#ninjago the merge: part 1

[toastingpencils37]

Just a collection of various Ninjargon translations from DR S1E1 so I can keep them all in one place.

Also, just a warning, some of the shots on this post have pretty bad quality so that you can't see what's on the signs, but I'm using a different screen for the actual translations that I can't really just screenshot.

The wall painting right below the garage thing:

Fresh Fo-

I'm assuming the "Fo-" part is supposed to have a "od" after it, spelling out Food, given the Fresh.

And then the banner thing to the right of Sora:

J4- PK-

Less likely real words, given the letter placement and the numbers. So probably either some sort of store advertisement/sign or just some random tag sign of some graffiti artist.

(Had to get two shots of these signs in order to be able to translate everything in the second shot)

The Green sign with the Dragon on the building:

Dragon House

The orange sign with the bowl right next to it:

Fresh

Again, likely food. Especially since right below it there's a menu

The menu below the orange sign:

Specials Fish.......Fcs Soup.........vfd Chicken........Yjr Noodles........Fcs

There may be some mistranslations with some of the red letters on the menu, as they were hard to figure out.

The string banner below the Specials menu:

68392047

Yeah I have no idea what that means. Because I don't think it's a set number of sorts because a) too long for a regular set and b) i don't think there was a polybag thing for this either, even like a LEGO City one.

Also, this menu and string banner appear at least four more times in the episode, with the string banner sometimes being blue rather than red.

For this shot I'm actually just going to translate the neon pink sign, because I can't get enough focus on the smaller things such as the papers taped up to tell what I'm looking at.

Also the cut off large blue "S" in the planter is part of a much larger sign that appears earlier, spelling "Crossroads"

Neon pink sign:

Forward

Only translating the white paper in this shot, which have some pretty bad handwriting (and i'm pretty sure a couple of the letters might be actual English or just nonexistent Ninjargon letters as well)

White paper:

**a*** am*fg mf** a*** fhl 5****

I was going to translate the blue paper as well, but one close look at it, I decided it's not worth it and that I don't have enough brain power for this shit.

The Specials chalkboard and the blue string banner right next to the green fish sign says exactly the same thing as the previous Specials sign and string banner, so I'm not translating that.

Purple vertical lamppost sign with an arrow pointed to the right:

Somewhere

Thank you street sign that really cleared things up /s

The blue sign:

2828

Probably supposed to be an address sign, but like many of the signs around the Crossroads, it pops up multiple times on different buildings. So who truly knows.

The box shown between Arin and Sora:

It appears to be flipped upside down, so if flipped the right way, it should spell:

Kgbdy

Also translating the poster because it surprisingly has some interesting stuff:

Mechmaster Mechma Reward Track Pie

The second line is cut off on the poster design itself, so that "Mechma" is the whole thing it says. Also not sure if the pie is something actually involved as a reward for winning the race, or if the people on the actual Ninjago team making the poster just decided to put it on for another reason, possibly even foreshadowing of what'll happen in the next scene.

Sign of cat:

Deals

This sign also pops up quite a bit in this episode.

The orange sign right behind Sora:

Sale

I noticed it appear once more towards the end of the race as well.

Sora's Mech:

SA-Mark

Orange sign above Frohicky:

Mec- Mast-

Obviously it's supposed to spell out "Mech Master" but it's cut off

Yellow letters below the black screen above Frohicky:

Register

The front of the mech:

Fast

The arm:

So

There's also a brown mech shown earlier that appears to have this also written on it, but another mech in front of it cuts it off so you can only see the "Fa" and the dash part of the "S"

Kreel's Mech:

Speed

The blue, black, and yellow graffiti:

Htja

The orange/brown shop sign to the left of Riyu:

It's the same as the one behind Sora, but now we can see that below the "Sale", there is also some Ninjargon.

So the full translation is:

Sale 98

Then the yellow sign with the red dragon to the right of Riyu:

Great deals

The graffiti with the fish:

Pux4

Of the graffiti, this tag makes the most sense word wise.

This same graffiti also popped up earlier on the race track, but I couldn't make out some of the letters there, so I put this one with the more clear letters instead.

Also, I think the "x" is an "x". Only letter that really seems to fit that shape.

Graffiti with shuriken star:

Dfg

Graffiti with hamburger:

Tddhfj

However it appears to be mirrored so it should actually spell:

Jfhddt

And then the little piece of graffiti in the bottom left corner:

....cy

Which is all we see of the graffiti there.

So, that's it for translating stuff from episode 1. And yeah, for quite a bit of the stuff, it's just gibberish.

[user-without-a-cool-acronym]

Have I rewatched the first two episodes of season 1 more times than I could count? Yes

Do I still start grinning like crazy when hearing that first "I think that mask belongs to me"? You better fucking believe it

[writer-room]

Ninjago in-universe memes post-Merge part 3 babey

The people of Ninjago just want their golden boy to have a break for once in his life. Also since Oni are the opposites of dragons, would they like...cause Imperium to go into a blackout?

1, 2, 4

[dropletsofraine]

So Jay’s yellow lightning

So I said if my last post got to 60 notes I’d actually make a post on this and a certain mutual decided to be funny. Now here I am so allow me to share my thoughts on the change of color in Jay’s lighting because BOY do I have ideas. I’d also like to state this does have spoilers for part two of season two for Dragons Rising so if you haven’t seen it, LOOK AWAY!

so as we’ve seen, Jay’s lightning changes to a yellow rather than the blue is always has been. We really get to see this in one of the newest episode of Dragons Rising during Inside the Maze. So why would his lightning change like this?? And why am I over analyzing the color of a lego’s powers?? Because I think that this color change really does have a sort of significance.

