been thinking about kai's monstrous journey, and coming to terms with the different style because y'all
this is explicitly unreliable narration
first monstrosity was kai spiralling, hurting, and being his angsty little self etc but second is telling the story to wyldfyre. of course he's going to soften it. of course he's going to play his struggle down even a little. if its going in the direction i think it is, then of course he wants to filter it down. that's his student! he's only telling her bc he already knows she'll keep at it until he does!
if we are blessed to get a third part? i suspect the style will change again based on who's learning about it next, and from where. journals who?
we should consider that the art style is part of the storytelling and remember just who is telling the story
Stills and rambling under the cut because when I say I am maxing out the screenshots I do mean that :|
As my initial analysis this is mainly surface-level notes of the full trailer which is available on YouTube. I am only including stills from the trailer and am focusing solely on the trailer. Name for the Fire Knight Mech was sourced from the pre-order set #71846. Name for the Guardian Dragon was sourced from the pre-order set #71847. An additional character with no speaking role will be referenced as the Old Fire-Wielder.
I will be making more analyses later, I just cant do it all in one go :') . I will be immediately reblogging this with a poll to decide what area I'll be focusing on for the next bit. Please reblog that version and cast a vote!
I do highly recommend watching the trailer before reading this (if you haven't already and then maybe again anyway), for it is a righteous banger. All said, let's begin 🖤
"I'm lost, in this monster-infested place."
Right off, give it up for Vincent Tong: he knocks it out of the park y'all.
Ohhhhkay! We start with a very smol Kai next to the Fire Knight Mech, immediately showing us what scale of things we're looking at here: BIG. Much bigger than our typical minifigure friends. We have swords and banners sticking in the ground, classic of the battlefield graveyard scenario, where for whatever reason no cleanup has happened at the site, presumably (hopefully) because everyone is dead :)
>>> There are no bodies however, and no symbols on the banners (that we can see). The color Orange is visible from the FKM's faceplate visor. Additionally, the ground seems to be wet in large strips that look like very large divots in the ground. No splash effect from big boy, and Kai doesn't walk on it in the little bit we see.
Then we have Kai walking away from an apparent ship graveyard. We can now see the color Red in his bandana. It's hard for me to tell but judging by the secondary light on his front it seems like he might be looking at a phone or similar. His raised hand could be holding onto his bandana but the pose overall honestly looks more like when you hold a handset of some kind to your ear. Maybe he's out of signal :/ ?
>>> Due to the apparent (lack of) distance from the ships and the shore we can probably assume these were run aground or something similar (possibly a pileup of epic proportions lmao). This also looks very similar to the ships graveyard from Legacy: Golden Legend of four years ago, though of course the art is cleaner and the screen here is deeper where L:GL has a wider screen. Nice callback, though I think that's probably all there is to it at this point.
We then have Kai in the rain (here is a better look at him with his hair down lol), swinging his sword about. What is with him in the dark? 🤔 There seems to be one stationary figure that passes directly in front of the camera, and another one or two on the other side. His bandana is the color Red. Very smooth animation here, I love it so much fr.
"What is that thing?" "The beast that ravaged my homelands... and devoured my future!"
This guy is even bigger. It looks like he's breaking up from under the ground 🤔, with the way dirt is falling off. Actually, it looks like he might still be partially under the ground, a bit like a naga with only the torso extended above. I love the birds flying past the moon, it's the little things that really make a scene.
>>> This monster has a massive tongue, two arms, and two eyes (neither of which focus on the dragon). He also looks how I feel waking up in the middle of my nap. He reminds me of Gluttony from Fullmetal Alchemist. Seems fitting.
Also, Guardian Dragon! Beautiful, wrathful Dragon! With a symbol on her chest resembling a circle with three equidistant spikes externally, and another of light(?) behind her head of a circle and a line extending from the lowest point of that circle upwards to the center, where there is another, filled circle. (I just spent several minutes trying to remember what the "midpoint of a circle" was called, or even that yes there is a word for that :/ )
>>> She razes the ground with fire(?) and simultaneously the earth is kinda just upping and blowing away with a lot of force. Kai is Not Moving for some reason. This seems to be from a different scene than introducing her enemy, because we see what looks like rolling and flat lands instead of the forest from before. The scenery immediately next to Kai is different in both also.
We then get a beautiful little bit of Kai drawing what might not be The Sword of Fire, but certainly looks like A Sword of Fire, and probably the same sword we just saw held up on the hill next to the Dragon while the living mountain sat up.
"But I have to endure, I have to continue: So I can see them again. I can't lose myself."
