Dark Masters

The Dark Masters are a fictional villain group that appear in the first season of the Digimon media franchise, Digimon Adventure. The group consists of four powerful Mega-Level Digimon. They are MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, and Piedmon. They are the fourth major villains in the first season of the series.

Appearances
The first appearance of the Dark Masters is in episode number forty of the first season entitled "Enter The Dark Masters". MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, and Piedmon create a trap to capture and destroy the DigiDestined. The DigiDestined drop into the traps set by the Dark Masters. The Dark Masters quickly defeat the DigiDestined and are about to destroy them when they are saved by Piximon who sacrifices himself so that they can escape.

Digimon Adventure
Byproducts of the chaos Apocalymon had on the Digital World, the Dark Masters were started by Piedmon, with MetalSeadramon, Machinedramon, and Puppetmon joining him when they began their reign of terror throughout the Digital World while the DigiDestined were fighting Myotismon in the Real World. Prior to the events involving the DigiDestined, the Dark Masters defeated and sealed away the four Sovereigns. When the DigiDestined returned to the Digital World, they discovered that the Digital World was warped (due to Apocalymon) and the Dark Masters used some of the land's data to form Spiral Mountain with their base of operations, Piedmon's castle, on top. The Dark Masters outmatched all eight DigiDestined. Chuumon was killed by Piedmon, and Piximon sacrificed his life to distract the Dark Masters while the DigiDestined escaped. The DigiDestined managed to climb Spiral Mountain, and defeated each of the Dark Masters with some help from their old Digimon friends. When a Dark Master is defeated, his area of spiral mountain will disappear, like MetalSeadramon, when he was defeated, the blue ocean round spiral mountain disappeared to reform on the surface of the Digital World. The Dark Masters arc is 13 episodes long spanning from episode 40-52. For the last 2 remaining episodes they face Apocalymon, a manifestation of the remains and hatred of the digimon who failed to digivolve, who employed a plethora of attacks and techniques including those of former major villains including Devimon, Myotismon, MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon.

NOTE: The four Sovereigns are not mentioned or seen in Digimon Adventure, but Azulongmon told the DigiDestined in Digimon Adventure 02 what the Dark Masters had done to them in Digimon Adventure.

Digimon Adventure 02
The Dark Masters do not appear at all in this season, however, cameos and references are made. They were mentioned by Digitamamon during Yolei Inoue's problem getting him to accept their money. Also when The original DigiDestined told stories of their adventures to the new team, they mention the Dark Masters. A four-way screenshot showing their destructions is also shown when Azulongmon speaks to the DigiDestined about how they sealed up the Sovereign Digimon.

Digimon Tamers: Digimon Medley
The Dark Masters are the bosses of the "Ma no Yama no Shitennou Dark Masters" chapter. By beating them in the order of the anime, the game will branch off into the "Saigo no Ankoku Digimon" chapter and a "Yuuki o Uketsugu Mono" with the three new DigiDestined, as well as unlocking scenes in the menu. Any other order will lead to the harder "Aratana Sekai" chapter, a "Yuuki o Uketsugu Mono" chapter with Kari and T.K. instead of Yolei and Cody, and lacking the unlocked menu scenes.

MetalSeadramon

 * Voiced in the dub by Doug Erholtz.

MetalSeadramon was the ruler of the Net Ocean, which consisted of large Ocean space with a few little islands. During the time the DigiDestined were fighting Myotismon in Tokyo, MetalSeadramon had taken to ruling over the Ocean portion of Spiral Mountain. In his first appearance with the other Dark Masters, he was the first one to attack the DigiDestined and not even the combined efforts of the DigiDestined's Eight Champion Level Digimon could defeat him. He is the only Dark Masters who can effectively travel in the 3 terrains], without Piedmon with his magic. When all the Dark Masters rounded up on the DigiDestined, Piximon managed to hold the Dark Masters off, while the Digidestined traveled off to part of MetalSeadramon's portion of Spiral Mountain. MetalSeadramon also commented that he would be the one to finish the Digidestined off once and for all, and since they were on his territory, he would be the first Dark Master in an attempt to destroy them. Killed by Wargreymon.

