Warning: Spoilers for Pokémon Horizons, episode #89
Pokémon Horizonshas just cemented one of its villains as perhaps the most evil person ever featured in the entire history of the anime, and that’s really saying something. Part of what makes this villain so insidious is that… well, he kind of won.
Team Rocket, of course, were the primary villains of the Pokémon anime featuring Ash, and their crimes mostly centered on stealing (or at least, trying to steal) Pokémon. It’s a pretty simplistic motive, but certainly one that qualifies as evil, especially when the entire show focuses so much on the bonds between trainers and their Pokémon. The Explorers ofPokémon Horizonsare a very different group, though, with some radically different motives, and in this case, it’s not so much what they’re doing as how they’re doing it that makes them come across as so villainous.
Pokémon Horizons Makes Spinel a Top Tier Threat
Spinel Proves Once Again He’s as Evil as They Come
One member of the Explorers,Spinel, stands out for how evil his behavior has been. In his first appearances, he lured Liko out to an empty alleyway and then brainwashed her using his Psychic Pokémon in order to steal her pendant, which is Terapagos in its dormant form. He later conspired to have Liko and Amethio (another Explorer) trapped in a cave together, and was seemingly just as happy to let them perish in the freezing cold as he was to frame Amethio for working with the enemy. But none of that holds a candle to his latest scheme.
In Laqua, Spinel used devious strategies to try to incapacitate Friede’s Pokémon, making it more difficult for the Rising Volt Tacklers to defeat the Explorers. Once Gibeon, the Explorers' leader, had given up on his plans and faded away, Spinel stepped up as their new leader and triggered an insane melee by using the substance Laquiumon Lucius' Pokémon, causing them to fight amongst one another. His plan involved harvesting more Laquium, even knowing it would destroy Laqua, and using that material to make Pokémon go berserk.
Worse still, Spinel forced the heroes to retreat, which ultimately got Friede (apparently) killed, and then used his standing and a doctored version of events to implicate the Rising Volt Tacklers as the villains, getting the public to blame them instead of the Explorers for Laqua’s destruction. The Rising Volt Tacklers were forced to disband, leading to the timeskip.
Few Pokémon Villains Have Been as Effective as Spinel
Among villains in the franchise, Spinel stands out greatly.The most evil villain prior to Spinel was probably Team Plasma leader Ghetsis, who used and manipulated N, almost from birth, to be the figurehead of his “Pokémon Liberation” movement, and ultimately was willing to discard N at a moment’s notice to fulfill his plans. Ghetsis' whole movement was a scam as well, simply hoping to monopolize the use of Pokémon and thus become the most powerful person on the planet.
While Ghetsis' plan fell apart and N rebelled against him, Spinel has been almost completely successful. He’s forced the heroes to disband and made them look like the bad guys to the world. He’s been able to continue his evil experiments onthe Pokémon equivalent of doping, and the rest of the organization, except for Amethio, has fallen in line behind him as the new leader. Spinel has also gained control of Laqua and now has exclusive access to any remaining resources which may be there, such as additional Laquium that Terapagos was unable to purify.
If only for the sheer degree of success that he has experienced, Spinel is one of the most evil and effective villains in the entire Pokémon franchise. It’s going to be extremely difficult for the heroes to rally and stand against him once more, but so long as there are still heroic souls out there, someone likeSpinel will never win for good. It may take time, such as the year-long timeskip that’s taking place in the series currently, but he will ultimately pay.
Spinel and the Explorers have proven to be extremely dangerous and clever adversaries, far more so than Team Rocket or any other evil group that’s featured prominently in the anime. It’s going to take intelligence and strategy to pull one over on Spinel, but a villain like him is most easily exploited by attacking their pride.Pokémon Horizonswill take Spinel down eventually, and that day is sure to be a sweet one.
