#it’s hard to do a Harumi comic

[foryoupeko]

My Kuzupeko daughter interacting with @the-only-teruteru-fan and @detective-dick-gumshoes-pot-room SDR2 fankids

Harumi is actually a naturally gifted prodigy with the sword. But Peko never taught her the dangerous techniques, so Harumi has to work harder to surpass her mother. Unless it’s specified, you can assume Harumi can smoke any of her siblings in a sword fight. Her personality is very Ranma Satome.

[page-yerin]

hey!! ( if your still taking requests) could we please have some Lloyd Ninjago dating headcannons? Ty!!

𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐘𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒

genre(s): fluff

pairing: lloyd garmadon x reader

trigger warnings: mentions of insomnia & anxiety

a/n: YESYESYES OFC I’M MAKING THIS ANON, I HAVE BEEN WAITINGGGG FOR SOMEONE TO REQ THIS (I usually have no motivation if ppl don’t ask for them) 🥹

I LOVE LLOYD SM ☹️ @mythology4life YOU ARE SO REAL FOR THAT, I READ EVERY LLOYD FIC I COULD FIND I SWEAR 😭

anyways, here you go! hope the two of you and anyone else reading enjoys!<33

☆ omg he’s the absolute cutest :((( (you can probably tell he’s basically my fav by now but i love them all, ANYWAYS)

☆ i feel like lloyd would be really shy and nervous at the beginning

☆ would try really hard to make the relationship work out bc it’s his first time and he had no idea what he’s supposed to be doing

☆ especially after harumi.. ahem.. happened, just give him some time to heal and figure out how a (hopefully) healthy relationship would go

☆ would probably go to kai and/or jay about advice—even nya sometimes (please don’t trust kai with these things, lloyd sksjdjsjs)

☆ would’ve had no idea he was in love with you until the ninjas pointed it out directly

☆ once he starts to get more comfortable with the relationship, he starts let out his more childish side

☆ would absolutely prank you (as a joke obv) just for sillies :p it’s his love language in a way

☆ COMIC STORE AND CANDY STORE DATESJSKJDKW >>>>>>>

☆ would not be a pda or physical affection person in general, but my god he is definitely touch starved, PLEASE HUG HIM :’(( (not before i do/j)

☆ he would be so nervous to initiate hugs or cuddles or anything, just let him know that he can if he wants to and that he doesn’t have to be so nervous ushauhajaijaoa

☆ omg please take care of this poor baby :(( you will have to force him to get sleep (insomniac lloyd is so canon) or take a break

☆ on the more serious side, i think he would rant/vent to you sometimes about stress and his anxiety :((((

☆ back to fluff, he would 100% stare at you. not in a creepy way or anything but he’s just admiring you<33 would sososo have heart eyes for you

☆ unconsciously cuddles you while sleeping, he’s such a cutie :((

☆ first to wake up bc of training and yk

☆ honestly think he would be a nose or cheek kisser (just based on a feeling)

☆ oh yeah, and going back to his love language, he would be a more words of affirmation and/or acts of service type<333

☆ guys i love him sm like i cannot, TREAT HIM WELL BECAUSE HE WILL ABSOLUTELY DO THE SAME!!

[sunflowerandstrawberryspice]

Songs the Ninjago Fandom is Sleeping on.

So I have like a bunch of songs and animatic ideas for the Ninjago fandom to do what they please with, cause chronic hand pain makes long projects like animatics kinda hard so instead I'm throwing them out to yall! (Song-artist)

SOPILERS FOR LITERALLY EVERYHTING RELATING TO NINJAGO (This includes Dragons rising, the spinjitzu brothers books and the Garmadon comics)

Also please remember this is for fun so be nice.

Survivors Guilt- Coma Cinema: Okay oaky so hear me out: eldest child angst. This could work for both Garmadon and Kai, because both of them are just SUCH older siblings in more than just the literal way you know? Like I think it fits especially with Garmadon because it's about feeling like you're a bad person and how it might fuck up someone else life in the process. To me I think it fits, cause like to me it's so clear Garmadon is the elder sibling TM and Wu is the stressed out younger sibling golden child. Lyrics: "And I don't care and I don't know why maybe I'm no good inside" the way this totally works for how Garmadon tries to act like he doesn't care in Spinjitzu Brothers but is like constantly stressed about whether or not he's a good person.

Seven Nation Army- The White Stripes: I don't have like any major reasons for this song other than it being SUPER Wyldfyre/Kai core lol (at least in the early seasons before he mellowed out a bit), like the song is literally someone sing about how they feel like how they could take on armies if necessary so take that as you will!

Viper- Derivakat: For starters I didn't know this was a Minecraft song until I went to look up the lyrics buuuuuuut oh well mine now! Could definitely be used for either the Great Devourer or the Serpentine, but I think it be cool if someone used the song for the Great Devourer and the venoms effect on Garmadon and how it really kinda fucked up his life. I think it'd just be neat. Lyrics: "Run, run, run as fast as you can out of the fire and into my hand" (Could def be used for Garmadon and the Great Devourer or Pythor and Lloyd) "Abandon your pride cause you've dug your own grave" and "Getting all up in your head make you lose your mind again" (Again would work pretty great for Garmadon or season one Lloyd and Pythor)

The Well- The Crane Wives: Now this song is perfect for season 6 Jay in my opinion since it's got some wish related lyrics which work well for the Nadakan plot, plus people getting "dragged down" could be the other ninja getting absorbed into the sword. I'm not to big on this season or Jay but even I can tell this song works WELL for him (get it well? I'll see myself out). Lyrics: "Like spare coins, poised on the tip of my tongue I make a wish and hold my breath" This could not only be the making wishes part but also Jay getting "spare coins" aka his bio fathers money and house after he dies, "I'm the well they're gonna drag you down" again this could be used for the ninja being dragged into the sword "All the words I couldn't say to you" His pinning over Nya obviously. And lastly "I taste blood I'm sick of swallowing stones" Could be his trauma after Nadakan is defeated or when he was beat up in the fight thing.

Viva La Vida (But epic)- Reinaeiry (I just like this version best but any works): Could totally work for Lloyd post merge, him being lonely in this new world and forced to be a hero in the shadows. Y'all could also probably do something with the FSM but like I'm not exactly sure what. This one's a little more for the vibes tbh.

Parasite- Set It Off: When I tell yall this is great for Harumi and Lloyd, like it'd work so well as a song for her trying to manipulate and twist his mind. The name says it all it's literally telling someone they'd wished they'd never been born and that they don't help society, sound like anyone familiar? Also if y'all just want a song for like a villain arch for Lloyd this would also probably work tbh. Lyrics: "Leeching off my pain never satisfied" Totally could work for Harumi being mean and manipulative or Lloyd getting angry and being honest with her. "Strike a nerve or wreck a home hoping you get a response" This could totally be used literally cause of Harumi's whole... you know dead parent situation.

Matilda- Harry Styles: I know I know what you're saying, Harry Styles? But I promise this song is actually wonderful. This could work RIDICOULOUSLY well for Sora. The song is a lot about how you can go on to live a life and you don't have to include your bioparents or family in it if you don't want to which is SO Sora. Like I feel like all the lyrics work well for how Imperium and her parents drained her and I just love it! Then second you could also view this as kind of a Cole song. I know the fandom is kind of split on whether or not him and his father really make up and I'm gonna be honest I don't really think they do. Unlike Jay, Zane, Lloyd as well as Kai and Nya to an extent (once they get their parents back) all at least interact with their parents and clearly have somewhat of a relationship with them (Kai and Nya less so but they have the excuse of being adults by the time they get their parents back). Cole on the other hand doesn't really have the same thing, like he has the episode where he makes up with his father but after that Lou doesn't really have many other major appearances so I think they're on good terms but not that close ya know? Idk just my opinion lol. Unrelated but the song is honestly so eldest daughter-core and I just wanted to mention that.

Uhhhh that's all for now, let me know if y'all just want me to compile all this into a playlist to listen to cause I totally will. Any who just want to restate this is all my opinion and I love this show <3

Hope y'all have a great day/night PEACE OUT.

[cienie-isengardu]

I would think the Lin Kuei was linguistic since It has people from different sides of the world besides China (Cyrax and Smoke as prime examples) and also likely doing missions or business outside of china, but then again I’m mostly going off of Bi han knowing 3 languages in one of the live action movie so I cling to it mostly as a headcanon

Bi-Han in Mortal Kombat film (2021) was a truly nice addition to the widely understood lore and I love that this film allowed characters to speak in languages other than English. On other hand this highlights how games barely pay attention to cultural differences or use different languages as nice nuances and nods to characters’ origin.

That said, Lin Kuei education was never truly explained in great detail but tie-in material does imply Lin Kuei warriors are very likely to speak more than two languages - their native one and English. Maybe not every member of the clan will be a fluent polyglot, but for example, in one of the old Mortal Kombat comics "A Cold Day in Hell", Kuai Liang was presented as living in Japan. His place didn’t look like some special hideout but normal flat, so we could assume he worked undercover there.

