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Spinel propaganda thread

NumberOneSpinelApologist

NumberOneSpinelApologist

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This is the thread in which we can discuss how Spinel created his anti-volt tackler propaganda.

But also propagandize about how he is an interesting character.
I don't know why this was not the first thread I made when joining the forums lol.
Anyway

I swear i have some deep thoughts, but i'm tired now and i want to just get this out of the way:

his design is pretty

just look at him...

Zrzut ekranu z 2026-03-24 11-58-31.webp
Witness him!

Zrzut ekranu z 2025-10-23 14-05-41.webp
Behold!
Zrzut ekranu z 2025-06-21 11-51-52.webp


That's the post.
 
NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
This is the thread in which we can discuss how Spinel created his anti-volt tackler propaganda.

But also propagandize about how he is an interesting character.
I don't know why this was not the first thread I made when joining the forums lol.
Anyway

I swear i have some deep thoughts, but i'm tired now and i want to just get this out of the way:

his design is pretty

just look at him...

View attachment 245316
Witness him!

View attachment 245317
Behold!
View attachment 245318


That's the post.
Click to expand...
I agree, Spinel is pretty lol
 
Now i've watched very little Horizons, but i must say that despite him not being my personal favorite i can definitely see why he's popular with others, he's a well written villian with a strong design, plus i watch it dubbed and i'll always be a sucker for Matthew Mercer's voice.
 
A long time ago I had a draft of a post about why Spinel is the cornerstone of the entire series, but then I got distracted and the draft was lost.

Then we had the finale, which kinda toppled my house of cards of an argument :stunfisk: maybe I can reconstruct that post when I am more awake, but the gist of it was:

a seriously treated competent villain necessitates that the child protagonists must have some support at least at the beginning, which sets up the premise of the whole series: Adventures of a team of child and adult protagonists (as opposed to kids-only Ashime)
 
So I'll continue with the obvious:
his voice is pretty lol

He is a competent villain, it makes him fun to watch. His plans are actually good, and he frequently finds ways to turn losses into partial wins.

He is the main force driving the intrigue. Sorry Gibeon, but you were just an old guy who lost contact with reality. Spinel was the one doing themost interesting plotting!

Spinel is extremely important for the central conflict of Horizons, and acts as a perfect foil for Liko- his ambition and individualism vs Likos compassion and cooperation.
For most of the series, he used his resources well, he used deception very effectively, and the way he became an expert at framing others for his deeds was interesting. how he made Wolt tacklers into the Bad Guys was also very close to reality-activists are frequently being cast as villains and violent brutes attacking the sacred private property.
I tried to actually think of a Marxist lens of analysis, and throw in something about alienation, but this is totally incoherent soup now so i won't

Spinel is an inherently paradoxical character, laqurium itself is a paradox as well, see my insane ramblings from the philosophy thread, and ranting about the finale lol
NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
Ramblings:
I recently had thoughts that many symbolisms seen in the anime are kind of...dualistic in nature?

Anime spoilers:
During my unhinged attempts at doing hermeneutics of Spinel's character and Laquium...
I came to the conclusion that Laqurium is both telluric and uranic in nature.. It rests underground, but came from space. It gives both eternal life and ego dissolution.
It breaks "bonds", but is clearly connected to its surroundings and reacts to it.
I really feel like it is an embodiment of the essence one of the important conflicts of the anime, the struggle of individualism vs collectivism, ambition vs connection, power vs "power of friendship"


I am not entirely sure where I am going with this so I'll stop here lol
Click to expand...

NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
I do think the both dualistic themes, and the non-dualistic themes really do not contradict each other here. It could be said that this is a paradox...but maybe the invitation to contemplation unity and multiplicity really is the most important thing here, as the act of contemplation itself is meaningful.

And as you say, there are hints of a deeper unity, that and distinctions are not ultimate.


This message resonates through most of the series, but I think that the finale goes agaisnt that, which makes the interpretation more...difficult.

spoilers ahead
For one thing, they kept saying about how they will erase the laqurium. Laqurium is presented as something "unnatural" and "wrong". It is in a sense, put in the role of the "other."
So here is where the Spinel Apologism from my username comes into play: i believe the "other" should be understood, not rejected without understanding. And that understanding would better fit with the other themes in the show.

The final confrontation has a clear victor and a loser, and while Liko and co. definitely understood something more about themselves and their pokemon and the nature of their bonds,
but both them, and we as viewers, did not get deeper insight into what Spinel was thinking and why.

Spinel did not understand much about himself either (which does make sense considering the symbolism of laqurium and his fusion with it),
But. while he did clearly realize the mistake of not respecting Umbreon as a partner,
this experience as a whole could only cement his current thought process of rejecting bonds. Everyone betrayed him, he is all alone now. That actually would prove to him that "there is no bonds, no one can be trusted"
He is clearly biased, but his bias was confirmed by the show itself! It happened because of his own actions, sure, but not even Liko countered or noticed this closed-circle of thinking.
His thought process was a self fulfilling prophecy, but I do not believe he got a proper chance to break out of it, because what Liko said to him was very surface level, this interaction should have been more fleshed out.
And later, Spinel, rather than being enrolled into a program meant for teaching/reintegrating into society, or being sentenced by law to restore/repair the damage he did, or even put in a humane prison.... was exiled into a very dark unhumanitarian looking dungeon.
If the overall message of the show is that it is good if individuals move towards wholeness and connection from fragmentation then I just can't help but think the ending goes against the overall message of the show, and one of the reasons I complained about it all over the forums lol
Click to expand...

