#hz093

Wow, okay, I’ve been pretty silent for a while, just didn’t know how to proceed with all that happened at the end of horizons and then Mega Voltage, but this has been brewing in my head for like a week so

Amethio. Is presumed dead?? Hello??? What!!!

I don’t believe he is, but he’s at least been missing for a full year(right before the timeskip to now)

I want to know HOW he went missing, especially because when we last saw him, he was flying off with Zirc and Onia, then apparently they don’t know where he is? Nor did they speak to Hamber for a full year? Help

Personally, I feel like Spinel did something to make him “disappear” after ep 89

Now stay with me here, I’ve had a sort of AU brewing in my head since about a bit over a year ago that I’ve never posted about, and horizons has basically followed the basic outline of it

Right when Spinel was introduced, I thought he was gonna try and kill Amethio, then he did(trapping him in that cave with Liko)(personally I though he was gonna try and stab him, but that’s a bit too dark for Pokemon I suppose)

Then I headcannoned him to change sides and side with Liko, and be at the Rakua to stop Spinel, and look at what happened(I had him more involved with it in the AU, but yet again, I’ve never posted about it, so I have no proof of that😭)

In any case, all this to say, if it continues to follow the outline of my AU/predictions for the series, I think Spinel is experimenting on Amethio

Stay with me again here, but why would Spinel make a cover story for Amethio’s disappearance unless he had a direct involvement with it?

I don’t believe Amethio would just run away like that, especially after being so touched by his grandfather’s words and actions before he died(giving Amethio his will and entrusting him to better the lives of people and pokemon), nor would he WILLINGLY hand over his position to someone like Spinel

I believe Spinel’s keeping him locked up somewhere in the Rakua, or maybe an Exceed laboratory, and testing the effects of the Rakurium on him

Spinel has always shown an interest in studying the Rakurium, even without the direct orders of Gibeon, even going so far to use it on his own Pokemon just to see its effects

If Spinel really wanted to inherit Gibeon’s will and better the lives of people and pokemon(which I don’t believe, but most likely he wants to make advancements in human technology through the power of the Rakurium), wouldn’t he need a human test subject to conduct said research?

And who better than his coworker he hates with every fiber of his being?

Morbid, I know, but he already tried to kill Amethio, who’s to say he won’t try and get some useful information out of our boy?

Also, Pokémon can be.. like that if they really wanted to. Take N’s whole story for example, or Lillie’s mom(in the games specifically, the anime mellowed her out sadly)

Quick summary of the ep.

First half of the ep: Liko and Roy go to Chaba Town to meet up with a Gurumin fan (Nyabiko), who is said to have witnessed the Black Rayquaza. Upon learning that Liko and Roy are from the RVT, Nyabiko challenges them to a battle, which Liko accepts. The battle begins.

Second half of the ep: The battle continues but it is interrupted by Uruto, who was being chased by wild Pokemon for entering their territories. Liko and Roy manage to calm down the agitated Pokemon by playing with them, which makes Nyabiko realize that they are not bad people like she thought they were. Nyabiko admits that the eyewitness report she provided was false and apologizes. Liko and Roy become friends with Nyabiko and continue their journey, leaving Chaba Town. 

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Quite a few things to say about this ep.

I liked the little bits that expand on the world. Liko and Roy commenting on Chaba Town. Liko noticing the smell of tea leaves and thinking of Masquernya’s favorite flavor. Pokemon helping people in their work. Nyabiko bringing up the fact that there aren’t many tourists coming here, etc.. Nice details of worldbuilding. Chaba Town seems like a rural place so it also speaks of how far Gurumin is spreading. As long as someone has an Internet connection, anyone could know her even if they don’t live in a big city. 

Liko and Roy.. Really liked their moments in general, their relationship feels so cozy to me. Roy is like a Precure boy to me. His closest friends are girls, he hypes up the girls in his life. It was really cute when he reassured Liko that she could keep up with another Gurumin fan, and when he was happy she made another Gurumin friend. Liko saying that she and Roy didn’t take the wrong path at the end too.. She considers that they are walking the same path together. I like how both of them are on the same page and can understand each other’s intentions so easily? Roy immediately followed up on Liko’s suggestion to calm down the Pokemon and worked together with her. They are so attuned to each other. Also, something kinda funny about the way Roy is the one who keeps revealing to others that they are part of the RVT. He kept going on about Rayquaza being his dream and just blurted out that he was part of the RVT. I wonder if that could lead to a dangerous situation if someone realizes that they are part of the RVT. 

