Gladion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nulltofull) wrote2022-09-27 03:49 am
nulltofull) wrote2022-09-27 03:49 am
LUSAMINE IS AN UNREDEEMABLE ABUSER
[ HEAVY SUBJECT AHEAD (obviously) ]
Lusamine, as displayed in SMUSUM, is an unrepentant, horrific child abuser that cannot be redeemed.
I don't understand why some people constantly argue against this fact, but I do know that "Lusamine is a lame villain" or "Lusamine can be reedeemed" is something that comes up a lot, and so I want to make sure that anyone who interacts with this journal knows exactly where I stand.
Gladion is an abused child. His "affection" for Lusamine is that of an abused child desiring something from their parent that does not exist. The only reason Lillie/Gladion do anything for her in any of the games is Japan's firm stance on filial piety (loyalty to your parents), and if the story had been written by anyone who actually understood and respected abuse victims, this would not have happened.
SMUSUM says that it the burden of the abused to care for/change their abusers, and that is not true nor do I respect such a view.
In short, Lusamine is unredeemable and a nasty abuser, and while Gladion has mixed feelings about her (as abused children do), he is played with the foundation of not forgiving her, excusing her abuse, or being willing to be her carer -- because it is not on his shoulders to care for the one who's damaged him.
If you want to read a very good break-down of Lusamine and her abusive nature, Scrawlers on Tumblr has a good take, and WrightlySo also does.
I'll post both of those rundowns here in the comments, just in case something happens to the links.
Lusamine, as displayed in SMUSUM, is an unrepentant, horrific child abuser that cannot be redeemed.
I don't understand why some people constantly argue against this fact, but I do know that "Lusamine is a lame villain" or "Lusamine can be reedeemed" is something that comes up a lot, and so I want to make sure that anyone who interacts with this journal knows exactly where I stand.
Gladion is an abused child. His "affection" for Lusamine is that of an abused child desiring something from their parent that does not exist. The only reason Lillie/Gladion do anything for her in any of the games is Japan's firm stance on filial piety (loyalty to your parents), and if the story had been written by anyone who actually understood and respected abuse victims, this would not have happened.
SMUSUM says that it the burden of the abused to care for/change their abusers, and that is not true nor do I respect such a view.
In short, Lusamine is unredeemable and a nasty abuser, and while Gladion has mixed feelings about her (as abused children do), he is played with the foundation of not forgiving her, excusing her abuse, or being willing to be her carer -- because it is not on his shoulders to care for the one who's damaged him.
If you want to read a very good break-down of Lusamine and her abusive nature, Scrawlers on Tumblr has a good take, and WrightlySo also does.
I'll post both of those rundowns here in the comments, just in case something happens to the links.
Scrawlers @ Tumblr
no subject
I have to say something. I’m going to try to remain calm, because civil discussion is the only way things ever get accomplished, but this is a very personal issue to me (enough so that I had to step away for a moment because what you said right there is that upsetting and to be honest hurtful), so I apologize if my tone gets a little harsh partway through.
First, to get this out of the way:
Lusamine canonically abuses her children, ON SCREEN, in both the original SM and USUM.
What Lusamine did in the past is one thing. We are told, thanks to Gladion and Lillie both, that she was abusive to them in the past. Gladion’s dialogue about “being like an ornament to [his] mother” exists in both SM and USUM. Despite Game Freak wanting to downplay Lusamine’s abuse in USUM in an effort to make her seem like an antihero instead of a villain, they did not remove that dialogue if you speak to him during the infiltration of Aether Paradise. A mother treating her children like objects is a mother who is abusing her children. It is literal objectification and there is simply no way to get around that. Furthermore, we know in SM that the abuse was so bad that Gladion grasped at whatever justification he could find in order to help himself cope with it, which in turn led to him blaming Mohn because that was an explanation he could deal with (in the sense that telling himself, “Mother is hurting me because she’s upset about Father” was easier than “Mother is abusing me because she doesn’t love me”). From the boy’s own mouth:
Gladion is not saying that Lusamine’s behavior was absolutely a result of her desire to see Mohn again. He’s saying that he made himself believe this because it was the only way he could get through the abuse. Again, blaming his father’s disappearance was easier for him, emotionally, then other (far more plausible) justifications. We also know (though this dialogue was removed from USUM) that Lusamine treated Lillie even more abysmally than she did before after Gladion’s disappearance, likely because Gladion wasn’t there to be a target anymore*:
Wicke was the only barrier between Lillie and a mother who treated her so horribly that she has held some resentment toward her brother for leaving her there for the past two years. Considering Lillie only left Aether Paradise six months prior to the game’s beginning, we know that Lusamine has therefore been abusing Lillie for well over a year, probably longer.
