#aside from maybe skybound

[ravenrambles6229]

Born to be a ninja, forced to pay taxes

[spacedlexi]

I’ve been thinking abt this recently, relating to Violet’s arc when you don’t save her, and wanted to see thoughts as you posted about her relationship with Minerva.

I don’t think it’s crazy for me to headcanon that in 403 when the bomb explodes, Minerva actually abandons Violet prior to it occurring (maybe being drawn by AJ’s gunshot depending on your choice??), because it makes absolutely no sense for them to go “stop the bomb” and then only one of them is burnt to shit. An explosion from such a close distance would’ve logically left both of them at least mildly burnt.

It makes more sense for Minerva to be totally fine in the kidnapped Louis route, but in the Violet route, I can’t help but feel like Violet saying “Where’s Minnie?” with such frustration when she shows up on the beach is due to something occurring.

But knowing Skybound and Telltale, they probably just forgot how explosions work.

LMAO 💀 at that last sentence BUT YES i do at least agree that something had to have happened between them during the explosion but its been hard to figure out exactly what that couldve been 🤔

but jokes aside lets try to give the writers some credit. if vi was so horribly scarred WHY wasnt minnie harmed as well if they were supposedly together? i think its a fair question to ask. especially since in 404 minnie and vi are completely separated with minnie already on the beach and vi struggling to get to shore by herself (burned and blinded 😭). and her "WHERE IS SHE??" does sound pretty furious (and atp she regrets what she did on the boat and tries to apologize to clem a minute later so why would her anger be directed at clem and louis?). we know minnie sacrificed sophie to save herself so why would it be so hard to believe she did the same to vi in the explosion? or did vi possibly try to protect her? or both?? minnie lets vi take the brunt of the hit for her and then leaves her?? i cant imagine minnie giving up on trying to stop the bomb either since shes delta now and definitely wouldnt want the boat to explode. and youd think minnie would be leading the way since kidnapped vi was in a cell the whole time. vi says they headed to the boiler room together to try to stop it but then it seems like everything just kinda went black 💣💥

but if minnie didnt abandon vi before the explosion, why wasnt minnie near vi in the water post-explosion? minnie had to have left vi alone and vulnerable at some point in all of this and we know how vi feels about being abandoned... minnie is more focused on trying to save the remaining delta and doesnt seem to have even tried looking for vi if they Were separated by the blast (and if they were together when the bomb went off (which vi says they were) minnie wouldve known vi was caught in the blast, but it doesnt seem like she cares)

violet being violet i do think shes still also worried about minnie on some level because her whole thing is being the "protector" of the group and her feelings towards minnie are (as she later admits) Very messed up atm (shes always just wanted to save her). where saved violet recognizes minnie has chosen the delta in 403, i think here on the beach is where kidnapped vi is forced to accept it, and she realizes who it is she can Truly rely on instead

[qiangweirosa]

a talk

" As Nya and Jay finally start planning their wedding, Nya is haunted by memories of darker times. Ironically enough, Jay is the only person who could possibly understand what she's going through.

or, ninjago writers dont bring up their skybound trauma enough so im taking matters into my own hands. "

relationships: jay/nya, nya & kai, cole & jay tws: hurt/comfort, flashbacks, skybound trauma wc: 1821 extra: set sometime between the end of crystallized and the merge!

read on ao3!

Kai sat down on the bed.

“Come on, spit it out.”

Nya glanced at him, barely turning her head. She laid on her bed in the monastery, and had been staring at the ceiling for quite some time before Kai came in. He looked at her expectantly, an eyebrow raised and his head tilted towards her. She sighed.

“What are you talking about?”

She asked only half heartedly; she knew more than enough that Kai wouldn’t take her avoidance as an answer. Nya sat up, and stared at her own hands, fidgeting in her lap.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Of course she knew. With another sigh, she looked back at Kai and took his expression in: behind the surface-level annoyance, she could see worry. Of course he’d be worried about her, she thought, especially since she’d been acting unusually in the past few days, if not weeks.

Nya glanced back down before speaking up.

“I don’t think you’d be able to help. Don’t worry about me too m-”

“Does it have to do with your and Jay’s secret?”

Nya froze. Her eyes widened, and her mouth fell open for a few moments. She looked at Kai, her eyebrows furrowing in silent confusion. Perhaps her expression was what prompted him to speak up again, elaborating on his statement.

“You know, the thing you two keep trying to be secretive about?? When you exchange glances, giggle together, and whatever.”

She blinked.

“You noticed??”

“Uh, I think we all noticed, Nya.”

“Oh.”

This was unexpected. Nya sighed again and shook her head, leaning her head back against the board of her bed.

“Yeah, it is.”

Kai nodded. He seemed to take it better than Nya had imagined; though maybe that was because he’d already known she was hiding something from him. Well, it wasn’t like it had been the first time she kept secrets from Kai, or the rest of the team. But he certainly had reacted better than he did when he found out she was Samurai X. She was somewhat thankful.

She felt a hand rest on top of hers, and looked back at Kai to see him looking directly at her. His face had become much more caring; but Nya knew him. She could tell he wasn’t entirely enjoying the fact that she wouldn’t talk to him. Nonetheless, he still tried to put those feelings aside and give her advice.

“Then maybe you should talk to him, if it’s bothering you this much. Sulking over it on your own isn’t gonna solve anything.” He shrugged.

Nya smiled. She knew he was right, it wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about doing it. It just wasn’t an easy topic to bring up, for either of them. In all the years that had passed since then, they had only really talked about it twice; and only because they had been having worries about it.

Which, technically, was the case here too.

She nodded at Kai, thanking him and intertwining her hands with his. He smiled back, pulling her in for a hug, or the closest thing to a hug they could manage in their current position, leaving them both laughing about it. Soon enough, he left her room, leaving Nya alone once again to her thoughts. 

She looked down at her necklace. Although she didn’t like to wear it when fighting or practicing - jewelry during a fight is practically a direct ticket to choking, she wore it almost every other time. Which wasn’t a lot, now that she thought about it, but it was still enough to be significant to her. The necklace had her yang pendant on it, the one Jay had given her when he proposed to her a few years back. She gazed at it fondly, playing with it with her hands.

A few moments later, she had made up her mind. She would talk to Jay about this entire situation, and hopefully they would get past it. Finally. She knew deep down that, obviously, a talk wasn’t going to make their shared trauma disappear, but hopefully it would make her feel better, for now at the very least.

Today was an off day for the ninja; meaning Jay was most likely to be found either on the couch playing video games, or in the kitchen snacking on something. As soon as Nya walked into the living room, a smile crept onto her face and she chuckled to herself. It seems living with the same people for so many years really makes you aware of their daily habits, she thought.

She approached the couch, leaning her hip against as she crossed her arms to look over the scene in front of her. Cole and Jay were going at it, intensely focused on whatever game they were playing - looks like Prime Empire , she thought - to the point they hadn’t even noticed she was here. A bit further away, sitting at the table, was Lloyd, absentmindedly fiddling with his phone. He however, seemed to notice Nya, acknowledging her presence with a short glance. 

Nya glanced back at the screen as she heard shouts, seeing the “LEVEL PASSED” screen she had expected. She watched Jay and Cole high five each other, before Jay raised his head and seemed to finally notice her presence. His face beamed, and he grinned at her. His excitement must have been visible to Cole too; since the older man decided to turn around, and smiled as well upon seeing her.

They invited her to play; she shook her head no, before looking back to Jay and calling him to get his attention.

“Do you mind if we have a talk?”

Nya could feel time stop as she spoke, watching Jay gulp and anxiety flash in his eyes. She quickly added:

“I’m not mad at you, I just wanna discuss something. It can wait though, if you’re busy.”

Nya gestured at Cole and the TV vaguely. Jay nodded and put his controller down, standing up and walking towards her.

“It’s fine! I can play later.”

Before Nya could drag him away though, he turned back to Cole and shouted, an accusatory tone lacing his voice.

“You better not play any more levels before I’m back!!”

Nya laughed at their antics. She could vaguely hear Cole respond something as she made her way down the hall, back to her room. She stood in the doorway until Jay appeared in front of her, and dragged him inside. She pushed the door closed behind them, sighing.

“Is something the matter?”

Jay was the first to speak up. He tilted his head to the side, moving to grab Nya’s hands in his.

“You’ve been acting weird for a few days… Did something happen?”

Nya stared at him for a few moments. She stared deep into his beautiful ocean eyes, her lips pursed. Jay’s eyebrows had furrowed, concern etched all over his face. Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke up.

