#zane post s11

[mistereerie]

One thing I really like thinking about is post s11 Zane looking older. Realistically, he's a nindroid so he can't look older, but he somehow does. He stands like an old man, with rougher expressions than he had before. Before he had incredible posture, now he couldn't care less. I have an image of him in my head where he sits with his elbow resting on his knee as if he's going to tell a story. He has an air of authority that wasn't really present before.

You can also bet post s11 Zane has back problems. You can't sit frozen to a chair for ~50 years without some horrific consequences.

[zanepilled]

you know you're better than this

[spinchip]

“…I will say, it was pretty fucked up.”

“YOU CAN SAY FUCK?”

[al-luviec]

still haven't moved on from zane in this episode (aka I hit tag limit again and am unhappy about it)

[s11-defender]

"And All That Could Have Been" by Nine Inch Nails is a very post s11 Zane song and you can't tell me otherwise

[alizibtheterrible]

HEIGHT CHART HEIGHT CHAAAAAARRTTTT

I love the S11 designs simply because they’re all distinct

I was initially going to wait until I finished the pre-designs as well but I am impatient sooOooooooo, also going to do individual refs for each of the ninja because my brain needs a guide to follow

Height stuff (and individual pics) under the cut

Jay - 5’6

Kai (minus the hair) - 5’8

Lloyd - 5’8.5 (Idk just a lil taller than Kai. Personally I think it’s the Dragoni genes that progressively make him taller. I think post-merge he becomes taller than Nya.)

Nya - 5’9

Cole - 6’2

Wu - 6’3 (Minus the hat and horns)

Pixal - 6’4

Zane - 6’5

I’m gonna go pass away now

[asooffa]

how did you come up with your designs for the ninja? they're some of the coolest ive seen in this fandom!

LONG POST INCOMING‼️‼️‼️

thanks for liking my designs!! honestly it took me a solid bit to make them look like the vision in my head and are NOT professional by any means,, but such is life

im putting more individual notes and explanations under the cut because i like yapping 👇

GENERALLY SPEAKING i wanted my ninja designs to feel slightly more traditional than they tend to lean in canon (s11 gis were my main point of reference). so most of my inspo draws from different culturally historical garmets and patterns. obviously i break a few rules and mash some things together.. but i wanted all of their silhouettes to be consistent as a team with room for individuality. the sashes, symbols and uniform shape were the most important for me to have across all ninja. i also wanted half the ninja to use gold and half to use silver as their accent metal. it feels less repetitive that way but is subtle enough to not make it the main focus? (if that makes sense) jay and lloyd also use more browns/leather than their respective metals for that added variation.

ok now i can talk about each ninja on their own

kai - POINTY. he has to be pointy but in a charismatic way and not a scary way. lots of gold accents to make it flashy without having to introduce a whole other color. short sleeves because he probably needs the breathability, same for his pants being a different material. i hc him and nya as thai so that's where i drew the siamese warrior influences from. also it incorporates more metal and he's a blacksmith

nya - her design reflects more in her samurai x days with SOME of the same influences as kai, and is a lot more symmetrical compared to the others because of that. so she gets samurai styled armor and surcoat. i absolutely MISS when they used red as an accent color for her so i kept that. her shape is more hourglass only because of how broad her clothes make her shoulders. kept her sleeves loose because i feel like that reflects flowing water better??? idk it looked good lmao

lloyd - he's THE mascot ninja so obv he has to have the most traditional shinobi silhouette. but i wanted to reflect on his half dragon and half oni situation by giving him a ton of asymmetry? so his shirt is color blocked to be a light and dark green, one sleeve is longer than the other, and i like the hc of him having a messed up arm 💀. idk what specifically but something about him gives the smallest bit of high fantasy too because that fits together in my head.

cole - im very biased when it comes to him so oops.. he's also got a lot of asymmetry going on but i tried to balance it out by placing the details on different levels, mostly using a mix of traditional seasian patterns. the beads are a must. i love the beads they've stayed on him since 2021. no sleeves and open chest because we need to be able to see his earth punch/spinjitzu burst ability and i do NOT wanna try and draw that on fabric. even with the *lack* of fabric, i still kept the fit of his clothes baggy so he can move around comfortably. big guy needs big clothes

jay - ok i hate this guy (im kidding). but because of his upbringing in a junkyard I wanted to kind of give off that same mismatched energy in his clothes. pure loser core. that's where you get details like the pins, the bandana, the stupid shorts over his pants, etc. he's clashing modernity with tradition in a way that still keeps his design harmonized with the whole team. he has to look a bit all over the place or else he doesn't look like himself imo.

