Mushmushk - I Didn’t Ask To Be Made

spoilers for episode 81 heads uP—

okay I’m finally gonna make a real post about this ninjago season so far just because it is…everything I’ve wanted it to be?

-Harumi is dark and Harumi is justified. her parents died because the ninja couldn’t save everyone. this made me think of Civil War in the MCU which…was great that it did because that’s not a kid audience movie. that’s a hard perspective to grasp and they went for it. really solid.

-The way she twists and toys with Lloyd makes me ache inside. that whole fight scene was actual heart-wrenching stuff, her knowing full-well she’d succeeded—he’d actually fallen for her and rubbed it in that she had used it against him exactly how she wanted and planned to. and he knows he knows he KNOWS that that’s true. he fucking knows it and you can tell. I just. brings me to my next point.

-Animation. wow. expressions are so much more…more. they’re just more. you can read more into them than you could in past seasons which is everything to me. when kai was trying to threaten Harumi it was humorous because it was obvious how flustered he was! because! of! the animation! truly god bless.

-Lloyd has just improved. in general. in this season alone we’ve seen that he really isn’t invincible and can be easily manipulated (because guess what! he’s still a kid whether you like it or not!!). he may still have the sacrificial hero trope, but…I feel like he’s the only one of the ninja who really does. he’s actually fun to watch in this season—ep 81 was mostly just him and Harumi, and as someone who doesn’t care too too much for Lloyd, that was one of my favorite episodes. Ever. they way he handled figuring out Harumi’s the quiet one was actually very well done and NOT Mary Sue, which I was so proud of. he felt a loss, he was so shocked and clearly hurt and betrayed, but he still loves her, still wants her. which—I feel—he resents. he doesn’t like that he still loves her, while most characters would embrace it and try to turn her to their side. he…Lloyd actually didn’t. which was great and unexpected—the old Lloyd would’ve, and that’s not what I personally think is very original. so. true kudos to making Lloyd’s character rewarding and frankly just enjoyable again to watch.

-Hagemans went into writing this season knowing what we wanted. they were unafraid to stab kai, to call a mask a mask of fucking hatred, to make your stomach crawl watching Lloyd’s fight with Harumi and all this valid venom she was spewing, actually making Harumi’s reasoning have some logic (she blames the ninja for the death of her parents, one of the kind of many people who believed Garm saved the city, so she wants garm back), making her biological parents’ death MAKE SENSE, have it be relevant to her motives, have it be controversial (some deaths can’t be helped but at the same time the ninja should have maybe done a better job regulating how much damage they were causing), Ultra Vi threatening a baby’s life, Zane high key dying in hand to hand combat…The Hagemans showed that they aren’t afraid to write how they see fit, despite how it has become much darker and away from the original target audience.

they know who’s watching. who’s really watching. and they seem to blossom in catering to that audience rather than the original.

they better keep it the fuck up

Ninjago Writers, I just fixed one of your biggest mistakes ever, your welcome.

One thing that never made sense to me was season 3’s love triangle. Nya breaking up with Jay out of the blue was out of character and bad writing, but the bigger issue for me was always Cole. Cole had no reason to go along with Nya, he never liked her before, and he never saw the perfect match machine. So why the HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?!

So… here is a little short I’ve been working on for a while trying to explain motivations.

Nya…

(A Ninjago One Shot)

Jay and Cole talk over the whole love triangle thing sometime after season 3. Happy Reading!

“So… Nya.” Jay trailed off.

“Nya.” Cole repeated.

“Should we… talk about-“

“I mean, we don’t have to.” Cole insisted.

“But, like… we probably should.”

Cole sighed. “Yeah.”

“What… happened between you two? Why did any of this happen?”

“I don’t know.” Cole shrugged. “Poor timing, I guess. With the perfect match system, and-”

“No,” Jay shook his head. “I mean what happened from your perspective. Like, I didn’t even know you were… interested-“

“I wasn’t!” Cole was noticeably tense now. “That’s the thing, I wasn’t! She’s like a sister to me! I had never even thought about dating her, I thought you two were way cute together!”

“And we were!” Jay crossed his arms.

“You totally were! But I don’t know, she came up to me all flirty, and the whole prospect seemed kind of… exciting-”

“Exciting?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never had a girlfriend before. I thought it would be kinda nice to have a girl on my arm, and Nya is…”

“Hot?” Jay raised an eyebrow.

“She’s way hot!”

“She’s gorgeous,” Jay corrected him.

“Point being, she’s a pretty good girl to have looking at you, and I didn’t know what had happened between you two. Maybe you had a falling out, broke up,” Jay rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know!” Cole defended. “Why else would she be talking to me? It was so spontaneous.”

“Tell me about it.” Jay mumbled.

“I thought maybe she just wanted to use me to get you jealous. That didn’t seem too bad. Like, it happens in TV shows all the time, and it’s always resolved by the end of the episode.” Jay nodded in agreement. TV tropes were a language Jay understood loud and clear. “So, I figured it wouldn’t last that long, and you guys would be back together quick and simple. Plus, it could be fun to hang out with her, and pretend to be in a relationship and all that.”

