Ninjago Dr - Blog Posts

just finished episode 9

What. The. FUCK.

I'm really hoping NDR will somehow write a balance to this because these two ideologies are not inherently bad until pushed to the extreme (like all ideologies, I suppose!) I would be pretty disappointed if they painted the Ninja in the good entirely, but I trust Doc Wyatt!

So I already seen some people talk about how Ras teachings about pushing against the universe and taking what you want is actually good as opposed to how the teachings of Lloyd/ the ninjas side where it’s more….. about going with the flow of the universe is bad.

And I GET where they’re coming from. I really do! I understand that these ideas are/could be read as “it’s better to just let everyone walk all over you and let destiny do its thing and you have no control over anything and you just gotta let stuff happen. No you cannot fight for what you want and go against “the flow of the universe” or whatever” but it really is a matter of how you read it because the way I see it:

Let’s look at it this way. You cannot force people to do things they want just because you want them to. You cannot force yourself to love someone just like you can’t force someone to love you as much as you want it. You cannot forcefully change someone’s identity or personality just because you don’t like how they are and you cannot forcefully change yourself to be someone you really aren’t just to appease others. You cannot force and entire population to bow down to you because you simply find it fun. You cannot force everyone to agree with you and unleash anger upon them when they don’t. You cannot change nor rewrite the past and you cannot puppeteer others peoples lives because it would be more beneficial to you. You cannot bring someone back from the dead and you cannot create the perfect person. This is why, Rass ideas, about, taking things by force, bending the universe to your will to get the stuff you want, is bad. It’s selfish. It’s harmful. Hell it can even be harmful to oneself.

I don’t think that the ninjas teachings/ideas supposed in any way signify that ni matter how unfair something is you just have to let it happen or some shit like that because we know that’s not true, considering how the ninja are constantly fighting villians who do unfair shit. I mean this is pretty obvious but still.

Not everything’s gonna go your way and not everything is in your control and that’s ok. Once one learns to accept change, or how life doesn’t always go as planned, that some things that you don’t like might occur, they’ll be able to live at peace. As much as you wish for something there’s also things you have to respect. From boundaries to nature. From someone you love not loving you the way you wish they did to having to move away to somewhere new, being able to adapt and grow is something essential in life and essential towards being at peace.

Again, I understand why people would interpret the two sides of these ideas in dragons rising in such a way where both are right and wrong. And tbh I also agree and like seeing it that way, in the way that there should be a balance between both. Especially with all the themes about balance in Ninjago, but I still wanted to drop my interpretation of these ideas here and why I can also see how ras teachings can be wrong while Lloyd/the ninjas right. But again? The world isn’t black and white.

​sora is lloyd and akita's adopted daughter. i take no criticism.

Wyldfyre and Kai are such a good duo

THEY ARE EVERYTHING TO ME

literally going to fight someone about ninjago dr s3 because, before anyone flames me, this wasn’t the best season so far 😞

look I’m not the best at analyzing stuff like this but I do my fair share in writing and research so I do want to share my personal opinion on the story and etc.

you’re telling me Cole basically got ZERO SCREENTIME?? ZERO. NONE.

sora GOING WITH ARIN?? WHAT THE F- why. WHY. I’M LITERALLY GONNA JUMP I LOVE THEIR FRIENDSHIP BUT THAT IS NOT IT

I REALLY REALLY need to see Lloyd start crashing out about losing BOTH his students (i have no idea if Frak is considered his student because… he basically didn’t get focus either)

Ras’ bxtch ahh should go to hell just saying

the only thing I liked was MORRO THE LOML AND MY WIFE PIX AND JAYYYAYAYA MY LOVE

OH AND WYFY AND ROBY THEYRE SOOAJRJRJFJ we love supportive Kai that was the best part btw; theyre literally so father and daughter FIGHT W THE WALL ^^

to be completely honest, I feel like in general there was a lot of comedic moments and less storytelling. the only good storytelling part imo was Ras and Arin’s side: specifically Ras’ mfing manipulation over Arin.

tbf that part was always a masterpiece… not the literal manipulation though

and the part where Jay says Arin’s parents are alive… I’m gonna jump if Ras faked their deaths to use Arin like a fvcking puppet

The flashback of Sora and Arin meeting was definitely wholesome, but not… really… expected or like kind of random ig? I feel like they could have showed it through Arin and Sora maybe feeling guilty and remembering how they met or something, more-so Sora since she ends up going with Arin.

like I get they’re best friends and all but… I feel like more could’ve been done with that(?) to show Sora wanting to stay with Arin in the end, esp with the relationship between the ninja and Ras.

