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an-oddlyfluffycarpet · 19 hours

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I Rewrite The Climax Of Hands Of Time By Just Changing ONE Plot Point.

You know how Kai had been playing detective for the entire season and realized that his parents were traitors to the Elemental Resistance, and therefore pretty twisted people?

And then in canon it was revealed they were good all along?

Well, here's the change: Kai was RIGHT.

Ray and Maya ARE alive, but they are NOT good people, and they work for the Time Twins at their own will.

Why would they do that?

The Time Twin's ideals of "control time control everything" wore on them because their desire was to remain in their present fame as Elemental Masters. And the twins, especially Krux, were good friends of theirs. However, it broke them to be fighting against friends, and they felt like their past relationships were broken because of it. It pained them to make the blades.

Then not only did they fade from relevance due to fatigue from making the blades, fatigue that would plague their bodies for the rest of their lives, but they also had children. Which dented their ideal time.

Yes, Kai was not intended to be born. But once he was, Maya had the sympathy to have another kid so they could live on in their ideals. This is why she turns around in Seabound.

Then it was revealed to them that Krux was alive and in disguise, and he told them he knew how to get their Elemental Master fame back, and undo what the creation of the time blades did for them. So they made the bold decision to cling to the past and go with Krux.

They believed that as long as the time machine worked, no harm would be done to Kai and Nya, as they would be able to go back in time and be parents later.

Again, they're supposed to be bad people for this.

They're traitors. They work for Krux to make this time machine.

Kai learns this the same way he did in the original, but we also have more baby Kai and Nya flashbacks where we see not just the good memories of his parents, but also the trauma he endured as an abandoned child. How exactly he coped with losing them suddenly. How he put himself in an adult position in the house. His growing hostility towards the rest of the town (their shop is far off from the town after all). Him putting himself to work. His sacrifices for his sister, like his place in school or food. And importantly, how Nya wouldn't allow Kai to destroy himself like that, and she gained her own independence and responsibilities against his wishes, to save him. (He did say in Season one that he spent his whole life trying to protect her and he was just now realizing she never needed it)

Ray and Maya abandoning their kids left a ton of past trauma that they cling to. They're both clinging to the past. Nya is clinging to her past identity as Samurai X and her bond is with P.I.X.A.L and she learns to accept her present role and let it go. Kai is ALL ABOUT honor and the legacy he THOUGHT of his parents. As a blacksmith. As a Master of Fire. As a savior to Ninjago. He's all about doing what they did, and doing it better.

So when he learns that they're actually BAD role models, him asking if they're destined to turn evil, actually makes sense.

Then in what he deems justice, Kai decides to be dishonest with his sister, and ATTEMPT to assassinate his dad (he fails). He's clinging to the past. (Obviously Nya stops him from assassinating his family, because that’s wrong and that’s a horrible thing to do.)

And this clinginess to the past is what makes Kai and Nya get caught by the Time Twins.

In this scene, Ray and Maya PRETEND to be the sympathetic kidnapped parent that did everything to see his kids again. (He's not lying when he said he did it to see his kids again, but it's not in the way they think. Technically)

Their story about how they were kidnapped in the original is a LIE.

They use the opportunity to 'take in' Kai and Nya, and they pretend to be on their side in finding the Reversal Blade (The Time Twins aren't with them, at least by Kai and Nya's knowledge)

NYA is the one who is against this, as she does not believe anything. Because she's the kid with no memories of her family, and she's the independent one, and she's already learned the moral I'm going for with Samurai X.

They get the time blade, they're ready to defeat the Time Twins and get Wu back...

And then Ray and Maya betray them. Krux and Acronix were tracking them the whole time, and they arrive to claim the blade. This is where the kids learn the TRUTH.

And Ray and Maya frame it as though this is a GOOD THING for their family, and the kids are the ones in the wrong. If they can make this time machine, not only would they be glorious like they were in the past, but they could be proper parents to their children and raise them as the perfect Elemental Masters they were meant to be.

Yeah, become good parents by abandoning your kids. It's supposed to be MESSED UP.

Kai and Nya refuse this ideologies, because they're traitors, and they get ditched. Ray even claims to Kai that he is a failure of a Master of Fire, and when they time travel, THAT Kai will be so much better.

This leads to another point I need to make with all of this that is true about the original too:

Kai was very neglectful of the other ninja ever since his fight with Krux in the museum. He had been so fixated on the past and finding out the mystery of his parents that even the other ninja got annoyed by it. He didn't talk to them, he didn't listen to them, he didn't even care about his role as a ninja.

This is where, as the siblings are ditched and trying to get back, Kai APOLOGIZES for this, realizing he was wrong in this behavior, he was a bad brother, and he caused this disaster.

And Nya not only forgives him, but reminds him that the reason she never looked up to their parents was because she HAD a parent to raise her, and that was Kai. Had it not been for each other, they would have never gotten here, let alone survived long enough for Wu to come find them.

So Ray and Maya are bad parents. So what? That's the past. It doesn't matter now. What matters is what they want to do to stop them from destroying their REAL family.

So they follow the Time Twins back, Ray and Maya are with them, and that final fight proceeds. The kids not only participate but get a chance to confront their parents again.

Ray plays the 'you don't want to hurt your family' card.

And Kai claims. "You're right. I have a family. They're the ninja."

Doesn't matter who his birth father is, right NOW, his family is the ninja. That's who raised him. Not Ray.

