agenericplaceholdername

[agenericplaceholdername]

oh yeah I'm definitely downplaying the Ninja's enemies to a degree that doesn't say anything false but is probably underselling them. it's more of a pushback to the sentiment of "how are the Ninja gonna win this one???" when none of these foes are uniquely powerful. they faced off against a guy who was literally all-powerful and still won.

honestly I think the biggest threat to the Ninja is that they seemingly have no counter to Rox's static spell which freezes them in place indefinitely.

Wow, the Ninja really have a lot of threats this season:

The Forbidden Five... whose main thing is using an ability that at least 4 of the Ninja can counter with 0 effort. Kai alone was able to keep up with Nokt until Nokt used two dozen elemental powers he no longer has.

Lord Ras... who was defeated by Arin and Sora alone a season and a half ago and has never defeated any of the original Ninja in battle. He, his personally trained shatterspin warrior, his army, and Nokt all were forced to retreat at the Ritual of the Blood Moon even after getting rid of Kai.

Thunderfang... the shatter dragon of chaos who we know has defeated many Oni (unlike the Ninja who eliminated the entire Oni army) and whose only other feat is terrorizing a bunch of monks until he was imprisoned under a mountain.

Evil Jay/Rogue... who lost in under three minutes to an opponent who spent half the battle angsting about her lost love.

Arin... whose whole shtick is that he doesn't have an elemental power and only joined Ras to find his parents, not to get revenge on the Ninja.

Am I missing anyone?

[agenericplaceholdername]

Wow, the Ninja really have a lot of threats this season:

The Forbidden Five... whose main thing is using an ability that at least 4 of the Ninja can counter with 0 effort. Kai alone was able to keep up with Nokt until Nokt used two dozen elemental powers he no longer has.

Lord Ras... who was defeated by Arin and Sora alone a season and a half ago and has never defeated any of the original Ninja in battle. He, his personally trained shatterspin warrior, his army, and Nokt all were forced to retreat at the Ritual of the Blood Moon even after getting rid of Kai.

Thunderfang... the shatter dragon of chaos who we know has defeated many Oni (unlike the Ninja who eliminated the entire Oni army) and whose only other feat is terrorizing a bunch of monks until he was imprisoned under a mountain.

Evil Jay/Rogue... who lost in under three minutes to an opponent who spent half the battle angsting about her lost love.

Arin... whose whole shtick is that he doesn't have an elemental power and only joined Ras to find his parents, not to get revenge on the Ninja.

Am I missing anyone?

[agenericplaceholdername]

I'm sure we'll get a Doc Wyatt post on this bc I'm sure someone will ask -- but here's my thoughts. I think all we know for sure is that the war was still raging when the FSM made Ninjago. The idea that Mystake and the Oni she came with are the Oni warlords has never been established to be a canonical fact afaik (just implied by Tommy), and whether their deaths ended the war is pure supposition. In fact, presumably the Oni wouldn't have sent three people after the FSM whose absence caused the Oni's chances of winning to substantially drop. Mystake describes the war as "never-ending" before the FSM appears so it's totally reasonable that it would last a long time even after the FSM left.

The real question is when did time start having a name?

Wait... so the FSM made Ninjago "long before time had a name," but the Oni/Dragon War is now said to have extended to "when the name of time was still new." So when exactly Did this war end? It was my assumption that it was briefly after the death of two of the Oni Warlords, which was BEFORE time had a name.

[agenericplaceholdername]

Dragons Rising Season 3 Teaser 1 notes:

We open with the Forbidden Five in what looks like the Forest of Spirits attacking a truck with two civilians. Are they carrying some important goods, or are the Five just having some fun?

Rox is in the center of the Forbidden Five - is she the leader? Zarkt is the one who attacks the truck - is he the leader? Do the FF have a leader?

We still can't see Kur's face in the teaser (though what little we can see of them + their full appearance on the poster makes them look like a zombie/mummy-type creature). We can see the rest of the Five so it's funny that if not for the poster, we still wouldn't know what Kur's face looks like

Zarkt shoots a blast of something at the truck, causing an explosion. Is this the power of Misfortune? Theroxian magic? Some form of Shatterspin? It has enough damage to elevate the car and crack its windshield

Ras still appears injured from S2 in this next shot, and his hammer is next to him where Arin left it. This will likely be right after the end of S2 (implying little to no time has passed). He doesn't look happy

Lloyd, Sora, Frak, and Riyu are looking at something in what might be a cave. Lloyd is in his climber suit, and I'm assuming all shots with the Ninja in their climber suits happen before they get their Storm suits, so this is also probably early on. Frak has a new outfit, likely courtesy of the Ninja. This seems to confirm he's joining the team, either as a Ninja or if not then at least as a close ally

Rox holds one of the prismatic blades. The camera then switches to a wider shot where Nya (now in her storm suit), Sora, and Riyu are all frozen. Rox is levitating and appears to have captured Arrakore in a small, pyramid shaped object (perhaps similar to the Teapot of Tyrahn). If the Ninja have been frozen by a static spell, it is unclear how they might escape, since not even Rox's soul being ripped out of Jordana's body undid the static spell - it lasted indefinitely until Jordana reversed it.

It's also unclear where this shot takes place - Rox appears to be doing some sort of magic ritual, and there are pillars and buildings, but this seems like a new location

Zane encounters another pod, like the one he was trapped in prior to DRS1. He's in his climber suit (so this is probably early in the season) and the pod opens. Is PIXAL inside? Is this some sort of third person memory where Zane is trying to figure out where he was?

