Tumgik
#Ninjago Overlord
so-sures-blog · 3 months
Text
Icebound
Tumblr media
icebound definition: surrounded, obstructed, or covered by ice.
In which Zane uses his element against the Overlord to save the city and his friends. Because it wasn’t about numbers, it was about family.
❄️🩵❄️🩵❄️🩵❄️
It is the end, and Zane knows it.
The Overlord is conquering Ninjago City, webs of gold stringing across buildings like Christmas lights and tying up his friends like flies. They struggle, but it is useless under the might of the Overlord.
Zane flips out of the way of a golden band reaching to ensnare him and lands on a roof. All of his friends are tied up, and only Zane is free. He knows what he has to do. He is the only one who can.
“Support me, friends. For one last time.”
He takes a running leap off the ledge, and Jay flips midair so his feet plant squarely on top of his. Then Cole, Lloyd, Kai, Sensei Garmadon, and Wu.
He soars, flying straight at the Overlord, and grabs onto his golden fangs.
Immediately, he feels its power, and its agony. Pain rips into every crevice of his body; his jolts rattle and shake and his wires spark under his skin.
“Let my friends go!” Zane shouts.
“Go where, Doomed Ninja?” The Overlord sneers. Its eyes, red and hateful, glare into him.
Zane writhes under the immense pain and power. His body cannot handle it, he knows, and he feels himself falling apart under it.
“The Golden Weapons are too powerful for you to behold. Your survival chance is low.”
But Zane isn’t trying to hold them. He’s trying to destroy them.
He thinks of his brothers. He thinks of PIXAL. He thinks of his father. He thinks of an old man with long white hair as pure as snow and ice blue eyes that visited him a long time ago, who had come and left as quickly as winter did and had breathed that power into him because he saw him worthy of it.
“This … isn’t about numbers … It's about family!”
The golden webs holding the Ninja fall and they escape. He can hear them screaming, telling him to let go, and he thanks them for that. Wu and Garmadon grab onto them and yank them back, away from the oncoming destruction.
His core — his heart — started reaching critical mass. Frost began creeping upon the Overlord’s fangs. Something blue and blinding in his heart freezes under his power, and Zane embraces it. It's his power. His choice.
“I am a Nindroid. And Ninja never quit. Go Ninja … go!”
He is the Master of Ice. He was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves. He stands for peace, freedom, and courage in the face of all who threaten Ninjago.
Frostbite burns his skin away; jolt and wires freeze under the cold; until he is left completely bare.
The last glimpse they get of Zane is him surrounded by a blizzard of his own making, bright and beautiful like a supernova. Burning blue and white with the terrible brilliance of his own determined choice.
Zane died; not as a machine, not as a human, not as a tool of anyone or anything — but as himself. Zane died to save the ones he loves.
And woke up as something completely different.
❄️🩵❄️🩵❄️🩵❄️
PIXAL climbs her way up the steep cliff side, careful to place her foot in secure crevices in case she slipped and fell from the icy mountain. Heavy snow blinded her vision as the blizzard whipped around her, but she kept her pace steady and sure.
It had been months since she had left Ninjago City and began her search. Months since Zane’s death and memorial. PIXAL knew, logically, that she should be back there, properly mourning him. But she could not.
He had never given up on her, not when she was under the Overlord’s control or when she was struggling with the newness of emotions.
And that meant she could never give up on him.
When she had first met Zane, she became more than a machine meant to function. He was vital to her, and she was a part of him.
She carried half his heart, and against all logical explanations, she knew he was still alive.
She did not tell the Ninja of her suspicions: the immediate aftermath of Zane’s loss had been devastating. She’d watched as the team fractured, splitting at the seams as they all fled their separate ways, too heartsore and dizzy with grief to do much otherwise. She did not tell Cyrus Borg where she was going either, for she knew if he begged her to stay, she would.
If she had told them she had seen a snowy wraith emerge from the destruction of the frozen, apocalyptic atmosphere on the rooftop, she would have been told she had imagined it due to her grief.
