#ray jiang smith

[crossroads-of-the-raven]

Kai, Nya and their Parents - The Difference between knowing and not knowing what you're missing - and the sacrifices made by a caring brother

The day Nya was brought home - the day Kai met Nya face to face for the first time; Kai is two (Hands of Time, episode 3, A Time of Traitors)

Three years later

Ray and Maya are kidnapped, thus forcing Kai to take on the responsibility of becoming a five year old Dad aka the death of Kai's babyhood and childhood so as to preserve Nya's babyhood and childhood (Hands of Time, episode 8, Pause and Effect)

Thirteen years later

Kai and Nya are reunited with their parents (Hands of Time, Episode 8, Pause and Effect)

Three years later (vid from Seabound, episode 2, The Call of the Deep)

Though Kai had pointed out that Nya and Maya did not get along (due to Nya's independence from having grown up without her parents); at Master Wu's insistence, Kai calls in his mother to help Nya with her power problem.

Nya, however, dislikes Maya's mothering (what she considers babying).

When Wu suggests that Nya should discuss her issues with Kai, Nya insists with scorn that Kai likely enjoys being waited on and loves to be treated like a baby.

(Note how Nya goes from the probability statement of "probably, likes, being waited on" to the presumption in her absolute statement of "I bet he loves being treated like a baby" -- Nya, please tell me if this is your thoughts on your brother who raised you and gave up everything for you then when has he ever previously behaved in such a way that would suggest your statements to be true.)

The difference here is that Kai remembers what it was like to have someone taking care of him only to have it ripped away - to go from being the baby boy to suddenly having to be the adult for his sister.

Nya, though, doesn't really remember what it was like to be cared for by her parents; but, she remembers what it was like to be cared for (by her brother).

Kai is, in a way, reveling in the joy of being able to play games with his father, eat food cooked by his mother, and learn once more from his parents.

All things he hoped for but never once thought he'd ever have again.

While growing up, Nya was likely allowed to play games, eat homemade food that she didn't have to cook, and learn from Kai the lessons that he remembers their parents teaching them.

Kai on the other hand, had to get straight to work, schedule time in a busy day to cook so that Nya could eat, and be the one to teach trusted lessons from his parents (while likely having to weed out good advice from bad, given to him by whichever random adult decided to give it to him).

Kai's sacrifices for Nya can even be seen in the clothes they wear in the pilot.

When we first see Nya it looks like she's dressed in silk clothes which we know didn't come from Maya's closet since she generally dresses in blue.

Kai on the other hand is introduced in his blacksmithing clothes and goes to train with Wu, in his blacksmithing clothes, which may indicate a limited closet - he may even be wearing his Father's clothes as a way to save money.

But, you might say, he has different clothes in the episode, The Royal Blacksmiths.

Yes, he does have different clothes, but these clothes, like his and the Ninja's matching pajamas (color coded but with the same golden dragon on the chest pocket) are likely the result of Kai now being able to lean on Wu, financially.

Note that Kai's clothes are the only ones that indicate his elemental power - the others likely already had these clothes on hand before they met Wu (except maybe Zane - IDK).

Another way Kai's sacrifices and generosity torwards his sister can be shown is by comparing the first pilot episode to the Season 2 episode 6, Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

In this episode it is shown that, were it not for Nya getting kidnapped by Garmadon, Kai would never had cared about becoming a ninja.

It was only the knowledge that becoming a ninja was the only way to save Nya that motivated Kai to become a ninja.

Yet in a timeline where Nya was never kidnapped, all Kai cared about was getting the blacksmith shop back on its feet after the Skulkin attack.

So how did Wu convince Kai to come to the Monastery, the answer, he didn't - Nya did.

Wu unintentionally convinced Nya to become a ninja and since Kai wasn't just going to let her go off on her own (this is his fourteen year old little sister who he raised after all) Kai went with her so they could become Ninja.

