Misused: Your Worst Nightmare

callmeamuffin ❀ Mint, Nuts, and Waffle ❀ from the kitchen (Trinitroper) Relationship Status: Thinkin' about you, muffin

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#1: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:46:06 PM

Your Worst Nightmare is about someone or something having a power to give someone else nightmares. However, some people have raised a couple of issues. Due to the stock phrase-y title, there were concerns that the trope is being misused as a stock phrase. There were also concerns that the trope is being misused for "discovering other people's fears" powers (like bringing them to life), which is already covered by I Know What You Fear. A wick check revealed the following statistics:

13/50 (26%) wicks were used correctly.
19/50 (38%) wicks were misused for "discovering other people's fears" powers.
6/50 (12%) wicks were used for other misuse - including stock phrase use.
11/50 (22%) wicks were Zero-Context Examples or unclear.
1/50 (2%) was unclassifiable.

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Correct use - Someone or something has the power to deliver nightmares to another character

Characters.Legend Quest: The Nicht Mart's victims are forced to endure this whenever they fall asleep. ZCE, but the character's description says they're "An alp who has the power to deliver bad dreams"
Characters.Princess The Hopeful Callings And Allies Of The Hopeful: How they possess people; using doors inside the Dreamlands, they get inside a human's dream, then proceed to twist said dream into a nightmare where they are an alien entity pursuing the unfortunate victim. If they manage to catch the mortal before he wakes up, they throw his soul in the Dreamlands and take its place inside the body.
DisproportionateRetribution.Video Games: During a wager between the Daedric Princes Vaermina and Sheogorath, they conspired to see which of them could most effectively ensnare a famous artist. Vaermina used grotesque nightmares, driving the artist to make terrifying and disgusting art that made him wildly popular through Bile Fascination. Sheogorath, meanwhile, did nothing at all, driving the artist to madness when his inspirations disappeared, and as a result he began creating angry, blasphemous art that insulted the gods and authority figures. Eventually the artist insulted the wrong petty king, who had him publicly executed.
Literature.Forest Kingdom: This is one of the Beast's powers, causing nightmares in the people around it.
Monster Whale: Stargate Atlantis: In the episode "Doppelganger", a malevolent alien parasite sets up shop inside people's minds to induce their worst nightmares. Rodney's worst nightmare is being alone at sea, stalked by a monstrous whale that wants to swallow him. Apparently, his father had read Moby-Dick to him as a child.
ParanoiaFuel.Western Animation: Justice League: Dr. Destiny. Go to sleep, and he can stick you in a dreamscape of Your Worst Nightmare.
Radio.Earthsearch: While he is asleep Angel One sends Darv a memory of a childhood nightmare, promising to save Darv if he forgets the Paradise recording. Character gives another character a nightmare. Correct.
Recap.Justice League S 2 E 5 And 6 Only A Dream: The Justice League faces John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny, a criminal accidentally given Psychic Powers by an experiment, who uses his new abilities to torture and kill his ex-wife in her dreams, then goes on to torment our heroes. He bites off a bit more than he can chew, though, when he taunts Batman, who's powering through with willpower and coffee.
Recap.Wander Over Yonder S 1 E 16 The Gift II The Giftening The Gift: Inverted. All the gifts delivered by Wander and Sylvia contains the recipient's biggest dreams.
- Both Wander and Sylvia are this to Lord Hater and Peepers (before he gets zombified). Correct inverted example, although the poorly-indented sub-bullet is stock phrase use.
ShadowArchetype.Fan Works: In Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams, the title character is part of a race of creatures that act as a collective Guardian Entity for humans and other races that inhabit our dimension, protecting them from being Mind Raped by the demons and horrors of the Mindscape, who becomes trapped in the mind of Rick Sheridan's mind. The manipulations of his Arch-Enemy Cobweb led to the creation of the nightmarish Psyko, a human gang leader imbued with demonic energy from the Mindscape and turned into a hideous monster that can brutally Mind Rape people and force them to experience their worst nightmares over and over again while using their bodies as People Puppets. The confrontations between them are bloodbaths that Sleepwalker usually emerges from more dead than alive.
Webcomic.Nightmaretale: The nightmares progressively get worse and Frisk learns that the nightmares are influenced by Chara and their magic.
Roleplay.Cape And Cowl: When half the City fell asleep and was trapped in their nightmares. Something traps characters in a nightmare, which IMO counts. Correct.
Characters.Spore Wiki Fiction Universe Andromeda: Has given Kithanan horrible nightmares on numerous occasions. Character gives others nightmares. Correct.

