#i have to make a post about Misako's siblings in another one because

[eraserisms]

Misako Aizawa

What time is it? It's Misako Azuma time.

In contrast to her husband, Misako grew up with a very different kind of life. She is the oldest out of her three siblings, then comes her sister and her brother last. Misako grew up affluent and never really have to want for anything. Her family home is in Saitama, but her family has always had more than one residence.

Her father is a highly respected judge and comes from a long line of them. The Azuma family has the the ability to read things at record speed. To finish an entire college textbook, it could take them anywhere between a half hour to an hour to finish it. Whatever they read can be spit right back out at you. However, just like anyone else they will forget the information over time if they don't make an effort to put it to memory.

The quirk has very few restrictions. A drawback of them utilizing their power is that they can have terrible headaches or migraines after using it for extended period of time. This fundamentally has allowed the Azuma family to succeed in fields that require a lot of studying such as law or medicine. Like his predecessors, Chikao Azuma put in the work to become a lawyer, but a lot of his success relied heavily on nepotism and deals being done under the table.

Misako's mother (Min-Jae) is an heiress to a large Korean investment company. Her mother's side of the family have a probability quirk/quirk of foresight and have the ability to predict how likely statistics & numbers will change. With their family owning an investment company, they are able to predict when numbers the stock market will go up or when it will go down.

As with any quirk, they have their limitations and only can see so far into the future and if they try to go beyond that limitation, the vision will muddle or they will become confused. The confusion is very much like chess blindness when there are so many possibilities that the player becomes disorientated and are unable to make even the simplest of strategies.

While they may not have the ability to look 10 years into the future to see if their investments are viable long term, it is beneficial as far as day trading goes. They also are unable to predict the outcome of any other event. Its strictly a math based foresight.

Being the eldest, Misako had a lot on her shoulders and her parents expected nothing but perfection out of her. Once her quirk began to manifest, her parents worked on planning her future, she was to be an attorney as she had inherited her father's quirk. As a teenager she often rebelled against her parents in anyway that she could. Ear piercings, styling her hair by shaving off a chunk of it, chokers, anything that would set her parent's teeth on edge (Shota gets his goth aesthetic from someone).

They could choose her career, but Misako refused to allow them to choose her husband. She didn't want a loveless marriage. By the time that her family had planned to start finding a partner for her, she had already fallen in love with her future-husband.

Misako's parents had an arranged marriage and their relationship was rather cold and transitional at best. The nature of her parent's relationship is another reason why she was so taken with Souta and the Aizawa family. Their dynamic was so different from what she was used to and seeing how family orientated Souta was, made her fall in love with him all the more.

Misako continued to have a rocky relationship with her parents until Mio was born and then Shota shortly after. Her mother was taken with her grandchildren and was softer and sweeter with them than she ever had been with Misako. Shota ended up having a close connection with her and is the reason he has any sort of fluency in Korean.

[skylarynn-ninjago]

Plot concepts/canon divergences

Continuation of this post over there.

01 - Masters of Spinjitzu

The pilot season.  As mentioned there are not major changes in overall plot, however I am adding in an episode [called “A Brother’s Shadow”] to cover what’s going on with Nya in the Underworld since we literally never see what all went down between when she was captured and when she was chained up in the Fire Temple.  Also I will be giving plot to the mini movies, which tacks an additional 5 episodes [“New Masters of Spinjitzu” is getting thrown in the fire] onto the season, making it a nice round 10 episodes.

02 - Rise of the Snakes

Season 1.  As mentioned it’s not overly different from the original, though there will be seeding for concepts I introduce later, such as Lloyd’s aunt Koko and the Kagami family of professional dancers.  

03 - Legacy of the Green Ninja

Season 2.  Lloyd’s aunt Koko is introduced in the same episode Misako is, and she participates in shenanigans from then onwards for the season.   Also I will try to come up with some explanation of Dr. Julien leaving Echo on the Lighthouse so he’s not an utterly Terrible Parent™.

04 - Rebooted

Season 3.  Hopefully I can try to iron out/rectify most of the pacing issues they had, as the show was going to be 4 episodes, then 13, then 8, and you can kinda tell with the way the plot’s tempo fluctuates.  Also there will be reference to Koko having traversed Hiroshi’s Labyrinth because she’s Like That™.  Koko might get involved in the season, but if so it will be towards the end.  Also also Cryptor won’t be blown[frozen?] to bits exactly, there will be salvageable remnants of him left for reasons To Be Seen.

05 - Tournament of the Elements

Season 4.  The Ninja board Chen’s ship to find shock! horror! Koko is here for some reason!  She’s then revealed to be the Master of Sand, which is why she’s so helpful on Misako’s digs.  We’re also introduced to Viridian Kagami, another oc and the alleged Master of Glass, though strangely no one actually witnesses him using his element... Oh and at the end I add a reference to Skylor having a little brother.

06 - Possession

Season 5.  Koko gets involved once word reaches her of Lloyd being possessed and she spends most of the season helping Misako figure shit out because those two are Nerd Siblings™.  Also two other original characters are introduced/referenced: Cerulea Kagami, or just Lea, who was kicked out of the Kagami family of professional dancers for breaking a mirror [It Makes Sense In Context™]and was promptly adopted as a sister by Ronin; and Kaiya Mori, Ronin’s biological daughter who’s only really mentioned in passing.  She is roughly Nya’s age and, as her name literally means “forgiveness”, has a lot to do with the mistakes Ronin references making.

