Jaya

Jaya is the het ship between Jay and Nya from the Ninjago fandom.

Pilot
Kai, Nya’s older brother, first mentions Nya to Jay, and the other ninja, when informing them that she has been kidnapped by the Skulkin. Jay is quickly intrigued by the notion of saving a girl, asking immediately if she is "hot", and whether she is a fan of the color blue or not. Jay is promptly told by Kai to back off. However, Jay has quickly become smitten by a girl he is yet to meet.

When Jay and Nya meet, Jay is unable to speak to her, as he has lost his voice. Despite this, he still tries his best to flirt, asking about her favorite color with little success. However, Zane steps in, and asks Nya the question on his behalf, explaining to Nya that he cannot speak. Nya answers Jay’s question, claiming blue to be her favorite color, which delights Jay.

At the end of the pilot episodes, Jay excitedly runs towards Nya once the day is saved, wanting a hug after seeing Nya give one to her older brother, Kai. Nya grants him this, and gives Jay a hug. This delights Jay, as he begins to think he is beginning to win over Nya.

Mini-Movies
In “Secrets of the Blacksmith”, Jay gives Nya a ride on his dragon back to the blacksmith shop, so that she can pack up her belongings, in order to move into the Ninja’s monastery. While Nya is inside, fighting off Skulkin, Jay debates with himself on how to impress and ask out Nya. When Nya sounds a gong, it catches Jay’s attention, making him jump into action, thinking she is in trouble. By the time Jay is inside, Nya has dealt with the threat, and claims that nothing is wrong. Jay accepts Nya’s answer, and they fly back to the monastery on Jay’s dragon, Wisp.

March of the Oni
Through out Season 10, Jay plans to propose to Nya to be his Yang with the Yin-Yang Promise, which is the equivalent to a marriage proposal.

In "The Darkness Comes" Jay practices his proposal with Kai. Kai tells Jay to be confident when proposing, but Jay think it doesn't feel right. Dareth interrupts and Kai tells him about the proposal, telling him to keep it a secret. Nya suddenly walks in wearing a kimono, Jay looks at her smiling. She asks what they were doing. Jay sneaks the Yin-Yang medallion behind Dareth to Kai and then asks Nya about her kimono.

On the Destiny's Bounty, Kai asks if Jay is ever gonna propose to Nya yet, Jay responds he's waiting for the right time. Cole heard the conversation and is excited for Jay proposing to Nya. Later, Jay nervously holds the medallion behind him and approaches Nya. He was about to propose when suddenly Garmadon walks behind Nya, making him get startled. When Garmadon left, Nya asks what he was gonna say but Jay tells her it can wait.

During the final battle against the Oni army, the ninja closed the gates to the monastery. When everything seems to be at it's final moments, Jay immediately proposes to Nya on the spot. Kai and Cole complain about Jay's sense of timing, but Jay worries there may not anymore time. Nya accepts and hugs Jay. They place each half of the medallion on their suits. After the fight was over, they immediately hugged each other.

Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu
In “The Belly of The Beast”, the ninja are trying to retrieve a component of the land bounty that has been swallowed by a giant beetle. Jay shoots the beast with electricity, he gets thrown up into the air. Luckily, Nya manages to catch him. He thanks her and says “I love you”. When they arrive at the Pyramid, Jay and Nya solve a puzzle together to open a gate. Zane warns them not to solve it, but it was too late. They all got get chained up on the Pyramid walls after freeing Aspheera from the gate. The Ninja manages to pull the chains off the wall, but Jay being at the far end of the chains nearly falls into the rising lava below. Nya manages to save him by pulling the chains, he thanks her and says “I love you”.

In “An Unlikely Ally” Cole asks if Nya could use her water powers to move the snow, she answers with no. He complains about her powers being useless, Jay is trying to stop him by making hand gestures. Nya throws a snowball at Cole in frustration, Jay laughs at that.

In “Krag’s Lament”, the ninja are now in the Never-Realm. Jay and Nya pair up to search for Cole in the mountains. They find Krag’s cave and got into a fight with the beast. Cole was able to stop the fight, saying that Krag is a friend of his.

When they return home to Ninjago, Jay and Nya were the first few to cross the portal.

