The overlord: Let's play a game. Ever heard of Paint Ball?

Lloyd: Yeah?

The Overlord: Just remove the "T".

Lloyd: I don't get it-

The Overlord: *breaks Lloyd's leg and throws him *

Lloyd: AH! I GET IT!!

Thanks to ninjaalyt_ on Instagram, we now have clear images of the following Crystalized minifigures:

Lloyd’s new outfit (theme unconfirmed)

Vengestone Harumi

The OG Ninja’s golden outfits

The OG Ninja’s Winged Golden Armor outfits

Vengestone Aspheera

The Crystal King

Round 1, Match 16: The Crystal King (Paper Mario 64) vs. Ursula (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

Crystal King Propaganda:

He's the invisible king of the Ice Palace. He summons crystals to fight but he also has ice abilities too. Actually, those crystals are probably made out of ice.

Ursula Propaganda:

She's a living weapon known as a blade, with her user getting access to her Knuckle Claws. She also has access to ice arts, but she also just always has a polar bear named Beary with her at all times. It is never explained if he's part of her or not since he is summoned alongside her when she's awakened from her core crystal. Overall she's very sweet and her sidequest is about her becoming a popular travelling musician (although the quest takes FOREVER) to complete. Just look at her design! Cute as hell!

Obligatory Crystalized Speculation/Inevitably Crushed Hopes Rant

Based on the brief teaser we got of the next issue of the Garmadon comic, it seems like it's gonna end with Garm finally remembering and accepting his past life - at which point he'll probably finally hear word of what's been going down in Ninjago City lately, and immediately head off because he's not about to lose his son again, not when he's only just now remembered how much he means to him. Only problem is, since he's in the middle of Literally Freaking Nowhere, it obviously takes him some time to find his way back. By the time he finally gets there, Lloyd's already been held captive by the Council of the Crystal King for a while, who've been trying to goad him into using "that darkness" and constantly telling him how he's just like his father (setting off Lloyd's Villain Arc™ definitely has some greater purpose for them; maybe his "darkness" will repower the Overlord/Crystal King or something). They've probably also been making comments along the lines of how he's nothing without his powers, how his powers are all there is to him - how there is no "Lloyd Garmadon," only the Green Ninja. Considering the Council includes two of the most manipulative individuals Lloyd's ever personally dealt with (Pythor and she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household), it's not completely out of the question that they manage to get into his head. He doesn't believe them, obviously, but still. His thoughts develop a nasty habit of wandering back to it.

*John Mulaney voice* So Garmadon finds out about all of this and of course he's furious- So eventually Lloyd escapes, either on his own or seemingly on his own (not me wanting Garm to shapeshift into a rat and bust him out because he knows Lloyd wouldn't trust him if he appeared to him in his normal form) and that's where we get that one shot of Vangelis chasing him down a hall. He meets back up with everybody, but by then the Overlord/Crystal King has already been revived/resurrected/repowered, at which point either A) Wu has another "THERE'S SOMETHING I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU" moment, or B) Garmadon dramatically reveals himself, but what with the whole "soulless undead lord of destruction" act he's been rocking for, like, the past two years now, his attempts at reassuring them he's not gonna hurt them (especially Lloyd) anymore end up coming across more like he's not gonna hurt them (especially Lloyd) yet. Either way, they all somehow figure out the "power of the Oni" is the only thing that can destroy the Overlord.

Obviously the Ninja aren't gonna let that fly and insist there must be another way, likely sparking a grand search for the Golden Dragon Armor. (That shot of Lloyd and Garmadon in what looks like some sort of library or archive might be them investigating a possible lead to said armor. Alternatively, judging by the crystals in the background, this may be just after Lloyd's escape.) Meanwhile, Wu and Garm are still pretty adamant that Lloyd using his Oni powers is the only way ("You must embrace your Oni side." "You must embrace anger, and then release it!"), and needless to say, it doesn't sit well with Lloyd. Isn't this exactly what the Council was just doing to him? Trying to use him for their own agenda?

Was the Council right?

Are his powers really all there is to him? All anybody cares about? Is he really nothing but a tool, nothing but "the Green Ninja," to the people he considers his friends - his family?

His eyes flash purple when nobody's looking, and a million voices scream in terror as we the audience realize our precious baby boy is going to snap very soon.

When you finally take over ninjago only to be taken out in a minute

Yknow the biggest difference between Ninjago and nexo knights is that Ninjago is a lot more anti monarchist

I think if you did the Crystal King for B5, it'd be SO fucking hilarious....