Misuse - Character has powers to discover other people's fears

Black Comedy Rape: By virtue of its protagonist's nature, Ranma ½ fits the "Rape of Men by Men" subtrope on psychological grounds, and "Rape of Women by Men" from the visual and social effects (particularly since the men involved never know Ranma is originally a man): one of Ranma's greatest fears is to be abused by men while in female form, and the series indulges in making it happen. This goes from groping and fondling, to being kissed unwillingly, to outright threats of rape. Since Ranma is a very macho, self-assured character, this is meant to be funny, especially since none of the other female characters go through this. But since female Ranma, a master martial artist is always shown helpless and terrified, the "humor" is usually lost.
Characters.Epithet Erased Main Characters: One of his attacks, aptly named "Nightmare Fuel", manifests the nightmare of the target into reality.
Characters.ERB Season 6: Freddy specializes in exploiting people's fears to make it easier to kill them in their dreams. He demonstrates this against Wolverine by growing to giant size, depriving Logan of his claws, and turning his (Freddy's) arms into giant magnets to make sure Wolverine can't escape.
Characters.Fighting Fantasy Antagonists The Pit: He uses it to get rid of you, as explained above. The "above" example referred to is:
- Your Mind Makes It Real: He can trap you in a room where his dark powers give life to your worst nightmares, to torment you endlessly until you die.
Characters.Friendship Is Magic Twilight Sparkle: In the Season 3 premiere, King Sombra turns out to have set a trap like this to prevent anypony else from getting to the Crystal Heart. Twilight Sparkle falls into it and sees a vision where Princess Celestia angrily tells her she failed her test and she should just give up on her magical studies.
Literature.Super Powereds: Nathaniel has the power to put someone into a hallucination of their fears. He does this to Alice in year 3, choosing her oldest, deepest fear of falling from great heights, which no longer has the same hold on her since she can control her flight. She breaks out and then turns the tables on him by showing him his worst nightmare.
Master of Illusion: Rokur Gepta, the last Sorcerer of Tund, in The Lando Calrissian Adventures. For example, he has a You Have Failed Me moment quite a bit like Darth Vader's in Episode V, except that instead of choking his minion to death, he tortures him with images of his worst nightmare (he later subjects Calrissian to a similar treatment). It's eventually revealed that he's a Croke, a species of Always Chaotic Evil arachnids who specialize in this sort of power. The fact that he inherited all the secrets of a powerful Force sect made a bad situation far, far, worse. Turns out one reason the big scary Big Bad Gepta is so hard to battle one-on-one is because in addition to everything else, he isn't there. The real Rokur Gepta is about the size of a mouse and projecting an image of a humanoid foe; no amount of blaster fire can harm an enemy that's several feet below where you're shooting.
Recap.Agents Of SHIELDS 5 E 12 The Real Deal: The fear dimension causes realistic illusions of the team's worst fears, which is mostly past enemies. In Coulson's case, however, it also manifests a fear of his impending death, in the form of suggesting that everything that's happened since Loki stabbed him has been a near-death hallucination. Technically not a character, but the dimension's illusions do reflect a character's fears, rather than straight nightmares.
