#Maya Jiang Smith

[crossroads-of-the-raven]

Kai, Nya and their Parents - The Difference between knowing and not knowing what you're missing - and the sacrifices made by a caring brother

The day Nya was brought home - the day Kai met Nya face to face for the first time; Kai is two (Hands of Time, episode 3, A Time of Traitors)

Three years later

Ray and Maya are kidnapped, thus forcing Kai to take on the responsibility of becoming a five year old Dad aka the death of Kai's babyhood and childhood so as to preserve Nya's babyhood and childhood (Hands of Time, episode 8, Pause and Effect)

Thirteen years later

Kai and Nya are reunited with their parents (Hands of Time, Episode 8, Pause and Effect)

Three years later (vid from Seabound, episode 2, The Call of the Deep)

Though Kai had pointed out that Nya and Maya did not get along (due to Nya's independence from having grown up without her parents); at Master Wu's insistence, Kai calls in his mother to help Nya with her power problem.

Nya, however, dislikes Maya's mothering (what she considers babying).

When Wu suggests that Nya should discuss her issues with Kai, Nya insists with scorn that Kai likely enjoys being waited on and loves to be treated like a baby.

(Note how Nya goes from the probability statement of "probably, likes, being waited on" to the presumption in her absolute statement of "I bet he loves being treated like a baby" -- Nya, please tell me if this is your thoughts on your brother who raised you and gave up everything for you then when has he ever previously behaved in such a way that would suggest your statements to be true.)

The difference here is that Kai remembers what it was like to have someone taking care of him only to have it ripped away - to go from being the baby boy to suddenly having to be the adult for his sister.

Nya, though, doesn't really remember what it was like to be cared for by her parents; but, she remembers what it was like to be cared for (by her brother).

Kai is, in a way, reveling in the joy of being able to play games with his father, eat food cooked by his mother, and learn once more from his parents.

All things he hoped for but never once thought he'd ever have again.

While growing up, Nya was likely allowed to play games, eat homemade food that she didn't have to cook, and learn from Kai the lessons that he remembers their parents teaching them.

Kai on the other hand, had to get straight to work, schedule time in a busy day to cook so that Nya could eat, and be the one to teach trusted lessons from his parents (while likely having to weed out good advice from bad, given to him by whichever random adult decided to give it to him).

Kai's sacrifices for Nya can even be seen in the clothes they wear in the pilot.

When we first see Nya it looks like she's dressed in silk clothes which we know didn't come from Maya's closet since she generally dresses in blue.

Kai on the other hand is introduced in his blacksmithing clothes and goes to train with Wu, in his blacksmithing clothes, which may indicate a limited closet - he may even be wearing his Father's clothes as a way to save money.

But, you might say, he has different clothes in the episode, The Royal Blacksmiths.

Yes, he does have different clothes, but these clothes, like his and the Ninja's matching pajamas (color coded but with the same golden dragon on the chest pocket) are likely the result of Kai now being able to lean on Wu, financially.

Note that Kai's clothes are the only ones that indicate his elemental power - the others likely already had these clothes on hand before they met Wu (except maybe Zane - IDK).

Another way Kai's sacrifices and generosity torwards his sister can be shown is by comparing the first pilot episode to the Season 2 episode 6, Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

In this episode it is shown that, were it not for Nya getting kidnapped by Garmadon, Kai would never had cared about becoming a ninja.

It was only the knowledge that becoming a ninja was the only way to save Nya that motivated Kai to become a ninja.

Yet in a timeline where Nya was never kidnapped, all Kai cared about was getting the blacksmith shop back on its feet after the Skulkin attack.

So how did Wu convince Kai to come to the Monastery, the answer, he didn't - Nya did.

Wu unintentionally convinced Nya to become a ninja and since Kai wasn't just going to let her go off on her own (this is his fourteen year old little sister who he raised after all) Kai went with her so they could become Ninja.

