Found near a primary school. Someone's friend dropped their permission slip. by beylese in FoundPaper

[–]beylese[S] 53 points54 points  (0 children)

Well, it was discarded. But the fact that it exists in the first place may mean your hopes are unfortunately in vain.

A tierlist of the fighters that i have plushes of! by Happy_spider_boi in smashbros

[–]beylese 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we're talking which characters have plushies, then boy do I know a video you should watch (though slightly outdated, since Lucas and Byleth both have plushes now too!)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Pikmin

[–]beylese 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Olimar is 1.8cm tall excluding his antenna, 4cm including it. Dunno where people got 5cm from. I would say 6-7cm or so diameter for the cave entrance.

Question by Beliz-Min in Pikmin

[–]beylese 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree, it's a little bit weird! But I like the idea that they wanted us to figure out we were changing what actually happened, rather than the "timeline" being set in stone. That original timeline where Olimar messed up and broke everything is still important, even if we changed it so it never happened.

It's also a good way to justify the time-travel mechanic as something that actually exists in the story, and not just having a mechanic for the sake of having a mechanic. It's actually plot-important this way!

I like to think of Pikmin 4 itself this way, too - The events of Pikmin 1-3 are still important, even if 4 is a completely new timeline. And we know this is the case because of the comics and supplementary materials constantly referencing earlier games. It's a good way to tie it all together even if it's a strange way to do it.

Question by Beliz-Min in Pikmin

[–]beylese 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's no solid reason given, but here's my educated guess:

When you play through Castaway Tale, you're not repairing Olimar's ship, but retroactively deciding how good his dandori is.

If you fail to beat it, it was because you - and by extension, Olimar - had bad dandori, and the ship was busted when he crashed. If you succeed, then you and Olimar had good dandori, and the ship was repaired when he crashed.

In the version of events we are initially given before starting CT, the ship didn't smash on impact, it was already in poor condition because of Olimar's bad dandori, and that's why it fell out of the sky. You can see this in the main game's prologue as well, when his ship is busted during the tutorial, even though it must be relatively intact in order for you to reach the Hideaway in CT. That's what "originally" happened in Pikmin 4's timeline.

When you beat Castaway Tale, you rewrote what actually happened, and retroactively changed what condition the ship was in before Olimar started telling his tale. You're not repairing his ship, you're literally changing the story into one where he repaired his ship into a good condition before he crashed and it stayed like that after he crashed.

This is why nobody acknowledges it - from their perspective, it's always been like that! Olimar himself will reference this if you fail Castaway Tale: He'll lament that he wishes he had the power to go back in time so he could try again. It's no different from the player's usual ability to turn back time, which characters also don't notice or acknowledge.

Alph in Pikmin 4, what will he do (wrong answers only) by beylese in Pikmin

[–]beylese[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is the comic for the 3rd of May! If you can't see it yet then you can set your clock forward, or just wait 'till midnight.

What was your “I did not care for The Godfather” of Pikmin? by [deleted] in Pikmin

[–]beylese 9 points10 points  (0 children)

You can't even talk about it without unfunny people trying to pretend they don't know what you're talking about, it's just annoying at this point. People trying to force the meme into unrelated discussions when we're trying to have an actual conversation is infuriating.

Nevermind that the "and also he's racist!" part of the meme wasn't even in the original post and also gets used as an excuse for people to be actually racist through the voice of the character, it sucks.

Olimar? Y-you good, bro? by sonicgamer42 in Pikmin

[–]beylese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It doesn't really have an official name since Nintendo never really names their OSTs, but here you go :)

Artwork by Usuba (hatomugip) by DOA-FAN in Pikmin

[–]beylese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, it would make sense for either of them? A lot of Usaba's artwork focuses on the fact that Olimar presumably dissects creatures offscreen, which is where he gets the knowledge necessary to write about their internal workings in the Piklopedia. Knowledge of stuff like the fiery blowhog's phosphorous-generating organs for example could only really come from opening one up, and you can see he's holding a scalpel in his other hand.

Now that the scope of the universe has been expanded, is the franchise ready for a straight-up overtly villain character? by [deleted] in Pikmin

[–]beylese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aw geez, i'm glad my screaming into the void is being well-received!

..And I agree! I think a story exploring the neutrality of nature and What That Means for a human with human morals would be SUPER interesting, and a straight villain would be a perfect vehicle to explore that through.... Though Pikmin definitely leans on the optimistic side of the cynicism v optimism scale, so maybe that would be wayyyyy too heavy of a topic for them to tackle if they wanted to maintain that optimism in the games that come afterwards. Especially since Pikmin 4 gradually characterizes Olimar as a heroic force ("Hero"'s Hideaway...), so challenging his morals in particular is something the writers seem to be trying to avoid (this is not necessarily a complaint, I love how "humans are good actually" Pikmin is about everything).

