#and with skales and spitz

[spinjitzuladykaia]

ok so something make me think

if Fritz is forgotten by EVERY formling + people from never-realm wouldn't that mean that sorla,formling leader,kataru and AKITA dosent remember him also?!

if geo is also forgotten does that mean vania,all munces and geckles,dont remember him?!

and if spitz is also forgotten does that mean skales dont remember him?!

we dont know yet is bonzle a skulkin tho,but doc did promise we get her story to be known soon

[tricogarfield]

Okay, so, this might be a VERY HOT TAKE but...

Do you ever think about Skales' kid Skales Jr. and his wife Selma??? Like, what happened to the little guy? And where is Selma now?

That was, until it hit me;What if SPITZ is the kid of Skales???

Like, you gotta hear me out for a second,,,,what if Selma died sometime after appearing (perhaps shortly before or durig Crystallized or something?) And Skales was so caught up in the grief, he completely ignored his own son who just lost his mother? Like, a similiar situation of Cole and his dad Lou perhaps!

So Skales Jr. ventures out, completely unnoticed by his own father and starts traversing the land

And he eventually, either before or after The Merge, he ends up in the Land of Lost Things, where he takes on the name Spitz because he doesnt want to be just a shadow of his father who neglected him???

I'll admit, this is a hot take and it could very well be that you see Skales Jr. and Selma in the last episode of crystallized and I was just too blind to see it, but- this would be super interesting to see, wouldn't it??? Especially with Cole having had a similiar situation and then helping and comforting Spitz and telling him about his dad!

Anyway, this thought just randomly hit me at 5 AM and I should go to sleep now, bye TAT

[fanficmaniatic]

Love every single word in this post, and I feel you. If I could see the timeline the show writers were working with I would be a happy man. But Alas.... I don't think they had one. And for my own sanity, this are the explanations I've come up with + the timeline I use so that I don't rip my head when trying to write fics.

The Skales junior situation:

First, I feel like we need to consider the species. He is a snake. Cobra serpentine, which I believe is the species the hypnobrai are based on, are an egg-laying species of snakes. Now, unlike humans, when a snake hatches from an egg, they had already figure out simple things that takes us humans months. Things like; not choking on our food, walking and most motor functions. A baby snake could hypothetically survive own its own if its incubation was without issue, a human baby could not.

Where am I going with this? Skales Junior's egg could have been laid when they where in the thumbs, but hatched during the s2->s3 time skip. In real life, a snake eggs takes 2 to 3 months to hatch. Since in Ninjago Serpertine are a highly intelligent sentient species, lets say one of their eggs takes 2 to 3 years to hatch. When the kid actually hatches they would be no different than a 2-3 year old human toddler who is struggling to learn their words but has already figure out how to walk.

With this being said, I think maybe, Junior could have hatched 8-10 months before we saw him in s3, making him the equivalent of a toddler ages 3-5ish, and then he is just and older kid in s7. (also as a side note, WHEN in s7 does he appear again, I do NOT remember).

In rewards of s2->s3 time skip being shorter than s3->s4 all I have to say is... Tommy Andreasen, you, me, the nearest Waffle House. Catch these hands. <- As it is obligatory on the internet, that is a joke.

Now for Spitz and the Finders:

I feel that is way more likely Spitz egg is what got lost and not Spitz herself. Her egg could have been lost, forgotten about, hatched while in the Land of Lost Things, and has been under Geo's care ever since. She could have been 4-5 when the Merge happened/ Cole arrived, and be 9-10 now.

The "But we are teenagers" Kai dialog from s9: To be fair, as a guy in his early 20s who feels like a teenager, and is surrounded by a bunch of early 20s guys who also feel like teenagers... I just though that was the case here with Kai too. Meaning, they are young adults, early 20s, but being as their life is this Ninja business, no taxes, no worrying about mortgage, 'waiting to see what life throws at you' mentality, he just says they are teenagers.

