Imp's Theories - Tumblr Posts
As someone who recently finished season 9 (Hunted) may I just add that Jay canonically went insane during the first week in the First Realm? The wiki straight up says he ‘temporarily lost his sanity’ - that CANNOT be healthy! Dude was in denial (the kind where you say you’re ‘going with the flow’ and ‘accepting reality’ when really you did a 360 and are right back at denial) and disassociation for a concerning amount of time.
He and Kai both use denial as a coping mechanism; Jay with saying the situation is fine, Kai with saying he’s fine. And I wouldn’t put it past the others to start saying that too because they know everybody else has a lot on their plate and don’t want to ‘burden them’.
Just... please, get them some therapy. They’re gonna need it based on the spoilers I’ve seen for the later seasons
The Ninja and Their Traumas
Kai:
Kai has abandonment issues. They mostly stem from when his parents disappeared, but they’ve also been compounded over the years; first by Zane’s death, then by how easily the whole team seemed to drift apart after.
He’s also got some pretty damming body-image issues. Like, he always made sure that Nya had enough to eat growing up, often to his own detriment. So he’s gotten good at making it look like he’s getting enough food himself, despite spending years consuming >~10 meals per week.
Kai’s also extremely insecure about how he’s perceived. He’s spent so much of his life keeping up appearances for the sake of keeping him and Nya safe, that the very idea of anyone thinking he can’t handle something sends him spiraling into a panic attack.
Because of how isolated he was growing up, he craves physical touch, but he also hates the very idea of needing anything, so he never acts on his needs…at least, not consciously.
Nya:
Like Kai, she’s very anxious about resources such as food, but she’s not as bad as him.
Nya hates the idea of having to depend on someone else, mostly because of how much suffering she watched Kai put himself through just to make sure that she would have enough.
The one thing that she does do is take the time to give Kai a hug and close physical contact whenever she can. She knows that he needs actual contact, and hates that he never voices his needs.It hurts even more that she knows that she can’t actually call him out on this, because he will absolutely shut down if she does.
She also can’t talk to Zane about his father without having an anxiety attack! Her and Jay had talked about telling him about Echo, but the way he practically worships his father, and with the number of personal traumas Zane’s gone through since have them constantly putting it off…
Cole:
The boy has performance anxiety. I mean, yeah; his parents loved him, but they pushed him a little too hard to become a performer, so now whenever he’s put on the spot where he has to play a part, he freezes up.
He loves to dance, but doing that in front of others sends him into a spiral of self doubt and angst!
Ever since he was turned into a ghost, he’s become increasingly scared of water. I mean, it was lethal before, but now that it’s safe, he’s even more afraid of what will happen the next time he dies!
His mother loved to cook before she got sick, though his father was a terrible cook. The one thing he remembers the most was her cakes, so whenever he sees one, he can’t help but think of Lily.
The boy is TOUCH STARVED! He spent waaaay too long as a ghost, and thus, not able to touch anyone. Now that he’s human again, he can’t help but touch the others subconsciously.
Jay:
Out of all of the ninja, he was probably the most well-adjusted at the beginning.
But falling in love, constantly being the damsel in distress, discovering he was adopted and nearly loosing the Nya to poison have left him with some pretty stubborn PTSD.
Like, he still won’t even say the word “wish” and visibly flinches whenever anyone says it.
He’s argued with Nya multiple times about telling Zane about Echo, but every time they get ready to talk to him, something comes up and takes precedent.
Zane:
He has a love/hate relationship with his late-father. It’s like, he gets why he did all of those things to him with his memory switch, but he still can’t help but feel a little hurt and abandoned.
He considers the ninja and Bounty his family and home, mainly because that was were he really became who he is today. So any threat to them makes sets him on edge.
Zane is absolutely terrified of losing his identity, especially with how easily he was easily he was manipulated in season 11.
Lloyd:
OH BOI! Does he have abandonment issues!
I mean, he went through so much abuse at Darkley’s, but then he got bullied by the Ninja right after he left!
Then he was outed as the “Chosen One™” and forced to fight his dad!
Then he sacrificed his childhood and aged himself up just to save his adopted family!
It’s obvious who he turned to and decided to take after the most when it comes to all of the ninja and how he deals with his trauma (*cough*Kai*cough*) but he still knows that he has them when he needs them!
Blog Masterpost for Ninjago & SPBNR AUs, Fics, Art, Theories, Translated Comics, etc.
