Wrong Place, Wrong Time

 Hoo boy, the time travel episode. Those always tend to break the plot. Let's see how much the continuity will be broken here, shall we?

Well, the ninja head to the city of Ouroboros to fight Garmadon, who heads back in time to try and stop the ninja from ever becoming a team, by making it so that the skeletons never capture Nya. Looking to fix the past, the ninja capture Nya and deliver her to the skeletons, but then the present version of Garmadon teams up with his past version to try and kill past!Kai, leading the ninja to steal the Golden Weapons and unite their power to destroy the Mega Weapon, throwing them all back into the present, with the past remaining unchanged.

Various Observations:

-The intro has been updated with adult Lloyd!

-May I just say that it's a spectacularly bad idea to train by fighting with lethal weapons in closed quarters? Who came up with this? Chokun?

-Oh dear, Zane almost killed Nya with his shuriken. At least they both actually react with shock.

-I like the sound effect when the Bounty turns around. It doesn't really make sense, since it doesn't have wheels, but that's the fun part of the gag.

-It looks like the snake vehicles still need maintenance with regular tools, but aren't they alive? I feel like they'd need some special care.

-Hold up, what? Where did Wu come from? He's just suddenly right in front of Garmadon? What did he learn the art of teleportation?

-Why is Nya not in her Samurai X armor? And where's the mech? I feel like both of those would be a significant advantage.

-Good on Lloyd for freezing the Mega Weapon before Garmadon could do something with it. Although I do have to wonder when he learned to use the element of ice.

-Alright, I guess wishing for powers, in this case to power to go back in time, really does work.

-Wait, how did Zane deduce what Garmadon did? The city sinking into the sands does not equal Garmadon having found a way to travel through time.

-And now how did Kai figure out what day they arrived at. Are the writers just telling the ninja what they need to know?

-So Garmadon wants to prevent Kai from becoming a ninja, so that he wouldn't risk the mission to get the third Fangblade, leading to volcano to remain stable, and the ninja to save Lloyd without figuring out that he's the green ninja. Yeah, fair enough, I can see that working. 

-Although, if Kai and Nya don't join the team, Cole, Jay and Zane are going to die in that acidic swamp in "Can of Worms", which would in turn jeopardize the mission to save Lloyd ... I think. Maybe Wu and Garmadon can solo the Serpentine, who knows. Still, this plan seems extraordinarily risky.

-Wait, why can we hear the end of Kai and Wu's conversation before Wu even reached Kai? What's going on there?

-At first I was going to comment that Wu is surprisingly quick to believe the ninja when they clame to have time-travelled, but then I remembered that he would know about the Time Twins and Time Blades eventually returning, so maybe he just figured that that was what caused them to go back.

-I love that Jay can just solo the skeletons by now. They weren't that impressive in the pilots, and the ninja are definitely stronger now than they were back then. 

-Wow, Zane is surprisingly invested in Jay and Nya's relationship. He treats it being retconned out of existence by time travel with the same gravitas as the world they know never existing.

-Hm, in the altered timeline, Kai wants to stay a blacksmith, but Nya wants to be a ninja. It would be kind of neat if the timeline had split off here, giving us an alternate timeline where Nya's a ninja from the start.

-How do none of the skeletons recognize Gamradon's voice? Then again, Mark Oliver didn't bring his best performance to the pilots, so I guess they would sound different.

-Wait, what's going on here? The wheel just has it's part data printed on. That ... seems like an error that really should have been caught at some point.

-I love Cole saying that Kai would be relieved to hear of his sister's kidnapping, just because it sounds so bad out of context. 

-Why didn't we get a mirror match for Cole? Jay and Zane got one, and it'd definitely be better than pilot!Kai's performance after brushing his teeth.

-The echo on pilot!Garmadon's voice makes him sound much better than the actual Garmadon from the pilots.

-"Great Scott"? Did ... Wu make a Back to the Future reference?

-I like that the Sword of Fire and the Mega Weapon are different shades of gold, since the shade was changed between the pilots and the show.

-Wait, what? How can Cole grab onto the Mega Weapon, when that was enough to kill the pirate? Nobody aside from Garmadona and Lloyd can survive the power of Creation!

