Archive of Blind Fan Stories

Archive of unedited paragraphs written by Yumi documenting their experience showing people who had left the Ninjago fandom or were never there to begin with the show. Together, the Blind Fan Stories reach just under 10,000 words (20 pages). Commentary inserted in between posts by other members is not included. The posts can be found in their respective season chats. These posts are argued to be one of the most interesting pieces of writing to exist on the server. Other members, like Eugene, have written their own blind fan stories down as a response.
== 31/08/2020 ==
Ok, finally achieved my goal of showing Sons of Garmadon to a non-Ninjago fan. This one’s actually a relapsed fan, they rage-quit the show after day of the departed in 2016. We watched 5 episodes tonight and will finish the season tomorrow. The very fact he wanted to continue is a certified gain for me. As expected, there was complaining about no airjitzu or dragons. He was bemused at the new designs, perhaps he didn’t approve but it was hard to tell over vc. I realized the season actually has a lot of humour and we laughed at the stupid jokes. I could tell he missed Ninjago a lot, at least in the first two episodes. Favourite moment was when we met ultra violet and upon seeing the back of her head he went “hey, that’s Nadakhan!” Another funny remark was “the sons of Garmadon, they’re like an entire gang of Kruncha and Nuckals. I love these guys!” He also concluded Baby Wu was a baby born into cult or kidnapped and brainwashed. “The SOG is the Jedi order confirmed!” We also had lots of fun laughing at all the times Lloyd didn’t call for backup or became stupid around Harumi. The Samurai X reveal caught him off guard. I think he was positively indifferent. He did have a bit of a shock when he realized the ninja, especially Kai, were far less competent this season then they were when he left off. Mystake also threw him off guard. “I remember her being... less extreme.” In conclusion, after we stopped for the night, he told me, “Yeah, I like it. It’s certainly a different dynamic than what I’m used to, but it’s enjoyable.” If anything, I think if you wanna get a new person into Ninjago, this season might not be the best (although what choices do you have), but a relapsed fan will have a lotta fun due to how referential it is. I’ll keep you guys updated on my efforts tomorrow. No idea how he’ll take Harumi’s backstory reveal or Garmadon’s true potential. (He did ask me “so when they revive him, will he have 2 arms or 4?")
== 01/9/2020 ==
Ok, I’ve completed the SOG marathon with our relapsed fan. Harumi’s reveal caught him off guard. He didn’t really have any comments, but he did mumble to himself. Then he started realizing all the hints they dropped and mumbled some more. We continued to mock Lloyd for being a horny teenager. Episode 7 brought a lotta laughs for us. He was disgusted at the crab monster. Since we both used to hate China, I joked it probably is Cragger but overdosed. He stayed silent during Harumi’s backstory, which is funny because he usually has pretty vocal reactions. Afterwords, he commented “It’s good. Very well-written.” He told me in episode 8, “so we all saw this coming, right? This kind of show, it always happens.”
“Yes,” I told him, “but the real fun is seeing how entertainingly they execute their predictable plot.” 
Baby Wu got a lot of laughs out of him. He spent a full 10 seconds reeling and going “WHAT? WHAT?! Does seeing season 7 make this better for me?” 
“Of course not,” I told him, “It makes it far worse!” 
When the ceremony was happening, he was surprised that the show got as dark as it did. I think he enjoyed the serious tone a lot, it caught him very off guard in a good way. Perhaps my favourite moment is when Lloyd locked the ninja in a room and he went, “Ok, you’re telling me they have elemental powers but can’t kick a door open?” Another fun moment is when Lloyd went to the weapons case in episode 9 before leaving the bounty and before the plethora of weapons, my friend laughed that he only took a parachute. “All those swords, and a parachute was the best thing you could muster? All hail the all powerful parachute!” He then laughed even more when Lloyd did the whole “then who am I?” Thing, going “Guess the parachute IS the greatest weapon of all.” We had some interesting discussion about how Garmadon can do powers but Wu can’t. “Maybe when he and Misako stop cucking he’ll achieve his true potential,” I joked. In conclusion, he wanted to jump into Season 9. This is a definite win. This season has proven to be barrels of fun as well as insanely engaging and dark. I think this proves that is a good entry point given you explain it a bit first. In his words “Good season! Lots of twists, more than expected.” Towards the last couple episodes, post-7, he made less quips and more genuine reactions. I could tell that he was actually into it. So yeah, if you wanna show it to a relapsed fan, this'll be sure to ignite discussion. Hopefully I can convince my non-fan friends to watch it too. I'll be excited to see how it turns out.
== 02/9/2020 ==
Ok! Time for more relapsed fan stories! Today we watched 3 episodes of Hunted. We decided to slow down our pace a little bit. Let’s see if I can make this through without misspelling the name of a lego theme as a real world nation. This time, our relapsed fan laughed less. I realized that this season has less jokes overall. I think he’s a fan of Jay’s humour and didn’t really enjoy nihilistic Jay all that much, although he did laugh at the “it’s my new video game console” gag. He was impressed with the new intro. Since not much substantial happened in these first 3 episodes, we didn’t really have any big reeling moments. However, after the elemental masters showed up, he got a lot more into it. This is probably because when ToE aired, we would literally spend a week discussing the episodes at school at length, so we both have a fond impression of the season. His reaction to Karlof was “Oh... oh wait.. OH! OH SHOOT!” When Skylor told Lloyd “Yes, my powers have returned,” we had to recall the events of ToE and wondered how she had regained her powers. “I guess powers just grow back now,” he laughed. I theorized that she probably destroyed the entire crystal caves until her powers returned. We had many more side conversations, usually about the elemental masters. Mocking Horny Lloyd time shifted to mocking edgy and depressed Lloyd time. He laughed a lot during the Dareth vs Karlof fight so I’m interested in seeing how he’ll take the rest of the dareth scenes, although the general volume of reactions was a little less laughing and a lot more actual discussing and pointing out plot holes but still being entertained by the season in general. Despite not enjoying nihilistic Jay, he did love Rocky Dangerbuff. He also made comparisons to How to Train Your Dragon during the first realm scenes often.
“Total ripoff!” He remarked.
“Seen Mad Max too?” I answered.