“Pretend? Like you were just role playing?!” Jay shook Cole’s shoulders, before Cole stabilized them both.

“I don’t know! It didn’t seem that serious to me at the time. None of it did. None of it held any weight, because I didn’t like her all that much. But then you got involved, and it was all serious, and I didn’t want to just quit, like at that point I was already invested in it. I knew I didn’t really care, but at that point it was kind of just like… the principle, you know?”

“The principle of stealing my girlfriend?” Jay’s fingers dug into his shoulders, Cole slowly removing them.

“The principle of me being a believable rebound guy. It wasn’t to prove anything to you necessarily, I think it was more for myself.”

“You needed a self confidence boost?” Jay calmed down, suddenly confused.

“Well, yeah. That and, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She needed to make her own decision. I didn’t want to just eliminate myself as an option for her if she was… for some odd reason not going to be happy with you.”

Jay thought for another moment before accepting defeat. “…Yeah.”

“But I realized that I didn’t really want her. I mean, I liked her fine, but I don’t like her like you like her, because you… love her.”

Jay sighed. “Yeah. Let her know for me sometime, will you?”

“Don’t worry about it. She’s going through some weird independence streak right now or something. She’ll get over it. Deep down… I think she still loves you.”

“Still?” Jay was a bit surprised Cole thought that way.

“Yeah still! You guys are like the classic love story. You’ve got to go through bumps like this, but in the end you’ll always get back together. That’s just how girls like Nya work.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Jay smiled halfheartedly. “Thanks. You give pretty good advice for not being in a relationship.”

“Not really. I just give good advice on Nya, because we’ve been friends for years now.”

“I’ve known her for just as long as you have.”

“Yeah, but I actually talked to her like a normal person instead of like my sixth grade crush.”

“…Yeah, that kinda makes a lot of sense.”

Lloyd: "Could someone stamp by Frequent Kidnapping Card?"

Official Guide to Ninjago Character Identification

(Hey guys! Okay so I noticed a lot of people out of and even IN the fandom have had some trouble recognizing all the characters in Ninjago. So I put this together okay!)

Let’s start.

So there’s Kai

And here is Zane

And PIXAL

This is Cole (he has a boy form and a ghost form so just watch out so you can tell them apart)

Jay

Lloyd

Sensei Wu is usually one of the trickier characters to point out. Just memorize his features and you’ll be fine:

And here we have Nya

Skylor

This is what a standard Nindroid looks like.

Ronin (he looks a SMIDGE different now but here’s the gist of his appearance)

And Echo Zane 

Oops sorry! Wrong picture. I meant 

Echo Zane:

Hope this helps! :)

How squeamish is your oc?

LOOK AT THIS PRECIOUS BOI

But did I do the right thing

Original Character Asks

1: What is your character's biggest fear?

2: What is your character's favorite memory?

3: What is your character's least favorite memory?

4: Does anyone have a crush on your character? Is your character aware of this?

5: Describe your character's dream date.

6: What is your character's sexual orientation?

7: How does your character feel about their name?

8: Does your character hate anyone? Why?

9: How does your character feel about religion?

10. Would your character ever kill someone?

11: How did your character meet their best friend?

12: How would/does your character feel about roller coasters?

13: What would your character die for?

14: What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?

15: What music genre would your character listen to?

16: What other fictional characters remind you of your character?

17: Does your character have any irrational fears?

18: How would your character feel about having their life recorded?

19: What is your character's deepest, darkest secret?

20: What is the most surprising thing about your character?

21: Is your character flexible?

22: What is the worst thing your character has ever done?

23: Is your character morally gray or black or white?

24: What prejudices does your character have?

25: Would you want to hang out with your character?

26: What is your favorite headcanon for your character?

27: What would be the worst way for your character to die?

28: What pet would your character like to have?

29: What would be your character's favorite food?

30: Would your character have any hobbies?

31: What social media would your character use?

32: What does your character look like?

33: In what ways is your character like you?

34: What is cliche about your character?

35: What is unique about your character?

36: Does anyone want to harm your character?

37: Do people have justified grudges against your character?

38: What role does your character play in their story?

39: What would be your character's niche on Tumblr?

40: What would be your character's favorite school subject?

41: Would your character want to have any children?

42: What would be your character's dream career?

43: What is your character insecure about?

44: What is your character proud of?

45: What would your character change about themselves?

46: Would you want to trade places with your character?

47: What fandoms would your character be in?

48: How would your character type?

49: How does your character stand politically?

50: What is your favorite thing about your character?

51: What is your character's favorite animal?

52: How would your character act in gym class?

53: What clubs would your character join?

54: What is the saddest thing about your character's life?

55: Would your character do the Ice Bucket Challenge?

56: What's one of your character's quirks?

57: How would your character feel about feminism?

58: Is your character dorky or more athletic?

59: What is your least favorite thing about your character?

60: If you could title your character's life, what would you title it?

Evil Ninjago Girls