The Art of the Silent Fist

 Today, we get two major character introductions, as we meet PIXAL's true self, and encounter a purified Garmadon. That's not even all, as the main plot also progresses. Will the episode will cluttered and rushed with all of this, or will each aspect be given time to breathe? I can't actually recall, so let's start the review!

So, the ninja are at Garmadon's monastary, where he teaches a pacifistic way of combat by fighting without fighting, when they are attacked by Nindroids and PIXAL, who extracted the location from a captured Wu's mind. Zane hacks PIXAL and the ninja plus their new ally escape, with Lloyd and Garmadon going on the run, while the PIXAL, Nya, and ninja head to the sole power station in all of Ninjago to cut the Nindroid's power.

Despite the success of their mission, it's not a full victory, as PIXAL is also shut down due to running out of power.

Various Observations: 

-Huh, with most of the neon lights destroyed or just turned off, New Ninjago City actually looks a lot like Ninjago City did.

-Speaking of the city, this is already the second time the Overlord devastated it! This is becoming a trend with the guy.

-Why is there Creation power in the bots Lloyd attacked last episode? Given that they turned off after the attack, I thought all he did was purge them of the Overlord's influence, so logically there shouldn't be any power in there, right? 

-The power of Creation manifests as evil purple lightning while the Overlords brief manifestation is accompanied by glowing golden particle effects? That feels odd. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

-And then the Overlord turns into a ball of purple flames! I really think someone messed up which effects they were supposed right now.

-Oh, by the way, about the Overlord's state of existence right now, I wanted to clarify that I think he's a ghost right now? Because he was originally a dragon, which was then imprisoned in an unknown place and communicated through a spirit-like avatar, until that avatar possessed Garmadon and transformed his body into the Overlord's. After Lloyd killed the Overlord at the end of the previous season, his original body should still have remain intact wherever it's imprisoned, and he's back to how he was before Garmadon broke the balance, only now he figured out how to possess electronics, like a certain girl from the Kagerou Project. Now, he wants to use the power of Creation to form a body, as it can presumably create anything from nothing.

-It's unsettling how Cyrus Borg's body just limply flops around while the Overlord is possessing his mechanical parts. That's actually freaky.

-I love that PIXAL, despite literally being programmed to serve the Overlord, disagrees more with him in this one scene than Garmadon really did for most of the last season.

-I'm not sure whether it was supposed to be funny, but the ninja disguising their vehicles by each putting two twigs on them is way too funny.

-Ah, Cole still has his strength, and it seems to have increased, with how he's now hauling huge trees around. It's like for every scene the Hageman brothers flip a coin to see whether the ninja have their powers.

-And speaking of powers, couldn't the ninja have made a quick stop wherever they left the Elemental Blades to retrieve them? I'm sure they'd be useful, given that they gave the ninja powers equal to their True Potentials.

-Wait, Nya replicated Borg's anti-surveillance robes this quickly? The ninja literally just arrived, so this is almost directly after the last episode! Impressive work, I have to say.

-Wow, Misako has no reaction to the Overlord's return or to all of New Ninjago City being held captive by him, she just focuses on Wu. I get you love the guy, but sheesh.

-The ninja don't know anything about what Garmadon did since last season's finale, including him swearing an oath of pacifism and abandoning the title of Lord Garmadon? I would think that Lloyd, at least, would visit his father!

-I do appreciate the running gag of children finding Cole boring. He's way less eccentric than the rest of the family, so it makes sense. Plus, it's basically a spiritual continuation of last season's running where nobody recognized the ninja's part in defeating the Great Devourer.

-And Nya has fallen for Cole? Why? Her only explanation is "Cole's not Jay"? Well, by that logic General Kozu would be attractive to her as well, no? He's certainly not Jay, after all.

-Also, please don't reduce Nya's role in the story to the love interest two team members fight over. Especially not after I praised her more progressive writing in season 1.

-I like the fake-out with Garmadon's shadow seemingly having four arms. That's fun.

-Jay getting bonked by Garmadon was funny. Nothing else to say.

-Fun fact, the titular "art of the silent fist" is called "die Kunst, nicht zu kämpfen" in German, a name which translates to "the art of not fighting". It sounds less martial-artsy but feels more like something Garmadon would call it than the English version does.

-I like the subtle way Garmadon balanced his staff while talking about balance. Neat detail.

-Garmadon already established himself as a badass, given that he knocked Lloyd out without ever fighting, and his sarcastic commentary is fun too. I like him already.

-Speaking of things I like, neat visual gag with the golden dragons circling Lloyd's head.

-Lloyd being about to unleash his power because he's angry he lost is a good reminder that, body aside, he very much is still a child.

-Wait, Kai hit Jay, why is Garmadon calling that "perfect"? It doesn't fit his pacifistic style of battle. Unless he's commenting on another student's skill, I guess, in which case this was just a very weird cut.

