MarMarcy

Huh. I knew that scene existed I just didn't get it on my first save cause I was shipping Suselle hard.

Because a lot of Krusie interactions that people point at as evidence can be interpreted both romantically and platonically, including the hot spring scene. Whereas Kriselle interactions are very in the "friends" in quotations but still very obviously care about each other territory.

Ever since I replayed chapter 4 to prepare for chapter 5, I got the impression that Kris and Noelle had some kind of childhood feelings/interest in one another that never really got resolved with the DessAppearance making it impossible to do so. I also wouldn't be surprised if it was forced upon them in some way by Carol. The way Noelle talks about her ride with Kris on the ferris wheel to Susie feels like she's cutting things out or changing things as to not throw off Susie. Like when Susie asks her how she felt back then, Noelle drops her head in something close to sadness or shame before jolting back up saying she doesn't remember. Either she really doesn't or there's something she doesn't want to tell Susie. Oh and let's not forget that Kris is listening to this from the closet. When Noelle brings up the ferris wheel you can see Kris blush which the only other time they do during the scene is when Susie brings up their flirting skills which is very obviously a gag.

The hints are both before and after this chapter: like how Noelle questions their friendship and subsequent relationship when you say that they're friends to one of the Addisons; at the beginning of chapter 5 Kris picks up a photo book of past festivals, flipping through it and stopping specifically at a photo of them and Noelle before closing the book. During the festival you get two flashbacks to their childhood, one from Noelle and one from Kris: the Noelle one is triggered if you vote her and Kris for Festival King and Queen where she reminisces about asking Kris to put their names into it when they could barely spell them and then being genuinely upset when Dessriel won instead. The Kris one is when you put Suselle on the ferris wheel and then choose the "think about something else" option, where Kris thinks about Dessriel riding the wheel and them trying to throw a dirt clod at Dess in the window (lol) only for Toriel to pull their ear for it. There's some ear pulling shenanigans between the parents with the flashback ending in Noelle holding Kris's ear in confusion (but also maybe comfort?) This flashback is interesting to me because I'm pretty sure it's the first time we get a peak into Kris's past directly from them, practically unprompted, instead of an NPC. And it is unprompted because when given the command to think about something else, Kris turns to their relationship and bond with Noelle. They could have thought about something silly or about Susie, but no it's Noelle.

The weird route is obviously apart of this conversation but since this post is already long enough and I still want to talk about Krusie I'm just gonna summarize it. In this route you exploit both Kris and Noelle's darkest thoughts into their worst extremes. And yet, this path also has the most romantic implications between the two no matter how twisted. Almost like a romantic relationship between Kris and Noelle is also something they'd rather not think about that much, even if the thought is there.

All of this kind of reframes the Krusie scene for me. Kris mumbling the "you and Noelle will work out" command makes sense even beyond shipping cause it could be Kris's abandonment issues and emotional repression kicking in. Emotional repression is the key here, because Kris staring at Susie in a "are you fr right now" way when she asks them if they prefer humans or monsters while knowing that they grew up surrounded by monsters, is more in character to me than a yearning stare. You even get a dialogue option saying "you're not stupid" afterwards. And as for the "you're cute when you're embarrassed" option that could just be Kris being a little shit. You get similar dialogue choices with Ralsei in the early chapters. And in this chapter we also learn that Kris doesn't really know how to show love to someone besides flirting. (You learn that by defeating Floradinn with love in order to open a door. The only act you have is flirting with them with Susie immediately questioning if they have to do that and Ralsei chiming in asking Kris if they know other ways of showing love. You can literally see Kris deflate with every statement so they just ask for the classic of Susie's Idea regardless if she actually has one.) So that dialogue option doesn't mean much especially when Kris doesn't even fully commit to it, they say it so fast that Susie can't figure out what they said. Honestly that entire scene feels like Susie asking Kris for something they're nowhere near the state to provide. Especially when we make them say things that could have worked better as thoughts.

So Kris is shown pranking every single one of their friends but they never do that to Ralsei.

The closest that they get to that is when they laugh at Ralsei's suggestion that he looks like Asriel or petting both him and Susie in Mike's room. But both of those moments are pretty small compared to the way they mess with Noelle and Susie.

I don't think it's because Kris thinks Ralsei couldn't handle it, after all Susie is also pretty honest and straightforward with him (most of the time at least). I feel like Kris being a prankster is a part of their personality but it's also a slight performance. Kind of like when your family and/or classmates have a certain vision of you based on who you were that you're not quite anymore but it's also expected of you to act this way even though you're becoming more than that.

If Kris really was as much of a little shit as we know them to be, they'd jump at the opportunity to mess with Ralsei but that often doesn't happen. During both chapters 3+4 we see Kris go out of their way to be kind to Ralsei, to make sure that he's alright. Although even this is sprinkled with sillier moments since as I said before, Kris is a little shit, it feels different. Especially in contrast to other of their dynamics.

Like Noelle for example. Kris messing with Noelle is kind of their whole deal. And you can see that throughout the Cyber City: the cheese thing and the moss eating or even "threatening" Noelle at the carnival thing. Noelle at this point believes that none of this is real, which allows her to be more honest and bolder than she'd usually be. Like when she reminisces about the past and Kris just lets her. Or how Kris spent most of their time in Cyber City protecting her either from Queen or from you depending on which route you're on. To Noelle this would be Kris acting out of character, which is true to an extent, that's why she concludes it as a weird dream. It feels a bit unreal to her that Kris could be more than just her weird gremlin friend who shakes the ferris wheel box out of nowhere just to scare her.

A good chunk of the plants at the monastery now are actually Garmadon's gifts to Lloyd. There were more but Lloyd couldn't initially take care of a plant to save his life.

Just like Lloyd slowly picked up gardening from his father, Garmadon picked up reading from Lloyd.

