Digimon (1999) Revisted - Myotismon Arc
Digimon Adventure (1999) is full of lighthearted humor, especially in the English dub where extra jokes tends to be thrown in. While this remains to be true during the Myotismon Arc, here is where the series demonstrates how serious it can get.
Stakes are raised, worlds collide, everything is pushed far beyond simply being a group of children who want to find their way home.
This is the third in a four-part series looking deeper into each of the arcs of the original Digimon Adventure. For the first two, check out the posts for the Devimon Arc and Etemon Arc.
The Myotismon Arc runs from episodes 21-39, making it the longest in the season.
(Note: all references to specific names will refer to the dub of the series. Dubs are my personal preference, and this is the version that I grew up with.)
Recap
Tai and Koromon are in the human world, but quickly realize that no one else came with them and that they need to go back to the Digital World to help. Upon returning they discover that everyone had split up to go in search of Tai and now he needs to bring the group back together.
As all the children begin to find each other, it is revealed that DemiDevimon had been trying to both keep them apart and keep their crests from lighting up. His schemes eventually fail and the whole group gets back together, some with their crests just lighting up, others having fully activated their crests and causing their Digimon reach the ultimate level.
DemiDevimon is working for Myotismon, who opens a gate to the human world in order to find the 8th digidestined. The children fail to stop him and his minions from going through, but eventually manage to open the gate for themselves.
In searching out the 8th digidestined, the children realize the origin of why they were chosen to begin with. Myotismon terrorizes the human world until he learns that Kari, Tai’s younger sister, is the digidestined, and Gatomon, his lieutenant, is actually her partner.
It takes all the partner Digimon (except for Angemon) reaching ultimate to finally defeat Myotismon. But he ends up coming back even stronger and the children must decipher a prophecy to have Agumon and Gabumon reach mega level and stop VenomMyotismon once and for all.
When this final fight ends the Digital World appears in the sky of the human world, leading to the children realizing that they must go back. With tearful goodbyes to their families, they float away, preparing to do what they can to save both worlds.
DemiDevimon: The Perfect Distraction
Tai gets back to the Digital World only to discover the whole group has split up and he needs to try to reunite them. As immediately as his first episode back, episode 22, “Forget About It”, Tai start to discover that DemiDevimon is, to some extent, responsible.
DemiDevimon is different from any other reoccurring enemy Digimon in Digimon Adventure, in part because he is the only one who poses no real physical threat. He is most comparable to Ogremon, where Ogremon was a reoccurring minion of Devimon, and DemiDevimon is that for Myotismon. But Ogremon, at least in that first arc, was tough. The Digimon partners needed to reach champion to take him on. And not only that, but Orgemon never really seemed to do any scheming of his own. He would be sent to attack the Digidestined and do just that.
With DemiDevimon we have an evil minion who we first see acting completely on his own, before we even know Myotismon exists. None of his plans are about killing the Digidestined with a show of force, but to trick them into being apart so that they become weaker, or put them into positions where it becomes more difficult for them to activate their crests. None of this is to say he is especially smart. In episode 24, “No Questions, Please”, we get a demonstration of his lack of curiosity, which feels like it is meant to correlate to general intelligence, especially given how it ties to Izzy in this episode.
None of DemiDevimon’s plans go well. They might work out for a short time, but they’re always thwarted, especially when the children begin to come back together. He is never a real threat to any of them, any of the partner Digimon can fight him off even in their rookie stage. He exists purely as a distraction and does as good a job as he needs to. He gives the arc time where, while Myotismon looms in the background, the immediate problem is just that the children need to be reunited.
In a lot of ways DemiDevimon acts in a similar way to the black gears in the Devimon arc. The black gears themselves were not particularly difficult, but they caused stronger Digimon to fight the Digidestined. They acted as the reason for conflict before the real villain of the arc was introduced. He exists the challenge the children, but never so much as to overshadow their search for each other.
Power in Positive Emotions
The original seven digidestined spent the entirety of the Etemon Arc collecting their unique crests to be used as a tools for their Digimon partners to reach the ultimate level. It was in that arc that not only does Tai’s crest light up for the first time, but he also has Greymon digivolve to MetalGreymon. While that was a huge moment, and I spoke about it in the Etemon Arc post, it isn’t until the Myotismon Arc that we get full explanations for the crests and see nearly all of them become activated.
