#Nya has the same problem with Jay

[oppositemangos]

Kai when his bf pulls up to the pool with his chest covered for the millionth time

[kindaasrikal]

I need people to remember that Nya was also in love with Jay since day 1, its just that it wasn’t her biggest priority seeing as she was going through a whole thing called insecurities and finding who she is outside of her brother and outside of her parents and outside of her village and outside of Jay.

Nya loves Jay the same amount, she has loved Jay just as long as Jay had, but her love for Jay wasn’t something she was willing to pursue when absolutely everyone would dumb her down to just that. The same way everyone was already dumbing her down to Kai’s sister the second they all met, and the same way they were already dumbing her down to just the love interest between Jay and Cole even after finding her identity and place as Samurai X. Imagine how much it hit her when Samurai X, and image she crafted so carefully with so much love and attention and pride, was suddenly belittled and mocked because apparently he was actually a she.

And you can’t forget the fact that she was suddenly forced to grapple with another new identity as the water ninja, and then had to deal with all the hate and mockery and belittling everyone was doing as she wasn’t just the water ninja, but the girl ninja. Its not easy to hear the comments people from a whole city make of you because of your gender. Even people from your own gender, and it must’ve been even worse because no one else understood, they knew it was a problem but they still believed her reactions were too over the top. The stress of all of that and then also having someone she loved but wasn’t ready to love with try force another path onto her was bound to stress her out.

Jay wasn’t necessarily an ass during that season, from what i can remember. He was a whole mess yeah, his insecurities making him take actions he wouldn’t have before and try forcing his wants and desires onto someone else who wasn’t ready for it. But he grew and learnt and stopped all that as the season progressed. He had to understand that the people around him won’t just leave or downgrade him, and that he must ease his own anxiety and understand that whatever happens will happen for the good of them all. That doesn’t change the fact that his actions in the beginning was a shi show though, so no wonder Nya pushed him away during that time. Reminder that you can still be angry and annoyed at someone you love, especially when they deserve it.

Not to mention she has never been all that vocal with her affection. Not like Jay. You know she cares and loves you simply through the way she trusts people but shes also been a lot more locked up over her emotions, and thats okay. Because Jay knows (haha, knew.) that Nya loves him just as much because if she didn’t she would very obviously state that. She may not be vocal over her emotions or her love for someone, but she is over her opinions. She won’t just let someone use her or mess with her because she feels bad or that she has too.

Right now, for Nya and Jay’s character, I’d rather focus on the identity crisis that JAY is going through now instead of Nya, and of how NYA is the one chasing and wanting to bring Jay into her life despite him not wanting (not being ready?) to do so. I’d rather focus on her development as a character and now as a teacher. And how Nya is going to change and grow like how Jay changed and grew in Skybound for her. Honestly I would love a lot more focus of developing Nya’s character as an adult who is horrible at being vulnerable and how she will grow, with the whole ‘Nya and Jay!’ Thing just a tad bit more in the background and used as more of a kick up for it. And for us to watch what may happen to Jay as he changes in a new environment with new memories and experiences.

For once, i want to watch them grow separately rather than watch them grow for each other. I know Nya can do that, but it’s only with Jay having lost his memories that he’s now capable of doing that for himself and only himself.

Sorry this was huge throw up of a rant so honestly just believe that this is five random points shoved into one post and rambled in a horrible way

Edit: reminder that Nya didn’t just disregard her feelings for Jay just so she wouldn’t be placed as simply his girlfriend, but also because she had many other worries. Completing missions and making sure everyone lived, being the biggest brain and planner in the team for ages, as well understanding her self outside of her town that she lived in for ages. Kai was able to fond himself easily amongst the other ninja, but Nya didn’t have that. So obviously she, as a 13-16 year old young teenage girl, would rather focus on finding new hobbies and having new experiences than pursuing a love life she wouldn’t even be confident in pursuing in. Jay and Nya are not each other only priority or worry, their love for each other is important to them and who they are, but isn’t the most defining factor or shouldn’t be the most focused.

[chebyshevptera]

YANMA!!!!

Tell me more about Lloyd in your destinyswap au and my life…. Is yours

(No pressure)

HEHAHDJAGA hi rusty!! Sure thing!!

here tha baby : ) ❤️ ramble under cut

destinyswap Lloyd had a good childhood with both of his parents present, a mom with a well paying job to provide him with whatever he desired , and his dad who helped train him to be a strong and capable fighter . he grew up knowing all there was to know of prophecies and elements and things alike

ds Lloyd wasn’t RAISED to be discouraged from his dragon or oni heritage , so , at this point , lloyd has essentially mastered both forms (we’ll get to this some other day though…) . he also knows spinjitzu before the ninja team is formed , and he actually gives them excitable advice on how to use it (resulting in kai being the first one out of the other four at the time!)

a lot of his issues come from the fact that he had to watch his uncle succumb to darkness . Lloyd has always loved Wu , and the thought of losing his uncle forever haunts him more than he likes to admit . Wu was genuinely an amazing additional guardian to him , which adds to the hurt , because Lloyd sees his uncle acting in horrific ways and slowly fails to recognize him.

that aside though ……i love ds lloyd . In destinyswap , he is still mischievous and snarky and likes to pull pranks , but he’s never unnecessarily cruel , and he loves to help people . He is a pacifist , thanks to his father’s teachings , and mostly fights with the intent to disarm or stun his opponent , rarely hurt , and never killl . Although he loves broadswords , he , once again , has learned to use them in less harmful ways . He just likes the chunky swords. He would probably be a claymore user in genshin

Despite his element easily being dangerous , Lloyd uses it to help , or at least in controlled ways . he even knows how to singe wounds with his fire to prevent extra damage . when Nya or any of his other friends are sad, Lloyd uses his element to warm himself up to a comfortable level and then hugs them as a form of comfort . He uses it to relieve muscle cramps from his friends (and even his opponents) sometimes too . He’s a really sweet kid

idk what else to put for analysis / lore so here’s some canon stuff about him for destinyswap :)

- when he first met Jay, Lloyd pestered him about Starfarer knowledge because he was so excited to meet someone who knew THE Cliff Gordon . In fact … that’s the only reason he even knew who Jay was

- he still has a big sweet tooth , but it’s even worse in ds . He whines when he has to eat something that isn’t drowning in sugar, and the drinks he orders are so sweet that it grosses Kai out

- he really wants to dye a streak of his hair green, like Morro’s , but hasn’t known how to bring it up

- he’s great at math , but hates it . Jay’s ranting about measurements can put him to sleep

- he stuffs tiny creatures into his pockets (safely, carefully) and tries to bring them back to the temple . Garmadon always catches him because he tends to stumble as he walks , because he’s staring at the little animal in his pocket

- he has never ordered the same ice cream flavor twice , but that’ll change once he “tries every flavor and decides which is the best”

- he has a big comic book collection , still ongoing

- when he was younger , he used to tighten his belt too tight and then complained about it during training before his father figured out what the problem was

- I said this before, but sometimes , he speaks like an old person . can’t really blame him though

- he climbs into someone else’s bed almost every night , and since he’s so small, they usually don’t notice until the morning

[tornoleander]

Finally Ironed out some ninja designs! I Usually don’t share references but with the behind the scenes stuff I’m doing on my Skybound project I don’t have much else I can share yet.

