If you could rewrite any Digimon series

[HawkG]

I feel like most series could be cleaned up a bit so I'll just put in a list of stuff I think should be changed fundamental from the ground up from least work to most.

Frontier: I just think it's kind of boring overall. Use all of your characters more, be a bit less repetitive near the end. Have Kouichi's character arc be more than just a mystery.

Tri: Have everyone deal with their problems in a different that doesn't equate to all of them running away from confrontation with each other. (Don't make them literally run away from confrontation with each other.) I think all of their character arcs need to be cleaned up and focused on more and some of them should get new ones like Takeru and Sora. Sora's who boiled down to an forced inverse of her original episode with Piyomon and Takeru who's arc was just wasteful angst that gets spread around to everyone else and to be the mouth piece to forgive Meiko for the group.

Homeostasis was a cop-out antagonist so the kids could do the right thing the second time around and should have just stayed an over watching force that had Huckmon enforce it's will earlier. Dark Genai was a waste of a mystery, just brainwash the 02 kids instead. This last bit is also for Kizuna, if one of your major over arcing theme is "growing up" show us "growing up" in more positive and negative ways instead of just needlessly wax on about it without anything to show for it. I guess I'd like a better distinction between "growing up" and "getting older."

02: I think this whole show is a mess. It biggest problem is that the longer it goes the more agency the characters lose. So let's try to give characters as much as they can.

No Vamdemon possession, in fact he could be cut, a bit too pander-y for my taste. I guess you could just have Oikawa work with Daemon with both planing to backstab the other eventually. No dark spores, that was the final nail in the coffin of Ken's agency as the Kaiser, meaning I can't buy his redemption arc as a whole. Continuing with Kaiser/Ken, they still don't feel like the same character so we can keep the dark ocean's plot points but you could also give it it's own arc and villain instead of just being a plot contrivance. Also use that time to give Takeru and Hikari full arcs.

Don't focus Ken's arc on redemption and but put focus on trying to figure out what type of person he is and wants to be. And seeing how that narrative spot is taken up, either cut BlackWarGreymon completely or hold off on Ken being a member of the group and make those two team up. You can cut the Holy Stones as well, and replace that with the Dark Ocean.

02 has a lot of plot points I don't care for and then it executes them poorly so that's as close as I can get without changing it completely.

I (partly) understand that argument for Ken but how were other characters lacking agency?

I'll use the word agency a lot because my problem really stems from not being able to believe in these characters taking the actions that they did or not being able to buy into them. If this term is too specific, you can just broaden this critique to over all character writing.

02 is a very reactionary plot for our protagonists, which is fine. There is something to be said for them choosing the go and save another world, especially in the environment they get to do it in. The 02 kids aren't trapped like the original are so that speaks a lot for their character but in the end they hardly struggle with the idea of being protagonists. The show does try to give them interesting points that I'll bring up later.


The real problem stems from 02 being a very active plot for our antagonist, who I think lack major forms of agency. We've talked about Ken, motivated by the plot device that is the dark seed. Then we have Arukenimon and Mummymon who might have the most agency because they choose to act for the sake of someone else. I think the show takes to long to make that a plot point, and they had already become jokes way before then, but it's there. They then lead into BlackWarGreymon who's entire arc is about agency. However, for him to become a proper antagonist, you have this very forced plot device that Holy Stones hurt him when they are damaged but he also powers up by destroying them. It's very confusing and takes a full extra episode before it relates back to he character arc. Daemon existed for two episodes, I guess he had some agency for as little as he mattered. Finally, we have Oikawa who is also being manipulated by Vamdemon. His saving grace is that his wants and desires are his own but failing point is that his actions aren't as much his. When your villains move the plot forward I want it to be more than, "the plot device forced me to be bad."

Oikawa brings up another part of agency in that, it's just not that you do something, but why and how you do something. That's not just relegated to character writing but also how the plot puts those characters in those situations. This is the main point of the children's agency. I think the best of their defining moments are the ones where they get their second digimentals. They're all fine for the most part, but I think Iori's is the most stand out of them all, with the crest of sincerity/reliability.

