Characters / Pikmin Main Characters

Main Index
Playable Characters: Captains (Main Characters) | Pikmin
Creatures: Pikmin 1 | Pikmin 2 | Pikmin 3 | Pikmin 4

This page covers the two main characters of the Pikmin series, Captain Olimar of Hocotate Freight and his work junior Louie.

Captain Olimar

The player character of Pikmin, Pikmin 2, and Hey! Pikmin, and possibly the most important figure in the entire series. Olimar is a humble space freighter and honest man who loves his family dearly. In the first game, he crash-lands on the planet of the Pikmin, where he enlists their help to return back home. In the second game, he is tasked with retrieving treasure from the same planet to pay off the huge debt of his company.

---

• Achievements in Ignorance: In the "Occupational Hazards" short, he comes across an abandoned digger and has the Pikmin remove the bolts and other small things from it to salvage. Predictably, this winds up wrecking the thing at the end, only for the Hocotate Ship to appraise the now easier-to-salvage digger at an astounding amount of Pokos.
• Action Dad: Has a wife and two kids at home, yet still capable of putting up a fight against hazards ten times larger than him with the assistance of Pikmin. Played even more straight in the Super Smash Bros. series.
• Anti-Villain: He's the antagonist of the first half of Pikmin 4, but his motives aren't evil. He's only turning castaways into Leaflings because he's genuinely trying to help them survive on PNF-404.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: With nothing but his powers of observation, he manages to create a Badass Army out of a bunch of walking plants, using them to defeat everything from giant predators to Eldritch Abominations.
• Badass in Distress: He gets kidnapped in Pikmin 3 by the game's final boss, and has to be rescued by the Koppai Crew. However, this is only because the Plasm Wraith could activate his suit's forced sleep mode, making him literally unable to fight back.
• Badass Normal: A rather average family man who relies solely on his sharp wits and his intelligent mind, along with his strong bond with the Pikmin, to survive on a hostile alien planet. Even in situations where he fumbles up, he still manages to come out unscathed.
• Big Good:
  • In Pikmin 3 his data files give the Koppaites the information they need on the Pikmin, ideas on how to move through an area, and advice for Boss Battles, and though he spends some of the game unaware that they were there, he does notice that someone else is on the planet and hides some space suit upgrades for them to find.
  • Downplayed in Pikmin 4, since he is stranded on the planet. However his notes on the Pikmin and caves greatly help the Rescue Corps find him and other people who have also crashed into the planet, but also allow them to find treasure which will prevent them from going bankrupt. In addition his actions as the red Leafling save people by allowing them to breathe oxygen, completely healing them, and training the rookie in the art of Dandori.
• Baldness Angst: Bemoans the fact that he's been balding with age.
• Broken Pedestal: Based on the journal entry for the Worthless Statue, Olimar is suggested to have lost respect for his father as he grew up.
  "At first, this object looked impressive, but closer inspection reveals it's just a cheap statue. In many ways, it reminds me of my father. Hmmm... I probably shouldn't tell him that."
• The Cameo:
  • He appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a trophy if a Pikmin save file is on the memory card; he would ultimately be Promoted to Playable in Brawl.
  • In Nintendo Land, the player who plays with the GamePad in Pikmin Adventure wears his spacesuit.
  • Despite not being playable in the main story mode for Pikmin 3, you find notes left by him scattered around PNF-404, and he's also playable in the battle mode, as well as DLC. He also makes an appearance in person later in the story.
• The Captain: The Pikmin would have succumbed to PNF-404's wildlife and gone extinct if not for the leadership of Captain Olimar.
• Captain Crash: Olimar manages to crash the ship at some point in all three of his visits to PNF-404.
• Captain's Log: Present in all four Pikmin games in some form or another:
  • Olimar's Voyage Log in Pikmin, wherein he recounts the happenings of the previous day, makes observations about the planet's fauna, or worries over whether he'll be able to escape and reunite with his family.
  • Olimar's journal in Pikmin 2, which feature musings, anecdotes, and observations concerning the treasures collected.
  • Olimar's Log in Pikmin 3, which function as a series of collectible notes which Olimar left behind due to the company-provided cheap shoddy equipment leaking files everywhere.
  • Olimar's Voyage Log in Pikmin 4 functions similarly to 3, in this case having been sent along with his S.O.S. signal in order to help his would be rescuers. It comes in handy as they read it during your expeditions while rescuing Castaways.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Red, the color of his antenna light and with which he's represented in more stylized artwork.
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally exhibits this, particularly in his treasure hoard journal entries.
• Defiant Captive: His notes in the Formidable Oak show that he's repeatedly attempted to escape the Plasm Wraith and is still trying even though he knows it's useless.
• Demoted to Extra: Downplayed; while he's no longer the playable character in the third and fourth games, he's still very important.
  • He's not the star of the show of the third game's story. He's only playable in Pikmin 3's battle mode and in DLC for Mission Mode. In the Deluxe version of 3, he does star in a new side story.
  • Again in Pikmin 4, where he's been stranded on PNF-404 and your primary mission is to find and rescue him. Though it's downplayed once it's revealed he was the main antagonist for the first half of the game, trying to turn the castaways into leaflings and train the Rookie. Like in 3, he stars in a side story called "Olimar's Shipwreck Tale", which is something of a reimagining of Pikmin 1.
• Determinator: Despite claiming that his wife says he gives up too easily, it's abundantly clear from his actions throughout the series that giving up is not in Olimar's playbook. Even he's lost all hope, he will always press on, stating in no uncertain terms that he'll make it home or die trying.
• Determined Defeatist: If you're doing poorly in the first game, Olimar's notes will take on a despairing tone. Even if he thinks all hope is lost, though, he'll still refuse to simply roll over and die, and continue trying to move forward. This carries into Pikmin 3, where he knows he can't escape the Plasm Wraith, but keeps trying to anyway because it's better than accepting defeat.