“It’s about Nadakhan.”

She could see Jay’s breath catch in his throat, and his eyes widen. He took a deep breath as well, and squeezed her hands in his. His face looked a lot more serious than a few seconds ago as he urged her to continue.

“Okay.”

“Kai told me to talk with you about it. Well, about my worries, more precisely, but they’re about what happened with him.”

Jay nodded, a sign for Nya to keep talking.

“I’ve been getting… flashbacks. Of when I was with him. Especially since we’ve been talking about actually organizing our wedding, and all, I just… I keep seeing myself in Delara’s dress again, and getting nightmares about it over and over and it’s just-” She stopped herself to sigh. “That’s… about it.”

Sometime through her rant, Nya started looking at the floor with a frown on her face. Her hands held Jay’s tightly, and he could tell that she would be clenching her fists, had he not been holding them. 

He released one of her hands to cup her face, a shaky smile forming on his face to try and comfort her.

“I mean, it’s pretty understandable, you know? I’d be scared too if I had been forcibly married to a thousand year old djinn at 13 and then possessed by his dead girlfriend.”

Nya laughed. Jay’s smile widened.

“And like, if you want, you don’t have to wear a dress. We don’t even have to get married yet!! I mean we’ve been waiting for both of us to be ready for it, so if you’re not ready yet then I’ll wait more!”

Nya looked back at him with a smile. She felt tears well up in her eyes. Jay was right; there was no reason for them to rush things, after all. 

“You’re right. Thanks. And I do wanna get married, don’t get me wrong… I guess I’d forgotten I can just not wear a dress.”

Her hands moved up to wipe her eyes, and she felt Jay grab her face with his own. He looked at her, his eyes shining, and his thumbs gently caressing her cheeks. 

“Can I kiss you?”

She nodded, and he leaned in to crash his lips on hers. Nya felt Jay grin into their kiss, and she could see his face growing pink. After they pulled away from each other, Jay rested his hands on her shoulders and looked away, coughing to try and regain his composure. After he failed, as he usually did - for some reason, even after being together for half a decade, he was still a nervous wreck everytime they kissed -, he spoke up once more.

“You’re not alone in this. I’m here for you and, uh, I’ll do my best to support you through all this.” He gestured vaguely with his hand. “Be it related to him or related to our wedding, or, you know, anything else.”

Nya smiled at him, tilting her head up to press a kiss to Jay’s forehead.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Hey, don’t thank me for this, come on! It’s not even the bare minimum!”

Nya laughed as he protested, Jay’s arms stretching at his sides as he kept repeating himself.

Eventually, the two of them ended up going back to the living room and joining Cole on the couch, picking up two controllers and playing with him. After a few levels, Jay seemed to have a realization and turned to Nya in shock.

“Wait, did you say Kai told you to talk to me?? Does he know?!” 

Nya stared at him in confusion for a moment.

“Oh, that! Apparently, they all know?? Well, not about what happened, but that we’re hiding something.”

Cole chimed in.

“Yeah, dude, you’re not exactly discreet about it…”

Nya chose to not listen to the rest of the conversation, already knowing the two best friends would start bickering. She simply giggled and mindlessly stared at Jay. She loved him so much.

[ctkira]

For the ship doodle game, Bruise?

your wish is yours to keep o7

this took me an embarrassingly long time bc for some godforsaken reason i had skybound on my mind and thought it would be a good idea to draw their gi instead of casual clothes sorry 😔

thoughts below (spoiler-free for crystalised) + vers with ghost cole bc i initially forgot 🤡

i have some mixed feelings on bruise but overall im pretty fond of them :)

early seasons bruise has a solid foundation. like yeah the love triangle exists (i know, i know) but the resulting fall out and eventual reconciliation add some really fun layers and scenes to their overall dynamic. ninjago had to reset the timeline bc the sheer power of their interactions in s6 staying canon to the current timeline would've been too powerful. they have some really good moments in dotd and s7 as well.

on the other hand, i cant think of anything too memorable about them together post-s7 (aside from the island bridal carry lol). my interest in bruise died down a bit with the uwu-ification of jay walker :') bc i dont know how to reconcile the image i had of their dynamic with jays considerably large personality shifts. also as an ace cole enjoyer, im kind of picky about consuming some fancontent about them bc my brain finds it difficult to think about physical attraction as a strong basis for them actually getting together. like, a very very minor catalyst maybe.

in conclusion, i care about them very much and really really need that pic of the island bridal carry with the text 'who wanna be boy best friends' for personal reasons.

+ ghost boyfriend cole vers:

[parachutingkitten]

I'm only on the s2 segment of your vid, but I think it'd help you to know the Hagemans also wrote Trollhunters, which has one girl lead whos introduced as a love interest, and only gets to be a main character with weapons and powers way later on (compared to the main characters friend, who also gets to know about all the cool magic stuff in like the 1st episode).

Also most of her dialogue is her screaming the main character's name, I kid you not. I haven't watched in a long time but that's the most repeated thing she's said.

Another rlly fucked up thing they did was in the finale Netflix movie, they kill off a character who started off as a villain but she went through this redemption stuff... and then NEVER acknowledge that she's dead (and ofc the movie ended like Skybound, but instead it's the entire franchise reset, but a lil bit different.)

I could also ramble about how the main character's mom was kinda just there and I don't remember anything she did either aside from... fall in love with one of the enemies (who was disguised as a teacher and later on became principal) of the main character.

Due to all this, I think it IS safe to say at LEAST the Hagemans had SOMETHING sexist going on...

So I have heard. I still wouldn't feel 100% comfortable labeling the Hagemans as sexist. I think they're probably extremely ignorant about female rep. Especially for a show that pushes the feminism angle as hard as ninjago, I feel like they would probably like to be better.

I've got some conclusive thoughts on my video I'll probably put here at some point, but I think that's maybe something I should have hit on more. Ninjago is a great example of why behind the scenes rep matters. Even when you try and incorporate feminist ideals into your work, it's still really easy to make something that's sexist, especially if you yourself are not a woman. Because it is at the core of a lot of our storytelling as a culture. It's normalized everyday in things as innocuous as kids shows. Wanting to be better isn't enough. You've gotta take drastic action if you want to make something actively positive.

It can't be that specific people or shows are problematic and if we label them as such it will somehow fix things. It's everywhere. Assigning blame gets us nowhere. We just need to do better moving forward.

[laserbread]

Just read all 4 of the Void Rivals issues available online (due to there not being a comic book store anywhere near me. Do Finnish comic book stores even have Transformers? Are there any comic book stores in Finland? Idk I've never seen one. Anyways...) and I'm now reading the first issue of Skybound's tf comic.

So far things are looking very geewun (aside from the humans) but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. The Energon Universe (a title, which will totally not create any confusion) seems like it might actually explore some of the more interesting concepts from g1 rather than just taking the designs and picking a few overused season 1 characters (+Arcee (also overused but season 1 didn't have any women)) for the main cast (which they also seem to be sort of doing except with a certain twist that I'm very happy about). So many episodes had potential to be very interesting but it was left unfulfilled due to the show being g1. Somehow most of these concepts still haven't been explored by later media but maybe Skybound will tap into them?

Also Cliffjumper is part of the main cast and g1 is my second-favorite version of him. That's the real reason I'm excited about his.

[namelysane]

Whats hellspawn's relation ship with the rest of the EM's and other side characters?

Skylor

- Hellspawn hates Lloyd's favorite noodle dish on the menu, and Skylor won't let him live it down.

- She loves the fortune cookies though, which Skylor lets her have on the house. And after she opens each one, Lloyd snorts and calls out how ridiculous the fortune written is and Skylor just rolls her eyes before telling hellspawn that he's just jealous that his destiny is always the worst.

- Getting hellspawn to eat veggies is a struggle and Skylor immediately tells Lloyd it's his own fault for that. Lloyd can't even bring himself to argue because she isn't the first person who's told him that.

- Hellspawn also often questions Skylor about when she's going to marry her Uncle Kai and Skylor literally chokes. Lloyd doesn't completely stop cackling about it until a whole week later.

- She's the first person to question Lloyd about his daughter's elemental power and Lloyd just goes blank, not even sure of it himself. He isn't ready for her to inherit his and for him to lose his powers yet so he just tells Skylor that she's too young for them to be sure of anything yet.

Karloff

- I think Karloff would be this really big burly uncle that seems kinda intimidating at first, but is actually really sweet and is absolutely capable of crushing her when picking her up for hugs.