There is a few headcanon/ Fic stuff in references and powers and the all ninja shot is for first part of Skybound project.

I can share Skybound project Updates! I’m making lots of progress! Trying to focus on p1 stuff so I can put full force into the p2 stuff!

|

V

P1 may be ready Summer? 2025

My Skybound talk Video:

* God I have so much to ramble about just when I think I covered something a new angle gets me

* How TF am I supposed to sanely transition from the wholesome reasons I love this season into the horribly problem stuff. Sigh*

* Actually studying videos covering serious topics to navigate how to word things.

* I have to stop drawing so much art for everything or no one will ever see this video.

* The desire to animate my character lipsinking to me is an evolutionary disadvantage I will resist.

Cannon compliant Animatic:

* Song is Ironed out fought a while adding voice lines and I’m way more excited than I thought I’d be for this animatic because I thought it would be overshadowed by how strongly I feel about the other 2. But damn.

* I’m storyboarding after like my life depends on it rn

* Really trying to capture Nya’s character Ark which sent me right back to the video script because I remembered that one reddit post calling her a bitch and rage wrote for 2 hours.

* I am determined to make people see how good her character arc actually is.

* Throwing Jay shade in this one lol he was kinda awful even with being manipulated.

* Trying to convey clear Ideas and story through art is pain but also addicting.

* This is meant as a leading to both part two animatics, but bbnb Kai is shorter than wytyaa Kai. The difference is significant everything else pre dinner with Nadakhan is the same. The other head cannons are almost aligned as far as I know. It’s JUST Kai. What do I do with him?!? Lmao Might just distance him from the other ninja so you can’t tell how tall he is. Thank goodness he is the most gullible and first to wish it all away

P2 out like December if I’M lucky TT

Even though I should focus on first things first, I can’t help myself. these fics have lived rent free in my brain for like 2 years and despite plans shifting the excitement of drawing the story I read and put to music in my head is a force of nature. Thanks Adhd

Wytyaa:

* I storyboarded about half the scenes I want to. Songs are decided but a few parts I’m waiting for the rest of the story for.

* I think I’m going to mess with color palette. I really want to capture the emotion and intensity. I’m learning the full potential of my art and

* I need Final ch released for maping out the second half.

* BUT I AM NOT READY TO READ IT @mondothebombo And from what you told me I don’t think I’ll be able to finish P1 by then. cries*

* I wanna capture the feeling reading wytyaa.

* May make my wytyaa specific refs so I can make animatic art I can post early.

Bbnb

* It’s all storyboarded and half animated

* Thinking about redoing most the earlier stuff, consistency has been a problem

* Also was to mess with colors, dark backgrounds and intense colors.

* I fought with my ref forever to find good enough lightning scar colors cause figuring out the right amount of contrast is pain.

* So now I want to redraw my bbnb scar references a third time.

* May draw other bbnb specific refs so I can make some art for the animatic I can post here early or on on my old A03 book

If you have Any questions feel free to leave an ask! I answer all eventually sometimes I do save em up though so if I didn’t answer something yet, Sorry I will get to you.

[the-estranged-auth0r]

PSMP! Garmadon (aka a version where he survives s4) would totally hate Canon post-resurrected Garmadon so badly.

Like he'd throw hands with the guy because what do you mean you threw your son's through multiple walls? What do you mean you hurt his allies so you could hunt him down? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DISOWNED HIM?!?!

Meanwhile PSMP! Lloyd and Canon Lloyd would be standing behind them. Canon Lloyd wants the break the fight up but the other guy would be like 'no give him a minute'

AND ANOTHER THING

PSMP! Garmadon compared to Wu, is a whole lot more open with his secrets. He figures that if he educates his students of the things he learned he could help them avoid repeating the same mistakes. Something Wu doesn't really do huh

I would also like to think that due to him being a total dad, he'd sometimes slip into a fatherly mode and is also prone to share some casual moments with them (he adopted them damn it) he loves to tell stories of all the shenanigans he and Wu used to get to when they were young (Wu still tells them stories but Garmadon likes to tell the downright embarrassing ones). Garmadon would love to tell Nya and Kai how he and Wu used to be the wingmen in their parents relationship. Jay and Lloyd would get him to join them with video games, which became a problem when Garmadon incorporated their game into training in a not fun way. Garmadon would ask Cole how to do certain dances so he could woo Misako (it totally works btw). Sometimes he'd hangout with P.I.X.A.L. cuz she's the one who actually has the braincells in the monastery. He'd help Zane with the cooking and often helps him recreate ancient recipes that were lost to time (Garmadon has every recipe he learned written down somewhere).

AND ONE MORE THING

He and Mystaké has an established mother-son relationship. Little Garmadon used to go to Mystaké when he has his venom induced outbursts because he feels like she's the only who understands him.

They still maintain a strong relationship after all that time and sometimes he would invite her to train Lloyd with his Oni side (leading to this version of Lloyd to be very more adept to his supernatural sides)

I might ramble more about this later lol

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Bechdel Testing Ninjago

So, a little while ago I did the Bechdel test on Ninjago because I've always seen the show as sort of an interesting case study in how women are portrayed in cartoons. Of course, I'm aware the Bechdel test originated as a joke and something passing the Bechdel test doesn't make it feminist/not. Rather, or for me at least, it's an indication of how deficient female representation can be at an aggregate scale. As a way to analyze Ninjago, I feel it works as it shows how female representation over the course of the show. If you're interested I'll now discuss my thoughts on how the analysis went season by season. DISCLAIMER: I did this for fun.

The pilot was easy. Nya's the only one, so test failed across the board. The first episode that passed the test was when Jay's parents came to visit. Yay Edna! Mystake does show up in episode 7 but, I don't count it as she has not yet been named. 12&13 had a kid's mom in a bus which I decided was enough cus hey, Mom's a name she uses.

Here's where we really get going. Patty Keys, their real estate agent continues to show up through seabound as a background character, which is pretty cool imo. Episode 5, Mystake finally gets named. Episode 6 was huge for my chart as it's the introduction of Misako. You'd think episode 7 is when her and Nya talked but that's actually when Nya and Gayle had a lil convo. From then on I spent the episodes just staring at the Nya and Misako thinking "talk to her talk to her talk to her." Fortunately, when they did speak, Nya and Misako would be discuss like science, maps, and fate of the world so I never ran into a problem with rule 3. That is, until Rebooted.

The good news is Pixal's here so it'll be years before we fail rule 1 again. The bad news is we've got a love triangle so goodbye rule 3. Nya actually talked to her student, Sally, and Pixal quite often but it was so often about Jay or Cole so I would just be scouring the episode for a single exchange where they talked about anything else. During the Tournament, Nya, Pixal, Skylor, and Misako were all in different groupings and it was rare that Tox or Camille would say something so no rule 2/3 successes until late season.

The good news is, the love triangle is over so we're back to rule 2 usually meaning rule 3. The bad news is, Pixal's in Zane's head so we're back to hoping Misako and Nya say something to eachother. Nya usually shared her scenes with Wu, Ronin, and Jay during these seasons so chances were few and far between. However, unlike the first few seasons where the default was male, we're now getting some female henchmen (Bansha and Dogshank) so that made things easier.