And while she was grieving, she was not imagining it. She is a Nindroid, and she did not have an imagination. PIXAL was built to observe, to analyze, to collect data and gather information. She built theories and hypothesized, not assumed.
So she followed the signs. She kept track of all weather anomalies that happened across Ninjago — sudden snowstorms, cold drops in temperatures that swept through small villages and towns. It led her all across the country until it ended here, with her climbing up the frozen, snow-peaked mountain.
Finally, PIXAL arrived at her destination.
The Ice Temple.
Slowly, she makes her way towards it. Her sensors indicate the temperature dropping the closer she gets. For a normal human, they would have already gotten frostbite without the proper equipment and numb with it, but PIXAL was made of metal. The cold did not bother her.
She peers into the glacial architecture, but does not enter. Or more like, she is unable to. It feels as if there is some sort of force of winter that is keeping her at bay.
“Zane?” Hope finds its way into the desperation of her voice. Freezing winds whip her hair out of its ponytail and against the purple circuits on her cheeks, but she barely notices. “Is that you?”
There’s nothing except for the howling wind, then her eyes catch movement. Slowly, almost like a ghost, a figure starts to come closer, making a shape against the blizzard.
If PIXAL had lungs, all the air would have rushed out of them.
A being made of pure winter floated in front of her. Formed of ice and frost and molded by the wind, it stood there and looked at her. Opaque ice carved the face that has been imprinted in her memory drives, the one she had traveled across the entire world to see again.
It was frozen, and beautiful, and Zane.
Inside her neural drive, alarms were blaring into her system, flashing behind her eyes. Warning: Severe weather alert. Temperature reaching sub-zero levels. Retreat into a warmer climate —
PIXAL shut off the notifications.
“Hello,” she says. Zane does not move. She dares a step closer. “Do you recognize me?”
He says nothing, so PIXAL continues on. It feels like their roles were reversed when they first met: she, the one struck speechless by the other’s beauty. Him, stoic to it all.
“I’m PIXAL, the Primary Interactive X-ternal Assistant Lifeform. I’m a … friend. I came searching for you to bring you home. There are things about you that you don’t understand. That you have yet to discover. I am here to help you remember.”
Zane is quiet, but she senses that he is listening. Something glowing in her chest aches.
“It is alright if you don’t remember me,” PIXAL says. She cannot cry, but is she would she could. She is still new to emotions, and many are overwhelming her: joy and grief and something fierce and pure deep in her heart. “I remember you. And we are still compatible.”
Zane tilts his head and drifts closer. The snow slows its fall, the wind stopping altogether. Snowflakes gently coat her hair. Now that he is closer, she can see the differences that make him unlike the old Zane: he doesn’t have the one dimple on the right side of his cheek, or the small beauty mark on his collarbone, or the tiny scar on his index finger from his shuriken.
But he is still Zane, even as an icy spirit.
She held out a hand. “Your brothers miss you very much. Will you come back with me, Zane?”
He is silent, staring at her. Unlike before, it is impossible to know what he is thinking. She gazes up at him, imploring. His eyes have no irises or pupils, so she is simply staring up at pinpricks of pure blue light.
Slowly, his hand reaches out of her.
BANG!
A loud sound echoes across the ice, and out of nowhere chains of Vengestone come flying out and capture him.
Fear slams into her. “Zane!” PIXAL cries.
Ice races out from his body and across the chains as Zane struggles, but no matter what, he can’t break them.
PIXAL whips around to face the assailant.
A man in his thirties, wrapped in a thick parka to prevent the cold and wearing a red mask. He has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing a dyed red straw hat, and under it she can see he is hiding an eyepatch.
“What are you doing?” PIXAL shouts. Anger — an emotion she rarely feels — burns through her.
The man lowers his gun and pulls out another one before she can even blink.
“Sorry, sweetheart. Just following orders.”
