Raging Bolt (Paradox Raikou) — In-game screenshot and official artwork of Raging Bolt, the Paradox form of Raikou, a yellow long-necked Pokémon with a purple

Raging Bolt (Paradox Raikou)

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Published October 24, 2026

Raging Bolt, the ancient Paradox form of the Electric-type legendary Raikou, debuted during an August 2023 Pokemon Presents stream previewing DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet1. Its absurdly long neck split fans within minutes, and by that evening X users were posting both reverent fan art and exaggerated long-neck edits mocking the design24.

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Overview

Raging Bolt, also called Paradox Raikou, is the ancient form of the Gen 2 legendary Pokemon Raikou featured in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC1. On X, the meme took two main shapes: reaction screenshots of the reveal paired with confused captions, and photoshopped edits that either shaved the giraffe-like neck down to a normal length or stretched it to absurd dimensions45.

The tone split the fandom in half. Some posts framed the design as majestic and praised the dinosaur-adjacent silhouette, while others treated the neck as a joke on par with earlier long-neck memes like the elongated Spinel or stretched animal edits3. A typical early post pairs the official 3D model with a bewildered one-liner, and the artier reactions redraw the model entirely to argue for a better proportioned version6.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube (reveal) / X (viral spread)
Date
2023

The reveal happened on August 8th, 2023, during a Pokemon Presents stream on the official Pokemon YouTube channel, with the Scarlet and Violet DLC segment closing out the broadcast1. During the preview clip, the then-unnamed Paradox Raikou roared and swung its elongated neck, drawing immediate attention from the more than 100,000 live viewers watching along6.

Screenshots hit X within minutes of the clip airing. User @CallMeMikeDeee posted a reaction later that same day expressing joy-turned-confusion at the neck proportions, picking up close to 2,500 likes in roughly seven hours2. Game Freak and The Pokemon Company developed the Pokemon and the DLC; the meme itself emerged from fan reactions, with no single creator credited for the first edit6.

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How It Spread

Later on August 8th, X user @BallofBandagez captured the polarized reception by posting a side-by-side screenshot of competitive player @WolfeyGlick praising the design and @UltimaShadow panning it, which became a quick shorthand for the whole discourse3. The post helped frame Raging Bolt as a lightning rod rather than a universal hit, and quote-tweets kept the argument running through the night.

Artists in the fandom took the next step by trying to fix the model. @SamTheDynamite posted an edit removing the long neck entirely to show what a more compact Raging Bolt might look like4, while @PurpleKeira97 went the other direction with a version that stretched the neck even further to lean into the long-neck meme lineage5. Both posts landed on August 8th, meaning the fix-it edits and the mock edits were already coexisting on the same day as the reveal6.

The nickname Raging Bolt was later confirmed by The Pokemon Company as the species' official English name, and Entei fans still speculate about a matching Paradox form in future DLC6.

Timeline

2023-08-08

Pokemon Presents stream reveals Paradox Raikou during the Scarlet and Violet DLC segment on the official Pokemon YouTube channel[1].

2023-08-08

@CallMeMikeDeee posts a confused reaction screenshot that picks up roughly 2,500 likes within seven hours[2].

2023-08-08

@BallofBandagez shares the split opinions of @WolfeyGlick and @UltimaShadow in one screenshot, crystallizing the fan debate[3].

2023-08-08

@SamTheDynamite posts a shortened-neck fix-it edit[4], while @PurpleKeira97 posts an exaggerated-neck version the same day[5].

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