Ash's Infernape: Difference between revisions

After losing to [[Cynthia's Garchomp]] in ''[[DP040|Top-Down Training]]'', Paul realized that Chimchar was not fulfilling his expectations. This culminated in the [[Hearthome City Tag Battle Competition]] in ''[[DP051|Glory Blaze!]]'', where he was forced to battle alongside Ash. That night, Ash discovered Paul's training regime, which involved his Pokémon attacking Chimchar in the hopes of recreating the power he had seen before. Ash intervened and took Chimchar to the Pokémon Center where Nurse Joy told Paul it would be unable to battle. Paul ignored this warning. During the next battle against a Zangoose and a {{p|Metagross}}, Chimchar was too scared to make any attack when caught in Zangoose's claws and had to be saved by Turtwig, who was seriously injured as a result. Chimchar made up for this by protecting Turtwig from a {{m|Fire Blast}} attack. Realizing that not even reliving the traumatic event of being attacked by Zangoose could motivate Chimchar to do Blaze, Paul gave up on the Chimp Pokémon. For the remainder of the battle, Paul refused to give Chimchar any orders. Consequently, Ash gave Chimchar commands from then on, and the three soon won the battle. After the battle, Paul {{pkmn2|released}} Chimchar before Ash and his friends arrived on the scene as they realized what happened. As the little Pokémon headed back to the wild, Ash invited it to join him, to which it accepted. Paul rudely commented that the two were perfect for each other: both were pathetic.

As a Chimchar, Infernape suffered from extremely low self-esteem due to [[Paul]]'s constant scolding and harsh treatment, making Chimchar fear Paul to some extent, always feeling fear and anxiety whenever it believed Paul would punish it by not living to its Trainer's expectations. This was also briefly extended towards {{Ash}}, as when Chimchar heard Ash yell out to it, Chimchar froze in fear, believing that Ash would punish it, but was greatly surprised to find out that Ash's yelling was out of concern rather than anger. Nonetheless, Chimchar was always a sweet and kindhearted Pokémon, although it was forced to suppress and hide these emotions around Paul, as whenever Chimchar showed any emotion other than anger and ferocity, it was scolded or reprimanded by Paul. Despite this, Chimchar always did its best to please Paul, and even after all its mistreatment, Chimchar, after being released by Paul, pleaded for him to change his mind, albeit unsuccessfully.

After being taken in by Ash, Chimchar had difficulty blending in with its new Trainer's atmosphere, as it realized that unlike Paul, its new Trainer and fellow Pokémon were always happy and helped each other, and rarely showed any signs of hostility amongst themselves. When Ash urged Chimchar to unleash all of its suppressed feelings, Chimchar cried its heart out while being held in his arms, being overwhelmed with joy at finally being treated with love, care and respect, and not having to suffer from mistreatment again. Since then, Chimchar's strength slowly began to increase, something that Paul always tried, but was never able to do. [[Reggie]] speculated that Paul's training methods weren't suited for Chimchar, but Ash's worked perfectly, and Chimchar quickly became one of Ash's most used and powerful Pokémon in Sinnoh. Infernape is very protective of its friends, especially its teammates.