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they don't even have to pretend he always spoke like that -- just wave it away by saying leaving nether-space messed up his vocal cords

...but if his voice can change, have you considered in that in exchange for Michael Adamthwaite doing a lower voice for JayRogue, Zarkt can get the high pitched S11-15 Jay voice...

I really hope Zarkt has an unbearable, borderline impossible-to-understand voice filter, much like his predecessors the Omega and Overlord. How would it make sense if we've already heard him speak? Eh they can Pretend it was there before who cares?

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In the 12th Tournament of the Sources (year 257 ATHN*), a two-year old Master of Misfortune was dubbed Champion of the Sources after all the other competitors refused to harm a baby, who inadvertently caused them to lose their rounds in comically unlucky ways.

Winning the Tournament as a child dramatically inflated young Zarkt's ego, causing him to not only look down on others, but also search for a way to top this achievement. His mastery of Shatterspin (alongside four of his comrades) and subsequent conquest of the Wyldness was the result of this mindset.

*After Time Had a Name

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"Thus do the 'leaked episode names', children of someone on the internet, meet their end."

-- the Crystal King, 2022 (slightly altered)

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For those of you in the United States, every episode of the eleven minute era of Ninjago is now available on YouTube:

(this has everything from "Wasted True Potential" to "The Council of the Crystal King")

(this has the rest of Crystalized)

I believe The Island through Crystalized was already available, but S11, S12, and S13 weren't.

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Happy 14th birthday Ninjago!

We've come full circle... and then some.

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Tommy Andreasen just revealed a never-before-seen concept video for Ninjago's first season, where the premise would be Ninja vs Samurai Statues (Garmadon has an army of Samurai, steals the Golden Weapons, and uses them to turn four ancient Samurai statues to life).

This concept has some similarities to the concept video for the Serpentine (called snake-people) released years ago in how it differs from the actual show, as in both:

Garmadon was the villain of S1 (and there's no characterization given to any members of his armies, the Samurai and the "snake-people")

There is no mention of Lloyd, the Green Ninja prophecy, the Ninja's True Potentials, or Nya being Samurai X

The First Spinjitzu Master is called "the Great Spinjitzu Master"

Statues come to life (the Samurai statues and the Great Devourer statue)

There's also some unique stuff from this new video:

The Ninja very explicitly have their Golden Weapons at the end of Season 1

"Ren" is referred to as the youngest Ninja -- in the original concept, the character of "Ren" is who became Jay (according to Jay's voice actor, Michael Adamthwaite)

Apparently Wu feared the Samurai Statues being brought to life but didn't tell the Ninja until it was too late (big shock)

Zane had a helicopter

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Happy one year anniversary to the short "The Mech Master," which has a lot of parallels (maybe intentional, maybe unintentional) to Dragons Rising season 2:

Arin loses the pie baking competition | Arin is demoted to first fang; Arin loses against Ras

The mech race is sabotaged by the Mechanic | Ras and Bleckt rig the Tournament of Sources

The Mechanic, an original series character, shows up | Various original series Elemental Masters show up*

Kai, Cole, and Sora swap powers through their mechs | The Element Cup transfers elemental powers

Sora wins the Mech Master 5000 | Sora wins the Tournament of Sources

Sora unintentionally makes Arin feel worse about losing the pie competition | Sora unintentionally makes Arin feel worse about his inability to do Spinjitzu and lies to him about his Object Spinjitzu

*This wouldn't be such a big deal except very few characters (excluding the Ninja/Wu) from the original series have shown up in Dragons Rising: just Chancellor Gulch, the Mechanic, Fugi-Dove, Tox, Mr. Pale, and some unspeaking cameos from Neuro and Chamille

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Very interesting question. Your bar for "writing off" a character is your own -- maybe if you think that a specific season's writing can be noticeably different to the point where a character's actions carry less judgement, certainly a different writing team's would function similarly, so why not "write off" the Hageman Bros's Dareth while keeping Bragi's Dareth? If Doc and Kevin bring him back technically that's a "new" character, at least to the extent that S6 Dareth can be viewed as distinct from his other appearances. Not sure how much I agree with this idea but just throwing it out there.

Will object to placing three of the Ninja on the same bar as Dareth both mischaracterization and sexism-wise (I assume Jay, Cole, and Lloyd). Certainly Jay is pretty sexist in Skybound but I don't think this is a mischaracterization, just an escalation of his behavior since S3. The point of his arc is for him to learn why what he was doing was wrong (as to whether Skybound really accomplishes that is another question). And despite all this he still objects to Dareth's behavior in "Infamous."

Cole makes a sexist joke that I would agree is... different than his pre-established character (although I don't think there's much in previous seasons to imply he's a big feminist). He then mostly backs down after Nya criticizes him. Lloyd laughs at Cole's joke and also backs down after a glare from Nya. Lloyd is probably a year or two removed from being a "no girls allowed in my tree house" ten year old so I still wouldn't call this out of character as much as it is a relapse. Lloyd also sticks up for Nya against Dareth in "Infamous."

