This is something like a newsletter series I’m starting. I have so many projects that I’m having fun working on, but if I have to wait until the project is finished, no one will see things. This will also help me get feedback, and organize myself so I can present this, which should help me make permanent progress to help push the boulder to an actual release.
Also as an announcement, I finally pulled the trigger and bought mattwandcow.com. Back in 2010, I thought Mad Matt would be my brand, but that turned out to be flawed thinking. Not sure what it should be yet, but currently its showing a plain text version of mad-matt.com, and I like that a lot. We’ll see what the future holds
When I think of the TV I watched as a kid, Digimon holds a special place. I was the perfect age for it. And as I’ve been thinking about it again, circling a project, it certainly has a lot going for it.
I don’t know a ton about the history of the show and franchise. I probably ought to do the research and buy some manga collections. I’ve watched something like 7 seasons of the show, which certainly isn’t all of them. A lot of the shows have this mix of being for kids, and yet being well designed. (Although rewatching season 1 has had some tedious moments, so maybe this is nostalgia talking.)
I picked up a Digimon game on the switch and it’s a fascinating experience. But we’re not here to talk about that.
My Digimon Adventure
I’ve been thinking about making a Digimon story of my own for probably a decade. I know I named some of the characters in a notebook I have no idea the location of. (Note: After posting this, I went and looked and found a google doc with details last edited May 2012) And the broad strokes of the plot seem to be still fine in my mind.
The protagonists of the shows are called the “Digidestined”. How much their status is based on actual prophecy sort of varies with the premise of each show, but normally each is some kid, ages between maybe 7 and 14, who get teamed up with a partner Digimon. They have a bit of a symbiotic relationship, becoming fast friends who go on an adventure together. Along the way, the magic of their friendship allows the Digimon to become stronger, getting more powerful forms and abilities. Standard Shonen fair.
The Digimon story I’ve been thinking about has our focus on adults who become a second set of Digidestined.
Act 1
Before the events of my story, there was a world crisis, where a sentient AI virus had run rampant through computer systems, dealing crazy damage, hurting public opinion, etc. But a special government computer division had laid a trap and managed to capture the virus, using software they had developed. When nothing else appeared, the organization was shuttered and the team disbanded. Most went back to the various units and departments of the govenment/military they had been taken from. But for one of their number, the fight was not over.
Our central character, the leader, hasn’t given up the fight. He’s obsessed with tracking and understanding and begins to see other movements, not as big and destructive, but he thinks he’s seeing other Digital Sentients moving through the network. He is tracking one when it vanishes. He meets with one of his old teammates, and convinces her to come with him to do a sort of illegal investigation. They go to ask some questions, that’s it. The grandmother at the door calls down her grandson, who is named LANDON.
It turns out Landon is one of the Digidestined Children. I think his father was the original researcher behind the government organization the protagonists worked for. He had a lab in his garage or basement or something, and his son has been using it with the others as a portal to the Digital World, where they’ve been failing to make progress in defeating the big villian who is running the whole thing.
I don’t have the next part really figured out yet, but they end up getting the band back together, and the adults meet the kids, and go to the digital world.
Act 2
The Digital World is a place where data is made manifest, and programs can become Digital Monsters, aka Digimon. The 5 members of the team had each designed a piece of software to help them with their task. AVITOSMON and SENSEIMON are the only ones I remember, although who knows what the acronyms actually turn out to be? These are unique Digimon, since they were actually designed and came to life due to interaction with the sentient virus thing, as opposed to having some natural evolution in the Digiworld.
Each person has a partner, and these partner digimon say they’ve been waiting for ages. On investigation, this is because the digiworld runs on a different speed than Earth. Physics is more of a suggestion. Part of my story concept is that these are scientists and engineers on this adventure. They’re figuring out how the world works, and finding exploits.
I have a few ideas of the scenes, but we’re looking at the standard sort of digimon act 2. The people are learning to trust their partners, the people are learning the world, the digimon are gain levels and fighting and digivolving. The kids have rough moments, but adults help. Not by solving the issue, but by giving them a key word of advice that helps them solve it themselves. There’s challenges for the kids that the adults don’t have and can’t interact with.
During all of this, we’re learning that Landon’s father had found the digiworld and had begun exploring it. We discover that he was the one that arranged for the digivices to be bound to the chosen. There’s evidence that the digiworld has forests made of social media and stuff like that. There’s evidence that Landon has been stalked by someone.
When Landon was young, there was a horrible monster that began to savage the digital world, and began to head for the real world’s data net. That would be catastrophic, so Landon’s father disabled the connection, stranding him here in a world where time passes at a different rate.
The father is alive, and they track him down. He’s spent millennia here, but has a touching scene at the reunion. Sealing the gate meant that no messages could be passed to the real world, so he couldn’t get any reinforcements. He needed some more people with digivices. but he didn’t do the digidestined part of it. Anyone with a digivice should be able to get in. (Maybe his partner digimon was trapped in the IRL data net and set that up? I like that)
But it turns out that severing the gate didn’t work perfectly. MORIARTYMON can’t be found in the digital world. He’s still communicating with his minions, but Landon’s father can’t find him anywhere. When this name is spoken, the adults react. Because the name of the Virus that they caught and we’ve probably seen a few scenes with is Moriarty. And like his namesake, he has wheels within wheels.
Act 3
This is the act where the mysteries are over, and its a time for action. I’m not sure of the mechanics, but the idea is that digital concepts are going to be able to manifest in the real world, and Moriartymon has acquired the secret of it. Humans are going to be in trouble, since the rules for the digital world will apply to the monsters. Normal weapons aren’t going to work, because the physiology of a digimon doesn’t know how to interact with a bullet or a sword.
Big fight scene, victory!
Act 4 Epilogue time.
Landon’s father gets home and reunites with his mother(?) Landon’s grandma. The government team is brought together, with funding and researchers. Maybe there were shortages and issues that the digital world can fix. Maybe there’s more digital worlds out there? anyway, the team is back together, the kids are part of the team, and everyone is getting what they want here at the end.
The end.
Next
That is my story, basically. There’s a lot of wholes that I would need to fill in, obviously. I have a few interesting scenes that I’d want to commit to, but the rest is really loose. Next, I should develop the character roster more. Digimon is a crazy cast list, because you actually have twice as many protagonists as it seems. The digimon don’t have arcs as much, they’re sort of a NPC attachment to their partner, but we’re looking at 20 characters in the protagonist roles. Not the main protags, but I think that’s the spread.
I can save time for the kids and use established Digimon to fill out their team, but I still need personalities and all that.
Form
I’ve never thought of this as a comic. I could maybe see it as an animated thing, but I don’t have the skill set for it. I’d probably make this as just a webnovel. Playing in other people’s sandboxes makes publishing hard, but Royal Road does have fanfic style content like this.
Would people other than me find this interesting? Always hard to say. But this is the project I’ve been thinking about this week. If I had to pick a number, I’d say we’re at 10% done, but this is the easy, dreaming 10%. A lot of sweat remains to be done. Is it worth it? Let me know if you think so!