Over the course of the Digimon Adventure saga, there’s only one character featured in the main cast from the first episode through The Beginning and that’s TK. He’s also the Digi-Destined in my mind whose story arc and development continues from the first two seasons through the subsequent movies: His struggle with hope and fearing loss.
Despite possessing the Crest of Hope, it’s one of TK’s greatest struggles in addition to one of his strongest traits. With all he went through growing up and becoming the author we saw in the Digimon 02 epilogue, it should be no surprise that he had a hard time. Even before being sucked into the Digital World, he experienced his parents’ divorce at a young age. Even if it was the best decision for his parents, the most amicable divorces can still affect children. Especially as young as TK was. He was separated from father and older brother and it’s clear he didn’t get to see them much. That disconnection from his family couldn’t have been easy (and how/why they made the decision to separate the brothers during the divorce I can’t imagine).
By the time the brothers ended up in the Digital World, their disconnect was obvious (even to notoriously oblivious Tai). After being separated from his brother by Devimon, his partner Patamon died defeating the evil Digimon. None of the kids knew about Digital Monsters reconfiguring, so initially TK thought his friend was gone forever. This event explicitly left a mark on the young Digi-Destined. It should be no surprise that his traumas resulted in pushing his partner away more than once (after hearing the lies of DemiDevimon and shortly before encountering Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon).
Fast forward a few years to the battle against the Digimon Emperor. Seeing Devimon again brought all those memories to the surface, enraging TK. It came up again against BlackWargreymon, as we learned along with Cody that TK had nightmares about losing Patamon again.
With nightmares like that, it doesn’t surprise me that as Meicoomon’s infection spread to Patamon, TK chose denial instead of reaching out to Izzy for help. Especially with the reboot on the horizon, TK risked losing his partner again. As they headed back to the Digital World to find their Digimon again, it’s like reconnecting with Tokomon gave him more hope that he’d be bonded with his partner no matter what happened, enabling Patamon to reach mega level.
And yet by the time Menoa came around and told the Digi-Destined that their time was limited with their partners, TK’s trauma must have been triggered again. Though Last Evolution was focused more on Tai and Matt, we saw that TK was among the Digi-Destined who subconsciously chose to join Eosmon’s Never World. After Tai and Matt woke their friends up, TK was more than happy to fight the good fight… but it was still there.
A couple years later, when Lui came into the picture, TK was faced yet again with the prospect of losing Patamon. Of all the present Digi-Destined, TK was the most hesitant to fight Ukkomon and risk losing their partners. But in the end, he faced that fear and joined his friends. Facing that fear again.
We still have a gap between The Beginning and the Adventure 02 epilogue, but TK went through a lot. The trauma never really left. However, when all was said and done, TK consistently faced that trauma and rose above it. Because of those scars, he always had trouble holding onto the essence of his Crest of Hope.
I guess that’s what makes hope so important. The darkness is so pervasive with depression or trauma. Holding onto hope and trusting that things will get better… it’s tough. Sometimes for me, hope is just doing the next right thing. Or knowing that I don’t need to do everything all at once. Sometimes hope is just seeing one patient at a time. More than once I’ve told myself “If I need to, I can go home at lunch.” These little bits of hope get me through the day. Even just having the hope of having some relief (like knowing I can always take a Tylenol when my back pain flares up).
Choosing hope is tough. But I suppose hope would be necessary if it was only for good times. I’ll try to sum up my ramblings with two quotes:
T.K.: "Where there's light, there's always darkness."
Kari: "T.K's right, and the brighter the light is, the deeper the darkness."
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