zane - inspo came from tang dynasty armor mixed with traditional japanese shapes.. idk it seemed to have the same sort of power in elegance i associate with him and how he fights. his clothes are the longest and most modest out of all of the team, mostly to accentuate his height. still, its practical enough to protect him and hes still able to move with little restrictions because of the loose fit. he also gets purple as an accent color!! because cool tones.

in conclusion it was mostly **very shallow** research and trying to get in the mindset of what they would put out of preference and function,,, maybe i blacked out during the whole thing,, who knows,,,,

[askthatoneanacondraikaiguy]

I now have the mental image that, post-S11, Zane (who's now permanently 20-30 degrees colder than he was before the Never Realm) touches Kai's shoulder to get his attention and almost makes the Anacondrai pass out from the sudden cold shock.

(Zane is very apologetic to Kai after he recovers.)

Zane's apologetic for a lot of things after the Never Realm.

[destinysbounty]

Most post-s11 fics like to take the approach of Zane blaming himself, and the road to healing requires him to accept that it wasn't his fault. But what if we put a twist on that? What if Zane knows it wasn't his fault, but instead of being relieved by that knowledge he is instead burdened by it?

The fact of the matter is, Zane was nothing more than a weapon. Between his amnesia, the corruption of the staff, and Vex's manipulations, Zane didn't have full autonomy. If we really analyze the Ice Emperor's actions, he seemed very much like a quiet and complacent soldier waiting for Vex to come and tell him what to do. He obeyed Vex's every command (albeit veiled as "recommendations" as they were). The first time we ever see Zane go against Vex or even make a decision outside of Vex's authority is when Lloyd first appears and causes him to start questioning things.

If you think about it, the combined efforts of Vex and the Scroll deprived him of any real, authentic free will. He was nothing more than a lifeless machine carrying out orders.

And what, pray tell, is his greatest fear?

So maybe Zane does know, on some level, that it wasn't his fault. He knows he wasn't in his right mind, that he was nothing more than a puppet - a weapon wielded in the pursuit of Vex's ambitions. But still he clings to the tiniest scraps of guilt he can possibly conceive of, because even if he's a war criminal at least it means he has some shred of humanity. Because he'd rather be a monster than just a machine.

Lloyd isn't afraid of him when they come back to Ninjago. Isn't upset at him. This isn't Lloyd's first time fighting the corrupted version of a friend, and as depressing as it is this just kinda feels like the norm for him. Hell, Lloyd has personal experience having his free will taken from him by malevolent forces beyond his control.

The ninja don't blame him. Nobody blames him. Even when the Ice Emperor incident hits the news, most of the public is on his side - they all rally to his defense: he was being controlled, he was being corrupted, he was being manipulated and abused!

And while plenty of the people in the Never Realm do blame him, plenty others don't either. Vex is soon identified as the real villain, and everyone rallies against him as the subject of their ire.

In another world, this might have been a good thing. Zane might have been happy, even, to get off so impossibly free of consequence. But every time someone says "it's not your fault" is just a reminder of the fact that they're right. It's a reminder that once again his memories, his agency, and his personhood were ripped away from him, turning him into the very thing he feared most.

He blames himself because he has to. Because if he doesn't, then that means admitting that he had no choice in the matter. It means admitting that he had been nothing more than a machine.

It's not his fault, but he wishes it was. Because at least then he'd still have some agency. At least then he wouldn't feel so violated.

[localguy2]

General analysis of DR Zane, S1 and S2 included (spoilers):

Man... Is this one a doozy...

Okay okay so, what I wanna touch on first and foremost is Zane's humanity, or his perception of his own humanity, because uhhh...

Folks the implications are NOT GOOD in the SLIGHTEST in regards to his Mental State and thinking process.

