Nya Stands In The Centre Of The Warehouse, Watching With The Sort Of Amused Horror One Would Get Watching

Nya stands in the centre of the warehouse, watching with the sort of amused horror one would get watching a firework spiral toward a bag of marshmallows (that had been quite the mess Wu had forced them to clean up). Around her, her friends and brother struggle with their suddenly swapped powers.

Jesse stands next to her, his expression leaning more toward the horror side. “What even happened?”

Nya pop a bubblegum bubble she’s been chewing to stay calm. “Garmadon, most likely. We just woke up to them swapped.”

She flicks her wrist, hosing down the trail of fire her boyfriend leaves with each step. He bounces around the warehouse with boundless energy, flames licking at his heels like an excited puppy chasing a butterfly, and Nya’s had to put out more than a few fires.

Jay suddenly steps into one of these fires and disappears, pyroporting in front of Nya. “Nya Nya Nya love of my life hey Nya hi you’re beautiful today like always hi hey—“

Jesse’s expression manages to get more horrified. “How many cups of coffee did Walker have?”

Nya shakes her head with a sigh. “Zero.”

It certainly doesn’t look like it, the way Kai’s firepowers drive him onward like a wind-up toy that never stops.

Speaking of her brother— Kai sits in the corner of the warehouse, unmoving as if he were nothing but a statue made of ice, and shivering as if he actually was one. He’s wrapped in about a dozen blankets, a cocoon of warmth that doesn’t seem to warm the chill in his soul. His teeth clatter so loud Nya can hear it over the rest of the chaos. The only good news is his suddenly-arctic-blue eyes aren’t glowing— in fact, there’s no signs of his new frosty element at all despite his shivering.

It’s in stark contrast to Cole. Despite his calming meditation on the far side of the warehouse, each time Jay runs too close with pounding footsteps, Cole’s mouth twitches just the slightest bit and lightning sparks erupt from his body. Each failure to contain the sharp crackles under his skin only irritate him more, and if Jesse wasn’t so worried about accidentally being shocked (or making a lovesick fool of himself), Nya guesses he’d probably be sitting almost in Cole’s lap trying to calm him down.

Zane probably looks the most comfortable on the surface— excluding Jay, who looks far too giddy and restless for Nya’s liking as the fire messes with his head— but even he struggles, temperature fluctuating at random. He has a relatively good grip on his new element as he tries to tidy the warehouse, except for the slightest bit of dirt he keeps leaving behind that he’s stuck cleaning in an endless circle. Nya can see the strain starting to wear on him as hints of magnolia yellow blossom in his eyes.

“Any luck on finding a reversal?” Jesse asks, fidgeting with a flower he suddenly produces from nowhere.

Nya shakes her head. “I sent Lloyd to look through Wu’s scrolls for anything, but all he’s texted me so far is that he caught a sniffle from all the dust.”

A loud CRASH emanates from outside. Nya and Jesse have just enough time to look at each other before a large hole is blasted through the doors.

“HEYYYYYYY BEACHES!”

Nya groans at the familiar cackle. “Olivia. Why does it have to be her? Why right now?”

Her eyes flare cyan with frustration. Jesse throws his hands up in a calming gesture. “We can handle this, with or without the guys.”

“They’re never going to stay out of the fight, you know.”

“Uhhh—“

Jesse hates to admit it, but Nya is right.

This is not good.

Out of curiosity, who would you swap on a bodyswap/element swap?

And who’s the most likely to have an accidental elemental outburst because the element & emotions that respond strongest to that outburst is different than their usual outbursts?

I think swapping the opposites (Cole+Jay and Kai+Zane) would probably yield the most chaotic results. Jay just constantly causing earthquakes just cuz he’s happy, and Cole trying to bury all his emotions but they keep coming out in sharp crackles at even the smallest bit of provoking. Or Kai being the coldest he’s even been in his life but the Ice isn’t responding to his extreme distress because Ice thrives with less emotion. And then Zane being unable to keep still with the thrum of Fire constantly burning in him, always itching to do something, anything, and disagreeing with Zane’s natural instinct to wait and watch.