07 - Skybound

Season 6.  Still haven’t rewatched it [which I really should do] but I did some critical thinking about the ending and decided to completely rework it.  Functionally the season holds the same narrative space, but I found it kinda counterintuitive that in the season where it’s heavily emphasized wishes do not solve problems, the entire season is fixed with a very poorly-worded wish.  So instead Jay does not make a final wish, but the plot is resolved by other means.  If y’all are curious I will gladly explain the Shenanigans™ there, but I don’t want to spoil it quite yet.

08 - Escape from Tera Uragiri

The first [of many] of my fan seasons.  As previously explained it is inspired by Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. and tells how the Imperial Family of Ninjago got the Mask of Deception before Sons of Garmadon: Ronin.  Also introduces Fugi-Dove 5 seasons before his first canon appearance because a friend suggested it as a joke and I cannot say no to the bird man.

09 - Echoes of Memory

The second fan season.  Features Ronin accidentally adopting Echo Zane and Echo joining the Ninja’s funky family.  Also features Jay and Nya explaining what the hell was Skybound.

10 - Day of the Departed

The holiday special.  I’m throwing in Li’l Nelson to help Cole, because evidently the writers originally planned on it based on his presence in the sets.  And Yang doesn’t get a redemption because that man’s motives make no sense [why are you afraid of getting forgotten when you know for a fact you’re well known for creating a martial art?  You literally possessed the portrait of you hanging in the museum, there’s no way you think no one remembers you] so instead Morro sticks around and helps yeet Cole through the Rift [and maybe accidentally crosses it himself...].  Also, I really didn’t get why Pythor hopped on the murder train so quick when he has no reason to do so, and instead changed it to Pythor trying to warn Lloyd of the Shenanigans™ [much like Morro] purely to spite Chen for culturally appropriating his tribe and wearing their remains as a hat.  He still almost gets killed by Lloyd because he’s proven himself Untrustworthy™.

11 - Hands of Time

Season 7.  There’s...a lot of pacing issues in this season, and the dialogue kinda suffers throughout, so hopefully I can fix those things.  For once, Koko is not likely to be around.  Also there will be episodes about Dareth and Ronin post-Dareth breaking Ronin’s leg because Dareth found this anemic emo teen in the street and decided to adopt him.  Yes it is Morro, and no he is not happy because he Did Not sign up for mortality again.

12 - Decoded

No idea if this season is canon or not frankly, but it’s a thing, so.  I’m just adding Echo to it pretty much. Though now that I think about it this might be when I have Echo give Gizmo/Tai-D [that adorable glorified roomba tea bot Dr. Julien had at the Lighthouse] an upgrade in body and sentience, and he has now become a young child with built-in rollerskates who likes to help fix things.   Unlike Zane and Echo [and PIXAL I guess] Gizmo isn’t big on the whole fighting thing and would rather stay at the Monastery, but heaven help you if you try to attack the Monastery because there’s now a devious robotic Kevin McAllister living there.  

13 - Obsession

The third fan season where I stole the concept from The Fire That Burns Too Brightly.  It’s on AO3, go read it. Gist is Kai gets a stalker who’s trying to destroy the Element of Fire and murder Kai for Personal Trauma Reasons™ and Lloyd contemplates Murder™.

14 - Apex Predator

The shiny new fourth fan season.  Stole this concept from an AI actually, a TannerFishies YouTube video where he was generating potential Ninjago seasons.   So the pitch is that one of the 16 Realms is just the Old West, from whence originates the villainous Talon, an outlaw of some ilk that the Ninja have to defeat.  Talon is based on Great Horned Owls, which makes him rather terrifying to be frank.   Also this will be a Nya/Koko focus season because I didn’t realize I didn’t have those yet.   Oh and there will be a wonderful episode called “Holstergeist” [stole that from Reddit] where the Ninja tried to get help by bringing back ghosts in the Caves of Despair from the prospecting era [got that idea from tumblr’s very own drawtice].

15 - Sons of Garmadon

Season 8.  There’s now a total of 6 Oni Masks, 3 Greater and 3 Lesser.  The Greater 3 are those from the show - Deception, Vengeance, and Hatred - while the Lesser 3 are similar concepts - Fear, Cruelty, and Corruption.  There are also 6 Dragon Amulets, one to counter each Mask as follows: Deception/Loyalty, Vengeance/Forgiveness, Hatred/Compassion, Fear/Bravery, Cruelty/Kindness, Corruption/Justice.   Also there’s a 4th general amongst the Sons of Garmadon called Tempest; no one’s really sure where he came from, but he never takes off his mask.  He just casually showed up with the Mask of Cruelty as well [that’s not the mask he wears constantly] and he won’t tell where he got it.   Oh and the Falcon mysteriously vanishes.

