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destinygoldenstar · 10 months

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How Ninjago Hands Of Time Fails At Dialogue (And how I would fix it)

"Long time no see."

"Wu? You look... old. As if your best days have passed. Unlike your monastery."

"I still have plenty left in me. Care to finish what we started? I've been waiting ages."

"Really? Doesn't feel that long to me."

"This ends now."

That sounds WRONG, right? This is one of the first dialogue exchanges in the entire season, and it sounds wrong.

How Season 7 of Ninjago FAILS at dialogue. (And how to fix it)

Now, just a disclaimer here, this is NOT a review of the entire season. I'm not diving into the story or the characters or the animation here. I'm ONLY focusing on how the DIALOGUE was written.

It's actually much different than talking about the story being written. You could have the best story ever told, but if you accompany it with bad dialogue that feels unnatural, the story gets buried. I feel like that is the EXACT reason why people don't get invested in Season 7's story. It's not because of the actual story, it's the dialogue.

Because there actually IS a good story on paper here. Wu faces consequences for his wisdom and overly-responsible tendencies, Kai and Nya are discovering the history of their family, and overall there's a message of time and age and how that should or shouldn't affect you now.

But the dialogue fails to convey this, and thus what good story there is gets buried. (Not saying Hands of Time is a 10/10 story for Ninjago, but it's not an awful one)

And this seems to be a huge problem that distracts me only in THIS season. This isn't an overall issue Ninjago has. Some of my favorite seasons understands dialogue perfectly well.

"Why would you touch the creepy picture JAY?!"

"I didn't know it would do that COLE!"

That's probably not the best example but I love it.

But Hands of Time is where they really dropped the ball with how to write effective dialogue. I'm gonna show the lines of a scene in Episode 3, in the Krux & Kai fight where Krux tells Kai about his parents being traitors. Tell me if this dialogue sounds natural to you.

"My parents helped Wu and Garmadon defeat you once. I will do it again."

"Is that what you think?"

"That's what I know. Master Wu told me."

"You were not there young ninja, I was. Your parents were. And Wu. He's told you a lie. Your parents were not who you think they are. They didn't fight against us, they fought with us."

"What? Can't be. They were heroes!"

"They were heroes, but heroes for our side."

"I don't believe you. Master Wu would never lie!"

"Surely that's why he didn't want you to know the truth."

That sounds wrong, right? Like these two don't talk like they're currently trying to beat each other against a wall. Which is what's happening action-wise in the scene. The dialogue actively interrupts the fight.

But story-wise, the scene should be quite good and devastating. Krux is telling Kai a harsh truth that his parents were traitors to the elemental masters, and Kai doesn't believe him because he's the bad guy. It's a moment of denial and anger towards the disrespect for his family's 'legacy' for Kai, and a moment of taunting to weaken the opponent for Krux.

But the dialogue fails to convey the emotion that needs to be dealt in the scene.

And I didn't even show the full context here. Krux goes on the BLATANTLY EXPLAIN the clues as to why he's telling the truth. In context, Kai's parents are alive and still his slaves, and if he really doesn't want drive Kai to learn that fact, you'd think he'd leave the truth that they're traitors at that and just use it as an emotional weak point. Seriously, you're basically ASKING to lose your blacksmiths for your army.

(You could argue that he'd use the info to lure Kai and Nya in to force them to get the Reversal Time Blade in the boiling sea for them, which is what they do later, but in context of the story, Krux doesn't know where that time blade is yet)

So how do we fix this scene?

Well one, we make make the dialogue make sense for the character.

"Let's teach these two a lesson on sibling rivalry!"

Nya, you are fighting WITH your brother on equal ground, not against him. LEARN WHAT THE WORD RIVALRY MEANS.

And, we improve on the SUBTEXT of the moment.

Based on Wikipedia's explanation:

'Subtext is any content of a creative work which is not announced explicitly (by characters or author) but is implicit, or becomes something understood by the audience.'

Dialogue is almost always carried by the emotions of the two characters exchanging the dialogue. The setting could play a role, or the action could play a role. Maybe the two dialogue exchangers are in a quiet room together sharing a heart to heart, and I'll get to a scene like that later. Or in this context, they're in a museum, they're to beat each other up, and Krux is using the fact of Kai's parents being traitors to get a weak point.

