#saving us and nebby at the beginning of the fucking game. and then after that ???????

[front-facing-pokemon]

#tapu koko #now we're into the tapus. and i'll be surprised if i can manage to post all of these without mixing up any of their names #i really do not remember these guys having a very pertinent role in the story besides like #saving us and nebby at the beginning of the fucking game. and then after that ??????? #they just served to be really hard to catch in the endgame i guess #maybe i'm wrong. maybe i'm misremembering bc it's been a while. or i haven't played usum and maybe they're more prominent there #who knows. point is that there is four of them and they all start with tapu

[themattress]

I Grade: Lusamine

The first female Big Bad of a Pokemon generation...what the Hell went so wrong here!?

Games: In Sun/Moon, Lusamine is the Big Bad. There is no question about it, there is no adversary higher on the totem pole. And not only that, she is one of, if not the most terrifying villains the franchise has ever presented. Completely out of her mind and detached from reality, self-absorbed to the extreme, prone to raging mood swings, devoid of morality, and worst of all a textbook abusive, narcissistic parent to her children Lillie and Gladion, the president of the Aether Foundation is very easy to fear and loathe. And refreshingly for the franchise at this point, Lusamine doesn’t actually have a huge, destructive, high-stakes goal in mind. There’s a chance for mass destruction in Alola because of what she pulls, but that’s not actually the point. With her, it’s more personal: she wants to enter a world where she can be with what she loves most, the Ultra Beast Nihilego (which her twisted mind deems to be perfect, “beautiful” children that need her as a loving mother), even if it means abandoning her mistreated actual children and hurting or killing the Pokemon closest to them to do it. Clearly, this bitch is another Ghetsis: excessively vile and wholly irredeemable. Right?

......RIGHT?

Yeah, wrong. Bizarrely, Game Freak didn’t seem to actually realize just how badly they were portraying Lusamine, as it wasn’t their intention. In their minds, Lusamine was a tragic villain: a woman broken by the loss of her husband to an Ultra Wormhole experiment gone wrong, becoming possessive over her children in a misguided effort to not lose them too, and then getting addicted to Nihilego toxin while trying to find a way to get her husband back. The toxin messed with her mind, amplified all of her negative qualities such as her possessiveness toward her children to the extreme, and gradually shifted them to be directed solely toward the source of the toxin itself: Nihilego. This is why by the end of the story, Lusamine is treated as redeemable, with Lillie making strides in reconciling with her offscreen and even traveling away from her found family in Alola to go find Lusamine special medical help in Kanto.

But this just failed to come off to the majority of players. Not only is most of the necessary backstory spoken of above buried within the postgame and relayed by sources other than Lusamine herself, but all of the actual scenes in the game with Lusamine do way too good a job hitting close to home for players that have either had or known people who’ve had abusive, narcissistic parents. The child abuse angle is portrayed so strongly that any nuance gets lost in the shuffle. An astonishing number of players don’t even appear to remember Lillie reconciling with and going to help Lusamine at the end, their memory selectively stops at the powerfully-delivered speech from Lillie: “Children are not just THINGS that belong to their parents! We're not made for you to just discard when you get bored with us! That is terrible, Mother! You are terrible!"  The idea of Lusamine being redeemed and reconciled with her children is not a happy one to them, and so they ignore it and continue hating her.

This backlash clearly caught Game Freak off guard, and they made an effort to rectify it. In Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon, Lusamine’s trajectory is changed. No longer falling prey to Nihilego toxin, she is still a highly flawed and arguably abusive parent and still commits morally reprehensible acts, but now it’s for the greater good: she wants to stop the looming threat of Necrozma from destroying Alola. Her backstory is mentioned by her in the story, and it becomes clear that she’s truly motivated by her foolish pride, feeling as if defeating Necrozma will validate her self-absorbed self-image of a savior and make up for the fact that she couldn’t save her husband and drove her children away in becoming too protective of them. When she is thrashed by Necrozma and causes it to get loose and create the very threat to Alola she was hoping to prevent, Lusamine undergoes some serious self-reflection and character development for the rest of the game: reconciling with her children, making peace with the fact that she’s never getting her husband back, fixing the harm she had the Aether Foundation cause, and overall having a clear and efficient on-screen redemption.

BUT, unlike with Cyrus in Platinum where issues he had as both a character and as a villain were corrected, here Game Freak was so concerned with correcting Lusamine’s character that they neglected how she was as a villain. Since they removed the main factors that made Lusamine such a memorably terrifying villain in S/M, she now comes off as a retread of Zinnia, the antagonist of OR/AS’s postgame Delta Episode. This in itself still might have not been too bad since she still plays this antagonistic role quite well, but then the game goes and has Lusamine made to look like a putz compared to other villains not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. First she’s beat down by Necrozma, then she’s sold out by her own underling Faba, and finally she’s held hostage by Giovanni. None of the Big Bads of the previous gens have been treated this way, as is reinforced in Episode RR where they all get to shine, so it happening to the first ever female Big Bad kind of feels like a slap in the face for many. 

