That's not a valid objection, you know. You are the one who insists that the eight children have to be unique. The show does not state that there's anything unique about them besides their accidentally having been among the first kids chosen.
And yet, they're the same group that Homeostasis and Co. keep coming back to when it concerns the fate of both worlds. Sure there are digidestined across the globe now, but that chain of events was set off, because of this core group of children that superceded the previous set of Chosen Children.
I'm not one to shy away from saying that the writers weren't internally consistent. The Crests, internal to the continuity of the show, served a particular purpose. The physical Crests were mere conduits of the virtues they drew power from. However, it begs the question of what they gave up that released the Sovereigns from their prison, but likewise prohibited them from evolving past Champion. Whatever that *it* was, somehow wasn't taken away from International Children, but was taken away from the group that had trekked into the Digital World, exposed the World to Digimon, and restored balance by restoring the sovereigns?
But I guess, Azulongmon giving them a digicore resolves that problem?
Nah.
That's on the writers.
Jogress is likewise undermined if that natural progression to Ultimate and Mega is common. Maybe the Chosen Children from Japan are the weakest of them all that they would need to rely on Crests, Jogress etc. to advance to that point. Maybe Homeostasis and the Four Sovereigns are salty and dispense that ability with caution when it comes to Chosen Children from Japan?
Can't say I ever noticed a difference. Were there any examples of noticeable independence that you had in mind?
Off the top of my head, from recent memory, Gomamon in Tri. He actually takes care of Joe, but also realizes a shift in their relationship to the point that he realizes that maybe Joe doesn't need him anymore. Most of the other partner digimon didn't display that sort of independence until Kizuna.
As to the main series, Gatomon under Myotismon. When she was a "feral" non-partner digimon, she was able to engage differently with the situations presented before her. She reasoned on her own. As soon as she became a partner digimon, and she became a quasi Rookie, she appeared to depend more on Kari.
After the reboot, all of the partner Digimon were wary of the humans, and Pyocomon in particular probably didn't care much for Sora after being stepped on.
I found Biyomon to be a lot more apprehensive than most of the other partner digimon. Sure they were all scared, but Biyomon's disposition gave the impression that the bond itself was severed. Almost as if Sora had to force it upon her. Its a real pity that things would turn out as they did in Kizuna...
it's not like they were the first to get Ultimates/Megas - Daigo's group did it before them.
Daigo's group didn't achieve Mega of their own accord, Homeostasis had to actively intervene to manifest that process. How they achieved Ultimate, we don't know. However, we have no indication that Daigo and Co. were conceived of as we saw them in Tri when Adventure was conceived of. They honestly add nothing to Tri, their inclusion was was basically to finally address this mysterious set of Chosen Children. Chosen Children who just so happened to be from Japan.
Limiting things above Champion to 8 people out of 7 billion... would be terrible storytelling. Do you expecg these same 8 kids to travel worldwide to stop all threats? like, a Mega shows up in Africa. It's 4am in Japan at the time. Tai's group have to deal with this instead of some people in Africa? by the time theyve woken the kids up and flown them over, the village is prob destroyed and everyone is dead. Only way to stop this sort of thing would be to have it where Megas only attack the same City every single time forever so that Tai and his friends can deal with it every time, and never attack any where else. That sure would be even worse storytelling.
Megas weren't common when the series had first been conceived of. They were relatively rare.
As to your second line of inquiry, that's a loaded question. It presupposes that high level digimon are willy-nilly popping up in our world. We honestly don't know what the threat of digimon are like outside of Japan. They could be infrequent enough that the necessity to evolve into higher forms doesn't factor in much. It also ignores the possibility that perhaps some people are partnered with higher level digimon.
The show doesn't take the threat seriously enough to address the implications of digimon in our world in say the manner that Tamers did. But by this point in time, Digimon are supposedly common, because everyone has a partner, or did we only get to that point when Kizuna remembered the presence of other Chosen Children across the globe which Tri ignored?
As to merchandising, that's neither here nor there. The characters are not aware of us as an audience. These various devices serve a purpose in the course of the story. That they were later abandoned when it became convenient to the plot *is* bad storytelling. Bond of Courage? Bond of Friendship? Evolution sequences that feature the emblems of the Crests (Tri), all of that should not have been featured, as it had already been superceced. Unless of course, those thematic devices serve a legitimate purpose in the course of the story. Might as well properly tie them in to the merchandise!
