#coming from a S1-S4 Zane fan

[agenericplaceholdername]

Some would call this a retcon but anyone who's been a Ninjago fan long enough has probably switched up their favorite Ninja several times

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

can you rank the ninja suits pretty please

All right but I'm warning ya that *I* don't even remember all the names for them—

Destiny Robes/Airjitzu Suits (S6)- The All-Time love of my life. The perfectly distributed Black + Color combo. The winged symbols on the back. The sparkle accents. The front and center-ness of the animal symbols. Brilliant, darling, brilliant.

Core Outfits (Early!DR)- I looove these ones a LOT, especially in minifig form!! They're so colorful and vibrant, and they all follow the same uniform pattern while also highlighting everyone's individualities! Good stuff, good stuff, wish they were in the show just a bit more ;w;

Elemental Robes (S2)- Iconic AF, very clean design that has stood the test of time!

Deepstone Armor (S5)- I like these for the same reasons as Destiny + Elemental –> love me a good black + color combo, and the overall aesthetic is very clean and distinct!

Fugitive Suits (Crystalized)- These are sick! If we had these the whole time instead of the s11 suits I would've lost my mind these are cool aaaah–

Digi Suits (S12)- LOVE THESE!!! Perfectly fitting for the season, uniform yet unique to everyone, and used some very fun colors!!!

Hero Armor (S13)- All right, these were awesome for the short amount of time we got them. ...mainly for Cole's, but like, everyone was working what they had!

Movie Suits (The Movie)- These are a little more collectively disjointed than I usually like, but everyone's personality (theoretically) shines so well with these that I can't dock it snksnk

Island Robes (The Island)- I actually like these a lot! Makes me wish that the Jungle Suits were closer to what these were.

ZX Suits (S1/S2)- Iconic! So many fond memories <3

Tournament Robes (s4)- One of my favorites actually, though I do kind of wish they made them more individualized while sticking to a united theming. And then gave them to everyone in the tournament and not just the ninja :b

Stone Armor??? (S3)- These are pretty dope but I do not remember them outside of the last ep of S3 SO

Hunted Robes (S9)- Everyone being busted up in already cool outfits? Sign me up!

Resistance Robes (S8)- I like the spins they put on the movie gi, but in turn they all feel a little disjoined from one another. Individually they're great! As a collective, mweh.

Legacy Robes (S10)- I actually like these a lot, but they're not terribly memorable either

Merge Suits??? (DR)- Overall I like these (and the implied giant scarf thing around the necks) but they're kind of lacking a bit of pop. Plus the hoods are so smooth and it looks a lil strange snksnk

"Golden Armor" (Crystalized)- ...not everyone was meant to wear gold. Lloyd's fit is absolutely sick and is probably in the top three were it by itself, but it's very hit or miss when it comes to the others.

DX Suits (Pilots/S1)- Looove the little elemental dragons, but they a touch simplistic and not around long enough to make a lasting impression

Armor Robes??? (S11/Wildbrain Defaults)- I don't hate these but they don't stand out enough for me to really enjoy seeing them so very often either ahaha

Techno Robes (S3)- I love the individuality in these, but they're a bit busy and lack cohesion to me :d

Jungle Suits (S4)- I know these are fan favorite but they just never did it for me. I do have newfound appreciation for them, buuuut I like soooo many other suits more ahaha

Training Gi (Pilots/S1)- Classic! But very basic. Not their fault!

Fusion Armor??? (S7)- These have grown on me but I. Am Not. Fond of These. Lloyd and Nya's good, and Kai's if you squint, but the rest. I Cannot. Get Behind. AT ALL. (Jay looks like he's swimming in armor and Zane's is not easy on the eyes whatsoever snksnksn)

[agenericplaceholdername]

I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how DR's side characters might differ from the original show. I think what it might be is that most Ninjago seasons followed a pattern of introducing a side character relatively early on as a (potential) Ninja ally and then having them work with the Ninja/help one of them with their character arc/have an arc themselves and are present throughout the rest of the season. Lloyd in S1, Misako in the latter half of S2, PIXAL in S3, Skylor in S4, Ronin in S5, Harumi in S8 (until the twist), Faith in S9, Garmadon in S10, Akita in the Ice Chapter, Vania in S13, Twitchy Tim in The Island, and Bentho in S14. Interestingly, the seasons that didn't do this -- S6, S7, the Fire Chapter, S12, and S15 -- all tend to be seen as worse seasons. Granted, that's for other reasons in all these cases, and they're not necessarily worse, but it's just something interesting.