16 - Hunted

Season 9.  Lea and Koko join Lloyd’s resistance, and about halfway through the season Tempest just disappears on the Sons to Harumi’s great befuddlement because they’d been Bonding™.  Not really sure what Echo’s role in this will be, so that needs to be ironed out. Also Morro finally reveals his alive-ness to [what remains of] the Ninja, which nearly gets him drowned by Nya.  He’s captured by the Sons of Garmadon before the other Ninja return from the First Realm, which is really fun because he just pops up after the jail break and all the OG Ninja have a freak-out before Lloyd and Nya can explain It’s Okay, He’s Chill Now.  

17 - March of the Oni

Season 10.  Definitely adjusting the pacing because so much happened in so little time.  Totally having an entire episode dedicated to the introduction of the Oni and calling it “The Bringers of Doom” because kickass melodrama is the flavor of the day.   Also Echo and Morro have been added, and Morro very nearly yeets himself off the Bounty when Cole falls, only not also falling into the cloud because Jay catches him by the collar, because up to this point Cole was the Ninja closest with Morro and he was Not about to lose his Only Friend™. Also also the Falcon reappears, now in a shiny new body as another sentient Nindroid but with wings because bird go brr and calling himself Merlin.  He helps evacuate people and integrates into the group after the Oni shenanigans.

18 - Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu: The Fire Chapter

Season 11, part 1.  Gizmo and PIXAL become best friends building stuff together and Merlin helps them sometimes. Unlike the other Ninja, Morro did not go out of shape and thus is not being harassed by Wu.  In fact, he’s definitely helping Wu prank everyone.   Kai isn’t super out of shape, as, post-reforging the Golden Weapons, he’s taken up blacksmithing again and has in fact made all the Ninja’s weapons.  He has been slacking off in the combat training, however. Lloyd also isn’t completely out of shape I feel, but he is definitely slacking somewhat.   Oh and, while Echo and Gizmo stay behind, Merlin is definitely going into the Never-Realm to get his brother back.

19 - Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu: The Ice Chapter

Season 11, part 2.  Morro actually kinda enjoys the Never-Realm because he Does Not like really hot environments.  Sorla gives him some advice about the PTSD this man clearly has, and I might have him go after Cole to find the Traveller’s Tree because Only Friend™.  Also this is where we learn he has Iron Deficiency Anemia because he starts fainting and such.  Not a fun time. Merlin has Bonding Time™ with all the Ninja and proves to be really useful as a flyer. Also Echo helps PIXAL during the episode with the Preeminent, but he’s incapacitated so she still gets her dramatic I’m The Only Line Of Defense moment.

20 - Prime Empire

Season 12.  Somehow Jay’s mother Liberty is being used for Prime Empire, I’m just not sure how.  Also the season might start earlier, with Jay getting a letter from his hitherto-unknown sister Ivy Gordon asking for help to find their missing mom. Also not sure how Echo and Merlin will fit into this season, but I’ll figure it out.  Merlin is going to be very pissed when the Mechanic abducts Zane.   Morro enters Prime Empire and probably dies between Cole/Kai and Lloyd.  Also he gets an alt avatar form that just looks like the depressed teenage offspring of Hot Topic.

21 - Master of the Mountain

Season 13.  Morro ends up with Zane and Kai among the Geckles, and his anemia comes up again because the glop shit they’re given does not contain enough iron to keep this man conscious.  Oh and during the whole Trial by Mino thing, Morro’s just Jedi Flipping™ over the thing to keep from getting gored while Kai and Zane try to dodge.  And he’s probably the one who makes the slug fly down the ice slick. Likely to add some episodes about what’s going on at the Monastery like how they did in the Ice Chapter, covering the jailbreak that supposedly happens before the Island.

22 - Malediction

The fifth fan season.  Focuses on Morro and features Clouse as the villain, actually revealing his familial origins.  Takes place on Chen’s Island and Much Shenaniganry™ occurs. Not all of the Ninja are present for it, as Kai is visiting his parents and Cole is visiting Lou.   Also Lea is there looking for Ronin because he’s mysteriously vanished while out trying to catch escaped inmates from Kryptarium and she’s worried about him.  And this is when it’s finally revealed that Viridian from all the way back in Tournament is not, in fact, the Master of Glass, but rather Lea is.  After the Shenaniganry™, Lloyd offers for her to join the Ninja so she can better master her element and she accepts.

23 - The Island

Either a miniseries or season 14, people count it differently.  Lea is now officially one of the team, but they have not yet found her missing adoptive brother [Ronin].   Oh and Koko was on the expedition team with Misako and Wu and Clutch, and she’s Very Much Done with Clutch’s Shit™.   When they find the fake Wojira there’s still the bit like this: Lloyd: Who do we know that uses weird vehicles to get his way? Lea: Ronin! Lloyd: Actually I was gonna say the Mechanic, but that works too-- But instead of ending there it deviates slightly Lea: No, I mean--Ronin! And we get the reveal that Ronin had been captured by these hooligans while doing his bounty hunting and in fact the real mastermind was the Mechanic, who is then sent to prison while Ronin’s taken to a hospital.

