#IT’S GIVING AETHER PARADISE FROM POKEMON SM

[tunasama13]

I NEED TO OVERANALYZE EVERY SINGLE BIT OF THIS IMAGE OR I’M GONNA EXPLODE

[higgyisobsessed]

Why Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon have the Best Credits

Ok so I just finished Ultra Moon with only birds (super fun! painful with how limited the TMs are when you’re all birds but whatever) and I forgot how amazing the credits are!? How come no one talks about this? USUM are overhated bc they have a lot of cutscenes but they were super difficult, had story, lots of Pokemon, great OST... a big improvement to SM in basically every way except Lusamine’s character, imo (and I miss Guzma saying “y’all are stupid” in the Ultra Wilds or what)

The credits work in that they: -set up the post game while still feeling like a good ending -rewards the player’s hard earned efforts  -resolves plot points -so gosh darn cute -great ending to the DS Pokemon era, including a 5 minute reference to HGSS

ok so if ya keep reading, I’m going to do a thing explaining every moment in the cutscenes and elaborating on why some are so good

- Party at Iki Town! Kukui says that the player won, and Hala and Hau have a little moment about Hau recognizing he is strong even after losing to player. (that’s what I’m assuming here lol)

- Sophocles sees Molayne again! I love how close they are. :) Earlier in the game, when you challenge Mina’s trial and have to get the petal from Sophocles, he and Molayne have to say goodbye (because Molayne is leaving to become an Elite Four member), so this little reunion is cute.

- The party is going. You can see Kiawe doing a dance, which looks really cool and I kinda wish he had like a Marowak entourage but it’s still cool regardless

- Mallow tells everyone that Hapu and Lillie finally showed up! I love how everyone likes Lillie, even if she isn’t a trainer like they are. They all still recognize her growth and are proud of her. :)

- Now that everyone’s here, Hala presents to everyone the first ever Champion of Alola!

- Before Gladion leaves, he checks to make sure his sister will be fine without him. :) He sees that she’s having a good time with friends before he takes off on the (Finneon themed) boat that same evening. 

- Team Skull!! Guzma and Plumeria come down. Guzma seems scared of what Team Skull’s reaction will be, but Team Skull is completely supportive of Guzma and immediately change out of their Team Skull outfits into regular Punk outfits. Note the red X on the logo of Guzma’s jacket, and Plumeria wearing a bandana on her head. Also, since we don’t see Guzma’s face, we don’t see the change he made to his glasses. idk it’s just interesting to me

- Sina and Dexio! We see them in that one Aether lab place and it foreshadows that they will appear in the post game. (Mega evolution introduction, and Zygarde)

- speaking of Zygarde, we see the reason Sina and Dexio are in Alola in the first place! The game shows the player Zygarde, which is now accessible at Resolution Cave, a post game area

- Aether Paradise! We see Dulse and Zossie (US) / Soliera and Phyco (UM), who are both still learning about Pokemon. They also get to talk with Colress, which seems like a fun conversation, haha. Colress also notices Faba using the elevator to lower floors... (sets up Rainbow Rocket story)

- everyone doing the Z-Poses!! Nothing really to say here, I just think it’s cool

- Gladion leaving, and Wicke comes to wish him goodbye. As she and more Aether employees are waving, Gladion’s looking all angsty and teenagery and then his Mom shows up to wave goodbye! This display of Lusamine caring for him as a son again is enough to make him smile and wave back :)

- Back at the party, everyone goes to the Ruins of Conflict, where they pretty much tell Tapu Koko about the new Champion and League held in the Tapu’s honour. As everyone leaves, the game gives you a nice hint to come back and find Tapu Koko

- Everyone heading back across the bridge. Lillie takes a moment to remember her first time on the bridge, with Nebby attacked by the three Spearow. Lillie has come very far and I love her

- A moment to appreciate the Pokemon that helped the player become Champion. Cute but I wish it played the party’s cries or something. I get why it might be weird to show models with sizes and whatever but I’m a greedy son of a gun

- A FIVE MINUTE HGSS REFERENCE. These credits, with the Totem Pokemon dancing on the sides, is a reference to the HGSS credits with the dancing Bellossom. It’s so beautiful and I love it and they did NOT have to go this hard but they absolutely did

- then the player goes home. fun classic way to end a Pokemon credits sequence. The true ending of the adventure, when everything is normal and home again. 

- THE END. The relaxing, subtle music here also includes sounds of waves. I would listen to this to sleep, it’s just so nice. 

- Speaking of music, the music is SO GOOD the whole time. It’s so fun 

- This is the sendoff from Pokemon on DS consoles. This is the sendoff we get, and it’s the best it’s ever been. (even if I love XY’s credits for having a wholesome song with lyrics and everything, usum is still better)

so yeah anyways props to whoever were all in charge of the credits scenes, and yes I know how ironic that statement is

[sometipsygnostalgic]

@zymple​ okay so everything from aether paradise onwards is completely different in USUM but everything before that point is literally identical, no matter how much it contradicts the new story later.

in SM she steals Nebby from Lillie to open a portal to Nihilego, because shes obsessed with Nihilego and wants to “mother” them (it’s why she dresses Lillie in that outfit). 

In USUM, she says she wants to fight Ultra Necrozma to protect Alola, which is hilarious, because the Ultra Recon Squad protect her, yet they have their own pokemon that can open portals to Ultra Necrozma and there is NO NEED AT ALL for ANYONE to want Nebby. 

uhhh the dialogue when you’re first going to Poni Island: in the original game, Gladion says he ran away to protect Type: Null from Lusamine, and Lillie says she doesn’t know what Lusamine would have done to her if Wicke hadn’t been there. 

In USUM, this is changed to Gladion saying he ran away to get stronger to protect Lillie and Lusamine, while Lillie just goes “why didn’t you say so earlier? we were so worried”

In Sun and Moon, Lillie travels with you to Exeggutor Island where she talks about a happy memory of her mother looking after her after she bumped her knee. She laments the way their relationship changed, and reaffirms her determination to take down her mother. 

In USUM, she is labelled “too weak” to go to exeggutor island (this is horrific in the context of the game’s message of Lillie trying to show she’s strong). The cutscene is replaced by you fighting some exeggutor and leaving....  

In Sun and Moon, Lillie enters the portal with you and Solgaleo to find Lusamine. You see Guzma in a horrible state, and he asks you to go save Lusamine from herself - she’s fusing with Nihilego.  Lusamine says some really nasty shit to Lillie about how she’s ugly and unlovable. Lillie loses her shit, and gives a MASSIVE CALL OUT to Lusamine. I’m linking you here because I know you’ll love it. Lusamine attacks both Lillie and the player after she’s defeated, but Nebby kills her ass, and then she’s knocked out of Nihilego.  The scene ends with Lusamine, in her confused state, calling out to her daughter.  Lillie can’t forgive her mother, but she decides to take responsibility and help find a cure for Lusamine. The game ends with her going to Kanto, and she promises she’ll go through the Pokemon League there and become a trainer while she’s gone. Gladion, meanwhile, has to look after the Aether foundation while she’s incapacitated - he now manages the institution which he ran from.

In USUM, the entire Aether family plot is cut short by Lusamine and Guzma being thrown out of a portal, and Lusamine acknowledging that her daughter isn’t that awul. That’s... it. Lillie still refuses to move back in with her mother, and she becomes an Alolan trainer, but she doesn’t have a huge callout and Gladion runs off to Kanto (for 1 real-life month) before coming back as a league challenger.  There’s a nice epilogue scene with Mohn visiting the foundation, but considering how much of the game was building up to Lusamine showing up her mother, it’s so sad to see how they neutered it and pretended (despite not changing the freezing-pokemon-alive thing) that Lusamine was a grey character, not an abusive villain. 

[ultraericthered]

Unpopular Opinion Re: Pokemon

Credit to @themattress for the post format.

As Gen 7 approaches it’s final months, I can say this without absolute certainty....Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon gave us the best take on Alola’s most major human antagonist, Lusamine.

In the launch titles (Sun & Moon), Lusamine was one of the scariest human villains this franchise had ever seen, if not THE scariest, and she made for an incredibly effective antagonist...well, in the four scenes to actually feature her. Lack of screentime aside, the big issue is that her actual character felt more like a beta test for the character we’d see later. What Gamefreak was going for was a narcissistic and mentally unwell mother descending into madness due to being doped up on toxic crazy juice as a result of a failure to properly cope with the grief of losing her husband and a failure to manage her family as it’s single matriarch, and we were meant to feel sad for her in addition to fearing and loathing her. But what deranged, power-tripping, totally high-on-toxin and inebriated Lusamine ended up looking like was an uncomfortably realistic depiction of an abusive narcissistic parent who says the sort of things such parents actually do say and acts in the way they actually do act, which triggered many players to the point of losing any pity they could have for her and instead of wishing for her to be saved and for her and her relationship with her kids to get better, they wished to see her meet a brutal demise. And when the story’s ending hinged on the notion that Lusamine is redeemable and that her abused child wants her to get better and possibly improve her relationship with her, then this tells you they fucked something up.

In the anime, it’s easy for us to buy Lusamine’s redemption and want to see her and Lillie’s relationship improve...’cause she’s not actually a villain at all. Anime Lusamine only acted as an antagonist for two episodes as the Mother Beast purely due to Nihilego intoxicating her to make her psyche get totally overtaken by her own inner child. Afterwards, she steps up as the commander of the Ultra Guardians and serves as one of the major recurring protagonist characters for the rest of the series, with the Aether Foundation as a whole being good guys. And while I love anime Lusamine as a character and find her extended time on the show allows for a lot of development and showcasing of qualities both admirable and endearing, there are again two problems. First is that this approach robs the anime of truly adapting the first female Big Bad in the games as a Big Bad of any sort, which seems unfortunate. And second is that her personality is radically different from the gameverse character, who was an immature individual on the inside, but knew how to appear mature, professional, and charming to others on the outside. Due to the anime’s more comedy-heavy tone, anime Lusamine brings her immaturity to the outside all too frequently in comical moments, making her behave in ways you don’t really see Lusamine behaving in anywhere else ever.

In Pokemon Special, Kusaka took the approach of giving us what’s essentially Sun & Moon Lusamine done correctly - through the writing, artwork, and overall characterization we’re able to tell that this is essentially USUM Lusamine but taken down SM Lusamine’s path due to intaking the same toxic crazy juice as SM Lusamine in her coping with her manic-depression and feelings of abandonment. You’re easily able to understand that this is a deeply flawed woman who has brought herself to being the worst version of herself due to mismanagement of grief and who wants her Ultra Beast paradise to fill the void left behind by her husband, who also loved and researched Ultra Beasts passionately. Her obsession with being a “loving mother” to people, Pokemon, and (primarily) Ultra Beasts that are close to her is chilling and it carries over into her Mother Beast form, making for the most demented version of the character. But again, two problems. One is the her page time is ridiculously limited and sporadic for a while (we only really see her in person once and then the rest is in memories or visions) until suddenly wham! There’s Lusamine reigning over her Ultra Beast Paradise and out to capture Necrozma as it’s crown jewel, and even then she doesn’t get to be an active antagonist for too long. I think Malva was a more proficient female Big Bad. And speaking of, the other is that her Big Bad status is once again diminished, this time by the reveal that it was Faba who caused her mental decline by pushing Mohn through the Ultra Wormhole to start with and Faba who’s been keeping the desolation of the Aether family going for all these years ‘cause he’s a bitter incel douche who wants Lusamine dead and him in charge of Aether Foundation in her place. This takes away so much villain agency from Lusamine and so much power from the family’s story by giving us a single scapegoat to blame for Lusamine and her family’s suffering. In the games, even though Lusamine went bad and abused her kids and Pokemon, there was no single “the bad guy” behind why the family fell apart like it did, it was just a complex and believable tragedy. Scrubbing away all nuance in order to boil it down to “just blame this asshole!” does the story a great disservice.

USUM Lusamine is the ideally balanced compromise. In the main game, she’s the primary antagonist of the story up until the climax, where Necrozma takes that mantle from her due to her actions, making her the direct cause of everything both prior to Necrozma’s invasion and of the invasion itself, so she, along with Necrozma and (in the post-game) Giovanni, is still one of the Big Bads. However, they ditched the “doped up on toxic crazy juice and obsessed with space jellyfish” angle and while I think Special did a better job with her motivations (literally my only major complaint about USUM Lusamine is that her “save Alola ‘cause I’m the hero!” motive and how it effects her role going forward from that reveal makes her just another Zinnia), USUM allows her actions and character portrayal to show us just how much of the ugliness we saw in SM was natural to her and how much of it was due to the toxin messing with her head and inebriating her in her behavior. She’s allowed nuance in her moral standing without sacrificing the truth of how wrong-headed she is in her actions, how harsh, cruel and self-absorbed she is as a person, and how horribly she treated her own kids and Pokemon in the years following Mohn’s vanishing (freezing a whole bunch of Pokemon alive is inexcusable and fucked up no matter how much you “love” them and want to keep them around!). When she learns the error of her ways and is shown better by Lillie (yes, their heart-to-heart took place offscreen but we already got establishment of what it’d be focused on and the results were satisfactory and not difficult to grasp how they’d come about) and spends the post-game making amends for her past mistakes and improving herself as a person, you can buy it and see her as someone who’s deserving of forgiveness and a fresh start. She’s got the effective villainy of her original outing, the little nuances of her manga incarnation, and the moral compass and redeemability of her anime incarnation, and on top of all that, what really brings it home is that this is the only Lusamine where her pre-Mohn backstory actually matters to her depiction. The thing about her being the daughter of a philanthropist famed for his loving, charitable nature who thus had many expectations upon her growing up despite being not nearly as naturally empathetic and good was totally throwaway in S&M but is the backbone of her entire characterization in USUM, with her self-justifying even her vilest deeds that she commits for some perceived greater good with “I am Lusamine!”, hinting at her pathological desire to conform to all that she must live up to, all that she’s expected to be. She’s still a narcissistic, borderline-sociopathic, abusive and exploitative control freak but she’s compelling because there’s plausible reason for her to be so fucked up a person.

And thus, aside from one downside that the manga adaptation did better on (motivation), USUM Lusamine is Best Lusamine. The haters can all suck it!