There are so many "Grown" Things happening in the Oni trilogy that I just can't see Kai saying that and being serious. Nya (Kai's younger sister) gets engaged, Cole is considering adopting a baby, the overall more mature tone of the season. AND more importantly and why I don't think the og4 and Nya are teenagers this season (I place them to be 20-23 with Lloyd being 16), is that they actually perform like experienced Ninja in a way they just were not in seasons 4-7. Nothing against those seasons, I love s4-s7, but the Oni trilogy really shines when showcasing the team doing Ninja stuff.

And now, the timeline I use to not rip my hair. Let it be known that it according to it, 17 years have passed from the pilot to Dragons Risings s1, and that feels wrong to me. it feels too short, but to add more years feels too long, so anyways:

TIMELINE: 1st year + half - Pilot - S1 - S2 (One year gap) 3rd year: -S3 (6 month gap) 4th Year -S4 (3 month gap) -S5 -Skybound 5th year - DotD - S7 (One year gap) 7th year - S8 - S9 (6 months gap) Same year -s10 (6 months gap) 8th year -s11 -s12 -s13 (2/4 month Gap) 9th year -The Island (2 month gap) -s14/ Seabound 10th year -s15/ Crystalized (1 year gap) 11th Year -The Merge (6 year gap) 17th year -s16/ Dragons Rising s1

It was said that the Og4 where 14-20 during the pilots, I like to throw Nya there too, since she is paired with both Jay and Cole, this would make the Og4 + Nya somewhere between 31-37 In Dragons Rising s1.

Its safe to assume Lloyd is somewhere between 8-13 in s1, making him 25-30 in DRs1. Depending of y'alls headcannons.

Did not intent to ramble for that long. Sorry. But I hope that at the very least someone like me can rest in piece with this fuckass timeline. love yall.

[verydistractedveryconfused]

Headcanon that Frak and Geo started bonding because of their heritage and backgrounds.

They are both mixed species with distinctive characteristics and traits from said species.

Frak's body skales/spikes on his head and strength resemble more his merlopian side, while the colors of his skales (i think constrictai), eyes and the shape of his toungue are very clearly from the serpentine.

His behaviour also may imply that he was raised mostly among other serpentines, giving how he met Arin, his knowledge on speleology (as he mentioned on season 3) and the hissing.

Geo has more Munce characteristics than Geckle. His height, teeth, hair and markings are from his munce side, while his coloring and ears are those of a geckle.

I can't say much of his behaviour or mannerism because if I am not mistaken he had been cast away from his home, so ot is most likely that he did not retain much of their customs once he was no longer surrounded by either of the tribes.

Where am I going with this?

It's not that I think they would bond solely on the fact that they are both a mixed species.

Frak seems very confident and proud of who he is, he knows his culture and likes talking about it.

Meanwhile Geo on his first appearance on the show seemed almost ashamed of himself, and he doesn't appear to be comfortable talking about it.

I think Frak would totally notice this and reach out to Geo. Maybe help him feel sure of who he is and support him.

Idk, i just wanted Frak and Geo to interact.

Also, Frak would totally be a cool cousin to Fritz and Spitz (maybe even teach Spitz to use his hypnotic eyes)

[sepublic]

No it’s insane having Frak because like. Finally some Constrictai representation???? They’re easily the most overlooked Serpentine tribe by the fandom and canon alike. It doesn’t help that they only appeared in the latter wave of 2012 with the least set appearances, one of them didn’t even get a spinner/booster pack! And in the show the Constrictai are tied with the Venomari as having the least focus.

And like c’mon we know he’s a Constrictai. He’s orange and his element is associated with the earth, he takes advice from Cole. The Constrictai were once used by Skales to cause earthquakes by drilling through Ninjago City’s foundations.

What’s even cooler is that he’s also kind of a canon stand in for the EVO snake warriors? They didn’t appear in the show at all, but they have the same coloration and mold as Frak, more or less. And given Dragons Rising actually had the second EVO wave’s villains in the show, this feels like its way to make up for the first wave being left out.