- During Garmadon's rule she often ran into Karloff and spent time with him because Lloyd wasn't feeling himself. (This was during Hunted, mind you, Lloyd wasn't fine at all)

- Hellspawn is fascinated by Karloff's 'mittens' and often played rock paper scissors with him while at the base. Thankfully, Karloff was all too happy to entertain her.

Tox

- She made hellspawn want to have green hair and Lloyd and Nya flat out told her no. (This was just after Hunted ended btw)

- Well the girl sulked about it for quite some time. When Nya told Kai about this, he almost had a heart attack.

Griffin Turner

- This guy lost his sunglasses at the Resistance's Base and was forced to play tag to get it back. Needless to say, he didn't sign up for this when he decided to help Lloyd & Nya in S9, but he bears with it. Maybe she's growing on him.

Neuro

- when Griffin moaned to him and Paleman that his sunglasses were missing, Neuro played dumb and encouraged the narrative that he probably left them somewhere, instead of telling him that Lloyd's daughter was the one who took them. He's already seen into her mind and found out what she plans to do, so he's just gonna let Griffin endure it to fuck with him.

Paleman

- Dude's the best person to play hide and seek with and hellspawn really wants to take full advantage of that. The only problem is, this guy keeps disappearing because he's learned from what happened to Griffin, so it's a bit of a struggle. The only time he actually agreed was after she asked him why he was called the Master of Light when all he can do is just disappear.

Shade

- Paleman wasn't happy that she showed no sign of making Shade play with her so he dragged him to join them. It was a fun game, surprisingly.

Camille, Ash, Bolobo, Gravis & Jacob.

- Since they weren't present in Hunted, hellspawn's never met them. (I'm not counting the tournament of elements season because hellspawn didn't even participate in it)

Mystake

- She met hellspawn for the first time when Lloyd took her to the tea shop, not knowing what to do since she was severely sick. Fortunately, Mystake had a tea for that, but didn't tell Lloyd that the virus hellspawn had only affected Oni children, which was why the medicine from the pediatrician Lloyd usually took her to didn't work.

Dareth

- Aside from Skylor, logically, this is another character that really interacts a lot with hellspawn. He even had to take care of her for a short period of time during Skybound after the ninja broke out of prison...but he doesn't remember this because of Jay's final wish.

- One day before S8, Lloyd lost her while going grocery shopping and she ran into Dareth, who brought her back to a panicking Lloyd.

- There should be a lot more but I can't think of anything else. 😅 You can add some if you want.

Ronin

- Hellspawn loves pulling his hair whenever she can reach it and Ronin curses Lloyd everytime she does. Whenever Jay sees this, he just lets it be for the fun of it.

Ray & Maya

- These two couldn't believe that their friend's kid now has a kid of his own so Misako had a pretty hard time explaining things to them.

- Maya : Okay, so not only are now my two children nearly adults but YOU'RE TELLING ME WE'VE BEEN IMPRISONED LONG ENOUGH FOR GARM TO HAVE A GRANDCHILD???!

- They really love having hellspawn around though. Ray often remarks on how much she looks and acts like Lloyd and he'll smile, and then Nya will chime in by saying she's actually much worse than Lloyd. Just give her a bit of candy and you'll have an absolute nightmare.

[blueikeproductions]

The Transformers comics are coming back this fall in the newly christened “Energon Universe”… not to be confused with the Transformers Energon segment of the Unicron Trilogy. This new Energon Universe comes courtesy of Image Comic’s Skybound imprint, and shares the universe with GI Joe and new, surprisingly owned by Hasbro, IP called “Void Rivals”. Aside from Void Rivals, which so far features a factionless Jetfire cameo, the TFs and Joe comics are, so far at least, self contained stories, with no need to pick up the other if you don’t want to. I suspect this will eventually change though, with the upcoming Autobot, Maximal and GI Joe team up sequel movie underway.

As suspected before, the new Transformers comics are a back to basics approach where the Autobots and Decepticons awaken on Earth and resume their war. The use of the Decepticons as proper antagonists again is a great start, given their awkwardly implemented roles in IDW2, Cyberverse, their largely downplayed role in EarthSpark so far, and their semi curious absence in Rise of the Beasts in favor of the Terrorcons. Megatron is similarly poised to be in his more traditional role as the evil leader, whether or not he becomes the “Autobot” version later on remains to be seen, but I kinda hope not. It was an interesting take in IDW, but after Cyberverse botched it, and EarthSpark trying it again in a kid friendly way, I’m kinda ready to return to Megatron’s bombastic, revels in being bad personality we haven’t seen since the G1 cartoon based Devastation. Especially since Hasbro continues to be somewhat weird about making new villains or repurposing old villains to take over Megatron’s mantle anyway, might as well stick to the classics.

As for LGBT stuff, it’ll pry be in there, but maybe not in the same way IDW awkwardly implemented it. I can see something like Sunstreaker having a boyfriend or a Silverbolt/BlackArachnia dynamic with a same sex couple, and that’s the extent of it among the TFs at the moment, but I suspect for now it’ll be more like the G1 cartoon to bring in normies and then they ease in to LGBT stuff organically. I’ve heard one person offer the idea, and mind you they were somewhat unsure about Nightshade being NB when it was suggested, that rather than a Transformer be LGBT, that a human ally be that instead, and the Autobots get to learn about another unique facet of human cultures and lifestyles that, presumably in the case, differs from Cybertron. We do have this with the NB girl that’s friends with Nightshade, I forget their name, so we have a precedent for it.

And even if the Energon Universe doesn’t cover that as some would like, it’s been said Hasbro wants to make EarthSpark comics anyway, AND Skybound is apparently going to make other non Energon Universe Transformers comics! Presumably this could include new movie comics, as Beasts is doing really well as of typing, and movie tie in comics are missed. It’d be an excellent way to flesh out the RotB cast more, expand on Unicron, and tease more GI Joe stuff along future Decepticon/Predacon/Terrorcon encounters.

I’m hazarding a guess that the reason it’s called the Energon Universe is probably because, similar to the Energon cartoon, Energon itself is the defacto energy source of this universe. I semi wonder if that means the Joes’ and Cobras’ machines will also be powered by Energon also. Interestingly, rather than the pink and blue color the fuel has appeared as in the past, Void Rivals depicts it as a yellow color similar to the Energon anime. I sort of wonder if later on they’ll try to include the Micronauts and MASK, the two being created as a reaction to the Transformers in IDW. Micronauts and ROM meanwhile are having a sort of resurgence also, with the reprinted Marvel Comics omnibuses coming out later this year.

The other surprise is while Void Rivals is an original Image IP, it is apparently owned by Hasbro, making it part of the Hasbro Universe. Depending on how that goes, we could see seeing the aliens from there in future Transformers productions I wager. I assume VR being owned by Hasbro is to avoid some legal kerfluffles that prevented things like some older Marvel reprinting from happening.

Still it’ll be exciting to see what the future holds for the comics side of things going forward!

[fires-of-ninjago]

Okay, I have been holding-off on writing anything about the current season of Ninjago for a while now. But now that I've actually finished it, I feel like this is something that I just have to get out of my system. So for those of you who want to keep this spoiler-free, I'm going to put everything else under the cut, so: FAIR WARNING!

Maybe this is just me, but after watching the ending, does anyone else feel like Crystalized is just...a bad season? I mean, over-all, the story itself is a little too drawn out for 10-ish minute episodes, and they're packing them full of information and plot, and it just feels a little too disorganized to me. It's like they had a bunch of ideas for an absolute ton of shorts and little snippets, and instead of pushing most of them of them aside, they just decided to add them all together!

And to top it all off, they just completely abandoned the plot of the first half of the season after they picked it back up from the mid-season! It's just a complete rush-job that feels way too much like the ending of Game of Thrones!

I mean, I now have to reassess weather Skybound and/or Hands of Time should be the weakest! Because, lets face it; Skybound had the same kind of rushed ending, and Hands of Time was just trying to pack too many things into it at once as well. But at least they didn't end up as much of an inconsistent hot-mess like Crystalized!