Art Fight: Imp-ulsive_Artist
ART COMMISSIONS OPEN
Guess who’s learning how to operate Tumblr~~~
Gonna update this with the list of fics for easy access around my blog because I only learned today how to add the ‘read more’ button to reduce the insanely long posts when scrolling.
You can also find things through the tags “Imp’s Writing”, “Imp’s Theories”, "Imp's AUs", “Imp’s Art”, and "Translated Ninjago Comics" (for the translated magazine comics)
Under the "keep reading" is easy-access links to all my stuff :D
Ninjago Magazine Comics Translated
Issue 85, Post-Seabound -- The Sea Monster
Issue 98, Post-Crystalized -- The Kidnapping
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General Ninjago Theories, Challenges, and AUs
The Fuchsia Ninja Theory (Movie Headcanon/Theory)
Fuchsia Ninja Pt. 2
What’s the Deal with Chen the Cheerleader? A TLNM Theory
Timeline Shuffle AU Challenge
Ninjago Focus Season Shuffle Challenge!
Vessel AU (Crystalized AU)
Other Emperors AU
Other Emperors AU 2 (Kai-Focus)
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General Ninjago Analysis, Headcanons, and Ideas
Name Lingistics Headcanons
Show vs. Movie Ninja Analysis
5 vs. 1 Ninja Analysis
Jay's a Cockroach Analysis
Jay's Powers Analysis
Lack of Elemental Dragons Analysis
Other Enemy Options
Other Enemy Options Pt. 2
The Nindroid Obsession with Tits-Out
"Ninja are Cryptids" Rumours (Headcanon)
Dragon's Rising Merge
Movieverse!Bruiseshipping Hcs
Bizarro Ninja Name Hcs
Red & Green Duo Poll Tournament Ninjago Sweep (Art)
Ninjago Fic Rec Week Day 1 - Canon &/or Lloyd
Ninjago Fic Rec Week Day 2 - Movieverse, AUs, &/or Jay
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General Ninjago (Show or Movie) Snippets
A Flipped Scar (Movie)
Movie!Ice Emperor Zane
Icedcoffee Prompt (m!Kai x s!Zane)
Kai Prompt (Show)
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Evil Ninjaforce AU
Evil Dorksquad (Art & Explanation)
Wu & Koko (Ask)
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Dorksquad Forced to be Evil AU
m!Kai of the Fire Snakes (Art)
m!Nya of the Wojira Cult (Art)
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Movieverse Detroit: Become Human AU
The Original Summary
More Rambles
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SPBNR (Same People But Not Really) Ninjago Snippets
Slip of the Tongue
Lava Fall (Old)
Lava Fall (Remastered)
The Great Camping Incident, AKA Why to Never Take Smith Camping Again
The Start of Smith ‘Shark-Pup’ Forge
The Beginning of Heatstroke, AKA Red’s Villain Origin Story
Shattered Dreams & Broken Phones (Smith Garmadon AU)
A Tiny Spark Can Lead to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always Be Doused by Water) (Reverse Thanos Snap AU) Pt. 1, 3, and 4
Same Bugs (SPBNR Hollow Knight AU)
Fire Spirit (Fs! AU)
A Pair of Sunglasses (Aki/Bizarro AU)
First Arrival (Monty + Shark Pack AU)
The Great B-A-T-H Incident (Monty + Shark Pack AU)
That Time At Least Four Kais Met (SPBNR & tGiAG Kaiverse Crossover)
That Time At Least Four Kais Met (Podfic)
One Wrong Word (Calypso AU)
Watch Your Mouth (Cryptid AU)
Hush Now (Cryptid AU)
Red-Eyed Rival (Love Rival AU)
Green Gets Kidnapped (Prompt)
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Other Snippets for Other Ninjago Creators
Twig-Sprigs' Ninjago Sonic AU
demm-210's Morro & Kai Drawing
galaxyhanart's Cabinet Man AU
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My Ninjago OCs
Jayden (movie!Bizarro Jay & an Oni)
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Art of my OCs/AUs by Myself & Others
Dimitri (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff
Shiro (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff
Bruno (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff
Pixal (Mer AU) by angeldrawsstuff
Evil Dorksquad AU by fishybehavior
movie!verse Mural by lavandaray
Elemental Beasts AU Cyan/Nya by drawnasour-ray
Elemental Beasts AU Chen the Cheerleader by angeldrawsstuff
Kaigami (Secret Summer) by ammo0648
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Not Ninjago
Art Fight
Ace (OC)
A Flipped Scar
You know, I’ve been wondering where Red (M!Kai) got his scar from. It’s on the opposite side compared to Smith (S!Kai), and because they mostly fight in mechs, logically it doesn’t have to be from a GarmAlarm fight. What if it happened when they were younger...?
