Generally speaking, when it comes to anime I like my villains to have a heart. This doesn't mean they have to be nice, it just means they have to seem real. To be properly motivated, or to have some good side, or to show some degree of emotion/real feeling.

In Digimon, this does not seem so important. The bad guys are monsters, not humans, and even have the attribute that MAKES them bad. They can't help it.

However, some of the more interesting villains do show a "real" side. Just like the kids' vaccine Digimon, who are programmed with goodness, sometimes might argue or get angry - in other words, display "bad" personality traits - virus Digimon, who are programmed with badness, can sometimes show a good side, but this is less obvious.

Ogremon, who seemed a disgusting monster dedicated to evil-doing, turned out to have quite a sense of honour and sense of purpose. He even grew to care about Mimi and Joe. When he travelled with them, he was still grouchy and mean, but proved to be a good friend anyway.

Puppetmon was never very nice (or indeed, at all nice), but his main goal was to have fun, not kill the digidestined. Okay, so that meant he manipulated/played with them, but still, his favourite thing to do was play, he had all these toys and ideas for games. He seemed fairly upset at TK's assumption that he didn't have any friends, and the way he went to "make" a friend was kind of sad. So too was the way he found out, as he was dying, that what made the digidestined so successful was that they had friends.

Apocalymon, now *he* was interesting. But I didn't get the impression he was the 'ultimate evil' at all. More so than most other villains, he showed a personal side, a genuine motivation for trying to destroy the world. I felt he was someone who could have actually been reasoned with. They could have a conversation with him without him trying to blast them into oblivion.

He wanted a happy life. He reminded me of Neherenia from Sailormoon, actually - seeing the happiness of his enemies from his own personal hell. The digidestined should have all opened their eyes really wide, cried a little, and stared at him, telling him they forgave him. That woulda been much more effective, then they could have all been friends and he'd have woken up in a palace way back when...

Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked. ^_^.

Anyway, what was the point I was making? Oh yes. It's nice to have villains you can feel a little sorry for. But in Digimon if that were heavily done, it might actually detract from the story. These monsters are supposed to be plain evil, supposed to be destroyed in order to save Earth. Of course things aren't that simple in real life - that one person is the 'good guy' and the other one the 'bad guy'. But obviously this is far removed from real life, and it's nice to be able to be happy for the kids when they win, instead of feeling sorry for the villain.

After all, they just get 'reconfigured', right? ^_-. Maybe they can reconfigure Etemon into something vaguely intimidating. ^_^.

One thing I do like is how the villains are not made a lot more powerful than the kids' Digimon. I mean, sure, the Devimon-Myotismon-Venommyotismon family was super powerful, but mostly it was what you'd expect... the bad Digimon that *were* very powerful were understandably so, as they, unlike the kids' Digimon, had naturally digivolved to their form and had practise being in it, to build up their strength and power.

Still, what I like is the fact that while some of the bad guys have the ability to do unusual things apart from battle - like Myotismon creating the fog, or Devimon distributing black gears - some of the kids' Digimon do too. Like Metalgarurumon having a scouter, Lillymon being able to counter viruses, and MagnaAngemon being able to heal.

I also like it that the baddies aren't totally invincible. Like, you see Piedmon looking worried at a development in the kids' favour, or screaming as he gets hit. While true that villains are usually more powerful than the average Digimon - or else they wouldn't be a threat anyway - they can still be hurt by the children's attacks.

So, as a whole, do I like the Digimon villains? Not much. But then, you're not really meant to. I do like the way they are portrayed and designed, a great variety of evilness from a psychotic wooden/metal puppet-child who likes toys, a giant metal sea monster, a playwright with a penchant for morbid stories and magic tricks, an utterly humourless vampire, a fluttering, wild, jealous bowling bowl with wings, an Elvis-impersonator monkey...

Keep on, kids. The opponents may be tough but so are you.