#like i love the concept of misako as a character

[thetiredninja]

misako is a character that I always wished got more screen time and development. like I wish lloyd's initial hurt was more drawn out. not even in a lloyd doesn't forgive her sense, but in a, lloyd forgives her (because he's lloyd and he has to be the kind of person to forgive and forgive and forgive because of his dad) but just because he forgives her doesn't mean they click instantly. I want a few scenes where the hurt continues to fester because forgiveness comes easy but healing takes time.

like just a few scenes where lloyd unintentionally throws the abandonement in her face because he's a kid and he's not entirely sure how to process his anger healthily yet (it's a skill he never truly learns as he simply learns to repress his anger until it grows and grows, and his oni blood begins to overwhelm him). but also moments where neither of them are sure about how to exist around each other. lloyd uncertain about how to accept maternal love when he's spent so long without it, and a part of him still hurts over the abandonement even when he understands why. and then misako wanting to make up for lost time and shower him in love but not knowing how to bridge the gap her leaving created.

I know it was never gonna be something they covered because it's a kids show, but like mannnn does my body crave seeing it.

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

It's a shame Misako's writing in the first few seasons was dogshit, bc she has one of the coolest concepts for a character I can think of

Like, she's a mortal woman who fell in love with a ~1000 year old demigod who has been cursed to fall to evil since he was a child, and her son is the chosen one destined to face her husband, his own father, in a duel to the death that will decide the fate of the world, and when she learns about her son's fate, she tries to find a way around destiny.

That's such a cool idea for a character!!!

But then the writers decided to take this super interesting idea for a character, and only use her for exposition and a shitty love triangle between her husband of several decades and his brother.

I'd say I haven't seen a character with such good potential be so wasted by the show their in since Adrien Agreste, but at least his bad writing hasn't made him the punching bag for 95% of the ML fandom

[toothlespoggers]

ninjago season 4 is a treat.

Oogh all the episodes are like perfectly balanced with humour, character moments, angst and everything. Including some really funny dialogue like the two henchmen of chens army “chop” and “kapow” who just want to be cool. And Cole getting really irritated over the concept of building a plane underground is so funny to me. DARETH IS SO GOOD. Just such a great character as always but he’s definitely a treat in this season. Man rewatching ninjago I really get to appreciate some of the earlier seasons. There’s rarely situations where I find the characters to be irritating or ooc.

the fact they built a giant weaponised plane and it has giant guns and it’s like RATATATATATAAA is so funny to me like I can’t even explain why it’s just so goofy

so many good twists and turns in this season as well. I’m glad to see everyone’s genuine care and appreciation for Zane that kinda fades in and out as you get further into the series.

also Master Chen is so funny, I love when I don’t want the villain to win but I kinda vibe with their energy yk?

I still have no idea what time the serpentine wars took place though, because I get that wu and garmadon are basically immortal but all the clues point to the war happening ages ago with the age of wu and garmadon and the fact there’s multiple generations of elemental masters in between all of this.. and like.. misako Chen and clouse are somehow alive? It’s all very confusing

but yeah I’d give this season a 7 out of 10.

Edit because I just saw something: this is also the only season where I’ve actually seen Zane’s anxiety and mental health and visions etc come into play, He has a reoccuring nightmare, he doesn’t really remember who he is, he believes he’s a replica of who he once was. Pixal, now inside his head, calmly talks him through his panic attack and helps him come to terms with his identity. This is some juicy stuff. Gosh I love pixal so much, it’s good when she was in his head because she could literally be his therapist in his own mind. A great example of an animated panic attack. She got him to close his eyes, and focus on what he hears, which is shown to be his heartbeat. That’s a strategy! She taught him a strategy for calming down!

Pixal is the most emotionally stable one of all of them and she’s also got her demons. But I suppose she was programmed as an assistant? So maybe that explains her wealth of knowledge

[penofwildfire]

Sometimes I just have to think about how society has placed such specific expectations on mothers (and of course women in general, but in the eyes of the patriarchy "woman" and "mother" are basically synonymous), to the point that my own mother has tried more than once to make me dislike a female character solely because they don't perform motherhood to her standards. And the first time, it worked!

I remember distinctly arguing in favour of Misako with my mom a few years ago (it was the classic "why did she abandon Lloyd" debate of course), and she went as far as to joke about Misako being on drugs at the time of the abandonment. And for years afterward, I was convinced. I even got my boyfriend on board with the concept when I first introduced zir to the show.

It took a WHILE to undo that damage in my brain. So imagine my annoyance when I brought up Libber, and how bad I felt for her (marriage to that asshole can't have been fun), and my mom, instead of sympathizing, claimed that Libber was just a selfish ditz who was content to live the high life of an actor's wife until a kid got involved. This baffled me. Because I always saw Libber as a victim. From the little we see of her, it doesn't seem like she even knew Cliff very well when they got married (that little starry-eyed spiel she goes on about him reeks of puppy love), and based on the book titled "Cliff Gordon's Guide to Wooing Women" it certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of their life together.

Yes, based on timeline she would've stayed with him for nearly 2 decades before having Jay and disappearing. But again, from what we see of her, she was basically a kid when she got married. It's not difficult to imagine the isolation she must have experienced, the abuse, probably mostly emotional and financial in nature. On a related note, it doesn't seem to be unusual for citizens of Ninjago (and elemental masters in particular) to have children at older ages than we as viewers consider the norm.

What I'm trying to say is it blows my mind that my mom can't see how having a child could be a catalyst to finally escape a situation like that. Because even if Libber had come to terms with her own circumstances, who the hell wants to raise a kid with a womanizing douchebag?? (Spoiler Alert: my mother. In fact she raised four of them).

Anyway I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this but uhhhhh unpack your misogyny, folks!

[skylarynn-ninjago]

Rise of the Snakes - React, pt 1

Rise of the Snakes

00:13 Yo Wu, chill.  Just because you're the son of basically god you don't gotta be this dramatic.  Leave that to Garmadon, he's better at it anyway

1:05 Ayo, was that the Sacred Flute in that little cabinet Wu's meditating in front of?

1:11 That is a lot of cobwebs

1:29 Is this also a Milton Dyer game?

1:53 Excuse me did Kai's voice just come out of Cole's mouth?

2:02 So the Ninja like pepperoni and black olive pizza, apparently

4:31 How far is Jamanakai Village if it takes them this long to fly there on dragonback but Nya just walks on over in a short enough time there's still daylight during the same day when Lloyd comes back with Serpentine?

5:40 Love that the main character of this entire series was named for a pun

5:54 How common knowledge is Lloyd's existence if Cole already knew he was at Darkly's Boarding School for Bad Boys?  

6:27 Why are the Serpentine treated like this ancient legen if they were only put in the tombs like forty years ago?

