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genericnam · 3 months

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I haven't made a character study in ages, so I think I'm gonna do that and more, by discussing every single villain from my favorite piece of Anime/TV show in general: Digimon Adventure (01)

This is going to be pretty long, so look under the cut.

Digimon Adventure is a flawed show with relatively choppy, repetitive animation, too short fight scenes, and a generally poor soundtrack inn the Dub (looking at you, Hey Digimon!), but I adore it for the characters and story. Digimon tells a tale of trauma, hope, the effects of loss and grief on children, and what it means to be brave, and the villains that push the plot forward and reflect all of this are some of my favorite villains and characters of all time. So I'm going to break them down now, in mostly chronological order (I'll be using Dub names and info since that what I grew up on and have always used, sorry if that offends you for some reason)

Villain number 1: Ogremon

Ogremon appears pretty early in the first arc as a recurring enemy and baddy. He serves as the rival and foil to the character of Leomon. Leomon gets hyped up by the main characters as the strongest active good guy on File Island, and if Ogremon is his equal, that makes Ogremon automatically intimidating.

However, Ogremon is dumb. He's easy to trick, and not too strategic, but he is full of willpower and fighting spirit, allowing him to tail the Digidestined across the entire island pretty ceaselessly. But that isn't for no reason, as Ogremon begins to work for someone pretty quick into his introduction... Devimon.

What makes Devimon intimidating is his sheer presence, the respect he demands. The entire arc up until his introduction, every foe they battled (other than Ogremon), had been animalistic, or a good person at heart. Devimon himself is pure evil, he has no redeeming qualities, no light in his soul or kindness in his heart.

Devimon uses his Black Gears and Hand of Evil to brainwash and torture countless digimon across File Island, and his gears are so spread through the island that he can control the very land itself.

Unlike Ogremon, who is gullible and somewhat cowardly, Devimon is a cunning monster. Devimon tricks and manipulates the Digitdestined, brainwashes Leomon twice, and easily beats all of their Digimon when they finally fight him.

The only reason Devimon lost is because of the way Angemon fights. As revealed in 02, the Hand of Fate's power increases the more evil your opponent is, and Devimon is just so pure evil that it was a oneshot.

While Ogremon was there as a brute force enemy, Devimon is the first of many insurmountable terrors that really shows the Digidestined how small they really are in the grand scheme of things...

Moving on to one of my favorite characters of all time, and the second arc villain: Etemon!

Etemon is goofy, that much is never hidden. He's a monkey that does an Elvis impression and rides around in a trailer performing music for his bumbling minions, but Etemon serves as a lesson that not every dangerous foe is so obviously dangerous. Etemon has a monopoly of the Desert of Server thanks to his Dark Network.

The Digital World uses a lot of crossovers from the real internet, and the Dark Network seems to be an embodiment of THE Dark Web. And Etemon controls it. The Dark Network allows Etemon to see just about anywhere and to take away the power that the Digidestined rely upon to survive: their digivolution.

Etemon is seemingly average on his own, but his true power comes in his coordination. Etemon's army is spread out, but it is powerful, and he can arrive just about anywhere with great speed thanks to how he sees everything there is to see. Piximon's hidden forest is the only place Etemon doesn't really have eyes.

Etemon serves as the mirror foil to Tai. While Tai is the Digidestined of Courage, Etemon represents hubris and arrogance. This leads Etemon to push a lot of Tai's character arc into place.

Now, once the Digidestined infiltrate Etemon's pyramid and get tricked by Datamon, Etemon shows up, and all seems lost. Datamon was the only digimon who was even close to Etemon's level, and he goes down pretty quick, but it's what Datamon does that really gives Etemon all of his best clout. Datamon fills the Dark Network with viruses that will make it destroy and consume everything they touch, before dropping himself and Etemon into it.

This seems to beat him, but NO. Etemon is too AMAZING to go out like a chump (or at least, that's what he thinks). Etemon bends the Dark Network to his will and instead fuses with it, becoming Etemon Chaos Mode

When Etemon is finally defeated, his sheer power rips a whole in reality that sends Tai and Agumon back to Earth, leading to the whole reason DemiDevimon is able to sew chaos amongst the others. But at least Etemon's gone for good, right?

Anyways, Etemon looks and acts goofy, but that's because he's strong enough that he has nothing to fear in the slightest!

Next up is DemiDevimon!

DemiDevimon isn't strong, or intimidating in the slightest. In fact, he's rather bumbling, but what DemiDevimon is good at is making other people better. Out of all the characters in the Digidestined, DemiDevimon is a major player in the arcs of Sora, T.K., Izzy, and to a lesser extent, Mimi and Matt. DemiDevimon doesn't have a whole lot going for himself, but he excells at making others look good, such as his boss...

Say hello to Myotismon...

Myotismon is THE strongest Digimon in the world at the time of his introdction. Other characters eventually become stronger, but before Megas get involved, no one was better than Myotismon. He was part of the exclusive club of characters who got TWO signature moves, which include his Crimson Lightning and Grizzly Wing.

Myotismon is unique from other villains in just how well put together his plan and army is. Devimon had Ogremon and mind control, and Etemon has a good group of lackeys, Myotismon has a veritable army with enough firepower to conquer the entire city and kidnap 99.9% of its inhabitants within days.

What makes him even more fearsome is his personal feats. Myotismon is the character who really steps up the tone, killing several of his own minions on screen when they begin to turn on him or fail. But perhaps his greatest feat is that he got Gatomon to work for him.

Gatomon is a Digidestined Digimon, and the embodiement of LIGHT itself. Throughout the series, Light has regularly been shown to be the second strongest of all the elements, only behind Hope. Myotismon was powerful enough, EVIL enough that he sucessfully tortured the embodiement of all Light into being his right hand woman.

