BEFORE WE HIT THE LAUNDROMAT

I just pulled out Castle of the Forsaken Emperor for my previous post and I feel like it’s essential that I remind the world of these stickers’ existence.

I could take the pieces out for a better view, but that’s too much work.

Who wants to overthink legos with me? No? Too bad, here goes

Okay so do you ever think about how the circle is (accidentally) a recurring motif in Ninjago? A running list of examples:

Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail, which is commonly represented in a circular shape and represents infinity with endless return. Thats how they defeat the Great Devourer, actually, by getting it to bite its own tail

The original shape of Ninjago before the FSM pangea'd it

Spinjitzu is essentially the process of weaponizing circular motion. Airjitzu is similar, and even creates a sphere of air/light around the user

In the earlier seasons, Lloyd's main attack involved creating balls of energy

The light from portals - time vortex, Traveler's Tea, the Blind Man's Eye, the Realm Crystal - tend to resemble vortexes

Dragons often have to spin in order to traverse realms

All the circle imagery in the Temple of Light

Jay and Nya's yin-yang badges

Yang's whole "close the circle" shtick

The dust circle that swirled around the ninja at the end of Skybound when Jay said his final wish and all of time was undone

Zane's old house is circular/cylindrical, and the camera spiral-zoomed on him when his memories returned

The architecture on Chen's island

The Celestial Clock

Flower petals circling around Lloyd when he met the FSM

In that flashback when Mystake was telling the story of the Oni and the Dragon, with the FSM creating a circular yin-yang symbol to represent the combining of both light and dark

This is a bit of a stretch, but Zane's notably circular power core

Kryptarium is a panopticon style, which is circular in design. On that note, the s8 Lloyd v Garmadon fight happening at Kryptarium. Lloyd was familiar with the usual procedure of saving Garm, only for that typical cycle of saving and losing his father as Garmadon throws him through the wall and out of the prison

Lots of fights actually have the camera pan in circles around the fighters

That little hand paint collage they all made at the end of season 10

The spiraling bioluminescence surrounding the FSM's corpse

Actually, lets take it a step further. Cycles of violence. Sins of the father. History repeating itself. Harumi and Loyd's backstories causing, opposing, and reflecting one another, with her ending where Lloyd began and vice versa. The inheritance of elemental power, something endlessly recursive. Generational trauma.

Not to mention theres a heavy emphasis on either breaking cycles or perpetuating them. Lloyd saying "I wont let it do to me what it did to you." Harumi saying "i want you to feel the emptiness i feel." Morro saying "I make my own destiny." The Overlord possessing the Great Devourer so it would bite Garmadon. Lloyd wanting to be like his father but then being a hero instead. Nya quoting her mother in her final moments. Again i repeat. Generational trauma.

Theres just. This overwhelming sense of recursion and cycles throughout the entire series, and im mad bc im like 90% sure the writers didnt do that intentionally. Im not smart enough to put it into words but if i think about this for too long im gonna start biting things

ice emperor but its just zoomed in on him when hes far away so that hes comprised of approximately 4 pixels

I like all the instances of Jay giving someone a little wink as a means to show support

Wouldn't be surprised if it's something he picked up from his dad

Even the publishers can't resist emperor-posting

My favorite thing about the dance sequences in this episode are all the subtle variations. It would have probably been easier for the animators to sync the character models to a uniform set movement but even in the final performance there are all these little details given to each ninja that really brings the whole episode to life

For instance here you can actually see Zane has his foot raised off the ground

I also noticed that occasionally he and Kai get ahead of Jay and Cole (with Zane being slightly faster at moving towards the next pose)

The start has Cole's stance as the widest, which makes sense because he needs to stand out for his own true potential episode!

I don't know what any of these moves are called, but I think it's interesting how Kai is more dramatic with the way he raises his shoulder- compared to Jay, whose performs the same move at a much softer angle

Me fr

Can we. Can we talk about. Ok consider. We all know about kids developing trust issues because of their parents. But I almost feel sometimes like Zane is the reverse? Like his dad raised him completely isolated in the middle of the woods and then erased his memory and left him completely vulnerable and alone. And we know from his behavior, especially in the first seasons, that Zane has a hard time adapting to people and grasping social boundaries, which already sucks for him but I feel like the implications of his upbringing go a lot deeper than that? I know I already made a post that was really similar to this but I'm on a slightly different track rn so hear me out

Like I feel like, intentionally or not, he made Zane COMPLETELY dependant on him in every conceivable aspect and then (by giving him straight up amnesia) he abandoned him without what little preparation he might have had to set him up for the outside world. And in doing that he simultaneously made it practically impossible for him to develop normal, constructive relationships with other people and also failed to give him to ability to discern when to trust people and when to be wary of their intentions.

