Lloyd Garmadon - A brief look at Shipping and Discourse
Right, figure I'd start off with a bang and light myself up like a firework on new years cause what better way to make my first discussion on this blog than be about Lloyd, one of the most discoursed characters to ship in this dang fandom.
I don't actively ship Lloyd with anyone. A lot of the opinions surrounding Lloyd in a romance makes it difficult for me to do so, its even more difficult when Lloyd is the character who gets shipped 90% of the time with a fan oc character. (No shame there if you do that, its just something I've very much noticed.)
I still have in fact, read and viewed fancontent which contains Lloyd in a romantic or sexual relationship. Some of that content does in fact include ships with the main cast, particularly the main 4.
And yes, some of this content is in fact in the universe of the show, not the movie (which tbh is a whole other topic that I probably will touch at a later point cause I have noticed things about the fandom and the show that were caused by the movie releasing)
Cause the art is really cute and the fanfic premise is really interesting or honestly really sweet.
My point is, is that while I don't actively ship Lloyd with anyone, I still have chosen to read and look at things that depict that sort of thing.
And some of those things? They were pretty explicit and sometimes I did feel the need to scroll and fastforward through the scene.
However I still chose to look at those of my own volition and not just because of the...well content. (not usually)
For fanfics, it was how the story was laid out to me, I was usually drawn to those things due to the premise, sometimes they were pretty grim and tragic in a way.
Something I will honestly admit is that when it comes to fandom fanfic as a whole, Ninjago is a fandom I don't really read E rate smut fics for, it's never been that sort of fandom for me. If I do read something mature or explicit here, it really is honest to god not for the pure 18+ content in there.
Cause good lord, some of those explicit fics honestly need a revision or three.
The fics and content I have viewed and found interesting, usually has to do in some regards to how Lloyd in a relationship (explicit or otherwise) would work and honest to god conflict.
Especially given how much we as the fandom remember the situation regarding the tomorrow tea.
Lloyd's situation with the tomorrow tea actually reminds me of a character in my favourite anime. But i'll get into that in a later topic that talks more about Lloyd's age.
Point is, Lloyd's situation is not really the first time I've seen this happen in media and is one of the reasons why shipping Lloyd is actually quite fascinating even if it gets seriously fucking annoying when I have to deal with fandom.
Now, heres the first hurdle, what about Lloyd's age. He's practically eight/twelve and morally its wrong to ship him.
So...i'm just gonna say this. I actually think to suggest something like that really does a disservice to Lloyd as a whole.
Something that has been stated as canon and what I feel was meant to always be implied by the creators is that when Lloyd used the Tomorrow Tea, He was infact permenantly aged up to be the roughly same age as the rest of the cast. He needed to become their equal storywise. It was basically their way of getting around the fact that they had no idea how to make Lloyd as a 8-12 year old reasonably fight his dad/the dark one and have it not seem seriously messed up compared to what would essentially be a teenager fighting him.
Which even though its less messed up, it still is messed up. Wtf destiny.
For reasons I may or may not also further address at a later date in the same talk about Lloyds age, I also honestly believe that Lloyd needing to age up to be same age as the cast was needed for his development and any concept that deletes or reverses that fact has to have a very good reason to do so, otherwise it just seems like they're reversing an essential part of Lloyds story.
And I enjoy exploring content that touches upon the result of that, because the conflict that can be drawn from that is really interesting! Especially if it has to do with romance!
However this honestly leads into the other elephant in the room. And something that gets reasonably talked about and I understand where the thought comes from.
The power dynamics between age and experiance can seem off and at times uncomfortable when it comes to Lloyd being shipped with any of the Ninja. I understand where people are coming from with that, particularly when it comes to pre season 8 to 10 interpretations of the team and Lloyd. Lloyd is very much still seen by a lot of people (and the fandom) during this time as the youngest in the group even though he is roughly the same age as everyone. (Like truthfully, if anything the youngest he'd be is Nya's age.)
Heck they even joke about it multiple times hilariously enough. s5 and s8 with the voice jokes?
Post s10 though? Its a lot more less of a thing. Aside from the occasional joke about Lloyd not knowing what a VCR is (cause he's the kid in the group you guys remember?.) The would be power dynamic and age imbalance between him and the others is less apparent and I'm pretty sure if someone came into the series post s10, they would only know Lloyd as being the leader of the ninja and the same age as the others and not as that gremlin kid from s1.
That's because that's how Lloyd has been developed into, He's in full context basically just like the others now, like what his movie form is (which is also another topic I'd like to talk about at a later point about how the movie changed the show in a few ways)
The only reason a lot of people think otherwise is due to the fact we have context of previous seasons that truthfully does affect us. A lot of people still see and H/C Lloyd as being a lot younger than the other characters and therefore its morally wrong to ship him with the other Ninja and if you do, you should burn at the stake.
But, that's dumb. Like really dumb.
Exploration of these topics is risky yeah and it can lead to some questionable things. But honestly it shouldn't be completely demonized. These sorts of things can act as a sort coping material for folks struggling on those issues.
It really isn't hurting anyone and if you say its harming you, than maybe you should ask yourself why you chose to read/look at the thing in the first place instead of blaming the person who made it.
Why would you eat the food if you know you hate the taste? Thats like asking for olives when you detest olives
Listen I'm not gonna lie...I've seen some questionable stuff tagged in the Ninjago tag and the fanfic section of ao3. But I knew not to touch it.
Cause I knew I wasn't for me.
This is a mindset I honestly wish a lot of people in this fandom could pick up. If someone is being a genuine threat to the fanbase then yeah, maybe there's a reason for concern.
However, someone shipping two characters together is NOT that reason. No matter how much you try to tell yourself.
