Nightmare Fuel / Skylanders

"Skylands is only the beginning. Once we're done with this place, we're going to conquer every single world in the universe."

"Think I sound crazy? Perhaps. I was locked in a jar for thousands of years, but I can also prove this claim, and take you to a place known as NIGHTMARE WORLD. Want to go?"

— Brain, Skylanders: Imaginators

• A witch tricked Ignitor into wearing a magical suit of armor that was said to resist fire from a dragon. When a dragon's fire rained down on him, Ignitor was instead transformed into a flame spirit who was forever bound to the suit of armor, which turned out to be cursed.
• Grave Clobber's backstory stated his brothers buried him in an underwater tomb while he was asleep.
  • Another Grave Clobber one, for older audiences, it might not be, but it definitely would be for most kids: during The Golden Desert in Trap Team, you fight him. The first thing he says? "I'M GOING TO BURY YOU."
• Shroomboom and his fellow sentient mushroom were born in a pizza topping garden owned by Kaos and were on the verge of becoming his dinner. An added story detail is included that although Shroomboom saved himself and his fellow mushroom brethren, it is believed a family of pineapple chunks weren't lucky.
• Roller Brawl's backstory, and it's a shockingly realistic scenario. She grew up as the youngest of six siblings, but ended up the target of the Villainous Crush of Kaos after becoming one of the toughest jammers in the Undead Roller Derby League. When her brothers stepped in to protect her after she made it clear she wasn't interested, he had them kidnapped and taken prisoner, with Roller Brawl still trying to find them as a Skylander. Once the fantasy elements are removed, it's the story of a child celebrity who finds herself the target of an Abhorrent Admirer, but when her siblings try to protect her from said admirer, they get kidnapped, never to be seen again.
  • We do get to see them again, but it's not a pleasant experience. In the comics, it's eventually revealed that Kaos had Mesmeralda create voodoo puppets of her brothers, brainwashing them into his minions and turning them against her, with Kaos stating he sees this as payback for Roller Brawl rejecting him. Even with Kaos being Laughably Evil, it's a reminder that he can be incredibly petty.
• It seems like a lot of young kids find Ghost Roaster, with his sharp teeth, claws, and the ability to turn into a flaming skull while cackling like a complete maniac, pretty frightening. The fact that he's Ambiguously Evil doesn't help.
  • For bone-us points, he gets voiced by John Kassir (aka the Cryptkeeper and Monsoon) after Skylanders: Giants, so older audiences may find themselves unsettled as well.
• One word: MALEFOR. You thought you would be safe from him if you weren't playing The Legend of Spyro? Well, no. As in that series, he's why Cynder is of the Undead element when he stole her as an egg to make her his apprentice until Spyro defeated and freed her. There's also an indication that he and Spyro have clashed several times before, but Spyro doesn't remember.
  • When Malefor comes in during the comic series, he's just as monstrous as he was in The Legend of Spyro, coming off as a far darker Knight of Cerebus compared to the Laughably Evil Kaos. After Hex defeated him, he needed to be rebuilt using steampunk armor, and held a massive grudge against her alongside Cynder and Spyro. Tricking a fairy named Calliope into serving him in exchange for his help in finding her missing family, he tricks her into stealing the powers of those three Skylanders, and using them to power himself. Giving them a massive beating before imprisoning them, Calliope reveals that he spared them so he can make them watch him destroy what they care for using their powers. Afterwards, even when a small army of Skylanders try to fight him, he simply trounces them and absorbs their power. Had it not been for Calliope undergoing a Faustian Rebellion to expose his weak point, he very well would have succeeded in his plans.
• Eye Five and especially Eye Scream are pretty creepy, with both having Eyes Do Not Belong There.
  • Eye Five's eyes are on his hands, much like the Pale Man.
  • Eye Scream, however, is arguably worse, with her eye being inside her mouth and surrounded by fangs.
• The villain Dreamcatcher from Trap Team, who's essentially Skylands' equivalent to Freddy Krueger, but with a dash of Tohru Adachi. She's a sadistic yet childish disembodied head with More Teeth than the Osmond Family from the Realm of Dreams, and with her powers, she can not only look into the dreams of others, but she can bring nightmares to life, absorb dreams to power herself up, and alter reality to create Mind Screw levels. Tara Platt does a great job highlighting her Psychopathic Manchild/Bratty Teenage Daughter personality, and it shows, being a nasty Playing Against Type considering her usual roles of mature, serious women like Mitsuru Kirijo or Edelgard von Hresvelg, and it doesn't help she's given a Voice of the Legion that only makes her even more creepy. It gets much worse when you read her backstory, where she's stated to have driven entire villages into insanity For the Evulz even before being part of the Doom Raiders, and she's also one of the few to break the fourth wall and actually threaten the player. Just read what she says after you trap her, and you'll not be sleeping soundly for some time.
