#digimon: fandom issues

[koushirouizumi]

@taikouvember!

Prompt: Love Commentary: This A.U. became a thing sometime around 2019+onwards in Koushiro fanbase partially due to a series of active discussions between Koushiro fans in the tags and elsewhere (including Me!), most of us who were perturbed that people making Miraculous Ladybug AUs for the fandom didn't immediately place Koushiro as Ladybug despite the fact that Tentomon, whose name literally comes from Tento{u}mushi / 天道虫 {Ladybug} and is akin in looks to one, should make that kind of placement pretty automatic.

We knew that the likely ""reasoning"" is that Koushiro is often considered "unpopular"/""boring"" to other fans, thus resulting in Koushiro's frequent dismissal from not only inclusion in fanfiction, support for Koushiro's wider canon post-02 within meta, and commentaries as a whole but also within many A.U.s (often being regulated to a ""pair the spares"" role in shipping and then immediately ignored by people outside Koushiro-focused fandom); the other reasoning being the fact the girls are just immediately picked for the role a bit more (when not considered with thoughtfulness from their actual fans) due to gender stereotyping regardless of Koushiro's partner literally being close to a ladybug - and that same gendered stereotyping likely also affecting Koushiro never being chosen for such A.U. roles by the wider fandom, without Koushiro fans ourselves bringing the points (and hypocrisy) up.

The rest of us (including many of us in KouTai{/shiro} fandom) were basically saying "fuck that!!" and thus this A.U. was born! Not long after, Kizuna previews; were dropping by 2020, so within my AMVs, I was only just getting to include Kizuna footages by the time, and mainly only stuck to footage from the previews for this A.U.

For my specific A.U., I use "MIRACULOUS? Koushiro" for the title; indicating the "Miraculous" title as a QUESTION; (as if it's something Koushiro's own self is Also Questioning, {but also it's a Koushiro vs Society's Perceptions of Koushiro dynamic; as Koushiro is canonically an ADOPTEE from a Non-normative family} while other Koushiro fans who contribute to it may at times use varying titles or A.U. concepts! However, my "in the rain" AMV was also one of the earliest contributions, as I originally finished that one sometime around September 2019, and actively talked about it with other Koushiro fans around at time.

If you love both Koushiro, and Miraculous Ladybug; (even if you don't ship KouTai{/shiro} as romantic); Please feel free to contribute to this A.U. at any time!! (It is also fine to portray the rest of the Chosen and/or M.L's wider cast within the A.U/A.U. roles, though this specific parody isn't meant as a 1:1 version!) The rest of Koushiro fans who are also M.L. fans would love to see your contributions as well!! {Just please remember; Yes, it was inclusive KouTai{/shiro} fandom who also had an active hand in creating this A.U. for Koushiro so please respect that fact!!}

Digimon Adventure/02/Tri/Kizuna AMV [PREVIEW] ~ A.M.V. featuring pairing: Koushiro(u) Izumi x Taichi Yagami ~ “ ‘Ladybug’ ” {Un-official Title} Music from the M.L. P.V. {the Anime-style trailer by Toei Animation that the M.L. series originated from}

{Feel free to compare the two to ‘See What I Did There TM’!} (Note: Select “H.D.” setting on A.M.V. for better quality!) (Click the gear icon on the video, ‘Quality’ menu, and ‘1080p’!) A.U. A.M.V Spin-off of my KouTai/Taishiro(u) fic-verse “REPEAT?_” - but this AMV can be viewed as a standalone too ! (For most past A.M.V.s in the series + Notes, check here!) [For my later M.L. A.U. A.M.V. “In the rain”, view it here!] * Please read ALL notes (authors’ notes at the beginning + ends of each chapter) before/if you read the fic! (The fic deals with some heavy subject matters which are all included in the notes!)**

Keep reading

[gastlygallows]

The best part about saying "Frontier is my favorite Digimon season" is that if anyone says "mine too", you know they're telling the truth because nobody would lie about that considering how the standard response is, "OHhh that's the one where ThEy TuRn InTo ThE dIgImOn?!?! i HaTeD tHaT oNe!!!111"

[adventurexheart]

I noticed that whenever someone may have valid issues with male characters' writing for Digimon, people are more likely to listen to what you have to say and won't argue with you about them. However, the second you mention that you have problems with any female characters writing, all of a sudden, it's "you hate women" and "you're a misogynist." It's concerning how quickly people throw these words out there.

Being a misogynist means you have a STRONG prejudice against women for simply existing as women. It's having that burning hatred for them in general and objectifying or belittling them for being a different sex.

If someone talks about valid criticisms of the way a female character is written, it doesn't automatically equal being a misogynist. This is something that really shouldn't have to be clarified, but somehow, people are still so quick to throw that word around without understanding the severity of the weight it carries.

[koushirouizumi]

Re-posters in my (02) fan base are like: I hate everything you love!!! I will make endless hate posts bashing the sequel series you and others love or even just moderately enjoy, all while endlessly mocking fans* of the same series for existing!!! (*Includes YOU!!!) Anyway, (~as an 02 fan~) I have free rein to steal & use your works for (+my 0801!!) hateposts {on x series I chose to hate on during 0801 "because it's my post!!"} (all while actively using YOUR work on it!!) because this is the IMAGE STEALING SITE!!!! I'm DEFINITELY not the one in the wrong here!!!