And yes, I know that this is supposed to be a series finale; but so was March of the Oni, and THAT one actually felt way more like they had wrapped things up than what happened here! And that's not even touching on the fact that they just dropped how the ninja are still technically fugitives; the mayor is missing and the new ninja, along with Ronin and the other escapees are MIA! I mean, are they dead? Still corrupted? In a coma? HOW COULD THEY JUST LEAVE THESE THINGS UNANSWERED?! 🤬

The writers had something great going with focusing on creating original story-lines, but taking everything from the weakest seasons and putting a new coat of paint on the worst parts without doing ANYTHING to actually address them only does a disservice to the fans, the writers and the studio who this was supposed to be a grand send-off for!

[cboffshore]

Hey Lila :( Forgive me for the non-Skybound or Ninjago ask this time, but how do you handle getting blocked by people because I'm getting very ticked off by it. Like excuse me I guess for sending a nice message about your work and mass liking your posts only to get blocked. This happens so much and it's so inconvenient. Hours of my day, wasted, posts I can no longer reblog, and you're going to follow me from my sideblog and happily go around reblogging stuff that is straight up ironic...I hate getting blocked because I feel like it's a tumblr deactivation risk and I have too much stuff on here, I don't get it. If people hate spam likes so much just say it somewhere geez. There's just as many people saying "oh I'll love you forever if you do" and I can't read every person's mind or go around asking every blog if they're okay with it. That is not what tumblr is and I'm feeling a bit "AITA?" about this.

Honestly... if people have blocked me (and I have no doubt that they do exist), they aren't the kind of people to have TOLD me that I'm blocked. I straight up do not know how many people have blocked me, or when, or why. I'm also the same way: if I block people, I do it relatively quietly. (Aside from obvious spam bots, I only have four blogs blocked - two of which are alts belonging to the same person, so really only three). I also know people who block extremely freely and for very minor reasons, so... maybe you just run into a lot of those types? I'm honestly not sure. Although I will say that I know anti-mass-likers usually say it, and I personally love a good notification blowup from one person.

Got off track there, but how I deal with them is that I don't. I don't know about them, and I don't really care about why they've blocked me, because they haven't told me in a way that would let me discuss it nicely and see what's up. That's on them; I can't help their cases. This is actual footage of me dealing with the people who have me blocked:

I do want to note that my first thought about this ask was that, if you're getting blocked so often that you're worried about getting deactivated, then (and please take this as gently as possible) it could be a you problem. Whether or not that's the mass interaction, I definitely can't say. Again, maybe you just keep bumping into the crowd that hands blocks out like they're throwing candy at a parade, in which case it's a them problem.

I'm assuming you're not DMing people weird threats or stealing art or harassing them in reblogs (and I know you're not one of the alts I've blocked because they never mass liked my stuff, so I further assume you're chill) so I really don't know what to tell you. Good luck, I guess? Inbox and DMs are always open if you've got any further questions, although this might legitimately be more suited to an AITA board, which I am not.

[youjustfeelthemforever]

Do you think that it is possible that the writers will ignore the whole Skybound storyline altogether because they have retconned things in the in the past and it said all sixteen realms joined together.

I suppose it is possible, because the lore in ninjago is... inconsistent, to say the least, but I think it would be a bad idea. The writers might do it, but I think rather than ignore an entire season, they'll probably bring back more important realms, like The Never Realm or The Realm of Oni and Dragon, or, like they already did, The Underworld and Cloud Kingdom. I'm just praying they don't use Chima tbh. aside from maybe like. an origin story for Ras. but that's it.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

hi I’m here to review the Clementine comic. it’s not good.

Does this even need an introduction? You know why I’ve gathered you all here today. You know the comic exists, and you probably know that it’s not great and we’re all upset about it. 

Myself included. I am not okay. At all. 

Skybound could’ve literally spit in my face and I’d come out feeling better than I did reading this comic, because this comic is an insult to the original Telltale games and Clementine as a character. 

This comic is a fancy fanfic. Glorified fanfiction. It’s not canon, and Skybound and Tillie can pretend that it is, but it’s not. Bold of them to assume we’d just accept this from people who didn’t work on the original games and never wrote for Clementine before, and based on this comic alone, any chance of us taking it seriously is gone. 

I’m gonna go through every single page, every panel, of this comic and give you my review. So I guess if you’re worried about spoilers [though at this point why would you?] then be warned, spoilers for the entire comic ahead. 

I also wanna add that I have nothing against Tillie Walden. I know a lot of dingdongs are harassing her on insta over this comic and that’s not okay. You telling her how much you hate her isn’t going to change anything. If anything, you keep being assholes to her and she’s just gonna block everything out, even things simply critiquing her work in hopes that it helps her improve. 

You’re allowed to be upset about the comic and share your feelings about it, but don’t take it out on the actual human being like that. Besides, like I’ve said before, if Tillie wasn’t gonna make the comic, Skybound would’ve found someone else to do. This was coming no matter what because Skybound wants that coin. 

That being said, I’m not going to hold back my opinions on this comic. Skybound and Tillie made this comic, they put it out there and asked for money for it, therefore I’m allowed to explain why it’s garbage as well as ponder over the questionable intent and whether or not Tillie actually has played these games. Y’know, it’s like how I have nothing against Kent, but sometimes he says things I disagree with and well, y’know how it goes. 

Alright, this is gonna be long, so let’s go--

The first few shots we get are of the school, two people sleeping, and Clementine’s empty bed. Nothing super note-worthy, we have no idea who is sleeping in the beds, it’s just there to establish that it’s early and everyone’s still asleep. 

The drawing of the school looks fine? Not super accurate, but I can give it a pass since it’s a few years later, I assume. What I can’t give a pass is how you managed to already mess up on the first page of your comic. 

Because..... why are you implying that Clementine’s room is upstairs? First of all, seems kinda dumb to put Clem, who has only one leg and has to walk with crutches, upstairs. Also, if you’ve played TFS and paid any attention to where her room is actually located [the dorms] then you’d know there isn’t any stairs leading to their floor. It’s the side building next to the admin building, you walk through the door, go down the hall, take a left and their dorm is right there sooo..... 

Oh right, it’s probably done this way so that we can have such a suspenseful moment where Clementine is sneaking out while the others are asleep and her foot makes a creeeeeeakk that could wake everyone up, thwarting her plans of abandoning everyone quietly so she doesn’t have to deal with any consequences. 

Because yeah, Clementine is sneaking out with all of her supplies because apparently, she’s been planning an escape from this place for a while. 

And just look at how gosh darn happy she is about it. You can’t see or hear me, but know that I’m laughing. Don’t worry, I will talk about her abandoning everyone later.

But first, I have a gripe with Clementine's design in this comic. It doesn’t look like her. This art of her right here is the most accurate we get throughout all 12 pages, and it’s the best looking, too. 

Moving on, she slams the door shut while this walker changes faces and hair between panels, so that’s cool. I will say, I like the idea of the Ericson crew putting spikes on the door. That’s fun. 

Though Clementine slamming the door shut while trying to sneak out seems counter productive but it fits with the theme this comic has of inconsistency, so it works. 

Next we have Clementine going to what I believe is the fishing shack by the river, and she’s going through some things that she’s stashed away, telling us that she’s been planning this escape for a while. 

Oh good, she has a map. Well at least now she won’t get lost out there in the woods while she makes her escape... also that last panel with her profile.... why does it look so funny? Like this page of the comic doesn’t look too bad, but there is something off putting about her eye there and how she has zero expression. 

And it turns out that rustle was a walker, and Clementine is super inconvenienced by this and gives us our first piece of witty dialogue.

Yeah you dumb walker, can’t you see Clementine is busy running away from home and abandoning all of her loved ones without a single goodbye so she doesn’t have to witness the consequences of her selfish actions?? Gosh, so rude.

Just a heads up, the dialogue in this comic is stilted, emotionless, and bland. The words have no flow, no charm, and never feel like they should be coming out of Clementine’s mouth. Then again, the upcoming graphic novels this is tied to are for young adult/middle graders so I guess we have to dumb everything down so their baby brains can process it. 

.....Why does her face look like that? Also, interesting that she decided to move her ponytail to the other side of her head.... which is a thing that happens throughout this comic, her hair will randomly change sides. 

I believe it’s a metaphor for her changing and inconsistent personality. 

So yeah, Clementine is just making off with the supplies she gathered [I’m sure Ericson doesn’t need ‘em anyway] and she’s just so gosh darn annoyed at all these small inconveniences bothering her.... because it’s just too early for this. 

.....Again, why does her face look like that?

I’m sorry, like I get it, Tillie’s style is supposed to be purposely messy yet minimal but it doesn’t work. When you do a comic in a more messy style, usually it has charm and heart put into it. Effort goes into the messy look, and when things are minimal, that usually means more clean, yeah? So you put them together and just..... that is nothing resembling Clementine’s face. 

