As part of my revamped season 4: Tournament of Elements, I decided to moderately increase the age rating through swearing, violence, and power scaling. Here are my swearing HC's because I think it's best if I didn't go overboard and tried to keep it kind of in character.
Swears like a sailor: Mr. Pale. I have no reason, I just think he should be allowed to drop numerous curses. He especially likes doing it when people are already riled and he's invisible, he gets giggles from it.
Edit: Im so sorry for forgetting turner, he's in here now
Swears a normal amount: Chamille, Neuro, Gravis, Ash, Karlof, and Turner
Chamille, Neuro, Gravis, and Karlof I feel are self explanatory, they deserve swearing privileges but still think Mr. Pale is excessive
Ash on the other hand, because in canon, and I think just in general doesn't talk much
Turner swears a normal amount, he just says it really fast in sentences and no one hears, but they're in there
Get the occasional "fuck": Tox, Skylor, and Shade
I know Tox and Shade seem like the type to swear a lot, but I tend to believe if they wanted to be threatening or express their anger, they would make actual threats and follow through.
Skylor doesn't swear much because of her father, he doesn't like it when people on the island swear, but she gets away with it, but genuinely finds using creative insults to wield better results
Rarely swears: Bolobo and Jacob
Bolobo because he's the Master of Nature, he practices meditation, tries to be at peace with himself. He also believes actions speak louder than words; so if you do something bad to the environment with him nearby, he won't swear at you but he will try to break your bones and make you a part of nature as fertiliser
Jacob purely because he doesn't like the sound of swear words on his ears, as Master of Sound, he's a bit more sensitive to how words feel but when needed, he'll use them
Don't swear: The Ninja, Garmadon, Master Chen, Pythor
The Ninja because in their minds Lloyd is still like 12, I have no idea how old he is in canon but they don't want to set a bad example
Garmadon is for the same reason as the Ninja but he's also telling Lloyd there are times and places were swearing is needed, and others where Tox and Shade's philosophy about threats should be utilised
Master Chen as I said with Skylor, he doesn't like it and is also a subscriber to the Tox and Shade philosophy
I wanted so badly to give Pythor swearing privileges but then I rewatched season 4 for scientific purposes and found
"Culturally-Insensitive Noodle Baron"
to be too great to cover with petty swearing and I think makes Pythor so much more of a character
"Swears": Lloyd
So, Lloyd "swears" in the sense he says 'crap', 'mother trucker' and swears a lot in the name of the First Spinjitsu Master. He technically 'swears' but not really, because again, I think he's 12 but I'm probably wrong in saying that.
I want to allow him to say "heck" and "hell" but those imply Christianity and I don't think I can feasibly write that into the franchise without so many historical and narrative implications.
Morro - Lloyd Garmadon's emo cousin and a college student who is kind of in a gang that commits a few crimes here and there, which is fine because people already assume he's evil for being related to Lloyd
Skylor - She inherited Chen's Noodle fortune after her father went to prison under mysterious circumstances. Has the best cooking in home ec class. It's even better than Zane's. She and Nya are an unstoppable duo in gym class
Griffin Turner - He's the substitute gym teacher at Ninjago High that everyone has a love-hate opinion of because he always, always makes everyone run a mile and doesn't let anyone get away with slacking, but he's also funny and somehow pretty chill
Karlof - Owns a popular metalworking shop and is a part-time substitute shop teacher at Ninjago High. Nya and Jay are his favorite students
Neuro - He's a defense lawyer. He's always able to call a bluff, and it never fails to frustrate the opposing counsel
Shade - She's a professional private investigator. One of the reasons that he's so good at his job is that no one can EVER spot him
Camille - She's a professional special effects makeup artist who always does the best onscreen effects
Krux - He's basically Ricky Geravis' character from Night At the Museum but a lot angrier, and also seconds away from firing his brother. Death glares at anyone on their phone
Acronix - He's a security guard at the museum who is always playing on his phone too loudly. Would have been fired several times over if his brother wasn't the curator
Bolobo - He's an environmental activist who may or may not have committed some minor crimes against major oil and energy corporations
Tox - She's a pharmacy manager who is very obviously into some shady stuff, but the rest of the staff turn a blind eye to it because she's the most knowledgeable person there
Jacob Pevsner - He owns a music studio next door to Dareth's dojo. Has banned Dareth from going anywhere near the music equipment
Ash - He's a firefighter. He's very good at his job, but nobody likes him because of his personality
just some headcanons I wanted to share after rereading that daily lives of Elemental Masters post:
I've extrapolated that Shade being "a normal guy" to mean that he's somewhat boring once you look past the Elemental stuff. Probably eats something flavorless for breakfast everyday, works a boring but well paying office job like billing in a mid size company, that sorta stuff. Probably has a boring hobby too, like stamp collecting and reading novels about ships
We know that Cinder is related to Ash in some capacity, but I like to think that regardless of what that is, Cinder is probably part of the reason why Ash is hesitant to go all in on the Assassin family business. The kid is WAY too eager for that and as a possible successor, Ash doesn't wanna get him involved in such a violent profession. But then the Merge hits, Ash and most of the family dies, and Cinder is left with the Elemental Power of Smoke and joins the Wolf Clan to fulfill his dream of being a top assassin.
