An important philosophical quandry

explain shedinja then

I'm SO glad you brought up Shedinja.

Real world grasshoppers/katydids are possibly one of the best kinds of pets for kids to have.

Their food is just a chunk of grass you ripped from outside. They are that perfect blend of harmless and alien. Nothing teaches a kid that "yo, bugs are cool." more than having a small grasshopper walk on their arm and jump around their room.

Also, they have a natural exit strategy - once they start to scream constantly, you can just let them free outside and you can avoid all of the "Oh my poor baby pet died." Nah, It just was ready to go outside and make friends and it kept you up all night to let you know that.

One of these found its way into my home and it stayed here for weeks.

Here's the problem: It did just actually die one day, and I had to give it a funeral to give my daughter an unexpected but healthy lesson about grief and the frailty of life.

EXCEPT

- I am an idiot - and when I went back outside to check on it I found frigg'n Shedinja right where I left it and thought That's a weird way for a bird to eat this katydid, just busting the head open and sucking the juices out and OH WAIT

That little green a*hole wasn't frozen in place because it was dead...IT WAS MOLTING

So I told my daughter this and that very night we followed the screeching sounds and saw it (or an adult member of its exact species) sitting on our fence and shouting at the top of its legs before flying away.

So now my daughter has TWO major data points regarding death:

1) My dad killed my favorite cat pokemon and it turned into an angry green child

2) My favorite real world pet died and this means that it grew wings and shouts a bunch now.


I just feel like I am messing up the messaging here.