Thank you for being in Day of the Departed Edna Walker. Early Hands of Time was tough because Nya, Misako, and Commander Macchia were rarely in the same scenes. In the latter half of the season though, we thankfully see the return of Pixal. Maya also helped us with some wins.

What a breath of fresh air. Thanks to Harumi & Ultraviolet's introduction, Pixal's return, Mystake's upgrade to a reoccuring character, and Nya & Misako's continued support, failing even rule 3 is pretty rare during the Oni Trilogy. We run into some complications during Hunted because though we have Skylor and the aforementioned characters in Ninjago and Faith & Jet Jack in the First Realm, sometimes people don't talk to eachother. And that's ok. Overall, smooth sailing.

Ah??!? What happened. Worry not. I realized this was, in part, because the Oni Trilogy had 20 minutes worth of chances for women to speak to eachother, these were only 10 minute episodes. So, for the sake of comparable units of analysis, I considered each pair of episodes to be 1 episode. I'll show both charts until DR.

It looks a little better, but it's still not at Oni Trilogy levels. Still, I'd be curious to see what the test would look like if I dissected the earlier episodes into 10 minute chunks because it's probably not a great sign if 10 v 20 minutes makes such a big difference. Ok, proceeding. The Fire Chapter was usually pretty successful because Pixal, Aspheera, or Nya would usually end up talking at one point or another. Gayle even helped at one point. The Ice chapter usually achieved successes through Nya talking to Sorla. In one episode, I counted the Preminent's roars as conversation with Pixal. The Ice Chapter had quite a few failures largely because, as in previous seasons, all the women were split up.

Despite the fact that Nya was one of the longest lived ninja, Prime Empire has total failures at levels not seen since before season 2. This is largely because for the most part, Pixal and Nya are never in the same episode. Racer 7 helps but she was only there for a bit. I should point out that I feel like the 10 minute era is really when Pixal starts feeling like part of the team to me. She's always part of homebase meetings and always plays a key part in missions. Alas, if she's not in episodes with Nya, that's not going to show up on my chart. It's a reminder of the fact this test doesn't show substance.

Master of the Mountain is similar to the other seasons of its era. The fact the 10 minute era tended to show its plots episode by episode (ex: Ep 3 = Plot A, Ep 4 = Plot B, Ep 5 = Plot C) rather than all in one really takes a toll on the test. For the most part, Nya and Vania were our only chances for success and it was rare they'd share an episode. We also had the rare rule 3 failure with the Queen of the Munce episode. Thanks Jay. The Island only had Nya until they found Misako, so it was struggling even more.

It feels right to see all green when it's a Nya season. In the beginning of Seabound, they put Nya, Pixal, and Maya on a boat together and by jove it made things easy. Late season was a bit trickier because Nya was on her own journey. Crystalized had Skylor, Pixal and some ressurected villains saving the day. Late Crystalized is the way it is because it had so, so many different groupings. I have a chart based on groupings and this season was such a challenge.

I really felt the difference with Dragons Rising. I mean, you can see the difference, but it was even more clear when doing my data collection because it was just so easy. Rather than grabbing at scraps of dialogue like I had to do in early seasons, there was often a wealth of more meaningful conversation between female characters to choose from. As with the Oni Trilogy, a female villain with a female henchman makes things easy because they scheme together. We also had Nya and Sora on a joint quest. Funnily enough, there is a rare rule 3 failure because Sora and Kreel only talked about Kreel's friend in one episode. Episode 17 had the classic split up issue and actually would've failed entirely if not for Agent Underwood, which is actually a great example of my next point. You can really tell how male is no longer the default because not only is there the introduction of all the fantastic new female main characters, but also there's plenty of random female characters scattered throughout. I haven't seen DRS2P2 yet but I expect it'll be more of the same. I should mention I also made a chart with the reverse (two named men in an episode who talk about eachother about something besides a woman). Only three episodes fail in any capacity. (Say thank you to the Akita, Pixal, and Harumi solo episodes). If you read this whole thing, thank you. I had a lot of fun doing it. Let me know if there's any other charts I can do!

[plasmara]

not the anon who sent that jay angst ask, but i wonder what it is with the ninjago fandom’s refusal to believe rogue is… not a good person? Like i feel as though we saw him smiling at jenny & barry or showing small moments of care, and then proceeded to ignore the fact that he has a service for kidnapping people and delivering them (bordering on human trafficking) & outwardly kills without remorse. i don’t even mess with jay tbh but i feel like his own fanbase uwu-fies him even as rogue. sure he’s in pain and is hurt but he’s also just… not a good person. He cruelly digs at wydlfyre many times over simple mistakes and even mocks her dead (?) boyfriend i feel like we need to start understanding he can be hurt and manipulated and also show mild amounts of compassion at times and also be an evil son of a bitch without dumbing him down to what we decide is ‘too far’ because what the fandom feels is ‘too far’ for rogue to go also kind of ? contributes to that uwufication of jay? As in there’s a limit to what rogue can do before we deem him too far gone from ‘og jay’ when we’ve seen time and time again that rogue is willing to do almost anything for a price.

and that’s not to say he’s outright genocidal maniac, i’m sure he has some point of what he’s not willing to do, but not for any reason of ‘that’s messed up’ because as we’ve seen his moral compass is way crooked but more so of ‘this is the not worth the hassle/ or this is not what i’m being paid for.’ and very, very light mix of ‘this is kind of messed up.’

we’ve seen him oppose the release of bad people (bleckt) not because bleckt was a bad person, but because precisely bleckt was a bad person and cannot be trusted to aid them on a mission that rogue was (at the time, under the impression) being paid for, which would end up causing problems.

While i’m not the other anon, i do feel it slightly in character for rogue to mock the other ninja especially in a moment of anger (which we know his temper is not only shorter, but way more extreme) but he has the capacity to be cruel and he does take it on more than one occasion, and is flippant response to others pain, even nya’s (at the end, when she’s clearly upset over his actions and his response is a pouty petulant frown and ‘try not to die before you pay me) despite being shown to obviously care for her. Don’t think it’s character assassination at all to hc rogue to be cruel in words (which he’s explicitly shown to be) in a moment of anger

Mmm anon im sorry but i just don’t agree. and im the last person to turn jay into some sort of completely innocent victim but you’re missing the point. yes he would absolutely be a jerk to them and Yes he would absolutely say something out of anger in a heated moment (and it wouldn’t even really need to be that heated) but that ask was about him repeatedly messing with them, faking vulnerability??? pretending to remember Just to twist the knife and laugh in their faces. he’s not just cruel for no reason. He’s not some evil cartoon villain who’s trying to make their lives hell or rub it in their faces that their friend is gone . In no way did i claim he was this misunderstood little baby who doesn’t know what he’s doing but at the same time people aren’t just simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’ . he has more layers to him than what’s explicitly shown. and Yes he’s done some truly terrible things like the ones you’ve listed above, but (imo!!!!!) he’s not getting off on hurting people. The things he’s done have a reason — even if that reason was just anger, pain, or self-preservation. but pure, calculated, sadistic cruelty????? For him to fuck with them like that multiple times just ‘for fun’? . that’s not him. and i think it’s missing a huge part of his character to try and paint him that way

[fastenwick]

Very long Ninjago Movie/Show Comparison

Summarized version at the bottom

Bored and just finished a good chunk of the Garmadon Arch in the Ninjago show, so I thought I'd write my comparisons between that and the movie.