“No, why?”
“Ah, never mind.”
In short, really dark season. The tone will probably be enjoyed by relapsed fans. You’ll have to convince them to sit through SOG first, but I never accounted for how much the elemental masters made Hunted less of a “jumping on point for movie fans” and more of a “jumping on point for relapsed fans”. Anyway, if you have a relapsed fan, as long as they’ve seen up to episode 44, I recommend showing them the Oni Trilogy! Oh also, I pointed out Ultra Dragon’s skull to him, and he sort of went, “Wait... wait, that’s so sad! Wait, oh no...! You spend so much time waiting for him to return and this... weird top hat man... so stupid. Ah, dang, what a shame.”
== 03/09/2020 ==
Time for more relapsed fan stories. Today was probably the best day of our Ninjago marathon. He’s basically right back into it. It’s shifted from minute-to-minute laughing at randomness to actually discussing the episode and enjoying the discourse we had at hand. In fact, he even noticed stuff I did not! (I will be ashamed to admit that it is only upon second viewing with him that I realized that Lloyd got his suit back at the end of episode 6 cuz he shapeshifted. Shows how dim I am haha) Probably the most fun we had was watching How to Build A Dragon. We had lots of fun wondering about the logistics of how exactly the dragon they built worked. I noticed overall we have a ton more discussions about the actual world building and mechanics of the world today. Just goes to show, I cannot praise the Oni Trilogy enough for being basically the best thing in this show. Mistake being an oni sent him into a similar shock as Baby Wu did. “WHAT? WHAT?!” Some of the imagery of the first realm also piqued his interest, specifically the character Arcade and the barrier between Oni Territory. Again, we had many discussions about the plot of the episode. I think he’s actually enjoying it fully now. (Just goes to show how good writing can shake off the stigma of a kids show.) In his words, “I really enjoy the fact that they’re being hunted. Usually it’s the ninja hunting some person or blade but now they’re out of their element and it’s really good.” Favourite moments include berating Iron Baron for his serious lack of competence when building his camp. “If one dragon and 4 teenagers and their kid can do this much damage, why haven’t the dragons taken their revenge yet?!” Another moment is berating the SOG for locking up Karloff in Kryptarium, a prison built out of metal, and then berating Karloff for not breaking out. Mocking horny emo depressed teenage Lloyd turned into mockery of equally stupid teenage Wu. In conclusion, he has to work tomorrow so we’ve decided to put our marathon on hold until Saturday. We’ll watch 4 episodes then, and he decides he wants to make time to watch season 10. Like he told me, “Can we watch season 10 too? Maybe all at once?”
I think at this point, I can call this experiment a resounding success. I am aware I am speaking on behalf of only one person, but I think the Oni Trilogy is a wonderful piece of entertainment and certainly the best way to get relapsed fans back into Ninjago. During the first couple episodes of SOG, I could sense a bit of a “laugh for the sake of laughing” tone or “eh it’s lego lemme be real critical about it” but I think by now we’re both enjoying it. Soon, I think I’ll find a non-ninja go fan to show this to, maybe in December or so. But I truly am happy. The Oni Trilogy may not be a good jumping on point for new fans but it certainly is a good point for old ones.
Also for how I’m gonna break the news to him that season 10 is an utter disappointment, I have the next 24 hours to think about that lol
== 04/09/2020 ==
Right, time for more stories of me showing Ninjago to new people. This time, we're not talking about Relapsed Fan, but rather a new person. We'll call her "Blind Fan" because the last time she saw the show was when she was 9. For context, in February, we talked about having a ninjago marathon. Well, we finally did that today.As you know, I am always trying to find the best way to introduce people to this show, and I still maintain that S8 is the best entry point, so I decided showing a blind fan S8 would be a good direction to go.
However, Blind Fan wanted to watch some S1 &2 episodes beforehand for nostalgia's sake, so we ended up watching Can of Worms, Day of the Great Devourer, and Rise of the Spinjitzu Master before The Mask of Deception. Just some notes from these episodes, memorable moments include berating kid Lloyd's hair, calling Zane's hair a paintbrush, laughing at Kai tripping on acid, and pointing out a massive plothole. In E13, when the train operators say "Ah, there are no trains on platform 9", she screamed, "Wait, why are there people on platform 9 then?!" We also laughed about the Take Back Ninjago event as being a white supremacy rally. In Rise of the Spinjitzu Master, there was a lot of phoned in "Oh sh-t, oh sh-t" from her during the hype moments. Maybe she wasn't into it, I couldn't tell. In any case, we both cheered during Lloyd's golden ninja moment. It was pretty good.
Into S8E1 now.
The giant action scene completely caught her off guard. I still maintain that S8's opening is the strongest season opening ever. She kept asking "What does the mask to? What does it do?" It builds up a strong sense of intrigue. She also thought the SOG were the Ninja, so the Lloyd reveal was fun, although she observed right away, "She's tripping like Kai!" I had to explain Pixal to her and she went, "Oh, that's stupid. Sure, pair the androids. AI is scary." Later on, she said about Nya, "Oh hey, it's basically Katara!" Then when she say her hairstyle, she went "Oh shoot, Nya's hot now! It's every basic track girl, that's sexy! Nya's so hot." She hated Jay's original hair but tolerates the new one. More berating Zane's even more paint-brush-like hairdo. Harumi intrigued her. "Lemme guess, is she gonna fall in love? She interests me... Kai, will she fall for Kai?"
"Er, no, not really."
In any case, she wants to resume on Monday. "I wouldn't wanna do it again if it wasn't fun," she told me. I think she's still tentative but hopefully S8 will prove a good entry point for blind fan. Here's hoping for the best! I'll keep you posted, hopefully you can use this story when you introduce people to the show yourselves.
