#when i try to write something emotional it's all too obvious and hamfisted

[greentypewriters]

i wonder if i will ever be able to write anything i think is good

[thesinglesjukebox]

JENNY LEWIS - WASTED YOUTH

[6.40]

Candy Crush do do do do do do do...

Alfred Soto: If hep cats (okay, me) sneered at Sheryl Crow during her peak for the size of her El Lay Rolodex, wait till Jenny Lewis releases the liner notes to On the Line. Benmont Tench! Ryan Adams and Beck productions! Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner! The strength of her hooks commensurate with her vocal command, she do-do-dos through another day in paradise in which her mother's heroin addiction and other candy crushes don't quash her commitment to a distance that deepens with age. She hasn't made a bad record yet. With these connections, though, it's a matter of time. Consider the grade a warning. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: As someone whose youth wasn't wasted so much as spat on, crumpled up, and nuked from orbit, I can relate. The warm, chipper poppiness, doot-doo's and all, is the musical translation of a coping strategy that I can't relate to, I can certainly acknowledge. (Though the framing device, "do you remember when [Dad] used to sing us that little song?" is silly -- sillier than the "candy crush" bit, which is non-literal and was good enough for Kehlani.) I just think I'd rather hear the song ("Listerine," maybe) that isn't the facade. [6]

Juana Giaimo: Jenny Lewis is an expert in irony, not just when she uses it in the lyrics but also in the way she sings. "Wasted Youth" is a clear example: the "doo doo doo" of the chorus, rather than sounding cheering, us exactly the opposite -- like a fake smile, too conscious that life is sometimes too hard [8]

Anthony Easton: Everyone thinks Lewis is Neko Case, but she's really Tom T. Hall, a great story teller, an underrated wit, and someone who knows how to swing. This is burnt-out '70s California, recast as Nashville, and its genial shrug towards addiction takes some aesthetic bravery. [8]

Stephen Eisermann: A weak attempt at modernizing Stevie Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac, this has an interesting enough melody but the lyrics leave something to be desired. I've never seen Jenny as a master lyricist, but mentioning Candy Crush is a pretty embarrassing attempt at pandering. Jenny can, and should, do better. [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I've been on vacation for the past week, and I've spent most of it reading Inherent Vice. It's an interesting piece of faux-hippie fiction, willfully obtuse and circular in its plotting and dense and obvious in its drugged out decadence. It's the kind of book that will at once bowl you over with a moment of deep pathos that emerges from the morass and make you roll your eyes at a too obvious joke about weed or something harder. "Wasted Youth" doesn't quite ascend/descend to the level that Vice does, but it hits a similar balance between hamfisted drug writing and sincere emotion, all wrapped into a convincingly nostalgic pastiche. Jenny Lewis is a deft enough songwriter and arranger that "Wasted Youth" stays charming and not hackneyed in its early-70s vibes, and her ear for a hook wins out with the endless, "Baby Shark"-esque "Doo-Doo"s of the chorus, which lull you into submission by the track's end. [7]

Vikram Joseph: Few songs sound truly timeless, but this genuinely sounds like it could have been released in any decade since the 1960s. Whether this is a good thing depends on your tolerance for plush, classic-sounding piano pop; I'm totally fine with it when it's done as well as this. Jenny Lewis's vocals on Rilo Kiley songs always had a frisson of anxiety underlying them, but now, in her 40s, she sounds so at ease here - even while singing wryly affecting lyrics about her mum's drug addiction, or when stretching skywards into falsetto. The melodies are achingly familiar; "Wasted Youth" feels like a comfortable sweatshirt you'd pull on when you're not trying to impress anyone. [7]

Josh Love: This is the sort of song Lewis writes in her sleep -- wry Gen X musings on unstable childhoods and drugs both real and virtual, superimposed over a Baby Boomer backdrop (in this instance, it sounds to me closest to Tom Petty). Lewis can pull this off for entire albums because her lyrics are frank and mostly stay on the good side of pretentious while her command of classic pop forms remains sturdy. Plucked out of its surroundings, though, "Wasted Youth" isn't likely to turn many heads. [6]

