Kai has been my favorite character since DAY ONE! Was he kind of mid during the wildbrian era? Yea. But thanks to Dragons Rising he’s quickly becoming the GOAT again!
Pairing up Kai with Wyldfyre is probably one of the best decisions made by Ninjago, because it allows Kai to be with someone who’s on the same wavelength as him but also someone that he can teach how to control themselves.
I think it also allows Kai to teach someone who was kinda like his younger self. Cause whenever I see Wildfyre, it feels like having a younger Kai again.
ngl i think kai shouldn’t have been the green ninja, but still the main character if that makes sense. Also, i was expecting jay or kai to be the most affected after nyas seabound death, considering kai “raised” nya and they were all they had growing up, but he didn’t rlly grieve as much as i though he would be
I like how they portray kia to a degree after nya death because kia was never one to mope around he is the passion of fire. We see him hosting his own karate class, he let go of his ties to the past I would argue at season 7 and he is focused on the present and future not on what he cannot change.
Tbh I always thought of kai's jabs at jay were specifically because he and jay were close and more brotherly in nature (considering they're basically brother in laws)
Yeah, I don't tend to laugh out loud when I watch something but Kai got quite a few chuckles out of me in dragons rising. Him and Wyldfyre together are just such a joy to watch
From wanting to be the green ninja to protecting him, from being the angry one to a calm mentor, from very serious to trusting others Kai got the best character development ngl Kai The G.O.A.T!
Great video, as always. To me, Kai's always been the "base" Ninja, the most "default" of the bunch, and so at some point, i guess the writers decided that made him the most malleable, which is why he changes so much from era to era. The Jay comedic relief bits specifically felt like they settled on the need for that dynamic FIRST and then wrote Kai to fit it. It honestly would have been better to give that role to Cole, since....he and Jay are supposed to be best friends. That type of teasing would have gone down a little better, because we know how close they are.
I also noticed this change but I feel like Kai’s gotten a lot better thanks to Dragons Rising. I think the ninja that has easily changed for the worst has been Jay. Jay used to be my favorite but current Jay is a completely different character from original Jay. Jay used to be genuinely funny but now he’s just annoying and I hate how high pitched they’ve made his voice. Also I personally never thought Kai was that bad in Skybound. Like ya he is egotistical but he did still have some really good stuff in that season. I love the scene where he makes his 3 wishes with Nadakhan. I think Skybound is one of the most interesting seasons of the entire show. It definitely has flaws, but I also think it does a lot of things very well. Like Skybound finally fixed Jay and Nyas relationship. It wasn’t done perfectly, but I do think in the end it got where it needed to go and I thought it was pretty good. End of Skybound Jay is Jay at his peak. If Skybound was tweaked a bit I genuinely think it would be the best season of the show
the worst things Skybound did, some plot holes with the sword of souls, made Dareth borderline sexist, Nya being selfish in episode 1 (and I don't hate the ending but some do)
ok i need a good explanation for this what did Dragons rising do for kai that im not seeing? ever since P1 of DR S2 everyone told me kai had been fixed, this is peak kai or smth so i watch it and i just see the same good old kai weve had since S8. I dont see any character development that so drastic(not saying this bad at all, i already considered this kai weve had to be my favourite) so is it just the screen time y'all wanted?
@@XRaiden1 it’s more so they are giving him something to do. The Wyldbrain era treated Kai and Zane as the auxiliary characters of the team and focused more on everyone else. While in the case of Cole and Nya, this was a good decision, it still left Kai and Zane on the sidelines. In S2P1 of Dragons Rising, we saw Kai’s fully mature side and him stepping up to be a mentor for Wyldfyre. Kai also being the first to master Rising Dragon technique is also something unique to the season, as he was usually the last to unlock the gimmick power of the season.
Kai was great from s1-7 era (except s4 where he contradicted his s1 growth in season 4), Oni Trilogy took a back seat but still in character and had a few good moments, 11 min era he got derailed into a unfunny comic relief, & then DR came in and made him so great again
Apparently some of Kai being useless can be explained by Tommy Andreasen simply just not liking writing Kai I think. Kai really improved after Tommy left so it might be true
Tommy Andreason didn’t write for ninjago? In fact, his only writing credits in Ninjago were the pilots, which Kai is the undoubtedly main character of. What tf are you on rn bro
@@kastenedwards1217 “I heard a lots of things” lol, lmao. The things Ninjago/Kai stans make up are delusions. Tommy has gone *on record* saying Kai was his favorite. The improvement in writing is simply that. An improvement. Yall need to stop making and spreading rumors about these people, for the love of god.
@@IHATEFAVORITES you don’t even know if it’s a lie or not. Why would people lie about him not liking Kai ? It has nothing to do with them being “Kai Stan’s” lol. I heard a lot of people say he was his least on different videos
great video, but one point i disagree with strongly! I've always interpreted Kai saying i should have been the one (in regards to Zane) to mean that he thinks he should have been the one to DIE not defeat the overlord. Idk, i just always considered that scene being survivor's guilt as opposed to selfishness.
3:22 I'm pretty sure Kai meant that he should've been the one to sacrifice himself, not Zane. And it looked like he was dealing with a bit of survivors guilt in this scene because like Zane, his main drive has always been protecting the people closest to him (ex: Nya)
I feel like the same is also apply to Zane. Zane went from a Nindroid who have the heart of a human but after season 5 Zane just feel like the smart/robot guy of the group
Yeah, he is my fav and I miss when he used also to have that poetic, curious, kind and sometimes even childlike side in him, like following a bird because it danced, petting a random fish that it swims by underwater ect. But in the newer seasons it has sometimes felt more like the ninjago movie, where literally his only personality was being a robot
I appreciate Kai a lot more because I'm friends with a Kai stan. I also think you can interpret Kai saying 'I should've been the one--" in season four to really bad survivor's guilt. Dragon's Rising also gave Kai his best personality traits back and my friend was really happy once she saw it
I’ve tried to explain the fact that Kai hasn’t done anything since s7 but like you put it into words perfectly, it’s so weird to see him do nothing despite being the main character
@@theghostwiththemost789 I’m more neutral towards Crystalized. It’s definitely flawed for sure, like how Lloyd, Nya and Harumi were portrayed, and especially the Pacing. But I have found nice things from it, like how Jay likes trains.
