Ninjago headcanons, regarding:
Jay's Family:
Jay's mother and father married after the Serpentine Wars. Jay's mother, however, had been bitten by a Venomari during the Wars, and although doctors and healers were able to initially save her life, they told her that after a number of years, the poison would eventually consume her and she would die a premature death. Her pregnancy with Jay, which occurred some time after the battle with Krux and Acronix, sapped her strength, speeding up the poison's progress. Jay's birth was a very difficult delivery that consumed the last of her strength, and the poison overwhelmed her. She died a few weeks later, and her husband Cliff threw himself into his acting career to drown out the pain of her loss. He was angry at his newborn son, blaming him for destroying his wife's strength which led to her death, and had him given away to a childless couple, Ed and Edna Walker. Cliff never made contact with his son, but, feeling remorse over giving Jay up but believing his son would be better off never knowing him, he kept track of Jay's life, following all his ninja adventures, and when Cliff at last died of cancer, he was sad he never got to truly meet his son, but proud and happy for him.
Height:
Kai: 5'8" (he claims to be 5'10", but only pulls it off because of his hair)
Jay: 5'5" (tiny boy)
Zane: 5'10"
Cole: 6'1"
Nya: 5'4"
Lloyd: 5'7" (Jay was pretty upset when Lloyd turned out to be taller than him)
Age (starting from Season 1):
Kai: 16
Jay: 15
Zane: 17
Cole: 16 (a few months older than Kai)
Nya: 14
Lloyd: 9 (jumps to 15)
Wake-up Time:
Kai: 11:00 a.m., at the earliest.
Jay: 8:00 a.m.
Zane: 5:45 a.m.
Cole: 9:15 a.m., which is still a bit early for his liking, but he eventually gets too hungry to sleep any longer.
Nya: 6:30 a.m.; she and Lloyd like to do their morning exercises together. Another reason she gets up so early is to get in the shower before Kai does and uses up all the hot water.
Lloyd: 6:30 a.m., by which time Zane has usually made breakfast.
Favorite Music Genre:
Kai: Tuneless death metal
Jay: Classical. And pop. How he reconciles this no one knows
Zane: Electronic (he probably mixes it himself)
Cole: Soft rock
Nya: Hard rock
Lloyd: Folk and instrumentals
Favorite Movie Genre:
Kai: Rip-roaring action, preferably with lots of explosions. He also likes mild horror movies, and has on more than one occasion traumatized himself by watching a more intense horror film than he could handle.
Jay: Romantic comedy, or really any sort of comedy, except black comedy. He also likes superhero movies.
Zane: Mystery/thriller. He usually figures everything out long before the movie characters do.
Cole: Action, and most historical movies. The others think he's a little weird for it.
Nya: Action, and the occasional chick flick if no one other than Jay is around (see 'Secrets).
Lloyd: Mild action, preferably animated. Anything rated over PG freaks him out, not that he likes to admit it. But he has enough trauma in his daily life that he just wants to relax and not have to deal with the complex issues and trials in more mature movies. He absolutely hates Star Wars.
Dogs Versus Cats:
Kai pretends to love dogs and hate cats, being under the impression that 'real' heroes are dog lovers and only villains and sissies like cats, but in reality the exact opposite is true (see 'Secrets). He's especially a sucker for kittens.
Jay is both a dog person and a cat person. He loves all things small and furry.
Zane is a cat person. They both respect each other's personal space.
Cole is a hardcore dog person, except where small dogs are concerned. He'll take even a cat over a Chihuahua.
Nya likes dogs best. She thinks cats are 'girly', but woe betide you if you suggest that that makes Kai 'girly'. He will always be the exception in her book.
Lloyd can't decide if he's a cat person or a dog person. Some days he likes dogs more; other days he likes cats more. It depends on his mood.
Eating Habits:
The ninja, like all Elemental Masters, have extremely high metabolisms due to their powers rapidly burning up their energy. All the ninja have very healthy appetites, due to being Elemental Masters, having very vigorous lifestyles, and being teenagers. Under Sensei Wu's influence, they all drink tea as well.
Kai is the second-biggest eater and burns energy the fastest. DO NOT steal his food, especially when he is still eating it. In regards to spicy food, he can eat Carolina reapers like jellybeans.