Iris Xie: I find it unfortunate that my first understanding of this type of music is the word "twee," Zooey Deschanel, Wes Anderson, Modcloth, birds' nest earrings sold on Etsy, and all other attempts at a "quirky," (what a fucked up word, now) retro feminine aesthetic with vintage dresses with swing heels. But, I also haven't listened to this type of pop-folk/country music since 2008, so I own that I'm a frozen dinosaur. But I don't know, "Wasted Youth" and its brand of wistful sentimentality, that slight 'doo doo doo,' and cliched sayings such as "the cookie crumbles," only reinforces my initial understandings. When I was 16, I would listen to these type of songs, look at vintage-style fashion blogs, and dream about dressing up in the aesthetics of older, twee, melancholy white girls in perfect pinafores. It was all aspirational, inaccessible, and not-representative to this Asian American highschooler, but it was an escape from going to school every day in a hoodie and jeans and grinding hard in AP classes. Now, I'm more secure in my identities and look, and listening to "Wasted Youth" with its mild rock overtones and how Jenny Lewis sings "I wasted my youth on a poppy," I understand more. The charm is in the nihilistic chipperness, with the helium of Lewis' voice catching and carving on her sentiments. It's a surprisingly dark song, repressing its emotions and leaving me with the feeling of my throat being blocked because the little feathery notes sound like they're covering up the sadness. Maybe the quirkiness and affectations are to cover up the despair, and that's Jenny Lewis' unique coping mechanism. Ultimately, it gives an impression that the song is laying waste to itself. I never really got around to doing that full vintage makeover, but in the end, we all have to find our own, true-to-us aesthetic. [5]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: It's so tightly written that its aching lyrics about addiction find poignancy in the accompanying glossy production and whimsical "do-do-doo"s. There's small, near-hidden catharsis, too: the loping guitar melody that closes the song is a small, private unburdening. It leads into strings as if to celebrate the occasion -- onlookers won't see it as anything remarkable, but to you, it's something you've needed for a long time. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[thefantasticm]

Establishing Angst in AGBM

I am by no means a master of angst or conveying tension, and a lot of the times some of what I write that affects people the most was completely incidental. But I do try, and meet varying degrees of success depending on the scene. Here are some dank tools/things/advice I use and constantly keep in mind in order to help crank up the FEELS, and can apply to pretty much anything if you want some ideas as to how to do so.