Something we've seen repeatedly throughout DR is that the merged realms and it's people in general don't view Zane as human, they don't see him as a person but more so a machine, or equipment.

We saw this first in S1E13 'Wyldly Inappropriate' we get introduced to "Zane Day", a day dedicated entirely to Celebrating Zane and who he is, and it sounds really sweet and it is- but...

It's celebrated in the worst possible way ever.

Zane is treated like a robot, like striaght up robot, when people speaks its all in an attempt to mimic a robotic voice, and sometimes people end up saying stuff that's really offensive to him (Zane look alike contest).

Heck, even other Nindroids are in on it.

This sorta paints a sad picture in regards to Zane, because it implies that the city (or maybe entirety of the Merged Realms) see Zane as just a robot ninja with cool powers, nothing more, nothing less.

And we see this a second time in S2E7 'Fugitives from Madness' and S2E8 'Secrets of the Wyldness', in which Zane and Cole fight off The Administration, and yet again we see how Zane's Humanity is absolutely disregard, heck it's even violated in this scenario, they don't even acknowledge him as a person, The Administration straight up calls him "Equipment".

Equipment that's to be destroyed when taken, and that's despite Zane proving himself to be an actual being multiple times to the agents.

So, what am I getting at here?

Well, in simple terms, The World of Ninjago Post-Merge doesn't really acknowledge Zane's humanity or his personhood, of course, the average everyday civilian to a lot less extent then say, an entire organisation, but the wholehearted confidence the Agents of the Administration say that Zane is an object calls into question whether it's their actual personal beliefs, or protocols set by the Administratior.

And... You know what's the absolute worst part?

Zane doesn't even TRY to defend himself.

Striaght up, he neither tries to explain what Nindroids are to people during Zane day, and just goes along with the flow.

And when fighting The Administration, he even OFFERS himself to them in exchange to let Cole and Bonzel get away, granted you could say it was part of his plan to buy him and the others more time, but his continued insistence on trying to find a compromise with The Agents sorta hammers home his whole hearted belief that he's:

A) Expendable.

B) Not a person, but a machine/"equipment".

Now, this might be over analysis on my end, but I would also like to point out the scene where he plugs himself into The Administration mech and tries to decode/hack their netrowk and systems.

In that scene, his mech gets stabbed in the back with a massive sword from one of The Agents, and instead of immediately getting the fuck out, he stays Plugged in and KEEPS trying to hack their stuff, all in the hope that he can finish it in time before he gets fried alive.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen, his circuits get fried completely and he passes out.

But, it again (directly or indirectly) hammers in points A and B, Expendable, and Nothing more then a machine.

(I would like to add as well, his this parallels nicely with PIXAL in S11 during 'Kiaju Protocol', their stubbornness, and something I've neglected to mention about Zane which EVERYONE knows, is his Self-Sacrificial and Nobel tendencies).

And you don't even have to make that many assumptions for all of this to be considered true, just look at what he says...

In S2E5 'The Spell at the Waterfall', Zane finds a plush made for him by Frohickey, of Frohickey himself.

When Zane asks why Frohickey made him this plush, Frohickey says that he made it so if Zane had any issue to take up with him, he could talk to the Plush instead (reminiscent of his PIXAL-Brush coping mechanism in S1).

And Zane... Well he striaght up lies, he says and I quote:

"I do not expiernce heightened emotions."

Which, yeah, okay buddy, sure...

Just ignore the time you shut off your emotions... Sure

But anyway, this is really really unusual for Zane to say, he might not be good at emotions, but he'd never ever deny the fact that he feels all of them.

Well... Unless he fully believes he's just a machine.

See what I'm getting at here?

If he doesn't believe he's more then machine, then he sure as hell will make wrong assumptions and judgements on his own personhood and emotions, and... Why shouldn't he?

Everything and Everyone in the merged realms sees as him as nothing more than that, regardless of previous experiences and events that have impacted him personally.

It's wrong, really REALLY wrong, but in his mind, probably not so much.

So, what do I think they writers are doing this?

I think personally, this is all subtle and slow build up to give Zane an eventual arc, perhaps in Part 2 of Season 2, or in Season 3 even.

