#just bc I rlly tried to go with what the canon material suggests

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay so I have a draft detailing how I think a Ninjago “greatest fear” episode would go down, but it got very long. So I’m gonna try and shorten it.

The gist of it is that somewhere along the way, the ninja come to fight someone who has the ability to trap them in a nightmare (idk elemental master of sleep? Or fear?), and they each have to face a scenario representing their deepest fears. This story would have to take place before Seabound bc Nya’s still kicking and Lloyd hasn’t gotten over his angst that is addressed in Crystalised. Warning, I’m going brutal with the angst :). Tw for discussion of Cole’s dead mother, loss of autonomy in Zane’s, and severe unreality in Jay’s section.

Kai is traversing through a dark dungeon, much like the pyramid from s11, except it’s so dark he can’t see anything. The other ninja are there and ask him to light the way with his fire powers but he can’t seem to get his powers to work. Something mysterious seems to be attacking them because one by one the other ninja seem to disappear violently, while Kai struggles to help. His fear is based on feeling useless, especially without his powers, and consequently losing the people he cares for.

Cole is on an ordinary street. Some people come up to him and ask him favours to hold stuff, like their shopping or their cat. He starts to carry everything and these tasks pile up, becoming more important, someone’s baby, and old person trying to cross the street, a car. He starts struggling under the weight and can hear the crowd of people whisper, thinking he’ll drop everything, when suddenly he sees his father who tells him “Do not disappoint this family”. Suddenly the giant statue of his mother (from s13) falls to land on Cole’s shoulders. Cole’s fear is based on the extreme pressure he feels he has to live up to, as the strongest ninja on the team, and as the son of his hard to please father, and heroic deceased mother.

Zane can feel someone replacing his body. Replacing hard drives and his internal cores and coding something into him that he does not want. He feels his feelings change to thoughts he cannot control and he feels the warm memories he cherished start to disappear. He feels disoriented and alone, not knowing who he is and what he must do. He hears cold voices give him cruel orders and he is unable to disobey being he no longer has that ability. He is ordered to destroy life, starting with a small, helpless bird. Zane’s fear is based on both the fear of having your robotic body being taken advantage of, and losing his sense of self to become purely a machine. It’s very reminiscent of Vex’s control of him as the Ice Emperor as well as his frequent experiences of losing his memories and subsequently his self purpose and sense of identity. Also the bird is his own falcon.

Jay wakes up on a movie set. They had just finished filming an episode of Ninjago, a hit tv show. Jay is confused when the people he thought were his teammates and family, turn out to be actors who don’t even know him. The actress for Nya doesn’t recognise as anything more than a coworker. Jay is greeted by a stranger who claims to be Cliff Gordon, his real father. Confused, Jay leaves, and drives through an unfamiliar city, to find a junkyard. In the junkyard he thinks he sees Ed and Edna, only to look closer and it was just odd piles of trash. Jay’s fear is falling out of touch of reality, losing all the things that ground him and losing the people he cares about. In the series Jay has a difficult relationship with reality, and in times of stress he tends to turn to deluding himself about his situations (like crystalized or s9). Also he also has s6 trauma of none of it happening and also having the secret of his adoption revealed the manner it was.

Nya is alone on a ship in the middle of the ocean. She watched as the other ninja summoned elemental dragons and left, saying they were on an important mission. They left to where she can’t follow because she’s just ordinary, and she has no potential unlike them. And she’ll never catch up. The boat’s training course is still up and so she runs through the course, falling halfway through at the same place each time. She can’t shake feelings of doubt as the sea rocks the boat in a painfully steady rhythm. The sky never changes from its murky stillness, and time doesn’t seem to pass. Everything stops aside from the tired rocking of the sea and a begrudging Nya continuing to go through the course with the knowledge she’ll never pass it. Nya’s fear is based on her feeling isolated from the ninja and feeling like she’ll never be respected or treated like them. It’s also based on her fear of never realising her true potential and feeling like there was nothing inherently important or talented about her, feeling ordinary and mundane. It’s also based on all the times she was left on the Destiny’s Bounty alone.

Lloyd looks at a mirror and cannot see himself. Instead he sees a monster. Curved horns and deadly eyes. What’s worse is that he can’t feel himself. He feels anger, the sting of a betrayal, disappointment for letting himself be vulnerable, for failing to save others, for letting his emotions get to him and turn him from this. He’s the green ninja. He’s supposed to be a beacon of hope, of never giving up. And yet he’s giving in to these emotions and feels himself losing any qualities that he liked about himself. Qualities his family loved him for. What’s left is a despicable monster, unfeeling and underserving of love or forgiveness. He laughs knowing this isn’t just his fear, but also his father’s greatest fear, of Lloyd following in his footsteps. Lloyd’s fear is becoming the worst of his father as well as failing as the green ninja, two concepts that are actually the same thing, as the evil Garmadon is a representation of giving up, and the green ninja is a symbol of not giving up. Lloyd is also afraid of his own emotions and failures (at least post Harumi, when being vulnerable combined with feeling responsibly for letting her down, carried on being an issue for him all throughout wildbrain). This also links to Lloyd feeling unlovable all the way back in s1 when he was literally ostracised from all societies because of his father, and Lloyd feeling like because of how much he hates his father in the present, it makes him more afraid of himself.

I feel like the way the ninja escape their nightmares are through merits of their own, and I kinda want it to be linked to the 6 virtues of spinjitzu bc it works.

Kai ends up forgoing his powers, realising he alone is enough and he’s capable of protecting others with or without his powers, charging into the dark to save the ninja, having courage.

Cole takes a breath and start putting things down and organising how to carry his burdens and making it more stable, having balance.

Zane is tricky bc in his scenario he literally lost the ability to feel kindness, but perhaps he has to let himself accept kindness as he manages to stall himself and let the falcon help him idkkk.

Jay has to face his father, and confront the truth that Cliff is his birth father, and as a result, Cliff guides him out of the dream and into the real world, having honesty.

Nya must break out of monotony and start to explore her other options, herself and the sea. She realises there’s more to the rocking, and the waves seem to have a life it’s own. She befriends the ocean and allows it to help her, realising her hydrokinesis once again, after having the curiosity to find out.

Lloyd visualises his redeemed father, and hangs on to his words of wisdom, to not be afraid (from s4). Lloyd rationalises, that he can be loved, even in s1 when he was at his worst, he was still taken in. And even now, as his father is at his worst, in their last interactions, his father fought on the side of good. Hope is not lost and he can learn to control this fear, using his and his father’s wisdom.

Side note: Wu’s greatest fear would be living in an unkempt monastery alone bc he failed every single person he had ties with and as a result they are gone and he is alone. And Pixal’s greatest fear is not being useful, not being able to do anything to help her friends and family (survivors guilt and loss of autonomy).