WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 63 of Digimon Adventure 2020, "The Crest of Courage," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Digimon Adventure 2020 focuses solely on the DigiDestined's poster boy, Tai, in Episode 63, "The Crest of Courage," giving the spiky-haired protagonist a chance to live up to his Crest's name. Separated from Agumon, Tai journeys into a dream-like plane where he must protect a hatchling version of his trusted Digital companion, likely a deliberate reversal of the trial Agumon went through to rescue Tai from Argomon.
Upon completing the mission, Tai is rewarded with a vital clue about how to prevent the coming Great Catastrophe, but his quest-giver and benefactor's identity is kept hidden. Who is the mysterious, glowing Digimon Tai meets in the latest episode?
The unnamed Digimon lures Tai to its location using a golden hawk-like creature, who continues to keep watch his progress as he tries to unlock the Crest of Courage's true power. Before this, Tai, Sora and their Digimon, Agumon and Biyomon, arrive at a strange castle guarded by the unambiguously named Knightmon, who grants them passage inside, after which they soon become separated. This is when Tai finds himself taking a bit of a trip down memory lane, forced to overcome some of the obstacles he did previously in Adventure 2020, but this time, without Agumon. Instead, he has only his own wits and strength to rely on, not to mention calling on the good old-fashioned anime power of friendship when thinking of his friends, the other Chosen Ones.
The golden bird is eventually revealed to belong to the almost formless, glowing Digimon who pulled Tai into this dream state. Though its shape is a little undefined, the accompanying pet bird and what we can make out of its form are evidence enough to figure out who the Digimon is.
It's Valkyrimon, a Mega-level Digimon whose Rookie form, Hawkmon, fans may remember as Yolie's partner in Digimon Adventure 02. Though it possesses an impressive arsenal of special weapons -- including a sword, bow and arrow and javelin -- its main duty is to be more of a lookout and record-keeper. As part of the Army of Light that battled Millenimon centuries prior to Adventure 2020's story, Valkyrimon witnessed the "miracle" that was Omnimon's formation -- fused from WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon with some help from Orphanimon and Seraphimon. The fusion knight obliterated the apocalyptic villain, though not for good, while Valkyrimon, who also perished, lingered on as a bodiless soul -- awaiting the time that its knowledge of Omnimon's power would be useful again.
In addition to its own eyes, Valkyrimon's hawk, Flare, acts as a scout, demonstrated in Episode 63 by it watching Tai and Sora and reporting back to its owner. Interestingly, Flare isn't another Digimon but just a different kind of lifeform that exists in the Digital World. As such, it doesn't really have any special moves or evolutionary potential, making it essentially just a very special-looking but pretty ordinary bird, like any other trained hawk you might find in the real world. The only other interesting thing to note about Valkyrimon is that its design, like a handful of other characters, came from a fan art contest in 2000.
The Digimon anime is usually a show that's big on on-screen labels, and its weekly "Encyclopedia" segments that close each episode out add even more context to the new creatures viewers are introduced to. That's why Valkyrimon's anonymity stands out in the latest episode, marking it out as one of the few Digimon shrouded in a (literal) aura of mystery. With the coming battle against the forces of darkness around the corner in Adventure 2020, perhaps we'll see Valkyrimon again to witness history, hopefully, repeat itself.
