Given All The Context Provided To Us By Various Flashbacks Throughout The Series, I Think Cole's True

Given all the context provided to us by various flashbacks throughout the series, I think Cole's true potential scene has a lot more complexity to it than at first glance.

The first time you watch it, it's pretty standard. He had a difficult relationship with his dad, but after making amends he was able to let go of the thing holding him back and move forward. It's a simple but sweet story, and it's a wholesome lil episode overall.

But THEN we watch all his flashbacks in seasons 8, 13, and the Core shorts, providing us SO much more information about his family history. And when we consider the fact that Lily's death played a major role in his and his father's strained relationship, his true potential starts to take on a new dimension. Let me explain.

First, the flashback from Core. For those of you who haven't seen Core, there's a scene where Cole is feeling overwhelmed so he tries to, as he puts it, "find balance", and ends up conjuring a fond memory of his mom in order to calm down.

Given All The Context Provided To Us By Various Flashbacks Throughout The Series, I Think Cole's True

This is such a short sequence, barely even 30 seconds long, but also tells us a LOT.

Given his age and appearance, we can assume that Cole is pretty young here. Considering how his mom is up and about and seemingly pretty healthy in this memory, this also likely takes place sometime before she got sick

We can also conclude that dancing was a significant part of not just Lou and Lily's relationship, but their household overall. And given Cole's little smile as he watches them dance, he seems to have genuinely enjoyed it as well. This evidence is corroborated by other instances throughout the series where Cole is more than happy to dance or whistle, maybe even sing if he feels comfortable enough to do so. So he does genuinely enjoy this sort of thing

This would suggest that Cole didn't always have the belligerent attitude towards performing arts like he did in "The Royal Blacksmiths", nor does he carry such an attitude after that episode. As early as season 2 we see him dancing as he fights bad guys and whistling as he helps repair the Bounty. He's had instances of stagefright, yes (the Snake Jaguar incident is the first one that comes to mind), but after making amends with his father he's never shown a dislike for that sorta thing. It's not the dancing he hates, it's the fear of judgment

(On a related note, Cole's insecurity about other people's approval seems to be reflected in his arc during the Ice Chapter, where he became paranoid that everyone hated him for losing the Traveler's Tea and went to extreme lengths to fix his mistake. Or how, in the Character Encyclopedia, it mentions that Cole gets easily distracted by tiny mistakes, and how he tends to fatalize over all his screwups until they end up distracting him. Needless to say, Cole is afraid of letting people down. Residual anxiety from the Triple Tiger Sashay Incident, perhaps? Which, if you really want to be punched in the gut, could also come from Cole being insecure about his inability to save his mother.)

Now let's look at the next flashback in the chronological order: the bedroom scene from season 13.

This scene doesn't tell us quite as much, but we do get clued into a few details regarding Cole's relationship with his mother

In the beginning of the scene, Lou is leading Cole down a hallway and into Lily's room. And when Cole finally sees her, he is wary at first, even turning to his father for confirmation and reassurance. Then, at Lou's encouragement, he approaches her with excitement and relief. Given his reaction, he probably hasn't seen her in a while. Either because he wasn't able to enter her room since she's been so sick, or because she's spent all of her time in either a hospital, hospice center, or some other kind of care facility

Let's go back to that thing about Lou, actually. This quick and quiet interaction between him and Cole suggests that on some level, they do have a functioning and loving relationship at this point. Lou is at this point attentive to his son's emotional needs. Keep this in mind going forward

"I want you to promise me, Cole, that you will always stand up to those who are cruel and unjust." This right here is where we see Cole's motivation for becoming a ninja. He'd gotten into a fight at school in an attempt to stop a bully, and instead of berating her son for fighting, she told him that she was proud of him for doing the right thing even if he got in trouble

This does seem to fall in line with what other few details we have about her character - she's a strong, powerful warrior who was capable of defeating Grief Bringer on her own, and seems to be a somewhat pragmatic, no-nonsense individual who says it like it is - a trait Cole seems to have inherited from her. (Example - when Cole said he didn't want her to be sick anymore, she replied with, "I know. But we don't always get what we want.")