Liko’s battle style was great in this episode too. Liko was able to accurately analyze Gaogaen’s style and patterns during the battle. Liko’s ruthless tactics during battles is something I never get enough of (using Gaogaen’s fire to make Flower Trick explode), and I like that side of her character. The fact that a kind and empathetic character has such a shrewd and cunning style is so interesting. They are really leaning into that side of her character in this chapter and the fact that Masquernya is a Magician Pokemon. Liko’s knowing smile when she had a trick up her sleeve reminded me so much of Friede, too, who reacted similarly when he was battling against Spinel in HZ044. Both Liko and Friede are the type to use their opponents’ moves or strength against them, which is a really compelling aspect of their characters. In both cases, it was a testament of their strong bond with their Pokemon too. Liko and Masquernya could communicate without words (which Nyabiko acknowledged during the battle and thought that it was proof of the deep bond between them), and so did Friede and Cap. 

Nyabiko in general was super cute. Her design was great. In fact, it was so good that I’m hoping we see her again some time. She did appear in the opening, so maybe?? It’s fun that they are exploring oshi culture in Horizons, too. Lots of jargon they use is from fan culture. Nyabiko recognizing Liko’s username and referring to her as the legendary NyahojaSuperFan makes me wonder if Liko is somehow a legend in the Gurumin online fandom? 

Nyabiko is the type of fan who reads others’ comments and she even bragged about Gurumin reading her comments, thinking it would make Liko a bit jealous but it didn’t work.. Liko didn’t understand where she was getting at, and was genuinely happy for her. Either way, Nyabiko is a good kid at heart. She cares about Pokemon and she is knowledgeable about the Pokemon territories in her area. She admitted her wrongs when she lied about seeing Rayquaza and misunderstood the RVT and she was even willing to change her username because she copied it from Liko’s, thinking it’d make Gurumin notice her. It did stand out to me that Nyabiko was jealous and wanted to be noticed by someone she admired.. It made me think of Spinel, since my current reading of him is that he is jealous of Amethio and wanted to be noticed by Gibeon. So I’m choosing to read this episode in this additional, specific light regarding Spinel too. 

I thought there was interesting stuff that deepened Dot’s character in relation to her Gurumin persona? She told Nyabiko that she had no intention of giving Liko special treatment as Gurumin just because they are IRL friends. In a way, Dot is keeping her Gurumin life in the professional sphere and won’t let her friendship with Liko affect her relationship with her fans in a way that would make it look like she gives preferential treatment to someone above others? She intends to treasure every fan, not just Liko. I’m sure Liko would prefer it that way, too. 

On Liko’s side, I thought it was cute that she was able to gush over her hobbies with someone else. Her relationship with both Dot and Gurumin is really fascinating to me, too. She admitted that even though she is friends with Dot, Gurumin makes her nervous in her own way. She makes a separation between them, but not really at the same time? She knows Dot is Gurumin. She doesn’t get nervous or embarrassed around Dot anymore, but Gurumin affects her a bit in such a way. Just like how Dot separates her life as Dot and her Gurumin persona, it seems like Liko is doing the same to some extent (separating Dot and Gurumin in her mind).. But it’s not completely separate either, both sides are blending together in healthy ways? Liko is a friend to Dot and a fan of Gurumin and acknowledges that Dot is Gurumin, and Dot is friends with Liko and her IRL experiences affect her content as Gurumin, but she is still going to treat all her fans equally.

Something I also thought about is that Liko and Dot react differently to potential lies? 