Can we just--

Look at canon Clementine’s face. Look at the way her eyebrows are shapes, how wide her eyes are with her eye lashes. The dirt on her skin, the lines-- there is so much personality in her features. It doesn’t matter if she’s wearing a neutral expression or she’s expressing anger or joy or sorrow or whatever. 

Now, is it fair to compare a model of Clem from the games to the Clem in this comic? Well, I assume that if Tillie is doing this comic, she would use references from the game to ensure that Clementine is recognizable, especially now that she’s no longer wearing her signature hat. 

So why does she look like this? Why do I look at these drawings of her face and see nothing but a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth? You might as well draw me a simple smiley face. And I get that it’s a comic, and it’s a lot of work to draw the same character over and over again and you gotta cut corners somewhere, but maybe put some effort into the close up shots of her face so that we can actually see it’s her? 

Other fan artists have made comics in their styles that shine bright with Clementine’s personality, so what happened here? 

Anyway, surprise..... it’s not a walker annoying Clementine. 

........Why does AJ look like that??? I’m sorry, I hate to do the same thing I just did but--

Just because you put Clementine’s hat on AJ that doesn’t automatically make it him. I just.... wow. This feels like there wasn’t a single reference involved, like if someone gave Tillie a basic description of AJ and she just did this. 

But appearances aside, what is AJ saying? He says that he knew it, that Clementine’s leaving and I cannot stand this dialogue. It’s unnatural. Again, I know you wanna dumb it down for all of us because I guess we dumb.... but this conversation does not feel natural. 

“I knew it. You’re leaving.” “AJ....” “I’m coming.”

Even if you changed it to, “I’m coming with you.” it would sound more natural. Hell, he doesn’t even question WHY she’s leaving, he just stands there like “I’m coming” like??? I’m sorry, have you ever heard a single word this murder baby has said? I assume you have because I assume you actually played TFS, right? Soooo.... what happened here?

.....whY DO THEIR FACES LOOK LIEK THAT KSAJDLKJAS:LKDJLKASJD:L--

So now we’re getting into it.... into the bullshit. 

Clementine tells AJ to go back to the school, and AJ says that she wasn’t even going to say goodbye..... and then more bad dialogue that sound unnatural when you try to fucking read it. 

First off.... AJ’s reaction to Clementine attempting to leave is barely anything. Again, I hate to keep questioning if you actually played TFS, but AJ would throw a fucking fit if he caught Clementine out here ALONE like this, attempting to leave. 

And then he says “Like last time? You were going to come back?” this sentence makes my brain hurt. I just.... “Like last time, right? You’re coming back?” UGH

Wow, I feel nothing. 

I’m sitting here watching these two imposters with fucked up faces who are supposed to be Clementine and AJ and I feel nothing. 

I’m not even going to comment on the faces anymore. You can see it. You know. 

So yeah... AJ tells her the #1 rule, and reminds her that she promised.

Y’know.... she promised that she would never leave him again? Remember? At the McCarroll ranch? That flashback that was in TFS? The one you would watch if you played the game? 

Why is she looking straight at me when she should be looking at AJ as she says this? Is this Clementine’s way of telling me she’s sorry for what a shitty direction this is taking? I wouldn’t know because her face isn’t doing anything. Just because you draw a couple of tears that doesn’t mean I’m feeling the emotional heartbreak you’re attempting to convey. 

I don’t have enough middle fingers for this.

Well, my hat’s off to you. Ya did it. Ya fucked up everything single part of Clementine’s character in the span of two pages, I’m almost impressed. 

First off, the baby thing is weird. Why is she calling him that? She’s never called him that, which you should know.

Second, she’s not happy and that’s why she’s leaving. Clementine isn’t happy, and AJ can’t make her happy. Ericson can’t make her happy. So she’s going to go out on the road to.... what, be unhappy by herself? 

I’m sorry, but apparently we need a few reminders here of who Clementine is, because this isn’t her. 

This is Clementine. 

Clementine fought for years to find a home, something she hasn’t had since she was an eight-year-old girl before the apocalypse. The motor-inn wasn’t a home, the cabin wasn’t home, the ski-lodge, Howe’s, Wellington, Richmond, Prescott, none of them were home. 

She struggled for years, dealing with trauma after trauma while out on the road. She went from group to group, watching people she cared about die and she was powerless to do anything about it. Whenever she let her guard down and become comfortable, it bit in her in the ass and left her heartbroken.

She was there when AJ was born. She grew close to Rebecca while she was pregnant, she let herself do that even after everything she went through with Christa. Clementine had a bond with AJ even before he was born, and after Rebecca died, she did what she could to keep him safe, despite play choice. 

She cried when she thought AJ died and when she found him in that car again. She swore to protect him, to raise him right and love him. All they had was each other. 

And when she joined the new frontier and AJ got sick, she risked everything to save him and she was devastated when they took him away from her. When she found out he was alive, she is willing to go as far as helping Lingard overdose [INJECTING HIM HERSELF IF SHE HAS TO] to figure out his location. She did shitty things to find him, she killed people at McCarroll Ranch to find him again. 

Clementine raised him and he is her family, do you understand that? She went to hell and back for him, she taught him how to protect himself, and even though she made mistakes she sacrificed everything for him. She promised him that they would have a home of their own one day, she talked about how much she wished for a world where she didn’t have to worry about fighting and killing and AJ could just be a happy kid. 

She fought for Ericson, she watched her friends die or become mutilated by someone from her past. She allowed herself to be vulnerable enough to pursue a romantic relationship with Louis or Violet because she felt safe with them, felt safe at Ericson because it’s their home now. 

And when Clementine was bit, she thought she was going to die but she still fought to make sure AJ would be safe and happy without her and it was heartbreaking. She’s dying and the only thing she cares about is AJ. Not herself, not what’s going to happen to her after she dies or turns... no, she tries to make AJ smile again, she makes sure he remembers the rules, and she tells him that she loves him. 

Then he cuts off her leg, and she survives. AJ saved her fucking life, and she got to wake up at home and live to see her family again. She got to push AJ on a tire swing, she got to eat a hot meal and laugh with her friends, she got to make plans with her lover/best friend for what’s next for Ericson, and she got to talk to AJ and tell him the truth... and she asked him if she did a good job, and he’s honest with her right back. 

Hell, she tells him to keep her hat. Her iconic hat. The one thing she has left of her father, possibly her more cherished item. She lets him keep it. 

The last time we see Clementine, she’s happy. She’s sitting on the steps by herself, staring at her family with such fondness in her eyes and a smile on her face because she finally did it. She finally found a home where she can breathe. She has a bed to sleep in, she has AJ with her, she has a boyfriend/girlfriend who loves her and who she loves back, she has friends she can rely on. 

Clementine smiles, and lets out a small laugh. 

She doesn’t have to run anymore. 

And now you have the balls to tell me that AJ and Ericson don’t make Clementine happy anymore. 

She abandons everything to go back out on the road again, and that’s proof enough for me that you don’t understand a damn thing about Clementine or her journey. 

“ I don't even know the person I'm talking about... It's like all we have in common is the same name.” 

....Anyway.

Wow, Clementine found a car and kept is stashed. How lazy and convenient for this bullshit plot. 

And this is the part where I have to tell this comic to fuck off. 

What, you think if you throw in an incredibly inaccurate flashback next to a current pair of hugging Clem and AJ that I’ll feel anything but anger? That flashback is a slap to the face. It’s snowing, but the only time we’ve seen snow is in S2 when AJ was a literal new born, so why is he that big? Is that supposed to be from ANF because that ALSO doesn’t look like that AJ, and that’s not the outfit Clementine had on... AND there was no snow. This is cheap and meaningless. 

Any fan of the series who has played through the games could tell you this. 

So.... AJ runs into the woods and then we get this garbage.

This comic is awful. It misses the point of everything TFS, and the rest of the series, stood for. There is no heart here. I feel no happiness in reading it, and I don’t detect any passion behind it. It’s a lifeless comic that retcons everything in order to throw AJ away and start fresh with a new adventure for Clementine that makes no sense because the cow isn’t profitable unless it’s milked. 

This isn’t canon, and it won’t ever be canon, and honestly? At this point, I have no faith in the graphic novel trilogy. It will take a lot to do a turn around from this, and I don’t even know if that’s possible. 