Jay eats whatever is in arm range and is a raging snackaholic. Because of this, he usually doesn't eat as much at proper mealtimes as the others do. He and Nya drink the most tea, but he uses too much sugar. About a drop of mild hot sauce is all the spice he can handle. Any more and he'll get a fever and start talking gibberish.
Zane doesn't need to eat, but does it anyway. While spicy food doesn't faze him, extreme spiciness may cause some strange... reactions. Too much spice has been known to make certain of his functions burn out.
Cole is the biggest eater, and it's probably scientific fact that he never gets full. He has lower tolerance for spicy food than he'll admit, and to 'prove' he can handle it he'll eat any chile on a dare, which Kai often takes advantage of.
Nya tries to set an example by being a very healthy eater, but she eats the occasional candy bar when she's certain no one's paying attention to her (see 'Secrets'). She feels a little guilty about it, and it doesn't do to mention it to her. She can handle a moderate amount of spiciness, but isn't particularly disposed toward it.
Lloyd tries to follow Nya's example, but we all know about his secret candy stash (see 'Secrets'). He also tries to 'be a man' when it comes to spicy food, but he has very low tolerance for spice, and even he realizes the futility of insisting he loves spicy food when a single jalapeƱo has him in tears. He keeps on trying to eat spicy food, trying to build up a resistance to it, but it's not working and the other ninja usually have to intervene before he hurts himself. He eats a little more than is good for him, due to childhood trauma. After he was kicked out of Darkley's Boarding School as a child, he had to fend for himself on the streets for several months before he took up with the ninja, during which time he very often went hungry. Lloyd now lives with a sort of starvation mentality, which he is slowly but surely outgrowing, and generally only stops eating when someone tells him to.
Sleeping Habits:
Kai is a very deep sleeper and hard to wake up. He completely destroys the bed in his sleep. It is not unusual for him to throw his bedclothes, and himself, across the room in the course of the night, or even kindle (figuratively and literally) his elemental powers (thankfully this doesn't happen very often).
Jay is a very light sleeper. He dreams almost constantly, twitches at everything, and mumbles in his sleep. It is very annoying.
Zane sleeps so still he looks dead, which is rather disturbing to watch. Nothing on earth can wake him up before he decides to.
Cole is an extremely deep sleeper who rarely dreams. He snores up a racket which is impossible to stop or block, but once you get used to it it's impossible to sleep without it.
Nya is a moderately deep sleeper. She snores (not as badly as Cole), and she knows it, but she will destroy you if you mention it to her.
Lloyd is prone to sleepwalking. He often loses his way back to bed and usually ends up in someone else's bed, but never Kai's. He got into Kai's bed once, and Kai threw him across the room. They were both asleep at the time and remain unaware of the event, but Lloyd now unconsciously avoids Kai's bed when he sleepwalks. He may not be able to find his own bed, but he darn well knows where Kai's is. He occasionally joins Cole on his midnight snack raids under this understanding: Cole will keep the secret of Lloyd's secret candy stash, and Lloyd will keep the secret of Cole's stealing food in the middle of the night (see 'Secrets').
Making the Bed:
Kai, to his credit, tries. But he always leaves the job halfway done, because he's always missing some of the bedclothes. Either he can't find the pillow, or one of the sheets, or even on occasion the mattress, so he just leaves it without. Nya usually finds the missing article later on and dumps it on his bed.
Jay spends about twenty minutes making his bed and making sure it is absolutely perfect, threatening his friends with what he will do to them if they so much as think about touching it. He usually ruins it halfway through the day by flopping on his bed to read comic books and such.
Zane takes less than five minutes to make his bed, and it turns out five-star-hotel worthy. Everyone else has at some point left their beds unmade in the hopes he would make them for them, but no such luck.
Cole sometimes remembers to make his bed. No one appreciates it when he does, because it turns out looking worse afterward than before.
Nya always makes her bed. It's not a very neat-looking job, but she doesn't think she has the time to waste on something so trivial.
Lloyd never makes his bed. It's one of his more despised chores. Also, it makes it harder for the others to tell if he's been out all night (see 'Secrets').
Coffee Habits:
Kai drinks two or three cups of pure espresso in the morning to get him functioning like a normal person.