• Distressed Dude:
  • In Pikmin 3, the Mysterious Life Form/Plasm Wraith is revealed to have taken him captive by the game's end, and the Koppaite trio have to rescue him.
  • The main objective of the Rescue Corps in Pikmin 4 is rescuing Olimar from PNF-404.
• Ditzy Genius: Olimar is generally a very smart man, with a surprisingly deep understanding of sciences and exploration. However, he's also prone making foolish decisions, falling for Snake Oil Salesmen, and being led on by greed when he really should know better.
• Dreadful Musician: He's implied to be a terrible singer. His family refuses to go out to karaoke with him, and when he tried to join in on the Pikmin's marching song, they all went silent.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Repeatedly expresses frustration at the lack of respect given to him by both the President and the Hocotate Ship.
• Egocentric Team Naming: With the Olimarnite Shell, which the Hocotate Ship doesn't seem too enthused about.
  Hocotate Ship: A fossil of an ancient sea inhabitant. It is most desirable despite its unappealing name. (Captain Olimar named it without consulting anyone. He could have at least named it after his faithful spaceship...)
• The Everyman: Olimar is a working class family man who just wants to provide for and spend time with his family, but repeatedly faces conflict due to either happenstance or his boss's incompetence.
• Experienced Protagonist:
  • In Pikmin 2, being his second expedition to PNF-404, with him teaching what he knows to Louie. On his third expedition in 3, he's made a point of leaving behind data files and other gadgets with the hopes of helping out any other explorers.
  • While Pikmim 4 is a Continuity Reboot, it still counts for him as Olimar has been on the planet longer than anyone else save for Sage Leaf, with the Voyage Log he sent alongside his distress signal containing valuable observations of the planet's oddities that serve to help the Rescue Corps with their quest.
• Expy: A stout, working-class man with a prominent nose, associated with the color red, and brave in the face of danger? Sounds like a certain famous plumber we all know. In fact, his name in the original Japanese, オリマー ("O-ri-ma"), is just マリオ ("Ma-ri-o") spelled backwards with an extension mark appended to the last character. His log entry for the Colossus in Suspenders treasure (AKA the Mario amiibo) in Hey!Pikmin alludes to this with Olimar feeling a special bond with the depicted person.
• Eyes Always Shut: Unless he's surprised, or has taken heavy damage in the Super Smash Bros. series, his eyes remain thin black slits.
• Gag Nose: His giant rounded honker is probably his most noteworthy physical feature.
• The Gambling Addict: Gazing upon the Luck Wafer seems to inspire a desire to gamble and play the lottery in him.
• Giver of Lame Names: According to his notes on the Foolish Fruit (an eggplant), Olimar's wife believes him to be this. Considering his proposed alternate name for it is "Grampy-Face Fruit," she's probably on to something.
• Good Parents: His many logs shows he is a loving and even doting father to both his son and daughter.
• Greed: While not as money-grubbing as the President, certain journal entries in Pikmin 2 as well as Olimar's reason for falling victim to the Plasm Wraith show that greed can be a significant motivating factor for Olimar.
• Graceful Loser: In 4, if the player manages to beat him as the Red Leafling in a Dandori Battle, he won't as much as raise an eyebrow over his loss compared to Louie, whose eyes practically pop out of his head if he loses.
• Grumpy Old Man: This musing from his journal entry on the Impenetrable Cookie notes that he's found himself growing increasingly bad-tempered as he ages, and laments that he needs to get his temper under control.
  "As I grow older, I've observed that I am becoming crankier. Today, I flew off the handle over a trifling matter. I feel like such a fool... I must learn to control my cantankerous temper! I can't allow my bad attitude to erode teamwork on this vital mission."
• Heroes Love Dogs: He has a dog at home named Bulbie, and in Pikmin 4, he gains an ally in Moss after feeding and befriending her during his time on PNF-404.
• Happily Married: While the two of them occasionally argue about his dietary choices, Olimar and his wife are extremely devoted to each other, even though the amount of time he spends away from home is clearly painful for them.
• Hero Antagonist:
  • He finds and takes the Pikmin 3 protagonists' Cosmic Drive Key, not understanding its significance, making half the game tracking him down.
  • Again in Pikmin 4. He's the red Leafling who's been capturing other castaways and turning them into Leaflings.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • The heroes of Pikmin 3 find the logs he left behind from a third voyage to PNF-404, this time to get enough funds to buy back the S.S. Dolphin.
  • Also the case for 4, in which he has a separate campaign to explore what happened to him prior to the events of 4 happening, accessible once he's rescued and cured of his Leafling status.
• The Hero: The main character and face of the franchise. He takes a leadership role over Louie in 2 and is Famed In-Story by 3.
• Heroic Mime:
  • Zig-zagged in the first two Pikmin games. While he doesn't speak during cutscenes, he writes journal logs detailing his own progress and thoughts at the end of each day in Pikmin 1. Meanwhile, in Pikmin 2, his voice acting is limited to Voice Grunting, but he writes entries for the enemies and plants in the Piklopedia and makes personal entries about the various treasures in the Treasure Hoard.
  • Averted in Pikmin 3, where he has fully voiced dialogue in the Secret Memo videos and the ending cutscene. Doubly so in Pikmin 4, where he narrates the intro and ending cutscenes, is an interactable NPC, talks over the radio at some points in the game itself, and also speaks to the player as the red Leafling.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Why he never managed to get off PNF-404 in the 4 version of the timeline; canonically, he got all his gear in time and managed to repair the ship, but Moss snuck on board and immediately showed signs of illness due to her being too far away from her home planet. Olimar went back to save Moss from developing something worse or outright dying, and doomed his chances of ever leaving in the process when he once again crashed.
