Everything About This Amazing Design Just Screams Speed. If Jay Is Good On Roller Skates, Then Flash

Everything about this amazing design just screams speed. If Jay is good on roller skates, then Flash Freeze is a master of ice skating at maximum speed.

I feel like their weapon would be similar to a rope dart (something ranged/thrown but still attached, like the nunchucks/flail Jay uses and the shurikens/bow Zane uses) because have you SEEN masters use it? It’s fast, powerful, and precise— perfect for a master of lightning and ice

The most polite gremlin you’ll ever meet. Texts with perfect grammar, punctuation, and capitalization, but also random additions of emojis in a bizarre combo.

They have to be stopped from messing with their own cyborg workings.

“But I know how to fix myself. I am able to do it myself.”

“But you shouldn’t.”

“That is quite lame.”

Will “teleports behind you” in battle using their speed. Ice doesn’t conduct electricity, so they rely on using ice in one hand and lightning in the other. Honestly, one metal kick to the face and most low-level goons are knocked out, no element required

Jay and Zane fusion! Thank you @impulsivefanwriter for the suggestion 💕 absolutely loved the name

RIGHT I think I’m suffering from burn out or smth even though I’m very motivated to continue this series ☠️☠️ there’s plenty of ideas and design elements that I liked here, such as the freckles doubling as circuit markings, the legs resembling thunderbolts in shape, the frosted hair tips and the asymmetry. But the execution is hella meh

Oh well lmao

Lava Fall (Remastered)

A ninjago fic snippet based on SPBNR by @kittydemon9000 rewritten in honour of the 2-year anniversary of the discord server! This one is to all the wonderful memories and friends made in that amazing group. Here's to many more years of great times and creative ideas!

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Being kidnapped isn’t an everyday occurrence, but in Shogun’s line of occupation, it may as well be with how often it seems to happen.

Heck, his little brother has the worst luck out of all of them— though his sister seems to come a close second.

So it’s to no real surprise (at least, to him) that Shogun currently finds himself in a rather… precarious position. 

As in a “tied to a chain, dangling over lava just like Nya back in the Fire Temple” kind of precarious position.

Yeah. Just an average Friday evening.

Below him stands the gloating four-armed warlord himself, a positively pompously smug grin stretched across his features. Two hands rest on his hips, and two stay crossed before him.

“I asked you to join me, yet you refuse. You’re as stubborn as my buttface of a brother.”

Despite the childish insults, Shogun knows better than to underestimate this world’s Garmadon. Instead, he levels the villain with a burning glare. “Let me go, or face the consequences.”

Garmadon smiles— a cruel, wretched thing, honestly— and places two hands on a lever. “Let you go? That can be arranged.”

Lava gurgles under him, seeming to draw closer lava surrounding Lloyd’s cage, lapping at the metal floor and splashing against the bars. The Fangblade plummets as Kai lunges forward, not for the weapon, but for his little brother, too late, he’s too late, too unworthy, too much of a failure—

Shogun’s face is the definition of a furious snarl, but before he can spit out a barrage of insults so stinging it would melt Garmadon’s helmet, one of the doors to the cavern bursts open with an explosion. Shapes burst through the  smoke, and Ninja Force come raining in.

“Smith!” Lloyd not his Lloyd but still neither should be near a volcano not after— shouts, green hood pulled over his face and missile launcher— WHO GAVE THIS KID A MISSILE LAUNCHER— propped over his shoulder. “Hold on!”

Garmadon’s army pours into the room, narwhal spears and pufferfish flails at the ready. Cyan leaps forward with her trident raised above her head. She brings it down in an arc with a furious war cry, melted tip scrapping against a lobster-themed shield with an unpleasant screech. Behind her, Black follows with a swing of his hammer, slamming the shield away and sending it spinning into the lava pit below. The metal hisses as it dissolves into a glob of orange spittle and vanishes. 

