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| “ | SCREEEK! I vanted to steal Peach's power...but I changed my mind! You are much stronger...and evil! SCREEEONK! Vork vith me! SCREEP! | „ |
| ~ Antasma's first lines to Bowser. |
King Antasma, also known as Akkumu (in Japanese: アックーム) in the Japanese version, and also known as the Bat King, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Bowser) of the videogame Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. He is the insidious bat king and the arch-nemesis of Prince Dreambert. He eventually teams up with Bowser until he betrays him in the end of the game.
He was voiced by Akiko Sugimoto.
Personality[]
Antasma's speech is based on old Dracula movies with most words having "v"s in them and screaming tics which come from his bat side. In the Japanese version, his speech is written completely in katakana.
He makes careful decisions, since after his imprisonment, such as choosing whose power he needs to help realize his dreams, but can be jumped-on easily when in a false sense of security, such as Bowser attacking him in Dream's Deep and betraying him later on. He has a temper and strong hate for the P'illo's, especially Prince Dreambert. Others show fear towards him besides the Zeekeeper, who sees him as just a pest.
Biography[]
Past[]
According to legend, Antasma was once a normal bat on Pi'illo Island until he somehow fed off a Pi'illo's nightmare which gave him power. He began continuously feeding on nightmares and eventually transformed into the evil Bat King.
At some point afterwards, Antasma then stole the Dark Stone in order to fulfill his chaotic dreams, but the Pi'illos led by Prince Dreambert (along with the Zeekeeper) managed to stop him by imprisoning him in the Dream World. But at the last moment, Antasma shattered the Dark Stone, causing its chunks to rain down everywhere on the island, turning all of the Pi'illos that they touched into stone and causing their civilization to vanish as his essence was sealed away.
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team[]
Dark Return[]
Many years later, Pi'illo Island became an archaeological tourist attraction. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toadbert all come to this island for a vacation, but while Luigi sleeps, he has a nightmare where Antasma appears and destroys the hot air balloon they were travelling on.
Mario and Luigi then travel through Pi'illo Castle, where they stumble upon a stone pillow that was once Prince Dreambert, Luigi then sleeps on it and creates a portal to the Dream World. As Princess Peach takes a closer look at the portal, Antasma appears and kidnaps her, hoping to use her power for his sinister plans. Mario attempts to rescue her with the help of Dreamy Luigi, but Antasma escapes into Dream's Deep with Peach and seals the way behind.
Evil Alliance[]
After finally making it to Dream's Deep, Mario and Dreamy Luigi confront Antasma until Bowser appears, furious that someone besides him kidnapped Peach. Sensing much more evil power within him, Antasma makes an alliance with the Koopa King, and they combine their power to defeat the Mario Bros. and then escape to take over the real world.
They then steal the Dream Stone from Dozing Sands and take it to Mount Pajamaja, where they use the Dreambeats to put everyone on the island to sleep so that their dreams can restore the Dream Stone's power. Bowser wishes for a castle as his base of operations, thus creating Neo Bowser Castle, which has the power to destroy anything he pleases. Bowser then somehow kidnaps Peach afterward and places Kamek in her place.
When the Zeekeeper destroys Neo Bowser Castle's barrier and sends it falling, Mario and Luigi were able to enter and confront Kamek, who Antasma aids by transporting him into the Dream World. Antasma then has Bowser fall asleep while using him as a pillow in order to increase his power, but the Mario Bros. wake him up by defeating his giant form in the Dream World.
Final Battle and Death[]
The heroes then confront Antasma and Bowser in the real world. The Bat King gloated that this time the outcome of the final battle will be different from before as he has Bowser to assist him, only to be shocked when Bowser betrays him by hurling him at the ground and then revealing that he was just using Antasma to further his own goals. As Bowser leaves him to be destroyed by the Mario Bros. while taking Peach and the Dream Stone for himself, Antasma is deeply enraged by this deception and swears to take revenge after dealing with the heroes.