== 05/09/2020 ==
Time for more stories featuring everybody's favourite, Relapsed Fan! Today, we completed Hunted. I have to say, this has gone much better than I expected. Relapsed Fan and I actually drifted apart around 2016/17 ish because he wanted to distance himself from "That ninja kid's show", so to see him liking the new stuff truly is a wonderful experience. I think today, his reactions were even more genuine and hype than mine. You've all heard me say it before, but this cements it: I cannot, cannotoverstate how good of an entry point the OT is for relapsed fans. On Monday, I'll continue my screening of the OT with another person who has never seen the show, (Blind Fan), but if the findings I have documented for you over the past few days are anything to go by, I think we will soon be able to conclude once and for all that the OT with and hopefully without context is the best way to actually get people into the show. That being said, notable moments: The Weakest Link was probably the weakest episode. No reactions during the rock scene. Usually when this happens, it means they're either really into it or not caring at all. Hard to tell over VC. He observed that the scene where they chain dragons was similar to a scene from the Lego Lotr videogame. I haven't played it, so I cannot relate to what he said. It seems he's making a lot more observations during the scenes now and really having fun during the actions scenes. Lots of banter. Since it's a mad-max inspired sort of sequence, there was a lot he could enjoy because of the high-octane action being shown onscreen. I asked him this episode if he preferred the First Realm stuff or the Ninjago City stuff and contrary to many people, it seems he likes the First Realm stuff more. In his words, "In the city, they're just going back and fourth, Lloyd mopes, does a thing, then they get hunted, rinse and repeat. Here, I actually feel we're doing something, on a quest. Pretty similar to season one, actually." (He's one of the people who call the Pilots Season 1.) He berated Mistake for revealing her plan to Harumi. The entire Mistake vs Garmadon fight was kind of confusing to him. Definitely one of the weaker fights, but it did pique his interest towards the oni. Skylor controlling the Oni Titan was a fun scene, but he found it pretty impossible to take seriously. Harumi's Death got a lot of reactions out of him, as it rightfully does. I made sure to point out to him,
"Usually, deaths in Ninjago are very clear cut. It's easy to know why Morro died or why Zane died. Here, we have no idea what Harumi was thinking when she died. Did she finally empathize with Lloyd during her last moments or curse him? Did she fully realize the error of her ways? How does she view Garmadon before her heart stops beating? These are questions we'll never get answers to, and that's why it's one of the better deaths." 
"Oh, she's dead dead?!"
"Yup."
When the two Oni masks got broken, we sorta flipped out. "If you can just break them, why didn't the Ninja smash them during season 8?!"
"Wouldn't be Ninjago without plotholes!"
We continued to berate the designers of Kryptarium for having a single button that raises all the doors and Karlof for not breaking everyone out earlier. Back in the First Realm, he predicted Faith was bait for a trap. When she exposed Iron Baron, that got a lot of reactions out of him. He seemed really into the scene. He also observed that Zane was showing signs of exhaustion. "Why does he look tired?" He wondered. "Maybe he's just trying not to make them feel bad." We both mocked Iron Baron when he put on the Dragon Armour. Upon his death, he went,
"Right. Burn them alive. On screen. Good job, kid's show. Perfect for the children!"
When the Ninja returned to Ninjago, he went, "Hey! That's how the ninja went to the underworld, too? But why are they stretching like in a cartoon?"
"Um, maybe perhaps because we're watching a cartoon?"
"Ah, yes."
Dareth got a questionable reaction out of him. I think he cringed when he saved Gale. When the Ninja re-united, he told me, "Ah, it's half cringe, half hype... But it's endearing, I guess." The final fight with Lloyd and Garmadon really impressed him. "The choreography, it's so good! This is awesome! Especially cuz they're stumpy lego people." He seemed indifferent about the Oni coming, but he was shocked Wu aged from an adult to an old man so quickly. "Is he gonna drop dead next season?"
== 06/09/2020 ==
Okay.....
Time for the final relapsed fan story. Today we watched all of MotO. It was.... interesting. So up to this point, I’ve warned him no less than 5 times that it’s a letdown.
We jumped into the first episode and immediately the berating began. “So you’re telling my kryptarium is actually a competent prison but they just choose not to be?!” It was mostly silence during the first episode. He laughed about how Cole ditched his car. The bounty reveal confused him, as it did basically everybody. “Wait it’s just the one from S8, why is everybody chearing?” “Yeah I have no idea.” (Personally I would have preferred the one from S1 but that’s just me. He did laugh during the police scenes. “Poor commissioner...!” That was basically the first episode. At the end I asked him what he though and he went, “it was.... ok.” Then we jumped into the second episode. We enjoyed a lot of the Garmadon/Lloyd scenes. He found the “fight fuels him” moment to be stupid (like everybody). We both think Garmadon is the best part of the special by a long shot.
Then came the third episode.
He was really invested in the vault scenes. “Hey, let’s look for stuff from the show’s past that’s in the background!” The sword of sanctuary got a good reaction out of him. Then came the golden armour and the long running joke we made that literally everybody should be dead after touching it except Garmadon. Many, many complaints. He also hatedthe design of Omega. “W-what?! They’re so... derpy! I can’t take it seriously! Ahh, look at his face...!” Honestly I have to agree with him.
Then came the fall.
No reaction at all.
Usually this means he’s either too invested or not invested at all. I honestly don’t know which one. He did enjoy the aftermath scenes though. He laughed basically all throughout the Vinnie from NGTV News scene, which is understandable because it’s the best scene. “He says NGTV like it’s a faction! You gotta say it VINNIE OF NGTV NEWS![laughter]) Lots of berating Nya over her terrible plan to get Kai to reforge the weapons. I told him, “oh yeah, so I can hit the backspace key, that totally means I can code,” is basically what they’re saying...! (I also pointed out that the forge in the monastery was never spoken about and a better location for the final battle would be Ignacia.) I basically grumbled about the third episode and as we headed into the final one he went, Yumi, you’re sosalty about this aren’t you? You’re so... so salty.” “YES.” Heading into the final episode, we basically mocked the entire scene where Kai perfectly remade the weapons. Then, we sort of laughed at the very awkward encounter between Garmadon and Misako. During the first realm portion, he remarked, “Sure, have a realm of Oni and Dragon without any Oni and completely useless dragons that can’t even defeat a cloud.” 
Later, in the final battle, he went, “oh man. 100 episodes and 10 seasons and we build to this? What’s it gonna be...?”
“Underwhelming. We’re celebrating 10 seasons of history, what powers do you think they’ll use?”
“Airjitzu? True potential? Dragons?”
“Slap the Oni off a mountain!”
