The Aether Foundation Speculation

[El_]

Problem with the Aether Foundation being purely good is what @Mitchman basically said in his above post. Team Skull does not appear to have the resources to be creating projects like Type:Null, nor do they even seem to have a vested interest in the Ultra Beast like AF does.

Then, you have to consider why exactly do we suddenly need any help with the regions's resident team? We never needed it before save for select instances, and I doubt taking down a team of gansta youth that hopped strait outta early 2000s warrants it now.

Of course, like I mentioned the AF could be a bit isolated to their island as well as preoccupied with the Ultra Beast, limiting their involvement somewhat. I'm not ruling them out being the "big good", but it would just be more interesting if they weren't.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Maybe the Ultra Beast were created by Aether Foundation but they lost control over them? Something to consider.

 

[godiego]

Then, you have to consider why exactly do we suddenly need any help with the regions's resident team? We never needed it before save for select instances, and I doubt taking down a team of gansta youth that hopped strait outta early 2000s warrants it now.

flipping the script: why hasn't anyone, save for a few select instances, ever helped us against the resident team? i mean, Lysandre outright FaceTimes the whole world and is all "lol u r all gonna b kill :^)" and yet the only people to help are you, your five friends, and Dexio and Sina? crazy.

and honestly if Game Freak really wanted us to be suspicious of the Foundation, they would leave red herrings. i mean, a Lillie-UB-01 connection has already been all but confirmed between Lillie being "mysterious" and UB-01 mimicking her movements. yet the Foundation's bio is clean: Lusamine is the lovely president, Faba is proud of his job as branch head, Wicke is loved by all, and the other employees ever take care of and shelter Pokemon. cherry on top being that all but Faba have very good-oriented art.

there's really very little to work with the Foundation being evil aside from some grasped straws. at best the Foundation may have good intentions but accidentally do bad or alternatively Faba is a bad-egg that no one knew about, but really i highly doubt that the Foundation will be a bad group (with the information we have at least).

 

[zoroarctic]

I'm not betting on them being evil, either. For now, at least, there's nothing pointing to that.

 

[PurplePopplio]

I think that people want them to be evil, because for the chance for a female villian and that Team Skull feels too lucklustre to be the main villians. This all despite that the Aether Foundation has been painted only in a good light so far.

 

[El_]

flipping the script: why hasn't anyone, save for a few select instances, ever helped us against the resident team? i mean, Lysandre outright FaceTimes the whole world and is all "lol u r all gonna b kill :^)" and yet the only people to help are you, your five friends, and Dexio and Sina? crazy.

Might make the games too easy perhaps? Would be much more realistic like the Pokemon Special manga for sure, but games tend to operate differently. We sure don't need an entire well funded organization to help against a typical thug group, as that would have been far more useful when Cyrus was running amok. If GameFreak wants to take that route now of all times, then they need to balance it by giving us a choice:

Join Team Skull: This would MAKE the Aether Foundation oppose you. Considering we have customization nowadays, getting our own uniforms is now doable. There shouldn't be much moral issue as they are mostly a bunch of edgy teens anyways.

and honestly if Game Freak really wanted us to be suspicious of the Foundation, they would leave red herrings.

Like Team Skull? Like hints of highly experimental creations such as Type:Null? You seriously don't believe a team that can't even afford to buy its own members uniforms, and spends most of their time defacing or destroying public property, actually researched and funded such a seemingly dubious artificial creature that has the power to challenge legendaries do you?

yet the Foundation's bio is clean: Lusamine is the lovely president, Faba is proud of his job as branch head, Wicke is loved by all, and the other employees ever take care of and shelter Pokemon. cherry on top being that all but Faba have very good-oriented art.

This is what having good PR gets you. People complained last gen exactly because Lysandre didn't have that. This is also more realistic, because honestly people with dubious intentions are not going to be going around: I am the embodiment of destruction! They are going to put up a public face so that they aren't hindered, and even better, they are going to do good things like oppose the local ruffians in order to get people on their side even more. This is potentially the most realistic take on antagonistic Pokemon organizations since the Rockets.

there's really very little to work with the Foundation being evil aside from some grasped straws. at best the Foundation may have good intentions but accidentally do bad or alternatively Faba is a bad-egg that no one knew about, but really i highly doubt that the Foundation will be a bad group (with the information we have at least).

