#hz110

[scraftyisthebest]

That's two Medichams that met their defeat in a very similar way.

[amelikos]

I am so curious about the fact that Hamber referred to Agate as sensei.. which means she used to be a teacher, and it ties back to Terastal Debut and Agate's infiltrating Orange Academy and posing as a teacher. We got to see that Sango and Onyx's roles weren't entirely lies and they actually liked their time at school and were attached to their nicknames, and to some extent, it was the same for Agate.

Taking on the role of a teacher specifically was no coincidence, and it ties into something deeply personal about her past and her character. Agate was visibly shaken and showed more emotion than usual when Hamber referred to her as such, so it must be something significant for her.. The fact that Dot is Agate's personal opponent is even more meaningful because both of them take on the role of educators. Dot was always the one who was most interested in mysteries and research among the characters in the trio, and she takes after Professor Friede's Pokemon Seminar and teaches others about Pokemon with her Mega Gurumin segment about Mega Evolution.

I think it makes Agate and Hamber's relationship even more intriguing too, because we know that Hamber coached her like he did with Amethio, Sango and Onyx.. But he also respects her as a teacher and refers to her as such, which makes the power dynamics between them a bit more equal because even though he may have trained her, she probably brought something to him too in terms of knowledge. Even on Agate's side, she knew exactly what it is that Hamber was doing. She knows that he is Amethio's spy, but she was willing to let things slide to some extent so long as it didn't get in the way of her personal goal.. She gave Hamber a way out and was willing to give him a chance to step down from the battle, which makes me think she acknowledges him as much as he does her, in her own way.

Hamber saying that Agate has changed makes me wonder when they both met, and how she's changed exactly, even though Agate thinks that she didn't. She said that she had her own goal to achieve, which kind of confirmed my suspicions that she isn't really wholly on Spinel's side and just has her own separate agenda and that she is operating on her own terms until she fulfills what she wants to do. Though her personal goal is still unclear at this point, and it's something she keeps to herself, but all these implications are definitely intriguing.

[amelikos]

I'm curious as to whether we'll see Agate and Hamber interacting in ep 110..

We know that Hamber personally trained her after coaching Amethio, Sango and Onyx in turn, but we have yet to see these two exchange words. Hamber's dynamics with Sango and Onyx was established pretty early into the series and while they tend to be troublemakers, Hamber is able to exert his authority over them and they listen to him (more or less).

On the other hand, he doesn't hold the same kind of authority over Agate and she tends to be the one who has the upper hand. Agate monitored Hamber several times (briefly watching Hamber and Amethio's training in ep 34 and commenting on Hamber's soft spot for him, witnessing Hamber's reaction to the news that Amethio was safe in ep 104, or spying on him when he was calling Diana in ep 108), or kept information from him and didn't intend to report them to him (she only shared her findings with Spinel in ep 67). She is in a position where she holds more information than Hamber. And while Hamber mostly sees Spinel as the immediate threat (even before Spinel took over the Explorers, Hamber had suspicions about him), I think he is aware that Agate and Spinel are in cahoots to some extent.

I wonder where they'll be going with this, and if we might learn more about Agate through her confrontation with Dot, and maybe Hamber.

[amelikos]

It's interesting that Dot will be the first one of the group to meet Hamber face-to-face considering the fact that Amethio bonded with Mighty G a few episodes ago.

Dot was quite close to Landau when she remained in her room most of the time during the early chapters, and they had significant moments highlighting their dynamics (namely when Landau encouraged Dot to communicate her care to Liko in HZ009 which motivated Dot to give a drawing to Liko to let her know she wanted her to stay on the ship, or later on in HZ013 when Landau stayed with Dot on the ship during the picnic and made Dot understand that Liko wanted to share the picnic experience with her because she considers her a friend).

Something, something about Dot and Amethio exchanging grandfather figures.

[scraftyisthebest]

The next two episodes of Horizons are fairly interesting and raise a lot of questions.

It seems Liko, Roy, and Uruto are gonna face down the Laquium-infected Six Heroes under the command of Spinel's personal cronies. Seems he has a lot of random nobodies doing his dirty work, not just Indy and Rubella even though they are his personal second-in-commands. Two nobodies were hunting Amethio way back then and it seems there's three additional nobodies acting alongside Indy and Rubella in commanding the Six Heroes. Maybe two of them are the same ones who were hunting Amethio when he escaped Laqua.

In any case, I don't think they'll succeed in freeing the Six Heroes just yet. They'll certainly try, for sure, but they're most likely somehow gonna end up being defeated. They'll live to fight another day, but from here on the onus is on them to grow stronger on their own and perhaps gain more of their own Pokemon to help Terapagos. They may even learn they can't use the Six Heroes right now and will need a completely new squad of 18 Pokemon to work with Pagogo. Liko and Roy in particular could end up with full teams later on accordingly in this regard (Dot and Uruto...probably not). Episode 111 is called "Get Stronger, Aim Higher", or "Strive for Greater Heights with Unwavering Strength", so I imagine they resolve to get stronger in a way.

The other elephant in the room seems to be that Dot is separated from the group and it seems she's with Hamber (hah, she's the first RVT kid who meets Hamber in person, huh?) and it seems they're gonna run into Chalce again (and maybe Coral and Sidian too?). Seems Coral, Sidian, and Chalce are acting separately and have their own personal business with Dot and Hamber. Chalce seemed to be against Spinel using the Six Heroes but has been spying on Hamber for the past several episodes. I feel like whatever's happening here is personal and not related to Spinel's ambitions. Dot and Chalce will be battling again, it seems their relationship is quite personal since Chalce barely interacts with anyone except Dot. Liko has a very personal relationship with Amethio and it seems whatever Chalce and Dot have here is setting up to be just as personal.

Hamber is interesting because it's always been questionable since the beginning of the timeskip why he's even still with the Explorers right now, since he never trusted Spinel and openly shared his suspicions with Amethio back in Episode 83. He asked Zirc and Onia to find Amethio, which they did, and through them verified Amethio's survival and safety. But even after that, he told Diana he had unfinished business with the Explorers which is why he's not leaving, even though Diana said he could. I think it might have to do with Coral, Sidian, and Chalce, and they are the other main reason he's still there. He did personally recruit and train them after all. Because beyond that he really has no reason to keep being there. His master, Gibeon, is dead, and his surrogate son Amethio went rogue to avoid being caught by Spinel. But I wonder what he's gonna do with Chalce, and perhaps Coral and Sidian too if they're there, and what role is Dot gonna play in all this? Dot and Chalce have a pretty ironically close relationship even as adversaries so what's gonna go on between them?

It's incredibly curious on both ends really.