@@IsleofPigsStudios there are some things I do like about crystallized but It just does so much wrong that I just can’t like it. I hate basically every episode of it
@@theghostwiththemost789 And that’s fine. You be you. Honestly there are some things that, while I can find positives from, I still hate to the core. The example I point to the most is The Angry Birds Movie 2.
Kai is my favorite Ninja and i thought he was the main character from Pilots-S7 then he fell off after the movie. But luckily Dragons Rising fixed his character and now KAI is Back😁.
I actually might have an answer as to why Kai seems to pick on Jay constantly and other times is totally fine with him. I believe Kai has ICD and probably NPD as well, Impulse Control Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The first disorder can cause someone to randomly say mean or critical things about a particular person for no apparent reason. It can be someone who did LITERALLY NOTHING to that person, but they’ll still out of no where make a jab at you. Kai does this to Jay a lot, while other times gets along with him just fine. NPD can come from feeling insecure about yourself and your abilities, it can also come from personal issues. (Which if you think about it… Kai has a LOT of personal issues.) He had to become a mature older brother/parental figure to Nya at the age of FIVE years old when his parents just disappeared! (Assuming that he’s two years older than Nya) That can really mess someone up mentally! As we saw in older seasons, Kai has major anger issues and was obsessed with being the best at everything. These personality traits likely stemmed from being abandoned by his parents, making him feel utterly out of control of his life. Wanting power and to be the Green Ninja was probably, in Kai’s eyes, his way of taking control. But I’m getting off track, we’re talking about why Kai treats Jay the way he does. Well, we could say it might be because he doesn’t approve of Jay being with Nya, BUT if that were true, he would have never tried to help Jay with asking Nya to be his Yang. (Or even approved of the idea) We could also say that Kai just genuinely doesn’t like Jay, but once again-that isn’t true. We see scenes where Kai emotionally supports him and cares about him, (When Nya got captured by the Stone Army and Jay was freaking out, but Kai was the one to help calm him down, or when Jay makes a joke about Prime Empire and Kai high fives him, telling him “good one!”, or when he thought Jay got eaten by the fake Wojira in The Island, he practically freaked out.) Okay so, Kai approves of Jay and cares about him but still makes jabs at him constantly for no reason that at some points definitely go beyond that of “just teasing”. The only clear answer I can think of and said in the beginning is that Kai has ICD and NPD. And these disorders give him the impulse to just randomly pick on somebody unprompted or out of the blue, in this case, Jay. I’m no counselor, but I have an older brother who targets me the same way Kai does with Jay. And even though it gets hurtful at times, he’s been working on it, and I too, have learned to grow a thicker skin and means to just ignore when it happens. I doubt the creators intentionally gave Kai ICD or NPD, but that’s my head-canon as to why Kai and Jay’s relationship is the way it is.
Kai was never really my favorite character but after dragons rising he became one of my favorite character in dragons rising kai is much more mature than before he’s become a great mentor for wildfire I love how we get more of him with Nya that’s great and in season 2 part 1 one of my favorite scene of Kai is when he gets trap and he willing to be trap in there, possibly forever just so he keep his sister and his friends safe that scene is so good and when he learn rising dragon to I just love Kai in dragons rising he’s so good
Man I haven't watched this show in years but I had so much respect for Kai when he was willing to 1v1 Morro out of his unending love for his brother Lloyd.
I personally prefer the old Kai, who in my oppinion, has a cooler personallity but I guess they did change him to be more calm in order to give him a good character development. Kai could not just be a hothead all his life and since they grew up this had to be done somehow. I still hate, as you said, that they made him dumb and like so random when he was the main character in the Pilot season, of course that was released a long time ago and then Lloyd came in and everything changed for him...
I actually think Kai has changed the least. Zane has no personality (other than being a robot), Cole, well I'm not even sure why he's my favorite cause he's a completely different character now, and my poor boy Jay is just dumb af
At first Kai was my favorite character, but later in the seasons of the original cartoon it went worse for him. yes, a lot of things were still in character, but it was like he went back in time and everything he learned in the previous seasons, he just forgot to return back to his old self. I havent seen all of dragons rising, but I think with wildfyre he can have great moments, he can learn a lot, can help a lot and he can grow.
Im with you on Kai being unnecessarily mean to Jay and it being infuriating. However, that line in DR S2 over the phone didn't bother me as much. I think it has a lot to do with other character's reactions. This sounds like a reach but hear me out. Pre-DR, the Jay jabs are either 1) ignored by everyone except Nya who gets mad (really gives the vibe of *that* one annoying guy who has a weird one-sided vendetta against one person); 2) other ppl add unto the insults (mostly cole) and it feels like needless bullying. During that scene with Nya though, after Kai jabbed at Jay, she rolled her eyes and smiled. It gave more "big brother teasing to lighten the mood" vibe. I feel like if they want to keep up the teasing big brother vibes from Kai, they've got to show that it doesn't bother Jay that much or maybe Jay can even fight back playfully so it signals to us viewers that it's all fun and good.
