#karnilla74

Anime Lillie is delightful and I love her. Her big hangup is she can't touch Pokemon, due to a trauma she can't remember. Faba opened an Ultra Wormhole to bring out a beast for Lusamine to see (without her orders), and the Nihilego that came through grabbed Lillie and tried to take her into the wormhole. Silvally saved her, but the entire experience got blocked out and she's left with a fear of contact from Pokemon. Good stuff! That's actually pretty interesting.

Her relationship with Lusamine, however, is obnoxious. Because it's exactly what it sounds like: it paints Lillie as actually being childish.

The Clefairy thing is up for interpretation. Lusamine says "I was the one raising it," but it's not entirely clear if it's hers or just the family Pokemon. Lillie has it in their old photo, so it might be like a pet dog and like...okay you can't evolve the family dog but like trading it for a different breed you liked better that the kids didn't. That kind of neglect. But the rest? Lusamine will excitedly proclaim how proud she is of her baby girl, and Lillie gets huffy because "Mom, you're embarrassing me, I'm not a child!" Lusamine gets pulled into business calls, and Lillie snaps that Lusamine must not care about her, which is understandable from the child's perspective but also the plot of like every family-focused movie from the 90s.

But the way the anime frames things does tend to point to Lillie being in the wrong, or at least being over-dramatic about it. It at least never invalidates her feelings on the matter, but it sure doesn't take them seriously. Like, the episode with the Ditto? Lillie's getting irritated with her mom for not spending time with them herself and being busy with work, as literally everyone around her is like "Wow Lillie, your mom is so cool," and ending on this kind of knowing look like "See? Isn't she being a good mom still? Aren't you being too harsh?" That is a huge 180 from the games' presentation of Lillie.

To make matters worse, the callouts that are referenced in that other post? Don't matter. I haven't reached the episode, but we know Lillie's going to have her callout toward Lusamine when they get back to Ultra Space. Guaranteed. And it won't have a fraction of the weight of the callout in the games, because Lillie has been doing this the entire time. As much as the anime keeps trying to tell Lillie it's her responsibility to talk to her mom about how she's feeling, going so far as to even have Burnet pass on that advice, she already does. Lillie has been telling her mother how she feels constantly. I don't like being treated like a kid, I don't like that you're spending all your time working. It's not point for point in those words, but Lillie is very clear even as she's snappy about it. Don't treat me like a kid and call me your baby in front of my friends. Don't bother calling me if you're going to work the whole time instead of talk. Lillie is very clear, but the anime wants to treat it like this is just missed communication because Lillie hasn't made herself known. And it's...jarring.

(my words now) Because it all comes back to making Lusamine more palatable. That's all this is about. A bunch of dudebros got really excited about her design being conventionally pretty, and when she was shown to just be intense and abuse with little redeeming about her, got mad she wasn't their waifu. So you get USUM turning down the evil and pivoting more directly into "grieving widower trying to protect her kids," and the anime going for quirky playful childish Lusamine whose flaws are so tame it's literally the plot of every show and movie for kids that tries to show a strained parent/child dynamic. It's the most flaccid, easily-digestible interpretation you can provide. It risks nothing, and as a result, says nothing. But also has the audacity to present this in a way where Lillie's...kinda just in the wrong. And literally everyone knows it. Because even children are aware that work is a priority, and that not having money means things get worse. Lillie's not unaware of this either. If pressed, she gives the usual "I know she's really busy and her work is important, I just wish" etc etc. She knows. And it's presented that way because anything more extreme makes Lusamine unlikable, or at least un-waifuable. And from the marketing perspective, that's just as bad.

The problem with USUM was that it wanted to pivot, literally between scenes, from standard Lusamine to "Wait no she's doing this for well-intentioned reasons!" We literally get back to back scenes of "If you won't do as I say, then I have no children" to "I was doing all of this to protect this world and my children." The problem was the writers not caring to make coherent sense of her character, and backing out of engagement with what she was doing entirely. Which, to put it mildly, sucks.

As mentioned, the anime is coherent. Lusamine's character and motivations are clear, if watered down. They're playing very strongly to the Good Lusamine approach of USUM, but are going about it in a way that works for what they want. Lusamine is, in this iteration, much tamer. The big conflict is very...boring, stock standard, high profile job parent works too much and the kid is sad about it, mixed with a bit of "she's always treating me like a kid." So you get the sense of okay, there's tension with the family, but this is piss-easy to resolve. We get a couple notes showing she's fairly selfish and doesn't always consider other people, but framed as more...childish than cruel. "I liked it as Clefairy, and you evolved it when I wasn't home!" "Yeah, but it's cuter as Clefable and I was the one raising it." That kind of thing. Gladion tried to bitch her out about wanting to see an Ultra Beast, in spite of one being the cause of Lillie's trauma, but like...Gladion, I know you're like 13 and filled with angst, but there is a difference between "I would like to see this thing we've been studying in person" and "I am ignoring the trauma my child went through because of it." She's not suggesting showing it to Lillie. She just wants to see it. You're being dramatic.

But by now I hope the problem is obvious. This...isn't Lusamine.