Dragons Rising S1 doesn't do this, probably because it's trying to establish new characters. The roster of recurring characters is larger that Lloyd, Arin, and Sora, but I don't think you can call Kai, Nya, Zane, and Wyldfyre side characters in the same way as these previous examples are. Being a ninja seems to inoculate characters from side character status. The real side characters are Euphrasia, Percival, Frohicky, Arrakore, and Geo. All of them have their own character stories and arcs, but Euphrasia, Arrakore, and Geo are all one episode wonders and don't reappear in the season.

On the other hand, Dragons Rising S2 does follow the original side character route for the most part, as long as you treat the two parts of the season separately (which is how they come off anyway). Rontu, Egalt, Bonzle, Gandalaria, Roby, and Frak all fall into the mold of characters that follow along with the Ninja for a prolonged period of time. The difference is, only Egalt and Frak really have character arcs. Bonzle has a ton of character development but I wouldn't really call it an arc.

So if a character needs to feature in multiple episodes and have an arc, then DR just has Frohicky, Percival, Egalt, and Frak over the course of 40 episodes. Personally, I like a lot of the DR side characters, regardless of their smaller screen time. Meeting Euphrasia and Arrakore is important for Sora's arc in S1, Geo's just a solid guy who helps Sora and Cole's characters, I think the Rontu/Egalt dichotomy is fun, Bonzle is a solid character and I really like the Wyldfyre & Egalt stuff. Interested to see more of Frak. That being said, how side characters function structurally in DR is definitely different than the original show, and maybe it's harder to have strong thoughts on characters who are less present or don't have arcs. Would love to hear your thoughts on some of the reoccurring side villains -- Dorama, Rapton, Cinder, Jordana. Personally super interested in Jordana's story post-S2.

The mini-cliffhangers seem like they're written for a version of DR that releases weekly. I do not understand why they exist in a show that drops in batches on Netflix. And even when Ninjago released weekly I don't think episodes ended like this so who knows.

I think we just disagree on Sora's story in S1. Is it cliche? Absolutely. Is it boring, messy, and not cohesive? Didn't come off that way to me. I think there's a pretty clear through line of her being pessimistic, not accepting she has powers, messing up and not wanting to use them, and then from E5 onward learning to be more optimistic and accepting the responsibility of her powers. She still has underlying trauma related to her childhood in Imperium and thinks of herself as unworthy and "broken," something the final stretch of S1 resolves when she fights Dr. LaRow, brings down Beatrix's regime, and stands up to her parents. I'm a big fan.

Lloyd's S2 arc is definitely worse, but I don't think the idea of intrusive visions as an allegory for anxiety is inherently wrong, especially when those visions are explicitly stated to not necessarily come true (and they don't -- from subtle differences to Lloyd just not losing to Zeatrix as he thought he would). There is development there -- how Lloyd handles stress is different by the end of S2. It does fall into the category of "well-intentioned but flawed" that a lot of Ninjago stories do though.

We haven't talked about Arin's character, but I think the longer story arcs really help him because you get this slow burn as things just pile up. The scene with everyone using their elemental powered grappling hooks while he watches? Love it. They do repeat some points a little too much but the steady loss of trust in the Ninja is tragic. Obviously they still could mess it up but I like what we've got so far.

It's totally fair to care more about the Merge than the characters. I just think that when it comes to storytelling promises that were kept/broken, the story is just not designed to go into the details of the nature of the Merge. The story about Imperium isn't a distraction from the "real story," it is the real story. Where the Merge sent people and why it happened is a good question, but we don't spend enough time on it that it seems like there's story setup that is unnecessarily dragged out. It's just something to keep in mind in the background. Instead, we focus on how the Merge impacted the characters that are still around -- Lloyd, Arin, and Sora (and later the bulk of the original crew + Wyldfyre). We'll get to the full merge lore stuff in a season (or four) so if it's not a satisfying explanation, that'll be really disappointing, but for now I can wait.

You're right that most of the Oni Trilogy "plot holes" are small questions -- I wouldn't call them plot holes because they're not necessarily contradicting anything -- but "what happened to the Oni" is an important question Hunted asks and we never get the answer beyond Garmadon's allusion to a darkness in the Departed Realm. I guess they just died then (and escaped somehow? I would say though the Realm Crystal but I doubt that can access the Departed Realm. Totally unrelated though).

I agree that most of the DR setups that have been followed through are not big questions. That was more to show that it's not like mysteries or story threads are just being piled up with no payoff.