If you think about it, the Constrictai can be seen tunneling by spinning like a drill. So I guess it makes sense that one would join the ninja because that’s not so unlike Spinjitzu in that sense. Kinda ironic then that Frak doesn’t actually know Spinjitzu while having an element, while it’s the reverse for his friend Arin.

Just. Good guy Serpentine who’s recurring and has a storyline where you root for him??? And he’s Constrictai and not just Mezmo??? Even his name fits the typical Serpentine puns! Dragons Rising writers continue to serve me well, after a decade of waiting.

All I need now is to see Frak tunnel through the earth. I can see why he wouldn’t choke people with his bare hands tho, or use his venom (If the Constrictai have any; I HC theirs causes you to suffocate and that’s why there’s even an antivenin, though the canon is that it apparently just helps you breathe better after being squeezed/choked). Oh and let’s have him interact with Spitz over Serpentine history and figures, as well as acknowledging the initially contentious relationship the previous generation had with the ninja. But that’s just a nice bonus.

[whydoibe]

Ok context and slight transcription

NAME - Salkai Wrbours Walker

Age 12

Species- serptine hybrid hlaf venmari quater hypnobri and quater fangpyre

Favourite colour -blue

Back story

Abounded at a young age lived a miserable life which got worse with the merg up until he meets a mysterious man with powers like his and starts seeing him as the dad he always deserved the man named jay wouldn't take much notice just telling him he's not his dad until he's kidnapped by a couple crooks causing jay to go revenge quest mode he doesn't take a single life when he saves his son Jay cries so much telling him its ok that he's ok and dads here Salkai would then change his last name to walker to jays amusement and approval

Powers

Elemental power thunder if wyldfyre has heat why not have thunder this is just lighting but a bit more violet.

Short story

Kai once stupidly burned salkias hand by heating up a sword handle and giving it to him kai went missing for a week the ninja found him in that attic chained up with the key In reach but anytime kai reached for it he got zapped kai then will never ever prank salkai ever again or jay will kill him next time.

Nya doesn't realy like salkai much she views him as a constant reminder of a time she'd rather forget salkai likes nya and views her as a mother figure because that what his brain wants a mother nya has grown closer even being caught cottling him when he had anthour nightmare and jay was out of the monstary visting Ed and Edna and explains and catching up nya helped with locking kai in the attic kai doesn't know that and jay won't snitch.

Relationships

Jay -dad like proud ass single father

Nya -step mom kinda it's complicated

Kai- 4th favourite uncle he doesn't hate him has.even apologised for running to jay kai forgave him tries to be favroute uncle kai beliv3s he is he is not

Cole - favourite uncle just that he's a cool dude who don't yell at him when he first called him uncle Cole surprised geo is uncle geo

Geo - favourite uncle equal with Cole they bounded over abandoned and being hybrids

Lloyd- 2nd favourite uncle Lloyd try's to be the favourite sorry Lloyd that always be Cole and geo

ZANE -third favourite uncle Zane nice to him and has fully embraced the name uncle Zane

Spitz- cousins like thier biological cousins they don't know it and never will thier biological families are kinda bad

Fritz-cousin like to hang out

Fraq- act like brothers some times they call them selves the serpints jay has reaptly interrupted thier "secret meeting" to get salkai to go to bed fraq is Coles responsibility.

Sora- sees her as a big sister she thinks he's kinda neat

Arin - he's his brother to both of them jay was thier during dark patches they think he saved them truth is they saved each other salkai will and has fought people to keep arin safe.

