#like I love Skybound Jay but come on

[tornoleander]

Nya has the best writing out of anyone in skybound an I will not hear otherwise

(this is just a rant but I will finish my argument with evidence soon but I was feeling like yelling at phone)

Just watched a video completely butchering her character.

I’m fuming about Nya’s treatment in general like RRRRR SHE IS LIKE THE BEST WRITTEN. Most people I see talk about her never tried to see Nya’s motivation.

And because she’s grumpy and won’t take bullshit treatment. And a large part of the audience Treat her like she’s a brat for it like…

Her ark against all odds is great. The only reason so many people don’t get that is ALL because of the awful framing and them focusing on Jay at all the wrong times I PROMISE YOU.

The audience is made to focus on Jay’s feelings in moments that should’ve been about her.

Nya always thought she would end up with Jay like she said later on. She always loved him She wasn’t trying to hurt or play with his feelings but she had bigger problems, and she simply didn’t want to be dating him. Because she hated how that would make her be perceived. Which was the issues that she overcame by the end.

She is frustrated by way she’s perceived by the city. They only see her as her gender. A self insert of sorts. (There’s a scene about it first ep subtle but boils my blood) Not a person. She HATES IT.

BRRRR

Nya has A lot more going on like it was never her Job to walk on eggshells around Jays feelings. She was having a lot harder of a time that first episode but more screen time was dedicated to Jays moping about her.

Just AAA ggghg

LIKE EVERYONE REWATCH SKYBOUND AND FOCUS ON NYA Specifically. Ignore how much the narrative drags you to look at Jay. I swear Nya’s struggle is shockingly the most well written bit

[taddymason]

ok i wasn't going to do this BUT

Some people in the fandom have the element of "independence" and Nya's phrase "I don't need anyone" SO attached to her as if any other trait contradicts her character.

Guys, Nya's vision is not OOC. That she shows concern for the whereabouts of her fiancé who she hasn't seen in years, and who could very well be dead or could have "moved on without her", is not out of character and even more so when her reaction to this is to instantly realize that it's fake, her fears always have to do with what is out of her control and this vision clearly emphasizes that.

Like, guys, do you really want "Nya is afraid of being normal / Nya is afraid of losing her powers 2.0"? Instead of showing us real vulnerability on Nya's part from irrational nightmares in which she ends up reacting with anger and denial? You want the character to remain static, and for her to have the same fears about herself as in season 11 when:

We've already seen that fear, so there's no point in presenting us with information we already know.

Nya ALREADY faced that fear. She sacrificed herself at the cost of losing her humanity, she returned and regained control of her powers. When you've been through something like this, it makes sense that your fears evolve.

I don't see anyone complaining about Lloyd's fears not being the same as those in s11 (and his fear also went from being something about himself to being afraid of disappointing someone else.) I'm sorry, but it doesn't make sense introduce a fear that won't make sense with the arc Nya will have this season with Jay's obvious amnesia. Nya showing vulnerability/concern for someone so important to her does not make her any less independent.

[enavstars]

May you bliss us with your angst ninja headcanons?

mainly kai pls

Sorry for the delay. You asked mostly for Kai's so I delivered. If anyone wants more hcs about the others I can work on it some time in the future (I also have more of Kai).

Now the hcs:

• All the ninja have PTSD from everything they’ve been through

• And abandonment issues

• Cole has an eating disorder and eats when he’s stressed, this is one of the reasons he is very insecure of his weight. People online poke at him for it

• Jay's terrified of losing his loved ones again because of him. That is another reason why he went absolutely crazy post Seabound, as he thinks it was his fault Nya had to resort to sacrificing herself

• He used to be bullied for living in a junkyard before becoming a ninja and that's why he was ashamed of it

• Zane always shoves down everything wrong that happens to him (e.g being the Ice Emperor for way too long to be ok about it) because he puts the team and their needs first.

• Nya has nightmares from the time she died in skybound but doesn't tell anyone.

• She had to keep her work and love life secret from her brother for fear that he would shut her down to protect her. Her fear persisted well into s1 and that's why she felt she had to hide Samurai X even from Kai

• Lloyd still admires his uncle despite his obsession with the green ninja (and all the neglect that came with it) because he's the only relative that actually took him in

• All of the ninja have at some point hidden an injury at least once. But Kai and Nya are the ones that do it more often (Nya specially when she was samurai X), and know how to treat mild wounds because of it.

• Kai and Nya do physical activities when they’re stressed or have emotions they don’t want to process. They can do their thing like Kai working in the forge and Nya doing mechanics but they usually train, however they can go on for hours (Kai has passed out a few times)

• Kai and Zane have a very poor sense of self. Zane’s comes from him not valuing his life and thinking he’s expendable since he can be rebuilt, ignoring all the trauma that comes from getting severely hurt or “dying”. Kai has problems seeing his worth as a human being because he’s never lived for himself; everything he does is for someone else and so he thinks his value resides in what he can do for other people. 

• Kai is terrified of the idea of being alone, it’s his worst fear.

• He has THE WORST coping mechanisms and Zane is confused on how his body was able to go through all of them (Alcoholism, illegal fights, smoking…)

• Kai is an insomniac, he barely sleeps most nights and instead just waits until he passes out (He has very deep eyebags because of it but hides them with make up, covering his freckles too). He sometimes bumps into some other ninja at night since they all have fucked up sleep schedules. 

• Lloyd also has a lot of problems sleeping because of nightmares and goes to Kai or Nya’s room where he feels safer (mostly into Kai’s). Sometimes they stay up at night chilling or they try to sleep. In those cases the nights with Lloyd are the ones where Kai sleeps the most because he feels safer too.

• Kai has chronic depression because of his fucked up childhood

• Lloyd thought he had depression too for a while but it turned out to be autistic burnout because of the stress of being the green ninja. But he can’t properly rest or heal from the burnout so he’s exhausted most of the time.

• When he’s stressed Kai forgets to eat and can go days with very little food because he’s used to it from being poor in his childhood.

• Genuinely forgot what it feels like to be a kid and have no responsibilities so it’s his personal mission to not let that happen to Lloyd. Kai would be devastated if Lloyd ended up like him.

