#ninjago critical

[cable-salamdr]

They should let me into the writers room fr look at what beauty I can create (Based off of this post)

Thank you @its-virgo-season and @user-without-a-cool-acronym for these fantastic tags that enabled inspired me even further

[skierisa]

dont mind about the weird shadows on their faces and table, i'm still figuring it out and by now it's just a test i swear

i've been doing this since april when will i finish it aaaaaaaaa

[kindaasrikal]

Garmadon and Morro, and their unused dumbassery in the departed realm, part 5:

Part 4 - Part 6

*arguing with someone, maybe Chen*

Morro: yeah? Well why don’t you go SUCK MY-

Garmadon: *covers his mouth* he didn’t mean that.

Garmadon: Well, he did, and I share the sentiment, but in a more dignified manner.

Morro: Garmadon, what’s that.

Garmadon: what is what?

Morro: *pointing at the very fast flying object hurtling towards them.* that.

Garmadon: *turns around uninterestedly to see.* hm?-

Garmadon: *look up to see his father flying full speed ahead on top of a dragon, standing with a sign saying “WELCOME SON AND GRAND CHILD, WORDS WILL BE SHARED IN THE NEXT FEW SECONDS, BE PREPARED.” In bold.*

Garmadon: *blinks up at it*

Garmadon: *picks Morro up and makes a run for it* all of our mistakes hurtling towards us, child.

Morro:…why, is your father, the First Spinjitzu master, chasing us?

Garmadon: It’s punishment in the form of torture.

Fsm: *wishes to smother them* YOU CANNOT RUN, MY CHILDREN.

Garmadon: Morro, dear child, genuinely, what is wrong with you.

Morro: *standing being half alive half not (literally half alive half dead one side of his form has a body the other does not. You can see his insides.), glowing pink, and tied to a tree as he floats upwards. He has the most blank expression known to man.* I blame Wu, and only Wu.

Garmadon: He is not even dead.

Morro: yet.

Garmadon:….what did you do-

Garmadon: Morro.

Morro: mmshshh *laying face down on the ground, just cause he can*

Garmadon: No- Morro.

Morro: what? *muffled by the grass.*

Garmadon: Child, you had a bowl cut?

Morro: *shoots up* WHERE WHAT WHY HOW-

Morro: *having just entered the Departed realm, bumping into Garmadon for the first time since the other was chained up*

Garmadon: Morro, what a pleasure.

Morro: *jumps.* Garmadon, I see you made it out of-

Garmadon: *raises an eyebrow.*

Morro:

Morro:

Morro: ah

Morro: what…are you wearing?

Garmadon, who traded his clothes with Lloyd right before he left, as a last minute gift before they never see each other again: *scowls* it’s better than what you’re wearing.

Morro: I DIED IN THIS?-

Guys please im losing ideas i gotta scrounge up the worst ones imaginable in my head.

Anyways the Fsm defo jumped Garm and Morro, bullied them, and smothered them in love. He’s been lonely for the past few years. No i do not take criticism this is definitely the fsm.

I miss Morro. And Sensei Garmadon. I rlly want smth on these two.

[peachi-blossom]

More shows that have a better color palette than Hazbin Hotel

[agenericplaceholdername]

Why Nya and Jay Can Remember Skybound

By the time Jay makes his final wish in Skybound, the realm crystal and Zane’s falcon have been destroyed, PIXAL has been deleted, Lloyd is an old man, large chunks of land have been ripped out of the ground and are poised to fall back onto Ninjago, and Nya is dead. Those last two parts are most important for Jay, the only character with a wish remaining (if you ignore all the Ninja replacements, who never made wishes and conveniently left after the real Ninja returned). Thus, Jay makes his final wish: “I wish you had taken my hand, and no one ever found that teapot in the first place.”

After Jay makes his wish, time is reversed and the Ninja return to where they were in the first episode of the season. The paparazzi is about to find the Ninja and all of them but Nya use airjitzu to hide from the helicopters. Jay asks Nya to take his hand, which she originally rejected, on the basis that, “I can stick up for myself” and “I'm a ninja, and I'm nobody's girl.” However, after Jay’s final wish, Nya uses airjitzu, which she learned over the course of Skybound, and takes Jay’s hand.

