Fear


 * This article is about Riley Andersen's Fear. For the general concept of Fear as an emotion, see Emotions.

Fear is a supporting character of Inside Out parodies. As the first person to be ordered by Joy in the "Joy plans" scene, he has gained reputation as Joy's henchman, similar to Felix Steiner in Downfall parodies.

In Inside Out
He is introduced in Inside Out by Joy as the one who is "really good at keeping Riley safe". His establishing shot is when Riley is carelessly running in her Minnesota house, and Fear suddenly stops her, making her carefully step over a wire. On the contrary, when Joy takes the controls from him, she simply continues to run, making the trolley Riley is carrying hook onto the same wire and topple a table.

During Joy and Sadness's absence, Fear quickly realizes that they are vital to Riley's being, but is usually dismissed by Anger, usually in violent ways. Joy, on the other hand, is usually satisfied with his work, and Sadness and Disgust are simply indifferent.

One portion of the movie when Fear is put on spotlight is during Riley's dream. As he, in Joy and Sadness's absence, is put on Dream Duty, he proceeds to comment on the dream in a manner similar to Mystery Science Theater 3000, this being the rare time when he is not scared, knowing the structure and tropes of Riley's dreams. It is also shown at this point that Fear recognizes Bing Bong, Riley's imaginary friend, even though Riley herself has all but forgotten about him. He does, however, get scared when Jangles the Clown enters the dream, and spends the following morning in shambles.

In parodies
Fear's characterization, carrying over from Inside Out, is that for him to suddenly get frightened by any, even slightly unfavorable outcome, then relieved as he is told that such an outcome could never happen. In addition, he is generally a pessimist, much like Sadness; this, together with his relief is seen in "Riley is informed" parodies

In "Joy plans" parodies, Fear is the first emotion addressed by Joy. While in the original scene, his role is rather insignificant (collecting all the negative outcomes, which, knowing Fear, always end up being outlandish and out of question for any sane person), in parodies, his role becomes much more pivotal, to the point where it appears like he is carrying out most of the part of the plan that Joy is not carrying out. This makes Steiner his counterpart in Downfall parodies, with the major difference being that Fear is actually present during the planning. However, Fear is also shown to care for every detail, most often including the spelling of certain words.

As one of the remaining emotions during Joy and Sadness's absence, Fear has a prominent role in both the "Riley Andersen vs. Meg" and "Anger plans" scenes. In those, as Anger becomes the leader of Riley's mind, Fear's primary role is to sustain physical damage dealt by Anger over his own incompetence. This includes stretching his single strand of hair to throw him like a slingshot, as well as hitting him so hard his eyebrows, separate from the rest of his body but nevertheless moving together, become independent entities.

Trivia

 * Bill Hader, his original VA, got a job at Pixar after an extended tour of the facility, which he refers to as weaseling himself into the movie. In addition, his work on Inside Out started back when the script called for Joy and Fear to be the emotions leaving Headquarters. Furthermore, Hader was asked to bring over Amy Poehler, with whom he appeared on Saturday Night Live, to the project, and she accepted, thus playing Joy.
 * In addition to Fear, Bill Hader also voices the cool girl in the credits scene of Inside Out. He comments that this was part of a series of recordings where he did a lot of weird voices. Unsurprisingly, Fear is the cool girl's lead emotion.