(*I say this from personal experience. Abusers often pick one target to single out and lay most of their fire on. They’ll abuse others around them, yes, particularly in the case of abusive parents with multiple children, but even in the case of abusive parents with multiple children, one child will often get it harsher than the others, particularly if that child tries to shield the others (and we know that Gladion is canonically a protective person, so it makes sense that he would want to shield Lillie). It’s highly probable that Lusamine concentrated her abuse on Gladion, and when he left, he removed himself as a target of her abuse. Thus, she turned her attention on Lillie, who suddenly found herself receiving much worse treatment than before.)
However, as I said, that’s all in the past. The fact of the matter is, though, that we see Lusamine abuse Gladion and Lillie in the present.
Ghetsis, for all that you call him “the actual abuser” (as if this series is only allowed to have one?), calls N a “freak without a human heart,” which is dialogue that is so cartoonish it’s laughable. Yes, it’s a mean thing to say, but it’s also not something that an abuser in real life is likely going to spout off. It doesn’t sound real. Lusamine, however, verbally and emotionally abuses both Lillie and Gladion (and in particular Lillie) in both SM and USUM, right in front of the player, using language that is very realistic. I say this, because the things that Lusamine says to Gladion and Lillie are straight up things that my abusive mother said to me in my adolescence, back when we were still in contact.
A few examples of Lusamine’s verbal abuse:
This dialogue is present in both SM and USUM. They did not change it. This dialogue is also highly indicative of Lusamine’s verbal and emotional abuse toward her own children. In this one little speech, she:
That is a lot of verbal and emotional abuse packed into one little speech, and it is present in both games. We know, too, how deeply this affects Lillie, because (in USUM at least, though I’m sure it’s in SM as well) she bows her head partway through, in shame and hurt. Lillie tries to talk to Lusamine, yet ends up falling into hurt and shamed silence as Lusamine berates and drags her right in front of the player, one of the few friends Lillie has. That is abusive. That is, inarguably, abusive.
It’s only at that point that the dialogue changes, but in my opinion, it’s not any better.
SM:
USUM:
In SM, she:
In USUM, she:
She doesn’t have her “maybe if you had been a daughter to me” line in USUM, and instead thanks Lillie for keeping Cosmog safe for her, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the abuse is gone. If anything, the preceding lines were made even worse in USUM, particularly since the subtlety really speaks to how abusers (and particularly abusive parents) often talk in real life.
no subject
In both SM and USUM, when Hau exclaims in shock over the fact that Lusamine, Gladion, and Lillie are all related, Lusamine calls them both “wretches” and says that they “left [her]”, and in that same breath once again disowns them, saying they aren’t a family any longer. Despite how Game Freak wanted to seemingly tone down her abuse, they left her disowning both of her children (and insulting them in the same breath) when she replies to Hau in the trophy room. Furthermore, in SM especially, her abuse is all over the place once again. In the above little speech, she:
The line, “All I ever did was give you two all the love I had, and all you did was betray me” line was so powerful to me that, when I played through SM the first time, I had to put it down. The reason for this is because the last conversation I ever had with my abusive mother had her calling me a traitor for getting out of that house. My biological mother insists, to this day (as I know from talking with my sister, who still speaks to her) that all she ever did was love me. She insists that I “betrayed” her by leaving. When I say that Lusamine’s dialogue is realistic, I say this because her dialogue was so on-point for an abusive parent that I actually had to put my 3DS down to recollect myself for a moment. The way Lusamine abuses her children is a dead-on ringer for what my mother put me through for the first fifteen years of my life. So for you to say things like:
Is extremely upsetting and hurtful, because it’s basically like you’re saying that the abuse my mother put me through was not real abuse. It’s like you’re saying that my experiences were not valid. It’s like you’re agreeing with her when she says that she never abused me, and that I betrayed her, and that I was in the wrong for finding a way out of that situation. I know that was likely not your intention, particularly since we don’t even know each other, but that is exactly how your words come across, and it’s upsetting, particularly since I still struggle with wondering if I really blew everything out of proportion and was in the wrong for leaving sometimes, especially since …
Mmm, that.