[zchaotic]

Things that Grind My Gears USUM and common complaints

1. People that said USUM butchered SM’s Story.

I loved SM’s story, I found Lillie’s growth to be amazing and I loved it when Lillie stood up to her mother. The story focused on her was great until the ending where Lillie went back to her mother to help her recover, it undoes most of her growth, we are given no indication that Lusamine has learned anything and the worse part, it ends the story with no closure.

Gladion also got stuck in a position pretty horrible, having to run the place he was abused in. It was a sloppy conclusion that dampened a great story.

Ultra Sun and Moon’s changes to the story are as followed; the Ultra Recon Squad being added in, focus on Necrozma as a villain, Lusamine’s motives being changed and how they affected her kids, Lillie’s focus and the post game.

While the Ultra Recon Squad didn’t do much besides foreshadow Necrozma and the pokemon could do a bit more for build up, Necrozma gave what is to me a better climax boss compared to Mother Beast.... in that we get to fight the fused alien monster.

Further more, USUM attempted to change Lusamine for a bit more than just fitting the Necrozma story, it tried to humanize her on screen. Something that SM DID NOT DO! For many, Lusamine in SM was an irredeemable, child abusing bitch and we didn’t get the info as to why she was doing things in the first place until the post game. Wrong place and wrong time for that backstory.

In USUM, they actually mentioned Mohn and add weight to Lusamine’s backstory. Him disappearing caused her downward spiral into the villain she became, who didn’t want to let things go. That is why she froze her pokemon and that is why she became such a control freak to her kids. This also adds to Lusamine’s “Mother knows best” mindset, where she believed she was right and everyone else should shut up and let her deal with things. Which is part of the reason she used Nebby for her goals this time, to feed that ego/ messiah complex and prove to everyone that she was right.

This dangerous thinking helped motivated Gladion when he took Type:Null and ran, he saw potential in the pokemon that Lusamine sure as hell didn’t. Gladion wanted to be free from that control and knew Type:Null was treated like dirt, so he wanted to give that pokemon a better life and prove its potential as a pokemon.

Lillie is a similar deal, she took Nebby and ran because she didn’t like how it was being treated. She did the only thing she could have done to stop this mistreatment and rescued the Cosmog. That is what lead to her escaping.

She still got inspired by you the player to become a trainer, change from the outfit her mother forced on her into her Z powered form, have a talk with her mother and have that goodbye with Nebby, in a more meaningful place and for reasons that make a bit more sense than. “I’m not a trainer.”

While Exeggutor Island was cut out and it was a bummer since that was less moments with Lillie. The majority of the things she said outside of what Lusamine use to be was moved over to Rainbow Rocket’s ending OR we got to see it. While Lillie’s talk with Lusamine was off screen, the girl told us what was going to happen so we can have an idea what was being talked about while we fight Necrozma.

We got to see Lusamine take that turn around for the better. It was no different from SM where Lusamine had a recovery off screen and Lillie decided to help her recover. (The later is worse for a LOT of reasons.)

While I admit that Lillie’s lack of focus made her part of USUM’s main story weaker, it gave a better conclusion to her family and other characters in comparison due to the following.

Lillie got to become a trainer on screen and continue to live with Kukui and Burnet, far away from Lusamine. Lillie still had around the same growth, though it isn’t the focus.

Gladion got to get away from Aether and live out life on his own with Silvally. He occasionally visits and there are signs that he isn’t in completely bad ties with his family.

Lusamine, though it is in dialogue, got an onscreen turn around. Thawed out her frozen pokemon after Rainbow Rocket/ was starting to do that, let her kids go and had closure with Mohn. A more believable redemption and closure compared to her SM ending where we see nothing but her as a villain.

Guzma had a bigger redemption arc as of RR.

The Captains have a last hurrah at Mina’s trial.

Hau had a more complete story arc where he takes things more seriously. I can close this story book and know how it ends for our characters.

Where exactly was things ruined outside of the lack of focus on Lillie? To me.... nothing.

2. USUM’s “Plot Holes” compared to SM.

In relation to the story, things play out the same way and the changes to Lusamine raised a lot of questions.

a. Why does Lillie still have the same look as in SM when Lusamine doesn’t have an obsession with Nihilego in USUM?

b. Why did Nihilego show up in USUM when Lusamine’s plans have nothing to do with it?

c. Why didn’t Lusamine use the legendary the Ultra Recon Squad have to go after Necrozma or why did the Recon Squad let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby.

d. Gladion’s reason for stealing Type:Null doesn’t make sense in USUM since it is just to get stronger and protect his family?

e. Why did they retcon Lusamine into “she didn’t do nothing wrong”/ Why is the game trying to depict Lusamine as a good person when she still abused her kids, has the frozen pokemon and tried to kill Nebby?

My answers are not popular... but here they go.

a. I did use to believe that Lusamine dressed Lillie up to resemble Nihilego, but then USUM changed that woman’s motives to where it had nothing to do with wanting that beast. But instead of raging about that “plot hole”, I believe that the resemblance is ultimately just a coincidence and nothing more in both sets of games. No one in the two sets of games has pointed out the resemblance. Just that Lusamine demanded Lillie and Gladion do what she says/ treated them like ornaments.

Lusamine was still such a control freak to her kids that she didn’t even let them pick their own look. They look what SHE wanted them to look/ do what she wanted them to do because “Mother Knows Best.” It’s pretty messed up, emotional abuse, it is why Lillie has little self confidence because she was treated as a child that should shut up and listen to the adult. It is how Gladion has all that frustration and need to do things his way.

Lillie changing her look and taking life into her own hands still has the same weight and impact in both sets of games. Lillie is stepping out of that smothering shadow and became her own person.

b. Nihilego showed up at Aether Paradise because the Aether Foundation was messing with Ultra wormholes. That is a given in both games, the reasons for the wormhole opening were different, BUT that is why the wormhole opened up. The Wormhole was just Nihilego’s, in SM that part was intended while in USUM it wasn’t.

c. Now for the legendary the URS have, that pokemon was their only ride in and out of home at Ultra Megaopolis, if they let their Solgaleo/ Lunala near Necrozma... that prism would eat them and they be screwed over. They let Lusamine do what she did with Nebby because it was a more acceptable lose/ result in a safer way to fight Necrozma in a more controllable way. The URS resulted to using theirs as a last resort when Nebby (You and Lillie’s only way into Ultra Space.) got eaten by Necrozma.

d. In USUM, Lusamine never had that obsession with the Ultra Beasts that escalated as it did in SM. Gladion took Type:Null and ran because 1. He had it with Lusamine’s abuse, didn’t like how she was treating Type:Null, stole it and ran to prove to that woman that she was wrong. With plans to come back once Null’s Power was realized. This can also split open in SM, where Gladion took Null and wanted to stop Lusamine, that woman was GONE and that boy’s only objective is to protect the family he had left and face his problems head on. So his change wasn’t that drastic and it opens him up more as a boy that has to manage quite a lot on his hands by himself.

e. As for the “Retcon!” There had to be a reason why Lusamine was nowhere near as extreme as she was in at SM. There was a reason why Lusamine’s goal had nothing to do with Nihilego in USUM. The post game of SM had this to say in the matter along with Guzma’s description of what Nihilego does to you.

From Wicke’s Note on Nihilego. “There have been sightings reported of this beast in Alola's past. Its most distinctive feature is its parasitic capability. When Nihilego latches on to a host, it does not manipulate its actions directly. Rather it awakens the host's own capabilities and boosts them to an extreme extent in order to protect itself. It injects the host with a sort of neurotoxin to achieve this effect. This neurotoxin of Nihilego's is incredibly stimulating and inspires feelings of extreme excitement and a lack of inhibition in its host. In other words, anything or anyone that a Nihilego latches on to will have its native skills forcibly activated to their fullest extent and will then act as it naturally desires to.”

This was the games attempt at trying to tell us that prior to SM’s events, Lusamine either got affected by the venom in some way or form... probably from the Wormhole experiments in opening the wormhole and trying to find Mohn or she kept focusing on the beasts and kept digging down the rabbit hole. Which was how she focused only on Nihilego and nothing else. It doesn’t excuse any of the crap she pulled, but it is the only real explanation we have and to be honest, she chose to dig that deep.

In USUM, Lusamine never got affected by that venom/ had something else to focus on and thus her motives for messing with the wormholes are different, she shows a care for her kids, the pokemon she has, etc.

Even without Nihilego, everything... from the abuse of her kids, the frozen pokemon, taking advantage of others and even allowing Null to happen were ALL from her and that is the reason we want to see this woman get knocked off her high horse. The things we should be mad at her for, because they all stemmed from her and it is why she is a villain in USUM.

For a bigger compare and contrast. http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167852568320/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-1-while-her

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853295755/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-2-in-sm

http://ultraericthered.tumblr.com/post/167853828520/sm-lusamine-vs-usum-lusamine-part-3-in-sm

USUM just made the changes so we can have that desire to see her get kicked and feel bad for how it got to the mess it did in the first place, while giving us the hope that she can be salvaged and have a turn around/ repair her relationship with her kids.

She became a problem for most of the game because she was going to go Leeroy on everyone and as everyone feared, it would have made things worse.

It is called, humanizing your villain on screen. Lusamine is less scary as a villain in this game, but she came off as a character with some actual depth to the things she has done as well as the villain Game Freak intended to make. One that can turn around for the better and have a hope of reconnecting with her kids in the end.

Nothing was really retconned, but things were cleared up in a way to show us what she would have been like without going down the rabbit hole she did in SM.

3. Lusamine’s abuse of her kids got swept under the rug, her turn around came out of nowhere and she got off Scott free in USUM.

a. It didn’t, Lusamine admitted to her kids that they were right to take the pokemon and run. She started making amends to the Cosmog she hurt right when you came back and Lillie only came back to Aether to see Nebby recover, after that they parted ways. Lusamine also had an identity crisis in between the post game and RR, where she realize just how much of a fuck up she was and after RR she decided on how to fix herself.

Getting her ass kicked was already done by Necrozma and more of it was not needed now that she learned her lesson and started making amends. This woman letting her kids go was another hint that she knew what she did was wrong, she got that and she hopes the best for them. (Seen with the goodbye between her and Gladion.)

b. Lusamine’s whole Leeroy Jenkins thing backfired, Necrozma is causing problems on Alola... problems she tried to prevent and funny enough, problems she caused in SM. The Ultra Recon Squad were chewing her out for her crap and Lillie had her turn with her while you were fighting Necrozma. It may have been off screen, but it is common sense to think THAT is when people were able to get it through her head in just how reckless she has been and get her to self reflect on the things she has done.

c. Despite Lusamine getting sick in SM at the end... she and the whole of Aether got off scott free for their shit in there as well. It’s pokemon, it is very likely Lillie and Bill would fix her up and she would recover. (Sacred Ashes exist for a reason people... its that strong of medicine.)

Another thing in Pokemon. Archie, Maxie, Colress and grunts from various villain teams have gotten off scott free for their shit and in USUM, Lusamine not having legal repercussions isn’t that different from them. So this didn’t bother me so much and if anything, Aether being raided by Team RR works as karma since now they are being taken advantage off... by force.

4. USUM should have been a sequel instead of ruining SM’s story/ should have been DLC.

a. I don’t understand why they didn’t make a sequel, BW2 was known for this... but there were a couple plot holes that came from BW2. One, what happened to the previous protagonist and all the characters that got involved with that one just mention them? It made things a bit shallower since the new protagonist is a substitute for them.

In addition, BW2′s story... compared to BW... wasn’t that great. It was a basic, bad guys are using a legendary for their goals, cause trouble in random locations etc that we see in every other game and unlike BW it wasn’t the whole plot. While a Sequel to SM might give closure... it would have caused as many problems as what BW2 did.

So I kind of appreciate that USUM was a rewrite of the story, it helped polish things out and give a better sense of closure. While SM had a more emotional story, I would take USUM as a whole over it due to that one giving closure while still having some of those emotions.

Also, DLC wouldn’t have covered a whole new challenge with the trials, trainers, new pokemon ETC... this was done in Crystal, Emerald and Platinum. So why is USUM doing any problems when some games with DLC abuse the hell out of it and milk us for money?

I apologize for the long rant, but I wanted to get this out of my system.

SM are good games, but USUM came around, did things a lot better in most areas and became the definitive edition of this generation. I really wish more people see it as the improved version of SM instead of a hindrance to Gen 7, it and the story doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.

[theviolenttomboy]

This month’s SM summary, courtesy of Coronis!

Anabel's Pokemon defeats Faba and the Scientists. With the arrival of Lillie and Gladion, Faba knows that his scheme is over. At that moment, a bright light from the Altar draws everyone's attention, and both Cosmoem have evolved into Solgaleo and Lunala. Anabel clearly knows about them, and explains their roles as emissaries of the Sun and Moon. Like UBs, they are from another dimension. Since Cosmog are extremely weak, Cosmog are sent to Alola in order to grow under the protection of the Tapu, and they in turn protect Alola. Cosmog's ability to create portals enables it to find a safe world, but when its safety is compromised, it may in reverse create a portal back to Ultra Space. Lillie recalls how Nebby was abused by Aether, using Pokemon they supposedly rescued from torture, and thus stole it away, not knowing that Aether has a second Cosmog

Anabel receives a call from Looker, and apparently more UBs have emerged from the portals in Po Town, and are all heading towards Poni Island. Solgaleo and Lunala lift Sun and Moon onto their backs, and glow in auras. Moon can sense Lunala's feelings, how it cherishes Lillie, its love for Alola, and the impending crisis. The UBs arrive, and Lunala swipes a group down with a single attack. Everyone else joins in the battle, but Solgaleo isn't attacking. It turns out that Sun is struggling to get off its back because he sees the person he is looking for. He breaks free, which results of Solgaleo's aura vanishing, and Gladion is alarmed that Solgaleo cannot unleash its powers when its bond to humans is broken. Sun confronts Faba with his piggy bank, but Faba is completely clueless of what he is talking about. We finally learn that 5 years ago, after Sun's conversation with his great grandpa (as seen in Chapter 1), Sun flew to Alola one month later. His great grandpa told him that they live on a small island that is surrounded by Alola's 4 major islands, and the old man's dream was to create a Poke Pelago. Unfortunately, when Sun arrived, his great grandfather had passed away the night before (I suppose we now know where his powerful Meowth came from). Faba and Aether were there, and decided to move the dead man to another island's cemetery. Sun learned that Aether will start work on the island, and argued that the island belongs to his great grandpa. However, Faba pointed out that the island belongs to Aether, but a great man in Aether (implying Mohn), gave the island to Sun's great grandpa to help him fulfill his dream of building the Poke Pelago. Now that the old man has passed and the great Aether man has gone missing, the island shall rightfully be returned to Aether. Sun demands the island, and Faba halfheartedly asked for 1 hundred million yen. Faba finally remembers the incident, and Sun pours out the cash from his piggy bank, saying the remaining sum will be ready when he completes the Mirage Berry and Zygarde Cell quests. To his dismay, Faba laughs, and says he cannot have the island back now. It turns out that the originally small island has been artificially expanded to what is the Aether Paradise today, and Faba mocks that with all that they have invested on the construction, 1 hundred million yen can no longer cut the deal. Faba also states that he made the fake promise to Sun in order to 'help a kid get over the loss of a loved one'. He hopes that Sun has spent 5 fruitful years collecting the money. Gladion and Lillie get a hunch of who the 'great Aether man' is, but at that moment, a portal is torn open, and Necrozma appears to drag in Solgaleo, who grabs Sun along with its tail. Moon gives chase with Lunala, and both protagonists vanish into the portal as it closes, leaving a stunned Lillie. Half a year later, we see Lusamine and number of UBs...

