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Fridge Brilliance

  • While Myotismon being behind everything is unexpected, we do get a big hint earlier on. Look closely at the Digimon Emperor's glasses. They have a symbol on them. The same symbol seen on Myotismon's suit, boot and coffin. Myotismon's Crimson Lightning/Bloody Stream attack resembles a whip style attack. The Digimon Emperor uses a whip as his personal weapon.
  • Regarding the end... it turns out that the Big Bad of the original series, has been there all along. That was why the kids reacted with such terror. They had been all gung-ho, until they realised it was the same guy they thought had been dealt with years ago. Malomyotismon has taken on ultimates, megas, the power of every crest beating on him and yet they could only delay him for four years. This guy is unstoppable. And then Daisuke goes "screw that, I'm gonna take him on anyway." Everyone is encouraged, Malomyotismon pulls his trump card and forces them into the Lotus-Eater Machine, etc, you know the plot. The Last Temptation of the Digidestined showed the kids overcoming not just their fears, but their desires in order to do the right thing. And in the end, if it's not just in it to sell a lot of transforming toys, then isn't this what Digimon was about? Hammering a guy with as much firepower as you can (yeah, firepower fuelled by emotion, but still firepower) is easy. That's what they did last time. But as this series has shown, the last time didn't work as well as they thought it had. It's only when the entire world realises the same potential that the Chosen did, that they all gain their Digimon. A bad guy who couldn't be stopped through any number of battles is finally destroyed, and nobody had to throw a punch. Corny? Yup. More anticlimactic than a battle? Sure. But to I it was better closure than another No-Holds-Barred Beatdown would have ever been.
  • Ok, so in the first season, remember how the first 7 DD had to use the magic cards to get back to earth? And how there was one extra? And they were warned they had to use the right cards to get to earth, otherwise they'd end up in some other world? The correct card was Gomamon. Now, flash forward to the end of season two, when Owikawa was trying to get to the digiworld with the same cards. If you look closely, you can see that he puts down the Augumon card instead. This explains why they go to the dreamworld!
  • At first, MaloMyotismon getting defeated by light seems like a Weak Sauce Weakness, but with some thought, it becomes No Kill like Overkill. Remember back in Digimon Adventure when Apocalymon tried to pull a Taking You with Me with both worlds? Eight Digivices were able to contain that explosion and negate it completely. Just eight, no more, no less. In the finale of Digimon Adventure 02, Myotismon's soul gets blasted with the combined light of every Digivice on Earth. If just eight Digivices have the power to negate an explosion capable of destroying two entire dimensions, imagine what the power of millions of Digivices could do? Much more impressive when you think about it that way, isn't it?
  • A deeper point of DNA Digivolution is that the crests actually balance each other.
    • Hope only goes as far as the knowledge we have, which allows us to validate our hopes and take action to ensure they are maintained. Without it, there is only false hope.
    • Sometimes we need to do things on our own, and at other times, we need help from our friends. At still other times, we must gather our courage in order to come to our friends' aid. The balance of it all is chivalry, which calls upon us to step in and bear burdens in place of our friends.
    • The difference between the Crest of Sincerity/Purity is knowing when to speak out and when to be more considerate, when to fight and when not to, with tact as the middle ground and love as the guide.
  • MagnaAngemon's inability to defeat BlackWarGreymon is not just The Worf Effect. MagnaAngemon's powers are most effective against the likes of Devimon and Piedmon specifically because they belong to the Nightmare Soldiers field. BlackWarGreymon belongs to the Dragon's Roar and Metal Empire fields, but he is not a Nightmare Soldier, which means MagnaAngemon has no specific advantage over him.
  • If one thinks about it, it makes perfect sense for Myotismon to be the true Big Bad of season 2. All the Big Bad of season one were the result of Apocalymon's presence warping the Digital World, thus it makes perfect sense that one of them should be the new Big Bad, as they're the remnants of his evil influence. Devimon did have a major role by possessing Chimeramon, but could not do so without Ken's giving him a physical form. Most of the Dark Masters could be in a similar state. Myotismon was the only one of the original season one villains known to be able to resurrect himself completely all by himself. Sure, Etemon came back, but he never died beforehand like Myotismon did, and Myotismon came back to life much stronger than before. With all that in mind, he suddenly becomes a much more obvious choice.
