#Explorers

[calmcraggyarea]

@aimervee little dogys… ur team

[nerdinsandals]

He is not one of us🎵

He has never been one of us~🎶

Have Amethio without all the lighting and effects too! Just because I'm pretty happy with how the hair turned out and you can't really appreciate it in the final version haha

[fortuneravine]

my turn to make one of these posts: explorers edition

[rescue team| gates | super]

[70sscifiart]

Stephen Fabian

[pitchblackespresso]

Old pmd art from 2020

I'm still very fond of all of these

[nordeva]

It's Pokémon Mystery Dungeon day today!!

This game and its soundtrack hold a very special place in my heart 🍎✨

[azuremoonns]

We made an important discovery chat

It’s the same fucking beach.

[smilingperformer]

Anipoke_PR has released concept art of Amethio's younger self. The little child and probably a bit younger than his current self. We did not see the design on the right in the ep itself thou. Wonder if we'll see it later, or if that is a casual outfit of his from before joining the Explorers? Anipoke_PR doesn't say.

[illustratus]

Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir by Hugh McDougal Eaton

[mi-spark]

life imitates art

[fortuneravine]

au idea i think would be neat: the dark future is only dark because it was night when time got frozen right. what if it was perpetually midday instead. what if the light was inescapable and everyone started to wish it was dark

[70sscifiart]

Philippe Adamov, 1993

[pitchblackespresso]

Old pmd art pt 2

This time from 2020-2022!

[karagin22]

[scraftyisthebest]

I honestly feel like Spinel's downfall when it inevitably happens is going to be rooted in his isolation. Namely the fact that he doesn't inspire any loyalty in anyone and absolutely no one in the Explorers actually likes him or cares about him.

Spinel is at his core an extraordinarily pathetic and petty man. He forced his way into leadership of the Explorers in a desperate and hostile attempt to reclaim a narrative for himself and assert control and gain a sense of relevance. But he doesn't really have a legitimacy to that. Amethio does have legitimacy to heading the Explorers and Exceed because he's Gibeon's grandson and his blood ties to Gibeon are one thing granting him legitimacy as those are rightfully his and his family's, but Amethio has a genuinely good will and a desire to carry on the good in his grandfather's legacy because he genuinely looked up to Gibeon and the good in him, and wants to carry that on.

Spinel is probably gonna be defeated not just by the RVT but by the internal fallout within the Explorers when his own leadership falls apart and everyone in the Explorers inevitably turns against him. Hamber is already acting as the snake, and Spinel has left him be because he doesn't see Hamber as a "threat", but Hamber has secretly asked Amethio's subordinates, Zirc and Onia, to go search for him and the White Zygarde behind Spinel's back, and things will definitely come to a head when Amethio returns, because we all know he openly opposes Spinel. Coral and Sidian already don't like him to begin with and have their own moral compasses such that Spinel's behavior actively rubs them the wrong way, and frankly it's only a matter of when and not if as far as them cutting their losses and defecting. Chalce is the only one who acts "loyal" to him, but I doubt she's actually loyal to him. The way their interactions seem entirely predicated on work and the two of them sharing information between each other suggests a purely professional courtesy relation. Chalce is most definitely acting as a snake in Spinel's presence, and I think she's feigning loyalty to him, taking advantage of his insecurities to trick and use him and get him to trust her, and is waiting for the right time to stab him in the back and sabotage him when he least expects it. She's acting like his loyal right-hand woman but her words when she's around him have this underlying sense that she's actually trying to rein him in, keeping him from completely losing it because she can tell that he's insecure and possibly mentally unstable, so that things don't go haywire within the Explorers because of tensions between him and the other members who openly don't like him or are suspicious of him. I think she doesn't have any actual investment in his ambitions and is just making sure he doesn't completely lose his shit because he's dangerous. There's an underlying sense of isolation there with respect to Spinel in that he has no loyalty or connection among his peers in the Explorers, and his leadership is accordingly fragile.

Meanwhile with the RVT what made them such an effective group early on was that Friede was a really natural leader. He didn't demand respect from anyone like Spinel. He just naturally slid into a leadership role because his talent and character naturally inspire pride, love, and respect among his peers. He's cool, confident, and self-assured, and that inspires respect. People naturally look up to him. There's a strong sense of unity among him and his peers. And now that (despite their damaged public image) Liko and Roy (and Dot) are carrying on the name and working to clear their own names, a big strength in their favor in their new journey is something they now take on after Friede themselves: an ability to inspire respect and win over peoples' trust and friendship. Their strength as Trainers, good character, and love for Pokémon will gain them allies and true friends along the way in the face of public distrust, like what happened with Nyabiko, and their victory against Spinel will be in the unity and support they've garnered from multiple loyal allies and friends they've made along the way who have got their backs, even in the face of their own worldwide notoriety which will undoubtedly give them attention in the public eye.

