Pitch Black is the main antagonist of The Guardians of Childhood franchise and the 2012 DreamWorks film, Rise of the Guardians. He is the king of Nightmares and the Boogeyman. He is Sandman's counterpart and Jack Frost's arch-nemesis and the Guardians as a whole.
Background[]
Personality[]
Pitch is everything a child fears, and he thrives on the fear of children, taking a cruel delight in turning their pleasant dreams into nightmares. But what Pitch hates is when children overcome their fears and don't believe in him, particularly when parents tell their kids that the Boogeyman is just a bad dream.
As such, he is envious of the Guardians, who are believed in and beloved by children everywhere. Eventually, his hate and jealousy would convince him to undertake a conspiring vendetta against the Guardians and destroy the children's beliefs in them, and usher in another Dark Age.
Being a master manipulator, Pitch often preyed on his victims psychologically. His knowledge of people's worst fears allowed him to unnerve his enemies and enjoyed watching them squirm, often leaving their fates to their imagination through thinly-veiled threats before finishing them off. With these abilities he was able to draw Jack from the other Guardians despite being the most powerful against him and distract him long enough by exploiting his worst fear of being forgotten and give his Nightmares time to destroy Easter. This behaviour is evident towards the Guardians due to his deep jealousy toward them. At the Tooth Palace instead of immediately finishing them off, he only gloats and insults them individually by rendering their purposes moot.
As displayed multiple times, Pitch has a perverse level of pleasure from playfully tormenting with his victims in an almost animal-like fashion; these traits are exhibited when he turned Cupcake's dream into a Nightmare, overlooking Sandman's "death" and his behaviour before his attempt to kill Jaime. Pitch also considers his rivalry with the Guardians to be enjoyable as he reacted with excitement when he found another who shared this viewpoint, exclaiming "someone who knows to have a little fun" when Jack was able to challenge him with his magic.
Despite his cruel nature, Pitch has a sympathetic side. Years of loneliness caused him to find a degree of solace within Jack Frost another person who wasn't believed in and admits that he understands being cast out like Jack when he was isolated in the North Pole and consoles that he does indeed long for a family. However, as Jack points out Pitch only wants to be feared rather than loved or believed in and this becomes his undoing as his own nightmares defeat him when his worst fear of not being feared comes true.
However, he is still full of contempt and spite, as he target Jack, at first to use and manipulate him, then to try and recruit him, and then tried to depower (and kill) him when Jack refused to side with him.
Physical Appearance[]
Pitch is tall, lithe, and dark in appearance. He has silver-golden yellow eyes resembling an eclipse, dull pale-gray skin, and glossy black hair that is styled to come out as slick, sharp spikes from the back of his head. He wears a long, black robe with a v-neck line and shadows running down his arms, obscuring his body like a shadow. Underneath the robe, he wears black trousers and black footwear.
Powers[]
- Fear Manipulation - As the Bogeyman and the spirit of fear, Pitch can sense and manipulate the dread, fear, horror and terror, of people, animals and other creatures.
- Fear Empowerment - Pitch thrives on Fear, primarily the fear of children, but back in his day, during the Dark Ages, he fed on everyone's fears, which made him incredibly powerful.
- Fear Intuition - Pitch appears to have an intuition and power of insight on personal fears, enabling him to determine what any individual fears, which he uses to play mind games or break one's spirits. He claims to always know people's greatest fears.
- Umbrakinesis - Pitch has various shadow related powers and can manipulate darkness to his will.
- Shadow Camouflage - While literally hiding in the darkness, Pitch can't be touched or seen unless he deliberately makes his presence known.
- Shadow Telekinesis - Pitch can affect the physical world by interacting with other shadows like breaking off lights with a large shadow of a hand just to intimidate the Jack, Jamie and the Guardians when they were at their weak and disbelieved state.
- Shadow Teleportation - As darkness is everywhere, Pitch can appear from any shadow or dark corner almost instantly. This is why he hides under beds, because beds are always dark underneath.
- Black Dreamsand Manipulation - Pitch has his own version of the Sandman's Dreamsand, but Pitch's sand is black and induces bad dreams. According to Pitch, it took him "a while" to perfect his Black Sand, for the purpose of turning Dreams into Nightmares. However, He seems to only possess limited control over this, however, his nightmares would turns on him the second his fear was the only source available to them.
