>>39542435I'll also add onto this: Charizard is not a dragon, either. It's based on the mythical Salamander, a powerful fire elemental that was said to be born from flames, would eventually grow wings and fly off to parts unknown, and were also said to bring intense heat and fire wherever they went.
Yes, they look like dragons, but they aren't dragons in the same way that a Toad and a Frog are similar looking but still very much different creatures. The salamanders of myth were living embodiments of fire, and thus I found it perfectly fitting and even quite awesome that not only did they get to be one of the starters, but that they got an accurate representation with their typing.
Fuck, Mega Charizard Y is probably one of my favorite megas period because of how much it expends on charizard's mythical origins, right down to it gaining the ability drought to summon the sun: bringing heat wherever it goes, just like the ancient Salamanders of the old myths did. It's a really damn nice detail that helps it feel complete.
And then Charizard-X ruined the entire design and made it a dragon to cave into genwunner fanservice demands, and then because "MUH DRAGON TYPE" it proceeded to completely overshadow the actually good designed Y and make more people think the damn thing was supposed to be a dragon when it's not. I hate it more for the design because it looks like Coldsteel the Edgehog's own Charizard OC doodles from his middle school days (did they really have to make it pitch black with spikes), but it losing all the uniqueness of being the mythical Salamander to become "just another dragon" is another reason I hate it.
Why do people want these two to be dragons so much? An ancient fish that has impressed the dragon gods so much he's gained honorary status among them and the LIVING EMBODIMENT OF FIRE are way more badass and cool to me than "just another dragon". We see dragons all the time, but those two are something special and that's why I love them so much.
