#also pixal deserved more screen time....

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Tournament of Sources Spreadsheet Updates

Bechdel Test

This was a perfect season (bechdel test wise), but the fragmentation of Wyldfire, Sora, and Nya into different groups made it difficult in those later episodes. I had to strain to find dialogue in a couple of episodes that succeeded (I actually didn't find dialogue in episode 19 but @genericplaceholdername did so thank you to them). In the one where Sora fought Kizzy, I counted non-verbal interaction because Kizzy bowed in response to Sora. Sora was my hero this season as while she did mostly talk to Lloyd, Arin, and Cole, she, thankfully was also trying to figure out what was up with Jordanna. Wyldfire was pining after Roby and beefing with Cinder so she'd rarely talk to other women. As I predicted, Nya was thinking about Jay so she mainly talked to the older ninja as they knew him. Zeatrix would mainly only talk to Lloyd and Ras and Rox would mainly talk to her brother and Ras, so the female antagonists failed to be as helpful as I would have hoped. For the women fans out there, season one of DR is going to be your best choice, but season two is of course, still great. They just need to hang out more.

Groupings

Even more than season one of DR, parts one and two of this season really just feel like seasons in their own right. I've labeled accordingly and I may go back and give DRS1P2 a label of its own for consistency's sake. Riyu felt a lot more like a character this season rather than an accessory to someone else's plot line so I gave him his own row because he deserves it. As you can see, there's only been 3 episodes before this where he deviated from Arin/Sora, which is why I didn't give him a row until now. Tournament of Sources really made me feel like I had to change how I do this chart, because I've been operating based on what the ninja are doing in the beginning of the episode as up until now, those groupings rarely changed mid-episode. However, in this season, it seemed the ninja would be in a different grouping each scene, likely due to the fact there was no barrier of travel as, aside from Kai and, for most of the season, Jay, they were all in one location. As you can see, the ninja tended to go on little sidequests of their own, with Arin and Riyu going on the most, but they all gravitated towards staying with the team. I don't think the non-incapcitated ninja spent a single episode without meeting as a team, aside from episode 11 in which Zane was training and Cole was in an unknown location, presumably the Land of the Lost Things, because Geo mentioned he got the invite right after Cole left. I've kept Jay on the business trip designation, because he's still just doing what he's doing because he doesn't know who he is so it's an odd state between incapacitation and a mission.

I did have to add a new designation which I did not expect to have to do, but Kai was voided, Nya was in a cave, and Lloyd's a glass cannon. A crazy thing about this season is that, normally when someone's incapacitated, that's the main focus, but Nya and Riyu's capture occurred completely off-screen and they were the only ones working on Kai's recovery. There's a record number of different states of incapacitation. With Jay's amenesia we have 4 and depending on what Pixal's up to we may even have 5.

Combinations

Thanks to Kai getting voided and the overall structure of a tournament season, part 2 ended up being great for "Three's a Crowd." Sure, 2 fulfillments may look small but there's only 8 combinations left to complete. Half of them involve Jay so it might take a while. I do need to note that a massive asterisk should be put on nearly all of the DR fulfillments as I ignore the presence of the kids. I may amend to include them in the future, but that would be hundreds more unique combinations, so I need to wait until they've had a lot more scenes.

Timeline

Jay was still in the administration at the end of part one and he needed at least a little time to assimilate into a wolf cult, so I put 2 months in between part one and two, which I title Blood Moon and Tournament of Sources respectively. The reason I didn't put more than 2 months, aside from my policy of always putting the least time possible, is because Sora mentioned that saving the world had prevented them from going to the Administration to find information on Arin's parents sooner, indicating it hasn't been too long since the Blood Moon.

Ages

I only updated this chart because I updated the timeline. One interesting note of dialogue for me was Cole saying "You know I ran away from that dancing school my dad put me in when I was a kid." It's sort of a similar piece of evidence to Kai referring to Arin and Sora as kids, and it's interesting to hear him refer to his pilot season self as a kid, but it's also possible he ran away from the school much earlier than the pilot season. Thanks for reading this far! I'm going to start working on some suggested charts. Please let me know if you have any ideas or feedback!

[spinchip]

NEVER THE DARK

CHAPTER 6

Read on Ao3

Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5

EVERY YEAR IS THE YEAR// THE WORLD ENDS// AS I UNDERSTAND IT

Cyrus Borg gratefully accepts the coffee Skylor hands him, downing half the mug before setting it aside to continue playing with the camera footage from the previous night. Pixal would be at his side, combing through the video frame by frame, if she weren’t caught up with damage control from the ninja's sudden disappearance. She'd been up all night on the phone with the museum curator, the police commissioner, and the detectives working the scene while Skylor reached out to their allies in Ninjago, calling the elemental masters and anyone else they could think of to Borg tower to fill in while the ninja were M.I.A. Once her father had woken up and been filled in on the situation, he and Dareth had taken the first elevator to the ninjas personal floor and were helping out too.

Well, Cyrus was helping. Dareth was there for moral support, which came in the form of a pancake breakfast ("My specialty!"), sandwiches for lunch ("Also my specialty!"), and anxiously cleaning the room over and over. The dust bunnies were developing ptsd at this point.

“So you haven’t heard anything, Antonia?” Pixal was on her latest phone call to her informant at NGTV news, a girl who’d made herself an important ally several times over.

“No, Ms. Borg.” Antonia confirms, “And now that I'm Ms. Gossips personal assistant, any news about the Ninja would come to me first. The police are doing their jobs and keeping everything under wraps- all we know is that something happened last night at the museum.”

“Good.” Pixal nods, “Can you screen her emails and messages for potential security breaches?”

“I can try.” Antonia sounds hesitant, “Is this really the right move? Don’t the people deserve to know what happened?”

“I know this is difficult,” Pixal says emphatically, “Right now there is just too little information, and any potential story will just incite hysteria. We need to control the narrative until we have more answers. If the people of Ninjago know he ninja are out of town they will panic, which will make this situation spiral.”

“…Okay…”

“It’s my job to keep Ninjago safe, and I believe this is the best way. I need your help, Antonia- can I rely on you?”

“Yes, you can.” A pause, “…Nelson would kill me if I didn't help. Oh, but you need to know- Ms. Gossip is planning on running a story on the Museum break-in on the evening news.”

“Thank you for the information. Call me if anything changes and I’ll do the same.” At Antonia's goodbye, Pixal hangs up and slumps back into her chair with an explosive sigh. If the News reported on the break-in, Ninjago citizens are going to be antsy even with no idea the ninja are M.I.A.… It might be best to make a public statement before the media can turn this into a circus. If this hits headlines and the ninja are nowhere to be found, tabloids will definitely draw their own conclusions. The evening news report is approaching with the setting sun, so their window of opportunity is getting smaller. They needed to release a statement tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.

At the swathes of monitors, her father is flipping through each frame of the Security footage one by one, sending himself the best screen grabs so he can open them on a separate monitor. He's meticulously cleaning up each image enough to run facial recognition on the new mystery woman. He’s got enough tabs and windows open and spread out on the computer monitors he’d claimed that it makes Skylor a bit dizzy to look at. Dareth is sitting at his side pouring over the screens as well, unbothered by Cyrus’s skipping around to different pages and databases every other minute. He was Cyrus’s personal bodyguard, he put up with the genius's interesting habits everyday.

They’d hit a bit of a speed bump after a few hours of work, but Wu had gone to the museum to meet with the police and search for any physical clues, and he’d forwarded the Borgs a digital copy of the police report that had invigorated their search. Wu was supposed to be back by now, but he’d actually detoured to talk to Misako before coming back, hoping she might have some idea about the stolen gauntlet and what all it was capable of.

“Dareth,” He perks up at his name, “Can you draft a public announcement from the Ninja about the museum break in? I want to try and get ahead of the media.  No mentions of the ninja's disappearance.”

“Can do.” He gives her a thumbs up, grabbing a pen and a napkin to start scribbling on instead of a computer (In true Dareth fashion.)

Skylor sips her own coffee while spinning her phone by its pop-socket, listening to Karlof chat into her earpiece. She hums in response to him, “Yeah, I’ll forward you the address, Camille and Jacob have already agreed to come… yes, and be sure to come as incognito as you can, okay?... we're keeping the ninjas disappearance on the down low… uh huh… yes… okay Karlof well, I’ve got other calls-... yeah… uh huh…” Pixal glances up, managing a smile as Skylor shakes her phone in frustration, “... It’ll be good to see you and the guys again… yeah it’s been too long, I wish it was under better circumstances… yeah, well, I’ll let you g… okay… okay… Yes… bye Karlof.”

She hangs up extremely quickly, “I almost miss when he barely spoke to me.” She laments, already scrolling down to the next person on the agenda.

Cyrus makes a triumphant noise in the back of his throat and sits back in his chair. Immediately all eyes are on him. Skylor puts her phone away, the other calls will have to wait. He organizes his browser windows as he begins to talk, “Well there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that the woman from last night basically doesn’t exist. Any and all facial recognition failed, running DNA on hair left behind yielded nothing, and as for fingerprints… she doesn’t have any.”

“Like the men in black.” Dareth nods in understanding.

“So she’s another dead end.” Pixal frowns.

Skylor matches her girlfriend's facial expression, “What’s the good news?”

“I took the liberty of uh… borrowing the video feed of other businesses going back a few years and ran her face searching for a match.”

“You found her?”

“I’m afraid she still came up a mystery, but the woman from the other night- the first thief we got on camera- pinged several times!” He rolls his wheelchair back to give Pixal and Skylor room to crowd around the space, “Her name is Dixie Samson and, up until a few months ago, she worked a completely normal job at a local gym and had a decent apartment in downtown Ninjago. She up and quit her job and vanished only a month before the break-ins at the museums started up.”

“She found a new career path.” Dareth supplied.

“She vanished and no one ever reported her missing?” Skylor squinted at the screens, one of which was her gym profile that had her smiling picture on it.

“Her landlord called in a wellness check when she stopped paying rent.” clicking over into another tab which listed a bill, Cyrus smiled, “The only reason her mother didn’t report her missing is this,” He motions to the screen, “Her phone is still in service, used weekly to contact her family. Which means…”

“We can track it!” Pixal gasps, throwing her arms around her fathers neck in a quick hug.

