#and used the free roll it gave me to immediately get a limited pokemon. it's the festive sylveon I'm using for my in-game icon

[heckling-hydrena]

Redownloaded pokemon cafe recently. Nice

[fizzingwizard]

I’m having trouble deciding how to place my crappy screen shots this week because ep 9 gave me the Taichi spam episode of my dreams xD

So, I guess feast your eyes on my favorite boy...

... I mean, you can’t have too much of that determined face, can ya? Haha. And he does it so well.

Well, I was prepared for a episode that was just a cool battle, but we actually did get more than just that. Or, I guess I should say, there was more layered over the battle so it didn’t feel like fighting for the sake of fighting. We still got character development. I love it.

My only criticism for this week is that, consequently, we got very little of the other characters. BUT, what we did get of them was not nothing either, so I’m gonna squee over that as well.

I mentioned some time ago, but also, THE MUSIC IN THIS SHOW, it’s really good. Very epic, very adventure. It kicks the tone up up UP.

More below!

We pick up where we left off last ep, with Taichi “translating” the digicode. Still no indication of whether the others are so linguistically blessed as well. But Taichi, for reasons unknown, can’t translate the entire passage. He basically learns enough to understand that the holy Digimon is trapped by the “dark” and in trouble, and they have to go find it, but after that he says he can’t read any more.

Sora: I told you to pay more attention at school.

Taichi: What school are you thinking of, spy school?!?

It will be interesting to find out why that is and it points to someone pulling the strings behind the curtain. Someone who’s made the kids their champion. Are they a benevolent being? The kids don’t doubt it so far. An old cabbage like me can’t help but look sidelong...

Jou panics over how they’re going to find the holy digimon without knowing where it is, to which Mimi responds that they do know.

Jou: Mimi-kun, you know where it is?

Mimi: Somewhere on this continent.

Jou: T_T Mimiiiiiiii-kunnnn

Taichi of course is raring to go, map or no map.

I mean I did warn you I only capped Taichi this ep...

They are interrupted by Ogremon, who we saw previously talking with Devimon, but when he arrives his motivation does not seem concerned with his master’s plans. He goes straight for Taichi, reflecting on their previous encounter, when Greymon broke Ogremon’s horn.

So here’s what I loved. Ogremon’s working for Devimon, of his free will or not we don’t really know, but regardless, Ogremon is still Ogremon, and like in old Adventure, he stakes a lot in his pride. Last time it was focused solely on fighting Leomon. This time, the kids initially think he goes after Greymon for revenge, but as their fight heats up the other kids notice that something seems different about this fight. Mimi even says “It looks like they’re having fun.”

Like, it’s not just a battle. It’s already done some foundational work for Ogremon becoming their ally in the future. And it’s begun with Taichi this time. Ogremon’s special relationship was Mimi in 99, as well as Jou, and there’s plenty of time for that to turn out in 20 as well, but I think it’s super interesting that they’ve begun it with Taichi.

It’s like a samurai film. (Mimi - again - even says “It’s like a movie.” She got a lot of good lines this ep lol) The two strong, brave rivals who respect each other’s strength and value each other’s pride. And it’s a trope we see in... basically every shonen anime ever made. And it’s really fitting for Taichi.

Yamato has very few lines in this episode. Like I said before, this is very much Taichi’s ep, and the others are mainly just watching, which is a bit of a bummer but also rather hopeful for the show as a whole because even though they’re watching, we learn things about them. The other characters make quips and comments while watching the fight. Yamato is noticeably silent, but every time something significant happens, we get a close up of his face. He gets more closeups and of longer duration than the others. It’s clearly meant to tell us Yamato’s taking this all in and watching so closely. Maybe he’s watching in case he needs to jump in, or maybe he’s simply learning all he can for the future. Whatever the reason, this is definitely an important character trait for Yamato.

All of a sudden a bunch of other Digimon launch an attack, and the kids can’t get out of the way in time. Taichi makes this face:

Similar to the expression he had last week when they were grossly outnumbered and about to lose, if Yamato hadn’t saved their butts. I think this expression’s going to become a Thing as well. It’s the face he makes when he wants to panic, but won’t let himself.

This week Yamato can’t save them because he also needs saving! So who’s our mysterious ally?

That’s right it’s KOOOOOSHIROOOOOO!!!!!! *air horn sounds*

The sheer joy (and relief!) in Taichi’s voice when he sees Koushirou almost makes up for his not being around much in several eps. I’m still a bit disappointed that his return didn’t involve that much fanfare, but getting to save everyone from being blown up is nothing to sneeze at.

