Dearest Ninjago Fans I Have An Announcement

hi are you feeling sad today let me cheer you up

just remember kai and nya exist and I promise everything is going to be okay

bonus happy points if you remember kai and lloyd’s big brother and little brother dynamic

*cries in ninjago* ♡♡♡

screenshot redraw of one of my fav Kai moments the screen shot ↓

Kai Version: Isn't it so incredibly interesting how both smith siblings handled their trauma in drastically different ways?

Kai  has low self esteem/self worth (depends on people, powers, and statements to determine his value), constantly needs to prove himself, and is immensely dependent on external validation (his obsession social media is a prime example of this). He invalidates himself, dismissing his emotions/feelings, and needs regular reassurance (tendency to blame out-of-control situations on himself, likely derived from the mindset that his parents purposely left him because he wasn't good enough, and i’ll bet my soul he stayed awake  nights wondering that if nya was firstborn, would his parents still leave?) .

His fear of being useless is also likely derived from that same mindset and as such he portrays himself through a cocky/prideful ‘persona’. This is false portrayal of himself, simply to appear stronger in the eyes of others, because if others think he’s of value they won’t leave him, because with or without this ‘mask’ not even he knows who is truly is.

He tends to dissociate during emotionally intense/overwhelming situations, or go into a state shock/confusion. He developed unhealthy coping mechanisms (violently self destructive) with situations regarding loss and grief. All of these things are results of and/or mechanisms he developed from his childhood trauma.

but. despite everything i’ve written above.  he loves nya. raised her. protects/supports her. took lloyd under his wing. he loves lloyd. throws heaps of physical affection towards cole. he loves cole. accepted jay as a brother in law, was so supportive of jaya and helped jay in proposing. he loves jay. makes things fun for zane, reassures him. he loves zane. showed master wu to believe in himself. he loves wu. he loves his entire team and expresses it in ways that value each of them individually. he makes friends with dragons. he loves dragons. he taught/worked with kids. he loves kids. despite what the disappearance of his parents did to him and nya, despite nya’s refusal to show her parents love (valid, btw) kai loved maya. he loved ray.  he loved his parents all over again, he loved his parents again so easily. he loved and loves and keeps loving.

trauma gave him self-destructive mechanisms. trauma instilled insecurity in him. trauma took away his sense of self worth. trauma emptied him of self-love. trauma stole his sense of identity. but kai held on to the ability to protect others, to care for others, to help others. he held them close to his chest. because like hell he’d let his trauma take that.

kai refused to let trauma strip his ability to love. his ability to love is unmatched.

Inspired by this post:

https://sugarglider-s.tumblr.com/post/692022087001473024/every-single-day-of-my-life-i-think-about-how-kai

safe on my shoulders

tell me im wrong.

more ninja headcannons (cole-centered) <3

cole definitely paints on the gang when he’s stressed out or for fun

like one day kai and nya are wearing sleeveless and they want cole to paint matching animals across their arms

or jays sleeping and cole paints a mustache on him

or maybe zane wants to spice up his apron so now it’s covered in coles art

or lloyd wants to get better at painting so they both experiment on kai’s back bc kai loves being painted on

it’s like a stress reliever and a fun hobby at the same time that cole loves doing and he’s spectacular at it too

or maybe like one day cole is really upset and the ninja are like cmon guys let’s paint him instead and in less than an hour cole is covered in dragons and flowers and monkeys and chickens and all sorts of things that they all take pictures of and laugh about and coles forgotten why he was sad in the first place

people ask me why I’m so distraught over ninjago ending and when you tell them it’s because your emotionally attached since it’s been there since your childhood and you’ve grown up with it and even though it does injustice to your favorite character it still has your favorite character and you sound like a crazy person when in reality you just can’t let go of something that brings you comfort so easily even though it’s just some stupid tv show

random ninja fam hcs?

anon YOU READ MY MIND I WAS GONNA POST SOME JUST NOW LOL

--ummmm of course they all collect squishmellows

-Cole, Kai and Jay would inflate an air mattress for the sole reason of riding it down the stairs

- The team makes clay rings together and for eachother (wu comes home and it’s a clay-tastrophe)

- WATER BALLOON CHALLENGE but nya kills everyone so its over in the first five seconds

- BLINDFOLD COOKING with zane and kai but somehow they always end up making the best food ever (the others are not allowed to participate bc they can’t even cook with their eyes open)

-everything jay owns has his name on it but the others still steal his stuff.. sorry jay..

- lloyd always wins prank wars. everyone is a victim except kai bc kai has older brother privileges

-KARAOKE NIGHT..... but cole is banned from singing. dw he can dance though

- kai hosts face mask parties bc he has a drawer dedicated to facemasks

-who needs a slushie machine when you have ZANE!

-kai does nyas makeup +hair +chooses her outfit when she goes out on dates w/jay

part two

kai doodles thanks to this brush i just found out abt