#“NInjAgO weNT tO sHiT afTeR SEasOn 7”

[little-hermit-crab56]

WHY IS THE NINJAGO FANDOM OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR SO FUCKING TOXIC

[webslingerofthegalaxy]

RANT TIME

Okay, unpopular opinion that no one asked for but I have nowhere else to vent it so you're stuck with it time. I HATE the animated trolls shows, The Beat Goes On and Trollstopia. With a burning passion. I will admit, TBGO wasn't as bad as Trollstopia imo, but it was still bad. Why, you may ask?

Allow me to explain.

First off, let's start with TBGO. Now, since this comes after the first movie and we don't have a lot of context beyond it, I let a lot slide. But the main transgression I have is that this show brought Creek back. CREEK. Of all the MISERABLE LOUSY PATHETIC COWARDS to resurrect, they picked CREEK. WHY. Why was this necessary???? He adds nothing to the story beyond an annoying presence that makes me want to hurl my device like Captain America's shield. AND THEN, they make Branch the bad guy for not trusting him immediately. OF COURSE HE DIDN'T TRUST CREEK, THE SLIMY POS SOLD EVERYONE OUT TO SAVE HIS OWN SKIN. DID EVERYONE FORGET THAT!?!?! And then this leads to Branch having to APOLOGIZE to Creek and then eventually to them sort of becoming friends. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. Every episode he was in I could feel myself losing braincells.

If you thought that was alot, stick around for my rant on Trollstopia because holy shit, where do I begin?

Now, the idea behind Trollstopia is actually a good one. Like hey, everyone is so spread out, how about a group from every tribe comes to live in the middle which happens to be Pop Village? Genius! And I will admit, in the beginning it seemed promising! And then, they fucked it up.

How, you may ask?

Simple. My point can be simplified to 2 main subjects:

They put WAAAYYYY too much effort into Poppy's relationships with literally EVERYONE ELSE and nowhere near enough into her relationship with Branch, HER BOYFRIEND.

They absolutely, totally, 110,000% DESTROYED Branch's character.

I shall now explain my stance. First off, we have point #1. Now, don't get me wrong. Poppy should absolutely have relationships with other trolls! She's the queen, for hair's sake! And I really did enjoy the fact that she made new friends and got really close with them. As someone who has eternally struggled with making and maintaining friendships, I loved seeing her do what I usually cannot. HOWEVER, this is no excuse to neglect her relationship with her actual fucking BOYFRIEND. Trollstopia takes place after TWT, after Branch and Poppy confessed and entered a relationship (if you wanna argue with me, look at the official Trolls Wiki, it'll back me up). But if you watch the show, you can barely tell they LIKE each other, let alone that they're dating. The show ran for 7 seasons and, out of those seasons, can anyone tell me a single episode where they were the focus? I won't even ask about them as a couple, just them interacting together being the focus! Poppy and her friends repeatedly bulldozed over Branch, his feelings, and his boundaries, constantly mocked him, and shit on anything he wanted to do. I swear at times it was like watching Trolls 1 Branch and Poppy interact.

Finally, my second point: Branch's character. They absolutely fucking took all of Branch's hard earned character development from 2 movies and a holiday special and went:

Wanna know how I know? What does Branch actually DO in Trollstopia? About every 10th episode, he shows up to offer a crappy sarcastic remark that pales in comparison to his usual ones and does one of 3 things:

Gets hurt

Gets made fun of

Acts like a total moron, and not in a cute way.

He's basically turned into Jay from the later seasons of Ninjago (my apologies Jay, I love you but you know it's true). I mean, in one episode he got his ass absolutely HANDED to him when he tried the rodeo! COME ON. The dude who caught a stick fired at him without looking and jumped in front of a death bolt to save Poppy got served by a fucking bull thing? Bullshit (no pun intended). To add onto this, when he's not being trampled and beaten for no fucking reason, he's being used for the most CRINGEWORTHY comedic relief. I mean really, there was a whole episode about how he wanted to be called a "cool nickname" by Lownote. Really? We really think that's in character? And to top it off, he gets stuck with "Skippy Two-Shoes". WHAT. THE. FUCK??? I almost had an aneurysm when I heard that. And everyone was fine with it!!!! Which leads into my last point, NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT HIM DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE SAVED POPPY AND IS HER FUCKING BOYFRIEND. There was a whole fucking episode about him getting all pissed off at the Techno Trolls for taking over his lagoon in his bunker (which I have to say I'm jealous he has) to have "raves" at like 4am. WHO WOULDN'T BE PISSED OFF??? My upstairs neighbors bang around at all fucking hours of the day and it drives me insane so I get why Branch is mad! BUT WHY DOES NO ONE ELSE? Why is it when he complains he gets told that he's being "unfair" and has to "share"? Fuck that, he was there first! It's not like Trollstopia isn't huge, they can find somewhere else to infest at 4am!

In conclusion, I hate the animated shows because they destroy the relationship between Branch and Poppy and demolish all of Branch's character development, reducing him to the annoying sidekick that always gets cheered at when they get hurt or die tragically.

End of rant. Thank you for sticking with me, I needed to get that off my shoulders. Branch is my favorite character and it infuriates me that he gets the short end of the stick all the time. Enjoy this as a reward:

[atorchzagreusandtris]

It's always so interesting to me to see the fandoms I'm hyperfixating on and compare the fandoms with ocs vs the fandoms with no ocs (that I've made).

Like Amnesia for example, the fandom I have 40+ OCs in and have been in for over 10 years now. I spent a year of that time focused on just the characters that I had to work with before eventually being like "MM, yeah, no I need more spice." And made Derpy (I'm so sorry your name has aged so poorly my guy), Phantom, and Linard. 2/3 of those OCs were made to build off of pre-existing characters. (Derpy to build off of Piggeh and his development, and Phantom to build off of Skully + Stephano's (Yes both, it gets complicated if I say why). Linard post 2015 kind of accidentally became that with Torchy because when I first made Linard, they weren't brothers.)

And even then, I still focused a lot on those connecting characters (Stephano, Piggeh (who got abandoned and sidelined for Skully and Torchy whoops), Skully, Torchy, and Teddeh were characters I focused heavily on partially DUE to said connections). And then I finally realized after working on Jordyn and trying to flesh out the Barrel Army which I had completely entirely neglected minus Derpy, Axel, and Iris (+ Riku and his kids) pre2018, I was neglecting the main characters again. So I went back to them (they still weren't my main focus rip </3) and began working again on characters I hadn't given much development to.

Like god damn I hated Jennifer so much from 2013 to 2021ish because I couldn't find a way to make myself like her or write her character in a way that didn't make me hate her. WHICH IS WEIRD CONSIDERING THE PARALELL OF SHITTY THINGS HER AND TORCHY DID, BUT MAN DID I LOVE TORCHY BECAUSE HE WAS MENTALLY OFF HIS ROCKER (and so was I) So yknow what I did? I gave her a lesbian arc. She's not into men! She was confused and projecting! She likes WOMEN DAMMIT! Her and Pipe are girlfriends now and I adore her! She cut her hair! She stopped wearing skirts and traded them for overalls! She uses brass knuckles to punch dicks in their jaw! AS SHE SHOULD!