“You gotta be kidding me.”
No reactions for the Cole being alive scene.
Then, when Garmadon did his Oni transformation, I could hear him physically wheeze. “WHAT IS THAT?! ITS SO DERP!”
We named him Garmaderp.
When they were about to do the tornado of creation, I asked him, “what do you think they’ll make?” “Um, I’m not sure. A giant bomb...? A catapult? Stronger door? Maybe a mechanical dragon? Oh, or a giant sword...? Just stupid ideas, I don’t see what else.”
“Hold that thought.” 
“Why, what do they make?”
“Ah, ahahahaha......”
When Lloyd died, I told him, “Yeah, the FSM literally asked Lloyd, “hey, you wanna die?”” And then we both laughed when Lloyd basically said yes and then laughed even more when he revived himself. I did ask him when Lloyd wasn’t moving (he laughed when Nya said “he’s not moving!”) , “you think he’s alive?” No response. When Lloyd was revived, he remarked, “did he literally troll god by noping out of death?” Anyway, when he realized the tornado of creation did nothing but break the door, he went, “WHAT? WHAT?! Are you kidding me?! They couldn’t even get it right..!” Finally, it was over. He went, “We’re just gonna paint without brushes cuz we’re too uncivilized, I guess.. oh wait never mind. Ooohhh... so that’s what the symbol is. Neat!” “What does that say?” He asked me when “The end” flashed on screen. “The end in their stupid fake Chinese.” “It looks... just off. Ugh. Stupid.” (We both know Chinese) Finally, at the end, I asked him what he though. Now, you may have guessed this by now, but he’s not really a man of many words, so all he had to say was, “It was.... interesting. That was definitely something.” I asked him what he though if the OT. “It was alright. Better than I expected. The first two parts were good.” Anyway, with some more off topic jokes, we concluded our VC. That was that. In 6 days, I showed a relapsed fan the entire Oni Trillogy. We will not be watching any more, but I think I can still call this a resounding success. The Oni Trilogy is clearly an enjoyable entry point to the series for anyone who’s seen up to S4, and I highly recommend it for all of you who have a relapsed fan in your life. It’s actually far darker than expected but much funnier, too. It’s genuinely super entertaining. Definitely worth watching with a buddy. It’s littered with beautiful visuals and so many things to laugh at and discuss afterwards. This concludes the experiment of showing the entire OT to a relapsed fan. Join me tomorrow as I watch a couple episodes of SOG with Blind Fan, a friend who’s never seen the show before. I’ll be showing her SOG only (up to E8, because that’s a self contained story and seeing if they want to continue) with basically zero preparation and context. We’ll see if it’s also a good entry point for somebody without any context.
== 07/09/2020 ==
Ok, the saga of Relapsed Fan might be over, but it’s time for the even more important experiment: Blind Fan! For context, I’ve been running an experiment where I show the Oni Trillogy to two sets of people, one who has seen a reasonable portion of the show and one who has only seen three episodes of it. Hopefully you can use this information when you show the show to your own friends. Today I watched 2 episodes of SOG with Blind Fan. She seemed to enjoy them. Notable moments include calling Harumi pretty and Zane a dirty paintbrush lookalike. (I don’t agree with her assessment of Zane.) She thinks the intro is gorgeous, as many people do. Both her and Relapsed Fan both wondered why Lloyd and Harumi didn’t put the mask of vengeance into a bag before making off with it. She also doesn’t like the new style of spinjitzu. “I prefer a spinner cone, not this ball... Cole, Cole’s ok though.” We also didn’t like how they were using the wing-chun dummies incorrectly. She doesn’t like Lloyd and Harumi’s relationship. In her words, “Something ain’t right with her.” She loves the visuals. The car char chase impressed her. Episode 3 was generally a bit more favoured. She enjoyed the Ninja’s banter with Harumi. During the Oni and Dragons scene, there were no reactions. She did remark that Jay was definitely tripping on something. “I can confirm from experience.” No real reactions during the entirety of the bar scene. I think she found the Snake Jaguar gag dumb. This is in stark contrast to Relapsed Fan, who enjoyed the hell out of that scene. Unlike Relapsed Fan, though, she had a genuine laugh during the glow worm song. The entire episode 3 chase scene was really fun. She remarked during the rope scene, “I can confirm from experience that ropes don’t work like that. I tried.” She also commented about Mr. E, “ok, you’re growing arms, but usually, you should definitely get some sort of body dysmorphia from that! There’s no way he can fight in that state.” For now, it’s still jabs at the show rather than actually engaging with it, but I think she’s warmed up to it a bit. Definitely had to explain a lot of the plot points. She doesn’t enjoy the Ninja’s hoods either. “The awesomeness is gone. It kinda looks lame.” In her words, “It’s good. Better than I thought! However, it’s different from the original stuff. I don’t know if I like it... it’s not our generation anymore. The old series seemed to take itself more seriously, the joke set (humour style) was different. You compare teen titans to teen titans go, it’s like that. Everything feels kinda dumbed down here. I don’t know if I like it.”
“Will you keep watching?”
“Oh hell yeah, it’s f*cking gorgeous!”
Since we are entering our senior year of school, we do not any any concrete plans to watch any more episodes until we can gauge how the school year’s schedule will be managed. By the end of the week, we’ll set a date to watch more episodes so stay tuned!
