#im sowwyyyy the autism got me

[golisopod-mutual]

that post has me thinking about Guzma. The themes of the game are so clearly familial in nature, right? The obvious one being Lusamine/Lillie/Gladion, but there are others. Hau and Hala, and smaller instances, like Sophocles and Molayne. At it's core, gen 7 (particularly sun/moon not usum, but that's a different issue) is a game about familial relationships. I think there's a lot to talk about in reference to those themes and Guzma.

First is obv his biological family. His father outright says Guzma ran away (the phrasing implies Guzma was a kid, though that could mean actual child, preteen, or even teenager, when this occurred.) He says he 'tried to set [Guzma] straight, but ended up getting beat instead' and look. You can say he means he got beat in a pokemon battle or whatever. But I think it's ignorant to choose to interpret it that way. This is a parent talking about disciplining their runaway child. The implication is NOT a pokemon battle. And like I said in my tags on that post, you can interpret the bent and broken golf clubs in a few ways: 1) they were used to hit someone (Guzma) 2) They were collateral in someone's fit of rage, destroyed but not used to hit someone with. You can assume Guzma destroyed them, but I genuinely do not think that is the intended message. If you choose to interpret them as having been destroyed in a fit of rage but not as having been used to hit someone with, the abuse reading of Guzma's family still holds water. It points to a father figure being prone to outbursts of anger and violence (and doesn't negate the connotation of physical abuse from his father's dialogue, anyways.)

And in Guzma's childhood bedroom, there's all those bronze trophies, and one silver. Not a single gold. He was good. But not enough. When he loses to the player in battle, he instantly begins to berate himself. This all betrays a sense of inadequacy. He was never good enough as a child, a message reinforced from both his abusive father and society at large. He failed again to become a trial captain, or to get whatever meaning everyone else seemed to get from the island challenge. His talent in pokemon battling didn't amount to anything, leaving him directionless in young adulthood. He acts big and talks tough, but it's a facade. Deep down he feels lesser than his peers - a feeling reinforced further by Kukui. He says he and Kukui are the same, neither one could become a captain. But that's not true. Kukui could have, but didn't want to. Kukui says so himself. Guzma didn't make the cut for trial captain, but Kukui could have if he'd wanted - more proof that Guzma is less than his peers.

Every experience has left him with the same message - he's not good enough. His abusive father, the first place trophies he could never win, the island challenge and trial captains, Kukui and the protagonist. It's all the same. And then there's Lusamine, someone else who fails him. Another abusive parent who takes advantage of him; who he follows because she makes him feel like he is good and strong enough. At her direction he has team skull kidnap Lillie. He goes into Ultra Space, risking his own safety. And in the end it's him who takes the blowback for much of these actions - team skull is not feared by the Alolan public. It seems they're mostly nuisances who try to steal bus stop signs and not much else. They're not bad, per se. Under Lusamine's thumb, however, they do hurt people and pokemon. And because it's team skull doing the dirty work, it's team skull who takes the fall for those actions - which reflects his relationship with Lusamine imo . He's a pawn to her, manipulated and used as a scapegoat to keep her own hands from getting dirty.

He wants to prove he's strong and carve out a place for himself in a society that doesn't seem to have any space for him in it, so of course his attitude is that the traditions should go away - he says as much to Kukui ('We got all these moldy old traditions in Alola [...] It's about time we cut out all that silly garbage and make something new for ourselves.') and implies it when he speaks to the player about why they're doing the island challenge. Why are they bothering? Do they think it will make them strong? It won't, he claims. Implied is that he knows this, because he tried it, too. It didn't make him strong enough to become a captain or to protect himself from his dad or to make a place for himself in Alola.

He was an abused kid who ran away from home, who fell through the cracks of the island challenge and wasted his youth chasing a dream he was unable to realize. He got left aside, directionless and hurt, and Alola as a whole was uncaring. The only person who's ever made him feel adequate was using him for her own gain. Everyone, at every turn, has failed him - the people and the systems in Alola. Of course team skull is made up of other island challenge failures and vagabond kids - he was them; he is them. Hurt and directionless and fallen to the sidelines; clawing and fighting to make a place for himself.

Golisopod is a very reflective pokemon to be his main, too. There's something to be said about Lillie and cosmog in this way, as well, in that Lillie is a character that struggles with powerlessness in her own way. She's never been able to make her own choices or be free of her mother's tyranny, even down to not choosing her own clothes or hairstyle; she's a character defined by her inability to take action - much like cosmog can't battle; it's only moves are splash and teleport. Coincidentally, Lillie begins to be grow from this character the most right before Cosmog evolves and thus also becomes free from it's powerlessness. But this isn't about Lillie, back to Guzma. Wimpod is characterized by fear, that's it's whole thing. And even when it evolves, it's still the same fearful wimpod deep down - it still turns tail and runs when things get bad. Golisopod looks scary, and it certainly can be, but that wimpod is still there deep inside. Guzma's the same way, right? He acts big and talks tough and says he's the strongest guy around. But when he loses a battle he reverts right back to berating himself for it - those feelings of inadequacy didn't go away, they're waiting just beneath his facade. His actions are still informed and motivated by those feelings. Golisopod is still that scared little wimpod deep down inside, and Guzma is still that powerless, hurt kid deep down, too.

This isn't even getting into post-game or the whole familal-game-themes in relation to team skull lmao but I've said enough. I love him, you honor.