Creative Corner

I panted, desperately trying to evade the tongues of flame licking at my feet. The smoke clogged my lungs, and I coughed, stumbling blindly through the clouds of thick, toxic smoke. The scent of burning flesh invaded my nostrils, and flaming pieces of the factory collapsed around me. I whirled, looking for a way out-- but there was nothing. My death seemed inevitable, and tears poured down my cheeks, carving tracks through the layers of soot and ash coating my face. I collapsed. Velvet darkness pressed against my eyes, and I welcomed the blissful quiet, slipping into painless unconsciousness. I felt the end looming, ominous in the otherwise calm dark behind my eyelids. The smoke settled in my throat, and I fell into oblivion. A shaft of light pierced the healing dark, and I winced. I felt strong hands lifting me up, up into the never-ending light.

She whirled across the room, her audience quiet as they watched. Flipping her hair, she smiled knowingly at the awestruck audience in the restaurant. The smell of lamb and exotic spices filled the lavishly decorated room, and people held out money, waiting for the dancer to come to them. Twisting and dipping, she made her way around, pausing to offer one lucky person a special performance. The waiters darted around, eager to stay out of her way--and out of the spotlight. After the performance ended, the room burst into rapturous applause, and no one noticed as a regular woman left the restaurant, her long coat barely covering up the brightly covered dancer’s costume beneath.

My Dearest Scrollians,

This is, in fact, the most worthless piece I have ever submitted to this godforsaken column. Please bear with me through these unprecedented times. I present to you, an in-depth comparison of LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Disclaimer: I am going off of what I vaguely remember from my most recent viewing of Ninjago, which was in fifth grade, so pardon my inaccuracies and ignorance of anything following season five.

(Fun fact to set the tone: Since Adventure Time came to an end in 2018, Ninjago was named the longest running current show on Cartoon Network, since it first aired in 2011 and is still airing to this day. Does this matter? No, but I dislike this information and therefore feel the need to force it upon my readers.)

First of all, the characters have a ton of similarities, mostly in the roles they play for the team and the dynamic of the team as a whole. Take Lloyd, for instance: he is a classic example of what I call the “Zuko arc.” I use this term to refer to a character brought up on the wrong side of an issue who plays a villain for much of the story, but sees the wrong in their ways and has a redemption arc that leads to them joining the good guys and becoming a core member of the main crew. Some other examples of this character type are Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Amity from The Owl House, and Spinel from Steven Universe Future. (I actually categorize Amity and Catra in a subgenre of this archetype, where they convert due to romantic feelings for the protagonist, but that’s not the point.) Lloyd, son of Lord Garmadon, starts as an annoying little child whose mischief leads to the freedom of a long-forgotten race of snake people that try to take over the world. He is soon taken in by the main crew and he discovers his potential as a ninja, causing him to convert to the good guys. This mirrors Zuko’s backstory, son of Firelord Ozai, who initially wreaks havoc across the world to kidnap the Avatar in his father’s name, but decides to follow his own path and ends up becoming a member of Team Avatar instead. They both have dysfunctional relationships with their fathers, no present mother figure, and a close relationship with an elderly uncle, who serves as a mentor. I could go on about the similarities with just those two characters for a while, but I’ll show mercy and move on here.

Some other characters with uncanny similarities are Jay and Sokka, an underrated blue-clad comic relief character, and their significant others, Nya and Suki, girlbosses that carry their own weight without having any kind of “superpower”. (Apparently Nya gets superpowers in later seasons? I’ve decided to ignore it because I don’t remember it.) There’s also the sibling dynamic of Kai and Nya, an overprotective older brother that underestimates his younger sister's ability, which mirrors Sokka and Katara’s relationship and role in the rest of the group. Sensei Wu is a glaring twin to Uncle Iroh, both of which being wise elderly mentors with misguided nephews under their wings and brothers to the main villain. Cole could be compared to Toph, who runs away from home to live for herself instead of her parents. Pythor and the snakes could be placed alongside Azula and General Zhou, being villains who work for our “Zuko” character with ulterior motives, and ultimately turn against him. The similarities between the characters from these shows run deep, but that’s not all.

Plot wise, there are also some similarities worth addressing. The most obvious one is the theme of the four elements (even though the elements they choose to represent are slightly different). They also both have one legendary and mysterious character with a power greater than the rest. Furthermore, the first few episodes show our main Ninjago crew living and training in a monastery. Funnily enough, Aang also began training in a monastery with fellow airbenders as a child. Both monasteries are burned down by their antagonists, leaving Aang and our main Ninjago crew homeless.

What do these similarities mean? Probably nothing. I just think it’s funny. I’m obviously not accusing Ninjago of copying A:TLA or anything, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they drew inspiration from A:TLA. Another fair explanation could be that A:TLA is just a generally influential show on cartoon history, and created some popular archetypes that happened to make their way into Ninjago, without intentionally being A:TLA references. Either way, it’s still funny to me and I will probably continue to harass my friends with my abundance of knowledge on the topic. This is Liv, mentally exhausted, signing off.