Way of the Departed

Way of the Departed is a "could-be-canon" Ninjago novel written by Tommy Andreasen and released on Twitter.https://twitter.com/i/events/1051091938848505856 It takes place between Season 7 and Season 8. It focuses on Cole’s journey to discover the origins of his scar. Clouse serves as the main antagonist.
==Chapters==
===Chapter 1===
===Chapter 2===
===Chapter 3===
===Chapter 4===
===Chapter 5===
===Chapter 6===
===Chapter 7===
===Chapter 8===
===Chapter 9===
===Chapter 10===
===Chapter 11===
===Chapter 12===
===Chapter 13===
===Chapter 14===
===Chapter 15===
===Chapter 16===
===Chapter 17===
===Chapter 18===
===Chapter 19===
===Chapter 20===
===Chapter 21===
===Chapter 22===
===Chapter 23===
===Chapter 24===
==Appearances==
=== Characters ===
* Chuck
* Claire
* Clouse
* Cole
* Jay
* Lloyd
* Misako
* Ronin
* Seliel
* Yang
===Locations===
*Endless Sea (dream)
**Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master
***Ice labyrinth
*Ninjago
**Temple of Airjitzu
**Nom
**Fire Temple
*Underworld
=== Species ===
* Ghosts
* Humans
* Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids
==Trivia==
*Tommy Andreasen explained he was keeping the novel non-canon for now in order protect his creative autonomy when developing it, though it may be able to be accepted as canon once it's completed.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1024278819182657537 He later stated, "It is written to not contradict canon. And supply some answers if you consider it canon."https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1357812926854406145
**Previously, Tommy Kalmar called the novel "Cool fan fiction" and Tommy Andreasen described it as "off-canon".https://twitter.com/Tommy_kalmar/status/947900632312221696https://youtu.be/eU1lS9-XYQg?t=134
***At one point, Andreasen noted the possibility of Way of the Departed being published along with another book, in the same way The New Ninja included two stories written by fans.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1027450238813003776
*Seliel, the "Phantom Ninja" from Who is the Phantom Ninja?, appears in this novel.
**Seliel's father, Claire and Jesper (the latter two from 70751 Temple of Airjitzu) also appear.
*Andreasen considered the concepts in the novel too dark to be used in the series.
**Its story was never meant to be an episode or a part of the series, as it is made without any official LEGO involvement.https://web.archive.org/web/20200322162024/https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1241758243866710021
*Tommy Andreasen said he has not planned to make a novel about Christmas, but he does not rule it out.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/934106136265060357
*The novel offers some possible explanations and additions to the main storyline:
**As explained in Chapter 21, Airjitzu draws on Edo magic, which is a dark form of magic, which is why the ninja don't use it after The Hands of Time, with the exception of once in Prime Empire, which was digital, meaning no magic was involved.
**In Chapter 6, Zane makes note that summoning Elemental Dragons has become harder for the ninja to achieve. He theorizes that this has to do with the loss of Master Wu (presumably because the Ninja were constantly afraid they wouldn't be able to find him), but is for the most part unsure. This helps explain why these dragons don't appear as of Sons of Garmadon, though it doesn't explain why they don't use them after Wu returns, or why Wu doesn't use his own dragon.
**Yang's students had names and lived in villages that were destroyed by Edo magic during their imprisonment in the Temple.
***Three have been named so far; Jerahn, Alyce and Milo.
****Jerahn is the ghost student that Cole called "Chuck."
**The novel suggests that Chen and Clouse manipulated Krux and Acronix after the Serpentine War into going against the Elemental Alliance and informed them where the eggs of the Great Devourer were. This was originally a scrapped idea for Season 7.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/972330304269676544
**In Chapter 22, Ronin is said to have a family with a wife and a daughter. He also says that Clouse threatening their safety is the reason he kidnapped Zane and P.I.X.A.L..
*Lar is mentioned in Chapter 4 the novel. Seliel tells Cole he was visiting Nom, claiming to be the Master of Water, a reference to his role in the non-canon book he appeared in. It's implied that this book was a story written by Lar himself.
*Jay theorizes that someone named "Ekosan" is the new Samurai X and then denies having said this. This is likely a reference to Echo Zane, with Jay denying it because no one remembers the events of Skybound except for him and Nya.
*This is the first mention of Wohira and Cole's mother, both of whom would go on to have more prominent roles in the following seasons.
*One of the ideas of the novel was to "explore ‘the undisclosed narrator’ which is really not possible in a visal medium."https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1178282495126708224 At one point, Andreasen asked for feedback on whether this technique worked or was needlessly confusing.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/954369171927781378
*Chapter 17 originally had Cole remembering the Tiger Widow, but a fan pointed out Cole would not remember the events of Skybound, so Andreasen changed it.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/969710723650801664https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/970316310143012864
*Tommy Andreasen stated in July 2018 that he started writing another novel called The Splinter in the Blind Man's Eye.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1021864990553255936
**Collaboratively working on this novel in 2021 inspired Andreasen to get back to writing Way of the Departed after a long hiatus.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1420124902108143620
*Claire's mother's description of the Departed Realm from Chapter 18 matches the appearance of the Grasslands from "Endings."
*As of September 1, 2020 (Chapter 22 being the most recent chapter), Andreasen stated he was around 2/3 or the way through writing it.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1300918018344706054 He would later state that he had around 10 chapters left to write.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1352010975982067713
**As of February 26, 2020, he is "pretty busy" and therefore does not know when he will write the next chapter, Chapter 25.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1497578025696866313
**On April 9, 2023, Andreasen stated, "I have ‘WoD’ almost done, but I won’t release until I am all done."https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1645191305516003330 He gave a similar response on February 7, 2024.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1755310276969177129
*On September 2, 2020, Andreasen accidentally re-released Chapter 22, albeit with some differences, presumably revisions.http://web.archive.org/web/20200902132915/https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1301150038375231491
*The fate of the Temple of Airjitzu will be explained by the end of the story.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1277143441764466690
*When Andreasen finishes the book, he will revise all chapters to fit with the current lore explained in the show, such as the fact that enough Traveler's Tea has now been shown in "The Kaiju Protocol" to open a portal to the Departed Realm despite Yang's statement in Chapter 2 that Traveler's Tea is not enough.https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1362680532291751942
==Gallery==
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==References==
Category:2017
Category:Books
Category:Non-canon
Category:2018
Category:2020
Category:2021
fi:Way of the Departed 
de:Way of the Departed