#ash's charizard

[pokemontvtime]

Charmander and Trauma (S1E11)

As Ash proceeds on his Pokemon journey, he ends up picking up a lot of new Pokemon friends.

Few are as iconic, though, as his Charmander, who will eventually evolve into Ash's disobedient Charizard.

It's that disobedience that I really want to delve into today, though.

Ash acquires Charmander after finding it abandoned on a rock. Charmander's trainer, Damian, has told it that he will return to pick it up later, even though he has no intentions of doing so.

Charmander is shown to be an exceedingly loyal Pokemon, who continues to wait and hope that Damian will return even when its life is endangered by doing so. Ash, Misty, and Brock venture out in the middle of a fierce storm to rescue Charmander, knowing that if its flame were to go out it would die.

While a night in the Pokemon center brings it back to tip top shape, it is shown to still feel obligated to wait on Damian to return, still having faith that the trainer it cares for will show it the same care in return.

After a confrontation with Team Rocket, Charmander saves Pikachu, and seems to begin to accept that Damian may not be coming back. It seems to consider traveling with Ash and his friends instead, who have so far shown it kindness.

But just when Charmander begins to consider its new reality without Damian, Damian himself shows up and tries to convince Charmander to return with him instead.

Charmander is torn between its old loyalty and the kindness it has experienced with Ash.

When questioned, Damian admits to Charmander that he had not intended to return, and is glad that its period of abandonment has 'strengthened it up,' so that he didn't have to go through the trouble of training it himself.

This, as well as the support of its new friends, seems to seal Charmander's decision, and it refuses to rejoin Damian, sending him packing (with the help of Ash's Pikachu), and joins Ash on his continuing journey.

While this makes for a very heartwarming episode, and a wonderful backstory for the little Charmander, the end of the episode seems to suggest that most of that story won't be returned to, as it's treated very much like an "adventure of the week."

While Damian himself won't return in future episodes, nor will overt references tying it all up, I think you can point to a lot of Charmander's experiences here and understand how it leads narratively into Ash's disobedient Charizard.

Charmander went through a pretty intense trauma, with abandonment and a near-death experience. It was also told pretty explicitly by a trainer it had once trusted that its only useful was based in its power.

In the episode "March of the Exeggutor Squad," (S1E43), Charmander evolves after an intense fight to prevent the extermination of a herd of Exeggutor. Ash's other Pokemon all failed to disrupt the herd, who were subjected to a Hypnosis attack and began marching toward a town center.

It's shown that only Charmander's flames are able to snap them out of their trance, and the weight of the entire situation falls on Charmander. If it fails, a bomb that was planted will go off, and kill the Exeggutor.

Charmander is able to pull of the feat, and the experience triggers its evolution into Charmeleon.

However, right away Charmeleon doesn't seem to show the same characteristics of Charmander, who'd been to this point an obedient, loyal, and generally sweet Pokemon.

In the following episode, "The Problem With Paras," (S1E44), Charmeleon is asked to battle Paras, but to "take it easy" and let Paras have a free win in order to gain battling confidence.

Charmeleon disregards all these orders and tries to battle all-out.

This continues to be a problem, as two episodes later in "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon," (S1E46), Charmeleon again refused to obey orders, taking a snooze rather than attempting to battle the attacking fossil Pokemon.

Only an attack by Aerodactyl caused Charmeleon to take an interest in the battle. It evolved into Charizard, seemingly in pure frustration at being unable to follow the flying Aerodactyl.

But Charizard didn't obey Ash either, with its primary goal being to attack the Aerodactyl.

Interestingly, though, Charizard is shown to still care, at least in some form, about Ash. In the resolution to the plot, Jigglypuff sings all the people and Pokemon to sleep, including Aerodactyl. Charizard stays awake just long enough to catch Ash mid-air, and make a safe landing on the ground. Somewhere under that exterior of disobedience, Charizard still cares!

Ash would continue to try and coax Charizard into obeying in future battles, but it would seldom work out. Charizard only seemed to show interest in fighting other Pokemon it percieved as strong, and rarely followed Ash's orders when it did so.

Charizard's disobedience ultimately cost Ash his spot at the Indigo League, where Charizard's refusal to battle saw Charizard disqualified, and Ash out of the tournament.

It wouldn't be until Ash's journeys in the Orange Islands that this attitude changed. In the episode "Charizard Chills," (S2E25), Ash battled with a trainer named Tad, who used a Poliwrath.

Charizard attempted to brute force its way through the battle, disregarding Ash's commands and only using its fire. This went very badly for Charizard, who took a bad hit and ended up frozen in ice by an ice attack.

The Pokemon Charizard was fighting, Poliwrath, was very significant, though I didn't realize this myself until I was doing my own reading on the topic.

Apparently, in the original Japanese broadcast of Charmander's appearance (S1E11), Damian's reason for abandoning Charmander is specifically that it was unable to beat a Poliwag in a battle. Thus, the choice of Poliwrath here is likely a nod to this original piece of lore.

