Antasma

"SCREEEK! I vanted to steal Peach's power...But I changed my mind! You are much stronger...and evil! SCREEEONK! Vork vith me! SCREEEP!"

- Antasma

Antasma is an evil bat king and the primary main antagonist (secondary towards the end of the game) in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, for the Nintendo 3DS.

Background
Many thousands of years ago, Antasma was once a normal Bat on Pi'illo Island. He somehow fed off a Pi'illo's nightmare which drove him to become the Bat King who stole the Dark Stone in order to full fill his chaotic dreams. After the Pi'illos, along with the Zeekeeper, managed to imprison him into the Dream World he shattered the Dark Stone at the last moment causing the chunks to rain down all over the island. The shards of the Dark Stone turned all the Pi'illo they touched into stone, but with their last breaths, the Pi'illos managed to seal him in the dream world. Mario and Luigi are tasked with rescuing the Pi'illows which Antasma froze, as well as Peach (who he abducts early in the game).

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Antasma first appears, albeit silent, much bigger, and not referred to as such, on the blimp ride to Pi'illo Island during a nightmare dreamt by Luigi. He replaces Bowser from previous games as the tutorial boss, and like Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, Toadsworth is there to assist Mario. His only attack is to transform into a swarm of bats, which fly at Mario, but doesn't cause any damage. As such, like Bowser, he will be defeated in a few turns.

The game cuts to Luigi running in panic, and ends up making himself faint. But Antasma was in fact an actual being, and he reappears not long after, this time possessing Broque Monsieur, who gave up his entrepreneuring from the previous game in favor of being a Pi'illo Island tour guide. He summons monsters for Mario to fight, not unlike Kamek in Partners in Time. Though, his distance from the real world forces him to leave his body, and Broque dismisses the incident as a show.

Antasma is not seen again until after Prince Dreambert's pillow is found and Luigi sleeps on it, opening a portal to the Dream World. He calls out to Princess Peach in an effort for her to approach the portal, and proceeds to suck her in. Mario loyally gives chase, but Antasma distracts him with a dream counterpart of him and makes a beeline for Dream's Deep. However, Mario manages to save Prince Dreambert, who explains how Antasma shattered the Dark Stone, an ancient power of Pi'illo Island, and managed to turn the Pi'illo people to stone.

With the help of Eldream and his pet, Dreambunny, Mario manages to reach Dream's Deep, which is actually filled with his greatest nightmare--Mario leaving him behind. However, Bowser, enraged that someone else besides him had kidnapped Peach, also ends up there. When Mario, Dreamy Luigi, and Prince Dreambert reach Antasma, Bowser swats him in rage. He then leeches Bowser's face, when he is first seen speaking. He says that he kidnapped Peach in hopes of using her power to take over the real world, but it would be more useful to use that of an evil creature, offering for them to team up. Bowser disagrees, taunting his accent. But when he makes a deal with Bowser, that after they take over the world, he can keep Peach all to himself, and using his powers, they can defeat the Mario Bros., he reluctantly agrees. Antasma then possesses Bowser, and the two fight Mario and Dreamy Luigi and barely win. Antasma says it'd be best if they go and take over the real world first, then kidnap Peach.

Eldream and Dreambunny escort the Mario Bros. and the princess out of the Dream World, and think they've won, but then Prince Dreambert and Starlow reveal that Antasma is still on the loose, along with Bowser, and explains the same story he told earlier to Peach. Now Mario and Luigi must find the Dream Stone, the only thing that can counteract the Dark Stone.

Unfortunately, when they find the Dream Stone pedestal, it's empty. Antasma (along with Bowser) reveal they have already taken the Dream Stone. Mario and Luigi give chase to Mount Pajamaja.

To channel the Dream Stone's power, Private Goomp turns on some speakers that play the Dreambeats, whose "dreamy" rhythm knocks out every person on the island, except Antasma, Starlow and Prince Dreambert, (due to being immune) and Bowser(due to covering his ears). Mario, Starlow, and Prince Dreambert, who have managed to resist the lulling noise, quickly reenter the Dream World to try and solve this predicament. After finding them, Antasma transforms into his normal form and makes a wish on the Dream Stone, to have a powerful castle.

It is revealed in Somnom Woods by a P'illo Master that Antasma was originally just a Bat that somehow fed off the nightmare of a P'illo causing him to become the Bat King.

After Giant Bowser is defeated, Bowser betrays Antasma, saying that he is an idiot and that he, Bowser, does not work well with other people, and was playing the fool to take it all. Prince Dreambert and Antasma then duel. It is then revealed that Antasma made a wish to make dream portals by his own will, and defeats Prince Dreambert. Mario goes back into the Dream World, fights Antasma and successfully defeats him. When Mario exits the dream world, Antasma follows him out, and then inflates and explodes, never to be seen again.

Appearance
Antasma seems to bear similarities in appearance to all of the previous antagonists in the Mario and Luigi series (Cackletta, Elder Princess Shroob, the Dark Star and Dark Fawful).

Antasma appears, for the most part, as a Bat with a giant grin. At the beginning of the game, though, he appears as a purple cloud, and then a Bat. Later in the game, he is shown in his true form, which consist of his cape, bow tie and two claws. In battle, Antasma takes his Bat form or a more ghostly looking version of his true form. This form is more taller and skinnier and reveals his arms.

In Pillow form, Antasma appears as a purple Pillow with his cape spikes and eyes.

Antasma's speech is based off old Dracula movies with most words having "v"s in them and screaming tics which come from his Bat side. 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 Bowser's betrayal. He has a temper and a 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.

Abilities
Antasma has many abilities inside and outside of battle.

