#and everyone getting so mad about two johto starters???? they never said it had to be 3 regional starters calm tf down

[tits-n-trix]

Also I want to extend a gracious fuck you to everyone who said "No it has to be in the past" when the first Legends ZA trailer came out and I thought it might be a future setting

[harusha]

by last 2 gens, I meant SUMO and SWSH. I loved XY, but liked SUMO characters better. USUMO could have made great sequels. Lillie as prof. Gladion as champ, Hau as a kahuna. Etc. Would also make the transition to wormhole traveling more realistic if they were set in a universe where the events took place. I loved Gen 2 for letting us see Kanto 3 years later, and BW2 for letting us see what's changed in Unova. Just frustrating with the direction of things

Whoops, sorry anon. I never got the notification for this, so this is probably a week old or so. Tbh, I feel you though. I don’t want to be a spoilsport, but it feels like the mainline games are riding somewhat on name brand at this point. Making games is hard don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot going on w/ SWSH rn on release.

I love the whole sequel stuff, but my only concern is “canonzing a protag.” Like…look at Alexio/Cassandra from AC:O. Sheer madness in how those arguments go on “canon. Like, I like ambiguity because I can avoid that.

Tbh alongside the sequel idea and the coherency it would bring, I would love it if wormholes let you go to the OG timelines (RBY–>GSC, FRLG/RSE–>PDPT/HGSS->BW->BW2), and that’s why you get hidden abilities, rare Pokemon, and increased shiny chance. They could just explain it as the wormhole changing the Pokemon’s characteristics. RBY timeline is basically “no one had abilities,” hence the drastic changes, FRLG timeline could be “they decided to go with you, and now they changed to fit your timeline.”

 Like they wouldn’t have to put every single region in; they could even just make it to where you visited parts of each region, perhaps the most iconic locations and/or moments, as a post-game/high difficulty thing (everyone is set to lv. 100 and have ideal spreads+sets). Like dropping in on Mt. Silver at the foot of the mountain, and have the area name pop up as “???” and have the player traverse the dungeon (w/ the HGSS encounters but inflated to 80s-90s so the observant veteran player can go “hmm this is familiar”) and have it accumulate in walking in on EthanVSRed on Mt. Silver, and it ending up in a double battle with them. Like that would blow people’s minds and make them realize what the post-game is, a love letter to every single generation so far, and set the stage for the rest of the post-game.

They don’t even have to confirm the canon protagonist for Johto if they just cover them up in snow gear (ie. put a cloak on them and have the hood up), and give them Meganium, Typhlosion, Feraligatr, Tyranitar, Raichu, and Espeon/Azumarill. The three starters, the Pseudo-Legendary of the generation, Raichu to parallel Red (also small callback to how Ethan was supposed to be Red’s younger brother in the old GBC pamphlet), and Espeon if they want to showcase the OG day/night cycle gen+it being the gift Pokemon and a Easter egg part of Red’s original team. Azumarill is if they prefer to reference the childhood friend.

They could even make this a chance to up the difficulty through the excuse of “alternate universe/wormholes caused their Pokemon to change abilities.” Make Red’s and Ethan’s teams complement each other and have them carry optimized spreads and sets for doubles. Ex. Blastoise or Pikachu with Fake Out and Focus Sash sets up rain and Ethan’s Raichu w/ Air Balloon/Choice Specs and carrying Thunder+Surf and has Lightningrod (wormhole shenanigans gave it a Hidden Ability) and so forth. Give them things such as Magic Bounce Espeon, Dual Screens Meganium, Mega Charizard X (wormholes made it happen), etc. Just showcase them as a bonus challenge and their status as legendary trainers akin to Mameo from Digimon. Perhaps give a reward of something like “Red gave you that extra Master Ball he never used” or a music player from Ethan so you can listen to curated songs from the older games. Or even simply clothes modeled after their original designs (Leaf and Kris outfits for girls and Red+Ethan for boys; or make it all available as unisex outfits where the inspiration is obvious but it’s not exactly the same).

And if they want to make it even more of a nostalgia bomb, have Ethan’s Raichu have a spiky/notched ear to imply that it’s a timeline where the special Pichu evolves and had Surf instead of Pain Split as the special move.

