#digimon meta by me

[seventeenlovesthree]

As mentioned in my previous analysis posts, my memory on 02 has been rather blurry, but upon rewatching vital scenes of both 02 and Tri, it’s just interesting how often this general theme is being brought up.

Basically, there are two moral aspects the Adventure universe always falls back on:

Killing Digimon in general (including enemies)

Killing Digimon that are ALSO somebody’s partner and/or a friend

Throughout the first three arcs of Adventure, “killing” Digimon had not been an issue, as there were mainly “enemies” and the children were also (indirectly) on a quest for survival as well. It’s not before the Dark Master’s arc (and the killing of Wizarmon prior to it) that the subject of death becomes one they have to actively debate on (not including the death of Angemon here, even though that definitely left some scarring in Takeru). It’s Mimi wanting to mourn the fallen Digimon, Taichi immediately wanting to press on in order not to see more victims happen and Yamato opposing him on that, saying that he needs to let them process what happened. The everlasting conflict of “being (in)considerate” that lingers between these two here is one (of several) aspect(s) that makes them get into a fight, causing the group to split up afterwards. Mimi (and Jyou) leaves because she doesn’t want to witness more death - even though that is exactly what she has to face in the end. Taichi (who has been personally affected by the trauma of almost having killed his sister when they were children) becomes even more contemplative - and it’s him trying to reason with Yamato, trying to get them all to work together and snapping out of his “silly rivalry attitude” in order to stop all of this, not wanting the prior victims to have died in vain.

In the end, they all had to come to the conclusion that there are sacrifices that HAVE to be made. That - even with the Village of Beginnings existing - there will be losses they cannot avoid.

That is also why Yamato is the one who - in return - punches Taichi three years later during 02 once he is faltering. Agumon getting corrupted is one of the first instances where they actively have to face the idea of “killing a friend”. And due to their experiences before that, they quickly come to the conclusion that it may not be avoidable in order to achieve peace for the greater good.

And that is the theme that gets repeated again and again. While Daisuke, Iori and Miyako visibly struggle with this theme throughout the entirety of Adventure 02 due to never having had to face the idea of killing a living being, all the others have already personally seen death happen before their very eyes - and one might argue that they’re not dealing with it well either. Takeru had SEEN his own partner getting killed before (and will struggle with the prospect of it happening again in Tri once more, even hiding the fact out of sheer fear of facing it once more, as he is already dealing with abandonment issues). Hikari had witnessed Wizarmon die (and also doesn’t deal very well with whenever it happens to other innocent Digimon as well). Ken still deals with the aftermath of his brother’s death as well as seeing Wormmon die in his arms due to the mistakes he made, having to overcome the feeling of guilt as well as rediscovering his own self-worth.

If we take Hurricane Touchdown into consideration as well, it is no surprise that the prospect of killing a corrupted (!) Digimon partner of a newly found friend is terrifying Daisuke and reduces him to tears of empathy. 

And then we have Hikari’s reactions seen above; let’s remember that Taichi has a tendency to be indecisive once faced with a situation that overwhelms him, so he may or may not need Yamato to punch him out of that state. To remind him to make rational decisions again, to remind him what they’re there for. That’s why we see him so calm and collected here in 02 (albeit also looking very grim about it). It’s not because he likes the idea of killing, but he knows that he has to do it and at this point in time, he has fully grasped the meaning of it. He’s also aware that the younger kids will have their issues with it due to their lack of experience and exposure. That’s why Hikari looks so tormented. She knows it as well. She doesn’t want it - her dream is to live in a peaceful world of symbiosis in which humans and Digimon can live in symbiosis without fighting one another, without having to face sacrifices again and again. It physically makes her flinch to think back to the events of 1999 once Taichi mentions it.

And interestingly enough, they will have a conversation like this again - with similar yet different circumstances.

The entirety of Tri revolves, once again, around a Digimon partner being corrupted and the children having to make the decision to end it for good. And once again, Hikari absolutely doesn’t want it to happen. She is aware of the necessity to fight, always has been, yet Taichi eventually coming to the conclusion (AGAIN) that they have to go for the kill (AGAIN) distresses her. Saying that every being of darkness has a side of light as well that deserves to be saved, hoping that there will be a way to succeed without having to compromise. And yet...

“I...”

“But that is also why...”