Don't take my opinion too seriously, I haven't finished the show, I've only been able to get parts of season 1 and I think all of season 2 (not entirely sure if I missed anything in season 2 tbh, I gotta find the full series) and of course the movie. Since I know I'm missing info, I'm only comparing what I'm referring to as the Garmadon Arch of the show with the movie.

Spoilers for both under the cut (even though they've both been out forever)

Starting with Lloyd, the OG, the Green Ninja.

Although I prefer the personality and character of the movie Lloyd, the show Lloyd has much cooler abilities. I find it kind of off that show Lloyd is basically a 7 or 8 year old trapped in a 16 year old's body (I don't remember the exact ages, but I know he's like 10 years younger than he looks.) I find that iffy because I always have problems with kids getting too much responsibility in media, ESPECIALLY when they're under the age of 15 (15-18 is a gray area depending on the situation because kids that age are a lot more independent.) I do prefer the movie Lloyd take on that, he is actually the age he looks. BUT his powers suck, that part of movie Lloyd is just dumb. Movie Lloyd with show Lloyd abilities would have been awesome.

Nya imo sucks in both in different ways, mainly because to me, she feels purely like a man's attempt at writing a badass woman without actually caring about or even liking women. Show Nya has her tech savvy-ness and is a decent fighter, and I do think she's better than movie Nya, but as far as development, she just feels like she's only tech support and an occasional maiden in distress, not important at all, which is sad. I do think she gets better development in later seasons, but not sure cuz I haven't seen em yet. Movie Nya felt a little more like a real person than show Nya did, I do appreciate that she's included in the gang from the get go there, but she has a very written-by-a-man feel, like they leaned into all of the tom boy stereotypes for the movie.

I'm gonna talk about Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay together because my opinions on them is about the same for each character. They just SUCK in the movie. Example, show Zane has a whole development of finding out he's a robot and coming to terms with it, he also has a father kind of. Plus show Ninjas accepting him after finding out without hesitation is so nice for kids to see. Movie Zane just kinda feels like a joke in comparison to show Zane. Like he's only there for robot gags (which are funny occasionally, but it just doesn't compare to the depth of show Zane.) Show Kai had growth with finding his sister, show Jay and show Cole had growth of their own, their familes were present and relevant unlike in the movie, they feel more real and are more interesting in the show. In the movie? They're just kind of. There. Movie Cole is okay, I do enjoy his method of fighting with music and DJing, but movie Zane, movie Kai, and movie Jay just suck, no good qualities. And the DJing isn't a big redeeming quality for movie Cole. They have funny lines, which I'll get to later, but there's just. Nothing to their characters in the movie, nothing interesting, nothing worth paying attention to, they're sad filler.

Next up, let's talk about Wu. Honestly he's kind of the same on a surface level in both. I do like that movie Wu has a bit more of a childish/fun side (especially when it comes to his brother, which I'll get to later.) But there's nothing I really dislike about show Wu either. They're both pretty well done mentor characters, but they are different in their overall character. Movie Wu is a bit more playful, show Wu is more serious and level headed, they both have differences to they're back stories and relationships. I think they're both good but different.

Have a lego cat GIF because I couldn't find any GIFs for the next character

And next, Lloyd's mother... I have a LOT of thoughts about her because she's completely different in both of them, she even has different names in both and I can't remember either of them well enough rn. (Cut me a break, it's late at night.) Movie Mom is a fairly decent fictional mom, she cares for her kid and supports his Ninja endeavors, she punches Garmadon and holds him by his shirt collar to get info from him, she made sacrifices for her kid, I think she's just fine. Show Mom bugs me in a way that is hard to put into words. I know that they explain why she abandoned Lloyd, but the entire thing felt so brushed under the rug and dismissed too easily. She wanted to research about the prophecy he was in, sure, and maybe there wasn't a way to safely do that with Lloyd in her care, but it just seemed so poorly explained and then never brought up again. Lloyd was so mad at her (understandably) for disappearing his whole life and then showing up again, expecting full Mom treatment, and then just let's it go almost immediately when the explanation was extremely meh. She also felt a little weird to me, like she was sometimes a maiden in distress (fine Ig), but sometimes she could kick ass? Like she can do spin jitsu and beat up a bunch of soldiers but she can't pull herself up on some stairs. She felt a bit inconsistent and bland in the Garmadon Arch of the show, Idk, maybe she gets better later on, but I prefer her movie counterpart. The movie counterpart isn't perfect, but at least she didn't abandon her son and feels more consistent.

Next up, let's talk Garmadon. There's positives and downsides to both the movie and show version. I LOVE Garmadon's relationship portrayal in the movie because it's hilarious. He acts exactly like a distant father with Lloyd, a weird ex with the Mom, and like a classic little brother with Wu. Granted, movie Garmadon is also a more childish comparison to show Garmadon, but I think it's fun in this scenario. Show Garmadon does have some weird ex moments and distant but caring dad moments with Lloyd, which I do like a lot, they were very well done. The show relationships were more serious with him but less entertaining. Not bad, just different.

WHERE THE TF IS THIS GIF FROM??? It's not from the movie but I thought I watched all the parts of him like this in the show, did I miss an episode in season 1-2 with this??

His character in both is good for the most part. I prefer show Garmadon being more on the true villian side, with a more serious back story. Especially the way he cycles through henchmen and forced workers until he ends up a host for the Overlord. But I do still enjoy the movie Garmadon's portrayal with the comedic, cartoony-villain-that-always-comes-back vibe. I also prefer parts of his character development. I don't like that show Garmadon was just kind of Magically Un-evil after the Overlord was defeated. It felt a bit disappointing, especially because it kind of wiped his character clean and cut off chances for growth there. The movie Garmadon explores that element of conquering the evil without that luck, Garmadon in the movie has to work through his dark thoughts and issues to become a better person because it isn't magically taken away from him. Granted, some of that work is done off screen, but it's still done and it's more satisfying than show Garmadon just getting magically fixed. Plus Garmadon as a normal Lego piece and not 4 armed with dark skin just feels wrong.

I kinda wish that the elements of the two had mixed, because show Garmadon has a better starting point and overall plot leading to getting himself in trouble with the Overlord, but movie Garmadon is a bit more fun and has a more satisfying ending to his story.

That's all the character comparisons I wanted to do. There's a few more elements I want to touch on here.

Next up, background characters/world building. Infinitely better in the show. It's just kind of bland in the movie. Granted, there's less time to develop it in the movie, but it's still meh. The show city has so much story and depth to it, with reoccurring background characters and side villains. Sometimes they feel a little forced, but overall, they're so much more interesting. The only world building the movie got was some cliche dangerous forest and city settings, then the ultimate weapons (which are pretty dumb.) Show wins for sure here.