-Wait, what is Zane saying now? Destroying the Mega Weapon makes it so they never time travelled? Why would that be the case? And why does it work? The Mega Weapon is never destroyed, just shot into space.

-I like that the ninja combine their elemental powers to use Creation. They usually only do this during the Tornado of Creation.

-Wait, why does Llyod act like the Mega Weapon never existed? It has to have existed, else he would still be a kid, Captain Soto and his crew would still be dead, and the Mega Weapon plus the Golden Weapons would not be in space!

-Yeah, the ending of this episode is just completely continuity-wrecking. Just give us an epic battle against Garmadon and the Serpentine at Ouroboros, ending with the Mega Weapon being shot into the space, not this!

Child's Play

 Are you ready, everyone? This'll be the last time we'll get to see young Lloyd, so let's hope he'll get some good focus here.

So, Garmadon breaks into a museum to revive a dinosaur called the Grundle with the Mega Weapon, but the ninja try and fail interrupt him, getting turned into kids in the process. 

Alongside Lloyd, they head towards a comic book store to learn more about how to fight the Grundle, while Wu and Nya pick up a magical tea that can age the Grundle back into a fossil.

The Illuma-Swords the shop's owner gave the ninja fail to deter the Grundle, as they're still just toys, so the only option is to use the tea, bringing the ninja back to their preoper age and killing the Grundle.

Lloyd, however, is also turned into an adult by it, forever losing his childhood.

 

Various Observations:

-Ooh, we get some Gene lore ... I think. Looks like he lives in Jamanakai Village.

-So, is there a reason why the children are clearly talking like they're playing catch, when they're actually playing football? "Catch me!", "You're it!", etc. Were there some communications issues between the writers and the animators? 

-Oh, hey, Gene's clone has also returned! Do they seriously have this little models?

-Suddenly Lloyd could solo the original four ninja if he's not distracted? His training sure progressed fast.

-Why does Jay not know about the new Starfarer comic? I'm pretty sure he's later established as a fan, no? 

-I would quite like to know what an "Imperial Sludge" is supposed to be.

-Alright, Lloyd not getting to be a kid and enjoy his childhood because he has to train to fight his father is a reasonable conflict for the episode to focus on.  Lloyd is just a child, so he shouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility of saving the world from darkness, but at the same time there is no other option, because no one else has his powers.

-Skales has finally regained his actual personality, and tries to get the other Serpentine to follow him, rather than Garmadon. Good to know he has firmly left sidekick territory now.

-And then he loses all dignity. Wow. And here I thought he'd actually get to try and boss Garmadon around, with how the last episode ended.

-Why, exactly, does Garmadon need to wish for the Mega Weapon to create the power to revive the Grundle? Couldn't he just wish for a living one? That way he wouldn't need to break into the museum.

-Also, it's now possible to wish for power? Then why not wish for somehting like "The power I need to destroy the ninja"? After all, that way it's not the Mega Weapon doing the destroying.

-And he makes the Grundle "hungry for ninja"? Erm, Garmadon? Are you forgetting that your son, who you're established to want to try and protect, is also a ninja?

-Oh my, Zane's freaking out at being made younger. I think this is the first time we've seen him this vulnerable since "Tick Tock".

-Jay and Zane have a good point. Why did Zane turn younger? He was never a kid.

-Cole seems really disturbed at the concept of bedtime. Also, he mentions that kids can't drive. I take it this means that the ninja are, under normal circumstances, old enough to legally drive. I have no clue why a later season, I think it was season 8, tries to claim the ninja weren't adults at this point.

-Holy crap, is the police trying to kill them?

-Alright, I already don't neccessarily respect the police, but seriously? They think four kids were able to break into a museum and carry a sarcophagus that took four grown Serpentine to lift? And didn't Nya mention that Garmadon was on the security footage, so shouldn't the police know about it too? 

-And now that cop has seen Kai use Spinjitzu, creating a tornado of flames, and still thinks these are just some random kids?

-Soooo ... why do the police even think the ninja stole the sarcophagus? Aside fromt he fact that I doubt it would be physically possible, there's still the matter of the ninja never even having touched the thing! If that announcer guy that keeps popping up had happened to walk past the sarcophagus, would he have been arrested as well?