[aph-japan]

@alpaca-clouds @alpaca-clouds @alpaca-clouds I asked you once and you blatantly ignored me, so I'm taking it to main because you clearly don't give a care to acknowledge I commented to you directly about this. This post will remain on my blog until you delete the gif.

REMOVE MY MEIKO GIF FROM YOUR ANTI POST. THANKS

My personal Digimon season ranking

Given August is Digimon month, I cannot help but do one of these. Because, oh boy. I have not made one of those in a long, long while.

Now, let me tell you one thing clear: I have been in the Digimon fandom since Adventure started airing 2000 in Germany. I still vividly remember getting into the show and what the first episodes I watched were. I have obsessed about this show for so long...

But I also have unpopular opinions when it comes to the seasons. So let me get to those.

And please note: I will not list Digimon Adventure: (2020), as I only watched the first 22 episodes and then just dropped it. But I will list Digimon Adventure tri., though it is not quite a season.

#1 Digimon Tamers

My number one Digimon season is and will probably always be Digimon Tamers. This show really has no right to be as good as it is. Like, holy shit. This show went so hard in so many regards.

It really is the only season of Digimon that has something like a proper pacing. With only a couple of episodes being actual filler, while most do progress either story or character arcs. And those character arcs are so fucking good.

When I was a kid, I got so hooked on Ruki, because she was just such a good female character. But by now I do appreciate them all. (Well, Ryou maybe less, but that is a story for another day. Because he is one of those examples where I also grew up on those games and I love game!Ryou...)

Also, the amount of amazing background characters is kinda hilarious. Like, background figures like Janyuu, Yamaki or Shibumi are so well written.

Not to mention: For a 2001 merchandise TV show with 51 episodes, the animation has no business being as good as it is. How is it, that this series still has better animation than some of the later series?!

So, yeah, all around great show. Love it. Will rewatch most certainly a couple more times.

#2 Digimon Universe Applimonsters

And while a lot of people will absolutely understand, why I put Tamers in first place, pretty much most people will not get, why I would put Appmon in second place. Because other than Tamers this has a ton of filler episodes.

But to me none of that really matters, based on the fact that I just love the freaking character writing in this show, all the references to computer history and also... The fact that this show is gay as fuck. I mean, holy fuck, the entire Haru/Yuujin thing? Yeah, it warms my little queer heart so much!

But other than that it is another series where I really just love all the characters a ton. Haru is probably the goggle boy I relate to most out of all of Digimon. But I also really loved the other characters in this series, including the Digimon partners and what not.

So, yeah, to me this is my second favorite Digimon show.

#3 Digimon Savers

Masaru in a way is the polar opposite character to Haru, isn't he? While Haru is this soft spoken, introverted guy, Masaru is just this pure hardcore masculinity! GAAAAR! So, while I do like him less as a character than I like Takato or Haru, I did enjoy the writing in this show quite a lot. There were a ton of personal stakes to the story, that the others seasons did not bring in as much as this show did. And that was something I really enjoyed.

And while it got ridiculous at times, I also liked how Masaru was a bit more involved in the battles by punching stuff. Though I kinda am sad that they did not go with that original concept where all the characters would've been able to punch stuff.

I also enjoyed that the characters were a bit older in this, though ironically my favorite characters from the season are Chika and Ikuto.

#4 Digimon Ghost Game

There might be some bias here based on the fact alone that it is the most recent season of the franchise. But even though it was basically 100% episodic, I did enjoy almost every one of those episodes. Basically the show is 100% vibes for me, but oh boy, do I love those vibes.

I find this season kinda weird in terms of how it kinda pushed for two Digimon/human ships, with Ruli/Angoramon clearly being coded into the text, while it is also fairly clear that Jellymon is romantically interested in Kiyo. I mean, there always were seasons where you could definitely go for Digimon/human ships....... but it was never like this. But then again: All power to the monster fuckers, right? xD

And yeah... Being a fan of the horror genre, I absolutely adored how many episodes were based around classical horror stories from all around the world. That was so freaking fun! :D

#5 Digimon Adventure 02

Okay, let me make one thing clear: Digimon Adventure 02 is not a good series. It is not. Knowing what I know about how chaotic it was behind the scenes, aka how chaotic and cursed this production was, this is also not a big surprise. I disliked the show for this for quite long. I mean, there is tons of filler and the animation is soooooo bad in soooo many episodes. I mean, there is a ton of fan animation that is better than this series. But...

It also is kinda charming.

See, the thing about this show is, that I kinda still do like how the characters develop over the show and how... positive a lot of it is. The characters are sweet with each other and even with their enemies. And a huge chunk of the show is also dedicated to the characters outright trying to rebuild the digital world.

Also, this show has Ken, who to this day is one of my favorite Digimon characters. So, fuck it. I actually still kinda like it.

#6 Digimon Frontier

Fun Fact: I grew up with the Japanese dub of Digimon, but Digimon Frontier is the one season, where I actually kinda liked the US Dub, just based on the US soundtrack for this show. I really kinda liked the vibe it had.