The IOS game Pokemon Masters continues Game Freak’s course correction by showing us S/M’s Lusamine after she has recovered from Nihilego’s toxin, and we actually get to see her redemption process onscreen as she struggles to be a better, more selfless mother to her children and move beyond the immense guilt she feels for hurting them so badly in the past. Much like in US/UM, she still has her moments of shallowness and narcissism, but the fact that she’s aware of these flaws and is working on self-improvement makes them forgivable.  

Lusamine, when taken as a villain in S/M, is great. Lusamine, when taken as a villainous character in US/UM, is great. The problem lies in the fact that there is almost nothing in common between the two depictions of her, which while having an explanation behind it (one is juiced up on Nihilego toxin and the other is not), it still doesn’t change how jarring it feels. On the whole, the score for Lusamine in the core game series is dead middle. A good villain, but she could’ve been so much better if she was properly thought through from the beginning.

Score = 3

Anime: OK, I probably should be angry at how Lusamine is portrayed in the Sun & Moon anime series. She’s a silly, zany, energetic womanchild as opposed to a refined, graceful professional, she isn’t a villain at all since her evildoing in the anime’s Nebby arc is given to Faba and she only becomes an antagonistic Ultra Beast hybrid against her will, and furthermore she is the furthest thing from a depiction of the Gen VII Big Bad in that she is actually a Big Good: as the commander of the Ultra Guardians, she is who Ash and his friends take their orders from in their missions to defend the peace in Alola. I imagine that many people who were fans of Lusamine as a villain took this as an egregious betrayal.

But with that said, I just fucking love her! Because she appears so regularly and has interactions with so many different characters, this is the most fleshed out Lusamine in the franchise, the most real and human-feeling in spite of how comically she often behaves. The tragedy of the loss of her husband and the troubled relationship with her children manages to be kept in tact even without making her a villain, and she naturally has the happiest resolution out of all versions of the character. So despite not being evil, she’s still a fabulous Lusamine.

Score = 3.5

Manga: The chief human antagonist in the Sun/Moon Chapter, Lusamine is very well-portrayed here....for the most part, anyway. She starts off as mostly an adaptation of the S/M games’ version, but Yamamoto takes great pains to draw her a certain way - ridiculously widened eyes and a near perpetual smile on her face - to make it abundantly clear to readers that something is wrong with her, that this isn’t her normal state of mind and she is clearly badly drugged up on something (Nihilego toxin). It’s similar to this manga’s N, except...good. Because the manga can go darker than the games, we actually get to see flashbacks that show her emotional abuse of Lillie under this state, and they are extremely unsettling.

She reaches her peak when her insane goal is revealed: rather than want to go to the world of Nihilego, she’s been so intoxicated that her “love” has spread to all Ultra Beats and she wants to bring them all to Alola in order to make a paradise for them where she can be their mother. And she succeeds, too! But even that isn’t enough for her, and so she sets out to capture fucking Necrozma because she feels like only then will her paradise be complete! This leads to the highlight of her role in this arc: “Mother Beast” Lusamine vs. Necrozma! Seeing the Big Bad of S/M and the Big Bad of US/UM go at it is exhilarating to witness.

But there is one HUGE flaw holding this incarnation of Lusamine back from total greatness: it turns out that her losing her husband, getting hooked on Nihilego toxin, and everything bad that transpires with her...was facilitated by Faba. Lusamine’s personal agency that makes her story more tragic is neutered in favor of making some douchebag man responsible for it. Maybe Kusaka did this because he was worried about the readers being able to accept Lusamine’s redemption otherwise, given the reaction to her in the S/M games, but it was still the wrong call to make. He was doing so well with this Lusamine, combining the best from S/M and US/UM in her, and was building her up as the biggest human antagonist in the arc, the penultimate threat before Necrozma...and he blew it. Oh well, she is still effective in the role he has her play, and I consider this problem to be more of Faba’s than Lusamine’s.   

Score = 3.5

TCG: Lusamine debuts with the “Lusamine” card in the Crimson Invasion expansion, staged as the person who is responsible for unleashing Ultra Beasts into Alola. While not to the extent as Lysandre, Lusamine also proved to be troublesome to official tournaments and her card banned from any Expanded format games played in them. The same card was reprinted in the later Ultra Prism set, with Lusamine now being in her notorious Mother Beast form.  

In the Lost Thunder set, Lusamine and her Aether Foundation return to cause more trouble, with Lusamine getting a new “Lusamine” card. This time it was a rule on the card that you can only have one of it in your deck, and you can only play it under specific circumstances. 

Score = 3

Other: In the Pokemon Evolutions web series, Lusamine shows up in the 2nd episode “The Eclipse”, voiced to perfection by Dawn M. Bennett. She’s adapted from Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon here, abusively sneering at Lillie about how useless she is and how only she can be the savior that Alola needs. This makes it all the more satisfying when she’s reduced to a cowardly wreck following the beatdown Necrozma gives her, while Lillie is actually able to face her fears and stand up to the monster alongside Selene in order to rescue Nebby.

