Sadness – Pinkie's Paradise

Animini: Digimon Adventure -Episode 12- Lillymon Blooms

It’s a new week my Island Guests! I doubt this week will be as amazing as last week but let’s give it a shot! Given the episode title and the set up of last week it was not that hard to figure out what this week’s episode would be about and how it would end. Yet.. something happened.. after this episode ended , it got under my skin! I ended up feeling really REALLY blue and bummed out. It wasn’t because it was a bad episode either.. I mean I would not call it great…but … well let’s just explain while I blog.

The Summary

In the previous episode we saw Mimi plummet to the depths of the ruins she was exploring with Taichi and Koshiro. She now is all by herself.. Palmon’s vines can’t grow up high enough to get them back up, or even communicate with the pair upstairs. Because these ruins are so deep and brimming with a strange energy they can not even use their digivices to communicate. All of these little elements used .. have been established before.. Palmon’s lift.. the energy in the digiscript, the way digivices work.. once again showing a good plausible set up for this scenario. Koshiro, with some lag, works trough the interference to translate these runes and find out of there is a way to save Mimi, while the latter searches for a way up. Both parties soon discover that this place was once an ancient factory for mechanical Digimon. A soundbirdmon makes his way into the ruins and awakens a pile of deactivated digimon.. including Andromon.. the Ultimate level machine Digimon.. many fans of the series know and love. Like in the original series though he gets corrupted and tries to eliminate Mimi. She however is saved by Guardromon. Earlier Mimi uncovered a dusty body of a digimon.. and Mimi being Mimi, wanted to make it shine and polishes it off and smiles to it.. this act of kindness makes him her guardian!

Togemon is no match for Andromon and quickly gets critically injured , but Guardromon uses his missiles to attack the environment and collapse it onto Andromon. Thus highlighting that a lower level digimon can take on an Ultimate by fighting smart. It knows Andromon is not defeated yet so he flees with Mimi! Resting up in a little safe haven he gives her a little flower to reassure her and promises he will help her go to the upper levels of the ruins again. Meanwhile Taichi and Koshiro are descending into the lower levels of the ruins , not knowing what awaits them. Just before Mimi reaches the elevator Andromon catches up with her and he and Guardromon fight.. leaving Mimi’s new friend Critically injured. Taichi and Koshiro save her but Kabuterimon is easily tossed aside. Taichi evolves Agumon into MetalGreymon.. and here we see a new element come into play.. match-ups! MetalGreymon while super powerful has slow attacks that Andromon can easily take out on the account of having a gatling gun! Metalgreymon is defeated.. and just about Mimi is about to be killed, her guardian Guadromon grabs onto Andromon and stops him. Andromon then kills Guardromon.. and Mimi feels tremendous pain and anger. These pure and raw emotions trigger her crest of Sincerity and Togemon evolves into Lillymon for the first time. Having no option but to kill Andromon. Using her attack to consume him in leafage.. makes the android snap back to his old self.. just to realise he will die for his sins. Mimi cries and the trio enters the elevator upstairs right after Mimi places a little flower onto the also overgrown corpse of her Guardromon’ friend.

The Positives

Wow… a Mimi episode. A Mimi episode that did not portray her as shallow but as a genuine and lovely bubbly girl that just loves when things are pretty. A girl that has never faced too much adversity but now is finding herself on an adventure.. and an unwinnable one at that. In this episode the group experiences their first massive loss. While they won in the end they could not save Guardromon. Sure it kind of happened with MetalTyrannomon before.. but that was the noble sacrifice of Ogremon.. it had something heroic. The way Guardromon lost his life felt desperate.. and futile. He did not keep Mimi safe for longer than a few seconds! Yet he wanted to try anyway.. and the last thing he remembered was her genuine smile! Such a powerful thing! It really embodied Mimi’s Crest well.. but I never would have expected for them to go the negative route and let her experience sincere pain and grief.