Tad leaves, scolding Ash that he should train his Pokemon better, and Ash frantically works to free Charizard, and spends the entire night sitting up with it. Ash's friends help him to build a fire and bring him blankets, and Ash stays up, rubbing Charizard to try and help warm it up.

Charizard at one point begins to panic, lashing out at Ash's attempts to help, but is too weak to actually put up a fight. Ash doesn't let these attempts deter him, and he continues all through the night, talking soothingly to Charizard. He admits, at one point, that he hasn't always done a good job as a trainer, but doubles down that he wants to continue trying to get better.

Charizard, though Ash doesn't know, can hear Ash's words, and though there isn't a spoken monologue here, it is implied that Charizard takes Ash's words and earnest care to heart, and re-examines how it has been treating Ash up till now.

After this incident, Charizard obeys Ash (though it is still shown to have a sometimes-rebellious spirit), and becomes one of the strongest members of his team.

It's easy to come away from the character development with a pretty surface-level thinking, that Ash finally earned Charizard's trust, and was able to begin using it in battles. This would not be wrong at all, and is definitely a piece of the story that the show is telling.

It's also easy to write off, only a slightly deeper note, that the show was attempting to incorporate mechanics from the video games. In the Pokemon games, if a Pokemon is too high a level (usually determined by the number of badges you've earned), it will refuse to obey you. Charizard may have been simply a way for the show to demonstrate what that looks like in the universe of the show. And I definitely think that is a piece of it as well!

However, I think that Charizard's disobedience also makes sense through the lens of a Pokemon steeped in trauma, who is trying to cope with both the trauma and the continued expectations placed upon it.

Charmander moved quickly past the abandonment by its previous trainer, possibly without really processing that, and trying to take on faith that the same thing wouldn't happen again. It then was shown to become one of Ash's most powerful battlers, possibly reinforcing that its value came from its battle prowess. It also then possibly had its trust further eroded when asked to "take a dive" against Paras.

It's not until the past trauma crops back up in "Charizard Chills," (S2E25) that Charizard processes a lot of this, and is reassured that Ash won't abandon it just because it loses a battle, and that it doesn't have to rely purely on itself. A crucial part of its growth is learning that it can trust Ash to have its back, no matter what, and it's important that Ash demonstrates that he always will! In this way, you could look at Charizard's refusal to battle as a test of boundaries.

I love the entire character arc that Charizard goes through under Ash's care. When I started my rewatch, I got curious if there were any fan theories, or further explanations for Charizard's behavior, and reading different perspectives, and seeing the episodes for myself, really got me passionate about what the series had to say about Charmander's trauma.

I was honestly shocked at the depth there was to be found! I could talk about Pokemon all day, and I think there's still aspects that I didn't cover here, but this hopefully gives an overview of a lot of the plot, and some of the underlying meanings.

Posts for another day, though!

[anime-to-the-t]

[textpostmemespksp]

Meme #235

(Image description in ALT text, original images below the cut!) 

[duckapus]

Treecko's introduction in the Eldritch Ash au is kind of funny because technically Ash can heal the tree but his healing powers have side-effects so he has to show Treecko and his family some pictures of Charizard's progression from when they first met so they're aware that if he brings their tree back it'll end up really creepy looking and probably have some weird supernatural properties and potentially might just end up as a giant Trevenant.

Turns out they're into that shit.

[dengekiboys]

Pokemon Journeys episode 141 / Pokemon: Aim to Be a Pokemon Master episode 5

[pokeheadcanon]

"Charizard, Sceptile, and Infernape are competitive sparring partners. Because of this, they are known as “The Monster Trio” by Ash’s other Pokémon."

°°••….••°°

Original: @oakslabratoryheadcanons

°°••….••°°

Got a Pokémon HeadCanon or two? Submit them to either Our Ask Box or Submission Form

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[rainbowdelicsunshine]

Hey guys this is gonna be the weirdest question Ive ever asked in a while but

Does anyone remember a moment from the older Pokemon anime series and movies where Ash's Charizard goes and peeps on a Dragonite through the window of their bedroom as they were getting ready for the day (from what I recall it was the Dragonite from the early series that doubled as the mailman/woman(?)

I was really weirded out by it at the time (I was like four when I first saw it) and it still weirds me out that a scene like that possibly exists

If anyone of my followers/friends who have much more knowledge about the Pokemon anime than I do want to throw in their two cents, please do so in the inbox!

Have an amazing day y'all!!

[n64retro]

[chillvibesandgoodenergy]

Pokemon catch'em all

[boobachu]

Man the animators really put their whole pussy into animating the final battle

God when the theme song came on it was seismic.

Really

[love-is-a-pearl]

Trying to convince myself to like Incineroar

[missashketchum]

Dorm Leaders with Ash's Pokemon!

It's time for Dorm Leaders with Ash's Pokemon headcanons!

Enjoy!