Other iconic moments could be dropping in at Turnback Cave and traversing Distortion World again and saving on Lucas, Dawn, and Cynthia and rescuing them from Giratina. Reward is catching Giratina and a battle against Cynthia, Lucas, Dawn, and perhaps Cyrus. Avoids picking a canon protagonist and arguments over who should have showed up. Focus is single battle gauntlet with each trainer giving a choice on whether you want to heal after each victory (exception is Cyrus).

Have Lucas/Dawn mention how they like trading and that’s why one of them has two starters (or multiple gift Pokemon) to help avoid narrowing down the canon protagonist. Lucas could work in Trick Room (Torterra, Cresselia/Dusknoir, Vaporeon, Magnezone, Heatran, Machamp). Showcases the notorious number of roamers/legendaries in Sinnoh, Mt. Coronet evolution, trade evolutions (GTS), a new gimmick of the gen in Trick Room, and incorporates a gift Pokemon). Dawn could work with Iron Fist Infernape, lead Empoleon w/ Stealth Rock (showcase that infamous entry hazard), Paraflinch Togekiss, Porygon-Z, Lucario, and Glaceon. Gift Pokemon+showcases the (then) new evolutions of that gen.

Have Giratina be like lv. 80-100 with Totem Pokemon stat to explain how in the darn, everyone lost with those sorts of levels.

RSE could be dropping in on Brendan and May going up Sky Pillar and setting Rayquaza off to stop Groudon and Kyogre, and it starts a side quest of following them to experience the climax of the Hoenn Saga. Climax is them itching for a fight from seeing your skills. Have Brendan (Sceptile, Mega Blaziken, Celebi , Salamence, Starmie, and Latias) and team up with Steven and May (Mega Swampert, Gardevoir/Gengar, Latios, Metagross, Jirachi, and Ninetales) with Wallace in a doubles. Both teams have callbacks to stuff like the manga (Brendan with Celebi and Salamence), references the two Pseudos of the generation, the roamers, trading with Orre for the promotions (Celebi and Jirachi for US and JP respectively) and Red/Leaf in Brendan’s case, Wally’s OG signature, or even the OG Mystery Dungeon. Have Brendan wear his Emerald outfit while May wears the Ruby/Sapphire outfit to blur who the canon protagonist is. Bonus fight could be seeking out Archie and Maxie in their atonement/voluntary isolation for a fight.

BW is dropping in on Hilbert and Hilda encountering Kyurem (since it feels wrong to interrupt N’s goodbye tbh). Teams would be [Contrary Serperior, Samurott, Victini, Archeops, Zoroark, and Mandibuzz] for Hilbert and [Emboar, Keldeo, Genesect, Volcarona, Braviary, and Carracosta] for Hilda. Their teams aren’t amazing, but it’s meant to showcase the generation’s fossils, gift/event Pokemon, and version exclusives. Have it be you saving them from the snow and from Kyurem. Have them talk about how they’re thinking of setting off together to find their friend N, and how much they want to see him again. Make it emotional and have them talk about what they’ve learned about Pokemon from him and their interactions on their journey.

BW2 is saving Rosa and Nate from Ghetsis’s murder attack and fight Ghetsis. After you all return to a Pokecenter, have the two of them challenge you to a Rotation and Triple Battle respectively. Rosa runs a rain team with Drizzle Politoed, Octillery, Smeargle, Kabutops, Kingdra, and Ludicolo while Nate runs a Sand Team with Hippowdon, Sand Rush Excadrill, Rhyperior, Garchomp, Scizor, and Gliscor. Have it be a gimmick to where weather is infinite again in this wormhole location since their teams are meant to be a callback to the weather wars of gen v and the stars of those teams.

And have N show up to thank you for saving Rosa and Nate since he was almost too late right as you are leaving through a wormhole. Have the player tell him about what Hilbert and Hilda said and how they want to meet him again+urge him to meet his friends again and have it end with N saying something to the effect of “…I’ll think about it.” and leave it on an ambiguous note to whether he will meet them.

And finally, have it end with Red encountering Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave and have it diverge by you saving him from Giovanni (he lied about quitting and it’s only after you defeat him that he leaves for isolation until Ethan/Lyra/Kris beat him up again). Ends on a note of “this is where it all began.” Reward is catching Mewtwo and battling Red in a single. Here, they can make his team diverge from canon because it’s pre-Mt. Silver Red/alternate universe. Alakazam, Dragonite, Zapdos, Persian, Eviolite Chansey, and Mew. Showcases popular threats of that gen+trade evolution, irony in Red having Meowth’s evolution (Giovanni is associated with Persian b/c anime), the mythical #151 and source of playground rumors, the pseudo, one of the “your reward for exploring” stationary legendaries, etc.