But, them swapping with an element more “adjacent” to them could be super fun too! And, honestly, in this very specific scenario they’d probably have more Outbursts from being out of tune with their newfound elements.

Kai with Lightning would be chaotic—while both Fire and Lightning can hit high intensities, Lightning is meant to be temporary while Fire is meant to persist. He’d get a rush on all that power and energy all at once (especially while flying/teleporting ahaha) but then he would not be able to handle the following crash. If he had an Outburst, regardless of emotion, he’d be in pain trying to push through it or tap out completely

With Earth, both thrive with endurance, but there’s the obvious difference in fluidity. Kai would feel powerful with Earth, sure, but it would also come off as suffocating. And he, quicker to get emotional than Cole, would never feel like he could get all his emotions out, further frustrating him (which in turn would also probably cause an agonizing outburst)

For Jay, having Fire would probably make him even more jittery, except he wouldn’t have a cap on his energy, so he’d be go-go-go and never stop (and he wouldn’t know how to regulate it, meaning he’d hit a point where he’d need a break eventually but the Fire in him would oppose that). Moreover, if Fire reacts with his feelings of Sadness, then all the stuff he tries to hide behind his jokes and smiles? Yeah that’d all get bumped right up to the surface.

And then, if Jay had Ice he’d feel like he’s been slowed down too much. Always trying to do more but he can’t (similar to Kai with Earth). Inversely, Jay’s tendency to constantly distance himself from his less pleasant emotions would make the Ice in him stronger, so the more he tries to play things off the further he’d push himself towards an Outburst (instead of it being the opposite way with his Lightning)

Cole with Fire would be fascinating, cuz all the things he normally keeps buried would have no cap/filter/limitation anymore, meaning he couldn’t hide how he really feels even if he tries catch him flaming up just trying to talk to Zane or dealing with his dad lol). He’d feel comfortable with the amount of power Fire gives him, just not super strength

Cole with Ice, though—similar to Jay, Cole distances himself from feelings he doesn’t want to feel (or thinks he doesn’t want to), so he too would probably push himself closer to an Outburst without actively trying. But otherwise I’d think Cole would find Ice as a refreshing change of pace; it’s still got some solidity of Earth, so that’s familiar, but he wouldn’t have to be as rigid with it either (he prefers the guarantee of support over the fragility of Ice, but it’s a little nice to let loose)

Same with Zane and Earth—Earth has the same semblance of structure that Ice does, so he can work with that, but he’d struggle with the permanence. He’s committed, but not necessarily stubborn, so having less room for some flexibility would come off as stifling to him. Plus, Earth can either be hot or cold, so Zane would probably hate the inconsistency of temperature

Zane with Lightning—here he can understand the “temporary” principles of Lightning easily enough and use it to his advantage, but with Lightning being so erratic and without consistent form, he’d struggle to manipulate it for himself. And with Lightning, he’d also be less able to hide what he’s feeling—even the slightest grievance or joy would be punctuated with sparks, haha

And now having written all of this out, Lloyd swapping with any of them wouldn’t be nearly as fun given that he’s already able to connect and/or use aspects of their Elements, so he wouldn’t struggle nearly as much—he just might feel limited but not like there’s a gaping hole of something missing either.

@finn-m-corvex you brilliant funky moot you've got SO MANY GREAT QUESTIONS WHICH ARE GETTING ME TO THINK ON THIS—

Starting with the movie!Bizarros— Kaigami is the only one I had full details on when the AU was first made (they are a bean and my little blorbo that needs all the hugs), but since then I’ve been spitballing some headcanons with my friends on the others—

In normal movieverse hcs, they go as follow:

- Jayden (bizarro Blue) is a young oni that snuck over from the continent of Onitoryū (the First Realm) to the continent of Ninjago (yes we hc’d that the realms exist as continents in the movieverse before Dragons Rising existed), saw Blue, and used his image as his shapeshifting disguise because he’s bad at shapeshifting fully (the fluffy hair hides the horns, the scarf hides the tusks/fangs, the hoodie pocket hides claws, baggy clothes hides tail, etc.)