It in a way mirrors what made Ash who he was in his era and what culminated in his ultimate victory against Leon in Journeys. Leon was such a formidable, insurmountable opponent, and managed to push Ash and Pikachu to their limit, but the bonds of all the friends they made along the way, from Ash's human friends all the way from Misty and Brock to Goh and Chloe, to all the Pokemon he and Pikachu met along the way from his Kanto squad to Journeys squad (including even those like Larvitar and Solgaleo, who Ash never formally caught, but ultimately were still his and Pikachu's friends even if their paths diverged) giving them support, even from afar or in spirit, became their true strength that allowed them to surpass an otherwise insurmountable foe like Leon and allow Ash to break Leon's winning streak and become World Champion himself. The culmination of all the bonds and friendships Ash and Pikachu had forged in their long journey gave them the power to take on and defeat someone so unbelievably powerful.

That will be the RVT's strength for sure, but within the Explorers Spinel's own leadership is going to fall apart because of his lack of true bonds within that group. Amethio, Coral, and Sidian all seem fairly redeemable and deep-down good people as we've all seen, but there's one other factor that contributes to their ability to be redeemed: their own abilities to have connections. Amethio didn't see it as much early on, but by the time of Rayquaza Rising, Zirc and Onia pledged undying loyalty to him even though he was suspended and vowed to keep sticking with him to the very end, and Amethio smiled, knowing that they were his true friends. Hamber is also his supporter and surrogate father figure and the two share a strong bond too. He has his own little found family now in the three of them, and even as he cuts his own path forward, he's not alone: he has people, no matter how few, who have got his back no matter what. Coral and Sidian themselves have grown into a true team with each other too. At first, they couldn't stand each other because Sidian saw Coral as a liability whose recklessness and violence would interfere with his ability to perform his duties, while Coral saw Sidian as an overly serious fun-police guy who would ruin her "fun". But over time you can tell the two have grown into a proper team and have learned to use their strengths complementary to each other, and at this point they really do appreciate each other's company and deep down, they do consider each other to be friends with a true companionship between them. Chalce is a bit of an uncertainty, but she'll likely play a big role in Spinel's downfall too, though she has gained trust from Coral and Sidian so there's not a total absence of connection on her end either.

Gibeon when he was alive was never truly "evil" per se. He became obsessed with something he had no right to even touch, and Lucius attempted to stop him, then afterward Gibeon survived but spent 100 years festering in feelings of isolation and loneliness because he felt betrayed by Lucius, who he considered his very best friend. It didn't help that recruiting Spinel to his group backfired on him because Spinel tried to manipulate him by isolating him further from people who truly cared about him, such as his grandson Amethio. But he was redeemed and showed his true good nature in the end and passed on peacefully together with Lucius. What led to that redemption was the acknowledgement and reality that he did have bonds: his grandson Amethio loved him and vowed to carry on his good will in making a better world for people and Pokemon, and even his best friend Lucius ultimately never truly gave up on him and still considered him a friend, not to mention Gibeon came to understand and accept Lucius's perspective, particularly on bonds. Especially the fact that the White Zygarde, despite everything, chose him as its partner to begin with because it understood him and shared his noble vision. So in the end he had a peaceful death: he didn't die alone, but together with his best friend, and the two were at peace knowing they had something to look forward to in the afterlife (reuniting with their other best friend Rystal, who had passed on long before them and was waiting for them in the afterlife), and that they had descendants with bright futures ahead of them in Amethio and Liko.

Spinel's fall is going to be rooted in the fact that ultimately, he's all alone. He's formidable for sure, but he actively uses people yet doesn't inspire any loyalty from them. No one likes him in the slightest within his own group. His publicity stunts and forceful rise to power feel like a desperate attempt to claim a narrative that isn't his to have and feel a sense of relevance, but having the world adore you in the public eye at a superficial level isn't the same as having a tight-knit bond with people you can trust and love, even if it's just a small group of people. He's the true "outsider" in the Explorers who brute forced his way into the group by trying to have his brilliance recognized by Gibeon and then being recruited into Gibeon's cause, but nothing will change the fact that among them, he's the sleazebag with no connections and always will be. While there was some disharmony with the rest of the group at first, Hamber was a man who was genuinely loyal to Gibeon and loved and respected him, and he raised Amethio like a son, and then trained him, Coral, Sidian, and Chalce in sequence. There wasn't quite the strong unity between them like with the Rising Volt Tacklers, but there was still an underlying potential for connections between them, as Amethio now has bonds with Zirc and Onia, and Coral and Sidian have grown into a real team despite their initial personality clash. Spinel was always the outsider who forced his way in and was only kept around because of Gibeon putting his trust in him, which he opted to use to his advantage to manipulate him rather than forge a real friendship with him.

Spinel's done a lot of heinous shit and that'll make his downfall all the more satisfying, but looking at all this the real aspect of his inevitable downfall that will make it really satisfying is the fact that he's gonna face his downfall all alone, taken down not only by the incredible might of Liko and the bonds she has with all of her friends, channeled through the power of her Pokemon, but by his own peers in the Explorers turning on him and the reality that even with the differences in their paths, they have their bonds, no matter how few, while Spinel has none, further highlighting how weak he is, his pathetic pettiness and isolation being laid bare for the entire world to see.