Javy's little sandbox

So the Land of Monsters these days, there's monsters in there (wow), giant creatures, kaiju kinda stuff, although in the original Monster Fighters theme there was the more classic stuff. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, you name it. One fact we know from it is that people would on ocassion become lost in this place, not too unlike the ninja across the other Realms.

How can we integrate it into the lore? Not too hard honestly!

Look at the Swamp Creature. Easily can be Merlopian, lost in this place, driven mad and deformed into a way uglier being.

Undead definitely aren't such a stretch in the Ninjago world. Zombies, mummies, they can fit.

Ghosts can be interesting. We have 1. those imprisoned in the Cursed Realm, and 2. the bound souls of Master Yang and his students.

I can imagine the spirits of the Monster Realm to be akin the latter. Souls trapped in the Monster Realm, unable to move onto the Departed Realm due to its terrible and isolated nature.

Werewolves can be tricky, but why not have a little fun? Maybe it's a screwed up wolf Formling cursed by the land? Maybe it's not even a human, and instead a resident of Chima??

And then the couple of the hour. Lord and Lady Vampyre.

Admittedly, vampires definitely need the bigger stretch to incorporate them into Ninjago lore since there's not... a lot like them over there. However, we're not lacking in ideas. We have concepts of magic, elemental power, immortality, plenty of alleyways to explain their presence.

Regardless though, the point of the Monster Fighters story is that Lord Vampyre is trapped in this Realm, and for good reason. Perhaps the complete lack of vampires in the main realm is by this very design. Perhaps the FSM has something to say about that, as per usual.

And speaking of! There they are, the very namesake of the theme.

Seeing the very 50s-60s inspired aesthetics of Monster Fighters, I always figured this story took a few good decades in the past. I don't know specific times just yet, but it definitely hasn't been too recent, maybe even further back than the Serpentine War, if not around it.

Now hear me out. You've seen those frauds at the Explorer's Club, right?

Look at them. Old-fashioned wannabe monster hunters. They could never be my GOAT Dr. Rodney Rathbone.

But perhaps that is precisely who they wanna be.

The Doctor was a scholar and explorer, I am 100% he might've had ties to the Explorer's Club, maybe even ties to its very origins, its creation. Naturally, they would want to be like the original lineup, but now that the Lord Vampyre was defeated and the threat of monsters diseappeared, they lost their way, became complacent.

And now that the Merge occurred and actual monsters roam the land?? They have NO clue how to properly deal with them.