The thing about abusive parents is that they’re not 100% cruel 100% of the time. The reason why Ghetsis is so cartoonish is because we’re meant to believe that he’s 100% cruel 100% of the time. But with actual abusers, that isn’t the case. The “cycle of abuse” is a concept that exists for a reason. Yes, there are abusive incidents, and yes, abuse is a pattern; but part of that pattern is abusers acting kind, sweet, or even loving toward their victims, in order to convince their victims to stay. Either they do this through guilt (“I need you, I could never live without you”), or through faux apologies and promises of love (“I’m so sorry, you know I’d never want to hurt you, I love you so much”), or something else similar. The victim is led to believe that they have to stay, or that they should stay, and that deep down their abuser really truly loves them, and is really truly trying to change.
So yes, Lillie remembers a time when Lusamine danced with her in the rain, and let her sleep in her bed afterward (though notably, this memory does not exist in USUM). Likewise, I remember plenty of times when my mother was comforting and kind to me, when she seemed to actually have interest in me, when she seemed to love me. I have many specific memories of her kindness, no different from Lillie’s story of dancing in the rain with her mother.
But those times when my mother was kind to me do not negate the times that she was cold, abusive, and downright cruel to me. They don’t negate the years, upon years, upon years of verbal, emotional, and sometimes physical abuse. Her acts of kindness, and the specific memories I have those acts of kindness, don’t negate her acts of cruelty and the specific memories I have of those moments, too. These two things don’t cancel each other out. They both were the actions of the same exact person. As much as my C-PTSD sometimes tries to convince me that the memories I have where she was being kind mean that she really did love me and that I was cruel and blowing things out of proportion by leaving, I know that I’m not making up the abusive things she did to me, and I wasn’t wrong by leaving. I know that. Or at least, I remind myself of that whenever my trauma tries to tell me that I’m wrong.
Lillie has a memory of Lusamine being kind to her, but that is not out of the ordinary for abused kids. That Game Freak would use it as an indicator that Lusamine was nice once and therefore Lillie should forgive her is, in my personal opinion, wrong. Again, it makes me feel as though the message I’m being given is, “Your mother was nice to you sometimes, therefore it was your job to change her, and since you didn’t, you’re in the wrong, a traitor.” It’s a terrible message to send to people like me. Abused children are not responsible for “saving” their parents. I can forgive Lillie for wanting to try, because she is eleven and is the victim of long-term abuse, and—as demonstrated with the cycle of abuse—abuse survivors are often caught up in the mindset that they can change their abuser, that they can make things better. But that is not how it works. It should not be on Lillie’s or Gladion’s shoulders to “redeem” Lusamine. A happy ending for them would have been having them adopted by Kukui and Burnet, particularly since Burnet loved Lillie so much she was so devastated by Lillie leaving that she couldn’t even come to the port.
Lastly, this:
Actually, Nihilego’s toxins release inhibitions, rather than ramping up certain traits. It’s not that Nihilego made Lusamine’s behavior worse, but rather, it stopped her from caring about the consequences of things she wanted to do anyway. So even if she was under UB-01’s influence (and there’s no concrete evidence that she was; she’s being healed from toxins she was infested with during her time as Motherbeast in SM), all it would do is make her feel more comfortable voicing her desire to disown her children, and otherwise treat them like garbage. I.e., she always had the desire to be an abuser, now she’s just acting on it.
Second, even if that was the case, that does not stop her from being an abuser. Someone who abuses their children after binge drinking whiskey is still an abuser, they’re just an abusive alcoholic. Someone who abuses their children after getting high on crystal meth is still an abuser, they’re just an abusive drug addict. The fact that Lusamine was potentially high while abusing her children does not make her less of an abuser. It doesn’t negate what she did. And while you could argue, “But she could recover and be redeemed!” that … doesn’t exactly jive, either. Drug addicts can absolutely be rehabilitated, yes, but there’s a difference between being rehabilitated for drug use, and putting the onus on a drug addicted abuser’s victims to rehabilitate and redeem said abuser. If Lusamine recovered on her own (perhaps with Wicke’s help) and then, many years later, tried to reach out to Gladion and Lillie, and they decided to give her a second chance … okay, maybe. But acting as if the toxins completely negate what she did and excuse her—acting as if Lillie and Gladion will be just fine now, even as they’re left to take care of her … doesn’t feel right.