In a way I do feel that this show had in fact the strongest character designs out of all of Digimon. The characters just have the right level of detail. They do not look overdesigned, but also not too simple. I really digged that. And yes, as a kid I cosplayed Takuya a lot.

To me the series just mostly suffers when it comes to the pacing. Not because of the fillers really (I am fine with fillers, as long as the fillers are fun), but rather in terms of the Cherubimon-arc being sooooo long and everything happening after it feeling kind of like an afterthought.

But I still very much like the characters. I just wished they did not make Junpei a glutton. One fat character who isn't a glutton. Is that so much to ask?

#7 Digimon Xros Hunters

For anyone now going like: "But this is not even a series on its own!" I will kindly ask you: "Shut up, this is my list." Because those couple of episodes from Xros Wars that were clearly just meant to fill the timeslot for a couple more weeks, do have a very different vibes from the rest of the show.

Now, this also is basically just filler + then the crossover event. But... At times this was kinda sweet. I liked the vibes this show had at times and some of the characters were kinda likeable.

And I really liked the opening.

It was not good. Definitely wasn't. But there was stuff about it I liked.

#8 Digimon Adventure

Yeah, let's get to my most controversial Digimon opinion: I do not like Digimon Adventure a lot. I really don't. Some of the characters are fine, yes, but... I do not like a lot more of this show. Mostly because I fucking hate the crest system and how morally simplistic the show is, with the bad guys just all being bad guys with not much depth. Meanwhile most of the characters are horribly underwritten and have their entire character arcs rushed through within like two episodes.

And I just hate Yamato and how the show just tries to excuse all of his bullshit. There. I said it. I think he is a horrible character. A horrible brother. And a horrible friend. So, yeah, fuck him.

And Nishizono, the showrunner, had no plan where he was going when he started writing. Not entirely his fault, given that he inherited a production that two other writing teams already had abandoned. But maaaaaan, it shows.

#9 Digimon Xros Wars

What is there to say?

Digimon Xros Wars sucked. It sucked. And to this day I wonder what the drama behind the scenes was. We know there was drama (given the showrunner abandoned the production half-way through!) but details are sparse even ten years later.

But, yeah. Taiki is a fucking Gary Stu and the plot just shifts around him. The story is a whole mess. The female characters get sexualized to no end. Everyone who is not Taiki gets sidelined constantly. The animation is inconsistent. And what not.

And the really sad fact: The manga is so fucking good.

I am fairly certain that most issues are because of production drama. And one day I am gonna find out what that drama was.

#10 Digimon Adventure tri.

Digimon Adventure tri. is one of the things that by themselves are not good, but get really bad once you consider the universe it is set in. It is one of those things put into an existing canon without honoring the existing canon at all.

It just ignores basically everything happening in 02. The character developments from anything that has happened before. The 02 characters are just not there. The "original chosen children" exist and yet the OVA does not give them the attention they deserve. And Meiko is just... Oh boy. Meiko is just a horrible character for so many reasons.

It is just fucking sad that this exists. So fucking sad. Just why?!

Also, for OVAs the animation is so bad. Soooooo bad.

[jewish-vents]

I think the reason the Miku thing is so grating is because it represents a bigger trend in fandom. Everyone can have religious headcanons, except Jewish people. Spider-Man can be any ethnicity, nationality, etc. except Jewish or Israeli. MCU characters can be AU'd into being different races or having different powers, but don't you dare say Captain America is Jewish in your story. Digimon says there's heroes in every country but if you make an Israeli one or say one in one country is Jewish, you support genocide now. Miku has no canon ethnicity and people from over 60 countries have drawn her as their ethnicity or nationality or both, but don't you ever imply Israeli Miku is okay.

And the real, very clear subtext underneath all of that is clear: you don't get to be in fandom spaces. You don't get to relax and take a break from the world. You can't sit back and dream up any character who is both heroic and Jewish. You don't get to have fiction as a fun escape from day to day life. Your being Jewish makes you ineligible for that kind of joy, even in fandoms where the source material was written by Jews in the first place.

It doesn't help that so many Vocaloid fans are kids so with Miku in particular, we're seeing kids as young as 11 or 12 get bullied out of fandom spaces by adults. Hey, Pro-Pals? Hamasniks? Let me let you in on a secret: ZERO PALESTINIANS ARE HELPED BY THIS! You think someone living in a warzone is helped by you yelling at a child for daring to draw a fictional singer as Israeli? Do you honestly believe that someone somewhere is one step closer to liberation because you tore into a 14 year on Twitter over a doodle they posted?

No. No, you don't honestly believe that. This is not about helping Palestinians. This is about punishing Jewish people - and in this case in particular, Jewish children - for existing in public. This is about penalizing people for acknowledging that Judaism exists, for imagining themselves in fiction instead of imagining worlds in which they don't exist, for interrupting your fantasies of a Jew-free Earth.

The issue is not Miku, it's that the Miku debacle is part of a nearly year-long trend of goyim yelling at us for existing Jewishly and unabashedly. And all that hate and constant anger is a lot to take. Especially when so many people lie to us, saying it's not about antisemitism, it's about [buzzword here].

Yeah, no. If you're yelling at children for imagining Jewish characters existing, you're being antisemitic. It's not about anything else. Stop lying.

