Designing New PARADOX POKÉMON: Legendary Beasts and Swords of Justice 

For me the Swords of Justice work because although they don't look like normal animals if seen by themselves, as a group they look like they fit a puzzle in terms of design, like "Oh yeah they all make sense to me now"

I shall take the fall as the one Terrakion fan. I like its stout, gruff design, anything that gives off “meathead” vibes really. Emboar is also unapologetically my favorite starter.

As soon as Entei was a ceratopsian, I was like "gosh, I hope he does Raikou as a Pterosaur". Incredible work. So many artists (including me) get stuck on making a Pokemon make sense compared to its real world counterpart. It's so refreshing to see someone just make a mon that looks cool cos it's fun.

I absolutely love how you twisted the Iron Musketeers into protectors of humanity. Not only does that make sense as they were made by humans, but also they have become inverted versions of the Pokémon they’re mirroring. The Musketeer trio are Pokémon that defend other Pokémon, and usually despise humans. So to have what is essentially evil versions of themselves defending their sworn enemy is fascinating

Personally I like both Past and Future paradoxes, and the idea that the Past Paradoxes are meant to be a child's imagination of prehistoric life can also be applied to the Future ones with kids thinking of what robots from the future would be like, also the contrasting themes of dinosaurs vs robots is fun to me so I'm a fan of both groups

The rendering on all of these Pokémon is FANTASTIC! I’m a HUGE fan of Rumbling Roar.

"Things are about to get REAL Subjective, REAL quick" is a great life model.

Looks like you called Entei’s paradox inspo, Gouging Fire is definitely a ceratopsian inspired version!

When you started using different prehistoric creatures outside of therapods, my brain almost instantly went to Raikou turning into some pterosaur like creature, but then I wondered if that would even be possible with such a mammalian creature, plus the thunder bird creature already exists in Pokémon as Zapdos. But when you actually went in that direction, and brought up the cloud imagery in Raikou's design, it started making more sense to me and I think the final result turned out amazing, as well as very unique from Zapdos. Also really liked the Colbalion paradox design. Awesome work!

Screeching Sky is my favorite from this video, looking forward to seeing what you design next

Man, you keep surprising me with how well you create and render pokemon… ❤️

i wish we had more regional variants in paldea, great video!

As someone who prefers the future Paradoxes AND loves the Swords of Justice, your interpretations for me hit the sweet spot in iterating/adding upon the original designs in interesting ways without changing the Pokemon's concepts, which is the precedent set by the official future Paradoxes that a lot of the Fakemon I've seen have failed to capture! Cobalion is my favorite of the quartet, and your Iron Sentinel is the paradox version of it that I want to see officially!

I have a great appreciation for the possibilities of future paradox Pokémon, and I’m really just sad that it feels like gamefreak doesn’t

as an avid swords of justice enjoyer, I understand what you don't like about them. it just happens that I absolutely adored them ever since I first saw them when I was little, and the idea of making them paradox forms is the coolest thing to me. your designs look great! virizion, terrakion and cobalion didn't star in my first pokemon fancomic as the most detailed characters for them to be slandered in this way tho lmao

You’re such an amazing artist! The best pokemon designer outside of gamefreak. Just knows the concepts and conventions like no one else

as cool as a Pterosaur Paradox Raikou is, i really like the idea of it instead being modeled after a Brontosaur, whose name actually means "thunder lizard". it'd probably look pretty goofy, but i think that'd just make me like it even more

I really love it when peoples favorite Pokémon are such strange tales or generally unliked or forgotten about designs. I just think about a kid having their favorite Pokémon and comedically wveyone is just like “who”? It’s just great that every Pokémon gets some type of love and that that Pokémon was there for them

Hearing you dump on Terrakion relentlessly was funny, even though I've never had a problem with it.

