Raging Bolt (Paradox Raikou)

About

Raging Bolt also known as Paradox Raikou is an ancient form of the Pokemon Raikou appearing in the newest DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The Pokemon quickly became a meme as it’s long-necked design led to many different memes and reactions being made shortly after it’s premiere. It’s the second legendary Pokemon from generation two to receive an ancient Paradox version, leading to speculation that Entei will receive a new form in the next DLC.

Origin

On August 8th, 2023, the official Pokemon YouTube Channel released a Pokemon Presents to go over updates to several of their games, with Scarlet and Violet being the last game touched on in the presentation. As part of upcoming DLC for the games, a quick look at Paradox Raikou was shown, with him roaring his head and moving his long neck. The presentation itself was viewed by over 100,000 people during it’s stream time (shown below).

Immediately after it was shown, screenshots of the presentation featuring the Paradox Raikou, later named Raging Bolt, started to show up on X. X user @CallMeMikeDee uploaded a reaction during the livestream that shared a sentiment that was echoed by the majority of fans, that the initial joy of seeing Raikou was overshadowed by confusion over his design choice (shown below).

Spread

Fan opinion of Raikou was split, with different fans having wildly different feelings towards the design. On August 8th, 2023, the X user @BallofBandagez uploaded a screenshot showing the two extremes of opinions shared by @WolfeyGlick and @UltimaShadow, in where the latter absolutely hated the design while the former loved it (shown below).

Fans of the game who are artistically inclined began to try and fix the model in a way they thought seemed correct. This lead to images of the Pokemon propagating in which the long neck was removed, as well as images in which the long neck was exaggerated further in an attempt to replicate other Long Neck memes. This is seen in the upload by @SamtheDynamite and @PurpleKeira97 (shown below).

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