We start off the Ultra Moon version of events by... well, meeting the Ultra Recon Squad. They are established as Aether-friendly, of course they're going to take up issue with us going up against Lusamine, but as for "when", they decided "right about here will do". Might as well put something in this empty foyer.
Tapu Village, right? If it wasn't for that, I'd say it would be our first visit to Aether Paradise. Ula'ula not interest you?
No, got busy with things being kidnapped. So you guys know how to handle Necrozma, then?
...You guys are putting way too much hope in Poke Ball technology. "Pokemon caught in Poke Balls obey the catcher" is a rule that exists in Pokemon purely as a gameplay necessity, and mediums that allow for a more complicated human/Pokemon relationship skirt the boundaries of this rule.
And this is all assuming Necrozma can even be caught.
...So much for us actually throwing the Poke Ball? Also, I'm just here for Lillie, I'm not sure what me leaving is going to do to help you lot.
Soliera points out something along these lines. This should probably have been something on their minds, too, considering what the point of Cosmog being captured here is.
...You know, she brings up a good point. Lusamine has absolutely no interaction with the idea of Z-Moves, but she is explicitly foreign to Alola and never uses a Z-Crystal in her battles with the player. If Lusamine can't use Z-Moves, that's something we have over her.
Phyco has a bout of "this person is a literal child" and decides that he refuses to go along with a plan that is "send a child up against a destructive, uncontrollable monster". Which is a completely reasonable perspective, were we not a prodigy. The problem is that none of his ideas are any better.
Also Soliera hasn't been entirely successful at defeating us thus far.
Well then. That's technically a reveal, although you've probably figured it out by now: Poipole is an Ultra Beast (codename UB Adhesive), and Ultra Beasts can be treated like Pokemon in more ways than just in battle.
Poipole (Ultra Moon): An Ultra Beast that lives in a different world, it cackles wildly as it sprays its opponents with poison from the needles on its head.
At any rate, enough about what Poipole is, let's talk about what it does. This Poipole has flat 30 IVs, 252 EVs in HP and Sp. Def, a Gentle (+Sp. Def/-Def) Nature, and no naturally assigned moves, letting it get stuck with Nasty Plot, Poison Jab, Toxic and Fell Stinger. Absolutely no cohesion to be found- Nasty Plot is useless, Fell Stinger is at least a strategy it can use for Poison Jab, and Toxic is as good as Toxic normally is. You really can tell they're not good at this.
That... might be a problem. I used Sue in the Guzma fight, and when I was rearranging my party, I forgot to notice that Sue's damage wasn't healed.
While Sue would've wiped the floor with Poipole at full HP, this requires me to rethink my strategy.
Poipole also gets a Sp. Def boost from Beast Boost- it gets a buff to whatever its best stat is every time it lands a KO. This is better with some strategies than others, and Fell Stinger is really a move designed to work well with Beast Boost. If you can finagle it.
Usagi was my backup pick for handling Poipole.
Aaand she has a Hyper Potion. Of course.
Fortunately, there's nothing more that Poipole can do to stop Usagi. Even if Usagi needs to land two more Returns.
You can say that again. It gets worse.
Sounds like a you problem. You put all your eggs in the wrong basket with Necrozma, and you put all your eggs in the wrong basket with us. You are a Recon Squad, you needed to do more recon and less committing to the strategy.
You really needed to understand that before we got to this point.
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. You, as a society, fail to meet Necrozma on the field of battle. That's OK. What's not OK is the idea that you can be the judge of battling prowess. For all we know, you could be vastly overestimating Necrozma.
I'm OK with the idea of letting us get on with our childhood. But what was the point of keeping an eye on me as a Trainer if you were going to discard the idea of using my skills?
Good call, Rotom. We know when we're not wanted.
Zossie: An Alola to you, Ray!
Dulse: It is the custom of your people to have your Pokémon do battle if your goals are in conflict with those of another, isn't it? That is what we have learned during the course of our research. I may not be well practiced in Pokémon battle, but I will make you leave Cosmog to us. Show him your power, Poipole!
Dulse: Another defeat... I do not understand it!
Dulse: Even with all our technology, we cannot control the outcome of battle. This must be why we are unable to maintain perfect control over Necrozma...
Zossie: You people here in Alola really are something, being able to make your Pokémon battle and all! But...