Seems like a whole lot of grasp straws to be nothing. I can agree with the good intentions part, but lets not forget what "good intentions" can lead to: Mr. Fuji - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

I think that people want them to be evil, because for the chance for a female villian and that Team Skull feels too lucklustre to be the main villians. This all despite that the Aether Foundation has been painted only in a good light so far.

If it's suppose to be a major plot twist then of course they would be painted in a "good light" in the beginning. People's problem with them being good is that they appear too good, contrasting with Team Skull trying desperately hard to be evil. Honestly, Lusamine really gave off a N'ish vibe when she stated she wanted to be a mother to all Pokemon. She doesn't need to be "evil" per se, just a well intentioned extremist who goes about her goals in a controversial manner.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

I think that people want them to be evil, because for the chance for a female villian and that Team Skull feels too lucklustre to be the main villians. This all despite that the Aether Foundation has been painted only in a good light so far.

Those are actually two thing that I didn't even consider when I thought "These guys HAVE to be evil.". But now that I think about it, both of those things are kinda true.
Basically, my reasoning that they'd end up being evil (or at the very least morally grey), is that they appear to be too good. They seem to be being played up as the ultimate epitome of niceness, they just feel too good to be real. Plus as El_ put it, are we supposed to believe that Team Skull had the resources to do the necessary research to make something like Type: Null?

 

[Cute Charm]

Also, they say the sanctuary is for pokemon targeted by Team Skull.

What pokemon are a bunch of chavs who are resenting the fact they didn't become captains targeting? What pokemon are they stealing? No one on team skull has starmie or slowpokes. Nobody on any team has them.

It sounds like a front~.

 

[El_]

To be fair they actually did try and steal a slowpoke in the trailer & Their description on the site describes them as stealing Pokemon as well. I wasn't implying that they are good guys, just that they may not be "all bad," which is also actually hinted at with Plumeria being a big sis to a bunch of misfits. I think them being displaced within Alola society is most likely why they are turning to crime, which again, is pretty realistic. I described them before as sort of a preTeam Rocket because while they are on the exact same path, they might have a chance to redeem themselves.

The Aether Foundation just happens to be taking advantage of a real problem. Their intentions can be wholly legit and beneficial, because it is the ends (Ultra Beast/Project:Null) that ultimately matter.

 

[godiego]

Might make the games too easy perhaps?

insufficient. the difficulty is practically irrelevant because things can easily be changed. for example, would we have faced the Seven Sages of Plasma without Bianca rallying the gym leaders to help us? probably not, the Sages probably wouldn't have even shown up. or alternatively Tierno and Trevor's efforts in the climax of XY: fighting grunts on Route 10. outside help has always been effectively non-impactful in terms of gameplay and difficulty, so trying to explain away why no one would help "because too easy" is silly.

Would be much more realistic like the Pokemon Special manga for sure, but games tend to operate differently. We sure don't need an entire well funded organization to help against a typical thug group, as that would have been far more useful when Cyrus was running amok. If GameFreak wants to take that route now of all times, then they need to balance it by giving us a choice:

the game isn't directed by Masuda so perhaps Ohmori thought it bizarre that virtually no one ever helped out against evil teams.

There shouldn't be much moral issue as they are mostly a bunch of edgy teens anyways.

and suddenly theft, damaging property, and even "violently" (to the extent of Pokemon at least) taking over a city is morally permissible.

l.o.l.

Like Team Skull?

fail to see anything bizarre there.

Like hints of highly experimental creations such as Type:Null?

we don't know who made Type:Null. all we know it was created for a certain mission for which it had to be powerful, but we don't know what the mission is or perhaps even was. for all we know, Gladion could have just hijacked the Foundation's resources to make it for Team Skull. not to mention that Game Freak hasn't even made any hints that Type:Null may have been created in an astonishingly cruel fashion.

You seriously don't believe a team that can't even afford to buy its own members uniforms, and spends most of their time defacing or destroying public property, actually researched and funded such a seemingly dubious artificial creature that has the power to challenge legendaries do you?

where does it say that they're too poor to buy their own team's uniforms? all it says is that members buy their own. (which i honestly took as a hope that Grunts would have varying appearances, but i digress.) even still, Team Flare had a five million membership fee and Lysandre Labs's funds, yet they had to rob the Pokeball Factory. and of course there are teams like Aqua and Magma, which would apparently have little money but nonetheless had a lot of brainpower (Courtney and Shelly are ex-Devon) and stole stuff anyways. Team Plasma also created their own modified Pokemon and yet it wouldn't appear that they're that much of a brain-heavy group, at least until Colress.

the whole "they're too poor to be good" argument is silly and makes too many assumptions that cannot be safely made. hell, what's stopping them from just stealing shit from the clearly well-off Aether anyways?