• Kai sometimes feels insecure about his face scars and contemplates hiding them with make up.

• Kai’s touch starved but terrified of letting people in.

• He hides his negative emotions as anger and when the others try to reach out to him he pushes them away by getting angry at them until it's mutual and they leave him alone.

• Never told the others about what he did after Zane’s “death”. He fixed himself up, alone.

[spinjitsuburst]

I just saw that art u rbed to here from ur main and like while its an amazing peice of art its in own right MY EYES ZOOMED ONTO ONE ARMED LLOYD im so curious where that hc comes from if u wanna ramble abt scar and injury hcs id love to hear genuinelylike. I love scar hcs yeah

I'M SO SORRY THIS ASK TOOK SO LONG BUT OH MY GOD I LOVE TALKING ABOUT DESIGN AND SCAR HEADCANONS SO LIKE GHDFSGHKJFDG

generally i draw the ninja in a pretty vague "around or after crystalized but before DR" timeline so that's what i'm operating under with these headcanons

also i didn't draw zane here cuz android bodies confuse me and i also got. lazy hgkfdsghkjf but i'll do his someday

lloyd's 20~ and the other ninja are mid 20s~

FIRST UP MY FAVS

starting with lloyd i give him a dragon tail and oni horns, as well as pointed ears. he's got a semi-grunge/goth style so i usually draw him with piercings and stuff. he lost his arm during the events of hunted to me but i dont really have a set event in mind for it. his back was SUPER damaged during the sons of garmadon fight and sometimes has to wear a back brace, and his ankle flares up from time to time

jay kept a lot of his scars hidden for a while because they came from skybound (some of his worst injuries lingered from the timeline). not sure whether he's come clean to the ninja yet or not. the marks on his wrist and ankle are from vengestone cuffs on the ship (blame hat because they gave jay vengestone cuffs in bbnb and it broke my brain so my jay has them now). the wound on his side is from skybound as well. ironically his face scar is NOT from skybound, but he was blind in that eye after skybound and hid it from the team. the current scar is from a fight where an enemy sliced a knife up the side of his face, and his lightning reacted badly and struck him while also striking the enemy. he almost died it was NOT a fun day for anybody. also he's a trans man so top scars!!

nya's scars are fun, she obviously has the tiger widow venom scar from skybound (kai finds out about that one after it gets infected cuz she wasn't taking proper care of it after the timeline reset, and he was NOT happy about it) but she also has lichtenberg scars on her hand from a time jay was holding it and accidentally shocked her badly with his powers. he starts wearing gloves after this incident. she also, of course, still has the markings from her time merged with the sea. they glow blue when she uses her powers, and her eyes are more glowy now as well (she kinda looks like a cryptid)

kai's deceptively scrawny. he has basic muscles but he's super skinny, so a lot of people think he isn't as strong as the rest of the ninja. however he's CRAZY strong and has a solid core. He also has a bunch of scars all over his hands from his time as a blacksmith. They're mostly little burns and nicks, but there's one that stretches across his hand from when he accidentally grabbed a hot blade. he also has a lot of body hair

cole is chubby but INSANELY strong, even without super strength. he has a bunch of scars, especially on his arms, from being tanky and blocking blows with his body. most of his scars are ninja related, but he does have one on his leg from a dance accident. nothing major, but the scar stuck around. he also has his ghost scar that goes over his eye somewhat, causing his pupil to be an unnatural green

also a height chart for comparison! one day i'll do zane too but i got lazy. hard to figure out scars for a nindroid, but i imagine that under his plating, the side of his face will ALWAYS have glowing gold scars from the overlord, no matter how many times he makes a new body or tries to fix them

[coffeeisfortheresponsible]

as much as i think the common headcanons for the ninja’s mental illnesses/complexes are very accurate to the show and justified bc these guys Have Issues,, they are so complex and there is honestly potential for so much more than ohh jay is scared and anxious he is The Anxiety One.

like yes for sure he does but where’s jay’s ptsd from skybound. where’s lloyd with bpd and that’s why he got so attached to harumi. where’s nya with derealization after seabound. where’s kai with general anxiety that everyone he loves will get hurt. cole with depersonalization from being a ghost, not feeling like he ever fully came back. zane’s guilt about making his friends witness his death, and for his time as the ice emperor.

i’m sure some of these are more commonly recognized than others,, but come on let them experience all their emotions and act irrationally and not just in the ways we tend to box them into.

[moonlightblueandicegrey]

My thoughts about b!Jay and Jay in general

I know that all the bizarro ninja are dangerous villains. But what about B!Jay specifically?

Let me explain why i think that he could be the most dangerous one:

Humans:

In my au and in my opinion, Jay himself is a little bit misunderstood and kinda underestimated by the people in Ninjago.

From my experience, i noticed that humans have this weird habit to be impressed by muscles and physical strength although it is known that someone can be dangerous and "strong" without the physical strength.

In my Ninjago headcanons:

My headcanons for Jay is that he looks "weaker" than he is. Jay is a skinny boy, without many visible muscles, and he is the cutest and shortest out of his team. Sadly, people see that as a weakness although none of those things means that Jay is weak. Jay is not weak. Okay, we must admit that Jay's "greatest ability" isn't physical strength, (as it is for Cole for example), but Jay has some other abilities that might become even more dangerous than physical strength under certain circumstances. An example is speed. My headcanon is that Jay is the fastest out of the ninja. But even now, speed isn't the main reason why i think of Jay (and in the next step: B!Jay) as the most dangerous.

Their way of thinking:

In my opinion, Jay's mind is what makes him as dangerous as i think he is. Because the other three ninja act like this:

Kai: He is strong and brave. But he is so brave and prideful that he becomes reckless. Yes, he'll go straight into battle and he'd rather die fighting than surrender. He'll fight to his last breath to protect the people he loves but this can be a mistake sometimes. Kai protects by becoming a "sword". He protects by attacking his enemy. Face to face battle even if you know you'll lose isn't the best choice. Sometimes you'll have to surrender in a battle if you want to win a war. (Yes, Gryffindor vibes if you are also a harry potter fan).