24 - Throne of Glass

The sixth fan season, and Lea’s focus.  The city has finally gotten its act together long enough to elect the Kagami family as the new Imperial Family of Ninjago after Harumi nuked her parents.  This upsets Lea, because that is the family that cast her out.   Much Shenaniganry™ occurs, though like in Malediction only a few of the Ninja are here:  Jay and Nya are visiting with Jay’s family [Ed and Edna but also Liberty and his sister Ivy] Lloyd has been kidnapped by Koko to go off adventuring in some remote jungle somewhere And Zane, Merlin, Echo, and Gizmo have gone off to Do a Thing in honor of their late father Dr. Julien, with PIXAL coming along with.   Lea and Cole have a lot of Bonding™ as we learn about their shared history at the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts, and Lea’s family tries to have her assassinated because Reasons™.  Dragon Amulets are found and used.   Also there’s a big fancy Imperial Ball that happens so Morro wears a dress to hide more knives on his person and Kai wears a dress because he’s a Fashion Victim™ and not to be outdone.  

25 - Seabound

Season 14 or 15 depending on how you count.  Morro’s powers start going wacky just like Nya’s, and he goes with them in the HydroBounty but Does Not have a Fun Time because thalassophobia/aquaphobia residual from his Ghosty Days.   Merlin, Echo, Gizmo, and Lea all vibe at the Monastery with Kai, Ray, and Cole and have an absolute blast. Also, after Kai calls Maya and she starts annoying Nya, Misako suggests that since Ronin helped her figure her powers out the first time Nya should call Ronin.  So she does, and now Maya and Ronin are competitively trying to help her. When Nya goes to merge with the sea, Morro follows her and merges with the sky.  While Nya has her nifty water dragon form he has a white tiger form.  Also he’s not got the same ‘call of the sea’ thing Nya has going on, so he mostly maintains his identity’s integrity.  

26 - Cloudburst Elegy

The seventh fan season covering shenanigans between Seabound and Crystallized.   So, much like how Nyad had also previously merged with the sea, there’s an elemental Master of Wind who had merged with the sky before Morro had and was semi-stuck in the white tiger form.  He causes shit [and is the reason Jay ends up at the lighthouse].  No one has a good time.

27 - Crystallized, Part I

Season 15-16, part 1.  Morro is also un-merged with his element, though in the process a giant white tiger also pops into existence; the other Wind Elemental.  Koko names him Benji and he’s a menace once he wakes up but is thoroughly perplexed by Koko, She Who Has No Fear, enough that he actually listens to her commands because whoever has the audacity to tell a tiger “Bad kitty!  Sit!” is worthy of respect. Ronin is still in prison in this season, but that’s because he broke into places to find a way to fix Nya.  He’s quite relieved to hear that she’s okay now. The whole scene where Lloyd convinces an inmate to be better still happens, but rather than be Ronin, it’s someone else: namely Eugene Chen, or Gene as the Darkly’s kids knew him, Skylor’s younger brother that was fleetingly foreshadowed by me in Tournament.  While Sky took over the noodle production, he took over the crime syndicate.  Lloyd convinces him to Do Better, and Gene sneaks out of Kryptarium the same time Pythor’s busted out. Speaking of, the Crystal Council actually tries to recruit Nadakhan [the alt timeline had been explained by the Ninja in a press conference so it’s common knowledge by now] but he declined for reasons to do with how I end Skybound, so they opt for their second choice: Pythor.  Pythor also declines initially, but he’s strong-armed into it by them taunting him with information on his son, Clancee. Also I’ve made Clancee be Pythor’s son by the way.

28 - Crystallized, Part II

Season 15-16, part 2.  So firstly when the Crystal Council comes for the Golden Weapons, I’m changing the assignment slightly.  Pythor gets the Shurikens of Ice [and fights Nya in the finale] while the Mechanic gets the Nunchucks of Lightning [and fights Jay in the finale].   Morro’s in the same boat as Nya on the power loss front and is with her, Wu, Skylor, PIXAL, Echo, and Gizmo when the Monastery’s blown up.   Lea and Merlin are with Cole, Kai, Zane, and Jay in the subway.  Koko was at Domu with Misako because Nerd Siblings™. Garmadon’s subplot with Lloyd is changed. Also there’s a whole subplot about the relationship between Ultra Violet and the Mechanic and it’s kinda sad.   Only the OG Ninja get fancy new vehicles, so Lea, Koko, and Morro were all on the Bounty when it went down.  Echo, Merlin, and Gizmo were all with PIXAL and Skylor in the Sam X cave for those shenanigans. Lea, Koko, and Morro end up navigating the city together.  Merlin, Echo, PIXAL, and Skylor all entered city separately to try and avoid detection.  PIXAL found Zane first and then Merlin found her, Zane, and the inmates at Borg Tower later.  Echo ended up with Jay and Nya.  During the Distress Calls sequence, while Lloyd leaves a message for the Serpentine, Cole tries to broadcast to Shintaro, and Nya sends fish to Merlopia, Morro has the wacky idea to message the Never-Realm and manages to contact Sorla with magic Bansha taught him, while Kai suggest calling Faith for help and Wu does so with some Traveller’s Tea one of the paperkids found. In the ‘allies unite’ sequence, in addition to everyone who shows up, Gene appears with his crew of criminals, Nadakhan appears with his Sky Pirates, Akita and Kataru pop out of a portal from the Never-Realm, and Faith flies in on Firstbourne with some of her Dragon Riders.   The OG Ninja are the only ones who can do the Dragon Form since they’re the sub-elements of Creation, and when they release their powers it just gives Lloyd the Golden Power again instead of making a gold dragon for him to ride that just disappears at the end because my god that was so dumb... Harumi is sent to prison for her various atrocities, along with most of the Crystal Council.  Vania does come to collect her father and take him back to Shintaran prison.  Also we finally find out that Mr. F/Mr. E is actually the rebuilt remains of Cryptor that I hinted at in Rebooted.  And also that the Sons of Garmadon general Tempest was secretly Morro all along.   The inmates who helped [Ronin, Killow, Ultra Violet, and Fugi-Dove] all get their sentences changed so they can do ‘public service’ instead and they end up working at Skylor’s noodlehouse since Skylor becomes a full-time Ninja.  Killow cooks, Fugi-Dove does waitressing, and Ultra Violet handles customer service while Ronin supervises them.   The Sons of Garmadon [Harumi, Killow, Ultra Violet, Mr. F, and Morro] have a very messy and complicated reunion, but they all work out their grudges and rebuild their friendships, with everyone agreeing to work for good from now on.  Pythor is reunited with Clancee after centuries.   Akita and Kataru decide to stay in Ninjago while Faith returns to her realm.  

