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adventure-hearts · 7 years

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tri. Chapter 5 - Recap, Review, Analysis [part four]

(part one ) (part two ) (part three)

Phew! This took way longer than I expected and my thoughts are still convoluted, but this movie was packed. I don’t think it was perfect by any means, but the themes are given a lot of depth, pacing was good, the plot is advancing, and the characters (especially Taichi) had some memorable moments. Above all, it worked far better after a (close) rewatch.

I think it’s up there with Kokuhaku in terms of quality. My faith in tri. continues to be justified!

We have months of speculation ahead of us, so I won’t bother you with a lot of predictions for what’s coming next. I’m sure I’ll come back to some of these ideas until the summer :)

Raguelmon and Jesmon fight each other, and at one moment Raguelmon protects Meiko. This only reinforces the Chosen Children’s belief that there's still a connection between the Meiko and her partner, further strenghtehing their resolve to protect Meicoomon against Jesmon, even if it means going against Homeostasis.

Of course, Homeostasis isn't happy about this, so it takes over Hikari and tells them to stop interfering.

At this point, Homeostasis straight-up threatens the Chosen Children. Moreover, it’s essentially telling them they failed. Homeostasis picks human children to fight its battles to keep balance, but it has no qualms in pushing them aside if they don’t serve its purpose.

No more Mr nice guy! Daigo is done with Homeostasis, and he knows he has been played as well. When he was a Chosen Child, he had to make a sacrifice that resulted in Maki’s partners death, and it destroyed Maki in the process - and (if you believe Hackmon’s words) this was seen as a failure by Homeostasis. This time, Daigo decides to protect his friends. He has been fond of the Chosen Children from the start, and he’s firmly on their side now.

As Homeostasis goes on about how it can do what it wants and how sacrifices are needed, the Chosen Children fight back -- including, significantly, Hikari: the ONE kid who's literally been used by Homeostasis. This is a tremendous character moment for Hikari -- she’s standing up for herself and for her beliefs, and against a supernatural entity at that! We know that behind her sweet, passive attitude Hikari has plenty of courage (surrendering herself to Vamdemon was another defining moments), but it’s so rare for her to actually show that this tiny scene ends up being really significant.

To be fair, this is a pretty weird line, considering their past history. You��d think the Chosen Children are aware that sometimes sacrifices are needed, since it has happened a million times before.

Hikari then accuses Homeostasis of being selfish, which has to be unfair. Homeostasis is hardly doing this for its own benefit, but only to keep the stability between the worlds. Sure, it’s a cruel, impersonal decision, but human morality and concepts of “good”, “evil”, and “justice” clearly do not concern Homeostasis.

Is this another example of how the Chosen Children’s idealism sometimes blinds them to the harshness reality? Are the kids forgetting the lessons from past, or are they just being obtuse? It’s one of the moments where tri.’s ambiguous position to what came before (what its critics describe as cherry-picking) can make it difficult to interpret what the characters are thinking.

However, I think the point here is that there’s a clear difference between choosing to sacrifice yourself (like Wizarmon, Oikawa and so many others) and being sacrificed for the sake of the “Greater Good”, which is Homeostasis’ MO. One is selfless; the other a forceful, unilateral decision. Clearly, the Chosen Children are willing to risk the worlds collapsing in order to protect their friend, Meicoomon, from being sacrificed by Homeostasis, whatever the reasons that may justify this execution. You have to admire the strength of the Chosen Children’s principles – they aren’t willing to watch a friend get destroyed to keep the balance of the world, and are ready to go against Homeostasis to uphold that principle. This isn’t just a moral standpoint -- they choose the team (i.e. love) over The Bigger Picture.

But again, it’s hard to argue that Homeostasis is being evil or even irrational. Taichi and the others being so surprised and conflicted shows how their deep-set beliefs can fail when confronted with though choices.

Generally speaking, I think this is a very important theme in this Chapter: idealism vs. pragmatism in the Chosen Children’s decisions.

Once they get to the Digital World, though, Taichi's mind is made – they will protect their friends no matter what, regardless of right or wrong. This hits a cord with Daigo, who's reminded of his own partner, Maki and Bakumon, and how he used to be a goggle boy. He knows what it’s like to be unwillingly sacrificed for the Bigger Picture.

Alphamon shows up again (apparently, he's aligned with Ygrasil) and proceeds to fight Jesmon. A four-way battle of conflicting loyalties ensues between Raguelmon, Omegamon, Alphamon, and Jesmon, which if anything illustrates how complicated the plot of this series is, and how it’s characterised by the lack of a clear, single antagonist.

And then it comes the moment half the fandom expected. The Dark Ocean’s comeback!

Somehow, in her despair and a less than balanced mental state, Maki found her way to the Dark World and is looking for Bakumon there. I don't know if she went there through a distortion (as in 02) or if Dagomon's minions called her there - remember, like Hikari, Maki was also a vessel for Homeostasis. Depending on how we read this, parallels with Ken or Hikari become apparent.

(And Maki holding a DARK D3 back in Chapter 3 suddenly becomes even more intriguing!)

Maki is swallowed by the dark ocean, Daigo somehow senses something is wrong. maki drowns further.

Hikari's words seem to have an unecpected effect because it's Meiko who hears them. Meiko decides she can't make Meicoomon suffer anymore.