I think whether not answering what caused the Merge is "avoiding the question" comes down to the answer and what the big picture plot of DR is. If it turns out that the Merge was part of some intricate cosmic chess game involving Ras' master, who turns out to be the big bad of DR, it'll make sense why they didn't (and couldn't) reveal it in S1 or S2. You wouldn't reveal the murderer in chapter 2 of Christie novel for the same reason. On the other hand, if it's a smaller detail (like the murder weapon), then it'll make far less sense. I agree with your Cole point 100% because in narrative the protagonists know something we don't, and if it was a big secret that we're not ready to learn, then the protagonists shouldn't know it either.

Thanks for clarifying about the tags -- still new to this so I'm trying to figure out the unspoken norms here. I agree Seabound isn't about Merlopia. It wouldn't necessarily be a better season if we learned about Kalmaar's life in school, or where Bentho came from. But S1 is about Imperium as it relates to one of our protagonists. It's not just the origin of our main antagonists -- the society itself is an antagonist, which is something we haven't seen in Ninjago before. Are technologically advanced dystopias that restrict individual expression overdone in media? Absolutely. Are they overdone in Ninjago? Not really. And it's not just copy-pasted Hunger Games -- the "mindless beasts" thing is relevant and called back well, the social ostracization of Imperium defines Sora's character and is relevant to her relationship with Jordana, the dragon hunter aesthetic is cool (though not unique to Ninjago).

I think at the end of the day, I like the character stories of DR and am therefore more inclined to look favorably on other aspects of the show and give the mysteries and lore stuff more time. Maybe the side character stuff just comes down to character vibe and not story structure. I think we probably agree on a lot of things directionally (liking Sora's S2 story and Kai and Wyldfyre's dynamic, among others, while disliking some of the writing choices and wishing they'd settle on some big mysteries while resolving some of the needless ones like Cole's journey) but I'm just slightly shifted more towards the "I like it" side of the spectrum on most points.

Okay, everyone get in the comments and let me know why you love dragons rising so that maybe I can reverse engineer why I don't-

[mythical-fangirls]

Was possessed with the urge to write this out

Aphmau’s Mystreet But Ein is raised as Aph’s lil bro because idk, his mom died and his dad is an asshole and because canon is an illusion And because this has been trapped in my brain for days

Aphmau would be more aware of her werewolf heritage and in high school specific that yes, my dad is a werewolf but I got my mom’s human genes

Second year

Alpha Aphmau: All of you BETTER play nice with my baby brother

The werewolves: You have a brother???

The Werewolf Trio: Yeah, a half-brother who’s a werewolf. So he’s going to be in our werewolf class

Ein is not the omega nor the alpha male because his sister forbade it. No one can pick on her brother but her and maybe Aaron

In first year, during a lot of events Ein is just there watching and knowing all the tea

He still dyed a bit of his hair blue because Aesthetic

He once turned to his wolf form and bit Gene during Aphmau’s first year

He still buys his hair dye from Hot Topic and constantly awkwardly have to deal with Gene who keeps asking for pics of his sister

Aphmau’s aware relatively early on that she was marked by the Alpha Male/Omega Aaron as the Alpha Female, because she grew up with a werewolf little brother so she knows a bit about werewolves and it’s one of the reason’s she intentionally signed up for Werewolf Class

Every birthday of Aphmau’s, there are two cakes. Red velvet because its her favourite, and another non-chocolate one for Ein

Ein also knows about Aaron being a werewolf in High School but he was raised with Respect and Manners so he keeps his mouth shut, but does tell Aaron when he and Aph start dating

Ein had a baby crush on Kawaii-Chan and Laurence at the same time

When Aphmau was turned into a werewolf for a week, he helped her adjust to all the shedding

Aphmau: Wait, you use a different shampoo for your fur??

Ein: ... Yes??? Fur and hair are very different, that’s why you don’t use human shampoo on dogs! Have you been using your regular shampoo??

Aphmau:... Yes

Ein: Use mine so there’s less shedding and mom doesn’t have to buy another bulk set of lint rollers

Second year is really calm and stuff, outside of Aphmau getting challenged by Maria everything’s chill

Ein also gets challenged a bunch because everyone thinks that Aphmau tagged him as Alpha Male but no, I’m just her brother

The Alpha Male Aphmau chooses is still Daniel because Shenanigans happen during the games

When he graduates, Aphmau assigns Ein as Alpha Male because they’re graduating in a year or so anyway so they have time to properly scout for proper replacements in the next year or so

Mystreet S1

He either owns his own house on the street or rooms with the Knight Boys or with Aaron to give Aphmau more of an excuse to visit him without causing someone to freak out

