Digimon? You have a section devoted to Digimon? Yes, that's
right. I like Digimon. I admit, when it first came out I, like many people, thought it was destined
to be yet another Pokemon ripoff. I was pleasantly surprised. Digimon has what Pokemon lacks:
an actual coherent constantly moving plot and interesting characters who actually (gasp!) develop
over the course of the series. For a children's show it's surprisingly engaging. So I say proudly
I'm a college girl who likes Digimon! Make fun of me for it and be fed to my ficus.
So what's with the Ken obsession? Ah, the Ken obsession. That's what really made
me a Digimon fan. I missed most of the early episodes of the first season, and in fact I didn't
really start watching until the Eighth Child saga. Back then I was a Yamato fan ('cause, you know,
he has the hair and all.) I wasn't even going to watch 02 at first, but Ken pulled me in. I
find him to be a very interesting character. Ken alone probably hs more issues than the entire cast
of Pokemon. While 02 had general storyline problems, I think the best plot of the season was that
describing Ken's fall and subsequent redemption. With Tailmon the show never really got into the
fact that she used to be evil, but in Ken's case his history was an important aspect of his character.
Without the Kaiser arc and the events chronicled in "Genesis of Evil," 02 would've been fairly
forgettable for me, and Ken wouldn't have been anywhere near the layered character he became. I
think Ken still seemed to be dealing with a lot of problems even when the series ended, though there
wasn't time to get into them, thus leaving it to us lucky fanfic writers. (And of course my shallow
reason for liking Ken is the same as it always is. The hair.
What about the yaoi thing? Daisuke and Ken aren't gay! And Ken marries Miyako, so your fics
are wrong, nyah nyah! I subscribe to the theory of EWE, short for 'Epilouge? What Epilouge?' In
my world everything from the point where everyone in the world got a Digimon on never happened. I'll get
into why I feel that way in a few moments (and no, it's not just the Miyako thing.) As for the yaoi, I
have a few reasons for that.One is the shounen ai subtext. Like it or not, it is there. ('Seeing you
squirm is so delicious,' anyone?) And I think Daisuke and Ken make a good couple. Daisuke is open and
talkative, and could probably help coax Ken out of his shell a bit. (The key word here is' coax.' While
Daisuke and Miyako have similar personalities, Miyako seems to be more forceful at times and may actually
end up bullying Ken without realizing it. When Paildramon first appeared, Daisuke convinced Ken not
to fight alone. Though he did slap Ken, the words were what really convinced him. The slap also came
after first trying to convince Ken to let the others help. Compare that to the episode of Blackwargreymon's
debut, where Miyako got fed up fairly quickly and slapped Ken, where the impression is that he came
along because she basically bullied him into it. I'm not denying that Kenyako could work, but I think
Daisuke would be a better match for Ken, because he's been shown to be more likely to respect Ken's
feelings.) My other reason is a strange one. When I first became a Ken fan, I went over to Fanfiction.net
and braved the Digimon section to look for good Ken fanfic, and, frankly, the Kensuke ones I read were
better. I know, I know, there are some great Kenyako writers out there (Athena, for example) but by and
large the ones I read in the early days of my Ken obsession weren't very good. In particular, a lot of
the Kenyako fanfics I've read make the mistake of turning Miyako into the sighing shoujo heroine
pining over her beloved, simultaneously casting Ken into the role of the strong male and the
dominant member of the relationship. Ken as he is portrayed in the series does have a dominant
streak (the Kaiser) but after he stops being the Kaiser he seems very submissive, thus he doesn't
quite work in the role of strong male. Also, I admit to being annoyed by a few Kenyako fics I read
where Miyako was cast as being the only one who completely understands and trusts Ken and I see that
as being unfair to Daisuke. There was one Kenyako I read that I enjoyed the later chapters of, but I
almost gave up after the early chapters because Miyako was shown to be Queen Understanding and Daisuke
was flying off the handle for something he thought Ken did. I think that's fairly out of character,
since the series has established that Daisuke was the first to trust Ken and that he would be more
likely to stand by Ken then turn on him. Thus my favorite Kenyako fics tend to be those that don't
ignore that Daisuke is indeed Ken's best friend and so potray him as such. The Kensuke fics I read
seemed, for the most part, to keep everyone in character better than the Kenyako fics. Maybe I just
picked bad fics to start out with, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. (Also, no, I didn't have
a preference for yaoi at the time. Digimon is the series that made me a yaoi fan.)
But...Kaiken? The hell? The Kaiken thing's a recent love for me. It's hard to find fics
for it since you can't really write it without some weirdness (after all, Ken is the Kaiser.) Writing
'Deep As You Go' is what really got me into it. Kaiken's really fun on a strange level. Ken and the Kaiser are
in some ways complete opposites, and I can easily see them in a disturbing dominant/submissive borderline-
abusive relationship. And it's always fun to screw with Ken's head.
What was that bit before about the epilouge? I bet you don't like it just 'cause it screws with
your yaoi thing! Actually, I have many problems with the epilouge besides the choice of couplings.
First, the 'everybody gets a Digimon' bit, which is technically not part of the epilouge, but I include it
because I don't like it either. Call me elitist if you will, but I prefer the idea that only a few special
children have Digimon that they have to hide from others. Everybody getting one just doesn't sit well with
me. (Plus, by everyone, did they mean that even ax murderers and stuff get Digimon? 'Cause you know that
can't be good.) As for the epilouge itself, I hated it more because it was sloppy than because it messed
with my yaoi love. I'd be fine with Kenyako in the epilouge...if I felt that it had been supported by
the series before that point and, despite what some Kenyako fans try to tell me, I don't see it. At
least Sorato was foreshadowed a little, but I felt like the Kenyako bit was just pulled out of nowhere.
And then there are other annoying bits. First, the jobs. Yamato as an astronaut? The hell? I know, when
you're younger you don't know for sure what you're going to be, but in a TV show you have the advantage
of foreshadowing, so use it. For example, during the world tour episodes while the kids were riding on
Imperialdramon through space, Yamato could've mentioned enjoying the stars or something. Tomboy Sora ending
up as a fashion designer may have been nicely ironic, but it also undermined her character. And while I
like Taichi, I don't think he'd make a good ambassador to anywhere. That requires a tact I just don't see
a guy like Taichi having. All in all, I think most of the jobs were just pulled out of a hat or something,
with little or no thought given to most of them. The character designs were also disappointing. Yamato, for
example, looked exactly like his Dad, but with non-squinty eyes and less stumble. Sora looked exactly like her
mother with her hair up (in the scene where we learn about her job.) Since this was the big finale
of the Adventure timeline, I think they could at least have tried to make everyone look a little more original
including the kids. Taichi and Daisuke's sons in particular looked like clones of their parents (I'm sure I
wasn't the only one making Mini-Me jokes the first time I saw it.) I think the ones who fared best were probably
Iori and Mimi (Iori's daughter and Mimi's son looked like actual different people, not like their parents made
small), and Ken looked good as an adult. Other than that, things seemed sloppy. (And with the jobs and the
couplings, yes, you could argue that a lot can change in twenty-five years, and we don't necessarily know
all that happens. I don't care. I think that saying 'Oh, twenty-five years passed, so we can do whatever the
heck we want' is a cheap excuse. By that logic all the boys in the series could've gotten a sex change because
hey, who knows what happened in all those years. The year excuse may be fine for some, but I find it a cop out.)