering, making it both Earth-borne and human-ish in its wants (but not its methods). |
| 34 | * ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': Devils initially seem like dangerous but ultimately manageable creatures, with even the scariest, the Gun Devil, being equivalent to a WeaponOfMassDestruction at worst. But starting with the assassins arc, it becomes clear that the truly powerful Devils like Hell and Darkness are {{Eldritch Abomination}}s whose powers even ''the readers'' can't entirely comprehend, with them appearing as FrameBreak and NonSequitur images. The true scope of the Chainsaw Devil's abilities only makes it worse as he can RetGone ''entire concepts'' from history and reality with no one aware of it, and further has actively carved up reality many, ''many'' times over, deleting other {{Eldritch Abomination}}s like a star whose light broke children's minds, diseases like AIDS, technology like nuclear weapons, major historical events like World War II, and ''ways life could end besides death''. |
| 35 | * ''Anime/DigimonTamers'': The D-Reaper. Although the numerous {{Shout Out}}s to the Franchise/CthulhuMythos may have served as {{foreshadowing}} to savvy viewers. |
| 36 | * ''Franchise/DragonBall'' is ultimately this. It starts out whimsical, and by the time Z rolls out, they're punching out ever more powerful enemies. But no problem, the heroes still win, right? But come ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' and it drops straight into this trope, where it's revealed that there are bonafide gods, more powerful gods, even more powerful gods, and so on, until [[TopGod Zeno]] himself, ''the'' single most powerful entity in the series. Every other god shakes in fear at Zeno's presence, his whims are law, and if he wants a multiversal fighting tournament, you'd better provide a multiversal fighting tournament... and if you do something to displease him, you can/will be ''[[DeaderThanDead erased from existence]]''. Goku himself is too pure-hearted to let Zeno's status get to him, which thankfully amuses Zeno who [[PalsWithJesus would rather be friends]]. |
| 37 | * ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' has a slow yet eerily casual start -- our two heroes wrestle with the military authority they work under and with assorted villains of the smaller kind on their quest to find a way to heal themselves... and then it kicks off. It's not just about all characters in the story, the nation, the conspiracy or even the God of their world -- it's about the very concept the story is based on, EquivalentExchange. All people are a part of the plot, and it has been going on over hundreds of years, and is dominated by a near SemiDivine HumanoidAbomination. The Elrics have their work cut out for them. |
| 38 | * With the introduction of AdvancedAncientAcropolis and SentientCosmicForce, ''Manga/{{Helck}}'' stops being a normal fantasy story and it becomes clear that the ongoing conflict is a part of a very large picture. |
| 39 | * ''Manga/HoshinEngi'': The manga starts off as a fantasy series set in ancient China, with gods, supernatural beings, yokai, and spirit animals. It's not until after the halfway point that it's revealed that [[spoiler:an ancient being from space named Joka has been secretly manipulating the course of history for millennia in the hopes of turning Earth into a replica of her destroyed homeworld.]] |
| 40 | * In ''Manga/HunterXHunter'', an interesting variation is TheReveal that the human-inhabited world we'd seen so far (which seems the size of our own, with continents of similar shape and size), which already has copious amounts of incredibly dangerous locations and species (for example, Swindler's Swamp, where the ''whole ecosystem'' is geared towards attracting, entrapping and feeding on humans) is only a tiny fraction of the whole planet, and that what little information there is about the rest of the world, called the [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Dark Continent]], paints it as a gung-ho DeathWorld of incomprehensibly dangerous horrors that dwarf any threat encountered so far by the Shonen protagonists. As a point of comparison, let's take [[KnightOfCerebus the Chimera Ants, the most powerful menace in the series previously]], which were an existential threat to humanity in a world where the potential to be a PersonOfMassDestruction is relatively common. Part of why they are called "ants" is because they are considered the '''[[AlwaysABiggerFish least]]''' dangerous of the known species originating from the Dark Continent. The survival rate of expeditions there, which tend to be extremely well-organized and funded and include many said powerful individuals, is about ''1 in every 2,500'' people. It's rather obvious that humanity survived this long only because the monstrosities from the Dark Continent barely pay attention to it for some reason. |
| 41 | * ''Anime/KillLaKill'' starts off with Ryuko Matoi fighting the AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil, led by the dictatorial Satsuki Kiryuin. It turns out that Satsuki was trying to rebel against her mother Ragyo, the Life Fibers that make up the Goku Uniforms that [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman give its wearers superpowers]] are actually alien parasites that have shaped the course of human evolution, and Ragyo wants to accelerate their ultimate goal: consume every human on Earth and use their energy to explode the planet, sending new Life Fibers hurtling towards other worlds. |
| 42 | * ''Manga/{{Psyren}}'' starts as a story focused on psychic powers and time travel, with the heroes trying to figure out the mystery behind the titular Psyren. The first hint comes later on, when we learn that the mysterious asteroid Ouroborus, (who will fall in Hokkaido between the present and the future world of Psyren, causing the dreadful state of the world) is apparently sending messages to the planet and moves erratically through space. Finally confirmed for good by the true villain, Mithra, who reveals that Ouroborus was actually the shell for a planet-eating EldritchAbomination called "Quat Nevas", who took advantage of Amagi Miroku's life-manipulating Psi-Power to gather enough energy to revive itself and consume the planet. |
| 43 | * ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'': It starts as a typical MagicalGirl anime, though with a particularly [[DerangedAnimation trippy]] version of TheHeartless. About halfway through the series, it's shown that the WeaselMascot Kyubey is [[DealWithTheDevil ripping out people's souls in exchange for wishes]]. The trope comes in when it's revealed that Kyubey isn't a demon like you'd expect. He's actually closer to an EldritchAbomination who actually [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet cares very little for mankind and Earth]] and follows his own BlueAndOrangeMorality and his own goals. Those goals consist of pushing magical girls past the DespairEventHorizon until they become Witches, then using other magical girls to kill them and extract their energy to harvest. Lather, rinse, repeat. Kyubey claims the energy is necessary to stave off the Heat Death of the Universe ''and'' that his kind has been doing this since humanity lived in caves. Since they're the ones who allowed us to become an advanced species and it's a part of a plan to save the universe, [[AMillionIsAStatistic he sees the deaths of countless girls as a fair exchange]]. The events of the anime are only the latest in a ''long'' series of [[GroundhogDayLoop time loops]] that Homura has been going through to try and save everyone, only for things to always end in tragedy. Every one of them seems to end worse than the last, with Madoka either dying or becoming the most powerful Witch of all time. |
| 44 | * Towards the end of ''Anime/RomeoXJuliet'', it becomes clear that the true cause of events isn't the murderous Lord Montague, who is slowly descending into cackling, city-burning madness, but rather Ophelia and the death of the Great Tree Escalus, which is what's holding Neo Verona in the sky: the earthquakes that become much more frequent and ruinous towards the series' climax are the result of Escalus slowly perishing because Ophelia is being deprived of sacrifices, which Montague has been trying to fix. |
| 45 | * The first half of ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon'' focuses on an interstellar war between humanity and the Buff Clan over the right to control the titular mecha who, over the course of the series, delves further into SuperRobot territory ... until it starts single-handedly destroying planets. It's then revealed that the Ide, the main consciousness driving the mech, has decided neither the human race nor the Buff Clan deserve to live (and it turns out ''both races are far from the first the Ideon has smiled for being unworthy'') and has been launching bombs at both sides to goad each into ramping up the war effort. In fact, the Ideon has been manipulating its "pilots" into thinking they could actually control it when it's been in charge the whole time. By the time both species have buried the hatchet after realizing the Ideon's master agenda, things have gone so bleak that the series ends on at the very least ''the complete destruction of the star system''. |
| 46 | * The first half of ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' is spent defeating [[TheEmperor Lordgenome the Spiral King]], only to reveal in the second part that he was protecting humanity from being wiped out by the eldritch Anti-Spiral, and in the epilogue, the earthlings are shown heading out to face the even more eldritch Spiral Nemesis. |
| 47 | * ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'' has a reveal very similar to and most likely the primary inspiration for the ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' example above - the world is split into two parts, the 30% that makes up the Human World where people live but is still full of extremely deadly biomes and fauna, and then the remaining 70% that constitutes the Gourmet World, full of monsters and hazards that make those found in the Human World look like hors d'oeurves, ''if that''. Toriko takes one step in and is practically torn to shreds in minutes. On top of that, Coco theorizes the Gourmet World was formed by a meteor from another dimension colliding with [[EarthAllAlong Earth, expanding mass around it and corrupting the ecology]]. Not to mention a race of interdimensional aliens using the planet as a prison for a nigh-unstoppable and extremely hungry monster they were using to sweep other dimensions clean. |