S2

He was with Travis at the start but he heard Aaron and Dante talking about a thing and grabs Travis and Celestia and Laurence so they don’t get left behind

He helps Aphmau with mom freaking out

Makes sure everyone knows that his sister cannot swim and neither can he (cue group swimming lessons to help their friends learn how to swim)

Garrence because why not, except they’re still in the “we’re totally just friends bro” phase and Ein and Zane are already Tired, but its better than watching Dante try and fail at flirting

S3

Is Suspect of Gene with Zane

He lives with either Zane, Garroth, and Laurence, or Dante and Travis

Was not transformed into a baby during the Halloween special and made sure Aaron doesn’t eat any chocolate

Post-S3 Pre-S4

He’s just along for the chaotic ride until pain

S4

Idk who’d take his place honestly, with that in mind let’s not

They clean up the lodge and the weirdest thing that happens is a ghost that either gets exorcised or is sent to another place to haunt

They find the potion place and the notes on forever potions, Lucinda takes the book home

Ein befriends the local werewolf pack and asks them to avoid certain roads because of people coming in with this lodge getting repaired

All just happy and fun times, until he off-handedly mentions a weird book about Forever Potions they found to Derek and Garte does shit really start hitting the fan

Then Travis briefly acts off enough to have the warning bells ring in Ein’s head

Oh yeah, Ein’s “werewolf” pack is just the Mystreet crew, they don’t really get it for the most part but they try! (Outside of Aaron and Aph, and Aaron’s werewolf genes & instincts are happy for the familiarity)

S5

Starlight happens but more because Aaron and Ein worked their asses off (because Ein wants to help his future-brother-in-law have the perfect proposal setting and mood because his sister deserves the best)

However, Derek and Garte bring their families plus friends of their family along as well

They tell them a month in advance

Aaron & Ein:...

Ein: Well, at least you can use the money to just buy the rings and eventually fund the wedding, right?

Aaron:... Yeah...

Vylad’s there, oh and Garroth and Laurence are now dating and help set up Zane & Kawaii-Chan

During that one episode where they encounter Kai, he and Ein almost throw hands because no on insults his sister like that but him and maybe Aaron and Katelyn and Zane and-

Aaron asks his family and Ein if its okay for him to turn Aphmau into a werewolf

Aaron: I don’t want to risk her getting hurt because I lost control

The Lycans: We understand, and we give you permission as long as she’s okay with it

Ein:

The Lycans:

Aaron:

Ein: I thought you were just a normal werewolf, maybe a bit weird but the Ultima? Never in my wildest dreams

The Lycans:

Aaron: Fuck

Two days later

Ein: Okay, I’m calm now, yes you can, as long as you tell our mom and get her permission too and also tell Aph that she won’t be able to have red velvet anymore because of werewolf allergies

A day later

Ein, to the Lycans: Oh yeah, remember that Aphmau technically has werewolf genetics because of our father

Derek, having certain pieces clicking together: Just out of curiosity, what’s your father’s name

Ein: Zack *gags*

Derek, internally: PANIC 

Ein helps Aphmau adjust to her new ears and tail, and also makes sure she learn how to hide it as soon as she can

Oh yea, Garroth isn’t turned into a werewolf because Aaron has no reason to lose control because of Ein because Ein’s his soon to be brother-in-law

Starlight is fine but the Adulter Adults are preparing for a storm, Hyria is also there because they needed a powerful witch to prepare for the storm

Things are all fine and dandy until the end when Zack, Elizabeth, and Micheal make their resurgence and ruin shit

S6, now I haven’t fully watched When Angels Fall but I think I understand enough to get what’s happening

With the extra prep, Rowen and the Guardian Forces are informed of the situation to come, Toby has a small team that have been giving a special immunity to Micheal’s control

Starlight is still on high alert, Melissa is shot by one of Micheal’s puppets, Rachel helps the other werewolves in the island escape and leaves with them hoping to be able to see her family at the end of this

On the cannon, through a lot of work and trickery, Micheal is yeeted between Travis and Terry on the platform between the canon, he’s turned into a relic between yeets

The Guardian forces take the relic with Holla’s help and information

The cannon sinks, Zack and Elizabeth are arrested, Garte and Derek do a bit of time for their previous involvement, leaving their fortune to their wives and children

Her Wish

Since there was less disaster in this timeline, its a large Christmas Family gathering featuring Everyone

“Reenee” gets a different excuse to spend Christmas with them

Ein, Lucinda, and Kim hellp her buy a present for Aphmau and Aaron

Ghost/Emmalyn recognizes her and tells the others buy they all keep quiet about it and let her have her time with her all of her family for once, even if they’re different dimensional counterparts

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Hey, I’ve finally gotten another step in my Ninjago watch!

