The End of an Era by Chyna Rose
At ten
thirty Eastern standard time on May nineteenth in the year two thousand and
one, the final episode of Digimon season two (the infamous episode fifty) aired
on Fox's Saturday morning cartoon block (channel five for those, like me, in New York) At the end of that half hour (which sort of cemented the idea
that Daisuke is bipolar into my head more firmly even though it is probably not
true) I saw for myself the epilogue after a passage of twenty five years. Takeru never once said that Yamato
and Sora had even gotten married, let alone were still married.
Given
the whole moral of the episode was to never let up your dreams, it makes sense
that their 'future' selves represent dreams come true. The fact that both Hikari and Daisuke
achieved the dreams they stated earlier in the episode lends credence to
this. Although, there are a few things
that I need to clear up.
As a
loyal Kensuke shipper, (I even have a bookmark that I made stating this) the
only reason I can see Ken and Miyako getting married was if they had absolutely
no other choice. That's right; an
arranged marriage. Betrothal makes more
sense than them getting married because they got drunk, don't you think? And the reason Miyako is not working is because
she's on maternity leave.
At least
for the younger digidestined, Joyu, and
Koushiro, they are in believable livelihoods.
What, you never thought Joyu would end up a doctor anyway and Koushiro
wouldn't work with computers somehow?
Where have you been?! But the
rest of them make little sense from what I know of the characters. Yamato on Mars being the biggest mystery
since I can sort of understand the others.
What is
it with the script writers these
days? It's not just Digimon. They do the stupidest things and make me
(probably along with a lot of fanfic writers) say 'I can write better crap than
this'. Do you know how little I watch
tv or go to the movies anymore? I mean, on Wednesdays I flip on Law and Order. Thursdays are for CSI and ER. Fridays, Law and Order Special Victims
Unit. Saturdays bring Digimon and X-Men
Evolution unless there is a time conflict.
Weekdays at five belong to the Psi Factor. Star Trek Voyager, Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Farscape, The Invisible Man, Xena, Hercules, Angel…
all the shows I used to watch and just stopped (although with a few it was
because I was cut off from them in the middle and never got back into the swing
of it) because the episodes became too dump.
Although I do admit to having a low camp tolerance. And I honestly can't remember the last movie
I saw in a movie theater- I think it was sometime last fall. (the last movie I saw at the time of writing
this was the Digimon Movie on video because I recently bought it. The one before that was Neon Genesis
Evangelion tape five which may or may not count.) {But that was this
morning. I went out after lunch to see
Shrek. Funny movie; right up my ally. But the previews… Movie one was 'guy talks
to animals some more just cause he can'.
Movie two was 'girl goes to college just to be near her honey not
because she wants to learn'. Movie
three looked pretty decent and I have plans to see it. Movie four was 'people race for cash'. (in other words; Doctor Dolittle 2, Legally
Blonde, Evolution, and Rat Race)}
Cutting
to the chase, it seems that the media is being flooded with low grade garbage
to entertain the lowest common denominator.
And that denominator is no-where near me. Yet, doesn't it seem sad that I became a fan of a show- not
because it was good and I enjoyed watching it- but because I loved reading the
fanfic for it. Why can't there be more
shows that don't suck? Why can't there
be less whiny comedic dramas in the theaters?
(Why the hell can't I remember the point I was trying to make when I
started this rant?)
Anyhow, here's an alternative epilogue from Takeru's
point of view. I don't own him or the
rest of the Digidestined, but I do own the ideas for their 'future'. As always, the possibility for slash is
great and it is dark. I regret nothing;
not even the apparent bashing of characters.
~***~
That night
proved to be the end of an era. We said
goodbye to the fight, and set about living life. It was not the start of a Utopia though. In the twenty five years
since then, too many dreams lay shattered for it to ever be.
Miyako
never did marry Ken. She works part
time at a large grocery store chain to supplement putting herself through
collage. She fell in love, got married
young, and recently got out of that abusive relationship with three kids,
little education, no home, no money, and few friends.
Joyu,
became a doctor like his father wanted.
And he was good too –until his wife died in an accident. After that, he couldn't deal with both the
grief of her passing and all the blood and death he dealt with as an attending
in the ER. He's now in rehab for a
tranquilizer addiction. His son will
live in a foster home until Joyu is capable of taking care of him again.
