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!