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Kai is the deuteragonist of the Ninjago franchise. He is a human male from the world of Ninjago, the Elemental Master and Ninja of 'Fire, and one of the four original members of the Ninjas. He is the son of Maya and Ray, the older brother of Nya's, the best friend/surrogate brother of Lloyd Garmadon, a close friend of Zane, Cole and formerly Jay Walker, a former student of Master Wu, and current mentor of Wyldfyre. Since the disappearance of his parents, he had taken it upon himself to keep the family business going and vowed to surpass his father's smithing skills.

For most of his time as Wu's student, Kay trained to become the legendary Green Ninja. Unlike his friends, Kai didn't reach his true potential until he saw Lloyd in danger. He realized his and the original ninjas' true purpose was to protect  Lloyd, the true Green Ninja.

Throughout the series Kai transitions from a hot-tempered boy to a courageous young man who becomes a mentor and more patient individual.

Portrayal[]

  • He is voiced by Vincent Tong, who voiced Prince Nicholas in Barbie: Princess Charm School, Flash Sentry from My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Garble and Sandbar in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Eugene Wong in Dragons: The Nine Realms, Jestro in Nexo Knights, Huckleberry Pie from Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City, various versions of Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic Prime and Avan in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai.
  • His movie counterpart is voiced by Michael Peña, who portrays Luis in Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • In the LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids handheld game, he is voiced by Nolan North. In
  • LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, he is voiced by Taylor Clarke-Hill.

History[]

Personality[]

Impatience makes everything worse, Wyldfyre. It clouds your judgment, and you make bad decisions. Trust me, I know from experience.
―Kai to Wyldfyre

Kai is known for his cocky demeanor and fiery personality, inheriting this trait and his element from his father Ray. He is capable of making careful observations when the need arises, but his emotions often override his caution. His single-mindedness made interaction with his teammates difficult at first (especially due to his worry about Nya), but he eventually learned to work with the other ninja. He can be very cocky at times, especially earlier in his career as a ninja, sometimes even to the point of selfishness, insisting that he is better than others, gloating about his victory, or yelling about his failures.

There are times when Kai feels like he's useless or insignificant at times or not as good as the other ninja, leading him to become arrogant and hard core

Since the disappearance of his parents, he had taken it upon himself to keep the family business going and vowed to surpass his father's smithing skills. He also took it upon himself to look after his younger sister Nya, but they started the responsibility of looking out for each other ever since their parents' disappearance. Kai later extended his brotherly affection to his best friend, Lloyd Garmadon,, who eventually became the younger brother he and Nya never had. Kai has protected him ever since it was revealed that he and his friends were fated to be the younger boy's guardians and teachers as the Green Ninja. He is also dead set on freeing Lloyd from being possessed by Wu's first student, promising to look after him more after his father's sacrifice, occasionally ruffling his hair as a sign of endearment.

Before owning his true potential, Kai was fairly arrogant and hot-tempered due to being determined to embrace a destiny of being the Green Ninja dedicated to saving the world by defeating a great evil, thought to be Lloyd's father, Lord Garmadon. Due to this, Kai boldly went up against Garmadon when he stayed with the Ninja but Kai was easily defeated. This is especially pronounced during Lord Garmadon's stay on the Destiny's Bounty; Kai repeatedly accused the four-armed villain of treachery or plotting despite Garmadon's insistence that saving Lloyd was his primary concern at the time.  

Additionally the belief that he is the Green ninja prevented Kai from reaching his true potential. Once it became clear to Kai that he was never fated to be the Green Ninja after seeing Lloyd in grave danger, he chose to save him instead of the Fangblade and embrace his new destiny as Lloyd's friend and the Ninja of Fire. He also earned Garmadon's respect, thanking Kai for saving his son's life.

After gaining Wyldfyre as a student, Kai became mature and wise beyond his years. As the student was just a younger version of himself, Kai spoke from personal experiences and advised Wyld to not let impatience guide her because it clouds their judgment.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

  • Pyrokinesis: As the Elemental Master and the Ninja of  Fire, Kai inherited his element from his father, thus allowing to control, negate, and manipulate fire. He can either throw it, use it as boxing gloves, or unleash a burst of flames towards his opponents.
    • Smoke Emission
    • Pyrogenesis: Kai can create Fire with his own hands.
      • Fire Blasts: Kai can throw fire blasts and attacks at his enemies.
      • Fire Constructs:
      • Fire Resistance: Kai can survive through the fire's high temperature and pressure.
    • Fire Dragon conjuration: Kai unlocked his Fire Dragon after conquering his inner fears and doubts. The dragon allows him to travel quickly through the air and shoot large blasts of Fire that deal devastating damage.
    • Pyrokinetic Flight - This gives the user the power to propel themselves up or forward using Fire.
    • Fire Shield Construction - The user can create shields of varying shapes and sizes out of fire.
    • Heat Generation/Absorption - The user can generate or absorb heat for a variety of purposes, by making things hotter or melting objects
    • Fire Blast - The user can release fire over a specific target area causing great damage and/or delivering great shock waves of pure force.
  • Spinjitzu: Kai knows and can perform Spinjitzu, with his version channeling Fire.
    • Rising Dragon: Kai is capable of performing Rising Dragon through his Spinjitzu.
    • Airjitzu: Kai is capable of performing Airjitzu.
  • Psychic link

Abilities[]

  • Skilled Combatant
    • Art of the Silent First
  • Swordsmanship
  • Leadership and Tactician
  • Skilled Blacksmith
  • Driving: Kai is a Master motorcyclist and car driver,  owning two motorcycles, Blade Cycle and the Super Bike, cars and controls four Mechs (Climber Mech, Elemental Fire Mech, Elemental Fire Mech, and the Mech Jet in the Season 12: Prime Empire, during the Speedway Five-Billion.)

