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Kai Jiang - Blog Posts
A silly au where everthing is the same but the siblings are absolute units.
Wu comes looking for the map, finds two goddamn trees. He is confused.
Cole: "quick animal fact: most sharks do not attend church"
[Cole and Kai giggle]
Jay: "quick animal fact: birds can be funny"
Kai: "even quicker animal fact: monkeys like banana"
Cole: "shit, that is a good fact"
Cole: "quickest animal fact: monkeys live."
[Kai and Jay wheeze]
Kai: "most monkeys live"
[they all laugh, wheeze and cough]
Jay: "some monke alive"
[they die laughing like dumbasses]
I've been thinking a lot about Kai and Morro again, and specifically their parallels (dangerous thing, I know) and I just really wanted to ramble about what I've taken to calling the inferno of destiny parallel.
As a beginner ninja, both Morro and Kai dealt with arrogance, recklessness, and anger. We see this in how Morro took extremely dangerous risks to get Wu to save him, with how he assumed he was to be the green ninja when Wu told him he believed Morro was to wear green, and how Morro reacted when the weapons didn't react to him (ripping off the sliding door). We see this in how younger Kai jumps into situations without a genuine plan, how he gets angry and often (literally) explodes with fire when something frustrates him, and how he kind of defaults to the coolest person on the team/the hot one/the center of attention/etc when that's just really the immature persona he's thrown up to try and be the best.
Both Morro and Kai want to be the best at what they can do, and when they heard about a chance to be even better than their original concepts of the best (becoming the Green Ninja), both of them jumped at it.
Morro trained so hard he ended up hurting the kids he was training against and worrying Wu
Kai tried so hard to be the green ninja he ended up placing unnecessary strain on his relationships and even went so far as to risk letting people get hurt/die because he was prioritizing what he thought might get him closer to being the Green Ninja (a competitive line of thinking that Kai's been known to buy into in addition to his constant needs to try to be the best in the situation before he matures) (btw I'm talking about him originally trying to get the fang blade instead of. yknow. the CHILD about to burn lol.)
So, where do we see the shift from heroic to villanous in these two suspiciously similar characters? Well, it's when both of them are placed in an inferno scenario where they have to choose between pursuing their perceived destiny and their true destiny; hence, the inferno of destiny parallel.
Morro
When Morro searches so long to try and find a way to become the Legendary Green Ninja and rewrite destiny, he eventually finds himself in the Caves of Despair. We don't have the details of what happened, but we see the ninja try to escape Morro's fate in season 5 episode 7 titled "The Crooked Path". Here we see them encounter geysers that are releasing poisonous gases at an alarming rate, and they also spray boiling water/steam out in addition to rising the temperature to an unbearable level in the cave. It's reasonable to assume that Morro experienced a cave-in due to the caves' lack of structural integrity (also experienced by the ninja)* and then was killed either from burns from the hot steam and/or due to inhaling too much of the dangerous gasses.
The point of Morro's inferno: Morro couldn't accept the fact that he was not destined to be the Green Ninja, so he wasn't willing to turn away from his perceived destiny to save his own life. He wouldn't leave the cave because he couldn't let go of the fact that his perceived destiny wasn't his true destiny.
Kai
When Kai trains and practices to become the Green Ninja, making rash decisions (like jumping down for the Fang Blade again) and reckless choices that hurt his relationships (like barricading himself into a room to fight Garmadon for… literally no reason other than his desire to be the Green Ninja), he eventually finds himself in a similar inferno: The Fire Temple. An ancient temple constructed inside a volcano that once held the Sword of Fire, this is where the fourth and final Fang Blade is located and where the ninja must fight against Pythor and the other Serpentine generals for it. The volcano begins to erupt and collapse in on itself, and Kai ends up with a choice: save young Lloyd from his inevitable death in the erupting volcano, or try to reach the Fang Blade before it ends up in the hands of Pythor. This is the critical moment* for Kai, as he has to choose between his percieved destiny (becoming the Green Ninja and getting the Fang Blade) or his true destiny (protecting Lloyd in the hopes of saving both of their lives). In the end, he chooses to give up the thing he'd been working towards for most likely months now to try and be the best in the favor of saving a kid that used to be a massive pain in the ass (no offense, little Lloyd).
