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. It has four white fins down its back. Its mouth is very large and gaping, but bears some resemblance to that of its pre-evolution Magikarp. Like Magikarp, it has barbels on its face. Its pectoral and dorsal fins also resemble Magikarp's. Gyarados is only rarely shown with its mouth closed.
Gender differences
A female has white barbels.
Special abilities
Gyarados, like most dragon-like Pokémon, has a high Attack stat, causing it to rely more on physical attacks than special ones. It is one of the few Template:Type2s able to wield both Template:Type2 and Template:Type2al attacks.
Behavior
This Pokémon bears 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 tendency is attributed to the dramatic structural changes its brain undergoes during evolution. It seems attracted to violence, although this Pokémon is very rarely seen in the wild. During times of human conflict Gyarados are said to appear, burning entire cities down to the ground.
Gyarados usually live in large bodies of water, such as lakes and ponds or even seas and oceans. 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 Jessie, 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.
In Mewtwo Strikes Back, a Gyarados owned by Fergus was one of the Pokémon that were captured and cloned by Mewtwo. Fergus attacked Mewtwo with Gyarados' Hyper Beam but Mewtwo turned the attack back on itself, knocking the Gyarados out. The Gyarados clone is seen again in Mewtwo Returns.
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. This Pokémon has a vicious temperament, so use extreme caution. Its fangs can crush stones and its scales are harder than steel.
In the manga
Pokémon Special
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, who supposedly returns it to her. The drastic change in 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.
The evolved form of Magikarp. Rarely seen in the wild. Huge and vicious, it is capable of destroying entire cities in a rage. Can fire a Hyper-Beam from its mouth.
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.
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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). This wouldn't have worked in the games though because the game only allows a maximum of 10 letters in a Pokémon's name.
Oddly, despite being part Template:Type2, it does not have wings and the only Flying-type move it can learn is Bounce, which it can only learn from a move tutor in Pokémon Platinum. However, it has been seen flying in the anime.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2, Gyarados is the only non-legendary boss Pokémon to speak entirely in capital letters.
In the anime episode Sandshrew's Locker!, Gyarados has the same cry as Dialga.
In many ways, Gyarados is the Kanto counterpart of Hoenn's Milotic. Both are the evolved forms of incredibly weak fish Pokémon, and both appear in times of conflict, Gyarados to destroy, Milotic to becalm. Both have base stat totals of 540, the only difference is the distribution in their stats: Gyarados is more offensively based while Milotic is more defensively based.
It is ironic that many Pokédex entries says that Gyarados burns things down, despite being a Water-type. It is, however, able to learn two fire attacks through TMs, namely Flamethrower and Fire Blast.
Origin
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 (which can be tied to the fact that Gyarados' pre-evolution, Magikarp, could possibly take a lot of drive and effort to legitimately evolve into Gyarados).
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. Alternatively, the end of Gyarados' name, ドス dosu, is a Japanese onomatopeic word representing the piercing of flesh, once again owing to Gyarados' violent nature.
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.