7:19 "Because now.. Kai is just boring !" I'M CRYING 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Kai's isn't boring, he's funny, and courageous, and beautiful, and important, and lovable, and great, and good looking, and cute, and sweet, and hotheaded, and loyal, and trustful, and red, and fiyah, and a great brother, and an awesome man, and a great friend, most importantly, he got my heart 🙏😍🥰
Kai, I get that you don’t like Jay’s character in the wildbrain seasons, but it’s not his fault that he’s not inventor anymore or that his voice is high pitch…😂
Kai was flanderized when Lloyd became older, in seasons 1-2 he was the wise one, though the worst of it came season 6 onwards. Love how he’s handled in DR
In terms of the Oni Trilogy, I think Kai just chilled out a bit after he and Nya found their parents and Lloyd took command of the group. Everyone else (besides Lloyd) still feels the same as they did before 2018, which is why we see Kai as being differently written. But he still feels the same in the ways that matter (like when he talks to Wu about confidence in "Hunted"), he's just not as much of a hothead anymore because everything is peaceful for him now. He gets to be a ninja without feeling as responsible for Lloyd or Nya as much as he did in the earlier seasons. Writing wise, it was also clearly a decision to show Lloyd's growth as a leader in SoG. In terms of who he is in Wildbrain, I've kind of blocked it out of my head at this point. My headcannon is that the show we know and love ended with March of the Oni, and it got soft rebooted as Dragons Rising, because he's actually great there and reminds me a lot of who he was in S1.
What they changed in the ninja in season 8 is that they made them a likable version of the ninja we know, whilst failing to understand that thier hateble aspect is the one flawed part that made enabled them to be liked.
I can tell you how it can lift up the mood - when in loss of a person, acting like nothing changed could make Nya hopeful Jay will come back as if nothing ever happened. That said, I agree with you on the point that Kai's dunking on Jay kinda came out of nowhere with the worst offense of course being Scrollf of Forbidden Spinjitsu, but that season was imo so bad, that I literally would rather ignore whatever happened in it from the narrative standpoint. Like literally at the start Wu makes a point about ninja ALWAYS getting lazy after a big victory, but at that point, there was only the season 1 start that fits that description, while every other instance they're still hard at work.
7:32 Personally, I think his parents coming back in his life was the cause of this change. He did have to raise Nya and practically missed out on his childhood so maybe Kai just mellowed down when Ray and Mya returned
I actually disagree with the stance on Kai hesitating to give up his power to save Lloyd. For me that was when Kai felt the most OOC for me. As you previously discussed, all of Kai's development from S1-5 built up to him putting aside his own feelings to PROTECT Lloyd no matter what no matter the consequences to himself. The devoted older brother/comrade role if you will. One could argue that Kai should've been the FIRST to willingly give up his power if it meant Lloyd could live to fight another day (after all Kai is also known to give those kinds of motivational speeches as seen in S1 after Wu was swallowed by TGD). I've been a huge Kai fan for over a decade so it hurt to see his character slowly fall off post S7 (don't even get me started on his design change I'm still mad). Kai was the character that actually got me to watch Ninjago❤
Kai is an Absolute legend and One of the best characters in Dragons rising. He is a great character but I wish he got to beat a villain by himself. The closest thing we got to that was Cinder in Dragon rising but after that he got stuck in Neverspace.
It is so frustrating how much more boring and dumb he's become since s8. He has actual character!! And is emotionally driven! And cares for his siblings! Though I will say with the s4 opening and him grieving Zane, that to me it does sound more like Kai is saying he should've been the one to die instead. With Lloyd here purposely pushing his buttons to entice him to meet with the ninja just like the others. Though I agree it is about himself. Overall, the writing has gotten weaker character depth-wise including the others, and Kai suffers it the most. I love how you mention that made sense why he was a jerk in earlier seasons. And I liked your analysis of s7! Hopefully they fix this writing problem soon!!
I feel like Kai becoming a comedic supportive bro after being an impulsive angry dude was a good change, because as the seasons progressed I felt like there was so much tension with the other ninjas and I honestly couldn't get into Ninjago for a while because of it. So once he became a more chill dude, I finally felt like I could get back into Ninjago. In fact, I only got back into Ninjago because of the redesigns.
Dragons rising picked him up after the 11 min era, and honestly, I think he's better than ever. Also, can we talk about the 11 minute era had such an animation shift, and looks awesome. DR doesn't give the same feels, ya know?
Kai in og seasons were definitely the best version of him and why he is my favorite ninja, after the redesign he aint even Kai anymore but Dragons Rising while not perfect is slowly improving his character
I Honestly didn’t notice a change, and when I have, I didn’t see it as drastic 🤷 And I was bummed about Kai a little MIA, in dragons rising, but this show is really focusing on Arin and Sora Great Video though! 🔥🔥🔥
I had a shitty older brother growing up so I got really attached to Kai and saw him as an older brother figure to me that I desperately needed. In other words, *I’m incredibly stubborn and have adhd*
Kai was my favourite ninja, from the pilots to season 7, I loved hem, but in the oni trilogy is where Kai’s character really started to get under my skin, I don’t like his movie design, not even in the slightest, in the old seasons, I was really mature and became a small mentor figure to Lloyd, but that only lasted one season…. And the oni trilogy, he got turned into a whiny and selfish and cocky idiot who only thinks about his powers, like what happened to the old Kai who gave good speeches and who was a big brother to Lloyd, who was the protector of the green ninja?! Not to mention his voice got higher which kinda bothered me, Kai just became comic relief, in wildbrain seasons, he became even more whiny! What happened to that leadership role?!? I don’t even get me started on the ice chapter! We were originally going to get a Kai vs the ice emperor battle, but all we got was him burning off that stupid ice dragon, not to mention he’s the only one who doesn’t have an individual form! And dragons rising however, Kai became a lot more mature again, he became like a father figure to wildfire, Kai got reverted back to his early self and a more enhanced version too
KAI NEEDS A POWER UP!!! BADLY LIKE COME ON!!! LIKE HE CAN SOMEHOW LEARNED TO TURN HIS BODY INTO PURE FIRE 🔥 OR HIS FLAMES GET HOT ENOUGH TO TURN BRIGHT CRIMSON RED OR HE GETS A PHYSICAL BOOST IN SPEED AND POWER OR HIS FLAMES COULD BE AS HOT AS THE SUN OR HE FIGURED OUT HOW TO CONTROL LAVA HE NEEDS A POWER UP LIKE HE CAN SOMEHOW BECOME A PHOENIX I DON'T KNOW JUST MAKE HIM STRONGER!!
