oh yall already KNOW that the original sun/moon games are far superior in my mind
usum completely undermined the depth behind lillie and ESPECIALLY gladion's whole reason for being the way that they are. im gonna be focusing on gladion since thats my blorbo, i know him the best outta the two.
gladion often gets mistaken for being edgy and not much else. surface level? sure, hes dramatic and a bit rude. crucially, though, is that he really isnt if you take a look at him with a closer eye.
the whole reason why he has so much apparent bite for no apparent reason is because *hes literally on the run from his abusive parent*. hes a teenager who deeply cares about pokemon. when he found out about silvally, he couldnt let it continue suffering in the dark. he HAD to help it. and for that he had to run from the only home he had. he didnt even get to say goodbye to his little sister. hell i doubt he had any time to grab much in the form of pocket money or necessities.
his very strong love and compassion for the world around him is what led him to take such a colossal risk at an age where he couldnt have POSSIBLY seen the actions of his consequences, and hes clearly hurt by it. he built up walls around him in the form of a tough persona as a means of survival. plus, considering everything he had to go through, he wouldnt exactly be in a great place mentally. honestly, hes probably holding back a lot of his bite since, contrary to his initial appearance, he doesnt like people get hurt by what he says and does for not even doing anything themselves. hes just... scared. hes on the run for doing something completely selfless and justified, and he has pretty much nothing except team skull when he run into him.
AND YET, DESPITE ALL THAT, HE STILL GOES OUT OF HIS WAY TO TREAT HIS POKEMON THE BEST HE POSSIBLY CAN. DESPITE BUILDING THAT EMOTIONAL DIVIDE WITHIN HIMSELF, HE COULD NEVER STOP CARING HEAVILY FOR THINGS.
honestly him being snippy at the mc and haus probably a testament to him yknow being a teenager living alone having to sustain not only himself, but his pokemon as well. hes jaded to life at this point and already has to deal with team skulls antics on the daily. guys got more pressing things to worry about than a couple of kids who are annoyed at team skull grunts causing trouble.
AND ALL THAT. ALL THAT GETS FUCKING TOSSED ASIDE IN USUM. because now lusamine is chill and cool and normal actually hahaha!!
all of the nuance of gladions character that i just described is gone. his entire reason for being on the run? not really all that prevalent anymore, in USUM he pretty much bounces for teenager reasons. he BECOMES the more shallow caricature of edge that people tend to see him as. its not like his SM counterpart isnt entirely void of edge, like obviously the guys still a teenager who dresses Like That. He just now almost entirely lacks the background and depth his character had in the original games. he honestly becomes a parody of himself, and as someone who clearly holds gladion and his characterization close in my heart, its disappointing beyond belief.
hell, this doesnt even begin to touch into how USUM screws up a lot of the writing for lillie's trauma and later arc. you can criticize SM for a LOT of different reasons, but the aether foundation and especially the aether family are very well-written (less-so mohn, but to be fair hes pretty disconnected to the story once he gets eeby-deeby'd through the ultra-beast realm). the reason why i care about these damn kids so much is the fact that their trauma and how it shapes and shows in them is really well done. it makes me CARE for these characters, yknow?
so.. yeah. as cool as i think zeraoura is as a pokemon, both design-wise and concept-wise, it doesnt save USUM from being really disheartening to me as someone whos a very big fan of the original aether foundation plotline (as well as an enjoyer of the anime, as its kind of its own thing that isnt really either storylines? it has silly goofy lusamine, but still keeps elements of trauma and the darker themes of SM, largely through the use of Faba as a character, which i use a lot more in my own AU for the gen).
i wish we had just gotten the extra content within USUM without messing up the storyline so much (hell, i wouldve loved a bigger touch on the trial captains. instead of goofing up the aether foundation storyline which was already really good, they couldve touched on those characters who ACTUALLY needed more characterization within the games, like they did with the anime).
ok legion its 7am and i havent slept and im expected to be up at a decent time so im logging off now, enjoy my insane ramblings. perhaps one day i shall return to feed whatever scraps are left of this little niche of a niche pocket of the fandom ive found myself in