.

[digi-lov]

Reposting of Stolen Art in the Digimon Community

Idk, I wanna draw attention to this. But I don't really know what to say. I've made multiple posts about individual issues before. I just feel like I have to use the platform I have to spread awareness.

Please, before liking and reblogging art, take a moment to check if the artwork has been stolen.

Me and others often try to link the original art in the comments as soon as we come across it.

If someone is a confirmed thief, mass reposting for notes, block them.

Stolen art gets hundreds of notes despite people pointing out it's stolen.

It just breaks my heart to see artists pour their love into artworks for this Fandom, only for it to be stolen and spread without credit.

About a year ago, I called out another user for stealing countless artworks. I went through their entire backlog and looked up every original artist.

I contacted them to tell them to at least give proper credit. They added all my researched sources to their posts, but...

They went back to repost uncredited art again, not much later.

[Left: @/ rastadog77 on twitter | right: @/danzilla on dA]

And this user is not the only one. And they have zero shame.

This user stole artwork the artist entered the Digimon Illustration Competition with. This artist, by the way, is an official artist of the One Piece TCG and more.

This thief had the gall to steal another Illustration Competition's Winning Artwork!

This is just insulting.

[izzyizumi]

No I'm a Digidestined Chosen Child One (Koushiro Izzy Izumi)

WAIT PEOPLE ON TUMBLR ARE REAL FUCKING PEOPLE

[feministmetalgreymon]

The reality behind the Palworld vs Pokemon contreversy

I have been a lifelong Pokemon fan. And one thing I have observed is there are two kinds of Pokemon fans.

One type of Pokemon fan is what I call the sane fans. They acknowledge Pokemon is one game in a long line of monster taming games. They may like or prefer Pokemon over other monster taming franchises but they acknowledge those franchises legitimacy rather than dismissing them as Pokemon clones and rip offs.

The other type is the insane Pokemon fans. These are the people who will insist, despite evidence to the contrary, that Pokemon is the first and only original monster taming game. And accuse any monster taming game of being a Pokemon rip off. If a monster taming franchise looks like it might be become popular they immediately lie about it and slander it. And if it doesn't become a "Pokemon Killer" they deride it as a failure that wasn't as good as Pokemon.

I have seen these insane Pokemon fans attack any monster taming game including franchises that predate Pokemon like Shin Megami Tensei and Dragon Quest. When Tem Tem came out they swarmed social media with accusations that Tem Tem was just a lazy Pokemon clone. And now they want people to take them seriously when they call Palworld a Pokemon rip off. Yeah sure.🙄

Palworld isn't even in the same game genre as Pokemon let alone being a Pokemon clone. Palworld is a survival crafting game with a monster taming mechanic. The Pals you tame aren't just used for fighting like in Pokemon. They are also used for chores like crafting, farming, building and gathering resources. The only similarities Pokemon and Palworld shares is a small number of vaguely similar parody designs.

The only thing that has changed is that now that the Pokemon games have declined in quality. Fewer people are willing to take the insane Pokemon fans seriously. When Game Freak released Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and it was a broken buggy mess. That was a wake up call to the Pokemon fandom. They realized that blindly worshipping a billionaire dollar corporation was a bad idea. And so they started trying other monster collecting franchises like Digimon, Nexomon, Cassette Beast, Dragon Quest Monsters and now Palworld.

They realized that they were missing out on a lot of good games by worshipping Pokemon and insisting it's the best just because it's more popular. And that's when Palworld came along.

You want a monster taming game where you fight alongside your monsters. Palworld has it. You want to use your monsters for more than just fighting. Palworld has it. You want a large and challenging open world. Palworld has it. You want to play with your friends. Palworld has it. You want to build a base and watch as your monsters perform tasks. Palworld has it. You want creature breeding mechanics that aren't slow and tedious grinding. Palworld has it. You want deep creature raising sim mechanics. Palworld has it.

Despite all of the attempts to accuse Palworld of "plagiarizing" Palworld. Palworld has improved drastically on the Pokemon formula and has added more interactivity and depth to it. This is why insane Pokemon fans hate Palworld. They can't argue that Palworld has worse gameplay than Pokemon. So instead they make the issue about "originality".

"Originality" has nothing to do with how good or well done a game is. But it works as a distraction from debates about quality. By making the Palworld debate about originality they don't have to discuss how broken and buggy the Pokemon games are. Nor acknowledge any of the improvements and advances Palworld has made to the monster taming genre. Instead the debate becomes about who did what first.

The reality is it doesn't matter who did what first, what matters is who did it best.

[tobiasdrake]

I'd say that Tri, Last Kizuna and 02 The Beggining are a tad of a weird approach to try and bank into nostalgia, but not letting go the concept of "no you have to say goodbye to the 'mons"... which doesn't work after 02's epilogue. And then Adventure 2020 happened, and forgot that it was supposed to be an assemble show.

I don't have a problem with nostalgia banking, but Last Evolution Kizuna wanted really badly to be Toy Story 3 and failed. That, I take a lot of issue with.

There's a lot of heated debate surrounding LEK. The idea that the kids' partnerships with their Digimon break because it's time to put away childish things and grow up is extremely contentious within the fandom, but it's also not universally agreed that the film is even saying that thanks to translation issues with the subs and also some very ambiguous imagery with the ending.