This is what having good PR gets you. People complained last gen exactly because Lysandre didn't have that.

aint much you can do to make Lysandre's reveal a twist, especially to veterans. in a series that's dominated by generic NPCs with few important characters, a character that looks like he's a part of Flare is probably a part of Flare.

This is also more realistic, because honestly people with dubious intentions are not going to be going around: I am the embodiment of destruction! They are going to put up a public face so that they aren't hindered, and even better, they are going to do good things like oppose the local ruffians in order to get people on their side even more. This is potentially the most realistic take on antagonistic Pokemon organizations since the Rockets.

but you admit earlier that realism isn't necessarily a route that the game takes. seems a bit weird that you dismiss realism when it relates to having a good group vs a bad one yet seem to be reliant on it when justifying why Aether would be evil because "bad people don't say so upfront."

Seems like a whole lot of grasp straws to be nothing. I can agree with the good intentions part, but lets not forget what "good intentions" can lead to: Mr. Fuji - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

and again, that's the sort of morally-grey i'm getting at. if Devon and Mauville can still be largely "good" despite some of the dubious stuff they were involved in, then so can Aether.

there's just too many unknowns for the whole Aether is evil argument. after all, everyone seemed to join the Lillie is evil (because she's ~mysterious~) club and well, look how that's shaping up.

 

[Esserise]

where does it say that they're too poor to buy their own team's uniforms? all it says is that members buy their own. (which i honestly took as a hope that Grunts would have varying appearances, but i digress.)

Which can be read into as the Team being poorly funded overall, but who knows? Maybe Guzma just encourages individual expression. Actually, I rather like that idea.

even still, Team Flare had a five million membership fee and Lysandre Labs's funds, yet they had to rob the Pokeball Factory.

True, although they probably just didn't want to spend the money. Aliana similarly mentioned that they didn't actually need to invade the power plant and could have generated their own electricity, but they decided that the expense wasn't justified when they could simply steal it.

 

[El_]

insufficient. the difficulty is practically irrelevant because things can easily be changed. for example, would we have faced the Seven Sages of Plasma without Bianca rallying the gym leaders to help us? probably not, the Sages probably wouldn't have even shown up. or alternatively Tierno and Trevor's efforts in the climax of XY: fighting grunts on Route 10. outside help has always been effectively non-impactful in terms of gameplay and difficulty, so trying to explain away why no one would help "because too easy" is silly.

Isn't this just a convenient way of explaining that off though? You assume that we wouldn't fight the sages. You could honestly be correct, but there is also nothing to prove that we would not have fought them. In any case, this example doesn't exactly fit because that situation is at the climax of the plot. The Aether Foundation would presumably be helping you throughout the game against Team Skull, hence my assertion of making things easier for the player. Of course, it may be no more different than RSE/ORAS, in that the opposite team opposes the one after the box cover legend.

I alluded to that scenario as well in a previous post, but only if the villain team were depended upon the version like the Hoenn games were. However, I have to ask what exactly is the point of having a well funded group that helps you fight the baddies, if the PC ends up having to do all the work anyways just like in RSE? It just seems like a waste of potential otherwise, and I will admit that is solely an opinion.

the game isn't directed by Masuda so perhaps Ohmori thought it bizarre that virtually no one ever helped out against evil teams.

Lance in GSC/HGSS? Granted it was only for a brief act.
Steven Stone in Emerald/ORAS? The previously mentioned alternate team, too.
Dawn/Lucas helping you at various points against Galactic? Cynthia as well, more so during Platinum.
The Gym Leaders of BW playing an overall larger role in the story and helping you against Plasma.
BW2 Features the reformed Plasma group helping you in the climax against Neo-Plasma.

Point is, we've had help during relevant or key story points. It's just we really never needed substantial help throughout the whole entire game.

and suddenly theft, damaging property, and even "violently" (to the extent of Pokemon at least) taking over a city is morally permissible.

l.o.l.

Small potatoes compared to what the previous 3 Teams were attempting. Busting an entire galaxy and creating a new one, trying to forcefully separate people/Pokemon and basically disrupt the world balance, and attempting outright genocide with a super weapon.