Fundamentally I don't think Cole's (still sexist and bad!) joke is on par with Dareth physically excluding Nya from the other Ninja, wanting her to run segments on "teaching girls how to apply makeup" and "how to cook", and accusing her of hurting the Ninja's image solely because of her gender. He loudly objects to the statement, "There's no reason she should be treated differently"! IMO this is clearly categorically worse than what the Ninja do.

basically, if you don't want to write off Dareth, don't. But I personally wouldn't use Skybound's other writing choices as an excuse to do so.

as a side thing, I'm mixed on the whole "they wouldn't say that" idea. On one hand, if a character says something, clearly that refutes the idea that they wouldn't say it. On the other, characters aren't real, bad writing exists, etc. My bar tends to be if a character does something that directly contradicts a prior statement or action (without cause for such a change), then you've got bad writing. even more so if they're contradicting a core character trait or repeated pattern of behavior (plus that earlier behavior would presumably have more weight in whatever moral judgement I have of them as a character). However, if a character does something unexpected or new that doesn't contradict established behavior, then that's who that character is (at least in that moment). In this case, while Dareth isn't sexist to the degree he was in Skybound in other seasons, he also never indicates that he wouldn't be sexist (his refusal to accept a no from Gayle Gossip as expressed in DotD actually gives more evidence to the idea that he is). Thus I wouldn't call it out of character or "he wouldn't say that" because a) he did and b) he never says anything to indicate he wouldn't have.

The thing about Dareth as a character is I can't Quite see myself writing him off completely? Like his stuff in Skybound Was bad it was pretty awful, but they also had like three of the guys on the main ninja team act horrifically bad to Nya for no reason. Neither Dareth nor any of the ninja acted anything quite like they did in Skybound before or after it??? So I don't rlly Think I can write Dareth off as a sexist piece of shit for season 6? Like yeah he was Awful there but I don't know how extreme I'm willing to go there with him...

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Is everyone excited for the inevitable day in late 2027-early 2028 when the Summer 2028 set names leak and we read "Source Dragon of Balance Riyu, $149.99" and suddenly get confirmation on how Dragons Rising ends?

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shoutout to Nya for being the only human to overpower resurrected Garmadon

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2024 Masterpost

With the start of 2025, I thought I’d compile some of my posts from 2024.

Theories

Why Jay and Nya Can Remember Skybound

Wu and Morro and the Allied Armor, oh my!

Frak's Pies and the Crystalized->Merge Time Jump

Without the Blood Moon, Ras Would Have Succeeded

Mistress Obscuria, Elemental Heritability, and the Ninjago Timeline

Long-ish Posts

This back and forth with @parachutingkitten outlines most of my thoughts on Dragons Rising S1-S2

The Five Endings of Ninjago

How Dragons Rising Handles the Ensemble

DRS2 v Dreamzzz YouTube Views

Were the Sacred Flutes Created During the Serpentine War?

Where did the Serpentine Come From?

The Tournament of Elements vs The Tournament of Sources

What Does "Shattering Goodness" Mean?

Why the FSM Lineage Shouldn’t Be Royalty

Would Kai be Overprotective of Wyldfyre?

DR S1 E1-5, S1 E6-10, S1 E11-15, S1 E16-20, S2 E1-5, and S2 E6-10 Thoughts

Ninjago Ideas Without "Wasted Potential"

Shorter posts

My Issue with "Snaketastrophy" (Harumi)

When Will the Live-Action Movie Release?

Rapton and Lloyd in DRS2E11

The Missing Moon

Wu's Growth from S1 to S15

Other

Election Night in Ninjago

Dinner at the Monastery

Video edits (the ones I'm most proud of)

Arin and the Ninja

Arin and the Ninja (ft. "Elements of Betrayal")

Sora and Jordana

"The Fall of the Green Ninja"

"Princess" Vania

For the new year, I’ve got several longer analysis/criticism posts that I’ve been sitting on for some time, outlining how the Ice Chapter and Crystalized fail to live up to the ideas they set up, but also some of my potential changes. This is well trodden fandom ground, but I haven’t seen anyone suggesting what I’ve been thinking. Maybe I’ll finally finish those. 

Also looking at an analysis of Skybound (again, well covered) that covers a specific angle I also haven’t seen anyone discuss in depth (though considering how much discussion of Skybound exists, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had). 

Before DR S3P1 airs I’ll post my thoughts on DRS2P2, both episode by episode and an analysis of how S4 handles its mysteries better. Probably do some DRS3 predictions before the whole season gets leaked.

Last, I’m thinking about building on my “Election Night” post with a full deep dive into my (as canon-compliant as possible) look into what Ninjago politics might look like. Worldbuilding in Ninjago tends more toward fleshing out ancient lore, but I think the average citizen’s perspective to the events of the show is cool to think about. 

