Nightmare Fuel / The Dreamstone

• Zordrak supplies an ample amount of this, as befits the Lord of Nightmares. Particular incidents include:
  • His Establishing Character Moment in the pilot, where he executes Captain Crigg for failing him, throwing him into his pit of carnivorous Frazznats. The other Urpneys look in horror as we hear Crigg's screams of agony slowly wither.
  • His origin story in "The Daydream Bubble". He is depicted as a standard anthro creature posing as a Dream Maker before the council exiled him. In a rage he engages a terrifying One-Winged Angel transformation sequence (in fact his current form) and gets set to attack the Dream Maker before Planet Dreamstone lasers him into the depths of space.
  • His possession of Amberley in "The Knitted Balloon". Not helped at all by several shots of Amberley walking into the camera, beaming a huge Slasher Smile with glowing eyes.
  • In "The Spidermobile" Zordrak sets off on his hovering throne to take the stone to the Red Planet of Doom, only to have Urpgor flying above blocking his way. As Urpgor desperately tries to move away, we get a creepy POV shot of a glowing eyed Zordrak closing in, screaming furiously at Urpgor.
  • Mixed with some Black Comedy, him returning to his normal evil personality in "Spildit". Urpgor triumphantly reveals he sent the Dreamstone back to the Land of Dreams, leading to an thunderous Big "WHAT?!" before he throws Urpgor and Blob into the Pit Of No Return, and closes the hole! The huge Animation Bump of this scene doesn't help.
  • Zordrak's desire to overrun the Sleeping World with nightmares is often thought of as Poke the Poodle but it's actually far more serious than it sounds. Healthy sleep is extremely important, and while the occasional nightmare is unavoidable, only having nightmares can lead to all manner of mental or physical health issues. Should Zordrak win, it would shatter the psyches of every living sentient being, just to sate his power hunger.
  • Just to be certain however, "A Day Out" upgrades his motives through a chilling speech; he will take the stone to the Nightmare Planet, corrupting it into evil and making him unassailable "LORD OF THE UNIVEEEERRRRRRSSSE!!!", turning each time the Urpneys steal the stone into a much more frantic Race Against the Clock.
• Something disturbing comes from Frizz and Nug's doomed position, being trapped between a rock and a hard place. They get No Sympathy from everyone, either their Bad Bosses will punish them for failing or deserting, or the heroes will punish them for being evil villains who slighted them, and no begging, sobbing or excuses will appease either side. It's What Measure Is a Mook? at it's cruelest. Some episodes portray even the heroes as an unfettered menace due to how terrified and helpless the two are from their Sympathetic P.O.V..
  • The implication that Frizz and Nug were actually the lucky ones, having been brought into the front just as both Zordrak and the heroes started to become more pragmatic (or at least grown bored of offing mooks). There are implied to have been hundreds of Urpneys sent in before them where either side finally drew the line and killed them, and Zordrak's haunting statue collection of terrified stone Urpneys stands as proof of that.
  • Probably the most blatant Mook Horror Show example comes in "Megattack" when the two are shanghaied under protest into Blob's scheme of holding Amberley for ransom, and then are met with the entire hero army glaring furiously at them. They desperately try to surrender and leave, but Blob makes them stand ground, and the angry heroes make clear they're not leaving without a good beating. Zordrak's entrance serves as their only escape from an Extreme Mêlée Revenge.
• We finally get to see a Nightmare Sequence in "The Substitute". It starts off a fairly elegant and tranquil dream with the Noop riding in a swan boat, then suddenly the landscape's waterfall garners a terrifying Argorrible face, and the swan comes to life (garnering red eyes, a ferocious load of fangs and devil horns) and breathes fire on the Noop, making it bump into a similarly Nightmare Faced tree.
• The Argorribles first invasion in the pilot. We never see the nightmares in this case, though given how disturbed the victims look when they wake up, it arguably only makes it more chilling. Especially so for Rufus, who is shown shrieking uncontrollably in his sleep.
• Nug, trying to scare Albert in "Frozen Assets" is actually... quite terrifying, with his claws & pointy teeth revealed.
• "The Nightmare Stone", the season 2 premiere, picks up where the season 1 finale left off, with the Land of Dreams having seemingly defeated Zordrak and his forces for good, with Zordrak being launched into space after clashing with Planet Dreamstone. As we soon find out, being sent into deep space didn't kill him, it didnt even slow him down! It just made him angrier! Not only that, but it leads to him discovering The Nightmare Stone, an extremely powerful artifact and evil counterpart of the Dreamstone. In fact, it's so powerful that combined with Zordrak's own magic, it's strong enough to simply overwhelm the power of the Dreamstone without even leaving Zordrak's throne room. The heroes were forced to sneak into Viltheed to try and steal the Nightmare Stone to avoid Zordrak just crushing them with no effort, and only barely succeeded with the secret help of Urpgor (as revenge for Zordrak tossing him aside for having outlived his usefulness.)
  • Only Zordrak can touch the Stone without protection, anyone else who tries is horrifically disintegrated by it's evil power. To demonstrate this, a later scene has Urpgor do such to a prison guard. All that's left is a pair of smoking boots.