He hugs her back too, squeezing her tight before pulling away. He hits a few keys on the keyboard, “There, I forwarded you everything you need. Go get this woman and bring her in for questioning.”

“Cyrus and I can hold down the fort.” Dareth says, "I'll have dinner ready by the time you're back! It's Spaghetti!"

"Let me guess- your specialty?"

"I've been watching a lot of cooking tutorials." He hits her with another thumbs up and a smile.

Pixal returns the gesture before her and Skylor head towards the elevator, “I’ll ride my bike and you can take the Samurai X mech.” Skylor suggests while Pixals eyes go unfocused, mapping out the cell towers to narrow down the area in Ninjago Dixie had set up her base. The elevator ride is far more pleasant than the last few times Pixal had ridden it, the solid lead lifting the two women's spirits.

“Sounds good,” the elevator dings right as Pixal triangulates the cell signal, “We’re headed towards the old warehouse district, the place that was damaged and abandoned after the flood. I can’t pinpoint anything exactly so we’ll have to sweep each building until we find her.”

Skylor kisses Pixal on the cheek and then makes her way to her bike, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find her at the first place we search.” She jokes, pulling on her helmet and fishing her leather jacket out of the bike's seat storage.

“When are we ever lucky?” Pixal scales the mech and swings her leg over into the cockpit, near giddy at having a concrete lead.

“There’s a first time for everything.'' The engine to her bike roars to life, and Skylor does a lap around the garage while Pixal starts up the mech before they both fly towards the exit. The garage opens up to a private road that leads to the street behind Borg tower. Pixal takes off towards the sky and Skylor blends seamlessly into traffic, weaving around cars to keep pace with the mech above her.

As they fly over Ninjago city, Pixal keeps her eyes on Skylors figure darting all over the roads. Skylor had stepped away from the vigilante life only a year after they'd lost Zane, and Pixal knew it was a mix of her childhood trauma and the fact that her relationship with the ninja had begun to sour the more she took over Zanes position on the team. (Sour is putting it lightly. They brought her on before they were ready to admit Zane wasn't coming back, and things had deteriorated between them all each day she took on more of his responsibilities.) It had taken Pixal a long time to reconcile that Zane was gone, and she's put in a lot of work repairing her relationship with Skylor after realizing exactly why she'd announced her early retirement- she'd started with an apology dinner that had accidentally lasted 7 hours. Their relationship had developed from there.

But there were times like these where Pixal still missed Zane like a wound that wouldn't heal. She couldn't help but think how he might approach this situation- recklessly, of course, but only to himself. That had taken her a long time to make peace with as well. After he'd died and stayed dead, she'd been so angry with him, furious that he would leave her- not outwardly, but quietly consumed by a rage that left no room for grief. Because anger was easier than sadness. There are times where she wonders if there were signs she could have looked for or things she could have done to make her best friend value his life just a bit more. Just enough so that he wouldn’t always jump in front of the bullet.

If her therapist were here, she’d remind Pixal that what happened was not her fault. Zane passed away due to his own choices, and Pixal couldn’t torture herself with what-ifs about it all. It was not Pixal's responsibility to save Zane, and it was not her failure to protect him that led to his death. Survivors' guilt is a hell of a burden to bear.

“Oh, great.” Skylors voice comes through the comms in a huff, clear and annoyed. When Pixal looks down, she realizes her motorcycle is being flagged down by a police cruiser. Flashing lights and sirens is the last thing they need on a covert search mission. “Go on ahead. I’ll tell this guy it’s ninja business and meet you there.” She's slowing her bike down, dutifully pulling over to the side of the road.

“Sometimes I miss the days we didn’t deal with the cops.” She grumbles, coming to a complete stop.

“We only play nice so they stop trying to arrest us every other week. If they take too long, just take off. They cannot match your speed.” Pixal hums.

"I love it when you talk anarchist to me." Skylor says playfully.

Pixal is still in business mode, but she knows Skylor will be able to hear the smile in her voice, “I will eliminate all locations that are too water damaged or run down for Dixie to set up shop.”

No further words are exchanged, and Pixal blasts off to the warehouse district. She expects this will take a few days- combing through all of these buildings is going to be a tedious task, like finding a needle in a haystack. She’s managed to cross out a few buildings on her mental map already when Skylor arrives on the scene, but for the most part they’ll have to brute force their way through the remaining search.

“I have narrowed it down slightly,” She begins to fill her in, “Anything west of 6th street has fallen to far into disrepair to make a viable base-”

“Pix,” Skylor says, parking her bike next to a random building and hopping off, “I think I found her.”

“What?” she asks, dumbfounded.

Skylors little silhouette- ant sized to Pixal with how high up she is- waves at her, “I’ve got a different perspective.” She says.

When Pixal lands and climbs down from the Samurai X mech, Skylor motions her over to a low concrete wall she's crouched behind. Pixal skirts around the street until she’s hunkered down next to her girlfriend. Skylor tips her head back and looks over the wall before crouching again, motioning for Pixal to do the same.

Keeping her back flush to the wall, she cautiously glances over the top of the wall.

It looks like it was a security booth for the factory adjacent to it at one point, with a low hanging ceiling and big windows, but it’s larger than normal. A headquarters for the entire guard patrol is more likely, equipped with heavy duty locks and bulletproof glass. Strung up from the overhanging lip of the building- invisible from above- is a string of glittering fairy lights that are only just starting to glow in the dark evening light. Pixal can’t help the shocked noise she makes, and Skylor pulls her down with a shushing motion.

“Fairy lights?” She pays no heed to Skylors insistence she be silent, “Who puts fairy lights all over their safehouse? She has lit herself up like a beacon! Here I am, come get me!” She whispers furiously.

She stands up and hops the concrete wall, unconcerned with their opponent because she’s obviously an idiot. Skylor scrambles after her, “Do we have a plan?” She asks, amused despite herself as Pixal storms towards the shack.

When they reach it, Pixal whips out a set of lock picking tools she kept strapped inside her chest cavity and gets to work picking the lock. “We get inside and grab her.” she whispers, expertly picking the first lock and moving silently on to the next.

In no time, all three locks are picked. Pixal drops the tools back where they belong and stands, both women on either side of the door as they ready themselves to burst through the door. Pixels indignation is fading, replaced by a deeper fear- this woman had escaped the ninja once before. If she got away now, they lost their only lead. Steeling herself, Pixal looks up at Skylor to find they’ve both come to the same conclusion: They couldn’t falter now.

Skylor turns the knob and crashes through the door, and Pixal leaps in after her.

The woman on the bed- who’d been sleeping peacefully, not a care in the world- screams awake, throwing her pillow at Skylor on autopilot. It sails comically off target, crashing into a small coffee nook and knocking mugs and plates into pieces on the floor. Both home intruders stop, completely at a loss. They’d expected to come into a fight, not catch this woman in her sleep. On the bed, Dixie finally recognizes them as her sleep-addled brain catches up with her.

“You scared the crap out of me!” She shouts before launching herself out of bed- not towards the two women. She beelines to the foot of her bed where she’s set up a tiny desk and stool, and before Pixal can blink she’s smashed a fist into her laptop with a loud crack! And sent it careening off the table where it smashes to pieces on the floor.

She’d just destroyed every scrap of evidence she could.

Pixal lunges at her and with surprising agility, she leaps above her head, landing into a handspring before flipping onto her feet with a flourish. She strikes a pose as if she were at a gymnastics meet, smiling confidently.

Skylor barrels into her side and tackles her to the ground without much fuss.

“Dixie Sampson,” She says, cuffing the girl's hands behind her back as she struggles, “You are being detained and will be placed under emergency custody of the Ninja until further notice.”

Pixal sighs, picking herself up from her unsuccessful capture attempt, “You have her secured?” At Skylors nod Pixal adds, “I am going to look around for any other clues.”

As Skylor helps the woman to her feet and sits her in the chair to her breakfast nook, Pixal gathers up the broken laptop pieces. It’s possible her father can salvage something off of the carnage. After a quick cursory poke through, nothing else stands out as a lead to who exactly hired her. She finds stacks of fancy weaponry, ski-masks, gadgets and equipment all meant to make the life of a burglar easy pickings.

Dixie keeps her mouth determinedly shut. When Pixal finishes, she and Skylor escort the woman to the Samurai X mech after Pixal puts together a bag of essentials for her. Shoes, toothbrush and toothpaste, other things like that. She was already fully dressed when she hopped out of bed, wearing joggers and a turtleneck sweater, going so far as to have her tool belt still strapped to her back.

“I have a feeling we won't get anything out of her,” Skylor says uneasily, once all three of them are in their respective vehicles heading back towards Borg Tower.

“Me too.” Pixal admits, “I’m hoping her laptop brings us more insight.”

Unfortunately, it does not.

Cyrus shakes his head, “I’m sorry Pixal, but the hard drive has been shattered. There’s nothing I can do.”

The only thing left is to try and interrogate Dixie. They’re keeping her in a holding cell- which is really one of the bedrooms Pixal flipped the lock around on- that Pixal knocks on before entering. Dixie is sitting cross legged on top of her bed with her back against the wall, arms crossed and lips pressed firmly together in a thin line. “Hello, Dixie.”

Despite her locked down appearance, Dixie does respond. “Hi.” She says curtly, turning her nose up and looking away from Pixal pointedly.

Pixal sits down at the little table set up in the room, “My name is Pixal Borg, I work with the ninja. Last night, your partner broke into the Ninjago Museum of natural history and stole a very important artifact-“

Dixie snorts, “She’s not my partner,” She objects, glaring at Pixal as if offended she’d even suggest it.

That takes Pixal by surprise, “She isn’t?” Noting the animosity in Dixie's response, Pixal responds slowly, “I was under the impression she was… your boss.”

Dixie gasps, uncrossing her arms in offense, “Absolutely not! We were just both hired by the same guy, and I was doing just fine on my own! I didn’t need her to step in!” She nearly whines, throwing her hands around animatedly as she talks, “This was my first mission, you know! I was doing good for my first time!”

“I’m sure you were. How could your employer just toss you aside like that?” Pixal guides the conversation slowly, attempting to turn Dixie against the man she worked for.