Kai gave up what he wanted in favor of what Nya wanted.

~~~~~

Kai's sacrifices, his giving nature, and everything he does for Nya is almost practically an automatic habit, because he and Nya lost their parents at a young age thus forcing Kai to give up being a child to be Nya's caretaker.

And yet throughout the series whenever the siblings bring up their parents, it becomes clear that Kai made sure that Nya never forgot them and that they were remembered well, that they were missed and not forgotten.

I really like Nya; and while Seabound is a great season it also points out that Nya may just be truly unaware of how much Kai sacrificed for her to the point where she doesn't understand exactly why Kai likes having their parents around; among other details that she and others misunderstand about Kai.

Believe me, I like the idea that Nya knows and helps her brother out where she can, and she definitely loves him, but it seems like Seabound has shown her to be unaware of Kai's trials and tribulations in raising her and keeping them both from landing in the grave of the fireflies.

[alien-of-earth]

I was @wyrmswears’s Secret Santa this year!!! My gift is Libber with a side of overcast shipping!! This was very fun, I hope he and everyone else has a happy holiday!

(Alternatives and references under cut)

[geoxstxrs]

NINJAGO HC’S PT 4 : ELEMENTAL MASTERS

[l1-b1]

I Wonder if they ever got to properly reunite after seabound, let alone after the merge

[kindaasrikal]

Kai except when/if he returns from the nether realm (which is probably soon if I’m being honest) he breaks down like a lil baby after he reads and listens to the voice notes and messages EVERYONE left for him. Full on sobbing as he listens to Wyldfire trying to find her place and move on whilst also feeling so insecure.

Five tissue boxes, gone after hearing Lloyd talk about how unsure and scared he rlly feels and how he honestly has no idea what he’s doing.

Rocking back and forth as he reads Cole’s texts about his life and how everything is going, as well as his insecurities and how down he feels sometimes with everything having changed.

He’s full on koala-hugging Zane as he listens to the detailed texts that have misspellings about everything he’s been bottling up and how much he just misses so many people.

WATERFALLS are what his eyes are as he listens to Nya’s strong but almost broken voice talk about how lost she feels and the pain she’s experiencing with Jay and him gone.

Big old baby eyes that are watery as he reads texts from Arin and Sora talking about their struggles and insecurities as well as updates on everything going on.

He sits late at night, texting Wu and Jay’s old numbers, sending voice notes to Skylor, Ray, and Maya, about his life and everything that he’s suffered through so far. He tells them stories, updates, and how much he misses all five of them. He sends Pixal’s number photos of them and Zane, giving her small notes of what’s going on.

Before all that though, the ninja all realise Kai is about to read and listen to everything they’ve sent him and they all collectively jump him and run like their lives depend on it with his phone. They refuse to have that loser find out how big of losers they were with him gone.

[absolutelynotsanebaby]

Villain au || for context, by the time the au starts back up, Maya's been gone for over two centuries.

[p4r4no1danarchist]

I think the first person to calm Wu dad was Nya. And in my full opinion, Wu and Garmadon are both father figures to the smith siblings, Nya was closer with Wu, and Kai was closer to Garmadon.

Kai is closer to Garmadon for one sole reason; Garmadon knew how to talk Kai down from his rage better and was the first to get Kai to consider spending more time on ways of rerouting his anger.

Wu and Nya on the other hand accidently enable eachother but also help eachother. They both over work themselves while trying to help the other and it they just tire eachother out.

When Ray and Maya came around Ray only felt slight jealousy towards the spinjitzu brothers until he actually took a step back and noticed facts about his kids he didn't before, and tried to use that to create a closer bond with his kids.

Maya on the other hand butted heads with Wu and Misako alot because they seemed to over ride her authority on anything she did with her kids... To be fair, Nya took awhile to warm up to her, and the spinjitzu brothers + Misako saw how much she spoiled Kai and paid attention to him and wanted to keep it from affecting Kai as a ninja.

(I have nothing even against Maya, I just saw her in seabound and she gave me weird boy mom energy during the beginning of seabound.)

[dals-works]

Do You Wanna Build a Sand Castle?

@astro-nomaly @mother-spore-missa @highbookwormofthecentury

Y'all are gonna wanna read this

Ao3 Version

Little Nya skipped up to Kai at the table where he was reading a thick and heavy looking book. She tried to read some of it but quickly stopped when she realized that most of the words of the page were too long for her to understand.

"Kai! Mama's taking me to the beach? Do you wanna come?" her shark-like tail was wagging, and excitement shown in her bright blue eyes. "We could build a sand castle!" She poked his arm.

Kai barely glanced up from his book. "Sorry Nya, I have to study." Nya deflated slightly as their mother walked into the room.

"Come on, Nya. Leave your brother be." She placed a blue scaled hand on Nya's back and gently pushed her towards the door. Nya didn't see Maya rub Kai's shoulder before following after her.

