#pmd thoughts

[scrambledsigil]

On a pmd explorers note, everyone is like "oh dusknoir tricked you The Whole Time!!!!"

but what's sad is....

in a sense, he Didn't. At least not in a personal manner.

Until he realized who the hero was, his polite and chivalrous manner was likely genuine- or genuine to a degree. He did things to survive, but he *had no reason to deceive the hero or partner until he found out the hero was his target.*

YES, he had to get into the good graces of people around him *to an extent* so he could manipulate the people against Grovyle... but he didn't have to go as far as he had. we don't know it was all a big ruse.

and to be honest, manipulating people against a man who *really* looks like he's destroying the world while trying to save it... not a high bar. you don't gotta be some Great and Amazing hero to turn the tides in your favor with that as your opposition.

It's possible if the hero wasn't his target, he could have been genuinely kind to you.

in the end, he'd doom your world to the destruction it was already headed towards before grovyle's involvement, but not with malice aforethought to you in particular, per se. He decieved by omission of what he was sent to do, but not as a personal manipulation.

[fanartbycactus]

Dusknoir brought partner along to torture Grovyle.

There's no overt reason given why he brings partner along, other than their association with hero. Frankly, Dusknoir has every reason to leave partner behind to minimize the changes he makes to the timeline.

But he doesn't.

I think this was part of his plan for if Grovyle escaped the execution to find Celebi. Hero and Partner would have no choice but to follow him, wanting to go home, leading them to Celebi, letting Dusknoir get rid of her, Hero, and Grovyle all at once.

Then why bring partner?

If he'd only brought hero and captured all three of them, that would be it. Hero wouldn't remember Grovyle, but would side with him over Dusknoir easily. They might die protecting him, or Grovyle would have died protecting hero and Celebi, etc. Either way, barring their escape, they'd go, but they'd go together, trying to save eachother.

There's comfort in that, in a way. That even when hero could no longer remember Grovyle, their face, their old self gone, they still fight by his side, showing concern for him. Maybe Grovyle could tell himself in his final moments, or in the event of an escape, that at least they were reunited. That, in spite of everything, hero would still try to side with him and fight for their cause. It's almost sweet.

But if partner is there, who would hero run to? If the fight gets too brutal, who will hero defend? Who will they heal? Whose name would they call out for in their final moments?

Their best friend, or the guy who would've wasted them in Crystal Cave?

Dusknoir didn't just want to reveal hero's identity to Grovyle to show him no one was left to carry out the plan, he wanted to show him hero didn'teven care about him anymore.

He wanted to crush every shred of hope he could cling to. Not just for what could have been, but what he lost trying to change the past.

[quietbox]

Thought I've been holding onto for a while:

What if the hero had a dimensional scream about all of the special episodes in explorers of sky

Especially episode 5. Hero getting a brief vision of grovyle and dusknoir. Possibly when Dusknoir was monologuing, telling Grovyle how he was going to go back in time to ensure the planet's paralysis.

If future trio came back after that, hero and partner would definitely be on edge. Especially if Dusknoir tried to keep his distance at first.

I wonder how hero and partner would react?

Saw this post by fujii and felt inspired to share my take, too

[fanartbycactus]

Why is there a Temporal Tower for Dialga, but all Palkia gets is a rift? The god of time has a physical location associated with it (however hidden), but the God of Space and physical matter has a hole in spacetime? What are we missing?

Time in pmd Explorers is a very fragile thing. There are five Time Gears, guarded by minor gods, meant to anchor time to the region. They're associated with structure that allows Dialga to ensure the flow of time, something that is supposed to be maintained by it's very heartbeat.

The collapse of said tower is enough to actually stop the flow of time, and render Dialga mad and dying/undead.

And none of that's a concern for Palkia? There's no structure that can be toppled like that for it that'd crack open the Earth.

Something happened here, something is missing.

The tower seems to be a sort of life support for Dialga, anchoring time to reality. If the tower is destroyed Dialga can no longer maintain its own heartbeat, and it loses all rational sense and presence of mind. Without the tower, it is slowly dying.

Why? What could leave the god of time, one of the central figure of the gen 4 creation myths, in such a state that it needs not only life support, but an intricate set of gates to keep out unwanted visitors?

Another god.

My guess is, Dialga and Palkia got into a reality warping fight (as they often are implied to in other source material). Dialga must have lost. Badly.

Perhaps its heart gem became cracked. Maybe it was hit with a well aimed spatial rend. Maybe, in the moment, both gods lost themselves.

Dialga, then on death's door, has to be saved. Perhaps it was Arceus that created the the tower, or Palkia creating the Hidden land, raising the tower. Perhaps it was both.

Palkia, not nearly as hurt, was able to return to Spatial Rift to sleep off their battle. It wouldn't need a tower, it wouldn't need to be saved.

[fanartbycactus]

Had an idea while chatting with a moot:

Mystery Dungeon legendaries can only smite mortal pokemon that enter their territory/sacred ground. At least in Rescue Team/Explorers.

In both games, you can only fight legendary bosses that intend to waste you if you enter their territory.