Wyldfrye- thinks its cool he can walk through fire pretty easily hand skales are softer that's how kai burned him hes her cousin salkai likes talking to her once they snuck away to see fireworks kai and jay were furious was an undersatment jay telpoterd kai and him to them they spent the next week doing the dishes and constantly traing

Ed and Edna- he's thier grandson he is spioled by them Ed and Edna proud of their son for taking him In like they took him in this was his start to redemption Ed take him to tiker with him Edna takes him in to cook and saw he's made himself a ninja gi

Sensi wu- wu will die for this kid jay is shocked and hwo close they are wu questions if jay cheated on nya with a snake because.how close they act jay says he doesn't think so (he hasnt)

Garmdon- indfrent but when he watchs him train garmdon tells jay he's a good dad and doing good

Pixal- favourite aunt pixel will take this kid on missions in her samuri amour jay doesn't think it's safe diapirte pixel reasiring him

Ras - hates him because he still had plans for walker but this kid helped walker talk arin out of his command and gave him the clearly to deafend him ras wants him dead

Skales- views what the family did to him and vows to bring them to justice

Fangtom/dam - they are impressed by jays willingness to take him in

Skaldor-hates the kids biological parents for aboundement a dishourble diagiustimg act

Acdious- jay and him are close friends to some degree is an uncle to the kid has told jay his son may be general material in the future

Pythor - kinda likes jay for taking in the snake kid and begrudgingly respects him now.

Salkai - loves his uncles and cousins loves his big brother loves his step mom loves jay his dad his guardian knows spinjitzu jay taught him learned it quickly use his power to mess with fraq .

[master-jarrus]

So finished my rewatch of all of ninjago that is easily available on Netflix (so the original, day of the departed and some of the shorts I could not watch)

Theories about dragons rising and therefore SPOILERS

While the merge would’ve happened no matter what BUT Ras and Beatrix triggered it early

Ras’s master is the overlord

Land of the Lost tells us what’s going on with the Departed Realm. It could’ve shown up on the map but once you’re in you can’t leave it creates a fog

Lloyd could’ve ended up in the land of the lost as a kid

I have decided that Spitz is actually Skales Junior but he got separate from his family during one of the events in Ninjago and they all thought he died and he lost all his memories

Fritz is a formling and judging by his hat he has a bird form. I’m hc that he got lost and stuck in the land of lost things during Zane’s reign and by the time anyone was able to remember him it was too late

Geo, is so obviously is love with Cole but I’m sorry I ship Cole and Vania and I won’t be swayed maybe they can be poly but I feel like a lot of Geo’s affection for Cole may come from him being the Son of Lilly and so he feels like he is the only one who can truly accept him

The Merge had to have messed with people’s memories because Lloyd keeps being treated like this perfect angel and no one wants to mention how much of a menace he was a child and I think Sora and Arin would greatly benefit from learning that (and not just in haha he was a menace and he’s getting payback from them. I really think it will help them in their learning)

Cole is most definitely going to be the one to find Jay

The administration is a nightmare but also far too real but maybe that’s just because I live in the US (cries in victim of capitalism)

The Administrator has to be either PIXAL or Garmadon but a fun twist would be Mindroid or Borg

Misako realistically would be dead by this point the youngest she could be before the Merge was mid 70s (I refuse to believe she and Garmadon got married before she was 20 because I’m so tired of cartoon woman being questionably young. I don’t care if that means she was late 40 early 50s when she had Lloyd it’s possible and actually not uncommon) BUT this is Ninjago so she’s probably alive and researching stuff

Also did anyone notice that the temple grave place Nya and Sora went to had a pillar that matched one in the Monastery and they show it immediately after in almost the same place I am really hopeful that’s important

PIXAL better be living her best life building stuff for fun and profit and they only thing missing is Zane and she just really misses him but otherwise everything is perfect for her and she won’t have to leave that but instead just move it to the monastery or the crossroads

The Geckle chancellor knew it was Zane he just didn’t recognize him at first and was embarrassed about it so he tried to cover it up by saying not even Zane himself could live up to Zane

Blazey H Speed/Racer 7 is Kreel change my mind

The explorers club has branched out significantly and now every major city that will allow them has a club house

The ninja are adults in this and you can’t change my mind

I think Lloyd is late 20s early 30s

I know Wu or the first spinjitzu master is probably who the big source dragon was talking about but I really hope it was the good part of Garmadon I just would really like to see that and it would also be funny if there were multiple versions of Garmadon running around because of Harumis ritual and then like the merge caused him to further split apart. It would be hilarious

