#digignomes

[aparticularbandit]

"It seems the Sovreign are trying to evolve to get more powerful so that they can defeat something they won't be able to defeat without it."

"What would the Sovreign be scared of?"

D-REAPER INTRODUCTION.

[twalb-comic]

Chapter 1.11: Such Sweet Sorrow

[alpaca-clouds]

The Interesting Bit of Worldbuilding in Digimon Tamers

An interesting thing about the worldbuilding in the Japanese version of Digimon Tamers that I always was wondering about was a certain kind of phrasing.

See, in most dub versions that I am aware of, the Digital World is usually refered to as "Digital World" or "Digiworld" - just like in the Japanese version ("Dejitaru Waarudo"). Meanwhile the world the main characters come from is usually referred to as "Real World" in the Dub. However the Japanese version usually refers to that world as "ningen no sekai" or "ningen no waarudo" (using the Japanese/English mix), meaning "world of humans". With this most of the worlds do not really distinguish between the levels of reality between the Digital World and the Human World.

Digimon Tamers however is the one season that several times in the show also refers to the Human World in the Japanese version as the "real world", using the Dub terminology for this.

Now, why is this so interesting?

Well, mostly because for the most part Digimon Tamers is one of those season where there is absolutely no doubt about the digital world being in fact digital and being made of code. So far that we know who programmed it. Sure, there might be some magic involved here that nobody can fully explain (see the Digignomes), but there is absolutely no doubt that this world is Digital. By a lot of the other seasons there is some implication that indeed, while somehow the internet is connected to the digital world, the world my be a very different dimension that just somehow is fed through the internet with information and formed through it. But it might not be fully existing within computers. (This is most clear in Adventure, 02, Frontier and Xros Wars.)

But this puts DIgimon Tamers in terms of worldbuilding in a strange corner. Because the show definitely is a lot harder on the Scifi Hardness Scale, than any other Digimon season. And with this it kinda comes into the trouble of: "How the hell are digital creatures running around in the digital world?"

And again, Digimon Tamers is very aware of this. While the explanation we are given is a bullshit explanation, we get a scifi-mumbo-jumbo explanation. Something about Digital Proteins, and Phases, and what not. This is the explanation we are given specifically by Hypnos.

More than that: The reason we are given for the Digimon and Tamers to be unable to merge until Dobermon gives them the "program" for it, is explicitly this: In the Digital World both Digimon and Tamer were program, so they could merge. In the human world they no longer are.

Buuuuuut... Then how does the Dobermon program make a difference?

Digimon Tamers is overflowing with evidence that the supposed "real world" is as much a simulation as the digital world is. In fact, given that Konaka is someone very savvy in terms of Scifi tropes, he might well have already had heard talks about the Simulation Hypothesis - despite the theory officially only being proposed in 2003 - about a year after Digimon Tamers ended airing. The theory was toyed around with a lot especially after the Matrix movie came out in 1999.

Another big part of this is the strange "thing" that shows up in episode 7 and then never gets referenced again. Which clearly is also some sort of basic AI, that somehow can create a physical sphere in the supposed "real world", despite clearly not being as complex as the Digimon in its behavior.

And yeah... This is one of those things in Digimon Tamers that has kept me thinking about it for years. Kinda sad we will never get a proper answer to this.

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 44

Random goth girl yaaaaasssss! IDK what her point is, but I love her vibe lol. Maybe they realized there was an imbalance between male and female characters and were like "throw another one in there!" Not sure how to feel about Dobermon. I appreciate the pun, but his janky, emaciated-looking design is pretty ugly (R.I.P. lol).

Notes:

Newscaster guy in the beginning was so chill lol. I know he's a professional, but people don't seem pressed enough about their city being engulfed in a heat-radiating blob.

Is there any significance to only Takato noticing Juri's appearances? The fact that no one else is sensing her makes me wonder if she's some kind of projection and not actually there...

Seeing the parents all team up to support their kids was super sweet. I appreciated the "we don't approve, but we're not going to stop you" speech.

So many colorful eyes in this season! Jian's mom's eyes were very pink in this episode. (And Ruki's mom's are purple like hers)

They would name the gothic, blonde haired girl "Alice," so stereotypical. I kinda expected her to have an accent, but I'm relieved she didn't (Engrish stuff can be cringey and distracting)

Oh...going through my screenshots that Alice is related to the Digimon researcher dude...did not catch that first time around.