Then compare to the two other main fandoms I'm in - Ace Attorney and Ninjago - of which I have ZERO OCs for. I don't even count the fanseason villain (Ninjago resdemption au, somewhere between season 7 and 8) as an OC because I haven't fucking done any work on him yet. I just know what his main motive is and how it plays into the preexisting character's lives. Literally with both Ace Attorney and Ninjago I'm more focused on the preexisting characters and their relationships WITH EACH OTHER.

Like I want to explore the parallels between Kai and Morro, I want to explore Lloyd's trauma, I want to explore Kai and Nya and Lloyd's relationship with each other, I want Kai to be mad Lloyd was forced to grow up so fast. I want him to be mad he had to be a parent to Nya. I want him to fuck Acronix's and Krux's shit up. I want ZANE to explore VENGENACE on VEX "Tris he's not vengeful!" I WANT ZANE TO MAKE VEX BITE THE CURB IN 4K!!! HE'S AN ICE NINJA FOR A REASON AND I FEEL LIKE MAKING ZANE MAD EVERY NOW AND THEN WOULD GIVE HIM MUCH MORE NEEDED DEPTH TO HIS CHARACTER! we have firey temper with Kai but we need some cold and calculated (AND JUSTIFIED) anger for Zane because THAT WOULD BE TERRIFYING!

And with Ace Attorney it's the same! I want so badly to explore certain characters relationships and parallels with each other because OOOOOUGH... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

My partner told me in early winter (we weren't dating then) when I had just fallen deep into my Morro hyperfixation/kin that we should make Ninjago ocs together and I could feel every part of me protest because I don't need ocs for certain fandoms. If the characters have the depth they need, sometimes it's better to just explore them instead of making new ocs. Like fuck with Sora and Arin, I definitely don't feel like we need any more (main) Ninjago characters. So I don't need to be making any. Honestly, some of my beef with DR is the oversaturation of new characters we've gotten instead of exploring some old relationships and old character dynamics (Which I know we will be getting more of come august).

Anyways TLDR: Sometimes fandoms don't need ocs (from me), sometimes the characters just need to be explored in more meaningful ways. Other times I spend 10 years hyperfixating on something and make 40+ OCs.

[squib-2006]

I posted 12,267 times in 2022

That's 12,267 more posts than 2021!

83 posts created (1%)

12,184 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@legogeek33

@jays-ask-blog-extravaganza

@master-of-fluff

@howuart

@senseiwu

I tagged 1,670 of my posts in 2022

#lmao - 266 posts

#ninjago - 62 posts

#lego ninjago - 58 posts

#lol - 44 posts

#yes - 41 posts

#kai jiang - 23 posts

#kai smith - 23 posts

#:( - 21 posts

#:d - 20 posts

#lmao yes - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#lloyd was aged up but in my opinion he looked to be about 10-12 years old before the tea and after about the same age (maybe younger) than

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I can finally be Kai ninjago

This is going to be the best Halloween ever.

63 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

#4

Lava fans be like: we were robed on lava interaction in crystalized pt.2

Meanwhile kailor fans: (hasn’t gotten any real content between Kai and skylor since season 4) that’s rough buddy *watches safe haven & compatible for the 50th time*

99 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

#3

I have an idea

Like what if when krux kidnapped Kai and nya’s parents They actually went to an orphanage and nya got adopted But Kai didn’t And the people got so sick of him they shipped him off to darklys So by the time Lloyd gets there kai is like all angsty and “bad”And he takes Lloyd under his wing And they are like bros But a few years later kai abandons ship and runs away from darklys And Lloyd is just like :( And when wu goes to look for Kai at his parents forge nya is just there visiting and is like I haven’t seen my bro in years And then she gets kidnapped and the pilots happen except Kai isn’t there And then Lloyd gets kicked out of darklys And try’s to be evil and releases the serpentine And the ninja do the ninja stuff but nya is a ninja w/them And they just keep running in to this guy in a cloak who keeps stoping them from capturing lloyd And also doing small crimes And when Lloyd gets kidnapped by the serpentine and Kai helps the ninja escape the slither pit like samurai x did in the original episode he manages to get away but nya stops him and he takes off his hood and is like hi little sis and nya is just like :0 And then he steals the sword of fire for shits and giggles and runs away And tries to save lloyd And then eventually joins up with the rest of the ninja and garmadon to save lloyd. and instead of the compation of who will be the first to find out the identity of samurai x it’s just who the mystery guy who keeps screwing with there plans and generaly causing chaos is And then when nya finds out it’s like

All the other ninja: arguing over who the guy is

Nya: sobbing on the inside

Also sorry if this is just a run on sentence I had a brain fart and I am to lazy to fix it

99 notes - Posted July 14, 2022

#2

Just watching the first 15 minutes of the school for good and evil adaptation makes me remember how much I hate book to movie adaptations. This book has been butchered ho hell and back. Also as a warning to people who haven’t red the books or at least up until book three. DON’T SHIP AGITHA AND SOPHIE TOGETHER. They are revealed to be fraternal twins in the third book as they share a mother. While their relationship may give off heavy gay vibes they are sisters (unless they end up changing this major plot point I haven’t finished the movie yet). Please don’t make this mistake. Anyways back to watching what will no doubt turn out to be a brutal butchering of one of my favorite childhood books.

129 notes - Posted October 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Just finished violet

First time I have felt emotions from a Pokémon games ending since moon.

Here’s some memes

^ I say this with love I swear

See the full post

208 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[felikatze]

hi hi yes this is my season 8 write up you’ve probably seen one of these already by now and i gotta say what the fuck was that how the fuck was that oh my god oh my god. is this still the silly lego ninja show. am i dreaming.

this is the first one i’m actually structuring in advance because i have so many thoughts i have so so so many oh my godddddddddd. oh my god.

BROOOOOOOOO

i had. feelings about this season. 2.6k words of them.

i did not like the first two eps because (gestures at fake out romance plot) i’m sorry i hate ninjago romance plots and pixane are the only bitches i respect. the first two eps went HARD on building up harumi as super duper sweet trust me like the whole fuckin princess jasmine sequence made me cringe. do not like themmmm i do not. after that we’re good though. props to these eps to starting on the harumi lloyd parallels via comparing her position as jade princess with lloyd’s as the green ninja in addition to their both at this point primarily green color schemes. lloyd is unshippable to me though sorry. aroace lloyd supremacy.

one thing i noticed this season is how the ninja use their elemental powers differently. instead of just spawning their elements in, they take advantage of the environment. one scene that comes to mind is nya using the rain to safely land the bounty or jay redirecting lightning and using power lines to shock the big stone monster in episode 10.

i really like this change! this makes fight choreography more interesting by including the environment! nya bursting some pipes to blast away garmadon? kai using torch fires to throw at people? i love that!! it’s great!! feels natural feels good to watch!!

the elements look amazing as well! particle effects this season are off the shits! this season just plain looks good. love the redesigns on the spinjitzu effects to differentiate them and incorporate elements better than just color. LOVE the lighting. looks so good. i already praised season 5 for this but this takes the cake.

speaking of more changes. weapons!! i called season 7 sexy for giving everyone their unique weapons back and there’s some changes here! nya got a trident!! love that!! so cool!! thematic!! and no ninja has a polearm yet so. vry cool vry cool.

last time, i complained that kai and zane got the short end of the stick cuz people keep infringing on their weapons. that’s fixed now! kai gets TWO swords, which is SICK. i just think duel wielding is sexy. zane gets a bow, which i’m more hmmm abt. it’s still the only long distance weapon of the squad, so i guess it works. shurikens still seem to be mainly zane’s thing, as they’re how the gang recognize zane’s plan to go undercover.

cole also gets a hammer instead of a scythe. i GET IT hammers are better for a blunt force character like him, but.. scythes are sick. ninjago gets a pass due to my affinity for blunt force weaponry. this time.

speaking of cole. admire how he was just READY to be a dad upon finding a random baby in a dungeon somewhere. said baby being Wu is objectively hilarious because cryptic old man wisdom is replaced by baby babble. cole is just so. he is Taking Care Of This Baby. in the beginning of the season before finding the baby he’s already Dad Mode somehow because he’s telling everyone to eat their veggies. i love him. it’s so funny. someone has to save the baby from plunging off the airship? cole’s here. someone gotta play with the baby? cole. someone gotta hold the baby? cole. misako only takes over because he’s busy after everything’s gone to shit. cole is the dad friend.

