And Turned Into Afull-fledged Theory - Tumblr Posts

The Fuchsia Ninja Theory

So this started as a crack concept & suddenly had evidence and now it’s spiralled into this whole thing so here we go.

Who is the Fuchsia Ninja? A one-off joke for the movie? A reference to Zane’s pink gi from S1? Or perhaps they’re hidden in plain sight...

I’ve seen a few different good theories/jokes. M!Morro, M!Chen the Cheerleader, a younger M!Dareth, the M!Mailman (we’ll get back to that later), but I have a different suggestion:

It’s someone new. Yet they’re seen in the movie.

Allow me to introduce Purple Jacket.

“But Imp!” you cry. “We see them in one scene in the entire movie when Lloyd walks off the bus and enters the school! Just because they wear a purple- not even fuchsia- jacket doesn’t mean they’re the Fuchsia Ninja!”

And you would be right, which was why this started as a joke. Originally I spotted them and found their reaction interesting (they take off their sunglasses as Lloyd passes, looking more surprised than hostile, before putting them back on and walking off without a care). 

But then I went back trying to see if they were in the shot of the school as the bus pulls in and the shot of the school when Lloyd walks off the bus and everyone looks at him. And I noticed something.

Specifically, someone. 

Or should I say somethree?

Three different purple-wearing sunglasses kids. Three. With the same/extremely similar hairstyle and slightly different clothing style, though all in purple (and a bonus Chen standing to the side, we’ll get back to him later).

Now, the simple answer is ‘animation budget’ or ‘animation error’. And to that I say, you’re right. But that’s the simple and boring answer. 

Now, the second answer would be triplets. And perhaps that would be the obvious answer, if it wasn’t for another odd detail. 

The scene above is when Lloyd steps off the bus (and I will note that he is last off, most likely because nobody else let him until everyone was out). Now let’s compare that to the scene directly before that: a shot of the school as the bus pulls in.

Notice something interesting? Two of the purple sunglasses kids are missing, and none are in the correct spot. Again, obvious answer is a. animation error and b. they move between the time it takes for Lloyd to get off the bus. After all, we see Chen standing with his skateboard waving to who we’ll call Skateboard Purple Kid. They both manage to move to the right side of the screen for the ‘Lloyd Garmadon just stepped off the bus, everybody look and freeze’ scene, which isn’t implausible but is really quick (plus Chen’s somehow already playing with a basketball, so maybe he does have some EM powers after all cough headcanon Amber cough his uncle being the mafia boss equivalent of Master Chen from S4 cough). 

That still doesn’t account for where Purple Jacket Kid (the one in the original photo at the top & the one standing at the school door entrance) and Purple Hoodie Kid (the one on the left side of the screen leaning on some friends) came from.

Now it’s possible Purple Jacket Kid just walked out of the school and Purple Hoodie Kid just walked in from the left side of the screen, but it’s still just... interesting how they seem to just appear. Very... sneakily. 

“Okay, that’s cool and all, Imp,” you say, probably bored but hopefully a little intrigued. “So which one is the Fuchsia Ninja?”

That’s the thing. It’s all of them. Why? Well, it boils down to one simple headcanon/theory:

The Element of Surprise can create clones/copies of themselves.

They can be everywhere and anywhere at once. Hear a mention of the elements of surprise? SURPRISE! A call for the Fuchsia Ninja? SURPRISE! Someone’s just looking down and could use a little cheering up? SURPRISE!

What better way to surprise people than by making copies that can spontaneous appear from everywhere and nowhere?

What better way than hiding in plain sight?

“You have my attention now, Imp,” you might say. Or maybe I’ve lost you, who knows. “So who are they and how do they fit in the world building other than going to Lloyd’s school?”

I’ll admit, the rest is just headcanons and theories. Speculation on M!verse counterparts we haven’t seen. 

You know how I mentioned the m!verse mailman as a joking suspect for the Fuchsia Ninja?

Well, what if he had the Element of Surprise at one point? After all, the news never sleeps, and the mailman is always, always on the job, and he always delivers.

So having the ability to make copies of yourself would certainly help...

Now about passing on his Element: our m!mailman realizes while the mail is important, Ninjago City needs another ninja. A neighbourhood ninja, someone to help with the everyday small issues so the Ninjaforce can focus on Garmadon. And then he notices his nieph (a gender-neutral term for niece/nephew because the Fuchsia Ninja uses they/them you can fight me on this) who’s living with him going around trying to help the neighbourhood as best they can. 

So he calls them to over to his mailroom one day and asks them if they would want his Elemental Power.

And thus the Fuchsia Ninja is born.

Now, there’s still one more piece to this puzzle. Because this parallel looks familiar- an uncle and their nieph who they care for, who is a ninja, with elemental powers involved. Wu and Lloyd. And while our Purple Jacket is closer to M!Morro’s age and parallel, we could still have the mailman adopt someone else.

And who better than M!Nelson, the purple ninja?

And so you get the found family of the M!Mailman, the Fuchsia Ninja, and M!Nelson.

Side note, M!Nelson is stoked when he finds out his sibling is actually the Fuchsia Ninja and that he has not one, not two, not three, but essentially a small army of siblings. Purple Jacket Kid is the original, but a few of the copies (including Skateboard Purple Kid & Purple Hoodie Kid) are out at all times.

Second side note, M!Nelson might be the next Elemental Master of Time, because if Krux and Acronix are both chill and good in the M!verse (like M!Morro) and just happen to befriend this cool kid that likes coming to their museum, well...

As for a name for Purple Jacket Kid... may I recommend 驚き, Odoroki, meaning surprise? And the bonus headcanon of their last name being Fuchsia, to further add to the ‘hiding in plain sight’ idea. Because it’s so obvious that it simply can’t be them, which means you’ll never see it coming when it is.

They also happen to be good at quick changes, especially into generic street clothes, to further add to the surprise & hidden in plain sight gimmick (on top of all the copies wearing slightly different versions of a purple get-up & sunglasses). Of course, this is a popular skill to have in Theatre. So the Fuchsia Ninja is a theatre kid now.

And who else works in a theatre that Odoroki might frequent? M!Lou.

Odoroki/Purple Jacket Kid being the Fuchsia Ninja might also be why his reaction to Lloyd was more surprised/bewildered/intrigued than hostile or angry stares. You can briefly see Purple Hoodie Kid’s reaction too when Zane shows up and rolls with Lloyd into school, though they’re too far away to make much out. They seem energetic & mostly not interested though.

But we’ll never know if this theory/headcanon is entirely canon-complicit within the M!verse. I guess until there’s further confirmation on the Fuchsia Ninja, their identity will have to remain a...

SURPRISE!

-------------

UPDATE: 

Found this one too, walking around outside and then inside leaping out of the way of Nya’s bike

You can also see Purple Jacket (who according to the wiki, is just titled ‘Guy’ when a lot of the other figures are named- suspicious) around the city a lot, but you can also see a ton of the classmates constantly, so it could be re-used models... or multiple copies styled after Purple Jacket

So who knows!