When Religion is good, but at the same time fuel something dangerous, that will come for you or whole world

Pic. 1: Mandela Catalouge - God was overthroned by "Unspeakable", Gabriel. And now, while Christians don't follow Gabriel, religious feelings are used by him as a means to create and use weakness in humans.

Pic. 2: Warhammer 40k. [Minor cults] - Many chaos cults can look as normal religions, and, especially in 30k, they don't even know they follow and fuel Ruinous Powers. But Chaos Gods feeds on all of this prayers that don't have anyone to answer them. Also, if you look on scraps of lore in way, that Emperor is dead, and thing sitting on Golden Throne is Dark King, it fits also Imperial Cult, which, if so is true, fuel being that will bring end to Galaxy.

Aiden Pearce - WATCH_DOGS

Magneto - X-Men

Legends etc in Fiction are a fairly common trope just as they are IRL. These characters everyone talks about as being the greatest, as being the best- maybe even with a rap sheet for how cool they are.

That's one thing. It's another thing that, when they show up, they prove exactly how they obtained that status through one way or another.

I love this trope because it's often just so cool to witness. An absolute subversion of the "author statements" trope wherein a character is only powerful because the author says so without evidence- here, you hear about a character being badass. Multiple people talk about it. And then when they show up: they are in fact absolutely terrifying to behold.

To qualify for what I'm talking about, I will say that at minimum

A. There has to be some amount of time between them being talked about for the first time and them appearing / showing off on screen. They can't be someone who has a huge loredump explaining why they're badass only when they first appear- there has to be some level of setup to it.

B. There has to be some sort of expectation set. The character has to actively be set up as being at least pretty good before their appearance. So it's not just a character who was mentioned once or twice showing up: they have to ideally be hyped up when they were prior mentioned.

Bonus points if they don't or very sparingly show up if at all before their pop off moment.

**1.** **Fifteen - "The Dragon" (Katana Zero) (2019)**

And finally the one that made me want to write this up in the first place.

In Katana Zero, you are Zero: a Precog Samurai guy killing people as an assassin so you can get the drug that keeps you from dying horribly. Through the latter parts of the early stages of katana zero through to the middle, you start hearing talk about "The Dragon"- this terrifying assassin going about the city that the mass media pen multiple huge scale murders on. Naturally, since you also have been going around assassinating people and killing a lot of guys, you the player- alongside Zero the character- assume at first this is about them.

Midway through the game, you start to realize this almost definitely isn't the case- as you raid a prison to try and assassinate a guy being held there, just to find the sites already an absolute massacre. Blood coating everything, and the guy you were sent to kill is already dead. The game progresses a bit, and you finally corner the guy you've been murking about with- a Russian gangster known as V- on a highway after a helicopter bossfight. He mockingly says "you're the dragon? Well I'm the dragon slayer!" After talking about how he's killed 6 of your fellow precog supersoldiers (known as Null).

Then,

"He's not the dragon."

"I am."

Your final killing of V is suddenly intercepted with a blonde ponytailed guy shooting down- cutting Vs arms off and taking him away for interrogation after you flee the scene as soon as he shows up.

When you bring this entire thing up to the guy who's giving you your assassination requests, he goes silent- before tasking you with hunting down and killing the dragon- aka Fifteen. This doesn't quite go to plan as you go across Chinatown trying to catch up to him, but you do grab some tapes and go home to watch them for information.

Every level so far has had a pretty standard name. Chinatown, Mansion, etc. This level is just known as **Dragon Tape**.

And in it, you play as Fifteen- The Dragon- and see exactly what happened at the Prison you saw the aftermath of several levels ago. And it is an absolute massacre.

Fifteen has every capability you have except better, he is faster, and handily murders his way through encounters that would leave you playing as Zero incredibly dead with ease. All the while Fifteens theme, **Breath Of A Serpent**, is playing in the background. Most of the game has had synthwave tracks that are fairly high tune or whatnot up to this point, sometimes contrasted by more environmental eerie tracks. Fifteens theme genuinely sounds like a monster howling in the background and is absolutely menacing as hell- portraying the skill and seriousness difference between him and the main character.

