Discussion Is the Aether Foundation Good or Evil?

Bolt the Cat

Bolt the Cat

Bringing the Thunder
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The recent reveal of the Aether Foundation has called into question what kind of role they play in the storyline. They run the artificial island in the middle of the region, known as Aether Paradise, to take in Pokemon targeted by Team Skull, so they definitely at least appear to be good guys. However, good storylines usually have some sort of plot twist and Pokemon usually hides their true villain until later in the game, so the Aether Foundation could fit that bill. So what do you think? Will the Aether Foundation turn out to be good guys or bad guys?
 
I was just thinking a thread like this would be good!

I have to quibble with the note that Pokemon usually hides its villains at first. Cyrus, Lysandre, and Archie/Maxie were all hit-you-over-the-head obvious. Probably the best example of a hidden big bad was Ghetsis, and that was still pretty predictable from his design, but they at least positioned N to be the villain of sorts at the start.

Usually Pokemon villains tip themselves off by saying something dark and dogmatic about the world needing fixing. The Aether Foundation has been described in terms like, just going down their page: "[their] goal is to care for Pokemon that are hurt", "provide shelter", "research", "lovely", "caring personality", and again, "shelter and care". Even a "Foundation" calls to mind charities. If I try really hard I can read something a little too magnanimous in Lusamine's "worthy of my love" comment, but I think that's a stretch. Pokemon doesn't want to assign villainous motivation to things like love, shelter, research (Pokemon is all about research, really), and charity. They don't want the message of a game to be "people who really want to help animals aren't to be trusted." Unless in practice, they're like Plasma and are separating those Pokemon from their habitats and trainers, but we haven't seen evidence of that yet.

All that said, their floating artificial "paradise" is kinda creepy, Faba looks like Faba, and their musical theme is electronic and neutral. We can guess there's something more going on with the plot, if only because of all the moving parts. The biggest indicator to me is Gladion -- he has that anime antihero look, and if the theory that he, Lillie, and Lusamine are all siblings is correct, then the fact that he defected to the villain side with a weird legendary suggests the Aether Foundation did something objectionable in its past, perhaps creating Type: Null or the UBs. Somebody has to tie up all the alchemy threads Pokemon's been spinning recently. And the grunts and multiple branches of Aether create the possibility that a branch could go rogue and you have to take them on. But I really doubt the story takeaway will be "Yup, Lusamine and Wicke and their motivations are just evil! Gotcha!"

After BW and XY, I'm guessing GameFreak heard the story praise for Gen 5 and widespread criticism for 6. XY was a really monumental effort to bring the series to 3D, but story fell by the wayside. I hope they see that, and aspire to get back to a more fleshed out plot in this second 3DS gen, making XY a style over substance outlier rather than the new norm for the series. All the elements are there, but if Gladion and Plumeria and co. turn out to be one-note villain encounters and little more, like Xerosic and the Flare admins, I'll be sad.
 
I feel it's fairly obvious that they're bad, if only because we should expect the twist by now, and they were announced with a lot of pomp; if they were just some random group you meet on an island they wouldn't have revealed them in such a way; their structure is also just like an evil team: boss, admins, grunts.
Not to mention their private (artificial) island, a proud evil tradition since the times of Doctor No; I'll be disappointed if you don't attend a dinner with Lusamine while you're there.
Their interest in ultra beasts is suspicious as well; if they are really trying to help pokemon, why would they be so keen on the mysterious aliens? although admittedly, with the frustrating lack of information on the ultra beasts, anything could happen.

It is possible, I guess, that they could be trying to use reverse psychology, making them look like the good guys so we'll think they're actually bad and then turning it on its head later, but really, pokemon hasn't ever been known for pulling that kind of fun tricks on players; even when they make an honest try to "trick" you into thinking something, like with lysandre or plasma, other things give the truth away; the only time they did something like that was ghetsis in BW2, and that was more a bad story than a conscious effort to have a clever twist.
 
