I feel truly bad for anyone who can't get into lmk. Like I completely understand why, I'm just. They're missing out on so much

Thoughts on LEGO Monkie Kid, pacing, and season 5

I’m taking this from Twitter, but basically this thread about “Say something BAD about the show Monkie Kid” came up and my biggest gripe so far has been :  The show has way too short episodes. Like, 11min30. And tries to do SO MUCH in those 11min30 that either somethings get scrapped (DBFamily but not just that) or big important elements get solved way too fast (Samadhi fire and broken scroll among other things). And it steams I think from the fact that the show went from episodic to serialised while keeping the same amount of time. 

I ramble :  I see a lot of newcomers say that they jumped s1 and 2 and really started with s3/4, and while everyone has their reasons I think that’s silly Because that format is what made me love the characters and settings in the first place. The episodes are short, so the show can only focus on a tiny thing, but sprinkled LBD being a menace throughout the season, with the spider gang being a menace. And now ? lBD is still reveared as one of the best villains, and Spidergang is still very appreciated. Same thing for DBF : Red Son was slowly developed through s1, and returned on s3 Granted he wasn’t in s2, but since he was a major part of s1, and the spider queen special, we grew to care about him and the family to an extent. Because that’s what the show is good at ! Characters interactions, character personalities, CHARACTERS !! And now, the show is going for serialised, which is great and maintains attention, but it wants to do too much with the same amount of time: - In s2 : LBD took 10 ep to build her mech. MK started slowly to grow, and his relationships were explored one ep at a time. Slowly. - In s4 : we lose SWK, MK meets Azure, we learn about Tang, Pigsy and Sandy through their ancestors, we start to question MK’s existence, Monkey MK, the scroll is a menace, Azure betrays the group, MK loses his mentor and morale, DBF is important but scrolled, the JE is defeated and BAM world explodes we have to kill God in 4 episodes now. 

Granted for the characters as well it feels rushed. We don’t have to see everything either. Of course. They have a life outside the show. And overall they did a good job in those 11 bloody minutes 30.

But

But

But.

Now that we have a bit of breathing room, maybe it’s time to have that character moment by episode we’ve been asking for instead of cramming feelings and heartfelt conversations in an episode while the world is teared apart outside. Especially since we’ve seen the characters go through hell for a whole season. MK needs to breath but he isn’t the only one. We could have an episode on Red Son and his time in the scroll, an episode on MK going monkey a whole episode, an episode on SWK and Macaque in coloc, an episode on Tang Pigsy and Sandy trying to get back to their lives since they’re the most normal of the bunch - technically (cuz apparently having episodes focused on them in s4 wasn’t enough to have conversations about it but that’s a gripe i have with the community for LATER). We could have SWK and DBF reminisce on their time together, since DBK is one of the last friend that doesn’t QUITE hate him anymore, or an episode on how Nezha starts rebuilding Heaven by himself while keeping the JE power safe, or an episode on Mei just being awesome honestly, like just Mei observing MK going insane and being the girlboss she is, especially since she went through the whole “excess power that could kill everyone you love” and is still living with that, in a way. That could answer where the Samadhi fire business went. Cuz like in real life some things are tamed but don’t disappear, she might still be struggling but has learned to live with it. And MK is going through a similar path. We could also have Red Son in this one since he’s honestly the most controlled in a way.

And through all that… discretly… the world starts to break apart again ? Tears appear and with it new monsters and ghosts of the past maybe start seeping from the Underworld ? Maybe an unmasked man tries to prevent Mk’s attemps at coming back to some normal because as long as he’s confused and scared he stays the Harbinger of Chaos ? Idk ! TL:DR A lot of critics I see sum up as « They should show this more, why did THIS disappear out of nowhere, this is wasted potential », which seeps from the show not having time to show all that happens at once. Maybe it’s time to take a breather and tackle the problems one at a time again, ep by ep, like in season 2. And then go back to « We’re all gonna die in 4 episodes » to get the panic back on track.

Anyway Please come talk to me about the show and your theories, or headcanons about what the characters are doing now that the wreck of S4 has rolled past them. I wanna talk about my babies some more...

@akita747 (sorry this took so long)

Doodlarambla 4

Jay!

