I was rewatching Sons of Garmadon, and I noticed something interesting. When the finale to Hunted was released, many felt like Garmadon being fueled by fighting came out of nowhere. However, it actually didn't. While Garmadon is fighting Lloyd, Harumi comments that the fight is fueling Garmadon, so the writers remembered that for Green Destiny.
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.)
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.
I don't remember Hands of Time being that negatively recieved when it was first released, though since then, I have seen more people who hate it. Honestly, it deserves almost every bad thing said about it.
Well, I've finally made it through Sons of Garmadon. The one widely-loved season that many say took Ninjago to the next level. The one that often gets called the greatest season of Ninjago ever made. Unfortunately, I really don't think the season deserves the praise it gets. I know this is an unpopular opinion, and I'm okay if you like it, but I'm allowed to speak my opinion, and in my opinion, this isn't a very good season.
I was impressed with Harumi as a villain. Her tragic backstory makes her really sympathetic, and her manipulation of the ninja makes her really effective. Notably, she is the first female main villain Ninjago has ever had, and she makes a good impression. However, none of the other villains get that.
The rest of the Sons of Garmadon all felt boring to me. The generals can all be summed up in two words: Mr E is the silent nindroid, Ultra Violet is the crazy girl, and Killow is the big guy. We don't get any interesting backstory on them, we don't even get to know why they worship Garmadon, and they were kind of just there before the Harumi reveal. They even try to make Mr E being a nindroid into a big twist, but it fails because we learn nothing else about him. They all felt generic to me.
I honestly hate what this season did with Garmadon. He was interesting in the first two seasons because of his personality and backstory. He was bitten by the Great Devourer and forced to do evil things, but it didn't consume him to the point of being a true power-hungry monster. Most of all, he couldn't bring himself to face his son, because he loved him so much. This season took that away in favour of making him a being of pure evil like the Overlord, and while it did make him more scary and intimidating, it also made him feel boring. His only character traits are that he's evil, wants power, and...that's it. That's all there is.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
But the character development! Also what's wrong with Lloyd going to face Garmadon alone? Yeah, Lloyd doesn't listen to his friends' advice, but that's because going to face your father, who you thought was good, is kind of a big deal.
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.)
Here's what I think: You're right in every respect, this season was terrible, and I wish it had been done better. The best part about Hands of Time was the premise: there was huge potential in the idea of Time as an elemental power and its bearers as the villains. Unfortunately, for all the reasons you mentioned, that potential was squandered. The ninja weren't used well at all: Lloyd waffled between being a Sensei and a ninja and his arc never got anywhere; Jay was flat and got some terrible dialogue; Kai was weirdly brooding; Nya made a big deal out of being a ninja instead of Samurai X just so PIXAL could show up, despite becoming a ninja two seasons ago; Cole messed around with his random orange hands and then the writers basically forgot about him; and Zane was agonizingly portrayed as cringe-worthy comic relief before also being snubbed.
The villains were no better. The Vermillion were bland and unoriginal. Raggmunk and Blunck were so badly written I couldn't even laugh at how bad they were. Machia was--well, actually, Machia wasn't that bad, but any interest I could have had in her was decreased by association with the rest of the Vermillion. Acronix and Krux were massively disappointing. Acronix suffered from bad voice acting and bad dialogue and was too silly to be a main villain (not that I have a problem with comedic villains, but Acronix wasn't done well at all). Krux was slightly better but was at best a two-dimensional character, made worse by the annoyingly ongoing argument about technology between him and Acronix. Also, how he conveniently managed to obtain Vermillion eggs is beyond me.
Finally, the season's climax was unfulfilling and left me with the distinct impression that nothing really happened during the entire thing. The Time Blades came by, the ninja fought more snakes, and that was basically it. No character development, no meaningful action, nothing. Kai and Nya's parents were useless and that rendered the season moot, in my opinion.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
Ok, but it's dark and intense because they realized that all the fans are teenagers now.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
But the character development! Also what's wrong with Lloyd going to face Garmadon alone? Yeah, Lloyd doesn't listen to his friends' advice, but that's because going to face your father, who you thought was good, is kind of a big deal.
Oh, I guess it did have some character development? However, most of the villains were boring, and the ninja do a pretty poor job fighting them. They literally forget their own powers.