This is like comparing the dropping of a nuclear weapon to shoplifting. Granted, Guzma could have something else planned, but their M.O. at the moment appears to be little more than disruption of traditional heritage, due to being seemingly rejected (Guzma's referring to himself as a reject) from said heritage.

fail to see anything bizarre there.

Having a blatantly evil looking team dressed up as Skull wearing thugs is not a red herring to you? Especially while being contrasted against the white wearing organization of supposed do-gooders.

Dark is not evil/Light is not good is what I'm speculating to potentially take place in these games, and would overall be deeper for the plot than a typical black/white styled one would be.

we don't know who made Type:Null. all we know it was created for a certain mission for which it had to be powerful, but we don't know what the mission is or perhaps even was. for all we know, Gladion could have just hijacked the Foundation's resources to make it for Team Skull. not to mention that Game Freak hasn't even made any hints that Type:Null may have been created in an astonishingly cruel fashion.

True, we currently don't have the details yet. We all are making assumptions based on what we currently know. So why exactly does most of the fandom believe the Aether Foundation to be behind Type:Null?

They are an organization of scientist.
They have the funding necessary to build an artificial island.
They take in many kinds of Pokemon, treating the island as a supposed paradise for them.
They have a keen interest in the Ultra Beast.
From a mythological standpoint, both the concept of Aether & the Chimera come from Greek Myth & Alchemy.
This region appears to have Alchemy as a key theme.

Is this enough to solve the mystery? No. But it is enough to point us in the right direction, which seemingly doesn't lead to Team Skull. As for Gladion... he is an enforcer who puts a keen interest on being strong in Pokemon battles. So far, nothing much points to him creating Type:Null on his own, or being a scientist at all for that matter.

where does it say that they're too poor to buy their own team's uniforms? all it says is that members buy their own. (which i honestly took as a hope that Grunts would have varying appearances, but i digress.) even still, Team Flare had a five million membership fee and Lysandre Labs's funds, yet they had to rob the Pokeball Factory. and of course there are teams like Aqua and Magma, which would apparently have little money but nonetheless had a lot of brainpower (Courtney and Shelly are ex-Devon) and stole stuff anyways. Team Plasma also created their own modified Pokemon and yet it wouldn't appear that they're that much of a brain-heavy group, at least until Colress.

I got that impression from the way the site states it: They have to buy their own uniforms! As if that were a big deal, unless they couldn't supply them. An assumption on the part of others as well as myself, but not an unreasonable one. Lol, good point about Flare, however, I believe them robbing the factory had far more to do with their twisted ideology than actually needing to. They even offered the president a chance to join them. Funny that you mention it, because now that I remember correctly, the rival actually helps us take on Flare in said factory.

the whole "they're too poor to be good" argument is silly and makes too many assumptions that cannot be safely made. hell, what's stopping them from just stealing shit from the clearly well-off Aether anyways?

This is exactly how many of us believe that Gladion got a hold of Type:Null. What you don't understand, is that Team Skull stealing from the Aether Foundation, does not automatically rule out the AF from having dubious intentions of their own.

I only mention them being poor in regards to low economic status leading to crime. It may be a possible motivation for them along with the feelings of rejection, but we'll have to see.

aint much you can do to make Lysandre's reveal a twist, especially to veterans. in a series that's dominated by generic NPCs with few important characters, a character that looks like he's a part of Flare is probably a part of Flare.

Well, they can start by not blabbering it out to everyone in the middle of a Cafe'.

but you admit earlier that realism isn't necessarily a route that the game takes. seems a bit weird that you dismiss realism when it relates to having a good group vs a bad one yet seem to be reliant on it when justifying why Aether would be evil because "bad people don't say so upfront."

Different types of realism. Some things can be made more realistic, such as characterization in order to deepen the plot. Obviously everything cannot be realistic... though I'm not against a game like that. *coughspecialcough* But, in regards to in-game difficulty, my point still stands. The PC really doesn't need help against Zubats, Ariados, and Drowzees... they just don't. Even from a story standpoint; maybe if we hadn't already decimated a Mafia group in the beginning of this series as a 10 year old I wouldn't feel that way, but that's what happened.

and again, that's the sort of morally-grey i'm getting at. if Devon and Mauville can still be largely "good" despite some of the dubious stuff they were involved in, then so can Aether.

Perhaps, but who's to say that Aether isn't a more villainous take on those corps. to begin with? Aside from that, the whole Devon Corp. didn't really help you against the Hoenn crisis. Steven did, but not the entire company.

there's just too many unknowns for the whole Aether is evil argument. after all, everyone seemed to join the Lillie is evil (because she's ~mysterious~) club and well, look how that's shaping up.