Score = 3

TOTAL FRANCHISE SCORE = 3 out of 5

Lusamine is a good villain in the franchise, but it will likely always be a point of frustration that she couldn’t become a great one. Everything about her on paper seems like it would make for one of the best antagonists we’ve had to date, but it just didn’t stack up that way in execution. Whatever the medium, Lusamine ended her run not looking like the Big Bad of Gen VII, with Necrozma, Giovanni, or even Faba upstaging her in that position. And that is extremely disappointing, given how many people had wanted a female Big Bad for years and were so excited that we finally seemed to have one. But hey, she tried. Kudos to her for that, at least.

BONUS: Which version is my personal favorite?

While on a strictly personal level I love the anime’s version best, when I have to choose which Lusamine works best in the villainous role she was created for then I’d have to go with US/UM’s version. While her constant getting nerfed annoys me, she still is effective as the source of all the conflict in the main story (even Necrozma would not have been the threat it is without Lusamine provoking it). And cutting down on all the craziness and child abuse, no matter how memorably terrifying that made her, did wonders for making her a nuanced foe. 

#Pokemon #I Grade #Lusamine #Aether Foundation #Evil #Opinion #Analysis

[sometipsygnostalgic]

pokemon villains and their goals

it’s funny because every evil team in pokemon usualy has a great ambition of some kind. team rocket wanted to take over specific locations and steal pokemon as a big mafia, team magma and aqua were.... environmental extremists, team galactic's leader hated emotions and wants them to be wiped from the world, team plasma was a version of Peta that was secretly working towards the greater goal of taking over the country through manipulation so basically still Peta, and team flare’s leader believes that the only way to create world peace is to heavily reduce the populaton, while all the people he was going to save are extremely vile but here you go.

but team skull, they don’t have any ambition. that’s their entire point. they’re a bunch of punks (literally their trainer class) who failed at their goals and gave up. there’s a bit of backstory about them being from a group that formed around one of the old kahunas but the wrath of the tapu being brouht on them, so i dont knnow what happened there. was that kahuna hala or was there an Asshole kahuna? but Guzma’s main motivation is that his parents are assholes, he failed to become a trial captain, and he’s trying to retain his extremely fragile masculine ego by leading a disruptive gang. Even the “mansion” they take over is completely trashed, and he goes so far as to befriending the Aether President because she strokes his ego and manipulates the poor lad.

talking of the Aether President, it seems that the Foundation has mixed goals; they seem to be a genuine pokemon rehabilitation program, founded by a rich man who deeply cherished pokemon,  that under the direction of President Lusamine and Branch Chief Faba has taken a darker turn. since her husband was taken into an ultra wormhole, Lusamine’s sanity has slipped and she’s grown obsessed with ultra beasts, trying to find ways to either join or destroy them, taking out all of her built-up bitterness on her children and the pokemon they wish to protect. It’s telling when Gladion says they straight up found Cosmog on their side of the same wormhole that stole Mohn - no wonder Lusamine hates poor Nebby so much, but it makes it even more significant that Lillie saved Nebby anyway, that unconditional empathy contrasting with her mother’s rage. Anyway Lusamine’s endgoal is to just... love pokemon and ultra beasts because fuck family, but she doesn’t really care if they’re happy or not, she’ll feeze them forever. An obsession with beauty that outdoes even Lysandre, she dresses her kids up as ultra beasts and beats down their confidence when they show the slightest hints of individuality. I think that Lusamine believes she was “chosen” by the ultra beasts, when Nihilego stole her husband, and this is not only her motivation to reunite with the jellyfish but also to defeat Necrozma. she just... thinks she’s supposed to live with ultra beasts. it’s not until you kick either her or necrozma’s ass that she begins to realise this is a load of horse shit.

faba and wicke show off the two sides to Aether that are also presented by Lusamine, but in a more coherent, sane light. wicke is a kindhearted pokemon conservationist who stays by the president’s side even through all the corruption because she knows that, some day, the aether foundation may return to what it was. she also looks after lusamine’s kids and prevents their mother from, like, freezing lillie or whatever it is she might have done after gladion ran away, and even orchestrated lillie’s escape with cosmog. wicke is the unconditional love of the aether foundation, the spirit of its creation.  faba meanwhile is its corruption. he has no loyalty to anything but his own ambiion, even creating the Type: Full Beast Killer project without Lusamine’s full knowledge but getting caught (in all games and anime btw, just Lusamine had different reactions). he hates the righteous spirit in children and how they meddle with his plans, but he’s so pathetic that they kick his ass easily. faba is a saturday cartoon villain, and even when the aether foundation is returning to its roots, he always remains the same scumbag as always. it’s not until he’s demoted that his ego takes a huge enough strike for him to change.

i want to make note of mohn as well. if all the characters lusamine interacts with are also representations of herself, wicke and lillie her kindhearted determination, gladion her forward-burning force of will, and faba her shady ambitions, then what does mohn represent? he’s a simple, kind man who cares for pokemon that are abandoned into PC boxes by their trainers. he saw a loophole in the way people look after pokemon and decided to patch it up. lusamine’s encounter with mohn in USUM indicates that she never saw him smile much when he was a scientist, and also that deep down she shares his ideas about letting pokemon in boxes be free, something she teased the player character with in the original Sun and Moon. mohn represents what lusamine used to be, what she can be if she lets go of the whole ultra beast nonsense like he did.

