So in a sense the german name of Charizard is rather specific here. The name Glurak is composed of "Glut"(ember) or "Glühen"( glow; or from Glühschwanz) and "Drak". In comparison the japanese name Lizardon is composed of "Rizaado"( lizard as spoken by a japanese person) and "don", which is latin for tooth. The english name is composed of "char"( as in char coal) and lizard like in it's japanese name. So based on that, Charizard is more likely to be inspired by the Drak and the Glühschwanz, than the Alperer( which I, to be honest, never heard about), or they just were the name sake for it in the German Localization, skipping the lesser known Alperer as a name sake( the names are supposed to appeal to kids after all, and Drak sounds a lot like Drache, and kids know what Glut is, whereas Alperer sounds like the Alps, and I don't know any tales of dragons in the alps).

This just in: Charizard poops in team Rockets HQ

The third one's power to illuminate the night to expose criminals could actually be connected with Mega Charazard Y's Drought ability which causes the "strong sunlight" effect even at night. So he could be considered a mash up of all 3 dragons. The Fire Elemental called Salamander is often associated with Central Europe and is almost certainly the direct inspection for Charmander as well.

Perhaps the reason it's so difficult to pin point one origin for Charizard is because it has no single origin, instead being based on multiple dragons, serpents and similar beings at the same time

"yoghurt...cheese that wasn't trying hard enough." --from Discworld

Pokemon hype caught me, and I've been DYING to talk about this good boy for a while now!

I’ve always found it weird that charizard was never a dragon type

So to summarize... Charizard is either based on A. Dragon House Elf. B. Shadow Dragon with glowing mouth. C. Dragon Batman Santa. Yeah Charizard has risen up in my favourites now that I know it could possibly be based on Dragon Batman Santa. Christmas movie with Santa Charizard anyone?

Gaijin: Uhh... Charizard's German, dude. Goomba: **mind breaks** *...WAT.*

You know I too forget that Pokemon literally means 'Pocket Monsters', key word, 'monsters'.

So the last one is Dragon Santa Batman?

>Title: "It's unlikely, probably not true, but maybe." >Thumbnail: "It's definitely, indisputably true." >Me: "Pick one, damn it!"

You have no idea how long I've been looking for the name of the Drak and Gluschwanz. I heard of a German house dragon years ago and have been looking for information on it for ever since. Thank you Gaijin Goomba. Now I just need to find that damn Irish chicken dragon...

At last, a justification for Charizard not being Dragon type.

When you are a German native speaker and listen Gaijin trying to pronounce words like Quark or Dämon just gives me a laughflash Thanks man you really made my day! XD

Three possible inspirations;three charizard forms

Am I the only one who's really into Detective Pikachu's art style? (Other than mr. Mime but he's always looked horrifying) The pokemon look like physical creatures that exist, instead of cgi sock puppets that were copypasted from the anime.

So, this was cute. However, if we want to talk about Pokemon inspired by folklore, I'm really hoping for a dragon/fairy pokemon inspired by dragons kidnapping princesses, be it a princess dragon or a two head fairy with an erszatz dragon head to look scarier.

I am passed the Trigger Warning, and I can say in all honesty offending us german folks is as hard as drinking up the ocean waters. We're a hardy bunch when it comes to being insulted about something. It has to be real specific to even make us go over the roof. xD At least that is how I feel about it as an actual german fan of this show ;3

dude I really love these culture shocks about european creatures. I'm very familiar with yokai so it's refreshing to see these european creatures I've never even heard of!

I think its worth noting that in the Magicarp game Charizard brings you things... very Drak...

Honestly, I love the way the pokemon are rendered in this movie.

05:05 AURORA BOREALIS?! AT THIS TIME OF YEAR AT THIS TIME OF DAY AT THIS PART OF THE INTERNET, LOCALIZED ENITRELY WITHIN YOUR VIDEO?

I love the idea of all the Charizards I've raised over the years to be benevolent creatures, and to be fair, when you look back in the anime, a lot of times they depict them almost as guardians for their trainers. I mean when properly trained.

