Autobiography of a Legend

The First Round

One thing you have to know about Master Chen is that, even if he was holding an underground fighting tournament meant to entrap all of us, he knew how to give people something to talk about. I said it before, but I really want to reiterate here: I don't know how someone that was meant to be exiled onto an island was able to get that much money and resources to build what amounted to a completely themed palace filled with facilities to support some rather complicated and strange arenas.

Once we were on the island, yy father began to fill us in a bit more on Chen. Apparently, Chen had decided to 'side' with the Serpentine during the Serpentine Wars, marking him as a traitor to Ninjago. In exchange for a surrender from him and an agreement not to take action against him, Chen and his followers were exiled off to this island. My father spoke of him building up a 'criminal empire' which to me seemed to imply they somehow knew Chen was making all of this. The best guess I have is that part of Chen's surrender would have been invalid if my dad or Wu attempted to intervene, so they were willing to let things slide. I guess if Chen didn't leave the island, then it was okay for him to send his followers out for things?

Along with that, my dad revealed the reason why he'd taken the title of Lord Garmadon: it'd been given to him by Master Chen. During the time before I was born, my father had decided to seek out a different way of guidance. Since the venom was slowly corrupting him, he wanted to find a different way of fighting. Without my grandfather, my father and Wu were more or less secluded for however many years. He sought out Chen and was trained in his more aggressive style of fighting I saw him use before he was purified alongside Clouse. Both him being a Lord ad Clouse being hostile towards him was due to my father cheating during a training match when Chen declared the winner would be named Lord of Chen's estate. I always thought the 'Lord' bit was just him exaggerating, but it turned out he actually held claim to Chen's land. My dad implied that Chen had been a big motivation behind what he became when he finally and fully gave into the evil inside of him. I wish I knew before we got there just how important that really was.

Either way, Chen had an entire entrance ceremony laid out right for us. Now, most people would tell you that first impressions are everything. Most people would do their best to introduce themselves as a nice person, maybe with a handshake or by saying hi. Not Chen. Chen began by playing some sort of old-time cheesy music around the room where we were all sat, making us rise up for him, and lowering himself down from the ceiling on his personal chair. Just looking at him was... interesting. He was clearly the same age as my dad, but he was wearing far more elegant and darker robes, and I couldn't tell if he had hair and had woven it into the massive snake-skull headdress he wore at all times, or if he was bald. His voice was a lot higher than he initially looked to be, and his laugh sounded like he was sucking in a balloon.

His face, however, was something else. I don't know what it was about him that made me feel so off. It wasn't like he had some sort of messed up face or anything. His eyes had red paint around them, making them almost look like a snake, and he had a lot of facial hair. Something about looking at him altogether, however, told me that I couldn't trust him. No matter what he said, or what he tried to get me to do, I knew that I couldn't let my guard down around him for even a single minute.

Chen didn't waste time showing himself off. He was able to identify everyone in the room, and Garmadon in particular right off the bat. I thought that he would have made more of a big deal about it, having just heard that he'd apparently trained my father, but he mentioned it more like he was just ad libbing from a script.... Which, now that I think about it, he probably was. The way he talked to us made it feel impossible to tell how much of what he was saying was him playing some sort of role, given his big theatrical introduction, and what was actually him. For the record, it was all naturally him. Chen was a natural actor.