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Imagine a world completely parallel to our own. One carefully hidden from the world. One of countless wonders and curiosities; one of endless dangers. That’s right, magic exists, and so do all the strange and fantastical creatures that come with it.

So what happens when you are suddenly thrust in this magical world, one that desperately wants to stay hidden?

That’s what one James “Jim” Lake Jr. is about to find out. Cursed into a shapeshifting half-troll by a magical amulet in a dare-gone-wrong, and forced to leave his old life behind after an incident at school, he moves into the Greenwood Academy for Spectacularly Gifed Children, a boarding school somewhere in Washington State, where he has to adjust to his newfound instincts and abilities surrounded by students of the. . . supernatural variety.

Luckily for him, he’s not alone, and with friends old and new he’ll find his place as the his world’s newest protector, whether he wants to or not. This curse may not have been planned, but now he has the chance to rise to a higher destiny.

This post reminded me of this. I love characters who have been through LITERAL HELL, and still come out of it being good.Maybe not nice, or social, or even morally sound, but still KIND. Because that’s who they are. That’s what’s at their core. And nothing and no one can shake that part of themselves. The kind of people who are real heroes.

They are deeply traumatized, and they’ve been in survival mode for as long as they can remember. There is nothing else for them besides this. Besides doing whatever it takes to survive. Everyone looks at them like they are crazy or cruel; that they have no heart. But that’s just because they’ve had to shut off the kinds of emotions that will get them hurt, like panic, and fear, and irrational anger.

They had to think logically, ruthlessly, to get out of situations no one else could dream of. Everyone else thinks they’re a freak because NORMAL people don’t act like that; unfortunately, their life has been anything but normal.

This gets them outcasted—makes them a pariah—and this only spirals into a terrible self image that there is seriously something wrong with them, and that they can’t be loved, despite only acting in the way anyone would in their situation. (Or even a bit better because they’ve managed to keep it together for so long).

They’ve spent so much time hearing all this from the people around them, that they’ve started to believe it themselves. That they are a freak; a monster; that they don’t belong and never will; despite the fact that it’s not at all true. They’ve sort of conformed to that idea of themselves, as it’s the only way they’ve ever “fit in” -to the framework society always feels like enforcing. They are truly jaded, but they are also compassionate, and stubborn, and so unbelievably kind beneath the cold exterior they’ve created to protect themselves from the world.

They may be broken from these experiences, but that little bit of kindness, that little bit of hope they’ve clung onto, is all they need to build themselves up again.

Because no matter what life throws at them, they always stand back up; they always stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. Because they UNDERSTAND what it feels like to have their backs against the wall and no one else to turn to.

And as long as they are around they will NEVER let anyone else experience what they did. Even if they seem cold at first. Even if they are called a monster. They will always keep fighting to protect what they care for. They will make the hard decisions no one else will, the same ones they’d had to make on their own, to spare them the same fate.

And yet…

My other favorite trope is that one person who does see through them. The one that sees through the cold exterior to see the kindness and warmth underneath. Who, once they see it, wants to stick by it like a hearth. Who finally realizes that this idea of the person standing next to them is completely wrong, and sets out to make it EVERYONE’S problem that they were wrong too.

There will always be a catalyst to the story; the thing that brings the MC into the spotlight; and in this case it might just be something so extraordinary that the outcast’s talents are finally put on display; that all these years of survival gave them valuable skills that help their kindness shine through and make everyone around them “stop and take notice.”

As for them and that one person: it doesn’t matter how they started out, whatever awful experience brought them together completely flipped the script. They are now best friends, even if the so-called “monster” doesn’t acknowledge that or want to admit it (“Who’d ever want to be friends with me?”), until they realize that it is the single most important part of themselves now, and they are NEVER letting it go (unless their stupid, selfless friend thinks it’s better to let them go—its not).

This person (B) realizes that their deeply troubled friend (A) is both exceptionally helpful and completely hypocritical (not in a bad way). A draws on their past experiences to give B beneficial advice, that they, themselves didn’t believe they could use because they have the self esteem of a wet paper towel. Now B is running around trying to get them to use their own advice and forgive themselves for their past—even if it means being obnoxiously supportive and practically showering A with positive feedback—while A is completely confused by this reaction which has never happened to them before (except for very, very few occasions).

Just the idea of someone who suffered so hard getting all the love and support they need makes my heart swell up in joy. It doesn’t even have to be fluffy (I do love angst) but I just love it when a character like that gets to finally breathe because now they have someone to help carry that weight.

