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384: Rayquaza

Just as Kyogre is to sea, and Groudon is to land, Rayquaza is to sky. It acts to quell the rivalry between the other two, at least in the story of Emerald version. Mostly by hollering at them. Understandable.

Rayquaza's design is cool, we guess it HAS been a bit since the last serpentine dragon, so here's a cool one to fill in that niche. We do like how it doesn't really have any wings, just more airplane fins. The head shape is neat and that face is plenty menacing. The color scheme is pretty cool too, the green, goldish yellow, and red coming together nicely. It's just a bit busy, but nowhere near as cluttered as Groudon felt. As such, it doesn't QUITE beat out Kyogre for us, but it's still a decently cool design, if a bit basic. Rayquaza's appeal is simple, but it does that simple appeal pretty well!

Wanna see me create a tier all to myself?

Mega Rayquaza:

So, with that in mind, imagine how we feel about Mega - not Primal - Rayquaza here. It makes the fins finnier, the horns bigger and shooting laser streamers. ALSO it has gemstones down its body, ALSO it have a bunch of badass 2000s tattoo markings on its face, ALSO its tailfins are long, flowing tendrils now, ALSO it has mandibles, ALSO-- yeah, it's a design with a metric asston going on. And it's very easy to judge it for going a little too overboard, but it actually kinda rules like this? Not that it's elevated SUPER high, but it feels like if ANY Legendary was gonna go entirely too extra, Rayquaza's the one that deserves it, as THE Legendary dragon that came before all the other Legendary dragons.

It's not even ALL mindless doo-dads either. The "mandibles" it has is a pretty cool visual for it, actually. It makes its face even cooler than it already was. And we like how the stream of light looks to be the yellow markings that went down its body in its base form, just "peeled" off. It also just looks appropriately ornate and fancy, like a living eastern dragon statue of some kind. For somehow taking... all THAT and making it work, Rayquaza gets a big thumbs-up.