And FRAK. DID. NOT. GET. ENOUGH. …development? Character-wise

Frak suddenly going all “I don’t think you understand what being a ninja is” in the last or second to last episode to Arin, but we don’t see enough interaction to build his idea of that other than being a superfan of them in general

I will never stop saying this: they should give him some kind of arc in helping him switch over from Ras’ “anger and hate becomes strength” technique to the ninja’s. We clearly see him more aggressive on the obstacle course in the first episode, but that’s barely touched on later on…

i do like how Arin ends up being able to do object Spinjitzu well enough in the end by.. using his kindness or wtvr that was… to defeat Thunderfang (who will definitely come back and better die for basically killing Morro… he’s already dead but that’s not the point)

i don’t think redoing the merge can “bring back his parents” even if they were actually dead because despite all that talk on it reshaping reality… idk if that’s how things work

I am glad about Arin still stopping Ras from fighting at times and etc.; his character is probably the best here other than Ras imo

other than we have:

that part in the First Realm (or Land ig) where Frak freaks out about the Oni… dude you’re literally right next to one

frak is so real btw I love him, just wish he could be more refined in terms of character

never mind frak though, COLE BETTER HAVE A LOT MORE SCREENTIME IN PART 2; never gonna forgive the writers for this

Oh and Zane dying for the nth time, that was great

Sora and frak bickering… I take back the shipping from my last post, but I do get Sora for being pissed off a bit

And Lloyd saying “green is the best” I LOVE HIM HAHAHSJSJSJN<33

like I said, there was a lot of comedic relief and stuff: not to say it wasn’t funny bc I cackled at most of them, but the overall story just.. wasn’t what I expected

I stand by my case that season 2 is still the best dr season… at least so far

Idk like I said I’m not really good at this stuff and sometimes I change my mind after hearing others’ opinions so lemme know if you agree or if you wanna throw me to the Netherspace

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THE WHOLE NDR S3 WAS OUT ON NETFLIX

THIS STUPID STREAMING APP DIDN’T ANNOUNCE IT AND I ONLY SAW EP1 ON YOUTUBE WHAT THE FVCK THANK YOU NETFLIX

NONONONONONONO NO NO NO THEY'RE GOING TO FLASHBACK SORA AND ARIN MEETING AND BECOMING BEST FRIENDS. I'M NOT GOING TO SURVIVE THIS.

why am i JUST hearing that sora and vania have the SAME VOICE ACTOR???

this year truly was an insane year for ninjago fans. like wdym lloyd canonically has anxiety, cole and geo held hands onscreen, DRs2p2 in it's entirety got leaked, pixal is confirmed to be returning, both morro got confirmed to be returning and a live action movie got confirmed to be in the works on the same day DURING halloween & so on is actually crazy

OMFG YES PLEASEEE THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT, arin and morro are hitting me so hard being parallels AAHHDJSJFJ

both lloyd and wu may be putting too much pressure or expectations on arin and morro being their first students akdjajdjsjdjjd and now they’re turning away from their masters

and I need to see morro back omg CRYINGJDJSJD

morro. morro please stop lloyd from repeating wu's mistakes. morro im begging you. and stop arin from going down your path. morro please. morro

ok but like.. am I the only one who looked at thunderfang’s collar thing(??) and went “A MEGA/KEY STONE!!?”

The live action Ninjago Movie may destroy some headcanons.

lowkey think it would be so much fun to do an oc tournament with a bunch of elemental master ocs

if the wolf warriors were more cunt:

finally remembered my password after like,,, 2 years.

sooo, dragons risings, am i right?

