Zane being used as a fucking battery for Unagmi to get into the real world, and him walking it off like it's nothing fills me with so much viisceral rage it's unbelievable

What the FUCK do you mean he's fine??! Did you not see him literally pass out and wake up with an immediate inhale like he was drowning or something???

You don't just walk off being used as a battery, and no amount of cartoon logic will make me think otherwise ESPECIALLY seeing also how he seemingly walked off the whole Ice Emperor shit as well (until Quest for the Lost Powers)

Like, at the very least have him go into a panicked terrified franzy because according to him it felt exactly like his Sacrifice against the Overlord

Or if you wanna go all our just have it wipe all of his damn memories and make him start as a person all over again, even then that still works better if you make it a post Ice-chapter consequence

And even those besides, you could do soooooo much with Zane and consequences and the shit he goes through...

So I’ve finally got some of my thoughts on the new season in order and letting my self sit on it for a while

Dragons rising season 2 spoilers!!!!!

So first off holy shit this season has managed to completely wipe out any fears I had for season two. I’m a generally anxious person and am pretty naturally pessimistic about most things and was pretty anxious about season 2 because from the stuff shown in trailers and promotional vids it looked like a “Lloyd chosen one” plot line and I have a history of hating that kinda thing because it’s been beaten to death in ninjago at this point. While a bit of that was there I found it was done quite tastefully and didn’t overwhelm everything else story wise.

I felt that the pacing of the first 6-7ish episodes was a bit all over the place. Having the training arc and the Cole-Zane plot lines happen in the same episode with the pov switching back in forth felt a little bit off to me.

Sora and arins character arcs are shaping up to be pretty good. Soras more confident in her self than season one and she’s trying to help Arin but I feel like the whole using her elemental power to help Arin will backfire into her face. Arin’s insecurity and the whole how can I be useful if I don’t have an element I fell is being handled way better than the dumb kai arc in season 11(dw I will get to that when I get to kai) and it’s about on par with the Lloyd powerless plot from hunted. I am really excited to see what they do next and if Arin will be really mad at sora or not cuz like he’s super nice and stuff and I fell like he would be sad instead of mad.

Nya didn’t really have a lot going on personally except the stuff with Jay which I’m iffy on because so much of Nyas character in older seasons revolved around Jay and I just hope they don’t go back to that and let her character breath a bit.

In the topic of Jay I really really REALLY hope he isn’t evil. That the idea because it’s really out of character and they are already pushing my buttons with the lost memory crap because that’s something that I’ve rarely seen done well at all and it makes me very nervous and I just don’t like it. I do like that Jay just seems to be a guy who hates his job tho that’s fun.

I think the writers are just having fun with Zane and I think that’s cool. I do wanna punch the administration guy who said Zane isn’t a person because he is and he’s a bean and I will not allow this nobody to slander him.

It was nice to see more of Cole this season. I swear him and geo are so cute. The hand holding and the fact that they basically adopted two kids together is amazing and I am fully on board for this ship.

The villans were really interesting. I hope they keep up the quality with them because the mystery of ras’ master and wtf happened with jordana is really exciting. Cinder was intresting and as someone who has no interest in men what so ever I am kinda baffled at why so many people want this man but hey you do you. I do wonder what happened to ash tho. The member of the forbidden five looks interesting too and part of me is hoping that the leaked “evil jay” minifig is actually this guy just powered up cuz the color palette is similar enough and I just don’t want an evil jay.

Wyldfyre is amazing her whole leg being broken then sneaking on the ship to the exasperation of kai (like he would totally have pulled something like this a few seasons ago the hypocrite <3) and the others was so good. I am curious about her talk with egalt she mentioned one of her family members getting the wasting sickness but it can’t be heat wave cuz he seems fine so maybe she had more than one dragon guardian??? I do hope that Kai’s portal abduction does affected going into part 2 and that she bonds with nya and the others over it.

Egalt and rontu were very interesting to me and I’m glad they didn’t go the route of them being the actual creators of spinjitzu and kept the lore consistent I was slightly worried about that. Hope they come back in part 2 too.

Bonzle was a big surprise for me. I likes her personality in season 1 but I didn’t expect her to be so important. She’s really sweet and the scene with wu was great too.