Could even do a bonus of letting you travel to Kalos (but just the port) and meeting Serena and Calem who are both arguing about fashion while waiting for Sina and Dexio. Make their reason for battling you something lighthearted like you interrupting their argument to say “both of your fashion senses suck.”

Have them carry [Delphox, Chesnaught, Tyrantrum, Furfrou, Mega Gyarados, and Goodra] and [Greninja, Talonflame, Aegislash, Mega Kangaskhan, Meowstic-M, and Aurorus]. Showcases starters, Megas, radical gender differences, fossils, popular threats of Gen VI meta, Furfrou cuts, etc.

And if that’s too much, just recreate parts of the legendaries OG encounter dungeons, Cerulean Cave for Mewtwo, Bell Tower for Johto, etc.

Like…Gen VII was the “this is the 20th anniversary of Pokemon” gen and that would have been a great time to pack everything into one gen. Like…they had space for multiple walking Pokemon animations on the cart that they could have taken out or even tweaked these ideas so the dungeons would be slightly smaller (ie. fit to cart) or reduce the weirdly high number of Lillie models in the game. This isn’t an entire region (or regions) either, but snapshots and small locales to revisit. It also incorporates more fights with the Team Leaders at higher levels and difficulty.

Like idk, I made myself sad because I realize this would never happen unless some mad lad decided to create a massive rom hack/expansion, Masuda gets a larger team (and Pokemon stops with the yearly releases so the team isn’t pressured as much), etc.

Idk, I feel like the games for the 20th ani weren’t as good in hindsight for what they made out to be a year of Pokemon. But that’s just me griping again about Alola.

Also perhaps solviing all this gives you a final wormhole where you’re taken to fight Leaf. Give her Clefable (Clefairy’s original yet scrapped mascot thing), Golem, Flareon, Jolteon, Aerodactyl, and Omastar. Showcases fossils, gift Pokemon, other Eeveelutions, etc.

[atrainernamedradish]

Top 5 Favorite Rivals

Least Favorite list: https://atrainernamedradish.tumblr.com/post/190290513502/top-5-least-favorite-rivals

Top 5 Favorite Rivals:

5) Barry [Diamond & Pearl; Platinum]

I think people can agree with me when I say Barry either needs to lay off the sugar and caffeine, or needs some Adderall, because holy fuck he was so damned hyper it was unreal! And before someone gets mad at the joke let me remind you that there is some dialogue where he tries to count to ten, and proclaims he can’t even sit still to do so! Like sweet Lord Barry calm the fuck down lol!

Jokes aside, I thought Barry was a solid rival. He wasn’t mean-spirited about being so or always trying to act better than you about it. Sure, he was cocky, but he eventually learned that he had to put his ego aside to actually learn how to be that much of a better trainer. His teams were pretty solid too. He wasn’t the hardest person to face, but he wasn’t a pushover by any means. Sometimes his hyperness was a bit annoying, but nothing that bugged me for too long. He was a good rival to have when you’re trying to deal with the headache that is the other rival that is your boring opposite gender.

4) Marnie [Sword & Shield]

Marnie is an interesting character. When I first saw her in the reveals for Sword & Shield I thought she was going to be this arrogant punk (I blame the black leather and spikes :P), but when you actually meet her that isn’t the case. She’s actually someone who doesn’t have that much confidence in herself, at first though, but as you progress through the game she builds up to that. In fact, the only thing she was confident in was not taking over her brother’s gym and setting out to do her own thing. Besides believing how confident she was going to be, I was also expecting Marnie to have this annoying personality (but I feel like that was due to Team Yell being there more than anything), but once again she blew my expectations out of the water! Her personality was sweet and likeable and it was refreshing! Her team was actually a pretty powerful one and was actually fit her aesthetic! That’s actually rare for a rival in this series if I’m being honest… From her aesthetic that mixes hard and soft (which yay the girls will be getting her outfit which I adore and can’t wait to have on my alt character!), her sweet shy personality that eventually gets some quiet confidence behind it, and her battle prowess, I enjoyed her as a rival as opposed to the other two who either got shafted by the overdone formula, or the one rival trying to be the OG rival who we’ll never truly get back.