Lastly, you and I had very different reactions to her parting line to Lillie. Lusamine saying:
Is both another insult, and another way to show that Lusamine hasn’t actually learned anything. It’s insulting because it’s insinuating that Lillie wasn't beautiful before; the girl that spent so many years being abused and mistreated by Lusamine, who put her own personal safety at risk to save Cosmog, was still “not beautiful enough” in Lusamine’s eyes. Lusamine only sees Lillie “becoming beautiful” now, at the end of the game, because Lillie is showing care and concern over her. We actually see this in USUM as well; Lusamine calls Gladion and Lillie “wretches” who “left her” when Hau asks about their family status, but once Gladion and Lillie show fear over losing her, then and only then does she call them “sweet” and “kind” and praise them in any way. Lusamine is only kind to her children when they are praising or otherwise doing something for her. The minute they try to assert themselves in any way, she disowns them and calls them wretches and traitors. That is hallmark abusive behavior.
Second, by harping once again on Lillie’s “beauty,” Lusamine shows that she has not actually learned anything, or changed in any way. Beauty is still all she cares about. We have no reason to believe that she’ll behave any differently once she awakens from her coma, because her parting line just showed us that her priorities are in the same exact place they were before. The only difference is that she’s now recognizing that Lillie cares for her, therefore she’ll use a backhanded compliment of sorts to try and show gratitude … (while at the same time putting her finger against Lillie’s lips to stop her talking) … but that’s not saying much. Lusamine hasn’t changed, she hasn’t learned, she hasn’t grown, she isn’t sorry. That’s not a mark of redemption. All that line did was make me angrier, particularly when Lillie and Gladion had to put their own lives on hold to take care of her (as expected of abused children—I would have done the same when I was eleven) because of Japan’s adherence to filial piety.
This ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, and to be honest I’ll be surprised if you read the whole thing. But I had to respond, because you saying that Lusamine isn’t actually an abuser (but instead that she “could’ve gotten there”) when her abuse mirrors what my mother put me through for the first fifteen years of my life—when it mirrors what I’m still going to therapy for to this day—was very hurtful to me. It felt invalidating, and I wasn’t going to be able to rest without saying something, so here it is. I’ve said my piece. Thank you for listening.
WrightlySo
no subject
In the most basic sense, Pokemon Sun/Moon follows the usual mainline Pokemon game formula: you start out as an adolescent trainer getting a small Water, Grass, or Fire-type Pokemon from a scientist named after a type of tree. You use this Pokemon to beat a series of trainers, fight a morally dubious organization, get tangled up in events involving a legendary Pokemon, defeat four strong trainers, and defeat one VERY strong trainer who holds a position of high importance in the region. Some dialogue happens and the credits roll.
In the midst of this basic structure is the story of Lusamine’s family, which can only be described as a tragedy.
Shortly after beginning your story as “generic player character avatar who has recently moved to the Alola region,” you encounter Lillie, an enigmatic girl, who needs you to help save her little Pokemon (later identified as Cosmog) she calls “Nebby” from a swarm of other Pokemon on a rickety bridge. You help her with this, earning her trust. You then learn that Lillie is trying to keep Nebby hidden within her bag and has been staying with the region’s local scientific expert, Professor Kukui, as his assistant. Kukui doesn’t know where she came from and she doesn’t want to reveal any more information about Nebby or her past.
Over the course of the first half of the story, you get little details here and there about Lillie’s past.
A little bit later after you meet Lillie, you meet Gladion, a mysterious boy who’s been living on his own for some time along with a dangerous, artificial-looking Pokemon he calls “Type:Null.” Gladion informs you that he intends to get stronger and refuses to give more information about himself. You find some time later that he’s working as an enforcer for Team Skull, the bandit team of the region who spends much of their time causing property damage and stealing Pokemon. As the game progresses, Gladion eventually informs the player that Team Skull is after Nebby, and he tells the player that the player should protect Nebby and Lillie.
