I'm back everyone! Unfortunately, I couldn't review Skybound because I couldn't find high quality versions of the final 2 episodes. That means I'm skipping to Day of the Departed, and well...it's quite bad.
There's no doubting that the main problem with this special is how rushed it is. I mentioned that the pilots weren't that rushed considering the short runtime, but I can't say the same here because the plot is so big. There's a new realm, new lore, and plenty of old villains returning, but 45 minutes isn't enough space to make any of this interesting. It all takes a while to set up, only for it to be rushed through.
This leads to a lot of plot holes and writing that makes no sense, which I mentioned over on Ninjago Plot Holes. The Departed Realm was important, but we never learn what it is, how it works, and it's only used to justify the old villains returning. While the idea of the old villains returning sounded cool, they get beaten incredibly easily and quickly, making it feel anti-climactic.
Yang himself was a mixed bag, because while he had a cool backstory, he doesn't prove to be very effective. There was work put into fleshing him out as a villain, establishing him as fearing being forgotten, and becoming obsessed with immortality. However, his plan made no sense. Why bring back the old villains? The ninja had already forgotten Cole, so there was no need to bring them back. In fact, his plan would have worked if he didn't revive them, because Morro wouldn't be able to tell the ninja about Cole.
The stakes were very low in this season. Villains that proved to be big threats to all of Ninjago in previous seasons are easily defeated in mere minutes in this special. It never felt like there was any great danger or menace, just some living statues attacking the ninja, while Cole tries to bust out of a haunted temple. The entire plot, as well as Cole's struggle with his ghostly existence, is resolved by Cole getting a random deus ex machina power that fixes everything. It really felt more like just some random Halloween special than a truly meaningful addition to the series.
I'm back everyone! Unfortunately, I couldn't review Skybound because I couldn't find high quality versions of the final 2 episodes. That means I'm skipping to Day of the Departed, and well...it's quite bad.
There's no doubting that the main problem with this special is how rushed it is. I mentioned that the pilots weren't that rushed considering the short runtime, but I can't say the same here because the plot is so big. There's a new realm, new lore, and plenty of old villains returning, but 45 minutes isn't enough space to make any of this interesting. It all takes a while to set up, only for it to be rushed through.
This leads to a lot of plot holes and writing that makes no sense, which I mentioned over on Ninjago Plot Holes. The Departed Realm was important, but we never learn what it is, how it works, and it's only used to justify the old villains returning. While the idea of the old villains returning sounded cool, they get beaten incredibly easily and quickly, making it feel anti-climactic.
Yang himself was a mixed bag, because while he had a cool backstory, he doesn't prove to be very effective. There was work put into fleshing him out as a villain, establishing him as fearing being forgotten, and becoming obsessed with immortality. However, his plan made no sense. Why bring back the old villains? The ninja had already forgotten Cole, so there was no need to bring them back. In fact, his plan would have worked if he didn't revive them, because Morro wouldn't be able to tell the ninja about Cole.
The stakes were very low in this season. Villains that proved to be big threats to all of Ninjago in previous seasons are easily defeated in mere minutes in this special. It never felt like there was any great danger or menace, just some living statues attacking the ninja, while Cole tries to bust out of a haunted temple. The entire plot, as well as Cole's struggle with his ghostly existence, is resolved by Cole getting a random deus ex machina power that fixes everything. It really felt more like just some random Halloween special than a truly meaningful addition to the series.
You may not like the special that much, but I myself would like to defend one part of the episode: the credits. The credits were great. . . because that meant it was over.
I remember when Hands of Time came out, and I made it clear that I was not impressed. However, I never actually made a full review of it until now. I've rewatched the whole season...and I still hate this season, to the extent that I'm splitting this review into multiple parts.
My problems with this season come from the writers. As we all know, the Hagemans couldn't write Day of the Departed and Hands of Time, since they were busy with Trollhunters. That meant LEGO needed a small team of writers to take over for a while, and honestly, it felt like they didn't understand the story or characters. It's like they were just handed out notes on the past seasons so that they could write this one.
The ninja felt like they suddenly became less competent. After seasons and seasons of them having to learn and remember important lessons, they seem to forget these lessons. Instead of working together, they split up almost all of the time. A good example of this is The Hatching, where they decide to race each other for whatever reason, and take turns to fight a Vermillion warrior when their combined forces would have been more effective.