Before she can question what that means, he fires. A net tangles her limbs together and brings her down against the cold snow. Before she can fight against it, electricity courses through her.
And then everything went black.
469 notes · View notes
woffles-4-waffles · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
"long time no see"
579 notes · View notes
garden-bug · 4 months
Text
I love the Ninjago art style development because NO FUCKING WONDER -
Tumblr media
clarification cause this does not represent my feelings on the change and I don’t trust people to realise that:
it’s funny they did it but I prefer the design from before
622 notes · View notes
twigs-sprigs · 7 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
oops i dropped my comic on the ground oops uh oh! (no, there wont be a part 2, i just wanted to post a tidbit of my second reverse pa au that i mentioned)
also for context haeyeon is brad's mom. she is no longer alive.
587 notes · View notes
phantomrev · 15 days
Note
OMGGG dragon reqs ... can u draw the overlord dragon ...
Tumblr media
I want his set ngl
Only because he looks like a Mole rat <3
235 notes · View notes
iloveacronix · 3 months
Text
Of course, there's more deleted concepts, but these are some that I often think about, especially Echo Zane(my precious baby) turning out to be Mr. E(would've been so cool), Lloyd killing the Overlord by himself after Garmadon's death, and Nadakhan coming back. Imagine Jay seeing Nadakhan again? Him having flashbacks would've been lit. I also think about Ronin's daughter- actually, I think I made her design like last year in my mind(since she was never introduced). I'll see if I can re-design her if im in the mood, all I remember is that I made her red head. Red heads are rad. Dunno if I should consider her as an oc, even if Ronin DID mention his family in Way of the Departed, im still not sure if its canon or not.
243 notes · View notes
styxz1el8 · 4 months
Text
Tumblr media
almost forgot to show but uhh overlord design
304 notes · View notes
deadlock · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
not elaborating on this
184 notes · View notes
xynczachrome · 1 year
Text
Tumblr media
Stained Glass Series: Zane's Sacrifice
2K notes · View notes
destinysbounty · 8 months
Text
Ever since Crystalized came out, there's been this theory circulating that the reason the Overlord somehow managed to manifest crystal power seemingly out of nowhere and with no explanation (at least, none that I can find/remember), is because his fight with Zane affected his power in some way.
The main evidence for this is that:
Zane was the last person to fight the Overlord
Ice is technically a crystalline structure, depending on how it's formed, and Zane is the master of ice
When Harumi was first resurrected, she found the Overlord's spirit imbued into a purple crystal
As evidenced by past seasons, the Overlord's power seems to be influenced by his circumstances and environment in the wake of his last defeat. During Rebooted, a tech center was built over his resting place, and he ended up taking on the abilities and limitations of a computer virus. And in this case, the theory suggests that the Overlord's power was then influenced again by all the ice surrounding him as Zane destroyed both of their physical forms.
This does, to some extent, seem to fall in line with everything else we know about the Overlord. The Overlord is a being of shadow and darkness, and the shape of a shadow will always be influenced by the light around it. (And if we want to get into the theory that the Overlord was created as a result of the FSM trying to purge the oni blood from his veins, then you could even bring up the fact that the oni are shapeshifters sooo).
Now, I'll be the first to admit that this theory is ultimately pretty circumstantial, and there's nothing in canon to point to it being explicitly true. BUT, the cool thing about this theory is that it does also retroactively solve another big fandom mystery: that is, it explains how Zane survived his fight with the Overlord.
Let me explain.
When Zane came back to life after his fight with the Digital Overlord, while it was never outright explained how he did so, it was implied that he came back the same way the Overlord had: by spiritually manifesting within the systems at Borg Tower - specifically, the Digiverse. But that doesn't really answer the question, does it?