Dulse: Do not fear, Zossie. We can rely upon the strength of the Aether Foundation. We will use Cosmog and send formidable Pokémon Trainers through the Ultra Wormhole to battle and defeat Necrozma! That is why we had the scientist Colress create a device that will be able to restrain Necrozma!
Zossie: The president is going to help us. Please don't get in our way...
Dulse and Zossie, once again, manage to convey a much more reasonable through-line. Dulse doesn't spin nonsense about anything other than "our goals are in conflict, it is customary to use battle to solve this". And after we defeat him, he realises that he needed tools that he did not have in his home world, and explicitly mentions something Aether has we don't- that invention of Colress's. That should have been in Phyco's speech, no question. Why they're using Cosmog for this purpose is still a little weird, but this whole thing is mostly to try and avoid stepping on SM's toes- we have to be here for Cosmog, after all.
Anyway, Lusamine will still be waiting for us, so our team check.
When I'm using Mawile as an example of Ailey being ready for Clefable, that's how you know Bethany's Fairy situation is dire. Still, she knows how to throw hands. And heads, as the case may be.
I went with Shiva as my Lilligant counter. No Grass resist, but I had fewer Grass counters than I thought I did. Grass has five weaknesses, yeah, but that tends to make you complacent.
Robin is a surprising pick for my third team slot, in hindsight. Lusamine has actually changed one of her Pokemon entirely between SM and USUM, and Robin is here to deal with the new party member... but she would totally have been a good candidate to handle Mismagius, which is the Pokemon Lusamine no longer has. Nifty, that.
Crysantha is on Milotic duty. How we got to this point, I have no idea, but Crysantha has Sp. Def to spare.
Hawkeye makes an amazing Bewear counter, of course. Flying Press is extra effective on Bewear's Normal/Fighting type, and Hawkeye ignores Fluffy to boot!
It didn't seem right that I challenge Lusamine without Moss. Moss doesn't have a good role to play as a counter to any of Lusamine's team, but she could make a decent cleanup crew if necessary.
Something we're going to get very familiar with is a lot of the same body language going on here, even if the dialogue has changed. Yes, this is going to cause problems, why wouldn't it?
And immediately, we get a case of some of the SM dialogue surviving untouched. Lillie has, in general, kept most of the dialogue that foreshadowed her mother being a control freak abuser who would watch the world burn for her amusement, something that won't serve her well in a story where Lusamine is sympathetic.
I mean, look at this. Lusamine's still trying to control Lillie's friends. If these two aren't your family, why do you still care?
The Cosmog being in danger continues to be the stupidest part of this whole arrangement. The Ultra Recon Squad already have dimensional travel. What's torturing Nebby going to do to help Lusamine?
They kept Lusamine disowning her daughter, but they did make one change: Lusamine was snarling in this line in SM, but they actually toned down her expression for USUM. I think this might bother me more- the fact they clearly reread this dialogue and didn't change it in spite of the fact the context has.
This makes me more worried that whoever wrote this doesn't realise this is not something you should say to your children.
They really needed to trim this down, given where they're going with this. At this point, we need Lusamine to see comeuppance, and what we get doesn't really provide that.
Now we start to see some changes. At this point in SM, Lusamine declared Lillie not beautiful enough to live in her world and told her to watch as she summoned a UB.
This Lusamine has gone Knight Templar. She genuinely thinks she is doing good.
Which is why she's still going out of her way to belittle her daughter and torture a baby Pokemon. Of course.
Even Lillie got caught off guard by that one.
Subtle thing: Lillie's "is that what you would sacrifice Cosmog for?" is replacing Lillie's "die" drop, which makes Lusamine throwing the word back seem much more dramatic.
They do at least try to keep Lusamine in-character by tying this back to her keeping her collection as pristine as possible, although SM Lusamine did not offer any reason why she felt killing Cosmog was justified.
Lusamine's parting shot changes from "if only you had been a good girl" to "your actions helped me after all". Her evil smile also changed to a rather "sweet" one, even if I'm fairly sure that's only in the eyes.
No, we should save Nebby. Don't let Lusamine disguising her intent in the guise of justice fool you into thinking there's a reason for Nebby to die. There isn't.
At least one of us is still on board with this strategy.
And now for the culmination of Lusamine's utter half-hearted shift in characterisation.
The sinister showdown she has in the depths of her sanctuary...
With her cryostasis chamber intact.