  • Why does Digmon declare himself the Drill of Power despite evolving using the Digimental of Knowledge? Because knowledge is power.
  • Considering his Back Story, it makes perfect sense that Ken wouldn't believe Wormmon to be his partner: During his original journey with Ryo, he learnt of Ryo having multiple temporary partners, and assumed that it applied to him too! It also helps that Ken was also a complete amnesiac regarding the events of the Wonderswan series.
  • With one of the Xros Wars seasons having the past goggleheads appear, and Tai being his 01 self, it now makes sense that Tai declared Davis the leader immediately following the first battle of 02 without (a) a proper team yet, or (b) any say from the other two Digidestined of Davis' age - those things always bugged me back in the day. Now we know that Tai had already seen the hero Davis would become, and learned from him at some point that there would be a full team of younger members.
  • Shakkoumon, Armadillomon's Ultimate-level, is often derided as a nonsensical form for an armadillo and an ankylosaurus. However, given that Shakkoumon's a Mutant-type, it actually makes a hell of a lotta sense that he'll change so radically, even when everyone else's kept a theme through-out.
  • Wormmon's sacrifice that rejuvenates Magnamon becomes much more understandable when one recalls the events of Tag Tamers; with all the Jogresses the larva could've performed, he might be the stronger of the two.
  • Miyako/Yolei has a huge crush on Ken even before she discovers his dark side, and they eventually get married...in other words, the early bird caught the worm.
  • During T.K. and Ken's fight in episode 19, T.K. makes several references to Ken being a "pretender". Even mentioning the "The Emperor's New Clothes". T.K. was closer to the truth than he realized. Watching Ken's older brother Sam in a flashback later on, it's easy to see Ken modeled his Digimon Emperor outfit to resemble his brother. Not to mention that Ken's whole "Emperor" persona is based on all the bad things he remembers about Sam.
  • While a lot of people complain about how [MagnaAngemon] was shown to be underpowered during the Daemon Corps arc, despite him having an advantage against such foes and earlier doing well against Blackwargreymon, it's not actually a writing mistake. His power has been over exaggerated by the fanbase (he scored one good hit against Piedmon which was shown to be painful but showed no real damage, much like when Angemon attacked Myotismon, even his Gate of Destiny was completely useless against Piedmon until two megas blasted Piedmon directly into it)and it's even well established that simply having an advantage doesn't mean the digimon in question will win a fight. For proof look at both time Angewomon fought Ladydevimon, each time Angewomon ended up smacked around despite having the advantage and being the same level as them, only winning the fight in the end because she got outside help (Megakabuterimon shielding and then distracting Ladydevimon in the first fight, DNA digivolving with Aquilamon and Yolei distracting Ladydevimon in the second). The Deamon Corps are clearly supposed to be incredibly powerful dark digimon and he simply wasn't enough to take them one on one this time (heck, it took Imperialdramon in fighter mode to kill Skullsatamon).
  • In the epilogue, Tai and Agumon are shown to become ambassadors for the Digital World. Now look back at Agumon's interactions with BlackWarGreymon from the start; he was acting quite...diplomatic, wouldn't you say?
  • In episode 38, the other Chosen Children make derisive comments over the fact that Daisuke hasn't noticed Ken's Character Development. But it's not that Ken's changed, it's just that he's coming out of his guilt-and-depression induced shell and finally showing his true colors. Daisuke, who's had a front-seat view into Ken's heart - first through the Digimental of Miracles/Crest of Kindness, and then through Jogress Evolution - doesn't notice that Ken's different because from where he's standing, Ken's always been like that.
  • During the World Tour two-parter, each of the pairs of digi-destined have similar personalities or have been known to get along well together, but not Koushiro and Hikari. Why is that? Remember, they were dropped off in Hong Kong, and at the time of this writing, Southeastern Asia is still very much a hot bed of conflict. This is shown when Mina, an Indian digi-destined tries to cross into China. Hikari is capable of easily getting people to follow her because of her innate light, and Koushiro has the knowledge of various cultures due to his intelligence. This is a great pairing for this area.
  • At first, it seems odd that Miyako/Yolei, the most energetic and tomboyish of the girls, is a homemaker. But think about it - Ken and Miyako's youngest child is a baby. Miyako has to stay at home to look after it. There's nothing stopping her from going back to work at least part-time once it's old enough to attend school.