| 48 | [[/folder]] |
| 49 | |
| 50 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 51 | * In ''ComicBook/AmericanVampire'' the conflict between Vampires and Vassals of the Morningstar and the Cold War both become overshadowed by reveal of an OutsideContextProblem in form of the Gray Trader's true master, the Beast, an ancient EldritchAbomination beyond human or vampire understanding that the Vassals were originally founded to defeat but after spending centuries fighting an all-out war with Carpathian Vampires, they've completely forgotten the means to stop it. |
| 52 | * A particularly bizarre Disney comic ("ComicBook/TheCallOfCRusso") that is a parody of the Lovecraft mythos involves Donald Duck winning in a singing contest before it's revealed that he's actually been recruited to wake up an EldritchAbomination with his voice. The world disappears because it only exists when the monster is dreaming about it, and Donald and his nephews grow octopoid arms and legs as reality is reshaped in its image. |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/{{Memetic}}'' starts as seemingly a down-to-earth ZombieApocalypse tale about an internet meme that causes anyone who sees it to experience a hit of euphoria and a desperate urge to share it with the world. However, 12 hours after one is exposed to it, they start bleeding from the eyes and screaming uncontrollably. The "screamers" will attack anyone not in a similar state and continue their frenzied attempts to expose people to the meme, even after a global internet blackout. Further, once enough screamers gather in one place, their screams combine to create music that is the audio version of the meme, so even blind people are no longer immune. In the final chapter, the screamers go eerily silent and begin gathering in groups of millions in major cities. They start forming spires of human bodies taller than skyscrapers, [[BodyHorror their flesh melting and fusing as they do so. The artist who created the meme reveals that he was commanded to do so by telepathic voices in his head before killing himself. Even Aaron, the protagonist, who is color-blind and partially deaf and thus one of the few people completely immune to the meme, willingly fuses with the mass, as he'd rather fit in and join the rest of humanity than be left all alone. It's only on the last page that the reader finally sees what the point of this all is -- hundreds of giant creatures appear from space to harvest the spires, with the heavy implication that this was the entire point of the human race's existence -- to feed these creatures when the time came.]] |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/TheUltimates2015'': Initially, the series is about a team dealing with high concepts. Come issue 5, they encounter the Anti-Man, who reveals all existence has been encaged by ''something'', only identified as "the One Who is One", capable of imprisoning the living personification of Eternity. Once the second series starts, the cosmic horror starts ramping up further, as it starts directly attacking existence itself. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Fanfiction]] |
| 58 | * ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'': The Omake tale "As Above, So Below" revolves around a scientist researching some of Deku Midoriya's blood[[note]]which was infected with gamma radiation from the Marvel Universe after being bitten by a spider that came from there, becoming Spider-Man[[/note]] and receiving a vision of [[ComicBook/ImmortalHulk the One Below All]] wishing to enter the MHA world and [[OmnicidalManiac smash everything]]. [[DefiedTrope She makes sure he never will]] by destroying all of her research [[HeroicSuicide and committing suicide]]. |
| 59 | * ''Fanfic/{{The Games We Play|TheGamerRWBY}}'': The Grimm are revealed to be the creations and minions of a godlike entity who has taken an interest in Jaune. And then Jaune, or rather his soul, is revealed to be a brother-of-sorts to said entity and probably the only one who can stop him. |
| 60 | * '' Fanfic/BelatedBattleships'' starts, like most ''Videogame/KanColle'' fanfic, as a story about magical anthropomorphised warships defending mankind from demon ships bent on killing us all. It turns out that there are higher powers orchestrating the whole thing for reasons we can only guess at. |
| 61 | * ''Fanfic/PacificWorldWarIIUsNavyShipgirls'': The more is revealed about the local version of the Abyssals, the more it looks like this universe is going down this path. Abyssals are otherworldly beings, alien in appearance and mindset, [[BrownNoteBeing so wrong they drive normal humans insane from being nearby]], so powerful that lone scouts cut through conventional navies with ease, and yet these are but a tiny part of a giant conquering war machine that has already crushed who knows how many other worlds, including some with their own shipgirls, before. |
| 62 | * ''[[Fanfic/StarWarsParanormalitiesTrilogy Star Wars: Paranormalities]]'': In the first few chapters of Episode I, the Valkoran seem to just be a terrorist organization reminiscent of the many Sith Empires intent on toppling the Galactic Alliance. While there are a few signs throughout these chapters that not everything is as it seems, it's revealed in Chapter 6 that the Valkoran Empire is really a cult for an extragalactic group known as the Forceless Collective, an army of body-possessing beings that somehow defy the Jedi's understanding of the Force by being completely devoid of it, and what Jedi sense from them feels off compared to even the Dark Side. Episode II would reveal that the Forceless symbiotes aren't strictly a species from another galaxy, but a recurring anomaly born from wounds in the Force, and given that the ''Star Wars'' galaxy has had many mass-death disasters throughout its history, there are many more symbiotes that have been born in that galaxy. What keeps it from going into full-blown CosmicHorrorStory is that Zolph and the Jedi give these other symbiotes the benefit of the doubt and [[VillainsActHeroesReact presume they are innocent until proven otherwise, with Valkor's Collective being the most immediately threatening to the galaxy at the moment.]] |
| 63 | [[/folder]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Films -- Animated]] |
| 66 | * ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'': The reveal that [[spoiler:the Wolf bounty hunter is really [[TheGrimReaper Death]] in the flesh,]] makes the movie take a much, much darker tone. Puss is being pursued by an entity as old as time, can not be evaded, and most importantly, cannot be defeated, just fended off temporarily. The ''only'' reason the movie gets a happy ending is because said entity changes their mind. If they hadn't, there's literally nothing Puss can do to avoid his fate. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 70 | * ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' begins as a run-off-the-mill horror/slasher story which is revealed as a set up to please the Old Gods slumbering below us. |
| 71 | * ''Film/TheEmptyMan'' [[spoiler:Veers ''hard'' into this after detective Lasombra starts investigating [[ChurchOfHappyology The Pontifex Society]].]] |
| 72 | * ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' has human rebels fighting against the machines in both the simulation and the real world. [[Film/TheMatrix The first movie]] shows how the protagonist awakens his powers as TheChosenOne and can defy the system, giving the rebels hope to win. [[Film/TheMatrixReloaded The second movie]] explains that the entire rebellion is part of the machines' plan, a place where anomalies are dumped and to be eliminated later. And [[Film/TheMatrixRevolutions the third movie]] shows how humans have no hope to win against the machines in the first place, that the machines have crushed Zion repeatedly before without fail. |
| 73 | * ''Film/TheMidnightMeatTrain'' begins as a [[SlasherFilm Slasher]]-esque story about a musclebound maniac who murders people on a midnight subway train. The protagonist eventually defeats him, only to discover that the killer was part of a city-wide conspiracy to deliver human sacrifices to the indescribable terrors that live underground. [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie He's forced to become the new Butcher and continue the cycle]]. |
| 74 | * ''Film/{{Necronomicon}}'': Not unexpected for a film loosely based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, but one of the segments starts out as an urban crime story with a cop in pursuit of a SerialKiller who hides out in the sewers to save her kidnapped partner. Then she's dumped inside an ancient cavern and it's revealed to all be an elaborate trap by two giant alien bats disguised as humans, and she's [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong impregnated with their kin]]. |
| 75 | * ''Film/{{Underwater}}'' at first seems just about surviving in and then leaving the abyssal zone. And then some monsters appear... and ultimately their humongous patriarch, which the director has stated to be Cthulhu himself. |
| 76 | [[/folder]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 79 | * In both ''Literature/TheAngaranChronicles'' novellas ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/136141376-the-angaran-chronicles-the-ritual/ The Ritual]]'' and ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/130052268-the-angaran-chronicles-a-false-legacy/ A False Legacy]]'' are revealed to be around this. ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/136141376-the-angaran-chronicles-the-ritual/ The Ritual]]'' with the mysterious, huge, eldritch abomination, Chos'Choloth living in 'the red sea' and the cult which worships it shown from Alathis' memories and his visions within the titular Ritual. And ''[[https://www.wattpad.com/story/130052268-the-angaran-chronicles-a-false-legacy/ A False Legacy]]'' with The Obelisk which mind controls the town Arken is investigating and the mysterious Hunter Garron who erases Arken's memory and replaces it with others to keep the Obelisk a secret. |
| 80 | * ''Literature/TheBrightestShadow'': The series is about a horrifying system of morality being right on a fundamental level of reality. The Hero's actions appear to be backed up by the world itself, leading to a twisted version of RightMakesMight. Killing the Hero is irrelevant, because reality will simply create another one. |