She narrows dark eyes at Pixal, crossing her arms again, “Um, I’m not stupid,” She hisses, “I know what you’re trying to do, and newsflash: it isn’t gonna work. I’m not telling you his name, I'm loyal like that. Spread the word, okay? I’m a bounty hunter you can trust! No double crossing from me!”

Pixal takes all of that into careful consideration. Bounty hunter, huh? She needed to call Ronin in. “Fine, you won’t betray your employer, but what about this other woman? Can you tell me about her? Where did she stash the gauntlet?”

Dixie frowns and hesitates, “Well… I don’t know anything about her. She’s good. Like, really good.” she runs a hand through her hair, “As for where she stashed it- nowhere. She delivered it to our employer last night, directly after stealing it.”

Pixal swallows thickly. This was bad. This was very bad- if the woman from last night was willing to dispose of the ninja, who knows the horrors her employer is going to unleash upon Ninjago, “Can you tell me what he plans to do with it?”

She smirks suddenly, as if picking up of Pixals cracking composure. “Something very, very evil, Pixal Borg.” She says ghoulishly, purposefully vague in a way that leads Pixal to believe she really has no idea, “And it’s too late for you to stop it!” She throws her head back and laughs and doesn't say another word.

If you walk left out of Borg tower, take a left at the coffee shop on the corner, and walk 7 blocks, you’ll come upon another skyscraper. It’s shorter than Borg tower and covered in smooth black glass. The top of the building rises sharply into the sky, two points stabbing the clouds to give the appearance of a massive V, adding a layer of interest to the otherwise underwhelming building. No lights are on at this time of night- two am, right after the museum break in. Even the CEO’s office is shrouded in darkness, one that doesn’t break as said man strides inside.

The ambient lights of Ninjago city illuminate the room enough for the two occupants to see each other.

“Get your feet off my desk,” He's an imposing figure, tall and broad shouldered, “And out of my chair. Now.”

It’s an expensive chair and an even more expensive desk, but Stella was never one to care for the luxurys of the rich who employed her. She tilts her head, chewing on an unlit cigar she’d rummaged through his desk to find, “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”

He makes a shooing motion as he crosses the room, “And give me back my cigar,” He snarls, leaning over her at his best attempt at intimidation. Stella didn't frighten easily.

With a roll of her eyes, she takes her feet off the table and steps out of his chair. The two of them trade places, with him sitting and her now standing. She doesn’t give him back the cigar, tucking it behind her ear like a pen for later.

“Why’d you call me.” He doesn’t phrase it like a question, steepling his fingers in front of himself and planting his elbows on the desk to glare at her menacingly.

She’s unphased. She holds up her arm, flashing a blue and black gauntlet at him with a bored expression on her face, “I’ve completed the task.” She says.

Anger disappears into shock before he actually leaps back up from his chair, scrambling over to her to take the armored gauntlet from her. She hands it willingly and he holds it reverently for a moment, “You’re worth the money,” He comments, sliding his hand into the gauntlet with a sinister grin.

“Speaking of money, I expect to be wired a bonus fee. I’ve neutralized the ninja for you.”

He looks at her in surprise, “Dead?”

Her voice is still that monotonous bored, but there’s the slightest sharp edge to her next words that belie her anger at his accusation, “I don’t kill.” then, slightly more calm, “I used the power of the Armor. They’re gone.”

"You used a part of the power, you mean.” He hums, turning away from her and walking over to the large floor to ceiling windows he had. He flexes the glove, twiddling his fingers as he stares down at his triumph, “There is much, much more to this artifact than you know… I’m extending your contract until further notice.”

She raises a brow, but stays quiet. If he was willing to pay the price for her services, she’d let him.

“Ninjago was supposed to be mine, do you understand?” He starts, raising his eyes up to gaze out across the skyline, “Voss Technology was at the top of the top, but I've been cut off and cheated out of my rightful place above them all. My business, my family's business, does not belong at number two.” He gnashes his teeth, his voice dropping into a growl, “He thinks he's so much better than me. So high and mighty up in his castle while I am stuck in the dark of his shadow. I’ve lost employees, loyal customers, contracts- all because of him. I want him to suffer like I have. I am going to show him the pain of loss. If I can't have Ninjago, no one can-”

He bares his teeth and the gauntlet clicks and shakes, the plates shifting and transforming into the shape of a massive clawed paw that he slams against the window with a deafening thud. It cracks upon impact, glass forming a perfect break centered on the distant form of Borg tower. “-Especially not Cyrus Borg.” 

[pythor]

immmm cryingggg this is all I care about AAAAAAA

[ninjago-bingo]

final month recap

wow, everyone.  we’re here.  we’ve made it.  we’re reached the end of our bingo time, and i’m absolutely floored by the sheer creative output that i’ve seen over these last four months.  everyone, take a moment to give yourself a pat on the back!!!  no matter if you made 1 piece or 10, there’s now a work of art out there in the world that wasn’t there before.  and truly, that’s super heccing rad no matter how you look at it.

so let’s celebrate!  for this recap, we have a total of 20 new pieces, bringing the total amount of ninbingo pieces up to 50.  in the span of four months, this little event has created 50 individual works (five of them in the last day!)  holy cow ya’ll.

i’m putting out this recap now, but don’t worry, it’s not the end yet!  any submissions made to the end of the 30th still count and this post will be updated accordingly :D

fic:

all the things i’ve never done by @sa-you-na-ra. tumblr || prompts: competition and teasing

It’s always a funny thing when the ninja realize new things about each other. Even though living with each other meant they had to see each other all day, there were still small habits or actions that amused the others.

(mod comments: all these little interactions made me smile so much :D looking forward to the rest!)

error 404: answer not found by @m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: memories

Akita and Zane talk after the battle in ‘Awakenings’. The conversation… doesn’t go as either of them expect.

(mod comments: the nuances in this fic are fantastic!  also Akita is always a win :D)

Five times kai was a good brother by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: nightmare and brother

I'm writing kai centric stuff again.

(mod comments: kai IS the big bro of the team!!! i support him all the way!!)

How Garmadon became a chauffeur by @master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: driving

"um...Kai? Don't you think we should go Slower?" Garmadon asked nervously trying not to panick as they raced down the road at what had to be over the speed limit.

(mod comments: who let Kai drive?  no but honestly this is canon alskdfj)

little things by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: hugs and crying.

"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you'll look back and realize they were the big things." -Kurt Vonnegut

Lloyd’s tired of being left behind. How is he meant to be the green ninja when he always has to work harder, train better, and wait longer to go on missions with his team? He wants nothing more than to be their equal.

At least, that’s what he thought he wanted.

(mod comments: a post-ep-18 resolution scene?  SIGN ME UP!)

Neither Snow Nor Rain by @fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: post-fight

After their return from the Never Realm and all its troubles, Zane is quiet and Nya is incredibly worried. A call to action to a peculiar sort of battle might be enough to change both of those things.

(mod comments: the concept of these two on their own mission together is just so good! excited to see how their dynamic plays out!!)

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: video games and chores

…what can be done today, yada, yada, yada, we all know the saying. So do the ninja- when Master Wu is drilling it into their heads every minute of every day, it’s kind of hard to forget.

Naturally, it only takes them a week (and the biggest new video game in Ninjago) to do so.

(mod comments: this is so in character that it’s frustrating lol.  also Pixal ftw!!)

oh take me back to the start by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: comfort and 3 am

The past should be left in the past. Or, at least, that’s what Jay keeps telling himself. Nadakhan is gone. It’s not logical to still be afraid. But he is, and now everything that he left behind suddenly feels like it’s never going to be the same again.

Cole isn’t so convinced.

(mod comments: Cole is truly the man we all deserve in our lives.)

On Our Own by @redefine-your-identity. tumblr || prompt: home

It’s been a few weeks since Kai and Nya’s parents disappeared without a trace. Needless to say, they’re struggling.

(mod comments: OU C H no poor babies 😭 the relationship dynamic here is great!)

orange and gold by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: cooking

...I just need more Cole and Vania content, they seem like they'd be great friends.

Basically it's just 'Cole goes to visit her there, they almost burn down the kitchen, and make way too many puns', lol.

(mod comments: I also always need more Vania content!! the puns in this were breadful!)

permafrost by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: loss of control and promise

It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. It’s not like none of his teammates have ever suffered this kind of guilt and pain. It’s not like Zane himself hasn’t walked through hell before and come out the other side (mostly) in once piece.

Except, this time, it is. It shouldn’t be different, but it is.

(mod comments: super sweet moment between two ninja who deserve more interaction like seriously!!)

Precautionary Tale by @/fangirltakesall. tumblr || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Fighting is different now, and Zane doesn't know why. Yes, he is titanium now, but why should that change anything? It seems to be changing everything, although is all really as it seems?

(mod comments: a great start to a zane-centric fic!  interested to see where it goes next :D)

Star-Ninja! by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: siblings and competition 

What happens when the loveable gremlin the ninja adopted off of the streets introduces them to Starfarer comics?

Chaos ensues, of course.

stuck with you (through bright and blue) by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompt: protective

Kai only wants two things: to protect Lloyd, and to give him the best birthday ever. Unfortunately, Lloyd seems hell-bent on making that as difficult as possible. Kai’s always prided himself on achieving the impossible, but dealing with human emotions is much more complicated than beating up Garmadon’s generals or shooting enemies with fire, as he quickly learns. Movie!verse

(mod comments: happy birthday lloyd!! look at him getting the love he deserves uwu)

Take a walk in the rain. by @/master-of-fluff. tumblr || ao3 || prompt: rain

Cole had always loved the rain, the way it smelled, the way it felt on his skin, and especially the mud! Whenever it rained his Mother would put on his rain coat and boots And they'd both go out and splash around in the puddles and make mud cakes and do all sorts of things.

(mod comments: this fic made me smile a lot :D loved the way it was arranged!) 

the hues of an empty sky by @/m-aster-of-spinjitzu. tumblr || prompt: crying

Missing memories, or having two of them for one moment - not quite the same, but if there’s one thing Jay’s leant over the last few weeks, it’s that literally nothing makes sense anymore.