[tagfer]

a long list of my favorite pokemon headcanons

wrote ‘em up cause I’m bored, which is how most of my posts come to be.

these are in no specific order. some were def inspired by other people. links provided for further info on a few of ‘em.

Pokemon don’t say their Species name. Well, many CAN, but they’re not limited to that.

Pokemon of the same species can be of different sizes and weights; the Pokedex info is just an average.

Because how Pokemon are measured is never revealed, this can mean some Pokemon like Salamence can be as small as large dogs.

Leaf exists. Yeah. Headcanon since there's literally nothing in the games. Boo, GF! Make her canon!

Red and Leaf are both fluent in sign language, and is how they communicate.

The person on the SS Anne that says "Ah, you're the strong but silent type!" (or whatever) didn't realize that Red/Leaf were signing.

Mewtwo sees Mew as his mom and is sad that he don't know where his mom went.

He left Kanto to search for her - which is why he was in Kalos.

The Pokemon anime is also a show in the game universe, based on Red's adventure.

Silver, Ethan, and Lyra all end up friends.

Zinnia is a death seeker, and was also not the chosen one - her late daughter was.

The scientists behind the box system are responsible for the GTS in their region. Cross-region GTS trading, when possible, is possible thanks to Bridgette.

SM Anabel is from the non-mega universe.

Wes and Rui fled from Orre because Wes was going to be put in jail for his role in Snagem before the events of Colosseum.

Blanche, Spark, and Candela are all friends, despite leading rival groups. They created Mystic, Instinct, and Valor for a friendly challenge as to who can help Willow the most.

Greevil was actually second in command for Cipher when Evice was taken down - and took the opportunity to take control.

Like how N knew Kyurem needed help, Hilda/Hilbert also tried to get to Unova to help for B2W2. However, they weren't able to make it there in time.

Essentia is seen as the the Batman of Luminose city, and nobody figures out who's behind the suit.

Emma also ends up officially catching Mimi.

Professor Burnet switched from studying the Interdream Zone when she saw Ultra Space in a dream.

The legendaries from Dream Radar aren't the ones from the regular universes, cause they're Dream versions.

Elesa loves The World Ends With You.

Pokedex info is like it is cause a bunch of young kids wrote it.

Xerneas is the one that gave life to Regigigas' children.

The scientist in Silph that discusses the Tiski branch during gen 1 defects into Team Rocket and is one of them by gen 2.

The foreign Rocket member didn't come from Unova - but rather, moved to Unova after returning to his homeland.

Aether Paradise has a cafe - and it makes some damn good coffee.

The e-reader berries don't return because they're very hard to grow and requires a near master botanist to grow them well.

Kahili can be pretty passive-aggressive in golf tournaments.

The protag from Sun/Moon is actually 12/13, but is allowed to start the trials late because they just moved to Alola. Hau is 11 and about to have his 12th birthday - but he was waiting for a friend to journey with before starting his own trials. He found that friend he wanted in the protag.

Duel and Rumble are actual games. Like, not video games - using actual figurines and toys (respectively). The plots of the Rumble games are the equivalent of board games.

Gladion nicknamed his Type: Full Silvally. The Sun/Moon protag was the first 'dex holder to log one, and decided to make Silvally the species name instead of Type: Full.

Routes and other such places are where it’s legal to catch Pokemon. That’s what the Town Map is - showing you where it’s okay. Unmarked places are where Pokemon can retreat, and it’s not legal to catch there.

This is why places such as Mintale Town and Cobalt Coast aren’t on the Kanto town map - they’re protected zones.

Amphy was sick, yes, but he was acting sicker than he really was cause he wanted more attention from Jasmine.

There are multiple of some legendaries, such as Mew, Deoxys, Kanto's birds, Johto's beasts, Hoenn's golems, and the Latis.

The Spiky-eared Pichu didn't come from that far away in the future, it was just an odd mutation. Not all Pichu in that time have it, but it's fairly common.

Bridgette was a Pokedex holder and started working with her sister to improve the PC system when she got frustrated at how inefficient Bill’s original PC was.

On the subject of Bill, he's a furry. Yeah.

The Pokeearth map from Serebii, which gets referenced in ORAS, is actually just an old map from before the world was fully explored by Japanese society. It's popular because of how wrong it was.

Lillie, if given the choice between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, def picked Bulbasaur. She would give it a nickname too.

Samuel Oak is much more widely known than Samson Oak not because he's a better researcher, but because he knows how to schmooze better. It's not what you know, it's who you know, y'know?

Baoba only offered Ethan/Lyra the position in the Safari Zone because he was too lazy to run it himself.

The Sevii archipelago is too far from any main land to get good internet of any sort, which is why it couldn’t even reach Kanto’s PC system. Celio’s device is basically a massive server to help the islands get connected.

uhh... yeah. I did say it was a long list. I was really bored.

[crystalelemental]

Let’s start with something my writer friends might yell at me for: In any narrative that’s not entirely visual, there’s going to be exposition.  This happens, and I’m pretty sure it’s unavoidable.  Someone, at some point, is going to just explain something.  “Show, don’t tell” exists to encourage people to actually demonstrate what they’re talking about, rather than just wall of text at people at every turn.  In essence, it’s insisting that you need to show the important parts to make a believable story with any emotional impact.

When we’re talking villain redemption, the critical component of a good redemption arc is the turning point.  A turning point is used either to showcase the exact moment a villain’s motives and goals are called into question by the villain themselves, and serves as the tipping point for them to change their actions, or to emphasize how irredeemable a villain is by having them reject the introspection and continue to act as they have.  The immediate example of this that comes to mind is Kira from JoJo part 4.  Had he kept his head down, he could’ve lived the rest of his life comfortable and quietly with that family.  Instead, he has too go all murderer again, and we’re shown that he’s beyond help.  These turning point moments guide the rest of their development, and is the critical component that needs to be shown to make actions beyond that point believable and meaningful.

Again, examples are better, so let’s take a scenario in which ORAS had gone the alternate story route in the same way as USUM.  In RSE, Maxie and Archie have their villain moments as you chase them around the region, watching them cause problems.  At the end, they use the orbs to awaken the legends, and stare in horror as the sun/rains intensify.  They comment aloud that this isn’t the world they wished for, and that everything is all wrong.  In that moment, we see the introspection and the realization that they done goofed, and they begin to work toward stopping the problem before vanishing, only showing up to return the orb to its proper place.

Then, in ORAS, the same events happen, up until the time of awakening.  When the beast awakens, Maxie/Archie disappear with them.  They’re completely gone, you witness the devastation alone, and you go to battle the beast alone, maybe with Steve/Wallace’s help.  When you return from the cavern, Archie and Maxie are just there, and Steven comes up to you and says “Hey, so I talked it out with them and they decided the ecosystem is probably okay as it is!  They’re good now!”  And the rest of the game, there are hidden scenes they have placed around where they might make statements like “I still wish to find a way to create more habitable land for people, but maybe the oceans are necessary too” or something along the lines of acknowledging the other side.  Which one hits harder?  The first, obviously.  It shows the impact their actions had, the moment they looked within themselves and found their way, and made action to change.  We don’t really see them being good at any point, but if we were told in a game that took place years after this that they were around and good people, we’d buy it.  Because we saw the moment they changed as people.  The second just has them uttering some vacuous nonsense about the other side having a point without really doing anything.

Or, supposed FRLG and HGSS took a different path.  In RBY, Giovanni is fought several times, and at the end he disbands Team Rocket in shame.  In GSC, you get the follow-up on Team Rocket disbanding, and maybe a scene of Giovanni contemplating his history before leaving for good.  Then, in FRLG, you fight Giovanni only as the Gym Leader.  You see him in the villain roles, but he never battles, always passing it off to others.  You beat him, and you get something like “Not bad, kid.”  And that’s it.  You beat the rest of the game, and it ends there.  Then in HGSS, Team Rocket is still disbanded, and you see Giovanni a lot after you beat the admins again, and he’s talking about how “Maybe the caring and love for Pokemon is what makes a trainer strong” but otherwise does nothing.  Again, he’s not evil now, based solely on “he’s not doing anything evil, and he’s commenting on understanding the problem.”  But there’s no justification.  Again, without the moment of introspection on the part of the villain, subsequent actions that show they’re good feel like they came out of nowhere, and there’s no context for the alteration.

That’s what happened this gen.  In SM, Lusamine unleashes the Ultra Beasts on the world to escape to her own paradise with Nihilego.  We see her fuse with this being that she captured, and the beast she is now part of rejects her, nearly kills her, and it's her child that comes to her rescue at the last second.  We see the experiences she had as a villain, and the final line she gets in the game is acknowledging that Lillie is "becoming beautiful."  Similarly, Guzma we see within the world of Nihilego, now freaked out and defeated.  He encountered something that he couldn't touch, much less beat down, and the creature was terrifying to him.  The core of his being as the toughest dude alive is broken down, and we see his reaction to the world while within it.  Because we see these things, we have justification for them to change.  Do they?   Not openly. Lusamine is apparently still having a rough time of it, and Guzma still hasn't internalized what Hala was trying to teach him, but in giving you his "lucky charm," he takes that first step.  We don't see what lies beyond that, but we see the first moments of reform, and the transition is believable because we've gotten justification in the scenes that are shown to us.  Had Lusamine come back late in SM post-game, and talked about how she’s considered changing, I’d buy it.  Had Guzma been shown, later on, to have come to accept his losses and is working toward improvement, I’d buy it.  I have been shown their tipping point, I have had the process shown to me, and we’re making progress.  That is believable and significant to me.

In USUM, they handle it very differently. Let's start Lusamine.  Lusamine's scenes are kept virtually the same, up until the very end of the Aether Paradise Invasion.  They keep the Nihilego thing (and then do nothing with it, oddly enough; what was the point of that now?), and more significantly, they keep her snapping at Lillie that she has no children.  Then, in the immediate scene after this, Lusamine is talking about how they're good kids and she's doing this to protect everything.  Which...okay, that's some strong whiplash.  From "You're both dead to me" to "You're good kids" in the span of under 3 minutes of gameplay.  Incredible.  Honestly I feel like that level of backpedaling on a character is enough to justify my distaste.

The next time you see her, she's being thrown back to your world by Necrozma and urges you to run.  You do not do this, and instead go to fight Necrozma. When you return, Lillie tells you she talked it out with her mom, and they're on good terms now.  Guzma gets the same problem.  They come back from their Necrozma trip, which we don't see, and he just states he gets what's going on and bam, reformed.  There's no struggle, no sense of reality to it. Essentially, there’s no follow-up.  The turning point is critical to show, but it’s also pretty important to show an act of good.  Maxie and Archie are a good example.  They return the orb.  It’s small, but it’s an act showing their change.  Imagine if they’d kept that and had the fossilized legend in their basement, and you all have a good laugh about something with another character while they held the orb and the legend was right behind them.  That’s what happened with Lusamine and the frozen Pokemon.  Her “thinking about letting them go” is not action; the problem still persists, and nothing she does at any point shows her to be any different.  She tells you she’s different.  She tells you she might let things go, or that she’s not going to control Lillie and Gladion’s life.  But there’s no presented action behind it.  SM may not have shown us the end of that process, but it leads us through the first steps in a way that's far more believable than what USUM presents.  USUM wants us to believe that they're beaten up, and suddenly now they're good.  For reasons!  If SM issue is "I don't see her change at the end," then USUM's problem is "I don't buy that she's actually changed."

To cap this off: "show, don't tell," as a concept, exists to state that the important details of your story need to be explicitly shown, rather than implicitly stated.  If we're told a major event happened but don't see it, it feels like we're cheated.  If a major change in a character occurred but we don't see it, it doesn't feel believable.  The critical aspect of a redemption arc isn't that they get to be good. That's the outcome at the end of the road.  The critical component is seeing the turning point.  When we see the turning point, it's easy to accept that a redemption has occurred or will occur, (ie, "when did you start becoming beautiful?").  In fact, stories sometimes use the demonstration of this turning point, followed by the villain not accepting it, in order to show how irredeemable someone is.  It's important to have that moment to establish the impact of a change, or the impact of a refusal to change.  Without being shown a turning point, a villain's redemption is now implicit.  We're left to just believe that the turning point occurred and that it was justifiable (ie, "We talked it out and it's fine now!").  One presents a situation in which, regardless of the villain's choice, that choice has meaning.  The other presents a situation in which no choice was made, things just happened.  I don't think I need to explain which one carries the emotional impact.

