The Flame of Cyndaquil

One point of contention that I sometimes read about on social media nowadays and is related to Pokémon concerns a particular species from the second generation. That would be the Fire-type starter Cyndaquil, and the object that imbues it its type is exactly the point of contention. Specifically, is there supposed to be fire on its back (as its "quills") or not? The contention is best resolved by considering the aspects of the species, of which the two important ones are the artistic and biological aspects.

The reasoning that some people have about the species being supposed to have the fire "quills" on its back likely stems from the artistic aspect. In older games, the species is often depicted with those exact flames, but as a static image (or technically a sprite). This persisted over the course of many games, until the age of 3D models came without the "quills" unless it was doing some kind of an action, which made it seem weird to those who are used to seeing the "quills". The weird sensation might come even quicker for those who watch the anime, in which Cyndaquil comes without the "quills" by default.

Biologically, however, the answer becomes quite evident. The fire "quills" on its back are an indicator of its power, particularly when it is performing some kind of action, most likely an attack. Therefore, the "quills" not appearing all the time makes sense; they just only need to appear when they need to appear to get things (or attacks) fired up. It's not a vital sign of life like the flame on the tail of the Charmander species family; yet this may be what the common early game sprites suggested, and people are quick to accept it and make the comparison, especially with it being only the second Fire-type starter at the time of its "discovery". In short, this is a case of "keep giving people the wrong idea and they'll treat it as the right idea".

Even though this discussion is about Cyndaquil specifically, the discussion can be extended to its entire species family, with Quilava and Typhlosion. Their flames appear in different places on their bodies - not necessarily resembling of "quills" - but the mechanisms are pretty much the same and the similar process of misconception more or less applies. Likewise, their default appearance is flameless with the flames only appearing whenever it's pertinent for them to appear, as with attacks in battle, and not all the time as the common and/or early static sprites or images would suggest.

It's been years since the "discovery" of Cyndaquil and its associated species family as the second-ever Fire-type starter, but it seems that there's also an element of misunderstanding about it that leads to the contention as above. Fortunately, consideration of the artistic and biological aspects help to clear up that misunderstanding and resolve the contention. Still, it's fascinating to see how such a contention arises with what is involved as well as to be able to resolve it with the information at hand.

One year ago: Days of Friendships Persisting

Two years ago: The Signature Electric Type Species

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Four years ago: Pokémon Craft Figures - Mewtwo

Five years ago: Crossovers!