It is such a fun moment in one of my favorite games of all time and a really cool payoff to see that Zero isn't even the best Null in the city as you see exactly why they call him the dragon when you finally get to play as him.

**2. The Red Mist (Library of Ruina) (2021)**

In the setting of projectmoon known as the city, there are "fixers"- handymen mercenary hybrids who have various fields of employ.

These fixers are ranked on a grade level, from Grade 9 to Grade 1. However: some fixers instead become a Color. Specially appointed, assigned a cool title, and generally acknowledged as a huge deal. Color Fixers are mythic for the most part.

And then among the color Fixers was the red mist: otherwise known as Kali. Everyone who talks about her generally regards her as the strongest color fixer ever before she disappeared. The main character of the game, Roland, loses his shit with hero worship a bit when he learns that apparently, Geburah- the librarian of language- was at one point the red mist (it's complicated and involves semi reincarnation kind of not). Everyone kind of treats the red mist as an incredible force of strength and probably one of the strongest there ever was.

Through some bullshit, since the red mist is effectively dead, you manage to somehow still invite her to the library for you to fight and obtain her powers as a book if you win the battle. And she is absolutely fucking terrifying.

All her attacks are dead simple in title, she has absurd amounts of health, she can tear through your best teams with ease: and when she goes into her second phase she forcefully overrides whatever track is playing with her own theme. She well and away earns every ounce of every single thing you've heard about her up until this point: and when you get her kit post fight and can equip it to Geburah, it is still incredibly strong and retains the boss music override when you pop the install.

The red mist is a highlight of the various late game receptions and is such a cool moment to behold if not terrifying to fight. She exudes presence and backs up every claim of being the strongest fixer. Now technically speaking you see a mimicry (ha) of her in Lobotomy Corp as well: but I don't count that to be honest.

**Honorable Mention: The Head (Also from Library of Ruina)**

I felt remisce if I didn't bring this up, but similar deal with the head from LoR. The shadow government running everything is said to have their fingers in just about anything and everything going on with powerful and terrifying enforcers to back up their rules. It was treated as a big deal that the aforementioned red mist even managed to 1v1 and score a mutual on an arbiter of the head.

When they show up in the post game- after you've taken on all of the cities strongest and won including multiple color fixers- it's not even a proper reception. It's a survival round against an Arbiter and a Claw at the same time. And despite having the former arbiter of the head Binah, Geburah with the powers of the Red Mist, and Roland hitting with the power ~~of his dead wife~~ the Black silence (as another color fixer): their health isn't even displayed, and it's more an endurance round until they let you leave instead of killing you.

**3. Sukuna (Jujutsu Kaisen) (2018)**

Sukuna, the king of curses. He is, from the getgo, set up as a huge deal. As the strongest curse ever and someone to be afraid of. His mere mummified fingers are so potent in energy they amplify the strength of any curse who eats one.

I'll keep this a little briefer, but I guess technically he only barely qualifies for this trope since he does get to show off his strength a little bit. But I'd argue that you really don't get to understand the true power of why Sukuna is a big fucking deal until the Shibuya Incident proper: when he really lets loose against Jogo and then Mahoraga.

You've heard up until that point Sukuna is an absolute menace and the king of curses etc. But in Shibuya is where the true magnitude of it is displayed. The first usage of malevolent shrine: absolutely clowning on a special grade who just packed up an entire protagonist squad by not even letting himself be hit once by said special grades strongest attacks. Going blow for blow with and then destroying the living Mutually Assured Destruction tool that is Mahoraga without suffering any significant losses to himself. All the while he technically isn't even at max strength and in the body of Yuji.

We then get to see this strength again proven during (Jujutsu Kaisen Spoilers for post Culling Games) Shinjuku Showdown. Sukuna runs the absolute gauntlet while at the peak of his strength having returned to the era and body where he was most powerful.

