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Christofern

Crystalized AU Idea - Vessel AU

Currently vibing with thoughts for a Crystalized AU (I’ll put it under the cut just in case the spoiler tags don’t work), feel free to send asks or use this as a prompt (just please tag me) or reblog and add your own ideas (just remember to tag spoilers!)

So the Crystal King is the vessel body of the Overlord, right?

...what if the ritual wasn’t to summon him, but to prep a new vessel host? One that’s quite familiar to us?

Option 1) Lloyd

In this version of the AU, the kidnapped Lloyd gets prepped for the ritual, and the Overlord returns possessing the hero that once vanquished him. Lloyd gets Morro trauma re-hashed, his family (who have been tearing out their hair looking for him) finally find him only for him to be possessed by the hecking OVERLORD, and Garmadon gets to have a fun reversal parallel to Season 2 in him calling for his son to fight off the Overlord.

Also Lloyd being alone when it happens, alone and scared and suddenly every bit the kid/younger teen he should be if the tea hadn’t happened, and he can do nothing to stop the Overlord from gaining the powers of Energy and the oni/dragon

Option 2) Wu

Not too many thoughts here, just the fun parallel of Wu being possessed like his brother was in S2, some of Wu’s dragon genes coming out

Option 3) Pixal

90% likely this results in a future where the Overlord wins. The other 10% he’s defeated in 5 minutes by Pixal kicking him out.

Option 4) the OG4 (Kai, Jay, Cole, AND Zane)

Four for the price of one (and my personal favourite of the bunch)! Harumi uses Lloyd to lure the four into a trap and capture them, then use them & their golden weapons in the ritual. The Overlord possesses all four at once (a 1 mind 4 bodies deal), with crystals and glowing purple eyes and slight draconic/later possibly centaur features. Sometimes just one talks for all, sometimes all four talk in sync, and sometimes one starts a sentence and the other finishes it (plus a fun mix of their original voice and the Overlord’s voice). They wield the crystalized version of the golden weapons and all their elemental powers change slightly to match the crystal theme (purple fire, purple lightning, crystal earth, and crystal ice).

The Council is half infuriated over having to bow to the four ninja, half smug over having bested them in revenge with the Overlord in control of them now. There are a few incidents where they see or hear them and nearly attack before remembering.

Also because the Overlord now has his own powers + the four elements of creation, Nya is speedrunning getting her powers back to save them. AND we get a new and improved version of the Replacement Ninja (including but not limited to: Pixal, Echo, Ronin, Fugidove, Akita, Okino & Blazey, Vania & the Upplies, and Benthomaar), and even Morro gets summoned from the Departed Realm because since he has knowledge on possessing people, he possibly has knowledge on how to UNpossess people.

I'm bored so I wanted to ask if there was a character or au u like. I would like to do a lil doodle of it :)

If general, "what if Aspheera stole Jay's powers instead"

If your AUs, hmmmm the bizarro adoption AU!

If one of mine, this Crystalized AU where the OG4 are used as the Crystal King's vessel(s) instead!

3) I've got some stuff for different Vessel AUs here but yeah, Lloyd would absolutely be scarred by his four older brothers being possessed by the Overlord and that recovery journey for him and them has so much hurt/comfort potential-

I know! It's a shame that the show never explores it more (heck, we don't even know if they were crystal statues or if they would've just been crystal zombies ALA Dark Matter 2.0), and I was hoping the fandom would have me covered but nope :( I can see why (everyone collectively ignoring everything past the awesome dragon forms) but also THAT'S WHAT FANDOM IS FOR MAKING OUR OWN ENDING- also I totally thought one of the Ninja was getting crystallized in the rice field earlier in the season

2) The Golden Legend short is so good, I'll admit it was partly the inspiration for it. But just like- the OG4 coming to their senses and realizing that a. they're a DRAGON, b. they're a FOUR-HEADED DRAGON, c. they're SHARING A BODY (each of them has their respective elemental head) AS A FOUR-HEADED DRAGON, and d. their family thinks they've been turned to statues and are weeping over them and guys we're right here we're the dragon guys please listen why can't anyone understand us and why is it so HARD TO DO CHARADES AS AN UNCOORDINATED FOUR-HEADED DRAGON-

So you've seen Crystalized- good

I've got three variants of OG4 angst (that includes Jay angst) for you then-

What are your thoughts on the whole "the OG4 got turned into Crystal Zombies right at the end" thing that never got explored in the show (and I barely, if ever, see talked about in the fandom?)

So it would be cool if the Golden Dragon was not just the embodiment of the Golden Weapons + parts of the Elements of Creation, but also if they were partly the OG4... and that brings up the possibility for an AU where the OG4 get stuck as the Golden Dragon while their bodies remain statues, and they have to somehow communicate to a distraught Lloyd, Nya, Wu, Pixal, and Skylor that they're Jay, Kai, Zane, and Cole

What if instead of forging a new body... the Overlord had returned via possessing all four OG4 ninja at once? So Lloyd and the others have to fight their friends/family?

OOOOH

1. Ngl I think a reason people don’t think about that is cuz that part of Crystalized kinda. Sucked. So HEKSHDKDH BUT PERSONALLY??? I LOVE THAT CONCEPT

I’m such a sucker for any “heroes being controlled by the villain” situation. Whether it’s corruption, mind control, forced villainy, manipulation, it’s all soooooo so sick I love it so much and I wish we had SEEN the ninja getting corrupted by the crystals so bad aside from just a siNGLE FRAME

2. OOOOH reminds me of the Golden Legend short!! That sounds so interesting, I’d LOVE to delve into that kind of concept it seems so interesting!!

3. OOOOOOH that sounds verrry cool :D tbh I’m more partial to the Overlord possessing LLOYD, I thought that’s what was going to happen in the first place, but possessing the OG 4 instead??? Very cool, the idea of them speaking ominously in sync is a very strong image in my head when I think of that. Would definitely scar Lloyd for life omg poor dude BDKDHD

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 Magazine Comics Translated Issue 98 - The Kidnapping

If you didn't know, Blue Ocean has a variety of non-canon Ninjago comic magazines. I'm working on translating a few of my favourites from German to English for you all to enjoy (see Issue 85, the first one I translated, for more details). This story is post-Crystalized. Your tags and reactions to my first translation gave me motivation to translate more, and I'm glad people are enjoying them! If there's any in particular you want to see, let me know and I'll see if I have it.

Issue 85 (Post-Seabound) -- The Sea Monster