Ash's Charizard

**Charizard** is one of Ash's most powerful Pokémon. When time reset he reverted into a Charmander and ended up in the care of Melanie, the original owner of Ash's Bulbasaur. When he was gifted to Ash alongside Bulbasaur he became Ash's sixth Pokémon obtained.

## Personality and Characteristics

Charizard is a proud Pokémon and puts a lot of pressure on himself to continually prove his strength, oftentimes in battle. When he was first reminded of The Old Timeline, he was horrified that the strength he had worked so hard for was stolen from him. This prompted him to rigorously train himself both alongside Ash and independently in order to evolve once again and get to where he used to be.

Both times Charizard evolved it was a result of him battling small unassuming Pokémon. This hurt Charizard's pride to an extent with him declaring that his "official opponent" was something much more impressive.

Charizard suffers from Attrice Syndrome, which developed thanks to the trauma of being left alone due to Kaia's accident and Damian's abuse. Thanks to his memory being restored of the Old Timeline acting as therapy, he has largely gotten over the worst of the symptoms and is able to live a healthy life not always at Ash's side. He is still very protective of his family and friends, which may partially be influenced by his disorder.

Charizard also has taken it upon himself to help care for and train Ash's younger and/or weaker Pokémon, taking a lot of pride in his role of Togepi's development in particular.

## History

### The New Timeline (Past)

Charmander was originally given to a trainer named Kaia by Professor Oak a few years before the beginning of the story, but on her way to Viridian City, a swarm of Spearow attacked them. In order to protect him, she returned him to his Poké Ball and took the flock's wrath, losing her eyes.

Charmander was cared for by the Viridian City Nurse Joy and diagnosed with Atrice Syndrome. He was put up for adoption and taken in by Damian. Damian was a neglectful trainer and didn't feed him for six months, keeping him in his Poké Ball for much of that time. Due to this, his skills atrophied to the point where he continually lost battles and earned Damian's scorn. Two of these battles being against Misty and her Wingull, and Cross and his Incineroar. He eventually encountered Kaia again, where her new Growlithe thoroughly thrashed him, causing him to lose faith in humanity.

### Rota Arc

Eventually Damian abandoned him and he was taken in by Melanie. He became distant and refused to interact with anyone for weeks.

When Ash restored his memories, the rush of The Old Timeline acted as a lifetime of therapy, and minimized the symptoms of the Atrice Syndrome. He however developed an obsession in regaining the strength and power he had as a Charizard.

### Cerulean Arc

Charmander was used in Ash's gym battle with Daisy, fighting and defeating Kingdra albeit with an unintentional power boost from Ash's bloodline ability.

### Vermilion Arc

Charmander acts as one of the attackers during a training session with Ash's active Pokémon party for some of the members to learn the Counter Shield technique.

In front of the Vermilion City Gym, Ash is stopped by a couple punks who battle and quickly lose to Charmander with their Magnemite. He is then used in the actual gym battle against Lt. Surge after Bulbasaur faints to the Gym Leader's Joltik. After defeating Joltik, Charmander evolves much to his disappointment of his opponent not being "badass" enough. Charmeleon then steps aside and allows Pikachu to close the battle against Surge's Raichu.

On the S.S. Anne, Charmeleon was used in many battles so Ash could participate in a Poké Ball bobbing event. At the end of all these battles Charmeleon was left undefeated.

### Hunter J Arc

While having a training match against Misty and her Wingull, they were interrupted by Team Rocket. When he tried to fight off the trio, to his and all of his allies surprise he was knocked out by Koffing's Return attack. This was a massive blow to Charmeleon's pride and angered him immensely. He soon started up his training again with a even larger intensity.