This moment was particularly good at selling Lusamine's evil nature, and a later scene with her in SM helps cement this antagonistic read.
Lusamine is supposed to be kinda wrong, but of the things they critique her for, the fact that her only real motivation to stop Necrozma is to maintain her stranglehold on her popsicle collection is... not on that list.
Technically speaking, this is supposed to be a good thing. The only reason it's not is because it's Lusamine. And they don't even fully interrogate why Lusamine was doing it wrong. Throw a point to the sexism pile? We'll stick a pin in that one. It might just be because she's not the protag.
As an aside, this is something I didn't notice, because it's a one word change: Lusamine is taking tips from the Ultra Recons. In Ultra Sun, she declares she will defeat Necrozma, instead of capturing it in Ultra Moon.
This is when Hau and Gladion drop in.
Lusamine doesn't really do the "tempt Hau to her side" trick, and rather than dismiss Gladion with the same "abusive mother" trick, she instead dismisses both the Ultra Recons and Guzma for allowing everyone to get this far. A bit of a sidegrade on the villainy ball there- aside from being terrible at their sole job, what did the Ultra Recons do to deserve this? Guzma, OK, that's fair.
Gladion brings up another motivating factor to the Aether family- their disappearing dad. Professor Mohn disappeared in what appears to be an Ultra Wormhole related incident.
Which seems to be putting more blame for this situation on Mohn for not being around than Lusamine for going to these extremes without him around. Throw another point onto that vaguely misogynist vibe.
I am interested to know what time it happened. Clearly more than two years ago, so Gladion could be there for it, but beyond that, it could be anywhen between then and "when Gladion was old enough to remember things."
Yeah, sounds to me more like you need some professional distance. Then again, "professional" is the least fitting word for you.
This is how they slip in the reference to Lillie and Gladion being Lusamine's family for Hau to catch on to. This does also technically mean that USUM has not yet had a formal reveal that Gladion stole Type: Null from Aether, although giving that a formal reveal seems a bit overkill.
Quickly dipping back into SM to add the whole "Lusamine resents both children for leaving her" thing. Now tinged with the reveal that she lost her husband to causes other than "we need to stop you from doing horrible things".
...USUM writers? You are aware that when Lusamine talks about "the endless love of the Aether Foundation" and "protection of all Pokemon", she is being a hypocrite, right? Her trying to come off as a good person for helping people who "wronged" her because of her helping-by-collecting is comparing flaws to flaws, but at completely different ends of the scale here.
...This explanation of the UB01 event just passes right on by the implications of Nebby teleporting opening the door for UBs, right? Wait, wasn't that Phyco who told us that? Never mind, must've been talking out of his ass again.
This goes from "how many wormholes can Cosmog open" to "can we get a wormhole to the right part of Ultra Space" in USUM. Also, the camera angle now shows her eyes and she's not snarling, but scowling. Fitting the plot point they want to have.
This is now the only time that Lillie says "if you keep going, Nebby will die". Except the first instance is still mostly there, so they didn't fix it that much...
Lusamine tries to brush it off, which goes some of the way to making her a better person than SM Lusamine. In much the same sense that a villain who thinks she's doing the right thing in spite of the obvious warning signs is better than a villain who does evil shit for kicks. There's still a bit of a gulf before we've left the "Evil" part of the alignment chart.
They have much less of a cutscene here. They have a reason for this, as it happens, and it's actually somewhat of a reasonable one, but it's going to be fun to bring up later.
Hau and Ailey have a more worried reaction, and the camera pan doesn't linger so long on Ailey's resting "This is fine" face.
USUM Nebby puts up more of a fight than SM Nebby, and the wormhole doesn't open all of the way.
Nebby then gets a moment to express an actual connection to Lillie, as opposed to its usual state of "strange human keeps putting me in bag, confused face". This... is probably related to a change they make later on, but while I'm OK with the general idea of establishing Nebby as actually liking Lillie, I would rather they not use "love" for it.
This, meanwhile, is definitely a shift to help accommodate new developments ahead pushing around SM moments. It also includes Gladion in this acknowledgement, which an equivalent moment in SM does not do.
The problem with putting this shift here is that Lusamine is not in a mental state to actually incorporate his moment into her worldview, which is part of what makes the SM moment work. Lusamine, no matter the game, is not yet ready to really think of her children as having grown up.