Did I have fun with this concept? Yes. Did I throw in a couple m!counterpart references? You bet!
This is set in the movieverse. TW for blood.
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Kai knew it was going to happen eventually. Being the friend of the son of Lord Garmadon came with its own brand of dangers.
He should have just kept walking. He really should have.
But he’d heard the three older teens- were they even teens? They looked like college students, or college dropouts- badmouthing Lloyd.
On any other day, he would have kept walking. Barely. But he would have. Not because he wasn’t itching to butt into the conversation with every inch of anger he possessed, but because Lloyd didn’t like it when he did that. And it tended to backfire where it only seemed to encourage people to go directly after Lloyd, whether to say their words to his face or worse.
But then one teen had brought up the newly formed ninjaforce, and now they were badmouthing Kai’s entire team.
Cole, for being quiet and having ‘bad taste in music’.
Jay, for his panicked screams and yelps during fights.
Zane, for his overly weird attitude and sayings.
Nya, his sister, for being a ‘girl ninja’.
And Lloyd, the leader, for not being enough to stop Garmadon.
They were just kids, for FSM. Six kids against an army and evil warlord.
Ignoring the jabbing comments about the Red Ninja (he’d heard it enough on the news and on Reddit and in gossip, thank you very much), he stormed into the mostly empty playground (by himself, at night, what had he been thinking- oh wait, he wasn’t) and barked out a sharp “Hey!”
One of the teens, a fourth sitting quietly to the side, startled at his shout, but the others laughed.
“Whatcha doing out so late, kid?” One hissed out, her voice shrill and thick with smoke.
Kai wrinkled his nose and crossed his arms, holding his ground. “I don’t like how you’re talking about m- the city ninja.” He almost slipped up and said ‘my friends’, but aside from their comments about Lloyd, it wouldn’t make any sense.
The teens laughed. Another leaned closer, a big thug with a skull tattoo painted over his face. He laughed stupidly and shoved Kai, sending the boy stumbling.
The youngest of the teens, the one that had startled at his shout and the only one who hadn’t participated in the vocal jeering, shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. His green-streaked hair ruffled lightly in the wind. “Leave him alone, guys. It’s not worth it.”
“Au contraire,” said a crisply-dressed teen, studying Kai with a calculating glint in his eyes. “I want to hear why he wanted in our conversation.”
The youngest shrugged with a scowl. “Then I’m out. I’m not wasting my time here.” He stood, shooting Kai a look before huffing, turning on his heel, and walking off with clenched hands in his pockets.
The brute teen shoved Kai again, and he turned with a growl to shove back. It was about as effective as shoving a brick wall. Shrill girl shoved him from another side, and suddenly Kai found himself surrounded by the three older teens.
…he should have kept walking.
“I won’t let you talk bad about the ninja or my friend!” He snarled out, unable to keep his mouth shut. "They didn't do anything wrong!"
"Your friend..."
Kai froze. He didn’t like the tone of the calculating teen.
“Your friend,” they repeated. “Lloyd Garmadon.”
Kai’s hands clenched at his sides. “Yeah? So what. I won’t let you badmouth him.”
The three teens laughed. Shrill-girl slapped Kai hard on the back. “Oh, this is rich! A friend of the Dark Lord’s son!”
“Ha, funny man!” the brute added. “Jokester!”
The calculating teen was still staring at him oddly. Kai felt a shiver wrack down his spine- and considering he rarely, if ever, got cold, he didn’t like it one bit. Still, he held his gaze with a glare of his own. “You bastards leave him alone, got it?”
“Would you look at that, kid needs to wash his mouth out with soap!” Shrill girl crowed.
“Or better yet-“ The calculating teen said, reaching for something under his jacket. “He needs to learn to shut his mouth.”
Kai was about to retort with a fiery comment when a knife was suddenly held to his throat. He gaped, ninja instincts trying to kick in, but he hadn’t been the Red Ninja for very long yet, and he was facing three much older and bigger enemies without his mech or any weapons or backup.