The story for the show is better too. It is more serious and real, and besides the issues I had with characters development, it's far superior to the movie's story. It does have a very monster of the week vibe sometimes, but that's kind of inevitable with shows like this. And it's not done badly at all. The movie story doesn't feel very thought out. Besides the character development, it just feels like they tried to pick out stuff that sounded like cool Ninja stuff and then fit it somewhere along. It isn't bad per se? Just not as good as the show in terms of plot.

A bad element of the show plot and story is that it does get convoluted and is probably littered with plot holes I have yet to notice. But I still prefer it.

The comedy of them both are different too. They both are capable of making me laugh for different reasons. Movie has more killer lines and fun mishaps that can just make you crack up. L-loyd? L-l-o-y-d, I named you. How could I ruin your life, I wasn't even there! Absolutely iconic. That and Garmadon's interactions with Wu and Lloyd are almost always funny, Wu and Garmadon have a more childish brother relationship (which cracks me up, as someone with brothers who act exactly like them) and Lloyd and Garmadon have plenty of fun yet fitting moments too. And the background movie Ninjas have some funny lines and moments too, despite being reduced to filler. (Told you I'd get back to that.)

That's not to say the show ISN'T funny, it certainly is. There are moments I cracked up laughing, they're just less memorable in the show. I can't qoute any of them. Kai timetraveling to talk to Kai in the mirror is fun, but I couldn't tell you details about it. Because it focuses more on the plot, it has a different feel to it, which is entirely fine and isn't negative at all. I just remember more from the movie because the comedic lines from it stand out more.

Also sorry for your attention spans, I ran out of GIF slots.

TLDR

To summarize, I think that the show is better in the terms of longstanding stories and plot, but there are things the movie did just as good in or better. The movie was probably written to be more of a parody of the show, and they are VERY different. I understand why fans of the show HATED the movie: It's completely different and rewrote a lot.

I don't think either of them are bad, they're just different. But I do think the creators of the movie messed up and betrayed the fans quite a bit in the movie take. But I am still glad the movie exists because it is iconic anyway.

My opinion may change as I get further into the show, because it looks like the characters and story get better as it goes on and a lot of the issues I had get addressed or fixed.

Side note: When looking for GIFs for the post to help people's attention span, I found GIFs of characters with the movie designs and feels (specifically Zane's over robot feel) that were done in show animation?? What's the deal with that, guess I'll find out...

[ninja-confession-go]

I actually really don’t like any of the canon Ninjago ships between the main ninja. All of them boil down to forced obligatory straight ships that I never could get into.

Jaya started out with Jay being weirdly creepy and possessive over Nya, ESPECIALLY in Skybound. Like, the first time he hears of her, not even having met her yet, he asks if she’s hot. I think, if he maybe had a little crush at the beginning (after he got to know her), and she reciprocated on her own, I would like it a lot more. I even did like the episode where they go on a date and Jay learns to be his true self, I think that’s probably my favorite moment involving Jaya. The whole love triangle was weird bc I think all three of them were OOC, so I chose not to count it. Skybound is particularly bad because Nya openly expresses that she wants to have an identity outside of being with Jay, and a few minutes later, the writers just have her say she wants to be with him.

Pixane also felt forced because of how quickly they “fell” for each other after such minimal interaction. They never felt “compatible” because they have virtually no connection outside of being “the robots who are smart”. They don’t have any chemistry until maybe SOG, and I think that’s because Pixal herself isn’t allowed to have much of a character other than “Zane’s love interest” and “the other smart one”.

Kailor has pretty much the same problems as Pixane, but at least they have more chemistry. There doesn’t seem to be any real reason they like each other, other than Kai thinking Skylor’s hot. Skylor doesn’t even seem to be that into Kai when she’s not putting up her facade, so I don’t necessarily mind that they’re not technically together yet.

Llorumi is abusive, I don’t think I have to explain why I don’t like it.

Overall, I think the show handles these ships better in later seasons, but they’re still far from perfect. My biggest problem is just how forced they were from the start, and how it never feels like any of the characters have a legitimate reason for why they’re attracted to their love interest. I don’t outright hate any of them (except for Llorumi), but I wish they were executed better, and the female counterparts got more character and agency in their respective relationships

.

[blazeymc]

I recently heard of this DC alternate universe called the Absolute universe where the Justice League were the same, but their origins are, like, flipped on their heads (DC fans please don’t kill me if I’m getting any of this wrong 😣). Like, Batman is still a powerless, crime fighting detective, but instead of being a rich orphan with practically unlimited technology, he was a poor woodworker / metalworker who made all his tools himself (if I remember correctly).

What if I applied this concept to other fandoms? Namely, Ninjago? What would the “Absolute” Ninja look like?

First, Cole; traditionally, Cole comes from a family where his mother is dead and is father is chasing a son that doesn’t exist, and is altogether pretty distant otherwise. What’s the opposite of this?

Absolute Cole has two living, loving parents. The problem is, they love him too much. Like, obsessively overprotective. They’re constantly looking over his shoulder, making sure he isn’t doing anything dangerous, so he runs away.

Next up, Jay; in the canon, Jay comes from his parents’ junkyard. Ed and Edna are loving, to the point where they can get embarrassing, even. How do I flip this?

Absolute Jay was adopted by Ed and Edna Walker, the co-owners of EdTech, to make themselves look good. And that’s all Jay’s ever been to them; an orphaned child with the potential to improve their public image. The only time Jay ever gets much actual attention from them is when they have him go out in public with them. So when Wu confronts Jay about becoming a Ninja, Jay tells his parents, who are all onboard with it because imagine: one of the heroes of the city is the son of EdTech’s CEO. Imagine the attention they could get for having adopted on of the Ninja?

This actually leads to an interesting dynamic between Cole and Jay; Jay is jealous that Cole has such loving parents, who actually care for him, and Cole went and ran away. Meanwhile, Cole is jealous that Jay’s parents aren’t watching his every move, and are actually giving him time to himself, and Jay is wasting it by complaining.

I’ll talk about the other four Ninja later (probably Kai & Nya together, and then Lloyd and Zane together or potentially separate, we’ll have to see), but for now, this is all you get.

pt. 2: Zane & Pixal

[icy-watch]

Ok, and that was the end of s2p2 of Ninjago: Dragons Rising.

Lots going on at the end there.

There are Emotions here.

So predictions for next season.

The Fab 5 are going to be the main antagonists. That's pretty much a given at this point. It's going to be a tough fight, but there's going to be only 1 person or being who'll be able to defeat them:

Ras's master.

I still have no idea who or what that could be, but they're this giant looming threat over everything. They are, ultimately, going to be the final threat.

I feel like they've been pulling some strings and really want Arin, not Ras, by their side. And as soon as Arin masters Shatterspin, they're going to ditch Ras.

That's just what I'm feeling rn.

And then there's Jay. Nya and Kai are going to find Jay. I"m not sure if they're going to ever restore his memories. I would love to believe that they'll be able to, but I think there's something lost about Jay's memories that are with Wu.

As in, Wu is somehow keeping Jay's memories from him for his own protection or something.

Oh, wait if Jay knows where Wu is and what's going on with him? Hmmmm. That's an interesting plot thread to go down. I might play with this idea later.