Confused about the continuity of the creation of the first digimon. In 02 I kinda thought Oikawa and friends created digimon, but I guess they didn't create the first ones. In this episode it's implied that red-haired dude's kid designed all of the digimon which is a fun idea. I guess not too different from Takato designing Guilmon (though I assume the former were programmed and not digignomed into existence).

So Dobermon was sent by the holy beasts to give the gang the power to digivolve into ultimate. Why him tho? Seems like a weird choice. He's not an ultimate (like...the holy beasts should be hanging out with a bunch of ultimates rn right?)

[the-plush-butt]

Fauxmon Reference! A plushie like Digimon with mysterious powers. Able to help Digimons evolve and can even transform non-digimon species into Digimons. Some say it's a subspecies of Culumon while others believe it's a DigiGnome in disguise. Whatever Fauxmon may be, It seems to spend its days playing. When faced with a threat, it transforms itself into other digimons that may scare away the offender. It also transforms to play tricks on others.

[firstagent]

For the 02 movie, at the start, the director said this was a story that only works for the 02 cast. It got me thinking about how the other season's cast would handle the movie's events. How do you think it would go?

Good time to point out that anything making me compare different season casts or rank characters within seasons on any ridiculous criteria are the best asks, so keep stuff like this coming.

Whelp, first off, adding our big spoiler line...

And here we go! To set some ground rules, here's what we are considering as "movie's events" we need each team to process:

Each team was formed as a result of powers created by Lui's wish to Ukkomon. Some of these will be real absurd, but we're rolling with them.

Each team needs to hear Lui's story and judge Lui's responsibility vs. Ukkomon's in this mess.

Each team needs to consider the possibility of losing their Digimon's bonds vs. everyone becoming partnered to one.

Each team needs to decide how to whether to tackle Ukkomon head-on, stand back and accept what happens, or give Lui the chance to sort things.

Unless they embrace the chaos, each team loses their digivices.

Adventure

Weirdly, a child's wishes powering Homeostasis isn't too hard to swallow after all the other stuff they found out from it. They'll be more sympathetic to Lui than the 02 kids were, partially because they all have very personal situations they'd welcome divine assistance with, and partially because the bluntness we saw from Hikari in the movie didn't start developing until Zero Two and only reached its peak in tri. They might be too idealistic to consider the downside of everyone having a partner and definitely would prefer Lui take the lead and work things out himself. But they'd go through with it, as losing their digivices wouldn't be that different than losing their crests.

Tamers

Ukkomon slots right in next to the digignomes for plausibility, so no issues there. But if any group is both-siding Lui vs. Ukkomon, it's these kids, especially once Lui starts claiming their relationships are manufactered. Expect the Digimon to weigh in a lot here, Renamon in particular. We'd get a lot of beautiful speeches, but they'd be far more reluctant to let go of their bonds, and kinda distraught losing their D-Arks at the very end. They too might be willing to play out the idea of everyone becoming a Tamer, and might not be motivated enough to fight Ukkomon themselves. This might be the mostly likely season to give Lui his birthday present in the end.

Frontier

Very much doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. They all literally have Digimon inside them, so they're supporting Ukkomon here, especially if it enabled Ophanimon to dish out the spirits. Despite them having little love for Lui, they only come around once the implications are clear. They know full well the power being dished out here, and everybody having a spirit and the capacity to become a Digimon? Absolutely not. More likely to take out Ukkomon on their own than giving Lui any say (or closure), but take it out they will. Harsh but efficient.

Savers

Surprisingly similar to Frontier! Between Masaru completely whiffing and telling Lui the right approach is to tackle his problems on his own, Touma concurring with his backstory, and Ikuto generally savoring his experiences being bailed out by Digimon at a young age, Lui might not bother seeking their help in the first place. They might even laugh off the first partner stuff without confirmation from Yushima or BanchoLeomon. They're definitely not taking everyone getting a partner lying down, so taking out Ukkomon then becomes a pretty routine DATS mission in the end. They'll convince themselves their digivices were only holding them back, so losing them won't sting that much.

Xros Wars

Polar opposite here. Taiki is determined to help Lui at all cost, and Ukkomon's natural connection here takes it to Bagramon, so this team is painting it as a malicious entity from the start. In fact, it's their disdain for Ukkomon that could well prompt Lui to reassess his issues and want to make peace on his own, perhaps even accepting Ukkomon's wish against Xros Heart's pleas. It's then that Lui discovers Ukkomon's ability to generate weird temporal perceptions stems from its connection to a different Digimon, one that creates a new perceived world for all those newly created partnerships to play in, and that's how Hunters really happened.

