take one ish

Lego Ninjago is a show about Lego ninjas that also promotes toy sets and spinners. The original series followed a group of ninjas fighting to protect Ninjago from threats in other realms. The show has continued with a new series called Dragons Rising, which introduces new characters and explores the consequences of the merge between realms. The main characters, Eren and Sora, have their own motivations and powers. The season features the main villains Beatrix and Roz, and ends with the heroes using dragon energy cores to restore balance. The season sets up future plot threads and leaves room for the Imperium realm to change after Beatrix's death. Dragons Rising is seen as a successful soft reboot of the Ninjago world, introducing new stories and interactions. Fans are excited for the series to continue in 2024. So, Lego Ninjago is a show about Lego ninjas, but it's also used to sell sets and fun spinners, which really back in the day, they were really with the whole Beyblade-esque kind of thing where you spin them to try and make them knock off the other figure. But there was a show that came out like 12 years ago, and the original series followed Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, and Kai's sister Nia. As they fought to protect the world of Ninjago, the original series focused on the cast dealing with either something from another realm, or going to another realm, or that one or two occasions where it would be someone in the main realm causing trouble. And then fast-forwarding up to current day at least, so we can all agree that Crystallize was meh at best, but the sets were really good. At least to me they were. But then we all thought we were going to get something decent because they were saying, oh, it's the end of the series, the original series. But no, we actually got a continuation series, and it was awesome. We got Dragons Rising, which came out, we all thought was going to be called Ninjago United. Personally, I think Dragons Rising is a much better name, even though I feel it's a tad bit more predictable. So I was personally happy when we got the set leaks because, oh man, I just got back into LEGO, and we got the Destiny's Bounty, which had most of the figures from the set. We also had a few mechs and a few dragons kind of sprinkled in. None of which really disappointed me. So then let's get on to the teasers. We have our first teaser, which dropped, which I was hyped, which was just a teaser trailer, and it showed off the Merge. The Merge, the thought of the Merge were like, where is everybody, who was going to show up? And that got me interested, like, are we going to be getting new characters and all that? We had that answered slightly a little bit later, and we had the teaser come up, which was a fragmented kind of realm revealing the name of Dragons Rising. Then let's move on to the first part of Season 1, because it came out in the first 10 episodes and the second 10 episodes. So we got introduced into the main characters of Eren and Sora. Eren being, he was kind of like, he was from the original realm of Ninja Aga with the ninjas, and pretty much when the Merge happened, it separated them all. And he woke up in the middle of nowhere, and ended up pretty much realizing his parents are missing, and that kind of drives his motivation through the rest of the series, which is finding his parents. And so then we get on to the other new main character, which is Sora. And I think Sora had a whole lot more going for her through this first season. She has tech powers, which progressively through the course of Season 1, we see her have her doubts with her powers, and even by the end of the series, we see her come to fruition with that. But let's get back to the Part 1 that we knew. So with that, we find out she's from Imperium, Imperium being a kind of nation, well, realm, that is like, we're the best, we use dragons to power our stuff. And you have like, we have their interactions with, we meet her parents during the pretty much last few episodes of that first part, and it's revealed that her parents are hardcore supporters of the Empress, and they will follow her no matter what. And pretty much that gives Sora a good reason to kind of want to, not want to face her past. And so, then Part 1 ended. So we lead into Part 2. Part 2 released at the back end of 2023, I want to say October, I could be incorrect with that. And it was great, it was like, we got to see more locations that had formed from the merge. We even got to see some more characters. You too, Jay, even though you showed up for about like, two minutes at best. But, they set up future plot threads with like, Cole going off with the ghost of Master Wu. But then we get really to see the main antagonist of this season shine, which was Beatrix and Roz. Beatrix was the main villain, she was very much the Empress of Imperium, they used dragon powers to enhance all their powers, well, not their powers, all their tech. But pretty much would tell them like, oh yeah, we're using this to enhance, we're doing this in tandem with the dragons, they're agreeing with us, we're not killing them, when they were. Then, we also just have Roz in the background, just, he was a menacing villain throughout the whole thing. Even like, the back half of the season, he was in jail, and he was still just that, oh, okay, you're still here and you're still a threat. That leads us more into the back end, where it's like, Beatrix pretty much used a weapon to cause, pretty much forced the merge quakes to force the merge that would shatter the world to happen. But luckily by the end of it, we get to see that, what was Lloyd, and the others use the dragon energy cores to kind of just disperse everything, to make it all well. Yes, I think it was kind of out there, but I wish I kind of did a little bit better with how I thought it was going to end. But, with that, we also got a bunch of kind of setting up in the next season with Roz talking to a character we met who has a massive rivalry with Sora during the beginning of part one. She was able to pretty much turn the source dragons into energy, which was never shown to be able to happen during the first half. And that sets up everything. With that, and like I said, with how the season ended, it really made me happy that we didn't see a way that Crystallize ended, which was just everything all at once solved. Now, personally, I'm looking forward to see how they move on into the future and handle everything. And so I'm now going to kind of track back a little bit, talking about why I think I personally like how Sora and Beatrix, how they all happen together. With the end of the season, we finally have Sora face off against the Empress, which has Sora finally embracing her powers after her parents pretty much were like, oh, the Empress would never do this and all of that. And then it's like Sora finally standing up to them. And then we have just Beatrix the entire time. She was brutal and she has a whole rant about how she's like, oh, I managed all of this without having any power. And with that, that made it feel a bit more like we actually had her reasoning for why she was doing all of this. And you definitely see her descent into madness, which to me, that made her a better villain. And at the end, we see her get sucked into one of the merge quake portals, which to kind of give us the imprint that she's dead. But I am more leaning towards I'm like, I want to assume she's not dead, didn't see the body, so can't be dead is how I like to think. But I am looking forward to see how Imperium will do after Beatrix's death and if anyone will try and make it better or they're just going to revert back to Beatrix. In all, Dragons Rising to me was a great soft reboot of the Ninjago world and different realms and made it a more interesting world, allowing characters that didn't normally interact with one another to interact with them and have and show us different stories and show us how people react with the merge and everything, showing us different races, cultures, and people at the crossroads. It doesn't skip over any big moments and interactions, which to me is a massive success. And I'm looking forward to how the series continues coming forward in 2024. So thank you for tuning in.