This is one of the few points where the English dub creates some weird continuity issues that I feel the need to address. In the dub, the crests are referenced by their name, for the most part, when the children originally find them. But in this arc, a huge element of Sora’s story is that she discovers what the crests are for the first time and is able to tell everyone else what they mean when she joins back up with the group. It is a moment that loses its purpose in the dub because Sora is revealing information that the others have been seen already talking about. It is really unfortunate for the storytelling.
What ends up happening is that Sora overhears DemiDevimon and Myotismon talking about the crests. Through this she learns that they are activated by strong emotions, each one having its own emotion tied to it. Tai has courage, Matt has friendship, Izzy has knowledge, Sora has love, Mimi has sincerity, Joe has reliability, and TK has hope.
Tying the crests to these emotions is such a small thing that creates a huge impact on the series. It gives the children agency over their partner Digimon digivolving. As mentioned in the past, these crests take digivolving from simply being about the child needing protection, to the child demonstrating a specific trait, coming up against obstacles with a fierce showing of something positive inside themselves.
It is the positive aspect of these crests that really makes this concept shine, especially when we look at Digimon as something aimed at younger viewers. The show demonstrates that you don’t fight evil with pure strength, or aggression, or anger; you fight it with courage, or love, or hope.
If we look at when the reveal of what each crest represents was meant to happen, episode 26, “Sora’s Crest of Love”, three of the children had already fully activated their crests and two others had at least lit up for the first time. It is a little thing but reveals a kind of honesty in how these moments occurred. In a world where Tai knows for a fact that demonstrating courage will cause Greymon to digivolve, what is to stop him from trying to force this kind of feeling and having another SkullGreymon situation? This isn’t meant to call the other activations into question, but it does show a level of purity to how naturally these children came across these feelings, and how well they fit for their respective child.
The crests and the power in positive emotions that they represent give Digimon Adventure a way to tie character development for the children with the digivolutions of their partner Digimon. But on top of this, arguably more important than this, they help build out a deeper meaning in these digivolutions. They take the idea of positivity giving strength and turn it literal. They demonstrate that when the world is at its bleakest, what will help you through is courage, friendship, knowledge, love, sincerity, reliability, and hope.
Of course, there is also an 8th crest now, but it will get its own spotlight in the following arc.
Sora’s Love Story
In a lot of ways, Sora has the most interesting story when it comes to activating her crest. This is mainly because, unlike the others who either activate their crests before knowing what they mean, or don’t seem to be affected by the knowledge of what they mean, Sora actively believes her crest has been given to the wrong person.
Sora discovers her crest is the crest of love. Upon discovering this, she is in such disbelief that she will ever be able to have it light up that she isolates herself and hides from the rest of the group for fear of holding them back.
In episode 26, “Sora’s Crest of Love”, we come to learn that Sora doesn’t think she can ever know what love is. She feels that because she was never shown love by her mother, it is an emotion that is completely lost to her, one that she isn’t even capable of.
Through a flashback we’re shown a moment that to Sora is emblematic of her mother’s disregard for what anything she feels. She was once hurt playing soccer but wanted to play in the big game anyway. Her mother not only refused to allow Sora to play, but told her that she had to quit altogether, and instead work in their flower shop. Sora felt her mother was completely selfish and trying to force her into a life she didn’t want.
After all the children are back together, Myotismon attacks them himself for the first time. Biyomon is hurt early on. The other Digimon try to fight Myotismon off, but they are no match for him. While this is all happening, Sora is tending to Biyomon. Biyomon desperately wants to help, she wants to be in the fight with all the others. Sora refuses to let her go, and they share an exchange that is almost an exact retelling of when Sora was told she couldn’t play soccer, only with Sora in the place of her mother.
It is through this moment that Sora is able to put herself into her mother’s shoes for the first time. She realizes that the way her mother acted, while still possibly selfish to an extent, was entirely out of her love for Sora, and how much she feared her daughter being hurt.
It is with this realization that not only does Sora allow Biyomon to get into the fight, but she understands that this protective feeling she has for Biyomon is love. She calls out her love, and in that moment, Birdramon digivolves to Garudamon, and while not powerful enough to defeat Myotismon, she able to get everyone to safety.
In a single episode, Sora is shown navigating through struggles a lot of children face at some point in their lives. She deals with concept of feeling like she is treated poorly and misunderstood, only to realize her mother does love her but shows it through blind protection rather than letting Sora be who she wants to be.