The real problem is when you get to the larger moments like the attack on the Kaiser's base. Because of the way it was written I don't care that Daisuke was the first one to continue moving forward to the power room. In fact in most group situations I feel like Daisuke only gets pushed forward by holding the other characters back. From a narrative direction, the monster just stops, allows him to go to the macguffin, leaves so getting the macguffin becomes easier, and then comes back just to die. I think that writing choice was very transparent and shallow and takes the wind out of any character motivation.

The first over arcing form of agency comes when they have to decided if they want to team up with Ken. On its own, it's a valid plot point. I just can't buy into it because I don't buy into the idea of the Kaiser and Ken being the same character. However, it still has its own problems in and of itself. Daisuke is the driving force for this plot point, but that doesn't matter much when he is being motivated by the macguffin that told / let feel that Ken was a good boy at heart. Daisuke doesn't have to think about what he's doing because he can feel that he's right. Miyako gets it the best in this arc even through Iori is the most against it and Takeru and Hikari might as well not matter.

The final biggest point of agency is when they have to kill real digimon, that is only a real problem for all of two episodes. In those episodes none of the children get to make that choice because their digimon do it for them by being forced into situations where innocent humans are at risk. No one makes the call to do, the digimon just do.

For me digimon 02 is story full of strong personalities with shallow characters that the plot strings along until it ends. Any form of character that starts show up is then overshadowed by the plot that needs to move forward.

 

[Ricardolindo]

I think having the dark spore was necessary as it would be hard for the show having a child be so evil and redeem himself.

 

[JR9386]

Have 02 be a prequel to Adventure, drawing on elements from Frontier and the Ancient Digital World.

A2020 IMO attempted to do something related, but got lost along the way. As much as I critique 02, growing up, it was the series I MOST looked forward to when I got into Digimon. It was a complete disappointment to me when it went off the rails by oversaturating the show with different evolutions.

Give the main Adventure cast their partners at different levels. I get the novelty of raising your own digimon, and as much as I am a diehard Salamon > Ophanimon fanboy, Magnadramon has grown on me. Personally, I think keeping Magnadramon at the Mega level permanently would have worked best as a partner digimon. Tamers did that with MarinAngemon, why not Magnadramon?

As much as I love Adventure's cast, it was a lot to ask of a show featuring 8 (9? Ken?) main protagonists, which again, may have been why I gravitated towards 02, and had high hopes for Tri.

 

[Wolfry]

Have 02 be a prequel to Adventure, drawing on elements from Frontier and the Ancient Digital World.

A2020 IMO attempted to do something related, but got lost along the way. As much as I critique 02, growing up, it was the series I MOST looked forward to when I got into Digimon. It was a complete disappointment to me when it went off the rails by oversaturating the show with different evolutions.

Give the main Adventure cast their partners at different levels. I get the novelty of raising your own digimon, and as much as I am a diehard Salamon > Ophanimon fanboy, Magnadramon has grown on me. Personally, I think keeping Magnadramon at the Mega level permanently would have worked best as a partner digimon. Tamers did that with MarinAngemon, why not Magnadramon?

As much as I love Adventure's cast, it was a lot to ask of a show featuring 8 (9? Ken?) main protagonists, which again, may have been why I gravitated towards 02, and had high hopes for Tri.

That's because Magnadramon is too big to keep in a house, while MarineAngemon is small enough to travel with others without much issue. And keeping large Digimon would be a huge problem in the real world. You could handwave it so the series kept inside the digital world, but a charm of the Adventure series is learning how Digimon impact the real world in a physical manner and how they can cause havoc there. The only Digimon I could feasibly see this working with is Palmon as Lilimon.

Personally, on the topic of Adventure 02 I haven't watched it much but know a bit of its structure. The kids should've had fusion megas and the pacing should've been a little smoother (the series failed to grip me due to the pacing.) Golden Armors should have been saved for the end of the series due to how it's treated as a prophecy.

 

[JR9386]

Have 02 be a prequel to Adventure, drawing on elements from Frontier and the Ancient Digital World.

A2020 IMO attempted to do something related, but got lost along the way. As much as I critique 02, growing up, it was the series I MOST looked forward to when I got into Digimon. It was a complete disappointment to me when it went off the rails by oversaturating the show with different evolutions.