1. Showing and Telling First thing’s first: ‘Show, don’t tell’ is absolutely ATROCIOUS advice. It is vague and unhelpful and wrong. Some things must be told. If everything were shown, every story in the history of man would sink to the bottom of the ocean, weighed down by a bloated scrotum of tedium and pedantry. There must be a balance, and yes, showing should be favored, but never to an extreme. I personally aim for a 70:30 ratio when it comes to showing and telling in my writing. It is a good ballpark to aim for because landing at 60:40 is still fine and 80:20 is also perfectly readable. Falling to 50:50 and below is where things start to get... bad. Anything below will usually be noticeably boring to even unpracticed readers. When it comes to conveying angst and tension in writing, emotions are key (so Cage has the right idea, but his execution is... well). It is fine and good and proper to tell the reader what the character is feeling, in simple terms. Yet it is something that must be balanced, as we’ve established. It is not enough to say “Hank was sad.” We must say “Hank was sad ABLOOBLOOBLOO.” And by ABLOOBLOOBLOO, I mean describing the physicality of that reaction. We’ve all been sad before, know what it feels like, so describing that churning gut, that beating heart, that sinking feeling - all of it helps to establish that sadness, and can make the reader feel it in turn. Maybe Hank will lash out with that sadness in an unhealthy attempt at emotional release. Maybe he’ll think about wanting to drink, or holding his gun, etc - and describing all of that becomes a showing of where that emotion takes him, depressive, reactionary thoughts that the audience can relate to. I say all that, but it’s also sometimes okay to just say “Hank was sad” and leave it at that. Sparingly, mind you... And exactly when those moments are most appropriate is a whoooole different discussion. 2. Third Person Limited This is less advice and more... information, since something like this is really at the mercy of the writer. Everyone has different preferences for how they narrate a story. I personally despise first person narration, I adore second person (in short bursts, it’s hard to carry a longer story with it), third person objective can be interesting or the exact opposite, and third person omniscient... well. In my very humble opinion, there is no easier way to suck all the emotional tension out of a story. If you are trying to tell an emotional story, third person omniscient is just... heinous. It can be great for grand, sweeping adventure stories, but when trying to establish an angsty emotional creep? Noooo fucking thank you. Holding the audience’s hand when it comes to how every character is feeling, giving information too freely - what a great way to remove any and all emotional stakes! Pick a character. A. One (1). Beyond that character, there can be no ‘outsider’ information. Everything must come through that one character’s eyes. They can infer, they can guess, they can assume the feelings of other characters. They might even be right most of the time! But the audience must never be told this through any other means. Which is why... Keep the narrating character uninformed. Nothing can dispel tension faster than certainty. Emotional tension and angst is most readily mined in what is uncertain. And God, this is such a fucking pain in the ass with ROBOT characters - not impossible, but fuck, I digress. Hank’s emotional hang-ups and struggles become more real and relatable when he does not know what Connor is thinking - when he projects, when he guesses, when he assumes. Hank does not KNOW Connor is in love with him, he simply perceives it, and convinces himself it is true, and thus convinces the audience. They see only what he sees, what he observes, and even when Hank is oblivious to it at the start, the audience is given the room and space to fill in their own conclusions because Hank does NOT know everything, and so when Hank has his ‘realization,’ the audience is even more convinced than he is! Absolute 9000 IQ shit, I know (it’s not). And so when Hank falls away from what he convinced himself of, which is separate from what the audience knows, it’s a little... gut wrenching? No, Hank, don’t doubt it! He does love you! But Hank can’t hear your screams from where he is... And when he comes back to it, when it is far more obvious, it has a much stronger effect. Can you imagine how fucking boring that shit would be if Hank was absolutely 100% certain Connor loved him from start to finish? Jesus. However, it’s important to give the audience a bit more to work with than just everything the main character perceives. Bits and pieces that the audience will pick up on, that the main character technically observes, but is something they do not out and out notice or give much thought to. Not every insight can and should be shared between the main character and the audience. The audience should have just a bit more information that allows them to draw conclusions that characters in the story might not otherwise think of. Which leads us to... 3. Dramatic Irony Mmm... Dramatic irony is just... *chef kiss* Mwah! It is beautiful and glorious. This is what makes the collective sphincter of an audience shiver with fear. I would not say it is my bread and butter, and good angst needs it not, but when it comes to a hard hitting tragic turn of events, no tool will smack an audience in the face harder than dramatic irony. Quick rundown: Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters do not. Some of the most memorable tragedies make use of dramatic irony. Romeo and Juliet? The audience knew Juliet was asleep, not dead, but Romeo... did not. Oedipus? We know that’s his mom... Oedipus... Oedipus no! Dramatic irony is so powerful because the audience is given time to sense the impending doom but they are powerless to do anything about it. They want to stop it, but cannot. Helpless to watch things go wrong. The cold sinking feeling of your heart dropping to your feet. Dramatic irony can be hard to handle, since it will have little to no effect if you cannot get the audience invested in the story and the characters. It is also difficult in the sense that it can become somewhat silly if it is made too obvious. If the feeling of ‘oh god, x is probably going to happen’ comes too soon, the tension when it happens will not be as strong. On the flip side, if it comes too late, or god forbid, it’s not picked up on at all, it will fall flat. Not saying I did it perfectly by any means, but I did try. If you are looking to pull any sort of twist, or just fuck with the audience in general, dramatic irony is a great way to do so, without being hamfisted and preachy, or sudden and purposeless (like Alice being an android).

