Unmarked Spoilers Ahead!
Once Upon a Time, we all remembered that fairytales pre-Disney were kind of horrifying. Thanks, Forever After!
- When Robin reads the passage in Snow White's fairytale about three drops of blood falling into the snow, the sky above her starts bleeding.
- Tank nonchalantly explaining to Robin that every Prince Charming before her was killed or suffered a Death of Personality after forgetting their purpose. And then got killed. The illustrations alongside his explanation are also pretty disturbing to look at.
- The panel in which the Wicked Witch introduces himself has an assortment of other villains grouped up behind him, represented as shadow-y figures with glowing red eyes.
- The Demon Trees, malevolent Treants whose seemingly only purpose is to kill Prince Charmings. And if Tank and Snow White are to be believed, they're very good at that.
- Hira turning Tank and Robin to stone in episode 6. The panel shows Tank desperately clinging to Robin, while Robin herself has a look of sheer terror on her now petrified face and cracks that look like tears forming under her eyes.
- The panel that shows Hira putting her curse on Sleeping Beauty: Hira towers over the crying baby, scowling and raising one finger that's already shining with ominous green magic while saying that there's nothing for beauty like plenty of sleep...
- Hira's disguise when infiltrating the castle on Briar Rose's birthday with her sharp teeth and blacked out eyes are enough to scare a lot of the viewers.
- In episode 9, Robin is blinded and the panel revealing it is extremely unnerving with Robin's eyes blacked out completely while she's crying.
- Tank watching Red Riding Hood most likely get eaten by the wolf was unexpectedly a little graphic for the comic's standards and might catch some people off guard.
- The deal that the Sea Witch proposes to Aurelia: Aurelia will get legs - in exchange for the Sea Witch getting her tail and cutting her tongue out. And every step that Aurelia takes once she has her legs will feel like walking on knives to her. Even more disturbing: Aurelia actually considers going through with it, just so she may be closer to her prince.
- The original ending for The Little Mermaid would have had Aurelia basically commit suicide.
- While it ultimately turns out to be a good thing, the way Aurelia's story in the book changes after Robin and Tank meddle too much with it is kind of creepy. The book heats up to the point it's painful to touch and the letters turn blood-red and then disappear. No wonder Robin and Tank freak out.
- The Wicked Witch reveals in episode 24 that anyone and anything in a fairy tale that was once an object can easily be turned back through magic. And promptly demonstrates it by turning Momotaro and Urikohime back into the fruits they were born from.
- He also tries to squash them when he deems the fight between the Prince Charmings and his demon army too "boring".
- Tank's description of witches in Forever After in episode 29 is pretty chilling. Apparently all of them are merciless Hero Killers and the leading cause for Prince Charming-deaths. They're also not content with staying in their own stories, often teaming up and meddling with the narrative. That's right, In Forever After, The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You from witches.
- The accompanying imagery is also pretty gruesome, with, among else, the Sea Witch crushing a prince to death with her tentacles, Makemnoit making another fly high in the air until she presumably suffocates and the Wicked Witch of the West standing over a bunch of dismembered and bisected Prince Charming-corpses.
- Lea's blood-lust, which was primarily Played for Laughs in previous episodes, gets rather sinister in episode 33, where it's revealed that she killed the forty thieves with no hesitation or remorse. Her eyes then gain a red tinge when she threatens Hook with the same fate.
- Once you get past the humorous presentation, Aladdin's situation in episode 34 is incredibly dark. She lives in poverty and has recently lost her father. And a manipulative stranger takes full advantage of her being so gullible to not only gain her trust by pretending to be her aunt from abroad, but also lure her out of the city and into the desert for extremely sinister purposes. Thankfully Lea tags along, so Aladdin is at least not alone with the sorceress like in the original tale.
- The sorceress' description of the traps in the "Cave of Wonders". Apparently one room holds pools made out of gold and silver that will drown anyone who dares to touch them.
- The sorceress slowly going crazy waiting for the magic lamp. To the point she threatens to kill Aladdin and almost does kill Lea when there is an unforeseen hold-up due to the rope ladder breaking. The whole situation is very reminiscent of (and confirmed via Word of God designed to be) an addict lashing out because her fix isn't coming as quickly as she wants.
- Episode 39 reveals that the Wicked Witch murdered his predecessor and took her place. The panel showing it has him with glowing eyes and giving a Slasher Smile at her lifeless, bleeding body.
- Lea getting horrifically burned by the Dragon Prince in Episode 51. The injury is so severe you can see exposed muscle.
- The monsters of the Strange Tales from a Chinese arc are extremely unsettling and look like they've come right out from a horror film.
- The Shuigui, basically zombies, who try to drag Ming to her death. Even worse, we later learn that, had they succeeded, Ming would have taken the place of whoever drowned her and been made to suffer for eternity unless she herself drowned someone in turn.
- The ghost. While he later turns out to be friendly (or at least not malicious) he still drains a young scholar of all his yang-energy, basically rendering him a vegetable for the rest of his life.
- The reveal of the scholar after the ghost drains him is unnerving in and of itself. He's extremely pale, his hair has turned white and he's foaming at the mouth. When Ming asks him to recite Confucius, which he had previously done without prompting at every turn, he barely understands what she's saying and only mumbles nonsense in response.
- The Amanojaku is perhaps the creepiest of the bunch, down to the fact that he doesn't even originate in this story. He's actually Urikohime's villain but was set loose due to her story being left open, making him a literal Outside-Context Problem.
- Had Urikohime's story been allowed to proceed as normal, the Amanojaku would have killed Urikohime and worn her skin as a costume so he could take her life for himself.
- He first approaches the heroes while wearing Master Gao's skin, which is about as horrifying as you can imagine. The way Gao's skin stretches and contorts over the Amanojaku's features is nothing short of grotesque.