Sure you COULD argue and say that the change in color was just a stylist choice to better fit with Dragons Rising animation but I don’t think that’s all it is. If you look at this image of Jay during the flash back with him and Cole fighting over the remote, his lightning is still blue. The lightning does not flicker between blue and yellow like it has been shown during the present setting of Dragons Rising, so it doesn’t seem to just be a stylistic choice.

Now onto Agent Walker. We get a brief scene of Jay as Agent Walker during part 1 of season 2 where his powers are shown. When we do see his lightning here, we see bits of yellow in it. Remember this is now the current timeline of Dragons Rising, so there’s clearly been some sort of change between that flash back, and the merge. But even here when the yellow does first show up his lightning isn’t completely yellow, it still has more blue than yellow to it. This is before he had been ‘saved’ by Ras, when he was still apart of the Administration. Or rather before he had shattered his goodness.

Into the Maze. What an episode. We FINALLY get to see Jay use his powers in battle here. When he does make his appearance in front of the ninja, we see him show off his lightning. NOW it is more yellow than blue, and at this point Jay has not exactly shattered his goodness yet however he’s very close to that point, as when he does put the mask on and Arin exclaim he’s going to shatter his goodness, we hear Lloyd say “I’m afraid he already has.” Hm. Kind of a strange thing to say, even if he WASN’T fighting Nya at this moment, it’s still strange to hear Lloyd so quickly assume Jay has lost himself. So, Lloyd himself must have sensed or seen some sort of change indicating that Jay is different. Now onto his fight with Nya, we see him use his powers to his full extent. His lightning is almost completely yellow at this point with only small bits of blue here and there.

The wolf mask. At this point, Jay has now used the wolf mask and shatterspin, he has shattered his goodness. From this point on, his lightning is almost completely yellow as he battles with Nya. Once he loses the fight and has his powers taken, it is shown as completely yellow when Roby takes it into the Elemental Cup. Even when Nya has Jay’s powers, they are still shown as yellow however as she shoots it up into the air, it does appear to be a bit more blue once again. And how does his lighting being yellow tie into Jay’s lost goodness?

Yellow. This color can have many many different meanings and different symbolism. However, yellow has had a HISTORY of being associated with betrayal. In history with the Spanish Inquisition, in religious history, yellow has always been connected to betrayal. People seen as traitors were tied to the color yellow. What else can yellow also tie to? Warnings and danger. The gradual change of Jay’s lighting becoming more and more yellow, Jay is coming closer and closer to losing himself. Yellow is a perfect color to use for Jay in his current state in Ninjago. It’s a bright color that grabs attention, bur can be almost overwhelming or even abrasive at times.

On a final note about his change from blue to yellow, let’s focus in on not the gain of yellow, but the loss of blue in his lighting. I’ve talked about the different meaning of yellow and how this can tie into Jay slowly becoming disconnected from himself and who he once was, but what about the blue in his powers? What can that signify?

Blue is a color commonly associated with memory, as it is a color the brain most easily and frequently remembers, such as notes written in blue pen may be easier to remember than notes written in black. What else has blue been known to represent? Tranquility, stability, and loyalty. All attributes Jay has lost as his lightning slowly changes. Even as Agent Walker, with his lightning being mostly blue still we see him still have hints of himself in there. However during Inside the Maze, he’s a completely different person. Ras’s influence is a lot scarier than you’d think, and just by looking at Jay we can see, that this is no longer the Jay Walker everyone knows. He’s lost himself and who knows when we’ll get him back.

IN CONCLUSION-

I am mentally unwell, and probably had no reason to type out this entire analysis over the color of lighting that Jay has. But here I am and maybe you guys wanna read this for whatever reason idk. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I’m going to go pass out now.

[gregorio-loves-art]

AU Lloyd Garmadon

My Lloyd Montgomery-Garmadon

1. He was 10 at the start of the series. 16 after his rapid aging (was not caused by a type of tea). 26 by the start of dragons rising.

2. His main weapon is the Staff of Creation ( AU version of the mega weapon) it was found in the temple of light and belonged to the FSM. All of golden weapons channel the user’s existing powers.

3. Has permanent horns and fangs after realizing his true Oni-Dragon form.

4. The mark of the Oni is a mark only pure Oni people have/can give. The Omega (shortly before his death) used his power to bestow the mark on Lloyd. He views this as a curse but slowly learns to accept that is is part of him.

5. He is the elemental master of life (I choose this mainly cuz I like the film’s explanation for what he and his powers represents).

6. The dragon band is bestowed upon ninja who successfully tame and befriend an elemental dragon.

7. He lost his arm to a possessed Garmadon in the AU equivalent of the Oni trilogy. He doesn’t balm his dad, but Garmadon blames himself.

8. Prosthetic was made by Pixel and Cyrus Borg.

9. He chose to also take Montgomery (Misako’s last name) and hyphenate it with Garmadon to honor his mother as well as his father.