Hell yeah! The lightning ninja. Established early on as someone who literally cannot stop talking, the comic relief, the creative, scrappy guy all about reaching new heights! When we see his flashback sequence in s9, the concept that they stick with is the idea that Jay is a dreamer. He’s pretty ambitious always trying to craft something that will take him above and beyond (as in he was literally trying to make a flying machine), and his element helps symbolise it. He’s into being flashy like lightning, and tries to climb higher (relating to the sky). This ambition does lead to him having a lot of insecurities though, and he has some interesting ways of dealing with them but I’ll elaborate later.

Jay’s backstory when it’s told in s1, is the most straight forward. I mean, he’s the only ninja with both of his parents on regular speaking terms, although he grew up on a junkyard, it’s pretty mundane and he has an air of normalcy about him, which he seems to be trying to escape. He does really mundane stuff, like poetry and comic book reading (compared to Cole who abandoned art school to go mountain climbing shirtless). I kinda hc Jay having gone to public school and immediately getting bullied because he was raised in a junkyard and his parents are weird, bc those insecurities have gotta come from somewhere. He’s pretty impressionable too, getting fixated on video games and Cliff Gordon (and those also probably influenced his uhh outlook on women and romance).

Jay has a lot of insecurities. I’ve mentioned his upbringing but also his low self esteem is the crux of his true potential episode. Jay’s over the top bravado is him trying desperately to make others like him, almost to the point that he didn’t even tell anyone about the real problems he had (being a snake). The s3-4 love triangle plot follows the same themes; Jay feeling insecure and threatened by Cole, only to reveal that secretly he missed being Cole’s best friend and he hadn’t even confronted those feelings until s4. Again in s6, Nadakhan straight up says that Jay makes jokes to hide his deeper insecurities. And yeah I thinks it’s understandable why he would be a little insecure considering he’s living with shirtless mountain climber Cole, actually gets btiches Kai, literally computer for brain Zane, badass Samurai x Nya, and grandson of god chosen one Lloyd. On top of that, Jay is the most panicky ninja and the main comic relief of the team.

I think his greatest strength is his tenacity to succeed even when he’s at a low. As a junkyard boy, he learned to scrap together quick solutions out of barely anything as shown in Hunted, and when all his friends were captured in s6, he scrapped together a new team, and even after quitting the ninja he was able to make it big and score a job as a tv host. Nadakhan’s characterisation is supposed to parallel Jay in that, like Jay, Nadakhan also relies on what resources he had, and his own wits. Jay’s “fake it til you make it” personality has its use in how he doesn’t stop trying and can find ways to make the most out of his situation. He kinda embodies the message of Lego, being able to build his way to a solution. He’s a dreamer, with his head in the clouds, which makes sense because that’s usually where lightning is.

Although after all that’s happened to Jay, I have sort of a theory/headcanon to do with his perception of reality. Because Jay, since the start, already has some association with not being completely honest. I think Jay having some sort of detachment with reality is really interesting and it’s only briefly touched upon in the show. But yknow especially after s6 I think he should because a) Jay literally learned that season that he was adopted, and whilst he still loves his parents dearly, that’s still gonna shake him to find out that he doesn’t know a lot about his past and heritage, b) everyone he loves keep dying and undying again and again and at that point I think death would be even ever so slightly desensitised c) Jay literally bent reality to his will. He is one of the only two people who remember things that never happened, and all the tragedy that happened in his life was erased and promptly ignored. He never tells the other ninja. He’s never seen going back to Cliff Gordon’s house. We don’t see him go back for Echo. He isn’t shown to try to look for his mother.

(Crystalised part 1 spoilers)

Ninjago, intentionally or not, does play around with Jay and reality and his sanity in s9 and Crystalised. In s9, whilst Jay knows what’s going on, he just loses any semblance of self preservation and gives up with even the idea of being stressed about a situation so hopeless, and is weirdly at peace with it all. (Spoilers here) In Crystalised, Jay believes Nya is in cups of water and decides to become a hermit, cutting himself off from the world and kinda losing it. Jay tends to lose his grip on reality/lose faith in his situation and I think it might be because he’s been through a lot of things that have already made him question his life (s6). Also being separated fro Nya, who he not only loves but also is the only one who can possibly understand what he went through in s6, may have played a role in this.