While they remember the events of the season: 

“I remember! I remember it all!” – Nya, The Way Back

“Me too!” – Jay, The Way Back

They don’t care how they do:

“But how?” – Jay, The Way Back

“Who cares.” – Nya, The Way Back

I, on the other hand, do care, and that’s what this post will explain. The other Ninja experience some deja vu, but aside from a subtle reference to Skybound in season 8 and a mural depicting the events of the season, indicating that Master Wu (or at least the painters of the monastery) was told, only Jay and Nya actually remember what happened.* Functionally, Skybound is an alternate timeline that never occurred.

This is not the first time Ninjago has dealt with alternate timelines! In Season 2, the Ninja time travel to the past and create an alternate timeline where Nya is kidnapped later on by the Ninja disguised as skeletons, Lord Garmadon from the future fights Kai at the fire temple, and the Ninja use the golden weapons to send the Mega Weapon into space. This timeline is erased when the Mega Weapon is destroyed, with series creator Tommy Andreasen confirming that the only change that the alternate timeline left is that the Mega Weapon ended up in space – the pilots still happened as depicted in 2011. At the end of the episode, the original four ninja remember the events of the episode, along with Garmadon, Nya, and Wu, but not Lloyd, who was not present. Wrong Place, Wrong Time’s time travel is extremely confusing, largely because Lloyd doesn’t just not remember the time travel but also doesn’t remember the Mega Weapon at all.

If the logic of Wrong Place, Wrong Time holds, then only those present for Jay’s last wish should remember it.** That means Jay and Nadakhan, obviously, but also the rest of the Ninja, but crucially, not Nya, since she was dead at the time. Now, perhaps the rest of the Ninja don’t remember, since the wish was between just Jay and Nadakhan, but that still doesn’t explain why Nya remembers Skybound.

Now, perhaps you could explain Nya’s memory as Jay’s wish was about her – Jay wanted Nya to take his hand. And this would work, except that Jay’s wish was also about Clouse. While he’s not named directly, Nadakhan ensures Clouse never finds the Teapot of Tyrahn in the first place.*** Now, if Clouse had remembered Skybound since the wish was about him, then it would have been very straightforward – Clouse would remember that Nadakhan tricked him into wishing it all away and stopped searching for the teapot. Clouse is instead chased off by angry citizens of the Village of Stiix while still searching for the teapot. You could argue that Clouse remembered Skybound but was arrogant enough to keep searching, but there’s zero evidence of this, so while this theory isn’t necessarily wrong, I think there’s another, better explanation that covers why Nya remembers Skybound but Clouse didn’t (Clouse also never mentions this in the Dark Island Trilogy).

The most logical explanation why Nya remembers Skybound is, based on the rules of wishes established in Skybound, love. And no, I’m not talking about how Jay “wished from the heart” so Nya ended up remembering Skybound.**** I find it hard to believe that Jay’s true, heartfelt intention was to make sure that he and Nya remembered events that never occurred. Instead, let’s look at what Jay wanted. He wanted Nya to take his hand and Clouse to not find the teapot. The second half is easy, since Nadakhan is more than capable of altering the actions of others with his wishes – after Jay’s first wish, the mailman comes out of nowhere, and so does Nya after Jay’s second wish.

Theoretically, Nadakhan could override Nya’s free will and have her take Jay’s hand – except for two problems. First, on a metatextual level, this would run totally counter to Nya’s entire message in Skybound, as muddled as it is. Having Nya take Jay’s hand because of a wish would not only undermine the entire point of Jay’s growth over the season (Jay goes from saying “Maybe a wish is what it takes! Maybe this is how she falls for me” in Public Enemy Number One to asking Nya, “Well, what do you want?” in The Last Resort) but also utterly obliterate Nya’s agency, the exact thing she spent the season fighting for. Now, can Ninjago have totally contradictory messages? Of course! Skybound is a case study in mixed messaging on this very issue! But there’s a second, in-universe reason why Nadakhan can’t make Nya take Jay’s hand, and it’s not for the reason that Tommy Andreasen gives, which is that Nya is dead, and Nadakhan can’t control the dead. Nadakhan is more than capable of making dead people do things, since he literally brings Delara back to life earlier on, and he is capable of doing multiple things in one wish, by making Lloyd both older and wiser.

