>>58976621Kanto literally does not fucking like Charmander
>First two gyms are SE to it>You won't be fully evolved to actually be weak to Surge, but he's a pushover anyway>FINALLY a good fight against Erika>More or less neutral against Koga and Sabrina, might be the best starter at handling Sabrina thanks to Slash>Can't do shit to Blaine>Weak to Giovanni again>SHOULD be good against Lorelei, but half her team is Water so Charizard takes another L here>SHOULD be good against Bruno but only gets Wing Fly in Yellow, when they realized they fucked up>Agatha is neutral>Lance is a wall against all 3 starters, but Blastoise can cheat with BlizzardCharizard has natural popularity by its side, but they pushed it so hard since 2013 that people are fucking sick of it. So Venusaur, also naturally popular, just overtook Charizard because of TPC overshilling Charizard despite the original games being Red and GREEN. Charizard's popularity cultivated from being an option, not THE mascot. This culminates in SwSh damaging its rep due to being shitty games more than anything else this franchise has done to Charizard
Blastoise still remains contrarian shit though. People only pick it cause they actually have beef with Charizard