Because, even Doc himself recognised that Zane's character has become very stale and boring during the last few seasons, and given how pretty much EVERY CHARACTER in the show has gotten something to do that involves their character, it'd be particularly odd to leave Zane out (well unless they don't know how to write him).

And it's why they're deliberately making Zane go and say these things, it's subtle, but when it's time to give him his own time to shine, it'll make a lot more sense.

This could also related to the egg/pod thing he woke up in under Imperium, because Doc also said that it's a matter for later seasons.

But it remains to be seen if the future planned Zane arc/story is connected to the egg he was in, we'll just have to wait and see really...

[spinjitsuburst]

okay but where are the fics centered around Jay helping Zane post s11 because Zane’s instinctively fighting so ruthlessly and Jay had to relearn how to not fight dirty to survive after s6

[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 Partner 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

[a-big-chicken-nerd]

(APRIL FOOLS DAY)

literally the only thing season 11 is good for is the angsty zane fics u can write about it.......

i need to write a post s11 zane fic where he for no particular reason reverts to being the ice emperor and freezes his whole room with corrupted ice and then [insert character you ship zane with] has to go talk to him like hes a stupid wild animal until he turns back to normal and then has a mebtal breakdown and start angsting about how sad and lonely and miserable he was in the never realm (this is a rewrite au where vex doesnt exist because vex sucks and has zero potential to be an interesting character) and then [character] says "its ok none of it was your fault it was just the scroll of forbidden spinjitzu doing all that evil stuff" and then they stqrt kissing because there is nothing interesting about season 11 except using it as a tool for shipping scenarios

[spinchip]

Lots of thoughts that all sort of culminate into the idea that because of his time at Darkleys, Lloyd has been desensitized to a lot of stuff, and as such is one of the only ones who doesn't freak out on Zane after his morals degrade post s11. Sure, when Zane casually goes to kill one of the mechanics henchmen in ninja custody Lloyd immediately jumps in because no, we don't usually murder. But when the ninja are discussing battle plans for their newest villain and Zane suggests a brutal leave-no-survivors attack, the other ninja clutch their pearls while Lloyd just goes "we'll make that plan C"

[lisascorner]

omg omg omg another hc post?!?!?! in 2 days?!?!?! that's crazy

anyways here's the ninja and what tech they have!

nya

okay i think her battlestation would be like. slightly above average, but she most definitely uses linux since she's too annoyed by the mac price point and windows just didn't do it for her. BUT she has an iphone 13 in blue, duh

i don't think she'd have an ipad honestly...i feel like she just draws all her blueprints for the stuff she makes on paper then scans it because she likes the feeling on paper or sumn...

she probably only has wired earphones and trusts only wired earphones.

jay

jay has like three laptops all for different things and an ipad and a samsung tablet. no way he doesn't have allat to play games on their respective platforms frfr... (e.g. pjsk is region-locked and the japan and global versions of the game have some slight differences, so some people have to log out of their apple ids and change it to a jp one so that they can play the jp version. it was tedious, so jay just got 2 ipads.)

his iphone would be like the midnight blue 13 pro max or something. he'd probably have one of those stupid gaming phones too (he bought one off the market, found that it didn't run properly, and just made another one that actually worked himself. LMAO)

specifically has the apple wired earphones and airpods. i don't really think he's a headphone guy.

lloyd

the green ninja unfortunately does not have the option to buy a green macbook, so he settled with a space grey 13 inch air with the M1 chip and bought a green skin for it. 💀 fortunately, he could buy his phone in HIS green with the iphone 13 pro max once again!

he's not an ipad kid. he doesn't have one, and he doesn't need one. he might have a borgwatch though.

lloyd however IS a headphone boy and he wears sony XM4s like the elite he is. augh.

kai

latest iphone, latest mac, latest ipad, that has red options. nothing else needs to be said for this social media DIVA ❤️‍🔥

airpod pros for this boy. he has red headphones from beats by dre but uses it purely for aesthetic.

cole

the bare minimum. HOWEVER, his phone would be a galaxy S23 bc i said so. and he has nothing earbuds! don't be fooled by the non-apple name those are the same price as a base airpod model i think. yeah but cole mainly uses his phone to browse and listen to stuff, so he's alright. 🙏

zane

i don't really think i need to explain this

arin

he probably has one of those limited edition ninja x xiaomi collabs where there's a subtle design of lloyd's gi (like the armoured robes from s11) or something like that. this guy is too big a fanboy to not have purchased every single thing the ninja were remotely associated with.