The story doesn’t end there, I’ve just not worked out everything following that.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Here’s my next Ninjago design post we got the old Lego ppl!!

Okay so I have so many thoughts on these three.

S1-2 rough designs

S2 designs

S11 designs

Casual designs

Pixal

Thoughts and extra doodles in the readmore

So headcanon 1) Wu is actually an impulsive, hero type. He strives to do right and emulate his father, and even grew his hair out like his father because I said so. He definitely let “son of the fsm” go to his head when he was young. He’s usually wearing really airy and puffy clothes and usually covers his skin. Whilst I think he’s pretty friendly, he’s a lot like pilots Kai in that he rushes into things alone and has a hero complex. Also he’s a little stupid but yknow

Headcanon 2) Garmadon is probably the most thoughtful and introspective out of the three, when he’s on a good day. Mainly the devourers venom makes him really mad and spiteful, even though sometimes he’d snap back and try to restrain it. Garmadon’s pretty buff because he gets all his anger out in training, and he also goes sleeveless often because his biceps are on point and he knows it, also being angry all the time makes him hot. Also he has shortish fluffy hair that he cut once really messily as an f u to his dad. As a kid, he used to be the responsible older sibling to pair off Wu’s more rebellious and lax nature (as seen when he goes to get Wu’s sword, or when he tried to dissuade Wu from crossing into serpentine territory). He was generally a little jealous of the attention Wu got as the little brother, which although technically he was actually the centre of the fsm concern after being bitten, was an insecurity that still manifested itself later on. Despite his curse, he’s actually more competent than Wu, as he has more leadership skills and charisma (I mean mans was a great politician he managed to overthrow both the skeletons and the snakes with mostly just words), and he’s actually pretty good with people when he’s not evil. He also left his father on bad terms, before the fsm died, and he’s regretted it since, which is partially why he took his role as Lloyd’s father so very seriously.

Also I think it would be cool if Garmadon was also weirdly blonde like Wu, because I think the good blonde/bad brunette trope is tired and I really liked Garmadon’s white hair Oni form from the comics.

Speaking of hair, sometime around or after the serpentine wars, Wu and Garmadon had a fight (not that uncommon), but Garmadon sliced off Wu’s hair, because it symbolised their father. Garmadon then realised and felt awful and it was another mark of their crumbling brotherhood

When Garmadon was cured of his evil post s2, Wu was overjoyed to have him back. Because despite everything Wu had always looked up to and admired Garmadon. At this point Wu had been regrowing his hair and he thought that Garmadon should cut it again, but as a sign of peace, to replace the bad memory of the haircut with a nicer one.

Now let me talk about Misako.

First of all design points, I gave her Lloyd’s s8 to present eyebrows because I can :). Also she started wearing the green bandana after s2 to remind her of Lloyd on her travels.

So I am kinda mixed about her. Because she’s an awful awful parent and I’m mostly mad on behalf of the other parents of Ninjago like Ray and Maya. They would totally punt her for willingly abandoning her son.

But then I thought: what if this was really interesting though? So here’s my take on Misako. She’s a pretty eccentric woman who is obsessed with history, and honestly doesn’t know how to be a parent. That was gonna be Garmadon’s job. When she realises Lloyd was the green ninja, she ups and leaves because her immediate response was to research the prophecy more. She leaves Lloyd at an evil school because who knows? Maybe he’ll become evil and then won’t fight his dad anyways. And she really doesn’t seem to care all too much when she sees Lloyd again in s2, or at least she doesn’t notice that her actions had definitely hurt him. She also basically underestimates him, thinking he’s just a gullible kid. Until he proves himself a fighter and works with her to defeat the stone warrior and she realises she’s been kinda awful to him, and does try to work on it. They then continue to have a relationship a little similar to Movie!Lloyd and Garmadon, where Misako has no idea how to parent and it’s still very awkward but they try… mostly. Misako, every a wandering spirit, will often just freaking disappear into the blue on a wild treasure hunt, and show up on birthdays to gift Lloyd a random skull before taking off never to be seen again. It’d be cute if they write to each other though. They slowly build an actual relationship (not like the show where Misako is just kinda there, imediately forgiven by Lloyd).

