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vedj-f-bekuesu · 2 years

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Ninjago Ships: My Personal Ranking of Them

I had the urge to write out a list of Ninjago ships and give my opinion on them. I could use the tier maker things for this, but I wanted to actually make this comprehensive and give myself a reference for my views.

For the sake of simplicity, this list will just cover the monogamous ships. Bring in polyamory and it would become a whole lot longer, plus there’s not really any ship of that sort I’m fond of so it’d be kinda samey.

Also this is under a read more since the list is so long.

LET’S FSM-ING GO

Ships that I really like and actively ship.

Lava - I was hesitant on even checking out Ninjago until I saw these two bounce off each other in the movie video game and realised I'd misjudged it. But they genuinely have one of my favourite dynamics in the movie and the show. It was present prior to March of the Oni, in fact it was pretty nice in the original run before the Elements batch tried to write it out (although Possession was a peak). Since March of the Oni, it has become so lit (pun intended), there’s good material for it in every season since, even the one where Cole was deep in the mountain for most of it.

Pixane - What can I say, it's a cute couple who have had solid writing throughout. It's more impressive since it managed to make the "hey lets bring in a love interest and make it on sight" thing actually work for Zane's bigger humanity arc in Rebooted and only went up from there.

Jaya - What can I say, it's a cute couple who...have certainly had it rough at times. I think it was actually done pretty sweet in the original run (bar minor writing flaws here and there), got derailed in the Elements batch but rerailed thanks to season 7 and the movie forcing their hand. Nowadays it's fine.

Okay I Guess

Ships I don’t feel super strongly about, but there’s stuff I like about them.

Scruff - I can't think of that much dynamic between them outside of season 7 because they haven’t appeared together in events that weren’t erased outside of that, but I -get- it. I would not be opposed if they got more interaction in Crystalised.

Techno - Hey, they were consistently the best written characters in the early seasons so I keep a little bit of fondness for this one. Plus they just generally gel together thanks to their respective talents, actually have had a few moments to bond (especially early on), and who can forget the surprise gift that was "Sweatin' at the Goldies"?

JetFaith - Like Scruff, only even more limited since it only applies when the group turn on the Iron Baron. Still, I did find the idea kinda cute. That being said, it was a miracle we got Faith in March of the Oni, and I doubt we'll see either of them again.

Samurai - Nya and Pixal are pretty cordial, I can see them confiding in each other given their roles and linked history with the Samurai X identity.

Llokita - Hey, someone for Lloyd to actually talk to. I have no idea what the show plans for Akita, but what was shown was some fun banter and no big moves out the gate, and that's good. There is the whole ambiguity with ages of both of them, but I’m assuming the show considers them similar age to write them the way they did.

Glacier - Fun fact, when I first broached the show fandom at all, the fandom indicated that this was the show's equivalent to the movie's Lava. Then I actually watched the show and realised that Lava was the show's answer to Lava. I can only think of two big moments for Cole and Zane, both being prison escapes basically. Otherwise? Neat on paper, but eh.

Gemstone - Before seeing Master of the Mountain, I thought it was weird Plundar was paired with Cole out of all the Upply. Having now seen it a few days ago, I see where it came from. Not super strong on it, but could be cool. I think Plundar would need more development though.

Nightshade - This is almost entirely theoretical. Toxikita and Chamille sounds like a pair that could be really fun...too bad they didn't even really interact in Tournament of Elements and Chamille was also absent for Hunted (heavily implied to be evil, even). Not sure we'll see them again either.

Meh

Ships I’m indifferent to. There’s a lot of these.

Amberphoenix – Like others, it’s neat conceptually, but I don’t recall Nya and Skylor having too many interactions in Hunted. Then again I didn’t find Hunted overall memorable so that doesn’t help.

Opposite – Definitely not in the early seasons, even with Kai’s reaction to Zane’s death. Post-Movie seasons got them to work together on more occasions, but to me they come off like friends who really like ribbing each other when they get the chance. I don’t know if people seeing this are old enough to be in the workplace, but there’s always those two guys in any office I’ve worked in. Think that, but with ninja.