  "SO not cool, Portal Master. I don't know how you sleep at night... but I'll find out..."
  • Her theme in the soundtrack is also creepy, and it wouldn't be out of place of an actual horror movie. It begins with a sinister music box, discordant piano, and a Drone of Dread in the beginning. Once the music begins proper, it shifts to include cellos, light ringing bells, and the sound of a woman's chorus. The final part includes a part not so out of place of a 50's alien flick, but with the cellos still blaring in the background.
• The Wilikin in Giants are eerie enough, but one of the houses in Facadeville seems to have a female Wilikin ghost running around through the air that you can't interact with other than standing under her to make her stop. On top of this, the furniture is floating off the ground and the music is replaced with a version that has childlike laughing in the background. The other Wilikin never mention the house.
  • What doesn't help is the music in the 2D stage. With the Wilikin being lifeless dolls in this stage, the peppy 3D theme is replaced with an Ominous Music Box Tune and ghostly howls. There's also constant wooden creaking and distorted xylophone music, which doesn't help matters in the slightest.
• This one is more likely to weaken with age as well but, Hood Sickle's redesign in Imaginators cranks up his Grim Reaper/executioner vibe. With a catchphrase of "Any Last Words?", he's way less friendly than any of the reformed villains. Which is fitting, as he was never actually evil, according to his backstory, but simply very, very committed to his job of being ominous and frightening. It's also worth noting that his new combat style revolves around summoning black holes and consuming fragments of the souls of his slain foes to power up his attacks.
  • Eon actually exploited this fact when he recruited Hood Sickle as a Sensei, as his Sentinel-class trainees are always perfectly attentive during his lessons, being absolutely terrified of their teacher.
  • Hood Sickle's Leitmotif is also amongst the creepiest, seen here. A dark, booming drum piece with ominous cellos and xylophones in the background alongside what sounds like a creaking door. It sounds more like the Leitmotif of the villain of a Slasher Movie.
• Near the end of Skylanders: Trap Team, Kaos is empowered by The Ultimate Weapon's Stinkocity and Traptanium, becoming Traptanium Kaos, which allows him to see the Portal Master through the fourth-wall. Throughout the final level, he taunts the player by insinuating that he's gaining control of them, using a device that makes the controller vibrate at the press of a button. He then planned to not only conquer Skylands, but to also pull the new Portal Master from their world and trap them in Traptanium. During his boss fight, Kaos actually makes an attempt to pull the player Portal Master from their world, but luckily only manages to pull their personal belongings into Skylands instead. His appearance also becomes rather creepy, with him first having a rocky appearance with his bottom half resembling that of a Trap, but he soon develops massive Traptanium Blades and large black bird wings, causing him to look incredibly demonic or like a Fallen Angel. As one Let's Play noted (here), he gains a resemblance to a certain one-winged angel with these traits.
• Superchargers gives us Kaos' latest creation, the Sky Eater (or, if you find the name too scary, the Doomstation of Ultimate Doomstruction), which is designed to do EXACTLY what the name implies, tearing open rifts as it proceeds to destroy Skylands, as well as disable Skylands' portal network so that Skylanders CANNOT USE PORTALS AS MEANS OF TRANSPORT. Now remember what you use to bring your Skylanders to Skylands? Oh, and the magic the Sky Eater consumes? That's used to empower the Darkness AND A HYDRA HATCHLING. Yes, apparently the Hydra from Spyro's Adventure had a BABY. There's a reason Eon assembled the Superchargers in the first place: the Rift Engines, an alternate means of portal transport, are not connected to the main portal network, so the Skylanders simply switched to those until the portal network got back up.
• How about The Darkness in general in Superchargers?
  • While in the first game it was more of a mindless force of evil giving its power to Kaos, it eventually reveals It Can Think, and proves why it calls the shots. After the Sky Eater absorbs enough magic, it's able to develop the ability to speak (with Ike Amadi giving him a deep, sultry, and almost seductive baritone voice), and uses his new skill to become a Faux Affably Evil Manipulative Bastard, using Kaos as his puppet.
  • Over the course of the game, as it absorbs more of the magic of Skylands, the Darkness starts becoming more and more humanoid, starting as a pulsating blackish/purple cloud, before turning into a pair of evil-looking eyes, and later forming into a horned face with a Beard of Evil.