After you finish the first half of the island challenge, you and your relaxed-buddy-rival Hau stop by the Aether Foundation HQ, Aether Paradise. While there, you get told by a kind female Aether employee named Wicke that they’re basically the ASPCA for Pokemon. Shortly after, the player and Hau finally meet Lusamine, who proclaims her love for all Pokemon.
Then a wormhole opens up and an eldritch-horror-jellyfish-Pokemon pops up and attacks. Once it’s repelled and disappears, Lusamine ominously states that she will find a way to love that Pokemon, too. When Hau and the player happen to bring up Lillie around her, Lusamine ominously says that children should obey their elders.
Eventually, Team Skull becomes such a huge nuisance on your journey that about ¾ of your way through the island challenge, you’re tasked with breaking into their base in Po Town and defeating their leader, Guzma. Guzma takes the beating with some annoyance, but this is only a minor setback for his greater plans.
When the player returns from Po Town, they find that Lillie has been kidnapped by Team Skull and taken to Aether Foundation headquarters. Gladion arrives and informs them that Team Skull has been working for the Aether Foundation to steal Pokemon.
In truth, Guzma has been working directly under Lusamine.
When you go to confront Lusamine, some choice details come out:
Lusamine then denounces Gladion and Lillie as her children and uses Nebby to open the wormholes regardless. Lusamine and Guzma get sucked into one of these wormholes and Ultra Beasts get unleashed all over Alola, causing havoc and mayhem wherever they go.
After this, Gladion goes off to try to stop the Ultra Beasts however he can. Lillie states her intention to try to stop her mother from causing further damage and save her from herself.
The rest of the game is largely about Lillie helping the player to get to Lusamine while gradually gaining the confidence to eventually confront her mother.
Lillie changes the way she dresses, opts to be more outgoing, and gathers the courage to cross a similar rickety bridge from the beginning of the game without the player’s help.
It’s during this period of time that the player and Lillie stop by the small Exeggutor Island. There, Lillie confides in the player that she still has ambivalent feelings about her mother and herself. Lusamine wasn’t always bad, but once she stopped caring about anything but the Ultra Beasts, it basically destroyed Lillie’s identity and sense of agency. The player has inspired Lillie to overcome this fact.
In the end, the player and Lillie go to a sacred altar: there, the player and Lillie play some holy flutes, and Nebby evolves into the game’s legendary Pokemon: Solgaleo for Sun, Lunala for Moon.
Lillie and the player then travel through the wormhole into Ultra Space to stop Lusamine. There, Guzma tells the two that Lusamine is so far mentally gone that she terrifies him. Despite this, Lillie is determined to confront her. Despite Lusamine basically being mindlinked with the Cthulhu-esque Ultra Beast called Nihilego, Lillie calls her out for all of her horrible actions and her years of abuse.
After this, the player has to battle a Lusamine-Nihilego hybrid…
…’s Pokemon. You don’t actually get to fight the hybrid. Missed opportunity.
Regardless, you defeat Lusamine, and Lillie calls out to her mother one last time. The hybrid tries to strike at Lillie, an act that could presumably kill her, when Lillie calls for Nebby. Nebby takes down the hybrid, separating Nihilego from Lusamine.
The battle is over. Lusamine is defeated, but she’s alive. Lusamine even remarks that Lillie suddenly looks beautiful, indicating her love for Lillie may still be there.
The world is saved from the Ultra Beasts. Nebby takes the player, Lillie, Lusamine, and Guzma back to Earth.
Nebby wants to stay with Lillie, but Lillie asks Nebby to stay with the player because Lillie isn’t a proper Pokemon Trainer yet.
As the game comes to its conclusion after the player becomes the region Champion, Guzma disbands Team Skull and moves back home. You can talk to him after the game to find out that he came from a home with extreme pressure to succeed, with some dialogue implying that his father physically beat him– Guzma wanted to be strong, yes, but he wanted the love and respect that Lusamine seemed to provide him for getting Pokemon for her. He’s got no one to really trust, now, and he has no plan of what to do with his life after all this.
Gladion evolves Type:Null into Silvally, freeing it from the power-restraining helmet that caused it so much discomfort. He thanks you for helping his sister and saving his mother. After the credits roll, Gladion takes over as president of the Aether Foundation and plans for it to help Pokemon for real this time.