| 81 | * ''Literature/TheElricSaga'' starts off as an atypical fantasy given the protagonist's people being capable of wide-scale great cruelty but one that still follows enough conventions to stay within the high fantasy genre, then Elric learns that he's but one incarnation of the Eternal Champion, a being that exists throughout time and space who's doomed to be forever fighting the forces of Law and Chaos as well as incursions from alien dimensions so that "humanity" can survive in a largely hostile cosmos. |
| 82 | * ''Literature/HaloSilentium'' solidifies the story of the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series as a CosmicHorrorStory with what the {{Precursors}} [[EldritchAbomination really are]]. Let alone the fact that they are ''older than the universe'' and are implied to have created it. Not to mention that they became ''[[TheVirus the Flood]]''. |
| 83 | * The ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' series is all about the secular [[WellIntentionedExtremist Imperium of Mankind]]'s discovery of the [[TheLegionsOfHell Gods of Chaos]] and the devastating civil war that ensues, as a prologue to the CrapsackWorld that is ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''. |
| 84 | * ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'' starts out with Eric being tossed through dimensions by a trickster god to [[GrewASpine grow a spine]] and [[ItAmusedMe provide amusement]]. Then it turns out that said trickster god is molding him through his adventures into a vessel for its mother, Lady Chaos, so that she may [[DivineConflict better wage war against another one of]] ThePowersThatBe, Order. This shifts the focus of the story away from worldly mercenary missions and towards more philosophical confrontations and stabbing the other guy's clerics, along with bouts of WillingChanneler that have a possibility of damaging reality. |
| 85 | * In the original story of ''Literature/TheMidnightMeatTrain'', if the whole "killing humans to be fed to deformed humans underground that are the true fathers of the city" shtick isn't bad enough, well, it's all for immortality granted by pleasing an EldritchAbomination. And it's strongly implied that ''every major human city'' has such a deal in place. |
| 86 | * ''Literature/MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy'': The protagonists spend book one struggling to overthrow the EvilOverlord, only to slowly realize over the course of book two that said EvilOverlord had been holding back a nasty EldritchAbomination from destroying the world. |
| 87 | * In ''Literature/TheSisterVerseAndTheTalonsOfRuin'', the true scope of a greater, cosmic war is revealed as soon as the real villain shows up, and reality starts disintegrating. |
| 88 | * The final novel of ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'' drops the bombshell revealing that the world in which the entire series has taken place is a tiny remnant of a much larger universe, and this remnant is surrounded by thousands of hungry, starving demons trying to break in and eat everything. The plot then shifts to the heroes trying to prevent the barrier between the remnant and the great nothingness from breaking. |
| 89 | * In ''Literature/TheSunEater'', the first two books are generally standard if rather baroque sci-fi. Then comes the 3rd book which reveals the Watchers, a malevolent race of NotQuiteDead gods and the Quiet is not a species but a CosmicEntity which opposes them. |
| 90 | * The first three books of ''Literature/VenusPrime'' are about a young female detective who solves mysteries in space while trying to discover TheConspiracy that caused her to lose three years' worth of memories. In the fourth book, she pretty much wipes out the conspiracy. And then, suddenly, the StarfishAliens start to show up, and the rest of the series is about her and her allies trying to prevent one faction of the aliens from attempting to re-write history so that Earth becomes more like their homeworld -- which would make it uninhabitable to humans. |
| 91 | * In Sophie's World, the cosmic horror is revealed to be the author of the story - which is revealed to be a framed story in the novel as whole. |
| 92 | * "Literature/WhenTheStormCame": It's initially assumed that the titular storm is naturally ferocious, but it stays over the town for days, using sandstorms and lightning to ruin buildings and stop the small groups of people trying to mobilise through it to obtain resources. Cementing "the Storm"'s otherworldliness is the protagonist being stared down by its GlowingEyesOfDoom. |
| 93 | * In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', it is revealed late into the story that the thing giving all of the superheroes and supervillains in the setting their powers is an EldritchAbomination, part of a whole species of them that ranges throughout the universe giving sapient species some of their own powers to get ideas for what they are capable of before killing everyone on the planet. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 97 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 98 | ** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' starts off fairly light-hearted, centering on street-dancing teenagers who've recently gotten into a {{Mons}}-like battle game to settle disputes; even when the titular armored heroes are introduced, it's generally PlayedForLaughs because they're literally fruit samurai. And then we learn that the Mons come from another realm dominated by AlienKudzu that's devoured entire civilizations in the past...and Earth is its next target. The guy who looked like the BigBad is actually trying to save humanity, there are intelligent beings ruling the Forest (who generally want to destroy Earth), and in the end the hero has to give up his humanity and become one of the monsters in order to protect the people he cares about. Of course, considering the series was helmed by Creator/GenUrobuchi (see ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' above), plenty of fans were expecting a twist like this from the very beginning. |
| 99 | ** At the start of ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'', the plot seems to be about trying to stop an evil syndicate in a Balkanized Japan following an apocalyptic disaster. While definitely a sci-fi story, the villains are humans doing rotten things who create monsters with experiments, and even the second arc is a War Arc with the same base ideas... and then it's revealed that everything is being orchestrated by a planet destroying AncientEvil spirit accidentally released from the last planet he destroyed predating life on Earth who's been possessing the astronaut who unearthed him since then. And the planet in question? None other than [[OnceGreenMars Mars.]] |
| 100 | * ''Series/RaisedByWolves2020'': Voices and visions are appearing to Caleb, Paul and Campion. Humans are devolving. Mother (an android) becomes pregnant with a flying snake parasite. Something seriously wrong is happening on Kepler-22b. |
| 101 | * ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' reveals that behind the StandardSciFiSetting lurks an alliance of {{Mechanical Abomination}}s ready to wipe out all organic life if summoned. |
| 102 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': |
| 103 | ** While it's definitely one of the most LighterAndSofter seasons in the franchise, the final episodes of ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'' take a dark turn when it's revealed the villains are in league with a SentientCosmicForce which seeks to destroy and remake the universe, which they plan to unseal in exchange for being made the rulers of the new universe. |
| 104 | ** ''Series/KishiryuSentaiRyusoulger'' is another light-hearted season that becomes much darker later on. As it turns out, the villains were created by the {{God}} stand-in of the setting to exterminate Earth's civilizations. Once said god is unsealed, she puts in motion a plan to wipe them out too and remake the Earth. |
| 105 | ** ''Series/GoseiSentaiDairanger'' is mostly centered around the conflict between the Dairangers and the Gorma, continuing the millennia-long ForeverWar between their tribes. While the series is generally DarkerAndEdgier than the preceding and succeeding series, things really take a turn with the arrival of Daijinryu, a towering DraconicAbomination whose task is maintaining peace and order in the universe. The problem is that he goes about this task with an AboveGoodAndEvil mentality, as the reasons for the Dai/Gorma conflict mean nothing to him, and he is perfectly willing to wipe out an entire quadrant of Tokyo and engage in MassHypnosis to cause mass suicides among civilians if it means the conflict is brought to a halt. Daijinryu's size and powers are so great that neither side can hope to stand up to him, and the only way to make him back off is for both sides to cut a deal to stop their war. His presence hangs over the remainder of the series, as the Dairangers and Gorma both realize he could reappear at any moment, which indeed happens when the truce is broken. |
| 106 | ** ''Series/OhsamaSentaiKingOhger:'' In the initial segment of the show, the narrative delves into the intricacies of a grounded conflict between the monarchs and Bognaarok, prioritizing sociopolitical nuances over its more fantastical elements. As the storyline progresses into the second part, a profound shift occurs, reshaping the audience's understanding of the conflict; the introduction of the Galactinsects serves as a catalyst, exposing the meticulous orchestration of the entire conflict by the true overarching villain, Dagded Dujardin, who emerges as the puppet master behind the scenes. This revelation adds a layer of complexity to the narrative, transforming what initially appeared as a local struggle into a cosmic-scale manipulation, revealing that the conflict at the center of Part I was just one instance among countless of others he has orcestrated on other planets. Astonishingly, these interplanetary machinations serve a whimsical purpose for Dadged – a form of cosmic tidying to "clean up" his metaphorical "bedroom." The gravity of this revelation intensifies when it becomes apparent that Dadged's "bedroom" is not a confined space but, in fact, ''the entire universe.'' |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 110 | * ''Music/TheMechanisms''' concept album "The Bifrost Incident" initially appears to be Myth/NorseMythology RecycledInSpace, with an investigator trying to figure out who sabotaged [[CoolTrain The Ratatosk Express]]. The Bifrost wormhole the train went through is a gateway to Yog-Sothoth's realm, and the sabotage was a last-ditch effort to stop it breaking through. |
