#and misako respects both wu & garmadon actually

[fandomsnrambles]

Y’know what i’m gonna say it, i don’t like AUs that get rid of the garmadon/misako/wu love triangle thing by making wu and misako enemies. Which i see a lot for some reason

Wu & Misako are friends at the least. They are forever chilling & vibing together. They have book club meetings, drink tea & bake together.

[breathlessmorro]

Okay I am loving your takes so much while I am not a huge fan of Misako and Wu what you said made me think about a few things I'm still not a fan of them buuuut I don't think I dislike Misako as much and I also agreed with your take with the whole Nya Cole Jay thing anyways that's besides the point!!! How would Wu and the rest of the family Garmadon Misako & Lloyd react to Morro liking Kai?

Thank you for saying that, I greatly appreciate it! I get that Wusako isn't everyone's cup of tea, so no worries fam! I haven't been able to really explain my "takes" on a lot of the canon ships before, so it's nice to know my thoughts are being well received lol

NOW AS FOR THE DESTINYSHIPPING MOTHERFUCKERS -

Okay if you're a regular on my blog you probably know I have a million different ways that Destiny can become canon. Beyond that, there's a mullion different ways Morro actually joins the team in the first place. Morro takes Wu's hand. Morro comes back on the day of the Departed. Morro never actually leaves Wu's monastery (but we're ignoring that one for the sake of Destiny)

It's no secret that Kai probably hates Morro the most. He was the most relentless when it came to fighting him, trying to get Lloyd back, et cetera. Even during the Day of the Departed, he's the only one other than Lloyd who actually addresses him, ready to fight. So naturally, when setting up Destiny as a couple, you need to get over that barrier.

Morro joining the team under any circumstances is weird. One, he and Lloyd obviously aren't going to get along. Two, he might not even want to be a ninja. Three, he may not even fit into the group at all. Because of the way the characters are written, I think that if Wu gave Morro the chance of redemption, and Morro actually took it, the team would accept it and him. They stood down when Wu told them to, so it's not unrealistic that they'd trust him - after some protesting - that Morro wouldn't hurt them.

Except for Kai. Kai didn't trust Garmadon in season one, and that was Lloyd's father. Why would he ever trust Morro? Eventually everyone moves past not trusting Morro, if only because they're so annoyed by him and Kai fighting all the time. Even Lloyd I think would want Kai to give Morro a chance. It wouldn't be until either they're united against a common enemy, or until they're forced to see each other beyond their surface level traits, that they'd even be friends. However, I think that the second both Kai and Morro get past their animosity, they're bound to get together. Completely inseparable.

As for the reactions? WELL BABY LET ME TELL YOU -

Wu: He's extremely grateful that they've stopped fighting. Wu will never stop seeing Morro as a son either, so he's happy that he's giving himself the chance to be truly happy with someone. Of course, he gives Kai the stereotypical threat of "you hurt my son I hurt your face" but he's very supportive

Garmadon: Depending on which Garmadon we're talking about here. Evil Garmadon couldn't care less, he's not involved with their teenage shenanigans. Good Garmadon, however, would be concerned. I think he'd want to treat with Morro with respect, given that he's Wu's adopted child, but Morro still hurt his baby. He's always going to be biased against him. Not that Kai is Garmadon's favorite or anything, but he's still a little protective. Regardless, he doesn't voice his concerns to either of them, instead showing support, even if he's skeptical of their pairing.

Misako: I feel like she'd be in the same boat as Wu - relieved that they're not fighting, and that they're both happy. Misako isn't super close with either boy, so she's not as protective, but they're both part of her family, and she's always glad to see people overcoming their differences.

Lloyd: Now Lloyd is the trickiest, because he can either be their biggest cheerleader, or their biggest opposer. It depends on whether or not Lloyd's actually forgiven Morro, how he'll react. If he has, then sure enough he was right with Wu, trying to encourage Kai to stop picking fights, and was glad to find out they actually care about each other. If he hasn't forgiven Morro, however, then it's gonna be all too easy for him to get reasonably upset. Kai is supposed to be his brother - to protect him, and he goes and starts kissing the ghost that forced him to fight his friends??? Lloyd would get bitter fast in that case, and though he'd try to keep his feelings out of the fight, he'd slip up occasionally, and until he resolved things with both Kai and Morro, it would cost the team a lot. Lloyd's understanding and kindness is underestimated a lot; he tries to see the best in even the worst of people, and if you make an effort to do the right thing, he'll notice it. That being said, this is still the same kid who opened three serpentine tombs because he couldn't have some candy. Lloyd's ability to hold a grudge is strong, even turning him against his father at one point, but in the end he always comes around when he realizes the cost of his anger and acting on it isn't worth the consequences

[ninjago-x-lmk]

Theories I had that are headcanons/slightly canon to this AU

I'm just gonna put out on a whim here and say, if you ever reblogged a post that has the same theory as mine and it has the display name 'lilacartsmadison' that disappeared all of a sudden, then most likely that was mine, but I had accidently deleted my acc so now you can't see it...

also, for story purposes, this theory will play into the AU.

So I've seen a lot of people try to 'rewrite' Ninjago, and I definitely I understand and actually am interested in what people rewrite it as, buuut...for me, I wanna sorta 'rewrite' an inconsistency in my AU.

specifically, a headcanon I had that inspired a theory.

SO, I know that Ninjago's magic system is all wacked up and that Lloyd's connection to the elements doesn't make sense...and that's because they had to...'go with the flow' and improvise it. But I decided to fix the inconsistency and turn it canon here in this AU

so I propose these theories

1.) None of the Ninjas stood a chance with becoming the Green Ninja and it was not because of 'Destiny'

Lloyd was going to be the Green Ninja from the moment of Birth. Whatever Finnwick said in Cloud Kingdom was a lie. The Green Ninja was always going to be Lloyd.

The thing I asked myself is, what makes the Green Ninja the Chosen One? The prophecy stated that he would be the one to defeat the Overlord...But with what? And that got me thinking, that being the 'Green Ninja' meant that the Chosen One should retain the elements of creation once more, time and time again, both Oni and Dragon powers (specifically the Four Elements or at least one of them) seam to weaken the Overlord, and not just any 'Oni Power' like Garmadon's seems to be pure Oni, but specifically, the one who wields both sides of the powers, the one who wields both Oni and Dragon.

The Overlord gets weakened, by Lloyd's power the first time he is defeated, only appearing as a computer virus, all because Cyrus Borg built it in the place he died. He was shun out as a virus when the Ninja used Lloyd's power after hearing him while being stuck in the Digiverse. Zane legit apparently absorbed the power of the Golden Armor so any mere mortal could touch it. (So that would mean pre-MOTO, Lloyd, Garmadon and WU could potentially touch it?) who's to say that Zane couldn't defeat him that way all because he absorbed the powers of Creation? and in Ninjago Crystallized, again the four elements or the Dragon element defeated the Overlord, but the Oni Power did great damage to him compared to Garmadon's power.

So the key should possibly be 'One who posses the power of the First Spinjitsu Master.' and since the Elements in this world, seem to be either HEREDITARY or UP TO DESTINY and with Lloyd being FSM's grandson, it seems very likely Lloyd's powers were hereditary.

2.) All the powers of the Ninja were given to Lloyd.

The reason that the other Ninjas didn't get their powers through hereditary means, is because the powers had to return to Lloyd or at the very least be given back so that Lloyd could get the full powers of Creation. Which is why the Ninja couldn’t inherit their elemental powers. Lloyd needed the four elements in order to gain his true potential, thus, skipping the ‘original bearers’ to the true bearer. This could also be the reason that Wu had the Green Ninja Prophecy in his satchel in the first place. Wu saw that the Ninja somehow didn’t inherit their powers, and took it as a sign that The Green Ninja was coming. Which also explains another thing.

I feel like that the Golden Weapons are also related to the original elements in a sense. It is already confirmed that you can heal it from corruption if you use your respective elements and channel it. But what if the one who wields all 4 elements is the reason the Golden Weapons reacted in the first place? If Lloyd inherited all four elements, which hasn’t been done before, then it would explain how the Golden Weapons would react if the Green Ninja was near its proximity. Probably how Misako found out. How does this confirm though? Well in earlier seasons, The Four Ninja don’t have their elemental powers yet, and the first time we see the Golden Weapons react to Lloyd in the form of the Armor it glows. Granted this is just speculation and Garmadon was there with him, but what’s a theory without good speculation?

Anyways, story-wise it could try and fix the inconsistency and why the Ninja needed Lloyd to get their powers back. Lloyd as the Green Ninja inherited the powers of the Four Elements in order to become the Chosen One and defeat the Overlord.

The elements were hereditary but, with Lloyd’s birth it basically had a choice. Hereditary by the means of the bearers of the Elemental Powers or Hereditary means by the FSM.

There was no choice at the matter, honestly, I believe if Lloyd had a sibling or biological cousin, there would definitely be a choice made by the Cloud Kingdom, but since he was the only grandson to the FSM via hereditary means, he’s the only heir with Oni and Dragon powers.

3.) The reason why Gramadon nor Wu somehow can’t tap into each other’s powers.

Something that’s also bothering me that could rip a hole into the ‘Lloyd was never chosen, it was always gonna be him either way’ theory into shreds and that’s Garmadon and Wu, if Lloyd was supposed to gain both Creation and Destruction powers why him? Why not the sons themselves? My first speculation is biased…and it seems to be the case…

After all, Garmadon’s full Oni form has Dragon Wings.

But why doesn’t Wu have it? Like he could just do it?

I feel like, because Lloyd since he can control both, (There’s a theory from a tumblr user that Lloyd can control both if he’s using the Green Powers. Honestly it makes sense since, ‘The Energy powers’ have to be created then they are created to destroy) using Green Powers, without any personal bias (He just refuses the Oni form) which is why he is the Green Ninja

He has balance, he is trained to KEEP the balance, whereas Garmadon and Wu are personally biased. Wu not only using his powers less, but only using creation, and Garmadon Destruction. United, they were powerful and they were keeping balance and peace. But when they separated, the balance begun to shake off-course. With Lloyd he kept the balance in check, he did things that Wu and Garmadon could not. Balancing himself as a person and holding the responsibility as a Ninja. Thus making him the Green Ninja.

Though that doesn’t exclude the existence of ‘Destiny’ here ‘destiny’ still plays a role, making sure Lloyd becomes the Green Ninja instead of Choosing him. They had to make sure he was born, had to make sure that he was the Green Ninja. Wu and Garmadon had to be biased. The FSM had to die and Quanish had to predict the future for the Green Ninja. Perhaps…perhaps destiny did indeed choose Lloyd, but not in the way that it made it sound, Perhaps his destiny as the Green Ninja was paved and built upon, forged for his fate. But in any way…Lloyd will always be the Green Ninja, due to hereditary means and fate.

[pokedash55]

ULTRA LONG TIME TWIN HEADCANNONS

@sippin-on-waterfalls your post is ready

From Pokedash and Purplefern

Ooooooookay here we go.