#pokemon #pokevillains #lusamine #tbh its mostly about lusamine #guzma

[dragongirlafro]

Miscellaneous things I liked about Sun and Moon

-Kukui coming to your house and just letting himself in.

-Kukui asking the main character to find the kahuna without actually giving a short fill in on who he is, other than “he looks just like a kahuna”.

-the little wobble effect when you’re crossing the bridge to save Nebby.

-The main character asking Lillie if she’s a kahuna, either jokingly or because they genuinely have no idea what a kahuna is.

-Hau’s theme. I mean, I’m psyched for Hau in general, but I really loved his music.

-the cutscenes. No seriously. I like reading dialogue and interactions between characters. The cutscenes at the beginning of the game really set the right mood and tone for me imo.

-Trainer models behind their Pokémon during battles.

-finding Ledybas on route 1.

-Kukui yelling “Oh yeah, Rockruff! My body is ready!” from inside his lab, giving the impression of a hilarious double entendre.

-The Rotom pokédex’s witty personality.

-And the wide variety of Pokédex entries ranging from “really sweet” to “how did this get past ERSB’s ratings?”

-just the sentiment of going out into the islands with your starter and just one or two low level Pokemon.

-Pokémon Refresh!! I had no idea how much of an improvement Refresh was to Amie! Like you can just give a Pokemon two sparkly rainbow beans and they’ll love you forever!

-the ability to just go into a PC and grab your pokémon or move it around without any of that “withdraw or deposit” bullshit.

-that adorable scene where Rotom takes a picture of you, Hau, and Lillie.

-Rotom thirsting over “that dreamboat Ilima”.

-The Skull grunts at the berry farm. More specifically the one who had self-esteem issues.

-when the Skull grunts think you can’t tell them apart cause they’d switched positions so they swap places and are like “how’s that?”

-Totem Pokémon being three times larger than they normally would and scaring the crap outta you.

-The fuckin anime-ass pose your main character does whenever they get a Z-crystal

-in fact Z-moves in general. A lot of older fans seem to dislike them but honestly they were one of the only things that convinced me to buy the game.

-Ride Pokémon!!!!No HMs!!!!!!!

-Also being able to program any Ride Pokémon on the D-pad. That’s become like second nature to me.

-that cutscene when you’re on the boat from Melemele to Akala island.

-and that little exchange between Lillie, Hau, and Kukui when they reach the shore.

-The shopping music. Holy fuck do I even need to tell you how amazing the shopping music is in this Gen???

-meeting Dexio and Sina again. I didn’t really care for the whole Zygarde thing but just seeing those two again was really sweet.

-Paniola Ranch and its chill af vibes.

-Lana trying to find a “strapping young swimmer” when she’s supposed to be guiding you through her trial.

-and her trying to convince you that her trial site has a Kyogre in it.

-The frickin Water type Z-move dance. Oh my god that wavy hula dance is the cutest thing ever.

-The whole “Professor Kukui wtf are you doing” “Who is this ‘Professor Kukui’ you speak of I am the Masked Royale!!” exchange.

-and then he just blurts out “and now we have our foursome!” and all the characters ignore it and move on as if that’s a normal thing to say in everyday conversation

-Kiawe’s trial. Just… everything about Kiawe’s trial.

-But mostly Hiker David.

-“Press A to pound the ingredients.”

Honestly tho that was the only redeeming quality to Mallow’s trial Totem Lurantis can go fuck itself in USUM.

-Professor Burnet’s groovin’ dimensional research lab theme.

-when Olivia does the Rock type Z-move dance and the camera just zooms in on Lillie gawking over her.

-OH YEAH that Pyukumuku chucking thing where you can get 20 000 pokédollars a day. I hope they bring that back because that was a real good way of making cash.

-And those missions in Pokécentres where if you’ve caught a set amount of Pokémon or if you’ve caught a specific Pokémon they’ll pay you like 10 000 dollars or something.

-Meeting Wicke for the first time and her being incredibly sweet and nice.

-That small bit when Hau can’t believe that Lusamine’s more than 40 years old and she’s really flattered.

-battling Nihilego for the first time.

-That scene on the boat to Ula’Ula Island where Hau talks to you and offers you a Malasada. That really solidified his friendship with the main character for me.

-Speaking of which that part where you’re at Malie Garden and Hau asks “hey, did you know-“ and you can just say “yah i know” and he’s like “dude come on I haven’t even asked the question yet.”

-that little side quest where you have to find a woman’s eight Stuffuls on route 10 that’s like really sweet but also why does she have so many stuffus?

-The Skull grunts who fucking try to steal a bus stop sign.

-Molayne. I liked his relationship with Kukui and Sophocles.