She shuts down the idea of this continuing any further. This replaces the moment of her telling Nebby to shut up while she's exploiting its power in SM, and there wasn't that much need for either moment. Ah well.
Guzma appears, but he has no dialogue with Lusamine here. He just shows up because he's supposed to.
Speaking of, this is Gladion's equivalent of him charging forward and destroying Lusamine's momentum by declaring Type: Null will fight UB01 as it was designed to.
On a related note, you may have noticed a lack of me talking about the music. It's all been the Aether Basement theme. No change to "There's Trouble" to accomodate the rising stakes, because stakes haven't been rising. No Gladion's Theme to accompany Gladion standing up to Lusamine, because he doesn't. I think there is no better summary of how USUM failed the plot of SM than by pointing this out.
They've been worried about you the whole time. Just not because they want you to come out of this unharmed for altruistic purposes. They're worried about what you're going to do if left unchecked.
Our plot-mandated battle with Lusamine is changed, too, to be a demonstration of Lusamine's competence to enter the wormhole. She, of course, selects us, for one major reason.
This'll help assure both Gladion and Lillie that she is up to the task.
What, did you think shifting Lusamine from a control freak collector to a knight templar would include changing her battle intro or music? USUM doesn't have that kind of budget!
Flat 30s, 252 EVs in Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, Calm (+Sp. Def/-Atk) Nature, and the moves Moonblast, Charm, Psychic and Hyper Voice. While her SM Clefable was here to be a tanky pain, her USUM Clefable has reclassed into being a bulky attacker, with a fairly decent pick of coverage moves and a disruptive way to shut down physical attackers in Charm, rather than relying on Cosmic Power.
She's helpless against Steel-types. Only Steel types, though- Normal/Psychic/Fairy can hit everything else for at least neutral. A good Fire type will do in a pinch, though.
Sadly, didn't quite get a oneshot.
Fortunately, Clefable stayed in rather than going for the shift. Not that I know what Lusamine would shift to.
...That was a bit closer than I'd like, but still. Worth it. Next up...
Well, look at that! Ailey takes a turn using one of Lusamine's Pokemon! If only Ray managed to fit Clefable or Milotic in after all. Lopunny is flat 30s, 252 EVs in Atk and Spd, an Adamant Nature, with the moves Dizzy Punch, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch and Ice Punch. A nice, effective suite of options- Electric/Ice is an infamously good coverage set, and Fire hits its few weaknesses- Lopunny is much weaker than it might seem. Besides, Electric/Ice is only a really effective neutral coverage- Lopunny can't really press the advantage without SE.
Against Robin, she doesn't have much to work with.
Had a little fun, and used one of Lopunny's own signature moves against her. Well, OK, Lopunny actually never got High Jump Kick until ORAS, but still.
I'd like for that to come in handy...
Nah, better not.
Bewear has seen significant upgrades. Flat 30 IVs, 252 EVs in Atk/Def, Adamant Nature, and its moveset has been tweaked to Take Down, Drain Punch, Zen Headbutt and Dual Chop. Drain Punch is an absolute nightmare to be up against with STAB, while Zen Headbutt and Dual Chop give it crucial coverage against Ghost types and other things it might be on guard for. No more using Mimikyu to get out of this one.
Right, let's do this. x4 SE Flying Press, GO!
...95% accurate. High Jump Kick was a less likely strat to work..
That... was a Zen Headbutt. Also 90%, I have to point out...
Right. Shiva, we need to pierce Fluffy, you have STAB SE on Sp. Def, you try.
...Ah. Ailey is... Ailey sure is struggling.
There's a reason we have Moss. Although wait a minute... isn't Moss weak to Drain Punch?
You're taking it easy on me, aren't you, Lusamine?
Nice Fire Punch. Although that Fluffy bonus clearly didn't count for much.
...OK, seriously, do you not know Drain Punch is SE on Moss, Lusamine? And you call yourself competent to go into the wormhole. Although I sure am doubting mine...
Flat 30s, still 252 Sp. Atk/Spd EVs, Modest Nature, Milotic has brought in some awesome new moves to supplement her old ones: Hydro Pump, Flail, Icy Wind and Dragon Pulse. Her options on Water resists have greatly expanded.
And funnily enough, Crysantha is an effective counter to the new moves.
Nothing special for Hydro Pump, but a high Special bulk sure is good enough.
...Don't think that's gonna be enough for a second hit...