-The Fritz Donnegan comic doesn't have speech bubbles? That's ... odd.

-I like that Zane is confused by having to apologize for something he never did. His honesty is a pretty consistent trait.

-So there are more models for kid characters! Then why not use them, instead of giving Gene some weird clone?

-Oh, speaking of Gene, he's apparently checking out the museum as well.

-Alright, the Grundle is really scary.

-Nobody thought to question the kid walking into a pizza place/arcade with a bunch of deadly weapons?

 -Right, Lloyd makes a good point. Why can't the ninja properly use Spinjitzu? He can, and yet he's still a kid.

-Is that Hatsune Miku? Is our holy virtual diva a thing in Ninjago, too? Does "A Female Ninja But I Want To Love" exist?

 -If you look to the background, you will see a "Blue Lightning" comic. Is that a mix between Black Lightning and Blue Marvel? Wait, did Blue Marvel even exist yet?

-Wait, Mother Doomsday of all people recognizes that the ninja saved the city? That's odd, but also heartwarming. Even if I do have to wonder just when the ninja signed merchandise. If they have income from that, what's the point of their jobs in "Darkness Shall Rise?".

-When Nya asks her for Tomorrow's Tea, Mystake actually helps out. I'm starting to think maybe she just doesn't like Wu, given that she's fine with selling magic tea to literally everyone else who asked her.

-Is it just me, or is it kind of unfair to make the final question of a comic book quiz about an issue that came out that very day, and only was only sold in very limited supply. That's basically a pay-to-win question, isn't it?

-Reversing the polarity of some technobabble stuff? Is Fritz Donnegan the Doctor?

-Wait, how did Wu and Nya get in? The door is blocked from the outside by rubble, but now the rubble's gone?

 

-Man, Lloyd accepting that he'll never get to have a proper childhood is really sad to me.

Ninjaball Run

 One of the most despised episodes in all of Ninjago ... and one I quite enjoy. What is it about this episode that makes people dislike it so much? Perhaps we shall find out today.

Garmadon has apparently went into the real estate buisness, and purchased the property Dareth is renting. As Dareth can't pay the rent, the ninja need to participate in a race to win the money, else the dojo will be destroyed.

After a really fun race, and believe me when I say that, it's awesome, the ninja win, with Lloyd and the Ultra Dragon even reclaiming the Bounty from Garmadon, who now has to flee with the Serpentine generals, including the recently freed Skales.

Various Observations:

-What kind of demolition crew takes down a building without first checking if someone's inside? And on the wrong date, to boot!

-Why has Dareth not started moving his stuff out of the building if it's already his last day? And why didn't he tell the ninja?

-Also, what's the currency? He needs 50.000 of ... something. If it's studs, that'd be fifty blues or five purples, which shouldn't be too difficult to get. Assuming that it's more similar to euros, however,  the plot makes more sense. But that would raise the question why Ninjago's currency wouldn't be of similar value to yen, given that it's clearly based on Japan.

-I love how Zane's expression when Nya tells them about the titular Ninjaball Run. 

 -So the four classic ninja use the Ultra Sonic Raider, and Lloyd the Ultra Dragon. What about Nya and Wu? Couldn't they participate with the Samurai X mech? 

-And while I'm on the topic, how is a dragon permitted to take part in what is explicitly called a street race, if it doesn't drive? It's not called a cloud race, you know!

-Wait, the guy from that talent show back in "The Royal Blacksmiths" is back! That's some neat continuity.

-Wait a second ... Look at the roofs behind Lloyd! That's the dragon keep from the expensive apartment a couple of episodes ago, isn't it? That's a really nice background detail!

 -I love how the skeletons show up out of the blue, just because Jay jinxed it. But how aren't the pirates still imprisoned?

-Wait, the badlands are literally just called Badlands? Seriously? I ... guess that sign from "The Rise of the Great Devourer" makes sense now, but why would the badlands specifically not have a name when the desert, the canyon, the forest and the tundra all get one?

-Also, we've seen all the places the track runs through last season, that's also some nice continuity.

-Wait, why are Gene and some other kid sabotaging the Ultra Sonic Raider? I thought they changed their ways after the last episode!

-Now Jay's parents are trying to push the other racers off the road? Sheesh, they've been on a real downwards trend ever since that ralley in "Day of the Great Devourer".

