- Antasma—once an ordinary bat that fed off of the nightmares of pi'illos but came to like the taste, consuming more and more until it became twisted into the monstrosity that is the evil Bat King seen in the game. Even in his new form, he does not lose his "SCREEEEEK!!" habits which are arguably worse now, and once stole the Dark Stone to fuel his twisted ambitions, forcing the pi'illo people to corner him at—in Dreambert's own words—at great cost and sacrifice. His response to being imprisoned within the Dream World? Crush the Dark Stone and have its remains turn every last surviving pi'illo to stone as a last middle finger to cause their civilization to crumble. In the game proper, he seizes the literal first opportunity to free himself by abducting Princess Peach and intending on stealing her power only to change his mind and quickly ally with Bowser the moment he gets a good grasp of the koopa king's power, supplanting him with power and resources Bowser never knew he could have, necessitating the very Zeekeeper himself to put a stop to him and Bowser's plans. Good luck getting any sleep on that pillow of yours.
- Antasma at one point offhandedly states that he would still prefer the Dark Stone to the Dream Stone, going after the Dream Stone only because the Dark Stone was more or less unusable by that point. We've seen what kind of evil Bowser and Antasma could get into with the Dream Stone, now imagine how powerful the nightmare-aligned Antasma must have been with the Dark Stone back then or what the evil pair could have done had the stone remained intact in the present day.
- In the aftermath of the first boss fight, Antasma gets fed up with Mario and Luigi and just juices Bowser up on so much power that Bowser ends up completely wasting both brothers and necessitating the pi'illo elder to hurry them back to the real world before falling asleep in Luigi's deepest subconscious took its toll on them.
- The Boss battle with Antasma is unsettling enough, but he takes it up to eleven in That One Attack. Once Mario gets damaged by him too much, he'll fall asleep by a certain chance. The screen fades black, and Antasma starts to attack Mario inside his nightmares. Antasma will chase and breathe purple fire at you in the creepily reddish nightmare world, with black warp holes all over the place which will make you fall into a pit full of sawblades you have to dodge. Unless you realize only one of them will lead you out to the real world, it'll loop all over again without stopping.
- Really thinking on it, it is a good thing that Bowser double-crossed Antasma when he did and that Antasma was too angered by it to think straight afterward. Even though there were still some clues that Bowser would upstage Antasma, Antasma was still very competent and dangerous throughout. Since his imprisonment, Antasma bid his time for centuries and already knew exactly what to do once he got out, stringing Bowser along to help him accomplish it all easier. Had the bat king been as wary of Bowser in return, things could have very easily gone south for Bowser instead.
- The first time we visit Bowser's Dream, we're treated to this piece
.- Not to mention there are dark colored faces of floating Bowser heads that randomly appear laughing demonically in there.
- What makes this even worse are the implications. This isn't your goofy, comic relief Bowser. Outwardly, he just seems a bumbling powerhouse, but now that you're in his psyche, where all is lain bare? Bowser is genuinely as twisted and malicious as he claims to be. His mindscape is warped with visions of flowing magma, cannons laying waste to the landscape, iron chains wrapped over the very ether of the plane, cracked and decrepit brick walls locking everything in, sharp and dangerous protrusions everywhere. In hindsight, the Zeekeeper was dead-on before.Zeekeeper: This Bowser guy sounds like another nutjob.
- It also makes the implications of this earlier scene worse. After summoning Neo Bowser Castle, Bowser and Antasma test its power by firing on nearby islands. Now if we assume that the islands were inhabited, and that Bowser is as genuinely malevolent as his dream makes him out to be, then we've just seen everyone's favorite Koopa King possibly murder god knows how many people onscreen. In one fell swoop, Bowser managed to reverse years of Villain Decay and remind players that underneath the ham, constant failures, and Villainous Crush is a villain who earned his title of "Great Demon King" for a reason.
- This can also ruin for some fans the appeal of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, which gave you A Day in the Limelight for the Koopa King and gave him a sympathetic portrayal beaming with Villainous Valor. That, and you pretty much got to see what Bowser had on the inside in all manner of ways, including his mind. It can be a kick in the pants to reiterate that despite all instances of Evil Is Cool and his moments of Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Bowser's still the Big Bad of the Super Mario franchise, and conquest over the Mushroom Kingdom and then the world has been and may always be his goal in life.
- About Neo Bowser Castle. Those "vines" running all over the place transmitting dream energy from Bowser to power the castle look a little too much like purple veins to be comfortable, especially when you get to Bowser's bedroom where they all converge like a heart.
- Dream's Deep. It's like Bowser's Dream above, but different. The entire place is a bizarre garble of purple and green with neon Luigi faces floating in the background. Spinning and running Luigi holograms run all over the screen. And it's all accompanied with an eerie piece with tribal-sounding percussion.
- The first time through, you're briefly separated from Luigi. There are quotes floating around the screen and in one segment there are multiple Luigi holograms that follow you, only to vanish when you turn around. To make things creepier, this is the deepest part of Luigi's subconscious. Some of the quotes are profoundly thought-provoking and give a lot of character to Luigi.
"Don't leave me behind, bro!""I'm not clumsy!""Big Bro! Big Bro!" - Last but not least, we finally our final boss of the game: Dreamy Bowser, quite possibly his most powerful incarnation to date—the culmination of Bowser playing his cards right and refusing to give up even when things look worst. Inhaling all the shards of the Dream Stone, he becomes capable of bending reality to his will and sports a rainbow flair to his supersized form; combining his powerful new form with the battlefield atmosphere heavily evokes his previous "Bowser in the Sky" final battle. In battle, he can conjure hordes of powerful dreamy minions out of thin air with no effort at all, summons endless piles of meat to heal himself until his minions are taken out (also healing his arms which can both negate damage to his head and snatch one of the brothers up to prevent Bros. attacks), spews out wave after wave of bright rainbow fire before he then clones himself to double the onslaught, taking a page out of the brothers' book and smashing them into the ground with his own massive hammer, enlarging himself to kaiju levels and chasing the bros. down with a maelstrom of fanning triple flame beams and trying to floor them with massive shockwaves generated from his jumps…he's got the full package of a superpower dream come true—or more fittingly, he's become a literal embodiment of the world's worst nightmare come to life. His battle theme, while bombastic, is also very frantic and at one point even drops to a lonely and somber organ piece combined with a haunting choir backing up the quieter moment, carrying a strong hint of desperation to stop his nightmarish ambitions here and now for the sake of everything, making the fight one of the tensest moments in Mario history. All in all, Dreamy Bowser and his battle lend themselves to becoming a terrifying yet awesome moment to behold as Bowser finally cements himself as Mario and Luigi's greatest adversary.