I come home and everyone’s freaking out about leaks wtf happened 😭😭

Just finished dragons rising s2!! even though I’ve already seen some spoilers for s3p1, IM STILL SO EXCITED TO WATCH IT !!!!!! more of my hyped thoughts abt s2 are below (WARNING: spoilers for Dr s2! just incase some ppl haven’t watched it yet. oh, and a yap warning.. bc yeah.. I talk a lot. help.)

pros/everything I loved - the overall plot of this season, continuing from where we were in s1, is absolutely AMAZING! the stakes get higher with each episode, creating such an epic buildup that pays off wonderfully in the finale, but still leaves you with questions about what will happen next. the pacing is GREAT. I loved this season EVEN MORE THAN DR S1! if I’m being honest, I think that dr s2 is one of my favorite Ninjago seasons, like ever. s2 and s5 will always be personal favorites of mine, but in terms of writing and story, and even animation (bc the freaking shading is BEAUTIFUL), dr s2 takes the cake for me. from Lloyd’s arc of getting over and adapting to his visions, the mystery during the tournament, to Arin’s well written and ultimate betrayal— this season is seriously outstanding in nearly every single aspect. all of the characters (even if some didn’t get as much screen time as others), are written extremely well and are very interesting and entertaining to watch. every character has so much thought put into their writing, and that makes them so much more emotional and easy to get attached to. for example; despite Arin’s betrayal and ignorance towards Sora, the writing does not make you hate him— rather, feel bad for him, and understand where he’s coming from, which is what makes his character in this season so interesting. and what makes his writing even better, is that this arc for him, was being built up since season 1. making Arin’s betrayal a slow burn affect is 100%, the BEST way they could’ve wrote this route for his character. I also want to talk about Lloyd, because undoubtedly, I find him and Arin’s character writing to be the best out of any of the characters this season. obviously, Sora, Nya, Wyldfyre and Kai all get their important and emotional moments/arcs as well, but I just felt that Lloyd and Arin really stuck out to me in terms of writing. I love Lloyd’s arc of having visions, eventually getting over them, and then having them come back to haunt him during the last few rounds of the tournament; it was just really enthralling to watch how he dealt with it. Nya’s reaction to learning that Jay had lost his memories was so heartbreaking to watch :( I like that Nya was telling Kai about it during the end of the finale, that was a nice touch. speaking of Kai, holy shit? he’s the goat?? he was trapped in the nether-space for idek how long, and the MOMENT he gets out he just starts BEATING THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF NOKT! I kid you not, I replayed that scene about 15 times. like oh? my gawd? the line: “don’t you DARE touch her! ..that’s my sister.” DID NOT HAVE TO GO SO HARD BUT IT DID! there’s still so much i wanna say about how much i loved this season, and i wanna go more in depth about the character arcs and the villains, but this is getting pretty lengthy already, so I’m just going to stop here before i get even MORE carried away.

cons/things I didn’t like - legit my only gripe with this season is that we didn’t see more of wolf-walker/wolf mask Jay. I think it would’ve been better if we saw him for more than just one episode, or at least have him sideline all the other battles with Lord Ras and Cinder, driving the heartbreaking point home that Jay isn’t on the ninja’s side anymore. but I guess if they kept him there Nya would’ve kept pestering him 😭 I understand why they took Jay out early, but depending on power levels it also doesn’t make sense. not saying that Jay is stronger than Nya, but i believe in one of the Ninjago books, we find out how Ras recruited Jay- and while yes, Cinder almost killed him using Shatterspin (before Ras told him to stop), Jay was still one of the longest to last against Shatterspin without using the Rising Dragon technique. it’s also notable that at that point, Jay didn’t even know how to fight? if he lost his memory he doesn’t remember any of his training either, correct? idk, you’d think with Ras’s training AND knowing how to use Shatterspin, Jay would’ve lasted more than just one round. oh well. this isn’t really something that ruins the whole season for me or anything, this one nitpick is pretty much nothing compared to how many things I DID love about this season, but it’s still a writing decision I don’t really care for.

and thats all my yappings.. I’ll definitely come back to talking about this season, perhaps I’ll make separate posts on each character/aspect of dr s2 I want to analyze, but for now, that’s all. thanks for reading this huge thing! I really appreciate it!! 💙💙

Random classmate: Oh bie you space out a lot, what are you thinking about?

