Design Philosophy For Digimon Multiverse's Main Characters (POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

 

As I said in my previous update, I am way more conscientious of every story detail I make than I used to be when I (and my RPG forum friends) wrote the original Digimon Universe series in 2006 in our early teens. With the children of the 2006 series Digidestined becoming center stage in a Boruto-esque series, I had the opportunity to make entirely new characters and new Digimon. In fact, on the Digimon front, I probably made more fan made Digimon for Digimon Multiverse than I had for either of the previous two installments. So what made me choose the names and clothes for the children? And why did I design the Digimon the way that I did? 

Do keep in mind that this blog post contains spoilers for anyone who hasn't read Digimon Multiverse: Digimon Universe Next Generations. 

Taylor Glovion's Gender

A girl gogglehead? You don't find too many of those in official Digimon anime, manga, or video games. There are a couple, but Ami Aiba from the Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth video game and Sayo from Digimon World Dusk are the only ones that come to mind. Making Digimon Multiverse's protagonist a female was done for several reasons, one of them probably an unconscious one which only became conscious after the fact. 

(1) There just aren't many girl goggleheads. 

Plain and simple. I decided to do it because it was unique. Most goggle wearing Digimon protagonists are boys and this was a departure from the norm. 

(2) When it comes to merpeople, mermaids are way more popular. 

Taylor Glovion is the daughter of Evander Glovion and Jessica Glovion. She's human on her dad's side and has merperson (or Aqualian) genes from her mother. When it comes to merpeople in any mythology, they always come in two genders; male and female, with the former being referred to as merMEN. However, it's obvious that the most popular kind of merperson are the women. This is the case to the point where even mermen are referred to as merMAIDS by people who don't stop to think what the "maid" in mermaid means. The term comes from "mer" an old English word meaning "sea" and "maid" which is where the word maiden comes from. A man is not a maiden! I figured that given that the gogglehead was going to be predominantly merperson in their genes, it made more sense to choose the more popular of the two merperson sexes. 

(3) I Want To Have A Daughter. 

Evander Glovion is actually based on myself. However, Evander and I are very different in a lot of ways. For example, he got into schoolyard brawls as a kid and teenager while I did not. My name is "Evan" and his name is "Evander" and of course, with my last name being Minton which is not the family name of either generation's gogglehead. I've also never even dated, much less married a woman with red hair. If you'd like an analogy, think of Evander being based on me as Kid's WB's Jackie Chan from the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon being based on...well, Jackie Chan. Did the real Jackie chan have an uncle who practiced magic with a pufferfish? No. Does he have a niece named Jade? None that I could find by googling. Does he take down bad guys and collect talismans? Not in real life. 

Why did I make Evander so different from me? I can't really remember why. I created the Evander character 15 years ago and didn't write down what my creative process was. I suppose it had to do with wanting a simultaneous desire to insert myself into the story while also creating a unique character that wasn't just a carbon copy of me. 

But given that ever present awareness that Evander is (very) loosely based on me, I submit to that a third possible reason for choosing Taylor's gender stems from my desire to have a little girl one day whenever I decide to settle down. 

Taylor Glovion's Name 

This one is quick one to explain. Have you noticed a trend among goggle headed characters in Digimon? Tai, Takato, Takuya, Taiki (Mikey in the dub), Takumi (Cyber Sleuth game), Takuma (the upcoming Digimon Survive game), etc? All the names just mentioned have "Ta" at the beginning of their names. There are some exceptions such as Marcus (Masaru) in Digimon Data Squad, Davis (Daisuke) from Digimon Adventure 02, and Hiro from the currently running Digimon Ghost Game (albeit neither he nor Marcus actually where goggles), but the majority of them have "Ta" at the beginning of their names. Hence, when deciding on a name for Digimon Multiverse's protagonist, I searched for a name beginning with "Ta". I settled on Taylor because it sounds nice, starts with "Ta", is a unisex name. At the time of coming up with Digimon Multiverse's plot and characters, I was on the fence about her gender, so I chose an name which could be used for either sex. 

Taylor Glovion's Clothing

Taylor's shirt and shorts were chosen to purposefully remind you of the ocean. Her shirt is the color aquamarine and her shorts are royal blue. Both colors remind one of water, the beach, or the swimming pool. 