— Charcoal (Bizarro Black) is a clone made by Vangelis to get vengeance on Lilly for messing up his plans back in the day (she’s a big hero in Shintaro because she split the land away from the continent of the Cloud Kingdom and made it its own mini continent/island)

— Oread (Bizarro White) is a nindroid built by Garmadon’s enginerds (he has seagull/pelican/osprey features because Garmadon has to insert sea-creature themes into all of his designs)

So in the D:BH AU, Oread would kinda be like RK900 (except probably get rescued too), Jayden could be one of the androids at Jericho that looks up to Blue as inspiration (or perhaps Cyberlife/the Mechanic tries to build a new Blue because he supposedly was destroyed?), and Charcoal could be— uh— a vibing human? Or an android teen model based off Black in case he didn’t make through the cyborg surgery?

Yeah White and Zero (Cryptor) share the role of Connor in the sense that Zero is more the deviant-hunter side (except already deviant) and White was deviant but lost his memories and thinks Cyberlife built him, not Dr. J, and follows their orders (he does eventually come to his senses and regains deviancy, probably while encountering Echo)

Blue does not want to be the leader of the rebellion because, you know, anxiety + social anxiety, but whoops he’s an advanced model that found himself in a leadership position and has accidentally started the revolution. 

And you are ABSOLUTELY right— Black would be the “North” equivalent (or Simon) because while Jaya is cute, movie!Bruise is just adorable (also I hc movie!Nya/Cyan as a lesbian as opposed to show!Nya)— Cyan would absolutly be the one to suggest violence though and if anyone hurt Blue (which technically Cliff and the Ambers already have since he got… a bit disassembled on his way to the junkyard), Black would be right there with her on letting the city burn

As for Luther- technically no, though the "Kara" story does already have the RGB sibs looking out for each other. EXCEPT I JUST HAD THE PERFECT IDEA WHILE TYPING THIS OUT- the Luther-esc figure could TOTALLY be movie!Morro (normally a tired college student looking out for his cousin Green, in this case either human or an android)

I’m really glad you like the AU :D If you’ve got more ideas or questions or comments PLEASE send them because it’s so fun to think about with a friend/mutual

https://www.tumblr.com/impulsivefanwriter/733578350737719296/the-lego-ninjago-movie-but-its-a-dbh-au ask about the D:BH AU and I shall receive :D

YES YES YES HI YES I SAW IT AND I THOUGHT I REBLOGGED IT BUT I JUST. COMPLETELY MIND-BLANKED SO FORGIVE ME JFALJFKDLJFAL

Choosing to make Kai the android instead of Lloyd is such a cool decision??? Like so much respect for not immediately jumping to making Lloyd the Thing just because he's the most main character-coded person in Ninjago. I'm also VERY interested in Kaigami; will the other Bizarros be here as well, or just Kai's?

ZANE AS CONNOR?! YOUR HONOR I AM SCREAMING AHHHHHHH I FUCKING LOVE CONNOR ABSOLUTELY YES I AM IN LOVE

JAY AS MARKUS?!

RESPECTFULLY I AM FULLY DOWN TO CLOWN WITH THIS CONCEPT HELL FUCKING YES?! SO GOOD?! IS COLE THE NORTH EQUIVALENT IS THIS BRUISE OR IS THIS JAYA OR IS IT NEITHER DAJKSLJFSAKLJF I MUST KNOW MORE

IS THERE A LUTHER YET?!

Some small time crook tries to stab Jay with a small dagger while on patrol

A lamppost falls on the crook just before they can stab Jay in the back, resulting in only a light scratch where a fatal wound should be.

Because of this fallen lamppost, the electrical company is called to fix and replace it. The van, on the way, runs a red light, spins out of control, and rams into a new art installation

This pointy installation falls on a grocery-shopping Zane, who freezes it with ice to protect civilians but winds up impaled through the back by an icicle in the same spot Jay was almost stabbed

A very exasperated PIXAL brings him home for repairs

Ninjago AU, but every person who reblogs gets to add/change one detail of canon.

I'll start: Zane has a criminal record, but no one knows what his crimes are.