Now, MK1 Kuai Liang is currently living in Japan too, so most likely he and Tomas either already knew Japanese, as Harumi and supposedly her parents are an old family’s friend or are learning the language alongside building their new clan. As I assume a great number of the new members of Shirai Ryu recruited by Scorpion and Smoke are in fact Japanese, so speaking their language would help in communication. 

(Also, if Kuai Liang and Bi-Han spend some time with Harumi’s family when they all were children, Sub-Zero too could be speaking Japanese, or at least be familiar enough for basic communication). 

Then there is a chance that in Liu Kang’s timeline, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang (and Tomas) could also speak or be familiar to some degree with their cryomancer ancestors’ language - unless this is official dialect of Lin Kuei and so the Standard Chinese/Mandarin language - or whatever other dialect is official language there in Liu Kang’s timeline - wasn’t their first choice of communication at home.

Now, lets add to that the fact that original Lin Kuei are implied to recruit potential new clan members in Czech (Europe) and Botswana (Africa) while original version of Kuai Liang & Bi-Han’s father operated for years in America (though not specified if USA or just somewhere on the continent), we could say that Lin Kuei operated worldwide, so it is logical to assume members of the clan were specialized in some languages more than others. But the sources go further, Lin Kuei operated in Ourworld too,

in old comics ("Kitana and Mileena") even taking part in Shao Kahn’s conquest of Edenia, which happened +/- ten (outworld) thousand years ago. And I doubt during that time anyone in Edenia knew English.

Games make it look like everyone, from the gods, to residents of any realm speak English, but that actually makes no logical sense. So thought I don’t think there is any source outright saying how many languages are taught to Lin Kuei warriors, movie!Bi-Han spoke at least three, and most likely Kuai Liang knows as much, either in obscure source material or MK1 (a dialect used by Lin Kuei stationed somewhere in China/Asia, Japanese and English). Cyrax and Tomas have a great chance to speak a similar number of different languages (their native ones, English and a dialect of Lin Kuei). Hard to say about Sektor, but he is at least fluent in English. 

Again, not really a hard, direct source as we don’t see any Lin Kuei talking much in anything else than English, but there is a solid ground to assume Lin Kuei warriors would learn additional languages out of pragmatism and need.

[lovely-love-angel]

An idea I had for a while: Lloyd visiting Harumi after Crystalized

The idea of Lloyd visiting Harumi in jail is interesting to me. At least that's where I think she goes after Crystalized. I don't think that he would. But I like the idea of him sitting outside her cell with the bars between them. Or maybe they talk in a different way? You can visit criminals in different ways, I can only think of three, but I don't know how to describe them. Either way, I think it would be “emotional” and angsty. No Llorumi, just... Discussing some “stuff”, you know?

I don't think he would. It's unlikely.

Why should he go to the person that caused so much pain? The person that broke his heart? That resurrected his father — and so on. I won't have to count everything in detail, right?

He could just stay in the Monastery. At home. With his siblings. His family. He is in his comfort zone. And why should he willingly leave it? Every time he does... Something bad happens. Every time he does... They get separated. He wants to enjoy it while it lasts.

Is he paranoid? Yes. Probably. I made him sound paranoid. But he would be.

Nonetheless, I imagined this scenario more than once, and it still intrigues me. Someone, please make a comic of this or something. Thank you! I think it would be interesting. But as I said; I don't think he would. It's unlikely. And the other ninja would clearly not pressure him to do it.

So, another thought, what if it all started with a letter? We all know that Lloyd struggles to not think about Harumi. He is trying so hard... but he just can't stop thinking about her. But he is scared. Scared of seeing her again. Of bringing up the past. Of talking it out.

He doesn't want to think about the questions: “What now?”, “What about us?”, “Who are we now?” and...

“Did you ever love me?”

He doesn't want to think about it. But it's always in the back of his head...

So... he wrote a letter. A letter that probably started like this:

“Hello Harumi.

I know this letter is probably sudden and uncalled for. But after what happened... Well... after everything that happened... I wondered if you would want to talk? You probably feel lonely there. So... I thought I'd pay a visit? Only if you want, of course! No pressure. It's just... I hope you are doing well. So, uh, just inform me, Alright? I'll look forward to your response. Or just... Ignore the letter. That's fine too.

Sincerely Lloyd”

Or something like that.

Anyhow — he probably would feel unsure how she feels about him — not that she knows herself, she's the most conflicted villain in Ninjago.

He would be unsure if she still hates him, if she seeks comfort... if she did love him all this time after all — he wants to know. And he deserves to know.

That's it! My first long post! Wow!

I honestly wanted to make this short, but oh well — not everything goes always according to plan, right?

Edit: It's not really that long. Or maybe I read it too fast?

[honestmouse20]

Random ninjago hcs, go!

Mistake isn't dead! she was badly injured in her fight with Garmadon in Hunted but used Oni trickery (shapeshifting) to assume a new identity deep within the city. The only person who knows she's still alive is Lloyd. He found her on accident while walking down the street and was able to sense that it was her

more of an Au but I hc that either just after the Garmadon comics or Just before Crystalized, Garmadon was sent back in time to just after he died in Possession. Mostly it was the universe or FSM showing him his son and how much he needed him/loved him. But the kicker was that he could only watch. He was like a ghost. No one could see or hear him so he just watched Lloyd go through All the Posession shit and how much he'd missed Sensei Garmadon. It's the inciting incident that makes Garmadon go to Vinny and try to learn how to be good again

Kai absolutly has a scrapbook/photo album that he's always working on. It's massive and one of the ones where you can add more and more pages to. It's filled with photos and keepsakes of the team. He started a little after Lloyd was aged up by putting the first pictures they took together as a team into the album. But now it's huge and there may or may not be tear tracks on some of Nya's pictures bc he'd flip through them after Seabound (He thinks the other ninja don't know about it but they all do and they think it's super sweet)

Lloyd can sing! He's actually pretty good and he loves a lot of the same music as Cole. So they'll put music on sometimes and just jam out. The first time he started singing really loud in the car the others just stopped and stared bc they had no idea he was so good at it. Nowdays (DR) he's Always humming and singing to hismelf to pass the time and as a way to remember the members of his family they still havn't found

more on Garmadon bc he's my favorite sorry

While he was imprisoned in the Cursed Realm, he was able to sort of extend his senses and watch over Lloyd. He saw everything that was happening but was unable to help. It's probably only possible bc of his father being FSM and shit but it's a super useful thing bc it helps pass the time yk. He Knows he's going to spend eternity in there; you don't die in the Cursed Realm. You just turn into a ghost once you're relased. So he knew he would never get to live again. But he was okay with that bc his son was OKAY and happy and protected by his friends.

But then Morro shows up and I bet the reason Garmadon is the ony one fully chained rather than just in a little cell like Chen and Clouse, is because he raised absolute Hell to try and get to Lloyd. And he nearly Did. He nearly became the first person to escape on his own. But the Preimenent caught on and nearly destroyed him before she chained him so tightly that he could never escape. She made sure he was too weak to put up a fight liek that again. Tho i think if given a few months Garmadon would have been able to escape. Thats why he looks Like That when Lloyd sees him at the end of Possession

Garmadon also Knew that the Preimenent was going to be destroyed and was actually at peace when he went to the Departed Realm.

A part of him (the good part) remained in that realm for a long time, even after Harumi brought back the Oni part of him. But through time and his Oni part's hard work, he's slowly beginnign to re-merge his seperate selves. It's not really a conscious thing but it is happening.

[hiddensneker]

1. Even so, laying a framework doesn’t imply that it’s what was intended in the original series. Especially since s2 script was already done by the time the comic came out so like. The comic would have no effect on the series. Even Tommy has admitted he hasn’t read the series

2. Honestly, the portraits just confuse me in general. Not only does it portray the great devourer fighting Lloyd (i assume that’s him?) which makes no sense because they never directly fought. My best guess is that it’s just a way to represent the series so far (kinda like the murals in s10) but I admit that’s a stretch. Or it could mean that the great devourer is connected to Lloyd finding out the green ninja or something I don’t… I don’t know. I guess that yes this could prove that the great devourer is somewhat related to the overlord but it doesn’t say what way or to what importance.

Also I don’t agree with the idea that dark matter is similar to great devourer venom. Dark matter essentially turned ninjago into zombies. Yes nya acted evil but to me it seemed more like her just being under the control of something that forced her to forget all her memories and attack the ninja. The same thing happened with Zane, jay and cole. They clearly act different then their normal personalities.

Great devourer venom on the other hand. Isn’t nearly as instant as dark matter and can be repressed or fought. Garmadon was able to do it for thousands of years. And even when he did give in to the venom, he did evil things that benefitted his own goal, not the overlords. His personality, while a bit different, mostly stayed the same. You can clearly tell the similarities between young garm, lord garm, and sensei garm. Also garm was able to temporarily put his differences with wu and the ninja aside in order to help Lloyd. Something he definitely wouldn’t do if it was dark matter. Also one small thing, when garm first got infected he was extremely sick and basically passed out after the fight. Nya and everyone else infected by dark matter didn’t have the same thing happen to them.