Aren't many people speculating her to be UB: 01? Or at least having something to do with it. If anything people are even more suspicious of her. There are indeed many unknowns, but that doesn't make our speculation on the matter of what is known unfounded.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think that people want them to be evil, because for the chance for a female villian and that Team Skull feels too lucklustre to be the main villians. This all despite that the Aether Foundation has been painted only in a good light so far.

There might be a bit of truth in regards that people want them to become evil, especially for a female villain, but I don't know if it's just that. Team Skulls seems to be received relatively well at least from what I can tell, so I don't know if people really think that they're too lackluster to be the main villains. I think it's more like they're too suspicious to a lot of people. It's not just that they're painted in a good light so far, but that they're painted in too good of a light. If they want to make the Aether Foundation being evil a twist, they'd kind of have to make them seem nice at first. They could be just extremists or aren't aware that their good intentions have serious consequences, which might be more likely than making them straight up evil. Depending on their role in the story, making the Aether Foundation some kind of antagonist sounds like it would be fitting.

 

[The Outrage]

Other than the obvious "Light is not Good" trope that the Aether Foundation is oozing, why would they bother highlighting generic Aether Foundation employees and giving them unique artwork? Their page is set up like any other villain team page where you have a description of the team, the leader, high ranking members, and generic grunts. There's no point in bothering to design these grunts unless you're going to battle them.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Wouldn't it just be so left field if Aether truly are the good guys in this? That would be so much more shocking than them being the greater evil at this point, if I'll be honest.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Wouldn't it just be so left field if Aether truly are the good guys in this? That would be so much more shocking than them being the greater evil at this point, if I'll be honest.

It would be hilarious if during/after the climax of the game, Hau turns to Lusamine and is all like "Wait, what? You didn't betray us?!" and Lusamine is just like "Uhhhh... why would we do that? Huh?". Just to poke fun at all of us conspiracy theorist fans xD

 

[TouyaShiro]

Wouldn't it just be so left field if Aether truly are the good guys in this? That would be so much more shocking than them being the greater evil at this point, if I'll be honest.

It would be hilarious if during/after the climax of the game, Hau turns to Lusamine and is all like "Wait, what? You didn't betray us?!" and Lusamine is just like "Uhhhh... why would we do that? Huh?". Just to poke fun at all of us conspiracy theorist fans xD

It's basically what I said in my first post on this topic. To quote part of that post for context:

I'll find it hilarious if Game Freak tricks the savvy ones by doing the obvious Black and White Morality dynamic instead.

Suddenly the obvious becomes not-so-obvious when everyone's trying to get the jump on Game Freak and the direction of their story. Now whether or not the characters themselves will be just as savvy as the players are, that's another question.

Personally, and I dunno if it's already been said, I kinda like the idea of the Aether Foundation having an internal conflict partway through the story to where the methods either become too extreme for some of them to handle, or some sort of defection happens - and then that causes Lusamine to snap. Who knows, maybe Lillie being involved within the whole conflict will spark something.

 

[Elementar]

I believe that Lusamine is actually genuine in her motives, as well as the Aether Foundation overall. But, what I do expect is that Faba is a double agent from Team Skull. He looks way to sly and different to his more graceful counterparts. That's what will be the surprise in my opinion. The whole team being evil is just too expected as seen. Something about his appearance just seems off, so I'll go with that.

 

[godiego]

Isn't this just a convenient way of explaining that off though? You assume that we wouldn't fight the sages. You could honestly be correct, but there is also nothing to prove that we would not have fought them. In any case, this example doesn't exactly fit because that situation is at the climax of the plot. The Aether Foundation would presumably be helping you throughout the game against Team Skull, hence my assertion of making things easier for the player. Of course, it may be no more different than RSE/ORAS, in that the opposite team opposes the one after the box cover legend.

I alluded to that scenario as well in a previous post, but only if the villain team were depended upon the version like the Hoenn games were. However, I have to ask what exactly is the point of having a well funded group that helps you fight the baddies, if the PC ends up having to do all the work anyways just like in RSE? It just seems like a waste of potential otherwise, and I will admit that is solely an opinion.

Lance in GSC/HGSS? Granted it was only for a brief act.
Steven Stone in Emerald/ORAS? The previously mentioned alternate team, too.
Dawn/Lucas helping you at various points against Galactic? Cynthia as well, more so during Platinum.
The Gym Leaders of BW playing an overall larger role in the story and helping you against Plasma.
BW2 Features the reformed Plasma group helping you in the climax against Neo-Plasma.

