Masters of Spinjitzu

Retrospective:

The two (or four, depending on how you count them) pilot episodes were initially intended to promote the sets and start the theme off with a bang, but soon bloomed into the beginning of what was intended to be a two season TV show. When it comes to making the sets look cool, it certainly did it's job, even if it's a touch odd that the skeletons are never seen using Spinjitzu, when the Spinner sets regularly depicted them doing so. Lore wise, it makes sense that they wouldn't be capable of Spinjitzu, as Garmadon would have no reason to train random footsoldiers like Krazi or Chopov, but it seems a bit strange from a marketing standpoint.

When it comes to setting up a show, the pilot leaves a bit to be desired, however. Sure, you have the ninja come together, and Garmadon's escape creates a conflict to be resolved in the first season, but Zane and Cole are seriously lacking in characterization. Jay, at least, has quite a bit of focus in the second half of the pilot. Still, that leaves two ninja whose characterization boils down to "otherworldly" and "responsible, but afraid of dragons". Luckily, season 1 largely fixes this.

Another problem, however, is that the skeletons just don't seem menacing at all. Even when the ninja are outnumbered ten to one, it's only the spiders that make them worry. Sure, Samukai is intimidating, but he's the big bad boss. His army is just a bunch of comically inept buffoons.

Something I do like, however, is that the setting of Ninjago itself is established pretty well, without someone having to turn to the camera and hold us by the hand. We are shown that the rice farmers are open and welcoming, not even suspecting the literal army of skeletons of being up to no-good, and that their culture seems to be similar to Edo Japan, as ninja and samurai exist, but are nowhere near as common as in the time of the previous generation. Despite this, the attire of the side characters, and the city seen in Jay's flashback, suggest that the level of technology and some bits of Ninjago's culture, are up to modern standards.

The plot of the pilot follows a pretty barebones "collect the macguffins before the evil lord does so" story, just with ninja instead of knights, but the friendly dragons, as well as the bad guy winning are pretty neat twists on the formula.

As a final rating, it would give the pilots a 7/10. There are some issues with the characters, but by and large it is perfectly serviceable, and is still really pretty. Go and give it a watch, or maybe rewatch it, if you've already watched it at some point.

Suits:

For the majority of the special, the ninja wear their training robes.

As you can see, these suits are a simple gi in each ninja's color, with a golden emblem of their element attached via a set of ropes. There's nothing special about these suits, as they are just ninja robes in bright colors ... and I love it! These suits are the basic outfit they got after finishing their training, there shouldn't be anything special about them. Unlike most other suits, these ones could actually be used to blend into backgrounds of the same color. An easy 10/10 from me.

 

After coming to an understanding with the dragons guarding the Golden Weapons, the ninja switch to their DX (Dragon eXtreme) robes.

These weapons are dyed in each ninja's primary color, and feature a golden depiction of the respective dragon using their elemental power. On each ninja's back, the insignia from their training suit as well as their name can be found. They work great as an upgrade to the training robes, but I do miss the detailing that shows these are robes and not just Lego bricks with arms attacked. Aside from the belt, the DX robes are sadly just a solid color. Furthermore, it was never explained why the ninja switched robes before heading to the underworld. As such, I can't give this more than a 7/10, like the season. Great concept, but lacking execution.

All in all, the Pilots get a pretty good overall score of 8/10. That's nothing to be ashamed of, if you ask me.

King of Shadows

 The second half of the pilot begins!

The episode opens with the ninja and Wu sailing along a river in an icy wasteland, looking for the next Golden Weapon. During this boat ride, Wu tells the ninja that the greatest spinjitzu technique, the Tornado of Creation, can only be achieved by combining the four elements.

Soon enough, the ninja reach the Shurikens of Ice, and after escaping the dragon guarding them, they move onto the Nunchucks of Lightning, hidden atop a floating island. When their draconic guardian appears, the ninja flee using a set of gliders Jay built.

On their way to the last Golden Weapon, the Sword of Fire in the Temple of Fire, the ninja rest in a forest, but Kai is lured away by an illusion of Nya. At the temple, Garmadon reveals himself to have been behind the illusion, and forces Kai to retrieve the Sword of Fire to save Nya. By making Kai's shadow come alive, Garmadon tries to claim the Sword of Fire, but Wu appears and fends him off. Just then, the dragon that had been guarding the sword appears, causing the entrance to the temple to collapse. In order to keep the sword safe, Wu lets the drifting lava in the temple carry him and the Sword of Fire into the Underworld.

At the same time, the other three ninja are ambushed by Samukai and his army, who take the three Golden Weapons they had recovered. Before the ninja can get them back, the skeletons escape into the Underworld using their vehicles. Heading to the Temple of Fire, Jay, Cole and Zane try to look for Kai and Wu, and find that Kai has befriended the dragon guarding the Sword of Fire.