Riddle- Bulbasaur

Bulbasaur is the ringleader of Ash's Pokemon, and Riddle respects it a lot

to be able to keep 50+ chaotic Pokemon in line, despite many of them having the ability to toss Bulbasaur around like a salad

respect

Bulbasaur also has none of the Adeuce shenanigans and is constantly using his vines to stop them

Riddle and Bulbasaur have very peaceful teatime with each other

and by peaceful, I mean the two relax at a table drinking tea and eating cookies

while Ace, Deuce, Grim and Ash goof around

they need the "parental supervision" a Riddle put it

ignoring the fact that Ash has raised Pokemon from eggs like they were her own kids lol

all in all, Riddle and Bulbasaur are actually the most peaceful duo in this entire thing

Leona- Rowlet

ever since Rowlet arrived in TWST, Leona has been waking up with it sleeping somewhere near him

next to him

on his lap

on his shoulder

it was in his hair once

and every single time when he woke up, he would either scare Rowlet awake so it would fly away, or he'd just throw it

but last time he threw Rowlet, Ash threw him, so no more throwing Rowlet

as time went on, he sorta just learned to accept the fact that Rowlet was now his sleeping buddy

and no matter where he hid, he would always be found

no one brings it up to him either, because who wants to tell leona kingscholar that he's getting friendly with a fricking owl

that's right, no one

except Ash, of course >:)

Azul- Dracovish

Azul thoughts Dracovish was kinda derpy (tbh, he kinda still does)

but when he sees Dracovish's Fishious Rend practically obliterate the practice dummies

he suddenly glad that Ash didn't use Dracovish on him when he Overblot...

she did, he just doesn't remember :/

Dracovish was relentless btw

Dracovish loves being petted, and once jumped into the Octavinelle water tank just to make Azul get out of his office

then, once Azul gets out of the office, Dracovish pops out and asks for pets

at this point, Azul caught onto it, but doesn't have the heart to stop it

he won't admit it, but he does like Dracovish

Kalim- Totodile

Kalim and Totodile meet for the first time

then Ash has trouble getting Totodile to go back to Ramshackle with her

the two are immediately glued together and dancing and playing around in the water

jamil is tired

they're literally best friends when the day ends

Kalim and Totodile are hugging each other, huge crocodile tears in their eyes as Jamil and Ash have to physically separate them because it is past curfew, dammit Kalim

Kalim is actually one of the very very few that a majority of Ash's Pokemon like

Totodile especially

did I mention that they're best friends now?

cause they are

it's fun loving Water UM/Type solidarity

Vil- Unfezant

ahhh Unfezant

so agile, so graceful

done so dirty in all of her battles, she deserves better

Vil first meets Unezant as she's flying around with Ash's other Flying-types, and he's never seen a bird do as many elegant aerial tricks as her

is intrigued with how well maintained she is

meanwhile, Unfezant is wondering who the hell this boy is and why he's looking at her like that

is, ironically, unsettled by Vil at first because all he does when he sees her is analyze her, which makes her very uncomfortable

retaliates by sending string gusts of wind to mess up his hair

and Ash has to proceed to tell a very irate Vil that he's making Unfezant very uncomfy and the wind thing was her way of making him stop

guess Rook rubbed off on him more than he's like to admit...

slowly, Vil begins to actually talk to Unfezant, especially complimenting her flying prowess, and Unfezant starts to kind of like him a bit

now messes his hair up as a sign of appreciation :)

Idia- Pikachu

literally who else could I pick?

the biggest lil shit there is >:)

despite being a cat guy, Idia was immediately interested in Ash's only Electric-type

"kinda like a marketable plushie..."

was almost zapped for that comment

but he WAS zapped for picking Pikachu up to look at him

Ash tried to warn him, even went to grab Pikachu back from him

cue Pikachu zapping BOTH of them

cue Ash having to explain that Pikachu does that with people he doesn't like

also cue Ash having to explain that she's used to it because Pikachu literally electrocutes her as a sign of affection

Idia is mildly concerned, but seeing as she isn't hurt he lets it slide

tries to keep making friends with Grim and Pikachu and the two are not having a good time :/

keep the crazy cat boy away from the electric mouse pls

Malleus- Charizard

“ah, what a fearsome yet protective dragon you have”

“but… Charizard’s not a dragon…?”

cue blue screen

he even has Ash pull it up on one of her Pokédex’s

sure enough, not a dragon

at this point, with what happened with iris, Ash is used to people mistaking Charizard for a dragon

Charizard, however, is a bit ofended (cuz that's just how he is 😅)

so he tries to flame Malleus

doesn't work on him, but Ash gets caught in the crossfire and gets covered in soot

cue malleus being genuinely concerned for the human

cue ash having to explain she's used to it and it's a sign of affection

again

rather impressed with Charizard's display of moves

"dragon tail?"

"he's not a dragon >:T"

[kanaeink]

Charizard Art

I colored this in Acrylic paint pens, trying out a more painterly style now. I’m pleased with how it’s turned out! 🔥

I know it’s been a while since my last post 😅 bear with me, hoping to have some new sketchbook artwork like this to show you soon.

[every-natural-harmonia-gropius]

[mr-urple]

he’s a little stupid

[slutpoppers]

Red vs the Elite Four - Pokemon Origins (2013)