Point is, we've had help during relevant or key story points. It's just we really never needed substantial help throughout the whole entire game.

it's really a moot point arguing why no one's ever helped us because there is just no in-game answer. and at the end of the day it all boils down to the fact that the games are designed to be done on your own. if they wanted you to receive help, they'd just up the numbers and then have your helpers take some of those increased numbers on. (see: Aqua/Magma at Mt. Chimney; fairly large number of grunts there, but then Aqua/Magma takes on the vast majority and you're left with a grunt, an admin, and the boss.) and given that the vast majority of the games have been directed by or derivative of games directed by Masuda and Tajiri, it would be unsurprising that The Formula has remained fairly constant.

Small potatoes compared to what the previous 3 Teams were attempting. Busting an entire galaxy and creating a new one, trying to forcefully separate people/Pokemon and basically disrupt the world balance, and attempting outright genocide with a super weapon.

This is like comparing the dropping of a nuclear weapon to shoplifting. Granted, Guzma could have something else planned, but their M.O. at the moment appears to be little more than disruption of traditional heritage, due to being seemingly rejected (Guzma's referring to himself as a reject) from said heritage.

well we don't know what Skull's actual endgame is so to assume that they're only there for some shenanigans is a bit silly. i mean....they take over a whole city to clearly they have some real plans.

Having a blatantly evil looking team dressed up as Skull wearing thugs is not a red herring to you? Especially while being contrasted against the white wearing organization of supposed do-gooders.

no, not really. it's clear that the two are designed to be full opposites. i mean, it goes beyond one is good and one is evil and one is white and the other is black; the two are complete opposites of each other and i think that's the whole point behind it all.

Dark is not evil/Light is not good is what I'm speculating to potentially take place in these games, and would overall be deeper for the plot than a typical black/white styled one would be.

i highly doubt that they're going to do a flipped moral visual cue script. Skull has already been outrighted labeled as ruffians and up to no good. at best they may get a halfhearted redemption like Aqua and Magma did, but we've already seen a fair amount of them engaging in some pretty evil-- regardless of how it happens to relate to what other Teams have done-- stuff.

Aren't many people speculating her to be UB: 01? Or at least having something to do with it. If anything people are even more suspicious of her.

i'm talking about the speculation regarding Lillie prior to the UB-01 reveal; much of it took the ~mysterious~ note to mean that she must be working for the evil team, be the actual villain of the game, or just being a general shady character. with the reveal of UB-01 it seems more likely that mysterious refers to her connection, whatever it may be, to UB-01.

There are indeed many unknowns, but that doesn't make our speculation on the matter of what is known unfounded.

i cut out most of the post since it'd just be pedantic squabbling, but there's something important to be addressed here. do not mistake safe assumptions (ie., a Lillie and UB-01 connection) as something that is known. for what it's worth, we don't know what UB-01 and Lillie's connection is. as safe of an assumption as it may be, for all we know we're wrong. focusing back on the Foundation here's what we know: 1) the want to protect Pokemon; 2) Ultra Beasts could pose a threat to Pokemon (and people); and 3) Aether is apparently researching the Ultra Beasts. we can make some assumptions, perhaps those scientists created Type:Null to protect Pokemon from UBs or maybe not. and ultimately we don't know. and really the issue with the Foundation is Evil theories is that it's fairly dependent on essentially Assumption Jenga, that is it's based almost entirely off of assumptions from assumptions (no matter how safe the initial assumption may have been).

Their page is set up like any other villain team page where you have a description of the team, the leader, high ranking members, and generic grunts. There's no point in bothering to design these grunts unless you're going to battle them.

or they could battle with you? also i think it's important to note that unlike the generic grunts of Skull, the Foundation's "grunts" do not have a nametag when speaking, which seems to be reserved for only stock NPC characters.

 

[Silverwynde]

I'm wondering if the AF won't end up being like Stark Industries in the first Iron Man movie: they have a checkered past but are trying to make amends. So in other words, the AF could have been behind the creation of Type: Null--and possibly the Ultra Beasts--but realized that this was wrong and "went straight".

That could actually be kind of fun. You find out that yeah, these guys were horrible human beings at one point but now they're trying to make up for it. (Heck, they might even give you a Type: Null of your own, because you're a good person and it deserves an good-hearted trainer. It's a thought.)