Lloyd, wielding one of the prismatic blades, attacks Drix, who vanishes into a swarm of bugs. Behind him, Kai and Nya are attacking some bugs. Swarm functions similar to smoke, although if the bugs attacking Kai and Nya are also part of Drix's power, then he can either summon or control other insects as well. All 3 Ninja are in their storm suits, so this is probably a bit later

Lloyd now attacks Zarkt with one of the prismatic blades while Sora and Frak (it's really hard to see at the end of the scene but I'm pretty sure Frak is here) run up. Zarkt is surrounded by Dragonian warriors. Interesting, Lloyd is not in his Storm suit despite the prismatic blade storyline already starting. Maybe this takes place after the earlier scene where Lloyd, Sora, and Frak were looking for something? Did they find the prismatic blade?

Nya, Sora, and Riyu attack Dragonian warriors while Rox watches, holding a small, pyramid-like object (is Arrakore inside?). This seems to be the same landscape as the other scene with those 4 characters, so this is all probably part of the same interaction

Thunderfang roars!

Nokt attacks Zane, who is holding one of the prismatic blades (though not in his Storm suit) while a freebooter cowers in the background. Maybe the freebooters found a prismatic blade and now the Ninja and FF are trying to take it?

Kai and Drix fight, with Kai in his Storm suit. Interestingly, there are mushrooms in the background. Is this the Realm of Lee?

Zane (still in his climber suit -- I don't think we ever see him in his storm suit) attacks Dorama's Stage Manager, while Zanth is in the background with rocks pinning her down. Maybe Dorama will prove that an initially funny character who steadily lost his charm can actually have some longevity? They seem to be in a desert or otherwise barren land. Stage Manager has been attacked, with arrows and swords lodged in its body, though that doesn't seem to be impeding it. Did Dorama try to kidnap people who fought back?

Sora fights a Dragonian warrior in a location that looks similar to the place she, Nya, and Riyu were fighting Rox. The ground has an interesting aesthetic to it.

Sora, Lloyd, Frak, and Riyu all fall off a cliff. Frak's new outfit is much easier to see now. I assume Riyu will be able to catch the three of them, although I'm not sure where they are. Lloyd is still in his climber suit, and judging by this pairing, this may take place around the same time as the earlier scene with the four of them looking at something

One of the ugliest vehicles in Ninjago history drives through a cave. Based on the set, Kai and Nya should be inside. The cave actually looks similar to the cavern from S2P2's cavern run. I would hope this scene is more interesting than that one

Zane looks up as the camera shows Nokt holding a prismatic blade while the two of them are on top of a moving vehicle. Given the confined space the two of them were in earlier, it's possible that they were fighting inside this vehicle and Nokt managed to take the prismatic blade

Thunderfang roars and shoots a blast of lightning as something happens around him - either stone is surrounding him or he's growing somehow, or something else. He seems to be in the City of Temples. Maybe this is towards the end of S3P1, though I'm not sure if they'd spoil that so early on. S1P1, S1P2, S2P1, and S2P2 refrained from showing any of those episode batches' final battles in their teasers. This might instead either be part of the flashback that will kick off S3, E1 (the City of Temples happened to be in the first realm, maybe?) or one of Lloyd's visions. Or Thunderfang is released fairly early in S3P1 (say, around episode 5) so this isn't spoiling the end of the season. The poster seems to show the City of Temples so this last explanation seems very plausible. Maybe it's only after Thunderfang is released that the Ninja put on their storm suits?

The Dragons Rising logo has a new, purple, storm effect. This seems to end the idea that every season would be based around one Source Dragon (lightning in S1 for the SD of energy, fire in S2 for the SD of motion) since this new effect is very clearly for Thunderfang, not any of the source dragons (which means the lightning in S1 was probably for Jiro).

The description of the teaser mentions that the Chaos Dragon is the source of the Forbidden Five’s “dark power”. We know that elemental powers come from source dragons, Thunderfang wanted to be a source dragon, and that the Forbidden Five did not inherit their powers from their parents*. Perhaps Thunderfang directly gave them their elemental powers somehow? Maybe they couldn't use them under Thunderfang was free - the only time we see something that's definitely an elemental power is when Drix uses Swarm, and by then, some time has passed (the Ninja are in their Storm suits) so maybe Thunderfang is free by then?

Neither Jay, PIXAL, nor Morro appear in the teaser, although Jay does show up in the poster. That being said, neither do Arin, Cole, or Wyldfyre (they're not in the teaser; they are on the poster) so I don't think that says very much. Jordana doesn't show up on either, but if they're bringing back Dorama and the Freebooters, I doubt they'd drop her

Zane is never seen out of his Climber suit. Is it possible that his storm suit is noncanon and he goes from Climber suit to his new body? Or is that way too big a leap to make?

There's new music in the teaser

*Doc Wyatt said this on BlueSky on Jan. 27

[agenericplaceholdername]

Congrats to the 21.5% of people who said April 11th to April 24th, since S3 P1 is coming out on April 17th!!!! also that teaser has a LOT to discuss...

Make your predictions now before the marketing cycle begins:

[agenericplaceholdername]

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?

[agenericplaceholdername]

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

[agenericplaceholdername]

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

-- the Crystal King, 2022 (slightly altered)

[agenericplaceholdername]

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.

[agenericplaceholdername]

Happy 14th birthday Ninjago!

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

[agenericplaceholdername]

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

[agenericplaceholdername]

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

[agenericplaceholdername]

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...

[agenericplaceholdername]

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?

[agenericplaceholdername]

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

[agenericplaceholdername]

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.