[ninjamech]

ninjago tags:

ninjago / ninjago movie

Characters (original show/movie):

lloyd, nya, jay, kai, cole, zane, pixal, wu, garmadon

morro, ronin, dareth, benthomaar, echo, harumi, skylor, borg, brad, vania, akita, tox, chamille, arrakore, scott, unagami, koko, misako, libber, clutch (powers), (milton) dyer, sensei garmadon, sally, lily, skales, tai-d, chicken, karlof, faith

(master) chen, pythor, cryptor, preeminent, mr e, fugidove, overlord, nadakhan, aspheera

Characters (dragons rising):

arin, sora, wyldfyre, jordana, ras, geo, frak, frohicky, fritz, spitz, roby, bonzle, euphrasia, cinder, beatrix

General tags:

little lloyd - early seasons, pre aging up

little ninja - from childs play, little guys ;u;

movie possession au - by min-bitt, a favourite of mine :]

crossover - crossovers between show and movie/multiples of the same characters

[aroninshonour]

OOOO OMGOMGOMGOGNJEJEHE

These are in no particular order btw

Cole, Ronin, Dareth, Jay, Kai, Zane, Nya, Lloyd, Wu, All of the Bizarros😎, Karlof, Shade, Tox, Garmadon, Pixal, Morro, Roby, Kapau, Chope, EUPHRASIA!!, Jordana, Sora, Arin, RASSS, Rapton(Stupid silly guy), Okino, Unagamiiii, Doubloon, Cryptor, Nadakhan(this is literally only because he's a good villian. I hope he burns in a pit.), WyldFyre, Mystake, Echo, SCOTT ONG ALMOST FORGOT HIM, Vinny, Sensei Yang(THE ANGST POTENTIAL BRO), Benthomaar, Minipix, Sally!!, Mr. Frohicky, Geo, Spitz, Fritz, Bonzel, Neuro, CINDER!, Antonia, Clutch Powers(Hes an idiot), KORGRAN!, Arrakore, PLUNDAR!!, Adam, Faith, Jet Jack, Sorla, Boma, Uthaug, Gandalaria, Gleck, Murt, Soto, Vex, Lilly, Nokt, Harumi, Mr. E, Mr. F, Kruncha, Nuckel, Pythor, Skales, General Kozu(Fucking lov that idiot, OH also that Giant Stone Warrior, Soul Archer, Clancee, Chew Toy, Those Monster Sushi, Mechanic, Frak, Dorama, Shard, Flame, Rocky, and Wisp, and the Ultra Dragon, gotta have them all :3

Oh that got longer than I thought it would. Welp, idk if that's all of them, but that's a lot of them

If you can't tell I love this show a little much. I love a lot of characters. :3

Anyways NO PRESSURE TAGS!!: @absolutelynotsanebaby @onicole @nyaskitten @juniperjellyfish @d0nut-gh0st @ec1ipticshadow @food-u @geoxstxrs @thervbb3rdvckkingfromyt @stars-and-stuff and anyone else who wants to join !! :D

NEW NINJAGO TAG GAMEE !!! <333

So basically just tag your mutuals and reblog with ALL your favorite ninjago characters. No limit just ALLLLLL of themm <333

Kai, Cole, Nya, Aspheera, Kalmaar, Ultra-Violet, Miss Demeanor, Jordana, Geo, Mr. E, Griffin Turner, Neuro, Jet-Jack, Ronin, Cluth Powers, Okino, Krux, Acronix, Roby, Plundar, Killow, Antonia, Harumi, Captain Soto, Vinny, Hutchins, Kataru, Wu, Arrakore, Sora, Shifty, Antonia, Nyad, Euphrsia, Karlof, Krux, Chamille

tags + open:

@fruity-legos @iloveacronix @smellybead @roselock22 @mythicalmagical-monkeyman @nyaskitten

