OMG, thank you for the reblog <3 The part of keeping Pixal in his head would comprise the bulk of it, yes, and you basically summarized the general gist of what I was going to say about it, but I did find quite a few of the Pixane moments outside of that context to still have misogynistic undertones. And I find those moments are comparable to the old Jaya moments where Jay was a misogynistic jerk. I think chemistry when observing a relationship in fiction is up for interpretation, and personally, I don't see where the chemistry is.
Maybe it's also because I'm not a diehard Zane fan, or maybe it's because Jay is my favorite ninja, and us Jay fans are used to seeing Jay having a lot of a character flaws and don't "glaze" him so to speak, but I personally found Zane's character to be more complex than what the fandom seems to portray him as. For example, one trait I noticed is that in regular conversation, unprovoked and without a real reason, Zane sometimes hits (or is physically violent with) one of the other main four, most often as a joke. I'm pulling this out of my head, and maybe, there have been similar scenes for each ninja, and I just can't remember, but I find it strange this isn't really mentioned when talking about Zane. He also can be incredibly arrogant and self-confident at times. Though, like you said, it could be the writing having issues and inconsistency, or it could be just for a gag in a children's series. But again, both the show and the fandom tend to paint him as an innocent, nice, perfect guy, and I believe that's just not exactly what he is in the show.
I do actually disagree with you, surprisingly, that Zane's connection with Pixal in Dragons Rising is unhealthy. I don't think Zane was unable to function without her, it was just that her presence boosted everything. I think Dragons Rising is taking good steps towards fixing their relationship, though it's not quite there yet. I'm hoping they will continue to fix them.
