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 never 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 fire and electric attacks.
Behavior
This Pokémon bears little resemblance to its docile Template:P2. 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 vary rarely seen in the wild. During times of human conflict Gyarados are said to appear, burning entire cities down to the ground.
Gyarados are rare, and normally not seen in the wild. They 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.
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, 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.
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.
|- style="background:#9DC1B7"
| colspan="13" | Bold indicates a move that gets STAB Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only from an Evolution of this Pokémon A colored initial indicates that the move is not available to be tutored in this game, while a colored background indicates that the move is available.
|}
|}
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.
In Generation II, it became the first of only two Template:Shiny2 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 had a twig penetrating through its skin.
Gyarados has minor differences between all of its Template:Shiny2 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 appear more orange. 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.
On a side note, Gyarados's normal colors during Gold and Silver showed it being dark blue. This was corrected in Pokémon Crystal.
In the Pokémon anime, Gyarados's eyes are violet instead of the red that appears in its sprites and official artwork.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2, Gyarados is the only non-legendary boss Pokémon to speak entirely in capital letters.
Despite Gyarados's highest stat being its attack, in the anime it is seen using mostly if not all special moves.
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.
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.