Sharkmon and His Digivolutions 

One of the things I really wanted for Taylor's partner was for him or her to be as amphibious as she is. Taylor is a thallasophile (i.e someone who really, really loves the ocean), and she would sport her black tube top and mermaid tail as much as her free time would allow her. I wanted her Digimon partner to be a friend she could play with regardless of whether she was on dry land or in the sea. I looked all over the Digimon Reference book, but couldn't find a Digimon I really liked. I didn't want to use Betamon again, and at the time, I didn't really find a Crabmon digivolution line I really liked and seemed fitting for the MC. 

I also wanted something very dinosaurish as goggle head protagonists always seem to have dinosaur partners. Agumon, Veemon (or at least many of his digivolutions), Guilmon, Takuya's beast spirit, fusion spirits, Marcus' Agumon, Shoutmon (?), Reboot Tai's Agumon, and even Ghost Game's Gammamon. Gammamon is like a little triceratops. 

There weren't many cool looking aquatic dinos I could choose from, so I settled on a creature that shared something in common with these partner Digimon; sharp teeth and claws. What has sharp teeth? Sharks. Sharks also live in the ocean. They're not amphibious though, but you know would fix that? Giving them legs. I had in mind a sort of land shark type design like Jeffrey from the Marvel universe. I found a Digimon with just that design I had in mind on DeviantArt made by Baterymon AAA whom I always give credit to whenever the art pops up. For his champion, I thought making Jawsmon into a ripped, bi-pedal shark man seemed like a natural next step. For his ultimate form, WarJawsmon, this design choice was simple. Most goggle head's partners, when they reach Ultimate, have artillery on them. Tai's MetalGreymon and his Giga Blaster missiles and Trident Arm, Paildramon and those Desperado Blasters, WarGrowlmon and his Atomic Blasters, large jet pack, and arm scythes, BurningGreymon's fire ball launcher thingies, RizeGreymon's Trident Revolver and metal jet wings, OmniShoutmon had some cannons and missiles, and so on. So, I figured I'd give Jawsmon an army helmet, a bandolier, and a couple of machine guns. 

I initially hadn't planned the whole Harmonymon quadruple jogress thing. I did that only after the Rookie-Ultimate forms of Taylor's partner were finished. Although Sharkmon was the first one I designed for the first three stages, his Mega was the last one (i.e after I did the other three partner Digimon megas). Here, I decided that a merman shark would be an excellent design. He's a merman, his partner is a mermaid. And since he digivolved from sharklike Digimon, he should have sharklike elements in his design such as sharp jagged teeth, a shark fin on his back, and his mermaid tail should look like the body of a shark. The naming convention followed a trend I purposefully chose where each Digimon's mega shared the name with some god or goddess. I picked Tritonmon because in Greek mythology, he's depicted as a merman who plays a conch shell and makes magical things happen. Moreover, since in the Digimon Universe canon, Taylor is a descendent from Sebastian Poseidon, a powerful Aqualian with extraordinary abilities, naming the Digimon partner after the daughter of Jessica seemed fitting. 

Martin Soleman 

There isn't much to talk about here. Obviously, he'd be a cat person since his mother, Flora, was. I chose the name Martin because it was similar to "Mario", and having watched Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, I thought it'd be cool to give at least two of the children similar sounding names to their parents. Just as Shikadai is similar to Shikmaru and...well, Boruto shares the "uto" with Naruto. 

Naturemon and Her Digivolutions

After designing the Rookie-Ultimate level partners for Taylor was when I decided I would do this whole Aristotelian elements, jogress to a digital goddess thing. Naturemon's design proceeded WarJawsmon's chronologically but preceded Tritonmon's. I knew I had to go with a Digimon who could repesent the element of Earth. I thought for a while and decided to base Martin's partner on the dryad. Dryads are basically plant girls from Greek mythology. Dryads were believed to live in trees in the forests, and they are often depicted as girls or women with vegitation growing directly from their bodies. Just google "Dryad" to see some depictions. So I decided that that would be what Martin's partner would be based on. 