10. While no specific ethnicities from our world exist in Ninjago (seeing as it is a completely separate reality), the FSM, Wu, The Oni, and Garmadon are the equivalent to Japanese. Misako is mixed (hence the Japanese first name and French sir name) and takes more after her French side. So long story short, Lloyd is mixed.

11. He is 5’9

12. His dragon, named Juniper, was the guardian of the temple of light.

13. Harumi died in crystalized. She apologized and made right by Lloyd before sacrificing her self. Tho he forgave her, Lloyd would have never gone back to her.

14. He and Akita had found ways to send each other letters before the merge. Now he is looking for her in hopes to reunite.

15. He has a HUGE inferiority complex.

16. Feels like he is solely responsible for protecting Ninjago

17. Pushes his issues inside and pretends they don’t exist.

18. Is afraid of being abandoned.

19. Has panic attacks due to his visions

[lightning-and-dragons]

NINJAGO DRAGONS RISING SEASON 2 PART 1 SPOILERS!

So, after seeing Jay in part one of season 2, I began to wonder how Jay could become a villain, as many people have theorized (I love these theories so much, I would love to see him have a villain arc!).

Here's how I think it could happen with what we know about Jay now (sort of told in a story form....I'm a fanfic writer, so that's my default lol):

Jay was used to emptiness. Ever since he lost his memories, there was a void inside of him, a void created by not knowing. Not knowing who he was before the Merge. Not knowing his favorite color. Not knowing what he was like. Not knowing if anyone out there loved him. Not knowing if he even liked himself.

It was a numbing feeling, like staying still while the world moved around him, like being left behind as everyone moved ahead. He couldn't feel anything with that emptiness, that numbness in his heart. Perhaps feelings were something one gained from knowing who you were. Knowing where you came from. Knowing who loved you.

He pretended he could feel, that his world wasn't numb inside, and it worked to the people around him, but he could never trick himself.

Nothing in the Administration could fill that void. Nothing could make him feel much of anything. He tried to fill the void with paperwork, and then videogames, yet nothing could make him feel like there was something in him. That there was something about his life worth celebrating. Nothing made him feel like he was a person, someone with a history, someone people could like. Nothing made him feel real. Everyone at the Administration just treated him like another worker, which he guessed he was, and the emptiness grew.

The emptiness got bigger when he discovered that he could control lightning. He found that he had all that power, so much strength, yet no one to celebrate it with. Which made the power useless, didn't it? He couldn't use it in the Administration or else he could get terminated, he couldn't tell anyone, he couldn't do anything with it. It became just as useless as everything else about him, the him now and most likely the him from before.

The excitement he had felt soon disappeared, along with the worry. There was nothing he could do about it, and the numbness returned.

When he met that skeleton-person when the Administration was sent to find the machine known as Zane, Jay felt something change in him. The person had looked at him with confusion when he spoke up, and showed some care to how he felt about the job he was in. Sure, she was probably just trying to escape, but her words filled the emptiness, made him feel like a person, that there was something more to him that just a member of the Administration. And when he saw himself, dressed in something close to a ninja gi, in the yellow orbs reflection, he felt confusion and awe, the void filling once again.

It was in that moment that he wanted the void filled completely. He didn't want to live as an empty shell anymore. He wanted to be a person, someone more than an agent. And he hungered for it.

He was tired of being empty. He wanted to feel again. He wanted to be someone.

So, he escaped the Administration, leaving it as quickly as he could, searching, fighting to fill that void again, to feel more than numb, to find out who he could be. Could he be more than what he was? Was he meant to be someone incredible?

That was when Lord Ras found him. Ras promised Jay a life that he could be proud of, that would make Jay worth something, that his name would be known. That he could feel more than he had felt in years. That the void that Jay felt could be filled.

The emptiness in him screamed to be filled again, and he could already feel Ras' praises, his promises, filling it.

Jay didn't hesitate to put on the wolf mask that was handed to him.

And, with the resounding note of a gong, the emptiness was gone.

[hyperfixate-on-ninjas]

Based on this post right here

This is called the Ninjago Shuffle AU.

Basically I took every Ninjago Season including DR into a Spin the Wheel and shuffled the Seasons.

Order of the Shuffle

Legacy of the Green Ninja

Secrets of Forbidden Spinjitsu

DR Season 2

Master of the Mountain

Possession

Rebooted

Rise of the Snakes

Seabound

Skybound

DR Season 1

Hands of Time

Crystallized

Island of the Keepers

Tournament of Elements

March of the Oni

Sons of Garmadon

Hunted

(This is an interesting order of Seasons)

[THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR NINJAGO DR PART 2 SO LEAVE IF YOU MUST!]

Before I actually end up Rewriting all of the Seasons to fit into a coherent story, I first needed to rewrite the pilot era.

I do not consider the Pilot Era or the Specials a Season, so for the purposes of Story Telling, Pilot Era goes first before all the Seasons and Day of the Departed will always come after Skybound. (Which has a very interesting story of being turned into a SeaWalker Timeline somehow-)

So for the Pilot Era, here we go. In my notes I wrote everything down so here is the order of events.

Battle Between Spinjitsu Brothers

Battle Between Spinjitsu Brothers happens first, Garmadon tries to steal the Golden Weapons, Wu stops him, Garmadon gets banished into The Underworld. In this version of the story, Misako left Garmadon before he got banished so Wu is left alone with baby Lloyd.