3) Blue (Green) [Pokemon Red & Blue (Green); Yellow (Pikachu Edition); FireRed & LeafGreen; Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee]

And speaking of the OG, here he is: Blue (or Green if your Japanese). Many Pokemon games after the originals have tried to replicate this character, and haven’t quite made one that is up to snuff. This character is a perfect blend of cocky asshole and a strong trainer. You almost liked how much smack he talked then enjoyed kicking his ass after the fact, and doing so wasn’t always an easy feat, even in the remakes (excluding the Let’s Go series since he isn’t your rival in that). He had almost the perfect team not only against your starter but to also counteract your team members that made up your team for said starter’s weaknesses. That’s why kicking his ass was all that much sweeter because he didn’t just hand it to you. He made you work for that victory. While I’m not necessarily someone who is looking for a rival that has to be an elite trainer or anything, it’s nice to not have a friendly rival who talks a big game but is always going to face defeat, and quite easily and quickly too, by your hands. There have been some other rivals that have been pretty tough to deal with, but not as challenging as Blue will ever be… There’s a reason you will find this asshole on almost every top rival list. He earned that spot. Because despite being that smack talking asshole that you have to work extra hard to beat… he is kind of charming. He’s the rival you love to beat.

2) Bianca [Pokemon Black & White; Black 2 & White 2]

I want to make this clear with about my opinions on characters in Pokemon: they don’t have to be the strongest to be my favorites or even liked for that matter, and Bianca is one of those characters as far as battling prowess is concerned. I like Bianca for her character arc as well as the character herself. I think this character gets a lot of hate for no reason other than her not being a strong trainer, or not automatically being this confident cool character that should be ready to adventure which is honestly sad…

For me, Bianca is a very relatable character who in my honest opinion is a very underrated character. She is a character who wanted to do something with her life, but wasn’t sure how to start or go about doing it. Her first attempt is by doing what all the other characters her age do and that’s to set off on her own Pokemon journey, even if she wasn’t exactly ready. As her story progresses she comes to realize that that isn’t for her, and honestly not every person in that world is going to go out there finding out that this is for them. Not to mention not everyone who sets out on their Pokemon journey is going to find themselves being these super powerful trainers who are always going to confidently beat everything in their path. Bianca getting picked on by Team Plasma was not all that farfetched. She was a brand new trainer experiencing new things making her an easy target for them. Your character could have easily been just as privy to Team Plasma. Generation V showed that anyone was susceptible to them. But anyway, I’m going a little off topic, Bianca did struggle, but her struggles eventually took her to her calling: being a professor’s aid. Which fits her and overall is a good story arc for her. She’s not your typical rival of going around trying to one-up you and getting on your nerves trying to do so. She’s a friend, a main character, and unlike the typical power hungry overused rival archetypes, she grew and I was happy for her.

Not to mention, Bianca is one of the first few characters in the series to actually really… notice that there is this big new world around you and it’s something to explore taking it in as opposed to rushing into filling the Pokedex or doing the Gym Challenge, and honestly that’s refreshing for a character! Because you cannot tell me that if you were to leave your home setting off on a journey traveling to many new places that you’d overlook everything? Probably not. You’d want to explore all the new sites. That’s the whole point of an RPG is to explore. I felt more immersed in Black & White than most Pokemon games because I had a character in my journey to make it feel like it was actual exploration instead of bare bones places with much to be had. Unova, as to other regions, had a lot more sightseeing options and a lot more to explore. Unova just felt big, kind of like Johto and Kanto for GSC/HGSS. Just, thanks Bianca for feeling like a real person, instead of one-dimension rival who either wants to kick my ass or is so boring that I wish they were annoying lol…

1) Wally [Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire; Emerald; Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire]

It’s like I stated with Bianca: a rival for me doesn’t have to have battle prowess to be liked by or be a favorite for me. Not gonna lie, I wish Wally had a better team, but unfortunately Wally falls under the earlier formulas of forcing trainers to use entirely new Pokemon instead only peppering their teams with a few new ones, but whatever… 

Wally has one of my favorite rival arcs. He is a sickly kid who wants so badly to be healthier and have a Pokemon of his own so he could one day to set on his very own Pokemon journey like the other kids who have probably left by now on it. Nicely enough your character is there to guide and watch over him as he finally catches his very own Pokemon, even if later you were there to kick his ass a bit later on… While I do like how ORAS gave more facial expressions for this character to make you more sympathetic to him in the story… I wish they hadn’t had him show up after your battle with your dad to keep that mysteriousness of him actually progressing along side you on your Gym Challenge (yes I know you could read the gym signs to see that he’s doing it, but no one thinks to read those, let’s be honest!) before running into him at the end of Victory Road, but oh well. Honestly I wish they had had him in the Champion spot, kind of like what RBY did with Blue, but instead of knowing your rival was one step ahead of you as always you had the sickly kid you thought you sent home after a crushing defeat there instead who actually overcame it and decided to meet you there to prove he did so.