So that’s my take on part of Misako’s character. The other part I actually have a hard time forgiving her for. It’s her relationships with the spinjitzu brothers. Ik it’s the misogyny writing but still it’s half her character. Like I get it, Garmadon was trying to take over the world but I’m not okay with her in s2 where she basically takes advantage of Garmadon’s trust and emotional vulnerability to betray him, because ouch. Don’t manipulate his feelings thats mean! I could live with it if the scene was just:

Misako: *shows up*

Garmadon: *stuttering like a middle school student in front of his crush*

Because like that would be funny, she wouldn’t be manipulating him, and it would show how he does actually like her and no one is betrayed, Garmadon just loves his wife so much he can’t function like a normal person.

Now for the whole Wu stuff, I rlly don’t like how she kinda flirts with Wu in s2 but goes back to Garmadon in s3-4. And the letter stuff is bs and we all know it. She’s a historian, she’s smart! She wouldn’t make a life altering decision solely based on a poem?? Part of her job is source checking, like I’d bet she’d probably be able to identify whether it was Wu or Garmadon’s handwriting. So like my main problem is wusako honestly (but all power to you if you do!), like I don’t care for garmasako, it’s not my favourite thing but it’s tolerable. The love triangle doesn’t make sense like at least Cole Jay Nya, they have the excuse of being young but the old Lego people? Nah they’re supposed to be better than this cmon.

So my solution is that Wu and Misako do not at ALL get along. Which is why Wu never knew that Lloyd was left at darkley’s. Because they weren’t on speaking terms. Which is why Misako didn’t think that Wu could take Lloyd in instead, or why she never told Wu that Lloyd was the green ninja. Because she hates him. When she appears in s2, they both have this ongoing rivalry that provides a bit of comedy, but they ultimately team up for Lloyd’s sake and also to save Garmadon. They continue to have this low key beef in s3 and s4 which is where it ramps up again, when Garmadon and Lloyd leave them for Chen’s island. That’s when we learn that the reason they hate each other, is actually Garmadon’s fault. Chen convinced Garmadon to forge an insulting letter from Wu to Misako (or some other divisive action that would lead to them hating and never forgiving each other), in order to gain some benefit in their fighting (like perhaps to stop from finding out that he was working with Chen, or to gain power idk). This parallels how Chen works, by making others fight for benefit. Then when Chen reveals this to Wu and Misako, they are obviously pissed. They do make peace with Garmadon and also each other. Then they rebuild their relationship properly in s5 (opening a tea shop together) and s7 where Misako is Wu’s closest confidant. I think they’d stay platonic tho.

Also sorry I don’t have drawings for this I might edit this post with doodles in the future, lol.

But yeah Ninjago

[viioletpixels]

So this post by @oneleggedgiraffe made me think about Lloyd and Pixal because let’s face it they’re definitely like siblings atp. Soo I humbly present:

✨ Lloyd and Pixal Sibling Headcanons  ✨

(Thanks for the inspo op!)

- I like to think they got closer between Seasons 7-8. We know Pix returned to the computer system sometime after Wu disappeared, but by that point the team had pretty much split. Lloyd was by himself, but Pixal kept him company on those long, lonely nights he spent searching for Wu alone. They really got to know one another during this time and have been pretty close since then. Pix felt really bad about keeping her Samurai X secret from him what with all the time they spent together

- Speaking of S8, Pixal was absolutely FLABBERGASTED when she first heard Lloyd’s new voice. Her initial reaction was to ask if he’d been possessed again

- Pix is definitely a second sister figure to Lloyd. She’s very protective of him and won’t hesitate to check anyone that messes with him. Lloyd gets to brag that one of his big sisters is a badass Samurai nindroid lady that could beat you up with her bare hands and he’s very proud of it

- Their favorite thing to do together is sit back and watch the others wreak havoc

- They both have a tendency to stay up at ungodly hours of the morning (Pix just doesn’t sleep much/is constantly working and Lloyd has trouble sleeping). Lots of their encounters are in the kitchen at 2AM. Pix usually offers to make him coffee and he always says yes. She makes good coffee

- Lloyd occasionally does some studying to help make up for all the education he missed. I like to think Misako is the main one to help him with this, but Pix is also a big help, especially when his mom’s not around. Lloyd tends to get confused and frustrated with himself pretty easily, but she’s always supportive and patient with him.

- Lloyd helps her out in the Hangar Bay and brings her snacks when she’s been down there for a long time

- Sometimes Lloyd misses being carried around in the Samurai X mech like Nya used to do to him as a kid. Pixal takes him for flights occasionally :)

- Lloyd has started to confide in her a lot more since Nya’s oceanification. Both have lost a sister figure and are hurting quite a bit. They spend more time going for flights or working in the Hangar Bay to keep their minds off it.

[nonbinarykai]

Ok since two people asked

Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him

Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post

Why I don’t like Lloyd

Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine

He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him

I think this is mostly for two reasons:

1. His screen time

2. His “character arcs”

I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself

Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable

A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11

Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12

The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own

And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them

My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed

But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.

And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.

Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show

Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season

Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck

Im going to be honest with you

Lloyds kinda an ass

The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.

The same can’t be said about Lloyd

Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him

Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4

But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting

The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later

The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN

The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.

Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective

This scene would have worked if

1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai

2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus

Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.

To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back

“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”

Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions

Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true

But since we’re already on this topic

Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character

I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story

There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer

1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon

2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius

3. If the story is a tragedy

Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character

A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character

A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him

Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended

But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing

What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure

And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character

Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby

How I would rewrite him

I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree

But not in the way you think

I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives

More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore

I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself

I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.

And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says

As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable

Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10

Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions

Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass

Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on

He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER

ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)

[autisticjon]

Well now I need to know about ninjago ship names

okay i'd like both of you to keep in mind that you willingly stepped into this bear trap. that being SAID welcome to my twisted ninjago!

this is operating solely in show!verse btw because the movie ship names are simply piggybacking off show names. why are they piggybacking off show names you ask? good question! it's because tlnm is essentially a ninjago high school au. pretty good if consumed detached from canon is what i'm saying. i've already strayed from the topic so that's a testament to how coherent this post is gonna be. oh well.

so some background knowledge. in lego ninjago: masters of spinjitzu, each of the main characters, as well as some of the minor characters, has an elemental power. generally these are pretty simple things (fire, ice, earth, water, lightning, and... whatever lloyd's is, green/power/life/nature/spirit/etc.) which will come in handy when we implement shipping.

5 out of the 6 main characters can be shipped together in various ways (excluding kai/nya because they are siblings as well as any lloyd/ninja ships because of the age gap). now, for some ships the pre-established pattern of smushing the characters' names together is followed, such as jaya (jay/nya) or wusako (wu/misako). for other ships, however, the ninjago fandom they were going to make things more complex than just frankensteining names together.

take, for example, cole and kai. this is a ship between the elemental master of earth (cole) and the elemental master of fire (kai). what do you get when you combine earth and fire? there's a few answers, but the one the ninjago fandom settled on was lava. this means that cole/kai is called lavashipping, or lava for short. essentially the same thing happened with plasmashipping (kai and jay, elemental master of lightning), glaciershipping (cole and zane, master of ice), and some other more niche ships, such as thinkfastshipping (neuro, master of mind and griffin turner, master of speed).

"wait!" i hear you cry, "what about if the fandom can't decide on a name!" well then we end up with situations like bruise/geode. cole/jay is typically known as bruiseshipping- i can't remember whether this is due to the fact that their representative colors, black and blue, are similar to that of a bruise or whether it's because they fight a lot. either/or probably. while bruise is the typically accepted name for the ship within the fandom, there's another name based on the elemental master scheme from above. geodeshipping is the alternate name for it, because presumably putting lightning and rocks together creates geodes. idk. for someone who's mother used to be a geologist i don't know a lot about rocks.

it's the same for kai and zane, which most people call oppositeshipping. i've also heard it called steamshipping though, because of the whole fire meets ice and creates steam thing. i didn't learn that from my geologist mother though i just did well in chemistry.

"wait!" i hear you cry again, "what about people that don't have elemental powers!" well, like i mentioned earlier with wusako, sometimes people just mush their names together. however sometimes alternatives can be found that fit within the -shipping theme. ronin/dareth has been dubbed scruffshipping because, in the immortal words of artofthecol, they are both gross pathetic older men. i don't actually know the reason behind scruff as a name i just know that it's the name. other examples are techoshipping (jay and zane, bc one's a robot and the other's a tech nerd), samuraishipping (pixal and nya, because they were both samurai x), forgivenshipping (lloyd and brad, the bully from that one darkley's episode), and greencheerleader (movie!ship but WHATEVER, lloyd and chen, the bully from tlnm).

there's a few ship names that are even more confusing (mountain, blizzard, heavy metal, hailstorm, citrus, etc.) and some that are just straight up what's written on the tin. polyninja (cole/jay/kai/zane)? good shit. electricdjinnshipping (jay/nadakhan)? bad shit but at least it's tagged so i can blacklist it without having to put in 7 variations of a ship name.

"wait!" i hear you cry a third time, "how does this relate to tma? also stop using this format from 2014 tumblr posts to signal focus changes in your impromptu essay about ninjago ship names please" alrighty will do. i tagged a post about jonmartin, the dinghy, and assorted theoretical jonmartin ship names with something along the lines of "thank god we don't have the ninjago ship naming system", which while i understand it in-depth i still felt the need to write a super long post explaining it so y'all could suffer with me.

my original thought when writing this tag out last night was that a similar naming convention could be implemented by taking each avatar's fear they're aligned with and figuring out what happens when you combined them. it's similar to what we have currently with lonely eyes, peter/elias, and "sightless flame" as a name for gertrude/agnes that i saw used in a post earlier today in that it's based on the characters' powers rather than their names. HOWEVER, after a day of ruminating on this topic, i've realized that it would be nearly impossible to implement this new system because of how fast the already large fandom is growing and the amount of dedication that would be required on everyone's parts.

