Scariest scenes out of King's Quest

[Allronix]

I'm over on TV Tropes, and considering the current antsy waiting I'm doing for Episode 2 (Hey, I'll wait until it's done and done right...)

I found this:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HighOctaneNightmareFuel/VideoGames

High Octane Nightmare Fuel is the stuff that you causes you to shriek and shudder. The stuff that still makes you cringe whenever you think about it.

Dudes, it needs a KQ section. Seven games and no entries for us? This will not do. So, what are the scenes - canonical or fan game - that still scare the tar out of you?

[Baggins]

Nothing is all that scary in the KQ games... I suppose the closest would probably be Realm of the Dead... The first time a zombie touched me while I was middle of talking to the ghosts wasn't exactly scary but was annoying.

But overall fright annoyance? The blue beast in KQ5, you never knew when he'd appear.

Working against Manannan in KQ3 could be thrilling.

[tessspoon]

Whenever Manannan pops up and you're not expecting him, still makes me jump.

[KatieHal]

I love TV Tropes

Can't really think of Nightmare Fuel from KQ games though. Some of the SQ deaths could qualify though!

[Ravager]

The cave troll in KQ4. I was always on the edge of my seat, waiting impatiently for Rosella to make it safely to next screen. Then, all of the sudden, the scary music kicks in...

Speaking of TV Tropes, I noticed someone has been deleting a lot of entries in KQ page. Are these deletions justified?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KingsQuest

[Baggins]

Hmm TV Tropes is loaded with alot speculation, opinion, rather than properly cited research :p...

Anytime things start moving into the realm of speculation/opinion, edit wars tend to commense...

Not my thing personally.

To some the most scary thing is;

[Allronix]

Maybe I'm just a bit inclined to see disturbing things where nothing horrible was intended. Still...

KQ1: When I realized those kids outside the cupcake hut were exactly what I dreaded they were.

KQ2+: Raiding the Vampire's castle is nerve-wracking, but when Daniel  the Wookiee got a hold of it, the shock value got cranked up a few notches. Seeing what you were expecting to be the friendly monk from the canonical game transform into a werewolf? Oh, crap. Seeing Graham pinned to the wall, Caldaur's hand around his neck, the music shrieking in the background? Oh, CRAP! Being pinned down by the Brotherhood between the swamp and their jaws? OH, CRAP!

KQ3: Half-expecting, half dreading you miscalculated by just that much and that Mannanan would come back at any second and turn you to ash.

KQ4: The cave troll. Oh, dear Gods, the cave troll. You heard that music, and there was no escape. you could try running, and it would never be enough! And the unsettled ghosts...especially the cradle that rocks, despite being completely empty, a baby's haunting cry splitting the air, and realizing that baby has probably been manifesting for many more nights than the poor dear ever saw alive.

There's also that massive truck of Fridge Horror that hits you when you realize just how badly and on how many levels Lolotte had twisted up poor Edgar. She twisted his body into a hunchbacked form that was likely in pain all the time, tried to pass him off as her son when we later find out she'd kidnapped him, and was trying to twist his mind as well. *Wince*

Sneaking around the castle when even the slightest misstep means a nasty death at the bottom of the stairs, or capture.

Also, trying to picture Lolotte's dying screams. *shudder*

KQ5: The gypsy showing Graham what was going on with his family.  Mordak is torturing Alexander, and threatening to feed him to the cat. Said cat was the same son-of-a-witch who had enslaved and brutalized Alexander for years. On so many levels, that is the stuff of bad dreams.

KQ6: Where do I start?

Addition: Alexander being captured by the Druids and put up in a wicker cage to burn to death. There are times when being a mythology geek adds a few new ways to wince. This would be one of them. Burning to death is not a pleasant way to go, either.

Just about anything on the Land of the Dead. Creeping zombies of those whose torments drove them mad, and having to dodge them, lest a single touch cause Alexander's flesh to dissolve! There's the door death, the River Styx death, seeing the walls and twisted passages of the Land of the Dead and realizing they are literally Samhain's flesh as he has fused with his hellish throne.