[destinywillowleaf]

brain said "analysis time", this got long, sorry in advance.

tl;dr 4-6 years passing probably does work but serpentine ages and aging rates make my head hurt and i'm probably more in the 3-4 years passing club anyway (but probably at least a year going by between Crystallized and The Merge in the first place)

See I definitely think it's been at least 3 years thanks to Crossroads Carnival. The put up the tent to honor the ninja "every year" which implies two years at minimum, but "every year" feels more like an implication of this being the 3rd+ time it's happened. It could easily be somewhere in the 4-6 range based on that too, and it's definitely been a few years thanks to Sora, Arin, and Wyldfyre all going from short to long legs, but there's just one little problem that sticks out to me.

Spitz.

Cole: Yeah. I had no clue where I was. The Finders took me in. Sora: The Finders? (Fritz and Spitz pop up behind Sora.) Fritz: He means us! I'm Fritz. Spitz: Ssspitz here! You lose it, we find it. Hence, the Finders.

~~

Nya: So, if your theory about this place is right, then those kids are also lost? Forgotten? Cole: Yep. Each of them ended up here after running away from home.

To me, the dialogue implies that Fritz and Spitz were there before Cole was. It could just be saying the Finders as a group name were there before Cole was, which would imply at least two of the others were there before him (thus it could have just been Geo and Bonzle before Cole was there). Still, the phrasing seems to be implying Cole is the most recent addition to the Land of Lost Things. It wouldn't be that much of a problem chronologically...

...if it weren't for Skales Junior, Season 9, and (to some extent) Tommy Andreasen.

Even if we DO choose to ignore Andreasen's statements about the S3->S4 timeskip being longer than the S2->S3 timeskip (more specifically that the S3->S4 timeskip was the longest as of August 2016, post-Skybound and pre-DotD) and the statement about Junior having been born in the new village and not the tombs (February 2017), Skales's dialogue in "The Curse of the Golden Master" seems to imply that Junior was born/hatched more recently anyway.

Kai: Skales Jr.? Uh, you have a son? Skales: We've been busy since you left us. And we prefer to keep it that way.

Which not only begs the question of how much time passed between seasons, but also the question of how quickly Serpentine mature (and how old you thought Junior was in equivalent human years). Depending on your answer for the first question, the answer to the second changes.

And for a time, it was easy enough to say maybe a few years passed between S2 and S3 (I don't know what the general consensus is/was but I tended to say 2-3 years), and Serpentine matured somewhere from 2-4 (or maybe more) times faster than humans. Junior didn't change much in his Tournament of Elements appearance (assuming it wasn't just a chance to reuse a model instead of creating a new one(which it totally was)), so things seemed easy. Hands of Time also didn't see a model change, but the amount of time that passed from S4 to S7 is a bit up in the air anyway. What mattered was he was still a kid and there wasn't gonna be a need to change the model that wasn't gonna be on screen for more than 5 minutes.

And then a year went by in Ninjago to reach Season 8, and a week after the Bounty is destroyed we pick up in Season 9. And Season 9 has "The Gilded Path" and the following exchange.

Kai: Jay, we're still teenagers. Jay: Yeah, but grown-up teenagers.

I know it's probably supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and leaning on the fourth wall more than a statement to take seriously, but the fact of the matter still stands that Kai and Jay are "grown-up teenagers", with the implication being that Cole is one as well. The diction/cadence Jay uses doesn't necessarily imply that they have to be 18 or 19, but I'd only put them at 17 at the youngest here. (Zane is a robot and can't help us in this situation. Sorry buddy)

Assuming they're 19 as of Season 9, that means the trio was 18 in Season 7 (with the possibility of Jay being either almost 18 or almost 19 thanks to the early birthday present stuff). Seeing as all three of them have full-length minifigure legs during their Wu Recruitment in the pilot (and the expanded S8/S9 versions for Cole and Jay), then presumably they're at least teenagers at that point. (I recognize that the mid-length legs weren't a thing at this point, so theoretically there could be more nuance to their ages, but I have at least a little faith that Wu wouldn't purposefully seek out and recruit Actual Children.) Going on the furthest bounds, that would make the trio 13 (or maybe 14) in the pilots, leaving 4 or 5 years for all the events from the end of the pilots to the start of Season 7. It's certainly possible to have everything happen in that span of time depending on how much time you allot to each season's events and the passage of time between them, but it can get kind of tight. Plus it means Nya is kinda young during the pilots which is just so weird to think about.