Rather than send him to Darkleys, Wu tries to free his brother from The Underworld out of guilt and shame. And also because he knows he literally is too dependent on him at times (Based off of Krux’s line stating Garmadon usually had Wu’s back so basically Wu is just the dependent younger brother in this AU)

This spiral ultimately causes

The Merge

Yeah Wu done fricked up this time. Instead of causing the Merge years later he causes WAY TOO EARLY. The Merge happens and Wu is split into pieces, this alerts Garmadon who still remains in The Underworld after Wu causes the Merge, causing him to immediately deploy his army once the Merge is complete to scan the area and make a map of the new world.

Kai remains in Ninjago without Nya, Jay ends up in The Administration, Zane ends up in Imperium and Cole ends up in the Land of Lost Things. Lloyd remains in the Monastery, but after a while of people not tending to it, he ends up leaving to go search for food and stumbles upon Arin and Sora.

The Pilots

The Pilots start off with Kai as always, however due to his short temper and his weapons not selling well. (The Yo-Yo thing didn’t work out unfortunately) He leaves the Blacksmith shop to go find his sister (Since none of the residents sell Arin’s house/apartment it’s safe to assume no one will sell Kai and Nya’s home)

Kai becomes a street criminal, getting by through stealing food and money in order to survive and traveling the realms to get more information. Ultimately his actions get him into a bit of trouble and he ends up bumping into Cole, who helps him out and takes him back to the Monastery.

Cole introduces himself as the in-training Earth Ninja, being guided by ‘Guiding Light’ (Master Wu) and explains that Guiding Light told him to get Kai. Kai refuses, but thanks him for helping him survive another day, that’s when the Skulkin ambush the Monastery and reveal that Kai’s sister is in The Underworld.

After a few fights back from Cole and Guiding Light…somehow? Kai and Cole make it a mission to get the Four Golden Weapons. Kai does his training montage and boom they go to the Caves of Despair…which is kinda not in the same place it used to be. (But whatever lets just say the Skulkin dropped the damn map)

They go into the Caves of Despair, learn Spinjitsu (In this universe Cole learns it first because Kai’s a slow learner) Kai uses the Scythe of Quakes etc they celebrate.

Guiding Light scolds them of course but they barely take him seriously at times. (Mostly because I made it so that Wu now speaks Tinkerbell) But ultimately they are caught by the Administration for ‘unauthorized use of an unidentified weapon’

So yeah they get interrogated in The Administration, then they escape through elaborate means and high-chase breakout, also Jay reveal

They escape and head for the Shurikens of Ice. However, someone catches up to them first, and we get our Zane reveal, Zane as the leader of the Claws of Imperium. (YAH I DID THIS YOUR WELCOME) needs the Shurikens of Ice under the assumption that it has Dragon Power. (Technically it does)

Kai and Cole manage to get it anyway and speedrun the Nunchucks of Lightning. Most of what happens here is the same as the original pilot, except we don’t get any dialogue from Wu (Which means ‘There’s something I haven’t told you’ is quite literal here cause he can’t fricken speak) we don’t get Jay nor Zane and Garmadon gets Two of the Four Weapons. (All Four would kill him, so after he opens the portal he grabs the two that don’t have owners yet.)

Nya trains to be a Ninja instead of Samurai X because both her and Kai agree she needs really really good protection.

They discover the Green Ninja prophecy early but rather than worry about who was the Green Ninja, they’re more concerned when they realized there is one member not added yet. They decide to train some more so that they can be ready to map out the new world.

Significant changes (To storylines beyond the Pilots)

-Nya is now considered an official Ninja and Wu has no way of correcting them, so to them Nya is the 3rd Ninja, possibly even the Blue one since that’s her favorite color.

-Why is Zane evil? Zane actually showed up INSIDE Imperium surprisingly, and it was discovered by Dr LaRow that he was a robot and she opted to rewrite his programming and systems. So now he replaces Rapton as the Leader of the Claws of Imperium.

-Lloyd is officially Younger than Sora and Arin, for the sake of Story-telling purposes and continuity, but they are Younger than Kai and Cole. On that note:

-Kai, Cole and Nya are all adults at the start, as well as Zane and Jay.

-Ninja won’t get their Elemental Powers until Rebooted, which is gonna make DR Season 2 Interesting.

-Possibly SeaWalker instead of Jaya (Honestly Skybound is gonna be VERY interesting with Seabound Nya)

-Jay isn’t into Nya right away, since he’s now a very mature and very very tired man.

-We mostly don’t get the main four until maybe after DR Season 2.

[the-ninjago-historian]

Post Series Jaya Doodles and Headcanons!🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡🌊⚡ (Bonus Next Gen Headcannons!👀)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 😁💖 I worked really hard on this. So I hope you all enjoy! Headcanons are below the cut! - ✒️🐉

1) They have a HUGE wedding. Many friends and Family come. And I headcannon that Jay has a very big extended family so that's a lot!🤣

2) They move into the old lighthouse and fix it up/fortify it. It eventually becomes a small rest stop for ships.

3) Nya runs a mechanics shop for boats and water craft there. And Jay has a shop to sell salvage, drift wood, and knickknacks. He also does a little inventing on the side. Although it doesn't usually end well. Lol. Name ideas for their shops would be appreciated!