Overall Wally was an underdog and I like characters like that. You don’t expect him to become much more powerful after Mauville. He takes his defeat and he does his best to make up for it by having it push him. He wants to be stronger to prove to everyone, but more importantly to you, the person who was there to witness his journey from the start, how capable he was. Yeah, you do inevitably beat him, which is the fate of the main player in Pokemon, but when you do it you don’t think “aw man I beat another weak rival” or “hah! I beat your smug ass again!” you think of how it was a fun battle and a great progression in a well developed character’s story. And even then, Wally doesn’t take the defeat as a loss, but more as a way to push himself even further. He sees losing as a way to overcome something as to trying to cover up his frustration or to go packing home, and that is an admirable trait. Plus the final battle with him on Victory Road was pretty epic with that new theme of his as well as made me a bit sad because I had to beat him and all he did was smile and thank me… Made me want to cry lol… But that’s why Wally is my favorite rival. He has a great character arc, personality, and he makes me feel so many emotions that I feel like other rivals or characters couldn’t give me… Good job Wally you will always be the rival. 

[sage-nebula]

hey so i saw someone vaguely translate the argument between lillie and lusamine in today's ep and apparently it amounted to lillie being mad that lusamine evolved her clefairy without her consent and lusamine's answer amounting to "well technically it was my clefairy that i gave to you and also your reason for not evolving it was stupid" and? is it wrong for me to hope that pokeani will give us like (cont.)

more of this? like. lusamine being overly smotherly and lowkey selfish and overbearing and those aspects of her get more and more pronounced as an early warning sign that she’s not the ally the other characters think she is? like it’s pokeani there’s so many things that could go wrong here but the fact that this argument was bad enough that even sato and kukui notice that lillie is NOT here for her mom’s shit and that sumo-ani has been p. good with developing relationships make me hope.

Well, first of all, if that’s the same clefable that Lusamine has in the games, then it can go get fucked, tbh, because that clefable gave me the hardest time in the final battle. Not because it kept killing* my pokémon, but because it wouldn’t fucking die, none of my attacks did significant damage to it, and it kept healing itself and it was just The Worst™. So honestly, Lillie, you dodged a bullet there, because that clefable is a fucking bastard.

(*No, I do not nuzlocke. This is just an expression, not meant to be taken seriously.)

On a more serious note (because yes, the above is supposed to be a joke, please don’t take it too seriously, anyone), hmm … honestly, I don’t know!

It’s hard to judge because the PokéAni is inconsistent across the sagas in many ways. There are some constants that we can always count on: Ash will always leave all of his pokémon sans Pikachu behind when he goes to a new region, he will never win a game League, and he will always have at least one (1) of the new region starters as a mainstay on his team, so as to promote the new generation to kids. But aside from constants like that, the PokéAni tends to change its narrative style each season (and Ash along with it, but this post really isn’t about him). For instance, the first two seasons ever produced—and the first season itself in particular—are markedly different in tone from everything that followed, even when compared to the Johto seasons of the OS. The Johto seasons were more formulaic; they’re chock full of episodes that are very same-y and that you can skip right on over without losing anything of value. Meanwhile, the Kanto season was really treated as an adventure; it was less about showing Ash going through the game journey, and more about showing him on a journey, period, even when it included messier aspects like the kids being lost for two weeks on the way to Vermilion City, and being completely caked in dirt by the time they finally arrived, longing for baths and laundromats. Similarly, the Kalos saga is markedly different in tone from the Alola saga. The Kalos saga took itself more seriously, and so while there still were moments of comedy and some typical anime expressions here or there, by and large it was more … I don’t want to say realistic, because it still is a modern fantasy anime, but you had a lot less exaggeration in terms of animation style. By contrast, the Alola anime doesn’t seem to take itself nearly as seriously (at least right now), and the animation is a lot more exaggerated and over the top. Compare, for instance, animation sequences of the twerps falling asleep thanks to Jigglypuff’s song in the OS to the same situation in SM. Yeah, a lot of it is due to the fact that their animation budget is much higher now, and the technology they have to work with is much better et cetera, but a lot of it also has to do with a tonal and style shift.

