Dissonant Melody: Part #3

Additional contents include:

Found family, trauma, lots and lots of trauma everybody need therapy at this point, banger soundtracks

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Shout out to @lloyd-got-a-knife and @kristoffs-lullaby for giving me your thoughts and suggestions for the captions :') <3 /p

I changed some of the color pallate so ye!

[Ninjago] The Fire Chapter

…What if the events of s11 played out a little differently?

Or, an au/rewrite where it’s a little more Kai centric. I’ll just paraphrase stuff and then sometimes draw comics for it :)

Basically, the scrolls are a bit more relevant, but the beginning mostly is the same. They’re all a bit cocky and complacent, and now that their powers no longer rely on Lloyd or the golden weapons, Kai feels that he’s at his peak. The gang go on a rescue mission to find a missing archaeologist(idk I think rescue is better than looking for trouble) and after they find Clutch, they accidentally release Aspheera in their complacency, who’s hell bent on showing the world what true power is like (but wu is the first person she wants to welcome to her new world or smth idk)

She still takes Kai’s powers away, except he tries to not let it deter him. But when he fails to do anything to really help the team and is left to the sidelines, he starts to let the doubt seep in. Lloyd says the same thing he does in the show, but also tells Kai that he understands how he feels (having lost his powers in s9) and that he’s still a hero. They continue on with the battle, except this time, Aspheera wins and the ninja have to escape.

The rest of the team starts to feel the consequences of their failures, and think that if they only had a scroll themselves than they could have a chance. Same stuff basically goes down with finding second scroll, etc, etc, leading to the showdown between Aspheera’s army and the gang. But…it goes down a little differently….

Part 1

Okay so I spent a lot of nights just making SP items via coffee and curry so I figured MC really likes the things he learns from Sojiro (especially with the trivia we get sometimes) and then fast forward late game with best girl Haru and I learn that she wants to have a little home-y cafe just like Sojiro’s and grow everything they sell organically and never have I wanted to date somebody so fAST– (I was already planning on romancing her and her link definitely didn’t disappoint for me.)

Ain’t nobody gonna see this but I have theory of the Calamari Inkantation. Splatoon 3 Spoilers.

Okay so I was listening to Wave Goodbye, the Splatoon 3 Credits Song, over and over like a normal person, when at some point I realized when they get to the portion that starts the Calamari Inkantation lyrics, there are non-filtered voices singing. Humans Voices. (Pictured is around the point where that section starts)

Then I thought to myself: What if the Calamari Inkantation originated as a song humans made on Alterna? A song to help them continue despite their world falling around them. Then I started looking into the logs and reflecting on past events with the song and..

Let’s just say Sunken Scroll #23 from Splatoon 1 saying: “Nowadays, this song and dance may as well be carved into the very DNA of all Inklings.” ..might be a tiny bit more literal than expected. Let’s take a look at what we know.

The Calamari Inkantation is a literal incantation. Series of words, or a song in this case, that causes magical effects. It has, in many cases, been known to give strength, physical or otherwise, to those who have been in audible range of it. Ex. Giving Cuttlefish the strength to break out of his restraints and Smallfry to temporarily evolve(?) into Hugefry.

With that said, I believe the “Calamari” part could be from the place it was “founded” in and taken on as a traditional song for. Calamari Country. Which is where Callie and Marie come from. Perhaps the Inklings of the area long ago found the sheet music.

Moving on, the part of this that helps this theory’s case is Alterna Log005: Fresh Intelligence Awakens.

After the liquid crystals that retained decades of humanity’s wishes was absorbed by the squids, octopuses, and other sea creatures that inhabited Alterna’s waters.. it imbued them with fresh impulses that “bore a striking resembling to humanity’s passive desire to return to the Earth’s surface”.

Interesting. The desire to return to the surface was slowly fused into their DNA. You may be thinking “But what does this have to do with the Inkantation?” And that’s exactly where I’m going with this.

So if we are to think.. the Calamari Inkantation was made by the humans on Alterna, perhaps filled lyrically with their wishes.. and the sea creatures absorbed the desire and wishes of humanity to return to the surface through the liquid crystals.. and the Calamari Inkantation gives sea creatures the literal strength to move forward..

And the INKADIA-BORN OCTOLINGS, who were SUFFERING in poor conditions UNDERGROUND in DOMES heard the CALAMARI INKANTATION and suddenly their “SOULS WERE FREED” and THE DESIRE TO RETURN TO THE SURFACE AND THRIVE WAS EVOKED INTO THEM AGAIN?

AFTER YEARS OF LIVING A HARD MILITARISTIC-STYLE LIFE WITH BEING INDUCTED INTO THE ARMY AT A YOUNG AGE, THEY FOUND THE STRENGTH TO LEAVE THEIR ENTIRE OLD LIFE BEHIND? TO RISK IT ALL. EVEN THEIR OWN LIFE. TO JOIN WHAT THEY WERE PRESUMED TO BE THEIR WORST ENEMIES ON THE SURFACE IN HARMONY?

After thinking about all this and rewatching the Octo Expansion Surface Cutscene (from that last GIF), I nearly wanted to CRY. They had never seen the real sky before, the real SUN before. They made it. Not only the Octolings but humanity’s final wishes made it too.