Wusako – Don’t actively root for it, but I don’t mind it in the same way others seem to have a problem with it. Guess it depends on how willing you are to accept messier situations like that.

Royalamber/Sunrise/Cherry/whotheheckknows – Basically crackshipping since Skylor and Vania have never met (although Vania seemed keen on the events of the Tournament of Elements). I just find it hilarious that this exists. That being said, there isn’t nothing in common (they have shared trauma over asshole fathers for instance), but when I look at them, I see Skylor becoming more like a big sister to Vania more than anything.

Eyepatch – I get why this one would be appealing since they’re both conniving rat-men with baggage. However, I don’t think they’d get along at all if they actually met. Ronin is a thief who wants to make a living, and Clutch wants glory through the artefacts more than anything, those seem like contrasting goals. Also I don’t think Ronin would appreciate Clutch kind of dooming Nya to die considering his previous rogue mentor role to her. That, and I am far more biased to Clutch material in City instead of Ninjago, sorry.

Copper – I just don’t get this one to be honest. Like, I can’t even remember scenes with Dareth and Cyrus together, let alone with chemistry.

Bluewire – I mean, them helping out each other has been cute for the few moments it happened, but it didn’t feel like there was anything there romantically.

Firewall - I mean...I guess I remember that scene in season 3? It was the funniest part of the worst episode of Rebooted at least. But nah, Kai and Pixal give me the same vibes as Zane and Kai except as more distant co-workers.

StolenData - This is basically AmberPhoenix but with even less interaction between Skylor and Pixal. I don’t have anything else for it.

Thinkfast - ...This is a thing? I’m more stumped than anything.

Spell - Really, this would be abuse since it's clear that Master Chen is a power-hungry tyrant who gives no shits about anyone, let alone Clouse. But Clouse is a thoroughly loathsome individual so it's a match lol.

Nah Ta

This category is for two kinds of ships; ships I don’t like, and ships that I want as strictly platonic as that dynamic is really good.

Plasma – This has even less to work with than most ninja ships, with one bit where Jay was off his head and the proposal practice. Otherwise, Kai has taken so many opportunities to dig into Jay, and I’m pretty sure the feeling’s mutual.

Hope - I see this more as Faith being the cool aunt to Wu before he fully ages up, but I'm not super opposed to it I guess. The one factor that brings it below the line is that Faith's interactions with him were mostly while he wasn't his full self, so I don't know how it would work in normal parameters anyway.

Braincell – Honestly, not sure why, but these two make me want a really strong friendship from the fact they’re clearly the level-headed of the ninja (with Pixal holding both their braincells when they’re in antics), but don’t really want it pushed further. Dunno what’s up with that.

Conia – This a nice platonic ship, subverting the love on first sight cliché by both making it not love at all and still developing a strong friendship between them. Keep it that way.

Entombed – Aspheera is at least a thousand years Pythor’s senior. While this doesn’t toll on romance necessarily since Pythor is clearly an adult, I don’t think he’d see her as anything other than an ancestral figure given how well she’s known in Serpentine history.

Dayle – Dareth has been kind of a creeper to Gayle in the past. There’s been more genuine moments, but I’d not rather not.

Future – In canon, absolutely not. This gets its own entry here because the fanon for it isn’t actually that terrible? It basically runs off the fact that Acronix was far more sympathetic than Krux (manipulated by Master Chen, frozen in time so he wasn’t stewing in this pre-meditated plan for 40 years, less involved in the plan once freed) and pushes it into an outright redemption. I mean, Morro had something like that with his realisation of his deed in the final moments of Possession, so it’s not impossible, but again this is just for the fanon side. In canon Acronix hasn’t shown remorse and is pretty much dead.

Jadestorm – Speaking of Morro, what I mentioned above is why I don’t get this ship. If Morro was still his Green Ninja-loathing self I could totally see it, but he had turned around by the end of Day of the Departed, before Harumi entered the picture. And if Harumi didn’t repent in life, what makes anyone think she would do that in death either? The more likely case is that Morro would try to make Harumi see that she’s wasting her time, and she would just lash out because she cannot let it go (even when her blame is mislaid as far as she presents it).