REDESIGNS. redesigns. i like em. i’ve watched the lego ninjago movie twice i like the movie and i think the designs are good. they’re a bit more complex than the previous ones esp in the hair and it fits better with the improved graphics n shit. i just wish they’d been more consistent with the past designs. like the side kai’s scar is on being the opposite one to his notched eyebrow. or jay missing his slit eyebrow. this is just about eyebrows. jay’s freckles are cute though. only redesign i dont like is zane’s i think his eyes and hair look weird and why does nya have a mole now feels weird. anyway.

i heard the redesigns are so it’s easier for potential new fans from the lego ninjago movie which is hilarious. the potential that THIS is someone’s first season of ninjago. the one that dregdes up emotional conflicts from season 2, the one season that breaks the status quo by having the ninja lose at the end, the one season that doesn’t have weekend whip as the intro. hello. HELLO.

how did we get here

moments i enjoyed: zane undercover, mister E fight

OKAY ONTO THE SEASON ITSELF OKAYYY.

i rlly liked zane’s stint undercover i think that was a great sequence. (how many akira slides do ya want? oh? all of them? okay). motorcycle races were fun. (fun fact german dub just refers to the sons of garmadon as “garmadon’s bike gang” which is kinda funny aint it. german dub never change you fuckhead). the fights this season were cool for aforementioned elemental reasons but also just sick in general. i enjoyed zane getting trashed by mister e (ohhh like “mystery” okay okay). fucked up that zane dies again but whatever it was a cool fight.

what i disliked abt the general sequence was cole’s singing which i KNOWWW is supposed to be bad i aint even talking abt kirby morrow since (dub watcher) but like. yeah whatever the irony of cole being a horrible singer but they did not have to make it a running joke. i didn’t like harumi’s singing either i just don’t like singing in non-musical shows. only good singing was when everyone was singing weekend whip karaoke. german dub show me the forbidden weekend whip german cover full version. i liked those lyrics.

PIXAL OFFICAL RETURN SHE’S HERE I LOVE HERRRR (<- PIXAL STAN SINCE SEASON 3). i am mildly heartbroken by pixal being soo afraid of the possibility of going back into the computer and how she’s so afraid she won’t be useful being the way she wants to be. this is where zane pulls thru because the only one who doesn’t respect pixal’s autonomy is pixal herself. everyone is always so supportive of her choices even back in season 3 and i like that this is continued here i LOVE pixal becoming samurai x and making it her own thing. she still takes on a support role occasionally but she’s doing what she wants to do and everyone loves her for it (including me). pixane is the only romance subplot i respect (jaya is valid only when a coinflip lands on heads). i wanted to say something else about pixal here but i forgot. i love her.

BACK TO PLOT OKAY OKAY. episode 7 makes me sick in the head. i think how the harumi reveal is handled is done SUPER WELL esp in regards to lloyd. i think on the ninja side tracking her comms is kinda goofy how she just goes to background evil smirking cue cliffhänger. BUT.

when she tells lloyd to take the mask i immediatly went like “Oh god she knew he’s part oni” and THEN lloyd says “how’d you know i’m part oni” like OH SHIT!!! OH SHIT!!! lloyd piecing it all together was so fuckin satisfying cuz it’s all the stuff i ALSO noticed. good shit.

this is where i get into harumi bcuz *rotates her in my mind* this is insane.

her motivation is so understandable but also so twisted. FIRST OF ALL her backstory confirms something cartoons typically like to avoid. death tolls. her parents died in the season 1 finale. this fucks me up because now you gotta ask yourself, where else did people die here? who else didn’t make it? because it’s not just season 1. did you know that nya straight up killed everyone in the cursed realm? chen appears as a ghost in day of the departed. she killed him and all his followers but does she even realize? hello? okay? who did the stone army kill? who did the nindroids kill? not to sound like a broken record but DEATH IS REAL IN NINJAGO.

additionally the flashback shows harumi and lloyd to be the same age which fucks me up for a PLETHORA of reasons least of all that lloyd’s age now actually matches his appearance. the flashback also confirms time exists and years pass. how old is everyone. are the other ninja all in their mid twenties now. christ.

OKAY BACK TO HARUMI. her motivation is so. it’s somewhat of a running gag that whenever the ninja bring up the great devourer someone chimes in with “garmadon defeated it, not you.” it’s perfectly logical for harumi to now idolize the person who is repeatedly stated to have defeated the thing that killed her parents.

(side note her title being “the quiet one” because she temporarily went mute because of trauma is SO FUCKED UP GOD. side side note the german dub makes a really smart choice in how to translate her title because it calls her “der stille boss” / the silent boss. german is a HIGHLY gendered language and for a LOT of nouns, specifically occupational nouns, there’s the -in suffix to make them feminine, which would spoil who the quiet one is cuz you’d immediatly look toward the newest girl. but “boss” is a loanword, and thus uses the generic masculine without any actual implication of gender. the script also doesn’t substitute the title for pronouns ever, to further avoid masculine connotation. props to that choice.)

moving on, i brought it up already, but paralling jade princess / green ninja. delicious. harumi never wanted to be a princess she never wanted the responsibility but her being “chosen” by the emperor and empress. god. this directly puts the ninja “failing” as the deciding factor that pushed her into the fate she abhors. godddd. insane. insane.

HER METHOD IS STILL SO WRONG THOUGH AND SHE WORKS SO WELL AS A VILLAIN AND AS A FOIL TO LLOYD. i want to talk about episode 8 now she is so needlessly cruel. like i GET where she’s coming from but it feels like she made all the wrong conclusions. what she doesnt get is without the ninja EVERYONE would be dead not just her parents. furthermore she seems to have it out for lloyd specifically when like, lloyd wasn’t even a ninja back then. the show COULD’VE brought up how he was the one to release the serpentine in the first place but it doesn’t sadly.

she’s soooo needlessly cruel it’s kind of horrifying. she reminds me of lime witch’s heart a little bit if there’s any fanbase overlap besides literally just me and anybody knows who i’m talking about. she just wants him to suffer as she did she wants someone who gets it she wants someone who went through the same experience she did.

