Pikmin and Philosophy

"This game is so cute!" That was the reaction my ex-girlfriend had when she played the 2001 GameCube hit Pikmin. On the surface she is absolutely correct. Pikmin is a game that stars tiny little plant creatures, each with their own silly flower hat.

The art direction for the game is as colorful as the pikmin themselves, with a design that makes even vicious monsters seem like desirable household pets. The protagonist of the game, Captain Olimar, flew in on a miniature spaceship while wearing an antenna on his head. Basically, your simple minded ex-girlfriend has every reason to call Pikmin a "cute" game.

I ask that you stop giggling for just a moment. Remove your mind from those happy Pikmin memories, and take just a few minutes to really think about the events that transpired during the game. As I sit here taking my own advice, I begin to feel cold chills when I remember all those pikmin who died by my hand. I can still hear them scream as they fell to their death in water, or became the meal of a giant bug.

I even remember controlling Captain Olimar as he threw pikmin purposely into harm's way, just to occupy a monster in hopes of creating safe passage. Suddenly Pikmin doesn't seem like such a cute game anymore. Below the cuddly surface, this is a dark game seeping with brilliant social commentary.

I'd like to think that Pikmin was named after the communist propaganda film, The Battleship Potemkin. I have absolutely no basis for that claim; so, I am willing to call the small similarities between the titles a coincidence. However, I will say that all pikmin would benefit from seeing Potemkin, as it could very well be the inspiration they need to seek revolution.

The life of a pikmin under Captain Olimar is one of constant trials. A painful death is not so much possible as it is a near certainty -- all pikmin will die in some horrific manner. Once a pikmin seed has bloomed, Captain Olimar pulls their body from the soil, and the only life they ever know is one of servitude. Whatever Captain Olimar desires, the pikmin do it. There is absolutely no escape.

I'm your god now. 

Captain Olimar literally throws pikmin as a means to complete tasks, solve puzzles, fight monsters, and inevitably find the missing parts to his spacecraft. He needs the parts of his spacecraft in order to fly home safely, and pikmin are the tools he uses to accomplish this task. Being a man who greatly values efficiency, Olimar apparently found hurling pikmin through the air to be the best way to cut down on lost time.

How do the pikmin react to their short, painful lives of being thrown by a tyrant? Well, they appear to accept it -- scratch that, they love it. The pikmin obey without questioning their orders, only occasionally stepping out of line when a wall is just too thick to be smashed away by normal means or a distracting shiny bug crosses their path. 

There is no pain in their eyes when fellow pikmin fall in battle, and no anger at the man who sent them to their death. The will of the pikmin is completely broken; only the power of fear could make a living creature become such a slave. As I thought about this, the social commentary in Pikmin starts to become very clear. Playing Pikmin opened my eyes in a way that Jesus never could.

I came to understand that I am a pikmin. The human condition is one of being a pikmin, as we are all slaves to a system that rules by fear. I had always believed in my heart that Shigeru Miyamoto was a great philosopher and that eventually his philosophy would begin manifesting in Nintendo video games. Thank you, Miyamoto-san, for proving me right.

How are we all pikmin when we don't live under the tyrannical rule of Captain Olimar? That's a very good question, one that I am sure you can answer yourself if you just take a moment to think about it. We may not have a single dictator that throws us if we disobey, but the threat of violence is still what keeps our system of governance functioning.

If you don't pay your taxes and follow laws, you may not be tossed to your death in water, but you can expect a certain level of punishment. It's in this way that we are all still slaves to the system. Without the threat of violence against us, we may not all be such obedient little pikmin.

What about the bad laws? What about those parts of the system that equate to throwing you under a frog monster? Well, we all still follow those laws, and grumble to our friends while we do it. You have to follow the rules, mostly because the government is more powerful than you are, and that means they can punish you when you disobey. 

Captain Olimar isn't ruler of the pikmin because they consent to his governance. He's ruling the pikmin because he is bigger and stronger than they are. Sure, the pikmin could rebel and all beat him down like a fire-breathing sloth creature, but not a single pikmin dares to make the first move.

Do you still want to unionize?

It's the feeling of inferiority, the feeling that they need Captain Olimar, that keeps each and every pikmin from carrying the first banner of revolution. Like a romance that has lost all excitement, pikmin fear losing Captain Olimar because he's all they know. However, change can never happen until they understand survival is possible without him -- at least in the daytime.

What the pikmin need to realize is that, without them, Captain Olimar would be just another ugly guy in a spacesuit. Similarly, without people supporting a government, it would be just a bunch of crooks spending other people's money. We pikmin need to remind our rulers that we have power. If that means smashing our blooming antennae into that fishbowl of a space helmet, then so be it. 

As referenced above, the pikmin occasionally get a small taste of freedom whenever this one particular shiny bug runs by. As soon as the pikmin see it, they ignore their orders and begin chasing the indestructible insect. For those brief moments before Captain Olimar throws them back into the herd, those pikmin are as free as the wind. This small escape is all pikmin need to tolerate their lives as laborers.

This has to be a really cool drug or something... 

What is the shiny bug in our lives? I imagine it's television entertainment. As long as people can come home at night and turn on the TV for some escape, it doesn't matter how terrible their lives are. I may not chase my TV and smash it with my face in hopes of breaking it, but it does shine pretty colors. It serves to distract me from my life as a wage laborer. 

Like any great work of art, Pikmin spreads awareness of pressing social issues through the use of symbolism; however, the game does not say that the rise of the pikmin proletariat will be easy. Without Captain Olimar to rule over us pikmin, wouldn't we all just run around cutting down flowers or stealing LCD TVs? Maybe, but it doesn't have to be that way.

When night comes to plunge the world into darkness, Captain Olimar leaves the planet in a state of anarchy. It's every man and pikmin for themselves at that point, and the threat of being consumed by large nocturnal monsters is quite real. But imagine if more pikmin chose not to fly away with Olimar and instead took control of their world, the health of his stupid spaceship penthouse be dammed! Maybe then all pikmin could band together and fend off the evil beasts and social problems that night brings, while also holding their heads (and antennae) high to breathe in the sweet air of a new found freedom.

We don't have to be enslaved little pikmin anymore, and our purpose doesn't have to involve helping the elite pimp their spacecrafts. Thank you, Shigeru Miyamoto, for opening the eyes of this big, strong pikmin.