• Hidden Depths:
  • His Piklopedia entries for the creatures and flora of PNF-404 shows a strong grasp on biology and botany, especially coming from a simple space freighter.
  • One of his voyage logs in 4 states that he's actually a really good cook, though he only cooks during the holidays or special occasions.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed. He doesn't exactly vouch for Louie, but he swears upside down that he's a good person who simply gets a bit hungry or panicky sometimes, a claim which becomes increasingly hard to justify as the series goes on.
• Hypocrite: The journal entry for the Drought Ender:
  "Today, I delivered an impromptu lecture on the basics of wilderness survival. As Louie's superior, it's my responsibility to teach him these skills. Walking around as much as we do generates an intense thirst, so water becomes very important. I told Louie that we have to ration our water carefully. That's what I was thinking until I found this. I was so parched that... I couldn't help myself. I drank all the water in the canteen. It tasted soooo good. But when I turned around, Louie gave me a cold stare..."
• Hypocritical Humor: Olimar's journal entry on the Crystal King has him insisting without evidence that the treasure is a crystallized lifeform. When the Hocotate Ship makes a similar claim regarding another piece of treasure, the Gemstar Husband, Olimar insists that the idea is insane.
• Idiot Hero: A rather downplayed example in the first game. He doesn't seem to really understand what half of the things on his ship actually do. Upon finding the Geiger Counter, he notes that at times it starts going crazy (meaning he's surrounded by high levels of radioactivity which is very dangerous), but he doesn't know what it does so he mostly just ignores it, resolving to read the user manual someday. He also has clearly fallen victim to Snake Oil Salesmen who took advantage of his naivete, particularly involving the Extraordinary Bolt, which appears to just be a standard (if giant) bolt to Olimar and the player, but the salesman convinced Olimar that it has special traits that only the most discerning clients can tell.
• Informed Flaw: One of Olimar's journals in the first game has him relate that his wife tells him he gives up too easily. She must not know him very well, then, because every single one of his actions across the series informs us that Olimar is a Determinator of the highest order, refusing to stop trying even when all seems lost.
• Knockout Gas: Olimar's suit has an "auto-sleep" function that forces him to go to sleep when activated. Unfortunately for him, the Plasm Wraith can activate it at will, and has no problems abusing it to keep Olimar in the Formidable Oak.
• Lethal Chef: Downplayed, as though he's noted to be a good cook, the journal entry for the Divine Cooking Tool treasure has him note that he tried to be "creative" with cooking once and considers the result something better left forgotten.
• Married to the Job: Olimar is very devoted to his family back on Hocotate. Though it's clear that he's also very devoted to the company he works for, and some emails he receives from his wife and children show that the amount of time he's spending away from home are taking a bit of a toll on them.
• Narcissist: He has shades of this, as he can occasionally be quick to praise himself for his intellect.
• Nice Guy: He's a humble guy just doing his job... okay, maybe not that humble, but he is still a good guy doing dangerous work to support his family and quickly views the Pikmin not as servants but comrades. He gets to show this off more in Pikmin 3 where he's incredibly polite to the Koppaites and apologizes both for Louie's behavior and accidentally stealing their Cosmic Drive Key. The Koppaites as a result look upon Olimar much more fondly than Louie. It's even more clear in Pikmin 4, where he is nothing but kind and friendly to the Rescue Corps, and even bonds with some of them over common topics, such as with Shepherd and their mutual love of dogs.
• Oh, Crap!: Whenever Olimar is shocked or surprised, he gets this expression by having his eyes bug out. He gets a rather spectacular one in Pikmin 2 when he's leaving the planet after paying off the debt, only to look back and see he forgot Louie on the planet.
• Only Friend: To Louie. Olimar is the only one to see good in him and ask the rookie to forgive him after he's rescued. While Louie's affections lie mostly with his Nana, it's implied Louie holds some fondness for Olimar since he's more patient with him than the President and that he regards him as a mentor figure as he starts turning people into Leaflings when he took Olimar's advice of "follow me and do what I do" too literally.
• Only Sane Employee: The Pikmin 2 intro notes that he's the Hocotate Freight company's "only employee of any merit". Olimar's not perfect, but Louie singlehandedly caused the company to fall into massive debt, and the President worsened the situation by accidentally signing a deal with the All-Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: He isn't playable in the story mode of Pikmin 3, but him and Louie are on the planet by the time the Koppaite captains arrive for their own mission and they can find his journal logs located all around the planet. He also stumbled upon the Koppaites' Cosmic-Drive Key after it was dropped out of their ship following their crash landing, forcing the captains to track him down in order to return home. The last area requires the Koppaite captains to save him from the Plasm Wraith. After doing so, he sincerely thanks the other captains and apologizes for Louie's behavior before handing over the Cosmic-Drive Key and hitching a ride with them back to his planet.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The hypercompetent, eloquently speaking, adventurous, mildly vain and reckless Red Oni to Louie's blue. Bonus points for actually dressing in red.
• Salaryman: He becomes this from the second game onwards to repay his company's debt.
• Science Hero: Ever since his first crash-landing on PNF-404, Olimar has always provided detailed observations and theories on the flora and fauna of the world around him. It's downplayed since his official job has him working for a shipping company, but points for legitimate effort.
• Seeker Archetype: Upon discovering the Meat of Champions in Pikmin 2, he states that he has made it his mission to seek out and solve the mysteries of the cosmos.
  "I never expected to find such a delectable cut of meat deep in this dark and slimy cavern. What kind of a cavern is stocked with savory deli meat? This riddle perplexes me, but I'm sure my unrivaled powers of investigation will prevail. I've made it my personal quest to solve all of the universe's ancient mysteries."
• Sexless Marriage: His journal entry concerning the tomato, or "Love Nugget", suggests that he finds his wife a little underamorous for his preferences, as he wonders whether he should try feeding her a fruit that he suspects is an aphrodisiac.
