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destinysbounty · 3 years

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Alright, fine, I'm gonna say it. For all its faults, the Fire Chapter is a better Zane season than Rebooted

In case anyone wants me to explain my reasoning, here we go:

First let's look at season 3, Rebooted.

Okay, controversial opinion, but I hesitate to call Rebooted a Zane focus. Technically, yes, Zane is the face of the season. But Rebooted is only a Zane focus insofar as season 11 is a Kai focus. It's what they tell us is going on, that's how it's advertised, but that's not really the case.

See, pretty much every main character except Zane gets some kind of focus or character arc - or at the very least, the attention granted to all the other ninja significantly dwarfs anything Zane may have received. This also kinda marks the beginning of a saddening trend for Zane's character, with him being reduced to a supporting character with very little plot relevance besides being a robot and a punching bag.

To show you what I mean, let's look at each ninja during Rebooted

Kai: this was at a point in the series where, even if he wasn't always the main character, Kai was still ostensibly the primary POV character whose perspective we follow, and the narrative did lightly skew in his favor in earlier seasons (this did unfortunately change ever since season 8, so now Kai can join Zane in the "gradually it was. Still, it successfully put these three cat the front and center of damn near everything in Rebooted. The love triangle was all-consuming, and all the other characters and subplots paid the price - especially Zaneaks at Zane's funeral - not to mention his little character arc about his dislike for technology. We do, to some extent, follow his point of view for the most part throughout season 3, or at least they show a preference to his POV over others, even if he isn't technically the main character

Nya, Cole, Jay: the love triangle pretty effectively derailed everything. Rebooted had a lot of things it was trying to do, and it could have been a really good season if not for that stupid love triangle getting in the way of, like, the rest of the story. I think one reason why people hate it so much is because of how obstructive it was. Still, it successfully put these three characters at the front and center of damn near everything in Rebooted. The love triangle was all-consuming, and all the other characters and subplots paid the price - especially Zane

Lloyd, Garmadon: father and son bonding, Garmadon getting some redemption and also his lil vow of peace, Lloyd mastering golden energy, the curse of the golden master, various assorted destiny junk

Zane: uh....his blueprints are used to create the nindroid army I guess? He gets beat up a few times? He dies? ....he falls in love with Pixal?

You may be noticing a trend with Zane here. In Rebooted, Zane's relevance to the plot begins and ends with him being a nindroid.

We've seen him have depth and growth as a character in prior seasons - episodes like Home, Tick Tock, and The Last Voyage in particular stick out. But Rebooted just shoves all that to the side, y'know? A few scenes, a wholesome lil subplot, but that's it. He often feels like a supporting character in his own season.

And sure, I get that this was their first real foray into focus seasons. But??? If you're gonna put Zane on the face of the season, at least give him a real arc.

But the Fire Chapter, on the other hand...say what you will, but they actually had a pretty decent Zane focus there. And please note I'm specifying the Fire Chapter, not season 11 as a whole. I generally consider Fire and Ice Chapters as two separate entities.

Here, we actually get to see into Zane's perspective a bit. The Fire Chapter almost feels like, to some extent, it's somewhat being told from his point of view in the same way that Rebooted was told from Kai's. Not to mention that we get to see him interact with the plot and other characters in ways that go beyond his nindroid status. In fact, his long-forgotten Seer abilities take greater precedence over that. And when him being a nindroid IS relevant to the plot, there's a decent amount of characterization to go with it.

When volunteering to go into the Beohernie's stomach to retrieve their lost engine part, Zane mentions his nindroid status as the reason he's best suited to the task. We're hinting at his self-sacrificing tendencies, and the concern from the other ninja leads to a few interesting character moments. Zane being a nindroid is secondary to him being self-sacrificial.

The next time his nindroid status becomes relevant to the plot, it's because they're trying to break into the Explorer's Club. With him disguising himself as Clutch Powers, the focus is less on his nindroid abilities and more on his mediocre acting skills.

The last time Zane's nindroid status becomes relevant to the plot, it's because he sees his reflection in the enchanted mirror - a version of himself that's been stripped of his humanity, nothing more than lifeless code. Here, Zane's fear, ironically enough his humanity, is the focus of the scene. It's focusing on his fear of losing what makes him who he is (which I feel is also some delightfully painful foreshadowing to the Ice Emperor).

(Also, I feel it's annoyingly ironic considering that's what the show often reduces him to at times. Just a machine, a plot device. Something to beat up to raise the stakes and kill off for the sake of inducing tension. I do have to at least appreciate the fact that newer seasons have allowed him to have characterization beyond the scope of his robot status, though.)

Even when Zane's nindroid status becomes relevant, there's an element of emotion, personality, and agency in it. Zane's not just getting beat up, or having a rushed and poorly-conceived heteronormative romance with the first of his kind he's ever met. These are actual character moments that integrate both aspects of Zane - his mechanical nature and his living heart.

You might make the argument that the same is true for Zane's little romantic sideplot with Pixal in Rebooted. I would disagree. They get, what? A handful of short, wholesome yet ultimately shallow scenes that don't really add anything significant to either character. In Decoded, Zane said that Pixal taught him about being a nindroid and he taught her about being human, but we don't really see much of that in Rebooted. They meet, Zane gives her half of his heart, and then that's the end on channel ten, more or less. We don't see them interact outside the scope of "you're a nindroid, I'm a nindroid, we are compatible". The entire basis of their relationship boiled down to them both being nindroids. I love Pixane, but even I have to admit they had some pretty lackluster beginnings.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a Zangst stan, of course I enjoy whump that revolves around Zane being a nindroid. Who doesn't? But just using his metal shell as an excuse to rough him up without actually putting any real emotion into it, that's just lazy writing. The Fire Chapter at least does it right, by not turning Zane into a background character in his own season.

So uhh yeah. I know it's blasphemy and all but the Fire Chapter is a better Zane season and I will die on that hill.

#of course if we decide to add decoded into the conversation well that makes things interesting #personally i think decoded is the best in terms of zane focus content #zanes nindroid status is an integral part of the plot but his character isnt reduced to just that trait #we use his robotic nature to directly explore his emotions and depth and give him a satisfying character arc #thereby creating a sense of unity and multidimensionality within his character traits #anyway im done rambling now #ninjago #destiny post

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lloydskywalkers · 4 years

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heLLO i’m so sorry this took so long!! tumblr did not, in fact, eat your ask this time, i just took five years with the response T-T i did very much want to write something about Jay and Cliff (because that’s a criminally underused relationship), but unfortunately season 12 has come out since i wrote All I’m Asking For and kind of...made things...a lot angstier :’( so this leans much more on the angst side than the fluff, but!! there is some in there, i promise

It happens mid-battle, which is never a good time for anything to happen, really, other than a spontaneous victory. If it had happened at any other time, Jay would’ve gone with him. Any other time, he tells himself, he would’ve found the time to talk.

But it’s mid-battle right after Sensei Wu’s gone missing in time, and ironically enough, time is the last thing Jay has on his hands.

It’s not even the worst of battles — just some jerks who actually happen to have too much time and advanced high-grade weaponry on their hands — but it’s enough to send the city’s civilians screaming for cover as another chunk of building comes raining down toward them. Normally Cole would take this kind of thing, since Jay’s more about the agile, dynamic stuff (not because his arms are a whole lot like half-cooked spaghetti noodles next to Cole’s, not at all). But Cole’s on the other side of the city running collateral damage watch with Zane, so Jay’s the only one around to snatch the poor man out of harm’s way before a chunk of concrete squashes him.

“Whoo, that was close,” he breathes out, as dust mushrooms out from the impact nearby. Jay carefully sets the man down, coughing briefly and tugging his mask into place. “You alright?”

The man doesn’t reply, staring at Jay with wide, eerily familiar eyes. “You,” he breathes, as if Jay is some miraculous apparition — which, sure, Jay just saved his life, but like, he’s Jay. He’s a whole two or three inches shorter than this guy, he’s not super impressive.

“You’re the lightning ninja,” the man continues. “You’re — Jay?”

Caught between being pleased he’s recognized and being slightly creeped out, Jay opens his mouth to reply. Then he looks at the guy, actually looks at the guy, and immediately shuts it. And a good thing, too, because Jay’s mouth suddenly goes so dry it kinda feels like a dust vacuum.

“Y-you’re Cliff Gordon,” he manages, on a wheezing kind of whisper. “H-hi. Hi, hello, it’s—”

An honor? Jay’s half-hysterical mind throws at him. What is he supposed to say? Hello, long-lost father who gave me up as a baby, I figured that out, by the way? Does Cliff even know Jay’s his son? Does he even know his name’s Jay? Oh, why oh why has Jay put off acknowledging anything that happened with Nadakhan for this long, just because the entire thing’s a minefield worth of trauma and it makes him wildly nauseous to think about it at all, it doesn’t mean—

“Jay,” Cliff Gordon repeats, his eyes wide and shiny, and Jay’s stomach drops like he’s on a roller coaster. Because the way he says his name — it’s like he knows, it’s like he cares—

“You, uh,” Jay swallows, utterly oblivious to the exploding building two blocks back. “I think…you knew my mom?”

Alright, points for Jay for the lamest segue into this possible, but the beaming, almost-painful smile that splits Cliff’s face at least drowns part of the shame out.

“You could say that,” he murmurs, looking part-overjoyed, part-terrified. “If you know that, then — you must know I’m your — I never meant to lose—”

Cliff cuts off painfully, dragging a hand through his graying hair. Jay vaguely notes the puffs of dust that go drifting off from it, before the awkward silence gets too heavy and his mouth kicks back into action.

“Yeah, kinda…figured that out,” Jay laughs, nervously. “I don’t, um, I’m not mad…? If that’s what you’re worried about, but it’d be uh, nice to…”

“Of course,” Cliff nods fervently, as if he’s somehow psychic and can mind-read the ten thousand words’ worth of questions barraging across Jay’s brain. “Of course, we should talk, there’s so much I need to explain, I—”

Jay’s radio interrupts him in a bursting screech of static, leaving them both wincing.

“Jay, any day you wanna get back in the game, we could use a little help here!”

Kai’s voice is strained, and Jay glances from the battle to his — Cliff — with wild eyes. Cliff shakes his head, waving toward his teammates.

“Go on, go on,” he says, something like pride in his voice. “You’ve got a much more important job to do.” He pauses, his eyes bright and painfully hopeful. “But you’ll — you’ll come and visit me sometime, will you?”

“Yeah,” Jay nods, feeling oddly shaky. “Of course, I’d — I’d really like that.”

Cliff Gordon’s face splits into full smile, and Jay takes that as his cue to leave before he does something hideously embarrassing, like run his mouth or try to — to hug the guy. His eyes catch the bright flash of the Destiny’s Shadow, and he jumps up as Lloyd tilts the plane, Zane reaching a hand out to snag Jay and haul him in.

“Nice timing,” Jay gasps in thanks as he finds his seat, fumbling once with the tight squeeze. “Sorry about the wait.”

Zane simply squeezes his shoulder briefly. “I am merely glad to see you in one piece,” he says, wincing briefly as another explosion goes off. Jay cringes as his eyes rake over the smoking flames. Man, they’re gonna be stuck doing repairs here forever—

“Who was that?”

Jay startles back to himself at Lloyd’s voice, blinking rapidly. He opens his mouth, prepared to unleash a floodgate’s worth of “you’ll never believe this”—

Then stops dead as Zane and Lloyd stare curiously at him, awaiting answer. Jay shuts his mouth, and swallows.

How is he supposed to announce he’s met his father — his second, whole father, in addition to the super great one he already has — to them? To Zane, who barely got any time with his only parent before he died? To Lloyd, who's still actively grieving having lost his only dad for like, the third time? How’s that gonna go over, huh, motormouth?

So Jay shakes his head, forcing an easy laugh instead. “Just some random fan.”

************

He means to follow up right after. He does, really, but everything goes to hell in a handbasket so quickly Jay barely even has time to breath. First it’s the months of searching for Sensei, then it’s guarding the royal family, then they’re on the run, then they’re watching Garmadon brutalize their baby brother on live television and he’s dying on a table and the city’s being destroyed by a giant and the Bounty’s being crushed with them on it and they’re running for their lives in the First Realm and Sensei Wu’s a teenager and—

They’re kind of busy, that’s the point he’s trying to make.

Eventually, there’s a brief spot of time he could go, maybe. It’s right after they’ve returned from the First Realm, though, and that’s...not a great time.

The city’s still stumbling back to its feet, for one, and the loss of the emperor and empress doesn’t exactly help. Their little family’s left stumbling back to its feet even slower, as beaten down and utterly exhausted as they are. The four of them had their own run of it in the First Realm, but Lloyd and Nya didn’t have it any better back in Ninjago, and the whole thing’s just — just a big mess. And sure, maybe reuniting with his long-lost biological father now could like, actually benefit Jay’s half-shredded mental state, since the guy seemed pretty happy to see him, but…

But fathers.

Lloyd still wanders their apartment like a ghost at night, his eyes dull and haunted from whatever night terror he’s been graced with now. He wanders a little bit like that in the day, too, eyes glazing over and hands trembling at times. Jay knows why, of course — they all know, it’s not a secret. Not with the high-definition TV footage that keeps circulating. And they — they try to help, of course, they do their very best, but there are some things only time can fix.

Jay watches Lloyd’s eyes shutter at the mention of his father, and wonders if his entire life is enough to fix whatever’s been broken with his own.

In other words, Jay decides to be a coward.

Ironically enough, however, it ends up being Lloyd that encourages him to go. Not that he realizes that.

“Don’t bother making extra for dinner tonight, Zane,” Lloyd announces wearily, as he trudges through the kitchen. “My mom’s on the road again.”

Zane blinks at that, then frowns. “Where is she off to now?”

“Don’t know,” Lloyd says shortly, before promptly stalking off toward the rooftop exit. Jay and Zane stand there in silence for a moment, Zane still methodically stirring the rice. Then he turns to Jay, and fixes him with a look.

“Grumpy-about-parents Lloyd is normally Nya’s job, you know,” Jay huffs, but he relents, following Lloyd’s quiet footsteps to the roof. Lloyd’s curled up in his usual spot, close enough to the edge that it frightened the life out of Kai the first time they found him. Jay doesn’t exactly get why, because Lloyd’s sad, yeah, but he’s not—

Well, maybe Kai’s just scared Lloyd’ll trip and fall off the roof. That’s what Jay’s choosing to believe, for his own sake.

Either way, Lloyd looks pretty sad now, so Jay plops himself right down next to him with a huff, neatly startling Lloyd so badly he almost does trip right off the roof.

