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.
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.
ReplyDeleteAgree 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.
ReplyDeleteThere'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.
ReplyDeleteWhy Davis was playing Playsation in the livingroom, when he has his own tv in his bedroom?
ReplyDeleteI 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
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this episode!!