INT. LLOYD'S BEDROOM – DAY
We fade in to see Lloyd sleeping on a futon in his cramped and tiny bedroom. His cell phone begins to ring. The BORG INDUSTRIES logo can be seen on it. His phone's ringtone is the chorus of "The Weekend Whip" by The Fold.
[Song: The Weekend Whip by The Fold]
[Just jump up, kick back, whip around and spin! Then we jump back, do it again! Ninja-Go! Ninja-]
Lloyd wakes up and fumbles around to answer his phone. His eyes open and we see that they are green. He answers his phone and it is his father, Garmadon, on a video call.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Luh-loyd?"
"Dad, how many times do we have to go through this? It's just Lloyd."
"Nuh-uh. L-L-O-Y-D. I named you."
Lloyd sighs, puts his Lego hands to his face and does the minifig equivalent of a facepalm.
"Okay, I know I'm gonna regret this but I'll bite. What is it?" Lloyd cringes.
"What? A conquering warlord can't greet his own son a happy birthday?"
"Oh, uh, that's actually nice of you. Ummm, thanks Dad." Lloyd relaxes.
"And I even got a surprise for you! Now close your eyes. No peeking."
Lloyd closes his eyes.
"I'm not." Lloyd says then he whispers to himself. "Please be a car. Please be a car. Or something mundane."
Garmadon brings the camera phone to another room.
"See, I was working on a new MEGAWEAPON and I ended up with a lot of prototypes. I thought it would be a waste for them to just rot in storage so I decided to make something out of them. And so, SURPRISE!"
Lloyd opens his eyes and sees Garmadon showing a room full of various devices and weapons. A WAR HAMMER can be seen on top of a pedestal at the center of the room. Beside Garmadon, a dummy dressed in green robes is strapped to a torture rack by the arms and legs. Lloyd is shocked and confused when he sees this.
"I… what?"
"Isn't it great? It's your very own torture chamber! I mean, I was going to use it on that pesky Green Ninja who keeps foiling me at every turn but I was thinking maybe we could both watch that do-gooder suffer together."
Garmadon pulls a lever and the torture rack is activated. It stretches the green dummy, pulling apart its arms and legs. The head and torso fall to the floor comically.
Lloyd is utterly horrified.
"What? Dad, no! I don't want a torture chamber! Why would I even want one?"
Garmadon is genuinely confused.
"But you used to love torture chambers."
"That was just a phase I went through. I'm over it now."
Garmadon is visibly disappointed.
"Oh. I see." Garmadon says then he whispers to himself. "Wow, they really do grow up so fast. One day, bodily dismemberment is your favorite form of entertainment. The next, it's a "violation of human rights."
Garmadon makes air quotes with his Lego hands. He looks back at Lloyd.
"That's okay. I get it. I get it. Physical torture is child's play. You want to move on to something more sophisticated."
"Wait, that's not…"
"How about we spend some quality time together, just the two of us, some father-son bonding?"
"That… doesn't sound so bad."
"Great! What do say you and your old man crash the stock market together and perpetuate wealth inequality?"
"Dad! No! That's not what I meant!"
Garmadon deflates.
"Oh. We could... burn down some orphanages?"
Lloyd facepalms again.
"Dad, you've burned down all the orphanages. There aren't any left."
"All of them?"
"ALL OF THEM!" Lloyd angrily shouts.
"We could make more orphans!"
"Dad! No! That's not… uuugghhh! Please dad! Just for once, can we do something normal and not… evil?"
Both are silent for a beat.
"Wanna… go get some ice cream together?"
Lloyd is exasperated.
"YES! PLEASE! Just no more…"
"Excellent! We'll steal all the ice cream in the city!"
"Auuughhh! DAD, STOP! NO MORE STEALING! NO MORE PROPERTY DAMAGE! NO MORE HURTING OTHER PEOPLE! I'M DONE WITH ALL OF THAT! That's not who I am anymore. I just want a nice normal family bonding experience." Lloyd says then he whispers to himself. "Just trying to have a clean slate here."
Garmadon squints at Lloyd.
"Wait a minute, are you going soft on me, Luh-Loyd?"
"It's not called going soft, Dad. It's called being a decent person. Maybe you should try it sometime."
Garmadon gives Lloyd a judging, condescending stare.
"Sometimes I don't know why I even bother. Until you rediscover the darkness in your heart, you're no son of mine. Unhappy Birthday Luh-loyd."
Garmadon ends the call.
Lloyd flops on his futon and groans.
A/N: This is essentially the same scene as from the movie but I changed Garmadon's character from "evil and doesn't care about his son" to "evil and loves his son and wants his son to be evil".
It also better explains why everyone hates Lloyd and why it would be hard to believe he is the Green Ninja. They all remember him when he was as evil as his father. Lloyd may be reformed now, but some things are hard to forgive.
Yes, that War Hammer will be plot relevant.
Replies:
BeBeGirl: Thanks for the comment! There's a lot more awesomeness in store!
StoriesAreMagic: I'm glad you were able to pick up on the homages to the tv show and the concept art references! That's what Project Rebuild is all about!