Okay, so I'm sure that comparing Arin from Dragons Rising to Miles Morales isn't an out-there comparison. (At the very least, There are multiple times where his voice outright sounded exactly like the voice actor that plays Miles in MSM 2017 and the Insomniac games.)
But I find that really funny because I unintentionally and then intentionally had the idea to do something with my AU that makes the comparison even more relevant.
It's been talked about before how the MCU's take on Peter Parker Spider-Man took a lot of notes from the original Comics Miles Morales, basically reverse-inspiring the character traits. Well, making the comparison between Miles and Arin, the obvious choice for Peter is Lloyd.
And the funny thing is, The Lloyd of Elements of Destiny has a number of strong similarities with Arin's overall character in Dragon's Rising. (And Miles for that matter.)
For one, he is inspired to join his sister and co to become a Ninja due to the existence of the "Elemental Alliance," and in particular, an Original Green Ninja that existed back in those days. This original Green Ninja, now retired, mentors Lloyd not dissimilar to how Lloyd mentors Arin or how Peter B. mentors Miles in Spider-verse.
And all this was stuff that I had already laid out for Lloyd's character before Arin existed. I only realized it now while considering the possibility of taking another note from Arin in making Lloyd a "Spinjitzu prodigy." Having him manage to learn Spinjitzu with minimal training or perhaps even all on his own.
This would aid in giving Lloyd a headstart so I don't have to insert too much of a training-time-skip into the story before Lloyd can reasonably start taking part in Ninja adventures and thus we can get into the meat of the story. (It only really worked in the original series for Kai because of the Pilot's distinctly short-form storytelling format.)
It could also serve as subtle foreshadowing for the twist of Lloyd being Garmadon's son, as the art of Spinjitzu may just come more naturally to whatever the FSM became to have the power to handle all 4 Golden Weapons himself, even in the case of half or quarter breeds like Garmadon, Wu, and Lloyd.
(I already had the intent of making Wu and Garmadon not have elemental powers of their own, but offset that with a deep mastery of Spinijtzu.)
Lloyd being a prodigy could also end up resulting in pressure that Lloyd finds he can't reasonably handle, hopefully fleshing out his character, something my take on Lloyd, tbh, desperately needs.
(Although I would have to tread carefully, as the act of being excessively hard on one's self and eventually learning not to be is already basically Nya's entire character arc.)
