#I think I first read this after the ninjago movie and s8-10 came out and it just left me thinking like.

[cosmos-dot-semicolon]

A study/fake screenshot of this panel from the Ninjago comic series, Destiny of Doom (in full here).

(This comic legitimately has some of the best characterisation for Garmadon and the team's early dynamic I've seen from the entire franchise, and I would highly recommend giving it a read!)

[caramellody]

As someone who hasn’t watched ninjago since like,, the green ninja was revealed .. what the FUCK is going on in the show? Idk abt spoilers bc I’m so bewildered and can’t piece anything together

Yeah, I think of ninjago kinda like rvb in the sense that the moment you drop off of ONE season, the later seasons are so buckwild and a mess to keep up with. I’ll definitely try and give as best of an explanation but I am also prone to rambling myself (there's like 11 whole seasons since I'm assuming you fell off after late season 1 to go though) so i’ll put this in a read more. I’m also assuming you don’t care about spoilers but just for others who might(?) know i’ll be talking spoilers for almost everything, there may be somethings i don't mention because, there's a lot, but just as a precaution i gues dhfijkhfdsj

EDIT: this actually turns out to be VERY long even when opting certain  things out in order to make it shorter

-Season 1 and season 2 (Rise of the Snakes and Legacy of the Green Ninja) are easily the most straight forward episodes of the series. it’s all about training Lloyd in being the green ninja to defeat his father. Lloyd grows up at one point? it’s so buckwild because its in the episode where the OG 4 turn into kids (and yes theres a reason) and Lloyd has to use this tea to turn them back (as well as make a revived monster go extinct) and as a result he ages up like the rest of them. Aside from that and the inclusion of the overlord (an even worse villain who actually possesses Lloyds dad), season 2 is all about prepping Lloyd up for that final battle

And TECHNICALLY, season 2 was where it was gonna end, the franchise was basically discontinued after season 2, but then was brought back up for a 3rd season, which is where things get more character-focused.

-Season 3 (Rebooted) revolves around technological advances (you might even consider it cyberpunk-ish in concept) and the main villain is the overlord who has basically taken over everything in the city. this season introduces P.I.X.A.L whos clearly set up as Zane’s love interest. There’s also this REALLY stupid love triangle between Nya, Jay and Cole that everyone pretty much unanimously hate because its done so forcefully and is really there just so that jay and any could have romantic drama (which. is dumb even for 2014 standards). it ultimately culminates to Zane fuckin DYING (but its okay he's a robot) in what is still such a banger of a theme. the end of the season teases that he comes back. Also Garmadon isn’t a villain and is easily one of the best characters in that season, he acts like the father Lloyd needed for so long, its not overtly important to the plot but it’s a big dynamic shift compared to S1 and S2.

-Season 4 (Tournament of Elements) takes place months (it's not explicit but it's assumed that its a year) after s3 and the gang have all broken up, but Lloyd tries to bring them back together. they all get invited to a tournament that claims they have Zane (that gives me mortal Kombat vibes) with all the other elemental masters (by this point they are able to use their elements without the need of weapons as a proxy like in seasons 1-2). Zane’s revealed to be back and in a new robot body and the main bad is the guy running the tournament. 

-Season 5 (Possession) is all about ghosts! the gang meets Morro, who was a former student of Wu who was training to be the green ninja but never became it because that was lloyds spot. he then ran off on his own to change fate but died and later comes back as a ghost to take over Lloyd. this season also has Cole turn into a ghost and Nya officially joins the team as the water ninja. 

-Season 6 (Skybound) is all about sky pirates, after being released from his lamp, djin Nadakhan tries to find his old crewmates. he also finds out that his homeland was destroyed as a result of the events of season 5 and goes all out to make the ninja criminals for what they (unknowingly did), this is by all means a Jay and Nya season about their own struggles but its also one of those seasons that never happened because jay literally WISHES to retcon all of season 6, so this season never ‘technically’ happened

-Day of the Departed is a special that mostly focuses on bringing back old villains who were killed, but mostly focuses on cole slowly being forgotten.this special is specifically important because Cole becomes corporeal again (and he gains a new ability)

-Season 7 (Hands of Time) is a time travel season, theres things relating to Kai and Nya’s past and their parent’s connection to the main threat in the present (I'm sorry if i don’t sound as enthusiastic compared to other seasons season 7 is imo my least favorite so there’s not a lot i can say about it) it’s also the last season were the original designs are used!

-Season 8 (Sons of Garmadon) is the first season that came out AFTER the Ninjago movie (which for the record takes place in a separate universe, the characterizations are different despite their appearances being similar.) it revolves around a gang (called the sons of garmadon) trying to collect the three oni masks in order to revive lord garmadon again (and they’re successful too)

-Season 9 (Hunted) takes place RIGHT after S8 (specifically a week after). Lloyd and any are forced into hiding while the original 4 ninja and wu (who is a baby, this is a plot point that begins at the end of season 7. they find a baby in s8 and that baby ended up being their original master) are trying to escape the realm they ended up stranded in after the events of s8

-Season 10 (March of the Oni) another that takes place right after season 9, the oni (who are hellbent on destruction) basically invade all of ninjago and the ninja have to stop them. this is a simple 4 episode season that really acts more like a movie than a season.

After S10, the series sorta gets a soft reboot. the previous seasons are still canon, but there's a clear tone shift (and animation shift) in the show overall)

-Season 11 (Secrets of the Forbidden spinjitzu) is broken up into two parts

(The fire Chapter) revolves around the ninja trying to find something to do and ultimately opening up an ancient tomb where an ancient group of snakes lives 

(the Ice chapter) builds off of the fire chapter, zane was sent to a different realm and the gang goes out to save him, but the realm they end up in is controlled by a powerful Ice emperor who is trying to freeze the entire place.

-And finally, Season 12 (Prime Empire) is a tron-styled season where Jay goes inside a video game, the gang goes out to look for him before finding out that the A.I in that game is trying to get out and forcing people to get trapped in the game in order to leave.

Season 13 (Master of the mountain) is the upcoming season, and it seems to be very DnD aesthetic, and all about cole which is gonna be exciting 

And that's all there is to it dbhubjfdsbhjdsj idk if you expected me to go on a FULL ON ESSAY and for that i apologize in advance, but...there's a lot going on in this series and it's such a wild ride