I have no Idea on how to draw him

he's probably fantasizing about his evil plans

Okay, so now that Crystalized has been out for a while, I’d like to say something.

You can’t control the Great Devourer.

The Devourer is a wild animal, her instinct is to consume, so that’s what she does. If you ever try to tell a snake what to do, the most you’ll get is it looking at you weird.

You can’t control a wild animal, they have no reason to obey you. This is why the Overlord’s claim of controlling the Devourer is bullshit.

From a scientific perspective (even though Ninjago honestly doesn’t care for science), snakes act on pure instinct, they don’t have morals or a sense of right or wrong. The Devourer acts exactly how you’d expect a snake to act, she wants to survive. The way for her to survive is to eat. She only tries to attack the ninja after they provoke her, she’s defending herself.

I own a snake, and I’ve seen him hunt when he starts to get hungry. Snakes are opportunistic feeders, they’ll eat whenever they can, because in the wild, you never know when you can find something to eat. The Devourer consumes because she needs to. She isn’t malicious in any way, she’s simply trying to survive.

She attacks the ninja because they were attacking her. If you were to hurt a snake, they’d strike at you. A venomous snake only uses its venom on anything that isn’t a prey animal to defend itself. They don’t want to envenomate you, they just want to survive.

That being said, it’s most likely that the reason she bit Garmadon is because she felt threatened, he came too close to her for her to feel comfortable.

I’ve only been bitten by one snake, and that was because she was hungry. It was a nonvenomous snake that had a high prey drive. Now, the Devourer is clearly a venomous species, and she has a high prey drive. Venomous snakes are able to control how much venom they inject. If we assume that the Devourer was a snakelet when she bit Garmadon, she would have less control over her venom, making her more dangerous.

When the Devourer got bigger, she stopped biting in self-defense and started striking with her tail because she doesn’t want to waste her venom on anything that isn’t prey. She isn’t using venom on her prey because she’s too big to even try. If she tried to envenomate prey at that size, she would impale them. (Note also that the largest snake to ever live was most likely a constrictor).

In short, the Devourer is purely a wild animal trying to survive, and the Overlord controlling her at all is bullshit. At most, he put her near Garmadon at that moment. He wasn’t making her do anything, she was acting on instinct.

Musical AU: The Crysal King is recruiting the former villains to join his emo band

.

(This is based on the new episode descriptions)

Place your bets now folks do you think Lloyd infiltrating the Crystal Council (which likely leads to facing the Crystal King and Harumi) is something the ninja plan together or something he decides to do on his own like a fool who never learns from his mistakes </3

You know that first crystal that appeared in Harumis' hand? It came from her blood :).

Jay: Let's see how you fare when it's four-on-one, monster!

The Crystal King: Monster? I am not a monster. I am... uh...

Kai: A genuine demon?

Zane: A true freak?

The Crystal King: The devil!

Lloyd;....sure

Responsible for Fall of Barriss Offee (Fanfiction version) Part 5

Main Antagonist

(The Overlord/The Dark Lord/Crystal King)

Crystalized Ep. 13

Apparently, literally no one knows when the new episode is coming out, and I'm guessing even Lego itself doesn't know at this point. But my siblings watch Ninjago on Cartoon Network (I can't watch one episode per day, so I have my own methods of watching it), and CN released the 11th episode today. CN doesn't release new episodes during the weekend, so the 12th episode will be aired there on Monday. So I'm guessing the thirteenth episode will be released on Tuesday (June 21), and they'll continue from there ig...?

Well, that...

That was something. (Cut 'cuz spoilers. Long. Small angry rant near the end.)

I can't really say it was bad, but, y'know, can't say it was all that fantastic either. Just doesn't feel like the "conclusion" it was promised as - which is honestly understandable, given that the new show is on its way. And, y'know, having to pack everything into only eleven minutes doesn't really grant ya much wiggle room. I feel like there'd be a much better payoff if it had more time to work with - twenty-two minutes like the Wil Film seasons, or a full TV movie.

It's definitely more satisfying than "Endings," tho, so I'll give it that.

I think I speak for everyone when I say I wish we'd gotten more of Oni Lloyd. Considering it was being hyped up as this big final ultimate form that may or may not end up rampaging across the city, destroying everything in sight as Lloyd takes out all the anger and frustrations that have been building up within him probably since this whole "destiny" nonsense was dropped on him, enacting a role reversal of the Kryptarium fight when Garmadon tries to face him only to finally understand exactly how he made his son feel back then when (despite Garm actually genuinely giving his all) Lloyd nearly kills him, has him by the throat and tells him "I have no father," while the Ninja are forced to confront the possibility that the only way to save their friend is to destroy him...

