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Zero Two Episode 32: If I Only Had A Heart

In this episode, BlackWargreymon and Agumon discuss existential philosophy while Mummymon wants to blow up a giant rock just to see what happens.


BlackWargreymon is a fascinating character. Artificially created for purposes of destruction, he takes no joy out of harming other living creatures, takes no issue with destroying other artificial creations, and needs concepts like friendship and purpose explained to him in great length. It's pretty thoughtful stuff for a kid's show, but I found him far more entertaining when he was named Johnny Five.

It's easy to appreciate the guy, especially as he rebels against his creator, slashing up a horde of spire-created Mammothmon in front of Arukenimon just to show how little he cares. The only thing he cares about is why he doesn't care, sorta like Kirika in Noir getting emotional about not getting emotional. Once he's done slicing up the elephants on parade, he finds Agumon on his path, who tries to help. At some point in this long, tiresome discussion, BlackWargreymon goes from raising intriguing philosophical questions to a five-year-old asking “why” to everything.

It just becomes frustrating after a while. Agumon is patiently trying to answer BlackWargreymon's questions, but they only lead to more questions or more rhetoric. As a digital creature that may or may not have vital organs, Agumon doesn't know where is heart is, but through his friendship with Tai knows he has one. Not good enough! BlackWargreymon can't be confident that he has one, so Agumon offers to be friends and build a relationship to prove he has one. Not good enough! This goes on for half the episode! It's like we're watching .hack or something.

The other half poses the opposite problem- Mummymon is fascinating by something called a destiny stone. Oh goody, another unexplained mysterious entity! Just what we needed! When he finds one, he wants to destroy it just to see what will happen. Bear in mind that this is all Mummymon here; Arukenimon has no real interest in this thing until wonton destruction enters the equation. This suggests that not only are their motives unknown, but they may not even have the same ones.

Ever since Arukenimon first entered the picture, the assumption has always been that she has some grand scheme that involves Ken being manipulated into creating the control spires and requires the digidestined to be out of the picture. It's quite all right that we don't know what that scheme is, or even if she's the mastermind of it. But it's very important that we believe that she knows what she's doing, and that all of her actions are part of a strategy. Missteps like BlackWargreymon are tolerated because she created him with a specific goal in mind and wasn't expecting him to be a Jean-Paul Sartre fan. So it's a little dismaying that she goes along with Mummymon's eagerness to destroy a destiny stone, even though they're not sure what will happen.

Things only get worse when BlackWargreymon senses the damage being done to the destiny stone and goes after it. Much as the initial feeling pained him, he has this insatiable urge to destroy the stone. He does, and the whole place goes nuts. That's where the episode ends- one more mystery to add to the pile. This'll be one hell of a plot dump when they finally get around to explaining some of this stuff.

The digidestined are in this episode, but they don't actually do anything. They stop Knightmon, but fail to stop BlackWargreymon. The giant black twister of death shows up, but everybody escapes before it does anything. And Godot will be here tomorrow.

My Grade: D+

Loose Data:
  • Why exactly did Arukenimon create that horde of Mammothmon? If she's trying to stop WarGreymon, why? What good is it to subdue him if he's not going to listen anyway? May as well let him go and try not to piss him off.
  • What was the whole point to the scene with Davis and Jun? Jun's freaking out over a pimple while Davis is chilling on his Playstation. Is this supposed to be some anti-philosophical argument where pondering the significance of life is a foolhardy pursuit and we're all better off eating and playing video games? Was that the episode's foray into the Immanuel Kant school? Or was it just an excuse to show Jun wearing a towel?
  • I'm actually kinda pissed off such a crummy episode forced me to research philosophy.

5 comments:

  1. Huh, I didn't have the same reaction to this episode. The conversation between BlackWargreymon and Agumon is one of my favorite moments in this season, in part because we rarely see digimon interacting with each other. I liked how this episode portrays Agumon as not too bright but very wise and kind-hearted nonetheless. On a side note, too bad that damn Kawagumon got away yet again.

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  2. Agree with Kat. The scene between Davis and his sister is pretty common in other media. It isn't meant to be a part of the storyline, but adds some depth of life to the characters. It think it's quite comical, which is its purpose.

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  3. There's something about the tiny purple flower in this episode that rings so strongly in me. Blackwargreymon's reluctance to allow harm to the flower (and then subsequent destruction of the flower in what amounts to just a hissy fit) is interesting, considering he 'doesn't have a heart' according to some.

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  4. Why Davis was playing Playsation in the livingroom, when he has his own tv in his bedroom?

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  5. I bet Arukenimon and Mummymon are like Blackwargreymon. They don't really know what they are supposed to be doing so they are just doing random stuff hoping that it feels good. I don't even understand why they would want to destroy the digital world knowing that they live there too and would be destroyed if it really were wiped out
    At the end of this episode!!

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