#AND FONALLY FOUND THE TOME TO WRITE A RESPINCE

[jettorii]

My Movieverse Play-by-Play (if you’re interested:

- The Good Morning Ninjago segment at the beginning may have started out as an actual segment but the birthday bit was DEFINITELY Lloyd’s internalization of his Issues. Might have even been a dream considering how he was asleep at this time.

- The whole thing being a dream would also say some pretty funny stuff about how he sees both the news anchor and himself and his fellow ninjas.

- Garmadon really did try to call him in order to wish him a happy birthday. He does it over breakfast. He tries to play it cool in order to come off as suave and interesting, but ends up coming across as an asshole instead. He gets Lloyd’s age wrong, makes a couple comments about how ugly he was as a baby and then somehow forgets to actually wish him a happy birthday before he hangs up to go to work. (He may have tried and failed to cheekily tell him that he has big plans to conquer Ninjago today but if he does it completely goes over Lloyd’s head.)

- Zane is CONSTANTLY attempting to relate to Lloyd by referencing Cool Teen stuff, but he does such a horrible, horrible job with it that Lloyd just thinks he’s doing a really bad job at trying to disguise his being a robot. He is also constantly trying to Emotionally Relate to Lloyd in order to make him feel better, but is just. The worst at it.

- Lloyd thinks Nia is an absolute badass, which is why he imagines her riding a motorcycle into the school building. She’s probably much sweeter in reality (especially to Jay, who is her boyfriend) but he just thinks she’s so cool and awesome and badass that he always sees her as an absolute rocker chick.

- Lloyd thinks Cole is awesome, too — to a bit of a lesser extent but not by much. He’s mainly kind of a stable, grounding figure. Unlike Zane, Cole actually does a pretty good job at relating to Teen stuff, especially when it comes to music, so the two of them vibe quite a bit. Maybe he even sneaks Lloyd into the concerts he DJs at sometimes! (Maybe he introduced Lloyd to Scene Kid music — *gets shot*)

- Kai is super passionate and openly affectionate, like, ALL the time, hence the big birthday hug at the beginning. Kai wants Lloyd to think he’s awesome, too, but he. Tries a bit too hard :/ So Lloyd sees him as a bit of an overzealous dork. But that’s NOTHING compared to

- Jay, who tries so, SO hard to get Lloyd to see him as a Big Strong Hero and Older Brother Figure (maybe even like he did when he was a little kid) but constantly screws it up to the point where it backfires into making him look like just. The BIGGEST loser (affectionate). But he’s honestly the most, like, emotionally intelligent member of the squad? Which is why we get little throwaway lines like “They’ve all got their quirks, you know?” and “Maybe I should take your father this time!” and even that little close up shot of his face after Lloyd snaps at Garmadon publicly. Because even if Lloyd doesn’t see him as a badass, necessarily, he does see him as a very heartfelt friend (which ironically is probably one of the last things Jay would have expected lol).

- That cheerleader squad at the beginning with the “Boo Lloyd” chant thing was WAYY less successful in reality, because it’s just So Ridiculous. Unfortunately it stuck in his head because Lloyd is just so sick of getting bullied all the time (hence it somehow showing up on the RADIO), so the other ninjas don’t bring it up in front of him — but they totally cackle about it when he’s not there because it’s just so over-the-top DUMB.

- The ninjas let him take the lead on missions usually because they think Lloyd is genuinely a pretty good strategist. He gets it from his dad!

- During that fight scene at the beginning, when Lloyd was trying to get his dad to say he cared about him, Garmadon was legit just trying to throw the Green Ninja off his scent. When Lloyd accidentally slipped and said “what happened to your child,” Garmadon immediately tried to distance his son from him as to not make him a target. This backfired, obviously.

- The scene at the volcano had a LOT more of Garmadon ranting about his son to his generals. Lloyd isn’t really in a headspace to get this, so we only see a small hint of this with the line “I’m not your father” (“is that a weird thing to say to us?”) while in actuality Lloyd was a MUCH bigger part of his motives. Hence them choosing to throw both him AND Lloyd into the volcano later down the line.

- A lot of the background characters are really just voicing Lloyd’s inner monologue. Like when they’re wondering why the Ninjas don’t just get rid of Garmadon already. This happens with the side characters too, like when Garmadon commented on “all that information [playing catch] is just sitting in his brain, un-utilized”, or when his mom was on the phone and said that she knew the neighbor said they never wanted Lloyd to play with their kid despite Lloyd being sixteen and not at the age where that would be something adults would typically be saying to one another.

- The ninjas are all actually much more competent than they’re shown in the film, but Lloyd always feels stupid whenever he’s trying to learn their moves and hide behind bamboo and stuff, so they LOOK really stupid to reflect this.

