curiositythecryptid

[curiositythecryptid]

Shipping is cute and all but can we talk about the fact that mk and mei are probably red son first ever friends

the first people he got close to outside his parents and let's be real his parents treated him awfully even though he's the one who freed his father it wasn't enough for them in the first season I think that's why he got attached to these two after they worked together

I don't think red son needs a lover he needs friends having people outside his parents was important for him to realise his not useless and doesn't need to prove it to his parents or anyone

and I think his parents realised later on that they were really cruel to him, his character and his relationship to the people around him is so much more then just shiping

Red son is really selfless and caring and brave and I hope we get more screen time of him in the next season

[curiositythecryptid]

Red Son. I hate him of course. In case it wasn’t obvious.

[curiositythecryptid]

this is them right

[curiositythecryptid]

Some wholesome lmk headcannons:

-in the past when macaque would feel overwhelmed or his Social battery is low he'll subconsciously melte in the shadows so wukong started letting him stay in his shadow whenever that happens so he doesn't get lost

-when mk was still a child tang helped pigsy whenever he could babysitting mk when pigsy is busy they practically started living together after that

-whenever wukong do something that reminds pigsy of mk he soft up a little and whenever mk do something that reminds pigsy of wukong he gets annoyed (affectionately)

-tang is completely comfortable around wukong and wukong is a little awkward around him but he do like him and consider him as a friend

-mk doesn't care anymore when any random demon tell him how wukong "wronged" them and straight up say i don't care

-despite their problems wukong would rather die then make fun of macaque art style in reality he absolutely loves it he thinks it's unique and cute

-when macaque learned wukong new interests (origami and meditation) he try to learn about it he doesn't know why he does that (he wants to understand him more)

-sandy sometimes forgot how strong wukong is because of how cute and harmless he looks they also meditat together sometimes they don't have to talk just enjoy the other presents

-mei one day said to macaque that his divorce with wukong definitely took a troll on him and he looked at her like she talked in another language (and that's how mei discovered that macaque and wukong weren't married)

-Red son use any excuse to talk about mei to anyone describing her as the strongest warrior he ever had the honour to fight along side with but also call her a dumbass in the same breath

-Red son is curious about wukong he really wants to know more about his uncle and hang out with him but he's too conflicted and shy about it wukong think red son short timber is funny

That's all :)

[curiositythecryptid]

The Libberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[curiositythecryptid]

haven’t done lmk content in like a solid two weeks that’s got to be unhealthy for me

[curiositythecryptid]

⏰🍜⁉️

[curiositythecryptid]

Working on a much larger comic but have a short and sweet moment I made as a break from it

People seemed like papa Tang so have some more📚🖍️❤️

[curiositythecryptid]

“Who’s The Coolest Person You Know?”…

[curiositythecryptid]

Call me the timepiece section at IKEA the way I've just been clocked. Anyway, counter confession notes and associated mad rambling under the cut - and to those of you expecting this to be Zane-heavy, it's not, but he is certainly there. TLDR this is mostly a drawn out Nadakhan analysis, but Zane's the case study. Specifically, the chess scene.

It's going to get messy, but it'll be fun, I think. (And you know I love flexing the analysis rebuttal muscles.)

I'm not going to put anon on blast here. Those days are behind me, mostly; I just never get to discuss these points and that confession reminded me of the topic. What I will say is that the general criticism of that ask - that is, the sentiments of "Skybound only works because everyone is OOC and stupid the whole time" and "Nadakhan is not actually as smart as he's made out to be" - are takes I've seen for years, most often deployed as This Is Why Skybound Is The Pits proof. If I had a nickel for every time I've seen it, I could buy a time machine and travel back to the Skybound production period to fund a full seasonal soundtrack.

What's interesting is that they're both, to some extent, true - but in a way that makes them both something of a narrative strength, imo.

See, Nadakhan's entire schtick is destabilization. When you look at all his actions, it becomes clear that they all have the same core: undermining what already exists and using it to his advantage, collateral damage be damned. There's the very literal destabilization of Ninjago, the tearing the infrastructure down to remix into something a lot flimsier, held together by bubblegum and many, many wishes; there's the meta angle, where he becomes the first villain in the show to thoroughly buck the seasonal rhythm and actually make it to his finish line for longer than usual. There's his upbringing, where for whatever reason he couldn't - or wouldn't - hack it at home, and so left (or was exiled? Jury's still out) to pursue a career based on - say it with me now - taking advantage of others for his own gain.

