Why Do I Love Cartoons?

Because it actually drives me nuts that they don’t properly consider the fact that they established that ghosts (Cole) can’t touch water during Skybound. (Like I know they wanted Zane to be alone but it’s literally storming and Cole can be above deck but Zane can’t? There’s a freaking water tornado right there. And then their stupid ship crashes in the middle of the ocean and they all wake up on an island and Cole is there? He would have gone the way of Morro, no way he didn’t touch water.)

So why not play into that a little more? Send Cole and Zane down together. That makes the ninja seem less stupid for knowingly doing something that has lead to people vanishing in the past. They both should have to be below deck anyway.

Once Cole and Zane are below deck together, and something happens where a little water starts leaking into the room they’re both in. It’s not urgent or anything, but Zane walks over a puddle of water and goes to find a way to plug it/ clean up the spill while leaving Cole to just sort of sit on a piece of furniture to stay away from the water on the floor. This sets up a problem that isn’t the result of Nadakhan’s doing.

(Bonus: Have Zane and the audience both clearly interpret this as Cole being left alone. Zane can give Cole some sort of advice like “Don’t talk to Nadakhan, he can’t hurt you if you don’t talk to him.” Before he leaves. Then it’s more subversive when Nadakhan approaches Zane, and it becomes obvious that Zane is going to be his next target.)

Once Zane is alone in some sort of supply closet below deck (it’s a cartoon, don’t worry about logistics too much), and Nadakhan approaches him, Zane can make his first two wishes. There’s still the element of Zane’s hubris that’s present, he thinks he can outsmart the djinn. PIXAL can warn him not do it and he can say “Not now, PIXAL,” but Natakan isn’t going to kill her because he CANNOT do that.

Something in the wording of his first wish needs to change slightly, and it should be phrased more as “You must understand and carry out the exact meaning of the words as I intended them.” This will come back later, but is essentially a slight nerfing of the original wish. Nadakhan doesn’t follow that wish anyway, though, and if you’re going to do that at least make Zane’s wish wording a little less airtight.

The second wish can remain largely the same. The wording should change slightly, so it’s more about ANYTHING bad happening to Zane instead of just specifically Nadakhan doing harm to Zane. Basically, he should say, “I wish any harm that comes to me is done to you tenfold.”

(Now, in the original show, it is established that putting Nadakhan in the teapot counted as “hurting” him. So it seems like putting Zane in the sword would be exactly the same thing? So…what happened to tenfold harm to Nadakhan? Idk, this wish is just a stupid plot hole that exists in the show that I’m not going to bother fixing. The best argument I can come up with might have to do with even tenfold the amount of power it took to contain Zane wouldn’t have affected Nadakhan? That’s all I got. I don’t care to come up with an alternate second wish, and that would make this post even longer and it’s too long already.) (He does have to say “I wish” though. In the original scene, Zane doesn’t say “I wish” for his second wish, he says “It is imperative” which is NOT the same thing. That pmo.)

While this is happening, you COULD intersperse shots of the situation both above and below deck getting more and more dire. The storm is intensifying, they’re struggling not to capsize, water is really starting to leak in to the area below deck. You could also put the audience in Zane’s shoes a little more by not showing those things, demonstrating that he’s sort of forgotten about his original situation.

When Zane’s about to make his third wish, some sort of commotion happens, something hits the ship maybe? And Zane can hear Cole calling for help or just sort of screaming. So before he makes his final wish, Zane remembers what he was originally supposed to be doing and runs off to go help him. He can find a fairly dire situation, the only exit to the room is blocked by some sort of water spout thing, with more leaks sprouting up everywhere. The rocking of the ship is jostling him around and he’s fighting for his life trying to stay dry and on dry surfaces. The floor to the entirety of the below deck area is covered in a few inches of water. Not only is Cole actively fucked, there’s clearly some sort of fatal damage to the ship, and ultimately everyone aboard is about to go down.

(Now, here’s where I admit the major problem in this one. Zane’s got ice powers, he can just plug the hole. Uhhhhh idk. The easiest thing to do is just make it clear that he’s not thinking super clearly (Mr Logic over here) and is clearly Nadakhan-brained atm. He doesn’t think about the fact that there are alternate solutions, bc Natakan is telling him he only has two choices, and he’s too frantic to not believe him. I think that would be a satisfactory, if not super satisfying, explanation. You could also try and make a case for him not being able to use his powers in this situation for whatever reason, though that might be tricky)

Speaking of, Nadakhan can reveal himself again, this time in front of Cole (remember, you don’t have to be alone to make wishes. We see in the final episodes that that’s true. Nadakhan just seems like he prefers people to be.) He can tell Zane basically “uh oh, this looks bad. You know how to fix this… wish it all to go away.”

Nadakhan doesn’t need to do anything but talk to Zane about the third wish. All he needs to tell Zane is that if he does successfully trap Nadakhan with his third wish, no one will be able to get to Cole in time without his magic. (This doesn’t even have to be true, Nadakhan is allowed to lie.) Zane can try saying he made a wish that “any harm must be done to you” and Nadakhan can remind him “Nuh uh, you said any harm that came to YOU would be done to me. Should have thought of that one you stupid idiot.” So Zane’s really stuck.

Now Zane’s literally standing between Natakan, who is convincing him to use his wish, and Cole, who would probably be trying to convince him not to use magic while actively fighting for his (after)life. That essentially places the same choice on Zane as in the original show, save the life of someone you care about or trap Nadakhan? And he can make the same choice he did in the show. Zane, super panicked and not thinking logically, chooses to save Cole by blurting out “I wish it would all go away!”

Nadakhan does his little, “your wish is yours to keep,” the storm clears, and Zane goes into the sword.

In this case, if the wording of Zane’s first wish is about carrying out his intended meaning, Nadakhan can argue that he did. Zane was clear that he wanted the exact meaning of his words to be understood as intended in the carrying out of the wish. He did NOT say that ONLY what he intended could be incorporated into the wish. If the storm clears and Cole is okay, that is what Zane meant, and the grounds of the first wish are met. Him getting put in the sword is just a little bonus that Nadakhan threw in there, which technically doesn’t go against the wording of the first wish. Yes, it’s sort of cheap, but all of the wishes in Skybound are like this, and I think it’s a lot more about wits and wording than the way it actually was written in the show.

Then they can end up on the island, clear skies, Cole’s fine. That should be how everyone else realizes that Zane used his wishes, the rain and lightning just magically disappeared. Put some corny dialogue in there (“The storm passed? It’s a miracle!” And Cole can be like “Not a miracle—magic. Wish magic…”) and call it a day. He can be a little sad if he wants to.

In this situation, we do lose the chess match set up. I do actually think the chess match is neat, but I don’t think it’s necessary. IMO, the scene is improved more by Zane’s actions making sense and Nadakhan staying within the rules than it is by the presence of the chess motif.

My set-up also makes Zane’s wording of “I wish it would all go away!” Make a teeny bit more sense. Wishing that a storm/water leak that is about to kill your friend and crash your boat would “go away” at least means something. I think this version makes a lot more sense than how it’s used in the show. (What is he wishing away there? The absence of PIXAL? It would make more sense for him to say like “I wish I had her back” or whatever.)