Like, the Overlord coming back as a spiritual manifestation makes sense. He's a regenerative being, an immortal abstraction of all the evil in the world. And Zane, as far as we know, is very much not that. So what could have happened to cause Zane, a nindroid, to end up being resurrected in the same way as the god of darkness? Why did he come back to life, instead of passing onto the afterlife? Even Lloyd, the special-est boy in all Ninjago, made a quick visit to the Departed Realm and only came back because the FSM said he could.
And true, it's certainly possible that Zane had a similar encounter with the FSM. Or that his power source is responsible for his resurrection, and just as we may never know how his power source works he may also never know how it brought him back to life. Those are all very possible solutions, and you're welcome to just accept those ideas and move one.
But if you're like me and you don't find those answers particularly satisfying, here's another possibility:
Just as Zane's power has influenced the Overlord, the Overlord's power has influenced Zane. In the explosion of Golden Power that caused both of them to be destroyed in unison, their souls became intertwined. So yes, Zane was meant to die. And judging by his account of the situation in Decoded, he did die. And maybe a peaceful afterlife was well within arm's reach, maybe he was just about to grab the FSM's hand...but then something pulled him back. His soul, chained to the Overlord's dark power, dragged him to the land of the living once more.
And if you really want to get into it, then you could even theorize that this connection ended up influencing Zane's power as well. During the Ice Chapter he was capable of turning people into ice samurai zombie-things kept under his control, as well as creating ice constructs like Boreal. These are not abilities that have been established in the ice power-set, nor are they logical powers for an ice elemental to have. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the Forbidden Scroll doesn't give you new powers, it just enhances and turbo-boosts what you already have. Which is why it did nothing when Kai held it, as his power had been stolen from him at the time.
(Now before you ask why Pixal could use the Scroll despite seeminlgy not having any powers, there are very subtle implications that she had developed a very, very minor sixth sense due to her inheriting some of Zane's power. If anyone wants me to explain that in greater detail, I'd be more than happy to.)
And yes, Aspheera is also capable of creating elemental zombie/mummy things and other such constructs, but she did all that before she found the Scroll. This is a power-set she had by virtue of her being a powerful sorcerer, not something granted by wielding the Scroll.
And yet somehow, the Scroll did seem to give Zane these powers. Powers that so far have only been exhibited by two people in the series: Aspheera, and the Overlord. So if we submit to the theory that Zane and the Overlord's fight have caused their powers to mix a little, and the Scroll magnifies your power....well, it suddenly becomes very possible that the Scroll amplified some of the dark energy he inherited from the Overlord and awakened some of the Ice Emperor's more unique abilities.
And if that's true, then that really just kinda makes the whole Ice Emperor sting that much more. All of the good things Zane has done, all of his biggest sacrifices, all led to this moment. To him becoming the Ice Emperor.
I dunno. It's just something to think about.
494 notes · View notes
Text
Finally putting these ideas into post form
so we know how the overlord is commonly accepted to be scared shitless of zane, that being the reason he put three anti-zane villains on his council, because he killed him for a lot longer than lloyd did. But i think there might be some more to that. See, the overlord knew of the prophecy and thus the possibility of losing to lloyd. So maybe he kept a backup plan, choosing a place that would allow him to come back easier for the final battle, which is where borg tower was built which enabled his return, and maybe even keeping some of his powers in reserve for that. He was still weakened of course, but he had a backup plan. And then after his fight with lloyd, there was no more prophecy as it had already come true, so there was nothing stopping him. This is where Zane comes in. Zane was never destined to defeat the overlord. And this was already the overlord‘s backup plan, so when Zane defeated him, not only had he no way to return for a long time, he also did not expect it. That is what i believe to be one of the main reasons the overlord was so scared of zane, thank you for coming to my TED talk
107 notes · View notes
maydayissleepy · 6 months
Text
What if the Overlord was just a shapeshifting creature I think that would be cool
Tumblr media
And and and what if the Overlord changed forms depending on who it was around for better or worse impressions. wouldn't that be such an interesting plot device
344 notes · View notes
the-ninjago-historian · 3 months
Text
Tumblr media
Art of the Overlord's dragon form! Yikes!😱😱😱
146 notes · View notes
nyaskitten · 5 months
Text
i have an idea ... reblog this with a drawing of how YOUD imagine overlord-possessed lloyd would look (HAS to be your own art, I know others here have their own overlord-lloyd design, so no reblogging with their art!!!!)