-Wait, what? How did PIXAL get the Technoblades? Zane had his eyes open, and they were spread out before him. All of a sudden he just ... realizes they're missing? What, did he bluescreen for a while?

-PIXAL still gets a fun one-liner in! I love that being dramatic is a legit part of her personality. Slay, girl! I support women's rights, and women's wrongs!

-Garmadon protested Zane's use of the Technoblade, but I wonder if it really is because it resembles a weapon. Would it not be more likely that he is wary around "hacking into" sentient beings, given his own experience with having his personality altered.

-Wait, PIXAL is established to have amnesia and needs Zane to explain to her that she was under the Overlord's control, but in the very next sentence she talks about how the Overlord "mined" Wu's memory, something she cannot possibly know if she forgot her time under his control. Again, is a little consistency too much to ask for?

-By the way, odd word choice. He "mined" Wu's memory? What, did he look for Redstone to build more Nindroids?

-You know, I must question the ethics of using the Technoblade to hack into PIXAL. Unlike the elevator or Borg's machine parts, she is not directly possessed by the Overlord, and unlike the vehicles the ninja previously hacked, she is clearly sentient. What's more, she  has displayed a degree of free will and personality not seen in the Stone Warriors or Nindroids, even more so than Kozu, Cryptor and Min-Droid, as she openly questions the logic of the Overlord's plans, and clearly has a penchant for dramatic one-liners, both of which I very much doubt were programmed into her. Additionally, we do not know if PIXAL was ever not aligned with the Overlord, as she was built after Borg Tower was erected, meaning that red-eyed PIXAL may have been her original self, rather than a result of her being hacked by the Overlord. If this is true, a sentient being was essentially brainwashed in this scene, which ... yeah, that feels icky, even if it was done to turn her good. If I recall correctly, her one-liners actually disappear after this, which only further fuels my theory that the Technoblade replaced her personality. Of course, this also raises some unpleasant implications about her feelings towards Zane, and whether they were genuine, or a result of her being reprogrammed to have a personality that would feel affection towards him. Ew.

-The Nindroids are really cool. I like that they can turn invisible. It helps with the whole ninja-feel. Also, them blinking into view one by one is a really cool visual.

-Sheesh, PIXAL's a bit of a pessimist, isn't she? She thinks the ninja's chances of survival are "too low to quantify" just because they're outnumbered five to eighteen? First of all, it's seven to eighteen, given that Garmadon and Nya are capable combatants, something she should know from Wu's memories. And second, the ninja have faced much worsed odds in the past and prevailed, and they didn't even have weapons that can instantly turn their enemies into allies back then!

-Speaking of which, it really bothers me that none of the ninja think to hack the Nindroids with their Technoblades. I can't recall them ever trying to do so, even though it would seem like the obvious thing to do.

-Kai and Zane both get beaten by a single Nindroid, and Jay gets taken out by two blindly charging in. The Nindroids don't seem capable, the ninja just seem inept, given that Cole takes out two Nindroids like they're Serpentine. 

-Ah, the Nindroid let out a Wilhelm scream. It's been a while since the last one, hasn't it?

-Hm, Nya claims that Lloyd's green power strengthens the Nindroids, but that's factually incorrect. It's golden power the Overlord wants, and it still shuts the Nindroids down, it's just that the power can then be extracted from them. Well, I guess she wouldn't know any of that, it's not like she's still under the Overlord's sway, all she has to go off is the guy's claim that he wants Lloyd's power.

-Lloyd's Spinjitzu tornado is golden, despite his robes being green. We saw in "Can of Worms" that the color of a person's attire can affect the color of their Spinjitzu, but I suppose elemental energy is even more important. The tornado is clearly made from Lloyd's power, similar to the other ninja's Spinjitzu during the Oni Trilogy. This does, of course, raise the question why the Nindroids aren't happy to receive Lloyd's power in this way.

-Wha- A paper fan can deflect the Nindroid's lasers? Seriously? Are those just laser pointers, rather than actual weapons? Doeth these worms haveth a laser pointere like mine own?

-Wait, now the lasers can instantly destroy Nindroids in a ... very cheap looking explosion. When they couldn't get through a paper fan just seconds earlier?

-Aaand the ninja's new vehicles are already destroyed. Sheesh, are we sure this is a commercial for them? Because those vehicles folded easier than Nya's paper fan!

-Haha, what? Misako just dips! Garmadon talks about how he'll protect his son, and Misako just decides to "look after the monastary". I guess she ain't interested if Wu's not around, huh? This is the second time she abandoned her son! Also, won't the Nindroids return to search the monastary? That's the last place Misako should want to go!

-Since when, exactly, does Nya have a Samurai X cave? It's just mentioned out of the blue. Did she build it during the time skip? Or maybe during season 1, when the Bounty was still stranded in the desert?