Here is that classic puzzle trap where you can't/don't move within the sentinel's (helpfully lit up) gaze. Kai seems practiced, walking slowly and stopping as soon as the gaze locks on him. Given the other sentinels in the background, yea. That makes sense. God knows how long it takes to clear that field. Low-key one of my favorite stills here.
>>> His bandana is Red, and tied to his arm now. So he can see it more easily? The stars are out. How pretty :)
Kai runs over a neat suspension bridge (with some kind of monster that I thought would snap shut and fall back down like an alligator but did not :( I feel so betrayed). The bridge has a paifang or torii gate on either side and runs over a chasm of unknown depth.
Now a glimpse of a great beast! Giant and tentacley! And yes, that does seem to be Kai as a little speck between the great beast and Guardian Dragon (as in a later shot we can see her size is comparable to the Fire Knight Mech, thus making the speck too small to be him).
>>> Noteworthy, there are no stars visible in this shot despite the wide view. This may be underground or similar.
Kai sits wide-eyed on GD's back, with a good view of her halo-symbol! I like this shot specifically because he looks like a startled toddler hanging on for dear life.
"I have no idea where I'm going anymore. I would give anything for this all to be over."
More battlefield graveyard! The Fire Knight Mech seems almost to stand guard (casualty of kickass armor, possibly). There is a single helmet in the foreground and we can see baskets around. Still no bones. We see the same sort of ground as the very first shot, and Kai crumples up by one pool of water. That large piece of debris in the foreground seems to have a static effect on it's surface 🤔
>>> In a closeup shot we can see Kai clutching his Red bandana. in the early shot, we can see the Orange light from the FKM's visor.
We have Kai doing the naruto past a great beast laying waste to a castle or city. He seems to be going along a rooftop beam or similar within that territory.
>>> The beast itself has rigid whiskers on its face, dark brows (possibly below the apparent "eyes" as well), clawed hands of sorts, and either an incredibly unhinged jaw or maybe its flat out missing it? It looks like its wearing clothes of some kind.
An egg is perhaps hatching? Seems incredibly unsettling. Looks like something is almost melting out. :)
Kai uses his sword's light to see in a cavernous area piled with sand, and is surrounded by a lot of eggs. Hm. :)
>>> And what a fantastic view of a lovely mural! I'm sure there are no negative implications here for Kai whatsoever! :)
>>> The mural is circular, with a two-headed centipede in an upside down u-shape. From the left it begins with a centipede head and a Hatman. It progresses along the body to show a large egg shape with the Hatman contained in it. The next stage shows the Hatman, still contained, to have lost arms and legs. Following, the egg is shown hatched apart. All that remains is the hat and its head. Finally: the second head of the centipede, wearing the hat. :)
>>> In the center is an infinity symbol with a stylized rope texture, dropping eggs that pile at the bottom and sides of the mural. :)
"I will not fail a fire-wielder twice."
There's a momentary screen that I'm not having much luck catching, but it looks like there is some sort of face in the middle lower screen. There's definitely a surge of power/fire on the left screen.
A closeup on the Fire Knight Mech! We can now see that his neckguard is marked with the Ninjargon "K", so that's cool. We can see in the projection of (presumably) the Old Fire-Wielder that they are marked in several places with "K" also. Maybe this indicates that the Ninjargon "K" is directly associated with fire.
>>> FKM uses the Orange light from his visor to project the OFW. When he does this the light shrinks from the full visor, showing that the light keeps an orb shape.
More on the projection. I'm leaving most of this for a later analysis but that staff, among other things, makes me think the OFW was a traveling monk or holy man. Also, is that a hatched egg behind the projection??? He wears the same hat as we just saw on the mural. Same hat? Same hat. Same person? We can assume. This indicates something terrible happening to the OFW, and possibly the same thing that risks happening to Kai.
>>> The projection is a faint yellow-orange color except for where it is marked with a "K". Those symbols are Red.
Blacksmith Kai is back! Never die! Obviously that's not a typical anvil, and from the glimpse and angle of FKM watching this, he might actually be working on FKM's body itself. We'll have to wait and see. That surge I mentioned might have been a function with the forge.
>> Kai's headband is Red, and there is an Orange light from FKM's visor.
Following is a split-second of Kai fighting in the dark what seems to be a centipede. :)
Beautiful shot of a spooky Wu. Kai has an aggressive stance. Could this be how the golden orb (potential Wu) of Dragons Rising appeared to Kai while in this land? Or is this a different manifestation. Wu has no color associated to him here.
Kai! In the water! Face down! He walked right in! Depending on which part of canon we're talking about Kai has a fear of water or even just deep water. Or not. Regardless, letting yourself sink like that is not especially easy or comfortable, given that most people float as a default.