MetalSeadramon's first attempt to kill the DigiDestined was by trapping them all in a beach hut and put them all to sleep by Scorpiomon (his servant) so they couldn't escape, while MetalSeadramon would use his Energy Blast to set fire to the hut. However, Mimi, and Joe fell behind and the rest were trapped in the hut. MetalSeadramon rewarded Scorpiomon with clams to eat, but after MetalSeadramon looked in the hut discovering two of the DigiDestined were missing, he ordered Scorpiomon to get the other two. Scorpiomon was defeated by Lillymon and Zudomon and dragged to the hut where MetalSeadramon had grown impatient and started burning the building. MetalSeadramon was then surprised to find Scorpiomon screaming out of the hut and finding all the DigiDestined gone, he angrily destroyed his incompetent servant. MetalSeadramon decided to go after them himself. He defeated Lillymon and Zudomon after the Digidestined thought they could escape by Sea on Zudomon's back. Before he could kill them, Whamon appeared and swallowed the Digidestined to save them from MetalSeadramon.

After a while, the DigiDestined try to come up with a plan on how to defeat the Dark Masters and Izzy came up with the solution that WarGreymon could defeat the Dark Masters because of his Dramon Killers, which are permanently strapped to his arms, which can really do serious damage to a Dramon Digimon type like MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon. He then sent his horde of Divermon to go after the Digidestined, who were safely in Whamon's stomach. The Divermon quickly found them and tried to catch Whamon, but he managed to get far into the deep ocean that the pressure was that much, the Divermon's swim gear began to crumble and shrink due to the pressure, however MetalSeadramon finally had enough with them and joined in the chase to catch Whamon. Whamon thought he lost him in a tunnel and resurfaced up to the surface in a bay, however MetalSeadramon also came up to the surface. Tai gives the signal for Agumon to Warp-Digivolve to WarGreymon to try out Izzy's solution. While Wargreymon kept MetalSeadramon occupied, Zudomon destroyed the remaining Divermon. At one point in the battle, MetalSeadramon manages to catch Wargreymon between his jaws and send him in the ocean. Whamon manages to head-butt MetalSeadramon to let WarGreymon go, and MetalSeadramon angrily launched his River of Power attack at Whamon, blasting a hole right through his body and killing him. WarGreymon avenged Whamon by using his Great Tornado, deflecting Metal Seadramon's River of Power and blasting right through him with his Dramon Killers, blasting all the way through his mouth and down his body, resulting in his death. MetalSeadramon's Ocean round Spiral Mountain began to disappear and then re-configure back to normal because of the Dark Master's death. The DigiDestined then decide to go on and try to defeat Puppetmon, Machinedramon and Piedmon with the new knowledge that the Digital World will be restored when they defeat the rest of the Dark Masters.

MetalSeadramon is very arrogant, and thus he loses his temper easily when his enemies get the best of him or when one of his plans of killing the Digidestined fails. MetalSeadramon prefers to destroy his foes, rather than tease them. He actually argued with Piedmon and Puppetmon on how to destroy the Digidestined when they arrived from Earth (this could be because MetalSeadramon was the only data-type Digimon out of the Dark Masters while the other three were virus-type Digimon). MetalSeadramon doesn't destroy his own minions for enjoyment. The only time he destroyed his henchmen was Scopiomon when he failed on numerous occasions trying to catch the Digidestined. He was also the biggest in size of the four masters.

 Attacks 
 * River of Power - MetalSeadramon fires a massive energy beam from the cannon on his face.

Puppetmon (Pinocchimon)

 * Voiced in the dub by David Lodge.

