It’s not a simple answer, and it’s not an all-encompassing answer (in this life, at least). Someone who knows us much better than we know ourselves. The things we create to put our identity into are weak and fallible as the machinations and chemicals of Clifford himself we need Someone greater. For Tim and Pikachu, that being was Mewtwo a powerful creature of humanity’s own creation. We can’t get our identity back unless our memory and reality is restored by a greater being. And for each and every one of us, an enemy’s attack has left us dead and broken. You can’t do what you’re supposed to do, feel how you want to feel, unless you know who you really are. These are difficult identity problems experienced by complex and real characters around our world, too. He’s not healed, but it looks like he might be growing toward healing.įor both of them, coming to grips with their identity was key to starting on their recovery. When the camera pans up on a repaired world full of people who have regained their unique identities, Tim has made a step toward understanding his father and, in the process, toward understanding his own identity. But up to the last moments of the film, he’s still unsure about that identity he still wants to leave Ryme City and go back to his old life. He even experiences a bit of his original desire to be a Pokémon trainer. He uses his skills and abilities to help others, moving beyond his original desire to just be a normal old insurance salesman (or so it seems). He discovers that his father is alive, restoring his understanding of his identity. Tim’s struggles are a bit more difficult. Discovering his true nature has made him realize that he can be a hero, but that discovery had to be facilitated by a Pokémon demigod (a demégod?). Pikachu is healed, at least somewhat, when he discovers his true identity: far from being a collaborator with the enemy, he’s actually a hero (well, two heroes, really) who risked his life for another. And though the story mechanics are all present to “fix” both Tim and Pikachu, to repair their mental and emotional state via some sort of contrived explanation about the power of teamwork or seeing the way other people experience their identity, this film does nothing of the sort. Through a pretty dramatic and impressive battle scene, Tim and Pikachu defeat Clifford and return the city to normal. Unfortunately, he means this in a much more literal way than he lets on.Īt the film’s climax, Clifford has used a chemical and a mind-controlled Mewtwo to physically and mentally join the inhabitants of Ryme City to their Pokémon, subsuming each of their identities in favor of the whole. The answer, Clifford implies, is to become close partners with the creatures for people to attach their identities to the creatures (he doesn’t explain how this is supposed to make people better). But this becomes even more complicated when they run into Howard Clifford, a man who is ostensibly on a quest to uncover the best possible version of himself and has decided that Pokémon are the way to make that happen. Tim’s lack of identity manifests itself in his depression, and Pikachu’s lack of identity leads to his impostor syndrome. He’s a fraud, he decides and so he walks away.īoth of the main characters are defined by their mental state, and they’re both defined by a lack of identity. Worse, he killed his old partner and wounded his new partner in the act. Suddenly in his mind he’s not a hero, helping people by solving crimes He’s a traitor and allied with Mewtwo against humanity and the Pokémon they work with. This all comes to a head when he discovers that he was on Mewtwo’s side during the events that killed his partner. A deep mystery about his nature and mission has consumed him, and this mystery leads him to a particularly pernicious and difficult mental state called Impostor Syndrome. While this Pikachu may seem to just be a cute talking animal (both in the way he looks and in the obsessive investigation and coffee-drinking that’s consumed his life), there’s far more under the surface. If you haven’t seen Pokémon Detective Pikachu yet, but would like to, stop reading now. Note: I can’t get any further in this article without spoilers. These symptoms are signs of depression, particularly an untreated depression and in the midst of this illness, he meets an unusual Pikachu whose voice he can somehow understand. He’s withdrawn from his friends, doesn’t seem interested in making more, and it seems to be a herculean effort to accomplish the tasks set before him a problem compounded by the fact that those tasks are to disassemble the remaining pieces of his late father’s life in Ryme City. He’s lost interest in activities he used to love, and doesn’t interact well with the creatures he once wanted to make his life.
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