The reason is that you can’t wish for love! This is one of the first things Nadakhan says (“You can’t wish for love, death, or more wishes” – Nadakhan, Infamous). Nya makes it very clear that the reason she won't take Jay's hand is because she doesn’t, or refuses to, love Jay at the start of Skybound. Having her take Jay’s hand because of a wish would mean he wished for love.

However, right before Nya dies, after the whole plot of Skybound has happened, Nya does love Jay, so Nadakhan is not magically making Nya fall in love. Instead, Nya takes Jay’s hand of her own agency, but this can only happen because Nadakhan ensures that Nya remembers the events of Skybound, so that the love that was created naturally, not as a result of wishes, does not go away, and he fulfills Jay’s wish.

Thus, Jay remembers Skybound because he made the wish, Nya remembers Skybound because she needs to to love Jay to take his hand, and Clouse, the other Ninja, and the rest of Ninjago don’t remember it because it never happened.

——————————————————————————————————

*And technically Zane if you include Ninjago: Decoded

**The same time travel logic sort of holds in Lost in Time, where the Ninja in the present are aware of the changing timeline after having been present for the Iron Doom's time travel. That being said, they are also still affected by the changes in the past (Zane reverts to his pre-rebuilt state when Ninjago's advanced technology is undone).

***It would have been very easy to twist that wish into no one having ever found the teapot, that is, Captain Soto would never have found the teapot, but whatever.

****I think it’s possible that Nadakhan didn’t twist Jay’s wish because it was from the heart, but that’s totally unrelated and not based on any actual evidence. The Ninjago wiki seems to think this: "Nadakhan, being hit with the venom and with Jay’s wish being pure, has no choice but to grant it" [emphasis mine].

[fandomsnrambles]

Fucking sobbing at this meme i made some time ago 😭

[olivescales3]

And then people will dare to say that Garmadon had any kind of duality about his son. LMAO

Rewatching Chima— The Artifact, as an episode, shows how much of a filthy hypocrite Fluminox is.

I might write a small essay about this later, but in summary:

Sir Fangar used Tormak's weakness (his protectiveness of Li'ella) to extort him; as Fluminox' student, Sir Fangar KNEW that the Artifact would've exploded, and messing with his opponents by making them lose their map to the Fire Wings was an extremely intelligent strategy

The 'romance' and 'marriage' thing was all a bluff to distract Laval and the Fire Tribes, while angering Tormak

Tormak, out of his paternal instincts, agreed to steal the Artifact and was subsequently punished for it

HOWEVER, ON THIS SAME EPISODE, Fluminox 'mourns' his sabotage in the name of his son, saying that ONLY TORMAK WOULD UNDERSTAND HIS PAIN, yet he immediately started whining when Tormak made a TRUE sacrifice for his daughter (Fluminox is a cunning colonialist but that's another issue)

THERE WAS AN ENTIRE SCENE ABOUT TORMAK'S PAST WITH LI'ELLA, MEANWHILE FLUMINOX BARELY HAD ANY SCENES ABOUT TREATING FLINX RIGHT!!!!! Tormak cried because of Li'ella's kidnapping while Fluminox did nothing for Flinx when he ran away!!!!

People really missed out on Chima ugh

[writer-room]

Obsessed with Lloyd never mentioning his grandfather is the First Spinjitsu Master, apparently to the point even Arin didn't seem to know, because "eh, it never came up". Cause like, yeah, sure, my grandfather is God, what of it? Normal day for me. Shit happens. My dad is also evil, you wanna talk about that? I sure don't.

It's also funny from a character arc perspective. Here's itty bitty baby first season Lloyd, loudly proclaiming he's the son of Garmadon, and probably also making sure everyone knows he's God part 3 electric boogaloo. And then one Tomorrow's Tea and a few more years later and he's doing everything physically possible to NOT care about his heritage. In fact he'd probably rather his parentage was literally anyone else. Dude could care so less he forgets about it most of the time. King behavior.

[itsabouttimex2]

Anyways does anyone know what the name of this phenomenon is where fans say “the thing you are criticizing is just a little itty-bitty baby show unless you like it and then it is a literary masterpiece behind comprehension”

[quotidianish]

If nobody got me I know ice themed characters got me

[spinjitsuburst]

watching secrets of the forbidden spinjitzu while i get some stuff done and i like to think wu's overly harsh vibe at the beginning of the season is him trying to reclaim SOME sense of authority after his ninja literally had to raiSE HIM FROM A CHILD GFDHKJGKJ

[nyaskitten]

And if I said most of Garmadon’s designs ranged from okay to awful, what then?