Koushiro's
a grunt for Microsoft. He lives alone
in a roach infested apartment whenever he's not at work –which is rare for him
as he defiantly qualifies for overworked and underpaid. He's never dated anyone –male or
female –in his entire life and none of us have yet to find out why. Not that he talks to us –or anyone for that
matter –much.
Sora, and
her son, have taken over her mother's flower shop. It's hard for them; hard for her. Sora was brutally rapped about five years ago, leaving her with
both her child (thanks to extremist Pro-Lifers who had abortion outlawed no
matter what the circumstances were) and HIV. She gets by, but it's hard.
On the positive side, she managed to start a non-profit organization to
help fellow AIDS patients. Fellow
florists donate the unused flowers to local hospitals and about once a year
auction flower arrangements to raise money for research.
Mimi still
lives in America. We think. You see, in the past ten years, no-one's
really heard anything from her. Her
parents are dead and she has no living relatives. Michael or Wallace may still keep in touch with her; but we don't
really talk much. For all we know, Mimi
could be dead.
Iori took over his grandfather's dojo. Aside from teaching kendo, he takes care of
his ailing mother. Last time I spoke to
him, (which was nearly a year ago –I think) he was seeing someone and thinking
about marriage.
Hikari's a
teacher at a special needs elementary school.
It's for kids with emotional or mental problems rather than physical
ones. Most of the kids that she teaches
are autistic; like her son. It's hard
for her right now; dealing with both an autistic child and the fact that her
husband disserted her when he found out that his son wasn't perfectly
normal. But at least she's speaking to
me again.
Taichi owns a card and comic shop
in Tokyo; nothing big. He does pretty
ok for a small business owner. And he's
pretty happy despite being stuck in a wheelchair. When he was a high school senior, he got hit by a drunk and lost
all of his right leg along with most of his left one. For the first year, we were worried that he might try something
foolish, but he grew out of it.
My brother Yamato lives with Taichi
in a small apartment. He still plays
the guitar and sings –usually as part of a small band at weddings and such or
for commercials. The work isn't
regular, so he helps out sometimes with Taichi's card and comic shop. He's the reason why Taichi's so happy most
of the time. But, we're not as close as
we once were; and that's really my fault.
I don't talk to Ken much –I guess
he's still made at me, not that I blame him.
He's… surviving; I guess. I
think he became a cop like his father, but I wouldn't be the one to know. What I do know is that he drinks, smokes,
and blames me for what happened. Hell,
I blame me for what happened.
And Daisuke… He's been dead since
high school. He was always so good
about hiding his true feelings that we never expected anything was wrong. Maybe if he wasn't, he'd still be around. You see, when I found out that he and Ken
were involved, I kind of freaked out.
This got me in trouble with Hikari, who had known that her brother was
in love with my brother for ages. I
blamed Daisuke for my problems with her, even though it was building. I accidentally outed him in the
cafeteria. He was taunted, and beat up,
but generally took it well –until a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend
of a friend who was in my class decided to kill himself by jumping off a
building. About a week later, Daisuke
slit his wrists during the night. It
was only after that, that we found out that Daisuke was bi-polar. The Motomiya's never blamed me for his
suicide. They knew he didn't want to
die, but couldn't stop from hurting himself.
As for me, I'm alone. Never married, never had kids, estranged
from my family and pretty much my friends.
I've bounced around from job to job; construction, bussing tables,
janitorial work… I'm currently a bartender for this seedy little hole in the
wall not far from the dump I laughingly call an apartment. In my spare time, I write. I've been
working on a novel that recounts all my adventures in the Digital World, seeing
as I was a part of it from the beginning.
So far, nothing I've ever written has been published, but I'm still
hopeful that this will be. Life in
general may have gone down the tubes, but I still can't betray my crest. None of us can; not even Daisuke.
~***~
It's one thing to be brave and true to your friends,
but another to fight an illness. Even
when that illness seems to dry up all your Courage and Friendship. So you have it. A story and a rant commemorating the end of Digimon as I know
it. I thank you, my loyal readers, for
putting up with my spiel. The Daisuke
scenario is one that I can too readily see, although either Ken or Wallace
stops him in my mind. (don't ask) But even in the face of this adversity, I
will not stop writing Digimon fanfic.
As a Gargoyle writer, I continuously ignore an entire season of
episodes. (just ask any Gargoyle fan about the ill fated Goliath Chronicles)
Therefore I see no problem pretending a small bit of one episode never
happened.