As a few miscellaneous points for the responses on the other posts, because I can’t not:

I commented that Lusamine is one of the most villainous villains not based on global impact, but on emotional impact.  It’s the same deal as the old Voldemort/Umbridge dichotomy.  Voldemort’s bad and a problem for everyone, but Umbridge is the evil you know all too well, so its portrayal is familiar and powerful.  Lusamine hits home in a way that most world-ending villains don’t, so I count her as one of the best villains in the series in that regard.

My problem with Rainbow Rocket isn’t that Giovanni leads, it’s that Giovanni is the only one with a point being there.  The others have no story influence.  Archie and Maxie literally state that Giovanni is just letting them stay there, and Cyrus just wants to go home.  Only Ghetsis has an alternate plan, but his is just jumping on Giovanni’s plan and hoping he can control Giovanni.  Everything hinges on Giovanni.  If you want a celebration of all villain teams, you could’ve easily made a post-game where Looker and Anabel team up with you to take down the Rainbow versions of each organization, which all have their own motives and stories.  Instead, they’re pushed into Giovanni’s without purpose and they all seriously feel neglected.

Necrozma is a problem for the same Voldemort/Umbridge reason above.  Necrozma has a more global impact, but no emotional impact.  It’s just a force of nature that’s a threat in its current state that you have to stop.  Going from a villain that is entirely emotional impact to something that’s just a nebulous enemy with no bearing on the people present feels like a downgrade.

Lusamine is 100% a damsel in distress in the post-game.  She’s unconscious, Giovanni’s trying to turn her into a mindless puppet, and your entire involvement is going in to save her.  She is, by literal definition, a damsel in distress.  And for your first female villain in the series, that’s...really bad.  Especially following SM.

However, I will concede that I hadn’t considered Guzma wanting to fight and beat down UBs as his own reward for tagging along with Lusamine.  So that was an interesting point to read.  I also can’t argue that many of their traits are different across games, but the issue isn’t the traits, it’s utilization of those characters that causes problems for me.

I will also concede that not getting to fight Mother Beast is the greatest disappointment of the century.  I was hoping they’d fix that by having Lusamine fuse with Nihilego to fist-fight Necrozma, but alas, they did not do that.

[0vvvv0]

chikicha replied to your post “time to get 1 (one) loveball: 3.5 hours, give or take i hate this”

Sometime after the DS games started coming out, I got a Gameboy Advanced SP specifically just so I could play my older games with a backlight, asfjdhakaldjsb. Once you start playing anything with a backlight, it's nearly impossible to go back to stuff without it, haha. Also, can't you just use HG/SS instead?

I’m using SS to catch the pokemon available there, but right now I’m making a horde of love balls to catch the legendaries available in US!

in SM you get one when you show oak in malie city an alola persianwhere in USUM you get that one, plus another one in heahea city when you show gamefreak a pokemon transferred from the silver/gold/crystal virtual console games!

hell, that one alone is already so much faster to get than the malie city one.  I think you can get it more or less as soon as you get to the second island, where malie city requires you to finish 2 islands plus the first visit to aether paradise.  it takes forever D:

[zchaotic]

Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 3, Lusamine

Finally, the third member of the Aether Family and the one that has the most different adaptations.

Lusamine; President of the Aether Foundation and the mother of Gladion and Lillie.

Contrary to how the adaptations seem, they kept one big thing about her intact. Being a lousy mother with some messed up priorities.

From Vanilla SM, we have the one most of the fanbase is familiar with... as a terrifying villain and an example of how NOT to write a tragic villain that we want to see have a turnaround.

Let us start with her backstory, that gets better explained in USUM in comparison. She was someone who inherited the Aether Foundation from her father, met a man named Mohn, found love and had two kids.

Lusamine, is someone who is all about giving love to others and being loved back. According to the backstory, she was someone who loved her family that much, but has a fixation on it.

 The desire to love and be loved becomes a key component into her downward spiral when her husband, Mohn, had an accident involving researching an Ultra Wormhole. The man was sucked into a wormhole, never to be seen again and left Lusamine with a member of the family gone, the only things that were left was a Cosmog and notes on Nihilego, the only clue she has in regarding to where Mohn is.

This... as Lillie said to us on Exeggutor Island, was around the point Lusamine changed... for the worse.

Lusamine became fixated on wanting to get Mohn back, to the point of trauma induced madness, where she blindly searched for ways to open the wormhole and look for him.

This resulted in Type:Null being created, a weapon made from several pokemon, to fight against the Beast beyond the wormhole, it came off as a failure and was frozen away. In addition, she started becoming more controlling of her kids due to what happened with Mohn, where she decided everything for them and never let them make their own choices.

She either continued to mess with the wormhole so much that eventually she encountered Nihilego in some way and got high on neurotoxins that turn her into her most warped, extreme self that only cared about Nihilego OR became so focused on researching wormholes to the point of obsession of where only the beasts matter... which makes things very confusing in the games since neither are explained very well.

What we gotten by the time the games plot started, was a woman that was putting on a friendly facade and only had one goal, get the Ultra Beasts. She was willing to manipulate, control and use everyone around her for her schemes, just to reach Nihilego. With no regard to the safety of others and her obsession with the beasts and beauty, lead to really disturbing implications that many... myself included, believed. Like dressing Lillie up as Nihilego, so she would resemble the only thing she cares about, the only thing worth of her “love”.

It gets worse when Lillie got taken to Aether Paradise, when Lusamine verbally tore at Lillie, saying she wasn’t pretty, that Lillie isn’t able to do anything on her own, among other horrid things. We see her with many pokemon that she froze as part of her collection, her screaming at Gladion and Lillie, saying that they stole from her and betrayed her.

Was callous in her treatment of Nebby when she used its power to open many wormholes to bring the Ultra Beasts over, while taunting Lillie over the fact that it might die. Had Guzma... a gang leader, under her thumb and willing to do what ever she says, because she gave praise to him and possible was only taking advantage of him, follow her into Ultra Space, to be with Nihilego.

To be blunt, Lusamine was a grade A cunt!

During you and Lillie’s journey, we were giving some dialogue from the girl that things were not always like this. That Lusamine wasn’t the big uncaring cunt we saw... and that was the only hint as to why we were going into Ultra Space to rescue Lusamine and Guzma.

The Beasts that were let out of Alola were a problem that was swept under the rug and apparently, the big reason Lillie wanted to go into Ultra Space was to tell Lusamine off.

Seemed to make sense after learning that Lusamine ditched Guzma to do her own thing... which resulted in the gang leader latched on by those things for a moment.

Lillie calling Lusamine out only set that crazy woman off into flinging more abusive language at Lillie and letting Nihilego latch onto her. Becoming the Mother Beast and try to kill you and Lillie, Nebby shot at Lusamine in the end, separated the two and all of a sudden Lusamine became nicer and gave Lillie some sweet words before falling into a coma. Lillie instantly forgave her mother for all that, dragged her and Guzma out of Ultra Space and later on, Lillie felt obligated to help Lusamine recover by going to Kanto. With hints that Lusamine still doesn’t know what she did wrong.

In the post game, we learn that Nihilego wasn’t much of a mind control venom, we have no good hints into when, if and how she got infected and then Gladion mentioned the backstory with Mohn. It was the wrong place and the wrong time in the story FOR this information.

Leaving many players to care little about wanting to see this woman recover/ rebuild her relationship with her kids and either A. Want her dead or B. are more concern of the many messed up things she did to her kids. In addition, it is pokemon, Lillie and Bill, WILL find a way to pull that recovery off and Lusamine would have gotten off way too easy despite her crap.

Very sloppy way to end a story and left no closure... despite being an effective villain and an accurate portrayal of an abusive parent.

Gamefreak end up becoming aware of this and in came USUM with its rewrite of her.

A similar if identical backstory came around and it brought more light into Lusamine as a character... and actual character instead of a villain.

Instead of being allowed to pursue Nihilego to the levels it did in SM, she encountered people from another world (The Ultra Recon Squad.) that told her about a pokemon called Necrozma, that would steal the light of Alola and bring about the apocalypse.

We have Lusamine delve into a messiah complex, believing that she is the one to go after Necrozma and protect everyone, despite still being a bitch to her kids.

For many fans, this created a backlash and to them... think it was butchery of her character... when really it isn’t.

This when you bring everything into context, reveals the real reason she was obsessed with the Ultra Wormhole and expand on the Lusamine we knew from the first game.

Lusamine was obsessed with revenge, revenge against Ultra Space and the Ultra Beasts for stealing Mohn away from her. This is the reason why she allowed Type:Full to happen, Faba created it as a way to appease to her, without her knowing and the woman caught wind of it.

So she allowed it to happen/ oversaw it as a way to have a tool of vengeance. But, Type:Full didn’t go accordingly and she had it frozen. This fits perfectly in the woman’s descent into madness, for vengeance is a very strong motivator to terrible things.

Because Lusamine lost Mohn from things that became beyond her control, she vowed to make sure she doesn’t lose anyone else, due to things beyond her control. Which is why she became a control freak to Gladion and Lillie, why she still has all those frozen pokemon, it wasn’t about keeping things beautiful/ because they were play things to her, it was about not wanting to lose those close to her.

Lusamine... still....went.... nuts!

This brings a different light to Lillie’s old look as I mentioned, it’s resemblance to Nihilego was nothing more than a coincidence... Nihilego has nothing to do the metaphor. Instead, the clothes are a metaphor to how overbearing Lusamine is to her kids. “Children would be all much happier if they’d only listen to the adults around them.” A quote from the bitch herself.

She actually thinks that she knows best and everyone who said otherwise are to shut up/ get out of her way. Which helps make things like Nihlego showing up at Aether Paradise through an Ultra Wormhole, make all the more sense despite her goals having nothing to do with Nihilego... why she needed the Cosmog despite the Ultra Recon Squad having another way into Ultra Space. Why did any of that needed to happen despite that.

She wanted to use HER Cosmog, to open a wormhole to Necrozma and go after it, despite the URS planning a more controllable approach. She wanted to channel her frustration out on it, look for Mohn and keep her self appointed image as a protector of all. This is very selfish, all her talk of protecting others was just that... talk to hide her truer.. darker motives. All of it is displayed in the main story this time when Gladion brought up Mohn.

Thankfully, due to Nihilego not being Lusamine’s central focus this time, we got to see what would have been if that was never the case. In USUM espite how messed up of a person Lusamine became and how messed up as a parent she became, she DOES care about her kids and the pokemon under her care. Which makes her bitterness towards her kids understandable... despite it still being her own damn fault they ran and how Lillie and Gladion had every right to run. She really was hurt by how they left her, she lost those she held dear and her reasons for battling you and going after Necrozma becomes even more fueled... she wanted to prove to those around her that she was right and they were wrong.

This makes her, even in her grief fueled insanity, much more human compared to the monster she was in SM. While she isn’t the caricature of an abusive parent she was in SM, she is more effective as a character in USUM because we see the bigger picture with what has happened to her.

Despite how Hau said “I know she was a good person” Gladion’s reaction should have been enough to tell us that he doesn’t believe that to be the case, he knows Lusamine became horrible BUT he does get why she is doing the things she is doing.

Why she became the bitch she was and why should we care for her having a turn around and making repairs with her kids.

She is someone we still want to slap hard in the face, for all the mega bitch things she pulled and is someone that would turn around for the better.

Her relationship with Guzma... still hasn’t changed much, but brings more into light that YES the things she said to give praise to Guzma were genuine... though she still took advantage of him. The URS and their request for help against Necrozma, an excuse to try and look for Mohn while hiding that selfish reason.

Then Lusamine and Guzma got their asses KICKED by Necrozma. Who followed them straight to an evolved Nebby, these two... agroo’d Necrozma to the last thing ANYONE wanted that thing to be near.

It created a chain of events that lead to things from the first game happening, Ultra Beasts being let loose and calamity nearing. Unlike in SM, there was a reason why the Beasts were ignored this time, Necrozma was the bigger issue for you the player, it took Nebby as its fused form and escaped into Ultra Megapololis.

While this was happening, Lusamine was at the mercy of a pissed of Recon Squad and to Lillie who had a few things to say to her. Lillie told us what it was at Vast Poni Canyon’s entrance and with Lusamine in a better position to listen to Lillie.

During the time between you going after and beating Necrozma... Lusamine listened to Lillie and have a realization into how messed up she was as a person. That is why she apologized to Lillie, admitting that her kids were right to take the two pokemon (Nebby and Null) and run away from her. As her first act of repentance... she tended to what was the Cosmog she hurt for her goals.

Her second act.... letting her kids go. She let Lillie go back to a healthier family environment... away from the toxicity she wrought, she let Gladion go off to Kanto... waving goodbye to him all the more. (I still find that scene heartwarming and... arguable better than when Lillie went on that boat due to all the implications fueling it.)

In between your initial league victory and Rainbow Rocket, Lusamine had a small identity crisis. She knows she isn’t in any position to face her kids after the crap she done to them and she knows she lost the right to claim she was protecting anyone, after all she had hurt... she realized how low she sunk.

Then RR came, she tried to fight Giovanni and got held hostage, with the Don intending on making her into his servant. She may have turned into a Damsel and not do much on screen... but this is generally how things go in Pokemon Games, where a former villain says they are going to change for the better and that is the end of it. (Looking at Archie and Maxie.)

Once RR came... she found a resolve of what to do, made a vow to protect pokemon and love her kids from a distance. That she knows her kids are not her possessions and that she would only be involved with them again if they need her. If you go back down to the Aether Labs after RR... you have an employee tell you that the frozen pokemon are scheduled to be thawed. I didn’t mind the frozen pokemon still being there after that bit of digging, because reality ensues, a mess like that is going to take a while to clean up.

Then a month later, Gladion visits you for title defense and then visits Lusamine for unknown reasons. (Signs that the relationship is being mended.) Mohn appears, the reason for Lusamine’s downward spiral and what she done everything for... he has amnesia due to being a faller and doesn’t recognize his own wife. Lusamine... despite the torrent that was going on in her mind, made it into a casual conversation and let him go back to his new life. Very likely because if Mohn knew what she done... it would have just made him miserable in the end. With Mohn himself making a possibility that he will meet her again.

