I just love how seabound fixes the plot hole of Chen not needing Nya or Morro for his spell by explaining where their powers come from

OMG. I didn't even think of that!🤯

Thinking about those animal symbols everyone had in the early seasons, specifically in a Jaya context.

like there's something so poetic to me that while lightning was associated with the sky it was represented with an octopus, a sea creature.

And water, instead of having something completely tied to the ocean like a fish, has instead a bird, which while yes can rest on water, is more adept to the sky.

I know that it's just a big conincidence because the octopus was chosen because it looked like a storm cloud, and the water bird was originally a pheonix that was to better tie Nya to Kai through the fire imagery. Also she definitely wasn't planned to be a ninja in the pilots.

But the way it all fits together is actually just so good narratively speaking, because it also show that while they are definitely opposites, like the domains of their elements and the animal that was chosen for it (he's a talker, she rather show herself through actions; He's good at adapting, she is a perfectionist that needs time to adjust. etc) They still fit together.

It's, like, so good narratively that you know it had no thought put behind it at all and just naturally happened.

FINALLY SOMEONE PUT THIS INTO WORDS! THANK YOU! I've been wanting to say this forever!

I was gonna put this headcanon in a fic but i probably will never write it so instead im gonna share with all of you. Do with this idea as you wish

The fact that Pixal just up and built herself a new body in season 7 suggests she could have done it at any time, but chose not to. And i refuse to believe Zane and Borg didnt at least offer to give her a body - Zane admitted he preferred having her physical, im sure he at least suggested rebuilding her at one point. As he said in season 8, "The choice has always been yours, Pixal." Which leads me to believe she was the determining factor in her own reconstruction. She chose to stay in Zane's head, and Id like to think her reasons for doing so are similar to her reasons for hiding her identity as Samurai X: self-imposed guilt.

Let me explain.

Think of it like this. Pixal was built to assist, right? Even from the beginning of their relationship, she has been put in several positions of saving, protecting, and looking after Zane. Their first bonding moments involved her repairing him and later rescuing him from a junkyard metal shredder. Just as Zane has an integral need to protect built into the core of his existence, so too does Pixal have an integral need to assist.

When Zane gave her half his heart, he seriously disadvantaged himself in combat. Not only that, but it was his heart being unable to withstand the Golden Power that killed him in the end. Im sure there was at least some small part of Pixal that blamed herself for this. Not just because she might see this as a failure to uphold her reason for existence (helping people) - but also bc maybe if he'd had his whole heart during that fight, maybe if she'd just given it back to him, he might have had a fighting chance. It would have only marginally improved his chances of survival, but that small .003% probability increase is enough to make her blame herself. A probability that small is statistically irrelevant, but she cant help using it as an excuse to blame herself - or perhaps, to give her a rationalization for her survivor's guilt. Because the heart inside her, powering her, is the same heart Zane could have used to defend himself against the Golden Power, and the feeling of it inside her is unbearable.

Then Zane comes back, and she gets scrapped. And Zane forgets everything, and his mind is in shambles, and she has to help him piece himself back together again.

She blames herself for this, blames herself for his death and for the scrambled state of his memories that came as a consequence. So she figures, she caused this, so its her responsibility to help him fix his broken mind. Its her responsibility to assist.

So she stays in his head, where she can hold his memories together and keep his mind from falling apart. She insists she prefers it this way, likes being close to him, but deep down she longs for her physical freedom and hates herself for wanting more than she deserves.

Then Borg is kidnapped. And Zane is nonresponsive. And she has a choice. So she chooses to rebuild herself and leave Zane behind.

And...she feels good. Free. She's...happy about it.

But shes also deeply ashamed. Thinks she doesnt deserve to enjoy the experience of leaving Zane's head. He needs her, she's less useful to him outside his headset...and yet here she is, being Samurai X, having the absolute time of her life. She loves it, and she hates herself for loving it so much.

So out of shame, she tells no one. Shes worried theyll be just as disappointed in her as she is in herself.

And Zane...well, maybe theres a reason the Ninjigma didnt become a problem until after Pixal left his headset. Maybe she was the only thing holding him together, and the moment she left, all his memories started spiraling out of control. Maybe the events of Decoded turned out to be for the best, and allowed Zane to sort through and finish repairing his memories on his own, without relying on Pixal for help.

When Pixal reunites with Zane, shes worried he'll be upset. "Was i more...useful...inside the computer?" But to her surprise and delight, he prefers her in whatever form makes her happiest, not whatever form makes her most useful.