Give the main Adventure cast their partners at different levels. I get the novelty of raising your own digimon, and as much as I am a diehard Salamon > Ophanimon fanboy, Magnadramon has grown on me. Personally, I think keeping Magnadramon at the Mega level permanently would have worked best as a partner digimon. Tamers did that with MarinAngemon, why not Magnadramon?

As much as I love Adventure's cast, it was a lot to ask of a show featuring 8 (9? Ken?) main protagonists, which again, may have been why I gravitated towards 02, and had high hopes for Tri.

That's because Magnadramon is too big to keep in a house, while MarineAngemon is small enough to travel with others without much issue. And keeping large Digimon would be a huge problem in the real world. You could handwave it so the series kept inside the digital world, but a charm of the Adventure series is learning how Digimon impact the real world in a physical manner and how they can cause havoc there. The only Digimon I could feasibly see this working with is Palmon as Lilimon.

Personally, on the topic of Adventure 02 I haven't watched it much but know a bit of its structure. The kids should've had fusion megas and the pacing should've been a little smoother (the series failed to grip me due to the pacing.) Golden Armors should have been saved for the end of the series due to how it's treated as a prophecy.

I see what you're saying, though I suppose I would have been okay with Magnadramon remaining permanently in that state in the Digital World and guarding Primary Vilage or living atop of a mountain or some such. In an ideal world, I would have been okay with their partners remaining at a higher level, permanently towards the end and being responsible for the safety of the Digital World. I got my wish, in part, with the premise of A2020, even if they later shifted gears. That's the epilogue I could have lived with for 02.

Speaking of digimon in the Real World, wouldn't Salamon have been much easier to conceal within it?

 

[Yamato-san]

The Tailmon line in general is rather strange. Of all the Digimon they could give to Hikari, they apparently decided on a pre-existing Adult rather than a Child, resulting in her Digimon having that unique distinction among the Adventure protagonists. And then they created a line of pre-evolutions, from BabyI to Child, after the fact (with said Child form never being shown to be battle-capable because it'd only be treated as an inconvenient regression that'd need to be evolved from immediately)..... and then it just gets all the more awkward when this same Adult Digimon starts getting involved with 02's Armor gimmick.

Looking back, though, all of this might've been a non-issue had Adventure just had evolutions be permanent (which is supposedly what was initially intended).

 

[JR9386]

Looking back, though, all of this might've been a non-issue had Adventure just had evolutions be permanent (which is supposedly what was initially intended).

This is ultimately where I was going with Magnadramon. I honestly don't see regressing as an alternative for an older Kari. This is likely what made Kizuna (I'm not going to bother with spoilers.) so jarring, because it could have gone about addressing the human-digimon bond in terms of being unable to regress to lower forms. I'd like to think of it in terms of the way the genie and Aladdin parted ways in Disney's Aladdin. The bond would always be present, but in a fully actualized sense. The problem with this scenario is that the Bond Forms should have been treated over the course of a series of films, if they intended to feature at a bare minimum, six of the core cast achieving them (I want to include Kari and TK, especially Kari as she has always been more mature, but eight bond forms may have been overkill...). Tri was a wasted effort that should have been invested in by telling the story of Kizuna over a series of films. THAT is the send-off we all deserved.

02 should have been a prequel, fusing elements from Frontier, and the flashback from Tri (The Sovereigns being former partner digimon is a bit of a reach and one that I would happily ignore.).

 

[Chimera-gui]

This is ultimately where I was going with Magnadramon. I honestly don't see regressing as an alternative for an older Kari. This is likely what made Kizuna (I'm not going to bother with spoilers.) so jarring, because it could have gone about addressing the human-digimon bond in terms of being unable to regress to lower forms. I'd like to think of it in terms of the way the genie and Aladdin parted ways in Disney's Aladdin. The bond would always be present, but in a fully actualized sense. The problem with this scenario is that the Bond Forms should have been treated over the course of a series of films, if they intended to feature at a bare minimum, six of the core cast achieving them (I want to include Kari and TK, especially Kari as she has always been more mature, but eight bond forms may have been overkill...). Tri was a wasted effort that should have been invested in by telling the story of Kizuna over a series of films. THAT is the send-off we all deserved.

02 should have been a prequel, fusing elements from Frontier, and the flashback from Tri (The Sovereigns being former partner digimon is a bit of a reach and one that I would happily ignore.).