This is just the first time the series delves into the complicated homelives of the children (aside from the occasional vague reference to Matt and TK not living together), which will come to be a large aspect of this arc. Situating it with the activation of the crest of love only helps to build out this world where families can look entirely different in how they function and still have love in them.
Pick a Card
In episodes 27 and 28 (“The Gateway to Home” and “It’s All in the Cards”), the idea of a physical gateway between the human world and the Digital World is introduced. It is a large, ancient looking, doorway hidden in the depth of Myotismon’s castle, that requires placing nine cards onto a pedestal to open.
After the children fail to stop Myotismon from going through the gate, or to get through it with him, they get a call from Gennai to come visit his underwater home. Gennai gives them ten special cards, telling them that they will need to decipher the proper order for placing them onto the pedestal. He also happens to explain to Izzy what Digimon attributes are. There are vaccine, data, and virus attributes, though while the evil Digimon tend to be virus, these attributes almost never come up in the anime.
I can’t write about this pedestal without bringing up the silly error that has been bugging me since I was 9 and watching this for the first time. Images are used to label the columns and rows of where the cards are to be placed on the pedestal. Across the top is Leomon, Centarumon, and Etemon. Along the side is one star, two stars, and three stars. Izzy realizes that the columns are meant to be sorted by attribute and the rows by level, and he puts the cards all in the right places, but he names them all the wrong things. He calls Leomon data, Centarumon virus, and Etemon vaccine, when they are vaccine, data, and virus respectively. And then he calls the rows in-training, rookie, and champion, but the cards placed in them are rookie, champion and ultimate. It’s not a moment with any deeper meaning, it’s entirely just a dubbing error, but it has always bugged me, so I had to call it out.
Here is where this actually gets interesting. Gennai tells the children that the gate will open no matter what order the put the cards in. The issue of understanding which cards go in which place isn’t about opening the gate, but about where it can lead. This plays into both how they sort the cards onto the pedestal, and which card they leave out as the extra. Gennai explains there is no telling where they will go if they use the cards wrong. Not only that, but the only way to know if they got the cards right is to go through the gateway and see where they end up. He uses an example of a world where Digimon and humans swap skin, which is basically a joke to upset Mimi.
There are ten cards, but nine spaces. From what Gennai said, we can assume that every single combination opens the gate to a different world. Using a bit of math, we can calculate that this gateway can lead to 3,628,800 worlds. This is almost a throwaway line that isn’t given further explanation, it was meant just to ramp up the tension as the children race to get home, but it essentially creates a multiverse in the series.
On top of the insane implications of this gateway puzzle, this becomes a huge character moment for Tai, where he is officially made the leader of the group. When Tai was gone, the entire group fell apart. They spread out across Server, and basically all got into their own kinds of trouble. Joe is the first to make the claim that Tai should be the one to decide what to do about the cards, but it is Matt who tells Tai he is the one in charge. The fact that Matt, the one who has always been a kind of rival to Tai, the quickest to get in a fight with him over the choices he makes, is the one who explicitly names Tai their leader, is huge.
Of course, it isn’t as simple as Tai is declared the leader and easily solves the mystery of where the cards are placed. He isn’t that kind of leader at all, he knows where his shortcomings are. So, when put in this position he doesn’t try to do it himself, but hands off the decision to Izzy, unarguably the smartest of group, and the most likely to solve to puzzle. Tai doesn’t get a bloated ego that could cause him to decide he can do this, nor does he pass of the job out of laziness. No. He sees the people he is with and understands how to best work to their strengths.
In the end, it still comes down to Tai making a final choice. Tai is the one left to choose when there are two cards that could go in the same position. And, well, luck is on his side. He puts them both face-down and picks one at random, and it all works out. But this is once again a case of Digimon Adventure finding ways to create big character moments where other might not have.
Origin of the Digidestined
When the children are back in Japan to search for the 8th Digidestined, their first stop is the neighborhood of Highton View Terrace. This is episode 29, aptly titled “Return to Highton View Terrace”, and it is here that the children learn why they may have been chosen as the Digidestined in the first place.
The children try to come up with a plan about how to go about finding the 8th Digidestined, and in doing so discover that they all actually lived in this neighborhood around the same time. It ends up being Joe, as the oldest child, who can answer as to why everyone moved away. He tells them all that there was a terrorist attack on this neighborhood, and after it happened a lot of families stopped feeling safe and so, they left.
