Koda: Why do they hate us, Kenai?
Kenai: We're bears.
Koda: So?
Kenai: So... you know how they are. They're... they're killers.
Koda: Wait a minute, who's the killers?
Kenai: Bears.
Koda: What? Which bears? I'm not like that, and you're not like that.
Kenai: Well, obviously not all bears. I mean, you're okay, but most bears... most bears will look for any excuse to attack a human.
Koda: But Kenai, he attacked us.
Kenai: We're bears.
Koda: So?
Kenai: So... you know how they are. They're... they're killers.
Koda: Wait a minute, who's the killers?
Kenai: Bears.
Koda: What? Which bears? I'm not like that, and you're not like that.
Kenai: Well, obviously not all bears. I mean, you're okay, but most bears... most bears will look for any excuse to attack a human.
Koda: But Kenai, he attacked us.
The Titanians clustered about their visiray screens, watching, in almost unbelieving amazement, the supernatural being who labored in that reeking inferno of heat and poisonous vapor—who labored almost naked and entirely unprotected, refreshing himself from time to time with drafts of molten water!"
— E. E. "Doc" Smith, Spacehounds of IPC, Chapter VI
Do you ever feel, in your caves of steel,
The chill of an ancient fear?
Do you shudder and say, when you pass this way,
A human once walked here?
They've cut off our heads, but we're not dead,
And we're bound by an ancient vow.
That does not sleep which dreams in the deep,
We're the Great Old Ones now!
The chill of an ancient fear?
Do you shudder and say, when you pass this way,
A human once walked here?
They've cut off our heads, but we're not dead,
And we're bound by an ancient vow.
That does not sleep which dreams in the deep,
We're the Great Old Ones now!
— Ken MacLeod, Newton's Wake
"But then, the mountain shook. I thought it was more traps, but the walls all fell and the ground cracked, and the city exploded. I stood there in the ashen rain and met my Fate. I croaked that turn, burned alive by the very ground I stood upon." Her smile broadened now, and seemed eerily at odds with the story she was relating. "But as it was happening, I felt something else, Warlord."
Sylvia pulled her armored shoulders in toward her body, smiling like she had been given a warm blanket on a cold night. "I felt another power. Not greater, but closer. More active. More alive. And just as alien. I never knew what it could have been, but my Lady Wanda was kind enough to explain it. Do you know what that power was, Warlord?"
Not for the first time today, Ossomer was lost. "I do not."
She smiled and closed her eyes. "It was Lord Hamster with an idea."
"I...see," said Ossomer, dubiously.
"You will," said Sylvia, snapping her head toward him suddenly. "This city will yet burn." Her eyes drifted away to a point in the sky. "I rather hope he will burn down the whole world."
Sylvia pulled her armored shoulders in toward her body, smiling like she had been given a warm blanket on a cold night. "I felt another power. Not greater, but closer. More active. More alive. And just as alien. I never knew what it could have been, but my Lady Wanda was kind enough to explain it. Do you know what that power was, Warlord?"
Not for the first time today, Ossomer was lost. "I do not."
She smiled and closed her eyes. "It was Lord Hamster with an idea."
"I...see," said Ossomer, dubiously.
"You will," said Sylvia, snapping her head toward him suddenly. "This city will yet burn." Her eyes drifted away to a point in the sky. "I rather hope he will burn down the whole world."
— Erfworld, regarding Parson Gotti
"The most fearsome monster I ever saw had two arms, two legs, and one head, and on its head was a face with two eyes, two ears, one nose, and one mouth, and above this face grew a mop of hair. Everywhere else, the creature's flesh was mostly pink and bare. Mostly. Makes my slime crawl thinking about it."
Holly: Men came... filled in the burrows. Couldn't get out. There was a strange sound... hissing! Runs blocked with dead bodies!
[...]
Fiver: They'll never rest until they've spoiled the earth.
Holly: No... they just killed us because we were in their way.
[...]
Fiver: They'll never rest until they've spoiled the earth.
Holly: No... they just killed us because we were in their way.
"I can't conceive of how a creature with teeth this big could have ever lived. Emperor Bulblax, that bloated meat-whale, is the only creature I've seen even half that size. The only thing I can do is hope I never encounter something that massive."
"Does he have super gross hands that look like they're made out of big pink sausages, like eagle talons mixed with squid?"
— Emmet describing "The Man Upstairs", The LEGO Movie
Pilman: Imagine a picnic. Picture a forest, a country road, a meadow. A car drives off the country road into the meadow, a group of young people get out of the car carrying bottles, baskets of food, transistor radios, and cameras. They light fires, pitch tents, turn on the music. In the morning they leave. The animals, birds and insects that watched in horror through the long night creep out from their hiding places. And what do they see? Gas and oil spilled on the grass. Old spark plugs and old filters strewn around. Rags, burn out bulbs, and a monkey wrench left behind. Oil slicks on the pond. And of course, the usual mess — apple cores, candy wrappers, charred remains of the campfire cans, bottles, somebody's handkerchief, somebody's penknife, torn newspapers, comic, faded flowers picked in another meadow.
