Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Charmander Family
004: Charmander
Charmander is simple enough as a little fire-lizard. It's cute enough in its own right. I hate to say that with all the praise I've sun about Bulbasaur that this is all I have to say about Charmander here. It's naturally wound up being a Pokemon everyone thinks of when asked for a Fire type. I just find all of Gen 1's other Fire types a little more exciting than it.
Personal Score: 5.5/10
A cute, inoffensive design that doesn’t try too hard to be cute. It just is, and I can respect that.
005: Charmeleon
Once again, standard fair for Starter middle-evos. I feel like Charmeleon is a little more effective than Ivysaur, but even so it's pretty much The Cooler Charmander (or, hotter, I guess?). It looks appropriately cocky and mean, which at least plenty mirrors its anime personality. It's an alright evolution that doesn't change it super-drastically.
Again though, like I said with the Bulby line. Charmeleon here is very clearly not a chameleon at all. Localization just named it that because Arceus-knows-why. Actually now I'm mad. I'm mad at Charmeleon because it's hogging such a badass name that could've gone to an actual fire-chameleon. Salandit’s a poser, this guy’s the real crook!
Personal Score: 6/10
It's an alright lizard. I find plenty of other lizard Pokemon more appealing though.
006: Charizard
Hoo boy.
Maybe it's the combination of overexposure and being bitter about the constant schoolkid teasing. Charizard's very clearly the most popular Gen 1 starter, let alone one of the most popular Pokemon of all time, right? Same was true for my school, and boy, because of that, Venusaur got dumpstered on regularly by the other kids. And in turn, I got harassed for picking the “worst” starter. That's not really Charizard's fault, and nor do I outright dislike it out of spite anymore. Just fyi, that might be painting my opinion negatively a bit.
Even all that aside, it's pretty plain-looking even as a big lizard monster. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a dragon without much of a twist on it. And I do get that simple appeal; I’d be lying if I denied that I’m easy to please in other areas of Pokemon design. And sure, the simple badass factor makes it kind of cool in its own right. Back in the Gen 1 days, we weren’t too spoiled for these big bad lizard types like Charizard. And it’s pretty clear Charizard holds a lot of nostalgic appeal. I got the same feeling, just for a different starter. Maybe in my case Charizard's biggest enemy was age. I like me some lizard monsters, and about all of the lizard Pokemon stick out better for me in one way or another.
I can understand not making Charizard Dragon type back then because then it would trounce both Venusaur AND Blastoise. I've questioned that decision, because surely by the time you'd be fighting Blue's Charizard, you'd have plenty of counters to a Fire/Dragon type. Or at the very least have access to them. I don't get why they didn't at least change it later in a type retcon. Instead, the type retcons got reserved for whenever they introduced new types. There's a lot more counters to Charizard these days, and heck, Rock and Ground types were fairly common in Gen 1. Oh well.
Personal Rating: 6.5/10
I feel like I’ve just dragged Charizard here, but I still kinda like it. But only kinda. I just never saw Charizard as some pinnacle of creature design like it's hyped up to be. But it's not a bad design either, don't get me wrong. There’s just cooler Pokemon out there.
Mega Charizard Y:
Charizard also gets a Mega introduced in X and Y. Y here is a more traditional fresh coat of paint for the old thing. It's slimmed down a bit and is given more horns and an extra set of arm-wings. It's a pretty simple Mega Evolution, arguably changing the least out of most of the Mega Evolutions, but it works for what it is. I think the most subtle improvement is the head shape. Just making it that tad bit sleeker goes miles for making it look cooler. The underbelly color stretching all the way up through its jaw felt like a thing that’s been missing from Charizard.
Personal Rating: 7/10
Mega Charizard Y does what it can to improve good ol' Charizard. I'm not sure how much I would've changed it, to be honest. Credit where credit is due, Charizard isn't a basis that grants a ton of creativity.
Mega Charizard X:
Boy, how many people indifferent to Charizard are sick of it at this point?
Of course, Gamefreak pays up in the Charizard fanservice, and it gets not one, but two Mega Evolutions. Gamefreak admitted one of the factors that helped decide which Pokemon got Mega Evolutions was that Pokemon's popularity. You know what that means? The bordeline mascot for Gen 1 itself comes in two flavors. And even then, Mega Charizard X itself looks like a big piece of fanservice. Let's take Charizard and hand it all the badass tropes. Make it black! Fire is constantly bursting out of its mouth! Wickeder horns! Not to mention it's Dragon type!! Finally!!! It's Pokemon Fanfiction in the form of a Charizard.
But I can commend it for running with it because the end result works so well. It looks like what a kid would make if they were asked to evolve Charizard to some extent, but I'll give credit where credit is due, it looks pretty badass. And me calling it fanservice isn't saying that's a bad thing. Fanservice isn't inherently bad. This is definitely “good” fanservice. At least, something must be doing it right if you're getting someone who's mostly indifferent to Charizard to like it. That over-the-top badassitude is just the thing Charizard needed for a more solid identity.
My one major gripe with it is that it's wings don't look right to me. They look too small and too improperly shaped to keep Charizard up in the air. I'd say maybe that's why it ditches the Flying type but ingame it flies nonetheless. More like Mega Charizard B am I right?
Also, Gamefreak's probably well aware Black Charizard is among the most fan-favorite shinies, so making Mega Charizard X black feels a little on the nose. But again, it's cool so I'll let it slide.
Personal Score: 8/10
Sometimes you just need a jet black blue-flamed devilish hell-dragon.
Overall:
It feels bad being a Debbie Downer on this one, especially after being so positive for Venusaur. Charizard's got plenty of fans on the internet though. And none of them are wrong for it. Charizard's just not my kind of Pokemon.
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