I wanted each stage in the digivolution line (with the exception of Harmonymon) to keep in line with the dryad theme. In the Japanese version of Digimon media, the levels aren't Fresh -- In Training -- Rookie -- Champion -- Ultimate -- Mega. But rather Baby -- Baby II -- Child -- Adult -- Perfect -- Ultimate. The reason is because Digimon started as a virtual pet series before it evolved into the big franchise it is today with all the anime and video games. So, given the very humanoid appearance of a dryad, I thought I'd base the designs of her digivolution level to depict aging. Therefore, Naturemon looks like a human child around Martin's age (the "Child" level) and MotherNaturemon looks like a grown up or older version of Naturemon (the "Adult" level). And, later I designed the "Baby" and "Baby II" stages and you can see how Sproutmon and DemiNaturemon look like an infant and 5 year old version of Naturemon respectively. Just head over to the artwork section. 

I designed the Mega after depictions of dryads whose bodies are entirely composed of wood and who have multiple trees growing out of them. I decided that I would Kaiju-ify this level....pretty much make her into a giantess. Inspirations for her design can be found here and here for examples. 

I also wanted each step in the digivolution line to seem like a natural progression. So, aside from Naturemon going from a little girl to a woman, I decided that the leafs growing out of her legs would become blossoming flowers. Leaves don't blossom into flowers, but it's Digimon, whatevs. Moreover, tree branches would extend from her back. I also decided to give her a bow and arrows. Vineyardmon was a bit tricky. But I eventually decided that she should wear a dress entirely composed of flowers and that something should be growing out of the tree branches on her lower back. It seemed to me that vines attached to the branches which would sprout grapes seemed like a good choice. I also decided to give her antlers for horn based attacks since many dryads are depicted with antlers. And given this Digimon's extremely benevolent nature, I thought it would be good if these grapes had a medicinal quality to them; able to heal her allies, but they could also hurt her foes. She just had to control it with her will. 

Drusilla 

Given Drusilla's heritage and species, I thought it would be fitting to go with a typical goth girl design. Her overall design would be dark to reflect her later struggles with her inner darkness and her fight to overcome her fear that, due to her Devillian heritage and the events of chapter 15, she would worry that she is indeed a vampiric monster. After the character development, aided by her friend Emmett, her mother, and Syn, she comes to accept herself and that hardened exterior artistically expressed by the gothic metal punk vibe of her outfits would be replaced by the gothic Lolita, which is still a style of goth but which has much softer, gentler vibes to it, as the Lolita style in Japan emphasizes cuteness over coolness. From punk rock jeans to a frilly dress. 

Coalmon and her Digivolutions 

By this time, I already had the "Earth, Fire, Wind, Air," four elements theme established. So, I decided to give Drusilla a fire Digimon to go with Taylor's water Digimon and Martin's earth Digimon. I made a piece of coal, put arms and face on it, and called it a day. A simple design which I think kind of makes her look more like an In Training than a Rookie. It's design I'm somewhat satisfied with and somewhat dissatisfied with. But from there, the next step would be to give her legs and make her bigger and bulkier. Here, I decided on a Golemon variant I named "CoalGolemon". From there, I really didn't know where to go, so I designed Feroniamon as the final product and then returned back to the Ultimate form. I thought it might be cool if CoalGolemon got even bigger and, through electromagnetism, started to float. 

With the Mega, I decided to name her after the goddess Feronia. While Feronia wasn't a fire goddess per se, the Romans believed that Feronia's powers came from the coal used to burn in their fireplaces. Hence the connection in the Coalmon digivolution line. That's why her symbols are fire and coal. So despite being a fertility goddess, it still made sense to use this goddess' name in the naming convention of Coalmon's line. 

I don't really describe in novel-esque form what the digivolution sequences look like in my stories, leaving instead for each reader to come up with his or her own their mind's eyes. But with MagnetGolemon's transition to Feroniamon, I very purposefully described what her digivolution sequence looked like. MagnetGolemon's eyes and mouth glow in a bright light and the top of her head cracks open. A humanlike arm bursts out of CoalGolemon's head, and you can see that it's Feroniamon crawling her way out of CoalGolemon. CoalGolemon was sort of like the cocoon and Feroniamon, the butterfly. 

