By the way, just because Orla is the only one who was openly grieving doesn’t mean that Mollie, Murdock, and the kids didn’t care. They were grieving in their own ways. Mollie had to return to her parents’ Pokémon Center. While she does tend to wild Pokémon like she wanted, going back to the place she wanted to go away from is like accepting his death even if she didn’t like the circumstances. Dot was the same way too as she went back to her parents’ house after the ordeal. Murdock was also grieving in his own way. He was the one who didn’t want to disband the Rising Volt Tacklers, yet he had to since he didn’t want to tie down the kids and the others. In a way, his grieving is a form of regret in not being able to do more for them in trying times. Liko had gone into a depressive state during the time skip because she was accepting of it like Mollie and Dot, but also regretful like Murdock. Roy was the one who felt as if he was denying Friede being gone, hence why he was the one who was the most active during the time skip as he went to Kalos, got a Key Stone, and took care of Cap. The only reason Friede wasn’t haunting the narrative like most “dead” characters do is because the kids are in denial that Friede is gone, and it’s also foreshadowing that he’s not dead—he’s definitely not. I’m no psychologist, so I'm only writing down my thoughts on the writing choices, but I do think the writers did go in a good direction with how the character have each individually grieved for Friede.
The crazy reveal that the Strong Spheres have been made in Karna’s factory felt like a slap in the face. Like, this meant that Orla and Karna were basically helping Exceed and the Explorers who were the cause of all of their misfortune. In a way, it makes absolute sense why they’d choose Karna’s factory. It’s isolated, and there are only two workers. It’s a place where any greedy, capitalistic company would exploit—less workers means less money to give out. Still, I love that Karna decides to cancel the production immediately because she trusts Liko and Roy’s judgement. I didn’t expect the Explorers to have two new grunts in the form of Indy and Rubella. If you think their names are a bit random, they still fit the gemstone name theming of the Explorers as Indy is from Indicolite, a blue variant of tourmaline, and Rubella is from Rubellite, a red variant of tourmaline. Man, Horizons really know how to get creative with the names. It’s also matches with the type of Paldean Tauros they have. Rubella is voiced by Robin Yoshino, a relatively new face in the voice actor world, and Indy is voiced by Junta Terashima, who voiced Rei in Pokémon Masters EX.
I’m honestly excited for next week as it will be a milestone as the 100th episode of Pokémon Horizons. Other than that, I do hope that people won’t make baseless judgment on the character or writing just because only one character openly grieves for Friede while the others didn’t. Grief is not a competition. Anyways, let me know your thoughts on this episode!
