A creative Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fan has created concept art for a Paradox form for Raichu, with some seriously impressive results. While there are currently no forms in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet available for the evolved form of Pikachu, the fan's design is certainly convincing, and draws inspiration from a place many Pokemon fans may not be aware of.
For those who don't know, Paradox Pokemon are either ancient or future relatives of contemporary Pokemon, with the ancient variants in Pokemon Scarlet and future variants in Pokemon Violet. Paradox Pokemon are all gender unknown, unable to evolve, and are non-breedable. Their names also don't follow usual Pokemon naming conventions. For example, the ancient version of Donphan is called Great Tusk, and the future version is named Iron Treads.
The fan-made Paradox Raichu artwork comes courtesy of Reddit user rc1246, who posted their outstanding creation to one of the site's primary Pokemon forums. The impressive image depicts a beastly form of Raichu, full of thoughtfully crafted details. Overall, the creature sports a much more aggressive profile with sharper lines throughout; its hands and feet have gone from rounded nubs into fearsome claws, near-red skin, and sparking lightning bolts decorate its body. A massive dragon-like tail and electrified eyes complete the look of the Paradox Raichu, which looks far more intimidating than anything within its actual evolution line.
The rest of the images can be found here.
The fan-made artwork seems to be popular with other Pokemon fans, as the post has already racked up hundreds of upvotes. The comments section includes many claiming the design to be directly inspired from a cut Pikachu evolution. Many fans have commented that the fan art looks a lot like Gorochu, which was an originally planned evolution after Raichu. A few years ago, Pikachu's original illustrator revealed that Gorochu ended up being cut for balance reasons, but its design included features shown above, including fangs and the pair of horns.
The Paradox Raichu is just the latest example of the ongoing trend of fan-designed Paradox Pokemon. Just days ago, another Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fan created both an ancient and future Paradox form for Porygon. While Porygon isn't currently in either version of the game, the designs look like they fit right in. The ancient version looks reminiscent of a dodo bird, while the future form looks like a high-tech version of Porygon2, with shiny versions also illustrated.
Considering the fairly common player sentiment that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Paradox Pokemon designs are underwhelming, particularly with Violet, it may behoove Game Freak to at least keep an eye on the Pokemon fan art community for some design inspiration going forward.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for Nintendo Switch.