-and I especially liked the part where he gave you Kukui’s mask and when you give it to him Kukui��s just like “oH uhhhhh I’ll um give it back to the Masked Royale when I uh see him”

-Blush Mountain. It has such a nice name. Blush Mountain.

-Acerola’s, um… Little brother and sister? Kids she’s babysitting? I wasn’t too clear on how they were related to her, but they were cute either way.

-the whole bit where rotom’s afraid to go into the haunted store because “spoopy scary ghosts” despite him literally also being a ghost.

-On the subject of those two kids, the event where Team Skull stole the girl’s Yungoos and she gives you a Rare Candy just to get it back fucking broke my heart like oooooohhhh sweetie you didn’t have to give me this I would have gotten your Yungoos back either way!!

-Plumeria!!She was so underrated!

-uncle Grimsley’s cointoss bit where you could pick heads or tails but if you picked neither then he’d just say that Skarmory swooped in and grabbed it in midair, even though that obviously never happened and he was just bullshitting you.

-Also just the mere fact that Grimsley refers to himself as “Uncle Grimsley”

-Nanu. Enough said.

-The fact that all the Team Skull grunts in Po town are gay. Every. Single. One of them. gay

-That scene where Nanu does the Dark type Z-move pose and the main character and Gladion just stare at him and there’s just an awkward pause until he goes “there you cleared your trial or whatever”.

-actually now that I think about it, Sun and Moon had a lot of subtle humour.

-when you were infiltrating Aether Paradise and a good amount of employees were set on stopping you but there was like that ten percent who were like “whoa shit’s gettin wild out here lmao do you want us to heal your ‘mons? We could even take you back if you wanted i ain’t about to lose my job over some space conspiracy fuck that noise”

-That one Skull grunt who was all like, “wanna see me get hit by a Hyper Beam?”

-When you Battle Guzma outside of Lusamine’s mansion.

-LUSAMINE’S BATTLE THEME. HOLY SHIT.

-“Doot doo doo, just a Kahuna, taking a stroll through the laguna.”

-when Hau compliments Lillie over her outfit makeover and Gladion immediately pulls the defensive brother card.

-Seafolk Village’s night music. Oh my lord I’ve never wanted to marry a video game meledy before it.

-Hapu!!! Another underrated character!

-That scene where Lillie and the main character are in the cave on Exeggcutor Island in the rain.that was super cute.

-Vast Poni Canyon! Love me that guitar and flute!

-Mina!!! I can’t wait for her trial in usum I love her so much!!!!!

-when you go to Ultra Space and Rotom is unconscious because you’re disconnected from your world.

-When Lillie gave that whole speech to Lusamine and her sole reaction was basically “¯\_(ツ)_/¯” that absolutely slayed me

-After all that shit in Ultra Space and catching Nebby goes down and then Nanu’s just chilin’ at the Altar and is like “oh, hey, you can challenge the league I guess, if you really felt like it.”

-Kahili!!!!!

-THE MOTHERFUCKING CHAMPION THEME!!!

-that corny-ass scene where Lillie was gonna say something to the main character after the festival and it was all set up like a love scene from the final act of a goddamn comedy romance film and then they get shouldered by the fireworks. My heart can’t handle that kind of sappy cuteness and I need more of it.

-Looker and Anabel. Those two were adorbs.

-oh. And Alolan Raichu. When I first saw that Pokémon revealed in the trailer last July I knew that I had to buy Sun and Moon. Alolan Raichu is what got me into Pokémon.

#Keegster posts #Pokémon thoughts #sorry for the huge ass post i'm just very passionate about pokésmaun okay #no but srsly sorry #this took me two months to write #quite possibly the biggest post I’ve made on Tumblr #Pokémon #Pokemon Sun and Moon #Pokémon UltraSun and UltraMoon

[jolteonjordansh]

And just like I called it, the Sun and Moon anime is starting to (attempt to) backpedal after criticisms and suddenly is trying to have a plot. Out of nowhere.

If this was going to happen the whole time, please answer: What was the point of having 40+ episodes of stupidity where nothing happens? Oh sure, characters got new Pokémon, master Z-Moves and characters get time to be introduced and "developed". But guess what? They could have continued to do this and told an actual story at the same time. Why am I so certain they could have done this?

Because the anime has fucking done it for over 15 years.

There was no point of that entire excursion. It was a waste of time. The only hint of the show trying to direct itself to have a plot was the Gladion episode, which was nearly 30 episodes in. That was more than enough time for the writers to see the initial reaction and ratings and say "Oh fuck, this was a terrible idea," and then begin to redirect the show.

But this still doesn't work because of the overexaggerated animation style and general "silly" tone. You know they're going to continue to throw in needless jokes in moments where they do not fit, so not only will we have bad jokes, we'll have bad jokes that ruin the mood. Plus, the exaggerated style just doesn't fit for some of the serious moments the Sun and Moon games have and the topics it tries to tackle (assuming the anime will tackle those to begin with). Ash will continue to look like as much of a doofus like the main protagonist with their Thousand-Yard Stare in every cutscene, and God help us if he sees Nebby evolve into Solgaleo and has this kind of face when it happens. There. Mood ruined.