While I can agree with merging Tri and Kizuna, I have to strongly disagree with making 02. Star Wars already demonstrated why prequels are a dicey prospect at best due to the conclusion being foregone meaning you have factor that conclusion in the writing.

Remember, 02’s epilogue is why Tri and Kizuna are both regarded as messes because especially the latter’s end does not make sense in light of the epilogue. Additionally, you cannot include elements of Frontier and Tri as neither of those existed until well after 02.

That was why Adventure had to be rebooted to allow the inclusion of elements from the intervening series between the original and the reboot.

 

[Mr_Web]

Here's every Digimon series I would rewrite

Adventure 02's second half gets almost a complete rewrite. It was a mess

Frontier gets a complete structure rewrite. I kinda wanted Frontier to work like the earlier episodes of Adventure. They're exploring the digital world and try to figure out what's going on instead of going from point A to point B

Savers is fine how it is

Xros Wars is where I do a major changes which I'll likely rewrite as a new post

I have not seen enough of Applimon and Adventure: to rewrite it. Ghost Game is still going on.

 

[JR9386]

While I can agree with merging Tri and Kizuna, I have to strongly disagree with making 02. Star Wars already demonstrated why prequels are a dicey prospect at best due to the conclusion being foregone meaning you have factor that conclusion in the writing.

I think that even the writers didn't really know where they were going with 02. I sincerely do think that they intended to go further with the concept of ancient/extinct digimon species and older forms of evolution. These are things which would have worked for a prequel to Adventure. Even the number of core cast members initially corresponds to the number of Digidestined in Maki's group.

Re: Tri and Kizuna

I think Kizuna warranted a series of films. We honestly didn't need the story told in Tri.

Additionally, you cannot include elements of Frontier and Tri as neither of those existed until well after 02.

I think the elements I have in mind from Frontier were present in seed form within 02 (eg. Digieggs = Spirits, Ancient Digimon species, Beast and Humanoid evolutionary forms, Jogress forms etc.).

 

[Chimera-gui]

I think that even the writers didn't really know where they were going with 02. I sincerely do think that they intended to go further with the concept of ancient/extinct digimon species and older forms of evolution. These are things which would have worked for a prequel to Adventure. Even the number of core cast members initially corresponds to the number of Digidestined in Maki's group.

Again though as the Star Wars prequel trilogy shows, the reason writing a prequel is generally not recommended is exactly because you as the writer need to know where the story is going hence why prequels have a much higher chance of catastrophe and backlash then even regular sequels.

Lucas knew where Episodes I through III had to end to set up IV through VI but had to wing a lot of interim leading to questionable writing decisions especially in regard to Anakin Skywalker AKA Darth Vader. And of course you also have the Clone Wars cartoon to consider even if ironically that came out with fewer writing issues than the trilogy itself.

I think the elements I have in mind from Frontier were present in seed form within 02 (eg. Digieggs = Spirits, Ancient Digimon species, Beast and Humanoid evolutionary forms, Jogress forms etc.).

Remember that a seed is not a full grown plant though and most seeds don't even survive to maturity. There's a reason for the saying "Don't count your chickens before they hatch".

Digi-Eggs are comparable to Spirits but there are still key differences and while the Armor stages could in theory be split into Beast & Human class Digimon, the idea wasn't even considered until Frontier and many have argued that it wasn't even handled well in Frontier. And hell Jogress wouldn't get expanded on until fucking Xros Wars, almost a full decade after the fact.

It's very likely if not an absolute certainty that the inclusion of Armor as a Level, the idea of ancient Digimon species and Jogress in 02 was a Bandai mandate and writers of 02 had no intention of expanding on them in 02.

 

[Eitaroutarouman]

I've been coming up with ideas for what if Hunters were an actual proper series, but I wonder if I should keep the crossover element or toss it.

 

[Kyaromonfan96]

You know, I wanna rewrite Adventure 02 where Datirimon doesn't die and also no epilogue. That's all.

 

[DigiKing Tamer]

I've been coming up with ideas for what if Hunters were an actual proper series, but I wonder if I should keep the crossover element or toss it.

I say fire that bullet, I'm curious to hear your take on Young Hunters!