Gravis seems like the kind of guy to use Tai Chi. Not to fight, just to get in the right headspace for stuff.
Griffin definitely does pizza delivery or door-dash or something. Works multiple delivery jobs at the same time. Gotta keep up the grind in West Haven!
Thanks to his former Aeronautical job and some very smart investments, Karlof is quite wealthy. That comfortable nest egg is why he was able to follow his passion and become a teacher
Tox likes to offer a small drinks discount to Elemental Masters whenever they visit the Rockshot Club, just so they have a reason to visit and catch up. Except Paleman, he goes WAY too overboard with the drinks and wakes up in the alleyway dumpster the next afternoon
Neuro really used to enjoy chess and was close to becoming a grandmaster in his youth, but after gaining his Elemental Power he lost all passion for the game. Winning isn't fun when you can read your opponent's mind
Jacob secretly really enjoys signing things for fans of his, but because he is blind rarely anyone ever asks him. His signature is just indecipherable squiggles
Bolobo is often mistaken for Bigfoot by hikers and campers due to his hairy body and natural kinship with forest critters
Shade: Yeah he's pretty average once you actually get to know him hjgfdhgfdsgfds. Part of the reason he blends in so easily into the shadows is because he's literally not doing anything to draw attention to himself. I can totally see him being a stamp collector hgfdhgfdsfds. The flavorless breakfast is so brutal tho lmao (tho I imagine Obscuria would tease him relentlessly for it in the future)
Ash: Okay well when you phrase it like that, Cinder being like an overzealous apprentice (slash nephew?) to Ash in the assassin business is an incredibly appealing idea (and more easily lends to why Cinder is such a...brutal individual. lmao). Somehow this alone has made Cinder 75% more fascinating to me, thanks!
Gravis: I can see this, he's zen enough for it
Griffin: PIZZA BOY GRIFFIN (cue even more rivalry with Jay hkgfdghfds) Love him working odd jobs as a side to his athletic career
Karlof: YES (Karlof just also love being able to pas on his passions to the next generations <3)
Tox: Another hc I have for her is that she ALSO moonlights (or daylights?) as a tattoo artist and is the one to give Jesse his tattoo in the future asdfhjkjhgfds
Paleman: Him wracking up a tab with Tox is a hilarious image lmao (and I do hc them as having some kind of mixed-up history)
Neuro: Thus, he enjoys playing chess with Zane on weekends, due to Zane technically not having a 'mind' to read (and it's actually a decent challenge to do mental wits against a robot with a soul). Maybe he wears a pinch of Vengestone to dampen his powers in order to get back into chess again? Or just for other non-mind reading purposes
Jacob: hgfdsghfdsgfd nooo I imagine he learns the specific motion to at least make his initials, which is about as closest to a proper signature he'll get. I also imagine he exchanges autographs with Jesse and that's how they begin to become friends
Bolobo: I'm sure this one's gotta be canon to some degree lmao
Cole didn't expect to end up working in an underground noodle factory after losing in the tournament. He expected one of the other losers-turned-workers giving him a lesson on the mechanics of the multiverse and fiction even less.
AO3 Link
Cole has certainly been experiencing a whirlwind of emotions on being brought into the factory. Confusion, then anger, then joy, then despair, and now finally boredom as he stood there chopping noodles as the currently-former Master of Sound, Jacob, kept talking about his plan to break out of here.
“And then—” the blind man continued, only to be cut off by someone groaning further down the line.