That’s my theory. Perhaps I’m wrong but either way I would love to see what people think. Thanks for reading.

Oh and also, since it named the “Inkantation” that means someone knew of its power... This just in, did the Inklings cheat in the Great Turf War?

But that’s for another day lol

Lumity and Conflict

            We’ve all talked about Lumity being a really healthy relationship, a refreshingly healthy one at that, but we should also appreciate how the writers manage to have this AND portray conflict in a way that isn’t contrived, too.

         Take for example, Follies at the Coven Day Parade. It’d be SO easy to have the conflict come from Amity going ahead with checking Luz’s videos, and then have her and Luz argue over the breach of privacy, like in a lot of media. But instead, Amity KNOWS it’s wrong, but at the same time she can tell Luz has a problem and a tendency to keep it secret, which forces loved ones to call her out until Luz finally confesses and asks for help!

         So Amity’s conflict is whether or not she SHOULD go through Luz’s phone, and it resolves in a healthy manner because she goes to Willow for advice. That of course continues the plot thread of these two attempting to reconnect after their sorta reconciliation in Willow’s mindscape, and sets up the eventual confrontation between the two in Labyrinth Runners, regarding Amity still continuing to underestimate and condescend Willow, even if from a place of good intent.

         And that’s so much more interesting than Luz and Amity drama for the sake of drama, because now we get to throw in Willow and Amity’s dynamic and check up on how it’s developed, set up how it WILL develop, all while having Amity manage to do the right thing, but with some meaningful struggle and discussion, sympathetic and nuanced given her legitimate concern for Luz (rather than insecure snooping for the sake of it) and her issues of bottling up, on her way to do that!

Keep reading

Alastor: Short demons are without a doubt the least threatening creatures in all of hell. Honestly, what could they do to me? They can’t even reach me.

Lucifer: Say goodbye to your kneecaps motherfucker.

honestly i think about younger lloyd sort of copying/following the ninja around like a little duckling wayyy too much so im just gonna. dump em here. (fair warning, it might be long)

at first, i dont think any of them realise it- not even lloyd, that he's doing it. nya notices it first. they're repairing the bounty but she's watching as lloyd follow a few feet behind cole as the other works on moving planks of wood. lloyd looks like he doesn't know what to do so he's just copying the earth master, and he grabs one plank in his tiny hands and waddles after cole. nya watched this go on and has to hold back a laugh she sees cole flopping down on the ground in exhaustion, and a few moments of contemplating later lloyd following suit. both starfished.

i dont think they were all besties yet, but the ninja has accepted that this little gremlin is gonna be the green ninja and they're going to have to take care of him. maybe this is one of the few things that makes them realise, yeah this is Lord G's kid but holy shit he's just a kid.

and lloyd's also slowly accepting them. finding out he's the green ninja and his destiny made him mellow out a bit with his more, "evil-doings" (but not completely though)

zane's the next to notice. he's finished up dinner and the ninja have a rule that whoever didn't help in cooking will have to help clean. so a lot of the time, zane sits at the table or the couch and watches them clean up. sure, he's itching to help and he doesn't get tired even after cooking but master wu insists that its to build fairness within the team- to the other ninjas dismay.

he's seated at the dinner table this time as the others are clearing up and preparing for dessert when he notices lloyd.

the little one is watching jay, who is watching cole, who is leaving the room with a pile of plates. then he sees jay's hand creep towards the slice of pie that cole stated quite clearly to "do not touch it. no, Jay, especially not you." he sighs, already prepared for what's to come next. but what he was suprised by, was seeing little lloyd do the same thing but towards nya's slice.

right before either of them could reach it though, a loud shout startles them both enough to let out squeaks (one quieter than the other) as cole comes back in. jay has already made a break for it while lloyd simply disappears under the table.

zane couldn't help his own laughter at the whole thing, waving off a confused nya who is double confused when she finds lloyd under the table. he was amused and warmed by the behaviour of their youngest brother and made a note to himself to be more self-disciplined. preparing for when lloyd will decide to follow him. (nya does end up giving lloyd her slice anyway)

kai notices it when it's happening to him. they're out in the market and he's busy bargaining with the sellers over prices. the rest of the ninja are there as well but they each went seperate ways to do their own business.

he feels someone's gaze and turns to find a little blond head quickly looking away and (attempting to) hide in the crowd. he's surprised to see the little guy still nearby. he thought the kid would've run away by now and got caught stealing candy again (the candy sellers still glare at them when they pass by) or stayed with nya.

he snorts when he sees the kid yell as he's knocked onto his butt by the crowd and whistles to get his attention. lloyd turns red, embarrassed at being caught.

when he makes his way to where kai is standing, he's got the biggest pout and a deep frown. without saying anything, kai reaches out a hand and watches the multitudes of emotions that pass over the kid's face.

once, lloyd would've be too prideful to take it but after kai saving him from the volcano, he trusted the fire master more than he realised. so he took his hand. and for the rest of their trip at the market, kai would send short glances and feel his heart warm at the sight of little lloyd holding his hand; sometimes toying with his fingers, or just shaking it when he wanted attention and at one point when kai was taking too long, he had leaned bodily against the ninja with his head against his hip and kai had to hold his tears and teases back.

yeah just. ninja being big siblings and lloyd being a kid. i just think its adorable lmao

i do also think that this habit would still be present when he's older as well. maybe not as much but he just does it subconsciously compared to when he did it to be like his siblings !

