Lusamine

"If you're not beautiful enough to be worthy of my love, then I don't NEED you!"

- Lusamine

Lusamine is the main antagonist of the 2016 video games Pokémon Sun and Moon. She is the corrupt and insane president of the Aether Foundation.

She was voiced by Sayaka Kinoshita in the Japanese version, and by an unknown voice actress in the English version of the anime adaptation of Pokémon.

Appearance
Lusamine possesses an incredibly tall and skinny height, green eyes, and long blonde hair reminiscent to that of Stocking's. She wears heels, white-and-grey tights, and a white-and-yellow dress with a green brooch in the center.

Sun and Moon
Lusamine is introduced as the president of the established Aether Foundation, an organisation that takes care of injured and hurt Pokémon, and later revealed as the mother of Gladion and Lillie. At first, Lusamine is shown to be a "good lady with good intentions", and is first seen when the player and their rival, Hau, arrive in Aether Paradise, the base of the Aether Foundation, as well as an artificial island. They first come across Lusamine when she is seen comforting a few Pokémon before greeting the player and Hau, whom she discusses the purpose of the Aether Foundation with and says she will "shower all Pokemon with love" in a motherly sense.

After talking with the two, a mysterious portal appears, and an Ultra Beast known as "UB-01" appears from it, shocking everyone. Lusamine, however, seems pleased. UB-01 then disappears and Lusamine bids farewell to the player and Hau as they leave for the next island.

After the rise of the villainous organization Team Skull and the kidnapping of Lillie, the player's companion and good friend, Hau, the player and Gladion head to Aether Paradise, where Gladion claims that is where Lillie must've been taken. He states that he wants to keep her and Nebby, a small and vulnerable Pokémon she's been trying to keep hidden, safe. Once they arrive at Aether Paradise, they're confronted by several Aether Paradise members who reveal their true intentions, along with their dark side. It was revealed that Team Skull had been working with the Aether Foundation, who had been sponsoring them. After the player, Hau and Gladion discover the experiments the Aether Foundation conduct, they head to Lusamine's chamber where they find her talking with a frightened Lillie. Surrounding Lusamine are several frozen Pokemon, preserved perfectly as part of Lusamine's "collection". She asks the player what she thinks of her collection, showing a slightly evil grin on her face. Upon arguing with Gladion and Lillie, she reveals to the player and Hau that they're her children, accusing them of stealing Type: Null (an artificial Pokémon created by the Aether Foundation that Gladion stole) and Nebby from her. Picking up a chest that Nebby is trapped inside, she questions how many Ultra Wormholes (portals connected to the Ultra Beasts) she will open before unleashing Nebby's power, opening a few portals around the Alola region. Lillie exclaims that if she uses too much of Nebby's power, it will die. Lusamine doesn't seem to care though, and and goes to her office. Soon after, Guzma enters the room right before another Nihilego enters through a portal. At that moment, the player is forced to fight Lusamine while Hau battles Guzma and Gladion fights the Nihilego. After Lusamine battles the player, she, Guzma and the Nihilego proceed to travel through the portal into Ultra Space, disappearing in there after it closes.

She had been obsessed with the mysterious "Ultra Beasts" after her husband ventured into the Ultra Space (where the creatures reside) and vanished. Lusamine dressed herself to resemble one of the Ultra Beasts known as Pheromosa, and also dressed her daughter Lillie in clothes that looked a lot like Nihilego (UB-01). When Lillie and the player reach Ultra Space, they come across an insane Lusamine. She recalls that Lillie once was "adorable" to her, and notes that she has now "turned ugly" due to her befriending the player, and then proceeds to place accusations upon the player. Lusamine sends out Nihilego and reaches her arms out above as it fuses with her, becoming "Lusamine-Nihilego", then battling the player with her Pokémon. After being defeated, Lusamine-Nihilego is seen to be furious. Before she is able to crush the player with her bare hands, Lillie calls out the Sunne Pokémon Solgaleo/Moone Pokémon Lunala (depending on the version), who then blasts Lusamine-Nihilego with their special power. Lusamine then detaches from Nihilego and returns to normal.

Lusamine collapses to the ground, visibly tired. Lillie rushes to her aid and seemingly forgives her mother, whom wonders when her daughter had "started to become beautiful". It was later revealed that Nihilego emitted neurotoxins that had gradually corrupted Lusamine. When Lusamine was intoxicated, she acted as if Nihilego was her own child, and loved it more than Gladion and Lillie. Lusamine's obsession with the Ultra Beasts may have stemmed from trying to find her lost husband according to what Gladion speculates post game. However, Nihilego's neurotoxins amplified it, to the point of insanity. After her defeat, Lusamine fell into a deep coma.

It was mentioned that Lusamine wanted to join the players celebration for becoming The Pokémon League's first Champion.

It was mentioned in the post-game that Lusamine had traveled to Kanto with her daughter, Lillie, to seek more treatment.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Much is the same as in Sun and Moon; however, she is no longer driven to madness by Nihilego's toxins. She now desires use the Ultra Beasts as weapons to protect their world regardless of what anyone tells her. Lusamine eventually gets kicked out of Ultra Space by Necrozma before this can happen. After Necrozma's defeat, Lusamine decides that using the Ultra Beasts as weapons was not the best idea and she reforms herself again. Following the player's success of becoming champion, Lusamine is kidnapped by Giovanni and his newly established Team Rainbow Rocket, although the player defeats him and his minions, saving Lusamine once again.