Will I get all this stuff done? Probably not, this list is more of a way to set goals. A lot of my earlier posts were clips with some of my own analysis. Those aren't gonna be gone but I'm definitely cutting back on them, mainly because I only have so many ideas. A new post a day with an accompanying video just wasn't sustainable. But if you’re interested in longer-form Ninjago analysis, feel free to follow and at some point it should show up in your feed! 

Here's some other stuff:

Favorite Ninja: Zane from S1-4, Lloyd from S8-present. 

Favorite Seasons: I’m a big fan of S1, S4, S8, S9, S14, and DRS1. Don’t think these are particularly hot takes. If I had to pick I’d go with S8 but could be persuaded otherwise

Started watching: Back in 2012 as S2 was airing

That’s all I’ve got! If you ever see a post of mine and disagree, please (constructively!) do so—would always welcome a dialogue. (and ofc if you agree or just like the post, feel free to like it or reblog or whatever is most comfortable.) I'm still fairly new to this site but this whole experience has been great.

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Make your predictions now before the marketing cycle begins:

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the only times the Ninja seem to deal with money are during S1/S2 and S5. My assumption is that Lloyd got a bunch of money for defeating the Overlord in S2. “The Surge” establishes that he’s receiving awards for that— why not actual currency? Wu uses that money to start his school, which presumably costs money to attend.

By S5 he’s spent all that money and has started a tea shop (which is for his retirement) but ends up selling it to fund the Ninja’s vehicles. The Ninja are celebrities at the start of S6 and I assume they made money that way.

By S8 they’re working with the Ninjago City Police Department. Since they never have money problems after that, I assume smart investing from their 15 minutes of fame, plus some agreed-upon salary from either the Ninjago City municipal government or Ninjago federal government (especially after they liberated the city from Emperor Garmadon - remember that the city financed an entirely new Destiny’s Bounty for them very quickly) keeps them afloat.

or maybe P.I.X.A.L. is in charge of the Ninja’s finances post S8. that doesn’t answer where the money comes from but I’m sure she’d have an easy solution.

biggest mystery in all of ninjago is how the fuck the ninja have any funding. are they paid by the government? do they work separate jobs? how the fuck is wu able to afford new outfits each season?

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2025 Annual Ninjago Fandom Reblog Rollcall

Well everyone, it's once again that time year: The Annual Ninjago Reblog Rollcall!

This year was certainly...Ah, well, it was something. So this year, feel free to add anything to the reblog chain!

(And don't forget to follow anyone in the chain!)

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A lot of DRS3 information today, courtesy of DuckBricks and Bricks By Mind's interviews with Lego designers:

Zarkt is the Elemental Master of Misfortune. Could have done "Luck" (much like Brute Force could have just been Force) or smth like that but ig we're just going with evil powers

Thunderfang wanted to be a Source Dragon but was denied by the Council. Elevating a regular dragon to the rank of Source Dragon is both a) a massive lore drop and b) probably what happens to Riyu at the end of Dragons Rising

The Arc Dragon of Focus (why are they not the "Arch" Dragon -- e.g. Matriarch, Patriarch?) is a "Champion of the Source Dragons." I'm wondering if this means they are also a Conduit, or something more akin to Lloyd and the Ninja acting on the orders of the Motion SD in S2P2

In the first scene of the first episode of DRS3, we'll see a battle (presumably a flashback) between the Arc Dragon of Focus and Thunderfang, which occurs in the First Realm. Thunderfang is defeated and imprisoned under a mountain in the First Realm, atop which the Dragonian Storm Village is established

This battle occurs shortly "after time had a name," so after the creation of Ninjago. Wondering if it was around the time of the FF, before them, after them?

Thunderfang is creating some sort of storm, which is the reason for the Ninja's new suits -- although that just raises further questions as to why Sora and Wyldfyre don't have new ones. Kinda doubt this connection will be explicitly stated in show

The Forbidden Five were invented for the show first, then translated into sets. No lore implications but it's interesting to hear how the behind the scenes process works (Wyldfyre was a similar show -> set character)

The animation for the S3 intro might be the best one yet and has a cool setting

If this doesn't totally de-confirm the "leaked episode descriptions" that went around a few weeks ago, it should. Not only did the site they came from change the mention of "two blades" to "Prismatic blades" only after we heard about the prismatic blades publicly (of which there are five), the Arc Dragon of Focus isn't mentioned in the descriptions until Episode 7, despite appearing in the first scene of the season

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adding to this by thinking about the time Lloyd helped his father die to kill Chen and his cult

or when it was his idea that eradicated the Oni from existence

or him killing the Overlord (x2)

he might have a “protect life” reputation from having the team hold back against the Mechanic’s goons in s12 and saving Rapton’s life in DRS1 but when his back is against the wall things are pretty clear

now Kai on the other hand— has he killed anyone?

Lloyd’s “all life must be protected” or whatever is so funny because the rest of his team is just

Guy who’s killed thousands

Girl who’s killed thousands

Guy who’s insane enough to shoot missiles in a train

Immortal roach who never kills anyone directly but probably sucks life out from the people around him to live longer

Kai