Shrill-girl cackled. “Nice one, Archer! That got him to shut up quick.” She leaned closer over Kai’s shoulder, keeping him from moving away from the knife. “Not so tough now, are you?”
“Not tough!” The brute grunted. “Not tough at all!”
Despite the fear of the blade so close to his neck, Kai bared his teeth at them. His voice only barely trembled when he spat out, “I’m tough!”
The three teens looked at each other before bursting into laughter. Kai kept still, the cold knife-edge pressing his skin without breaking it. He kept his external appearance calm and angry- shoulders hunched, a furious glare, and planted feet ready to spring into a fight. But internally he was panicking, gut twisting into a million knots, warnings yelling too late.
“You hear this kid, Archer?” Shrill-girl had a laugh like a crazed banshee. “Priceless!”
“Priceless!” The brute echoed with a ghoulish smile.
“I say we shut him up,” Archer said. “What do you two think?”
Kai tried to bolt but the other two teens grabbed his arms, locking him in place. He struggled as hard as he could without slicing himself on the knife.
“I say go for it,” Shrill-girl hissed in Kai’s ear, and he recoiled at the puff of smoke blow into his face.
The brute squeezed Kai’s arm so hard he thought for sure there would be bruises the next day. “Fun!”
Archer pulled the knife back, but Kai didn’t feel any relief; not with that cold look in the teen’s eye, nor the ghost of a smirk peeling at his lips. No, he wasn’t pulling the knife back to let Kai go, he was pulling it back to-!
Kai twisted, tried to duck, or spin to the side, or just plan move, and-
“Drat, I was aiming for his mouth to shut him up. Whatever, that works too.”
Kai blinked for a moment with one eye, the other closed from reflex when he’d seen the flash of the blade in the light of the streetlamp close to his face. He wondered for one blissfully fleeting moment why he didn’t open his right eye again after the knife was gone.
Then his face exploded with pain, like a bee stinger had been dragged across his face and then lava- no, saltwater- poured on the wound. Something akin to static- like the dull background noise of a crackling campfire- filled his ears. The two teens let him go with twin hisses like they’d been burned and he dropped to his knees, one hand flying to his eye while the other caught himself before his face could hit the asphalt. Sticky liquid dripped between his fingers and rolled down the back of his hand.
The wind changed direction. A police siren sounded in the distance.
“And it was just getting good,” Shrill girl scoffed, her tone disappointed. “Let’s scram. You did a pretty good number on the kid, Archer. Hate for you to get in trouble because of this brat.”
Kai barely felt the hand cuffing the back of his head as the three teens shoved him as they hurried off, all his focus narrowed on the slick sensation of blood and the iron taste in his mouth. Hiccuping sobs, traitorous noises of pain and fear, clawed out of his throat. No, no, he couldn’t be weak, he couldn’t let something like this get to him-
He furiously wiped the red stream off his face. Leaving a splattered puddle on the playground floor, he stumbled to his feet. Immense relief swept through him when he blinked his eye open; other than the stinging pain and the blood trying to drip into his vision, he could still see.
He didn’t remember getting home, each footstep fading with the others. When he snapped back to focus, he was standing in front of the bathroom mirror at home, having somehow snuck in before Nya realized he was home. When he glanced up at the glass he quickly dropped his gaze back to the swirling red in the sink. His hair was a mess, plastered to his forehead with blood. His eye- he couldn’t tell what the injury looked like under the smear. He could still see, that was good, but FSM did it hurt.
Knocking on the door. He startled, slamming his hand into the sink faucet. Shaking it in pain, he stammered out an insisted collection of “I’m fine!” to his sister in the hall. No need to worry his older (by a handful of minutes) twin. Everything was fine. He wasn’t hurt. There were plenty of reasons why he only returned home now, it wasn’t that late. You don’t have to get mom and dad, they’re barely even here anyway.
His shaking hands spilt rubbing alcohol on his face as he tried to clean the blood off, and he yelped as the pain intensified to the point where he felt lightheaded. Suddenly Nya was at his side, the echo of the door banging open in his ears as she took one look at him and shrieked. He was in her arms a moment later, scooped in a hug that hurt his bruises but overall felt so needed. His bones melted and he went limp, the full tidal wave of fear crashing over him.