Or, some Skybound aftermath, Zane actually expressing emotions about his memory switch being turned off for all those years, and what was supposed to be a ‘they tell everyone about the erased timeline’ fic, but it turned into a 'two characters who barely interact on screen talk at like one am in the morning, and don’t actually tell the other what exactly they’re alluding to the whole time’ fic that I wrote at like one am-

(mod comments: Skybound resolution? SIGN ME THE HECK UP YES)

The Make-Cole-Realize-How-Much-We-Love-Him Competition by @21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: bets and competition

Jay and Kai share a horrified look.  “He really doesn’t get it,” Jay says.

Kai shakes his head.  “We need to show him somehow.”

“Show me what?” Cole asks, exasperated again.  

“How much we love you!” Kai exclaims.  “Somehow, it’s not getting through your thick skull that we want to sit next to you because you’re you, so I’m gonna have to just prove it to you.”

(mod comments: a silly little movie fic!)

twitter was a mistake by @/21st-century-ninja. tumblr || ao3 || prompts: teasing and birthday

Kai 🔥 @flaminhotninja ☑

so who was gonna tell me that Jay used to be a game show host huh

🌺✨ the Gift of Jay ✨🌺 @zaptrap ☑

Replying to @flaminhotninja

NO WHO SHOWED YOU

(mod comments: twitter was a mistake)

two halves of a broken whole by @/rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: scars and post-fight

The Sons of Garmadon have been defeated. Garmadon is in prison. The city has been saved.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nya is more than ready to take a much-needed break. But the life of a ninja is messy. Recovery is never that simple. Although the wounds may have healed, the scars still remain.

Zane’s scars seem to match up, though. And maybe together, they can begin to heal.

(mod comments: aggressive care is my jam, and this is it!)

wait by @rosiehunterwolf. tumblr || ao3 || ffn.net || prompts: home and memories

Lloyd’s not so great at being patient. It’s not his fault though- maybe he would be better at it if waiting didn’t always end up being so disappointing- if people actually kept their promises. But this time’s going to be different, he knows it. His father will come back for him. And Lloyd’s going to wait.

As long as it takes.

(mod comments: baby.  baby boy.  baby.  protecc him plz.)

[mx-julien]

an incredibly meta and ridiculously unfair biased take on pixane

some quick notes before we begin (or scroll past if you just want the meta)

i'm not going to post things like this more than once a year so this is one of very few times

i was a literal elementary-schooler when the first episode of Rebooted came out and 95% of my frustration comes from the meta behind their relationship not the relationship itself. i am very aware that this is an unfair take on their relationship. i'm older now and also entirly aware that this is a ship of fictional characters.

so if you didn't realize already, this is going to be mostly negative, so read at your own discretion

ok so like i said ~i was an elementary-schooler~, Zane was my favorite, and one of the many things that little me liked was that he's not a dating-crazy character because even at that age i hated rushed romantic plots Just Because wow, laurance, could you get any more demiromantic writer geek if you tried. also he's a robot and he's different BUT that just means he's accomodated and that doesn't mean he's held in any different regard which warmed my neurodivergent heart then and still does now.

are the "are we compatible now", 'we understand each other better because we're actually fundamentally similar in ways that we haven't been able to relate to others before', and 'half of my heart' storylines adorable and sweet? yes! does it still bother me that they pulled a "they're both robots <3" thing? yup, but not every show wants to address human/robot so it's fair.

but i remember feeling so hurt that they just made Zane suddenly enraptured with a character that was just used as an Attractive Life In Danger for literally the entire season [ref: turning evil and needing to be saved, needing a new power source, not being able to leave the building for the first few episodes]. it felt very ooc for him to be that taken with her by just having looked at and met her and the more lowkey thing they have going on now just fits, in my opinion, so much better.

it's another sore spot for me because they also did that Bad Love Triangle thing with Nya, Jay, and Cole in the same season, so i didn't like that two of the characters i related to the most suddenly had romantic subplots that weren't actually at all good or necessary. it also ruined the friendly antagonism between Jay and Cole by making it seem to have actual animosity, setting up their dumb feud that continues until skybound. in the process it turned Nya into an object to be won and passed around (which is called objectification, folks) instead of her kickass actual person self.

back to pixane: i was especially mad that they not only introduced another female character who was immediately turned into a damsel in distress, but she was then ignored and even got her body taken away after one (1) season. something i still believe is that pixal and Zane deserve a more nuanced relationship beginning than what we got in s3.

it actually wasn't even until late 2019 (when i drifted back into the nj orbit and saw how big the fandom had become on tumblr after people who saw 2017 movie watched the tv show) that i properly appreciated Pixal and fell in love with her and her place in the team.

also i think that it's absolutely hilarious how they try to do the "oh but he actually cares about her safety" thing [ref: Skybound, Prime Empire] as like a Dating Indicator but it just BACKFIRES because Zane's like that with literally everyone [ref: sacrifices himself for everyone in Rebooted, everyone yet again when he goes into Bernie's stomach, Wu in Secrets of Forebidden Spinjitzu] EXCEPT for Cole in Oni and the Dragon and Snake Jaguar (hey i remembered the episode names :) !), which sets him apart from everyone else and that, combined with their back and forth on screen kind of hints at a relationship more than anything else they try to do with the other couples.

hello yes back to pixane: most of their interactions to me (because, like eveyone else, i just ignore parts of rebooted that don't have Sensei G or Borg) like Ninjago Confidential, most of her time in his head, and the majority of her remarks during Seabound scream brother-sister to me. literally that's what my older sister's like: amused [ref: Ninjago Confidential and Seabound when Pixal just goes along with Zane's weird voice antics], knows better than you so she gives you a hard time about it [ref: most of the time she's in his head! there are so many so just go rewatch seasons like 4 through 7 i think], and you'll miss her if you don't hear from her for a few weeks or so because she's just that great [ref: Secrets of Forebidden Spinjitzu when Zane's stuck in the Never-Realm and starts missing Pix]. it's just really strange to see that then turned into a 'this is how you know they're romantically entangled!' kind of thing.

as a side note though: they do all of this to show that they're in a relationship because, and this is my very biased cynic speaking, there's no actual casual pixane interactions or chemistry yet with the exception of like two seabound scenes and then when Pixal leaves Zane's head, she's entirely justified and it's her right to and he's understanding but she does just LEAVE. if you're in a relationship with someone, that's pretty negligent. that person will absolutely worry about your absence and you know it. she could have left a message or directions or anything because god knows Zane would've supported her but instead she leaves without a trace. worse yet, he trusts her so much he just thinks that she goes offline even though logic doesn't really support the idea. which is, i would like to clarify BAD WRITING, not a bad character. there is nothing in her character that supports her doing this but oh well they did it anyways and it just adds another layer to their Poor Portrayal of Pixane.

let's review! the writers were so bad at writing this pair in a healthy relationship with equal footing that they ended up making a seemingly sibling-like relationship. in the process, they ignored Pix and bent her into whatever they needed, sometimes making her do very ooc things just for the plot that often ended up showing her relationship with Zane as kind of problematic and weird in terms of what we know about their characters.

also they've rewritten Pix so many different times that i feel like tethering her to Zane doesn't allow them to really give her justice. same to him, actually. how about we remember when he sacrificed himself or when Pix's inventions saved everyone? oh, i'm sorry, let me clarify which time i'm referring to

tl;dr i was a kid who related to Zane and liked strong female characters and rebooted did none of that while doing the robot+robot thing. then they did their relationship and pix's character dirty for a few seasons and so i just continued to ship glacier instead. the end.

woah, stuck by the whole time? kudos to you. thank you for reading my rant with many tangents on a ship i am slowly starting to be okay with in the show and have appreciated in the fandom for about two years now.

at the end of the day, fanon is fanon and for ninjago the canon is slowly improving. please, enjoy what makes you happy - ships are not mutually exclusive and love as many as you like.

i have hopes that they'll improve the characterization for Pixal and writing for pixane, but don't color me surprised if it takes a few more seasons. *raises a glass of sparking apple cider* here's to more years of improvement, or, at least, very memeable screenshots

[prime-pulse]

Cryptor 😳👉👈

Cryptor is honestly one of the most underrated antagonists in the show and frankly he deserved better than to be forgot about / put in Cyrus’ basement museum thing? He’s definitely not one of my favorites BUT that doesn’t mean I don’t have thoughts abt him;

- Don’t get me wrong, I love Echo and he deserves more screen time, but I really think Cryptor should’ve been Mr E or at least worked with the SoG. I think he’d respect their drip and goals

- I really think we should’ve seen him more fleshed out? Like yeah he’s just a Nindroid courrupted by the overlord’s power; but also, HE’S A NINDROID CORRUPTED BY THE OVERLORD’S POWER? And like, Zane and Pixal are both droids and got well deserved characterization and development, I don’t see why we couldn’t get more Cryptor? Ninjago isn’t the best when it comes to writing villains but they are still pretty good at it but we got close to nothing for this guy. I think a scene where he questioned his morality and asked what it truly meant to fight for something he cares about should’ve been in order. He had a lot of potential but the writers did nothing with him

- I really love the idea of a redeemed Cryptor just chilling with Zane. Like, Zane’s like, “Hello everyone, this is my brother, Cryptor.” And everyone’s kinda quiet for a moment before Jay’s like “You mean the guy who beat the shit out of you?” and then Zane’s like “No, no. I beat the shit out of him.”

- Should’ve gotten a face reveal would’ve made it easier to sympathize with him if younger members of the fandom had a vaguely human face to look at to understand this guy wasn’t really working for the Overlord b/c he wanted to but because he was MADE to

[parachutingkitten]

Imma Rant About How Pixal Deserves Better (cuz what else is new)

I love Pixal. That’s no secret. But the writers need to make up their minds about if they want her to be a member of the core cast or not, cuz it’s driving me nuts. Now, this is not a ‘pixal needs to be a ninja!’ post, cuz no, she doesn’t. Her being samurai x is an awesome and coherent move story wise. Moving from samurai x to the water ninja was a natural transition for Nya (even if I personally didn’t like the execution that much, but whatever- that’s a rant for another time), but if they tried to do it for Pixal, it wouldn’t make any sense. This doesn’t mean I’m against Pixal having the potential for ice powers- I wrote a fic about her reaching her true potential for goodness sake- but that also isn’t what this is about. This is just a post about her being a member of the team, because the writers have been playing her with only one foot in the door for four seasons now, and it’s NOT working. 

