#i hate drawing ladydevimon

[tom-doodlez]

Wanted to do something for Odaiba Day

[fizzingwizard]

So, Kyousei brings up two traditional Digimon themes: one is Sacrifice, and the other is the Big Picture. This is a Fizz Thinks About Things Through Writing post, so other insights are welcome. But it’s Looooong ahahaha.

LOTSA THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT

First some background.

Adventure

In Adventure, the kids spent the first half of the season fighting for their survival/to get home. That was their goal. They learned things, about themselves and about the world. But after that, they made a decision together, understanding what they’d be facing, to return to the digital world - once again without an assured method for getting home. With the hope and optimism of children, as well as more grown up knowledge of the role they had to play, they returned and faced the Dark Masters.

Immediately they realized the situation was different. They watched a number of friends die one after another trying to protect them. They experienced loss after loss and failure after failure. They started to lose hope. Eventually this contributed to the fight between Taichi and Yamato and the subsequent breaking of the team.

In the end, Taichi learned to keep his eyes on the Big Picture by realizing that it’s made up of many different parts: there would be no victory unless they were united. At the same time, he made himself Piedmon’s sole target, refusing to let Koushirou fight with him. It was strategic - Gatomon was also there, but presumably tired from fighting LadyDevimon, and WarGreymon had a far better chance of enduring Piedmon than Tentomon did. But it also meant Taichi set himself up as a sacrifice in the name of the “big picture.”

Already, he’d learned to see himself not as a hero, not as a leader, but as a piece of puzzle. His expendability balanced with his individual worth. Most of the Chosen dealt with this question in some way in that final arc, notably Sora and Yamato and Jou.

One other relevant bit - Taichi throughout Etemon’s arc. His single-mindedness and desire to power up led to Agumon’s dark evolution. SkullGreymon was born. By a stroke of luck, he ran out of gas before he could do too much harm, but imagine if that hadn’t been the case. The kids were forced to witness one of their own turn against them as a direct result of their actions. On top of that, later Taichi got sucked into the warp created by Etemon/Datamon’s destruction, and while he was fine, the rest of the Chosen were left wondering if he was dead.

02

In 02, the new team was fortunate in that they only faced controlled or replica Digimon for the first half. It felt like Digimon was pulling its punches, until suddenly, with BlackWarGreymon, that was no longer the case. The new team had never killed real Digimon with hearts and struggled with it. Although weakened by lackluster writing, this dilemma became a real focus, and they couldn’t run away from it. I still remember Miyako protecting some dudes by attacking LadyDevimon (I think?? some digimon) with a skateboard, and then Silphymon destroying it for good. It was understandably difficult for Miyako to swallow, though she did. And then Oikawa died too, the show’s first human victim.

Much earlier, Ken lost his partner as a consequence of his own actions. Even before that, Taichi had to square off with Agumon who was under the Emperor’s control, and the reality that they would have to hurt him to save him. The goal was still “save him,” but it easily could have turned into a repeat of SkullGreymon. As a fan, I can’t imagine that Taichi didn’t flash back to that. In fact, even though the show doesn’t make it obvious  - we did see SkullGreymon as a result of the Emperor’s forced evolutions. I never thought about it as a kid, but now that reappearance, followed by having to fight a brainwashed MetalGreymon, seems deliberate and purposefully evocative.

Tri

Let’s start with Saikai.

A lot of fans were surprised/disappointed by Taichi in the first movie. He got easily distracted by the risk of causing more destruction. His fighting spirit seemed gone. He almost called Hikari in for reinforcements against Kuwagamon, but stopped himself. Then, although he hated the way people were talking about the Digimon, he commiserated with them as well, and he was at a loss for what to do. “The more I see, the less I understand,” or something of that nature, he said. Yamato, who wanted him to be the sure leader from the old days, was upset.

Taichi continued to be wishy-washy throughout Ketsui, and into Kokuhaku. Then comes Tri’s first big sacrifice: The Digimon prepare themselves for Reboot.

They do it willingly. They don’t want it to happen, but every one of them is prepared to have their memories wiped if it means saving their partners’ world. When it’s clear they won’t be able to save their partners in time, Koushirou tells Tentomon to go inside the box that will preserve his backup data, even if he’s the only one who can make it in. But Tentomon refuses to leave MetalGreymon, the only other one not yet infected, to fight alone. Good thing too, since MetalGreymon gets infected minutes later.

The Chosen watch helplessly as their partners sacrifice the substance of their bonds, along with all their memories, to save them.

Jumping forward to Soushitsu a bit: We learn that Maki and Daigo are Original Chosen Children. We learn they faced the Dark Masters and in order to beat them, four of the five partners evolved into the Digital Sovereigns who preserve the digital world’s balance. The fifth - Maki’s partner - for some reason doesn’t evolve, and becomes a sacrifice. The world is saved. Homeostasis was directly involved in it. As far as I can tell, neither Maki nor Daigo ever went back to the digital world (at least not until Maki began communicating with Yggdrasil). Maki grew obsessed with finding a way to save her partner, who was rendered unable to be reborn as a Digi-egg. Maybe Daigo joined their agency out of his own desire to know more about the other dimension he’d visited as a child, or maybe it was just to keep an eye on Maki.

