* For most of the Zombie arc, Doc struggles to deal with his immense guilt over how he and his friends killed hundreds of teenage boys back in the D.A.R.E. arc whose only crime was being brainwashed by Raynor.
* In the middle of the weirdness and hilarity, we get [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/17p60 this.]] Holy shit, [[spoiler: Mongo.]]
* Future Tradings, has quite a bit of this thanks to the BadFuture focus on it.
** Dan and Mitzi [=McNinja's=]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p47/ last moment together]].
** In the aftermath of their victory and peace being established between humans and dinosaurs, [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p100/ Doc takes a moment to mourn]] [[spoiler:for the death of one of the [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p90/ Chuck Goodrich's]]]].
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/11p38/ Here,]] Mitzi misses with both sai at ridiculously short range. She cannot bring herself to kill her own son, [[FateWorseThanDeath even if his soul has been devoured by the ghost wizard.]] (Happily, it has not.)
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/26p48/ The death of]] [[spoiler:Herschel]] is a surprisingly touching panel. [[spoiler:Even if it's completely brushed off by King Radical]].
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/29p55/ The death of]] [[spoiler: Grandpa [=McNinja=]]]. The IronicEcho is just ''painful''.
** Rather tellingly, the alt text for this particular strip basically says that they honestly couldn't think of anything funny to say.
** Almost worse is the [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/29p56/ next page.]]
--> Dan: [[spoiler: ''Where's dad?'']]
** Doc's final thoughts for the arc are depressing as all hell. Sitting on that exact cliff years later, he just says one thing.
--> Doc: I hate magic. I hate ghosts.
* Doc being [[spoiler: imprisoned by King Radical.]] He is tapping with his finger until it bleeds and then knocks out a tooth when he realized he can't go on with his finger. That is not one of his CrazyIsCool moments; that's him desperately trying to find a way out, and slowly going insane.
** [[spoiler: Nope. [[EveryoneKnowsMorse He had a plan.]] Just a painful one.]]
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/31p37/ "Base".]] Doc's look of pure defeat after finally coming back to his blown up office.
* [[spoiler:Dr. [=McNinja=]'s clone Old is actually [[CloneDegeneration breaking down]] due to the fact that the technology used to make him wasn't made for clones to last as long as he did. He lamented, and it's hard not to see why: he was thrown out of his own life and forced to live in hiding because he thought people wanted to kill him, and he lost his girlfriend because his original broke up with her. Even when he tried infiltrating the [=McNinja=] household to try and be himself again, he couldn't talk to his own parents without going through a breakdown. All he does before escaping with a smoke bomb is to shed a tear.]]
* [[spoiler: [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p44/ Doc being forced by King Radical]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p45/ to leave an unconscious kid]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p46/ with Paul Bunyan's Disease]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p47/ to die in a room filling up]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p48/ with poison gas.]] Especially since he was the one who knocked the Paul Bunyan out in the first place.]] If King Radical hadn't crossed the MoralEventHorizon before, he definitely has now.
* Several times in the final chapter, [[spoiler: Doc has been showing doubts of surviving the gauntlet his villains are forcing him through. One occasion has him unconsciously referring to himself in the past tense, and another has him looking uncomfortable when Gordito mentions making up for all the times Doc has left him behind, once this battle is over. What makes this especially heartbreaking is that Doc doesn't seem too fazed about actually dying, as if he's starting to think of it as a foregone conclusion.]]
** There's also how [[spoiler:Doc is coming to realize his life has been consumed with conflict. He muses that his various battles are all his life recently has seemed to amount to, Gordito clearly views Doc training him to fight monsters as 'raising' him, and Doc nearly has a breakdown about how he has to save everyone himself and can't keep doing this.]]
* Again in the final chapter, [[spoiler: Doc's parents are faced with one hell of a SadisticChoice, with Dracula threatening to kill Gordito unless they lead Doc into a trap. They choose to save Gordito, but they obviously aren't happy about it. [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p84/ And then when Doc realizes the trap,]] on top of all the other crap King Radical has put him through, he pretty much breaks down.]]
* [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/33p94/ The death of]] [[spoiler:Old [=McNinja=]. Doc takes it pretty hard, and it's hard not to see why. He wasn't able to save the lumberjack child, he wasn't able to save Gordito, his own parents betrayed him, and in the end, he wasn't even able to save his own clone.]]
** Adding to the forgone conclusion note above, [[spoiler:Old [=McNinja=]'s death means, even though there were two of him, he literally couldn't save himself.]]
* Gordito's father, a stunt sharpshooter, died during a show when his guns failed. Since Gordito took care of the guns, he realized right before the show that he couldn't remember loading them or not. Poor Gordito thought that his father's death was his fault for years.