7:30 Love how Kai says 'muchacho' and then him speaking apparently Spanish is never brought up again

7:58 ...and that was Cole's voice coming from Kai's mouth.  They're just swapping voices today

9:06 And Kai's words from Cole's mouth again.  What communication breakdown happened between the VAs recording and the animators?

9:59 So if the Hypnobrai line with Ice, and the Constrictai line with Earth, the frick are the Venomari, Fangpyres, and Anacondrai supposed to be?

10:01 Also why are Lloyd's teeth green in this lighting?

10:33 We've seen instances where Hypnobrai hypnotism happens almost immediately, so why does literally nothing happen to Lloyd even though he's maintained eye contact with Slithraa for a good 20 seconds?

10:58 What is the aging process like for Serpentine?  Why are there always tiny snakes that match the features of the Serpentine?  Do they hatch from eggs, be little snakes for a bit, then spontaneously grow arms and legs?  Will someone please explain this?

11:29 If Nya's close to beating Kai's speed record on the training course, shouldn't she figure out Spinjitzu way sooner than whenever she actually does in the show?  Might need to fix that in mine, since Misako's shown to do Spinjitzu without having access to elemental powers.

11:59 How early into the show did Nya start working on the Samurai concept?

13:40 Kai having issues controlling his sword is because dragon = stronger elemental connection

13:50 I love the detail that the fire makes a protective/possessive circle around Kai

14:38 Knowing about Morro makes Wu's saltiness about the Green Ninja shenanigans that much more painful

15:41 To Scales's point though you snakes cannot digest large amounts of sugar

16:10 Does the spirit smoke tell the present, or the future?  Because we kinda see it doing both.  Also does this mean Wu gets high?

17:35 ...aside from the General, do they have tails?

17:52 How the frick did Nya know the antivenin was in the staff?  I get her figuring out Slithraa's the general, but were the Hypnobrai just outright stating 'the cure's in the staff, better not let the villagers get ahold of it'?

19:14 Where is Scales's rattle?  Because snake man does not have a tail at this juncture.

19:50 Nothing to see here, just polluting the water supply for the greater good

20:42 Are they foreshadowing Nya's the Samurai later this season or are they foreshadowing Nya's actually the Water Ninja four seasons from now?

Home

1:44 Why are they calling it a roof, it's a courtyard

3:43 Jay's off-and-on Brooklyn accent from early in the show is weird man

3:55 Zane's probably reminding Wu of Morro with the homeless, parentless child thing...

4:13 I'm sorry, are the dragons' reins directly affixed to their jaws?

6:13 Let the man wear his frilly pink apron in peace

7:32 Zane panting with his mouth shut, 100% robot over here

7:47 Mommy issues anyone?

9:00 I'm with Jay here, I'd want to keep the treehouse

9:30 Kai clearly attended the Jack Sparrow school of getting places

10:51 Good news for that unfortunate Hypnobrai, snakes don't really get concussed

10:32 Wilhelm Scream Counter: 1

11:00 Times Ninja have Turned Evil™:  Cole: 1

11:38 Lloyd in a Cage™ Counter: 1 Alternatively, Times a Ninja Has Been Captured: Lloyd: 1

13:32 Times the Monastery has Burned Down: 1

14:39 Priorities, Jay, yeesh

17:39 Fang Kwan Do; so painfully underutilized.

21:31 Excuse me how the frick did Lloyd find them?

Snakebit

2:45 How does giving the cabin a steambath help exactly?

3:29 How did Ed and Edna know where their son was?  This is like the morning after the monastery burned down, the frick

8:17 Why are the Fangpyres Transylvanian?  I know it's because the vampire aesthetic, but like what would the in-story reason be?  None of the other tribes seem to have accents other than maybe the Anacondra [because Pythor sounds British and I don't remember what Arcturus sounded like]

10:50 Does the bite of the Fangpyre affect other Serpentine?

11:08 Being bitten by the Fangpyres - the only time Jay and his parents shared DNA

11:24 That's rich Cole, considering you've been lying to your dad constantly for years

11:49 From this point onwards Kai, Zane, and Cole should've totally weaponized Nya as a motivational tool against Jay.  Pretty sure most of the time Nya would agree with them.

12:05 I swear Wu ripped that thermometer off the side of a building, because where else do you find one that big.  Also, considering he was walking around from behind the dragon, what kind of thermometer do you think it is?

12:11 Love the detail that the dragons are teenagers too

12:41 What's brilliant about this scene is it's impossible to tell if they were legitimately oblivious or intentionally screwing with Jay

13:23 Brilliant that Jay starts to get a slight Minnesotan accent when agitated; he's his parents' son

13:57 I repeat, can they turn Serpentine?

14:10 I know it's supposed to be creepy and snaky but all I can think of with the wrecking ball is an overripe jack-o-lantern

14:42 They each express it in different ways but I love how each of the Ninja has a protective streak a mile wide

14:52 Jay over here straight Matrix™ing the wrecking ball

15:05 Excuse me Nya was that a crotch shot there

16:12 Jay; Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass - Just Add Endangered Parents!

17:16 I'm with Jay here, half the plots in this show would not go nearly as catastrophically sideways as they do if Wu just told people shit

17:55 Jay gets a jet, Kai gets a motorcycle, Cole gets a dope car, Zane...gets a Zamboni.  Or is it a Zaneboni?

18:42 So do they just immediately know how to drive the vehicles because they're in tune with the weapons, or are all these teenagers actually certified drivers?  When did Kai learn how to ride a motorcycle if he's been running a business since he was 5?

19:41 Why did turning into a snake make Ed's goatee black?

20:47 They should totally make the dragon figurehead into a canon at some point in this show

[penofwildfire]

Sorry if this is derailing (and honestly I've probably talked about this exact thing before but I'm gonna do it again because ✨autism✨) but Seabound is my favourite season and I'm obsessed with the difference in how Kai and Nya react to their mother's overbearing presence.

As you said, these kids are both scared of vulnerability and have their own ways of expressing that, but the fascinating thing is that when Maya shows up and starts doting on her kids, Kai accepts the attention immediately. And yes, Kai's always been one to enjoy a bit of pampering, but it's almost like he regresses right back to childhood, even calling his mother "Mommy", which is not a word these characters use often. He sits and plays videogames with his dad and lets his mom feed him sandwiches and overall has a good time.

And yes, Maya did treat the two differently while she was there. Most of her interractions with Nya involved criticizing her in some way, even if she only meant to be helpful. But regardless, Nya shrugs off her mom's attempts at help completely, and is in fact pissed as hell that she's even here. Her need for independence means she pushes her mother away and I honestly believe that would still be the case if Maya treated her and Kai the exact same.