4. Repetition This is also highly personal choice, but over the years in writing I’ve found that pieces in which I used repetition tended to have better reception than those that did not. Repetition, whether it’s purely through language (which is mostly what I do) or theme, can help really really really drive home a point or emotion to an audience. Repeating certain phrases. Or just one word. Maybe a character says something they said once in the beginning of the fic. Of course, all of this must be done in moderation, and the timing of it has to line up with whatever you are trying to convey to the audience. Sometimes the ‘thing’ you are trying to convey can even be nebulous and mysterious, but then the point becomes to make the audience think more about it, which makes them more invested, which makes the hurts a bit hurtier... I do this a lot by repeating questions. What would he change? How had they arrived at this point? Honestly when I put it out like this I feel a bit silly, and it doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for some, and that is what matters. Mostly... it works for me! 5. The Short Short Long ‘Something was holding him back, a lump lodging itself in his throat. He thought of Connor at home and the way he called him Hank, Hank, Hank. There was nothing unusual about it, but beneath Wilson’s scrutiny it felt private, it felt intimate, and Hank could not find it within himself to lay open something that all of a sudden felt so profoundly raw.’ ‘Connor was the one that was embarrassed. Intensely so, to the point it had rubbed off on Hank. This was not a situation he would normally give much thought to, but Connor’s reaction made him feel as if he had done something wrong, as if he had broken some unspoken trust between them; and as he stood there watching the android, so human in the smallest of ways, Hank felt dirty.‘ ‘Hank wasn’t sure whether he dreamt those words or not. It felt like he did, with the hazy dreams that followed. In them, it was not Hank who left, but Connor - the one that could not be held down by the words that boiled in Hank’s chest but lacked the strength to be spoken; the outline of his body as he stepped through the front door, bathed in sunlight, warping the vision of him until there was nothing left.’ ‘In what capacity? It didn’t matter, did it? Hank needed him and his chest felt light; how easy it was to admit it now, all of a sudden, as if the past ten days, those agonizing ten days, had never happened.’ ...Get it? I’m not sure if this actually does anything. But I like it, so I’m putting it in. Long Short Shorts are also valid. Really the idea is that the rhythm of the tension suddenly gets much faster in the final point, thus making it seem more desperate, and driving it home more. But. I could just be imagining things? Hmm... 6. What Remains Unsaid Sometimes a character will want to say something, but doesn’t. Or they’ll think something, but say something completely different. Or they will infer a hidden meaning, unspoken sentiment, from another character. The things that aren’t said should still be told to the audience! However you want to do it. As much as these things can work in comedy, so too can they work in angst. It’s a very simple thing, but this can serve to drive up the tension, and have the audience clench their teeth from it. Deceptively simple! The feeling of ‘just say it, dammit!’ is a near universal one and should not be ignored! 7. DURRRRRRRRRR MUH CLICHE There is no such thing as an ‘original’ story anymore. You can add your spins and your twists and your little tweaks, but the fact of the matter is that every ‘core’ of a story has already been written. There is NOTHING wrong with cliche. NOTHING. Themes and plots and twists that are common are common because they are usually effective. Anyone who insists otherwise is... as much as I’d like to call them stupid, I really would, what they need is to be educated. The reason people tend to shy away from ‘cliche’ is because when it is done poorly, it is often excruciating. It can be really awful. But one should not shy away from cliche for the fear of doing it poorly. Embrace it! Write it to the best of your ability! If a ‘cliche’ is where a story leads you, then it’s not wrong! Why did I include this? Because most of all this fear of cliche applies strongly to angst, sad tropes, tragedy, etc. After that? Fantasy adventure stories and romance. 8. The High Highs Angst is worthless without a counterweight. Personally I think I’m god awful at writing fluff, but you will never be able to write good angst if you can’t squeeze out some manner of happy scenes. And going back to point #1, you have to show at least one of these happy scenes. It doesn’t have to be over the top. It can even be bittersweet. Hope over happiness, in case you don’t want to go full joyous. Once you start really getting into the angst the happiness and the hope will likely start to diminish, but I say it is usually a good idea to leave ONE good upwards scene interspersed in there somewhere. My final hopeful scenes in AGBM were Connor returning from Washington DC, and to a lesser extent the beginning of their final argument. I used a lot of loaded language in that small span of time to make the drop-off even worse, but that is an entirely different post...

9. Never Reward Your Readers Never reward your readers. Never reward your readers! NEVER REWARD YOUR READERS!!!!

Tell your story how you think it should be told.

NEVER REWARD YOUR READERS.

