Reblog With The Highest Mountain In Your State Or Country And Whether Or Not You’ve At Least Attempted

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them

teusday dragons

as promised eons ago, here is part 1 of the new and improved teusday dragons.

go print them off, stick them to your walls, plaster your dad's car with them, put them as your account banner, eat them, etc etc

more flags

why do we even have legal genders anyway. maybe we should not have those

Louie isn’t evil.

Or: what Pikmin 4 tells us about his character.

BIG WARNING FOR PIKMIN 4 SPOILERS! (and the rest of the series)

———

I want to preface this by saying that I am in no way trying to be the end-all, be-all of character interpretations, but Pikmin 4 to me, at least, confirms the suspicions I’ve had since playing Pikmin 2 and 3 all those years ago that Louie ISN’T secretly evil, or possessed, or whatever else. He’s just… Louie. And I think that’s interesting in and of itself.

1. Olimar himself vouches for him, and clearly doesn’t think he’s a bad person.

Say what you will, but I’m inclined to think Olimar is a decent judge of character. Clearly he’s worked with Louie for enough time to see that while he’s not very good at his job, he’s not intentionally so— at least not in a malevolent way (will get more into this later). He also wants you to forgive him for Olimar’s sake, which can be read as self-sacrificing (as Olimar is known to be) but I also think hints at the soft spot he has for Louie.

It's also worth noting that he states during a end-of-day conversation that he told Louie that, since he's a new employee, he should do everything Olimar does... including throw castaways into the onion. Interesting that Louie took this so literally, but it does provide an explanation for why he kidnapped the Koppaites beyond "he's evil and crazy".

2. He really, REALLY loves his grandma.

Like, wow. He talks about her SO MUCH both in his Piklopedia entries and also elsewhere in the game. It's interesting. Worth noting is that he never mentions any other family members- unlike Olimar, who talks about his wife and each of his children independently. I've said this before, but the content of a lot of these entries implies to me that Louie was mainly raised by his grandma, likely since birth. And given some of her emails in Pikmin 2, assuming they're also canon to Pikmin 4's timeline... Well, Louie certainly had an interesting upbringing. But he clearly loves her all the same.

3. He has a mischievous streak and tends to do things on impulse.

This was already fairly obvious from the previous games, but I think it's worth noting that this game confirms that he's... would immature be the right word? In any regard, he doesn't seem to see himself as a "grown-up"- when in all likelihood he is. Personally, as a 22-year-old, I find that pretty relatable as I often think of myself as younger when in reality I am by all definitions an adult. This, along with his grandma still being around, makes it pretty much certain that Louie is a lot younger than Olimar and the president, likely in his early to mid twenties. Being a bit of a goofball isn't really out of the ordinary, all things considered.

THAT BEING SAID, he's clearly capable of practicing self-restraint when he wants to. What he says here about the red Pikmin is pretty significant, since we know he's willing to eat just about anything- but clearly he has some reservations about creatures that are friendly and helpful. Which leads to...

4. He loves dogs and fluffy things.

Same. But he doesn't even consider eating Moss, Oatchi or the Ancient Sirehound, showing that his creature-eating habits stop at things he recognizes as useful. He clearly also holds affection for things that are soft and fuzzy, and says as much.

5. He is so autism.

He plays with fidget toys. He loves certain textures and sounds. This guy is stimming all over PNF-404!!! I think this also lends some explanation for why his behavior is what it is- things like taking Olimar's suggestion to do as he does super literally even after crashing on an alien planet, his hyperfixation on cooking and tendency not to communicate and incorrectly interpret situations (thinking the Koppaites are kidnappers in 3, running away from you in 4). He could even be low or no empathy as well, explaining why it takes a hot minute to get him to understand why people are upset with him about something.

Interestingly this game also makes it clear that Louie wants to live on the planet, or at least thought he did while you were chasing him down, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that he doesn't really seem to fit in back on Hocotate. I, too, wish to run away to an alien world with all of the things that I like and no other people, so I get you, Louie.

