**Prophecy spoilers ahead**

These two... they're such a typical fanfic trope that if I had more self-loathing, I'd make fun of myself for it. But luckily I love both of them too much to ridicule their existence.

I think a lot of people choose twins in their Ninjago next gens due to the Krux/Acronix fact that twins can both inherit elemental powers. So, why wouldn't you make your entire cast filled with twins? Powers all around!

I was not thinking this way upon creating Shade and Morro. If I had twin boys, then it would fester confusion amongst the masses as to who was the son of Oni and Light. Because I had said SON, not SONS. Making twins was a way to create conflict, and conflict helps drive a story. So, I stuck with the twins idea.

I did try to stick to the whole Krux/Acronix thing when giving them elemental powers. Krux and Acronix had to split their power in half, so I did the same thing with Lloyd's power. Lloyd controls energy, or rather, the creation and destruction of it. He can summon energy to his fists, and he can retract it. When thinking about how to split this up amongst the twins, the answer became readily obvious. One twin creates. The other takes away. Blow both of those halves out of proportion and you get the messes that Shade and Morro had to bundle along through most of Prophecy. It was a fun bit of worldbuilding, and I do not regret pulling the twins trope in order to do this.

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We'll start with Shade, because while he may be younger, he certainly is a bit more prominent.

Shade is adored by the masses, being a reincarnation of his father physically, emotionally and intelligently. He's just a nice person all around. He makes decent enough grades in school, is kind to everyone, and trains relentlessly for his mission. In a sense, he is the perfect child.

It's the reason Shade doesn't have a lot of POVs early on in the book. The other characters have to show us how perfect he is. We're not allowed to see what's really going on inside his head, because that would spoil later tension. I think there are many people out there who believe they have to keep up an image to please the masses. Shade has worked so hard to be loved by everyone, that along the way, he's lost himself. The mask of perfection has consumed him, and much like Harumi, that mask is going to take a while to finally shed.

I wanted to take a different route with this character. In a lot of books I've read, the "broken" characters need some sort of romance to fix them (e.g. "you're my other half" or "I'm incomplete without you"). I wanted to see a story where self-love was put first, so I wrote it. Shade doesn't get a love interest by the end of Prophecy, AND THAT'S OKAY. He's definitely not in the mental state to handle one, and as the Epilogue presents, he was happy never getting into one. Self-love is never pushed hard enough in stories. We don't need others to be complete. We are complete in and with ourselves. A relationship is only sharing that completeness with someone else.

Now, I had a lot of fun with the whole "opposite power thing", because I may have taken it a bit far. Introducing Morro...

The firstborn knockoff of the actual Morro, except without all that loveable sarcasm. Yes, Morro Jr. is a Walmart version of Morro Snr.

Morro Jr. looked exactly like Shade (they are identical twins) until puberty, in which they both sprang in the opposite directions. While Shade grew perfectly, Morro shifted into the lanky and awkward teen we see in Prophecy. Morro is constantly being bested at everything by his brother, even if Shade isn't meaning to be rude. Morro doesn't like crowds, he doesn't like idiots, and he certainly isn't the biggest fan of leaving his comfortable home to go on a camping adventure. But it's required of him, so he does it (unwillingly). He loves his family, it's just that he feels unworthy compared to his brother.

Now, remember the polar opposites thing? Yes, that comes into play here. Both Morro and Shade's fatal flaw is INSECURITY. They are both on totally different sides of the spectrum. Shade is loved, and he's insecure because he knows people are shallow. Morro is unloved, and insecure that no one will ever see him like they do Shade. These polar opposites of insecurity were a lot of fun to play with. With Shade, it led him to the brink of hysteria and mental breakdowns. With Morro, it almost ruined his one chance at love (though Noria's Shadow Bay morals didn't help with that either). Shade had it worse. Either way, the polar opposites thing was a lot of fun to play around with, and it doesn't stop here!

The powers themselves are contradicting things, but opposites definitely do attract. Imagine Shade having the power to create energy. Yes, this would make him more of a Walmart Lloyd, but it would take away the conflict. The power to create energy was never seen as dangerous as the power to take it away. If Shade got the "good" side of the element, then it might make him just a bit too perfect. Shade is constantly terrified throughout Prophecy that his powers are accidentally going to kill someone, and without this conflict, the interesting facets of his character drop significantly. Same thing with Morro. If Morro had the power to deplete energy, not only would a lot of people be more dead, but he'd also be a lot more psychopathic and probably the villain. In Morro's head, he got the "easy" side of the power, so it makes the fact that he struggles to control it even more humiliating in his head. This internal humiliation creates (you've guessed it) CONFLICT.

Thus, opposites do attract. The "good" boy got the "bad" power and the "bad" boy got the "good" power. It's all in quotations because those words are generalizations, but I think you all get my point.

In the end, I think they turned out okay. I'm a sucker for symbolism, parallelism, etc., and these two are stuffed with that. Shade's got a bit more symbolism attached to him that wasn't explained here, but that's a different article for a different time. There's some Shade and Morro in 2.5, so I hope you all enjoyed "seeing" them again. :-)

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Questions for shenanigans --> Considering the events of Prophecy and my notes above, which twin would be more likely to work at a McDonald's?

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Until next time,

squidneyxd