You Know

You know—

Cole was travelling around for a while too after he ran away from the dance school. He was out rock-climbing whatever mountain he could find. And we know that powers didn’t just come from their weapons, so he’s likely had superstrength & improved climbing skills that he didn’t notice—

So imagine this:

Local Villager: Making my way to the market, walking fast, faces pass—

[Sees a teen free-scale a 90 degree sheer cliff with no supplies, no rope, and no shirt in three seconds flat.]

Local Villager:

Local Villager, picking up speed: Walking faster so the spider demon cryptid doesn’t get me—

And heck, while we’re at it, if Jay ever tested any of his other intentions in the city/edge of the desert— POV you’re driving down the only road for miles in the Sea of Sand, it’s dawn, still dark but the barest hints of sunlight, mostly lit up by the sparking, flickering old street lamps here and there. You suddenly spot a strange shape at the side of the road and slow down, peering with squinting, curious eyes out of your window.

Bright beams of light like glowing eyes (special goggles) snap up to stare at you. You can’t really make out anything else— crooked shapes like mangled wings, perhaps, or jutting limbs out of the sand.

Startled and scared, you floor it, watching as all the street lamps around you suddenly fizzle out with a wild pop as if the lightbulbs just exploded. You hear an almost inhuman screech behind you, and vow never to drive this road again— at least not without the noon sun watching your back.

Anyway so yeah Zane, Cole, and Jay all having old cryptid rumours about them without knowing it, and Kai having heard about all three from passing travellers in his village while working the forge. He finds out later those three “Cryptids” are now his teammates

And then along comes Lloyd with even more cryptid rumours of the “red eyed feral raccoon child in the darkness that steals sugar” because Oni + dragon + candy-crazy runaway ex-Darkley’s kid

Dude I like to think that in his early life living in the woods with Dr Julien, Zane was a local cryptid for a while. There's just this really tall, almost expressionless guy dressed in all white that wanders around the woods. If he sees you struggling, sometimes firewood for the winter will show up outside your house. He disappears into the forest without a trace or a sound as soon as you see him. People make up stories about him. "Yeah I got this scar from the white demon of the forest" and "my family was blessed with extra fish because we left out warm soup for the winter spirit"

I just think that would be neat

Fun fact there actually is a SPBNR AU with this concept, except it also includes S11 Smith getting yeeted along too

Now heres an AU idea im surprised i havent seen anyone play around with before. AU where Aspheera botches her banishment spell and instead of the Never Realm, Zane ends up in the movie!verse. Think SPBNR but with Zane instead of Kai and also Forbidden Scroll drama

You have opened a pandora’s box, I love talking about AUs and the lore the SPBNR Discord has made for the m!verse

Okay, so the basic gist is- S11 Smith and Boreas (s!Kai and s!Zane) get zapped into the m!verse by s!Aspheera’s staff, leaving Boreas with the Forbidden Scroll and Smith powerless. He’s actually rather cold, and Boreas ends up stealing a bunch of jackets and blankets for him as they bunk down for the night and try to figure out where they are and what they’re going to do

And that’s when they find Green (m!Lloyd) and rescue him from an alleyway mugging

Now heres an AU idea im surprised i havent seen anyone play around with before. AU where Aspheera botches her banishment spell and instead of the Never Realm, Zane ends up in the movie!verse. Think SPBNR but with Zane instead of Kai and also Forbidden Scroll drama

In a Movie Zane mood while in the wrong classroom because my timetable is scuffed 😎 so now I give you Movie Zane and a potential Movie Ice Emperor. It would truly be a terrifying sight hghghg.

Honestly the whole “Blue has multiple secret half-siblings, older and younger” thing is becoming a major joke on this server I’m in, because we’ll just slap a “woe, Cliff offspring curse be upon thee” on any movie counterpart we can think of, including but not limited to: Fugidove/Dove & his brother (who we named Marque), Luke Cunningham, Benthomaar, the four League of Jay members (who we said the m!versions are quadruplets younger than Blue, named Steller, Scrub, Crest, and Azure, after types of jays), and Nelson

The Ninjaforce is barely hanging on against Garmadon since they’re missing one of their major air supports. Maybe Lady Irondragon is somewhat out of retirement to help, or they still have Master Wu helping, or get some additional support from Green’s cousin, a tired college student (and roommate of Dove & the Fuchsia Ninja) named Morro, or they’re just on their own and holding out with a bit more city property damage

And because of this, the population is very easy to sell a new game to… one that offers escape, and something else to think about rather than the constant fear of GarmAlarms… something fun.

A game that has been dragged from the discarded bin perhaps, by a few villainous individuals looking to take over the city before Garmadon. Perhaps the leader of a mafia disguised as a noodle shop and his dark-magic husband. Perhaps an disgruntled ex-coworker of Dr. Julien who stole some blueprints and ran off to make his own nindroids as a scrappy Mechanic who owes this mafia a debt. Perhaps a movie star celebrity who could be offered a large sum of money and promotional influence.

And perhaps those groups are even working together

None of the movie!verse version of the Cabinet Man AU is too set in stone yet (aka at all) but it's fun to think about 'cuz I have different headcanons for the m!ninja (I think of them as somewhat separate characters to the s!ninja and have different hcs and stuff for them, but still the same core of who they are- just drastically changed from different experiences, upbringings, and world changes)

So one difference in terms of the AU would be age, since the m!ninja are 15/16 (I like to hc that Green (m!Lloyd) is the oldest, followed by Cyan (m!Nya) who's older than her twin, Red (m!Kai - who, fun fact, I hc as the seer of the team after he ate the forbiddon pocky sticks (incense sticks) on Master Wu's boat when he was younger and doesn't realize the odd dreams he gets are visions)

Another is that I hc m!Cliff to be a bit more on the evil/selfish/greedy side than s!Cliff, in that he constantly cheats on his wife Vanessa (Blue (m!Jay) has so many secret siblings) and would not hesitate to do some very morally dubious things if it would benefit his career, profits, or whatnot (AKA he's the reason Blue's trapped in the game)

OOH i like those HCs for the movie ages those are good!! I LOVE the ninjago movie its such a fun time

Honestly Cabinet Man Jay's personality is kind of a mash of the movie and the show anyways - he's still got the loud, jokey cockiness of the show, but also the more timid clingy nature of the movie. His real personality is more in the middle yknow?

ALSO DAMN YEAH m!Cliff sounds like a dick, I could totally see it

I love this hehehe it could definitely lead to some fun things too since the ninja's identities in the movie are secret from the public!

ARE YOU KIDDING THOSE ARE THE MOST INTERESTING HEADCANONS EVER

YES LORE

YES WORLDBUILDING & HISTORY

YES LINGUISTICS

Those are the coolest kinds of hcs (and there are many cool hc types out there — I personally love using the m!verse for it, because it’s free real estate) and some of the most fun to read because they inspire new ideas. If you’re passionate about this stuff, go for it!! It’s all about having fun and engaging with the content in the way that you enjoy.

Seriously though I love your linguistics post so much, it’s one of the coolest thing I’ve seen on this site.

Your hcs are interesting and fun. Don’t let anyone tell you they aren’t, not even yourself.

For a while ive been thinking of making video essays about my ninjago worldbuilding lore theories, and so far have been unable to talk myself out of it. I think the mental illness is winning this round lads