I always loved the Swords of Justice, bar Terrakion. They had mystical, noble deer vibes and I loved it.

i just came back here to check how accurate/better your design was, and I gotta say it's such a great job on your part! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Although Cobalion is my preferred member of the Swords of Justice, my favorite of the Lightsabers of Justice is Iron Bulwark. Also, hear me out: Triceratops Entei Edit: *WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! YEAH BABY!*

I find it funny that 8-10 months later both past raikou and entei are real

Walking Wake surprised me for a multitude of reasons. We had seen artwork in the base game of a fusion-like prehistoric creature of the Johto trio, so seeing just Suicune AND it looking almost nothing like the artwork we had seen shocked me before looking at the fact that it looked like a raptor. I hope when (if) the other forms come out they shock me just as much as Walking Wake did. Making Raikou a Pterosaur is exactly that energy, and I love it.

Out of all the videos of concepts for forms of the beasts and swords, this is by far my favorite, especially raikou’s design.

Only seeing the sketch, I like what you're going with in looking more to Iron Bundle as a way of enhancing Terrakion with mechanical attributes (nice brace around the head and trading the shoulder "wings" for light thrusters). It's my favorite of the Swords for the solid juggernaut design and actually sitting and looking at it, yes the face would be uncanny even if its meant to be stone.

11:03 But Suicune isn't a Canid, its a felid, specifically a leopard as confirmed by the designer himself 12:01 Which is ironic since we know T. Rex were insanely bulky and sturdy animals

The Raikou form we got may be infinitely more hilarious, but I think it's equally as good as Subjectively's design. So cool

I can't understand how you absolutely nail the designs everytime.... i can probably confirm now if we get paradox for the other beasts... yours will still be my favorite

I love the swords of justice, so as a fan I can fairly say that you nailed their designs.

When looking back at your first video creating the mazah starters, it's insane to see how well your art has improved, not just with pokemon but with everything!

These designs are so incredible and just make me love these oddballs so much more. No hate, but I was (maybe weirdly) expecting Raikou to be some kind of sauropod. In my head that kind of fit with the other two. Then you made it a pterosaur. I LOVE IT. I love the variety that comes from the three similar feral designs that they started with. Raikou also kind of reminds me of that flying bird colossus from Shadow of the Colossus.

Every time I look at the future paradox forms I can't help but think how much better they would have been if they were based on the concept of speculative evolution rather than just robots

Somehow while I heard you explaining your points I knew you would've ended going for that way with raikou, nailing most of your designs like always!

I love how skilled you are at capturing the things that make pokemon look official, these are exactly what I imagined after walking wake and iron leaves dropped and I love them all. Paradox entei especially I’ve found most artists attempts haven’t quite worked for me but yours is perfect

I still think designers need to take into account how future paradoxes tend to move and change forms when they attack. That’s where those designs really shine. But I still feel many people ignore that and this is the best space for me to talk about them design wise

The new gesture's and emotions of the drawing representation of you are absolutely awesome .

I'm so glad you didn't take the easy way out with Raikou with a saber tooth, much more fun and interesting to see how you can twist that design into something else. Love these so much and I really hope we get paradox forms of the other 2 at some point!

literally went "OOHH!" aloud at my screen when the horns appeared on the quadruped Entei design, good work there.

As always, the legendary beasts LOOK AMAZING!!! Easily my favorite legendary trio, and these forms fit just as well!

Had to come back here after seeing Paradox Cobalion and Paradox Raikou.

Oh man the legendary beasts look SO GOOD the way you drew them!

10:08 Some may say this pokemon is MOTIVATED and it can "bury the light"

As a classic Subjectively fan (been here since the “We Fixed…”/Worst of Gen 4 vid dropped) I am really happy with how the direction of the channel has gone. Subjectivity was always a factor of course, but the continued emphasis on Constructive Criticism and teaching instead of tearing things down has made this one of my favorite channels for a fun time and for some new knowledge. Thank you for sticking it out and continuing to provide us all with such great content!

