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metalempire · 10 months

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some very thoughts on wrathful aoi and why she’s easily one of my favourite things digimon has ever done down below. spoilers ahead for all of the wrathful route of digimon survive.

wrathful route in general is peak survive thanks to how violent and unhinged it is, plus you get mugendramon from it, my favourite digimon, so of course i’m overwhelmingly biased towards it, especially since it was my first route i completed when survive came out last year. all the said, aoi has always been a fascinating take on digimon’s core Girl™ archetype, clearly based on two characters from the original 1999 digimon adventure (which survive is overtly stated to draw heavy inspiration from as a more modern and dark retelling of that story’s core archetype and thematic elements) those being sora takenouchi primarily, and jou kido secondarily.

she obviously has the Motherly™ traits down perfectly, as she is always concerned for the group, reacts negatively to violence, is very concerned for any instance of children, is a good cook, naturally caring, merciful, and kind. she also is a deeply responsible girl who puts others before herself, is an honour student who always volunteered to do the right thing at school, even to her own detriment as no one helped her. despite being seemingly the perfect girl, a class president who did no wrong, was always helpful, and never negative, she never had many friends, was scolded by teachers for being too helpful for her own good, and was seemingly always punished in small, but meaningful ways throughout life just for being what everyone wanted her to be. the parallels to sora and jou in their core traits and arcs from the show are quite clear as the route goes on, as aoi takes over as leader when takumi disappears trying to save miyuki and stop piemon.

she’s able to hold the group together, taking on even more responsibility, putting all of her skills to good use. but in the end, she isn’t takuma, she can’t savescum every response for max affinity like a true MC, and so does the best with what she has. during this time, she develops a strong bond with saki, a girl she admires deeply. saki, though being terminally ill, and near the start of the game, close to dying, is still outwardly cheery, outgoing, emotionally vibrant, and blunt about everything. saki shines bright despite the horrendous circumstances she finds herself in, and she inspires aoi, who wishes to be as driven, determined, and honest with herself as saki is. the irony being saki keeps her secret that she’s dying from everyone except aoi and floramon. though (unless i’m remembering wrong) takuma can find out. similarly, saki admires everything positive about aoi, and the two girls desperately want to be more like each other, finding that one has what the other lacks.

the tragedy of all this naturally comes to its conclusion as violently as possible. when saki dies, it’s a sudden, brutal, yet drawn out demise. saki makes a mistake, and isn’t reprimanded for it by aoi, because aoi and the others help her anyway, and the situation is too tense. aoi admires how saki can move on swiftly and back into action with the rescue effort, furthering her desire to be like saki, clouding her self-image once more, saki shining bright enough to where the glare prevents aoi from seeing she’s falling for the same trap as before. this ends up with the kenzoku grabbing saki, and aoi being the one to try and pull her back, only for saki to sacrifice herself so the girl she looks up to more than anyone in the world doesn’t die, and aoi is forced to watch her rock, the girl she’s leaned on for weeks be violently ripped apart in a bloody death, right in front of her, and cannot have time to grieve, as the team needs to move or be swallowed by the fog.

aoi’s sheer shock and depression, her sense of loss, her confusion and bubbling self doubt come to the surface totally, and she shuts down. she rejects all comforts, because she has convinced herself she knows saki better than anyone, that she, in some small way, is saki, and that this death means something more to her. saki’s death shakes aoi to her core, and kaito, in a scene to parallel the harmonic route, tries to offer her words of resolve, but his emotions spill out wrong, and he doesn’t fully connect with her. in the end, aoi leaves to be by herself, only to end up at the library, where the saki illusion utterly breaks her mind, feeds on her guilt, aoi’s sense of responsibility, and weaponises her kindness against her, sinking aoi to her lowest low. but despite it all, she still has labramon. aoi wanders alone, lost in the woods, with only her thoughts of saki, saki’s death, what saki has and what she herself lacks, and eventually, of labramon, how she let her digimon down, and lets the others down, but then, her anger slips in. aoi wishes everyone would work together more. surely, if they had, if they had listened to her more often, bickered less often, coordinated better, not been indecisive or clashed so often, saki wouldn’t be dead. maybe even shuuji and ryo beforehand. aoi snaps here, and decides everyone should work harmoniously, even the sworn enemies of kemonogami and humans.