And it makes sense, because as the show itself acknowledges, Nya doesn't know her parents. Kai was about 5 when they were kidnapped, he remembers them well enough to miss them. But Nya only ever missed the concept of parents. Kai behaves childishly because he feels safe to do so, with the parents he knows and loves. But to Nya, these people are strangers who suddenly want a say in how her life goes. And even though it wasn't their decision to leave her, she experiences emotions very similar to (I assume) how Lloyd felt about Misako suddenly being back in his life.

Also as a random side note I really with they'd fleshed out Ray as a character better cuz he seemed so fun. I wanted more of him.

Anyway, sorry again, I just love me some Seabound analysis.

We as a fandom do not talk about this scene nearly as much as we should

Like, I had already headcanoned that Nya's independent personality was a result of her upbringing, but the fact that this scene officially confirms it is just *chefs kiss*.

What I find so interesting about Kai and Nya is that their childhood trauma has very clearly effected personalities and overall characterizations. Both of them have lone wolf tendencies (albeit more so in earlier seasons), often tending to go their own way and handle their problems on their own instead of relying on the team. They both have anger issues and short tempers, struggling to process their emotions in a healthy way. And neither of them are comfortable with weakness and vulnerability, and tend to lash out when they feel cornered.

There's also the fact that, due to growing up as two kids forced to raise themselves and learn survive with limited assistance from their community, both of them are understandably afraid of feeling weak and vulnerable. What I find to be perhaps the most interesting part of all this is that despite sharing a similar fear, both of them have vastly different coping mechanisms for dealing with it.

For Kai, his fear of powerlessness manifests in a desire for more power - a desire to be the green ninja, a desire to protect his friends, a desire to be strong and heroic, and of course a difficulty with accepting the situation when he loses his powers. He has pretty seamlessly integrated his power into his persona as well, frequently referencing his abilities and praising his status as the master of fire arguably more so than any other character. He's quickly turned his power into a huge part of his identity. Every time he loses his powers, he tends to go into a bit of a depressive episode - in season 5 he developed a fear of water, and in season 11 he became so upset that he nearly quit being a ninja altogether. When he failed to save the Never Realm villagers from Boreal, he blamed himself for it by lamenting that he wasn't powerful enough to save them.

You get the idea. Point is, Kai doesn't like feeling weak, he doesn't like vulnerability, he doesn't like being the weak link or a liability holding everyone back. Personally, I would point to that insecurity as being the primary driving force for his determination to become the green ninja, but that's definitely up for debate.

And as for Nya, this fear has manifested as her being a fiercely independent perfectionist, equating mistakes and failure with weakness, and fearing failure to such an extreme extent that she either gives up anything she's not immediately good at, or completely ignores her problems and pretends everything is fine. Like in season 5 when Wu was training her to become the master of water. "I'm not weak, this bucket is weak! I'm good at everything else, why do I have to be good at filling buckets?!" Or her struggles to get along with her mother all throughout Seabound, knowing full well that she can't blame her mom for leaving but still not quite ready to have her mom in her life again. She also isn't good at asking for help either, often preferring to handle things on her own even at her own detriment, and often she has a hard time admitting when she's wrong as well.

Whenever traumatic things happen, she just steamrolls right past it, refusing to acknowledge her own grief for very long. At Zane's funeral the first thing she said was, "So...what happens after this?" In the face of Maya's repeated attempts to reconnect and talk about Nya's childhood trauma, Nya would often shrug her off or storm away or change the subject.

Maya tried to explain her reasons once - tried to explain that sacrificing yourself comes with immense collateral damage, often hurting the same people you're trying to protect, and says "That's just the way the cookie crumbles." But Nya can't bring herself to address what Maya is really getting at, instead swimming away and saying "I don't like crumbly cookies."

That's why her final words are so important to me. "Tell my mother I understand now. That's the way the cookie crumbles." Nya has finally come to terms with and accepted her mother's decision, accepted that not all solutions have perfect answers, and has finally confronted her own baggage once and for all. She understands why her mother left, she forgives her, and above all she, the team perfectionist, is making a decision that isn't perfect. A decision that will leave a lot of collateral damage, and will cause serious trauma to her loved ones. She knows that by leaving her friends behind and becoming one with the sea, she's hurting them the same way her mother's absence hurt her - but she does it anyway because it's the only way to save their lives.

And as she looks back to say goodbye to Jay one last time, she cries. She mouths the words "I love you" - something she'd never said out loud before. She lets herself be truly raw and vulnerable. Even during her death in Skybound, she was still trying to keep her up her strong and defensive facade, saying things like "I never wanted to be part of your boys' club anyway". Even on her deathbed, in that moment she can't bring herself to let down her walls all the way. But here, several seasons later, she has finally let herself be vulnerable enough to cry, to say goodbye, to say "I love you."

Nya may not be my favorite ninja, but she does have my favorite character arc. Her going from samurai to ninja was a controversial decision, but I really do think it was a good choice in the long run because it almost feels like it's symbolizing her growth - going from a lone wolf who insists on doing things by herself, to being part of a team and relying on her friends just as much as they rely on her.

Just...I love Nya so much. She needs a hug.

[sins-and-wins-with-vix]

Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Legacy of the Green Ninja” E8: The Day Ninjago Stood Still

Shorter than usual this week! Disclaimers: Show owned by LEGO. This is not a professional review/critique - it’s mainly intended for comedy!

Make sure to reblog, comment, and/or like! And tell me your thoughts!

- Intro ✅

- This opening shot implies Skales’s tail to be much longer than it actually is ❌

- It’s very nice that all these snakes, including the tribe generals, just let Skales rule them all and don’t even attempt to challenge him. Clearly, they have all watched the show and seen that he’s been through way too much sh*t trying to accomplish this one goal for the last 2 seasons, and failing at every possible turn, and have decided to just be nice and hand it to him. Surely this won’t go wrong in any way. ❌

- “Hey! Open the window, let me in!” Jay yelled, standing less than two feet away from the front door ❌

- “I’d forgotten how pale Garmadon was before his turn to evil was complete.” Dude looks more like a ghost than the actual ghost characters in this show, so I don’t know how you forgot that ❌

- “My, there’s so much [research about prophecy].” There’s 8 scrolls here, which could be a lot considering the Overlord stuff is really old and most written knowledge is probably lost to time, but Wu claims that looking through all this stuff will take days, and that could only be accurate if these two read at the same speed that my grandparents type. ❌

- “I should’ve chosen you.” Misako doesn’t have an “it,” but it still needs to stay in her pants. ❌

- People like to say that Misako shouldn’t flirt with Wu here because she’s technically still married, and I get that, but at the same time, Garmadon turned evil, got himself banished to the Underworld, and has done some pretty f*cked up things pretty much the moment he got back, so honestly, I’m not really gonna hold it against her too much.