4) They have a LOT of kids. Five to be exact. Ray, Maya, Ed, and Edna are very proud grandparents. The kids are, in order from youngest to oldest, Piper, Ren, Wynn, Raine, and Poe. Currently I only have a design for Poe. (Seen above.) But the rest are coming. I can assure you. I'll provide some descriptions in the meantime!

Poe: Pictured above! He's very calm and charismatic. And while he's a good fighter and pirate hunter, he enjoys quieter hobbies such as painting. His main weapon is a harpoon.

Raine: Very light skinned. With curly silver hair. (Her hair color is caused by her unique elemental power, Storm!⛈️) She's a little in the small side. But still sturdy and a real fighter. She's a tough cookie! Raine eventually becomes part of the Next Gen Ninjas.

Wynn: Light skinned, with black curly hair. Always wearing a pair of flight goggles. (He's an inventor like Ed and Edna.) Eternally curious and questioning.

Ren: He's got red hair like Jay, and tan complexion like his mom. Ren's got an explorer streak and loves charting new islands. He plans to sail to the other side of Ninjago's oceans someday. He's almost never seen without Wynn. The two are inseparable.

Piper: The baby of the family! She has blonde hair like Libber. She may be little. But she's brave. Not too much on her currently. But she will have a bigger role to play in the future.

5) Cole LOVES their kids. And is very protective of them. (Like "would give his life for them" kind of protective.) He practically treats them as though they were his own. He's their bestest uncle, besides Kai.

6) Raine has a mix of both Nya and Jay's element. She's the master of Storm. She's the first case of a merged element in Ninjago history. And when she was young, it was VERY unstable. Raising a super powered baby was NOT easy.

7) They are pirate hunters. For reasons...🧞‍♂️ Anyway! Their family is known for keeping the coasts of Ninjago safe and sound. Especially their oldest boy Poe, who's shaping up to be a great pirate hunter.

8) They own a flying ship! They needed a way to get to shore fast and since they didn't have the Bounty, Nya and Jay just built one of their own. It's smaller but just the right size for them. And it's called the Storm Rider. It's even got cannons for taking down pirate ships!

(P.S. Two quick things! One, these headcanons are related to a fanseason I'm working on called Ninjago: New Genesis. So that's why they don't line up with Dragons Rising. And two, yes. I noticed Poe's eyes are miscolored in one pic. They're supposed to be brown. I didn't notice until after I finished.😂)

(Tag List: @only-lonely-stars @hydroelectricjaya😁👋)

[toastingpencils37]

You know what really sucks?

Arin says that hope was the only thing the Merge didn't take from him at the beginning of DR.

Then through DR season 1, we kind of see his hope grow, with him becoming a ninja, and the ninja miraculously being found...

And then in Season 2 we see that hope plummet, with his parents still not being found, and him not being able to properly learn Spinjitzu... leaving his hope at a point that was likely so much lower than it was at the beginning of DR.

And when he finds out Sora lied to him about his Spinjitzu, it's probably going to plummet even further.

[icy-watch]

Ok, first episode of DR of the first season, The Merge: Part 1. Ooof. Don't think I'll be able to do both parts here today, so I'll just try to figure what this first part is about.

...No idea.

What could be merging? All of Ninjago? All of the kingdom and queendoms? The Sixteen Realms? The Elemental Powers of everyone but the ninja?

There's a lot of possibilities.

But something will be merging. And our ninja friends will be effected by it.

I'm hoping some time has passed for them, so they got to at least enjoy some peace. It'd be horrible if this took place right after Crystallized.

Ok, can't think of anything else, so let's check this out!

[agenericplaceholdername]

Dragons Rising E1-5 Thoughts

In the run up to the official release of Ninjago: Dragons Rising Season 2 Part 2, I’ll be posting my thoughts on the episodes already released in chunks of 5. This also marks the end of the Ninjago full series rewatch I started at the start of this year. These will just be bullet points, not full episode or character analysis – if this is popular, maybe I’ll do that later. No real spoilers for S2P2, but I’ll make slight allusions to events that happen.

First: The Merge, Part 1:

Solid beginning. I love how Arin introduces the Ninja as they pan across the screen in one-take – reminds me of the Skybound intro

It is very unclear how long Arin and Sora have known each other. This episode implies they just met with lines like “best new friend” but next episode Arin says they met “right after the Merge”

A LOT of exposition that consists of Arin and Sora telling the other person something they probably already know

It’s interesting that Arin says he wants to create a monastery for people who lost their parents in the Merge – the Monastery is now home to a ton of people who have found family in the Ninja

Frohicky is great. So is Lobbo

In the time that Arin and Sora argue about whether or not to chase Riyu, they could have passed the finish line. On the other hand, this would have prevented Lobbo from winning

Rapton sees two children fall to their death and doesn’t care lol

Ras is ridiculously cool in his intro scene. He just spawns in midair, wins, and leaves

Arin and Sora are so much fun in this episode. Some of the dialogue is strange but I am sold on their friendship and they have good chemistry together

Love Lloyd’s entrance

The Merge, Part 2:

Man Lloyd is just so cool here. He might have 0 self confidence later but at least physically he rightfully outmatches almost any opponent

How do you accidentally make a bomb? It’s funny tho so who cares

“Do elemental powers come and go?” “No. Well, sometimes.”

