# Intimidating/frightening Appearances



## Ban (Jan 3, 2016)

A little while ago I asked what is most frightening in a character, and received some great answers. The previous thread was primarily about internal scariness, such as ideologies, behaviour, etc... 
In this thread i would like you to specify what external character traits are intimidating/frightening. 

The thing I immediately think of is colour schemes. If a character has a lot of black and red in its clothing than my mind instantly thinks of him/her as evil and in some way intimidating.


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## glutton (Jan 3, 2016)

Covered in scars, built like a tank and optionally wearing heavy armor like many of my adorable female characters XD


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## Gryphos (Jan 3, 2016)

I think just an aspect of alienness and weirdness can be very effective with making a villain stand out and seem frightening or intimidating. Making them appear so inhuman that the protagonist (and the reader) struggles to understand them.

One of my villains is a woman who's completely human, but through magic she's gained bright yellow eyes which glow even brighter when she uses her magic, bright enough even to light up a dark room. Her face is completely covered in tattooed black and white spirals which the MC describes as making her face seem to shift and stir like ripples on a pond, making her expressions almost unreadable. And her magic often includes using little thread-like tentacles of smoke, which appear from out of her sleeves or her hood. I just thought that was a cool aesthetic.

And another villain, basically a god, wears a suit of armour which completely covers all parts of their body. And whenever they talk, a dark sludge-like substance drips from out of their visor and eventually evaporates into the air. This allows for interesting descriptions of how when they laugh their evil laugh the sludge pours forth and washes over their breastplate.

I just love villains who have an interesting aesthetic to them, a memorable aesthetic.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Jan 3, 2016)

I forget the exact phrasing, but for intimidation:

An old man in a profession where most die young.


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## NerdyCavegirl (Jan 3, 2016)

Anyone wearing a labcoat or military/police uniform. Not really scary, but definitely suspicious. And baldness and toothlessness. No offense to any bald or toothless people, but a lack of hair or teeth always makes me feel kinda nervous. Probably because there's this one family mine has been feuding with for 50 years, they're all bald and toothless, and my mom thought it was a great idea to have my older brothers by him then take him back after he got out of prison when I was 10. And I know it's kinda the opposite of an appearance, but anything without a killable body unnerves me. Judaic angels are pretty awesome and freaky too, but that might also be their power and not just their appearance.


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## evolution_rex (Jan 3, 2016)

Subtly ugly, as if he's an alien or demon in disguise as a human. Clothes that are slightly off but not in a way that's quirky. This kind of appearance works great for characters that seem to lack human understanding or, the opposite, seem to understand everything completely.


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## FifthView (Jan 3, 2016)

Banten said:


> The thing I immediately think of is colour schemes. If a character has a lot of black and red in its clothing than my mind instantly thinks of him/her as evil and in some way intimidating.



There is even a trope for that.  (Think Darth Vader.)

I think the sound of a voice can often make a difference. Raspy voices (another trope) or odd and seemingly random inflections (like the Joker in TDK) can give the hint of evil. Odd voices are scary.

For me personally, the indistinct physical form is intimidating, whether it's a shifting ghostlike appearance (yes, usually black in color) or some other shifting form (the Dread Doctors in S5 of _Teen Wolf_.)  My all-time most terrifying move is _The Mothman Prophecies_, which combines an indistinct form and creepy voice for the Mothman (in addition to other things, like being present but unseen, and letting the MC know that.)


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## Tom (Jan 3, 2016)

Masks. By hiding the face they remove the wearer's perceived humanity. I tend to view a masked villain as one who is capable and willing to go further than an unmasked one. There's also something terrifying about going up against a faceless thing, or, as Rey says about Kylo Ren, "a creature in a mask". He, along with Darth Vader, are great examples of this.

I'm also with Gryphos on alienness. There's something very intimidating about a villain who looks even the faintest bit bizzare or inhuman. Just look at the Joker--he's a human character, but with his painted face it's easy to see him as a monster without a conscience or remorse. One of the reasons I think elves would make great villains is their alienness, that perfect beauty that distinguishes them from humans. They're not like us, so it's not hard to twist those differences into something terrifying. Beauty can be scary.


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## Ireth (Jan 3, 2016)

Tom Nimenai said:


> I'm also with Gryphos on alienness. There's something very intimidating about a villain who looks even the faintest bit bizzare or inhuman. Just look at the Joker--he's a human character, but with his painted face it's easy to see him as a monster without a conscience or remorse. One of the reasons I think elves would make great villains is their alienness, that perfect beauty that distinguishes them from humans. They're not like us, so it's not hard to twist those differences into something terrifying. Beauty can be scary.



Agreed. That's why the Sidhe of Celtic folklore are so effective at being scary.


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## FifthView (Jan 3, 2016)

Tom Nimenai said:


> Masks. By hiding the face they remove the wearer's perceived humanity.



Yeah, the Dread Doctors, besides having a shifting effect on perceptions (and so, indistinct movements) and odd voices, also wear masks:

Edit: Potential _minor_ spoilers in video.


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## Demesnedenoir (Jan 3, 2016)

I guess I will judge my opinion by the big bads I'm writing now. The first is the shape-shifter, they can take any face, any voice, they can be totally indistinct. Once you know this exists, you can never wholly trust anyone again. That's creepy.

The second which is in bad guy training mode, is beautiful evil.


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## Deleted member 4265 (Jan 3, 2016)

The scariest villains to me are the one's that don't look the part, the ones that are impossibly beautiful, the one's who are weak or deformed looking just because you don't know what to expect from them, their appearance itself isn't frightening, it's the juxtaposition between their inner and outer self that makes them frightening and unpredictable. 

As for physically intimidating on their own, very tall people who carry very heavy weapons. I also think the less a villain speaks, the more frightening he/she is, wearing a mask or just being faceless. Having some kind of grotesque pet makes villains a whole lot scarier to me (watching someone pet a poisonous snake or giant spider lovingly is pretty intimidating)


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## imagine123 (Jan 3, 2016)

I can't really think of any actual physical appearance that is terrifying. For me, it's all in the body language. Someone who is acting shifty, studying you, looking for an angle, is nerve-wracking. As others have said before me, someone who is alien in behavior. They miss "the beat"; the right time or action that a normal person would know instinctively. Someone who laughs a moment too late; like they're waiting for their cues from others.

Ditto to masks. Anything that obscures the face, or even the eyes. I both love and hate dark sunglasses for that reason, and find it kind of rude when someone tries to talk to me with their eyes obscured.

Think of someone who looks normal, but their face is a mask. They smile at the right moment, then its gone. They frown at the right situation, and then its gone. Faces can carry impressions of emotions, but this person's face doesn't, for some reason. That could be frightening.


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## valiant12 (Jan 6, 2016)

Some things that i think are scary\intimidating.
Huge creatures - taller than castles and bigger than an average towns. 
Characters dressed in chef clothes covered in blood and smiling. It can be very gross or scary depending on the context.
And this thing


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