Appmon

With no connection to AI development, hearing about Ukkomon powering Minerva will rattle Haru a lot. However, once they get over that, they'll use Lui's story as a perfect illustration of how beneficial AI can be while cautioning about the dangers of overuse and not instructing it properly. It's a far more logical approach, but they'll get roughly to the same place V-mon got with his handshake speech. They're far more willing to consider letting everybody partner with an Appmon since it's not that different from everybody having a smartphone. And they definitely aren't parting with their buddies willingly. Still, they let Lui try to reason with Ukkomon, which could bite them in the butt since their Appdrives absolutely are powering their Appmon bonds.

Adventure: (2020)

Ukkomon's powering everything? Sure, why not? These kids are definitely drowning Lui with kindness, with all the support and good vibes in the world. Like their 1999 counterparts, they're more likely to understand his side. Unlike them, they're more likely to question Ukkomon's intentions. It's hard to say how they'd handle the idea of everyone receiving a partner, but if Lui insists Ukkomon needs to be stopped, they'll defer to him, even at the risk of their own bonds. Without as much reflection going on, Lui's less likely to realize the need to fix this himself and agrees to let them destroy Ukkomon without a conversation. Again harsh, but Lui's more comfortable with it than in Frontier or Savers.

Ghost Game

After they roll their eyes one more time at Hiro's dad when they find out about Ukkomon's connection to everything, they're less likely to be that affected by Lui's story. Those kinds of horrors just kind of slide off them by now. Enough that they'll want to handle this delicately and get more information, including from Ukkomon itself if possible. Instead of Lui, they'll be the ones trying to engage it and gather its intentions before taking any concrete action. If Lui's story checks out, they're absolutely against everyone getting a Digimon partner but will seek out a way to deal with it without murder. They will definitely miss their digivices and all its extra features, but they'll keep their Digimon around and wonder how they got through a whole movie without a GulusGammamon appearance.

[magpiejay1234]

Episode 33.

It is Miyako's Kyoto episode.

Izumi speculates that 02 cast's D-3s were created due to Ken's Dark Digivice, and Ken's Digivice was something he wished for, which the Dark Ocean granted.

Izumi explains there is a program in Digital World that shapes the elements to people's desires. This will be important for the end of the series, and DigiGnomes in Tamers.

Izumi, and Ken speculate about the sender of the e-mail.

Black War Greymon destroys the remnants of another Holy Stone.

Following Black War Greymon's attempt to Realize, a Hanumon appears.

Ken saves Miyako, but ends up meeting a folklore professor. This is actually Sora's dad.

Sora's dad explains the lore behind the Sovereigns, this will be more important in Tamers. Sora's dad speculates that Digimon are the yokai of the current era, which is more or less the basis of every Monster Collection series.

Second Digimon manifesting from Black War Greymon's conga line is Musyamon.

After Musyamon's defeat, Miyako wonders what happened during Taichi's era, when they couldn't just send back Digimon. This sets up the Demon Corps episodes.

Archnemon states there are 5 more Holy Points left.

****

This episode is incredibly lore important for future of this series, but also overall franchise, as it serves as a test case for many elements of Tamers.

It is unclear why we have 7 Holy Stones in the show, since logically there should be 9 for each crest.

[patamon]

Digimon Tamers Episode 29 | Here is the Ghost Castle! The Great Escape of Stray Culumon - Culumon + DigiGnome

[bossarmadimon]

It took me like five minutes to realize this was a chibi renamon and not King from The Owl House

I’ll be including free stickers in all orders of my Tamers 03 pins! Here’s the rough designs of the four stickers.

[therainingday]

Reinterpretación de el Digimon Deva Antylamon. Espero les guste tanto como a mí, es uno de los dibujos que mas cambios ha pasado jdjsjs #digimon #digimontamers #deva #Antylamon #japanese #jump #rabbit #katakana #digignome ##digitalart #digitalpaint

[shihalyfie]

AU where Makuramon decides to spy on HYPNOS instead of a bunch of middle schoolers and winds up kinda befriending Yamaki over the whole thing and starting to doubt himself as hey, Mitsou isn't too bad. And than a digivice falls from the sky...

