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#and immediatly moves right back to zane pixal and kai
themetallicnemesis · 1 year
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Some thoughts on how season 3 could have been rewrited to be a bit more zane focused
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felikatze · 2 years
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s11 ice chapter is DONE and wawo. it was good.
i'm gonna talk about the benign shit first cuz wawo this season had Stuff Going On. man.
the filler episodes were, as with the fire chapter, top tier. incredible. fantastic.
also hello. 2d animated sequences?? in my ninjago?? it's more likely than you think
ofc these episodes fulfill the purpose of torturing viewers by prolonging cliffhangers but the subject matter is well chosen.
the first one answers your cinemasins ding of "hey wouldnt all the villains attack ninjago now" to which the show says "no because they're too dumb to escape jail with pixal on the block." also again as with the fire chapter the episode was hilarious.
seeing how some two bit villains perceive the ninja. height of comedy. also the "who the fuck is fugidove" running gag because who tf is he indeed. and why does he hate jay of all ninjas the most.
ALSO THE FUCKING. DBZ PARODY???? JAY WALKER AS GOKU??? HELLO??? DID I SEE THAT RIGHT??????? sorry i was just not mentally prepared for that existing i just. i paused the episode and ate lunch before i could proceed. my lunch was a bowl of pretzel shaped biscuits. i also ate three whole potatoes today i'm good
the next "filler" (cuz it's not REALLY filler in the anime filler sense but i use filler to mean "does not advance the main plot in any way") ep deals with pixal and wu and pixal fighting the fucking preeminent is fun (they brought it back for a joke??? i thought it was gone after nya drowned it?? is this a different one without hydra capabilites?? did it jusz.... grow back or did nya killing it send it to the departed realm) but also the episode depresses me
pixal and wu DO NOT deal with grief good those two are depressed as hell. pixal almost kills herself because she a) knows she's the only line of defense left for ninjago b) can't go on without zane and like. okay. goddd. what the fuck. i wish pixal happy therapy.
WU ALSO LIKE. he def has that "it should've been me" survivor's guilt shit going on. he's so desparate to find them. like that one scene where he and pixal find the departed realm and he deludes himself into thinking the growls of the preeminent are the sounds of the land bounty. and then he doesnt want to lose pixal too....... i'm so emo abt this.
side note pixal before almost frying herself saying she loves zane as her last words and zane's recording having him say he loves pixal as his last words. I'M SO EMO ABT THIS FR. pixane are the only bitches i respect
MOVING ON TO THE MAIN PLOT
laaast time i speculated maybe kai just gets his powers back but he doesnt!! that's vry cool actually. he has to get some self confidence babeyyyy. it's funny how like. he manages to get fire again and immediatly gets cocky again but then the ice dragon shows up and his savior complex or whatever kicks him in the ass. hell yeah man.
nice setup for the climax where "oh look the ice dragon is an elemental creation" so he melts the thing and actually manages to save people for real this time. good for him
ALSOOO NYA. return of her s5 bane: not immediatly being good at stuff. CONSISTENCY!! we love to see it. vry sexy acknowledgement that ice is just frozen water, therefore shouldn't nya be able to control it? HELL YEAH SHE CAN! it's just vry hard.
mildly conflicted abt cole this season cuz. why set it up so that the traveler's tea can't bring them back only for cole to lose it anyway? it feels weird from a writing standpoint that the ninja never even notice. they could've easily just been told by like, sorla (is that her name? the wu stand-in), since at the end of the season she knows leaves aren't enough and cole pulls out the uh. berry.
the tea not working anyway undercuts cole's guilt over losing the tea i feel. bcuz the audience knows it would be a moot point if he'd kept it anyway. i don't think the mini-arc about cole feeling guilty over this is bad, it's good actually, but again! the effect just gets undercut cuz! yeah!!
that aside. rlly fun how cole dads krag. he threatens to revoke its (his?) gaming rights. i feel like cole still makes the ninja eat their veggies. it's sooo funny how he gets mad at them for talking shit in his dream. hello. my guy. you were dreaming.