Maki couldn’t live with the unfairness of the sacrifice her partner made. It was to save the world, but she couldn’t accept it. She wanted to find another way. Kyousei makes it seem to me like she thought she and her partner could fix the damage she caused in the process, once they were reunited. When that doesn’t happen, when Bakumon shows no sign of recognizing her, she loses it. Everything she’s worked for has failed - and she’s even undone what good her partner’s initial sacrifice did in the first place.

At the end of Kokuhaku, Koushirou works tirelessly to find a way to reunite with their partners. At this time, no one’s seeking to undo what happened - that thought doesn’t seem to occur to them - but they are seeking to influence the future. In the end they go to the digital world, and it’s like the first episode of Adventure in reverse: this time the children are the ones who have to convince the Digimon that they’re partners and meant to protect each other. The allusion is clear as crystal, especially with Sora, whose bond with Biyomon was cemented in the old days by how intently Biyomon tried to protect her, despite her lack of power. This time around, it’s Biyomon scolding Sora for being reckless when she’s “just a human,” and her comprehension of Sora’s love and care for her results in her mega evolution.

In other words, the Chosen were able to rebuild their bonds with their partners. Even lacking memories, they just believed that as partners, they’re meant to be together, and were willing to do the legwork it would take to prove themselves. This doesn’t seem to have occurred to Maki. Instead of trying to teach Bakumon about herself, she freaks him out - maybe she’s already too much under Yggdrasil’s influence or something, I don’t know, but the point is she never makes an attempt to accept Bakumon the way he is after the reboot. It seems like she wanted to go back in time and redo the day her partner died, even though she knew the reboot wasn’t going to make that happen. (By contrast, as far as we can tell right now, Daigo seems to have become resigned to his impotency - I am psyched to find out more about him at last in the final movie.)

So now we reach Kyousei.

The unthinkable has happened and a Chosen’s partner Digimon has become an extreme threat to both worlds. It’s SkullGreymon on steroids. As I wrote elsewhere, although SkullGreymon is never alluded to in Kyousei, Sora did bring him up in Kokuhaku - while talking to Meiko, no less. I can only think this was a deliberate set-up to make us draw parallels. Sora’s message was “but Agumon turned out fine in the end!” But in Kyousei, Meiko has to face the possibility that no, Meicoomon will not be fine.

First, Meiko doesn’t try to dodge when Meicoomon attacks her on the ship. She’s in shock, but personally, I also think she had a split second feeling of “I’m okay with this.” She is overcome with guilt that she’s not enough to save her partner, therefore she can’t bring herself to run from death. At least not death at Meicoomon’s hands.

As many have noted, Meiko’s questioning her validity as a Chosen is akin to what Sora and Yamato in particular went through at the end of Adventure. Why was I chosen, if I can’t save my partner? If my role as her partner has caused this to happen? The others try their best to comfort her by relating their own problems (”I was like that,” Sora says) and telling her to let her friends share her burden.

Meanwhile on earth...

Homeostasis announces that it will take the matter of Meicoomon into its own hands. Meicoomon has a shard of Apocalymon. Though her relationship with Meiko kept a lid on her powers, that is no longer functioning, and Meicoomon is a threat to everyone. Daigo takes this to mean Homeostasis has given up on the Chosen. It seems that way when the digital world itself tries to expel them. But Homeostasis does come upon Hikari and fill the Chosen in on what it’s doing, so maybe it does feel some obligation towards these kids it “used as pawns” as Daigo puts it. It’s also not all powerful, given that Omegamon is able to holds his own against Jesmon.

Homeostasis represents the Big Picture, and no one’s tender feelings towards Meicoomon are going to stop it from eliminating the threat. Jesmon’s attack - “one for all” - implies that sacrifices are necessary for the greater good.

This is a reality it’s hard to argue with. In our world, the non-anime one, unfairness and inequality result in all sorts of sacrifices big and small that can never be recovered. Adventure was not one of those happy-go-lucky kids shows where everything’s always all right in the end. It wasn’t gritty either, but somewhere in between. It acknowledged reality while also building its young viewers up to take risks in the name of those they love.

Which brings me to:

Abandoned by Homeostasis, under attack from literally everyone - other humans, the digital world, Yggdrasil - the Chosen have to decide what they’re fighting for. What’s worth fighting for, when the whole world’s turned against them? No one’s looking to them for heroics now. Not even the power that chose them in the first place has their back.

They decide they are fighting because they care about their friends, their partners, each other, and as Taichi says, “We don’t care if it’s right or wrong.”

That is to say, at this time they have not accepted the Big Picture, at least not as Homeostasis paints it. They are still fighting for the myriad smaller pieces that together form the Big Picture. They’re fighting to bring Meicoomon back to Meiko.

Time out to talk about Taichi again.

This movie is a sequel to Saikai as far as Taichi’s development is concerned.

