Growlithe and Arcanine

Growlithe
The Puppy Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 58
Entry: An extremely loyal dog-like pokémon, growlithe is eager to execute any order to the best of its ability, and when not given an order, it tends to remain perfectly still. Yet at the same time, when ordered to guard a home or valuables, it will bark and bite at anything that is not its trainer, even if that anything is another human being. If the reader believes that these two states are not contradictory, then one has not watched a growlithe happily stand by and watch their owner get robbed on the streets of Goldenrod City because it has not been ordered to attack.

Arcanine
The Legendary Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 59
Entry: The evolved form of growlithe, by exposure to fire stone. In China, arcanine are widely regarded as legendary pokémon. Given the commonness of growlithe and the fact that arcanine is not regarded so highly anywhere else in the world, you would think this would result in major debates across the planet concerning religion, culture, and the definition of “legendary pokémon,” but somehow, the human race has gotten along just fine without talking about it.

Vulpix and Ninetales

Vulpix
The Fox Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 37
Entry: A small, fox-like pokémon known for its beautiful tails, of which it has six when fully grown. While young, this pokémon’s fire abilities are mediocre at best, and its strongest move, Fire Blast, is roughly as potent as a charmeleon’s Flamethrower. However, in rare cases, vulpix may be born with the passive ability Drought, which allows it to subconsciously call down intense sunlight to strengthen any fire-type move used in its presence. Incidentally, this small, fox-like creature shares the aforementioned ability with the legendary behemoth of the earth, Groudon, a beast known for nearly destroying the world beneath the unrelenting sunlight it called forth. …Which is to say that the pokémon world is a bizarre and terrifying thing sometimes.

Ninetales
The Fox Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 38
Entry: The evolved form of vulpix, via exposure to fire stone. The legend that a ninetales will lay a thousand-year curse on you if you touch one of its tails is exactly that: a legend and therefore not true. What is true, however, is the fact that ninetales are generally sensitive about their tails and will set you on fire if you so much as accidentally brush up against one.

Kanto Legendaries, Part I

Articuno
The Freeze Pokémon
Type: Ice/Flying
Official Registration #: 144
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of ice and winter winds. According to legend, Articuno appears before lost travelers on snowy mountains to guide them to safety. Other legends refer to its ability to conjure strong blizzards and freeze entire bodies of water with each flap of its translucent wings. And still others have put two and two together and come up with the fact that it’s rather suspicious that you have a bird who can conjure blizzards by flapping its wings appearing before travelers who are lost on icy mountains thanks to blizzards. But that is, as the saying goes, none of this writer’s business.

Zapdos
The Electric Pokémon
Type: Electric/Flying
Official Registration #: 145
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of lightning and thunderstorms. According to legend, Zapdos once lived in the mountains of eastern Kanto, where it called down the thunder to spark forest fires and bring about the spark of rebirth. Nowadays, it lives in the Cerulean Power Plant, and workers there are perfectly fine with this because who wants to be the one to tell the ornery embodiment of thunderstorms that it can’t roost wherever it merry well pleases?

Moltres
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Official Registration #: 146
Entry: The Kantonian spirit of fire and spring zephyrs. According to Kantonian legend, Moltres flew on a pair of dazzling wings that conjured incredible bursts of flames with every flap. These same legends state that Moltres would dive into volcanoes and use lava to repair its injuries, that it could control blazing infernos, and that its mere presence can quell a raging blizzard. And meanwhile, in Kanto’s neighbor to the west, Johtonian legend states it flies south for the winter like a common swellow and comes back to make our crops grow. This may or may not be one of the many reasons why Kantonians are a little judgmental towards their western neighbors.