-The snake bus from "The Snake King" also returns, that's neat. 

-Hey, the generals drive past the Autobody Bodyshop where Nya works! Man, this episode is just full of references to other episodes.

-I like that No-Eyed Pete gets to drive. Again, a nice callback to when he steered the Bounty.

-Wait, what did the announcer just say? "Hochi Mama"? Spamton, is that you? 

-Why do the ninja and Lloyd have to agree mid-race to work together? I kind of thought that was their plan from the start.

-I love how the guy in green just shamelessly promotes the in-universe TV broadcast. 

-Wait, Dareth's kids? I thought those were just his pupils! Man, either this is some seriously unfortunate phrasing, or we now have evidence that Dareth is a dad!

-Alright, the reveal that the police weren't trying to capture Skales, but rather to win the race was really funny. 

-And now the police wrecked some poor guy's home. Accurate.

-I guess Jay's parents do have some decency left in them, as they help refuel the Ultra Sonic Raider with their own car's fuel. 

-The excess weight gag is predictable but funny. I like it.

-Skales has also become obsessed with winning the race. Man, this episode has some great humor.

-I like that Jay got something to do this episode. Makes him stand out a bit more, compared to the other episodes this season.

-Also, Zane turning his head by 180 degrees is a neat way to counter a Hypnobrai's power.

-Two things: First, I don't think ripping open a great chasm falls under the "creating stuff only" rule of the Mega Weapon. Second, Garmadon explicitly wished for something the ninja could never cross, so why didn't the Mega Weapon create something like that?

-Oh, also, what happened to the matter that was there before? The Mega Weapon can't destroy, so it had to be displaced somewhere. The question is, where? 

-So the ninja can now perform Airjitzu three seasons early? I thought we left the wonky Spinjitzu mechanics in the first half of season 1.

-Hold on, I just noticed it, but there are ads for the "Jamanakai Village Inn"? That's also a really cool easter egg. Too bad I can't grab a decent pic of it.

-Ah, and here we have Gene, or at least his lookalike from "Pirates vs. Ninja" .

-Wow, that was a really fun episode! I can't believe there are people who don't like it. It even furthers the plot, unlike last episode, as Lloyd reclaims the Bounty!

Double Trouble

 Ah, yes, the evil doppleganger. A classic trope in cartoons. Let's see how Ninjago handles it, shall we?

 So, Darkey's Boarding School for Bad Boys has rebranded into being a school for good kids, and they want to invite Lloyd for a special award. When the ninja get there, however, it turns out that the students have overthrown the staff and imprisoned them, as well as the ninja, as they want to make Lloyd evil again. 

To make matters worse, Garmadon created duplicates of the ninja with the power of the Mega Weapon in order to defeat the originals. Luckily, Lloyd is able to convince the students that they all have good inside of them, and together they help the ninja defeat the duplicates.

Various Observations:

-Oh, Lloyd is trying to control the power of lightning now? Last episode he used earth, so maybe each episode actually has him learning to harness a different elemental power? I'll have to pay attention to that in the next two episodes.

-Why is Nya dressed up in her fancy dress for her part time job? She's going to be fixing cars, not having a fancy dinner!

-Ah, so this is where Cole's love for cake came from.

-Garmadon is a surprisingly democratic evil overlord. Pythor sure didn't gather the other Serpentine for brainstorming. Of course, he's tossing the ones with bad ideas overboard, but still.

-I love how Garmadon tries to figure out how in the world a ham sandwich would help him defeat the ninja. He sounds so confused!

-Two of the bad ideas came from Chokun, or at least a version of him. Guess the Constrictai were slotted into the comic relief role, this season.

-Wait, why does Garmadon need the ninjas' clothes to summon their evil duplicates? He didn't need the pirates' clothes when he summoned them, last episode!

-Also, he wishes for the ninja to "meet [their] match"? That's so vague! What if the Mega Weapon just conjured up some guy who could beat them at tennis? Or, heck, someone who's better at making ham sandwiches than they are?

-You know, if I had to defeat my enemies and had the power of Creation at my disposal, I'd at least make sure to specify that the duplicates were stronger than the originals.