Recap.Charmed S 5 E 14 Sand Francisco Dreamin: The episode pits the protagonists against their worst nightmares come to life after the Demon Of The Week gets his hands on some Sandman sand.
Recap.Vampirina S 3 E 18: The fearsome spell causes you to become whatever is the worst fear of whoever sees you. Close enough, since it still relies on knowing a character's fear.
Series.Charmed 1998 - Your Worst Nightmare:
- "Dream Sorcerer" featured a serial killer who developed a way to enter the dreams of women who rejected him. Killing them there meant they died in real life.
- "Sand Francisco Dreamin'" pits the Power Trio protagonists against their worst nightmares come to life after the Demon Of The Week gets his hands on some Sandman sand. Definite misuse.
WebOriginal.Hotel Haven: Siroh, as well as the opposition and co are locked inside their worst nightmares
WesternAnimation.Justice League Action: In "The Ringer," the Atom goes inside Sinestro's ring to see why he doesn't seem to run out of energy. Since the Sinestro Corps have rings using fear-based willpower instead of courage-based like Green Lantern rings, Atom ends up having going through what he's most afraid of, starting small (no pun intended) but escalating with every fear: a press conference when he suddenly finds his uniform vanishes and everyone else is laughing at him, then a childhoood scare of a neighbor's mean dog that got much nastier, and then losing control of his powers and shrinking down further than he's ever gone. As written, this seems to be a character's fears being discovered by a ring rather than that character necessarily being given nightmares.
WesternAnimation.Vampirina: In "Bridget the Brave", Bridget accidentally casts a fearsome spell on herself, causing everyone else to see her as what they fear the most.
WMG.Kamen Rider: The main rider will be called Kamen Rider Dream, he uses the Dream Driver to transform, and fights monsters spawned from people's nightmares.
WesternAnimation.Captain N The Game Master: In the episode "Nightmare on Mother Brain's Street" Lana eats a poison apple and gets sent to a "Nightmare Warp". Kevin and the others must follow, and arrive in a place where their worst fears come to life. Lana is ugly, looking a lot like Mother Brain. Vain Simon is also made to look ugly, as his hair and teeth fall out, and his muscles turn to flab. Mega Man got frozen by Ice Man and Kid Icarus' bow came to life and shot him. And Kevin? Turns out his worst fear is having to clean his room. Well, not a character, but this episode involves a "warp" where characters witness their worst nightmares come to life.
WesternAnimation.Dead End Paranormal Park: In Episode 3 the hippie is actually a fear-eating demon, and uses a crystal skull to create illusions of the worst fears of the Phoenix Park crew. Notably Norma's worst fear is revealed to be real life which is constantly overstimulating her thanks to her autism. Character can discover the worst fears of others.
Characters.Guilty Gear Xrd: His Instant Kill, which places the opponent inside of a movie screen and forces them to remember their worst memories (not shown directly to the player- only hinted at through the target's dialogue) before several shadowy demons surround and devour them. For example Chipp laments that he only needed one extra vote to become a president, while Faust has a flashback to the incident that initially drove him to madness. Character gives others their worst fears.
Characters.Red Vs Blue Lavernius Tucker The Aloner: According to Singularity, Tucker's Labyrinth illusion is being left completely alone with the knowledge that his friends are in trouble and there's no way he can help them. Seems to refer to a character witnessing their worst fear.

