Damian: The Trainer Who Left Charmander on a Rock

He promises his Charmander he'll come back for him, and he's lying the moment he says it. Damian passes through the original series for a single episode, just long enough to abandon a Pokémon by the side of a road, then come back to claim him once he's seen him win. He has no organization behind him, no plan, no score to settle: all he has is a theory about what a Pokémon is worth, and the whole episode is about taking it apart.

Contents

• A deliberate abandonment, not an accident
• The Pokémon Center scene, where he gives himself away
• The next day: the Poké Ball thrown back in his face
• In the games, a completely different boy
• The manga that clears him completely
• Damian at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

A deliberate abandonment, not an accident

Damian first appears in the episode "Charmander – The Stray Pokémon", and the title already says everything about his role. This Trainer only cares about Pokémon that are already powerful and casts aside, without a second thought, the ones that aren't — including the Charmander that Ash will eventually catch.

The act itself is simple: he sets his Charmander on a rock, along a road where almost no one passes, and swears he'll come back. The promise is a lie from the second he makes it, and the rest of the episode will confirm it without the slightest ambiguity.

His logic is that of a collector in a hurry: raising a Pokémon properly takes time, and that time bores him. A species that doesn't arrive already battle-ready gets no patience from him, and he can even be cruel — a Nurse Joy describes him as a Trainer with a very bad reputation.

The Pokémon Center scene, where he gives himself away

That same evening, at a Pokémon Center, Damian tallies up what he owns in front of his friends: seventeen Pokémon, a number announced like a score. None of them is ever shown on screen, which says a lot about their narrative purpose.

One of his buddies wonders why the Charmander is missing. So he tells them what he did with him, without the slightest embarrassment: the Pokémon was too weak to win him a battle, and he adds with a laugh that he's probably dumb enough to still be waiting outside, in the rain, in the middle of the night. The whole table laughs along with him.

Ash's group overhears the conversation and immediately connects it to the Charmander they came across earlier that day. They demand that he go get him back, because a Charmander whose flame goes out doesn't survive; he shows no emotion at all, tempers rise until a battle is about to break out, and it takes Nurse Joy's arrival to separate everyone before he leaves with his gang.

The next day: the Poké Ball thrown back in his face

In the morning, Damian happens to witness Charmander's victory over Team Rocket, and the display stuns him. The Pokémon he had written off has just won on his own: he decides on the spot to go take him back, claiming he's finally keeping his promise.

Confronted by Ash and Brock, he turns the accusation around with complete nerve: the abandonment supposedly toughened up his Pokémon, so he was right all along. He even thanks Ash and his friends for sparing him the training, a chore that bores him, since he'd rather collect as many Pokémon as possible.

Charmander hesitates, then makes his choice. He refuses to be recalled and knocks the Poké Ball back into his former Trainer's face. His pride wounded, Damian gets ready to send his whole team at him at once; Charmander and Pikachu attack him directly, he runs off for good, and Ash catches Charmander. He'll only be seen again in a flashback, much later in the series.

🔥 The survivor of this story has his own section: check out the Charmander.

In the games, a completely different boy

The games place an equivalent character on Route 24, north of Cerulean City, exactly where the anime sets the scene. You meet him in Pokémon Yellow, then again in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, with the same Charmander he wants to part with.

The message, however, is flipped. This Damian is a lost boy who admits he doesn't know how to train his Pokémon: if he wants to release his, it's because he knows it will never thrive in his hands. The abandonment is no longer contempt, it's an honest admission of failure.

In Pokémon Yellow, he hands the Pokémon over to the player on one condition: promising to take good care of it. In Let's Go, he first demands proof of experience — at least fifty Pokémon caught — before giving up his own. He even shares the look of the Jr. Trainers, which clearly places his rank in the game's pecking order.

The manga that clears him completely

The Electric Tale of Pikachu takes the reversal even further: this Damian never meant to abandon his Charmander. Yet the chapter in question opens on the same image, a Pokémon left alone and waiting.

The wait lasts ten days. A Squirtle eventually convinces Charmander to head for the Hidden Village of Melanie, along with other Pokémon including Ash's Pikachu — and that's exactly where his Trainer finds him.

The explanation takes just a few panels: Damian had gone out shopping, had an accident, and spent several days in a coma. When he woke up and couldn't find his Pokémon, he bet on the Hidden Village. The two leave together, and the scene gives Squirtle the idea of going to look for its own Trainer in turn.

Damian at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Damian in Pokémon?
  He's the original Trainer of Ash's Charmander, in the original series. He abandons him on a rock by the side of a road, promising to come back, then tries to take him back once he's seen him win a battle.
• Why did Damian abandon his Charmander?
  Because he considered him too weak to win him any victories. He only cares about Pokémon that are already powerful and thinks training them himself is a waste of time.
• What happens to Charmander after being abandoned?
  He refuses to go back into Damian's Poké Ball and knocks it back into his face, then drives off his former Trainer with Pikachu's help. Ash catches him afterward.
• Can you meet Damian in the video games?
  Yes, on Route 24, north of Cerulean City, in Pokémon Yellow and in Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! He gives his Charmander to the player there, in exchange for a promise in Yellow, and after fifty catches in Let's Go.
• Is Damian just as unlikable in the manga?
  No. In The Electric Tale of Pikachu, he never meant to abandon his Charmander: an accident left him in a coma for several days, and he then goes looking for him at Melanie's Hidden Village.

In short

Damian isn't a recurring opponent: he has no organization behind him, he never comes back, and his seventeen Pokémon remain a single line of dialogue. His role is to make a point — he embodies exactly what the series criticizes in a certain way of training, one that judges a Pokémon by its immediate power and gets rid of it when it brings in nothing. The games and the manga turned him into an overwhelmed boy rather than a jerk, but it's the anime version, the one with the rock in the rain, that people remember.