Lloyd was directly told that Garmadon was an empty shell of himself. He was directly warned of how dangerous he was. He was directly advised not to fight him by his own friends. He did it anyway.
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.)
Here's what I think: You're right in every respect, this season was terrible, and I wish it had been done better. The best part about Hands of Time was the premise: there was huge potential in the idea of Time as an elemental power and its bearers as the villains. Unfortunately, for all the reasons you mentioned, that potential was squandered. The ninja weren't used well at all: Lloyd waffled between being a Sensei and a ninja and his arc never got anywhere; Jay was flat and got some terrible dialogue; Kai was weirdly brooding; Nya made a big deal out of being a ninja instead of Samurai X just so PIXAL could show up, despite becoming a ninja two seasons ago; Cole messed around with his random orange hands and then the writers basically forgot about him; and Zane was agonizingly portrayed as cringe-worthy comic relief before also being snubbed.
The villains were no better. The Vermillion were bland and unoriginal. Raggmunk and Blunck were so badly written I couldn't even laugh at how bad they were. Machia was--well, actually, Machia wasn't that bad, but any interest I could have had in her was decreased by association with the rest of the Vermillion. Acronix and Krux were massively disappointing. Acronix suffered from bad voice acting and bad dialogue and was too silly to be a main villain (not that I have a problem with comedic villains, but Acronix wasn't done well at all). Krux was slightly better but was at best a two-dimensional character, made worse by the annoyingly ongoing argument about technology between him and Acronix. Also, how he conveniently managed to obtain Vermillion eggs is beyond me.
Finally, the season's climax was unfulfilling and left me with the distinct impression that nothing really happened during the entire thing. The Time Blades came by, the ninja fought more snakes, and that was basically it. No character development, no meaningful action, nothing. Kai and Nya's parents were useless and that rendered the season moot, in my opinion.
This was one heavily flawed season. If LEGO picked one writer with a strong knowledge of Ninjago instead of a team of people who clearly weren't very familiar with it, it could have turned out great. I guess that Hands of Time suffered from some seriously troubled production.
One idea I had was making a sequel season focused on time travel. Maybe there could be a cliffhanger where the ninja fail to stop the Time Twins from travelling through time, and the next season is focused on undoing the damage. Since the recent seasons have more of a connected plot, it would make sense.
In my Hands of Time review, I complained that the ninja felt like they got less competent and more weak, and the same goes here. Obviously, I'm talking about the removal of airjitzu and the elemental dragons. I know that they were removed for being too powerful, but that isn't a good excuse to me. They do have their limitations: airjitzu can only fly over short distances and isn't good for combat, and elemental dragons require a lot of elemental power and can't be summoned if the user is afraid. However, what really bothers me is that the writers don't even try to explain it. I know about Way of the Departed, but there should be an explanation in the show itself. Without one, it seems like the ninja just forgot about them, making them look incompetent.
In general, the ninja feel like they act incompetent just so that the plot can progress. They can't remember their own powers, they go on undercover missions that barely accomplish anything, and they surrender to the Sons of Garmadon quickly without putting up much of a fight. In the first episode, they start getting suspicious of Hutchins for absolutely no reason. When they find out that Zane is being used to lead them into a trap, they don't bother to investigate. Capping it all of, Lloyd ignores advice from his own friends and decides to face Garmadon all by himself.
Honestly, I don't get why this season gets so much praise. Sure, things get darker and more intense, but that means nothing because of all the problems with the writing. This season overall failed to live up to my expectations. As soon as I saw the San Diego Comic Con sneak peek, I was instantly won over by the writing, action, animation, and what the crew had to say about it. When it came out, though, I was seriously underwhelmed. If this review doesn't change your mind about this season, that's okay. That was never my goal. My only goal was to express why I think Sons of Garmadon is overrated.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
To be honest, I think the darker and edgier feel could have worked great for Sons of Garmadon. With the show running as long as it has, it makes sense to take things to the next level with more sophisticated storytelling and darker subject matter. However, the problems I brought up weigh it down. I don't truly hate Sons of Garmadon, I just find it to be overrated.