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-Krux perceives time slower than others so he is easily late to events (plus he gets distracted and way into projects so he can easily lose track of time, ironically) so he could end up missing a lot of Elemental Alliance meetings

-Acronix made sure he informed Krux it was time to go (whenever he remembers, anyway) otherwise he’d be uber late all the time. Good thing they always go together

-Acronix is super early all the time because of his powers and he and Griffon Turner’s grandfather got along really well

-All the same, between lack of attention span, focusing on other things, and not caring for the meetings in general, Krux and Acronix miss a LOT of meetings 

-Before alliance meetings Wu is training little Morro and the Twins and the Master of Speed just waltz in the monastery doors an hour early

-Acronix teaches Morro some sick fighting moves (some rather underhanded)

-Krux advises him to never let people get away with harm cause you are the most important thing in your life. (Revenge!)

-Wu be like plz stop encouraging my kid into violence and dishonorable tactics.

-Krux brought refreshments to an EA party exactly once. It was pickled beet tea and nobody liked it. He took it very personally. 

-Back during the war, the love triangle with Misako was actually a love rectangle. Krux had a crush on her too but he literally had no idea how to act on it so his part of the rectangle was staring at her longingly from afar and not saying anything. 

-Yes Acronix teased him immensely about this. And tried to act as a wingman several times but Krux swore if he did he would murder him 

-Pre-series, Misako would do work for the museum a lot, so she ended up working with Sanders Saunders quite often. Despite her relationship to Wu and Garmadon and their “history”, he did like working with her ok

-They both also worked with the Explorer’s Club a lot, and have equal disdain for Cecil Putnam and Clutch Powers 

-Krux hates Cecil’s stuffy rules (even though he couldn’t show it while being Dr Saunders) and Clutch’s….everything

-Krux’s doctorate is real, and he has a doctorate in History and and Master’s degree in Museum Studies 

-He’s the Curator of History at the museum, and the other curator is the curator of natural sciences 

-Acronix is a big nicknames guy. He doesn’t usually call people by their actual names. Only the people he actually cares about or that he super hates. 

-But he also generally despises nicknames given TO him. The only people allowed to call him Nix/Nixie are  his brother and mother (and later Shannon). 

-Krux only calls Acronix "Nix" if he's feeling particularly vulnerable/scared/etc (so like, when being the older twin isn't feeling that fun and he decides to ignore those 3 minutes and be more like the "younger" twin.) So this becomes a lot less as he becomes more arrogant. 

-(Based on how he describes Dareth getting beat up by the Vermillion warrior) Krux likes watching wrestling. It’s a guilty pleasure of his 

-And of course Acronix loves it once he learns about it, so the two watch it together 

-Krux occasionally plays strategy board games. He tried to get Acronix into them but he found them boring. 

-(Sometimes he’ll suck it up and play with him anyway, though.) 

-Both are sass masters

-Both also like science

-But like completely different facets of science. 

-Krux of course likes the more stable and earthy sciences. Biology and geology, ecology. Those elemental science that have always existed but we just haven’t yet understood them

-Krux is also a total history nerd. Things like paleontology and anthropology are also really interesting to him 

-Yes he was a dinosaur kid. (Especially since dinosaurs had just started to be discovered back in his day.) 

-Acronix of course likes advancement and the otherworldly sciences. Technology, Astronomy. Sure we build upon the discoveries of the past but what about creating something new for the future? 

-Acronix does like bioengeneering since it is a new advancement but he knows saying so would make Krux grin with “I told you bio was cool” vibes

-Krux can engulf himself into his work or his schemes for days. As he is very patient. 

-Acronix is less so. He sees time constantly moving forward so sitting idle to “Plan” seems a ridiculous waste of time. 

-He jumps from activities quickly as the novelty of it wears off and he is always on a quest for what's new and what may work, not really what has been confirmed to work

-Krux of course sees this as a fool's errand. We need to respect the knowledge we have and use it and plan with it. 

-But when they are in sync you should be SCARED

-Both thinking in the Present can make them in perfect harmony, Both in fighting and talking.

-Their different planning methods can help eachother get things done. So yes, when they work together you should be scared 

-Krux can get really fixated on an idea, and get into major creative blocks. Acronix helps propose out of the box solutions that keep his ideas moving forwards that he wouldn’t have thought of himself. 

-But as we see they can also be reeeeallly different and fight over the miniscule things.  

-Krux lingers on Grudges easily as he physically cannot not put value to the events of the past.

-Acronix’s main grudge with the alliance came from his ego and arrogance, not his element. I think he feels very internally about wrongs to him in the moment but if he sees nothing really changed a couple of days later he loses interest in holding such a grudge easily

-Each of them have the ability to not be affected by the other’s powers

-Acronix has no patience to listen to anything he doesn’t want to hear. Back when he had his powers he COULD and WOULD just “skip” peoples’ dialogue if he got bored of it. 

-Krux has a bad habit of “freezing” people if he feels like they’re interrupting him. Like, he will freeze people who are trying to get him to stop working on something while he’s trying to get something done, and then get back to them when he feels like it. Everyone has to work on his time. (Annoyingly, this does not affect his brother, which is why Acronix is the only one who can actually get him to stop working on his projects.) 

-Whenever Krux & Acronix would hang out with Chen, Acronix loved messing with Clouse. Clouse reminds him of his brother, but even more stuffy and annoyed somehow, so he just has an instinctual urge to annoy him as much as possible. 

-(Clouse does not appreciate this, but Master Chen says they’re “important” to his plan so Clouse just suffers quietly.) 

-Acronix likes the Master of Speed, but also finds it annoying that he can resist his slo-mo powers by going really fast. (On the bright side, though, this does make him the closest thing to an equal he’ll get for a sparring partner, if Krux doesn’t want to train with him for whatever reason.) 

-Because of his element, Sound is one of the rare people who doesn’t really mind Krux but REALLY dislikes Acronix. Acronix is just so loud all the time and it physically pains him because he is so sensitive to vibrations and volume. Krux is generally pretty quiet so doesn’t bug him as much. 

-Acronix is an Entrepreneur (ESTP)  and Krux is an Architect (INTJ) 

-They have no Feeling whatsoever

-Otherwise, they are complete opposites

-Both of these personality types hate rules, regulations, and micromanaging restricting authority figures (hmm, wonder why they broke away from the alliance…)

-Acronix is arrogant in the way that he doesn’t care about his flaws, because obviously he is awesome and everyone else is just jelly, Krux is arrogant in the way that he hates people pointing out his flaws, because shut up he doesn’t have any 

-Their mother is Polaris, they take after her physically 

-Father is Kronos, they got their powers and ego from him 

-Their father actively encouraged them to have immense pride in their element -- being the former master of time himself 

-Ordered them the sweet matching armor

-He was a samurai back in his day, which is why the Twims wore samurai helmets.

-Between their two loving parents, the Twims were nearly spoiled 

-Krux and Acronix grew up pretty rich, Kronos was pretty much high society and Polaris was too 

-They went to a fairly fancy private school growing up

-But everyone there were snobs so they didn’t get along well with their classmates (what a surprise)

-Their parents died in a skirmish with Serpentine, leading the Twims to join the alliance full of vengeance. 

-Acronix has a battle scar from being grazed by an anacondrai sword on his left pec cause I said so

-Also a lot of misc snake bit scars and a burn scar from that one time (Ray’s got a bad temper and Acronix likes pressing people’s buttons, so that went super well)

-Acronix super cares about his looks so has a ton of, like, haircare and beauty products. Krux has a single bottle of 3-in-1 and a bar of soap and says that that’s sufficient. 

-Back in the day Acronix had a bunch of oils and whatever for his hair, and when he’s in the present he’s got a bunch of fancy shampoos and such.  He’s definitely the vain one of the two twins

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A collection of Neurodivergent Twims HCs

-Acronix has ADHD and Krux is autisitc

-Acronix is early, but only to things he remembers. He often forgets dates. And Krux will get involved with something else, and has a warped sense of time. Together, the two miss a lot of EM meetings 

-And when they’re at them, neither of them are good at conversations. Acronix talks a mile a minute and doesn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise. Krux either doesn’t talk to anyone or similarly dominates conversation and doesn’t let anyone else talk. 

-The two also get sent on solo missions alot

-They don’t focus well in a group setting (Acronix generally ignoring the plan for what he prioritizes as the better option and krux simply not being popular with the others and only really battling well beside his brother)

-They are generally strong enough to protect a village by themselves

-The other EM work better with them out of the way since they are “annoying” and no one really likes their arrogance, pride, or entire personhood

-They seem to be happier working only together than with the whole group

-Once during a group charge on a collection of Serpentine races Acronix notices a horde heading in a different direction and follows them impulsive

-All of these things together make them especially unpopular with the other EMs

-Especially with the Master of Ice, who considers their actions disrespectful and often scolds them on their behavior 

-Krux and Acronix can BOTH get hyperfixated on things they are interested in, and can also forget to eat and sleep.

-Acronix struggles with insomnia a lot because his brain doesn’t shut up. Luckily his brother never really sleeps either. They spend a lot of long nights talking about nonsense 

-Acronix tries to use time skip powers to not waste time while sleeping. He skips the night, but he still didn’t get sleep. He crashes after a few days of this and Krux tells him that he’s a moron 

-Acronix has a fidget spinner, which he got for the memes but ended up finding unironically helpful, and gives Krux a fidget cube (which Krux reluctantly accepts and actually does use pretty often.) 

-Before learning what a fidget spinner was he would flip his phone a lot. It was both an easily accessible stim and assurance he knew where it was cause he tended to leave things around at random. 

-Krux used nail-biting as a stim, mostly because it can appear pretty neurotypical 

-Acronix is “annoying” around the ninja during his lil redemption arc, but instead of reacting like the elemental masters, the Ninja actually do research and come to an understanding (especially Zane, who is perceptive, understanding, and has an instantaneous link to the internet). 

-Altogether he’s a little surprised when they actually put effort into tolerating and understanding his differences. Huh. How’s bout that? 

-Jay is also pretty understanding, he’s got a lot of nd cousins and has ADHD himself so it’s kinda just *shrugs*

-Modern dyes and preservatives really trigger Acronix’s ADHD to be even worse than usual. 

-Zane picks up on this, and like the mother hen that he is starts to put in a special effort to keep dyes away from Acronix (or to keep Acronix away from dyes, as the case may be)

-Jay has a similar problem with dyes (which Edna let the Ninja know about, thanks a lot ma ) so Zane works double time to keep them both away from dyes

-Makes special dishes that are “ADHD safe” 

-Neither appreciate it (well Jay does but will complain openly at every chance he gets)

-Acronix got into a lot of trouble with their dad when he was a kid, because he just couldn’t pay attention 

-Has bursts of anger a lot, oftentimes this happens during things like parties or pre-meeting conversations. (which easily leads to him getting a label of “aggressive” or “hotheaded” by the EMs) 

-DEFINITELY struggles with Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria

-Ninjago history is Krux’s special interest 

-Krux freezes people around him when he needs a sec to destim

-Krux is pretty high-functioning, but is on the borderline. He's high-functioning enough to be aware of himself and mask, but not enough to avoid things like shut/melt downs 

-Acronix is fiercely protective of his brother whenever he shuts down. Messing with Krux while he's like that (whether the antagonist is aware or not) is a one way ticket to his wrath as well as physical punishment. 

-Whenever things got too intense at a meeting/party type thing, Acronix would ditch and sneak them both out whenever Krux was heading towards a shut down. Being the awesome supportive twin that he is, he learned to pick up on the signs of one and was certain to prevent them pretty much whenever possible. 

