Pokémon Scarlet & Violet's Paradox Pokémon are an undoubted highlight of Gen 9. Depending on what version of the game you're playing, you'll be able to encounter Ancient or Future Pokémon — Pokémon that look like ones you've encountered in previous games, but are either distant past or future versions of that Pokémon.
There are some pretty amazing Paradox Pokémon in the base game — Slither Wing is a ground slug take on Volcarona, and Iron Valiant blends Gardevoir and Gallade together in sleek, terrifying metallic form. But yesterday, during the Pokémon Presents August 2023 showcase, we got a look at two brand new Paradox 'mons coming in The Indigo Disk (part two of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero). And one of them in particular has got fans talking.
Meet Raging Bolt, a quadrupedal sauropod-like Pokémon with a long neck and a head that looks like it's buried in the clouds — that's actually its mane.
Long-time fans will recognise that Raging Bolt bears some resemblances to Raikou, one of the three legendary dogs from Pokémon Gold & Silver, and it follows Walking Wake, which was a Paradox version of Suicune. The thing is, Raging Bolt's design has been... divisive, to say the least. Colour us surprised that a Pokémon design proves to be controversial! But Raikou is a pretty popular Pokémon with an iconic saber-toothed tiger design, and the Paradox version makes some pretty big, bold changes. And people have come out both roasting the design and in defense of this tall new Paradox Pokémon.
Just like Walking Wake, Raging Bolt's design has been inspired by clades of dinosaurs. Walking Wake is based on the theropods, so designing Raging Bolt after a sauropod — most likely a Brontosaurus, which actually means "thunder lizard" — just makes sense.
Few Pokémon designs will ever please everyone, but it's always interesting to see how fans react to redesigns or reinterpretations of classic Pokémon from previous generations. Entei will likely get a Paradox version too, given the art in the Scarlet/Violet Book in-game.
So we want to know what you, lovely readers, think of this divisive new Pokémon. Vote in our poll below and share your thoughts on the ancient Pokémon in the comments.
Comments 57
Yeah... no... please no...
Why so many people going to museum watch giraffes?! I go for dinosaurs to museum!
What really throws me off is the mane and head, which look like they don't match the rest of the body. Otherwise it could have been a good idea
giraf
It actually looks very similar to the Infinite Fusion art of RaikouXGirafarig.
I love it, absolutely think its goofy and majestic in all the perfect ways
I would give anything to never see it again, and that's coming from someone who liked Frigajig or whatever it's called.
But it's got people talking so in that way it's a success?
What throws me off are the names of Paradox Pokémon … like Indian naming … that’s like calling bees Yellow Inverse Mosquitoes
Why can’t they have normal names? Messes up my OCD
At this point, it is what it is. I'm not losing sleep over it.
I'd love if they elaborated on paradox Pokémon more, or gave legendary Pokémon back their "legendary" status (story events, special areas etc). There should be more to paradox Pokémon than "it looks like something from a book".
Not a fan, but I do admittedly have a bias towards cat-like creatures. It isn't the worst Pokemon design either. I'll at least take it over the uninspired Gen 5 monkeys.
At first I didn't like it, but it's grown on me. I like how it's a sauropod, and I like how the mane circles around it's head, making it look like a storm cloud, with it's head peaking through said cloud.
Honestly I'm happy when they make Pokémon really really silly looking. It's absolutely an important part of the series' appeal, even though many fans hoping for typical "cool" creatures may think it's a stupid idea.
@Nintendencies My thoughts exactly
What actually bothers me is how Game Freak are locking the ability to take selfies in larger groups on the DLC.
Well I mean the sabertooth tiger is already a prehistoric creature, so you'd think they would just make it more feral and savage looking. But no, let's make it like a dinosaur.
Poor Iron Crown.
Joking aside, I may be slightly biased here given my allegiance to Scarlet but man: I absolutely ADORE Raging Bolt. Turning Raikou into a Brontosaurus is both completely out-of-left field yet makes a ton of sense if you read into the etymology side of things (Brontosaurus literally translates to Thunder Lizard, how could they NOT make a dino Raikou into one) and it's design straddles a fantastic line between looking adorably goofy and extremely menacing (the mane turning into a thundercloud with it's head peeking out is BRILLIANT).