BUT LIKE AGAIN THIS IS WHERE THE PARALLELS COME IN. she and lloyd were the same age in season 1 he was not a ninja during that fight. he was also chosen for a fate he didn’t want at way too young an age and he had to deal with it. them being the same is what makes her so cruel.

i gotta talk abt the garmadon revival and episode 9 now. first of all i’m SUPER happy klaus-dieter klebsch reprised his role as garmadon in the german dub because he is THE garmadon voice to me always and forever. he does evil laughs good and the voice direction is eh with how drawn out all of garmadon’s dialogue is but the performance is on point as always. anyway.

isn’t it fucked up how harumi doesn’t just want to destroy lloyd emotionally by kidnapping his mom and emotionally manipulating him but also deliberatly in making him fight his dad again. remember season 2 when garmadon was like a complex character who was very conflicted between his essentially Obligation to be evil and the love he still has for his family. like i remember that version of garmadon, lloyd remembers that version of garmadon. the one who still put family above all despite everything and that’s why it HURTS man. garmadon’s dialogue in episode nine dear god. like the “i wore many masks” dialogue and the finishing touch of “i don’t have a son” cue garmadon throwing lloyd through a wall again. like the garmadon we got to know from s3-4 might as well be dead because it’s not him that came back. it’s really not.

bringing up season 2 again it’s understandable why lloyd wanted to confront garmadon on his own so badly bcuz despite being told that he won’t be the same the entire season the last time lloyd confronted garmadon with love it worked. it brought him back and this time it DOESN’T and because last time it did is why this hits so hard for lloyd (and also for me).

GOD the ending of episode 9 where lloyd gets thrown through a wall and he lands in the sand and groans and to desparately comfort himself he pulls out the picture he keeps of himself and his father, but the wind blows it away out of his hand into the desert. heavy handed symbolism but it WORKS okay it WORKS. sensei garmadon is DEAD he‘s GONE but lloyd still has to grapple with killing his father all over again.

it’s Inch Resting how harumi essentially Stole garmadon for herself like. harumi has a TON of parental issues and she idolized garmadon for however many years it’s been since season 1 and he’s like. a bit fixated on her as the one who brought him back i.e breaking her out of jail. that’s what i mean by her being cruel cuz like she’s the one fighting with garmadon now she’s the one “important” to him (as much as anyone can be important to the revived garm like geez man)

tldr feels bad man

ONTO THE FINALE THAT’S SICK. actually having them just LOSE bcuz in ep 8 you think like “ah they won” but then you (I) looked at the episode counter and saw 8 out of 10. and you go. ah. they never defeat the villain till the darkest hour. the darkest hour is still coming.

like they LOSE they SPLIT UP THE TEAM. inch resting how the guys stranded in the realm of oni and dragons are the “original team” essentially i.e. the og four ninja + baby wu and how the ones still in ninjago are the “new team” i.e lloyd nya pixal + misako and whichever side characters they’re gonna scrounge up.

ALSO LLOYD THINKS THE OG TEAM IS DEAD WHAT THE FUCK. HE THINKS THEY’RE DEAD HE DOESN’T KNOW THEY HAD TRAVELER’S TEA.

my expectations for season 9 are ALL OVER THE PLACE. will lloyd and nya continue to think their friends are dead or will this be cleared up. how the hell is the og squad gonna fare against mythical creatures (and loads of em too). how’s lloyd gonna get back up and get back at harumi.

the last scene of the season between lloyd and harumi is really nice cuz “ninja never give up” motif is always cool AND how lloyd paralles HIMSELF to harumi by framing himself as a villain since “the worst one is the one you can’t catch.”

fun fact “ninja never give up” in german sounds really nice as a phrase cuz it’s trochaic, i.e entirely in trochaic meter. ninja geben niemals auf :)

lloyd jumping off a building landing squarely on the rest of the new crew’s boat is cool it’s a really cool shot to end on because it’s also like very hopeful despite the. extended darkest hour moment. an end is just a new beginning :) good albeit cheesy use of phrase motifs. he’s not giving up even if all his friends are dead and his powers are gone harumi!! suck it!!!!

IN CONCLUSION: oh my god what the fuck. this is the first season that made me actually tear up dear fucking god.

[themadauthorshatter]

I should probably back-track to Ninjago Season 1.

I've been excited for the rewrite of Episode 7😈

For context, in Episode 4, we'd see Zane's "green ninja" dream, which Wu would ask he share. He does fully; he half truths it to the others, exceot Cole, who gets pushy. Like I said in Episode 5's rewrite, he collapsed and heard the falcons shouting his name.

This is also the episode, hopefully, where Zane talks the most. And there's a lot of glaciershipping in this one.

We start in the dead of night, as a pan over the ninja shows they are all sleeping peacefully. All except for Zane, who we see close up tossing and turning as he writhes and groans in a cold sweat, possibly having a seizure and a nightmare.

In this nightmare, Zane sprints through a wooded area as hands and snake tails reach out to grab him. He's tired, sweaty, and really doesn't want to be grabbed because he doesn't want to know what could be waiting to pull him to his doom.

Thankfully, he breaks through the foliage and lands infront of a pair of a certain black clad six year old.

"Lloyd?" He asks as he stands. "Lloyd, thank goodness. Sensei has been worried sick. Quickly, we must-"

"Why, Zane?"

It rattles Zane to his core that a girl's voice comes oit of Lloyd's mouth, but not enough to pull him close as dark figures approach and surround them.

Zane pulls Lloyd close and unsheathes his shurikens to defend the two of them.

It gets worse when Zane can't move because the figures are armed men, not serpentine.

Lloyd asks him, 'Why?' again, and this time Zane backs away because half of Lloyd's face looks sunken in while the other looks fine enough considering how he's crying and coughing up blood, as in his tears are also blood.

He loses his shurikens and, in his panic to gind them in black colored snow, gets a muzzle to the cranium and a boot to the stomach.

"The hell's your problem!?" He gets another kick, this time to the face. "First you ask for a fight, and now you can't even make it a good one!?" Zane groans as the soldier stomps on his ear. "You little coward! You worthless, spineless bastard!"

As he tries blicking all the hits as more soldiers join in, Zane hears numerous people screaming his name, begging the soldiers to stop. He sees the messed version of Lloyd try to reach him, even though he's being held back by a smirking Pythor.

He cries for it all to stop, the screaming, the kicks and punches, and the pain he's in, quiet at first, but soon shouting as loudly as he can.

"STOP IT!" Zane screams as he shoots off his back and readies a kunai under his pillow; all you need to know is that Kai and Jay tried pulling a prank, and it went TERRIBLY wrong, and he feels safer, despite being among friends.

Regardless, Zane pants as he looks around and sees that the others are sleeping soundly, even though there's some movement from Cole's bed, like he just got back into it. (Hmmmmm?)

He calms down and holds a hand against his very sweaty forehead, very much shaken and stirred by his nightmare as he groans and rest his head against his knees. "Damn. Why?"

Hope you noticed that detail of Cole moving because we cut to his perspective as he lies on his side and pretends to be asleep. He's really just keeping his eyes on the wall as he listens for any more distress from Zane, who cautiously leaves his own bed and the bunk rooms entirely.

After a minute, Cole quickly gets up and follows him. He doesn't bother trying to be quiet because Kai and Jay can sleep through anything.

It's night and the moon is out, which gives the perfect lighting for Cole to look for Zane on the deck, where he is not.

He looks up and finds him on the mast, more specifically the part that actually holds the sails.

With Zane, he's sitting and switching between staring at the sky and staring at the kunai knife from his pillow, turning it in his hand and sort of inspecting it, not noticing Cole climb up to meet him.

"You know, you're pretty hard to wake up, especially when you're having those seizures."

Zane bites back a retort as Cole joins his side, egging him on to express himself.

"For the leader of the tean, you are terribly disciplined."

Cole takes the jab, and asks what he dreamed of, seeing as how shaken up Zane is.

