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4tlas-hyper · 3 years

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I need to rant about something real quick(spoilers for pretty much the entire series of ninjago).

Keep in mind that this is strictly my own opinion, and if you disagree, that's more than valid, I'd actually much like to hear your side so long as it is presented in a respectful manor.

I don't know who's fault it is, and I'm not going to name any names, but what the fuck happened to Ninjago? Everything before season 11 was decent at worst, and absolutely fantastic at best(I'm not counting any spin offs in that btw, half of that stuff isn't even canon anyway). Now it's just good at best and unwatchable at worst(I haven't been able to watch seabound yet because it's that bad)

In 2018 when Sons of Garmadon and Hunted(seasons 8 and 9 respectively) released, I was super excited to see where the show would go with this darker style, I felt like the show was growing up with me. I was slightly disapointed by March of the Oni(season 10), but that was due to poor pacing and the season feeling rushed, so I was still optimistic for what was to come.

And then, I watched Forbidden Spinjitzu(season 11), and I absolutely fucking hated it. The main villian of the first half wasn't a bad villian by any means, just that she fit litterally every trope that the show had used in the show already. She's a snake, she has been dormant for a long as time before accidentally being released by the ninja who were being idiots, she has beef with Wu, and she does something bad to Zane(because he's the punching bag for the writers apparently, which worked once, maybe twice before it got old). Also, Kai lost his powers and became a sad sack of shit, which is completely out of character for him, because before he had his powers and the other times they got taken away, he'd jump into the fray without a second thought.

The second half of the season was even more shitty, there was a fucking twist villian because of course there was, and it was a surprise to absolutely no one that it was Zane(they weren't going to keep the guy's identity a secret and have it be a completely new character, so it litterally couldn't have been anyone else). Their explaination for how he became a villian, you might ask, he got his memories earased and was told by the first person he saw that he was the emperor and went with it, not questioning a single thing even decades later. Oh yeah, it was decades, because time passes differently in the whatever realm(I know it had an actual name, but I don't care enough to remember it), because of course they'd use another cheap writing trope in a season full of cheap writing tropes, but if time passes slower in that realm, then the ninja would've showed up back in Ninjago a few minutes after leaving, an hour at most(I'm not doing the math for shit), so that episode with Pixal and Wu trying to find them using more powerful travelers tea(also known as the worst episode in the season, and used to be the worst in the whole series until season 14 happened, but we'll get to that later) shouldn't have even happened. Also there was a massive inconsistency where Kai got his powers back and then closer to the finally there was a super dramatic scene with him using them and everyone acted like he'd just gotten them back, like, we're already retconing stuff and the season isn't even over yet, that's impressive.

That isn't to say that there wasn't stuff I liked about it, I thought the part where they were stranded on a rock in the middle of a desert was fun, getting to see Skales and the other serpintine again was nice. And the comedy in this show is still funny despite me absolutely despising almost everything else.

Prime Empire was definately better, so I don't have as much to say about it. I think the legacy shorts that came right before should've been included in the actual season(except maybe the dance one, it doesn't fit nearly as well as the others). The mechanic shouldn't have been an actual villian, he was only good as a small source of conflict in season 6 and his brief cameo in season 8 was fun(but it was just that, a cameo, absolutely no reason for him to become a major character). The episode with Zane being a dectective was hard to watch because of how much of a fool he was making of himself(he's supposed to be the smart one for fuck's sake), and of course that eventually led to him getting captured and almost killed for the umpteenth time. Unagam1's redemption arc was so godamn short it doesn't even count as an arc.

Now for the positives, to say the fight scene between Lloyd and a digital recreation of Harumi was great would be an understatement, and I like that he actually lost and got cubed(which was likened to death, but by this point half of the main cast had received that fate so I knew they weren't going to stay that way). The designs for Prime Empire itself as a setting looked really cool, and for someone who couldn't design mecha or cyberpunky stuff to save my life, I am envious. I loved the interactions between Milton Dyer and Pixal, and how the former was confused about the fact that Pixal and Zane can actually feel emotions in the same way he can.

Master of the Mountain is undoubtedly my favorite of the post Oni and Dragon Trilogy stuff, which isn't a high bar to be set, but I mostly enjoyed this season. My problems are just that Lloyd's trauma involving Harumi was poorly handled when it'd been well executed previously, there was another twist villian that no one was surprised by(though in his defense he was still somewhat entertaining), and it took way to long for Cole to get his entire backstory revealed or to get a focus season at all.

Otherwise, I think Cole and Vania could be a really cute couple, they do have genuine chemistry that I overlooked at a first glance because I so strongly headcanon Cole to be gay, and while it does feel a little rushed at first, it is cute. We need more interactions between Zane and Kai, that whole thing was extremely entertaining, Zane throwing rocked at Kai's head just to annoy him is absolute gold. Actually, Zane was great in this season in general, but that could very well just be bias as he's my favorite character. I like the Cole backstory we did get, even though it should've been revealed far earlier, and the introduction to the elemental burst was well done.

And this is where the enjoyment ends, because The Island was a shitshow to say the least. Introduces another new convoluted story element even though there are still a bunch of unfinished ones waiting for attention, it was really short and disappointing would be a kind way of putting it. They ruined Ronin, who was previously one of my favorite characters because he used to be interesting, now he's just an incredibly cliché cardboard cutout of a conman type character.

And finally, like I mentioned earlier, I haven't finished seabound yet because they screwed everything over even more than they already had. They completely reversed basically all of Nya's character development and made Ray and Maya generic overbearing parents instead of actually fleshing out their personalities like they should've. It makes absolutely no sense that the first spinjitzu master didn't have control over wind and water(or that lightning wasn't part of that group), or that elemental masters for those elements existed at all because I don't think Wojira would be giving those powers to anyone, but mentioning wind makes me think Morrow is going to apear again at some point, though probably not during this season because from what I've seen it tames place primarily underwater, and ghosts are hurt by water in this universe, unless they perhaps decided to retcon that fact(I'm also worried that they might ruin him like they have with almost everyone at this point).

The only good thing about the season(from what I've seen at least) is that it ties in with the previous season in some way, which hasn't happened in a while, but that isn't really even a redeming quality because I doubt it was used well.

Edit: I still haven't finished seabound, but some replies convinced me to give it a second chance and I can now safely say that my initial opinions were at least mostly false. I'm still not entirely thrilled about the season from what I've seen so far, but it definitely isn't bad, I am actually enjoying myself and I bet I will have had a fun time for the most part when I do reach the finale. Kalmaar is one of the only villians in the post Oni and Dragon bullshit that I like, that isn't a high bar to set, but I do at least find him entertaining(and he has a sexy voice, so extra points for that I guess).

Updated Tl;dr: if you're going to watch past season 10, don't expect a masterpeice, there's a metric shitload of problems, but it is still mostly enjoyable.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #rant #does this count as a shitpost #probably not because im genuinely angry at the writting in this show #seriously #this shit has the plot of a really bad fanfic i would've written in 6th grade #no one cares #i dont know why i wrote this #have a nice day

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