Taichi’s whole deal throughout Tri has been that he had felt like a coward for not being able to act. That he thought he could have seen things more clearly when he was still a “kid”. Yamato basically yelled at him again for not being sharp enough as well, for not remembering what was important, even if they had come to the same conclusion again and again and again. And it’s not like Yamato doesn’t struggle with it himself - on the contrary, it’s the main reason WHY he gets so angry at Taichi throughout Tri, because after all this time, he expected Taichi to be on the same page, to understand all this (and probably hating to see him faltering in the same way he himself once did). And yet - Yamato has his doubts about allowing a friend’s partner to get killed himself, but is also aware of the necessity.

In the end, these emotional “contradictions” (if you want to call it that) are just too understandable. Because as much as we may know that something is “the right thing to do”, doesn’t mean that it’s “the easy thing to do”. (We may even come full circle taking Kizuna into account, as this one basically demands both Taichi and Yamato to “sacrifice” their partners for the greater good as well. This time, they’re not corrupted, but the theme of sacrifice remains the center of the conclusion, as it is the price they have to pay for having lost their ways before.)

[digisurvive]

Keep thinking how immature Aoi gets in Wrathful, I'm so delighted lol Think about it this way: one of the important lessons Iori Hida 02 has to learn in order to grow up is to be able to contextualize his actions within the possibilities the circumstances offer so he can choose what causes less harm or is more fair beyond strict adherence to clear cut rules. His extremely black and white morality signals how childish he is (and this is fine because he's 9, I find very endearing how righteous he wants to be). Yet, in Wrathful, Aoi basically regresses to that kind of inflexible mentality. Every body must obey strictly (which she reads as well behaved), everyone must know their place and not act out of it, there must be no fighting nor conflict. She holds no nuance nor compassion for anyone that doesn't follow her rules to a tee.

Aoi even struggles with paralysis caused by her moralitiy crisis, too. While Iori's about lying and thust tailored to the fact he's 9, at the core of it is struggling to reconcile how acting in a way that is fair clashes with his view of what is correct behavior, which trips Aoi up, too. She gets a similar blockage where she feels incredibly torn if what she wants to do goes against social order. Thinking about how she also felt Shuuji was being unfair, so she likely wanted to do something more than just keeping her juniors in line... And in the end, couldn't even commit to preserving harmony that way because of her self-doubt about her own capacities as leader and troubled convictions. It feels very pointed that in part 6, Aoi is promising to actually get involved in mediating the group fights, coming at the tails of what happened with Shuuji.

Anyway, I love how we get that peek to her internal struggles in Wrathful. Like she correctly identifies as part of the issue that she can't step out of what she considers correct (and makes a lot of sense how much she likes the flippant Saki lol), yet Wrathful has her doubling down. I love the irony.

I also really enjoy how different her spin on a scrupolous work ethic is to Iori's because their different social positions (Iori being the youngest vs Aoi always being responsible for others), their age and gender. Endlessly fascinating to me.

[mel0deon]

ok, im having a lot of Thoughts

the digital world is basically a coalescence of what we feel, what we need and the days of the internet.

in adventure 01, we see a lot of desert and false illusion of goods. at least in the file island arc. specified areas for children. in terms of internet usage, there wasnt much. it was just getting started and the early days had some early versions of culture today.

ending in around 2015, there started to be a decline of using the internet as a feeding ground to your pain, letting it fester. It doesnt mean it never happens, but there were generally less of it seen on an online presence.

come 2020, and its a whole new sphere.

as per digimon 2020 lore, from what i can tell, it is lucious but the digimon don’t seem to speak as much as the original. in this case, people have become more reserved in showing themselves because they know of the dangers.

the ‘network’ is the ui/ux part of this. manmade. all the content made in the coalescence of the years and growth of the internet. small threats can turn large at a rapid pace. but, we know enough now to stop these threats.

the layout of the digital world, however, has traces of the old ones. its the old youtube videos you made 11 years ago. its the old newgrounds games you loved. its the how its made videos you’re watching at 1 am. there are traces of ourselves in our old internet usage.

i love the reincarnation theory so hear me out.

in the novels (seen above), digimon reflect your personal growth. how in the hell did omegamon happen in episode 2 of the 2020 series.

they might not know each other then, but their hearts do. its why the digimon seem so close for each other despite the digidestined just introducing themselves.

the digidestined (2020) are more secure in themselves because their digimon know how to help.

happy odaiba day.