- “Lloyd’s father is evil, but he would never do anything to put his son in harm’s way.” Except for the fact that he’s been doing it this whole d*mn season. Leaving a child orphaned and traumatized is still harming them! ❌

- We just saw Skales following right behind the digging Constrictai, but the next shot shows him to be several meters back ❌

- “My plan has been in the works since the beginning of time.” We know that the battle between good and evil took place before time had a name, and if you think about it hard enough, the Overlord’s line here could imply that the moment after that first battle was the very moment that time was given its name. I know it’s probably not meant to be thought of like that, but I’m still winning it because I think it’s a cool concept. ✅

- I still f*cking love this ninja-chain thing they do sometimes. Idk, it just shows great teamwork and how much they know and trust each other and AGHH ✅

- “A few more inches, guys!” It’s moments like this when I need to question if my audience would or wouldn’t like the occasional s*x joke

- Also, right after he says this, Cole ignores Lloyd’s order and steps backwards, probably to spite the writers for forgetting that he was technically the leader ❌

- This tomb is decorated with scorpion symbols, an animal that has nothing to do with the Overlord. ❌

- Skales has been gunning for leader since s1e1. It was his definitive character trait throughout his whole arc, yet he failed each and every time. He became the general? Sorry, now the tribes are being taken over by Pythor, and he’s better off just being second in command. Wait, now Pythor is gone and he wants to be their king? Nope! Here’s Garmy! But it’s fine because the other generals went with him and wait, no. Now he’s in jail and they’ve gone with Garmadon. Now he’s out of jail but has to work for Garmadon, and now he’s finally got what he wanted and not 20 minutes later he’s landed his entire race into the same f*cked up crisis that they were in for decades and just got out of. Remember, the show was supposed to end after s2, so this was resolution to Skales’s character arc. This is hilarious in the most morbid and tragic ways possible and it doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as it should.

- “Do you wanna be my new cameraman?” “Not really.” “Great!” Gayle Gossip I love you ✅

- “Stay strong, show no weakness!” *Lloyd runs soldiers over* That moment when your little brother suddenly has the skills to outshine all of you at once ✅

- We just saw Mother Doomsday flee from his store, but now we saw him hiding inside it ❌

- “It’s unwise to take the elevator during an emergency, Dareth.” Which educational consultant do we have to thank for that line?❌

- Is the soldier that scared Dareth floating? ❌

- The ninja are supposed to be slowing the soldiers down, but they actually spinjitzu well past most of the army in the stairwell. ❌

- “They just keep coming!” Look, if they don’t want me to make 2 s*x jokes in one episode maybe they shouldn’t make it so easy!

- This is supposed to look like a mass amount of destruction but given the states we’ve seen Ninjago City in in later seasons, this is practically nothing, and in-universe that is a horrifying reality. ❌

Sentence: Skales’s irony

[spicyicymeloncat]

Respectfully big disagree. Huge, catastrophic difference in opinion over here. Respectfully and with love.

Not saying we’d want a 20 ep season, 10 would be a decent number for me, but the prev EMs are very much not the same as the present ninja. They have different stories and backstories and we also don’t even know enough about their parents to even say they’re similar to the ninja.

One, a potential prequel show would probably have a huge focus on Garmadon and Wu since they were the leaders of the alliance, and obviously they’re dynamic is pretty unique to what we see in the main show and the show could very much delve into their dynamic. Plus Misako is a pretty unique character too, and she’d probably be in this show too.

Two, the prev EMs have significant differences and unique dynamics compared to the ninja. I mean Maya and Nya are completely different, Kai and Ray can potentially have different backstories (like Kai’s daddy issues play a significant role in his characterisation of needing to prove himself, Ray may not have that), the Ice EM and Earth EM (Cole’s grandfather was the EM during the wars) could have any kind of personalities since they basically never talk in the show, and yes Libber has similarities to Jay but again she could have differences we haven’t seen bc we know nothing about her (also fundamental difference, Libber actually has rizz and got with a whole dang movie star like how’d that happen).

The EMs are much more of blank slates allowing you to do whatever with them.

I think also the dynamics would be different since the characters are different and meet differently. The ninja are all basically equals and have grown up and trained together but the elementals come from all over with probably varying stages of skill level.

For example, in the story concept I suggested in this ages ago, I thought it would be interesting that Ray was a late bloomer and a little chaotic with his element whilst Maya has had years of training with her element (I’d assume since I’m Seabound she very much has a more precise way of training with her element). So they’re dynamic (especially since they’re lovers) has a lot of contrast. Another example is that I hc that Cole’s grandfather and the Ice EM are much older than everyone else, and Libber is the youngest. Leading to the older characters possibly having mentor/apprentice relationships. Also Lilly might’ve been born and a child in this, which throws in a completely unique dynamic as well, since it means Cole’s grandfather is actively a father which adds interest since they are in a war.

Just because they have the same powers doesn’t mean they’d all have the same personalities and dynamics, I think they’re already plenty unique and yeah obviously they’d need to be expanded on because you can’t expect the one scene of Libber to be conducive to her entire personality.

Also Ninjago has made 15 and a bit seasons with the same dynamics, hell they even reuse most of the same tropes, and it’s still enjoyable, you can do a lot with a story depending on what you do, so I definitely think the EMs can pull off a 20 ep series. I mean they have 3 distinct villains to fight, the serpentine, Chen and the time twins. That’s like 3 whole seasons!

It’s okay if you disagree, I hope you don’t mind me adding my take

So... thinking about the prequel show concept that everyone seems interested in.

As much as I like the previous EMs, I don't think they're really equipped to carry a whole show. As far as we've seen, everyone’s parents kind of behave more or less like their kids who inherited their powers. Kai and Ray are essentially the same person, lightning mom is the energetic blabber mouth of the team, Cole and Lilly obviously share a strong moral structure. I'm not saying there aren't differences or nuances, but I think we'd end up with a lot of the same dynamics.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be interesting to explore, but if you're gonna have a whole new show, you're gonna want to diversify a bit, and a prequel show doesn't really allow for that. What I do think this would work for is like a TV movie. Do a season 10, but for the serpentine war. Just enough time for us to go "oh my gosh, they're just like their kids🥰" see some of the other elemental masters, expand on some backstory, have a couple of jokes based purely on our knowledge of the future, and boom, there you go.

I'd certainly like to see more of them, but we don't need a whole 20 episode season to get the potential out of these characters.

