#skylor is genuinely interesting too the writers just

[oblivious-aro]

Some thoughts on each season of my Lego Ninjago watch through so far up to and including season seven and the movie:

Golden Weapon Pilots: They're fine, but not very interesting. There's a few fun moments, but I while watching I genuinely wondered if I was going to continue with the rest of the show.

The role of the only girl in the cast was to be kidnapped and rescued, and to be liked by a character who hasn't even met her yet. That's greeeeeeat. Loooove that.

It's very funny in later seasons when they try to pretend that anyone cared about Samukai. Or knew his name.

Season 1: This season's a good time. The writing's pretty messy, but charming enough to keep me watching.

The Zane-is-a-robot plot twist was everything ten year old me hoped it would be, and Cole's relationship with his dad was an interesting episode.

Lloyd's at his best in this season. I'll talk about it more in the season two part, but Lloyd's character was only really interesting when he was a child.

Some of the best jokes are in this season. "I have butterflies in my stomach" is probably still my favourite joke in the series. Either that or Nya getting bodied by a road sign. Sorry Nya, I love you, but I think I rewound that bit seven times.

Speaking of, Nya you really deserve better writing.

Season 2: The first half's pretty fun. I liked it when the plot was just Garmadon and his pirates figuring out random ways to mess with the ninja. It gives us a fun plot and I enjoy watching how the ninja solve problems, and the villains being their charming selves. The stuff on the dark island get's a bit boring. I don't care about The Overlord.

Dino Garmadon is a true beauty, though.

I like Misako. Can't wait to see what they do with her in later seasons.

Very sad that Nya gets sidelined hard. I think the writers actually forgot about her. Except for the occasional time they couldn't think of a way for the ninja to wrap things up and needed Samurai X to take care of things. Oh, and at the end when they needed someone to be mind controlled and have demeaning remarks slung at them.

You really deserve better Nya.

Aging up Lloyd was a mistake. Everything notable about him stems from the fact that he's a child. Watching him grow as the Ninja teach him was a good time, and having him be so young balanced out his overpoweredness nicely. Now all he's got left is being the super powerful chosen one, which isn't really a personality.

Season 3: Boring. Nothing interesting happens, and the stupid terrible 'love triangle' makes me want to stab my eyeballs out. Once again Nya, you deserve better.

The best part of this season is that it's the shortest.

Season 4: Hooray! Quality!

This one's much funner. Especially in the first half.

Skylor seems cool, but unfortunately they spend the first half of the season keeping her shrouded in 'mystery' so we don't really get to know her. We can't develop her and Kai's relationship, because that would mean revealing information about Skylor before the big plot twist. We also can't go into how she feels about helping her dad because we don't know Chen's her dad until halfway through the season. The conversation with Kai in the roller rink implies that this is the only life she's ever known and she hasn't really questioned it before, but because the reveal of her relation to Chen happens so late and there's so many other things going on, Skylor's arc about breaking away from Chen ends up being very rushed.

That being said I did still cheer internally when she told her dad off. Go Skylar! Tell him where to stick it!

Speaking of Chen, very enjoyable villain. Probably my favourite so far. The oscillation between 'ugh, screw this whiny child' and 'oh yeah, he's powerful enough to kill anyone on a whim and no one can stop him' makes him a perfect blend of intimidation, hatable, and fun. Clouse is a pretty decent second-in-command too. I like how petty he is.

Very good season for Cole. He started the tournament by eating enough cake to make him sluggish and still did better than Kai, then he made friends with Karloff and brought hope back to the factory workers, that was great. Zane's reunion with him made me very happy. Cole just has such a great energy as a character, and that really comes through in this season.

Good Garmadon's not bad. I like watching him cringe about all the bad decisions he made when he was evil-drunk, and he has good insights for the team on Chen and the other contestants. Much better than the weird boring lessons he was giving Lloyd last season.

The letter story line was...not handled great. It's built up to be this big bombshell, but it's really more awkward than anything. Also kind of pointless since Garmadon dies at the end of the season. The whole Misako love triangle is just very awkward, and the Ninjago writers really don't know how to write romance or women, huh?

Also speed's and element, I guess. And poison. 10/10

Why'd they leave the blind guy on the island though? Seems mean.

Season 5: Oh hey, Nya finally gets to be a ninja. Took long enough.

History of terrible writing choices aside, her arc this season was great. You really feel for Nya, watching her figure out her elemental power and how to deal with her perfectionism. I'm glad we got to really dig into one of the Ninja's journey facing their greatest weakness more deeply (I like the true potential episodes, but devoting more time to them probably wouldn't have gone amiss). Watching Nya's take out a giant monster with her freshly unlocked tsunami powers after an entire season of struggling with her powers was just so freaking awesome. Go Nya! Woo! True potential!

The picking a new leader subplot's pretty fun. I like exploring the characters by putting them all in the leader position and seeing how they all react. That's the good stuff, even if Lloyd's position as the leader is debatable (more on that later).