Kai gave up what he wanted in favor of what Nya wanted.

~~~~~

Kai's sacrifices, his giving nature, and everything he does for Nya is almost practically an automatic habit, because he and Nya lost their parents at a young age thus forcing Kai to give up being a child to be Nya's caretaker.

And yet throughout the series whenever the siblings bring up their parents, it becomes clear that Kai made sure that Nya never forgot them and that they were remembered well, that they were missed and not forgotten.

I really like Nya; and while Seabound is a great season it also points out that Nya may just be truly unaware of how much Kai sacrificed for her to the point where she doesn't understand exactly why Kai likes having their parents around; among other details that she and others misunderstand about Kai.

Believe me, I like the idea that Nya knows and helps her brother out where she can, and she definitely loves him, but it seems like Seabound has shown her to be unaware of Kai's trials and tribulations in raising her and keeping them both from landing in the grave of the fireflies.

[geoxstxrs]

NINJAGO HC’S PT 4 : ELEMENTAL MASTERS

[alien-of-earth]

Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate! My gift to you all is………

More of these silly ninjago textposts! Enjoy and happy holidays!

[kindaasrikal]

Kai except when/if he returns from the nether realm (which is probably soon if I’m being honest) he breaks down like a lil baby after he reads and listens to the voice notes and messages EVERYONE left for him. Full on sobbing as he listens to Wyldfire trying to find her place and move on whilst also feeling so insecure.

Five tissue boxes, gone after hearing Lloyd talk about how unsure and scared he rlly feels and how he honestly has no idea what he’s doing.

Rocking back and forth as he reads Cole’s texts about his life and how everything is going, as well as his insecurities and how down he feels sometimes with everything having changed.

He’s full on koala-hugging Zane as he listens to the detailed texts that have misspellings about everything he’s been bottling up and how much he just misses so many people.

WATERFALLS are what his eyes are as he listens to Nya’s strong but almost broken voice talk about how lost she feels and the pain she’s experiencing with Jay and him gone.

Big old baby eyes that are watery as he reads texts from Arin and Sora talking about their struggles and insecurities as well as updates on everything going on.

He sits late at night, texting Wu and Jay’s old numbers, sending voice notes to Skylor, Ray, and Maya, about his life and everything that he’s suffered through so far. He tells them stories, updates, and how much he misses all five of them. He sends Pixal’s number photos of them and Zane, giving her small notes of what’s going on.

Before all that though, the ninja all realise Kai is about to read and listen to everything they’ve sent him and they all collectively jump him and run like their lives depend on it with his phone. They refuse to have that loser find out how big of losers they were with him gone.

[p4r4no1danarchist]

I think the first person to calm Wu dad was Nya. And in my full opinion, Wu and Garmadon are both father figures to the smith siblings, Nya was closer with Wu, and Kai was closer to Garmadon.

Kai is closer to Garmadon for one sole reason; Garmadon knew how to talk Kai down from his rage better and was the first to get Kai to consider spending more time on ways of rerouting his anger.

Wu and Nya on the other hand accidently enable eachother but also help eachother. They both over work themselves while trying to help the other and it they just tire eachother out.

When Ray and Maya came around Ray only felt slight jealousy towards the spinjitzu brothers until he actually took a step back and noticed facts about his kids he didn't before, and tried to use that to create a closer bond with his kids.

Maya on the other hand butted heads with Wu and Misako alot because they seemed to over ride her authority on anything she did with her kids... To be fair, Nya took awhile to warm up to her, and the spinjitzu brothers + Misako saw how much she spoiled Kai and paid attention to him and wanted to keep it from affecting Kai as a ninja.

(I have nothing even against Maya, I just saw her in seabound and she gave me weird boy mom energy during the beginning of seabound.)

