#phd in skybound

[reisakumaproducer]

can we do this on tumblr

[cboffshore]

Seems like my timeline recently has been exploding with Skybound SA-flavored angst fic content and you have no idea how badly I want to write an essay about how uneasy the trend makes me feel. It's been around for YEARS, y'all, and I'm just... I'm still shocked it's stuck around in fanworks this far. And that it's crept into ones that seemed like they weren't going to cross that line (or said they would, but not that hard, and then suddenly, well, here comes the thousandth variant on the quarters incident).

[charbeess]

people of ninjago who have a phd in skybound.

what in the living world is nadakhan’s accent. please. someone please tell me. i was rewatching the season last night with a friend ( all while cringing and screaming in the mix ) and literally, we spent like 10 minutes trying to figure out his accent. i just. i can’t figure it out??

i mean okay i’m awful at picking up accents anyways but i feel like i SHOULD know it but i don’t. please help a fellow skybound enjoyer this is gonna eat me alive

[dixoterin]

Jay-centric headcanons bc i like him a normal amount i need to get these out of my system

- jay's surprisingly flexible, not because he practices or anything, but because he got trapped in tight places when he would build things/dig around in the junk yard so many times that it practically was demanded of him

-jay often gets cramps and has shrimp posture bc he gets so fixated on his inventions/games that he looses his senses. Nya scolds him about it and she was the one who suggested him to wear a back brace (i'm assuming that's what his straps are in his s11 onward outfit 💙). Cole helps massage his wrists/back bc he knows a thing or two about taking after yourself from his rock climbing days.

-After Jay [jokingly] programmed Zane to speak like a pirate after downloading a speech recognition algorithm into him in s5, Zane said he liked it and asked him to improve on the algorithm. Which explains his detective roleplay (s12) and pirate zane revival (s14).

- Jay's surprisingly well versed in makeup, but Nya demands she chooses his outfits for him. (And by extension Jay would do Nya's make up at times....)

-LOVES zapping cole for the shits and giggles. Cole's kinda building a resistance to it and also has lightning scars because of it.

-The cuddler sleeper. Usually with a pillow or with Mr. Cuddleywomp. If he's sleeping with someone else, he holds their arm, usually Cole or Nya's.

-Jay and Kai both have PHDs in parasocial relationships.

-ngl if kai survived long enough in skybound to catch jay reading gordon's book about wooing women, i'm pretty sure he wouldve beat his ass right then and there

-ADHD haver

-Lloyd asked him to be his gaming coach and he happily obliged

-PIXAL told him that Cyrus is willing to offer him an internship at Borg industries.

-Scott reccomended Jay that they should start a gamedev company after being impressed with his hardware and debugging skills. They still keep in touch after the whole Prime Empire ordeal.

-Superstar Rockin' Jay took his appearance after Scott

-Post Prime Empire, Unagami likes inviting the ninja to play or hear about their stories. To much of PIXAL's dismay, unagami calls her "auntie". Zane and PIXAL are constantly hammering dwyer over if he's taking good robot maintanence care over unagami. Jay gets an excuse to start fanboying over Dwyer's work and Prime Empire as a game. Unagami wants to hear more about how Jay deals with being abandoned/adopted.

as a last thing, please look at him when he does the ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ pose. thank you

i also have an AU where jay merges with the storm in seabound to fight alongside nya and some prime empire rewrite thoughts that plague me. might materialize them. i have no clue.

[cboffshore]

Hey there - I'm Lila!

If you're seeing this, it could mean any of the following: you're already a mutual, you like Ninjago, you really like Ninjago's infamous (ha!) sixth season Skybound, or you know me from something else entirely. Or it's none of those and you've just taken a super wrong turn. No matter what - I'm glad you're here!

Join me under the cut for a more detailed look at my account, or just venture off on your own - the choice is yours.

WHO I AM & WHERE TO FIND ME

You can call me Lila! I've been around the Ninjago fandom since 2011 under a whole bunch of different names and accounts, with all the bizarre stories and memories to show for it. Now, though, you can find me under one of two handles: @cboffshore (here and on Twitter, where I'm not as active as I used to be) or OffshoreWriter over on AO3.