Other misuse

Characters.Dark Deception: The Promise: After escaping from the Circus, Malak declares that he will come to get the ring pieces back, and will be bringing all the monsters the duo has faced with him. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, he wasn't lying.]]
Malak "Oh one more thing, Bierce. Do you remember what I said before? I promised that I'd be coming and that I'd be bringing your worst nightmares with me. Well, I always keep my promises!" "laughs" potholed words
Characters.The Owl House Hexside: In "Labyrinth Runners" he demonstrates an apparently unique ability to trap people in a maze of their own worst memories. These illusions are so powerful that they can leave people in a catatonic state, such as with Head Witch Graye. This spell tends to activate involuntarily when he is having a panic attack. After getting Graye's Amplifier Artifact, he can now do this on command as shown in "King's Tide" when he forces Belos to see memories of how he murdered his own brother. memories, not dream scenarios
Funny.Pony POV Series: And then when the fight is finished:
Shining Armor: Ok...a chainsaw wielding cyborg diamond dog just tried to kill me...what's left on the 'list of cliche things Makarov can try to kill me with'?
Pegasus Interviewer: Falling, in your dreams, the kitchen sink, and a forklift. Pothole mentions killing someone in their dreams.
Recap.The Owl House S 2 E 18 Labyrinth Runners: When Gus enters his Heroic BSoD in the climax, his illusion magic becomes so powerful that anyone who tries to get near him will get traumatized by their own worst memories. This is what puts Graye out of commission, and Hunter nearly suffers the same fate, but manages to quickly overcome those memories and is able to save Gus. memories, not dream scenarios
Recap.Legends Of Tomorrow S 5 E 8 Zari Not Zari: Atropos is shocked that Sara somehow survived seeing her true form, and demands to know what she is. Sara responds with Your Worst Nightmare. (It's not clear how Sara did this; it may be related to her defying fate by dying and coming back to life, using the Spear of Destiny to rewrite reality, and/or being the Paragon of Destiny.) Used as a stock phrase.
WebVideo.Dark Lord Jadow 1: Jadow is tormented and attacked by Freddy Krueger (played by William Lowery) who attacks Jadow in his nightmare as he reviews the NES game A Nightmare on Elm Street. Ultimately Jadow is overpowered, but thankfully he is rescued by a group of Kirby plushies. Character is attacked in their nightmare.

Zero-Context and Unclear Examples

Characters.Pathfinder Deities: Just the trope name
Characters.Ultimate Spider Man 2012 Villains: Inflicts these. Poorly-indented ZCE.
DrivenToSuicide.Literature: In Shadows of the Apt, the Bee-Queen is driven to this by Your Worst Nightmare.
Literature.Coldfire Trilogy: Subverted. Damien actually agreed Tarrant would cause these, in order to feed from them.
Literature.The River Between: Waiyaki's dream.
Literature.World Domination In Retrospect: Part of Spinetingler's modus operandi and inflicted upon the people of Empyreal City in An Exception To The Rule.
Roleplay.We Are Our Avatars: Rockurtle was afflicted with this about as soon as she was introduced. ZCE.
VideoGame.American Mc Gees Alice: The whole game, basically, at least for Alice, although it's for her own good. It's the only way to regain her sanity.
VideoGame.Nightmare Ned: Just the trope name
Recap.Supernatural S 03 E 10 Dream A Little Dream Of Me: Bobby (his wife) and Dean (himself). No context.
Series.Rimini Riddle: In one episode, Vera is turned into the thing she hates the most: a child. Lacks the context that could classify it under other categories.

Unclassifiable

Nightmare Weaver Mentioned in description as a "see also".

From the results, only one wick was used in a stock phrase sense, so that concern... was not a concern. The other concern regarding misuse, however, seems to be supported by the statistics, and there are loads of Zero-Context Examples as well, since more than 1/5 of the wicks checked lack enough information.

My ideas I wish to propose are to clean the trope, and maybe even rename it.

Edited by Berrenta on Mar 24th 2023 at 10:26:47 AM

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Twiddler (On A Trope Odyssey)

#2: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:50:46 PM

Opening

themayorofsimpleton Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him from Elsewhere (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Abstaining

Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him

#3: Mar 10th 2023 at 12:54:42 PM

to a rename

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

Malady (Not-So-Newbie)

#4: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:00:45 PM

"Your Worst Nightmare is about someone or something having a power to give someone else nightmares."

Note that Nightmare Weaver exists? Merge? EDIT: Laconics are different and says that Nightmare Weaver is "Lord Of Nightmares" instead of just "Power to make nightmares"?

EDIT: Wick check did note its existence, and Nightmare Weaver says:

"Particularly cruel ones like to pull you into Your Worst Nightmare, as well as alcohol poisoning to those who take a shot every time the word "nightmare" is mentioned in this article."

Implying that it's takes Your Worst Nightmare as literally "Your Worst Nightmare", not just a generic nightmare.

