Autobiography of a Legend

Morro, the Green Ninja

Many of you likely remember that I started this book by saying that sometimes I thought Morro had a point. That wasn't me just saying something shocking to get your attention. I needed to make clear what sort of book this was. Zane said that you have to establish tone in the first chapter. I know at the start of this, that was probably crazy to read. Now that you've read this far, I think that you all can understand a little more of why I would think that.

I've talked a lot about destiny in these chapters. It's something that's been a big part of my life ever since I was born. It was destiny that my father left to train under Chen and had me as a result. It was destiny that I would one day have to become the Green Ninja and defeat the Overlord. It was destiny that my father was betrayed by the Serpentine and then sent out into the Endless Sea to discover the Dark Island. In a way, it felt like destiny that I'd one day have to go and fight Morro like I did.

The thing is, I haven't really said what I thought destiny is yet. Wu has defined it a lot of different ways. The others can't really give me a simple description of it. Every time I've gone to see what other people say about it, everyone just likes to philosophize about what it means. I've spent a lot of time thinking about destiny, probably more than I really should have. After all this time this is what I think it means:

Destiny is what you're meant to do. It's a sort of like a force that guides you to places that you have to get to. I don't mean physical places that you have to go. I mean things that have to happen. My father had to find the Dark Island. I had to be shown to be the Green Ninja. I had to be born to my mother and father. If you can say that you had to do something, that's destiny at work.

The thing is, I don't think destiny is in the little things. If you have to show up to work, that's not destiny. It's not destiny that I unleashed the Serpentine. It was destiny for me to be taken in by the ninja. I know that sounds weird to say. It's like, the way that you get to the things you have to do isn't destiny. My dad could have gone to the Dark Island a lot of different ways. He could have put more pressure on the Serpentine so they didn't betray them and instead found the island with them. Or, he could have gotten us to find it for him. I don't know how that would have happened, but that's the point! Destiny are these things that we just have to have happen.

There is one other way that I've really thought of describing it, and it's something that I actually overheard from Jay. When someone goes to remake a movie or game, they have to have a few things happen. You can change and redo a lot, but for it to still be the original game, you have to keep certain things the same. If you strip a game to a few things that have to happen, those points are what developers have to work around. Or, that's what I've heard. What I'm getting at here, is that if you strip away someone's life to the bare things that make them who they are, destiny is what makes sure that you get there.

Like, with me. I was born as Lord Garmadon's son. I was led to making way to bring my father back into Ninjago, and was taken in by the ninja. I was found to be the Green Ninja, prophesied to defeat the Overlord. My father found the Dark Island, and was possessed by the Overlord. That led me to having to defeat my father and the Overlord at the same time. These things, those exact things, are my destiny. It didn't have to be the Serpentine that I awakened. I didn't have to be put in danger to get my father to come back to Ninjago. I know that, some of what I've said so far is a little off compared to that, but it's true. If you were trying to make a game out of my life, as long as you hit those beats, you could change anything else between them and still have it be about me in the end. I know the video game analogy isn't the best, but I wanted to use it after hearing Jay talk to me about remakes and remasters and rereleases... which I still don't entirely get the difference between them all but, I don't play video games enough to get that. But, the reason that I wanted to get all of this down about destiny, was because it was something that Morro and I argued about until the very end of what happened.