#red leafling

[kelpermoosee]

Every time I feel mildly distressed I beg for Captain Olimar to save me

[diamondwerewolf]

Red Leafling plus too many days gone by makes a Manticore.

[lytmeowtif]

i love drawing dumb shit that comes to mind while watching @facefullabugz and @friendlyfrankenstein play pikmin

[letolimarseehisfamily]

Pnf-404s favorite puppet

[ohmaerieme]

i have to draw them being cute or else i think about it for too long and cry from how awful it is

[sleepsentry]

I noticed leafling Olimar kinda looks like he has a beard.

Also, the leafling thing isn't as sinister to me as it's often portrayed, I always thought olimar's helmet antenna made him look like a big pikmin.

So to the pikmin, he's just like what the big bulbmin are to the little bulbmin.

So, olimar becoming a big pikmin makes it come full circle.

Dandori doesn't feel like some sinister obsession to me. It feels more like the instinct on which pikmin themselves operate, making them coordinated and mutually supportive. Like bugs? Ants even? :]

Of course the sinister element is the loss of self, but I didn't think it was portrayed as an irreversible amnesia, I like to think the leaflings can eventually peice their individual selves back together while still maintaining this new collective instinct. Bees and ants to have some form of individuality and a "true hivemind" the way it's portrayed in media isn't very accurate.

Then, of course, there's the idea that they can't survive off planet or go home. That's definitely bad.

Also it gives me an excuse to make Olimar look kinda bear-ish. ;D

[wolf-forests]

Omg ^_^ ❤️💙

[flamefireflower]

[Day 17 - Dandori] DANDORI TODAY DANDORI TOMORROW

[sylunisart]

Posting my part of the Halloween collab

Left is nighttime, and right is daytime

[carrotcate7]

Pikman yaawwn

[squidcakes0406]

Memories may be hazy but instinct never changes.

[fullmoonfireball]

my Jin collection

[diamondwerewolf]

tea time

[olistar255]

What do you think Leaflings are capable of? they seem to be fine if left underwater, would that be a gameplay thing, or could some perhaps have bits of Blue Pikmin in them? would that imply other hybrids are possible? wings? the White Sage was there for Ages apparently? wonder if they have an extended lifespan? also some have 4 eyes?

Thank you for the questions!! i always appreciate some Pikmin discussion

So… leaflings are a weird case in the Pikmin ecology. As far as i know, they are the only case where what the Onion absorbs directly influences what comes out (which was even already the case in Pikmin 1). We already know Onions' offsprings get influenced by environment and, through evolution, by the DNA of what it absorbs, but leaflings are unique in that Onions doesn't really decompose/recompose the creature, but rather simply attaches Pikmin attributes to the host, rejuvenating them and usually bringing them back from the brink of death.. which is very important.

I believe what sets the leafling apart is that all the people leafified weren't corpses yet, but either in deep sleep, comatose or about to die. Because the Onion may be too weak to decompose still-living creatures (hence why the Pikmin need to kill them first), it skips that phase but still implants the Pikmin seed/Hermikmin in them before spitting them out. I would even assume this was the same process that birthed Ice Pikmin, Rock Pikmin, and Bulbmins.

Now what does this mean for what leaflings are and are capable of? Well, the logical conclusion is that the leafified person gains Pikmin abilities along with the physical attributes; as seen ingame, the most important one being the ability to breathe PNF-404's air, and like you pointed out also being able to go underwater with no helmet (for the sake of discussion i'll just assume it's a real trait and not just the devs not caring about putting dandori challenges underwater :p)

The idea of leaflings receiving different attributes depending on which Onion transforms them is awesome (and would make for a ton of awesome OC concepts) but i do think those abilities would be limited because the Pikminification is limited. In my opinion, realistically the ability to breathe underwater would just be limited to the blue Hermikmin somewhat adapting the lungs of the host to underwater breathing (more on that later) while the leaves allow air breathing through their stomata. In a similar vein, i assume red leafification would allow for limited resistance to fire because the leaves would somewhat protect the skin, etc.

Not getting the full extent of the Pikmin abilities come with the perk of keeping most of your cognitive abilities (even if you do become dandori-obsessed) and the possibility of reversing the process with glow sap-based medicine.

