>gen 1: Charizard is your starter and your game mascot in RGB, it's your "secondary starter" in Yellow too
>gen 2: Charizard with worse movepool and without flying type is your starter in GSC, it's the only pokemon the two final bosses (Red and Lance) have in common too and included in the game intro just because
>gen 3: No Charizard in RSE, but see gen 1 (because we remade gen 1, it's FRLG now)
>gen 4: No Charizard in DPPt, but see gen 2 (becase we remade gen 2, it's HGSS now)
>gen 5: Charizard is a bridge in a region without Charizards in both BW and B2W2
>gen 6: Charizard is your "secondary starter", it's one of the only two pokemon with two Mega-evolutions too, all in XY. No Charizard in the remade RSE (ORAS), tho.
>gen 7: Charizard is a HM Fly in a region without Charizards in both SM and USUM, it's your rival's "secondary starter" in USUM too, and it's your "secondary starter" again because we reimagined gen 1 and made Let's Go PikaVee
>gen 8: Charizard is the only Kanto starter native of the new region and the only one with a Gigantamax form too (at least unless you buy a DLC), it's the emblem that represents top tier of cuisine (Charizard Curry), the ace of the final boss (Leon), a pose everyone loves and does and is even required for players that want to evolve a pokémon completely unrelated to Charizard (Milcery) and is praised in-universe as the most popular pokémon of the region, all in SwSh