This is not the first time Dot believes information that is false. Spinel tricked her multiple times before when he published false sightings about Liko in HZ015 to make it harder for the RVT to find her, and when he lied about a Rayquaza sighting to Dot in HZ027. Something really interesting about the manipulation of information/truth in this series. Either way, Dot believed these things and felt genuinely frustrated for being fooled so easily. This time, she was desperate for information too and even commented on the fact that she “bought it too easily” when Nyabiko admitted to lying, though she didn’t hold it against her. Perhaps she was more willing to believe in a fan of hers? Either way, I think it’s interesting that Dot, who’s been lied to many times previously, still chooses to extend her trust and is willing to believe others despite everything. She would have reasons to distrust them, yet she still chooses to believe in people’s honesty. Dot is the one who is more familiar with the Internet and probably knows that it can be used to spread misinformation. As Gurumin, she is relying on people for their information about Rakurium sightings, so she is hoping she can trust them. 

I think it’s interesting in contrast to Liko too, because the first episodes of Liko And Roy Set Off showed that Liko is a very cautious person. She wasn’t willing to trust Amethio at all and immediately thought something wasn’t right. It took time for her to trust Friede and the RVT too, and she wasn’t going to be convinced by them just because Friede saved her from the Explorers. I think it’s a neat contrast between both Liko and Dot. Dot was shown to easily believe others’ words, while Liko had moments of cautiousness which highlighted the fact she doesn’t easily give out her trust. 

I thought it was pretty interesting that the first episode which involves clearing the RVT’s name involved calming down agitated Pokemon? It is reminiscent of HZ004, which was the first episode in which Liko met Roy, and when Roy met Friede for the first time. In that episode, Hogator ate food which belonged to the Pokemon in the forest, which made them angry. Eventually, Friede managed to appease them and Liko and Roy gathered berries for all of the Pokemon who eventually forgave them. The solution clearly wasn’t attacking the Pokemon. Similarly here, the Pokemon didn’t do anything bad and just needed to be calmed down. The first thing Liko, Roy and Friede did together as a trio, which was helping Pokemon in need/calming down agitated Pokemon, is happening again and the situation reflects who the RVT are at their core and is instrumental in helping clear their name. This time, Liko and Roy have grown enough to know how to handle the situation without Friede, too. They both knew what to do and were on the same page. 

I feel like we could be getting more situations like this which are reminiscent of early chapters? This show loves its parallels, after all. The beginning of Mega Voltage had lots of callbacks to the show’s premiere, too. Dot is not traveling in person with Liko and Roy yet, just like in the first two chapters. She was interacting with Liko and Roy back then, but it took her time to come out of her room. I think it will be a bit similar in this chapter, too. 

I thought the premise of the episode was simple and the kind of classic setting we could see in Pokemon. Going to a town, meeting someone, battling someone, solving a problem that involves Pokemon. But because it’s Horizons, even those kinds of simple premises work well and generally feel deeper? The character we meet isn’t someone completely random, she is a Gurumin fan, so she is connected to Dot and adds more to her character and her Gurumin persona (all these little details about Gurumin’s fanbase, etc). The battle was actually a conversation that allowed both trainers to understand each other better (Nyabiko noticing the strong bond between Liko and Masquernya who could understand each other without words, and Liko knowing that Nyabiko is a real Nyabby fan because she paid attention to her behavior around her Pokemon and could see she really loved them). The Pokemon problem is instrumental in having Nyabiko realize that the RVT aren’t bad people and that they do care about Pokemon, which shows that Liko and Roy are getting back the truth of the RVT one step at a time. The premise is simple but it’s connected to the overarching narrative, so we get a sense of why it matters. In general, Horizons wants the viewer to constantly remember that there is a story going on because everything feels connected to it.

Overall, it was a chill episode. Lots of cute stuff with the Pokemon. I liked seeing the secondary Pokemon, I hope they keep appearing regularly. Masquernya being jealous was fun, that trait of hers never really goes away. Pagogo being friendly with literally every Pokemon is a very endearing trait, too. I am still curious about Uruto, this time he is the one who ditched the group and Roy didn’t try to stop him. Roy singing for the first time in a while was cute too, btw. Just lots of sweet stuff and interactions all around.

This includes episode titles (from HZ090 to HZ093), writers, promotional pictures, clips of the characters, etc.

No monthly calendar was released this month, but here is the link for the March calendar (because oji-san moe, etc). (Edit: April calendar is here.)