[kablamow]

digimon au matchstick has bombernanimon (low hanging fruit) and keramon (it leading into diaboromon is very funny)

[konakoro]

I'm going to need cash soon since I'll be jobless in February, so I'll be selling some collectors stuff and games and digimon cards. I'm selling my whole collection because I haven't kept up in a while, and they just take up space. This isn't also just me needing extra cash, but I've been meaning to purge my apartment in general.

I'll post eBay links when I get around to setting up the listings. Eventually

[moongothic]

Okay I'm making a fucking OP Meta-tag because god knows my drafts are fucking exploding and I am not going to be shutting the fuck about this god forsaken series anytime soon, but I need to give y'all a proper tag to block my ravings so. That's the tag, blacklist that shit if you don't care about my OP essays, I'm gonna go make sure my previous posts are also tagged with it etc

[kdinjenzen]

With the big posts from yesterday about TCG and how broken and busted everything is...

Anyone who is playing the Digimon TCG or One Piece TCG wanna tell me if things are still fun there? Because I love card games and I'd like to play with the intent of actually enjoying myself and not being beaten down by crap meta or impossible to make decks.

[rockybloo]

What type(s) of anime do you think your ocs would watch?

I'm gonna answer with Glitter and Guilt AND Beanstalked characters for this (sorry Nova and Pluto but I dunno WHAT y'alls tastes would be like) SO this is gonna be a little long

Glitter and Guilt

For Sweetheart, I view her as being a magical girl fan as well as enjoying some of the more action oriented ones. So if she finds an action filled magical girl anime (where they flex their budget during fight scenes) she is a happy girl.

Bitterbat latches onto whatever Sweetheart enjoys but I also see him getting interested in monster taming and battling anime like Pokemon and Digimon.

They both have some meta tastes in anime because I think it's funny.

For Dear, he's a shounen fan. He binges them like junk food and gets into "Who would win in a fight" debates with his brother that wind up escalating to them both getting into physical fights. I see him getting Redhot interested in all the battles and over the top attacks.

Baby enjoys a ton of anime so she bounces around but her big favorites are any horror and bloody anime. She likes the stuff that leaves you having to watch some puppy and kitty compilation videos afterwards.

Honey is a slice of lifer. She likes all the mundane stuff flipped into funny situations with a bunch of lovable characters. She enjoys when there's a romantic aspect, especially the slow burns.

As for Red-hot, Halite, and Sourpuss - I see Red-hot enjoying shounen, Halite enjoying slice of life, and Sourpuss liking monster taming anime.

Beanstalked

For everyone's Earth counterparts (aka the Modern AU) I see Jack enjoying adventure anime. They typically have the right amount of a fantasy slice of life and action so he gets the best of both worlds

Nana is tricky but for some reason the concept of her being fond of psychological thrillers is sticking with me. She'd also like the dark fantasy ones.

I think Pin would hate slice of life ones unless they were really funny. He'd get too irritated at the character's decisions to finish an episode. If you sat him in front of an action anime with tons of flashing fighting, you have a better chance of having him finish the whole thing.

Kai wants some feel good anime. He doesn't want any sad endings or tragedies. So he'd probably stick to slice of life anime since everything is relatively in the realm of safety.

Ashe likes the goofy anime. I dunno how to describe 'em but she is the type to enjoy some Osomatsu San or Crayon Shin-chan (I have watched neither of these but they have Ashe energy).

[shihalyfie]

I love your Digimon meta blog! It's really helped me appreciate the series more and get into it after Ghost Game! I know you focus more on Adventure and 02, but do you know any other blogs, Tumblr or otherwise who also do meta's on Digimon?

Thank you so much!

Hmm, the thing about Digimon meta is that a lot of it is Adventure-biased, not just because of the popularity of Adventure, but also because the Adventure universe is the one with the most lingering questions to address compared to others that are a bit more straightforward. (Believe it or not, even I would probably be covering more than just Adventure and 02 if I could come up with things to talk about, but unfortunately, I'm not actually that creative or smart and struggle to come up with good topics when a huge question isn't shoved in front of my face.) Sadly, we also lost a lot of meta bloggers in the Tumblr exodus some years ago, but off the top of my head I easily remember @analyzingadventure (if at least because the name is easy to remember!), and I've also seen @digisurvive's stuff on Survive floating around.

