History Recap / DigimonAdventure02E49TheLastArmorEvolution

XV-mon’s attacks don’t lay a scratch on [=BelialVamdemon=], but Daisuke insists on pressing on, absolutely certain that they’ll win. XV-mon suddenly finds himself gaining a burst of power and manages to knock [=BelialVamdemon=] down. Before XV-mon can continue, however, [=BelialVamdemon=] has one more trick up his sleeve, and releases an attack that causes all of the Chosen Children to fall into illusions based off of their [[LotusEaterMachine deepest desires]].

In Takeru’s dream, Takeru returns to his house only to find his mother, father, and Yamato waiting at the table so that they can eat together as a family. Patamon appears to him, however, and asks if he’s all right with this, and the images of Takeru’s family around him begin to fade. Takeru realizes that it was all an illusion, and Daisuke appears in front of him to pull him back to reality.

Miyako’s dream has her with a table full of cakes in front of her, which are made just for her and for her only. Hawkmon appears to her and asks her if she’s truly enjoying herself by eating alone, and Miyako realizes that although sometimes she wants to be alone from dealing with her three siblings, she doesn’t want to be alone forever. She tells Hawkmon that he knows her so well and asks him to tell her more about himself, but the conversation is interrupted by XV-mon, who’s come to get them.

Iori’s dream involves him able to take a walk through the Digital World with his father and show him around. As he and his father look over a cliffside, Armadimon appears to Iori and tells him that this whole situation is wrong. Iori’s father walks off the cliffside, causing Iori to lose grip on his hand, and disappears. Iori, realizing what’s going on, sadly bids goodbye to his father and decides to introduce Armadimon to his mother when he returns home. They’re shortly after retrieved by Fladramon, who appears in front of them.

Hikari sees a world in which every child gets to have a Digimon partner, and in the dream she tells a boy that his Nyaromon will evolve if he treats it well. However, as Hikari takes in the peaceful sight of children playing with their Digimon, Tailmon tells her to look closely as the image dissolves around her, and Hikari realizes to her dismay that none of it is real. Lighdramon comes to retrieve her, and Tailmon tells Hikari that if they want this dream to become a reality, they have to defeat [=BelialVamdemon=] first.

Ken’s dream has him walking through a sandstorm in the Digital World before he comes across himself, as the Digimon Kaiser, tied to a stake in the ground. The Kaiser is surrounded by the Digimon that he had tortured and killed, who yell at him for having caused so much pain and humiliation to them and beat him to death as a stunned Ken watches in silence. Finally, the images of the Digimon and the Kaiser disappear and [[Recap/DigimonAdventure02E23GenesisOfEvil Ken’s late brother Osamu]] [[DeadPersonConversation appears in front of him]], saying that he’s finally paid for his sins. Ken gets on his knees, happy that it’s all over, but then Wormmon appears and tells Ken that he shouldn’t be stuck in the past when there are things he has to do now. Ken realizes that he still has to help the children that were implanted with the Dark Seeds and defeat [=BelialVamdemon=] instead of standing there in regret of what he’s done as the Kaiser.

The other Chosen Children, accompanied by Daisuke, come to retrieve him, encouraging him and telling him that he’s worked his hardest up until then, that even if they can’t change the past, they can change the future, and that they’ll fight together as partners to defeat [=BelialVamdemon=]. With the Chosen Children’s will to fight restored, the illusion breaks up completely, revealing [=BelialVamdemon=] in front of them.

Daisuke continues to fight, and the other Chosen notice that he’s somehow fighting with all of V-mon’s evolutions simultaneously. Daisuke says that somehow they managed to appear all at once when Daisuke thought hard enough about wanting to defeat [=BelialVamdemon=]. The kids, realizing that the world they’re in turns emotions into power, declare their ambition to fight, which causes all of their Digimon to split into all of their possible evolutions, and the kids follow up by having all of their Adult-level Digimon Jogress evolve into their respective forms, while Paildramon Ultimate evolves and mode changes to Imperialdramon Fighter Mode.