| 111 | [[/folder]] |
| 112 | |
| 113 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 114 | * In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', the Eldrazi pull this in both the Zendikar block and the Shadows over Innistrad block. In Zendikar, most of the focus is on the "adventure world" with ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-style adventurers, until the Eldrazi are unleashed at the end of the second set and things get messy from there. In Shadows, the GothicHorror plane is dealing with an epidemic of madness and mutation, and even most of the angels have fallen into darkness; "Eldritch Moon" has Emrakul, the last of the Eldrazi Titans, turn up, weld the angels together, and everything goes to hell. |
| 115 | * A well-known [[BrokenBase contentious point]] among RPG fanbase is handling this trope in regards to various games inspired by Franchise/CthulhuMythos. The idea of running a game of ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' only to suddenly confront the players with something eldritch and switch to ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' spinoff ''Cthulhupunk'', or a game of ''Top Secret'' where covert ops take an unexpected turn after which player characters are reassigned to ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', are, depending on who you ask, either the best ways to introduce the players to these games in an immersive "fish out of water" way or the betrayal of trust that will likely turn them away from ever playing with you again. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 119 | * ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' has TheReveal that the ManEatingPlant is from outer space and planning to overrun the world with its offspring. And it succeeds in the end--at least in the play and the director's cut of the movie. |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 123 | * ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'' starts off as a colorful but still cynical, dark PostCyberpunk mystery, but the story quickly becomes a LovecraftLite story once The Consortium is revealed to be an {{Expy}} of the Website/SCPFoundation studying and containing Variants, strange anomalies from the alternate dimension [[EldritchLocation Hinterland]], and the ArtifactOfDoom that Dr. C is attempting to get that will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt by releasing the powerful [[EldritchAbomination Amok]] from her prison. |
| 124 | * ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' is a perfectly normal game about an evil organization forcing Desmond to relive the genetic memories of his ancestors, tied in to an ancient-evil-conspiracy plot. After ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', suddenly, AbusivePrecursors arrive, and the world's about to be destroyed by some sort of horrible thing. However, this is subverted: the Precursors are simply human-like animals with more senses, longer lives, and better tech. The world-ending threat is not some inscrutable alien intelligence, but a mundane solar flare. Then it is double-subverted. Juno, one of the Precursors, has transcended physical existence and successfully manipulates generations of humans to free herself. She can possess humans and drive them mad. She also has a cult dedicated to her. ''Origins'' takes it deeper, with the strong implication that Precursor technology may be advanced enough to [[RealityWarping alter the fabric of reality]]. |
| 125 | * At first the main campaign of ''VideoGame/AzurLane'' just looks like a CuteEmUp retelling of the Pacific Theatre of World War II, but the event stories quickly turn this way. Mankind is but a gnat against the threats it's facing. It was getting soundly beaten by the Sirens prior to their leaking access to Wisdom Cube technology, with the strongest Sirens being in-story fleet or country killers, and even then every victory is for naught because the Sirens can just discard the timeline while keeping what they've learnt. Communications from the Sirens are arrogant and mocking at best, enigmatic and inscrutable at worst. Yet despite all these advantages, Siren perspectives imply there's ''something'' out there even they can't beat, hence all this tomfoolery to both improve themselves and [[INeedYouStronger force mankind to accelerate its technological development]] rather than simply crushing mankind like a bug. |
| 126 | * ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' serves as the page image and possibly the standout modern example - it starts off steeped in straightforward GothicHorror: You're a Hunter somehow implicitly empowered by the moon, trapped in a Victorian Gothic city obsessed with blood, fighting a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lycanthropy]] [[ZombieApocalypse plague]], plus various other stock Gothic monsters like Frankenstein-esque mad science experiments, witches, werebeasts, and vampires. Then it turns out the city is made up of conflicting bands of cultists in contact with [[EldritchAbomination ancient, powerful alien entities]] whom they regard as gods. And the blood they're obsessed with is the nearest thing to a physical form one of those gods has. And the plague may well be somehow caused by the gods' attempt to spawn a half-human child. And you're probably actually trapped in another dimension dreamed into existence by those gods for the purpose of cradling that child. And the moon that empowers you is actually ''another'' EldritchAbomination with which a contract was made to give humanity a fighting chance against the gods. And so on. |
| 127 | * ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': |
| 128 | ** ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'' tried to pull this by dropping the main characters into a fight with an EldritchAbomination. It didn't go over well, and the sequel and interquel proved willing to reference the event (often sarcastically) but focused back on the human dimension, with the BigBad of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' being a perfectly mundane if [[JerkAss staggeringly assholish]] human[[note]]whose trump card still turns out to be an EldritchAbomination-like bioweapon[[/note]], and ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' being more about his rise to power than anything else. ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'' is something of a darker take on LovecraftLite, as there is a new Siren who can eat the remaining {{Eldritch Abomination}}s right after they escape, but is also a sadistic cult leader with dreams of godhood. |
| 129 | ** And then 3's second DLC campaign, ''Guns, Love, and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock'', turns up the Lovecraftian elements with a dead vault monster so vast its corpse is visible from miles away, robe-wearing cultists who worship it, villagers suffering from madness and curses, an occult detective who has lost his mind from exposure to too much horror, and of course, people sprouting tentacles. |
| 130 | * ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' is steeped in traditional fantasy tropes for most of the game, until the GreaterScopeVillain Ouroboros is revealed to be a world-devouring entity from beyond the cosmos. |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/CassetteBeasts'' starts out as a fantasy adventure at a magical island populated by both humans and monsters and located in a different dimension from Earth. Then the opening quest concludes with your encounter with Morgante, revealing the existence of the powerful and incomprehensible eldritch entities known by the local human residents as [[AngelicAbomination Archangels]]. This starts the game's main quest of finding more Archangels across the island to gather more clues for you to find a way to return home. Eventually, it is revealed that Archangels are embodiments of various concepts birthed from humanity, with the final boss being an incarnation of conquest whom you need to stop from causing destruction across reality. A post-game quest also reveals that the island's entire railway system, which you most likely have used to travel across the island on numerous occasions, is not only an Archangel themself, but also responsible for the island's very existence, as well as you and everyone else being stranded on it. |
| 132 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'''s plot originally concerns itself with accidental TimeTravel [[TimeyWimeyBall and the possible problems thereof]], but then quickly morphs into trying to stop an EvilSorcerer from summoning a world-destroying EldritchAbomination, only to find out TheReveal that the sorcerer was actually trying to ''destroy'' the abomination, which is much older and much more powerful than anyone anticipated and has been manipulating the course of evolution for its benefit for over 65 ''million'' years. |
| 133 | * A sci-fi example is found in ''VideoGame/Crysis3''. Throughout the series, it's hinted that the Ceph, the aliens that humanity is in conflict with, aren't truly invading the planet. Rather than an army, they're compared to a tribe of cavemen with clubs or even simple automated tools designed to harvest or clean up the Earth, mopping the floor with most forces sent against them despite lacking any real intelligence or tactics. Fighting them is akin to an ant fighting a set of rusty hedge-clippers or a Roomba. Indeed, the third game reveals that the ''true'' Ceph are over half a billion years old and have colonized millions of planets across multiple spiral arms of the Milky Way alone, with technology so far beyond humanity that they might as well be thought of as gods. Appropriately enough, when the Ceph send one of their ships through a wormhole from the M33 galaxy, it looks like a massive, mechanical Cthulhu-eqsue monster ''bigger than the moon.'' One shot is all it needs to wipe out humanity. And even though Prophet [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu is able to destroy it]], what it really amounts to is a single gardener dying in a 'freak accident.' It's made clear many times that any victory humanity has against them is because the Ceph hardly notice or care that we even exist. We're not an opposing force to them, we're pests in an old family house they can barely be bothered to deal with. |