Sounds pretty fair to me to say Charizard gets inspiration from all those similar German folk creatures, focuses on the common traits and adapts them. Front what I see in English sources, those usually get just lumped under "dragon" or something generic like that already, not a stretch the Japanse would either do it themselves too or make Charizard from some similarly amalgamated/generalized source and build from there. I am bit surprised you didn't mention Anime Charizard. Ash's Charizard and his rebel attitude, getting moody with people, sounds a lot like that third one you mentiond, and fits with the possible negative perceptions on those beings too. Also you didn't look at it pre-evolution. In different media, Charmander is seen to be pack oriented, calling other Charmander to share food when they find it, which does seem to fit the trends here. Also Ash's Charizard before when he was a Charmander and his strong attachment to his previous trainer. In the mangas, other Chamander were also shown to care for their trainers, like their house dragons in training, and Blue's Charizard is even more friendly and works better with others beside Blue than when it was a Charmelon. Etc. Different media might not necessarily be "Canon" to the games, but it comes/is approved by the same sources, and reveal at least some of the thought process and intentions behind. And it is pretty clear, across multiple media, they consistently show characteristics of an amalgamation of Germanic dragons, specially the fire tailed ones.

Drak= not dragon Charzard: not a dragon type. Make sense

I'm dying over my mental image of Charizard taking a dump in giovannis chimney

It's always exciting to see you nail down what I had as a vague notional origin of something in a game, such as Charizard clearly being a European style dragon, and to see you able to nail it down to specific contributing lore. Excellent job, man.

Warner Bros: ok, people love Deadpool and people love Pikachu... WHY NOT COMBINE THEM!!! And that was how Pikapool was born

Oof that dragon taking a dump down the chimney thing I guess you could say, Fire down the Hole! XD

No mention of Charmander and salamander/fire myths? Or has that been mentioned before in another video? Honestly doesn't seem that much of a leap from "salamander/lizard thing" to "dragon thing".

So you’re telling me a Japanese fire-breathing lizard that isn’t even a dragon...is based on a *German* dragon? Okay, you’ve caught my interest GG.

"Charizard's German, dude." The smashing glass sound effect and Gommbah's face afterwards... priceless! Can't stop laughing at that even though I saw this sort of gag coming!

That moment when you are german, watch a video about a japanese game, made by an american and learn something new about your countries folklore XD Also, don't worry, your pronounciation was alright :-) Glühschwanz e.g. was pretty much on point :-D

I think I just found my new passive-aggressive insult. "I hope a dragon takes a dump in your chimney!"

I had a feeling about this. Seen references and such. Even if perhaps maybe the creator didn't fully intended the Char family tree to be like that, different adaptations of the information are found all over it. The same way culture merges everywhere.

1:43 omg hahaha in a informative Japanese content channel we find out our favorite dragon is German😵😲😅😂

must've been fun to dive into all this, nice vid.

He's a lizard, breathes fire, and flies. He's a dragon. End of story. Close the book

Always happy to learn about (new) beasties and different takes on them, especially dragons and thunderbirds. Thanks for the video.

0:55 Pokemon: We are monsters, we are proud. We are monsters, say it loud!

Nice to have a German-based game character who's not a Nazi. :)

Something to be explained for the people confused about why Pikachu is talking in the Detective Pikachu trailer: the movie is based on a game of the same name. The main difference is, the talking Pikachu was originally meant to sound like Danny DeVito, of all people, probably because the juxtaposition would've been funnier. Danny was actually approached to voice the character in the English dub of the game, but he turned it down. If they had approached him again for the movie, then he apparently had said "no" again, so they'd have to have written the script for another actor.

Charizard: never assume a Pokèmon's race *uses flamethrower

Nice video! Love ur channel!!

From one dragon to another, what could possibly be the cultural inspiration for the Valstrax from Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate?

Thanks for the another awesome video Goombah!

Just now realized Goomba gets scared by the lightning.

Or Gamefreak character deisgners just said "Let's make a Dragon, and let's give it a flaming tail" and coincidentally it matches up with dragons from Germanic folklore I mean there is such a thing as looking too deeply into things XD Sometimes it's just its own thing

All 3 are charizard the 1st drak is normal charizard The 2nd one is mega evolved X The 3rd is mega evolved Y

Thumbnail: TRUE origin Video title: unlikely origin I recieving contradictory information

That dump in the chimney bit earned you your like. Good show.

I feel like the reasons why Charizard was not a Fire/Dragon type were: 1) Back in Gen 1, Dragon is supposed to be a rare type; Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite were the only Dragon Pokémons. 2) The Dragon type was... OP... like really OP. Being resistant to Fire, Grass, Water and Electric (basically all major types), weak against Ice (not a common type) and againt Dragon (having only ONE move, Dragon Rage, and it dealt 40 HP flat), Charizard would have been too powerful. There's also the fact that not being Flying would have been jarring. Finally, a Fire/Dragon type in Gen would have been weak against Ground and Rock only... and those weren't the powerhouses they're now today. That's why they added Fairy that destroys Dragon types, because they're that strong.

More,I need more mythology from around the world about dragons and things/creatures,I love stuff like this

Now I can imagine santa claus flying on the back of a benevolent dragon...I'm jealous.