~~~

Nya watched her brother train. She copied his every move, perfecting them. She wasn't allowed to train in martial arts, but what Krux didn't know couldn't hurt him.

"Nya?" She jumped, almost falling over. She whipped around to see her father watching her curiously.

"Oh! Hi Papa."

"Aren't you supposed to be meeting your mother at the beach?" he asked kindly, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading her away from Kai.

"I was just going to see if Kai wanted to build a sand castle," she explained, looking back at her brother. Her father smiled sadly.

"Your brother is very busy. Perhaps it is best if you do not bother him today."

"Oh... ok..." she walked ahead of Ray, and did not see him wipe his eyes as he looked back at his son.

~~~

"Bye Mama! Bye Papa! Hurry back safely!" Nya shouted up to her parents aboard the ship that was to set sail for Shintaro in a matter of minutes. Nya stood waving next to Kai, who stood there solemnly.

As the ship sailed out of sight, Nya turned to Kai. "So... are you gonna be busy this afternoon? Because if not I was thinking-" she was cut off by Krux.

"Prince Kai, you are expected to be at the meeting with Queen Raeden at 3 pm. I trust you will not be held up?" Krux asked stoicly. Kai grimaced.

"Of course. Sorry Nya. Excuse me." With that, Kai turned and began to walk back towards the palace. Nya watched him leave with a disappointed look on her face.

"I was hoping we'd get to spend some time together..." Krux placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Your brother is very busy. You should not bother him with... frivolous things such as quality time." Nya nodded absently and followed after Kai. She did not see the mischievous grin that spread on Krux's face as she did so.

~~~

Only a week later, Nya found herself standing next to her parents' ceremonial graves. Their bodies had not been recovered from the shipwreck. People offered her comforting words, and she nodded, though she could not recall what they had said.

She stood outside Kai's door. "Hey Kai. I'm sorry you missed the ceremony," she was fighting tears, "we missed you." She turned and sat down against his door. "Maybe we could spend some time together. Build a sand castle, the way we used to?"

She got no answer. She sat there for half an hour before a servant wrapped her arm around her shoulder and led her to her room. She didn't hear Kai crying on the other side of his door.

[penofwildfire]

Honestly in the same vein as Wu and Cole we need to talk about Wu and Kai. Ray was his best friend. They went on adventures together. They fought in a war together. Wu and everyone else thought Ray and Maya were dead but Wu never went to Kai and Nya until he had to because RAY EXPLICITLY TOLD HIM TO STAY AWAY. Y'ALL EVER THINK ABOUT THAT. THEY WERE BEST FRIENDS AND CARED ABOUT EACHOTHER DEEPLY BUT WHEN RAY HAD A FAMILY HE PUSHED HIS BEST FRIEND AWAY BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT WHEREVER WU WENT, DANGER WOULD FOLLOW. FUCK. I'M NOT OKAY.

