One thing I want to give incredible props to the Horizons anime for, with the latest arc that was released on Netflix and the finale of Season 3, is how it chose to use Eevee and its evolutions in an incredibly creative way.
Given its recent portrayals before Horizons, the easy way to use it would've been to just give it to Liko (or Dot) and call it a day, possibly sidelining her starter in the process, and that would've been boring, especially after the directly preceding series used Eevee in the one way outside of showing off a new Eeveelution they could've with Chloe. Eevee is very prominently shown off in the anime because it's popular and marketable, but this was one of the most creative uses of it, especially in a generation where there wasn't much of anything new to promote with Eevee.
Instead, Eevee, and especially its evolution Umbreon, was given to the main villain, and it was used in a very creative way in relation to said villain. I was really pleasantly surprised by how the show was so willing to punish him in such a harsh way and use Umbreon as a means to highlight the cruel irony of his downfall. Throughout the show, he was a very composed antagonist, seeing a dangerous substance that powers up Pokémon at the expense of the bond with their Trainers and using it as a business opportunity to exploit, so much so that he was willing to use his own partner Pokémon as a test subject for it; seeing him have a meltdown in the end was satisfying.
But what I really like is how in using Umbreon, a friendship evolution that is achieved through Eevee having a strong bond with its Trainer, the show subverts an expectation when giving friendship evolutions to villains. The expectation is that giving a friendship evolution to a harsh antagonist or rival paints them in a more humanizing or sympathetic light, showing a softer side to them even if they're someone like Silver or Cyrus. Instead, Spinel having an Umbreon ends up highlighting just how monstrous he truly is: Umbreon stood by his side all this time out of genuine love and care, even though Spinel clearly didn't respect it as an individual. It gave him a chance to change his mind, pleaded with him to admit defeat, and yet Spinel still tried to grasp at a power that was all but lost instead of putting his Pokémon and its well-being first.
Imo that also made his final fate that much more fitting and devastating. Given his character throughout the show, having him choose to redeem himself would've been out of character, but if Liko wasn't able to convey the importance of bonds to him, then it would've gone against the fundamental message of the show and what she and her buddies have been fighting for all this time, so I'm also happy they went for a devastating middle ground by having Umbreon, who, as I said, is a friendship evolution, outright abandon him. For all his ranting and raving about how bonds and friendship aren't real and how betrayal is inevitable, he himself was the one who committed the ultimate act of betrayal that led to his Umbreon abandoning him. Umbreon gave him a chance to stop and change his mind, but Spinel was so far gone in his obsession with power and winning at all costs that he ignored it and violated Umbreon's autonomy by dousing it with a toxic power-up substance, forcing it to fight for him against its will. In the end, the loss of his friendship with Umbreon was squarely his fault, not a fault of bonds not existing.
And for it to happen after the clash with Liko made it hit even harder. It just seemed like Spinel was about to realize just how important Umbreon was to him through Liko's words to him, bluntly spelling out for him how much Umbreon loved him, and Umbreon decided enough was enough and abandoned him. It wasn't just him being punished; it was him being punished after he seemingly realized how much Umbreon mattered to him, far too late to fix anything. It was also really neat how easily Umbreon broke its Poké Ball to cut ties with him. It shows that Umbreon was never under any obligation to be by his side. It was here all this time because it loved him and chose time and time again to stay with him when it was always this easy to just cut ties and walk away. In other words, the bond Spinel just betrayed and broke was real, and he had this bond, yet he realized it too late and ultimately broke it. I think that really hammers in the truth behind Liko's words.
Watching him limp and stumble pathetically after the one Pokémon who ever afforded him the luxury of undying love and loyalty was perhaps the most cathartically fitting ending to witness for all his atrocities and arrogance, and seeing him in prison in an underground solitary confinement cell, down on his knees and mentally shattered by shame and disgrace, was icing on the cake. Being briefly visited by Umbreon while in prison before Umbreon ran off, yet Spinel being so drowned in self-pity and disgrace that he couldn't notice it, was a beautiful finale as well, especially with Umbreon running off and we see the moon in the far distance, calling back to Liko's words in the very beginning of the show: the moon is so far away, and now Spinel can never reach it.
Major props to the show for using Eevee and one of its evolutions in an incredibly creative yet tragic way. Eevee historically was given to the likes of Gary, May, and Serena to show off new Eeveelutions, and in SM and Journeys it was given to Lana and Chloe as a callback to Partner Eevee in LGPE, but this is a beautiful use of both Eevee and Umbreon, giving it to one of the most monstrously vile, yet tragically human antagonists the franchise has ever had. Especially since Eevee's whole thing is evolving, and Umbreon is a case of evolving via a strong bond, yet in this case it was used to tell a story of a villain who became so obsessed with power, and so knee-deep in distrust, that he destroyed the very bond that made his Eevee's evolution possible, and both of them paid the price for said villain's hubris.
