By Jo
It’s orange, small, and requires a bit of guidance from its trainer to grow strong. Torchic, the Chick Pokemon, is young and endearing and is the Hoenn region’s fire-type starter. Being based off from a freshly hatched chick, Torchic normally tend to be curious and sometimes clumsy on their feet. Probably because it is based on a bird and birds have hollow bones, Torchic is the lightest of all the starters at their base form.
Torchic tend to be depicted as naïve and innocent, as they’re supposed to be based off from baby chickens. Its pokedex entries state that it has a flame inside itself. Because of that, if it were hugged it would feel as though the person were holding a hot water bottle. They also state that Torchic’s orange feathers surrounding its body are downy, and that if threatened it can launch fireballs that reach up to 1,800 degrees F at its opponent. Torchic is the only starter Pokemon that can be caught in the wild as it’s found on the Pokewalker Sightseeing course. Torchic is also the only starter to have a gender difference (excluding Pikachu in Yellow) and is also the only starter to have a gender difference in all stages of evolution. Torchic’s name is most-likely a combination of the words ‘torch’ and ‘chick’.
After Torchic reaches level 16, it evolves into Combusken and also gains the secondary type of fighting. Combusken and its evolved form, Blaziken, were the first Pokemon to ever have the type combination of fire and fighting and they ended up starting a trend for the following two generations of fire-type starter lines (Chimchar and Tepig). Because Combusken gains fighting as a type, many have speculated that it may make a reference to cockfighting. Combusken are known to attack fiercely and quickly (landing ten kicks in every second) and make loud, distracting squawking sounds when fighting to intimidate their opponents. Like Torchic, Combusken’s design is based off from a flightless bird and its name is most-likely a combination of the words ‘combust’ and ‘chicken’.
And finally, after Combusken reaches level 36 it evolves into Blaziken. Blaziken is the lightest of all final evolution starters. Blaziken was the third Generation III Pokemon to be seen in the anime and is also the only starter Pokemon’s evolution to been seen in the anime before its actual generation saga began. Despite being based on birds, Blaziken and its pre-evolved form, Combusken, are weak against flying-types due to their type. Blaziken is the only Pokémon to learn Blaze Kick by leveling up (the only other Pokemon that can actually learn it is Hitmonlee, which is a pure fighting-type). Like Combusken, Blaziken is most-likely based off from a cockfighting chicken, though its appearance does bare resemblance to the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Blaziken’s name most-likely derives from the words ‘blaze’ and ‘chicken’.
The Torchic line is known for having strong legs, as well as good attack and special attack stats. Surprisingly, despite weighing a lot less than the other starter lines, Torchic’s does lack a bit in speed and its defensive stats are a bit low.