"Type: Null and Porygon-Z have a suspicious number of similarities, maybe even their creators (x-post from /r/pokemonconspiracies)"

After reading this excellent theory, I was reminded of a similar theory of my own that I never got around to posting. There's a lot of overlap between the two, and our conclusions are pretty similar, but my logic goes down a slightly different path at some points, so reading it is recommended.Anyways...Playing through Sun, I was mildly confused at first as to why Gladion used a Porygon-Z in the title defense battle, as he didn't use it during the main story and it doesn't follow his team's primary theme of frienship evolutions. However, I started thinking about it, and Porygon-Z and its evolutionary relatives have a lot of similarities with Type: Null and Silvally - enough to tell an interesting story.First, they are both manmade/synthetic Pokemon. Type: Null was made by Faba with Lusamine's permission and encouragement, and Porygon/Porygon2 were made by Silph Co.Porygon-Z, of course, is more ambiguous, but as you can tell from the title, I'll get to that soon enough.Second, they are default Normal-types that can change type, with the Porygon line using Conversion and Conversion2 and Silvally using the memory discs.Third, as mentioned before, they are both used by Gladion, and an Aether scientist uses a Porygon2.Fourth, they have some degree of a connection to computers. As we all know, Porygon can enter cyberspace, and while I'm very far from an expert on the subject, null types are apparently a thing in coding. In addition, both change in some way when exposed to discs of data, being the Memories and the Up-Grade/Dubious Disk.Fifth and perhaps the most damning point is the fact that their reason for creation had to do with another dimension. Null was obviously created as a beast killer, but as /u/Meeper12346 pointed out in their theory, Porygon-Z (per the Platinum dex) was programmed for use in "alien dimensions."Finally, something went awry for both projects. Again according to the Platinum dex, Porygon-Z "did not work as planned," and we know even more about what happened to Silvally - the three Type: Full rejected the RKS system and went crazy, forcing Faba to restrain them with masks, converting them to Type: Null, and force them into cryogenic slumber.So, is it just a reference, or is there really a link between the two? Well, aside from Gladion and the one employee (who was coincidentally battled in the wing of Aether Paradise that contained Faba's lab) using the Porygon line, the following are links between the Porygon family and the Aether Foundation:The only way to get Porygon in SM is in the postgame from an employee at the Aether House, who calls it a "very precious Pokemon."The Up-Grade is received in the same building, from another Aether employee.The Dubious Disk is received from Faba himself. He specializes in Psychic-types, so it wouldn't seem like there would be a good reason for him to have it unless he once worked on a project involving Porygon-Z.So here's what I'm proposing based off this evidence. Some of it is headcanon-ish, but it fits well into established lore.As we were told in early installments of the series, Porygon was made by Silph Co, and after a while, Porygon2 was created as an "upgraded" version, reaching one step closer towards exploration of outer space, the original goal Silph had in mind for the Porygon family.However, some of Porygon's attributes caught the attention of a group of scientists working at the Aether Foundation. Among them were Professor Mohn, the husband of the current president; and Faba, who was at that point next in line to become chief of the Alola branch.Piquing their interest was Porygon's capability to function without breathing, as they understood little about Ultra Space at that time yet suspected that the atmosphere wouldn't be ideal for most Earth-dwelling Pokemon. (This turned out to be correct to at least some degree; as Lillie mentioned when first entering Ultra Space, the air is so thick that it hurts to breathe.) They also knew the majority of the few Ultra Beasts they'd observed reaching Earth had 4x weaknesses, and were enthusiastic about using Porygon2's type-changing capabilities to make it into an efficient beast-fighting machine. They decided they would call it Porygon-Z, as both a reference to extradimensionality and to the culture of the Alola region it would be protecting.Under the leadership of Faba and with the endorsement and support of Mohn and Lusamine, the team created a new disc capable of inducing a third evolution after Porygon2. The project was highly secretive due to the lack of public knowledge about Ultra Beasts as well as the already dubious ethics of artificial life, yet the Aether Foundation was optimistic that they would soon be able to expand their conservation efforts to the scale at which they would be maintaining peace between two different dimensions.However, something went wrong. Maybe it was an unforeseen glitch, or a few bad lines of code that had been overlooked. Maybe it was sabotage by someone tired of messing around with artificial life.In any case, this tentatively named Porygon-Z was unfit for use in Ultra Space. Its movements and actions were erratic and glitchy, and it exhibited even more unprogrammed actions than Porygon2. It was a complete failure.None of the higher-ups at Aether responded very well, especially Faba and Lusamine. They decided a coverup for the entire project was in order, and the created Porygon-Z were sealed away digitally just like many other Pokemon soon would be cryogenically at the hands of Lusamine. Porygon-Z was never to be referenced again, and certainly not in association with the Aether Foundation.Faba and his team moved on, and Mohn and Lusamine, despite caring about Pokemon quite strongly, reluctantly decided it was for the best.Yet the Dubious Disk, as it was now called, got leaked by an employee. It quickly reached the hands of Team Galactic, a group fascinated with both outer space and advanced physics concepts, which is why you can find the Up-Grade and Dubious Disk in their possession in the Sinnoh games. Soon enough, scientists everywhere were running around with their own Porygon-Z - yet, no one ever linked its creation to Aether. They'd concealed their secrets too well.This was all shortly before the events of the Sinnoh and Johto games. Later, Mohn went missing in an experiment with an Ultra Wormhole, and his loss set off a chain of promotions in the upper ranks of Aether that led to Faba becoming Branch Chief of the Alola branch.Lusamine was incredibly distraught over the disappearance of Mohn, and Faba was well aware of this. He requested permission to work on the "Beast Killer Project," and she obliged, ethical issues being the least of her concerns at the time.Faba was still bothered by his failure with the Porygon-Z project, and he decided that he would do something along the same lines, only better. He created a chimera that could adapt to any foreign environment and change type through the substitution of memory discs, and he named it Type: Full as a reference to both coding and to its ability to take on any type. The RKS system was modeled after the "Original One" as described in the legends at the Canalave Library.Yet as we all know, Faba failed once again and the three specimens had to be contained. They couldn't be preserved digitally, but by that time Lusamine's cryonics obsession was in full swing, and Faba arranged to have them frozen in blocks of ice for all eternity, only awoken in case of the need for a test subject.Then Gladion stole one of them, and after two years, the events of Sun and Moon as we experienced them unfolded. Ultimately, Gladion ended up back at the Aether Paradise, serving as president and working to free the victims of his mother and her subordinates.As president, a lot of classified information became known to him. While looking at files pertaining to the other two Type: Null, he stumbled across records of the Porygon-Z catastrophe.Being a genuinely good person and compassionate Trainer at heart, Gladion freed the Porygon-Z, adopting one of them as his own like he did for Type: Null. Eventually, he used it in battle against you, the player, at the Pokemon League.tl;dr: Faba's creation Type: Null was partially inspired by his previous project, Porygon-Z, and like with Type: Null, Porygon-Z was eventually freed and adopted by Gladion. via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2t77tob