In that same vein, it's no surprise that destabilization is how he approaches most of his attacks... which brings us to Zane, and a little more anon nitpicking, and the chess scene.

So, first up: I don't think fact that it's chess that matters that much. I'll agree that that's a very easy way to inject an air of Smart Shit Is Going On Here for the audience of children, even though it's a completely wackadoodle game as per this excellent Reddit post I just linked. Obviously it builds on the chess motif that carries Zane through the season, plus gives Nadakhan an easy way to add insult to injury at the end there. If you want to get fancy shmancy with it, you could make up some bullshit about losing queens, but I digress. Honestly, you could swap it out for poker, or UNO, or a pancake flipping contest, or anything Zane is ever shown to be familiar with, and it would work fine.

Because it's not the chess that's important at the end of the day. It's what it represents: familiar intellectual territory for Zane that Nadakhan is able to destabilize.

Ordinarily I'd want to see more of Chess Freak Zane before making a claim like that, but the nice thing about Skybound is it's a sandbox; the chess thing is limited to that space. In "Infamous" we see him ending a streak of over 100 games against Jay, which for Skybound means: Chess Freak Zane, Google en passant, holy hell, you get the picture. Point is, chess is painted (in VERY rough strokes, to be fair) as Zane's Thing. So when he goes belowdecks and that's the centerpiece of the challenge, he should be fine, right?

Nope. Obviously he's not. That's not helped by it not being about the chess for Nadakhan, either - obviously he just wants Zane's soul, and is able to read him well enough to find a weak spot. Which means it's time for destabilization! Again! We see that in the discussion and wish exchange, where Nadakhan seemingly ignores Zane's initial loophole safeguard wish (more on that later!!!) and then immediately kills Pixal after "granting" the tenfold-harm one. I'm open to arguing that killing Pixal does safely circumvent the harm-to-Zane principle in that he suffers no physical damage, but as for emotional damage... yeah, this one is weird, but I'll get to that too!

Anyway, the way Nadakhan conducts the exchange scrambles the already limited information Zane has on him and how he operates, which opens up an avenue for Nadakhan to manipulate and keep Zane from having the time to adjust to it. For instance, Zane's expecting to get three wishes total; he doesn't. He only actually gets two - the tenfold-harm one is not phrased as a wish, so Nadakhan's under no obligation to grant it as such.

For whatever reason - high on confidence, maybe - Zane doesn't catch that mistake and just moves on to his "third" wish. Nadakhan does catch it, though, and praises Zane's originality - just to make it seem like it went through - before he jumps into the discussion of wish one. This throws Zane off and frustrates him. He starts to panic, is unable to defend his original wish, and then Nadakhan slaps down the Kill Pixal card... and we all know what that does.

So: it's not that Nadakhan is as blisteringly intelligent as the show wants us to believe. He doesn't really need to be. He just needs to be smart enough to take advantage of whatever openings he can get - in this case, Zane's complacency and confidence in familiar territory. I'd argue that counts as intelligence - more of a street smarts compared to the book smarts he's up against with Zane, but smarts all the same. Still, though: Nadakhan's not stupid. Zane's not, either. He's just not great at adjusting to this new challenge, because that's how Nadakhan wants him.

Back to the original sentiments I'm writing this rebuttal to so I can wrap this up:

Skybound only works because everyone is stupid and OOC the whole time: I wouldn't say the whole time, but I won't deny some characters keep taking the Idiot Ball and holding it close. This is not a flaw on their part; this is Nadakhan's method. Find the weakness, exploit it, profit. His plans only work, and Skybound only continues as written, because he can pull it off and nudge people to be stupid and OOC as needed.

Nadakhan isn't actually as smart as the show makes him out to be: he doesn't have to be, at least not all the time. See above - he's just got to be smart enough, or in a way his enemies don't expect him to be, such as the way he reads and attacks Zane.

That's about all the notes I have on that specific issue, but I do want to make a few final statements regarding that tenfold-harm one - which is fascinating in a couple of different ways.