We as a fandom do not talk about this scene nearly as much as we should

Like, I had already headcanoned that Nya's independent personality was a result of her upbringing, but the fact that this scene officially confirms it is just *chefs kiss*.

What I find so interesting about Kai and Nya is that their childhood trauma has very clearly effected personalities and overall characterizations. Both of them have lone wolf tendencies (albeit more so in earlier seasons), often tending to go their own way and handle their problems on their own instead of relying on the team. They both have anger issues and short tempers, struggling to process their emotions in a healthy way. And neither of them are comfortable with weakness and vulnerability, and tend to lash out when they feel cornered.

There's also the fact that, due to growing up as two kids forced to raise themselves and learn survive with limited assistance from their community, both of them are understandably afraid of feeling weak and vulnerable. What I find to be perhaps the most interesting part of all this is that despite sharing a similar fear, both of them have vastly different coping mechanisms for dealing with it.

For Kai, his fear of powerlessness manifests in a desire for more power - a desire to be the green ninja, a desire to protect his friends, a desire to be strong and heroic, and of course a difficulty with accepting the situation when he loses his powers. He has pretty seamlessly integrated his power into his persona as well, frequently referencing his abilities and praising his status as the master of fire arguably more so than any other character. He's quickly turned his power into a huge part of his identity. Every time he loses his powers, he tends to go into a bit of a depressive episode - in season 5 he developed a fear of water, and in season 11 he became so upset that he nearly quit being a ninja altogether. When he failed to save the Never Realm villagers from Boreal, he blamed himself for it by lamenting that he wasn't powerful enough to save them.

You get the idea. Point is, Kai doesn't like feeling weak, he doesn't like vulnerability, he doesn't like being the weak link or a liability holding everyone back. Personally, I would point to that insecurity as being the primary driving force for his determination to become the green ninja, but that's definitely up for debate.

And as for Nya, this fear has manifested as her being a fiercely independent perfectionist, equating mistakes and failure with weakness, and fearing failure to such an extreme extent that she either gives up anything she's not immediately good at, or completely ignores her problems and pretends everything is fine. Like in season 5 when Wu was training her to become the master of water. "I'm not weak, this bucket is weak! I'm good at everything else, why do I have to be good at filling buckets?!" Or her struggles to get along with her mother all throughout Seabound, knowing full well that she can't blame her mom for leaving but still not quite ready to have her mom in her life again. She also isn't good at asking for help either, often preferring to handle things on her own even at her own detriment, and often she has a hard time admitting when she's wrong as well.

Whenever traumatic things happen, she just steamrolls right past it, refusing to acknowledge her own grief for very long. At Zane's funeral the first thing she said was, "So...what happens after this?" In the face of Maya's repeated attempts to reconnect and talk about Nya's childhood trauma, Nya would often shrug her off or storm away or change the subject.

Maya tried to explain her reasons once - tried to explain that sacrificing yourself comes with immense collateral damage, often hurting the same people you're trying to protect, and says "That's just the way the cookie crumbles." But Nya can't bring herself to address what Maya is really getting at, instead swimming away and saying "I don't like crumbly cookies."

That's why her final words are so important to me. "Tell my mother I understand now. That's the way the cookie crumbles." Nya has finally come to terms with and accepted her mother's decision, accepted that not all solutions have perfect answers, and has finally confronted her own baggage once and for all. She understands why her mother left, she forgives her, and above all she, the team perfectionist, is making a decision that isn't perfect. A decision that will leave a lot of collateral damage, and will cause serious trauma to her loved ones. She knows that by leaving her friends behind and becoming one with the sea, she's hurting them the same way her mother's absence hurt her - but she does it anyway because it's the only way to save their lives.

And as she looks back to say goodbye to Jay one last time, she cries. She mouths the words "I love you" - something she'd never said out loud before. She lets herself be truly raw and vulnerable. Even during her death in Skybound, she was still trying to keep her up her strong and defensive facade, saying things like "I never wanted to be part of your boys' club anyway". Even on her deathbed, in that moment she can't bring herself to let down her walls all the way. But here, several seasons later, she has finally let herself be vulnerable enough to cry, to say goodbye, to say "I love you."

Nya may not be my favorite ninja, but she does have my favorite character arc. Her going from samurai to ninja was a controversial decision, but I really do think it was a good choice in the long run because it almost feels like it's symbolizing her growth - going from a lone wolf who insists on doing things by herself, to being part of a team and relying on her friends just as much as they rely on her.

Just...I love Nya so much. She needs a hug.

I’ve been playing Splatoon 3 and it’s so fun 

Here's a drawing I made a while ago for this year's anniversary of TLNM aka the movie that changed my brain chemistry for life, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH SGDHSDGSG