Again, to reiterate, I don’t have anything personal against Tillie Walden herself. She’s just doing her job, and from what I’ve seen of her as a person, she seems like a sweetheart. I don’t want anyone giving her shit because I think the comic isn’t good or that you agree with me. All of my anger is directed at the comic itself, her work, not specifically her.... and a little bit at Skybound, because they’re the reason this is even a thing in the first place. 

So yeah.... there ya have it. 

[pi-creates]

Do you think there’s anything that the comic developers could do to turn the comic around and make it alright?

I honestly don't know at this point. The main thing that I think will help it is if the audience is able to view it as a separate canon - which people aren't likely to accept when Skybound continues to emphasise that it is supposed to be a canonised continuation of TFS.

Aside from that, the only way I can think of the plot working out in a positive way is if they make the ending a retcon. And I know that sounds stupid and will probably come with it's own backlash - but I seriously think the only way to fix the "Clem wouldn't do this" problem is for Clem to realise that.

Like... ok, this is going to seem like a tangent, but bear with me for a moment.

For people who watch CJ's ANF streams, they might have noticed a theory that CJ and I share that Clem is an unreliable narrator in ANF. Her flashbacks show the points where she is most emotional, and the characters are at their most extreme and sometimes they go beyond the scope we see when she's not telling her story.

The big example of this is if Clem decides to spit on David instead of saying goodbye to AJ, Ava cuts in with "you're getting what you deserve" (or something like that) as they tear a crying AJ away from the scene - and that is excessively harsh compared to every other time Ava is on screen. You can even imply as Javi that Ava should be executed, and her response to Javi isn't as harsh as to what Clem describes happens when AJ is taken.

And I don't believe Clem's version of events as accurate. I think she was twisting things slightly to make her point to the others that they shouldn't trust the people she doesn't like - which is a fairly natural thing to do when the impact of those moments was devastating for her (and also she was 13-ish). But my point is - it brings this element to her character where we know she can lie or exaggerate if she feels justified or if it helps whatever cause she is currently following.

So to take this back to the comic - when she tells AJ she's unhappy and needs to leave because the place doesn't feel like home... the only way I can accept that scene long-term is if Clem is lying/exaggerating. There's another reason she's leaving, but she needs to pick an excuse that's so concrete and inarguable that AJ lets her leave and doesn't follow her.

I can't really speculate on what that may be, but if by the end of the graphic novels plot Clem realises what she has left behind and that her reasons for leaving were either unjustified or resolved - then I would be more satisfied. She can have her journey, sort out whatever is going on in her head, maybe even meet some new friends or something... but then she can remember what she left behind. The weight of what she left causes her to turn around at the end. She can go home to AJ and the others, and she apologise and explain herself while actually keeping her promise to never leave again.

Though that solution is really risky, because it is asking people to simply have faith that the ending will resolve something that happened before the beginning. You'd already need to have devoted readers for them to get that far. So yeah.... not really a foolproof "fix", but at least I feel like people would be less harsh on it if they knew that Clem had the same realisation we did in the end - that how she started the journey wasn't kind to the people who love her.

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

Ninjago Unpopular Opinions

Following on from my watch of the entire old series (combined with already having seen the last two series), I have enough material to work with to make a sort of unpopular opinion list. Some of these are lightweight, some of these are...uh, not so much. 

These aren’t in any particular order, this is more of a “I’ll just put them down as I remember them” sort of deal. That’ll be why they appear so messy. 

-Even after all this I prefer the newest seasons to the older stuff. There have been a surprising number of good to great older seasons, but I just love that hit of S1/S2 campiness with the more developed writing of later seasons. 

-Cole sucked as a leader, aside from in the pilot episodes. In the series proper he varied from complete meathead I hated (first part of S1), to having the same mentoring personality as everyone else (S1 - S2), to being consumed by the love triangle which made him pull a really shitty move (I don’t need to tell you what that refers to). He eventually gets ironed out in season 4, but Lloyd had already taken over as leader at this point. And rightfully so, even if Lloyd’s material got knocked from season 3 as a result. 

-I couldn’t really warm up to Ronin that much for some reason. I get the reason why he’s popular, since it was pretty obvious he was supposed to be like an off-beat mentor figure to Nya, but...I dunno, unlike with Dareth, it felt like his skeevy moments were more off-kilter, plus I didn’t really like his arc in Skybound (even if that was written out of reality). That being said, his was strong in Possession even with said moments. Maybe I just need a future appearance to see how I ultimately swing with him.

-I mentioned this in my Hunted overview, but I think Skylor’s just bland. Part of the problem is that she’s mainly just wedged in as an action girl and doesn’t have too many moments to interact outside of that. That’s mostly reserved for moments where she acts as Agony Aunt (which is fine, that shows that being supportive is in her nature), but she needs more to work with. And as an obvious offshoot, if Kailor is the intended endgame it sucks in its current form. They don’t have chemistry or a decent dynamic.

-The other Ninjago ship I don’t particularly like out of all of them is...actually Geode. Yeah, Rebooted obviously wasn’t good for it considering the love triangle, but what actually did more damage to it for me was Skybound. It went so far in trying to oversteer back that it beat you over the head with the fact they were making Cole and Jay best friends after said love triangle (made really obvious when Jay is worried about Cole’s reaction to him seeing Nya in his reflection in both Possession and Skybound, when Cole isn’t even phased when he’s told). It was just really off-putting.

-Jay is a better big brother figure to Lloyd than Kai. Yeah, Kai’s true potential moment in Rise of the Serpentine hinged on realising he (and the others, mind) were supposed to protect Lloyd, they all spent Legacy of the Green Ninja’s first half being Lloyd’s proper mentors, Zane’s death prompted Kai to hover with thoughts of the Green Ninja again (which seemed to me for different reasons to being envious of power at the start, although its handling was very clunky after that), and he had the first episode in Possession which was arguably the strongest showing of a dynamic with Lloyd, but Possession didn’t have much about it outside of said episode, and the show seemed to just forget it from that point beyond some very, very fleeting and sparse bits. In the more modern seasons, it feels like Jay’s stepped up to be more supportive of Lloyd on a more consistent basis (which would make sense with the common fanon that Jay is the youngest of the original Ninja, he’d be closer to Lloyd’s age). It’s something I kind of want tapped into in a proper way at some point.

-Sensei Garmadon is a bit overrated. Just a smidge. When he’s good, he’s good, but most of the time he’s no more interesting than Wu would be in the same position. And I feel like they didn’t really develop his fatherly bond with Lloyd too well despite that being what his character was there for. Again, aside from moments where he was really good.

-Most underrated season of the old batch for me was the last minute shock, March of the Oni. I did enjoy Day of the Departed (which has a worse reputation), but I can understand why someone wouldn’t like it considering how bare it was. March of the Oni is far from my favourite season but I thought it came together really well, so the fact it’s generally panned legitimately confuses me. I guess Hands of Time would be a contender too, but I think opinion on that has swayed in its favour after the new seasons came out (and Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjutsu would be here if I included the new batch) so that’s why it’s edged out. 

-Most overrated season for me was undeniably Tournament of Elements. It’s not my least favourite season, but Rebooted and Hunted are pretty maligned to begin with, while Tournament of Elements is usually considered one of the top ones. It starts strong, has an interesting premise and there are ideas that are executed well. The thing is that the elements that people tend to praise the season for are ones I actually think the writers dropped the ball on, hence why this ended up the toughest season to get to the end of, even more than Hunted. It’s a shame, but it’s just not for me. 

-Best ninja suits...honestly, I don’t really notice the suits unless they’re really bad, because I’m used to franchises where costume changes mark radical permanent redesigns, and are not just par for the course of the brand (it makes perfect sense with a toy brand who want to sell you the same characters over and over again but still). Not counting the S11 suits since they weren’t part of the old batch, I guess I’d honestly say the ZX suits, maybe? They’re simple, but they’re cute and very distinct. Also Sons of Garmadon Cole channelling the Movie costume was a very good move (and arguably looks even better ripped up in Hunted aethetically), and Kai’s suit was bleh in Sons of Garmadon but its overhaul in Hunted was way better. Also, just as a wildcard, Rebooted Lloyd looks like a more finely tuned ZX suit. Actually, just one last bit on a tangent to note a difference the show makes to the figures that demonstrates the figures’ limitations. For Kai and Jay’s S11 suits, their figures invoke similar feels (because underneath the accessories they do have a lot in common), whereas they feel very different in the show because while Jay sticks to the figure and looks snug, Kai has a lot exposed around the neckline, as if his gi is hanging loosely on the shoulders and should join Cole in the “For fucks sake it’s an ice realm wear a jacket please” club. 