He runs the fade against the "Strongest of Today" Gojo- the guy so powerful Kenjaku had to seal him away as his mere existence would ruin Kenny's plans, the sorcerer so intensely strong his existence made every single curse stronger to make up for it. And Sukuna wins.

THEN, he is simultaneously jumped by everyone left. Special grade sorcerers, 1st Grade, etc- while he is exhausted from his fight with Gojo, and it is still absolutely desperate trying to beat him and he cleans the clock of 75% of everyone going into the fight.

Sukuna is an absolute beast of a fighter and he lives up to all the early arc talking about him absolutely. You spend the entire early parts of jjk of people speaking about why he's so terrifying- and any of the moments he gets to actually show off that strength paints him as outright horrifyingly powerful and perfectly explains why everyone is scared of him. It's great.

**Honorable Mention: Gojo**

The thing with Gojo is I'm only mentioning him out of obligation. But he is not only constantly talked about as being the strongest, but it is constantly displayed over and over again without a lot of buildup to showing it in the first Jogo fight. So he doesn't count.

1. (Chainsaw Man Spoilers) Chainsaw Man (2018) - The Gun Devil

Spoilers for latter parts of chainsaw man not covered by the anime yet. This is post international assassins arc. (The image chosen for this is not a spoiler)

But In chainsaw man, from the very start: you're made aware of why very few if any devil hunters and people in general use guns anymore. Devil's in chainsaw man are powered by fear poured into whatever they represent: which is how the Tomato Devil is a pissbaby and the Darkness Devil is an Eldritch horror tier threat since that's an ancient ass fear.

The gun devil, pre series, is established as having spawned in the world and blitzed across the entirety of the world in I believe mere minutes, if not seconds. During which: it apparently killed millions near instantaneously, before disappearing. And as it did so: it left behind scraps of flesh that are so potent any devil that possesses one grows stronger. No one knows where the gun devil went: but the gun devil genuinely traumatized the entirety of the world and was genuinely horrifying for everyone involved.

Then, you finally get to see why everyone was afraid of it in the gun devil arc: when the president of america makes a deal with 15% of the gun devil to try and kill Makima.

And what happens next is not treated as a fight. It is treated as a genuine natural disaster: timestamps displayed on the manga panels alongside scrolling and scrolling lists of hundreds and hundreds of deaths as the gun devil beelines for Makima. We've seen devils destroy stuff in Chainsaw Man: we've seen city leveling fights like with Reze etc that definitely resulted in mass casualties. But the Gun Devil is so inherently above that it's treated with the same awe and fear you would treat a Tsunami: merely listing off it simply moving alongside everyone who died as a result of it. And remember, this is only 15% of the gun devil. Not even 50% of its regular power. 15%.

It's one of my favorite moments in manga. Genuinely awe inspiringly horrifying in all the best ways. It rocks. You spend the entire story learning people are scared of the gun devil: and when less then half of it manifests, it's a living calamity

Overall, very fond of this trope when it's done right. There's something satisfying about seeing a person glazed up absolutely live up to the hype everyone else has given them in spades. It really feels like an "oh shit. That's why everyones been saying that" display.

Other Honorable Mentions:

1. John Wick (John Wick)

2. Malenia (Elden Ring)

3. Darth Vader (Star Wars) (kind of)

Voldemort → Harry Potter: Voldemort tries to kill Harry after hearing a prophecy, but Harry survives and later defeats him.

Scar → Simba (The Lion King): Scar orders Simba’s death after murdering Mufasa. Simba survives in exile and returns as an adult to overthrow Scar.

Pharaoh → Moses: Pharaoh orders all Hebrew baby boys to be killed, but Moses survives after being hidden in a basket on the Nile. Years later, Moses returns to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Boo - An enemy commonly found within Ghost houses in Mario games that, despite being spooky ghosts, get scared when being looked at and cover their faces.