To accompany this episode that packs a serious punch.. is this odd.. pacing and direction. Normally we see the classical three act structure .. where the heroes face a big problem, flee , strategise and return to a fight just to do well but be surprised by a hidden ability that forces them to “awaken” into a new shape or form. This episode does not really do that. Togemon does not just get defeated it gets put on death’s door. This is the second time this happens to Palmon.. so I am kind of afraid she might end up dying even if the show continues long enough. However in the first act.. the enemy is already temporarily beaten and out-strategised. The second act has no analytical part at all. Mimi is not that type of character, she makes friends and gets taken along for the ride and that is executed quite literally when Digimon carries her. The third act shows the group suffer complete defeat.. there is not really a moment where tides look to have turned.. sure Andromon goes down one time but there is no epic music beat.. no victory song.. the normal music just drones on. We know this isn’t it. Even when Guadromon gets killed and Lillymon finally arrives, we do not get the regular digivolution theme.. instead the transformation happens to a much more subtle piece of music.. showing it’s too late! The group has survived.. but they haven’t won!

The Negatives

For some reason seeing the friendly metal man get taken down and lose his life made me extremely sad. Sure it is sad to see an episode from the very concept of it but the way it was done .. that final goodbye.. it landed very hard for me, which can be deemed as a good point.. but there are deaths that make me cry that feel like a good cry.. this just bummed me out. In a way the odd pacing of this episode is very powerful but it makes it also a very unsatisfying episode. That kick of feel goodness the show has given me so far is nearly completely absent from this episode. Gone are the bright colours, the hype music, the music and imagery synergising. Even the digivolution sequence of Agumon this time felt “off” as if it was forced in.. He had to kill Digimon that were nowhere near his level.. but he could not waste time.. so he could not show mercy. As a result though the fight felt kind of more uneasy than satisfying.

Andromon I know as one of the best and most amazing allies of the digidestined so to see him snuffed out like this felt.. “wrong”.. In a way I really LOVE that they did this. There is no shooting lethal attacks into someones face just to break whatever spell makes him evil! No .. he got corrupted and they have lethal digimon.. so they had to put it down. Because they are the ones that need to save this world… there is no plot magic saving the good guys. There are bigger stakes at play than a single kindhearted digimon.. he needed to die for the greater good. This stuff is my jam..I love that morality where a good guy needs to make choices and sacrifices. Yet at the same time.. because the original Digmon series exists that gave us our shot of Dopamine.. this course of events feels completely unsatisfying. I love that they went this route.. but I did not enjoy myself persé in this episode. I suffered a bit and actually felt bad after the episode and had to take a long shower to get back a bit. So this one will be hard to grade again.

The Score

Death are a part of anime, and even digimon has richly used death in the past. Some deaths in anime even really hurt.. but there can also be a sense of beauty to it. This one however did not give me any positives. It is very well written and I really appreciate them going this route in hindsight but I REALLY REALLY REALLY did feel bad from this episode. Not crying my eyes out bad.. just “I can experience no joy” kind of bad. So there is no way I can give this episode a perfect grade. I can’t even say this episode is very good. In a way it is.. but I can’t shake that terrible feeling this episode gave me. On it’s own I think this episode would be horrible.. like if someone sees this as their first episode of Digmon I don’t think they would ever return. The pacing is off, the music is unsatisfactory , the action feels dulled and the colours are super grey, it feels off in every way.

In the bigger picture I can see how it is designed to be like that.. how it is meant to contrast with the other episodes. This episode did confirm that only Taichi and Yamato will get those stock digivolutions as the Togemon digivolution happened without the cool animation and that is a bit of a let down but hey.. Taichi is the leader and Yamato is the second .. I can live with that. Still though in an episode that bummed me out so much I can not help but crave for seeing that satisfying animation. In the end I chose to grade this Okiwi.. but it is the wrong grade.. on many levels. It’s both worse and way way better than that. Yet it is the only way I can express my feelings for this episode. I love the direction.. I hate the episode. I love the journey. I hate the events. There was enjoyment there but it was dulled by that sensation of being bummed out to my very core.

