spinjitzuwu

hi im kai and i love legos

[ninjagowo]

i hate ninjago

[dinottosaurs]

he's such a loser

[gracelessgrayson]

they make me feel so

[ninjadont]

uh oh! bad time to have a crisis!

[officialmorro]

hi i thought of thisd ANd started fucking losing it

[cinnamonkittenz]

Short explanation: Cole’s parents (esp his dad since Cole’s mom died when he was in his early teens) loved and spoiled him as a child because he was all they ever wanted him to be: smart, well behaved, talented and so on. But later when Cole decides to go his own way by becoming a ninja which is essentially everything his father sees as good and socially acceptable, he abandons Cole and becomes hostile towards him

[unknownsigils]

causing problems makes you famous

(eyeliner look inspired by this post and the original snake jaguar ice emperor design is here)

[natto-axolotl]

ninjago has been running for 10 slutty, slutty years

[daily-shitpost-bakery]

[phrogbutter]

cool mofos

[strawbbz]

wtf gay little robot

[spinchip]

I am once again thinking about Overlord Zane 😔

[spinchip]

[squira180]

Ninjago Girls in Dresses Please do not claim a yours, thanks ~

[minnowminn]

SNOWWWWW

[tippydoorman]

hey guys I know we’re all ninjago fans here but please remember that ninjago is hugely racist & appropriative of east asian cultures. you cannot ignore this if you’re a fan of the show.

[zhimaqiu]

some people may not recognise what’s racist about it, care to explain?

[tippydoorman]

as a disclaimer, I’m speaking as a white person, so I might be missing things.

so a lot of cultural appropriation is taking something important from a culture, disregarding its importance and its history as part of that culture, and using it for your own thing.

the entire concept of ninjago is “colorful ninjas who are basically superheroes protect ninjago,” based on the popular misconception of ninjas as Cool Fighters. this is in itself kind of racist! like, if you’re going to take a Japanese concept, and completely divorce it from its origins to repackage for a western audience… that’s cultural appropriation. they could have easily done a superhero show with the same concepts of elemental powers, and it would not have been racist from the start.

it’s also clearly written for a western audience, and not meant to be Japanese representation; out of the main group of ninja, only Kai and Nya have names that are arguably not english. Wu is called “sensei,” but “Wu” is not a Japanese name, it’s Chinese. the name “Garmadon” is also not japanese. Misako could be? however, Lloyd is given an english name. so it’s a western story for a western audience with an east asian facade.

ninjago mangles a LOT of other Japanese concepts (& also other east asian cultures, and other asian cultures based on the racist caricature that is nadakhan). the concept of yin-yang is thrown around several times esp. in the day of the departed with no indication that the writers did any research. dragons are based on their western counterparts as violent beasts. there’s a lot more!

that’s like… the gist of it. there’s more things to talk about, like the interpretation of ninjago as an assimilationist story, but im not super comfortable talking about that as a white person.

[meileach]

as an asian, all of the points above are correct. like, I enjoy ninjago, just like avatar, but just like it, it’s filled with a lot of cultural appropriation

basically, western creators make a western show that’s ‘themed’ asian for a western audience. they don’t ever try to make an effort to actually understand the cultures they are taking from

I myself, can’t really read chinese or japanese characters (which share roots so some characters are the same, if I’m correct), and my mom saw them and said she couldn’t understand the ones on the ninjas’ outfits. I don’t know if it applies for every outfit, but even just that instant shows that the creators really don’t care as much as they should?

just another bit to add, and it’s about yin yang as well. as in they used it in a proposal sense? which we could see when jay asked nya to be the yin to his yang, and I feel that it’s such an overtly western interpretation of yin yang???

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

I like to think there was probably a moment where he didn’t think they were going to make it :)