Cole: He isn't as reckless as Kai but his physical strength is messing with his mind sometimes. It gives him the feeling of winning but sometimes it's incorrect. Cole will surrender though but only if it's absolutely needed and if there is no other choice. He will fight to protect his loved ones but he will protect by becoming a "shield". He won't attack. He'll just fight back/dodge.

Zane: He has the potential to follow Jay's steps. But there's one problem. Zane is fair and honest. Although he won't start a battle that he can't win, his fairness and honesty will keep him a few steps back. Zane fights in the right place and in the right moment, when he is ready to do it and goes for a straight win (except if he has no choice but to fight earlier). He is not reckless and he plans his moves before going to battle. The problem is his ethic. He wants to win fair and with honesty, following the rules of a "τίμια μάχη" ("fair/honest/honourable battle").

Jay's way of thinking:

And here comes Jay: He is brave but he isn't reckless. He seems scared all the time but he isn't a coward. He'll fight when the time comes, but he just wants to save his skin. Jay will fight to protect if it's needed but he'll mostly fight for revenge (after the bad thing is done. Examples: Skybound, Prime Empire and Seabound). He doesn't give a fuck about such things like "fair battles" and "honour", "honesty" blah, blah. He just does whatever it takes to win or take what he wants no matter if his sneaky ways are unethical. Jay isn't the one who will throw himself into battle. He isn't the predictable one that you'll see coming to attack you from miles away. He is the type of guy that you won't even notice how he stabbed your back. And that my friend is much more dangerous than physical strength.

How's b!Jay related to that?

The question is, why does Jay use this thing only in specific occasions (like in skybound)? Because Jay is a hero. Jay has a good heart. He avoids using his unethical, sneaky ways to win and he just follows the rest of the team and the plans that the others make. Our kid tries hard, give him some credit for it.

Does b!Jay have this kind of problem though? No. Of course not. He'll just do it. Because he can. Because he doesn't care about being good. So imagine how powerful he could be if he only had a second chance in Ninjago... He could be a nightmare.

And i haven't seen dragon rising yet but i wish they could use Jay's potential now that he is villain. He could be great!

What do you think?

[sharksandjays]

Yall I just had a thought.

Maybe im stupid for this but I was thinking way too hard last night and had an idea.

What if Nadakhan wanted to break Jay to break his element?

Bear with me. Yes Nadakhan wanted to deal with Jay personally because he was stubborn and didnt make his final wish, and yes he also picked on him because hes the “other guy” with Nya.

But what if Nadakhan also wanted to defeat the sky.

We all know that Nadakhans old realm was made in the sky, thats why hes making Djinnjago in its image. But I wonder…he might consider Jay as the “guardian” of that realm. Of the sky. He captured Jay and tortured (and probably SAed or smth) him in his own element. He wanted to break the master of lightning, of the sky, for a reason.

He felt like he needed to do that before he could gain full posession of the realm. He wanted to defeat the guardian of the element he needed to conquer.

Thats why I love fanfictions where Jays element stands against him. Im currently reading Bending But Never Breaking by writing_hat (Edit: Major TW warnings for SA and other very severe triggers. Sorry for not clarifying that) and seeing Jay’s lightning literally ravage his body to attack the handprints and wounds Nadakhan left behind, seeing a storm come in and threaten Nadakhans ship, seeing lightning strike and burn down an island.

That is a war. That is Skybound. That is the attempted defeat of an elemental master in his own realm, and the realm itself protecting him like a mother. (wink wonk)

Consider.

[mx-julien]

ninjas' relationship with a home

Zane is used to moving on from places, as an amnesiac orphan he was used to getting up and carrying on, then his only temporary home, the Monastery, burns down (ref: s1 ep2 Home) and the others blame him for it. granted, he seems unaffected from these accusations and proceeds to find the Destiny's Bounty that day so all is forgiven

I wonder if some of this longing for a home was intensified after he regains his memories in Tik Tok (s1 ep7). because then he would be able to remember a time of prolonged safety and living with people you love

Kai and Nya lived at the blacksmith shop presumably since their parents got kidnapped by Krux and Acronix. Nya even had enough time to create a whole secret room of armor

the first years must've been especially hard given all the reminders of their parents being around. did they leave their bedroom untouched, save for the occasional cleaning?

did Kai have to pull up a stool to the stove to cook until he hit his growth spurt? are most of Nya's memories in that house of Kai making her lunches and tucking her in at night and sending her off to school?

who takes care of the shop while they're gone? and when they come back do they notice everything looks a little smaller- each corner thick with dust and the fingerprints of afternoons when they were 12 and only had each other?

Jay lived with Ed and Edna in the scrapyard since he was little and he can visit back there whenever he likes, but now he has another family to think about: the one he never had, the one that gave him away

however after Skybound he knows he has other parents as well. does he ever sit in the kitchen he grew up in and wonder if his biomom had any recipes she wanted to pass down? if she ever saw families or little kids and thought of him? if they have the same smile or same freckles or same laugh?

sure he can learn about Cliff all he wants and he loves his Mom and Dad dearly, but was there more? could he have learned to master lightning with his Mom? where was she when he was growing up? was she unable to see him or unwilling? is she even alive?

Cole's house is likely the same as when he was little, so he too can go visit, but I wonder if he went off to "boarding school" because after his Mom died he couldn't stand to be at home

what was a place to laugh and paint became gray when Lilly got ill. it turned into a place of hushed voices and packed bags for the hospital. after she died it was the home of yelling, of arguments, of tradition vs. passion. smiles became forced and doors only slammed shut.

with more time having passed, I wonder if Cole is glad that so many things of his are mostly untouched since his Mom died. he can find her neat handwriting on some notes in his desk, in books on the shelves, and point out decor she bought

Lloyd only had a complete home for a small part of his childhood before Misako left him at Darkley's. then, he must've lived somewhere close to the school. when he was doing Pythor's bidding, he seemed to be mostly homeless

after growing up deserted at a boarding school (that he clearly didn't like) and manipulated into long treks and homelessness to do the bidding of a snake, perhaps his misbehavior at the beginning of his stay on the Bounty was because he couldn't imagine it lasting. him? a place where he felt at home? better the devil you know than the devil you don't- just toss me back out on the streets I don't CARE!

when do you think he realized that the others weren't going to leave him like his Mom did or take advantage of him like Pythor? how many months in did it take him to realize that his uncle Wu wasn't the only one who wanted him there?

any particular ninja y'all want me to focus on drop in the tags or replies- I'm real interested about this now

[spork-supremacy]

saw a post about how cliquey the fandom can be, can’t find it for the life of me to reblog but thought I’d share some observations I’ve had over the years of basically being a ghost on here. Granted this is less on behaviour and more on how we can section ourselves naturally.

