>>49020347Can I take this time to talk about Hau? He's a fascinating case study in bad and good character writing. So in SM, you get some tidbits about Hau. His laid-back attitude comes from his grandpa being too soft on him (this is only outright stated by some optional NPC dialogue). Gladion calls him out on this attitude, saying that he's using fun as an excuse to not even try. So when the chips are down and he barely helps out during Aether Paradise, what does he do? Says "aw man, I sure suck shit, better quit being part of the story and not show up until postgame". Like, I sat through your malasada bullshit for this? Now, this is where USUM takes things in a different direction where he says "aw man I sure suck shit, I better actually start taking things seriously" and he goes to train with his grandpa which you see in an altered version of a cutscene from base SM where he really easily could have been. You then see him finishing up his island trial while you're on the last leg of it yourself, he's one step behind you. Then, at the end of the game, instead of challenging Kuki for a pretty arbitrary reason, guess who's there instead? Hau, who finally caught up to you. Instead of the Gen 7 title defense theme, an arrangement of the Pokemon theme, YOUR theme, it plays his theme. And then you kick his ass. Basically, I really like USUM Hau because it's a great inversion of the Red/Blue rivalry from Gen 1. It also helps when you pick all the dialogue options that verbally dunk on him. My favorite is always this one.
>"Hey, <player>, did you know?">Of course: "I haven't even finished the question yet."Am I reading too much into this? Yes. Please let me have this, I played through XY and SM I need a good character.