Edited by Malady on Mar 10th 2023 at 1:05:55 AM

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576

FernandoLemon Nobody Here from Argentina (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: In season

Nobody Here

#5: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:01:42 PM

Usage as a stock phrase should go under I'm Your Worst Nightmare.

I'd like to apologize for all this.

BlackMage43 Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love

#6: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:15:35 PM

It does sound like Nightmare Weaver is just a better-named and better-written version of what Your Worst Nightmare is trying to be.

Since the wick check shows Your Worst Nightmare was mostly being misused as I Know What You Fear, maybe it's best to disambiguate Your Worst Nightmare between I Know What You Fear, Nightmare Weaver, and I'm Your Worst Nightmare.

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#7: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:17:09 PM

Disambig could work.

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

themayorofsimpleton Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him from Elsewhere (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Abstaining

Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him

#8: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:18:55 PM

On second thought, yeah disambig.

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callmeamuffin ❀ Mint, Nuts, and Waffle ❀ from the kitchen (Trinitroper) Relationship Status: Thinkin' about you, muffin

❀ Mint, Nuts, and Waffle ❀

#9: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:20:53 PM

Definitely changed my mind too. Your Worst Nightmare seems to be multiple tropes at the same time. Disambiguate.

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Yindee Just stoic wisdom. from New England Since: Jul, 2016

Just stoic wisdom.

#10: Mar 10th 2023 at 1:50:09 PM

Multiple preexistent tropes? Disambig.

Vehicle-Based Characterization | Grief-Induced Split | Locker Mail

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#11: Mar 10th 2023 at 2:24:48 PM

Disambiguate, definitely.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

Noaqiyeum Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they) from the gentle and welcoming dark (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!

Trans Siberian Anarchestra (it/they)

#12: Mar 10th 2023 at 2:35:03 PM

Disambiguate. (I'm not sure there's a significant difference between various supernatural powers that target fear, anyway. Nightmare Weaver just sounds like the intersection of I Know What You Fear + Dream Weaver.)

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

selkies Professional Wick Checker Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: Star-crossed

Professional Wick Checker

#13: Mar 10th 2023 at 2:42:00 PM

Disambig.

Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs

Amateur Veteran

#14: Mar 10th 2023 at 5:28:56 PM

Disambig.

amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013

#15: Mar 10th 2023 at 8:11:39 PM

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#16: Mar 11th 2023 at 7:59:05 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Nen_desharu Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire from Greater Smash Bros. Universe or Toronto Since: Aug, 2020 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?

Nintendo Fanatic Extraordinaire

#17: Mar 11th 2023 at 12:01:11 PM

Nightmares are best made disambig.

Kirby is awesome.

Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle

the Retromancer

#18: Mar 11th 2023 at 1:36:54 PM

Disambig between Nightmare Weaver, I Know What You Fear and I'm Your Worst Nightmare.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#19: Mar 13th 2023 at 6:39:35 AM

Go ahead and disambiguate.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#20: Mar 13th 2023 at 8:37:16 AM

560 wicks

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs

Amateur Veteran

#21: Mar 13th 2023 at 1:02:57 PM

500.

Theriocephalus Amateur Veteran from gimme a map and a moment and I can tell you Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs

Amateur Veteran

#22: Mar 13th 2023 at 6:26:12 PM

460, cleaned out all Main/ wicks. Added "What Do They Fear?" Episode to the disambig.

EDIT: 400.

EDIT 2: Under 300.

Edited by Theriocephalus on Mar 22nd 2023 at 6:21:05 AM

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#23: Mar 24th 2023 at 7:06:57 PM

Characters/ cleared out. Lots of ZCEs, a lot of which interpreted the name based on what "your worst nightmare" means in everyday usage, and I think I only found one example who was feared enough for the example to be moved to The Dreaded (which I added to the disambiguation page).

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#24: Mar 24th 2023 at 8:16:35 PM

190 to go!

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me

Sounds good on paper (he/him)

#25: Mar 24th 2023 at 11:47:03 PM

All done, so putting this one to bed.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

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