10. Alliteration Doesn’t actually do anything. I just like it.

[jolteonjordansh]

Thoughts on Devas Arc

Okay, kind of weird to have this up shortly after talking about Battle of Adventurers (assuming I don’t take weeks to finish this one much how like it too me forever to finish talking about Pokémon Generations), but I want to get talking about this arc out of the way because I really want to watch more Tamers. And I can’t really move onto watching the next arc without writing my thoughts on the previous arc, or I’ll get episodes and opinions muddled up and it really disorients me. If my Adventure 02 thoughts ever felt like they were messy and disorganized, it was because I binge-watched the series in a matter of days unlike Adventure.

Note: I drew the line for the Devas Arc at the end of episode 24. I know some people argue that episode 23 is the end of the arc and 24 is the beginning of the next, but for reference: I am including episode 24 as part of the Devas Arc. It feels more like a transition episode much like episode 13 was for the Tamers Introduction Arc. And the way I see it, the Digital World Arc doesn’t start until they’re actually in the Digital World.

So Digimon Tamers finished up establishing itself and its world earlier. How is it now that it’s able to run free with all of these ideas it set up before?

So remember how I said there weren’t a ton of battles in the Tamers Introduction Arc and how it was definitely more story and character driven? Well man, does the Devas Arc kick the action into gear, and they manage to do it without really sacrificing some of the good storytelling elements that the Tamers Introduction Arc had started.

Right off the bat, there’s a much bigger battle with an Ultimate level Digimon in the first episode (Mihiramon) and it pushes Hypnos to utilize “Shaggai”--to send Digimon back to the Digital World, including threatening our beloved Digimon partners. When the Champion forms prove to be ineffective against stopping Mihiramon, Takato manages to get Growlmon to Matrix Digivolve to WarGrowlmon. And I gotta say, not only was this Digivolution really well-executed, it’s forcing me to go on a topic I really have done my damnedest to avoid when talking about Digimon, but I gotta address it. For the sake of organization, I’ll put it towards the end of the post. For now, let’s talk about all of the good and fun the second Tamers arc did.

The battles in this arc really take a step up, and it shows. They’re really good, full of action, and most of all: a lot of them are filled with emotion. With the exception of a couple of battles, I never felt like the fights were there just to be the obstacle of the episode. It honestly felt like each of these fights encouraged really strong character growth, had a story to tell, and built the world further. It also fixed my issue in the last arc of some insert songs being way too short-lived, since the battles are now far more fleshed out. But towards the end, there were so many new insert songs I didn’t even really get to soak them in (if anyone wants to point out names and links to me, feel free). There was even this one insert song at the end of episode 23, with this new animation that led me to believe it was a new ending. But nope! We get My Tomorrow right after it, and then episode 24 has an entirely new ending. It’s a one-time thing, and it’s really weird to say the least.

By far my favorite battle of this arc and of Tamers so far is the battle with Indramon, among the most cocky and powerful of the Devas. Not only did his fight take up two episodes and prove just how strong of an opponent the tamers were up against, it also helped give a surprising amount of development for Impmon. I was told Impmon would get a ton of character development, and my initial reaction was “Wait, this guy? He’s clearly just an annoyance for the group.” But no, they actually do a really good job making him an antithesis to partners like Guilmon, Renamon and Terriermon, yet he doesn’t come off as a true villain at this point. You do have to feel some sympathy for him during his futile battle against Indramon. Indramon being so ridiculously tough to beat just made his defeat all the more rewarding and enjoyable to watch. In the last episode with him, I kept worrying that the writers would actually run out of runtime for the episode and it would either feel rushed at some points or jarringly cut to another episode. But no, his whole fight was really well done and well-paced. Plus I’m not gonna lie, I was totally a sucker for the Blue Card that Takato’s friends made for him for another Matrix Digivolution. TEAMWORK!

The Vajramon fight that triggered Kyubimon’s Matrix Digivolution to Taomon was also really good too. I like this theme they have going with how things like a Digimon’s environment and partnering with humans influences their evolution and how the oh so “holy” Devas look down on it. I mean, I liked Kyubimon being a nine-tailed fox, but if they’re going to go with this kind of theme than I do prefer them being consistent with it. On the note of Matrix Digivolutions, I do feel like Taomon’s Matrix Digivolution animation is jarring for being traditionally animated while WarGrowlmon and Rapidmon get CG-animated evolutions. I do get why, because I do think with the way Taomon’s was done, it wouldn’t have looked as nice in CG and Taomon is sort of a more traditionally inspired Digimon while WarGrowlmon and Rapidmon have a more mechanical influence. 

