There's a concept in media called the stock
episode, which is basically an episode of a series where the whole premise is based on a highly
specific recurring trope. For instance, many series have the die hard episode, where the hero's
base is compromised by bad guys and they have to sneak through the vents. Or the egg baby episode,
where a character has to take care of an egg or a flour sack like it's a baby - or the color-coded
copies episode where one character is split into two or more versions of themself, sometimes
but not always with different personalities. These stock episodes are usually hilariously
specific, and are often full-episode parodies or homages to other popular media - like the die
hard episode, the gremlins parody episode where a cute pet turns into a monster when you void
the warranty, the fantastic voyage episode, etc. Now like all tropes, stock episodes run the risk
of becoming boring with overexposure. But stock episodes can also provide a fun opportunity for
characterization - if the audience is already familiar with the scenario, it can still be
fun to see characters we like react to it and play it out. The immense popularity of alternate
universe fanfic demonstrates that pretty handily; if we already like the cast, we're gonna
like seeing them play out a familiar plot, and it almost doesn't matter what that plot
IS. Some stock episodes also let the characters show off a little by putting them in scenarios
they generally don't deal with - for instance, it's a pretty common stock episode for one
of the characters to get sick and need help, and we get to see how the rest of the cast
handle that, which can be fun and heartwarming. Or there's the stock episode where some of the
cast ends up stuck in an enclosed space, like a cave-in or a broken elevator, and we see how they
deal with that kind of stress and ticking clock. Now there's one kind of stock episode that really
leans into that potential, and it's the greatest fear episode. In this stock episode, our heroes
are forced to confront their greatest fears, usually by way of some kind of psychic attack or
manifest nightmare. The greatest fear episode is a one-two punch of character development - first it
tells us what the character fears most, which is a juicy bit of characterization; and then it shows
them confront it, which is a cool badass thing for them to do. It also makes an easy halloween
episode if you're running low on ideas. *cough* Now the greatest fear episode
has two key components. One: it shows at least one of our heroes' greatest
fears. And two: it shows them overcome it. These episodes are frequently named something
like "Nothing To Fear" or "Fear Itself", and the name is pretty on-the-nose - the moral
of this episode is always that fear is just a passing thing and the hero can overcome or work
through it. This plot has a lot going for it, but its number one benefit is it reveals
an otherwise hidden core element of the character. People tend to mostly define characters
by their core motivation, which is basically what the character moves towards over the course of the
story. But it's equally effective characterization to show us what they're running away from. Their
character motivation is a positive drive that gives us an insight into their priorities and
goals, but if you show us what repels them, it accomplishes the same thing in reverse. A
character might be motivated by vengeance and grit, but if their greatest fear is something
like losing their new found family, that gives us an insight that deepens their character in
a surprisingly heartwarming way. Their stated motivation is revenge, but the thing they'll
fight hardest to stop is losing their loved ones. Or maybe the sweet, happy-go-lucky character
has a really dark and scarring greatest fear, showing us that there's some very unhappy hidden
depths under the friendly façade - they move towards happiness and fun, but they're running
from something very unpleasant. This can also add depth to characters who maybe have kind
of vague motivations, like superheroes who generally fight for generic good ends without much
in the way of personal motivation. But that hero might fear losing control of their abilities and
destroying everything they've tried to protect, or having the last of their humanity stripped
away and becoming something cold and alien - or even just fear itself if they're afraid of losing
emotional control. These fears are both concerning and very personal. A generic motivation can be
counterbalanced by this kind of personal fear. And more than just a motivation, fear itself is
a very useful concept to explore. Fear is primal, overwhelming, and very difficult to resist.
Fearlessness is seen as an admirable trait, but most people agree that a healthy degree
of fear is useful to avoid becoming reckless. Some people are ashamed of fear, and try to deny
being afraid, and the greatest fear episode often ends up confronting that head-on - a character
needs to acknowledge their own fear in order to overcome it. But some stories aren’t so kind.
