A Character Study of Ash’s Charizard
Edit: Sorry for any grammar and spelling mistakes. Was not thinking straight when writing this. Edit2: Fixed some of the grammatical errors. Should make it more readable.
My Story with Pokémon
I think most of you have been fans of Pokémon at some point in your life. The rules of the game are simple enough for anyone to understand without any extensive guide. But the games are still somehow complicated enough for any gamer to stay engaged especially if you play competitively. The original game design for Pokémon is really genius when you think about it. The franchise that has been built upon the game is proof of this. I, on the other hand, had never had this experience with the games during my childhood. The first time I ever played a Pokémon game was when I was 17 and I never finished it because I got bored. My only experience with Pokémon was with the anime about the immortal kid known as Ash Ketchup. Now that we have that context out of the way I can get to my main point.
The introduction of Charmander
I initially was not that into Pokémon. I had Animax growing up and most of those shows had vastly more interesting stories than Pokémon. But for me the show got interesting was when they introduced Charmander. Charmander is a fire breathing lizard with fire on his tail which signifies his life force/something. Holy shit this thing is already cool. Ash’s Charmander was initially some other cunt’s Pokémon and was abandoned by him. But Charmander truly believed that his trainer would come back. Even when it was raining and his life was in danger Charmander did not budge.
We can see that he is incredibly proud and loyal. But he ties his importance in life to this master which is fixed by the end of the episode. He flamethrowers the cunt that abandoned him in the face. He was such a badass that he then joins Ash and goes into his Poke Ball. That should be not possible, right? He was still technically some other guy’s Pokémon. He just broke the laws of the universe because he wanted to. Take that Shiroe. Can’t believe a yellow rat is more popular than this guy.
A few episodes later you see Ash is getting chased by a Primape. Ash tries to battle it like an actual trainer for once, instead of running away like a bitch. Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle all get owned by this mad monkey. Even Charmander is getting his ass handed to him. When all hope is lost, that’s when Charmander goes Super Saiyan. Unlike the other morons, he does not give up and rises to the occasion. To a 7-year-old me this was amazing.
Charmeleon: An arrogant Tsundere
As we are aware when Charmander evolved into Charmeleon he became arrogant and stopped listening to Ash. Why would he? Charmeleon is now much stronger than any of other Ash’s Pokémon and Ash is a bitch-faced kid. Little did he know that Ash is an immortal God in disguise. When Ash gets kidnapped by an Aerodactyl, Charmeleon evolves to prove a point. The point being “He may be a bitch-faced 10-year-old but he is my bitch-faced 10-year-old”.
Charmeleon had not even fought once since evolving. But he just evolves again because he is a true BADASS. He is also a true Tsundere and Senjougahara should be taking notes.
Charizard and the desire for Power
One of the interesting ways Charizard distinguished himself from other Pokémon was his intense pride. Most of the other Pokémon fight because their masters want them to. On the other hand, Charizard actively sought out strong Pokémon to test his power. The first time he listened to Ash was to fight Magmar who had proved himself to be a Badass and someone Charizard truly respected.
Since he was so proud he never bothered fighting a yellow rat during the Kanto League. That rat might have technically won but in my opinion got totally owned.
In the Orange Islands Arc, Charizard finally meets his match. A Poliwrath puts Charizard in his place. This is the first time Charizard has ever lost since evolving and is physically and mentally broken. But Ash is there to help him through that. Now he finally starts respecting Ash. He realizes that even though he is strong there are things he cannot accomplish on his own. The power of friendship trumps all. Believe it.
With new motivation and a little help from Team Rocket as always, Charizard reaches new heights through his Dragon Rage. Over time, he even learns to work well with others.
The Hero of the Orange Islands
In the Orange Islands, Charizard fights a well-experienced Dragonite, after taking a lot of damage and defeating an Electrobuzz. Dragonite is no joke, man. Dragonite has a base state of 600. It is greater than or equal to the base state of most Legendary Pokémon. This is the first time Charizard has fought someone stronger than him in terms of raw power. Dragonite is also much faster than him. Despite this Charizard pushes through and gives Dragonite a run for his money.. Even though the battle ends with Pikachu defeating Dragonite, Charizard was clearly the hero.(the only league that Ash ever won).
The Underdog Story (The Heart of Shounen Storytelling)
The Charicific Valley episode is probably my favorite episode in all of Pokémon. So far Charizard has been one of the strongest Pokémon in the series. But in this episode, we see the Oceanic difference between the powers of the other Charizards and him.
He even gets beaten up by the couch-potato of the Charicific Valley. He gets kicked out because he is not strong enough. But he does not give up and decides to stay outside the gate until they let him back in to train. Team Rocket is so moved by this that they attack Charicific Valley with a weak robot. This is so that Charizard can beat them and prove his strength to the other Charizards. This makes Ash’s Charizard a great Shounen protagonist. His resolve forces villains to act in a noble fashion. To reach new heights, Charizard must now leave Ash behind. Charizard basically grew up with Ash. If you are moved by this scene you should get yourself checked out.
After coming back from training, Charizard has become even more badass than ever before. He fought a strong Dragonite yet again. But this time on equal footing. He even defeats a Dragonair with a flaming seismic toss (Holy Shit). Even starts a relationship (Ash should be taking notes). In the Johto League, he defeats 3 of Gary’s Pokémon, 2 of whom had a type advantage against him.
Conclusion
Over the course of the show, Charizard became a favorite of mine. He goes through so many changes over the relatively short time he is in the series. After he starts training in the Charicific Valley, he undergoes a gradual increase in his power. This is a really simple, but effective way of making an uncomplicated story pack a bigger punch. Every time he comes back to visit Ash, he is faster, stronger and with new moves. Even without Ash’s presence, he is constantly trying to improve himself which makes him so endearing. He is the first Pokemon of Ash to defeat a legendary Pokemon (to be fair he had a type advantage). In Generation V, he finally defeats a Dragonite.
Over the 900+ chapters of Pokémon, where Ash and his yellow rat basically reset after every region, Charizard is the only character making progress. Charizard shows us that it is ok to lose a fight. Because all you have to do is to get back up, train and try again. Eventually, you will become whatever it is that you are met to be. That is an excellent thing to write a story about, per Super Eye Patch Wolf.
So many people were talking about how a character in the Sun and Moon Games goes to major character development. But what about Charizard’s character development. He is by far the most human character in the Pokémon Universe and a fucking rat is more popular because he is cuter. Fucking hell.
Give me your thoughts on the subject. BTW, I know the reason Charizard did not listen to Ash so that he loses the League and the story can continue. I also know that Charizard left Ash’s team to make his Gym Battles more challenging.
Posted Jun 22, 2017, 5:55 PM UTC · edited