Before I go through the season, there are some reasons why it’s taken so long to get to Possession.

1. Mum’s course I mentioned before is due to be handed in by tomorrow, so it’s been a bit hands on deck for her. Naturally, this means I’m being pulled in more to help.  2. The reason I started this was because I wasn’t able do my own work so had a lot of time to use up. Well, in the past week, it went from “oh you can’t work from home” to “you could but your smart card is at work and we won’t let you in so you’ll have to reject it” to “actually we can totally Indiana Jones it, here’s some WARs”, so I’m actually working again, so this will probably be a lot slower to go through. 3. Honestly, Tournament of Elements took a bit of wind out the sails. I mean, it was such a slog to go through, I was hesitant to do that again in a hurry if Possession ended up being a rinse and repeat of that.

But today, I’ve finally gotten through the season and...it’s serendipitous that this features the Elemental Master of Wind because this really was a second wind. I said that perhaps with it parring down the cast to a central focus that it would improve the quality over Tournament of Elements and that seems to have been the case. Let’s go through the points.

-I have barely anything bad to say about the characterisation of any character, main or side. Like, this season was mostly on point. I guess the main ninja were a touch on the mean-spirited side at the start, but this get smoothed out by the plot advancing. Jay could also get a little obnoxious at the start, but this was balanced out by him sassing out Wu for his absolute failure to disclose Morro’s existence anyway. -Of course the standout character is Nya, what with her whole sideplot and ending up a water-based BAMF in the ending. -The events of the Dark Island part of season 2 makes Kai’s fear of water and inability to swim jarring at first (because he swims just fine there), but I guess this was a change brought on by Rebooted’s soft reboot.  -Even Lloyd has his moments even though at this point his character feels fairly weak since the show is pretty much just interested in his status as this really powerful hero. But his moment to reconcile his grief with his dad is done nicely, and makes a better sendoff than season 4′s.  -Ronin’s good but that one moment was pretty uncomfortable. Thankfully due to circumstances it didn’t actually happen which prevents it from pushing it over. -But can I talk about the fact the show seems to expect you to have seen media outside of the show to understand his debut? When the ninja talk about Ronin as an old annoyance, I was like “man, you really think I played Shadow of Ronin, huh”. It would have been a shaky assumption in 2015 because the 3DS wasn’t exactly a big hit. But five years later, when the 3DS is nigh obsolete and I haven’t used mine in ages? It doesn’t help that the game is actually technically non-canon, only happening in vague.  -Morro is probably the best villain of the old stuff so far. I don’t care if he’s this edgy teenage bad boy that younger fans tend to veer to, his biggest strength is that despite him being another conqueror and having a lot of power, he still comes off as very human. He still has attitude quirks (like being a bit casual in places), he treats his minions different to any other villain so far, he makes mistakes and has slip-ups, and the conflict felt more like an actual to-and-fro as opposed to one side completely dominating over the other requiring some deus-ex to balance it (even season 1 had this issue, lest we forget how the ninja failed to secure a single thing in their fetch quest). Thus, when Morro is faced with his mortality and finally sees what Wu was trying to teach him, it feels like that would be a natural conclusion to his arc. -So Kai and LLoyd’s dynamic is good, it’s a callback to Kai’s development from season 1 where he got over himself and dedicated himself to looking after Lloyd (I mean, the episode itself fell a bit like an asspull, but S2 and S3 stuck it as a recurring theme), but what surprised me is that there’s actually relatively little of it in the season. There’s a bit at the beginning, then it tapers off until like the third to last episode. The way people talked about it made it seem like this big recurring arc but it’s not.  -Kai and Nya get surprisingly little throughout Nya’s actual training arc. You’d think Nya training to be the water ninja would be a bigger deal for Kai. They remember to give us a good dollop of it in the finale though.  -Can I take an aside to talk about Kai and Cole’s dynamic again? After S1 had such a good thing between them, I thought it was going to drop off entirely. S2 seemed to make good on that...but then S3 brought it back, albeit a bit more reserved. Even S4 had the same level. Why bring it up now? Because S5 turns it up to the point where it was one of the dominating dynamics outside of all four ninja together. And yet I have never heard this referred to by anyone. What, if two characters aren’t explicitly honed in on for interaction (ie Cole and Jay’s whole drama thing, Cole and Zane in S4/S8...I can’t think of any I’ve seen that don’t involve Cole yet), then it’s just pushed to the wayside? No wonder S13 seems to have decided that it finally needs to be addressed after the last two joint seasons focused on Jay and Nya then Kai and Nya.  -Speaking of, Jay and Zane actually get a cute dynamic going, albeit not as pronounced. Jay and Nya is surprising neglected, only getting some visual cues in the ending. Then again, I guess that’s what the next season is for.  -This season is not actually dark to be honest. There’s a couple of points where it drifts into that territory, but one moment is the climax which is typical for a kids show, and the other I guess is Cole’s thing (although the next episode took the edge out of that). That being said, kudos to them for sticking out the change to the status quo so it isn’t just a one season gimmick.  -Season 5 really said “That green ninja jealousy from S4 was shit so we’re just going to ignore it”. While I still have an issue with it as above, this is a relief. -Pacing here is fine, I have no issues with for once. 

