#491: Darkrai

Darkrai is such a creepy Pokémon, which in turn makes it very
popular. I had no difficulty finding some awesome fan art of it.

Out of all 807 Pokémon, who else feels like Darkrai is kind of the odd one out? While Absol is often chastised for being the bringer of natural disasters even though it only wants to warn people of impending danger, Darkrai is known to 'inhabit' dreams and causes its victims to have never-ending nightmares that can be stopped instantly with Cresselia's Lunar Wing. Like its ability to turn into a shadow and escape danger or contact with humans, its nightmare-causing ability is actually a defense mechanism rather than an intentionally malicious act. As shown in the 52nd and last episode of the 11th season of the Pokémon anime, "Sleepless in Pre-Battle!", Darkrai doesn't only cause nightmares; it is also attracted to the nightmares the people of Canalave City were having due to Team Rocket's nightmare machine, which they had built to scam people into buying their fake Lunar Wings. That this Pokémon fails to be understood by humans is demonstrated once more in the movie Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai, in which the people of Alamos Town are plagued by terrible nightmares and damage to property. A dashing but arrogant douchebag of noble descent called Alberto - whom I immediately disliked upon seeing the movie, not in the least because he has a goddamn Lickilicky - doesn't hesitate to put the blame on Darkrai, until a scientist fellow named Tonio proves it is in fact a disturbance in the space-time continuum caused by a fight between Palkia and Dialga. Eventually, after being chased and attacked by Alberto on multiple occasions, Darkrai manages to hold off Dialga and Palkia from destroying Alamos Time, giving Ash and Dawn some time to put an ancient music disk with a song called Oración in the Space-Time Tower music player so as to calm down the two brawling Pokémon.

I didn't lie when I said I had no problems finding terrific Darkrai fan art on the
Internet. This piece really makes you believe this Pokémon is pure evil and I think
it's absolutely fantastic! 

While stories in the movies and TV show always have a happy ending - i.e. the people actually coming to understand and respect the misunderstood Pokémon - Darkrai will always bear the stigma of being a Pokémon that actually causes pain and discomfort. There is a part in the Diamond and Pearl post-game that includes finding a Lunar Wing for a Sailor's son, who is having bad dreams and constantly mumbles "Dar... Dark... is watching me" in his sleep, indicating Darkrai is causing his nightmares. In the Pokédex it is even portrayed as evil, as its Diamond and Pearl entries state that on moonless nights (nights of the new moon) it will lure people to sleep and unleash horrific nightmares on them. It's only a legend, but Darkrai chasing people and Pokémon from its territory by causing them to experience deep, nightmarish slumbers really doesn't improve its bad rap. How do you chase someone away by letting them experience nightmares, anyway? I'm sure sleeping people don't move, barring the occasional sleepwalker here and there.

Again, amazing drawings of Darkrai, this time by the same artist.

In any case, these abilities that Darkrai doesn't want to use to do harm but uses anyway are detrimental to its reputation. The question is how this reputation came to be. I mean, what is it protecting itself from exactly? Humanity? As it is drawn to nightmares, I am inclined to believe this isn't the case at all. It may mean no harm, but its Bad Dreams ability takes away ⅛ of opposing Pokémon's health in battle when they're asleep and indicates that the nightmares it causes are in fact harmful. Does Darkrai like the nightmares people have, or are they essential for it in order to stay alive? Does it feed on them? Questions, questions, questions...

Regarding Darkrai's aesthetics and flavor, it is probably based on the Oneiroi - or Ὄνειροι - which are various gods and demigods in Greek mythology that ruled over dreams, nightmares and oneiromantic symbols (oneiromancy is a form of divination based upon dreams; it is a system of dream interpretation that uses dreams to predict the future), specifically Phobetor. Phobetor is the personification of nightmares and appeared in dreams in the form of animals or monsters, which is exactly what Darkrai reminds me of, although it cannot have eluded anyone that shadows and jinn (genies) lie at the basis of Darkrai's design.

More awesome Darkrai fan art. 

Though Darkrai may be the king of darkness and nightmares, it is by far not the king of the Uber tier anymore. Sun and Moon saw the nerf of Darkrai's signature move Dark Void, which had an 80% chance of putting a foe to sleep (both foes in a Double Battle) but now only has a terrible 50% chance of doing so. This has caused some players to resort to Hypnosis - which has a 60% of putting a foe to sleep and is therefore only slightly better than Dark Void now - in order to activate Bad Dreams instead. I understand why Game Freak have decided to nerf Dark Void; Darkrai is a mythical Pokémon with a base stat total of 600 and isn't actually banned in Sun and Moon's Battle Spot, so Dark Void in combination with the ability Bad Dreams would have been way too overpowered. Fortunately there's still a solid Nasty Plot set to work with, and with base 135 special attack and 125 speed Darkrai is the perfect candidate to pull that off. A set consisting of Nasty Plot and three strong attacking moves - STAB Dark Pulse and two coverage moves such as Ice Beam, Focus Blast, Sludge Bomb, Psyhic and Thunderbolt - is backed by a Timid nature and a Life Orb or Darkinium Z as a held item, just because the Leftovers won't accomplish much on a relatively non-defensive Pokémon like Darkrai. Base 70 HP and base 90 defenses are nothing to sneeze at, sure, but for Uber-tier standards it's actually quite frail and I think you'll just want to add some extra oomph to Darkrai's attacks, anyway.

TCG promotional art for Darkrai.

Look, I know I said in Cresselia's entry that Darkrai's design is weird and that I'm not particularly fond of Pokémon that tend to be portrayed as purely evil, but the more I come to know about this thing, the more I'm starting to think that it's actually quite an intriguing Pokémon. Even though it looks like a pretty evil creature, it is just a protective Pokémon and doesn't seem to want to do anyone harm. It's even regarded as a hero in The Rise of Darkrai after helping stop the destructive fight between Dialga and Palkia. There are still certain elements in its design that don't make a whole lot of sense to me, including the red collar-like growth around its neck (honestly, it looks like a gaping mouth full of teeth with a hairy eye protruding from it), but Darkrai is supposed to be a nightmarish creature, so maybe some parts of its design aren't supposed to make sense in the first place.

People, me giving 4.5 stars to a Pokémon I didn't even think was anything special is exactly the reason why I started this blog.

Rating: 4.5/5