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I know no one asked, but I didn't want this post from the other thread to go to waste. "Why is Absol Dark" is a common query.
Some Types
>most are not literally the thing (not literally made of fire, literally made of electricity, literally made of poison) most just have magic powers that CONTROL the thing, or generate it from their bodies
>a small minority break this trend, and ARE literally the thing. Muk is literally made of poison
In contrast, other Types, like Dark
>most ARE literally the thing (literally evil/underhanded, literally a dragon/bug/ghost/fairy)
>but some, like Absol, break this trend by NOT being the thing but instead have magic powers related to the thing (supernatural ability to sense encroaching ill-fated or wicked events of great misfortune, where a lot of people are about to get hurt/killed)
I know nothing like this is ever stated in the games, but you could also headcanon that Absol has typical Dark abilities like supernatural cleverness, underhandedness, relentlessness, or tricky sleight-of-hand, but instead of using these for evil deeds it uses these powers to help people. Like Batman. Absol is skilled at using evil powers, but he's using them explicitly for noble and heroic aims.
Other answers you might like
>it's associated with disasters, which is when people generally die, and as a nod to this it has a grim reaper scythe for a horn. so Dark Type is to fit how we traditionally see Death, but also how he is often subverted. (Death is scary and unavoidable, but he's actually a nice guy who's just doing his job and is ensuring souls get to rest, and they no longer need to feel any pain or weariness.)
>he has a yin-yang for a face, so the fact he's Dark Type but not actually evil is THE POINT because it's a message about how opposites rely on each other, how good and evil are interconnected, how light and darkness beget each other, or some such hippie nonsense
Tl:dr it's Dark because it has supernatural powers tied to bad luck/doom.