He's certainly an unconventional take on a Raikou variant but sometimes the best mons are those that take an idea and twist it into something wildly unexpected, you know? Absolutely love them and I cannot WAIT to see what a potential dino Entei could look like if Suicune/Raikou get variants as cool and interesting as these
If it wasn’t Raikou, no one would be complaining. I think it looks good.
IT IS NOT A GIRAFFE. IT is a brachiosaurus. A DINOSAUR. since scarlet paradox pokemon are all prehistoric. A giraffe Is an animal from the present. If you still think it is a giraffe. You are factully wrong.. I love the design. Hope you learned something.
So next gen, I wonder how they will re-invent the Regi Trio
the only bad part about it is the face. Raikou’s face has always looked pretty ugly so I wish that had been tweaked, because the rest of the design is a pretty nice improvement over how rough standard Raikou is
@Axecon so about that
I prefer it to that metal Cobalion at least.
It's a design that I don't have any opinion over it. It just is for me.
Designer 1: Alright, what pokemon should we turn into a prehistoric animal?
Designer 2: The saber-toothed tiger.
Designer 1: Isn't that already a-
Designer 2: Doesn't matter.
Designer 1: So do we make it bulkier? Give it bigger teeth?
Designer 2: Brachiosaurus.
Designer 1: Didn't we already make a-
Designer 2: BRACHIO. SAURUS.
@PlasmaticSnake as someone who has played and loved Pokémon since Red and Blue, I can honestly say that the first two gens were just as stupid looking as the rest. Go ask Mr. Mime.
yeah, kind of think it's soon time to wrap up Pokemon.
I’m here for all the paradox Pokemon. They’re fun and unique. Some of y’all are just too picky lol
I'm waiting for paradox Entei to be a Pterosaur or a fish.
Not a fan of the names.
Raikou already looked goofy as hell, so can't say this is much of a downgrade. Definitely seems to be a case of the artwork being far superior to the in-game model however.
@Doopuberpoop The ratio of goofball to sane has defintiely gone up over the generations. Mr. Mime was an outlier in gen.1, nowadays it's like two thirds of the roster are made out of sentient plasticine.
@YoshiF2 To be fair, they are literal translation of the Japanese names. I kind of like they have scientific names akin to how real life creatures have latin based species names.
My favourite however is Iron Valiants french name being Garde-de-Ferre which translates to 'Iron Guard' and works a pun. Of course, some people dont care about that sort of detail😔
brontosaurus translates to noble thunder lizard, also kirins are a thing
It looks silly, but at least it shows why it evolved into a different shape - that collar gives it a truly massive blindspot.
I now understand why Ho-oh burned the original (Paradox) Johto trio to a crisp.
Thank you, Ho-oh.
As someone who cares too much about fictional lore, it annoys me to hell that they are doing this to the sacred beasts as to imply they have existed since prehistory when their original lore mentions they were created by Ho-oh only a few centuries ago.
With that out of the way, I hate giraffe Raikou
It's really just the mane for me. I have no problem with Raikou being a giraffe, but the mane just throws me off of the design. It would look just different enough to be fine for me without it.
I like Iron Crown's look... so uh there's that I suppose.
I like that Prehistoric Paradoxes are each their own design (some more than others). Whereas the Robot Paradoxes generally seem like copies of their inspirations with a chrome job (Iron Valiant being a stand-out).
It looks like one of the many atrocious glitches they won't fix is occuring when a normal Raikou is on screen. Also looks like a balloon animal.
I don't mind the design idea, but something like this would only look good if it was large in game, and very awkward if not. And let's be real, it's gonna be like 2 feet max taller than a 10yo. Would honestly look a lot better if the neck was half the size, at an angle, but still stretched out and retracted for animations in-game, say to attack with Crunch or upward like it is to summon/attract lightning.