Remember in season 1 and 2, when Nya was samurai x? Yeah, sometimes she would stay behind, but most of the time, she was going on the missions with them. She got to interact with all of the boys. When the ninja got captured, she got captured. When the Ninja went on a large scale mission, she went with them. Down. Out of the Bounty. She worked with the Ninja, beside them, not in a totally separate B plot with just Wu. Her role in the team was admittedly different, but it was still equal. But now, samurai x, as Pixal, is the designated ‘stay behind’ character. And it’s played like this big sacrificial move, and she does some cool things while the team is gone but the one big problem with it is THE TEAM ISN’T THERE TO SEE IT! So it doesn’t expand her standing within the team. It doesn’t give the satisfaction of a big heroic moment, because it’s a B plot! The one purely Pixal centered episode EVER was the one in season 11 where she fights the preeminent. Guess what? The only team member there is Wu, it’s a b-plot filler episode, and it’s never brought up again. 

And yeah, that’s the only Pixal focus episode in the whole series. She’s a side character in season 3, she’s non existent in seasons 4-7, season 8, her reveal episode is cluttered with baby Wu/Harumi drama, and she’s not even physically and mentally there until the last few seconds of the episode (that rewrite is on it’s way, promise), season 9 she’s drowned out by the EMs, season 10 she has half an episode to shine where, once again, she ‘stays behind’ in a b plot with 0 character growth, which leaves the one episode in season 11 where she is the true 100% focus, and even then... it’s ‘stay behind’ b plot filler. Pixal hasn’t even been given a decent character arc... ever! She has like 2 (and a half) arcs total in the whole series. Season 3′s ‘getting a heart and falling in love’ arc, Season 8′s ‘I am samurai x arc’ which they don’t even explore that well, and then arguably, if you really squint, season 4′s ‘becoming part of Zane’ arc, but even then, that’s pretty much discovered and wrapped up in one episode. Complain all you want about Cole not having his own full season, but at least he’s got himself several well written, entertaining, A-plot, multi season arcs. The ‘Holy crap I’m a ghost’ arc, the ‘frustration with my best friend’ arc, and the ‘I am a father now’ arc. Say what you want, but he’s a main character of the show, and one of the go-to characters the writers love to throw stuff at, with distinct relationships with his cast-mates. 

Pixal’s interactions with the team all feel so forced. Like the writers want to include her, but don’t know how to. Mainly cuz they don’t know how to write her when she’s not around Zane. Her scenes with Zane are drop dead adorable! And... I suppose her alone time with Wu was...okay. But it’s like when she’s not alone with Zane the writers forget who she even is. That season 11 episode? They play her weirdly innocently. I’m sorry, that’s not Pixal at all. It’s been established since season 3 that she’s our grounded, painfully realistic, sass robot. Where is this “does that mean you’re not mad at me?” stuff coming from? Thing is, later in the episode, she’s acting like herself. So... idk what happened in the middle there. But because they don’t know how to write her in the context of the team, most of the time she’s reduced to standing around in the background. Even in fight scenes. Why? WHY?! You obviously want to include her? How do you do that? Maybe, I don’t know, HAVE HER INTERACT?!

Seriously, this isn’t that hard to fix. You split up the team all the time. Just have her go on a mission with Jay. Or Cole. Or Nya. Or anyone other than Zane. Play it for laughs. Play it seriously. Play it for those sweet sweet wholesome vibes. Idk. Just have her do something! These characters have stuff to bond over! Jay has a fascination with Borg industries in general, that would be fun to play off of. Cole and Pixal both have a pretty DEEP untouched emotional baggage. Lloyd and Pixal both have this sort of “not part of the pilot cast, joined later and never really integrated 100%” vibe going for them. Kai and Pixal have beef! This could be one of the great Ninjago rivalries! Nya and Pixal can bond over samurai x, that’s a total gimme one! These characters have relationships ripe for building, but they just DON’T TALK TO EACH OTHER! 

Every main character. EVERY MAIN CHARACTER has at least one episode (but likely many more) dedicated to them, where they do something real cool, single handedly save the day or something, and the whole team comes and hugs them and says “wow, great job!” “You’re an important and valued member of our team!” “This is why you’re great!” and... I just want one of those for Pixal. Please. Pretty please. Just so she can have some validation. Just so that the main cast can acknowledge her existence. And as trivial as this one episode may seem, I think it’s really important. She needs her big ‘save the team’ episode. She never had a sort of “true potential” moment when she really proved herself, and I think that’s really what she needs. Think about how good the Royal Blacksmiths episode was for Cole. He spills about some of his baggage, each of the team members is forced to interact with it, and try to understand it, and in the end they all work together to help him get past this rough patch in his life, and he ends up looking like a boss and saving the day in the process (also note, probably the best group hug ever in Ninjago history). Now, you could argue that since she doesn’t have a element, her being samurai x could work to give her that episode. Great. Cool. That makes sense. But Pixal doesn’t have a “true potential” episode- she has a “reveal” episode, where the ninja have to fight her cuz she’s evil and she doesn’t end up saving the day, Nya does. You see why even though it’s technically “focused” on Pixal, it isn’t meaningful at all to her character?

Thing is, I wouldn’t even be that mad... if she were a Skylor type character. I like Skylor as much as the next chick, and say what you want about her screen time, but at least she has a defined role within this universe! If Pixal was Zane’s cool robot gf/ samurai x - secondary protector of the city - that popped up for a cameo once in a while and played a larger role in seasons that merited her, I would be fine with it! Borg isn’t a big character, but he gets appropriate screen time, some seasons more than others, and he still feels like a cared about piece of the canon! This would work pretty well for Pixal too! Would I like this better than her being an active part of the main team? Hell no! I think her being on the team is the right way to lean, but as of right now, she’s just doing nothing of substance. I’d rather the screen time she has be meaningful than have her as a token nothing in the background of every episode.

That’s my main point here. Either start respecting her as a character, or stop pretending she’s on equal footing with the team. We already know season 12 isn’t gonna improve on that. The ninja go into the video game world and Pixal stays behind. Granted, Zane doesn’t go either, so maybe we’ll get some good content. But again, it’s the B plot, and with Zane. Nothing we haven’t seen before. (I could keep going about how the show has been pushing Zane out of the picture even back in season 3, but again, a rant for another time) 

Anyway, this rant pretty much sums up why most of my fanfic is Pixal-centric. It’s a character the writers just REFUSE to write for but has a decent amount of screen time, so there’s a lot of possibilities. Might do another rant about the whole ice powers thing. Idk. Just needed to get this out. thanks for reading :)

[evil-lloyd]

Found this old draft I wrote about my AU with my oc. Idk if I still like that oc or not but I thought it was pretty well written so I decided to share it with y’all. (Includes Oc/Lloyd ship)

Note: My oc was sealed away for 300 years in a magical dimension but time moves incredibly slowly there so she is roughly the same age as Lloyd. Also she tends to ask Zane questions on everything since he seems to know so much,and Zane is happy to help.

Also I don’t hate Kai by any means,he’s just protective over his lil bro and doesn’t want him to get hurt 💖

Also also idek remember most of the story of my character so

_________

“Lloyd.”

Lloyd doesn’t look up from his task,he continues to dry the dishes. Kai knows he hates dish duty,that really he’s doing it so he can avoid Kai without making it look obvious.

But he can’t hide from Kai. He knows him too well after all.

“Lloyd.” Kai tries again. “You can ignore me all you want,but we both know what’s happening. I may not be the best at maths or science,but I know a thing or two about love.”

Lloyd straightens his back. “I’m not ignoring you Kai. I’m just doing the dishes.” He says in with a false calmness to his voice. He must have got it from Zane Kai muses,after all something’s bound to rub off on him considering how long he’s spent around the ninja.

“Well can you pause your dish duty and talk to me?” He doesn’t point out how Lloyd skimmed over everything else. He didn’t deny anything either.

It’s worse than he thought.

“Fine.” Lloyd turns around and wipes his wet hands on the apron around his waist. “What exactly is the issue here?”

“The issue,” Kai starts “is that you’ve been spending more and more time with that... thing.” (Thing? Girl? Kai isn’t sure what it is regardless of its feminine appearance)

Lloyd crosses his arms. “First of all- it’s not a Thing. It’s a she. She’s a girl Kai,as human as I am. Secondly- Of course I’m spending time with her. I have a limited amount of time to convince her not to obliterate our world. Its world saving stuff.”

“Uh huh. World saving stuff? Well Mister World Saver,if you really are putting yourself under so much strain to convince her,then why don’t we try to find a way to defeat her in the meantime? Maybe you won’t have to convince her at all and we can just seal her away again.”

Something twitches in Lloyd’s faux cool expression. Anger he thinks.

“Why? So she can rot alone for another 300 years until some other guy comes along and frees her again. Except this time there’s no chance of reformation because last time she agreed to something of that nature she got betrayed and locked away?!” Lloyd’s voice raises on the last few words and they both pause to check out to the living area.

The team had decided to all play video games in the living area. Currently Jay and Cole we’re competing in some fighting game. The rest were situated on the couches,Nya cheering Jay on from the armrest beside him and Zane sitting on a nearby sofa next to the Girl. He’s explaining something to her in a hushed tone,both of them staring at the screen in front of them. The girl in question looks focused,nodding every once in a while. Pixal,who is sitting on the seat beside Zane seems to chime in every once in a while. Kai takes note of how Lloyd’s eyes linger on Her for a moment longer than the others and how they soften slightly before they return to look at him.

“Why are you being so cruel?” Lloyd hisses. Kai reels back.

“Cruel?” He hisses back. “Cruel?! I’m only trying to protect you from the heartbreak Lloyd because that-“ he gestures to where She sits “can’t love. Maybe it’ll say it does,to gain your trust long enough so it can carry out its plan-“

“What plan Kai?!” Lloyd looks pissed now. “If you didn’t realize it,she doesn’t need a plan to stop us. She could kill us all if she wanted to and you know it. You act as if I’ve never been blinded by love before,it was my heart harumi broke. Not yours.”