Tentomon is hilarious and, like Sakamoto Chika said in yesterday’s Digifes, an “even weirder” old guy than ever xD

The others immediately run over to say hi or introduce themselves to Koushirou and Jou’s quick to inform him that he, Jou, is the leader.

Mimi: Uh really? Since when?

The very manly battle continues to rage.

Yeah I don’t really got much to say, it’s a battle, they’re having fun, becoming rivals, it’s male bonding through physical competition and mutual respect...

I wonder if Ogremon’s got an inferiority complex because Greymon’s got three big horns and Ogremon only has one and a half x’D

The manly battle is rudely interrupted by a FREAKING MISSILE.

Look, doesn’t this land right on them? ISN’T IT LITERALLY RIGHT OVER THEIR HEADS!?!?! Why aren’t they burnt to a crisp! I know it’s a kids show but come on!

The missile was launched by MetalTyrannomon, who is as scary as he is brainless.

The Pokemon fan in me was immediately like “fire!! Palmon get out of here you’re a plant type! Eh Gomamon you’ll be fine”

The kids immediately know something’s changed. The battle of male bonding is over. War is here. The missile was probably a good indicator of that.

Devimon isn’t what one would call subtle.

Ogremon quickly calls it like it is: “So I’ve been abandoned, eh.” Devimon’s gonna kill the kids and he doesn’t care about Ogremon’s pride. He doesn’t care about it so much...

... that he doesn’t mind MetalTyrannomon STOMPING on Ogremon and CRUSHING him into the ground

Taichi’s like WTH!?!?! we were doing some male bonding!! that shit’s sacred!!!

Ogremon: M’fine... jus’ another day for ol’ Ogremon... ghhhhh.... mommy...

So Taichi has a pretty strong reaction to watching Ogremon get literally stomped on. Not that I blame him, but it’s not like they know Ogremon well or anything. Taichi just feels through their battle that Ogremon, well, he doesn’t deserve this anyway. I guess. He has been trying to kill them for a while though. But Taichi’s got his own samurai side and he can’t let injustice stand.

He’s so worked up, the animators were afraid showing us his whole face could cause distress.

His strong sense of justice fuels his courage!

Which in turn gives Greymon an epic power boost like Yamato’s feelings of friendship did for him last episode!

Aaaaand... it’s not very effective!

Because MetalTyrannomon is a level higher, even with a power boost Greymon can’t do more than dent him.

One thing that stands out is, the Digimon don’t seem to have the same issue with needing to fuel up between battles as in 99 Adventure. We’ve seen them pleading for food a couple times yeah, but when they’re fighting they don’t seem to reach their limit quite as fast. This episode, Tentomon didn’t join in the fight because he’s exhausted from flying as Kabuterimon for such a long time before even saving the kids. Agumon doesn’t run out of juice until he tries to take on MetalTyrannomon. But it took both of them quite some time to get to that point and we don’t see anyone stop to fuel up again between scenes.

The contrast with the Ogremon battle makes the MetalTyrannomon one that much scarier. This is the third time in two episodes that Taichi’s on the brink of panic. The third time he’d have lost the game, if someone didn’t come to the rescue.

And this time that rescue comes from a surprising (not surprising?) corner.

Ogremon stands back up... and has uhhh apparently lost his eyeball??? x’D I know he got crushed but like, did his eyeball pop out of his socket and roll away? Like "on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese” style???

Anyway, Ogremon must be kind of sick of losing body parts, because it’s pretty obvious at this point that he’s going to Die by sacrificing himself. Par for the course for Ogremon. He can’t admit to caring, but if he can rationalize it as “I’m getting revenge!” or something he will jump right in. And, given the rate this show’s being going, I guess it’s no surprise we’d see a borderline touching death this early on.

Ogremon also directs Taichi to where the holy Digimon is, making him seem not very like Devimon’s ally at all. Apparently the holy Digimon is “straight ahead.” Some actual directions might be nice but uh.

Taichi however is not too on board with this dying-for-you junk. You can see how conflicted he is. (Well, not in a screenshot, but he’s like shaking.)

Yamato continues to looking on silentl, quivering with rage as much as Taichi, just from the back. I will not be surprised at all if this Greymon-Ogremon battle is something of a prelude for conflicts between Taichi and Yamato in the future.

Ogremon gathers his remaining strength and attacks MetalTyrannomon with everything he’s got, and does indeed seem to disintegrate in the style of dying Digimon. However, that doesn’t mean this will be the last time we see him. I think he’ll come back maybe even more brainwashed on Devimon’s side, perhaps fused again, or maybe not - but I do think we’ll see him again sooner rather than later.