@Fizza Perhaps it's then Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf's turn
I am shocked the reaction has been the way it has - to my eye Walking Wake is far superior to the incredible dull Raging Bolt. So much more fun and interesting, which is how I want my Pokemon.
@Fizza I like Regieleki, but he meant how will the regi trio look as paradox pokemon
I honestly think it looks so, so stupid, but in a good Pokémon way that looks vary Pokémon, I kinda like it lol.
It's not my favorite design ever. But I don't hate it. Chances are, I'll probably box it. If you can catch more than one, I'll probably use it for trade fodder on Home
I can't wait for Entei to be turned into something ridiculous, maybe a trilobite. I'm all for more silliness.
@Bobb With the use of the Legendary Beast and the Swords of Justice as Paradox Pokèmon, I'm starting to really lean heavily towards the widespread theory of the true nature of Paradox Pokèmon. I suspect the DLC will shed more light on how they can possibly exist.
I think they should have gone all the way and made the head more brontosaurus like
Pokemon Company shameless copying that dinosasur for Horizon Zero Dawn, they destroyed poor Raikou
I like the artwork but the model looks really bad. It's so goofy, but I like that about it. It's why I picked Fuecoco too: the look on its face is the stupidest thing ever.
Haven't been following Pokémon closely for a long while, but all these Ancient Paradox designs look to me very random - as if the designers were urged to roll dice on body type/major characteristics before deciding what the general look would be.
I picked Violet and hated all the future Pokémon. It made no sense that in the future all organic life would evolve (via the traditional means rather than the Pokemon method) into full on robots. They’re no even cyborgs as Delibird’s head pops off on a spring. I could accept a cyborg version maybe.
Initially I was jealous of the prehistoric Pokemon, but now I think they’re equally bad. It feels like very little thought has gone into some of them. Why does the dog Suicune become a raptor and now it’s companion dog Raikou becomes a Diplodocus? That makes even less sense. And they haven’t event made him look reptilian it’s the same head on a long neck.
Honestly I like how both have changed in all the non-dinosaur ways. But there are so many ancient mammals they could have based them on instead.
They really wrecked up the franchise with this one. Ultra Beasts at least came from a different dimension so could largely be ignored. I honestly never thought my enthusiasm for Pokemon could be squashed but here it is, lying flat on the ground feeling sad.
No, God! No, God, please, no! No! No! Nooooooooo!!!
Looks better than Walking Wake to me, most certainly also because it's based on a Brontosaurus which is already pretty cool on its own!
In general, I also much prefer the Scarlet Paradox Pokémon (one of the reasons why I got that version), the Violet ones are mostly boring as they're just mechanized versions of the originals and these two are no exception.
By the way, I can see where they're coming from, but I'm still not a fan of the naming convention of Paradox Pokémon.
@Sisilly_G It's the opposite, Ho-Oh revived the pokémon that died in the Burned Tower into the Legendary Beasts so you should blame it!
It is butt ugly, incredibly lazy, and makes no sense whatsoever. Why would you turn a saber tooth cat into a sauropod? Dumb.
Iron Crown is literally just Cobalion but metal (which is an improvement from the base design IMO). I like that they went with something different for Raging Bolt, kind of like how they did with Walking Wake. At least with Raging Bolt that mane is reminiscent of storm clouds so I think it works. People just jump to assume anything with a long neck is a giraffe and get mad for some reason.
I think personally Walking Wake looked worse so anyone losing their minds over Raging Bolt need to chill a little. When I say it looked worse mind you I just felt it’s design was way too crowded. As for raging bolt I think it’s neat and fun honestly. It makes me look forward to both Entei and the other Unova Pokemon that’s left getting a update as well. Funny enough tho the fact we keep getting these two different generation reps paired together does make me think maybe the future of Pokémon at least until a GEN 10 mind you is in both Johto AND Unova in some way. Speaking of Unova while the article doesn’t bring much attention to it I do think these all metallic versions of the Unova Pokémon look incredibly sleek and excellent.
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