Donkey Madness -- Author's Notes and Story Information

"Donkey Madness" Notes & Extras
(Created: May 12, 2001)
(Updated: March 20, 2002)
Ending Notes on
"Donkey Madness"
(Last updated: March 20, 2002)
Story Information:
Characters copyrighted by Toei Animation
Written by Athena (azc@pioneernet.net)
Started: November 7, 2000
Finished: May 12, 2001
Page length: approx. 149 pages (Times New Roman, 12 pt. font)
My thanks
I'd like to thank all my readers for being so kind and hospitable despite my tendency to throw out cliffhangers. ^_^ I'd like to thank Hikari Takaishi, again, for writing the "Digi-Bloop! That" series and the infamous Whip War from which Ken's final test was partly based on. I'd like to thank Megchan for having so much Digimon information for me to use. I'd like to thank Sephiroth no Miko, Kat-chan, Ly the werewolf, Cybra, Glay, *****, The Dark Peregrine, aka Vertigo, tuqui, Pata, and every other person that sent in reviews that pushed me onward. (You know who you are!) I'd like to thank people like Shimegami Ichijouji, Daine, King Weregarurumon, and Trepidatio that discovered my story later and took the time to whip out reviews for every chapter.
And, as stupid as this may sound, I'd like to thank Jeff Nimoy for coming up with something as silly as Donkey Madness. Without him and his 'awesome' dubbing skills, this story wouldn't have had come around.
Title
Any complaints about the title? I personally don't have any; it seemed to fit at the beginning, even if I didn't follow my own plans by the end.
Ken and Yolei's relationship
I love Kenyako. I do believe it's near-impossible for me to write Yolei without immediately pairing her with Ken; it's just the way I am. I think their interaction showed most of the character growth throughout the story, and I believe I wrote their love smoothly enough. And who here didn't love the tree scenes? I know I loved them. ^_^
The Game Lords' name origins
Once upon a time, I loved the Anime known as the Ronin Warriors (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers in Japan) more than anything. Each warrior had a character trait, and I looked up negative Japanese words to fit evil clones of the Ronins that would fight them to destroy the world. (I was only ten! Don't look at me like that! -_-;;;) The words utagau, uragiru, and makusu were among the words I found in my Japanese dictionary.
The Game Lords
There were originally four Game Lords -- the last being named Shippaimon (Japanese for "failure"). Due to me not wanting the story to be too long, I cut him out. I developed Uragirumon as I went along, and by the time it came for me to kill him, I simply couldn't do it. So I had none of the "bad guys" die. ^_^ Out of the three, I would have to say my favorite is Utagaumon. He's a shape-shifter. He's cool and fascinating. And he's got good taste in the forms he chooses. *grins*
The Digidestined's prizes
I had planned out what Davis and Cody's prizes would be by the end of the part three, mainly because they were so obvious -- Davis loves soccer and Cody practices Kendo. Ken's prize came to me about the time I wrote part ten. I didn't come up with ideas for T.K. and Kari until . . . . the beginning of part eleven, I believe. I can't really explain where I came up with a pearl vase for Kari; it just seemed to fit her personality a lot more than a bucket or something.
To quote Sephiroth no Miko: "Osamu?! Osamu?!!"
Yes, that was Ken's big brother in the epilogue. How is that he's there, despite the fact that he's been dead for three years? Well, he's Gennai's apprentice. He will be the next Guardian of the Digidestined. Why? Heh heh, I believe I'll save that explanation. It ties into other story ideas I have that I don't want to give away. . .
Individual Story Parts:
Prologue: Forgotten Pentagon -- What can I say about the prologue? It was a definite cliffhanger, it was extremely short, and it was focused on Ken.
Part 1: Let It Begin -- Another extremely short part. Seeing as Gatomon seemed to be the most experienced of the digimon, she would more than likely know more about legends than the others. And there was another cliffhanger. This becomes a recurring theme. ^_^
Part 2: Adding Insult to Injury -- I really can't explain where I came up with the idea of Ken losing his emotions or the structure of Donkey Madness. They just sorta . . . happened. Wormmon's presence, however, was completely based on bias; I love Wormmon to bits and I couldn't resist keeping him in the story.
Part 3: Alpha Level -- The Ichijouji torture truly begins with Ken falling into that pit; I guess it could be counted as foreshadowing towards something. ^_~ I enjoyed writing the interaction among the Digidestined.
Part 4: Danger Zone Valor -- All of the dangers zones and such were given synonyms of the actual Digimentals; I'm sure readers realized that quickly enough. I don't believe I was thinking of the story becoming a Kenyako at the time that I wrote Yolei getting snagged by Tendromon; it all just kinda . . . happened. *_*
Part 5: Puzzle Room Knowledge -- The only puzzle room in the whole story, even though I had planned to only use the danger zones and puzzle rooms as tests. Trying to think of puzzles and tying them to Digimentals became too hard, so I just switched to one danger zone and one test per level. By this time, I had decided that romance might be interesting to work with in the story.
