Pokémon fans torn over new evolution for Charmander

A brand-new Pokémon leak for the 10th generation of games is promising a lot, but the main thing fans are getting caught up on is the inclusion of a new regional variant of Charmander that’s a… ground-type? Huh?

The latest in a series of Gen 10 “leaks” for the next mainline Pokémon title, assumedly set to drop on the Nintendo Switch 2, made its way to 4chan over the weekend, and it’s promising a lot.

As detailed in a post by the Hidden Power Podcast Twitter account, the next generation of Pokémon games will be titled “Pokémon Gales & Tides”, and will feature “Fire Goat, Water Octopus & Grass Snail” starters, “16 main islands & 150+ smaller islands” and a new “Gigaxis” gimmick that lets ‘Mons take on the form of new Guardian legendary Pokémon.

And yet, even with all of that, the biggest thing that fans can’t move past is the inclusion of a new ground-type variant for Charmander.

First, we're getting Pokémon Legends Z-A.

“I don’t care about the rest of it, just please for the love of god stop making a new Charmander every other region,” commented one user.

“Only believing this because a regional variant for the Charizard line sounds exactly in line of what Pokémon would do lmao,” replied another user.

There’s only one problem with all of this: this is almost definitely absolute rubbish.

Look, sometimes, once in a blue moon, 4chan leaks are right.

But if I predicted that the moon would explode every day until the end of time, eventually I’d be right. People really do just be saying anything over on 4chan, because it’s a completely anonymous messaging board.

It sounds nice enough in theory, but this really is just one random dude waffling for the fun of it. If any of this ends up being true, I will livestream myself eating a Pikachu plushie.