I like how Misako and Wu work together and bounce off each other and have differing ideas on what direction the team should go in. It's more interesting than Wu just being the one with all the answers. Wish they'd give Lloyd and Misako's relationship a bit more development, though.

Cole's ghost transformation is sending me. I like ghosts. They're cool. Ghost Cole makes brain happy.

The episode right after where we watch Cole struggle to adjust to his new form while his friends support him (showcasing how building up your teammates is way more effective than trying to bring them down) is actually the best. The moral is set up really well, and I think that's actually a great lesson for kids. Also d'awwwwww :) fwiends.

And the conversation between Cole and Nya is so sweet. I friendship them so hard. See writers? This is why you should let Nya react with the team more, it's great. Also let the Ninja be nicer to each other. Favourite episode.

Unfortunately for Lloyd, kicking him out of most of this season really worked in it's favour. That's probably not a great thing to say about the main character, but I honestly haven't found Lloyd all that interesting since he aged up. He doesn't really feel like he has a place on the team outside of 'chosen one'. They say they're missing a leader without him, but he's never really led. Usually it's one of the adults (are the ninja teenagers? I can't really tell) giving commands and on the field they all kind of work together and it's never felt like there was an official leader.

Ooh, Jay's vision of the future...oh that does not bode well. I hate that. Ninjago, you were doing so good this season, why are you like this?

I love this season so much. It's got my favourite episode and it's my favourite so far. By a lot. Good luck topping that season six. Bet your theme song won't slap as hard.

Season 6: And coming right off of the high of season five, we have-

"I just want to be given a fair shot."

"Why? To make things easier?"

Misako, wtf?

"Nya made it clear there was no way we'd ever end up together. But I know for a fact from seeing my future that we do. Maybe a wish is what it takes. Maybe this is how she falls for me!"

JAY, WTF?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nya you really deserve better.

The worst part is, unlike season three, this season actually has a lot of intriguing elements. The sky pirate crew is crew charming, Nadakhan's wish manipulation thing is fun to watch, and Jay's storyline is...well...a lot of it is actually really interesting, and this is the first time the show has dug into an individual character so deeply, but the endgame being Jay 'earning' a relationship with Nya for completing his arch leaves a very sour taste on the whole thing.

Speaking of Nya...oh boy. Okay, so I do appreciate the writer's trying to acknowledge their writing mistakes with her in previous seasons, and the lighthouse monologue was pretty cathartic, but maybe try talking to some women before you slap the feminist badge on yourself so proudly, yeah? Also you gotta put your money where your mouth is. You've shown you're aware that Nya never getting a choice is problem, then you destiny-bind her to another character and kill her for his development.

I could complain about this season and Nya's treatment throughout the show for ages. One day I may lose my sanity and try to rewrite a nicer season seven that doesn't completely screw Nya over.

The Ninjago really do not know how to write romance or women.

At least Cole's still a ghost. That's fun.

Day of the Departed: I love the atmosphere. Being in the dark forest and house, surrounded by the monochrome transparent ghosts really emphasizes Cole's feeling of isolation. It just gives off the perfect vibes for a children's Halloween special. It just looks so cold. I can practically feel the wind as Cole punches ghosts on the roof.

I've heard some people say the pacing was rushed and it's bad writing that the ninja defeated villains in one night that took them whole seasons to beat, but I disagree. They're a lot more experienced now, and those villains had whole armies and time to plan.

The only gripes I had were that ending to the Zane and Cryptor fight was weird because Zane...pretends to surrender... and then Cryptor...trips and dies? Also the Lloyd and Pythor fight was pretty underwhelming. It was just very floaty and awkward. I think they forgot that Misako is a skilled fighter too, so she just stands there being frustratingly useless. Other than that the fights were good. Especially Jay's with commentary from his delightful parents, and Nya reversing a rocket back at Chen.

Of course, the special's not really about the fights is it? Cole's fear as his friends start to forget him is incredibly gripping and you're really sold on how desperate he is as he fights through the haunted house.

And when his friends show up and give him the hope when he's about to give up? YESSS! it's such a triumphant moment when he gets his body back that I'm not even sad that my beloved ghost Cole is gone. That ghost story line had a great run, and this was a banger of a conclusion.

Season 7: Not bad, but drags a lot in the first half. I wish I had a nickel for every time a character was cut off before they can say something important. I also wish I had a nickel for every time a character acted like a plot twist was more shocking than it actually was. Or was clearly on stupid pills (Kai forgot his father's blacksmithing symbol? Really?) I was on episode seven when I originally wrote this, but it honestly felt like episode three. None of the other seasons had such a pronounced pacing issue.

While I'm glad they're finally trying to do something with PIXAL, I'm sad that she comes off as a huge jerk because of this season's obsessive mystery mongering. Hey writers, we all know she's Samurai X. You're not building intrigue, you're just dragging things out and making PIXAL be really mean to Nya for no reason.