Zane shrugs it off and simply half-lies that he's worried about Lloyd, hoping that he's okay. Cole agrees and asks for Zane to try and go back to bed, because it's late.

As Cole goes back to bed, Zane stares back up at the sky, seeing a very vague shape of the falcon fly above.

Cut to the serpentine, who walk to an underground cavern with Lloyd, who's in a cage and really doesn't want to be here.

Like before, Pythor needs the general's staffs to reaveal the silver fang blades on a map.

They set it down on a "table" with the staffs just strewn around it like before, and they all sit and play the waiting game.

Yeah, short jump cut, but the serpentine play a minor role here.

Back with the ninja, Zane is under water because he dropped a training shuriken and just stayed under because he's still stressed about the nightmare.

He stays under for almost an hour and a half before resurfacing.

They ask if he's okay, and Cole covers for him that they might be reaching their full potential.

We get the 'full potential' talk with Wu and the origin of how Garmadon became evil, though the only thing I'm changing in the origin story is that we'd get a flashback of Wu and Garmadon talking, where Garmadon attacks Wu and screams in his face that it's his fault Garmadon's on pain and sick from the snake venom. Their father pulls them apart and Wu runs, terrified as Garmadon shouts that he's weak, a coward, and should be the one who got bit.

Wu leaves and, TV perspective, we get a pan shot of the ninja seeing him off, though we focus on Zane, who's still contemplating the whole "break through your inner limits to reach your full potential" and wonders what's holding him back, considering all he knows about himself. We fade to the ninja enacting their greatest plan yet: using fliers to get info or locations on the fang blades; they already searched a library and archives and found nothing.

Zane's zoning out until Jay shakes him out of it. "Hey! Keep up, man! We need to put up as many of these as possible."

Now it's Kai's turn to ask what's wrong, citing how Zane woke up screaming, was distant all morning and is a lot quieter than usual, even refusing to be carried on Cole's back.

Before he can respond, Zane spots a little girl being picked on by two other kids, a boy and another girl. Good thing her older brother saves her and scares them off.

Rather than a seizure, it gives him a very bad headache, one that makes him fall to the ground and drop the fliers, much to the annoyance of some passersby.

Cole holds him as Kai and Jay pick up, though they aren't focused on their task for long as the spot the falcon.

Nya, who's totally been hear the whole time, takes up putting up the fliers as the ninja go after it, first by foot, with Zane on Cole's back where he belings, before switching to their vehicles, where Zane must ride with Kai as he has another headache, though the death metal grunge trash Kai listens to does absolutely nothing except piss him off.

When they're back on their feet, the sky's getting darker as dusk approaches and Jay falls behind because he may be fast, but he can't run forever.

Kai, Cole, and Zane continue, until Kai falls behind, then followed by Cole, who we stay with as Zane races onward. He calls for Zane to stop as he catches his breath, finds the 'Beware of treehorns' sign, and wonders to himself how Zane can run forever like that.

Speaking of Zane, he sprints after the falcon, demanding where it's taking him.

It continues to fly until it falls, panting as it instead hops onward.

Zane stops running and, getting uncomfortable, goes for and turns on a small flashlight in his pocket.

Turns out that stupid bird led him to a graveyard, which he learns by seeing numerous tombstones in the light.

"I apologize for breathing on all of you."

The falcon chirps, and Zane follows, finding it on top of a tombstone that is next to many other tombstones, all the first names different, but the last names the same. A family. The falcon pecks on the one it's perched on and Zane reads it.

'Zane Silver. Beloved son, and a brave fighter. May he rest in peace.'

The falcon walks away from the grave and leads Zane to a large tree...

Where a cougar-robot hybrid thing leaps out in front of him, growling and hissing at him

Zane fights it, even though it beats him senseless, and prevails.

Good thing, too, because the falcon pecks at the tree, which Zane opens to find the 'lab' from before, except it's bigger and the lights turn on when he steps inside.

The falcon makes a rough landing on a desk, amd Zane follows in half-wonder, asking why it brought him to here and the graveyard.

He gets his answer when he examines the papers and journal on the desk. TV perspective, we don't see what he's reading, but he removes his hood and shows confusion before that melts away into utter fear and despair, shaking his head and muttering, "No," over and over again as he searches them all over again in a crazy jump cut montage that shows his face, controted with pain and even more Danganronpa style despair, his hands practically tearing through the papers and journal pages, and flashes of his dreams and images of people he doesn't remember meeting(yet).

Unable to take the pain, Zane throws the journal, shouts, "NO!" and collapses as he hears the screaming from his nightmare, and even the sound of people just saying things to him.

We don't see the images, but we hear the voices, which stop as Zane, clutching his head as he screams at the very top of his lunges.

CUT TO THE SERPENTINE!!! That piece of paper has done nothing and they're all sitting and being bored. Maybe we can have a gag of a Constricti and a Hypnobri playing poker as Lloyd watches, just for shits and giggles.

Pythor, however, isn't in the mood for that, and growls that something MUST be missing.

Hope you remembered that drawing of either Garmadon or a shaded figure drawing blood on a map, because Skales wonders if blood mixed with the Great Devourer's venom will help, seeing as how Garmadon was bitten by the thing.

He and Pythor turn to Lloyd, who panics as they approach him. The Hypnobri, however, grabs him arm and holds his hand out to the two of them, and Pythor shushes Lloyd as he rubs his head.

We see the serpentine all brace themselves for what's going to happen next, but breathe a sigh of relief when Pythor simply pricks Lloyd's finger and takes a small amount of it and returns to the table.

He drips it on the paper and, through the power of some magic BS I can't explain, it makes a map of ninjago, but no location of the fang blades.

So they're back to watching and waiting, except Lloyd, who's seriously planning on how he can escape.

BACK WITH THE NINJA!

They find the tree lab and see Zane lying on the ground on his side with the falcon trying to get under his hand, so it can get pets.

Cole rushes to his side and shoos the bird away before pulling Zane into a sitting position to see if he's hurt.

He's fine, but his eyes are red and puffy, his hair is messier than Kai's, and his cheeks are heavily tear stained.

Kai and Jay catch up and they ask if he's okay, what happened, how did he end up like this, etc.

He just shoves past all of them and sprints out of the tree lab, journal in hand, which prompts them to follow, the falcon on Cole's shoulder and pretending to fly because it's exhausted from flying for real.

"Can't the guy just WALK for once!?" Kai shouts, "We've already done enough running!"

Fade to them walking through the trees, with Kai lighting the way with his sword, as they reach the cemetery and Zane.

He's kneeling and holding on to his tombstone as he shakily weeps. They're all at a loss of words for seeing him like this.

Cole approaches and puts a hand on his shoulder, asking him what's going on with him.

Zane sighs and takes a breath before standing and moving away from the tombstone, so the others can see it.

Without looking at them, he takes a scalpel that was in the journal, which he tosses to them, and unties his gi so his torso is showing.

GORE TW, even though it's not that explicitly shown in TV perspective, Zane carves lines into his body, a straight line that goes between his pelvic bones, a straight line going up from that line, his stomach, and stopping at his heart, and to diagonal lines that meet at the vertical line, making a Y shape.

The ninja are horrified, especially at the fact he didn't even react.

Zane meets their eyes, sad and very emotionally drained, and pulls his skin back to reveal a bunch of mechanisms and gizmos inside his body, especially the core I talked about in his character touch-up post.