Very bittersweet, very effective closure to the Aether Families drama. Anyone who says USUM butchered their story, botched Lusamine’s character or retconned her into a “good person” or “a selfless angel” disappoints me to a great degree since SM only focused on her as a villain never bothered with that closure. The only thing that was done in USUM that would be a concern is that the family lost focus for Necrozma’s story, thus we don’t get the same emotional weight compared to SM.

SM’s Lusamine was a beta... and effective villain, but not what Gamefreak wanted from her. USUM made her into a more fleshed out character at some exchange for her villainy and gave her closure that she needed!

Now begins the third... and arguable the one to surpass the other adaptations despite being the most different out of all the others.

The Sun and Moon anime.

In this adaptation, despite having similar things happen in the background.

Her obsession with the Beasts is more of a scientific curiosity, wanting to see one than the things we saw in the SM games.

She didn’t become an abusive parent and would sooner smoother her kids with affection (unwanted affection.) then any of the things we know of from either sets of games.

The incident with Mohn... resulted in her being so depressed that she uses work as a way to null the pain, rather than an obsession with wanting to open the wormhole and look for him.

Is an adorable goofball and is actually a good person.

Despite those changes to her character, she still has quite a few things wrong with her.

She does things the way she wants to do it, her affection towards Lillie was unwanted and she doesn’t get that. In addition, she never really socializes with her kids before making those big decisions in changes. (Like with Clefairy, despite it being her’s and despite Clefairy touching the moon stone willing, Lusamine should have asked Lillie if it was okay to do so.)

Her neglect towards her kids... regardless of work or otherwise is disturbing due to what she allowed to happen. The event that lead to Lillie’s trauma, to Gladion’s distrust AND to all of it festering for a while, in addition to Faba being able to do all sorts of things under her nose.

Her unwanted affection comes off as shallow because work ended up coming before her kids.

They took out the evil aspects of Lusamine’s character... but kept in everything else that was wrong with her, contrary to what many think.

This resulted in the Aether Family having such a strained relationship, why Lillie is so hostile towards her. It took until Gladion chewed Lusamine out, to get it through this woman’s head just how poor of a parent she was. She wasn’t really there for Lillie when she needed her and Gladion thought Lusamine was in on the things Faba has done.

It took Lusamine having to do much to repair that relationship and part of the thing that showed her development was at the episode where Faba used Nebby to open a wormhole and bring in Nihilego. The beast was about to attack Gladion and Lusamine pushed him out of the way to protect him.

For me, I smiled for two reasons and was horrified by another. Lusamine showed her development and showed that she cared that much for her kids... and that I was going to have my sadistic wish of having Nihilego turn her into something close to the nut job we had from the SM games.

And I wasn’t disappointed when we next see her, we the audience may have a reason to care that our heroes are trying to rescue Lusamine... but she was screaming at her kids and in her temper tantrum nearly killed them.

As the Mother Beast... Lusamine was reduced to something like a child that was having her toy taken away from her and made it easier for Nihilego to have her under its control. This is what Lillie verbally struck at the Mother Beast, giving Lusamine a sign that she really need to make improvements as a mother... that realization struck past Nihilego and caused the woman to reach out to Lillie... only for Nihilego to cover her up with her own hair and tried to swat Lillie.

Then Ash uses the Z move and zaps the jellyfish off of Lusamine.

She was rescued, brought back home and had a short recovery. Then she thought of the idea to form and be the mission control of the Ultra Guardians... a group of kids that had experience with dealing with UB’s that are to deal with them.

For the rest of the series... we see the Aether Family slowly make repairs to where it resembles and behaves like normal family. From the Necrozma Arc, to the school play episode and lately, the Mohn episode.

That one, we actually see Lusamine watching in despair at Mohn being dragged into an ultra wormhole. Where is this family going to go in the end?

This answer, might make the SM anime the best adaptation of this drama, in its focus, closure and how it made it relatable to us... despite also being the most different.

I honestly hope Gamefreak does better with their next antagonist and make them easy to understand. Lusamine was a complete mess initially and that caused a ripple in the adaptations we saw.

[zchaotic]

USUM, its Story’s message and how this intermingles with SM’s actual message.

A lot of people have the misconception that the message of SM is standing up to your abuser and taking life into your own hands. After all, the first half of that happens when Lillie called Lusamine out.

A lot of those people tend to willingly forget the reason that Lillie wanted to go into Ultra Space and the things that happened after that showdown.

Lillie’s real reason to go into Ultra Deep Sea was to save Lusamine from herself. The damage on Alola was already done, was ignored and all of Lillie’s growing self confident/ inspiration from you the trainer was more her taking life into her own hands.

After Lillie had Nebby separate Lusamine from Nihilego, that woman said a few pleasant words and Lillie... automatically forgiven her, decided to go to Kanto to help Lusamine recover and leave her newly found friends/ family to go back to her mother... who still didn’t understand what she did wrong. The fact that the only reason Lusamine didn’t go to your champions party was because she was sick and not... because she put everyone in danger and tried to kill you, makes all of it pretty creepy and wrong.

It is pokemon, Lillie and Bill ARE able to find a way to heal Lusamine. Sacred Ash’s are a thing and it is strong stuff.

Meaning that despite everything... Lusamine got off scott free for her actions, her and the whole of the Aether Foundation (As we seen in the post game.). The writers also forgotten about Gladion and he became acting president, running the very place he and Lillie were abused in. The very place he and Null wanted to leave forever. This was a grim conclusion for him, he wasn’t taking responsibility, he was just back in the hell he was in... because Wicke didn’t take the damn job herself.

As emotional as Lillie’s goodbye was, it botched its own supposed message of standing up to your abuser and taking life into your own hands. It undid a large chunk of her character growth, it left us with no real closure or hints that she was going to be fine considering how bleeping awful Lusamine was and now Lillie is back with her. This is a dangerous message for kids and the fact many players blocked this part out... disturbs me.

I think Gamefreak noticed this and changed things around in USUM... it was minor changes that contributed to a larger picture and contributed to giving out its message... what is to me, better.

The narrative shift and where the changes went to... was USUM’s attempt at becoming its own, despite running through the same beats as to SM. Lusamine had Mohn trauma, did horrible things in her attempt at keeping things the same/ refusing to let things go, Gladion got fed up with it, stole Type:Null... ran. Lusamine became more frantic and done things to the Cosmog, Lillie noticed... saw it as inexcusably wrong... stole it and ran.

This part was 3 months prior to the events of the games, before you came to Alola.

Like in SM, we see Lillie as a timid girl that wasn’t able to do much on her own, had anxiety for days, yet kept being inspired by the trainers around her... and you the new trainer who was accomplishing the impossible.

This... leads to a similar build on both games having a recurring theme. You having the strength to do something and having an influence on her and those around you. Much like how Hau was having an influence on Gladion, how Guzma was one to those around his grunts and putting the last one in a negative light, how Lusamine was a negative influence on her children. (Through years of neglect/ emotional abuse.)

When we reach Aether Paradise the second time, we are told and seen just the kind of crushing influence Lusamine had on her kids. How she was quick to tear down on her daughter for running off and going against her wishes... for thinking for herself. (Lusamine’s goal in USUM might be trying to beat Necrozma... but she was doing it her way, a way that did endanger Alola, she was someone who was doing it for her own reasons and that is what the Ultra Recon Squad got pissed off about when she went Leeroy Jenkins.)

This becomes more apparent when Lillie and Gladion’s pleas to her fell on the ears of someone who was thinking it was her way or the highway. She tried to battle you as a way to get her kids to shut up. Lillie was helpless once again in trying to do something to protect Nebby. (Grant it in SM, Gladion and Hau were part of a battle royal against many things and that scene was more crazy in comparison.) How Gladion was once again.... unable to do something to stop another one of his family from being lost into Ultra Space.

After which, you left Lillie alone to think things over. ...

The next day, Lillie cast aside her old clothes, her mother’s overbearing shadow and put on her Z Powered form. Accumulation of you and everyone from Alola inspiring her to make that next step towards becoming her own.

That is when you and Lillie take that journey to Poni Island, where you and Lillie have a goal in mind. Get Lusamine off her high horse and confront Necrozma as a unified force.

While I didn’t like how Exeggutor Island was removed, that scene can be put into its message of how you were inspiring Lillie. She remembers that sweet moment with her mother and came to the decision in becoming a trainer. I’ll get to where this went later.) The rest of the journey played out as is, Lillie had the confidence needed to face things that would have scared her before and the desire to face her mother again. All because you inspired her. In turn, you also inspired the Ultra Recon Squad into thinking that they really need to start fighting their own battles and are willing to work with you to deal with Necrozma.

Once you reach past Poni Canyon, the two of you blow the flute and evolve Nebby. The scene plays out like in SM and with the same spirit, Lillie wanting to confront her mother... in SM we got to see that among seeing Lillie use that inspiration to call her out. But note the things I mentioned that happened after.

In USUM... Necrozma punted Lusamine and Guzma out, ate Nebby and things go off the rails. The Ultra Recon Squad lend you the opposite of Nebby and you take the reigns of the legendary they were friends with. (Though it was stated the URS didn’t have real control over it, it was able to listen to a trainer with strong enough will power.)

You go off and be the hero once more... leaving Lillie and the URS to tear at Lusamine. This was off screen, but when you come back... you end up seeing the aftermath, Lillie... with her newfound strength, got Lusamine to have a change of heart... influencing that woman to change her ways. The mother and daughter have an understanding of each other.

It isn’t as emotional since we didn’t get to see the whole thing, but we see Lillie being able to begin a new start in her family relationship. After which, the mother and daughter go back to Aether Paradise to tend to Nebby.

This also brings Guzma’s quote to consideration, something that Hala tried to teach Guzma in SM’s post game. “Maybe if you bring out the best in others, you bring out the best in yourself.”

There you go! That is USUM’s message and to an extent, SM’s true message since you brought out the best of Lillie. I personally believe this message was better executed in USUM since it affected much more people and we got to see it stick.

Because it isn’t just you that was bringing out that. It becomes apparent during Mina’s trial when you next see Guzma.... you and Hau inspiring him to get his head out of his ass and make something of himself.

This becomes repeated when you see Gladion, who got inspired by you and Hau to find out just where real friendship can get ya. You see this in his Crobat, Lucario and Silvally.

You are then told to go to Mahalo trial where you meet Lillie... with a healed Nebby. She got more inspired to part ways with her friend, under more logical reasons... like helping Necrozma. Lillie became inspired and strong enough to let go of her past, to let Nebby go... much like in SM... only this is better executed due to where I am going to get to soon.

You and your strength also has an influence on even the Big Bad of USUM... Necrozma. You have the tools and the power... to ease his ever lasting pain, to hopefully... one day, restore him to his prime and possibly make a difference for the people of Ultra Megaopolis.

Necrozma took their light and they are stuck in something they didn’t want... but maybe in time, they will get a happy ending.

You find your influence comes again at the Pokemon League, where Hau got inspired by your constant beat downs of him to take things more seriously.

Seriously enough that he became the final boss. As a rival should have been. You brought out the best in Hau.

You beat him and the credits role, its all find and dandy, especially when you see Gladion go off to Kanto, he got inspired by watching you and Hau to find his own way to get stronger and protect those he held dear. It isn’t as emotional as Lillie’s goodbye... but that isn’t why it was so good, on his way out... he saw Lusamine showing up in the distance. He was initially scared of her being there... until he saw her waving goodbye to him, something affected Lusamine to give her a full change of heart.

In the post game, if you go to Aether Paradise and visit that woman before RR. She has an identity crisis, Necrozma kicking her ass and bringing havoc on Alola and the things Lillie said to her... gave her a self reflection of some kind. That she was god awful as a person, who is in no position to face anyone after the things she did, no position to be a mother to her children or to the pokemon she was suppose to care for.

She had this crisis in between the prelude to RR and the end of RR. Where she was going to come clean to the people of Alola and tell them what really happened and what was going to happen to prevent another Necrozma like incident from happening again. Then came RR and Lusamine in her stubbornness, tried to stop Giovanni and got knocked out... becoming a damsel of some way. This is karma at its finest due to how for most of USUM, (and a lesser extend SM where she was the big bad.) she was the one knocking other people down to do what ever she wants.

Then you the hero come in to get RR out of Alola. Lillie is there and unlike from before, the courage she gathered has given her the final step needed to her full blossoming. Into a trainer, she kicked a RR grunts butt and followed you to the castle. Where she was willing to fight with you against a treacherous Faba and an employee. Lillie sent out her Clefairy and if you know what you are doing, that Clefairy is SO good as a support. The two of you kicked Faba’s butt and go into the castle, despite how Lillie was still scared as hell in going against Team Rainbow Rocket. You and everyone’s influence... lead to moments like this.

You also get to see Guzma’s change of heart in full as he too helped you take on RR. Of course, Lillie has only started as a trainer, so reality ensues, this is as far as she can go in directly helping you and she waits in what was her mother’s room while you do the rest.

But that isn’t to say that this Lillie became a wimp again, she had enough balls to talk back against freaking Ghetsis... and got held hostage as a result. (Not that she was pleading.) In fact, Lillie’s presence in RR is a visual of the end result of her growth, she was more that willing to do her part in stopping RR and rescue her mother.

This... this is one of the highlights of Lillie’s growth in USUM. Being inspired to become strong and protect those close to her. (Much like what Gladion was doing and much like what Lusamine... attempted to do but went completely the wrong way to where it became abuse.)

Then you beat Giovanni, the day is saved and Lillie gives a cute confession to you the player. Much like in Exeggutor Island from SM and go back home.

Then comes the aftermath of RR. Where if you visit Aether Paradise... Lusamine has a resolve in what to do with her life. Vowing to love her kids from a distance without interfering with their lives. Those frozen pokemon that were there at the end of RR are scheduled to be thawed out.. Lusamine is making amends for those she had hurt. The things she had to say in title defense... showed that you and Lillie brought a change in her heart... enough that she gets... why you were able to make a difference in her kids lives. Enough that she understands her kids a bit more.

Then came a month later, where Gladion returns with his newfound strength and takes you on. All seems normal until you visit Aether Paradise again, where Lusamine meets Mohn again. It seems like a pleasant conversation, but Mohn doesn’t recognize his own wife... Lusamine is hiding her heart break and in a final sign of her growth... she lets Mohn go... lets the past go. This was the height of Lusamine’s growth in USUM, she learned to let go of the past and focus on becoming a better person.

