Okay, I just thought of something interesting for my Ninjago Reimagining!(Spoilers for my rewrite!)
I don't know if you guys know, but I see Overlord as one of the most boring and uninteresting villains in Ninjago. Therefore, I'm making a point of changing a lot about him in my rewrite. And that includes his origins, who he is, and his presence in the story.
So, I made him an Oni. When the FSM crossed over from the first realm to Ninjago, he followed him with his army and hunted him down, resulting in the war between light and darkness that split Ninjago in two. At the end of the battle, the FSM separated the Overlord into two, a weak physical form and his powers now sealed in crystal.
He was then imprisoned on the dark island for hundreds of years. That is until Garmadon arrives on the island, and sensing that he was the son of the FSM, he manipulated him into embracing his Oni side and abandoning his human side.
Lloyd and the ninjas found a way to purify Garmadon of the devourer's poison and reverse Garmadon's corruption, but the Overlord, who by this point had taken the identity of Akumu, Wearing a Kabuki mask, he was able to escape the island. Now he wanders, searching for the crystal that contains his power.
He eventually finds the crystal but is unable to break it, discovering that not only does he need the golden weapons, which were destroyed, but he also needs negativity to sustain himself. It feeds on negativity (I don't care if this isn't part of the original lore, I'm making it up anyway!), but Ninjago doesn't have enough negativity.
He is also alone, so he would need support in his mission. He would have a presence throughout the story, becoming involved in various events each season. He was the one who found Pythor and the Mechanic, who hacked Borg Industries and the robots of Ninjago City, with Akumu manipulating Cryptor to become more powerful and destroy the city and the humans.
When Zane sacrifices himself and defeats Cryptor, he disappears once more, having completed part of his plan. He and the mechanic are going to Chen's Island, taking Zane and Pixal with them. And during the events of the season, he begins to convince Cluse to work for him instead of Chen.
He doesn't have much presence in season 5 besides a few brief mentions, with only ninjas still searching for him (nobody yet knows he's the Overlord). Eventually, he finds Nadakan's lamp and convinces him to help him create his new Jinnjago and take his revenge on the ninja and Jay.
When Nadakan is defeated and loses his powers, he is imprisoned for their crimes. Akumu sees this as an inconvenience, but believes he will have many other chances again in the future.
In season 7 he doesn't get involved with the time twins but watches from the sidelines.
In the Oni trilogy, he ends up finding Harumi and convincing her to enter The sons of Garmadon, manipulating her already troubled mind. He takes on the role of leader, and she becomes one of his generals. She joins with the promise that her parents will be avenged, that Lloyd was guilty because he was the one who released the snakes.
Eventually, she and Echo/Mr. E betray him, and The sons of Garmadon are defeated. But now he possessed the Oni masks, and he used them to bring back three weakened Oni from his time. This brings us to the march of the Oni, where he brings back these three Oni who cause chaos in Ninjago, resulting in the Ninja having to recreate the golden weapons with Lloyd's help to defeat them.
And that was Akumo's plan. To use the return of three Oni so that the golden weapons would be imbued with the elemental powers of the creature, even if it meant sacrificing three of his own kind. Now he was one step ahead in his final plan. He had enough negativity and chaos, and now the golden weapons were back. The problem was finding someone to hold them.
He then begins a bigger plan. He sends all of his generals (villains from past seasons who joined him) to go after four elemental artifacts. This results in Aspheera's release, Nadakan's release and Cryptor's return, and the introduction of King Vangellis.
They even tried to invite Kalmar to his council, but he refused. In the end, they now had enough villains for his final plan. The elemental artifacts weren't entirely necessary for his plan to free himself, but he wanted to destroy them to prevent his plan from being ruined.
And eventually, now, after Nya's sacrifice, everything was going perfectly well. All they needed was someone to bring him the golden weapons. In my rewrite, the golden weapons can only be touched by those connected to the elemental powers of creation, aka, the ninjas and the FSM family.
So, with the help of one of the council leaders (an OC I created specifically for this reimagining), she manipulates Kai into bringing the golden weapons to the council with the promise of helping bring Nya back.
Shortly after the ninjas bring Nya back using the artifacts, the ninjas are taken to prison, but Kai receives help from the council and, together with Lloyd, they try to return to the monastery to retrieve the weapons.
After retrieving the golden weapons, they go to the Oni temple where Kai says it will be "safe," but Lloyd discovers that Kai was with the council and is imprisoned. Kai gives the golden weapons and asks for Lloyd's release, but Akumu informs him of a change of plans, as Lloyd was reaching an age where his Oni side began to grow. And he wanted to take advantage of that.
Kai tries to stop him and free Lloyd, but it's too late. Akumu uses the golden weapons to destroy the protection sealing his powers and absorbs them, returning to his original form as Overlord. The king of the Oni.
The Overlord corrupts the golden weapons and gives each one to a different villain. (Aspheera receives the fire katana, Vangellis the earthquake scythe, Nadakan the lightning nunchucks, and Cryptor the ice shurikens). And now they can use the crystallized golden weapons.
They all attack Kai and Lloyd, who begin to escape, with Kai having to sacrifice himself to save Lloyd. He is then taken to the Overlord and corrupted into a crystal zombie.
Thus the crystallized war begins. His motivations? He wants to destroy the FSM's creation, seeing everything he has created as pathetic and disgusting. He sees his creation as an insult to the Oni race, whose chaos, fear, and destruction they feed on. That is why dragons, creatures of creation, are their natural enemies. Dragons create, Oni destroy.
The Ninja are able to uncorrupt Kai with the help of the elemental artifacts, realizing they are the key to defeating the Overlord. Meanwhile, Lloyd has to learn more about his Oni side, which is slowly growing inside him.
Eventually, the final battle arrives, Lloyd loses control over his Oni side, and the Overlord takes advantage of this and uses him against the Ninja, but in the end, the four are able to save Lloyd. The strong bond between the five of them not only breaks Lloyd's control over the Overlord but also fuels the ninjas' powers, making them become one with their elements.
After defeating each of their villains, they retrieve the golden weapons and use them with Lloyd to defeat the Overlord. The Overlord and Lloyd share a final moment where the Overlord slowly begins to cease to exist, but it hints that creation and destruction need balance and that something greater is watching. Essentially the final scene between MK and the lady bone demon in Monkey Kid.
Well, that's it, that's my rewrite of the Overlord in my reimagining of Ninjago. You guys can give me tips and ideas on how I could do this even better! I love hearing your opinions on this!
Feel free to ask me anything! I will answer anything related to my rewrite.