Sometimes, instead of the person overcoming the fear, the fear wins instead. This is popular in
horror stories like today’s sponsor, The Magnus Archives! In this kind of horror, fear isn’t just
an emotion - it’s a powerful malevolent force that you feed by fearing it, and the things it can
do when it’s strengthened are, appropriately, terrifying. But more on that later - for now
let’s stick to more light-hearted greatest fears! Now while I think the greatest fear reveal can
be great for character development, it doesn't always get used that way. Sometimes the greatest
fear reveal just reinforces already-established motivations - like if the hero wants to stop the
bad guy's evil plan, their greatest fear might be failing to do that and seeing the villain wreak
havoc instead. Or the hero trying to save the world has the greatest fear that they can't.
This is just kind of a reiteration of their original motivation, but more glass half-empty.
"I want to accomplish Goal A, and my greatest fear is that I won't be able to accomplish Goal
A." That's fine, but not all that revelatory. And sometimes the greatest fear reveal is…
played more like a joke. This is more common with characters whose greatest fears are, like, normal
phobias. One of our heroes is wrestling with the existential terror that they'll never be strong
enough to protect their loved ones, and meanwhile the other one is… scared of clowns. It's just
kinda weak. Doesn't give us character insight, it just makes them seem silly. And sometimes that's
the point - it's not uncommon for the big, strong character to turn out to be afraid of ghosts or
bugs or something, which is like, ha ha, not so tough NOW, huh? But it doesn't quite hit that same
emotional depth as a really good greatest fear. Every character has a nucleus of core character
traits. Like if you have to do an elevator pitch to explain them in three sentences or less,
these are the things you include first. Let's do a quick example - "Superman is a paragon hero
who believes in upholding truth and justice using his godlike power as responsibly as he can.
He's considered an ideal of heroism and hope, and in most versions he doesn't kill because on
some level he worries that crossing that line will make it too easy for him to start crossing every
line. Despite his godlike power making it kind of unnecessary for him to maintain his Clark Kent
secret identity, Superman's humanity is extremely important to him, because there are too many ways
he could lose it." This is one way to quickly summarize some key elements of Superman's
character. We've got a base personality, a general motivation, a role he plays in his story
and world, a few principles he holds himself to, etcetera. These are foundational character
qualities. Character dynamics, later developments, episodic motivations, surface-level personality
traits - those are just icing. This is real base the character's built on. And the greatest
fear is a base trait that often goes overlooked. Now while I've suggested the greatest fear is kind
of an equal and opposite to the character's stated motivation, that's actually not entirely true. The
greatest fear's equal and opposite is the heart's desire. It's what the character wants more than
anything regardless of realism or attainability, and, rather like the greatest fear, the
character might not even know what it is. Most characters don't really introspect that much,
and they can often end up blindsided by their own greatest fear or desire. The character whose
motivation is to save the world over and over again might actually want a quiet, domestic life
with their loved ones. The character seeking dark, self-destructive vengeance just wants to be
reunited with the people they lost. Etc etc. While a character is aware of their own motivation,
these are aspects of their character they might not even know about. And that brings us to another
strength of this trope - introspection inducement. See, most people don't really…… know themselves
very well. Sure, they have an ego and a self-image, but it's naturally very biased by how
they WANT to see themselves and how they've been TAUGHT to see themselves, because that's… just
how people work. And anyone else's image of this person is also gonna be biased by that observer's
individual worldview and relationship to them. There's really no such thing as an objective image
of anyone's character. The way someone describes themself can sound pretty unfamiliar to anyone who
knows that person, because their respective images are biased in different ways and thus don't line
up. And what the person thinks their priorities or noteworthy traits are don't always line up with
what they actually are. Some of the kindest, most compassionate people I know think they're absolute
messes who are constantly hurting people, and I've known some real jerks who think of themselves
as the second coming of christ. There's always a disparity, and it takes a lot of introspection to
really get any sort of feel for how you work and what your fundamental priorities are, rather
than who you think you're supposed to be. But you know what'd make that introspection
easier? If some dreamweaving nightmare-beast manifested in your house and dumped you
into a hallucination that flat-out told you what your actual greatest fear was.
You thought you were scared of being weak, but you were ACTUALLY terrified of losing
your friends! Surprise! This is the kind of thing that forces a character to introspect.