6. He hates his boss and his job, and the golden pikpik carrot incident was likely premeditated.

This probably looks bad, but honestly? As a fellow work-hating anti-capitalist schmuck I get it. The president is for all intents and purposes a huge asshole, from sending Olimar straight back to the planet after selling his ship to not caring that Louie got left behind, just wanting to find the rest of the treasures. I doubt he is very kind to his employees, and doesn't seem very good at running the business. Definitely a funny character, but if he were my boss I would absolutely want to punt him into the sun.

From some other entries he clearly wants to sell certain things to accrue money, but it's for things like getting better kitchen tools and following his dream to have his own cooking show. Clearly being a freight driver isn't what Louie actually wants to do with his life, and he could not give less of a shit about what happens to the company. Very short-sighted on his part, but also again, yeah I get you Louie.

7. He... doesn't like the color red for some reason.

Honestly, I'm not even really sure what to make of this. Is it because it reminds him of the Hocotate ship? Or does he just not like the color? Would be very interesting considering that it's Olimar's signature color. Perhaps that's at least part of why he attacks you in Pikmin 2- though that's speculation for another day.

Also funny to me is his comments on the black-colored treasures. We know blue is his favorite color, but I guess he's also a bit of a goth at heart. Lol.

In conclusion.

I think Louie isn't written or intended to be evil, and Pikmin 4's portrayal of him was intentionally written to confirm this. He's just, as some have said, an agent of chaos, but that doesn't make him a bad person. Just an autistic 20-something working a shitty job he doesn't care about, who loves his grandma and has a mischievous streak and a hyperfixation on food. At least from what I can interpret, ymmv!

Pikmin Marketing: Haha, funny plant game

The Actual Game: The natural world is unforgiving, much like the world of business. Survival can only come at great personal cost. To fail is to die. The faces of the subordinates I could not save haunt my dreams. Their cries are the chorus of my nightmares. Will those you love ever truly comprehend what you sacrificed so that they may thrive?

this isn't something that exclusively affects nonbinary people, but for reasons i'm gonna get into, we're disproportionately and the most obviously affected by this.

whether we'd like to admit it or not: the trans community has a problem with bioessentialism and is at times just as obsessed over genitals at birth as cis people are.

it becomes really obvious when you look at how nonbinary people are grouped into amab and afab, transmasc or transfem. for trans men, everyone assumes they were born with a vagina, for trans women, everyone assumes they were born with a penis. with those terms, it's easy for people to make assumptions about "where they came from", i.e. what genitals they were born with. of course in these ideas, there is no room for intersex experiences.

nonbinary is more vague and doesn't have "built-in" assumptions about AGAB or genitals at birth. and people hate that. i believe it's one of the main reasons why people are obsessed with dividing us into amab and afab.

but many people have realised that this isn't a good look, so instead they divide us into transmasc and transfem. if trans men are assumed to all be afab and have vaginas at birth, then so are all transmascs. of transfems are assumed to all be amab and have penises at birth, then so are all transfems. (note: this is not at all about people self-identifying as transmasc or transfem, but rather about people using them as collective descriptors.) nonbinary people are constantly confronted with questions like "are you transmasc or transfem?" by other trans people, trying to figure out "where we came from". nonbinary people confuse most people, and most people can't sit with that at all. transmasc and transfem as collective terms like this are considered less bad than amab and afab, because at least they don't refer to agab anymore, so we're not allowed to say anything. ignore the fact that these terms are misgendering many of us and painting a linear picture of the gender spectrum.

i'm very sure that this is also why people hate afab transfems and amab transmascs so much. if transmasc no longer automatically means afab, and transfem no longer automatically means amab, then these terms have supposedly "lost all meaning", because whatever will i do if i don't know what genitals someone was born with.

because let's be real, that's what the obsession with AGAB comes down to. you were born with either a vagina or a penis and that will shape all of your trans experiences. once again ignoring intersex people or any sort of diversity in people's upbringing. it's bioessentialism.

and because nonbinary as a label is free from agab assumptions, we're called by these extra terms that we may or may not identify with way more often. not only are we reduced to our bodies, we're also misgendered and/or consistently related back to our agab in the process.

My current fave video:

Hiii!

Oatchi.....