[the-ninjago-girl]

So yall remember the fan scenario of kai calling their family by the wrong last name?(as a way to give them a different one, Jiang) I always thought it was funny, but ya know whats funnier? If it wasn't wrong and that RAY was the one behind the last name smith

So In s6 kai was sent to the past and saw his dad trying to sell weapons, now idk if they ever talked or gave us a legitimate story as to why, but Ray was by himself. Possibly he had bad relationships with his parents bc he wanted to take the path of a blacksmith instead of whatever. So here's my hc for the name smith:

Due to ray having a bad relationship with his parents, possibly bc he wanted to become a blacksmith, decided to change his last name so as to remove himself from a family that was unsupportive of his dreams, decided to leave and change his last name to cut off and last ties to them. And chose 'smith' bc he wanted to work as a blacksmith/in a smithy. It does make sense since back then people used to be named after their profession/occupation. And for ray, in his village it was likely still very normal to do so, so he chose 'smith' as his new last name

[crossroads-of-the-raven]

Rewatching Past Ninjago Episodes - Tournament of Elements, episode 6, Spellbound: Something to think about concerning the Serpentine War

Pretty sure this is the Master of Earth (and Lily's father) who just turned traitor.

This means that Cole's grandfather fought alongside Kai and Nya's parents before siding with the Serpentine (due to Chen's trickery).

(The above gif and picture are taken from Season 7, Hands of Time, episode 2, The Hatching)

Still, at least he returned to the Elemental Alliance as this picture takes place at the end of the Serpentine War.

