User blog comment:BannedLagiacrus/Monster Appreciation Week: Rathian(4th Gen)/@comment-28835099-20150613151101

For me, the "Ian" was one of the first handfuls of armor sets I created as a beginner in MH Tri. When I started out, this monster literally scared the crap out of me. However I came to realize, like I think we all do, that if you can beat it once, you can do it again, and again, and again.

Killing it once was somewhat hard, I remember how difficult it was to say that I had actually beat it back in Tri for the first time... However, now coming back to the series and playing MH4U I'm glad to see that the Rathian has not changed too much, and that she still is as exciting to fight as she was when I first started in Tri.

With that, sometimes getting plates for these things is a pain, and my kill record on Tri definitely shows how many kills I had in trying to get plates to make armor and weapons.

Honestly the monster is a good way to shift the focus from mostly ground monsters to "new monsters" which are capable of flying and air based attacks. This makes it a good way to give beginners a new challenge and forces them to learn new tactics or be annihilated.