I find that the bigger the fandom the easier it is for it to get divided into little subsections, especially if it has a lot of content in season variation, characters, and location. Ninjago is a very big prime example of this with around 17 seasons, 2 specials and the pilots, many with themes attached to them. there’s a lot that you could cling onto and make it your one big focus on the show.

It also has a giant cast especially when you include roles that are either small or season specific, once I just tried to see how many I could name alone from memory and I got a little over sixty and I’m sure there’s more. When it comes to location we don’t have too much in mainland Ninjago that begs to be further explored considering most people we actually take notice in live in the main city. But add in the 15 other realms and we have a whole host of interesting locations to explore.

To circle back to characters we also have a lot in our main cast, with a standard of six ninja, now three students, and if you still want to count Pixal, Misako and Wu because you are in denial, and Garmadon’s two season stint in the title sequence, we have 13 who’s been included in the main cast at some point , creating multiple dynamics we can work with and latch onto.for me personally I have always gravitated to the Jay focused side of the fandom because that was where I was most comfortable, looking over character studies, art, headcanons, general Jaya stuff because I have a favourite ship dammit, and skybound analysis because despite how strange of a season it was it was also somehow my comfort season, my favourite one I dare say. I admit it was mainly because I didn’t really think about themes and subtext back in the day and just always loved a romance heavy season of anything. I was simple sue me.

But now I love it because as much as I don’t wish to admit it I can see a lot of myself in early seasons Jay, not necessarily a good thing but watching him grow out of specific negative behaviours helped me to do so myself. With the season itself it’s just fun to pick it apart and notice what exactly was so off to me when I was younger.

And something like this can apply to everyone in the fandom, which is why they stick to their own corners, because that’s where they’re most comfortable. They may stick to a character like Lloyd because he has a lot of angst attached to him to play around with, or someone like dare that because he’s a completely comedic character and prime for crack scenarios, or Nya because of her journey of self discovery. There are definitely still people obsessing over SOG or TOE, or possession. And what I do see is people happy to share their thoughts on their own “fixation season” as I call it.

This is at least how I sort pretty much all media in my own brain and I think it’s kinda neat how the internet can work like it. With a whole branching system that if you take certain doors can have you starting off in the surface entirety of the show to looking over really obscure details like how much the word wish is used every season (great post if you can find it).

this definitely became way more in depth than expected but this is what I have noticed. I very much like how much the internet aligns with my thinking patterns and the imaginatory map of my brain.

Now I just need to figure out if this is neurotypical behaviour .

[amour393]

@kraniumverse HAS COME UP WITH A CONCEPT AND I AM SCREAMING

consider: cole being a ghost is able to see jay and nya’s skybound scars when no one else can

haunted

***

Three weeks after Jay and Nya start dating again, Cole notices something...strange.

Well, another strange thing, he supposes. Jay and Nya have been acting off for weeks- calling out of training early, sneaking up to the roof at unholy hours to whisper, sharing looks no one else understands that seem to mean more than words ever could.

Everyone has noticed their behavior, but has had little success in understanding it. Zane had done his scans and both seemed to be in perfect health, no different from before, but no matter how much Kai asked Nya or Cole asked Jay, the two vehemently claimed that nothing was wrong.

The first time Cole notices something off, it’s a training-free day. Jay comes out of his room in a long sleeve shirt (which in itself was out of the ordinary- Jay grew up in the desert; Cole’s pretty sure he hadn’t owned a long sleeve shirt before Wu had recruited him) and jeans instead of his gi, and Cole has to do a double take as his heart stutters and he takes in a sharp gasp of breath.

The faint green imprint of a large hand wraps around Jay's throat, bright enough that Cole can easily tell what it was, yet dim enough he can't tell if it’s actually there or not. Cole freezes, his spoon halfway to his mouth as he stares. Kai raises an eyebrow at his look, and makes some remark that Cole doesn’t hear.

Then Jay looks over, panic running across his face, and he promptly leaves the kitchen two seconds later, claiming he had promised to help Nya with something.

During sparring the next day, Jay swears that he’s fine and had just suddenly remembered his commitment as he feigns left and jabs right, not meeting Cole's eyes. Nya confirms the story later, swiping a nonexistent lock of hair behind her left ear.

Cole knows they’re lying.

He’s pretty sure they know he knows.

***

Four days later, the team has finally trained enough to earn themselves a day trip, so they all pack up and head out to the west coast.

Jay wears long sleeves again, swearing he just doesn’t want to get sunburned. He runs his hands up and down his arms, shivering despite the warm sun.

Nya wraps her arms around his waist, muttering something in his ear. His shoulders ease, tension dissolving as a small smile grows on his face.

“Hey Lloyd,” he says, starting to grin. “Race you to the water!” He sprints away.

“Hey!” Lloyd calls, scrambling up and dashing to the tide. “No fair! You had a head start!”

Nya grins too. “Wait for me!”

She tears off the hoodie she wears over her swimsuit, throwing it at her brother as she runs to the water to join the others.

Cole stumbles back, trying to blink the image of ugly green acid marring her collarbone away from his swimming vision.

“Are you alright, Cole?” Zane asks, peering up at him, concerned.

Cole doesn’t have the heart to reply.

***

Cole knows Jay. He knows Nya. He knows them almost as well as he knows himself. He knows their favorite foods, the name of their childhood best friend, their love languages and their favorite candies.

He knows how they lie.

Sure, he wasn’t always totally sure when they were lying, but there was always a subtle sign from either of them that they were. He was almost always right.

But Cole has never been more sure they were lying than in this moment.