So I'm going to rewrite this scene, with the only difference is that subtext is now added.

So we have Kai and Krux in the museum in a fight. Cyrus Borg is on the floor tied up and Kai is trying to reach him. He gets kicked away by Krux before he could reach him. Kai gets up and his eyes meet the portrait of his parents. It's shown on his face that his ideology of them motivates him. Krux tries to grab Cyrus and make an escape, but Kai grabs a nearby prop sword to throw at him and get his attention back.

Kai swears to him: "I'll finish the fight they started. I'll stand for what Wu, mom, dad, and all of them fought for!"

And he charges at Krux with a fire-based attack. Krux blocks it and pins him to the floor. In the struggle, Krux gazes at the portrait of Kai's parents and smiles in a very smug way.

Krux then says: "Then you'll be fighting alongside us. Just like your parents did."

Kai is caught off guard by his claim, shock all over his face. All he can give off is a "What?!" Before he's thrown off and slammed into the wall. The portrait of his parents is behind him, and while Kai is down, Krux approaches to add to the taunting, using the painting as a reference.

Krux taunts: "You weren't there, young one. These paintings of honor don't tell the full story of who your family was. What they represented. Wu may not want you to know the truth, but I'll tell you."

The whole time, Kai, on the ground, tries to punch, kick, and spew fire at Krux, but again and again it's blocked, and Krux only approaches closer, his claims echoing in the room, and Kai's head, disorienting him.

"Your parents were TRAITORS. They were DECEITFUL. They were ENEMIES TO THE MASTERS. They fought for OUR CAUSE. They BETRAYED EVERYONE THEY CARED FOR TO SAVE THEIR OWN SKIN."

Kai gets smacked to the corner, and Krux has him pinned again, a smug as ever grin on his face in seeing Kai distraught, confused, scared, and breathing heavily.

Krux asks, "And you want to be like that?"

With Kai's body pretty much molded into the painting by this point, there's a few seconds that focuses only on Kai's expression. His teeth get more gritted, and his fist (claw, thing, you know what I mean) is clenched and burning red under his glove.

Kai then grits, the first time in a quiet bit of anger, "You're a liar."

Krux gives a smug, "Hm?"

And suddenly, Krux is thrown back by a punch of heat. Kai is now the one charging at Krux, trying to slash fire from his fist everywhere. The whole time, he's screaming, "YOU'RE A LIAR! A LIAR! THEY WOULD NEVER! YOU LIE!!"

And from his anger getting the better of him, he doesn't notice Krux pulling a smart move to get him off of him and thrown to the floor.

All Krux can give is a reply, "And you're a fool."

Then Acronix shows up.

See that? That's how you use subtext to get the scene's point across.

It's not good. But it's better, it doesn't spoonfeed info, and it doesn't pause the action.

I could go on with nearly all of the scenes in this season, but lets not.

A pet peeve I have is when people talk to themselves for no reason. Sometimes it's effective, other times, it's...

"Wait. There is a better place. A scrapyard. Like the one that belongs... to my parents!"

Jay is talking to NOBODY.

This is blatant explanation on why Jay separates from the group. We the audience KNOW Jay's parents are from a junkyard. So we the audience can FIGURE OUT OURSELVES that Jay's parents are in danger from this. We don't need Jay to tell us.

You just flat out don't need this line. Just have Jay go the opposite way. The next episode SHOWS that Jay is going to his parent's scrapyard. So if that line wasn't said, it would be a mystery cliffhanger for Episode 4 as to why Jay left, if you can't figure it out yourself, and Episode 5 proceeds to answer your question by SHOWING why Jay left by showing him arriving at his parent's junkyard.

In moments like this, sometimes no words is better.

OR, I get Jay is characterized to be talkative. If that's the issue, have him tell one of the other ninja, ANY of the other ninja, doesn't matter who, that he's going to the junkyard to save his parents.

So let's say he tells this to Cole, just an RNG.

Cole notices Jay is driving the other direction, and asks, "Jay, where are you going?"

Jay answers, "There's another place they could get metal. You know where."

Cole, who KNOWS Jay's parents are from a junkyard, realizes what he's talking about. He asks, "Are you sure?"

Jay answers, "Yes. Go with them, I'll contact you if any of those snakes show up."