Bro what they did, is give Lloyd 50% of the main role post-Movie. Kai got half a season? Not even. Bro he should’ve gotten a AT LEAST 1 season, unlike everyone else. (Guys this is coming from a D1 Kai fan)
I think they need to make a long season about kai all the the things that as something to do with him, like nia and skiler. And i like that he roasts jay. Ah and i forgot, l-loyd power is g r e e n, and they need to nerf him so much and don't focus on him so much every single season.
“The ninja gas characters have all changed- -Nya’s no longer samurai X and is now the water ninja -Lloyds no longer a kid in a teenagers body -Jays is going to be guilty of war crimes” 💀
Kai was my favorite character from episode one's release so it was so painful to see how much he just DIDN'T MATTER in the whole 2nd half of the ninjago run. The fact that he's finally plot relevant again in Dragons Rising is giving me hope that they will fix the character assassinations they committed earlier on.
Kai is and always have been my favorite ninja in the series, there was never a time where liked him less and less. But I did notice his importance in series begins to fade during the wild brain era, but kai is still my favorite regardless of his downgrade. After watching season 1, heck after season 2 of dragons rising, I can say they fixed and saved kai amazingly, and I'm super excited for season 3 of ninjago dragons rising.
Kai has the most satisfying character development from s1-s7, and I think he kinda just matured in the oni trilogy, but yh post redesigns he just got sidelined😔
What do you think of Kai?
He's evolved from being a hot head (pun intended) to a mature young adult
He's my favorite character
his development in dr is cool
@@NinjaColeYT He’s a stupid little guy, but he’s MY stupid little guy.
Kai has been my favorite character since DAY ONE! Was he kind of mid during the wildbrian era? Yea. But thanks to Dragons Rising he’s quickly becoming the GOAT again!
Kai didn’t get a dedicated arc❎
The entire show pre-Dragons Rising was Kai’s arc✅
Exactly!
Tournament of Elements is Kai's season, after all he won the tournament
😂😂 Kai only had 3 seasons about him after that he was pretty irrelevant
?
Nobody won the Tournament except for Chen technically.
@@SLYNE-kx8dbwhat Seasons did he get the most focused in??
From Angry boi to Peacefull teacher boi who gotten control of his anger.....now thats called character devlopment
Like Zuko from last airbender?
@@TheDetective-s8u zukos was good tho, kais was just all of a sudden
@@ssuperman123 I think they had almost identical character development characteristics.
And he's kinda silly too
Yeah but I miss when he was a angry boy
“Jay is guilty of war crimes”
Literally the next sentence: “These examples aren’t negative.”
Thought no one was gonna mention it 😂😂
Yeah because it’s awesome
Heheheh
Pairing up Kai with Wyldfyre is probably one of the best decisions made by Ninjago, because it allows Kai to be with someone who’s on the same wavelength as him but also someone that he can teach how to control themselves.
I think it also allows Kai to teach someone who was kinda like his younger self. Cause whenever I see Wildfyre, it feels like having a younger Kai again.
ngl i think kai shouldn’t have been the green ninja, but still the main character if that makes sense. Also, i was expecting jay or kai to be the most affected after nyas seabound death, considering kai “raised” nya and they were all they had growing up, but he didn’t rlly grieve as much as i though he would be
I like how they portray kia to a degree after nya death because kia was never one to mope around he is the passion of fire. We see him hosting his own karate class, he let go of his ties to the past I would argue at season 7 and he is focused on the present and future not on what he cannot change.
It is true they didn't really show his grief, but he did mention to Wildfire, that he got Wu to help him with it.
Kinda like a gojo and yuji thing that could have worked and probably would have been best for the show
Jay beat Kai in Uno offscreen trust.
Sounds legit
Seems believable
The most probable theory
Most likely
As a kai fan I can see this happening and it would be kinda funny to watch
Tbh I always thought of kai's jabs at jay were specifically because he and jay were close and more brotherly in nature (considering they're basically brother in laws)
well yea, but it's a bit much sometimes. I have several younger brothers but I still recognise when I might say something that would hurt them.
"You're both too valuable to risk. It should be someone expendable, like Jay."
I honestly think that it’s a little bit of jealousy. Nya spends all of her time with Jay. Maybe Kai feels left out?
@@thegameguy429 nah
@@amazingboi9388 there’s nothing here to respond to. Care to explain your opinion more
Kai is one of the best things about dragon's rising
You can say that again Kai is awesome and dragons rising
Agreed
Yeah, I don't tend to laugh out loud when I watch something but Kai got quite a few chuckles out of me in dragons rising. Him and Wyldfyre together are just such a joy to watch
@@deella.3339 yeah kai and wyldfyre are amazing duo
From wanting to be the green ninja to protecting him, from being the angry one to a calm mentor, from very serious to trusting others Kai got the best character development ngl Kai The G.O.A.T!
Couldn't say it better myself
3:37 Kai’s arm clips into his body, never noticed that till now
Wtf it did
I wont be able to unsee it now
"Of course I'm at the hospital. My hair is sick" - Kai in Skybound
Great video, as always. To me, Kai's always been the "base" Ninja, the most "default" of the bunch, and so at some point, i guess the writers decided that made him the most malleable, which is why he changes so much from era to era. The Jay comedic relief bits specifically felt like they settled on the need for that dynamic FIRST and then wrote Kai to fit it. It honestly would have been better to give that role to Cole, since....he and Jay are supposed to be best friends. That type of teasing would have gone down a little better, because we know how close they are.