If Cole had a dime for every time he's barged into Jay's room, he'd have enough money to last a whole month's worth of city repairs. In all that time, in all the years, Cole had never once seen anything he shouldn't have.

Until today.

It's not like he's never seen Jay shirtless before.

It is, however, the first time he's seen it since Jay started acting strange, and now Cole things he knows why.

Ghostly green marks litter his best friend's back, his shoulders, his arms. Slash marks that look like they were from a katana slide from the top of his left shoulder blade to his right hip, though other lines and marks glow softly across his skin. A vivid green line rips across his side, torn like a knife was taken to his ribs and missed. Faint patches of skin glow a dim green, reminiscent of the marks on his neck, sickly bruises haunting his arms and back. Curved gashes press into his left shoulder, almost in the shape of a hook, and the same mark wraps around his head. Vibrant ghost green loops around his wrists, almost as bright as the neon coil around his right ankle.

The teacup Cole holds shatters as it slips from his grip.

Jay whips around with all the speed of the lightning ninja, freezing when he sees Cole.

For a moment, they stand there, horrified ghostly eyes meeting startled bright blue.

Cole can pinpoint the moment panic seizes Jay.

He pulls the rest of his shirt on remarkably quick, forcing a miserably fake laugh. His gaze darts to the shattered teacup, then back up to Cole.

"First Master, Cole, you scared the living daylights outta me." He forces another laugh, carefully walking over the teacup and hurrying past Cole and out of his room. “I-I was just on my way out, Nya asked me to help her figure out this glitch in the Roto Jet, so we should-”

He pauses when he sees that Cole hasn’t moved an inch.

In fact, Cole’s feet may as well be glued to the floor, for all he would even be able to move. No, he can’t- not with that image seared in his head, the cuts and the bruises and the wounds and the scars and the-

“Cole?”

Jay lays a hand on his shoulder, forcing Cole out of his frozen state.

Cole flinches, spinning around to face his best friend.

Jay’s eyes shine with concern, gazing up at him. He retracts his hand, hovering next to him. 

“Cole, are you okay?”

It takes Cole three tries to form coherent words.

“I...I’m...” He stares at Jay, ghostly handprint still rippling across his neck. 

Jay blinks patiently.

“Jay, what happened to you?”

Jay inhales sharply, rubbing his hands around his wrists nervously.

“I-”

“Don’t.”

Jay swallows. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t say that you’re fine.”

“But-”

“Jay.”

“I’m-”

“Jay.”

Jay shuts his mouth firmly, eyeing the floor.

“Don’t think you can lie to me. I know you too well.”

Jay’s gaze shoots up at him, eyes wide. He inhales again, biting his lip. Then e glances around, and shuffles back into his room, and closing the door behind him.

Cole’s heart starts to beat faster, the gravity of the situation weighing in his gut. “Jay?”

Jay slides down against the wall, pulling his knees up to his chest. “It’s-” His voice shakes. He bites his quivering lip, furrowing his brows. “It-” he tries again, shuddering to a stop all the same.

Cole slides down next to him.

“Jay,” he says gently, “you don’t have to tell me.”

Taking a measured breath, Jay speaks again. “It’s not that I don’t want to tell you,” he voices slowly. “I just- I-” 

Tears shine in the young ninja’s eyes, and Cole’s heart breaks in two.

“You just?”

Jay rubs his wrists. Rubs the green rings on his wrists. “I...I don’t know if you’ll believe me. It sounds so ridiculous, and I-”

“Jay,” Cole interrupts softly. “You know you can tell me anything, right? You’re my best friend, I’ll always believe you. If you want to tell me, you can tell me.”

Jay sniffles. “You mean it?”

“Every word.”

“It might...it might take a while. It’s kind of...” He blows out a long breath. “It’s kind of hard to talk about.”

Cole keeps his gaze locked on Jay, who glances up from the floor with shining eyes.

“It’s okay,” he says gently. “I’m here to stay.”

Jay bites his lip again, and then he tells.

Cole listens.

[ghostlysundae]

How Seabound both succeeds but ultimately fails at conveying its themes of sacrifice:

Getting this out of the way first, I love seabound, I firmly believe its one of the better written and most beautifully animated seasons. However there are flaws in its writing that tend to bug me upon each viewing, and that's its handling of Nya's character arc regarding sacrifice. There are definitely things that Seabound does right but there's also a lot it does wrong; most of the flaws coming from one character in particular: Maya

Maya, as charming as her character can come off, represents a fundamental misunderstanding of Nya's character. If any character is gonna understand sacrifice and what it means its gonna be her. It's frustrating watching Maya assume Nya's never had to make a big sacrifice and be portrayed as right about it when she simply just isn't. Over the course of the show Nya has always been greatly aware of sacrifice and what it means. She watched Zane die to defeat the overlord Rebooted, gave up samurai x in Possession, and in Skybound she gave up her safety so Jay could do what he needed to do to save everyone which ended up leading to her death. A death in which she was willing to allow if it meant Nadakhan would be stopped. Nya understands what happens when there's no good choices, and there's not really any strong evidence to suggest she wouldn't. This shows how little the writers actually pay attention to her, and its honestly pretty disappointing given this was her first and only focus season.

Now of course this isn't to say that the the seasons themes don't work, they do their job and tell a good story, there are just places where the story could definitely improve. Like, the narrative somehow acknowledging everything Nya's sacrificed rather than acting like Maya's right in assuming she's never had to in the first place. Also, I personally would have liked it more if they had put more focus on her relationships outside Jay and her biological family; something the show rarely gives us. I honestly have more to say when it comes to Maya, as well as Ray, but all that deserves its own post and has more to do with season 7 and ninjago's tendency to overuse storylines so I'm going to just end this here.

[writing-hat]

man I'm rewatching skybound (help) to focus on the misfortune crew so here's a kinda long ramble about Flintlocke and Nadakhan friendship below

the way Flintlocke's voice shakes when he says to Nadakhan he's doing a mutiny. when he says "stay right there"

I know it's most likely from fear, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was out of a broken heart too like- it's his captain. one he has most likely spent years at sea with. the one he'd trust with his life, and must've done so. most likely his best friend. AUGH

And how Nadakhan reacts to it, too! he gets angry, he doesn't believe what he's hearing! how dare they not trust him? (gee I wonder why)How is Flintlocke daring him to change things around?