The thing is, I do know a lot of names around, but I keep forgetting who are the ones who actually specialize in meta and who only posts about that kind of thing occasionally...I'm sorry, I am a terrible excuse for a community member. Please reblog this post and promote yourself if you do meta!

For things outside Tumblr, I really like Data Ravel's Digital World Archive, which talks about the Digimon franchise as an overall multiverse as well as the history of the IP itself. In particular, I like the fact that he's one of the few people who can talk about things like lore contradictions and marketing/financial problems with an academic tone that doesn't feel remotely malicious, and in fact, he treats them like things that make the franchise even more interesting to analyze and think about. So he's probably the only person I can have faith will talk about things like the 02 media mix biting off more than it could chew or Tamers/Frontier's financial problems without sounding like he's attacking them or being condescending, and it really does feel like a true analysis blog rather than something that has to go into media criticism or debating what's better or worse writing. I really appreciate the fact that he treats everything like it has its own place and value, and I feel more people could stand to be that way.

[otakween]

Digital Monster: D-Project - Final Thoughts

Some quick stats:

This is my 13th Digimon game completed in less than 2 years, yay me!

This game took me 10 days to play. Love me a game that doesn't overstay its welcome.

This game was fantastic! It was probably most similar to the first Digimon World gameplay-wise, but waaay less convoluted and a lot cuter. Unlike in DW I had no problem getting the digivolutions I wanted and progressing through the game at a comfortable pace. There were a few "guide dang it!" moments here and there, but the game is mostly reasonable about hinting at what you're supposed to be doing. Full thoughts below.

Notes:

I loved the meta premise of this game. Basically when you boot it up, DemiDevimon comes along and "corrupts your game file." You then get sucked into the game world, "Swan World" (geddit, cuz Wonderswan?) The rest of the game is dedicated to restoring your corrupted surroundings and returning evil digimon to their nice forms. Very satisfying.

The v-pet aspect of the game was fun. The controls for calling/releasing your digimon were very intuitive. I liked how I could release them in various places like I was putting them out to pasture. The only really annoying thing was keeping the digimon fed because you had to input 4 digits to get one meat over and over and over again.

Of course I just used a guide to figure out the right codes, but the "enter a code and get a mystery digiegg" gimmick was cute. I really liked the animation of the egg slowly generating. It was a little weird because what digiegg you started with didn't matter much in the end, but oh well.

For some reason you have the ability to praise and scold your digimon? I understand praising because maybe it raises their happiness (I never actually checked), but there is no advantage to scolding in this game as far as I could tell.

Instead of the DW1 digivolution mechanic where you need a PHD in digivolving to get the right digimon, you just raise them in a certain environment to get the desired outcome. SO much easier. I liked that I could switch from line to line going from rookie to champion to make the game go quicker.

Except for the crazy last boss, it sort of felt like the difficulty level remained the same throughout the whole game. I brought a rookie into many battles, for example, and ended up being fine.

Omg the sprites in this game are so good!! Battling was so fun to watch (you can button mash to improve accuracy, but you don't really participate). Some kind soul uploaded all the sprites for download. I thought the Kyubimon victory animation was really funny:

Once I discovered jogress/DNA evolution I was like HELL YEAH 🔥🔥🔥 cuz the animation was so badass and took up like half the screen (wish I got more screenshots). There was also a really satisfying "BOOM!" sound effect during digivolution.

Lots of colorful, fun environments (especially compared to the last game which was blah). Another quality of life complaint is you have to go all the way to the start of the map every time you need food. There should have been more shortcuts to get from place to place.

I was actually kind of grateful that digimon die in this game. They have a pretty long lifespan, which is nice, but sometimes you need to clear up storage in your PC or you want the chance to raise a different type, so mons dying wasn't as soul crushing as in previous games.

If you can't read Japanese, I think I'd still recommend this game. The visuals and gameplay are enough to carry it and the controls/menus are pretty simple.

