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[spinjitzuhottakes]

Ergh, formatting fucked up on that post. Should have known better to not write it on another program.

[spinjitzuhottakes]

Lloyd Garmadon - A brief look at Shipping and Discourse

Right, figure I'd start off with a bang and light myself up like a firework on new years cause what better way to make my first discussion on this blog than be about Lloyd, one of the most discoursed characters to ship in this dang fandom.

Let me just say this.

I don't actively ship Lloyd with anyone. A lot of the opinions surrounding Lloyd in a romance makes it difficult for me to do so, its even more difficult when Lloyd is the character who gets shipped 90% of the time with a fan oc character. (No shame there if you do that, its just something I've very much noticed.)

However. HOWEVER.

I still have in fact, read and viewed fancontent which contains Lloyd in a romantic or sexual relationship. Some of that content does in fact include ships with the main cast, particularly the main 4.

And yes, some of this content is in fact in the universe of the show, not the movie (which tbh is a whole other topic that I probably will touch at a later point cause I have noticed things about the fandom and the show that were caused by the movie releasing)

Why is that?

Cause the art is really cute and the fanfic premise is really interesting or honestly really sweet.

Anyway.

My point is, is that while I don't actively ship Lloyd with anyone, I still have chosen to read and look at things that depict that sort of thing.

And some of those things? They were pretty explicit and sometimes I did feel the need to scroll and fastforward through the scene.

However I still chose to look at those of my own volition and not just because of the...well content. (not usually)

For fanfics, it was how the story was laid out to me, I was usually drawn to those things due to the premise, sometimes they were pretty grim and tragic in a way.

Why is that?

Something I will honestly admit is that when it comes to fandom fanfic as a whole, Ninjago is a fandom I don't really read E rate smut fics for, it's never been that sort of fandom for me. If I do read something mature or explicit here, it really is honest to god not for the pure 18+ content in there.

Cause good lord, some of those explicit fics honestly need a revision or three.

The fics and content I have viewed and found interesting, usually has to do in some regards to how Lloyd in a relationship (explicit or otherwise) would work and honest to god conflict.

Especially given how much we as the fandom remember the situation regarding the tomorrow tea.

Lloyd's situation with the tomorrow tea actually reminds me of a character in my favourite anime. But i'll get into that in a later topic that talks more about Lloyd's age.

Point is, Lloyd's situation is not really the first time I've seen this happen in media and is one of the reasons why shipping Lloyd is actually quite fascinating even if it gets seriously fucking annoying when I have to deal with fandom.

Now, heres the first hurdle, what about Lloyd's age. He's practically eight/twelve and morally its wrong to ship him.

So...i'm just gonna say this. I actually think to suggest something like that really does a disservice to Lloyd as a whole.

Something that has been stated as canon and what I feel was meant to always be implied by the creators is that when Lloyd used the Tomorrow Tea, He was infact permenantly aged up to be the roughly same age as the rest of the cast. He needed to become their equal storywise. It was basically their way of getting around the fact that they had no idea how to make Lloyd as a 8-12 year old reasonably fight his dad/the dark one and have it not seem seriously messed up compared to what would essentially be a teenager fighting him.

Which even though its less messed up, it still is messed up. Wtf destiny.

For reasons I may or may not also further address at a later date in the same talk about Lloyds age, I also honestly believe that Lloyd needing to age up to be same age as the cast was needed for his development and any concept that deletes or reverses that fact has to have a very good reason to do so, otherwise it just seems like they're reversing an essential part of Lloyds story.

And I enjoy exploring content that touches upon the result of that, because the conflict that can be drawn from that is really interesting! Especially if it has to do with romance!

However this honestly leads into the other elephant in the room. And something that gets reasonably talked about and I understand where the thought comes from.

The power dynamics between age and experiance can seem off and at times uncomfortable when it comes to Lloyd being shipped with any of the Ninja. I understand where people are coming from with that, particularly when it comes to pre season 8 to 10 interpretations of the team and Lloyd. Lloyd is very much still seen by a lot of people (and the fandom) during this time as the youngest in the group even though he is roughly the same age as everyone. (Like truthfully, if anything the youngest he'd be is Nya's age.)

Heck they even joke about it multiple times hilariously enough. s5 and s8 with the voice jokes?