== 09/09/2020 ==
Time for more Blind Fan stories, and oh boy, is this one a doozy. It’s also long, super long in fact, so I’ll post it in two parts, possibly more. Yesterday, I let slip that I was watching Ninjago with Blind Fan at school, and as soon as that happened, I learned that quite a few of my friends were curious to watch as well. Most of them are Blind Fans too with zero context. If you remember the Ninjago Iceberg meme (I’ll repost later), I’d say they’re within the first or second tier at best. To differentiate the different Blind Fans, I’ll be assigning them new names, so meet: Alcoholic Blind Fan (She’s the original Blind Fan who I rewatched bits of S1 & 2 with.) Gamer Blind Fan (Seen S1 when he was 8 and remembers close to nothing) Programmer Blind Fan (Seen absolutely nothing) Writer Blind Fan (Seen S1-3 when it aired and remembers literally nothing, wants to go into S8 blind.) (Relapsed Fan stayed out of this) We decided to start watching at S8E1 again. The first thing they noticed was the distinct East Asian influence. Since we’re all ethnicity Southeastern Chinese, they seemed to enjoy this a lot. “It’s everyday in Chinatown,” remarked Programmer Blind Fan. They commented a lot during the SOG heist. For example, both Writer Blind Fan and Programmer Blind Fan flipped when the SOG a went up a zip line. “I watched like 5 minutes of this cuz I was bored last night and I was like, WHAT?!” He remarked. “I’m gonna teach my kids that.” When they slid down the rope, he also went, “Oh, way to loose all the skin on your hands.” Writer Blind Fan gagged when Lloyd spoke his first line of dialogue. “Nice masks...? Wow, ok, he’s... confident.” Later, she went, “Oh, you know where to find me? See, in kids shows, they always talk funny...! It’s so... ah, inflection is odd.” She recognized Garmadon’s face, but I had to fill in Programmer Blind Fan. “That’s his dead dad. He was bad, then good, then dead.” Writer Blind Fan remarked, “that’s some on point branding!” Writer Blind Fan made an apt comparison between Nya and Katara but was bemused that she just left the thugs in the lake after she was done with them. They mostly stayed silent during the Jay and Cole scene because it was important for the exposition, but Writer Blind Fan laughed whenever Kirby Morrow said anything, mostly because “aaa, I can’t seem to take it seriously, everything’s said with such confidence and bravado!” More of the same during the Zane and Kai scene. She was shocked to see Zane flipping between robot mode and human mode. “Wait, he can do that now?!” “I know,” replies Alcoholic Blind Fan. “They did Zane so dirty.” She was also surprised at how Zane and Kai ended the fight. “Woah, that probably killed the moustache dude.” She also decided to look up Vincent Tong and saw that he was a graduate of our local university. “Hey, he’s a fellow Canada man.” “Yes,” I told her, “they’re all Canada folk.” Writer Blind Fan flipped out when Zane turned into robot mode in front of Harumi. “Aah! I’m not going to get used to that. He just took off his skin...!!” She also laughed at Harumi calling Nya “the girl”. When it became apparent to all of us that Lloyd was hitting on Harumi, Writer Blind Fan became concerned. “Wait... Lloyd’s like, 12, right? Is the princess... 18?” “Oh, no,” I told her. “They’re both probably 13-15, although it’s deliberately ambiguous. Probably both young teens.” “Ah. Then it’s alright.” “Sometimes,” I told them, “people ship Lloyd and Kai.” “How old is Kai?” “Not sure, probably an older teen, 16-19? Again, very ambiguous.” Alcoholic Blind Fan and Writer Blind fan then got into a discussion about pedophilia, where we concluded that consent was not only dictated by age range, but also life experience. “See, if I, a 17 year old, had a job,” Writer Blind Fan explained, “and I hit on a person who was still in school and obviously too immature to hold down a career, even if I was their same age, I would be a pedo. I think that if you prey on people who don’t know better, that’s what makes it wrong.” The debate progressed back and forth for a bit. (Remember, the opinions of the Blind Fans are their own. I do not endorse Greenflame and neither do my friends, it seems, but please do not @ me to use me as a proxy to debate the merits of pedophilia with my friends. I think Alcoholic Blind Fan’s arguments are mostly correct but still flawed, but seeing as to how I mainly stay out of the Greenflame debate, I suppose I don’t have a better idea.) This is to illustrate that at this point, they were engaged enough to have this sort of debate. I consider that to be an absolute win, regardless of the content of the debate. Writer Blind Fan pointed out how similar Harumi was to Padme. “It’s nothing like that,” I promised.
When Lloyd chased a hooded Harumi, Writer Blind Fan remarked, “Imagine if that was Harumi running...!” “What would you say if it was?” It was. “I’m not surprised.”
Every time I screen this episode, somebody always points out how Harumi gave one poor dude nothing but a banana. They also panned the dialogue scene. “It’s... very overplayed.” When Samurai X showed up, I had to explain, “there’s a vigilante not affiliated with the ninja as well. They call themselves Samurai X.” “Wait,” said Gamer Blind Fan. “Isn’t that Nina girl (Referring to Nya, he’s not a good listener) Samurai X? Or am I just tripping? I seem to remember that from long ago.” “Yes, she was the original but now there’s a new one.” “I see.” His reaction was ambiguous. When Hutchens showed up to collect Harumi (BTW, Rumi is a stupid nickname because the characters that make up Harumi, 晴美, split at Haru/Mi, making Rumi the equivalent nickname to something like Bob becoming “Ob”.), Writer Blind Fan went, “I don’t trust him. He’s got to be evil. Anyone with an eyepatch is evil. Gotta be.” “Imagine if he was the secret leader of the SOG,” I joked. “HMMMMMM....” they all replied. I had to explain to them the Mailman Seasons joke. “He’s this show’s equivalent of Cabbage Man.” During the Cole flashback scene, Writer Blind Fan remarked how similar it was to some shonen protagonist arcs. “Aw, that’s not healthy, that he feels he needs to be responsible for Wu just because his mom’s dead. That isn’t healthy.” I told her, “the show addresses it in season 13. Don’t worry, it isn’t like a lot of Shonen anime where they glorify overwork.” She told me, “oh, that’s good. One of the reasons why I like Mob Psycho 100 is cuz they do have characters like this but they also do address it. As long as it’s part of his arc, it should be ok.” Again, we had discourse based on the episode. It was good. I don’t think any of them particularly liked the forbidden love subplot. They laughed when Ultra Violet jumped over the rest of the SOG on her bike. “People are gonna get burned this episode.” Writer Blind Fan cheered when Kai blew up the mask. Alcoholic Blind Fan laughed when it was revealed to be a fake. During the Mr. E vs the Ninja fight, Gamer Blind Fan asked, “wait, when will the ninja get OP weapons? I seem to remember them having swords that shoot fire and nunchaku that make lighting or something.” “Oh, those for melted down into a set of armour.” “What?” Muttered Writer Blind Fan. “But isn’t there a mcguffin every season? That’s how this show works, doesn’t it?” “Ah, yes, the mcguffin would be the masks.” Gamer Blind Fan screamed when Harumi let Ultra Violet have the mask, “You hoe! She’s an actual hoe! Useless b*tch... I swear, she’s actually gonna betray them... wait, what if she’s a traitor...?” I didn’t know what to say, so I just laughed. Later on, when Lloyd and Harumi reconveened with the rest of the ninja and we learned that the royal family and Hutchens had died, Writer Blind Fan did a double take. “Wait, what?!” “I told you,” I said. “People are gonna die. People actually die in this show.” Gamer Blind Fan remarked, “Waaaaiiit, but you said Hutchens was.... wait, has Yumi even seen this show before?” “Yes,” I laughed, “but I just pretend not to for your sake!” After that, Writer Blind Fan decided to leave. I don’t know if she had obligations to take care of or if she didn’t enjoy the show.
