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 one of the main antagonists 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. At some point, however, he managed to feed off of a Pi'illo's nightmare, turning him into the Bat King. The Pi'illo, which were not taking their duty to guard the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone seriously enough, were thus caught off guard when Antasma suddenly stole the latter in order to fulfill his twisted dreams. The Pi'illos, along with the Zeekeeper, ultimately engaged the bat king in battle and managed to imprison him into the Dream World; however, just before his seal was complete, Antasma shattered the Dark Stone, 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, causing the demise of the Pi'illo civilization and triggering most subsequent events in the game.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Antasma (referred to as ???? in-game) first appears on the blimp ride to Pi'illo Island during a nightmare dreamt by Luigi. He initially appears as his pillow form and after swatting almost everyone off the blimp transforms into his battle form and attacks Mario, thus replacing Bowser from previous games as the tutorial boss. His only attack is to transform into a swarm of bats, which fly at Mario, but doesn't cause any damage. Unsurprisingly, the bat king goes down quickly, but upon defeat Antasma rams into the blimp, piercing its hull and causing the blimp to plummet towards Pi'illo island; this causes Luigi to wake up and panic, knocking himself out in the process.

Although it is implied that Antasma was the one who manipulated Broque Monsieur into sending monsters against Mario shortly after he arrived on the island, the bat king is not definitely seen again until after Prince Dreambert's pillow is found and Luigi sleeps on it, opening a portal to the Dream World. From the portal, Antasma calls out to Princess Peach, and proceeds to suck her in when she approaches the portal. Mario loyally gives chase, but Antasma distracts him with a dream counterpart of him and blows a hole to Dream's Deep, which he promptly departs to. However, Mario manages to save Prince Dreambert, who later explains to Mario what had transpired the last time Antasma had tried to conquer the world and expresses slight worry at the idea that Antasma was Peach's kidnapper.

With the help of Eldream and his pet, Dreambunny, Mario manages to reach Dream's Deep, which is actually filled with Luigi's greatest nightmare--Mario leaving him behind. It doesn't take long for Mario, Dreamy Luigi, and a shocked Prince Dreambert to reach Antasma; before Antasma can react, however, Bowser appears and gives him a solid punch. Antasma retaliates by leeching Bowser's face and screeching loudly, KOing everyone except Bowser, Dreambert, and himself, and then speaks for the first time in the game. He reveals that he had kidnapped Peach in hopes of using her power to escape the dream world and conquer the real one, but that the appearence of Bowser - who, unlike Peach, is both strong and evil - caused him to change his plans, and he suggests that they work together. Bowser initially disagrees to this and insults the bat king, but Antasma ultimately convinces Bowser to form an alliance on the basis of giving him greater powers. Antasma then possesses Bowser, and the two villains manage to defeat the Mario brothers before leaving the dream world.

Later, after Eldream and Dreambunny escort the Bros. and the princess out of the Dream World, Prince Dreambert and Starlow reveal that Antasma has escaped the dream world, formed an alliance with Bowser, and explains the same story he told earlier to Peach, with Eldream adding that the evil duo were probably going to go after the Dreamstone next.Mario and Luigi hurry off to Dozing Sands to recover the gem before Antasma can steal it, but arrive too late - Antasma and Bowser were already at the Dream Stone pedestal, and gloat over having already grabbed the Dream Stone. After the Dream Stone's Soul informs Luigi that it had been taken to Mount Pajamaja, the brothers sign up for a tour to the mountain's summit and ultimately find Antasma - now accompanied not only by Bowser, but also by Kamek and the Elite Trio - at the top. To channel the Dream Stone's power, Private Goomp turns on a set of speakers that begin to play the Dreambeats, which promptly puts everyone on the island to sleep except for Antasma, Starlow, Prince Dreambert (all three seemingly immune to the noise), Bowser (due to covering his ears) and Mario (who has to actively resist the lullaby). Luigi, who did not manage to resist the noise, falls asleep and rolls to a nearby dream point, which Mario enters in order to escape the noise.

After the dreamstone is finally charged and the bros. have exited the dream world, Antasma and Bowser once again confront the heroes near the dream point and gloat over their now usable dream stone. While the bros. scurry off the protect Peach, who would surely be Bowser's first target, Antasma and his new allies begin discussing what to wish on the dream stone in order to conquer the world. Antasma suggests that they wish for a castle; when this wish recieves the unanimous approval of all present, Antasma makes his first wish on the dream stone, bringing Neo Bowser Castle into being. Antasma then takes the castle for a 'test-drive', blowing up several islands near Pi'illo island with a large laser cannon situated on the bottom of the castle: this event sends everyone on the island into a panic.

Although he is mentioned repeatedly after the creation of Neo Bowser Castle, Antasma only appears again once the bros. are actually inside the castle. He first appears shortly after Kamek scrambles the castle's doors, ripping open a portal to the dreamworld so as to allow Kamek to escape the brothers. Later, Antasma manages to convince Bowser to fall asleep on him so as to use his powerful dreams to power the castle. When the bros. finally reach the duo, Bowser's dreams are providing such great power that Bowser himself is invulnerable, and the bros. wind up entering Bowser's dream in an attempt to wake him up and weaken Antasma.

After Giant Bowser is defeated, Antasma and Bowser flee to the next floor, where Bowser reveals that he had been using Antasma all along. Declaring the castle and the dreamstone to be solely his, Bowser warps to the top floor using his omni-potent artifact, leaving a frustrated Antasma to swear revenge and challenge Dreambert to a duel. After a duel in the real world proves indecisive, Antasma rips open another portal to the dream world and flees inside it while warning Dreambert that he has grown stronger: Dreambert follows and is soundly defeated. In honor of his ally, Mario leaps into Antasma's dreamworld and confronts the bat king himself; with the assistance of Dreamy Luigi and Dreambert, Mario ultimately vanquishes Antasma. When Mario leaves Antasma's dreamworld, Antasma follows a few seconds later, inflates like a balloon, and explodes, ending his schemes for good.

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 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 a bats normally would, raising a shield around him and hibernating to recover health (200 HP 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's mask resembles a sleeping mask.
 * 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.
 * Antasma is the only main antagonist in the Mario and Luigi series who is not directly stated to have any (living) minions for most of the game. However, Pi'illoper's story implies that Antasma had an army working with him in his first attempt to conquer the world, and several enemies in-game have a face mask almost identical to Antasma's, implying that they may be remnants of that army.