CHARMELEON
IN SHOW
Charmander took some time to evolve, about 32 episodes, and by that time we had gotten pretty attached to the little guy. He’d beaten up Team Rocket multiple times, been a fast and loyal friend, and had even had some hilarious moments like helping Ash show that he is magic. We did not have a chance to appreciate Charmeleon as he evolved 3 episodes after his first appearance, but we didn’t want to. He was ungainly, mean, and not the sweet little thing we’d come to know and love. Was he suffering teenage angst? Was he rebelling because of the pain his original trainer had caused him? Was he jealous of Pikachu? Did he just think he was better than us?
It didn’t matter because of he was only a star for a short time, but we really sort of hoped for more.
WHY YOU WANT A CHARMELEON
Having a Charmeleon meant you were one step closer to that Charizard. Plus, because of how early Charmander would evolve because of the hard work we had to put in so that we could beat the first two gym leaders we had a high level pokemon so that not a lot of trainers standing on the side of the road could beat him. Plus after Lt. Surge came the Grass Pokemon gym and everyone knew who to call when that happened. Charmeleon was a strong addition to any team, especially when it came time to crush Erika. 
Western CharmeleonWHY YOU DO NOT WANT A CHARMELEON
Remember how I said that Charmander actually looked pretty good in game? Charmeleon ruined it. The Japanese version is laughable, but the one released in the West was NOT much better. You wanted to punch this pokemon in the face not because you didn’t love him but because he looked so smug and his face was already deformed enough so how could it hurt it? Also, Charmeleon is a fire type, right? So you’d think with your Charmander levelling up you’d learn some new fire type moves. Ivysaur learned some new grass moves, so Charmeleon should too. Well you’d be wrong. Charmeleon relied on TM’s and whatever you hopefully taught your Charmander. So if you deleted all your fire moves for moves of other types in the hopes that you’d get some better moves off of Charmeleon, you’d be dead wrong and that fight with Erika? Well that could be a wipe.
IN SUMMARY
It’s hard to find redeeming qualities for Charmeleon. He didn’t get enough face time on the show to leave an impression that would get redeem his failures in the game, and he has some pretty big ones. Yes, he has his good qualities, but Charmander has the exact same ones so you might as well keep your Charmander until you’re only two levels away from Charizard so you only have one level of that terrible Charmeleon picture looking at you.
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