What is General Radahn?

General Radahn, boss name Starscourge Radahn, is an Elden Ring boss in the Caelid region who became a reaction meme in early March 2022 because of his massive health bar and third-phase meteor attack.

Where did General Radahn come from?

The jokes started on Twitter about a week after Elden Ring's February 25, 2022 release, led by @TDS_Amadeus's Monster Hunter crossover gag on March 4 and @monke_become's 'skill issue' GIF the same day.

What does General Radahn mean?

As a meme, Radahn is a stand-in for the moment a hard boss humiliates a confident player, usually paired with the SoulsBorne 'skill issue' retort used to brush off difficulty complaints.

How do you use General Radahn?

Players typically post a clip of Radahn's phase-three meteor dive with a self-mocking caption, or run reaction templates like Groot about weak weapons doing almost nothing to his 15,000 HP.

Is General Radahn still popular?

The main burst of Radahn posting hit in early March 2022, big enough that Bandai Namco UK's official account tweeted about his reputation, and the clips remain a touchstone whenever Elden Ring fans swap boss stories.

General Radahn

2022reaction / clip memeclassic

Published October 26, 2026

General Radahn / Starscourge Radahn is an Elden Ring boss who became an online joke in early March 2022, roughly a week after the February 25 release, as players shared clips of his massive health bar and third-phase meteor dive. Twitter posts from @TDS_Amadeus and @monke_become set the template, and by mid-March even the official Bandai Namco UK account was poking fun at how badly he was wiping players.

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Overview

Players singled out Radahn's third phase as the signature moment, when he leaps into the sky, vanishes from view, and drops back down onto whoever is still standing like a meteor. Most of the earliest viral posts paired that comet move with 'skill issue' captions aimed at the player who just got flattened1. 'Skill issue' is a SoulsBorne-fandom retort used when someone complains that a boss is unfair, and the gag was that calling Radahn's meteor fair was a bit of a stretch2.

A second strand of jokes focused on the fight's 15,000-HP pool, with Groot-template edits mocking how little damage weaker curved greatswords did while Radahn's bar barely moved4. His festival mechanic, which lets players call in NPC phantoms before and during the fight, made failed group kills their own punchline, since dying with four allies swinging alongside is harder to blame on bad spacing5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter (viral spread) / YouTube (early clips)

Date

2022

Elden Ring launched on February 25, 2022, developed by FromSoftware, and Starscourge Radahn is one of the Great Rune holders tucked into the Caelid region, usually a player's third major boss5. The fight is unusual for the series because it uses a festival mechanic that lets players summon NPC fighters across the arena, and because Radahn opens combat on horseback while shooting gravity-powered arrows from a distance5.

The earliest viral meme came from Twitter user @TDS_Amadeus on March 4, 2022, who posted a clip of Radahn's meteor dive framed as a Monster Hunter crossover gag; the tweet picked up about 6,700 likes within three days1. The specific comet-drop footage had circulated earlier via YouTuber BloodMoonFT, whose video supplied the GIF that other accounts later recut3.

How It Spread

Also on March 4, user @monke_become posted a GIF of a player getting pancaked by the meteor drop, cut from BloodMoonFT's YouTube footage and captioned 'skill issue'; the clip became one of the defining Radahn posts of that week2 3. The combination of comet move and 'skill issue' settled in as the dominant format over the next few days.

By March 5, Twitter user @BurgerLover827 posted a Groot edit about how little damage weaker curved greatswords did to Radahn's 15,000-HP pool, picking up roughly 1,000 likes in two days4. Around 10 days after launch, the official Bandai Namco UK account joined in with a tweet acknowledging Radahn's reputation among players, a rare case of a publisher ribbing fans about a difficulty spike in its own release6.

From there, Radahn stayed a reference point whenever Elden Ring fans talked about brutal boss fights, with the meteor dive clip resurfacing in compilation videos and reaction edits across YouTube and Twitter5.

Timeline

2022-02-25

Elden Ring releases, with Starscourge Radahn as one of the Great Rune bosses in Caelid.

2022-03-04

@TDS_Amadeus posts the Monster Hunter crossover gag about Radahn's meteor dive, gaining about 6,700 likes in three days.

2022-03-04

@monke_become tweets a 'skill issue' GIF of the meteor crash using BloodMoonFT's YouTube footage.

2022-03-05

@BurgerLover827 posts a Groot edit about doing no damage to Radahn's 15,000 HP.

2022-03-07

Bandai Namco UK's official Twitter account joins in with a post about Radahn's notoriety.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Radahn post is a short clip or GIF of the phase-three meteor drop with a self-deprecating caption, often 'skill issue' or a crossover reference. Still-image variants use reaction templates such as Groot to joke about doing almost no damage to his health bar, usually with the player's weapon or build shown alongside.