Haha, that's an interesting idea. The DigiGnomes are the ones who seem to "decide" who gets a Digivice, aren't they? They work in mysterious ways...

[grifalinas]

"They're digital gnomes. I call them digignomes" so you just blew your creative load on naming the Arcs, huh?

[twalb-comic]

Chapter 1.12: Such Sweet Sorrow

[moonlitfighterrika]

The sudden appearance of a castle caused her a great alarm and suspicion. It wasn’t every day that something that normally wouldn’t be present would magically appear out of nowhere while trying to enjoy a casual bike ride. She raises a brow and lowers her sunglasses as she gazes upon the new towering building. Her curiosity was piqued so she shrugs and approaches to get a closer look.

“Shouldn’t we be more cautious? You never know what dangers could be within those walls. It could be luring us in through a false sense of security.” Renamon says, being overprotective of the teens as per usual which Rika dismisses.

“It’ll be fine, stop worrying. If anything bad happens then I’ll just ride out of there as fast as possible. It’ll even be a good opportunity to try some jumps.” She says with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood.

As they get closer, music is heard amongst the bustling crowds of people that have also gathered around which marks the possibility of some kind of festivity going on. Balls of lights flutter in the air and with a closer look, they remind the pair of the DigiGnomes from the Digital World. They were peaceful spirits there so they figured they could have some trust in these creatures. But, when they keep shoving masks at Rika like those really persistent salespeople, suspicions rise again. The teen still ends up receiving one of these masks and raises a brow at it. “Yeah these things better not expect me to wear this. I’m so not into silly things like this.”

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Episode 32

Huh, this one was kind of a headscratcher, but I really enjoyed it. Gave me Dot Hack lore dump vibes lol. Love a good dialogue heavy episode with (almost) no battles. Also, we got some sweet parent action which has always been one of Digimon's strong points.

Notes:

The animation of Shibumi disappearing was suspicious. Like it kind of looks like he turns into something else at the last second...could have just been a weird animation choice though.

Speaking of Dot Hack, Shibumi's existence in the digital world reminded me of Harald Hoerwick showing up in The World. Not exactly the same, but similar vibes.

Okay the "you only drown because you believe you'll drown" and "you're only hungry because you believe you're hungry" logic raises SO many questions. Like what other laws of physics/thermodynamics does this apply to? If you fall off a cliff is gravity only affecting you because you believe it will? Can you just phase through walls because they're not real walls? I feel like this is only going to work in very specific and convenient ways which bothers me.

The explanation for why adults can't/didn't enter the digital world was weird too. They were like "digimon like children and children believe in digimon, so they're more compatible." I'm not sure why they're bringing up belief though because all the adults should know by now that the digimon are real, so what does that gotta do with anything? Are they more saying they can't be tamers? The writing wasn't very clear...

Yamaki took his glasses off -gasp- that felt like his final "i am redeemed" moment lol. Sunglasses kind of make you look serious/angry, so it softened his appearance.

I liked the random mini fight where the humans got in on it. I'm always amused when a human beats up a digimon. (Wonder if Pokemon's ever done that)

A bubble being good protection against electric shock is....questionable no?

Lol @ Shiuchon missing Terriermon more than Jian. Guess she's not too worried.

Digital world library YEAHHHH! (I'm a librarian, so these things excite me). The watery floors made my eye twitch tho.

So the dub used the word "Digital Gnome" before the sub and I thought they were just making up nonsense, but it's legit. It's kinda cute, but they don't resemble gnomes (unless there's another version of a gnome that's not a little bearded dude).

Takato has a weird crisis about Guilmon being made up of data which I kinda get, but also....he shoulda known that already. I guess it's just becoming real to him. I like that Terriermon said "I'm data too," it felt a little meta/existential for a digimon to be saying that. Humans are just atoms so...

Shibumi speaks kind of like a conspiracy theorist or I guess someone that's just not all there. I feel like some of what he says makes sense if he believes he's dreaming though. Looking forward to learning more about him.

So...I feel like my questions about Guilmon weren't really answered despite the name of this episode. I rewatched the episode in English to see if I could figure it out, but nope. They said that either the Digignomes made him or he dreamed himself into existence. Huuuh? Well, whatevs I'll be patient for a real answer.

[jadeazora]

Kenta becomes a Tamer to MarineAngemon (who had been snuck into Kenta’s pocket by a DigiGnome), and we get some focus on Impmon’s guilt.