  "This tasty red snack isn't quite a fruit, but doesn't seem like a vegetable either. I've analyzed it extensively, and it appears to be releasing stimulating pheromones. Maybe I should feed it to my wife..."
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: In one of the shorts, he appears to be secretly blending Pikmin into juice for his own benefit, but it turns out to Pikpik carrot juice.
• Skewed Priorities: In Pikmin 3, he becomes so focused on trying to get the funds needed to buy back the S.S. Dolphin that, even after the ship he needs to get off the planet is destroyed, it's still his main focus.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Although only really looked up to by the Pikmin and his children, Olimar can get a bit of a swelled head at times.
  "The other day, a group of white Pikmin under my command detected an object buried under the surface and immediately began to dig up this colossal flower bulb. Somehow, it hadn't yet sprouted into a towering flower. I plan to take it back to Hocotate and grow it there! My people will hail me as a botanical genius... and the mayor may even make me Supreme Flower Commander!"
• Snake Oil Salesman: Olimar apparently has a habit of falling for these, as the descriptions of several ship parts in the first game note that he doesn't actually know what they do and they sure were expensive, but the sellers talked them up as indispensable necessities. Some of the journal entries in Pikmin 2 even have Olimar showing shades of this trope himself.
• Sniff Sniff Nom: While eating strange things might be more heavily associated with Louie, Olimar's journal entries in Pikmin 2 will occasionally have him recounting how he performed a smell or taste test on the treasure in question, sometimes with regrettable results.
• Suddenly Voiced: At the end of Pikmin 3, he has spoken dialogue for the first time. Although the first two games did feature his Captain's Logs, which effectively gave him a voice for the player, this is the first time he actually speaks. He also grunts and says his own name in 2.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: The 3DS spin-off game shows that he's able to swim, as opposed to just walking under it. This was alluded to as early as the first Pikmin game, with Olimar mentioning himself being great at swimming in the note about the Space Float. This is Retconned in Pikmin 4 where Olimar writes in his voyage log that he's a terrible swimmer.
• Sweet Tooth: Various journal entries in Pikmin 2 reveal that he has a difficult time resisting sweets.
  "My space suit's filter seems to be malfunctioning. It can't suppress the sweet, syrupy smell pervading this cavern! If I don't find a way to neutralize it fast, it's going to drive me to spoil my diet!"
• Took a Level in Badass: He can solo some encounters in Pikmin 2 after gaining the Rocket Punch.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Olimar's intense fixation on finding treasure with which to recover the S.S. Dolphin — prompting him to ignore Louie's concerns about the encroaching danger — is what leads to him falling into the clutches of the Plasm Wraith in Pikmin 3.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His crash landing on the planet in Hey! Pikmin is what indirectly causes the Final Boss to awaken and begin draining the planet of its natural resources. Thankfully, upon finding out about it, he quickly goes to fix his mistake.
• The Voiceless: In his Super Smash Bros. appearances, he's completely silent.
• Vocal Dissonance: Has an incredibly deep voice despite his small, unassuming appearance.
• Walking Spoiler: Pikmin 4 centers around his rescue, but it's hard to talk about said rescue without mentioning his transformation into a Leafling and antagonistic role.
• Weight Woe: In his journal entry on the Pastry Wheel, he bemoans that he finds it very difficult to eat sweets without gaining weight, and that his wife and daughter have him on a strict diet as a result.
  "Some people in this world can eat anything and never get fat! It makes me so jealous! I eat a cookie crumb and suddenly I'm saddled with a buffer of blubber. To make matters worse, my wife and daughter are always scrutinizing my diet. Can't a man enjoy a pastry wheel in peace?!"
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Olimar is guilty of this due to all the time he spends at work. In some journal entries, he admits to feeling as though he's getting increasingly distant from his family because of this.
• Working-Class Hero: He's a cross between a Salaryman and an (intergalactic) trucker with a wife and two kids at home, but circumstances forced him to become an Action Survivor on a hostile planet by leading the Pikmin and learning about the local wildlife through observation as he explores. By Pikmin 3 he's become an amateur explorer and treasure hunter with several successful expeditions to PNF-404 under his belt if only to bail out his perpetually broke company from debt, all while barely being paid much himself or having much chance to be with his family.

Louie (Unmarked Series-Wide Spoilers)

A rather absent-minded employee of Hocotate Freight who appears in Pikmin 2, and joins Olimar on his expedition. Louie is a big fanatic of eating weird food, especially bugs. He is the one who lost a shipment to a horrible encounter with a ravenous space bunny, putting the company in debt.

This is a lie. As it turns out, Louie is a selfish glutton who ate the shipment himself, and he only becomes more of a problem for Olimar and other characters from then on, becoming the closest thing the series has to a central antagonist.

---

• Abusive Parents: Maybe. It's hinted that the way his grandma raised him played a part in him becoming the unstable man he is today, as one of her letters has her rather obliviously mention that she made him eat bugs and plants because he didn't like playing outside. Not much else points to her being abusive however. Louie, for his part, still seems to be quite fond of her, with quite a few of his entries in Pikmin 4 consisting of him reminiscing on his times with her.
• Action Survivor: After being accidentally stranded on PNF-404, which happens after the debt is paid, he not only survives without Pikmin, he makes it to the bottom of the hardest dungeon in the game alone, may or may not have hijacked the final boss's brain, and wrote cooking notes for all the wildlife on the planet, which means that he managed to kill all of them and eat them. In Pikmin 3, this happens to him again after accidentally being left behind in the ending. And in Pikmin 4, he's the hardest CPU Dandori Battle opponent and commands the final boss to boot!