And, finally, the reason Wu caused the Merge. The idea I proposed while watching the episode feels... tangible. Wu caused the Merge bc if he didn't so something the Fab 5 would be unbeatable. They needed Elemental Powers in order to stop them.

This completely contradicts my prediction about about Ras's master being the only thing to defeat them, I know, but my brain is thinking many things and I can't control it.

And we have left now is to wait until the next season is released.

Correct and incorrect predictions below the cut.

Correct

The Forbidden Five caused some problems in the past and were sealed away or something. "Problems" is putting it lightly. Very lightly. It's implied they committed genocide. Multiple times.

The Forbidden Five were the last students Egalt and Rontu had. I had this marked as confirmed, but it's been so long since I last watch that episode to actually say yay or nay.

There is a portal gate at Mysterium. It wasn't confirmed in any of the episodes t appeared, but as it was in the City of Temples Monastery, it's safe to assume it has 1 as well.

Either Kai or Lloyd will be able to do the Rising Dragon technique first. Kai was first, and Lloyd was third. 😊

Something's up with Egalt, and Wyldfyre knows what it is. Sadly, she knows exactly what is is, bc she lost family members to the same disease.

2 members of the Fab 5 escaped and the second 1 is possessing Jordana. I think this was rather obvious to me.

We'll see some old friends at the Tournament of the Sources. We got Tox and Neuro and Mr. Pale and Chamille and maybe some others I forgot about.

Jay is either going to be a random competitor in the Tournament or 1 of the members of the Wolf Army. Por qué no los dos?

Bleckt can't be trusted. The fact I switched from Bleckt to Roby.

Zeatrix will make it decently far into the Tournament. She actually did. Before she lost and tried to kill Lloyd.

By the end of the season, Arin will join Ras. Technically, yes, he did.

Nokt and whoever's possessing Jordana killed the Matriarch. This became obvious. It was less obvious whether or not Ras was in on it or no.

There's a lot of manipulation in the Tournament to either help Ras or the Fab 5. Help in the form of an old man with buttons.

The City of Temples Monastery won't be how they get Kai and Bonzle back. It'll be something with the dragon horns. I'm genuinely surprised that this was the actual solution. Holy canoli.

Nokt and his sister are using Ras. He really is very easy to play with. They were holding a string in front of him and he was batting away at it, believing he was in control of everything this whole time.

Bleckt and Ras have been conspiring, but it has nothing to to with the missing horns. Yeah, their whole plot together was the subplot for the season. Nokt and Rox's plot ended up being the main 1.

Something will interrupt Sora and Nokt's fight. I'm counting Bleckt shifting the platform as an interruption. It wasn't what I assumed would happen, but it did keep Sora from actually winning the round like she should have.

There is going to be a fight between everyone and the Wolf Army. I feel like this was a given.

The rest of the Fab 5 (+ Kai and Bonzle) will be freed at the end of the season. This was another 1 of those things that felt like it was a given.

Jordie is going to get free from Rox. This 1 also felt like it was a given.

Incorrect

Sora is going to struggle with learning the Rising Dragon technique. She didn't even learn it.

Arin is going to do the best out of everyone learning the Rising Dragon technique. *sad laughter into a pillow*

Ras is sacrificing the Writers to keep control of the Wolf Army. Well, he was sacrificing them, just not to keep control of the Wolf Army. Actually, that resulted in him losing control of the army.

Bonzle was the reason none of the Finders could leave the Land of the Lost. She wasn't directly responsible for keeping them there, although she failed to mention that the spell holding them there was gone.

Bonzle was captured by the Administration. Not really... Jay tried, I'll give him that.

Zane, Cole, and Gandalaria won't realize Bonzle's been taken until after the fight. She managed to get away from Jay. Although, it would have been fun to see the 2 of them bonding a little bit.

Bonzle will be rescued. More like, she's going to save Kai from spiraling in the Nether-Realm.

Kai, Sora, and Wyldfyre will free Zane, Cole, and Gandalaria from the library. They were able to come up with a small solution all on their own.

Arin will join Ras at the end of the first half of the season. He made it much longer than that!

Lloyd will have another vision before he and Nya find Arin and reach the temple. He did not.

Beatrix will make a comeback this season. lol

Arin will find a clue as to where his parents are in the City of Temples. Ras saying he knows where Arin's parents are is not a clue. That is straight up manipulation and lies.

Frak is being used to get to the ninja bc of his history with Arin. Honestly, this would have been a good path to explore. But that would have meant that Ras would have to actually talk to his students rather than talk at them.

Zeatrix is the villain of the season. She never even stood a chance.

Wylfyre is either going to be completely oblivious to Roby's flirting and have it pointed out by Sora, OR she's going to notice and flirt back, turning him into a puddle of simp. Or the secret third thing where she's bad at flirting and so is Roby. They're both beans.

The Administrator called for the Matriarch to be killed. Nokt and Rox did that all on their own.

Roby is the 1 manipulating the Tournament. He was a bit too eager to have the ninja participate, and very into having the Most with the Tournament. But he's just a bean.

Nya left to find Jay. She and Riyu got kidnapped by Nokt and Rox.

The Fab 5 did something to sever the connection Nya and Riyu had with Kai and Bonzle. They did, indeed.

Arin will join the Fab 5 at the end of the season, instead of Ras. He ran after them, but he didn't actually join them. He was going after Ras.

Partial

Lloyd's vision is def going to happen. My predictions about exactly what are mostly accurate, but I thought it was Beatrix (like everyone else) and not Zeatrix. So, it sits in partial for being mostly accurate.

Riyu knows something's up with Arin. Sort of? But not really? Not in the way that Arin needed someone to notice that something was up with him.

Something bad will happen to Bonzle and Euphrasia. Euphrasia came out of the Blood Moon Ceremony with only being scarred mentally.

Nya's going to leave the group to go out and find Jay. Well, she did leave the group. And originally it was to go find Jay, but she got a little sidetracked.

Frak and Jordie will join the ninja at the end of the season. Frak did. Jordie is MIA.

Unconfirmed

The Monastery will be destroyed by Ras at some point, officially marking the end of Wu's time as master and the permanent start of Lloyd's. I'm genuinely still waiting for this to happen. It seems very possible.

The 3 Wu Theories: He's the Energy Dragon under Imperium. Or, he's running a tea shop somewhere. Or, he's the Administrator. I have a lot of ideas as to where Wu is at, tbh.

The Administration is playing a part in Ras freeing the Forbidden Five somehow.This all depends on who the Administrator is.

1 of Arin's parents is the Administrator. This would be terrible. I kinda want it to happen.

Wu caused the Merge for a good reason. Something had to happen to either merge the Realms or let them be destroyed. Waiting to see whether this 1 will be right or if Wu truly is evil.

Nokt was expecting someone other than Nya to participate in the Tournament. Someone who's not Kai. This is most likely Kai, but I still kinda feel like he was expecting a relative we don't know about yet.

[kindaasrikal]

Hc that Cole gets horrible stomach aches for a variety of reasons and it leaves him wallowing away in misery in his bed with a hot water bottle on his stomach not even being able to eat

Kai is often used as said water bottle and every time it happens Cole makes him promise he won’t tell anyone about his pain and Kai swears he won’t. But Kai that mf had his finger crossed and typing Zane as they speak. Five minutes later Zane has put together what might be causing the stomach pains and a solution.