 Kai informs the other ninja that the dragons can travel between realms, as they're not from Ninjago in the first place. Alongside the dragons that had been guarding the other three weapons, the ninja venture into the Underworld, where they are soon surrounded by skeletons and gigantic spiders. Luckily, Jay remembers the Tornado of Creation, and together the ninja manage to achieve this technique by combining their spinjitzu, defeating their enemies.

Soon, they came upon Wu, who was fighting Samukai deep in Garmadon's fortress. Even Sensei Wu, however, cannot defeat someone wielding three of the Golden Weapons, and has the Sword of Fire taken by Samukai, who attempts to betray Garmadon and take the weapons for himself. As soon as he picks up the Sword of Fire, however, Samukai begins to disappear, as no being can handle the might of all four Golden Weapons.

With the weapons brought together, a portal opens, leading out of the Underworld, just as Garmadon had intended. Through this gateway, he escapes his banishment, proclaiming that he will destroy the balance of good and evil, but Wu states that the ninja are enough to restore the balance again.

Various Observations:

-Cole plays bongo! This is never brought up again, and I love how random it is. Given that in season 1 we learn that his father is in a band and expected Cole to follow in his footsteps, maybe that's where Cole learned to play bongo?.

 -Once again, we see just how powerful the Golden Weapons are. Their sheer proximity freezes the sails of the ninja's ship, and touching them causes Zane, the master of ice, to freeze.

-Speaking of the ship, it seems somewhat reminiscent of the Destiny's Bounty. It even features the dragon head! Maybe the set was originally intended to represent this ship, but then they wrote an entirely new ship into season 1?

-It's interesting that Ninjago and the Underworld were specifically described as realms, not worlds like in the last episode. Come season 5, that term will mean a whole lot more to us than it does right now. It's kind of surprising how early they settled on that terminology.

-Speaking of realms, we learn of two ways to enter the Underworld without the all-purpose keys that are dragons or, later on, the Realm Crystal. The Temple of Fire holds an entrance to the Underworld at the end of a stream of lava, and vehicles that can drive fast enough automatically create a gateway.

-The Realm of Madness also gets a known entrance, as the combined power of the Golden Weapons apparently creates a portal, but only once, as the next time they are briefly combined at the end of the episode, no portal is opened. Perhaps Garmadon was able to influence them to open the portal, as he is still the son of the First Spinjitzu Master.

-Also, I really dislike Garmadon's voice. Maybe it's because I'm more used to the German dub, or maybe Mark Oliver wasn't bringing his A game here, but there were times where the mysterious and intimidating Lord Garmadon sounded like just some random dude. We'll have to see if this gets better in the following seasons.

-Garmadon also displays several powers he never uses again, namely the ability to create illusions, and to summon shadow warriors that can only be fought with one's own shadow. It's been so long since I watched the pilot, I forgot he even had these powers in the first place!

-Wu mentions that the Tornado of Creation could have horrible consequences if used incorrectly. We're never shown these consequences, so we can only guess what the consequences would be. My best guess is that the users would be overwhelmed by the power and die, like Samukai did when he held all four Golden Weapons.

-Like in the last episode, Zane is once again built up to be a more mystical character, as he senses that Wu and Kai were at the Temple of Fire, but also senses Wu's loss.

-This episode establishes that even Samukai, who is not an elemental master, can use elemental powers through the Golden Weapons. This is incredibly cool, and kind of makes me wish we had another example of this. Imagine Skales wielding the Scythe of Quakes after hypnotizing Cole, or Samurai X grabbing the Sword of Fire to help the ninja fend off their enemies. 

-Interestingly, Samukai and Wu are actually able to use the Golden Weapons without the disastrous consequences that have been established with the scythe and shurikens. With Wu, it can be explained by his expertise, but what about Samukai? Maybe as someone who is not an elemental master, the weapons are just weaker in his hands, and that's why the fortress didn't collapse when he used the scythe, and he wasn't frozen by the shurikens?

-For some odd reason, Kai did not want anyone to interfere in Wu's fight against Samukai, stating that it was Wu's battle. Why? I get that the writers wanted to show that Kai doesn't just blindly rush in anymore, but this just makes it look like he doesn't care what happens to Wu and the Golden Weapons, now that he has saved Nya.

-While Kai may be the main character of the pilots, Jay did a lot in this episode. He invented the gliders that helped them escape from the lighting dragon, freed himself, Zane and Cole when the skeletons had bound them, and he was the one to come up with the idea of using the Tornado of Creation. Also, his eventual relationship with Nya is set up here.

-I know it's not relevant, but Zane patting Jay on the back is adorable, and I want you to see it.

-It's strange to think about, but Garmadon actually won in the pilot, didn't he? He escaped the Underworld like he wanted. Sure, the ninja have been established as a team, but he didn't care about preventing that at this point.

That's it for the pilots ... or is it? You see, there is still something left to do. So join me next time, when   I shall give my thoughts on the pilots as a whole, as well as take a look at the suits the ninja used.

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".