-Oh my, it looks like Darkey's has ceased to be a boarding school after it's rebranding. Are boarding schools just inherently evil?

 

-Wait, what? Gene, Lyod's classmate that keeps showing up, has what kind of voice? Oh my god, that's atrocious! He's voiced by the same person as his far better sounding classmate? How does he sound so horrible, then? Dear goodness, I'm suddenly very grateful to have been spared this experience thanks to the German dub. Sheesh, and I thought Garmadon could sound bad at times. What, did they just go with the first take, or something? I refuse to believe someone actually wanted Kathleen Barr to give this performance. Surely there must have been a mistake somewhere, right?

-I love the term "evil intervention". Is this where you tell someone you're concerned because they stopped drinking heavily?

-Wait, hold on, the woman whose cat is stuck in a tree is one of the teachers that's imprisoned at Darkley's right at that very moment! Did they seriously only have one model they could use for an old woman?

-Sooo, why, exactly, are the ninja clones just causing general mayhem? Garmadon sure didn't tell them to.

-Did Wu seriously have to give the ninja a trick question to determine they're fakes? They literally have evil distorted voices and creepy pale skin! Not to mention the weirdness of anyone but Jay wearing sunglasses indoors!

-And Wu is, of course, not satisfied with letting the fake ninja follow a false lead, and instead reveals his trick and fights them ... leading him to lose. Man, did he learn nothing from what happened when he fought Pythor or Samukai?

-Fake Jay forcing a kiss on Nya seems ... iffy to say the least. Not only is he not telling her his true identity, he's also forcing himself on her. That's a double no-no. Informed consent is important, y'all.

-Also, how is Nya not noticing the creepy voice or oddly pale skin?

-The old teachers were "highly comitted to evil"? Why in the world did Misako drop Lloyd off there, then? And how has the place never been shut down?

-Since when can Zane just light up? This seems very goofy, kind of like his battering ram mode, but that one at least made physical sense. We know what the inside of Zane's head looks like, and it's not a light bulb!

-Oh dear. Bad day to be an arachnophobe, huh?

-I love how Lloyd (inadvertadly?) traps the other students in a logical paradox. If he's good, he's telling the truth, which is that he's evil. But if he's evil, he could be lying, meaning that he is actually not evil. But if he's not evil, he's good, meaning he wouldn't lie, and so on and so forth.

-Why do both Gene and Brad have identical duplicates behind each other? What, did Garmadon clone them too?

-So the fake ninja fighting the "bad boys" leads Gene to consider them pure evil? Wonder what he'd say if he saw them dropping Serpentine into an active Volcano, or throwing pirates to their death. Throwing dodgeballs back at attackers is surprisingly tame for their standards, actually.

-Sadly I wasn't ablt to get a better pic, but what happened to everyone's shoulder pads? They just disappeared between two shots!

-What kind of science is Gene doing? Positive and negative enrgy colliding means one type of energy disappears? No! They'd just cancel each other out! And he's supposed to be "like, an evil genius"? Well, Enoshima Junko, he's not, that's for freaking sure.

-I'll admit, I like Lloyd's speech about everyone having a good side, but not showing it because they're afraid they're the only one.

-Gene's dad is going to be ... mad that he admits to having a good side? Who in the world is his dad?  The Overlord?

-You know, we see the fake ninja landing multiple blows, and yet none of the good ones disappear. I guess Gene was mistaken, hm? 

-The evil ones do, however, disappear upon being hit. Good on Zane for being the first to defeat his doppleganger!

-Er, Jay, you're not yet in a relationship with Nya. Maybe try being a little less possessive?

-I see the Ultra Sonic Raider is still "the tank".

-Lloyd suddenly being able to control lightning kind of comes out of nowhere, doesn't it? I mean, yeah, he got the light bulb to blow up when he wanted it to, but learning how not to make something blow up is a different thing altogether.

Pirates vs. Ninja

 And we're back for another episode, this time featuring the debut of Soto's crew, as well as Dareth.

 As Lloyd's training progresses, the ninja try to find a place better suited for training, leading them to "Grand Sensei Dareth's Mojo-Dojo", a dojo lead by a pompous braggard by the same name. 

In the meantime, Garmadon accidentally uses the Mega Weapon to revive a crew of pirates, who promptly lock him and the Serpentine away in the brig of the Bounty, as he realizes that the Mega Weapon can only create, never destroy.