The point of Kai's inferno: Kai gave up his perceived destiny in the end, and only then was he able to unlock his True Potential in addition to being able to escape the Fire Temple safely with Lloyd and himself still alive. He was able to save himself and Lloyd because he gave up something that had felt like such a core part of his being, that he believed was his destiny, even though it turned out not to be.
He even says this himself to Sensei Wu: "I knew when I had to make a choice. I wanted the Fangblade so badly, to prove I was good enough to become the Green Ninja. But then I figured it out. All of my training to become the best ninja wasn't in preparation to become the Green Ninja. It was… to protect him." (s1e10, titled "The Green Ninja")
Kai and Morro both experience infernos that threaten their lives and rely on their ability to relinquish their percieved goals in favor of the objectively best choice in the moment. Morro was unable to give up what he truly believed was his destiny, and he ended up dead and sent to the Cursed Realm as a result. Kai was able to give up what he had been working towards for so long, and was able to save his life and Lloyd's life (especially entertaining when you remember that Kai had to give up trying to be the Green Ninja to… save the Green Ninja, lmao)
The critical moment I noted with a * for both Kai and Morro is that this point is the moment where each of them have to decide what's more important to them: what they believe is their destiny, or what would save their life. Morro tried to push through to his "destiny" and became too hurt or sick from the fumes to escape, and eventually died there. Kai gave up his "destiny" and just barely managed to escape with his life and Lloyd's.
So yes, I love the inferno of destiny parallel quite a bit! All three of these characters are very near and dear to my heart and they're rotating in my brain like a rotisserie chicken lmao
the instruction booklet for the ninja Spinjitzu temple has nya drinking tea
And another one has kai doing blacksmithing
How did most of the kids take to finding out kai was a blacksmith. Cause the idea of any one of them finding him making a sword or repairing weapon and maby even asking if he can make them one is cute
On the Ninja Spinjitzu temple set (I believe it's a season three set) a really fun detail I like on the front of the set it that kai is doing a little bit of blacksmithing
Idea, post dr season 2 pt 2 kai cole and Zane talk about stuff while sitting either round like a campfire at night or in the kitchen when everyone else is asleep
I think kai should know a bunch about blacksmithing like the melting temperature of a bunch of metals, he should also be allowed to randomly drop random tidbits at random times.
i drew mind controlled ninja because it's an idea that won't leave.
Ok but have we considered heatwave dragging kai into a sleep pile because wyldfyre was to scared to ask him herself. Just the two dad's and their daughter.
I love the group hug in the final bit of episode twenty. It's just so adorable, they all missed him.
I think someone should write a fic where through circumstances out of there control the Ninja should have to fight their students
Hey during the time before the final fight when nya and riyu where missing do you think she was talking to kai, do you think either of them thought all hope was lost because nya couldn't contact anyone else.
Angst idea, kai passes out for a little bit while hanging out with Cole and Zane but wakes up way sonner then he probably should of and starts freaking out cause it's dark.
Hey Ninjago fandom I kinda have to ask, but like have most of you forgotten Jays remark about saving a girl in the pilot season probably being the reason kai makes jokes at his expense more then the others, like I'm genuinely curious.
I'm back with another skylor idea because she didn't show up yet and I think there needs to be more ideas but like what if she meets wyldfyre when she's (wyldfyre) on a date with Roby. Like still have the misunderstanding of thinking Kai's dead because that would be cool, like some fight breaks out or something cause bad guys and stuff and then like after the situation is resolved nya shows up gets held back by skylor asking a bunch of questions then a little later kai shows up because wyldfyre almost burnt down a building.
do you think kai and bonzle are hurt after coming out, we only got to see them sometimes and kai seems to know how to counter shatter spin when the person isent using a mask so like did he fight them or atleast enough to get away. Alternatively I think if there's a post ending fic someone wrights he should just pass out.
I think kai should wear sunglasses for a little bit not cause he wants to look cool but because I think sunlight would hurt his eyes after he's been trapped for the indeterminate amount of time with bonzle.