“Woah, hey, it’s just me,” Jay says quickly, throwing his hands up. Lloyd glares at him, and Jay makes a face. “Don’t give me that, you’re the one that’s supposed to have ninja reflexes.”

“Hmph,” Lloyd grumbles, wrapping his arms back around his knees, but he looks slightly less likely to zap Jay’s nervous system full of energy, so he takes that as a go-ahead.

“So, your mom, huh,” Jay starts, with all the intent of comforting Lloyd and comforting Lloyd alone. “Hey, random question, but how did, um, why’d you decide to let her back into your life, in the first place?”

“What?” Lloyd stares at him. Jay cringes. Oops, that wasn’t supposed to come out. Classic Walker, he’s brought his own issues right into the middle of it, like an absolute selfish—

Great, now he wants to throw himself off the roof.

“Sorry, sorry, forget I said that,” Jay babbles, desperately trying to re-route the conversation. “Just — forget I opened my mouth, okay? Please?”

Lloyd shakes his head, looking more concerned than sad now. He’s even unfolded from his tight little Lloyd-angst-ball, which Jay would count as a victory if it weren’t for all the wrong reasons. “Jay, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course!” Jay blusters. Lloyd stares at him. Jay gives him a bright smile back. Lloyd continues to stare.

“Okay, fine, not really, but — that’s not why I came up here,” Jay admits, cheeks flushing.

Lloyd’s eyebrows furrow in concern. “Is everything…okay with your parents?” His voice is tentative, as if he’s almost scared of Jay’s response, and Jay can’t have that.

“My parents are fine,” he replies, firmly. “But, uh, thanks for asking. I’m just…” Jay trails off, abruptly realizing that explaining this is going to require mentioning Cliff Gordon, which is going to require mentioning that he’s adopted, which is going to require explaining why he hasn’t told the rest of his team this. None of which are options Jay wants to explore at the moment, so he desperately tries to backtrack.

Lloyd, faithfully caring brother that he is to the bitter end, beats him to it. “Well, even if they are fine, um. To answer your question, I guess I…I needed to know.” He blows his breath out, glancing out over the skyline, half-broken buildings forming dark silhouettes against the setting sun. “I needed to know why she - she left me. If it was me, or if it was her, or…whatever, you know?” Lloyd bites his lip, and Jay suddenly feels like a horrible person for putting him through the mother thing right after the father thing’s been blown to smithereens.

And yet.

“Yeah, I get that,” Jay says quietly, letting it sink in. And he does, really. More than he thought he would, and this is probably a big glaring sign from the heavens, huh.

“But I don’t know,” Lloyd continues, sounding small as his hands tug on a frayed thread from a torn spot in his gi. “Maybe sometimes it’s better to cut people out entirely, too.”

He looks terribly worn when he says that, too young and too old for his age all at once, and Jay decides he hates the expression on his youngest brother.

“I’ll remember that, next time you steal the last of my coffee stash,” he says.

Lloyd gives a startled huff of laughter, before jabbing him in the side with his elbow. “That’s not what I meant,” he rolls his eyes, but there’s a smile edging his mouth now — not quite the Lloyd smile he’s used to, but it’s not as frail as it’s been, either. Lloyd doesn’t look so much like porcelain that’s been stepped on anymore, and the proud spark of joy Jay feels from that is enough to convince him that it’s a good idea.

He did promise Cliff Gordon he would, after all, and besides — knowing can’t be that bad, and Jay’s a firm believer in the wisdom of knowledge, and all that.

He’s also a firm believer of closure, but he’s stopped claiming to be one, since it probably comes off pretty hypocritical lately.

************

Jay doesn’t tell anyone where he’s going. He doesn’t even tell them he’s going at all, he just…waits for a convenient opportunity to slip out when no one will notice.

He wishes he had. He wishes he’d told Cole, told Nya or - or anyone he was going, and at the same time he’s glad he told no one at all. He’s not quite sure he could bear anyone else seeing whatever look’s on his face right now, on top of everything else.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” the woman at the estate tells him, her eyes teary. “Cliff Gordon passed away a month ago.”

That…doesn't make sense, at first. It takes a minute, to sink through the odd roaring noise in Jay’s ears, and finally reach his brain.

“Passed…away,” he repeats, blankly.

The lady nods, looking at him with so much pity Jay kind of wants to kick her shins. “It was his heart, poor man. He hasn’t been so well the last few years, you know.”

“Right.” Jay feels a little like he does when he’d used to jump off his dragon, except this time he’s been tossed from it and he’s free-falling to a short and sudden stop.

“Did you know him?” she asks, curiously.

Jay tries to make some form of response, like “I was his son”, except all that comes out is a whole bunch of nothing. Nothing, just like what’s left in Jay’s head. He blinks rapidly, trying to banish the image seared into his brain.

Cliff Gordon’s eyes, bright and painfully hopeful.

You’ll come visit me sometime, will you?

Jay swallows thickly. “Sorry, if you’ll, uh — excuse me, I think lunch was bad.” Then he ducks for the nearby bushes, and proceeds to be horribly sick.

He tells himself, through heaving gasps, that the hot tears are only reflexive.

************

And that’s that. Jay, stupid, selfish Jay, waited too long and now he’s lost his chance forever. Because he was — what, scared? Nervous?

He’s not scared now. He kind of just hates himself, which isn’t the newest thing in the world, but this time it burns like the worst of scrapes and crawls up on him in the middle of the night, screaming what-if’s into his brain until Jay’s biting down on his pillow before he starts screaming himself.

It hurts, but he’s got no one to blame but himself. Jay messed this up all his own and he sure as heck doesn’t deserve any sympathy from his team for it. So he’s not going to even give them the chance, because they’ll never know. Jay will take this secret to the grave, because imagining the looks on everyone else’s face when he tells them he ruined this makes him want to put himself in the grave.

How long did he wait for Jay, how long did he—

Jay’s just going to drive himself insane with his own stupid brain and that’s that.

Well, that’s supposed to be that. It would’ve been that, except Cole is perceptive and Cole knows him too well, and Cole spots the look on his face when he’s telling him everything he’s found out about his mother, since Jay can’t even hide that from him.

And maybe Jay’s just weak, or so desperate for some form of reassurance or - or attention that he cracks, and spills the whole sorry thing to Cole. To his undying credit, Cole doesn’t even look like he despises Jay once. Instead, he looks at him with all this sympathy and kindness and oh, if Jay was a crier—

Well, actually, Jay is a crier, and ends up bawling into Cole’s gi at two in the morning, but what else is new.

The important thing is that Cole is Jay’s very best friend and possibly favorite person in the whole entire world, and Jay is going to murder him in cold blood for dragging him to Cliff Gordon’s estate and forcing their way in.

“If he cared enough to want to meet you, he’ll have cared enough to leave you in his will,” Cole reminds him, staunchly. “He knows how busy your life was, so I’ll bet you anything he understood.”

“Stop trying to make me feel better,” Jay hisses, as Cole manhandles him down the mansion’s — the mansion’s! — hallways. “I don’t deserve it.”

“For the love of—” Cole cuts off with an exasperated huff. “It is not your fault this happened. This is not on you. How many times are we going to have to do this, Jay.”

“Until the time you let me wallow in miserable peace,” Jay mutters. What does Cole know, it’s not like he totally bailed on his parent and then let them die. Not that Jay could do anything about that last part, sure, but the rest of it.

Cole stops them in one of the massive living rooms, finally fixing Jay with one of those stares. Uh oh.

“At least read the letter,” Cole says, suddenly pleading. “You don’t have to look at anything else if you don’t want to, but please read the letter. For me?”

Oh, Jay hates him. He tells him so, even as his glare falters in the face of Cole’s stupid puppy eyes.

“Is that a yes?” Cole replies hopefully, offering the letter they were handed with the estate key. Jay gives him a last, withering glare before snatching the letter from him.

“You’re the worst,” he mutters, as he tears open the envelope with shaky fingers. He hesitates for a beat, before mustering whatever pathetic courage he has and tugging the paper out, unfolding it as his eyes find the carefully scrawled words.

My dear Jay—

He promptly bursts into tears.

“Jay wha — Jay what’s wrong, is it that bad?” Cole is frantic as he hovers over him, his hands half-caught between reaching for Jay and reaching for the letter in his hands. Jay shakes his head, trying to stifle the sudden waterfall’s worth of tears that decided to make an appearance, and clutches the paper tighter.

Cole makes an anxious sound. “Jay, you know he’s — if he’s said something bad, it’s — he doesn’t know anything, right?”

Oh no, now Jay wants to cry harder. Cole sounds desperately concerned, kind and caring and genuine like Cole always is, and Jay feels like the worst person in the world.

Stupid, Jay, he scolds himself hotly, swiping angrily at his eyes. Stupid, selfish Jay. He’s got nothing to be crying about. Zane only had one dad, and he doesn’t go around whining about it. Lloyd’s got one dad who’s died three times, and may as well be dead now ‘cause he’s such a jerk. Kai and Nya didn’t even have any parents until last year. And Cole lost his mom who he loved, he loved so much, and he’s still here supporting Jay — stupid, selfish Jay, who’s got two entire stable parents who he’s never once doubted love him, and yet here he is, crying over the one he never really knew.

“Jay,” Cole tries again, quieter this time. “Jay, you’re allowed to be sad about your dad. It’s not a contest.”

Stupid, perceptive Cole.

“He said he loves me,” Jay finally croaks, swiping at the tears all over his face. “He didn’t even know me, Cole, how was he supposed to know that?”

Cole’s eyes soften, all melty and gross. “You’re his son, Jay, he knew you.” His lips quirk up in a smile. “Besides, he talked to you once, right? You make some pretty impactful first impressions, motormouth.”

Jay can’t decide whether to be insulted or more flattered than he’s been in the last six months. He decides to punch Cole weakly in the shoulder, before crying harder. Cole doesn’t even flinch at the hit, built like a rock as he is, and simply snatches Jay’s arm and tugs him close, wrapping his arms around him tightly. And oh, Jay wants to pull away, he doesn’t want to break down in his dead father’s mansion like this, Jay doesn’t have a lot of dignity but he’s at least got his shreds, but—

Cole gives the best stupid hugs in the world, and what’s Jay gonna do, deny such instant love and comfort? The risk of hurting Cole’s feelings far outweighs Jay’s tattered dignity, he tells himself. That’s why he clings to Cole like an overgrown barnacle and wails into his shoulder like a broken faucet. That’s the only reason, obviously.

“It’s okay to cry, you big moron,” Cole says after he’s calmed down, briefly squeezing tighter. “I get it. But you really should read more than the first lines of that thing. I think…I think it’ll help.”

“This is all I’ve got, though,” Jay sniffles. “I don’t — I lost any other connection I’ve got to him.”

“Sometimes you just gotta work with what you have,” Cole says gently, a little bitter, a little sweet. “And somehow, you have to make it enough.”

Jay pauses at that, thinking back to the statue miles and miles beneath a mountain, the delicate locket Cole had turned over in his fingers. He looks back to the letter in his hands, the lines and lines of all the words his father left for him, and remembers Lloyd’s words about knowing.

His fingers tighten on the edges of his letter. Jay, he decides, is done being scared. He’s got Cole at his side — what’s he got to be afraid of, anyways?

“Okay,” he says, swiping once more at his eyes, and giving Cole a watery smile. “Okay. Help me read through the whole thing?”

“I wore my old sweatshirt for a reason,” Cole replies, making a show of wringing his sleeve out. Jay whacks him with the envelope, but the laugh he shudders out feels real, this time. He gently spreads the letter out atop his lap, focusing on the words again.

It’ll be enough. It’ll sting, but…it’ll be enough.

Like Lloyd’s tattered photograph, like Cole’s mother’s last words — it has to be.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #jay walker #cole brookstone #lloyd garmadon #since they're both...fairly present at points gdnkfgj #i just have many feelings about jay apparently T-T #my fic #answered

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peterstanslizzie · 4 years

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Reacting To: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 3 Episode 10)

This is it people! The series finale of Kipo; Let’s get to it.

Episode Title: Age of Wonderbeasts

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers

Hopefully she’s getting dressed for her funeral lol

1. Continuing on from last episode, the fireworks rigged with the cure goes off and a bunch of embers start falling from the sky. One of the Humming Bombers got into contact with one of them while attempting to flee and immediately de-mutes. I thought the cure needed to go into their bloodstream? Unless, the ember actually burned through their skin. It that’s the case, wow that’s dark....

It’s awesome that Earl and Lily are helping Molly since Molly saved their children awhile back.

2. With her quick thinking, Kipo asks everyone to find shelter underneath her as she transforms into her Mega Jaguar form. However, that’s still not enough to protect everyone but luckily, the good humans step up to shield them with table cloths, which was heartwarming to see.

The mutes are thanking the humans for their act of kindness

OMG. Lio and Song hugging Scarlemagne? I’m here for it.

3. Thankfully, the fireworks ended and Kipo then pleads with Emilia one last time to stop what she’s doing. Emilia, hard-headed as ever isn’t one to back down at all and makes a drastic decision to inject herself with the mutagen she sourced from the Mega Walrus, transforming herself into one ugly Mega Mute.

Imagine seeing this in real life...shudders

4. I thought she was going to use the Mega Walrus’s DNA to make another cure that would affect Kipo. I didn’t think she would do this to herself. Kipo transforms back to her Mega form to take on Emilia before she could potentially hurt anyone.

How many Troyson kisses do we want? Yes...hehe

5. Troy and Benson are directing everyone back to find safety inside the old burrow while Wolf joins Kipo to assist her in battling Emilia. Kipo has the upper hand at first because Emilia isn’t used to being a Mega Mute. However, as the fight progresses, Emilia is starting to get better and is landing some solid hits on Kipo. But I feel like Kipo shouldn’t be losing to Emilia since she has much more experience fighting as a Mega. I guess they want us to feel like the stakes are high.

Man, this fight is actually pretty brutal. Emilia is whooping major jaguar ass here.

6. During the battle, Wolf notices Greta nearby and thinks that she has the cure to turn back Emilia into a human. So, hopefully they can steal the cure from Greta and use it as leverage to get Emilia to stop. They split up with Wolf going after Greta and Kipo continuing to fight off Emilia.

7. After taking a couple more punches, we see three of the Mega Dogs, the Mega Pigeon and the Mega Beaver heading their way towards the fight, with Jamack, Molly, Hoag, Amy, Zane, Label, Lio, Song, Scarlemagne, Dave, Benson and Mandu riding on them. I stan such supportive friends!