Sipping the "Drink Me" without knowing it only knocks you flat for a few minutes. The animation is unsettling to start with. The narrator and Benson's voice acting do not help.

Navigating the catacombs. Traps everywhere, skeletons everywhere, and if you are traversing it for the first time, with no idea where the minotaur is? Heck, even if you know where you're going, confronting the Minotaur is pretty tense, especially when you look at the ritualistic altar on which he was planning to do Gods-knew-what to Celeste before devouring her!  

We know from the first meeting Alhazred is no gentleman. When we find out what he did to Cassima's parents, he turns into "detestable slime bag." When we see that he was behind the islands' discord and colluded with Mordak, he jumps up to "pile of sh-t." When we realize that he plans to "dispose" of Cassima after the wedding night (read: rape her first)? Alhazred turns into "Alex, skewer the b****ard NOW!"

KQ7: The death messages rolled before anything too frightening was seen, but the scorpion made me jump, as did the Boogeyman.

[wilco64256]

I'd have to go with stuff from the Catacombs in KQ6.  Just so many different ways to die and all kinds of things to go wrong.

[KatieHal]

LOL, okay, I may have been proven wrong now

I think any deaths that involved spiders were my personal Nightmare Fuel. I HATE spiders.

And if I'd been younger, the Boogeyman deaths would indeed have been scarier to me. I kinda forget the KQ2+ ones, but I'm replaying that game currently so I'll see them again eventually.

[TheReturnofDMD]

When I was really young (about 6 or 7) I used to have my sister play the Land of the Dead sequences in KQ6 for me that's how much it spooked me out.

KQ4 still spooks me out. I've written about it before, but the whole eerie, almost Twilight Zone-ish atmosphere of the game is very creepy.

[Haids1987]

Graham's scream in KQV when he falls to his death still makes me pee my pants a little.

And also the suspense of going through Dahlia's woods used to TERRIFY me as a child.  As I've said before, that's when I needed to be on Daddy's lap and be holding Big Sister's hand.  I still hate it, my knees go weak when I hear her "swooping down" music!

[MangoMercury]

Even this death?

[Haids1987]

I fear to click on it, Mango.  Will it scare me?

[B'rrr]

Not that it scares me anymore (honestly!) but what I recall, scariest moment in any KQ game for me was the appearances of the witch in KQ1 (but that was probably because I was quite young when I played that)

[Jafar]

The Ogre in KQ4. That jerk ALWAYS gives me a heart attack when I see him charging full speed at me.

And then when the stupid hen wakes him up and he leaps up and starts chasing you...

Also, has anyone ever tried failing the Lord of the Dead's challenge?
NOT a pretty sight...not to mention I always found the Non-standard deaths in KQ6 to be creepy anyway...

[MangoMercury]

I would love to see a video of failing the Lord of the Dead's challenge, Jafar!

Haids, I don't know that it would incur fear into you, but give it a try.  Who knows?

As for scaries, the wolf in KQ1 & 2, as a kid, scared me so bad that I would not go in the same room as my computer.  Of course, it didn't help that it made me jump once, but my brother would go back and forth on the screen repeatedly to scare me...

[Jafar]

Here you go.

[MangoMercury]

Oh, I totally remember that one now.  Cheers for finding it out for me, Mega Graham!

[Haids1987]

Haids, I don't know that it would incur fear into you, but give it a try.  Who knows?

LOL, I watched it, Mango.  Thanks for encouraging me, I laughed!

And Jafar, I've totally touched Death's hand before while playing. Soooooooooo creepy!  That seriously haunted me after I did it.

[Big C from Cauney island]

Dude, that troll in KQ4 was so freaky I had to have the lights on to play it AND some music playing (before my sound card).  Then, when I fell in the chasm, that too.  The ghost stuff was a little freaky. I would say kq4 was probably the scariest overall.  But, it is hard to judge because waiting for Mannanan to pop up was terror, especially when you had items and you were rushing to get to your room, or when you were in the wizards laboratory.  Also, when the cat was waiting for you on the laboratory stairs, and you fell, I still jump from that. Amazing how simple things are so effective.