Digimon Xros Wars - up to episode 11 now

Finally been catching up on my Xros Wars and..... I am still having trouble with it. Not to the point where I wont watch it, oh no, it is Digimon and thusly I must consume it.
However there are the things in it that irk me.

First of all I still find it incredibly irritating that none of the children have a Digimon Partner. Taiki is the only actuall "DigiDestined" as he is the one with the Digivice, and Im sure there is an argument to be made for Shoutmon being his "partner", but he can use all of the Digimon, Shoutmon just happens to be his #1 go to guy. So, in essence, that special bond between a human and their digimon really dosnt exist in this instance of the Digital World. Taiki gets to be a General and lead an Entire Digimon Army, and his two human friends get to...well, tag along, I guess?
Iv seen some websites saying the Cutemon is Akaris digimon, but in the show I really see no evidence of that, Cutemon seems more attatched to Dorulumon then anyone else. Besides Akari does not have a Digivice, so she cant have a digimon.

Then there is the fact that there is no digivolving in this Digital World thus far. only crossing digimon with other digimon. There was a bit of this kind of thing seen before in prior seasons, but it was always as an extra to actual digivolving.

Now I know, I know. The Digimon franchise has a history of no two reboots functioning the same. They always want to change it up, and I get that. But the biggest crime to me is in removing the dynamic between a Human and their soul-bonded Digimon Partner. That was the entire essence of the show, what gave it its charm and made it stand out from the other shows like it. Frontier was a huge failure; nobody liked it and do you know why? Because the kids didnt have partners! Actually, in my own opinion, Frontier wasnt as bad in that respect as Xros Wars. Why? Because in actuallity, the children of Frontier did have partners, their partners where just basically spirits/ghosts that lived inside their digivices and needed to borrow the kids bodies in order to come out. There where a few episodes when the children actually talked to their digimon through their divices, which says to me that they actually were seperate entities from the kids, rather then just a cool transformation.
Xros Wars completly elliminates the kids each having their own, just-for-them special Digimon Partner, and I just cant get over that.

For all that though, I am enjoying the show on other levels. Much like with Frontier (and Data Sqaud for some people, although I actually loved that season), once you make a concious decision to ignore the aspects that are jarringly out of place from the Digimon you know and love, its still a pretty rockin show. And lets not forget that it is a mega-franchise designed for the sole purpose of selling toys to children. The character designs of the Digimon that have not been previously seen are really quite cool. I am loving Dorulumon, Persiamon and Baalmon, respectivly. These are really great looking digimon, and Dorulumons character in particular is fascinating to watch. Hes cool, aloof, tough-guy-outside-but-warm-inside, and noble to his core. Judging by his role in the group and his lion-inspired design, one has to wonder if hes going to be this seasons Leomon Death. Sure he isnt a Leomon, but this season is already not holding to tradition, and he does fit the personality and the lion type-cast.

The storyline is working quite well, with very menancing villains ala Lilithmon, Balmon and Tacitmon, as well as two other human children whose allegiances and motivations are shrouded in mystery. Its kind of really cool how this season is set up as an all out war, where previous seasons have always been more kind of guerrilla warfare. This means tactics will have to be different, and I am quite interested to see how it turns out.

All in all heres the thing. This season is certainly not bringing Digimon back to its glory days of the first three seasons, but it is a pretty decent show and worth watching if you are either a Digimon fan, or 10-15 years old.... the rest of you wont care about it, but that is quite alright. Those of us still into Digimon know we are the odd ones out ;)