for some reason, piemon survives getting his ass blasted by some kids in the human world (this only happens in wrathful and harmonic. he stays dead in moral and truthful. this is never explained lol but i like to think he gave up and was chilling on the beach for those) and aoi finds him dying in the woods. in her more delusional state of confusion, she decides she’s now a fire emblem protagonist, and heals him so she can talk to him and recruit him in the fight against the master. unfortunately, aoi is not the protagonist, and this is digimon survive, so her helping a guy who was very much down with child sacrifices is a very stupid move that earns her a brutal fate. however, it makes total sense. she is deeply traumatised by death, constant fighting for her life, raw guilt, and a creeping sense of long-running resentment for the human race conflicting with her natural kindness and love of everyone. with so many mixed emotions, trauma, constant self-doubt, no confidence in herself whatsoever, having lost everything, save for her life, aoi really believes in herself that she is right, that everyone else is wrong, because she’s aoi shibuya, she only does the right thing.

so piemon violently chokes aoi, beats her to death, and then stabs her, and to top it all off, does the same to labramon, and leaves them both to die on the ground.

aoi, in her state of raw emotional and mental turmoil, (also hasn’t eaten anything since saki died so she’s physically out of it too and barely slept) genuinely thought this would work, that piemon was forsaken by the master, and would want to side with her. she forgot, in her self-assuredness, trying to be like saki, her ideal protagonist in life, that piemon was her enemy, that piemon hates humans more than she does, that piemon is an ultimate level (or mega if ur a dub loser lol) with four swords duct taped to his back, and that she, at most, will only have the perfect level cerberumon, (on wrathful, she cannot access anubimon’s evolution scene unless you already unlock it on ng+) so she could not have solo’d this boss even if she tried. poor aoi suffers once more for choosing “correctly”, for helping someone injured, for being like saki, assured, honest, confident, bright.

she watches, dying on the ground, as piemon fights the team, who wish to save her. she laments that everyone is fighting again, which she was trying to prevent. once more, she is helpless to see her efforts come to naught, to fail. but labramon reaches out to her, someone who never abandoned her, someone who didn’t let her wander off alone, someone who loves her for being her, not for what she does for them. the friend she always needed. saki may be aoi’s idol, and her best friend, in a sense, but labramon is aoi’s partner digimon, labramon was who aoi needed all along. she knows this, deep down, and her desires, spilling out all at once as she sees her bloodied and dying little dog, manifest as, ironically, darkness. she doesn’t want to die, she wants to live. and she wants to be right for once, to make things right for once.

aoi becomes plutomon by fusing with labramon. plumon is an ultimate level dark virus digimon. it is one of the olympos xii, and despite the former statement, is a vengeful roman death god hell bent on exterminating all virus digimon, and is the most frightening member of the olympos xii. plutmon kills and absorbs piemon easily, then fends off the party, declaring her intentions to kill the master, and bring harmony and peace to this broken world of the kemonogami. but there’s more to it than that. initially, everyone is terrified of plutomon, but minoru still sees her as aoi, and, that her new form is useful in their fight against the master. however aoi makes it clear that the harmony she seeks is the same kind she demonstrated with piemon. her madness complete, she earnestly believes that by assimilating everyone into her, she can make them all happy, to all do and think as she does, to all live with her. everyone will be together, as one. even if she has to be violent, cruel, and strict, she will bring everyone the happiness they need, because aoi is never wrong. aoi is the perfect honour student. aoi always does the right thing. and plutmon is simply fighting to make a utopia, the very thing mankind strives for. in her delusions, plutomon says she can hear saki’s voice, as part of this world, cheering her on. she’s too far gone to stop now, but she’s never been more confident in herself, or her new plans.