| 134 | * The ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' does this at the midway point: The first two games were standard SlasherMovie stories focusing on a wooden idol [[SoulJar containing the soul]] of a [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] {{Expy}} who would [[DemonicPossession possess]] anyone that touched the idol with their bare hands and go on a rampage. Then the third game introduced Chzo, an EldritchAbomination from AnotherDimension and the elemental god of pain, as well as his [[TheDragon Dragon]], who is revealed to have been the one who bound the aforementioned Jason expy's soul to the idol in the first place. The fourth game then introduced an entire cult devoted to Chzo. Apparently this can all be chalked up to Yahtzee [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants making up the story as he went along]]. |
| 135 | * ''VideoGame/DigimonSurvive'' starts off as a darker take on ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', until the creepy FogOfDoom shows up. Things escalate from there, with the BigBad revealed to be an EldritchAbomination forcing the group to SaveBothWorlds. Actually subverted; [[spoiler:the EldritchAbomination is (or was) a Fanglongmon, something that still belongs to this world but only corrupted by human hate, and the monsters are actually spirits worshipped by people in ancient Japan.]] |
| 136 | * [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium''. For the most part, the game is coy, with many surreal MaybeMagicMaybeMundane elements. Even if these are treated as magic, the game is essentially a MagicRealism story about a DefectiveDetective in a city where the most important matters remain economics, politics, and very human passions and ambitions. Then there's what Joyce reveals about [[EldritchLocation the Pale]], and what the player character discovers in the Church. Neither impacts the main plot directly, but the long-term implications are very, ''very'' bad for humanity, and both are unambiguously and powerfully supernatural. |
| 137 | * In ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'', the first part of the game seems like a normal mystery story, with a detective, a murder, suspects... The final part, however, involves a plan to release an EldritchAbomination, and once it's released, [[LovecraftLite finding a way to kill it]]. |
| 138 | * ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' tells you vaguely about the evil alien leader [[BigBad Giygas]] throughout, but it takes the entire game to find out that he's a [[EldritchAbomination galaxy-spanning elder god]] in the vein of [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Azathoth]]. Notably, he wasn't this [[VideoGame/EarthboundBeginnings in the original game]], but became this upon losing his sanity after his defeat. |
| 139 | * ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' begins like a classic HighFantasy (mixed with [[AuthorAppeal Miyazaki's]] usual DarkFantasy elements) story about gods, demigods, [[GreatOffscreenWar great wars]], magic and dragons. For most of the game, you're led to believe that the humanoid [[GodEmpress Marika]] is the TopGod of the setting, with the vague mention of an abstract "Greater Will" possibly above even her, and 'only' the occasional FantasyAliens stated to have come from a meteor, like the Alabaster Lords and the Fallingstar Beasts to make you start suspecting something is off. As the game goes on and as hints start to pile up both in the events of the game and the [[AllThereInTheManual item descriptions]] it starts to become apperent that there are actually ''multiple'' cosmic entities called Outer Gods, above Marika and equal to the Greater Will, all of which have had a massive influence on the world: The strange, incurable Scarlet Rot that covered Caelid? The influence of an Outer God. The mysterious and powerful 'Rune of Death'? The power of another Outer God. The insanity-inducing Frenzied Flame? A [[OmnicidalManiac VERY]] malevolent Outer God. It comes to the point that you realize that most, if not all, schools of magic in the setting have their roots in one of the various Outer Gods. None of these beings ever enter the foreground, appear, or communicate directly, but the sheer knowledge of their existance makes the Demigods you're hunting down all game feel positively ''tiny'' in comparison. |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' plays out like your standard fantasy story of heroes embarking on quests to save the realm, but ''Endwalker'' throws a massive curveball with the Final Days, and the source of the coming apocalypse: Meteion, an empathetic familiar created by an Ancient scientist, was created, along with her identical sisters, to search the cosmos for life. What they found was only civilizations either in decline or already destroyed, leading to the conclusion that life is meaningless and that the merciful thing to do would be to give everyone, everywhere, oblivion. To that end, they built a "nest" on a dead sun at the farthest reaches of the universe and used their empathic powers to orchestrate the Final Days. While it ends up being LovecraftLite as the Warrior of Light ultimately defeats Meteion and ends the Final Days, the nature of the universe that drove her mad still exists, and it is unknown how many planets remain in the universe besides the Warrior of Light's homeworld that still contain life. |
| 141 | * Most of the plot for ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' is fairly mundane in nature. Although a conspiracy about alien artefacts is present, much of the plot focuses on political intrigue and the criminal world [[note]]Nomad ships ''are'' shown in the intro but it is very brief and easily forgettable against other plot details[[/note]]. The reveal of who are [[TheManBehindTheMan behind the conspiracy]], however, kicks this trope into gear. Afterwards, the story becomes entirely focused on [[PuppeteerParasite the Nomads]], the [[EldritchAbomination Dom'Kovash]] that created them and the EldritchLocation they reside in, including a DysonSphere that seems utterly incomprehensibly huge compared to everything else the player encountered up until that point. |
| 142 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': In the original ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', [[TheTheocracy the Covenant]] are initially the sole antagonists, until the appearance of the Flood shifted the focus from a war with ScaryDogmaticAliens to something more akin to SurvivalHorror. We also find out that they're the ones responsible for the disappearance of the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] 100,000 years ago. ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' revealed that the Flood aren't just semi-sapient zombies, but are being controlled by their Gravemind, aka when a BodyHorror ZombieApocalypse acquires sentience and becomes a hyper-intelligent EldritchAbomination HiveMind, putting them into a good position to overrun their local galaxy and begins spreading to others nearby. The Gravemind is also able to do things like make Cortana, an ''AI'', feel real pain, all without having to use a computer itself. As noted in "Literature", ''Literature/HaloSilentium'' reveals that the Flood are merely the current form of a race of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s older than ''the universe'' itself. |
| 143 | * A long-standing tradition in the ''Franchise/{{Kirby}}'' series is for 99% of the game to be cutesy, goofy fun, only for the last 1% to throw in a terrifying EldritchAbomination as the FinalBoss. |
| 144 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'': The game, at first, seems to be a cutesy followup to ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand''... right up until the climax, when it's revealed the [[{{Macguffin}} Star Rod]] you were reassembling is actually [[SealedEvilInACan the only thing keeping the Nightmare Wizard]], a living personification of Nightmares, trapped in the Fountain of Dreams (which was [[GoodAllAlong King Dedede's]] true goal this entire time). Notably, ever since that game, the ''Kirby'' franchise has had an EldritchAbomination as the final boss, usually (but not always) as a plot twist, whereas King Dedede only remains a central antagonist in spinoffs and even there, it's more about [[TheRival Dedede trying to settle his grudge with Kirby.]] |
| 145 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand2'' has Kirby dealing with a possessed King Dedede, and if you collected all the Rainbow Drops, it's revealed that Dedede was possessed by the Dark Matter Swordsman. In ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand3'' they take this even further with the reveal of 0, a powerful monstrosity and the progenitor of all Dark Matter. After defeating him ([[EyeScream by ripping out its eye no less]]), it is seemingly destroyed, but returns surprisingly in ''VideoGame/Kirby64TheCrystalShards'' as the true antagonist of the game and now known as 02. Upon being defeated this time, it appears to be gone for good, however the true scope of its power is not well understood as even Star Dream cannot properly replicate 02 in its entirety. |
| 146 | ** Dark Meta Knight is initially revealed as TheDragon to Dark Mind, the true antagonist of ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror''. A vicious killer and shadow from another realm, he tries to kill the Kirby's and Meta Knight, but is ultimately defeated. Following his defeat, Queen Sectonia manages to get ahold of the Dimensional Mirror that Kirby and Meta Knight initially entered, and it drives her to madness and power as she becomes excessively vain and malevolent, thus starting the conflict of ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe''. This detail is only revealed in the bonus mode, meaning the mirror is still likely in Sectonia's quarters in her old kingdom, as is Dark Meta Knight hiding inside. As for Dark Mind, he reappears in ''VideoGame/TeamKirbyClashDeluxe'' as King D-Mind. While this may be a different character as it heavily resembles King Dedede, he uses attacks and forms greatly reminiscent of Dark Mind himself. This character would also reappear in ''VideoGame/SuperKirbyClash'' under similar circumstances. Both times the Kirby party would defeat him. |