When the pirates attack Ninjago City, the ninja (plus Dareth) try to defeat them, but have to be saved by Nya, who manages to fight the pirates off, leading Garmadon to steal the Bounty back, while Nya and the Ninja bring the pirates to justice.

Various Observations:

-Whoa! Captain Soto's voice doesn't even remotely resemble the one I'm used to from the German dub! I think I prefer the one I'm familiar with.

-Also, the pirates used the Bounty 200 years prior to the show's events, which makes the level of technology we saw back in "Snakebit" rather odd, wouldn't you agree?

-Just why is Captain Soto looking for the Island of Darkness? There's nobody there to rob! Well, I guess you'd have the Overlord, but I don't think he has anything worth stealing, on the account of currently being a disembodied wraith.

-So the Bounty sunk when it crashed into a cliff ... but there were no cliffs in the desert back during "Snakebit". Well, I guess the currents might have carried it away, but even so, it was still in a remarkably good condition, when you consider what usually happens to wooden ships that crash against solid rock. 

-I like No-Eyed Pete. He's a fun spin on the pirate tropes of having an eyepatch and/or a parrot.

-Wait, Zane's pillow looks like his apron from "Home"! That's a great callback! Also, why is Cole wearing a pot on his head?

 -Speaking of callbacks, Kai makes a neat callback to the pilots, when he tells Lloyd what Wu once told him about not even being ready to face his toe.

-Lloyd's training doesn't begin with the ninja teaching him Spinjitzu, and yet that was the first thing Wu taught them, even if they didn't realize it at the time. I wonder why there's a difference? While Kai may already have had some experience with fighting, given that he was actually able to fend off the skeletons for a bit, Jay, Cole and Zane still started with the same combat skills as Lloyd, meaning none.

-Nya refers to the Ultra Dragon as though that was their name, "Ultra Dragon". Shouldn't it be the Ultra Dragon? The individual heads were still adressed by their actual names just two episodes ago.

-I like the bus token gag. Makes sense that the ninja wouldn't be used to public transportation, given that Kai and Cole are from small villages, Jay lived in the desert, and Zane grew up in a tree.

-I also quite like Garmadon's banter with the Serpentine generals, even if I'm unsure as to why they suddenly follow him.

-Soooo ... why doesn't the Ultra Dragon try to attack the Dark Bounty? It rammed into them, and Garmadon is clearly trying to harm them! 

-I love the running gag of nobody respecting the ninja, because Garmadon did the flashiest part of the work when it came to fighting the Great Devourer.

-By the way, why did Garmadon know how to create the Mega Weapon, but not what it does? And in that case, why would he want to create it? Also, why does the Mega Weapon lose the ability to wield the four elements of creation?

-I wonder what the pirates think of the Bounty's new paintjob.

-When Samukai was erased from existence as a consequence of holding all the Golden Weapons, he exploded, so why is this pirate fading away instead?

-Hm, Captain Soto doesn't recognize the big map screen, which answers my question from way back when we first saw it. Of course, now I have to ask where the ninja got that screen from, in the middle of a bloody desert!

-"Just wait 'til they get a load of us"? That seems ... highly anachronistic. I doubt a pirate captain that has been dead for two centuries would talk like this.

-Erm, Jay? What, exactly, is the Staff of Quakes? Don't you mean the Scythe of Quakes? 

-Hey, Lloyd's classmate is back again! Only this time, he's not wearing his uniform, so I guess they maybe just reused his head and hair, without realizing that an actual character uses the same combo.

 -What's up with that pirate, and what he's saying to the woman he's robbing? "It surrenders and gives us it's loot"? Is that Gollum? Has he taken up a new career path? And here I thought he'd try and host a quiz show.

-Wait, the bus driver is the tour bus driver from "The Rise of the Great Devourer"! I'd recognize that cap everywhere!

-I love the gag with the old woman crossing the street, it's funny.

-Do the pirates not know what a ninja is? That feels very odd. I'm pretty sure ninjas already existed two hundred years ago. 

