#digimonday

DigiMonday - GOGMAMON

(Perfect Level/Vaccine Attribute/Ore Type)

Gogmamon is a rare example of a relatively-new Digimon for which behind-the-scenes design info has been publicly released, giving us a few interesting points of insight into this big craggy creature's development; Gogmamon was originally conceived of as an evolution for Golemon, and was initially known as "GranGolemon" internally. The Digimon Encyclopedia describes it as an enormous but rarely-sighted type of Digimon, living in deep caves and emerging only to bask in the sun.

Gogmamon's final name is likely a reference to Goëmagot (also translated as Gogmagog,) the chief of a tribe of giants described in Historia regum Britanniae, a heavily fictionalised account of the history of the British Isles written in the 12th century by the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (who is himself perhaps most notable for being credited with playing a major role in collecting and popularising legends relating to King Arthur, the legendary "King of Britains" described in ancient English folklore.) According to Historia regum Britanniae Goëmagot and his tribe lived in what is now Cornwall, terrorising the isles until Corineus (a likely mostly-if-not-entirely-fictional Trojan warrior and the supposed founder and namesake of Cornwall) defeated him in a wrestling match and flung him off a cliff. The decision to apply Goëmagot's name to a giant mineral-based 'mon may be a reference to the Gog Magog Hills in Cambridgeshire, England (which may be named after Goëmagot,) or could have been inspired by the cliff at which the legendary giant met his end. Brutal...

(The view from the top of one of the Gog Magog Hills, image source here. Suffice to say, Cambridgeshire is a very flat place...)

Gogmamon debuted in 2020 as part of the Digimon Pendulum Z line of VPets (an updated version of the Digimon Pendulum line released between 1999-2000.) Each VPet in the Digimon Pendulum and Pendulum Z line featured Digis of a specific "field" or "familiy" which shared similar concepts (such as the aquatic "deep savers" or mechanical "metal empire",) with Gogamamon being an addition to the generally nature-themed Nature Spirits field (apparently in an effort to add more mineral-themed Digis to the group.) A huge win for those in the admittedly-niche overlap between Digimon enjoyers and geology nerds (affectionate.)

Digimon has been a huge part of my childhood. I grew up watching the first season until The Frontiers. Now, to those who don't know, Digimon is like Pokémon except you get partnered with these monsters from the Internet. It was also one of my very first exposure to Japanese culture.

tiny sleep.