• Ambiguously Evil: Louie has a habit of doing very selfish things, but aside from eating the Golden Pikpik Carrots that put Hocatate Freight into debt, most of said acts are left vague as to whether they were done maliciously or were the result of him being a cloudcuckoolander. It's unclear to whether he was in control of the Titan Dwevil or not (much less why he would attack Olimar and the President) and him stealing the Koppai captain's food and running could be easily be him panicking at being kidnapped again. Pikmin 4 throws the ambiguity out the window. While Nelle suggests that some of his actions are out of misguided idiocy, Louis outright antagonizes the Rescue Crew (up to being willing to use lethal force) and it's revealed that acts like eating the Golden Pikpik Carrots and stealing the Koppaites' food were intentionally malicious.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: In Pikmin 3, not only does he steal Koppaites' food supply, but also Charlie's beloved rubber duckie!
• Badass in Distress: Has to be rescued from the True Final Boss of Pikmin 2 and from several bosses throughout the course of Pikmin 3.
• Badass Normal: Even more so than Olimar. For a seemingly average Hocotatian, Louie is inexplicably capable of surviving PNF-404 with little to no help from the Pikmin. He is seen wandering around at night in Pikmin 4's credits, treats the native wildlife as walking snacks he can eat as he pleases, regardless of size or danger level, and more often than not seems to do this without the help of the Pikmin.
• Badass on Paper: At first glance, Louie is just an incompetent, simpleminded glutton who thinks with his stomach and nothing else. And yet he seems inexplicably capable of surviving PNF-404's surface with little issue, has managed to sample every species on the planet and created a recipe on how to cook them, and even commandeered himself a giant space dog to battle for him.
• Big Eater: He's the reason Hocotate Freight went into debt the first time, with him having done so by eating the entire shipment of golden carrots and lying about the space bunny. He also lets his appetite get way out of control in Pikmin 3. His notes for enemies consist of instructions on how one should cook them, too, where applicable.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He couldn't care less about his job at Hocatate Freight - particularly in 4, where he shirks his mission to find Olimar to putz around and find food on the planet and leaving the one lead to Olimar's whereabouts, the Red Leafling, to its own devices - but outside of that he's not only skilled at dealing with PNF-404's wildlife, he has a recipe for nearly each and every one of them, and he makes them all sound pretty darn appetizing. He's also dangerously skilled at Dandori Battles, even despite his dialogue making it clear he hates having to put any effort into it.
• Bumbling Sidekick: He spends Olimar's video logs in Pikmin 3 running around panicking over the weakest of the game's enimies while getting himself hurt and his Pikmin killed.
• The Cameo: Appears in Brawl as a trophy. His spacesuit is also one of Olimar's alternate costumes.
• Character Tics: In 4, he's often seen scratching his butt. It signifies his laziness, apathy, and lack of decorum.
• Characterization Marches On: In Pikmin 2, Louie is shown to be relatively quiet and somewhat loyal towards Olimar, with Olimar himself noting that he often forgets Louie is even there because of how often he keeps to himself. While he has some somewhat eccentric behaviors, such as being willing to eat PNF-404's wildlife and possibly gaining control of the Titan Dweevil, he overall comes across as painfully incompetent rather than actively malicious. This changes in later games:
  • Pikmin 3 depicts Louie as being a loon who constantly rambles about food and is openly greedy and antagonistic towards everyone, Olimar included, but his most antagonistic act^note stealing the Koppai's food is implied to be because he thinks he's been kidnapped.
  • Pikmin 4 changes him again; he does talk about things other than food, but he doesn't talk a lot to begin with, and in his notes, he states that he does like Olimar because Olimar doesn't get angry at him, he just finds Olimar boring. However, he has turned into a major villain, stealing food from another Koppaite group and leaving them to die, ignoring Olimar's requests to stop, fighting the Rookie in a Dandori Battle that he rigs in his favor, and ditching Moss when he gets bored of her. Pikmin 4 hints that Louie is less evil and more apathetic; his notes state that he does not hate the President; he just cannot be bothered to do his job. Louie wants to eat food, so when he finds a planet filled with^note From his perspective gourmet ingredients and no responsibilities, he decides that he's going to stay and eat everything on PNF-404 forever.
  • During Olimar's Voyage Log in Pikmin 3, Louie is shown to be quite bad at utilizing the Pikmin and battling enemies, as he and his forces are constantly seen being wiped out by basic enemies in the areas they are currently visiting. By contrast, Pikmin 4 depicts him as being much more competent and deadly in battle than even Olimar himself was as the Red Leafling, to the point of being the hardest Dandori boss in the entire game.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Blue in 2, yellow in 3 and 4.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His attitude is stranger than that of the other captains. He considers almost everything on the planet to be either food or something to play with, and doesn't appear to be too concerned over potentially staying on the planet.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: While Leafling Olimar's Dandori Battles are usually fair, Louie's Dandori Battles start him off with more Pikmin than you. Justified as while Leafling Olimar genuinely wants to test the Rookie's skills in a fair fight, Louie just wants them to go away.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Louie superficially takes after Luigi quite a bit, being the lanky Foil to the lead hero. Unlike Luigi however, whose cowardice and other faults are used to show how heroic he is when he overcomes them, Louie's numerous personality faults make him a selfish, unlikable hindrance and eventually a full-on villain.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Olimar's Journal entry on his treasure form hints at the possibility that he was controlling the Titan Dweevil the entire time, a theory that even the Ship backs up in its Sales Pitch. "The King of Bugs" indeed. Louie's Notes also show that not only does he have a recipe for near every species of creature on the planet, it's implied that he either got help from roving Pikmin or killed the creatures himself.
  • In the normal ending of Pikmin 4, Louie is shown casually walking around on the surface of PNF-404 at night when the planet is so dangerous that every other castaway hid in caves to stay safe.
