Spinel is trying so hard to act like Gibeon, but he fundamentally doesn't understand who Gibeon was, and it shows.
Ironically, Friede is actually much more similar to Gibeon than Spinel ever was and ever will be. Friede is actually more like a modern version of Gibeon, whereas Spinel is the polar opposite of both of them.
Yes, all three are researchers and scientists, but Friede and Gibeon are both the kind of researchers who are in their element when they're outside the controlled laboratory setting. They're both adventurers for a reason. Their approach to studying things is to travel the world and meet what they're studying where they're at in their natural environment and setting.
Meanwhile Spinel is someone who cannot stand the outside natural environment and is afraid to leave his comfort zone which is a controlled laboratory setting. He can only study and experiment inside a closed lab setting where he maintains control over all of the variables and can minimize uncertainty. Unlike Friede, Spinel fears uncertainty and gets angry when things go against his expectations and his careful attempts to maintain control over all variables involved.
Gibeon was "passive" in his later years, but not because he's naturally like that, and not by choice. He was paralyzed and barely had any bodily function at that point, so he couldn't go out and about and do what he aspired to do on his own. But if he could, he would. Meanwhile, Spinel actively chooses to be passive and doesn't want to go out and about, doesn't want to face uncertainties of the outside world, and doesn't want to see things in their natural element, he wants to control everything he can to shape things exactly and specifically to his liking, unlike Gibeon and Friede.