Not only does the character development of the ninja in past seasons feel ignored, but their development in this season is pretty weak. It tries to give Kai and Nya something with the arc surrounding their parents, but the way it was resolved was so underwhelming. Upon first watch, I genuinely expected some big twist with Ray and Maya, involving the "dark secrets" mentioned by Chen, revealing them to be traitors like Krux said. However, it just turns out they were randomly kidnapped by Krux one day, and after that, they don't feel important. Sure, they made the Fusion Blade, but besides that, they kind of just stood around. All that build-up felt like it was for nothing.
The writers clearly wanted to do something interesting with Cole, but they didn't even try. He randomly starts having trouble with his RX powers despite being able to use them perfectly in Day of the Departed, but then that's forgotten about, and he can still use them perfectly. Not to mention, the power still doesn't get a proper explanation.
This season tried to do something with the idea of Lloyd becoming a Master, which was set up in Possession, but it felt way too forced. He just suddenly becomes a strict and serious leader like Stormer from Hero Factory, instead of these traits being developed over the course of the season. What makes it worse is that it only became necessary because Wu was rapidly aging, not because Lloyd was actually ready to reach the rank of Master. It's capped off with him being declared a Master at the end, but it means nothing because he didn't go through any character development in the season, and it was only because of Wu getting lost in time.
Speaking of Wu, the arc with him rapidly aging was a disappointment. After he gets hit with the time punch (seriously?) his aging is mostly just played for laughs. The ninja don't really wonder what's happening with him, and Wu decides to keep it a secret for pretty much no reason. Misako then lets it out...after the ninja lose the Slow Mo Blade, which could have somewhat helped him. It's just a poorly written arc that serves no purpose besides starting the Master Lloyd arc, which was also a poorly written arc.
The second Samurai X was another wasted opportunity. PIXAL just disappears, and nobody at all seems to care, not even Zane. Zane, who felt a deep connection with PIXAL in Rebooted, and was horrified at her deletion in Skybound, doesn't seem to care about PIXAL disappearing. She doesn't show up as Samurai X until episode 6, doesn't show up in her new suit and vehicle until episode 9, and doesn't do anything important besides saving Lloyd. Her identity isn't even revealed despite being so obvious that LEGO spoiled it with her 2018 minifigure.
Not even the new characters are well written. Of course, I'm talking about the villains. The Time Twins were somehow both boring and annoying to me. I found them boring because they were generic power hungry villains with very little motivation for being evil. I found them annoying because Acronix just wouldn't stop going on about his love for modern technology, and Krux wouldn't stop going on about his hatred for it.
However, I found Blunck and Raggmunk to be even more annoying. Seriously, these two are supposed to be Commanders with superior intelligence to their warriors? All they ever do is act incompetent so that they can get scolded by Commanded Machia, and get into pointless and unfunny arguments. I wouldn't mind them as much if they were two random Vermillion who acted as comic relief, but they're Commanders, so they should be more serious. It's not that I have something against villains being comedic, but it bothers me when it isn't done right.
The Vermillion in general made no sense. They're explained as being the offspring of the Great Devourer, but then why do they look nothing like the Devourer? It's said they'll eat anything in their path, so why do they never do that? How did Krux get eggs from the Great Devourer while it was sealed? Also, their weakness is initially shown to be electrified water, but then in the finale, it just seems like combining any two elemental powers can stop them.
I know this has been a really long rant, but that's because there are just so many problems I have with it. I can't say for sure if I hate it more than Day of the Departed, but excluding all of the specials, this is definitely my least favourite season. I don't blame the writers for this, but I just can't trust them to write a good season of Ninjago, because, as I said, they clearly weren't familiar with the series. I'm glad that Bragi Schut will be taking over, since I've seen his work, and I know he can do well with Ninjago.
Finally, now that I've spent three posts criticising this season, I would like to hear what MooCowsRock has to say about it. (If you don't get why, it's because he agreed with me that Hands of Time was a bad season over on LEGO Ninjago 2019 Discussion, and said we should bash it together sometime.)
I remember when Hands of Time came out, and I made it clear that I was not impressed. However, I never actually made a full review of it until now. I've rewatched the whole season...and I still hate this season, to the extent that I'm splitting this review into multiple parts.
