With the 100th episode of Ninjago coming up, and a wave of remakes to celebrate it, what better way to get ready for it than to rewatch every single Ninjago episode made since 2011? Along the way, we can give our thoughts on each season/special and discuss them. I've already finished the pilots and the first 2 seasons, so reviews of those will have to wait. I would have made this earlier, but I never had the time to do it until now.
Post by fantasius1111 on Dec 25, 2018 18:12:09 GMT
I've already finished Rebooted! Just like the pilots, I used to really dislike this season, but rewatching it made me appreciate it more.
Still, I have some issues with it. One of my biggest ones is the whole blackout plot, which made very little sense to me. Wouldn't the Nindroids have their own power sources? Or is the technology in New Ninjago City powered by Wi-Fi? And PIXAL made for an interesting character, but didn't do all that much, feeling very underused. Then there was the love triangle...why? Who thought this was a good idea? It was just really pointless and annoying, not to mention all the shipping wars it created.
However, this season made good use of the length of 8 episodes, even if 10 or 13 episodes could have made for a much more developed story. It needed to get the story going again after Ninjago almost ended, and it did exactly that while making sense. The technological aspect was really interesting, felt fresh, and the show did a good job exploring how technology is not the answer to all our problems. I really enjoyed that central theme.
I know this season has gotten a lot of hate, but upon rewatch, I don't get why. Of course there are issues with it, but they aren't so big they ruin the season for me, and the season does as well as it possibly could have. I actually find it to be okay.
Anyway, I finished Tournament of Elements, and I have to say, this is one of my favourite seasons.
The things I love the most about this season are in the name. Like the tech theme of Rebooted, the tournament aspect felt very fresh. Another thing I loved was getting to know about the history of the elemental powers and the Elemental Alliance. This season made good use of both of these things to craft a great story.
These things made for some deep storytelling about manipulation, deception, and corruption. The tournament thing seems fun, but look behind that and you'll see the elemental masters being turned against each other like the last generation of elemental masters. You'll see them growing weaker and weaker while Chen is growing stronger and stronger.
I think that made Chen and Clouse stronger villains. They had an interesting dynamic, but they also worked well individually. Chen seems like a funny guy who loves theatrics, but look behind that and you'll see "a liar, a cheat, and an impostor", as Arcturus put it. Clouse also made for an interesting villain, thanks to his history with Garmadon and his connection to dark magic.
Unfortunately, that fell apart a bit with the spy for a spy plot, which made little sense to me. What information would Skylor need to report to Chen? And Kai turning against Lloyd sounded interesting, but he barely did anything to help Chen. Even the return of his ambition to become the Green Ninja was barely touched upon.
Skylor made for a great character. She isn't truely evil, but instead, she is a good person that just feels that she needs to do what Chen wants. However, I'm sure we can all agree it was disappointing she didn't join the ninja in favour of making noodles. Also, who is her mother?
Still, I greatly enjoyed this season, and it'll definitely rank highly among the rest.
I don't know why you didn't answer earlier. Can we rewatch Ninjago?
" Patience. " - Sensei Wu. It's around Christmas, I'd imagine Tigress and Mockingbird would be little busy, or at least that's the case with me.
Like I said in the other topic I am rewacthing Ninjago with my younger siblings to introduce them to the entire thing. So far we've watched up to the first episode of season two. If you'd like I could say what I thought of the pilot episodes and season one.
I don't know why you didn't answer earlier. Can we rewatch Ninjago?
" Patience. " - Sensei Wu. It's around Christmas, I'd imagine Tigress and Mockingbird would be little busy, or at least that's the case with me.
Like I said in the other topic I am rewacthing Ninjago with my younger siblings to introduce them to the entire thing. So far we've watched up to the first episode of season two. If you'd like I could say what I thought of the pilot episodes and season one.
Thanks for the answer.
I'm currently 6 episodes into Possession. This means I won't be able to finish the entire series before the New Year. That's okay, unless March of the Oni releases on January 1st.
-last edited on Dec 28, 2018 15:44:52 GMT by fantasius1111
Post by fantasius1111 on Dec 28, 2018 15:44:26 GMT
I just finished Possession! Like Rebooted, I have a lot of issues with this season, but I still enjoyed it.
Most of my enjoyment comes from Morro, thanks to his backstory and personality. We don't get to know a lot of details about his backstory, but knowing about how he aspired for greatness only to be corrupted by jealousy made him feel really sympathetic. However, that wouldn't have worked without how his personality was handled. His temper and his arrogance fits him so well, since he was driven to evil because of his ambition, and it made for easily one of the best written villains Ninjago has ever had.