Also yes the purple eyes are entirely coincidental, people infected w great dev venom have their eyes turn red. This was explicitly showed in s4.

And like I said for legogeek, the great devourer was also able to bring the plastic toys in the shop to life to. It’s not just for the stone army. And regarding the “ how can her venom do that”. Well If we’re taking the comic by it’s word. The great devourer was a fangpyre before she got corrupted. Fangpyre venom turns things into snakes. That could easily be the reason why.

(Side tanget sorry I just realized this. If the fsm made the serpentine before the great devourer. And that serpentine babies are regular snakes. Could that mean that the great devourer is a giant baby? Or a serpentine that was turned into a wild snake? 😦)

To be clear I’m not against the idea that the overlord “corrupted” (I prefer just giving her the power to turn people evil and become big). I just don’t agree with the idea that he possessed the great devourer or that the great devourers actions during or after the bite on garm was him directly doing that. Nor do I agree with the idea that the great dev somehow made garm into an oni.

To me the great devourer is and will always be a giant snake. Not apart of any evil mastermind plan. I like having a villain who’s morally ambiguous not because they have a bad past or that they were manipulated, but because they’re a wild animal who has no sense of morals.

I like to image that Harumi’s goals, no matter how hard she tries, will always be futile. Because she could never get revenge on the great devourer. Because it’s a snake who doesn’t care.

I like that even when Garmadon kills the great devourer, he still doesn’t feel satisfied.

To me I’d rather just believe that the great Devourer is a result of the overlord just wanting to cause chaos as revenge or something. And everything just spiraled from there.

All y’all out here complaining about the “retcon” that the Devourer was corrupted by the Overlord, when I’ve been saying that’s what happened since day 1. That old s1 comic aside that mentioned the Devourer being corrupted, I’m pretty sure the Devourer is mentioned or referenced in the prophecy of the Overlord.

[weekend-whip]

Since it’s the end of finals season for me, how does everyone prepare for/deal with finals and what happens afterwards?

Hoo boy

Kai: Augh just the idea of exams/finals is enough to stress him out, let alone having to read and reread stuff that's already been tossed at him. In classes he enjoys he does fine, but in ones he despises...well, we don't talk about it. Once it's all over he starts training extra hard, using the exercise to burn off his built up aggressions (hopefully without burning everything down).

Jay: Is never worried, could take a test blindfolded and not drop below a B. Therefore, unblinded he's practically guaranteed to do pretty well, Is the WORST person to study with however, because he gets too quickly frustrated when people don't get the material right away. Afterwards does NOT want to do anything that involves thinking, which usually means watching movies cuddled up with Nya.

Zane: Is not worried, and holds himself to a rigorous schedule blocked out day by day hour by hour for dedicated studying for each of his particular classes. Is usually joined by Jay as Zane is one of the few people Jay doesn't get instantly aggravated with, and also Cole...

Cole: ...who is far less dedicated at studying but due to being in the same classes as Zane he gets to mooch a little bit. Acts like he's not worried but deep down is terrified of failing. Like Kai, can't just read through information and absorb it, but he does do much better studying via visuals, like graphs and charts and stuff. After finals are over he treats himself to a well-deserved nap.

Nya: Is probably the most level-headed about finals until someone tries to make it a competition with her (usually Zane, and also usually by accident snksnk) and then she turns into a studying fiend. She's popping out from laundry baskets and closets ambushing people into quizzing her (Cole and Kai are most often targeted this way), although it's usually Lloyd or a terrified Jay that get roped into officially studying with her. Always delivers on her grades, however.

Lloyd: Hates studying and hates the idea of finals, but hates the idea of failing even more (due to usually doing so well on his tests while at homeschool). Normally does just fine, but if he struggles during a final (or if a teacher is feeling particularly vengeful towards him with grades), he'll be bummed about it for weeks. Decompresses with comics and maybe a little bit of doing absolutely nothing at all

Jesse: Always panics around finals time. Is the one organizing group study sessions to make sure everyone's on the same page study-wise (which Kai can't STAND lmao)...and also to ensure that Jesse himself isn't missing out on anything. He does wind up spending a little more time getting others up to speed than himself, but does well enough to be proud regardless. Ends up compulsively cooking afterwards to work off his pent-up stress and energy (so everyone's always trying to hang around his house in the days afterward, especially Cole, Lloyd, and Antonia)

Miranda: Organizer QUEEN. Has her exams mapped out and planned for. Has her brother's stuff all sorted and ready to go. Has the kid from three halls down’s notes primed and ready if he asks. Her study area is a mess of notecards, sticky notes, pens, handwritten notes, a database of info...needless to say she does well on everything, and treats herself to a video game marathon afterwards (in which Jay and Lloyd are usually game to join in on.)

Antonia: She's the one everyone borrows their notes from, and as she takes such insanely amazing notes, she rarely has to put too much energy into studying. She's got the material down first-go like Jay...but, only in classes she enjoys. Like Kai, her grades are a 50/50 split between really good and less than stellar, but rarely does bad enough to be worried. Treats herself to snacks afterwards.

Harumi: A big "read it again" studier, but doesn't put in more effort than she has to. Not particularly worried about it, just vibes and makes fun of those getting way too worked up about it. Does well enough to pass, but whether or not it's with flying color or not varies. Likes going out on the town and doing something with friends once finals are over.

Olivia: Finals normally wouldn't faze her, unless she's got a Shark Army agenda going on at the same time, and then things get a little stressful. Rarely ever gets to study (or wants to), but if she does it's gotta be with another person (Nya, usually) to keep her on track. Indifferent on her grades, but will be pleasantly surprised if she does manage to do well. Throws a huge party at the Shark Lair afterwards; most of the Shark Army has no idea why they're celebrating but they're never gonna turn down an opportunity to party! (of which Bridget...absolutely...HATES...)

And bonus Sunni because why not: Never too worried about finals, but puts much more energy into keeping everyone else's spirits up. She's not a cram studier, preferring to pace herself and take in info bit by bit so it registers easier, and studies with Samantha often (even if Samantha gets distracted). She's also tutored by Meghan (which isn't bad, but she'd much rather be tutored by Jay), and when it's all over she treats herself and her friends to some baked sweets (but don't tell Harumi, Jesse, or Zane that they're store bought).

[felikatze]

hello hi! please ramble about lloyd-harumi roleswap au. how does harumi get along with the other ninja. what about her relationship with wu. my only knowledge of ninjago (aside from watching the first two seasons when they came out and then dropping the show) is through your posts about it so i am very curious to hear how you're constructing this au. it seems fun

yes another opportunity to ramble

gotta admit harumi and the ninja are like less developed than the harumi-lloyd-garmadon shebang but.

so in my previous posts about this AU i stated that harumi spends more time with pythor than lloyd does and the ninja only take her in when pythor ditches her after she finds all the serpentine with him.

as per her canon reaction to bad events she ends up being incredibly silent. she's just generally existing alongside the others without interacting at first and not saying a word. the ninja are frustrated by this for juvenile "cmon we saved you" reasons as they're all goobers but!! they're also concerned about her cuz dang the saw pythor turning on her Live They Were There and that must've stung.

they turn it into a kind of competition to see who can get her to open up first. kai shows her video games. jay shows her comics. cole tries to get her to go mountain climbing with him. zane bakes her a cake.

imagine instead of the episode where lloyd pranks everybody it's just everyone trying to win the friendship of this 11yr old girl pretending they dont exist

the competition doesn't last long until, because oh no, she got kidnapped after kai dropped her off at an arcade. i already said in the first post that curiosity was a big factor in harumi finding the serpentine in the first place, and that hasn't waned. she wants to know what they're up to! and whatever it is, she wants to stop them!

harumi per canon is i think incredibly petty. maybe her disguise and acting skills are better than lloyd's and she doesn't even get found out immediatly. who knows i'm vague on this so far.

the gist of it is that harumi does eventually speak to the ninja but only after kai rescues her from the volcano, because only when she sees kai choose her over the fangblade does she see that these people aren't going to use her.

she's not anyone's relative nor do they know she's the green ninja yet, so that does mean a lot to random orphan girl harumi.

overall i think she actually likes zane the most. zane knows best what it's like to be an outsider and he's really good about respecting her boundaries, and respecting her silence. he waits for her to talk first and she appreciates that!

this means zane's death in s3 hits her Hard. it dredges up the grief she still has for her parents and gives a whole "why does everything bad always happen to me" sort of vibe. she's frustrated she can never keep anything good in her life and everything has a catch. i think in whatever the s4 for this is she's ready to throttle chen flat out.