There are basically two different interpretations of what happens in LEK.

1 - Sora, Taichi, Yamato, Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro all lose their Digimon Partners because they enter adulthood - but not Takeru and Hikari because they still have a few years to go.

This is a natural occurrence and the result of growing up. They have no choice and no agency in the matter; The Universe takes their Partners away because they're too old to be playing with toys anymore, and they just need to fucking suck it up and deal.

2 - Sora, Taichi, and Yamato lose their Digimon Partners because they're too irresponsible with their adulthood. Mimi, Jou, and Koushiro do not because they're responsible adults and are balancing their adult lives and their love for their Partners well.

What happens to Sora, Taichi, and Yamato is a rare and unusual occurrence, but there is hope that they will one day find their Partners again once they've gotten their heads on straight and made their way as adults.

For obvious reasons, the film is very unpopular with fans who take the first interpretation and pretty well-liked with fans who take the second. Which one is actually the valid and intended reading? Well. It's complicated. The movie went through a tumultuous creative process, to the point that Adventure series director Kakado Hiroyuki walked out on production midway through over disagreements and inconsistencies to the original series.

Which is, y'know, always a promising sign for a new entry in a series.

Watching the film, for me, it honestly feels like both readings are intended. Which is to say, you can find evidence to support either/or. I don't think that's deliberate, I just think the film was sloppily made and shows signs of conflicting creative visions.

Proponents of the Good Movie interpretation can point to the villain of the film, whose central motivation is literally that having your Partner taken away because you grew up is some fucking bullshit. In its final act, the film reveals that her Partner did come back - Just in an unrecognizably different form, not as the Partner she knew.

So the natural conclusion then is that Agumon and Gabumon will reincarnate and may find their way back to Taichi and Yamato; They just won't be Agumon and Gabumon. Which still contradicts the 02 epilogue despite proponents of the Good Movie interpretation insisting that 02's epilogue is still canon to LEK.

Which itself has evidence to support it (Taichi and Yamato are on their way to becoming the people they are in the epilogue) and evidence to refute it (Agumon and Gabumon fucking died).

As the translation breakdown in the above link shows, there's also some phrasing issues that created confusion. Gennai in the official English version describes losing your Partnership as a typical occurrence while, in the original Japanese, he seems to describe this more like a rare thing that he doesn't fully understand.

It's explained that what's happening is the narrowing of potential. Children have infinite potential, which something something Digimon Partnerships. As you make choices with your life, you narrow your potential, and eventually it can no longer sustain a partnership - Unless you're able to become an adult with limitless potential anyway!

That seems like it's setting Taichi and Yamato up to figure out their shit and save their Partnerships at the last second. But they figure out their shit and still lose their Partners, which gets described in the end as a rite of passage.

The blog with the big translation breakdown I linked above makes a note of the difference between the official translation, "This is how we finally grew up," and a more accurate translation, "This is how we arrived at the entrance to adulthood." As they say, it shouldn't be translated with finality.

But that's splitting hairs, because either version is still saying that losing Agumon and Gabumon was Taichi and Yamato's rite of passage from childhood into adulthood. Whether they've become adults or taken their first steps into adulthood doesn't actually matter; it's still describing this loss as the gateway that brought them there, which is the point of contention.

They did what they were supposed to do, they were still punished for it, and then they close by describing it as if it were an inevitable consequence of growing up despite what Gennai said. Which may or may not be corroborated by what happened to Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro.

Proponents of the Good Movie interpretation will point to Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro as proof that not everyone loses their Partners. Proponents of the Bad Movie interpretation will point to those same characters as proof that everyone does. This is due to a fundamental disagreement in how you interpret the final scenes.

At no point does the film ever say, with words, that Jou, Mimi, and Koushiro lose their Partners. But it does conclude with these images:

The final shots of Taichi, Yamato, and Sora show them to be moving forward with their adult lives, with no Digimon. The younger kids Takeru and Hikari's slides contain Patamon and Tailmon. There are also slides for the 02 characters, which show their Digimon Partners still taking an active role in their lives too.

But Jou, Koushiro, and Mimi? No Partners in their slides.

Good Movie fans will say that the film never says explicitly that they lost their Partners, so this means nothing. Their partners are probably just offscreen somewhere.

Bad Movie fans will say that these slides are meant to show the older kids moving on with their lives post-Digimon and the younger kids still having their Digimon Partnerships. There's a clear contrast between Hikari and Takeru's slides versus Taichi, Yamato, and Sora's - and Jou, Koushiro, and Mimi are presented like Taichi, Yamato, and Sora here, not like Hikari and Takeru.

Good Movie fans have the counterpoint to be made that their Partners still exist in 02's epilogue. So, y'know, canon faithfulness says that everyone's Digimon will come back or was never lost. Checkmate, naysayers.

But also Last Evolution Kizuna basically ignores Tri and makes no attempt to address the questions it left hanging, and also the Adventure story director walked out of production over inconsistencies to the original so I don't think you can really use canon faithfulness as a talking point here.

