I still have to watch the Project Mew episode but couldn’t wait and watched this during my break at work. Apologies for me basically gushing about the episode below.
+Love that they used the music that plays when Lillie catches Lusamine after defeating Mother Beast. One of the most emotional tracks in the franchise IMO.
+The “or was it?” gag with the Mayor of Freezington was funny. Small thing but I’m a huge fan of characters with spiral eyes/glasses like E. Gadd.
+I like that Zoroark helping Magearna can be seen as a parallel for Mohn and Lillie.
+I know I’ve been saying I miss Koharu’s more sassy attitude to contrast the boys, but I do like that she expects and enjoys their (over)enthusiasm with Pokémon the more the series goes on. Reminds me of May.
+Gladion looks annoyed even in his sleep lol
+The snow falling off the roof representing the bombshell that Mohn doesn’t remember his family.
+The Aether family’s reaction to the aforementioned point really hits you after all of their progress in SM. Pretty much everything they’ve went through happened because of Mohn and now the one thing that caused all of it is blocking their path to closure. Especially when he uses phrases like “your kids” and “their father” and still has his cheery and comforting personality.
+To build off that, having a Nihilego named Lillie who’s said to be shy and playing the same song as Lillie must have been salt on the wound when you consider Lillie’s trauma, Lusamine’s obsession, and Gladion’s career as a Trainer all stemmed from an encounter with one.
+Magearna holding Vulpix was cute.
+Lillie literally opening the dirty window and Gladion noticing the lack of mirrors to build up to Nihilego’s attempt at hiding the truth of Mohn was done well.
+That Iron Tail was nice.
+Love the reunion between Ash/Pikachu and the Aether siblings. Pikachu greeting Lillie was cute.
+They used the exact same picture from SM08, the episode where Lillie was watching the Egg. Now that I think about it, the scene with Pikachu saving Lillie from Nihilego is similar to the scene in the same episode where it saves her from a Salandit. Love the callbacks.
+The scene where Lusamine sees how happy he is despite not knowing what he’s missed remind of the post game event from USUM. I imagine something similar went through her head there before she ultimately decided to let him stay at PokèPelago.
+I like that they used the flavor text of Nihilego acting like a human girl as a part of the story.
+Nihilego have never been malicious but this one explicitly doing something for a good cause is a nice change of pace that helps complete the “arc” of UBs not being evil.
+I’m not one to get emotional but the moment where he remembers everything after looking into the mirror, Lusamine starts to cry, and they have a group hug made me tear up. This is up there with Ash catching Chimchar and Litten after they had nowhere else to go.
+Catching Nihilego and having the entire family together again was a perfect end to the Aether family’s arc. Gladion openly accepting a UB to the thing he cherishes most, Lusamine welcoming one in a healthy manner, Lillie being the first to invite it to their home, and Mohn being appreciative by having both Lillies together.
+The Crown Tundra being the literal opposite of Alola’s climate and atmosphere was a great place to show their growth.
This was a perfect episode which is something I don’t say often. I’ve been a vocal critic of JN but it does manage to get returns right for the most part. I stand by the opinion that the Aether family are the best written characters in the entire franchise and while I have some nitpicks with the way the anime tackled it, this episode only strengthen my belief. The emotional pay off was worth it as someone who’s a big fan of SM. I’d rank this in my top 5 Pokémon episodes easily. My only issue is it’s a shame Calyrex or Peony wasn’t used given the location but it doesn’t taken away from the episode for me. 11/10.