Puppetmon was the smallest of the Dark Masters and the one who lasted longest fighting against the DigiDestined (five episodes, though this is partly because of other major enemies and events, such as the return of Etemon as MetalEtemon, and the group discovering why they were selected as the DigiDestined). Killed by MetalGarurumon

During the time the DigiDestined were fighting Myotismon in Tokyo, Puppetmon had taken to ruling over the forest portion of Spiral Mountain. He did not take the DigiDestined seriously, and played with the children using dolls he had fashioned after them to control their movements and locations in his forest as he watched them on a TV monitor in his playroom. In fact, he kidnapped T.K. and forced him into a game of war (changed to simply "hide and seek and destroy" in the English version), with Puppetmon seeking and using a gun to make the game "more fun". Fortunately T.K. managed to discourage Puppetmon by calling him "boring" and asked if he could meet some of Puppetmon's friends. Puppetmon tried to make excuses but ran off, saying he'd bring a friend back. Puppetmon then hastily created a friend of wood and junk. But when he brought it back for T.K. to see, the boy had escaped - but not before destroying Puppetmon's playroom. This had seemingly hurt the child-like side of Puppetmon's personality, as his tone seem like that of a child who has been denied a great treat, and snarled and he would get even with T.K. for being tricked, having his "toys" stolen (T.K. had taken the dolls Puppetmon used to control them from earlier), and smashing his TV and remote. While Puppetmon attempted to get revenge on the DigiDestined for his playroom being destroyed with a trio of Garbagemon, Cherrymon managed to use the memories of Matt to convince the boy to turn on the others, particularly Tai. Cherrymon told Puppetmon that he had succeeded in getting Matt to distrust Tai and would soon cause WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon to engage in mortal combat. Hearing Matt and Tai were going to "Self Destruct" made Puppetmon all too eager to watch WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon duke it out, but Cherrymon advised caution, saying that the Digidestined had something special. Puppetmon inferred that Cherrymon meant they had something that he lacked, and was angered at Cherrymon's lack of faith in his power. Enraged, Puppetmon destroyed Cherrymon. Despite his now-deceased cohort's warning, he still intended on watching his foes turn on each other, but the presence of a mysterious being ruined that plan.

After the DigiDestined went their separate ways, Tai and his group decided to take the battle with Puppetmon to his mansion. By the time Puppetmon made it back, delayed by a battle with MetalEtemon, the DigiDestined used Puppetmon's cannon against him. Puppetmon fought the kids with some RedVegiemon, and consequently lost his "hammer", causing him to become frightened as the Chosen Digimon began to crowd around him. In a desperate move, Puppetmon used his power to bring his mansion to life in the form of a giant wooden robot, and instructed it to attack the DigiDestined long enough for him to escape. He then encountered MetalGarurumon after killing an unbeaten RedVegiemon who begged his master to take him along, despite calling the RedVegiemon "his friends" to spite T.K. earlier. He then tried unsuccessfully to use his strings to control MetalGarurumon. Matt came and explained to Puppetmon that no-one would listen to him because nobody was his friend. Hearing that made the marionette angry, and he charged at them head on. MetalGarurumon fatally blasted him at point-blank range with his Metal Wolf Claw; he was hit with such force that his entire body turned blue and froze. As he lay dying, Puppetmon heard Cherrymon's voice, and finally realized he never could have beaten the kids because he lacked what they had: true friendship. And with that, he died, which, in turn, caused the mansion to collapse upon his demise. Puppetmon's forest dissolved alongside the Dark Master.

Puppetmon's personality can best be described as a combination of a six-year old child, and a violent, murderous psychopath. He loves to play with his enemies, thinking it's fun to see their confusion, but equally enjoys murder. In fact, he destroys his own minions at will. Despite this, he is very gullible, and prone to temper tantrums when he isn't winning. Puppetmon is often chosen as a favourite of the four Dark Masters, mainly for his length of time fighting the DigiDestined and the plots he starts in the series.