Taichi and Yamato are still on their way to becoming an ambassador and an astronaut respectively, so the epilogue hasn't been thrown out entirely. But it clearly has been thrown out. Jou was supposed to become a doctor in the Digital World, Sora was supposed to become a fashion designer instead of inheriting her mom's ikebana mastery, and Mimi was supposed to become a chef instead of selling cosmetics.

Yeah, Taichi and Yamato are still on-track to a similar life path than what the epilogue gave them, but nobody else is. So I don't think the movie is actually as faithful to 02 as the Good Movie side thinks it is. And apparently neither does Kakado Hiroyuki.

For me, I do think they were trying to say it's time for the kids to put away childish things and grow up. I don't think they meant that to be insulting. But I do think it's kind of insulting.

I think they were trying to do what Toy Story 3 did; To tell a story about the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood and what that means for the things we loved and enjoyed as kids. But I don't think that story works when the putting away of childish things is something cosmically forced on the children rather than a choice they make with their own agency.

Toy Story 3 wouldn't have landed the way it did if the movie was about Andy's mom pinning him down by the arms while garbagemen come in and throw Buzz and Woody into a woodchipper. But that's kind of what Last Evolution Kizuna does to the Adventure kids.

Taichi and Yamato get to give a powerful emotional farewell to Agumon and Gabumon. But they don't want to, they are not making this choice for themselves, and no reason is ever provided for why they should have to. And even the best defenses of the film just make it out to be a weird, random cosmic blip that maybe they'll fix some day, who knows.

Even in the best-case scenario, the universe just decided to grievously hurt Yamato and Taichi for no reason even though they were already making strides to undo the thing they were allegedly being punished for. It's still mean-spirited and cruel even in the best possible interpretation.

So. Yeah. All things considered, I find myself falling on the side of "It's a bad movie and I don't accept it as part of my personal Digimon canon." I don't accept that the children need to all have their Digimon deleted once they enter into adulthood, and I equally don't accept that they don't need to have that happen but that Taichi and Yamato deserved to have their Digimon ripped away from them at the end. There is no version of this movie that I actually like.

[alpaca-clouds]

What the fuck?

Ao3 wants to remove the "all media types" fandom tags, and just that... it is such a horrible idea? Like, there are some fandoms for which it might work, but there are also a log of fandoms, where this will not work at all.

Please @ao3org, don't this. It will mess up the archive big time.

I have already seen some posts explaining it with the Sherlock Holmes fandom and the Transfomers fandom. But let me explain it with two fandoms in which I at times upload and read: Digimon and Pokémon.

Both are multimedia franchises with a lot of different fandom tags associated with it across several types of media (mostly anime and games, in the form of Pokémon also movies). For Pokémon there are also really a ton of fanfics, for Digimon not quite as many, but also enough. And sure, many of them can be sorted into some actual subtag for a specific game or whatever. But here is the thing: Many others cannot.

Because in both fandoms it is quite popular to write stories where original Digimon Tamers or original Pokémon trainers will have their own adventure in a completely original version of the Pokémon/Digimon world. Original seasons in some way. With DIgimon it is often very much completely original - with Pokémon they might travel through a known region, or through one established. But even in the latter case you cannot just say: "Oh, actually this is Pokémon Gold/Silver, because they travel through Johto", if there is nothing else connecting it to that. Because maybe it is another time where different characters live there and what not.

Those kinds of fanfics are completely misplaced in any tag but "Pokémon/Digimon - All Media Types", because they are a fanfic about the fandom at large and not a specific entry within that fandom.

Now, those are the fandoms where I know this specific thing will happen, but I can in fact also imagine it happening with a lot of other fandoms.

I know there is quite a bit of fanfic there for stuff like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, where people are writing about original characters within that setting, without really referencing anything specific from the movies or books in question. Because it just happens so far in the past or the future of that world, that it really does not matter which "universe" it is set in.

According to you, how is someone supposed to tag something that takes place in the world of Harry Potter, but in Japan of the 18th century, if not "Harry Potter - All Media Types"? Especially as... Look, I am not sure how to even deal with this. Like, there are clear differences between books and films in HP, but most people will still treat it as one and the same.

I am sorry, but this is just a shitty change that is making life a lot harder, ESPECIALLY for people who write mainly OC-centric fanfictions or stuff that is more concerned with worldbuilding than anything else.

People have already explained why this is an issue for other big fandoms - even outside of OC-centric stuff. But when it comes to Fandoms that spawn a lot of OC-centric stories, this change is a nightmare.

And that is without going into the weirdness of having two different tags for an anime adaption and the manga original, where there is near to no difference storywise between the anime and manga.

[8r14r-r0s3]

I think this is just a me issue really, but being on the younger side of Gen Z and being really into digimon from a young age is a very weird experience. Because when I was a wee child no other kids knew what the actual fuck a digital monster was, and now that I'm old enough to participate in fandom spaces, it's still really isolating because it's filled with people a lot older than me. Like where are my fellow incredibly gay, nuerodivergent, Gen Z freaks who were unhealthily hyperfixated on this random anime you found on Netflix in 2011, I need to see your shitty taichi x yamato fan cams (/silly)

On the bright side, since there are no dumbass TikTok kids in this fandom, it doesn't have dumbass TikTok discourse.... right...? I wouldn't know I don't have TikTok

[adventurexheart]

So that one person who was mad at me for using a GIF and kept badgering me even though I apologized to them came after another person who happened to use their GIF but instead was a bit more level-headed and informed said person to just read the rules on their page but was hostile towards me acting as if I knew them and everything they stood for. Yeah, I am actually pissed because this makes it look like I was directly targeted despite the fact that I have tried setting things right.