As a side note, it’s worth pointing the year in which this episode was originally aired, 1999. Just two years later was the 9/11 incident in America. It seems highly unlikely that the dub would have kept this as even a theory of what happened in the past if it had come out after 2001. But this is both speculation and relatively unimportant to the discussion at hand.
As the episode progresses, Mammothmon attacks Highton View Terrace, and it is Birdramon who ends up fighting back against him. The image of prehistoric beast and a giant bird fighting are enough to send all the children into flashbacks of the supposed terrorist attack that they all seemed to have forgotten, but the memories are much clearer for TK than the others. TK tells them that there were two monsters. Matt tells the others that TK used to say this a lot, and how it upset their mom, but TK is positive about what he saw.
Garudamon dives down to protect Sora and Tai from an attack, and this moment clinches it for everyone. They are positive that this has all happened before. But it wasn’t Garudamon and Mammothmon, it was Greymon (not Tai’s) and Parrotmon. There was never a terrorist attack, it was just how people explained away all the destruction from two giant monsters fighting.
This is all in reference to Digimon Adventure, a confusingly titled film that in aired in Japan before the Digimon Adventure series began, acting almost like a pilot or proof of concept for the show. This didn’t come to North America until it was dubbed and edited into being the first third of Digimon: The Movie, which actually collects three different movies and tries to link them together.
Another interesting thing about how this comes out, is how TK is the first to remember. It is a moment that seem to reinforce the concept of innocence as an important factor for what makes the Digidestined who they are. It is the youngest child of the group who was most willing to believe what he saw during that original Digimon attack, and so it was easiest for him to get the repressed memory back.
And then there is Kari. While she isn’t really in this episode, she is shown in episode 21, “Home Away From Home”, to have a similar hazy memories of that night as TK does. Only, with her it is much stronger because she was more completely involved. When Tai gets home, she knows who Koromon is the moment she sees him. She can’t remember why; she even guesses that maybe she’s been to the Digital World like Tai has. Tai also saw Koromon, Agumon, and Greymon all those years ago, and in all this time spent traveling with his current Agumon, he’s never been able to make this connection. With the most obvious similarity between Kari and TK being their age, it seems to be the only answer we have as to why they are able to remember.
It is through remembering the events of the past that the children come to the conclusion that this must be why they were chosen as the Digidestined to begin. Therefore the 8th Digidestined must have been someone else who has seen this. We are shown that Kari was there, and not only that, but in her previous episode we saw a Digivice in her home.
As a final note here, the concept of having seen Digimon in the past being what makes them Digidestined in the present does seem to call into question why Tai and Kari got the Digi-Egg in the Digimon Adventure movie. It is a sort of recursive loop of logic that seems to imply they must have seen a Digimon to be chosen to get that egg, but then how did that theoretical Digimon come to be? It is really kind of nitpicky, and in no way show ruining, but seems worth asking. Did these children get chosen by destiny, but only because of a random chance encounter when the egg happens to come out of Tai’s computer? Or does it go deeper? More answers could be right around the corner…
Family Matters
More than half of the Myotismon Arc takes place in the human world, and because of this we are given a much deeper understanding of the homelives of the children, and even get to see the parents of nearly all of them. With each of the children we are given an incredibly different version of what family even is. But one thing they do have in common, is none of the parents are really referred to by name. They are known exactly how children would know them; for example, Sora’s mom is only known as Sora’s mom.
Speaking of Sora’s mom, this trend toward revealing their homelives began with Sora before they even arrived at the human world, when she was dealing with her crest of love. When she gets home, she opens up more to her mother than she has in probably years. Late in the arc, when families are being abducted and herded together by Myotismon, Sora’s mom shows how tough she is by dressing up like a Bakemon to rescue her daughter. She isn’t the most lenient, but she is a strong woman who will do anything to keep Sora safe.
Tai and Kari have the most unremarkable homelife. This isn’t in any way a bad thing, they are basically just living in a traditionally happy home that one would expect in this kind of show. Mimi is in a similar situation, with a dad who spoils her and her mom as much as he possibly can, and a mom whose characterization shows where Mimi got a lot of her personality from.
Joe is stands out from the rest in that he is the only one who we don’t see a single parent from. Instead we see his older brother, Jim, who makes it clear that Joe is as anxious and responsible as he is because of how much their father has pressured them. Not only this, but he tries to reason with Joe about how he’s going to have to one day decide what he wants to do and not only think about what their father wants from them. Because of this relationship, it really makes sense that their father doesn’t appear in these episodes. He is seemingly out being busy with the type of professional life that he is trying to lead his children toward. It starts to paint the picture of Joe as someone doing all he can in part to impress a father who is rarely around.
