Vex

> "*Some savior you turned out to be. You couldn't defeat the Emperor. You couldn't protect your friends. You couldn't even protect yourself.*"
> ― Vex mocking Lloyd for failing to stop the Ice Emperor.
>
>

**Vex** (also known as **Vex the Formless**) is the former general of the Blizzard Samurai. He was a Formling who did not find his animal form, and thought himself to be mocked and looked down upon by his people. Due to this, he left the village, and after years of traveling in the wilderness, he eventually found Zane, who had been banished to the Never-Realm following a battle with Aspheera. When Zane attempted to reboot the Titan Mech, which had landed in the realm with him, Vex pulled the plug and Zane lost his memories. Vex manipulated Zane into thinking that he was his loyal adviser and told him to conquer the Never-Realm. With the help of his "new partner," he got revenge by freezing the Formlings and plunged his realm into subjugation. Vex stood by the side of his "master," the Ice Emperor, as the Never-Realm fell underneath his control through his scheming manipulation of Zane.

When Vex attempted to kill Lloyd, he said the word "protect," causing Zane to regain his memories, destroy his scepter, and freeze Vex. With the scepter destroyed, the Blizzard Warriors and Vex returned to their human forms. Not long after, Vex was recognized as the true tyrant of the realm and was banished further into the outskirts of the Never-Realm.

## History

Vex was born in the Village of the Formlings, a race of beings with the ability to turn into various animals. However, he was unable to find his animal form. Driven mad by his insecurity, he delusionally believed everyone insulted him behind his back and exiled himself of his own will. For a long time, he journeyed the land, while he gained an infamous reputation as a liar, and was declared, "Vex the Formless." He sought revenge on those he believed wronged him.

### Corruption (flashback)

After years of wandering the wilderness, festering in his hatred of his people, he came across a castle and was detained by its guards for trespassing. He was brought before Grimfax, to whom he initially applies to be his advisor, but upon seeing the Grimfax already has an advisor, begins to try to persuade Grimfax to attack the Formlings, whom Vex claims are a dangerous race of war-mongering shapeshifters. However, Grimfax easily sees through Vex's lies and reveals knowledge of who he was and throws him out. He soon attempted to steal some fish but was caught by the Ice Fishers and had to run away. He tried grabbing a chicken, but it managed to get away. He tries to grab some berries, but a Frost Wolf scares him off. While resting, Vex witnesses portals opening in the sky that spits out one of the Monastery's defense systems that land in the middle of the field, followed by a mech, then Zane, and the second Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu.

Taking cover, Vex watches Zane awake and becomes intrigued by him. Vex follows Zane, while he travels the realm and watches him fight off the Ice bird and is amazed by his strength. He later eavesdropped on Zane as he recorded a message before he attempted to reboot the mech. Vex then tries to steal the staff but can’t use it and realizes only Zane can use it. Having overheard the dangers of interrupting the reboot, Vex removes the plug, erasing the Nindroid's memories. Once Zane awakes, he questions Vex on his identity and his whereabouts. Taking advantage of this event, Vex makes him believe that he is the Ice Emperor and that Vex is his advisor. Vex lies to Zane on him being the ruler of the land and being cast out. Vex then hands him his scepter, while encouraging him to take back what's his.

Returning to the castle, Vex has Zane overthrow Grimfax and forced the latter to submit to the Ice Emperor's authority. After Zane takes the throne and created the new Blizzard Samurai, Vex stood beside his new master pleased with his act, effectively becoming his new General and closest confidante.

### The Last of the Formlings (flashback)

He returns to his village just in time for the Choosing of Akita and her brother, Kataru. He expresses sarcastic pleasure to see them, as he calls them out on banishing him. However, the leader states he left of his own accord because of his fear. At this, Vex angrily brings up their mockery. He then tells the Formlings that he found an Elemental Power greater than the abilities of the Formlings. He tells them they have a choice: submit to him willingly, or when he will come back in force, unwillingly. The leader stands his ground and Vex retreats, promising them he'll be back. Having his offer refused by the Formlings, Vex persuaded the Ice Emperor to freeze his former people. Vex stood by his master, as the latter froze the village and his dragon Boreal took care of any resistance, though Akita survived. With the most of the Formlings gone, Vex left the village with the Ice Emperor while Boreal recovers Kataru, who had managed to survive, and has him thrown into the dungeon.

### The Never-Realm

Inside the Castle of Ice, Vex is seen using his crystal to spy on the ninja, so he warns the Emperor of his findings. The Ice Emperor then tells General Vex to send the Blizzard Samurai to punish the ninja. Vex persuades him to destroy the ninja, and all who aid them, then the latter commands him to do so.