Now i want to bring up the relationship between leaflings and time. We only have 2 samples of specimen who have been leafified for a while by the time we find them, Olimar and the Sage leaf, so the following more or less will be on the conjectural side.

First the most obvious part is how these two are much more coherent than recent leaflings; and while we don't have a ton of dialogue for the Sage leaf, we see how he's aware of concepts like pupils, leaving, the outside world, etc., while Olimar suppresses anything unrelated to dandori until we defeat him, so i think it's fair to assume a proportional correlation between time passing and the Pikminification brainrot ceasing.

Secondly - and this is harder to prove given the small sample size -, the older leaflings look closer to normal people than the recent ones, who all have the same body type with freaky eyes.

My theory is that because the Onion's attempt at turning a person fully into a Pikmin fails, those Pikminification effects (simple mindedness, modified organs like the eyes or the lungs) simply wither away with time, with only the beneficial effects sticking with the host: the leaves covering their body.

This is pretty much all i can think about when looking at the leaflings. In short they're a hybrid between a person and a Pikmin, down to how they think. I do wonder, though... Are they truly the result of the Onion failing to do its task completely, or is there some conscious decision behind them? Can the Onion choose to refuse to digest a creature, maybe even because they care about their wellbeing? or are the leaflings a result of strategic evolution? After all, their obsession with dandori is very beneficial for the Pikmin; what's the first rule of dandori any leafling will remind you of when you start a challenge? "Gather and make as many Pikmin as possible..."

[collabwithmyself]

silly little in-character notes for hito for the pikmin au that is slowly unfolding with my friends! might write some for akiko too...

Hito's Notes

Red Pikmin

These are tough little guys! I've noticed they tend to land nose-first when I throw them at other animals, maybe that's got something to do with why they hit so hard. Turns out they're also fireproof, which I had to learn the hard way, haha... I should really make sure the pikmin are all standing clear before testing the thrusters.

Yellow Pikmin

You gotta be careful if you toss these little guys, they go way higher than I was expecting! It's like those big ears catch the wind, haha! They also don't seem too bothered when messing with live wires- I had to pull one out of the control panel of my ship the other day, and it was fine!

Blue Pikmin

Other pikmin don't handle water too well, but these little guys march right in like it's nothing! I wonder if it's got to do with those mouths of theirs... funny that they're the only ones that have visible ones, when any of the pikmin can cut into my food supply with no problem.

Purple Pikmin

Stars, these guys are heavy! Ha, makes me wish I'd kept up my fitness regime from college... speaking of, these guys are amazing in a fight! They can even go toe-to-toe with me if they're feeling up for a friendly wrestle!

White Pikmin

I know all pikmin are little, but these guys are really little. They're quick, though, and the acid they spit keeps them out of the worst of trouble! Not like they're not capable of getting into it, though, haha... at least they didn't get sick after eating my expired food.

Rock Pikmin

I know there's a special name for plants that grow in rocks, but I can't remember it... sorry, Akiko, I'll have to ask you again if I get back home. But anyway, these guys are rock-solid, even if they're bad at holding onto walls and animals... haha, guess they're not rock climbers!

Winged Pikmin

These little guys are super handy! They can fly right over obstacles that'd give other pikmin problems. And since they're so small, they're not easy to knock out of the air... which can be a problem if they're taking off with your tools!

Ice Pikmin

I've never been good with the cold, but that's not these guys' fault. They're friendly as any other pikmin once they hear the whistle, and they can freeze water to let other pikmin cross it... or make my canteen more refreshing on a hot day, haha!

Glow Pikmin

These pretty little guys only come out when it's dark. Nothing seems to hurt them too badly, which is a good thing, considering how rough this place gets at night. They always vanish in the morning, like I used to do in college, haha.

Onion

Ha, I know it's not the most creative name, but that's what it looks like! It keeps the pikmin safe at night, brings them around while I'm looking for a spot to explore, and whatever's going on inside it, it can make more pikmin if you bring it the right stuff.

Leaflings

Milton's not exactly a pikmin, but he sure isn't like me, either. I wonder if he was always like this, or if something happened to him...? Ha, either way, he sure isn't interested in acting like a pikmin. The whistle just annoys him, and I wouldn't dream of grabbing his stem and throwing him.

(Milton belongs to @wizardmolars!)

[sleepsentry]