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!