So with all of that said, it’s really hard to predict what this saga will do, because we can’t exactly use previous sagas as a concrete frame of reference. We can try to make guesses … but it’s hard, because each saga is so distinct, they all have different things they were trying to accomplish. Just because one saga might have followed through doesn’t mean that this one will, and vice versa. And even though it’s been about a year so far, I feel that the Alola anime is still a bit too young to make a call, especially since …

Well. We all remember what happened in Kalos, don’t we?

Lysandre was a realistic depiction of an abuser. The emotional abuse he layered on Alan, and the way that he lied to, manipulated, and used him like a tool is blatantly obvious, despite the cordial way he behaved around everyone else. As a result, and speaking as someone with C-PTSD from abuse myself, the C-PTSD that Alan has is also very obvious, and is also a realistic portrayal. Lysandre was an abuser, Alan was his victim, and this is obvious to everyone except those who purposefully refuse to see it so they can have an excuse to keep trashing all over Alan the way they do. 

And for the most part, PokéAni handled this well! Like, I was legitimately impressed with how well they handled it! Again, Alan’s C-PTSD was extremely well portrayed. His severe depression was extremely well portrayed. In XYZ044, we see that this has (more than understandably) hit such a critical mass that Ash essentially talked him down from suicide in their garden discussion, even if the actual word was never spoken. (Like, has Ash ever looked that anxious when asking someone to promise him to battle again in the future? I don’t think so. Let’s be real, like pretty much everything else in their relationship, it really was not about the battle.) And yet, despite all of that being done so well, despite it being portrayed so well … the PokéAni writers decided “fuck this lmao” and ruined it in all the episodes that followed by sweeping Alan’s issues completely under the rug, disrespecting his boundaries and wishes once again in a way that actually triggered me in XYZ045, and sending him off on a journey again in the last episode of the saga. They were doing so well, XYZ044 was actually a perfect conclusion for him, and then they … ruined it all at the last second, as they are wont to do. 

So I mean, if we follow that as an example, then it’s perfectly possible that they could continue doing a great job with Lusamine, that they could really show how she is inarguably an abusive parent, how she doesn’t care about Lillie’s wishes or boundaries … and then ruin it all at the last second by “redeeming” her and having everyone decide that she’s not really abusive after all. Or maybe they won’t continue doing a great job, and her following appearances will be disappointing because they’ll pull an OS and forget that they were supposed to be keeping up with this subplot. (I mean, this isn’t really a subplot and so I doubt that will happen, but to be honest, any one of the subplots in the OS could have been a main plot, and they chose not to do that, so like …) It’s really hard to say. The PokéAni writers proved with Misty’s and Brock’s cameos that they can do anything at this point. Almost everything is fair game. (Almost. Ash is still never going to win a game League. People need to just give up on that dream.)

That said, I’d say that if you’re enjoying it now, then enjoy it now! Enjoy it while you can, for as long as you can (and hopefully forever). At this point, like I said, anything can happen. I don’t think it’s wrong to hope for just about anything at this point. (Again, just about. No League wins, no eleventh birthdays, et cetera.) So keep watching and keep enjoying; might as well make the most of it while it lasts. :)

(On that note, “technically it’s my clefairy that I gave to you” fjdksjdf fucking yikes. Bullshit like this is why I adamantly maintain that Lusamine is the most realistic depiction of an abusive parent the series has had to date. Ghetsis is cartoonish compared to Lusamine—a caricature. Aside from the fact that Lusamine’s “you betrayed me when all I ever did was give you love” line in the games pretty much mirrors the last conversation I ever had with my biological mother, my biological mother used to hold Shiloh like that over my head all the time. She hated the fact that Shiloh and I were so close, so she used to threaten to get rid of her, telling me that she was going to all the time so that I’d step in line and behave, justifying it by saying that she was the one who gave Shiloh to me, so she could do whatever she wanted insofar as keeping her at the house or not. Of course, she was also fond of the “I brought you into this world, so I can take you out of it” line, but tbh my own life has never mattered as much to me, so that never scared me as much as threats to Shiloh did. So yeah, Lusamine telling Lillie that the clefairy was actually hers, legally, is just … yiiiiikes. There are so, so many ways in which Lusamine is written as a realistic abusive parent. It’s what hands down makes her one of the utmost, absolutely most vile villains the series has had yet.)