#buuuut i actually tend to just default to the headcanons of any Gladions and Lillies i RP with in that regard

[balsamina]

i’m feeling whiny and want to complain about common fanon not aligning with my own headcanons/interpretation, soooooo here’s some True Facts About The Lusamine(TM) that seem really obvious to me but (no shade to anyone in particular) apparently aren’t as obvious to other people

- Lusamine is manipulative, and highly, highly preoccupied with maintaining a good reputation. she is emotionally distant and awful in reality, but outwardly very kind, warm, polite, and approachable. mid-game, she will generally conceal her ulterior motives completely (so definitely no talk about the Type: Full project, her ice dungeon, her obsession with the Ultra Beasts, etc. with the average person), but if she must reveal them, she will twist them to make them seem like Good Things. she’s a pro at selling herself as a saint, and unless your character is A) very perceptive/mistrusting, B) close enough to her that they’ve seen proof of the fucked up things she’s capable of, or C) otherwise has a good reason to be suspicious of her, chances are they will think she’s super cool and be none the wiser to her bullshit. there are times that the mask slips and she’ll say something sinister or otherwise accidentally reveal the terrible monster lurking beneath the surface, but those times are rare

- the Aether Foundation does do honest conservation work; it is not all horribly unethical science experiments and forced cryogenics. the majority of the Pokemon housed there do get treated and released back into the wild, as advertised, and the Foundation’s preservation efforts have been genuinely helpful to stabilizing wild populations of Pokemon (if they didn’t, i’m sure Interpol or N would’ve shut them down ages ago lmao). it’s an organization that’s been around since Lusamine was a kid, and is HUGE and highly respected. this, of course, does not erase the horrible stuff Lusamine herself spearheaded after she hurtled off the deep end, but there are good people working under her (most of which are oblivious to the Foundation’s dark underbelly), and even she herself does good things sometimes, even if only in the interest of polishing her reputation. basically what i’m trying to say is that she’s not constantly abusing kids and Pokemon and twirling her villain mustache lmao...gotta be lowkey about your supervillainy

- Lusamine is a cynic, a pathological liar, and kind of just a Bad Person, but she is not homophobic or transphobic. i understand why a lot of the fandom tends to portray her that way, buuuuut yeah my Lusamine is....Not, so please don’t assume OOC that she is. i’ve had a few people do this and it drives me up the wall so lmao don’t do it

- Lusamine was a good person and a good mother once, and a great deal of her horrible horribleness stems from warped expressions of love. it’s actually rare for her to do cruel things out of pure maliciousness/some kind of sadism, because that’s just a plain waste of her time; she’s definitely the “convinced they’re a nice person who doesn’t deserve this” kind of villain.....though she is petty and mentally unstable enough that she’ll do cruel things occasionally as revenge for some perceived betrayal. she’s just not going to attack/abuse your character unless she thinks she’ll get something out of it

- she has always been self-absorbed, overbearing, and prone to some very unhealthy habits and unreasonable trains of thought, but, at the risk of prompting The Discourse(TM), i’m of the belief that she would not AT ALL have gone to the awful lengths she did without the influence of the neurotoxin (the Nihilego who stung her, however, Did Nothing Wrong; they were just trying to protect themselves, and she just happened to have some truly rotten feelings at her core). i’m also in camp “Lusamine can get better and learn to be an Okay Person/Mother again.” does she deserve that second chance? mm well prrrrrobably not hAHHA, but i do accept/respect Lillie’s canonical decision to help her get to that point, and enjoy exploring the idea of Lusamine as a recovering addict. soooo if that makes you uncomfortable for any reason, you probably shouldn’t follow this blog

- her being stung by Nihilego for the first time was more or less a freak accident (headcanon is that she attacked the Nihilego in a fit of Mohn-related rage, prompting it to sting her in self-defense), and she was completely unaware of the venom’s effects. she doesn’t have like.....a secret stash of Nihilego venom lying around in Aether Paradise that she’s slipping to her employees??? i actually have no idea where this idea came from, but it is startling how many people believe it to be canon.........like did i miss a line of very important dialogue in my playthrough or what??? someone please explain