Brilliant!! I still like that you made episodes based on the books. Plus the lore build up is really good! ( I don't remember if it's the same as what you had for your original topic on the messages boards since it's been a few years. But either way, it's awesome! ) Can't wait to see more.
So glad to see you back here.
There's one more episode, that I can recall off the top of my head, anyway, that's based off one of the comic books: "The Phantom Ninja," which I've never actually read, but I threw Seliel in the mix anyway because the fact that (to my knowledge) she never popped up in the actual show really bothered me.
The lore is different, but I don't think I ever really talked about it back on the official LMBs, so I don't think you'd remember it.
More's coming very soon, after a bit more trivia about Season 3.
• One of the things the ninja forget is what happened to Zane. To ensure they’d be at the top of their game fighting Ronin, Garmadon elected not to tell them about it.
(Totally not a recipe for disaster.)
Wouldn’t you know it, the instant they get their memories back, the ninja, Kai especially, are furious. This is what motivates them to go their separate ways. Lloyd is the only one who sticks around.
Cole gets involved with law enforcement.
Jay fumbles his way into a role as a contestant (and later the host) on a popular game show.
Kai, well…
‘Kai had taken his anger over what happened to Zane out on punching bags. He'd gone through enough of them to build a life-size replica of Borg Tower. He'd needed something to do. Major threats were in short supply, so he'd gone after the smaller things. He'd taken out some thugs who'd busted an ATM open, and the occasional burglar or bank robber.
But, because Cole worked in law enforcement now, the two ran into each other every now and then, and that was unacceptable.
Despite what Lloyd insisted, they weren't a team. Not anymore.
And unless, by some miracle, Zane crawled out of his grave, they would never be one again.
So now, he took his anger out on the lowlifes who signed up for these ring fights. Sure, it wasn't technically legal, but they'd been running for almost a century now without incident, and these guys were easy pickings. Their “skill” couldn't even compare to Kai's. It was the most fun he'd had in his life.
They called him the Red Shogun. They said that no one could hit him, and he didn't even have to hit anyone; they just fell right down. In some cases, it was absolutely true.’
I: The Invitation (Three months after Zane's sacrifice, Master Chen invites the ninja to the Tournament of the Elements to compete for the ancient, powerful Jade Blades)
II: Only One Can Remain (Chen tests the ninjas' conviction by pitting Cole against Jay in the Tournament's second round)
III: The Final Bracket (Only four contestants are left: Karloff, Griffin, and Skylor stand between Cole and victory. Elsewhere, the Master of Ice gradually regains his senses)
IV: Escape from Chen's Island (Skylor wins the Jade Blades, and everyone else is put to work in the Noodle Factory. The eighteen Elemental Masters must join forces to mount an escape)
V: Conscious (The ninja must return Zane to Borg Tower so that his mind and body can be repaired, but Chen sends Clouse, along with a hypnotized Karloff and Griffin, to stop them)
VI: Return of the Phantom (Seliel returns permanently, and Cole leaves to find Master Chen, who is leaving Ninjago. Zane returns as the ice ninja and accompanies the team in their search for Skylor, the mysterious victor of Chen’s tournament)
VII: Skylor (Chen sends an armada of airships to attack Borg Tower, but the timely return of Sensei Wu simply raises more questions, and the ninja learn Skylor’s true identity)
VIII: Betrayal (Lloyd, Seliel and Nya attempt to liberate the ninja from Chen's island; Kai tries to get through to Skylor)
IX: Transformation (Everyone with Chen's tattoos, even Garmadon and Skylor, are turned into Anacondrai by Chen's spell. But said spell isn't done properly, and the transformation is gift-wrapped with a terminal illness)
X: Auxia Uvata Traia (Clouse betrays Chen and gives Chen’s entire plot in detail to the ninja)
XI: Serpent's Head (The ninja set out to Chen’s island to rescue Skylor and stop Chen’s plans)
XII: Endgame (For two and a half years, Chen has been ruling Ninjago. After taking a comm tower, the ninja decide to oppose)
XIII: The Corridor of Elders (The ninja enlist the rest of the Elemental Masters, a betrayed Pythor, a vengeful Ronin, King Skales, and Dr. Zachary Machia to gain the upper hand and banish Chen)
S5 Trivia: • “The Invitation” takes place a year and nine months after “Way of the Ninja.”
