Discussion Anime / DigimonAdventure02

Spoilers Due to his actions, Ken loss his best friend, and lives day to day with the guilt of what he has done, and was kidnapped. He was a villian of circumstance, not by choice either. Ken doesn't need punishment - He's punishing himself.

His best friend whom he got back, he wound up with a group of True Companions, and while he believed it was all a game he was clearly enjoying Video Game Cruelty Potential to its fullest. He wound up better off than before, guilt or no guilt.

He still suffers through a traumatic experience that will haunt him for the rest of his life. That's punishment enough.

What about all the digimon that suffered through a traumatic experience called the Digimon Emperor? A traumatic experience that went on for months. Even if the digimon that he directly controlled do not remember what happen the digimon that were attacked by said controlled digimon would. Digimon that they would know and be friends or family with. Wormmon's death was not do to karma from his misdeeds, rather it was because Wormmon wanted Ken to be nice to him and as long as Kimeramon was around that would never happen.

So in the end the Digimon Emperor did not receive Laser-Guided Karma for his actions the digital world only mistreating Wormmon rather he was prideful then he became fallen and then he returns to his true self. Ken wanted to be punished, but in the end the lest affected by the Digimon Emperor's actions told him otherwise and Ken goes on to lead a normal life without ever having confront the ones he hurt most.

It's not like Kenisn't remorseful for his actions, and once he realized his ways, he gave up on the Emperor persona. He was a Tragic Villain, and not some unrepentant maniac.

Wormon's death was a direct result of the Emperor's deeds. Ken knows that, and it haunts him.

Felling bad for past actions is not punishment.

Note that a character doesn't necessarily need to be a villain, or even evil, to qualify for this trope. They may simply end up doing unnecessarily hurtful things, yet not suffer the repercussions.

I'm not saying I dislike Ken, or that he's an awful human being or anything, but "feeling bad for your actions" isn't really enough punishment, especially since overall his situation has improved considerably. Even the traumatic experience he's been through is assuaged considerably by the fact he has friends and a cause for the first time ever.

And please, don't bother spoilering on discussion pages. If someone who hasn't seen the show is coming to a discussion page, they deserve to get spoiled.

Nor does Krama Houdini about someone being punished - just having bad things happen to the person is significant enough.

But bad things didn't happen. Good things did.

Let me put it this way. If you asked Ken if he was better off before he did bad things or afterward, which do you think he would say? He'd say he was better off afterward. As a direct result of his actions he gained True Companions, understood Wormmon as a friend, and the only down side was "he felt bad."

Only after going through so much crap - the Western interpretation of Karma is that if one does bad things, bad things happen. Good things happen when does good things.

In addition, Ken isn't fully morally responsible, being a young teen who didn't know that he was doing so much harm. He just thought it was a video game. It's like calling Ender a Karma Houdini for the xenocide.

You cant have it both ways. Say that Ken did something wrong and got 'Karma' for it; Or Say that Ken did nothing wrong and so did not get 'Karma' for it.

Besides, what "crap" did he go through? A few kids did not become his friends right away?

When Ken was kidnapped, its not 'karma', Ken was kidnapped for the dark spores and that would have happened no matter what Ken did.

Comparing Ken to Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is unequal.

1: Andrew is always playing games or simulations and wanted to quit but it was too late; The battle simulations were real all along. VS Ken may have thought that he was playing a games but the games he played were hands on, whipping and killing digimon even as they begged him not too. Ken's plans also included killing other humans which flies in the face of him not being "fully morally responsible" for his actions.

2: The Buggers killed humans first, initiating the war in the first place, so if anything this is Karma against them. VS Digimon(as a whole) did nothing to deserve the karma that Ken did to them.

3: When Andrew found the last Bugger Queen, the Queen told Andrew that the Buggers forgave Andrew for killing them even while he was wiping out there last planet. VS After a few baby digimon get angry with Ken, no digimon is shown to have consern about the former Digimon Emperor being in there midst. Not even Azulongmon says anything to Ken other then point out that his actions caused even more harm then previously thought.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12922082860A19029400&page=1