Gladion speculates that Lusamine went insane because Gladion and Lillie’s father, Professor Mohn, was lost in a wormhole experiment gone wrong. Lusamine never mentally recovered from the loss.
Lillie gives thanks to the sacred Tapu Pokemon, who helped fight off the Ultra Beasts while she dealt with her mother. She celebrates the end of the player’s island challenge with Hau and Professor Kukui. Lillie confirms that her mother is now in a mental hospital, and she seems to be making some progress.
But Lillie can’t just be a passive observer for things anymore: she can’t just stay on the island as Kukui’s assistant.
To that end, Lillie decides to leave for Kanto, the location of the first Pokemon games. She’s headed there both to get the researcher Bill to help with her mother’s treatment and to go on her own Pokemon journey to become a respectable trainer. Lillie states she was inspired to strike out on her own as a trainer in part thanks to the trainer’s own actions. I personally like to think that Lillie will take Nebby with her some day
The credits roll, focusing on a shot of Lillie with a fully evolved Nebby, both of them at peace.
That’s where the story leaves us.
Lillie is trying to help her mother get better, but she’s also focused on moving on with her life independent of her family.
Gladion is cleaning up after his mother’s mess, but he never says he forgives Lusamine for what she did.
Guzma’s pretty much broken and driftless.
Lusamine may very well be in a mental hospital for the rest of her life, and even if she recovers, her children would be justified in never forgiving her. Even worse, Lusamine may have to face severe legal penalties for kidnapping Pokemon and endangering the entire Alola region.
There isn’t a clean, neat ending in Sun/Moon where everything is wrapped up and everyone is forgiven. The player helps two children of an abusive parent stop their abusive parent from destroying the world.
Of course the kids are gonna need time to recover. Given how badly they were treated, and given the fact that their mother kidnapped multiple Pokemon and almost killed everyone in their region, they would be perfectly justified in never forgiving her or talking to her ever again. Hell, Lillie even has some trouble forgiving Gladion at first for leaving her with Lusamine alone.
Lillie and Gladion are survivors of parental abuse from a mother who will probably spend the rest of her life in either a mental ward or a prison cell.
From a franchise where the other most seriously addressed issues parental issues before this point were Gen 5’s unambiguously manipulative Ghetsis, who uses his foster-son to steal Pokemon and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and Gen I’s absent Giovanni, whose relationship with his son Silver is never directly addressed as a character motivation in any game in the series, Lusamine’s issues with her children are heavily focused upon and surprisingly nuanced.
This isn’t to say that the game is absolutely perfect. One glaring issue [...] is that Lillie’s callout against her mother’s abuse is done while Lillie’s face can only be described as a decidedly pouty “ >BI”. Not a face of pure anger, not a tearful remorse, not a face of grim determination… A pouting face. Could’ve been handled a little more seriously.
It’s a complicated story of mental illness, child abuse, and growing up in spite of both of those things. Even looking back now, I’m shocked that we got a story like this from the usually child-friendly-to-a-fault Pokemon franchise.
….Which is why, honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised when they backpedaled on that and effectively neutered the entire story in the updated remake that came out a year later, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
no subject
Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were released approximately a year after Sun and Moon. These “updated versions” of these games are different from the aforementioned remakes like Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, as they were made using the same technology and followed a more traditional “third version” formula.
[...]
When you talk to Gladion early in the game, you’ll also notice that he’s less obsessed with Ultra Beasts than before. You later find out he didn’t leave home to get away from his mother– rather, he simply left after Mohn disappeared in order to get stronger to take care of his family. Gladion’s motivations, thus, have changed.
The same events basically play out as in Sun/Moon with some Ultra Recon Squad cameos up until you and Hau visit Aether Paradise again. This time, when Nihilego shows up, Lusamine doesn’t emphasize her desire to love and nurture it: rather, the Ultra Recon Squad shows up, explains the existence of Ultra Beasts, and reveals that Necrozma stole almost all of the light and energy in their home world. Lusamine promises that the Aether Foundation is working with the Ultra Recon Squad to protect Alola.
Already, you’ll notice that Lusamine’s motivations have completely changed.