So overall, Possession is a pretty good season, I can see why so many consider it one of, if not, the best. My only real beef with it is that the secondary dynamics (outside of the four ninja but within the general team) end up surprisingly underutilised. Otherwise, the only other barrier it has with me is just my preference for more light-hearted affair than this season’s fairly middling (but not dark) tone, but it’s so competently done that it still manages to outpace seasons that do hit that tone.

I would have to see S11 again to see how I’d stack it up to this, but my current season ranks are as follows;

S12>S11>=S5>S1>S2>S4>S3

So, next time I watch again, it’ll be one of the more marmite seasons in the pack; Skybound. One of the coolest season names, but can it continue Possession’s quality?

For now though, I have a whole thing lined up gushing about Prime Empire’s thematic roots because Prime Empire is amazing. And also I’ll have a (probable) season finale to watch and S13 leaks to look for. 

[pan-kawaii-chan]

insult kc 😔👊 i love her but gotta do what u gotta do

i did mcd!kc over here, so this is going to be ms/pdh kc (which, oh boy get ready for a lot of me just being upset w how shes handled)

in general ms kc is just. flat. she exists in the story, but she's never truly given a chance to show off, making her feel lackluster and her backstory a reason to give her a name other than the name she chose for herself (and as a nb person i see this only as jess deadnaming kc). she also falls in love at the drop of a hat whenever the story calls for it (Reese, Damien, and hell even Zane), and never really addresses her past relationships outside of minigames, and instead of giving her the chance to pull dante (her canon lover in mcd) back into the limelight, and also show off her own growth, she's thrown with zane because "well, they're both single and they could get along", despite in canon how zane has treated all of aph's friends, and how hes reacted to kc on multiple occasions (calling her weird, hitting her with a stick to try and make her more "serious" when she wanted to pet a cat, hating when he worked with her in fcu, and refusing to buy the my little horsie dolls kc bought until he finds out she has a rare doll and even LAUGHING at her for that purchasing choice)

kc isnt ever important to the story, and i feel that she falls into the same problem as characters like ms laur, ms vylad, the ms shadow knights, ms dante, teony, ms cadenza, ms nicole n ms ivy fall into. The way she's written is as if she's never truly there until s5 where shes finally given a backstory (even if its not a great one). The story could continue on as if she never existed in the first place and could probably still make sense. The reason she's even there is because shes a pretty well loved and important character from mcd and was thrown in when ms s1 came out. she has this really bad y*ndere syndrome, which can be so uncomfortable to watch, especially since its about what relationship her best friend is in (and yes it does come in handy in some cases (keeping aph away from both kai and e*n)), itd genuinely creepy and she still has that problem as of the most recent seasons (like coming to starlight because she wanted to see aph and aaron be cute together). her shipping problem is her most defining trait, and its not even some sort of satire on how uncomfortable shipping real ("real") people makes them.

she's also thrown into places that it doesnt make sense for her to be (mainly fcu) because people like her, and shes never actively doing something that is important to the story. Most of the time she feels like background noise and a reason to fuel aarmau fans, rather than any sort of fleshed out character with personal ideals and beliefs. and if she truly is just playing the character of kawaii~chan so people like her and she stands out, it doesn't make sense for her to be obsessed with shipping (romance i can understand, but the shipping problem is out of control), as it actively is making people think she's weird (as well as talking in third person), which while it does make her stand out, doesn't make her any more likeable or get her any real friends (and the only real friends she ever makes are through a mess up on aphmau's part as she failed to put an invite to a sleepover on nicole's desk). It's also safe to assume that she lost the friends that she did have after the whole Dante relationship, unlike Nicole who still has Katelyn.

