One creative Pokemon fan has designed an image of Rayquaza that imagines what the majestic creature would look like as a non-legendary. While many of the legendary pocket monsters in the Pokemon series are notable partly due to their designs, this latest fan art proves that Rayquaza looks good even as a non-legendary.
Despite numerous legendary Pokemon featured throughout the series, Rayquaza stands out for several reasons. In addition to being the mascot of Pokemon Emerald, it is one of the super-ancient Pokemon, along with Groudon and Kyogre. As part of this elite group, Rayquaza has a fittingly striking appearance; the Dragon/Flying Pokemon features a massive serpentine body, mainly colored green with several accents. While many fans attempt to make artwork inspired by the Pokemon's grand scale, one artist decided to do the opposite.
Recently, a talented gamer known as rc1246 posted their reinterpretation of Rayquaza on Reddit. This fan art imagined the Pokemon in a non-legendary form. While this new look for the pocket monster lost some of its grandeur compared to the original and Mega evolution designs, it still is impressive. The artist managed to make their spin on the design look more diminutive while still including many of the classic features of Rayquaza, albeit on a much smaller scale. For example, the non-legendary form of the Pokemon had smaller versions of the large protrusions on top of its head, while the two limbs on its body had been made smaller, omitting the three claws on each hand. Several commonalities were the similar green coloration and gold patterning across its slender frame.
When posting the picture to Reddit, rc1246 said they “unlegendarified Rayquaza,” and many gamers have taken notice. Over 1.3K users have upvoted the design in only a few hours, with numerous fans commenting about the Pokemon’s new look. Some users said it looked like a pre-evolution version of the creature, and others thought adding a mechanic to make non-legendary forms of legendary Pokemon could be interesting in future games in the series. In addition, a few users noticed that the new design for Rayquaza appeared to be influenced by Dreepy, another Dragon-type Pokemon.
It is worth noting that this “unlegendarified” Rayquaza is not the only fan art of the Pokemon on the internet. With the Pokemon being well-known in the community, other fans have made creations featuring the legendary creature over the past few months. For instance, another gamer previously made a wooden Rayquaza cabinet to hold their Pokemon cards. However, the unique concept of rc1246's artwork makes it stand out.
With this new version of Rayquaza now complete, it will be interesting to see if rc1246 decides to make more non-legendary versions of legendary Pokemon. While there is no shortage of options, seeing the other two super-ancient Pokemon reimagined as non-legendaries could be intriguing. Regardless, it will be exciting to see what they create next.