Meiko is caught between memories of Meicoomon as she was and fear of her as she is now. Taichi overhears Meiko confess she loves Meicoomon, and wonder if she was wrong simply to want to have fun with her friend. Taichi basically explains to her the struggle he’s had since Saikai:

Is it so childish to want to remember the good times with your friend? To value those and wish to have them back? Is willingness to sacrifice them really the adult thing to do? Adults want the same things as children - Maki is living proof. I feel like Taichi is trying to tell Meiko what he learned as a child about balancing your expendability with your individual worth. That it’s possible to acknowledge reality while also valuing yourself. He yells at her for giving up on herself. Agumon makes his move next, and what finally gets Meiko to allow herself to cry? Agumon telling her he loves Meicoomon. The simplicity of his emotion echoes what Meiko truly feels towards her partner, and it makes her break down at last. It must be truly hard for her, wanting her partner back while surrounded by all these kids who are happy with their partners and being tormented by her own. Agumon’s pure emotion gave her permission to feel selfish, if only for a moment.

Agumon “reports” all this to Taichi. Taichi says:

Everything from this point on hearkens back to something Hikari said earlier about “we can never understand what others are going through until we experience it ourselves” or some such. This is the culmination of Taichi’s up-till-now wishy-washy behavior, which was his new adult understanding that there are going to be no take-backs. Taichi wanting to share Meiko’s feelings becomes very important after this.

Homeostasis comes on Hikari now, and for whatever reason, explains to them why what it’s doing is necessary and that their bonds as teammates obstruct the big picture. Hikari tells Homeostasis to get out of her.

This is super important too.

They fight Meicoomon, and are torn because while she’s incredibly dangerous, her battle is driven by intense fear, and while she keeps attacking them without mercy, she also appears to protect Meiko. They still want to believe Meicoomon can be saved, but Jesmon joins the fight, followed by Alphamon. They have to send Omegamon for their side. As four extremely powerful Digimon fight for dramatically different reasons, the children come to the realization that they have very little control over what happens now. All they can do is watch as a violent, heart-breaking, and ultimately pointless battle rages above them.

Meiko then says they should kill Meicoomon.

Meiko had asked this question earlier - if “partner” meant “hope,” then what was that hope as it pertained to herself and Meicoomon? Sora reacts like this. Mimi cries because of how tragic it is. Taichi reflects on Meiko’s simple love for Meicoomon she’d shown the night before when she thought no one was watching... and decides to do as she wishes.

“Meicoomon is one of us. I...”

As strange as it may seem, I think compassion is the motive behind Taichi’s decision, even though it aligns with what Homeostasis said about the Big Picture. They don’t pause to reflect on that, but I do. As long as the only goal was Meicoomon’s eradication, they are playing right into Homeostasis’s hands here. But their motive is different.

Of course this doesn’t go down easy with the others. Yamato, who relies on Taichi to make the big decisions, as well as to balance all of their feelings in the process, takes him to task for it, but in the end he can’t come up with any other plan. He lets out a badly animated anguished howl.

Meiko smiles.

And then she runs directly into battle. It’s the third time she’s let herself stay in harms way, and the first time she put herself there deliberately. Which is why I feel that lack of willpower/resignation to death has morphed into a full-on embrace. I think what ran through her head would be something like, “Yes, Meicoomon has to die, and I, her partner, will be there for her through it, no matter what happens to me.”

Yamato and Taichi run after her, are separated. Taichi makes the next sacrifice: he deliberately becomes a battle casualty so Omegamon can protect Yamato and Meiko. He didn’t do this for the Big Picture. He did it because he cares about his friends first and foremost.

Maybe he wouldn’t have if he knew Hikari would go freaking berserk :P

I am wondering if there is not something Simon & River Tam going on with the way Taichi’s apparent death sets off Hikari. Her words, “I need to be with my brother,” are weird. And the result is a world-crushing monster. Now it’s not just Meiko whose partner is a threat to their survival - through that weird fusion, Hikari’s partner is now a part of that weapon herself. Surprise!

Here is the irony: At the very end, the concept of Big Picture is turned on its head. The key to global destruction was the upset of Taichi’s own very balance of expendability vs individual worth? What should be a small sacrifice, in terms of the Big Picture, has had devastating consequences. Did Homeostasis know this could happen, and that Taichi would trigger it? Did Yggdrasil? He (I mean, the “Mouth of Yggdrasil” that is) sure seems happy about it.

If somehow you made it through this whole long post, you may be wondering “Fizz, what’s your verdict on the Big Picture & Sacrifice thing?” I don’t have one. Now that I’ve written all this, I don’t have any conclusions and need to think more.

The Big Picture Taichi appears to have reconciled himself with is one that both takes risks for another’s desires and makes sacrifices for another’s resolve. Homeostasis’s is colder. Yggdrasil is all negativity, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone at bat who is pure Good, so. That’s interesting. I am not sure where Tri is going with this, only that it’s going somewhere. I’m putting my thoughts here to play with for the next almost full year (auuggghh!!) until the final movie.

One thing in particular: the question of what it means to be Chosen, and furthermore, why they were Chosen in the first place. I feel like everything hinges on this. The children are used to choosing for themselves regardless, that’s not an issue. But there must be a reason that at some point someone, apparently Homeostasis, thought partners was a good idea, as well as a reason why it changed its mind, and that’s what is going to lead the eventual outcome of Tri. It feels to me like maybe the idea for partners was meant to circumvent a big picture outcome that someone didn’t want to accept...

eta: one last note... for the time being, we are left with one partner without a Digimon (Meiko), and one Digimon without a partner (Koromon). [Well, actually two partners - Hikari as well - as a couple folks have pointed out.] I have no comment other than to put it out there...

