What depiction of the "Chosen Children" you like the most?

[Shadow Shinji]

We have several examples of what the "Chosen Children" concept can imply along the franchise:

Digimon Adventure/02/tri. & V-Tamer 01
In the universe of Adventure, the prerequisite for becoming a Chosen Child is having witnessed an encounter with Digimon earlier in their life. This widely accepted concept, however, is not always fulfilled with complete exactitude and ends up becoming somewhat diffuse towards the end of 02. As a general rule, the DigiDestined are chosen by a higher force, in this case Homeostasis, or through any of its agents, that is Gennai or Hackmon, who desire to maintain the balance of both worlds, and usually rely on them in the case of a critical event, set in some sort of a digital emergency system. Each of the chosen will be assigned a Partner Digimon and its corresponding Digivice, which will allow the natural evolution of its partner enhanced by the power of the bonds between the two. In the same line, this can also be applied to Taichi Yagami in the manga Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01.

Digimon Frontier
The DigiDestined in Frontier are chosen from a pool of potential DigiDestined gathered by Ophanimon through a "game" in order to combat the corrupt Cherubimon. Among those who respond to her call, only a few show the required potential to hold the power of the Ten Legendary Warriors, who once saved the Ancient Digital World from Lucemon, through the Spirits that enable them to become Digimon themselves, although it is finally revealed that the Spirits themselves are actually their own Partner Digimon who have accompanied them throughout their journey. Interestingly enough, the Chosen Children have to pay a karma in case they want to quit from their responsability (Takuya turning into Flamon, for example), although this feature is also hinted in the Adventureverse in some degree (the Children being threatened by Homeostasis for interefering with its plans in Tri.). In this continuity, Ophanimon is treated as a Demigod that is even capable of altering the space-time of both worlds.

Digimon Xros Wars (Manga) & Digimon World Reigitize Decode
In the manga of Xros Wars, the Generals of each of the protagonist armies are chosen by a god-like entity. This point is also explored in the anime, although in a less introspective way. Thus, Taiki Kudo is chosen by Wizardmon in the manga (and Omegamon in the anime), Kiriha by Bagramon, and Yuu/Kotone by DarkKnightmon. In the universe of the manga, all the Chosen Children that are able to handle a Xros Loader carry a special attribute called "Xros Code", which is the inherent force that allows them to pursue their dreams no matter how difficult they are, and effectively handle a Xros Loader to carry out the DigiXros. Therefore, all the Generals have it to a greater or lesser extent. In the manga, the strongest “Xros Code” belongs to Kotone, closely followed by Taiki's one. By extension, it can also be considered a similar case in Digimon World Reigitize Decode, where both Taiga and Rina are attracted to the Digital World as a result of carrying the Decode ability,

Digimon Universe Appli Monsters
In the Appmon universe, it’s the Super AI known as Minerva the one that chooses the AppliDrivers that will fight on her behalf, thus giving them an AppliDrive that will allow them to perform the AppLink between two Appmon, and even transfer part of their vital energy through the process known as "Overdrive". In this context things get complicated, since Leviathan, the antagonistic AI born as an appendage to Minerva, is the one who has chosen the ideal Appmon buddies who will be able to reach the maximum degree of development through an evolutionary selection method based on the “Fitness Proportionate Selection“, and later on will become the AppliDrivers’ buddies. As an innovation, in this season the AppliDrivers have the choice to choose their own destiny as a Chosen Child several times. In the end, it turns out that this was actually a demonstration carried out by the two Super AI to test out the human potential.

Strictly speaking, all the Tamers from any Digimon media, whether anime, manga or video games, have been chosen in some way or another, but only the previous ones are explicitly shown as Chosen Children, so which one is your favourite and why?

Personally, I would say that I enjoy the concept explored in the manga of Digimon Xros Wars. I like the fact that the Xros Code ability explain partially why this guys and not others are chosen as Generals, which makes the concept quite consistent itself and quite less “arbitrary” than the others.