@ninjago-events happy holidays!!! I hope you have a great day and an amazing new year :)

Ooooo all very interesting points! I love the summary and the analysis (100% agree on Lloyd’s fatal flaws) of agency and being doomed by your own hand vs. being doomed by the narrative. I personally think both are very tragic in their own regard, and there’s absolutely a very valid argument to make about which could be considered more tragic, but I’m playing devil’s advocate (or I suppose Oni’s advocate) for Lloyd, so goes—

You want agency? Sure! :D Let me find some examples of some of the other situations where Lloyd DOES make active choices that lead to his own suffering.

Season One, Rise of the Snakes— Lloyd intentionally opens the Serpentine Tombs, which directly snowballs into: his betrayal at the hands of Pythor, multiple kidnappings, nearly getting killed in a volcano in a cage sinking into lava, and the release of the Great Devourer (a massive f-u world-consuming snake) that directly causes Harumi to hate Lloyd’s guts for getting her parents killed in the serpent attack & gives Garmadon access to the Golden Weapons which further brings the prophecy closer to fruition.

Season Two, Legacy of the Green Ninja — Lloyd intentionally decides to use Tomorrow’s Tea to save his family (who have been turned to kids via magic) from a resurrected ninja-hunting dinosaur monster, knowing he’ll get hit by the blast and getting aged up (at least physically, not necessarily mentally) and losing his childhood. Everyone tried to dissuade him from this. He did it anyway. The prophecy is closer than ever because he’s “of age”.

Season Four, Tournament of Elements — He decides to open the portal to the cursed realm (I’ll admit, he was a bit forced by the situation, but he still had the activeness of doing it himself) and intentionally banished Garmadon (leading to his later death) in exchange for some ancient warriors to save the day (this results in the escape of the ghost who later possesses and traumatizes Lloyd)

Season Six, Skybound— Lloyd intentionally sacrifices himself to an evil djinn’s blade of souls because he thinks Jay can defeat him with a wish. This gets him sealed away in the sword like a battery (and in the original season concept of the sword, would be a confirmed death and his empty corpse would fall to the ground).

Season Eight, Sons of Garmadon— Lloyd choses to trust Harumi and is very active in his self-assigned role of protecting her, only to be backstabbed (almost literally) and nearly killed in a cave, then nearly killed by his resurrected evil father, which— oh yeah! Lloyd INTENTIONALLY sneaks out to confront/fight Garmadon by himself despite everyone telling him not too, leading to his suffering at the hands of his father in a prison that is broadcast to the entire city (so everyone sees their hero get beaten up within an inch of his life). As a direct result of this fight, Garmadon becomes strong enough to form a massive stone Colossus that destroys the city and supposedly kills Lloyd’s family in front of him, to which Lloyd blames himself

Season 12, Prime Empire — Lloyd choses to participate in a 1on1 fight with an NPC (context: they’re trapped in an evil videogame) despite Nya and Jay offering themselves to fight instead. This results in Lloyd having to fight an NPC Harumi, who Lloyd manages to kill despite his hesitation and trauma, but is killed in response. As it’s his final game life, he gets cubed (aka turned into an energy battery for the game to make a portal to the real world for the AI to escape). Yep, this counts as a death. Again.

Season 16, Crytalized — Lloyd intentionally disguises himself and infiltrates the newly formed Council of the Crystal King (yes, the acronym is as unfortunate as you think). He gets caught by his own badly-lying hand and realizes he fell into a trap, and Harumi blows up the subway tunnel and supposedly kills Lloyd’s family. He blames himself because he was the one who insisted they use his plan (he also succumbs a litttttle bit to darkness and nearly murders Harumi with oni powers)

And those are just some off the top of my head!

Unrelated to the above, but I personally think the worst (best) tragedies are the ones that could have barely been avoided, especially by human mistake. If it’s completely unavoidable, it’s more despairing, but if there was a glimmer of hope to avoid it all… and it was missed… that is the most human tragedy.

Ex 1. Antigone had (from your summary, at least) multiple chances to not-die. Had she taken one, it could have been avoided, but alas, she didn’t.