• Demoted to Extra: Like Olimar, his only playable appearance in Pikmin 3 is in the battle mode. Pikmin 4 promotes him to the second half's main antagonist and (by proxy) Final Boss.
• Deuteragonist: Sort of. He is the second most recurring playable character after Olimar, but they only have a (strained) working relationship with each other at best, and Louie technically spends more time as an antagonist than a protagonist.
• Establishing Character Moment: During the intro of Pikmin 2, after the President comments on Olimar's bottle cap he brought over from PNF-404 as a souvenir for his son, Louie gets visibly angry. He's likely fuming because Olimar thought about giving his family a gift from his near brush with death, instead of him. It's downhill from there.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Louie cares about his grandmother deeply, with her being just about the only person he actively makes an effort to care about. Quite a few of his Treasure Catalog notes have him doting on her somewhat.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As much of a selfish moron as he is, there are lines even Louie won't cross.
  • He may constantly feast on PNF-404's wildlife, but he refuses to eat Pikmin, as even he understands how helpful they are for survival. That said, he apparently did try to see what a Rock Pikmin tasted like once, only to break a tooth upon its rock-hard body. He also has proper cooking instructions for Bulbmin in 2, though they primarily apply to the adults who are hostile towards other Pikmin types.
  • On a similar note, his Piklopedia notes on Moss and the Ancient Sirehound indicate that he would not eat them, either.
  • Despite being an Extreme Omnivore who is willing to cook and eat just about anything on PNF-404 for the sake of it, the Plasm Wraith terrifies Louie so much that he immediately takes off without even trying to fight or eat it. He may be gluttonous and hedonistic, but Louie definitely has some form of self-preservation.
• Evil All Along: Pikmin 4 reveals that his previously Ambiguously Evil actions, such as eating the Golden Pikpik Carrots, were intentionally malicious. He is also much more directly antagonistic in this game, to the point of being willing to kill the Rookie to get them off his tail.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: While not an animal, Louie is certainly more beastly and base in his actions after the events of Pikmin 2. This same mindset had him refuse to go into the Formidable Oak where the Plasm Wraith dwelled. In the video recorded in front of it by Olimar, Louie's even seen staring at the top and then shaking in fear.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a very deep voice and is the main antagonist of the second portion of Pikmin 4. That being said, he's less "intentionally evil" and more "dangerously impulsive".
• Extreme Omnivore: Possibly the only person who takes cooking notes on the wildlife in alien worlds. And as the third game reveals, Hocotatians are usually vegetarians, making Louie's omnivorism even more striking.
• Expy: The tall, lanky and cowardly Luigi to Olimar's Mario. Much like Olimar is named by scrambling around the letters in Mario's name, Louie is named after the other second banana, though his is much easier to spot than Olimar's.
• Eyes Always Shut: Like most Hocotatians, his eyes only ever open (or rather, pop out) when he's shocked or angry. Otherwise, they remain closed at all times.
• Face–Heel Turn: Quite possibly, but it's left vague. In-Universe, the ship believes he managed to hijack the Titan Dweevil's brain, but Olimar considers the idea ridiculous. Pikmin 4 has him fully become an antagonist, with chasing him down and his attempts to elude or stymie the Rescue Corps being the plot of the game's second half.
• Final Boss: The Ancient Sirehound is being controlled by him, making him the final boss of Pikmin 4 by proxy.
• Flanderization: In Pikmin 2 he is shown to be an impulsive and inconsiderate idiot, but not really evil. While he does eat the Golden Pikpik Carrots, it's depicted to be more because of his impulsiveness and gluttony getting the better of him than out of any real malevolence. In Pikmin 3 he steals the Koppai crew's juice, but he thought they were kidnapping him so you can see where he was coming from. In Pikmin 4 he is just a straight up antagonist, caring for no one but himself and his grandmother, and only concerned with fulfilling his own desires.
• For the Evulz: He doesn't really have much motivation for half the stuff he does other than being an immature dick.
• Freudian Excuse: His destructive omnivorous nature can be traced back to a letter from his grandma, where she mentions making him eat bugs and plants as a child because he didn't like playing outside.
• Friend to Bugs: It's suggested that he operates on the same wavelength as them. His title when collected as a treasure is the King of Bugs.
• Get Out!: His final line before acting as the Final Boss of Pikmin 4 is a "Go home!" emphasized with his eyes angrily popping out.
• Going Native: He shows signs of preferring PNF-404 over Hocotate and thriving on the planet; he's inexplicably capable of surviving there and is implied to have some form of authority over the Dweevils, as his treasure name is "King of Bugs" and he rides on the Titan Dweevil's head during its boss fight. Pikmin 4 later elaborates that he prefers PNF-404 because he can fulfill his hedonistic desires without anybody else to hold him back; indeed, his entire motivation is to get the Rescue Team to stop following him and let him stay.
• Hated by All: "Hated" is too strong a word, but with the possible exception of the President, Louie tends to get on the other captains' nerves. Olimar seems to get on the right foot with him at first in 2, only remarking that he's a bit quiet and nothing else. During the events of the third game, however, Olimar and Louie start butting heads more, which ends with Louie deserting him right before Olimar enters the Formidable Oak. Louie also doesn't endear himself to the Koppaites by running off with their juice supply after they rescued him from the Scornet Maestro ^note However it should be noted that from his perspective in this situation he was just kidnapped by a monster and possibly mistook the rescue for another kidnapping, which Olimar is ashamed of as well. And after finally being 'saved' by the Rescue Corps in Pikmin 4 after all the trouble he had caused for them (capturing castaways and trying to deny the team a cure for Oatchi by commanding the Ancient Sirehound), he is once again tied up to prevent him from causing any further trouble, though he's released soon after.
