The anime presents Pokemon Battling as a safe sport, but this series doesn't.
- Charmander in general. He's a vicious Blood Knight with slight sociopathic traits. He'll slice you, dice you, burn you, bite you and crush you if that meant he wins.
- His cold-blooded murder of a defeated Caterpie (Caterpie Leader's brother) is a clear sign just how psychotic the little lizard really is. This is then followed up when he raids the Caterpies' home.
- Red's death. Sure, he wasn't the most competent of trainers but what happened to him was overkill.
- Anytime where Bulbasaur's personality is Averted. There is a scene in Episode 3 where Charmander sets him on fire without hesitation, resulting in the Seed Pokémon loudly screaming in pain and agony. In Episode 8, Bulbasaur appears to be super distressed by some of Haunter's illusions depicting Bulbasaur and Charmander dead. Bulbasaur continuously stutters in fear at the sight of it, and he even runs away screaming in the scene where Haunter turns into a giant demon. Bulbasaur gets better, but those moments were still rather jarring to see, especially when you take consideration of the grass frog's normally goofy personality.
- Hitmonchan's "death". After taking his Pokeball, Charmander has Hitmonchan return to it just as he crushes it under his feet. The result was Hitmonchan just....disappear.
- Then it turns out he wasn't dead, just teleported to another dimension where he becomes the first victim of Missingno.
- The moment in episode 8 when MissingNo shows Haunter what true horror is.
- Even after seeing Haunter become assimilatednote , Charmander attempted to charge straight into MissingNo. He was no more than an inch away from being assimilated before Mewtwo pulled him away.
- On a side note, Haunter was pretty frightening himself, putting on a spectular entrance as a gigantic demon. Unfortunately, Charmander spoils the moment.
- Geodude, one of the hammiest Pokemon, is a brutal force of nature. He shrugs off Charmander's like they are nothing and proceeds to give the Pokemon a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. It goes so bad that Charmander, a Blood Knight runs away from Geodude.
- Squirtle's flashbacks in Episode 10. For starters, the Caterpie Leader unambiguously killed Charmander and is wearing his head as a hat, just as Bulbasaur did with one of their fellow Caterpie. Later, they start breaking Squirtle into blind obedience until he's nothing but a subservient assassin who speaks in a Creepy Monotone. As the Caterpie, with Nidorina and Squirtle's assistance, wage war against the birds in Viridian Forest, one of them, Leonard, calls out the Leader for the fact that they're losing as many of their own ranks as the birds are losing theirs and tries to desert. How does the lead Caterpie respond? By ordering Nidorina to kill him. When she refuses, they order Squirtle to do it instead, and he does it with no hesitation. Finally, the war culminates in all of the Caterpie Leader's soldiers dead, Nidorina implied to be among the casualties, and only themself and Squirtle left on the battlefield of a decimated Viridian Forest. By this point, the Caterpie Leader finally realizes the cost of their desire for revenge and after realizing that Squirtle can't help them anymore, they set him free. The only good that came out of the whole thing is that, according to Squirtle, Bulbasaur survived and opted to stay in Kanto, the only member of the group to get a happy ending.
- Snow, the monstrous Abomasnow who guards the mountain in episode 10. A truly titanic Botanical Abomination who attacks anyone who tries to pass through, claiming to be acting on the will of his deities. Anyone who persists after he swats them away is killed by being frozen to death. And he doesn't care who he kills, as poor Chimchar learns.
- Charmander's Lament
is a humorous and at-times touching song that the Fire-type's ghost sings for Halloween of 2023, reflecting on his actions leading up to his death. Soon after Gengar is revealed onscreen? Charmander's spirit starts darkening, and he's scared as he protests that Gengar said singing the song would prevent "it" from happening. His struggles are audible as the Shadow Pokémon faux-musingly says that maybe Charmander didn't do well enough. We see a shot of Charmander's body contorting into a smaller shape, his head in particular being warped with his voice distorted as a result. As Gengar grants that singing is very difficult, he offers another chance to try the song. "Charmander's" response?"Bleh!"