- Nightmare Inducement - Pitch can corrupt Sandy's Dreamsand as well as any pleasant dream a child is having, turning those dreams themselves into Nightmares.
- Entity Creation - Pitch can create Nightmares shaped as black horses with glowing golden eyes; they are manifestations of fear or corrupted pleasant dreams pulled from the mind of a sleeping child for Pitch to control.
- Weapon Creation - Pitch has the ability to morph his black sand into weapons such as a scythe, a spear or a bow and arrow.
- Flight - After becoming stronger from the fears of mortals, Pitch can fly whether on his Black Dreamsand, his Nightmare or on his own shown as he fought Jack in the sky and won. However, losing the fears of the children, Pitch losed that power.
- Enhanced Agility - Pitch was agile enough to dodge Sandy's whips for a short period of time and performed flips while wielding his scythe while against the Guardians.
- Immortality - Like his enemies, The Guardians, Pitch possesses an advanced longevity, durability, youth and is virtually unkillable. He is apparently the oldest being, older than the Man in the Moon and his fellow Guardians.
- Master Manipulator - Pitch is very manipulative and cunning, able to use Jack's fear of not being believed in and his attempts to remember his past to distract him while his Nightmares destroyed Easter.
- Master Tactician - Pitch is a dangerously clever strategist, having tactically splintered the Guardians multiple times, only failing when he attempted a direct confrontation with their superior firepower.
- Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant - Pitch is skilled in combat, skilled at wielding a horrific scythe, a spear and his dark arrows he manifests with this black sand, which induces nightmares. However, He mostly uses the power of his words and his innate knowledge of people's greatest nightmares to provoke them or talk them into submission.
- Scythe Mastery - His scythe is very large, useful for attacking at a moderate distance. He first wielded it against Sandy, and later against all the Guardians, even attempting to use it to kill Jack, but was stopped by a resurrected Sandman.
Appearances[]
Rise of the Guardians []
Pitch first appeared as a shadow after his black sand swirled around North's globe of the Earth. North, fearing that the Nightmare King had returned, assembled the Guardians. The Man in the Moon, also knowing about Pitch's return, chooses Jack Frost as the new Guardian. While Jack was taken to the North Pole to discuss being chosen as the new Guardian and the return of Pitch, Pitch is seen in Cupcake's bedroom enjoying her dream about a unicorn. He smiled and said that it just needed a touch of fear. He touched the Sandman's sand, corrupting the dream into one of his Onyx (Nightmare Horses). He then instructed the Nightmare horse to inform the others that "the wait was over".
Pitch was later seen talking to the moon, referring the Moon as an 'old friend' and stating that the Man in the Moon should have seen it coming. He then asked the Moon if his Guardians were ready.
Pitch later decided to kidnap all of Tooth's Mini Fairies and take the tooth box of every child on Earth. The Guardians arrive to help Tooth battle Pitch, but was seen to have the upper hand by teleporting and avoiding their attacks. He then saw Jack and asked him if he'd been recently hanging with Guardians (in which Jack replied no). Pitch teased that Jack was just a neutral party, and thus decided to ignore him. Tooth tried to attack Pitch again, but a Nightmare Horse suddenly appeared, frightening her. After calming his Nightmare down, Pitch sardonically warned the Guardians not to be nervous, as the Nightmares had the power to "smell fear". Tooth felt that she was getting weaker and that the kids weren't believing in her anymore. When Jack asked what was happening (he was very new to the Guardians' business), Pitch explained that if enough children stop believing in any of the Guardians, they'll slowly wither away. The Guardians attempted to attack Pitch, but he escaped on his Nightmare before they could make a move.
The Guardians decided to retrieve the teeth themselves without the Mini Fairies' help. Pitch learned of this through one of his Nightmares and decided to get rid of the Sandman once and for all. Pitch sent two Nightmares after the Guardians, and while they spied on them, Jack noticed the Nightmares and immediately charged after. Sandman followed as well. Pitch sees Jack once again, sneering and remarking about how Jack was around the Guardians too much for a neutral party. Jack replied that he made it his battle after he stole the teeth from Tooth's Palace. Sandy appeared behind Pitch and the two started to battle, with Sandy quickly seizing the upper hand. Seemingly overpowered, Pitch begged for forgiveness, but then ordered all of his Nightmares to attack the two. Hundreds of Nightmares then surrounded Jack and Sandy and they tried to battle them. Sandy grabbed Jack and flew to the sky. In the sky, Pitch took the opportunity of Sandy being distracted and shot him with an arrow made of black sand.