They all scream, and this is what follows:

"Y-You...," Kai stammers. "Zane, you're-"

"You're a ROBOT!?" Jay shouts.

Zane sighs and shakes his head. "No, Jay. I... I am not a robot."

Kai babbles on about nonsense in the background with his hands in his hair as Jay pales and Cole only slowly shakes his head.

"You're... No. You can't be. How!?"

"I do not know," Zane admits as he holds his head in his hands. "I just learned myself, and... I don't know."

Kai calms down and states, "Hey, we just learned this, too, so maybe we can figure it out together. I mean, you have all the time in the world now, so..."

"A-and it probably explains why you didn't get jokes before, right?" Jay offers.

Cole glares at them both, but Zane continues.

"Didn't get jokes before. How could I when I did not even remember?"

Zane turns to the other graves and drops back onto his hands and knees.

"Wait," Kai murmurs. "'Remember?'"

"Yes. I believe I am starting to remember, but I do not yet know everything. Someone killed me and I had been brought back to life. That lab was where I... resided for many years."

"Why'd you leave?" Cole asks as he kneels next to Zane.

Zane only clenches his fist on the ground. "I... don't remember."

"Didn't you just say-"

"Kai, didn't I just say I do not yet know everything?" Zane snaps, effectively shutting him up before continuing. "I remember asking someone to make me forget, but... what was so awful that I had to force myself and my mind into hiding?"

He breaks down again, but this time, Cole puts an arm on his shoulder.

The ninja comfort him and tell him he's still Zane, even with the elephant in the room of him being not exactly alive.

They try motivating him to fighting again, but he tells them he'll catch up, because he needs a serious minute to think about what he just learned; he has been dead for a WHILE now.

The ninja leave him, but are then swarmed by treehorns, though it's a harder fight because it's night out. Yeah, that cougar-ribot thing was meant to keep them away.

Zane hears rhem and races to help, but he too get his ass handed to him as his powers are stunted from learning the truth. He ebds uo getting thrown into the tree lab, where he tumbles down the steps and breaks his fall on the desk before hitting the ground. (As Cinemawins would say: Brutal).

We cut back to the fight, and see the ninja do well enough until they don't. Cole, especially, who frantically shouts for Zane, having not seen him step in earlier.

Good thing I bring up Zane, because he comes to and finds the falcon in front of him. He sits up and asks what it's teying to tell him and why, seeing as how he knows the truth.

Silly Zane. Knowing is not understanding.

The falcon gives him the journal and flips to the very first page, which Zane begrudgingly reads.

We get a voice over from the writer as he talks about how, as a 'taboo' scientist, he's had to choose serving the army over being executed, how the village he's stationed in really maked him want to continue his research, and how he met a boy that's really caught his attention, one with quite a large family, a mother, father, grandfather, uncle, 3 cousins, and 5 siblings, where the boy was the second oldest-having learned from having dinner with them after a mishap in the street.

Zane has another headache and sees flashes of this family, and the man who wrote the journal, who, as a slight gag, sits very uncomfortably between two arguing twins before they ask this secind eldest to take a side.

He reads on and remembers more, seeing more of his family, that he did indeed die, get resurrected, and lived until the doctor-soldier died of old age and left Zane alone.

The mechanisms and circuits meant to keep these memories away give, and Zane weeps at all of this new found knowledge, even the fact that HE HIMSELF asked to forget his family.

That word catches him: Family.

He may have had his adopted family, who are all dead, but then there's his new family. Sensei Wu, Cole, Jay, Nya, Kai, and Lloyd. People he's laughed with, semi-cried with, trained with, fought with, people he genuinely doesn't like, but people he really loves with every ounce and fiber of his being.

The falcon watches Zane collect himself and examine the core and mechanisms in his body, remembering the doctor, his father, tell him it will keep him alive, and that it, ironically, makes him more human because his heart is literally bigger than his brain, amd humans are usually more emotional than logical.

With a rush of vigor, Zane seals up his torso with some skin glue, ties his gi back up, and races back outside.

Thank goodness because Cole is being thrown like a rag doll, Kai's exhausted, and Jay's about to become fast food, which Zane prevents by dive-tackling him and tossing him a few yards away, making some snow for him to land in, which surprises them both.

Zane ignores it for now and saves Kai and Cole, the latter almost hugging him before Zane shouts that they need to focus.

They regroup, amd we get an Avengers spin around them, because it's cool, and they leap back into it, Zane lending a huge hand as he uses his ice powers to help them, given their injuries.

As they continue fighting, Zane can't help but notice he feels extremely light on his feet, like a weight's off his shoulders.

They fight off a majority of the treehorns before the queen struts her way in, and Zane is more than happy to oblige her a challenge.

The ninja tell him they can ALL take her, but, TV perspective with Zane's back to the camera, the white ninja states, more serious than he's ever been in his life, "I lost my family once to a power hungry monster. I refuse to let it happen again."

The snow on the ground circles Zane and he glows brightly as the queen of the nest snaps at him.

He levitates and holds a hand out, shooting ice at her at freezing her into a treehorn-cicle.

The other treehorns back off as Zane floats back to the ground.

His powers cease and Zane sighs as he falls back onto his rear, panting as the ninja join him and tell him how awesome that all was, Cole especially so as he asks how Zane did all that.

Zane admits he doesn't know, but reveals he now remembers EVERYTHING, his life from before he died, that he died trying to keep them and others safe, that he'd been brought back and 'raised' by his father, who erased his memory for him before dying himself, and how Wu RE-FOUND Zane and let him join the team. He remembers playing with his siblings, and annoying his older sibling, remembers helping his father-the doctor- with his research and how they even played chess. He remembers that dying SERIOUSLY hurt and was killed for trying to save an old man who was getting hurt. He remembers having his mind physically altered so he wouldn't remember, and that the seizures were due to his mind literally fighting itself.

For those in back, HE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING.

The ninja are all silent upon hearing this and, knowing he'd been the first to ask, Kai apologizes for everything Zane's been through, especially with the seizures.

Zane shakes his head, admitting with tears in his eyes he's too glad for words he remembers. He now knows that he wants to keep others safe, even the team, and hopes he can still help in stopping Pythor.

He's still in, and the group decide to camp out at the tree lab for the night before heading back, though as they settle in, Zane is about to drift off before he feels his old bed creak and someone hold him close with their arms around his shoulders.

It's Cole, though the falcon hops its way to Zane and falls asleep next to him, glad to have him back.

Back with the serpentine, they've all had it, tired of waiting and having their time wasted before they discover the venom in the staffs and use it ro reveal the fang blades' locations.

The episode ends with Pythor holding the map up in victory and Lloyd staring at the map in fear of what's to come

[aweebwrites]

OH , I understand, but can I asked you a question : Over 7 years since Kai left, how the seasons have happened without Kai? Since Kai 'extinguished' his own flames, is the Sword of Fire still active (because the sword connects with Master of Fire) and how can Chen uses his spell without Master of Fire ?

Sorry for being late on this! long story short, hyperfixation got me. On to your ask! (Wall of text below!)

The story continues almost exactly the same but a whole lot more difficult on the team without Kai. To give the team a hand, Nya had to become the water Ninja a lot earlier. Like, before the fight with the Overlord earlier. She trains along with Lloyd and it’s a lot easier for her to come to terms with letting the title of Samurai X go since she feels responsible for Kai leaving to begin with. She felt as if the least she could do was to help the others in his steed. She wields his golden sword in his place- but of course, she was never meant to wield its fire so the sword remains pretty much inactive for almost the entire time. Almost, because Lloyd did mess around with it once and it responded to him.