My problems with this season come from the writers. As we all know, the Hagemans couldn't write Day of the Departed and Hands of Time, since they were busy with Trollhunters. That meant LEGO needed a small team of writers to take over for a while, and honestly, it felt like they didn't understand the story or characters. It's like they were just handed out notes on the past seasons so that they could write this one.
The ninja felt like they suddenly became less competent. After seasons and seasons of them having to learn and remember important lessons, they seem to forget these lessons. Instead of working together, they split up almost all of the time. A good example of this is The Hatching, where they decide to race each other for whatever reason, and take turns to fight a Vermillion warrior when their combined forces would have been more effective.
Not only does the character development of the ninja in past seasons feel ignored, but their development in this season is pretty weak. It tries to give Kai and Nya something with the arc surrounding their parents, but the way it was resolved was so underwhelming. Upon first watch, I genuinely expected some big twist with Ray and Maya, involving the "dark secrets" mentioned by Chen, revealing them to be traitors like Krux said. However, it just turns out they were randomly kidnapped by Krux one day, and after that, they don't feel important. Sure, they made the Fusion Blade, but besides that, they kind of just stood around. All that build-up felt like it was for nothing.
The writers clearly wanted to do something interesting with Cole, but they didn't even try. He randomly starts having trouble with his RX powers despite being able to use them perfectly in Day of the Departed, but then that's forgotten about, and he can still use them perfectly. Not to mention, the power still doesn't get a proper explanation.
To be continued...
Oh yeah that's right, you just reminded me of something, hope you don't mind if I rant about something for a second...
The kidnapping thing didn't make any sense! THEY ARE ELEMENTAL MASTERS!!! Did the writers just think that since a villain is threatening their kids with a wimpy sword several yards away , the TWO ELEMENTAL MASTERS would just let him get away with it! No! Ray could have thrown a fire ball in his face, Maya could have done something similar by making him not able to breathe, they could have even taken him out with their bare hands! And aren't they in a WEAPON SHOP!?! They could have easily grabbed a weapon in that moment. They were up against ONE GUY! And he was threatening THEIR KIDS! I'm sorry but, what happened!?!
This season tried to do something with the idea of Lloyd becoming a Master, which was set up in Possession, but it felt way too forced. He just suddenly becomes a strict and serious leader like Stormer from Hero Factory, instead of these traits being developed over the course of the season. What makes it worse is that it only became necessary because Wu was rapidly aging, not because Lloyd was actually ready to reach the rank of Master. It's capped off with him being declared a Master at the end, but it means nothing because he didn't go through any character development in the season, and it was only because of Wu getting lost in time.
Speaking of Wu, the arc with him rapidly aging was a disappointment. After he gets hit with the time punch (seriously?) his aging is mostly just played for laughs. The ninja don't really wonder what's happening with him, and Wu decides to keep it a secret for pretty much no reason. Misako then lets it out...after the ninja lose the Slow Mo Blade, which could have somewhat helped him. It's just a poorly written arc that serves no purpose besides starting the Master Lloyd arc, which was also a poorly written arc.
The second Samurai X was another wasted opportunity. PIXAL just disappears, and nobody at all seems to care, not even Zane. Zane, who felt a deep connection with PIXAL in Rebooted, and was horrified at her deletion in Skybound, doesn't seem to care about PIXAL disappearing. She doesn't show up as Samurai X until episode 6, doesn't show up in her new suit and vehicle until episode 9, and doesn't do anything important besides saving Lloyd. Her identity isn't even revealed despite being so obvious that LEGO spoiled it with her 2018 minifigure.
Not even the new characters are well written. Of course, I'm talking about the villains. The Time Twins were somehow both boring and annoying to me. I found them boring because they were generic power hungry villains with very little motivation for being evil. I found them annoying because Acronix just wouldn't stop going on about his love for modern technology, and Krux wouldn't stop going on about his hatred for it.
To be concluded...
Yes, I remember that frustrated me that they hardly mentioned the fact that Pixal was gone.
I remember when Hands of Time came out, and I made it clear that I was not impressed. However, I never actually made a full review of it until now. I've rewatched the whole season...and I still hate this season, to the extent that I'm splitting this review into multiple parts.
My problems with this season come from the writers. As we all know, the Hagemans couldn't write Day of the Departed and Hands of Time, since they were busy with Trollhunters. That meant LEGO needed a small team of writers to take over for a while, and honestly, it felt like they didn't understand the story or characters. It's like they were just handed out notes on the past seasons so that they could write this one.