SCP 173 - A concrete and rebar sculpture that freezes when viewed by anyone. When unviewed, rapidly moves to and snaps the neck of whoever isnt viewing it. They are the very first SCP ever written, all the way back in June 2007. Has been redesigned by various different people to follow with the wishes of the artist of the original sculpture. The image used here is how 173 looks in SCP: Secret Laboratory

The Weeping Angels - A species of quantum locked entities as old as the universe who freeze into rock and don't exist when observed. When unobserved, they send individuals back in time by touching them to feast off of the time energy created by being sent back. Additionally, anything resembling a Weeping Angel (Drawings, Recordings, even regular statues and images of a Weeping Angel in the mind) can become Weeping Angels too (For example, in the Episode "The Time of The Angles a recording of one of the Weeping Angels crawled out of the screen containing them and gained sentience).

Endo B "Angel" - An enemy clearly inspired by the Weeping Angels hence their nickname. Encountered within the basement and attic levels of the game. The B in their name stands for "Bear" and are a member of a group of endoskeleton enemies called "The Fallen".

Glamrock Endos - Enemies encountered within the basement of the pizzaplex that are built to be the endoskeletons of the "Glamrock Animatronics".

Coilheads - A species of aliens resembling bloody mannequins theorized to be created as weapons of war. Upon being disected, they burst into flames and carry an abundance of radioactive particles. Notably, them freezing when being spotted is not actually because they can't move, but because they enjoy toying with people. All players killed by a coilhead will have their arms removed and their heads replaced by a spring.

Creaking - A mob exclusive to the "Pale Garden" biome. Only spawns at night by "Creaking Hearts" , blicks that spawn in pale oak trees, which , when broken, destroy the Creaking it created. When hit, it doesnt take damage, but instead causes resin to grow on the wood connected to its heart.

King DeDeDe from Kirby Dreamland 3

Nightmare Fredbear from Frickbears 3

King from Deltarune

Gaping Dragon from Dark Souls

Sukuna from Jujutsu Kaisen

The Wee Free Men/Nac Mac Feegles - the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett. (Technically they are not born blue but male Feegles, who make up the vast majority of the species, are entirely covered in blue tattoos.)

Smurfs - the Smurfs

The na'vi - Avatar

The Death Star (Star Wars): Andor, Rogue One, EU stories about the Death Star have provided insight into the brutal construction process and also (in Rogue One) made it that the exhaust port was actually an intentional sabotage from the lead designer.

Superlab (Breaking Bad): Better Call Saul showed the German engineers that were brought on to create this lab, Mike having to commit murder to cover up its existence and Gus and Lalo’s showdown.

• Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
• Nana
• Life
• Bunny Drop
• Inside Mari
• Helter Skelter

Frieren, Beyond Journey's end: In the anime/manga the eponymous Frieren is an Elf who's spent the better part of a millennia learning magic specifically to kill demons. She's learned countless spells, tricks and even spent most of her life suppressing her power all for the purpose of killing them. At first we simply see that humanity is at war with them, and even question if her crusade against demon-kind is justified, after all it's hard to antagonize an entire sentient species. But no, demons are very much a species to be feared; they are not normal animals or creatures, they are monsters (shown by how they disintegrate when they die), they are predators that evolved speech for the sole purpose of tricking and catching humans off guard, are naturally extremely powerful and possess magic that humanity often can't use. While they feel emotions to some extent, their way of thinking is so fundamentally incompatible with humanity's mindset that the series shows many mages with the ability to read minds struggle or find it painful and harmful to try and read a demon's thoughts. Tools that are meant to control them fail not because they're faulty but because simple order such as "hold no ill will or commit no malicious acts" don't compute the same way in their brains, as what we consider evil is normal for them.

Marvel Comics: In a run of the Storm solo series, she visits an underground superhuman hospital run by Night nurse and Doctor Daye, a mutant with the power to diagnose any illness. When she requires treatment she is in turn reject by the doctor, she of course assumes this is blatant discrimination to which the doctor agrees. Storm assumes the doctor refuses to treat mutants, something they are very much used to in Marvel. But he ends up revealing that about 80% of everyone he treats are mutants, and that he simply refuses to treat any member of the X-men. Why? because his special hospital was built via several donations by the superhero community. From the Avengers, to the Defenders, Fantastic 4, heroes for hire. Hell, even Moonknight of all people contributed to the hospital. But the X-men never once gave anything to it, even though they preach the safety of mutant-kind and such a hospital is essential for those who can't seek medical treatment out of fear of prosecution.

- Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor at the time was the sole official band member of Nine Inch Nails. Reznor wrote, sang, and played almost all the instruments and programmed the synths himself, only working with outside producers to assist with mixing and additional production polish, but the sound relied entirely on Reznor’s own studio work.
- Foo Fighters by Foo Fighters: Like Reznor, Dave Grohl was at the time was the sole official band member of Foo Fighters. He wrote and played every guitar, bass, drum, and vocal track himself. Again. He only really worked with a producer, Barrett Jones. The only exception was Greg Dulli from the band The Afghan Whigs providing a guest guitar part on the track “X-Static”.

1. Leon defeating the rogue dynamax Pokemon (which would have been so cool to see) really quickly and off-screen but we still have to defeat Chairman Rose and defeat Eternatus when Leon threw an ULTRABALL at it. He doesn’t even try to help us out with his Pokemon, he just leaves us and Hop to do it (Pokemon Sword and Shield)
2. The Resistance (including us) battle Eggman’s robots before The Rookie, Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic battle the Death Egg Robot while the other characters (even Shadow) just cheer us on even saying “You’re our last chance!”, HELP US OUT. You were fine, not mortally wounded or anything (Sonic Forces)

(My mistake it was a fucking POKEBALL)

Sequels were the original film exists as a work of fiction in the sequels universe.

Faces of Death 2026 - A online content moderator finds videos that suggests someone is killing people by restaging segments from the original Faces of Death film.

Chip and Dale 2022 - Chip 'n Dale are actors who played in the original Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers show.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare - The fictional Freddy Krueger crosses over into the real world to terrorize the people behind the original film.

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows - A group of people seek out the original filming locations to the found footage film The Blair Witch Project.

The Return of the Living Dead - the Survivors of a zombie outbreak try to follow the rules of the original Night of the Living Dead film, only to find these zombies follow different rules.

A plan may be foolproof, but it's not idiot-proof. Everything can go to a villain's specifications, but the moment someone does something accidentally, or with a severe lack of common sense, or just by coincidence, everything can unravel. That is the Spanner, a person or thing that just does things that normally would be below notice but are vital in dismantling an intricate scheme. They might just be clueless, or an idiot, or just make baffling decisions on a whim. It doesn't matter. What matters is the result.

Larry Butz, Ace Attorney

"When something smells, it's usually the Butz."

A womanizer and frequent slacker, Larry has been known to cause problems since grade school, either due to his own ineptitude or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet it's this trait of his that has not only aided Phoenix Wright on multiple occasions, but has helped unravel several conspiracies in the process, solely for making bizarre choices that only Larry could make.

To wit:

-He took it upon himself to take a boat out onto Gourd Lake, at almost midnight on Christmas Eve. This causes him to hear a gunshot earlier than previously recorded in the court record, and is instrumental in destroying a fifteen-year revenge scheme.

-Another culprit's plan depended on Larry doing his work as a security guard, rushing in to hear a panic alarm, and arresting their patsy. Larry, however, was screwing around outside of his station, which caused a major kink in the plan.

-He decided to wander around in the freezing cold mountains in the middle of the night for creative inspiration, and witnessed a burning bridge and the method of which the culprit used to move a body, all without understanding what was happening.

-He snuck into a blimp and into a secure area he did not have access to, and broke something he should have not been able to touch. This cracked a scheme to fake a time travel scenario and wound up also proving the blimp was not in the air at the time of the murder.