So Meiko makes the bravest, toughest, and probably more logical decision - she realises that destroying Meicoomon would not only stop the problem at hand, but it would ALSO stop her partners suffering. meiko realises there's nothing left to do. The Chosen Children's strategy has failed. She can't handle this anymore, and she wants to put an end to it.

As Sora realises, this isn't a coward's way out: this is a brave, necessary decision. The alternative is for Meicoomon to kill more people, be killed anyway, or end up destroying the world. Ultimately, destroying Meicoomon can also be seen as an act of mercy. Meiko is her partner’s only hope - she makes the “rational choice”, but her decision is made out of love for Meicoomon.

Taichi remembers her words at the school, and he understands that Meiko’s decision is the right one. Remember, Taichi is the only one who knows what is like to have his partner gone bad, and he’s had to face a similar choice before. tri. never references the events in 02 where Agumon was controlled by the Kaiser and Taichi allowed his friends to fight against him, but the parallels are there.

However, the other Chosen Children don’t get it yet. They're all too blinded by idealism and afraid to hurt one of them, even if it's the only way. They contest Taichi’s decision, but he’s calm and determined.

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS A TRUE LEADER.

Like Meiko, Taichi realises that if they end Meicoomon themselves, they'll put an end to this and neither Homeostasis nor Ygdrasil will win. In this context, killing Meicoomon (with Meiko’s blessing) means protecting Meicoomon.

Yamato’s negative reaction here is very interesting. Apparently, his refusal to kill Meicoomon seems to contradict a lot of his previous actions.

After all, back in 02, it was Yamato who convinced Taichi that “Agumon would rather die than to become a slave”, and was willing to fight him. Moreover, since the beging of tri., he’s been chastising Taichi for running away and for refusing to take a stand. In Chapter 3, he was even the one who pragmatically stated that if one of the digimon partners became infected, they would have to fight them, much to Takeru’s horror.

I don’t quite understand this development, unless they just want to inject the mandatory opposition between Taichi and Yamato. I suppose you could read it this way: Yamato didn’t really mean what he said earlier, or at least he was fooling himself about his ability to go through with this though decision.

Although for most of tri. Taichi and Yamato’s roles have often been inverted (more on this later), we know that Taichi is actually the more pragmatic of the two, while Yamato is a very emotional person who makes decisions based on feelings. When Taichi suggests killing a friend, it goes against Yamato’s most important values -- friendship and loyalty – and he’s so emotionally upset by the idea he can’t stop to reflect that this is actually a mercy-killing, and lashes out at Taichi, which is usually a symptom that his feelings are in turmoil. Koushirou intervenes and tells that he should already know it. Yamato seems to see the other side of the issue, but the conclusion is so painful that it causes him to howl in frustration.

Meiko thanks them for doing something so difficult... And then she makes a terribly stupid decision and runs off to the middle of the battle, after Meicoomon. We’ve seen some indication that Meiko’s will to live (and her belief that “she shoudn’t have been born) are pretty strong, and now it seems she intends to share her partners fate. Yamato, Taichi, and Daigo go after her.

Jesmon's attack fails somehow and the ground starts crumbling, opening a chasm that separates Taichi from Yamato and Meiko. In a selfless move, Taichi orders Omegamon to protect Yamato and Meiko and faces the danger on his own.

Taichi and Daigo disappear into the crumbling rock, and Jesmon and Alphamon are gone as well, leaving behind a battered Raguelmon and Taichi’s goggles.

Hikari watches the loss of her brother and enters a sort of catatonic state. Her powers start acting up, and Nyaromon becomes Ophanimon FallDown mode. When prophecy spoke of going through darkness to reach power, I’m not sure if this was included. Anyway, it’s hard to argue that this is Hikari’s normal Ultimate evolution in any way - it’s clearly powered by sorrow and pain, that is, (metaphorically) darkness. This darkness now causes the world to go crazy and envolves a battered Raguelmon.

Mystery Man’s words seem to echo that old line: “The brighter the light, the darker the shadow”. Inflicting this sort of trauma on Hikari has consequences that are beyond normal. Was this the plan all along, or happy collateral damage? Either way, I don’t think it’s coincidental that we keep seeing Mystery Man’s reactions to everything that’s happening.

When Hikari gives the order “Take Over”, Ophanimon FM and Raguelmon fuse into a monstruous being with dark wings. The parallels between Tailmon and Meicoomon finally mean something. As Mystery Man talks about destruction, Hikari speaks cryptic words.

The being disappears into a hole in the sky and emerges in the real world. The harmony between the worlds is in collapse. As Ygdrasil planned, the human world will be swallowed by the Digital World.

Yamato picks up Taichi's goggles and remembers his words.

He understands that Taichi was willing to sacrifice himself for his friends. I don't know if this is what Yamato meant when he said he “expected too much of him”, but I like to think that it is. Yamato accepts and supports Taichi’s decision.

In Taichi's absence, the group needs a leader, and this time Yamato realises there’s no time for crying. He’s gone, but the group still has work to do: they can lick their wounds later. Yamato steps up to the responsibility: he gives an inspiring speech, proving what he has learnt from Taichi as well. Yamato’s got tough words for his friends, but they are willing to follow him.

So we have come full circle. Taichi has finally decided to stop running away and has sacrificed himself for his friends. Yamato has decided to honour Taichi’s sacrifice, and lead the others as Taichi would have done. As he puts on the goggles, Yamato symbolically takes over as leader and they get ready to fight on.

#digimon #digimon adventure tri #kyousei

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