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INTRO: WHY DAIKEN?
it's all about the jogress
this extremely tender jogress-feels art i did should give you an idea
so, why daiken? this question has been answered over and over again by so many people on so many fansites, so i’m not about to sit here and tell you again that they’re best friends, perfect complements, meant to be etc etc. you can just watch the show and see that for yourself. what i want to present here is my personal interpretation of the ship and what drew me to it in the first place.
for me, the main appeal of daiken is the unexpected soulmates aspect of jogress evolution. it’s the idea that these two kids who barely know each other are suddenly thrust together by the digital world and given this painfully intimate connection that they don’t know what to do with. when they first jogress, ken has only just become himself again and is still seriously struggling with the sins of his past. daisuke is the child he arguably hurt the most as the kaiser, the one he tormented and targeted more than any of the others, and now he’s supposed to accept that they’re partners, that he could be beneficial to him in some way when he still believes he ruins everything he touches. meanwhile, daisuke, sweet, simple thing that he is, has already forgiven and accepted ken, and immediately embraces the new connection at the same time that ken shies away from it. what follows then is them learning to work together and becoming friends after they’ve already had their hearts and minds inextricably merged. and that’s what really intrigues me about them!
fellas, is it gay to feel another guy's heart beating inside you?
it of course doesn’t help that the first thing that connects them is their hearts, which, as i go into more depth about on my history page, means a great deal to me as a heartbeat fanatic and cardiophile. in my humble opinion, there’s literally nothing more intimate and well, romantic than listening to or feeling someone else’s heartbeat, and daiken not only hear each other’s hearts when they jogress, but they describe it as actually feeling them inside their own chests – their two hearts synchronized and beating as one. like, is that not the gayest (and horniest) thing you’ve ever heard??? how could they not fall in love instantly? it’s impossible. they’re in love!!
just casually having to share a soul
the reason i interpret jogress as a soulmate/soulbond situation is because of the kids’ connection with their own digimon partners. like i elaborate on on my partner page, the digimon partners in adventure are basically “his dark materials” style dæmons, the soul of the child incarnate. so what happens when your soul monster combines with someone else’s soul monster? you become soulmates, of course! think about it. in ken’s case, wormmon represents the sweet, kind, part of himself that the kaiser tried to suppress, which is why he abused him so much (but never was able to fully cast him out, because he’s his soul). he’s only just getting reacquainted with wormmon after he died and was reborn when suddenly he’s merging with someone else’s digimon. how confusing and scary must that have been for ken! the last thing he wants to do is lose wormmon again, so of course he gets all defensive and tries to discourage him from jogressing, unable to accept the idea of sharing his precious soul with daisuke yet. but both wormmon and v-mon enjoyed jogressing. they felt the latent connection between their partners and expressed it by forging this new bond for them, whether they were ready for it or not. it was through the soulbond partnership with their digimon that they became soulbonded to each other! when they jogress, they’re essentially sharing one soul!!! it doesn’t get much gayer than that.
for a final summary of my jogress feels, check out these tweets / my official daiken thesis statement:
tl;dr
now go forth and enjoy the rest of the daiken goodness my site has to offer!!!
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