#technically glacier but we didn't intend for it [read: negative pixane meta] to turn out this way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mx-julien · 3 years

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an incredibly meta and ridiculously unfair biased take on pixane

some quick notes before we begin (or scroll past if you just want the meta)

i'm not going to post things like this more than once a year so this is one of very few times

i was a literal elementary-schooler when the first episode of Rebooted came out and 95% of my frustration comes from the meta behind their relationship not the relationship itself. i am very aware that this is an unfair take on their relationship. i'm older now and also entirly aware that this is a ship of fictional characters.

so if you didn't realize already, this is going to be mostly negative, so read at your own discretion

ok so like i said ~i was an elementary-schooler~, Zane was my favorite, and one of the many things that little me liked was that he's not a dating-crazy character because even at that age i hated rushed romantic plots Just Because wow, laurance, could you get any more demiromantic writer geek if you tried. also he's a robot and he's different BUT that just means he's accomodated and that doesn't mean he's held in any different regard which warmed my neurodivergent heart then and still does now.

are the "are we compatible now", 'we understand each other better because we're actually fundamentally similar in ways that we haven't been able to relate to others before', and 'half of my heart' storylines adorable and sweet? yes! does it still bother me that they pulled a "they're both robots <3" thing? yup, but not every show wants to address human/robot so it's fair.

but i remember feeling so hurt that they just made Zane suddenly enraptured with a character that was just used as an Attractive Life In Danger for literally the entire season [ref: turning evil and needing to be saved, needing a new power source, not being able to leave the building for the first few episodes]. it felt very ooc for him to be that taken with her by just having looked at and met her and the more lowkey thing they have going on now just fits, in my opinion, so much better.

it's another sore spot for me because they also did that Bad Love Triangle thing with Nya, Jay, and Cole in the same season, so i didn't like that two of the characters i related to the most suddenly had romantic subplots that weren't actually at all good or necessary. it also ruined the friendly antagonism between Jay and Cole by making it seem to have actual animosity, setting up their dumb feud that continues until skybound. in the process it turned Nya into an object to be won and passed around (which is called objectification, folks) instead of her kickass actual person self.

back to pixane: i was especially mad that they not only introduced another female character who was immediately turned into a damsel in distress, but she was then ignored and even got her body taken away after one (1) season. something i still believe is that pixal and Zane deserve a more nuanced relationship beginning than what we got in s3.

it actually wasn't even until late 2019 (when i drifted back into the nj orbit and saw how big the fandom had become on tumblr after people who saw 2017 movie watched the tv show) that i properly appreciated Pixal and fell in love with her and her place in the team.

also i think that it's absolutely hilarious how they try to do the "oh but he actually cares about her safety" thing [ref: Skybound, Prime Empire] as like a Dating Indicator but it just BACKFIRES because Zane's like that with literally everyone [ref: sacrifices himself for everyone in Rebooted, everyone yet again when he goes into Bernie's stomach, Wu in Secrets of Forebidden Spinjitzu] EXCEPT for Cole in Oni and the Dragon and Snake Jaguar (hey i remembered the episode names :) !), which sets him apart from everyone else and that, combined with their back and forth on screen kind of hints at a relationship more than anything else they try to do with the other couples.

hello yes back to pixane: most of their interactions to me (because, like eveyone else, i just ignore parts of rebooted that don't have Sensei G or Borg) like Ninjago Confidential, most of her time in his head, and the majority of her remarks during Seabound scream brother-sister to me. literally that's what my older sister's like: amused [ref: Ninjago Confidential and Seabound when Pixal just goes along with Zane's weird voice antics], knows better than you so she gives you a hard time about it [ref: most of the time she's in his head! there are so many so just go rewatch seasons like 4 through 7 i think], and you'll miss her if you don't hear from her for a few weeks or so because she's just that great [ref: Secrets of Forebidden Spinjitzu when Zane's stuck in the Never-Realm and starts missing Pix]. it's just really strange to see that then turned into a 'this is how you know they're romantically entangled!' kind of thing.

as a side note though: they do all of this to show that they're in a relationship because, and this is my very biased cynic speaking, there's no actual casual pixane interactions or chemistry yet with the exception of like two seabound scenes and then when Pixal leaves Zane's head, she's entirely justified and it's her right to and he's understanding but she does just LEAVE. if you're in a relationship with someone, that's pretty negligent. that person will absolutely worry about your absence and you know it. she could have left a message or directions or anything because god knows Zane would've supported her but instead she leaves without a trace. worse yet, he trusts her so much he just thinks that she goes offline even though logic doesn't really support the idea. which is, i would like to clarify BAD WRITING, not a bad character. there is nothing in her character that supports her doing this but oh well they did it anyways and it just adds another layer to their Poor Portrayal of Pixane.

let's review! the writers were so bad at writing this pair in a healthy relationship with equal footing that they ended up making a seemingly sibling-like relationship. in the process, they ignored Pix and bent her into whatever they needed, sometimes making her do very ooc things just for the plot that often ended up showing her relationship with Zane as kind of problematic and weird in terms of what we know about their characters.

also they've rewritten Pix so many different times that i feel like tethering her to Zane doesn't allow them to really give her justice. same to him, actually. how about we remember when he sacrificed himself or when Pix's inventions saved everyone? oh, i'm sorry, let me clarify which time i'm referring to

tl;dr i was a kid who related to Zane and liked strong female characters and rebooted did none of that while doing the robot+robot thing. then they did their relationship and pix's character dirty for a few seasons and so i just continued to ship glacier instead. the end.

woah, stuck by the whole time? kudos to you. thank you for reading my rant with many tangents on a ship i am slowly starting to be okay with in the show and have appreciated in the fandom for about two years now.

at the end of the day, fanon is fanon and for ninjago the canon is slowly improving. please, enjoy what makes you happy - ships are not mutually exclusive and love as many as you like.

i have hopes that they'll improve the characterization for Pixal and writing for pixane, but don't color me surprised if it takes a few more seasons. *raises a glass of sparking apple cider* here's to more years of improvement, or, at least, very memeable screenshots

#technically glacier but we didn't intend for it [read: negative pixane meta] to turn out this way #ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago meta #ninjago rebooted #ninjago s3 #ninjago season 3 #PIXAL I'M SORRY I LOVE YOU #pixal borg #zane julien #glacier #LRGwritesthings

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