Geode/Bruise – The one ninja ship I genuinely don’t like. It’s kind of not fair to it, but it still represents terrible writing for me. They’re at each other’s throats for a season due to an utter contrivance, then they bury the hatchet, which is fine...but then Jay brings it up again in the middle of Possession despite the love triangle not being an issue any more, and then Skybound spends its time course correcting even though the issue has long passed, and the event is erased on Cole’s side anyway. Just deciding to simplify it, calling them best friends and very occasionally calling back to it (as the show has done) is fine for me.

Kailor – Oh boy. If Pixane is “hey lets bring in a love interest and make it on sight” done right, this is that same idea but done wrong. I’ve mentioned in the past how the writing of it in Tournament of Elements was flawed and with no decent chemistry or dynamic, so there’s that. Which is really bad when that’s been basically the only season that bothered to try and justify it.

But I think there’s another issue, one that uniquely affects this ship more than any other ship post-movie; they haven’t bothered to establish how it even works in this version of Ninjago. The redesigns brought personality shifts with it. Most were pretty minor. But with Kai, as I’ve also said before, he had a massive issue with his personality shifting wildly between seasons, and what they decided on for him for Sons of Garmadon onwards is so much different to his personality in Tournament of Elements. With other ships, they got a chance to re-establish the dynamics and demonstrate how they still work (Jay and Nya just having a bit of an adjustment, Pixal having a new physical form which gives room to change her dynamic with Zane). Kai gets to interact with Skylor once to show brief concern when she’s powered down, and then they hug at the end, the show doesn’t bother to show how the newer Kai actually has a dynamic with Skylor. It’s no wonder every interaction they’ve had from Hunted onwards has been so off. Did you see that wink in March of the Oni? How did that come off as so awkward?

I mean, I guess they could try and say that they’ve been talking to each other offscreen to make it seem like the relationship has been ongoing as opposed to Kai literally never visiting her or trying to get in contact despite having the opportunities to do so. It’d still be terribly clunky, but at least I wouldn’t have to call it doomed to fail.

Garsako – Garmadon got with her until false pretences technically, and while he was nice for like two seasons, what has Misako had to live with outside of that time? A corrupted soul turned warlord who will have to kill her son to rule? I’d say no thanks.

Llorumi – Harumi deceived Lloyd, tortured him physically and mentally, tried to kill him and showed zero remorse for her actions. Even if she somehow came back to life and became good, it wouldn’t fix that load of nonsense. No.

Conya – Man, I may lay into Geode for being bad writing, but I am not letting the OG contrived ship off the hook at all. A machine tells Nya he’d be her best match and she goes with it despite not having any romantic spark with him prior? That’s not how people work. And then Cole pursues it heavily for a season before just dropping it? Can you say contrivance? And they didn’t even have any romantic chemistry for the brief time they were pursuing it.

Oh, but what’s been even more hilarious than the initial writing is how much this ship has been razed to the ground and sunk. There have been tweets from Tommy stating that Cole actually wasn’t interested in Nya when he pursued her, he was just confused because of her showing affection (which...what?). Then Skybound amped up his misogyny for Nya’s arc that season, further pushing them apart (sure, that was wiped, but Nya remembers it...or did before she became water). And if that wasn’t enough, Cole’s much later rant about her not having water powers directly to her face was hilariously vicious, especially since this was one episode after Firemaker, where Cole went out of his way to support her brother through the same issue!

Actually I have one more point to make, and it may rub some people the wrong way (especially on Twitter and Reddit lol); I think Cole is a lock for being gay. I don’t think it’s a fun headcanon, I don’t think he’s ambiguously bi or acearo or any other orientation. I genuinely think they are intentionally writing him as a man who only loves other men. The question is how this end up on screen. So yeah, this ship really doesn’t work for me.

Ninja/Villain Ships – If any of the villains were given a dating Catwoman dynamic, maybe, but Ninjago has never gone there, so for me it’s an outright no to any of these.

