Diglett Underground

About

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Diglett is a ground-type Pokemon character best known for its underground habitats. Although its signature moves include scratching and growling, its entire body in full-length profile has never been revealed to the audience, leading to much debate as to what makes up the lower half portion of Diglett’s body underground.

Origin

Diglett first appeared in Episode 31 of the Pokemon anime series entitled Dig Those Diglett!, as a mythical Pokemon posing obstacles for the dam construction to protect the wild forest. It was also featured in Pokemon Red / Blue edition, the first installment of Pokemon video game franchise released in 1998.

The small, pink-nosed Pokemon’s signature skill is its ability to keep the body partially submerged below ground or to bury itself entirely, when necessary. While the character has made several appearances in the anime series and video games, the only thing known about its physique is that it has feet, as once mentioned in the Nintendo DS videogame Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team.

Discussions

One of the earliest forum threads can be found in a PokemonElite2000 Forum¹ thread titled “The Ultimate Question: What does Diglett look like out of the ground!? GASP,” originally posted on November 23rd, 2004.

Any comments, ideas, or further questions on this Pokemon Mystery? :goofy:

- Posted by Mechaflame

The thread generated over two dozens of responses, with many speculating that it would resemble a ground mammal with claws and feet, as suggested by its use of “scratch” move and the canonical fact that it has feet to move with.

Spread

Because Pokemon Red / Blue for GameBoy was first released in 1998--six years prior to the available data range of Google Trends--it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when or where Diglett became an especially popular Pokemon character among the fans. However, both Google Search results and Insights graph suggest that discussion threads surrounding Diglett’s body form began to surface by large numbers sometime in 2006.

On January 26th, 2006, Serebii Forum² user DragoonS posted a thread titled “what happens when we release a Diglett in an aeroplane?”:

You know about Diglett, when we send out Diglett, it directley goes to ground, and takes place in the ground.

I want to know something.

What happens if I release a Diglett in an aeroplane?
What happens if I release a Diglett on a rock?
What happens if I release a Diglett on the air?
What happens if I release a Diglett on my bed?

Throughout 2006, discussion threads about Diglett’s identity continued to surface across Pokemon-related forums and fan sites, including Pokemon Elite 2000³, Serebii Forum⁴ and Bulbagarden.⁵

On August 5th, 2006, the first YTMND⁶ site “What Diglett Looks Like Above Ground” was launched.

On October 25th, 2006, DeviantArt⁷ user TheBlackMarket posted a fan illustration titled “A Wild Diglett appears,” depicting the ground-based Pokemon as a muscular, chiseled man.

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DeviantArt seems to be one of the strongholds of Diglett-related fan arts, featuring over 3000 user- created images of the Pokemon character and many of them showing its body in full-length form.

Image may be NSFW.
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In addition, there are also several Japanese-language discussion threads⁸ surrounding the identity of Diglett, though it is unclear whether this phenomenon originated from English-speaking forums or Japanese communities.

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