Here's every Digimon series I would rewrite

Adventure 02's second half gets almost a complete rewrite. It was a mess

Frontier gets a complete structure rewrite. I kinda wanted Frontier to work like the earlier episodes of Adventure. They're exploring the digital world and try to figure out what's going on instead of going from point A to point B

Savers is fine how it is

Xros Wars is where I do a major changes which I'll likely rewrite as a new post

I have not seen enough of Applimon and Adventure: to rewrite it. Ghost Game is still going on.

Looking forward to reading the Xros Wars rewrite. Feel free to expand it into a full thread if you got a lot more you wanna get off your chest.

 

[JR9386]

Again though as the Star Wars prequel trilogy shows, the reason writing a prequel is generally not recommended is exactly because you as the writer need to know where the story is going hence why prequels have a much higher chance of catastrophe and backlash then even regular sequels.

But a good example of what I am alluding to is the Simillaron by Tolkien. It's what sets up the world of TOLR.

Not all prequels need to be a disaster if sufficient resources are invested into it.

Faulty writing isn't an excuse.

Tri failed in doing that, because we honestly didn't need the story told in Tri. I'd have been okay with Tri being replaced by Kizuna, with the elements of growing up remaining intact. I didn't care much for Menoa or Meiko to be honest, but Maki, had it not been for the latter half of 02 and Oikawa, would have made for a lot more interesting and sympathetic an antagonist.

Digi-Eggs are comparable to Spirits but there are still key differences and while the Armor stages could in theory be split into Beast & Human class Digimon, the idea wasn't even considered until Frontier and many have argued that it wasn't even handled well in Frontier.

I mean, I'm not going about this in regards to the Frontier film, just the obvious bipedal vs. quadruped forms of our protagonists, with the exception of Gatomon, Patamon, and Wormmon.

It's very likely if not an absolute certainty that the inclusion of Armor as a Level, the idea of ancient Digimon species and Jogress in 02 was a Bandai mandate and writers of 02 had no intention of expanding on them in 02.

And yet here we are!

Personally, I disliked that they didn't expand on the armored forms relative to their relationship to the crests. Which came first, the crests or eggs?

There were thematic consequences to their introduction which were novel and piqued my curiosity. For instance, I always believed that the montages of the OG partner evolutions was an allusion to them lending their power to these forms, which is what Frontier later did with the Ancient Digimon. So Biyomon through Garudamon imbued armored forms of Eastern Religions with Avian qualities (eg Halsemon and Sethmon.). This doesn't work for all of them, but I appreciate those thematic nuances as it would appear they made an actual effort vs. just phoning it in.

Veemon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon being the remnant of ancient Digimon species and needing to employ alternative means of leveling up, now lost, seems quite fitting. I grew up with the pokemon franchise, so comparatively, I don't object to the notion of partner and evolution development being a feature of the Digimon franchise as well.

 

[Chimera-gui]

But a good example of what I am alluding to is the Simillaron by Tolkien. It's what sets up the world of TOLR.

Not all prequels need to be a disaster if sufficient resources are invested into it.

Again I would like to bring up the Star Wars prequel trilogy as the counterargument, these films had considerable resources poured into them but it was the cartoon made for tv that ended up having the better writing.

Part of that was admittedly thanks to decompression compared to the films there was a reason people were cautious when it was first announced.

Faulty writing isn't an excuse.

Except it could be argued that the faulty writing in the prequel trilogy was because Lucas had, at best, plot points he needed to go through to establish the beginning of the original trilogy without a satisfying story to actually connect them.

 

[Mr_Web]

My biggest issue with Xros Wars is how boring it is and how much the war concept was wasted. The characters were nothing. The plot was nothing. My favorite character and one of the only characters I felt I felt the way the writers wanted me to feel (say that ten times fast) was Shoutmon. I SHOULD NOT feel this way about the protag's digimon and NOTHING about any of the human characters. So let's fix that. I will also be fixing the stupid XrosWars names.

First issue is the general plot. Make it like an actual war. Instead of disconnected areas that are completely separate from each other, put them all together. Bagramon has connected territories. Digimon live under his rule. However, there is still unclaimed territories. Most of it is still unclaimed. Mikey (I will be using english names) is a normal 13 year old kid. Instead of being a perfect 13 year old boy who has to save everyone, give him a hero complex.

