Team Skull, Aether Foundation and Plot Discussion Thread [Contains Story Spoilers]

[Ace Kenshader]

I can't help but suspect that the Aether Foundation might be a villainous team.

Also, I can totally see Gladion being a major rival to Ash in the anime.

 

[LatusOcto]

Not sure if anybody has said this before but Type: Null sounds like whoever tried to create it wanted to make a new type to nullify all other types but failed and got the closest thing to having no weaknesses, Normal type, which only has one weakness.
"Aether-the ancient Greek personification of the clear upper air of the sky."
Aether is also defined as being the heavens or the sky which might mean a heavenly related legendary? Solgleo = Sun, Lunala = Moon, Zygarde = Earth, and mysterious legendary = Heaven?

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I can't help but suspect that the Aether Foundation might be a villainous team.

Also, I can totally see Gladion being a major rival to Ash in the anime.

Weeeeell, the fact they have "grunts" is a little suspicious in itself. Why even have those? Though I think they're really supposed to be a good team, unlike how in RSE the opposing team acted heroically.

We don't know if Gladion is even a rival, and the fact his ace is Type: Null destroys that credence further. He is surely a full time admin-like trainer.

 

[Thepowaofhax]

Weeeeell, the fact they have "grunts" is a little suspicious in itself. Why even have those? Though I think they're really supposed to be a good team, unlike how in RSE the opposing team acted heroically.

We don't know if Gladion is even a rival, and the fact his ace is Type: Null destroys that credence further. He is surely a full time admin-like trainer.

To be fair, they're probably just employees for the foundation, which means whatever they're wearing is just their work uniform. It would be odd for them to have to make a new model for every employee at the foundation when there could be 100s.

 

[shadowF]

Does anyone think Gladion will steal the stronger starter and use it?

 

[clbgolden12]

Does anyone think Gladion will steal the stronger starter and use it?

I'm thinking that as well.

 

[Disaster_Lord]

Does anyone think Gladion will steal the stronger starter and use it?

Nope, not at all.

He seems to follow his own stuff and it was established that type null is his partner pokemon.

 

[Blackjack the Titan]

Weeeeell, the fact they have "grunts" is a little suspicious in itself. Why even have those? Though I think they're really supposed to be a good team, unlike how in RSE the opposing team acted heroically.

I think that they're not really suspicious. I mean, the many members of the Peace Corps can be considered "grunts" really, yet the fact that they have those doesn't make them suspicious.

We don't know if Gladion is even a rival, and the fact his ace is Type: Null destroys that credence further. He is surely a full time admin-like trainer.

Oh, I'm almost certain he'll be an Admin-status evil team member. I'm kind of interpreting "Enforcer" as a member who makes sure that the Grunts/Admins of Team Skull know their Team values and goals.
Gladion looks like a very odd character for Team Skull, and I have this feeling Gladion could've been a reject of the Aether Foundation, and then turned to making sure that Team Skull grunts followed the "rules" of the team.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

If anything, I'm starting to think Lillie picks the other starter...but she refuses to fight.

 

[clbgolden12]

Nope, not at all.

He seems to follow his own stuff and it was established that type null is his partner pokemon.

He could still have the starter Pokémon but keep Null as his ace.

 

[Akashin]

I think that they're not really suspicious. I mean, the many members of the Peace Corps can be considered "grunts" really, yet the fact that they have those doesn't make them suspicious.

That the Foundation has entry-level workers isn't suspicious in the least. That they're presented in a way that resembles stock Team Grunts is, a little bit.

That's the crucial difference here, I think.

 

[Disaster_Lord]

He could still have the starter Pokémon but keep Null as his ace.

Do people REALLY want to fuse Silver and Calem THAT much?

 

[clbgolden12]

Do people REALLY want to fuse Silver and Calem THAT much?

Since when has that been a wanted thing? For the most part people hated Calem/Serena.

 

[Disaster_Lord]

Since when has that been a wanted thing? For the most part people hated Calem/Serena.

Wanting a Silver like trainer, steals a starter and has a tie in to a villainous team, use a starter without it being his ace is pretty much mixing the traits of Silver and Calem.

Calem has mega Absol + Starter, Silver had a stolen starter, ties in to a villainous organization and a bigger fanbase than what he should have due to the Manga incarnation.