Matt and TK are children of divorce, and more than that, were separated themselves when they were younger. When their parents split up, they each took one child with them, Matt went with his father, and TK with their mother. Between the two, we see very different parenting styles. Matt seems to be left to take care of himself a lot, explaining why he has been seen to be so capable in the past. TK on the other hand is almost babied, their mother being so much more protective and nurturing.
After being in the Digital World, traveling together for so long, Matt still doesn’t want to lose a moment of time with his younger brother. He takes every opportunity to take TK all the way to their mother’s home rather than let him take the train by himself. This kind of act calls into question just how much they have been able to see each other at all before they went to Summer camp just a short time ago.
With their different ages, we also see very different relationships to their parents with these two boys. There is only a single time that the family of four is completely together, in episode 39, “The Battle for Earth”. TK is thrilled to see both of his parents in the same place, and believes maybe they can all be together again, just be a big happy family living under one roof. Contrasting this is the way Matt is so distant from his mother, obviously not having seen her in a long time, and possibly even blaming her for keeping them apart.
This is also the episode where the children realize they need to go back to the Digital World in order to save both worlds. Matt and TK’s mom tries to tell them not to go, but their dad tells her to let them. It is the only moment the two parents speak. There is no sign that they will be getting back together, it is very clear that this isn’t a happy ending for the family but just a maintaining of their status quo. Their dad tells their mom that they made selfish decisions of their own, referring to how they separated the kids. Now they needed to let their kids make their own decisions, even if they don’t agree with them. In this case, the decision to risk their lives to save two worlds.
And then there is Izzy’s family. This is the biggest one, in part because it is an answer to a mystery set up back in episode 5, “Kabuterimon’s Electro Shocker”. Back then, Tentomon was questioning the way Izzy seems to like being around computers more than people. It sends Izzy into a flashback, to a moment where he overhears his parents talking about something, that they have a secret that they don’t know if they should tell him yet. It is clear that Izzy heard the secret back then, but we don’t learn what it was until episode 31, “The Eighth Digivice”.
It turns out that Izzy was adopted. The entire reason he is so caught up in computers is that after he learned the truth about his parents not being his birth parents, he threw himself into computers as a coping mechanism. Much like Sora, Izzy says that his time in the Digital World has taught him to appreciate his parents more. Even though they adopted him, he is sure they love him, and he really does put an effort into showing how much they mean to him. But, he is also keeping Tentomon a secret, and when he does things like put a lock on his door or ask to eat in his bedroom, his mom believes it is Izzy trying to distance himself from them.
In episode 39, “Prophecy”, Izzy learns the full truth of his adoption. He is told that his birth parents died in a car accident, and that his father was the cousin of his adoptive father. He was the closest living relation that either of Izzy’s birth parents had, and so was given the opportunity to raise Izzy. Izzy coming to them was seen as a sign, and they couldn’t turn it down, because shortly before this happened, they had a son of their own who had died. When they tell Izzy that as far as they are concerned, he is their real son, it becomes so emotional that even Tentomon can’t help but cry.
It is shocking how much diversity in family styles are represented in this show. The “average” family, the father that spoilers the women in his life, the colder overprotective mother, the pressuring absentee father, the divorced parents, the adoptive family. It all builds toward this atmosphere that is so rare in this kind of series, where it’s demonstrating that there isn’t one kind of happy family everyone comes from, how family can look completely different for every child.
Gatomon’s Abusive Upbringing
Until this arc, there had been seven Digidestined each with their own partner Digimon. These Digimon have been primarily character foils to their Digidestined, with personalities that match or contrast with their respective child to help demonstrate the child’s character rather than their own. While they do have a degree of autonomy, they don’t ever have any clear goals or backstory apart from just being there to protect the Digidestined.
This all changes when it comes to the 8th Digimon partner, Gatomon.
Gatomon is introduced as Myotismon’s lieutenant. She seems to be in a similar position as DemiDevimon, but more trusted as she proves to be stronger and more capable than he is. She first appears in episode 27, “The Gateway to Home”, where she takes on Greymon, Togemon, Garurumon, Kabuterimon, and Ikkakumon all by herself.
When she is in the human world, she is doing her best to hunt down the 8th Digidestined for Myotismon, and in episode 32, “Gatomon Comes Calling”, she stumbles upon Kari. She suspects Kari immediately, even without Kari having a digivice, but can’t bring herself to kill the child like Myotismon wants.
