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

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

I'm a bit the other direction there. I thought it was obvious that Lusamine was much older. How Hau thought she was a teenager is beyond me. Though the way she phrased her age is mysterious. "over 40" doesn't say "in her 40s" to me, especially when this is a character who's spent her time researching parallel dimensions.

Lusamine also doesn't seem to pursue things. Gladion leaves, he's just dead to her. Lillie leaves, same thing. Lusamine waits for things to come to her, which, since that includes the Ultra Beasts themselves, she thinks will happen with everything. Like "if you love something, let it go, it'll come back if it was meant to be". Anything that comes back is her precious baby. Anything that doesn't may as well be scum beneath her feet.

I find it interesting that the Aether Foundation wasn't fully evil. I mean we all knew Skull wasn't going to be all that bad, but we thought Aether was going to be some terrible thing, when really it's just a few people. And unlike Plasma, the majority of people seem to be in it out of the goodness of their hearts rather than just using a stated goal as an excuse. Though sometimes that can lead to some terrible things itself. Wicke is seen as a sweetiepie and she's certainly the nicest of the named agents, but she was party to Lusamine's abuses and was likely involved in the Type: Full experiments. Out of the named agents she seems the most positive, not just in attitude but in outlook, but she still did some awful stuff.

 

[Riigoo]

About Guzma, some people think he has a really sad backstory because his house leaves a really sad vibes with dusty throphies, forgeten albuns and also because there was a great number of broken and bent golf clubs in a bag near his father that seemed to be a bit strict... Maybe his older-looking visual is intentional?

 

[Taodragon]

I find it interesting that the Aether Foundation wasn't fully evil. I mean we all knew Skull wasn't going to be all that bad, but we thought Aether was going to be some terrible thing, when really it's just a few people. And unlike Plasma, the majority of people seem to be in it out of the goodness of their hearts rather than just using a stated goal as an excuse. Though sometimes that can lead to some terrible things itself. Wicke is seen as a sweetiepie and she's certainly the nicest of the named agents, but she was party to Lusamine's abuses and was likely involved in the Type: Full experiments. Out of the named agents she seems the most positive, not just in attitude but in outlook, but she still did some awful stuff.

Actually, Plasma was the same way, or at least half of them were. A good number of grunts do believe in N's ideals, particularly if you do pay attention to the dialogue as some do actively want N to win to see Pokémon freed of their bonds. B2W2 also has this as some of them clearly took to his words as they help out Sage Rood in Driftveil City and some are shown across the overworld helping out Pokémon in their own way such as being Breeders or the like. It's basically just like the games said: It's not black and white, not every one believed in those beliefs and were selfishly out for themselves like Ghetsis, but others did care about what N said and did want to see the world he wanted to build.

Aether, as you said, most of the issues come from the top and it effected everyone going down from that. Lusamine was all about the UB and her plan warped the goals and direction of the Aether Foundation as a whole because she was the president and Faba was similar as he was selfishly out for his own goals and really didn't show much care for the actual direction of the company. The grunts and scientists as far as we now don't seem to have much to themselves that say they were completely aware of what was going on and was mostly serving the company as they were directed. Some of them did, but they were mostly 'punch clock villains' so to speak.

 

[Isaac52]

About Guzma, some people think he has a really sad backstory because his house leaves a really sad vibes with dusty throphies, forgeten albuns and also because there was a great number of broken and bent golf clubs in a bag near his father that seemed to be a bit strict... Maybe his older-looking visual is intentional?

Oh, that makes a lot of sense looking at it that way. Especially about the golf clubs...

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

Am I the only one who thought that a Guzma was a really immature middle aged man? I read he is supposed to be in his early 20's. I thought he was the same age as Lusamine, not younger than me. Both my brother and my friend (who isn't into Pokémon that much) thought that was obvious.

Where did you read that? Pretty sure the only hints at his age(In the games at least) is that he is over 20 because you can't be a Captain above that age. I assumed he was in his early 30s since the games made it seem like he and Kukui were the same age and I can't see Kukui being early 20s.