We moved to episode 3. I think Alcoholic Blind Fan left during this episode because she got bored of rewatching episodes. Gamer Blind Fan muted himself. However, right at the glow worm scene, Alcoholic Blind Fan returned. “Oh, I can’t miss Cole singing... shine little glow worm, GLIMMER GLIMMER!” In our circle of friends, we have a running joke of me being supposedly afraid of a man in a Cole costume attacking me in my bed at night with the scythe of quakes. Now, Alcoholic Blind Fan has added a new part to that cannon: He now stalks me at night, belting the glow worm song as he pleases. It is a terrifying image. If anything, at least we have a new inside joke. This is just my personal observation, but after watching this episode no less than 3 times in the past week, I realized that in the second to last shot,l of episode 3, Cole has zero animation and a rope model is lazily slapped into his wrists and in fact clipping through them a little. During the Zane flashback, Alcoholic Blind Fan berated Zane’s hairdo further. To her credit, Zane does look off in that flashback. Around this time, I hadn’t noticed that the other people had began talking about a classmate of ours, which is how we created an inside joke of Zane being an entitled, toxic league playing homosexual African. Alcoholic Blind Fan gave an “Oh, sh**” when it was revealed that the SOG made their base inside a train station. Programmer Blind Fan asked when he saw Cole’s cell, “wait... why doesn’t he just break the bars? He’s super strong, right?” “Oh, because the bars are made of vengestone, which cannot be broken by Cole’s super strength.” “Then why doesn’t he just punch the walls or the ground? He’s the master of earth, isn’t he...?” “...huh. Good question.” “In all fairness,” Gamer Blind Fan interjected, “Cole comes off to me as the dumbest of the group. I don’t think he ever considered.” The entire scene with Killow and Zane is just so charmingly edgy with its dialogue, which is an utter shame because nobody could hear it over my grandparents who had just begun making “asian parent noises”. Alcoholic Blind Fan joked about Platform 9 again when the SOG rode their bikes down it.
Every time I've showed episode 4 to somebody, they've always pointed out, "How does the mask of deception equal levitation?" This time, it was Alcoholic Blind Fan. I told her, "Maybe it makes everyone collectively hallucinate that stuff's levitating. New theory, nothing past this point happened." (May I remind you that the entirety of SOG and by extension everything after is due to the fact that Cole sang a song in episode 3? It's as crazy as Borg building a tower.) During the Zane VS Mr. E fight, Alcoholic Fan pointed out, "So does Mr. E ever remove his helmet? Do we find out who he is?"
At that moment, he lost his arm.
"Oh, so he's Zane's brother? Wait, I have questions..."
I briefly explained Echo Zane to everybody.
"See," began Alcoholic fan, "This is why I have problems with this season..."
"Do tell."
"These characters seem different. Like Nya's so hot now but they did my boy Zane and Lloyd dirty. It's like... I know you tell me it gets dark later on, and I'm ok with dark stuff, but like... I don't know. I don't care about the characters. Like, I cared about the funny and lighthearted tone of season 1 when I watched it because I empathized with the ninja. You know all the scenes where they sat around a dining table? It's like that. I don't know. They haven't had enough fun moments for me to care or empathize with them yet." At this point, Gamer Blind Fan jumped in. "Yes, but this is Season 8. I'd assume by this point, anyone watching the show would care." Alcoholic Blind Fan replied, "True, true, people change overtime, so I'm sure a bunch of stuff happened inbetween seasons, but Yumi said this was a jumping on point, so I should be able to care about the characters in the state they're presented in. I don't know, you said you rewatched the show this year and it got you back into it, Yumi. What do you think?"
"I think," I told her, "Like... I understand your points, and to an extent I think I can agree... but as a person who's watched all of the show, there's no way I can go into this blind, so that's why I'm trusting your word. Like I get your points, but at this point, as a fan, my judgement is so clouded by previous seasons I can no longer view any individual season in a vacuum like you do. But I do think Ninjago is helped by always having a wider unexplored lore to it. The appeal, I think, um, was that they wanted to generate interest about the character's pasts. If they did that-" Alcoholic Blind Fan, "They did not" "-is up to you, I suppose."
"The important thing," Alcoholic Blind Fan said, "is that I'm going to give it a chance and take it on it's own merits. Like, Firefly gets better later too. This can do the same. Like hell no, the show's too pretty to give up on, even if the hair is s***."
I asked Programmer Blind Fan what he thought. "I agree with her," he told me. "I like the visuals, I like the fight scenes a lot, I like the plot since it's very intriguing, but I don't like the character interactions. "I realized there was nothing the show could do at that point to change their minds. We continued to watch.
Alcoholic fan continued to push Glowworm onto me during applicable scenes, but besides that, we were relatively silent.
Right when Pixal revealed herself, I had to go out, so we stopped at that point. No reaction from anyone.
I had to do some reflection afterwards.
Are my friends all pretending to enjoy a show cuz they don't wanna upset me? Have I been liking a sub-par lego commercial and taking it way too far? I rewatched S1-6 this summer. Not a single one was as good as I remembered, but I always covered it with, "It's still REALLY GOOD!" Even S8 isn't as good as I remember. Are we all crazy? I thought to myself in the car. Do we all love a children's show and blow it up to be far more meaningful than it ever had any right being? When we drag our friends into it, is all they see a child in us who refuses to let go?