[penofwildfire]

Honestly in the same vein as Wu and Cole we need to talk about Wu and Kai. Ray was his best friend. They went on adventures together. They fought in a war together. Wu and everyone else thought Ray and Maya were dead but Wu never went to Kai and Nya until he had to because RAY EXPLICITLY TOLD HIM TO STAY AWAY. Y'ALL EVER THINK ABOUT THAT. THEY WERE BEST FRIENDS AND CARED ABOUT EACHOTHER DEEPLY BUT WHEN RAY HAD A FAMILY HE PUSHED HIS BEST FRIEND AWAY BECAUSE HE KNEW THAT WHEREVER WU WENT, DANGER WOULD FOLLOW. FUCK. I'M NOT OKAY.

[destinygoldenstar]

What is it with the fire elementals and them being able to bond with dragons so well?

We got Wyldfyre, who was raised by one.

We got Ray, who has a dragon brooch on his design.

We got Kai, who was not only told stories about them, is always the first one to bond with a dragon of the team, but also raised someone who is part dragon.

Yeah I'm seeing a pattern here regarding Fire Elementals and their bonds with dragons being this prominent. I wonder if there's some lore reason behind that or if that's just a coincidence.

[the-ninjago-girl]

So yall remember the fan scenario of kai calling their family by the wrong last name?(as a way to give them a different one, Jiang) I always thought it was funny, but ya know whats funnier? If it wasn't wrong and that RAY was the one behind the last name smith

So In s6 kai was sent to the past and saw his dad trying to sell weapons, now idk if they ever talked or gave us a legitimate story as to why, but Ray was by himself. Possibly he had bad relationships with his parents bc he wanted to take the path of a blacksmith instead of whatever. So here's my hc for the name smith:

Due to ray having a bad relationship with his parents, possibly bc he wanted to become a blacksmith, decided to change his last name so as to remove himself from a family that was unsupportive of his dreams, decided to leave and change his last name to cut off and last ties to them. And chose 'smith' bc he wanted to work as a blacksmith/in a smithy. It does make sense since back then people used to be named after their profession/occupation. And for ray, in his village it was likely still very normal to do so, so he chose 'smith' as his new last name

[itsaboutbee]

I like to think first time Ray discovered his powers was bc someone said smth mean to Wu and he set them on fire

[l1-b1]

Maya and Ray when they were Nya and Kai’s age!

And of course

I can’t leave this here without including a Maya and Nya comparison

Nya takes after from both Maya and Ray but Maya and Nya’s relationship is so precious to me so yeah

Nya’s hair comes from her mom! A part of why she let it grow that long after The merge, was that she started to see her Mother in herself. But this time with a sort of pride but also a feeling of familiarity. She felt a feeling of comfort, knowing that a part of her mondays always with her. I think that’s also why she embraced the blue colour in her outfits as much as she did in her DR suit. The blue represents Nya first and foremost, and then the water ninja, but it also represents the previous water master, her mother. She also started taking care of her curls more as that was what her mother did. Maya took care of her own hair well and focused on preserving her wavy pattern. So for Nya, her hair is a hige part of her identity. Maya didn’t have curly hair, Nya did. But she takes care of it with all the love that her mother did. Her hair also differentiates her from her mother. They are different, but similar. Different but with the same love. She is her mother’s daughter

[crossroads-of-the-raven]

Rewatching Past Ninjago Episodes - Tournament of Elements, episode 6, Spellbound: Something to think about concerning the Serpentine War

Pretty sure this is the Master of Earth (and Lily's father) who just turned traitor.

This means that Cole's grandfather fought alongside Kai and Nya's parents before siding with the Serpentine (due to Chen's trickery).

(The above gif and picture are taken from Season 7, Hands of Time, episode 2, The Hatching)

Still, at least he returned to the Elemental Alliance as this picture takes place at the end of the Serpentine War.

(Also, if Cole's grandfather fought alongside Kai and Nya's parents then I wonder if that gives credibility to the idea that Kai is older than Cole - IDK)