-Acronix failed in his efforts only once (he was kind of sick that day and wasn’t at the top of his game to be keeping a watchful eye on his bro), and Krux kind of ended up time freezing a few of the EMs in the process. It was something the elemental masters (or Krux himself)  did not soon forget or forgive. 

-He'll go nonverbal sometimes, to the minor aggravation of the alliance. Sign language isn't a thing yet so anyone trying to understand him when he's like this are pretty much reliant on Acronix and his twin sense to translate. 

-When their parents died Krux went nonverbal for a little over a month. 

-Krux was pretty delayed in learning to speak, he didn’t say his first word until he was 3 ¼ 

-Even during his redemption arc, Acronix does not tell the Ninja about Krux's autism, from a built in fear that the knowledge would be used against him in possible future battles. (Also because he knows Krux wouldn't want them to know.) 

-Krux doesn't just hate phones because “ugh technology”, he also just hates talking on the phone because it’s super difficult

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OK there are way more that we have but... did you know there is actually a word limit on Tumblr? Heh heh... If you want more Twim goodness you can read our extensive fanfic collection... or maybe we’ll make a part two (That’ll probably consist of Home life pre-war stuff, post-canon AU junk, Vermillion family nonsense, and more random stuff)

[felikatze]

hi hi yes this is my season 8 write up you’ve probably seen one of these already by now and i gotta say what the fuck was that how the fuck was that oh my god oh my god. is this still the silly lego ninja show. am i dreaming.

this is the first one i’m actually structuring in advance because i have so many thoughts i have so so so many oh my godddddddddd. oh my god.

BROOOOOOOOO

i had. feelings about this season. 2.6k words of them.

i did not like the first two eps because (gestures at fake out romance plot) i’m sorry i hate ninjago romance plots and pixane are the only bitches i respect. the first two eps went HARD on building up harumi as super duper sweet trust me like the whole fuckin princess jasmine sequence made me cringe. do not like themmmm i do not. after that we’re good though. props to these eps to starting on the harumi lloyd parallels via comparing her position as jade princess with lloyd’s as the green ninja in addition to their both at this point primarily green color schemes. lloyd is unshippable to me though sorry. aroace lloyd supremacy.

one thing i noticed this season is how the ninja use their elemental powers differently. instead of just spawning their elements in, they take advantage of the environment. one scene that comes to mind is nya using the rain to safely land the bounty or jay redirecting lightning and using power lines to shock the big stone monster in episode 10.

i really like this change! this makes fight choreography more interesting by including the environment! nya bursting some pipes to blast away garmadon? kai using torch fires to throw at people? i love that!! it’s great!! feels natural feels good to watch!!

the elements look amazing as well! particle effects this season are off the shits! this season just plain looks good. love the redesigns on the spinjitzu effects to differentiate them and incorporate elements better than just color. LOVE the lighting. looks so good. i already praised season 5 for this but this takes the cake.

speaking of more changes. weapons!! i called season 7 sexy for giving everyone their unique weapons back and there’s some changes here! nya got a trident!! love that!! so cool!! thematic!! and no ninja has a polearm yet so. vry cool vry cool.

last time, i complained that kai and zane got the short end of the stick cuz people keep infringing on their weapons. that’s fixed now! kai gets TWO swords, which is SICK. i just think duel wielding is sexy. zane gets a bow, which i’m more hmmm abt. it’s still the only long distance weapon of the squad, so i guess it works. shurikens still seem to be mainly zane’s thing, as they’re how the gang recognize zane’s plan to go undercover.

cole also gets a hammer instead of a scythe. i GET IT hammers are better for a blunt force character like him, but.. scythes are sick. ninjago gets a pass due to my affinity for blunt force weaponry. this time.

speaking of cole. admire how he was just READY to be a dad upon finding a random baby in a dungeon somewhere. said baby being Wu is objectively hilarious because cryptic old man wisdom is replaced by baby babble. cole is just so. he is Taking Care Of This Baby. in the beginning of the season before finding the baby he’s already Dad Mode somehow because he’s telling everyone to eat their veggies. i love him. it’s so funny. someone has to save the baby from plunging off the airship? cole’s here. someone gotta play with the baby? cole. someone gotta hold the baby? cole. misako only takes over because he’s busy after everything’s gone to shit. cole is the dad friend.

REDESIGNS. redesigns. i like em. i’ve watched the lego ninjago movie twice i like the movie and i think the designs are good. they’re a bit more complex than the previous ones esp in the hair and it fits better with the improved graphics n shit. i just wish they’d been more consistent with the past designs. like the side kai’s scar is on being the opposite one to his notched eyebrow. or jay missing his slit eyebrow. this is just about eyebrows. jay’s freckles are cute though. only redesign i dont like is zane’s i think his eyes and hair look weird and why does nya have a mole now feels weird. anyway.

i heard the redesigns are so it’s easier for potential new fans from the lego ninjago movie which is hilarious. the potential that THIS is someone’s first season of ninjago. the one that dregdes up emotional conflicts from season 2, the one season that breaks the status quo by having the ninja lose at the end, the one season that doesn’t have weekend whip as the intro. hello. HELLO.

how did we get here

moments i enjoyed: zane undercover, mister E fight

OKAY ONTO THE SEASON ITSELF OKAYYY.

i rlly liked zane’s stint undercover i think that was a great sequence. (how many akira slides do ya want? oh? all of them? okay). motorcycle races were fun. (fun fact german dub just refers to the sons of garmadon as “garmadon’s bike gang” which is kinda funny aint it. german dub never change you fuckhead). the fights this season were cool for aforementioned elemental reasons but also just sick in general. i enjoyed zane getting trashed by mister e (ohhh like “mystery” okay okay). fucked up that zane dies again but whatever it was a cool fight.

what i disliked abt the general sequence was cole’s singing which i KNOWWW is supposed to be bad i aint even talking abt kirby morrow since (dub watcher) but like. yeah whatever the irony of cole being a horrible singer but they did not have to make it a running joke. i didn’t like harumi’s singing either i just don’t like singing in non-musical shows. only good singing was when everyone was singing weekend whip karaoke. german dub show me the forbidden weekend whip german cover full version. i liked those lyrics.

PIXAL OFFICAL RETURN SHE’S HERE I LOVE HERRRR (<- PIXAL STAN SINCE SEASON 3). i am mildly heartbroken by pixal being soo afraid of the possibility of going back into the computer and how she’s so afraid she won’t be useful being the way she wants to be. this is where zane pulls thru because the only one who doesn’t respect pixal’s autonomy is pixal herself. everyone is always so supportive of her choices even back in season 3 and i like that this is continued here i LOVE pixal becoming samurai x and making it her own thing. she still takes on a support role occasionally but she’s doing what she wants to do and everyone loves her for it (including me). pixane is the only romance subplot i respect (jaya is valid only when a coinflip lands on heads). i wanted to say something else about pixal here but i forgot. i love her.

BACK TO PLOT OKAY OKAY. episode 7 makes me sick in the head. i think how the harumi reveal is handled is done SUPER WELL esp in regards to lloyd. i think on the ninja side tracking her comms is kinda goofy how she just goes to background evil smirking cue cliffhänger. BUT.

when she tells lloyd to take the mask i immediatly went like “Oh god she knew he’s part oni” and THEN lloyd says “how’d you know i’m part oni” like OH SHIT!!! OH SHIT!!! lloyd piecing it all together was so fuckin satisfying cuz it’s all the stuff i ALSO noticed. good shit.

this is where i get into harumi bcuz *rotates her in my mind* this is insane.

her motivation is so understandable but also so twisted. FIRST OF ALL her backstory confirms something cartoons typically like to avoid. death tolls. her parents died in the season 1 finale. this fucks me up because now you gotta ask yourself, where else did people die here? who else didn’t make it? because it’s not just season 1. did you know that nya straight up killed everyone in the cursed realm? chen appears as a ghost in day of the departed. she killed him and all his followers but does she even realize? hello? okay? who did the stone army kill? who did the nindroids kill? not to sound like a broken record but DEATH IS REAL IN NINJAGO.

additionally the flashback shows harumi and lloyd to be the same age which fucks me up for a PLETHORA of reasons least of all that lloyd’s age now actually matches his appearance. the flashback also confirms time exists and years pass. how old is everyone. are the other ninja all in their mid twenties now. christ.

OKAY BACK TO HARUMI. her motivation is so. it’s somewhat of a running gag that whenever the ninja bring up the great devourer someone chimes in with “garmadon defeated it, not you.” it’s perfectly logical for harumi to now idolize the person who is repeatedly stated to have defeated the thing that killed her parents.

(side note her title being “the quiet one” because she temporarily went mute because of trauma is SO FUCKED UP GOD. side side note the german dub makes a really smart choice in how to translate her title because it calls her “der stille boss” / the silent boss. german is a HIGHLY gendered language and for a LOT of nouns, specifically occupational nouns, there’s the -in suffix to make them feminine, which would spoil who the quiet one is cuz you’d immediatly look toward the newest girl. but “boss” is a loanword, and thus uses the generic masculine without any actual implication of gender. the script also doesn’t substitute the title for pronouns ever, to further avoid masculine connotation. props to that choice.)

moving on, i brought it up already, but paralling jade princess / green ninja. delicious. harumi never wanted to be a princess she never wanted the responsibility but her being “chosen” by the emperor and empress. god. this directly puts the ninja “failing” as the deciding factor that pushed her into the fate she abhors. godddd. insane. insane.

HER METHOD IS STILL SO WRONG THOUGH AND SHE WORKS SO WELL AS A VILLAIN AND AS A FOIL TO LLOYD. i want to talk about episode 8 now she is so needlessly cruel. like i GET where she’s coming from but it feels like she made all the wrong conclusions. what she doesnt get is without the ninja EVERYONE would be dead not just her parents. furthermore she seems to have it out for lloyd specifically when like, lloyd wasn’t even a ninja back then. the show COULD’VE brought up how he was the one to release the serpentine in the first place but it doesn’t sadly.

she’s soooo needlessly cruel it’s kind of horrifying. she reminds me of lime witch’s heart a little bit if there’s any fanbase overlap besides literally just me and anybody knows who i’m talking about. she just wants him to suffer as she did she wants someone who gets it she wants someone who went through the same experience she did.

BUT LIKE AGAIN THIS IS WHERE THE PARALLELS COME IN. she and lloyd were the same age in season 1 he was not a ninja during that fight. he was also chosen for a fate he didn’t want at way too young an age and he had to deal with it. them being the same is what makes her so cruel.

i gotta talk abt the garmadon revival and episode 9 now. first of all i’m SUPER happy klaus-dieter klebsch reprised his role as garmadon in the german dub because he is THE garmadon voice to me always and forever. he does evil laughs good and the voice direction is eh with how drawn out all of garmadon’s dialogue is but the performance is on point as always. anyway.

isn’t it fucked up how harumi doesn’t just want to destroy lloyd emotionally by kidnapping his mom and emotionally manipulating him but also deliberatly in making him fight his dad again. remember season 2 when garmadon was like a complex character who was very conflicted between his essentially Obligation to be evil and the love he still has for his family. like i remember that version of garmadon, lloyd remembers that version of garmadon. the one who still put family above all despite everything and that’s why it HURTS man. garmadon’s dialogue in episode nine dear god. like the “i wore many masks” dialogue and the finishing touch of “i don’t have a son” cue garmadon throwing lloyd through a wall again. like the garmadon we got to know from s3-4 might as well be dead because it’s not him that came back. it’s really not.

bringing up season 2 again it’s understandable why lloyd wanted to confront garmadon on his own so badly bcuz despite being told that he won’t be the same the entire season the last time lloyd confronted garmadon with love it worked. it brought him back and this time it DOESN’T and because last time it did is why this hits so hard for lloyd (and also for me).