Dragons rising has given Kai great character development 👏
Finally someone talking about how much better Kai was in crystalised.
5:03 "to make the legend of Zelda tears of the kingdom Lego edition-" OMG I'm dying. 😂😂😂
As a huge Zelda fan I appreciated it 😂
@@BillyBobJoe14 same
I feel like dragons rising really help his character growth specifically with his relationship with Wyldfyre
I also noticed this change but I feel like Kai’s gotten a lot better thanks to Dragons Rising. I think the ninja that has easily changed for the worst has been Jay. Jay used to be my favorite but current Jay is a completely different character from original Jay. Jay used to be genuinely funny but now he’s just annoying and I hate how high pitched they’ve made his voice. Also I personally never thought Kai was that bad in Skybound. Like ya he is egotistical but he did still have some really good stuff in that season. I love the scene where he makes his 3 wishes with Nadakhan. I think Skybound is one of the most interesting seasons of the entire show. It definitely has flaws, but I also think it does a lot of things very well. Like Skybound finally fixed Jay and Nyas relationship. It wasn’t done perfectly, but I do think in the end it got where it needed to go and I thought it was pretty good. End of Skybound Jay is Jay at his peak. If Skybound was tweaked a bit I genuinely think it would be the best season of the show
the worst things Skybound did, some plot holes with the sword of souls, made Dareth borderline sexist, Nya being selfish in episode 1 (and I don't hate the ending but some do)
Yea skybound could of been a better season but it definitely wouldn’t be the best or close at all
ok i need a good explanation for this what did Dragons rising do for kai that im not seeing? ever since P1 of DR S2 everyone told me kai had been fixed, this is peak kai or smth so i watch it and i just see the same good old kai weve had since S8. I dont see any character development that so drastic(not saying this bad at all, i already considered this kai weve had to be my favourite) so is it just the screen time y'all wanted?
@@XRaiden1 it’s more so they are giving him something to do. The Wyldbrain era treated Kai and Zane as the auxiliary characters of the team and focused more on everyone else. While in the case of Cole and Nya, this was a good decision, it still left Kai and Zane on the sidelines. In S2P1 of Dragons Rising, we saw Kai’s fully mature side and him stepping up to be a mentor for Wyldfyre. Kai also being the first to master Rising Dragon technique is also something unique to the season, as he was usually the last to unlock the gimmick power of the season.
I don't remember Kai, at all in skybound, he was missing practically the whole season
The RGB Siblings got the best character development.
So true
I really like how kai is handled in dragons rising as he's clearly matured and become a better person and is still really cool
Kai was great from s1-7 era (except s4 where he contradicted his s1 growth in season 4), Oni Trilogy took a back seat but still in character and had a few good moments, 11 min era he got derailed into a unfunny comic relief, & then DR came in and made him so great again
I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY HOPE JAY AND KAI WILL HAVE A MOMENT IN SEASON 3 INSTEAD OF NYA AND JAY, CAUSE THEY NEED A STRONGGER BOUND🛐
totally agreed!😊
on my knees praying its kai or cole who do something to get his memories back instead of just like, him and nya kiss and wow he remebers
5:50 His logic of “my dad is evil therefore I must be evil” is hilarious
And the fact that he says that i front of Skylor, you know the girl with the evil dad
Apparently some of Kai being useless can be explained by Tommy Andreasen simply just not liking writing Kai I think. Kai really improved after Tommy left so it might be true
Kinda f up if you think about it
Tommy Andreason didn’t write for ninjago? In fact, his only writing credits in Ninjago were the pilots, which Kai is the undoubtedly main character of. What tf are you on rn bro
@@IHATEFAVORITES I heard a lot of things about tommy and that his least favorite character was Kai, so idk honestly
@@kastenedwards1217 “I heard a lots of things” lol, lmao. The things Ninjago/Kai stans make up are delusions. Tommy has gone *on record* saying Kai was his favorite. The improvement in writing is simply that. An improvement. Yall need to stop making and spreading rumors about these people, for the love of god.
@@IHATEFAVORITES you don’t even know if it’s a lie or not. Why would people lie about him not liking Kai ? It has nothing to do with them being “Kai Stan’s” lol. I heard a lot of people say he was his least on different videos
great video, but one point i disagree with strongly! I've always interpreted Kai saying i should have been the one (in regards to Zane) to mean that he thinks he should have been the one to DIE not defeat the overlord. Idk, i just always considered that scene being survivor's guilt as opposed to selfishness.
3:22 I'm pretty sure Kai meant that he should've been the one to sacrifice himself, not Zane. And it looked like he was dealing with a bit of survivors guilt in this scene because like Zane, his main drive has always been protecting the people closest to him (ex: Nya)
yess for real! i dont think he was being selfish here, he had survivors guilt. He literally said he wanted to be the one dying instead of zane.
0:23 you forgot Cole is Alive. but *Gay*
Nah hes not gay
EXCELLENT WORK. NINJACOLE KAI CHARACTER
No he's not
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
@@EugeneMaryniuk don't worry he's not gay
14:45 THAT WAS INSANE😭
FR
Fortunately Kai seems to be on the right track in Dragons Rising. Unlike Zane and Jay.
Bruh don't you get it jay is getting a characther arc
@@Ruben99677 tru
I think they are trying to fix Zane's character development?