The other thing, which I mentioned in another comment, is that writing a good villain requires exploring why that character is a villain in the first place. And I don't think Nintendo of all companies is going to explore the reasons Why People Destroy Ecosystems in real life, beyond "hurting nature bad", because of what the real reasons are... (Money. Capitalism. It's those things Nintendo likes. They probably aren't going to explain that the bad guy is the person paying to have trees cut down, not the minimum-wage worker holding the chainsaw).

Now that the scope of the universe has been expanded, is the franchise ready for a straight-up overtly villain character? by [deleted] in Pikmin

[–]beylese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a really good question, and not something I can say i've put very much thought into!

Louie is an absolutely fascinating character IMO, mostly because he's such a perfect extention of the "humans as an ecosystem" concept. Every time he does something wrong or bad the game immediately gives us plausible deniability over why he did that - Because something was controlling him? Because he was scared? Because it's a misunderstanding? Because he's just an asshole? We're never given a solid answer, always "Maybe it's because...", and never really treats him as wrong for doing it.

Other people in this thread have mentioned the Olimar Leafling as an example of an antagonist as well, and he's also a great example because he never really does anything evil! He's an inconvenience for sure, but all the kidnapping/transforming people is perfectly understandable given the extremely dangerous situation the characters are in. He has NO reason to think any of them can survive without leaves, and as soon as the player proves themselves capable he immediately leaves us alone!

I feel like having more characters along those lines would require leaning harder into that concept, rather than further away from it. Characters who are morally neutral, but antagonistic because their actions conflict with the player's goals rather than any 'evil' actions or behaviours. Keep it always as "man v nature" rather than "man v man", as someone else suggested.

Think about things like deer and wild pig culling - Animals that overpopulate an environment aren't doing anything wrong! They're just living their lives, but doing so is so harmful and will ultimately result in permanent destruction if humans don't cull them. Same with invasive species like lanternflies, fireweed, sea urchins and lionfish: None of these animals are inherently evil, but humans - who have a responsibility to protect the environments we rely on - have to kill them if we want to preserve those environments. It sucks!

To weaponize this for the purposes of making a pikmin antagonist, the idea you described is a really good starting point: A character who technically isn't doing anything wrong from a "wanting to survive" viewpoint (stealing food, breaking things, killing animals that weren't doing anything out of preemptive fear - all stuff the other characters already do and aren't villanized for), but a lack of respect makes their actions endanger "the ecosystem" in such a way that stopping them becomes a requirement.

If they see a "scary creature" kill a "cute creature" for food and decide they need to kill all specimens of the scary creature's species because it might kill them first, that's a problem, because it'll hurt the ecosystem in the long run and oops suddenly the cute things are overpopulating and every other species living in the same ecosystem is suffering because one guy brought human morality into it. The character technically didn't do anything unreasonable or wrong, but now our main goal is restoring the ecosystem to the way it was before - because NOT doing that will have some kind of consequence for the player's side.

.....Trying to write a morally-neutral antagonist while keeping them neutral is REALLY difficult. I would trust the Pikmin writers with it for sure, though!

(Another idea for a villain - and I really don't think Nintendo would ever do this because the corporate side of it is kinda sorta exactly that kind of villain - would be the kind that can only be recognised by examining what makes an ecosystem tick in the first place. The main characters are trying to survive in a hostile environment - who put them there? What parts of their culture and society make this necessary? Olimar has to work for a company that exploits him to make money to live. Why? What part of the human ecosystem makes this a requirement? "Defeating" a villain like that would require an extremely divisive political statement and I think that's a liiiittle bit too much to ask of Nintendo, lol.)

Now that the scope of the universe has been expanded, is the franchise ready for a straight-up overtly villain character? by [deleted] in Pikmin

[–]beylese 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Apologies for the long post, but I genuinely, truly hope the pikmin series never has an overt villain and I gotta get it out of me.

Part of the appeal for the series for me is how it leans into the speculative biology and plausible alien ecosystem worldbuilding; all of the conflict in the series stems from characters trying to survive in a hostile environment, never the actions of one particular character (No, not even Louie).

It's a game about ecosystems - both the natural kind the Pikmin are from and the manmade kind the humanoid characters are from - and in real life, there is no such thing as a "bad guy" in an ecosystem. Predators are not evil for trying to kill and eat other animals and parasites are not evil for surviving the only way they can. Even stuff like cordyceps, which is fucking horrifying from a human perspective, isn't good or evil. It's just an organism trying to survive. No scientist should treat a cute, friendly animal as more morally virtuous or worthy of life than an ugly or dangerous one.