8. They each take turns kicking Emilia’s butt to buy Kipo some time to recover. Side note: It’s so cool that Jamack tells Emilia to do some “soul searching”! That’s literally the same line Kipo used on Jamack in Season 1 when he was an antagonist back then. During all of this, we see Emilia beginning to have some inner turmoil; It looks like she’s starting to lose herself in her current form.

9. We get to round 2 of Wolf vs Greta and it looks like the tables might turn in favor of Wolf but Greta is just too beefy for her to take on. While being held down in a pin, Wolf tries to butter her up with words by telling her that she’s not an idiot and she can think for herself, without the influence of Emilia. She also bribes her with all the pancakes she can eat if she hands over the cure to her and just like that, she agrees to hand it over. It’s so ironic that Greta is one of Emilia’s last followers but she’s so easily influenced to switch sides.

Again, I don’t get why Kipo is losing to Emilia so badly

10. Kipo is down for the count and Emilia turns her attention to her friends/family. As she’s about to crush Lio and Song, Kipo charges in last minute to take the devastating blow for them; She then falls unconscious. However, Emilia’s not done yet.

Scarlemagne’s death in 3...2...1

11. Oh no...here we go. Scarlemagne decides to play hero by making his attempt at saving Kipo. He basically gives his swan song to Lio and Song. I have a bad feeling he’s going to die and I’m not at all prepared to watch. He takes off on his favorite Flamingo vehicle from Season 1 and 2 and flies towards Emilia to distract her.

We haven’t heard this laugh in ages. Also, did anyone get chills when he tells Emilia to “leave her sister alone”?

12. He crashes his vehicle into Emilia causing her to lose focus and it sets off her ‘losing herself to the mega mute’ phase. This in turn, causes Scarlemagne to crash land somewhere in Skyscraper Ridge. Was it necessary for him to crash like that? If that’s the way he goes out, I’m gonna be honest here and say I would be very disappointed with that.

13. Emilia, who clearly is out of it runs off somewhere and Kipo, Wolf, Dave, Benson and Mandu all go after her with Lio and Song heading towards where Hugo/Scarlemagne crash landed. We then see the artistic representation of Emilia losing her mind to the mute, where her human form is quickly sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean.

14. They catch up to Emilia and they could see her being distraught. We also know the reason why she’s this way and it’s because she doesn’t have an anchor. I love it how whatever explanation we’re being told by the characters is something that the audience should know based on past episodes. Now that’s good storytelling.

15. Anyways, Kipo makes the decision to cure her because she thinks she doesn’t deserve to be punished this way. Really now? After all that she’s done? Maybe what Kipo means is that she deserves get whopped in her human form lol. After curing her, Kipo makes ANOTHER ATTEMPT (for the 3rd time) to convince her to make a change but of course this bitch isn’t going to change; She takes a shard of glass and tries to stab Kipo:

16. But our girl, Mandu quickly reacts and bites Emilia’s arm. She then loses her balance and falls stories high in the exact burrow her lab was located because we then see Fun Gus capturing her and taking her in as her “playdate”. Emilia is basically history.

17. Yesss! And this punishment is fitting since she will probably be Fun Gus’s plaything till she goes insane and dies. Not to mention she despises mutes. So, it’s a great way for her to go out. Bye!!! That’s what you get for killing your brother, you heartless monster. Can I also point out that once again, Mandu is the one to take out Emilia. She did beat her in season 2 when Wolf, Dave and Benson couldn’t and now in season 3, she’s the one to finish the job. Don’t mess with Mandu lol.

18. They head back to find where Scarlemagne, Lio and Song are but it’s almost too late because Hugo is dying. Kipo is in tears and I’m in tears too. Again, was it really necessary to kill him off? I felt like he’s more or less already redeemed as a character before this. He didn’t have to commit such a heroic act, which had cost his life. Ugh....And just like that, Hugo dies.....UGHHHHHH. I really don’t think he needed to die. If Catra (who committed just as many heinous acts, if not more than Hugo) got to live in She-Ra & The Princesses of Power, Hugo deserves to live too. I’m sorry...

19. Now it’s time for the epilogue set 5 years later, as told by an older Kipo. Let’s break it down:

Wolf’s Mega Corgi gave birth to a litter of puppies. Awww cuteness...

Wolf let her hair grow out and she looks AMAZING!!! Dayummmm

Benson and Troy own a successful restaurant together and they’re living the dream. Such domestic goals!

I got chills seeing Wolf and Benson walking side by side like that. They’ve grown up so much. It looks like they’re own their way to a picnic

Label and Zane is also running a gym together. Sweet!

Jamack is conductor for Las Vistas’s new transport system.

Dave is now a guest lecturer at what is seems to be Lio and Song’s new research lab, where he talks about some of his research findings and theories. Well, mostly theories.

I love Kipo’s new do’

20. We find out that Kipo is updating Hugo (spiritually) what has everybody been up to on his birthday.

Hugo gets a statue made in his honor, which is very fitting and Mandu...WOW MANDU has grown into an ADULT boar, with tusks and everything just like Bornak and Webber.

21. Kipo meets up with her besties and her family and they have their wonderful picnic in commemoration of Hugo’s birthday.

22. The scene cuts off to all of them having the time of their life riding on their Mega mutes. And that’s the official ending to the series. TEARS...

23. This has been an amazing show to watch, react and review. I can’t believe it only had 30 episodes but the story was so cohesive and felt complete on the most part. So you could say that this show wrapped up nicely. There are some loose ends that weren’t addressed/resolved at the end like the vaccine that Song and Lio were working on but I guess that could be something that’s explored further in future films hopefully.

24. I will also be making a couple of video essays that will be posted to my YouTube channel, PeterSaidWhat; The first one will be my full spoiler review of the final season and the second video will be Troyson-focused. I can’t wait for all of you to watch them. And finally, I want to thank you all for reading my episodic reviews and going on this incredible journey with me. It’s been a pleasure to have Kipo be a part of my life and I’m sure yours as well.

Much love,

Peter

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strangermask · 4 years

Text

I got an opposite au that deals with season 11 stuff. I made three versions, so here is version 2 with not a lot of angst (Also inspired by spinchip nice emperor au).

So I call it the Steam Chapter.

Click “keep reading” if you want to know more. If you haven’t watched season 11 yet, please don’t. It will contain spoilers.

There might also be snippets in here.

So, what would have happened if Zane wasn’t the only person who got sent to the Never Realm?

Kai got in the way while Aspheera tried to banish Wu, but he and Zane both got sent to the Never realm.

snippet 1:

Vex looked at the strange objects that fell out of the sky. Another portal opened, and two people fell down. They landed on the snow, passed out. Vex looked at them. One was laying face down with brown hair and red clothing. The other facing up, wearing white and blue clothing and with titanium skin. The titanium one opened its eyes, and Vex hid.

********************************

Zane opened his eyes. He got up and noticed him sparking. He opened the top hatch on his chest and adjusted the inside. He closed it and looked around. “Hello?” He spoke. “Is anyone there?” He heard groaning and looked down. He spotted Kai.

“Kai!” Zane shouted as he bent down to Kai.

“Ugh,” Kai groaned. “Zane?”

Zane helped Kai up.

“What were you thinking?” Zane asked. “You could have been hurt or-”

“I didn’t want to lose you,” Kai said. “I tried to push you out of the way, but that didn’t seem to work.” He grabbed his right arm in pain.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Zane did a health scan.

“Your arm is broken.”

“Great.”

“Kai, you’re in pain.”

“Just leave it.”

“I am trying-”

“Do you think I could have handled you disappearing again? Stop worrying about me!”

Zane blinked. Kai sighed.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know where that came from.” Kai apologized.

“No, it’s fine...” Zane said. “I shouldn’t have sacrificed myself...again.” He looked at the green titan mech and climbed on top of it.

“Where are we?” Zane whispered to himself.

End of Snippet 1:

So Zane starts to on the green titan mech while Kai rests. Vex is watching the whole time. Zane notices a storm coming and realizes he and Kai need to take shelter. Zane knows he can’t leave the mech, so he tries to use his powers. That didn’t work, so he decides to use the forbidden scroll. He does so and tells Kai to get on the platform with the mech. Then the two search for shelter with Vex following behind. After traveling and getting near shelter, a giant owl appears and attack. Zane fends the owl off with the scroll powers. Zane gets inside, sets up ice defense, and puts the mech up. Kai fell asleep during the trip. Zane starts to work on the mech again then sets up the recording.

Snippet 2:

“And to Pixal,” Zane said. “I’m sorry.” He finished the recording and looked at Kai.

“As you would say, here goes nothing.” Zane said then connected himself to the mech.

Commencing system diagnostic.

Do not remove data cable. Data interruption may result in system failure and/or memory loss. Commencing diagnostic. 10% complete.

Vex came up to Zane and waved in front of him. He tried speaking to the stranger, but he would not respond. The computer continued to speak. Vex laughed quietly and picked the scepter up. He tried to freeze Zane, but nothing happened. Kai started to wake up and noticed Vex pointing the scepter at Zane.

“Hey,” Kai shouted. “What are you doing?”

Vex looked at Kai as he got up.

“It is not your business.” Vex answered. He looked at Zane and had an idea. Vex walked to Zane, reaching out to the cable attached to his head.

“Leave him alone!” Kai exclaimed as he charged at Vex.

The two started to fight as Kai tried to defend Zane. Soon, Vex got the upper hand and knocked Kai out.

“First, I’ll take care of your friend than you.”

100% complete.

Zane came back online and saw Vex standing in front of a knocked out Kai. Vex turned around and became pale.

“What happened?” Zane asked then noticed Vex holding the scepter. “You...hurt my friend.”

Vex panicked and ran off with the scepter. Zane ran to Kai. He was out cold.

“Kai...” Zane spoke sadly.

He picked Kai up and looked at the mech. They can come back anytime, but Kai needed help now.

End of snippet 2:

So Zane carries Kai out and seeks for help. After traveling for some time, Zane ran into the palace. He was brought inside with some guards. He begged the emperor to help Kai. Zane promises in return to do some work for the emperor. He felt bad for the two boys, so he let them stay without having Zane doing any work.

Kai wakes up, and he starts to get better. On the week Kai was fully healed, there was a giant blizzard that was too dangerous to walk through. The Emperor let the two stay until the storm died down.

But then Vex comes in with the forbidden scroll and attacks Kai and Zane. Vex found an ancient magical sword made from the coldest metal in the Never-realm. Kai got hit by magic rays in the eye and cheek. A battle ensues, the Emperor gets hit, and Kai gets his fire back. Vex was arrested and taken to the Palace’s prison. The Emperor knows he’s going to die soon, so he gives the title of Emperor to Kai and Zane.

The Emperor dies, and Kai feels super guilty. The coronation was going to be held after Kai healed up again since Zane doesn’t want to stress Kai more than he already is.

Snippet 3:

It was coronation day for Kai and Zane. Kai was in the changing room looking in the mirror. His left eye was a bright pale light snow blue. His cheek had a permanent scar from the incident. He was dressed in red, black, and golden emperor clothes and his hair tied up. There weren’t any gel to keep his spiky hair, but, hey, what can you do? “Kai?” A voice spoke.

Kai turned around and saw Zane. He was dressed in white, light blue, and grey emperor clothes.

“Zane,” Kai chuckled. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to check up on you. It’s almost time for the ceremony.”

“Yeah...”

Zane put a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

“Are you feeling alright?” Zane asked.

“No,” Kai frowned. “I don’t think I should be Emperor of this realm.”

“Why?”

“Zane. I barely survived raising my sister alone while maintaining a shop so we can live. I couldn’t handle being a ninja, and I should not have ever become a ninja. I’m a terrible person. Someone like me shouldn’t be emperor.”

“Kai-”

“I’m emotionally damage,” Kai started to cry. “I am not stable. I am not perfect. Hell, I had a breakdown for a whole year, and I went to an underground fighting tournament and became an alcoholic to handle it.”

Zane's eyes widen.

“Was...that the year I died?” Zane asked.

Kai didn’t say anything. Zane hugged Kai.

“I’m so sorry,” Zane said, hugging tightly. “I didn’t realize how much damage I caused you. I promise I won’t abandon you again. I’m going to try and help you. I can’t promise I will make everything better in a snap of a finger, but I promise I’m going to help you.”

Kai choked backed tears and hugged Zane back.

“Thanks, bud.” Kai said.

“It’s my pleasure.”

The two finished up their hug-fest and went outside to get crowned for Emperor.

End of Snippet 3 because I don’t know how to do a coronation speech:

Kai and Zane were crowned Emperor, and it’s been a month since then. Kai and Zane are starting to think the ninjas weren’t going to be able to bring them back. They probably don’t know the two are still alive.

So time went on and Kai started to feel feelings for Zane. After a few months, Kai asked Zane out. And they start to date.

They dated for five years, and Kai was getting ready to propose.

Snippet 4:

Kai hold the ring in his hand. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. “Five years,” Kai whispered to himself. “I can’t believe it’s been five years, but here goes nothing.”

Kai put the ring in his pocket. He went outside to meet with Zane.

“Hello Sir,” Kai said. “Nice day we’re having.”

Zane turned around and smiled.

“What?”

“You have something planned.” Zane said.

“What do you mean?”

“You use that tone of voice whenever you have something planned.”

“Well...I might have a little something.”

“Oh? What might that be?”

“It’s a surprise, so I can’t spoiler anything.”

“If it’s a gift for our anniversary, I think you’re a little early. That is still one month away.”

Kai started to get nervous.

Just play it cool. Kai thought. He’s obviously joking, right? You don’t have to panic. Just make sure you don’t say something stupid.

“Say, I think it’s time to go to the garthing-I mean garden.”

Zane thought for a moment.

“The garden does sound nice,” Zane took Kai’s hand. “Let’s go.”

The two walked to the palace’s garden. Kai was getting more nervous about the proposal. He was wondering if this was a good idea.

“Kai?” Zane spoke. “Are you okay?”

“I have something to ask you.” Kai blurted.

Why did I say that!? Kai yelled at himself.

“Oh. Umm, okay. What did you want to ask?”

Kai put his hand in his pocket with the ring. He grabbed it and took a deep breath. There was no backing out now.

“Zane,” Kai started. “We’ve been in this world for a while now. It’s a little strange, but it’s nice. We’ve met new people, seen things never seen before, and...discover things. A lot of things.”

“Yes,” Zane said. “I suppose we have.”