If it takes a while for the solution to kick in and get rid of the pains, Jay, Nya and Lloyd all switch on who would be entertaining Cole. Whenever Cole is awake and feeling like he wants to do something but literally can’t because of the pain, they send in Jay who watches shows and theorises with Cole.

When Cole is tired and is in a serious need of sleep they send in Lloyd to nap with him because he is seriously the best cuddle buddy you can squeeze him and he will squeeze back. And when Cole is awake and bored but tired at the same time, they send in Nya to have the most meaningless but sweet conversations about nothing and everything, sometimes even sitting in silence.

Zane join in at random just to keep company and make sure Cole’s stomach isn’t about to eat him instead, and Kai is there the whole time silently laying on Cole’s stomach in complete bliss.

Wu has to keep reminding them that he has magic teas for these problems.

[taddymason]

You are THE ceo of Dragons Rising Jay. I'm interested in how you would have handled Jay in the Tournament of Sources. Like, how would you have liked it to go? Especially the (unfortunately) short fight with Nya.

(long rant with drs2 spoilers)

Ok, so, my biggest problem is that there is no buildup to go from "Agent Walker" to "Wolf Jay". If I weren't aware of the leaks and was watching the show solely with the information presented there I would be very confused about whatever is going on with Jay.

It's almost funny, all the exposition they do and then they jump right into the angst when there's barely any substance. There is no interaction from Jay with Ras, Jordana, or Cinder. We are not shown how he decides to escape the Administration, how Ras recruits or trains him, or how he kicks him off the team. And yes, there are people who will say that maybe they will make an episode focused on that in S3, but if the way to introduce him as an antagonist is to take him out after 3 minutes of screen time with pure exposition dialogues, it is quite messy and disappointing. There is nothing of this character that has been shown after his interaction with Bonzle, only the immediate jump to Jaya angst, they don't even show him regaining his powers or how the hell Ras found him.

So my two options to fix this are:

Introduce Jay defeating other elemental masters, even using shatterspin. Let that be the real shock for the ninjas. Show me at least how he interacts with his own team, how he fights dirty, his relationship and training with Ras, I don't need them to tell me his entire backstory, just let me see how these two talk so I can infer that Jay truly believes Ras was his teacher instead of throwing out that line carelessly. Make the ninjas worry because they know they will eventually have to fight Jay, maybe Nya tries to talk to him. AND THEN do the Jaya fight where Jay loses instead of having the fight be so early in the season. This way, I can at least take Jay seriously, and if I were a casual viewer, I can infer that he's a future threat, rather than a useless kicked puppy.

BUT

I recognize that this season has pacing problems due to handling so many plots and characters at the same time. Maybe there is no time to show all this and it is true.

But if there's no time to give Jay a proper introduction, then I'd rather he not participate in the tournament. It's that simple. I would have preferred that those 3 minutes of screen time be spent on him getting fed up with the Administration and deciding to escape. Maybe leave it there with him getting to meet Arin and Ras at the end of the season.

That would make me curious to know what his future is, it is a slower buildup, yes, but it makes more sense with everything they showed us with him as an agent.

In part 2, I didn't feel curiosity about him, just… pity. You have him talking shit, you have Ras showing him off as if it were his secret weapon, and then you have him like a kicked puppy who runs OFF SCREEN after only exposing how he went from the Administration to the tournament. Nothing else. They did him dirty.

Anyway, I don't want to flood my blog just complaining about the Evil Jay plotline in s2, so this will probably be the last post I make about this because I want to focus on others that I did LIKE about the season, like Arin's arc, which seems perfect to me.

So yeah, don't expect art or any content about DR Jay, the season took away all my interest in what they would do with his character, except- pity, I guess. At this point I've lost hope that they'll give Jay a good arc, so I'd rather accept it than continue complaining.

[weekend-whip]

"You have your mother's eyes," says an elderly customer to Kai from the other side of the shop's counter, and Kai just stares at the guy like he's crazy. His mother had eyes the color of the surface of the ocean—if anything, Kai's got his father's eyes, all burnt and reddish and fiery. But the customer only chuckles and doubles down on his claim.

"Your mother had that unwavering ferocity in her eyes as well," the man explains, a certain twinkle in his own gaze. He speaks like he's an old friend, but Kai has never felt more like a stranger. "That unrelenting vigilance... you truly must take after her. If she were here, I bet she'd be very proud of you."

Kai closes the shop down for the day after that, and never tells Nya why.

. . .

"You have your mother's eyes," said Wu once to Nya, and Nya instantly knows what that means, and Nya feels like a fool for not having put it all together sooner. She now sits in front of her vanity's mirror and glares at herself, mentally kicking at her brain for not making the connections even sooner.

She really does have her mother's eyes, though hers are a cyan of a grayer shade and her pupils are still white. She scowls, drawing upon every bubbling bit of frustration boiling within her ocean of emotions, thrusting it upwards until it breaches the surface. Her irises intensify; their true bright cyan color splashes to life, accompanied by a rather intimidating glow.

Nya smiles in spite of the Outburst.

There—now that's more like her mother.

. . .

"You have your mother's eyes," said no one to Jay, as for a very long time, that wouldn't have been true. His mother's eyes had been nothing but charcoal black, just as his father's were, lacking in anything and everything potentially Elemental, up until he discovered that as-a-matter-of-fact, he had been adopted...and suddenly, his mother's eyes were the same shade of cobalt blue he sports now.

Jay's still not sure how he feels about that fact. But should he come across a woman with eyes the same shade of electric cobalt...he's going to have a few words for her.

And the first one is going to be: "Why?"

. . .

"You have your mother's eyes," Lou declares as a statement, one night when Cole miraculously stops by for a visit. Cole wants to roll these so-called eyes of his mother's, for even if it is true, they're the root of all his problems to begin with. They sit upon his face as a constant reminder of what they'd both lost, and even after everything, it makes it difficult to ever really put it behind them.

Sometimes, Cole's glad for it, knowing he can pass by his reflection in a window and pretend that she's still looking out for him from time to time. Like she's not truly gone, so long as he carries her with him.

Sometimes, though, Cole catches the way Lou or even Wu or Garmadon will do a double-take when turning to look at him, and he catches the way their faces wilt with some disappointment. It's no one's fault, not really. It's just... unfortunate.

. . .

"You have your mother's eyes," says Cyrus Borg in the midst of his lab, reminiscing upon an old photo of himself with Julien and Aurora. Zane frowns, for this has never been true.

He had her complexion, her hair color, her eyebrows, and the slight crook of her smile, but never her eyes. And now, being Titanium, nothing of him resembles his mother other than the love in the heart beating in his chest. And all at once, he's reminded that he is technically no longer the same person he was before.

He spends several nights afterward conspiring with Jay and Nya to do...something to "fix" this—to bring back some semblance of who he physically used to be, someone he himself had been unable to reconstruct...but ultimately, he has to begrudgingly drag himself to Miranda, who all-too cheerfully reprograms his eye color to match that of a true Elemental Master of Ice, although that's the extent of what she can do.

