I Call It: Metamorphosis

The Explorer's Club is one of the funniest episodes because it's basically a session of DnD where Nya decides she's Done Roleplaying 5 minutes in.

Let me introduce you to... a typical Ninjago season :

Lloyd gets kidnapped at least once

Cole adopts some traumatized kids / creatures he found in a forgotten, lonely place

Jay becomes the leader of a cult or something

Zane "dies" for the 182737492th time

Nya kicks something (or someone)

Kai runs straight into the danger powered with raw confidence and survives only by pure luck

New outfits for everyone

The animation had another glow up

Jay and Cole are paired for a mission but they have the worst influence on each other's dumbness and mess up so bad you wonder why they're still allowed to work together

Kai tries to show off but miserably fails

Lloyd thinks he's Steven Universe and tries to redeem a villain

Jay spends 99% of his screentime uncontrollably yelling

Wu reveals crazy family lore he was hiding since forever

Kai gets rejected by Skylor

Cole wants cake. Now.

Lloyd gets more daddy issues than he already had (you didn't know it was even possible)

Star Wars reference

Wth is Garmadon doing this time ?

Nya is constantly on the verge of committing murder

Kai bullies Jay

Pixal somehow manages to stay calm

Lloyd is still in his angsty teenage era except he's now a grown adult

Zane is silly, the worst things possible happen to him, then he's silly again

There's another plot hole but the lore is so crazy already no one is gonna care

Shout out to Ninjago City citizen still living here knowing their lives are in constant danger every single second they stay in this place

Nya and Jay keeps being the only healthy stable romance in the whole show

Dareth unexpectedly ends up being useful

Lloyd do the thing with his eyes when it's getting serious (you instantly start screaming)

Kai says "fiyah"

"Yep so I saw [a main character] falling of a rock so they're definitely dead." "But maybe they..." - "NOPE. THEY'RE DEAD" - "aww ok" (they are, in fact, alive)

The team yells "ninja, go !" at least once

Characters are listening to music. It's The Weekend Whip by The Fold.

Why does someone has to stay behind and why is it Zane.

"You know I'm very old I'm gonna die soon" has said Wu every single day of the past 100 years of his life

Nya builds crazy vehicles again

This is a found family trope and they want you to know it

You spotted a pride flag in the background of a 0.5 seconds action scene and you already know the homophobic fans are going to lose their minds over it again

Snakes. Snakes everywhere.

A villain has the most brutal death on screen and you wonder how th this got approved for a kid show, until the show itself makes a joke about it

"Gasp ! Are we... Gonna lose our powers ???" (no they won't)

Jay's parents are in danger

Crazy plot twist happens and you suddenly realize it's been foreshadowed every single season in the previous 10 seasons but you never paid attention to it until now

Something that happened in a previous season gets referenced and you nostalgia cry about it for a whole episode

"Omg, was that the last and final season of Ninjago ???" (no it wasn't, nothing can end this show, we'll all die way before it does, now get ready for the next arc because it's probably gonna last ten more years)

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

Ninja's art skills from canon:

Kai

Nya

Cole

Zane

Jay's paintings from Farewell the Sea(I couldn't find good pictures of them)

Arin

Sora

Now we only need Lloyd,Wu,Pixal and Wyldfyre

thinking about how laios is so outwardly kind and agreeable even though he can be judgmental in his head.

and i know its to keep the peace, and as party leader he has more responsibility to withhold scathing remarks that could damage morale. BUT i can't help the nagging feeling its also because he just doesn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, even in the moment

like the one time he verbalizes his "negative" thoughts, he immediately goes back

he doesn't actually get it, he still thinks it's strange nobody wants to eat the fish man but can eat other animals, but he lets it go for chilchuck's sake.

laios spent his entire life feeling ostracized and scrutinized by others, the last thing he wants to do is make his friends feel that way.

and it sucks so hard we don't get more of this in the anime because i feel like it adds so much with so little.

Chapter 6 of "The Phantom Ninja" found in Cole: Ninja of Earth by Greg Farshtey

Guys for the sake of Opposite Shipping I must know

WHICH BOOK IS THIS PASSAGE FROM!!!??

u know what no the world needs to see mob psycho 100 goose au duck song from 3 years ago

: Dog Emoji :

Because Some People (my bff francis, and others) are doubting my claims that the tip of Ras' beard is graying, I have edited a screenshot of him, however the only change made is it is now in greyscale . This is important for you All to see .

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