GOD the ending of episode 9 where lloyd gets thrown through a wall and he lands in the sand and groans and to desparately comfort himself he pulls out the picture he keeps of himself and his father, but the wind blows it away out of his hand into the desert. heavy handed symbolism but it WORKS okay it WORKS. sensei garmadon is DEAD he‘s GONE but lloyd still has to grapple with killing his father all over again.

it’s Inch Resting how harumi essentially Stole garmadon for herself like. harumi has a TON of parental issues and she idolized garmadon for however many years it’s been since season 1 and he’s like. a bit fixated on her as the one who brought him back i.e breaking her out of jail. that’s what i mean by her being cruel cuz like she’s the one fighting with garmadon now she’s the one “important” to him (as much as anyone can be important to the revived garm like geez man)

tldr feels bad man

ONTO THE FINALE THAT’S SICK. actually having them just LOSE bcuz in ep 8 you think like “ah they won” but then you (I) looked at the episode counter and saw 8 out of 10. and you go. ah. they never defeat the villain till the darkest hour. the darkest hour is still coming.

like they LOSE they SPLIT UP THE TEAM. inch resting how the guys stranded in the realm of oni and dragons are the “original team” essentially i.e. the og four ninja + baby wu and how the ones still in ninjago are the “new team” i.e lloyd nya pixal + misako and whichever side characters they’re gonna scrounge up.

ALSO LLOYD THINKS THE OG TEAM IS DEAD WHAT THE FUCK. HE THINKS THEY’RE DEAD HE DOESN’T KNOW THEY HAD TRAVELER’S TEA.

my expectations for season 9 are ALL OVER THE PLACE. will lloyd and nya continue to think their friends are dead or will this be cleared up. how the hell is the og squad gonna fare against mythical creatures (and loads of em too). how’s lloyd gonna get back up and get back at harumi.

the last scene of the season between lloyd and harumi is really nice cuz “ninja never give up” motif is always cool AND how lloyd paralles HIMSELF to harumi by framing himself as a villain since “the worst one is the one you can’t catch.”

fun fact “ninja never give up” in german sounds really nice as a phrase cuz it’s trochaic, i.e entirely in trochaic meter. ninja geben niemals auf :)

lloyd jumping off a building landing squarely on the rest of the new crew’s boat is cool it’s a really cool shot to end on because it’s also like very hopeful despite the. extended darkest hour moment. an end is just a new beginning :) good albeit cheesy use of phrase motifs. he’s not giving up even if all his friends are dead and his powers are gone harumi!! suck it!!!!

IN CONCLUSION: oh my god what the fuck. this is the first season that made me actually tear up dear fucking god.

[fires-of-ninjago]

Guess What Folks? Ninjago Head Cannons Part 3 (Kai Edition)!

He’s pretty over-protective of his family. At first it was just Nya, but when Misako and Pixal started hanging around Wu and Zane respectively, he sat them down to give them the “You hurt them, I break your knees” talk that gave to Jay the second he showed interest in his sister.

He did the same thing to Garmadon after Lloyd defeated the Over Lord, Triply so, because not only would he be messing with Wu and Misako, but he’d be hurting Lloyd, and that’s something both he and Nya might actually kill him over (They’re really protective of their lil bro).

He and Nya basically adopted Lloyd (shocking, I know!  😏 )

Kai has dandruff like there’s no tomorrow. When he doesn’t use his special shampoo, it can get bad enough that it looks like its showing!

He can’t use too many products in his hair because it dries out his scalp. He does however use a lot of special conditioners to help keep it looking healthy.

He’s really underweight. Skipping meals was a survival tactic that he used to help stretch their food growing up, and now he struggles to break it.

Nya and the others sometimes have to force him to eat and won’t let him leave the table until he finishes his plate. He eventually gives in when he realizes that Lloyd and Nya aren’t eating the whole time they’re forcing him to.

Because he’s malnourished, he’s shorter than he should be. Although, he did start his last growth spurt just before he was recruited by master Wu, so time will tell if he gains any real height.

Kai sometimes hears music while he’s falling asleep. It used to freak him out when it first started, but now that’s just how he gauges is exhaustion level.

While Kai doesn’t have much formal schooling beyond some of the basics, he and Nya taught each other a lot of things growing up. He made sure to send her to school, and while she was asleep, he’d read ahead and take notes about what she would be getting into next.

[jaydabbing]

ranking the ninja team by gaming skill

1) cole: cole beat zane's high score in s11, making him have the top score. this means he is better at gaming than a robot which is pretty dang good. while not as enthusiastic about it as jay is, he also seems to have some knowledge about video game trivia. plus, soda guzzler. gaming icon

2) zane: pretty obvious. robot, good at tech and games, and given the respect by other ninja deserving of a gaming master. used to be #1 until cole beat him

3) jay: while not having the same innate skills as zane, jay does have the most practice out of the team. he has the most screentime shown playing video games (enough to make him hallucinate playing a video game on a piece of wood), plus he managed to spend a good chunk of time without the others in prime empire without losing any lives. he also has the most video game trivia knowledge

4) pixal: honestly i would have placed pixal in #1 because she feels like a gaming queen, but alas, there isnt enough proof of her as a gamer within the show. the proof we do have of her gaming skills is the official gifs that got released, which confirm that she games in her downtime and that she's better at it than kai. plus it makes sense to assume that she shares zane's gaming skills because they're both nindroids

5) lloyd: in season 1 when lloyd was still a little bitch child prankster who wanted to spread chaos, he changed the scoreboard on kai's video game to all cole. this could only have been done either through hacking or through playing enough times on cole's account and beating kai's scores. i think lloyd is a skilled gamer but doesnt get as much practice as the others because he's too busy with leadership responsibility

6) garmadon: also in the early seasons when garmadon was a little bitch evil but willing to save lloyd, there was a brief scene of him playing video games against himself. sadly, this is the only scene where he was shown gaming and thus it is difficult to determine his exact rank, but i think controlling two players at once must involve some skills

7) kai: you may notice kai is placed relatively low in the list. this is not because he is bad at gaming, but he has the misfortune of being friends who are much better gamers than him. kai obviously enjoys gaming as much as the other guys and has been shown gaming with them in his freetime; however, he didnt have the same knowledge jay and cole had in prime empire, and he did suck with technology in the third season. im guessing he didnt have many video games growing up in the village

8) nya: out of all the ninja, nya is the only one who doesnt even like gaming, smh. however, seeing as she's dating jay, and his idea of a date is playing video games together, she likely gained a lot of gaming experience to her reluctance. i think she'd be a good gamer if she actually cared

9) chicken: yes, the chicken is part of the family now. she has canonically been a part of prime empire and thus has some gaming experience, but isnt that great at it yet in the real world. at the start of MoM cole was shown trying to teach her how to play video games with him. she still needs to learn how to use a controller, but i have faith in her. also, tiny soda guzzler, bless

10) wu: still needs to learn how to use a controller. for some reason, i have less faith in him than chicken

??) misako: i cant rank misako because she's never fukking in the show. i swear in every season she disappears to who knows where and only shows up if it's relevant to the plot. where does she go all the time? is she really that bad a parent that she's fine with ditching her son every time?? anyway it's impossible to determine her rank but i bet she'd suck at gaming

[dance-of-doom]

give me ALL your lgbt headcanons NOW

HERE I GO

let's start with the main six

kai: nonbinary, gay and arospec

cole: trans guy. oriented aroace (gay)

zane: nonbinary. was meant to be a boy, immediately takes 900 steps to distance himself from the concept of gender. pan

jay byrd: trans girl. man i love this concept so much. she's a lesbian also (if we're rolling with jay then i say bisexual, trans guy)

nya: transfem demigirl, bisexual. i love her so much

lloyd: transmasc, but not really on the binary y'know? acespec AND arospec

moving to some other characters

pixal: trans girl (i imagine it went like with jenny from my life as a teenage robot, i haven't seen it but there's a clip floating around the website). bisexual & ace

skylor: trans girl. someone said she looked like a tiktok lesbian and i couldn't agree more (in a positive way. they're hot)

echo: demiboy and pan (similar to zane but not quite)

vania: lesbian and demigirl

faith and jet jack: trans lesbians

dareth and ronin: gay and bi respectively. both trans ofc

akita: genderfluid, bisexual

scott: *kisses him* bisexual demiboy (i accidentally reread this as catboy. he's nyanbinary now)

i also have headcanons for old people

wu: idc he's gay

misako and garmadon: they're bi

mystake: lesbian! and uh genderfluid i think it makes sense (actually i hate that only shapeshifters get to be genderfluid. that's very poor rep)

now on to the villains (spoiler alert they're gay too)

pythor: gay and homophobic

skales: bi

morro: nonbinary bisexual. arospec simply based on the color palette

harumi: trans girl, lesbian, aromantic

u.v: trans ace lesbian (i have so many trans lesbian hcs.. good for them)

mr. E: iirc someone said hesbian and hell yeah

cryptor: nb, gay

aspheera and machia: lesbiansnakes

all the other sneks and skeletons are mlm trust me

notes:

honestly im tired of having always the robots as nonbinary so i reversed that trope with pixal and kept it with zane. to balance it out or something. pixane trans robots power couple

ace pixal bc the colors fit those of her original palette kinda. same for uv

byrd is a headcanon that i've been thinking about for some months now (inspired by ju/ne egbert 💙)

half of these i went with *look at how hard i can project*

i probably missed some characters,, anyway feel free to reply/reblog with your own :p

[dorizardthewizard]

TLNM musings, part 2

Okay, here I ramble about problems with the movie. Ended up adding more stuff since I first wrote this :’P

Screentime and characterisation of the other ninja:

One of the biggest complaints from fans... they're all introduced individually with very different personalities, they’re told they each have a special element they control, making you feel like they should each get some moment to shine and affect the plot of the movie, but then none of that happens. Ultimately you could take out all the ninja and the story would be the same, you don't even necessarily need them for Lloyd's character since his journey of reconnecting with his father and bringing his family together can still work without them. It's so sad because if you read and watch extra material, you can tell thought went into their personalities, but we never get to see this as they're all just lumped together, mostly there to support Lloyd's development.

For someone who hasn't seen the show, it must feel a bit off seeing characters with distinguished personalities and no payoff for it; take Zane for example. Imagine not knowing anything about the characters and seeing one of them is a robot, for some reason? You wonder why he's a robot, what significance that has for the plot and why it's important for his character (I mean they missed a big opportunity to develop Zane from always trying to fit in and seem like a “normal teenager” to accepting that he's different but that that doesn't mean he's less valid), but then this really specific characteristic is never expanded on except for comedy purposes. People probably thought “oh, guess it makes more sense in the show”, but this just detaches viewers and makes them feel like they're missing something if they haven't seen the show beforehand.