Sandy, hurt by Pitch's arrow, turns into a nightmare and Pitch took delight in that. Jack, furious, charged at Pitch and Pitch send a handful of Nightmare his way, but to his surprise, Jack destroy them all with amazing force. Pitch then decide that Jack must go next.
When Jack was taking Sophie back home, Pitch used Jack's Tooth Box to lured him to his lair. In there, Pitch used Jack's fear of not being believed in to distract him while his Nightmare destroy Easter and he kidnapped Baby Tooth. After his plans are completed, he gave Jack his Tooth Box knowing the Guardians will not trust him again.
Later, Pitch appeared again to recruit Jack and took delight when his black sand and Jack's ice created a sculpture when they clashed. Pitch tried to be a friend to Jack and get Jack to join him in creating a world that is all Pitch Black and Jack Frost. Jack turned it down by saying he doesn't want to live in a world they fear him and to leave him alone. Angered by his refusal, Pitch revealed to Jack that he had Baby Tooth and he would trade her for his staff. Jack reluctantly gave Pitch his staff and asked for Baby Tooth, but Pitch replied no since he told him that he wanted to be alone. Baby Tooth then bit Pitch, which resulted him throwing her away and breaking Jack's staff. Pitch disappeared after leaving Jack with a broken staff and no way of returning back and get in the way.
Pitch appeared one more time in North's Workshop, where he tells the Yetis that they can stop making toys since Christmas is forever gone, but when he realized there was one light still glowing, he decided to go find the kid, Jamie, and stop him from believing in the Guardians so his plan could be accomplished.
He arrive to Burgess and was surprised to see Jack again. Jack tried to beat him, but soon realizes that Pitch was stronger. After Pitch defeated Jack in their sky battle and fell to Earth, Pitch took delight at seeing the Guardians in their weak state and soon he surrounded them in an alley. Pitch asked Jamie if he believed in the boogeyman, but before he could finish, Jack threw a snowball at Pitch's face, giving the Guardians enough time to escape with Jamie and recruit his friends.
The Guardians said they will protect the kids which Pitch replied but "who's going to protect them?" Jamie said he will protect the Guardians and his friends soon joined him. Pitch send his Nightmare horses at the kids but they were turned into Dreamsand making the Guardians get the energy to battle Pitch. Pitch tried to battle the Guardians, but was soon cornered. He disappeared and then reappeared behind Jack, trying to kill him once and for all, but to his surprise and the Guardians' also, Sandy was revived by Jamie and his friends.
Pitch was knocked out thanks to Sandy and when he woke up, he saw them having fun. Trying to stop them from having fun, he went after Jamie, but to his shock and fear, Jamie was not scared of him and was able to go through him. Defeated and terrified, Pitch attempted to flee back to his lair, but was confronted by the Guardians one last time. Pitch noticed that the remaining Nightmares were nearby and assumed that they were there to support him, since they sought out people who felt fear. But to his horror, they were really there for him as he was afraid and the Guardians weren't. The Nightmares then attacked Pitch and took him back to his lair.
Trivia[]
- His signature color is black.
- Pitch and The Sandman are identical spirits, but one is potentially more lethal than the other.
- Pitch is more commonly known to children as the Boogeyman.
- His lair is in an underground palace accessed through a tunnel under a broken bed. This would refer to the old tale of monsters, like the Boogeyman, hiding under children's beds.
- Pitch can morph and blend into shadows around him.
- Pitch spreads fear across the world because he wants to be believed in and in a world where only fear exist, he will be believed in.
- Nightmares come from the fears that live in every heart.
- Pitch's Nightmares take the shape of black horses which help him accomplish his dark deeds.
- There is a pun following his Nightmares, as they are described by him as female, and female horses are known as mares.
- Pitch was on Earth first, he ruled the Dark Ages with fear at a time before the Guardians existed.
- Pitch hides under children's beds because of his love for scary and dark places.
- His eyes resemble an eclipse.
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