Crux and Acronix are pretty fun, but there's something off about them. It might be the voice acting, I'm honestly not sure. I do like how they squabble about technology and how intimidating they get when they it's time for business and they put their childish bickering on the shelf.

I like how they've started to do some digging into Wu's psyche and are exploring how years of working alone after losing so many friends has affected him negatively. It's a shame they won't really be able to go further with that next season, since he'll be lost in the time stream.

Also at one point Wu and Lloyd tell everyone to stop having fun and it's terrible. Yeah, why would a kid's show be fun? I hope this isn't an indication of where the future tone of the series is going.

2017 Movie: Oh my gosh, it's hilarious please watch it. Even if you're not a Ninjago fan, it's just so goofy and the characters are so loveable, and they had to stack two body pieces on Garmadon to properly give him four arms.

There's some scenes where the natural character chemistry flows so well, that the jokes just keep coming so naturally one after the other. I found myself rewinding quite often.

I've seen some complaints that the other ninjas didn't get as much focus as Lloyd, but for a standalone movie I think it's fine to mainly focus on one person. Their characters may have been reduced, but everyone feels like they have a place in the team and they all get some great lines. Honestly nobody really feels left out of favouritized.

I love that Wu's kind of a weird jerk. I love how energetic but inexperienced the ninja feel. I love that Nya's on a motorcycle the whole time they're at school, including in the secret locker elevator. I love that Zane's an adrenaline junkie and is trying his very best to fit in as a human. I love that Jay somehow became the best ninja despite being the worst ninja in the show (he's just such an incompetent loser, and he's aware of this fact and has decided that he's just going to try his best anyway, I love him, Kumail Nanjiani is so charming and killing it).

This film does have one major flaw, sadly. I do like Lloyd, but the conflict he has with Garmadon is bad. This guy has caused him nothing but trouble, and he has a lovely mother and a supportive friend group, so why is he so desperate for a relationship with Garmadon? In the show the two of them actually having a decent relationship and the conflict is driven by the tragic fact that Garmadon doesn't want to be doing the evil things he's doing, and Lloyd is hesitant to be fighting against someone who genuinely cares for him and vice versa. Movie Garmadon is just generically evil of his own accord and shows no interest in Lloyd.

Dave Franco is giving quite the performance during the serious bits, but there just isn't a relationship to sell. You know who Lloyd does have an interesting parental relationship to explore with? His mother. And the writers know this too, since Lloyd thanks his mom for being the one who was actually there for him all those years. Why wasn't this the relationship we were focusing on? It's just better in every way (I know the answer).

My problem with this movie is pretty similar with MCU Peter and Aunt May.

Despite the weakness of the main conflict, it's a really charming goofy movie, and I already want to watch it again.

[buttered-milky]

Adding on to the skylor has bad writing thing but this time I’m not even talking about the problems with sexualization it’s just a new post

I thought for like five more seconds about this and I wanna go back to like the absolute dissonance of being told skylor is a teenager and her actual writing

Like if the writers had looked at me and said “she’s 20” I would’ve bought that because generally she’s not that into Kai?? Feels like a shoehorned in very straight love interest per most kids shows. But like this would actually make sense if Kai is younger than her that she’d be genuinely uninterested?? And essentially doing flirty things to get what she wants???

Basically skylor is written more like she’s a functioning adult than a teen struggling to make any decisions and she doesn’t seem to express the levels of emotion you would expect from, say, a 16 year old. I understand that trauma will affect how she acts, but at the end of the day traumatized teens are still teens and still have their teen moments. There’s not even a hint of brazenness or stupid conversation with what are supposed to be her peers.

Which I guess you could argue that’s because she doesn’t trust them but literally if the writers are gonna try to attach her to Kai they can make the fucking effort to make their conversations a bit more believable as “this is a teenager” at least on skylor’s end. You’re telling me she has no investment at all in those after being isolated?? You’re telling me she has no thoughts and opinions and nothing she’s excited about?? Nothing she’s looking forward to?? Like a normal teen??

I don’t blame most of the fandom for assuming she’s much older than she actually is because with the way she’s written it seems like that. It seems like skylor is a solid 20-something trying her best to interact with an actual group of teens who are busy in-fighting and in Kai’s case being generally lovestruck. And she’s doing this because she’s got a decent motivation to convince them she’s trustworthy. It’s not that hard to convince people who are younger than you to look up to and trust you. But the other way around is a lot harder.

I know the timeline is a fucking mess but I think most of the main gang are like, adults or on the verge of adulthood by that point. My point being that Kai would be like 17/18 maybe?? It’d make sense for him to follow skylor’s lead especially if she’s a bit older than him. The other way around just seems?? No??? Idk in my experience 18 year olds don’t typically try to befriend 16 year olds because there is actually a maturity gap there and it’s a little weird.