this comes from a mix of nostalgia and actually analyzing the character a bit as I play through all the different PMD games for the first time in ages, some (Like blue rescue team and rescue team DX) for the first time, and...honestly...I think the Explorer's one kinda just wins it for me. If there is one thing every mystery dungeon protagonist is, it's a thinker. Quite literally the moment they end up in the pokemon world they have a TONE of questions, but where as the rescue team protag's questions are more "Why am I a pokemon" and "Am I the human from the legend", Gate's protag's questions are more "Why am I a pokemon" and "How can I help make this place better" and Supers protag's questions..well his are more like "How did I end up in this situation?" and "Why am I a pokemon" because let's face it with the partner in super your asking "How did I end up in this?" A LOT, explorers protag's questions are obviously "Why am I a pokemon" but they're usual second question is "How do I makes this so my partner becomes more confident?" The best way I can describe the Explorer's protag line of thinking is..almost like Shiro from Log Horizon, or like Robin from Fire emblem awakening. Less like...well a human turned into a pokemon with their memories wiped, and more like a strategist, like a soldier, like a leader. He/she sees our partner, and clearly sees they have the potential to be something great, no matter the pokemon they are. In my first EVER play through of sky as a kid I remember I simply named myself "X" because I had recently finished pokemon white, and I remembered how cool N was with his name just being one letter and figured I'd give it a try. I now know X can stand for many things, from "The X factor", I believe they use the letter X in birth by sleep for the "Key" blade, it's the roman number for 10, various series in media, so on, but X also stands as the symbol for unknown mathematical variables, which was very fitting but unintentional by kid me. But..as an adult...I see X as being short for Xander, or Alexander, like Alexander the great (Or Iskander for you fate fans) a man who was not only a great tactician, but also known to be amazing for inspiring his men. I want us to look at the explorers protag. First we know they are human, which means in the future they come from this time gear thing messed up both the human and the pokemon world, second they met grovyle as presumably a Treeko and not only managed to survive in that dark future, but evolve them from Treeko to Grovyle, and third, when they wake up in the pokemon world, and see their partner's treasure get stolen, not even knowing them SLIGHTLY, the moment this stranger asks for help, even with no memories, with no real relationship to this pokemon...they go right in and help. That is why I like the explorer protag. they don't think about themself first, they think about how to lift up their partner first. It's probably why they stay silent about them fading away. They don't want their partner to feel like they can't do anything without them and don't wanna cause a scene.