That's how I was with most TCGs. I just wanted to collect 'em because they're cool. xD

I have a Monster Rancher deck, too.

@Pixie I'd be interested to see if someone did like...... a universe/timeline plot, including any hints of crossovers/intersections if there are any

@doppelgreener There was one crossover, I think. It had all the mains or something like that (the goggle boys).

I didnt get to collect Monster rancher cards

I had to ebay them a while later because I didn't know they existed at the time they were out.

@doppelgreener Here it is. It was a brief bit in Xros Wars. This is probably spoilers, but I haven't seen the series, so I don't know how significant.

@Pixie Haha, the goggle boys

@doppelgreener That is what we call them! For obvious reasons.

Do all the main protagonists have goggles?

Pfff what

He just punched like six Venom Myotismons in the face

What in all of the ninety-seven

@doppelgreener Almost always.

A lot of other characters too. Digimon tamers have goggles. Why? Who knows? They never use 'em.

@doppelgreener, @trogdor: our campaign needs more goggles. Especially cute animals in goggles.

ok

I will order one million goggles for all the spiders

The giant crystal mutant spider ants? I approve.

Robospiders with goggles... @o@

I'm so mad rn

No Biyomon and no Phoenixmon!

@BESW Ok, yes, goggles for them. @trogdor I trust you can take care of this.

Thats not creepy at all

@Pixie One of these is not like the other....

Crystal spider

What

this with an ant head sticking out, 4 more spider eyses, and goggles everywhere

[invents new villain whose goal is to put goggles on all the cute animals everywhere]

@BESW Gasp! How reprehensible!

@Pixie One of these is not like the others.

Can you tell which?

To protect them! From science!

@Sandwich In that crossover clip? Yeah, they pretty much just did the main dudes. Digimon, unfortunately, tends to focus hardcore on the leader character and the righthand blonde guy in the end, and the more series they made, the worse that seemed to get.

@Althis The odd man out is Tai, because his shoes are twice as big as everyone elses

(He's really just a misunderstood extremist.)

@doppelgreener @Althis They tried branching out... kind of.

@Sandwich Not by that much.

Well the draw for the original Digimon series was the fact that these kids got sucked into another world and didn't know ANYTHING

And there are monsters who are your buddies, guy

And when you're endangered they can grow thirty times their size and kick ten kinds of ass

The farther they went from that the worse the series got

Third season had the card thing so it was alright

Second season had the same basic concept with the grown up kids from the first series making cameos

I never watched past the third because I heard that the consensus was pretty bad

Tamers was actually pretty good, but it was also very different, so it wasn't well received.

Digimon World 1 and 2 were the best though

Such good games

I think that's one of the things that contributed to Pokemon's staying power and Digimon's slow decline (in the US; it remained popular in Japan). Pokemon retained the familiarity. Digimon did not.

I honestly hated 02.

I loved 02 except the ending.

Well pokemon stuck to a formula, Digimon didn't

Could not stand TK and Kairi shipping all over the place.

And the teen drama.

Digimon world 2 was way more challenging than 1

Those dungeons could kill you

Right. I think that ultimately hurt it because the kids who had stuck to it and became enamored with the characters said, "What is this?! Where are Tai and Sora and..."

@Sandwich Pokemon recently broke away from the formula in some good ways.

Which game are you referring to

@Althis

Like for example, making Team Rocket actually go back to being the badasses they were supposed to be.

@trogdor This is very cool.

@Sandwich I have a friend who loves the Digimon games.

@Pixie it isn't mine, but it is still cool

What game makes Team rocket the actual badasses again @Althis

I havent played a recent pokemon game that fits that bill

@Sandwich I think he means in the anime.

We were talking about the anime, weren't we?

In recent seasons, I hear Team Rocket became actually competent.

@Pixie They were always supposed to be. They were feared across the continent for pulling out the craziest pokemon heists.

And then they just gave up on that plot thread, because of pikachu.

Team Rocket as an organization was feared.

And comic relief .

Jessy and James as well.

Go watch the very first episodes.

They expose them as kind of badass.

Then, puff.

Meh.

Hehe.

Then meh, again.

They were comic relief in every episode that giovanni wasnt in

The recently: WOW!.

Proof that team rocket is a joke:

I think they probably had their brains fried by the first zap they got from Pikachu

Jessie has the strongest pokemon in any of the pokemon games

Wobuffet

Uses it to win no fights ever

Ah -- but anime Pokemon function differently than game Pokemon.

Wobuffet in the anime still has mirror coat and counter though, she used them in like ONE episode

@Sandwich He actually used it a lot after they found out they could do it.

But it was never very effective because you know: godly pikachu gives no f*cks and all.

The only pokemon that mirror coat doesnt work on are pokemon with like

Volt absorb, Water absorb, etc.

Anyway, Jesse and James were one specific unit of a large and powerful organization, feared mainly because of their association with it. People see the Rocket logo, and they think, "Dangerous criminals!" because that is generally the case. Even at this point (like as of their introduction), they're easily disposed of, and their plan is more or less "come in an air balloon and ????? steal Pikachu"

@Pixie The thing is, that idea would work, if not for the fact that they are suddenly badasses now without going through any kind of training.

Which leads you to think that they were badasses all along.

Just really bad at stealing this one pokemon to preposterous effects.

@Althis That is what we call "poor character development but probably a good decision from an outside standpoint."

It's similar to the way in which Ash makes beginner's mistakes all the time even now.

Yeah.

That was a really good improvement to the anime.

Now it actually teaches you about the game.

@Pixie Was it successful?

I am not even sure why they made a point of not doing that for so long.

@Sandwich Have you heard of the Wobuffet tail theory?

(It's pretty old by now so chances are good that people in the pokemon fanon have, but lots haven't)

@doppelgreener I always wondered, what is up with that?

@doppelgreener I'm not sure, I've only watched a little of that particular series. From what I saw, it wasn't that well received, but I don't know if that's the reason.

@Pixie Not enough goggles, maybe

And in other ways, they went inward with Data Squad. I mentioned that Digimon series tend to focus very much on the main protagonist and the blonde friend/rival guy, to the detriment of other characters. Usually there are other characters, though. They actually just cut the cast down to Main Guy, Blonde Guy, and The Girl.

@Pixie ............ Is the rival guy always blonde?

@doppelgreener Usually! And the main is usually (maybe always, I am trying to think of an exception) brunette.

I wonder if that is a writing in-joke at this point.

@doppelgreener whats that?

Looking at it again, I'm overexaggerating the blonde rival thing a bit. There's usually a rival, he's just not necessarily blonde. But... you can tell them a mile away.

@Sandwich The tail thing or the writing in-joke?

The lead is brunette, a genki guy, and usually has goggles and a dinosaur Digimon. The secondary lead and rival is more of a cool guy type and has a canine Digimon. He is friends with the protagonist but also butts heads with him.

Digimon has a pattern, they just do variations on it.

HA! That opening quote tells me all I need to know. [keeps reading]

@doppelgreener Tail thing

Hmm, maybe this is not the exact trope I'm looking for, but the quote is not inappropriate. xD

Hot-Blooded may be more correct here.

Ah yes, Hot Blooded.

> Every main hero in every Digimon canon ever, except Takato who, like the rest of Tamers, was a deliberate breaking of the mold. They all have the matching Personality Powers, and some do it much more than others.

Tamers definitely branched out more than any other series, in some really interesting ways. Even then, Takato was really clearly Digimon Protagonist material.