And Pixal, backed by the support of Zane and their friends, flourishes in her new role as Samurai X - not just in an assistive capacity, but exploring and embracing her interests in engineering and tinkering. Things are good, for a while.

But then Zane ends up in the Never Realm. And he comes home, and she learns what happened. She hears what Vex did, how she sabotaged his memories and twisted his own sense of self against him.

Once more, she blames herself. Begins to believe that maybe if she had still been in his headset, she could have prevented all that suffering.

Anyway, Pixal with survivors guilt and a raging hero complex my BELOVED

Yes! More Pixal angst. >:)

Time and again, Pixal is placed in a position of watching Zane suffer/die, and trying to save him, even as early as season 3. Their first real bonding moment happens while she's repairing him. And not long after that, she rescues him from being dropped into a metal shredder. Then in season 4 she helps him get his memory back, and in season 6 she defends him from the Mechanic trying to scrap him for spare parts. And that's all before she became Samurai X - a role she only took on because Zane had been shut down and was out of commission.

Since becoming Samurai X, she's had to deal with the aftermath of Zane being presumed dead aboard the destroyed Bounty, his banishment at the hands of Aspheera, and then later the Mechanic abducting him and electrocuting him to near-death.

The long and short of it is, Zane has been through a lot, and whenever something bad happens, Pixal gets front-row tickets to watch it all unfold.

Naturally, this has left an impact on her emotional state. And I think the nightmare she experienced in season 11 (shortly after Zane was banished to the Never Realm) showcases this best:

The nightmare depicts Zane holding onto Pixal for dear life, desperation and fear on his face as she's the only thing keeping him from falling into the white abyss below. But then, something causes Zane to slip from her grasp, and he falls beyond her reach, with her flailing helplessly, unable to save him.

Again and again Pixal has watched him die. Again and again she has lost him. In her mind, no matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries to protect him or how tightly she holds on, something will happen that will tear Zane away from her again, and she will be powerless to stop it.

It's not unreasonable to assume that Pixal considers Zane's safety her own personal responsibility, and blames herself whenever something happens to him. Note in particular the way Zane is characterized in her dream - desperate, afraid, with her as the only thing keeping him from falling into the abyss. And when she fails to hold onto him, she is - quite literally - letting him down.

Now that on its own is enough material to keep my poor Pixal Stan heart beating for months. But there are a few more details I think are worth mentioning.

First - the abyss dream!Zane falls into seems vaguely reminiscent of the ice torrent he falls into at the end of season 3. Here's a side-by-side comparison for reference:

I know it's a bit of a stretch, but you gotta admit the similarities are at least a little bit uncanny. If we're following this train of thought, then this may suggest that Pixal not only feels responsible for her inability to save Zane from Aspheera, but also blames herself for Zane's death in his battle against the Overlord. Or at the very least, she's noticed enough similarities between both instances of losing Zane that her mind is subconsciously projecting them.

Either way, it's safe to say Pixal is almost definitely traumatized from past experiences of watching Zane die. I mean, let's not forget that Zane's fight against the Overlord was, as far as we know, her first real experience with death, and Zane didn't exactly die peacefully.

Another thing to note is that the version of Aspheera in her dreams wasn't trapped in ice, but rather standing freely and unharmed. On the left is how she appeared in Pixal's dream, and on the right is what her actual condition was when she banished Zane.

It could just be an inconsequential dream thing, but idk since we're overanalyzing things here I want to make the comment that it almost erases Zane's conflict with her - how Zane had fought her (and her entire army) and won, and was only banished due to her breaking her arm out of the ice when he had his back turned. But in Pixal's dream, that context is removed, with only Aspheera standing there as powerful as can be, blasting Zane seemingly without prompt.

The reason why this is noteable is that the abyss scene and that singular shot of Aspheera are the only two moments in her dream that aren't exact recordings of the events that transpired. Everything else in her dream is just an exact, near-flawless memory of what happened - except for the abyss scene and the moment when Aspheera blasts Zane. For some reason, Pixal's dream ignored all of Zane's involvement in that fight, and disregarded the fact that Zane had already defeated her.

There are two possible meanings of this:

With all this in mind, I think it's not unreasonable to say that Pixal, on some unconscious level, views Zane as a victim whose safety she is responsible for. I don't think she has this viewpoint intentionally, and I think Pixal is aware of Zane's competence and respects his merits as a teammate, a hero, and a partner. I'm not making the case that Pixal thinks so little of Zane that he can't stand up for himself.