[numbuh101]

black cards

Bandai are hoping you will spend 100's of dollars on their newest merchandise, _.   The real reason why people hate anything past Tamers is_   The 02 kids are missing because_   What came pouring out of the sky at summer camp, 1999?_   The best thing ever produced by Toei is _.   The worst thing ever produced by Toei is _.   I'm going to shove __ up my ass.   What's the newest menace unleashed from Digiquartz?_   The newest fetish surrounding digimon porn artists consists of __.   What digisee, digihear, digiknow was coming?_   A new chosen child appears, what's their crest?_   My body _ but my heart _   Why can't Hackmon have any Gatchmonaka?_   What's under Angemon's mask?_   Who can count backwards from ten?_   My Applidriver asked me if I'm a _   _mon   Presenting _, the rejected fifth Dark Master.   I hate that _ got edited in the dub.   What’s my crest?_   KNIFE OF _   It turns out that Akiyoshi Hongo is actually _.   What’s in the secret porn folder on Koushiro’s laptop?_   I’m not comfortable with this new Jogress between _ and _.   What’s the biggest deterrent to hitchhiking?_   Digimon, Digital Monsters, Digimon are _.   Speaking of _, I dont see Agumon with you.   What caused Leomons death this time?_

white cards

The censorship of citramon   Bad animation.   The dark ocean.   Pronouncing Ichijouji as "Ichijooji".   Pokemon vs. Digimon wars.   The world being destroyed but keeping its railway lines completely intact.   Bonding with someone by beating the shit out of them.   Fucking up your digimon so badly that it becomes an eldritch skeletal mess.   Punching God.   Kokomon's tone-deafness.   Jintrix card art.   Bara digimon.   Gaomon driving a boat with boxing gloves.   Terriermon dressed up as a human baby.   Terriermon's jokes.   The power of friendship.   The art on the DVD/VHS cover for Digimon: The Movie.   Renamon's GEM figure tiddies.   Koromon shitting on absolutely everything.   Marcus' hot dad   another fucking royal knights plot   crest of swag   Winning with the power of love, friendship, and all those other crests   a sea of kuramon   spending an entire weeks paycheck on a GEM figure   Coachmon losing his CGI.   Beelzemons brooklyn accent   Humanoid Digimon.   Seeing Andromon's naked flesh fully rendered in 3D.   Ship-baiting in tri.   The Digimon Frontier english opening.   Disney censoring Kouki's lip piercing.   Kurata willingly being vored by Belphemon.   Digimon AMVs.   Attacking during evolution.   The internet.   The animators taking the time to draw a dick on Takato while biomergeing.   Myotismon's aesthetics.   The soundtrack for Digimon: The Movie.   The stretched out syllables of "DIGI-ARMOUR ENERRRRRGIZE".   Angela Anaconda.   Suggestive art of Angewomon with 12,173 favourites on deviantART.   "Anything past season 3 was a mistake"   Fanart reposts.   Ridiculously priced merch imports.   Actually thinking Ophanimon is better than Magnadramon.   Guilmon bread.   Witnessing your father becoming god.   Kurata calling himself a digimon otaku.   Taichi's hair.   Leomon dying. AGAIN.   this isnt a response, leomon just died I want you to acknowledge this   gatchmonka   Afro guy shouting "NOOOO" for the fifth goddamn time this week   Angelamon   Angelamon   Koushirous soulless eyes   Hating Kurata with a burning passion   Fox Kids commercials   L Corp   “I already know the results of your future!”   Fox Kids dub   DIGI-KNOW IT WAS COMING?   DIGI-HEAR   DIGI-SEE   A snobby, elitist Sorato shipper   A jaded, bitter Taiora shipper.   Koushirou "Izzy" Izumi   Jyou "JOOOOO" Kido   Sora Takenouchi   Takeru "T.K." Takaishi   Hikari "Jesus" Yagami   Mimi Tachikawa   Yamato "Matt" Ishida   Taichi "Tai" Kamiya   swearing to god you're not a furry, you just like digimon   Crest of being a bitch   that goddamn hinata clone   leomon's hot lion nipples   Celebrating Takeru & Hikari's innocence by drawing them having dirty sex.   the 02 epilogue   Nice friends you got there, Davis   Yamato's astronaut career   going to a decent college or buying Digimon merch   Buying Vintage Digimon merch off eBay.   Having a strong opinion about Tailmon’s Ultimate form.   Pretending you took a shit in someone’s van.   Smirking at this season’s dramatic Leomon death.   Signing a petition forcing the writers to make your ship canon.   Clicking an egg on some website while thinking you have control over anything in life.   An annoying pipsqueak voiced by Derek Stephen Prince.   An Angewomon/LadyDevimon fight that’s just sex.   Some nonsense involving the Holy Stones.   Singing Butter-Fly at the top of your lungs.   Saban.   Toei.   Saving two goddamn worlds with cuddly plushie monsters.   Turning against your friends on the advice of a nefarious talking tree.   A second-rate Pokémon ripoff.   Yet another goddamn Vamdemon incarnation.   Moving freely between Japan and America as the plot dictates.   A singing monkey that tries to conquer the world.   Takeru’s collection of terrible hats.   Hooking up with the bass player.   Goggles.   Caring more about who’s going to fuck than the actual struggle to save the world.   Taichi’s sad, awkward, inevitable Christmas Eve at a love hotel with Jun Motomiya.   Forcing your Digimon to evolve so you can get laid.   Proving your wisdom and maturity by jumping on a rampaging Digimon’s back.   Leading every wild Digimon in America to central Manhattan.   Michael’s smarmy white ass.   A douchebag who picks up hitchhikers to flirt with ten-year-old girls.   The Dark Ocean.   Punching the fuck out of the Digimon Kaiser.   That episode where Deep Ones wanted to bang Hikari.   Being a motherfucking astronaut.   A bigger BlackWargreymon.   Staging an international crisis to hook up with hot European digidestined.   PTSD flashbacks of a broken cell phone.   Joe’s imaginary girlfriend.   The inevitable attraction of two beautiful people who never speak to each other.   Hiroaki Ishida.   Trapping two guys in a ferris wheel cabin in hopes they’ll make out.   Baking in bikinis.   The Digimental of pulling a game-breaking evolution out of Daisuke’s ass.   Crotch missiles.   Feeling Sora’s love.