Ex. 2 Lloyd & Garmadon’s relation had multiple points where all the trauma and heartbreak and unfixableness could have been avoided (if Garmadon hadn’t been bitten by the evil-venom of the Great Devourer, if Lloyd hadn’t released the Serpentine that release the Great Devourer and give Harumi her motication to use Garmadon to hurt Lloyd, if Lloyd didn’t sacrifice Garmadon, if he’d found a way to free Garmadon before the Cursed Realm was destroyed, if he hadn’t believed Harumi, if he hadn’t led her to the final mask needed for her ritual, if he hadn’t gotten himself captured and used as a distraction to give Harumi the chance to finish the ceremony, if he hadn’t gone to fight Garmadon on his own, if if if)

What do you think?

P.S. Thanks for being really respectful and civil, it’s fun having these soft debates that get you to analysis media :D I’ve been rotating thoughts about cycles all day ahsjsjsffs

I recognize that there can be debate over how to define tragedy, like Greek tragedies hardly all followed Aristotle's definition and those were in turn different from things like Shakespearean tragedy or modern definitions of "tragic character" but I think at the very least a tragic character should have a coherent arc, quality over quantity. A bunch of UNRELATED bad things happening to a character just because a show has gone on for a really long time isn't really telling a coherent tragic story. Especially when some of the bad things happening are literally repeats of each other. Like I haven't watched Ninjago but I keep hearing about how Lloyd had to kill his father 3 times, but I think reusing a "he has to kill his father" plot point over and over again while not having him die for real just to give each season a new plot is a lot less tragic than a more coherent narrative where someone just has to kill their father once and this ties into their overall character arc.

Very valid opinion

Ninjago, the realm where anything is possible and potential is limitless, where destiny is defied

And the Cloud Kingdom, the realm where everything is pre-written and narrative is limited, where destiny is defined

Heyyyyy. I have a Ninjago theoryyyyy.

So, I'm pretty sure it's said/implied in Season 14 that FSM didn't create the realm of Ninjago, but rather he showed up and then created the continents of Ninjago and the Dark Island, which eventually split to seal away the Overlord.

Now, we also know from Season 6 that sister realms exist, because the Cursed Realm and Djinjago are sister realms. I read somewhere that people think these two have no similarities, but that conversation will be shelved for now.

I think Cloud Kingdom and Ninjago are sister realms.

Why do I think that? First off, the only destinies we've seen Cloud Kingdom work on so far has been people in Ninjago or the Cloud Kingdom. Not saying that it isn't possible that they write destinies for other realms, just thst we haven't seen it yet.

Now, remember that conversation we shelved? Yeah, my cat knocked it off the shelf and splayed it out on the table, so now let's talk about the "relations" (?) between the Cursed Realm and Djinjago, and how that can sort of apply to Cloud Kingdom and Ninjago.

First off, let's think about what the Cursed Realm and Djinjago literally are. The Cursed Realm is the place where you get sent to when you've done many horrible things in your life, and get placed into what I assume is a brutal, choiceless dictatorship, judging by the cages and chains we see. Djinjago is a land filled with djin's, people similar to genies that can grant three wishes for you.

The Cursed Realm strips you of your choices, while Djinjago essentially makes your choices limitless (within the three wish parameters, of course). Their inhabitants (from what we've seen from Seasons 5 & 6) are very cruel and manipulative. They have strong similarities and opposites.

So, how does this apply to Ninjago and Cloud Kingdom? First off, Ninjago and Djinjago rhyme, and Cloud Kingdom and the Cursed Realm are two words, thee first word starting with a "C" and the second word being some form of big location. Second, Ninjago was originally a realm completely covered by water, and Cloud Kingdom is literally a kingdom in the clouds! What's more opposite than the sky and the sea??

Speaking of the sky and the sea, the two elements the FSM never mastered were wind and water. Wind being sky aka Cloud Kingdom and being very tied into destiny (cough cough Morro who literally rewrote destiny and Euphrasia who is a destiny writer cough cough), and water being sea aka Ninjago. Yeah, Wojira basically controlled both, but she's a serpent that has dragonlike wings.

My conclusion? Cloud Kingdom and Ninjago are sister realms, because I've found evidence that supports my theory and none that disproves it.

Sorry for any typos, I am eepy.