Nya was crying, saying something, but he couldn’t hear her. Nor did he hear when his parents entered, one of the rare moments where they were home, but he did feel them join the hug. The rest of the evening was a blur; sometime during it someone pressed him for details and he finally coughed out an explanation, and sometime someone must have cleaned the wound because he woke up the next morning with Nya pressed to his side and a gauze bandage wrapped around his eye.
Archer had been arrested the following afternoon as Kai was stuck in bed resting. It pissed him off that the teen would only be in custody for a couple hours maximum until they got the story out of him over attacking a friend of Lloyd Garmadon. Then Archer would probably be released with a slap on the wrist and a waggle of a finger, if even that much.
When he arrived at school the day after, scratching at the gauze mess obscuring half his vision with the sole intent of tearing the cheap knock-off eyepatch off, he was seething. He had to wear this stupid thing for a week, had to get stitches (he could feel them every time he blinked and he hated it), and to top it off, he signalled to the entire school just how weak he was. He wasn’t even through the front doors and he could already hear the rumours pouring out.
“Finally snapped-“
“-knew that kid was trouble, even before he hung out with Garmadon’s spawn-“
“-Just as corrupted as Lloyd-“
“-bet that freak as him doing all his dirty work-“
“-wouldn’t be surprised-“
“-hot-tempered and dangerous-“
“KAI!”
The whispering around them grew hushed as a green blur slammed into his side, sobbing. Kai sent a glare- hard to make it look intimidating with the cotton fluff on his face- at the students around them and carried Lloyd down the hall toward the quieter area of their lockers. When he got there he was pulled into a near-suffocating hug from behind.
“Zane, buddy,” he managed through his squeezed lungs. “Need- air-“
Zane let him go, but he’d barely had a chance to catch his breath before Cole slung an arm around his shoulder, nearly knocking him over. Jay slammed into his other side, babbling a mile a minute, and Kai huffed, exasperated but also touched by their worry. “Guys, I’m okay, really-“
“You nearly lost an eye!” Lloyd wailed. “Because of me!”
“What- green bean, no-“ Kai hugged Lloyd tighter. “No, it wasn’t because of you.”
Lloyd sniffed and rubbed off his tears in his hoodie sleeve. “But that’s- that’s what everyone’s saying-“
“And you really believe anything those idiots say?” Nya said, coming to his rescue. “The only person at fault is that stupid teen with the knife and his friends.”
Kai nodded. “Yeah!”
Lloyd didn’t look entirely convinced, but he slowly let go and sucked in a breath. Jay too grabbed a lungful of air before continuing his panicked rant about ‘never walking home at night anymore by yourself’, which Kai agreed to when he had a chance ten minutes later to interject. Zane didn’t pull him into another hug but he did continuously bump into Kai’s side in support, listing off a barrage of references to cool characters with scars.
Because of course it scarred after he took the bandage off. It looked wicked, sure, a smooth cut from above his right eyebrow, through his eye, and down his cheek in a curve towards his ear or lower jaw, but it was incredibly annoying. Despite its ‘rough look’ factor, it showed people he was a target, and in a society where intimidation was the best method to keep people from bothering his squad… well, it was like adding blood to shark-infested waters.
Not to mention those stupid rumours. It was only his friends’ concern, energy, and protective natures (usually he was the protective one for them) that helped him get through the week. He was still reminded of his failure every time he looked in a mirror, and it took a while to stop viewing the scar as weakness.
It was a scar he was left to live with, and for Lloyd and his family, he’d gain a thousand more to see them safe and happy.
The Fuchsia Ninja Theory
So this started as a crack concept & suddenly had evidence and now it’s spiralled into this whole thing so here we go.
Who is the Fuchsia Ninja? A one-off joke for the movie? A reference to Zane’s pink gi from S1? Or perhaps they’re hidden in plain sight...
I’ve seen a few different good theories/jokes. M!Morro, M!Chen the Cheerleader, a younger M!Dareth, the M!Mailman (we’ll get back to that later), but I have a different suggestion:
It’s someone new. Yet they’re seen in the movie.
Allow me to introduce Purple Jacket.
“But Imp!” you cry. “We see them in one scene in the entire movie when Lloyd walks off the bus and enters the school! Just because they wear a purple- not even fuchsia- jacket doesn’t mean they’re the Fuchsia Ninja!”
And you would be right, which was why this started as a joke. Originally I spotted them and found their reaction interesting (they take off their sunglasses as Lloyd passes, looking more surprised than hostile, before putting them back on and walking off without a care).
