Listen… Yes, Kai Is Irritable, Snarky, And Altruistic To The Point Of Being Reckless. But He’s…

me when someone calls kai selfish

me when I see a kai analysis that is in depth and truly portrays Kai is a wonderful way

more ninja headcannons (cole-centered) <3

cole definitely paints on the gang when he’s stressed out or for fun

like one day kai and nya are wearing sleeveless and they want cole to paint matching animals across their arms

or jays sleeping and cole paints a mustache on him

or maybe zane wants to spice up his apron so now it’s covered in coles art

or lloyd wants to get better at painting so they both experiment on kai’s back bc kai loves being painted on

it’s like a stress reliever and a fun hobby at the same time that cole loves doing and he’s spectacular at it too

or maybe like one day cole is really upset and the ninja are like cmon guys let’s paint him instead and in less than an hour cole is covered in dragons and flowers and monkeys and chickens and all sorts of things that they all take pictures of and laugh about and coles forgotten why he was sad in the first place

ive said this so many times but one of my favorite parts about kai is despite his  trauma, when he gives, it doesnt come with strings. hes not expecting anything from anyone- when he gives, he does so without ulterior motives. i think its so important to realize that kai understands the value of love and decides to share his love, share what he holds in his heart (that fact that he chooses to hold love in his heart despite everything is beautiful itself), with the world, despite the world not returning it to him.

he loved his parents yet again so effortlessly, and he has always loved his family, nya, lloyd, jay, cole, zane, pixal, wu profusely.

“Never had it in public, late reaction

50K to cousins, post a caption

Pray none of my enemies hold me captive

I grieve different”

Anyone else got really pissed over seabound?

ninjago headcannons ll

-kai sleeps like a cat

-jay loves eating chobani yogurt (incase you don’t know, it’s a brand of yogurt that has one little thingy full of yogurt and the other thingy u can flip over and add cookie dough or chocolate chips or whatever)

- nya and kai are those crazy madmen racing on the street ways that all the moms shake their heads at

- nya cannot parallel park but she can tokyo drift

- one day lloyd hit his head on the table so kai hit the table back.

- cole can digest anything ( poisoning him to death? lol nice try he loves to nom poison)

-kai bought lloyd most of his game/comic collection

- nya has a bellybutton piercing

part one

ninjago’s biggest flaw: death = development

ninjago has this consistent idea that the death of a character leads to the development of either said character, or the characters who grieve the death. while this concept can be written very well, ninjago can’t seem to get it right.

for example, nya’s sacrifice in seabound. i think her death could have been the BEST example in ninjago of how relationships can grow and strengthen over a shared loss. nyas ‘death’ could’ve been written as a wonderful way to deepen relationships between the characters, ESPECIALLY kai and jay. relationship development between those two would have been such a good concept, stabilizing eachother during times of grief, and so cole (who was, im sure we all agree, the most stable post seabound) would not have the burden of trying to help all members of the team, burying his own grief in order to aid the others, just as he had to do when his mother died.

furthermore, nya’s own death could have been a development strike for herself, but the show did not give her and nyad enough time  to show nya once again reestablishing her sense of self, and collecting her memories. this lack of time nya had, and the lack of attention brought to kai’s grieving methods, combined with loss of potential growth between kai and jay, simply proved that what the writers were aiming for (nyas death--> development) did not work out. and im sure u all can think of the other examples where this idea does not work out.

but i think while the death= development IS a problem, there are times where they got it right, and it did lead to development at some point. for example, when the monastery doors collapsed on lloyd, and so he ‘died’ and met with the first spinjitsu master (plot contribution). and, cole’s ‘fall/death’ showed us an extremely rare occasion of kai being vulnerable and scared, and then nya into a phase of blaming herself, which led to kai comforting nya, showing the strength of the bond between the two.

so, ultimately, i believe the true problem, is : ninjago’s inability to correctly and deeply portray grief,  because the entire idea of death= development  is based on how individuals deal with grief (coping mechanisms), how they carry on with it, and the relationships formed/strengthened by it. if grief is written poorly, then death can never lead to development.

people ask me why I’m so distraught over ninjago ending and when you tell them it’s because your emotionally attached since it’s been there since your childhood and you’ve grown up with it and even though it does injustice to your favorite character it still has your favorite character and you sound like a crazy person when in reality you just can’t let go of something that brings you comfort so easily even though it’s just some stupid tv show

Isn't it so incredibly interesting how both smith siblings handled their trauma in drastically different ways? But isn't it also beautiful that everything they went through together simply made them love & support each other in bajillion different ways!?!!