My title as Skybound Analysis PhD holder was born from a joke (initially given to me when I overanalyzed Skybound's color scheme and then Flintlocke's development in a Discord server) but grew into, well, not a joke; I take Skybound about as seriously as someone can take a toy commercial cartoon. Through all of my years in the Ninjago fandom, I've never seen a season as misunderstood and contentious as Skybound. Unfortunately, I happen to like it a lot for what it is, and I'm willing to defend it very hard (but don't get me wrong, I know it's got flaws! I'm not completely nuts!). Read this ask for a detailed overview of my position on Skybound analysis.

Outside of Ninjago overanalysis, I'm into a few other things: crocheting, the occasional piece of digital art, music (special faves include I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME, Fall Out Boy, and My Chemical Romance), and Bionicle (but only on a casual "wow cool vibes and killer writing" basis because that timeline does NOT make sense to me.).

SOME STUFF I DO

The best way to get into my work is just to explore all the nooks and crannies of my blog, but for those of you in a rush, here are links to some of my favorite projects:

On Sea, Sunlight, and Sky, aka OSSAS, is what I'd consider the crown jewel of my AO3 catalog: a Nya-centric series diving into her experience during the last few episodes of Skybound. Updated every December until I decide to lay her to rest (which, by the looks of it, will be the 2024 installment), this is my longest-term project that exemplifies how I approach Skybound as a season. If you only check out one corner of my work, make it OSSAS. You can find all things OSSAS under #ossas tag here on my blog (newcomers beware of spoilers!)

Yours To Keep: Rethinking Skybound Through Fashion is an older project of mine that blends fashion design and Nadakhan character analysis. As in, I drew a trio of banger outfits and then wrote essays about what all their details meant. Trust me on this, it's a cool one! (This is a holdover from when my fandom involvement was almost exclusively Ninjago character analysis-based couture fashion art... you can thank Giles Panton for that.)

Sorrow is All The Rage: An Analysis of Sexual Assault in Jay-Centric Skybound Fanfiction is a two (technically, three) part essay detailing my attempts to come to terms with the (frankly rather concerning) trend of gratuitous SA inclusion in a surprising swath of popular Skybound fanfiction. (Spoiler alert: I still think it's weird as hell and I haven't come to terms with it... but I have gotten way better at using the block button to keep it out of my line of sight.) The link in the title will take you to part one; part two is linked at the end, and part three's mini update is lurking somewhere in those tags. Please note: this essay is not an attack, or a condemnation, although it may come across that way at times. This was written largely as a vent piece about an issue that has disturbed me deeply and affected how I go about interpreting Skybound, and that definitely impacted my tone. If you'd like to reference this for any reason, or if you have any questions, please shoot me an ask or DM.

[cboffshore]

I love how every Skybound post on here has a 90% chance of spawning you in the notes 😭

I didn't get this (definitely one hundred percent legitimate and not granted to me by random Discord mods) PhD by falling behind on the state of affairs in the Skybound scene ;)

[cboffshore]

Hi there - I'm Lila!

I've been here for a while, but I'm just now realizing I never did a pinned post with All Of The Essential Info. So, before I go do something else and forget, here's the (pretty long) 411!

You can call me by the pseudonym Lila (or, to be extra fancy, the full pseuds: Lila Almondpetal) wherever you bump into me online. In terms of finding me, my @ is @cboffshore for here, Twitter, and Discord. I'm also on AO3 under OffshoreWriter. (If you're wondering what the "cb" in there stands for: those letters were on clearance at the Username Parts Store and I blew the rest of the budget on "offshore," so they don't really mean anything, but it's a nice rhythm overall!)

You'll learn pretty quick that my primary fandom is Ninjago. However, I've also got other media interests that you'll see me dabble in: Bionicle, bands like My Chemical Romance, IDKHOW, and Fall Out Boy, Pixie Hollow/Disney Fairies (yes to the fairies bit but no to the Disney), The Umbrella Academy, and probably some others I'm forgetting. Besides the Skybound Analysis PhD (more on that in a bit), my only real fandom claim to fame is apparently inventing the Ninjago Couture genre; check out the tag #ninjago couture on my blog for examples of that. I also dabble in grade-A shitposting, although that's more of a Twitter thing. The tag #analysis freak Lila back on her bullshit is a good one if you enjoy it when people read too far into things.