The ninja felt like they suddenly became less competent. After seasons and seasons of them having to learn and remember important lessons, they seem to forget these lessons. Instead of working together, they split up almost all of the time. A good example of this is The Hatching, where they decide to race each other for whatever reason, and take turns to fight a Vermillion warrior when their combined forces would have been more effective.
Not only does the character development of the ninja in past seasons feel ignored, but their development in this season is pretty weak. It tries to give Kai and Nya something with the arc surrounding their parents, but the way it was resolved was so underwhelming. Upon first watch, I genuinely expected some big twist with Ray and Maya, involving the "dark secrets" mentioned by Chen, revealing them to be traitors like Krux said. However, it just turns out they were randomly kidnapped by Krux one day, and after that, they don't feel important. Sure, they made the Fusion Blade, but besides that, they kind of just stood around. All that build-up felt like it was for nothing.
The writers clearly wanted to do something interesting with Cole, but they didn't even try. He randomly starts having trouble with his RX powers despite being able to use them perfectly in Day of the Departed, but then that's forgotten about, and he can still use them perfectly. Not to mention, the power still doesn't get a proper explanation.
To be continued...
Oh yeah that's right, you just reminded me of something, hope you don't mind if I rant about something for a second...
The kidnapping thing didn't make any sense! THEY ARE ELEMENTAL MASTERS!!! Did the writers just think that since a villain is threatening their kids with a wimpy sword several yards away , the TWO ELEMENTAL MASTERS would just let him get away with it! No! Ray could have thrown a fire ball in his face, Maya could have done something similar by making him not able to breathe, they could have even taken him out with their bare hands! And aren't they in a WEAPON SHOP!?! They could have easily grabbed a weapon in that moment. They were up against ONE GUY! And he was threatening THEIR KIDS! I'm sorry but, what happened!?!
I'm pretty sure it was once confirmed that elemental masters lose their powers when they pass them on, which does explain why Ray and Maya never use them. However, since they fought in the Serpentine Wars, surely they could have done something.
I remember when Hands of Time came out, and I made it clear that I was not impressed. However, I never actually made a full review of it until now. I've rewatched the whole season...and I still hate this season, to the extent that I'm splitting this review into multiple parts.
My problems with this season come from the writers. As we all know, the Hagemans couldn't write Day of the Departed and Hands of Time, since they were busy with Trollhunters. That meant LEGO needed a small team of writers to take over for a while, and honestly, it felt like they didn't understand the story or characters. It's like they were just handed out notes on the past seasons so that they could write this one.
The ninja felt like they suddenly became less competent. After seasons and seasons of them having to learn and remember important lessons, they seem to forget these lessons. Instead of working together, they split up almost all of the time. A good example of this is The Hatching, where they decide to race each other for whatever reason, and take turns to fight a Vermillion warrior when their combined forces would have been more effective.
Not only does the character development of the ninja in past seasons feel ignored, but their development in this season is pretty weak. It tries to give Kai and Nya something with the arc surrounding their parents, but the way it was resolved was so underwhelming. Upon first watch, I genuinely expected some big twist with Ray and Maya, involving the "dark secrets" mentioned by Chen, revealing them to be traitors like Krux said. However, it just turns out they were randomly kidnapped by Krux one day, and after that, they don't feel important. Sure, they made the Fusion Blade, but besides that, they kind of just stood around. All that build-up felt like it was for nothing.
The writers clearly wanted to do something interesting with Cole, but they didn't even try. He randomly starts having trouble with his RX powers despite being able to use them perfectly in Day of the Departed, but then that's forgotten about, and he can still use them perfectly. Not to mention, the power still doesn't get a proper explanation.
To be continued...
Oh yeah that's right, you just reminded me of something, hope you don't mind if I rant about something for a second...
The kidnapping thing didn't make any sense! THEY ARE ELEMENTAL MASTERS!!! Did the writers just think that since a villain is threatening their kids with a wimpy sword several yards away , the TWO ELEMENTAL MASTERS would just let him get away with it! No! Ray could have thrown a fire ball in his face, Maya could have done something similar by making him not able to breathe, they could have even taken him out with their bare hands! And aren't they in a WEAPON SHOP!?! They could have easily grabbed a weapon in that moment. They were up against ONE GUY! And he was threatening THEIR KIDS! I'm sorry but, what happened!?!
