Raging Bolt (Paradox Raikou)

About

Raging Bolt, also known as Paradox Raikou, is an ancient form of the legendary Electric-type Pokemon Raikou appearing in the DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that was announced in August 2023. The Pokemon quickly became a meme as its long-neck design led to many different memes and reactions being made shortly after its 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^[1] held a Pokemon Presents to go over updates to several of its video games, with Scarlet and Violet being the last game touched on in the presentation. As part of the 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 its livestream (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. For example, X user @CallMeMikeDee^[2] uploaded a reaction during the livestream on August 8th that shared a sentiment that was echoed by many fans, expressing that the initial joy of seeing Raikou was overshadowed by confusion over his bizarre design choice (shown below), receiving nearly 2,500 likes in seven hours.

Spread

Following his reveal, fan opinion of Raikou was split, with different fans having wildly different feelings towards the design. On August 8th, 2023, the X user @BallofBandagez^[3] uploaded a screenshot showing the two extremes of opinions shared by @WolfeyGlick and @UltimaShadow, in which the latter absolutely hated the design while the former loved it (shown below).

As the Pokemon continued to spread, some fans of the game who were more artistically inclined began to try and "fix" the model in a way they thought seemed correct. This led to images of the Pokemon propagating in which the elongated neck was removed, as well as images in which the long neck was exaggerated further in an attempt to replicate other long neck memes — as seen in the uploads by Twitter users @SamtheDynamite^[4] and @PurpleKeira97^[5] on August 8th (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References