[universesrising]

Hi! Hello again! Could you please ramble about Crreature AU I'm loving this concept!

hello!! i can ABSOLUTELY ramble about crreature au! i have many thoughts about this. prepare yourself

so something i haven't really mentioned much yet is the keeper side of things. we've got the gang, i think i mentioned lloyd's part in this, but i haven't really gone into who takes care of the reserve and all that

obviously we've got wu, who owns the place. he doesn't really appear much in the actual au, but sometimes he is there. just as cryptic as he can be in the show. lloyd lives with him since garmadon and misako are just. MIA i guess?? i completely forgot about their existence in the excited haze of making this au so that's the lore now apparently

lloyd himself is the main keeper, in charge of watching over the gang in particular since he's the only one they really like. he gets straight up adopted at one point. he was very confused when that happened. it was cole, he did the adopting

and then we get into the definitely more side characters, but neuro, tox, and griffin are actually part of this au! they're also keepers, but more on the medical side of things as well as the 'go out in the world and do stuff' side. they're the ones who got the gang to the reserve at the beginning. they're their own little team, each doing their own part. griffin is the designated driver

we also have, of course, the mascot of the reserve, the chicken. ms benedict, in lack of a properly canon name. she absolutely despises everyone except wu and only barely tolerates lloyd. she would eat jay like a spaghetti noodle if she could [he is terrified of her]

that's all we've got for the keepers, now for your regularly scheduled random fact:

i mentioned jay and nya have a 'wedding'. jay proposed to her with a rock. he found it at the bottom of the lake they live next to. he thought it was very cool

anyway, that's all i got for now, feel free to poke me if you want to know more though! i am a well of information

[nonbinarykai]

Ok since two people asked

Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him

Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post

Why I don’t like Lloyd

Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine

He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him

I think this is mostly for two reasons:

1. His screen time

2. His “character arcs”

I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself

Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable

A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11

Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12

The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own

And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them

My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed

But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.

And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.

Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show

Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season

Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck

Im going to be honest with you

Lloyds kinda an ass

The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.

The same can’t be said about Lloyd

Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him

Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4

But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting

The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later

The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN

The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.

Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective

This scene would have worked if

1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai

2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus

Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.

To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back

“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”

Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions

Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true

But since we’re already on this topic

Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character

I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story

There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer

1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon

2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius

3. If the story is a tragedy

Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character

A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character

A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him

Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended

But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing

What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure

And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character

Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby

How I would rewrite him

I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree

But not in the way you think

I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives

More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore

I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself

I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.

And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says

As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable

Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10

Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions

Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass

Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on

He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER

ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)

[ninjapolis]

Masterpost of My AUs

So, I have a ton of these that I never posted about...

Here’s info on ALL of my AUs, whether I’ve posted about them or not! Mostly in order of when I made them! I’ll provide a place for a link with each, if there’s no link I haven’t posted about it yet.

Future AU: (Mostly) adheres to canon. My fankids and their adventures, along with the shenanigans the ninja get up to when married! It’s polyninja, but the ninja are married to their female love interests too and the girls are married to eachother. Also contains Destinyshipping, Garmaclouse and Badboyshipping. Consists of two parts: Right after Lilly, the ninja’s youngest is born; and thirteen years later, when most of them are old enough to be training. Learn more here.

Serprincetine AU: Follows a completely different story than canon. 100% a polyninja AU. All of the ninja are serpentine: Kai is the prince of the Hypnobrai, Cole is a Constrictai training to become a Peacekeeper’s Guard, Jay is a Venomari mechanic, and Zane is a Fangpyre mercenary hired to kill Kai before his 18th birthday. A Peacekeeper is someone who’s supposed to keep the peace between the five tribes. Garmadon, an Anacondrai, is the current Peacekeeper, while Kai is his successor. Garmadon is going to die on Kai’s 18th birthday, so Lloyd hates Kai. Zane was hired to kill Kai so the Fangpyre could start a war. There’s a lot to unpack and it’s also a soulmate AU, so I can’t fit everything here. Learn more here.

Vampire Hunter AU: Follows a completely different story than canon. Lavashipping and Technoshipping. Jay and Cole are vampire hunters who have been hired by their village’s leader, Wu, to kill the vampires living in the castle above the town: Kai and Zane. Due to a long and harsh blizzard, Cole and Jay are trapped with the extremely hot vampires in the very nice castle. They can tolerate it I guess. Learn more here.

I Obliterate My Favorite Character for No Reason Other Than Angst AU/Kai Dies AU (first one is the official name/tag): Starts out same as canon but deviates in Season 3. No ships. Kai says in Season 4 that he wanted to die instead of Zane, so I grant his wish. Except he doesn’t come back because he’s made of flesh and bone. Read more here.

Everything’s Alright AU: Follows a completely different story than canon. No ships. Nothing bad happens, so the ninja can just live normal lives. Read more here.

Kai Smith is Now Kai Chen and He’s Evil AU/Kai Chen AU: Slightly deviates from canon. Kinda plasmashippy. Essentially Kai and Skylor swap places, with Chen adopting Kai and Skylor’s mom adopting Nya after Ray and Maya die and Chen and his wife divorce. Kai fucking dies, then tries to help his dad wreck Nya and Skylor, then dies again. Read more here.

Actor AU: Follows a completely different story than canon. No ships.  The characters are all actors, simply playing parts in a TV show. Most of them have different backgrounds and slightly different personalities. It has very little development, and it doesn’t really have much of an actual storyline. Learn more here.

Jay Suffers AU: Starts out same as canon but deviates in Season 4. No ships. All of the ninja except Jay die at some point and Jay is suffering. Ed and Edna place him in a mental hospital after he attempts suicide and he befriends Harumi. Mostly focuses on his time in the mental hospital, and I try to make it wholesome sometimes to offset all of the angst. Read more here.

Ninja Nya AU: Slightly deviates from canon. Contains plasmashipping, a hint of lavashipping in season 3 and 4 and phoenixshipping. Everything’s the same except Kai and Nya swap places: Nya is the ninja of Fire, and Kai is Samurai X/the ninja of water. Read more here.

Oni and Dragons AU: Slightly deviates from canon. Contains plasmashipping and Jaya, probably. Maybe Wusako, if you squint. And possibly glaciershipping to accompany the plasma. Oni and Dragons were created to serve humans like the FSM. Wu is also a full human. Wu and Garmadon aren’t brothers; rather, Garmadon is Wu’s former bodyguard. Garmadon is an Oni, and like most is sick of being bossed around by what he considers a powerless species. He and every Oni elemental master lead a revolt to gain their freedom, while Wu and the Dragon elemental masters fight against them. The Oni win, but Garmadon wants to completely control the humans and Dragons. He gets banished to the Underworld. Wu started training Morro, who was half-Oni and half-Dragon, to foster peace between the warring species. Morro gets killed by an Oni. Wu later starts training two half-Dragons (Kai and Nya), two half-Oni (Cole and Jay) and a Nindroid (Zane) for a second attempt. They later find Lloyd, who is Wu and Misako’s illegitimate child (Misako is still married to Garmadon) and 100% human. Dragons and Oni are both very protective species by nature, so Kai, Nya, Jay and Cole all become very protective of Lloyd. They learn about Morro much sooner, since Wu actually honors him and his death with a small altar and talks about him. They raise Morro from the dead, since he’s still the Chosen One (because Lloyd doesn’t deserve that burden). He kicks Garmadon’s ass and everything else is just shenanigans with the ninja, Morro and redeemed Garmadon. Wu actually acknowledges that he is not a good parent. The ninja are all adults because Wu learned from his mistakes like he should have in canon. Read more here.