[windsweptinred]

10 Characters/10 Fandoms /10 Tags

Thank you for the tag @two-hands-toward-the-sun, this took me on a deep delve of my fandom past! Time to roll out my gaggle of glorious bastards again...

1. Ken Ichijouji - Digimon 02

Babies first blorbo. Puppy kicking, whip weilding antagonist who giveth not a shiteth. With a soul as black as his gloriously groomed locks. Who, by the power of love is transformed into the soggiest little puddle of twink you ever did see. Tragic backstory ✔️ A smorgasbord of issues ✔️ A realtionship with their rival/best friend so obbsessive, you're going to have a harder time proving this ship isn't a thing than it is. ✔️ Ken Ichijouji came with everything a young, naive millennial needed to make their first glorious steps into the world of fandom.

2. Ryou Bakura/Yami Bakura/Theif King Bakura - (Same body, they count as one!) Yu-Gi-Oh

Ryou Bakura - Adorable British cupcake with the soul of a traumatised lovecraftian cultist. Staring into the abyss while having afternoon tea. Gothic horror in a cream knit.

Yami Bakura - Actual murder floof, the walking personification of a horror podcast. In his wake trails body gore, supernatural mystery and gay subtext. Part demon, part Egyptian theif, 100% bringing sexy back. (bonus points: Florence)

Thief King Bakura - Traumatic back story maketh homicidal rogue. Wears red, has a social circle made up of ghosts and snake monsters... Is this not prime husband material?

3. Starscream - Transformers

Darling little duplicitous second in command of the Decepticons. Not just any 'Little Shit', THE 'Little Shit'. Simulatiously the dumbest and cleverest bot in any room. And that, my friends, takes a particular breed of talent. Negative traits, scheming, petty, fabulous. Postive traits, scheming, petty, fabulous. Repetitive attempts to off Megatron, play of either the power or fore variety. Not sure which, could be both.

4. Darth Maul/ General Armitage Hux- Star Wars

I will not and cannot choose a favourite between them. Instead, watch with wonder and awe as I neatly compress them into the same blurb...

Sad meow meow with self-worth issues does galactic war crimes to prove 'daddy' wrong. What do you mean my fixation with thwarting my archnemeis can't be classed as a hobby/career goal/life ambition? My voice can launch a thousand ships... Different circumstances, same truth. Such a pathetic little sausage, you'll want to sit them down and feed them soup. But they know atleast 101 ways to kill you with the spoon... So best not risk it.

5. Crowley - Supernatural

The diabolical king of cunt serving. Me and my athletic calves are doing this right thing for all wrong reasons...And you can't prove other wise! Alignment: Risk it for a biscuit. Four step program to deal with all life's problems: 1: flirt at it, 2: shout at it, 3: throw (please pick your chosen Winchester or, if pushed, tailor) at it. 4:... Yell bollocks and follow with a whiskey chaser.

6. Desire/Destiny of the Endless - The Sandman

Again, not picking. Desire, my darling little hell kitten. Destiny, my inglorious bastard in brown...

This is my world, you MFs all just live in it!

My emotions... Which I do not have, are the route cause of everyone else's problems.

Ah humanity, the dust bunnies upon which I sneeze.

Even in a glorified bathrobe, I'm still better then you, and you know it.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Dream of the Endless is a f*cking dumb ass.

7. Remy Lebeau (Gambit) - Xmen, Marvel Comics

Marvel looked at their collection of motley mutant misfits. And realised they had a morally dubious, disaster bi shaped hole to fill... And there Remy Lebeau has been for for 30 slutty, slutty years and counting. Sex in fushia pink spandex. Single handily keeping thievery in Americas top 50 kinks. Slowly exhausting the world's supply of playing cards... Must be considered a traitor to the cause atleast once a decade to keep his street cred. Must be considered a secret Summers brother atleast once a decade to keep his ego in check.

8. Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) - Batman (DC)

Scythe wielding, reigning and defending Trick or treat world champion since 1941. The physical attributes of a Giacometti sculpture with the rustic aesthetic of the folk horror genre. Grumpy old man syndrome dialed up to eleven. Pets: Craw the crow, Nightmare the raven... Edward Nygma. Built a life manifesto based on a gothic novel... Oh captain, my captain.

9. Alfie Solomons - Peaky Blinders

All hail the great arisen god of Margate. Who looked upon Tommy Shelby and called him smol. Weilds tomfuckery like a pepper spray straight up the jacksie. Views betrayal as a bonding exercise. Somewhere in his words are the the meaning of life. Still awaiting the lab results as to whether this man is the anthropomorphic personification of chaotic neutral. Not even part of the egg and spoon race. Will still manage to win with a watermelon and a novelty spork.