Note that he's still pretty young in this scene. While it's hard to tell specific age, he's probably anywhere between 7 and 10. I'd hazard to guess that this memory occurred relatively early on in his mother's illness

Next up: the flashback in season 8, wherein we see the extended version of Cole's first encounter with Wu

One important thing to note here is that he said he 'just' lost someone, meaning that Lily's death must have happened fairly recently, even though we first see her illness back when Cole was much younger

This means that Lily's illness wasn't a quick thing. It likely lasted for a significant chunk of his childhood, watching his mom slowly spiral into a sickness he can't protect or save her from, with him and his father growing increasingly estranged as it happens

Lou is never home, always out performing. Cole interprets this as his father not caring, but we can easily interpret this as Lou's own attempts to cope. Remember that Lou was once quite supportive and very in-tune with his son's emotional needs? By now, Lou has become a far more distant, estranged, borderline neglectful person in Cole's life due to his inability to grieve in a healthy way

Let's bring back that point in the previous flashback about Lily being a pragmatic, no-nonsense person. "With her gone, I guess it's up to me to be the responsible one." In the wake of his mother's death and father's increasing absence, Cole had to step up and take responsibility. He was trying to take up the space in their family she had once filled.

By the time Cole's true potential episode comes up, I would argue his mother's death is still relatively recent. And all of the interactions between Lou and Cole really have an extra lil flavor when you take that into consideration

So what does all this add up to? Well...

What's the main conflict between Lou and Cole in "The Royal Blacksmiths"? Lou wants Cole to become a performer, a dancer like him. When discovering Cole's a ninja he says, "...I'm not going to wait around to watch you make a mockery of our family's legacy."

We already know that dancing was a major part of their family dynamic, and in particular Lou and Lily's dynamic. To Lou, performance is a family matter.

While we don't have any hard evidence of this, the Triple Tiger Sashay Incident doesn't strike me as something Lily was present for. If that's true, then she'd probably already fallen ill by that point (meaning Lily's illness began at least by the time Cole was 7). And if THAT's true, then we can conclude the following:

Lou, confronted with the impending reality of his wife's death, began clinging to dance and performance as a coping mechanism and likely projected this onto his son. He clung to it as a way to hold onto her, and started to go a bit overboard with it. Hence why he began pushing Cole too far.

Remember, Cole did and still does enjoy dancing. But Lou's actions, all the pressure and judgment, pushed Cole away from something he loved doing. Something that, as we know from the Core shorts, he canonically associates with his mother.

In a way, being a dancer was Lou's coping mechanism, and being a ninja was Cole's. Both of them consumed with something that reminded them of Lily. When Cole and Lou make amends, there's so much more weight behind it than just Lou apologizing for pushing Cole too hard. It's about Lou recognizing how unhealthy his own coping mechanisms have been, and how his own grief has hurt his son. And it's about Cole remembering that when he's not facing pressure and judgment, he actually DOES love dancing.

Over time, as the series progresses, he sheds his serious and responsible persona and begins to loosen up a bit - he's healing. Now that he and his father have made amends and laid to rest all the contention between them, they're both able to heal and move forward.

It's like Jay said - "I think I know why Cole is so closed-off. It's because twinkle-toes here couldn't deliver the goods. Is that why you ran away?"

He may not be in denial like his father, but he can be a bit closed-off sometimes, and is quick to running from his grief instead of facing it. That's why he never vocalized his frustrations with Jay over the love triangle until season 4, just committing to the pettiness of the rivalry instead of being open about his feelings. And it's exactly what he did when Zane died, too - he left the team and ran off to be a lumberjack.

With this in mind, I'd be willing to bet that his distaste for dancing not only came from his father's pressure, but also an attempt to run away from his problems again. This time, by shutting out something that reminds him of his family.

His relationship with his father was holding him back, yes - just as much as his grief for his mother.

Now, let's fast-forward a few seasons to the Day of the Departed special. Cole's ghostly curse has caused him to begin fading from existence, and while he sets out on a quest to remedy the situation, his father waits back home, worried about his absence.

"Cole? Cole? Where are you? My son was going to meet me before the show to light a lantern."

And since Day of the Departed lanterns are lit to commemorate the dead, I am 200% sure that lantern Lou'd been holding was going to be for Lily. He and his son were going to meet up and remember her together. That detail may have been pretty insignificant to the plot, but it feels kinda huge to Cole as a character. I really doubt this is something he and his dad would've done back in season 1, showing that both of them are finally able to confront the truth of Lily's death in a healthy and supportive way. Not only that, but it suggests a closeness between them that simply hadn't been there pre-reconciliation. Not only have Cole and Lou healed in their own rights, but their relationship has healed as well.

Anyway, this was all a very long-winded way of saying that I love Cole Ninjago, and the more I learn about his past the more I want to CRY.

pov: you're a fanfic writer who's in school/college

me: I'm in the mood to write.

my brain: ....write your essay, right?

me:....

my brain: You're going to write your essay, RIGHT?