-By the way, why doesn't Nya accompany Lloyd, Garmadon and the falcon to the cave? She could use the equipment there to become Samurai X again! I want more Nya action! Well, to her credit, it is her idea to shut off the power, but she is barely involved in that plot.

-Why does the Overlord refer to the Nindroids as being Cryptor's? He's the one who built them, including Cryptor! Maybe he's just looking for someone to blame.

-I see the Overlord has apparently conquered all of Ninjago and installed military checkpoints since the last episode. A surprising development, to be sure.

-Wait, I get why cutting the power would shut off the servers, disabling the Nindroids, but everyone acts like the Nindroids would lose power if the power station is taken down. Given that they're not constantly plugged in, I assume they would have their own power source. That was surely the whole point of PIXAL scanning Zane, no? And the Overlord would also be booted out if the servers he's possessing stop working, right? No reboot neccessary.

-Hey, Zane's inner parts looked way different in season 1! They were some kind of bronze clockwork mechanism, rather than a blue power source connected to a couple of wires with no mechanics in sight! Consistency sure isn't this season's strength.

-Maybe it's just me, but PIXAL seems way more robotic and less alive now that she has been reprogrammed. Where'd her one liners, opinions on others, and organic way of gesturing go? I'm getting Eva flashbacks. Actually, she might be a pretty decent comparison, come to think of it.

-Wait, the Samurai X base is underneah a dragon fossil, rather than just any old skeleton? I know it's probably artificial, given that there are mechanisms integrated into the skeleton, but it's still cool.

-I love Lloyd and Garmadon's back and forth here, particularly Garmadon conceding that he can't complain about too many weapons, when he literally grew extra arms so he could hold more weapons. Garmadon being excited to drive Nya's car is also neat, though I do have to wonder why it's in his color scheme, rather than the red black and gold of Samurai X.  Or why he and Lloyd don't take mechs, given that there are two at the cave, and that these models have a very good track record.

-Since when does Cole read Starfarer comics? That's always been Jay's and Lloyd's interest!

-Alright, Nya's flailing is just embarassing, even if Cole phrased things very oddly by referring to their students as "our kids". Then again, Dareth did the same during "Ninjaball Run" ...

-Seriously? Nya and Cole have both fallen for each other with no build-up or shared interests or anything! 

-Jay and Kai both being around during the pseudo-intimate moment between Cole and Nya is funny.

-So Ninjago farms energy from a perpetual thunderstorm. Whimsical. I like it.

-I love Min-Droid. It's nice to have a recurring face in the faceless army. Err, that sounded odd. Eh, screw it, you know what I mean!

-The ninja have weapons that can instantly hack into any electric devices ... yet they need to find the right switch to turn off the power station. Anyone see the problem?

-I love that Jay accidently starts the radio, which plays The Weekend Whip. It's a neat meta joke.

-Kai has the right idea, but he just smacks the protective glass with his Technoblade. Dude, the computers are literally all around the room! Hit anything else! And stop whining about technology already!

-Oh, maybe there's still some of the original PIXAL in there. In the middle of calculating the probability, she suddenly interrupts herself in a different, far less robotic, tone of voice and declares "Who cares about probability?" It feels like her two personalities are fighting right now. 

-Since when does PIXAL have a grappling hook installed in her arm?

-Min-droid getting hit with slapstick violence at every opportunity is funny to me. Plus, he's working for the embodiment of evil, it's never undeserved! 

-PIXAL lands on the one laser in the entire building. Talk about bad luck.

-Hey, Cryptor's laser blast explosion uses the same effect Kai did in the original opening!

-Zane's getting angry at Jay. It's ... kind of strange that a girl he has known for maybe a couple of hours would elicit such strong emotions in him, however. 

-Jay dissing Min-droid is also fun.

-Wait, how can the Nindroid MechDragon recognize Lloyd? I thought the entire point of the techno robes was to prevent this exact thing! Nya even repeated it at the beginning of the episode!

-Garmadon accidently firing a laser blast at the MechDragon, rather than making the car go faster, and cursing the weapons is funny.

-Finally someone decided to try and hack a Nindroid, only for the attack to be deflected both times. I wonder why Kai didn't try it himself.

-The MechDragon almost beheaded Lloyd! I can't imagine the Overlord would be very happy with that, you know.

-Min-droid's little "Uh-Oh!" as he's about to explode got me.

-There is ... only one power source in all of Ninjago? Seriously? Wow, that's some seriously bad infrastructure! You need redundancies, folks!

-Is ... there a reason why Lloyd and Garmadon just decide to abandon their car? Because I'm not seeing it. 

-You know, now that I've watched this episode again, it seems to me that that Garmadon has something distinctly Doctor-like. Even aside from his pacifism, he really feels like an incarnation we just haven't met yet.