Spinellllll
What I like about them
He's several of my favorite villain archetypes rolled into one. He's very scientifically-oriented, motivated primarily by scientific progress; he's incredibly intelligent, calculating and methodical, planning several steps ahead and planning for contingencies so he's harder to defeat; he employs brainwashing and memory manipulation; he has no depths to which he won't sink, including murder; and he's obsessive over one of my favorite characters. He's pretty much the whole package!
What I dislike about them
I don't like that he put Umbreon through so much agony with Rakurium, even though it was in the name of scientific progress and as such it does make sense for him to do that. It's the one thing he's done that I don't approve of.
Favourite moment
This is a hard one . . . it's a toss-up between when he mindwiped Liko and stole her pendant, and his battle against Friede in the building he had built specifically to trap Friede in.
For the Liko moment, it was the first real act of villainy we saw from him, I think, and it had such intricate setup. He not only used electromagnetic interference to take the Brave Asagi's electronics systems down so that they wouldn't be able to easily locate her, but he also broke her Rotom Phone, and he also put a bunch of false leads on the internet to send them on a wild goose chase, and he had also wiped her memory on top of that so that she couldn't even remember traveling with them at all before setting her loose in the city. Like he didn't just briefly hypnotize her and steal her pendant; he did so much on top of it that it's honestly remarkable that they managed to get the pendant back from him in the end. This is what I mean when I say the man plans for contingencies; he accounts for multiple, if not all, possible variables to his plans and it's part of why Friede skating by on instinct both pisses him off and furthers his obsession in equal measure.
And then the battle against Friede was just brilliantly choreographed. Like the fact that it was a battle completely in the dark, lit only by Umbreon's rings and Cap's electricity . . . insert a chef's kiss because that was impeccable. And then of course it ended with the, "Perhaps he is deserving of further study" line which has many of us huffing copium that Spinel has had Friede in his possession in the past year. Pleeeaaaase let him have been doing extremely unethical science on Friede for the past year, pleeeeaaaaase.
Least favourite moment
The aforementioned Umbreon torture . . . there's no excusing that.
A situation with this character that I want to see explored more
His relationship with Friede, and alllll the extremely unethical science he could have been doing with him in the past year. I know there's only so much they can show given that this is a kid's anime, but come on . . . they could keep the really disturbing stuff off-screen and just show us the results . . .
An interesting AU for this character
Well, there is my AU Grounding Techniques! It is officially an AU because even though we don't know what happened to Friede, I didn't account for Pagogo waking up so early, Uruto is not included, and it turns out that Mollie and Orio are living separately instead of living the lesbian dream. But despite it being an AU, I'm still having a lot of fun with it, and Spinel is as well 💜
A crossover
I think Spinel would get along fantastically with GLaDOS. He'd use Beheeyem to lure in more people for her to test and keep her well-equipped with deadly neurotoxin.
OTP (or OT3+ etc…. just… favourite ship)
Friespinel, but not in the romantic, loving, normal relationship kind of way. I adore the enemies aspect of their relationship, the FOETP of it all, Friede living rent-free in Spinel's head while Friede doesn't think about him at all unless he absolutely has to. I want it dark and obsessive, only working as a charade of a normal relationship if Friede doesn't remember who he was, and feels indebted to the man who "saved" him.
Other ships?
Spinel and Agate have power couple energy, if I'm being honest, but it's also very clear they are just using each other. Agate has already proven (after the pendant debacle) that she absolutely will call Spinel out on his shit and has only been working with him because she thinks he has the highest chance of success. And Spinel has equally made it clear that he's just using the Explorers (Agate included) to further his own ends. But I also think they are both intelligent enough to be aware that they're using each other, so it makes the relationship work.
BROTP
Umbreon and Beheeyem are probably the closest he gets, even though he tortured Umbreon that one time. >:( I'm aware he does also have a Magnezone, but Magnezone barely gets any attention and I don't think he's very close to it at all.
NOTP
Spinel x anyone under the age of 18, though I think I've so far only really seen this with Amethio. Look, Spinel's fucked up, but I don't think he'd go after kids like that. He'll kill them, sure, but statutory rape (or otherwise)? Come now, even he has standards.
An assortment of headcanons!
He's 32 when the series starts.
He's from Johto, and his Umbreon was his starter pokémon (as an Eevee), given to him by Bill at the end of an advanced pokémon science summer camp.
He has a luxurious penthouse apartment that he only really uses to sleep, shower, and do late night work. He has maybe a banana in the fridge. The only other food in the place is for his pokémon. Everything he eats is takeout.
He's a wine connoisseur, with his favorite being expensive cabernet sauvignon imported from Kalos.
He grew up very poor -- he got into that prestigious summer camp on a scholarship -- and it's part of why he resents Amethio being a nepo baby. (Like, Sango jokes about it, but Spinel actually holds it against him.)
Thank you for sending these in!!