The Kangaskhan Cubone Theory

Greetings little monsters, it is time to go theorycrafting again. Though this is the category I seem I will struggle with most to keep up, mostly because I weave all sorts of theories together, I do think we have a good one today. We will take a deeper look into pokémon evolutions and mythos. This just might be a tricky one.

The Rumor
Pokémon is filled with the most horrible stories you can ever imagine. From cute balloons stealing children’s souls, to children starving in the woods and their spirits merging with the trees, wandering around as phantump forever. Death is ever present in the world of Pokémon. One death in particular is known by both fans and casual followers alike. The death of Cubone’s mother. A narrative that was explored in the original GEN I , Red and Blue , games and which was heartbreakingly recaptured in Let’s Go Eevee and Let’s Go Pikachu. In the latter we literally saw cubone chasing after the departing spirit of Marowak.Yet some believe that Cubone’s mother wasn’t a Marowak at all. It was a Kangaskhan.With cutscenes already proving us wrong, why would we even discuss this theory? Both Nintendo and Game Freak employees keep hinting that there still might be truth to this rumor.
‘How can this be Pinkie! You just told us Marowak was in the cutscene and there even is a pic below… BAD PINKIE!’ Hold on now before you make me cry by shouting at me…*snif*… it’s thursday ..so that means I got a theory.’ To present some evidence I need to jump forward to the sixth generation and a mechanic we learned about there. Mega-Evolution.

Poor Cubone, finally seeing its mother again….

Just to lose her forever… Pokémon can be cruel!

Proof: Mega Evolution
By now we all know Cubone is donning the skull of it’s dead mother. If you didn’t… here you go.. another wonderful titbit of pokémon lore that is absolutely canon and confirmed. The quick theory was that Kangaskhan baby fell out of it’s pouch as it’s mother was killed then worre her skull as a mask. However this would invalidate game canon so as a theory it just doesn’t work for me. Mega Evolution kinda proved something I was suspecting all along , which is massively important to this theory. Gen VI allowed us to use a piece of jewelry and an empowering stone to alter the forms of final evolution empowering them for the entire duration of the battle, as long as they carried that stone. To many’s dismay when Kangaskhan got it was just the baby getting out of the pouch to fight side by side next to its mother. People nagged and complained that this was not an evolution. Yet maybe…it was? What if Kangaskhan could not separate from her baby. What if they are in fact on Pokémon with two minds. We’ve seen the existence of two separate thinking entities in a single pokémon before, Slowbro and Girafarig just to name some. Dodrio is even known for those minds arguing with another. The fact that the beloved mother pokémon needs the power of mega evolution of separate from the baby, validates this theory. The suspicion had always been there since gen II where Kangaskhan would hatch as both mother and offspring already nor do we see any of the two ever wandering alone.
Possible anime episodes were the baby gets stolen we will exclude because in my eyes those DO contradict what the game provides us. The anime would after all be compelled to write interesting narratives, and concerning a mother and baby bond pokémon those storylines come very easily.Back to what has been more or less established in the game. The two being quite inseparable We now can begin to wonder, if Mega Evolution is the right way of separating them could there be a wrong way?.