-Worst ninja sui--what the hell happened to Cole and Nya in Hands of Time?! Nya’s main issue is that it’s trying to work too many colours and they just don’t mesh well. I think this was the time they were partially adapting the movie’s change, but they were clinging onto her having red to both represent Samurai X and her ties to her brother, but they should have just picked one or the other because it just doesn’t work the way it did in Skybound. And Cole’s outfit is just hideous. Its balance of colours and accents is all off-kilter, and to top it off the shoes just don’t work and somehow look like socks with sandals. I didn’t know that was doable with a whole suit. Finally, on a general note, I’m not a fan of when the suits are all very similar bar some very, very minor differences. One could argue that it makes them look more like a team, but I prefer the individual personality to come out. 

-It’s hard to judge the best and worst episodes, honestly. The seasons from Tournament of Elements onwards are done so tied to each other that picking an episode is rather difficult outside of designated finales (or the odd Jay-focused/Zane-focused episodes that happened in seasons 7, 8 and 9). I guess for best I’d say stuff like The Quiet One, or The Fall, or Grave Danger, or stuff like that would be up there. Worst episodes in those seasons are even harder, because usually it’s how arcs over episodes are written that get to me, not individual episodes.  This all being said, it’s much easier to do this with the more episodic first three seasons, and to that end I would still say that Tick Tock is my favourite standalone episode still, and Home is still my least favourite. For all the times the writing has dropped the ball, nothing has legitimately pissed me off more than what this episode did because it’s in its own category of bad writing. 

-There have been some concepts thrown in that, while they definitely wouldn’t work out in the long term, make for interesting snippets of what-ifs. Like, I loved the bit where Jay was a show host and got around the stage using his lightning powers. That seems like such a natural fit outside of his ninja identity I wish I’d thought of it. Imagine Bradley Walsh using lightning to get around the studio, that would be metal as fuck.

-On the other side of that coin, the bizarro Ninja are the single most overrated concept in the show. I don’t like Scourge the Hedgehog to begin with, but he at least had some efforts to make him unique (that fell flat, but eh). The bizarro Ninja are the equivalent of Evil Sonic; cliche and undeveloped. They’re not even useful for the cliche idea of framing the actual Ninja since even though they’re seen doing delinquent behaviour, this is never addressed. Heck Nadakhan was more effective with this idea. Thing is that I can’t blame the show at all for this. While the concept is naff, the show itself treats them as they actually were; Garmadon’s puppets and the scheme of the episode. Aside from bizarro Jay’s behaviour to Nya being full of unfortunate implications, there is no greater purpose for their existence, and the show never tries to do it again. It’s really the fans that have inflated their appearance in this case because I guess the idea of “take this nice character and give them an evil version” is just so appealing to the teenage demographic. Screw that, corruption is way more fun and interesting. 

-What I can blame the show for is the single worst execution of an idea, because to this point I still consider Kai’s green ninja “arc” in Tournament of Elements to be the single worst executed arc (yeah, even worse than the love triangle, but that one is still bad). The sad thing is it managed to convince me that it wasn’t such a bad concept when they explained it by being an offshoot of his depression following Zane’s death (before that I was very sceptical it could fit it in naturally after the last three seasons). But then it was used once when Skylor tried to get Kai to stab Lloyd in the back during the skating match (which Kai completely rebuffed and seemed over his depression-rooted negative vibes on Lloyd), and once more when he was overcome by the power of the staff. The latter is especially infuriating since this would have been the perfect opportunity for a character moment. Like, Lloyd and/or Skylor could have fought to get Kai out of the trance of the staff and see that his friends mean more to him than having power. It practically writes itself and is a perfect set-up. What happens instead is that Cole is technically the one to save Kai from himself as he rams the Roto Jet into the chamber and makes the rocky serpentine structure come crashing down on Kai. Maybe interesting to read into if you want a Lava reading of the show, but in that moment is just a wasted opportunity. Come on!

-Actually, also talking about other bad concepts, I don’t miss those weird energy dragons they could summon starting from Tournament of Elements. The dragons in Rise of the Serpentine/Legacy of the Green Ninja were fine because they had a logical reason for being there and actually were integrated into the plot (so you got to watch them being maintained and having moments with the ninja). The energy dragons in Tournament of Elements existed for one character as a plot thing (Zane’s, because he always had the good plots in the earlier seasons), but then everyone else suddenly could do it too and they became convenient plot devices and nothing else. Airjutsu I was more okay with because it seems more like a tool they’d use and could be integrated better, but I can also see why that stopped being used (outside of that one bit in Prime Empire).

-The Elemental Masters are both over-hyped and underdeveloped. The normal civilian cast really got the shaft once the series decided it wanted to explore this lore, yet the only ones I really got interested in in any way were the villain EMs and Karlof. And even Karlof is overlooked by the fandom, by the looks of it. 

-Jay actually came off the best in the Rebooted love triangle. He’s not entirely perfect, but he is essentially the biggest victim as a result of it in that season, and what Nya and Cole did either bordered on or was outright callous for different reasons. I think if people gave Jay the biggest shtick for Rebooted’s events, it’s influenced with how Skybound botched trying to patch it up. 

-The movie was a net positive influence on the show. Aside from me preferring the designs of the movie anyway, it forced the characterisation to actually pick a lane for each character and stick to it, mitigating a lot of the haphazard characterisation issues. The inconsistency in later seasons is tone instead, which is maybe why people thought the characterisation was inconsistent between Sons of Garmadon/Hunted and March of the Oni/SotFS (when really, they weren’t that different if at all). The show also made a good call in ignoring movie Zane’s characterisation; as much as I enjoy it in the film, it really didn’t gel up with what the show had done with him, so trying to force it in would have been more of a characterisation jolt than any of the early season stuff. 

-I’m generally fine with Jaya and Pixane. The former I can see why people would be off about it because there have been some badly written periods for them, but I think on the whole it manages to hold it together. The latter was written in surprisingly smoothly given the circumstances, so it’s no wonder I don’t see discourse about it. 

-Oh yeah, I don’t get Wu/Faith as a ship. Like, she was the cool drill instructor/aunt to everyone, including Wu. This is a quick one because it’s just a very small aside.

-Also I can’t really get behind Polyninja either. If the characters had a fairly even spread of interaction and moments between each other I could, but the spread ends up like lots of moments between Cole and Kai varying from little moments to huge dollops, and Cole and Jay having a whole best friends affirmation arc due to the fallout of the love triangle, to Kai and Jay having barely anything to work with and anyone with Zane getting a couple of table scraps occasionally. It’s not even enough.

-Following on from that though, Zane feels the least integrated with the group dynamic in general. He’s has some of the best plots and stories in the show, but nearly all of them have been focusing on him solo. And not even SotFS or Prime Empire helped with this one. Hopefully MoM can smooth this one out a bit. 

-Finally for this post, after going through all those seasons I still prefer Nya’s movie voice to her show voice by a significant margin. Sorry Kelly Metzger. 

I think that’s it. I’ve actually been on this for a week but I’ve been allowing time for more thoughts to come to me, because there have been a lot of thoughts coming in batches. I think I’ll leave it at this though, because I think most of it is covered pretty well.

I have at least two more text posts like this planned, but they’re not strictly about the old seasons so I’ve left them for after. I’m looking forward to them though, because they’re on specific topics and that is my bread and butter pudding. 

[hxpeincarnate-a]

↳   skyfxllau // sc.( && drabble )  // @gerussi​

―『 ♣ 』»     the drowning silence had been all she knew besides the constant rhythmic beeping of life support hooked up to those damned from their very beginning. The day had started like any other, awoken by creaking of her cell door, the collar around her neck sending an electrical current down her spine to jolt her into being awake and alert. The shouting that came next, demands that she had to follow were always worded in the same ‘ WOULD YOU KINDLY ‘ manner - A POOR MAN’S ATTEMPT TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE SHE WAS IN CONTROL - when simply, she was just another monster they had crafted from DNA found on some distant rock. 

The next few hours were always a whirlwind of confusion and primal fear. Part of her knew that whatever concoction they crafted to put into her was only killing her, but it felt like a vacation compared to the truth that around her. She’d be locked in a room with some sap who broke the rules. They’d beg for their life and she only had one order. 

And that order left her with blood stained on her cold fingertips. 

