While Ninjago is a Lego theme as well as a TV show, this is going to be mostly about the TV show because I was too poor for the lego sets when I was a kid (and I still am -﹏-。). Lego Ninjago is a show that is very important to the core of my being, despite the fact that I will be the first person to critique the show and call it a dumpster fire (because it’s MY silly lego dumpster fire). This is less an actual explanation of the show and more so just me incoherently rambling about it when I get bored.
Ninjago is one of Lego’s longest running TV shows, the pilot released in 2011 and the series is still going strong today. Lego was basically like, “what do little boy’s like?”, and then they asked a bunch of little boys and found most of them really like ninjas. Turns out ninjas were the right move and the show became insanely popular. This grabbed my attention as a 7 year old girl because I was going through my not-like-other-girls phase. I somehow managed to imprint on the show like a baby bird, and I still watch it regularly 14 years later (this might be a neurodivergent thing, but I don’t know for sure because getting a diagnosis is scary). Throughout all of the changes and inconsistencies in my life, Lego Ninjago has been one of the few constants. At this point, I think it's more likely that the US government will finally crumble under its own hubris before Ninjago finally ends.
Here's a poster for every season
Each season has its own name, which makes them easier to refer to because I always forget which number season we're on.
I have a love-hate relationship with this movie. While I think the movie is very funny and entertaining on its own, it wasn’t as good as other lego movies that came out during this era, namely The Lego Batman Movie.
Lego Batman also outshines the Lego Ninjago Movie because Lego Batman was clearly made by people who loved Batman as a franchise. That movie is chock full of references to older Batman movies and comics. The movie is filled to the brim with easter eggs and reference, made by fans for fans.
The Lego Ninjago Movie on the other hand seems to have been made by people who didn’t watch a single episode of the original series. I understand that including the entire cast of characters from the series and working in the six or so seasons that had aired at the time of the movie's production would have been impossible, and writing something that tied into the show's established story might have alienated the general audiences that the movie was hoping to appeal to. But the Ninjago movie could have done what the Lego Batman movie did by writing a self contained story that still paid homage to the original series and added reference that long term fans would appreciate. Instead we got a bunch of improv from big name actors, which while funny, turned the main characters into caricatures of themselves.
Something good that did come from the movie is that all the characters got a much needed redesign for season eight onwards.
If you're insane like me and want to get into a show with eighteen seasons of content, you might need some help with that. Since the show has been around for so long and has moved from Cartoon Network to Netflix, it’s a bit difficult to get your hands on all the canon installments. On top of that, as of April 2025, a handful of seasons were made unavailable on Netflix with no warning due to licensing issues. The best way to watch everything is to sail the seven seas, but if you want to support the show by watching it officially, here's how to do it. Sadly this list is probably only helpful if you're in the United States since content available on streaming platforms varies from region to region. (I've heard that if you're in the UK you can watch all the missing episodes on ITVX. I cannot access this streaming service because I'm in the US)
Note: While season 11 and 12 are technically still on Netflix, they are not available in their entirety for reasons that are beyond me. From what I could find, there is currently no official way to watch Ninjago season 13 or 14 due to licensing issues. This is hopefully a temporary issue, but it’s very irritating for me when I’m trying to watch my comfort show.
Note: The show dropped the “Masters of Spinjitzu” thing in the title after season 10, marking the start of a soft reboot and a temporary switch to an 11 minute format after 10 seasons of using the 22 minute format. The 11 minute episodes only lasted for 5 seasons before switching back to the original format on account of how much the 11 minute episodes sucked and killed the pacing
the original four ninja we know and love from the pilot
Zane was by far my favorite character from the beginning of the show. In the pilot and like half of season 1, he’s just this dude who acts kind of weird and the rest of the team doesn’t really understand him. I watched that as a kid who didn’t have a lot of friends and thought “he’s just like me fr”. Halfway through season 1 it’s revealed that Zane acts so weird because he’s a robot (sorry if I’m spoiling a 14 year old lego show). I was disappointed by this reveal at first because this meant he wasn’t just like me fr, but that disappointment lasted for maybe a minute before I realized “wait a minute, being a robot is actually cool as fuck!” and he continued to be my favorite.
This guy has died multiple time btw (don’t worry he got better, death is meaningless in this show if you’re part of the main cast)
Sadly, he's gone through a bit of flanderization over the years, Dragon’s Rising being the most egregious example as they made him being a robot his only personality trait.