 

[Ophie]

Where did you read that? Pretty sure the only hints at his age(In the games at least) is that he is over 20 because you can't be a Captain above that age. I assumed he was in his early 30s since the games made it seem like he and Kukui were the same age and I can't see Kukui being early 20s.

I didn't know 20 years of age is the limit to be a captain. That's incredibly young.

 

[Bguy7]

I didn't know 20 years of age is the limit to be a captain. That's incredibly young.

I don't know anything about an age limit for trial captains, but it's worth noting that they're pretty much all kids. The only ones that could arguably be adults are Mallow and Kiawe, but even they seem pretty young.

 

[Ophie]

Yeah, I hadn't noticed how young they all look until now. Maybe it's because except for Hapu, all of the Kahunas are significantly older.

I actually figured Mina is an adult for some reason. I dunno, something about her makes her look a bit older than some of the others.

 

[Excitable Boy]

I didn't know 20 years of age is the limit to be a captain. That's incredibly young.

Mallow says it when you meet her in Moon.

Oh, I see. Well, I’ve got my future all planned out! I mean, we have to move on from being captains when we turn 20 anyway. It may be ordinary, but I’m hoping to take over my family’s restaurant. I think I could be an even better chef than my dad and big brother one day!

 

[Bguy7]

Yeah, I hadn't noticed how young they all look until now. Maybe it's because except for Hapu, all of the Kahunas are significantly older.

I actually figured Mina is an adult for some reason. I dunno, something about her makes her look a bit older than some of the others.

Something random, but I went through most of the game assuming that Hapu was just a really short adult. I don't know what it was about her, but I never assumed she was young until I saw her home with parents that talk about her as a kid.

Mina could probably go either way too. To be honest, I forgot about her completely she was so pointless.

Mallow says it when you meet her in Moon.

Huh, I completely missed that part. That's interesting.

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

I like that they threw that in. It makes it so be a Captain is a means of growing and moving on with your life. Also nice knowing the generally age of chatacters, in the Captains' cases probably 12-19.

 

[Ophie]

Well! I guess I forgot about that line completely. It's a strange restriction though, and a strange idea to have a position of authority that only children and teenagers can have. They also have a bunch of influence too, considering they can just pick a major area and create these trials there. I take it people of any age can undergo the Island Challenge though, which makes it seem even stranger to me that only minors (and peopleat the very beginning of adulthood) are allowed to run it.

Maybe it's also because I was thinking about Guzma failing to be a Trial Captain, who is obviously older than 20. I didn't realize he completely missed his chance. Considering he set up Po Town to be so similar to a trial, he must still want to be a Trial Captain.

Something random, but I went through most of the game assuming that Hapu was just a really short adult. I don't know what it was about her, but I never assumed she was young until I saw her home with parents that talk about her as a kid.

Mina could probably go either way too. To be honest, I forgot about her completely she was so pointless.

I honestly wasn't sure about Hapu either until I reached her homestead. She behaves and speaks with a level of confidence and stoicness that makes her come across as more mature than any of the Trial Captains, who either obviously look young (like Lana and Acerola) or talk about things young people would talk about (like Kiawe discussing studying abroad)--except for Mina, who is neither of those and looks more like a college-aged young woman or shortly-after-undergraduate-aged. But I think that's partially because she comes across like a stoner to me, and I mentally associate stoners more with college than high school. That, and unlike most of the other Trial Captains, Mina has already decided what she wants to do with her life.

Sophocles was a Trial Captain whose age totally confused me, and still does. He looks like a little kid, but everyone at the Hokulani Observatory treats him like the boss that he is and an equal to the significantly-older Molayne, and aside from his appearance, ther's nothing in-game that suggests he isn't an adult. (Was Molayne ever a Trial Captain? I know he's a type specialist.) I had assumed Sophocles and Molayne were about the same age and that Sophocles just looks like a little kid.

 

[FowTech95]

Sophocles was a Trial Captain whose age totally confused me, and still does. He looks like a little kid, but everyone at the Hokulani Observatory treats him like the boss that he is and an equal to the significantly-older Molayne, and aside from his appearance, ther's nothing in-game that suggests he isn't an adult. (Was Molayne ever a Trial Captain? I know he's a type specialist.) I had assumed Sophocles and Molayne were about the same age and that Sophocles just looks like a little kid.