And finally last but definitely not least, the best character in this entire show and my favorite comfort character to beat the shit out of

KAI

IT WAS SO FREAKING GOOD. I LITERALLY HAVE NOT BEEN THIS HAPPY WITH AN EPISODE SINCE SEASON 4 EPISODE 7 THE FORGOTTEN ELEMENT (iykyk) I was literately kicking my feet like a little girl and crying and screaming my head off to the point I woke up other family members. Him unlocking the rising dragon technique by having his sister help and being in harmony with his family is so fucking sweet and I cried like a little bitch it was so good. I am also so happy that they used his old hair and didn’t just slap a smaller version of his current hair onto him (tho I kinda wish they had used the fucked up custom hair that was in the older episodes but I doubt that model is even in their hands so whatever(side side note I love the fucked up hair so much it’s so stupid I love it and will forever miss it)) him being such a dad to wyld fire was so sweet and then using the rising dragon technique after he saw his family in danger was just perfect. I do kinda wish there was more of a dramatic reaction to him getting yeeted by ras into the portal (kinda like any of the other ninja “deaths/major injuries”) but im fine with what we got. Except I kinda hate that only nya has an outward reaction in the aftermath. No lloyd reaction no Cole reaction and nothing from Zane and it makes me mad because every other time a ninja had their moment there was a whole team reaction. But I’m feeling like that’s to nitpicky and there’s still ten more episodes to fix that so fingers crossed. But kai also encouraging bonzle to close the portal even if he’s trapped inside is such a kai thing and hit me like a truck. Also him calling bonzle kid dispite her being much much older than him is funny and sweet cuz Kai’s big brother/father figure side is coming through and it’s so sweet. And the ninja never quit line is so great I was sobbing even more after that. (Tho I don’t know why he said he got it from Lloyd when it would have made more sense to have it be from master wu cuz that’s where he learned it but eh whatever).

While im really happy about kai finally getting some well deserved angst im also very anxious about it too. This could be the perfect opportunity for the writers to just conveniently forget about him for a while and idk if i could sit through that. Kai is a huge part of why I watch ninjago and he’s always been handed the shortest stick character development wise and technically he never got his own focus season either (and no i dont count the pilots because that focused mainly on all the ninja and was only two episodes, i also don’t count season four because it was more a group season, and season 11 doesn’t count because he got a half baked b plot that sucked) I’m very worried that I will loose enjoyment in the show because I dropped the show out of disappointment after season 11 because A LOT of premonitional material made it seem like a kai season and I got my hopes up and was let down so much. I’m very cautious when getting excited about things involving kai in particular because of that and I’m just hoping the writers don’t fuck it up.

Ok that’s enough negativity for once. I’m so excited for more and am foaming at the mouth for more!

alright gang i've watched dragons rising up to episode 18

gonna infodump my thoughts, spoilers from up to ep. 18 under the cut!

sooooooooooooooooooooo holy shit this season's incredible

the idea that master wu took care of the ENTIRE monastery is so laughable. lloyd a huge chunk of wu's screentime is snapping at the ninja to do THEIR chores

mr. frohicky is so funny and him and zane are dating now i dont make the rules

on a serious note! i love frohicky and zane's dynamic

pixal..... i miss her

lloyd understands why wu never told them shit now. "why didn't you tell us you were the grandson of GOD" "eh never really came up"

lloyd and arin are so special to me, lloyd really did adopt this kid huh

nya working sora through her self-esteem issues!! their dynamic is particularly sweet and i really love that they got paired together

wyldfyre is slowly but surely becoming my favorite dragons rising character

like her and kai's dynamic shifting as he helps heatwave was so sweet

plot twist i freaking LOVE arrakore he's just sad in a cave

i didn't expect them to go into nya's trauma in this episode cuz like hgjkdfshjgk not plot relevant but the bitterness in her voice when she talked about the djinn having a thing for showmanship. hmm.

COLE AND HIS FAMILY MEAN SO MUCH TO ME. HIM AND GEO ARE BOYFRIENDS AND THEY HAVE KIDS. I'M NOT EVEN SAD COLE DIDN'T GO WITH THE REST OF THE GROUP I'M SO HAPPY FOR HIM also lostshipping for geo and cole please

FUSION POWERS ARE SO COOL

that creature was just a shiny ditto

cole in general was incredible, andrew francis continues to do an incredible job voicing him

him FEELING the very earth crying out and screaming, it hurt :( i love when they go into the physicality and connection of their elements but mannnn :(((

the administration is the stanley parable

zane jumpscare of him just sitting in the mailroom AHAHHA

JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY JAY

he was giving off bitchy villain energy please ninjago please please give him a villain arc please please

LOOK AT HIM

pretty sure i fucking busted @rottedsoulx 's headphones when i let out the loudest scream when jay showed up like. hooooooo man i'm so sorry dude HAHAHGKJFDH

lord ras and beatrix lore..... innnnnteresting also beatrix' twin having an elemental power is WILD

"you know how i taught you patience and stuff" "yeah?" "fuck that go ham" thank you kai

THE KIDS HELPING THE NINJA I KNEW I WAS RIGHT TO ADOPT THEM ON SIGHT IN PART ONE

in conclusion i'm ecstatic my crops are cleared my depression is gone i'm in love with this season

My Dragons Rising season 2 part 2 predictions (None of which will prolly be true but it's still fun to speculate)

An Arin villain arc is upon us? I don't think it'll be like Arin goes full on evil but uses those wolf masks as a shortcut to improving

It's time! Please make Geo x Cole canon!! With Doc confirming that the Source dragon of life is non-binary and Bonzle is trans, they're definitely allowing queer characters in the show, so please, make them canon.

