Way of the Ninja

 Alright, the first pilot episode!

And, wow, is it pretty! Like, this is 3d animation from 2011, for what was intended to be a one-off, it has no right to look that good!

Regarding the episode itself, the plot starts off pretty much immediately! We get a brief scene of an old man being disappointed by the impatience of Kai, a blacksmith, and after the man leaves, an army of skeletons shows up hunting for an ancient map. When they attack, Kai and his sister Nya fight them, and actually have some level of success. Then, Samukai, a four-armed skeleton and king of the underworld shows up, leading to the old man from before, now revealed to be Sensei Wu, to show up and save Kai with a technique known as spinjitzu, which involves the user turning into a whirlwind of energy.

Samukai's underlings, Kruncha and Nuckal, wind up finding the map, however, and Samukai kidnaps Nya, apparently under the orders from Lord Garmadon.

Unlike Wu, Kai does not recognize the man, and so demands to know what's going on, and who just kidnapped his sister.

This leads Wu to explain that, long ago, the First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago using the four Golden Weapons; the Scythe of Quakes, Shuriken of Ice, Nunchucks of Lightning and Sword of Fire. After he departed, his eldest son, Garmadon, grew evil and attempted to claim the weapons, but the younger brother banished him, before hiding the weapons away, and giving the map to a close friend.

Kai realizes that Wu is the younger brother, and asks to be trained in spinjitzu so that he can save his sister. Said training takes place in a monastary on a high peak, and seems to be designed to teach Kai patience.

After this training, Kai is ambushed by three ninja while brushing his teeth, but manages to fend them off before Wu interrupts their battle, revealing the three to be his students as well. With his spinjitzu, Wu turns the clothing of all four into brightly colored gis, with the exception of one, who still wears black.

After some brief introductions where the viewer learns that Kai, the red ninja, represents fire, Jay, the blue ninja, lightning, Cole, the black ninja, earth, and lastly Zane, the white ninja, ice. Heading to the Caves of Despair, the ninja then have to attempt to retrieve the Scythe of Quakes before the skeletons do so. Despite Kai rushing off on his own, the mission goes well, with Zane even managing to reclaim the map, until they are found by Samukai and his skeletal army.

During the battle, the ninja discover their ability to use spinjitzu and cause Samukai to flee, but then a dragon that had been guarding the scythe appears. Despite Sensei Wu's earlier warning, Kai tries to use the Scythe of Quakes to defeat the dragon, but accidentally makes the cave collapse.

Luckily, they still escape, but Sensei Wu is disappointed in Kai for not acting as part of the team.

Various Observations:

- Zane was pretty clearly written as a magic user here. Wu states he has the sixth sense, he seems somewhat otherworldy (and was very relatable to a young me), a lot of puns around the word sense are made around him, he was pictured meditating underwater, he even makes his weapons vanish into thin air!

-Master Wu is in no hurry at all! Garmadon has an army, a map to the four Golden Weapons, and has kidnapped someone, and yet whenever there's the slightest hint of urgency, he chastizes Kai! It really looks like he isn't taking this seriously.

-Jay mentioned he builds models and writes poetry. Bad poetry, I presume, but I think he'd be pretty good at building models given that he's generally really good at building stuff.

-Speaking of Jay, he is also the first ninja to learn Spinjitzu!

-For some reason, Zane, Cole and Jay were trained together, but Kai was trained alone. Why? As Cole points out, this makes it more difficult to integrate him into the team.

-Speaking of Cole, the running gag of him being afraid of something, and the subject of his fear showing up soon after was introduced here, with him only being afraid of dragons, and the episode ending with a fight against a dragon.

 -Man, the Golden Weapons were really powerful. I remember them just being shiny weapons, but a single swing from the Scythe of Quakes causes the entire cave to collapse! Also, Kai is able to use it. This is actually pretty important, as it implies that, if one were to use the corresponding Golden Weapon, they could wield an element they were not the master of. Could they create a fusion dragon as seen in Skybound and Hands of Time by themselves? Could an elemental master with the three other weapons master creation without having to expose themselves to all four Golden Weapons? 

 

Well, next up, we'll be heading into the Underworld in "King of Shadows".