Back to the Skybound Analysis PhD thing: that's definitely a thing I put in all my bios! Whether or not it's from a credentialed institution is up to you, but it means that if you like funky, canon-based takes on Skybound, you're in the right place! I do a lot of stuff related to Skybound, but here are some guided recs of my favorite projects:

If you like high fashion and symbolism, try this half-art, half-essay series analyzing Nadakhan's psychological state and desires through couture remixes of seasonal outfits.

If you like extended metaphors and bittersweet criticisms of massively popular works, you'll like this academic-turned-artistic two-part essay about how I feel about the concerning trend of gratuitous SA in the Skybound fic scene. Please be forewarned that this is a vent essay, not an attack; I've had people miss the disclaimers before and it's never fun. If for any reason you'd like to cite it or build on my ideas, let me know in advance - mostly so I'm not blindsided, but also because I want to see what you come up with!

If you think Nya should have been allowed to beat up Nadakhan at least once, you'll love my ongoing AO3 series On Sea, Sunlight, and Sky, which concerns Nya's experience during the second half of Skybound. The beating up here is more emotional than physical, but whatever brings him down a notch is good enough for her. As of late 2023, this gets a shiny new installment every December; this year's, "If I Can Think (Of Something Clever)," is complete, clocking in at over 30k!

[cboffshore]

Well Shit

Uugghhh you’re too smart, guess I’m not exactly stealthy cause I give notes to everything.

Dang you really do get a vibe from the way everyone talks. That’s wild. :P

how do you think I got the Skybound PhD

[cboffshore]

Happy holidays Lila! To me, you will always be the CEO of Ninjago Season 6 aka Skybound. Love seeing your skybound thoughts on tumblr. Please continue to make Nadakhan suffer. I remember seeing you like my Nadakhan posts and my first thought was “woah! I have to be mutuals with this person. They have a PHD in skybound and they approve of my Nadakhan thoughts”. I hope we can continue to rip Nadakhan to shreds analytically some day.

For the holidays I read one of your fics and I wanted to leave a comment! I don’t have an ao3 account so this is the only way I can leave a comment. Despite being a crack fic that you spent three hours on (according to the tags) I thought it was well written! I adore how you describe a setting. You do it succinctly but still manage to paint a vivid image in the reader’s mind. I love how you explore Jay’s dreams after the events of Skybound. I wish the show could actually do that. Also the part with Kalmaar was really funny! I wonder how Nadakhan and Kalmaar would react to meeting each other. I think your idea is very creative. I haven’t seen part 2 of Dragon’s Rising yet (the friend I watch Ninjago with just got on break so we plan on watching it soon). Your fic makes me really excited at the possibility of some characters ending up in the Departed Realm when I watch. I haven’t even considered that idea beforehand.

Thank you for entertaining my Ninjago trick or treat ideas. I had a lot of fun answering your asks. I’m wishing you all the best Lila!

Best wishes,

May

Hi there, May - happiest of Honda Days to you as well! I also adore seeing your Skybound thoughts here, even if I haven't said it directly before. That Nadakhan post you made a long time ago (the one about us seeing his fall in real time) was the first one I ever saw that made me think "OH FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE GETS IT TOO!!!" It's an angle we don't talk about much as a community, and that's a tragedy. It's SO fun to play with. Imagine me handing you a bright orange graduation tassel with the Sky Pirate emblem as a charm as recognition for your contribution to the Nadakhan analysis scene. By the way, I've got an upcoming fic update that not only shoves him through the analytical cheese grater AGAIN but also makes him suffer in very silly ways, so worry not, I'm still going strong ;) (oh, and the trick or treat thing? HILARIOUS. we've gotta bring that back next year.)

Also, regarding the crackfic - thank you so much! I'm glad you had a good time with it. It's been a few months now, but I was giggling like an idiot the entire time I was working on it. That's definitely a fun villain pair to write with, and I'm a little sad I didn't do MORE with them at the time. Both of them have major daddy issues, just different flavors, and then you pull in the whole royalty angle and how they both feel wronged by the world... I mean, sheesh. Lots of potential there even if it IS total crackfic. Enjoy your first viewing of part 2! I've seen it and it's delightful. Definitely a different flavor of crazy than my prediction fic, but so, so wonderful. You'll love it.

Thanks for the ask, and happy holidays!!