Hypothesis: The Nincada method
Could Kangaskhan really be related to Cubone? How was Marowak cubone’s mother, yet Nintendo keeps putting the family pokémon and the lonely pokemon together in the same fields. Why can Kangaskhan show up in Pokémon Sun and Moon as an S.O.S. call for Cubone? S.O.S calls with a few exceptions (like Mareanie who shows up to eat wounded, calling for help, Corsola) only monsters from the same evolutionary line show up. Could there actually be a link? We have seen pokémon evolve before when they merge with other pokémon, but can the opposite also be true? What if Kangaskhan in fact could evolve into Marowak by separating their child from them in an attempt to protect them? This could make sense were it not that Marowak only has a base stat total of 420 and Kangaskhan has one of 490. Where does the baby go? Let’s consider a single pokémon, evolving into two? Unheard of you say? That’s not right, in Generation 3 we have seen this before, when the bug Pokémon Nincada evolves, as long as you have a free slot on your team, it evolves into two seperate pokémon being Shedinja and Ninjask. Shedinja being the byproduct terribly weak with only 1hp but a very special ability. Now let’s see if it even remotely makes sense, say Kangaskhan can separate when it’s panicked and fears for it’’s child which causes it to evolve. Not only do we see Marowak we also get a “new” pokémon, that for this blog we will give a placeholder name for the species. In this blog it shall be known as a Beybiroo. Beybiroo would be a baby pokémon, like budew, smoochum, pichu and the likes. It moveset would be moves like Tearful Look, Curse and maybe Round. Not a great Pokémon but it allows you to bring Curse onto Marowak or Kangaskhan later on. “Hold on Pinkie, before we talk about movesets, lets see if Kangaskhan evolving into Marowak even makes sense? You said it’s base stat total drops, even if we get a baby pokémon with it ? Why would it evolve in Marowak then if it was stronger before?’ Well my sweet little monsters, there is one stat that firmly increases if Kangaskhan would evolve into Marowak. It’s defence!

With Beybiroo hurt it’s mother knew what to do.

Completing the circle
Woah… the defence rising of a Pokémon defending her child that actually kinda makes sense! But what about Beybiroo then? How does it evolve? Well we have known about item evolutions already and then I don’t mean the evolutionary stones. I am talking about items like your Metal Coat, Dragonn Scale, Magmarizer and so on. How about making an item based around a skull and when Beybiroo holds it while leveling, it will evolve into a cubone? It would fit in the lore after. Yet of course it still needs to be implemented in the game. How could we do that? First we need to give Kangaskhan a move to seperate Beybiroo from her. Gameplay wise it makes the most sense to make this a learned move, akin to self destruct and explosion, but as a ground type move instead. A name like Mothers-Love would probably be preferable over Baby-Toss. Once used Kangaskhan faints and directly after the battle it used that move, it evolves. If you have a free slot , you also get the Beybiroo added to your team. A Marowak who is evolved this way (and thus always is female) can get a new ability as well. This ability would allow it to get the skull item you need once it faints and it has an item slot available. The item works in essence like a focus-sash, that would your pokémon take a one hit knockout attack Marowak is switched in to take the hit (with its own defences instead, consuming the item) However when Beybiroo levels up with it..it can evolve into cubone. At level 28 if your Cubone is male, it will evolve in a Marowak like normally. If Cubone is female AND you have a Beybiroo in your party, Cubone evolves into Kangaskhan at the same level, without the baby it will transform into a Marrowak like normal. Thus completing the Marowak family circle.

This would be my evolution table! Complex but could make sense.

Good and Bad Separation
I think by doing it this way, the theory of them being related could actually work very well. The themes of orphan and parent would create a synergy between the paring and with Alolan Marowak being a thing this life cycle could create a very interesting bond between your Pokémon, where you can use Beybiroo, alongside the move tutor as a method of getting better moves onto your Kangaskhan or Marowak. Having an alternate method of obtaining a baby-mon is also something that could be very nice, without us having to find a new form of incense. The mother pokémon being the origin of the story. Will you go for good separation and use the mega stone only, or will you separate the pair to gain the better abilities and useful items? A moral dilemma that when executed right could be tremendously fun to play around with adhering to the duality Pokémon has had since the beginning.
Having the cycle work this way also mean we finally have an explanation for the link, without harming any of the cutscenes. Saying goodbye to Marowak would remain intact, yet the story of a loving mother giving up her live to save her child would never have been more powerful.

What if they are actually the same, and one had just less luck in life?

Thus ends today’s theory. It was nice to add my own spin to an older theory, trying to make it work. I hope you enjoyed as well. What theory would YOU like me to shine my light on?
Give my day a little bright powder and leave a like or a comment.
Stay pink my little monsters!

X

P.S.
Have a happy drumming Cubone cause it deserves a smile too!