Jay doesn't drink coffee. He drinks tea or hot chocolate. He tried coffee once and passed out from its tremendous power.
Zane doesn't drink coffee. He doesn't need it for energy or relaxation, and there are other things he likes the taste of better.
Cole is the biggest coffee drinker. He drinks it pure black, around the clock. It doesn't have any noticeable effect, positive or negative, on him.
Nya has a cup or two in the mornings to help energize her for the day. She takes it with a little sugar.
Lloyd is not a consistent coffee drinker, but still drinks it fairly often. He pretends to drink it black, but adds a ridiculous amount of milk and sugar when he thinks no one's watching (see 'Secrets').
Cooking:
Kai absolutely hates cooking. If you force him to cook, you can expect charcoal briquettes for dinner, although usually not deliberately on his part. He always leaves the kitchen black, and no one but Zane is brave enough to clean it up. He will deign to light the oven for his friends when it doesn't work, though, and may even be pressed into a little dish-washing.
Jay is a great cook, thanks to his mom, but only likes to make pancakes. They're really good pancakes, though, and he never makes them often enough to suit everyone else. He cleans up the kitchen after he's done, but is liable to miss corners.
Zane loves to cook and is amazing at it. He does most of the cooking and leaves the kitchen spotless. He is a little complacent about it.
Cole likes to cook, but sucks at it. He doesn't bother following recipes, and is familiar with only about half of the tools and ingredients in the kitchen. He always leaves the kitchen a huge mess, mostly on accident, and Zane is once again the only one who will dare clean it up. Cole is now banned from the kitchen.
Nya is mostly indifferent about cooking, but she doesn't mind taking a turn making dinner. She makes very little mess and cleans up as she goes. No one likes her food, as it's always full of gross health products, but she's constantly trying to persuade them to eat it. She's mostly unsuccessful, but, being very protective and motherly toward Lloyd, she always manages to force something down his throat and likes to think it's because of her that Lloyd's growing up healthy. He would beg to differ.
Lloyd doesn't hate cooking, but he definitely doesn't love it. His skills are very amateur, and he ends up making simple things like grilled cheese sandwiches, though he's not good with timers and watching things to make sure they don't burn. He hates clean-up, but does it because knows it's something he just can't skip.
Laundry:
Kai never does his own laundry. He waits until it's everyone else's laundry day, then slips his own clothes into their loads. They let him, knowing that if they don't, his clothes will never be washed. He knows not to mix his clothes in with Zane's, though.
Jay does laundry every week sharp, complete with bleaching, ironing, etc. He gets teased for it, but he used to help his mom with the laundry and he's not abandoning her training.
Zane doesn't have enough clothes for a full load, but scrubs everything out after he's worn it.
Cole generates dirty laundry the quickest. He's not necessarily opposed to doing laundry; he just forgets. He has much lower standards of cleanliness than the others, feeling comfortable in dirty clothes which the others would have thrown out long ago. He finally does a load or two when someone reminds him to.
Nya does laundry once she's accumulated enough dirty clothes for a load, but she scrubs out her ninja uniform after every time she wears it to stay fresh.
Lloyd doesn't hate laundry as much as his other chores. He's pretty punctual about doing it, but he always forgets to take it out of the washer. Nya will usually take it out and put it into the dryer for him, but occasionally she snaps and tells him to do it himself.
Bathing Habits:
Kai gets in the shower every single morning. He NEVER misses a day. He spends hours in there, and no one really wants to know what he's doing in there the whole time. He's also responsible for using up all the shampoo/conditioner/etc.
Jay is the only ninja to take baths instead of showers. He usually falls asleep in the tub and only roused by the furious knocking of one of his friends who needs to get in the bathroom. He's fairly consistent about it, though he might need reminding once in a while.
Zane doesn't bathe exactly; being a nindroid, he uses compressed air and polish instead of soap and water, but he's very consistent, giving himself a good thorough cleaning every morning and after every gritty mission. It's a bit more of a necessity for him than for the others, as being dirty can affect how his body functions quite drastically.
Cole needs to bathe more often than the others, being the Master of Earth and whatnot, but like with so many other things, he either forgets or just doesn't care. Dirt doesn't bother him in the slightest, and the others usually have to forcibly drag him (never an easy feat) to the shower when they can't stand his presence any longer.