  • Its accepted that the reason Kimeramon was uncontrollable and destructive was due to the Kaiser using Devilmon's arm as part of its creation which corrupted it. However, the Kaiser also used Angemon's wings, and given that the two digimon are considered evil and good counterparts to each other, wouldn’t devimon's influence on kimeramon have been cancelled out? However, what other digimon was used to make Kimeramon? SkullGreymon, a mindless killing machine. Notably, Kimeramon acts a lot more like SkullGreymon in behaviour than Devimon.
  • When people watched Digimon Adventure 02 the first time they might not like Daisuke/Davis, but some may gradually grows to adore him. Then you remember that the story was told from Takeru's/T.K.'s Po V the entire time. Basically, Takeru/T.K. did question Daisuke's/Davis's leadership and personality at first but after witnessing his heart and actions in the right place he eventually comes to accept him!
    • This could be a matter of Adaptational Personality Change as Takeru doesn't seem to show any aversion to Daisuke as a leader in the original Japanese version. In fact, he seemed to like and want to befriend him from very early on. Subsequently, Daisuke's characterization in the Japanese dub is much more favourable.
  • It seems awfully convenient that, out of the only five Digimon in the entire Digital World (not counting Wormmon or Terriermon) who could still use the ancient power of Armour Evolution, two of them were already partnered to Chosen Children (as were the aforementioned exceptions). If you think about it, though, this makes complete sense. It might've only been seven years in the human world since the first eight Chosen Children were selected, but thanks to the time distortion between the Hikarigaoka incident and Adventure 01, something close to 6 000 years had passed between the creation/selection of the first eight Chosen's partners and the pregame to 02. The original set of Digimon are ancient (even if they presumably spent most of those years as eggs), and back in those days, 25% of the population being able to Armour Evolve was probably a reasonable estimated figure.
  • Stingmon becoming a cop alongside Ken. It gives his name a double meaning, referencing the term "police sting".
  • Each of the Digimentals is supposed to have a consistent theme (Courage=fire evolutions, Knowledge=insects, et cetera), but the Digimental of Friendship is the least consistent. The Reference Book claims that Friendship armour forms are supposed to move fast and use lightning attacks, but of the six 02 Digimon's Friendship evolutions, this is only actually true for Lighdramon and Rinkmon. The other four are earth- or ice-themed, and two of them (Stegomon and Togemogumon) are explicitly sluggish and stationary. However, this all makes sense considering that it's the Digimental of Friendship — of course it would produce more than one element!
  • As mentioned in Fridge Horror, the prospect of all humans receiving Digimon is somewhat frightening given the possibility of violent criminals, corrupt governments, and other unsavoury people using them for ill. However, this is mitigated by the info we got in Adventure about how the Digivices work. They don't just enable evolution; they also act to control it, so that (outside of extreme cases like Taichi and SkullGreymon) Digimon won't evolve if the human partner is using the "wonderful traits in their hearts" for the wrong reasons. In other words: even if truly evil people do end up possessing Digimon, the damage they can do will be very limited.
  • A dark bit of Fridge Brilliance: In Oikawa's Shame the newly revived Malo Myotismon tortures Arukenimon by looking to see her greatest fears and doing exactly those things to her, until he finally kills her (likely because she herself feared he'd do just that). But when it comes time to kill Mummymon, he's far less brutal (well, he melts the poor bastard, but he at least didn't prolong it). This actually makes sense though, especially in the original version. When Mummymon attacks in a rage to avenge Arukenimon, he makes it clear he knows he's going to die, but doesn't care as long as he can take Belial Vandemon (the original name for Malo Myotismon) down with him. Belial comments that people who are prepared to die are the worst...and for a sadist like him it's totally true. He kills Mummymon quickly because at that point, the latter is so full of fury that he can't feel fear for his life, and so there's no point in trying to torture him. At that point there wasn't anything he could do to Mummymon that was worse than what he'd just done. The guy was already living his worst nightmare: a world without Arukenimon.
  • In the dub of the Christmas episode, after Sora reveals her feelings for Matt and asks Tai if he's mad, Tai assures her, "Of course not. Now get in there and say hi to Matt for me." Translation: "Let Matt know I'm not mad at him, either."