It’s a shame Prime Empire didn’t really use this, since Prime Empire had all the pieces to have an escapism themed arc for Jay, which I think would’ve made sense since I think Jay could’ve used escapism to cope with his hardships, even before s6, even being a ninja is an escape from his boring junkyard life). Prime Empire provides a fun, totally harmless (not) adventure than you can physically use to run away from reality. Jay was popular there, and the most skilled there and it was supposed to be his season. I mean it would have been cool if the reason why half of Ninjago entered prime empire is because they’re also traumatised and want to leave too (just last season they were attacked by fire snakes and eldritch horrors). But they don’t really explore it that much so there’s some missed potential there (one day, I’ll rewrite this season).

Although we can see, ever since s6, some of Jay’s insecurities are alleviated. It might just be the writer change, but post 7 Jay seems to be a lot goofier that pre 7 Jay, (the uwuification), and I’m interpreting that as him no longer feeling like he needs to fake bravado in front of everyone else. And that’s nice. Jay has some really good developement, and is a really enjoyable character to watch because he’s just so endearing in my opinion. In conclusion, I like Jay’s arc and his consistent character traits and his character development, and he’s just a really interesting character.

HI IT’S ME AGAIN I JUST FINISHED S5 IT IS A BANGER

i have A Lot to say about this one because it’s very really good

i looked at the cast credits only on episode 10 and promptly found out that morro and lloyd have the same VA (at least in the dub i watched lmao). congrats julien haggege on the range because i geniuenly had no idea

SOOOO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT.

ok let’s start with what a great kickoff episode 1 was. everything went batshit RIGHT from the start. i love the scene w the possessed museum guard posing with a hammer behind lloyd. i loooooove how much they leaned into the whole ghost shit and horror tropes with morro’s introduction and lloyd just getting fucking possessed.

morro has like, more.. menace? than the previous villains (as much as any of them can be menacing for having little lego faces) because of his first appearance and also just. again the lloyd thing.

which is DELICIOUS btw to just take lloyd out of the team dynamic after he’s been so throuroughly integrated into it. holy shit man. it’s sooo good how the main four have to struggle without lloyd and how they each try to be the leader and fail horribly at it.

how this is resolved is great too!! the four of them work best without a leader. after cole gets turned into a ghost (also holy shit they really just did that), they kinda just stop picking fights over which of them is better and just stay a team. this is reflected beautifully in the episode 8, grave danger, where each of them takes charge when it’s best for them to do so. zane decodes the patterns on the doors, cole gets everyone to give up and fall, jay spots the light in the ground that gets them out of the labyrinth, and kai makes the final call to rescue lloyd. that’s some good shit.

ALSOOO this season is so good to nya!! i heard abt morro and nya’s water ninja thing and cole being ghosted on my ventures through the ninjago tag, but i didn’t expect it to be... all the same season. i did not.

i like a looot how nya’s weakness got cast here, because she’s always been just. good. at everything. and THAT’S HER WEAKNESS IT’S GIFTED KID SYNDROME. if she can’t get something right first try she gives up and that is an accurate weakness for her to have without betraying the strength she’s had throughout the show. she’s soo set on being a samurai that she Cannot fathom being a ninja and she has to get over herself. it’s so good. i like that one scene after cole gets ghosted where the two bond a bit over how their lives got turned upside down suddenly at the same time, and i also liked how she picking up on ronin’s laidback nature (which wu calls a bad influence) is actually what helped her out. she needed to take things less seriously so she can allow herself to fail without getting frustrated. THIS SEASON IS SO GOOD TO NYA FR.

ANOTHER THING ABT NYA i love how her development kinda mirrors like, the boys in season 1, with how everyone’s harping about her true potential, because that’s where she’s at, elemental powers wise. she is at her own personal season 1 right now, and it’s treated as such. sooo poggers. she had a lot of moments where she got held back by wu again (a recurring trend prior boooo wu) and she always had frustration at this (the only reason i accepted this) so i love love love how it’s SHE who sinks the. preeminent? is that the english name. (german dub calls it the Ur-Evil because it likes being stupid like that). it’s soo cool nya you’re cool again after s3.

