Kai (LEGO Ninjago, seasons 8, 10-12)

Kai (LEGO Ninjago, seasons 8, 10-12) "A pillow!" Gender: Male Type: Annoying Comedian, Narcissist, Egoist Age: 20 (season 8-present) Species: Human Portrayed by: Vincent Tong (series) Michael Peña (film) Status: Alive Media of origin: LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu First appearance: Rise of the Snakes

Kai is one of the main 6 ninja of LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitsu. He is the red ninja of fire, and Nya's older brother. Unfortunately, during Seasons 8 to 12, he suffered flanderization and character derailment. But since Season 13, he’s starting to revert back to his original personality.

Bad Qualities

1. He went from being a short-tempered and cocky yet lovable ninja to an annoying, narcissistic, whiny character who tries to be comical for no reason like Jay in these seasons. Not helping is the fact that Jay is actually funny.
   • He's incredibly cocky. While he was cocky in seasons 1-7 and Day Of The Departed, years of experience had developed him over time and it became more of a courageously cocky trait. Now, it seems as if cockiness is just his main trait, only for the sake of maintaining the status quo.
2. His leadership trait (showing in scenes like his speech about stopping the Devourer without Wu in season 1, or variously regarding Zane in season 4) is essentially thrown into the garbage in favor of his try hard comical attitude.
3. Addressing the elephant in the room (for Ninjago fans), in the Season 8 finale, he hesitated possibly giving up his powers to save Lloyd just because "They would need their powers to stop Garmadon", which completely goes against his character in the previous seasons, where he has a strong relationship with Lloyd and would give up anything to protect him.
4. The scene in Season 10: March Of The Oni where he randomly says "a pillow" when Lloyd tries to tell Garmadon he doesn't trust him, while not terrible, is kind of cringeworthy and would've been way more consistent with the character personalities if Jay said it.
5. In Season 11, he constantly berates his teacher/mentor, Master Wu, for Aspheera taking his powers away, because of Wu's history with her, when he's had his powers taken away because of Wu's history with a villain BEFORE, and they were well within volition of stopping Aspheera from coming out of the tomb after Zane warned them, as seen here.
   • And while you could argue that it was because he felt like an average person without them, he still has his years of combat experience, training and Spinjitzu!
   • Also, Even though he admitted he didn't need powers to be a hero at the museum, 3 episodes later that "development" got all flushed away after he found out that Wu had history with Aspheera.
6. In Season 12: Prime Empire, he constantly using sarcasm to an annoying degree and is considerably whiny.

Good Qualities

1. He was a better character during the pre-movie seasons, but he redeemed himself in Season 13 where his original personality is slowly coming back. In season 13, he became a lot less childish and annoying, and became a lot more mature. He also started to actually be funny, while not trying too hard to be the comic relief character. These factors and many more returned Kai to his Season 1-7/DotD/TLNM traits.
2. The scene in season 10 where Kai comforts Nya regarding Cole's "death", was a very heartwarming scene and arguably one of the best moments in the Oni trilogy.
3. Despite his flanderization, he still cares about his sister, his fellow ninja, Wu and other people.
4. Depending on your point of view, Kai is likely like this because he learned to be more patient and learned not to be reckless like he was from the previous seasons.
5. The scene in season 9 where he teaches young Wu a lesson about confidence could be considered good to some people.
6. To some fans, he's still likable. He didn't become a bad character, just flawed.
7. Following up on GQ #2, Overall, out of the 5 seasons of Kai's flanderization, Season 9 or especially Season 10 could be considered the seasons where he is the closest to his Season 1-7/13-present personality.
8. He reforged the Golden Weapons, aiding in defending Ninjago from the Oni.
9. He still defends Ninjago from threats.
10. Depending on your point of view, Kai is somewhat funny as his Pre S1-7.
    • "I told you. They're wackos! Anyone who likes Jay that much can't be normal."
    • "I can't believe this are we in a nightmare?"
    • "What? What? Why didn't anyone tell me this?"
11. His Season 8 redesign at least has elements from his Pre-Season 8 appearance and overall works well.
12. Vincent Tong still does an awesome job voicing him.
13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3tXD0PRmNY 1:03 onward. Nuff said.

Trivia

• Kai's voice actor, Vincent Tong, is the same one who voices Flash Sentry from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

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