@@IsleofPigsStudios🤓🙃
@@Ruben99677 Yes but Evil Jay was like Oni Lloyd - completely wasted
I feel like the same is also apply to Zane. Zane went from a Nindroid who have the heart of a human but after season 5 Zane just feel like the smart/robot guy of the group
Yeah, he is my fav and I miss when he used also to have that poetic, curious, kind and sometimes even childlike side in him, like following a bird because it danced, petting a random fish that it swims by underwater ect. But in the newer seasons it has sometimes felt more like the ninjago movie, where literally his only personality was being a robot
I appreciate Kai a lot more because I'm friends with a Kai stan. I also think you can interpret Kai saying 'I should've been the one--" in season four to really bad survivor's guilt. Dragon's Rising also gave Kai his best personality traits back and my friend was really happy once she saw it
The reason I love dragons rising so much is that my childhood favorite has been the MVP of the show
I’ve tried to explain the fact that Kai hasn’t done anything since s7 but like you put it into words perfectly, it’s so weird to see him do nothing despite being the main character
ngl kai is getting the gojo treatement 😭🙏
hope they don't off himself tho..
Kai is alive
Gojo is died
Doc Wyatt it's Kai no died, ninjago legacy is Kai
@@LoubnaHindi Ik but gojo got put inside a box js like Kai 😭🙏
Huh? I dont understand what you mean
12:31 - 12:34 He’s got a point. I don’t call Crystalized “Controversialized” for nothing.
Ya crystallized is by far the most hated season of the show and I would say for pretty good reason. I despise crystallized💀
@@theghostwiththemost789 I’m more neutral towards Crystalized. It’s definitely flawed for sure, like how Lloyd, Nya and Harumi were portrayed, and especially the Pacing. But I have found nice things from it, like how Jay likes trains.
@@IsleofPigsStudios there are some things I do like about crystallized but It just does so much wrong that I just can’t like it. I hate basically every episode of it
@@theghostwiththemost789 And that’s fine. You be you. Honestly there are some things that, while I can find positives from, I still hate to the core. The example I point to the most is The Angry Birds Movie 2.
@@IsleofPigsStudios huh, that’s a new one. Why that movie?
Kai is my favorite Ninja and i thought he was the main character from Pilots-S7 then he fell off after the movie. But luckily Dragons Rising fixed his character and now KAI is Back😁.
Heck yeah!
imo dragons rising has started to remedy this with season 2 part 1 which is awesome
That is where they really started to focus on him, but they did start to remedy it a little in season one part two when he was with Wildfire
I actually might have an answer as to why Kai seems to pick on Jay constantly and other times is totally fine with him.
I believe Kai has ICD and probably NPD as well, Impulse Control Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The first disorder can cause someone to randomly say mean or critical things about a particular person for no apparent reason. It can be someone who did LITERALLY NOTHING to that person, but they’ll still out of no where make a jab at you. Kai does this to Jay a lot, while other times gets along with him just fine. NPD can come from feeling insecure about yourself and your abilities, it can also come from personal issues. (Which if you think about it…
Kai has a LOT of personal issues.) He had to become a mature older brother/parental figure to Nya at the age of FIVE years old when his parents just disappeared! (Assuming that he’s two years older than Nya) That can really mess someone up mentally!
As we saw in older seasons, Kai has major anger issues and was obsessed with being the best at everything. These personality traits likely stemmed from being abandoned by his parents, making him feel utterly out of control of his life. Wanting power and to be the Green Ninja was probably, in Kai’s eyes, his way of taking control.
But I’m getting off track, we’re talking about why Kai treats Jay the way he does.
Well, we could say it might be because he doesn’t approve of Jay being with Nya, BUT if that were true, he would have never tried to help Jay with asking Nya to be his Yang. (Or even approved of the idea)
We could also say that Kai just genuinely doesn’t like Jay, but once again-that isn’t true.
We see scenes where Kai emotionally supports him and cares about him, (When Nya got captured by the Stone Army and Jay was freaking out, but Kai was the one to help calm him down, or when Jay makes a joke about Prime Empire and Kai high fives him, telling him “good one!”, or when he thought Jay got eaten by the fake Wojira in The Island, he practically freaked out.)
Okay so, Kai approves of Jay and cares about him but still makes jabs at him constantly for no reason that at some points definitely go beyond that of “just teasing”.
The only clear answer I can think of and said in the beginning is that Kai has ICD and NPD.
And these disorders give him the impulse to just randomly pick on somebody unprompted or out of the blue, in this case, Jay.
I’m no counselor, but I have an older brother who targets me the same way Kai does with Jay.
And even though it gets hurtful at times, he’s been working on it, and I too, have learned to grow a thicker skin and means to just ignore when it happens. I doubt the creators intentionally gave Kai ICD or NPD, but that’s my head-canon as to why Kai and Jay’s relationship is the way it is.
We all knew kai was the strongest out of all the ninjas coming in second
"Jay is gonna be guilty of war crimes" caught me off guard 😂😂😂
I think Dragons Rising Kai is the best version of the character
Kai was never really my favorite character but after dragons rising he became one of my favorite character in dragons rising kai is much more mature than before he’s become a great mentor for wildfire I love how we get more of him with Nya that’s great and in season 2 part 1 one of my favorite scene of Kai is when he gets trap and he willing to be trap in there, possibly forever just so he keep his sister and his friends safe that scene is so good and when he learn rising dragon to I just love Kai in dragons rising he’s so good
Kai did good development in dragon rising s1 to 2
9:51 kai probably saw jay slamdunk on his sister
Kia found out that Jay has NSFW materiel of his sister so after being scared by those images decided to make jays life hell on earth.
Watched this while building Ninjago city gardens
Man I haven't watched this show in years but I had so much respect for Kai when he was willing to 1v1 Morro out of his unending love for his brother Lloyd.
4:07 I ain’t gonna lie, my boy was tarnished this season. ( He had his moments, but this was this was a dark time)
I personally prefer the old Kai, who in my oppinion, has a cooler personallity but I guess they did change him to be more calm in order to give him a good character development. Kai could not just be a hothead all his life and since they grew up this had to be done somehow. I still hate, as you said, that they made him dumb and like so random when he was the main character in the Pilot season, of course that was released a long time ago and then Lloyd came in and everything changed for him...