Me: ....

If I was being completely honest, It's that stupid red lego. Every waking moment and every second I draw breath it's spent thinking about Kai. It's not even willingly. I don't want to hyperfixate on him anymore. It's been 6 years. SIX. Ever since late mother fucking 2019 I've just been giggling about a bitch with bad hair. Why. Release me from this. I don't even find it funny anymore. My family have shunned and shamed me. They too found it funny at first but when it spiraled they became disgusted. I don't blame them. This isn't normal behavior. I am not sane. I have spent my teenage years watching a lego show. This character has consumed my thoughts and I fear he's coming for my soul next. Do you know how many assignments and classes i have flunked because of this? Too many. I say I'll take a break, but it just drags me back like a toxic ex. I've tried other fandoms, but deep down I just use them to wait for another season of ninjago. Please it's getting so bad. Don't even get me started about monstrosity. No seriously don't. Why is my life like this. Free me. Help

Me: Just the weather. How about you?

Alright guys time for another theory post:

What did we really see in the Phantasm Cave?

We’ve generally accepted that the Ninja and Co. saw visions of their (arguably) greatest fears: Nya and Jay, Riyu and Wyldfyre, Sora and Arin. All pretty rudimentary.

Then we get to Lloyd. Main character that he is, his fear is much more layered. This got me thinking back on the visions we saw, and even those we didn’t, and what they might mean. I’m going to highlight the interesting bits that you may have missed upon a first-watch.

Arin:

- scene opens with Arin misidentifying his parents as Sora and Lloyd, then he approaches them

- not the last time he does this: shows up again in the season 2 finale after Arin fights Ras, but the opposite way. Arin thinks he sees his parents when it’s just Nya and Lloyd.

- after his parents are revealed, he suddenly can’t move anymore. He just runs at them without moving forward

- notably, his mother asks “Why haven’t you found us, Arin? Are the Ninja your new family now instead of us? Did you forget us?”

- Arin only responds to/denies forgetting his parents, but doesn’t address her other questions.

Arin fears that his attachment to the Ninja compromises his parents’ love for him. He’s able to make progress in his ninja training, albeit slowly, but hasn’t gotten anywhere closer to finding his parents. He blames himself for taking so long. He’s not worried that he won’t find them: he’s scared they’ll hate him when he does.

Sora:

- notably, her vision isn’t in or about Imperium itself. Beatrix and Ras represent the regime of Imperium that she ran from.

- these two appearing on a video screen ties in her elemental tech powers, as well as her “we are all dragons” speech from the season 1 finale, which was aired on a similar TV system

- she’s grabbed and pulled into the screen by a bolt of electricity: not a hand, not any involuntary movement, but the lifeblood of her element. We’ve known about elements having overlap since season 11, so this is likely another tie-in to her powers.

- a golden hand appears through the screen at the last moment to grab her. It’s unclear if this is Ras or Beatrix, though the electricity appears from Beatrix’s hand.

Sora has been exploited by Imperium before, and that was before she discovered her element. With a power that’s so utility-based, she’s afraid that her powers are going to bring her more pain. Choosing to activate the Photacs back in season 1 must have really stuck with her, especially since the Ninja nearly lost the battle because of her decision. She couldn’t stand to put others in danger again like that. And unlocking her true potential solidified the divide between her and her parents. In her own words: “I’m a dark cloud. Bad luck seems to follow me everywhere.”

Lloyd:

“Your team needed strong leadership and did not receive it.”

“But, I had these visions, and—“

- in an attempt to justify his actions, Lloyd tries explaining his visions; though he doesn’t know how much he can trust what he sees, it’s the only lead the team has. Lloyd continuously doubts his decisions based on his visions, so why would he be excusing them now? Perhaps as a way of justifying his inadequate leadership?

“I blame myself, nephew. I felt you were ready to take over for me. But I was wrong.”