Sigh, still gotta give the crew credit for fitting in a load of little subtle details about the ninja, I had to rewatch it a couple of times because there were things I didn’t notice at first, like Kai sliding down a bannister in the Temple of Fragile Foundations and falling off :’D

Group dynamic:

Another thing that bothered me is that the movie isn't that good at making you care about them as a team. They're already established as friends but I wish there were more material showing us how much they care about each other. The Kai hug scene was 10/10 but then when Chen and the other cheerleaders started picking on Lloyd, nobody said or did anything? In merchandise it said Kai is a hothead who isn't afraid to speak up or stand up to people, then show it in the movie! Him and Nya should have been on the verge of tackling that guy to the floor! Ok, I can see Lloyd asking them not to get into fights as it makes people hate him even more and he probably feels guilty if one of the ninja gets into trouble because of him. This would still have given more emotional connection between the characters but we're never shown it, except in the novelisation where Cole tries to block Lloyd from his locker so he doesn't see the insult written on it, I think. But again, we shouldn't have to read/ watch extra material for that.

Instead of moments showcasing the ninja’s friendship and close bonds, we got the opposite- everyone turned on Lloyd incredibly quickly for one mistake. Sure, it was a pretty big one and resulted in Garmadon taking over the city and their mechs being wrecked, but Lloyd was the only one doing anything about Garmadon at the time and he didn't exactly know what the consequences of using the ultimate weapon were; it's not like he knew it could potentially hurt his friends. In fact, how did the ninja know he used it anyway? That would mean they already knew about it and what it could do, yet Lloyd was not told? In which case, how can they blame him?? Damn it Wu, why couldn't you just tell Lloyd that using the weapon would unleash a cat that could destroy the city, instead of vaguely saying the weapon can be dangerous in the wrong hands. That's taking too many pages from TV Wu's book!

Honestly, it's like the ninja were just one character either shunning Lloyd or supporting him, depending on what the plot needed :/ That scene where they're talking with Garmadon while carrying him through the jungle really rubbed me the wrong way because first, no one seemed to care that Lloyd is so snippy because he's been forced to work with the man who made his life hell, and second they joke about Lloyd with that very same person and imply they don't respect Lloyd as leader, as Jay says he doesn't usually want to listen to him when he's talking? What??

 Lloyd and Garmadon’s relationship:

I mentioned this in part 1, but they really didn’t execute this well- I feel like they had so much fun playing up Garmadon being the worst dad in the world that they forgot to give him redeemable qualities. It took me a second viewing to realise his relationship with Lloyd was actually pretty messed up, because they played off his despicableness as comedic and glossed over it by suddenly giving him a flashback to make it seem like he’s sorry. They wanted to go for the father-and-son-have-issues-but-reconnect story, and had Lloyd say “I wish we didn’t have to fight all the time” in his emotional ending, but that’s a line usually present in a daddy-issue story where both have a part to blame and there's issues with communication. In this, though? Lloyd did nothing wrong! It was just Garmadon being trash, and there wasn't even a particular scene of him recognising and apologising for his actions- not the bit about driving Misako away, but how he treated Lloyd after.

The message is all mucked up - hoping to find some good in neglectful parents is just gonna get you hurt, and in a story like this it would make more sense for the protagonist to realise they don't need validation from this guy, shouldn't feel like they have to keep connected with toxic relatives just because they're family, and that they should focus on the friends and family who actually love them (although, whether Lloyd's friends were even portrayed as liking him is a different story). I mean, Koko could just teach him to throw and catch! Does he have to have two parents just for that?

 Tone and humour:

I think another main reason this movie didn't do as well was its more childish tone and dialogue; unlike the previous two movies, it was marketed at younger children. One of the main reasons TLM and LB were so successful is because of the self-aware jokes that could actually be enjoyed by adults too, while in this movie I may have properly laughed only a couple of times. Plus, in its effort to connect with kid's humour it just got cringy in some parts, like the Ultimate Weapon compilation. It would have been funny if it was ironic, like Amazing World of Gumball style, but it just didn't come across like that, so I can see why many jokes fell flat for older audiences.

People probably had different expectations for the overall tone as well- everyone loved the previous LEGO movies because of their constant barrage of action, witty jokes and a ton of references. This was never the selling point of Ninjago, but TLNM didn’t manage to capture the show’s dramatic style and deep lore-driven plot either.

The writers:

Okay last thing. This movie had three directors, six producers, six screenwriters and seven people working on the story. Compared to most animated movies, that's a lot, and its shows. It feels like they had a few different ideas and themes and couldn't quite patch them together, with vague messages like “looking at things from a different point of view” being thrown in as well to try and link it up. I guess at the end of the day, this is a father-son story, and that makes it very difficult to fit in a power-of-friendship plot at the same time, but still. Also, the shifting plot and ideas is really clear in the trailers, I mean half the stuff there wasn't even in the movie, it's as if the entire story was changed!

 Final verdict? I think an overall theme with this movie is that the writers wanted to overhaul Ninjago to introduce it to new viewers, but also wanted to keep the fans happy so shoehorned in lots of elements from the show without giving them enough development. This just disappoints fans and alienates general audiences, which is a problem since Ninjago doesn’t have a huge following already backing it up like LEGO Batman did, and could have been the pilot for more original LEGO lines making it to the big screen. It was a technically amazing movie, with beautiful animation and visuals, an epic soundtrack and stunning voice acting, but it was also such a waste of potential.

 The only other thing we can do is think about how it could have gone differently, so here's some of my ideas :'D

NOT using the deleted time travel plot. I know that after being disappointed in a movie you welcome any alternative, but giant mechs were already a big deviation from the ninja theme; flinging in time travel as well would be too much for non-show watchers. Plus, I thought we were all complaining about how time travel in Ninjago always just messes things up :'P

Also not following the show closer. We have over 10 seasons of the show, the whole point of a movie is giving a fresh take; using a giant snake or the Overlord possessing Garmadon again would just be boring.

Delete the first act? One of the best parts of the secret high school heroes trope is seeing how they juggle both lives, if you're gonna drop it after half an hour there's not much point of it being there.

Could instead just have Garmadon attacking again, the last invasion attempt being ages ago. Maybe the ninja rediscover a rich history of elemental masters protecting Ninjago when Wu decides to get a new team together to fight the new threat?

Make it about learning master building instead so they build their mechs at the end, and then gain elements in a sequel?

Or don't mention anything about elements and have every ninja individually go through an obstacle to obtain an elemental weapon, then they all lose them but don't know they're not necessary, so it's actually a surprise that the power is inside them? Everyone gets a sort of true potential moment?

Ninja having to warm up to Garmadon's son, so we have a plot of Lloyd slowly gaining their respect and becoming leader?

Higher stakes at the end, make the Shark Army more threatening and have them turn on Garmadon using Meowthra, so there's still an intense climax of the ninja fighting the army before Lloyd reaches Meowthra and gets his emotional ending?

Get rid of the live action sequence, or make it fit the message of the story more?

Feel free to add any ideas/ thoughts!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

Ninjago (Marching) Band AU Headcanons

(they’re all like the same age in this because the plot demands it, so we’ll just say they’re all juniors right now)

Lloyd would play the Baritone in band class and in marching band

Zane would play the Flute in band class and marching band

Kai would play the Trumpet in band class and marching band

Jay would play Alto Saxophone in band class and marching band

Cole would be in Percussion, and would play the Tenor drums in marching band, so he’d be in drumline

Nya would play Trumpet in band class and Sousaphone / Contra in marching band

Pixal would play French Horn in band class and Mellophone in marching band

no but Nya is definitely strong enough to march contra and she would definitely do it

Cole would be co-section leader, as center snare is usually section leader but Cole is a really good leader so they co-lead

Nya is assistant section leader for the contra section

oh and Nya also definitely is like ripped and wears sports bras or ties her shirt up in the back for rehearsals. Like that is her usual marching band outfit

Zane is like the one guy in the flute section but like he loves it and the girls platonically love him so much. He’s also one of the more quiet leaders in the section, like he isn’t as out there I guess as some of the others in the section but he helps out and contributes so much

Oh like this boy, Zane, he freaking. He always has pads and tampons on him for the girls in his section. He also always has advil. Always. Sometimes he’ll bring chocolate for them like he takes care of them

also he definitely mutters angsty things under his breath when the directors say something stupid (because let’s be honest, they can sometimes)

Lloyd wouldn’t be leader, this boy just wants a break and he doesn’t want to be leader. He just wants to enjoy the activity with his friends and his section!

Playing baritone also helped Lloyd’s arm strength and now this boy has like… super strong arms now

Kai isn’t a leader as well, he’s kind of like Lloyd in where he does it for fun too, playing the trumpet really helps de-stress him and like, hardcore calms him down, he loves the sound of the trumpet and just blasting it

But like if you’re talking too much on the field or messing around or being a trashy person, Kai will put you in your place. Like he will shush you even though he’s not leader.

Kai can also hit the high range on trumpet really well

oh and Kai fits in so well with the trumpets. Like the trumpets love him and he loves them. (I sit in front of trumpets in band class… Kai definitely has a trumpet personality, but he’s more respectful than the ones in class lol)

Cole takes marching band super seriously because he loves music so much, and he loves playing the tenor drums so much. He likes that they are like the heaviest thing to march with, only rivaled by bari sax and contras.

Cole can carry the tenors with ease, but it makes him sore and it kills his back a lot but like, Jay gives him massages and it helps

But also he like doesn’t talk on the field and he gives every run his best and you best bet he duts as he plays

Jay loves saxophone! He loves its weird shape and he loves playing and he loves being with his section

He has some trouble standing still at set, but he tries and sometimes he just says screw it and moves because he wants to

Also Jay breaks reeds when he’s frustrated:/

Lemme specify, he breaks his old reeds when he’s frustrated. He keeps old, brokenish reeds in his drill charts and if he feels frustrated he takes them out and breaks them:)

He hates the neck strap as well

They give him terrible tan lines

Oh speaking of tan lines, Kai and Nya, holy trash do those two tan. Like they’re tan lines are crazy

they all sit together on the band bus for competitions and have a blast

Kai and Jay and Lloyd once made everyone bring their ds and there was a huge tournament

Ed and Edna make the best section bags for the saxophones like… they bake the best things and find the cutest little fun things to entertain them for bus rides

The saxophones actually love the Walkers so much

The Walkers throw the best section parties

Sensei Wu is head band director also

Sensei Garmadon is the visual director, like he is the best at marching and teaching marching

side note, Zane and Nya are the best marchers and Lloyd is probably the worst marcher. Like he’s not bad, he just struggles a bit more than everyone else.

He definitely improves though! Like he works so hard at becoming a better marcher and he’s just as good as Cole, Jay, and Kai!… Zane and Nya are just… they’re really really good

Cole and Kai are the best musicians

Jay is the best at keeping everyone in a good mood and pumped during the hard days

also Jay is the best performer out of the group. He is always in character and it’s amazing

Cole practices the most out of all of them if we’re being real

Oh and Lou wasn’t the biggest fan of Cole joining percussion at first, especially marching band. He wanted Cole to stick to more classical and play in orchestra or play flute or oboe or something but he’s learned to appreciate Cole’s talent in percussion

After Lou accepts that Cole is in percussion and realizes his son’s talent (at the end of Cole’s freshmen year marching season when he played base five), he becomes essentially a uniform mom. He joins them and helps take care of the uniforms hardcore. He’s helped out with color guard once or twice too, as he was a famous dancer when he was younger.