Final notes:

I’m sorry for the rambling rant, and I hope this makes sense to you, but the psychological impact of this is so fun to explore (+angst) and the payoff is always worth it. In fact, the reason I’ve thought about these two posts so much is because it reminded me a lot of my OC and her BFF/partner (in crime).

(Her personality is a lot like “We are in a terrible situation, we’re probably going to die , but GODD*MIT we are GETTING OUT OF HERE TOGETHER, even if I have to drag you by the ankles.” It’s like reckless determination and cold blooded logic wrapped up in one very traumatized bean, but she won’t give up until her lungs give out—and I’ve put her in enough situations where even that couldn’t stop her.)

Person B: "No, no, it's fine. There's a charm to it."

Person A: "...you're laughing at me."

Person B: "I'm endeared."

Person A: "By my awkwardness?"

Fr talk rn, does Lloyd have hobbies?

I’m sitting here rn thinking about we barely see him actually express any actual hobbies or interests outside of being a ninja?

Clearly this guy has shitty mental health (evident from the newest dragons rising season) and probably ties a lot of his self worth to being a ninja.

So- what is he going to do when he can’t be one anymore? Realistically- most elite gymnasts and such retire mid to late twenties depending on how intense their training is, and assuming all the ninja are late teens early twenties he only has like- what? 5, 8 years if he’s lucky? Maybe less depending on the injuries he’s gotten in battles?

And the last time he quit being a ninja he was a window cleaner, so clearly he doesn’t have proper education or other major job experience outside of being a ninja- DOES HE GET PAID?? Nope prolly not. He essentially has no backup plan or safety net financially speaking!

Bros a child soldier who’s gonna find he has nothing going for him except the one thing that essentially took away his childhood and gave him a waterparks worth of trauma-

This kinda goes for most of the ninja BUT I would argue they all have a little something they can fall back into once their bodies can’t keep up with the physical toll anymore. Not saying they wouldn’t help Lloyd out but still I think it’s interesting-

I mean Lloyd is a Sensi now but I would say thats ninja adjacent- not an actual external interest outside of what he currently does, I stg he’s gonna have a whole personality crisis when he’s forced to stop.

On another note, you bring up a good point about Lloyd rising up to a manger’s position. Maybe Skylor would hire him—she’s probably busy running a noodle empire and needs the help—because they seem close after Hunted and during Crystalized.

But, yeah, speaking of Hunted, that one scene where he shows up to beat up the SoG despite the dangers of being caught just goes to show that even if he wasn’t a ninja or didn’t have his powers, he would still help people. That’s just who he is.

Either way, as @master-jarrus points out in another reblog, he has at least taken up plant keeping, even if it has to do with Monastery upkeep. I like to imagine it has to do a little bit with Christofern and his issues with Garmadon post-Hunted.

Like, he tries to reflect on those feelings pre- or post- merge and decides to take up gardening to figure out how it changed his father so much. Only for him to realize that he actually liked it, and that it helped calm him down.

Considering his isolation, for at least a few weeks, from the Ninja, and even after Kai left and before he met Arin, maybe Lloyd decided to cling onto his only hobby to stave off the loneliness. That’s why he was so adamant about doing all of the chores in the Monastery before he realized that he had way too many responsibilities—training the new Ninja, dealing with Beatrix, the Dragon Cores, and the Merge, etc.—and letting Mr. Frohicky take on the load.

(Honestly, how in the world did *Wu* keep up with the Monastery. Maybe he just had the Ninja more involved with the upkeep, and they never noticed until they weren’t home enough, or had enough time, to actually do the chores in the Monastery.

Actually—scratch that—we do know that they had chores to do in the earlier seasons even on the Destiny’s Bounty, and that they sometimes passed stuff onto Lil Lloyd. Poor Lloyd shouldering all that responsibility when even Wu made it a team effort and they lived there permanently. Plus, Wu didn’t even *go* on Ninja missions most of the time, so he had much more free time.)

(Final side note, did anyone notice Nya’s side eye when Lloyd said that Wu kept them all together when he wasn’t there most of the time and it was usually Lloyd keeping the team together unless he was going through something life-shattering—Morro’s possession, Harumi’s betrayal and Garmadon’s resurrection “killing” his team, and Nya’s “death” in Seabound because they had genuinely thought she had died.)