 Attacks 
 * Puppet Pummel - Puppetmon uses his hammer's energy blasters to either attack the target from a distance or amplify his hammer's strikes.
 * Flying Cross Cutter (Japan) - Puppetmon uses his wooden crossed weapon and throws it like a boomerang.

Machinedramon (Mugendramon)

 * Voiced in the dub by Dave Guerrie.

Machinedramon was the second largest of the Dark Masters, who ruled the Digital City portion of Spiral Mountain which looked like a fusion of the prominent cities on Earth. Killed by Wargreymon.

In his first appearance with the other Dark Masters, he unexpectedly attacked Angemon and then attacked the 7 Ultimate Level Digimon before they could attack him and defeated them. After Puppetmon was defeated, the DigiDestined wandered into Machinedramon's territory along a road in the middle of nowhere, until Kari developed a fever and kept passing-out, making Tai upset since this brings memories from his childhood past with Kari. Izzy sent Tentomon to look for help, he soon digivoles into Kabuterimon and transports everybody to a city that has famous buildings from Earth fused into one big city. They soon find a house for Kari to rest while being watched over by T.K., Patamon, Gatomon, Sora and Biyomon. Tai, Agumon, Izzy and Tentomon went into the city to look for a hospital in search of medicine for Kari. Izzy used his laptop and plugged it into the network to find one, unaware of Machinedramon's Hagurumon tracking them every time Izzy used his Laptop.

Machinedramon sent his Metal Empire troops to hunt them down. Tai, Agumon, Izzy and Tentomon managed to escape the carnage from the hospital getting the medicine. The third time Izzy uses his Laptop and discovers that they are tracking him by him plugging into the network. Izzy decided to do a little trick, Hagurumon soon become confused when the network has been accessed from different points in the city, but this back fires as Machinedramon ordered plan Operation Elimin-8, involving having Megadramon and Gigadramon bomb every building. But this doesn't work, so Machinedramon decided to finish them off himself. After the house everyone was staying in blows up, Tai finds the others have escaped just before bombing commenced. Machinedramon appears and everyone runs into a building, which collapses into the ground because of Machinedramon's Giga Cannon attack. The DigiDestined then sink underground.

Later on Kari manages to recover from her fever and is well again, Sora, Biyomon, T.K, Patomon and Gatomon then soon set off to find Tai and Izzy since they landed somewhere else. However they soon find a WaruMonzaemon who is a Slave Master to use the Numemon to power Machinedramon's City. Kari then gets possessed once again by the odd-spirit that spoke to the DigiDestined through her body, while WaruMonzaemon gets distracted by Sora, the spirit possessing Kari frees the Numemon and they start calling her 'Queen Kari'. When Sora, T.K, Patamon and Biyomon meet up with Kari and all the Numemon, WaruMonzaemon bursts in to find the Numemon have turned against him and begin to attack, when Kari's body starts to glow in light, the energy from her allows Patamon, Gatomon and Biyomon to digivolve and give Numemon enough energy to get back up. WaruMonzaemon is then injured and escapes, while the spirit possessing Kari's body leads the way to Tai and Izzy.

WaruMonzaemon reports to Machinedramon that the DigiDestined are still alive and Machinedramon is angry that he didn't tell him sooner and as a "reward", he chops WaruMonzaemon's arm off (Machinedramon kills him in the Japanese series). Tai and soon find Andromon who is building up a resistance force to stop Machinedramon. Machinedramon appeared and Andromon managed to hold him off for Tai and Izzy to find the others. Soon everyone is back together, however Andromon is defeated, but is able to get back up to his feet. Not even the combined efforts of Angemon, Angewomon and Birdramon can defeat Machinedramon. When he wants the first victim to be killed, Kari approaches him, but the Numemon cover his body to save 'Queen Kari'. The slug Digimon try to stop Machinedramon but were wiped out easily by the villain's "Catastrophe" attack. Kari collapses and Agumon is hit by a beam of light, causing him to Warp-Digivolve to WarGreymon. He charges up to Machinedramon, slicing him up "like an onion" with his Dramon Destroyers before regressing back to Koromon. Machinedramon starts to split and disappear.