When the time comes again for Lillie to be kidnapped and taken to Aether Paradise after the player defeats Guzma, the player parties up with Hau and Gladion once more to save her. This time, however, the Ultra Recon Squad meet the player ahead of time and emphasize that Lusamine needs to use Nebby’s power to save the world from Necrozma. When the player and Lillie confront Lusamine about the fact that using Nebby’s power to that degree may kill it, Lusamine expresses a small amount of remorse, but she affirms her position that it may be necessary to save the world.
I want to emphasize that Lusamine was still having Team Skull kidnap Pokemon and Lusamine was still freezing them in crystal in her lab, but, uh… This isn’t ever really spoken about. The scene just ignores this fact and goes on to have Gladion show up and focus on how Nebby opening the wormhole to get Necrozma could put the world in danger. Lusamine counters that Necrozma’s threat has to be handled in some way.
Gone are Lusamine’s condemnations of her children for abandoning her. Gone is her psychosis in describing her love for beautiful Pokemon and her corruption by Nihilego.
Lusamine’s just trying to stop Necrozma before it kills everybody. She became so fixated on stopping Necrozma that everything else seemed less important. I suppose the Pokemon kidnapping was just a bit of a side hobby.
After Lusamine and Guzma get sucked into the portal again, the player goes through some more motions with Lillie to stop her mother.
Again, Lillie changes her clothes and has some dialogue about her mother being controlling, but much of it is scaled back to emphasize how her mother just went too far and how Lillie wants to save her.
The entire Exeggutor Island event where Lillie confides in the player is removed– the player simply goes to the island alone and Lillie never has that conversation. Lillie never chastises Gladion about leaving her alone with a mentally ill mother. Almost all of Lillie’s ambivalence about Lusamine’s mistreatment is omitted.
As with the rest of her family, Lillie’s motivations have changed.
When Lillie and the player get to the sacred altar, Lusamine and Guzma get kicked out of hyperspace and an evolved Nebby gets eaten up by Necrozma, allowing Necrozma to become exponentially more powerful. Necrozma then hops through a wormhole to presumably cause more problems elsewhere.
The Ultra Recon Squad then yell at Lusamine for being careless and give the player a Pokemon to help them get through a wormhole to stop Necrozma. Lillie does not air her grievances with her mother, nor does she accompany the player to save Nebby: Lille just asks the player to save Nebby. Lillie stays back on Earth with Lusamine while the player goes to take care of Necrozma.
In other words, the climax of Lillie’s character arc, where she stands up to her mother, is gone.
After the player defeats Necrozma in what is admittedly one of the hardest boss fights in the entire franchise, the player goes back to Earth with Nebby. Lusamine, the Ultra Recon Squad, and Lillie all congratulate the player. Lillie and Lusamine go back to Aether Paradise with Nebby to heal it up. Lusamine says she’s sorry about being so rash about opening the wormholes– no mention of the Pokemon kidnapping, though. Guzma just kinda goes with them. His character arc also doesn’t have any end here.
Once the player becomes Region Champion here, the celebrations remain pretty much the same. However, Lillie isn’t going anywhere: she’s staying with Lusamine to help build back up Aether Paradise. And that’s right: Lusamine’s fine! She’s fine. She said she was sorry and now things are cool.
Gladion’s going to Kanto instead of Lillie here: not for any particularly deep reason, really, he’s just going there to train because he thinks it’s a cool place to train.
Guzma just hangs out around Lusamine, doesn’t disband Team Skull, and presumably doesn’t steal Pokemon anymore.
As Gladion sails away, everybody’s happy and satisfied that the world was saved.
Credits roll.
[...]
Everything is all good. Everything is fine.
Happy ending, right?
Well, let’s not forget one little potential scene that’s added from Sun/Moon: Mohn’s return.
The player can get a cutscene where Mohn returns to Aether Paradise: he doesn’t recognize the place because he still has amnesia, and he leaves shortly after arriving.
Lusamine talks to him. She checks to see that he truly doesn’t remember anything.
She and Gladion are just glad that Mohn is doing well.
…
That’s it. That’s the end of Lusamine’s family storyline in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. “My husband/our dad is still alive, but he has amnesia. Eh, let’s leave it be. It’s chill, everything is fine.”
no subject
This is a problem, because in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, Lillie never gets to call out her mother for this. The end of her character arc in Sun/Moon is growing independent of her mother, calling her mother out, and at the end, simultaneously working to take care of her mother (by finding Bill) and growing up (by going on a Pokemon journey of her own).