(chen is the s4 bad guy who kidnapped zane for blackmail reasons when everyone still thought zane was dead so fair tbh)

kai gets to come in second because he's a Bro. and also the whole volcano thing. he's smug that she talked to him first so she likes antagonizing him sometimes. keep him on his toes.

she knows jay means well but he talks too much in her opinion. meanwhile cole stole one of her candy bars once and she's never forgiving him /lh

i know you said you havent't watched past s2 but consider for me harumi morro parallels and how this affects wu.

basic gist for you: morro is a season 5 character and wu's first student. he was a Random Orphan (like harumi!) whom wu took in bcuz he thought morro was the green ninja (he wasnt). morro got upset at not being the green ninja so he ran away and Frickin Died.

and then he came back as a vengeful ghost in season 5 hellbent on destroying the actual green ninja and also wu, which is fun.

so wu is SUPER cautious around harumi, basically. later seasons tend to emphasize guilt in wu's character a lot and here it just shines earlier. he's afraid to let harumi near the golden weapons, he's not telling anybody about the green ninja prophecy, he's afraid of history repeating itself.

he's vry distant to her, so much so that still evil garmadon strikes up more camraderie than wu does.

but things still go according to canon and kai figures she's the green ninja, like actually. wu is. conflicted about this! because he doesn't want this 11yr old girl to have to fight his super evil warlord brother. and maybe die. because he already let one kid die, remember.

i'd imagine that after the cat's out of the bag, he doubles down on training her, hard. harumi, in return, dislikes him to a reasonable degree. wu still refuses to talk abt morro because wu has Problems (thank u s5 and s7 and s11 and literally every season for establishing this). it's not till the AU s5 that harumi finally understands why wu is Like That and that he's acting mainly out of concern

doesn't mean she automatically likes wu though. the girl's petty. wu got a long way to go till he lands in her good graces!

you can probably tell that for the main seasons this AU doesnt change much plot wise except for the specifics of character dynamcis and this is because i love character dynamics and i hate plot.

[simonaj1804]

Oyasumi Punpun

I think this manga is one of the best exaamples of something which you shouldn’t judge by it’s literal cover. Seeing picture at the front I would’ve thought that it’s some story about some young girl and a weird penguin or bird thing. In regular manga, they often try to create likeable characters, plot that while  it may have many sad parts manages to rebound and go up at some points, and/or very unrealistic characters or settings. Oyasumi Punpun is basically opposite of all of that. 

Despite of it having comedy in the beginning (which was black humor anyway), Oyasumi Punpun os possibly one of the most depressing and realistic things I have ever come across. It is the “coming of age” story of a boy named Punyama Punpun, and follows him all the way from elementary school until around his early 20′s. What makes tis manga so special is the heavy psychological aspects surrounding Punpun and everyone else throughout the story. One of the main psychological aspects of the story has to do with Punpun’s character design. He, as well as his family, starat off looking like kind of 2 dimensional birds with long legs. His  design changes a lot later on to reflect how he is feeling on the inside, but the important thing is to remember is that he looks just slike a normal human being to everyone else in the manga and that he does not actually look like a “bird-thing” to them.

The story begins with Punpun in elementary school. The girl he had crush on has just transferred out of his school but shortly afterward a new girl named Tanaka Aiko transfers into his school. It’s love at first sight for Punpun. He starts  to slowly grow closer to Aiko while at the same time hanging out with friends and just being a normal boy who is entering puberty. Among his group of friends there are Shuntarou Harumi, a nice boy who wears glasses; Seki Masumi, a deliquent boy with family problems; Shimizu Koh, a strange boy who can see the “god of poop” and who has been friends with Seki since childhood. The group of about 6 boys in total is just average group of male friends who enjoy finding porn magazines, doing tests of courage, and spending their time just trying to enjoy themselves. Going further into the story would cause spoilers and since the story is quite long and detailed it would be for a long while. There’s just so many things that Asano Inio goes into amazing detail about in this dark and depressing story that explaining any more would ruin some part of it. The story covers a lot of time as I already mentioned and Punpun’s elementary school life is only a small, yet very crucial part of the entire plot.

Moving to the art, it’s simply amazing. The idea of making Punpun look different to the reader than to everyone else is great way to show his true emotions in a way that showing him as he realy looks could not. As for the other character designs they are all very well drawn, especially his family who also resemble 2D birds with long legs. The peoiple who look like normal humans are usually drawn normally but they can look ugly at times or beautiful at times when author wants to make them look similiar to how they are feeling. The manga is very mature and occasionally contains nudity, but it is never used as fanservice and is only used to increase darkness of situations and to expand on the imperfections of characters.

Characters themselves are possibly most interesting part of the manga. As I mentioned at the begfinning, these characters are not meant to all be likeable. In fact, none of them are my own favourite characters despite this being one of my favourite manga. That shouldn’t be the point though since they are not meant to be realistic. I would never consider myself or any of the people in my life one of my favourite characters if they were in an anime or manga. Real humans are not perfect, do not alwaays have a happy ending in life, and are usually just some unnoticable background character that you pass by once or twice during your life but leave no impact on you at all.

Punpun is an average Japanese person aside from the slightly inflated psychological issues at times. As a child his uncle taight him that id he said certain pharse, God would appear to him and help him in his time of need. Into depicts God like a bad imaginary friend who looks like a tanned guy with an afro and usually gives Punpun poor advice that is kind of like a “worst case scenario to do” rather than actual help. His journey to becoming an adult is a difficult one filled with family issues, romantic problems, sex, alcohol, depression, indifferent jobs, etc. The story is not a happy story at all, and Punpun never even goes one chapter without being sadm questioning himself, or making a bad decision at some point. He has many flaws and as he grows up, he starts to notice more and more of them. He is the kind of person who is always looking back into the past and has a hard time looking towards the future. With his kind of depressing life looking at his past is not the most enjoyable thing to do. He has a lot of regrets and things he wishes he could do differently if given the chance. As the story progresses further he falls more and more away from how he used to be as a cheerful child who dreamed of becoming a scientist in space. 

I wanted to involve this manga into my research as it’s one of the most realistic things I have read  so far considering that it’s a Japanese comic (manga). It puts the reader through a lot of pain especially if they relate to one of the characters and can cause depression episodes. For a book it makes people feel a lot and it I really like how we majority of time see everything from Punpun’s perspective and we see how he feels about things and how he thinks. It gives the reader a deep understanding what people actually go through or how they might feel in certain situations and how they will behave. Just like SUN Project from Mimi N, it something similiar that I would call like behind the scenes of real life. Showing the unlikeable aspects of life and emotions that people usually don’t speak up about because of how they might seem.

[ninjaslegos]

For her clothing you could make the Accessoires in those colours or search Up a specific theme/Core (example Dark Academia) If you Need Inspiration for the clothes.And would you mind Sharing Info about your oc?:0 she Looks already pretty cool

I didn't think anyone would love her this much I-

I know what I want two of her outfits to be; one is a dress they wear on special occasions, like when they go to the fangblade competition to cheer on their 'dad'. The other is their 'concealed' outfit I mentioned, which looks cool in my head, I just need to get it on paper. I'm thinking they wear a lot of warmer clothes since they're in the sky for a long time, (the monastery in the mountains, The Bounty, riding dragons, etc.) I actually really like the jean shorts and leggings style so I at least know what they'll wear for pants.

Infodump below :)

(warning, IMMEDIATE death mention)

Anya comes to Ninjago after trying to run from home; she slips on ice, falls down a hill, and crashes into a tree, where she essentially bleeds out/freezes to death. They wake up just outside Jamanakai village and feel cold and confused, so they seek refuge in the village. However, upon seeing all these tall, crayon-yellow people, she freaks out, and they freak out, calling her one of Garmadon's goons and attacking her. They drive her under an overturned wheelbarrow, where she hides out until the ninja arrive. Scared, injured, cold, hungry, and confused, they nearly die of heart attack when four very tall men come to beat her up. She acts like a feral cat; growling and hissing, and bares her teeth, curling herself up and pressing far away from them as she can.

As the brave one, Cole treats her like a cat and holds his hand out. Very tempted to bite and run, she's panting heavily, and her eyes are darting around. Instead, Zane warns Cole not to touch her without talking first, so he tells her it's okay, that she's safe, and that she can come with them. Jay is freaking out about aliens in the meanwhile, which doesn't put Anya at ease, so Kai has to walk him away from the situation.

So Zane and Cole get her to calm down, feed her, tend to her wounds, then she goes into hiding again. She just becomes this little creature they have that they put food out for and leave alone while she hides somewhere; they can't find her when she's hiding, thus they can't kick her out. Besides, they know she has nowhere to go. After a week of this, Cole gets brave again and starts hanging around her food areas until she feel comfortable near him to eat beside him, and he can even pet her hair/rub her back.

He does this until one day she just goes "oh by the way my name is Anya." and the ninja freak. They thought she was some sort of animal from another planet and couldn't talk, so they apologize and formally invite her to live with them. They start treating her more humanly, and she's grateful for it. After being treated like some sort of thing to awe at and pity on Earth, she's finally glad to have people actually listen to her.

Her relationship with Cole becomes a father/daughter one. Zane is like her trusted friend/the cool uncle. Kai starts to form a smallish crush on her, but they're clueless as hell, and Cole is ready to throw hands with him. Jay is still really wigged out about the whole situation, but after they talk about it, he feels better about having them around.

Anya turns into a fighter who wears special gauntlets with spikes on them. Because of her power of Will, she can't really die because she genuinely believes she can't die here because she has cool alien powers. So she uses this deathless ability to beat the shit out of people until she is unable to fight anymore. Examples include trying to deck Garmadon in the face despite being half his height, threatening the Great Devourer (which was stupid on their half because if they were eaten the Devourer would've become a literal god), kicking Clouse in the shins for shits and giggles, and eating random things in Prime Empire which made both her AND Unagami sick.

