Upload Notes: Lusamine's Pet Project Part IV (Patreon)

I'm still surprised that this all got as long as it did -- this whole mini-series with Lusamine, I mean. It was originally just supposed to be its own self-contained one-off, but it really grew into its own story. And a pretty decent one~ if just a little episodic, I suppose. No real plot or interesting themes... but for a bunch of rampage, I think it all strings together nicely!

... Though I ought to actually read the whole series through again before saying that, huh. Part I was written sooo long ago now, so perhaps it doesnt match the vibe that later installments established. It was kind of a challenge keeping Lusamine invested in the world, since it's so unrelated to her; it's not like she could have a vendetta against someone in that world, or have a location she wanted to visit. It really tested how much I could do out of a "senseless rampage" plot lol.

So in writing situations like this, I try to make the most of the spotlight character. If this were a monster girl or kaiju or something, I could come up with easy interactions involving their tails or horns or special abilities. Lusamine is... very normal when you take her out of the pokemon world! So I was really left with just the basics to build off of, plus the ability to grow herself. I had her character traits and personality as well, and fortunately she has a great attitude for being big~

... but admittedly, I do feel like in hindsight I missed the mark with her a few times. Lusamine is one of my Top Loves of all fictional characters, but I confess that I don't have her exactly ingrained in my mind lol. So I sort of didn't think too hard about the personality we see exhibited canonically. I kind of got burned by this because Pokemon Masters ended up making an alternate outfit for Lusamine, and I feel like that expressed a lot of her character to me -- granted, a very different kind of Lusamine lol, but still had hints of her character that I feel like were missed potential for me to make the most of. I lean heavily on her motherly side here, but more of a belittling, teasing mother -- compared to the real Lusamine, which is more controlling and possessive.

Indeed, I'd say the biggest flaw with my-writing Lusamine is that she's very destructive, wasteful, and callous. Obviously... this IS a giantess story, yeah she will sort of have to be like that a bit to make the plot work. But when I look back on canon Lusamine, her whole arc is about possessiveness and keeping exotic things sacred, in her ownership. I feel like this sort of passively comes out of my-writing Lusamine... You can kind of infer that attitude from her if you wanted, but it isn't directly mentioned in my text: Lusamine loses value for the pocket dimension planet after she learns there's plenty more to own, hence why she doesnt care destroying it. A bit of a stretch! But I think in an odd way that's probably the better points of her personality in this story.

... Mm I don't have too much to say about Part IV specifically I guess! Oh, I do love my twist at the end, ahaha. At the time (... maybe still today) I had a really fun interest in henchmen-level characters being a lot bigger than their superiors; something extra humiliating about a nameless subordinate being far stronger and bigger, and without even having to emphasize it. Here, I think this interaction with the Aether Grunt is pretty hot because she's still taking orders from Lusamine, even though she's super tiny to her. Idk, I thought it was really cute~ And I liked how I had Lusamine sort of stumble out of the planet like it was a bed and she was hurrying to get back to work. Something about that really seals the envelope on this theme of story~

Ohho, and the planet destruction at the end! I wanted to comment on this! Ahg it's kinda funny, near writing that scene, Kurkesagt (a youtube channel) released a video of "What if the moon fell?" and had some awesome break-downs/visuals of that sort of effect. It really lent me some thoughts, of course, lol. I put particular emphasis on the planet expanding when squeezed, and tried to detail the effects of the atmosphere and the ground. Usually, planet destruction doesnt happen until the giant is a bit bigger, usually can destroy it in their hands or their feet, but I really wanted Lusamine to get no bigger here, and really be at a size where she could hug the planet fairly. Restraint pays off! I hope this planet destruction was fun to read about~ a little more detailed/fun than just mentioning cracks in the earth or lava spewing.

I hope you all enjoyed this little saga! This particular patron and I have a LOT of ideas to eventually cover, so I think it might be awhile before Lusamine gets a revisit. That said, look forward to what other pokemon characters (... and Sneasler) get involved in some size situations~ Thanks for the support, everyone!