Also in pdh s2 we're told through a very quick scene in the background that she's a saber tooth, so wouldn't that make her stand out among her meif'wa peers? Or give her some sort friend circle? Because it seems that the sabers are chosen by the other meif'wa, instead of fighting for the top positions like the werewolves. She never truly gets any sort of explanation as to who she is or why she is the way she is other than "i wanted to stand out among my 11 siblings", which doesn't explain her motives for literally anything.

TL;DR: Kawaii~Chan is a stepping stone that the other characters use to be in the limelight for even a bit, while never getting much of that light herself. She doesn't truly exist in the world until the plot requires her to, and has to force out a backstory at a point where it doesn't make sense, as everyone else got their backstories very early on compared to her. She's a great character, but only truly exists in mini games and in the background due to how little attention is put on her despite being in almost every season (the only season she isnt in is s4)

[jesterlady]

I know I have some Eureka fans on my dash, so help me out with some logic re: time travel and plot holes, particularly S1 and S4.

I'm just starting S4 so please no spoilers but just tell me if my thoughts are sound.

THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW THOUGH

So I had an issue with the end of S1 and beginning of S2.  End episode is that Kim gets killed in an explosion and Henry can't deal so he travels back in time (presumably from a few months in the future or so) and saves her, thereby creating an alternate timeline.  They all live happily ever after for about four years, Kim and Henry, Stark is blamed for the accident and leaves Eureka, and Jack and Allison get married and have a baby on the way.  

Time starts to unravel and everything falls apart.  They realize they have to save the world by undoing the event that started it all, namely saving Kim.  They are extremely concrete on stating that time can never be changed like this without the world falling apart.  The method Henry had used to travel back in time involved sending his mind back in time to his younger self, so they use this same method on Jack and he travels back and stops the Henry (from only a few months into the future) from saving Kim.

When the dust dies down Henry and Jack are the only ones that remember everything.  From their conversation it is apparent that somehow Henry knows about the four years.  This is my problem.  This isn't that Henry, right?  Did I miss something?  Why does he act like he lived that four years?

The problem compounds when Henry erases Jack's memories of the alternate timeline, but does not do so for himself nor is it ever shown that he does so.  Despite some mental flashes once, it's pretty clear that Jack doesn't recover his memories and Henry is the only one to retain the memory there was an alternate timeline (though imo, he should only remember at most Stark being fired and leaving).

Cut to S4 when a bunch of them get sucked back in time to the 1940s and when they come back, they are in an alternate timeline, having brought someone from the past with them into the future.

First things first, I dislike this plot device immensely.  I hate it when creators erase things that happened.  I can handle it when it's used as an episodic plot device, sometimes those are really good episodes, but wiping away the entire history of the show?  That's like mentally raping all your characters and cheating your audience of the hard won fought emotions and journey they've gone on with your show.  So I was never going to really enjoy this and was disappointed when it didn't get fixed within the first couple of episodes.

BUT...I want to bring in more time travel stuff here.  According to the science of THIS show that it set up in S1, you cannot create alternate timelines without the world imploding so if they don't honor that, they are the biggest hypocritical plothole idiots in the world.  So far, 8 episodes in, they seem to be leaning towards making this timeline work and be the new norm.

This means Henry is married and is now romancing his wife.  Zane and Jo's entire relationship has been replaced and she is being forced to suffer watching him (oh please don't let him and Zoe hook up) lose all his character growth and he has to lose it all without even knowing it.  Kevin's somehow magically better, which whoopie, but I honestly don't care because it's kind of mean to say he was not a worth while person before and they've never done much with him other than make him a plot device.

Now, even if they magically fixed everything (which they do not seem inclined to do) it would mean erasing even more things happening to our people, like making Henry lose another woman and Jack and Allison losing any progress. (BTW, it was rotten what they did to Tess.  They never gave that relationship a chance and I liked her, dangit.  Still sad about Stark, too, tbh.)

Anyway...so Henry (who, see my rant re: above, should know all about alternate timelines even if he shouldn't know their contents) acts like there's nothing they can do and they're all stuck there and they can't tell anybody...oh, no, if they told anybody they'd all be sectioned.  Even if they can't tell people...they should be trying to fix the problem, not tinkering with a toy in the garage.

I'm not saying I don't like the show anymore, but I need someone to help me understand the logic and just let me know if it ever does make sense or even tell me what I'm missing to put the pieces together, even if it's just to say...keep watching, your questions will be answered.

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Alright, so in the middle of this S12 chaos (because no doubt that there’s more to come tomorrow), I actually saw Tournament of Elements for the first time. And I...think I might be falling on the unpopular side here. 