I give Digital Monster: D-Project an 8 out of 10

[seventeenlovesthree]

I like those comic strips where someone met other version of themselves in different stage of life, the "woah, I will be like that/I was like that?" moment, which two version of Taichi meeting himself that will ge the most reaction? the 01 elementary? 02 middle school? 03 tri version? the kizuna version? also, do you think Taichi will fight himself ? ( because i've seen fanarts that show Yamato would )

Weeeeell... I personally tend to joke around a lot about "punching" being Taito's love language for each other - I'm actually pretty much like Daisuke in that regard...

And sometimes, they frustrate me so much that I would like to punch them myself. However, all light-hearted jokes aside, I know comics like that too and unless they actually ARE meant in a light-hearted way, I don't agree with them. Because 02 already made a point about them needing to get over the past - and while Tri onwards still loved to drag out these "conflicts" between them, I am sure that they would never punch their past selves. Their younger selves might be baffled at what they may become... But even young!Taichi (who already faced a younger version of himself in Piccolomon's pocket dimension) would understand that things won't be getting easier for him. At least to some degree.

I still believe that the stageplay made a strong point in regards to Taichi mourning his younger self, scolding himself for his cowardice and indecisiveness - and I will never grow tired of recommending watching it. It had the perfect course (and maybe could have been the perfect end to the entire timeline if they had committed to it).

(On a different note - I am still a fan of the multiverse theory and, while I wouldn't want them to punch each other, I'd find the canonization of something like this in an anime setting hilarious.)

[digisurvive]

Scorpion moments: Survive and (self) sacrifice.

As we learn during moral’s endgame stretch, the Survive antagonists’ goal to sacrifice the children was with aims to preserve their world. The potential deaths of the children are, then, purported to have a benefit for an alleged greater good, something that we will see more of in different moments of the game.

Selflessness and virtue. 

The idea of self-sacrifice as noble is something most will be familiar with, but for this meta I wanna discuss Survive’s take on it as contrasted to The Night of the Galactic Railroad (the movie, since I haven’t read the book), given it’s a story that’s pretty ubiquitous in Japanese pop culture, but moreover, deals heavily with ideas about self-sacrifice.

As some of you might know, The Night of the Galactic Railroad (NOTR, onwards) has as centerpiece the self-sacrifice of the protagonist’s (Giovanni) best friend (Campanella) when he jumps into a river to save someone who had fallen off a boat during a festival night. His self-sacrifice is seen as the ultimate act of selflessness and key to reaching the path to happiness. This virtuous read on it is further reinforced through the fable of the scorpion presented in the story:

“"My father told me its story: A long time ago in a field there lived a scorpion that ate other bugs by using its tail to catch them. Then one day he found himself cornered by a weasel. Fearing for his life, he ran but could not escape it. Suddenly, he fell into a well and, unable to climb out, began to drown. He started to pray then, saying:  ”‘Oh, God. How many lives have I stolen to survive? Yet when it came my turn to be eaten by the weasel, I selfishly ran away. And for what? What a waste my life has been! If only I’d let the weasel eat me, I could have helped him live another day. God, please hear my prayer. Even if my life has been meaningless, let my death be of help to others. Burn my body so that it may become a beacon, to light the way for others as they search for true happiness.’ “The scorpion’s prayer was answered, and his body became a beautiful crimson flame that shot up into the night sky. There he burns to this day. My father was telling the truth…”

The scorpion had been someone deeply selfish on account of only being able to sustain itself by taking away from others, yet when its moment to give back came, it cowered and his death was nearly futile— wasting on a well without being of help to anyone; it only redeems itself through asking to be set ablaze so it can be of use to others. The throughline of self-sacrifice as something that gives both your death and life meaning by granting you a legacy in benefit of the people you leave behind is clear.

Redeeming one’s self.

One of the earlier examples of self-sacrifice popping up in Survive’s narrative is when Shuuji is negotiating with Arukenimon— the latter offers Shuuji the chance to get everyone back home at the small price of offering up a sacrifice. Given that this aligns with their ultimate goal and would presume the ultimate greater good for the group, Shuuji considers the offer seriously. Yet, the only answer he can consider as appropriate is to give himself up as the required sacrifice.