Then Jay speeds off, and Cole, reluctantly, goes with the other ninja.

Boom. Subtext. AND it's good characterization to show these characters trust each other. Bonus.

And we DON'T have characters TALKING TO THE VOID.

Same with this:

"There's only one person who could possibly understand what I'm going through."

Kai. Buddy. You are talking to a HELMET.

Do you need to see a therapist?

(Clearly the answer is yes after this season.)

The next scene with him SHOWS that Kai is talking to Skylar, so why did they TELL us?

And Kai does not have the excuse of being a talkative character. We KNOW what Kai is like when he does talk to himself. It's when he's parading in a Green Ninja outfit with his head in the clouds. This is supposed to be a serious moment, so why would Kai be talking to himself?

(To be fair, this is far from the worst instance of Kai being OOC in the show)

All I ask is that characters talking to themselves makes sense and is consistent.

Speaking of his dialogue with Skylar, I wanted to talk about that:

"It's just so... shocking. To find out that your father, someone you've idolized your entire life, turns out to be... there's no other word for it... evil. It makes you question everything you know, everything you are. Which is why I came to you. Because you went through the same thing and I-"

This sounds WRONG. Like, nobody talks like this, especially after what Kai's been going through. If you saw two people in a restaurant talking to each other like this, you'd raise an eyebrow.

Because again, SUBTEXT, WHAT'S THAT?!

Skylar is Kai's girlfriend, right? Or, there was nothing that said they were not dating, and they're clearly keeping in touch. Plus, forget we the audience already knowing it for a moment, Kai, the character, KNOWS that Skylar went through the same thing as he is. HE WAS THERE WHEN SHE WENT THROUGH IT. He's talking to her because he knows that, he trusts her, and he needs someone to vent to and talk to. From the context alone, we already KNOW why Kai is here. We don't need him to tell us. Skylar doesn't even need Kai to tell her that she went through the same thing. SHE KNOWS HER FATHER SUCKED. SHE NEEDS NO REMINDER.

There's also an issue with vocabulary. Depending on the character, vocabulary plays a bit of a role in dialogue. If a character is incredibly smart, like Zane, then you can see him using bigger words. (Zane also has an excuse with him being a robot) But if a character isn't characterized as that, then they won't be saying bigger words.

"Someone you've idolized" Is how I expect Zane to word it. Not Kai.

"Someone you looked up to" Works better for Kai.

(I'm not saying Kai is dumb or anything like that. I'm saying he's impulsive and often speaks and acts before he thinks, so he wouldn't be thinking of big words to use.)

And mind you, that's just the OPENING LINE of the scene.

So let me rewrite this bit with subtext, and show the bond between these two characters without telling.

So Kai at first is seated by himself at the table, staring off into space lost in thought.

Skylar then shows up with a tray of noodles for herself, him, and Nya (who shows up later in the scene).

She tells him softly, "Sorry for the wait. It's a busy night tonight. Should've told me you were coming, I would've gotten that spice you liked last time."

Kai doesn't answer, still staring off into space. Skylar notices it, and takes a seat across from him.

She puts her hand on his and asks, "Are you okay?"

Kai, from her touch, notices her and snaps back to reality. He takes a pause to figure out how to approach it, and only sighs, "Oh, you know. Classic ninja truth bombs going off. The usual."

Skylar doesn't buy his poor attempt at a joke, and she's about to ask what he means-

But then he cuts her off and asks, "How long have you known your dad was evil? Before we showed up, I mean."

Skylar, a little confused, answers, "Um... I'd say it's a deep down thing when I knew. Not exactly a social place on his island. Why do you ask?"

Kai then opens up, asking her, "When the person you look up to is... horrible... what went through your head?"

Skylar hesitates to answer. She doesn't know what to say. Her answer gets cut off when Nya shows up.

There you go. It's not Shakesphere, but it's something better. Utilizing Skylar in the scene and having her talk to him.

In the original scene, Nya blatantly states that Skylar is the head of this restaurant they're at.

But with this rewrite of the scene, we actually DO get that information WITHOUT it FEELING like we're being told it.

Skylar is acting as a waitress at the start. "It's a busy night tonight." Tells is that Skylar works at the restaurant place. And we know she's the head of it because in Season 4 she said that was what her dream lied. So we don't need her to say that.