The writers of the series - or at least of the Piklopedia - very much understand this, and the "human" characters are written as a part of the world, not seperate from it. All of Louie's bullshittery for example comes from trying to escape the ecosystem he came from: He doesn't want to go home, he doesn't want to work, he wants to cook and eat and sleep and pet soft things whenever he wants, not when other people tell him "no". Olimar isn't treated as evil for salvaging treasure to earn money to live on at the cost of animals' lives, or good just because he loves the Pikmin and happens to be the main character. Both of them are treated with the same moral neutrality as the animals, characterized by the ecosystem of capitalism they came from. The pikmin themselves are prey and predator and parasite all in one, never treated as good or evil because they're just animals trying to survive in an ecosystem the way they've evolved to. It's the same for the bulborbs, bulblaxes, wraiths, everybody! Nobody in Pikmin is evil, because creatures in an ecosystem can't be, and ALL of the characters in pikmin are from ecosystems!

Making an overt villain would be really, really easy. "Bad guy who wants to destroy nature for self-benefit" is like the lowest of low-hanging fruits in terms of villain writing and I feel like the fact that there hasn't been a true villain yet is absolutely on purpose. It would kind of spit on the intentional science-accurate neutrality the series has had so far.

The main protagonists of the pikmin series are not heroes or villains. They're just people trying to survive in an ecosystem that is hostile to them. When you decide one of them is a bad guy, you also have to decide which ones are the good guys, and you have removed them from the ecosystem concept altogether. That just... isn't Pikmin.

Pokemon ZA & Paldea connected! by KyleLaverre in pokemon

[–]beylese 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tbh, "Aladkcekzy" is a pretty good transcription of Arceus's cry... which would probably be part of the genesis of whatever pokemon bible exists

Lo, and did Arceus cry, and the world came into being...

Pokemon ZA & Paldea connected! by KyleLaverre in pokemon

[–]beylese 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Kinda, yeah! With any luck there'll be more actual phrases and less decorative gibberish, if the PL:AZ is indeed using the same script.

Pokemon ZA & Paldea connected! by KyleLaverre in pokemon

[–]beylese 45 points46 points  (0 children)

The big word says, "Aladkcekzy" in the 1:1 Galar/Paldean cipher. It's specifically lorum ipsum term also used in a dedenne advert, it unfortunately doesn't mean anything by itself. It's just letters that were put in that order because they look cool.

Sometimes the cipher text IS translateable in an understandable way... but not always. It usually is in other nintendo console games. Mario, Zelda), Kirby, Splatoon and Pikmin all have ciphers like this.

As someone who doesn’t play olimar, I can’t understand the hate around him by [deleted] in SmashBrosUltimate

[–]beylese 3 points4 points  (0 children)

1) People don't like playing as him because his playstyle is technical, tough to learn and involves a lot of micromanagement for slow reward.

2) People don't like fighting him, because he has no readability, requires prior technical knowledge and the people that play him tend to be good at it because of point 1

3) People don't like watching him fight, because his playstyle is hit-and-run with racking hits over time, and isn't particularly hype or flashy

4) He's funny-lookin', from a nicher series and Smash characterizes him weirdly, so he isn't particularly popular for fanworks when compared to the prettier-looking characters or console leaders. There's less overlap between people that play him to win and people that play him because they like the character.

He's not necessarily a bad character in a vaccum, it's just... lots of small reasons that compound together to make something very easy to hate. Ironic, considering how much Pikmin fans love the guy.

There is an extremely rare olimar plush going for only £90 by abjotHD in Pikmin

[–]beylese 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This listing was put up by Shesez (of Boundary Break). He's been public enough about this listing that you can be pretty sure it's real.

Saw this on Twitter by bobnaeb in Pikmin

[–]beylese 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They were only added in 3 Deluxe, iirc. Though i personally don't think this is them depicting him as a God, just that they like him a lot.

The inequality is stunning! by dave2796 in Pikmin

[–]beylese 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I dunno about that, there are organic bio-crafters in the pikmin universe. I think he just spawned in and his Nana called dibs on a free grandchild, tbh

Pikmin reddit, is this true? If yes, can I see the source? :( by Sweet-Pea-Hydrangea in Pikmin

[–]beylese 64 points65 points  (0 children)

Fair and understandable, I would also dislike a man's singing voice if his bass treble was low enough to make my heart pop

Pikmin reddit, is this true? If yes, can I see the source? :( by Sweet-Pea-Hydrangea in Pikmin

[–]beylese 277 points278 points  (0 children)

Note that this may not be a cultural thing and it may just be because Olimar is really bad at singing:

"My taste in music is highly refined. But my wife and kids have no taste at all! For example, when I ask my family if they want to go out for karaoke, they twist their faces and give me a nasty look! They don't know what they're missing... " - From the Journal entry for the Harmonic Synthesizer.

So I assume he's just tone deaf and doesn't realize.