“And, well, to add to that, we became emperors. I’ve also gotten better thanks to you. And I was somehow bless with dating you. I have been thinking for a while, and I think we might need to take this to another level.”

Zane started to frown a bit.

“What do you mean?” Zane asked.

Kai took another deep breath and went to one knee.

“Zane, will you marry me?” Kai asked as he pulled out the ring.

Zane’s frown turned into the biggest smile.

“Yes,” Zane said. “I will.”

Kai was shocked.

“Y-You really mean it-mmf!”

Kai was interrupted when Zane kissed Kai on the lips. He kissed back.

End of Snippet 4:

I am going to write how the wedding went, but right now I don’t have much of an idea. (Sorry).

So, Kai and Zane got married. They went around the Never-Realm, interacting with the villages, talking to the formlings, and living peacefully. The years went by, Kai and Zane got older. Both have changed in a good way. Zane and Kai got therapy to help them get through their past lives. Kai became more relaxed and opened about his problems. Zane learned to except himself and to take make sure to take care of himself.

The two have been in the Never-Realm for thirty years. Kai is 49 and Zane about 46ish (Zane’s age is confusing).

While it’s been three decades there, it’s been three days in Ninjago. So the ninjas did the whole shabang in that episode they get ready to go to the Never-Realm. They make it to the Never-Realm, meet up with Akita and Kataru. The ninjas said they were looking for two friends, and the two formlings said that the Winter and Summer Emperors would be able to help them.

So the group traveled to the Palace to meet the Winter and Summer Emperor.

Snippet 5:

“So, the Winter Emperor and Summer Emperor can really help us?” Lloyd asked as they entered the palace.

“Of course!” Akita said. “They’re most helpful people in here. But don’t be afraid when you see the Winter Emperor. He looks more different than everyone else.”

The ninjas looked at each other with worry. Soon, they heard voices. Familiar voices.

“That is dangerous.” One voice said.

“I’ve survived worse didn’t I?” Another asked.

“That doesn’t excuse you to do it.”

“But imagine!”

“I already did, and I didn’t like the results.”

“Winter Emperor!” Akita shouted. “Summer Emperor! We need your help finding two missing people!”

The Winter Emperor and Summer Emperor entered the room. A titanium robot dress in ice-theme robes, and a man dressed in fire-theme robe. Both were very familiar.

“Whose missing?” The Winter Emperor asked.

Akita and Kataru revealed the group of ninjas who were now shocked. Both emperors were surprised.

“Kai?” Lloyd said. “Zane?”

The Summer Emperor smiled.

“Well, if we knew you were-”

Kai was interrupted when Lloyd ran and hugged Kai. He rest of the ninjas jumped on Zane and Kai hugging them. Akita and Kataru were confused.

End of Snippet 5:

So Kai and Zane explained that they have been in the Never-Realm for thirty years. Along with what happened during their time there. Kai and Zane were surprised that it’s only been three days in Ninjago.

Lloyd asked if the two wanted to go back home. Kai and Zane did enjoy it in the Never-realm, but the missed home. So they went back to Ninjago, Kai and Zane giving the title of Emperor to someone else. Wu is surprised that Kai is now an adult, but he was happy that they were both back.

There was no discourse between Zane and Pixal since she knew Zane liked Kai more. I’m not making a drama show off of this.

But, now things are going to be different.

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extreme-technicality · 4 years

Note

does talking to an anon help about ninjago help? cuz I'm down

DHDKCKGSC YES IT DOES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING YOUR SERVICES

Okay now that I know I won’t be clogging people’s dashes buckle the fuck in my dude and I should stress that I literally would not be talking about this as much as I will be if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the show. I’m gonna go season by season and just Rant

S1 has the serpentine as the bbeg and like, as far as villains go they’re p lit. They’re early enough that they haven’t been done to hell, things are fresh, the characters and dynamics are being fleshed out, and all in all s1 is a pretty solid season. There’s some fuckery that gets brought up re: how the FUCK aging works and what the actual timeline of Ninjago is and how Wu and Garmadon fit into that timeline, fuckery that LITERALLY NEVER GETS RESOLVED IN A SATISFYING WAY BC ITS REVEALED IN A LATER SEASON (s8, dw we’ll get there lmao) THAT THE ONLY REASON THE FIRST SPINJITSU MASTER, WU, AND GARMADON LIVED AS LONG AS THEY DID IS CUZ THEYRE BASICALLY DEMIGODS AND ITS IMPLIED THAT LLOYD WILL ALSO LIVE FOR A LONG ASS TIME WHICH MEANS ONE DAY HES GONNA OUTLIVE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND EVERYONE HE EVER LOVED WHICH IS A FUN THING TO THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT But anyway I digress, s1 also coincidentally introduces Lloyd (he wasn’t in the pilot episodes that set up the rest of the series) and the existence of Evil Dad Garmadon.

S2 is where Garmadon starts acting a lot more Evil and a lot less Dad. He’s the main antagonist for that season, and I actually read somewhere that the show was originally slated to end after s2 which high key explains the fuckery of literally every single season after this lmaooooo. Much like s1, I really can’t find much to complain about, the first two seasons are pretty decent as far as I can remember

Season. Fucking. Three. Where the fuck do I start??? I hate season three for entirely personal reasons revolving around the STUPID GODDAMN ROMANCE WRITING. okay lemme back up and explain a thing first so, Jay is dating Nya and they’re fine, they’re going steady, aND THEN????? THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON INTRODUCES BULLSHIT LOVE TRIANGLE FUCKERY FOR ZERO GODDAMN REASON, BITCH I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES AND I HATE THEM EVEN MORE WHEN THEYRE DONE FOR NO GODDAMN REASON!!! AND THEN. AS IF THAT WERENT ENOUGH. THEY SHOEHORNED A ROBOT ROMANCE BETWEEN ZANE AND PIXAL AND I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING BUT I DIDNT GO INTO ENOUGH DETAIL!!!! THEY MADE THE OTHER NINJA OOC IN ORDER TO PROP UP THEIR SHIP!!!!!! AND AT ONE POINT ZANE GOES “its like we were…made for each other” AND I HAD TO FUCUCJDHVE I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW BRO, IM SO TIRED!!!! NO THE FUCK YOU WERENT!!!!!! YOU WERE MADE FOR YOU AND PIXAL WAS MADE FOR PIXAL AND IF YALLS WANNA BANG BOLTS THATS FINE BUT DONT IMPLY THAT EITHER OF YOU WERE MADE INCOMPLETE!!!! THATS AN INSULT TO YOUR MAKERS AND YOURSELVES, MOVE ON, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. anyway that season also killed Zane (for the first time, but not the last) (spoiler alert lmao) and like, not to be an emotional little shit but I did cry a bit at his funeral.

S4 is honestly one of my favorites, even though the romance crimes continue (the love triangle bullshit is continuing and honestly I maintain that Cole, Nya, and Jay should all have gotten together and in my personal canon they DID, and also Kai has a forced romance) the VILLAIN makes up for it imo. He’s campy!! He’s funny!! He’s a clown!! He’s serious enough that if he says “I’m gonna kill you” HE MEANS IT and that’s so fucking refreshing!!!! S4 is honestly 8/10 just for the villain alone, don’t like that it retconned the SHIT out of the elemental masters and how many different elements there are TO master but eh, it’s ninjago, shit is stupid.

S5 was…interesting? OH WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT S3 INTRODUCED A GARMADON WHO WAS A LOT LESS EVIL AND A LOT MORE DAD, HONESTLY I THOUGHT IT TOOK A LOT OF THE FLAVOR OUT BUT THATS JUST ME LMAOOO. anyway s5 killed Garmadon, and I was a little sad cuz I like him okay??? I just think he’s NEAT, he’s got big dad energy, he was teaching Lloyd some shit that just got DROPPED and literally was never brought up again which is honestly a theme in Ninjago. Ninjago drinking game: take a shot every time they introduce a plot point or ability and drop it at or before the end of the season. WHICH THEY ALSO DID IN S5 WITH A DIFFERENT POWER ACTUALLY, so all the ninja are masters of Spinjitsu right, well s5 introduced the concept of Airjitsu which only Spinjitsu masters can learn and it lets them FLY and they used that for seasons 5 and 6 and then they nEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT WOULDVE COME IN HANDY FOR S E V E R A L DIFFERENT SITUATIONS ACROSS THE SEASONS, ONE OF THEM WOULD BE FALLING TO THEIR DOOM AND MY ASS WOULD BE YELLING “YOU CAN FLY, DUMBASS” - anyway, they do that again later lmao it’s fine. But what’s low key NOT fine is they made Nya the WATER NINJA!!! Like I’m not mad she has powers, except I kinda am, she was doing just fine as Samurai X and honestly the only reason she has super special ninja powers is for plot reasons. Also Cole got turned into a ghost, but by s7 he’s????? No longer a ghost????????? And that’s NEVER addressed or reasoned away, so like. Cool lmao

S6 didn’t happen. Like, canonically, s6 ends with wish fuckery that undoes the entire season and none of the characters remember anything that happened except Jay and Nya because S6 is the season where they get back together so they remember all those events for???? Feelings reasons?????? Unclear, moving on. The actual bbeg for S6 was a djinn with a vaguely Spanish accent, and to this DAY I don’t know why they made him have a SPANISH accent. Djinn are Arabic, not Spanish!! They’re not central or South American, either!!!! Your villain design makes no sense, do better

S7 had MORE time fuckery, and retconned what happened to Kai and Nya’s parents and hmmmhmhmhmhmhm that makes me Upsetti Spaghetti :3 not just the retconning, but the fact that they LITERALLY brought them back oNLY TO NEVER MENTION THEM AGAIN!!!!!! LITERALLY!!!!!!!! Okay so at the VERY very beginning, like pilot episodes beginning, Kai talks about their dad like he died/left fairly recently, BUT s7 contradicts that and claims that both of their parents were essentially abducted when Kai and Nya were little kids, which makes me question what in the fresh fuck two little kids were doing for all those years alone. SETTING THAT ASIDE FOR A HOT SECOND, their parents were also apparently good friends of Wu’s and old war buddies (from the Serpentine wars, which is YET ANOTHER bit of the timeline that doesn’t quite add up but honestly I could make a whole other post about that shit). But if they were such good fucking friends, why didn’t Wu check in every now and again??? What the fuck was Wu doing that was so fucking important that he couldn’t have been assed to visit his friends ONCE in like TEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and realize “oh shit, they’re not here and there are two tiny children running around unsupervised…My Kids Now : )” LIKE????? WU YOU LOW KEY SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR YOUR FRIENDS’ KIDS BETTER, THEY COULDA DIED BRO!!! Uhhhh the time fuckery also results in Wu getting yeeted ahead in time a bit and the ninja gotta find him

Season. Eight. I have…mixed feelings about this one. The beginning absolutely SLAUGHTERED me, and not in a “this is so fucking funny” way. No, the beginning made me feel like I was being flayed alive with just about every episode because Ninjago was back on its forced romance bullshit and this time it was Lloyd’s turn on the chopping block. That hurt my soul cuz like, look at that mans color scheme, he’s CLEARLY alloaro, why are you forcing romance on my aro man, why would you hurt me like that, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE AND THE GIRL HE WAS BEING SET UP WITH HAD A LITTLE HEART TO HEART REALLY EARLY ON AND IT WAS THE MOST QUEER CODED SHIT!!!! IT DEADASS READ AS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN OUT AND PROUD QUEER AND A CLOSETED QUEER AND THEY MADE!!! IT!!!!! STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that kept me watching at first was wanting to find Wu, and then I started enjoying myself once Cole found a plot-relevant baby and had fatherhood thrust upon him. Everything went from “ehhhhh” to “holy shit this FUCKS” once it was revealed that Rumi (Lloyd’s love interest) wAS PLAYING HIM THE WHOLE TIME AND WAS EVIL AND HAD AN EVIL GIRLFRIEND!!!!!! LITERALLY IMPROVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEASON FOR ME, I COULD EVEN FORGIVE THE WHOLE “let’s resurrect Garmadon, but as evil as possible” BULLSHIT!!!!!!

S9 is a continuation of s8, Garmadon is back and 1000% Evil, 10% Dad, but none of the Dad energies is directed at Lloyd - it’s all directed at Rumi, and honestly I could write a whole ass post on just RUMI cuz that’s honestly my DAUGHTER and I LOVE HER and I’m MAD SHE DIES AT THE END OF THIS SEASON!!!! SHE DESERVED THERAPY AND TO LIVE WITH HER GF AND MAYBE SOME CRIME. AS A TREAT. RUMI DESERVED BETTER AND LOW KEY IM GONNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT IT, BUT ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Ah right, so s9 has the four major Ninja stuck in the original dimension with no way home, while Lloyd has no powers (cuz he almost died last season) and has to somehow lead a resistance against Garmadon (who has taken control of Ninjago City and is working on the rest of Ninjago). Actually, s9 is pretty cool. Like, the end of s8 and into s9 are low key my favorite episodes, and I kinda wanna rewatch them now -

S10 is a FUN one. Garmadon got got last season, but he didn’t DIE, so he’s in cold storage and now there’s Another Threat and he’s the only one who knows wtf they’re up against so they let him out and he works with them. The funny part is, he is still Very Much Evil and doesn’t quite Get emotions like he did when he was, uh, human lmao, sO HE WOKE UP EVERY DAY DURING THAT SEASON AND DECIDED TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SHIT. 1000000/10 MY FAVORITE GARMADON, he ended that season by literally fucking off into Ninjago and they never decided to track him down 😭😭😭😭😭and I’m so SAD about it dude

S11 has another Serpentine as the bbeg, though in the setup to that they retconned how the fucking Serpentine tribes and history work??? I think???? Also Wu was a good 150% angrier and generally Done with the ninja’s shit, which was honestly refreshing tho I’m not quite sure I liked what the refreshed view was, but whatever lmao. S11 also had the ninja get yeeted to the dimension farthest from Ninjago, and honestly - okay, so they didn’t all go at the same TIME, Zane left about a week or two before the others did but there was time dilation fuckery afoot which I’m not too mad about cuz low key it makes sense. What I AM mad about is that they didn’t play the angst up to its full POTENTIAL!!!!!! Zane was EVIL in the other dimension!!!! Okay so I’m Ninjago he was only gone for maybe a week or two, but DECADES had passed in the other one, and all that time Zane was alone and disconnected from everyone he knew and loved, with a staff that boosted his power while slowly corrupting him and Turning Him Evil to help him, and like???? The thought of Zane trying to find a way home, trying to get SOME sort of message back, while he has to use the staff more and more to help him survive the long, lonely decades, so that by the time his family DOES show up its too late??? BRO. B R O. THAT JUST HITS DIFFERENT, BUT NINJAGO DIDNT DO THAT!!! THEY MADE HIM EVIL DUE TO MEMORY WIPE!!!!!! MEMORY WIPE IS BABY SHIT COMPARED TO A LONG, SLOW CORRUPTION!!!!!!