[lamentedwaters]

I think about the resemblance of their voices a lot.

Lol

[autistic-ben-tennyson]

Why the Diamond Redemption Doesn’t Work

About a year ago I wrote a post defending Steven Universe and Steven’s character writing. Since then my views have changed a bit and while I don’t think Steven is as much of a wuss as those Jack Horner or Hitler memes make him out to be, I can understand some of the gripes with the Diamond’s redemption. While Lily Orchard is a shitty person, I do side eye some of the people who hate her especially due to transmisogyny getting worse and her being a trans woman that doesn’t pass well and while some of her criticisms of the show are unfair, others were those black fans already had discussed regarding the show’s anti blackness with Sugilite and Bismuth and I’m going to explain why the Diamonds redemption doesn’t work by comparing them to similar characters.

In most stories that redeemed a fascist, abusive or genocidal villain, something was done to ensure that they would be incapable of causing further harm. Darth Vader, Kylo Ren and Gendo Ikari all died. They may have committed a heroic sacrifice and gotten acceptance from Luke, Rey and Shinji but that’s it. Vader and Kylo did go to Jedi heaven and Gendo was allowed to reunite with Yui in death but they still had to die as their crimes were too great to forgive. People can criticize how well executed these redemptions were but they only reconciled with one person and no one was forced to forgive them.

As for villains who were given a second chance and continued to live, something was still done to prevent them from hurting others. Lord Ozai had his powers taken away by Aang. ATLA has also been criticized for falling into white liberalism but at least Ozai still faced consequences. Ben directly targeted the Highbreed’s racist ideology by forcing them to walk in the shoes of those they tried to genocide by mixing their DNA with the omnitrix’s aliens. Lord Garmadon was corrupted by the Great Devourer and later Oni blood after his resurrection and he had to prove both times he had changed by taking a vow of nonviolence and helping the Ninja. Harumi’s redemption was criticized for being rushed but at least she had lost her powers and was implied to be under police surveillance in Crystalized. All these villain characters got off easy but at least had something done to remove their ability to cause harm.

In some cases a villain would be offered redemption and chose to reject it. That would have been a way to keep Steven a pacifist while still destroying the diamonds via their own actions. Lord Shen was offered a second chance despite everything he had done to Po and rejected it which caused his own death. Emperor Belos tried to manipulate Luz and was rightfully treated as the liar he was. The Diamonds for all we know could be doing the same and only acting nice to placate Steven until he dies, given how little they seem to regret abusing Rose and tried to get a replacement with Steven and later Spinel. They didn’t need to be shattered but as @thewoollyviking said, they needed to lose their powers so they could never be able to take back their empire if they returned to their old ways.

Something else that’s been on my mind is the idea that wanting the diamonds to suffer consequences is a “culturally Christian” or “Tankie” worldview. Like maybe some people are influenced by a punitive view of Christianity but i have also seen Christian fans who insisted that Steven had to forgive them based on their religious views. Wanting someone to face consequences isn’t always to be cruel and unusual. It’s to prevent them from harming other people and restorative justice is not the same as letting people off the hook. They still need to face some sort of justice to recognize what they did was wrong as a catalyst for becoming better people.

I think the problems with the diamond’s redemption came down to it being intended to be an allegory for an abusive family while having them commit all sorts of crimes like purging any gem that didn’t align with their beliefs and creating the cluster to blow up the earth. SU suffers because it used magical girl solutions to deal with sci fi/irl political issues which came off as tone deaf to a lot of people. Not everyone who dislikes it does so because of one person’s video essay and while it didn’t need to kill the diamonds, them losing their powers and being banished from Homeworld would have been more satisfying as a compromise because people like the diamonds will never change in real life and letting them off like that does have real world implications.

[lloydkin-kinlloyd]

I know that in season 3 they are probably gonna make lloyd and arin get on good terms again and damn I'm dreading that. Like we're just gonna watch another one of Lloyd's mistakes get shoved to the side for no good reason in favor of making him stay perfect.

I feel bad for arin and I want him to stay against Lloyd and not be on the best of terms with him throughout the whole thing. I hate sensei Lloyd and if morro comes back he better beat the crap out if him.

[crosswiredcrafts]

ICYMI I just made my first crafting video!