Rewatching Ninjago from beginning to end right now and one thing that I realised while watching, is that Lloyd is insanely good at escaping prison - like he is extremely good at this and I can't believe I haven't noticed sooner.
He is also surprisingly bad at being a well-behaved inmate and he has absolutely no problem with making promises he does not intend on keeping, especially when he is making them to the prison wardens. The Ninja ended up in Kryptarium Prison two times in total throughout the entire series - once in season 6 and once in Crystalized and BOTH of these times Lloyd, very specifically:
- has immediately gotten into a fight with another prisoner,
- has sworn to not cause any trouble or try escaping to someone in charge of keeping him there...
- ...and has caused trouble and/or tried escaping not long after.
Twice now, this exact scenario has played out so similarly, that it's striking.
In season 6 my boy has immediately assured the Warden that he will in fact not be causing trouble like a liar he is.
Then, when the Mechanic started picking on him he promptly escalated the conflict by talking back to him
And then he conducted an entire SUCCESSFUL prison escape of 7 people in total, one which included finding and freeing a prisoner trapped in a different cell, disabling prison cameras, conducting multiple emergency plans to slow the possible chase party in case they are noticed and somehow predicting the most likely route to the prison's sewer system.
Also, I'll have you know that this little shit has smuggled a fork to his cell after a fight in the cafeteria and managed to lockpick this vengestone handcuffs with it, to complete astonishment of all the other Ninja.
The devious little smirk, look at him
Like, clearly he learned a thing or two from Darkley's despite the teachers claiming that he was rather bad at villainy. No way he wasn't getting straight A's on prison escape excercises.
I am even more convinced after going a little foreward and seeing him found in the exact same scenario in Crystalized, I am not even joking, how similar the pattern is.
We've got, again, in very quick succession:
Lloyd arguing with another prisoner, this time with Ronin, just about ready to square up with him then and there
...then mere seconds after they are broken up he ends up promising to the warden that he won't cause any trouble
And then literally not a minute passes before he is conducting a one-person spontagneous prison escape stopped not even because he got cornered, but because in that case escaping wasn't really a goal. In this very much impriovised stunt, Lloyd has managed to seamlessly steal an access card from the prison guard, slow the chase down by destroying the access panels as he went to avoid immediate capture, get free from a dozen of officers pilling up on top of him and jump down the staircase all the way to the first floor without injury.
Also, just saying, didn't even break a sweat. Perfect complexion, perfect hair, getting cuffed down like a true diva.
It's just...Lloyd is a sweetheart. He is soft and forgiving and gentle and kind.
And he is also the son of a warlord who spent most of his childhood wanting to be a villain. He went to a school that was meant to raise him to be one. And I really like the subtle ways the show explores that side of him, that side that Lloyd himself probably rarely even thinks back to nowadays, but one that did stay with him despite it all in some way. It's the little things. The way he isn't afraid to talk back to thugs, they way he plays dirty during battle or plays little tricks on the enemy he's fighting
...or the way he acts in prison.
Little things that I like about his character and that I think the show handled very well.
Also this makes me think that the Ninja never take him with them to escape rooms, because he either always finds some weird inconventional way to cheat the whole game, or just solves the whole thing in five minutes flat and it's no fun for the others. Either he is blasting through the puzzles like he is possessed or he is in the middle of digging himself out with a spoon.