Season 3 pretty much plays out the same since Kai didn’t have a critical role then but it’s still a lot harder on the team since Nya had to stay behind to help the Senseis contact them in space.

Season 4 is where things are a lot different. For one, Nya goes with them to Chen’s island from the get go and the Falcon finds her there. She uses the falcon to keep in touch with Sensei Wu and Misako. As for the spell and Kai’s involvement with it, that was a lot more complicated for Chen since while they knew Kai was out and about in Ninjago, they couldn’t pin him down either. So Chen decides to do things the harder way. Clouse has spells that can open up portals to every realm, and they had simply (or rather, not so simply) captured a fire dragon from the first realm and took its fire. It’s a suitable replacement since Dragons are elementals too. It took a lot of dodging Oni and Firstbourne but they managed to snag a young dragon’s fire and escaping while its mother reclaimed it. The Ninja still ended up with Nya as their spy but a bit later on since she got eliminated just before Cole did. She then escaped with Cole and while they were busy helping the other prisioners escape, she was finding out about what Chen had up his sleeves. Skylor grew close to Nya as a friend since this is ship free, and Nya convinced her to betray Chen once she was caught again. (Shade caught her on the island but not before she could hide the spell page where Garm and Lloyd could find it). Skylor asked Chen to not send Nya to the prison and Chen obliged since Nya is kai’s sister and she does have that burning spirit that he does. Nya basically takes up Kai’s spot this season and things after they leave the island pretty much worked out the same. Only difference is that Nya had still yet to unlock her true potential so elemental dragons were a no-go for her, much to her frustration.

Season 5 plays out with Cole being the one to fight Morro when everyone else went on the ship. He’s the one that’s taken over being Lloyd’s big brother so to speak. He’s still chicken shit scared of ghosts from the get go but he pushes through his fear, thinking of Lloyd. Becoming a ghost hits harder than before since he’s a lot closer to Lloyd and he feels useless, but he still refuses to just sit down and do nothing, ghost or no ghost. This season plays out pretty much the same, with Cole taking over Kai’s spots here. Nya still does find her true potential. Her training in this season was to help her find it.

Season 7 comes after Season 5 because I haven’t watched the season between them and I refuse to. They just spend that time trying to track Kai down as they always do between missions.

Season 7 is also a bit different since Nya takes up all of Kai’s and her own role. She had to fight the twins alone, she had to find their parents alone, she had to go to the boiling sea without him and everything. It’s a lot tougher on her and she gets bat around a lot- physically and emotionally- but their parents sticking with her makes things a bit easier.

I’m just realising now that Wu really shouldn’t have been in the last part of Found, another reason to cringe at that fic. For the sake of things, lets say Nya saved him somehow from spiraling into time and he would have just vanished (read: kidnapped)  one day before Season 8.

But yeah. I think that’s the whole timeline for the fic! I hope I answered all your questions! Thanks for sending an ask! 💙

[sibillascribbles08]

So this has been stirring around in my head for a few days but the more I think about it the more I want to talk about it. So buckle in for a probably lengthy post about Kai, Season 4, and the relation between the two.

Now I love season 4, it’s one of my personal favorites. For what it is the pacing works really well. You have a number of iconic scenes. The elemental masters are a delight, the villain is hilarious (although very creepy... why the sleeveless uniforms Chen? Huh? You scalie)

So post catching up on ninjago while my brain starved for new content I started doing some reading. Low and behold my surprise when I’m glancing over season 4 while munching on chocolate to find out Kai was the focus character of season 4.

Bitch where ????

Again, I love season 4 for what it was, but like ??

Look if I’m being deadass honest Kai hasn’t gotten any actual character development since season 1.

Yeah, season 1.

Season 4 was meant to be a focus season but for all the struggle we see initially we get none of that later on. We aren’t even given a clear source on it.

Season 7 was also meant to focus on him and Nya but among all the other messes in that season ? Nothing happened

In order for a character to develop they not only need to face a situation that forces them to change but those changes have to actually like, stick.

Kai’s struggle to deal with the concept that his parents might not have been the people he looked up to went null and void after he found them. Him and Nya developing a stronger relationship falls short because they never had anything threatening their relationship in the first place.

But anyway we aren’t here to talk about that.

So, as much as I love season 4, let’s talk about ways it could have been even better.

Lets start where it starts, episode 1, which for all I love about it there was always one thing that irked me.

Why do they all hate each other so much?

Like obviously Lloyd doesn’t, he seems to still be in frequent communication with everyone. And Cole and Jay kind of make sense with the whole thing with Nya from the last season but like, WOW, there is some venom going on here. They look so goddamn angry to see each other at that noodle house. Even Kai, despite the fact he ? seemingly has no reason to be fighting with them so much.

So you open the same, Lloyd testing Borg’s security, the inventor wondering why the other ninja weren’t there.

And you cut to Jay, running his show. To Lloyd arguing with him and trying to convince him to come back. And maybe Jay considers it for a moment but then you have, hear me out

a minor flashback

not much, just something. I feel like with all the grief that came with losing Zane it’s not stretch that these boys blew up at each other, hey maybe even Nya. Do any of them besides Kai still talk to her?? Either way that a huge argument was the start of them going their separate ways. You wouldn’t need to show the argument, just maybe a couple of insults that were thrown Jay’s way.

So he says no, he refuses, Lloyd insists Jay will know where to find him and leaves.

You get the similar deal with Cole and Kai. Both of them remembering different parts of the argument and adamantly refusing to go back. 

And heeeey since Kai is, idk, our focus character, let’s focus a little more on why he’s so fucked up. Because while the show might not show it as much I’m fairly certain it’s because he’s mad at himself.

Kai puts a lot of emphasis on his ability to protect others. Reaching his true potential rested on him realizing his duty wasn’t to protect the world but to protect his friends, and he failed. Zane is dead. Kai couldn’t do anything because in the end he wasn’t strong enough.

This is important later on.

Hell, draw that shit out for when Kai goes to Zane’s statue. Make me cry fuckers.

You cut to short scenes of all of them getting the pamphlet for the tournament, including the information that they have Zane.

So NOW they all go and find Lloyd, at Garmadon’s monastery. Meeting in secret as they try and figure out if it’s real, and who is this Chen person? Not the person in charge of that noodle house surely. (Because, honestly, why would that be their place to meet I know Chen didn’t exist until this season but we’ve never heard of this noodle house WHY IS THAT THEIR GO TO PLACE WE’VE NEVER SEEN THEM HANG OUT THERE whatever) So now they go, they find some minions, ask some questions, but in the end the only way they can figure out is to go themselves.

They get to the ship. Garmadon follows. But instead of an easy time introducing all the elements the ninjas immediately split, going to their own corners. Because, oh yeah, weren’t they fighting? Didn’t they mainly agree to go to the island together to find Zane?

Heck on you for dropping that conflict until it was convenient again mmmm

SO off in his own corner, Kai meets Skylor. And yes he’s crushing but here’s another concept, they get along really well. She’s cryptic but easy to talk to. They crack some jokes, and Kai’s just glad he might have a friend outside of Lloyd in this after all.

Blah blah, fight with Karlof, another moment where he’s trying to buff up his strength.