Oh they're bad guys. But unlike other people, I think Team Skull still is bad. I feel like the Aether Foundation experiments on Pokemon rather than protecting them, and like @professorlight said, why would they care so much about these Ultra Beasts if that really has nothing to do with their so far revealed "cause" of helping Pokemon? It just doesn't add up, but at the same time, they could be duping us.
 
They certainly sound evil. I mean, the idea of Aether seeming good, but turning out to be evil is an amazing idea. Really, it is. Not only that, but Team Skull could be the good guys. Think role reversal.
 
StriatonIsMagic said:
They certainly sound evil. I mean, the idea of Aether seeming good, but turning out to be evil is an amazing idea. Really, it is. Not only that, but Team Skull could be the good guys. Think role reversal.
Click to expand...

I think role reversal would be a tad too predictable, that's a pretty common trope. We've already seen that done several times in the Mystery Dungeon games as a matter of fact. Plus it'd be hard to justify them being good guys when they're already established to be blatant criminals.
 
The way I see it Team Skull is a group of thugs simply disturbing the peace and clearly a red herring in the plot. The Aether Foundation on the other hand (sorta) is a corrupt evil organization. They'll both be villainous teams, ones just more evil than the other. Also Faba just screams villain, he's so skeezy looking.
 
I think it's possible that they don't mean any harm, but ended up causing it in the form of UB (which I think is the real "boss"). So it's like they are the victim to their own research, maybe? Another possibility I can think of is that not all of them is evil. Faba definitely looks like villain team's admin.
 
Bolt the Cat said:
I think role reversal would be a tad too predictable, that's a pretty common trope. We've already seen that done several times in the Mystery Dungeon games as a matter of fact. Plus it'd be hard to justify them being good guys when they're already established to be blatant criminals.
Click to expand...
But Gladion- Eh, whatever. I still have my dreams.
 
I think neither because there never is a right answer to this question. Some villain teams believe they're doing good (either to others or to themselves). Just to name a few,

Team Magma and Aqua did what they did for humanity and Pokemon. Sure, it was misguided and ended in failure, but they had good intentions.
Team Galactic wanted to make a world free of the current one's problems. Again, misguided but good intentions.

The Aether Corporation could do bad things under the guise of being good, but it can't be purely defined as black or white. There's always multiple sides to this kind of thing and purely deeming them good or evil doesn't really work. As Ekans said in the Island of Giant Pokemon episode, there are no evil Pokemon, just Pokemon who do bad things. Same can be for humans too.
 
I am almost sure that they are evil, and they have everything a good evil team has, a base, a leader, two admins, and grunts. I think it would actually be weird if they where a good team.
 
One more vote on "evil guys".

GF is usually very obvious when it comes to character design. From the three Aether adm., only Wicke seems like a good person. Faba has the evil scientist vibe and Lusamine looks creepy with that black crystal and the fact that she resembles an adult Lillie (which wouldn't be a surprise with the day/night theme of the games).

Aether's link to UB is very suspicious, since I think those are either extra-terrestrial Pokémon or artificial creations (like Null), otherwise they would appear in myths and legends.

I honestly don't care for Skull, as they seem something less threatning than Rocket and Neo-Plasma, but Aether seems dangerous.

Can someone call Looker to sort this out? :D
 
Hello Everyone:)
I think the Aether Foundation is evil since as shown in the video, the Ultra Beast do first show up in the Aether 'Paradise'.
Also they do mention research and we know that Type:Null was synthetically created for a 'purpose'.
I think Team Skull is still bad and that Gladion is just using their power and resources to plot revenge against the Aether foundation for the wrongs they have committed (ultra beasts and Type:Null).
Well that's my view:)
Interested to hear other's opinion.
 
I really hope it is what most seem to think (evil). I thought team Skull as the bad guys was a big let down because they don't seem that bad at all, just misunderstood good guys.. But the aether foundation (if they indeed turn out to be the ''hidden'' evil team) is pretty awesome.. Creepy and clever (if they work it out right) in a way they haven't done since Giovanni and his Viridian Gym in gen 1. The first gym actually being the last and actually being led by the team rocket boss, is still the best twist in my books although I have to admit internet not playing a big role at the time probably made the twist a bit bigger.
 
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