See, characters differ from real people in one key way - they're a lot less complicated, and
the audience generally has a pretty clear view of who they actually are. Now, just like with
real people, everyone's interpretation of the character is going to be biased in its own unique
way, and sometimes you might look at someone's fanfic version or lengthy thinkpiece and wonder
if you even watched the same show because the character they saw and the character you saw seem
to have nothing in common - but all that aside, a character's core nature is usually pretty
obvious. While real people can be nearly infintely complex, a fictional character is
usually built from a small handful of simple, obvious traits. This one is a stoic vigilante with
a dark past and a strong personal honor code. This one is a warrior with a self-destructive hero
complex who needs to find her self-worth. This one is a total narcissist who pits people against
each other to manipulate them. And because it's easy for an audience to get a read on these
characters, it's also easy for us to see when they're in denial about themselves. The annoying
lancer character who acts like they're the hero; the well-meaning protagonist who's using
the "greater good" as a justification to self-destructively spiral; the villain
who is convinced they're the good guy. We want these characters to introspect
so they can actually get a clue and stop self-destructing - or just get some
commupence, which can be fun too. So this is one of many tropes that involves
a character confronting a part of themselves they might not like - or even know about.
This is great for character development - it shows the audience a side of this character
they might not have seen, and it also shows the character that side of themself, which
can help them introspect and develop - or, if they're a villain, it can help them appealingly
self-destruct. Broadly, it's really good for adding depth to a character by adding a new
dimension to the fundamental core traits. Of course, the premise of this episode is
inherently kind of contrived. Characters don't tend to volunteer their core character
concepts, and if they don't already know their greatest fear, how are we supposed to see it? This
is where the episode's antagonist comes in. See, there's a staple villain archetype - the living
nightmare. These dudes specialize in leveraging the fear of their victims. Maybe they can
physically manifest nightmares, maybe they just have an intuitive psychic understanding of what'll
scare their enemy most, but the most common version of this character has the simple ability
to force their victims into their worst nightmare, by way of a coma, a hallucination, etcetera. This
version is popular because, among other things, it kinda protects the status quo. Your hero
is just stuck in a bad dream - lots of really nasty things can happen in that dream, but all
they have to do to fix it is wake up. A nice, clean win condition with none of the cleanup
that a real physical nightmare would involve. And with the status quo sufficiently insulated,
the writer is free to put their character through the absolute wringer. And that's good for
the audience, because it's very dramatic. It's not good for the character, but,
you know. That's not really the point. That's not to say these stories are stakes-free.
Sometimes if you die in the dream you die for real, or the hallucinated nightmare can actually
hurt you as long as you think it's real. The purpose of this stock episode is character
exploration and drama, and you can't really have drama without some kinda stakes. But honestly,
the stakes are usually the same - if they don't overcome their fear, with or without help, they'll
be trapped in the nightmare until they die. Pretty standard, pretty simple. These episodes don't
carry themselves on the threat of death - it's just the infrastructure to justify focusing on the
nightmare itself. Defeat the nightmare to not die. Not dying is the goal, so defeating the
nightmare is the thing we get invested in. And that justifies spending the entire rest of the
episode firmly in the character development zone. By the way, this isn't the only way to frame
this kind of episode. In fact, some of them explicitly hide the framing. If the audience
doesn't know it's a nightmare from the get-go, the show can instead show us some really crazy
status-quo-breaking events, like major character deaths or plot twists, leaving the audience going
all "What? Huh? What??" as we watch everything spiral out of control - until the character either
jolts awake and realizes it was all a dream, or we cut to an outside perspective where we
see their concerned loved ones expositing how, if the character doesn't wake up from
whatever horrible nightmare they're experiencing… they'll die. Different order
of operations, same result - we spend most of the episode in the nightmare zone watching
how the characters handle this unprecedented turn of events. Since that's the meat of
this plot, that's where we point the camera. So, we've got our stakes set, and we've got our
focus character confronting their greatest fear in some kind of battle in the center of the
mind. How does this go? Well, it varies a lot from character to character - this part is a
lot less formulaic than the framing sequence. There's an episode of Justice League that
I think is worth highlighting here, because it covers a lot of ground for this trope in one
convenient place. The two-parter episode is called Only A Dream, and the premise is that some rando
gets dream-powers, starts calling himself Doctor Destiny, and decides to live out his life's
ambition of defeating the justice league by trapping them all in nightmares, the stress
from which will eventually kill them. Superman, Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkgirl are all trapped
in nightmares, while Batman and the Martian Manhunter are still awake but have to find a way
to help them before it's too late. Wonder Woman's… on vacation or something, I dunno, she's not in
this episode. So Batman runs off to hunt down Doctor Destiny - while stoically struggling with
the fact that he hasn't slept in like three days, because of course he hasn't - and J'onn attempts
to psychically help out his trapped teammates despite the risk of getting trapped in their
dreams himself. So those two are racing the clock and showing some pretty commendable badassery
- but meanwhile the four sleeping leaguers are getting some dramatic character insights.