So basically he put him in a position where he would be completely defenseless and wouldn't have the emotional or social maturity to protect himself from exploitation or abuse. It's super heavily implied (if not outright stated) that Zane was essentially homeless for however long he was wandering around before Wu found him, and it's like??? Can you imagine how traumatic that probably was all on its own? And if anything serious happened to him during this period there's a strong likelihood that he doesn't even realize it was wrong.

It'd be super interesting to have a clearer look into how he functioned pre-season one and the types of experiences he must have had. Plus I think it could serve to give some background to some of his behaviors and thought processes. Also I want to project my trauma on him as is my god-given right as an american

Works Cited:

My feelings which are always correct every time

WHAT IF LAIOS ENTERED ALONE?

MY MAN MADE IT TO FOURTH FLOOR AND STILL TRUCKING

I’ve seen the posts talking about how corny Lloyd’s early seasons dialogue was but rn on my millionth rewatch I just saw s1 Zane go “watch out Pythor… we’re coming to GET you…” like ok are we on the playground. Okay girl

Ninjago One-Shot: The Stranger and His Pendant

Prompt from @hereliestheempireofdeath :  zane and the original master of ice

(Okay so I LOVE this prompt!!! This is one of the biggest mysteries of the show, so I’m glad you gave me the chance to explore it! This is all theory, so this is how I think this transition went down! THANK YOU FOR THE PROMPT!!!!)

___________________________________________________________

Parts of the Birchwood Forest used to be green. Can you believe that? Snow-white birch trees and the greenest grass you could ever imagine. Snow covered the Birchwood Forest in the north, but in the south it was paradise. It was the southern part of the Birchwood Forest where Doctor Julien built his house. 

For decades he lived in his paradise with the son he built. He rarely left his house, and never got visitors. 

Until the old man with the white hair. 

Dr. Julien has no idea how the stranger found their home. However, his son, Zane, was curious enough to ask his father to let the man stay. Julien bended to his son’s will, and the tired old man spent a night in the tree home. 

During their dinner, the old man grew very curious of Zane after discovering he was not of the flesh and rather of the machine. He questioned Zane in many unusual ways, asking him what he thought of himself and what his purpose was. When the man heard Zane tell him that he was built to protect those who could not protect themselves, he nodded to himself, as if satisfied with that response. 

In the middle of the night, Zane awoke with the sound of the door above them opening and closing. The robot checked to see if his Father ha awoken, and he had not. Finally, he looked to where the stranger had his cot set up, but it was empty. The only thing that remained was the white and blue pendant that he had worn around his neck. 

Connecting the dots in his head, Zane unplugged the large and heavy cord that connected to the generator to his chest, launched to his feet, grabbed the necklace from the cot and dashed up the stairs after him. 

The night was chillier than usual, and Zane immediately stepped into the heavy dew on the grass. In the harsh moonlight from above, Zane saw the old man limping into the shadows in the distance.

“Sir!” Zane called out as he dashed after the man. His white pants got more and more damp with each step, but the pendant in his hand was far more important than his clothes. 

The old man did not seem to hear Zane when he called out first. It didn’t take long for Zane to catch up to the stranger, and the closer he got, the more he realized how weakened the man was. He was clutching trees as he moved forward with dear life, as if he was about to fall over. 

“Sir!” Zane called again, and this time the stranger heard him. He turned to the android before collapsing onto the ground. 

“No!” Zane yelled. He rushed forward and caught the elder just before he hit the ground. 

His breaths were heavy and his pale blue eyes were starting to lose its vibrant hue. “Z…Zane?” The man panted. 

“You are not safe out here!” Zane warned the man. “You are very ill and need medical attention-“ 

Zane was interrupted with hoarse laughter from the man he cradled. “No, my boy, my time has come.” 

His words didn’t process well in Zane’s head.  “Time…for what?” 

Their eyes connected, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl. “It is time for me to go on.” 

That made more sense. “Well, sir, if you are leaving, you forgot your pendant.” Zane lifted the necklace so the man could see. 

“Aaah,” the man groaned warmly. “That pendant is no longer mine. It belongs to someone else now.” 

Zane raised his eyebrows. “Who? I can bring it to them.”

The hoarse laughter started again, this time ending in coughing. “The pendant belongs to you, Zane. One day you will understand.” 

Zane furrowed his eyebrows. “But…where will you go?” 

With a deep sigh, the old man looked into the sky. “I do not know, young android. But I will find out soon.” 