Maybe Ray and Maya were secretly looking for an excuse to take a vacation from caring for their tiresome kids for a little while, and letting a crazed maniac "kidnap" them looked like a good way to do it.
However, I found Blunck and Raggmunk to be even more annoying. Seriously, these two are supposed to be Commanders with superior intelligence to their warriors? All they ever do is act incompetent so that they can get scolded by Commanded Machia, and get into pointless and unfunny arguments. I wouldn't mind them as much if they were two random Vermillion who acted as comic relief, but they're Commanders, so they should be more serious. It's not that I have something against villains being comedic, but it bothers me when it isn't done right.
The Vermillion in general made no sense. They're explained as being the offspring of the Great Devourer, but then why do they look nothing like the Devourer? It's said they'll eat anything in their path, so why do they never do that? How did Krux get eggs from the Great Devourer while it was sealed? Also, their weakness is initially shown to be electrified water, but then in the finale, it just seems like combining any two elemental powers can stop them.
I know this has been a really long rant, but that's because there are just so many problems I have with it. I can't say for sure if I hate it more than Day of the Departed, but excluding all of the specials, this is definitely my least favourite season. I don't blame the writers for this, but I just can't trust them to write a good season of Ninjago, because, as I said, they clearly weren't familiar with the series. I'm glad that Bragi Schut will be taking over, since I've seen his work, and I know he can do well with Ninjago.
Finally, now that I've spent three posts criticising this season, I would like to hear what MooCowsRock has to say about it. (If you don't get why, it's because he agreed with me that Hands of Time was a bad season over on LEGO Ninjago 2019 Discussion, and said we should bash it together sometime.)
I remember when Hands of Time came out, and I made it clear that I was not impressed. However, I never actually made a full review of it until now. I've rewatched the whole season...and I still hate this season, to the extent that I'm splitting this review into multiple parts.
My problems with this season come from the writers. As we all know, the Hagemans couldn't write Day of the Departed and Hands of Time, since they were busy with Trollhunters. That meant LEGO needed a small team of writers to take over for a while, and honestly, it felt like they didn't understand the story or characters. It's like they were just handed out notes on the past seasons so that they could write this one.
The ninja felt like they suddenly became less competent. After seasons and seasons of them having to learn and remember important lessons, they seem to forget these lessons. Instead of working together, they split up almost all of the time. A good example of this is The Hatching, where they decide to race each other for whatever reason, and take turns to fight a Vermillion warrior when their combined forces would have been more effective.
Not only does the character development of the ninja in past seasons feel ignored, but their development in this season is pretty weak. It tries to give Kai and Nya something with the arc surrounding their parents, but the way it was resolved was so underwhelming. Upon first watch, I genuinely expected some big twist with Ray and Maya, involving the "dark secrets" mentioned by Chen, revealing them to be traitors like Krux said. However, it just turns out they were randomly kidnapped by Krux one day, and after that, they don't feel important. Sure, they made the Fusion Blade, but besides that, they kind of just stood around. All that build-up felt like it was for nothing.
The writers clearly wanted to do something interesting with Cole, but they didn't even try. He randomly starts having trouble with his RX powers despite being able to use them perfectly in Day of the Departed, but then that's forgotten about, and he can still use them perfectly. Not to mention, the power still doesn't get a proper explanation.
To be continued...
Oh yeah that's right, you just reminded me of something, hope you don't mind if I rant about something for a second...
The kidnapping thing didn't make any sense! THEY ARE ELEMENTAL MASTERS!!! Did the writers just think that since a villain is threatening their kids with a wimpy sword several yards away , the TWO ELEMENTAL MASTERS would just let him get away with it! No! Ray could have thrown a fire ball in his face, Maya could have done something similar by making him not able to breathe, they could have even taken him out with their bare hands! And aren't they in a WEAPON SHOP!?! They could have easily grabbed a weapon in that moment. They were up against ONE GUY! And he was threatening THEIR KIDS! I'm sorry but, what happened!?!
I think we're all in agreement: Hands of Time was a pretty big fail. xP
Now that I think about it, I guess it's not so surprising so many fans believed Sons of Garmadon would be the ultimate downfall of Ninjago, what with the most recent content at the time.
![[fp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/npbLCuGzrLApxWtWqy0u.png)