Red charges in after his sister, twin katanas reflecting the glow of the lava so bright they almost appear alight with flames. He disarms one unprepared General with a move that makes Shogun proud— looks like he was paying attention in weapon training after all— and spins to hit a second, sparks flying as metal contacts metal. Shogun squints. For a split second, he thought he saw the base embers of Spinjitzu, but if there were any, they quickly fade into the chaos of the fight.

A flash catches his attention, and Shogun turns his head in time to catch a whiff of ozone and charred fish. A General runs wailing from the room, smoke trailing after them like a scarf. A (fearfully) screaming Blue snaps his wrist again, and his flail strikes out like lightning. Next to him, White makes perfect precision strikes with his bow, quips of “Nice Shot!” and “Good Aim!” in an impression of that announcer in that sports video game Smith played with the others falling from his lips. 

“We’re coming!” Green yells, scrambling down the path his team clears toward his father. Whenever a General crosses his line of sight, the missile launcher clicks in warning. The more foolish Generals find themselves knocked aside in explosions that rattle the volcano, sending Smith spinning on his chain like an angry disco ball.

His vision blurs for a minute from the motion, and he tries not to hurl into the lava below. Instead, he focuses on the sounds of metal clashing, the shouts of combat, and the pounding slam of explosions and hammers-that-really-shouldn’t-be-rattling-the-volcano-this-much.

A feeling surfaces in his gut, clawing steadily upwards and wrapping icy fingers around his heart. It’s a feeling that ties lead to his feet, that grips his hair and yanks his head back, that throws him forward onto his knees like a spiked heel to his back.

It’s a feeling of helplessness.

Stupid, consuming helplessness.

He hates it.

His friends, his family, are fighting below, and he can’t do anything. 

When Shogun stops spinning, the feeling only worsens, climbing up the inside of his throat with a thick glob of sticky horror.

Cyan’s disarmed, her trident slowly sinking as it melts away in the lava. Her fists, blood staining her knuckles, collide with any General near her. 

CRACK, a General’s jellyfish helmet shattering into glass shards. 

CRACK, the jaw of a crab General breaking. 

CRACK, Cyan’s hand against metal-plated armour. 

She drops back with a wounded howl that’s his SISTER who just got hurt, and he can’t help her. Her brothers are there in an instance, one slamming the General with the butt-end of a katana and the other lighting them up like a firework with a missile. The General flies out of the room as if fired by their boss. 

A screech drags Shogun’s horrified gaze away from the three siblings and to a squirming Blue held by the back of the gi like a kitten. The orca-themed General sneers, spinning the lightning ninja around. Before they can toss him into a wall, a bright flash fills the chamber. Some kind of force smashes the General into the wall instead. Blue goes sailing out of their grip—

And over the railing of the pathway.

Shogun’s heart stops.

Before the half-formed wail of his brother’s name can burst from his mouth, however, a streak dives under the railing and over the cliff edge. Black snatches Blue’s wrist and digs his other hand into the craggy rock wall, praying for a handhold. 

... ... ...

Through some miracle, he finds one. He clings there, holding Blue against the wall as the pair dangles over lava. 

A General reaches over the railing with a spear aimed at Black’s hand below them, but an arrow knocks the spear from their hand. White bodyslams them out of the way and helps Black and Blue up in a lull of combat.

More Generals pour into the cavern as alarms wail, nearly spilling others into the lava pit below. The Ninjaforce tense, adjusting grips on whatever weapons they have remaining.

But before the fight can break out anew, Garmadon gives a pointed cough that seems to echo louder along the rock walls.

Shogun jerks as he’s lowered on the chain a smidge.

Silence falls.

“So—” Garmadon stretches the word out, savouring the attention as his fingers tap the lever with casual slowness. “You surrender, or he drops.”

Six faces pale beneath hooded masks.

Green swallows. “You wouldn’t. You spent all this energy to catch him. You won’t drop him.”