3. akita. bark bark
next up. new characters. mainly akita!! woof. conceptually i find her vry cool. i love shapeshifters i think wolves are cool (<- is transgender)
i think it's great how lloyd reacts to her deceit cuz like. lloyd traumadumped to this random wolf and the wolf is a girl actually and god this random girl knows about his daddy issues now. he feels betrayed as he should bcuz otherwise s8 would feel for naught. lloyd got trust issues now babeyy!!! though he does forgive akita when its clear she had no ill intent and still needs help!! bcuz it's vry vry important that despite it all, lloyd's still kind
love the juxtaposition of revenge vs saving on akita and lloyd. and this isn't set up for shits n giggles it does actually result in conflict between the two when akita tries to stab zane and lloyd stops her, but still protects her from zane when that goes to shit.
i think her backstory segment was done amazing to answer all sorts of questions i wasn't even asking until they got answered, like why the fuck does zane have a castle?
her relationship to her lost brother is also a great parallel to everyone's search for zane. it shows the level of hope they have. akita has no hope, she believes herself to be alone. she wants revenge, and has no plans for a future after. why should she? she turned her back on her frozen home.
meanwhile, the ninja fervently believe that zane is still alive, and that they can find him. in the end, faith is rewarded with a happy ending. i'm happy that akita gets her family back, too. it's sweet, for one, makes the season less grim and more family tv friendly, for another, and ties into this comparison. even if she had no hope to start with, her efforts still weren't in vain.
the main downside to her character is her giving lloyd a kiss cuz like i UNDERSTAND that these two characters bonded a lot through mutual traumadumping and near death experiences but i do not think they had romantic chemistry and i will be ignoring this. thank you. lloyd remains unshippable to me.
sorry for mainly talking abt akita in conjunction with lloyd but these two characters spent the most time together this season and as such their plotlines are inextricable. thanks for understanding. moving on
gotta talk abt vex now i think. i like that he just sucks. he doesnt get an animal form cuz he's a distrusting selfish bastard. he's the cause of every problem ever this season. he just sucks.
he's the only one who tries to start shit with the formlings because they hate him for sucking and then the king tells him to fuck off thank god.
also how this bitch just??? gaslights zane?? like actual definition of gaslight gaslight??? hello???????????
zane..... zane my man. dear god.
first of all. i love villain arcs. i think they're sexy. i LOVE the scene where lloyd tries to get zane to remember desparately and then zane throws him in jail. that's good character conflict babeyyy!!
vex being all Gaslight Gatekeep ultimately takes the crux of all evil away from zane which i think is both the good writing choice for a kids cartoon and cowardly. cowardly because, gestures at above paragraph, and good writing choice because zane would never intentionally hurt people otherwise
the set up of the ice emperor really does only work because of the combo of evil advisor + corrupting artefact of great power
the flashback episode here did great work. obviously it can't depict zane's presumably gradual descent into madness over decades because it's one ten minute episode, but it still did a great job. it rlly hammered home that zane only used the scroll out of desparation, and was tricked in a vital moment. like we understand how zane got to being the ice emperor and it makes sense from a character standpoint, especially considering the frequently mentioned time gap that cannot be adequately portrayed in one ten minute backstory ep. more than one backstory ep would be too needlessly long though, so again ultimately the best choice.
s good ya
the twist itself was obvious see that one post abt zane's lil bright blaring blue gloves. like even tho i did get spoilered on it it's. ice powers. convenietly frozen staff. glowing blue eyes. the gloves.
the writers tried to red herring so hard with keitaro as the faceless prisoner and i respect that but frankly it did not work much. good on them knowing a red herring was necessary though cuz it sure was.
i love the detail of the ice emperor having to free his arms every time he stands up bcuz he froze himself to the throne by accident. adds flavor.
the final fight is sooo. goddamn it's good. like the aspheera fight it's plain fun to watch it looks amazing but i also love how it ends.
zane wins the fight. like with corruption arcs like this it's usually "hit friend over the head until good again" but none of lloyd's pleading or the fight itself did it. it was lloyd being helpless, it was vex gloating, and it was zane remembering his own mantra. he protects those who cannot protect themselves. THAT WAS SUCH A GOOD MOMENT FR. ZANE!!!! MY MAN!!!!!!! WHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i liked this development can you tell. who cares if it's cliche or cheesy IT WORKS. the cheese always just works in this show. bcuz it's vry sincere. about its cheese.
side note i forgot to mention. it's super neat how the intro changes between red and blue to denote which realm the episode is set in!! so cool!
minor thing from last season: why does clutch powers use random german. the only fictional characters allowed to do that are klavier from ace attorney, and me. hey alter hör auf.
to summarize the ice chapter was amazing, i think this is the first time one of the ninja was a major antagonist? i love it. i want the writers to do it again it's just good.
next up is. the video game season? i know next to nothing about s12-15. i know it's another jay season because of that one very blue jay design with tboy swag i see art of. looking forward to it.
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