  • Even in flashbacks in the Spell Punk Library, it is terrifying.
    • Brought into the world when the Ancients used a Rift Engine that led to its realm (later dubbed the Dark Rift Engine), it laid in wait during the age of the Portal Masters, and while the Skylanders of the time tried to stop the Spell Punks from reawakening it, they failed, and the Darkness reemerged, leading to all of Skylands quaking and being swept in a wave of fear as a shadow loomed over the Spell Punk Keep. It then gave out a terrifying Badass Boast, narrated by Master Eon. While this happens, the player's controller is rumbling, as if the Darkness is going to come out of the screen and envelop the player, becoming stronger as it speaks.
    "Behold Skylands! I HAVE RETURNED! All shall fear and obey me! I! AM! THE DARKNESS!!!"
    • The Air Level, detailing the work of the First Light Squadron, states that the growing power of the Darkness led to its forces controlling the sky and that said squad was merely trying to hold them back for the civilians to escape.
    • The next book details that The Darkness essentially held all of Skylands in its grip, and it felt like there was no hope to defeat it. The skies in the background are a hellish red, and all the trees are almost dead. Once it found out about the Core of Light, the Darkness worked to stop them, "[shattering] mountains and bridges with casual disdain", its rage "earth-shaking and all-consuming".
    • While the Sea Level is a bit more comedic with the Superchargers retrieving all the food in Skylands, it brings back the Hydra from the first game, the same creature that destroyed the Core of Light.
    • However, the final level in the story is much more dramatic, as the Skylanders work to push the Darkness towards the Core of Light, and it does not go quietly, firing lasers, laying down spiky vines, and even unleashing shadowy tendrils at opponents.
  • Feeding into Kaos' delusions of grandeur, he pushes Kaos to do a Kick the Morality Pet moment in firing Glumshanks and actually manages to destroy the Core of Light, the one thing that could destroy him. And since he disregards Glumshanks' concerns that eating all the sky in Skylands means destroying it, he shows himself as more megalomaniacal than Kaos, fully crossing the Moral Event Horizon.
  • Once Kaos starts hesitating in destroying Skylands, though, he is entirely willing to outright threaten him (with a Voice of the Legion to boot) and take away his powers. His words afterwards just ooze with malice, as he gives Kaos a Sadistic Choice/Deal with the Devil. Afterwards, he continues to have no issue with destroying all of Skylands, outright laughing at its imminent doom and making it clear to Kaos that he is in charge, not the Dark Portal Master when he calls it "the glorious reign of the Darkness".
  "You can rule the universe in my name, or you can spend the rest of eternity. Just. Being. You."
  • Even after Kaos is defeated using his power, The Darkness is able to prevent Flynn, Cali, and Glumshanks from activating the Dark Rift Engine to send him back to his home dimension. Taunting them with how resilient they were, it almost seems like he'll win by absorbing all the magic in Skylands, had Kaos not decided to betray him and turn on the Dark Rift Engine. Even then, he proceeds to do a Victory Fakeout by trying to break out of the portal created by the Dark Rift Engine, and uses the remains of the destroyed Sky Eater to forge demonic-looking armor, complete with horns, wicked looking claws, and glowing red eyes, with the "lenses" of his helmet resembling the pupils of a goat, being horizontal slits. With all this (plus the fact his emblem is six triangles, as in 666), it becomes obvious that the Darkness is the series' equivalent of Satan.
    • Design-wise, his designs invoke two of Nintendo's most sinister villains: Calamity Ganon in his One-Winged Angel form (a crimson/purple being of evil fused with Magitek) and Dharkon in his original design as seen in the Spell Punk Library (similar color scheme, Dark Is Evil motif, spiky tendrils, and lasers).
• The Land of the Undead is pretty horrifying and certainly lives up to the spooky nature of its element. Catacombs of spiders, unnerving mazes, grotesque monsters that shamble or rattle and what being down there too long and/or too deep can do to you. As Hex's backstory informs us, she went too deep and was transformed into the Undead element completely unwillingly.
  • Cynder Confronts the Weather Wizard reveals to us that the removal of all of Hex's Undead energy would revert her back into her pre-Undead self. This means that being in the Land of the Undead essentially corrupts you with its element, either suppressing, replacing or overtaking your natural energy and element until you're turned into one of them as a slow-acting Fisher Kingdom of dubious morality. You lose a part of yourself if you remain there for too long or go down too deep.

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