Mikey helps everyone he can. Not because he wants to help people, though that is a factor. It's to feel better than everyone else. So his ego is extreme. He helps literally everyone, even if they don't want help. Most people think he's a bit of a jerk. That's because he is. He finds the broken and dying shoutmon and decides to help him. He enters the digital world ALONE.

Shoutmon was fighting against a member (unimportant) of the Bagra Army to protect a small town of Pickmon and DemiStarmon (Starmon 2010). Mikey, realizing he now has a fusion loader and that Shoutmon seems to think he's important, decides to help and chases the member off after giving Shoutmon his star sword. Shoutmon is excited to finally, it seems, have a chance to save the digimon from the corrupt Bagra army. DemiStarmon, protector of the code crown of a small area, gives it to Mikey. However, code crowns work differently. Instead of a "you get it you have it." approach, the code crown is downloaded into the digivice and the user gains full control over that chunk of the digital world. However, the code crown remains in that area. Meaning it's at risk of being captured at anytime.

Shoutmon and Mikey spend a lot of time in the first few episodes getting to know each other. It's basically only those too. Then we meet (I have to look up his name because I forgot it) Christopher. He has 3 digimon that we see. ArmorGreymon (Greymon 2010), MailBirdramon, and Ballistamon. Chris sees the fusion fighters as a bit of a annoyance in his territory so he sends his weakest digimon, Ballistamon, to take them down. Ballistamon is a bit unsure about Chris's leadership, but he believes that it's the only way to protect him from Bagramon. Then he learns of the fusion fighters. He decides to ditch Chris because he believes that Mikey's desire to help people is good.

Soon with the power of BallisticShoutmon (Shoutmon X2), the fusion fighter army gains a few more smaller code crowns. They fight Chris a few times over territory but it remains overall light hearted. Then Mikey finds Nene. Nene is the general of Midnight. AxeKnightmon is basically using human children to create power and Nene is one of these humans. She knows she's just a tool but because of how hard it is to leave the digital world, she's basically stuck. Mikey wants to help her. Nene thinks he's an idiot and a dick. So she decides to keep an eye on him.

Next we see our first encounter of the Bagra army through Dorulumon. He was sent to take down Mikey after he started getting more area. Similar to Ballistamon, he realized that he could finally be free and take down Bagramon. So he joins the fusion fighters.

This is where I'm going to stop writing for now but I'm curious what thoughts you guys have so far.

 

[Chimera-gui]

Well for starters Taiki is completely out of character and if you read the manga, you would understand why your idea goes so completely against the entire point of Taiki's character that Fake Taiki's the exact type of person the real Taiki would go Marcus on. To quote a post on tumblr explaining his character:

Taiki is shown to have been a child with many dreams and a focus of making them come true no matter the consequence. He changed dreams a lot and always roped others into helping him even if they might not want to.

Taiki never saw a problem with his way of realizing his dreams this way until he made a friend. This boy called Tatsuya was a rather frail boy who shared a dream of running on the tracks with Taiki. They trained every day even when the Coach told them not to. The Problem was that Tatsuya wasn’t as athletic as Taiki. So while Taiki could handle this kind of excessive training, Tatsuya couldn’t. Training so much with Taiki resulted in Tatsuya getting an injury that put him in a wheelchair, with the Doctor stating that Tatsuya may never run again. A real, severe consequence that impacted Tatsuyas life immensely. Taiki blamed himself since he thought his selfish dream made Tatsuya like that.

Taiki will not help someone with their dream when the dream is selfish.

It's why he initially refused to help Shoutmon become King until after Shoutmon clarifies that he dreams of being King to help others and why he refused to indulge Kiriha's desire to fight with him because the latter wants a new and exciting battlefield.

Second and more egregiously however is that you missed the point that the humans apart from Nene Yuu/Ewan are supposed to be the supporting cast to the Digimon themselves rather than of being so dependent on human characters like prior series. Xros Wars is not about individual human Digimon partnerships, it is centered around the four major factions as factions hence why alliances between and within factions form and dissolve many times over the course of the series.