In later seasons, they go on the mission to stop Garmadon to revive the Grundle and turn young, but they get returned back to normal because they get hit with the tomorrow tea. But when Garmadon goes back in time with the other ninja and mess up the timeline, it turns out in the other timeline Kai didn't like her (because in this timeline, she ended up showing up early, so he blamed the loss of Nya on her) so he made her stay behind when they went to the comic shop, so she loses her adult memory and is stuck as a kid and has to grow up again. This makes Lloyd jealous that 'oh she gets a second childhood while I had to grow up too soon'. This plays a big big role in season 4 (where things get worse) and season 5 (where Morro takes her along and Lloyd can see how much she is hurt because of her second life, and finally gets over his feelings about it.)

SPEAKING of Morro, when they didn't know who the Green Ninja was, she trained like crazy because she wanted to prove that she could be strong, and could be worthy of being the Green Ninja. This set off a lot of red flags for Wu and he felt bad knowing they might go down the same path as Morro, but he couldn't do anything because he didn't know what to do to get her to calm down and stop without upsetting her. Luckily things went okay,

Also in season 5, Morro possesses her, which upset her and sent her emotions spiraling so hard that she actually became a big slime creature, but the ninja help her out by singing to her. She calms down, before attacking the Preeminent. Before Morro leaves her body though, she eats the Preeminent, which causes her to transform into a giant monster who, when they eat people, sends them to a peaceful dimension full of food and houses and places to play. People can stay there if things are looking Bad in Ninjago, before they can return home if they're ready (for example, during season 9/10, she contains people in her dimension, then they can escape through her mouth again. They run off because they're scared, and no one sees them for a long time. In season 6, Nya and Jay saw her in the tower with Echo, who has named her Hero. The ninja feel devastated to find this out, so once they go back in time, they make an excuse to find Anya/Hero. She's not there though, because she remembered, and she was scared.

In season 9 though, just before Harumi is killed/crushed, Hero barrels into the rock creature and battles with it. She isn't as scared as she was anymore, and when Cole comes back, he manages to finally calm her down, and she reverts to a human form.

(For those who don't want to read all of it she is full of love AND trauma and was definitely the weird kid who was way into bugs and pretended to be a cat in elementary school)

That's really all for now...but I definitely feel inspired for outfits now! Thank you!!

[graylinesspam]

Alright bitches, it's in-depth head cannon time.

Ninjago doesn't do a great job of giving us relationship development so I guess it's up to me.

Nya and Lloyd have a complicated friendship

When he first joined the ninja it was as little more than a hostage. He didn't want to be there as much as they didn't want to put up with him.

The ninja were stressed with saving the world and learning to harness their spinjitzu. They avoided Lloyd if at all possible. Wu mostly watched over him.

And it's a wonder why Lloyd was loud and rude and difficult. Convinced he'd follow in his father's footsteps and become evil. Just plain annoying. But nya saw it for what it was. Desperation for approval. She had grown up with just Kai and her foster mother to look after her.

In a lot of ways she and Kai were all each other had. They were close. Probably closer than most brothers and sisters. And he's always supported her loved her. But she was the little sister. Too small and slow to keep up with the neighborhood boys.

She remembers what it was like to muscle her way in the group. To insist and badger so they wouldn't leave her behind. To bite her tongue against her tears after being nailed in the face with a ball. You can't act weak because they won't let you stay. Trying desperately to earn her brothers respect.

It was different when they were older and they had the shop. When they really were two amateur blacksmiths trying to keep the place running. Rationing food and wrapping up burns after hours.

Then sensei came knocking and Kai had the other ninjas. A team. A brotherhood. Something good for him, a chance to grow. And she didn't have elemental powers. She was on the sidelines again. Worrying about them getting hurt, unable to help.

So she gets it. She can see it in Lloyd's eyes. It's the same kind of loneliness that had her taking apart electronics as a kid. The same loneliness that made her walk the three miles to her cave bunker every day and work on Samurai X.

So she asks for his help with stuff around the dojo and the bounty. Offers to teach him how to cook or mix tea brews. Offers him a couple of Syfy novels she owns.

He's stubborn at first. Angry and scared. But the loneliness wins out between the stress of running from the damn skulkin. He starts following her around. Her little helper. He's kinda clingy which would be adorable if it wasn't so sad. And inconvenient, she's been staying around more to look after him but she needs to get to the cave more often. Pick up some wires and circuit boards. Until she's outed and he starts helping her with that too.

And then Lloyd is announced as the green ninja and she's more than apprehensive. She's terrified. It one thing to watch her big brother come home from fighting the army of the underworld bleeding and frustrated but Lloyd is a child. And his father is the one after them.

He starts training with the other boys. Jay who she's reluctantly crushing on. He's sweet but also thoughtless and isn't exactly nice to Lloyd. Zane is rational and calm but cold and detached. Cole is ever the peacemaker but he stands with his brothers. And Kai, is jealous. Overall not a welcoming group to work with. But their responsible for him. Her included and they protect him with their lives.

And Nya is worried about him. He's so young. Until he's suddenly not. Which brings on a whole new wave of trauma. The guys treat him like he's grown mostly. Which given their mission and its deadline might be for the best. But Nya doesn't want to shock him too much with this change. She still asks for his help with things, mostly repairs to the ship at this point. Tries to make time in their hectic schedule to just talk about comics and things that aren't about the end of the world. She struggles with a balance of treating him the same and not treating him like a little kid. She's confused what to do with her big sister feelings now that he's not so little.

After Garmadon becomes himself again the team gets closer and she gets closer with all of them. They except her more since she started fighting alongside them. She's more than kai's tag along sister. Or jay's girlfriend. And she's surprised to realize that she considers them her brothers too. Not just Kai's teammates. And she's surprised at how they start to seek her out too. To help or talk or go out to eat. It's been a while since she's had such close friends, maybe never. The ninja are beginning to look like the family her and Kai never had.

She tries not to play favorites with the boys. Never one to go comparing people. But she's avoiding jay and cole for obvious reasons and Kai's having some broody issues and acting out. She's pretty much left with Zane who is great company but just not very personable especially while preoccupied by his new love interest and Lloyd whenever he visits or when she stays at Sensei Garmadon's dojo. Which is a relief after dodging her suitors for weeks.

But it isn't until Wu finally tells her about her elemental powers that she realizes just how close her and Lloyd have become. It's hard to tell when she stopped thinking if him as someone who needs to be protected and started thinking of him as someone level headed she could go to with her problems. When he was in hiding all she could think about was wanting to find him just to rant through all of the turmoil in her head. But their relationship has come full circle from her encouraging his training with his new powers to him doing the same for her.

And she realizes that Lloyd is her best friend. She falls into line behind his lead before he ever tries on the title of sensei. He's the green ninja and her best friend. One of the most level headed people she knows. When he says go by God does she go. She trusts him. Trusts his judgment.

And she's oddly proud. He's so genuinely good in everything he does and she's delighted to notice the little things she's taught him shine through. Manners and tech skills and how to speak to a lady. She had a hand in Lloyd becoming who he is. And he is good.

That's why she doesn't question it when he calls her to pixel's meeting. Heeds his urgency and follows him. She doesn't question Lloyd because he's never given her a reason to. He's never lied to her before. And she feels a little betrayed when he does. But mostly scared and angry at Harumi for changing him this way. Her best friend turns his back to her to go fight his father once again and she's not sure his pure heart will survive the battle.

[ruesteas]

Ghosting Ch.1

Also Posted On Fanfictio.net and AO3!

Lloyd isn’t sure what to do after his father is defeated, if he can even call the husk of the man that was the current incarnation of Garmadon his father. He’s only relieved to feel the constant thrum of green energy filling his lungs and speeding through his veins, they give him some form of assurance. 

Like an anchor keeping him tied to the present even though the events of the past few weeks are threatening to pull him back to being powerless, back to fighting his father, back to losing his family, back to her- oh. 

His mind had drifted away from Harumi during the chaos of the final few days of his father’s rule over Ninjago. 

Sure, he had watched her from across the city. 

 Watched her knees buckle as ash tangled her hair and debri trapped her in a grave of concrete. 

He hadn’t meant to look, he was clutching Skylor in his arms and should have run but his dumb chest hurts hearing her scream and he whips his head to face her. 

Her eyes meet his and he swears there’s some glimmer of acceptance in her eyes, a plea for forgiveness. 

He guesses that’s why he’s here now.

The sand of the desert clings to his skin as he drives across the dusty roads outside Ninjago city. The heat smothers him and Lloyd wishes he had brought a fan with him or maybe Nya-no he can’t do that. 

He can’t subject the other ninja to fixing his mistakes, they already got sent to another realm for him and Lloyd isn’t exactly sound with the fact that they had brushed nearly dying because of his recklessness as “nothing to worry about”. 

He wants people, no, he wants his family to stop treating him like he’s fragile and might shatter at any second. 