Bat Form
In his bat form, Antasma is able to screech ultrasonic waves that will stun a foe or power up an ally. He is also able to carry great weights such as Bowser and fly long distances. This ability is very similar to Cackletta's bat transform ability.

When fighting Mario in Dream's Deep (his second battle against him), he is in this state and has cloned himself into many similar bats that fight alongside Bowser. The Antasmas attack when targeted by Mario (even if not hit) will lash out similar to how Antasma does in his prior and later battles against him, however in this instance, the Antasma Bats in line with him may swoop down at Mario and must be hammered away by him in order to successfully avoid damage rather than him having to jump over them. All other Antasma Bats not in line with him will not attack Mario.

True Form
In his true form, Antasma is able to hover & teleport from locations. He is also able to grow vines which he spreads through Neo Bowser Castle to supply power to it from Bowser's dreams. He is also, like Prince Dreambert, able to turn into a pillow. Later on Antasma makes a wish to be able to create Dream Portals whenever he wants to prevent future imprisonment.

Battle Form
When fighting Antasma in the Dream World the third time, his powers are greatly amplified, and has a new form, which is much like the form he had in his first battle against Mario.

During his third battle, Prince Dreambert will heal Mario by 30HP at the start of Mario's attack turn(s). Antasma is able to create a ring of Antasmunchies around him, which he eats several of before attacking to normally give him the POW Up status if not cancelled out by badge effects. He is also able to trap Dreamy Luigi in an Antasmunchie and mix them around to prevent defeat of the Antasmunchie holding him captive. If Antasma eats the one containing Dreamy Luigi, his power increases tremendously. He spits Dreamy Luigi out after several turns.

Antasma after taking a sufficient amount of damage, may hang off the top of the screen like any normal bat would, raising a shield around him and hibernating to recover health (200 per Antasma's attack turn after the turn the move is activated) when this happens. The Antasmunchies will come to life when this happens, growing legs and spikes on their tops. The Antasmunchies can normally give Mario the DEF Down status (if not cancelled out) when struck by one. Destroying all the Antasmunchies will pull him out of hibernation. The last use of Antasmunchies is as a ring of explosives.

Antasma will create a ring of Antasmunchies, to then chase Mario and throw the ring straight at him, however, Antasma may redirect the throw by signalling and pointing left or right when low on HP. Mario must run where the middle of the ring will be upon the ring landing as Antasma will make the ring compress and explode if Mario jumps over them, the wave of explosion hitting Antasma and dealing a large amount of damage. If Mario fails to do this, he will take damage and the wave of explosion will cease to occur.

Antasma can also turn into a group of bats, whom will all flying towards or behind or in front of Mario like in the first battle against him, Mario having to jump over all the bats in line with him that are on his level, or having to idle under bats flying above his level in line with him. Mario may get a dark cloud around him if he gets hit by the bats, and will fall asleep into a nightmare when the attack ends. When this happens, Mario will find himself being chased by a slightly larger Antasma that shoots purple fireballs every so often which must be jumped over. Portals are found throughout the nightmare, and upon Mario reaching the end of the nightmare's area, he'll return to the start of the area after going through a dark, foggy intermission.

To escape, Mario has to find the rainbow portal, which contains coins and a Super Mushroom, the others contain sawblades that damage Mario upon contact, and will put Mario back into the chase at the bottom of them. When inside the portals, Mario's descent can be controlled by the player's tilting of the system. Through a timely jump just before falling inside a portal, Mario can reveal a portal's colour, but as he doesn't enter the portal, he can still fall inside it upon another loop of the nightmare.

Antasma may also create clones of himself, with the true one reveals an electrical ball. He will then hide the ball, and the Antasmas go into a line and reveal what they are holding, stopping at the real Antasma who fires the electrical ball at Mario instantly upon revealing it. The electrical ball can cause a DEF down status to Mario if hit, but can be deflected back into the real Antasma with the hammer.

Antasma X
An upgraded version of Antasma, named Antasma X appears in the Battle Ring, as one of the bosses of Class 2 with Bowser, and Class 8 alone. His color palette has been changed, instead of purple on his body and cloak, it is blue and the eyes are light blue. Antasma X's powers are the same as Antasma's true form, but his stats have increased, as they would with all X bosses.

Official Profile

 * Website Bio: This evil bat king was once trapped in the Dream World by the Pi'illo Folk but he used the last of his power to turn the Pi'illo folk into petrified pillows. Now he's back and ready to take revenge on those who sealed him away.

Trivia

 * Antasma's name is likely derived from the word "phantasma", meaning "spectre" or "ghost".
 * Antasma bears much resemblance to Cackletta with his attacks, such as attacking with a swarm of bats or duplicating oneself, much like Cackletta. He also joins his power with Bowser in the Bros.' fight against him much like Cackletta does for a longer period of time; however, it is unknown whether Bowser's mind has been taken over or whether Antasma is simply boosting his power.
 * Additionally, said possession is an evil analogue to how Dreamy Luigi fuses with Mario for all Dream World battles, including the battle between Bowser/Antasma itself. Much as Mario gains a green aura and is assisted by many Dreamy Luigi clones during his attacks, Bowser gains a purple aura and is assisted by many Antasma clones at certain points.
 * He is the only X-Boss who has more than one color scheme. With Bowser X, he has yellow coloration, while his color scheme changes to blue on the final section of the battle.
 * Antasma has many similarities with Count Dracula. Antasma speaks with a Slavic 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. Antasma's Russian name, Mrakula, is even a play on Dracula's name.
 * In the Dutch translation, Antasma speaks with a German accent and he also uses actual German words quite frequently.