(Also, if Cole's grandfather fought alongside Kai and Nya's parents then I wonder if that gives credibility to the idea that Kai is older than Cole - IDK)

~~~~~

Next thing to note from Spellbound:

These two gifs are of Maya and Ray (the parents of Kai and Nya), locking away the Venomari and Anacondri Tribes, respectively - including the fact that Pythor (last of the Anacondri to be locked away by Ray) presumably fought in the Serpentine War.

Kind of puts these two moments from Season 1 (the first from episode 5, Can of Worms - the second from episode 4, Never Trust a Snake) into a sort of perspective.

Imagine what could have been for these two moments had the writers known at the time that they would get more seasons.

[alastair-1205]

Thinking about how the person Kai was in season 7 is just a little bit different than the person we see by season 8. Thinking about how it kinda feels like (to me) that he's finally calmed down a little bit. That the 'hotheadedness' that led him around by the hear for most of the series seems to have finally let up a little bit and let him breathe.

Thinking about how it seems like finding his parents and finally being able to make peace with that past part of his life did him a lot of good. It didn't completely change him as a person becasue that's just who he is, but something that had been hurting finally healed enough that he feels less like its something he has to be defined by (like how that was probably a lot of what motivated him to want to be the green ninja originally). How, despite his initial reservations (trying to stab his dad) he's the one who ended up being able to be on good terms with his and Nya's parents again.

I just have a lot of thoughts about the Smith/Jiang/Jiang-Smith family

[silkieluv]

I don’t like the “Delara is Maya’s mother” theory because A) it doesn’t make sense, and B) Delara died.

A: it doesn’t add up because Nadakhan was stuck in the teapot for about 200 years. In order for Delara to be Maya’s mother Delara has to be more than 100+ years old?? Doesn’t work. If anything, she can be Maya’s grandmother or even great grandmother if you want them to be related that much

B: Before dying, she was with Nadakhan. We know Nadakhan’s a traditional guy so let’s pretend he’s the ‘wait till marriage’ guy for everybody’s sake. Meaning, she wasn’t pregnant (that is unless she had a baby and left it) (if so, she ain’t nobody’s grandma, she ain’t no family.)

[l1-b1]

Been thinking about Nya and Maya to the song «Die your daughter» by Susannah Joffe

[kindaasrikal]

Cole and Nya’s relationship is very special to me, even despite the love triangle thing, which you could technically say helped develop their relationship. Especially with how it links to their mothers.

Cole and Nya are both familiar with loss, specifically in regard to their parents. They both lost a parent(s) at a young age, and quickly became independent because of it. They learnt how to survive on their own without depending too much on their only family left. They both care deeply for the ones they love and are sensitive to their emotions, and when they were left with only Lou/Kai as their only family, they didn’t want to rely on two people deep in grief and were deeply effected by that loss.

They both are stubborn and sure, protective and confident, but they are both also soft and kind underneath all their layers, Cole showing that more than Nya.

I like to think that while the whole love triangle thing and love machine fiasco was annoying, you could actually twist it to show how it developed their relationship. Jay is the one Nya loves, that is not something you can change or even disagree on, seeing as she was willing to lose everything that makes her her for him, but the perfect match machine doesn’t have time be explicitly based on romantic interest. The machine is essentially like a ‘soulmate finder’, so it’s easy to say that one of Nya’s soulmates are Cole.

Soulmates have been shown in many different ways, and in this case its not showing a soulmate in the sense of a ‘one true pair’ or someone who you are inexplicably tied too, but someone who understands and can click with you a whole lot easier than most.

That buddied up with the whole love triangle thing definitely helped Cole and Nya realise how similar they are to each other, and how they deeply care for each other as siblings. Almost like twin siblings if I’m being honest. They don’t give a younger and older sibling vibe thats for sure. More like two twins where one is an aggressive wild animal and the other is also a wild animal but they don’t have as much of a temper as the other weirdo.

My favourite scene of their relationship is in Dragons Rising where Nya hold her hands against Cole’s cheek after not seeing him for months upon months.

Now about their mothers….

Knowing all of this, connecting it to how they both see their mother in each other seems so much more special.

Cole and Maya have both said ‘Its how the cookie crumbles’, both in relation to Nya. After Nya was possessed by the overlord, Cole tries to comfort everyone by saying that line, implying how its just how things must be, the same way Maya has towards Nya specifically, telling her that life is difficult, no matter what we try. Nya doesn’t know they both have said this, but its still so important how its come in full circle towards her, from her beginning all the way to her supposed end.

And then you remember how both Nya and Lily have worn the same kimono. The same kimono Lily wore, and the one that Cole gave to Nya.

ITS THE EXACT SAME.

Cole willingly gave him dead mother’s kimono to Nya, his sister.

Nya and Cole were never supposed to be in a romantic relationship, they were both have such a strong platonic love for each other it hurts. They both have similar experiences and similar personalities yet still have their differences, but those differences aren’t as big as most people would’ve expected.

I love these two so much they so deeply care for each other im going to cry i hope they don’t die for Jay.

[askthatoneanacondraikaiguy]

Question does ray and Maya still love their son? I mean it's not Kai's fault that he is no longer human I can see them wanting to beat Chen up

Yes, absolutely, they still love Kai.

It's a complicated kind of love, since their children are much older now and have developed into completely different people without them. They still love both of their kids because, well, these are their kids. They've been trapped serving Krux and Acronix for years in order to protect those kids. There's just also the added complication of Kai being an Anacondrai now on top of all of that. Nothing as silly as their son being turned into a Serpentine could make them turn him away. It is a bit difficult for them to work past that but they refuse to lose their son again due to their own ignorance. (Ray is understandably a bit off put by Kai being an Anacondrai, though that's mostly because Kai almost strangled him Anacondrai-style).

While they don't have the time to learn how Chen was involved until the trip to the Boiling Sea, once they do know, they absolutely do want to beat the shit out of him. Knowing he's long dead and gone is not much of a reassurance. But Maya and Ray recognize that Kai choosing to take on the mark to trick Chen as something very brave and clever and they tell him so.

Another thing is that this gives Krux and Acronix a new piece of leverage to hold over their heads alongside Wu's deterioration; the ability to turn Kai back to before he took on the Mark of the Anacondrai. 'To give Kai back to them' is probably how Krux even phrases it.

When they've only known Kai as he is now (which he's become more comfortable in) and as he was as a little kid, that's it's own complicated jar of emotional worms.