I mean, it’s not terrible at all, in fact I think it’s alright, but I don’t think it has much flavour. Or at least, not the flavour that made Ninjago appeal to me. Let’s just go over points.

-This season has an upside; moreso than any old season thus far, there’s more MVPs amongst the main ninja. Zane is great throughout when we see him, Cole gets a surprisingly focused sub-plot, and Jay pulls his weight in the early part of the season immensely. They gets lots of moments to shine and provide some brevity that I appreciated. -That does mean however that I think Kai and Lloyd suffer for the tone shift. Lloyd especially is so boring this season, a far cry from the first two seasons where he was doing a lot of the legwork. Kai has a flash or two, but otherwise he’s either in serious mode or “annoying fallen for someone on sight” mode. He actually came off rather skeevy at some times too, The idea of the green ninja jealousy is done...well, it manages to conceptualise why this may be a thing after what S1 and S2 established (thoughts resurfacing in a bout of depression), but it feels like the execution is undercooked...which will be a theme. -Nya’s got a pretty strong arc, so that’s appreciated. You can definitely tell this season is setting up for her to be the water ninja, there’s just so many signs, but at least her character was active without that slant to it. That being said, the whole Samurai X thing is kinda abandoned this season, isn’t it? -Speaking of abandoned plots, that love triangle was done with way quicker than I was expecting. You get a couple of episodes where it gets to flare up, resolve it in the third, and then that’s it. Can’t say I hate that being undercooked, it was terrible. I guess the writers came to that conclusion too, because Cole was back to feeling like pre-Codename Arcturus (aka only doing it to spite Jay, not having interest in Nya).  -Also speaking of undercooked...there’s Skylor. I can’t really come to hate her but that’s because she’s just such a bland character. She really is the generic action girl (something levied at Nya a lot even though I’ve never really seen it) and is mostly defined by either her romance to Kai (said romance being as hokey and cliche as it sounded, so the best romance of the season was still Zane and Pixal), or her literal relation to Chen. But I certainly won’t complain about her being manipulative and that because...you know...that was her job prior to her turn.  -This can apply to almost all the Elemental Masters, who get small moments to show their stuff but otherwise are just more characters to add to the pile. The only ones who significantly stood out for me were Karlof, Neuro and Shade, and out of those only Karlof was for entertainment value. He does also demonstrate the power of character writing though; at no point was I distracted by him sharing the same face as Okino, the mannerisms and expression work was just so different between them. -Dareth I’m mixed on. He seems more like dead weight by the end of the season, but he had some good moments at the start, especially his surprising ingenuity with the Kabuki disguise for Nya. -Likewise, even Sensei Garmadon, Wu and Misako feel like they didn’t have much. Sensei Garmadon started strong, but then was kind of reduced to exposition (although he did end on a high note). Meanwhile Wu and Misako felt extraneous even though the final plot point hinges on their relationships. What? -Pythor, in some twist of fate, comes in with a fairly last minute play to be near the top of the character chain. He was back on S1 form, and it was good to see him in good form again. -I liked Chen. With the Overlord acting as such a stoic villain for the most part, it was refreshing having someone as comedic as Chen in the villain helm, while still being plenty vicious and capable of villainy. Clouse I should theoretically like, but again, he was way stoic. -It was also nice to see the cameos -If you like lore, there’s plenty of lore here (there’s even like an episode that’s basically that). It’s interesting to see, but wasn’t great for the flow of the story.  -Pacing really killed this season for me, but for the opposite reason of the other seasons; it ended up going too slow. Like, after episode five, it really started to drag on me. 

So overall, S4 for me is a season that has an interesting overall premise, and really sells that at the start, but loses steam before it gets to the end. Not helping is the fact a lot of the characters and many sub-plots feel like they’re underdeveloped, possibly being a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. This is the real start of the lore building so hopefully that pays off in interesting ways. 

I guess I just don’t hold the same values in a series as other fans because I’d rather have the more light-hearted stuff with more serious bits sprinkled in than the rabbit hole the old stuff seems to be diving in to of taking itself way more seriously and caring more about the lore. 

That being said, I’d still say it’s better than S3, that season just went up and down and it wasn’t cohesive aside from Zane’s plot. This one feels more thought out, but just isn’t for me. 

Next up in terms  of watching the show is Possession, which was very, very heavily foreshadowed at the end of S4. I know it also takes the dive into being more serious, but it’s also a lot lower on the characters in the plot so maybe it’ll have more time to play about with its ideas.

But more immediately next up is more modern Ninjago chaos, and I am way down for that!