There’s an edge of pleading to his voice, a desperate hope that some tiny part of Garmadon wouldn’t do it. That his father isn’t that despicable. That Green by association isn’t that despicable.

Garmadon rolls his eyes. “Ugh, you goody-two-shoes are all the same. You sound like my whiny butt-faced brother. “Don’t do this, Garmadon!” “You’re better than this, Garmadon!” I am better. I’m stronger. I’m gonna rule Ninjago City! I thought I could use Shogun on my side to do it, but if he’s just gonna stand in my way—“

The chain drops another few centimetres. 

“—then I’m more than ready to drop him.”

Shogun has enough.

Smith has enough.

Kai has enough.

Burning fury, hotter than a thousand suns, roars through his gut. It melts the  frozen helplessness clamped around his heart, burns away the sticky glob of horror in his throat, and spits out of his mouth in a jet of orange flames. “Do it, coward.”

A thicker silence follows the last syllable. The Ninja Force and generals alike look on with horror, the former with fear for their friend, the latter recognizing a phrase that would immediately get any of them fired if they dared utter it.

Even Garmadon blinks, stunned. 

Then his cruel smirk returns. “So be it. If you’re not for me, you’re against me. Our dance was fun, Shogun. Too bad you won’t be sticking around for an encore.”

He yanks the lever back with two hands.

Someone screams.

The tether keeping Shogun chained goes slack as he plummets, the string holding him helpless severed in a single move. As he falls, lava fast approaching, his expression betrays no fear.

He keeps his burning gaze drilled into Garmadon’s the whole way down.

—————————

Lloyd doesn’t know what to do.

Smith had casually dropped into their lives one seemingly uneventful day, and he’d stuck to them ever since. He’d been the best addition to their friend group they could’ve ever hoped for.

And now he’s been dropped, literally, back out of their lives.

“SMITH!”

The scream comes from six people at once, six ninjas scrambling to the railing and stare at the lava’s centre where the melting chain vanishes below the bubbling orange surface. 

Logically, Smith’s buoyancy should mean he’d float. Yet the chain plating drags him down below the spitting lava in a heartbeat, gone from view.

A mercy on their eyes, to avoid seeing the flesh melt from his bones.

Kai drops to his knees, katanas clattering to the ground. “He… he can’t be gone.” His voice is hollow, a snuffed candle. It reminds Lloyd of how lost Shogun sounded earlier. “He can’t be.”

“…Sensors indicate 0% chance of survival…” Comes Zane’s voice, grief-struck cold and crackling with static. “I— I wish it was /j instead of /srs.”

An expression steeped in horror and guilt washes across Nya’s face. “The last thing I ever said to him—“

Cole stands silent, his watering eyes speaking volumes to the turmoil rumbling inside. Jay crashes into his side, shaking as he hiccups and gasps for air.

And Lloyd… Lloyd can’t think. Can’t see. Can’t feel.

Smith is gone.

And it’s his father’s fault.

Lloyd growls, slowly turning to face Garmadon with eyes blazing green. He flexes his hands unconsciously, nails sharpening into claws as green and gold scales march over his skin. 

He throws himself forward with a wild roar, claws aiming for Garmadon’s throat. The move catches even the warlord off-guard, his Generals too surprised to react.

But before Lloyd can attack his father, before he can hurtle the anguished insult burning on his tongue, the lava pit behind him explodes.

Everyone, ninja and Generals alike, scramble back as the geyser of lava swallows the remains of the dangling metal chain whole. The spray spits and sizzles as it hits the surrounding rock. A wave of heat radiates out. 

No one, not even Kai himself, notices that a couple drops land on his skin without burning him.

The air punches from Lloyd’s lungs.

Striding out of the lava, completely fine as if he’d merely taken a plunge in the pond in the park, is Smith.

What. The. Duck.

Lava dripping from his fingers, Smith climbs up the rocky cliffs and pulls himself over the railing. He shakes himself off, flicking a glob of drying lava from his shoulder with utmost casualness. Droplets of lava hit the grated floor.