S12 was alright. It went into Cole’s mom, touched on some of the adventures she had had, threatened another forced romance (this time on poor Cole, just leave my mans ALONE) but thankfully didn’t follow through this time, introduced cool new powers that honestly hasn’t been elaborated on since that’s the most recent season I think lmao

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me rant!!!! I have,,So Much More I could talk about, PLEASE ask me about Rumi, some of my headcanons re: Garmadon and Wu’s dynamic, the Serpentine, my top five times they butchered Kai’s character for Plot Reasons, or anything else I brought up here that you want me to elaborate on!!!

#technical talks #ninja hoe #ask dadzawa #nonnie #this was honestly therapeutic tysm #and it let me kill time before I play Mario kart so bonus points!!#I definitely forgot to mention A Lot (like all the times one or all of the ninja lost their powers)#so like!!! feel free to bug me for more shit!!!!

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caramellody · 4 years

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As someone who hasn’t watched ninjago since like,, the green ninja was revealed .. what the FUCK is going on in the show? Idk abt spoilers bc I’m so bewildered and can’t piece anything together

Yeah, I think of ninjago kinda like rvb in the sense that the moment you drop off of ONE season, the later seasons are so buckwild and a mess to keep up with. I’ll definitely try and give as best of an explanation but I am also prone to rambling myself (there's like 11 whole seasons since I'm assuming you fell off after late season 1 to go though) so i’ll put this in a read more. I’m also assuming you don’t care about spoilers but just for others who might(?) know i’ll be talking spoilers for almost everything, there may be somethings i don't mention because, there's a lot, but just as a precaution i gues dhfijkhfdsj

EDIT: this actually turns out to be VERY long even when opting certain things out in order to make it shorter

-Season 1 and season 2 (Rise of the Snakes and Legacy of the Green Ninja) are easily the most straight forward episodes of the series. it’s all about training Lloyd in being the green ninja to defeat his father. Lloyd grows up at one point? it’s so buckwild because its in the episode where the OG 4 turn into kids (and yes theres a reason) and Lloyd has to use this tea to turn them back (as well as make a revived monster go extinct) and as a result he ages up like the rest of them. Aside from that and the inclusion of the overlord (an even worse villain who actually possesses Lloyds dad), season 2 is all about prepping Lloyd up for that final battle

And TECHNICALLY, season 2 was where it was gonna end, the franchise was basically discontinued after season 2, but then was brought back up for a 3rd season, which is where things get more character-focused.

-Season 3 (Rebooted) revolves around technological advances (you might even consider it cyberpunk-ish in concept) and the main villain is the overlord who has basically taken over everything in the city. this season introduces P.I.X.A.L whos clearly set up as Zane’s love interest. There’s also this REALLY stupid love triangle between Nya, Jay and Cole that everyone pretty much unanimously hate because its done so forcefully and is really there just so that jay and any could have romantic drama (which. is dumb even for 2014 standards). it ultimately culminates to Zane fuckin DYING (but its okay he's a robot) in what is still such a banger of a theme. the end of the season teases that he comes back. Also Garmadon isn’t a villain and is easily one of the best characters in that season, he acts like the father Lloyd needed for so long, its not overtly important to the plot but it’s a big dynamic shift compared to S1 and S2.

-Season 4 (Tournament of Elements) takes place months (it's not explicit but it's assumed that its a year) after s3 and the gang have all broken up, but Lloyd tries to bring them back together. they all get invited to a tournament that claims they have Zane (that gives me mortal Kombat vibes) with all the other elemental masters (by this point they are able to use their elements without the need of weapons as a proxy like in seasons 1-2). Zane’s revealed to be back and in a new robot body and the main bad is the guy running the tournament.

-Season 5 (Possession) is all about ghosts! the gang meets Morro, who was a former student of Wu who was training to be the green ninja but never became it because that was lloyds spot. he then ran off on his own to change fate but died and later comes back as a ghost to take over Lloyd. this season also has Cole turn into a ghost and Nya officially joins the team as the water ninja.

-Season 6 (Skybound) is all about sky pirates, after being released from his lamp, djin Nadakhan tries to find his old crewmates. he also finds out that his homeland was destroyed as a result of the events of season 5 and goes all out to make the ninja criminals for what they (unknowingly did), this is by all means a Jay and Nya season about their own struggles but its also one of those seasons that never happened because jay literally WISHES to retcon all of season 6, so this season never ‘technically’ happened

-Day of the Departed is a special that mostly focuses on bringing back old villains who were killed, but mostly focuses on cole slowly being forgotten.this special is specifically important because Cole becomes corporeal again (and he gains a new ability)

-Season 7 (Hands of Time) is a time travel season, theres things relating to Kai and Nya’s past and their parent’s connection to the main threat in the present (I'm sorry if i don’t sound as enthusiastic compared to other seasons season 7 is imo my least favorite so there’s not a lot i can say about it) it’s also the last season were the original designs are used!

-Season 8 (Sons of Garmadon) is the first season that came out AFTER the Ninjago movie (which for the record takes place in a separate universe, the characterizations are different despite their appearances being similar.) it revolves around a gang (called the sons of garmadon) trying to collect the three oni masks in order to revive lord garmadon again (and they’re successful too)

-Season 9 (Hunted) takes place RIGHT after S8 (specifically a week after). Lloyd and any are forced into hiding while the original 4 ninja and wu (who is a baby, this is a plot point that begins at the end of season 7. they find a baby in s8 and that baby ended up being their original master) are trying to escape the realm they ended up stranded in after the events of s8

-Season 10 (March of the Oni) another that takes place right after season 9, the oni (who are hellbent on destruction) basically invade all of ninjago and the ninja have to stop them. this is a simple 4 episode season that really acts more like a movie than a season.

After S10, the series sorta gets a soft reboot. the previous seasons are still canon, but there's a clear tone shift (and animation shift) in the show overall)

-Season 11 (Secrets of the Forbidden spinjitzu) is broken up into two parts

(The fire Chapter) revolves around the ninja trying to find something to do and ultimately opening up an ancient tomb where an ancient group of snakes lives

(the Ice chapter) builds off of the fire chapter, zane was sent to a different realm and the gang goes out to save him, but the realm they end up in is controlled by a powerful Ice emperor who is trying to freeze the entire place.

-And finally, Season 12 (Prime Empire) is a tron-styled season where Jay goes inside a video game, the gang goes out to look for him before finding out that the A.I in that game is trying to get out and forcing people to get trapped in the game in order to leave.

Season 13 (Master of the mountain) is the upcoming season, and it seems to be very DnD aesthetic, and all about cole which is gonna be exciting

And that's all there is to it dbhubjfdsbhjdsj idk if you expected me to go on a FULL ON ESSAY and for that i apologize in advance, but...there's a lot going on in this series and it's such a wild ride

#val rambles #thanks for asking tho #dsjifhsdujfhs i ended up going a little bit too ham on telling the story #but i hope that answered your question anon :)#Anonymous

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thicclaurance · 5 years

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Two Hundred and Twenty Nine Days and Three Quarters.

Yody Yo! This is my piece from the summer Aphmau magazine that was put together by @aphmauzine ! Please check out the zine to see all the lovely work everyone submitted including my friends Char, Al, and Yesani!

This is also my first Aphmau writing piece, and the first of my writing that I’ve shared here on this blog; I hope its well recieved and that I’ll be able to share more work with y’all.

Pairing: Dan-Chan

Series: MCD (original)

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2508

Two Hundred and Twenty Nine Days and Three Quarters.

Rays of golden sun cascaded through the glass of the window and into the bedroom. It heated the room, but instead of providing a comfortable and cozy warm like snuggling up with the one you love in front of the fire, it was a humid and sticky warm. It felt like being trapped in a pot of water that was quickly reaching boiling point. The heat was excruciating, it was so maddening it caused Dante to stir. He lifted his body only to twist before dropping back against the mattress like a sack of potatoes; but he only receive those lovely golden rays right in his eyes. His eyes opened, only a sliver, only to realise it was only another summer day.

To Dante, summer only ever felt like it droned on, It was like a meeting discussing how everyone was fine and the village faced no threats, but still lasted hours. Summer was only filled with sweltering days filled with humidity and annoying swarms of insects that buzzed in his ears and bit at his skin. The days felt like they droned on, lasting like weeks instead of hours as he almost roasted alive in his armor. Most people, especially in Phoenix Drop, felt that it was winter that droned on, and sure the season was a full month longer than the rest; but the days go by at the snap of a finger. You wake up and blink once and it’s already time to sit down for dinner with your lover. But for Dante, summer was the worst.

It took all the willpower he held in him to actually get up; he only got up because he knew he’d never be able to fall back asleep. Dante flipped onto his back and pushed his palms against the aged mattress to gain leverage as he forced himself into a seated position. His hands left the mattress and balled as he brought them to his eyes, a loud yawn escaped his mouth as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He felt the weight of the mattress shift next to him and heard a small and almost inaudible groan.

His gaze met the woman next to him as she shifted into a more comfortable position. Long pink hair laid tangled around her head and over her eyes, something Dante envied was the ability to ignore the sun. Her bare shoulder peaked out from the dull colored blanket as she curled herself back up. A smile spread across his face and his gaze softened as he looked at her, she was beyond compare to anyone nor anything. He leaned over and placed a sweet kiss to her shoulder; he twisted back around and let his feet rest on the upsettingly warm wooden floor. He stood and stretched his arms above his head and arched his back.

Dante’s next action was to track down his clothing that laid in various places on the floor alongside Kawaii-Chan’s. It was a simple yet tedious task to find specific articles and to dress himself, it only added to the heat. His chainmail, awful. The suit of armor, horrendous. It’d been about nine years since he took over as the head guard, nine and a half years since he began his daily task to watch the gate; nine years and a half since everyone’s disappearance. It was hard for him to think about all the friends he lost; but it was even harder not to seeing as he left his home at the same time every morning just to wait for them, waiting for them at the gate, hoping they’ll all return.

That’s where he found himself after hours, at the gate. The village walls had begun to crack and crumble as the weather took its toll, and ivy and moss grew against the sides. Birds chirped happily to one another, all enjoying the heat. The ground below his feet had worn down a bit and dipped down into the indent of his feet, it’s what happens when you three thousand four hundred and sixty nine days standing in one specific spot. And Dante stood in the same exact spot again today, he stood there for hours, hours spent almost succumbing to heat stroke. He stood there, until the sun had made it to the tree line and the air had cooled, until it was time to go home. He pivoted on one foot and turned away from the entrance. The trip to the gate and back was always nice. Though the houses had begun to suffer the same fate as the wall, they were still filled with kind villagers, well kind villagers that were still left.

“Fancy running into you here Dante!” The chipper country accent of a certain chipper brunette run out. She smiled brightly at him and lifted a hand to give a short wave from the end of the path. Instead of being able to walk down the path, she more waddled, one of her hands laid on her swollen stomach. “You headin’ home for the night?”

“Good evening Donna! My shift just ended so I’m heading home to Kawaii-Chan.” Dante responded as she approached him, a kind smile weaved it’s way into his face as he spoke to Donna.

“I’m sure she whipped up something nice for the two of you! I swear ever since she found out she was pregnant too all she has is baked! I can’t go a day without her springing some muffins or a cake on me!” She laughed.

“Don’t I know it! I don’t think I’ve gone a day without fresh baked goods in eight months!” He returned her laughter, it was a nice change of pace to laugh.

“Logan’s been enjoying it though, he can’t get enough if those cookies she brings over!” She placed a hand on her chest as she threw her head back and laughed. Dante was sure she hadn’t had a good slug in a while either. As their laughter died down, Donna’s gaze softened as she spoke again, “You gonna do what you talked to me about the other day?” She asked.

“I think I am, I plan on finally telling her” He nodded as he talked. “That you for helping me sort it all out!”

“Of course I would dear! Thank god you came along when you did! Logan won’t let me do anything as long as I have these creatures in me!” She motioned towards her stomach as she let out the complaint. “You better get going if you want things to go as planned.” Dante nodded again and said his goodbyes. The green eyes woman waved him off before returning to her evening stroll.

Dante took in the rest of the town’s scenery as he walked. Passing the village square that laid in disarray, the overgrown guard tower, half harvested golden fields, and even the hill the house of old lord, Aphmau, resided on. He passed a few people, Alexis and Kyle looked to be playing in the grass, but they were obviously training to be the next village guards, they swung wooden swords at each other and took turns dodging attacks. Not too far from them stood Molly and Dale, never seen too far from Alexis. They’ve both watched over her like hawks ever since the Zane incident about ten years ago. Dante provided a wave to the long term couple as he passed, they both returned his motions.

Finally, he had made it to his home. It was a standard house alongside the rest of the homes in Phoenix Drop. When him and Kawaii-Chan first decided to start living together she was upset at the lack of originality, she wanted a bright colored home, just like the pink one she lived in. It was a miracle Dante had convinced her otherwise, but he compromised with allowing her to plant whatever type of flowers she wanted in front of the house. He walked slowly up the cobble stone path and up the dark wooden door. He filled his lungs with one large breath and allowed his mind to become a blank slate, free of worry and hurt, before letting it out slowly like he releasing air from a balloon, and opened the door.

“Ah Dante-Kun! Welcome home!” He was greeted with the sweet voice of the woman who loved him. The atmosphere was warm and peaceful, like it always was around her. A few candles had been set out, ready to be lit as soon as it got dark enough, and she stood by the front door, in the kitchen. “How was your day Dante-Kun?” She asked as she waddled towards him and forced herself up to is height before she left a sweet kiss on his cheek.

“We don’t have time to talk about that darling, I need to bring you somewhere.” He spit out as soon as her heels came in contact with the wooden floor.

“What do you mean Dan-”

“I’m not joking Kawaii-Chan, I need you to come with me this instant.” Dante made sure his tone was calm as he spoke, careful not to scare the pregnant woman in front of him. He grabbed Kawaii-Chan’s hand, and barley let her slip into her shoes, before he led her out of the house.

“Where are you taking Kawaii-Chan, Dante-Kun?!” She asked, confused and slightly panicked. Their feet pounded against the cobblestone streets as they passed Molly and Dale who still stood watching the kids, and past the half golden fields.