The combined realization that his first kiss stabbed him in the back, resurrected his father and then was crushed by a collapsing apartment complex hit him all at once and his bones felt hollowed out. 

Kai tried to cheer him up with sweets and comic books, but Snickers bars and Skittles can’t mend a broken heart.

Still, it’s not like he talks about Harumi anway, he only flinched when he heard Nya whisper to Zane that the commissioner's team had found her body in the wreckage. 

“The commissioner doesn’t know what to do” Nya says “ The emperor and empress were her legal guardians and she burned them alive.” 

“Why not lay her to rest at the city’s cemetery?” Zane questions. “Would that not be a common procedure within Ninjago City’s law?”

Nya shakes her head, eyes flickering to Lloyd for a second, she knows he’s eavesdropping and won’t have her baby brother have to deal with his lunatic ex anymore. Lowering her voice she hands Zane the morning newspaper and the Nindroid’s eyes widen. 

Lloyd doesn’t need to see the newspaper to know what the headline is, he’s seen the citizens of ninjago’s protests against the Palace of Secrets on patrols. 

Running across the same roofs he had walked with Harumi the night they met, he watched as masked citizens tattooed the building with expletives about the ex-princess. 

He could have stopped them, knocked the spray can out of their hands and enforced the law like a good vigilante ninja would.

 Instead he watches with a mix of emotions stirring in his brain, and decides that confronting them would mean having to face those emotions. 

Tomorrow's tea and all he’s still a kid and can barely understand what happened the past few weeks, let alone how he feels about them.

He tunes back into Nya and Zane’s conversation, trying to pick out what they're saying over the sound of Jay and Cole bickering over the remote.

“The commissioner doesn’t want to bury her in the city she destroyed and start another riot” she explains as Zane nods his head in agreement.

“Perhaps one of us should go speak with the morgue and cemetery, I can-” Zane is interrupted by Lloyd standing up and reaching for the keys to his bike. 

“Lloyd what are you-” Nya begins but is cut off by Lloyd’s frustrated growl.

“I’m gonna go deal with her, ok?” he bites out. 

He doesn’t mean for it to be so harsh, and the look Nya gives him confirms he’s stepped out of line, FSM she could quirk an eyebrow and incinerate someone will the death glare she produces. 

“Lloyd that is not a wise decision, you are still recovering” Zane urges and Nya nods her head in agreement.

“Guys I’m fine my arm is all healed up, see?” Lloyd bends his arm in a sweeping motion to prove it and Zane flashes a look of concern at Nya. 

“I did not mean physically Lloyd” the Nindroid clarifies, worry laced in each syllable.

Lloyd freezes at that, and somehow sinks even lower into the ground of his anxiety’s. 

Of course Zane is worried about him being crazy. 

He released the serpentine, failed to defeat the overlord, got possessed, failed to save master Wu and then failed to recognize Harumi’s obvious lies. He wouldn���t trust himself either. 

He ignores the other ninja's concern and decides it’s time to end this. Maybe if I lay her to rest I’ll finally get some closure he thinks before pushing hard on the gas pedal and driving through clouds of dust out towards the morgue. 

Time to end this.

[sasorikigai]

BLOOD TIES - Prelude Meta

Years ago, a great war between realms brought the universe to the brink of destruction. In their most desperate hour, Earthrealm's champions rallied in strength and spirit—saving their world from the forces of evil. In the years that followed, there existed a peace between realms for the first time since the Mortal Kombat tournaments began. But peace did not last for long...

The story begins in the Himalayan wilderness with Kenshi Takahashi battling infamous Red Dragon member Hsu Hao and other Red Dragon members with Takeda Takahashi, his son. While Kenshi is quick to attempting to subdue his enemies in order for Takeda to escape, Kenshi incites by trespassing the Shirai Ryu Territory, which smoothly transitions forth Hanzo Hasashi’s abrupt intervention, which quickly disposes of Hsu Hao by a skewered kunai to his chest, with a flaming fist impaling the Red Dragon’s head. 

Even in this brief fighting scene, it could be referenced that Kenshi and Hanzo has been close friends, who would reciprocally save each other’s lives, and acting not only on vengeance, but justice (but this parallel and ongoing concept when it involves Hanzo will come later on, repeatedly, in fact). 

"Good is not nice, polite, well-mannered, self-righteous, or naive, though good characters may be some of these things."

Hanzo Hasashi may be a redeemed character who has gone through hell and back to experience growth and redemption, but he is a natural loner - a lone wolf throughout the franchise, ever since he lost his family, his clan, along with his life. His senses of duty may force him to perform heroic acts, but he does not consider chitchat or politeness to be parts of their obligations, lest someone really deserves it through mounted trust and reciprocation as it is extremely hard to downright trust anyone. Also, he may want to be an affable person, but Hanzo believes that being nice does not always get things done, and that doing good requires them to be harsh and cruel, particularly if he has to teach something. This may be an intermittent effect, applied only when necessary; to train Takeda, who wasn’t obviously handpicked by Hanzo himself, but taking care of him on Kenshi’s behalf. 

Hanzo may be no longer an Anti-Hero, nor Vigilante Man, but he still harbors that significant dualism in a sense that he could be a genuinely friendly, sociable, caring person, always looking out for his friends and family and trying to do the right thing. It's just that this niceness doesn't extend to giving free passes to the truly vile and horrific among his enemies (Quan Chi in canon, Havik in the comics). They are the reason why the villain should Beware the Nice Ones, especially since Hanzo is not gonna wait to be angered or snap before the inevitable beatdown/killing begins. Hanzo will find them, will stop them and (if they're lucky) will kill them before they can hit that Berserk Button (where Hanzo fails, which will come later on with Hanzo vs. Havik fight). 

The Shirai Ryu Temple is full of Shirai Ryu warriors who lost their families in the Netherrealm War, sole survivors like Hanzo Hasashi himself. It’s a jarring reminder of his death, and resurrection as Scorpion, as he would serve as the Enforcer of the Netherrealm on Quan Chi’s leash... With all things past him, as Kenshi Takahashi helped Hanzo to get him out of the darkness, Hanzo reciprocates the good deed upon them. Kenshi has his own vengeance as Kenshi was performing a deep covert cover mission to eradicate the Red Dragon’s cult leader, Daegon. When his cover was blown, his son living in Thailand was also blown and Suchin (Kenshi’s wife) was killed in gruesome matter before Kenshi could get there, but Suchin was smart enough to hide Takeda in the next town, to escape slaughter. Hanzo takes him in, as he sought revenge and find death. Takeda fears and resents Hanzo, because he is a wraith from hell. Kenshi, intimately knowing of Hanzo’s demons, tells his son that Hanzo conquered his own years ago. When Hanzo catches Takeda running away from the Shirai Ryu Compounds, he catches up to the boy and tells him. 

“You are a survivor, Takeda, like me. But Shirai Ryu do not run. We fight.” 

This philosophy, the strong, iron-willed Sasori Hanzo wears will be a continued ouroboros that will repeatedly return as the comics’ events continue. It will also become the catalyst in Takeda’s harbored strength as he grows from a weak boy to a formidable warrior. 

Hanzo trains Takeda, as the young Takahashi battles Forrest Fox, who comes on top as he gets beaten over and over again. Years later, Takeda simply feints using his speed, instead of countering Fox when he attacks. Hanzo immediately calls Takeda out for playing around, even when he could have utilized his advantage to strike at first opportunity given. Hanzo does not hold back with his criticism, be imposing and charismatic when he needs to be, while also offering protection towards Takeda, as he assigns Fox to protect him. 

"Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death."

Imposing, intimidating and austere, Hanzo Hasashi, at least before the events of MKX storyline still harbors the duality of his personality (Hanzo and Scorpion), Scorpion being that of vengeance, hatred and wrath, while Hanzo is his humanity and compassion. One of the worst things Hanzo’s enemies can ever do with him is to do something that gets him well and truly furious, because rage makes him close to being unbeatable despite him being a mortal being now. He will go into a frenzy and become stronger, faster, braver, more agile and more indestructible than he has ever been, and he will annihilate anyone who stands in his way. In Takeda’s training, Hanzo is most definitely harsher with him than any of the other handpicked ninjas, for Forrest Fox comments on “If you thought Hanzo was a harsh master before, wait until you meet the real Scorpion.” And Hanzo regards the Shirai Ryu as his blood and family - For Hanzo Hasashi is a Grandmaster, a commander cares deeply about their men and exhibits it constantly. A mentor to the officers (generals and ninjas) under them, Hanzo takes a deep personal interest in their welfare and try to keep them out of harm's way. Even those non-kombatants, who stay behind the front defense line (those that work in infirmary, women who take care of the ninjas, as being a traditional Japanese setting, there still are more women non-kombatants than their male counterparts) will be treated with utter respect and made to feel as valued as the ninjas on the front line.