Gladion being on better terms with his mother that he visits time and again, but still being let out to do things of his own. Shows that he and Silvally are inspired and free to do their own thing, no longer bound by the past.

Lillie, went back to Kukui and Burnet. You the player can visit her AND she becomes your partner in the Battle Tree... as one of the best supporters in that place. Which fits with Lillie’s character as someone who doesn’t want pokemon to get hurt and thus does everything possible to ease your pokemon’s pain. Lillie is on Alola with the new friends and family she made, living her life as a trainer. Because you the player.. along with those Lillie met... have inspired her to make that leap. To her... if you are able to do the impossible, then so can she.

“Maybe if you bring out the best in others, you bring out the best in yourself.” 

That is the message of USUM and the message SM tried to tell us.

The closure USUM gave, delivered this message in ways that SM didn’t when they had the story end where it should have continued.

It is pretty sad how so many of the fan base didn’t get that message in SM, thought it was something else (though to be fair it is an extension of that message.) and hate on USUM’s story for making the message more clear.

Even if USUM didn’t give us as much of those heart felt moments with Lillie. It delivered its message much more clear.

[zchaotic]

Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 1, Lillie.

I think I got the core of Lillie's character growth figured out. 

From both sets of games to the anime... it is about Lillie learning to make that first step into becoming a braver person.

For most of SM and USUM, Lillie was a timid person who could barely do anything by herself without having second thoughts. This stemmed from Lusamine being so much of a control freak to her and Gladion, making all the decisions for them and telling the two to just listen to the adults around them. (How extreme this was depends on the set... but it doesn’t matter much in the end when it is emotional abuse.)

Some time before the events of the game, Lillie saw what was being done to the Cosmog Nebby and found it so extreme, so wrong that the girl realized that her mother wasn’t sound in the mind.

So she took the Cosmog and ran, the girl wanting to help get Nebby back home and find the means necessary to do it.

That is when the Cosmog teleported Lillie out of Aether.

Out of that toxic environment and to the tropical region of Alola. Where two were cornered. Lillie found proper emotional support in Kukui and Burnet, individuals that allowed her to relax to the newfound freedom she obtained.

When you the player arrived, Lillie was slowly trying to break away from the lingering, over bearing shadow Lusamine had over her. That... is what her old look represented, the resemblance to Nihilego is just a coincidence since in USUM, Lusamine’s goals have nothing to do with that Ultra Beast despite everyone looking the same. The clothes themselves represent a past of a bound childhood.

Every time Lillie was trying to find a new look to suit her, was every time she tries to find the courage towards becoming independent. With you, Hau and everyone Lillie befriended inspiring her towards that.

To become a trainer, to become strong enough to fight her battles.

Then Team Skull came along to get the Cosmog while you were dealing with Guzma.

We the player raided Aether Paradise and through some dialogue from Gladion, figure out that Lusamine was a control freak to her kids... explaining why Gladion is trying to do things in his own way. Whether to stop Lusamine from endangering Alola and the family or to stop her from endangering herself. (USUM and Gladion’s motive to raise Null to its potential and prove that woman wrong.

When we confront Lusamine, we see why Lillie had so much self doubt. Lusamine talks down on Lillie for stealing her stuff and leaving, this woman really thinks that her kids should just shut up and let her take care of things (USUM) or think they are pests getting in her way to what ever she wants (SM).

Then you fight Lusamine for what ever reason. (In SM it was self defense since the crazy bitch was trying to kill you, in USUM... because the crazy bitch wanted to prove to her kids that she can manage Necrozma. “I’ll get to her in another time.”)

Nebby’s power got used in great lengths and it evolved into Cosmoem to survive.

Then the next day happened, after some thinking... Lillie changed her outfit to a more lively Z powered form. Finally making that big step out of her mother’s overbearing shadow, with a goal in mind... rescue Lusamine from her own stupid/ crazy shit.

During your trip to Poni Island, Lillie took more and more steps to facing her insecurities, things that would frighten her before and press forward. (USUM took out Exeggutor Island... BUT the things she said on that island went over to the RR episode in some way or form.)

Eventually reaching the altar and helping you evolve Nebby. Depending on the version, you and Lillie either go into Ultra Space to fight Lusamine... OR Necrozma kicked Lusamine’s (and Guzma’s) butt for you and causes everything to go off the rails.

In SM... Lillie chewed Lusamine out and the crazy bitch latched onto Nihilego in an attempt to kill the both of you. Then Lillie had Nebby blast Nihilego off of  Lusamine, the woman said some sweet words, Lillie forgives her... gives you Nebby right there because she wasn’t a trainer and made it her objective to help Lusamine recover... while saying she is going to become a trainer in Kanto. Yes these scenes are emotional... but it kind of undoes most of Lillie’s development towards the end, her standing up to her mother, only to go back to her in the end. We have no idea if that woman learned anything and for all we know, Lusamine would just go back to abusing Lillie again. No closure and if it was.. it is a pretty gritty ending that soured a good story and goes against the message that Children are not things that belong to their parents.

In USUM... because you the player had to deal with Necrozma... who ate Nebby and was stealing the light from Alola. Lillie’s chew up at Lusamine was off screen, but Lillie told us what she was going tell that woman at around Vast Poni Canyon.

Off screen, she called out a less crazed Lusamine out on her self entitled crap... that people are to help one another instead of trying to do things by themselves. (Like what Lusamine had been doing to her kids.)

We go back to that aftermath and we see Lusamine having a change of heart... knocked off her high horse by Necrozma and lectured by Lillie.

Admitting that her kids were right to go against her. To Lillie’s fortune, she saw her mother make the first big step to repentance... tending to what was the Cosmog. (Lusamine making repentance towards Nebby.)

This isn’t as focused as SM... but this is a good trade off.

Lillie only went back to Aether Paradise to help Nebby recover, while you the player finish up the last grand trial.

Gladion tells you to go to Mahalo trial when you beat him.

Where you find Lillie and Nebby... in the place you all first met. Lillie says her goodbyes to Nebby and promised it that she will become stronger. While Lillie doesn’t go to Kanto, she does stay with Kukui and Burnet. It isn’t as emotional, but it makes me feel happy that she is showing her growth and is in a happier environment.

As well as becoming a trainer and beginning her biggest step towards something. Which is seen in RR when Lillie becomes a trainer, it is a Clefairy and the only reason it is high leveled is because of your point in the game.

Lillie is a support trainer... which fits her character perfectly. Speaking of courage, she was willing to help you fight RR... kick a grunts butt and even help you in battling Faba. She is starting out as a trainer, so of course once that happens... you the player have to manage the rest while Lillie takes the role of healing your pokemon when needed. Some might find this disappointing, but this is reality... she started off as a trainer and she isn’t as tough as you yet.

In addition, after RR she offers to become your partner for the Battle Tree... and is one of the best supporters in that whole place.

Even if USUM isn’t as focused on her or as emotional this is good closure for one of Gamefreak’s best characters and those who said this game butchers, her story, when it really didn’t, can go take a hike.

Now for the anime. Lillie’s backstory is different compared to the games. Lusamine isn’t an abusive control freak and instead is kind of a goofy mother that smoothers Lillie in affection the first chance she gets. Treating her daughter like a baby.

She is pretty god damn neglectful and is way too childish that problems arise between her and her kids.

. In addition, Lillie is still a girl that hasn’t seen much of the outside world... so she comes off as timid and awkward.

Lillie had PTSD from being attacked by a Nihilego and ever since, she had a fear of touching pokemon. For most of the first season, Lillie slowly tries to overcome that trauma and as part of school therapy, she bonds with an Alolan Vulpix that hatched from an egg.

Snowy.

We see Lillie try to overcome that trauma piece by piece, from bonding with that Vulpix, Ash’s Pikachu AND riding on a Stoutland.

Throughout Season 1, we were also giving hints that more was to this trauma and Gladion is trying to take matters into his own hands to protect his sister. This doesn’t get revealed until the Aether Arc. (One of my Favorite Story arcs.)

Unlike the games, where Lillie was scared of Lusamine... in the anime, Lillie wasn’t scared of telling this woman off for doing things her way... like evolving Clefairy without telling anyone.

While the Clefairy Lillie cared about was Lusamine’s... that woman should have asked her kids if it was okay.

In addition, we have a pretty strained relationship between the family... because Lusamine wasn’t never really there for her kids... especially when Lillie got traumatized and that woman never bothered questioning how it happened.

We are drawn into how more of this happened and Gladion explained to Ash how Lillie’s Trauma happened. Then a Cosmog Ash was taking care of (Nebby) teleported Lillie to Type:Null... who was apart of that trauma and it caused a regression that was SO bad that Lillie didn’t even want Snowy with her. In Lillie’s eyes... Type:Full tried to attack her.

Desperate to overcome that regression, Lillie... with Ash and Nebby, retraced her steps bit by bit... to hopefully regain those memories and understand what happened. Now for those with PTSD... this is probably a bad idea if the person suffering from it doesn’t want to remember it, in this case Lillie does want to remember... as scary as it might be.

Eventually the teleporting leads to the Aether Lab... where Faba wanted to keep the incident a secret if to save his own hide. The bastard took Lillie and tried to erase her memories, which resulted in Gladion coming in with his Type:Null... that broke his helmet and kicked butt as a Silvally, to rescue Lillie.

There... she remembers what happened, she remembered what happened... she remembered Silvally pouncing on the Nihilego that caused her so much pain.

With that mystery clicked... Lillie started being more open to touching pokemon and she relished every fun moment now her phobia is gone.

Then Faba came along, took Nebby and caused a chain of events that lead to Lillie and her family meeting Nihilego again. That pokemon... caused Lillie’s fear to surface, through that event... the thing nabbed Lusamine and went into Ultra Space with her.

More trauma and leading to the girl finding a new goal... to rescue her Mother from the Ultra Beast.

That is when she takes on her Z powered form, the meaning behind the clothes is a BIT different, her stepping out of her sheltered world in an attempt to become more braze... instead of taking life into her own hands.

With this courage, she and Gladion went off to Poni Island and the alter to rescue their mother. She also helped her brother over come a Totem Kommo-o during this journey.

Once they reached the alter, Ash and the others came by to lend their supporting hand. The Tapus come and Ash brought Nebby... where the evolution end up happening and they all go into Ultra Deep Sea.

The world of Nihilego... where Lillie and the group found Mother Beast Lusamine... who thanks to the venom now drugging her out of her skull is acting like a child. She shouts out pretty harsh things to her kids and in her rampage, nearly kills them when she tries to run from them.

Along the way, the Mother Beast sends out her Pokemon against the class mates. Most keeping them at bay, with the final pokemon our heroes having to confront, being Clefable... a pokemon Lillie has a close bond with.

Even if it is a pacifist way, Lillie had the guts to try and snap Clefable out of the mother beasts control with... a pretty sappy I love you speech and a hug. (Dangerous as hell... but it worked.)

Then she, Clefable, Ash and Gladion reached the Mother Beast into a corner... where Lillie had a different choice of words to the Mother Beast. A chewing at Lusamine for her neglectful behavior, for treating Lillie like a baby and turning around to act like a bigger one. For letting work and that desire to see a UB take priority over her kids... and becoming a puppet for the UB.

That speech... worked on snapping Lusamine out of the haze... but then Nihilego took control and tried to swat Lillie. Then comes Ash using that 10,000,000 volt Z move out of nowhere and knocking Nihilego off of Lusamine.

The heroes rescue Lusamine, go home and... even if Lillie changed back to her old look, she had pretty good development to where she isn’t the same timid wreck she was. (Remember, Lusamine isn’t a control freak in the anime... the clothes have a different meaning and Lillie doesn’t have a reason to toss it out when there isn’t a symbol of an overbearing shadow.)

While Lillie is a try hard that over does herself from this point forward, she ends up taking more steps to becoming more mature and braver. (Including being part of the Ultra Guardians and dealing with more UB’s...being willing to do that as well.) Like fighting a Tyranitar that was terrorizing a group of Alolan Sandshrew, she and her Vulpix helped the Alpha shrew fight back... drive Tyranitar out and in exchange, got an Icium Z and an ice stone. Showing that more is going to be done.

As of now, she and Gladion want to look for their missing father... Mohn.

That girl is taking another big step in trying to help... by finding a way to restore a Magearna’s soul heart and becoming stronger so she CAN do something to get him back... to give her family that needed closure. This... is becoming something that might surpass the way the games told this families story if it plays its cards right. We just need to wait and see.

Lillie becoming brave enough to face this big obstacle, for the sake of her family.

[zchaotic]

Finished my US Mono Fairy Type Run. Now it is time to review.

I just beaten Giovanni and ended RR.

Replaying the Ultra Games have given me a pretty good perspective on Gen 7′s Alola games.

The Ultra games are as their names implied, better versions of SM in every aspect to me. Keep reading if you are interested.

The Pro’s. The Story changes.

Lillie’s arc may have not been given as much focus as SM. But it dawned on me what her story really was. It wasn’t about an abused child standing up to her abuser. It was about a timid girl being inspired by those around her to become brave enough to protect those close to her and to become strong enough to do it. That is what her Z Powered Form represents, her getting over those doubts and anxieties, becoming her own while she takes on the world.

That is why she wanted to save her mother in SM. To try and save that woman from herself. I personally believe that Lillie’s arc, while losing some of that focus from SM, had a better trade off in USUM due to how it ends, instead of Lillie going to Kanto to help Lusamine recover and essentially going back to her.

Through out both games, Lillie kept admiring trainers for the things they do and breaks out of that shell. Once we get to the end of the Necrozma plot, Lillie settled things with Lusamine and only went to Aether Paradise with that woman to see Nebby recover. Once that happens, the two parted ways and if you go to Mahalo Trial after beating Gladion, we see Lillie do the last thing needed before becoming a trainer, giving the same emotional goodbye to Nebby.

Once you beat the league and start RR. We see Lillie at the start of her carrier as a pokemon trainer. Kicking a grunts butt and fighting along side you. She becomes for feisty even against freaking Ghetsis and for those picky about Lillie’s confession at Exeggutor Island, that girl has what is pretty much the same confession towards you at the end of RR.