Apologising for the Bewear, I hope? I'm still mad about that- Hawkeye EXP would be real nice.
Right, Lilligant without Shiva, and with Moss having taken a few licks... As it happens, Lilligant is flat 30s, but maintains her 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Spd, Modest Nature, Petal Dance, Teeter Dance, Stun Spore, Own Tempo kit. Standard Lilligant, it's us that's the problem.
Fortunately, Shade seems like a good opener.
Although this bit might suck.
Really, what Shade was doing was less "softening Lilligant up" and more "trapping her in Petal Dance.
Sure, she loses now, but Moss doesn't have to face Teeter Dance.
...That was a very close margin of error to be working with.
Phew. That could've gone a whole lot worse.
Or not, this fight's still optional.
The dissonance gets even better on USUM, when it's her angry fit that's out of character with the rest of the scene.
I mean, look at her. Lusamine brushes us off and tells us to press on with the Island Challenge. She even looks flattered to suggest it.
(I suspect there's a different reaction if you lose, but I have a bit too much pride to try for it.
My main reasoning is that Lusamine acknowledges that her losing to us kinda proves our point of her being out of her depth trying to solve this problem as she has been.
Yes. Guzma is going to improve your odds.
With that said, Guzma does have a good matchup on Necrozma, but I don't think it'll be enough.
Similarly to before the fight, she is instead off to "defeat" Necrozma in Ultra Sun.
...That is a bit of a context switch. In SM, he freed Type: Null and tamed it for his own ends for altruistic reasons- the same as Lillie freed Nebby. USUM tacking this onto his character makes Gladion look a lot worse, because it recharacterises him as stealing Lusamine's research to finish it. Using a healthier approach, yeah, but he's hardly treating Null as anything more than a means to an end.
You phrase it like Hau is the one making the offer. Have you forgotten the rift between you and Gladion?
She echoes an earlier remark from the first visit- which was supposed to be a hint to her cruel nature- and cows her children. I find it difficult not to read this as an endorsement of Lusamine's opinion here, and even compared to the other changes to Lusamine in general so far, I think this might be the part that bothers me most. Pokemon is a child empowerment story at heart, by its very nature as a world where ten year olds achieving prestigious feats is explicitly, textually normal. Taking the line "children would be happier if they'd listen to the adults around them" and not rebelling against it muddles that very core conceit.
They did keep an animated cutscene here, but rather than be the summoning of UB01, it is instead Lusamine opening the path to Necrozma.
It's not using Crisis of Alola, owing to this not being a crisis, but I'm not sure how to track down the theme it is using. The lists of USUM-original tracks, where they exist, tend to stick to the gameplay tracks and not the cutscene ones.
This gives the Aether kids and Guzma presence in the cutscene- the original only had Lusamine's evil smile.
Going a little overboard with the symbolism of Lusamine's hubris, are we?
Guzma barrels past us and jumps in after her. Lusamine and Guzma going through the Wormhole in SM was in a lower quality cutscene, but the evil Lusamine smile and the crackling disappearing effect kinda worked for the story being told. I'm not sure I'm fully on board this one.
...Uh, Hau? What are you doing behind Lillie there? Because considering you're not really holding her up, my only guesses are "using her as a human shield" and "copping a feel". And while one of those sounds more appropriate for the situation, neither of them are great.
And the Wormhole disappears. We're not going after her that way in this game, either.
I don't think Nebby's new form appears in the cutscene, but he is visible in this shot.
Good question. Not sure even she can tell you the answer.
All of this is the same, with no more or less answers than SM. This moment is staying where it is.
Likewise, this reflection from Gladion is also the same. Not that there's anything too different to tackle.
However, Gladion concludes his thoughts of not abandoning Lusamine by tying the thought to Necrozma, specifically. He has a point here- we've at least gotta check the deed is done. Although I'm sure that's not Gladion's reasons.
Although this seems as good a time as any for the Ultra Recons to learn what came of their allegiance to Lusamine. Sorry this is how it had to come up, but, well...
...You mean you don't have people like that in your world, or you don't realise you do? Considering Phyco's general nature as not quite being able to see past the length of his nose, I'm not entirely surprised he missed the possibility of bad faith.
Probably column A, although I suspect the game believes it to be column B.
...You mean you had an idea Lusamine was going to pull this? Because that's what it sounds like you're saying, even if that's not what you think it is.