Post s10 though? Its a lot more less of a thing. Aside from the occasional joke about Lloyd not knowing what a VCR is (cause he's the kid in the group you guys remember?.) The would be power dynamic and age imbalance between him and the others is less apparent and I'm pretty sure if someone came into the series post s10, they would only know Lloyd as being the leader of the ninja and the same age as the others and not as that gremlin kid from s1.

That's because that's how Lloyd has been developed into, He's in full context basically just like the others now, like what his movie form is (which is also another topic I'd like to talk about at a later point about how the movie changed the show in a few ways)

The only reason a lot of people think otherwise is due to the fact we have context of previous seasons that truthfully does affect us. A lot of people still see and H/C Lloyd as being a lot younger than the other characters and therefore its morally wrong to ship him with the other Ninja and if you do, you should burn at the stake.

But, that's dumb. Like really dumb.

Exploration of these topics is risky yeah and it can lead to some questionable things. But honestly it shouldn't be completely demonized. These sorts of things can act as a sort coping material for folks struggling on those issues.

It really isn't hurting anyone and if you say its harming you, than maybe you should ask yourself why you chose to read/look at the thing in the first place instead of blaming the person who made it.

Why would you eat the food if you know you hate the taste? Thats like asking for olives when you detest olives

Listen I'm not gonna lie...I've seen some questionable stuff tagged in the Ninjago tag and the fanfic section of ao3. But I knew not to touch it.

Why?

Cause I knew I wasn't for me.

This is a mindset I honestly wish a lot of people in this fandom could pick up. If someone is being a genuine threat to the fanbase then yeah, maybe there's a reason for concern.

However, someone shipping two characters together is NOT that reason. No matter how much you try to tell yourself.

- H.T

[spinjitzuhottakes]

Ok so, hey there Ninjago Fandom.

This may seem a bit strange to say hello to a fandom but this is a necessary thing I feel I need to do.

As you have probably guessed from the name of this blog, this is going to be a blog full of personal ninjago takes that I frankly do not feel comfortable about sharing on my main.

Why?

This fandom has a pretty shockingly vocal "anti" fanbase and these are my own opinions that I'd rather not clog my own blog up with. Plus these are opinions that I know may cause some certain types of individuals to get extremely heated about it.

(And for your information, no, this isn't a troll blog and I'm not seeking attention or trying to attack people)

Some people may see this as cowardly, but frankly the fact I need to do this just goes to show how dumb the whole thing is.

Now, onto an introduction

You may call me H.T if for some reason you need to call me something. I've been in fandom culture for a pretty long ass time, long enough to know the old language of fandom culture and that a lot of recent fandom culture and discourse has made me feel old and jaded. I am Biromantic and. Asexual as fuck and have a perpetual burntout state that I'm trying to work through.

I am also in some regards a Proshipper. Figured I'd be upfront and blatant about that cause I'm pretty much gonna assume you guys will label me as one straight off the bat and don't really give a crap if you do. I'm kinda expecting trolls at this point.

This blog will be primarily a Ninjago opinion blog, I've been in and out of this fandom for several years and frankly, I can't tell if anything has changed fandom wise. I am not an avid shipper and I much prefer the found family/friendship dynamic over romantic ships in this place, doesn't mean I don't enjoy some of the art that gets produced though and do have my opinions for some of the canon and noncanon ships.

Finally to finish off this short introduction, I am just going to remind you of what I said earlier.

This blog is gonna be a place that contains certain topics I know this fandom has a dislike and annoyance for. I am going to be talking about my opinions of those topics and I honestly want to encourage others to talk about them as well. If you can't handle the idea of an open discussion or feel extremely uncomfortable about these discussed ideas, I strongly advise you to block me at your own discression. I will change, remove or add tags if any of my discussion contains triggers that are harmful, but I will not be removing opinions of certain things from this blog because people are being narrowminded dumbasses.

I will also be keeping my askbox open and will be encouraging people to ask me questions or even share opinions of their own via ask, and to that reason I will be keeping the anon option avaible to those who just want to keep their identity hidden.

I'm not here to cause mayhem and sow discord, I just want to encourage conversation in this fandom where it seems like a foreign concept. Albiet, its not that horrible considering the things that have happened in other fandoms, but I'm not comfortable to engage in fandom culture in this one I will say.

So, are we clear?

If you don't like what you're reading, block me. In old fandom speak we call that "Don't like, don't read"

Now....let's try to have a conversation okay?

- H.T