Koraidon

About

Koraidon is a legendary Pokémon set to appear in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It is the box-art mascot of Pokémon Scarlet. The Pokémon's design appears to be a mixture of a dragon and a motorcycle, with two wheel-like growths on its underside. Despite this, the Pokémon was shown to walk on four legs in a trailer for the game, leading to confusion and memes on social media.

Origin

Koraidon first appeared in a June 1st, 2022 trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The Pokémon is a Legendary Pokémon exclusive to Pokémon Scarlet. Its counterpart, Miraidon, is exclusive to Pokémon Violet.

Spread

Some initial reactions to Koraidon and Miraidon noted that the Pokémon looked like motor vehicles. Twitter user @cosmic_block^[1] posted a joke that Koraidon and Miraidon looked like a motorcycle and a jet turbine, respectively. A second trailer released on August 3rd, 2022 demonstrated that both Pokémon will be used as world-traversal creatures in the games, as the player will be able to ride them as they run, swim, fly and climb in the Paldea region (shown below).

Attention was soon drawn to the fact that Koraidon, despite having a design that suggested it had wheels, instead moved around on four legs. In response, Twitter user @UltimaShadowx^[2] joked, "What is the fucking point of Koraidon having giant ass wheels on it IF IT'S GONNA RUN ON ALL FOURS ANYWAYS?", gaining over 14,000 retweets and 126,000 likes in five days (shown below).

While the jokes about Koraidon running despite having "wheels" spread online, others defended and theorized about the design choice. Twitter user @TheAuraGuardian^[3] theorized that Koraidon may eventually evolve, in the Darwinian sense, to Miraidon, as evolution appears to be a central theme of the games (shown below, left). User @GavinArucan^[4] tweeted fan art of themselves defending Koraidon from its "haters," gaining over 600 retweets and 3,700 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References