Zane followed his gaze to the stars. The thousands of dots in the sky have always made Zane feel minuscule, and now even more so than ever. 

“I will miss you sir,” Zane looked down to the elder. The old man smiled, his many wrinkles crumping up with age. “And I with you. But first-“ 

The man took the metallic part of the pendant into his boney wrinkled hands. He shut his eyes, and took a deep breath. As he exhaled, the pendant began to glow a vivid ice blue hue, illuminating both the old man and Zane’s faces. The man opened his eyes, and Zane gasped a little when he saw that they were no longer blue, but light brown. 

“Take this, and promise- to always use your heart and to never forget who you are.” 

Zane’s eyes fixed on the glowing piece of metal. “I- I promise.” 

“Good.” The man relaxed, and Zane could feel his breaths turn into shudders. “I can finally rest….” 

The final breath was like a gust of cool wind as it left his mouth. Zane slowly slipped the pendant out of the stranger’s hands and into his. 

On cue, Zane flinched back when the body in him broke apart into a cold white substance. With a yelp, Zane scampered backwards before freezing, his eyes wide with shock.

The man had turned into snow. 

Still panting with shock, Zane began to make out huge flakes of snow as they fell from a cloudless sky. The temperature dropped within seconds, and it wasn’t even a minute before the gorgeous green grass was covered in a thin layer of fresh snow. 

“Impossible,” Zane breathed as before his eyes the world transformed from a gorgeous green forest to a winter wonderland. The snow that was once the old man vanished within the newly fallen snow.

It took about thirty minutes for Zane to return back to the tree home because he was walking slowly through the forest, taking in the majesty of the transformation. The grass was long gone now as the snow depth moved from inches to feet.

When Zane finally returned to the tree home, he found his Father still asleep, but shuddering in the new freezing temperatures. Zane woke his father and quickly told him the events that just transpired, including the glowing pendant Zane held in his hands. Doctor Julien, as curious as ever, ushered Zane to chop a tree down to make some firewood and to bring it to him quickly as Julien experimented on the blue metal.

Within a few minutes, a small fire kept the small working space of the tree home toasty warm as Doctor Julien toyed with the metal. Zane, with his power cord plugged back into his chest, watched from a far as the Tinkerer tinkered with the piece.

“It’s incredibly powerful, that’s for sure,” the middle-aged man muttered to himself. “My own devices can’t even register how powerful it is.”

Zane leaned forward, craning his neck. “What can it do?”

The doctor shook his head. “I…I do not know. It’s some sort of…power source.”

Suddenly, the tinkerer turned to Zane. “Zane, the old man – he said it was for you?” Zane nodded.

Father looked from the pendant to the robot, then back to the pendant. “Maybe…” he slipped the fabric free from the metal, leaving behind a metal circle. He approached Zane, his face glowing from the blue metal in his hands, and unplugged the robot, revealing the ‘outlet’ for where Zane plugs the cord into his chest. Julien moved to put the metal in, but froze when he realized that the  metal circle had to be in two pieces with a hole in the middle in order to fit the design of the outlet.  

“It won’t fit,” Zane’s father sighed. He extended the piece to Zane to examine. Taking it delicately, he looked it over before looking his chest over. Then, with a deep breath, he copied what the old man had done earlier and shut his eyes, taking in a deep breath.

The metal piece began to glow. Doctor Julien’s eyes widened as the piece grew blinding to look at. After a few seconds of a pure white light, the glow died down and two pieces fell back into Zane’s hands, the exact size for his outlet.

Zane opened his eyes and smiled at the metal. “Will that work, Father?”

Not comprehending what just occurred, Julien nodded slowly before slipping the metal into place. Pressing a button, the small teeth that kept the wire in place before now folded onto the metal, keeping it in place.

Zane gasped, as if he had been choking on air. “Zane! Are you okay?” Julien grabbed at the robot’s arms and stared into his son’s eyes. The gray metal acting as his pupils shimmered before turning a vibrant blue. Zane continued to take a few deep breaths before calming down and relaxing. Julien sat down next to his son. “Zane! What happened?”

The robot looked forward with his glimmering blue eyes, like the world was new to him again. “I…I don’t know. I feel different, but I can’t explain it.”

“You don’t have to, Zane.” Julien responded. They both flinched as the last piece of firewood collapsed into the flames with a thud, sending out sparks.

Julien closed Zane’s chest and hugged his son’s shoulder for a moment, admiring the weak sunlight as it shone through the open door above them. “One thing is for sure,” the middle aged man continued.

Zane looked over, curious. “And what would that be?”

Julien chuckled. “If this winter lasts for a while, we are going to need a lot of firewood.”