Elemental powers in this world are established to usually have a genetic component. this of course raises the question: how does a robot with no genetics get elemental powers? well apparently the previous elemental master of ice went to Dr Julien, Zane creator and father, and the two agreed that Zane should be the next elemental master of ice to help protect those who cannot protect themselves. how exactly this works isn't explained or shown on screen, but it does sort of imply that Zane has two dads.
he's a part of the only canon relationship of the show I like. Him and his robot girlfriend PIXAL are so cute together and I just love robot love.
treated as the main character for the pilot and most of season one before the show settles into more an ensemble cast that share the protagonist label from season to season. A textbook hot head, but he mellows out in later seasons
His parents disappeared when he was a child, so he had to raise him and his younger sister on his own for most of their lives. This leads to him being a bit overprotective of his sister Nya, sometimes to an annoying degree, but I'd say his heart is in the right place. And then in season 7, they decided to make them not orphans anymore. “oh, your parents didn't die, they were just forced to make weapons for the villains and held in a prison for years.”
This is a bit of a tangent, but there are people who still genuinely say “Kai should have been the green ninja”. Did we watch the same show? Kai’s entire arc in season one and what causes him to unlock his full potential is him learning to not be so self centered. he stops trying to prove he's the green ninja and gives up one of the shiny macguffins to protect Lloyd (which is kind of the ninjas whole thing, protecting those who cannot protect themselves). he literally says out loud that it wasn't our job for one of us to become the green ninja, but to protect him. I don't want to call this a lack of media literacy because that phrase has lost all meaning over the years, but the characters flat out tell you what the point of the episode is.
reaches his full potential by telling his dad that he's a ninja and not hiding who he is anymore. I'm not saying this was a coming out scene, but he then proceeded to fight with his friend Jay over a girl he didn't even like, this fight culminating in the most homoerotic battle during the tournament arc that he lets Jay win. And then theres whatever he has going on with Geo in Dragon's Rising. Cole is not straight, this is a headcannon I will fight you on.
the strong man of the group, this guy lifts cars like it's nothing
was a ghost for like two seasons. after he becomes a ghost he has a bit of an existential crisis as he adjusts to his new way of life, but after that they only really acknowledge the fact that he's a ghost for humor.
Lowkey didn't like this guy in the later seasons but I couldn't put my finger on it before. Now I'm able to articulate that I mostly didn't like after the season 8 redesigns. His redesign was definitely an improvement, but it also marked the beginning of personality shift that I like to call his "soft-boyification". he's always been the designated comic relief, but his comedy has changed over the years from him being snarky and overreacting to things, to him just constantly being stupid and the butt of the joke. I swear his voice has gone up an octave over the years as well. this might just be another case of flanderization
I don't like Jay and Nya as a ship. The show puts so much focus on them, but I don't like their relationship. I like the characters fine individually, but together they just seemed so forced. they had one kind of flirty line in the pilot, so they became the default romantic subplot for 18 seasons. season 6 was meant to "fix" their relationship, but all that season did was make Jay seem like lowkey kind of a creep who doesn't know how to take no for an answer. Nya is a Ninja at this point, but is still weirdly lacking in autonomy, constantly getting pulled around by Jay and the plot of this season, and I'm supposed to like their relationship?
This might make it sound like I hate Jay. I don't, I do think he's quite funny. I just think he's lost what made him funny in the earlier seasons. he does get a chance to shine at the end of season 12 which I appreciated.
all four of their elements (fire, ice, earth, and ice) combine together to make the tornado of creation, which is used in moments of crisis to create large mechs which double as marketable lego sets they can charge $200 for.
The group has a lot of good banter that is really easy to clip into a funny youtube compilation. I think that's what I liked most about their dynamic. they constantly riff off of each other and try to one up each other, but still have each other's back in combat and would die for each other. Literally, most have died for the group and were later resurrected (again, death is meaningless for the main cast)
her introduction in the pilot was truly abysmal, getting kidnapped only to force Kai to train and become a ninja. even as she gets more of an action role in the series when she makes her own mech suit, calling herself Samurai X and fighting crime, she is still treated as a supporting character until season five where she learns that she's the water ninja and gets to officially join the ninja team.
things are a lot better once she's a ninja, but this is still a show written for young boys as their target audience, so she has to constantly remind everyone that she isn't like other girls and doesn't conform to traditional femininity. this involves her calling girly things stupid and inferior over and over, which I don't appreciate, and also doesn't really make sense in my opinion since Nya still dressed pretty feminine before she became a ninja.
this problem seems to have disappeared in recent seasons. Nya seems to no longer be defined as the girl of the group, and is seen more as the stubborn one of the group with a short temper. she has years of experience as the water ninja and doesn't seem to have this need to prove how capable she is to other people, because she knows that she's capable and she doesn't need the validation of others.
this dude is half human, a quarter dragon, and a quarter Oni. him being part oni was definitely weird to me seeing as how Onis are like, a real thing from Japanese folklore just sort of slapped into the story. Ninjago already pulls a lot from Japan, so I guess it makes sense, I just don't particularly like it.