Here's a conundrum about the future Paradox formes I'm surprised doesn't get enough notice: how come they all have to have the Iron prefix? Just holds back the potential of the types of designs we could see. Why not Neon, Astro, even Steel?

When the art on the thumbnail legitimately made me think this was an official reveal, I think it's safe to say you nailed it

Good job! I can really imagine Iron Bulwark extending its neck to use the head/face+horns as a ram. Basically like a tortoise, with a reall long thin neck thingy. Really funny.

the past suicune looks SO cool and then theres future virizion, just stomping the future mon design possibilities into the mud

that pterosaur raiku is a stroke of genius. as soon as i understood what you were doing i was floored. great shit

I was just thinking “It would be so cool if you made a pterosaur Raikou, but that’s not gonna happen.”. And then you did it and I love it so much.

Jack, I'm so glad you touched on the design impetus of the future Paradox Pokémon. 5:11 This is one of the reasons why I love the future Paradoxes, they really seem designed to represent the future of Pokémon games and design- with much more emphasis on the animations and textures that are possible with more powerful modern hardware. I love seeing their animations and going "I didn't know they could do that!" Meanwhile, the past Paradox Pokémon's design ethos seems to be more inspired by the past (of Pokémon design), but with a modern twist. They're like regional variants with a shared theme. To me, their designs seem to straddle the line between Mega Evolution and true regional variants, with more detail being added to designs that are somewhat simple compared to modern Pokémon design. They really prioritize the fantastical element of Pokémon- they put the "monster" back in Pocket Monsters.

now THAT are accurate paradox future designs I can see being real

My only (kind of smal) issue is that Rumbling Roar's pose doesnt let the triceratops inspiration read a lot, the bif g "crest" which is the most iconic part of the tops is just too obscured by the angle, it takes more than a couple of seconds to connect the dots. Besides that fantastic stuff as always!!

Now that I see raging bolt and iron crown I will admit that I like your version of paradox raikou better since raikou makes more sense as a pterosaur than a mega sauropod and I think I like your paradox cobalion but only because it looks more like the original cobalion than iron crown

I love what you did with Raikou. And you are absolutely right, it's not a dog nor a tiger, it's a Pokémon.

Very nice ideas for the Legendary 'Dogs' and really excited for the Quetzalcoatl Ho-oh, Retro-future DJ Keldeo & Brail Unknown designs.

13:22 every time you say Rumbling Roar just takes me back to Team Starkid’s A Very Potter Musical and Draco’s ramblings about a better school called Pigfarts, it’s on Mars, and the headmaster is a magical talking lion called Rumble Roar 🤣

Haven’t seen it yet but already gonna love it!

I appreciate your sword of justice designs feeling so faithful to the real pokemon aesthetic and could totally see these being the actual designs for them. I also love the paradox entei very much. When it comes to raikou though, personally I would have preferred a more stegosaurid approach, but the pterosaur does work well too, and I really appreciate someone finally pointing out that pterosaurs are NOT dinosaurs. It's refreshing to hear someone I watch that isn't a dinosaur themed content creator point that out for once.

I had to put my fakemon drawings on hold for a while until I perfect a certain other project but I’ll eventually get back onto the drawings once I improve on my skills

Jack: "Terrakion has an uncanny human-like face." Me: Yup, that's actually valid, kupo.

Why is every one of these so on point oh my god I wish these were real

I personally like the 3 main swords of justice. Your paradox designs look fantastic!

I’m in love with the paradox pokemon and I’ve always been a Dino nerd so Entei and Raikou made me SO HYPED I love them so much!! (Same for Walking Wake omg I was so happy with the official design)

“I think it is because of how its legs bend in the wrong way” THANK YOU. This is a recurring error in Pokémon official design and animation that makes me scream as a vet. It’s like no at Game Freak has actually seen a horse or a cow or anything move.