And clearly, this decision has also resulted in you being unable to solve problems other than those requiring strength. It's just like in real life!
They looked for a human, found Lusamine, and decided she'd work. Presumably because Lusamine was also technologically proficient, had access to vast resources, and her team is actually relatively impressive, considering it has five members of diverse types. That Clefable probably has a decent enough matchup on Necrozma, too.
Gladion notices something the Ultra Recons just said that I've been alluding to, which has a profound impact on the plot.
You know how the Ultra Recons presumably had some way to get here? Why haven't we been using that?
Phyco alludes to the Legendary Pokemon Lunala appearing in an altar on the fourth island. SM hasn't yet learned this, although it would not be surprised to learn this.
Soliera gets bored of Phyco talking around the point and says they have access to a similar Pokemon (note: not the boxart Lunala) and used that to travel through dimensions. There is no indication that anyone planning on helping the Ultra Recons would not be allowed to use it too.
Phyco continues on by wondering whether Pokemon battle alone will be sufficient to tame Necrozma, more or less calling Lusamine and Guzma foolhardy. I mean, you're not wrong, but also not all battlers are created equal.
I believe the implication here is that challenging Necrozma is do-or-die, because to send someone from our world to challenge it at all is to alert it to the possibility of feeding on this world's light. And if we fail to defeat it, then, who is going to stop it?
These guys didn't.
So basically, we have something in this world that can defeat Necrozma. More or less, there exists evidence it's possible.
Nope, we've got no idea what it is.
"That's all we get, so long, good luck?"
"I don't recall saying good luck."
Dulse: What is this? That Lusamine! She is not defeating Necrozma for our sake, but for her own satisfaction?!
Zossie: Miss President... Why would she do this...?
Dulse: The machine that the scientist Colress helped develop with our technology... The machine that would restrain Necrozma... We were going to send it back to our world with someone strong enough to safely use it, but... she is going to use it for herself?!
Gladion: What was that you just said?! You said you were going to send someone back to your world? Do you know some other way to open an Ultra Wormhole?!
Dulse: The altar on Poni... The Pokémon that appears there is called the beast that devours the sun.
Zossie: We rode on the back of a Pokémon like that! That's how we got here to Alola!
Dulse: Lusamine and Guzma... Do they not understand how strong Necrozma truly is? Or do they go to fight it, even knowing that?
Zossie: Mister Trainer... and all of you... If Necrozma awakens, it will come to steal the light from Alola. You must protect your world's light! Alola is so brilliant and nice!
Dulse: I have a difficult time with such brilliance, but the light of Alola... is a good thing. The aura of your totems... And, yes, even the light of your Z-Powers. But now, if you'll excuse us...
Dulse and Zossie, once again, strengthen the cohesion of the Ultra Recon plot. Lusamine's recklessness is specifically in regards to having taken this (presumably one-use) machine of Colress's to manipulate Necrozma's power, their accusations of Lusamine and Guzma's recklesssness are phrased in the note of "are they blind or just confident", and them musing about what form our ability to fight back with is explicitly Z-Power (even if the player does not necessarily need to use said power for themselves). Truly, Phyco ought not to have quit his day job.
Anyway, the competent adult in the room continues on to invite us to take our rest.
Lillie's refusal is not trying to latch onto the last of her childhood innocence, but rather to try and get into Lusamine's headspace. In this, USUM is much healthier.
The change in Lusamine's character is pretty universally considered the worst part about going from SM to USUM, and it's rather difficult to recommend USUM wholeheartedly due to the minor editing touchups, additional content, and Move Tutor options when the story's major villain has changed from the powerful, resonant character she was in SM, and those changes have left deep scars in the story that can be seen with the naked eye. Rather than simply "she is weaker here", though, I feel like the changes made to Lusamine's story reflect on the values held by the devs, and those values aren't the most flattering. The easiest one to point to is the fact that they seem to have a policy of active avoidance when it comes to depicting toxic family situations (an attitude that persists elsewhere in the series), but also to some extent their attitudes about toxic family situations in the first place, and to some extent what they define as healthy problem-solving strategies. As a story aimed at children, Pokemon is a series that can quickly establish itself as formative in a child's experience, which is why it's so important that children's media be constructed with proper thought and care put in place as to what morals you are imparting. And this... I'm sure thought was put into this. I'm not sure it was with the audience in mind.
Next time: We've got a lot of ground to retread.
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