In addition, Lillie’s story ends with her living with Kukui, at a more healthier environment and her wanting to become you Battle Tree Partner.

Gladion’s motives are more fleshed out in USUM, with him stealing Type:Null and running to A. Get away from Lusamine and Aether Paradise due to the toxic controlling environment... much like in SM. And B. So he can become strong enough to protect those close to him once the moment is needed. To keep his family from falling apart more than it already had.

The change between SM and USUM doesn’t hurt his arc and dare I say USUM is a bit more realistic in this regard.

I also liked how his story ends in USUM compared to SM. In SM, he was forced in an adult position in the place he was abused in and wanted nothing more to do with. Because a certain adult close to him couldn’t take the job herself.

In USUM however, because Lusamine didn’t get sick, he got more freedom for the next step of his arc. To get more of that strength, he went to Kanto this time... had a pretty cute goodbye to his reforming mother and spend a whole month training. He comes back in a month with a full team of six and is the toughest of the title defense matches in USUM. He is needed to trigger the games true ending.

Finally, the seemingly biggest change in USUM’s story.... Lusamine.

I liked the changes to her character. In SM we had no reason to care about her, she was an unrepentant cunt and the hints that she wasn’t always that horrible came from the mouths of other characters. We got a good villain, but the bigger picture of her was written very badly.

In USUM. We still have Lusamine go nuts due to trauma from Mohn’s disappearance and as a result of her not wanting to let things go, became more controlling of her kids and obsessed over the Ultra Wormhole and the things beyond to try and get Mohn back.

This resulted in her allowing and doing messed up stuff in her desire for vengeance. Including allowing the creation of Type:Null and being willing to have Nebby go through all sorts of horrible stuff. Gladion was the first to find out about this, took Null and left. Which resulted in Lusamine being more grief stricken and while not mentioned in USUM, resulted in her becoming more controlling over Lillie.

Eventually, Lillie couldn’t stand Nebby’s suffering, stole it and ran.

Leaving Lusamine alone and with nothing left... in SM this resulted in her becoming focused solely on the wormhole and the only beast that she has clues on. Nihilego. But in USUM, something changed in the ripple that prevented her from getting to the levels seen in SM. The Ultra Recon Squad showed up and went to the Aether Foundation for help on their problems, they told this woman about the beasts and about something for her to focus her objections on... Necrozma.

In USUM, we see Lusamine as someone who develops a messiah complex. If she can go beat Necrozma, she would live up to her position as a protector of pokemon and people along with having the resources needed to find Mohn. She still has Mohn as an objective in mind, but she is still pretty crazy due to how she was conducting reckless things with Ultra Wormholes. (The point of the scene in Aether Paradise in USUM.) Froze her pokemon. (Not wanting to lose those close to her.) and was bitter/ nasty to her kids when it was time to confront her.

Lillie is scared of Nebby getting killed with little she can do about it and Gladion is more scared due to how if Lusamine crosses that wormhole, the family will likely lose another parent. But this woman is so stuck up in her ambitions that she refused to listen to her kids and do it anyways.

This is pretty real in broken families where the adult acts like it is their way or the highway and those not them are to shut up.

In USUM, Lusamine is still a horrible person... but it actually gives her some onscreen humanity. While she is less scary of a villain compared to SM, she is better as an actual character in USUM. A woman who has gone off the deep end in her ambitions to get a loved one back and keep the family together, but is so blind in how she done it that her kids ended up suffering.

This was always what Gamefreak intended to make with her Character. But they messed up badly in SM and instead created a caricature of an abusive parent. This one was so chilling in that regard that the fanbase are often only seeing that aspect of her character and believing that is the intention of her character. An abusive parent to get toppled over.

This is why the fanbase are not a fan of USUM’s Lusamine, who is made more human and have more going for her that people are confused in figuring out whether or not she is evil and even more, this version of Lusamine shattered the fanbases head canons on what kind of person this woman was. People don’t want to admit they are wrong and instead lash out.

Especially towards the end of USUM where Lusamine got curb stomped by Necrozma and had a heart to heart talk with Lillie while you were busy. Lillie told is at Vast Poni Canyon what she wanted to tell Lusamine about.

"The president... My mother is— She's selfish. She decides all by herself what she thinks needs to be done to make other people happy, not even caring what it is they may want... But people ought to help one another out! That is what I have learned here in Alola! And that is what I'm going to teach her, too.”

This combined with Necrozma knocking Lusamine off her high horse, gave this woman a self reflection and realization on what she was doing and started her turn around for the better.

Apologizing to Lillie by admitting the girl was right to take Nebby and run. (Admitting that Gladion was right to do the same with Null.) Making it up to Nebby by tending to it with Lillie. Then letting the girl go off back to Kukui’s

Making it up to Gladion by seeing him off when he went to Kanto...

Letting her kids go, is the first major step to Lusamine making it up to her kids.

Then in between the Champion ending and RR, she has an identity crisis from the realization of how awful she was. This gets resolved after RR when she vowed to love her kids from a distance, without interfering with their lives anymore. All the while, trying to understand her kids better.

After RR, you find that same employee who talked about the frozen pokemon and we got implications that Lusamine is having those ready to be thawed.

Then once Gladion comes back, we got a scene where Lusamine meets an amnesic Mohn. Knowing that the man would be hurt for the rest of his life if he knows the things his wife has done for him, along with the new life he has... Lusamine treats it like an ordinary conversation and lets him go off to his life. Letting... Mohn...go.

This is pretty good character development despite how the juicy bits of her turn around happen after the main story is over and how you have to really look to get it.

I appreciate the closure and resolution of this family in USUM since SM ended this story very messily when it should have continued.

While I give a lot of praise to this portion of the story, other character like Hau are more fleshed out. Mina’s trial gave a bit more world building to the Captains. The Ultra Warp Ride in itself is good lore on the UB’s, for we see their world and learn more about them. We also know more about Z Power and where it all comes from.

Alola’s lore was expanded upon in this game.

We also get to see Guzma go through a redemption arc in RR and all the good that came out of it. Colress got to contribute more in the main story as the guy who helps with Necrozma.

Don’t even get me started on Rainbow Rocket. That is where we see Lillie’s grow into a trainer, fight past villains, see more from Colress and Guzma, along with adding into the concept of alternate realities. It was a better post game than SM in every aspect.

Con. What was added into the story and how it affected the changes.

However, there is a few things story wise that I would say are striking flaws.

Before anything, this is still mostly the same story as SM and it doesn’t change drastically until the end of your second visit to Aether Paradise. Like most third games, it is going to take a while before you get to the biggest changes. If you didn’t like what was in the base games... you are not going to like what is in this game.

The new characters added to the plot, the URS... their deeds are mostly background and they don’t do much besides build up on Necrozma. Sometimes appearing in places that they are not needed.

The things they do add does make sense in changing the story from SM. (It is established they only used their Solgaleo and Lunala for travel. If they used them for Necrozma, they would have their way to get help eaten and as explained, it causes Necrozma even more pain. They let Lusamine use Nebby because they need a safer way to send trainers over to confront Necrozma.... but then Lusamine went Leeroy on them.)

But they themselves... could have been done better. In addition, Necrozma served more as a looming threat that motivated the actions of the regions villain teams and their goals. Rather than a looming threat that could have been used much better to give the urgency and doom. He showed that the URS and those scared of him were NOT wrong to be scared of him, but that is all at the climax. Poor build up, but amazing pay off.

Even more, Lillie and the narrative focus on her lessened when you go fight Necrozma. Exeggutor Island was removed, though I get the reasons. Lusamine being less of a bitch and Lillie’s scene at the end of RR made it redundant. This along with Lillie calling her mother out off screen made some moments with her weaker compared to SM. (It isn’t any worse than how Lillie and Lusamine resolved things in SM though. Where Lusamine recovered somewhat and Lillie was eager to not only forgive her... when it wasn’t earned, but go to Kanto to help her recover.)  Even though I believe the things that happened with Lillie after Necrozma more than made up for it.

Some would come to conclusions and say this cost Lillie her character development... the thing that made SM’s story good. But personally, it didn’t really hurt her development, it just lost focus and we got our pay off to the build up in the post game.

However, if you liked Looker, Anabel and Nanu... those three got the shaft completely due to their post game story being cut out for Rainbow Rocket.

Pro. The Gameplay.

USUM added a lot into the game compared to the bare bone SM game.

With Mantine Surf, the Photo Club, Ultra Warp Ride, quality of life changes, (move tutors.) more pokemon and the SOS system being more controllable. You will be picking up Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon over Sun and Moon in a heart beat, just for these things.

The battles are more challenging compared to SM, the Totem Pokemon were better realized as actual bosses and Ultra Necrozma is the highlight of your main campaign.

Not to mention Rainbow Rocket and all the joys I got out of playing that. This is the game to play if you want to do challenge runs... like a Mono type run or others. It feels satisfying to beat the game and see the closure to our characters stories. Not to mention all the side quests and visuals that make Alola feel more alive as a region and not die over when you finish the game.

Con. What stuck from SM in a gameplay perspective.

Unfortunately, USUM didn’t fix all the issues from SM. Multi Battles are laggy, Festival Plaza stinks and with how many cut scenes are in this game still, it is going to be a while before you can actually play the game.

In addition, Alola is a linear in its pathway and what you fight still. If you just played SM... you are going to get bored really quick. In addition, the focus on Gen 1 is going to get old here as well.

Final Verdict.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are the last games in the handheld era and Gamefreak did a fantastic job in making this game a hurrah.

With most of what made SM good going over into these games, getting polished out and turned into a funner game, I strongly recommend getting it while holding yourself over for Sword and Shield.

It has fantastic battles, an amazing sense of closure to the characters from Sun and Moon you came to know and love. (Lillie is my favorite of this generation and I hope to see her again with more development as a trainer.)

It hits a lot of good beats for me and I am still rather shocked that people give so much bile to what these games have to offer. The changes to the Story were not bad in the slightest, it isn’t perfect but we have a lot of good trade offs to what we did lose from SM. (Example. Lillie’s two big moments are either moved over to RR or provide a better resolution to her story arc.)

The games give a good challenge for anyone who are fans to the series and it makes Alola stand out as a region.

I honestly hope Sword and Shield is able to continue where these games leave off. Maybe give us a story that is built by exploring Galar and still giving us a challenge with a wide variety of pokemon.

[theviolenttomboy]

This month’s SM summary, courtesy of Coronis!

En unleashes Inferno Overdrive, and rams into Type: Null (interesting how it appears to be physical when it's supposed to be powering up Ember). The attack sends Gladion flying and crashing, and Sun himself stumbles backwards. Kiawe compliments on the successful Z Move,and Moon notices that Type: Null's helmet is starting to crack from the powerful impact. Seeing this, Gladion hurriedly retrieves Type: Null to send out Porygon instead. Sun calls for another Inferno Overdrive from En, but En only puffs out an Ember which is even weaker than usual, and gets knocked back by Porygon's Psybeam. Gladion mocks at the Z Moves, which take a toll on the user's body and can't even knock out an opponent. Sun furiously states that Gladion is just being bitter, and says he had to call back Type: Null in fear. Gladion counters that Sun should thank him for retrieving Null or he wouldn't want to see what happens if its helmet shatters. Moon recalls the conversation Nanu had with Gladion at the Festival, about the helmet being a restrainer, and steps up to state that she believes Gladion isn't simply being bitter, much to Sun's annoyance. Moon asks to at least heal Tapu Lele's wounds before Gladion takes it away, but Gladion decides to ask about the battle Moon witnessed between Tapu Lele and Xurkitree. Moon recalls how the mysterious creature one-sidedly controlled the battle, and also mentions her failure to capture it. Hearing that, Gladion decides that Tapu Lele is of no use to him, since it is too weak. He mocks how it fled from the battle with Xurkitree back to its lair, and didn't even put up a fight when he tried to catch it. He thinks it is a joke that it is regarded as a guardian. To thank Moon for granting him a break, he decides to tell her that the opening in the sky is an exit but not an opening, and Sun argues that it makes no difference. Gladion tells him to use his head, and Moon realizes that one can only come out but not enter via the opening. Gladion also mentions the portal can only be severed from the other side but not their side. He then leaves and Sun tries to give chase, but is stopped by Kiawe and Kahili, the latter believing that Gladion is shouldering the impending crisis of Alola on his shoulders alone. Sun is hardly polite towards Kahili, and Kiawe introduces her as a prominent trainer on top of golfer in Alola. Just then, Tapu Lele emerges from its cocoon state, and Moon urges him to do the delivery. Sun asks for a signature, which Moon states Tapu Lele clearly can't, and after the guardian consumesthe Mirage Berry, its health is restored, and it also showers everyone with its healing scales. Moon then asks Tapu Lele if Xurkitree was the reason behind its anger, and the guardian replies by activating a Psychic Terrain with its ability. Kahili realizes it is testing their strength, and Sun, Moon, Kiawe and Kahili team up to fight. Unfortunately, Tapu Lele is overwhelmingly strong, and Kiawe couldn't start to imagine how strong Xurkitree must be if it could overpower Tapu Lele. Sun, unwilling to give up since it is taking up his work time, forces on and En evolves into a Torracat, swinging out a blast of flames which manage to hit Tapu Lele. Apparently contented, Tapu Lele flies off, and Moon thinks they have gained its trust like they did with Tapu Koko. Moon ponders on Gladion's words, and wonders who might have opened the portal from the other side. Sun thinks of the Rotom-dex, and wonders if it can help them communicate with Pokemon. He mocks that it is easily knocked out by Xurkitree, but Rotom-dex kicks his face in reflex as he wakes up and suddenly mutters the name 'Necrozma'. Meanwhile, at Aether Paradise, Aether Foundation have invited residents to help them advertise their organization, giving them souvenirs afterwards. The staff in charge (who looks awfully similar to Cedric Juniper's face) sees the arrival of their President, Lusamine, who is happy that things are going well. Back on Akala, Mallow and Lana have defeated the Skull Grunts, and the group reunites before setting off. At that moment, Dollar seems intrigued by the Memorial Hill, and pops out from its Pokeball to look around the burial site of the Alolan royalty...