Additional I think either nya, Lloyd or wyldfyre would be glued to his side because they missed him
*slams the door open*
Yo please know also that in the chinese cardinal directions, fire and south belong to the Vermillion Bird and ice and the west are of the White Tiger
now i think in canon Kai has a lion symbol but i am Not Alone in associating him with tigers and regardless: large feline predators
so what im saying is: Kai and Zane swapped their animal spirits
I am told by people you know that I also know that you like Kai ninjago, I also like Kai ninjago, we should Kai ninjago together
SLKJFSLDJDF I AGREE WE SHOULD KAI TOGETHER. I LOVE KAI'ING. but yeah I think we're like moots-in-law lol (share a bunch of mutuals).
My version of Kai Ninjago-ing ranges from rewatching clips and referencing transcripts to back up my analysis and/or fanfics to incomprehensible keyboard smashing and a bunch of pictures of him. oh and doodling him at least once per lecture.
BUT YEAH HE IS MY FAVORITE TOPIC!!!! he's such a fascinating character to me, I love just sitting there and putting him under the metaphorical microscope because I genuinely think his arcs and journeys are super interesting.
But I also love talking about all of them!! I LOVE THEM ALL!!! THEY'RE ALL SO IMPORTANT TO ME!!!!!!
the halo is a placeholder for a cooler effect, trust outfit is mostly what he was wearing pre-capture those ink cuffs represent magic sealwork that can effectively replace actual metal cuffs (only for the most part lol)
Oh I had sooo much fun on this guy's face. The expression is equal parts Disgust and Snarl btw, I think it works 🖤 I made custom greens for his hair bc nothing was quite right. And lots of brass and coppers for makeup and accents! also- there's claws now!!! and you can color them individually! heroforge has come so far i love it so much!
And here he is! My baby boy! mwah mwah His hair is black at the ends bc he dyed it a while back (inspired by a ninblr post that has escaped back to the nether for now) The mask is used when he's trying to disguise himself (either because he's super mixed and that's super dangerous in areas, or because he's the Warlord Garmadon's only child). also featured is more nail options and a sleeve tat! still deciding on what exactly but this one seems likely.
i keep having to retype :(
anyway ive been calling it monsters au generally because! almost no one is human!
it starts with kai (angel-type) being separated from his chorus/slaughter and captured to be brought to market as a rare specimen.
morro is a harpy who's been hunting crime in oni country lately and destroys the market kai's being held at (among other flammable things)
lloyd is a baby hybrid (himself a child of two hybrids) who snuck into the market while looking for a friend and gets caught up in kai's situation
@ninjago-valentine-exchange my contribution as the writer for Cole/Kai B! my artist was the wondrous @ninjapolis and their art is here.
fic is under the cut (i lost some of my work to the horrors of offline storage, but im still proud of what i salvaged and hope to revisit the concept later :salute:)
some content warnings for depression, smoking, references to smoking and drinking, some graphic description of nausea and pain, and a scene that can easily be read as following suicidal ideation or attempt
and also for, you know, killing kai before the fic even started whoops? :sweatdrop:
Boba Rewind
Shock & Denial
Cole rushes in, breathless.
Kai looks up with a lopsided grin on his face.
Cole's heart twists at his brown eyes, sedate and somehow predatory.
"There you are! Was wondering if I needed to go find you myself," Kai ribs him.
"Ah, haha," Cole gulps down air as he collapses in the chair beside him. "No, not this time. Just—huff—just give me a minute…"
Kai chuckles, humming a song he can't quite place. He's fiddling with something on a long ribbon. The shop door tinkles again, arrival or departure.
"Okay, right, let me grab my—our?—my drink, then," Cole wheezes, feeling his legs strain as he stumbles back to his feet, the wet grassy patches of his pants sticking to his legs. Did he really need to run the whole way here? … Looking at Kai's half finished boba, yes. He did.
Kai fluidly swings to his feet in a motion that makes Cole very conscious of how his own knees popped when he stood up. "Eh, I could go for a snack." He shakes his cup and, closing his eyes, drains the rest of it in one long slurp. "And maybe a refill."
"Oh, beautiful! I mean, wonderful!" Cole squeaks out as Kai grabs his (sweaty, so sweaty, why did he run here again?) hand and starts walking to the counter. His face feels just as hot as it did a minute ago.
"Hey, Kai, going on seconds?" the droopy eyed bobarista asks as she brushes off a chipped violet nail with her thumb. She's not wearing a nametag.