Arukenimon implies it’s because he wants an escape from the situation, since “his sense of justice isn’t anything special”. While it’s not entirely untrue Shuuji was in such utter despair even death seemed like a respite from his suffering, it’s also not entirely accurate. Shuuji choosing to act based on what he considers will be best for the whole group is consistent even before he rectifies his behavior. His big fight with Kaito in part 4 is rooted in him placing the safety of the group above the desires of a single individual. Similarly, his reluctance to go to the waterways is not founded solely on his risk aversion but this mentality of seeking the greater good. This propels Shuuji to offer himself up, as the dead weight of the group.

Even though Shuuji reacts in deep anger upon the suggestion he should be left behind when the group is about to venture into the waterways— because it’s implied he’d be in the way and he’s desperate to prove himself— his self-perception fully aligns with the idea he’s worthless, as he openly cries about when fused with Wendimon. Shuuji’s desire to redeem himself to the group is laid out in explicit terms in his Perfect evolution dialogue, where he talks about wanting to be able to stand side by side with the others.

[Image ID: dialogue log between Shuuji and Lopmon. It reads:

Shuuji: I’ve just been a burden on everyone up to now… I have to make up for it, or else…

Lopmon: That’s not true… No one thinks of you that way, Shuuji.

Shuuji: This is something I want. Confidence to stand side-by-side next to everyone, with pride. It’s not about what the others think—or my dad, even. I want my own approval.]

However, we get more hints to him desiring to be someone valuable to group in the vanilla route, too. He often expresses to Takuma his deep embarrassment and guilt over the fact Takuma has to do a lot of heavy-lifting to keep the group together. He’s acutely self-aware he fails as a leader, as he often fails to stay level-headed and respond properly to the crises in front of them, which is reflected in his constant lamenting about Lopmon contributing nothing and the consequent berating. 

These intense feelings of worthlessness and desire to be useful then place his desire to self-sacrifice as a way to be able to contribute to the group. It’s of note that, in the end, that self-sacrifice never came to be, and his death is ultimately caused by him succumbing to the most pernicious extremes of his anger and drowning in his unresolved trauma and suicidal ideation. The ideal of self-lessness he wanted to aspire to isn’t something he can achieve through death but through staying alive, owning up to his mistakes, listening to the others and working to take care of them with kindness.

The meaning of one’s life.

As we learn during the start of Wrathful’s part 9, Saki is someone who deeply struggles with her sense of belonging. She laments that she fought with her friends right before camp and—with her worries about death at all time high due a looming surgical procedure, as well as the general worry over her illness— straight up states that “If someone like me disappeared, I doubt anyone would miss me…” Although she jokes about it at the start of Truthful’s part 11—when they're talking about separation and she "jokingly" makes Takuma promise not to forget hee— it's clear she fears dying and leaving nothing behind for people to remember her by. 

This can be partially related to the scorpion’s regrets as its about to die: because of her constant social fallouts, Saki is deeply socially isolated. During the waterways event, when the kids are faced by duplicates of their partners that reflect their innermost fears and anxieties, we learn Saki worries about how much she troubles others and how selfish she is —which is very loaded in the context of her chronic illness, a detail the game most blatantly hints at during this passage.  She also worries about living one’s life to its fullest (giving one’s all to whatever they set their sights to) and being able to move freely and truly do what she wants (very apparent during her dialogue at the cafeteria and at the amusement park in Wrathful’s part 9). Saki doesn’t want to die, that much is a given, but she doubly doesn’t want to die after having a meaningless life, both on a social sphere and with regards her own personal accomplishments. She resents the idea of a wasted existence that’d lead her to be forgotten once she dies.

This plays into her motivation to run off her own: at first, she's paralyzed by fear and unable to move. This perceived cowardice of hers is part of her avoidance coping that has led her to postpone her medical care and also makes her unable to address things directly. During her Wrathful flashback, she states she hates this about herself and longs to change it. Inspired by Miu's determination to use her fear over losing others to spring into action and save her brother, Saki decides to follow her example to do what she's wanted to: help others, broadly, but more especially save all the young digimon at the park. She longs to do something meaningful with her existence and to improve herself through this selflessness, even if it costs her everything. 

This willingness to take such extreme risks is partly rooted in her own self-depreciation. When Aoi wants to call the rescue off due to the thickening mist, Saki refuses to give up and states Aoi should go back to safety— Aoi is their all important leader, after all. Saki wants to be remembered and be meaningful to the world, but the baggage of her intense social alienation propels her to her death in Wrathful. Her willingness to self-sacrifice is there from the get-go of the scenario and it informs her stubbornness to take on great risks, which eventually comes to a head in the tug-of-war deciding her death. Judging her death inexorable, she decides to let go of Aoi's hand in order to protect everyone. 

