Hypno.

0:00What if I told you the Pokémon you were told to look away from comes from a spirit people called for after a nightmare?

0:04This is Hypno, and for decades its Pokédex wrote it like the villain in a bedtime story.

0:09Its entries tell you to avoid eye contact.

0:13It waits out on the roads nobody uses, polishing a silver pendulum.

0:17One look at that pendulum swinging can put you to sleep in three seconds.

0:21And when it's hungry, it eats your dreams, which is exactly as creepy as it sounds.

0:26But the dream eating comes from somewhere.

0:30Hypno was inspired by the baku, a dream-eating spirit from Japanese folklore, and the dreams the baku ate were the bad ones.

0:34If you woke up from a nightmare in Japan, the custom was to say three times, "Baku-san, come eat my dream." And the baku would come and take the bad dream away, so you could fall back asleep.

0:39People even kept a little baku charm by the bed.

0:43The Pokédex left that part out for a long time.

0:47Then the games went to Alola, and Hypno's entries finally started sounding like the baku.

0:51They still call Hypno extremely dangerous, but they say people who need a good, sound sleep call it their savior.

0:56And there are some Hypno that help doctors with patients who can't sleep at night in hospitals.

1:00Somewhere, at three in the morning, a doctor brings a Hypno into the room of somebody who hasn't slept in days.

1:04It swings that silver pendulum, slow and steady, and it does the same job the baku always did.

1:09It takes the bad night away.

1:13Maybe you had somebody who did that job for you, who came in after a bad dream and stayed until you fell asleep.

1:17Maybe now you're the one getting up at three in the morning to do it.

1:21Would you want a Hypno to deal with your nightmares?

1:26Let's discuss in the comments!