But then Skales Junior makes things weird again, and in turn makes things weird for Spitz. Junior can't grow up at the same rate a human does, but he also can't grow up too fast.

Maybe it's just me, but it would feel strange for rapid aging to only get a snake to a young child stage and not a teenager or even a preteen stage. However, this does not seem to be the case with Skales Junior, and it would be logical to avoid the same to Spitz seeing as they're both Hypnobrai (or at the very least Spitz is a Hypnobrai hybrid and that phenotype shows prominently compared to someone like Clancee).

And it's not exactly easy to say that in a year (or less) Junior went from being born to being the human equivalent of something like a 10 year old, because by consensus Spitz would then be a young teenager and that really doesn't seem to be the case (unless the snake is just short, in which I feel your pain Spitz, people mistake you as being younger than you are). I sincerely doubt Spitz is supposed to be equivalent to a human somewhere from 14-16 years old. Even assuming Spitz only wound up in the Land of Lost Things fairly early in life (~3-5 human years, maybe?) then the snake would still wind up as a young teen.

In theory, the Serpentine could speed through the early development stages and a snake around one year old could be roughly equivalent to a young child. Possibly 6-8ish, but I have no idea how old Junior is supposed to be in S3. (I've seen some guess he's closer to 4 or 5, but he could also very well have been almost 10.) He definitely feels on the younger side there and older in S7, but he still has short legs and is probably equivalent to a 10 or 11 year old at MOST. Maybe after the initial spike, they level out and might only be a little faster than humans if there's a difference in the first place.

In a case like that, Spitz probably wouldn't be an issue. Assuming the little snake was about a year old when arriving in the Land of Lost Things (with The Merge happening shortly after arrival) and it's been 4-6 years since then, it's entirely possible for Spitz to have been equivalent to a 6 year old human upon arrival and is somewhere from 10-12 now, which would make short legs appropriate. (In theory the medium legs might also work, but the range of ages that use those legs is a bit up in the air.) Spitz could have also wound up there less than a year before The Merge and would be even younger, but that's also assuming my Serpentine-to-human age equivalence estimate is correct. Spitz also might very well have ended up in the Last of Lost Things longer before the Merge, maybe having lived there for a year before everything went sideways. We don't know.

There's also every possibility that Serpentine might only "spike" to the equivalent of a human 4 or 5 year old after a year. If not much time passed from the end of Spitz's "spike" and arrival in the Land of Lost Things and the Merge then it's entirely possible for the little snake to only be a human 8-11 now. But by that same logic, Spitz could again have wound up lost earlier

Keep in mind this is also actively ignoring creator statements and only considering in-show dialogue. If Andreasen's word about early timeskips is considered, then there's either even less time for Junior to grow up or there's not a lot of time between other seasons or for them to happen to begin with. There's also the statement from the Hagemans of how the ninja are supposed to be "eternal teenagers"(September 2017) and Andreasen's tweet how the ninja have "no specific ages"(December 2017). Granted, these were both tweets sent before the line in Season 9, but there's a difference between "the creators say they're supposed to be teenagers" and "characters in the show confirm they are teenagers".

And none of this is helped by Andreasen's other statements on the timeline.

[The rest of this is just me getting annoyed at the timeline but I do think it's important context as to why I have the thoughts I do about the merge timeskip. I shit you not I have a whiteboard in my room that was dedicated to me trying to figure out the timeline post-Seabound and a sequel in the form of an MSPaint file. I love this series but I would kill for whatever timeline the writers used as reference. if they even had one.]