Taking what Mallow said before her battle, Sophocles can be at the range of 12-19 but not older than 20 since Trial Captains retire at that age. Maybe people treat him as a boss because his intellect (he did create the Festival Plaza after all). Molayne already said that he was the former captain before appointing Sophocles as his successor. Based on this, I think Molayne is about mid-20s while Sophocles is in his teens despite his looks.

 

[Swordsman4]

Okay, since we're talking about ages here–why are Red/Blue now adults but Wally is still a child?

 

[lemoncatpower]

Okay, since we're talking about ages here–why are Red/Blue now adults but Wally is still a child?

Wally is a short baby faced guy, don't hate! His father stunted his growth as a child by being too overbearing, so Raltz used his psychic power to grant him longer youth as to experience freedom as a child. Tis my theory lmao

 

[Akashin]

Okay, since we're talking about ages here–why are Red/Blue now adults but Wally is still a child?

The easiest answer is that they wanted to give Red and Blue a fresh coat of paint for their appearances here and really show the passage of time with them (which ties into the whole 20th anniversary thing, hence the 96 on Red's shirt), but didn't care about leaving well enough alone with Wally and Cynthia (who nobody really mentions because her appearance is timeless, I suppose).

You can scratch your head and try to find the logic in it, but I can't say you'll get all that far.

 

[gliscor&yanmega]

Wally actually looks older. Ignoring the chibi factor from Gen 6, his vs screen in Gen 7 looks more mature now, and likely is just a short person.

Cynthia is probably a Lusamine case.

Would have been nice for them to get new designs though.

 

[Swordsman4]

Wally is a short baby faced guy, don't hate! His father stunted his growth as a child by being too overbearing, so Raltz used his psychic power to grant him longer youth as to experience freedom as a child. Tis my theory lmao

Lol, that's hilarious! He's also got a mysterious illness so...

 

[Ophie]

Taking what Mallow said before her battle, Sophocles can be at the range of 12-19 but not older than 20 since Trial Captains retire at that age. Maybe people treat him as a boss because his intellect (he did create the Festival Plaza after all). Molayne already said that he was the former captain before appointing Sophocles as his successor. Based on this, I think Molayne is about mid-20s while Sophocles is in his teens despite his looks.

Yeah, it's just weird that there was never any mention of Sophocles's age anywhere in the game except that he's younger than Molayne. (Also weird that there can be so many prodigies in Alola, considering you also have people like Kagetora who have supposedly been training Pokémon for decades and are still about 10 levels behind the likes of Sophocles and Acerola. I wonder if there's some sort of Trial Captain nurturing program.)

Cynthia is probably a Lusamine case.

Would have been nice for them to get new designs though.

Women age really well in Pokémon games, I guess. Once they reach adulthood, they seem to remain the way they are until they're like 60. (We have never known what Cynthia's age is.)

 

[Nerdy McNerdface]

Was it just me, or did every main character get a really cool moment in the plot?

-The player did what the player always does.
-Lillie stood up to her mum in Ultra Space.
-Gladion took care of the whole Aether Infiltration scene.
-Kukui got the first champion title defence.
-Hau got the second title defence.
-Lusamine fused with Nihilego.
-Guzma's introduction. All I need to say.
-Plumeria got that f**king amazing speech just outside Poni canyon.
-All the trial captains were pretty awesome in their trials.
-All the Kahunas were pretty awesome in the grand trials.
-Kahili surprised everyone by being an elite four member.
-Burnet saved Lillie's life.

Just goes to show that they didn't leave any character in the dust this generation, and they gave each and every one a personality - even the trial captains get some backstory (unlike most of the Gen 6 Gym Leaders), like Kiawe getting fired from his job, Mallow working for her family café, Acerola being related to Nanu, Lana being a big sister, Mina and Ilima having some sort of connection and Sophocles being related to the previous trial captain.