"Should've told me you were coming, I would've gotten that spice you liked last time." This line gives info that Kai somewhat came unannounced, and also tells us that they do see each other. "I would've gotten that spice you liked last time." Tells us that Kai comes here often, and sees her often. It also tells us that Kai like spices, or just he likes his noodles a certain way.

We also see how Skylar puts her hand on him and softly speaks to him that these two are close. That they are romantically involved. Or, maybe that's not explicitly said and vague enough to have that not be the case. But it still says they care about each other. They trust each other. Kai is here because he trusts her, and it's shown to us why he does.

Kai is lost in thought before she shows up because there is a lot going through his head. We know why, so all we need is his facial expression to show that.

"Oh, you know. Classic ninja truth bombs going off. The usual." We can infer he vents to Skylar quite a bit. Especially with the half-baked joke tone he uses, because he doesn't know how to approach it to her.

"I'd say it's a deep down thing when I knew. Not exactly a social place on his island." This is actually NOT information the audience had yet. We knew Skylar's dad was evil, but we didn't know her exact headspace. So this is added characterization. Skylar lived on an isolated island with her father and a snake cult for a huge majority of her life. We could believe her words when she admits she was very lonely there. But her father was her only influence so while she could comprehend he was in the wrong, she felt as though she had no choice but to be like him until Kai showed up.

That's all you need. You DON'T need Nya to say "Look at her, she could've inherited her father Chen's evil empire and ruled the world, but instead dedicated her life to spending her day bent over a hot stove to provide low lost quality noodles to the people of Ninjago City."

Even Skylar, in the scene, is annoyed by her words. Just don't have Nya say that at all. Just have her say "Skylar's right, look how she turned out." And then the scene's dialogue is better and subtext is there.

THAT is how you write effective dialogue.

The worst thing you can do is treat your audience like they're babies and don't understand anything. I know this show is for kids, but kids are smarter than you think. It's even worse in this show's case, because 90% of the audience is people who have SEEN the previous seasons. At this point, they KNOW certain stuff about the show's world. It's really bad when you're THIS late into a show, and then it suddenly treat its audience like idiots. Like they can't possibly understand what's clearly being shown, or what was established before.

Nya blatantly says that she now trusts the new Samurai X and that they're worthy of the armor. Gee, I couldn't tell from her actions. Nya explains why she kept her Samurai form a secret all that time ago. It's not like we SAW her as Samurai for FOUR SEASONS. (No, the character she's saying this to doesn't excuse it. She doesn't know it's P.I.X.A.L, but she knows it's someone she met before at this point. She knows they saw her in action.)

And before you say Ninjago as always done dialogue without subtext. NO. They have NOT. They HAVE used subtext.

Look at Season 8 with the fight between Lloyd and Garmadon. One of the BEST scenes in the WHOLE SHOW. There is very little dialogue here. It's all subtext. We SEE Lloyd refusing to fight and lose himself, we see his emotion, we see Garmdon's cold stone faced expression. It makes the actual dialogue exchange everyone remembers from the scene hit SO MUCH HARDER.

"It's me, your son."

"I have no son."

THAT is a GREAT way to use affective dialogue. That's all that needs to be said.

But again and again, this season fails at understanding subtext, and my gosh does it ruin the story being told here.

(The Wu nightmare scene is, well, a dialogue nightmare)

You know why I hate Delicious Party Pretty Cure so much? Subtext is flat out just not a thing.

The elephant in the room there is the random narrator blatantly telling us what is going on. No charisma. No context as to why this happens. Nothing.

Saying that they're at an art museum. Gee, I couldn't tell.

Saying that Rosemary is sad. Huh, couldn't notice that.

I actually got ENRAGED at a few moments because of this. And it's not just the narrator, the dialogue leaves little to no room for subtext.

It's not all of Pretty Cure. It's JUST this season. This really truly thinks its audience is a bunch of idiots. They can't possibly understand anything.

When I write my dialogue. I like to rely on the emotion needing to be shown in the scene.

For clarification, I'm going to rewrite the scene in Ninjago Hands of Time that I think was RUINED by bad dialogue THE MOST. When if the dialogue did it justice, it would've been emotionally powerful.

That's in Episode 8. The Smith Family Reunion.

Ray: "Who are you? What do you want?"