“How do you know that?Did you even try? Or did you just make some stupid deal like you could really convince something that’s literally made of darkness that the world isn’t that bad and it’ll just... oh I don’t know,agree?!”

“For the last time Kai. She’s not an It. She’s a she. She’s half human. She’s still a person with a history,with emotions and ideas and beliefs. You seem to forget that my father is the Evil Lord Garmadon. By your logic I guess I’m an ‘it’ too!”

Kai throws his hands up in the air. “That literally doesn’t make sense! Garmadon is not the same as literal Darkness! And that’s besides the point anyways,my point is-

“Save it Kai. Nothing you can say will change my mind. She deserves the right to experience the world. “ Lloyd looks to the side and sighs. “Just...give her a chance..please?”

Kai stares at him for a few seconds before looking back out into the living room. This could go horribly wrong. That thing could betray them all and destroy the world..but at the same time if Lloyd’s right and they seal her away again then..

Kai sighs. “Fine. But the moment I get even an inkling that things are going to go wrong I’m taking action. Got it?”

Lloyd smiles gently. Kai knows he hates arguing with anyone in the team. “Thanks Kai”

[gwenbrightly]

Ninjago Christmas Fic #1 - Decorations

Ahhh, it’s that time of year when I speed write Christmas fics because it’s fun! Crossposted from ffnet. Takes place after MOTO.

“Let’s see what everyone was able to snag for the monastery,” Lloyd suggested enthusiastically. Having never celebrated Christmas in the monastery of spinjitzu before, the ninja had been horrified to discover that Wu hadn’t thought to invest in decorations for the holiday season. Not prone to giving up easily, they had spent several days searching high and low for trees, wreaths, lights, and anything else they could get their hands on.

“Ma and pa sent some lights they swear still work properly. Left most of em outside. There’s also a bunch of garlands that look like they’re in pretty decent shape. Perks of living in a junkyard, I guess. And uh, I think this used to be an angel?” Jay stated, holding up a sparkly hunk of metal with appendages shaped vaguely like wings. He glanced sideways at it, trying to decide if it was worth keeping.  

“I… can try to fix it later, if you want?” offered Kai, “I got a lot of practice with metalworking while Nya and I were visiting mom and dad yesterday. And the whole remaking the Golden Weapons thing probably helps too, heheh.”

His sister rolled her eyes at his self satisfied smirk. Jay nodded, handing Kai the mangled decoration.  

“If you think she’s savable, go for it!”

“Speaking of mom and dad, they gave us a box of Christmas ornaments and some other stuff, too.” Nya added holding up the blue orb with swirly designs she’d just grabbed from the uppermost layer of the cardboard box she was kneeling next to.  

“We couldda brought some tinsel, too, but we decided it wouldn’t be a good idea after last year…” she continued. They all shuddered.  

“Dad convinced the tree farm that sponsors the Royal Blacksmiths to sell him a tree for super cheap. He said he’d drop it off in a little bit.” Cole informed them, not wanting to dwell on the incident.

“Dude! That’s awesome!” Exclaimed Lloyd, his eyes lighting up. The others smiled. They’d never been able to have a live tree before. Zane nodded in agreement.  

“Indeed. I’m sure it will look lovely in the living room. I managed to locate a wreath my father built. It’s made mostly from old gears, and I know that’s not very traditional, but I’d like to put it up somewhere. If you don’t mind?”

“Of course, Zane. I’m sure we can find a good place for it.” Cole assured his friend. He understood what it was like to miss a family member during this time of year.  

“Yeah. I mean this place is huge. We need all the decorations we can get!” Kai reminded them.

“We had better get started, then.” Pixal interjected, eager to finally be celebrating the holidays without being confined to a screen (or her wonderful soulmate’s head) this year.

“Heck yeah! So where should we start?” asked Nya. They glanced around at the heaps of miscellaneous decorations, considering their options.  

“Maybe we should tackle the lights outside first? I’d rather do that before it gets too cold out.” proposed Jay. Although it had not yet snowed, the weather had been growing increasingly colder.

“I vote yes to that idea. It’s usually better to test anything the Walkers give us as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary explosions. No offense, Jay.” Cole said, giving the master of lightning an apologetic grin. Jay punched his shoulder lightly.

“None taken. We do tend to end up with... Surprises pretty often when ma and pa gift us stuff.”

“Okay, then. Outside it is. Just… try to keep the dangerous hijinks to a minimum? I don’t wanna worry Uncle Wu.” Lloyd told them, heading for the front door.  

The next hour was spent watching Jay zap each strand of lights or light up decoration with his powers as he tested them to see if they worked, waiting for the inevitable explosion. Surprisingly, they made it through 5 whole strands, two light up snowman, and a reindeer before coming across their first exploding decoration. No one could be sure if the shattering of every single bulb on the rainbow strand of lights was due to Jay’s parents tampering with the wires, or the master of lightning himself sending too much electricity into it, but the display of rainbow colored shards flying through the air was impressive to say the least. After cleaning up their mess and testing the remaining decorations, the group began the actual decorating part of the process. Pixal and Zane wrapped lights around the columns that lined the entrance to the monastery, creating elaborate patterns. Cole and Jay worked together to lift an ornate sleigh complete with reindeer onto the roof via airjitzu. Meanwhile, Nya simply tried to keep Lloyd and Kai from killing each other with additional decorations. Seeing her brother wrap the green ninja in lights, she cried, “Kai no!” in exasperation.  

“Cmon, sis! You’ve gotta admit he’d make a great Christmas tree!” He defended, before launching into singing oh Lloydie tree, oh Lloydie tree, how lovely are your branches! And receiving dirty looks from his victim.  

“Listen to Nya, Kai.” Cole shouted from above them. The master of fire relented, muttering about how no one appreciated his brilliance as he unwound his brother. Their hard work was interrupted by the sounds of a (much less irritating) Christmas carol floating into the courtyard from just beyond the gate.

“We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” Sang Lou and his quartet as they lugged a ginormous tree inside.

“Hey, pop!” Cole greeted. He left the lofty heights of the roof, followed by Jay.

“Hello, son! You’re doing a lovely job with this place!”

“Thanks!” Jay said, “You just missed the explosion!”

“… The what?” Lou started.

“So, how was your drive?” Cole inquired, cutting him off. His father gave him a strange look, but didn’t push the topic further.

“It was fine. Building that driveway was a wonderful idea. I can’t imagine how much of a hassle it would’ve been to carry this thing up so many steps.” he answered.

“It really has made life easier for all of us.” Zane agreed.  

“This tree is beautiful! Thank you so much for hooking us up!” Added Lloyd, staring admiringly at their  

“It was no trouble, Lloyd.” Lou told him, smiling warmly.  

“Wanna come inside for some hot cocoa? We were about ready to take a break anyway.” offered Cole.

“I would love to, but unfortunately we need to get going. We have a concert at the hospital to attend. Can’t disappoint the kids, you know.” the older man replied regretfully. The master of earth shrugged. Christmas was always a busy time for the Royal Blacksmiths.  

“Okay. Next time, then. Break a leg, and thanks again!”

“Goodbye son!” Lou called as his companions burst into sing again.  

“Now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding, now bring us some figgy pudding and bring some right here!”

“What even is figgy pudding?” Lloyd wondered aloud.  

“No clue.” Kai shrugged.  

“Let’s get this bad boy inside.” Prompted Jay, rubbing his hands together and grinning in a way that was only a little bit maniacal. It took a fair amount of maneuvering, but they eventually managed to get the tree situated in the living room.  

“Wow, I hope we have enough ornaments for this thing.” Nya commented. The tree looked even bigger now that it was upright.  

“We’ll think of something if we don’t. Maybe we can just put Jay to work making paper snowflakes again.” Lloyd plotted.

“I’m down for that. I don’t get why you guys think I’m the only one who’s deserving of this honor, though.” said Jay. He had never quite understood why the others were so fascinated by his ability to make paper snowflakes with such ease.

“Because you’re better at it than we are and we like the way they look.” Nya stated simply, hanging the ornament she’d discovered earlier on the tree. Jay leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Thanks, sweetie.”

Kai rolled his eyes at them and set about digging through the boxes looking for more ornaments. He pulled out anything that looked like it was still functional, tossing a few broken ones into the garbage.  

“This one is neat!”

“Oooh shiny!” Lloyd noted. He snatched the ornament from Kai before he could protest. The master of fire decided it wasn’t worth fighting and returned to his rummaging. Kai managed to protect a few of the ornaments from Lloyd’s watchful eye, sneaking them onto the tree when he wasn’t looking.  

“Wait… how did that get there?” Lloyd asked, finally noticing one of the extra sparkly ornaments Kai had hidden from him.  

“I swear Lloyd, you’re as bad as a cat when you get like this.” Nya told him, stifling a smile.  

“Like what?” he replied innocently. Cole watched Lloyd stare longingly at another ornament.  

“All oooh shiny every time you see something cool.”  

“Nah, I’m pretty sure that stems from having a dragon for a grandmother.” Lloyd reminded them.

“Hmmm that’s a good point.” Confirmed Zane.

“Kai, I am almost completely certain that Santa was not intended to be a part of this nativity!” Pixal scolded, frantically trying to prevent the master of fire from ruining the decoration he was currently setting out on the mantle.

“Well, he is now!” Kai retorted, not caring about historical accuracy. Pixal sighed loudly.

“Can we at least discuss fixing the sheep so they don’t look like they’re fighting to the death?”

“Gee, Pix! It’s not like they’re real,” he reminded her indignantly before smiling a devious smile, “Hmmm I should add one of Lloyd’s dragon figurines...”

“Kai no! That is the most horrible idea ever.” she protested, horrified.  

“What you call horrible I call brilliant!”

“Okaaay maybe it’s time for a break before Uncle Wu comes in here and questions our collective sanity again.” Lloyd said awkwardly pushing between the irate ninja and samurai.  

“There’s hot cocoa in the kitchen, remember?” added Nya.  

“Hmmm okay, sure. Hot cocoa does sound good.” Kai admitted (totally not planning on sneaking back later to mess with the nativity some more).  