10. Elias Bouchard - The Magnus Archives

(art by @felix-krain and @caligosatchel)

Cluedo character brought to life by malevolent eldritch entity for sexy end of the world shinnanigans. I suspect either Proffesor Plum or Reverend Green, professional opinions vary. Maintains the inability to move more than one square at a time when enacting nefarious schemes. Still has a preference for homicide by kitchenware. Comes with all the British, arch dilf energy of an Agatha Cristie villain. Taking the horrors from the hands of privileged elite and unleashing them on unsuspecting white collar workers. Eye, chin and tits first.

Whelp, that's my ten fictional characters/fandoms. Men folk (and Desire) addition. When I say I like them on the morally grey dulux colour chart. I'm not exaggerating. 😅

I'm tagging, at your pleasure @mashumaru @aisalynn @bobbole @tickldpnk8 @writing-for-life @marvagon @missingrache @rriavian @jazzy-a and @ibrithir-was-here

[digitalgate02]

This video is important, and although it's about Sonic franchise, I do believe it works for a ton of other things imo:

Especially Digimon, yeah. I've experienced this kind of feeling and how the Ni from the 2000s didn't care about "plotholes" or "wonky animation", but nowadays I like rewatching 02 (also Frontier sometimes) and think about the things I couldn't perceive as a kid.

Also our critic sense changes, because you can also watch/play/read something you didn't like at first, and then years later find yourself finding it cool and fun.

If you know me well enough you might have heard me claiming I only started to like Daisuke in 2010 ahead, even if the Brazilian dub was very close to the original version. I wasn't very fond of many characters like I used to, but today I love them a lot. All 12 + movie characters

I also didn't like Takato for a while? I didn't like Tamers at all (it's still a sensitive topic for ages to me, especially *after* 2021), but when a friend streamed it once, i kinda appreciated the characters better.

but the series is not my cup of tea, sorry.

But as a kid i really didn't care at all the details that bugs me now? i enjoyed it! Oh i also loved Frontier! I never had any issue with it! I'm still a big Frontier fan, and nowadays I'm more of a Takuya oshi than I used to be 🤣 (and i love all of the six kids in it too)

My critical reading skills were developed around Xros Wars, and while some people disliked it i was enjoying it, the cast, the soundtrack, the plot, etc. Then Hunters was where fandom echo chamber happened and made me not realize i liked it too.

But i think late 2021 when Ghost Game had first aired, a friend had this idea of watching every first episode of each digimon series to see how they capture the audience's interest. It was a fun night watch!

And it was when I noticed how differently i was perceiving them all.

Hunters had a very strong start and funny to me, Frontier started pretty grim dark in our opinions, we looked at how fast 02's pacing was (and, somehow, a little better than Adv'99), and so other things.

I came to appreciate them all, and see them with another view.

I think I see a lot of love coming from the series once claimed to be the "worst" in the past, and I find it good. Also, some of your "worst series ever" might be someone's first time experiencing the digimon franchise. It could be someone's childhood so their views might differ.

And the first series/stuff we get in touch with becomes something special for us, imo. People who watched, say, Xros Wars as their first digimon series will have a different opinion as someone who's already here since Adv'99 i think?

Even tri. might be special for someone, might be their first time enjoying digimon and going back and thru everything the franchise has to offer. It can have a different view of me, who had... eh, a few issues with it (sorry.)

I think… as long this franchise keeps making new things and being interesting for everyone in different ways, i'll be thankful.

So be kind to the others, and to the new peeps in our fandom. We all have different tastes and opinions.

Thank you for hearing me out (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

[dragonandtiger]

Just asking to see if Yuki is alright given that it's been a while since we've heard anything. Hope both of you are doing alright.

Thanks for checking in. We're sorry that we haven't posted any updates or replied to any asks for quite a while.

Yuki is still not feeling very well and resting as much as possible. We would rather not go into detail about her health issues, but she is doing what she can to take care of herself.

We're sorry again that we've left all of you who enjoy our collaborative stories in limbo. The sad fact of the matter is that Yuki hasn't had enough energy to do much when it comes to Dreaming To Reality or any of our other big collaborative works. As much as the both of us want to see this story reach its conclusion, a passion project like this is best left when the creators have enough energy to push that passion forward.

We can say that the two of us are writing what we can, when we can. Chapter 33 has had progress, albeit slowly.

Dreaming to Reality is a huge story, spanning three separate anime (Digimon Adventure, Digimon 02, and Digimon Tamers), with a lot of moving parts. We've poured years into this story, with countless details and pages of notes. We love the story we've written, and intend to finish it one day, but in order for it to remain a story we feel passionate about, we need to allow ourselves to slow down and/or take breaks when necessary. Sometimes this also means writing for other stories that are in other genres/fandoms, particularly with lower stakes and less of a large branching narrative.

During this break, Mouko has written 30 chapters bi-weekly for her solo story, My Shizun, a fanfic of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. Yuki insisted to let you all know that she says it's a very enjoyable story even if you don't know anything about the source material, and she would like it if you'd send Mouko kind words if you're interested in giving it a read. You can check it out here if you'd like.

If you want updates about Yuki more directly, and are over 18, you can check out her personal tumblr. She tries to make posts when she can, which includes off the cuff rough rambles and snippets for fandoms that are strictly for an adult only audience.

Again, we're sorry for the long silence. Thank you for checking in and for being so patient with us.