Nya usually showers every other morning to stay fresh. She's a little paranoid about getting in before Kai does. She's not a freak about hygiene, but she does have standards, and no hot-water-hogging brother is going to keep her from living up to them.
Lloyd has a childish prejudice against bathing. He just never feels like interrupting whatever he's doing to go and get clean, so Nya makes it a point to haul him off to the shower every other day at least. She'll lock him in there and threaten not to let him out until he's done his duty, but once he actually gets in the shower he's pretty compliant and is happy to get clean.
Secrets:
Kai:
No one know exactly how much hair gel he uses, but no one really wants to know.
He relies on Nya for protection way more than he would like to admit (everyone kind of knows, but knows better than to mention it).
He pretends to hate cats, but actually loves them. If he sees a cat on the street, he'll pet it, but only when he's sure no one is looking (only Nya knows).
He has a tattoo of a water-and-fire fusion dragon on his lower back, which he got after the events of 'The Hands of Time'. He now slightly regrets it and is really nervous about what the others might think of it, so he tries to keep it hidden from them (everybody knows, as they've seen him sprawled out in the mornings somewhere or another plenty of times with his clothes in disarray, but they let him think it's still a secret).
Jay:
He flexes in front of the mirror (Cole catches him at it all the time).
Once, before he became a ninja, he tried to dye his hair blond, and it turned pink. He has since destroyed any photographic evidence and lives in terror that his parents might spill something to his friends.
He still fears that Kai will ban his and Nya's relationship.
Zane:
He used to take scans of his sleeping friends at night to see what they were dreaming. Exactly why he stopped is unknown, but it was either after watching one too many weird Jay dreams, or after Kai dreamed a little robot was getting into his head and he threw his mattress at Zane.
He breakdances in his alone time.
Cole:
He goes on midnight snack raids (Lloyd is the only one who knows).
He sneaks looks at Jay's collection of Fritz Donnegan comic books.
His middle name is Fabian.
Nya:
She eats the occasional candy bar in the midst of her strict health-food diet (Kai knows, but keeps it a secret to spare her feelings).
If she finds coins lying on the ground, she spends them at bubblegum machines. If caught, she claims it's to freshen her breath (only Kai and Jay have caught her at it; Kai isn't fooled but humors her, and Jay believes her).
She experiments with makeup in the bathroom, then washes it all off before she comes out. She hides the makeup in with her socks, where she knows nobody will look.
She actually does enjoy chick flicks (only Jay knows).
She wants everyone to believe she initially cut her hair so short to keep it out of the way when she was blacksmithing, but the real reason is because when she was a little girl, she tried to put her then-quite-long hair into a fancy princess style. The result was that most of her hair got so tangled it had to be chopped off. It started growing out, but by then she had gotten used to shorter hair, so she kept it short (only Kai knows).
Lloyd:
He hoards candy in his pillowcase (Cole is the only one who knows).
He still thinks Fritz Donnegan is pretty cool.
He occasionally borrows Kai's hair gel (Kai pays such close attention to how much hair gel he has that he knows somebody is borrowing it; he just hasn't figured out who).
He drinks coffee white (everyone knows it, but he doesn't know that they know).
He sometimes sneaks out at night, and stays out; still having a child-like mentality, the night holds infinite fascination for him. He tries to get back before the others wake up, but usually falls asleep on the couch (only Nya and Zane know, as they get up early enough in the mornings to see him, but he's sworn them into secrecy).
Other Random Stuff:
Kai:
He got into countless fights when he was little. Both his front teeth were knocked out before his grown-up teeth were ready, and so for several years he had a big gap in his teeth.
Jay:
He can continuously scream for five minutes straight without taking a breath. The others found this out the hard way one Day of the Departed when they all watched a horror movie together. Kai's made it a personal mission to try and get Jay to break that record.
Lloyd:
He has a bad habit of sneaking up on people and silently watching them for hours on end. He'll drop onto windowsills or sit up on the fridge or a shelf and just stare at his friends and whatever stupid things they're doing. It usually takes them at least ten minutes to spot him, and by then it's too late. However, he always keeps whatever he saw them doing a secret.