With Machinedramon's death, his City around Spiral Mountain begins to disappear and then re-configure back to normal on the surface of the Digital World.

In the Wonderswan video game Anode/Cathode Tamer, Machinedramon is revealed to have survived his death, but is mortally wounded. Fusing with a similarly dying Kimeramon, the two become the Dark God Millenniummon, with the ability to bend space and time. He eventually finds a worthy enemy in Ryo Akiyama, and even desires to become Ryo's partner. He can also be considered responsible for Ken Ichijoji's transformaation into the Digimon Emperor as his Dark Spores infected Ken, causing his descent into darkness.

Although he speaks quietly, Machinedramon is as ruthless and insane as Piedmon or Puppetmon. He is a monstrous sadist who loves to destroy. He is also the most intelligent of the Dark Masters shown by his plans of using Izzy's laptop to track his and Tai's location. However, he is not above mindless destruction, and will murder anyone with no remorse whatsoever. His destruction of all the Numemon makes him the most prolific murderer of the Dark Masters.

 Attacks 
 * Giga Cannon - Machinedramon fires a massive energy blast from the two cannons on his back.
 * Catastrophe - Machinedramon fires a large array of missiles at his foes.
 * Dragon Fire - Attacks using his right cannon arm as a drill.

Piedmon (Piemon)

 * Voiced in the dub by Derek Stephen Prince impersonating Tim Curry, but with a twist.

A pierrot master of deception, Piedmon was the most powerful, cruel and demonic of the four Dark Masters. Piedmon had the power to mentally control the Trump Swords on his back. He could also take on many shapes, seen in his first confrontation with the DigiDestined. He had the power to change other objects including humans and other Digimon into key chains. He also appeared to have telekinesis; for instance he once remotely attacked Greymon while Tai and Izzy were being pursued by the armies of fellow Dark Master Machinedramon. While he uses theater lingo in his speeches in the US version, the Japanese version had him as a villain who likes a worthy opponent to battle him. Killed by MagnaAngemon, with help from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.

After returning to the Digital World, when the DigiDestined first encountered Piedmon in the form of a clown, narrating their impending doom before revealing himself. From there, he easily defeated WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon because he had far more experience. However, because he saved himself for the end, MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon were able to gain experience from their fights with the other three Dark Masters and back him into a corner. To avoid a losing-battle with them, he turned them (along with Andromon and the other DigiDestined except for Mimi, Lillymon, Kari, T.K. and Angemon) into mere key chains, something which was reversed with the help of MagnaAngemon. Despite Piedmon's efforts to counterattack with his army of Vilemon, Piedmon was blasted into MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny, thanks to WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, which then sealed, thus putting an end to Piedmon (In the Manga version, he was simply put into the gate by MagnaAngemon).

Piemon was notable for being sadistic and sociopathic, enjoying causing pain and psychologically taunting his opponents. Despite he being the strongest he fought briefly with Angemon, though this might have been because Angemon is extremely powerful against Digimon who are purely evil; he did however beat him, only to be later easily defeated and later destroyed with the help of the other Chosen Children by MagnaAngemon.

When Piedmon's fellow Dark Master Machinedramon was reborn as Millenniummon, Piedmon was reborn to serve the Dark God. He succeeded in capturing two of the DigiDestined and did battle with Ryo Akiyama, only to be defeated by Ryo.

 Attacks 
 * Trump Sword - Piedmon throws his four swords and telekinetically manipulates them to attack his enemies
 * Clown Trick - Piedmon uses his magic to attack the enemy. This attacks is capable of creating energy blasts, fire-hoops, and even reflecting back attacks.

