#Lieutenant Nuckal

[sepublic]

Thinking of how the first year of Ninjago is framed around the original conflict between two siblings who inherited a father's legacy of four Golden Weapons, fought over how to use said legacy, and it ended with one of them being trapped in the Underworld.

And then in the present day, we have two siblings who inherited their father's legacy, the Four Weapons shop, and one of them ends up trapped in the Underworld. Because of that original conflict between siblings, because of the sibling who was also trapped in the Underworld, and inhabits that same realm with her; Even as the other sibling is scouted by the original victor, and recruited.

Ggooodddddd imagine an AU where Garmadon and Nya actually interact while in the Underworld, where these parallels are explored! And the mixed feelings that Wu and Garm have seeing these two other siblings, who still get along and aren't at each other's throats. Wu feeling resolve to help Kai get his sister back too, because he doesn't want Kai to lose a sibling under any circumstances as he did, all while Garmadon tries to pull Nya to his side by feeding into any frustrations she might have towards Kai and Ray.

On a similar note, I get why Day of the Departed lumped Kai and Nya together when fighting Chen; They share a mutual connection towards Chen knowing what happened to Ray and Maya, who are THEIR parents, plus this transitions into the siblings as the mutual stars of the next season. And I think the way the villains were paired with the heroes mostly made sense, with the exception of Jay and Samukai, which the writing itself admits was because they were left over.

But MAN I think it'd have been cool to have Nya paired up with Samukai instead, given him kidnapping her is what starts off the entire series; Nya was trapped in the Underworld for all of 2011's storyline, so it makes you wonder what interactions she might've had with the Skulkin during that time. While non-canon, Lego Battles: Ninjago does show Nya being interrogated by Samukai and his lieutenants Kruncha and Nuckal. It'd have been a cool character moment to have Samukai go after Nya, reasoning he already kidnapped this 'helpless girl' once, only for Nya to show she's grown beyond anything he could imagine since then.

Of course, this again leaves the question of Jay... Who if we're being honest, DOES have a villain prior to Day of the Departed that he actually pairs decently with: Nadakhan, but alas Nadakhan's whole beef with him has been retconned out of existence. Still, it makes me imagine another timeline or AU where Nadakhan still shows up despite being alive, the way Pythor did; Like through some convoluted antics, the Teapot of Tyrahn is opened up and Yang wishes for idk for Nadakhan to fight Jay or something. Due to Nadakhan not having the Sword of Souls and Jay knowing his opponent well (while Nadakhan himself doesn’t, not remembering what happened), it gives him just the edge he needs to defeat Nadakhan before he can really become a threat.

If two ninja need to be paired together, maybe it can be Jay and Nya both against Samukai; Though, it makes more sense for Nya to be with Kai when everything goes wrong, because they're mourning their parents together and all that. Maybe Nya's on her way from Jay's to meet up with Kai for their Day of the Departed rituals, only for Samukai to show up.