[couragesun]

Out of the original 8 chosen kids and their digimon can you rank your favourite digimon child partnerships?

You bet I can! 

Disclaimer: I really do love all of them, this is just my interpretation of which partner pairs I think compliment and support each other the best. I’m more than open to a discussion if there are disagreements 

1) Jou and Gomamon #partnergoals

2) Yamato and Gabumon

3) Takeru and Patamon

4) Taichi and Agumon

5) Hikari and Gatomon

6) Mimi and Palmon

7) Koshiro and Tentomon

8) Sora and Biyomon

More details under the cut!

Jou and Gomamon are my FAAAAVS. They genuinely feel like friends: they tease each other, challenge each other to be better, and are supportive and encourage each other. I honestly think they have the most true and authentic relationship. These two are family; there for each other for the high points and the low points (and during those low points, Gomamon is there with a hug and a smile!). They balance each other out and bring out the best in each other and I absolutely love it. (*buries head under blanket*) I have so many feelings about these two cuties I don’t think I can articulate it. They’re so much more than partners and I wish all the Chosen had a relationship like theirs.  

Yamato and Gabumon are so perfect and awkward it makes me squeal on a regular basis. Like, they understand each other on such a spiritual level, and yet they are still so awkward around each other; almost like they don’t know what to do with the amount of love and loyalty that they have for each other. I think Gabumon is the one character in the series that truly understands Yamato, and you can see it so clearly in their bond. When I was younger, I was always a little confused as to why Yamato got the Crest of Friendship, but his relationship with Gabumon really helped him understand what friendship is and what it can be. I really believe that Gabumon helped Yamato become a better person.

Takeru and Patamon also have a beautiful relationship. Even when I wasn’t a huge fan of Takeru, I always appreciated the bond these two shared. Takeru is the only digidestined who has watched his partner die in battle, so I think that he really loves and appreciates his partner in a way that is different than the other digidestined. UGH! And that scene in tri when Patamon was infected!! I was IN TEARS. How DARE they make me FEEL EMOTIONS!!

Taichi and Agumon have a relationship that I find fascinating. It’s a strange combination of Taichi treating Agumon a bit like a younger sibling and also like a trusted battle partner. I’ve rarely seen Taichi have long heart-to-heart conversations with Agumon, and I think that stems from Agumon’s emotional immaturity. Agumon is great, but he’s not on the same level as Gabumon or Biyomon in terms of awareness. When Taichi is uncertain, Agumon’s instinct is to say “We got this cuz we’re friends, and friends can do ANYTHING!” He trusts Taichi to a degree that makes him seem almost infallible – if Taichi asked him to step into traffic, I think Agumon would do so with very little hesitation. He doesn’t have the same role that Gabumon plays in Yamato’s life, where he helps Yamato grow. Agumon’s role is to be more of a safety net – Taichi can screw up, and Agumon will still be there (i.e. SkullGreymon). He is a loyal solider to his general, and will always be there to support Taichi. I think this makes them the best partners in battle, because they trust each other so much, but I don’t think they’ll ever have the same relationship that the former three have. And maybe they don’t need to – maybe Taichi has enough advisers through the other Chosen that he DOES need someone whose response will always be “I will go wherever you go”. 

Hikari and Gatomon! Okay, this ranking is completely because I’m the worst. I really need to re-watch 02, because I’m drawing a blank on Hikari and Gatomon’s relationship. I mean I know that they have a really solid partnership AND friendship, but I can’t really think of many specific instances to draw from. Part of this is because they came into the series so late in 01 and Hikari and Gatomon haven’t had too many scenes together in tri (although that mall scene nearly KILLED ME), so I just don’t have much to work with since it’s been so long since I’ve watched 02. Thus, I’ve placed these two comfortably in the middle because the scenes that DO come to mind are pretty great: when Angewoman and LadyDevimon are having their cat-fight and Hikari is on the sidelines cheering like a lunatic, the tri scene at the mall, the entire lead-up to discovering Hikari was the eighth child. Yea, these two are pretty great together.