Episode 34, “The Eighth Child Revealed” is all about Gatomon’s backstory. As she watches Kari play with Miko, a real cat, she feels jealous but can’t figure out why. She talks about how she had no one when she growing up, how she found Myotismon when she was Salamon (her rookie level), and how he would beat her.
“Every time you look at me with those eyes, I’ll have to hurt you,” Myotismon tells Salamon. It is this uncontrollable factor, this basic element of who she is, that Myotismon uses as reasoning for why he needs to hurt her. He is forcing her to feel the blame for what he is doing, but in such a way that she can’t do anything about it. It is a reasoning that leads her to feeling like something is wrong with her.
It all gets even darker as Gatomon reveals her scarred paw beneath her glove. Myotismon left a permanent mark on her, but only where it can’t be seen by others. It is a horrifying look at an abusive relationship, and one that is presented in such a paternal way given how she was taken in by Myotismon at a young age.
Gatomon is in a position where she can’t really remember her life before she came across Myotismon but Wizardmon arrives to help fill in a major blank.
Wizardmon describes when he first met Gatomon, how he was all alone and didn’t believe he needed any friends. One day he crashed to the ground, too tired to fly, but none of the other Digimon stopped to help him until Gatomon arrived and shared her water. She took him to her camp, and when he asked what she wanted in return for doing all this, she told him he must be incredibly lonely to believe she was helping him just to get something. She tells him that her heart is hard from loneliness too.
By the end of his story, Wizardmon explains that Gatomon taught him that night that all creatures have good inside them, that she taught him compassion. It is important here to keep in mind the timeline of her life. If she was Gatomon when she met Wizardmon, this means she has already been the victim of Myotismon’s abuse for some amount of time. This abuse that has shaped her into someone so devoted to Myotismon, hasn’t taken away her ability to help someone in need. This could be taken as her being driven to help someone in the way she wishes she could be helped, or even as simply as her refusing to let this abuse harden her to the point that it becomes a cycle that continues with her.
That night at the camp, Gatomon revealed to Wizardmon that she was waiting for someone, but she could no longer remember who. But in the present, Gatomon can barely even remember that much. Wizardmon and Gatomon move to Kari’s balcony. When Gatomon holds out Kari’s Digivice, and Kari reaches for it, it begins to glow. They all know the truth right away, that Kari is the definitely the 8th Digidestined and Gatomon is her Digimon.
This revelation sends Gatomon back into her forgotten memories. She remembers being Nyaromon, all alone, waiting for Kari to arrive in the Digital World. She eventually became Salamon and started searching for Kari herself, but that is when she found Myotismon and his abuse was enough that it made her forget all about who she was meant to be.
Much like Patamon, Gatomon eventually digivolves into an angel of shining light, in episode 37, “Wizardmon’s Gift”. Out of all the characters in Digimon Adventure, she may come from the darkest of places, but she is still able to be this powerful beacon for everyone else. It is especially important that it is her who kills Myotismon (at least, his first death). But she can’t do it alone, it takes the power of this new group, all the other Digimon share their power with her, giving her the ability to make this final blow, to give her some catharsis after the abuse she had suffered for so much of her life.
Prophecy in Digimon
Prophecy has been a part of Digimon Adventure since as early as episode 10, “A Clue from the Digi-Past”, when Centarumon explained the ancient symbol of the digivice carved on the walls of a ruined temple. The Digidestined themselves are heroes of prophecy, as described by Leomon in episode 13, “The Legend of the Digidestined”. He tells them that children were said to one come from another world when a dark force (the black gears) changed good Digimon into bad ones, and that the children will eventually save the world from destruction.
Even the name “Digidestined” is obviously a portmanteau of “digital” and “destiny”, with destiny being a future being predetermined to some extent. These children weren’t sent to the Digital World by chance, it was pre-ordained.
Up until this point, prophecy had been used primarily to explain what is happening to the children. It has been more focused on explaining the past, or immediate present, but has only alluded to the future in vague terms. In the Myotismon Arc, that changes.
Arguably, this change begins in episode 27, “The Gateway to Home”. It is here where Gennai reveals the news of an 8th Digidestined who still in Japan. It is never outright said how he learned of this, he doesn’t specifically say he learned of this 8th child by reading the prophecies, but it does seem to make sense as a theory. Their instructions move beyond the vague notion that they will save the world and become about finding a specific person back home.