Can you imagine watching someone you care about diving into some kind of infinite madness, and you not able to do shit about it? And it's not like Flintlocke could help much. Since yknow Nadakhan just lost all his people in a single moment after spending 300 years inside a teapot, and after losing the one he loves, too. And he sees something is wrong the moment he sees Nya. He knows Nadakhan too well, and I take it he's used to the captain sharing plans with them if he's already hella suspicious when Nadakhan doesn't tell him what he has in mind when coming back from Djinjago

And he's not the only one; like the whole 'close' crew (as I like to call them) notices how their captain is kinda getting distant? and losing it

But like what are you supposed to do about that? especially since they're pirates, and the captain has to be kind of scary if he still wants to handle psychopaths under an iron grip of some sort

And they were ready to trust him. To the end, I guess.

fuck! Nadakhan just ruined all that was left to him during skybound, didn't he? what a fucking idiot.

And Jay was this close to do the same with his own friends huh (NOT TO THAT EXTENT GUYS COME ON-)

I just love to think of parallels between Jay and Nadakhan. Cole and Flintlocke. The obvious (? I'm not really sure about this one) but awfully made Delara Nya one (not saying I made a good one in my fic either but eh)

But they're pirates. They're not good people, and Nadakhan is a fucking bitch. You have on one side how Arrakore dealt with the loss, and on the other, Nadakhan's, who was probably so used to being a prince and stuff he just- ugh.

But that doesn't mean they don't have emotions, which I'm trying to write about

also I'm noting Clancee probably noted Nya resembling Delara when he gave Nadakhan the newspaper. But he didn't say anything. Hm. I'm keeping that in mind.

anyway. back to writing I goooo

[ll-0-yd]

What is the deal with Kai's everything being so overlooked?

DRAGONS RISING SEASON TWO SPOILERS

I was scrolling through AO3 for Dragons Rising Part 2 angst related to you know- KAI BEING SACRIFICED, and all of the fics were about Jay losing his memory?

It got me thinking about how Kai's relationship with Nya has always been pushed aside in favour of her and Jay's, like seriously that's his sister for crying out loud, move over Jay you're just the boyfriend.

In skybound when Nya died, who was holding her? In seabound who got to speak to her and try to convince her to stay? In crystalized whose grief was more focused on?

Jay.

Why is it all about Jay? Kai raised her, and he became a ninja to save and protect her, he's literally related to her!

I MEAN SURELY HE CARES CUS THATS HIS GODDAMM SISTER RIGHT?!?!

He cared when Zane died (s3), Lloyd got possessed (s5) and kidnapped (pretty much every season), and when Cole fell (s10) so it's not like they are trying to write his character as the no emotions-suffer-in-silence kind of guy right?

It's not just with his relationship with Nya, anytime something bad happens to Kai he's either directly told to get over it or, forced to focus on something else, then the issue seems to be forgotten?

Not just by the fandom but by the writers too! And until recently people still believed he was just a selfish character that only thinks about himself, when that really was never the case!!

When Zane died Kai said this to Lloyd: " And where's the Master of Ice, huh? He's gone, but I'm still here. Who cares about honour? It should've been me. I should've been the one—"

He is literally talking about taking Zane's place in being the one who died, not because he's selfish but because he thinks Zane was a more useful member of the team!? He felt like he could and should have done more to make sure Zane didn't do what he did, to protect him, and instead of being comforted in this state of mind, he got told: "You always thought you should've been the one. First, it was being the Green Ninja, now this. When are you gonna start thinking of someone other than yourself?"

THAT IS NOT A SELFISH STATEMENT. Not cool Lloyd, I love u but not cool. >:(

I could give more examples but I have a Lloyd plush to save!

(my father said if I don't get an A on my next school assignment he'll feed the new Lloyd plush he got me to the dog...)

ANYWHIZZLE THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK

[somelegobird]

I'm bored so uh here are all of the headcanons I have written on my Ramble Doc. It's not all of my headcanons, but it's just stuff I thought of through my rewatches

Cinder

Aroace cis

Horrible ornithophobia

Cole

Cis gay man

Afraid of heights and the dark after his fall in March of the Oni

Very mildly red-green colourblind

Still flinches when water gets flicked in his direction. Didn’t have the best hygiene for his first month or so after becoming human again since it took him a while to lose the “I’ll die if I touch water!” mentality. His main way of washing himself consisted of dry shampoo and hand sanitizer, maybe baby wipes if he was brave enough for their slight wetness.

Harumi

Non-binary, aroace

Jay 

Cis guy seasons 1-7, questioning season 8, demiboy genderfluid seasons 9+. Bisexual, was in denial about his sexuality until he got comfortable with his gender.

EXTREMELY sensitive to caffeine, like, you’ll get zapped bad if you touch her once she’s had a latte or something

After Skybound, he gets antsy around pirate themed stuff (not the kids kind, but more serious things) and gets stressed and paranoid for a bit when someone says “I wish”. Avoids saying it at all costs .

Chooses to continue calling himself “Jay Walker” because he has no emotional attachment to either the name Gordon or his biological father (having never met him) and he loves his adoptive parents. However, he does sometimes say his name is Jay Gordon when he wants to brag about being the son of Cliff Gordon.

After finding out she was adopted, she struggles to watch the Starfarer movies with the same enthusiasm. Whenever she sees the actor Cliff Gordon, she feels an odd wave of emptiness because that is the man that gave her away, that is the man that wanted nothing to do with her.

Claustrophobic since almost drowning in Seabound because he was trapped in his car. Also thalassaphobia both because of that moment and the fact that the sea “took” his yang

Accidentally bit their lip hard when they got turned into a snake in s1, that’s why they ran into the bathroom. Has a small scar from it that Nya loves touching gently, reminding herself of how strange Jay was back then (but also how innocent both of them were)

Kai

Cis man, pansexual

His fears of water cleared up a bit after Nya turned out to be master of water, but they never really went away and still finds himself getting nervous when Nya uses her powers on larger bodies of water

Dad sneezes all the way. Sometimes he sneezes fire, sometimes Jay gets scorch marks. Those two are unrelated statements.