There isn’t a scratch on him. No burns, no cuts, not even his clothes look singed. The only change, honestly, is that his stormy expression somehow manages to look even more murderous. 

He raised his hand toward Garmadon.

His fist erupts into flames.

WHAT. THE. DUCK.

“So—“ Smith draws out the word as if it’s an inside joke between him and the warlord. “You asked me to join you. I refused. I asked you to let me go. I’d count that as refusing.”

The flame grows brighter, flaring higher. His eyes glow like a hearth.

“So I say it’s time for that encore.”

So agree— the movieverse is also completely free real estate for world building and counterpart changes.

You want the 16 realms to be continents in the movieverse? Done!

You want to add new species? Done!

You want to write a new background timeline for the world where there were originally six gods thousands of years ago that have since then been forgotten about and the FSM was the EM of Energy that raised Ninjago out of the sea only a few hundred years ago I totally haven’t done this totally yep okay yeah asks are open Done!

You want to make the Time Twins good museum curators? Done! Morro’s a tired college teen adopted by Wu and roomates with the Fuschia Ninja and Fugidove? Done! Aspheera’s a chill immortal snake sorceress that fends off an evil magic snake gang led by Char? Done! Skylor’s actually evil and gets to evilly girlboss against her cousin Chen the Cheerleader? Done! Harumi’s still a blt + cheese? Done!

There’s so, so much you can do with the world because they used just enough to be interesting / original, but also left so many unanswered questions that is just ripe for the fandom to explore

I love love love love the ninjago movie's premise.

I love that they addressed Lloyd's heritage and how people felt about him. You'd think when people saw Lloyd in S1 they would've had a more aggressive or derogatory reaction to him because of Garmadon.

I also really, really like the idea of the team being completely anonymous. I feel like the ninja should've been secret in the series, but I understand why they didn't make it so. The secrecy of it also makes room for my FAVORITE trope in Ninjago. Lloyd hurt/comfort because he thinks he doesn't belong. This is especially prevalent in those fics where the ninja don't even know who the other ninja are. (If anyone makes a fic like this again, please tell me. I'm deprived.)

Most importantly, it brings Koko. Period, full stop.

Of course, the movie isn't perfect and the plot's a bit iffy, and the characters aren't done justice. But it gives us a lot of good material to work with. It's a pretty decent movie, if I do say so myself

Okay so this is always such a fascinating topic to me—

Because excluding certain scenes from the movie that would go unmentioned (I’m looking at you, “we were your friends, and now we hate you”, that’s just not realistic in the world you set up of the Dorksquad vs. Everyone else AND the fact that the rest of the squad SHOULDN’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT THE ULTIMATE WEAPON BECAUSE WU ONLY TOLD HIS NEPHEW ON A WHIM RECENTLY AAAAAAAARRRGH it’s fine everything’s fine the answer is that they all have a concussion from Meowthra because my physics-smart friend calculated the force she hit m!Kai’s mech with is enough to at least cause a concussion—)

Anyways, the point is that you can actually see similarities between the show and movie versions of the ninja that, with a bit of movieverse worldbuilding (please please please ask me about movieverse worldbuilding/lore if you’re interested it’s so much fun and free real estate), can be traced to differences in how they were raised.

Let’s start with one of the least changed, Lloyd.

So show Lloyd (or Monty, as I like to nickname him) was raised at Darkleys without his mom while idolizing his father, then learned about the prophecy, got aged up magically, yada yada. That doesn’t mean movie!Lloyd (Green) isn’t him— but due to the differences in their upbringing, Green becomes more of a tired people-pleaser while Monty is a tired leader and chosen one.