When Charmeleon was brought out in Hunter J's airship, it was to get his opinion on a petrified Dragonite that Ash and Pikachu recognized. He quickly confirmed that it was in fact Iris' Dragonite from the Old Timeline, before they were all quickly separated from it by a armored panel that slid into place. They then had to fight their way through a bunch of hired mooks with Charmeleon taking a large role in their defeat. Eventually they were confronted by J herself and Charmeleon was overpowered by her Pokémon both when combining his efforts with the rest of Ash's team and by himself when he utilized his newly discovered capability to use Fire Pledge. Luckily they were able to escape thanks to a Goomy, found by Aipom, releasing a Bide attack after being hit by a blow from J's Salamence. This blew a hole in the wall of the airship, sucking Ash and his Pokémon out into the open skies. Even though Charmeleon tried to evolve in order to make it so they could land safely, he was unable and Ash returned him to his ball before they reached the ground.

Later when Iris declared she was going to chase after J, Ash's Pokédex talked her down claiming that she might have a slim chance of succeeding if she was able to defeat Charmeleon with her Excadrill. She agreed to try, but was defeated by Charmeleon who was winded but still capable of continuing. Afterwards Charmeleon was sent back to Oak's Lab for the first time since time reset. He used the opportunity to train in different ways than were possible on the road.

### Battle Dome Tournament Arc

Charmeleon rejoined Ash's active roster and continued his intensive training. When given the opportunity he battled other Pokémon travelling with them, including a Metal Claw only match with Iris' Excadrill.

Charmeleon was later used in a battle against Paul's Grotle that he easily won, only to find out that they threw the match in order to set up Stealth Rocks.

### Celadon Arc

Charmeleon fought in an underground fight ring in Celadon City. He won the competition and the prize money for Ash who then gave it to Anthony in exchange for directions.

### Poison War Arc

Charmeleon battled alongside Squirtle in the Crimson City Battle Club defeating at least one trainer with a Weepinbell and Drowzee. He then fought, partnered with Snivy, against A.J.'s Butterfree and Beedrill. Where the two starters managed to pull off an easy win.

In Gringy City, while Ash and company were infiltrating the power plant, he brought out Charmeleon to help fight off the enthralled Poison-types. Eventually they all split up, with Charmeleon and Snivy going off together. The two ended up finding themselves surrounded by opponents and had to work together to fight them off. Once the majority were defeated Charmeleon used a tail swipe to get knock away a final Weedle and upon doing so started to evolve. Being embarrased that his evolution was once more caused by a small "insignificant" Bug-type, Charizard claimed that officially it was the fearsome Deathropod not a Weedle that was his final opponent. Charizard and the now evolved Servine then met up with Pikachu and Misty's Starmie before the quarter set off to rejoin Ash. Being able to tell Ash was in a room that now had a locked door, Charizard used his new physical bulk to break down the door. Seeing that Belladonna and Aurora had Ash frozen to a wall, he went on the offensive and tackled the former. When Aurora hopped on his back to retaliate, he growled at the girl which prompted Belladonna to use a Poison Fang attack on him. Charizard prepared to retaliate but was stopped by a Golbat. This gave the two Bloodliners enough space to reorient themselves and teleport away using Aurora's Shellder.

### Fuchsia Arc

During the Fuchsia Tag Tournament, Ash used Charizard to battle in the third round alongside Red and his Persian with the two are set to fight against a Ninetales and a Misdreavus. Charizard and Persian are able to work together really well covering each other's weaknesses to seemingly take the win without too much difficulty.

Charizard later helps Ash burn away some brambles in the Safari Zone while the trainer searches for the Tauros herd. He isn't happy to have to do this, but agrees because Ash promises to use him in the upcoming gym battle. Due to the presence of Janine's "Toxic Rocks" technique (a combination of Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes) he is unable to fulfill this promise.

## Moves

### As Charizard

**Currently Known**

* Flamethrower
* Dragon Claw
* Iron Tail
* Flame Charge
* Seismic Toss
* Slash

**Previously Known**

* Metal Claw (Morphed into Iron Tail)
* Dragon Tail (Morphed into Dragon Claw)
* Scary Face

### As Charmeleon

* Dragon Tail
* Metal Claw
* Flame Charge
* Flamethrower

**Previously Known**

* Ember (Evolved into Fire Pledge)
* Fire Pledge (Evolved into Flamethrower)

### As Charmander

* Ember
* Metal Claw
* Dragon Tail
* Flame Charge

## Links

1. ↑ https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/EP011