Ash’s Charmander in Pokémon The anime is infamous for its tragic origins of being abandoned by its abusive trainer, but one Pokémon manga overcame it by making its trainer more of a fool.
In the first episode of Charmander, Ash and co. found Charmander waiting on a rock for its trainer to return. It won’t go with them, so they leave it there and continue to the nearest Pokémon Center. There, they overhear a trainer laughing about his abandonment of Charmander, prompting Ash to nearly fight him. Ash goes out to get Charmander and finds it crouched in the rain, desperately trying to protect his tail flame. Even then, Charmander didn’t want to leave until there was no other choice in the matter. Ash eventually brought Charmander to his team, making it one of the saddest stories in Pokémon.
Charmander’s partner manga just thought it was abandoned
In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, a manga adaptation of the anime’s plot, chapter 7 revolves around a hidden village where abandoned Pokémon are rumored to arrive. Pikachu is separated from Ash and stumbles upon abandoned Squirtle and Meowth, who attempt to convince Pikachu that Ash has abandoned it too. They meet a Charmander sitting under a leaf, just like in the anime, and it joins them too. However, Pikachu knows that Ash is searching for the hidden village, so he agrees to go with them in hopes of running into Ash.
Of course, Meowth turns out to be from Team Rocket, and they attack the village to steal Pokémon. After Team Rocket was repelled, a human wandered to the village of abandoned Pokémon, but it wasn’t Ash – rather, it was Charmander’s original trainer. It turns out that Charmander’s trainer didn’t intentionally abandon it, but was actually in a coma for at least 10 days. Based on the character’s design and voice, it’s clear he was intended to be Damian, Charmander’s trainer in the anime. He’s been looking for Charmander everywhere and the two are happy to be reunited.
Despite the happy ending, what’s worse is that Charmander just thinks its trainer has abandoned it and is persuaded to leave, nearly tearing the pair apart due to a tragic accident. Since Damian wasn’t a fool in this continuum, he eventually got his Charmander back, meaning Ash never got it, even though he did get another Charmander in the end. he caught off-screen. For those who have remembered Charmander long-awaited sadly in the rain, rest assured knowing that on at least one subsequent occasion, his loyalty was rewarded with one of these Pokémongreatest reunions.