The only thing that bothered me about him was that he was established as wanting to be the Green Ninja, but only ever used Lloyd's Energy powers once. If you're going to make it so that he always wanted to be the Green Ninja, why not have him use the powers of the Green Ninja?
The ghosts made for a very formidable threat, despite being few in numbers for most of the season. However, I really didn't like them being weak to water. It made them seem much less scary, since they could easily be defeated with buckets of water. I know it was done because Nya becoming the Water Ninja needed to be important, but I also didn't like that idea because it felt like it came out of nowhere. Why didn't Wu ever tell Nya about her powers? They could have been really useful.
Besides that, Nya's journey to becoming the Water Ninja was handled well. It's actually used to develop her character, with her reluctance to change her path, and her struggle with finding her weakness, before finally overcoming it. It made for much better character development than her randomly getting it in a deus ex machina moment would have.
I know some were bothered by Cole becoming a ghost, but I actually liked it, as it gave him his own struggle to overcome in the season. The writers might as well have undone it by the end of the season, letting him live happily ever after as a mortal, but I honestly appreciate the fact that they didn't. That way, it would have felt cheap, and it allowed his struggle with his ghostly form to continue.
This season was not as great as the last one, but I still enjoyed it.
Post by fantasius1111 on Dec 29, 2018 16:36:10 GMT
Well, I've run into a big problem. I was hoping to review Skybound today, but I can't find high quality versions of the final 2 episodes. If you know any place where I might be able to find them, I would appreciate the help. For now, though, my Skybound review will have to wait.
I AM BACK. :3 Re-watching the entirety of Ninjago sounds great to me, when should we--? *sees your reviews* --Wow, you go through them fast. 0.0
Well, I believe Mock and I will definitely be trying to catch up with you quite soon, but our progress will be slow compared to yours. Unfortunately we don't have enough hours in one day to watch an entire season.
I AM BACK. :3 Re-watching the entirety of Ninjago sounds great to me, when should we--? *sees your reviews* --Wow, you go through them fast. 0.0
Well, I believe Mock and I will definitely be trying to catch up with you quite soon, but our progress will be slow compared to yours. Unfortunately we don't have enough hours in one day to watch an entire season.
Sadly, my progress has been slowed down a bit because I can't find high quality versions of the final 2 episodes of Skybound. If you know where I can find them, thank you. If not, I'll either keep trying to find them, or I'll just skip them.
I AM BACK. :3 Re-watching the entirety of Ninjago sounds great to me, when should we--? *sees your reviews* --Wow, you go through them fast. 0.0
Well, I believe Mock and I will definitely be trying to catch up with you quite soon, but our progress will be slow compared to yours. Unfortunately we don't have enough hours in one day to watch an entire season.
Sadly, my progress has been slowed down a bit because I can't find high quality versions of the final 2 episodes of Skybound. If you know where I can find them, thank you. If not, I'll either keep trying to find them, or I'll just skip them.
Sorry, I don't think I can be much help there. Skybound is on Netflix where we live, but that's probably not the case where you are. :/
" Patience. " - Sensei Wu. It's around Christmas, I'd imagine Tigress and Mockingbird would be little busy, or at least that's the case with me.
Like I said in the other topic I am rewacthing Ninjago with my younger siblings to introduce them to the entire thing. So far we've watched up to the first episode of season two. If you'd like I could say what I thought of the pilot episodes and season one.
Thanks for the answer.
I'm currently 6 episodes into Possession. This means I won't be able to finish the entire series before the New Year. That's okay, unless March of the Oni releases on January 1st.
Oh, yes, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Of course, I'll always if I can.
I don't think it did, so I think you're good there.
Ok, I'll post my thoughts when I have little bit more time to think about it.
The pilot episodes. I think I think of them almost the same as I always have. I kinda headcanon the chapter books to be somewhat canon to it. Plus I figure that several months went by within those two episodes. It would have been nice to learn more of the skeletons, but that's no big deal. Pretty much awesome as usual.
And season one Rise of the Snakes. I've seen these episodes over and over so many times I've got them pretty much memorized. It was fun to see my siblings reactions to the stuff that is new to them and leave them wondering and begging for what happens next after every episode. I definitely looked for the connections to the newer seasons, especially when the Great Devourer attacked. Me and one of my brothers who had seen it before were looking for where and when Harumi's building was hit. Still love this season no matter how many times I've seen it.