If this series can take a "serious death" and then degrade it to a joke a mere ten episodes later, trust me: they will ruin the mood every chance they get.

The anime took a risk and it's not working. Now they're backpedaling. I've seen shows do this multiple times and it does not work. Ever. Whether you're trying to erase your tracks or mix two new elements like this together which, guess what? It does not work. And if not even their biggest desperation move could save their ratings, I assure you that this sure as hell won't.

#Shut Up JJ #unpopular opinion #Pokéani #No one wants to watch a year of filler episodes #you know BW attempted to do a super serious arc mid-way into the series and it was called Episode N #spoiler alert: it didn't work #and then we went to shit with the season of pointlessness known as Da!

[seventeenscribbles]

Entry #4 - AAAAAAAAA (My character and I losing our minds) (897 words)

Dear journal-

Where. The fuck. Is this last Zygarde Cell?

No, really. Where is it? I've checked all of Alola. I’ve scoured the internet for mentions of little slimy green pieces of shit. I have 99 of the goddamn things. I’ve circled the region trying to find these stupid things and I think my ride Pokémon think I’m losing my mind. I’ve climbed Vast Poni Canyon twice in the past three days and I’m dying because it. Isn't. There.

Journal, you don't understand. It'd be one thing if I was two or three away, but I’m exactly one away. Where is it? Where did it go? I have a Zygarde that’s 99% complete, but I can’t find that last thing. Have you ever played a video game and done everything in it, except for one little easter egg you need to get that nice shiny save file or that achievement or whatever the fuck it is, and despite all your searching, you can’t fucking figure out where that last little thing is? Great! Now imagine that, but it’s real life and you’re flying from island to island, climbing mountains, fighting the elements and the Pokémon around you, and despite everything...

You’re gonna fucking scream cause it's not there.

I’m at the top of Vast Poni Canyon. I've checked from both sides. It's not here.

I'm losing my fucking mind. I’m listening to covers of voicebank songs from back in Kanto and stuff and I can't tell if it's helping or making it worse.

The rift that led to Ultra Space is still up on the Altar and I’ve gone through it to an alternate version of Alola to see if that makes a difference but there’s still fucking nothing!

Hey, that's a thought. Did one maybe escape into Ultra Space? Shit. Do I gotta go get Nebby to open a way to Ultra Space? Goddammit I'm still putting off catching the Ultra Beasts because I caught Nihilego in a rareball by sheer stupid luck and now I want a full collection of them in rareballs I don't want more of them to come out I only have so many balls ahhhhhhhh????? I didn't even mean to throw it I meant to use an Ultra Ball and now I’m suffering even more...

Maybe it's at Aether.

Fuckkkkkkkk it's so slow trying to get around here without Taurus or Stoutland or anyone I'm so tired my legs are so sort from running around. Do you think I could talk Gladion into letting me call my Ride Pokémon here? I mean he trusted me enough to give me Type: Null so I mean. Maybe he’d let me call one? Like besides Charizard? Hey maybe I could get Charizard to like. Fly me over to the other side of the foundation.

No it wouldn't do it I hate everything. Also Gladion says he can't really let me do that and he hasn't seen any around I hate my life. Like Glad. Glad my guy. Like dude thanks for giving me a really rare and important Pokémon I’ve been using it on my team and everything. Hell if you really plan on battling me for the title of Champ I might use it against your own Silvally but like. For Mew’s sake c’mon man I’m losing it.

Fuckkkkk. I've checked everywhere in this dimension looks like it's time to try the other one again.

Rotom don't give me shit for swearing in a journal you've seen all of this I've been running around for days.

He’s laughing. Why did Kukui give me this little shit I want a normal Dex. I ought to throw him out into battle and see how he manages.

Alright. Alright alright alright. New dimension. Except not new I've been there like five times. Let’s start from the beginning with Melemele.

YouTube has moved on to autoplaying anime OP covers. Isn't this like. That gay as fuck skating anime? I still haven't watched it. Sounds neat tho. I'm all up for gays.

It's not on Melemele. Shit, and I almost misspelled Melemele as Memememe. I can't believe my island is dank as fuck.

Alright alright. Akala time.

Paniola Town more like Paranoia Town amirite?

Oh now we’re up to a song from that cell phone dating sim or something? God I don't understand.

Ughhhhh alright not on Akala. Maybe on Ula’ula?

Omg these fucking Fearow I’m nowhere near your tree and also I’m like three times your level back the fuck up bro.

It's not on Ula’ula. And I've been hearing covers of this same song for too long I'm losing my shit. I guess we’ll try Poni next...?

Okay this cover of that texting game song is entertaining cause it's shown in text form with the characters replying to the lyrics this is pretty good lol.

It's. It's not on Poni either. What the fuck. What the fuck??? I've checked everywhere????? Do I gotta check Aether again?

If it's on Aether I'm gonna kick Glad’s ass. He’s a decent guy but I don't care if they're different dimensions when he challenges me I'm gonna kick his ass extra hard.