Kai: "I want justice!" (Fancy line, but not what I'd say to my long lost father who I think is an enemy)

Ray: "You're red like a Vermillion warrior. But you're no snake." (Thanks, couldn't tell)

Kai: "No... but you are. Traitor!"

Ray: "You've messed with the wrong blacksmith my friend." (Just... cringe)

Kai: "I'm not your friend!"

Ray: "Firepower?! No... you're certainly not a guard. You're... my son. Kai?! You've inherited my elemental power." (Ray KNOWS about the Elemental Masters and how descendants work. How is he shocked his son inherited his power?)

Kai: "That's the only thing I'll ever inherit from you."

---

Maya: "Kai! You don't know what you're doing!"

Kai: "I do, Nya! I absolutely-"

Maya: "I'm not your sister, son."

Kai: "...mom? I don't believe it."

Maya: "That makes two of us."

Kai: "Why?! She's just as guilty as he is! They've been working with Krux and Acronix for years! They're the enemy!" (They know that. Everyone in the room knows that.)

Maya: "Is that what you think?! We're not the enemy."

This scene SHOULD have been one of THE most POWERFUL scenes of the ENTIRE season. And yet bad dialogue BUTCHERS it.

So I'm going to do it justice right now.

So we start with Kai barging into the blacksmith shop.

His father is there. There's a look of solitude and despair on his father's face as he hits his hammer on the metal he's working on. The sound of the hammer on the metal adds to the uneasiness of the scene.

Kai stands there, unsure what to do. He's hesitant, his hand tightened on his blade (or whatever that thing is).

Ray looks up, assuming it's a guard. He says, "The next load is on the shelf. I'll have the next batch by morning, as you wished."

Then he goes back to hammering the metal.

It's louder this time.

From under Kai's mask, his eyebrows are tightened. He shuts the front door and locks it. (Because this is an assassination attempt. That's what he's trying here.)

Ray stops hammering and notices the 'guard' locking the door, and he goes, "What? Was it something I've done?"

That's when Kai gives a sneer. "Yes."

Then Kai, no other words, no patience for his father's reaction, charges at Ray and tries to strike him with the blade.

Ray, with the hammer in his hand, defends himself.

The two engage in a fight, with Kai trying to take him out, and Ray acting out of self defense. Ray holds his own very well, and even knocks Kai back a bit. (Showing the audience he's capable of holding his own.)

When Kai is on the ground, Ray, in a moment to breathe, asks, "Who are you?!"

(Showing the audience he's detected Kai is not a guard)

Kai, on the ground, catches his breath, and shoots the question right back. "Who are you?! You traitor!"

Kai gets up and continues the fight, and Ray again, defends himself. All Ray can get out is a confused, "Traitor?!"

Kai, in his rage as he tries to assault his dad, vents to him (because that's in character) "I thought you were a hero! I looked up to you! I wanted to BE you! I was a fool!"

Ray, again, gets the upper hand and knocks Kai to the ground, throwing away Kai's weapon (thing).

Ray demands, as an act of mercy, "I don't know what you thought of me, but stand down. This doesn't have to end badly."

Kai flinches from his spot, emotions of rage, confusion, sorrow, and vengeance written all over him.

He takes off his mask to catch his breath.

Ray's eyes widen a little, but he still can't recognize his kid. (Because Kai was left as a toddler. He wouldn't know right away.) Confusion starts to ride his face as well. (We can tell from just his expression that he's detecting this is a young fellow, a teen, in a state of grief.)

Still, Kai clenches his fist, now in resolve on his stance.

Ray sees and raises his hammer. He tries to demand again, "Stand down-"

Then Kai's hands start spewing fire.

That's when Ray, having it all hit on him at once, drops the hammer.

Kai gets up and holds out his fiery hand towards Ray.

Ray is devastated by this. He's stepping back. He's breathing heavily. And as he stares into his attacker, he says a soft, "...Kai?"

Kai then slashes fire, and Ray is barely able to defend himself from a nearby helmet on the shelf.

At this point, Nya is on the other side of the locked door, and she's trying to break in. Her pleads are heard muffled in the background. "Kai! Stop! He's our father! Kai, please! Don't do this!"

But the focus is still on Kai trying to strike down his now unarmed father, who has stopped trying to fight back.