I really love Iron Sentinel's chest-wheel design. Gives me a feeling of a turbine or a magneto, something meant to generate electricity...which plays into the theme, and could also give it some sort of power tied to magnetism, if you wanted to lean into the "iron" and "electric" vibe. Also, I kinda get a subtle kaiju vibe off the past Paradox take on the other two Legendary Beasts...particularly Screeching Sky. Like, not a one-for-one translation, but I get a strong feeling of creatures like Rodan looking at that design.

GOD I jjust LOVE the tiger-pterosaur design of raiku. like it LOOKS like it can walk and run on all fours, and like the wings would fold in like a flying squirrels flaps, and fit the raiku sillhuouette, but then it can stand back up on two legs, lift its arms, and just sour into the clouds! its so fucking sick.

These are all great! I think the first idea that came to mind for Raikou as a Past Paradox would be a Pachycephalosaurus. Raikou has the big plate on its head and with the stereotype about the pachy is that it would charge and ram into other, it kinda fits with a strong fast electric type!

I once read a theory that Area Zero actually creates the Paradox Pokemon from the mimds of those who enter, instead of them actually being from the past/future. The scientists in Scarlet expected to find pre-historic Pokemon, so thats what they got. When tje player finds the artikels & drawings made of them, they too expect these Pokemon, so thats what we find. But since they arent really pre-historic, we end up with a karikature, something a kid would imagine and their designs reflect this. Your designs also do this really well!

The one detail about Suicune that I really like is that it was created by Ho-Oh when it was resurrected after the tower burned down. Meaning that in order for Walking Wake to exist, it had to have been Resurrected by Ho-Oh or even a prehistoric counterpart

Subjectively fans when he actually gets subjective: 🤯🤯🤯🤯

These are awesome! The only note I really have is for the past forms of the legendary beasts. In a previous video you pointed out how the past paradox forms all bear some kind of punk aesthetic with eyeshadow and wild hair. The stays true for Walking Wake but I don’t see much of that in Rumbling Roar or Screeching Sky. I personally can’t think of a way you could’ve made Mohawk imagery work in these designs but I’d love to see how you do it if you ever revisit them.

I much prefer the Raikou Pterasur then the actual art . I realize that this was made before the actual art , but much prefer your take on Raikou.

I bet screeching sky was the most fun to make. I wouldnt change anything except the beak. A saber tooth with wings sounds amazing

I can 100% say that these designs are SO GOOD!

this has to be one of my favourite of your videos to date, i love the prehistoric ones, and the future forms make amazing designs out of quesitonable origins which is amazing in itself! love your content thank you so much for making these!

Few thoughts: Firstly, I think these are all great designs. I actually like Terrakion a little bit because of how much I used it in BW, but I'm not the biggest fan of Cobalion. Either way, the futuristic interpretations are very fun, and I enjoy them both. I think the past versions of Entei and Raikou are also great, and I'm very glad you moved past doing all therapods and shook it up, as it's a much more interesting group dynamic because of it. And, though no one probably wants to hear it, their designer did come out and say they were supposed to be based on cats (Entei is a Lion, Raikou is a Tiger, Suicune is a Leopard), though, over 20 years later and with tons of preconceived biases about them, it really doesn't matter outside being a cool factoid. My only issue, and this isn't a Jack thing, this is an everyone-who-tries-designing-Paradoxes thing, is that Pokémon names are only 12 symbols max, and fake Paradoxes frequently break that. My headcanon about Walking Wake, is that it's heavily implied that the current Raikou, Entei, and Suicune were a Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon resurrected by Ho-oh during the Burned Tower incident (use of their silhouettes in flashback, the Kimono Girls dealing exclusively in Eeveelutions), and Ho-oh is an immortal phoenix, so what if it just has an aesthetic it resurrects things as? Like, everything takes on a rough form resembling the beasts, and the only reason they're as similar as they are now is because they're all based of a single, branching Pokémon line. So Walking Wake is just an ancient Pokémon that Ho-oh took on as a herald. I know you've already done 2 Paradox videos, but if you were to do a third, might I suggest doing Latios and Latias? Having one of them be an ancient and lean into the dragon while the future version leans into the jet plane would be very cool.