• The spelling of Karloff’s name is intentional. LibreOffice’s spellcheck doesn’t seem to like “Karlof,” and, to be frank, neither do I.
• Ooh, here’s a fun fact about Lloyd’s old principal, Malcrul Darkley: His real name is Hansook Clouse. That’s right. Chen runs Darkley’s Boarding School for the Unruly and Gifted. Its purpose is really to take in the unwanted and unnaturally talented and indoctrinate them, to make them a part of his army. He has a thousand boarding schools like that one all over the world. When the ninja meet Clouse in “The Invitation” all this comes together as Lloyd and Clouse recognize each other.
• Adam Istar and Lars “Lar” Franco, Masters of Wind and Water respectively, are both contestants in the Tournament. And yes, this does mean that Morro and Nya don’t fill these roles; I have very different plans for them both.
• The entire roster of Elemental Masters is as follows: ◦ Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, Master of the Primordial Light ◦ Cole Hence, Master of Earth ◦ Jay Walker, Master of Lightning ◦ Z.A.N.E. 2.1.0, Master of Ice ◦ Kai Lee, Master of Fire ◦ Adam Istar, Master of Wind ◦ Lars “Lar” Franco, Master of Water ◦ Dr. Syodor Karloff, Master of Metal ◦ Griffin Turner, Master of Speed ◦ Lukas Zebediah “Invizable” Pale, Master of Light ◦ Slade Kristofersen “Shade” Pale, Master of Shadow ◦ Ash Murdoc, Master of Smoke ◦ James “Bolobo” Bolobodilius, Master of Flora (changed from “Nature,” since nearly all of the elements on this list are a part of nature) ◦ Derek “Neuro” Pyath, Master of Mind ◦ Kita “Toxikita” Drew, Master of Poison ◦ Camille Fonderre-Murdoc, Master of Form ◦ Jacob Pevsner, Master of Sound ◦ Grevis “Gravis” Masaar, Master of Gravity ◦ Skylor Chen, Master of Amber
• Another fun fact: the ninja already know Adam. He was the first Elemental Master that Sensei Wu approached to train as a ninja, but Adam asked for payment for his services and was turned down. He and Wu are still on good terms, and Adam to showed up as a phantom ninja to prove a point in the episode “Ninja of Earth,” way back in Season 1.
• In “Return of the Phantom,” Cole is absent for almost the whole episode. He’s in Morcia, helping out his longtime friend Clayton Moorington.
• If the implications went over your head, Skylor’s mother is Koko, Misako’s sister. Which makes Lloyd and Skylor cousins.
• Master Chen has Clouse as something of a majordomo and second-in-command. He also has four lieutenants who do his bidding: Eyezor, a tall, lanky former punk-rock artist, Zugu, an inordinately strong ex-sumo wrestler, Harumi (pulled from a later season), a former street thief, and Skylor, who’s lived her entire life on Chen’s island. Even though he’s only blood-related to one of them, Chen is fond of his lieutenants and treats them like his own children. (Which might not be saying a lot since his actual son hates him, but whatever.) Lloyd is a prisoner of Chen’s for a significant portion of the 30-month time skip, and Harumi is charged with watching him. Lloyd manages to convince Harumi to betray Chen and release him.
• The ninja met Dr. Zachary Machia in “Rise of the Serpentine,” and he used his inexplicable knowledge of the Serpentine’s powers to help the ninja fight the Hynobrai in that episode and the Fangpyre in “Tomb of the Fangpyre.” Machia is an archaeologist and a teacher, but he’s also secretly not human: he’s a Vermillion, a subspecies of the Serpentine that can shapeshift. Cole exposes him in “The Corridor of Elders,” while he gives a rundown of the Anacondrai’s weaknesses.
• Finally, there’s Ronin. I made one fundamental change to his origin: Khan “Ronin” Chen is Master Chen’s son and Skylor’s older brother. His left arm is a prosthetic; he was born without it. His right eye is also a prosthetic; he was born with both eyes, but he lost one the first time he tried to run away from Chen's island.