Hanzo thinks of being abruptly interrupted by Raiden - unexpected and unwelcomed - as the Thunder God warned Hanzo of the Netherrealm Invasion damaging cosmic barriers that protect the Earth from realms beyond. A powerful demon from another realm broke through before Raiden could repair them. Hanzo comments that it is Raiden’s fault, and as he recalls his memory, comments to Takeda that if this demon shows up, warns that warriors don’t dance around it, but kill it before it kills him. Forrest Fox, corrupted with the Blood Code, massacres almost all of the Second Shirai Ryu and takes Takeda to Grandmaster Hasashi, who is in a mental entropy; a state produced by a psychedelic from Hanzo’s own poison collection, reliving old times to stroke the fire until vengeance consumes him. He struggled years to control his vengeful spirit, and now he’s lost yet another family, corrupted Fox waits for what Hanzo will become. 

In his poison-induced delirium, Hanzo remembers the tragic, agonizing event, seemingly from a lifetime ago, Hanzo fights against Lin Kuei warriors, and comes across Harumi (Kana) and Satoshi (Jubei), who are solid frozen with Sub-Zero before him. That day, Hanzo has lost everything - his family, his clan - as he thinks himself becoming Scorpion, the hellfire never being able to burn him whole. Takeda refuses to kill Hanzo, and Fox calls on an occasion where Hanzo has been especially hard on him, considering Hanzo handpicked every fighter he trained, except Takeda, and calls him a runner, not a warrior. Hanzo gives into Scorpion’s persona, burning Fox in hellfire, then Takeda splits him in half, killing corrupted Fox as they burn the Shirai Ryu Compounds, and plans to visit Raiden, to have him beg for mercy. 

Since Hellfire is often explicitly magical in nature, it may also have other affects or the way it does what it does is different from conventional fire. While normal fire might melt something with heat, Hellfire may just disintegrate it entirely, or even go against the annihilative nature of the fire itself, as it was shown with corrupted Forrest Fox under the Blood Code. Maybe whatever normal fire affected will be hot after but eventually the heat will die down but with Hellfire, the object may stay hot or even feel cold. More than that, when used on a living creature, Hellfire might not hurt it the same way as normal fire. Instead of burning the body, Hellfire may burn the soul and physical injuries are the result of a wounded spirit that may never heal. And this also goes along with how Hanzo faced his violence; immoral, thriving on hatred rather than love, not only it destroyed communal sense of his wholeness, it left his world in monologue, rather than dialogue. 

Hellfire itself was a stark metaphor of his violence ending by defeating itself, Hanzo Hasashi’s own triad of body, mind and soul. For it had created bitterness in a sole survivor within him and brutality in destroying them as his cruel madness pulverized so many innocents. 

At this point, Hanzo’s hatred towards Raiden is rampant; for he blames the Thunder God for giving him the Kamigodu Dagger, then having the Second Shirai Ryu massacred, to come close to losing almost everything, save for Takeda and his own life. 

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 6/8/20

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 26 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – The fall season has begun! Furuya is wearing the ace number and dominates the first game, much to Eijun’s distress, since he’s still suffering from “the yips” after striking a batter with an inside pitch. Thankfully, Miyuki and Coach Kataoka arrange for Chris to drop by and teach Eijun a new trick, which seems to help get him out of his doldrums. Meanwhile, Furuya’s performance begins to deteriorate, rumors about Coach Kataoka’s imminent departure begin to circulate, and the guy who’s been observing them (but who is probably Kataoka’s replacement) plans to focus solely on cultivating Furuya the ace and objects to how much time and effort Kataoka devotes to the other players. I mean, I can only assume that this guy is going to get sent packing at some point, but I definitely appreciate that Terajima-sensei is able to make me this anxious about his presence. Perennially recommended. – Michelle Smith

A Certain Scientific Railgun: Astral Buddy, Vol. 3 | By Kazuma Kamachi, Yasuhito Nogi, and Kiyotaka Haimura | Seven Seas – The first half of this volume is a giant flashback, and you know those are always bad in the Indexverse. Expect dead kids, dead adults, and a whooooooole lot of evil science. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot here that relies on the reader knowing one of the antagonists is from New Testament Vol. 11… which we have not seen in English, and might never see. Too much continuity. Junko continues to be laughably retroactively strong, going toe to toe with a level 5 here. And there’s the bond between her and Misaki, which may be “master and servant” but is also a close friendship (and yuri tease, as Misaki herself demonstrates). Railgun fans will like this. – Sean Gaffney

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 8 | By Nagabe | Seven Seas – The eighth volume of The Girl from the Other Side is unbearably sad—so much so that I struggled to finish it, as watching Shiva come to terms with losing Teacher is a shattering experience. Compounding my sense of anguish were the final chapters, in which we learn why the Inside world was so desperately interested in Shiva. The parallels between her situation and our current health crisis are impossible to ignore, reminding us about the human cost of capitulating to fear, ignorance, and superstition in the face of a pandemic. In a less fraught moment, I’d be inclined to recommend The Girl from the Other Side for the lessons it imparts, but I think it’s OK to decide that Nagabe’s allegory is a little too on-the-nose to offer insight or comfort right now. – Katherine Dacey

Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest, Vol. 3 | By Aki Irie | Vertical Comics – After two messy but interesting volumes that see-sawed between mystery and travelogue, Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest finds its groove in volume three. Michitaka—who disappeared from the previous volume—takes center stage in the latest installment, as Kei inadvertently stumbles across some important clues about what happened to his aunt and uncle back in Japan. Though Kei’s discovery propels the story in a new and unexpected direction, the latest plot twists feel earned; the sometimes awkward shifts in tone and genre that characterized the first two volumes are smoothed over by new revelations about Michitaka, and a new sense of urgency about solving the trail of gruesome deaths he’s left behind. The result is a compelling story that has the trappings of a Scandinavian crime show but the soul of an X-Files episode. Recommended. – Katherine Dacey

Kakushigoto: My Dad’s Secret Ambition, Vol. 3 | By Kouji Kumeta | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Whereas Zetsubou-sensei made a point to seemingly attack everything in the world for leaving the author (and, by extension, Nozomu) in despair, Kakushigoto is zeroing in on the manga profession in particular. Here we get mysteries answered, such as why are the pages of weekly magazines colored differently, who determines the order the stories go in, and what is the exact nature of a deadline? We don’t get real answers for any of these, as it turns out things are very fluid. As for Hime, she’s still cute, and still investigating things with her not-Zetsubou girls mystery club. And there’s still that flashforward threatening us with the death of Hime’s father. Will the series get that dark? – Sean Gaffney

The Misfit of Demon King Academy: History’s Strongest Demon King Reincarnates and Goes to School with His Descendants, Vol. 1 | By Shu, Kayaharuka, and Yoshinori Shizuma | Square Enix – This isn’t my usual fare, but I hoped it would help with my Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun withdrawal. And it actually did! Anoth Voldigord was the all-powerful demon king, but sacrificed himself to end a perpetual war with humanity, pledging to reincarnate in 2000 years. When he does so, he’s invited to a school attendend by his many descendants but nobody believes he’s who he says he is because his magic is too vast to be measured and all of the facts about his reign have been distorted or forgotten over time. Anoth isn’t too likable at first, but the fact that his smug announcements of superiority garner no reaction, his jokes fall flat, and he must deal with a pair of doting and dimwitted human parents all help to humble him a bit. I guess it sometimes pays to venture out of your comfort zone! – Michelle Smith

My Senpai Is Annoying, Vol. 1 | By Shiromanta | Seven Seas – Thankfully, the senpai is not annoying in the way that I feared—this is all on her. Futaba is a new OL at a company who is so short she looks about twelve years old. She also has a near-terminal case of tsundere. This mostly comes out when around Harumi, her senpai at the company, who is huge, nice, helps her with her work and occasionally lightly teases her, and she is absolutely not ready to deal with it. This manga has one joke—Futaba is embarrassed and gets mad to hide it—and if you like that joke, it can be fun. It’s also based on a webcomic, with most “chapters” being about two pages. Towards the end, there’s longer original content, and that works much better. Recommended for those who like 4-komas and tsunderes. – Sean Gaffney

New Game!, Vol. 9 | By Shotaro Tokuno | Seven Seas – You got the sense that Kou wasn’t going to stay in France forever, and sure enough, she’s back by the end of this volume. There’s some nice stories here about not-quite-rivalries between her and Aoba’s friend Hotaru, and of course the inevitable yuri tease between Kou and Rin, which will never rise above a certain level but that level is pretty damn high. Other than that, a big part of this volume features the danger of farming out parts of your game to outside companies to complete, as they’re harder to control and can easily affect quality in ways that need to be fixed somehow. We also see Aoba continue to grow into her role as a real adult, even as she continues to never quite take the starring role. Cute. – Sean Gaffney

Primitive Boyfriend, Vol. 1 | By Yoshineko Kitafuku | Seven Seas – Kamigome Mito is popular with the boys at her school but feels nothing for any of them, finding them all insufficiently manly. Mito is lamenting her circumstances while working on the family farm, when she suddenly receives a visit from Spica, Goddess of the Harvest. Mito’s hard work has not gone unnoticed and as a reward, Spica sends her back in time 2.5 million years to meet her soulmate, a member of the species Australopithecus Garhi. He takes care of Mito, she falls for him, and when she’s sent home just as his life is in peril, she’s desperate to return. It’s pretty fun, I guess, if you don’t let yourself get bogged down in the realities of how their relationship will never work. Thankfully, it’s also only three volumes long. It’s short, it’s unique, and thus I will keep reading to see how it all plays out. – Michelle Smith