- Lloyd puts Wu on this pedestal for being a “perfect” master. He’s able to call him that despite Wu’s mistakes and shortcomings, but Lloyd can’t give himself the same treatment. He doesn’t deserve it: he’s not worthy.

“You will never / be good enough.”

- Ras appearing here is really telling. He appears in his Imperium garb because this was the point when Lloyd’s mistakes in leadership came with tangible consequences: during the battle for the second monastery. His team was put in danger because of him. Not only is Lloyd not good enough to be a master, but he isn’t good enough to properly deal with this looming threat.

- Lloyd has also observed Ras’ leadership of both the Claws of Imperium and the wolf mask warriors and how effective he is. He’s much more organized and mentally sound than Lloyd, and he keeps winning. He consistently keeps coming back. By all of Lloyd’s metrics, Ras is a better leader than him.

Nya:

- this vision seems to be set up to imply that Nya regrets not loving Jay more before he disappeared. Because she didn’t care about him enough, he’s gone and forgotten their relationship altogether.

- Nya’s previous fears in the series have been: failure (S5) and becoming ordinary (S11 + 15). This vision ends up combining these two: In Nya’s failure to find Jay after the merge, she’s become ordinary to him.

Nya is the first to realize her vision is fake. I believe this is because hers was the only purely external conflict among all the visions. She’s able to separate herself from the given situation because what she feels for Jay hasn’t changed. She hasn’t been absorbed by her self-criticism or mistakes because she’s not doing anything wrong: Jay forgot her. She has no fault or control of that.

Riyu and Wyldfyre:

- Riyu and Wyldfyre are implied to have had similar visions regarding Wasting Sickness. It’s revealed later with Egalt that Wyldfyre has experienced the effects of Wasting herself among her clan. And Riyu coming from the Mountain dragon tribe would have also likely seen the devastation of Wasting.

- Both of them would have encountered this disease when they were much younger.

- We also learn from Egalt and Wyldfyre that Wasting primarily impacts older dragons. Both Riyu and Wyldfyre have older dragon mentors/family members: Heatwave and the Matriarch. I bet they saw these two suffering from the disease and were unable to help.

Kai:

- we are shown next to nothing about what Kai saw (thanks, show 😤), but his reactions paired with this pattern of analysis can give us some idea.

- after coming to, Kai glances to Nya, huffing a sigh of (what seems to be) relief. He looks to Nya first, notably. Remember, these animation choices are deliberate.

- when Nya says “It couldn’t be real”, he makes this face:

- Her conversation with Lloyd seems to sour his mood. Nya seems to think that just because her vision seems impossible, everyone else’s must have been just as unrealistic. And Kai disagrees. What Kai saw was likely something that could feasibly happen, or something that already happened.

- In a more meta sense, we can also assume this is a more recent conflict, seeing how none of the OG Ninja’s visions touch on relevant plot beats from before Dragons Rising.

- taking into account this ask to Doc Wyatt from a few months back:

I believe Kai’s vision had something to do with wandering the merged lands alone. This would explain the attention drawn to his relief at seeing everybody ok. I imagine we’ll get more info from Kai about his travels, but I’d respect the writers’ decision to leave this ambiguous.

So where does that leave us?

What I believe we’re seeing in these visions are the Ninja’s regrets. These commonly stem from underlying fears of theirs, but there’s not as much terror involved with this sequence.

From a writing standpoint, this is a deeper exploration of character than simply living their greatest fears. Given the opportunity, what’s one thing you would go back and change? One mistake that you’d fix? These visions force these characters to confront these questions head-on as they struggle to rationalize their past behavior.

Feel free to share your thoughts and theories in the comments or reblogs! I’d love to know if I’m cooking or not on these longer theory-crafting posts.

Ninjago Aroace Tumblr Comments Villain Edition

Zane: What’s your favorite color?

Cole: Stop asking stupid questions. Ask me something logical and mature.

Zane: How many moles of sodium bicarbonate are needed to neutralize 0.8ml of sulfuric acid at STP?

Cole: Orange, my favorite color is orange.

Ninjago as aroace Tumblr comments part 2

Ninjago as aroace Tumblr comments