There were other days where she’d be grappled and no matter how hard she kicked and screamed her frail form would be tossed into the stasis chamber after long hours of being on the operating table, only for the sickly goop to fill her lungs and leave her to the madness of her mind.

Yet this day had suddenly taken a turn. What would have normally started with the cage door opening and barked demands was interrupted by sirens blaring. Red eyes snapped open as gunshots rang, the chains clanking together as she kept a hold of the medical bot she called her own, even if it was mostly out of comfort. The child could only watch as men stormed the place, running and hollering orders that were lost to her soft ears that hid underneath red locks. 

Curiosity got the best of her, walking forward with shaky steps, flinching at every shot that echoed from down the hall. She could smell death in the air, it only grew as she moved towards the cell door, seeing one of the lab assistants who stuck her a hundred times over without a head. 

Mumbling under her breath, she scooted down, grasping for the keycard against their chest, fingers brushing the surface as she stretched as much as she could. For a moment, it flicked away with the blow of the wind, but the next, claws had gotten a firm grip, ripping it off of the string that held it to the deceased’s chest. Quick had she been to get up, gripping the medical bot underneath an arm, slamming the card on the reader to hear the door click amongst all the other noise. 

Once the door slid open, she stepped out with her own freedom. A taste of something she had never gotten before, her legs quaking underneath her as she looked left and right, trying to remember where an exit could even be. As she took a few more steps forward, the flashing lights died, leaving only pitch darkness and the screams of the lab rats that she had been a part of. 

The shout of a patrol left her quaking, but it was now or never, for true freedom. So with a sharp breath, she ran, heading in the opposite direction of the gunshots in hopes maybe - maybe there was another way out. But, to be free without consequence was too nice to ask for. As her feet pattered against the tile flooring, red eyes caught glimpses of security guards with their neon green helmets, their glowing shields that protected them from dangers. She looked straight down the muzzle before it fired but her hands had already been bloodied by the guard who fell to the ground with her claws ripping out their throat. She seethed, fire flickering from the sharp puffs of air that escaped her sharp teeth. 

The bot, however, squeaked out in protest as she stood up, her eyes flicking back to it, a growl in her throat. “ shut it pip. “ Was all she could say at the moment, her voice hoarse as she continued to trail the walls, running, faster and faster. The bot followed suit, beeping softly, but tailing her all the same as she struck down others who came across her in the halls that she wanted to escape. 

Eventually, as her breaths were becoming harder to keep, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. She hadn’t hesitated to run to it, to push open the cracked doors with pure might but on the outside, she hadn’t expected the bright lights and army staring down the barrels of firearms right at her form. 

All she had to hear was the first syllable - she twisted as the sound of shots were drowned out by the pounding of her heart, rushing a soldier who’d had no backup, throwing him to the side as she worked towards the green lush leaves just thousands of feet away. She hadn’t even noticed the bullets that had made contact, too focused on running to turn back as blood soaked her ripped up uniform. Tail swatted side to side as she dove under the foliage, hearing a ship roaring to life not so far away. 

Her vision darkened around the edges but she hadn’t the time to stop. The pain was starting to crawl up from the right side, but she pushed it aside. As she caught track of the tiny airship, she saw another one of those DAMNED scientists standing beside it, gun shakily held in their hands, screaming to not test them. 

That’s cute.

A bullet nicked her ear, but her head bashed against the white coat wearing bastard. For what seemed like minutes ( but were mere moments ) she wrestled the pistol from their hand and turned it on them, one shot to the skull as the gore-drenched the green ground below. But there was no time to worry about her handiwork. No time to fix the wounds that were making her movements slow. She forced herself up into the ship, coughing and stumbling her way to the pilot’s chair as she shut the doors. 

Eyes caught people rushing from the woods and yet the ship’s shield had kicked on, deflecting them all. She sunk back into the seat, hit the switches and felt the ship jolt to life as it went skybound. 

At one point, her consciousness slipped from her. At another, she could’ve sworn she was back in the lab. Had it been hours? Days? She hadn’t a clue, but the next thing she knew, she had been awoken by red flashing lights and land getting bigger and bigger. The medical bot screamed in the background as hands grabbed hard on the wheel, trying to slow the decent but a bang only confirmed one of the engines were down, and that someone was still tailing her. 

Crash landing into the water, her fears run rampant, gripping hold of the bot as it screeched and opened the top door. A round of laser shots made the water rise as she jumped to the safety of the shore, scurrying as she saw motor vehicles coming closer. She stumbled and wobbled instep against the dirt, tripping a few times as she got close to the city walls, pushing over boxes and attempting to get as much distance as she could. But soon, a hand had gripped her collar, the shock she had been so used to coming back and making her cough from being unable to breathe. Slammed against the wall, blood began to drip from the wounds as she tried to wiggle, as hands tried to pry the large fingertips off. 

But she couldn’t, she gave up.

[oodlyenough]

twdg 4x03 broken toys

i’m trying to just lean into mustache twirling supervillain lilly but it feels very strange. the best i can say about it is that i guess i’d rather have lilly be the big bad of the final season than some totally random Carver-esque character? but even between ep 2 and 3 i feel like the writing took a turn from ‘lilly is a perhaps not entirely willing participant in this war’ to LILLY CUT A FUCKIN TONGUE OUT OF A CHILD’S MOUTH and that was wild to me. i don’t think it holds up and it wasn’t seeded well in my version of ep 2 where lilly couldn’t fire at clem and looked remorseful about killing mitch and stuff. ep 2 i definitely got a vibe of you might be able to talk lilly into helping you at a crucial moment against a bigger villain, ep 3 it was like “no actually lilly is in charge and all the child abuse is her direction specifically because she’s a supervillain”. like......... lol ok.................................................. 

but looking @ what the eternal in-universe glorification of kenny i can’t say i’m surprised 

sooooo trying to just... put that aside, i did like the rest of the ep:

holy FUCK louis akdsghlag i legit gasped.... poor guy... i’m sorry i had to save my gf...... i did not think you would get (that) hurt!!! i mean i guess i figured he might die but not before we got a reunion scene and stuff. which we got, but like. only kinda. damn!!!!!!! sorry man!

clem and violet were cuuute nawww... :’))) the stupid star pin and the awkward dancing and “LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE >(”

i LOVED that after all the fandom drama about minnie and “who will violet choose” there was never any question LOL the instant minnie insulted clementine violet was like STEP OFF :’))))

minnie girl i am sorry for what they did to you but violet’s my girlfriend now and we’re in love and she shot you in the shoulder for me because she loves me

i know we’re a bunch of shitty kids but lmfao why the fuck did we decide to plant the bomb BEFORE rescuing our friends? literally, why

the james/walker thing wasn’t for me. i was kind of intrigued but his evidence for why he believed this was “they look at windchimes”.... this ain’t it chief...... chasing noise is like, their defining trait. this wasn’t new info.

i respected his wishes and didn’t kill any walkers even though that sequence took me 90000000 years to complete and he still called me close-minded unlike my friends lmao bye!

i did see on tumblr that he’s canonically gay so that’s nice

none of the timelines for the kids make any sense lol, clem def needs to be like 17-18, how was willie at the school for chronic masturbation when he’d’ve been like. 3. how was violet at the school since she was 11??? 

the lee scene !!!!!!! it went on way longer than i expected to and gave me many emotions. that was another scene where i was really playing with the lens of clementine and not just what i thought would be the ‘best’ choice -- i let her voice all her fears and pick the uncertain options and it was just a really nice scene. leeeeeee. 😭😭😭😭😭

“a girl who loves you”...... 😭😭 lee everett said gay rights!!!

also tiny clem was ADORABLE in the new graphics. and lmao lee’s walk!!!

i told AJ not to kill lilly even though i was pretty sure lilly was lying, because i felt like it was going to pay off somehow and because the game already cornered me into torturing abel via a game-breaking glitch, and i am wary of all the foreshadowing about aj becoming a cold-blooded killer or whatever. sorry james. i assumed lilly couldn’t die but maybe she actually can at this junction???

overall i enjoyed the episode and even despite wanting to ragequit at the extremely clunky ‘walker distraction’ challenge and thinking the lilly storyline is a Mess i’m still super grateful that skybound picked this game up and is letting it finish properly

i really don’t know what to expect for ep 4. i guess i expect significant branching, and my hypothesis has always been that there’ll be a Clem Lives and a Clem Dies ending. if that’s the case, know that i will do anything in my power to get Clem Lives. i will sacrifice AJ myself i don’t care.