As someone who loves Cobalion, I can confirm that I do in fact love the design you came up with 😂

The future paradox Pokémon really all get made by their animation. They’re some of the best animated Pokémon of all time. It makes up for the blandness of some designs for me

I immediately shouted "YES!" when you got to Raikou and made it a pterosaur. I saw an artist on twitter do the same thing and I hoped you would as well, once you decided to make Entei a ceratopsian! I think Entei's form could have turned its "mane" into more of a frill, but I did like the direction you went instead of making them all theropods. I actually really like what you did with Terrakion and Cobalion. I was really disappointed that Virizion is just Virizion as a robot, when all the other future forms have huge variances in their designs, but still read as the pokemon they're pulling from (like Iron Moth's floating diamond shaped wings, or Iron Bundle's ski-feet and extendo-neck). But you took Cobalion and turned its chest floof into a freaking motor and it just makes its electric typing make so much sense.

Awesome to see more

Oh I REALLY love pterosaur Raikou. That kicks so much ass dude

wow, you actually made a good futuristic pokemon. nice work! i love that terrakion

Atlast a designer who doesn't over exaggerate the design

I loved Raikou’s and Entei’s design, I had a similar thought for how both would look, down to the winged design for Raikou. The fact that we both had a very similar idea for how the paradox forms should look just made me love them even more!

Damn, you created the first future paradox Pokemon that I actually like! 😅 I really like the smoke stack on Cobalion and the axe + boosters on Terrakion!

i was there in the beginning when you used to just rag on designs and i remember really not liking your content but im glad to have been keeping watch and seeing your channel grow to where it is now!!

When paradox Verizion came out I thought to myself out of all the swords of justice they should’ve done Terakion. Jack your art is exactly how I imagine it would’ve been. Paradox Raiku is my favorite also. Great work!

You made such a stiff unbending costume looking Pokémon and turned it into like one that actually looks kind of dope. Actually looks like a leader and a badass one at that. I like to think of the future forms ping people who modeled creatures after a very, very, very ancient legendary. Pokémon that has old is they are in current times become myths rarely seen in the future. Someone modeling a trio to protect royalty is a cool concept

I kinda like how the beast designs are mixed with easily recognizable past motifs whether it be Dino related or cave man. I’d love to see them not only do this but be inspired by specific prehistoric creatures

I love the Swords of Justice so these future paradox forms are AMAZING!! I love the addition of actual mechanics. I think adding that to Iron Leaves would’ve made me like it more

You smashed it on the legendary beastosaurs

The way jack shares my exact opinions on the future forms and the sword trio, even the fact that v is my fav. I would honestly love to see him do one that fits into the sensibilities establish in the games and then one where he takes his own creative liberties and actually get creative with the future paradox form concept. The past ones are dope though.

Can Game Freak just hire you already? You’ve DOWNLOADED the rendering process. Awesome work :)

Would love to see your take on Ancient Slaking and maybe an ancient bug pokemon. Bugs were crazy back then.

Zapdoes: that Dino stole my look

I've always loved Entei and you knocked its Paradox form out of the park! I really hope if they give it a paradox form down the road, that it looks similar to your design

My theory for the legendary dogs is that when they were first risen from the dead by Ho-oh and given their new forms, their paradox/prehistoric forms were their true forms. Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense, because the story goes after they were seen by the public, they were treated as monsters and were feared by all. Looking at the dogs it was hard to understand why they were monsters, but now that they look like monsters, things start to fall in place.

My first thought for Raikou was using a sauropod of all things. The most famous long neck is Brontosaurus, literally called the "Thunder Lizard"

Absolutely love the pterosaur version of raikou! I love the parallel that is implied to Zapdos (even if you didn't mean to) just seems that much more interesting.