 

[salman332]

Personally, I interpreted the fact that the victor between Ultimate 4 and the Applidriver is Leviathan 'chosen' rather than him specifically choosing the partner for the applidriver.

On topic though, I do prefer the Xros War and Appmon method better, for because they are given the choice in the matter and choose to be in by their own free will and for Xros War, because some people are just far talented, decidated and ambitious than the other and that's how people leave a mark in the world, them being chosen would make sense. At least on Kiriha and Taiki case.

 

[Jay Ukyou]

I would have liked to see something like Lucemon call some Chosen Children. They wouldn't really be 'dark' Chosen, but they could be Chosen who were tasked with keeping a dictator in power, which is arguably the same thing. I think the main thing that 'being Chosen' really adds over simply 'being a Tamer' is that it gives them a clear goal. At least, in theory.

In pretty much every season (except, oddly, Frontier), the goal is shrouded in mystery until near the end, thus losing the most interesting aspect of the whole 'Chosen' thing. Tri is finally touching on the idea that being Chosen might not always be a good thing.

 

[Digiforlife]

hmm...what about the tamers in Digimon Tamers? the way they got their digivice seem to imply that in some way they are chosen as well....

 

[Jay Ukyou]

Tamers was less 'chosen' and more 'they wished for it really hard', so their wish was granted.

 

[salman332]

You could also argue that the tamer is chosen because they wish chosen or the gnome chose to grant wish.
But yeah, they aren't chosen in a 'complete a task and save the world' way.

 

[Lhikan634]

After I have time to finish up my current research, I definitely need to catch up on Appmon. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I really liked how the DigiDestined were portrayed in the Adventureverse. However, I would go beyond the aspect of being chosen by a higher power. Particularly in tri., there's a lot more nuance. What happens when the "powers that be" no longer think they need you and try to do something that could carry a lot of consequences? Are you still "chosen" with a duty to perform regardless of what this higher power thinks, or has your Digital World tour of duty ended? What I also find more interesting is that the traits present that resulted in their being chosen were actually traits they had to re-discover in a sense and traits they had to put into practice.

In a way, I'd almost argue that the Tamers chose themselves. They lived in a world where they followed the original Digimon series, much like we did. After the "meddling" of the DigiGnomes, they really took it upon themselves to do something with their partner Digimon. Takato, basically being a Tai fanboy, in particular seemed to give the team a purpose. Now, I'm not sure how we'd classify the DigiGnomes, as they'd really be the crux to whether the Tamers were chosen or not. They're apparently the original digital lifeforms, predating Digimon. In a way, we might could view them as taking a place similar to Yggdrasil in the hierarchy of life, though in many ways they behave a bit more as sentient but not sapient organisms. I mean, archaea long predate eukaryotes in our world yet don't have an elevated "position" in any applied hierarchy. Or, maybe the DigiGnomes instead possess a level of sapience that somehow transcends that of Digimon and humans to the point that our spoken language appears primitive to them. Regardless, there's definitely a stark contrast as the closest to a guiding individual would be Yamaki (beginning around ep. 24) or Shibumi (ep. 32, regarding the issue of the D-Reaper). What's almost more intriguing is that this is (I believe) the first time that the rulership of the Digital World weren't on the side of the "Chosen" and where all of the real intentionality came from humans. Of course, unless the DigiGnomes somehow have a level of sapience not directly shown on screen. (Then there's the dub, where the team mysteriously get called DigiDestined out of nowhere by Omnimon…)

 

[Kingbeemon]

I liked frontier having a giant pool to pick digidestined.

But I'm kind of confused the point when it seems they were some how already chosen it didn't seem by luck they were meant to be the digidestined.

Or was it can't really tell.

But it would be cool if we had a digimon serious that had a pool of digideatineds earn to be it maybe by tournament instead of being chosen all the time.

 

[Idiysar Almond]

It's been quite a long time since i played Digimon World Data Squad, but the fact that all the 7GDL has a human host could mean that they were chosen by the 7GDL (something along the intensity of their 7 deadly sins IIRC), though, not all of them were children.

