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I just found a doodle about how [Charmander and Squirtle were getting high,
and Squirtle accidentally extinguishes Charmander's flame, and Charmander
dies.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mMqLC.jpg) Is this true? And why does
Charmander die if his flame goes out? Is there any explanation about this in
the anime?

I did find a [Bulbapedia
page](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charmander_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29#Biology)
that said:

> Charmander dies if its flame goes out.

But it didn't explain any further.


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pokemon
Why does Charmander die if his flame goes out?


Now it was a long time ago from when I watched the series but from what I
remember, in the first episode Charmander appears in, Ash finds him injured
(or at least very sick) in the middle of the road. Ash and his party then
rescue him. After taking Charmander to Nurse Joy (I think, they take him to
someone at least), they explain that the fire on Charmander's tale represents
his health. The stronger the flame, the more healthy and strong he is and
vice-versa. And yes, I do remember that he does indeed die once the flame went
out completely, which was explained in that episode as well.

I'm sorry if the answer isn't 100% accurate but it has been about 15 years
since I seen this episode.


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2014-04-17T10:22:28.797
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It's the other way around. Charmander is likely to be dead soon if his flame
is about to go out on itself. As you may know already, the strength of the
flame on his tail represents his health level.

I've read about this subject many times before on the net, and I think there
was a bit about if you were to extinguish Charmander's tail fire while he's
healthy, it would simply light up again shortly afterwards. So his tail fire's
kinda like a trick candle that doesn't go out (if you remember those from your
childhood).


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2014-04-17T21:10:51.633
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It's possible that as a Fire type Pokemon, Charmander is cold blooded and
needs a high core temperature to live. As a result, if the flame goes out and
isn't rekindled, its body cools at a rapid rate, eventually stopping its
heart.


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2014-05-16T22:32:01.997
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According to
[Charmander](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Charmander_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29)
article on Bulbapedia:

> A fire burns at the tip of this Pokémon’s slender tail, and has blazed there
> since Charmander’s birth. The flame can be used as an indication of
> Charmander's health and mood, burning brightly when the Pokémon is strong,
> weakly when it is exhausted, wavering when it is happy, and blazing when it
> is enraged. It is said that Charmander dies if its flame goes out.

**Charmander's flame is an indicator to his remaining life force.**

So, saying "Charmander dies if its flame goes out" would be like saying "A
human dies if he blows his last breath". Dying and having no flame would
basically be equivalent statements. So even if Squirtle gets high, squirts all
over Charmander's tail and the flame goes out for a second, Charmander
wouldn't die and the flame would come out again if he was still healthy.

Having water on his tail will probably cause him a lot of pain and
continuously being exposed to this torture could make him faint or die, but it
would be because his health would drop and thus the flame would become
smaller. Vice-versa, if you could somehow bind a lighter to its tail with
infinite gas, Charmander wouldn't become invincible, even though his flame
would never die out.


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2014-06-09T15:41:30.777
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According to "The Science of Pokemon" on Tumblr, a charizard's tail flame
keeps it warm. Without the flame, the charizard will basically freeze to
death, because it has no other way to generate enough body heat to keep it
alive. It's because the flame isn't just at the tip of charizard's tail. It
burns inside of it's body, because of a stream of gas that passes through him.
It seem like the tail flame is the flame that keeps the rest of the gas lit,
so if it goes out, the rest of the fire inside goes out, too. It does indicate
the health and emotions of charizard, too, but I think that's more of a side
effect than something really important.


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Generation one Pokedex entry.

> Obviously prefers hot places. When it rains, steam is said to spout from the
> tip of its tail.

So unless it's dying, it can lose its tail flame temporarily, which will later
come back.


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