But then I went back trying to see if they were in the shot of the school as the bus pulls in and the shot of the school when Lloyd walks off the bus and everyone looks at him. And I noticed something.
Specifically, someone.
Or should I say somethree?
Three different purple-wearing sunglasses kids. Three. With the same/extremely similar hairstyle and slightly different clothing style, though all in purple (and a bonus Chen standing to the side, we’ll get back to him later).
Now, the simple answer is ‘animation budget’ or ‘animation error’. And to that I say, you’re right. But that’s the simple and boring answer.
Now, the second answer would be triplets. And perhaps that would be the obvious answer, if it wasn’t for another odd detail.
The scene above is when Lloyd steps off the bus (and I will note that he is last off, most likely because nobody else let him until everyone was out). Now let’s compare that to the scene directly before that: a shot of the school as the bus pulls in.
Notice something interesting? Two of the purple sunglasses kids are missing, and none are in the correct spot. Again, obvious answer is a. animation error and b. they move between the time it takes for Lloyd to get off the bus. After all, we see Chen standing with his skateboard waving to who we’ll call Skateboard Purple Kid. They both manage to move to the right side of the screen for the ‘Lloyd Garmadon just stepped off the bus, everybody look and freeze’ scene, which isn’t implausible but is really quick (plus Chen’s somehow already playing with a basketball, so maybe he does have some EM powers after all cough headcanon Amber cough his uncle being the mafia boss equivalent of Master Chen from S4 cough).
That still doesn’t account for where Purple Jacket Kid (the one in the original photo at the top & the one standing at the school door entrance) and Purple Hoodie Kid (the one on the left side of the screen leaning on some friends) came from.
Now it’s possible Purple Jacket Kid just walked out of the school and Purple Hoodie Kid just walked in from the left side of the screen, but it’s still just... interesting how they seem to just appear. Very... sneakily.
“Okay, that’s cool and all, Imp,” you say, probably bored but hopefully a little intrigued. “So which one is the Fuchsia Ninja?”
That’s the thing. It’s all of them. Why? Well, it boils down to one simple headcanon/theory:
The Element of Surprise can create clones/copies of themselves.
They can be everywhere and anywhere at once. Hear a mention of the elements of surprise? SURPRISE! A call for the Fuchsia Ninja? SURPRISE! Someone’s just looking down and could use a little cheering up? SURPRISE!
What better way to surprise people than by making copies that can spontaneous appear from everywhere and nowhere?
What better way than hiding in plain sight?
“You have my attention now, Imp,” you might say. Or maybe I’ve lost you, who knows. “So who are they and how do they fit in the world building other than going to Lloyd’s school?”
I’ll admit, the rest is just headcanons and theories. Speculation on M!verse counterparts we haven’t seen.
You know how I mentioned the m!verse mailman as a joking suspect for the Fuchsia Ninja?
Well, what if he had the Element of Surprise at one point? After all, the news never sleeps, and the mailman is always, always on the job, and he always delivers.
So having the ability to make copies of yourself would certainly help...
Now about passing on his Element: our m!mailman realizes while the mail is important, Ninjago City needs another ninja. A neighbourhood ninja, someone to help with the everyday small issues so the Ninjaforce can focus on Garmadon. And then he notices his nieph (a gender-neutral term for niece/nephew because the Fuchsia Ninja uses they/them you can fight me on this) who’s living with him going around trying to help the neighbourhood as best they can.
So he calls them to over to his mailroom one day and asks them if they would want his Elemental Power.
And thus the Fuchsia Ninja is born.
Now, there’s still one more piece to this puzzle. Because this parallel looks familiar- an uncle and their nieph who they care for, who is a ninja, with elemental powers involved. Wu and Lloyd. And while our Purple Jacket is closer to M!Morro’s age and parallel, we could still have the mailman adopt someone else.
And who better than M!Nelson, the purple ninja?
And so you get the found family of the M!Mailman, the Fuchsia Ninja, and M!Nelson.
Side note, M!Nelson is stoked when he finds out his sibling is actually the Fuchsia Ninja and that he has not one, not two, not three, but essentially a small army of siblings. Purple Jacket Kid is the original, but a few of the copies (including Skateboard Purple Kid & Purple Hoodie Kid) are out at all times.