Weaknesses[]

  • Arrogance: For the most part, Kai's hot temper and arrogance gets the better of him, leading him to make rash and terrible decisions. However by Season 1 of Dragons Rising, Kai is older but wiser, advising his student Wyldfyre to think events through before rushing into it.
  • Thalassophobia: Kai stated he had a great fear of water and swimming in deep waters, which becomes ironic later because his mother and sister were both Elemental Masters of Water. But he has no problem swimming in some episodes and certain seasons for no explanation why. He may have gotten over his fears in season 7 but in a later season his fear of swimming comes back.

Equipment[]

  • Swords, Katanas, and Blades
    • Sword of Fire
    • Elemental Blade
    • Techno Blade
    • Aeroblade
    • Dragon Blade
    • Twin Katanas
    • Golden katana: As of Season 11: Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu, Kai uses his golden katana.
    • Prime Blade: Kai's personal weapon used in the Prime Empire, which helped him fight to get the purple Key-Tana.
    • Machete: In Season 13: Master of the Mountain, Kai briefly used a machete as his weapon.

Transportation[]

  • Motorcycle(s): Kai owns two motorcycles, Blade Cycle, which he summoned at will after focusing on the Sword of Fire, and the Super Bike, which was a gift from Nya when she was hiding from the Police Commissioner and Ronin.
  • Mechs:
    • Climber Mech
    • Elemental Fire Mech
    • Elemental Fire Mech
    • Mech Jet (in the Season 12: Prime Empire, during the Speedway Five-Billion)
  • Cars: Prototype X-1 (briefly) & ATV when he and his friends searched for a quest that ultimately led to releasing Aspheera from her tomb.
  • Dragons
    • Flame: Starting in "King of Shadows," Kai rode this dragon, first summoning him when he fought the Skulkin and the Serpentine.
    • Elemental Fire Dragon: A dragon that can only be summoned by the true Elemental Master of Fire. Kai could summon it at will when he conquered his fear. He used it when he fought the Anacondrai Cultists. It first appeared in "The Day of the Dragon."
    • Fire Dragon (Core): Kai rode it during his search for Master Wu, starting in "Balance."
    • Terra Dragon: Kai rode this dragon when he and the others were at the Crossroads to close a MergeQuake rift. This dragon decided to stay with the Ninja after being liberated. It first appeared in "Mindless Beasts".

Former equipment[]

Facilities[]

  • Four Weapons Shop: Black smithery shop in their hometown of Ignacia. Nya and Kai lived at the black smithery with their parents. Kai kept his father's blacksmith shop alive in his father's absence.
  • The Destiny's Bounty: The ship that serves as the Ninjas' base of operations.
  • Monastery of Spinjitzu

Relationships[]

Gallery[]

Heroes and Villains has a collection of images and media related to Kai (Ninjago).

Appearances[]

Sets

Boxed Sets

Polybags

Magazine Gifts

Books with Minifigure Gifts

Misc Sets

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu

Season 1: Rise of the Snakes

Season 2: Legacy of the Green Ninja

Season 3: Rebooted

Season 4: Tournament of Elements

Season 5: Possession

Season 6: Skybound

Day of the Departed

Season 7: The Hands of Time

Happy Birthday to You!

Season 8: Sons of Garmadon

Season 9: Hunted

Tales from the Monastery of Spinjitzu

Season 10: March of the Oni

Season 11: Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

Prime Empire Original Shorts

Season 12: Prime Empire

Season 13: Master of the Mountain

The Island

Season 14: Seabound

Ninjago: Reimagined

The Virtues of Spinjitzu

Season 15: Crystalized

Ninjago NXT

Ninjago: Dragons Rising

Season 1

The Elemental Mechs

Season 2

Wyldfyre's Voice Notes

Books

Ninjago Magazine

Legacy edition

Plays

Video games

Trivia[]

  • Kai is the first character to speak in the franchise.
  • Due to being protective of his sister and loving her unconditionally, people didn't understand why Kai wasn't broken up about it as much as Jay was. According to Tommy Andreasen, the reason why Kai didn't cry was due to him being in shock as people handle grief in different ways.
  • In the original series, Kai is the only ninja and protagonist who has never defeated a main and/or final antagonist alone.
  • Before Lloyd, Kai was the main character of the show. The turning point for this was "The Green Ninja," when Kai realized his destiny was not to become the Green Ninja, but to protect him.
  • Kai has a habit of ruffling Lloyd's hair, which is seen in "Pirates vs. Ninja," "Winds of Change," and "The Mask of Deception." Like Nya, Kai considers Lloyd to be another brother which is especially seen in Season 5 when he promised to look after him as he was still grieving about Garmadon's sacrifice.
  • Lloyd and Kai as the Green and Red Ninjas respectfully can be traced to that of the same colors in Chinese mythology and culture.
  • Kai hates technology but learns to love it by playing video games all day.


Navigation[]

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Lloyd Garmadon (movie) • Kai (movie) • Jay (movie) • Cole (movie)• Naya (movie) • Master Wu (movie) • Garmadon (movie) • Misako Montgomery Garmadon (movie) • GripeKorgranPlundarBenthomaarAdamCouncil of the Crystal KingElemental MastersSoraWyldfyreArinGreat DevourerHutchinsEmperor of NinjagoEmpress of NinjagoHarumiGreat DevourerKalmaarKorgranMaaray GuardsRayMayMorroMystakeQueen VaniaVangelisNinjaRiyuSkylorThe MechanicThe Overlord
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