And when every member of the Digidestined team up to beat him, Myotismon reveals that he's done all of this in a weaker host, and he reveals his TRUE form: Venommyotismon.

Venommyotismon is a Kaiju, and the first Mega level digimon in the series. He can very reasonably be argued to be the 3rd or 4th strongest Digimon in the entire show, depending on how you think he'd do against characters like MagnaAngemon and Piedmon. To beat him, the Digidestined had to activate the prophecy in order to unlock their own Megas, and it took a 2 on 1 for Venommyotismon to finally go down. This undead vampire king really just was That Guy.

And yet, he's not the strongest villain in the series...

Moving on, we have the Dark Masters!

The Dark Masters consist of four Digimon:

MetalSeadramon

Puppetmon

Machinedramon

and their leader, Piedmon.

The Dark Masters took over the entire digital world while the Digidestined were off fighting Myotismon, and they tore reality to pieces, reshaping the entire world into Spiral Mountain, a giant mountain of four zones, each ruled by one Dark Master, with their castle sitting on the peak.

The Dark Masters are the first digimon to use the power of teamwork in battle, and it really shows. They mop the floor with the Digidestined, and if not for Piximon's sacrifice, that would have been the end of the series. The Dark Masters arc is brutal, and with every member the heroes beat, it costs the lives of more and more of their friends. Sukamon, ShogunGekomon, Chuumon, Piximon, Whamon, the Numemon, they and many others were all victims of the Dark Masters.

The digidestined are only capable of beating individual members one at a time. MetalSeadramon gets beat, then Puppetmon, and then Machinedramon, until only Piedmon remains.

And yet, Piedmon still wins. He defeats every single Digimon the heroes have, including their Megas. And he turns them into keychains that he wears on his belt.

What finally puts down Piedmon is the power of the strongest crest unlocking its true potential. Hope. The embodiement of Hope itself, MagnaAngemon appears, and sends Piedmon through the Gate of Destiny, a portal to oblivion itself. NOTHING goes through that gate and survives. That is the only way that he could be defeated.

And yet, he is still not the strongest...

But we'll get to the final villain later, first... IT'S ETEMON'S COMEBACK TOUR, BABY!

Oh, you thought he was gone!? NO! During the mini-arc where the Digidestined are battling Puppetmon, it is revealed that within the afterlife, Etemon has been putting himself back together molecule by molecule. Etemon is so willful, and so confidant, that he reversed his own death.

Etemon fuses with his Dark Network fully, becoming MetalEtemon, a being capable of rivaling Puppetmon in power. MetalEtemon doesn't stay alive for too long, but in his short few episodes, he kills SaberLeomon with relative ease and sends Ogremon into his entire character arc. Etemon decided that dying twice still wasn't good enough, and he cheated death for the sole petty purpose of traumatizing his enemies more.

But now, let's get to the final boss...

This is Apocalymon. Apocalymon is the anit-thesis to EVERYTHING the digidestined are. While the heroes represent Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Reliability, Sincerity, Light and Hope; Apocalymon is Fear, Paranoia, Hate, Misinformation, Betrayal, Lies, Darkness and Apathy incarnate. He is made of the souls of every Digimon who died in the process of Digivolution, which means he is made of everything that the Digidestined relied upon to win.

Apocalymon created the big bads of every single arc on his own. Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, they are all his creations. He is the ultimate darkness, so hateful and full of so much pure misery that he can do nothing except wish for the end of all life.

And he wins. Not in the Piedmon way where he beats almost everyone, no. Apocalymon KILLS every one of the digidestined and their digimon. He rends them apart, splits their molecules and data into nothing.

The only reason he didn't win right then and there is because of MetalEtemon. MetalEtemon's creation was foreshadowing, a sign that with enough willpower, you can cheat death. And that's just what the Digidestined do. With the power of friendship, they put themselves back together and reform their bodies, starting the fight against Apocalymon anew.

But they still don't beat him.

They can only fight Apocalymon to a draw, and he will not let that stand. Apocalymon unleashes his true ultimate ability: his self destruct sequence. Apocalymon possesses enough power that when he self destructs, the explosion will destroy TWO DIMENSIONS in the process, both Earth and the Digital World. If not for the Digivices containing the explosion, he would have gotten the last laugh.

Digimon Adventure is unique in that, out of every Digimon in the series, the VILLAIN is the strongest. Even MagnaAngemon in second place is nowhere even close to Apocalymon's level.

Apocalymon is the death of hope, the end of light, he is everything that has suffered brought to life, and he could only be defeated when he allowed himself to die.

Every villain represented something. Ogremon was the first showing of a threat that cannot be reasoned with. Devimon is the first brush with the harsh reality of the real world. Etemon shows that overconfidence will kill you. DemiDevimon shows that even people who seem like no threat can still sew the seeds of your downfall. Myotismon is the all too real chance that no matter what you do, some people will always seem to be stronger. The Dark Masters are a corruption of what can be achieved by working together. And Apocalymon? Apocalymon is the END. No matter how strong you are or how hard you work, there are foes who you cannot beat, and that you can only hope to cause their downfall. Apocalymon is the hopelessness that has condemed billions of souls, the misery and rage that will kill billions more. Apocalymon is nothing but the embodiement of everything that has ever caused sorrow... And that is something that cannot be beaten.

#digimon adventure #digimon #digimon adventure 01 #ogremon #devimon #etemon #demidevimon #myotismon #venommyotismon #metalseadramon #puppetmon #machinedramon #piedmon #metaletemon #apocalymon #tw long post #character analysis #character essay #I love this show so much

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