Spinel's fate that is a very good example of tragic irony.
One could say that his main flaw is hybris, but when analysing his character it might be more helpful to see him as someone with the "Icarus complex".
He reaches for more and more, and eventually gets burned when he becomes to close to the object of his fascination (the laqurium core).
His mindset is a self fulfilling prophecy - he trusts no one, so everyone betrays him.
HE ALSO GOT NERFED in the finale, even despite his flaws he should not have gone down so easily ffs i will be always and forever the SaltiestSpinelSupporter

idk if that was deep, i am bad at writing essays about fictional characters, i am only good at thinking too hard until my brain turns to mush lol. i am sure i had more thoughts but they dispersed faster than laqurium mist

TLDR: I am unhinged
 
Spinel Did Nothing Wrong: The Rising Volt Tacklers Are Gaslighting You
Can we please stop blindly swallowing the mainstream narrative? If you actually look at the facts, Spinel isn't a villain at all. He is literally just an overworked, under-expanded middle manager trying to do his job, and he is being severely cyberbullied by an illegal sky-cult.
Let’s look at the actual evidence without the Rising Volt Tackler bias:

1. The "Memory Theft" Was Actually Tech Support

Everyone points at the Artazon incident and claims Spinel "stole Liko's memories" with his Beheeyem. That is a total lie.
Think about Liko’s situation: she was snatched from school and is currently living on a lawless, undocumented blimp commanded by a Pikachu wearing a hat. She was obviously suffering from massive stress and existential dread. Spinel didn't attack her; his Beheeyem just gave her a quick, refreshing mental factory reset. He cleared her cache! It was a completely free, non-invasive psychiatric customer service intervention. He gave her a peaceful, normal afternoon, and they framed it as an assault.

2. The Pendant Wasn't Stolen, It Was Safely Confiscated

The claim that Spinel "robbed" her is hilarious. Spinel is a compliance officer.
Liko was walking around carrying a glowing, undocumented, radioactive ancient artifact that literally turns into a green turtle. That is a massive Class-A hazardous material violation. Walking around a public town with an unvetted biological weapon in your backpack is incredibly irresponsible. Spinel didn't steal it, he placed it into temporary, climate-controlled corporate storage for public safety. Friede and his thugs then committed grand larceny to steal it back, creating a fake "heist" story to cover up the fact that they don't have a single permit for that airship.

3. He Has Untreated Overworked IT Guy Energy

Look at this man. He does not scream "evil overlord." He screams "I haven't slept in three days because the corporate servers are down."
He doesn't do the loud, cackling villain monologues like Coral. He keeps his head down, uses his Umbreon for basic stealth, and just wants things to run efficiently. When he pushes up his glasses, it’s not a sinister anime gesture, it’s the deep, exhausted sigh of a 9-to-5 worker who just realized a teenage girl is about to ruin his quarterly performance review by throwing a magical weed cat at his face.

Conclusion: Stop the Slander
Liko and her friends want you to believe in "destiny" and "the power of friendship" because it lets them get away with maritime law violations. Spinel just wants a balanced ledger and a safe working environment.
He didn't attack anyone, he provided free therapy, and he practiced proper hazardous waste management. History will absolute him. #JusticeForSpinel #CancelTheBlimp
 
Spinel has been demonized for ideological purposes. First it was by Rising Volt Tacklers, a group of dirty anprims, then by Amethio, a textbook example of a corrupt bourgeois.

After Spinel took over, he was vilified by the supporters of the old nepotist regime. Opportunistic anti-Spinelist researchers in Exceed such as Yanga exploited those character assasination attempts and built their career on them.

A bunch of anti-civilization anarchists have amped up the fabrications about the side effects of the Strong Spheres to force Spinel to pay reparations for supposed pokemon abuse.

Now, the “revolutionists”, such as Friede, have become the ruling class.
Their power rests on ensuring people don’t think about the liberating power of Laqurium again.

Cervantis scapegoated Spinel and blamed him for all of the problems in Exceed. He absolved himself and other Explorer members of all of their mistakes, because he wanted to gain favor with them. Cervantis held a press conference in which he delivered a host of exaggerations and falsehoods about Spinel In order to consolidate his own power.

Spinel is the symbol of knowledge and progress because he industrialized Laqurium production to bring it to the masses. Your average working class Paldean loves Spinel and sees him as a hero. Cervantis might be popular, but Spinel is even more popular.

60% of Exceed employees say they miss Spinel.

I am a Spinel supporter. I won’t say he is perfect . There are many who claim he was a tyrant of a boss who cynically used deception and forgery to gain nefarious power. I believe he was a great thinker and a true revolutionary, unlike those life-stylist poser anarkiddies such as Liko, Dot and Roy.

I have seen through the propaganda. Volt tacklers are definitely Unovian spies and agitators. Don’t let yourself be misled by them! Stay informed! Stay alert!

ofc this is all satire on multiple levels and multiple things at once btw
 
NumberOneSpinelApologist said:
This is the thread in which we can discuss how Spinel created his anti-volt tackler propaganda.

But also propagandize about how he is an interesting character.
I don't know why this was not the first thread I made when joining the forums lol.
Anyway

I swear i have some deep thoughts, but i'm tired now and i want to just get this out of the way:

his design is pretty

just look at him...

View attachment 245316
Witness him!

View attachment 245317
Behold!
View attachment 245318


That's the post.
Click to expand...
Okay but the design genuinely goes hard, the color palette alone does so much heavy lifting
 
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