#Kai is great ykn

[spicyicymeloncat]

Following on from that last post abt Kai and also crystalised part 1 spoiler but can we appreciate the character development he’s had since s3, where his former coping mechanism was leaving to torture himself on his own and now in s16 he decided to lean into putting his energy to helping others (teaching).

Yknow I really enjoyed s4 but yknow what would’ve made it better? More fleshed out Kai Lloyd conflict. Because that first episode with Kai and Lloyd with Lloyd admittedly being a bit harsh in flat out calling Kai selfish for blaming himself for Zane’s death (or in Lloyd’s eyes, not being able to see the bigger picture) does actually kinda make sense and would’ve had so much potential if they dig deeper into that. Kai left and quit being a ninja, and whilst Lloyd shouldn’t be allowed to control anyone else’s actions, as the green ninja - the one who had to give up so much, the one who had to learn and inspire the meaning behind “Ninja never quit” - it must have stung when the person who showed him how to even be a ninja vanished.

Not only that but Kai turned to “dishonourable” underground fighting rings and lego’s version of alcoholism, which, whilst again it’s not entirely Lloyd’s business, has got to be a painful reminder at how Garmadon was, a loving figure who started going down a darker path, whilst Lloyd could only watch.

(Unrelated to this post but also think about Nya, who stayed behind, fixing the bounty, fixing a shadow of the home they used to have, whilst Kai walked out on it, disappearing like their parents. Angsty)

And I think that a Lloyd Kai conflict, running on quietly in the background of the Jay Cole conflict, would be so interesting. Where Jay and Cole are loudly announcing their beef for the whole tournament to witness, Kai and Lloyd quietly butting heads on what the right course of action is, in cold restrained politeness. Lloyd being slightly more bitter or bossy towards Kai, Kai ignoring requests, suggestions or orders in favour of going his own way (or taking it out on Garmadon), but neither one going stepping too far, trying their best to keep it together for the sake of the team. And they really do care about each other which is mostly the reason why they’re mad (because like Jay and Cole, what hurts more is that siblings as close as them could even bring themselves to fight like that). The only person who could tell is ironically Garmadon, who realises he and Kai are actually kinda alike, and urges Lloyd to be patient with him and not give up.

Ideally with the events of Kai holding the staff of elements, the conflict reaches its peak and the two finally spit out what’s been eating at them. With Kai saying if he was the green ninja, or even, if he was more powerful, better, then he could’ve stopped all of it from happening and that he’s insecure about not being strong enough to protect his family. And Lloyd responding that while he is the green ninja, he couldn’t keep the team together and Kai leaving hurt him because he missed him and it hurt him that Kai based his worth on merely how strong he was. And maybe after that sequence, they end up talking it out , understanding what the other went through and making up about it.

This was kinda a tangent that ran away from my original point, but with the hints of that kind of arc for Kai, him ending up having a better coping mechanism and generally doing kinda well after Seabound feels a lot more triumphant because he’s not blaming himself for Nya’s sacrifice, and instead he knows his own self worth and focused on what he could do to cope instead of what he couldn’t yknow?

#ninjago #lego ninjago #no I will never stop complaining about people’s immediate reaction to crystalised being ‘Kai deserves to fight something’ #he’s got charactre develope #Kai is great ykn #btw I still really like s4 even if it missed a lot potential here #Ninjago kai #Ninjago analysis #Ninjago rewrite #the two main things I’d change for s4 is this #and pushing the Misako love triangle out of a helicopter because only ex besties-nemesis’s wu and Misako for now on #ninjago s4 #ninjago crystalized spoilers #Ninjago crystalized #ninjago tournament of elements