“You’ll see when we get there!” He continued to remain vague as the two passed the street Dante took to and from the gate every morning and evening.

“Good luck Dante!” Donna yelled and waved as she made her way back up the street.

“We’re almost there” Dante huffed as he led her up the hill to the old lord’s house. Before stopping for a second to let Kawaii-Chan catch her breath.

“Why’re we at Aphmau-Senpai’s house?” She asked, before Dante dragged her to the left. They passed the large tree in the front yard and playset meant for the long gone Levin and Malachi, for they had left along with their caretaker Zoey, long ago. They weaved through the oak and birch trees, swerved past berry bushes, and avoided pesky evening insects.

“Be careful, I don’t want you to get hurt.” Dante said as he slid down a short sandy slope. They had arrived to the yellow sanded beach of the cove. “Take my hand.” He instructed as he reached a hand out to the amber eyed woman. Even though she was hesitant, afraid to fall and hurt herself let alone her unborn child, but yet she obliged. Her slim hand fit in Dante’s calloused one like puzzle pieces as he helped her down from the grassy area of the woods to the sandy shore of the beach.

“Just in time!” Dante mumbled and led Kawaii-Chan to the final destination, the shoreline of the beach.

It was a well known spot to the villagers. But it was rarely used since it was a place Aphmau had spent time and after her disappearance, no one picked up the habit of visiting. Dante and Kawaii-Chan were different though. They visited here on their first date, they didn’t care that it had been covered in snow at the time, instead they built snow maids and men together. That was exactly two hundred, twenty nine days and three quarters ago. He’d kept track of every day, every moment they shared together, and this was the perfect place.

“Dante-Kun, Kawaii-Chan is still confused.” She said her amber eyes trying to meet his deep sea blue ones, but instead of meeting her gaze he stared out at the horizon. The sun had just become halfway submerged into the sea leaving behind a painting of rose gold skies that blended into vibrant purples and deep blues.

“Kawaii-Chan, I need your one hundred percent attention.” Dante said and took both her frail hands into larger ones, finally able to meet her gaze. Unable to know how to respond, Kawaii-Chan simply nodded. “We’re alone so I know you’ll trust me to say this, Nana,” Dante took a deep breath to prepare himself to what he was going to say after this.

Dante felt her stiffen at the use of her real name. Something she’d trusted him enough to tell him just before they moved in together. He squeezed Kawaii-Chan’s hands in reassurance and she allowed herself to relax. It was short lived though, because immediately Dante released her hands and crouched down, kneeling on one knee.

“Nana, I know I’m not much with words. I never have been. But I’m going to speak from the heart.” He started off with, “I have known you for ten wonderful years, though we’ve only been together for eight months, I’ve never felt more connected to anyone before.”

As he finished that sentence, tears began to stream down Nana’s face. Tears of happiness, tears of surprise. She didn’t care when the tide had begun to come in and rolled over her feet, ruining her new dress. Dante didn’t care either, he didn’t care if it would leave his armor a sepia colored rust, he could get a new set.

“I never expected to fall in love with such an incredible woman, such an exciting woman, such a unique woman, such a gorgeous woman. Let alone did I expect to be expecting a child with her, to have a bundle of joy that would be a product of our love. I’ve had relationships in the past, good and bad, but none of them hold a candle to you Nana. None of them come close to how you make me feel.” Dante began to choke on his words, a tear began to slide down his cheek as he spoke, but it was no match the rivers flowing from Nana’s eyes.

He fumbled with his side, fingers mismanaging to grasp the box at his side. As he finally grasped it, his hands shook as he held it up to the beautiful pink haired woman in front of him. He opened it to reveal a small, but gorgeous silver ring encrusted with three small pink diamonds.

“I’ve cherished every day you’ve spent with me. All two hundred and twenty nine days and three quarters have been a dream, a blessing. So Nana, will you continue our two hundred and twenty nine days and three quarters streak and spend every day, until the day we die, together with me, and marry me?” He finally asked, a weight lifted from his chest as he finally got the words out, but it was replaced with the anxiety of rejection.

“Of course Kawaii-Chan will marry you Dante-Kun! Kawaii-Chan couldn’t think of anyone else she’d spend the rest of her life with!” She sobbed. She grabbed the sides of his face and bent down, as far as she could without crushing her stomach, and pulled Dante into a passionate kiss.

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statusquoergo · 5 years

Text

Alright, let’s do this.

As to be expected, we open on the afterglow of the Season 8 finale. I personally found this scene to be pretty cringy, but I have actual criticisms of the current Darvey relationship that’ll come up later, so I’m going to leave it alone for now; the only thing I’ll say about the scene with Louis is that I found the heavy-handedness of the sexual innuendo to be extremely childish and tediously predictable. Oh, and the whole “Wait let’s not tell anyone right away” thing is pretty much letter for letter the same rationale that Mike and Rachel used for keeping it a secret that they had moved up their wedding date; that is to say, little to no forethought and almost guaranteed to end up Not How They Planned. No, wait, one more thing: I can only assume that Harvey’s panic about Louis finding him at Donna’s apartment is the result of sleep deprivation and delirium because dude, if you need a place to hide out for awhile, the bedroom is right down the hall. Or fuck, crouch down behind the kitchen counter, I don’t care. Hide in the bathroom. You have options.

(Okay, one more thing: “You didn’t see what was right in front of your face for 12 years.” What. I mean… Seriously, what. Does time even exist in this universe?)

Next up, Alex introduces us, in a very much not-off-the-record encounter, to what I can only assume will be the driving conflict of this season: the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) has caught wind of the Ethics Committee hearing that ousted Robert Zane, and now they’re taking it upon themselves to restore the integrity of the firm currently known as Zane Specter Litt Wheeler Williams, by any means necessary, starting with the removal of Zane’s name from the letterhead.

This is bullshit.

The NYSBA is a voluntary agency with no actual legislative capability. As per the association’s website, “it does not license, regulate nor investigate an [attorney’s] ability to practice law.” New York Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 7.5 (Professional Notices, Letterheads, and Signs) prohibits Robert from representing himself as a practicing member of the bar, or a current partner at the firm, but it permits the firm to continue representing itself with his name, if they so choose. So the Bar Association has zero capacity to back up this stupid request, but more to the point, I have no idea why they even care. There are over 9,800 law firms currently operating in New York City; statistically, the probability that every single one of them represents the pinnacle of legalistic integrity is insanely low, and considering the amount of turnover and increasingly public turmoil at GSVD/PH/PD/PDS/PS/PSL/SL/ZSL/ZSLWW, it must be years since it’s been a remotely reputable institution.

Moving on! Samantha and Harvey land on a tangible outcome of Robert’s decision to take the fall for Donna and Harvey: The firm is hemorrhaging clients. Samantha determines that Eric Kaldor is responsible for the sudden turnaround, but honestly, I’m surprised the firm has any clients left at this point anyway. Thomas Kessler has the right idea when he walks out the door with the casual reminder that Harvey manipulated him into lying at the hearing (which, by the way, was conducted by the New York State Legislative Ethics Commission, not the Bar Association); instead of freaking out about this frankly inevitable outcome, maybe Harvey et al. should take a minute to appreciate the fact that Kessler isn’t seeking to have them all disbarred.

Special shout-out to Louis’s stellar one-liner: “I wanna check and see how bad our reputation is.” (Spoiler alert: It’s very bad.)

As it happens, Samantha is right about Kaldor because of course she is, which leads to a semi-violent encounter set at a hockey rink, for some reason, where we get to see some cracks in the purportedly strong allegiance between Samantha and Harvey, and Samantha reminds us the viewers that she’s a badass with a short temper as she shoves Kaldor up against the boards and I’m forced to wonder exactly where these claims of a unified front are coming from all of a sudden. Basically all of Season 8 was spent drawing battle lines up and down the firm, but now that Robert’s gone, they have some magical allegiance to one another? If it’s a direct result of Robert’s actions and subsequent departure, I have to assume these amicable feelings are going to fade as the adrenaline rush dies down; otherwise it’s just a convenient plot device, but to be fair, that’s pretty on-brand, so I can’t give them too much shit for it.

You know what I absolutely can give them shit for?

Darvey.

(Please, you knew this was coming.)

The first of my actual criticisms of them for this episode: Donna’s breakup with Thomas, and Harvey becoming an unwitting enabler of unfaithfulness. Way back in February, at the end of Season 8, one of the concerns aired about Donna and Harvey hooking up was that Donna was still in a relationship with Thomas, and infidelity, if I recall correctly, is a bit of a sore spot for Harvey. Korsh admitted that an explicit breakup scene was filmed for s08e16 and removed from the final cut, but the implication as I read it was that as far as the showrunners were concerned, Donna and Thomas had come to a mutual understanding that they were done and he was out of the picture, the poor guy. Not so! Now, retconning for the win, we have the privilege of watching them break up over the phone, which is of course the epitome of class.

True, that was tactless, but the real sticky wicket here is Harvey and Donna’s conversation about the breakup once it’s over and done with. Harvey is rightly alarmed at his role, but the thing that gets me, aside from how quickly he seems to just go with her assurance that everything is fine and he “didn’t do anything wrong,” is that his response to her revealing that she and Thomas were still a couple when he came over isn’t “Why didn’t you say anything,” it isn’t “Why didn’t you stop me.” It isn’t “You know how I feel about cheating.” No, it’s “I would never have.” It’s an apology.

Now, maybe this is narrow-minded of me, but I always figured that Harvey’s whole problem with cheating was the whole…cheating part. Apparently not; it seems that issues only arise when Harvey is the one doing the cheating (see: Paula [s07e11]), or in a position to accuse the cheater directly from a third-party perspective (see: Lily [s02e10], Mike [s02e12], Marcus [s08e05]). (For real, he almost beat the shit out of Mike without knowing anything beyond “there was infidelity involved here”; Mike, who was exactly in the position Harvey is in now—the third party sleeping with an otherwise involved woman—refuses to tell him how he got beaten up with no explanation but that it’s because of the story Harvey told him about Lily cheating on Gordon, and Harvey’s response is “You got off easy.”) The otherwise unattached participant gets a free pass. BUT WAIT! Harvey was furious with Bobby when he saw him with Lily (s05e10), and tried to throw him out of his parents’ house; there must be some other explanation. Maybe Donna is just the prettiest princess in all the land and the fact that it’s her doing the cheating is enough to relieve all of Harvey’s built-in trauma? Well if that isn’t just the laziest goddamn rationale I can think of. Oh, so maybe, just maybe, Harvey is going to get some real, actual therapy this season and do some honest exploration of his apparently much-more-complex-than-previously-anticipated relationship with infidelity!

Right. I bet that’s it.

It’s possible that this will come back again later in the season, but I can’t tell yet what direction they’re planning to take the Darvey trajectory, so I don’t want to start throwing out assumptions. Now that they’ve confronted it so blatantly, I hope they don’t abandon it like this, but who knows.

In the meantime, Louis is still trying to boost recruitment efforts, this time by badgering Professor Gerard into letting him be the keynote speaker at Harvard’s upcoming Ethics Conference. I don’t really have much to say about this subplot except that it’s one of the stupidest and most illogical things they could’ve come up with; can you just imagine Louis speaking at an ethics conference? Gerard is right that Harvard students won’t be snowed by Louis making some pretty speech about the firm’s integrity, and the Q&A would be a disaster! Not to mention, the conference probably has a keynote lined up already, and it’s not like there won’t be other speakers there; Louis doesn’t need to be top billing to get his five minutes, assuming anyone would listen to a single word he has to say. Oh, and am I seriously supposed to believe that they’re experiencing a sudden drop in top-tier applications now? As opposed to…the past, what, three years? Four years? However long it’s been in this nonsense timeline since Mike went to prison (after which point they were also bemoaning a lack of applicants). But actually, why wouldn’t students be applying here? If the firm is desperate for interviewees, it’s practically a sure thing that everyone will get through to the first round, so even if the students have no intention of accepting an offer, having the interview is great practice for firms where they actually care about getting a job.

Part II

#marvey #suits usa #season 9 #s09e01 #analysis

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that-was-anticlimactic · 6 years

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Could you talk adout the social anxiety headcanons for Cole?

Sure !! (sorry this is really long and I’m not sure how to do the “read more” thing!)

Okay so I feel like a lot of this is based on some of my Cole headcanons about his early life since we’ve continuously been robbed of Cole backstory, so bear with me! Also some of this may be redundant so I apologize for that! And don’t worry, I’ve done research before and as I was typing this so it was actually accurate (or I hope so)! Please let me know if anything I said is super wrong because offending anyone or being wrong is not my intention or what I want to do at all!

So, starting with his father, it’s clear they did not have a good relationship for the majority of his childhood. His dad made him rehearse and dance in most likely the majority of his free time and he was most likely living under a strict household. Because of this, Cole didn’t get to go out much or have a normal childhood (none of the ninja really did, but they were all far from normal in different ways). I, personally, don’t think he had many friends- if any- growing up because of his busy and strict schedule. Not only that, but since Cole mentioned multiple times that he couldn’t sing or dance (at least in the traditional way he was supposed to be dancing and singing), we can assume that the people in his dance classes didn’t like him much either. I mean, and I’ll be referencing this episode a few times, in The Royal Blacksmiths (s1 ep9), Cole says “… I ended up falling on my face, humiliating myself, and letting my quartet down” and, again we can assume, that Cole did that a lot, letting his classes and partners down because he wasn’t as good as everyone else.

I believe that the most positive social interaction Cole had as a child was with his mom. I’m not saying Cole’s peers went out of their way to bully or tease or harass him, it’s more of I believe they ignored him, would degrade him at times, do that thing where they shove your shoulder when you pass them, disappointed head shakes, and constantly comparing him to his dad, none of which is particularly healthy, and that caused him stress and anxiety in social situations because he simply hadn’t had any before. Not only that, but social anxiety can be caused by the environment you’re in or if you have strict or parents, and we can assume Lou was strict and that’s how I believe it began to develop.

When his mother, his only positive social interactions at this point, died, it just made him more anxious because now he didn’t have anyone. Plus, difficult social relationships are a symptom / complication of social anxiety as well.

When he was sent to Marty Oppenheimer’s, things just got worse. Even though his dad was a part of causing it, he always felt a little more comfortable around his dad than others because he knew him and grew up with him, but once he was sent away, he didn’t have anyone. Again, it’s safe to assume that many kids didn’t like him there either and that he was alone, constantly compared to his father, ignored, and this time teased a little (I’m not sure how extreme, sometimes I think a lot, sometimes I think just a little, but I believe no one liked him too much), so any of the social interactions he had were, again, unpleasant and caused him extreme anxiety.