Kai and Lloyd’s reunion is so insanely sweet

Arin and Sora playing catch with Riyu is great

Is it “Claws of Imperium” or “Claws of the Imperium”?

Is Firstbourne an unofficial Dragon Matriarch?

Okay what is with Rapton being okay with children dying by falling from a great height? If not for the Matriarch he would have just dropped Sora into the abyss

Lloyd is so cool again, and probably didn’t even need a spark from the Matriarch given how easily he handles the five Claws of Imperium at once

The Ninja standing for hope is a recurring motif in S1P1 – it’s part of E1, E2, E3, and E10 iirc

“If he ever needs us, he will be able to find us” … oh

Why did Ras want Lloyd to bond with the Dragon Matriarch? What did that have to do with hunting Source Dragons?

Crossroads Carnival:

Lloyd copying Wu from the Pilots is funny, but it does imply that after the Monastery was rebuilt, Wu made Lloyd complete the course before he could finish his tea. At that point Lloyd had defeated the embodiment of evil, fought in a war, and defeated and depowered Emperor Garmadon (among other things) yet that wasn’t good enough? Okay knowing Wu yeah probably not

The beard gag. Nuff said

Arin must be in crazy shape to be handling the training course this well

Couldn’t Arin and Sora have just asked Lloyd to go? Like at dinner or something? Training was over for the day

You can see the parts of the carpet ripping off Riyu’s disguise

Just realized that SA Mark 1 = Sora & Arin Mark 1 that’s so cool

Look Lloyd at least Arin and Sora didn’t tie you up and banish themselves to another realm

This is a rare sighting of Sora’s bike helmet with cat ears

“Ninja help everyone” but what if it was Rapton, Arin? Would you help him?

The tent scene is really well done. The music, Lloyd being so overwhelmed, it’s really sweet, especially as an older fan

“DO NOT TYPECAST ME”

Protective parent Lloyd is great

Sora and Lloyd – is dreaming about giant marionettes that normal?

Object spinjitzu!

Lloyd uses the pieces of the mediation carpet to defeat the marionette, so that’s a cool detail

This conversation between Lobbo and Kreel is pure gold. I hope Lobbo finds love <3

Can someone pour salt onto Grab-Barg please?

This is a great one-off episode, and Dorama is easily at his best here. As much as I love the other DR characters, the Arin, Sora, Lloyd trio (+ Riyu) all bounce off each other really well, and this is a light, low stakes episode that includes some important growth for Lloyd 

Beyond Madness:

“Worst student in the history of students” – is there something about being in Ninjago that saps all your self confidence?

There are a lot of Bounty crash scenes, but this might be the funniest: Sora having to use the ladder to see what’s going on, Lloyd and Arin leaving her, the toolbox falling, Lloyd trying to land, “Let us never speak of this”

I love the pool of water on the Bounty. No the water didn’t seep into the wood or spread out on the ground – it’s just perfectly still

Autobiographical one man musical? As a diehard fan of Clutch Powers: A Musical Life, I’m excited to watch The Dorama Drama this winter!

Nya’s water blast knocks Arin to the ground, but Lloyd (far more trained) is fine. It’s a minor detail but cool nonetheless

The Lloyd-Nya reunion is really sweet

“The important thing is to accept others for their flaws and– Why is that foul thing here?” Thanks Crag-Nor very cool

Wait so where did Nya end up after the Merge? What stories are there?

Why do the “Earth Dragons” shoot fire from their mouths?

“Kai’s… gone?” [Cut to Kai] “I’m starving!” okay they got me there that’s actually pretty funny

Arin says Kai was his favorite Ninja, then corrects to saying second favorite – but he’s talking to both Lloyd and Nya! So which one is the favorite?

This battle is fun and the music is great

So Lloyd catches Sora and Kai catches Nya… but no one catches Riyu? He literally just falls to the ground. Riyu villain arc?

Wow Riyu just ended racism. Beautiful

Sora’s last line is a good setup for the next episode

Writers of Destiny:

This episode implies that the only reason Arin learns Spinjitzu without being formally taught is because of the Merge. If so… how?

The Spiderverse-esque glitching effect is super cool

Spinjitzu basically allows for flight here

There’s a running trend of Arin and Sora falling to what should be their deaths. No wonder Wyldfyre is afraid of heights

It’s good to see Kai’s confidence hasn’t gone anywhere. Yes, Kai, I’m sure the monks would love to tell you how awesome you were

The Cloud Kingdom retcon is definitely a net positive for the series, but it doesn’t really square with Kingdom Come. The destinies written in that episode have an immediate effect on the characters. I think the synthesis of the two would be that the Writers are very good at predicting events and even have a slight ability to change outcomes, but mostly they just guess accurately and when they’re wrong, events “defy destiny.” Their ability to change outcomes is gone after the Merge

My heart is breaking right now at this hug

But how can storm clouds wash ink stains out of white togas? Marcus please I wasn’t listening

The way Euphrasia delivers her words when explaining how she can’t have a power (“Writing destiny is our power. Anything else, especially actions, violates who we are”) sounds like she’s repeating what one of the other monks told her. I wonder if she started to tell someone but was shut down

“Euphrasia’s Destiny” is such a good soundtrack

“I released the ninja from the evil worm cocoons in the cloud basement”

“I knew the last one. I already like you more” low bar Lloyd but fair

The worms were cursed to not reveal forbidden information? Wow they really were planning ahead – that’s a very specific word

This episode can very easily be read as a coming out allegory

Kai ribbing Lloyd is great

So was Imperium responsible for the Mergequake? My assumption is no but Rapton implies that it was (or at least was aware it was coming)

This episode is like a mid-mid-season finale – the Ninja fight a miniboss, Sora finishes a small character arc, and the rest of the “season” (up through the S1P1 finale) takes place in Imperium

See you next time for the conclusion of S1P1!

