So it's been about 6 years since Tri ended, 4 when you include Last Evolution Kizuna, and one thing that still I can't get over is the treatment of the 02 crew. And when I say 02 crew I am including Hikari and Takeru given that they were more active in Digimon 02 than they were in the previous series, where let's be honest they were pretty much watching from the side line until the plot needed them. Tri was not kind to any of the DigiDestined, but I'd say it was a little worse for the 02 DigiDestined. Let's run through what they went through shall we.
Right off the bat the 02 DigiDestined (Daisuke, Ken, Iori, and Miyako) are beaten and captured after figuring out King Drasil's plan and mind you they beaten t the near brink of DEATH to the point where they were put into cryostasis with life support for weeks or a worse a couple of MONTHS (given that Tri doesn't really give us a timeline of events), and even when Tai finds them they still almost get killed because Dark Gennai cuts the life support, the only reason their alive is thanks to Daigo's sacrifice, they are still in the hospital for THREE MONTHS.
While Hikari and Takeru get a visit from their old friend Trauma-Kun, seriously these two almost have as much trauma as the tmnt (2012 and 2018 series). For Takeru Patamon got infected, while the reboot is about to happen mind you, and Hikari...gets possessed by computer, thinks her brother is dead, gets used to dark warp digivolve Gatomon and Meicoomon, AND ONCE AGAIN has to see a Digimon who she called a friend be killed. Let's even begin to question the fact that if the reboot was complete the 02 crew probably would've been erased since they were in the digital world.
Heck I headcanon that's why they don't hold a grudge against the other, because for them they probably went to the digital world and then they mysteriously woke up in the hospital, Veemon and the other though...I'm just going to say the Crest of Miracles pulled off some Deus Ex Machina. Well maybe not a complete Deus Ex Machina since it doesn't really perform miracles but more so it's the cause of a miracle being created or happening (mostly by Daisuke) I'll get into this more later.
Now with that rant over let's move on to the real topic, I've always had a question in the back of my head. Why did the 02 crew have to be sidelined in Tri? I mean it probably could've been that the writers wanted to center the story around the original eight, they probably could've written in something like the 02 crew being mind controlled or evil clones being created after they were captured, since no matter how you look at it the 02 crew is closer than most cast, they're pretty much always together be it for work or relaxation. We could say this they went to the digital world because they (Daisuke, Ken, Miyako, Iori) were going to hang out for fun, no one else was available that day and they stumbled upon King Drasil's plan, got attacked before they could get back up, and Himekawa provides a cover up, bam a reason for the 02 crew to be missing in action without it seeming cheap.
Now what caused me to think about all of this? Well it's because I've recently been playing Digimon Cyber Sleuth: Complete Edition, specifically Hacker's Memory which came out during Tri, between the movies Coexistence and Future. This game gives Veemon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon complete base digivolutions like everyone else and guess what they're a bit...overpowered at least if you were to ask me. So let's go over some things first.
1. Why am I using Hacker's Memory and not Cyber Sleuth which came first? Well while Cyber Sleuth did come out first in March 12, 2015 which is months before Tri released the first movie, as far as I can find Veemon, Hawkmon, and Armadillomon and by extent ExVeemon, Aquilamon, and Ankylomon are still restricted by the Jogress wall to reach new levels. Which gets removed in Hacker's Memory where they no longer need their DNA partner to go to the next level. The only other game that has one of the 02 Digimon is Digimon World Championship which only features Armadillomon... for whatever reason, which is strange given the Digimon 02 ended in 2001 and Digimon World Championship released in 2008...and a bit of the wiki since the game does give more that one attack that would show up in the show.
2. Giving the 02 crew their own crest. The 02 crew don't really have their own crest (minus Daisuke and Ken), they mainly inherit the crest of the previous DigiDestined which when you think about it isn't really fair. Now when I say giving them their own crest it's more like combining the crests they inherited to show their growth and making those crests their own in a way.
3. The Digivolutions Lines. The games don't have set Digivolution Lines so I picked the ones that wouldn't overlap with the Original DigiDestined, fit the 02 team as best as I could, and most importantly weren't enemies they've faced (aka control spire Digimon don't count). We're going up too mega level...why because Tri said so.
4. Read up on the difference between Daisuke and Davis, because oh boy when we get to him...I'm gonna be in hot water for my opinion probably. I really hate what the dub did to my boy. Main note if Daisuke was in Tri Meicoomon would probably be alive.
5. If you don't agree with this that's fine, after all these mainly are my opinion.