Ash's Charizard

Ash's Charizard was the fourth Pokémon that Ash caught in the Kanto Region and his fifth overall.

## Personality

Despite being one of Ash's most often used Pokémon, Charmander's evolution saw Charmeleon grow distant from Ash, scorning all of his former friends and seeking power alone. Charmeleon had grown to become like Damian, obsessed with power and reputation while ignoring the value of friendship, loyalty and kindness. Charmeleon's battle with Aerodactyl in *Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon* was purely based on a bruised ego, just as Charizard's later battles with Magmar and Zippo were, and in the case of the post-league celebration, the destruction of the food. Nevertheless, he did retain some degree of loyalty to his master and fellow Pokémon, as the aforementioned incident with Aerodactyl had Charizard barely swooping in to save Ash before completely falling asleep while being affected by Jigglypuff's singing, and also saving Pikachu after Team Rocket blasted off before resuming his rampage, with *Mewtwo Strikes Back* even having Charizard crying for his master when Ash ended up petrified.

Once Ash made the selfless act to save Charizard from freezing in *Charizard Chills*, Charizard finally shook off the poisonous personality traits left by Damian and regained full loyalty to Ash. Charizard has been willing to assist Ash in any battle, ranging from Casey's Chikorita to Falkner's Pidgeot with no complaint. However, Charizard maintained the rebellious Flamethrower attacks as a sign of affection for his master and while Charizard was loyal, his love of power and reputation remained. This was shown significantly in his departure in *Charizard's Burning Ambitions*, where he brashly challenged each of the wild Charizard at Charicific Valley even though he was defeated every time.

Despite retaining his fiery nature and fierce battling spirit, Charizard's return to Ash's regular command in Unova showed that he had significantly matured throughout Liza's training regime. This was displayed in *A Pokémon of a Different Color!*, where he attempted to act as a peacemaker between Clair and Iris's two squabbling Dragonite.

## History

### Prior to Series

Charizard was caught by Ash after he was abandoned by his old trainer, Damian. During Ash's Johto journey, he was left at Charicific Valley to train and was called upon a couple of times to battle for Ash until he took Charizard back during his Unova journey and left him at Professor Oak's lab when he left for his Kalos Journey.

## Gallery

As a CharmanderAs a CharmeleonUsing Fire SpinUsing Seismic TossUsing Wing AttackUsing SlashUsing Dragon TailUsing Thunder PunchUsing Brick BreakUsing Air SlashUsing Flare BlitzCharizard and AshCharizard greeting Ash with FlamethrowerCharizard's Charizardite YUsing Fire Spin as Mega a Charizard YUsing Dragon Tail as Mega a Charizard YDrought activated as a Mega a Charizard Y
## Trivia

* Charizard was the first of Ash's starter Pokémon to evolve to his final stage.
* Charizard became the first Pokémon in the anime to defeat a Legendary Pokémon when he beat Noland's Articuno in *The Symbol Life*.
* Charizard is the only Pokémon Ash has had that refused to obey him after evolving. This behavior was also seen post-evolution in Dawn's Mamoswine and Iris's Excadrill.
* Until the episode *Charizard Chills*, Charizard only seemed to obey Ash when fighting another Fire-type Pokémon. He was obedient when battling against Blaine's Magmar, Mewtwo's cloned Charizard, and Zippo.
* It has become a running gag in the anime that whenever Charizard returns to Ash, he greets him by scorching him with his Flamethrower.
* Out of all of Ash's Pokémon, Charizard holds the record for having the most amount of episodes between his capture and being left in Professor Oak's care, at 788 episodes.