### Fire Maker

Vex sent the Blizzard Samurai to destroy the people of Great Lake and was angry seeing Kai lighting the Sacred Fire of the people then left.

### An Unlikely Ally

Vex approaches the cell of the prisoner, where he informs him "a green outfitted person" is coming while providing him his meal. He promises to spare him, should he join him but the prisoner refuses by throwing the meal at him. He then threatens him saying, "The green one will perish."

### Secret of the Wolf

He scolds Grimfax, for wasting many of his Blizzard Samurai, he then asks his master to punish him. However, the Ice Emperor pardons him. Afterwards, Vex talks to his master and ask him about how to deal with the ninja and the Stranger in Green, as the emperor said he will unleash Boreal. Vex also asked about dealing with Lloyd as the emperor states he will handle him.

He later watches excited as Boreal is summoned to attack the Great Lake.

### My Enemy, My Friend

When Boreal was about to freeze Lloyd, Vex stops it and tells the dreaded dragon to bring him to the Ice Emperor instead.

Once Boreal brings Lloyd to the Castle of Ice, Vex tells the Ice Emperor about the stranger in green, only for Lloyd to find out that the Ice Emperor is actually Zane.

### A Fragile Hope

Vex watches Lloyd attempt to get through to Zane. However, he accuses him of lying and after Lloyd breaks free, Vex tries to stop him but fails. He witnesses the Green Ninja trying to take the staff from Zane but is repelled by him. Taking advantage of this, Vex declares Lloyd a liar who speaks of false stories of friendship and demands he’d be disposed of but Zane has the unconscious ninja locked away, despite Vex's protest after being harshly ordered to comply.

Vex arrives at the dungeon, having overheard Lloyd and Kataru's talk. He tauntingly applauds Lloyd on still having hope, while stating that Lloyd does not know the "many details" that could help. He informed him that the shackles he’s wearing blocks his and Kataru’s powers. The Green Ninja states Zane will see him for the liar he is, though Vex cockily retorts he is the emperor’s faithful advisor and he'll soon get rid of Lloyd and anyone who tries to stop him and then leaves while tauntingly clanking on Kataru's cell. As he left, he was unaware that he had passed by a hiding Grimfax.

### Once and for All

While the Resistance were on their way to destroy Vex's crystal, Grimfax believed Vex wouldn't see them coming. However, Vex had anticipated this and had the soldiers attack Kataru and Grimfax while Lloyd ran off to confront Zane.

### Awakenings

Vex watched the soldiers defeat Kataru and Grimfax, mocking them before ordering the two to be placed in the dungeon.

After Zane incapacitated Akita and Lloyd, Vex arrived to witness the moment of triumph. He tries to tell him to kill the latter but seeing him not moving, Vex chose to carry out the job instead. Grabbing a nearby soldier's spear, he mocked the Green Ninja for opposing them and failing to protect those close to him. Unfortunately, the moment he said "protect," caused Zane to remember who he truly was. Before Vex could go for the kill, Zane uses his scepter to block the spear. Zane then strikes the surprised Vex away before slamming the scepter on the ground, destroying it and returning the Never-Realm back the way it was. As Zane thanked Lloyd, Vex tries to kill Zane, only to end up frozen by the latter. With his power and position gone, Vex's reign of tyranny was over.

Sometime after returning to his normal form, Vex was punished by Grimfax along with the Formlings. They then banished Vex further into the outskirts of the Never-Realm for his crimes.

## Other appearances and mentions

### Return of the Ice Emperor

After his holographic cloaking technology was damaged, Zane briefly returned to his persona as the Ice Emperor and when P.I.X.A.L. told Ronin to ignore the damaged Nindroid's words, the 'Ice Emperor' shouted out for Vex, demanding he imprison P.I.X.A.L. and the escaped convicts in the dungeons.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Blizzard Samurai
	+ Boreal

### Enemies

* Formlings - Former Allies
	+ Akita
	+ Kataru
* Ice Fishers
	+ Sorla
* Grimfax - Former Superior
* Ninja
	+ Zane - Manipulatee, Former Superior and Attempted Killer
	+ Lloyd Garmadon - Attempted Victim
	+ Kai
	+ Jay
	+ Cole
	+ Nya

## Personality

Due to his experiences in his old village, Vex came to possess an extreme hatred for the village because he was never able to achieve his own animal form.

Having been driven mad from his self-exile, Vex became very manipulative, cruel, and intelligent. He appears to lack almost all positive traits.

He used his manipulation to try and get Grimfax to attack the Formlings and does the same to Zane after erasing his memories.

Vex appears to know when to retreat or back down, as he chose not to challenge the Formling Leader and chose to comply with his angry master's wish of only imprisoning Lloyd.

