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littlegnome145 · 9 months

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I'm back in my Starter Squad brainrot so uh.. here's some speculation + Squirtle character analysis:

I got back to the Starter Squad brainrot and I decided to rewatch it again in the backround while I did some routine stuff and there's something on my mind that I haven't seen ppl talking about yet. Spoilers ahead:

So, I was watching the compilation of the 10 episodes (I usually just watch them separately, so I think that's why I hadn't noticed it till now), and in the switch between ep 9 and 10 it's not just them stiched together, but there's this little noise. An echo of a saved file and a glitch, and then bam episode 10.

I was honestly mostly surprised bc I expected them to show that one post-credit scene in ep 9, with the caterpie wearing Charmander's head as a hat, but they didn't, instead there's those sounds.

Now, it might just be a cool indication that 1) that moment had consequences (save file sound) and 2) of Missigno still being around (glitch), which is not a problem at all tbh, if that's the case it's a pretty neat way of showing it, but idk there's something scratching at the back of my mind about it.

Now, this isn't really a theory as much as it is speculation, and I'll be honest, I'm most likely ovethinking this, bc there's not really a bunch to go off of, but eh it's a fun concept to think about so I'll do it anyway:

I think episode 9 might have more than 1 ending.

And I think this will have to do with whatever Wartortle is gonna ask at the gods in the mountain.

So, episode 10 is mostly centered around time. There are alot of things that it talks about, but time is like the little bow that ties it all together.

Specifically it's mostly about being stuck in the past, about how the past affected the present, usually with too much or too little time being the biggest issue.

Too little time to save Charmander, too much time letting the war continue.Too little time spent on actually getting to know the kids you decided to take care of (what drove Turtwig away), too much time to actually see results in training (what drove, between other things, Chimchar away)

Squirtle is mostly shown to be a character here that either does too little or too much as well, especially after Charmander's death.

He did too little to save his friend, he did too little/pretty much nothing to stop caterpie over the years, he did too little to actually be a good father/uncle figure to Chimchar and Turtwig in the ways that mattered.

He did too much when trying to apprehend Charmander, attacking him to the point the guy was almost dead even BEFORE Caterpie stabbed him; he did too much during the war, having it implied that he was the main fighter, to the point where the conflict only actually ended when Squirtle was let go; he did too much trying to protect the kids, he was sheltering them because he was terrified them getting hurt like his friends did, but that only drove them apart from him further.

And he already did that before, but it was in contexts with fewer consequences. It's usually that one song and dance of doing too little and then bam, something happens and the guy goes all out (either on purpose or on accident).

With his human trainer? He does very little to get out of his situation, even trying to fake that he's actually 'very happy here, no really stop laughing, guys'. And then bam, he screams at him and is overjoyed to see him dead later.

With the first caterpie encounter? 'Welp, sucks to be them', then bam Bulbasaur accidentally guilt-trips him into saving them and he shows up running with a shiv, taking almost everyone down accidentally, but still, the guy went in swinging.

Hitmonchan? 'Bulbasaur is with a real trainer now, we're not bringing him back, he's better off without you', and then bam, Charmander apologizes and says he needs his help and he decides that 'hey how about we break a frigging pokeball. No idk what's gonna happen, but it will probably be bad, so we win right?'

The forest king? He keeps waffling the whole episode, going along with the forest king's antics and talking about empathy, and then bam, the guy starts being too annoying and he just holds him down and tells Charmander to kick his ass. Bonus points in this one because he is totally against raiding a pokémon center and at the end he just let's it happen.

And the thing is, Squirtle/Wartortle is somewhat aware of this flaw, even as a kid, but he doesn't really understand the full thing. He knows he does too little, but didn't seem aware that him going all out immediately afterwards was usually just as harmful.

With Charmander it's where we see this in full affect, as soon as he becomes friends with him, he goes all out in trying to make him a better person. He usually fails, but still tries, and we can see that Charmander becomes more mellow because of this, either because he genuinely wants to become better or because he doesn't want Squirtle to be disappointed. It goes to the point where Squirtle seemingly sees Charmander's actions as his own fault just as much as it was the fire-type's, which he says in his episode 9 speech:

"How did I ever thing I was making a difference with you, you took so many innocent lives, and all I did was stand there!"

"… We were supposed to be a team, Charmander, but you were only in this for yourself and I couldn't fix you. But thanks to them I can finally fight back!"

He lectures Charmander alot, but he never actually fought him. He never genuinely tried to hurt him after they were on the same team, because he was the voice of reason. In his mind, this was him doing too little, and like always bam, he goes to the other extreme and does too much.

Like yeah, Caterpie did the finishing blow, but Squirtle did most of the damage, not just because of the type advantage, but because Charmander didn't seem to even TRY to fight back as soon as his friend showed up.