Prime Empire
In the short “Let’s Dance”, Nya and Jay bump in to each other. Nya apologies, Jay says they could never get in sync and kisses her hand. Nya wants to do something fun together. Jay suggests to go to the arcade while Nya says she wants to try dance lessons. She convinces Jay to go on to the dance lesson with her. He agrees, but tells her to keep it just between them. At the dance lesson, Nya is wearing a pink robe. Jay didn’t expect to go fancy and was about to head back to change, Nya grabs his hand saying she just wanted to take it seriously, thinking she might’ve overdressed. They begin to dance, but Nya accidentally steps on Jay’s foot, she apologizes, he says they can try again. The instructor say that Jay’s performance great, while Nya not so much, saying that she ruined Jay’s form. Jay gives a glare at the instructor. Nya asks how Jay was so good at dancing, he thinks he’s just a natural. They dance again, but Jay gets carried away with dancing and leaves Nya alone. After he finished his solo dance, he notices Nya saddened being left alone. So he invites her to dance again, this time together. They dance successfully and the crowd cheers. Nya appreciates Jay for joining her in an activity she wanted to do, but now it’s her turn to return the favor by joining him to the arcade. Jay shows his favorite game, Dancy Pants. Nya now realizes why Jay was so good at dancing. Jay extends his arm to invite her to dance, but get interrupted by a call from Lloyd. Jay was about to leave, but Nya takes his hand saying they have something more important to do. They start to dance to Dancy Pants, while a crowd forms around them cheering them on.

In “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”, Jay and Nya enter a dance competition in Prime Empire. They hit it off with their dances from their dance lesson and playing Dancy Pants, making Cole, Lloyd, and Kai surprised. They see a pair of blue haired dancers dancing well together. Jay gets worried that it wasn’t such a great idea to enter the competition. Nya tells Jay that something the pair of dancers doesn’t have, chemistry. As the competition continues, the blue haired pair starts to cheat their way to victory. The blue haired girl of the pair who previously threatened Jay, kicks Nya in the heel. Jay and Nya realizes that the pair are cheating. The Red visors soon arrive. Jay and Nya fight them off while dancing, earning them more points. With 30 seconds left on the timer, Jay and Nya do their last dance move with Jay swinging Nya in the air, announcing his love for her and winning the competition.

In "The Temple of Madness", Jay and Nya are the only Ninja left to stay alive after the rest were turned to energy cubes. They reach a stage involving a conveyor belt with rotating shurikens, but the shurikens can glitch without warning. Jay and Nya begin to act like they were dancing to move around the shurikens. Jay nearly falls off the platform, Nya catches him in time. In the next stage, they enter a sushi restaurant. Jay happily sits down, thinking it was a stage for them to rest, but Nya is suspicious it could be a stage to trick them. The waitress of the restaurant attacks them, summoning monster sushis, which they both manage to destroy. Three sushi chefs begin to attack them, they destroy 2 while one was thrown out a door. They reached the final stage, Jay inserts the three key-tanas to clear the firewall, they embrace a hug before entering. Just then, Nya notices one of the red sushi chefs, he throw a malice at Jay and Nya. Nya pushes Jay aside and gets turned into an energy cube. Jay throws back the malice at the sushi chef, eliminating it for good. Jay is in despair, saying he can't do it alone and needed Nya to not leave him. Unagami disrupts him, saying he should save his sentiments for later. Before Jay faces against Unagami, he tells the energy cubed Nya that he's gonna set things right.

After Unagami frees everyone in Prime Empire, Jay and Nya reunite, he spins her in the air and gives her a kiss on the cheek.

Master of the Mountain
Jay, Nya, and Lloyd enter the Munce’s Cave where they meet Queen Murtessa. Jay greets her and she immediately grows a liking to him because of his modesty. Murtessa then turns to Nya, who she thought was Jay’s servant. Jay corrects her saying she’s his Yang, Nya adding on that it means they belong together. Murtessa gets jealous, but doesn’t say anything. She requests her subjects to give the ninja whatever they wanted, even to “Yang Servant” Nya.

Nya gets frustrated being called “Yang Servant” and she was upset at Jay for not saying anything. Lloyd manages to stop the two from arguing. Munce guards say that Murtessa requests Jay to come dine with her and him only. Nya argues they’re a team, saying that wherever Jay goes, she and Lloyd come too. At the dine room, Murtessa was excited to see Jay enter the room, only to get upset when Nya and Lloyd come in too. Murtessa starts asking a few questions to Jay. When she asks if he had elemental powers, he answers that he does. Nya tries to say that they (the ninja) all have elemental powers, but Murtessa cuts her off, ignoring her, making Nya annoyed. She then asks Jay if he was betrothed to anyone, Nya replies that he is, to her. Murtessa gets angry and challenges Nya to a ritual fight for Jay. At first Nya denies, Murtessa then starts teasing her, she gets annoyed and accepts to fight her.

While preparing for the fight, Jay begs for her to not fight, saying there might be another way. Nya asks if Jay knew what would happen if she didn’t fight for him. Jay is quiet, she adds on that he’d be needing to stay at the Munce’s cave with Murtessa forever, becoming her king. He realizes and says that he doesn’t want to stay at the cave eating the disgusting food, so he encourages Nya to win the battle, she replies that she intends too. During the battle, Jay gets scared that she might lose, Lloyd says she’s got this. Nya claims victory and Murtessa loses, the Munce were surprised by it. They start calling her “Queen Nya”, Jay says he did not see that coming.

The Island
While being chased by giant stone golems, Nya stops at a cliff. Jay accidentally bumps behind her pushing her towards the cliff. Luckily, Jay catches her in time.