Ray pleads, "Kai, I can explain! It's me. Your father!"

Kai screams out, trying to strike him, "My father wouldn't have left me! My father wouldn't have turned his back on Ninjago! My father would've been there for me!"

Then he manages to pin Ray to the wall and grab him. His face is filled with grief. Kai finishes it with a sad, "He wouldn't be my enemy."

He raises his fiery hand.

And then Nya busts in the room and spews water at Kai to put the flame out.

She pleads, "Kai, put him down!"

Kai demands, "Stay out of this, Nya!"

Nya, instead of engaging, BEGS, "He's my father, too."

Ray, in another wave of shock, says weakly, "Nya...?"

Nya's beg touches Kai, and his serious angry face softens in regret.

Ray touches that regret more by saying, "I missed you so, so much... your mother and I, we wanted to come back to you, I promise we did, but... Krux... I wasn't a father. I... I'm so sorry... If I could undo the past... I'd put up a better fight to be there for you."

Kai is touched, almost changing his mind about taking down Ray.

Almost.

It's only for a few seconds, as Kai decides, "That doesn't matter now."

Kai holds up another fiery fist.

Nya screams in plead, "KAI-!"

But then, before Kai could do any more blows, Maya storms into the room.

And the first thing she does is throw her arms around Kai in a tight hug.

It lets Ray go, and it leaves Kai in a stunned shock. All Kai can do is give a soft, "...mom?"

Maya continues to hug her kid tight, emotionally overwhelmed. She begs, "Please stop this, son..."

Nya, still standing by the door, also in surprise, realizes, "Mom?!"

Maya then notices Nya, and parts one arm from Kai to allow Nya to run into the hug.

It's worth of note that Kai isn't hugging her back. Kai's hand was still sparking from flames when Maya came in. But now with both water-powered family members in this hug, we see the sparks from his hand get extinguished as he's overwhelmed by their embrace.

Kai then tries to wrap his head around it. He asks, "Why did you leave us? Why did you leave me?"

Maya parts with her kids, explaining briefly, "We were forced to. Your father and I, we..."

Kai processes, "Krux."

Maya says, "It doesn't matter now. Whatever happened, it doesn't matter now. You've grown up. Both of you. I could never imagine..."

Nya hugs Maya again, but Kai holds back.

He looks over at Ray, who is still by the wall trying to catch his breath. Kai looks over at the girls, then back at his dad, then the girls again.

He backs up into a corner, clearly sick with dread over what he had almost done.

This is his family, and he almost assassinated them. It was a state of him giving in to Krux's taunts and a corrupt mindset.

He covers his mouth with his hand and crashes into the shelf of helmets. The helmets clatter before him, which draws the family's attention to him.

He's kneeled down and dreadful, and a single tear falls from his face.

(Kai has never cried in the show up until this, so it would be effective.)

All he can get out is a tearful, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I'm sorry dad... I'm sorry..."

Over and over again.

As this happens, Ray gets up and approaches his kid. He softly ruffles his boy's hair to get his eyes onto him. Ray sheds a smile of forgiveness, and he hugs his kid tight.

Soon Maya joins in as well to help calm down her son.

The three of them share a warm embrace in their reunion.

(Seriously, am I the only one who was bothered that Kai didn't apologize for trying to assassinate his family? I know they'd forgive him, but still.)

Once they part, Nya asks, "Did Krux force you to do all of this?"

And then we get Maya telling them essentially the same story from the original about how they forged the time blades, Krux wanted revenge so he took them away, yaddy yada.

By the end of said flashback story, Kai has calmed down, and they're seated by the helmet mess together, so there's easy access to the 'helmet stamp' part of the story.

Bada boom.

The original scene was SO CLOSE to being great. Dialogue and subtext makes all the difference to being the power of the scene home.

Dialogue makes ALL the difference, doesn't it?