Yeah, Lloyd going full Oni for like five seconds only to immediately back out before actually doing anything was a letdown. But who knows, maybe they'll come back to it in the new series. Get on it, writers! Let our boy go crazy go stupid! Don't make this another Tornado of Creation!

Garmadon's second redemption certainly has room to grow. He's clearly trying, and I appreciate that, but I wish he'd made a more obvious effort that he was trying to reconcile with his son. I get that he can't just come right out and say it, not when he still can't quite comprehend just what "it" is, and I get that Lloyd wouldn't be able to just roll over and forgive him, not when he's probably still having nightmares about Seasons Eight through Ten and his whole original motivation from Season One is now his greatest fear... But still. I totally called that Christofern was serving as a stand-in for Lloyd when it came to Garmadon's feelings about him, but it felt like they were trying to push it from an allegory to a literal - pretty much any time Garm's ability to care was called into question, Christofern was the example given. The only arguable exception is that one scene with Nya, but even then, it's deflected onto Christofern so bluntly that's it's practically calling us stupid for thinking Garmadon's empathy could extend beyond his plant.

Again, tho, the new series still has a chance to remedy this. Sensei Garmadon could still return to us in some form. The Dragon half could still claw his way out of the Departed Realm, reunite with the Oni, and give Lloyd his real dad again. I like to imagine Garmadragon has been barreling across the multiverse screaming "HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON" for the past eight seasons, and the only reason he hasn't shown up yet is because there are a lot more than fourteen Realms out there. He could still turn up.

Look all I'm saying is Lloyd and Garmadon's Oni heritage has gotten its time in the spotlight, give the Dragons their turn. And while you're at it, acknowledge Wu's inhuman qualities for once. He's DragOni too.

Other Stuff I Don't Have As Much to Say About:

"Compatible" really doesn't hit as hard as Tommy was trying to convince us it would. IDK, maybe what with Zane dying every other weekend we're just desensitized to the whole ordeal. It was cute, tho, I certainly won't deny that.

Clutch still has Nadakhan's teapot. Is that ever gonna be relevant or

I can't believe they had Zane fight Mr. F and not reveal Mr. F as Echo. What do we gotta do to make them bring back Echo?!

Did they really think revealing the Overlord was responsible for the Devourer was some big unexpected twist? Pretty certain we all gathered that WAY back the first two seasons.

On that note, WOW was she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household's heel-face turn stupid. You were literally working with the dude who released the Devourer in the first place! If it was so easy for you to blame Lloyd for that, you should've been able to trace it back to the Overlord right from the start!

Yes I still despise she-whose-name-we-do-not-speak-in-this-household with every fiber of my being. Yes I still would've laughed and cheered if she had been murdered on-screen in such a brutal and violent manner that it never would've been allowed on television if they weren't Legos. Yes I still want Lloyd to go on an insane Oni-powered rampage with her as the first and only casualty. No I am not sorry and no I will never forgive her and no I will never accept her as anything other than the thing that ruined Garmadon. SHE IS NOT HIS DAUGHTER AND NEVER WILL BE AND I WOULD GLADLY REWRITE THE ENTIRE SHOW FROM SCRATCH TO PREVENT HER FROM EVER EXISTING

Can't say I was expecting the Ninja to lose their powers again (I figured they would've permanently gone full Dragon or something - another "dead without actually dying" case à la Nya turning into the ocean), but, y'know, can't say I'm too shocked by it either. Last time this happened was, what, Season Five? If anything they were overdue.

All in all, a decent end to a season and an alright end to an era, but not so much to an entire series like it's being billed as. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, and I've definitely seen worse finales (*cough cough* Star vs. the Forces of Evil *cough*), but that's not to say there isn't any wasted potential here. Maybe there wouldn't have been such high expectations if it hadn't been played up as this heart-wrenching, soul-crushing eleven-minute epic. Maybe if it'd lived up to the hype I wouldn't be writing this. Or maybe regardless of how things turned out, there would always be a little disappointment mixed into it. Who's to say, really.

Either way, the 2023 series certainly has a lot to live up to, and a fairly solid foundation to build off of. There's still a few loose ends to tie up, plot points to resolve, mysteries to uncover, stories to finish. What's up in the other Realms? Where are the Time Twins? Will we ever see Morro again?

We're just gonna have to wait and see, I suppose.

Would you let him in?