There was a period of time when whenever Lloyd would get overwhelmed with all the ninja stuff he'd run away to where Garmadon lives and they would watch movies together or talk about the recent book/comic they've read. This has happened so many times that at one point Vinny wasn't even surprised to see Lloyd in his apartment after coming back from work.

Garmadon keeps a small pack of mint chocolates for Lloyd at home.

They do still fight. A lot. Usually about really stupid stuff that gets forgotten the next day.

Lloyd at one point gave Garmadon a phone so they could text. Garmadon is a very dry texter who uses short sentences and emojis to communicate and it drives Lloyd, the chronic overthinker he is, absolutely insane.

Yapper/listener dynamic but they switch roles depending on the situation and topic of a rant.

Even though Lloyd made Garmadon promise to not force Oni training on him, Lloyd still asked to teach him how to use it after he almost lost control during training one time. Some of those lessons ended up turning into these odd therapy sessions for both of them.

During those training sessions Garmadon learned quite a few mildly concerning Lloyd fun facts and, because he has no social awareness, he nonchalantly drops them on the team when visiting the monastery. It causes everyone to be a bit shocked and concerned while Lloyd is in the corner contemplating patricide.

They're both some kind of a flavour of autistic.

Lloyd is now actively trying to teach Garmadon compassion and just overall humanity and with him around Garmadon is learning at a much faster rate.

Garmadon has tried many ways to bond with Lloyd with varying levels of success.

They occasionally speak Oni to each other. The conversations vary from serious to silly to talking shit about something. It's so no one can figure them out.

Garmadon can't remember much from his past life but his paternal instincts are still on point. Whenever Lloyd is in any kind of danger that would leave him gravely injured or worse, Garmadon immediately jumps in to protect him.

Lloyd has just kind of gotten used to it and even allows himself to be more reckless and daring around his father since he knows he'll be fine. Garmadon will complain about it the entire time but he'll still save him.

They have a sixth sense for when one of them is hiding something or not telling the whole thing. Garmadon would just pick at Lloyd until he snaps, but Lloyd is more subtle with poignant glances and nudges until Garmadon caves in. He caves in much quicker because he can't bear having Lloyd be mad at him.

We have known Lloyd from the beginning. We practically saw him grow up, he's kind of like an old friend. But in-universe he is a literal living legend. Of course the stories of the ninja's adventures have come across all of the realms but that goes double for Lloyd.

I cannot look at watercoolers the same after this but the whole implied love triangle between it and the fucking cactus and Kris? What in the shojo anime?

Speaking of love triangles the whole Roulx polyamory subplot is absolute comedy gold. The fact that it ends with Elnina and Lanino getting together with Starwalker... like... what am I playing right now?

And the secret Spamton and Tenna cutscene. I think Ralsei had the most appropriate reaction to it by just saying "okay".

Only the main 6 cause rest are minors (but I feel like Sora and Wyldfyre have definitely tried it at least once.)

Nya

I feel like she would be the grumpy drunk

Look at her in a way she doesn't like and she WILL jump you

Growls at anyone that gets too close to her

Only Pixal and Lloyd are safe when near her and occasionally Jay too depends on how drunk both of them are

Jay

Happy drunk

ADHD go brr

Is practically bouncing around the place and anyone who ends up sober (usually Zane or Lloyd) has the hardest time keeping him under control

Everything is so amazing and fascinating to him

They usually just tie him to something he can't escape from and he falls asleep there

Kai

Always says how he can handle his liquor

He cannot

Mood swings - one second he feels like the king of the world the next everyone hates him

Has the worst headache afterwards

Also can't remember shit

Cole

For some reason I imagine drunk Cole like Sokka high on cactus juice

Very much in his own world with his own strange creatures that everyone else just nods to

Has a tendency to wonder off never too far from the ninja but still far enough to keep an eye on him

Falls asleep real fast

Lloyd

Doesn't get drunk often, partly because he doesn't want to and partly because he has a pretty high alcohol tolerance

But when he does it's usually when he had a really bad day

Practically turns into a punk teenager

Brutally honest and doesn't realize what he's doing until someone points it out

Also quick to anger, but unlike Nya, he never actually jumps anyone

Mainly because just one look with his purple eyes makes everyone back off immediately

Also has a pretty bad headache and feels really bad for how he acted even if it wasn't terrible

Zane

Can't really get drunk so he just ends up being the designated driver

The closest thing the ninja have seen to a drunk Zane is when he has some kind of a malfunction or overheat or something like that

At that point Pixal or Jay and Nya take care of him

Speaks gibberish that only Pixal and Nya a bit too can understand

Believes he has solved all of the worlds problems

It starts out as a normal heroic motif almost always going high to signify the mysticism of the Green Ninja. But over the course of the series it becomes more grounded as the Green Ninja and Lloyd himself become more self-actualized. It even goes through more fun and sort of silly variations. The one I can think of at the top of my head is from The Island where Lloyd plays distraction catch with Zippy so he could sneak and rescue the ninja.

My absolute favourite variations (besides the really cool and badass ones, because those are obvious) are when it goes lower. A great example of this is in S8 I think during the True Potential episode where Lloyd locks the other ninja and goes to face Garmadon alone, you can very clearly summarize what he's thinking from just the sound of his theme. It's in low and kind of dragging notes when it suddenly jumps back into action. Another version, which just about made me jump up when I realized it, is towards the end, and during the credits too, of the episode when we see Oni Lloyd for the first time. It's a theme that sounded oddly familiar even if I never heard it before until I realized that it's just the Green Ninja theme turned on its head to sound more sinister and villainous. I LOVE how they didn't make a new theme for "evil" Lloyd but instead rearranged his theme to sound a bit more like it, but it is still the same motif.