| 147 | ** Galactic Nova is an entity revealed in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' as a wish-granting mechanical object known as a Clockwork Star. Its power would be poorly understood in its initial appearances as it would seemingly grant Marx power, and then be summarily defeated in combat by Kirby before being destroyed. ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStarUltra'' would have Meta Knight revive it to face down Galacta Knight, showing it could fix itself and seemingly reappear back into existence. The full power of a Clockwork Star would be demonstrated in ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' by Star Dream, revealing Clockwork Stars aren't just wish-granting stars, but rather a race of reality bending [[MechanicalAbomination Mechanical Abominations]] capable of altering the people and planets they come into contact with (for Star Dream this was mechanizing everything on Popstar as trees instantly became metal posts) and even merging with the consciousness of others. Meta Knight and Kirby barely manage to destroy Star Dream in combat, however given Galactic Nova revived so easily, Star Dream could likely come back if it ever needed. |
| 148 | ** In ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'', Hyness revives Void Termina, a powerful being that seems to base its power and appearance on the desire of those who summon it, meaning its evil and its power demonstrated in the final boss may not entirely be its fault. Void Termina is never fully explained, but the boss lore in the pause screen implies it is [[TheMaker the creator of everything in the universe]], including Dark Matter, and wishes to die to be reborn again in a new world as a friend and not an enemy. |
| 149 | * Every game in the ''VideoGame/LittleTailBronx'' series is rife with this, as each adventure usually starts with "local hero in a mecha is tasked with stopping an egotistical villain from trying to TakeOverTheWorld", before suddenly throwing everything out of scale and ramping up the stakes with the introduction of the warped Titano-Machina, which are presented as AlwaysChaoticEvil with legends and stories about how they bring about great calamity every time they are awakened. [[spoiler:What makes it interesting is that the Titano-Machina are all man-made, using the gifts bestowed upon humanity by the godly Juno]]. ''VideoGame/SolatoroboRedTheHunter'' initially subverts this by introducing Lares early on, with most of the plot involving Red and Elh running around trying to stop it and Bruno... only to end up double subverted thanks to the second half of the game, with Baion using Lares and Lemures to open Tartaros, which sits firmly within another dimension, to enact total genocide through the CODA command. |
| 150 | * ''Halo'' owes this theme to its spiritual predecessor, ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}''. The game starts as a fairly straightforward alien conflict aside from a few esoteric themes. The first two games have you fighting a conventional war against alien slavers. It is hinted that there is some greater chaos towards the end of ''Marathon 2'', but only in the context of what appears to be a mere creation myth on part of the aliens' slaves that misinterpreted a historic alien war that took place on their homeworld as being the work of the gods. Come ''Marathon Infinity'', and the stakes of the first two games become positively trivial as you sacrifice entire timelines in a battle against this all-consuming monstrosity that is heavily implied to be a W'rkn'cacnter, as in ''VideoGame/{{Pathways into Darkness}}''. |
| 151 | * In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', you're initially in pursuit of Saren, a secret agent bent on using synthetic organisms to wipe out humanity. Surprise, he's really working for the Reapers, an ancient race of {{Mechanical Abomination}}s who have wiped out all galactic civilizations several ([[TimeAbyss hundred) times over.]] |
| 152 | -->'''Sovereign:''' Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. |
| 153 | * The first hour of ''VideoGame/MoonsOfMadness'' is spent running around a Martian colony fixing solar panels and irrigation systems. While the short nightmare sequence that serves as the prologue should be a pretty big clue, the humdrum opening act can make the later plot quite a shock. Then again, in this case the surprise depends on how closely you read the advertising before you started the game, specifically the parts that establish it as being set in the same universe as ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' (which is far more up front about it). |
| 154 | * Not the main plot, but ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has a bounty hunting sidequest that is relatively calm and relaxing, until you get to about the last monster, who turns out to be an EldritchAbomination. Losing the battle against this last bounty results in a MindRape ending. For a SideQuest, this is still pretty heavy... and there are actually a number of these practically immortal destructive beings roaming about. |
| 155 | * ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'', being a spin-off of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series which openly features the protagonists fighting gods and god-like entities, tends to have more of an UrbanFantasy bent for most of the game only to reveal a god-like entity as the final boss: |
| 156 | ** In ''VideoGame/Persona2'', the real mastermind behind everything that's happening in Sumaru City is Nyarlathotep, an omnipotent god who embodies the dark side of the collective unconscious. |
| 157 | ** In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', the Investigation Team has finally revealed the identity of the SerialKiller they've been chasing for most of the plot, just in time for the fog from the TV world to become a permanent fixture in the real world and the townspeople to start babbling about the end of days. When the killer is cornered and defeated, a mountain-sized mechanical eyeball emerges from his body and declares its intent to dissolve humanity into [[TheHeartless Shadows.]] |
| 158 | ** In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', it's your MissionControl Igor who turns out to be the God of Control, [[UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} The Demiurge/Yaldabaoth]]. Up until this point, the game had been pretty strictly UrbanFantasy. |
| 159 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 160 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' start off as your standard Pokémon games (battle trainers, catch Pokémon, etc.) until it's revealed Team Aqua and Team Magma want to awaken an ancient god-like Pokémon (Kyogre or Groudon, depending on which version you're playing). As can be expected, it [[GoneHorriblyRight goes far beyond expectations]], resulting in either cataclysmic floods or drought that threatens to destroy all life on the planet. Naturally, it's up to the player character to save the world. |
| 161 | ** Cyrus, the BigBad in ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', attempts to destroy and re-create the entire '''universe''' as he sees fit. He does this by imprisoning three legendary Pokémon (Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit) in order to create an object called the "Red Chain" which he then uses to summon Dialga and Palkia (who happen to be the God of Time and God of Space respectively). Cyrus then attempts to use their power to bend reality and reshape the universe in his image. In ''Pokémon Platinum'', this causes Giratina (a ghostly dragon-god living in an alternate dimension) to become enraged and drags Cyrus into its world ([[EldritchLocation a bizarre reality where the laws of physics and so forth are far beyond human understanding. Appropriately, it's called the "Distortion World"]]). And, once again, it's up to the player to save the day. |
| 162 | ** And then we have the post-game quest in ''Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire'', the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', mentioned above. The ''Delta Episode'' revolves around an asteroid on a collision course with the Hoenn region. Hoenn's Space Center intends to stop it by using some old thing called "Link Cable" to warp it to another dimension, where hopefully it will cause no damage. However, a girl called Zinnia shows up and steals vital parts of the device explicitly to stop the Center from using it. Her reasoning is that the proper way to dispose of the asteroid is by making Rayquaza Mega Evolve and getting him to destroy it, since it's been done successfully in the past. She argues that if the scientists at the center had their way and warped the asteroid, they would save ''this'' version of the region, but would very probably send it instead to another iteration of the universe. One she explicitly says would most definitely have another Hoenn in the collision course, one where Mega Evolution never existed and would thus be defenseless against the asteroid. Yes, this is a pretty clear reference to the Hoenn from ''the original Ruby and Sapphire'' (Mega Evolution was not introduced until ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'', which came out right before Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), and has every implication that that world would be destroyed if the Link Cable plan is executed. Long story short: '''The Pokémon games, as a whole, are very casually confirmed to be set all within the same multiverse.''' All older games that got updated, newer generation remakes, are now not simply retconned by their remakes, they exist simultaneously as different iterations of the ''Pokémon'' multiverse. And there's more: It's funny that the dimension-warping device is called a "Link Cable". Way back in the days before wireless, the only way to play Pokémon with other players was with a wire called ''Link Cable''. Yup, it seems that now, '''every single copy of any single Pokémon game is, in canon, an iteration of the Pokémon universe.''' You've been casually [[MundaneUtility leaping between universes to get that one version exclusive you needed to fill your Pokédex and totally own your cousin in a battle all these years]]. |
