#NS3

[perotovar]

Javier Peña in Every Episode: Best Laid Plans

[spinchip]

You melted a hole in your soul. Be careful, keep it safe- or something might crawl inside

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

hey so do you ever realise that when lloyd is a child he wears a purple sash to try and emulate his father-

...but then after he becomes the green ninja and saves the day and purifies garmadon from evil his dad starts wearing green in support of him???

now you do :)

[toastingpencils37]

The fact that when his friends heard this they probably interpreted it in the metaphorical this will be our last battle and they fighting will all be over after we defeat him kind of way rather than the this will by my last battle by your side kind of way.

[destinysbounty]

Three important facts that I promise are connected:

Although it seems that the ninja take turns cooking, Zane's food is apparently so good that they all eagerly await his turn. And his pies are apparently so good that just the smell of them brought a tear to Jay's eyes.

When someone passes away, grief makes menial tasks like cooking and cleaning very difficult. It's for this reason that a lot of bereavement support advice recommends giving gifts of pre-made food or service to those who are grieving. I can imagine the grief would be doubly worsened if you are grieving someone who typically did a lot of the cooking, or someone with whom you strongly associate such tasks.

In s4ep1 "The Invitation", Lloyd invites each of the ninja to dinner with him at Chen's Noodlehouse. However, he phrases it as "if you change your mind, you know where I'll be". Despite his vague wording, all of them unanimously know exactly where to go and when to be there. Furthermore, Cole even says "you're late" to Kai despite the fact that a meetup time was never discussed.

Anyway, my theory is that due to the grief of losing Zane making it difficult to cook, the ninja became regulars at Chen's Noodlehouse. They would go to the same location at roughly the same time almost every night, and that's how the ninja knew exactly where/when to meet up. Which means the place that helped them keep their heads above water post-s3, the place where they spent many nights grieving Zane's loss, is also the same place Lloyd chose to suggest adding a new teammate. And also the same place they found out Zane was alive.

This restaurant has become so strongly tied to their grief over Zane's loss, simply through the way it was there for his friends when he was not. Feeding them the food he himself was no longer present to cook for them. The statue in the garden represents the legacy of his heroism while the noodlehouse represents the legacy of the grief created by his absence, and in this essay I will -

[hiddensneker]

I think Kai is the real mf with the sixth sense bc how the fuck DID he figure that out

[parachutingkitten]

I am... so sorry. But "rebooted is not weird" is an absolutely indefensible statement. Straight up one of the most outrageous claims I've ever read.

[nonbinarykai]

Ok but can we please talk about how absolutely insane s3 was for Kai

Like

His best friend tried to steal his body (comic), his mentor got turned into a cyborg and tried to murder him, his brother gets kidnapped, he DIES, survives THREE CARS blowing up (although tbf that one is kinda his fault), gets captured by pythor and is hung up by the wrists, almost dies AGAIN, gets stuck in space, has an alien shove him in a hole then replace him (comic), and then his best friend DIES.

All in the span of like a week 😭😭😭

Like damn no wonder he became the red shogun I would have done the same tbh

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

Reading the first book and I love Zanes appreciation for things and how humans are he reminds me a lot about Rose from Steven universe, I can't wait for him to teach Pixal all that

Aaaaa me too!!! Zane’s focus in S3 and his dynamic with Pixal is gonna be something so special and sweet, and they actually get time to develop a relationship, and Pixal becoming her own person and Zane finally having someone understand what it’s like to be something like himself *kicks feet* It’s gonna be soooo good!!!

[miqotepotatoe]

*jay and cole fighting noises*

[fanfalc-616]

Hey so pretty messed up that we see a nindroid get possessed by the Overlord on screen and all that happens is that Zane unplugs him did we all just decide that being possessed is only traumatizing when it happens to Lloyd or

[perotovar]

Javier Peña in Every Episode: The Cali KGB

[rad-twister]

i had such an embarrassing crush on him when i was 14. and unfortunately i still think he’s hot 💀💀💀

[yourlocalnyxie]

I've been rewatching rebooted lately and I forgot how silly this season was,,

"The famous ninja gave come for a meet and greet! Let's dance!!"

I giggle every time I hear this line the overlords so savage

MEN MEN MEN MEN MEN MENNNNN

Cy and sensei garm r such a duo FUCK

[toastingpencils37]

Ninjago City without power lowkey looks surreal as fuck. But also pretty.