Noonan: I see. A roadside picnic.
Pilman: Precisely. A roadside picnic, on some road in the cosmos.
But it turns out FernGully is under attack by one of the worst animals the planet has ever known: MAN!
[An image of a crying kitten appears along with a Scare Chord, as the review segues into a 1950s-style Could This Happen to You? newsreel.]
Yes, Man. Human in shape but satanic in spirit, Man likes to spend most of his time destroying things because he is worse than the Devil if he was a pedophile. You can spot the especially bad ones by having: two-dimensional personalities, being written horribly and having a chin that even Bruce Campbell would be jealous of. They kidnap animals, burn down rainforests and probably slept with your mother. If you should see Man anywhere in your neighborhood, please make a pretentious animated feature with confused morals and no sympathetic, three dimensional villains. Man: if there’s anything worse, it’s not human.
[An image of a crying kitten appears along with a Scare Chord, as the review segues into a 1950s-style Could This Happen to You? newsreel.]
Yes, Man. Human in shape but satanic in spirit, Man likes to spend most of his time destroying things because he is worse than the Devil if he was a pedophile. You can spot the especially bad ones by having: two-dimensional personalities, being written horribly and having a chin that even Bruce Campbell would be jealous of. They kidnap animals, burn down rainforests and probably slept with your mother. If you should see Man anywhere in your neighborhood, please make a pretentious animated feature with confused morals and no sympathetic, three dimensional villains. Man: if there’s anything worse, it’s not human.
If the sight of the Jack Rabbits standing and studying you was frightening enough to make you yearn for the safety of the yellowed streetlights
What must it be like from thier end?
What terrifying creature
Deliberately ties itself
To something so horrible
As a Dog?
What must it be like from thier end?
What terrifying creature
Deliberately ties itself
To something so horrible
As a Dog?
—Tumblr user gallusrostromegalus
"Welcome, survivors! If you are here, the world has ended. So sad! But, congratulations on not being eaten by zombies or hyper-intelligent hairless apes or something like that."
—Ludwig Von Drake on a recorded message, DuckTales (2017), "Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!"
"This is Margaret. Margaret is in the genus Deinopis, in the spider family Deinopidae. In Greek, deinopis roughly translates to "fearful appearance", and therefore Margaret is often referred to as an Ogre-faced Spider. From Margaret's perspective, however, the creature that gave her that name is a freakin' terrifying giant with teeth the size of her face. She gave him the name "f*bleep*stick bastard d*bleep*wad.""
—True Facts: The Ogre Faced Spider
"Man is our enemy, not each other. We just can't win against him any more— we've forgotten how, even here."
— Vickey, Run With The Wind
can we talk about how pursuit predation is fucking terrifying
it's one thing to face down a cheetah, which will slam into you at 60 mph and break your neck
it's another thing to run very quickly to get away from a thing, only to have it just kind of
show up
to have it be intelligent enough to figure out where you are by the fur and feather you left behind, your footprints and piss and shit and then you think you lost it and you bed down for the night but THERE IT IS
WAITING
WHEN YOU WAKE UP
and you split! again! but it keeps following you. always in the corner of your eye. until you just
die
we are scary motherfuckers ok
— A Tumblr user describes pursuit predation employed by humans from an animal's point of view
from an animal's point of view"WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS? HORRIBLE FLESH-FACED MONSTERS!"
— Huey — a duckling living in a World of Funny Animals — reacts to a Studio Audience of humans, DuckTales (2017), "Quack Pack"
Apparently a part of the reason why farmed bees stay in the beehives that humans build for them is because the farm hives are safer and sturdier. I don't know how a busy Discord server's worth of bugs that only have one brain cell each would logically conclude that the humans protect them from outside threats, illness and parasites, but if I understood right, the bees would be free to move away and build a new nest somewhere else any time they'd want, and they simply choose not to.
You know how in almost every culture, people have some concept of "if I sacrifice something that I made/grew/produced to the Gods, they will ward me and my harvest from evil"?
So, in a way, don't the bees willingly sacrifice a part of their harvest to an entity not only far greater than them, but nearly beyond their comprehension, in exchange for protection against natural forces wildly outside of their own control?
So tell me, beekeepers, what are you to your bees, if not a mildly eldritch God?
— Tumblr user keuhkopussirotta
Every day, more ancient artifacts pop up. Given their size and unknown purpose, scholars believe "Giants" roamed these lands. They could have existed all over the known world, in giant kingdoms to protect them from the Dead Lands. When the "Day of Awakening" happened, the Giants must have vanished. Only their artifacts remain. There's no way to know, is there? Maybe they caused the awakening themselves. Perhaps they fell to the Dead Lands, or created them themselves. Maybe someday they will return to reclaim their old home? Maybe they have left for another world? I'm a bug of facts, but even I am reduced to daydreaming about their fate. At least we have their monuments, showing us glimpses of days past.
