saw a video that said ‘when a found family’s motto gains a different meaning at the end of the series’ and like. dare i say ninja never quit.
at the beginning of the series it was motivating. they were little kids pushing themselves to be brave, trying to encourage each other that they can do this.
but now it’s borderline self destructive. they never quit, they never get a break, no matter what happens they have to push through, regardless of the cost.
zane holds onto the golden armor even as it starts breaking him apart, because he has to protect his friends, he can’t quit until the overlord is gone
jay holds out in season 6 even while being tortured, trying to convince himself that things would be okay if he just keeps going a little longer, that he can save everyone he just has to not quit
lloyd nearly and does get himself killed trying to defeat garmadon/the oni in s8-10, because ninja never quit.
nya sees the city get entirely destroyed, and realizes her only option is to give herself over to the sea. doesn’t matter the consequences, ninja never quit so if there’s a way to save everyone she has to do it even if it will kill her physical body
i’m sure there are tons more examples this is just off the top of my head, but like. it’s so heartbreaking to see them push themselves further and further as the show goes on, no matter the consequences. because ninja never quit right?
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.
Maybe an obvious detail but Nya actually comes out of the same glass of water Kai knocked over, so in a way, Jay was actually right -- that water did bring him closer to Nya.
an: despite having another multi-chapter in the works, i’ve been secretly working on a mini-sequel to Meet Again. the final result will be a one-shot, but i’ve finally finished the first part, so i’ve decided to post it as a preview here!
(slight warning: this preview is more than 3k words long).
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JADE | QUIET
The story broke a year after their return as ninja.
Cole tugged on the sails of Destiny’s Bounty, turning them northwest. The wind was strong; it wouldn’t take long to reach their destination. What awaited them, he wasn’t entirely sure. He only knew that its prospect filled him with dread.
The laws of chronology dictated that Cole was 3129 years-old. In appearance, he looked no older than twenty-one. He had lived through thirty-one lifetimes. Some were happy, some were sad, but most were lonely. Until now, he had long since accepted the latter as a permanent symptom of agelessness. It wasn’t very often that he got to live his days surrounded by friends.
It crushed his heart to know this was the last time it would ever happen.
Keep reading
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)
I think a lot of the people who criticize SU for not showing us every character apologize out loud for something they did wrong and every bit of trauma recovery a character could have and every possible long, complicated, painful discussion characters could hold about their issues forget that... most of that shit would be boring as hell to watch in a cartoon. SU presents you the broad strokes, the moments that matter and can be made into an interesting 11 minute plotline, and expects you're smart enough to imagine that sometimes offscreen Steven has an hour long zoom call where he regurgitates show events to his therapist.