...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA IM GONNA KICK HIS ASS SO HARD HE SHOOTS STRAIGHT INTO ULTRA SPACE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Okay.

Okay.

I'm done.

It is done.

After days of searching it is done.

I'm going to sleep.

Good night, journal.

-Garnet

#365k365day #writing #pokemon #pokemon sm #sm spoilers #January 4

[sage-nebula]

What would you have done to improve or to make the plot of Pkm SM more interesting, especially in regards to Lillie and Nebby? :]

Well, “interesting” is subjective. What’s more interesting to me might not be more interesting overall. However, some things that I do feel would pretty objectively improve the narrative quality would be:

Let Gladion actually have a real role in the narrative --- Gladion appears twice prior to the climax: once when you first meet him, and then again to give you a little warning about Lillie and Cosmog/Nebby as some not-subtle foreshadowing about the climax. The next time you see him is when it’s time to infiltrate Aether Paradise, and then once that segment is over he stops being relevant to the plot despite the fact that the entire story centers around his family.This is a mistake.Gladion should have been a far more involved character. This is his family, he should be there. To begin with, not only did severely reducing his screen time make his “development” rushed (and thus not really development at all---more like an unexplained flip to being somewhat nicer (i.e. kind of nice at all)), but it also gave the player no real reason to care about him if they didn’t already. I had a bias toward Gladion since the moment his character was announced, so of course I was thrilled to see him every time he showed up. But a player who didn’t have that prior attachment wouldn’t really have a reason to care, because they were never given a chance to care. Both of these things could be rectified by having Gladion show up more often, earlier on. They don’t have to introduce him on Melemele Island, but introduce him earlier on Akala Island, and have him make repeated appearances on Ula’ula Island as well. Let him battle the player multiple times. Let him show up to either stop or even assist Team Skull (given that he’s supposed to be an “enforcer.”) Show him interacting with Plumeria and give them a (platonic, but that shouldn’t be necessary to state) relationship, given that she’s supposed to look out for the younger members of Team Skull like her siblings. Let us actually see more of Gladion throughout the plot so that we have a reason to care, and show him slowly growing and developing to a point where he can start to trust others and form friendships, just like Lillie.And most importantly of all, have him present at the climax! Again, for fucksake, the plot centers around his sister and his mother. He should have been in Ultra Space. He had far more reason to be there than the player did. Let Gladion play the other flute! Have it be a twin duet, Lillie and Gladion playing the flutes in harmony after spending the game fixing their relationship and growing closer again after two years apart. Let that be a beautiful moment to represent via music just how much they’ve come together again, and have fallen back in sync. Let them confront their abusive mother together, lending each other strength, being there for each other. Let them hug, for fucksake, and let them to go to Kanto together, too. Don’t just ship Gladion off to Aether Paradise because you’re afraid some spotlight will be taken away from the PC. The PC doesn’t need any spotlight. The PC will be just fine watching these two siblings come together to support each other again, I promise.

Give Plumeria an actual role in the narrative --- Plumeria did fuck all for the plot, and as much as I love her, you could remove her and replace her with a generic Skull grunt and the game would turn out the exact same way. Plumeria should have been the one to confront Guzma at Aether Paradise, calling him out on the absolutely horrid way he treats the Skull grunts, and the way he sold them all---including her---out to Lusamine in order to be the Aether Foundation’s scapegoats and lapdogs. Show her calling him out on this, show her arguing with him about it, show them battling over it. Instead of having the player battle Guzma again, have Plumeria hold him off while the player et al go on to confront Lusamine. Plumeria was supposed to be a Skull admin and the “big sister” of Team Skull, but she was never allowed to do that, and that’s nonsense. Let her play the role she was literally created to play.

Let Hau develop as a character on-screen --- Hau was pretty static throughout the game, sadly, mostly just existing to be the cheerful, friendly rival that Nintendo has been giving us for over a decade now. And that’s fine---I have no qualms with cheerful characters---but it’s a bit disappointing because I would have liked for him to have a more fleshed out character arc. We get flashes of this in certain reactions of his throughout the game (e.g. his reaction to Gladion’s second appearance is very reminiscent of how a kid acts when his bully has just appeared, and he actually scowls when you beat him outside of the League in the last required battle), but for the most part we’re told about Hau’s development rather than shown it. This is even true when it comes to his goal of beating Hala. We know he finally beat his grandfather due to the fact that he’s a title challenger, but we don’t get to see it, and we don’t get to see a real effect on his character given that we only get a couple lines out of him and he still sees himself as weak because he can’t beat the almighty PC. I would have liked---and think the game would have benefited from---giving Hau his own subplot running throughout the game, ideally if it tied into the main plot (e.g. maybe Hau is drawn to the Aether Foundation because he wants to make a name for himself separate from anything his grandfather has done and “Miss Lusamine” has assured him that she can help him do that, and they seem like good guys so he believes them, and that puts him at odds with Lillie and Gladion when they try very firmly to tell him that their mother cannot be trusted, and it’s this whole huge emotional ordeal where Hau has to a.) realize what he’s done, b.) decide what’s important to him, c.) realize he can be strong on his own, et cetera. It could have been cool, but alas, Game Freak did pretty much nothing with Hau and let him be a mostly static character instead).