Mimi and Palmon are kind of the opposite of Taichi and Agumon… Palmon and Mimi LOVE each other the way that besties do, but I think their relationship is different than Gomamon and Jou because Palmon’s role is to bring out Mimi’s genuine self and humility. I’ve always found it appropriate that Palmon is a plant-type digimon because she is so down-to-earth and she balances out Mimi’s over-the-top nature. I always imagine them at a sleepover, braiding each other’s hair (it’s not a perfectly accurate scenario..), while Mimi gushes/rages/gossips about someone or something, and Palmon being that little angel on her shoulder reminding her to slow down and consider all of the facts before making snap decisions. They are friends first, and everything else second. Palmon has helped Mimi grow up a lot, and has no problems calling her out on her bullshit (the Numemon castle episode…), but I don’t see the same level of trust and understanding that the above partnerships have. Mimi and Palmon are awesome for each other, but I’ve never found myself wishing I had their type of relationship.

Koshiro and Tentomon!! I love my nerdlings!!! UGH! Individually I think these two are perfect, but as I was thinking about each of the partnerships I even surprised myself how low I rated these two because I really do love them. And the problem, unfortunately, is Koshiro. I KNOW that Koshiro adores Tentomon, but I have seen enough moments where Koshiro treats Tentomon more like a business partner than a friend. Which, if this situation were like Mimi and Palmon, wouldn’t be so bad if that’s what they needed, but it’s not. Koshiro NEEDS someone to keep him in check, someone to drag him out of his cave every once in a while, someone to remind him that oolong tea can’t be the ONLY thing someone consumes to stay healthy… The other Chosen (Jou, Mimi, and Taichi especially) I think do a pretty good job at this, because they are hard to argue with. I feel so bad for Tentomon because you can see him TRYING to help Koshiro, but Koshiro often ignores him. And that… doesn’t always sit well with me. I think Koshiro can forget that Tentomon is his friend and confidant, instead of a partner on a research project. And then Tentomon has to do something drastic (like the cave of curiosity where he had to devolve until Koshiro snapped out of it, or when he had to sacrifice himself in tri to prove a point) and then Koshiro remembers “Oh no! That’s my friend and partner!”. So yea, they’re great, but Koshiro needs to get his priorities straight…

Biyomon and Sora. Yea, I feel like I might get some hate for this one, but I’ve never liked Biyomon. These two have had the most tumultuous relationship throughout all of the seasons, and while I’m glad that they eventually came to an understanding of each other before the reboot, watching them come to terms with each other was almost painful. For the longest time they didn’t trust each other, and I often got the feeling that Sora didn’t even LIKE Biyomon at the beginning. It wasn’t until Sora’s crest glowed for the first time that I saw anything resembling a friendship between the two of them. Which is okay, everyone develops friendships differently, but I don’t think I ever saw proof of this ‘amazing, loving’ friendship that they supposedly had after that moment. For example, When Yamato was in his depression cave with Gabumon, Gabumon was the one who pulled him out of it by talking to him and showing how much he cared about Yamato and by telling him he didn’t have to be alone anymore. I BELIEVE their friendship, because I saw it! I saw Gabumon fight for Yamato’s friendship and it was beautiful. Sora was in the exact same situation, and Biyomon was unable to pull her out of the cave of sadness. I just don’t see the same level of trust and understanding that the others have with their partners – I’ve been told it’s there, but I didn’t get to really watch the evolution. They just suddenly understood each other, and it felt forced and fake. And THEN we get to tri and the reboot and Biyomon is SUCH a jerk! And, believe me, I’ve read enough “in defense of Biyomon” posts to try and understand the other side, but there was a point where Biyomon was just being intentionally hurtful. I get it, you don’t know her, but how can you rebuild a friendship unless you TRY, and if you’re not willing to try then why are you still there?? I’m glad I got to watch their relationship form throughout that episode, but it still felt a little forced and rushed. I think that these two are just rarely what the other needs, and instead of pushing each other to be better they force the other into a standstill. It’s very frustrating for me to watch. So yea, they’re one of my least favorite partnerships, which is such a shame because I love Sora!!    

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ANYWAY! I’mma gonna talk about my playthru of Digimon World Next Order, to distract me from the fact i’m rapidly approaching the ending and have to wait to sate my JRPG tastes on Persona 5 afterwards...