I kinda couldn’t take Rapidmon’s Matrix Digivolution animation 100% seriously. I’m sorry, all of those percussions and sound effects were so ridiculous and out of place that I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s one of those instances where I feel the original sound team made some bad choices, something I think the Digimon dubs really screwed up on. I mean, Rapidmon is at least a more interesting form than Gargomon for me. The battle was at least neat, but they kind of made it misleading that Rapidmon defeated both Pajiramon and Vajramon in one blow, so that confused me a bit.

I will say, Digimon Tamers does a good job of making you question who the real antagonists are. Impmon seemed like a total douche from the start, but then they really begin to develop him in this arc, and a tiny bit towards the end of the Tamers Introduction arc. Hypnos seems like an obvious evil, but at the same time they have recruited the “Wild Bunch”--the people who created the original Digimon program and all seem like genuinely good people. Then you have the “Mystery Man” leader of Hypnos (I’m only referring to him as this because as far as I remember, they don’t state a name for him at this point), who seems like a totally evil guy, but he goes on about protecting the people and even the tamers, but has no regard for Digimon life. Even the Devas, who seem like the certain obvious evil of this arc, have to be questioned because at the end of the day--they’re fighting for survival. They even do a really neat comparison of the Deva and Asura, and how “good” and “evil” is based on perspective. Considering I’m a sucker for this kind of theme too, I really like how thought-provoking Tamers is trying to be, especially for a show aimed at a young audience.

On the other hand, one opinion that has not changed for me on Tamers is just how so, so stupid the pedestrians of this show are. If anything, it only gets worse! I get it, this is a minor thing and I shouldn’t be this bothered by it, but it just boggles my mind how far they stretch these levels! You would think that maybe, just maybe, between a giant flying Tiger rampaging over a tower, a cobra slithering through the subways, and a sheep capable of archery and a bull wielding fucking swords, that maybe, JUST MAYBE there would be an executive order of some kind to evacuate Tokyo and cancel school? But no! Nope! Only until a giant boar starts rampaging through the streets do the police think “Oh, we should probably try evacuating citizens!” After SIX different monster attacks (not counting Sinduramon and Kumbhiramon since the former caused a mysterious power outage while the latter was more of a nuisance than anything) does the Tokyo police force consider that maybe, JUST MAYBE Tokyo isn’t quite as safe as they think it is! Even then, after Vikaralamon is defeated, things go mostly back to normal with just construction workers taking care of city damage. Even on the night of this whole disaster, we see pedestrians walking around, shopping at some places without a care in the world and school continues as usual the next day. We do get some evacuation scenes and moments of Takato’s parents trying to search for their son, but even then they’re not panicking anywhere near as much as they probably should be.

I get that I’m probably making way more big of a deal of this than it really is, but it just boggles my mind how much bystander stupidity there is. Yes, it’s a TV show for kids and there are some huge levels of suspension of disbelief to be had, but again, you can only stretch that line so far before I have to question: “What the hell is wrong with these people?”

Still, as dumb as some of these bits are, there’s just too much good hanging around here. It isn’t until here that we get to really know more about Takato’s friends other than that Kazu and Kenta picked on him a little bit for seeming crazy. But I do really enjoy seeing them get to meet Guilmon and Calumon, play with them and get more involved with the events going on. I don’t think they’re bad characters--they’re fun side characters even. After my experience with Adventure 02, you would think I would be mad about Jeri’s existence and Takato having a crush on her too, but no, I’m totally cool with it. It’s downplayed and Takato’s crush is an innocent enough case of puppy love over the dumb, hamfisted comedy side plot that is the Davis-Kari-T.K. love triangle. 

Not to mention, I really have to commend how Jeri’s interest in Digimon was handled. She’s shy about liking it, but when all of her cards fall out in front of Kazu and Kenta, they don’t make fun of her or even question her. Hell, when they actually see her cards later, they admire her collection. As someone who’s been that girl, this was a healthy and natural way of handling this kind of case. The writers could have easily had Kazu and Kenta make fun of Jeri and do the “Haha, Digimon is for boys! You don’t know what you’re doing!” joke. But no, they never make fun of her for not understanding the card game. They never even make fun of her for liking Digimon. I mean, if I really had to pick on her for anything, it might be her over-admiration for Leomon, but it never got to the point of being outright obnoxious and it was funny at times.