[edit: I talked to a friend about this and another completely viable option is a spike into toddler age and then long/slow childhood.]

On September 23rd, 2016, he stated that Zane's new body was "2 years old max" and that Pixal was "No[sic] old … 3-4 years?" and built "Between season 2 and 3". Considering these statements were made in the window after Skybound had aired but before the official/"main" teaser for Day of the Departed (and obviously in turn before the special aired), it's hard to know exactly which point should be used as reference for these timeframes. I'm leaning more towards DotD, partially due to knowing (more or less) how much time passes from there on. 2 years from the end of Rebooted to DotD and then a day or two to reach S7. Season happens and from there it's a year to S8, and with a bit more time beyond that we reach S9 and the accursed teenagers line.

Pixal helps out by narrowing time down to 1-2 years passing from her build date to the end of S3, and some of that time can be take up by the creation of Zane's statue. There's… still kind of the problem of alloting how much time actually goes by, seeing as S3->S4 still has to be greater than S2->S3, but if it's a year from Pixal to 34 credits, then it could theoretically be less than a year from S2->S3 in general.

You know, if it weren't for Borg Tower. That is a 100-story skyscraper. Those take time to build. Even the Empire State Building took more than a year from construction start to finish (and had a bit less than a year of planning ahead of time, as far as I can tell), but most take longer than that. So that means roughly a year should go by from S2->S3, and then a bit more time than that passes in the season itself. Which means over a year goes by from S3->S4 and that leaves only a year maximum for start!S4->DotD to happen which is possible (and does slot well enough together with the limited amount of time ghosts are able to exist in Ninjago before fading)…

…unless the New Year and Day of the Departed happen to be at similar times to when they are in real life. Seeing as Day of the Departed is "inspired by holidays all over the world", but does heavily draw from Halloween and Día de Los Muertos (with elements of the Japanese Obon/Bon festival and the Chinese Ghost Festival), it's more likely to be later in the year than earlier. (The wiki also says there are elements of Memorial Day, but that's more for military personnel instead of the general public, y'know?) Seeing as we don't know what the months are in the Ninjago world, I'm just gonna use the real-world ones for reference for a moment. The New Year could very well be the first day of January, or it could be variable in some day from January to February like the Chinese New Year.

While there are other New Year dates used by various real-world religions and cultures, I… sincerely doubt the Ninjago writers took them into consideration. And while there certainly is influence from Obon and the Ghost Festival on Day of the Departed, the show is kinda meant for an audience more familiar with Halloween and Día de Los Muertos. To the point where the special was initially aired in October to line up with those holidays (as opposed to airing in August, to line up with Obon and the Ghost Festival). This only creates problems because of Cole, and how "ghosts cannot remain in Ninjago for long without a vessel." We don't know how long "for long" could be, but I'd say nearly a year is more on the long side. Day of the Departed COULD be sooner into the year for all we know, but no matter what there's still the matter of having S4, S4->S5, and the majority of Season 5 also all happen alongside the S5->DotD skip in a year or less.

Part of my issues with the timeline might just stem from having read "A Team Divided" and the real-world passage of time between S2 and S3. That timeskip always felt longer to me than S3 to S4. There needs to be time to build a skyscraper and for Darkley's to become Wu's Academy. There needs to be time for the city to change. There needs to be time for Skales Junior to hatch and grow up at least a little bit. There needs to be time for Pixal to be designed and finished. There needs to be time for everything to happen. It can't be "not that long really" between S2 and S3 and then have it be longer between S3 and S4. I know Jay needs time to host his show and for Zane to be able to back up all 74 episodes (and holiday special) if Decoded is taken as canon, and I know that line is a nod to the length of the series at the time, but it's still something said and I can't just pretend it doesn't exist.

There needs to be time for Ninjago to happen and sometimes it feels like the series doesn't have enough of it.