Lloyd/Other Ninja Ships - Honestly, I don't particularly care about this debate. I mean, if someone were to try and claim that Lloyd and another ninja were a romantic thing in an earlier season, I'd probably be like "that's fucked up". If someone were doing it with their current versions? The continuity on that is so confusing on that I just elect not to think about it. No, the reason I don't go for them is that all of the ninja just come off as older sibling figures, especially when the legacy of the Green Ninja exists. Even in later seasons where Lloyd is older, he’s singled out as needing looking over (for example, the power scene in Big Trouble, Little Ninjago).

Bizarre Copy Ships of Any Kind - They were meat puppets, so no.

Disguise Ships - A disguise doesn't change the person permanently what.

Incest Ships - DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS ONE

So yeah, that’s a list of ships in Ninjago ordered on how much I like them. I don’t have much of an outro for this one. Soz.

#ninjago #ninjago ships #VEDJ-F talks #I'm not tagging all these ships I'm not that insane

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vedj-f-bekuesu · 3 years

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Ooh, I’m a biologist! The Reuniclus line represents the process of Mitosis (a single cell splitting into two identical ’daughter’ cells), with Solosis being the singular cell to begin with, just at the start of the process (its body even having the vague shape of the chromosomes and centrosomes during metaphase), Duosion being partway through the process (hence the two blobs on the bottom, being somewhat reminiscient of the shape of the cell in Anaphase) and Reuniclus being the daughter cells fully formed by Telophase, but in this case united by the actual Pokemon body. The cleavage furrow would be present for cytokinesis during these stages.

My favorite weird blob, reuniclus

Reuniclus!!!!!

Reuniclus is a tiny baby encased in a blob of green gelatinous stuff. A Psychic-type, it’s seemingly a reference to cells, with the green stuff resembling cytoplasm and the objects inside it resembling organelles. The split down its head evokes the split at which some cells begin dividing, known as a cleavage furrow. I’m not a biologist so I don’t really know a lot about what all this means, but it sounds interesting!

Anyways, the most striking part of Reuniclus’s silhouette is probably its arms, which outsize the rest of it by quite a lot. Reuniclus apparently controls its arms using its psychic powers, which imbues them with boulder-crushing strength. Apparently it also prefers to fight in battle by swinging its arms to “beat opponents into submission”, despite its ability to fight with psychic powers, which is hilarious. It’s not often a Psychic-type’s physical capabilities are emphasised, and Reuniclus does so in a rad way! Ironically, though, its attack stat is still far lower than its special attack.

Reuniclus is also said to be able to amplify its psychic powers by shaking hands, forming a network between their brains, which is reflected by some TCG attacks such as Net Force here. It’s subtle, but this amplification aspect is also showcased by the design quite well. The coloured objects in the arms progress from green to red, increasing in size – similar to the gradiants commonly used to denote sound intensity with volume control.

Reuniclus has also had a historic association with a very cool attack called Trick Room, and though there are better users of it now, I consider Reuniclus to probably be its most emblematic user. Trick Room is a move that warps the dimensions to reverse the order that pokemon attack: slower pokemon move earlier and faster pokemon move later. For a pokemon with a mere 30 base speed like Reuniclus, this is hugely beneficial. It’s a strategy most potent in doubles, allowing the user to set it up whilst its partner is free to attack, and can be incredibly hard for most teams to contend against because most teams try so hard to go as fast as possible.

Shiny Reuniclus swaps the green jelly for blue jelly, which is a cool shift, but the arm objects terminate in cyan which has a lot less contrast and doesn’t fit the amplification theme nearly as well. The body is also a yellowish colour, which is more distinct from the jelly, and a pale blue may have been more cohesive. Still a good shiny overall, though.

Reuniclus is rad, and probably one of the most creative Psychic-types in existence – high praise, given how creative that type often gets. I love it quite a lot, and its design feels hugely iconic even if it’s not one of the “big” pokemon.

Oh yeah, and don’t eat the jelly. It’s apparently toxic :)

Jelly baby!!!!!/10

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