[astroturf-enthusiast]

Here's the Ninjago timeline as I personally think of it;

- The Pilots and first 2 seasons take up roughly 1.5 years (Lloyd's 2020 if you will) mostly to give a semi-realistic measure of training requirements

- Rebooted (s3) starts a year later due to the insane technical development and that they've been teachers for a bit

- ToE (s4) starts 8 months later given they all left to grieve Zane and Jay has an entire game show thats got returning contestents

- Possesion (s5) i think is about 3 months after season 4. Shadow of Ronan takes place during this span so it fits that he stole about 2.5 years from them. Tbh I think that museum visit was the first or second mission Lloyd went on after leaving to grieve Garmadon

- Skybound (S6) technically doesn't matter ayoo!! But I think its another 4 months after S5

- DotD is 7 months after Posession, to make space for Skybound and potential post-skybound happenings

- Hands of Time (S7) is like a week after DotD at most- they're literally cleaning up after it. I also think it takes about a week to play out

From here on out there's a wrinkle in the timeline so things may be soft rebooted or altered

- Sons of Garmadon and Hunted (S8/9) start I think 6-8 months later because the Ninja deserve more time to have been on their own without a mentor- and Ninjago city gets some major changes (royalty?) And Lloyd gets on Testosterone and it goes on i think for 3 months

- March of the Oni (S10) is a few weeks after Hunted ends and only lasts like a few days

- Forbidden Spinjitzu (S11) canonically a few months after MotO so I'm going to say 3-4 since that's reasonable for them to slack off before Wu gets pissy about it. I also think these two parts are actually a rather long time frame- not only because of the 70ish years of Ice Emperor rule- but between searching for Aspheera and beating her, then grieving again and traveling realms and THEN they're there for a long while? All in all I'm going to say start to finish its like 3 months

- Prime Empire (S12) about a month after returning from the Never Realm- they've healed wounds, Kai re-masters fire, and Zane has erased 3 Terabytes of SSD data- all is well

- Master of the Mountain (S13) I think is roughly 2 months after S12 because again there's no real basis for why there's time between but I can't imagine one week your Kirito from SAO and only like a week later your in the Elven lands-

- The Island/Seabound (S14) i think this one is a few weeks after MotM because it starts off as a rather "small scale" job about busting a smuggler and thats what I figure they do in the months between big seasons. It just so happens that expands into a much larger plot.

- Crystalized (S15) 1 full year exactly after Seabound ends. Can't elaborate because this ones actually canon

- Dragons Rising I think the merge is about half a year or so after Crystalized and the jump from Merge to current story I think is 3 years but my girlfriend says 5 years so we'll see if either get confirmed or elaborated on

If you think they're about 18 in the pilots, that'll make them around 23 at Crystalized and between 26/28 during Dragons Rising

[iamsonormalaboutninjago]

What I wish each season dived more into cause I really think Tournament of Elements didn’t do Kai well:

-Pilots: Fine. They’re pilots it’s meant to be a test.

-Rise of the Serpentine: The team training and actually becoming better Ninja, I mean it’s expressed but not shown that well.

-Legacy of the Green Ninja: Lloyd not only training but having deal with the fear of fighting his father and losing his childhood, I mean bros life was flipped all over the place by the prophecy.

-Rebooted: Just Zane. Lloyd took up a lot of the season sadly, I still like it but it doesn’t feel like a Zane season.

-Tournament of Elements: Kai finally letting go fully of not being the green Ninja.

-Possession: The ninja having to fight without their elemental powers for once, relearning a little of their old skills

-Skybound: Honestly it’s already great for Jay, I just wish we got to see more of his fear of losing Nya, the girl he liked who didn’t see him as a junkyard boy.

-Hands of Time: Kai and Nya as brother and sister. Like we don’t see much of their dynamic post S1 after she revealed herself as SamX.

-Sons of Garmadon: Lloyd missing his father, and more with Harumi.

-Hunted: Honestly it’s already great with characters and plot, I just wish we got to see more despair with everyone being separated and believing they’d never see each other again.

-March of the Oni: Just explanations, where did the Oni come from, why did they leave the first realm, why were they corrupting the other realms???

-SotFS Part 1: Just more the actual element of fire, Kai lost it for the entire part so I don’t see how it’s a season focused on the element.

-SotFS Part 2; More showcasing of Zane’s Ice abilities than just him sitting in a chair, I wanna see something like the fight with Asphera in the garage.

-Prime Empire: Just anything on lightning. Each WildBrain season was meant to focus on an element and we got nothing on lightning!

-Master of the Mountain: I really think the Spinjitzu Burst is the only thing I’d wanna see more on. It was already pretty Earth focused.

-The Island: Despite having no main element showcased I think it would’ve been cool to see Wu or Misako being the protagonists. They could easily flesh out the lore of Ninjagos prehistory which is the main theme of the special.