Second side note, M!Nelson might be the next Elemental Master of Time, because if Krux and Acronix are both chill and good in the M!verse (like M!Morro) and just happen to befriend this cool kid that likes coming to their museum, well...
As for a name for Purple Jacket Kid... may I recommend 驚き, Odoroki, meaning surprise? And the bonus headcanon of their last name being Fuchsia, to further add to the ‘hiding in plain sight’ idea. Because it’s so obvious that it simply can’t be them, which means you’ll never see it coming when it is.
They also happen to be good at quick changes, especially into generic street clothes, to further add to the surprise & hidden in plain sight gimmick (on top of all the copies wearing slightly different versions of a purple get-up & sunglasses). Of course, this is a popular skill to have in Theatre. So the Fuchsia Ninja is a theatre kid now.
And who else works in a theatre that Odoroki might frequent? M!Lou.
Odoroki/Purple Jacket Kid being the Fuchsia Ninja might also be why his reaction to Lloyd was more surprised/bewildered/intrigued than hostile or angry stares. You can briefly see Purple Hoodie Kid’s reaction too when Zane shows up and rolls with Lloyd into school, though they’re too far away to make much out. They seem energetic & mostly not interested though.
But we’ll never know if this theory/headcanon is entirely canon-complicit within the M!verse. I guess until there’s further confirmation on the Fuchsia Ninja, their identity will have to remain a...
SURPRISE!
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UPDATE:
Found this one too, walking around outside and then inside leaping out of the way of Nya’s bike
You can also see Purple Jacket (who according to the wiki, is just titled ‘Guy’ when a lot of the other figures are named- suspicious) around the city a lot, but you can also see a ton of the classmates constantly, so it could be re-used models... or multiple copies styled after Purple Jacket
So who knows!
So there might actually be movie evidence to this! I don’t care that the movie uses many of the same minifigures and the same thing happens to other school kids and you can spot the same character designs at the beach as you can at school - in-universe theory explanation, more twins and/or some might be ditching.
So we know Chen the cheerleader (or maybe this one is Chad because he’s a jerk) is at school when the GarmAlarm sounded. The school’s procedure is “Duck and Cover”, so all students should remain in the building (minus the m!ninja, with the infamous “bathroom pass” excuse). But right before that scene, as Garmadon calls for his generals to do specific tasks during his first attack (ex. “General #2, pop that kid’s balloon!”), we see-
The heck are you doing out of school, cheerleader? Especially since, when we cut back to the class-
Sitting right behind Kai.
Coincidence? I think NOT-
i’ve come to the life altering decision of whether or not to call chen the cheerleader ‘chad’
What’s the Deal with Chen the Cheerleader? A TLNM Theory
So I’ve mentioned it before in this post a while back, but I think it’s time to make an official theory post on this.
So. Chen the Cheerleader- or Chad the Cheerleader, depending on your source. Seems to be a pretty 1-note bully with one mean cheer and no other importance in the movie, only point of interest is that he shares a name from a major antagonist from the show, yada yada.
But what if I were to tell you...
There’s two of him?
That’s right, identical twins (or, rather, identical cousins) Chen and Chad. And bonus cousin Skylor, though we’ll get back to that.
But Imp!, you cry, how are you so certain there’s two?
Because, my beloved fellow fans- I have evidence. And I chose to find the in-universe explanation for “they just reused a lot of the same models.
Take the bus scene at the start of the film. Lloyd gets on the bus- and who’s that about two rows behind him?
Chen (even sitting next to Maggie). But when we cut to the school, as the bus is still pulling up (before it even lets anyone off)-
There he is again! On and off the bus at the same time!
And that’s not all- during the GarmAlarm, we see a bunch of Generals do what Garmadon commands- including “pop that kid’s balloon!” And in the background-
Yet when we cut back to Ninjago High almost immediately after-
Conclusion: Chen and Chad are two separate people, possibly identical cousins or twins.
And bonus- though less of a theory and more of a headcanon- is that their last name is Amber / Chen (so Chen is Chen “the Cheerleader” Amber- or, for his full name, Chenifer Chenber Jamber Amber II, and Chad is Chad Amber- or for his full name, Chadler Jamber Amber Jr III), they’re related to Skylor (personal hc is that she gets to be an evil girlboss in the movieverse), Master Chen (or, rather, Mafia Chen), and have the potential to be inheritors of the Element of Amber (in personal hc Chen actually has it, though his family, including Chen, believe Chad has it).
But that’s just a theory!