This is an excellent analysis of how Kai changed throughout the franchise up to now! Also, I appreciated your clean sense of humor.
6:29 Kai just slides into frame is funny and I can’t unsee it 😂
I actually think Kai has changed the least. Zane has no personality (other than being a robot), Cole, well I'm not even sure why he's my favorite cause he's a completely different character now, and my poor boy Jay is just dumb af
Yeah they’ve all gotten more watered down
At first Kai was my favorite character, but later in the seasons of the original cartoon it went worse for him. yes, a lot of things were still in character, but it was like he went back in time and everything he learned in the previous seasons, he just forgot to return back to his old self. I havent seen all of dragons rising, but I think with wildfyre he can have great moments, he can learn a lot, can help a lot and he can grow.
as and elder brother, Kais behaviour around Nia has been very consistent with that role, especially in the clip you showed at the end.
Im with you on Kai being unnecessarily mean to Jay and it being infuriating. However, that line in DR S2 over the phone didn't bother me as much. I think it has a lot to do with other character's reactions. This sounds like a reach but hear me out.
Pre-DR, the Jay jabs are either 1) ignored by everyone except Nya who gets mad (really gives the vibe of *that* one annoying guy who has a weird one-sided vendetta against one person); 2) other ppl add unto the insults (mostly cole) and it feels like needless bullying.
During that scene with Nya though, after Kai jabbed at Jay, she rolled her eyes and smiled. It gave more "big brother teasing to lighten the mood" vibe. I feel like if they want to keep up the teasing big brother vibes from Kai, they've got to show that it doesn't bother Jay that much or maybe Jay can even fight back playfully so it signals to us viewers that it's all fun and good.
How was kai being "unnecessarily" mean to jay when in truth, I dint think he was at all
He help jay with nya so it’s just playing around
Gotta hold off this video until I finish Season 2 Part 2
7:19 "Because now.. Kai is just boring !" I'M CRYING 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Kai's isn't boring, he's funny, and courageous, and beautiful, and important, and lovable, and great, and good looking, and cute, and sweet, and hotheaded, and loyal, and trustful, and red, and fiyah, and a great brother, and an awesome man, and a great friend, most importantly, he got my heart 🙏😍🥰
Kai, I get that you don’t like Jay’s character in the wildbrain seasons, but it’s not his fault that he’s not inventor anymore or that his voice is high pitch…😂
Wish it showed Jay and Nya bonding over inventions. We haven't seen Jay make something since season 7, unless you count flashback scenes
0:30 I’m sorry but jay is what
Probably one of my favourite of your videos if more amazing ones aren’t already planned 😭
Kai was flanderized when Lloyd became older, in seasons 1-2 he was the wise one, though the worst of it came season 6 onwards. Love how he’s handled in DR
Anyone else noticed that most of the time his hairstyles corresponds with his personality
In terms of the Oni Trilogy, I think Kai just chilled out a bit after he and Nya found their parents and Lloyd took command of the group. Everyone else (besides Lloyd) still feels the same as they did before 2018, which is why we see Kai as being differently written. But he still feels the same in the ways that matter (like when he talks to Wu about confidence in "Hunted"), he's just not as much of a hothead anymore because everything is peaceful for him now. He gets to be a ninja without feeling as responsible for Lloyd or Nya as much as he did in the earlier seasons. Writing wise, it was also clearly a decision to show Lloyd's growth as a leader in SoG.
In terms of who he is in Wildbrain, I've kind of blocked it out of my head at this point. My headcannon is that the show we know and love ended with March of the Oni, and it got soft rebooted as Dragons Rising, because he's actually great there and reminds me a lot of who he was in S1.
What they changed in the ninja in season 8 is that they made them a likable version of the ninja we know, whilst failing to understand that thier hateble aspect is the one flawed part that made enabled them to be liked.
I need Jay to come back 😭
This was so beyond excellent. Really well thought out and explained.
I can tell you how it can lift up the mood - when in loss of a person, acting like nothing changed could make Nya hopeful Jay will come back as if nothing ever happened.
That said, I agree with you on the point that Kai's dunking on Jay kinda came out of nowhere with the worst offense of course being Scrollf of Forbidden Spinjitsu, but that season was imo so bad, that I literally would rather ignore whatever happened in it from the narrative standpoint. Like literally at the start Wu makes a point about ninja ALWAYS getting lazy after a big victory, but at that point, there was only the season 1 start that fits that description, while every other instance they're still hard at work.
7:32 Personally, I think his parents coming back in his life was the cause of this change. He did have to raise Nya and practically missed out on his childhood so maybe Kai just mellowed down when Ray and Mya returned
I actually disagree with the stance on Kai hesitating to give up his power to save Lloyd. For me that was when Kai felt the most OOC for me. As you previously discussed, all of Kai's development from S1-5 built up to him putting aside his own feelings to PROTECT Lloyd no matter what no matter the consequences to himself. The devoted older brother/comrade role if you will. One could argue that Kai should've been the FIRST to willingly give up his power if it meant Lloyd could live to fight another day (after all Kai is also known to give those kinds of motivational speeches as seen in S1 after Wu was swallowed by TGD).
I've been a huge Kai fan for over a decade so it hurt to see his character slowly fall off post S7 (don't even get me started on his design change I'm still mad).
Kai was the character that actually got me to watch Ninjago❤
Im so proud of him, he’s a wonderful teacher now
Kai’s old arc had him on the way with becoming a master so we finally got that
Kai is an Absolute legend and One of the best characters in Dragons rising. He is a great character but I wish he got to beat a villain by himself. The closest thing we got to that was Cinder in Dragon rising but after that he got stuck in Neverspace.
It is so frustrating how much more boring and dumb he's become since s8. He has actual character!! And is emotionally driven! And cares for his siblings!