A life like the scorpion.

NOTR's protagonist, Giovanni, is a boy in an unfortunate situation. His father is often away as a sailor, but this time it seems he might not come back at all— if his classmates teasing about his father being in jail is to be believed. Without him, his household situation is precarious. More so because his mother is sick; so even if they receive some help from Giovanni's sister in the form of prepared food sent to them, Giovanni still works for pennies at a local printer and fulfills a lot of household errands after school. This alienates him from his peers, cutting him out from his opportunities to socialize. You could say Giovanni's life involves a series of recurrent, small sacrifices for the sake of his mother and his own well-being. Giovanni doesn't resent his family nor his life, but he does begin the movie deeply disconnected from the world and life itself. After being given the opportunity to spend a last night with Campanella and see him off, Giovanni is inspired to follow Campanella's selfless example. He's able to make peace with the sacrifices and work he does under the lense of being like the scorpion— because he's helpful and aids his mother to live longer, Giovanni gains a connection to life itself and sense of purpose. 

Aoi's life before she went to camp could be said to be akin to Giovanni's — she goes the extra mile in all aspects of her life because it's something that is beneficial and contributes to society. She says as much in her prequel story: she takes on the extra work others foister on her because it's good to be helpful. She's someone whose sense of purpose is deeply tied to other people. Her Moral shadow event reinforces this through her own assertions that helping people in need (acting in accordance to her sense of Justice) and being relied on by her friends is what gives her the courage to move forward. This is remarkable because through the course of the game she struggled deeply to assert herself and act decisively, especially if her desires contradicted social rules and order. Her deep sense of responsibility towards others is one of her main driving forces, for better or worse. 

Yet, despite her disciplined selflessness, Aoi begins the game similarly disconnected from her peers and her sense of purpose. One of her affinity dialogues in part 5 has her asking Takuma just what she means to the group. She deeply resents the idea of being seen as the class president who other people can take advantage of, and sees herself as too much of a side-character, weak and indecisive, to be able to play a proactive role in the group. The fact of the matter is— no matter how helpful her work is, she doesn't enjoy being overworked, especially not when it's stemming from others' selfishness, as we see her rant about after the group fights her a second time as Plutomon. 

[Image ID: Plutomon dialogue log that goes as follows:

Plutomon: I hate it when people are selfish, when all they do is complain and put everything on me! Why is it always like this?! So what if I’m class president? Why do only I get lectured? It’s not like I ever wanted to be in charge! I hate dealing with people! I can’t do it! But that’s how it turns out, whether it’s in class, after school, or here! Still, someone has to do the work, and if not me then who? That’s why I do these things!”]

The game takes this idea further— not only does she deeply resent the thankless work forced on her, it's not healthy nor fair for her to have to shoulder it all. The idea of her needing to trust the people around her and delegate her workload is seen both in affinity dialogues for Moral and Truthful as well as part of the main story in the form of her shadow moral event.

Survive's narrative continually rejects self-sacrifice or extremist behavior, always striving to present an idealist sense of balance between individual and community, which will be hard to strike and fraught to maintain but ultimately worth it. This is further reinforced during Wrathful. Just as the light of the flame from Campanella's self-sacrifice guides Giovanni forward and changes his worldview, so is Aoi moved to change through witnessing Saki's selflessness. Initially, it's not something that is twisted, as it moves her to be braver and more decisive during their rescue efforts. Watching Saki push through her fear and be true to her ideals prods Aoi to reflect on her own behavior. She laments her own inertia born out of her strict adherence to rules and risk aversion. She wishes to be truly kind and bold enough to stand behind her words and actions the way Saki does. This admiration arguably drives her positive growth in other routes; however, her intense attachment to Saki takes on an awry turn after her death. 

Saki's self-sacrifice decidedly doesn't propel Aoi to value life and the impact her actions have on others more, but it sends her spiraling into the complete corruption of her own ideals. She repudiates all behavior she deems as selfish and irresponsible, as evidenced by her desire to mold the world to her own image and uphold the standard of behavior and ethos she stood for all her life. Her corruption arc is intrinsically linked to her lack of kinship and connection to her community, something that Saki's death exacerbates.

