Let's Talk About Pokemon - The Charcadet Family

Scarlet/Violet model gifs ripped by Twitter user adamsb0303!

Don't stare directly into the sun, kids

935: Charcadet

It feels like it's been ages since we've last gotten a brand, entirely new Pokemon that kind of abandons the notion of being even tangentially based on any animal in favor of being just some guy. Skimming the dex real quick, the last time we've gotten something like this was Pawniard all the way back in Gen 5.

Charcadet is an odd little fire sprite thing, having seemingly bony armor plating that makes it somewhat resemble a knight's armor. Most in particular, they have a head that looks like a knight's helmet, complete with visor with eyes poking out of a dark void, seemingly lit up by the literal fire burning from its pupils. Even with the little feathery bit on top represented by a puff of flame!

It's a silly little dude, posed as a "cadet", or a soldier in-training. Physically, it's said to be a fiery spirit that came to life from a piece of charcoal, so it seems odd it's not Ghost type in any way. At least not yet.

It's not enough to have gun. I must become gun.

936: Armarouge

If you're playing Scarlet, you have access to the Auspicious Armor, which allows your Charcadet to evolve into Armarouge. It's an extra-armored knight fella with especially large shoulder pauldrons, ready to fit into any Warhammer-inspired setting you desire. It feels suitable enough as the logical conclusion to Charcadet, just incorporating most of its elements into a taller, more well-armored guy. Though its legs do feel a bit overly bare, but we suppose that's better than the opposite where it looks too busy.

Its shtick is that its shoulders combine over its arms to form a giant pot-shaped arm-cannon, which feels like a silly choice for a knight creature. In fact, its newfound Psychic type isn't overly explained that well either. Apparently the Auspicious Armor has psychic energy coming from it, but is that really it?

Well, there IS the possibility that Armarouge is at least loosely based on a djinn, which are humanoid fire spirits from Arabian mythology that turn into smoke, throw fireballs, and have magical powers. This would explain away the otherwise seemingly random Psychic typing, especially since djinn have also been characterized as "genies." Though the wish-granting, lamp-residing genies as we know them today are much more recent creations popularized by Western adaptations of Middle-Eastern mythology.

And if we function under the logic that its shoulder pauldrons are two halves of a pot, hey!  That's just Armarouge's "lamp" or "bottle"! Armarouge is cool with how it manages to combine seemingly disparate ideas into a pretty clean and cohesive design.

Personal Score: 8/10

Tragically, it can no longer pick up sandwiches

937: Ceruledge

In Violet, you'll instead have access to the Malicious Armor, which allows Charcadet to evolve into Ceruledge. And look. Yeah this is a case where Pokemon feels like it stretches its definition of what counts as a Pokemon. Ceruledge looks more like it popped out from a Mega Man Zero or Battle Network game and snuck its way into Pokemon. It's a little greebling away from being a Digimon. Replace its eyes with a pair of yellow dots and it's a Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. And as far as we're concerned that's a feature, not a bug.

We've said it before that sometimes a design just managed to hit that soft spot in your heart so that it dodges all of the adult cynicism because you're too busy being 12 years old again when you look at this thing and your favorite Pokemon was still something like Sceptile or Garchomp and Ceruledge just became your third-favorite. Like yeah, perhaps its appeal is a bit shallow because it's just a cool grudge-holding ghost in armor and dual-wielding swords bad of spirit-fire. But that's EXACTLY the sort of shit 12-year-old Vixi would've been completely and totally down for that we can't ALSO be completely and totally down for.

This also might just be the closest we get to a Pokemon who is a ghost possessing a suit of armor, at least for now. It's still much a physical guy but the idea is still floating there. Its armor is A LOT actually, but it still feels befitting something that's a brooding edgelord knight. Especially since it keeps the colors to a minimum so that even if there's a lot going on in the details, it softens the busy-ness of the design a bit.

At the same time thought it can be hard to explain WHY a design like this appeals to us so hard. It feels like all we can really say is "look at it" and like, if you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't. It's just a design that activates the kid in us to that extreme a degree. And it's just genuinely cool-looking in its own right. Badass helmet, far too ornamental swords, AND that flaming eye thing the whole line has going on? Fuck, it's just got us, man.

Since Armarouge is the djinn/genie, it's possible that Ceruledge is based on the Akuma (not that one), devilish spirit creatures of fire from Japanese mythology who are known for wielding swords. Admittedly the parallels between Akuma and Ceruledge are a lot more straightforward than Armarouge's djinn comparisons, though.

It's just too kickass in a way that we can't not love. The only thing we can really name as a flaw for it is that its extra-wide "boots" seem like a bit much. But other than that, incredible.

Is Fire/Ghost the type combo with the most flawless track record? Quite possibly.

Personal Score: 10/10

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