- On a similar note, Lord Garmadon is actually WAY more intimidating, but 1) Lloyd is too pissed at him to be scared and 2) Garmadon tries to make jokes with him post realizing that this is his son, thereby making him seem goofier than how he normally acts.

- Sensei Wu legitimately learned how to play Emo songs on his flute just to try and relate to his nephew. (Cole probably taught him.)

- Lloyd’s mom is actually way spunkier, but he sees her as way softer and stuff because she always makes a point to be very kind and loving to him.

- When Lloyd first threatens to use the ultimate weapon, Garmadon is legit trying to defuse the situation and frantically trying to calm him down because he and Wu are the only ones who know what that thing is, but Lloyd is so on edge that he sees it as way more threatening than it actually is.

- Lloyd being the Green Ninja is actually a Way Bigger Deal to Garmadon than it seems at first, hence the whole Record Scratch thing. This was a BIG twist for them, and Garmadon is actually pretty emotional about it, but Lloyd is just completely pissed off and unable to see that.

- Likewise, the rooftop pool party is almost entirely Lloyd’s enraged imagination regarding what went on after he left. His mother’s appearance was the closest to what actually happened, though it was still MUCH less chill when it actually happened. (Might be a result of Garmadon trying to play it cool when he retells it later lol)

- The ninjas don’t actually blame Lloyd that much for the weapon disaster: they didn’t know either! But Lloyd feels so guilty and everyone is so frantic that he interprets it like that anyway. Also they were totally freaking out way more than he remembers: he was feeling a bit too guilty to pay attention to that.

- Lloyd thought Wu said “Ultimate Omelette Weapon” at first and was so embarrassed that he pretended that his dad thought that instead.

- Garmadon specifically went after them to try and find Lloyd, actually, but Wu (understandably) beat his ass the moment they made eye contact.

- Wu and Garmadon keep promoting the books they wrote lmao, it’s like a weird midlife crisis thing

- The other ninjas took the chance to actually try to get to know Garmadon, who was trying to get close to his sob for once. This includes them trying to prompt him to join in by playfully ribbing him.

- Again, the former General Number Ones DEFINITELY targeted Lloyd as well as Garmadon when they captured those two. AbsolUTEly. No other way to explain why they left the other five ninjas completely unscathed. The “And this random ki-ID!” line is a cheeky nod to how Lloyd is seeing the situation as opposed to what’s actually going on.

- The “who would make fun of you for that” line was an attempted apology done very, very poorly.

- Not an addition but “I think I might be an adrenaline junkie” is an underrated line.

- Them saying that they need to be better friends is Lloyd’s mind’s way of crying out for their help when he thinks he’s about to die in a volcano. He still needs his older siblings :)

- That one General Number One ABSOLUTELY targeted Lloyd specifically when his arm got ripped of are you kidding me.

- Also I can’t decide if the others were panicking more or less than he imagined when he lost his arm. (Same with Lloyd: can’t decide if he was ACTUALLY that calm or if he was babbling in terror and pain as they tried to calm him down lol)

- Garmadon actually was trying to suggest they try to be a family again, but again: he FUCKED it UUUUP.

- Lloyd didn’t actually remind them of their powers: he just helped them keep their cool and follow a plan to get out of there. (Like I said: they let him be the leader because he’s genuinely their best strategist.)

- “No. I thought being dead would make you listen to me more. And I was right!” LMAO

- Lloyd doesn’t actually reveal his identity to the world at the end, it’s just a metaphor for how he’s actually opening up and finally letting his dad in.

- His apology to his mom for taking her for granted is kinda aimed at all the ninjas, too :)

HEJEHEHWHE THANK YOU FOR WAITING!!!!! I READ IT ALL AND AHRVRHHHG IM EATING THIS ALL UP

im pretty sure i said this in my last reply but. the fact that you put these notes with lloyds perspective in mind makes my perception of the entire movie so much more enjoyable to think of :]

the way you wrote how garmadon genuinely cares for lloyd but keeps fucking up is so ogugh to me???? and how he has lloyd in mind throughout each of his actions is SO heartwaming to me im going to sob

AND THE. THING YOU WROTE ABOUT LLOYD NOT ACTUALLY REVEALING HIS IDENTITY AND IT ACTUALLY JUST BEING A METAPHOR IS SO GOOD PLEASE this helps so much in finalizing/continuing to build my views of the movie specifically with your thoughts in mind and i could genuinely see all of this being apart of the movie

thank you SO MUCH for sending all of this!!!! i really appreciate hearing all your thoughts n i absolutely loved reading all of them hohooho i am going to save this because omg. thank you again my love muah <3333