The only thing that was heartbreaking about the fight between Lloyd and Garmadon was that Garmadon was reduced to such an uninteresting villain. They either should have portrayed him like in Season 2, or not bring him back at all.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
Ok, but it's dark and intense because they realized that all the fans are teenagers now.
As I said, that doesn't work because of the problems with the season.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
Ok, but it's dark and intense because they realized that all the fans are teenagers now.
...And all teenagers like dark, intense things...? I certainly don't.
Honestly, I hate Sons of Garmadon more than I dislike Hands of Time. All of your points are again valid, but the real deal-breaker for me is the added darkness and intensity. It seems to be there for no reason. Ninjago is just not a dark and intense story--it certainly has its moments, which are appropriate, but after having established a fun, adventurous tone for seven years, the sudden change was jarring and disappointing. Moreover, I see no appeal in having emotional drama in a story for the sake of emotional drama, which is essentially all that SoG was. Garmadon's portrayal was especially terrible--he was dark and evil for the sake of being dark and evil, which just ruined the original Garmadon.
To be honest, I think the darker and edgier feel could have worked great for Sons of Garmadon. With the show running as long as it has, it makes sense to take things to the next level with more sophisticated storytelling and darker subject matter. However, the problems I brought up weigh it down. I don't truly hate Sons of Garmadon, I just find it to be overrated.
The only thing that was heartbreaking about the fight between Lloyd and Garmadon was that Garmadon was reduced to such an uninteresting villain. They either should have portrayed him like in Season 2, or not bring him back at all.
I think we must define sophisticated storytelling differently: I think it's far more sophisticated to handle dark subject matter with an inconspicuous touch than to stress it for the sake of making the story more gripping/dramatic. I might bring Possession to your attention. The premise of that season is inherently dark when you get down to it--Lloyd literally gets possessed by Morro and the ghosts are all cursed for eternity--but that point was never played up for the sake of making the show "dark." I prefer it this way because I just don't like blatant dark subject matter, but I suppose the SoG way of handling it could appeal to some people.
Here's what I think: You're right in every respect, this season was terrible, and I wish it had been done better. The best part about Hands of Time was the premise: there was huge potential in the idea of Time as an elemental power and its bearers as the villains. Unfortunately, for all the reasons you mentioned, that potential was squandered. The ninja weren't used well at all: Lloyd waffled between being a Sensei and a ninja and his arc never got anywhere; Jay was flat and got some terrible dialogue; Kai was weirdly brooding; Nya made a big deal out of being a ninja instead of Samurai X just so PIXAL could show up, despite becoming a ninja two seasons ago; Cole messed around with his random orange hands and then the writers basically forgot about him; and Zane was agonizingly portrayed as cringe-worthy comic relief before also being snubbed.
The villains were no better. The Vermillion were bland and unoriginal. Raggmunk and Blunck were so badly written I couldn't even laugh at how bad they were. Machia was--well, actually, Machia wasn't that bad, but any interest I could have had in her was decreased by association with the rest of the Vermillion. Acronix and Krux were massively disappointing. Acronix suffered from bad voice acting and bad dialogue and was too silly to be a main villain (not that I have a problem with comedic villains, but Acronix wasn't done well at all). Krux was slightly better but was at best a two-dimensional character, made worse by the annoyingly ongoing argument about technology between him and Acronix. Also, how he conveniently managed to obtain Vermillion eggs is beyond me.
Finally, the season's climax was unfulfilling and left me with the distinct impression that nothing really happened during the entire thing. The Time Blades came by, the ninja fought more snakes, and that was basically it. No character development, no meaningful action, nothing. Kai and Nya's parents were useless and that rendered the season moot, in my opinion.
This was one heavily flawed season. If LEGO picked one writer with a strong knowledge of Ninjago instead of a team of people who clearly weren't very familiar with it, it could have turned out great. I guess that Hands of Time suffered from some seriously troubled production.
One idea I had was making a sequel season focused on time travel. Maybe there could be a cliffhanger where the ninja fail to stop the Time Twins from travelling through time, and the next season is focused on undoing the damage. Since the recent seasons have more of a connected plot, it would make sense.
I'm not sure if a cliffhanger would be good or bad considering Hands of Time itself ended on a cliffhanger. It might appear too much like a "we're trying to redo this season correctly" sort of move. At the same time, that would be pretty interesting.
