✓

This Villain was proposed and approved by Villains Wiki's Pure Evil Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this villain from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a futile "heroic" attempt of redemption) and the user will have high chances of being terminated blocked. You cannot make said Removal Proposal without permission from an admin first. Additional Notice: This template is meant for admin maintenance only. Users who misuse the template will be blocked for a week minimum.

Darkrai is the overarching antagonist of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness, and Explorers of Sky. Appearing late in the post-game and is revealed to be the cause of the main story's events.

In the first half of the post-game plot, Darkrai posed underneath the pseudonym of "Cresselia", adapted her personality and took her appearance, using it to pursue the protagonist and their partner.

Biography[]

Though Darkrai is normally a well-meaning being, in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series of games, mainly Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky, Darkrai serves as the main antagonist and is a force of pure evil. Darkrai is the Pokémon responsible for the initial destruction of Temporal Tower, halting the flow of time and driving Dialga to insanity.

He then presumably controlled the world from the shadows, using Primal Dialga as a puppet ruler. When Grovyle, Celebi and the Player planned to go back in time via Celebi's Passage of Time and prevent the collapse of Temporal Tower, thereby preventing the dark world Darkrai had created from existing, Darkrai intervened, attacking Grovyle and the Player as they traveled through time, separating them and transforming the Player into a Pokémon and giving them amnesia. Despite this, the Player, their Partner and Grovyle were successful in their mission to prevent the destruction of time, and Darkrai's dark future is erased. However, Darkrai is not seen until much later in the game.

Darkrai's moveset in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Explorers of Darkness and Explorers of Sky follows as:

• Hypnosis (Psychic)
• Quick Attack (Normal)
• Nightmare (Ghost)
• Double Team (Normal)
• Ominous Wind (Ghost)

The Opportunity[]

After defeating Regigigas in the Aegis Cave, the player begins to have dreams involving a Pokémon named Cresselia, who tells them that their continued existence is causing a rift the fabric of space and time, as they originated from a non-existent future. Later, the Player and their Partner are alerted to the fact that Azurill has fallen into a nightmare he cannot wake from. With the help of Drowzee, the pair are sent into Azurill's nightmare and encounter Cresselia where it is revealed that the Partner had been having the same dreams as the Player, as they had been to the erased future. Cresselia attempts to kill them, claiming it is for the greater good, but is interrupted by Drowzee and flees.

Crime Against Space and Time[]

A few days after the Azurill event, the Player and Partner are abducted by Palkia and taken to Spacial Rift, where he attempts to execute them for distorting space and time. They escape from him temporarily, and later encounter him again and defeat him in battle.

Soon after his defeat, Palkia is frozen into a nightmare, and a disembodied voice asks the pair if they would like to travel into Palkia's nightmare. When they do, they encounter not only Palkia, but Cresselia as well, who had been the one to inform him about the distortion caused by the Player and Partner. Cresselia attempts once again to kill the pair, but once again is stopped. Another Cresselia appears, telling the Player, Partner and Palkia that the Cresselia that had contacted them in their dreams was actually Darkrai in disguise, who had been attempting to kill the pair so that they could not interfere with his new plans for a world of darkness. Darkrai, enraged that he had failed yet again to kill the pair, flees, telling them to meet him in Dark Crater if they want to stop him.

Final Confrontation[]

The Player, Partner, and the real Cresselia comply, traveling to the deepest part of the Dark Crater, where Darkrai attempts to convince the Player and Partner to join him and help him kill Cresselia. The Partner, claiming that they stand no chance against Darkrai anyway, accepts Darkrai's offer, and joins him in attempting to coerce the Player. However, the Player figures out that the Partner hasn't actually betrayed them, and what they're seeing is actually a nightmare created by Darkrai.

