I Thought You Were Me For A Second It's Getting Bad

Alright guys time for another theory post:

What did we really see in the Phantasm Cave?

We’ve generally accepted that the Ninja and Co. saw visions of their (arguably) greatest fears: Nya and Jay, Riyu and Wyldfyre, Sora and Arin. All pretty rudimentary.

Then we get to Lloyd. Main character that he is, his fear is much more layered. This got me thinking back on the visions we saw, and even those we didn’t, and what they might mean. I’m going to highlight the interesting bits that you may have missed upon a first-watch.

Arin:

- scene opens with Arin misidentifying his parents as Sora and Lloyd, then he approaches them

- not the last time he does this: shows up again in the season 2 finale after Arin fights Ras, but the opposite way. Arin thinks he sees his parents when it’s just Nya and Lloyd.

- after his parents are revealed, he suddenly can’t move anymore. He just runs at them without moving forward

- notably, his mother asks “Why haven’t you found us, Arin? Are the Ninja your new family now instead of us? Did you forget us?”

- Arin only responds to/denies forgetting his parents, but doesn’t address her other questions.

Arin fears that his attachment to the Ninja compromises his parents’ love for him. He’s able to make progress in his ninja training, albeit slowly, but hasn’t gotten anywhere closer to finding his parents. He blames himself for taking so long. He’s not worried that he won’t find them: he’s scared they’ll hate him when he does.

Sora:

- notably, her vision isn’t in or about Imperium itself. Beatrix and Ras represent the regime of Imperium that she ran from.

- these two appearing on a video screen ties in her elemental tech powers, as well as her “we are all dragons” speech from the season 1 finale, which was aired on a similar TV system

- she’s grabbed and pulled into the screen by a bolt of electricity: not a hand, not any involuntary movement, but the lifeblood of her element. We’ve known about elements having overlap since season 11, so this is likely another tie-in to her powers.

- a golden hand appears through the screen at the last moment to grab her. It’s unclear if this is Ras or Beatrix, though the electricity appears from Beatrix’s hand.

Sora has been exploited by Imperium before, and that was before she discovered her element. With a power that’s so utility-based, she’s afraid that her powers are going to bring her more pain. Choosing to activate the Photacs back in season 1 must have really stuck with her, especially since the Ninja nearly lost the battle because of her decision. She couldn’t stand to put others in danger again like that. And unlocking her true potential solidified the divide between her and her parents. In her own words: “I’m a dark cloud. Bad luck seems to follow me everywhere.”

Lloyd:

“Your team needed strong leadership and did not receive it.”

“But, I had these visions, and—“

- in an attempt to justify his actions, Lloyd tries explaining his visions; though he doesn’t know how much he can trust what he sees, it’s the only lead the team has. Lloyd continuously doubts his decisions based on his visions, so why would he be excusing them now? Perhaps as a way of justifying his inadequate leadership?

“I blame myself, nephew. I felt you were ready to take over for me. But I was wrong.”

- Lloyd puts Wu on this pedestal for being a “perfect” master. He’s able to call him that despite Wu’s mistakes and shortcomings, but Lloyd can’t give himself the same treatment. He doesn’t deserve it: he’s not worthy.

“You will never / be good enough.”

- Ras appearing here is really telling. He appears in his Imperium garb because this was the point when Lloyd’s mistakes in leadership came with tangible consequences: during the battle for the second monastery. His team was put in danger because of him. Not only is Lloyd not good enough to be a master, but he isn’t good enough to properly deal with this looming threat.

- Lloyd has also observed Ras’ leadership of both the Claws of Imperium and the wolf mask warriors and how effective he is. He’s much more organized and mentally sound than Lloyd, and he keeps winning. He consistently keeps coming back. By all of Lloyd’s metrics, Ras is a better leader than him.

Nya:

- this vision seems to be set up to imply that Nya regrets not loving Jay more before he disappeared. Because she didn’t care about him enough, he’s gone and forgotten their relationship altogether.

- Nya’s previous fears in the series have been: failure (S5) and becoming ordinary (S11 + 15). This vision ends up combining these two: In Nya’s failure to find Jay after the merge, she’s become ordinary to him.

Nya is the first to realize her vision is fake. I believe this is because hers was the only purely external conflict among all the visions. She’s able to separate herself from the given situation because what she feels for Jay hasn’t changed. She hasn’t been absorbed by her self-criticism or mistakes because she’s not doing anything wrong: Jay forgot her. She has no fault or control of that.