In fact, Green isn’t a chosen one. That’s one of the biggest differences between him and Monty. Technically, the movie never confirms if he’s even part oni-dragon and the grandson of the FSM (personal headcanons is that he’s part oni from his dad’s side, part dragon from Koko’s side, and while he’s still the grandson of the FSM who created the continent of Ninjago, other continents that are much older were formed by other gods)

But Lloyd acts relatively similar in both versions (minus a few changes which can come from Green going to school & being bullied/blamed constantly his whole life while it stopped from civialians for Monty after the ninja took him in)— so let’s go to a slightly more different case.

Take Kai, for example. On the surface, movie Kai (Red) looks like an exaggerated version of show Kai (Smith) boiled down to his bare essence— loud, angry, and protective.

But when you look closer, he’s actually… not the hothead the movie tries to paint him as in promotion. His sister (Cyan) is way angrier— heck, the rest of the squad get more angry than him in the film. In fact, the most angry I can remember him getting is when Garmadon hits Cyan in the Temple of Fragile Foundations— and that’s rightful protectiveness instead of impulsive hotheadedness (side note— shoutouts to Red who FLIPS LORD GARMADON WITH JUST HIS LEGS, the boi is STRONK)

So if Red isn’t hotheaded, why is he so loud? The infamous “birthday boy” & hug scene comes to mind, which… when you remember how much Green and the Dorksquad get bullied, makes a lot more sense.

Red is loud to drown out the negativity around them.

He’s so, so loud— with his actions, with his words, always with a bright smile— to cover the whispers and jabs, to distract his siblings and friends from a world where everyone is their enemy.

Smith is angry and jaded from being abandoned with his sister. He doesn’t seek help (possibly because he asked and never received any in his youth) and instead closed himself off, responding with defensive temper. It’s only recently with the team’s help that he’s let himself become more open with his feelings, and in turn in recent seasons, he starts to act a bit more like Red.

In Smith’s world, enemies can be dealt with using punches, kicks, and unapologetic raging fire.

But in Red’s… you can’t punch a bully when the entire school, including the staff, are against you. You can’t shout at a rude storekeeper until security throws you out (much as Cyan tries). So what do you do? You learn to ignore the words as best you can, as much as it hurts your insecurities, and be louder to shield the people you care about.

You also drink six cups of coffee and go on conspiracy rants about cryptids, but that’s another thing entirely.

(Also there’s the fact that Red & Cyan’s living situation is free real estate, and that no matter what— if they live on their own, if they have parents that just travel all the time for work, if their parents are home all the time, etc.— they still have a mother figure in Koko, which will naturally make Red more relaxed and laid back compared to Smith)

Honestly I could keep going on and on but this post is already long (if you’re still here reading it, congrats), but to quickly summarize the other points I wanted to make because I only got to 2/6 of the ninja before running out of steam—

Cyan is more fiercely protective and angry than her counterpart because a) I headcanon she’s the older twin (oh yeah, and Red & Cyan are twins, not years apart, so that’s another difference that will impact their characters) and b) she’s constantly facing enemies she can’t fight and it frustrates her to no end, so any battle she can defend without repercussion (ex. waging war on sexism), she does so with relentless passion

Movie!Cole isn’t the leader of the group because he never was in that position, and with possibly never running away from home (though his relation with his dad is debatable), he’s going to be more laid back and relaxed (plus he learns how to still fulfil his mother’s wish to stand up against cruelty using witty remarks and sarcasm when physical intervention isn’t a possibility)

m!Zane has soooo many nindroid insecurities pre-movie and even then only feels comfortable talking about it with his friends (normal human teenager, anyone?), and his special interest/coping mechanism is memes. He also has way more internet access than show!Zane at a younger age, so he knows way more references and internet culture— as well as being terrified as a small child by all those robot apocalypse sci fi movies about people hating robots.