| 163 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' begins as another one of those stories with a young person in a new land setting out to become the champion with a villainous team... only it turns out the villainous team is highly ineffectual. Then, things ''really'' get down when a wormhole opens up in front of the protagonist, and a horrific extradimensional creature, known as an Ultra Beast, appears from it. Lusamine, the leader of the Aether Foundation, intends to open up more wormholes to bring over more of these Ultra Beasts, which eventually dominates the story. By the time the protagonist becomes the champion, Ultra Beasts are running amok on every island in Alola, and the protagonist is tasked with containing them to prevent their cataclysmic powers from destroying the world. Being the champion of Alola is small beans compared to the threat the region finds itself in. |
| 164 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' once again starts as a typical adventure, with the protagonist and some rivals competing to become the Pokémon League Champion. Then during the finals, Chairman Rose, [[WellIntentionedExtremist in an attempt to solve the region's coming energy crisis]], unleashes ''Eternatus'', the being that created Dynamax Energy and caused the Darkest Day. It's so powerful that it could only be taken down by two of the region's strongest trainers (you and your main rival, natch) fighting alongside ''two'' Legendary Pokémon. Not to mention it looks like it could be Giratina's skeleton, and its Eternamax form resembles [[VideoGame/{{Okami}} Yami]]. |
| 165 | * ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' was released in 2001 with a typical medieval fantasy setting, with the gods having left the world thousands of years ago after the God Wars, until 2013, when the gods began to return and reshape the world to their will. References to [[TheOldGods Elder Gods]] have been scattered in the game, but it wasn't until 2016 when [[TopGod Jas]] physically appeared in-game. It was revealed Elder Gods created universes and fed on them to sustain themselves in an EternalRecurrence and now the current revision of the universe is under the same threat. |
| 166 | * ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' primarily revolves around the ForeverWar between Good Shinobi and Evil Shinobi ([[GrayAndGreyMorality titles that really have little to do with morality]]), where ChildSoldiers are drafted into a world where death is a constant possibility. Despite this dark setup, the games are primarily a goofy {{fanservice}}-fest where the worst that happens is the loser [[ClothingDamage gets their clothes destroyed]]. Until we are introduced to the byproduct of this conflict, giant monstrous creatures called [[TheHeartless Yoma]], which both sides will drop everything to defeat. And then ''Shinovi Versus'' reveals this whole war is actually a ploy. The Yoma aren't byproducts of the war, but the reason it began in the first place. There exists an ancient creature called [[EldritchAbomination Shin]], [[MonsterProgenitor progenitor]] of the Yoma and the one responsible for all large-scale calamities in the world, which will continue to claim lives until it's defeated. In order to draw it and the other Yoma out of their pocket dimension, enough blood must be spilled in conflict. The secondary purpose of the Shinobi war is to train fighters capable of defeating Shin. These can be Good, Evil, or Renegade Shinobi, so long as they're strong enough. |
| 167 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': It has repeatedly happened that Eggman suddenly finds himself out of his league when his schemes provoke godlike horrors, such as [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure Perfect Chaos]], [[VideoGame/SonicUnleashed Dark Gaia]], and [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 Solaris]], and Sonic has to go Super to bail Earth and Eggman out of the mess the doctor had caused. |
| 168 | ** Of special note is ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', which uses this reveal for '''''[[ExaggeratedTrope the entire franchise]]'''''. The series' classic MacGuffin, the Chaos Emeralds, were originally from an alien world occupied by the Ancients. Said Emeralds were taken to Earth to protect them from The End, an EldritchAbomination who destroyed the Ancients' home world and was subsequently sealed away within Cyberspace. So everything the series' villains aimed to do with the Emeralds -- Chaos achieving perfect form, Iblis and Mephiles becoming Solaris, even just Doctor Eggman using them to fuel his machines -- were all consequences indirectly caused by The End's actions. |
| 169 | * ''VideoGame/VampireSurvivors'' has an ExcusePlot about vampires that only exists in the manual and is virtually never referenced in the game itself, relying entirely on the player making assumptions based on the game being heavily based on ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}''. In fact, the game conspicuously lacks vampires altogether. After unlocking the Moongolow stage, something resembling a plot does begin to emerge, but it more closely resembles ''Literature/TheKingInYellow'', featuring an eldritch entity represented by a pair of giant yellow hands. |
| 170 | * This happened to ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}''. The series was originally about orcs and the demons they consorted with, with the demons being expanded to have been the true force behind their invasion. In ''Warcraft III'', a "Forgotten One" was found in an underground city and fit the description of an EldritchAbomination, but its exact place in the universe was ambiguous. In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', occasional appearances of the [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]] teased the possibility that they were ultimately more of a threat than the traditional demonic BigBad, especially since they were revealed to have been responsible for the evil of many minor villains. Finally, the ''Literature/WorldOfWarcraftChronicle'' revealed that the force behind the Old Gods, the Void, is truly the ultimate threat. Not only is it a timeless element of the universe, fear of it is what drove the demons to band into a united force to begin with. |
| 171 | * ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'' opens with the focus on Captain Titus and his Ultramarines beating back an Ork WAAAGH!!! Then it turns out Titus was being manipulated by the agents of a Chaos Sorcerer, who were working to help their master ascend to daemonhood and unleash HellOnEarth. |
| 172 | * In ''VideoGame/WeNeedToGoDeeper'', the deeper the submarine goes, the more bizarre the enemies become and the darker the tone gets until you reach the Ancient One, and awakening it triggers TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'' starts off with Fei just living his normal life in a quiet village, devoid of conflict. Then TheEmpire of Solaris invades and razes the town to the ground, forcing him to defend himself in the heat of the moment and rise up against their tyranny. This eventually leads to him and his party fighting against the theocratic empire's [[DeusEstMachina machine god]], Deus, who created the humans living on the planet and wants to assimilate them so it can become a true god. |
| 174 | [[/folder]] |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 177 | * As with a lot of other tropes, ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'' does this in a weird way. You already ''know'' there's a much larger world outside the game's world -- [[InvertedTrope you're living in it]]. But you don't really think of it that way, except here when a character is revealed to have GoneMadFromTheRevelation about being TrappedInTVLand. And horror? It had already shifted to that before the revelation. |
| 178 | --> I peer inside for a clue.\ |
| 179 | No! I can't see. I reel, blind, like a film left out in the sun.\ |
| 180 | But it's too late. My retinas.\ |
| 181 | Already scorched with a permanent copy of the meaningless image.\ |
| 182 | It's just a little hole. It wasn't too bright.\ |
| 183 | It was too deep.\ |
| 184 | Stretching forever into everything.\ |
| 185 | A hole of infinite choices.\ |
| 186 | I realize now, that I wasn't looking in.\ |
| 187 | I was looking out.\ |
| 188 | [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou And he, on the other side, was looking in.]]\ |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 | |
| 191 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 192 | * The {{Pilot}} for ''WebAnimation/MurderDrones'' sets the show up as a goofy [[SciFiHorror Sci-Fi]] HorrorComedy on a distant planet where an angsty teenage drone girl named Uzi fights robot vampires sent by their corporate overlords on Earth. From there, the show's JigsawPuzzlePlot gradually reveals the vampires are actually pawns of a {{Mechanical|Abomination}} and/or DigitalAbomination called the Absolute Solver, which has already destroyed Earth and spread to other human colonies with drones just like Uzi, whose carcasses it's using in a plan to consume the universe. |
| 193 | [[/folder]] |
| 194 | |
| 195 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 196 | * ''Webcomic/{{CaptainSNES}}'' pretty much starts off with Alex Williams being sucked into Videoland by Lucca's machine and first time readers would initially think that him exploring this strange world and meeting new people and helping them is the entire plot. However,it soon becomes apparent that Videoland was forever changed by a prescient, reality-warping entity known as the Sovereign of Sorrow who possesses the ability to show video game characters the true nature of their world, something that they, with the exception of Kefka who sees it as validation of his nihilistic worldview, can't handle. Even more shocking is the revelation that Alex is unwittingly her champion. |
| 197 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' ([[JustForFun/TropeOverdosed surprise!]]) becomes HijackedByCthulhu by ''[S] Jade: Wake'' with the revelation that the Horrorterrors do, in fact, exist...and the true main villain, Lord English, is [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu killing them]]. |
| 198 | ** English himself is no slouch in the Cosmic Horror department, destroying the afterlife and [[CessationOfExistence double-killing the ghosts within]], all just to [[CollateralDamage find and kill his sister]]. |
| 199 | * ''Webcomic/{{Housepets}}'': Downplayed in that most of it is PlayedForLaughs, but still keeps a bit of FridgeHorror. The comic initially presents it's only deviation from reality being that animals are now bipedal and intelligent, as expected from a furry comic. Over time, however, the Earth itself is revealed to be home to a CosmicChessGame between gods, and at constant risk of being invaded by Hell itself if its protectors should fail. |