—Ant Kingdom Lore Book, Bug Fables
One of the forbidden hunter tools made by Irreverent Izzy. Borrow the strength of the terrible undead darkbeasts, if only for a moment, to blast surrounding foes back with the force of a roaring beast.
The indescribable sound is broadcast with the caster's own vocal cords, which begs the question, what terrible things lurk deep within the frames of men?
The indescribable sound is broadcast with the caster's own vocal cords, which begs the question, what terrible things lurk deep within the frames of men?
— Beast Roar Description, Bloodborne
Imagine being of a species descended from herbivores looking in on us humans, who eat nearly anything, but especially delight in the flesh of our fellow animals. We raise and slaughter them in factory farms, and that's not even the worst of it. We go to war with each other constantly. We continue to pump greenhouse gas into our atmosphere, knowing full well how future generations will suffer for it. We traffic and enslave our most vulnerable, and those who don't turn a blind eye to it. What intelligent being would look at a species like that and not see a potential threat?
Now imagine learning that these violent, competitive, omnivorous monsters have technologically advanced more quickly than you could have imagined possible, far more quickly than your ancestors did. Those traits you assumed would prevent the development of an advanced civilization — competitiveness, greed, gluttony, tribalism, bellicosity — in reality turbocharged their progression. These monsters may be only a few thousand, perhaps even a few hundred, years away from approaching your level of advancement, only a generation or two according to the life span of your kind, and they are already looking to the stars with hungry eyes. What kind of threat might those monsters pose once they come close to your level of technological progression? What might you do to mitigate such a threat?
Now imagine learning that these violent, competitive, omnivorous monsters have technologically advanced more quickly than you could have imagined possible, far more quickly than your ancestors did. Those traits you assumed would prevent the development of an advanced civilization — competitiveness, greed, gluttony, tribalism, bellicosity — in reality turbocharged their progression. These monsters may be only a few thousand, perhaps even a few hundred, years away from approaching your level of advancement, only a generation or two according to the life span of your kind, and they are already looking to the stars with hungry eyes. What kind of threat might those monsters pose once they come close to your level of technological progression? What might you do to mitigate such a threat?
— Kaveh Mazandarani, Truth of the Divine
Few of us can begin to imagine the horror of you — with all of creation reflected in your forebrain. It must be the highest of hells, a kaleidoscope of fire and writhing glass. Eternal damnation. Even when you're sleeping... And when you wake, you carry it around on your neck. With eyes that cannot help but swallow more behind the mirror. I feel great, mute empathy for you.
[...]
You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vacuum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing — just by accident.
[...]
You are a violent and irrepressible miracle. The vacuum of cosmos and the stars burning in it are afraid of you. Given enough time you would wipe us all out and replace us with nothing — just by accident.
Patrick: BIGGER BOOT!
SpongeBob: Wait, Pat! This bigger boot saved our lives!
Patrick: ...Yay!
SpongeBob and Patrick: Thank you, stranger!
(scuba diver, known as the Cyclops, breathes heavily)
SpongeBob: Uh... stranger?
(the Cyclops reveals his helmet)
SpongeBob: (panicking) IT'S THE CYCLOPS!
SpongeBob: Wait, Pat! This bigger boot saved our lives!
Patrick: ...Yay!
SpongeBob and Patrick: Thank you, stranger!
(scuba diver, known as the Cyclops, breathes heavily)
SpongeBob: Uh... stranger?
(the Cyclops reveals his helmet)
SpongeBob: (panicking) IT'S THE CYCLOPS!
Red: This is like if we were the eldritch horrors reading The Colour Out of Space. Like, "No, little humans! Get out of there! The color pucegenta is very bad for organics!"
—Overly Sarcastic Productions - Trope Talk: Small Mammal on a Big Adventure
All Might: There were other things as well, and eventually they put out a bounty. After 50 bounty hunters failed, they upped the price. When that didn't work, they contacted the assassins' guild.
Inko: Assassins' guild.
All Might: They weren't that difficult to beat. Human biology is pretty remarkable. Common poisons such as onions, raisins, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol- each can kill numerous alien species but are considered a treat to us. Broken bones, cuts, and burns hurt and can sometimes kill us, but to other aliens, they're a death sentence.
Inko: Assassins' guild.
All Might: They weren't that difficult to beat. Human biology is pretty remarkable. Common poisons such as onions, raisins, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol- each can kill numerous alien species but are considered a treat to us. Broken bones, cuts, and burns hurt and can sometimes kill us, but to other aliens, they're a death sentence.