-The ninja get their pirate outfits from "Wong's Costumes". I'd love to imagine that Doctor Strange's friend just runs a costume shop on the side. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen in Marvel comics ... That'd probably be that really weird pseudo-incestual and dubiously consensual plot with Carol Danvers. 

-Since when does Kai's katana have a sheath? It never has one in the other episodes, right?

-Well, the guy Jay threw overboard is definitely dead. Man, the ninja really don't hold back, huh?

-I love that Nya gets to save everyone again. She barely gets to do anything this season, so I'll have to treasure any moment I get.

-Man, this episode was just all-around fun. It may not be the most memorable, but it's super entertaining.

Darkness Shall Rise

 And so we begin with the second season of the show! And also my personal least favorite episode of the season from what I remember. At least things can only go uphill from here.

 As the Bounty has been destroyed, the ninja need to find a new place to live, while Wu and Nya pick up some stuff to heal their dragon and repair the Ultra Sonic Raider. At the same time, Garmadon uses the Golden Weapons to restore the Bounty and put it under his own command, while also getting the Serpentine to follow him.

The ninja eventually find an expensive luxury suite, but have to work all day to pay the rent, meaning that Lloyd has to train all by himself, making it possible for the Serpentine generals to attempt to kidnap him in order to try and blackmail Garmadon, but Wu and Nya return just in time to foil the plot. In the end, the ninja decide to instead settle for a rather crappy place that they can actually afford, while Garmadon combines the Golden Weapons into the Mega Weapon.

Various Observations:

-Ooh, we start on a shot of the falcon, neat.

-Good to know that the ninja help with the clean-up after the fight with the Great Devourer. It's great that they do more to help than just beat up bad guys.

 -By this point, the ninja can barely use their elemental powers without the Golden Weapons or, later on, the Elemental Blades. I do have to wonder why Wu never taught them to use their powers without the Golden Weapons.

-Also, I forgot that they were able to use their powers at all, even if only a little bit. I always remembered them not using their powers by themselves at all until late in season 3. 

-The Ultra Sonic Raider is considered a tank? I guess that makes sense, but I do have to wonder about the implications. Are there tanks in the world of Ninjago? But who would they go to war with? Probably not Shintaro, that's not really all that well known. Maybe a civil war?

-So the ninja are now homeless. Good thing they're not in America, then. 

-Zane giving sage advice that's not really helpful is a nice touch. I miss him being a more mystical character.

-According to Jay, there seems to be a housing crisis in Ninjago City. No idea why he would know that, given that he doesn't live there, but it makes sense that that'd be the consequence of a disaster like the Great Devourer's awakening.

-I love just how baffled Jay is by the chain of people Nya went through to get to a real estate agent.

-Wu calls also the Ultra Sonic Raider "the Ninja Tank"? Was that seriously considered as a possible name at one point, or something?

-And Nya has been demoted to being Wu's chaffeur. She's generally going to basically be a side character in this season, and it's really going to bother me.

-Wait, what? Skales is now claiming that he tried to warn the Serpentine against awakening the Great Devourer? After "The Snake King" he could hardly say two sentences without talking about how he wanted to awaken it! I suppose he may be lying, it wouldn't be out of character, but this still seems so blatantly inconsistent with the previous season.

-Alright, Garmadon being partial to snakes has to be a lie, right? I mean, he has always hated the Great Devourer, and that was definetely a snake.

-Garmadon seems rather proficient with the Golden Weapons, given that he's able to instantly restore the Destiny's Bounty after it was destroyed, turning it into the Black Bounty. I guess that makes sense, he should still possess the power of Creation, after all. I do have to wonder why he didn't fix the sails, though.

-Given Garmadon's apparent proficiency with the Golden Weapons, I do have to ask why he even needs the Mega Weapon, given that he restored the Bounty without any effort, using just the Golden Weapons by themselves.

-Skales seems to either really be into Serpentine superiority, or is just faking it to convince the Serpentine to follow him rather than Garmadon. Either interpretation would make sense from a character standpoint, although the first option is incompatible with the way he's characterized in later seasons.

-I love Garmadon immediately getting rid of Chokun, after the latter suggested going after Lloyd. Garmadon's love for his son, despite being cursed to be evil, is a great trait that I wish would have been kept after his revival.