“Yeah! Let’s go eat way too much whipped cream and marshmallows!” agreed Jay.  

“Looks like we’re off to another chaotic Christmas.” Lloyd commented to Nya as they headed for refreshments.  

“Yeah, but you know you love it.” She told him with a laugh. The blonde shrugged, saying,  

“I do. Somehow this never gets old.”

“That’s the magic of Christmas for you. Or… something like that, anyway. Now cmon, let’s get some hot coco before the others drink it all.”

[parachutingkitten]

Processing: Ninjago One Shot

Pixal and Wu after "The Kaiju Protocol" - fluff at the beginning, but it gets real angsty by the end

~1000 words

Happy Reading!

Wu was strange company to have to one’s self. Pixal was strange company just in general. So naturally, their time alone together at the monastery was quite strange. It was also, arguably, much more productive. Neither of them ever seemed to sleep, and both were entirely focused on the issues at hand. They drank a lot of tea, and spent many hours working in silence, with only the occasional comment to one another. Despite being worried about the ninja’s safety, they both found the atmosphere quite pleasant with them gone. They could wake up early and meditate at any time of day without fear of interruption. They didn’t usually eat big meals, but today had been particularly taxing, and they both felt that defeating the Preeminent was cause for at least a moderate celebration.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help with the dishes?” Wu asked, entering the kitchen. “You’re the one who cooked it all.”

“Your assistance is not required Master Wu. Besides, I’ve nearly completed them already.”

“Here, I can help dry them,” Wu insisted, picking up a dish rag.

“If you insist,” Pixal smiled.

They continued in their usual silence for a moment before Wu felt the urge to speak. “Thank you for everything you’ve been doing recently, especially with the ninja gone.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Pixal replied. “I’m sure their absence has weighed on you quite heavily.”

Wu gave a concerned smile, picking up another dish. “Yes, but I’m sure it has weighed on you as well.”

Pixal paused, glancing over at him, and grinning halfheartedly. “Not as much as you might think.”

“Pixal,” Wu placed a hand on her arm. “You nearly gave your life today. I don’t want you overworking yourself.”

“I’m an android, Master Wu. My stamina is greater than you realize.”

“But it still has a limit.”

Pixal sighed, glancing down into the sink.

“Pixal, I want you to know how much you mean to this team. To everyone. You don’t get the credit you deserve a lot of the time, and I need to thank you-”

“No thanks are necessary,” Pixal cut him off. “I was built to assist. I’m merely doing my job.”

Wu, moved his hand to her shoulder, turning her to face him. “Pixal, how about you take the night off. Get to bed early. Take some time to… process things. I really think it would be good for you.”

Pixal bit her lip, looking at him pensively for a moment. “Of course, Master Wu. Whatever you think will be most beneficial.”

She exited the room, Wu looking after her as she walked down the hallway and letting out a deep sigh.

It had never been this hard with Zane.

Pixal entered her room and proceeded to open the entrance to her cave. Her cave was much homier to her in certain ways than her bedroom, but then again, she never was too accustomed to sleeping in a bed to begin with. Though her cave held many items of interest, right now she was headed towards her control table - a giant panel she could connect to her systems in order to better read and control vitals and internal settings. This is where she would update her software, this is where she would adjust sight modifications, and this is where the team was supposed to take her if she was ever unresponsive. She connected the main cable into her arm as her statistics popped up on screen.

Wu was right. Maybe it would do some good to evaluate her body’s recent performance levels.

As she glanced over the stats, a pattern became clear. More energy usage, higher stress levels, more active hours, less charge time, increased processor usage resulting in increased processing time. None of this was great news, but it could be fixed. She switched over to her settings panel. What could she adjust? Decreased eye brightness to save on battery, cancel all non-essential background functions to consolidate processing power, and…

Her eyes lingered on one setting in particular: AIE-ES Chip

“artificial intelligence enhancer- emotion suppressor” she muttered. She felt her hands shaking, hesitant to make a move.

The suppression was already turned up significantly above normal levels.

She had been boosting it slowly over the last couple of days.

Her finger hovered over the slider, trying to decide what to do. “Take some time to process things,” she sighed. She began to move the slider down, immediately feeling a wave of emotions rush back into her systems. She braced herself over the control panel, tears welling up in her eyes as a weight filled her chest. Filled it with responsibilities, and Samurai X, and the entire city of Ninjago, and the ninja, and… Zane. The first of many tears rolled down her cheek, her breath quickening, and her body beginning to shake. She found herself gasping for air, trying to look back up at the screen, but her vision was now blurred beyond recognition.

“I can’t do this… I can’t do this,” She repeated, her hand finding the slider, and moving it back up to its previous position. The feelings subsided, but they still lingered, the aftershock running through her body. She looked up at the screen again, her vision now clearing. Her eyes glanced back down at the slider, her fingers still there. She moved it up just a little further, a bit of guilt panging in the back of her mind, but the pain and sorrow now almost entirely eliminated.

She looked back up at the screen, the suppression rates now bordering dangerous levels.

“It’s okay,” She told herself.

“It’s just a little bit more…

Just until they get back.”

-----

Side note, if anyone has Pixal and Wu by themselves in the monastery HCs, I would love to see them :)

[parachutingkitten]

Season 3

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am going to be applying the concept of criticism to a TV show you presumably love and adore as much as I do. If you do not want your idea that the show is immaculate to be challenged, I would not advise reading past this point. 

ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: This post contains an insane amount of PIXAL

Mood for this season: This is fine... No... WAIT! WHAT?! NO!!!!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING??!!!!!!!?!?!

You don’t need to, but if you are interested, and haven’t seen my analysis of past seasons, you can find those here:

Pilot

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3! This should be fun. I remember when rebooted was announced, it was the biggest deal, my mom was analyzing the announcement poster. And then it came out, or at least the episodes popped up online in some random language. It was real bazaar. Fun fact, the one and only time I have ever pulled an all-nighter was to watch those episodes. I will never do it again, it was NOT worth it. Anyway, my initial impressions of the season... I hated it. I was pissed they killed off Dr. Julian, I was pissed they killed Zane, I was pissed that they gave him a token girlfriend, and I was pissed that because of her, my boy couldn't do spinjitzu anymore.

Now, if you know anything about me, you know that none of these opinions stand anymore. So, what happened? Well, I gave a shout out to the music department during season 1, and for this season I have to acknowledge the voice acting. Once the English versions of the episodes came out, I fell in love with all of it. Brent Miller, dude, props for this season. I watch his youtube videos and it's always hard for me to imagine him doing emotional stuff, but he does some DAMN good work this season. Also, Jennifer Hayward turned Pixal from my least favorite character ever created to my favorite. I am in LOVE with her voicework here! Also, Lee Tockar with Borg does a great job of making this character who really could have been a rehash of Julian his own unique and quirky character and, especially as the seasons progress, finds his place with the character. Richard Newman as Cryptor, yes, please! His voice is gorgeous! He makes Cryptor sound like he is having the time of his life tormenting Zane and I love it! Basically, the droids really shine this season. BUT... just because the voice acting is good does NOT mean that the writing is any good, whatsoever.

Plot

Yeah... there is a reason I hated it the first time I saw it. A lot of this dialogue is clumsy. A lot of the plot points are a bit on the nose. The whole idea for this season seems really strange. After they defeat the Overlord their next big battle should obviously be... the Overlord... again? And this time ice kills him. I mean, not to undermine Zane's sacrifice or anything, but wasn't the big deal last season that Lloyd was the only one who could stop him, and isn't the deal this season that the Overlord is back but even more powerful? How does any of this work? I have a way I think it might have worked a bit better, but I'll get to that when I cover the climax. There's a LOT of rocky stuff and it's all way to complicated, and I'll get to most of it later in the post, but one thing I would like to applaud this season on is the connections it ties to the previous seasons. As weird as the space episode was, it acknowledged a part of the Ninjago canon a lot of us were wondering about and managed to work it into a compelling mystery. This season addresses a lot of stuff from the past seasons and weaves it into the current plot in a way that makes all of these seasons feel like a part of the same connected universe and line of events.

Characters

So, all the ninja are teachers at the beginning of this... it further confuses the ninja age debate, but aside from that it's... fine.

The characters here I feel all get a bit more cartoony, and lean into definite rolls they play this season. Kai is afraid of technology this season, that is his character. Nya Jay and Cole have their thing this season, that is their character. Lloyd and Garnadon do... whatever they do this season. I feel like the plot kind of forgets about them for a bit. But I feel like everyone else in the season sacrifices some time so we can give some to Zane, which he deserves, but I don't think you had to sacrifice the complexity of the time they had in order to accomplish that.

Cyrus Borg (and Dr. Julien)

I'm going to say it. Dr. Julian had to die. Cyrus Borg and Dr. Julien cannot co-exist. This show has way too many "tech people" first it was Jay, and then his parents are there too, Nya gets the roll later on, Zane takes that up for a while after he finds out he's a robot, and then of course, his dad is going to be a tech genius, and when you want to add another tech genius to you regular canon, and it's not a hip young cool dude, it's a dorky maybe old man in a wheel chair, someone else has to go. Dr. Julien was set up as incredibly old already, so that would be an easy choice. Plus, think if Zane had his dad supporting him through all this? I think his growth would be less meaningful. Yes, it sucks that he just got him back, and now we just barely lose him, yes it sucks that it doesn't weigh down on Zane more throughout the season, yes it sucks that he's dead. He was an adorable crazy old man and we all loved him to death, and everything with Zane made my heart melt. But on a level it's kind of nice to know that he most likely died with his son by his side, quietly enjoying the last days of his life in peace. But hey, let's not dwell on what we lost, let's focus on what we got out of it; Cyrus Borg. I friggin love this man! He's smart, uncontrollably smart. He has crazy ideas he's not afraid to test, not necessarily in a mad scientist crazy sort of way, but in a "why not?" Sort of way. I feel like he embodies the times when someone is like "how does that work?" And someone else goes "SCIENCE!" That's Cyrus Borg. He's filled with so much hope even though the world keeps giving him total crap for doing it. That little half-smile he does just perfectly sums it all up. Like seriously, let’s admire how much this man has been through, the responsibility on his shoulders, and how well he is mentally despite all that. He has some serious willpower and optimism. I can admire that.