Though I will say with the s4 opening and him grieving Zane, that to me it does sound more like Kai is saying he should've been the one to die instead. With Lloyd here purposely pushing his buttons to entice him to meet with the ninja just like the others. Though I agree it is about himself.
Overall, the writing has gotten weaker character depth-wise including the others, and Kai suffers it the most. I love how you mention that made sense why he was a jerk in earlier seasons. And I liked your analysis of s7! Hopefully they fix this writing problem soon!!
Kai has had the best character development in the show in my opinion
Awesome video
9:17 lol so true actually 💀
And Kai is just one of the few characters who had a good character development in dragons rising
In like 12:36 when jay said “Like how good I’m gonna look in green” I thought it was you that said it
11:50
Wakko from animaniacs: No! I'm Wakko!!!!
Everyone confused
Wakko starts singing the US song.
I feel like Kai becoming a comedic supportive bro after being an impulsive angry dude was a good change, because as the seasons progressed I felt like there was so much tension with the other ninjas and I honestly couldn't get into Ninjago for a while because of it. So once he became a more chill dude, I finally felt like I could get back into Ninjago. In fact, I only got back into Ninjago because of the redesigns.
7 videos and 14K sbs already? Damn, you're growing fast.
Dragons rising picked him up after the 11 min era, and honestly, I think he's better than ever. Also, can we talk about the 11 minute era had such an animation shift, and looks awesome. DR doesn't give the same feels, ya know?
Kai in og seasons were definitely the best version of him and why he is my favorite ninja, after the redesign he aint even Kai anymore but Dragons Rising while not perfect is slowly improving his character
I Honestly didn’t notice a change, and when I have, I didn’t see it as drastic 🤷
And I was bummed about Kai a little MIA, in dragons rising, but this show is really focusing on Arin and Sora
Great Video though! 🔥🔥🔥
10:08 it's even worse cause Jay is engaged to Nya. My question is: when does someone (likely Nya) put Kai in his place?
I had a shitty older brother growing up so I got really attached to Kai and saw him as an older brother figure to me that I desperately needed. In other words, *I’m incredibly stubborn and have adhd*
I definitely prefer the old Kai, but the new Kai isn’t so bad now that I’ve seen dragons rising.
Kai was my favourite ninja, from the pilots to season 7, I loved hem, but in the oni trilogy is where Kai’s character really started to get under my skin, I don’t like his movie design, not even in the slightest, in the old seasons, I was really mature and became a small mentor figure to Lloyd, but that only lasted one season…. And the oni trilogy, he got turned into a whiny and selfish and cocky idiot who only thinks about his powers, like what happened to the old Kai who gave good speeches and who was a big brother to Lloyd, who was the protector of the green ninja?! Not to mention his voice got higher which kinda bothered me, Kai just became comic relief, in wildbrain seasons, he became even more whiny! What happened to that leadership role?!? I don’t even get me started on the ice chapter! We were originally going to get a Kai vs the ice emperor battle, but all we got was him burning off that stupid ice dragon, not to mention he’s the only one who doesn’t have an individual form! And dragons rising however, Kai became a lot more mature again, he became like a father figure to wildfire, Kai got reverted back to his early self and a more enhanced version too
Finally someone gets it because jay is my favorite character and Kai is just a jerk to jay for no reason Kai needs a therapist
Kai is my favorite ninja and I hate when he's being a jerk to jay for no reason it's annoying
10:00 Ik what Jay did to Kai, he slept with his sister lol
KAI NEEDS A POWER UP!!! BADLY LIKE COME ON!!! LIKE HE CAN SOMEHOW LEARNED TO TURN HIS BODY INTO PURE FIRE 🔥 OR HIS FLAMES GET HOT ENOUGH TO TURN BRIGHT CRIMSON RED OR HE GETS A PHYSICAL BOOST IN SPEED AND POWER OR HIS FLAMES COULD BE AS HOT AS THE SUN OR HE FIGURED OUT HOW TO CONTROL LAVA HE NEEDS A POWER UP LIKE HE CAN SOMEHOW BECOME A PHOENIX I DON'T KNOW JUST MAKE HIM STRONGER!!
Bro what they did, is give Lloyd 50% of the main role post-Movie. Kai got half a season? Not even. Bro he should’ve gotten a
AT LEAST 1 season, unlike everyone else. (Guys this is coming from a D1 Kai fan)
“Lloyd is no longer a kid in a teenager’s body”
Yes he’s a teen in an adult’s body now
Bro you funny I just subed
I think they need to make a long season about kai all the the things that as something to do with him, like nia and skiler. And i like that he roasts jay. Ah and i forgot, l-loyd power is g r e e n, and they need to nerf him so much and don't focus on him so much every single season.
Finally Lego Ninjago Editors decided to make Kai cook in Dragons Rising
“The ninja gas characters have all changed-
-Nya’s no longer samurai X and is now the water ninja
-Lloyds no longer a kid in a teenagers body
-Jays is going to be guilty of war crimes” 💀
Kai was my favorite character from episode one's release so it was so painful to see how much he just DIDN'T MATTER in the whole 2nd half of the ninjago run. The fact that he's finally plot relevant again in Dragons Rising is giving me hope that they will fix the character assassinations they committed earlier on.
Kai is and always have been my favorite ninja in the series, there was never a time where liked him less and less. But I did notice his importance in series begins to fade during the wild brain era, but kai is still my favorite regardless of his downgrade. After watching season 1, heck after season 2 of dragons rising, I can say they fixed and saved kai amazingly, and I'm super excited for season 3 of ninjago dragons rising.
Kai is now back at his prime!
Kai has the most satisfying character development from s1-s7, and I think he kinda just matured in the oni trilogy, but yh post redesigns he just got sidelined😔
Tears of the kingdom lego edition got a laugh from me