I saw the latest chapter.... strange. A few chapters ago, I was very worried how SMUSUM will turn out. Now I'm actually very excited how it could turn out. This is quickly becoming one of my more favorite story arcs in how everything appears to be wrapping up to the very end. However, I'm not gonna lie. This still does not feel like a good SM adaptation, this feel like a good USUM adaptation. Does that make any sense lol? I find the idea of XY and ORAS understandable in getting a few extra scenes to flesh it out a bit more but I feel like the SMUSUM chapter is going to need a sort of "Director's Cut" to feel like a complete satisfactory adaptation of the games, specifically Sun & Moon's adventures in the Alola region, not Ultra Space. For example, the moment when Sun blacks out early in the story arc and finds himself in a boat departing to the next island? That is a perfect opportunity to insert an extra storyline of Sun blacking out but instead he wakes up still on Melmele Island. From there, Sun & Moon can explore the other side of Melemele Island and once again, Sun blacks out after his journey of the island is over only to later find himself in the boat departing for the next island.
I still don't like this Manga, but this chapter helped covered a few things. One, that "plot hole" from USUM about Lillie's dress. Lillie and Gladion, even before Mohn disappeared and resulted in Lusamine's spiral... has always looked like they did. Tossing that whole Lusamine dressing Lillie so she can resemble Nihilego crap out of the window. (Like what USUM was trying to do BUT you seen how people reacted.) With that gone... the actual implications and Lusamine's behavior in both the games... if you actually connect them together, is still pretty scary thinking due to how real this feels. (All about not wanting to let things go, not wanting things to change. Connecting towards a deed she done in both games as well... the frozen pokemon.)
The Manga making Faba the one responsible for everything... angers me in all the right ways. (I want Faba to be hurt in the end.) I liked how the Manga gave each of the Recon Squad... especially Phyco, a little bit more bite into why they specifically are the ones going out doing stuff. (Though like the games... they could have done more. BUT we still got time.)
Mother Beast Lusamine in the Manga is pretty underwhelming for a lot of reasons and there is a big chance that by the time Lillie confronts her mother, that woman would be neutralized as a threat already... thanks to Moon, which makes the confrontation even less than many are expecting. (The Manga is very clearly pointing at this woman getting saved/ redeemed and we are going to see it. While it is nice for Lillie to FINALLY be in her Z powered form, this one kind of feels underwhelming for all the potential that was missed... that girl has PTSD and I expected this one to have more weight besides "Mother is in danger, I need to do something." and someone else suggesting she takes on the look she chose on her own.)
Also, Kudos for giving Zygarde that role that XY denied him of. With things needing to be wrapped up soon, I sat through this wild ride and I'll be glad to be off of it soon.