Nya’s mindset of, ‘’I don't need anybody, I can do everything myself. I can rely on only myself,” just means that “My parents betrayed me and let me down when I needed them the most, which has damaged my ability to trust.’’

This is hyper-independence, and that is a result of trauma.  It was likely one of her prime ways to protect herself from vulnerability, building walls to protect herself from feeling a pain similar to what she felt when her parents disappeared, making it hard for her to love. She shows signs of ‘self-sabotage’ because she refuses to ask for help, and does not show vulnerability. She declined any affection (except kai, bc he was the only person who had not betrayed her/only dependable & trustworthy person in her childhood) in the earlier seasons, and has trouble doing things if she cannot execute them perfectly. Kai undoubtably worked hard to support her, and so Nya pressured herself to meet certain objectives for Kai’s sake, to ensure Kai’s work didn't go to waste. This likely lead to her habit of perfectionism, which with time, became a bigger breeding ground for severe toxicity.

Despite Kai offering her unconditional support, Nya likely did not want to overburden him with her troubles so she kept a lot of things bottled up. Her independency also probably derives from her will to try and make things easier for Kai (and later the team) so she minimizes asking for help. Rarely asking for anything at all, insisting on dealing with issues herself. She dragged this habit with her throughout her life, likely in fear of rejection. When it comes to grief and loss, she has a very unhealthy habit of pushing it down, trying to not feel anything especially when others are around (ex. in Hunted when nya and lloyd thought the others were dead, she pushed the grief down/started hiding it and distracted herself by focusing on/helping lloyd). When it comes to grief and certain other things she puts herself below others, prioritizing their needs instead of hers. All of these things are results of and/or mechanisms she developed from her childhood trauma.

Nya requires a lot of verbal affirmation and physical touch to open up (kai is an exception). A lot. Remember, it took a long time until she actually told Jay she loved him. But what Nya  needed is was patience, and Jay was displaying that, and never criticized her for not saying ily back.

She could have chosen to leave all the burden on Kai, but when she couldn’t remove it, she did everything she could to lighten it. Trauma gave nya so many reasons to be an untrustworthy person. Trauma made loving people hard for her. Trauma made love a battlefield for her. Trauma made future relationships difficult for her to ease in. But despite this, Nya chose to be trustworthy. Trauma didn’t make her brave. She made herself brave so she could accept Jay’s (and the teams) love, and in time, selflessly tore down her walls so she could love him back. She chose to be there in the times of need for others, just as her brother was there for her. Her trauma gave her opportunities and opportunities to be scared, but she chose to stand her ground. She chose to be brave.

Kai’s <3

https://theatlasrealm.tumblr.com/post/692060841958408192/isnt-it-so-incredibly-interesting-how-both-smith

yeah everyone focuses about nya’s connection to nyad, but if nya is technically one with the ocean, and nya is basicslly a part of kai, isnt kai basicslly connected to nyad too?? like wouldn’t it be awesome if human nya still had the ability to talk to nyad after she unmerged and stuff?? And since nya can do it kai could kinda do it too??

like if nya could talk to nyad as separate beings, but still be connected, through their magic? and kai maybe not being able to talk to nyad but being able to feel her, embrace her because after all, nyas blood is within him too, and so with alongside shared blood comes shared bonds, right?

can you imagine kai feeling upset or maybe lonely, nya not being there bc maybe she’s on a mission so he sits alongside the ocean, nyad joining him and creating little jellyfish that float around kai, to cheer him up?

can you imagine kai and nyad dancing across the shore, nya secretly recording them from a distance?

and maybe whenever kai goes near the ocean, nya and nyad can both feel his warmth and so there’s an array of fish and various sea creatures that suddenly appear alongside kai, kinda making the ocean a bit more magical?? idk I think It would be such a beautiful concept