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ewoo

3 years ago

power is power, and not everyone is powerful

when i see a lot of discussions who try to compare characters, the thing is, they forget about the very nature of the server, in that it is NOT our world despite how much it can feel like it, and thus the nature of power is much more primeval.

on a basic level, power is power. nothing else.

having the best armor doesn’t make you unkillable. Tommy had the first piece of netherite armor on the entire server. and it was stolen and used against him. Sam insists he’s one of, if not the, most powerful person the server - he still lost to a PVP with Dream. Techno infamously was able to kill Quackity with a pickaxe, some potions, and iron armor despite the latter being in full enchanted netherite.

now, in our world, resources = power. several people on the server take great pride in their resources (being the “richest”) but…once you have God Armor+Weapons and a solid base, you’re basically on the same playing field as everyone else, it then comes down to skill. because most people only have 3 lives, it’s not likely you NEED four stacks of Gapples and Diamonds. sure, it helps! in the Disc Finale, Dream talks a lot about how he has more than he’ll ever need and that Tommy and Tubbo can never feasibly beat him, but we’ve all seen an episode of Manhunt. Dream doesn’t need godtier items to be powerful. and it’s hard to say items make you powerful when out of canon, CC!Dream has a valid system to prevent people getting so far ahead no one can ever catch up (the End being closed and iron/villager/piglin farms being banned)

and all of this means the interactions of “powerful” people - Techno and Dream in particular - need to be taken with the concept in mind that in the end, all the “power” (resources, money, friends, allies) doesn’t matter if another person is able to kill you anyways. (other characters like Punz should be on that list as well but OOC we know he prefers to be a supporting character, Sapnap is involved but not as much as those two, etc.)

and what it also means is that objectively weaker characters will view the world fundamentally different from them because they do not have Power nor do they have misconceptions about who actually holds it. which brings us to this:

“One arrow can be easily broken. But when five arrows are be bound together, they become strong.”

people like Techno will not understand why a group needs to band together and consolidate power in an organized government, and it’s because his version of anarchy benefits him, and “governments” pose a threat to him (whether he wants to recognize or admit it is another story). he’s Powerful! nobody can, on their own, overpower him. the Disc Finale is the ultimate example of this - Dream was able to be taken down by the entire server joining together and saying “we’ve had enough” and Dream, despite all his Power, couldn’t outmatch them all. and though they weren’t part of a government, that’s ONLY because their governments had been forcibly dissolved and their country lands destroyed beyond repair.

L’manburg was originally about a group of people coming together to keep themselves safe from people with Power. The Disc Finale proves that was the way to go! Dream was considered unbeatable, even 2 vs 1, and we know from Manhunts not even 4 v 1 can take him down easily. but a dozen people? there’s no escaping that. Techno can say he did it at the Community House, but they weren’t actively hunting him - there are several “good enough” fighters that if they teamed against him, he would die. Sapnap alone got him down to 2.5 hearts on Doomsday. him + someone else? Techno would have been dead. that’s all it takes.

Dream understands this and did from very early on. he fully and absolutely understands why they formed a government. it’s exactly why he worked so hard to destroy it, and why he encouraged paranoia and sowed the seeds of distrust every chance he got, because it doesn’t need to be a “government” it’s any faction, any group that could get big enough to pose a threat, and if he can turn them on each other, he stays in control. he stays Powerful.

when Dream threatens people, when Techno comes into someone’s home and demands answers to his questions, when Sapnap tries to bust the drug ring, when Punz says stay away from the Egg, these are people who have Power. their actions, their threats, their intentions carry with them the Power to Kill if they don’t get their way. and that HAS to be considered when we look at how interactions play out and why other characters feel the way that they do.

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ewoo

3 years ago

to my fellow content creators and their supporters...

⊹・ starting from december 21, tumblr is expanding its list of banned tags on its ios apps to comply with app store’s (new?) guidelines. ⊹・no official list has been released detailing all the tags that have been banned. however, @bannedtags has compiled a list of known banned tags, which is linked at the bottom of this post.

⊹・sadly in the mix are tags such as #mine, #my stuff, and #mine*, all which are commonly used among the editing community, as well as some tracking tags such as #bbelcher. ⊹・for content creators who use such tags, this means that their posts (and any reblogs of such posts) will be unavailable to be viewed on the ios apps from anyone’s dashboards. ⊹・however, the posts are still viewable if you go to one’s blog directly or if post notifications for a certain blog is turned on.

⊹・if you are a content creator using one of these newly banned tags, rather than using mass post editor to delete & add tags, tag replacer is a far easier tool to use. ⊹・a popular tag used in the editing community that has not been affected (yet) is #*, which you may consider using instead.

some other posts about this issue that you might want to check out: ⊹・https://5ummit.tumblr.com/post/671485962579279872 ⊹・https://bannedtags.tumblr.com/post/671586251017797632

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ewoo

4 years ago

It snowed recently!