“Jacob, I swear. I have told you several times already, you are not going to freaking try to escape on your own. It’s not gonna work.” Turning to look, Cole found Lily, the redheaded Master of Sand, standing over on the opposite side of Jacob, her arms folded as she gave the man a deadpan glare. “Seriously, how many times am I gonna have to repeat myself?”
“So you just want to stay stuck here in the factory forever, huh?” the man shot back at her. “Because I sure don’t!”
“I didn’t say that,” Lily refuted, shaking her head. “I’ve just been saying that trying to escape on your own isn’t gonna work. Not that escape’s gonna be impossible. We are gonna eventually get out of here, together.”
“And how you know this?” Karlof cut in, sounding skeptical. “You sound certain.”
“Look, I just—” The girl paused, blinking, suddenly noticing Cole standing next to karlof as she turned around to look. “Wait, Cole’s here already? Wow, that was a fast evening . . . you still lost, huh?” She nodded to herself, looking pensive. “I figured that’d be the case, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it’d change or not.”
“Yeah, I lo—” Cole paused, taking in all of what Lily had just said. “. . . Wait, what do you mean I still lost?” He let go of the lever he’d been working, turning to fully face the Master of Sand. “That implies you knew I was going to lose.”
“Well, yeah, I did kno—oh chaos we never did explain ANYTHING, did we.” Lily’s eyes widened in realization, and she facepalmed. “Arti’s kept on telling me ‘not to spoil things’ and ‘we can’t trust anyone here it’s freaking CHEN’S ISLAND’ but like. We seriously haven’t even mentioned at least that we already knew what was happening before we even got here?!”
“You WHAT?!” Cole exclaimed, jaw dropping in shock. “What do you mean you knew?! Why didn’t you tell anyone?!”
“I mean, I wanted to tell people, but Arti didn’t want to risk messing anything up and she did kind of have a point because honestly, A), who would have believed us at first, and B), that would just have Chen onto us if he knew we knew.” Lily shrugged. “I still think we should have at least told you guys, though—you and the other ninja, I mean. Cause you guys ended up being onto Chen as well pretty much immediately.”
“I—but how did you know?! I know you guys ended up finding the secret tunnels with us and all, but—” The Black Ninja could only gape at the redhead, trying to puzzle out what ways she could have possibly learned about all this before anyone else.
“Well, it’s . . . REALLY complicated. Like, might-make-me-sound-like-a-lunatic complicated. Heck, there’s a reason we just kinda coined ‘Fictional Coincidence’ as a full-on term on the—wait.” Cole watched as the girl’s expression slowly shifted into one of excited realization. “Wait, hold on—I GET TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT FICTIONAL COINCIDENCE.”
Cole, Jacob, and Karlof all sort of stared at Lily in different levels of visible confusion at her sudden outburst, none of them really sure how to react to the level of enthusiasm she was now showing.
“Alright, guys, you’re going to want to pay attention and this may be kind of mind blowing but so help me this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because I get to, in real life, TELL PEOPLE ABOUT FICTIONAL COINCIDENCE.” Lily had started holding herself steady against the noodle machine, breathing heavily as she seemed to be trying to collect herself. “Oh my goodness this is absolutely insane, I never thought I’d get to do anything like this outside of roleplay—so!” The girl clapped her hands together, before ducking over to the other side of the conveyor belt.
“. . . So, do either of you guys have any idea what she’s doing,” Cole whispered to the men on either side of him, “or are we all lost here?”
“Karloff have no clue,” the Master of Metal on his left said with a shrug. “Girl has been ranting about stuff that make no sense since she get here.”
“Alright, boys, listen up!” Lily exclaimed, clapping her hands again. “So, who here knows about the multiverse theory, aka, the idea that there exists an infinite number of possible universes in the greater multiverse at large?”
Cole furrowed his brow. “I think I’ve seen something like that in movies?”
“Good, that’s a basic enough understanding. I could go more in-depth about universal systems and stuff, but that’s not important to the topic, so forget I brought that up cause I don’t know why I just did. Anyways, the multiverse is real.”
There was a moment of silence, as if Lily was waiting for comments or questions or something like that.
“. . . Nobody’s gonna react to that? Okay. I was expecting more of a response.”
“Karloff not really following,” Karloff admitted. “Karloff not seen many movies.”
“I’ve been to the Underworld before,” Cole explained.