[zchaotic]

Fixing The Story of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

Just to put this out of the way. I like the story of both SM and the enhanced games.

SM was mostly Lillie’s story and the focus was amazing along with good moments. BUT everyone else not a major part of the story kind of got the shaft and we got an ending that undoes most of Lillie’s development. (She went from “I’m sick of you, you are terrible” at her bitch of a mother... to going to back to said mother with no visible signs that said mother is going to change and leaving her new friends and family under... illogical reasons.)

Gladion got screwed over as well and the story ended without closure.

So when USUM actually gave that closure among other things I liked, (Humanizing Lusamine, expanding a bit on Gladion, giving Guzma a redemption arc, giving you better agency and giving the Aether Family a better ending.) I started... and still do, prefer USUM’s story and most of its changes from SM.

BUT there are a few things in USUM’s story I do consider flaws and I can get some aspects of the.... popular opinion and say that some aspects of USUM’s story is weaker than the base game. That does not mean USUM ruined the story, ruined Lillie’s Arc... or anything like that, it is blowing the flaws out of the proportion and most of the people who say this, don’t really do their research and are being biased over it.

This is a few things I personally would have done to USUM’s story.

1. The Ultra Recon Squad and the inclusion of Necrozma.

I liked the concept of these guys, I liked how Necrozma was added into the story and I liked the concept with how he was used.

They are responsible for the slight shift in the story and for the big climax we gotten. Least in the background.

The problem though is the URS do not do much onscreen besides foreshadow Necrozma and the big bad himself is mostly a looming threat that doesn’t appear until the very end and causes things to actually be at stake that you the player have an agency over. He himself... is done and over rather quickly.

For most of USUM, you are playing the same story.

What should have been done in my opinion is that the Ultra Recon Squad do more as antagonists. Have them study more, have us see that study, have us see them interact with more characters and even show us that they are taking small steps to actually being trainers. While leading to us earning the right to ride on their legendary... with more hints to them having it and explanation to why they didn’t use it earlier... just so it won’t come off as awkward.

That would have made them stick out more than how they were actually played.

As for Necrozma, I would keep him the looming threat, but I would put more emphasis on that looming threat. More frequent eclipses, more sense of panic and it does make you think that SOMEONE needs to do something about him. Where when others without the strength or heart to fight him falter... you the hero... step in to set things right.

It would also help if the game hints why Necrozma eating the sun is a BAD thing and why Alola wouldn’t be as lucky as Ultra Megaopolis in comparison. A lot of kids wouldn’t get that and they should know.

2. Changes in Lusamine.

As I said, I liked how USUM humanized her, I liked her turnaround after everything is said and done. I liked the closure she and her family gotten. But her spoken motives caused a LOT of confusion to the community and they rush to conclusions that, saving Alola/ her kids was her goal... when it wasn’t.

She wanted her kids to shut up as she go do the reckless thing she was doing and through out the game, you see that she is doing reckless things that might endanger everyone.

This gets hinted at when you first meet her at Aether Paradise, when the wormhole opened up and let Nihilego through. Instead of a foreshadowing of an obsession, here it is a foreshadowing of her recklessness... that gets amplified more later in the story. She flat out tells you what happened and she thinks all of this will work towards “stopping Necrozma and saving the light.”

This gets shown later on that she is STILL nuts. Nuts from grief of what happened to her husband Mohn and how she obsessed with trying to get him back. It was hinted at that finding Mohn was her real goal for using Nebby to open the Ultra Wormhole, along with her wanting to feed her ego.

But it is speculated and mentioned by Gladion, so it is easy to miss that.

What I would have done is put more emphasis on that goal. Finding Mohn, as the argument escalated, you see more cracks in her facade as Gladion mentioned him and we see more of Lusamine trying to cover that part up. When you beat her the first time, that is when you see her mentioning Mohn right before she goes use Nebby. A sign that she isn’t well in the head and her going after Necrozma is a BAD idea.

Another thing I would do with the Aether Family as a whole... much like how Faba and Type:Null got expanded if you look around. You get to look around Lusamine’s stuff and better hints as to what happened with the family behind closed doors.

Something that the Gen 7 manga has done in one image... that cleared up a plot hole with Lillie’s dress and puts more emphasis as to WHY Lusamine became that much of a control freak

We are given something like this. In USUM, Lusamine’s goals had nothing to do with Nihilego or the Ultra Beast... yet Lillie still has that same look that kind of resembles the jellyfish. This image... rather than the implications being marked as a plot hole... or speculated by nerds like to me to be something else. Would prove that the look was NOTHING more than a coincidence and the control freak behavior came from Lusamine NOT wanting to let things go, to never let things change... an image of how things were from before Mohn disappeared. Her treatment of her kids from after the incident... becoming like a lesser version of what she did with all those frozen pokemon.

This would have answered so much and show the intended idea that the family was NOT always like what you see in the present day... that something did happen that caused things to fall apart and why.

It would have kept the family as a bigger focus, rather than losing focus and people assuming the worst.

3. Lillie’s focus.

Speaking of which, Lillie’s Character arc in USUM was perfectly fine for what it is. It was slightly changed in course due to Necrozma going on, but most of her development was the same as in SM.

To say USUM ruined her arc because of that different course or Humanizing Lusamine is foolish and narrow minded when that isn’t what really happened. She and her family gotten something SM did not give... closure.

Lillie got to become a trainer in the end, with the intention on becoming stronger so she can better protect those she cares about... to prevent things like... her having to hide and let you do the work for her.

The problem though is while Lillie had more moments in SM that was good at detailing her story, she had less in USUM.

Two of the moments that come to mind was Exeggutor Island... the other is while you were fighting Necrozma and Lillie calling her mother out on her crap.

She does not come with you to Exeggutor island in USUM and you do not have that moment with her. She still says the same stuff she would have said later on. From her deciding on becoming a trainer, to her confessing/ hinting her feelings to her. But they are not quite the same as it all happening in one moment.

This change is obvious, she still comes with you and watches you take out the Pinsirs... while you have the moment in the cave. But some of the things she says later on the game.... shortens the scene. She still talks about that moment she had with her mother and things get slightly altered to where it is Lillie talking about the fact that her whole family is broken... rather than just painting Lusamine as THE bad guy. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and you still get that moment.

Next... while you look for Necrozma/ try to battle him again. You see bits and pieces of Lillie calling Lusamine out on the things she has done. The things Lillie implied back at the entrance to vast poni canyon come into fruition here, rather than just being implications.

With Lillie using Lusamine’s reckless actions to point out WHY the climax is happening. Using the control freak behavior as an example to why Lusamine’s “affections” had hurt more people than help them and explaining Nebby’s situation as an example to who this woman has hurt in the long run for her goals. (If it wasn’t for Lusamine, Nebby would have never gotten eaten.)

We see the moments... where Lusamine stands there and takes it... while we see Lillie crack in the under shell and we have the woman explain to her daughter... why she was really doing what she was doing. Lillie understanding that much and still holding firm that it doesn’t excuse the behavior. It... helps even things out since Necrozma is likely to kick your ass and if you tried to farm Ultra Space wilds like I have... it would make the juicy bits MORE known.

About as much focus is given on the family while Necrozma is going on... rather than the focus being taken away.

In addition, things like Lusamine knowing she is in no position to call herself a mother and admitting it... isn’t so easy to miss.

It would clear up a lot of confusion, allow USUM to have gone a route much like it did in what we gotten and further more, gives more emphasis on the resolution. Instead of... making it easy to miss.

It might have resulted in less trade offs and people wouldn’t have mind so much. “Or they would since it is still making Lusamine sympathetic and shattering all the head canons they had from SM. Along with going a route beyond what happened from SM.”

Hopes that SW/SH’s story is decent.

[zchaotic]

Decent story telling deciphering. Episode 2 Gladion.

Now begins the other Aether Sibling, the one that fewer in the fanbase talk about.

The older brother of Lillie that stole Type:Null, ran away and was out on his own for two years. The foil to the more easy going Hau.

Much like with Lillie, Gladion had to deal with Lusamine’s control freak abuse for some time and discovered of an experimental pokemon the Aether Foundation created under Lusamine’s approval. Type:Full... or Null, a bioweapon designed to kill Ultra Beasts.

Realizing that his mother crossed it and allowed who knows what to be done, he stole Type:Null and ran away, with the intention to get stronger with it and come back to face his family problems.

In SM, we do not know much details as to why he was acting out other than stopping Lusamine from endangering Alola. The only other thing about him is he still cared about Lillie and regretted leaving his sister behind.

He became an enforcer of Team Skull for unknown reasons and once you raid Aether Paradise, you learn more about his family like. He and Lillie were treated like ornaments and were never allowed to make their own choices. When you confront the crazed Lusamine, Gladion wanted to stop the beasts and her, together with Type:Null. He want’s nothing more to do with this woman, gave you a flute that would help summon the mascot legendary and was stuck cleaning up the Aether Foundation while you were away.

While he appreciated you helping his sister, started smiling more and evolving his Silvally... he was stuck having to become the acting President of the Aether Foundation... a child that was abused in that environment... that wanted nothing to do with that place... got stuck in that because his only real care taker didn’t take the job herself.

He also mentioned something about Mohn being the case of the whole drama in the post game... The father of the Aether Family disappeared into a wormhole after an experiment gone wrong. With the only pieces of information being a Cosmog and papers on Nihilego.

This was information given at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Like with Lillie in SM, his ending was sloppy.

So what changed in USUM?

Nothing much besides Lusamine being less crazy. Perhaps when Gladion ran with Type:Null, he didn’t really have much of a plan other than get out of there, then through Wicke... his only real contact, he learned a bit more of what was going on at Aether and came to conclusions through there.

 In USUM, Gladion’s objective was made more clear, to become strong enough to protect his Family.

This opens a new light between him and Type:Null... an experimental pokemon the Aether Foundation sealed away because it didn’t meant expectations and was unstable without that helmet.

Gladion, saw potential in Type:Null that Lusamine and the adults sure as hell didn’t see. Because Lusamine was still someone who only thought that it was her way or the high way, Gladion took his chances and matters into his own hands.

Gladion sought to unlock Type:Null’s potential and prove Lusamine and the others wrong. Then use that power to protect others...

The reason is because he was aware of what happened with the father of the Aether Family, Mohn. Gladion knows that Lusamine was still messing around with Ultra Wormholes and if that woman goes through with her plans, she would disappear into Ultra Space and leave the family with two parents that are gone.

This... explains why Gladion wanted to become stronger and protect his family, he didn’t wish for it to fall apart anymore than it already had. Which makes SM even more depressing when he considered Lusamine that far gone that she is a danger to others around her.

Gladion’s reasoning to wanting to stop Lusamine from possibly getting herself killed... is actually more realistic compared to SM and is relatable for those in these kind of families, where conflict with the adults cause a downward spiral on your life and you the child want to do something to stop it from getting worse.

Gladion out in the world... struggled. He had no effective way of making bonds, with Null or any others. Someone else made most of the decisions for him and told him to only listen to the adults around him.

With that being inflicted, that is how he became an enforcer of Team Skull. He himself was a reject of society, with no way of really functioning in society. It was the only way for him to get stronger... or so he thought. 

Hau’s optimism and you the player showing normal care, opened the way for him to open up more. Even in tiring times. Which became fuel for the bond between Gladion and Type:Null, when they have a cause to fight for.

Though in USUM, Gladion’s attempt became for naught when confronting Lusamine, the woman refused to listen to his pleas and went into Ultra Space to go after Necrozma. The boy even offered to go in her stead JUST so she doesn’t do the reckless thing that might get herself killed, despite all that woman has done to him and his sister... he still wanted to save her from her own actions. He still cared about her.

Like in SM, Gladion stayed behind in Aether while you and Lillie get Nebby to evolve. To try and keep things under control until the two of you pull Lusamine out of her Leeroy Jenkins mindset and do something about Necrozma. Of course... things didn’t go as planned.

During that time, Gladion opened up even more and through that bond with Null, triggered evolution.

After you stopped Necrozma, Gladion concluded that if he is to keep getting stronger, he needs to leave Alola for Kanto. To try a method that would better fit his style, while doing that... Wicke and several employees waved him goodbye while he was on that boat.

Not expecting much until he saw Lusamine in the distance, worried that she might say something against his choice. She waved him goodbye and he waved goodbye back, him seeing with his own eyes that his mother was making an effort to change for the better. (I’ll get to her later.) Without the past weighing him down, he was free of that.

While this kind of waist him for the RR episode, he does come back a month after you beat those guys and challenge you for title defense. With a full team of six, after that... he visits Aether Paradise and witnesses his mother and father reuniting. Mohn having amnesia and walking out of their lives once more... him questioning if it was alright to leave things as it is.

Much like with Lillie in the anime, Gladion’s background has changed to where Lusamine wasn’t abusive towards him, but his role has not.

He witnessed a Nihilego attacking Lillie and for many years was too scared to do something about it. From Lusamine’s neglect, Gladion thought maybe she DID know about the incident and didn’t give a crap.

So he eventually took Type:Null and ran, with the intention to train it to protect his sister from the threat of the Ultra Beasts. Eventually, Faba finds him, knocks him out and steals Null back.

With no other option, he went to Lusamine... ready to fight if needed... only to find out she really didn’t know about the incident and was more concern that Faba tried opening wormholes under her nose.

Gladion tore into her for her neglect and he has a point, Lusamine was irresponsible and the family paid for that.

With that strained relationship, his resolve is mostly for Lillie’s sake because Lusamine let them down. With that desire to protect made realized, Null broke out of the helmet, rescued Lillie like before and started that girl’s road to recovery.

Which resulted in the chain of events that lead to Lusamine getting taken by Nihilego and the episodes I mentioned in my analysis of Lillie.

After the rescue of Lusamine, Gladion became what is a rival for Ash. Nothing much more than that besides the two fighting and coming together when something bigger came their way.

Like the Necrozma Arc.

Right now, the biggest thing coming his way is the Mohn mystery. Finding out he is alive and him having the most hope of bringing him back. While the anime focused on other characters past the Necrozma arc, we get to see the Aether Family repairing their relationship together... almost like they are a normal family.

How this ends is yet to be seen.