Team Skull Speculation

[godiego]

an interesting tidbit: the battle portrait used for Guzma and Plumeria, which is more similar to the default trainer intros, is different from the one used for Gladion, which is more similar to Hau and Hala's. i wonder if that means he'll be battled more frequently than those two.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

It be interesting to see what team Guzma uses at the climax of the story. Maybe a Crobat be one of his team members?

 

[Necrozma]

It's odd that Gladion, Team Skull's Enforcer, owns something like Type: Null.

Type: Null is obviously a creation of someone resourceful and Team Skull is obviously not, the grunts even have to buy their own uniforms. So I'm thinking Gladion has definitely joined Team Skull for an entirely different reason.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

It's odd that Gladion, Team Skull's Enforcer, owns something like Type: Null.

Type: Null is obviously a creation of someone resourceful and Team Skull is obviously not, the grunts even have to buy their own uniforms. So I'm thinking Gladion has definitely joined Team Skull for an entirely different reason.

I think this (and other things such as a resemblance to Lusamine and Lillie) is what's getting everyone thinking that Gladion's got more in common with Aether than it seems. Aether would clearly have the resources to make something like Type: Null, perhaps Gladion worked there, saw the horrible stuff they may or may not be doing, ran off with Type: Null, being the only one who ever treated Type: Null more like a being than a thing, and is with Team Skull to destroy Aether or something.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think Gladion is also the first Team Skull member we've seen who is using a brand new Pokemon. Obviously, we'll see other Team Skull members using some Alola Pokemon, but I think that using something like Type: Null helps to make Gladion stand out even more from the other Team Skull members. It's probably also to make him look more mysterious when he has an artificial Pokemon like Type: Null with him.

 

[Vulcanos]

an interesting tidbit: the battle portrait used for Guzma and Plumeria, which is more similar to the default trainer intros, is different from the one used for Gladion, which is more similar to Hau and Hala's. i wonder if that means he'll be battled more frequently than those two.

He does seem to have that "enemy rival" vibe, so I'm guessing that's why. Whereas the other two are likely to be battled sparingly.

Also, Gladion has Type: Null as one of his Pokemon. Could there be more? I say that because Mewtwo, which goes to the parallel that Type: Null was the manmade Arceus, technically only exists as a solitary creature, but Type: Null might have been mass produced to combat Legendary Pokemon.

 

[Karamazov]

Theory: Team Skull saw or heard about the other villainous teams. So in order to strike fear into peoples' hearts, they called themselves a "Team" to try and evoke that image. So Guzma made them a Team because he saw other guys do it, and he wanted to be cool like them.

 

[Kallyle]

I think this (and other things such as a resemblance to Lusamine and Lillie) is what's getting everyone thinking that Gladion's got more in common with Aether than it seems. Aether would clearly have the resources to make something like Type: Null, perhaps Gladion worked there, saw the horrible stuff they may or may not be doing, ran off with Type: Null, being the only one who ever treated Type: Null more like a being than a thing, and is with Team Skull to destroy Aether or something.

Okay, this just gave me an idea: what if the reason Team Skull is doing all of this criminal activity and trashing the Island Trail grounds is because both the Aether Foundation and the Island Guardians were rejecting both the Ultra Beasts and those created artificially like Type: Null? Basically, the people and guardians of Alola see things like Type: Null and Ultra Beasts like evil Eldritch Abominations, but Team Skull just sees fellow living things being rejected like they were.

My theory is that that Team Skull is basically a band of rejects consisting of humans, Pokémon, and Ultra Beasts alike fighting against the society that has oppressed them for so long just for being different/thinking differently about their region's traditions. That would be an interesting take on the standard evil team IMO.

 

[Vulcanos]

Theory: Team Skull saw or heard about the other villainous teams. So in order to strike fear into peoples' hearts, they called themselves a "Team" to try and evoke that image. So Guzma made them a Team because he saw other guys do it, and he wanted to be cool like them.

Could be a possibility.

I mean, I don't think news is a vacuum in Pokémon World; he had to have known about what the others were doing, but felt that it wasn't "the" way to go. Besides, I look at a guy like Guzma as somebody who's more content with breaking stuff than blabbling about "purifying the world" nonsense. And, again, I find that refreshing.

 

[Uhane]

I think Aether will be the main villains, and can envisage a scenario where we actually work with Team Skull eventually to defeat Aether.

 

[Guzma]

It be interesting to see what team Guzma uses at the climax of the story. Maybe a Crobat be one of his team members?

That's assuming we fight Team Skull at the end of the story.

Spoiler

Considering the datamine showed we fight Aether Foundation, I'm 99% sure Aether's the Big Bad. Hell, considering Gladion probably stole Type: Null from Aether's experiments and bonded with it strongly enough for it to evolve, he'll probably end up convincing Guzma and the rest of Skull to help you out.

I also like the theory that Guzma uses the name "Team" to sound "cool."