"Yeah, and another one for Cole here, and an almond tapioca pudding." He tilts his head as he looks at Cole sideways, "… and two tiramisus."
The white-haired girl takes a fresh cup and scrawls on it. "Same order, I'm sure. And for Cole?" she asks, lips curling up slightly at his name, and for some reason his head goes bright and cold as she speaks.
She's not looking at Cole, though. Her half-lidded eyes are focused on Kai, who seems to be very interested in one of many suncatchers turning lazily in the windowed corner. Their colored light splashes across his face as they twist.
"Uhhh," Cole stammers, "… number nine?" It's hard to think over the noise of the doorbells. (He didn't realize this place was so busy when he came in.) He flicks his eyes up at the menu, "with the chocolate syrup."
He vaguely remembers wanting to try that, at some point. He's stuck on the smear of red on Kai's cheek, stubbornly remaining after the light has moved on.
Kai catches his eye, grinning as he rubs it away with the heel of his palm. "Messy," he says, like it's a bit of a joke.
Really, it kind of is.
Pain & Guilt
Cole feels sick.
He feels like he'll vomit any minute: expel the acid traitorously trying to keep him alive. Purge himself of his digestive tract as it consumes itself, maybe follow it up with his heart and lungs. Take out all the living, beating, pulsing things and toss them out in a cardboard box.
His eyes are aching and burning and that's only because he hasn't slept properly in so long. (How long? It feels like forever.) Not because he's been crying. Definitely not because of the slowly disappearing cigarette hanging from his cracked lips.
"You know he wasn't supposed to have those either, right?" Lloyd drops down beside him onto the cracked pavement, concrete pebbles grinding under his shoes.
Those rocks were part of a big rock once. Cole wonders if they ever miss being what they were.
"It's why I took 'em," he mumbles when Lloyd doesn't say anything for a minute. And it's true, and Cole never did figure out the appeal they held to Kai: not when all they've done for him so far is make him want to puke up everything he ate in the last week (not much) or give him a headache strong enough that the single dim, flickering streetlight on this block makes him want to bash his head against the curb (tempting).
He holds the little baby stub of a thing in his hand, watching the cherry end burn closer to his fingers: playing with his half-empty bottle with the other.
There's a distinctive klick klick beside him and he looks up to see Lloyd playing with the flint on a familiar lighter, reddish brown eyes locked on his. No cigarette in hand, just the look of a dog with a bone on his face.
"We haven't gone out much lately, the two of us," he says, almost casually, "let's change that."
Cole flinches as the cigarette burns his drooping hand and slips it in his bottle. Kai was always particular about where he dropped his stubs.
Anger & Bargaining
Kai is already half done with his drink by the time Cole sits heavily at the table, a trail of puddles between him and the door.
He shivers, teeth chattering as he rakes his eyes over the shorter brunette. Smaller but hardly dainty, his skirt and hoodie covering one of the strongest bodies Cole ever knew.
"Number nine for Cole!" the bobarista hoarsely calls out, lip rings catching in the warm sunlight filtering through the corner windows.
Cole stays seated, looking at Kai.
Kai takes a long sip, looking back at him. "Gonna get that?" he asks, the sound distant and muffled.
"Does it matter?" Cole breathes, his body rattling. Cold, or rage, or something else he doesn't want to touch. He can't stop drinking in Kai's face, the way it's too still and too calm and too quiet and too
"Drink for Cole?" the man calls out again.
"Guess not," Kai says, one hand fiddling with a long hoodie lace. "but your ice might melt."
"Fuck the ice."
"I'll pass."
Cole snorts, slumping forward to rest his head on the sun-warmed tabletop.
He can feel his heart thumping in his chest. A good thing, probably.
Kai rattles his cup and takes a longer slurp than before.
"Please don't go." He doesn't know why he says it (liar), forehead still pressed to the rapidly cooling wood.
Kai breathes deeply for a moment.
"COLE. NUM-BER. NI-NE."
"You should get that," he murmurs back. He sound sad, and that sounds wrong.
"Okay." He stands, turning to the scowling green-streaked man behind the counter.
Depression
Cole drags another breath through his burning lungs (poor lungs, they don't deserve this), coughing again. He doesn't have to look to know Lloyd is pissed beside him. Pissed and radiating fury like he's fueled by it.
