History NightmareFuel / DragonQuestTheAdventureOfDai

* Baran's entire existence. He was ostracized from humanity due to his Dragon Knight heritage after finally settling down following his defeat of Velther and it resulted in his wife's death- cementing his hatred of humanity. He would later show up to Dai and attempt to brainwash him into agreeing with his methods and fight his own friends.

* Maam's DullEyesOfUnhappiness when she suddenly remembers Popp is facing Sigma all alone and thinks about what happened if the Knight Orichalcum warrior used his Mirror of Shahal against the Sage's Medroa. It is so sudden because there's no fading on her eyes becoming dull, no blink, it just turns into a flat brown devoid of all light out of nowhere!

* Briefly Dai sees [[AdultFear his adopted father figure, Brass struggle from going evil again and attacking him due to Hadlar's influence]]. Luckily, Avan creates a barrier to negate the adverse effects just in time.

* Zaboera convincing Crocodine to use the captured Brass against Dai, forcing Dai to face off his adopted father figure due to the latter being under Hadlar's influence. [[AdultFear Dai is understandably freaking out from having his adopted father figure act in an uncharacteristic and dangerous manner since the island when Hadlar had been resurrected and it is now doubled now that he's being used as an enemy against Dai]].

* Baran's entire existence invokes AdultFear -he was ostracized from humanity due to his Dragon Knight heritage after finally settling down following his defeat of Velther and it resulted in his wife's death- cementing his hatred of humanity. He would later show up to Dai and attempt to brainwash him into agreeing with his methods and fight his own friends.

* The psychological horror of Hyunckel not only being a [[DeceptiveDisciple member of the Dark Army, who had planned to kill Avan even before he was a member]], but also [[AdultFear the fact that the reason was that Avan had apparently killed Hyunckel's father figure due to his role as the hero and the father being on the enemy's side]]. No wonder Dai was conflicted about the issue initially.

* Briefly Dai sees [[AdultFear his adopted father figure, Brass struggle from going evil again and attacking him due to Hadler's influence]]. Luckily, Avan creates a barrier to negate the adverse effects just in time.

* Hadler in his initial introduction, proves to be [[TheDreaded the fearsome enemy from years prior]] by outmatching Avan who had managed to kill him before, force himself into Avan's barrier and even survive Avan's HeroicSacrifice attempt. And what was worse was that [[WouldHurtAChild he isn't above killing the young Dai and Pop for being potential threats.]]
* This is then [[FromBadToWorse worse]] when Hadler reveals that there's an even more powerful force behind him named Vearn, serving as NightmareFuel in-universe with that single [[TheReveal astonishing revelation]].
* Zaboera convincing Crocodine to use the captured Brass against Dai, forcing Dai to face off his adopted father figure due to the latter being under Hadler's influence. [[AdultFear Dai is understandably freaking out from having his adopted father figure act in an uncharacteristic and dangerous manner since the island when Hadler had been resurrected and it is now doubled now that he's being used as an enemy against Dai]].
* What a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Hadler-controlled Brass]] does is equally unsettling, making the soldiers hallucinate their comrades [[DemBones as skeletal monsters]] and forcing them to kill each other. And then he attacks Dai ruthlessly as the boy is unable to fight back with brutal force.

* The psychological horror of Hyunkel not only being a [[DeceptiveDisciple member of the Demon Army, who had planned to kill Avan even before he was a member]], but also [[AdultFear the fact that the reason was that Avan had apparently killed Hyunkel's father figure due to his role as the hero and the father being on the enemy's side]]. No wonder Dai was conflicted about the issue initially.
* For that matter, Flazzard lacking any scruple or compuction towards mutilating or inflicting atrocious harm on his foes.
** He is half made of rocks on permanent fire, and he grabs one of the Three Sages with his hand.

** Then in order to spite Dai and ensure he doesn't run away, he goes and inflicts a HumanPosicle treatment to Leona with the added bonus she will be drained of her life force in a matter of two days.

* Vearn demonstrating why he's [[TheDreaded menacing enemy to be defeated]] by sending out a seemingly weak flicker of flame that explodes into a column of flames to [[spoiler: incinerate Baran's corpse]], starting off the [[HopelessBossFight hopelessly outclassed fight the heroes would first have with Vearn]] as well as [[EstablishingCharacterMoment establishing his vastly superior powers and cruelty]].

* As the final fight with Vearn seemingly ends in Vearn's father, Velther's petrified visage appears to Vearn commenting on how the former won the wager on who would conquer the human world first. It's this moment that cements how insignificant the heroes were to Vearn at this moment, it wasn't a personal battle, but rather a long planned out game of chess between two ancient evil beings that casually used everyone as pawns in their game.