But yeah, Cole played base five as a freshman and then moved up to tenors his sophomore year.

Also Cole and the other two people who march tenor have this tenor break where they’re in the center of the field and it’s like just the three of them or everyone else is super quiet and like… it sounds incredible! Cole’s in the middle and the three flip sticks and dut and make facial expressions like oof it’s good

Zane also definitely has a flute solo like… this boy is really good at his flute

Kai probably has a trumpet solo too. Like, since he’s the best at hitting those high notes, he has this one note solo thing where he plays really high and really loud

Zane can also play the oboe. He can play clarinet too… and Pixal is teaching him French horn… and he can play the piano… he’s talented

Jay can also play tenor saxophone, but he prefers alto

Nya literally chose to march Contra out of spite.

Nya, when trying to choose what instrument to sign up for: you know, I think marching Contra would be kind of fun. I’ve always wanted to learn a second instrument

Some idiot: pfft, you’re a girl. You can’t march Contra, that thing’ll crush you

Nya: *furiously* okay it’s decided I’m playing Contra next year yes hello I’d like a Contra I will begin conditioning and will play cOnTrA

Needless to say, both Nya and Cole have conditioning to go to every year. They don’t mind it, though. They think it’s a fun workout.

If we’re being real, the main reason Jay wants their band to make it to state is because he wants state milk:/ (when bands in my state make it to state, we go to Lucas Oil Stadium and they provide us with milk because they sponsee it or something idk)

Oh and did I mention Dareth is the pit director?? No?? Well he definitely is the pit director

And he loves the people in pit. Like Dareth loves them all like they’re his children and sometimes he’s weird and says weird things or makes weird analogies, but like the kids love him. He cares so much

Ronin works with percussion too, but like, with drum line! He’s a great snare player!

Mystake is like… the past band director. You know, the scary older one that retired but comes back to help? That’s her.

Neuro would be one of the music directors, he works more with woodwinds than brass! Everyone loves him also! Like he can always tell when they all need water breaks or a mush break but he will also call you on your crap if he has too. Oh he works primarily with the flutes, which Zane thinks is cool because he’s the only male flute

The Police Commissioner is also more of a visual tech, and he works primarily with the baritones. He can be kind of intense sometimes, but he has a kind heart and a soft spot for the baritone kids.

Cyrus Borg is actually the bands drill writer! So he writes all of their formations and stuff!

Speaking of, Misako writes the music for the band! Or, is the arranger at least!

Oh and Dr. Julien is a great band dad! He helps build props and stuff!

Sensei Yang is one of the techs. He’s really really harsh, but he does it with love! He never crosses the line into insulting, but he scares a lot of the kids because he points out like every mistake. He has a soft spot for Cole, though. He likes his passion. He works primarily with trumpets.

The Mailman is that one director that’s there like… every few weeks for one day and just silently wanders around, observing. Sometimes he’ll say something to you but sometimes he’ll just watch and smile and nod or frown and shake his head. Then he won’t come back for a week or two. The clarinets like him, though, he spends most of his time with them when he’s there and like… actually talks to them and works with them sometimes in sectionals, just not so much on full field. He’s kind of funny, he makes them laugh

You can best bet Jay loses or forgets his drill the most

Lloyd is a close second

The flute section, contras, and trumpets all have drill boxes that the leader (or Zane) holds onto

Kai’s that person who brags about never losing their drill but then loses it one day and silently fumes and pouts all rehearsal

I haven’t said much about Pixal, have I? Well this queen loves French horn. She likes it more than mellophone, but like, she’ll play mellophone in marching band.

Like Lloyd, marching mello has made her arms stronger.

And also like Kai, she’s not leader but she will sass you if you talk on the field or treat others like trash or something

The whole band kind of has this like… unspoken respect for the two of them??

She will also destroy you if you touch her mellophone without gloves on I kid you not

Kai: oh Pix, I’ll carry you’re mello for you! My trumpet is small I ca-

Pixal: kAI I SWEAR TO THE FSM IF YOU TOUCH IT GLOVELESS I WILL SCREAM

Oh and Pixal is the BEST with the freshmen and newbies! She loves working with them and forming friendships with them!

You best bet the team jams together all the time. They’ll go back to The Bounty or their dojo or meet in someone’s basement and they’ll play their instruments.

They particularly like playing songs like The Weekend Whip or After the Blackout;)

Jay’s that person who screams “COVER YOUR KEYS” when it starts to rain

Oh and Zane, Cole, Pixal, and Jay all do pit orchestra for musicals! Cole plays piano for it, though!

Cole, Kai, and Jay are in jazz as well! Cole plays drum set for jazz, though! The three are in an advanced jazz class!

There’s also a really high chance Lloyd might be drum major their senior year… he wa offered it his junior year but he turned it down because he wanted to march another year and because he didn’t want people to think he was being favored because he dad and uncle are directors:/ also because he joined marching band for fun and didn’t want a leadership position but he also kind of really wants to be drummajor and he is confused:/

But he talked to his friends about it and they assured him that no one would think that because Lloyd would be a really good drummajor and that may take some fun out of the band experience but he works hard for the band and he deserves it so… he’ll probably say yes next year!

Skylor plays baritone, and she and Lloyd get along so well

Morro plays trumpet and he and Kai butt heads from time to time because Morro isn’t always the nicest to Lloyd.

Morro wanted to be drum major but they offered it to Lloyd instead of him and then chose someone else when Lloyd said no and heard Lloyd was probably going to take it next year and is being angsty about it

Karloff would play Contra if we’re being real here

Karloff actually wants to go into a career where he either fixes instruments or he makes them! He has definitely taken some instruments apart before like… screws and all

Harumi would play clarinet. She has a clarinet personality. She also has some issues with the group, she’s not the biggest fan of them and she’s more of one of the ones who thinks Lloyd is spoiled and gets special treatment but she’s trying not to feel that way sometimes:/

Griffin Turner plays alto saxophone, he and Jay get along super well! Turner is actually thinking of playing tenor saxophone next year!

Shade would play base drum in drum line, if we’re being real. I was thinking a lot on what he should play and like… he seems like someone who would play Base Four. He’s just bitter enough, you know?

And he acts like he doesn’t care and he acts like he’s rather play snare, but he secretly loves playing base drum. It suits him.

Faith would be in pit, she’d play marimba. She just recently moved to Ninjago and has some trouble fitting in and communicating with others, but music is like a universal language and she expresses herself through her marimba and the other people in pit love her and help her and treat her as an equal:)

Oh and Faith is going to be in drum line with Cole and Shade next year! She kind of wants to play tenors with Cole since one is graduating, and Faith is freaking strong, but she’ll be fine with base drum or snare drum!

Brad Tudabone would play French horn / mellophone as well. He’s one of the underclass men that Pixal has essentially adopted as her son

Gene would play trumpet sorry I don’t make the rules. He was kind of cocky at first because he was first chair in his middle school band but he got set straight with the help of Kai. Kai actually has taken him under his wing since he reminds Kai of himself from when he was a freshman.

Tox, surprisingly, plays the flute. She almost, almost went with trumpet or Contra, but she found the sound of the flute calms her. She’s not always the most patient person but like, playing the flute helps and hey, sometimes the flutes need someone super freaking tough and ready to fight in their section

Chamille plays clarinet. She was thinking of playing baritone or trumpet, but she wanted to be with Harumi (get it because in Hunted she goes evil… yeah… I know that’s cringey) but no like Chamille can play basically everything. Like, out of everyone in the band she probably can play the most instruments so choosing what to play was really hard but Harumi was good at convincing her the clarinets needed her. She would be willing to switch, though, if the clarinets had too many people and another section needed more

Seliel plays trumpet along with Kai, Morro, and Gene. She fits the trumpet section very well.

Mr. Paleman would play Mellophone and French horn. He gets along with Pixal kind of well since he’s sassy but ya know it’s a good time. He likes it!

Bolobo would play Contra. That’s… that’s it… he’s strong and he loves it

Ash and Jacob play in pit. They’re more quiet and reserved and they feel like they fit in with the pit, even though they can be a bit outgoing sometimes! Jacob plays the synth and Ash plays vibraphone!

People who fight when people diss marching band: Kai, Jay, Nya, Faith, Karloff, Morro, Tox, Seliel, Chamille, Jacob

People who just roll their eyes but don’t say anything: Zane, Skylor, Lloyd, Brad, Gene, Harumi, Griffin Turner, Paleman, Bolobo

People who give you the death glare but stay silent and make you wish you said nothing: Cole and Shade and Ash.

Jay goes the most all out for spirit week the last week of band camp

He’s also the one who complains about the sun destroying him the most during band camp

Jay will always be ginger to me, so this boy burns like trash. He always gets one terrible sun burn every year. He had to put a towel in between his neck and neck strap one time it was that band. He also burned his fingers once (I say this all from experience… I’m ginger… I have been burned so badly in marching band that I needed a towel and had to bring aloe to band with me and yes two season ago even my fingers got burnt)

He’s that person who curses the sun and says that the sun is his greatest enemy

Although, since he grew up in the desert, Jay’s sunburns turn into tans. So he’s usually beautifully tanned by the end of the season (that does not happen to me, though)

The first few weeks of band camp, all the freshmen are kind of scared of Cole because he’s so strong and serious looking and passionate about music but after awhile they realized he’s just a passionate sweetie who sometimes has trouble talking to people and better expresses himself through music!

Cole also wears a lot of black, it’s just who he is and what’s in is closet because even though he loves orange the most, he just likes being broody and the color black but like… wearing black to band camp is a bad idea. He does it every year and every year he swears not to do it again but every year he does it… he also does it multiple times a year and ignores when everyone tells him that he’ll regret it

Cole’s hair is also always in a man-bun during rehearsal

Kai does that too. He’ll wear stupid clothes to band camp. One time he wore jeans for the sole reason because someone said he couldn’t survive a day of band camp in jeans. He did survive but he almost passed out.

It’s already been made clear that Ed and Edna are the best section parents ever, but they go all out for band camp. They bring the saxophone section lunch like twice a week and they bring them snacks after rehearsal, like popsicles and stuff they adore it!

Cole loves band camp for the constant music, but also because he loves being outside so much and he loves the trees and he loves just being in the outdoors for hours straight!

Kai is all about band camp. Like the first week he loves it and he’s so ready and then he slowly gets more and more tired and has some regrets. He still loves it, he just loses like half of his energy haha

Nya and Cole do stupid things sometimes like…

Nya: hey wanna see me march with TWO contras?! One on each shoulder, baby!

Zane: nYA NO

Oh yeah, Zane is basically their impulse control because Kai, Jay, and Lloyd just laugh or stand in awe depending on how it goes

Cole: hey no it’s fine, I’ll carry all three of the tenor drums. I’m strong enough I’ve got this! Just stack them on top of each other… yeah… just like that… don’t worry, I’ve got them it’ll be fine!

Zane: you’re stupid. Don’t do that. Why are you all letting this happen someone taKE THE TENORS OFF OF HIM

You best bet Lloyd once wore a fedora to rehearsal

One time. Lloyd forgot to bring water to rehearsal and he was like it’s not too hot, I’ll be fine. But then it got hot and luckily he didn’t pass out but. he had so many. regrets.