Oh, and Dr. J is way less morally grey and way nicer, built Echo, lost his husband Whint (temporarily, he’ll get him back), ditched his thieving ex-coworker Jacob (cough the Mechanic cough), is friends with Cyrus Borg, and has a chronic adoption habit, which is also going to change m!Zane’s upbringing without the whole “built to protect” mentality

m!Jay has anxiety. Even more than s!Jay. That boy so clearly has anxiety which was absolutely made worse by bullying, and yet he sticks with the squad because he lives them that much. He’s also a bundle of insecurities and shows it more than his show counterpart (and incredibly blunt because he doesn’t think before he speaks, which is a trait he shares with his show counterpart). Could he be a gremlin? With his friends when he feels safe, maybe. I believe in “illegal supesoaker builder Blue”, okay, who’s all of 5”0 tall or less but is terrifying when mad and who’s adoptive mom was secretly the mentor to Lady IronDragon back in her day (and who’s biological father constantly sleeps around but this isn’t about Cliff & Blue’s countless secret half-siblings <3)

Anyways point being—

The movie ninja may only have a handful of traits in common with their show counterparts, but a lot of those differences can be traced to differences in the world (the shared modern Ninjago City childhood of the Dorksquad and the access to (mean) civilians, internet, and media vs. the many different upbringings of the show!ninja, many in rural places isolated from other areas or wandering around), differences in family, differences in expectations & skillsets/training, and differences in experiences

Thanks for coming to my ramble lol—

This is for Kaigami, (they/him) a nindroid doppelgänger of movie!Kai built by The m!Mechanic to steal blueprints from m!Dr. Julien! The orange squares are more of a "sometimes/kinda" tile

Not human = nindroid

Unnatural/rare "human" features = they have orange eyes! Other than that, with synthetic skin they look like m!Kai. Later he gets help changing his look to appear more metallic & dyes their hair bright red

Related to a canon character = technically made to mimic movie!Kai, later adopted by Doctor Julien (thus becoming m!Zane's, m!Echo's, and Chen the Cheerleader's adopted sibling), he is also the sibling of movie!Cryptor and m!Mindroid (Zero and Cleft)

Tragic backstory = they were built by The Mechanic, who does not treat nindroids as people. Poor bby is very traumatized (and yes they are bby- by built date, they are technically three months old, physically they look 16 to mimic Kai, and mentally younger). The Mechanic uses magic borrowed from the Mafia (m!Master Chen and Clouse) to insert Kai's memories in them so they believe they're the real Kai. It is quite a shock to him when he finds out he isn't.

Good fighter = With Kai's memories, he's a good fighter. Without, he still has his fire jets (not the element of fire though) and metal skin

Rivalry with / hates a canon character = it's more fear than hate, but yeah, they really don't like their creator, The Mechanic (though it is the movieverse version who technically doesn't exist in 'canon' so-)

Doesn't know parts of their backstory = they got semi-amnesia for a while when Kai's memories got overlapped into their system (basically they forgot they were Kaigami and instead thought they were Kai)

Works alongside the ninja but isn't part of the team = they are too bby for big missions (m!Cryptor/Zero would have a heart-attack if they got hurt, he's so protective), but they can still help, especially after they first realize they aren't the real Kai and work with the others to find him (the Mechanic kidnapped him)

Honourable mention to the "in their teens" one, Kaigami looks it physically but mentally is younger. Also shoutouts to the bisexual one, Kai is but Kaigami is aro/ace

And they are most certainly not neurotypical

hey yall i saw a ninjago oc bingo that was really condescending and also made like no sense so i decided to make my own! note that this is just for fun, and not at all a rag on your ocs, in fact many of my ocs fit into a lot of these tropes! i just took what i saw really commonly in the fandom and put it here… ya girl did her best akjdhfkjg

[image ID: a screenshot from the Ninjago Wiki Page for Jay Walker, under the trivia section: “According to Michael Adamthwaite, Jay’s secret talent is building birdhouses. He paints them and gives them away, and sometimes hangs them outside the Ninjago City retirement home because he knows it gives them joy. Though likely unrelated, Jay previously hinted at an interest in model-building at the end of “Rise of the Spinjitzu Master”” End ID]

Shoutouts to this adorable trivia fact about Jay—