Lloyd

Transmasc, heavily questioning his sexuality but leaning to aroace

Listens to Will Wood, I have no reason for this other than that I can perfectly imagine him screaming the lyrics to “Hand Me My Shovel I’m Going In” or “2econd 2ight 2eer”

Is like a Disney Princess when it comes to animals. Animals don’t feel that initial fear or uncertainty towards him unless he gives them a reason to, which he doesn’t to the best of his abilities. He always leaves the window in his room wide open and has various feeders both inside his room and outside. He had the window sill on the outside of the window extended to make room for feeders and a variety of enrichment items. Unfortunately, because the Monastery is so high up, he only really gets birds and the occasional goat (Once a deer came up to his window and he will bring this up every single time the topic of animals is touched, he is proud). If he and the others are going to be on the Bounty for a while, he designates an open area on the boat for bird feeders that he sets out when the boat is still.

Because he keeps his window open, his room is the coldest of all. To combat this, he has the softest and fluffiest blankets. He really doesn’t like these blankets leaving his room, so it’s not rare to see some of the other ninja curled up in his room under the blankets because they got cold during the night.

The name Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon isn’t firstname middlename lastname, it’s firstname lastname and Lloyd Montgomery-Garmadon. Garmadon doesn’t have a last name, so to give their kid a last name that comes from both the parents, Misako took her own last name (Montgomery) and slapped Garmadon on the end of it to create the surname Montgomery-Garmadon for her kid. I could've probably said this in less words.

Nya

Cis, but contemplating demigirl since season 4 HER AND JAY ARE T4T I DON’T CARE (transfem hehe). bisexual

Like Jay, she gets nervous when someone says “I wish” but is much less affected than him. She’s okay with saying it herself but puts a conscious effort into not saying it around Jay.

Pixal

Fem-presenting agender, demiromantic ace

Often gets nightmares where she is trapped and unable to do or say anything, they stem from being stuck in Zane’s head for so long

While she was in Zane’s head, she would suffer many existential crises and question if she was even real. She still gets them sometimes while in her own body, but they are much more infrequent.

Rapton

Cis guy, Gay. He’s the mandatory “cool old gay guy” you find in bars (I have never been in a bar in my life)

Has a Ninjago equivalent of a Tumblr blog themed around unicorns, uses :3 in his messages and has a unicorn sona that he draws interacting with his unicorn figurines

Vania

Lesbian 

Zane

Masc-presenting agender, heteroromantic asexual

Heavily struggles with Misophonia, often turns off his ears when he gets overwhelmed. The other ninja have learned rudimentary sign language to communicate with him when they realise he’s blocked out the noise. Totally not projecting here

Often falls into fits of panic and paranoia, not trusting his own mind or memories. He had his memories wiped or mind broken into so many times, he ends up sending himself into a spiral of uncertainty and delusion when he thinks about it too much. During these fits, he believes a variety of things, but mostly it’s a mixture of “I’ve forgotten something important and I have no clue what” and “Someone has hacked my mind and is slowly altering my thoughts and memories”. He also sometimes gets the very strong illusion that there is another Ninja that he forgot about that is currently off on a solo mission. He starts to panic because how could he forget an entire person, and the others have to try and calm him down and reassure him that there is no one he’s forgotten. All of these stem from forgetting his father pre-s1 and forgetting everything for 60 years in s11. The hacking one also stems from when Ronin hacked into his head and shut him down.

Misc/non-character

Ninjago City has English but is called Ninjargon, because of Karlof’s and Korgran’s accents I imagine Metalonia has Russian but it’s called Metalonian or something, and Shintaro has German but it’s called Shintar/Shinatrian. I have no basis for the last one other than I like (and am learning) the German Language and I like Shintaro.

I also like to imagine there’s a place (they aren’t really countries,,, cities?) called Stoneland which is just Ninjago Poland. Really high quality minerals and stone-carved statues originate from here.

Alongside the sayings already used in the show, ones I like to imagine also being used include “By the Master” and “In the name of the First” because “the First Spinjitzu Master” is too lengthy and “FSM” still has three entire syllables. “The First” and “the Master” are used interchangeably. This is kind of already canon with Pixal saying “Thank the Master”, but I just wanted to further expand on it a tiny bit.

When an Elemental Master touches Vengestone, there is an initial wave of a feeling of impending doom and (physical) cold that runs through their body. The feeling dissipates with time but doesn’t truly disappear until they lose contact with the Vengestone. The specifics of the feeling change depending on the Element. My ideas so far, MO fire has the cold feeling amplified, MO lightning feels an odd stillness within them, MO earth has a feeling of shrinking, MO water gets a dry throat and feels like their organs are shrivelling slightly, MO life/energy starts to believe they or others around them are dead (gets amplified with time), and MO ice instead starts to feel uncomfortably warm.

The piece of Vengestone touching the Elemental Master has to weigh at least 500 grams, if the 500g is split between multiple pieces it will not work (I’m saying this because I laughed at the idea of someone losing their powers because they had a tiny bit of Vengestone stuck in their shoe from a mission).

[royonninjago]

I don't like how Skybound ended.

I like Skybound, but there are many things wrong with. The thing that I dislike most about Skybound, the thing that has been grinding my gears ever since I watched it in 360p on a sketchy website a few weeks before it officially aired on Cartoon Network, is it's ending.

I don't necessarily mind the 'everything was erased' angle, mostly because all the characters who underwent any meaningful arc (a.k.a Jay and Nya) still remembers everything that happened. It sucks what happened to Clancee and the other partially redeemed sky pirates, but lets face it, we were never going to see them ever again anyways.

What I have always disliked about it is the wish itself. Not only does it take away Nya's agency, which is something she has been struggling for a while at this point, but it also feels like a cop out because its two things. Jay wishes that Nya took his hand AND that no one ever found that teapot. That's not a wish any self respecting Genie or Djinn should ever take.

If I had my way, I believe a much better final wish that 'comes from the heart' would be something along the line of:

"I wish I could go back to before this all happened, so I could make up for all the stupid mistakes I made."