For instance, the Flash's nightmare starts off kinda silly - he's watching himself on
TV with a crew of rambunctious youngsters, in line with his goofy childlike personality.
The dream takes a slight turn when the kids all grow sharp teeth and try to eat him, but he's the
flash. He outruns them. Except that's the trick. In his dream, he can't slow down. The world
freezes around him and loses all its color, and the funny, gregarious Flash faces
the possibility that he's going to live out the rest of his life surrounded by people but
completely alone, trapped by his own super-speed. Possibly more alarming, Flash happily mentions
that he's been having this dream ever since he got his powers. Not only is this his greatest
fear, it's always on his mind - the happy, chipper Flash is constantly afraid of getting
stuck in high gear. The only difference is, this time, thanks to Doctor Destiny, he can't wake up.
So! Flash isn't having a good time. How about the others? Well, Superman is having a lovely dream
where he's on a date with Lois - except then his heat vision switches on and burns a hole in his
menu. Uh oh! Wacky hijinks! Superman is always having to hide his powers from Lois. Except this
time… he also burns up Lois. Well, that's… not fun. Throughout the dream, all of his powers grow
exponentially, and his uncontrollable strength accidentally kills Jimmy Olsen. On screen.
Superman's greatest fear is that, since he started with no powers, and his current powers are already
incredibly strong, will he eventually reach the point where he can't control them at all? And if
that happens, will he end up killing everyone and everything he's tried to protect? Superman already
feels like he lives in a world made of cardboard. Could he handle a world made of wet tissue paper?
Meanwhile, Green Lantern's nightmare is a little more existential. He's back in his
home neighborhood, but… everyone seems scared of him. And when they talk, he can't
understand them - even the billboards and signs are incomprehensible. He's become something alien
and unfamiliar without even noticing. I mean, he is bonded to an alien energy source - it's
a reasonable anxiety for him to have. The green lantern energy even physically burns
through his body. He's clearly afraid that his alien power might be eating away at his
humanity - that becoming a vessel for this kind of power means he's no longer himself.
Compared to that, Hawkgirl's nightmare is almost basic. She's extremely claustrophobic,
so she just ends up stuck in a coffin and buried alive. I mean… it's scary, but it's not very
revelatory. But there's actually a narrative reason for that. See, this happens early on in
season two - and it's not until the season finale that we actually learn anything about Hawkgirl's
backstory and true motivation, and they're massive spoilers. At this point in the story, showing
us anything deeper about her characterization would risk blowing that reveal early. Plus,
the simple fear works quite well in context, because Hawkgirl has demonstrated herself to be
a very badass brawler, and in the beginning of this very episode pulls a seriously fearless move
when one of the bad guys grabs her and orders her to fly him out of the fight or he'll kill her.
Instead she flies him four hundred feet straight up and tells him if he makes good on his threat,
he'll drop forty stories. She doesn't care at all. With this kind of stoic, unblinking badassery
as our context for her character, the fact that something as simple as claustrophobia can scare
her this much is revelatory all on its own. Everyone's afraid of something. She's not scared
of her own abilities or a general existential dread - the only thing that really scares her
is so basic and primal she can't do anything about it. In a way it's a basic fear that's not
very revelatory, but from another perspective, the simplicity of the fear is very revelatory.
And even though they end up getting some psychic help, the characters still overcome their fears
individually. J'onn asks Superman to trust him to help, which cuts to the heart of his fear
- Superman was afraid he was unstoppable just because he couldn't stop himself, and sometimes
he needs to be reminded he's on a team. J'onn reminds Green Lantern that the ring chose him
because of who he was, and thus it's his tool, not the other way around - and Lantern dives into
the power source to get the boost he needs to kick the bad guy out of his head. And for Flash, he
just tells him to "look within", which helps Flash calm down enough to listen to his own racing
heartbeat and gradually slow it down. J'onn just provides a sanity check and some moral support -
everyone still overcomes their own fear. Except for Hawkgirl cuz her brain has psychic shielding.