But I do think that, after years of watching Zane suffer and having to look after him, her experiences have begun to affect her view on not just Zane, but herself as well - with her subconscious hinting to her in subtle ways that Zane is someone she needs to protect, and that his protection is her responsibility.

In a way, I think Pixal views her responsibility for Zane's wellbeing in a similar way that Kai views his responsibility for Nya and Lloyd - you know they're skilled fighters in their own right, and that they can look after themselves, but you will still blame yourself first and foremost if any harm comes to them because you feel like it's your job to protect them.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that Pixal has a savior complex targeted primarily at Zane, deriving from years of trauma involving his repeated deaths and her repeated inability to save him, and in this essay I will -

I haven't seen such in-debth character analysis of PIXEL in a while, and I loved reading every second of this

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE.👆

You're gonna call me crazy, but this is actually super important to plot of the fanseason I'm writing. The Cowboy one of all things. Hope y'all are ready for that. >:)

"death becomes meaningless if everyone keeps resurrecting" well with THAT attitude it does. but I'm different

Definitely agree!👍

Did some rudimentary calculations; assuming Zane was the ice emperor for around 60 years and the ninja took about two weeks to leave for the Never-Realm, the time conversion is roughly as follows:

1 minute Ninjago time = 1 day Never-Realm time

This falls apart slightly when you realize Wu and P.I.X.A.L.’s homeland debacle took, at most, 15 minutes in its entirety. Whether this is an issue with my estimations, an issue with the show’s timeline continuity, or if P.I.X.A.L. is just really good at speed-running monster battles is anyone’s guess.

Great analysis!

It is rather confusing, isn't it? I've been wanting to take it up on myself to figure out this mystery too. Maybe someday I'll be able to make my own hypothesis as well!

Has it ever been explained how Shintaro used to function?

In season 13 we are told how the lowly became the lowly and how Vangelis got the magic evil skull, while showing a toddler Vania in the flashback. This tells us it happened probably 10-15 years ago. Maybe 20 if you squint. (I don’t though.)

Vangelis explained specifically how everything has a price and the lives of the Shintaran citizens are built on the backs of the Geckel and Munce. But based on everything Shintaro was already a prosperous community before the flashback.

So what gives???

Maybe, just maybe, their community had something to do with those creatures all along. Those vents and tunnels have been there for centuries, and we know that those “poor little creatures” used to live in fear.

Now they’ve had quite a history of trouble in that mountain. You had the wizard, the dragon Griefbringer and the king. Now it wasn’t the king holding up the economy, we know this. And based on the fact that there was nothing left of the sorcerer except for the bones pretty much excludes him too. But what about the dragon? Cole’s mom defeated him and I can imagine heer doing that before she met Wu, thus replacing her father or the previous master of earth in the alliance.

Could the Skyfolk have used griefbringer to bargain the Geckle and Munce?

The timeline fits, assuming the Shintaran nation had some kind af saving it could have taken any given time to run out. The point where Vangelis looked for the skull could thus be accurate.

But that leaves us with another problem. The only reason they’re living on vengestone is because they have a buyer; the Crystal King. But he hasn’t been around for that long now has he? At the earliest since season 3 after dying again.

In other words, Shintaro’s economy must, at some point, have been built on something other then vengestone. Because before the CK, an despecially before the first elemental alliance it had no use, whereas we basically know Shintaro was wealthy before that.

I sure hope it does though, because after defeating the CK Shintaro will have no buyer for it’s main export and it’s economy will collapse, leaving innocent little Vania to deal with the trouble and possibly angry riots and coups for poor leadership.

Can’t wait for Vania to realise she funded the Ninja’s demise to save the people they’ve already saved though since cannonicly it now functions on a working balance between the vengestone workers.

Aren’t fictional economics fun?

I've actually thought about this while writing my fanseason. Thanks for laying it out! I'm gonna have to consider this while I write. Shintaro's economy is VERY interesting and complex.👀📝

...was the person who coined that proverb named Julius Caesar?

(Source)

I saw someone just the other day on here talking about biblical themes and quotes in Ninjago. I can't quite remember who it was. But this is a fine instance of it.

‭‭Mark‬ ‭3:24‭-‬25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

[24] If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. [25] If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

It is then recounted again by Matthew

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12:25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

[25] Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.

Oooooooooooo! That's cool!👀

I cannot believe "You can only save those who want to be saved" is something Ninjago writers came up with on their own and not another bible reference.

i do!! i made a post about it here :) since i am a christian i love making parallels between literature and the Bible!!

Oh my gosh! I'm Christian too!🤩 Nice to see someone else in this fandom is! I'm totally gonna check this out!