THERE’S JUST. A LOT OF SEASON 1 PARALLELS IN GENERAL LIKE. morro’s obsession with being the green ninja is exactly like the boys in s1 and esp kai i think. like in s4 we saw that he’s still not entirely over that jealousy so morro feels in a way like a bad end kai even though he’s mostly played as a foil to lloyd. abandoned by fate vs chosen by destiny ysee ysee.

i get why so many people like him he has a LOT of potential esp since like his past connection to wu is just. haha wu you fucked up my man.

it SLAPS how morro just kept lloyd for Eight Whole Episodes. all ghosts can do possession and SOME of them do but for the most part it’s Just Morro who does which makes him stand out and the ninja not wanting to hurt lloyd in fights is fun. adds to him being so Goddamn Angry all the time. again same VA which i

morro as a villain also really adds to the whole theme of this season which is teamwork (as it often is) but this time in particular it’s how you can’t do everything alone. morro has his goons yeah but he ultimately is a loner and that’s capped off by him refusing to take wu’s hand in the final episode and going under. sayonara my man.

teamwork as the theme also came on strong again with (gestures at the main four struggling without lloyd and only moving forward once they work as a unit without a set leader). and maybe how ronin only manages to truly save his soul once he starts supporting the ninja without ulterior motives.

ronin was a rlly good supporting character imo! i think it’s funny how he’s introduced as having a past with the ninja who hate his guts meanwhile i’m going “should i know who this guy is?????” he’s not a bad guy necessarily just greedy but then the reason for him being greedy is introduced (sold his soul to a ghost and is trying to buy it back) and like it’s cool how his arc ends with him dumping all his money over morro’s head. it’s cool! also again his lil thing with nya which i’m sooo happy isn’t played romantic. nothing in this season is played romantic actually even that one scene i talked abt with nya and cole i’m so glad. love triangle is WELL AND TRULY DEAD AS IT SHOULD BE. let nya exist without a romance subplot for a season so epic so pog.

is it just me or did the lighting in the animation get wayyyy better this season? i was rlly impressed with the lighting on some shots this season which i haven’t been before. it’s way more realistic and when i first saw the waterfalls in nya’s training area i was stunned by the water physics in this. generally this season just looked really good by ninjago standards.

the set design was good too i liked the different locations. the ghost aesthetic clichees carried this i like that. wang’s house or the city of stiix or the cloud kingdom all vry cool good looking sets. i love how ham they went with the aesthetic too like also sound wise. the ost on this season is BANGER i love the remix for the intro. welcome to scooby doo: masters of spinjitzu.

MORE SEASON 1 THINGS I WANNA TALK ABT. there were some nice callbacks to the pilot eps i appreciated like the guys visiting the caves of despair where they found the scythe of quakes in the pilot. like if you didnt watch the pilot you’re not missing anything but if you did then you know and it’s nice <3 also hello morro’s skeleton. in any other show discovering a ghost’s corpse would be shocking but with the lego skeletons it’s just kinda goofy. it’s very goofy.

another callback i loved is in the final episode!! because morro tried to ditch lloyd in the underworld which is an amazing callback because it’s so thematically appropiate with the whole s1 parallels and that being where garmadon was sealed in the pilot and lloyd being ykno that guy’s son and the object of morro’s envy. it’s vry cool.

some cute things in the final two eps!! lloyd wearing his dad’s robe!! that’s so cute what the fuck!! i’m gonna gloss over the logistics of that just for how cute it is. previous cute thing is kai actually wearing the headband cyrus made for him even though he was bummed out for not getting a mech. everyone crashes their mechs and kai’s the one getting real utility out of his gift it’s cute. i thought the scene of ronin hanging out with skylor was also cute because like. skylor was in a veeery similar position to ronin where she betrayed the ninja for stupid selfish reasons but turned a new leaf and her giving him tea on the house is nice full circle stuff because her extending forgiveness on behalf of the ninja is what motivates ronin to go back and help out in the finale. and it’s tea specifically too because of the wu’s tea house subplot. that’s just so nice.