-I was ready to praise Mark Oliver's Garmadon voice, it's been constantly good these last couple of episodes, but then he has the line "Lloyd will never reach his full potential" (and why is it not True Potential?). He sounds like a kid mockingly repeating another kid's words! The "Forever!" he shouts afterwards also sounds more like Gollum rather than an intimidating dark lord.

-Why does a random realtor sell a suite with a dragon keep on the roof? Is ... that a thing people other than the ninja would ever need? And why does the suite have a training facility identical to that at the monastary? This seems suspiciously like a trap, even though I know it's legit!

-Apparently Bolobo owns a pizza place, or at least works there. Good to know.

-Wait a second, the second guy jay delivered a pizza to didn't pay for the pizza! Don't just give up Jay, you're in the right!

-Why does the guy Cole work for look at him disapprovingly for trying to help an old lady cross the street? It's none of his buisness!

-When I was younger, I didn't really pick up on how the ninja neglected their duty of training Lloyd because they wanted to live in a fancy place, even though it's rather obvious. Guess that means they had some subtlety, which is more than what you could say for a number of shows.

-I love the way everyone else looks at Kai when he mentions the "human piñata".

-So the Serpentine generals, who are presumably wanted criminals by now, casually discuss their evil plans out in the open while waiting for pizza? Did ... none of them consider that the delivery person would overhear them?

-The generals just tie Jay up? You'd think that Skales would remember that he can hypnotize people, no? A hypnotized ninja would be even better for them than a tied up one.

-I love the little plan the generals drew up. Just look at it!

 -I do have to wonder, however, why they would not use a station closer to the bank, instead of the one marked on the map. Maybe the others actually have people in them?

-Also, where is the red subway line going? Why does it just wander off into the distance for a bit, even though there's no station down there? 

-Another one of Lloyd's classmates? Did the animators try to sneak one into every episode?

-Wait, why is Cole, who guards the front entrance of the bank, getting fired because he didn't stop the Serpentine from tunneling in from below? What did the manager expect him to do? Get a vision from the spirit smoke?

-I think this episode might be the first we see the ninja use Spinjitzu to instantly change into their suits. I always like it when they do that, it just looks cool.

-Why would Skalidor be stupid for expecting four enemies? Yeah, they caught Jay, but as far as they know, Nya's still around, no?

-Wait, since when is Zane immune to Venomari venom? He isn't affected and even states that "Venom can't hurt me", but back in "All of Nothing", he was affected. What changed between then and now? Did the Hageman brothers just forget it?

-Why is Acidicus holding onto Zane just fine, and yet Skalidor, general of the Constrictai, lost his grip on Kai? Holding people in place is literally that tribe's entire gimmick!

-What is that noise Skales makes? Why does he just randomly screech while telling his plan to Lloyd?

-Seriously? Skalidor defeats himself by slowly walking into a wall. These guys don't seem very threatening to me.

-Kai choosing to save his friend rather than defeat the snakes feels like a rehash of "The Green Ninja". Couldn't the generals just have escaped by their own virtue? It would have made them seem like a greater threat, at least.

-So Nya and Wu beat Skales off-screen. Man, I wish we could have seen that.We're really going to be starved for good Nya content this season, so you'll have to take it wherever you can.

-I like the gag of Skales having also found a home - by which Wu means that he was imprisoned. Still, he doesn't seem very threatening to me, you know.

 -Huh, Garmadon is actually in pain after picking up the Mega Weapon, but could wield all four Golden Weapons without any adverse effects. I suppose that means it's even greater than the sum of it's parts.

-Speaking of the Mega Weapon, I am kind of sad that the Golden Weapons won't be used again. I quite liked them.

-The line this episode ends on is such a blatant Star Wars reference, I am stunned that Disney didn't sue. 

-Alright, so, this episode technically advances the plot, as Garmadon gets the Mega Weapons, but the episode's main plot is entirely unconnected to the rest of season 2. Even worse, nothing that happens impact the episode's plot, either, as even if Jay hadn't stumbled upon the generals, and the fake bank robbery went off without a hitch, the ninja would still have fought Fangtom, Skalidor and Acidicus on the subway, while Wu and Nya defeat Skales. Worst of all, I can't even think of any truly funny jokes from this episode, even though it's sense of humour was consistently one of the show's greatest strengths!