While the concept of the 8th Digidestined is never referred to as prophecy, there is a far more explicit one in penultimate episode of the arc. In episode 38, aptly titled “Prophecy”, the eight Digidestined believe that they have just defeated Myotismon, but then Gennai sends Izzy and e-mail with foreboding news. He tells them that he had an ancient tablet translated, and delivers to them the prophecy it spoke of:
“The sky will be darked by the wings of many bats;
The fallen people will invoke the name of the undead Digimon king;
When the clock strikes the hour of the beast, the undead king will reveal himself in his true form as the beast;
Then angels will shoot arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those they’ve been sent to protect, and a miracle will happen.”
Here the Digidestined are given a direct reference to a prophecy that isn’t just telling of their existence or explaining their digivices. This translation becomes a list of omens to look out for, a warning of what to expect, and the instructions for how to stop it.
There are two especially interesting things to glean from this prophecy. Let’s begin with what we can learn from is the third line, referring to “the hour of the beast”. The concept of the number of the beast being 666 is from the Bible, Specifically Revelations, which describes the beast’s involvement in the apocalypse.
Avoiding getting too deep into religion here, it is interesting to see its importance to the Digital World. Keep in mind that Gennai explained in episode 28, “It’s All in the Cards”, that everything in the Digital World came from data in the human world. This means that everything that exists there, comes from what is input into computers here. Extrapolating that, Myotismon’s whole existence could be from a blending of data in Dracula and the Bible.
This concept could be taken even further. What we’re seeing here, between the wording of the prophecy and the explanation of the Digital World from Gennai, is that all Earth religion, mythology, and even fiction could all be made entirely true if put into a digital form (which, by our present, the vast majority of it has been).
In a practical sense, this could mean things like, say, a video game (which is always created by computers) could have physical forms in the Digital World. Maybe a game with monsters who fight each other… Maybe even an electric mouse… What I’m saying is, all this could imply there could be a version of Pikachu in the Digital World. Or, if not Pikachu, a Digimon created based off the data from several Pokemon. Something like this couldn’t exist in the show for copyright reasons, but would line up with the lore the show puts in place.
The second interesting element of this prophecy comes from its final line. When the topic of prophecy and destiny come up, even if it is never explicitly mentioned, there is a degree to which the debate of freewill is ever present. If these children are destined to live out certain events, does anything they do matter? Do they still have choice, or is it all predetermined?
The final line of this prophecy refers to Angewomon and Angemon needing to shoot their usually lethal attacks at Tai and Matt, which will send so much power through them that it will cause Agumon and Gabumon to warp digivolve. While every other line in this prophecy appears to speak of things that the children have no control over, that are happening and can’t be stopped, this final line ends up describing a thing that would never make sense to happen if not for having interpreted the prophecy.
So, what does that mean for destiny? Most often, destiny and freewill exist on opposite ends of a spectrum, but it seems like this line of the prophecy only comes to pass because the children chose how to interpret it. This kind of choice seems to be an argument for freewill.
Of course, a counterpoint could be made that it was preordained that they would hear and understand the prophecy. While it becomes self-fulling at that point, it doesn’t quite prove freewill. What would be a much stronger example is if they managed to stop a portion of the prophecy. But even still, this does at least give the possibility for freewill to exist, just not unambiguously.
The Undead King, Myotismon
There is a large number of people who considered Myotismon the most memorable villain of Digimon Adventure. While he does have traits that make him an incredible interesting villain for the series, it is hard to overlook the ways in which he has a definitely head start over the others in just how his arc is situated in the series.
Starting off, let’s just look at numbers. Myotismon’s Arc is the longest in the season at 19 episodes (running from episode 21-39). While he doesn’t appear as even a menacing shadow until the second episode of his arc, that still leaves him with 18 episodes to be developed. Contrasting this, even with the various lengths of Devimon and Etemon’s Arcs (13 and 7 episodes respectively), they are both only known about for 6 episodes each. Just looking at numbers and we already see Myotismon getting triple the time his predecessors did. And even without getting into spoilers for the final arc, there are only 15 episodes left, meaning there isn’t time for anyone to top his run.
Next is just where in the show that this arc takes place. Devimon’s Arc was weighed down by all the characters it had to introduce at once. It had to keep things relatively surface level in order to balance it all. Etemon’s Arc conversely focused on a single character as a way to begin to demonstrate that their characters have depth and to build nuance and excitement over the first time a crest is activated.