He then fights Dreambert, and then reveals that he made a wish with the Dream Stone for the power to open dream portals at will, thus preventing him from ever being imprisoned again. Antasma defeats Dreambert, but Mario (re-entering the Dream World) fights him alongside Dreamy Luigi as the penultimate boss, and they defeat him. Returning to the real world immediately after Mario exited, Antasma screeches in pain before he inflates like a balloon and his body explodes, thus bringing the Bat King to an end once and for all.
In Other Media[]
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam[]
Although having no direct appearance or reference dedicated to him in the game's story, Antasma makes a cameo appearance on one of Bowser's amiibo-exclusive Character Cards: a level 2 card that forces an enemy to drop the item they carry. He appears in his bat form on the card.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[]
Antasma appears as a support spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. His ability allows the fighter to start the battle equipped with Death's Scythe. He can be obtained by purchasing him from Anna's Emporium for 1,000 Spirit Points, or by defeating him in a spirit battle, which is against male Robin on the Battlefield variation of Peach's Castle. The floor is sleep-inducing and food items rain down, which powers up the opponent the more food they eat.
Powers and Abilities[]
Bat form[]
- Flight: Antasma can fly using his purple bat wings. He was strong enough to fly Bowser to Dozing Sands and then up Mount Pajamaja pretty quickly although he was initially worn out by the affair.
- Sonic Screech: Antasma can unleash a purple-colored sonic screech from his mouth that has one of two effects.
- Stunning: Antasma's sonic screech was able to stun Mario and Luigi into inaction before joining forces with Bowser.
- Empowerment: Antasma's sonic screech was also able to empower Bowser enough that one wave of fire knocked Mario, Luigi, and Dreambert out with one puff.
- Bat Swarm: Antasma's primary ability in this form. He can split himself into dozens of bats that will either fly above Mario or swoop down and smash into him to cause damage.
- Health Restoration: If Antasma's bats hit Mario during thier swarm attack, they will fly around Bowser and restore the stolen health to Bowser.
- Dream Merging: Antasma was able to combine with Bowser in a similar way to how Dreamy Luigi does to Mario, massively increasing his strength and fire-based attacks.
Antasma body[]
- Bat Swarm: Antasma retains his swarm-based ability even when fighting on his own which was seen during his first battle right at the start of the game. Unlike the other two versions, this has no special aftereffect.
- Teleportation: Antasma can teleport to any location at will.
- Dream Vine Creation: Antasma was heavily implied to be the reason for the glowing purple vines seen around Neo Bowser Castle which powered the base.
- Bat Transformation: Antasma can transform back into his bat form at will in a puff of purple smoke.
- Pillow Transformation: In a way similar to the Pi'ilos, Antasma can turn himself into a pillow form which, like the Pi'ilos, can put the dreamer into a dream world where they have total control.
- Dream Portal Creation: Antasma, thanks to a wish on the Dream Stone, can conjure up dream portals at will by gesturing his arms above his head.
- Battle Form Transformation: Once in his ultimate dream world, Antasma revealed his true battle form in a poof of purple smoke.
Battle form[]
- Antasmunchie Creation: Antasma can generate a ring of black-red stones (referred to as Antasmunchies by the targeting reticle) and make them land in a ring around him.
- Power-up: Antasma can eat two Antasmunchies in a row to massively increase his POW. This is scripted to happen at the start of every battle against his ultimate form and will happen periodically throughout the fight.
- Clone Energy Blast: Antasma can split himself into 6, five of which are clones and only one is Antasma himself. One will produce a pink-white energy ball, revealing the real one, and they will all fly into a line which makes it hard to keep track. They will each then reach out their hand, Antasma throwing forth the energy ball which will strike Mario if he doesn't hammer it back.
- Dream Luigi Entrapment: Antasma can magically suck Dreamy Luigi into an Antasmunchie and then twirl them around to try and confuse the player. Without Dreamy Luigi, Mario will be doing almost no damage to Antasma.