The team are those people who run around the band and yell “BAND IS NOT A DATE” when they see people holding hands or like… being romantic

Misako has come to a few rehearsals to watch her son and husband and to listen to how the band is playing her arrangement and give advice and this happened

Misako and Garmadon: *are holding hands*

Jay: BAND IS NOT A DATE

Misako and Garmadon: it’s marriage!

Have I mentioned Cole, Zane, Chamille, and Skylor all can toss flags in color guard??

Because they can.

Cole almost joined color guard. He thought it was kind of cool, and he thought his dad may like that, but his love for percussion and music was so strong and powerful he decided he’d rather do drum line and he does not regret his decision

Mm Zane, Cole, Jacob, and surprisingly Lloyd all have perfect pitch

It kind of runs in Lloyd’s family, as his uncle and parents are all involved in music

Jay has a terrible sense of pitch

Also Jay hates concert F, or the alto saxophone’s D. He hates it because altos can’t tune to it but they play it for tuning so much. He is very verbal about it.

Wu: *warming the band up* okay, concert F everyone!:)

Jay: *intended to be under his breath but actually isn’t* ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh FSM no!

Zane loves chords so much. He finds them all so pretty and fascinating and memorized all of them for fun!

Pixal bought the gang (Kai, Lloyd, Zane, Cole, Nya, Jay, and Skylor) fanny packs to use during the season while they’re on the field! They’re all their favorite color (yes Cole’s is orange)

You best bet there are some friendly section wars / rivalries

Aka Kai, Jay, and Nya go hardcore, especially during the water balloon fight at the end of band camp

Sometimes the gang switches instruments when the band (is forced to) plays at football games

Like Cole will take Kai’s trumpet and play the trumpet and tenors at the same time

Lloyd and Jay will switch instruments too… Jay isn’t the best brass player haha

Pixal will switch with Zane so he can practice mellophone

They do that every single time for fun until Wu or Garmadon finds out and makes them stop

Speaking of football games, Lloyd, Jay, and Zane all cheer for the other team. Zane cheers for both because he’s a sweetie and Lloyd and Jay cheer for only the opposing team because they want to

Kai hates when they do that but they’ll never stop

One time, Wu was telling the band they need to tell the story more, like how the color guard does. More facial expressions, more elegant movements. As he was trying to explain that, he told them to “sell their bodies” and then immediately was like “wait no not actually poor choice of words” and the band flipped

Now they all jokingly tell each other to sell their bodies

Each time the directors change parts of music or drill or movements, everyone face palms because it basically goes down like this

Wu: band. There is something I haven’t told you. We are changing more stuff again

One time Jay was really bored during rehearsal so he was practicing some horn moves and came up with something to say while he did it. It was “interior crocodile alligator. I drive a Chevrolet movie the-ater. Four door mini van. I love CostCO”

And now that’s a thing everyone does and says when they do the moves. It has spread!!! Except drum line. They have their own stuff. Also they dut.

Jay and Kai are the guys that constantly play the music from the other years before. Like all the time. All. The Time.

----

That’s it... for now?? I really like this AU, and I’m in marching band, or I was haha this was my last year because I’m graduating! Some of the specific stuff has happened haha! Uh, I play alto sax, but I played tenor this past marching band season! Also I am ginger as well! I have also started drawing some of this ahhh

I hope you guys enjoyed! Does anyone agree or disagree with any of these? What instrument do you play?

[spinjitzu-comics]

Ninjago High School AU

This is just the stuff I currently have planned for the characters. Some are more well-developed (like Lloyd) than others (like Wu). Also, yes, there are still Elemental Powers in this AU.

Lloyd Garmadon

Certified Sass Master™

Will listen to any music

His regular playlist quite literally ranges from stuff like Anthrax and Pantera to Ke$ha and Katy Perry.

Listens to upbeat, repetitive music when he’s upset or stressed and he can’t focus.

dubstep/techno mostly

Artsy as all get-out

All his elective classes are art

Sculptures

Probably friends with Morro

Will fight you

If he loses he’ll cry

If you lose, you’ll cry

And he will laugh

Plays piano!

Rebellious phase has hit him hard

@ Wu: “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO”

Gets bored easily

Fidget cubes and doodles out the wazoo during math class

Seriously all of his homework has a doodle of some kind on it

Asexual aromantic

Platonic crushes on all the other ninja tho

Especially Kai and Zane

Golden Power

After discovering it, it tends to flair a little when he’s angry. It trails behind all of his motions and let’s be honest here it tends to sparkle. So he kinda looks like a glowy, full sized angry Tinkerbell.

Lord Garmadon

lol where?

there’s no Lord Garmadad here

not that Lloyd knows of

he could be Garmadead for all Lloyd knows

Literally a raging psychopath with severe DID

other Identity is Sensei Garmadon

he’s the Garmadad we all know and love

Been hiding out in a secret lair for 10 years

Sensei Garmadon always tries to go back home when he’s awake but he can’t remember how to get there

Wants to take over the world

Actually still loves Misako and doesn’t want her hurt and that’s why he left

Deadbeat Dad™

Except for Sensei Garmadon

He is Best Dad™

He’s fine with Lloyd’s sexual/romantic interests but he’s distressed by the thought of Lloyd never having an heir.

Sensei Wu

Cryptic™

Tries to be a father figure to Lloyd but Lloyd aint havin’ that shit

“YOU’RE STILL NOT MY REAL DAD” “Lloyd pls”

Definitely in love with Misako

Treats the Ninja like his children

Morro is his biggest regret

Reason why is in Morro’s part.

Morro

The Rage Child™

He’s so heckin’ angry

Resents Wu

Looks up to Lord Garmadon

Definitely plays with Ouija boards

Might be a demon?

Probably a virgin

R e b e l l i o n

“YOU SEE THIS GREEN STREAK WU?! YOU SEE IT?! THIS GREEN STREAK SAYS “FUCK YOU”!”

Likes storms

Literally the most power-crazy teenager in Ninjago and ended up literally fighting Wu when he found out his destiny was essentially to just be a minor antagonist in everyone’s lives rather than be super powerful like he wanted to be.

Sexually and romantically confused

Misako Garmadon

Just wants what’s best for her child.

Loves both of the brothers very much

Married to Garmadon but when he didn’t come back in like 3 years she started ‘dating’ Wu

Knows Lloyd doesn’t want to acknowledge Wu as a father figure and she’s somewhat exasperated

“Lloyd I’ve been dating him since you were 9 and you never had a problem with him before.”

“He wasn’t actually trying to be my dad before, mom.”

Supportive of her son’s interests

She literally bought him all the art supplies he could ever possibly want.

He even has his own pottery wheel and a kiln.

She’s also supportive of his sexual/romantic interests despite being somewhat disappointed that she’ll never have grandkids.

Kai Smith

If you tell him not to do the thing he will do the thing to spite you

Actually a sweetheart

Kind of a narcissist but mostly because no one else gives him that kind of attention

Only listens to rock music unless he has no choice

He can stand to listen to most of the stuff Lloyd listens to but he doesn’t really like a lot of it.

Favorite band is Three Days Grace

Secretly likes Sleeping With Sirens

Likes watching Lloyd paint

Lets Lloyd paint on his arms and face when they’re in a tough situation and Lloyd needs to distract himself.

Lloyd’s started using Kai’s left arm as a canvas for floral designs and his right arm as a canvas for flames.

He couldn’t hold still the first few times it happened because it tickled but now he’s mostly numb to the feeling of paintbrushes against his skin.

Bisexual demiromantic.

Kind of likes Lloyd (like that) but respects that Lloyd isn’t romantically or sexually interested at all and does his best not to push his emotions on Lloyd.

Also kind of likes Jay just a little bit but respects that Nya likes him and wants his sister to be happy.

If I put Skylor in this AU he’ll like her too.

Hoodies. Just... Hoodies.

He likes being warm.

Once he discovers his Elemental Powers he tends to accidentally light things on fire when he gets agitated.

Cole Brookstone

The Dancing Queen™

Amazing singer

Protective of all his friends.

He is the mother hen. It is him.

Vindictive boy if you hurt his friends.

Sexually confused but has crushes on pretty much everyone he knows no matter what gender

He thinks Kai is mildly attractive and might date him

“Lloyd’s cute I’d date him and probably marry the fuck out of him if he wasn’t aro.”

“Jay’s pretty cute too but I think Nya likes him and I know he likes Nya and I’m not gonna be a homewrecker.”

Would probably date Zane

After discovering his Elemental Power he takes an interest in physical combat.

Gay 4 Nature™

Zane Julien

A legit angel

Not a robot but he’s still a little... Off.

Super smart

Anxiety™

Secretly loves memes and makes “Get in the bag Nebby” jokes with Lloyd 24/7

Most of the memes he likes are the old fashioned cat memes

But he has a tendency to do the “mmm whatcha saaayyyyy” thing

Has a fidget cube that he likes to take apart and put back together

Shop classes

Ace and demiromantic

Platonic crush on Lloyd

Would probably date Cole or Kai if given the chance or if he could get over his anxiety.

Might date Nya

He always knew about his powers and he’s constantly cold to the touch

Jay Walker

Anxiety™: The Sequel

Constantly screaming on the inside

Straight as a line

Head/heels for Nya

Best friends with Zane and Cole

Also does the “mmm whatcha saaayyyy” thing

The Inventor™

Once he finds out about his powers he uses them to help his inventions succeed.

Will accidentally shock you if he’s stressed

Nya Smith

BAMF

Can kick your ass

WILL kick your ass

Protective

Bicurious

Definitely likes Jay though

Thinks her powers are dumb

Literally makes it rain when she’s upset

She’s sad and so are the clouds

Okay that’s all I’ve got for now.

[birchwoodswolf]

Who is blue samurai x? I'm dying Squirtle please help.

Well, Anon, there’s my theory, and then there’s the popular theory. And because you came to ask my opinion, guess which one you’re going to get? :D

So here’s a “disclaimer” of sorts for you, or perhaps more of a waiver: This is nothing more than the same desperate string of hope that’s led along a lot of my other theories about mysterious characters in years past. The difference with this one is that there’s actually a significant amount more substance than the usual theories, including a very powerful source (i.e., the Dark Island Trilogy novels, specifically the third one) that vouches for it.

With that said, let’s begin!

So let’s go back to before the beginning, to a basic analysis of what little we do know within canon about a certain Dr. Julien. Here’s a list of important points:

He’s a crazy-fantastic inventor, able to understand complex mechanics with little more than a glance at a set of blueprints.

He was the first person to invent a sentient android. (Cyrus may or may not have based his designs for Pixal off of Zane - it would certainly explain all of the references to “compatibility”, why Pixal was so easily able to duplicate Zane’s blueprints to create the Nindroids, and how Zane was able to rebuild himself in Borg Industries’ factory - but this is just speculation.)

He was (presumably) able to redraw Zane’s blueprints from memory and then modify them such that they would be suitable for use with far more limited materials (Word of God says Echo was made out of “copper and bits and pieces from the island”).

He was able to draft blueprints for and then reassemble the Destiny’s Bounty’s engines within about 18 hours. (Started around midday, they left the island at sunrise the next morning.) He also added the “blimp”, most likely for stability, and made several other changes to make sure the ship would be able to fly safely. The improved engines were powerful enough to resist the pulling force of the entire Leviathan.