So everyone's fears reveal something interesting about their character. And it's also interesting
to note that the two characters who we don't see the fears of - Batman and Martian Manhunter -
are the ones whose fears are already established. J'onn's easiest phobia is his vulnerability
to fire and his fears are mostly about how he lost his family and entire planet. Batman is…
well, batman. Fear is kind of his thing. I mean, he deals with Scarecrow on like a biweekly
basis. We don't need to see their darkest fears to understand their deal - instead we
get to see other facets of their characters. J'onn subverts his own general stoicism and
demonstrates his deep compassion for his teammates by risking everything to save them from
their nightmares, and Batman gets to show off his unrelenting determination by powering through an
extremely sleep-deprived worknight to track down the bad guy in question and keep him out of his
head through sheer force of will. All in all, a great showcase of everyone's characters
to a level of depth we don't often see. This is the kind of fun character exploration
we can get from this kind of episode. We see the characters vulnerable in a
way they don't generally deal with, and we get to see how they handle that. Or… we…
make jokes about clown phobias for an episode. I dunno, man, it's always disappointing when
this trope doesn't get leveraged. In fact, it's not just disappointing - the most common
other way for this episode to go is that a hitherto unmentioned phobia is suddenly brought
up as belonging to one of the protagonists, and the rest of the cast usually kinda roasts them for
it. And when that happens, the audience is usually directed to sympathize with the roasters, not the
roast-ee, cuz… ha ha, who's afraid of clowns? Or… bugs? Now, the inherently cruel nature of mocking
someone's deep-seated phobia aside, this very specifically takes us out of the character's
head. Instead of empathizing, we're meant to see them from an outside perspective where their
fear looks ridiculous or funny. But since the main strength of this trope is deep introspective
character insight, putting us firmly outside the character's head for the purposes of pointing
and laughing is sidestepping the entire benefit of this episode structure. And even if we see the
character heroically overcome their fear, that victory is kinda diminished by the fact that we
were supposed to think the fear was silly anyway. So a character's greatest fear can be great for
character development. And beyond this basic episode structure, the core of this trope can be
used in tons of contexts. Sometimes characters psychically travel into another character's mind
and get that sweet character development directly by physically looking at their core character
traits. Or a circumstance seems disproportionately upsetting to a character because it taps into
their deepest fear without directly stating it, and instead it's gradually revealed through
subtler context clues or character dynamics. The greatest fear is a great facet of character
development - this episode format is just the simplest way to explore it.
So… yeah!
What a great episode! And I totally agree with Red, characters making fun of other characters for their fears? Not cool, and not all that funny. It just makes them look insensitive.
What I find is that in the real world, if a supernatural being could show you something about yourself, like your deepest fear, something that personal that you may not even know it yourself - it would be a huge, transformative event. Probably quite traumatic.
But in the realm of fiction, it's often used as a villain-of-the-week type deal rather than something which, more realistically, would colour the rest of that character's trajectory.
Superman's "World of Cardboard" speech for those who haven't seen it (or those like me who had to see it again after this video).
One of my favorite "subversions" of this trope is where the evil nightmare villain tries to scare one of the more experienced protagonists by diving deep into their mind, only to become to victim of fear when they see exactly how terrifying said protagonist is on some deep level.
I think the only time I really remember this is from Ben 10 when facing the scary clown Zombozo. Zombozo exposed them to fear, but in the end Ben turned into Ghostfreak, a terrifying phantom alien. Ghostfreak simply said "Wanna see something REALLY scary?" We only see the back of Ghost freak as he apparently opens his skin like a coat and a mess of tentacles stretch out. Zombozo then pops like a balloon.
Now that I'm down the rabbit hole, I'm going to rewatch Robots and Time Travel :D
OSP meets Magnus Archives? Oooh... Now i want to see Red and Blue inserted into the MA canon and see how they would handle the things that happen. Also, pls no spoilers, i'm only up to the end of S3...
This made me think about when Slade was "haunting" Robin in that one teen titans episode. My favorite episode out of that entire series.