#cultural trends between 2013 and 2021. it’s SUPER interesting and yet a lot of people only talk about it to make fun of how ‘bad’ it was :(

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as true as the jokes about “everyone wants to rewrite ninjago” are i feel like smthn people forget when complaining about the inconsistencies of the show is that…. it wasn’t planned? it’s not like most other animated shows lately - it didn’t start with a deeply fleshed out world or a meticulously designed pitch bible with grandiose plans for a long-term story or character arcs. the ninja don’t originally get their powers from heredity because they weren’t hereditary powers yet. the magic system doesn’t make sense bc they literally just made it up as they went! they go back and forth on stuff like whether non-elementals can learn spinjitzu bc it’s a collaborative piece of media made by people with vastly different levels of control over the story, the animation, the sets, etc. that varied over the course of the series. it’s totally understandable and exciting to see so many people reworking the early stuff with the lore and logic later seasons introduced but i personally feel that… if you’re doing that. you need to understand why the show is like that instead of writing it off as being bad and shitty. it was working with what it had. it’s only what it is now because of that awkward troubleshooting phase, not in spite of it

#ninjago #text✨ #you’re 100% allowed to criticize the show but i keep seeing people complain about the inconsistencies about like. their parents giving them #their powers especially. like yeah cool that wasn’t a thing yet? they have different origins than the non-core elementals #because in the real world that idea hadn’t even crossed their minds yet! the original story was a more traditional fantasy narrative of #normal people rising to the occasion and *gaining* powers through their own feats. the fact that they changed it later doesn’t mean #it was necessarily bad to begin with or that it’s something that should be mocked #idk just. there’s a lot of hostility in some circles about this stuff and it makes me kinda sad. enjoy the complexity of production and how #series adapt over time. it’s part of why the show is so interesting to me #that essay i wrote had a whole bit juxtaposing the attitudes about technology in rebooted and prime empire and how they reflect greater #cultural trends between 2013 and 2021. it’s SUPER interesting and yet a lot of people only talk about it to make fun of how ‘bad’ it was :( #this isnt to say i don’t enjoy some of the retcons. the changes to their meetings with wu in s8 are genuinely really interesting! i love the #changes to cole’s backstory. i think his mom makes him in the early seasons even better! i’m just saying.. be respectful? nobody *tries* to #make a bad show. ages and ages of time and dedication were put into what ends up on your screens. it’s all human love and creation. #as goofy as it is #okay sry got all anthropology there but hm. been thinking about this for a while. apologies for being the local annoying early seasons fan