Darkrai then proceeds to summon six minions (Aggron, Arbok, Magmortar, Mismagius, Rhyperior, and Magcargo), and the two parties battle, with the Player's group emerging victorious. Despite his loss, Darkrai claims that he has not been defeated, and opens a Dimensional Hole through which to escape, after which he can simply start his plan over at a different time. However, just as Darkrai is about to enter the Dimensional Hole, Palkia appears, and announces that he is there to destroy Darkrai. Darkrai attempts to flee through the Dimensional Hole, but Palkia launches an attack (presumably Hyper Beam) at it, shattering the Dimensional Hole with Darkrai in it. Palkia states that Darkrai is not dead, but rather reappeared in some distant corner of the world, likely with amnesia, similar to what happened to the Player when Darkrai attacked them during time travel.

After this, Darkrai can be found in a number of dungeons (provided the player has a Secret Slab or Mystery Part in their inventory) and be potentially recruited.

Personality[]

Unlike how Darkrai is usually portrayed, the Darkrai in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is neither benevolent nor misunderstood, instead being simply malevolent and evil.

Darkrai is a dangerous and cunning foe, preferring mind games and deception using his nightmare powers to outright battle. He also showed a great deal of planning, even preparing an escape route in the event the group defeated him in the final battle. He is evil and has dreams of world domination, not caring if he has to destroy every space and time if he must, so long as he gets a dark world to rule in the end. After his memory is erased by Palkia, he is reformed into a virtuous and noble being, due to his scary and villainous personality being erased in the process, giving him a second chance at life.

While posing as Cresselia, Darkrai is rather calm and collected; though it is merely a façade. As Cresselia, he shows a growing interest in being rid of the darkness and causing pleasant dreams, though he executes this in a manner that is to the dismay of the player and their partner. He is also shown to be quite deceitful and manipulative, as shown by him easily tricking both the player and their partner by adapting the original Cresselia's kind and heartwarming personality. He also manipulates Cresselia's positive reputation as a reason to turn Palkia against the party. Upon encountering the duo in Azurill's nightmare, Darkrai exclaims that he "finds their visit to be convenient" and has "longed to meet both of them", before starting his malicious intent. Even still, Darkrai remains disturbingly composed when he tries to kill the duo in both attempts, regarding it as an "opportunity".

Just as disturbingly, despite attempting to get the duo to kill themselves and attempting to kill them several times, he's very calm and when not being threatening, is generally calm and even polite, even offering a chance for the duo to team up with him and then kill Cresselia. Despite this, however, it is noted that he really wanted the hero, rather than their partner, with it being stated he would've murdered the partner if he only had them. Even with this offer though, it is possible that it could have been a trick to simply deceive and kill them both.

Powers and Abilities[]

• Dreams control: Darkrai is able to return and manipulate Pokémon dreams at will.
• Illusions: Darkrai is capable of creating very realistic illusions to deceive his opponents. Thanks to this ability, it can also take the appearance of other Pokémon like Cresselia.
• Flight: Darkrai can levitate at will, like Cresselia.
• Time portals: Darkrai can at his will create portals to move in time.
• Teleporting: Darkrai can teleport quickly to escape.
• High intelligence: Darkrai is extremely intelligent, capable of designing and executing complex plans.
  • Manipulation: Darkrai is a highly skilled manipulator, as Cresselia says he is "the type to pull strings in the shadows". He was able to use Palkia to eliminate the players, with the players themselves doubting and ready to die to save the world.

Trivia[]

• While he is mostly referred as to as a male, he is also mentioned as being genderless multiple times.
• This Darkrai is capable of going through walls, despite being a Dark-type Pokémon and not a Ghost-type.
• Amongst Darkrai's minions, Arbok is the only Pokémon who cannot be encountered in the floors of Dark Crater.

External Links[]

• Darkrai on the Pure Evil Wiki
• Darkrai on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki

Navigation[]

Villains

Red and Blue Rescue Team Gengar | Rayquaza | Team Meanies Explorers of Time, Darkness, and Sky Darkrai | Drowzee | Dusknoir | Primal Dialga | Snover | Spiritomb | Team Skull Gates to Infinity Bittercold | Kyurem | Munna | Pawniard Brothers Super Mystery Dungeon Beheeyem | Dark Matter | Nuzleaf | Yveltal See Also Pokémon Villains | Pokémon Anime Villains | Pokémon Adventure Villains