The kids realize that they wouldn’t have been able to make their emotions into such power if it hadn’t been for Daisuke’s [[HotBlooded blind faith that they would succeed]], and [=BelialVamdemon=] demands to know why his illusions didn’t work on Daisuke. Daisuke reveals that [[FlatCharacter he has no true dissatisfaction or worries in his life right now]] and is perfectly happy with his friends and family, and his only desire is to defeat [=BelialVamdemon=] for having used the power of darkness to corrupt everyone else’s troubles in life.

[=BelialVamdemon=] flees into the Digital World and the kids chase after him, causing all of the split evolutions to return to just the three Jogress Digimon. Now that he’s back in the Digital World, [=BelialVamdemon=] is able to accumulate the darkness around him to his will and [[MakeMyMonsterGrow makes himself larger]]. [=BelialVamdemon=] is easily able to knock down the kids’ Digimon without a second thought and begins to create a dark hole in the Digital World that leads to the Real World’s Earth. He then begins to channel darkness into the Real World, hoping to unify the two into a world of darkness so that he can rule it as its king.

!!Tropes
* DeathSeeker: One of the very, ''very'' many interpretations of what Ken saw in the LotusEaterMachine.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Kaiser, tied to a Dark Tower and being ''crucified'', with the dialogue about "atoning for sins." Uh-huh.
* LivingProp: What Holy Angemon's appearance amounts to. He's the only one who does not attack Belial Vamdemon, and is essentially present only to show off the gimmick of evolving into all forms at once.
* PlotArmor: With his crush on Hikari, interest in soccer and as revealed next episode, plan to develop a noodle cart business, Daisuke is still able to overcome Belial Vamdemon's illusions.
** Could still work if you believe the illusion would only work on someone's ''greatest'' desire, given that that would be defeating him.
* StockFootage: About an eighth of the episode is comprised of nothing but stock footage as the kids’ Digimon evolve into all of their forms.

Ken’s dream has him walking through a sandstorm in the Digital World before he comes across himself, as the Digimon Kaiser, tied to a stake in the ground. The Kaiser is surrounded by the Digimon that he had tortured and killed, who yell at him for having caused so much pain and humiliation to them and beat him to death as a stunned Ken watches in silence. Finally, the images of the Digimon and the Kaiser disappear and [[Recap/DigimonAdventure02E23WhenADigiviceIsTaintedByDarkness Ken’s late brother Osamu]] [[DeadPersonConversation appears in front of him]], saying that he’s finally paid for his sins. Ken gets on his knees, happy that it’s all over, but then Wormmon appears and tells Ken that he shouldn’t be stuck in the past when there are things he has to do now. Ken realizes that he still has to help the children that were implanted with the Dark Seeds and defeat [=BelialVamdemon=] instead of standing there in regret of what he’s done as the Kaiser.

Ken’s dream has him walking through a sandstorm in the Digital World before he comes across himself, as the Digimon Kaiser, tied to a stake in the ground. The Kaiser is surrounded by the Digimon that he had tortured and killed, who yell at him for having caused so much pain and humiliation to them and beat him to death as a stunned Ken watches in silence. Finally, the images of the Digimon and the Kaiser disappear and [[{{Recap/DigimonAdventure02E23WhenADigiviceIsTaintedByDarkness}} Ken’s late brother Osamu]] [[DeadPersonConversation appears in front of him]], saying that he’s finally paid for his sins. Ken gets on his knees, happy that it’s all over, but then Wormmon appears and tells Ken that he shouldn’t be stuck in the past when there are things he has to do now. Ken realizes that he still has to help the children that were implanted with the Dark Seeds and defeat [=BelialVamdemon=] instead of standing there in regret of what he’s done as the Kaiser.

XV-mon’s attacks don’t lay a scratch on [=BelialVamdemon=], but Daisuke insists on pressing on, absolutely certain that they’ll win. XV-mon suddenly finds himself gaining a burst of power and manages to knock [=BelialVamdemon=] down. Before XV-mon can continue, however, [=BelialVamdemon=] has one more trick up his sleeve, and releases an attack that causes all of the Chosen Children to [[TheLastTemptation fall into illusions]] based off of their [[LotusEaterMachine deepest desires]].

* DeathSeeker: One of the very, very many interpretations of what Ken saw in the LotusEaterMachine, given that he sees himself as the Kaiser ''beaten to death''.