#The locals are now more trusting of Zane than the ninja are

[localguy2]

The amount of potential you could have for Zane character development if you bring back the never realm in Dragons Rising...

We know the ninja were lost during the merge, potentially all of them scattered about randomly in this new "ninjago + other realms" realm, so...Just chuck Zane back into the never-realm part of this combined realm.

Okay great, a nindroid in a place he doesn't want to be in, mostly because of his time as a ruthless ruler here.

But oh wait a fucking second, Vex is also back, and he's sided with the Imperium and he's basically the leader in the never realm area of this combined realm, Hunting Dragons is one of his goals but his main one is just to maintain control over the realm.

And the people of this realm are trying to fight back (without much success).

But wait, Zane's here, former Ice Emperor and leader that ruled over this realm, and after a lot of back and forth and a lot of distrust, he's eventually elected leader of the resistance in hopes that his skills of leading (when he used to be the Ice Emperor) can help bring Vex's rule to an end.

Except here's the thing, Zane wasn't really a leader during the Ice Emperor stuff, arguably Vex was more in charge than him.

And Zane knows this but he can't really say it, not when he's now a leader.

And he absolutely fucking hates the fact that he's the leader of the resistance, cuz it only reminds him of what he did as the IE, but he also recognises that he needs to lead these people, he's basically their only hope at this point, if he fails than Vex's rule will be absolute.

It also serves as a way to redeem himself fully in the eyes of the people of the never realm, and it can also act as a way for him to forgive himself for what he did, making up for the past and all yknow.

Also serves as an excuse to bring back Akita and Krag and other prominent characters from the never realm.