Riyu and Wyldfyre:

- Riyu and Wyldfyre are implied to have had similar visions regarding Wasting Sickness. It’s revealed later with Egalt that Wyldfyre has experienced the effects of Wasting herself among her clan. And Riyu coming from the Mountain dragon tribe would have also likely seen the devastation of Wasting.

- Both of them would have encountered this disease when they were much younger.

- We also learn from Egalt and Wyldfyre that Wasting primarily impacts older dragons. Both Riyu and Wyldfyre have older dragon mentors/family members: Heatwave and the Matriarch. I bet they saw these two suffering from the disease and were unable to help.

Kai:

- we are shown next to nothing about what Kai saw (thanks, show 😤), but his reactions paired with this pattern of analysis can give us some idea.

- after coming to, Kai glances to Nya, huffing a sigh of (what seems to be) relief. He looks to Nya first, notably. Remember, these animation choices are deliberate.

- when Nya says “It couldn’t be real”, he makes this face:

- Her conversation with Lloyd seems to sour his mood. Nya seems to think that just because her vision seems impossible, everyone else’s must have been just as unrealistic. And Kai disagrees. What Kai saw was likely something that could feasibly happen, or something that already happened.

- In a more meta sense, we can also assume this is a more recent conflict, seeing how none of the OG Ninja’s visions touch on relevant plot beats from before Dragons Rising.

- taking into account this ask to Doc Wyatt from a few months back:

I believe Kai’s vision had something to do with wandering the merged lands alone. This would explain the attention drawn to his relief at seeing everybody ok. I imagine we’ll get more info from Kai about his travels, but I’d respect the writers’ decision to leave this ambiguous.

So where does that leave us?

What I believe we’re seeing in these visions are the Ninja’s regrets. These commonly stem from underlying fears of theirs, but there’s not as much terror involved with this sequence.

From a writing standpoint, this is a deeper exploration of character than simply living their greatest fears. Given the opportunity, what’s one thing you would go back and change? One mistake that you’d fix? These visions force these characters to confront these questions head-on as they struggle to rationalize their past behavior.

Feel free to share your thoughts and theories in the comments or reblogs! I’d love to know if I’m cooking or not on these longer theory-crafting posts.

Kai after he gets home, looking in the mirror and just. Practicing.

His smile. His laugh. His quips. Practicing how to seem like himself so Lloyd doesn’t worry.

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

Blog stuff ^^

Hi! You can call me Bie, I'm very ADHD and sad

I am a teenager. Pls don't dm me if you are over the age of 18. Don't be a peedough

I have hyperfixated on the same Fandom since late 2019 so you can guess what that did to me mentally

My gender is whatever you think suits me best (agender)

I write! A lot! Only on ao3 though, my user is jubieew

I mighttt post my drawings on here later but I need to make some first. Mostly oc's and Ninjago

My pride and joy is my Sunbound fic! The link is down below so please check it out if you have the time! Mind the tags!

Kai. That's all I have to say. It's unhealthy, actually.

I'm in a lot of fandoms! I can't remember them all but rest assured if you know it I probably know it

Fandoms!

Let me rack my brain for minute...

Ninjago

The Resident Evil franchise

Mlp

Toh

All of vivziepops series's (yeah I know)

Mouthwashing

Running Man Animation so niche oh my

Rottmnt

Murder Drones

The Gaslight District

TADC

Alice: Madness returns

Poppy Playtime

Aphmau

FNAF

FNF

Dark Deception

God of War series

Epic: The Musical

Invincible

Maya and the Three

Httyd series (minus that new series about the modern world or some shit idk)

Tales of Arcadia series <33

I think that's it.. will update if I remember lol

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Updated 5/23/25

Kai after he gets home, looking in the mirror and just. Practicing.

His smile. His laugh. His quips. Practicing how to seem like himself so Lloyd doesn’t worry.

if monstrosity gets leaked i'll have to break both arms to keep myself from watching it i fear

Oh my fuck.

It's a loop. And the masters of fire are in the middle of it.

You can see at the start that the centipede eats who I assume is a fire elemental, who then goes through a cycle to become one of the centipedes. Then, right below it, you can see a cluster of EGGS that look eerily similar to the ones inside the centipede. Basically:

Centipede: Eat

Person: become centipede

Personpede: lay egg

Egg: become person

Repeat

Imagine Kai, after finding this out, just looks at his hands and arms and face.