I have arrived at this answer:
I don't really like films by Christopher Nolan. They're GREAT films, don't get me wrong, I just don't prefer his style. Many people take arms against this opinion. However, I have a busy schedule. On the internet, I get bashed for trash taste. Heck, even though it's objective trash, one of my favourite anime is Mirai Nikki. (Yumi's note: I said ONE of. My favourite anime is Evangelion.) When I watch media, I want to be entertained. I want to relax. Sometimes I wanna think. Sometimes I wanna feel sad. Whatever gets the job done, I think, regardless of critical acclaim or quality, is good. Maybe my friends say Ninjago is just "okay". Sure. Whatever.
I like it.
I feel happy when I watch it, and I think my friends understand that. Honestly, the world is full of so much crap that the last thing we want to stress about is our entertainment. I've been facing a fear, a fear than when I finish screening SOG with somebody, a season I adore, they'll look at me and go, "Yumi, you're a little kid who hasn't matured at all. How could you like this edgy kid's show?" And I think today I found the courage to take that sort of response from them today. If there's something I learned from showing my friends episode 1-5 of SOG, it's that you shouldn't care about what others think of the stuff you like and vice versa. Welp, seems my friends don't wanna watch on Thursday. I'll write more when they decide to watch more. If they hate it, so be it. In the best way possible, I couldn't care less. Thus concludes today's Blind Fan story. Sorry if it got a little sentimental.
== 12/09/2020 ==
Time for more Blind Fan Stories.
Yesterday, we watched episodes 5-8 of SOG. It was an interesting experience. The majority of episode 5 was taken up by Programmer Blind Fan realizing how periphery the ninja who weren't Lloyd actually were. "Do something useful, for crying out loud!" There was also some yelling from Gamer Blind Fan when Lloyd put Harumi in the Samurai X mech. "Wouldn't that hurt her more? Like, the thing's wider on the top, if it fell on its head, wouldn't she be crushed? Is Lloyd secretly a dick to people?" Then there was a 5 minute conversation about chemistry and physics when debating Nya's crazy rain-stopping-a-fall strategy where we concluded it was scientifically possible. Gamer Blind Fan, a Biology Student, also commented, "So Mia (He's not good with names), proficient in waterbending... wouldn't that mean she can stop your heart, given the amount of water in blood? Or crush a human body, for that matter? Like, isn't water more than 75% water?"
He paused.
Laughter.
Episode 6 began with an analysis of the situation from Programmer Blind Fan: "So right now, we got two idiots, a dad, two people dating and two robots." "Uh, yup. That's actually pretty apt." It's at this point that I realized Programmer Blind Fan hadn't stopped to remember anyone's name, so he began calling everybody "Green Man", "Blue Man", and "Silver Woman" in Pixal's case. When "Green Man" got ensnared by the vines, Programmer Blind Fan went, "OK, I'm sure Princess Woman's gonna drop the map, right?" Seconds later, "Oh wow, she didn't drop the map... she's competent!" Seconds later, Gamer Blind Fan interjects, "And a slut!" Later on, when the SOG invade the Bounty, Programmer Blind Fan kept remarking about Jay, "Blue man, why you so incompetent? Get it together, Blue man! Get it together! Oh, my word, please put your life together, you're a wreck..." He also remarked of Killow making a bridge using the mask of deception, "Hey, an Earthbender!" "Oh," I remarked, "I didn't know you watched Avatar." "I don't, but I know of the 4 elements... we've got fire, water, wind and air..."
"..."
laughter.
In the beginning of Episode 7, when kid Harumi was playing with the ninja toys, Programmer Blind Fan went, "OK, if she doesn't make the green one win, I'm so calling her out for being inaccurate." The rest of her flashback was lost on her because they didn't know the context so I had to fill them in. They seemed pretty into it when Harumi started to screw Lloyd over in the Oni Temple. Oh, another thing that happened in Episode 6, Programmer Blind Fan remarked during the boat scene, "Wait... is Green Man rowing a motorized boat?!
Uncontrollable laughter.
During the Oni Temple scene, they kept guessing when or if Lloyd would figure out Harumi was the Quiet One. Gamer Blind Fan was surprised when he did. "OH! He has a brain! He has a brain!" No reaction during the Lloyd VS Harumi fight. Like I always say, when there's no reaction either they're really into it or really out of it. Some laughs during the "Where's Lloyd" gag. When the giant Lobster came up, Programmer Blind Fan went, "Woah. This is a kid's show right? If I saw this as a kid, I would have nightmares for weeks!" I sent him a picture of Nimbus.
"OH GOD"
They remarked during Lloyd's ploy to get up onto the bounty, "Woah. Talk about convoluted. And can't White Man make ice on his own?" So even devoid of the knowledge of Airjitzu, yes, that scene is still stupid. During the giant Lobster Fight as well, Programmer Blind Fan kept shouting, "Shoot fire! Do your spinny thing! Don't punch it! There you go... now you're spinning!" Gamer Blind Fan also noticed how the spinijitzu this season seems to resemble balls rather than tornados. "I'm not sure if I like that." When Lloyd used his green power to light up a cave, additionally, Programmer Blind Fan went, "Oh yes. If I could make green fire, I'd have all the ladies. Surely they'd fall for me. Oh yes. I want to make green balls of fire. Green balls." Some input from Gamer Blind Fan after, we've now concluded that Programmer Blind Fan has no genitals but if he didn he'd want them to be green.
"I'll use the lego to pick up all the women."
Episode 8 was by far the episode with the least interaction. See, I find a lot of the younger people in the Ninjago fanbase to be quite edgy, and usually I complain about annoying children I find on Instagram or sometimes even here to them. When Harumi put on her goth makeup and began a cult ritual, Programmer Blind Fan said, "OK, I think I know why you complain about this fandom being made up of edgelords. Makes sense now." They also berated Lloyd. They realized that if he jumped in his cage, he could stop its fall and prevent Misako from being lowered. Afterwards, not much happened. They all started playing Honkai Impact and talking about waifus.