In rescue team, this is the main reason legendary pokemon fight you. It's their domain, there's natural disasters happening suddenly, stressing them out, and they think certain mortal pokemon must be causing it. You don't belong there, you're new, and so are the disasters, so it must be connected.

In Explorers, it's sort of the same deal, but the legendaries are protecting something in the main story.

But then, we get to the post game, specifically to Darkrai and Palkia.

With the other legends, it's easy to write off their aggression and territorial behavior. They're just protecting their Time Gears, easy enough to understand.

But Darkrai and Palkia? They don't have that to worry about. As a matter of fact, these two want to end you, but will only do so after you come to them.

In theory, they shouldn't have to do this. Darkrai could just do what it's pokedex enteries describe, and trap hero/partner in an eternal nightmare at Sharpedo Bluff. Palkia is the god of Space, and could easily just come to Treasure Town on its own.

Why go through all of these hoops to do something that could be done while you're alseep? Why does a cowardly nightmare god want to fight you at all, when he could take the easy way out?

Because he can't.

If the legendaries can only fight you with lethal intent if you're on their sacred ground, then he has to suicide bait hero and partner or make them come to him.

[fanartbycactus]

Thinking about the graduation arc a bit more, tbh, and how jarring that has to be for hero vs partner.

For hero, they trained at the guild for however long we assume the main story takes (imo, almost a year by the time you go to the hidden land, but that's just me). They come back from the moment of their sacrifice in the hidden land, everything that has happened with the dark future, grovyle, celebi, dusknoir, and dialga still fresh in mind.

Partner has to process all of that, too, plus their grief at the loss of hero. But, unlike hero, they get time to grieve.

However long it takes for Dialga to bring hero back, partner gets to take things slowly at the guild. Your team rank doesn't go up at all, so they likely haven't done much field work while hero was gone. And then, one day, hero comes back, and part of that weight is lifted.

Hero likely gets a slight break with partner, a few weeks or months to settle in. And partner gets that time, too. So when the graduation happens, partner probably feels ready to get back into gear and start a brand new chapter in their life!

But hero? That's less clear.

They went through everything partner went through, except they're the one who actually died in the hidden land. However long they get to process everything after they come back, they never get the same time to process it all that partner did.

And then, once things finally feel like they're back to normal, guess what? You're graduating. Yes, it's a celebration, but now that you finally get to have your sense of normalcy back? You have to move out.

You don't have to go far, but that grounding sense of routine you had is disrupted. You're not alone, but you're on your own now.

And maybe for partner, it's no big deal. You two will just move into their old home waiting on the cliffside, and it'll be better than ever! You can gave your own schedule, set your own pace, sleep in if you want, and you'll have eachother!

But the last time hero was there, you all were hiding out with grovyle. Right after you got back from the dark future, right before you left for the hidden land. Even if your hero is particularly stoic, that's going to make them feel some kind of way.

Hero in the main story being more eager and enthusiastic, now dragging their feet more, their worldview shaken to some extent.

[quietbox]

The singularity

A driving force of Special Episode 0, the singularity is often a deciding factor of major plot points.

It's an unseen force that favors characters and events, seemingly at random. So what is it?

It could be the force of time grinding to it's final halt. The long overdue death of time.

As long as temporal tower stands, Dialga's heart beats and time flows. And yet, time was not yet fully stopped in the dark future.

Sure, the planet was paralyzed. But the pokemon on it could still run around and try to survive anyway.

Why run away when a time gear is removed at all? If all it impacts is the environment, what's the danger of being too close when time freezes?

If characters becoming frozen in time is a concern, why do we never see it in the canon game, nor In the Dark Past?

Because it hasn't happened yet. Dialga isn't an undead time god, he's still dying. It's taken a long time, and probably would've taken longer still.

Time has stopped, the world has ended, at least two of the gods governing reality are dead, the god of antimatter is MIA, and the god of time is a glorified puppet. There is nothing left.

The singularity is the force of time attempting to self terminate, a temporal apoptosis.

Had the singularity not favored Rampardos while fighting Espeon, Treecko may have never met Celebi. Had the singularity not favored Duskull while fighting Rampardos, grovyle would have either been killed, or left with an agent who could not be swayed (however difficult). Had the singularity not favored Hero with Dimensional Scream, they may have never found a way to change history.

The singularity, which only exists in the dark future, pushes everyone in the direction of changing history and ending that dying timeline.

[quietbox]

Funny thing I just remembered about pmd special episode 5:

In Grovyle's speech to Dusknoir about why he's ok sacrificing himself, he say it's because he'll live on in hero and partner's hearts.

Hero, who also came from the future and would disappear...

To me, this reframes why he didn't tell you that you'd disappear sooner. It's not that he forgot or that he thought you might get cold feet after you forgot the future.

Deep down, I don't think Grovyle accepted that you'd dissappear, too. He'd accepted that he would disappear, that Celebi would disappear, that the world would disappear.

But he couldn't accept that you, his partner, his best friend, would disappear. In his heart, you'd live on, and get to live in the world you'd both worked so hard to save.

And that thought gave him peace.