It HURTS Ray that his kid thinks like that, and is SARCASTICALLY THANKING HIM for ditching a five year old child and his little sister in a forge.

When Krux and Acronix betray their original plan and decide to go far into the future, Ray and Maya feel betrayed as that's not what they wanted, but they get knocked out by the twins when in the machine.

Blah blah, Kai Nya and Wu get caught in the time vortex, and this is their final fight against the twins.

KAI is the one who gets the final blow on Krux. The man who influenced his parents, and destroyed the happy childhood he and Nya could've had, and was also a traitor to a resistance he stood for proudly.

Krux asks why he'd ruin his chances at a happier past.

Kai claims that his past does not matter anymore. His focus is on who he is RIGHT NOW. And RIGHT NOW, he is the Master of Fire, an older brother, and a loyal savior to the Elemental Resistance, and he's fighting for the future of everyone he loves. Something a self absorbed power hungry maniac like Krux would NEVER understand.

He gets the last blow on Krux, and Krux falls out of the machine, lost in time. (We COULD see what happens to him. Maybe that's a Randall Monsters Inc situation.)

The time machine is breaking down, and they're nearing the present, so they have to go back and jump off the machine now.

And out of sympathy, they take their unconscious parents with them and save their lives. Despite everything, it would be clinging to the past to act like they're too far gone.

So they're all ready to jump off, and at the last minute to avenge his fallen brother, ACRONIX GRABS WU AND PULLS HIM BACK IN THE MACHINE.

Kai and Nya try to save Wu, but they lose their grip, and can only watch as Wu gets lost in time with Acronix.

The ninja get back to the present and reunite with the team. Wu is lost in time. They don't have the Reversal Time Blade in this version, because future seasons never use it, so there's no harm in cutting that.

As for Ray and Maya, they regain consciousness when they're back in the present. And the ninja arrest them.

So for the Oni Trilogy, they are in jail. That's why we don't hear from them.

This is actually going to take us to Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu.

I'm going to say that during them running around looking for something to do, Kai get an offer to pay bail for Ray and Maya, who were serving their time up till that point, and they want to try to be better parents.

Kai does not take it. He is not emotionally prepared to let them back in his life.

It's part of a narrative that Kai is content with his role as the Fire Ninja and his ninja family, and does not want that to change. But not only are Jay and Nya married now, but crime had stopped, and the ninja are transcending into adulthood, getting some jobs, and starting a new chapter of their lives. Kai and Zane are the ones who can't move on. Zane because of his programming, now that there's no one to protect, and Kai because his life as a ninja is the ONLY life he has, and thus he isn't anything without it.

This would make Kai losing his powers and feeling useless and deciding to not go on the mission make more sense.

(I mean it's still a bad plotline, but it's... less bad?? Idk, that's a whole other rewrite story)

Instead of this random kid coming to Kai, it's another message from his parents. He visits them in jail, because Ray is a Master of Fire, he would know how to get it back.

We could even have Ray explain something about Fire Elementals. That their fire functions though the state of their souls. And as long as the soul is strong, their fire being drained can be undone. (At least, I think it would be a better more lore-related explanation than 'You just gotta believe', which is a massive plot hole on how Elementals work. This too is probably a plot hole, but I try)

And Ray is the one who snaps at Kai, and claims that a Master of Fire who can't fight without their powers is not a Master, they're just pathetic and dumb and they really are useless.

It hurts Kai, they get into an argument because they're hot headed like that, and Ray at one point asks what he needs to do to help Kai be better. Kai says he doesn't NEED to be better, he WAS the best version of himself, and Aspheera took it from him...

Why can't his own father see that clearly enough to WANT HIM?

Ray claims that he DOES want a son. When they agreed to get the Reversal Blade, it was the most alive he ever felt through the years of him working for Krux. Despite Kai being accidental, when he was born, Ray knew that there was a spark in his kid that was precious and warmed his heart. He thought maybe his kid could be better than him... and he already was.

Ray doesn't know much about the other ninja and what they mean to Kai, but if they're the people Kai needs to be around, then Ray can't stop him. After all, Ray doesn't deserve it.

This doesn't allow Kai to forgive his dad, as Kai still leaves Ray in jail, but it touches Kai and it's progress.

Then at the very end of this season, probably one of the last scenes of the season, Kai decides to bail his parents out and reunite with them at the blacksmith shop, and for the first time in years, they can hug it out. Despite everything.

You can have like, one line of dialogue in Prime Empire (doesn't matter when), where Kai tells someone (doesn't matter who) about what happened to his parents. It was awkward, and people in the village weren't open to forgiving them... but they did manage to have a good hiatus in between seasons and work things out. Forgive and forget.

This goes to Seabound, where Kai has been able to forgive his parents, and Nya, who's been absent of interaction in Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu, has not. At this point, Maya and Ray are as overbearing as they are in the original, because they want to be good parents. They want to be better. They want to put in that effort.

Nya is not open to that, because again, what happened, she didn't get a chance to forgive them or talk to them, and she's the independent one.

So yeah, Ray and Maya have a redemption arc in this alternate reality. They're garbage parents, started out as such, but decided they wanted to be better when they were snapped into reality what their kids are capable of.

ALSO, if anybody wants to steal this for a fanfic or something, go ahead, take it, just let me know it exists, I would be open to reading that.

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