#Axik *fading*: oh…really? then what do….you call…….this?

[extreme-technicality]

OH YEAH ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER NOW

I’m kinda thinking their Heartless would be the manifestations of their respective traumas? Like, everything they’ve kept locked away, the shit they’ve never talked about or gotten over, that kinda thing. So it’s like, bonding road trip plus Free Therapy (for the vored ones, that is - Lloyd and Nya are probably gonna get fucked up in all of this). OOH WAIT, OR I COULD PARALLEL THEIR HEARTLESS WITH HOW THEY UNLOCKED THEIR ENERGY DRAGONS, IE. THEIR HEARTLESS ARE THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THEIR GREATEST FEARS

It’ll actually be pretty fun for most of them, cuz canon only gave us Zane’s, so I get to project and headcanon with all of this >:3 Zane’s Heartless is gonna be a mechanical one, maybe with a pet dragon like Ansem SoD’s Guardian (not me just re imagining the ice emperor, shhhhh). Kai’s would probably be…hm. A drowned one, maybe? Oooh yes, chained and drowned, weighted by responsibility and surrounded by water~ I really really like that, ngl. Cole…hm. The two main fears we’ve seen for Cole (especially in the earlier seasons) are dragons and singing, both of which are sorta hard to make Heartless (especially since he’s definitely faced the dragon thing down already, so like that’s kinda off the table). Later on it was, like, being forgotten and abandoned? So like, oOOOOH WHAT IF HE WAS A BANSHEE??? AN INTANGIBLE GHOST WHO WAILS AND SCREAMS (read: sings real shittily)??? GIVE IT A SCYTHE AND BAM, COLE HEARTLESS!!! Anyway Jay is also really really hard, mostly cuz he’s scared of Everything, so it’s difficult to figure out which one is his Biggest Fear. Snakes? Maybe, but then again that was mostly cuz of the Devourer and the Serpentine, and EVERYBODY was scared of those. Maybe inadequacy? Closer, I think, but how to get that across in a design? Hmmmm, I’m gonna have to think about his a bit longer.

Their Nobodies, however, are gonna be FUN >:3c I don’t actually think I’ll use the straight-up bizarro ninja, as fun as that might be, because of the sheer angst potential of having sentient entities with their beloved ninja’s faces, memories, and skills. Specifically I’m thinking Nya facing down Kai’s Nobody, and facing the long-buried and (initially nominal) deep-seated resentment at how he had to take care of Nya when he needed to be taken care of, too. Kai doesn’t hate NYA - she was just a baby, and someone had to make sure she was eating and had shelter and was warm enough, that all her physical and emotional needs were met. But I think he Does resent that it had to be HIM, that he had to be the one to step up because there was nobody else. I think in the absence of his heart, of all the affection and perspective that he’s had all those years, the loneliness and resentment and hurt would grow WILDLY. Oh gOD, now I’m actually thinking about how that fight would go down, the cut scenes surrounding it, and I’m fucking crying. Two LEGO siblings relationship is something that can actually be so personal—

*clears throat* anyway, on to the other three!

Cole might have beef with Lloyd, honestly. Before Lloyd showed up in all his Chosen One glory, Cole was sorta the de facto leader - he had a system and he knew he could rely on the other three to stick with him. Then this absolute CHILD rolls up, son of the bbeg no fucking less, and it’s all “yeah Cole you’re fired, let’s all listen to pint size over here”. It’s not that he HATES Lloyd or that he WANTS to be the leader, he just doesn’t really trust Lloyd to lead. So like, his fight would be more “prove to me that you DESERVE the duties you stole from me!” and less “fuck you I hate you I hate you so goddamn much”. I’m not gonna lie, I like the idea of Jay fighting Nya because of the whole “oh they’re dating :3 Jay has a fat fucking crush on Nya :333”. Like, take the romance out of it, take all the positive attachment out of it, and leave Jay with his natural gremlin-ness - what kind of verbal potshots could he take? Taking all of Nya’s worst qualities and putting them on display, because her greatest flaw has always been and will always be her perfectionism. Fighting a Jay who doesn’t love her, who constantly reminds her of all her flaws, and BEATING him? The fucking character growth,,,,,the Symbolism,,,,,,,,,,*chefs kiss*

And that leaves Zane fighting Lloyd, and honestly I don’t know how that would go? Like, I just don’t have an immediate mental image for what the themes of that fight would be - why Zane would fight Lloyd specifically. Hmmmmm…actually, that might just be it? A Zane with no agency, who actually tries to connect with Lloyd on that front? “Neither of us want to be here, neither of us CHOSE to be here, so why keep fighting? Just go home already” kinda thing, yknow? Connecting via the parallels between a Nindroid who was programmed to protect and a child who got bitch-slapped by destiny to protect, tempting Lloyd to just give Destiny the fucking finger and go off and do his own thing instead, and using Overwhelming Power and Pain to make his point. Now for the physical appearances, and I’m gonna make some of y’all Big Mad about this next bit but like, fuck y’all this is MY au and I get to choose which designs are the shitty ones!!! Anyway Cole’s Nobody has his original design, the other three have their redesigned versions. Kai specifically is in his Prime Empire skin because I genuinely despise that look and you can quote me on that.

As for the final boss fight against Garmadon, well. I’m thinking the Nobodies would drop a talisman or item that Lloyd could use to summon the ninja in that final battle. Maybe not actually yoink the four of them out of Garmadon, but DEFINITELY help them all fight him from within. It’d technically be a summon, but it would work as a debuff spell to make the fight a tad easier. I’m thinking one to lock certain moves for a period of time, one to make him move slower, one to decrease his magical abilities, and one to decrease his physical abilities (can you guess which one dropped from which nobody based on what each ninja’s respective specialties is?). Probably after stage 2 is when the ninja get regurgitated, and THATS when their summons become Actual Summons instead of the debuffs they were when they were vored.

Getting a mix of recommendations based on both mine and my mutuals' interests is funny sometimes bc itll be like ah yes i love the destiny trio! Riku, Kairi, and uh (squints)

Oh yeah the one chosen by the keyblade! Jay Walker