Trope Talk: Greatest Fears

Ahh, fear! What a maligned concept. But everyone's afraid of something, and some stories really like putting the spotlight on what scares their characters the most. At worst it's a very effective halloween episode, at best it turns into a deep and gripping exploration of their character! Let's discuss how the Greatest Fear trope gets used and abused!

Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.

[JoCat]

it makes my day every time red talks about the justice league cartoon because its just so freaking good

[just-trying-my-best-everyday]

"What's your greatest fear?"
"Being forgotten."
"Wow, that's deep. Mine is the Kool-Aid Man and now I feel very dumb."

[ShiftersMidnightsun]

To be fair if you live anywhere in and or around Gotham you should have a very legitimate reason to be afraid of clowns

[trevorparker]

“Pretty commendable badassery”
Shows Batman buying a coffee

[merrittanimation]

Wonder Woman: "Man that vacation was great how were you guys?"
Superman: "I have stared into the abyss. Though I escaped it, the memories shall forever remain."
Wonder Woman: "...I think you need a vacation too."

[Moonstar]

Magnus puts the "cult" in "cult following" and Red puts the "story" in "falling from a thirty story window because my greatest fear is heights"

[buca]

One of my favorite examples of this is Raven in Teen Titans. In her episode, she was so afraid of accepting her own fears that she unconsciously created them in reality, which then promptly proceeded to act out those fears in a very real and potentially fatal way.

She wasn't just confronted by her fear; she actively inflicted it upon herself.

[bellasartcoven]

Red: “meanwhile this character over here is scared of clowns.”
Jason Todd: “hey it’s a reasonable fear to have.”

[cedarwisp]

"That joke was funnier when I had this episode planned for October."
We all had things planned for October, Red, don't worry about it.

[jackforde]

"No Firelord Ozai, you're not wearing pants!"

[riesec]

I kept hearing Hawk Girl as "hot girl"
And I was like... Yah that checks out

[mayatunes]

See, I've always wanted a greatest fear episode where it starts off by establishing someone has a "dumb fear" like flowers or puppies or something, but then the actual nightmare hits and suddenly everyone who teased the dude with the dumb phobia is forced to deal with the phobia on a horrifying level. Like, they get to see and feel and experience WHY flowers might terrify the one dude. Maybe there were flowers at a specific traumatic event. Maybe he almost died from a poisonous flower. And at the end of the episode, there could be some reconciliation. Just to show that phobia and tigger warnings, even when they seem silly, are still serious to the person who has them and has to deal with them. Nobody CHOOSES to be afraid of things, and nobody has a fear for no reason...

[Narmatonia]

Ned Stark said it the best: "Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" "That is the only time a man can be brave."

[carelessdreamer]

My favorite stock episode is when a hero and villain get stuck together somehow and have to work together to get out of a bad situation. Doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I still love it. I’m pretty sure everyone has a guilty pleasure stock plot.

[purplehaze]

“Could he handle a world made of wet tissue paper?”
How you managed to say that completely seriously short of taking at least a dozen retakes to iron out the laughter alludes me.

[kescaremon]

You know, you actually made me look at Superman from a new perspective this time and also realize how dumb are recent films. Instead of trying to put Superman against villains equally strong or even stronger than him, a good superman story should focus on how he needs to restrict himself.

[rinbobetteweebabobo]

Sponsored by the Magnus archives
Me: *shrill sounds of joyful horror*

[alexandersmith]

People: SUPERMAN IS LAME BECAUSE HE’S TOO GOOD ALL THE TIME!”

Red:

[josharko]

"Some of the kindest people I know think they're absolute messes that keep on hurting people" sadly accurate...

[TheShieldsMD]

Best version of this: the Teen Titans episode where Robin starts seeing Slade in places he couldn't be... when Slade had pretty definitively died earlier. It turns out Robin's greatest fear wasn't so much Slade coming back, but his own paranoia alienating his team and leaving him overworked without the help he needs.