He seems to have a certain talent for inventing and implementing weapons, considering the Juggernaut, the Bounty, the two vehicles he made from scratch on the Dark Island, all of the Skeleton Army’s various vehicles, Zane, and Echo (though Echo isn’t as good at it due his obvious limitations, i.e. the fact that he’s constantly falling apart).

He also seems to have a decent amount of skill operating vehicles, or is able to learn how to operate vehicles rather quickly. Consider his experiences with the Bounty in the second half of season two: he redesigns it but doesn’t pilot it when they leave, he spends the next two episode building unrelated inventions, and then in E25 he’s able to control it precisely enough to intercept the Overlord’s missile before it can hit Lloyd. All of that with no prior on-screen flying experience.

Samukai forced him to consume an unknown potion. Said potion brought him back to life, and considering how most magic in Ninjago is a double-edged sword, it’s possible that there might have been other effects.

Cyrus admires and respects him, as seen in his little spiel with Zane in E27.

He’s not 100% confirmed to be dead, and the circumstances of his sudden “disappearance” between S2 and S3 are unknown. This here is the clincher. The very fact that we don’t know what happened to him means that he’s an extremely viable option to come out of left field and fuck shit up.

And then, finally, there’s something that I only found out by chance on the Ninjago Wiki, seen here on this page.

Later that night, Wu, waking up, would be struck with a horrible nightmare. Recounting what he’d seen in his journal, Wu would recall his dream; Cryptic visions, such as that of Dr. Saunders, followed by the Hall of Villainy exhibit, its statues filled with more life than regular mannequins; Master Yang, dwelling in the shadows; the former masters of Fire and Water, Ray and Maya, in a pit of flame forging something terrible; the deceased inventor, Dr. Julien; and finally, the twins he thought lost to time, Acronix and Krux. Haunted by his visions, Wu decides that he must prepare for the inevitable future.

Before I even get to the rest of the evidence that supports this, I just want to consider this tidbit here. The Dark Island Trilogy is set between the end of the “real” part of Skybound and Day of the Departed. So let’s take apart these visions, shall we?

Dr. Saunders and the Hall of Villainy were core pieces in the plot of Day of the Departed.

Sensei Yang was also a core piece and main antagonist of Day of the Departed.

From the leaks of the last half of S7, Ray and Maya are still alive and are/were helping to forge the Iron Doom.

Acronix and Krux is obvious, as they’re involved all throughout S7.

And then you consider that Julien is on the same list, in the middle of the list of things that were relevant in S7, and that again according to the Ninjago Wiki, he was considered important enough to be pictured (scroll down to the Appearances section). And now, if you still don’t believe any of this shit I’ve laid out before you and you’re still not 100% convinced, then we can start getting into the nitty-gritty details that really start to suggest something when put together.

So let’s actually start off with the Samurai X Rising preview that LEGO posted on their YouTube channel a few weeks ago. (If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here.) What we’re going to do for each piece of this is start assembling a list of the skills this character must have, and thus eliminate every character that does not have all of these skills.

And this opening short sets the bar pretty high. Samurai X (who I will henceforth refer to as “X”, both to avoid confusion and to save typing) is intimately familiar with technology to the point where they can reprogram it on the fly to redesign Nya’s vehicles and armor. They also seem to have some minor skill with bladed weapons, and are either very talented with operating Nya’s vehicles or instinctually know what to do to prevent all of the dangerous maneuvers they’re doing with the vehicle from killing them. With these three details, we can eliminate 99% of the cast.

Minor skill with weapons implies that they can’t be any minor characters such as Ed, Edna, Dareth, Brad, Gene, Sally, Lou, the Mailman, etc. etc. that have no knowledge whatsoever of these skills.

The ability to drive the vehicle alone narrows the rest of the field down significantly, leaving only:

The Ninja and their close allies (Wu, Misako, Ronin, etc.)

The Elemental Masters

Cyrus and Pixal

Finally, the familiarity with Nya’s technology narrows it down even further, to an incredibly narrow field of Julien, Cyrus, Pixal, Ronin, and Karlof (due to his engineering experience).

And then, just from this short, we can narrow it all down to only Julien and Pixal through the fact that Cyrus appears all throughout the season, X steals Ronin’s voice, and X doesn’t appear to have any elemental powers (since Karlof’s iron fists would be a dead giveaway).

I can hear you now saying: “But Julien and Pixal are both viable options, and most of the same arguments you applied to Julien apply to her just as well!”

But don’t worry about it. I have a way to rule her out, too. But first we’re going to start over, to derive this tiny pool of two viable options in a different way.

X first appears this season in E70, when they appear out of nowhere to rescue Lloyd, drop him off with the Ninja again, have a short confrontation with the Ninja in which X says absolutely nothing, and then blast off and leave without even attempting to make conversation.

Next: E71. Nya returns to her Samurai X cave and has a very odd encounter with X, in which X copies other characters’ voices. The characters they duplicate, in order of appearance, are:

Ronin

Dareth

Misako

Kai

Nya herself

Skyl*r

What connection do all of these characters have? Oh, nothing in particular… except for the fact that they’ve all spoken in Nya’s Samurai X cave. While I have no proof of this (and no desire to find old French or Finnish episodes to search for voice lines, considering I speak neither) it’s quite possible that the things Samurai X says are exact lines from what said characters spoke when they were in the cave.

When we consider this in the context of the strange encounter from E70, it suddenly makes sense: X is unable to speak for whatever reason, or chooses not to speak such that their identity will not be revealed to the Ninja. This is yet another important detail that will be very significant - and it can singlehandedly narrow us down to one character. (I’ll explain why later.)

Another important thing to note in this scene is that X apparently doesn’t know that Garmadon is dead, or generally says something about Garmadon that causes Nya to go into a fit about Garmadon and makes sad music play. This is yet another thing that’s very important to consider, and I will again explain why later.

Finally, Nya walks away at the end of that scene assuming that Samurai X is Skyl*r… and then Skyl*r is immediately counted out in the very next scene.

Honestly, I’m getting tired of presenting evidence because let’s face it, everybody who’s reading this is already convinced X is either Julien or Pixal and all I really have to do is explain why it can’t be Pixal. I’m not even going to bother with presenting the rest of the stuff, because I’m getting tired of it and none of it is relevant anyway.

So here’s my final argument on why it has to be Julien, and why it can’t be Pixal: color schemes.

See, throughout the series, even if you don’t look that hard, you’ll see that Pixal tends to be associated with three or four colors: white, purple, green, and red. Her body is white with purple accents, her eyes are very obviously green, and parts of her design (and her eyes when she was briefly “evil” in S3) are red. Notably, none of these colors are blue or gold, the main colors that X chooses to associate with.

On the other hand? Julien’s entire family is centered around four main colors: blue, yellow/gold, white, and black, most of which are prevalent in X’s design. For evidence regarding this color association, it’s as easy as taking a look at some of the episodes that are significant to their family in general:

In Tick Tock (E7), the memory sequence has a persistent yellow color which turns into a sickly green when Julien dies/Zane is deactivated.

The Last Voyage (E22) has lots of associations with blue, yellow, and black, most notably everything near the end of the episode (the lighting in the scene at the top of the lighthouse, and then everything after that, pretty much).

The Titanium Ninja (E34) features all four colors. Blue, white, and black are the most obvious, but there’s also yellow (the butterfly at the end).

Zane’s original design features all four colors: yellow skin, white clothing, blue eyes, black accessories/gloves/etc.

Zane’s new Titanium design features three of the colors: gray (black + white) and blue. Additionally, Echo has the last color of the quartet (as he’s mainly themed around yellow).

The Workshop features all four colors at one time or another (black and white from the trees outside; yellow and blue from different lighting on the inside).

The Lighthouse also features all four colors in different amounts and places (the tower is mostly dark gray/blue, but is accented by yellowish wood; the light the tower produces is pure white).

But the most cementing detail about all of this is X’s eye visor, which is a particularly telling color: the exact same shade of blue as Zane’s eyes.

*drops mic*

…

*picks mic back up again*

So now here’s the fun part: we’ve got all the fun, weird details about X in place, and now I have to explain where Julien gets all of these extra things from. Some of these are very easy: if X is Julien, the reason X doesn’t know that Garmadon is dead is because Julien was never around to find out about it and presumably has had no contact with anyone who would know.

The more concerning detail, however, is this: if X is Julien, why is Julien unable to speak?

Before I get into my explanation, there’s one more thing I’d like to point out: In E74, X does something very odd. In any context it would seem innocent, but this odd thing is given specific attention and adds a very tangible weight to my idea about what happened.

Go ahead, watch it. Starting at 20:30, watch straight through.

Did you reach 21:00? If you did, go back. Watch it again. Just watch it over and over, those same thirty seconds, until you can figure out what’s wrong with that picture.

Still stumped? Here’s the answer: X moves. They take a step forward, to get a better look at what they’re seeing, as if whatever they’re seeing is the most important thing they’ve ever witnessed. No one else moves; they all stand and stare. X steps forward to look, but at what?

Oh, nothing but Kai using the yellow Time Blade to reverse-age his father.

Here’s the theory: Remember everything I’ve said about Samukai’s potion? How it might have had unintended (or intended) side effects, how magic is a double-edged sword? How a second chance at life can’t just be given away for free, how a price must always be paid for immortality?

Let me just link back to that Ninjago Theories post from 2013 one last time. Just for kicks, y'know. Because option number two can explain everything.

Here’s a timeline of sorts on how everything probably went down, just for the heck of it, and also because I doubt it’s explained in S7 from what we’ve seen in the leaks. (Admittedly it is kinda hard to tell when you can only understand the visuals, but considering that X only appears for short bursts more than anything, it’s definitely a reasonable assumption.)

Starting off post-Tick Tock’s flashback, Samukai brings Julien back to life with the infamous potion and takes him to the lighthouse prison to start creating vehicles for the Skeleton Army.

Julien creates vehicles for a while until the Skeletons abandon him (because they lose the war and can no longer travel to the surface of their own accord). At this point, the potion has probably already started to take effect - but Julien doesn’t notice, because he’s too busy stressing out over his two main concerns at this point: “not starving” and “not going insane”.

Julien makes Echo, blah blah blah, bides his time, blah blah blah, The Last Voyage, blah blah blah, the Dark Island, blah blah blah, THEY WIN YAY!

At some point afterward Julien starts to figure out that something is terribly, terribly wrong, but he doesn’t want to worry Zane about it so he says nothing. Eventually he figures out what’s going on and decides to make himself disappear, because he doesn’t want to put Zane through this shit right after they were just reunited.

Julien likely flees to the Workshop and lays low there for a few years or until Zane goes to visit for Day of the Departed and Julien realizes he needs to leave, due to his “skin condition”, in that his skin is nonexistent. (Ha ha funny joke.)

He seeks out another isolated place where nobody can bother him, and possibly by accident, stumbles upon Nya’s samurai cave. There, he gets the idea to “borrow” Nya’s equipment and gear such that he can like, not live in hiding for the rest of his existence.

S7 happens: meeting with the Ninja and Nya, not wanting to use his own voice or possibly being unable to use it (again due to the aforemented “skin condition”), etc. etc. etc.

Finally we get to the end of the season, where he witnesses Ray getting de-aged by the yellow Time Blade. The step forward now makes sense: “Holy shit I don’t have to be an actual skeleton until the end of time now”.

So yeah, that’s about it for all of this. You now have the proper context to understand this video that I made the night I watched the leaks! Hooray!