The Pirate and His Dragon AU: Follows a completely different story from canon. The entire purpose of this AU is plasmashipping. This AU combines the popular concept of Pirate! Jay with my Half-Dragon! Kai because I thought it would be cool. Mostly just slice-of-life as they do pirate and half-dragon things. Read more here.

Garmadon’s Servant Kai AU: Slightly deviates from canon. Canon ships (Jaya and Llorumi). Kai starts training with Wu, only to soon reveal he’s been in cahoots with Lord Garmadon the whole time. He remains a traitor and nuisance until season 3, in which he pretends to chill out due to Garmadon becoming good. He slowly warms back up to the ninja until season 8, in which he’s the Quiet One instead of Harumi (Lloyd gets the healthy romance arc he deserves) and Kai essentially completely destroys any more chances of reconciliation with his former teammates and sister.

[rose-lord-of-simps]

I’ve decided I’m now comfortable to start posting my own ninjago content on here whenever I come up with some so for clarification...

The ninjago character ages have been kind of and kind of not confirmed in the cannon time line, however when I was doing my research I think Lloyd’s age in the series got messed up after the movie because new fans who came in after the movie were using the movie as reference. (this is not hate to them, if you came in after the movie, that’s great and welcome!) I have been watching this show since the first episode. 

If you ever see me reference these characters PLEASE know that from my perspective they are all adults by now. 

I remember Kai being portrayed as 15 at the beginning in 2011, it’s 2021 now so now he is 25. A year for every year the show has been running because to my knowledge there is no cannon calendar that has been strictly followed in the show, also the amount of times ninjago city has been rebuilt must have taken FOREVER and I think in the Harumi season there was still some damage from the great devourer season that hadn’t been fixed. 

Going off this, Lloyd was 10 when they first found him meaning now he is 20 mentally, physically I got no idea because really he should be ancient after the dinosaur incident. To combat how he still acts like a teenager- all 20 year olds do and Lloyd didn’t exactly get a teenage years so just let him act like a teenager as much as he wants thanks.

It was confirmed that Nya and Lloyd are around the same age so let’s say she is 22, making Kai 3 years older than her which is plausible.

Zane is like 60 I think cuz nindroid,

Jay is a year older than Kai by like a year because Kai has been seen as the youngest out of the main 4 for like ever, so Jay is 26.

And Cole is also 26 because I don’t want to think about these boys getting any older. 

Wu is old, Garm is old, Misako is old, Mystake is old, Skylor is 24, PIXAL is a robot we don’t need to concern ourselves with her age. (technically the youngest in the show but her mentality and stuff is probably as old as Zane) 

Harumi is 15 however I love her- BLAME THE COSPLAYERS- so any time I speak of her always know I am talking about a hypothetical aged up Harumi or even a different world Harumi, I’ll figure it out when I get there.

And, I’m talking about the Ninjago series, NOT THE MOVIE. In the movie they are all around 18 I think but the only time I’ll talk about the movie characters is if we are laughing about it (cuz it had funny parts) or talking baout the differences between characters AND HOW THEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE TOOK AWAY JAY’S BISEXUAL EYEBROW SLIT-

And if you want to share your head cannons about their ages, feel free! However I’m pretty firm on mine but I love to chat! And if you try to criticize me for ANY OF THIS, then I have one thing to say to you.

Technically they’re legos and don’t age the same way we do so they could literally be thousands of years old now in the show because they may have a different concept of time and plastic kinda lives forever which is why it’s terrible for the enviorment. Also they’re legos, don’t worry about it. 

In conclusion: Yes I’m also now happily taking requests for these characters now! 

[dance-of-doom]

give me ALL your lgbt headcanons NOW

HERE I GO

let's start with the main six

kai: nonbinary, gay and arospec

cole: trans guy. oriented aroace (gay)

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

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

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

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

moving to some other characters

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

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

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

vania: lesbian and demigirl

faith and jet jack: trans lesbians

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

akita: genderfluid, bisexual

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

i also have headcanons for old people

wu: idc he's gay

misako and garmadon: they're bi

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

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

pythor: gay and homophobic

skales: bi

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

harumi: trans girl, lesbian, aromantic

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

mr. E: iirc someone said hesbian and hell yeah

cryptor: nb, gay

aspheera and machia: lesbiansnakes

all the other sneks and skeletons are mlm trust me

notes:

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

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

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

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

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

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

More Ninjago watching at 4am in the morning, what could go wrong? And speaking of time, today it was the turn of Hands of Time. Hands of Time marks a number of endings. We see the original designs one last time, it’s the last time Jillian Michaels  voices Lloyd, and it marks the end of the brief period where the show was being affected production-wise by the film (which is where like half the concepts of the season come from (or at least from the scrapped ideas for said movie), as it turns out.

But what did I think of Hands of Time itself? Honestly, I think it’s a really great season. It’s weird in some ways but not in ways I consider negative for the most part. Let dig into the notes.