Then all the kids are blinded and Sora groans that she knew she forgot something at the store, freaking sunglasses.

A really fun episode! Was not really expecting much from an episode that was focused on a battle, but it does not fall into the boring trap of just doing cool stuff for the sake of doing it. Though it’s disappointing Yamato was so quiet, it has a sense of a pot slowly heating to a boil. It’s a pregnant pause. And Jou and Mimi were their hilarious selves, how I missed them. Sora and Koushirou had the least to do, but at least Koushirou got to save the day.

Next week it looks like MetalTyrannomon was not defeated by Ogremon, who may have been passionate but was still a level below, so we get to fight some more...

There are no showers in the digital world.

Koushirou gets to show off his Usefulness with this Useful map, which will clearly cause a lot of frowns since it shows that they can only go left or right, even though Ogremon told them to go “straight ahead.” Hmm. What will they do? I’m kind of expecting Taichi to insist on going straight anyway. I hope we don’t split up again already.

Also next week marks the return of the MISSILE NIPPLES!!!

I hadn’t expected another evolution this early on but I mean we did already get a jogress.... so I suppose it’s no surprise. Also MISSILE NIPPLES!!!

[the-third-shadow]

Nightmares

This was not one of BKP-03's normal nightmares. That was clear enough by the fact that they had seen not one, but two figures they had never seen in their sleeping visions before. The first was obvious-- it was Misc, of course. He was tying something around their neck, and they could remember feeling unrealistically light, being able to breathe fresh air. They could actually move their jaw more than the sad few degrees of movement they got while with their mask on. For a moment it was lovely, and there was no pain, only a white scarf being tied around the place where there had once been the auxiliary collar from their mask.

Garbled voices. Was that what they sounded like without their voice echoing in their mask? They couldn't remember, it'd been so long since they had it on their maw. The sound was so far away, both in memory and the dream, but they almost made out a clip of a conversation. Somehow, it became apparent that this was not simply a dream, but a wish. This was what they wanted to be, wasn't it? Somewhere deep down, they wanted to be able to eat oran berries with their friend without having to have them fed through the nearly-invisible hole in their mask that let them breathe.

They could have it. You just have to break your mask.

[Click “Keep reading” to continue!]

But then everything disappeared. It wasn't the normal white, of course. It wasn't the place they refused to think too hard about. They were in absolute darkness, on stairs the color of that place's sterile lights. These ones felt as empty. They were at the top of them, and could see spears of the same empty light below glaring up at the platform they were on. But they were not alone.

Its form was not solid. It changed every moment, as if it wasn't meant to be observed, and the only thing Nia knew they could make out were four-- maybe six-- eyes on a horned head, with four more behind it in the shape of a ring. It was a familiar shape, but around something that couldn't have been a neck-- but certainly must have been a collar of some sorts. That's all anything like that could've been, unless it was a strange creature of the same sorts as Misc.

Everything felt fuzzy the way dreamless sleep felt, but there was something real to the way that the pink cracks spreading through their mask felt. Cold and warm, tangible yet elusive. The ringed creature did this with just a glance, and Nia knew immediately that the wavering thing was unfathomably powerful, holding back-- or perhaps being held back by something even more powerful than it.

It asked something, and Nia couldn't respond or quite hear it the right way, only being thrust from the bizarre rest to shriek in terror. They couldn't quiet down until their throat felt sore in their collar, and Misc was giving them a dazed look, his pupils not quite looking right as they wobbled against the darkness and his confusion. Nia loosened theirself up when they realized they'd dug their foreclaws a few inches into the soft stone ground and darted their gaze around.

It was too dark in here. They knew it wasn't the dream anymore, but it was too reminiscent of it. They pulled their claws free from the ground and stared at Misc, whose eyes were glowing with Psychic as he settled himself closer to Nia, opening a ring and letting some starlight into the dank cavern.

"Wh-- Jeez, Nia… I think you could get a good job as an alarm clock," he teased in a slurred whisper. There was tension around his eyes-- Nia had worried him, hadn't they? He pulled out a familiar blanket as he continued to speak, "You want to tell me what's wrong or you wanna ask me some questions to get your mind off of it?"

When Nia tried to respond, only a hoarse noise came out. Misc nodded sagely and set the weighted cover on Nia, tucking it in with Psychic to put pressure on Nia's body-- which was good, because the non-floating type of pressure that came with a good blanket (this one, specifically) felt safer than anything else in the world. He brought out a few berries and gave Nia a look that they took to mean meant he was probably asking if they wanted any, to which they shook their head the fraction they needed to for Misc to understand. They probably wouldn't have been able to eat right anyways after that mess of a dream.