While Zane was definitely my favorite as a kid, Lloyd has grown on me over the years to the point where he is definitely my current favorite character.
His grandfather, the first spinjitzu master, is also the creator of the island of Ninjago. the first Spinjitzu master is also maybe sort of a god, making Lloyd possibly a demigod? Lloyd has a near death experience one time where he talks to his grandfather who asks Lloyd if he'd like to ascend with him, which could either be Lloyd dying and passing on, or him ascending to godhood?? it's really unclear.
His father is Lord Garmadon, the main villain for like two seasons. After that he flip-flops between good and evil until season 15, it's honestly ridiculous but so entertaining. and of course, Lloyd having daddy and mommy issues lets me project onto him all day long, especially in my choice of fanfic.
He was also aged up from a child to a teenager in the middle of season two via magic potion nonsense, quite literally having his childhood ripped away from him in order to fulfill his destiny. it doesn't seem like such a big deal until you remember what childhood he did have was pretty shitty. his dad turned evil, his mom dropped him off at a boarding school for years to try and figure out how to make her husband not evil anymore, then he got kicked out of his boarding school and was effectively homeless for a while until he unleashes these snake people and causes the inciting incident of season one. Then he gets kidnapped by the snakes he unleashed, gets rescued by the ninja and learns he's the chosen one who has to fight his own father, gets kidnapped by the snakes again, has to help stop a giant snake from eating an entire city, and all of that was before he got aged up. This kid's childhood sucked, like holy shit. And on top of that, he gets what little time he has left of his childhood taken from him because destiny said so. This guy deserved to have the crash out of the century, but never does.
click through links to read through my little Ninjago blog (and my strong opinions on a show that is a glorified toy commercial
fanfic recs (ꈍᴗꈍ)Alone Together by LightofTheFallen
Earbuds by ReddShoes
all of this is from 2023
This is of course a response to this one image that was making the rounds on tiktok mid 2024.
It boils down to people calling modern ninjago, specifically Dragon’s Rising, woke garbage and terrible compared to the early seasons. While Dragon’s Rising has its own problems, a lot of people complaining about modern Ninjago are usually people who haven’t watched a single episode in almost a decade.
I’m mostly zeroing in on what they had to say about Cole. Tumblr already had a field day with this, making tons of memes about it.
It even made it into urban dictionary.
The phrase “alive but gay” is very funny on its own. I still quote it to this day.
Cole is the only one of the ninja team to not have a romantic subplot at some point over the course of the show. There was of course the love triangle from season three, but I think most would agree that the love triangle was the worst part of this entire show. Some might argue that Princess Vania is his designated love interest, and while it’s an understandable ship it was never actually confirmed if they have feelings for each other. We don’t even see Vania again after season 15 is over until we get to the final battle in season 15, and that felt more like a cameo than anything else.
and of course Cole and Geo are just a ship (a ship that isn’t really my favorite but i am personally on board with it).
There is no real point to this post actually. I think that Cole has always been gay, people are just now noticing since Geo and Cole are a popular pairing at the moment. You weren’t there in the trenches of the tournament arc, Jay and Cole still have potential in my heart. But at the end of the day, it’s just shipping and headcanons. This stuff is present in all fandoms, and getting angry about it being in the Ninjago fandom is weird since the shipping has always been there, you’re just now noticing it and using it as an excuse to be homophobic.
Specifically when he only told Nya about her mother being the water ninja in season 5. Master Wu only tells Nya about her possible elemental powers because they were focusing on ghosts in this season, and water is good for fighting ghosts.
Of course, the Doylist explanation for this is that the creators of the show didn’t intend on Nya becoming a Ninja, the show was supposed to be only two seasons after all. Season 5 was just when they decided that Nya being a ninja would be a cool idea, and Nya being on a time crunch to reach her full potential because of the ghost problem is a good way to raise the stakes.
But then the Watsonian explanation is that Wu is only now telling Nya about this crucial piece of information because Nya being the water ninja would be advantageous for him. He starts training Nya, not out of just wanting to help with her own self actualization, but because he needs something from her. Specifically, he needs her to get a grasp of her water powers to fight all these ghosts for him because he’s the one that pulled a Tai Lung and now his former student is out for revenge. Master Wu knew Kai and Nya’s parents personally, fighting alongside them during the serpentine wars, and had just neglected to mention it.
Again, the Doylist reason is the writers didn’t think that far ahead, but adding all of this cool stuff to Wu’s past keeps creating unfortunate implications. Like all the other problems that the ninja have to face that Wu simply neglected to tell them about before it was too late. It happens so often that it becomes comical, and I’m almost glad that Wu has not been present for the first three seasons of Dragon’s Rising so he can’t pull this shit anymore.