This wish does so many things that Skybound wanted to but never actually did:

Gives Nya at least some agency, like she's been wanting forever

Gives Jay an actual opportunity to fix his mistakes

Makes Nadakhan not an actual idiot for granting a stupid wish like that

I would also cut some filler from the final episode so that after this wish is made we have time to see the Ninja rushing to find the Teapot before Clouse (something they should have been doing from the start) and so we can see Jay apologize to Nya for how much of a dick he's been.

Maybe these ideas have been stated before, and if anyone has any other relevant information I would love to see it, but this blog is mostly for getting thoughts out of my head so I'm not too worried about that.

[cboffshore]

I believe you're a Cyren fan so... Any thoughts about her?

Short answer: If Skybound is the missed opportunities/fridge horror capital of the world, Cyren isn't necessarily the most popular tourist spot - she's more like the little hole in the wall cafe you encounter by accident after you get separated from your tour group, and then you have the single best latte of your life there, but you can't find the place the next time you're in town. That is to say: yes, I do think about her, a lot, and I think she is criminally underappreciated, but I'm not too sure how to articulate it.

I'll try, though.

Long answer:

My knee-jerk reaction to someone mentioning Cyren is to think, oh, she was so cool! she had a kickass power and it's so sad we never got to see her use it. This, naturally, then reminds me of how she got that power, and then whoops! There we go down that whole mental rabbit hole.

A decent chunk of why I like Skybound so much is because what it doesn't directly say is frequently just as (if not more!) important as what it shows us directly, but only when those two work in tandem. I think Cyren is the single best - and most tragic - example of that.

Anon, I assume you know Cyren's backstory, but for anyone else seeing this who may need a refresher: Cyren's a Sky Pirate whose wish was to become a great singer. Nadakhan grants this by enchanting her voice to send listeners into a trance (and forgive me but I can't remember if it's just when she's singing or if it includes speech, but to be fair, it's not like they ever clarified it onscreen so I presume it's both), which is apparently a useful tool for making raids very easy... but, as you might guess, not great for performance reasons. Imagine showing up to see Fall Out Boy and passing out before Patrick can even finish asking if he's more than you bargained for yet.

Here's the problem: We never find this out in Skybound itself. Cyren does not have a Tall Tale, and if she did, it would be about as useful as the others anyway. Cyren never even speaks or has her name spoken. This information comes only from one of those old profile flavor text entries on the LEGO website at the time (which someone turned into the opening chunk of her history page on the wiki but I can no longer find in its original form). Later on I think it shows up in a few character dictionary type places, but that's a tangent - point is, this is another example of the secondary material doing wild shit to the main stuff.

A couple of things about this:

I can absolutely understand why they didn't show this off in the show - that's a game breaking power. You wouldn't have much of a fight scene to animate if you could just enforce nap time on everyone who forgot earplugs.

I would LOVE to know the order of operations here. Cyren's named on the set boxes, so I suppose they got pretty far into the process of establishing her, but... when did they scrap her? Did they ever scrap her? Was she even supposed to have that backstory, or did a web designer have a creative writing itch to scratch and a better understanding of the season's themes than the Hagemans seemed to? Was she ever supposed to do anything in the script?

Alternative to number 2, and my preferred option even though I always have to remind myself of it: why is this whole situation so much cooler with her silence?

The it girl weapon of Skybound is not the sword of souls; it's speech, and how you can use it to get what you want. Nadakhan's our entry-level example here - he tries to get his victims to say things he can reinterpret and aim back in their faces - and we see it with Jay and Nya, too. To put it very simply, Jay wants to be able to say the right thing to make Nya like him again; Nya wants to be able to say the right thing to get the world to listen to her and accept her for who she is and what she's trying to say. With those three, the key thing is that they're all able to determine what they want (even if they don't get it, of course) and tailor their speech to fit as best they can. (Obviously, this does not always work - but that starting option remains open all the time.)

Cyren does not get that. Cyren, if she speaks at all, automatically renders the listener unable to listen by sending them into a trance. The effect of her speech - no matter what she says or songs - is that she will be ignored. She's got the inverse of our leading trio: a guarantee that she will be heard long enough to influence the other party, but not the ability to choose what the influence is.

That's what makes Cyren the most gut-wrenching example of a weaponized wish in the season, at least in my eyes. She was able to use her voice to express this personal desire of hers - but it was the listener who held all the power, and heard her just long enough to pull the threads he could use, never mind what she actually meant. The end result is pretty much the exact opposite of what she asked for: a guarantee that her voice is no longer hers to use freely. To wish to be heard and appreciated and then to have your voice made so beautiful that it becomes the ultimate anesthetic.... ouch. OUCH.

In that way, I do think it's darkly, ironically perfect that Cyren never gets to speak, or climb all that far past the role of background Sky Pirate except for in the supplementary material. Again: absolutely devastating power. We wouldn't have any obstacles if they'd had it on the writer's table as an option, and without obstacles we wouldn't have had a story. She's a showstopper, literally, and it kind of fits that her power is too strong to actually be useful in the season. It's like showing up to a knife fight with a lawnmower.

And yet: we see her in action. We see Cyren a lot. Next time you watch Skybound, take a moment and count the background models in any given pirate crowd: there will only be one Cyren at a time (ETA: unless it's the Scrap n Tap scene, which plagues me for multiple reasons, including breaking my tidy absolutes in this ask) . There's a handful of repeating character models that show up a lot, often multiple times in the same small group, but Cyren is a standout. The most important appearance of hers I can name right now is during the end of 62 when she helps drag Nya out of the hidden basement - but even then, she's working with another bland background pirate.

That balance is so, so bittersweet to me - clearly there was something in the seasonal map keeping Cyren alive. She gets named on the set boxes and her own character profile, but she doesn't get a voice; she's seldom duplicated (ETA: again, except for the Scrap n Tap crowd) but never shown at full strength.

I don't know. I don't have a great way to end this. Something something actions speak louder than words, maybe? Something something secondary text?

In short: I love Cyren. I even love that she got shorted, because it makes her seem so much deeper, somehow, and it shouldn't work - but I'll take what I can get.