-Kai and Nya are on pretty great form this season, with Kai’s personality seemingly the transition to what would become the foundation going forward, and Nya mixing in a cute sub-plot that isn’t even related to the sibling thing, which came as a relief to me. In fact, the fact that the sibling thing doesn’t dominate the plot until the last two and a half episodes is good because they can sprinkle it in naturally (something which Possession missed a trick on with Kai and Lloyd) while letting them bat off the others too. The brother and sister dialogue thing is annoying, but thankfully is only used in a couple of scenes. The other thing that irked me is that it seemed to walk back a bit on what Possession did; S5 suggested that Kai had the biggest big brother instinct for Lloyd, but it was Jay who was most supportive of Lloyd’s master thing here? Huh? -The other main cast are on good form too, even Pixal despite the fact the show won’t reveal to use how much Pixal was here until next season probably. Jay sometimes veers close to the line of being obnoxious, but that thankfully gets reeled in and leads to one pretty epic moment where he confronts Acronix, and a whole episode where he gets to show off. It’s his only episode really, but it’s better than nothing. Cole, Zane and Lloyd have some small arcs of their own (in Cole’s case, it’s tiny), but at least they get to be involved in the team plot as well and get brief, good interactions (instead of leaving some in the dust). Wu was on good form this season too. Yeah, it repeats the whole “There’s something I haven’t told you” shtick, but this season really calls him out for it.  -Sides characters are once again surprisingly sparing in this season despite. Misako, Dareth and Ronin have basically one or two scenes each, and they’re fight scenes. Skylor appears too as an agony aunt of sorts (like season 5, which I didn’t mention), and all these examples are basically just fodder for Pixal’s confrontation from Nya. -No, it’s the parent characters who get more out of them this time. Ed and Edna get to shine again in Jay’s aforementioned episode, Cyrus Borg is a complete primadonna and is the best parent of the season (to Pixal, obviously), Ray and Maya are alright, and their moment first meeting their children grown up is done well, but they don’t get much time to really show off the full extent of their personalities due to circumstances, and Lou even gets a bit in with a more comedic slant (a minute or two before the Kai and Nya parent bonding...uh, tonal whiplash a bit). Even Jay’s mother and Skales get some time to show off through little cameos (the former not getting to bond with Jay due to it being the past and Jay being in the present).  -The Vermillion Army aren’t as engaging as the previous two seasons’ enemies, but they’re amusing in their antics outside of the more dramatic parts. I mean, they’re Serpentine, that’s kind of their thing.  -The Hands of TIme, aka Krux and Acronix...I’m just going to add Krux to my collection of older characters who I like who tend to get hated by the fandom. He’s good as a character, I like how he can mesh the ridiculous persona of Dr Saunders with menace, snark and grumpiness. Acronix is good too, I especially like the contrast between him being posed as a genuinely very serious villain (aside from one or two more cheesy lines) in the first episode to being like Deedee from Dexter’s Lab in the next episode. I actually think their dynamic with each other was kind of under-utilised though. I mean, outside of planning, most of their dialogue was about the conflict of modern tech against traditional ways, and while that was a good source of comedy, I feel there should have been more to it (like the brief line where Acronix notes that their mother always thought Krux as stubborn). Props to Krux for faithfully waiting for his brother for 40 years and neither of them even considering backstabbing the other, at least you can tell they’re very loyal brothers. -The tone of the season was completely unexpected. Even though it does have more of the world building and story expansion as the previous 3-4 seasons, this one tonally feels akin to S1/S2. Very strange, but appreciated since I prefer that sort of tone.  -The story was fine generally, and did feel balanced despite it being a Kai and Nya focus season according to itself. I did feel the disposal of Krux and Acronix was kind of quick. I guess the main thing was getting one over the Iron Doom, but the personal final fight was still over in a flash. 

So overall, I really like this one, it’s up there with my favourites of the pre-S11 stuff. Is it better than Possession? I’d say no but just because it’s a bit weaker on the villain and on the side of all the characters time to bond, although they don’t go without by any means. It’s still a good watch and a good time. 

So, next time, we’re getting a huge paradigm shift. Say goodbye to the OG designs and Jillian Michaels in lead position, and say hello to the movie repercussions (which I feel are better designs across the board mostly) and Sonic’s Underground singing voice stepping up to voice the Ultimate Spinjutsu Master in Sons of Garmadon. 

One last little note down here, this season made me realise that every fusion so far was made with romantic love. Sure, Kai and Nya used the fire and water fusion dragon themselves later, but it was created by Ray and Maya initially. Just interesting to me.

[parachutingkitten]

Want something to rant about? Maybe rant how Sensei Garmadon deserved better? :3

Well, this isn't really a fight I'm willing to die for or anything, but yeah, since you asked for it, sure, let's do it.

Sensei Garmadon deserved so much friggin better! Why did he have to die? Why was he constantly trying to die in season 4? That's kinda a waste. Season 3 really presented an interesting concept with his whole vow against violence, which contrasted beautifully in his role as a teacher. His past makes him WAY interesting and compelling as a character, he wants to stray as far from it as possible, but it may be getting in the way of him protecting his family. Also, he gets way too much crap for signing his name on a note. Like why is this his fault? First off, the hell was Wu doing with this love letter that he didn't sign it and just left it around where someone could find it? Even if he didn't right them, those words reflected Garmadon's inner feelings accurately, right? If Misako was gonna base her marriage off of writing ability, then she's the one with the messed up morals. Not him. Also, could she not tell the difference between his and Wu's handwriting?! He clearly feels bad about it too. Why does he get all the shade when everyone involved was being WAY stupid? I swear, it's just like the Jay/Cole/Nya thing. Jay and Nya get a lot of crap from making some admittedly bad decisions, but Cole friggin went along with Nya's advances having never seen the perfect match calculation. How is this not also mainly his fault?!

I'm sorry, I've gotten side tracked.

But I understand why Sensei Garmadon had to go. In the same way I understand why Dr. Julien had to die if they were gonna introduce Cyrus Borg. Two senseis is a lot to juggle in a show with a cast that only seems to keep growing over time. And yeah, I probably would have preferred Wu just died instead, cuz Sensei Garmadon is, again, a million times more compelling and less of a total idiot. But hey, how else would we be able to bring up new unknown villians if we didn't have a stupid master who kept them all a secret?

[infjarts]

The Ninjagotale comic has been discontinued

This is not early April Fools. It is unfortunately the reality of the situation right now. Let me explain (synopsis of the story also under the cut).

There are several reasons that I am discontinuing the comic.

1. I can't get myself to do the next page. I just... can’t. Its not that I don’t want to get it out. I just lack the motivation once I open the file on my computer.

2. I feel like it’s not original enough. I can't call it my own. I got the idea from someone else (with their permission), and I know there are at least 3 more interpretations out there.

3. I want to dedicate the spare time I have to Insanity Brothers. Its a story that didn’t exist before, there's only one. And I’m far more excited about it.

4. Ninjagotale doesn't need to have anything to do with Ninjago anymore. That’s not what its about anymore. Its about the struggle between Yellow and the Chara of the world. The fact that the characters are all from Ninjago doesn't impact the story at all. Their personalities are the same as in Undertale, the rules are pretty much the same, it’s not that different. It can just be an Undertale AT with the regular characters and an entity that is chasing Yellow around, trying to get rid of them.

5. I am going through an extremely hard time right now. My brother has become emotionally and verbally abusive to the entire family and I need to get something off of my plate to deal with all of the stress of that.

I think I need to rethink the world and turn it into its own Undertale AU where it’s the same characters of Undertale except for Yellow. Yellow is very much their own thing. I also think what I’ll do is make it a concept/story that I continue to make content for, just not an actual comic. So I’ll release the story synopsis, everything, and I might make new designs and an illustration or joke comic or two, but not an official comic or fic.

Alright. Here’s the story that was going to happen.