Later, Jay was brought to be a gift to “Wojira” by the Keepers of The Amulet. Kai asks who would want Jay as a gift, Nya responds that she would.

Seabound
Nya gets worried that her elemental powers would go out of control again and might hurt someone, thinking she should stay behind. Jay assures her that’s the reason why she should join in. At the dock, Jay winks at Nya, but he accidentally shoots his blaster, later apologizing.

In the Hydro Bounty’s kitchen, Jay is eating sushi while Nya looks out the window. Jay takes Nya’s hand and they smile at each other. He tells her not to worry and whatever is causing Nya’s powers to freak out, they’ll find it here. Jay was about to do the dishes, only to find the plates completely clean. They later find out that Nya’s mom, Maya, snuck inside. The Hydro Bounty hits something, making it crash and sink. Unable to fix the engine, they resort to using APS suits to find an energy source. Nya gets on one, Jay says he should take the other suit, but she tells him to stay. Instead, Maya gets on the second suit. Jay tells Nya to be careful.

The Hydro Bounty is still unable to power up. P.I.X.A.L is unable to communicate with Nya and Maya. Jay gets worried and wants to help them. He rushes to power up the battery with his electricity powers, but Zane stops him saying it’s too dangerous with the Hydro Bounty being flooded. Jay then lies about preparing the oxygen tanks. Zane, PIXAL, and Lloyd realizes and rushes to stop him. He successfully powers up the Hydro Bounty. Jay says that they’re coming for Nya.

Films
In the movie, Jay and Nya both attend the same high school alongside the other ninjas. Nya rides into school on her motorcycle, Jay compliments it.

Pilot

 * Jay's first line is in regards to Nya, asking if she is hot, and if she likes the color blue.
 * When Jay is rendered mute, Nya seems smitten.
 * Nya claims Blue to be her favorite color, making Jay ecstatic.
 * Nya gives Jay a hug, after he sees her giving her older brother one.

Mini-Movies

 * Jay gives Nya a ride to and from the Monastery on his dragon, Wisp.

Sons of Garmadon

 * When the Police Commissioner questions the ninja what danger they are facing, he mentions a pirate genie. While everyone else is confused, Jay and Nya smile at each other since they’re the only ones who remember the events of Skybound.
 * The ninja celebrate their victory by singing and dancing to The Weekend Whip. Jay spins Nya in the air.

March of the Oni

 * Jay proposes to Nya and asks to be his Yang, Nya accepts.

Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

 * Nya is seen flexing her muscles to Jay.
 * While Cole was complaining about Nya’s powers being useless, Jay makes hand gestures to try stop him.

Prime Empire

 * One of the League of Jay members mentions that he understands why Nya is beloved to Jay.
 * When Kai says that anyone who likes Jay too much can’t be normal, Nya raises an eyebrow in disapproval.
 * After being freed from Prime Empire, Jay spins Nya in the air and gives her a kiss on the cheek.

Quotes
"We're saving a girl? Is she hot?"

- Jay, to Kai upon hearing about Nya.

"Oh, thank you Nya! I love you!"

- Jay to Nya

"Nya ! No! I–I–I can't do this alone. Don't leave me! I love you."

- Jay after Nya turns into an energy cube, The Temple of Madness

Fanon
Jaya has garnered a lot of attention from fans, with thousands of fan-works being created of the couple. Jaya is typically interpreted in a similar manner as to how it is presented in the canon of the TV series. Jaya is seen as a wholesome ship, where the pairs involved are able to help grow and comfort each other in their darkest moments.

Typically, those who ship Jay and Nya tend to ignore the events of the third season, Rebooted, as it breaks up the characters well-established relationship, but also mischaracterizes both parties, as well as the character of Cole, drastically. In later seasons, the damage is undone, as Jay and Nya both make up, and get back together, but fans still tend to ignore, or dislike, Rebooted.

Seasons such as Skybound, March of the Oni, Prime Empire, and Seabound are popular among those who ship Jaya, as these seasons place extra focus onto the romantic relationship between the pair. Skybound especially places a focus on this pair, as its climax involves Jay saving Nya from a forced marriage with season villain Nadakhan.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION


 * FAN ART

Trivia

 * Jaya is known to be the oldest and first canon Ninjago ship to exist, being teased as early on as the pilot episodes.
 * Jay and Nya are technically engaged, as the yin-yang promise is the Ninjago equivalent to a proposal. Nya also claims Jay to be bethroved to her in “Master of the Mountain”.
 * Jay and Nya broke up in Rebooted, later getting back together by the end of Season 6.
 * They have a dance move named after the ship, the Electric Jaya.
 * Both of their first focus seasons, Skybound and Seabound, both end with -bound
 * According to Tommy Andreasen, one of the show’s co-creators, he says in a tweet that Jay refers to Nya’s mole from her post-movie design as “mark of eternal beauty”

Variations

 * Mudshock refers to the ship between Cole, Jay and Nya