Gyarados is a large dragon Pokémon most similar in appearance to those seen in Chinese mythology. Its serpentine body is largely blue, but its underbelly is yellow and its fins are white. It has four such white fins down its back. Its mouth is very large and gaping, but bares some resemblance to that of its pre-evolution Magikarp. Like Magikarp, it has barbels on the its face. Its pectoral and dorsal fins also resemble Magikarp's.
Gender differences
A female has white barbels.
Special abilities
Gyarados, like most dragon-like Pokémon, has a high attack stat, relying mostly on attacks than specials. Dragon Dance appears to be its signature move, increasing its already-high attack, and its speed. Dragon Rage also seems to be one of its older signature moves.
Behavior
This Pokémon bares little resemblance to its docile pre-evolution. Gyarados is infamously known for its fierce temper and wanton destructive tendencies. Once it has worked itself into a frenzy it will not calm until everything around it is destroyed, this is attributed to the dramatic structural changes its brain undergoes during evolution. It seems attracted to violence, although this Pokémon is vary rarely seen in the wild. They appear during times of human conflict Gyarados are said to appear, burning entire cities down to the ground.
Gyarados are extremely rare, and usually not seen in the wild. They usually live in large bodies of water, such as lakes and ponds. The Lake of Rage is a known nesting area for a red Gyarados.
Groups of Gyarados were seen from within a submarine disguised as or styled after a Gyarados by Jesse, James and Meowth in The Pi-Kahuna shortly before the onset of a massive, annual tidal wave celebrated by local surfers who were apparently not aware of the annual migration. According to James, the Gyarados gathered each year in this location to lay their eggs.
Nurse Joy had befriended a giant Magikarp that later evolved into Gyarados in The Joy of Pokémon. Despite Magikarp being giant, it was regular sized as a Gyarados.
Gyarados debuts in the Red, Green & Blue chapter in its own round, Gyarados Splashes In!. Here, an enraged one attacks its own trainer, Misty, but is recaught by Red and supposedly gave it back to her. The drastic change of attitude of the Pokémon was the result of a Team Rocket experiment as is shown in Raging Rhydon.
Later on, Misty traded this Gyarados to Red in exchange for Red's Krabby.
A Red Gyarados was seen in the Lake of Rage 3 years later, but it was caught by Silver. It had the ability to control the other Gyarados in the lake.
When Red borrows Green's Charizard to travel to Mt. Silver, he temporarily trades his Gyarados to Green. It later appears as one of Green's Pokémon in Template:PSV, used against Entei and later, part of his revealed team during the Gym Leader faceoff. Prior to the FireRed and LeafGreen saga, Green returns Gyarados to Red.
Both Gyarados have remained on their Trainer's teams to this day.
When Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, its brain cells undergo a structural transformation. It is said that this transformation is to blame for this Pokémon's wildly violent nature.
Once Gyarados goes on a rampage, its ferociously violent blood doesn't calm until it has burned everything down. There are records of this Pokémon's rampages lasting a whole month.
It is an extremely vicious and violent Pokémon. When humans begin to fight, it will appear and burn everything to the ground with intensely hot flames.
According to some Nintendo of America artwork, Gyarados was originally slated to have the English name Skullkraken, a combination of the words "skull" and "kraken" (a mythological sea monster).
Oddly, despite being part Template:Type2, it isn't able to learn Flying-type moves. However it can learn certain Template:Type2 moves, such as Dragon Rage, Twister, and DragonBreath. Due to this, many theorize that it was originally intended to be Water/Dragon, and only ended up being Water/Flying because the only Dragon-type move was Dragon Rage, which always deals 40 HP of damage. Being Water/Flying also balances its incredible power with a double weakness to Electric.
In Generation II, it became the first and only shiny Pokémon to be integrated into a game's plot, along with being the only 100% certain shiny encounter.
It is said in Pokémon Shipwreck that Gyarados's skin is harder than steel, yet in Talking A Good Game!, Gyarados was angry because it has a twig/stick through its skin.
Gyarados has minor differences between all of its shiny sprites, making it slightly unique to each game. In Gold and Silver, Gyarados' shiny sprite is gold and red, in Ruby and Sapphire, its sprites have a pink hue to them. In FireRed and LeafGreen, its sprites return to being gold and red, but its back sprite remains pink (due to FRLG not having unique back sprites). Lastly, in Diamond and Pearl, the sprite loses most of its gold and becomes a standard red color. Why there have been so many changes is unknown.
In the Pokémon anime, Gyarados's eyes are violet instead of the red that appears its sprites and official artwork.
It appears to be based on a sea dragon or sea serpent. Gyarados is partially based on a legend about how carp that leapt over the Dragon Gate would become dragons. Several waterfalls and cataracts in China are believed to be the location of the Dragon Gate. This legend is an allegory of the drive and efforts needed to overcome obstacles.
Name origin
Gyarados's name may be derived from a combination of 虐殺 gyakusatsu massacre/slaughter, and 逆境 gyakkyō, hardship/adversity. Both words relate to the creature's violent nature and the hardship it experienced before evolving. The dos may just indicate that it's the second in its evolutionary line.
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.
For other sprites and images, please see Gyarados images on Bulbagarden Archives.