"...It was Spear Pillar," they whispered after a moment, regaining their powers of speech. Their ears struggled against even the tinny, quiet sound of their voice when they spoke so quietly. It was too loud. They squeezed their eyes shut, trying to get rid of the ringing, but they had just screamed in their own ears, so it was going to be a while before they could think straight with the noise. "There was something. There was us, too. Nothing was right."

"Awfully vague, but…" He trailed off and looked at Nia, who was squinting at him with exhaustion. "It's weird that you're dreaming about Spear Pillar," Misc quietly returned.

He didn't press the issue, but Nia could tell by the way that he had shook just a hair at the declaration of the dream's location (which Nia wasn't even sure how they had known) that he had meant to say something likely akin to "That dream is ominous and is the worst possible thing you could have been having a nightmare about, Nia, we need to go." At least, that's how Nia chose to interpret Misc's trembling.

He was peeling one of those strange pink oran berries they'd seen him eat when he was particularly antsy. They smelled tantalizingly sweet, but Nia knew that they were in limited supply for Misc-- or that's what they assumed, since he hardly ate them-- so they didn't mention it. Thankfully, their bright color seemed to subtract from the darkness, though Nia knew they didn't glow, and it was Misc's Psychic making them do so.

"Can you tell me a story?" Nia chanced, crossing their claws and laying their masked head against the carapace-like legs attached to them. The poor posture made their beak and jaw hurt a bit more, but they needed something to alleviate the pressure near their bound crest, even if there was nothing stopping the band around the feathery ornamentation from remaining clamped down.

The words from their dream echoed for a moment and they had to squish them down along with their claws. The mask was not going, and no strange dream was telling them it was a good idea. No, most certainly no, absolutely not! They just had to figure out a way they could live without constantly needing help and then they could prove to whatever evil little voice had told them that in the dream that they were wrong and could go choke on an oran peel!!

"Oh, uh…" Misc blinked that rapid blink he did when Nia figured he was startled by something, but his smile bled through after a moment. It was a bit fainter than the normal ones, but enough to let Nia know that Misc was not, in fact, startled to death. Good. "That's certainly a new one. Anything in particular? I'm not really the best for storytelling, I'll have you know..."

"Friends. A story about friends."

"You are a paragon of specificity, Nia. May the Original One bless your soul," Misc said in a nasally, flat tone, rolling his eyes. His smile didn't leave for a moment. Still not dead, but definitely slightly annoyed at Nia for not knowing what they wanted more than that. "Okay, okay, um… Let's see what I can think of…"

He set his berries down and floated with a small bounce up to Nia's mask, mirroring the larger 'mon's posture with his arms as he laid on one of his rings. From what Nia could tell, it wasn't meant to be in a teasing manner. Probably playful, but it was hard to read some of Misc's more foreign gestures, especially as exhausted as they were.

"Once upon a time, there was a really scrawny Hoopa and a Pokemon unlike any other Pokemon in the world. One of them really liked naps, and one of them really liked stargazing-- except both of them actually did, now that I think about it. That's a terrible way of differentiating the two. Well, one day, the unique Pokemon-- we'll call them… uh… Mia, for now… Yeah."

Misc gave one of his funny grins, which got a hoarse noise from Nia. It was weak for a laugh, even by their standards, but it was still a laugh. It felt nice, even if it made the ringing worse and caused them to flinch a bit.

"Anyways, one day, Mia and the scrawny Hoopa-- who we'll call Nisc-- were stargazing and talking about all the pretty constellations in the Sinnoh sky, when these two big, bright streaks of light shot through the sky--"

"Misc, I remember this," Nia chided with another little laugh.

"No you don't, you're Nia, not Mia!" Misc put a hand to his chest as if he was offended. His bouncing hair combined with the fact that he still couldn't stuff his grin down was a dead giveaway that the emotion was completely falsified beneath glittery joy.

"You're getting the names wrong." They stretched their back legs out with a pop from some of their bones, and decided to mirror the gesture, letting their claws go so they could stretch them too. Misc floated out of the way of the chimera's attempt at reclaiming a bit of comfort. "You can't tell me a story I was a part of. Unless that's how it works?"

"Okay, okay, I quit. Like I said, I'm bad at storytelling." He gave the mon a soft pat on the back once they settled back down, comically sprawled out like a tired 'mon after a marathon. "A 'mon can only do so much, and that, my dear flower, is beyond even my expanse of expertise."

"We're friends?" Nia suddenly asked,craning their neck as much as they could to look at Misc. Somehow it hadn't occurred to them that perhaps Misc was not helping them for some sort of unspoken obligation.

"Of course, you silly Pokemon."