Part 6: Night Happenings -- Fulfilling the wishes of a certain Iori/Cody lover (*grins* You know who you are!), I allowed Cody to get hurt and had Ken save his tail. ^_^ And thus Searchmon was born!!! . . . . *cough* . . . The forest scenes were meant to allow me time to have the characters interact in a more-normal situation; there can't be a lot of character growth on an endless battlefield, right? The infamous tree scene seemed pretty romantic to me at the time that I wrote it, and I already had it written on notebook paper to begin with. So Ken fell out of the tree, he was laughed at, and we have comedy!
Part 7: Beta Level ~ Trial of Honesty -- Lots of anger on Ken's part for this addition; I swear, he must've snapped at just about anything that moved. . . O_o Oh, and the grand entrance of Uragirumon, cousin to the infamous Puppetmon! Wasn't he neat? I wanted him to be similar to a ninja, but with something powerful underneath. So he became an undead ninja! ^_^
Part 8: Danger Zone Faith -- If anyone has played Quest For Glory: Shadows of Darkness, they should recognize this danger zone as a bite-off of the Ritual of Bone. ^^;;; I liked how the use of the Digimental of Hope worked in two ways -- it worked towards the bettering of Ken's person and actually helped get rid of the situation. Not all of the evolutions did that throughout the story.
Part 9: Sincerity's Second Try -- I was at a loss when I began this chapter. I usually write my stories with the hope to stun readers; I left with a cliffhanger on the previous part simply for that reason. When I began this part, I wasn't sure of whether or not I wanted to open up another Digimental simply for a battle. So I decided to recycle the Digimental of Sincerity, and I was lucky enough to discover that Nohemon was a little bit on the enigmatic side on the subject of where his real power was. *grins*
Part 10: Forest Interlude -- I have been told this was the best part in the story, mainly because of the huge amounts of character description and emotion. I really enjoyed having a lighter chapter, with the boys squabbling and the girls trying their hands at fishing. *sighs* Ah, sweet memories. . .
Part 11: Gamma Level -- This could quite possibly have been the hardest section for me to get out, mainly because it dealt with all of the characters facing their fears. I'm used to writing about Ken's fears and, to an extent, Wormmon's fears, but I don't write for the other Digidestined like that. Kari's scene was the most difficult. I have to admit that I enjoyed writing Ken's "test," with the deception of Utagaumon.
Part 12: Danger Zone Camaraderie -- Camaraderie. . . I love that word. Isn't it fun to say? ^_~ Anyway, this was the big "Ken's-out-of-action-so-someone-else-has-to-take-charge" chapter. Davis, being the unofficial leader of the 02 Digidestined and "co-leader" around Ken, took over and chased after Utagaumon. Oh, I love Utagaumon. Isn't he the coolest? Acting all insane and everything, even when he's normally curious and only a bit nutty when he's pissed. . . Anyways, a bit of character growth for Cody and Yolei; I do believe they did the most in those chapters. Of course, Ken had growth as well -- he opened the Digimental of Friendship. ^_^
Part 13: Disturbance ~ Treachery and Fidelity -- Ahh, the bathing scene. *giggles* Perhaps the only sign of personal hygiene throughout the story, mainly because I wanted to keep a few elements of unrealism involved, such as the characters never going to the bathroom or shower unless the plot needs them to do so. So, since plot needs Ken to strip and jump in a river (*lol*), it shall be done! Utagaumon once again appears, scaring the living crap out of Ken, Cody, and Wormmon. Ah, and did anyone like my explanation for Ken's hair color? I originally wrote his hair as blue, but as I got more interested in Digimon 02, I came to realize his hair was actually indigo. O_o
Part 14: The Battle of Many Faces -- I will not try to justify Wormmon's ability to Armor Digivolve so many times without dropping dead with exhaustion; I don't think there's any way to logically explain it. Archelomon's time in the spotlight was incredibly short because I couldn't see that weird turtle effectively fighting off a shape-shifter digimon. So, I improvised. ^_^ The Silver Cloak prize for T.K. must have surprised a few people; it was the only prize that was actually an article of clothing. I didn't want to make the last weapon to obvious by using rope or giving T.K. a whip right off. I've been told that this chapter had the most growth on Yolei's character, which I'd have to agree with; from the scared complainer of the group to the sacrificing one, I think she did much more growing than everyone else (except Ken).
Part 15: Delta Level ~ Danger Zone Affection -- I'm still hitting myself over the head with this chapter. It wasn't very good at all; it lacked something that all my other parts had. Creativity, perhaps? Solid description? Sense, maybe?