he wears bose quietcomfort 45 headphones. HE'S JUST LIKE ME FR

sora

also kind of enough said?? iphone 10,000 or something. or at imperium's rate of technology advancement there won't even be phones anymore. but strictly speaking if we were to talk real world terms she'd probably have an oppo or a vivo (trust me some of these brands from china are ridiculously good and RIDICULOUSLY CHEAP so yeah)

wyldfyre

she would much rather lay in the grass and smell the air than look at a screen. but, in case of emergencies, she has a nokia indestructible.

riyu

he's the ipad kid. he's the one with the 2 terrabyte ipad pro 13 inch 2020 that stores all his shows or something.

OKAY THAT WILL BE ALL! thank you for your kind attention and i shall shrink back into my corner of the internet now

[fiberturkey89]

So I have no idea why this came to mind, but this is what I had in mind if I wanted to tackle Zane post s11 and during s12 if I rewrote Prime Empire- my AU n shit ig?? Dunno, im rambling.

Imagine a Zane post Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu where he was struggling to really figure out his identity after his time spent as the Ice Emporer.. before the events of Prime Empire and during..

It begins with him being unable to sleep; of him being hyper aware of how the temperature drops slightly below the normal and the sun departs to allow the moon to take its place above Ninjago with its pale blue/white light. He gets flashbacks to the blizzards every time he sees a night cloud cover the orb of light.

His breathing quickens, and he feels alone again. Even with his family nearby sleeping soundly. Of his other half who's silently standing behind him with concern in her gaze because she can't understand.

He gets flashbacks to the screams, the roars and shrieks he created when he attacked the Yeti's at the peaks every time he's taken to Jamanakai for a quick shopping trip. The crunch of snow below his feet causes him to flinch as if he's been struck. His hands clench, and because of him being upset, the temperature drops, which causes him to spiral without Pixal to reign him in.

He can't visit Jamanaki anymore.

He can't look at Lloyd longer than a minute before hurting inside at how there's frostburn imprints on his brothers throat, shoulders, and chest. Lloyd tries every day to approach him and explain that it wasn't his fault - trying to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but Zane shuts him out because of how Vex would coercer him into comitting unspeakable thanks against the peoples of the Never Realm. Whispering, offering reassurances, and pointing out possible threats to the Ice Emporer- HIM.

He can't train at all, with his brothers or his sisters. He can't bear to train with Pixal either. Worried that he'll get lost in the violence that was himself in the Never Realm.

Not even Wu can break through to him.

Snow has remained dormant within, every time he considers summoning his companion - his familiar.. he can't help but see the ghost of Boreal whenever his spirit flies. The other animals belonging to the Ninja miss their winged friend, too, but can't do anything to help.

Zane's just stuck in this constant loop of uncertainty of what to trust, WHO to trust. Because he doesn't trust himself, and Pixal can only do so much to provide comfort.

So imagine his sheer panic of if Unagami had reached out somehow - someway and had dragged Zane into Prime Empire?

Imagine the fear of seeing Mr. E- his BROTHER. Echo Zane, part of the group assigned to hunt him down as an avatar of the real thing because Unagami can access his memories. His deepest fears. His worst enemies. His younger brother being one of them because Echo Zane, too, had been built to protect.. yet turned his back on it because of fate and Dr. Juliens deteriorating memory, and because.. of Zane himself unintentionally.

Zane was afraid of his younger brother. He followed orders to a T- he fought with the intent to kill. He was friends with Harumi.

Zane was afraid of becoming like the violent side of Echo Zane.

On the other side of the spectrum- he would encounter avatar! Cryptor, a Nindroid, just like himself, but in every way his opposite, too. Whereas Zane was human, Cryptor accepted that he was a machine. He taunted Zane for his age, for his ability to sympathize with beings that could die. His inability to be WEAK. Perfect in comparison to Zane's broken state. In his view- Zane saw Cryptor as somebody who knew what they were.

A souless monster.