"What," Lloyd hisses, "the hell were you thinking."
Cole doesn't answer. Honestly, he's trying to move as little as possible right now aside from the painful breaths he still needs to take.
"Were you thinking? Did you have a single thought for whoever was coming after you? For anyone on the team? For what Kai wanted!"
Cole flinches, curled up on the sand, eyes focused on the grains and seeing nothing at all. The moon is high and bright in the sky, and it watches over as a chill curls up along his spine and gut.
"Fuck," Lloyd sobs. It's a horrible whining noise, and as Lloyd drops to the sand next to him, Cole can only echo the noise, shaking.
There is sand and salt in places the First Master did not intend for there to be. He can feel it in his hair, and taste it on his tongue, and knows that despite the numbness seeping into his legs pressed against the rocky sand they'll still burn when he finally moves again.
Maybe he doesn't need to move again. He could be a statue, right here.
“Cole,” Lloyd starts firmly, but Cole can hear the tremors, “if you ever do that again,” and his voice cracks. “Don't do that again. Just, don't.”
Cole swallows, “Copy that.”
“And I'm still telling Nya.”
Cole laughs roughly, “Understandable.”
“I can't look at you right now.”
“I'm sorry.”
Reconstruction & Working Through
There should be more to someone's life than a shoebox. There is more to it than a shoebox, but for what Nya and Lloyd have decided needed to personally filter through Cole? Shoebox.
Cole doesn't know why he's surprised, like he wasn't there when Kai was carefully hoarding away the surprisingly sturdy cardboard box all those months ago. Of course Kai was going to have his party favors of doom in his shoeboxes, they had to be used eventually.
Kai wasn't there to use them anymore.
There's not much in Cole's shoebox: a few trading cards, a familiar lighter. A Prime Empire NG+ cartridge. And a little metal bear, hanging on a long ribbon.
It's familiar, in a way that something he's never really seen before shouldn't be. But the ribbon seems like something he's seen in a dream, and the little bear feels warm and comforting in his hand.
There's a picture, too. Not a team picture or a school picture. One of just the two of them, blurrily taken from Kai's phone at a bad angle with worse lighting.
It's one of Cole's favorite pictures, probably.
That wasn't a great day for him either. He remembers being grumpy the whole day, suffering injustice after injustice such as: sleeping through his alarm clock, running out of milk halfway through his cereal; his shoes coming untied for the first time in a long time; the ice cream from the truck melting before he could even take a bite.
He's pretty sure it was a good day for Kai, though. He aced his test, right?
The truck had almost exclusively his favorites, his allergies didn't crop up despite the spring flowers. And he got that awful picture of the two of them.
Yeah, that was a great day.
Acceptance & Hope
Cole slides into the chair across from Kai.
"I have no idea what this tastes like," he admits, shaking his cup slightly. "I never drank it that day after everything, and I never went back after. So, I don't even know if it was something I liked or not."
Kai snorts, absently scratching at the gouge on his cheek. "That is literally the easiest problem to solve right now, man. Just go when you're awake this time."
"It won't be the same, without you."
"I hope not. Besides, you barely know what this place is supposed to be like outside of a dream, anyway."
Cole breathes, rattles his cup to hear it shake.
"Did you like it?" Kai asks, the picture of shyness in a flavor unique to him. "My little bear?"
"Yeah," he sighs, "yeah, I wish I'd gotten to tell you before. It's totally sick, man."
Kai grins, "Radical. And, uh," he leans back in his chair, fiddling with his skirt, "you should try the tiramisu, I wasn't kidding. You'll like it."
"I'll take your word for it then." Cole gets up.
its already 初三 but happy lunar new year!
from rgb sibs in hanfu because i miss them dearly :,)
(and also because i hc all of them to be half chinese)
btw ive had the idea to draw them in hanfu for like 1.5 years atp im so happy 🥹
Ninjago + Edgerunners?? Those are mostly screenshot redraws.
For this specific au kai is much older than Nya, her being 17 and kai being 26.
Wildfyre is eating the cards
Cole says something like this in the Dreamzzz crossover and it’s haunted my mind ever since. Cole what are you talking about. Destiny is most certainly NOT on your side