* it is really really REALLY REALLY really REALLy great to finally be able to play a game in the DW series as a female character. Holy SHIT, man this is overdue! And it isnt handled awfully like in Cyber Sleuth where everyone constantly calls you male and the character design is really oversexualized and doing weirdass poses for everything. There’s still a lil bit of ‘cliche girly option traits’ but seriously she’s like the least stereotyped design we’ve had in the games since Dusk and Dawn! She gets to wear SHORTS and A HOODIE! A hoodie that has an inexplicable hole in the back for some reason, but whatever! xD Also I actually like her version of the Protagonist Hair better, even tho I think its lame they colour coded them in the ol cliche genderedness. Boy character just has one streak of coloured hair at the front, but girl has a spiralling streak on the end of her ponytail that looks like a punk poison sort of fashion~! And it leaks pixels when she runs, and has a really nice glow effect that kinda makes it draw patterns as you swing her model around. Makes me wanna run in circlesssss~ Her dubbed voice is a bit boring cliche anime love interest tho, a bit squeaky after you’ve been hearing it for hours. But the dude is Like Every Shonen Hero Voice Ever, so i think its meant to be intentionally generic for both of them. I could swear he’s voiced by a bad Tai impersonator! XD Also I’m just kinda thankful cos every other girl in the plot gets a REALLY squeaky unbearable english voice, thank god protagonist is spared...

* its a lil bit of funnyness tho that for some reason the skill list is the only place where the translators forgot about the protagonist options. Like.. a LOT of Tamer Skills are weirdly gendered when it would have taken five seconds to change that. Why does it have to be stuff like ‘Cooking Boy’ and ‘Cooking Man’ instead of basic and advanced cooking? Especially cos the other one in between is called Gourmet Cooking...

* I love forever that so many of the virus type recruitable digimon are sweethearts of hugs and joy. Now THAT reminds me of the original Digimon World! Seriously I am SO GLAD that Literally The Same Myotismon has a sidequest about rescuing his precious myobrella so he won’t faint in the sun. or like.. if its not the same Myotismon then MAN he would totally be a great ship with the other equally helpless one in the first game XD He has a nice new function as a townsperson, instead of just being ‘a manager’ in the colloseum and never even being a fight. (That annoyed me as a kid! He just stands there!) Now he runs the card gallery, cos you collect ‘antique cards’ in this game and he restores them with his painting skillz. its a nice lil in-joke cos they’re all the original first trading card artworks from waaaaay back in the first season! And Piedmon is in this one too, yay! He’s actually like the only morally dubious virus type AT ALL, he talks like a cliche mwahaha mad scientist even as he does nothing particularly evil. His sidequest is a funny thing of playing hide and seek and he sucks at it. While yelling hammily about being an evil genius! And then he has quite a useful function in the town, he does a random effect on you once per day with his evil science, and it could be good or it could be bad, but if its bad he actually pays you compensation money for it! EVEN THE EVIL GUY IS TOO KIND And OH MAN I am so happy and sad for Skullgreymon! A good guy skullgreymon was always one of my ideas for a DW fangame, im so happy it happened for real! In this game Skullgreymon is a fashion designer with low self confidence, and you recruit them by finding weregarurumon who’s their biggest fan and becomes their first friend. Its so sweet! They never actually interact once you recruit them both tho, cos they work at different parts of the town. But im still gonna assume they keep in touch! Its also a shame skullgreymon doesnt actually run a fashion shop, cos there actually WAS a fashion shop in Digimon World Redigitize aka the one damn game we’ll never see dubbed T_T Instead skullgreymon gets this kinda depressing role of just standing around outside the entertainment area saying ‘i wish i could work with children but they’re always scared of me’, and then if you bring a newly hatched digimon to see them then they gain bonus stats from being terrified somehow?? NOOO WHERE IS THE OPTION TO TEACH MY CHILDREN THAT SKULLY IS A FRIEND

* Anyway, my main digimon are (still) Hershey and Zephyr, and I love them! I’m still working on hoping to eventually get the full terriermon and lopmon canon digivolution lines with them, wow its hard. But I adore them no matter what form they take at the moment! I ended up loving them so much that i never raised any other digimon ever. i just rename them the same name every time they reincarnate, and pick the same eggs! I’ve gotten close to unlocking every single variation of the bunno brothers evo lines!! But it IS getting really annoying that you have to type the name manually every time, why no option to just stick with the previous name? DW1 had that and it was on way worse hardware! Oh, and its funny that I started off calling them the bunny brothers cos thats what they were in adventure 02, but then after playing the game for ages I’ve settled on headcanoning hershey as female and zephyr as nonbinary. And also I started off with the cliche personalities of sassy rebel terriermon and stoic lopmon like in Tamers, but Hershey ended up being the rebel instead and Zephyr is like a shonen hero cinnamon roll! They’re both equally sassy and eccentric tho XD I’m not quite sure yet what would be their ‘canon’ final mega forms that I wanna keep them in for the final boss and stuff. But hershey’s made me regain my appreciation of Ladydevimon after I stopped liking her as soon as I grew old enough to understand that most of her fans only liked her for being ‘a stripper’ :P Like.. she’s a really damn good design even without the fanservice?? I like her way more than devimon, myotismon and etc, I wish she’d gotten to be a major villain! i mean it sucks that devimon got to be one when she’s literally his evolved form. (And yes I am happy that it continues to be canon that ladydevimon can digivolve from devimon and the same for angewomon and angemon. DIGIMON AINT RESTRAINED BY HUMAN GENDER ROLES YO) So yeah anyway, I kinda headcanon Hershey as a hypothetical less skimpy redesign of LadyDevimon? or like.. if she got her own unique Mega form that kept a similar design, rather than just being retconned into lilithmon and rosemon’s evo lines. I just don’t think the skimpyness fits with Hershey’s personality but the rest of the design just has such a cool piratey thiefy type look?? And she’s like THE BEST monster girl in the franchise, she’s the only one who really gets to be monstery looking, even if she’s still an hourglass figure sex object. i mean i always thought it was meant to be a subversion of that?? She has that giant monster claw hand and is really vicious and powerful in battle! All her animations in the game are her shredding things with it and doing the classic dracula rise-from-the-grave when she’s knocked out, and just... ITS REALLY BADASS!! I didnt know how cool a fight with her could be, cos she just got that stupid ass fanservice joke slap fight in the anime... ANYWAY Ladydevimon is good I appreciate her I like her even though she’s in the general genre of fanservice digimon that I dislike. She’s like the one single one I dont hate! (Tho I still wish we had more than like.. two un-fanservice female digimon in the entire damn series) Buuuut I dont think her design quite fits Hershey even though she’s the digivolution I keep using ingame. Maybe if I can find a different Mega that I prefer, and make up a fanmade digivolution line? or I could do a fanart variation of the digimon...

