#what no im not trying to put off my multimedia authoring homework why would you even say such a thing

[destinysbounty]

pls explain the stupid powers thing where they came from lloyd but suddenly now theyre genetic out of nowhere bc the former is the stupider of the 2.

Oh my god Raine I am so sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for like 50 years, I completely forgot about this ask. If it's any consolation, I made diagrams!

So the bottom line is, the elemental powers ARE heritable. And although the Lloyd thing makes things complicated, it doesn't change that.

First, let's talk about Golden Power. As I understand it, Golden Power is a godlike power first wielded by the FSM and used to create Ninjago. Again, correct me if I'm mistaken, but my understanding of it is that it's essentially an amalgamation of the four Elements of Creation.

Despite being extensions of Golden Power, these four elements still operate much like normal elements - that is, under normal conditions.

See, Golden Power is also hereditary. It was passed down from the FSM into his grandson Lloyd. Kind of. Lloyd inherited an essence of his grandfather's power.

(Yes, yes, I know Energy technically classifies as an elemental essence rather than an elemental power. But even then this still tracks.)

The way I see it, Energy acts more as a foundation. A connection. Think movie rules, where "green" is the thing holding everything together. Energy is the foundation upon which the others ebb and flow, it is the thing that connects their elements together. The glue that connects the Elements of Creation and forms Golden Power.

Here's another way to think about it. Let's assume that this whole elemental network of Golden Power operates a bit like a circuit (more or less). Each of the four Elements of Creation act as a battery and Golden Power is the lightbulb, with Green Energy being the wires and circuitry connecting everything together. Like so:

When the whole circuit is complete and properly functioning, power is being diverted from the sources of power - the four elements - and transferred through the circuitry into the lightbulb. Under these conditions, the four elements would be considerably diminished on account of having their power diverted into something else, while the lightbulb would be brightly lit.

In some cases like in season 1 and most of season 2, this simply manifests as a diminished access to their own elemental power that must be supplemented with the use of their Golden Weapons (which in themselves are artifacts of Golden Power that have been attuned to particular elements). They still have some access to their power, and even more so after unlocking their True Potentials, but that access was inhibited on account of much of their power being routed into this Golden Power/Energy circuit system.

(Note that this isn't a perfect analogy - unlike batteries, elemental power is not a limited resource but is instead constantly regenerating. I think of it a bit like blood - finite in the moment, but so long as we are healthy we can consistently produce more every day. Hence why Nya was able to regain her powers without instantly being connected to the sea: in the context of this analogy, you might think of her power being drained as bloodletting. The new power she developed was new and untainted by her former connection to the sea. I know all these analogies are starting to get confusing though, so feel free to disregard this.)

Now in past generations, the Green Ninja hadn't been born yet. So the actual circuitry itself wasn't present, meaning there was nothing to connect these elements together. Nothing to spend from their elemental reserves. So while Golden Power cannot form under these conditions, the previous EMs could use the full extent of their power without issue.

But then Lloyd was born, and the ethereal threads of power tying their elements together finally entered the system - thereby diverting those four powers into a greater collective of Golden Power. Even if Lloyd hadn't unlocked his True Potential, the system itself had taken shape, waiting for him to be ready to use it.

Then in the latter half season 2, the og4 completely divested what little they had of their powers at the time. And due to the increased energy demands of Lloyd's awakened USM form/abilities, any scrap of power they may have generated thereafter would immediately be converted into Golden Power instead.

Then in season 3, they returned to the Temple of Light to reverse this transference. and this is, unfortunately, where the circuit metaphor starts to fall apart. But for the sake of argument, just let me have this.

When Lloyd did returned his friends' powers to them, he also completely dissolved his Golden Power in the process, restoring them to their pre-GP conditions but in fact to what their power levels would have been in a non-GP environment. That is, they were finally able to access the full extent of their elemental abilities because the lightbulb wasn't there to transfer their energy away. Similar to what the system looked like back before Lloyd was born. This is why they were able to actually wield their elemental powers without the use of the Golden Weapons, when in the past that had only been possible through their True Potential.

(Yes, I know this isn't really how circuits work. I took an electrical engineering class in high school, and you have no idea how much the inaccuracies pain me. I mean I did warn you the analogy would fall apart. But I've put too much work into these diagrams to turn back now.)

Now, as for why their powers didn't work in season 5...that's a whole other headache. My best guess is that Morro attempted to reset the system to its prior GP state, but since he didn't do it properly through the Temple of Light everything just kinda got a little fucky for everyone instead.

The TLDR is that the og4's elemental powers don't come from Lloyd, per se, but he does sort of act as a conduit (ha) for their powers. And his capacity as that conduit can at times inhibit or enhance their own indvidual elemental potentiality.

...does this make sense, like at all? I feel like I just did a bunch of incomprehensible rambling that no one else would be able to understand. Listen, Ninjago's magic system is agonizingly convoluted enough as it is. I'm just doing my best 😭😭😭