• The Heavy: The majority of events in the series from the second game onwards come about from Louie's selfishness and hedonism actively harming everyone else. Pikmin 4 confirms that his actions are very much intentionally minded as well. However, he rarely has much to do with the overall conflict besides causing the debt that drives the second game, save for Pikmin 4 where he's directly driving the conflict of the second half.
• The Hedonist: This is ultimately what the motivations are behind his actions across the series. By the time of Pikmin 4, Louie's notes reveal he doesn't care about anybody except his grandma, he doesn't care about his job (even revealing that eating the golden Pikpik Carrots on a delivery job was an active plan he was waiting to get the right job to do), and everything he writes about in the Piklopedia and Treasure Catalog is either him talking about food or about how fun something looks to mess with. In the Dandori battles with him, Louie is completely uninterested, getting annoyed when he believes he actually might have to put effort into it, he notes that the reason he abandoned Moss after losing the second fight was because the Ancient Sirehound seemed like a more fun dog to use as a ride, and he left Nelle unconscious and alone to die because she was drinking too much of the juice he stole from her group. Alongside some post-game dialogues, 4 retroactively suggests his actions in the previous games (such as controlling the Titan Dweevil or running from the Koppaites) were fully conscious efforts to stay on PNF-404 because he can eat and play with as much as he wants for as long as he wants.
• The Hermit: He seems dedicated to try and stay on PNF-404 simply because it lets him escape any social or societal responsibility.
• Hidden Depths: His notes on the creatures and flora of the planet provide a surprising amount of culinary insight, implying Louie is something of a gourmand and a legitimately good chef instead of just a glutton. His notes on the Iridescent Flint Beetle have him express a desire to have a cooking show on TV.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: It's believed that he took control of the Titan Dweevil, but there's nothing explicit on the matter. Pikmin 4 makes it a lot more plausible given he's actively controlling the Ancient Sirehound during the final battle.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Why is Louie able to kill and eat even the most inedible of creatures? Why is he able to survive on the planet's surface by himself? How is he leaps and bounds ahead of Olimar in terms of Dandori Battle skills? How does he survive nighttime on the planet by himself? The games aren't exactly forthcoming with answers.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Despite having caused his company's near-bankruptcy with his gluttony and possibly controlling the Titan Dweevil in Pikmin 2 and abandoning Olimar to the Plasm Wraith and stealing the Koppai crew's food supplies in Pikmin 3, Louie doesn't really suffer any punishment for it.
  • Downplayed in Pikmin 4, Louie doesn't face any real retribution for his actions aside from being gagged and taken back to Hocotate against his will - from the Rescue Corps, it's quite clear everyone is quite fed up with him and it is clear the Corps see him less as a "rescue" and more a "prisoner" - it just isn't their purpose to punish him.
• Kick the Dog: Quite literally on the "Dog" part in Pikmin 4 as after he's defeated in a Dandori battle for the second time, he flat-out abandons Moss, a dog companion, and leaves her in the dust for no good reason.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Even when he's at his most insane and loopy in Pikmin 3, Louie could tell that the Formidable Oak was bad news bears when he and Olimar first discover it, and he immediately takes off once the Plasm Wraith makes its presence known.
• Lack of Empathy: Pikmin 4 demonstrates that he's just too bizarre to care about anything other than himself and his Nana, barely paying any mind to what's going on around him even when everyone else is panicking and actively pursuing him.
• Laughably Evil: A loser whose uncontrollable tendencies gets himself in as much danger as he does to others and has surprisingly badass moments when it's least needed, as shown in an Pikmin 3 video where Louie brags about how cool he is for stealing the Koppaite's food, before he gets eaten himself, or before that where he somehow manages to blow up a wall on his own without any Pikmin. His gluttony is also extremely elaborate, as most of his notes involve cooking the creatures of PNF-404 in bizarrely elaborate fashion.
• The Lancer: A wacky partner to the more serious and grounded Olimar.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: His grandma's attempts to make Louie more willing to spend time outdoors via forcing him to eat bugs seemed to have paid off. The problem is that he ended up prefering PNF-404 over his actual home because of the various critters he can feast on.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: A lot of the time he's sort of an idiot who tries to eat everything. However, in the second game, after he gets left behind on the planet, he survives on his own without any Pikmin, gets all the way to the bottom of the Dream Den, and even manages to not be harmed by a beast with four dangerous weapons. The ship even remarks that the desire of man is something to be feared. Pikmin 4 explores it further as both his Dandori Battles are ranked at 5-flame difficulty, and he's a lot more aggressive than Leafling Olimar.
• The Millstone: It begins in 2, where after the debt is paid off, Olimar accidentally leaves him behind when he travels back to Hocotate, setting up the rest of the game to be a mission to find and rescue him. And in 3, he appears problematic and uncooperative to the point of deserting Olimar before the events of the game. After the Koppai crew save him, he runs off with their food supplies due to him apparently mistaking their rescue for another kidnapping, forcing them to fight another boss to save him again. He spends the rest of the game tied up and only able to say the word "food".
• Mistaken Identity: In Pikmin 3, the Koppai team finds him passed out and mistake him for Olimar.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In the second game, he causes Hocotate Freight go into debt by eating all the golden Pikpik carrots.
  • In the third game, he steals all of the fruit juice when you rescue him, potentially causing the Koppai team to starve if they don't manage to recover fruit during the next day. Thankfully, when they find him, he hasn't managed to drink any of the stolen juice yet.
• Noodle Incident: His escape from the Koppaites in Pikmin 3 involves him somehow blowing up a stone wall in the Garden of Hope. How he managed to do that goes completely unexplained.
• Obliviously Evil:
  • Judging by the dummied out data file in Pikmin 3, he didn't seem to understand that stealing all of the Koppaites' food was wrong and that he basically condemned them to starving to death if they couldn't recover it.