I think something people forget about this scene is that Nadakhan doesn't actually get a chance to interpret Zane's wishes as the first wish instructs. Remember, Zane never actually makes a second one that isn't wishing it all away. See above - the tenfold-harm one isn't worded like a wish, so it wouldn't apply. Technically, Nadakhan switching the topic to the logic of the first wish to ask Zane if it would apply to Pixal isn't twisting his words. At best, it's trying to understand those parameters. (Which, in a fun twisted way, would honor that original request to understand Zane fully - how can Nadakhan grant any following wish accurately if he doesn't know the terms and conditions?) At worst, it's distraction. That's why Nadakhan suddenly pivots to that - to distract Zane from realizing he's actually got two wishes left, because just like Zane, he doesn't have the time to adapt to a new formula. They're both expecting three wishes to happen and they're not going to exceed that limit, dammit! Trapped by societal conventions or whatever!

But, just for fun: let's pretend that second "wish" went through.

Let's say Zane did word it properly, W-word and all, which I've noticed has been the working assumption since the episode came out. Zane fell for it, and so did the audience, so let's take a look at it through that lens.

It would obviously be very, very bad for Nadakhan to experience the equivalent of ten Pixals dying at that moment - he'd be incapacitated. I'm not even sure what would count as that under his circumstances in that episode, which is fine, because obviously that doesn't happen. Nadakhan always grants (or, at least, tries to grant) wishes in a way that benefits him, so it makes sense that he'd throw in some fine print for this one. Even under the taking-Zane-literally wish, this works out just fine. Zane didn't specify a timeline for when the tenfold harm has to happen to Nadakhan; as the wish interpreter and granter, Nadakhan would get to set those parameters.

I imagine he wouldn't want that much harm happening until after he's equipped to deal with it somehow - say, using infinite wishes to just negate it. So: let's say Nadakhan pushes the activation period off til after the wedding. No matter what happens, he's insured: if he can't pull off the wedding, the harm never kicks in.

But, as we all know - the wedding does happen. And what happens right around the same time? Nadakhan gets high on confidence. He fully loses his entire crew, either to eroded trust or banishment. He loses his rebuilt realm and his new powers before he can remember to negate that tenfold-harm wish in this hypothetical (which he canonically hasn't forgotten about, if using the same language against Flintlocke in "Wishmasters" says anything). Delara is resurrected and quickly ripped away; he is humiliated, forced to delete his own golden era timeline, and then thrown straight back into the teapot, all his work unraveled - and, if you believe in the Hageman Brothers tweet fun fact canon, left to stew about it for eternity.

The numbers are a little nebulous, but that all seems like it would suck enough to be worth about ten dead Pixals.

[curiositythecryptid]

//CW…. Slightly Suggestive (?) ⚠️

Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it, Tang! 🔥

Bonus

They ain’t subtle

Not one bit

[curiositythecryptid]

First words💬

Hard to say where he got them from though idk…

[curiositythecryptid]

Repost cause i moved blogs lmao i do NOT know how tumblr works

[curiositythecryptid]

my tumblr MO is three-digit queue or bust

[curiositythecryptid]

This minecraft short comic called "A strange Coast" made by Ian Flynn I believe, I found in a book from my library I work has to be one of the most beautiful and respectful takes on the game.

It understands minecraft so perfectly and doesn't treat it as childishly as the other stories in it did.

And all that within 10 pages and no word spoken.

[curiositythecryptid]

The six eared macaque is spared!!

Now he has the opportunity to pester the group (in a less lethal manner).

[ it is important to note that I am heavily referencing OverlySarcasticProductions’ style, as they served as an inspiration. These are not the actual events of the story, and I do not claim their work as my own! ]

[curiositythecryptid]

hi yes it's Agent Walker and Agent Smith yet again..!! continuation to this post. i cant come up with anything new LOL

Aaand before i make myself think i mischaracterised my fav characters again, i'll point out that Agent Smith doesn't really do Agent Walker's paperwork all by himself. He actually gives most of it to his department's employees. Why is he like this.

...another thing i forgot to point out in the last post prequeling this one, Agent Walker's videogames got confiscated and won't be returned until he finishes his current paperwork!! (They found out he was making his employees do his paperwork. like Agent Smith over here...)

+ the last image text says, *(Agent Walker) doesn't notice the slight reduction in paperwork nor the fact that it's TIDIED because he's too woozy