The tragic truth of Glow Pikmin (Cowritten by @davogato_real)

What I REALLY find fascinating is that the Glow Sap the Lumiknolls produce is a direct cure for the leafification caused by the regular Pikmin. It has the ability to basically wilt and revert the Pikmin leafling control.

I really hope the next game goes more into the glow pikmin like exploring the underground activities of the lumiknolls since it's implied they do something underground

I love these little photon friends They are quite helpful fellows

Glow Pikmin feel particularly special to me because they seem like the nicest and kindest pikmin type to ever exist. What I'm referring to is the fact that they may have died because of your own doing yet even in the afterlife they still stand by your side and will dedicate their existence to you in a notorious show of unconditional love. They also remind me of the French version of Ai No Uta, where the Pikmin pledge to Olimar that they'll always be there for him, and will watch over him like angels; the last pledge being almost literal in the case of the Glow Pikmin. Whites are still my favourite type, but glowies are an extremely close second. I'll edit this comment once I'm able to watch the video, but I've been waiting for someone to dedicate one to these fascinating and tragic little guys. EDIT: It seems to be that Pikmin have a very Japanese way to perceive duty and resolve. What this video tells me is that if anything, Pikmin have some sort of self-awareness and may feel guilty or incompetent after being left behind, like they weren't good enough for the "Pikmin God", as they see the leaders to be like. They aren't angry at you, but deeply sorry. So they could be meandering ghosts with unfinished business, but their guilt being so crushingly strong that they'll never truly move on to the true afterlife. A very small detail that always caught my attention is the fact that unlike with normal Pikmin where their dying cry consists of descending notes or a descending pattern, when a glow pikmin dematerialises it has an ascending pattern to its cry... it never sounded sad to me. It weirdly sounds joyful, as if they are feeling the sweet release of true death for a second before being brought back to seek closure for their unfinished business.

I watched this video with a VC rambling in my ears, but uh... ghosts of Pikmin manipulating/attaching to the energy inside the Lumiknoll. Yeah... I'll go with that.

Theory: Glow pikmin are the ghost of pikmin They probably help you to either save their homes Or they recognize you and want another chance of helping you

Nice find about the Forget-me-not flowers. Originally, I assumed Glow Pikmin were supposed to have Tomato plant flowers, with the joke being that they were NIGHTshade flowers 💀 Something I am surprised you didn't bring up at all was the English Piklopedia notes for the Lumiknoll written by Olimar; he mentions that the Lumiknolls grow in the exact same spots where Onions land, and theorizes that Lumiknolls are an organic structure that shares a symbiotic relationship with the Onions, one that uses its own Pikmin-like agents (Glow Pikmin) to function as decomposes during the night and returns their life essence back into the Earth. Basically, the Lumiknoll is both the beginning and end of the PNF-404 foodchain: - Onions do their daily activities and leave - Lumiknoll is triggered to emerge and begins attracting local wildlife for glow pikmin to swarm, kill and break down into essence - Environment is now enriched with life essence, Pellet posies can regenerate - Lumiknoll recedes and Onion returns to repeat cycle As for the nature of Glow pikmin themselves, I have no earthly idea lmao my best guest is that the Lumiknoll is a fungus, and Glow pikmin could be clouds of spores being given shape and commands by the Lumiknoll through a series of complicated pings and pheromone signals. This signal likely gets somehow interrupted by the Captain's comms equipment and allows for the Glow pikmin nearest to them to fall under their command. I also imagine this is how the Pikmin also follow leaders over Onions

Perhaps when an onion dies and gets buried it turns into a lumiknoll and all dead pikmin within it and surrounding its area using their recourses to create the glow pikmin

if you pay attention, it appears that glow pellet piles are found at night where enemies are found during daytime, with a larger pile meaning that the enemy is harder to defeat or is known to quickly end large groups of pikmin.

0:35 "How the hell am I supposed to eat this?" -Louie, probably

I do think the different flower shapes aren't meant to be forget me not, since those have more rounded petals, versus the very slender petals on the glow pikmin. Isotoma axillaris seems to be a closer match, though there could be many other candidates for the base flower. I beleive the design is more meant to resemble a star, to match their place in the night expeditions. The yellow color also helps build the resemblance. That said, from pictures, the forget me not does have inner petals that match as well. I think it could be possible, like you said, that an earlier design of the lumiknoll could have incorporated a more flower-like design, which would them make the petals make more sense. The pikmin are the smaller parts of the flower, in a sense, so they would bear the smaller mirror petals from the forget me not. It could be that the beetle-infested termite mound design was then chosen over the old to either be more striking and easier to spot during night expeditions, where the lower light could make it either harder to see, or to distinguish it from the foliage. Or it could have been to make things a little more subtle, since a glowing flower would push these pikmin even further into the supernatural side, whereas this design leaves more up to the player's interpretation. Another possibility I can think of is giving a way to communicate damage. While you do have the health meters, seeing the damage immediately helps make things smoother in gameplay I would also like to say, I do think there is a good chance that if these are the spirits or remnants of perished pikmin, that it could be more than just those left behind. While we can see those at sunset try to return since they are still alive in that moment, it is possible that what remains of any pikmin would try to return to the onion all the same

Hi love your videos cep em coming

Regardless of if it does or does not have canon evidence for it, I WANT the Glow Pikmin to be the ghosts of Pikmin that have perished. Although it does make me… feel disappointed in 4’s writing because MANNN you just KNOW if this was 1 (or even 2) they would draw attention to that and make it GUT WRENCHING! Olimar talking about how he views the glow Pikmin as a sign of forgiveness from the Pikmin he couldn’t save, stuff about their unending loyalty, etc.

What about the purple and white pikmin STILL IN THE SHIP at the end of pikmin 2?

I love how poetic the pikmin series is, it's honestly so beautiful. And then outside players see it as slavery and exploitation...

I had been thinking about Glow Pikmin a while back, and realized something interesting. In particular, I had been thinking about what Glow Pikmin themselves are made out of. Given that the Lumiknoll requires Glow Pellets to create Glow Pikmin, and also requires them to create Glow Sap, it is feasible that they are made of Glow Sap itself, giving these potential Pikmin souls a body to inhabit, but also does so for a double purpose. Ever wonder where those piles of Glow Pellets come from? Well, what if the ingestion of Glow Pikmin is directly putting this Glow Sap into their bodies, degrading them slowly into nutrients from the inside out. A bit Grim, but possible, considering that Glow Pikmin are able to convert enemies into Glow Pellets in the field, possibly through a similar process.

This makes me love them even more, poor babies...

i have a theory: glow pikmin are the dead pikmin you lost before

Well Glow Pikmin are light on the night and they say when you lose a glow Pikmin it turn into a Photon

Not gonna make it. Got school during this time. But I will watch afterward.