With so much foundation laid, Myotismon’s Arc was able to take it all and build out characters who can really feel, well, real. After seeing the Digidestined struggle on their adventure in the Digital World for so long, this arc let’s them be in their own world. But even while getting to sleep in their own beds, they get no relief from the pressure that is put on them. Their lives become about balancing the responsibility of stopping Myotismon with everything going on with their families. And while the stakes have always been fate-of-the-world kind of scenarios, this arc brings those stakes home. Their families’ lives are in immediately danger if the children don’t succeed, many of their parents even being kidnapped by Myotismon and his minions.
The contributing factors of the context for Myotismon’s arc sets him up for success. While these are not necessarily elements that make him a great villain, it is hard not to conflate the villain with the series of episodes he belongs to, and there is no doubt that they have a powerful affect on his longevity. That being said, while any villain slotted into Myotismon’s place could have been in a great position, the character of undead Digimon king himself can’t be totally ignored.
Let’s get into who Myotismon is and what he represents for the show.
One very noticeable thing about Myotismon, is that he looks human. Myotismon’s design is just that of a vampire, a human with slightly pointed ears, and who has fangs. He is so human in fact, that he is shown successfully seducing a woman in order to feed on her blood (in episode 32, “Gatomon Comes Calling”). While we only see this happen once, we repeatedly hear sections of news stories reporting on women being hospitalized for anemia, a condition that comes from a lack of red blood cells. Each of the villains have tried to kill the Digidestined, but this is the first to be seen attacking anyone on such a human level rather than exclusively with grandiose attacks.
Another reason why Myotismon’s design is especially important, is how it plays into some of the darker tones that the show dips into in his arc. There is a huge theme of family life going on throughout this arc, and I have already addressed how Gatomon’s story seems to be a purposeful representation of child abuse. While the direct comparison to child abuse is mildly obscured by the fact that Gatomon is a cat, the fact that Myotismon is so human makes it all feel that much more sinister. Not to mention that Gatomon takes on a human form when she digivolves into Angewomon, making it all that much more real, but only when she is able to overcome him.
There is also the way he just lurked in the shadows for so long before making his grand arrival. He was this dark ominous presence behind the scenes, a threat before we could even see how powerful he was.
Then there is VenomMyotismon. This digivolution puts him on another level from all the previous villains both literally and figuratively. With this new form, it’s fitting it is two older brothers in the group that need to stand up for everyone else, given that this arc is so heavily focused on family.
Even the two mega level Digimon, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, are not enough to fully defeat VenomMyotismon, but they do reveal his “true form”. When all the Digimon come together and attack him at once, they rip a hole though VenomMyotismon, and his true form is revealed to be a strange little creature that comes out from his crotch. This is possibly the weirdest moment from the season, if not the series as a whole. But even the weirdest things can lead to important messaging
So, what is this “true form” revealing about VenomMyotismon? Well, VenomMyotismon is this towering beast, so completely different from Myotismon. While Myotismon is nearly human, VenomMyotismon is almost entirely monstrous and taller than most of the buildings surrounding the fight. We’re told that this massive monster isn’t actually who he is. He is just this (relatively) small creature who doesn’t speak so much just let out a whiney cry. This embodiment of evil, this satanic goliath, has nothing more inside of himself than a creature who amounts to a baby having a tantrum. He is small and weak and putting on this massive exterior to create a sense of power in himself that he is does not possess.
In this ark we’re shown that positive emotions are a power. They are what give the humans the strength to fight the most dangerous forces of evil. The light of the crests is contrasted at the end with this embodiment of darkness. They hold back his catastrophically huge body with ease, leaving his true form to be defeated in a single attack. They are once again showing the fact that these positive emotions are the strength they need to in the fight against the darkness.
Conclusions
If the length of this post compared to the previous two parts isn’t evidence enough, there is a lot going on in the Myotismon Arc. This is Digimon Adventure fully coming into its own and demonstrating the depth to which it is willing to build out its characters.
Every problem with shallow characterizations that came out of the Devimon Arc are rendered moot after the events transpiring in this one. It is unfortunate that the season took nearly half of its length in order to get to this point, but now that it’s here it is amazing to be able to dive into elements of the series that feel so rewarding to breakdown.
There is only a single arc left to talk about. The children are heading back to the Digital World with hopes of saving it as well as their own. But how will it all come to an end?
Next up: The Dark Masters and Apocalymon.