aoi leaves, kicks down the master’s door, and begins brutally assimilating the kenzoku, stripping the master of his minions. she fights the party again, and tis time, they try to get through to her, appealing to her emotions, admitting their own failings, but ultimately, trying to make her see reason. but in the end, miyuki and renamon die thanks to the master’s machinations, and so they are dragged into his realm. plutmon fights the master, but dies, and is absorbed by him. the party fights to avenge aoi, while the master wears plutomon as a hood ornament, mocking them all. however, this was all according to keikaku. aoi planned for it to go this way, so the others would weaken the master for her to eat him from the inside, gaining all the power she needs to make her dream a reality. she reveals that she intends to unify the world of the kemonogami and the humans to be as one, and then assimilate all life into her, to become the paradise they always dreamed of. she even pulls the remnants of saki, ryo and shuuji up, claiming to hear their affirming voices. all the party hears are the pained screams of the dead, who wish for their friend to stop. aoi doesn’t know, she’s too far gone, to caught in her delusions to care. plutomon hears what she wants to hear, just as it is in its original lore, the god of death is single minded in its pursuit, and violently unwavering. aoi even mocks the party, in an oddly caring way, reflecting on how their friendship, their bond, and their strength, was what she relied on this whole time to make her will come true.

in the final battle, aoi is ultimately killed by her friends, who desperately wanted to help her, to turn her away from a path of mass extinction, and in the end, had to strike her down. she laments her failings, she apologises to everyone, dead and alive, and wishes she could just be right, and dies, with a smile, questioning if she was wrong again, and apologising, as the polite girl she always was. aoi dies with a smile, having fought for peace and harmony. aoi did nothing wrong. aoi was punished regardless. that’s how it always goes for her, doesn’t it?

the core theme of aoi, or rather, plutomon’s journey, is the paradoxical and ultimately doomed to failure quest that is achieving heaven through violence. history even has such examples, such as crusades and holy wars, where the righteous, through doctrine, personal bias, piety, and ultimately, brutal ignorance and delusion, attempt to crush what they believe to be opposition, in what they believe to be righteous, the correct path, that will lead them to the wonderful utopia, the heavens above, yet they contradict themselves, through malicious acts of persecution and violence, sheer brutality, and hatred towards their fellow people. plutomon wanted nothing more than for people to be brought together. but plutomon used mass murder as her means to bring about peace, and believed it to be correct. a world of peace cannot be built on a foundation of violence. even her statement that there is no room for naughty children in her ideal world reveals the hypocrisy of plutomon’s beliefs and methods, punishing others through slaughter.

the wrathful ending, with its anti-digimon dystopian police state (just like real life!) is a great representation of aoi’s corruption, and in the end, the world she was always going to make. people and digimon came together. forcefully. some found their partners and were happy. some found them and used them for evil. most never met them at all. most were lost and confused. division arose. segregation, persecution, violence, chaos and mass destruction arose in an authoritarian nightmare state. fitting, perhaps, for what aoi wrought. she wanted to bring people together, no matter the cost, and her brazen, self-assured, delusional methods, stained with blood, only brought more suffering. aoi did nothing wrong. the world was punished regardless. that’s how it always goes for her, isn’t it?

aoi shibuya is a good example of the subtle pressures and small scale incidents that pile up over time, and the consequences of bottling up one’s emotions while trying to always care for others. aoi was the perfect honour student, who was always kind and helpful. a good cook who prioritised the safety of the group, someone who always supported the sake decision, and could even cut through the air during an argument to restore peace. she stepped up to be responsible leader, and always helped others.