Now, at the beginning of the show, Cole is portrayed as the more serious, closed-off type person. I believe that he was very very nervous around Jay and Zane when he first met them, and one reason why his initial response to meeting Kai and learning he was a part of the team ( “Uh, what he’s trying to say, Sensei Wu, is that three of us have trained together. We’re solid” - Pilot) is because he had finally began to feel comfortable around Jay and Zane when another person was thrown in and now he had to readjust.

I believe that he is a very closed off person. He never really instigated conversations for awhile, he kept to himself a lot, and he was guarded around others. In The Royal Blacksmiths, Jay even says “I’m starting to see why Cole is so closed off, it’s cause Twinkle-Toes here couldn’t deliver the goods… is that why you ran away?”, even Jay said in the show that Cole was closed off, and there are signs that he was. He never told anyone about his dad or dancing or that he ran away, heck, who knows if the team even knows about his mom?

Eventually, Cole became more comfortable with those around him and began to be able to freely converse and just be himself around them. It still got bad, sometimes, but the team is full of supportive people and I like to think Sensei Wu knew about it even before he did because he definitely wouldn’t have told his dad how he was feeling and Wu was the one who started helping him with it.

One symptom of people with social anxiety is “poor social skills” and it’s clear throughout the show that Cole has poor social skills. In season three when Nya was flirting with him, I genuinely believe he had no idea that was flirting. Again, he never had many good social interactions growing up, especially from a girl, and so he just thought she was being friendly. When he found out the intentions and how Jay felt, he got upset and reacted poorly.

Plus, we’ve even seen from s10 ep2 that Cole didn’t even know how to properly give Jay girl advice, as he compared asking Nya to be his Yang to ripping off a band-aid social situations just don’t come easily to him.

And I haven’t even started on him becoming a ghost yet. The things that probably did to the boy. The first thing he did, presumably from what we’ve seen, is wanting to be alone. He hid in his room. He was, presumably, ashamed and this all just weakened his self-esteem and social skills that he had been improving on. He even had doubts as to whether he should go to the Wailing Alps with the team. He thought he would be a useless burden, and low self-esteem and negative self-talk are symptoms / complications as well, and an emotional & behavioral symptom of it is fear in situations where you will be judged, and that is definitely playing out here.

And even though DotD wasn’t the best (and could’ve been a really cool season but whatever), there were moments that gave Cole good character and highlighted this to me. He literally watched his friends walk away from him and through him and leave him at the museum, and since I like thinking he was ignored for a lot of his childhood, I believe that brought back many unpleasant things for him, especially social anxiety wise. I mean, Yang even managed to convince him that he was completely alone and his friends didn’t care for him, and it didn’t take Yang too much to make him think that, which implies that he was already thinking stuff like that.

Some other random things that make me believe he has social anxiety are:

- Expecting the worst possible consequences from a negative experience during a social situation – it was confirmed that Cole used to stay up late planning everything for missions out, perhaps because he was expecting the worse and wanted to plan accordingly? There also are a few moments when Cole does get negative in the show.

- Spending time after a social situation analyzing your performance and identifying flaws in your interactions – this goes right along with the one above, but I wholeheartedly believe that Cole does this.

- Fear that others will notice that you look anxious – perhaps why Cole tried so hard to be tough during the pilot and first season (”there ain’t nothing in this world I’m afraid of”)

- There isn’t too much to say fro physical symptoms since they’re legos, but I feel like he’d have trouble catching his breath, fast heartbeat, dizziness / light-headed, and muscle tension.

- It could also be a reason why he’s single, as having social anxiety can hinder dating sometimes.

For more headcanon wise, I think that, despite him still being more open and comfortable with the team, he’s still iffy with instigating conversations because he doesn’t always know how to do it regularly. I feel like he used to apologize a lot in the first few seasons (which always surprised the team because Cole would do something normal or make a simple mistake that they had made multiple times and would avoid eye contact and apologize).

He still doesn’t tell everyone a lot of the things he thinks or about how, though he trusts Jay the most (I headcanon Jay with anxiety… which maybe is kind of weird because I feel like most people headcanon Jay with social anxiety) and he feels like he can be most open to without judgement.

Jay can also almost always tell when Cole’s having a bad day or is feeling uncomfortable (same the other way around, too. They take care of each other) and always tries his best to help him.

Cole loves his teammates so much and would literally do anything for them, but sometimes he has trouble showing it (he gets so much better at it though and ends up knowing them all so well and he is just so proud of himself for it!)

Okay that was a lot, but I hope that made sense / didn’t suck ??

I don’t think many people headcanon Cole with this, and that’s cool! To each their own headcanons! I just think that he does have social anxiety for these reasons, and if no one agrees, that’s super okay! This was just one of those late night things I thought of when I couldn’t sleep!

I hope you enjoyed (word choice there??) and have a great day! Thanks for the question! I love talking about headcanons and why I think these things!

#ninjago #ninjago cole #ninjago headcanons #corey rambles:)

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mesaaana · 8 years

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All right, so The Well of Ascension. I finished it. In like four days. Even though i’m back at school. But anyway.

Also, I’m actually writing this from a computer rather than a phone app so...warning for excessive italics. Yes, I’m one of those people

It’s one of those books where, after finishing it, I had to take a break rather than immediately start the next in the series like I usually might. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, the ending - and the pace in about the last 200 pages or so - was exhausting. It was like the Battle of Hogwarts or something in there, is what I’m saying.

so, that downer ending though. is it just me, or do second installments in trilogies almost always have a downer ending? Empire Strikes Back, Catching Fire (and yes, I DID read The Hunger Games), the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender (actually i think the writers of this were specifically going for the Empire Strikes Back vibe so ha). I’m sure there are other examples, i just can’t think of any at the moment.

there were character deaths! sure, in the first book, one of the main protagonists (Kelsier) died right before the climax, but (1) i believe tvtropes.org calls it “Mentor Occupational Hazard” and (2) he engineered a situation where he would be made a martyr so that hardly counts. admittedly, Clubs and Dockson were not SUPER important, but they did tie us to the first book and Clubs got an actual personality in this one (rather than just “Uncle Grumpy”, as Spook called him), so it was still tragic. even more tragic was Tindwyl’s death....

obviously the downeriest downer of them all was Sazed, who arguably suffered the most out of Our Heroes. but i think I’ll talk about him (and Tindwyl) last.

Um so when I finished The Final Empire, i remember being....unsatisfied with the fact that Elend became king. I think my concerns were more or less addressed, and i did get on board with it. his character development seemed natural, rather than forced because “the plot demanded it”, so i have no reason to complain. but now, yet again, i have reservations about him becoming Mistborn. sure, he was slowly turning into a more...physical character (walking right into an army of titans blue giants comes to mind in particular), but now i wonder how this development will change him. i can’t see the author making “more powerful” than Vin, since to me it seems like she’s something of an exception; that being said, if Elend does end up stronger than Vin in the Allomancy department, i will be supremely (or should I say imperially?) pissed because (1) they’re married and that would throw a wrench into their dynamic, (2) it would seem AWFULLY suspicious if the most physically capable CHARACTER who happens to be a WOMAN suddenly had her MALE LOVE INTEREST stronger than her, and of course (3) it’s just lame, especially when you consider how much Vin pushes the envelope both with her sheer natural talent as well as her ingenuity when it comes with her powers. so don’t let Elend hijack that k thnx

(speaking of Vin’s “sheer natural talent” will we ever get an explanation why? or is she just that cool? hey i wouldn’t mind too much if it was the latter but i do prefer to have an actual reason)

okay now I talk about Vin, who is arguably THE protagonist of the series (so far, I suppose; i mean, she is on all three book covers). i think i’m satisfied with the direction her character took. she had a rough childhood (which is an understatement), and despite her....adaptation to Kelsier’s crew, it would not have been possible for everything to simply be all hunky dory from then on. so Kelsier’s death and her killing the Lord Ruler took their toll on her, in that she became estranged (and it was definitely at least somewhat self-imposed) from basically everyone on account of her “weirdness” and exceptionalism. hey, the life of a prodigious Mistborn, I guess? being a loner among friends is tough, you guys. but this left room for another definitely sinister Mistborn to swoop in and befriend her and....well, be entirely selfish with his interactions with Vin. so i might have cheered a little when she chose to not leave with Zane. also it must be incredibly stressful to be looked up to as a hero. i guess she’s the Superman to Luthadel’s Metropolis? albeit much darker and, uh, willing to kill and whatnot? also i enjoyed her reluctant allies-to-friends thing with “OreSeur”/TenSoon, and that TenSoon felt guilty about spying on her? *swoon* anyway, maybe it’s because i don’t really know how these things work, but i’m rather inclined to think that Vin’s relationship with Elend straddles a very fine line between “healthy” and “unhealthy”, as in she might just be a little too codependent on him. but again, it’s probably also an outcome of her upbringing

so i could probably talk about Breeze, or Zane, or Allrianne, or Straff, or Jastes, or anyone really, but i don’t particularly want to except to say:

(1) for Breeze I find myself almost disappointed that the reason he never showed interest in women wasn’t simply that he was gay. i think his reasons though are...noble, I will say, and in a Crapsack World like this...yay

(2) Straff should’ve found Zane a therapist. or, ya know, been a better father. Straff was just a terrible human being and i’m actually sad that it wasn’t Amaranta who succeeded in killing him, because that would’ve been Poetic, or something.

(3) Allrianne i did not really get. i feel like she was a plot device almost intended for us to see how “good” Breeze was. i understand she was by no means as stupid as she seemed (perhaps because people are predisposed to think that vanity = stupidity) but otherwise she served little enough purpose beyond convincing (more like bullying, but semantics) her father to side with Luthadel’s defenders

(4) Jastes, however, was an idiot, completely, absolutely, an idiot.

and now, Marsh. i have no idea what his deal with, and why he disappeared for most of the book, but i SINCERELY hope we find out. did becoming an Inquisitor do something to him? is the thing that Vin accidentally released controlling him somehow?

(is the ghost in the mist really as...not benevolent, exactly, but less sinister than it seemed there at the end? stabbing Elend aside, of course)

okay, Tindwyl. Purpose #1: king Elend. Purpose #2: annoy Vin, and perhaps make her think. Purpose #3: voice of reason. Purpose #4: be someone for Sazed to love then lose. Yeah, i’m not too crazy about Purpose #4, not after getting another named female character....that was fridged before the end of the book. Sigh, you can’t have everything in life.

this doesn’t mean Sazed does not have my sympathy, because he does. his crisis of faith is heartbreaking, honestly (i consider myself a person of faith), but i kind of think it was a long time coming, if for no other reason than that i am with Clubs and entirely baffled that you can believe in ALL the religions. that just doesn’t seem....logical? what about contradictions? like, you can’t be a Muslim and a Hindu at the same time because Muslims believe in the Oneness of God whereas Hindus have a whole pantheon so it’s like.....contradictions. but i suppose that was kind of the point, that you can’t really believe in all the religions. then of course there’s his sort of scholarly crisis, which, as a scientist-in-training, i can also sympathize with. because imagine that you have this hypothesis that you’re SO convinced is true, and then one day, after years and maybe decades of study you find out it isn’t, like not even a little; you or someone else disproves it so fully. and then you don’t know what to do with your life because you literally spent it working on proving that one hypothesis. and that would suck. i guess this means Sazed is a nihilist now?

so the thing that happened at the Eye of the World the Well of Ascension was.....weird. in a good way. creepy. what a twist. THIS is the source of the downer ending, as well as Sazed’s angst (and undoubtedly Vin will also have her own angst in the last book because guilt). and THIS is the sort of twist i like, especially with the whole ~the prophecies were wrong because someone/thing screwed with them~.

basically, “we tried to save the world but screwed up ROYALLY because we were misled by a sentient evil thing that we cannot even begin to understand because a despotic ruler that fancied himself a god destroyed ALL the records of anything that might help us so dear God are WE fucked”. (how’s THAT for a book summary?)

themes: freedom or safety? this book in particular definitely begged the question, as well as “can you be both a good person AND a good ruler?” my answer to the first question is: i dunno, dump me into a bizarre post-/pre-apocalyptic fantasy world and THEN we’ll talk. to the second, i’m inclined to say yes because of my religion, which is, ironically, another theme of this series, but one i will not get into because it is a theme with which i am increasingly frustrated. perhaps i’ll discuss it after i finish the last book...which i will probably start tomorrow.

but until then, if you read this entire thing, wow, what ARE you doing with your life? just kidding, but seriously, thank you for reading and i love talking about books with people

#little rant feel free to ignore #reem reads mistborn #mistborn #on to 'hero of ages' i suppose

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next-gen-ninja-official · 5 years

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Season 1: Next Gen Ninja Episode 3: Trained and Get Trained (Part 1)

As they walked up to the community center, a Fire Dragon could be seen in the parking lot, seemingly close to fading away. Besides, it was an old friend, or rival depending on his mood, of Ace's. The Hotshot, or if he's being annoying, Hothead, himself, Kai. As well as two kids arguing near him as he scrolled through his phone. Oddly enough, he was wearing sunglasses despite the cloudy day, then again, knowing him, it could just be to look cool.

"I'm telling you, I couldn't totally defeat anyone who challenges me!" the taller of the children boasted.

"Wow Spike," the slightly smaller kid smirked, "Your ego is almost as big as our Dad's."

Kai sighed, "Amber, I'm way too tired for this. Your mom is at work and I only had time to train during the night when she came home, so I REALLY would appreciate it if you and Spike behaved."

The redhead snorted, "As if Spike could EVER do something right."

"Like you do any better," the brown haired child huffed back.

Kai just sighed, mumbling to himself, "Why must the Golden Dragon curse me so?.."

Knowing that the arguing would make Lucas nervous, Ace hastily lead her son inside.

"Ace?" Zane spoke up, "May you watch Robert? I must inform Kai that he requires an adequate amount of rest, as he appears to be in an unstable condition. Additionally, I'd highly recommend not having him pass out in the parking lot."

She nodded and smiled. “Come on Robert!”

As they walked in, it seemed they were the last to arrive (not counting Kai and his kids) as the room was full of children chatting and laughing. And one kid who was running around and.. zapping people?

The said kid seemed to be a brown-haired boy in a blue jacket. This one seemed to have Lucas' attention, most likely in fear. As the boy saw them come in, he ran over to Robert first, "Whoa, a tiny Nindroid, cool! I'm Zack! ZAP!" With that he shocked Robert, who promptly rebooted after the unexpected shock.