S/M Lillie got to overcome her trauma and grow up. US/UM Lillie went through a rough patch when Lusamine went too far; by the end, Lillie’s comfortably training Pokemon under her mother’s wing, with no need to go on her own journey or call out her mother. S/M’s ambiguous ending with her Pokemon journey in Kanto meant that the player could assume Lillie would be strong enough to take Nebby with her one day; US/UM’s ending just sticks her with one Clefairy, a weaker Pokemon than some literal toddlers run around with in Alola.
Gladion, similarly, doesn’t have to overcome neglect or abuse at all in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. He’s basically just the son that went out on a Pokemon journey without asking permission– he basically just comes back while doing some training to check in and help out for a little while. Once Necrozma is stopped, he gets to go on a training trip to Kanto– not because he wants to get help for his mother, not because he was particularly inspired by the player’s actions, not because he needs to be away from Alola to be confident and grow… He’s just going to Kanto to train because Kanto is a cool place to train. There’s no deeper meaning than that. Lusamine waves as he leaves and he waves back to signify that… Yeah, everything’s cool. No hard feelings there.
Gladion in S/M feels tremendous responsibility for leaving Lillie alone with his mentally ill mother and wants to atone for Lusamine’s mistakes in running the Aether Foundation. It’s very convenient that US/UM Gladion doesn’t have to deal with any of that.
Of course, Guzma’s arc doesn’t really have ANY depth or meaning in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. He was a broken down, sad guy who lost the island challenge, just like Sun/Moon. He started doing the morally dubious things Lusamine said because she showed him respect and kindness, just like in Sun/Moon. And then, after he loses to the player, and it looks like Lusamine’s plan is going to backfire… Lusamine admits she was wrong, and the player saves the world. Lusamine and Guzma are still chill at the end of the game, she’s just (presumably) done ordering him to steal Pokemon. Guzma’s pretty much the exact same person with some new respect for the player. That’s about it.
S/M Guzma is depressed and crashing at his parents’ house, while US/UM Guzma is chilling with the Team Skull members, presumably just barely avoiding committing crimes.
At the heart of all of this, of course, is Lusamine herself.
Lusamine in Sun/Moon is a tragic figure, broken by the loss of her husband. Lusamine lost her mind, abused her children, and almost killed everyone in Alola as a result of her loss. In the end, she’s in a mental hospital, which is presumably the only thing stopping her from going to jail for kidnapping Pokemon and endangering the entire region.
Lusamine in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon is treated, essentially, as a well-intentioned but misled extremist. Yes, she did bad things, but she was trying to save the world, you see. Maybe Nebby would’ve died, and maybe Lillie wasn’t treated as well as she could have been, and maybe Lusamine put everyone in danger by trying to handle it all by herself with Guzma… But, you know, it was all for a good cause. Ultimately, opening the wormholes is what let the player get to Necrozma and defeat it.
Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon still has Lusamine apologize for what happened with mistreating her children and endangering the region, but… You know. Everyone says it’s all good.
So the mentally ill S/M Lusamine was changed into the well-intentioned but misguided US/UM Lusamine.
The Pokemon stealing and freezing in crystal thing… It’s never really explained or justified.
In addition, Lusamine being justified in a later edition of the original story bears some uncomfortable resemblance to real life examples of abusers trying to justify their actions:
“Don’t you see? Yes, I crushed your sense of confidence, Lillie, but I was trying to save the world! My mind was elsewhere!”
Stuff like that is unfortunately common in the real world, where abusive parents will often express that their mistreatment of their children is because of some trauma or ongoing problem in their own lives.
And unlike S/M Lillie and Gladion, who regard their mother as ill and want her to be healed without explicitly forgiving her, US/UM Lillie and Gladion forgive Lusamine for everything. They think coming together as a family is more important than whatever abuse they may have suffered in the past, which is… Not a great change.
It would be one thing if US/UM Lusamine was the original and S/M Lusamine never existed: this means that she always would’ve been well-intentioned and her abuse would’ve been minimal. But going from the abusive, mentally-ill S/M Lusamine to the justified, well-meaning US/UM Lusamine gives off the incredibly uncomfortable feeling of justifying and downplaying emotional abuse within the greater framework of the 7th generation’s storyline.