I DIDN’T EVEN PROPERLY TALK ABT GHOST COLE YET BECAUSE. THAT SURE HAPPENED. like i KNEW it was gonna happen cuz spoilers cuz i jzst wanted to look at fanart but. dang that’s kinda funny. like there is cole expressing sadness over it with the twice mentioned nya scene and many points where he tries to grab someone and fails but i think it’s nice how it’s not all bad and if he hadnt been a ghost then nimbus would’ve def killed the ninja right. i love how cole regularly like... forgets he’s a ghost. he forgets he can walk through walls and stuff now and possess things like ykno a ghost because it just kinda feels. in character for him to forget once he figures out how to make himself tangible. it’s funny. my favorite is in the ice labyrinth where he throws himself through a wall and slides across the floor to knock morro over.

he and kai got a lot of milage out of both being afraid of water this season. real bonding moment to make the guy who cant swim and the guy who will be vaporized if he touches water consistently the ones closest to water. kai gets a new gimmick to be grouchy about every season and i love that for him <3

talking abt kai again actually. love how he’s the one who ultimately saves lloyd and cheers on nya bcuz he’s. their big bro. he’s the first person who vowed to protect lloyd and by god he’s STICKIGN to that. i love that.

okay i think that’s everything i wanted to talk abt here. this is def my longest season review so far. because this season just SLAPS i understand now. i understand. this season fucks.

Hello friend. At first, I thought it was a joke that there's a Lego show that people love. I've seen you post about it a lot so I figure it's just one of those things that maybe a couple people really really love otherwise, whatever. But I just sat that clip of that characters death and it made me realize I know nothing about anything ever lol. What is the Lego show about? What do you love about it? I'm just super curious

Well. Okay. My embarrassment aside, I totally get it—it is a lego show, but it's my lego show and I'll gladly tell you about it!

(my apologies this got a little long)

*inhales cigarette* I remember starting to watch lmk (Lego Monkie Kid) and not expecting anything except some very pretty animation—it's just legos, right? And then it completely blindsided me. Then I did some digging and realized it's a modern retelling of Journey to the West (jttw—one of the great classic chinese novels), and that half of the whole reason this show exists is to retell a familiar tale to the modern age. That's how the show opens, and that's how s3 ends.

And, at the risk of sounding a little deranged, I'm going to say that the show being legos is thematically relevant. It legitimately adds to part of the story they're trying to tell—and the story Lego Monkie Kid is trying to tell is legitimately very solid. It's super good. They completely blew me out of the water with season 4.

So. The first special and s1 isn't anything too unique on a first watch through. The characters are charming and the show is very pretty, but it's nothing I'd write home about (though, 1x09 is very good—in my opinion—and 1x10, the season finale, builds plenty of intrigue).

But here's the thing: legitimately so much is set up in s1 and you don't even realize it, and it's STILL being re-contextualized well into s4.

So, then the s2 special happens right after s1, and it's like, alright! The plot seems to be going somewhere! We get introduced to a few more antagonists and the status quo from s1 is already somewhat disrupted. But then the last half of s2 comes around. And they're all bangers. 2x05 Minor Scale is GREAT. 2x06 is pure game motif. 2x07 gives us backstory and continues the main protags negative character arc. 2x08 is one of my favorites in the whole show. By this point you realize how consistent the character writing is if you've been paying attention. 2x09 is the beginning of the end. 2x10 ends the season on quite the cliff hanger, and it's like. HOLY SHIT. WHAT IS THIS ABSOLUTE GEM OF A SHOW.

s3 is lovely, and the end of the s3 special has one of my favorite scenes in anything. s4 is so ridiculously good. Lmk honestly has what I would consider to be god tier pacing. They have 10 minutes to achieve their goal, and by GOD are they going to do exactly that.

But like, what do I love about the show specifically?

The animation. The characters. The themes. I kid you not a major theme in s4 of the show is the fact that every single thing you do leads to pain. Being the hero or the villain, it doesn't matter—you cause suffering and destruction with every step you take. You hurt the people you care about. No, seriously. I'm not kidding. THAT'S one of the main focuses of s4, and oh boy is it a wild ride. You get used to legos crying. I am unironically expecting s5 of this show to be a tragedy.

I can not recommend it enough!

(If it's your thing that is! I TOTALLY get not being able to look past the legos, and the fast pacing isn't for everyone.)

Anyways, here's a bonus gif of Mei to end off!