Species Domain, Vol. 8 | By Noro Shunsuke | Seven Seas – The series has now reached the Culture Festival, and seems like it might slowly be gliding to an ending, which in a series like this means pairing up more people. The “joke” confession that wasn’t in the last volume gets revisited here, with much embarrassment all around. Kazamori’s desperation for other girls to be attracted to Ohki may end up getting her in trouble down the road. Mikasagi explains why he isn’t ready to commit to anything, etc. There’s also an extended bathhouse scene, for those who like fanservice, which includes discussion about where Mizuno should be, on the men’s or women’s side. Again, I appreciate the care they’re taking with this character. Fun. – Sean Gaffney

The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 3 | By Kousuke Oono | Viz Media -As I have said in previous reviews, you read this series for its one gag, and should not expect more than that one gag done extremely well. Beyond that, here we see that our househusband is not the only former yakuza trying to make a living doing mundane everyday things, and that it’s much easier to change what you do than how you act. We also see why he’s such a good husband, manipulating things a bit so that his wife can meet some live action Pretty Cure actors (or rather the non-copyright violating Pretty Cure knockoff). That said, I think it’s Santa’s appearance that is absolutely the highlight of the volume, along with the stunned reaction of all the children. Hilarious. – Sean Gaffney

By: Katherine Dacey

[nonbinarykai]

Alright *crackles knuckles*

First of all I think it’s important to note that this plot idea did not originate from this season.

Now alot of people already guessed that. But what people tend to get wrong is that this plot line originated from the lego ninjago movie in a scrapped plot. That isn’t true either.

Where it actually originated from was graphic novel #4 “Tomb of the Fangpyre” written by Greg Farshtey (who funnily enough didn’t get credited in any of the ninjago crystallized episodes despite being the person responsible for this plot point but I digress)

In this comic we learn the origin of the great devourer. Now keep in mind that this takes place while s1 was being produced and released. So at this point s2 and it’s lore regarding the fsm and the overlord hadn’t been polished yet. We can also assume this was before even the anacondrai were being introduced.

There are some problems with this interpretation though.

For one, the lore inconsistencies. While it is excusable that it can’t lore accurate because well, it was made before that lore even existed. Trying to apply this comic to the lore now is a bit tricky and we have to fill in the gaps. Which is probably what eventually lead to the overlord biting the great devourer idea (supported by the movie).

Second, the personification of the great devourer. Obviously it doesn’t have any goals of conquering ninjago. It’s a wild animal, it has no insight on what is evil and what is not.

Thirdly, the serpentine generalization. I don’t particularly like the idea that the serpentine are born from evil.

However, it also introduces also of fun concepts. Like the great devourer being a fangpyre and the implication that it’s venom created the serpentine tribes. Something I still like to headcanon to this day.

Overall, while there were some issues, I mainly enjoyed this back story. Mostly because it was harmless fun to. It was a comic so it was open to interpretation and the ideas it presented was fun to discuss and expand on. And honestly I never really minded the idea that the great devourer was bit by the overlord. In my mind, I thought the overlord only gave the great devourer its powers but never directly influenced it. It was still a wild animal. And the whole situation with Garmadon was nothing more then him being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

So, if I enjoy this story so much? Then why do I hate the crystallized plot reveal?

Well for a couple of reasons

1. The overlord biting the devourer was a fanon concept for the longest time. To the point that most people straight up accepted it as canon. Despite the fact that it’s only indications came from a non canon comic and a scrapped plot from the movie. Which I hopefully shouldn’t have to explain why is not canon to the show. During no point (that I remember) was this plot point actually canon to the show. Until crystallized that is.

You see, one of the biggest issues of crystallized is that it tried WAY to hard to pander to fans. And I think this is an example of that. This scene basically confirms what has only been fanon. But it does so without understanding what that fanon was based off of.

2. It was COMPLETELY contrived in an extremely obvious way. The overlord had no reason to say this at all. It’s only there to serve to turn Harumi against the overlord. Which is fine, it’s something I myself theorized would happen. But the problem is that, once again, this is fanon. The writers took a common fanon idea and made it canon in order to add dramatic weight to the scene. Which just takes away from Harumi’s character and development. If this had been say, Harumi finding out pythor was behind the great devourer. Then harumi’s betrayal of the overlord would have felt more realistic and emotional to us. Since this is information that was IN canon. It’s also extremely cheap.

3. It fucks with the lore massively. Once again a consequence of adding fanon to appease fans. In the original comic this was excusable because it was made before s2 and didn’t even mention the overlord. But this scene came out WAY after all that lore and it creates alot of plot holes like

- how was the overlord able to corrupt the devourer if he was on the dark island at the time?

- was the overlord always controlling the great devourer?

- if the overlord biting the great devourer is canon, is other parts of the comic canon? We’re the serpentine created by the fsm or the great devourer?

- what does the overlord mean by “your powers were a gift from me”. Wasn’t garm born an oni? Did the venom give him powers?

- was the overlord aware that this moment specifically would happen? If so then why did he try to get his body back in s2 and in s3 If that wasn’t what he was planning for?

- why did he need the dark matter to turn people corrupted when he could do it himself?

- if the great devourer was only meant to bite Garmadon, then what’s with all the extra powers? Why did he make the Great devourer go big?

- was the great devourers other actions also apart of his plan? Did he ever intend to manipulate the serpentin? Why didn’t he?

Again, in the comic all of this was excusable because these were questions that needed to be asked yet.

But also, the comic gave us enough leeway for us to to fill in the gaps with current canon if we needed to.

Like in the comic, the great devourer wasn’t sent to bite garm. It was created before the fsm and the overlord battled. Making its connection to the overlord make much more sense. It was given power to create darkness and evil. It wasn’t intended to be a pawn in anything, the bite wasn’t the overlord possessing the snake, just merely creating chaos. The rest after that is the result of the great devourer being a wild snake. It wanted to consume everything because snakes have high prey drive. It bit garm because Garmadon got to close and it was threatened. It laid eggs because it’s a wild snake. All of these things don’t make sense if the overlord bit the great devourer with the intent of JUST making Garmadon evil.

And finally, my biggest issue

4. It removes the individuality and theming of villains in the show.

I’ll say it now; I’m not a big fan of the overlord. And I think his whole “im pure darkness” shtick is boring and lame. He doesn’t have much of his own personality. And he relies on other people to be the villain for him in a season.

So it annoys me to no end when he gets the credit for EVERYTHING in the series. Like he’s some kind of evil mastermind. It’s lazy and dull. It takes away from the motivation of characters like Harumi and Garmadon. But it’s most atrocious here.

The great devourer was a wild animal. It has no perception of what’s bad and good. It has no morals. It barely has any emotions. To take that away and claim that it’s the overlord that had possessed the great devourer takes away so much from the story.

One of the biggest issues with ninjago is that it portrays evil and good in a extremely black and white way with little to no grey area. It’s either that people who are evil are always good. Or good characters who turn evil are always bad to begin with. Or villains who do good deeds will never get recognition for it.

It’s this gross idea that redemption and change is not something that is possible. People are born one way and stay one way. And the overlord exemplifies that fact.

Because of this reveal, Harumi’s “redemption” is not her realizing she was wrong. But her aiming her revenge on the overlord. Which gives off the vibe that Harumi is misguided. Instead of the more complex truth that Harumi is a person who lets her anger and rage blind her from the good things she has in her life and the things that really matter. She gets turned from this interesting examination of how people deal with trauma to this misunderstood puppy dog.

Because of this reveal, Garmadon’s powers, his oni side, his greed. It’s not because of his own desperation to deal with the venom and his slow descent into evil the more he tries to prove himself to a family that never gave him a chance. It’s because the overlord cursed him with it. Garmadon gets turned from a complex father who, despite the venom, tried everything in his power to love and protect his son; to someone who’s always been evil and uncaring because someone made him that way.

Because of this reveal, the great devourer. A serpent meant to represent the chaos of life. How someone’s entire life can be turned around on its head by being in the wrong place in the wrong time. How trauma is inevitable and pain is always lingering with us. Because pain is not a evil, it is a necessary. It has no morals. It bites like a snake. Is turned into this pawn. This passing lip service. A evil planted by the overlord. Successfully removing any notion, any idea that good people can hurt others. That maybe, yeah, the ninja are in the wrong. Maybe They are in the wrong for destroying realms. They are in the wrong for being careless to the people they don’t know. They are in the wrong for being unsympathetic and cruel to not only groups of people who their own blood line has trapped, killed, destroyed. But to themselves, to eachother.

They’re the good guys right? They can’t possibly do anything wrong. Right? It’s all because of the overlord.

Hell, maybe there’s a possibility that because of this reveal. We only got oni Lloyd for 20 seconds.

This, this one passage.

Has to be.

The WORST plot reveal in the entirety of ninjago and I stand by that whole heartedly.