Also, Leomon’s gonna die, right? I mean, he literally almost died the moment he became Jeri’s partner. Just thought I’d point that out.

Speaking of characters, I do really like just how much love was put into making them very human. We really see how much they care for family and friends. Henry really cares about his younger sister (though I wish we could know a little about his other siblings) and we see how close he is to his father. We see how tender Rika’s grandmother is and how Rika respects her, and even despite her distant relationship with her mother, Rika dresses up for her before going to the Digital World to make her happy. That really made me appreciate Rika’s growing sense of humanity throughout the series. Even Takato goes through a sincere and tough moment of trying to help his parents understand how he needs to go to the Digital World to save Calumon and explaining how much Guilmon means to him. He even admits to being a “bad son”, and it’s a really heartfelt scene. And how accepting and encouraging his father is was rather heartwarming to me, while it was easy to feel sympathetic for his worrying mother.

Hell, I have to appreciate how they even made side characters important in this. Some of the kids couldn’t even bring themselves to tell their parents they were leaving for the Digital World. But when Takato, Jeri, Kazu and Kenta all confess to their teacher about leaving, they actually make it a pretty touching and good scene even when their teacher hasn’t been a crucial character.

I have really enjoyed how Tamers has been sort of an inverse of what Digimon Adventure did, dumb pedestrian moments aside. It takes place in the real world first to establish the gravity of how dangerous it can be having Digimon in the real world, and the build-up to traveling to the Digital World is much more fleshed out and important than say, when the DigiDested in Adventure were sort of just rushed back into the Digital World a second time. It’s made this series really fresh, new and enjoyable. And with all of the build-up, I’m really looking forward to how Tamers will handle the Digital World Arc, especially with how great the connections between the tamers and Digimon has been so far.

This connection really stuck out to me towards the end, where the fight against  Vikaralamon felt really helpless and Shaggai was just about to completely eliminate the Digimon from the real world. Takato’s struggle of feeling his bond from Guilmon fade whenever he Digivolves further is really unique for Digimon when Digivolution has typically been treated as just the segway to victory more than anything. Here, it’s far more special. The scene where Takato begins to yell and holler at WarGrowlmon in encouragement, while seeming kind of odd, was really powerful and felt like a sort of reconnection between the two. And it worked towards winning the battle against Vikaralamon. It was honestly a really effective scene, and between that and the first Matix Digivolution Takato had with WarGrowlmon, I’ve really enjoyed how their bonds have worked. They truly feel connected, down to Takato feeling some of WarGrowlmon’s own pain. 

And between things like the tamers’ and Digimon’s bonds, Matrix Digivolution and some of the battles in this arc, this is where I have to segway towards the topic I mentioned at the beginning of this. I’m putting my Flame Shield up here. As much as I’ve avoided talking about it when discussing Digimon, now more than ever do I need to talk about this:

My God, did Digimon do it so much better than Pokémon, and 15+ years earlier no less.

To clarify, I’m talking about the Pokémon anime’s decision to include the “Ash-Greninja” plot device. Yes, it has been several months. Yes, I am still pissed about it because it’s so, so bad and actually managed to leak into the Pokémon games for no good reason other than shameless self-promotion. But enough about why I’m mad at Pokémon for this one thing. What I want to talk about is why and how Digimon did the whole concept better. I know I should be talking about strictly Digimon here, but this struck such a nerve in me that I cannot go on without talking about it. If you’re strictly a Digimon fan that knows nothing about what has been going on in Pokémon for a while, I’m sorry if this is confusing. 