Lastly while the idea of a fully formed digital world with areas that can shift control at any bad is not necessarily bad compared to the aforementioned issues above, the whole point of the Code Crown is that you need to collect all one hundred and eight of the fragments in order rebuilt the original Code Crown that was shattered, resulting in the creation of the 108 Zones of the Digital World, to reformat the Digital World itself.

 

[Eitaroutarouman]

OK! I've done some brainstorming and I think I'm ready to post that Xros Hunters expansion.

Note: I'm cutting the crossover element.

Young Tagiru Akashi ends up in "DigiQuartz", a mysterious dimension that sits between the Human and Digital Worlds. He learns of the "Digimon Hunt", a game where youths are given Xros Loaders so they can battle and collect rampaging Digimon that have wandered into DigiQuartz. After receiving a crimson Xros Loader from the mysterious Old Clock Shop Man, Tagiru and his new partner, the rambunctious troublemaking Digimon Gumdramon, set out to become superstars!

The core premise of the show is unchanged. DigiQuartz, the Digimon Hunt, Quartzmon are (for the most part) all kept as-is.

Spoiler

Tagiru - the same hotblooded kid we all love (to hate?). As the series goes on, his definition on what a superstar is slowly changes as he becomes a hero in his own right and becomes a worthy successor to Taiki.

Yuu - the same as usual. Only real difference is he gets to collect more Digimon.

Taiki - again, the same. Plays a mentor role to Tagiru and Yuu. As such, he rarely collects Digimon.

(Shoutmon, Starmons, Puppetmon, etc)

Ryoma - same, just expand on his character.

Airu - same, just expand on her character. Maybe make her less blatant shipping bait with Yuu.

Ren - ...does anyone actually care about him?

Akari - The SuperStarmon ep now has Akari receiving a Xros Loader and being partnered with Dorulumon. Later gains access to Super Digivolution.

(Dorulumon, Cutemon, PawnChessmons, Knightmon, Bastemon)

Zenjirou - The Kotemon ep now involves him (as it should!) and ends with him being partnered with Ballistamon. Later gains access to Super Digivolution.

(Ballistamon, Deputymon, ChibiKamemon, red Pickmon)

Kiriha - Same as usual. After he was revived, Deckerdramon went back to his role of guardian deity of his forest.

(Greymon, Mailbirdramon, Dracomon, Cyberdramon, Gaossmons)

Nene - Studying to be a fashion designer, not an idol. Later gains access to Super Digivolution.

She is still stalked by her overprotective father, but also SkullKnightmon.

After Bagramon was defeated, SKmon awoke in the Digital World without DeadlyAxemon. Broken, defeated, and alone, he wandered the Digital World and was attacked by those who suffered under the Bagra Army's rule. One day, he stumbled across DigiQuartz, where he reunited with Nene. The repeat humiliations have humbled SKmon into reforming (Mervamon doesn't buy it) and he agrees to join Nene's army, effectively reviving Twilight (or maybe with a new name?)

(Sparrowmon, Monitamons, Monimon, Mervamon, Beelzemon, SkullKnightmon)

The villain is Quartzmon, a transdimensional being capable of absorbing entire worlds. Months ago, he tried to consume a world, but was confronted and defeated by a group of human-Digimon partners (doesn't matter who). Quartzmon fled to the Xros Wars dimension, but the injuries he sustained caused his body to explode, both severely weakening him and affecting the world in strange ways.

The first was the creation of DigiQuartz. Quartzmon's goal is to lure Digimon to DigiQuartz, absorb them, and slowly regain his former strength.

Clockmon is a piece of Quartzmon that gained sentience and a good soul. It and the Old Clock Shop Man joined together to put an end to Quartzmon's ambitions. The Digimon Hunt is actually a way to prevent Quartzmon from absorbing Digimon.

The first half of the series mainly focuses on Tagiru, Yuu, and Taiki dealing with the DigiQuartz menace in Japan.

The second half focuses on Xros Heart and their allies traveling around the world as they confront powerful Digimon that were split off from Quartzmon's body (think 02's world trip mixed with the Death Generals), eventually leading to the final confrontation with Quartzmon with the Brave Snatcher.

...that's the gist of it. I'm not good at wordy essays, but I've been thinking about this for years and I'd like to see what others think and maybe suggest ideas on how to refine it.