“Yes, I know you have, I just—never mind. Jacob, what . . . oh Jacob left, huh.” Lily pointed to where the Master of Sound had been standing, and, yep, the short man seemed to have wandered off. “Bet he thought I was crazy and didn’t want to hear it. That’s entirely fair, for a while in high school I did outright say I was insane.”
. . . This girl truly was an enigma, wasn’t she?
“Anyways, back to the explanation. So, the Law of Fictional Coincidence is far less known than the Multiverse Theory, mostly because I came up with Fictional Coincidence myself. It’s a long story. But it also has revealed itself to be entirely accurate in the situation we’re now in, so it’s relevant.”
Lily started motioning as if she had a blackboard behind her, and Cole figured that if she’d had her powers, she’d have been shaping sand into images to represent what she was talking about.
“So, the basic idea is that for every Universe A that exists, there exists a Universe B in which Universe A exists as some form of fictional media, and vice versa. This can be any media, such as a book, movie, video game, TV show, even fanfiction! For example—” Lily pointed to the imaginary blackboard behind her, “—by the Law of Fictional Coincidence, there exists a universe where the events of, say, the Fritz Donnegan series really happen. This also extends, however, to any piece of Fritz Donnegan media, official or unofficial. The comics are a universe, the movies are a universe, even every instance of fanfiction is a universe. And this, of course, applies to far more than just the Fritz Donnegan series, it’s just the only example I could think of here that I could use.”
Cole tried to think this over. “So, in the Multiverse, every story is real somewhere?” he summarized, just to be sure he was understanding correctly.
“Exactly right!” Lily pointed at Cole with a smile. “However, it ALSO works in reverse, and this is the part where it gets a bit existential. Remember, I first explained this as for every universe, there’s another universe where the events of the first universe are fictional—and THIS is the part that applies more to our current situation.” She paused for a moment, as if to try and let this sink in.
The Master of Earth wasn’t sure he entirely liked where this was going. “By that logic . . . are you trying to imply that our world is fictional in another universe?”
“Bingo!” the redhead exclaimed, pointing at him again. “And this is where it gets complicated, because I happen to, well, not be from this world.”
“You’re NOT?!” . . . Actually, wait, why was that even surprising? She’d just about been implying it the whole time she’d been talking, given that she’d been talking about the Multiverse in the first place.
“Yep! And don’t ask how we got here, because we have no idea. Anyways, if this is the Universe A of our equation, then Arti and I come from a respective Universe B, in which this world is a show. And Arti and I have both watched this show, meaning we know a lot of what happens, given we’re currently within the events that make up part of the show.” Lily shrugged. “This is the existential part, so feel free to freak out for a minute if you need to.”
“. . .” Cole stared at the girl for a minute, before glancing at Karloff to see if he had any thoughts about this. Karloff just also shrugged, as if he wasn’t sure what to think, so he turned back to Lily. “. . . That’s a lot you’re asking us to believe.”
Lily sighed, rubbing her neck. “Yeah it’s. It’s complicated, like I said. I will say, though, that this world doesn’t exist because of the show. I’ve mostly explained this in a roleplay context before, but neither universe causes anything in the other one, they just coincidentally match up as one being media in the other. That’s why it’s called Fictional Coincidence, not Fictional Causation.”
“I guess that makes sense . . . ? But, that’s why you knew I was going to lose the fight between me and Jay? Because you saw it in a TV show?”
The Master of Sand nodded. “Yeah, and that’s also how I know we eventually break out of here—AND WHY I KNOW YOU’LL FAIL IF YOU TRY BREAKING OUT, JACOB!” she added, shouting over at the man in question. “I KEEP TELLING YOU, IT WON’T WORK!”
Rolling her eyes, she shot Cole and Karloff an awkward grin. “But, yeah. TV show. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth.”
Cole sighed. “It’s a lot to take in, Lily, and I’m not sure if I entirely understand it, let alone believe it.” But then, he grinned back. “But . . . it’s not like I’ve got any reason not to believe you, either.”
Lily’s grin went from awkward to genuine. “So you’re at least gonna . . . dangit I can’t think of a good word, tolerate the idea? There’s probably a better word than tolerate but I can’t think of any.”
Cole nodded. “Yeah. It might take some proof first before I can actually believe it, but I won’t shoot you down just yet.”
“Oh, trust me, I can definitely give you proof.” Lily looked almost playfully devious as she said this. “Just you wait.”