[firedragon1321]

There's a fanart in Matt's tag that includes Tai making a borderline aheago face so I'm gonna do a quick meta so I can push it through (please don't ask any more about this).

You ever see old dub material and like, it looks like this? This is from a book I own-

Like, where did this come from? And the dub of Ep. 1, when he first meets the Digimon- "no autographs please". Where did it come from? I really honestly don't understand.

Now, it's not as bad as, like, the Davis/Daisuke situation (where I had to go full Kingdom Hearts and refer to them as different people). It kind of works because it can be used as a cover. Matt doesn't want to deal with Feelings when there's a brother to protect and two worlds to save. But his Feelings tend to boil over at the slightest provocation.

Yet the dub kind of...ignores this. For the "cool kid" persona which ??? Maybe they were trying to make him more like Gary Oak from Pokemon (y'know- the ten year old with a car/cheerleaders). But by the end, it's clear that doesn't work. The Crest of Friendship kind of seals the deal as to who Matt really is.

I feel like this weirdness/02 playing up the "pretty boy" angle led to the likes of The Lost Temple of Ishida, which by itself contributed to years of mischaracterization. If you know about Goth TK and the Tokomon who lived in Tai's hair or whatever (who wasn't TK's partner, I think)- those broke containment from there. It was a HUGE fansite. It even fooled me.

Fortunately, you don't see too much OOC "cool guy" Matt today, unless it specifically refers to 02/tri. I feel like better access to the subs and the Lost Temple becoming inactive (along with the "squee kawaii" fangirl mindset falling out of fashion) made it easier to analyze Matt as he really is. Unfortunately, he seems less popular than back in the day. Which sucks. I want to ramble about him more.

[candlecoo]

Change your reality Au: Yoichi: I so relieve than my nephew is alive and, in the same time, I want to punch my brother in the face for putting him in a 200 years dream. (At least he give me the vibres that he will feel in that way) Reverse All for one Au: If Hisashi is a Shimura, does he knows (or find out) what happend with Kotaro's family? Digimon Au: Who is the first digidestined Izuku and Lopmon meet?

Change your Reality

Yoichi 200% wants to knock his brother's teeth in. No matter how happy he is that Izuku didn't die to the anti meta human government from when he was alive, he will never forgive Hisashi for what he did to the boy.

Reverse Afo

Hisashi does find out what happens to his brother's family, but it's too late to do anything about it. By the time he finds out Tenko is already with AFO Inko.

Digidestined

Izuku meets Ochako first!

[remember-digimon]

Welcome to my digimon blog :D

01 Character Analysis

Important Items

Digimon Distribution Service!

My name is Jenni and I watched the dub air on fox kids way back in the day. I think the first episode I saw was ep 2.

This blog is mostly for me to dump my thoughts on the meta of the show, the characters and their dynamic with each other, themes, etc etc.

I also do Digimon Distribution Service! You can check out the tag on my blog for more detailed info, but basically you tell me about yourself and I'll draw you a Digimon partner and write a little profile for them, and your dynamic in a hypothetical group.

Please be aware that I mostly use the dub names and usually write posts from a dub point of view. The sub isn't really as accessible to me as the dub, and the dub will always hold a special place in my heart. I grew up with it after all :D

I like all the 01 kids, but Matt is my favorite. I love the angst lol plus he plays a harmonica! Davis and Tai are my second favorites; Davis bc he is very "no thoughts head empty" and Tai bc he's just a really well written protagonist.

As for shipping I'm not really passionate about any pairing in particular, I think they're all neat c: if I had to pick ships that I really like, though, I'd say Sorato, Taito, Daiken, and Takari. But honestly I'm not that bothered by shipping in this fandom bc for the majority of the runtime they're kids 😅

Basically the adventure kids are my children and I wanna hug them and give them a PB&J

[digi-egg]

‼️ For Digimon Content Creators ‼️

New tracking tag to make it easier for me to keep this blog active:

#digi egg reblogs

Content can be gifs, edits, fanart*, meta, analysis, merch photos, cosplays, official art and news anything of the sort basically.

*For fanart however, I’d appreciate it if artists could also include the tag #my digimon fanart so I know that the art posted belongs to OP.

Kthnxbai ✨