Gladion: The Team Skull Enforcer Who Ends Up President

Gladion enters the story on the wrong side, and he chose it. He hangs out with Team Skull, refuses to say who he is, and loses battle after battle to the player in Pokémon Sun and Moon. What he's hiding fits in one sentence: he is the son of the woman who runs the Aether Foundation, and he left home with an artificial Pokémon in tow. His arc runs from runaway to president.

Contents

• An Enforcer Who Buys Into Nothing
• The Day His Name Comes Out
• A Mother, a Father, and a Lot Left Unsaid
• The Motel, the Letter and the Post-Game Battle
• Outside the main games
• Gladion at a Glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

An Enforcer Who Buys Into Nothing

The first encounters give nothing away. Gladion comes across as distant, curt, openly arrogant, and nothing in his attitude invites you to press further. Only one driving force shows at that point: he wants to become formidable in battle, and everything else comes second.

That explains his place in the organization. Team Skull is a tool for him, not a cause: he puts his skills at its service without sharing its goals. Poképédia even points out that he is the only character in the series to belong to two Teams at the same time.

His battles with the player end quickly, and he can't understand why Type: Null isn't enough to tip the scales. Between two defeats, he says too much: he knows Cosmog exists, and he warns the player and Hau that the organization must not get its hands on it, or the world will be in danger.

The Day His Name Comes Out

His sister's kidnapping blows his cover. Gladion is Lusamine's son, and the older brother of Lillie: every one of his warnings was a family matter, not a Trainer rivalry.

His departure mirrors his sister's: he left the foundation to get Type: Null away from his mother's work on Ultra Beasts. Convinced he could provide that protection on his own, he went to Team Skull for the power he lacked.

The calculation proves wrong as soon as he fights alongside the player and Hau: he admits he needs allies. Hau's endless good cheer exasperates him along the way, and that permanent smile sticks in his craw for a long time — without stopping a friendship from taking hold.

A Mother, a Father, and a Lot Left Unsaid

Where Lillie expresses everything, he shows almost nothing. His attachment to his mother is no less real. Once the League is won, he entrusts a Type: Null, not his own, to the player who saved his mother.

His father, Mohn, gets the opposite. Gladion blames him for leaving and abandoning his research on Ultra Beasts, and holds him partly responsible for the mental unraveling of Lusamine.

What follows is more institutional than sentimental. In Pokémon Sun and Moon, while his mother recovers, he is the one who takes over as president of the Aether Foundation — the teenage runaway ends up at the head of the very organization he fled. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, however, Lusamine keeps the presidency and Gladion remains an ordinary Trainer.

🖤 The section to go with it: browse the Pokémon figures.

The Motel, the Letter and the Post-Game Battle

On Akala Island, he rents a room at the motel on Route 8. Talking to him gets the player sent away without ceremony, which remains the scene most faithful to his early-game persona.

Yet the same place yields the most personal piece of the file. Once the adventure is over, the owner mentions a forgotten letter: in it, Gladion apologizes to his mother for running away with Type: Null, without going back on his decision.

Seeing him in battle again takes patience. In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, you first have to bring down Team Rainbow Rocket, then let a month go by, and the team he fields depends on the starter you picked at the beginning — Rowlet, Litten or Popplio.

Outside the main games

The mobile game added him on September 14, 2020. In his usual outfit, his default partner is Silvally, the Pokémon his profile lists as his favorite.

Two variants round out this version: a pair with Golbat, unlocked by maxing out friendship in the Trainer Lodge, and another with Weavile, available in exchange for Training Tickets. Two additional outfits exist, one with a Magearna he refuses to leave abandoned, the other in a customized academy uniform, in which he learns programming for Porygon-Z.

The card game welcomed him earlier. His first card appears in the Sun & Moon—Crimson Invasion expansion, released in France on November 4, 2017, and other cards have featured him since.

Gladion at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Gladion?
  A Team Skull enforcer, later revealed to be Lusamine's son and Lillie's older brother. He takes over as president of the Aether Foundation while his mother recovers.
• Why did Gladion join Team Skull?
  To gain power. He had left the Aether Foundation to protect Type: Null from his mother's work on Ultra Beasts, believing he could manage it on his own.
• What is Gladion's Pokémon?
  Type: Null is the one he ran away with and uses against the player in their first encounters. His profile lists Silvally as his favorite Pokémon.
• How do you battle Gladion after the end of the adventure?
  You need to have put an end to Team Rainbow Rocket, then wait at least a month. The team he fields then varies depending on the starter Pokémon the player chose.
• Which cards does Gladion appear on?
  His first card comes out in the Sun & Moon—Crimson Invasion expansion, available in France on November 4, 2017. He has since appeared on several other cards.

In short

Gladion is an antagonist in name only: the uniform and the bad mood only serve to cover up a runaway. He picks Team Skull as a shortcut to power, discovers that power alone protects no one, then inherits the foundation he had deserted. A letter forgotten in a motel says more about him than all his battles.