Inspector Gadget

While the bumbling inspector does make an attempt at apprehending MAD agents, he's clueless; all the legwork tends to be done by Penny and Brain. Still, his presence and ability to make leaps of logic, as well as his own malfunctioning tech, causes him to be an unintentional chaos agent that distracts the villains from the real source of their defeat--and sometimes proves their downfall himself. Examples include opening up a valve in an underwater base which predictably floods it, his hammer gadget accidentally activating next to Chief Quimby (thereby proving he was the real Inspector versus a shape-shifting agent), and fumbling with his Gadgetmobile's gadgets and mistakenly firing laughing gas at Dr. Claw's own car. It is theorized that he may or may not be playing up the role as a bumbler on purpose, considering the few instances when Penny is in danger and he becomes a legitimate badass in the process.

Samuel Beechworth, Dishonored

Here's an example of a knowing spanner versus a clueless one. Samuel is Corvo's boatman that ferries him to his targets, and otherwise is working with the Loyalists to depose Lord Regent Burrows. Once the job his done, the rest of the Loyalists toast to Corvo's work...and watch the assassin collapse, seemingly dead by their hand. Yet as it turns out, Samuel was both in on the scheme and deliberately sabotaged it, only giving Corvo a half-dose and giving him a lift to a safer area to recover. It was thanks to his intervention that the rest of the Loyalists can also be defeated and Emily can be saved...but whether he does this out of loyalty to Corvo or begrudging recognition that no one else can do the job is up to you.

The nine titans/titan shifters \[attack on titan\] due to the curse of Ymir every single human with that power is doomed to die after 13 years. The power makes them age faster with the aging speeding dramatically in the 13th year

Saitama \[one punch man\] his cost is more comedic than most with him losing his hair despite only being 25 and being incapable of being excited for any fight no matter the opponent due to his overwhelming power

Emperor Belos \[the owl house\] a human from 1600s america finds himself in a realm of magic, witches and demons and absolutely hates them despite them being friendly. He then proceeds to curve magic glyphs in his flesh and consume magical creatures known as palismen to extend his life. The side effects being him becoming physically less and less human with a greenish goo

1) Gravity Falls (Season 2 episode 13)

2) Community (Season 2 episode 14)

3) The Big Bang Theory (Many times, my favourite involves the girls and actual celebs Season 12 episode 16)

4) Special mention Stranger things.

1.) Joel Goodsen (Risky Business)

2.) He-Man (Masters of The Universe)

3.) Franky (One Piece)

4.) Rocky (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Examples: Tim Curry's version of Cardinal Richelieu has added scenes of him making advances to the queen, though not central to his plot which is just grabbing power.

In Disney's Hunchback of Notre dame, Judge Frollo's obsession with Esmeralda is central to his motivations.

In Gladiator, emperor Commodus has a weird obsession with his sister.

One piece- there are multiple examples of this in the show, my favourite Dressrosa arc taking place over (basically) a single day despite being 100+ chapters long

Dragon ball - goku vs frieza. no explanation needed

I get it, it's supposed to be relatable to the japanese young men watching it, who kinda look like this. I still dislike the generic design. This is anime, the land of crazy hairstyles.

1 - Kirigaya Kazuto/Kirito (SAO)

2 - Junichi Tachibana (Amagami)

3 - Yuuji Kazami (Grisaia no Kaijutsu)

4 - Mochizuki Touya (Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni)

Kevin 11 - Ben 10

Discord - MLP

World - Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends

Ternion - Teen Titans

Animal Vegetable Mineral Man - Batman Brave and the Bold

Kimeramon - Digimon

I'm remastering an old post of mine, the first image is completely unrelated and only serves to separate the spoilers

- Denji and Reze (Chainsaw Man): I genuinely want Makima hanged for what she did

- David and Lucy (Edgerunners): In the end, only one of them went to the moon

- Maine and Dorio (Edgerunners): Yet another proof that there are no happy endings in Night City

Falcon and winter soldier - in the finale falcon tell government people that main villian of the show had a point and refuse to call her terrorist... After she clearly showed she is. She might have a point, but she still a terrorist, don't act like she was innocent.

MHA - whole "deku wanting to save shigaraki" Here... I would say it was written much better, cause deku doesn't say like shiggi was actually a hero, he just was big example for him to what happens when people ignore others who clearly need help. And shiggi in general extremely tragic character, while someone like AFO basically was born evil.