Line #22 NightmareFuel/Asterix


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4	[[quoteright:299:[[WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asterix_nightmare.jpg]]]]
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6	[[AC:Comics:]]
7	* Justforkix in ''Recap/AsterixAndTheNormans'' being surrounded by vicious-looking Vikings, [[NightmareRetardant until]] their leader walks towards him and demands: "Make us scared!"
8	* Asterix and Obelix lost at sea to the point of starvation in ''Recap/AsterixAndTheGreatCrossing''. Obelix, delusional with hunger, walks off the boat in a daze and almost gets himself and Dogmatix drowned. They're only saved because they had managed to drift within eye distance of land.
9	* The start of ''Recap/AsterixAndTheSoothsayer''. A storm is raining down on the village and a strange, creepy old man in a wolf skin enters the chieftain's home to predict the future by cutting open a fish. The soothsayer's face can also be seen in a lot of dramatic close-ups in the shadows.
10	* ''Recap/AsterixAndSon'' is pretty comedic overall, but gets one ''hell'' of a MoodWhiplash near the end. Angered by the failed attempts at kidnapping the baby, [[spoiler: in reality the infant son of Caesar and Cleopatra]], [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Brutus]] leads a night attack against the village, ordering the troops to set fire to it using ballistas. The village quickly turns into a raging inferno, and Vitalstatistix sends his wife to lead the women and children to safety on the beach while he leads the men in a counterattack. The women reach the beach...only to find Brutus waiting for them. What really makes this bad is that in the chaos, ''the women were not given any potion'', leaving them effectively defenseless.
11	** Brutus comes off as even more AxCrazy in this album than ever before, and vows to "put all of Gaul to the sword and fire" to capture the baby. [[NearVillainVictory He was not kidding.]]
12	** Not immediately obvious, but... The Romans could have set the village on fire at any time. They didn't because they knew the consequences, but it's still a sobering realization.
13	* ''Recap/AsterixAndTheRomanAgent'' has Torturous Convolvulus and his uncanny ability to sow discord:
14	** When his neighbours realized he was getting them to fight with each other, they press charges and get him thrown to the lions. At the start of the story he's in jail because ''the lions ate each other''.
15	** When Caesar has him brought to his presence to see how good he is at sowing discord, he causes a fight among Caesar's advisors... By ''entering the room''.
16	** The climate on the ship bringing him to Gaul - and him getting [[ButtMonkey the pirates]] to beat each other up and sink their ship by claiming he had bought off Baba.
17	** How easily he comes close to breaking the bond among the villagers. He already starts the discord by giving Asterix a gift and flattery, and later he manages to fool the arguing villagers into thinking the Romans have the magical potion. The discord he sowed even results in a feast where [[IronicEcho nobody talks to anyone and only the bard ISN'T tied up, which means the end...]] [[NearVillainVictory the end of the village!]] It takes Brutus in Uderzo's comics to come this close to a Roman victory again.
18	* Caesar's wrath, when it hits, is [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment terrifying in his creativeness]] and determination to off the victim:
19	** [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Already in his first appearance]] in ''Recap/AsterixTheGaul'' he reacts to finding out about Crismus Bonus' treachery by [[UriahGambit sending him to deal with a rebellion]]... In ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Mongolia Outer Mongolia]]''. Hope at least the Han Dynasty appreciated the Roman help...
20	** In ''Recap/AsterixAndCaesarsGift'', the titular gift: one of the soldiers who had just completed their military service and were due to receive a plot of land was a drunkard who had neglected his duties in favor of getting drunk and spent the previous night in jail for loudly insulting Caesar while drunk and disorderly, so Caesar gifted him ''the Gauls' village''. And he's ''almost laughing'' when explaining him the gift.
21	** In ''Recap/AsterixAndTheBlackGold'', Doubleosix and Surreptitius tried to plot against Caesar, resulting in him not knowing Getafix couldn't make the magic potion until after he managed to replace an ingredient... So, as a joke on them using a trained fly to deliver messages, he has them smeared in honey and stung to death by bees. This is called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism Scaphism]], an alleged form of CruelAndUnusualDeath that was supposedly used in AncientPersia.