By the way, what about the other mangas? There was Taichi in V-Tamer that was chosen by Lord HolyAngemon (i believe one of the reason was because zeromaru was a special digimon), there's also Neo Saiba and the Alias III. There's also Digimon Next which i forgot why the kids were chosen.

Among all the mentioned here before though, my favorite goes to Appmon since the kids actually have the option to do it or not, and it wasn't just in the beginning, it appeared more than once. Also, there's also the fact that each of the applidrivers actually have connection to application/digital-theme (or got influenced to be one? I forgot whether Astra & Eri already become app-tuber & app-based idol or not when they were chosen), not just because of some moral qualities.

 

[Unknown Neo]

I like Tamer only because of the digivice. But Xros Wars was interesting. Like during Hunters where there was a lot of them. That was something.

 

[Shadow Shinji]

Personally, I interpreted the fact that the victor between Ultimate 4 and the Applidriver is Leviathan 'chosen' rather than him specifically choosing the partner for the applidriver.

Maybe I didn't understand it right, but wasn't Leviathan behind everything since the very beginning, because it wanted to ultimately obtain the fuel of the God Appmon for its own body?

I would have liked to see something like Lucemon call some Chosen Children. They wouldn't really be 'dark' Chosen, but they could be Chosen who were tasked with keeping a dictator in power, which is arguably the same thing. I think the main thing that 'being Chosen' really adds over simply 'being a Tamer' is that it gives them a clear goal. At least, in theory.

Isn't this kind of the case of Kouchi (Cherubimon), Ken (Millenniummon) or even Kiriha (Bagramon) or Ryouma (Quartzmon) in some sort of way?

In pretty much every season (except, oddly, Frontier), the goal is shrouded in mystery until near the end, thus losing the most interesting aspect of the whole 'Chosen' thing. Tri is finally touching on the idea that being Chosen might not always be a good thing.

That's not entirely true. You can see somewhat this in Frontier, althought not in the same manner as tri. Remember the episode where Takuya goes back to Human World because he had decided to give up after the encounter with Duskmon? He came back in the form of Flamon, so we can arguably conclude that Ophanimon made him pay some kind of "karma" for quiting from his duty as a Chosen Children. I like Ophanimon in Frontier, but she shows a truly manipulative and evil face sometimes, as you would expect from an Angel Digimon of this rank.

I liked frontier having a giant pool to pick digidestined.

But I'm kind of confused the point when it seems they were some how already chosen it didn't seem by luck they were meant to be the digidestined.

This is just a theory, but I think Ophanimon saw potential on them because they were all somehow pariah of the society, and they needed to challenge themselves to overcome this fears. Actually, Frontier is the season that makes a better approach on the social issues of its protagonists so far, apart from maybe Appmon in a lesser extent.

 

[Jay Ukyou]

Hmm... by 'dark' Chosen, I was thinking more along the lines of kids who accepted the call because they actually believed in it. Kouichi is close to the idea of being a conscripted child soldier, but he was basically possessed. Ken was infected with mind-altering Milleniumon drugs. Kiriha doesn't ever really work for Bagramon. Ryouma didn't actually -do- anything besides carry Quartzmon around. Honestly, the closest to the idea is probably Yuu. He was being lied to, but he believed in what he was doing. Though his lofty goal was 'beat the game' not 'keep the tyrant in power' (or similarly meaningful goal).

I've always been partial to the idea that the kind of person who does truly terrible things doesn't do it because they're crazy or because they're evil. They do it because they think they're right.

 

[salman332]

@Shadow Shinji from what I remember yes all the random encounter are his fault but the partner themselves except Gatchmon and Hackmon was send with the driver presumably by Minerva,, at least it was confirmed as one package in Yuujin case and the kids action themselves are on their own.

@Jay Ukkyo would Knight count? He's pretty much believe humanity should be under AI rule.

 

[Jay Ukyou]

Hmm... yeah. Knight would probably count. He's a little more psychotic and fanatical about it than I would like, but he's really close to the idea.