  • In Pikmin 4 he stands in the way of the Rescue Corps curing Oatchi and attempts to turn 2 castaways into Leaflings, but nobody ever manages to actually explain what they want from him and Nelle, who was one of the castaways he attempted to leafify, suggests that he may have been trying to help them (or at least mimicking what the Red Leafling had been doing before him).
• Obsessed with Food: Even during his semi-hostage situation with the Koppai Expedition Team, all Louie can think and say is food.
• Pet the Dog: As much of a gluttonous problem to all as he is, his notes show that he, at least, had no plans to cook Moss, the Sirehound or any Pikmin.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Like Olimar, he appears as a non-playable character in the third game's story.
• Promoted to Playable: In the Round Three DLC of Pikmin 3, where one of the levels lets you play as him and Olimar, although you have to find Louie first.
• Psychopathic Manchild: His notes in Pikmin 4 point to him being completely beholden to his impulses, and everything he does is either to satiate his own gluttony or to entertain himself. It's implied he actually wants to stay on PNF-404 because he can do whatever he wants there.
• The Quiet One: As noted by Olimar in his notes, Louie is so quiet that Olimar sometimes forgets he's even there. That may be part of the reason why Olimar didn't originally notice he was missing when he left the planet after paying off the debt. In the Side Stories mode of Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Louie will actually mutter to himself when Olimar is not around.
• Raised by Grandparents: Implied, considering Louie's grandmother is the only one who ever sends messages to him and reminisces about taking care of him while he was growing up.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The quiet, cowardly, mildly sociopathic, klutzy and incompetent Blue Oni to Olimar's red. Bonus points for actually dressing in blue.
• Rogue Protagonist: While the conflict of Pikmin 2 is entirely Louie's fault, being playable mitigates his antagonist role. By contrast in Pikmin 4, he's the closest the franchise has to an outright villain.
• Sanity Slippage: For the most part, Louie starts Pikmin 2 off as a somewhat quiet, but still decent worker. But after he is accidentally left behind on the planet, he goes a bit off the deep end by choosing to hide in the the final level of the game and it's somewhat implied he was controlling the Final Boss. By the time Pikmin 3 rolls around, he's become more animalistic, the only word he can say is "food", and he manages to get himself stuck on the planet again until Olimar comes back for the Hocotate Ship. And come Pikmin 4, he may or may not be operating on a completely alien mental wavelength from the average Hocotatian.
• Skewed Priorities: He often seems to be more interested in what the planet's creatures taste like, rather than how to avoid being killed by them.
• Sore Loser: In 4, if the player beats him in a Dandori Battle, his eyes will pop out with shock and anger compared to Olimar who won't even give a minor reaction.
• The Stinger: After the events of the third game, it turns out he went missing again. This is undone by the "Olimar's Comeback" side missions in Deluxe, where Olimar doesn't forget him again after he leaves with the rebuilt Hocotate Ship.
• Spanner in the Works: His presence alone vastly complicates the Rescue Corps' investigation into Oatchi's condition, with his theft of Nelle's glow sap and later command over the Ancient Sirehound requiring them to chase and subdue him just so they can get what they need (though to be fair, he had no idea this was their intention and kept running away before the Corps could explain themselves).
• Supreme Chef: Has pretty delectable-sounding recipes for nearly every creature you can find on PNF-404.
• Terse Talker: Whenever Louie does speak up, he's very blunt and terse. He does, however, tend to be more descriptive when talking about how to cook the enemies, though his treasure notes are about as terse as his dialogue.
• Too Dumb to Live: Inverted. His obsessive hunger and lack of impulse control are a pain to his coworkers on Hocotate, but when he gets left behind on the planet, it's how he stays alive on a Death World. He also refuses to follow Olimar to the Formidable Oak, with the implication he could tell something was off. However, Pikmin 4 implies that he's completely unaware of his suit's limited life support system, meaning that even if he was allowed to stay on PNF-404 like he wanted he likely wouldn't last long.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The notes leave out the details, but what they do reveal show that he definitely took a level in Pikmin 3. He stops speaking with Olimar entirely (only nodding or shaking his head in response to Olimar), becomes obsessed with finding food, refuses to accompany him into a dangerous place (resulting in Olimar being kidnapped by the Plasm Wraith; this one, at least, is implied to have been because he sensed the danger of the situation while Olimar was adamant about finding treasure), and when found and rescued by the Koppai crew, instead of thanking them or at least asking why he's woken up on their ship, he lands their ship while they're sleeping and runs off with all of their food, basically condemning them to die of starvation at the end of the same day (Though in his defense, he mistakenly thought he had been kidnapped). At the end of the game, even Olimar is ashamed of how Louie behaves. Pikmin 4 takes it even further with him becoming actively hostile to the Rescue Corps.
• Unwanted Rescue: There's little explanation for why Louie resists and outright antagonizes the Rescue Corps' efforts except for this trope. Unlike Olimar, who was turned into a Leafling for his survival, Louie has no Plant Person traits, so he can't use that as an excuse. Not helping is that he stubbornly runs off after losing Dandori battles until he's cornered, and then dares to try to kill the Rookie and Oatchi for pursuing him. The only conclusion: he doesn't want to leave PNF-404 despite its Death World nature. Unfortunately for him, the Rescue Corps isn't about to leave him behind and even tie him up upon his "rescue"/capture.
• Villainous Breakdown: Losing his second Dandori Battle freaks him out enough that he abandons Moss entirely and flees to the Cavern For A King to find the Ancient Sirehound to play with. The Rescue Corps gaining on him as he gets deeper and deeper into the cave increasingly irritates him, until by the final floor he actually yells at them to "Go home!" before siccing the Sirehound on them.
• Wham Shot: The normal ending of Pikmin 4 shows Louie, who at this point wasn't even mentioned by name and only appeared in one of Olimar's journal entries, casually walking on the surface of PNF-404 during its incredibly dangerous night time and finding and befriending Moss.