183 notes · View notes
sepublic · 29 days
Text
Alright hear me out. Pythor x Overlord yaoi. Think about it. The only people the Overlord has really interacted with are yes-men he created to serve him, such as Kozu and Cryptor, or people he's manipulated after rescuing at a low point in their lives, so Garmadon and Harumi.
Pythor is different; He's someone wholly independent of the Overlord, who went out of his way to find and rescue him, totally of his own volition. The Overlord might not have even known Pythor existed up until they met. Others, the Overlord has had to control and take advantage of, but him and Pythor are always on the same track, there's no moral hesitation on his end. They have an evil laugh together, the Overlord outright tells Pythor that he likes him.
Of course Kozu and Cryptor do everything for the Overlord, they were made for that. Pythor CHOSE to be unconditionally loyal. He says he wants the Overlord as a means of revenge against the ninja, but he still took a bullet for the Overlord, which necessitated Zane's sacrifice. Maybe Pythor was more assured of the Overlord's ability to destroy the ninja than his own, and was willing to die for vengeance because what else does he have left?
He's an outcast by Serpentine standards; In the canon Pythor's Revenge book, part of his motives for stealing the BorgWatch ahead of its release was to impress his fellow Serpentine into letting him back in, but they don't. Everyone blames Pythor for nearly getting them killed, he's hated by his own kind now, and was evidently somewhat of a black sheep even amongst his own Anacondrai, who eventually did recognize him at the end of S4.
Does Pythor even know what he's doing with his life anymore, or is he just angry and bitter and looking for an outlet? Has he been driven twice mad, first by surviving the starvation and Donner Party cannibalism of his kind, and then burning inside of the Great Devourer? He was all alone after the Great Devourer, vulnerable and having to take care of himself.
Maybe he sees himself in the Overlord, someone considered an absolute monster with nobody else on his side, who just wants to lash out at the world. Maybe there's a kinship between the two, where Pythor gives him the helper he himself needed. Multiple times, he is the Overlord's savior, when usually it is the other way around between the Overlord and his found champion; There are times where HE is guiding the Overlord with advice, having a grounded, mortal perspective that he needs. The Overlord has had minions and pawns, but him and Pythor genuinely feel like an equal standing.
Don't you think it's kinda sus that the Overlord trusts Pythor more with his damaged condition, than the Nindroid he literally programmed to serve him? He knew Cryptor longer. But Pythor's willing, unconditional loyalty really is something else; I think the Overlord's never had a mortal choose to be on his side without coercion of some kind, so he's like his first real friend. The only person he actually respects enough to listen to; Someone the Overlord trusts to intimately hide in the body of, over any other mechanical means up until this point. Maybe he was just sick of robotic confines and wanted to feel flesh. But maybe…!
Cryptor is wary of Pythor and learning the Overlord really did trust this Serpentine more than his own creation is frustrating to him. He thinks they're both vying for paternal affection from the Overlord. On Cryptor's end, that is the case. But for Pythor, he, um. Fucked that old man.
In Crystalized, I kinda see the Overlord as replacing the twisted paternal role that Harumi tried to place Garmadon into. So in addition to any possibly objections over the mastermind of her parents' demise being on C.O.C.K., not only is the Overlord justifying it by explaining that Pythor is loyal, but also. Also he's his husband. Evil purple couple. By extension that makes Pythor her dad, her fourth dad. Harumi has to explain to Mr. F that Pythor fucked her dad.
72 notes · View notes
senseioftheseidiots · 7 months
Text
Screenshot redraw ill NEVER finish
why? LOOK AT IT. WHAT WAS I THINKING
Tumblr media
188 notes · View notes