Even now, it's...still not quite right. But, it's closer than it was before.

. . .

"You have your mother's eyes," Garmadon says to Lloyd, and Lloyd immediately calls 'bullshit' in his head, because there's no one alive that has his stupidly unique eyes—and probably never will again—unless you want to count the gaze of a larger-than-life man long since gone from the world.

"You know that's not what I mean," Garmadon notes with a click of his tongue, catching the way Lloyd's face twists into a protesting scowl. "I mean that...I see a lot of her in you. Her courage, her kindness, her intelligence, her strength...Which, is all a good thing!"

Garmadon throws his head back in a laugh. Lloyd stares at him, carefully and quietly.

"I mean, can you imagine if your eyes were like mine instead?"

Once upon a time, Lloyd would have killed for that to be the truth. But now...that's too terrifying a reality to even entertain in his imagination.

So Lloyd laughs too, if only to chase off the horror of it all.

[crackedpumpkin]

Speaking of your previous(I think?) post about Infuriating Melodies…..*cutely kicks legs and giggles*

What is your characterization of Cole and the ninjas? I always love hearing others interpretations about it.

(っ˘ڡ˘ς)

oooo i am sitting down for this...

Let's start with Lloyd. First of all, can we just appreciate how they handled his character in Dragons Rising? We're getting to look at the very real effects of all the shit the poor guy's been through... At first I got annoyed tbh, I thought he was being too passive. However, it's pretty dumb of me to saythat because now i realise how used i am to protagonists who can solve a problem with little to no difficulty at all.

But onto more lighthearted stuff, he strikes me as...bitchless.

For lack of better word, i mean. tbh i skipped lots of crystallized bc i just dont like harumi as a character very much (i am not accepting feedback <3) so my opinion isn't the most reliable. I mean he has severe daddy and mommy issues so can you blame the guy. i bet he's the type of guy who wouldn't know you're flirting with him unless you straight up say it. he does however have rizz (thanks to everyone else in his team lmao but there are the cringey moments. trust.)

he's very organised and has learnt to put up with a lot of stupid shit bc he's in a team full of dumbasses /aff. there're a few mementos he keeps in a drawer next to his bed and when he needs a reprieve he just goes to it and grabs one. it calms him down.

For Jay, he's kinda just like me. constantly frazzled, but in a pinch he can step up to the position needed. They're all leaders but they just do things in different ways. He's a chaotic mess but like, a chaotic mess with a checklist :) i bet he and nya have a bunch of lego flowers in their room (yes they share a room or they sneak over to each other's room) he essentially reminds me of a mixture of dewey and huey from Ducktales (2017 reboot) (aka one of the the best shows in existence)

Zane to me is the undeniable anchor. he's got the absolute best roasts and i bet he's the main line of communication in terms of emailing, texting their allies and friends. if not for Zane who would regularly keep cyrus updated ? (besides pixal, i mean) he's an insane multitasker but if you spring a surprise on him he will buffer for a solid minute. his love language is def acts of service, and doesnt understand why some people feel bad for not reciprocating.

Kai is a mischievous little fire gremlin who is the de facto leader of the group if lloyd isnt there. he, jay, and cole are the enabler trio of the team, and their antics are enough to drive lloyd crazy. it's hard to believe he's the older one sometimes. i genuinel think he's just a big ball of vulnerable but he constantly pushes it aside to focus on other stuff. also, he has a surprising amount of mature moments with the group.

nya is smart, yes, but also the kind of person who thinks that if you cook stuff in an oven for an hour at 140 celcius, you can do the same thing by cooking it at 300 celcius for 5 minutes and achieve the same outcome. this has gotten her banned from the kitchen.

also she makes incredibly bad jokes sometimes. jay laughs regardless of whether theyre funny or not. i view her as someone who's got multiple degrees, but sucks at group work during projects

anyway thats all i have in mind for now, lmk if you'd like to hear me yap anymore lololol sorry for putting you through this anon <3

[ninjagobythenumbers]

Season 18 Bechdel Test

I gotta say. This was not a great season for women. (That is, if you only go by the Bechdel test, which is really only useful as in aggregate for getting somewhat of an overview on representation. It is not a test that accounts for any sort of nuance. It is just for fun.) Here's the rest of the seasons for comparison. Full spreadsheet here.

As you can see, this season had more failures of the Bechdel test than any season since Crystalized. More than one of the episodes that succeeded would have failed if not for an exchange between Rox and Kur. (As I've been saying since Sons of Garmadon, having a female henchman to a female villain makes passing the Bechdel test easy. Super catchy saying.) This season also only had 2 named women introduced. Much less than prior DR seasons, but I will chalk that up to overall reduction in new characters. Just guessing off the top of my head, 5 men were introduced. At least. So hmm, I hope DR isn't losing one of its key Bechdel success factors - not having men be the default. That would truly be a regression. Aside from that, I don't think that this season's failures demonstrate any sort of destruction of the show's female characters or anything like that. It failed primarily because of two simple factors.

The main female characters were split up.

The characters' primary goal was to find two male characters.

Elaborating on these points, for the majority of this season, Sora was the only woman in a group while Nya and Wyldfire were in a group with Kai. You'd think that the Nya & Wyldfire group would save us, but both characters tend to only talk to Kai because that's the character they have a close relationship. Similarly, you'd think PIXAL joining the Sora group would help, but the two characters never end up speaking because Sora spent this season mainly speaking to Arin, Frak, and Lloyd and PIXAL primarily speaks to Zane. And I mean, this issue of female characters only speaking to male characters could be indicative of a larger issue in which they're really only accessories to a male storyline (ex: just a sister/girlfriend/mom). However, I think it's more due to this season's group breakdown. I'll also point out that Zane primarily speaks to PIXAL. They've always neutralized eachother in interaction data. I think she actually spoke to more people this season than him. I also think, more than anything, the lack of interaction between female characters at the moment is of an age gap thing. As demonstrated by Nya's line "My brother and his clueless friend," there's sort of an interesting dynamic in the show right now where the adult Ninja don't really know the young Ninja at all unless they're mentoring them. I kind of like it to be honest. It's pretty realistic that they're not all close and that they'd discuss more serious issues (ex: the loss of Jay) with their long-term friends rather than some teenager. The characters' goals are also of course an issue. Nya's looking for Jay. Sora's worried about Arin. Wyldfire's trying to save Roby's life. Thus, whenever they speak to each other it ends up being about the man they're looking for. This, naturally, could also be indicative of a larger problem. We don't want female characters' storylines to always revolve around men. Still, provided this isn't a consistent problem, I'm inclined to think it's just a quirk of the story as it stands right now.

My reverse Bechdel of Crystalized actually suffered from the exact same problems. They were trying to find Nya and they spent much of the season split up into heterogenous groups. You may notice that the split was the bigger issue. Same case for Chaos Rising.

Thank you for reading all this! I'll reiterate that I just do the Bechdel test on Ninjago for fun because it's interesting to see how an kid's action cartoon (something that would be exclusively aimed at boys in the 2010s) has changed over time in how women are represented. If you want to see this chart clearer or the rest of my spreadsheets go to this link. Please let me know if you have any other ideas for Ninjago charts!