Kanto Starters II: Charmander

Charmander
The Lizard Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 4
Entry: One of three pokémon traditionally offered to new trainers at the beginning of their journeys in Kanto. Many people believe that out of the three, charmander are the hardest to raise. This is a fairly understandable statement. Charmander are naturally energetic, and their fire element means they don’t do well against Pewter or Cerulean’s gyms. More importantly, however, charmander are considered a challenge to raise because of the flame at the tip of their tails. A physical representation of charmander’s health and emotions, this flame must be meticulously kept, not only because allowing it to become extinguished would kill the host charmander but also because it is an actual flame that will react to Kanto’s abundance of fields full of dry, tall grass just about as well as you think it would.

Charmeleon
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire
Official Registration #: 5
Entry: The evolved form of charmander, by battle experience. Charmeleon are thought to be merciless, bloodthirsty pokémon that will attack foes with their sharp claws and intense flames. This is not necessarily true. While some charmeleon are indeed that aggressive, the vast majority of them are actually simply outgoing. It just so happens that the flame on a charmeleon’s tail grows hotter and taller whenever its host is excited, and charmeleon itself is a very excitable pokémon. As for the note concerning its claws, evidently, a charmeleon’s first instinct upon accidentally setting its new friends on fire with its tail is to smack the flames in an attempt to smother them with their hands. It’s just that charmeleon also unfortunately forget that they have claws, so their attempts to help are often not particularly helpful.

Charizard
The Flame Pokémon
Type: Fire/Flying
Official Registration #: 6
Entry: The evolved form of charmeleon, by battle experience. Stories throughout Europe tell of ancient charizard flying on giant wings and using its flame breath to burn the countryside, the peasants, and the people in their thatched-roof cottages. Only heroes brave enough and with water-types strong enough were able to vanquish this threat and bring peace to the land. Of course, the validity of these claims are debatable. While charizard’s preferred fighting style is indeed a combination of flying over its opponents and breathing flames that reach temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees, historical evidence seems to point to the notion that the stories concerning giant charizard terrorizing the countryside were made up by bored young men who would have liked to think they were braver, funnier, and more attractive than they actually were.

The Litwick Line

Litwick
The Candle Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fire
Official Registration #: 607
Entry: Litwick are known for two things. First, they exclusively inhabit old mansions and other stately buildings. Second, they feed on the life force of those who mistake its cute smile, its candle-like appearance, and its eagerness to help for an actual attempt to lead lost travelers to safety. Due to both of these facts at once, litwick encounters are among the highest causes of death for anyone who has seen the film Beauty and the Beast in recent years.

Lampent
The Lamp Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fire
Official Registration #: 608
Entry: The evolved form of litwick, by battle experience. More benevolent compared to the other members of its evolutionary line, lampent do not prey on the living but rather wander the streets of populated areas and feed on the dead. For this reason, lampent are popular to keep within the house as wards against evil spirits, but it should be kept in mind that this also means that lampent are rather tasteless gifts for the elderly. (For this reason, lampent are extremely popular gifts for the elderly in their home region of Unova.)

Chandelure
The Luring Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Fire
Official Registration #: 609
Entry: The evolved form of lampent, by exposure to dusk stone. While not necessarily any more docile or benevolent than its previous forms, chandelure are not known for actively hunting down prey. Instead, they lures prey into their flames by maneuvering their arms in hypnotic loops, and once prey is ensnared, chandelure passively allow their fire to consume the prey whole. Fifty years ago, Unovan children liked to “help” chandelure out by making a game out of attempting to get as close to one’s flames as possible without being burned, resulting in massive numbers of children being burned alive by this pokémon. The only thing that stopped these numbers from climbing any higher were newly enacted evolution stone control laws, put in place not because of the massive amounts of childhood deaths to pokémon that evolve by dusk stone but instead because the Unovan government realized exactly how much money they could make off state-controlled sales of evolution stones. There are groups in Unova who vehemently oppose such laws, less because of the state’s apparent disregard for children and more because of their personal right to own evolution stones, and if any of this sounds horrific, the writer would like to remind you that he’s speaking of the Unova region, so this should come as no surprise to anyone.