You are pretty much fusing their traits if you make him steal the starter and use it along type null, his established partner.

Well at least Silver and Gladion got something in common, the fujoshi community loves them and the gay fanart of him is poping up by the minute, the internet loves the edgy kid + MC ships hard, specially if it's about kids of the 10-18 years demographic. I don't get it but it happens.

 

[clbgolden12]

Wanting a Silver like trainer, steals a starter and has a tie in to a villainous team, use a starter without it being his ace is pretty much mixing the traits of Silver and Calem.

Calem has mega Absol + Starter, Silver had a stolen starter, ties in to a villainous organization and a bigger fanbase than what he should have due to the Manga incarnation.

You are pretty much fusing their traits if you make him steal the starter and use it along type null, his established partner.

Well at least Silver and Gladion got something in common, the fujoshi community loves them and the gay fanart of him is poping up by the minute, the internet loves the edgy kid + MC ships hard, specially if it's about kids of the 10-18 years demographic. I don't get it but it happens.

Well I knew all that, but by the way you worded it it sounded like you meant people actually wanted a Silver and Calem/Serena like character.

 

[Missingno.Fan]

Does anyone think Gladion will steal the stronger starter and use it?

I agree. This would explain why Hau gets the weak one.

 

[Disaster_Lord]

Well I knew all that, but by the way you worded it it sounded like you meant people actually wanted a Silver and Calem/Serena like character.

I mean our beloved quilfish guy already did the vendetta vs an evil team archetype + friendly rival that pairs up with you(Barry), really really well. So I see no need for a character taking traits of silver again, I rather have them as their own entity like Bianca.

 

[Lykouros]

Do people REALLY want to fuse Silver and Calem THAT much?

Frankly, I've wanted a rival with some over-confidence and personality for a while. Silver and Blue are the only rivals we've had that I felt were actually my competitive rival and who I really felt I had reason to defeat. All others had such laissez faire and friendly attitudes that most of the battles felt more like a tea party than a true decisive battle. That's why I would want Gladion to be a rival.

Gladion doesn't have to have the third starter, but it would be a nice call back to when rivals had strategically stronger starters. In X/Y out own starters were overshadowed by the Kanto starters a few minutes later; I don't see why Gladion can't have his ace and a starter if it fits naturally.

 

[Andyomon00]

I've said this elsewhere, but it's most relevant here.

My theory is that, as others have suggested, Aether is more sinister than they appear. Them saving Pokemon from Team Skull and then whisking them away to the ultra high-tech paradise all seems a bit too good to be true. I am expecting some kind of Cipher-Snagem relationship, where Aether has the good public face and big fancy facilities (a la Cipher with Es Cade and the Realgam Tower), where as Skull is their thuggish frontline who attempt to steal Pokemon so that Aether can "rescue" them and take them away for their experiments, echoing Snagem's supply chain of stolen Pokemon for Shadow experiments. Perhaps Aether even created Type: Null and loaned it to Gladion the same way Cipher paid Snagem in Shadow Pokemon.

Type: Null was designed to fight legendaries, but we don't know which ones. Its crest reminds me a little of Tapu Koko, and the mask kind of echoes his big face shell. I hypothesise that Guzma may have commissioned it as the ultimate answer to all the different types of the Island Guardians so that he could defeat them once and finally get revenge for being kicked out of the trials.

Why Gladion is in control of it when we meet him, I don't know, but he may be a close ally or relation of Guzma's. Though I am growing more convinced that he, Lillie, and Lusamine may be related.

While I do agree that the Aether Organization is evil underneath, but I don't think that Team Skull is in cahoots with them. From what we've seen, Team Skull is pretty disorganized and their goal to mess things up as much as possible seems directly conflict with what ever Aether has planed. Not only that Team Skull's goals seem to be far more local, only focusing on disrupting trial sites. Whereas whatever Aether is doing would most likely have farther reaching implications, expanding to the world as a whole. What I think is more likely is that Team Skull is acting independent of Aether, and they(Aether) is using their(Team Skull's) criminal action to cover up the reason why their taking pokemon.

 

[yuoke]

`Gladion definitely will get the strong starter, there would be no reason at all for the stronger one to be left unused.