#ninjago #writing dialogue #dialogue #ninjago kai #ninjago nya #kai smith #nya smith #ray smith #maya smith #ninjago jay #jay walker #cole brookstone #ninjago cole #ninjago krux #ninjago skylar #skylor chen

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queenpiranhadon · 23 days

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⚔︎ ⎸⎸ 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 ⎸⎸ ⚔︎

A/N: It makes me unnaturally happy to finally see my Rocky boy get some attention. Big thanks to @rainbow-flavoured-skittles for beta reading this!! Here's my masterlist! Dividers by @cafekitsune

Warning(s): This takes place after the fight with the Overlord, I haven't watched Dragons Rising nor do I plan to so it's only really cannon to Crystalize and prior, it IS Cole x reader but I did world build a little lol, reader is the Ninja of Nature (maybe related to Bolobo idk), reader is GN but is written with F!reader in mind, reader is called Blossom, reader calls Cole Rocky (Mister Dangerbuff supremacy)

Pairing(s): Cole Brookstone x Master of Nature!Reader

After you fought the Overlord, it was quiet.

Not in the sense of volume, but it was calm. Usually, you'd be restless, aching for a fight to keep the adrenaline pumping, but right now?

You were happy to have a break.

Especially with Cole. After months of figuring out feelings and sending mixed signals to each other (Cole had once thought you were in love with Jay — even though he was one, dating Nya, and two, you were asking the electricity ninja for tips on how to get Cole to like you back in the first place), he had confessed to you shyly and asked you out on a date. He took you to a coffee shop, and you guys just clicked. He made you happy, made you laugh, made you feel loved. And you loved him all the same.

Seven months after dating, he asked you to move in with him, as if you didn't practically live with him from the amount of time you spent at his home. Moving in with him was seamless, it was like nothing changed, except now you woke up with an adorable, snoring Adonis of a man, and went to bed with a giant teddy bear who basically melted in your embrace.

After you fought the Overlord, it was normal.

It was like nothing happened, adjusting to your new lives immediately. Obviously, you and your fellow ninja were celebrities all over Ninjago - you all were probably asked to give autographs five times a day, minimum. Meeting up with your friends was a frequent occurrence, all going to Chen’s Noodle House and enjoying Skylar’s amazing cooking while catching up with the others.

It was routine now, everything refreshingly the same, down to where you sat. You and Cole would take one of the booth seats, with Jay and Nya across from the two of you. Pixal sat down next to Nya, and Zane sat next to Cole, Lloyd and Kai at the head of the table (painfully single- much to Skylar and the rest of the ninja's annoyance).

All of you had surprisingly adjusted to normal life without fighting opponents twenty-four -seven very easily, though some had more difficulty than others.

Jay worked as a event host at his local comic shop, organizing mini conventions and trivia nights for fellow geeks such as himself.

Kai returned to the dojo he used to have, teaching children how to defend themselves so that they wouldn’t be as defenseless as he was when he lost his powers.

Lloyd helped his mom and Master Wu reopen their tea shop from so long ago, working the cash register and making people’s lives a little happier with a bright smile every day.

Nya worked as a mechanic in her free time, opening a garage and surrounding herself with what she did best: building. Jay stopped by on occasion, helping her with certain projects, but also joining her in tinkering with some spare

parts sometimes. Zane and Pixal had the most difficulty adjusting, their different appearances making them stand out like sore thumbs. But eventually, they found their home giving lectures at schools with a different perspective on certain topics, enjoying the ability to share

their infinite knowledge with others. And then there was Cole and yourself. Being a ninja of Nature, you worked at the local florist, finding it refreshing to be surrounded by so many plants whenever you could. You worked your magic with them, keeping the plants fresh and ending up owning the store yourself once the previous owner retired.

Cole worked as a barista at the local coffee shop, and you stopped by to get food and give him some company on your breaks. It was nice, you think, to spend some time together with him after years of constantly fighting who knows what.

You greet him, opening the door with a jingle, and walk up to him, as he was closing up.

"Hey, Rocky," you hum, leaning against one of the tables as he sets his broom down.

He walks over to you, hugging you close by the waist and resting his chin on top of your head, placing a soft kiss on your forehead.

"Hi, Blossom," he murmurs into your hair, and you take the time to just admire him. The curve of his nose, the small tilt of the corners of his mouth, showing that he was happy, the apples of his cheeks, the stubble that littered across his impeccable jawline. He smelled like the earth just after it rained, and ground coffee, one of the many things you love about him. His hair was artfully mussed, black tresses tucked underneath his visor, and you take it off his head, running your fingers through his hair.

It was just the two of you, standing inside the cafe in the light pf golden hour, drinking up each other’s warmth and love, together.

After you fought the Overlord, it was nice.

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