i'm only here for clay

Not an unexpected way to start one of my posts, I know. BUT! I was checking Nexo Knights on Tubi just some minutes ago and I realized something... odd. Like the cool kind of odd. Now – I don’t know if there’s a post about this already. I feel like there probably is, I haven’t checked the Nexo Knights tag in months (i’m saving posts for later, hehe), but this seemed too cool to not make a post about it.

Anyway! Yes, I was checking the season 4 episodes when I noticed something strange about one of the episodes: namely – pun intended – episode 8, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, or as the site likes to call it, “Iron Grip.”

Warning – lots of text ahead!

𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭’𝓿𝓮 𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓷 𝓝𝓮𝔁𝓸 𝓚𝓷𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼

If Merlok and the Wizards’ Council hadn’t petrified every villain they defeated

If Merlok had destroyed the Monstrox books

If Merlok had kept the Ruina statue somewhere safe

If Merlok had told Clay about his magic

If that robber hadn’t attempted to steal Sir Griffiths’ sword

If Aaron hadn’t attempted to ride that rocket

If King Halbert hadn’t misprized Roberto’s statue of the queen

If people had laughed at Jestro’s jokes

If Jestro hadn’t taken that power mace

If Jestro had let Clay talk to him

If Clay hadn’t brought the Book of Betrayal to Monstrox

If King Halbert had let Jestro apologize with cards

If Clay hadn’t stood on that statue

If Jestro hadn’t shot Clay while he was standing on that statue

If Macy hadn’t misplaced her good battle hammer

If the knights hadn’t put Clay on top of the Fortrex

If Clay hadn’t gone on that mission to the villains’ base

If Clay hadn’t heard the other knights talking badly about him

If the Tighty Knighties hadn’t fallen down that hole

If squirebots hadn’t been invented

And my favorite:

I rewatched this scene because I like torturing myself and made two little gifs of the parts that hurt me the most from it – the deep regret on Merlok’s face after Macy asks if he never told Clay about his mother, then him crying as he apologizes to Clay

You know, even as an important part of the main cast, Merlok stays as a pretty comedic character throughout the show... which makes moments like this, at least to me, hit a lot harder. You just learned that he lost his sister to dark magic and is losing his nephew too, and you can tell he feels guilty for not having been able to save them. It breaks my heart

(also a little detail I noticed from this scene: Ava shaking her head at the clueless knights as she prepares Merlok’s digitized memories for his story. It’s funny to think that, as the one in charge of rebuilding his memory every time it gets blasted, she most likely knew about this before everyone else did)

And that’s how Jestro became a knight (part 2 of my previous comic)

Ok, hear me out. What if – what if

Merlok didn’t keep the books just because he thought he could understand evil like it’s said in the season 2 finale. Because, honestly, he had more than enough reasons to want Monstrox gone for good. He discovered Forbidden Powers, sought to destroy the kingdom with his monsters, turned Merlok’s little sister evil. So why didn’t he destroy him when he had the chance?

I was questoning the logic behind this decision when I realized: that’s exactly why he didn’t. Montrox had done something to Wanda, and Merlok knew he was the only one who could revert it. He held precious information for Merlok, and so he couldn’t risk to destroy him, whether he liked it or not. So instead he turned him into a book, in hopes that that way he would be able to find the knowledge he needed to help his sister.

them

The knights go back home after the big party... part 1, because this one ended up long and i decided to split it in 2

yeah, ok. that hurt yeah

I made a Nexo Knights tier list!

There was another one on tiermaker already, but I wanted to make one that included all the characters (or at least the ones that I think are a little relevant... and have names). I didn’t include all of them on my list, but if you go to the template you’ll find more characters. There’s pics for different forms of characters too (like gray knight Clay and book Monstrox), and pics that are for species(?) in general (like squirebots or gargoyles)

It was hard categorizing these characters based on how much I like them! Mostly because I love them all, but also because I’m not sure how I feel about some of them (Monstrox is the tier he is because it’s true but also kind of as a joke – if I was a little more serious I think he would go on the “very good and fun” tier, same thing for Aaron)

I wanna point some very small (but still nice) clance moments from Rotten Luck... complete with some gifs I just made :)

Lance being the first to run to catch Clay as soon as he sees him falling

Clay leaning on him afterwards

Lance staying close to him and being ready to help him if he needs it

Also not from the same scene, but:

Lance being the one who worries(?) about him when they have to go fight the bad guys