-Seabound: Just Nya and her mom. I know it already had some good character moments but I feel like it gets resolved too quickly.

-Crystalized: I just seriously need an explanation on the crystals. I mean I really like how the Season was a compilation of plot points from earlier seasons like a sendoff to Tommy. But please what are those crystals??? Also more Harumi motivations and why she likes Lloyd, it’s fun connecting the dots but it’s more fun with a canon reason yk.

-Dragons Rising S1: Lloyd’s despair that he definitely faced in the few years since the merge. He deserves a depression cat or two.

[nyaskitten]

"Godfucking dammit men are so hot I love kissing them and grabbing their tiny little waists." - Cole Ninjago, Ninjago Dragons Rising, Season 1 Episode 2, The Merge Part 2, (2023)

[gregorio-loves-art]

AU Lloyd Explained!

1. He was 10 at the start of the series. 16 after his rapid aging (was not caused by a type of tea). 26 by the start of dragons rising.

2. His main weapon is the Staff of Creation ( AU version of the mega weapon) it was found in the temple of light and belonged to the FSM. All of golden weapons channel the user’s existing powers.

3. Has permanent horns and fangs after realizing his true Oni-Dragon form.

4. The mark of the Oni is mark only pure Oni people have. The Omega (shortly before his death) used his power to bestow the mark on Lloyd. He views this as a curse but slowly learns to accept that part of him.

5. He is the elemental master of life (I choose this mainly cuz I like the film’s explanation for what he and his powers represents).

6. The dragon band is bestowed upon ninja who successfully tame and befriend an elemental dragon.

7. He lost his arm to a possessed Garmadon in the AU equivalent of the Oni trilogy. He doesn’t balm his dad, but Garmadon blames himself.

8. Prosthetic was made by Pixel and Cyrus Borg.

9. He chose to also take Montgomery (Misako’s last name) and hyphenate it with Garmadon to honor his mother as well as his father.

10. While no specific ethnicities from our world exist in Ninjago (seeing as it is a completely separate reality), the FSM, Wu, The Oni, and Garmadon are the equivalent to Japanese. Misako is mixed (hence the Japanese first name and French sir name) and takes more after her French side. So long story short, Lloyd is mixed.

11. He is 5’9

12. His dragon, named Juniper, was the guardian of the temple of light.

13. Harumi died in crystalized. She apologized and made right by Lloyd before sacrificing her self. Tho he forgave her, Lloyd would have never gone back to her.

14. He and Akita had found ways to send each other letters before the merge. Now he is looking for her in hopes to reunite.

15. He has a HUGE inferiority complex.

16. Feels like he is solely responsible for protecting Ninjago

17. Pushed his issues inside and pretends they don’t exist.

18. Is afraid of being abandoned.

[localguy2]

I finished DR part 2, and holy hell it was fantastic! Spectacular First season!

...

So now I'm gonna talk about Episode 17 - The Administration: (spoilers)

The Administration is genuinely a work of art in my opinion, this feels like a mix of old ninjago and new ninjago, it manages to overcomplicate so much-

Yet simplify and clear up everything just as fast-

It's such a brilliant mix of both, and this only managed to make the humor in this episode infinitely more enjoyable and funny, I have not had this much fun with a Ninjago episode in such a long time, it's beautiful.

Speaking of which, goodness gracious THEY DID NOT HOLD BACK WITH JOKES, Doc and Kevin went all out with the humor, and THEY KEPT DOUBLING DOWN ON EVERYTHING BY CONSTANTLY MAKING IT ABOUT PERMITS AND LICENSES.

it only makes Zane's comment about The Administration's gross incompetence hit even harder, these guys have overcomplicated their own system so much, it's slowing them down tremendously.

And don't even get me started on Zane himself, he has so many BADASS MOMENTS IN THIS EPISODE, HE'S SO COOL!

(my soon to be new pfp, don't care he's killing it in this scene)

He's pulling a Death Note reference for crying out loud.

And all around, everyone was extremely loveable on this episode, the Administration is extremely stupid but their pure dedication is hilarious and admirable as well.

Lloyd takes a bit of a back seat for some of this episode until like the last third, in favour of Arin and Zane taking over.

And Arin once more proves he's nothing short of an absolute little sweetheart, the kid literally apologises for not sharpening the pens.

(That whole scene with Zane asking why he had pens on him was so funny when I was watching the first time oml).

And I briefly want to touch on the Jay appearance:

Oh my god this fucking idiot literally HAS THE SAME EXACT PERSONALITY EVEN WITH HIS LOST MEMORIES.

If it weren't for Doc and Kevin saying he lost his memories, NO ONE would've known that he has memory loss just from the clip alone, and this scene has an amazing implication:

Regardless of whether he has memories or not, Jay would still act the exact same.

Jay fans, you guys ate good today, and good as in your favourite character having like ~35 seconds of total screentime (out of like, 26,400 seconds).

There's also the Dragon Core, Zane going crazy with his car, Arin asking the agents about his parents, Kai's scene with Wyldfyre and him mentioning how his sister merging with the Sea affacted him in such a deep way (fuck yes IT GOT ACKNOWLEDGE FINALLY), etc

And it's all so fantastic and well rounded, I legit can't get enough of this episode and I'm fairly certain it's my current number #1 favourite episode in all of Ninjago, so congrats The Administration! For being one hell of a banger.