Sexuality Symbols Spotted in Lego Kids’ Show Ninjago

An episode of Lego’s Ninjago that originally aired in 2022 is suddenly drawing backlash after the social media account Libs of TikTok recently posted screenshots on X highlighting pride flags embedded in several scenes of the children’s show on Netflix. The viral post, which included one image from a 2022 episode and another from a subsequent 2022 music video, has reignited concerns that leftist gender ideology is becoming subtly normalized in children’s entertainment.

The controversy centers on pride flag imagery presented in episode 10 of Ninjago: Crystalized, titled “The Benefit of Grief,” which aired on May 20, 2022. In the episode, a minor character named Sally drives the ninja characters through the desert in her father’s van, with a Progress Pride flag affixed to the rear of the vehicle. Inside the van, Sally’s guitar case is also adorned with a bisexual pride flag. The symbols are never referenced in dialogue and serve no clear narrative function; instead, they exist as environmental details placed squarely within view.

The flag imagery aligns with Sally’s arc in the episode, which mirrors a familiar coming-out framework. She is running away from home, struggles with emotions she wishes she could suppress, fears her parents’ reaction, and ultimately returns to be embraced and forgiven. The character, featured in a show rated as suitable for children aged 7 and older on Netflix, is described as “bisexual” according to a fan wiki page.  

The messaging was not solely contained to that episode. In October 2022, the Lego Group released a YouTube music video called “Inner Steel (Sally’s Song),” which again centers on the one-off side character. In the video, Sally is depicted playing a guitar emblazoned with a Pride Progress Flag. The character sings ambiguous lyrics, such as  “Nothing’s ever how you thought it would be. Easy for some, harder for people like you and me,” in the first verse. Later lyrics reference “blinders shut and not a thing to see,” culminating in the line, “I’m ready to come right home.”

Supporters of the gender ideology in the children’s show responded to the controversy on X. They wrote, “Oh no! People exist that are different from me! The horror!” as well as “For all it’s [sic] corporate bulls***, LEGO is pretty based with social issues and has always been. Nice s***.”  

Critics had a different perspective. “Welp, add another one to the LIST,” one critic wrote on X, above a picture of a list of companies that decided to “Go Woke, GO Broke,” while another critic said, “[T]argeting children like this is a crime.”

Gender ideology themes were not isolated to 2022. Ninjago underwent a major reboot in 2023 with Ninjago: Dragons Rising, which features several characters whose plotlines involve their identity or sexuality. Fans and critics alike have pointed this out after the new controversy. As they observe, Cole, a main character of the show since 2011, has been written into an implied homosexual relationship with a purple troll man. Together, they are shown to have three adopted children. One core plotline in the reboot revolves around one of the adopted kids, Bonzle, a skeleton girl who is considered a “spell” and the key to saving the world. When her witch-mother reunites with her, Bonzle remarks, “You recognize me? Even in my [new] physical form? I was so afraid you wouldn’t accept me for who I am now.” The witch-mother affirms the skeleton girl and says, “I always hoped you would be different.”

Ninjago’s reboot features a new main character, Sora, an inventor who left home after being mistreated by her parents and her hometown. Sora is stylized as a “gamer girl,” wearing cat-ear headphones and an outfit colored similarly to the transgender flag. In the series, her first story arc involves rebelling against her parents to embrace her true identity. One scene shows her arguing with her parents in a pro-trans allegory. Imploring their daughter to come home, Sora rejects them and gives a speech: “You abandoned me. I thought I had to prove myself to you, but you should never have to prove your worth to your own parents…. I have a new family, one that loves me for who I really am.”  Her parents, meanwhile, are depicted as unquestioning loyalists to an authoritarian leader revealed to be a villain, a contrast that reinforces a familiar ideological framing around President Donald Trump. 

Chris “Doc” Wyatt, a lead writer for this newest Ninjago reboot, makes his leftist views explicitly known online. “Unconstitutional. Un-American. Tyrannical. Treasonous,” Wyatt wrote on Bluesky, in response to an NBC news article about Trump “seeking a third term.”

Lego has been explicit about its intentions. In a post published on the company’s website, Matthew Ashton, vice president of design at the Lego Group, described the “Everyone Is Awesome” Pride set as a deliberate statement meant to “represent the broad diversity of everyone within the LGBTQIA+ community.” Ashton wrote that “representation is so important,” recounting his own experience as “a gay kid” growing up during the AIDS crisis. He explained that the set deliberately includes the pale blue, white, and pink colors of the transgender flag, along with a “purple drag queen” figure, calling the design a statement of Lego’s values. “This is what we stand for at The LEGO Group,” Ashton stated. He added that he was proud to work for a company that “wants to have a voice on topics like this.” Despite America’s rejection of gender ideology, the Lego group seems more interested in pushing their political agenda onto children and acting as their employees’ medium for trauma therapy than selling a good children’s toy.