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 begin 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. Cole, Lloyd, and Kai were surprised that Jay and Nya can dance well together, thinking they might’ve taken dance lessons in secret. Jay and Nya faced off against another duo of dancers who cheated in the competition. Jay worries that the opponents might win, but Nya says something they don’t have, chemistry. They begin to do dance moves that earn them even more points. Suddenly, the Red Visors interfere, they fight them off while still dancing in the competition. 30 seconds are left on the countdown, Jay suggests they do a big dance move, Nya tells him to catch her. Jay worries they won’t be able to do it because they've never done it. Luckily, they successfully did the dance, earning them more points than the opponents. The final seconds of the countdown is over, and Jay and Nya win, earning the 500 credits they needed to enter the speedway 5000000000.

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 manages to catch him in time. In the next stage, they enter a sushi restaurant. Jay happy and sits down it thinking it was a stage for them to rest, but Nya warns him it could 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 manage to 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 give 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 Queen 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 asks a few questions to Jay. When she asks if he had elemental powers, he answers that it’s true. Nya tries to say hat they (the ninja) all have elemental powers, but Murtessa just ignores 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, 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 starts worrying 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.

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.

March of the Oni

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

Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

 * In “Wasted True Potential”, Nya is seen flexing her muscles to Jay.
 * In “An Unlikely Ally”, while Cole was complaining about Nya’s powers being useless, Jay makes hand gestures to try stop him.
 * In “Once and for All”, Jay calms Nya down after she crushes the Boreal with the land bounty.

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

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

Variations

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