I say he should bond more with Skylor from the get go for a handful of reasons

1) Kai is fiercely loyal and protective, he won’t stray from his mission but struggles between trusting the friends he’s known for ages but is currently pissed off at vs. someone he barely knows but gets along with.

2) It makes Skylor’s betrayal that much more devastating but also

3) Makes his decision to join Chen that much more convincing.

Like OBVIOUSLY Kai had a plan up his sleeve originally, but it was too obvious, so obvious ur sitting here like “Is Chen really falling for this no... can’t be.......”

So, concept, Chen asks because he knows Kai is close to Skylor. He asks because he promises if Kai helps him he’ll finally lead him to Zane.

And Kai takes it because he thinks it might be the only way to help Zane and Cole, because their teamwork is still frayed and Cole failed to inform the others he was planning that huge breakout.

You build it up so it seems like Kai is violently determined to help Zane, to make up for the fact he failed back then. There’s actually suspense when Chen steals the rest of the elements. Kai’s spoken about his doubts with Skylor, sure, but there’s still so much at stake.

But, SURPRISE.

And hey, remember how Kai’s conflict, at it’s core, is him struggling with the fact he wasn’t strong enough to protect his friend? Now it also makes more sense for him to cling to that staff, for him to go off on a rant about how he should have been the green ninja.

Additionally I hate how? Lost he gets in the narrative later on. Like I know we just lost Garmadon and GOD IT SUCKS but you could have easily had a scene with Lloyd and Kai. You could have easily had a short scene of Kai beating himself up because, once again, he didn’t do enough. He didn’t stop Chen early on. If he had, maybe Garmadon would still be around. Idk, I can’t think of details but you could probably do a lot with both Kai and Lloyd coming to terms with the fact that they both feel weak because they both feel like neither of them did enough. And wouldn’t that be a good lead in to season 5 with Lloyd getting possessed.

Hey, remember how Kai was awful at roller skating? More build up.

Hey, remember that fight with Ash? More build up.

AN D? Fuck bro. As much as I love Lloyd, Kai should have been the one to rally all the elemental masters together after surprising Chen, when they all had to break off the island. I wanted a scene where all these boys get past their in-fighting, not just Cole and Jay, which was great but WHY WAS KAI SO FUCKING MAD AT THEM GOD WHATEVER. My point, Kai, who’s felt so weak for this whole season, rallying everyone and making them believe in their own strength would make me fucking cry.

Anyway I’ll get off my soap box now. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

[ninjagoisacrime]

Can you tell me all the plot holes in Ninjago?

Sorry if I miss some, it’s been a while and I’m tired (also note this will include things that were oddly changed when it contradicts previous episodes, not just actual plot holes... and stuff that bothers me in general)

1. Wrong Place Wrong Time: After the Golden Weapons launched off into non existence when the boys went back in time, everything was relatively the same when they got back. If the weapons never existed it wouldn’t have gotten them to where they were. Lloyd would still be a child, the Great Devourer would be alive, etc. On top of that HOW could they still exist in their timeline at all, the whole thing with Pixal’s memories of a different programming was... odd. 

2. “Garmadon’s” Letter: Back in season 2, there was 0 mention of this. Misako makes it sound like she loved him because that’s who she was drawn to more. But of course we need to drum up some sympathy for Wu because like, he’s supposed to the good brother and best sensei. It made no sense to throw this into season 4 but I guess they ran out of ideas and in return wanted some new form of tension, even if they had to shoehorn that in.

3. Jay’s Parentage: “Out of all creations, this one was our greatest” that makes it sound like you made a baby, not groomed a child to be kind and smart and a good person. Hagebros had no business writing that just to change it up that his mom and dad were entirely different and he was adopted out of nowhere in ns6. It came out of left field and once more, wanted to cause drama.

4. Zane as Chen’s Prisoner: Zane got a body back, okay, but how did he and Pixal both end up on the island? Did Pixal not tell anyone she remade the body of the ice ninja and their best friend? How could NO ONE know? Not even Cyrus knew what happened. He seemed to know Pixal vanished one day, but he couldn’t figure out Zane was in the Borg Tower systems? I WANT ANSWERS DAMNIT

5. ECHO ZANE: This one bothers me so much. The fam were all staying at Julien’s place back in season 2... where the hell was this robot throughout all of that!? Julien would just abandon Echo there all on his own until Jay and Nya go back how many years later?! It makes no sense that they would add this character to it. 

6. Constant Job Changes: How many times are the ninja going to change careers at the start of a new season? In season 3 they were teachers, fine, whatever, I can accept this if they’re finally 18+, but in season 4 they abandoned the boarding school! What about their students and the tuition their parents probably paid?? (assuming this because they had uniforms). In season 5 they had a tea farm!? Where did they get all of this money!?

7. Ronin: So if the game (Shadow of Ronin) IS canon... how does Wu, Misako, and Nya not know who he is in the show? Yet the other five do? I get the feeling that only part of the game is canon as far as who Ronin is. Though if the game is canon, that would explain more of Zane and Pixal being on Chen’s island (though it doesn’t explain about Pixal not fruking telling anyone she rebuilt Zane because in a recording in game, it shows Ronin with Zane in a physical body and Pixal together)

8. Pythor: How... How many years can snakes survive without food? Because if the Serpentine War happened 100 years ago as to Pythor’s release... did he eat rotting carcass? How did he have a stable food supply?

9. That Freaking Serpentine War and Elemental Masters: Okay so I get it, elemental masters don’t age as fast so bla blah, that’s why 50 years can go by and Ray and Maya could have Kai and Nya and Garmadon and Wu could be alive... BUT... Misako was alive too yet she’s considered NOT an elemental master! She was alive during that time... also Chen! and... is Clouse even an elemental master? If elemental masters can only live so long how can these assumed non masters still age like them? And in season 7 Maya looks even younger in modern day! This is one of my biggest peeves with the story so far in regards to the explanation Tommy told us.

10. Wu’s Dragon: In season 1... IN FREAKING SEASON UNO, NYA ASKS WU IF HIS FLUTE COULD TURN INTO A FREAKING VEHICLE OR WHATEVER I CAN’T REMEMBER. Yet in season 5... HE HAD A FUCKING DRAGON. Way to stay consistent fam. This bothers me so much... on an unrelated note, why doesn’t Misako use her spinjitsu anymore when she needs to defend herself? Oh wait, do we need to have her be incapable so Wu can “swoop in to save the day” when it’s onviously unnecessary when they shown she could fight still? Back to the dragon thing though, yea, I call bullshit. 

I have a simple need; working new lore in while staying consistent. You would think that with the newer seasons at least we would get some actual plotline, but nope, everything gets more chaotic. 

I would touch more on Kai and Nya’s parents and about Nya’s memory of them and other stuff I’ve been reading about season 7, but I don’t know much about it. I would LOVE to hear the bullshit reason Ray and Maya are alive and back... I really would guys. 

Also, although I think the semi-confirmed timeline is STUPID, it does explain a tiny bit more as far as the adults and the war... at least a couple of things with that... (but I still want to fucking know ages and shit of the actual main characters and how a bunch of 16 year olds were approved to run a school if my understanding of their ages is right)

The plot just needs a bit of an overhaul... okay? After season 2, nothing is making sense and the plot got away from them way too much.

Sorry that was long. I tried to think of as many big ones as I could but it might take me a week to binge every single episode and write it all down. I really hate inconsistencies... can ya tell? 

-mod M