Part 16: Trial of Radiance -- Apparently, this part was enough to make some of my readers to cry. *_* I guess, if you can't stand the thought of Ken physically getting the crap beaten out of him, especially by the Digidestined, it might get to you. I was in a really sadistic mood as I was writing the majority of the chapter, and I was aghast with how I had written afterwards ("What the heck did I just do. . .?!").
Part 17: Night of Foreshadowing -- I really have to thank Kay for throwing at me the idea of Makusumon being Osamu. ^_^ I hadn't thought that much into Makusumon's role or Osamu's significance, but her reviews really got my mind cooking. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted Gennai to be the mastermind behind the whole plan, but Osamu's presence truly made things interesting. Too bad no one knew it was him at the time. ^_~
Part 18: Corruption ~ The Crest of Cruelty -- To be absolutely truthful, I write the first draft of this story four months before reaching the chapter. I already had an idea I wanted to work with, then I had to incorporate T.K. and Kari's prizes in somehow. Makusumon's form was created in about ten minutes, simply because I couldn't see Makusumon as anything else. He's too serious a digimon to have a silly form. Heck, all of the Game Lords are too serious to have silly appearances. This was perhaps the easiest chapter for me to whip out.
Part 19: Reunions -- *sniffs* The final, real chapter of the story. I enjoyed writing every single scene in this, from the Digidestined being reunited with their partners to them all running out and having fun like normal kids. Seeing as Ken and Yolei frequented a certain tree during the test, I believe allowing them to continue on the tradition would be a nice way to tie off the Kenyako romance knot. ^_^ The one scene that I just have to grin at would be the ending, with Davis playing Donkey Madness. It's amusing, especially after remembering his quotes about taking days to get through level two and then beating the game in four hours.
Epilogue: Truths and Revelations -- Must I say something for the epilogue? I couldn't bear to kill off the Game Lords, so I allowed them all to survive. Seeing as they were all of the Ultimate level, it would be difficult for one Armored digimon to defeat one of them. . . *decides to blatantly forget the Magnamon-Chimeramon battle* And the masks come off and reveal Gennai and Osamu! Aren't you glad there was a cliffhanger at the very end of the story? *grins wickedly*
A sequel? A spinoff? What's next?
I guess I really can't get off with that epilogue, can I? I had originally planned "Donkey Madness" to be a novel without a sequel, but adding Osamu to the ending just doesn't make that possible, huh? Besides, people want a sequel. ^_^ I created a plan for a sequel in three days, and it seems pretty good. The only problem is that there's not a lot of room for romance. I like the element of romance in this story, and I really want to see Ken and Yolei together in the sequel, but. . . But. . . *starts mumbling under breath*
All the information for Wormmon's armor forms (except for their calls) is from Megchan's Digimon Sekai. All credit for the translations and such go to her. I made up the calls.
Wormmon's Armor Forms
(In order of introductions)
Shadramon
Attribute: Virus
Type: Insect Digimon
Digimental Armor: Courage
Primary Attack: Flare Buster
Secondary Attack: Psychic Wave
Call: "Shadramon, the winged inferno!"
Searchmon
Attribute: Data
Type: Insect Digimon
Digimental Armor: Knowledge
Primary Attack: Jamming Hertz
Secondary Attack: Status Busy
Call: "Search, the earth's insight!"
Nohemon
Attribute: Virus
Type: Puppet Digimon
Digimental Armor: Sincerity
Primary Attack: Derision Crow
Secondary Attack: William Arrow
Call: "Nohemon, the archer of honesty!"
Bullmon
Attribute: Vaccine
Type: Mammal Digimon
Digimental Armor: Hope
Primary Attack: Matador Dash
Secondary Attack: Tail Whip
Call: "Bullmon, the mover of hearts!"
Togemogumon
Attribute: Virus
Type: Mammal Digimon
Digimental Armor: Friendship
Primary Attack: Hail Machinegun
Secondary Attack: Crystal Guard
Call: "Togemogumon, crystalline camaraderie!"
Archelomon
Attribute: Data
Type: Reptile Digimon
Digimental Armor: Reliability
Primary Attack: Oceanstrom
Secondary Attack: Fin Cutter
Call: "Archelomon, the flow of fidelity!"
Owlmon
Attribute: Virus
Type: Bird Digimon
Digimental Armor: Love
Primary Attack: Midnight Clutch
Secondary Attack: Infra Red Ray
Call: "Owlmon, the eyes of affection!"
Quatlmon
Attribute: Vaccine
Type: Phantom Beast Digimon
Digimental Armor: Light
Primary Attack: Freeze Wave
Secondary Attack: Fossil Wave
Call: "Quatlmon, the radiant enigma!"