I: Homecoming (One month after Master Chen's defeat and incarceration, the ninja hunt down the remnants of his regime. Meanwhile, in a distant realm, a young man overthrows the leadership and begins a campaign against the world)
II: Invasion (Jay, Nya and Cole attempt to bring down Eyezor’s stronghold. Zane, Seliel and Kai invade Zugu’s stronghold)
III: City of Stiix (Lloyd enlists the ninja to go after Pythor. Wrayth, Bansha, Ghoulthaar and Soule begin the “drying out” of Stiix to bring forth the Cursed Realm’s escapees)
IV: Possession (Wu reunites the ninja to investigate Stiix; Morro summons his makeshift legions)
V: The Old Team (Sensei Wu tells the ninja Morro's story, and they discover a shocking truth)
VI: Temple of Time (Ronin escapes prison and cases Stiix. Morro recalls his past as he shakes down Jasper Fenwick at the Temple of Time, looking for an object that will give him an edge against Sensei Wu)
VII: Sanctuary (The ghosts break into a warehouse to steal a companion piece that will restore the power of the Sanctuary Dagger)
VIII: Tomb Raiders (The ninja must enter the First Spinjitzu Master’s tomb to find the Realm Crystal, which can open portals to all the realms, before Morro does)
IX: The Realm Crystal (The ninja invade Stiix to try and claim the Realm Crystal before Morro can unlock it, but their plan goes awry quickly)
X: Dark Green (Still mourning Cole, the ninja must evacuate northeastern Ninjago. Skylor returns, and accompanies the ninja to prevent Morro's forces from opening his portal. Wu faces his son)
XI: Winds of Change (Morro brings his full forces through the portal and into Ninjago, but an old friend comes through the breach as well. Lloyd fights to escape the Cursed Realm and free Archduke Arguux, Priestess Xerilliane and Preeminent Xerina, the Realm’s rightful leaders)
XII: The Preeminent (Lloyd returns scarred but still fighting, and the ninja must reclaim the Realm Crystal to close Morro’s portal and stop his army)
S6 Trivia: • “Homecoming” takes place 4 years and 4 months after “Way of the Ninja.”
• The Cursed Realm works a bit differently than it does in the show. As you read in THE LORE, it’s the realm between life and death, the Overworld and the Underworld. People can wind up there from both of those realms, if cursed to an eternity of imprisonment by a close friend, a family member, or the ruler of the Underworld. The more time you spend in the Cursed Realm, the more your physical body deteriorates. This is why Morro and his compatriots have ghost-like features. A subset of the Cursed Realm, the Forbidding, houses souls so old they don’t have bodies.
• Morro here is somewhat different than he is in the show. A lot of his backstory is the same, but there are a few crucial differences, the chief among them being that this version of Morro (born as Vidre), is Sensei Wu’s son. Wu trained Vidre along with several other students, and Vidre became obsessed with the Green Ninja prophecy. When Wu denied him the mantle, Vidre sought out Garmadon and tried to help him escape. Wu and his students came to stop him. Vidre was cursed and imprisoned in the Between. He’s been kept there for nearly 4 and a half centuries until he pulls off his escape in “Homecoming.”
• Vidre in ancient Jagan means “Life,” and Morro means “Death.” He renamed himself as a last defiance of his father.
• Morro curses Cole in “The Realm Crystal,” and sends him to the Cursed Realm. COLE DOESN’T DIE, as the synopsis of “Dark Green” suggests. In fact, Cole’s curse is imperfect, since those only work well if done by a close friend or family member. The shoddy nature of Morro’s curse allows Cole to escape. However, Lloyd is cursed at the end of “Dark Green,” and it works much better on him since Morro is his cousin. Lloyd has to restore the realm’s rightful leaders to escape.
• Let’s talk about those guys. Preeminent Xerina and Priestess Xerilianne are responsible for judging the cursed, and Archduke Arguux is more or less a jailer for them. Arguux has the power to lift curses, which is how Lloyd escapes in “The Preeminent.”
• Harumi’s doing fine, if you were wondering. While Chen’s other lieutenants, Eyezor and Zugu, have been busy trying to break him out and keep his empire alive, Harumi has become a valuable asset to Ninjago’s Emperor Masato. Masato hasn’t adopted her yet. But he will.
• Finally, let’s talk about Sensei Wu. This guy has been sitting on a mountain of secrets and lies since day one. He knew about the Green Ninja prophecy and chose to keep it a secret. This season justifies why: he didn’t want what happened to Morro to happen again. He knew about the Overlord, and about Chen’s mobilization (which is why he disappeared in Shadow of Ronin), and about Skylor’s identity. He kept a lot from the ninja, and they gave him a lot of flak for it. But now, his last secret is out in the open: his son. His greatest secret, who, at the end of “Dark Green,” becomes his undoing.