issue one: unaligned characters. this is the most glaring issue to me, namely because martin, one of the characters i took as an example for this, could be argued to be aligned with any of 3+ fears right now. this means that he has no definitive powers or entity tied to him. we could still go with the non-power approach: survivorshipping, because both he and jon survived the institute? teashipping, because of tea? seeingisbelievingshipping, because of the whole i see you thing (it would not be the most ridiculous ship name i've seen)? there's quite a few options, which leads into my next point.

issue two: indecisiveness. again, tma fandom is a lot bigger than the ninjago fandom already and it's growing every day. let's say you managed to find a ship with two avatars: off the top of my head, annabelle cane and daisy. not sure how that'd work in canon but whatever. annabelle's tied to the web (no pun intended) which means anything related to spiders, manipulation, lying, etc. could fit in her wheelhouse. daisy's the hunt, so anything about hunting, pursing, the thrill of the chase, so on and so forth. there's a lot of space for you to put those two together in. unfortunately, this means that it'd be hard to settle on one option that made everybody happy, and inevitably newcomers would have to decipher the ship names and possibly be spoiled by them.

in conclusion, [insert gif of tim stoker doing the harlem shake here]. thanks for coming to my ted talk

[oohlook-thevoid]

Yes, this is another post as a result of me watching Chapter 16 of The Mandalorian.

Ok, so one of the most pivotal elements of a piece of media is character dynamics, right? I mean, I'd argue its one of the most important - a story can have good characters, plot and worldbuilding but without good character dynamics it falls flat.

For example:

SW Sequel trilogy - ok, so I know this had many flaws and factors in it falling as flat as it did but I'd argue a key one was the character dynamics. That being both that Poe, Rey and Finn weren't established as the new trio they deserved to be (or quad(?) following Rose's introduction), that they introduced random LIs in like the 3rd movie and that they bordered between maybe Rey/Kylo an actual fully fledged thing or allowing them to be actual enemies. Not having decent character relationships lessened the impact of certain points.

MCU Avengers - there was a reason why 2012 saw so many they-all-live-in-the-tower fics and that's because part of the Avengers appeal (in comics and animation) is the team dynamic; the way in which they interact, trust, and care for each other. That's also why when they do break apart it's all the more compelling because there was an actual relationship being broken. The MCU didn't put them together so strongly so CW etc. just didn't land so well.

On the other hand, to further evidence my point, some shows are (arguably) not that great but are still loved by virtue of the character dynamics:

BBC Merlin - I think at this point the fandom can agree that overall the show was a bit shit but there's a reason it's still loved 8yrs after ending. And that's the character dynamics. There's a lot but a few in particular: Morgana and Arthur - siblings who did care about each other but fell apart due to where they fell in regards to their father's beliefs, Merlin and Lancelot - the trust in Lancelot being whom Merlin trusts with his secret in Camelot, Mordred and Arthur - the kindness and care followed by betrayal etc. etc. There's loads and it's exploring them that makes the show so loved still.

Lego Ninjago - look, this show was made to sell lego toys and now it's a fairly long running show with a fandom that does actually exist online. And like, it's not w/o flaws (especially, if I recall correctly, introducing info in later seasons that contradicts prior canon) but it still slaps because of the character dynamics. Like Garmadon and Lloyd - father and son destined to fight each other but who still care for on another, Misako, Wu and Garmadon - the elderly consequences of when the girl picks the bad boy of the love triangle, all the varying dynamics between Jay, Kai, Cole, Zane, Nya and Lloyd etc. etc. The list goes on. Their relationships make the show at times.

And look, there's obviously more examples, and naturally this is somewhat subjective, but I think these are fairly solid with regards to the impact of character dynamics on the media.

Which brings me on to The Mandalorian. This show obviously has Star Wars fans as part of its audience but it also has non-SW fans and more casual SW fans (like me) who love it as well.

And I think what brought people to the show who may not have otherwise watched it was Grogu (or as original hype called him: Baby Yoda). And as they watched it was the relationship between Grogu and Din that sealed the deal and gained their continued viewership.

Because the dynamic and relationship between Grogu and Din is just phenomenal. Like, we have to acknowledge that is a puppet and Pedro Pascal in full armour (including a mask so we can't see his facial expressions) providing one of the most genuine fucking father-son relationships I've ever seen. Like the way a puppet and masked Pedro convey emotions and that bond etc. is like absolutely out there in terms of sheer damn talent.

And just going in universe, that's a bounty hunter Mandalorian who was meant to deliver this kid and ended up basically ditching his job and risking everything over and over because he got attached to the kid and would do anything to keep him safe. Like that's such an unbelievably strong bond of love that you don't exactly see like that everyday, like its beautiful man, idk what else to tell you.

So now, with the end of s2 having separated Grogu and Din, I worry about feeling so drawn in by the show when it's most pivotal relationship/character dynamic is no longer present. I mean, yes, I imagine they'll acknowledge the feeling of loss and that they'll eventually be reunited but I also think a new plot (the darksaber etc.) will take precedence over character dynamics (esp. in terms of making any as strong).

The Mandalorian is a show that, yes, had cool SW cameos and references, badass fight scenes, a great supporting cast of characters, cool space worldbuilding and so on. But it, so far, all worked around the pivotal relationship between Din and Grogu. That was the draw to the show and that was the driving force of the plot. And, I'm personally less certain about feeling so hooked on s3.