"AWWW!! THEY'RE PLAYING!" came the excited voice of Lloyd's best friend, and perhaps Ace's best wingman of the group when it came to getting together with Lloyd, Jay. As always, he had his phone's camera out, taking a picture of what was going on around him.

"Speaking of Nindroids," Cole, the most supportive one of the original ninja team arguably, spoke up as he walked over, just finishing off a bag of chocolate muffins, "Where's Zane? I see Robert's here so he has to be nearby right?"

“He’s sortin’ Kai out," she chuckled, gesturing to the door, as to say he was just outside, along with Kai.

"What did he do this time?" Nya sighed, as she knew very well how much of a hassle her brother was sometimes. At times, it was almost as if being difficult was a talent for Kai. Not that she knew what happened wasn't entirely Kai's fault.

“Nothing, Zane is just advisin’ him on his lack of sleep."

"Stuck with the kids again?" Cole guessed, "You know how much Skylor works and how little time that leaves him to himself. You know, there are days I'm surprised by how functional he is."

She simply nodded in response, “Yup, that about sums it up."

"Well, wanna help me set up somewhere for him to nap?" Nya smiled, "I rather give him a break from them. He's probably been through enough already."

Before the girl could reply, the ever helpful Luna decided to pipe up, “I’LL HELP!”

Nya laughed a bit in response, "Well, come on. I assume your dad is busy doing something anyway. Seeing as he has us out here. There might be a lounge or something around we could use."

“Ok!” She beamed, following Nya, excited to help.

Lucas stayed quiet, usually when his dad was up to something, it was implied to be crazy. He just hoped he'd survive.. whatever it was. Well, maybe 'survive' was a bit harsh, but it sure felt like survival.

Luckily his thoughts were broken by Zane carrying Kai on his shoulder, Kai being half-asleep. Kai's kids, Spike and Amber having followed, arguing over whether a three-armed skeleton or a snake in armor would win in a fight.

"The snake would totally win!" the older of the two pitched, "It's a lot smarter than a skeleton!"

"Yeah, but skeletons can put themselves together again!" Amber retorted.

Lucas, holding his mother a bit tighter, he looked across at the other kids.

His mother gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, knowing he didn’t fare well with crowds. Especially crowds so peculiar. His school days had never prepared him for a boy trying to zap everyone, and a girl punching the ground.

“Jewel, stop,” Cole chuckled, “You’re gonna hurt yourself!”

“But I wanna do a ground pound!" the girl pouted.

"I'm sure you'll get it in time, Jewel," another girl spoke up, who seemed to be wearing a lot of light blue, her hair was even died that color!

"Thanks Lilly," the child with the long dark brown hair and blond highlights smiled.

"Please," Spike huffed, "I can already set things on fire. So clearly I'm the best one HERE."

"Woooow," Amber rolled her eyes, "Look at you, the fancy pants who can barely use one element. Get real, I can mimic any power that's present here!"

“Power hoarder!” Spike retorted.

"Tryhard!" Amber rebutted.

That's when a cloud of smoke filled the room. "Smokebomb!" and of course, Lloyd finally shows up out of nowhere in the most dramatic entrance possible, "And that's how to make an entrance! Just, you know, don't say 'smokebomb' in an actual mission."

Lucas just sighed, having dealt with this before and headed to where Luna went to make sure she was alright. He didn't want the other kids to be too much for her after all! However, Luna was thriving! She loved making new friends! 'Of course she's fine,' Lucas thought, 'She's a lot more like Dad then me… I still don't know why the Golden Dragon didn't choose her to be the next Green Ninja, she's everything I'm not.."

"Alright, seeing as everyone is here, we can start going over a few things before we head into a different room," Lloyd began, interrupting Lucas' thoughts, "First, let's start by getting to know each other, after all, if you kids are going to be ninja, then you need to be a team. Because that team will be your family, you'll fight together, laugh together, cry together, and most of all, you'll have each other's backs. So, to get things moving, one by one you'll say your name, something about yourself and what you hope to achieve as a ninja."

It was at this point Lucas realized something. Watt wasn't on his shoulder, he could be anywhere! The thought of Watt being scared somewhere made Lucas run off to look for him. "Watt?!" he called, "Where did you go?!"

“I’LL START, I’LL START!!” Luna yelled excitedly, running back in with Nya, “I’m Luna, I like making friends and as a ninja I wanna help as many people as possible!”

"Well, I'm Lilly," the girl wearing suspenders spoke up, "I like reading books and wanna see places no one has ever been!"

"I'm Zack, ZAP!" the excited child exclaimed, "I like zapping and wanna do it better! ZAP!"

"Hi, I'm Jewel-" the girl spoke up before a noise was heard. Just like everyone else, Jewel had turned to the noise. Oddly enough, it seemed to be in the general direction where Kai was resting.

"Everyone stay calm," Lloyd told the kids, "For all we know it was a bird hitting a window. Ace, can you go check it out? You probably know best where it came from."

The short adult nodded and walked towards the source of the noise to investigate. Yet, before she could enter the room Kai was in, the door was locked. From the inside. Kai might have done it, however. She'd have to ask but he was terribly tired and needed sleep.

So instead, she simply turned around. “It’s locked..”

"Well I don't remember locking it," Nya sighed, "But knowing Kai, he may have gotten up and done it to be uninterrupted by the kids."

“Could someone call ‘im just ta check?” she replied, just to be sure.

"Sure," Lloyd pulled out his phone to call Kai, yet after a few minutes, sighed, "No answer. Unless you count his voicemail. Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't change it."

"He may have had his phone on silent," Zane pointed out, "It may be best to try and wake him up, at least momentarily."

"Uh, guys?" Jay spoke up, "Where's Cole? I mean he probably went to get more to eat but, heh heh, it's been a while since he was heard."

“Maybe he went to the bathroom?” Jewel looked at them in slight worry that her father had just disappeared.

"Maybe," Lloyd mumbled, before taking a headcount of the kids, now having a face of panic, "Ace, where's Lucas?.."

This caused the brunette to let her eyes widen before obtaining the same panic-stricken expression as Lloyd, “A-ah dunno!”

"Jay, stay here and watch the kids," Lloyd instructed, "Zane, Nya, you two check outside for anything. Ace and I will check inside the building, in case it's a false alarm."

This caused the children to look around in panic as their parents ran off. They weren't trained yet and something may have already happened!

"Hey, come on, heh heh," Jay tried to calm them, "I'm sure everything will work out. How about we tell some stories to take our minds off it? Heh heh.." As much as he tried to hide it, he was panicking as well.

“But what if something bad happened?!” Amber looked at him in disbelief that he could deny anything, “I can defend myself just fine, but these morons can’t! There could be something coming to get us right now!”

"That's why Lloyd had me stay here, ok?" Jay replied, "I'm just trying not to cause a panic! Because I'm panicking already and we don't need more people panicking!"

"Also, I can totally beat you," Spike huffed, "I actually have a useful power AND use it."

“Puh-lease!” Amber looked at her brother,crossing her arms, ”I have my choice of any of the powers in this room!”

"Then copy mine and we'll see who the better fighter is, once and for all!" Spike challenged, ready to go.

"Come on you two, there's no need for this.. heh.." Jay steeped in, breaking them up.

"You think your brother is ok?" Jewel turned to Luna, worried, "I know he isn't much of a people person, but I don't want him hurt."

“I hope...I’m sure he’s fine..” despite her positive words, there was fear in her voice, “I mean, he already ran off once, and Mommy found him and said he was fine.”

"Wait, he ran off?" Jewel asked, "I mean, why would he do that? It's not like nobody cares for him."

“Well...he kinda..hurt me..w-with his powers...a-and he thought he was a monster, and ran off so he wouldn't hurt me again..”

"Oh," Jewel muttered, "Well, he didn't mean to, right?.. Sometimes accidents happen."

"Is anyone there?" a child's voice rang out, one that none of the other kids heard before, "Please, help me!"

Jay looked to the sound then the kids, "Stay here, I'll be back, ok?" With that, he ran off.

"Perfect," Spike smirked, "I can finally show you who's better, Amber!"

“Was that your brother??” Lilly looked at Luna, having heard nothing from him when he was here, she didn't know what he sounded like.

Luna shook her head in reply, also unfamiliar with the voice.

"Perhaps someone was left here by accident?" the Nindroid in the room finally spoke up, "Community centers are open to the public, after all."

“Well, my dad’ll figure it out,” Lilly smiled, trying to calm everyone down, especially Zack, who was not hugging her arm.

*****

It was about 15 minutes later, with no sign of the adults, when Lucas returned, holding a small dragon in his arms. "Watt, you really scared me," he mumbled, "Especially with you running around and growling like that. What got into you?.."

“LUCAS!!” The small master of sound gasped in relief and ran to hug her brother, “YOU’RE OK!! Where were you?!”

"Watch out, you might squeeze Watt," Lucas responded, "I really don't wanna have to find him again. He practically ran around growling and almost blasting everything."

The said dragon was squirming around, whining, 'Tight! Tight!'

“Sorry!" Luna yelped as she let go, realising she may be hurting them. “But what was wrong?” she tilted her head, looking at Watt.

'Bad smells,' he growled again, 'Something was here. Something bad.' Lucas just blinked, not understanding a bit of it, then looked to Luna for a translation.

“Something was here..?” Luna asked out loud, for the benefit of everyone else.

Lilly kept trying to comfort Zack as he held on tighter to her, "What was it?.."

"Ok, is no one going to mention that he somehow has a BABY DRAGON?!" Amber interrupted before anyone else could speak.

"I think we're more concerned with what happened with our parents, Amber," Jewel sighed.

"Eh, our dad can take care of himself," Spike huffed.

Lucas just had a look of worry on his face as he looked to Luna. He was scared, he had an idea what, or rather who, could be behind this, but without proof, well… it was just an idea. "Luna," he spoke up, "We should search for clues on what came here."

“Well..” the girl looked at the adorable, yet panic-stricken dragon, “What does it smell like?”

'Don't know,' he whined, for the dragon had to smell something like that.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Lilly spoke up, "But if something bad happened, shouldn't we just call the cops or something? I mean we should probably leave, right?"

“But what if it’s nothing?? We could be fined for wasting police time!” Jewel replied.

"A bunch of ninja don't disappear for no reason, Jewel," Lilly countered.

"Plus, what will the cops do?" Spike added, "File a missing persons report? They could be dead by then!"

At this, Zack whimpered, not liking the idea of his parents being dead. Personally, he wanted out of there himself, but was too afraid to say anything.

Lucas turned to Luna, he wanted to search the area, however he never signed up for leading them. Expected to, sure. But willing to? Not really.

“Well.. alright. “ Luna nodded, her organisational skills coming in handy, “Everyone form a single file line, and we’ll race-walk to the nearest store so we can at least get to semi-safety." The line was mainly so no one got stuck from all trying to cram through the door at the same time. Comical as it may sound, it would be a dangerous mistake to make right now.

The other kids looked at each other, nodding. That is, except Amber and Spike. As they were too busy arguing who would be in front of the other. Neither of them wanting to concede to the other sibling, as in their heads, it was a way of determining their greatness. For everyone else, it just slowed things down.

Luna grumbled in annoyance, guiding everyone who would listen into a line.

It was only when everyone else was in line that they begrudgingly did the same. The argument was likely saved for a later date. With that, they finally started to head out of the building. The closest shop nearby happened to be a clothing store, but at this point, anything was better than where they were.

And with a calm disposition, despite how much she was shaking on the inside, Luna lead them into said store, and ran up to the front desk.

“E-excuse me! O-our parents have all gone missing!” She knew that with Jay missing, the others surely would be too. And that was what was causing her to stutter.

The woman behind the counter gasped, "Oh my! Are you all alright?! What happened?! Do you want me to call the cops for you?!"

It was Amber this time who faced the woman, "Look, I need to call my mom, I have no idea if she is gone like my dad. So if you have a phone, that would be appreciated. Preferably many as my mom gets busy."

“Do you know her phone number?” The woman tilted her head, not able to figure out if Amber was at the age where one would be able to remember such things.

"Of course, I mean she does run the largest noodle chain restaurant in Ninjago," Amber eyerolled, "She practically lives at work." She then turned to Spike, "You get over here. I need as much help as possible calling her."

“Of course you need help. You can’t do anything without me!” he huffed triumphantly.

“And the rest of you,” the lady turned to the children. “You don’t know your parents’ numbers?”

Lucas looked to Luna, he knew their dad didn't like giving out his phone number. Usually because he'd get called constantly by fans if they knew it. As for their mom, well, he didn't know if her ringer was even on as she was sensitive to sound. If they'd even answer is yet another problem.

In response, the brunette shook her head.

The woman nodded, "Well, I can show the two of you that does know their parents' numbers the phone. If no one answers I can call the cops. I'm sure they'll find them." With that, she took Spike and Amber to the backroom.

Watt whined and Lucas picked him up, "It'll be ok Watt. We'll figure out what happened. Let's just hope their mom is ok. That way we can rest before anything happens."

*****

It was about a half hour before a car stopped outside the shop. In came the mother of Spike and Amber, Skylor. She didn't seem to be targeted by whatever was after Kai, luckily. She sighed in relief to see that all the kids were intact. "Alright, all of you, get in the car," she instructed, "I don't know where you're parents are, but you'll be safe with me until this is all over. Spike, Amber, you two are to treat them like guests until they get back to their homes."

To which, the two groaned in annoyance. They had to be nice?!

"Do you two want to be grounded?" Skylor glared as the other kids headed into the car, "Now get in the car, I'm not leaving you two here to argue."

The two huffed, begrudgingly shifting into the car.

Skylor soon got in the car and looked at all the kids and dragon behind her, "Is everyone ready to go? I'm not about to make any hospital trips."

They all nervously nodded, naturally being quite anxious and worried about their parents. What could be strong enough to take them down?! Were they ok?! What if they were next?!

As Skylor started the car and drove off, Lucas looked out the window, Watt on his lap. To many, this didn't mean much, but to Luna, she knew something was on his mind. Because if he was acting normal, he'd be on his laptop by now, practicing his coding.

Making sure she sat next to him for his sake, Luna lightly patted him and muttered to a level where only he — and maybe whoever was sat on the other side of her — would hear, “Are you alright, Lucas..?”

"I need to go back," he muttered, "I think I know who did this. But I need proof as well as an idea where all our parents are."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Jewel asked, having indeed heard the conversation and also kept her voice down.

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