~~~~~

Next thing to note from Spellbound:

These two gifs are of Maya and Ray (the parents of Kai and Nya), locking away the Venomari and Anacondri Tribes, respectively - including the fact that Pythor (last of the Anacondri to be locked away by Ray) presumably fought in the Serpentine War.

Kind of puts these two moments from Season 1 (the first from episode 5, Can of Worms - the second from episode 4, Never Trust a Snake) into a sort of perspective.

Imagine what could have been for these two moments had the writers known at the time that they would get more seasons.

[alastair-1205]

Thinking about how the person Kai was in season 7 is just a little bit different than the person we see by season 8. Thinking about how it kinda feels like (to me) that he's finally calmed down a little bit. That the 'hotheadedness' that led him around by the hear for most of the series seems to have finally let up a little bit and let him breathe.

Thinking about how it seems like finding his parents and finally being able to make peace with that past part of his life did him a lot of good. It didn't completely change him as a person becasue that's just who he is, but something that had been hurting finally healed enough that he feels less like its something he has to be defined by (like how that was probably a lot of what motivated him to want to be the green ninja originally). How, despite his initial reservations (trying to stab his dad) he's the one who ended up being able to be on good terms with his and Nya's parents again.

I just have a lot of thoughts about the Smith/Jiang/Jiang-Smith family

[aureallegories]

I keep forgetting to post this but my favorite headcanon is that Nya's name was actually Nyad but when Kai was little he couldn't say it right and despite Maya and Ray trying to correct him he didn't quite get there before they were taken so "Nyad" grew up as Nya which makes Maya and Ray confused af when they get reunited but they just go with it

[kindaasrikal]

The ninjago writers thought they were sooo smart when they made Nya forget her memories when she merged with the ocean/silly

“Water hold memories” MAN

Because Nya merging with the ocean, her element, and completely forgetting everything that made her her hurts more when you realise how important being true to herself was to Nya. How hard she worked to reach the point she did only to lose all those memories and leave, to sacrifice it all for the ones she loved.

And, something i love thinking about for the ninja, she proved just how much she is like her element despite being merged with it already by listening to her instincts to protect (which was formed from her memories), becoming curious and asking questions as she showed bits of her personality (also formed from her memories over the years, and her curiosity leading her to becoming as great as she is) and then remembering it all through her inability to forget.

Because Nya would never truly let her self forget the ones she would die for, she never could.

And she clings to those memories in fear of losing it, even though she proved that water does carry memory. That she would always carry her own and make sure everyone remembers her. Funny how they did exactly that by never forgetting Nya, no one in the whole damn city forgot my girl.

You could also link it back to how she is now the only person who remembers Nadakhan, and everything that happened during that time. You could also link it back to how Nya had no memories of her parents, leaving her unable to bond with them like how Kai could, so she had to form new memories of a forgotten past during that season. You could also link to how all of Kai’s childhood memories are linked to Nya or has her in it.

Nya and the concept of memories i will cling to you

[p4r4no1danarchist]

In honor of fathers day, here's what each of the ninja do on Father's Day.

Kai:

Kai decides awhile ago that he'd celebrate all the father figures in his life, namely Wu and Ray but also sensei Garmadon when he was still alive. He'd spend the day cooking up a nice family meal and getting them gifts. He'd really just turn this into a nice day where they all are treated nicely since none of them know when Wu or Rays birthdays are.

Nya:

She is similar to Kai but also focuses on making sure to have a nice conversation with both and just checking up on them mentally and emotionally. She helps Kai cook up the family meal but isn't allowed to help with making drinks. (Wu is still betrayed because Nya makes iced tea and coffee.)

Jay:

He heads out to visit Ed the night before father's day to have a nice home cooked meal with his family and then spends the nice day at the junkyard with Ed and Edna building random things and just bonding with his father.

Cole:

Much like Jay, he heads out the night before to see Lou and takes him out to a restaurant they both loved to eat at while Lily was alive. Then they'd head back home and listen to music together, not talking a whole lot but just being in each other's presence to celebrate the day calmly. The day of they go out to see a theater performance and go to a ballet show.

Zane:

He goes out to see the statue of doctor Julien and lights a candle, leaving a few flowers and sitting there during the early morning just as sun rise hits. Just talking to the statue about his life and how it's going before heading home and also celebrating father's day with Wu and Borg as well. Wanting to celebrate the father he lost but also the ones he had gained along the way.

Lloyd:

One of by far the toughest days out of the year for Lloyd emotionally, he goes to see sensei Garmadon's statue in the corridor of elders with Misako and leaves out dried tea leaves for him. Silently staying there with Misako for awhile to morn the man he lost and the man that was later ripped away from him permanently when Harumi brought him back. Back when sensei Garmadon was still alive, they used to spend time together and even go on a hike on Garmadon's mountain of choice as a family and they'd have a picnic there.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for dr! If you haven't watched dragons rising yet and don't want to be spoiled, don't read please.

Arin:

After the merge, Arin spent nearly every father's/mother's day in morning the loss of his parents until he got taken in by Lloyd, who then started to become like a father figure to Arin. That's when he finally started to get better and spent father's day with Ryu, Lloyd, and Sora, together enjoying the small family they made together.

Sora:

Growing up, she was taught that every day was a day to look up to and treat your parents like how you'd treat a king of queen. So once she got out, she hated the very idea of fathers or mothers day until Lloyd started to behave like a genuine father figure, showing Sora that in his eyes, the day is more about the family they made along the way and he's more than happy to skip the day if it'd make Sora more comfortable. So the year after they first meet, when father's day rolls around again, she and Arin work together to make the day nice for Lloyd: showing their appreciation for all he's done for them.

[penofwildfire]

Ray is a fucking dumbass and I need us to talk about him more. I love him.

(more from Kai: Ninja of Fire)