The inspiration for this came from two sources. First, Togemon's digivolution to Lillymon in the Digimon Adventure anime, but secondly, from a variety of god/goddess birth stories. In many myths, there are birth stories of the gods which scholars cal Theogonies. Gods would very often be birthed from the very thing they were meant to rule over, but not always. Gods would be born from fire, from water, from the earth, from other gods, depending on the myth you read will depend on what they're born from. So, to wrap things up, I wanted Feroniamon's digivolution sequence to resemble a sort of theogony given that she is named after a goddess. She is born from the very coal and fire she rules over. 

And also the butterfly thing. From rock monster to beautiful fire woman. But mainly I wanted it to look like a theogony. 

Emmett 

Ok, so for the name, I obviously wanted to make a similar sounding name to his mother, Emily a.k.a The Digimon Ruler and first antagonist of the series but who went through a Ken Ichijoi-esque reform and joined the Digidestined from episode 40 onward of the OG series. Namewise, although I never said Emily's last name in the OG series (unless I add that in during a remaster), her last name was Cage. I thought that giving her (and Emmett by consequence) the last name "Liberty" would be a great contrast. Rather than being "cage"d by the dark hold of the Red Stones, she is now liberated from that. 

Dovemon and her Digivolutions 

I took Dovemon's design from an already created fan made Digimon whose artist gave everyone blanket permission to use her provided attribution was given. BaseByTally on DeviantArt designed this Digimon. Obviously, I had to complete the Aristotelian element quartet with an air based Digimon. Dovemon seemed like a good candidate here. Digivolving into Harpymon as BaseByTally herself chose for Dovemon's Champion. 

I decided that for the Ultimate and Mega forms leading up to Harmonymon, I would Christianize this otherwise very pagan lineup of Megas. As a Christian man, I wanted to give some attention to the Christian God after having so many designed based on pagan deities (Tritonmon, Chlorismon, Feroniamon). But given that Dovemon and her Champion form are female, and given that many of my fellow Christians are squeamish about depictions of any person of the Trinity (Even Jesus!!!) I decided to go with the next best thing; The Mother of God, Mary. Jesus is God (John 1:1-3), Mary is Jesus' mother, ego, Mary is the mother of God. And since angels serve at God's throne, I thought making Dovemon's Ultimate and Megas into an Angewomon and Ophanimon subspecies with references to Mary in her Ultimate's design and Mega's name seemed like a good way to go. 

HolyHarpymon has a very Angewomon-esque design with the violet colored rosary around her neck foreshadowing her digivolution into Mariamon. Maria is the Latin name for Mary. Rather than have wings out of her back like Angewomon, this subspecies of Angewomon has feathers on her arms. She is still, at this stage, very much a harpy. Mariamon's design is very heavily Christianized, from the cross necklace, to the Crusader shield, to even the violet colored, knee high socks. Mariamon's attack names are also heavily Christianized; Sword Of The Spirit, Shield Of Faith, Marian Intercession, and God's Judgment. The first two attack names are taken from the "Armor Of God" passage in Ephesians 6, and Marian Intercession is a healing move that heals her allies. 

Also, like most holy angel Digimon, HolyHarpymon and Mariamon have a holy ring on them, with it being on Mariamon's right leg. 

Harmonymon 

The last one of the partner Digimon that I had to design; the heroine to take down the final baddy. I wanted a Digimon that incorporated all of the design elements of the four Megas who DNA digivolved to become her. It was tricky. The first design was atrocious. However, I got it right on the second try. A humanoid womanly Digimon with fare skin and incorporates the plant elements from Chrloismon in the form of flowers that cover her breasts and a flower wreath on her head. She has a shark tail that protrudes out from under her dark green skirt and which allows her to swim with great speed in the water. This design element carries over from Tritonmon. Then we have the feathered wings on her head and her long white hair, and also the holy ring. These design elements carries over from Mariamon. And finally, her wings made of fire, which is a carry over from Feroniamon. 

Incorporating features from four Digimon in a way that didn't basically give us a freakish chimera was tricky, but I think I pulled it off quite nicely. Harmonymon is the embodiment of nature, and has the powers of all four elements (that Aristotle knew of anyway). 

If you want to see all of the visual elements of these designs, head over to the bio section and/or the Art Gallary on the Digimon Universe website. Here and Here respectively.