| 200 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The first arc of the story concerns the titular Order on a dungeon crawl to stop Xykon, an evil lich and his undead and goblin minions. Then it turns out that within the lich's old lair, there was a portal to a dimension where an EldritchAbomination with world-destroying power is imprisoned, and the rest of the story becomes a quest to stop the abomination from being released, while the lich and his minions (and several other evil forces) try to use the abomination for their own purposes. The stakes get raised to literally cosmic proportions when it's revealed the cycle of creation and destruction between the gods and the eldritch Snarl has gone on for literal eons. This one world? ''Acceptable collateral damage''. |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 204 | * ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'' starts out as a fairly typical ScienceFantasy: long ago, a cabal of mad sorcerers created the Grand Relics, a bunch of [[ArtifactOfDoom Artifacts of Doom]] that [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity grant superpowers at the cost of madness]], and it's the protagonists' job to recollect and destroy said artifacts. As the plot progresses, it is revealed that the Relics were created to split up and neutralize the massive power source they were created from, which contains enough energy to act as a homing beacon for otherworldly entities -- specifically [[BigBad the Hunger]], an EldritchAbomination (physically incomprehensible sans its millions of eyes and tendrils of viscous black fluid) that seeks to assimilate all worlds of the Multiverse into itself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero And by collecting the Relics, our heroes have recombined the original power source and unwittingly let the Hunger loose upon the world of Faerun...]] |
| 205 | * ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' begins as accounts of encounters with the supernatural being collected by the Magnus Institute, a private foundation which gathers evidence of such occurrences in Europe. As it goes on, it becomes increasingly clear that not only are the events connected, but the Magnus Institute itself is a known quantity to these creatures. After all, it's the seat of the Lidless Eye, the embodiment of the fear of being watched. We eventually learn about the rest of the Powers, all born of primal fears, all with their own Lovecraftian rituals, and [[DevilButNoGod all are only opposed by one another in their rush to complete their grand ritual first.]] |
| 206 | * ''Literature/{{Reasoning}}'': The story starts off as a typical slasher, with a young woman named Beverly fleeing from a seemingly hostile foe. But then it's revealed said foe is a rat-like monster. And then Beverly comes across a giant EldritchAbomination and a [[SkullForAHead talking skull-headed deity]]. By [[WhamEpisode chapter 7]], the story shifts into cosmic horror when it's revealed that monsters from a realm called Aevum are being unleashed upon humanity. Chapter 11 takes this ''even further'' by revealing that Aevum's surrogate god, EYE, is trying to exterminate all of humanity by sending monsters through portals to feast on human beings. |
| 207 | * ''{{WebAnimation/RWBY}}'': AllMythsAreTrue applies to this series in terms of fairy tales, up to and including the story of how humanity was created by two gods of Light and Darkness. Why? As an ''experiment'' to see what would happen if they made a species which could choose between good and evil. Naturally, their creations are completely helpless against them and it takes just one god the slightest bit of effort to wipe them all out. This possibility became a reality when they cursed a young woman, Salem, to teach her the importance of the life and death system they created, eventually leaving her behind on the depopulated planet after deeming their experimentation in sentience a failure. Whilst the God of Light can't quite detach himself from his creation, the way he leaves a way back is less than comforting; if he and his brother are summoned back to Remnant with the use of Relics when humanity is still at odds, they will wipe them out once and for all. |
| 208 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'': So, [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2317 SCP-2317]]. Fairly average for a scip. A mystical door that leads to a pocket universe. Then, it turns out that the pocket universe contains an EldritchAbomination just barely contained. Then it turns out that the thing isn't contained at all, and that it's only a matter of time before it destroys humanity. Then it turns out that the thing may or may not be the [[GreaterScopeVillain Scarlet King, its offspring, or something worse.]] |
| 209 | * ''WebAnimation/Supermarioglitchy4sSuperMario64Bloopers'': A meme-themed series of wacky adventures turns out to be under threat from an EldritchAbomination which has left entire other universes in ruin, which itself was empowered by a sentient container of broken worlds. And this is all a byproduct of these events being dictated by beings far more powerful - the creators of the series themselves. |
| 210 | * ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': After spending much of the story as street-level superhero fare, with an occasional {{Kaiju}} attack, Scion is revealed to be the avatar of a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien that is using Earth as a giant petri dish, with mankind as the specimens. |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:Web Video]] |
| 214 | * ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': This series starts as a comedic comic book review show. The host at first fought a MonsterOfTheWeek or ArcVillain related to the comic he had reviewed, to symbolically defeat the bad story. After the show's second anniversary, he fought a MultiversalConqueror that was chasing an omnicidal Outer God. After that, the Outer God itself finally showed up and nearly destroyed the entire universe. Later, it's revealed that there's an entire family of such beings. |
| 215 | [[/folder]] |
| 216 | |
| 217 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 218 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' initially seems to be a relatively lighthearted mix of The Simpsons and Spongebob despite having a lot of dark humor. In the third season [[EldritchLocation Elmore]] is revealed to have a Void dimension where it dumps anything or anyone it considers a mistake. Said Void is quickly established as the single greatest threat in the entire show. |
| 219 | * ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' starts out with two siblings exploring the weird little town they're visiting and encountering things like ghosts, gnomes, and mermen. Then the MythArc gets going, and Bill Cipher takes over as not just the BigBad but the number one threat to humanity. |
| 220 | * ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'': The episode "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsBeyondTheAquilaRift Beyond the Aquila Rift]]" starts off very standard for a sci-fi story: a spaceship breaks down and its crew must wait aboard a remote space station until the ship is repaired. But as time goes on, the main character, Thom, grows suspicious of the circumstances and starts investigating, and eventually [[AwfulTruth starts wishing that he hadn't]]. Everyone of Thom's crewmates turns out to have been DeadAllAlong and everything Thom thought was real was actually an illusion; in reality, he is lost in space alongside an alien being who trapped him in said illusion [[GoMadFromTheRevelation to keep him from going insane]]. |
| 221 | * The main concept of the short (and potential series) ''WesternAnimation/{{Pibby}}'' is that various otherwise cheery and optimistic cartoon worlds, including many beloved classics (or expies of said classics) are being corrupted and devoured one by one by a horrific, nigh-unstoppable GlitchEntity that [[OutsideContextProblem no one knows the origin of]]. |
| 222 | * ''WesternAnimation/Primal2019'': Originally, this series seemed to be prehistoric fiction about a caveman and dinosaur struggling to survive against predators and giant animals. But then we're introduced to a zombie plague, a coven of witches and possibly the Devil himself, all of which our mortal protagonists don't stand a chance against. |
| 223 | * ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': Downplayed. Anyone familiar with the series already knows Aku is an ancient evil in the story's setting, but "[[OriginsEpisode The Birth of Evil]]" shows that he's [[TimeAbyss ancient]] from even the viewpoint of the dinosaurs. |
| 224 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' appears to be a DarkerAndEdgier version of the classic series, only to reveal an overarching story about a cursed treasure that has destroyed several previous mystery solving teams who had all turned on each other in their greed for the treasure. Season 2 reveals that it's in reality a SealedEvilInACan for an EldritchAbomination known as The Evil Entity, and that the various talking animal sidekicks that have appeared throughout the Hanna-Barberaverse partially share The Evil Entity's extraterrerstrial origin. |
| 225 | * ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The episode "Pinewood Derby" begins with Stan competing for the derby and his father Randy cheating to win, which catches the attention of cosmic beings who subject humanity to a morality test. |
| 226 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' features The Cluster. While the show up until that point had been raising the stakes with the looming threat of the Diamond Authority, as well as the background presence of Malachite the toxic fusion, it still had a copious amount of more relaxed {{breather episode}}s. Once the audience and the Crystal Gems are informed about this threat, it becomes the key focus for the remainder of show's second season, tying into Peridot's redemption arc. However, it's ultimately subverted as Steven manages to communicate and reason with it come the season three premiere, ending things peacefully. |
| 227 | [[/folder]] |
| 228 |
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