And sees a monstrosity.

That's so fair actually

This was him after going through the most traumatic event of his life btw

I don’t know how i haven’t realised until now but omg

Omg is that my art as your pfp

Im gonna squeeze you bro omg

(Wheezing) ok cAn you let me go now my vision is blurring

Needed me a pfp that differentiated myself among the other monstrosity pfps and... ur art... is crunchy :)

Very rough outline of my monstrosity au. I call it Odyssey!Kai. Yes it's an epic the musical pun. I'm very happy with it

Oooo been thinking about this for a hot minute. Was in my drafts for longer.

The imperium arc goes different too, Lloyd getting afraid at seeing Wyldfyre, her being fire adjacent and all, and thinking Kai is dead since she has his "fire" powers. After they get back to the Monastery, Zane actually becomes Wyldfyres mentor. The reason is that he finds her endearing and sees himself in her (not knowing who you are or where you came from). I have concept art rotting in my gallery, but it's not done yet sowy.

In this one, Kai doesn't find the bounty. Nya does. So she finds Lloyd first and traverses the merged lands for information. This, of course, creates irreparable damage to our boy. He does not go home early this time.

S2 has 4 major changes. Wyldfyre is slightly calmer, Lloyd has visions of both the bloodmoon and a mysterious figure cloaked in fur and blood (that he can't help but feel pain for, he doesn't know why), Nya learns dragon rising technique first, and Cole gets sacrificed instead of Kai. Besides that, mostly the same. Maybe they struggle a bit with the Ras showdown, but it ends the exact same way with Nokt free.

S2 p2 has the most differences. For one, Geo and the finders live with the ninja now. He feels guilty for letting Cole 'die' like that, so he's thrown himself into training. He's doing well, and the finders are having fun with arin, sora, and wyldfyre. The monastery is definitely more full, but the ninja still feel the absences of Kai, Cole, and Jay.

Next, Cole isn't doing that bad in the ns. He's got bonzle, he can use his powers to shape the space since it's technically rock, and enough stories to last a lifetime. He's fine.

Zane and Wyldfyre bond more. He tells her stories and videos about Kai and how they'd get along, and she is ecstatic. Another fire user, how exciting!

Arin and sora are still looking for his parents. Still find the matriarch dead.

Meanwhile, Kai has all but lost it. He isn't insane, but his morals have all but been destroyed. The only thing he cares about is getting back to his family and anything and anyone that has come in between that has now died or burned to death. The guardian dragon and fire knight mech are his permanent companions, and they respect his decision to change his values. One can not survive being in the land of the monsters without becoming one themselves, anyway.

The tournament of sources plays out the exact same. If you're wondering about frak, zane took up Cole's role in the og series. When Jay and Nya fight, he actually comes very close to winning. Nya can't bring herself to hurt him, since this time she doesn't have her brother to kinda fill his void. Jay is about to eliminate her until a fire ball the size of a car chucks Jay into the nearest wall.

Nya and the rest of the ninja are horrified because, duh, and she rushes to his side. Jay is unconscious, and she looks to where the fireball came from. Everyone is so in shock that they don't even recognize that it was a fire ball. Except Wyldfyre, then Zane. He tries to tell Lloyd, but there a crowd blocking his way.

All Nya sees are security bots wrangling a hooded figure, but they're being dismantled by the second in a flurry of slashes. Also, it doesn't help that there are two giants (mech and dragon) just looking down at him saying something she can't hear. She can only make out a subtle, "Do you want them to see you like this?" Before the stranger flinches and finally calms down. He allows himself to be arrested.

When the source dragons send out those little messages for each elemental master, Kai actually gets one since he hasn't encountered ras yet. The messenger dragon leads him out of the realm of monsters, but it's still pretty far. He gets there, but it takes a day or two. Or three. That's why he's late.

Roby comes forward, and he is just upset. Absolutely annoyed. He says something about wanting to see the face of the perpetrator, and that sends Kai into another frenzy. He doesn't want his family to him like that. He fails this time, though, and his hat and mask are pulled off.

You can guess what happens next.

Roby is actually happy with the change of events, calling it an epic plot-twist, but the ninja?

The reunion is short-lived, as he's wrung away for interfering with a match. The ninja tried to get to him, but doing so could get them disqualified, so they bite their lips and accept it unwillingly. Not knowing what to do with the mech and dragon, they just give it to the ninja. Both parties accept.

All I have so far wowowowowow