“I am the Green Ninja! I have just as much claim to the mantle as you do, except, one, I worked harder for it, and two, the green will go much better with my hair than it does with yours.” - Morro to Lloyd, “The Preeminent.”
Seasons 5 and 6 are very cool! I like how you made the war parts longer and more detailed.
Thank you!
The decision I struggled most with was making Morro the actual son of Sensei Wu, but I like it the more I think about it. It does bring with it the unfortunate implication that the Green Ninja could only have been someone descended from the First Spinjitzu Master, as both Lloyd and Morro are his grandchildren, but I think that lends a bit of extra weight to Morro's statement that he has "just as much claim" to the Green Ninja mantle as Lloyd does.
Certainly a massive retcon, but, if you recall, the next season is when things start to go... massively off-canon.
I: Fight or Flight (Three months after Sensei Wu's sacrifice and Morro's defeat, the ninja adjust to a suite and a parade in their honor)
II: Vendetta (Khan ‘Ronin' Chen, who fled the Battle of Stiix after it's dramatic culmination, begins a vendetta against his father, Master Chen. He enlists a group of master mercenaries from across the world for assistance)
III: Crime (While the ninja continue their search, shady specters wander around New Ninjago City, planting bombs. Meanwhile, Ronin trains his recruits to survive Master Chen)
IV: Punishment (The ninja return to New Ninjago City to find an entire district in ruins. Worse, everyone thinks they did it. Ronin and his new team launch a raid on one of Chen's installations)
V: The Miscreants (Ronin returns home. The ninja search for the real masterminds behind the bombings)
VI: Mystery on the Ninjago Express (Delara Dateraux is smuggling an important machine on a train running through the mountains. The ninja raid the train to uncover her plans)
VII: Storm Clouds Are Gathering (Delara’s organization completes a powerful nuclear device. Garmadon realizes that Chen has mobilized again and goes to confront him)
VIII: The Great and Powerful (Master Chen agrees to duel Garmadon. Delara recalls her past)
IX: Wrath of Khan (Ronin and the Miscreants raid Master Chen’s base. Clouse visits the ninja with terrible news)
X: The Nadakhan Directive (The ninja learn of Delara's final plan: to obliterate the unruly eastern mountainsides. Dozens of towns are built there and thousands of people live there, including Seliel’s father)
XI: Doomsday (Garmadon returns, and he and Lloyd take on Delara Dateraux. The rest of the ninja try to deactivate the Nadakhan Directive)
S7 Trivia: • “Fight or Flight” takes place 4 years and almost 8 months after “Way of the Ninja.”
• As I’m sure you noticed, this is where things go incredibly off-canon. Nadakhan and the genie pirates have been so heavily revamped that almost nothing of what they were in the show remains. I made sure of that. I’ll get to them after we meet our new main villain.
• Delara Dateraux is the youngest child of Dateraux Jago. (Remember him from THE LORE?) Her two elder brothers, Emilius and Carminus, have very lofty aspirations. World domination and whatnot. Delara just wants revenge – on the entire Eastern Jagan countryside. She blames the people there for what happened to her husband.
• Nadakhan is now said husband. He was a magician, with the Great and Powerful as his stage name, as we learn through the flashbacks in “The Great and Powerful.” He met a gruesome end in the eastern mountainsides, which are riddled with crime, and Delara has been planning her revenge for centuries.
• Marcus Flintlocke is an ex-pilot and firearm connoisseur. He specializes in those weird ancient guns that fire tiny pieces of metal, and he’s infamously a crack shot. He offers his services as a mercenary.
• Wallace “Doubloon” Hamada and Reena “Shank” Agraatko are mercenaries who work with Flintlocke for Delara.
• In “Vendetta,” we meet Clare, Ronin’s… Alfred, I guess. She remotely pilots the R.E.X. and manages a lot of Ronin’s tech. She’s also crushing on him. Hard.
• Ronin’s new team of bounty hunters, the Miscreants, consists of himself, Clare, the famous combatant Diamond Leah (my own original character), weapons expert Dmitri Killow, the demolitions expert Violet Ulta, and the hacker Edmund “Mr. E” Engelarkh. (Those names might sound somewhat familiar.)