Professor Burnet should have been the professor with the most plot focus --- I don’t really have anything against Kukui, but his specialization is in pokémon attacks due to Game Freak’s need to heavily advertise their newest game mechanic. That has nothing to do with the overall plot, especially not when compared to his wife, who is actively studying different dimensions in hyper space. Professor Burnet should have been the one repeatedly meeting up with the player, investigating the plot happenings, and---ideally---confronting Lusamine later on, in order to deliver a hardcore “the reason you suck” speech in defense of the children, considering Lillie herself is the one who said that Burnet has been like a real mother to her (whereas Lusamine has not). Kukui’s subplot about wanting to revolutionize Alola is cool and all, and that can stay, but it’s really irrelevant compared to everything else going on, and reducing Burnet to just one main appearance and a handful of cameos after is a crime. She should have had much heavier involvement in the plot considering her specialization was actually relevant. 

Overhaul the Aether Foundation, Team Skull, Lusamine et cetera completely --- There are too many things that I would fix here in order to just put it in one item, but essentially:

The Aether Foundation needs to have been founded by Lusamine, not by her father (or grandfather, whatever it was), because I’m goddamn fucking sick of women in this series inheriting their professions from their older male relatives. Good on Burnet for avoiding that pitfall (thus far), but she also had barely any appearances. Lusamine makes the second lady I can think of off the top of my head that did fall right into it (with the first and most conspicuous being Professor Juniper), even if we’re only told that via an NPC.

The Aether Foundation need to be indisputably the villains, pretending to be good, intentionally scapegoating Team Skull and using them as a smokescreen. None of this, “well, they were infected by neurotoxins!” nonsense, nu-uh. Team Skull are not good villains, the Aether Foundation have the potential to be perfect, and “well, they were really good all along save for a few bad apples, and Team Skull were really criminals” is boring and a complete waste of potential. Bad Game Freak, bad. 

More focus---like, much heavier---focus needs to be put on scientific (and dare I say, alchemical) experimentation rather than “omg I just want pretty things ♥” We get a little taste with Type: Null’s creation and the experiments conducted on Cosmog in order to open Ultra Space, but I want the entire plot to be much more heavily drowned in the alchemy that we’ve been leading to for multiple generations now. In particular, the Aether Foundation being a scientific villainous organization disguised as a conservationist organization would be far more interesting than what we actually got. More to the point, Lusamine having actual universal goals beyond “I just want to exist with everything I deem beautiful ♥” would make her a far more frightening and interesting villain than what we got. I’m fine with her liking beautiful things, that can still be worked in, but villains such as Cyrus and Ghetsis got to have universal goals stretching beyond petty satisfactions. I would have liked the same thing for our first female Big Bad.

Make it really, really obvious that Team Skull is being scapegoated. To be honest, I feel like the pieces are all there---they steal from berry fields and are dirt poor, i.e., they are literally starving to death and yet Alolans are still calling them criminals, what the fuck---but it was brushed away in order to say “oh no, they’re actually criminals and need to be disbanded guys” instead of actually trying to help them and revealing that the precious and pristine Aether Foundation was really good all along. I would have really liked to see Team Skull get some help and attention, especially since Nanu is right there and could easily provide it if someone would just provide him with some help with his chronic depression. For godsake, someone really needs to do something about Ula’ula Island, for real. (And if anyone is wondering, no, I’m not surprised that the Alolan populace can see Team Skull suffering and still call them criminals, considering the fact that police officer and detective NPCs in the game repeatedly insist that there’s never any crime in Alola despite shenanigans like Team Skull’s/the Aether Foundation’s obvious villainy. Alola seems like a tropical paradise, but between their religious oligarchy, the fact that their resident professor wants to stage a political revolution, and their criminalization of underprivileged youth + lack of will to do anything about actual crimes in their community, they’ve got some problems, son.)

Lusamine should have died --- Full stop, I want the bitch dead. Nebby should have killed her outright. Pokémon has implied death before (see: Lysandre last gen), and they can do it again, especially when the person dying is a child abusing cow. At the very least, her children shouldn’t have been condemned to look after her. Neither twin did anything to deserve that awful fate. (“But she can’t atone for what she did if she’s dea---” Do I look like I care? Do I? No. I don’t. I want her to die, go to Hell, and then rot there. She had her chance to be a good mom the first time around, and she wasted it, and she doesn’t get another. The twins are going to be adopted by Kukui and Burnet and that is that.)

Lillie should have been the one to catch Nebby --- This speaks for itself and I’ve talked about it before, so I don’t need to go into detail here. She was robbed for the sake of the player, and I think that was a mistake.

Lillie and Gladion should have gone to Kanto together --- Again, I’ve talked about it before, don’t need to do it again. (Also, must they go to Kanto? Johto is better, I’m js.)

#long post for ts #meta #blue-analytic