Charizard is what I usually classify as my favorite Pokémon of all. I like Charizard because of the one I had in my Yellow version. I fell in total love with the sprite and could stare at his stats for ages. Unfortunately, I allowed my relative from Denmark to start a new game on my Yellow version, and I was afraid of trying to tell her in Danish not to save, so I didn't. You can guess what happened next...
Well, Charizard's design isn't that complicated; it's a very typical Western dragon - in fact, I think it's the most typical Western dragon in the whole of Pokémon - but orange with a flame on its tail. This flame reflects the Pokémon's lifepower, and if it is extinguished, the Charizard supposedly dies. It will also get hotter as the Charizard grows stronger.
From studying Charizard's Pokédex entries, one can tell that it is quite an amazing Pokémon. It can breathe fire hot enough to melt boulders and 10,000-ton glaciers in no time, it can fly at up to 4,600 feet, and is so noble that it never attacks anything weaker than itself (ironic, since we see Ash's Charizard doing exactly that all the time ;) ).
Charizard's name comes from 'char' and 'lizard'. I remember saying to my cousin sometime, "Charmander should rather be called Charizard, and Charizard should be Charagon or something, because Charizard just isn't a lizard". But well, I've got to admit, I love the name Charizard. It's got a Z. I like that letter.
Charizard is often portrayed as an aggressive, battling-crazy Pokémon. I don't exactly like that, mainly because it was originally the Yellow sprite I loved and the Yellow sprite is anything but aggressive; I've always thought it looked deep in thought, staring blankly into space. Well, it might just be me.
Charizard is also an extremely popular Pokémon. There are few people who really dislike Charizard, at least that I know of, and a lot of die-hard Charizard fans like me. The rest just think it looks kinda cool or don't mind it. At least Charizard hasn't got a huge hate-club against it like for example Pikachu.
Butterfree is the Pokémon I name myself after in various forums. I started liking it for several reasons. For one thing, my first game was Yellow and I used a Butterfree to beat Brock. Second, it's impossible not to love it after you've been stuck with a stupid cocoon for ages. Third, it can use Sleep Powder, which is probably my favorite attack of all. Fourth, the episode Bye Bye Butterfree made me cry. Oh, and I love the number twelve, and Butterfree's National Pokédex number is 012. :)
Butterfree has a very simple design too; it's just a huge, cutified butterfly. Blah. Just wait for the next Pokémon here...
Butterfree, while not all too strong statistically, specializes in various poisonous powders it releases from its wings, which can poison, paralyze or put the opponent to sleep. In the Advance games and Colosseum, Butterfree also has the ability Compoundeyes, which makes these moves' accuracy almost perfect (yay). All we know about Butterfree's lifestyle is that after evolving they collect honey all day and then on the mating season, they all mate and die afterwards. Poor things; their life has no meaning...
I've always liked Butterfree's name, but it's because I don't eat butter so I'm butter-free. Thought it was kinda funny. I believe Butterfree's name just comes from the Japanese name, Batafurii, which doesn't look like much else than a Japanese variation of the English word "butterfly".
The Gold version sprite of Butterfree is my favorite. It is actually a remake of the Red/Blue sprite - one of the few Pokémon that looked good in Red and Blue. Actually, the Gold version Caterpie and Metapod are also remakes of the Red/Blue sprites of them. And the Gold version Exeggutor is a remake of the Yellow version one, although we're getting off the subject.
Have you noticed how insanely big Butterfree's head is on the R/S and FR/LG sprites? I can't get used to them, they're just scary... o.O;;;
Funnily enough, I didn't use to like Scyther especially much. I had one in my Gold team for False Swipe, and always liked it more than Scizor, but I didn't like it as anything more than a long-term team member. It wasn't until I wrote one into my fanfic, The Quest for the Legends, that I really started to like Scyther. I fell in love with his character, and now I sometimes wonder if Scyther has become my very favorite. But I keep it here at third. I like the number three, anyway. Speaking of numbers, have you noticed that Scyther's National Pokédex number is 123?
Scyther is one of the more interesting Pokémon design-wise. It's an anthro mantis with reptilian features and scythes on its arms, basically. A praying mantis has blade-like thingies on its arms, and in Scyther, the Pokémon designers made them into sharp scythes. However, it has only four limbs, and since two of them are the scythe-like arms, it's bipedal, making me come to the conclusion of calling it an anthro (which is, in case you didn't know, a humanized animal of some sort; not to be confused with morphs, which are humans with animal-like features). Then, the legs and head are something that comes neither from an insect nor a human; they look more reptilian than anything else, apart from having been tweaked a bit to fit better into Scyther's overall image. A scythe, just in case you didn't know that, is the Grim Reaper's signature weapon. You know, that long blade on the stick. Scyther's name also comes from that word, obviously.
Scyther's Pokédex entries can be summed up in one word: run for your lives, we've got a freaky, super-fast killing machine that's more than willing to cut your head off on the loose. Well, that's more like a sentence. You also find there that Scyther does not fly often, which I find a bit weird - it would be even more dangerous if it would dive-bomb people. But well, I guess Satoshi Tajiri wanted to give the poor humans a chance. From what I've heard, also, the animé tells us that Scyther live like lions, in swarms with one leader male, a harem of females, and those young males that aren't old enough to hunt by themselves, and if the leader male is defeated, the victor will be the new leader.
I love Scyther's R/S sprite. It has that "DIE!" look to it and isn't at a weird angle or anything. I also like the new Sugimori art of it, although the body is twisted a bit awkwardly.
I can picture Scyther as the most dangerous Pokémon in the world, since as I explained above, it's fast with sharp scythes on its arms, but there might be some other that's a greater threat. Either way, I can imagine that Scyther often participate in rather violent battles.
(This section is currently being redone and will therefore contain much more when finished)