He was loyal toward his master, Zane, since he wants his enemies to know his strength. However, he mostly manipulates the latter into achieving his own goals, as he always nudges him into a certain action, using his position as an advisor. Although he does respect all of Zane's decisions regardless if Zane takes his advice or not, and doesn't protest. One order he disliked was Zane ordering Vex to spare and imprison Lloyd and harshly ordered him to comply, which he reluctantly does so.

Vex appears to love attacking people, as he persuaded Zane to allow him to destroy the ninja and the civilians helping them rather than punishing them, when he demanded Grimfax and Lloyd to be punished, and when he requested that the Formlings' village be destroyed. He also promised to destroy Lloyd when the opportunity presents itself. He later attempted to act on this threat and would've been successful had Zane not regain his memories.

However, Vex can be merciful as he offered leniency to his people should they join him and when he offered Grimfax the chance to join him, offering the Formlings a chance to ally with him, and giving Kataru a deal of sparing Lloyd if he joined his army.

When he saw that Zane had regained his memories, Vex realized that he lost everything, especially when seeing all in the Never-Realm go back to normal. He attempted to kill Zane in revenge for costing him so much but was defeated in the end. Afterwards, Grimfax and the Formlings mutually decided on Vex being banished for his crimes. Taken to the outskirts by guards along with Akita and Kataru, he begrudgingly accepted it and ran off.

## Appearances

### Sets

* 70673 ShuriCopter
* 70676 Lloyd's Titan Mech
* 70678 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor

### *Ninjago*

#### Season 11: Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

* 114. "The Never-Realm"
* 115. "Fire Maker"
* 116. "An Unlikely Ally"
* 121. "Secret of the Wolf"
* 122. "The Last of the Formlings" (flashback)
* 123. "My Enemy, My Friend"
* 125. "Corruption" (flashback)
* 126. "A Fragile Hope"
* 127. "Once and for All"
* 128. "Awakenings"

#### Season 15: Crystalized

* 204. "Return of the Ice Emperor" (mentioned)

## Trivia

* His name means "to make someone feel annoyed" and "to cause distress to."
	+ The second meaning of his name seems to describe his personality, as he is one of the two people responsible for Zane becoming the Ice Emperor and wreak havoc upon the Never-Realm. Later on, causing Krag to be the last Yeti and Akita's sorrow.
* His role towards the Blizzard Samurai is similar to Shoguns of Feudal Japan.
	+ This was also referenced in 70678 Castle of the Forsaken Emperor, where a portrait of him is found with Ninjargon writing translating as "Shogun."
* It is unknown why he was unable to find his animal form, as he was once implied to be pure of heart before being driven into madness.
* In the finale, he was ironically the one who returned Zane’s memories back to him after misusing the word "protect" and causing Zane to remember his time as a ninja.
* He is one of the five main antagonists to be from another realm other than Ninjago, the others being the Preeminent, Nadakhan, Iron Baron, and the Omega.
* He is the second villain of Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu and the fourth villain to announce the title card at the beginning of an episode, with him announcing "The Last of the Formlings," and "Corruption."
* Vex is similar to another antagonist Harumi, as he using Zane for his powers to rule the Never-Realm in a similar manner that Harumi did to Garmadon to rule Ninjago City, use their respective figurehead to seek revenge, advising them to use their great power to do terrible things, Zane and Garmadon were used as pawns. However, unlike Vex, Harumi did have a genuine admiration and affection for Garmadon and saw him as a true hero while Vex had no real care for Zane and only used him as a figurehead.
* His first exile was of his own free will, but his second one was not.
* He is the third main antagonist not to refer the ninja as "the ninja," as he only referred Zane as the Ice Emperor and the ninja as strangers.
	+ The first two are the Preeminent and the Omega.
* Although he is shown fighting the ninja in the sets, Vex is so far the only main antagonist that is not known for fighting. As he only watches his allies fight the opponents for him or when he uses a weapon when the opponent's distracted or immobilized. This was shown in "Corruption" and "Awakenings."
* He is the third general to be a main antagonist. The first is Pythor, who is the self-proclaimed general of the Anacondrai, and the second was Morro, who was the general of the Ghost Warriors.
* His human form slightly resembles a citizen called Shen-Li from Manta Ray Bomber, *The LEGO Ninjago Movie* set.
* He is one of the five known villains that had no intentions to take over Ninjago, the other four being Yang, Iron Baron, Unagami, and Vangelis.
* His story and actions are similar to Morro: in the past, they were both rejected from being special, and they both went on to hijack one of the ninja's bodies in order to gain more power, in a way that made the ninja seem evil.
* He is the first main antagonist to not be the leader of a villainous faction.
* He is the second most frequently appearing main villain in a single wave, as he was released in up to three sets with exactly the same appearance. The first one is Garmadon and the third and the fourth are Unagami and Kalmaar.