  • In Episode 39, Tai initially doesn't want Davis to skip out on the meeting to go help Ken. Why does he suddenly give up and tell him to go? Because Davis isn't a younger version of Tai, he's a Composite Character of Tai and Matt. Davis' speech about his friend being his priority rather than the big picture for the mission is exactly what Matt always said when he and Tai would fight about what to do in the original series. By the end of that series, Tai had learned to value this perspective a lot more — he hasn't forgotten what Matt taught him, and Davis talking like Matt must have brought back a lot of memories and reminded him how he learned to prioritize keeping his friend's safe even when there was a battle to fight.

Fridge Horror:

  • There's the moment where Ken, having renounced his time as the Digimon Kaiser/Digimon Emperor, comes to the Village of Beginnings/Primary Village hoping to find a reborn Wormmon. He is confronted and heckled by infant Digimon who seem to know who he is by sight. He is confronted by his sins, but Fridge Horror sets in when you realize these infants must be Digimon who died under his brutal rule and have just been reborn recently. The first thing they know is to hate him for their own violent treatment and deaths. No such thing as Children Are Innocent, because he took their innocence.
  • Malomyotismon doesn't understand why the dream-thing didn't work on Daisuke because "he must have a wish" to which Daisuke says "No, I just want to see you destroyed." Uhm, dude. That is a wish. Meaning that everything that happens after the digidestined wakes up from their wish-dreams should just be Daisuke's dream. How's that for Fridge Horror?
  • Mummymon and Arukenimon were both created by Oikawa using his own DNA. Wouldn't that make them kind of like siblings, in a sense?
  • Okay, so Daemon was trapped in the Dark Ocean...way back when it was introduced in His Master's Voice, it was revealed that another massively powerful Digimon, Dagomon, ruled over that place, which means sending another Big Bad to the same place would be a recipe for disaster, because if they were able to work together, with one of them having been able to withstand the power of a Mega and two Ultimates, and still not even using all of his power, while the other one rules over that realm...yeah, that's a smart move.
  • The potential for people to abuse their Digimon. Pokemon showed trainers beating up and abusing Pokemon and being able to do despite said monsters being capable of retaliating by fang, claw, electricity..Same thing in Monster Ranchers. Whose to say this couldn't happen in the Digimon universe? It could happen the other way around with Digimon controlling their human partners or just humans in general.
  • Another reason the epilogue is so wrong is Fridge Horror in effect: So in the end every kid gets a Digimon and they all live happily ever after. How is this even possible? What would the world really think of Digimon? There would definitely be people who cannot tolerate the Digimon and see them as Pests or as "imaginary friends" for the children. So Ken becomes a detective and Stingmon helps him...what if Criminals use Digimon too? What if some terrorist, religious fanatic, dictator or some corrupt or outright evil politician got their hands on the Digimon? What if some Kurata-esque figure arises? All in all, this ending isn't as happy as it was written to be. And that's not getting into account how Dagoman and Daemon might exploit this situation from the Dark Ocean...
  • The Yagami cat, Meeko, is all but unseen in 02. ...Did the cat die?
  • In the "Double Tamers" crossover, Daisuke openly struggles with whether or not he wants to return to his home dimension. Now for those unaware, said crossover is set between Ken's defeat as the Kaiser and his becoming the Sixth Ranger. If Daisuke hadn't returned, there's a very real possibility Ken might have killed himself trying to destroy his former base and even if one of the other kids took pity on him and prevented that, they still would have been short a Chosen Child during the final battle, specifically one whose entire being is capable of beating a Lotus-Eater Machine, and probably would have lost badly.
  • The Dark Seeds part of Ken's backstory. Convoluted as it is, the rest of the kids believe it, even him when Oikawa tells him about it. But are Ken's higher-ups and co-workers going to believe the story?
  • Oikawa's partner digimon, Pipimon/Datirimon:
    • So... what happened to Oikawa's partner after he died? Is anyone else concerned about the little guy?
    • According to Hiroyuki Kakudo, if a human dies, his Digimon also dies, so Datirimon dies shortly after Oikawa's death. When you think about it, this makes Datirimon's fate a Cruel Twist Ending. Imagine being a digimon, meeting your human partner, going many years without seeing him afterwards, and when you finally do meet him again, he's on the brink of death — which means you're going to die, too, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.

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