Piedmon
The leader of the Dark Masters' who dwells in their base of operations in the middle of a wasteland on Spiral Mountain's peak. LadyDevimon serves as his bodyguard and gatekeeper and a large group of Vilemon serve as his army. He was also seen using an army of Mekanorimon and Guardromon in his assault on Gennai's fortress.

MetalSeadramon
MetalSeadramon rules the Net Ocean and his henchmen are sea-based Digimon with Scorpiomon and a group of Divermon at his disposal. It is disputed whether the Shellmon there was a minion of MetalSeadramon or not.

Puppetmon
Puppetmon rules the forests from his mansion which is located at the heart of the forest. His henchmen are various forest dwelling Digimon that include Kiwimon, Blossomon, Mushroomon, Floramon, Deramon, Cherrymon, three Garbagemon, and a small army of RedVegiemon and quite possibly the group of Woodmon that attacked Ogremon in the episode "Etemon's Comeback Tour".

Machinedramon
Machinedramon dwells in the center of his urbanized domain with the Metal Empire army at his disposal. His henchmen include at least two Hagurumon, Megadramon, Gigadramon, an army of Mekanorimon (possibly the same ones Piedmon used in his assault on Gennai's headquarters) and Tankmon, and WaruMonzaemon (who had enslaved a large group of Numemon under the city in order to keep the city powered). As Millenniummon, he revived Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, and even his own former leader Piedmon to use as henchmen.

Victims of the Dark Masters

 * Sukamon: When the forest was becoming a part of the Dark Masters' world, the ground opened up and he tried to escape, but he fell to his death.


 * Chuumon: When Piedmon threw a dagger at Mimi Tachikawa, Chuumon jumped in front, dying a few seconds later in Mimi's hands.


 * Piximon: He saved the DigiDestined after their first defeat by the Dark Masters. In order to allow the Digidestined to reach Spiral Mountain, Piximon stalled for time. All the Digidestined witnessed was an explosion of light, leading to the conclusion that Piximon was dead. (In the next episode after their defeat by the Dark Masters it is stated in the English dub)


 * Scorpiomon: He was trapped in a hut set on fire by MetalSeadramon and came out burning and jumped into the ocean to cool off. When MetalSeadramon found that the Digidestined had escaped the burning hut, he punished Scorpiomon by grabbing him with his tail and dropping him thousands of miles, killing him.


 * Whamon: After MetalSeadramon held WarGreymon in his jaws, Whamon tackled the Dark Master, allowing WarGreymon to escape. Angrily MetalSeadramon launched his River of Power at Whamon, blasting right through him and giving him a fatal wound that would ultimately kill him.


 * Mushroomon and Blossomon: During his game of hide and seek with T.K., Puppetmon asked Mushroomon and Blossomon if they had seen him. They told Puppetmon where T.K. was hiding, but when Puppetmon couldn't find him, he thought the two had lied and destroyed them with the shotgun he was using to hunt T.K. with. This scene was altered in the English dub with Puppetmon simply calling them loosers and when not finding T.K calls for him and manages to draw him out of hiding by saying he would search behind the door where T.K indeed was hiding.


 * Cherrymon: The closest thing Puppetmon had to a friend, Cherrymon was destroyed by the Dark Master when he warned him not to underestimate the DigiDestined.


 * RedVegiemon: After bringing his mansion to life, Puppetmon tried to escape. One of his RedVegiemon henchmen asked him if he could come with Puppetmon. Puppetmon became annoyed and destroyed him.


 * WaruMonzaemon: When Machinedramon heard from WaruMonzaemon that the DigiDestined were still alive, he "rewarded" the bear for not alerting him sooner, thus killing him (In the English anime he just cut off his arm).


 * Numemon: Having just dealt with Birdramon, Angewomon, Angemon and Andromon, Machinedramon was ready to destroy Kari. However hundreds of Numemon worshiping Kari appeared and attacked him. Not wasting any time, Machinedramon wiped them out in a single attack.