Pixal

Alright. My favorite character in the show... I hope I do her justice. Pixal is not particularly well written, and the series has a habit of completely ignoring her for large chunks of time but, I think I admire Pixal more for what she stands for to me personally.

I don't dislike strong females. They're fine. But I am not really the tomboy type. I am the girliest girly girl in the world. I grew up watching princess movies, I wanted to be one, I still want to, I love the color pink, I love wearing dresses, I like being a feminine person, that is who I am. I hate the stereotype that modern TV shows have of masculinizing the girls in their show in order to claim that they're "strong female characters" just because they can beat people up and hate wearing makeup and dresses and stuff because then I feel bad about myself in the process. You'd better bet I threw something at the screen when Nya said she didn't like wearing dresses. Girl, you used to wear a dress on the daily!

Anyway, this season is where Nya turns to form my female representation in the show, into just another whiney girl who "don't need no man" and wants to be completely independent of boys and romance and yet she wants to be like the boys by excelling at the same stuff they do. But then we get Pixal. She is FEMININE don't you doubt it for a single moment, she is a WOMAN and she wears dresses and falls in love with a handsome guy and she supports him. What's wrong with that? But in that, she still has her individual role to play in the team. She's sassy, and she's yet again another a tech genius, but it more comes from her nature as a robot, and what she can control because of it. The scene with her and Kai really exemplifies what I mean to say, she's still strong in her own ways. She keeps the boys in check, something extremely important, especially with THESE boys. She doesn't have to be destroying mass amounts of nindroids to be a good character, she just has to make the pathway in order to do it. She's the control behind the destruction.

But let's not forget that she's a robot. Practically just born. She's young and naive and she doesn't understand her emotions and I LOVE it! Her dynamic with Zane is simply beautiful. Zane has been looking for someone his whole life who understands him, and he gets his dad, but no one else in the world can experience what he is experiencing directly, and then comes Pixal. I think Zane sums it up really well in decoded (Ikr, decoded?) When he says she taught him what it meant to be a robot and he teaches her what it means to be human. There's a great duality there. He finds someone who understands him, but they both have their own issues they need individual help understanding. And of course, they would understand each other! She has half his heart! Which opens up a lot of cool dynamics. I kind of wish Zane and Pixal had a force connection sort of thing and they could feel each other's pain and sense their emotions and stuff.

Anyway, because Pixal goes through the process of understanding her emotions, it does make sense that in the end, her emotions would consume her. Zane gave her... in essence, life and so it makes sense that it would completely shatter her when he was gone. I think the reason I connect with them so much is because, again, I am the most basic of girls, so finding a nice caring, overprotective, but not in a pushy sort of way guy with some emotional issues for you to heal is the kind of life I fantasize for myself, and Zane and Pixal are the quintessential sweet couple that loves, and listens to each other. It's just... love. Even though the situation might be messy or complex, the love is always constant, just pure and absolute. I feel like of all the couples in the show, Pixal and Zane are the only ones who really NEED each other. Jay needs Nya no doubt, but I don't feel she really needs him. Kai and Skylor are their own mess. The garmawusako triangle doesn't even make sense. Cole needs cake, sure, but cake is inanimate and hence doesn't need him. Pixal and Zane lean on each other constantly, and if we don't see how that effects them season 9, I will be pissed.

Romance

I know I just talked about Pixane, but I'm going to keep talking. The beginnings of this relationship are really interesting, mainly because at first one of them doesn't have emotions... which I guess means Zane was in love with an inanimate object? Whatever. In the scene on the train, you really can tell that Zane is kind of confused, but he's trying his best to express his feelings. I also love that all the other ninja already know he's got a crush on her even though he hasn't spoken a word about it to them. He's gotten a pretty good grasp on his other emotions, but he has never once encountered anything romantic before, and I don't think Dr. Julien necessarily built him with falling in love in mind, so it makes sense that he would flounder a bit in his efforts, but because Pixal first experiences emotions with Zane, she doesn't care about any of that, so in the process they just end up being perfect. I love these two to death. I could go on, but I'm going to stop myself.

The Triangle

No. Nothing about this makes sense. The biggest problem I have with this whole thing is that Cole has like... zero reason to be interested in Nya. His reasoning for suddenly liking her, if you can even call it that, is that a robot told him he should, and even then I don't feel like he likes her, he just wants to annoy Jay. It's SO out of character and there's no thought behind it. I can buy Nya second-guessing her relationship with Jay, but Cole just going along with it without question? It's so strange. And there's no reason. The show even addresses that there's no reason for this. When Nya has to cut a blue or black wire, the arguments go

Jay: you're comfortable with blue

Cole: Black... is not blue...

What? What kind of rationale is that? And because of this, the Nya independence streak starts and it's the WORST this season. And Jay gets WAY whiney and childish because of all of this, so he turns into this strangely unlikable character, which again eventually gets better. I absolutely hate everything about this love triangle. It doesn't make sense, it feels insincere, and it makes the characters worse for it. Just for that Cole and Jay are my least favorite ninjas for the season. But even then, I have a hard time putting Cole there because he's so out of character, I don't think I can call what was on the screen Cole. I didn't like either of them this season, which is a real shame, because these two have a great dynamic later on.

Villians

Nindroid army. These guys are fun. They don't make much sense in their creation, but they are genuinely intimidating, the thing that comes to mind is when the nindroids are camouflaged, and it turns out they're surrounding the ninja, that was pretty cool, and kind of terrifying. Cryptor is, of course, a standout. You get the sense he enjoys everything he's doing, knows he's better than everyone else and embraces it. He has emotions, right? I mean, he certainly appears to have negative emotions. His voice certainly emotes. Mindroid is amazing, cute and threatening at the same time, neat little backstory, you can tell he's the smartest one in the bunch. These guys just come with a really cool feel to them. When Borg is taken over, and the factory is all dark and shadowy, and there's only red light, that stuff is cool.

The Overlord on the other hand... takes a big step backwards. You get the sense he's pretty weak, the fact that he uses a cane when he's finally physical doesn't help. He's just not nearly as intimidating as he used to be. When he reaches his "final form" and he's pretty much a giant spider, that's pretty cool, but he still looks pretty awkward. Could be better, but for what we got it served its purpose alright

Pythor was a good reveal. Pretty fun, I love how he and Cryptor play off of each other. Not much to say, because he hasn't changed much, but he's pretty cool this season. His voice makes my throat sad.

Wu? Kinda gimmicky. Not much to say, he's brainwashed and he looks kinda scary for a bit... okay. I mean I'm fine with it, nothing to get too excited over or anything.

Climax

So, spoiler alert, Zane dies. It's sad and emotional and the flashback music hits you hard, and the long quiet afterwards is great, idk why Kai is the one to speak at the funeral, but whatever, and then your heart breaks for Pixal, but then that resurrection music kicks in, and the visuals are amazing, and Zane is back! Perfect. Sad to think their moment gets cut off so quickly, but still, it's just perfect. All the right emotions. However... logically... it’s not exactly sound? There would have been a really easy way to fix this though, that way is to set this battle in the digiverse. It requires reworking some things, but Zane would be equipped to kill him in that realm, he could stay there while the others escaped the digiverse, and when he rebuilds himself, it makes sense, because he’s already within the digital realm, able to control whatever is in Borg tower through that connection. Idk, I think it would have sealed up a few plot holes, but this climax still stands up emotionally really well. 

Humor

Jay, our biggest source of comedy, is... preoccupied with something, so all of it slides downhill a bit. Not too many great moments this season. Everything just feels a bit more childish.

Favorite line of the season: honestly, I can't remember any one line that stands out. But, there is a visual gag I really like, where Zane uses super speed to enter in a bunch of codes to try and open a door on the nindroid's spaceship, and the code ends up being 1234. That was good.

Drama

Most of the little stuff, the suspense, and tension, the nindroids knocking on the door to Borg tower, that stuff all works really well. The triangle stuff, you know how I feel about that, the death stuff at the end is handled really well. You can generally, throughout the season feel the weight of what they're doing, and that every move they make really matters. It reminds me a lot of the dark island episodes. There's a lit of hanging on by a thread this season, which works really well. There's a good amount of mystery, and I love myself some mystery, it creates some good ATMOSPHERE. Most of the drama really works, except of course the obvious.

Spotlight Episode

So, this is hard. The obvious spotlight is the finale, but I already covered that. There isn't one particular episode that really stands out, there's no episode that did everything wrong, there's no episode that did everything right, there's just the season, so I want to do this piece on the space episode. Because... it gets weird. Like really weird and it could have gone all shades of wrong so easily, but I think they pulled it off.

The important thing they did was acknowledge how crazy it all was. They obeyed the general rules of space, there was some really good tension, and the stakes for everything felt extremely heightened when they were on top of the spaceship, and then... the ending. The ending hits you. They are full on stuck on this planet and there is no obvious way to get out of it. When Cole says the final line... OOOOFF. You feel it. Oh crap! The ninjas are stuck! I don't have all too much to say, I just wanted to acknowledge that this episode didn't turn out a total disaster. It was handled fairly well, and I'm glad it was :)

Misc

So, if Pixal doesn't have emotions before Zane gives her her heart, why would she go rush in to save Zane and be all like "who cares about probability!" That always confused me.

The way Edna says robot love is kinda creepy.

You think Nya ended up cutting the blue wire? Cuz she knew her future with Jay was inevitable? My theory when it came out was that she cut both.

So, all together, a decent season. Some really good stuff, and some really bad stuff. I like this season more than most I think. It had a big task to fulfill, and I think what we got was pretty decent. It had to bring back the series, introduce new characters, attempt to hand the spotlight over to Zane. I just think now that it's set up, we needed a full season with the characters already established where we can dive deeper into what makes these droids tick and what their creators have to go through. There's a lot of potential for another Zane season, or dare I suggest even a Pixal season. One of my personal faves, just cuz the good stuff is so good, though I do find myself skipping past some parts quite frequently.

Thanks for reading through! Next time we’ll be covering the season that spurred a million plot holes- But it’s somehow still my favorite. I think it’ll be a fun one!

Thanks a bunch!

-Maya (Parachutingkitten)