>>> The dark circle emanating light is possibly Wu right there. Air bubbles are rising up to the surface, but there seems to be a light source from further below also.
Kai standing up on a cliff looking over the edge. He's clutching his Red bandana.
Did big boy just blow up???? That or he summoned a tower of fire right on top of himself. Kai was walking into the water, with a reflected water pattern.
And is above the other angle of Kai walking into the water earlier? Or is this another instance? It follows up with spooky Wu getting covered by the fog.
>>> This is a very good shot of the Guardian Dragon, we can see her chest, horns, and halo! Visible is Orange light from the Fire Knight Mech's visor.
"HraaAAGHHHH" (i am cracking up rn) "It is impossible to survive in a land of monsters without becoming a monster yourself."
... Y'all pray for Vincent Tong's voice to not give out. >.<
These two moments have the most color of any shot in this trailer.
First we get a shot of possibly the Guardian Dragon flying overhead of the Fire Knight Mech, and a very short look of Kai impacting/clutching onto a large, smooth, possibly curved surface. Fire/energy builds and overtakes the screen.
Red colors the sky and its light, contrasting Kai's sword glint and fire/plasma surging around his eyes and body. Definitely leaping down in an attack and easily a fan favorite. Rust's new personality.
>>> The follow up of black and red washing over the screen seems to contain a face, lingering through the burning.
We get the only color shot of the Guardian Dragon, a Cyan power build-up, which also colors her halo. It is worth noting here that her set colors her as green, not cyan. I wonder what's up with that? 👀
A gorgeous shot of GD hovering and turning away from a large crystal, which will probably be very important later. It looks like there might be a helmet or skull on a stick within the crystal.
>>> GD's halo does cast a dark shadow in this shot: so whatever it is it's not producing light, or is producing significantly less light than the other lightsource so the structure of it is casting.
Beautiful view of the Fire Knight Mech's polearm! Can't identify right off what specifically it is, if it even has a true historical counterpart as opposed to rule of cool. There's a lighting texture under his arm and across the front so he's standing in/in front of a pool of liquid casting reflections on him.
>>> As usual an Orange glow from his visor.
There is a reflection in the water of the Old Fire-wielder, the same as the projection. The reflection is casting light, similar to spooky Wu. Could it be that spooky Wu and the reflection of OFW are meant to attract or guide Kai and the FKM in some way? If so, maybe we can expect something similar for the Guardian Dragon.
The FKM leaps into the jaws of something colossal and keeps it open with his legs. He aims his polearm, and it cuts off. I want.
And our last shot. Kai, stepping off a cliff. Or a tree, as it were. He clutches his Red bandana, and closes his eyes.
>>> The perspective in this shot is almost delirious for me. The "ground" far below is a stone wall. The trees, sideways to this view grow from a grassy surface. Kai is the one whose orientation is wrong.
FINAL NOTES
Bless you, Vincent Tong. 🖤
Colors: the trailer is primarily black and white in its style, with only specific colors making an appearance, always showing up in the same place. Orange, from within the Fire Knight Mech's helm. Cyan, only once from the Guardian Dragon. Red, the color of Kai's bandana and notably as detail on the Old Fire-Wielder.
>>> This emphasizes their roles as our expected main characters, and the connection between Kai and the OFW. What else does it represent? It could be power, or spirit, or purpose. Notable that the FKM and the GD both express that color from within themselves, whereas Kai and the OFW bear it externally.
Scenery: We see a few different terrains in the trailer, all within the land of monsters. There's a shoreline, the battlefield, the castle/city, forest areas, plains. This is no small territory.
Plot: We know this is immediately after the merge split everyone up, and Kai has no way to know if this is even Ninjago anymore. Without his family he Will lose himself: Until he finds his family, he Must Not lose himself. The centipede creature is likely the most important monster to Kai's story, given the connections with the Old Fire-Wielder. Centipedes in pop culture have a relation to body horror and metamorphosis, largely due to the Human Centipede (2009). This is boosted within the trailer by the mural and its possible implications.
>>> Kai will face change, be it physical or purely symbolic. Unless they pull something really tricky, we know he survives it.
Waow, that was exhausting. Please cast your vote for what I'm focusing on for the next one! Polls will remain open for three days.
ok so I've been thinking about the theories of what item of kris' ralsei could be and. hear me out. what if he's something of asriel.
we know ralsei leaves great distances sometimes (which i guess most of the darkners can't?) so what if when ralsei is around that's because he's already wandered off quite a bit from where he's technically "supposed" to be?