Now typically, I'd see this finish as a loss, but I also think there's a lesson to be had here. I've always felt worried that people would look down on me for liking a kid's show, so when they wanted to know what all the fuss was about, I resolved to showing them the darkest season. (Well actually we all know the darkest season is 6 but that can't be watched without context) Here's what I learned from each of them:
Relapsed Fan: You can be into something but not know how to express why with words. You can like something yet still be embarrassed of liking it. However, just because something is not aimed at your demographic doesn't mean you can't find meaning in it. Different is not always bad.
Alcoholic Blind Fan: Sometimes, the darkest chapter or the most well executed isn't the best. Who cares if the situation is dire if you don't care about the characters? Sometimes, people can find more enjoyment in the corny and the cringy than in the well made and the serious, and that's pretty cool in and of itself.
Programmer Blind Fan: When a show is written well, people can warm up to it. Arguments made through a near decade from a fandom can be picked up in a couple minutes by an attentive viewer. Sometimes to enjoy a show better, laugh at it. Ask why Redman uses a sub when the rest of the ninja can swim only to be told that he has a fear of water. Criticize Greenman for rowing a motorboat. Engage with media in a way it wasn't designed to be engaged with as long as you derive enjoyment from it.
Gamer Blind Fan: Today I sent out an honest query: "Do you honestly enjoy what Ninjago you've seen?" He gave me an honest answer: "I'm more concerned with playing League, but it's honestly fun. I enjoy it. It's good to put it on the side." Try new things. Watch what your friends like to understand them.
Writer Blind Fan: Sometimes, a show may be rendered in a style you don't like, but you can still find merit in it. Sometimes, you may be good friends with somebody who doesn't share your taste in shows at all. Try not to let it diminish your friendship.
As for me, I learned something during this as well.
During episode 8, my friends wandered off to talk about other things. When I began, I had two goals: 1) I wanted to grow the fanbase by adding to its numbers. The Ninjago fanbase is shrinking. My brother told me his schoolmate of 11 years of age said Ninjago is boring to the new generation. I'm worried. I see a thing I loved as a child slowly loose traction. I wanted to counter-act that. 2) I wanted to show my friends I like something unconventional but cool. I wanted in part to be validated. (With Relapsed Fan, I also wanted to re-engage with him and do an activity we used to do all the time as kids. I wanted to relive a bit of that childhood wonder.)
Here are the results.
No new fans were added instrumentally. I didn't think anybody I showed the show to will consume further Ninjago media. I don't think they'll buy a set and add to Lego's numbers. None of what I did will contribute a single dollar to Lego or raise the ratings of an episode when it airs, but I feel like I showed the show's enjoyment to somebody in a way.
Secondly, I wanted to be validated. I was not. People drifted off, discussed other things and lost focus. I thought this would be more crushing than it turned out being, actually. To be honest, I see that we have different interests. Because I succeeded in the first goal, somewhat partially, I feel like I don't need to do so well in the second, but even if I didn't, I feel like that doesn't matter. For example, I don't have the time to devote myself to a game like League like my friends to. I feel like we're all so busy, we should just enjoy whatever the hell we wish and not care about what anybody thinks of us. Like, so what if my friends don't wanna watch more Ninjago? (Although at least one said he does.) They have their interest and I have mine. If I forced them to, said, "It gets SUPER GOOD in season 9! Watch it, watch it!" I'm no longer showing them entertainment. It's important to note that yesterday, I didn't arrange the watch party, they did. If you're watching something against your will, what's the value of entertainment in that? Just enjoy whatever you wish.
[Eugene]: "League is poo doo"
Thirdly, no, I don't think I relived any of that childhood magic. Sometimes I wonder what I'd sacrifice to live in 2012 again. I'd go to grade school and Relapsed Fan would just be Fan. Fan would run up to me and go, "Guess what? Did you know? Samurai X is Nya!" And I'd say again, "I told you! Look at the eyebrows of the minifigure! I have it here, let's play one round of spinners before class!" He'd say, "Here comes the dummy!" and I'd laugh. I really want to. Perhaps I'm being a greedly little capitalist, but this, yes, this TV commercial, I said it, was a really big part of my childhood. I thought I could recapture some of that magic of watching Pirates VS Ninja or Wrong Place Wrong Time on a couch in front of a boxy TV with Relapsed Fan by watching The Mast of Deception all the way to Endings over Discord. Well, I could not. It was not that feeling. Is Ninjago dying? Probably. I'll never go back to a time when I can be with Fan. He's Relapsed Fan now, and soon he'll just be Relapsed. However, I think I felt a different feeling. It's not a feeling I've felt before. I suppose like the show, my feelings towards watching it have changed too. It's then that I realized, 8 years from now, I'll probably say to myself, "Ah, I wish I could call up Relapsed Fan and watch the Oni Trilogy and be a little cynical about it like we used to. I'd be salty about MOTO and he'd laugh... but distance and time have done us apart. Oh, to be young again," or something like that. It is in that moment that I realized that I shouldn't be chasing old feelings, but new ones. I realized I had always grown up and as I grew, I've interacted with this show differently. When I was 6 I played the flash games. When I was 12 I made edgy fan animations. Now I'm a little older and I'm working on a 45 minute retrospective. The way you engage with media always changes. Ultimately, I learned to stop chasing old feelings and make new ones.
Spoken like a real Ko Matoran.
This concludes today's Blind Fan Stories. Will we watch more? Hard to say. Do I care? A week ago, I would have said yes. Now, I say, "Not at all!" in the best possible light. (Besides, episode 8 is a good point to leave off on. Plus, I've watched this season like 3 times in 12 days, I really need a break. I think I'll cross something off my bucket list and watch FMA 2003 or something.)
Even so, moral of the story: There's actually a positive way to say "Who the heck cares about Ninjago" and make it a positive thing and I somehow learned to say it....
I'm tripping
ugh
I must be loosing my mind to type such a thing.
== Trivia ==
* Oh hey, this is the 111th page on the wiki!
* These are allegedly the same people who gave rise to "Costume Cole" and "Purple Snake", unsurprisingly, explaining their appearance on Yumi's profile picture.
* It was later confirmed by Angry that Cole did not use his elemental powers because vengestone affects those with powers by means of proximity, not touch.
* It was later confirmed by Gry and Eugene that Lloyd was not in fact steering the motorboat but instead simply checking the water for depth with a stick.