- Dreamy Power-up: If the player fails to smash Dreamy Luigi's Antasmunchie within two turns, Antasma will eat said Antasmunchie which will release Dreamy Luigi but also maximize Antasma's POW to the point of a near one hit kill.
- Hibernation: After suffering a sufficient amount of damage, Antasma will fly off-screen and hang upside down in the far distance, generating a forcefield to protect him as the Antasmunchies become enemy footsoldiers.
- HP Regaining: For every enemy turn that the Antasmunchies are not defeated, Antasma regains 200 HP.
- Screen Flipping: During the Antasmunchie attack involving them surrounding Mario and rushing him one at a time, Antasma will occasionally flip the screen to try and complicate matters.
- Bat Swarm: Antasma retains his bat swarm ability which the player must jump over this time but it is one of two attacks, the other being the Clone Energy Blast, that can put Mario in a coma (covered shortly).
- Nightmare: As mentioned, two attacks can put Mario into a nightmare where Antasma chases him and he must escape down a pit. Most lead to sawblades and only one leads back to the relative safety of the battle zone.
- Fire Breath: Antasma, in the nightmare, can fire purple waves of fire from his mouth which will harm Mario despite this just being a nightmare. Whether he can do this in the real dream world or if this is just part of the nightmare is unclear.
- Dark Orb Blast: Antasma's strongest attack. Antasma will then start to hover a bunch of orbs around in the air and will try to hit Mario with them. Mario must get into the center of this and jump over the attack or Antasma will unleash a shockwave that does over 100 damage. If Mario dodges this attack, Antasma will get damaged instead. Antasma always does this attack 3 times in a row before stopping (four if he ate 3 Antasmunchies).
Trivia[]
- Like Elder Princess Shroob and Fawful, Antasma explodes into purple particles. He also expands before he explodes like Fawful, except Antasma's was more of an inflation, more painful-looking, and a direct result of his defeat rather than a suicidal self-destruct.
- Antasma's death scene is a physically darker version of the death scenes of other bosses in the game: in place of rainbow lights, rays of black, dark red, dark blue, and dark green lights shine from him, and he explodes into purple stars instead of rainbow stars.
- Sadly for him, Antasma is the first main antagonist in the Mario & Luigi games to be betrayed by Bowser followed by Paper Bowser. (Though in Paper Bowser's case, he only planned on betraying him after he defeated the heroes.)
- Though it is assumed that Antasma would have betrayed Bowser sooner or later, not being the type of villain who would completely share power, and was only shocked because Bowser beat him to the punch.
- The audience was likely meant to think that Antasma would betray Bowser first since he resembles a cross between the other villains who overshadowed Bowser in previous Mario & Luigi games.
- Most importantly, the player can infer that Bowser will betray any villain that works with him as a partner rather than for him as a minion. However, Bowser has gotten along with partners before, such as King Boo, who seems to be on good terms with him. It is possible that Bowser knew that Antasma could never be trusted and saw him as a severe threat to the world he wants to conquer.
- Antasma's name is likely derived from the Latin word "phantasma", meaning "spectre" or "apparition" or the Spanish word "fantasma", specifically meaning "ghost", with the first consonant cut off to reflect the prefix anti-, also reflecting his nature.
- Antasma's Japanese name, "Akkumu" is a play-off of "Akumu", meaning "nightmare" and "Akuma", meaning "devil" or "demon".
- Antasma has many similarities with Count Dracula. Antasma speaks with a Transylvanian accent, similar to Dracula. Also, note that Dracula is a vampire and can transform into a bat. Antasma is a ghostly bat king and can also transform into a bat.
- In some translations, Antasma is called a count instead of a king, just like Dracula. His Russian name "Mrakula" is even a play on Dracula's name.
- In the Dutch translation, Antasma also speaks with a German accent and he also uses actual German words quite frequently.
External Links[]
- Antasma on the Mario Wiki
- Antasma on the Nintendo Wiki
[]
 Villains
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Poko-tachi no sensuikan |
Ultra Pukupuku |
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Kāmenētā |
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Wario (KC Mario) See Also | ||