In the anime
"My mother has been researching Ultra Beasts because she's always wanted to come in contact with them, and her wish has finally come true. (Kiawe: But it's trying to merge with her!). She's probably isn't thinking about it that way. It's like she's finally got the toy she's been yearning for."

- Galdion explaining how his mother has been corrupted by Nihilego

Lusamine's first appearance in the anime was in episode 8 of the Sun and Moon series, where she was shown in a picture along with her children Lillie and Gladion.

She made her first physical appearance in SM044. She, along with Professor Burnet, Wicke, and Faba, investigated the Altar of the Sunne, following a detection of Ultra Aura in the area. However, they were unable to find anything. Later, at Aether Paradise, Ultra Aura was detected on Melemele Island, with the source being Nebby. As a result, Lusamine and the others headed to Professor Kukui's house. There, she was happy to reunite with her daughter, and she also introduced herself and her staff to Ash. After learning about Ash's dream about Solgaleo and Lunala, she initially suggested taking Nebby back to Aether Paradise. However, she eventually decided to entrust the Pokémon to Ash after hearing about his achievements in Alola.

In SM046, Lusamine invited Lillie and her classmates to Aether Paradise for a tour of the facility, primarily hoping to get to know all about Lillie's experience at the Pokémon School. However, she was so swamped with business calls that she was unable to lead the tour as promised, to Lillie's dismay. She later rushed to see if Lillie was alright when she heard her daughter was involved in chasing down an escaped Ditto before quickly returning to her work.

Lusamine appeared again in SM048, where Lillie became upset with her when she requested her daughter's butler, Hobbes, to record Lillie's daily life on video. When confronted by Lillie, Lusamine casually interrupted their conversation to take another phone call, causing Lillie to snap at her for appearing to care more about her work than her family. Professor Burnet later assured Lillie that Lusamine dearly missed her children, as she kept numerous pictures of them in her office.

In SM049, Gladion told Lusamine that Faba had stolen his Type: Null and demanded that she tell him where it was taken to. Lusamine, completely unaware about the entire situation, helped Gladion search for Type: Null in Faba's research room. As they searched, Gladion chastised Lusamine for failling to realize that her desire to meet the Ultra Beasts was what led to the events that caused Lillie's fear of touching Pokémon. After finding Type: Null's Poké Ball, Lusamine and Gladion headed outside, where they found Faba attacking Lillie and Ash. In order to save Lillie, Type: Null evolves into Silvally and defeats Faba's Pokémon. With her daughter freed, Lusamine hugs Lillie and apologizes for her neglectful parenting. Lillie accepts Lusamine's apology and then apologizes to Silvally, the Pokémon that saved her from a Nihilego years ago. This allows Lillie to get over her past trauma and regain the ability to touch Pokémon.

In SM050, Lillie, Gladion, and Ash traveled to Aether Paradise in order to inform Lusamine that Faba had kidnapped Nebby. They travel to Faba's location, only to find that he successfully forced Nebby to summon a Nihlego from an Ultra Wormhole. Although she was enamored by the Ultra Beast initially, Lusamine quickly ignores it when she realizes that her children are in danger. The group tries to fight off Nihilego, but it proves too powerful and easily defeats their Pokémon. When Gladion tries to protect his family from the Ultra Beast, Lusamine pushes him out of the way and is captured instead. Nihilego then proceeds to drag Lusamine into the Ultra Wormhole.

In SM053, Ash, his classmates, and Gladion travel to the Ultra Deep Sea with the help of Nebby, now evolved into a Solgaleo. There, they find that Lusamine had fused with Nihilego. Lusamine, reduced to a childlike state, claims the Ultra Beasts as her own possessions and runs off in order to prevent the group from taking them away. As the group chases Lusamine down, more and more people are forced to stay behind in order to fight off Lusamine's Pokémon.

In the anime, Lusamine is rather cheerful and likes to tease others. She is overly affectionate towards Lillie, treating her like a baby and failing to understand her daughter's feelings, resulting in friction between the two. For instance, Lusamine evolved her Clefairy into Clefable despite Lillie preferring Clefairy as it was, with the two arguing about which one was "cuter". Several flashbacks to Lillie's early childhood reveal Lusamine to have once been far less overbearing while enjoying a healthy relationship with her children.

When fused with Nihilego, Lusamine's personality reverts to that of a child and her mind is corrupted by her own desires. In this state, she refers to the Ultra Beasts as her possessions and reacts violently to those she assumes are trying to take them away from her, even to those who are close to her, like Lilly and Gladion.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Lusamine debuts in the Sun & Moon chapter. She is first seen at Aether Paradise talking to an Aether Foundation Employee who had finished filming a commercial for their organization.

Trivia

 * Lusamine is the first female villainous team leader in the main game series, as well as the first female main antagonist.
 * Lusamine mentioned to Hau that although she looks young, she is over 40 years old. It is possible that Nihilego's toxins could've affected her aging process.
 * However, in Ultra Sun and Moon, Lusamine was not influenced by Nihilego's toxins nor even made contact, leaving her age in question.
 * During the second battle against Lusamine, all of her Pokémon except Bewear (which never even had a visible emotion to begin with) have an angry facial expressions instead of their usual expressions. This is likely due to Niheligo's toxins.
 * As an Easter Egg, two of Lusamine's Pokémon--her Lilligant and Clefable--had evolved from using Sun and Moon stones respectively.
 * In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Lusamine's Mismagius being replaced with a Lopunny implies her well-intentioned motives.