First, there’s the idea of the bond. I cannot stress enough how badly the bond is executed in Pokéani. Greninja is a Pokémon that Ash merely starts his Kalos journey in. It’s not his first journey, not his second journey, but his 8th quest in his entire life (I am including Orange Islands and Battle Frontier here). By this point, he has caught and trained with over forty different companions. Sure, we can argue that all of them are special to him in some form, but why was Greninja, this one Pokémon, so different from the others? Why did he have such a “strong” bond with this one that he was magically able to synchronize with it and give it some powered-up form? No matter how you may feel about Pokémon’s mascot, Pikachu would have made the most sense for this kind of role because Pikachu has been traveling with Ash since he started his journey. The actual bond is there. They have experienced far more than what this new creature on Ash’s team ever has.

For Digimon, it makes perfect sense for Takato and Guilmon. While Digimon (at least in the anime) has humans with only one Digimon partner, it avoids the entire trap that Pokéani set itself up for--forcing this “bond” nonsense. But this idea works especially in Takato’s case because Guilmon is a Digimon that Takato created. Takato is the first person Guilmon ever meets. Guilmon learned from Takato, and Takato learned from Guilmon. They take care of each other and have learned entirely new experiences because of their meeting. There is a true, genuine, unique bond here that could not be replicated by any other individual in Takato and Guilmon’s lives respectively.

Back to Pokéni, sure, Greninja may be important to Ash, but he has been with him an extremely short time compared to so many of his other companions. It feels extremely forced and contrived in Pokéani--it’s there just to promote one of their new monsters rather than attempting any actual good storytelling. Not to mention, the “Ash-Greninja” plot device is there to simply give Ash his victories 99% of the time rather than earning them. While Takato continues to question his bond with Guilmon as he evolves further, Ash only feels a sense of failure once when he loses one gym battle with Greninja. One loss out of the many victories that have been handed to him by just having Ash-Greninja curbstomp anything that got in the way. It makes Ash’s own questioning of his own “bond” with Greninja extremely forced, and it only happens here. It’s not a continuous struggle to become stronger and trust his partner, it’s a plot device to help him win.

Takato’s struggle to trust and bond with Guilmon as he evolves is what helps him build his strength with Guilmon, not outright give it to him like with Ash and Greninja. 

This is why when I see Takato cheer Guilmon on and feel his pain throughout battle, I feel for them. I feel the bond between those two characters. I feel like they are truly connected and growing through that connection. When I see Ash “synchronized” with Greninja and somehow feeling his pain, the fights are empty to me. Ash nor Greninja aren’t getting any stronger. They’ve just been bestowed a certain level of power, and they just steamroll to victory with it. It’s why I cringe when I see the whole “synchronization” between them. I’m not cringing because I see Ash feel pain with Greninja, I cringe because all I can think is “God, this is so stupid and forced.” But when I see Growlmon Matrix Digivolve and see Takato cheering him on and, in a spiritual sense, fighting alongside him, I feel fired up and I want to see them win.

And it works the best with Takato and Guilmon because they are partners made for each other, there from the start and experience life together and develop this bond. Greninja was cherry-picked for Ash because Greninja was popular at the time, despite him having so many other partners--even others besides Pikachu--that had a stronger bond with him than this singular trend of a Pokémon. I would be so much less harsh on this if it wasn’t a faked “bond” excuse. If they had just said Ash’s Greninja was born with some super special ability just like how the “Battle Bond” ability in-game works under certain circumstances, I would still call it a plot device, but just accept it as a single dumb writing choice. But when they reason it with a bond that feels so ingenuine, so under-developed and so nonexistent, I feel so much more upset with it and it makes me love what Tamers did for Takato and Guilmon all the more. tl;dr: Matrix Digivolution > Ash-Greninja

I get that this whole part of the post could have been its own separate post in and of itself, and I really didn’t want to go into comparing Pokémon and Digimon too much. But this arc started character development that stuck out so strongly to me that I felt it was important to bring up. Maybe it comes off as a long-winded rant, but you know what? I still give Digimon so much more credit for nailing something that could have easily gone wrong and come off as so cheesy to the point of being stupid, but instead actually made the story and characters all the more investing and impactful.

But to wrap this whole thing up and in terms of the Devas Arc, I really enjoyed it. It upped the action just as I was hoping for while still maintaining great storytelling and doing such a good job of keeping me emotionally invested as well as developing characters, new and old. It’s really set my hopes high for the rest of the series and I really want to get to that Digital World Arc. I’m really excited to keep watching this show, and I hope it continues to surprise me.