Yellow has an actual name: Rhynn. Rhynn is the “Reindeer” child mentioned in the discord.

They were a kid from another AU whose creator was going to destroy it. Their parents were scientists post-pacifist route who worked with Sans on the surface studying the anomaly, and they discovered their world was about to be destroyed. So they sent Rhynn into the multiverse to settle in an empty world so that their world would build back up around them. But something went wrong, and their code broke apart and rearranged itself into a virus that can use anyone as a vessel as long as they have their soul. This virus then traveled between Universes, feeding off of the destruction they left in their place. Here is a little thing I made practicing gender neutral hairstyles that actually is concept art of Rhynn’s past vessels. It gives you an idea of what their stage one form is:

Rhynn’s stage 2 form is when they have a vessel but aren’t concealing themselves. It varies according to just how much they want to reveal. It can be anything between this:

and this:

The creature behind Frisk!Rhynn here is their true form:

The Overlord is not a virus, but a super powerful antivirus software trying to destroy the Rhynn virus.

Fast forward a thousand years of destroying things to Ninjagotale. The Frisk of the AU is about to fall into the Underground for the first time, but Rhynn intervenes and kills them, taking over their soul and body before they gain the ability to save and load. They then play Undertale normally, intending to reach the surface and spread destruction there. 

However, the Overlord antivirus finds the Rhynn virus when Rhynn tells Lloyd/Asriel their true name. To throw the Overlord off, Rhynn swaps the AU and resets to “refresh” and activate the new code. 

Hence we now have Ninjagoswap. Rhynn and Morro travel through the Underground, only to discover there is already a Morro/swap!Chara going through the Underground, doing a genocide route because he and much of the underground have been affected by the Overlord’s presence. 

Morro, now the “fallen child” with a ghost Rhynn following them, hurries to Kai/swap!Papyrus to warn him about the murderous human. Kai joins them in hurrying to prevent Cole/swap!Sans from being killed, and they arrive, only to find swap!Morro already there. Instead of killing Cole, however, he uses his knife to corrupt him as well. Hence this illustration:

Kai knows he can’t win, so the good guys retreat. Swap!Morro and Cole then move through the Underground, corrupting everything. When they reach Jay/swap!Alphys, Cole easily overpowers him and corrupts him as well.

Meanwhile, Kai and Morro head to Nya/swap!Undyne’s lab to find her crying over Jay, having seen everything on the cameras. Nya agrees to help them, and builds the technoblades. They will have to enter the digiverse/void and use them to destroy the Overlord. Remember, they still don’t know that Rhynn is the true villain, so they’re all just going by what Morro relays to them from Rhynn.

Suddenly Jay, Cole, and swap!Morro all barge in and attack. Nya and the amalgamates hold them back while Rhynn creates a new save file, and this time they turn it into a fell world. They escape just before the corruption is too much and the world collapses. But unbeknownst to everyone else, the Overlord saves Cole just in time and brings him to the digiverse. 

The Overlord tells Cole the truth and makes him his right hand. Cole asks if they have to kill his brother, because he still cares about Kai. The Overlord says if he manages to bring Kai to their side, he can be spared. Cole makes a vow to save his brother.

Meanwhile in Ninjagofell, Morro and Rhynn have switched places again since they’re not in a swap world anymore. Kai goes off to mourn for his brother by himself, so while he’s gone, Rhynn takes the opportunity to think about what to do next. They figure once they’re in the digiverse, they will be able to break rules enough to make Morro physical. So they have three people, but four technoblades. So they decide that they need Lloyd/Asriel because a god-like being would be a nice thing to have. But in order to do that you’d need seven human souls, and there are only six here, Morro points out. But Rhynn disagrees. Because Frisk has fallen down at this point. 

Morro realizes what they are about to do, and they try to argue against it, but as a ghost, they can’t do much else. He watches helplessly as Rhynn steals the six captured souls and goes to find Frisk. They encounter them and Lolley as they are leaving the ruins and entering snowdin forest.

They access the code and rob Frisk of their control of the save file. Without having to worry about Frisk respawning, they kill them and take their soul. They then tell Lolley that they have seven souls now, and they need him to turn into Asriel to help them save the world. Lolley is too scared, so Rhynn changes the code again so that everyone forgets Frisk existed, and Lolley then complies.

Lloyd, Kai, Morro and Rhynn then head to fell!Cole to get him to help them enter the digiverse. They do, and upon entering, they turn Morro corporeal. Kai decides he’s had enough of following this suspicious child around and demands answers. Instead of telling him everything, Rhynn corrupts Kai and makes him a pawn of their own. Unlike the overlord’s corruption, the influence is less suggestion and more force by inflicting pain on the victim to get them to comply.

With the other three in tow, Rhynn makes their way through the digiverse, which is basically the Underground but looks like the digiverse from Rebooted. They arrive at Judgement hall, the Overlord’s lair, and try to use the technoblades to wipe him out, but it only forces him out of the code and he becomes a giant dragon. Cole suddenly appears and corrupts Lloyd. Three fights break out at once, Kai vs. Cole, Morro vs. Lloyd, and Rhynn vs. the Overlord.

Kai is eventually knocked to the ground by Cole, and Cole starts to reason with him. We have this scene:

Cole corrupts Kai. Realizing they are losing, Rhynn turns into their stage two form. This allows them enough power to defeat the Overlord, releasing all those under his influence. They then say that they no longer need the others and can now dispose of them. Morro then engages Rhynn in a fight. Hence we have the private version of this illustration, where you can see Rhynn in Morro’s blade:

The fight then goes into a stage 3 in a separate dimension when Rhynn turns into their true form. Eventually Morro beats them, and suddenly... pre-virus!Rhynn appears, cleansed of the virus. They then thank Morro and tell him that they will fix the code and send them all back to the original Ninjagotale timeline. This scene then happens:

...They give Morro their stolen soul from Frisk. Now Morro can stay corporeal without the need for a host. With a final goodbye, Rhynn fixes the code and sends Morro and the others back. Without a soul or a vessel, they then disappear and finally gain the peace they were robbed of so long ago.

The story ends with Lloyd using his seven human souls to break the barrier in Ninjagotale. The monsters are then freed without the presence of a Frisk. swap!Kai and Cole go to live with classic!Kai and Cole (swap!Kai may or may not be introduced to Skylor/Grillby by classic!Cole) and Morro and Lloyd go to live with Misako. 

And that’s the end of it. I may release more about the reconstruction of it later, like redesigns and little content snippets like blurb comics and illustrations, and explanations of other ending ideas, but that’s about it. I’m sorry for disappointing you all. I hope you all can understand about the circumstances, and I hope you stick around for more Insanity Brothers. It’ll be an animatic series, so I’m real excited for it! 

Love, Piper