22	** In ''Recap/AsterixAndObelixAllAtSea'' he had promised admiral Crustacius, "The silliest sausage in Rome", to throw him to the lions if he failed to recover his personal galley. The ship ends up sunk, but Crustacius has been turned to stone... So Caesar has him put in the arena as a statue "In memory of the silliest Sausage in Rome", hoping he will one day spontaneously turn back while the lions are about.
23	*** There's an added layer: Cleopatra witnesses this, but is unaware that this is the actual Crustacius and thinks it is only a statue of him. To her and other outside observers, it looks like the premiere statesman of Rome has become dangerously unhinged.
24	** Even when it's not creative, Caesar's wrath is still terrifying: it's not stated outright, but in ''Recap/AsterixInBelgium'' the Belgians' fatalistic reaction to his arrival imply they know he's there to ''wipe out the entire tribe''. After all, he had already done the same to another Belgian tribe...
25	*** Caesar's rage after Asterix and Obelix shows up at his campaign HQ, asking him to serve as the judge for their "contest" with the Belgians. While our heroes aren't intimidated, his commanders ''are'', cowering in a pile at the back of the tent. They rarely see this side of their emperor, if ever, and know that Caesar losing his cool is VERY bad news. They're right, the story would have ended in a massacre if the Gauls weren't still around.
26	* ''Recap/AsterixInSpain'''s premise actually has child abduction as a plot point, since Caesar threatens the Iberian chieftain Huevos y Bacon with his young son Pepe's life and announces he's going to send the boy into another country - which was a Roman custom to ensure their Empire woudn't crumble under disgruntled peoples. Huevos y Bacon is visibly pissed off and worried, his only consolation being [[PityTheKidnapper the Roman babysitters' upcoming suffering]].
27	* Admiral Crustacius from ''Recap/AsterixAndObelixAllAtSea'' also was ready to use child abduction as a way to have Caesar's galley back, and his hostage happens to be a depowered Obelix. Needless to say, [[PapaWolf the Gauls]] are ''infuriated'' by the Romans overstepping their bounds.
28	* ''Asterix and The Griffin'': A geographer named Cartopgraphus convinces Caesar to let him lead an expidition into the frozen wastes of Sarmatia (the most remote regions of Ukraine) in the hopes of finding the legendary Griffon. Only the local shaman knows where the mythical beast lives, and leads the Romans beyond a great wall of ice... and there's something out there, alright. Namely, the perfectly preserved corpse of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styracosaurus Styracosaurus]], frozen in the ice of an ancient lake. The centurion leading the expidition claims that this abomination cannot possibly be legendary creature Caesar is expecting.
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30	[[AC:Animated Films:]]
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32	* ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'' has [[NightmareFuel/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix its own page]].
33	* The storm scene in ''WesternAnimation/AsterixVersusCaesar'', when the pair is split up in the streets of UsefulNotes/{{Rome}}. Having Asterix [[DrowningPit nearly drowning]] in a dungeon, Dogmatix being flushed through the sewers facing rats almost as big as he is, and Obelix desperately searching for both of them makes this easily one of the darkest moments in all ''Asterix'' history.
34	* The soothsayer in ''WesternAnimation/AsterixAndTheBigFight'', especially the way he cuts up a fish to tell fate from it... and then uses it as a hand puppet. It should be funny. It's not.
35	** The effects of the potions that Getafix invents during his insanity are much more nightmarish than in the comic, where they mostly made people change skin colour (or float). The potion that cures his insanity seems to make his head explode, while the poor Roman soldier on which they test it is turned into random things.
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37	[[AC:Live Action Films:]]
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39	* ''Film/AsterixAndObelixTakeOnCaesar'', the first live action film adaptation of the comics, is a little darker than expected especially in the arena sequence. It covers phobias for all tastes since it features snakes being thrown into Asterix's cage, him escaping at the last second from lions and crocodiles and perhaps most disturbingly of all sinking into a pool filled with thousands of tarantulas which cover every inch of him. And let's not even get started on the deformed brute that almost strangles him...

Context NightmareFuel / Asterix