Euphrasia finally joins the main team? Please, that'd be awesome!! She could be like Zane or Cole's student?

I don't think Wu will return, I'm not sure Wu will return in any season of DR at all. He works so much better as a character haunting the narrative now that his students are mentors in their own right. If he'd return from whatever state he's in right now, I wonder what he could even do as a character?

I also don't think Jay is rejoining the ninja this season. He might go rogue from the administration but I don't think he's gonna regain his memories this season.

Kai isn't gonna stay trapped in nether-space forever. I know we have new writers but with ninjago I just have this bias that every Protagonist isn't gonna stay dead (or functionally dead like with Nya at the end of Seabound or Kai right now in nether space). Like I don't imagine they'd just practically kill off Kai when he just had such a great bond and arc with Wyldfyre. He'll definitely return from Nether-space before the end of this season.

Some more cool dragon designs. Not based on anything, I just want to see more dragons. Rontu and Egalt were awesome and I crave more

Maybe some more about Lloyd Dragon heritage cause I feel like that was largely ignored this season? Doc said on Twitter that that wasn't retconned, so hopefully it's at least mentioned.

Wyldfyre learns spinjitzu 🙏🙏

Jordana is possessed by one of the forbidden five. I have no idea what this'll mean for the rest of the season but maybe they'll finally remember her name?

Beatrix returns? I need my bbg back dragons rising. She was in Lloyd's visions, so there's something up with her, right?

Maybe she'll try to retake Emperium along with the people there who still stand by her.

Nya and Lloyd fight against Nokt? I want more duo fights with them.

There'll probably be more cameos of side characters from the original show.

Arin and Sora will have an argument. I feel like that's what they're setting up at the start of this season but idk

Might edit this post and add some more as the thoughts arrive

I'm gonna try my best to formulate my thoughts but this post is probably just gonna be a bunch of rambling

Spoilers for DR season 2 part 1

I LOVE BONZLE SO MUCH HOLY CRAP! I already liked her a lot, she was probably my favorite of the finders besides Cole and Geo, but wow I was not ready for her backstory. I just... my heart can't handle it man, the finders are her family!!!!!

And speaking of Bonzle, HER AND KAI BETTER BE OK! They better find a way out of that prison place or I'm gonna lose my mind!!! I am so emotionally destroyed over Kai right now, I can't. And when Nya was talking to Wyldfyre about how Kai was always her hero, that stabbed me in the feels so hard.

Kai was also just great, I love his relationship with Wyldfyre so much. He's such a dad and I love him for that

I will say that I didn't really enjoy how long the training went on for. Idk it just felt kinda repetitive and I sort of stopped caring after a while. But luckily, we had the plot with Cole, Zane and Bonzle which was probably my favorite part of the season. At the very least, it had my favorite moments. I think it mainly just stems from the fact that I love Cole a lot. And also the magical shenanigans that they got up to with the sorcerer lady (who I don't remember the name of I am so sorry) were really fun.

Also, holy crap Lloyd having full on panic attacks! I was not expecting that, the poor boy. Also poor Arin, I felt so bad for him! And I am not ready for the potential conflict that's gonna come from Sora using her powers and making Arin think he used his object spinjitzu, that is gonna destroy me. I feel like it may be a little too soon to tell, but I will say the pieces are there for Arin to have a villain arc. And even if the show doesn't go there, I'm sure someone will make an au about it.

I like Cinder a lot, I thought he was cool, I just wish we got to see more of him. It's honestly kinda crazy how little of the wolf warriors we saw in general, but we'll probably see more of them in part 2.

So last major thing I wanna scream about, and I saved the best for last, JAY! OMG AAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT IS GOING ON WITH HIM???????

So we've learned now that he doesn't really care too much about the Administration. I mean, we could have picked that up before, but now it's confirmed. It's also been 100% confirmed that he has lost his memories, so all the people trying to deny it can calm down now. But the thing with Jay that interested me the most was when the sprite thingy was showing him his reflection and revealing his lightning powers, Jay seemed genuinely terrified at the thought of anyone finding out he can control lightning. I feel like it has something to do with the Administration, like they would do something terrible if they found out, but we'll just have to wait and see I guess. Honestly I could scream about Jay for so long with the very little amount of screen time we got of him, but I'll just end things here.

But yeah, that was pretty great. Not sure if I enjoyed it more than season 1, I'm probably gonna have to rewatch it to fully solidify my feelings, but yeah.