[destinysbounty]

Ever since Crystalized came out, there's been this theory circulating that the reason the Overlord somehow managed to manifest crystal power seemingly out of nowhere and with no explanation (at least, none that I can find/remember), is because his fight with Zane affected his power in some way.

The main evidence for this is that:

Zane was the last person to fight the Overlord

Ice is technically a crystalline structure, depending on how it's formed, and Zane is the master of ice

When Harumi was first resurrected, she found the Overlord's spirit imbued into a purple crystal

As evidenced by past seasons, the Overlord's power seems to be influenced by his circumstances and environment in the wake of his last defeat. During Rebooted, a tech center was built over his resting place, and he ended up taking on the abilities and limitations of a computer virus. And in this case, the theory suggests that the Overlord's power was then influenced again by all the ice surrounding him as Zane destroyed both of their physical forms.

This does, to some extent, seem to fall in line with everything else we know about the Overlord. The Overlord is a being of shadow and darkness, and the shape of a shadow will always be influenced by the light around it. (And if we want to get into the theory that the Overlord was created as a result of the FSM trying to purge the oni blood from his veins, then you could even bring up the fact that the oni are shapeshifters sooo).

Now, I'll be the first to admit that this theory is ultimately pretty circumstantial, and there's nothing in canon to point to it being explicitly true. BUT, the cool thing about this theory is that it does also retroactively solve another big fandom mystery: that is, it explains how Zane survived his fight with the Overlord.

Let me explain.

When Zane came back to life after his fight with the Digital Overlord, while it was never outright explained how he did so, it was implied that he came back the same way the Overlord had: by spiritually manifesting within the systems at Borg Tower - specifically, the Digiverse. But that doesn't really answer the question, does it?

Like, the Overlord coming back as a spiritual manifestation makes sense. He's a regenerative being, an immortal abstraction of all the evil in the world. And Zane, as far as we know, is very much not that. So what could have happened to cause Zane, a nindroid, to end up being resurrected in the same way as the god of darkness? Why did he come back to life, instead of passing onto the afterlife? Even Lloyd, the special-est boy in all Ninjago, made a quick visit to the Departed Realm and only came back because the FSM said he could.

And true, it's certainly possible that Zane had a similar encounter with the FSM. Or that his power source is responsible for his resurrection, and just as we may never know how his power source works he may also never know how it brought him back to life. Those are all very possible solutions, and you're welcome to just accept those ideas and move one.

But if you're like me and you don't find those answers particularly satisfying, here's another possibility:

Just as Zane's power has influenced the Overlord, the Overlord's power has influenced Zane. In the explosion of Golden Power that caused both of them to be destroyed in unison, their souls became intertwined. So yes, Zane was meant to die. And judging by his account of the situation in Decoded, he did die. And maybe a peaceful afterlife was well within arm's reach, maybe he was just about to grab the FSM's hand...but then something pulled him back. His soul, chained to the Overlord's dark power, dragged him to the land of the living once more.

And if you really want to get into it, then you could even theorize that this connection ended up influencing Zane's power as well. During the Ice Chapter he was capable of turning people into ice samurai zombie-things kept under his control, as well as creating ice constructs like Boreal. These are not abilities that have been established in the ice power-set, nor are they logical powers for an ice elemental to have. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the Forbidden Scroll doesn't give you new powers, it just enhances and turbo-boosts what you already have. Which is why it did nothing when Kai held it, as his power had been stolen from him at the time.

(Now before you ask why Pixal could use the Scroll despite seeminlgy not having any powers, there are very subtle implications that she had developed a very, very minor sixth sense due to her inheriting some of Zane's power. If anyone wants me to explain that in greater detail, I'd be more than happy to.)

And yes, Aspheera is also capable of creating elemental zombie/mummy things and other such constructs, but she did all that before she found the Scroll. This is a power-set she had by virtue of her being a powerful sorcerer, not something granted by wielding the Scroll.

And yet somehow, the Scroll did seem to give Zane these powers. Powers that so far have only been exhibited by two people in the series: Aspheera, and the Overlord. So if we submit to the theory that Zane and the Overlord's fight have caused their powers to mix a little, and the Scroll magnifies your power....well, it suddenly becomes very possible that the Scroll amplified some of the dark energy he inherited from the Overlord and awakened some of the Ice Emperor's more unique abilities.

And if that's true, then that really just kinda makes the whole Ice Emperor sting that much more. All of the good things Zane has done, all of his biggest sacrifices, all led to this moment. To him becoming the Ice Emperor.

I dunno. It's just something to think about.