His flame was almost extinguished. Squirtle almost killed the guy, a mixture of him wanting to make sure Charmander wouldn't hurt anyone else, pent up anger and him wanting his friend to know what it was like to be on the other side of the fight ( "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want a turn?" "Seems kind of unfair, doesn't it?!").

In episode 10, he doesn't really talk about that part, he just says that he wished he could've done things differently at Turtwig's "you didn't just jump in and save him?" (Which implies that they probably heard a censored version of the story before, which highlights how much he shelters the kids)

And I think it's probably because he doesn't see it as THE issue. Again, he is aware that he does too little, which is his reason on going all out at everything else, something he never outgrew. Even at the end of episode 10, he has his big revelation, but it's still incomplete:

Again, he only realizes that he does too little. He did too little to save Chimchar, he did too little to stop Caterpie. Too little to stick by his own choices.

And caterpie was right in that flashback, I mean they also say some ouchie stuff, like how they pity whoever gets control of him next, but Squirtle sees this moment as him doing too little. Caterpie, however seems to understand that it's a mixture of both too little and too much:

It's not just 'You let me do whatever I wanted', it's also 'you gave me complete loyalty'

They also seem to at least somewhat understand why he does it, out of fear.

And Squirtle goes back to his pattern, but this time seemingly about his own self preservation and his guilt.

He's first, willing to go back, doing what he was told like he's a soldier again. It's the best thing for his self-preservation, but for him and his morals/ideals? It's a step backwards.

Then he has his revelation, and he goes all in, clearly screaming at the other pokémon as if he was screaming at himself. Not just that, he goes all in and bam, not only finally evolves, but legit kills the guy.

And the most important aspect of it all in this scene:

"If I'm gonna make bad choices, they're gonna be my own."

Because after this, yeah the episode pretty much ends, but he does not go back to the old song and dance. Squirtle usually follows his pattern of too little, too much, too little, too much,…

And he did the "too much" aspect, so you kind of expect him to calm down a bit, but he doesn't.

He looks at his dead kid, he talks about how if he had evolved he would've given them hell (Which let's be honest, it's not true at all. I do think he was already seeing the kids for who they were a bit, but it was clear that he was still putting him in that "Charmander" box. No offense to Chimchar, but Abomasnows are at least level 40, he was at most level 13.)

Anyway, he talks to his frozen body, and instead of going back to his "too little" thing, he remains on too much, and this is one of his biggest to date: he literally goes and decides 'actually, I'm sick of this, I'm gonna go up there and fight the gods or die trying. No I don't have a plan, no I don't know what I'm gonna ask them yet, what of it?', which was cool as hell to see, but let's be honest here, half of his main problem is still alive and stronger than ever.

"Okay, Babz, but what does this have to do with the sounds between episode 9 and 10?"

I'm getting there.

So they were going up Mt. Coronet, and Wartortle is going up there because he wants to talk to the gods, and in that mountain there are three: Arceus, Dialga and Palkia. It's where Arceus made those two even.

And yeah, Arceus is all powerful, but I'm gonna focus on Dialga here since them and Palkia are pretty much the mascots of the Sinnoh region.

Dialga is the god of time.

Time began flowing when they were born, and they can turn back the clock.

(Like okay Super Smash Bros trophys are not the best place to look into but this was the quickest example I could find so bear with me):

If you're ever running late, maybe you could ask Dialga to turn back the clock… Just a little bit?

Arceus in recent stuff is shown to turn back the clock too, but idk if that should be considered.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, turning back time is something Wartortle could potentially do if he wanted, especially if he wins a fight. It's extreme, sure, but the guy is still in his "too much" gig, so if given the possibility he would most likely accept it without much thought.

And yeah, again, this is mostly speculation. I was thinking about alot of this since last year (a bunch of ppl here were also talking about possible time-travel, but like me, it was mostly in a "cool idea"/"fix it au" kind of context), but since there didn't seem to be foreshadowing aside from the character arc and location (which again, can JUST be a character-arc, it's not just bc something CAN happen that indicates that it WILL), I left it alone for the most part.

But idk these little sounds almost seem like a clue.

And okay, I'm mostly someone who focuses on themes when talking about story theories/possibilities, and episode 10's is, again, centered around time and regret. Regret for the past, not enough time to change it fits a little too neatly you know?

The fact that episode 9 ends on a cliffhanger also doesn't help. At the time it came out I was not just wondering if Charmander was still alive, but also WHO was stabbed. It was one of the reasons why I was so interested when ppl started talking about "what if Squirtle was the one who was stabbed" scenarios and drew/wrote stuff for the shiv au, because back when the episode came out I genuinely thought it was a possibility and I wanted to explore it.

Anyway, this could all be wrong lmao, but I missed talking about the silly warcriminal starters so eh sfgdfhhdf

#babz speaks #starter squad #squirtle #starter squad spoilers #This was longer than I thought it would be #pokémon

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