OP let me help you a bit.
First off, N is a rival as
>>28331318 said. Basically you're both competing for the whole ideals/truth garbage.
However just because N is a rival, doesn't automatically mean Gladion is. Nothing in Gladion suggests he is a rival. Seriously, he screams more like fat boy/autist girl in Magma or bara dude/dark skinned girl in Aqua. They have story roles, but their roles aren't rivals.
Don't forget that this is /vp/, for some odd reason they operate in extremes and absolutes and have a tendency to generalize. It's why you get retarded shit like "alchemy theme is there, therefore this shitty starters are alchemy symbols theory is true!"
>>28331343through different means, and it wasn't really even an "official"
>>28331421nice headcanon
they only showed he is an enforcer, he is no more important than those in Aqua/Magma or those ninjas in BW2