I absolutely love researching the cultural origins of Pokemon and this is the type of depth I hope to achieve one day!

"fan and friend" ....he can't be your fan as long as he is your friend

It doesn't surprise me that Charizard's based on German folklore. Pokemon inspirations seem to span the world, so I think it's all pretty cool!

Goombah's reactions are just the best here.^^

Man I should have watched this before updating my "Ideas for good alleged counterparts to the Grimm." notes.

Charizard. The fucking badass German version of Santa Clause and Ther Krampus combined into one being.

btw, the word Drak in my language (czech) it actually means dragon, using it as the core word to describe anything dragon-like.

IKR Deadpool’s voice coming out of Detective Pikachu is the best thing ever!

That who Pokemon not synchronizing 100% with its source made me remember something similar: ever since I saw the Ultra beasts, I wondered if they drew inspiration from the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft; Xurkitree specifically reminded me of Yog-Sothoth

Charizard is just Godzilla's angsty grandson, his jotaro if you will

When you told us in a “which ninja” episode about Kuji-in or Kiri. Every night before bed i do it and when i get to Kai, Jin. I think of Gai-jin goombah! Its odd but felt like i needed to tell you

nothing really certain, but I do like to know more about dragons

great episode the connections do feel loose but it was nice to learn about German culture for a change and their possible connections to Charizard

That Psyduck is pure nightmare fuel

That seamless transition into the shill tho. XD

Well I have taken in interest in Lockstein and I think what he says about his pokemon lore videos, Charizard is most likely not purely German, but could be a combination of different origins for influence.

Thank you. I am so excited for this movie.

I just love the way you pronounce Gluhschwanz

"Is Pikachu supposed to be furry?" Well, it's known as a "mouse-like" Pokemon that's Electric Type.

With Mr. Reynolds voicing pikachu, I sure hope the next deadpool movie makes a reference or two to that X3

Magikarp is also honourable, since he also never attacks anything that's weaker than itself

Charizard's dex entry needs to include the fact that he takes a huge dump in his pokeball if he has a poor or evil trainer.

i think this culture shock just made me love charizard more.

MIND BLOWN. Congratulations.

I'm just waiting for when Deadpool inevitably tries to kill Detective Pikachu in Deadpool 3.

Thanks for this.

Interesting as always.

0:12 gaijin's reaction to the lightning bolts was hilarious!

blin, this is good! Thank you, very cool.

I thought Charizard was just salamander sleeping in a log that got set on fire by humans

The Alperer also sounds like direct inspiration for Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon"!

You can tell Charizard isn't from East Asia with the whole wings and the fire breathing.

about damn time goombah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG how did this video got through my radar??? sorry for 10 days late but... OH BOY!!! a Pokemon based on german folklore? I am german and it fills me with joy to hear this

Charizard has been my favorite since I played Red Version back in Gen 1. I think I understand a bit more now.

Thank you for making realize that Charizard doesn't need to be a dragon and he never was and he never will be because you know why because Charizard is Charizard and he will always be a badass to me getting to be a dragon he doesn't have a mega Dragon form not to be Dragon Charizard is Charizard he always will be that and I will forever love this awesome Pokemon because of it thank you for making me realize the truth

This video is super interesting, since I am german and have never heard of these dragons. It’s also funny to see English-speaking folks try to pronounce german words. Good thing you always put them on screen or not even Germans could understand😂 well, I really love it, it’s teaching me new stuff in a very entertaining way.

“Charizard never attacks anything weaker than itself”. So... _About that..._ -When playing Fire Red as a kid, I always had Charizard to roast mass amounts Rattatas with Flamethrower because I thought it was funny.-

Wait, it can look like either a big, dark man, big, dark dog, or big, dark dragon? Dang, Mega Charizard X is zygarde's cousin! Also, I'd love an episode where you talk about the myth of Thunder and Lightning, the two sheep from Nigerian folklore who always sounded like a dead-ringer for mareep to me. Or maybe the hammerkopf that much resembles zapdos, it seems Subsaharan Africa gets representation exclusively from electric types in pokémon.

Oh boy this Dake remind me of that Real Ghostbusters episode called Egon's Pet Dragon

I always thought charizard was based of of the salamander legend but these are a little more convincing

Fun Fact: Lucario is based on the Egyptian god, Anubis. And it's said his fighting technique is based on old Egyptian style of boxing.

I wonder if we ever get a culture shock on jojo hamon or stands *that be fucking neat*

And why it can't take parts from these three/four dragon/non dragon things from Germany?

Charizard is a mythological salamander.