aoi never leaned on anyone for support when it mattered. she put saki on a pedastal, and while she did lean on her for support, she never allowed their relationship to be equal, as friends, and was never fully honest with herself, or saki, about why she wanted to be like saki. she always had labramon looking out for her, but never confided in labramon. in her dying moments, she laments that she would have been a burden to them if she did confide in them and leaned on them for support, only for a tearful party to reveal she always did so much to help them, and hey would have loved to support her. but aoi never let them know that until she died. until she went on the warpath as plutomon. aoi was always responsible to a fault, but never leaned on anyone for support, never gave anyone else much of a chance to be like her, to share her burdens. aoi struggled to connect with people, and even when she tried, she put her on a pedestal, and never allowed them to properly share in their burdens. aoi never realised her strengths, and eventually, grew arrogant enough to believe she was always doing the right thing, and that by embodying only what she believed saki to be, that she could change the world. aoi not realising that she was fine as who she was, and that by working together with saki, being honest with her, sincere about her feelings, that she could have found a far better way to work through her flaws, and together with everyone. (jou’s crest is sincerity in the original japanese run of adventure, coincidence, then, that aoi needs to embody that sincerity, and with labramon, love, sora’s crest, to be able to move forward within herself as a character?)

aoi, in the wrathful route, is a bleakly realistic depiction of what happens when the Perfect Girl ultimately snaps from the weight of responsibility. when someone tried to always do the right thing, even to their own detriment, never asks for help, is never a burden, is always reliable, always kind, offers care of their own but never asks for any themselves, and always thinks of others first, no matter what, without ever leaning on anyone else for support. eventually, the perfection slips, and soon, the world itself seems to turn on them. in the end, the pressure becomes too great, everything goes wrong, and when one domino falls, the rest slip into place, and great consequences are wrought. ones that are deeply self-destructive, and even can harm the very people one cares about.

aoi looks up to an inspiring friend. aoi’s friend dies right in front of her. aoi helps someone on the verge of death. aoi is choked, beaten, and stabbed to death. aoi resolves to fix the world, and solve two world’s worth of problems, carry everyone’s burdens, and put and end to a centuries-long conflict. aoi is killed by the very people she was fighting for. aoi did nothing wrong. aoi was punished regardless. it’s always like that for her, isn’t it?

aoi shibuya is a fantastic deconstruction of the typical motherly Girl™ character, combined with the responsible older kid archetype, blended into a brutal physical and mental breakdown that makes far too much sense given everything that’s happened to her. all the little things built up, and then something big happened, and it all spilled out. she tried her best to regain control, but by then, she was already too far gone. no matter what, aoi shibuya never gave up, she took what she saw in saki, even takuma to a much lesser extent, and stepped up to take charge, confidently, and do the right thing, do what needs to be done, and embark on a mission to save the world. by destroying it. she wanted to be right, so badly, that she blinded herself to reality. all alone, and yet, in her last moments, died surrounded by people who cared for her, even after she tried to slaughter them all. and even though it went horrendously, in her own way, she brought humans and digimon together.

her story is tragic, but more subtle than the traditional sad backstory kind of way digimon often does it. it’s grounded, mundane, even, yet it shows how even a polite, ordinary, high-achieving girl who is pleasant in every way and mild-mannered, can become twisted and unrecognisable due to circumstances beyond her control, and ultimately, her own self-imposed loneliness that many people struggle with in our real world. aoi desperately tried to gain control of her life, but sadly, was never truly able to have it. everyone else stood in her way. but then, it was everyone else who she, ironically, needed the most, yet pushed away with her own decisions, always, for their own good, over her own. by being selfless, aoi, in the end, did herself, more harm than good.

it always goes that way, doesn’t it?

perfection is an illusion. chasing it only leads to madness.

“i say these people should learn of our peaceful ways....by force!” -aoi shibuya, shortly after becoming plutomon

#digimon survive #long post #this is just one big collection of thoughts and such on aoi's story in wrathful #it's easily one of my all time favourite stories digimon has ever told and i love the way aoi was executed #its one of the most grounded and realistic going off the deep ends ive ever seen #plus plutomon is just a metal as all hell digimon #digimon survive spoilers

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