The Game Lords
Makusumon
Name Derived From: Japanese word meaning "Defeat"
Attribute: Vaccine
Level: Ultimate
Type: Holy Spirit Digimon
Primary Attack: Celestial Star
Secondary Attack: Holy Explosion
Special: Ability to possess and control other beings, be it alive, dead, or undead
Utagaumon
Name Derived From: Japanese word meaning "Doubt"
Attribute: Data
Level: Ultimate
Type: Doppelganger Digimon
Primary Attack: Black Wind
Secondary Attack: Bomb Storm
Special: Ability to shape-shift into the form of another being as high as a Champion Digimon, with all the strengths and weaknesses of it
Uragirumon
Name Derived From: Japanese word meaning "Betrayal"
Attribute: Virus
Level: Ultimate
Type: Undead Digimon
Primary Attack: Necro Flare
Secondary Attack: Wailing Arc
Special: Ability to manipulate dead corpses and bone remains to his will
The Digimon of the Forgotten Pentagon
Tendromon
Name Derived From: English word "Tendril"
Attribute: Virus
Type: Plant Digimon
Level: Champion
Primary Attack: Vile Whip
Secondary Attack: Death Grasp
Bubblemon
Name Derived From: English word "Bubble" (Well . . . duh.)
Attribute: Data
Type: Reptile Digimon
Level: Rookie
Primary Attack: Rainbow Shower
Secondary Attack: Roundabout Tail
Popmon
Name Derived From: English word "Pop" (Bubbles pop. Pop the bubbles!)
Attribute: Data
Type: Reptile Digimon
Level: Rookie
Primary Attack: Rainbow Shot
Secondary Attack: Spinout Slash

Forms Utagaumon has taken
Tai Kamiya
Kari Kamiya
Hiroki Hida (Cody's father)
Dokunemon
Ken Ichijouji/Digimon Emperor
Seadramon
Wizardmon
Garurumon
"Donkey Madness" Eating Game
March 5, 2001 -- In a fit of absolute boredom, I decided to do this. I'd prefer you're eating M&M's or small candy for this little game, but I'm not stopping anyone from eating anything else. ^_~ Be sure to keep a drink handy!
1 Piece of Candy
Every time Kari fiddles with her backpack.
Every time Yolei screams.
Every time Davis doesn't call T.K. "T.K."
Every time Wormmon calls Ken "Ken-chan."
Every time Wormmon (in any of his forms) saves a Digidestined.
2 Pieces of Candy
Every time an older Digidestined is mentioned.
Every time Davis gets hurt.
Every time a Destined Digimon is mentioned (after their disappearance).
Every time Ken smiles.
Every time Yolei cries.
3 Pieces of Candy
Every time Cody causes you to laugh/makes a joke.
Every time Wormmon armor digivolves.
Every time Ken laughs.
Every time Makusumon starts talking.
For every blatant Kenyako hint.
4 Pieces of Candy
Every time an older Digidestined appears (including Utagaumon's trial).
Every time Ken gets angry.
Every time Davis throws a fit.
Every time someone curses.
Every time a prize is used for any reason. (As a weapon, out of boredom, etc.)
5 Pieces of Candy
Every time Ken gives an order.
Every time a new prize is received.
Every time a Game Lord retreats.
For every Kenyako scene.
6 Pieces of Candy
Every time a new Digimental is opened.
Every time a [normal] digimon dies.
10 Pieces of Candy
Every time a Game Lord is defeated.

Ken -- Can you believe it, Wormmon? She wasted all that time making this extras section. . .
Wormmon -- I really don't see why. No one's bored enough to read this whole thing.
Osamu -- . . . Oh, you'd be surprised. *goes back to reading*
Ken -- *sweatdrops* Osamu-chan. . .? What're you doing?
Osamu -- I must know why I became Gennai's apprentice! I must, I MUST. . .!
Wormmon -- . . . Osamu-kun, you're scaring me.
Osamu -- I'm supposed to be dead in this story! Why am I still alive?! I should be dead! Dead!! *continues to rave and rant*
Ken -- *frowns at Athena* If he loses every shred of sanity left inside of him, Athena, I'm going to hurt you.
Uh. . . *backs away slowly* Th-- that really sounds disturbing, coming from you, Ken. . .
Ken -- *glares* Did you think that I didn't realize that?
*sweatdrops*
Soooo . . . what's next? Next up, alternate pieces of writing that I wrote over the period of finishing "Donkey Madness," including an alternate ending. (Don't worry, it sucks.) And I want to answer some questions that anyone still has about the story! If you have any questions, write them in an e-mail or review this chapter.
Onto the Alternate Scenes and Endings Back to the Epilogue Back to Donkey Madness