* ANYWAY I kinda ended up headcanoning Hershey as a former member of the broken apart pirate crew in Mod Cape. Cos like.. what if your digimon had backstories of what their life was like before they met you! like Gatomon in Adventure, they were chosen to be partners to a destined hero but had to wait so long they’d become disillusioned. Cos when you meet em at the start of the game they’re mega level and only get poofed back into eggs cos of machinedramon’s attack. WHAT LIFE DID YOU LEAD WITHOUT ME. I AM HERE TO PROTECT YOU NOW AAAAAAA!! So yeah it would be cool to headcanon Hershey as a former highway bandit type character who has trouble adjusting to living in a city surrounded by happy innocent people and hugs. I dont see her as grumpy tho.. like, she’s kind of a bombastic trickster archetype but she’s still super cynical and ‘I only care about myself, anything else gets you hurt’. I was thinking maybe if I designed a fanmade mega for her she could be like a magician pirate zombie demon??? Like.. yknow piedmon is a deck of cards clown guy with those four daggers? i actually got Piedmon as her digivolution when she was a Ladydevimon and I was thinking MAN it could be so cool if we had like a zany zombie digimon who attacks by stabbing a sword through her own back! Like ‘watch me saw a woman in half’ XD A design where she has a load of weapons stuck in her and uses them to fight with! like how mummymon is a mummy + soldier in a leg brace design, hypothetical zombiemon could be a zombie + actual tragic assassination victim. Plus a magician. Or a clown. And ladydevimon. And a pirate. LOOK I JUST HAVE A LOT OF MUTUALLY CONTRADICTORY HEADCANONS OKAY xD

* I don’t really have as much development ideas for Zephyr yet, aside from that they’re Hershey’s more cheerful and positive sibling. But I see them as also being kinda creepy and battle-hungry and stuff? Like.. both these twins are total virus types, clown type, typical final villain type of acrobatic doom! And both are good guys deep down. But Zephyr is a more cinnamon roll type of good and Hershey is grumpy unwillingly dragged into goodness. And like.. Zephyr is a bit dotty and only accidentally creepy, not really understanding how to socialize properly. And probably they would be like ‘NO BIG SISTER, STEALING IS BAD’ *currently stabbing a guy* I think maybe my headcanon for Zeph might be that they were for some reason left completely alone while waiting for the protagonist? Hershey at least found some companionship with the pirates, even if she became super bitter after the team broke up. I think Zeph maybe started off as a wild forest mon that’d even forgotten how to speak, until by pure chance they bumped into their long lost twin sister and then met the protagonist. So like an innocent angel who’s all new to the city and excited about everything, but also kinda fighty and dangerous because of the same stuff that makes them innocent. I dunno, I might make them an angewomon or ophanimon to match with Hershey? Tho I wanted to make them both good guy virus types, it could be an equally interesting contrast to have a vicious battle-obsessed angel who’s the absolute opposite of softspoken fancyness! And I also kinda associate them with the colour green even though I ended up picking a grey themed digivolution for Hershey instead. But all of Terriermon’s natural digivolutions are all machiney and don’t suit this personality as much... I dunno, maybe I could make up another headcanon/variant type thing? Cos after all lopmon’s line gets two champion level forms and two megas but terriermon only has two recolours for the same ultimate level. Maybe even it out, lol! Or like, I’m thinking like.. what if Terriermon had a mega that suited Henry more? i was reading someone’s review where they said it was weird that pacifistic Henry got a giant robot specializing in attack while Rika got the humanoid pacifist digimon. And yeah, that IS totally weird! And it got me imagining what if Terriermon got a humanoid digivolution that was like a martial artist?? or maybe like a speedy superhero lookin armour thing! Like just a more humanoid rapidmon! or I dunno maybe if puppetmon is in this game then zephyr could be puppetmon. I miss puppetmon. puppetmon never got to be in ANY games except dusk and dawn! I WANNA SEE A 3D PUPPETMON YO!!

* Man I just spent this entire post rambling my headcanons for silent protagonist characters instead of actually talking about the game... aaaa...