• And yeah, Clouse is a good guy now. At the end of “Doomsday,” Clouse takes over as the Master of Chen’s old cult. Mere seconds later, an archer takes out Garmadon.
I: CSI: Garmadon (A week after Delara Dateraux's incarceration and Garmadon’s fall, the ninja are still searching for the archer that claimed the Sensei’s life. Lloyd goes to the Temple of Time)
II: Iron Dragons (Running down a lead on the Garmadon case, Nya, Jay, Kai and Skylor encounter a reclusive group of assassins, and are left dumbfounded by the identity of their leader. Lloyd researches the Primordials, hoping history will have some answers for him)
III: The Originals (Millennia ago, Yan (the First Spinjitzu Master), Sarok (Master Chen's father) and Dateraux (Delara's father) discover the archipelago that would become Ninjago. Centuries later, the three close friends are at odds)
IV: Primordial (Yan, Sarok, and Dateraux fight a legendary battle for control of all the realms)
V: Bounty (Ronin escapes prison, again, and meets up with Clare and the Miscreants; reunited, they search for potential employers; Koko and the Iron Dragons assist the ninja in their search for Garmadon's assailant)
VI: The Count (Ronin is captured by his employer, a mysterious individual known as the Count; Master Clouse visits the ninja with more disturbing news)
VII: Home Soil (The ninja launch a reconnaissance mission to find Ronin's new employer/captor, who is also Clouse's primary suspect in the Garmadon case)
(There’s too many characters in this synopsis to post it all at once, so, in the typical First Spinjitzu Master fashion, I’ve split it into two parts. Part 2 coming soon!)
VIII: Shaken (Cole's crash and demise emotionally cripples the team, but when they discover that the Count is connected to Delara Dateraux, they see a way to exact revenge. The team is revealed to have a traitor)
IX: The Hunt (With the information provided to them by Delara, the team begins searching for the Count; Kryptarium Prison is raided)
X: Day of the Demented (With several old foes on the loose, the ninja must stand united again to fend them off. Luckily, Cole returns)
XI: A Wolf in the Herd (When they return from the Monastery of Time, Lloyd and Skylor suspect they have a traitor in their midst)
XII: Emilius Dateraux (Cole recalls his first time meeting Emilius, while the rest of the ninja track his and Seliel's movements to find Emilius and take him out once and for all)
XIII: The Dateraux Family (United again, Emilius and Delara meet to plot a final move and conquer the world in one fell swoop; Fenwick is captured; Cole returns to the Dateraux siblings, leaving Seliel alone)
XIV: Beginning of the End (Emilius absorbs Omega, the Crimson Dragon of Chaos, and Chen is forced to take the Overlord. Lloyd, sporting Titan, joins in, and the three godlike dragons battle; The ninja go after Delara Dateraux and Cole)
• “CSI: Garmadon” takes place 4 years and 8 months after “Way of the Ninja.”
• The Iron Dragons are led by Koko. Skylor’s mother. In the Lego Ninjago Movie, Koko was Lloyd’s mother (and did a much better job of it than Misako), but by the time I found out about her, I’d already retconned Misako into a passable parent. So, I found another use for her. In the movie, her war handle was Lady Iron Dragon, which is why I named her league of assassins the Iron Dragons.
• Cole’s mission was more or less to find the Green Ninja, get him as powerful as possible, and deliver him to Emilius when he peaked. So… yeah. He’s been a spy the whole time. I’m not sorry.
• After Cole rejoins Emilius at the end of “Shaken,” in “The Hunt,” he helps Emilius raid Kryptarium Prison, where a lot of familiar faces reside. ◦ Kozu (from S3) ◦ Z.A.N.E. 1.0.3. (Cryptor; see his description from S4 Trivia) ◦ Marcus Flintlocke ◦ Wallace “Doubloon” Hamada ◦ Reena “Shank” Agraatko ◦ Delara Dateraux ◦ Master Chen Emilius, Cole, and the rest of The Count’s Men release everyone into the wild, except Chen, whom Emilius captures for himself.
I still like that you made episodes based on the books. Plus the lore build up is really good! ( I don't remember if it's the same as what you had for your original topic on the messages boards since it's been a few years. But either way, it's awesome! ) Can't wait to see more. 
