Ninjago S15 E30

## Plot

The Overlord asks Garmadon and Lloyd if they expected to defeat him so easily. His current form is a shell, a vessel that he can change at will. Lloyd asks Harumi for help. She just wants this to end, and the only way for that to happen is for one side of the balance to defeat the other, and Lloyd just isn't strong enough. The Overlord uses crystals to turn himself into a giant centaur like creature with crystal wings. He wrecks the mech, but Garmadon stops him before he can kill Lloyd. Aw! Meanwhile, at the warehouse, the crystal vengestone warriors are advancing, which negates everyone's elemental powers. Pixal is using a laser gun from the previous season. I've been waiting for her mech and MiniPix 7 to get here since episode 27. What is taking so long? Speaking of which, the other mechs go down and their pilots are crystalized. And then the army of Shintaro arrives, along with Queen Vania, Hailmar, Chompy, the Upply, the Geckles, and the Munce. King Benthomaar also shows up with the army of Merlopia, Glutinous, the Keepers, and Zippy. The Serpentine also arrive to help, including Skales. Pixal's mech and MiniPix 7 finally get there, along with Racer 7, Vinny, Gayle Gossip, Ray and Maya, Misako, Sally and her parents, Milton Dyer, Unagami, Red Visors, Whack Rats, Scott, Okino, Dareth, Lou, Ed and Edna. Our heroes realize that this is what Quanash's scroll meant by all of the allies uniting. The four original guys are able to unlock Dragon Form now, and it looks amazing. Still, I wish Nya could've at least tried it, since her powers are coming back and she should still be able to do spinjitzu. I also wish Lloyd could've been there or seen it to learn that there is another way to beat the Overlord that doesn't involve giving into his negative emotions and impulses and lashing out with his oni form. It would've made his immediate rejection of it later on at least make sense. Anyways, now the guys can destroy the crystal vengestone warriors with ease. Pixal briefly fights Mister F on his Dragonide before he and Zane fight. Zane is able to grab his shuriken and purify it of crystals before it can infect him. He uses it to knock down a billboard, which destroys Mister F. The Overlord reveals what I've known or at least suspected since I was a kid: That, as the source of all evil, he was the one who corrupted and/or possessed the Great Devourer and sent it to bite Garmadon, in order to give himself a worthy vessel. It was all part of his design. Everyone and everything else was a pawn to prepare for his return. This makes Harumi turn on him instantly, since now she blames him for the death of her parents. So instead of actually learning her lesson, letting go of her anger, hatred, and fear, and slowly atoning for her villainous actions and becoming a better person, she only changes sides because her target of revenge has changed. The Mechanic's shuriken is purified, so he throws it away. Nya defeats him with her elemental powers, and his mechanical arm is chopped off by Okino. Cole and Vangelis actually talk while they fight. Vangelis blames him for taking his throne and turning his people against him, even his daughter, but Cole points out that he brought that on himself. Before Vangelis can finish him, he's saved by Adam and Plundar, and Vania knocks over the Dragonide with Chompy. Korgran also knocks Vangelis down. Cole grabs his scythe back. It starts to corrupt him, but he purifies it when Zane tells him to channel his elemental power into it. He uses it to create a fissure that traps Vangelis. Kai and Jay fight Pythor and Aspheera. Jay is able to counter Pythor's invisibility by electrocuting him, and he takes back and purifies his nunchucks. And Kai… just pushes Aspheera to take back and purify his sword. Gee, how thrilling. We never see what happens to the villains after this, but they probably went back to jail. Wu points out to everyone else that the crystal vengestone warriors are losing power. Now they and the Dragonides can be destroyed easily, by anything. I never thought I'd see Dareth and Wu fighting together, or Ray and Sally's dad, or Fugi-Dove with season 12 characters, or Fungus with an actual sword and Skales, or Skylor and Okino, or Sally and the paper kids. It sucks that none of these guest characters get to speak though (except for Dareth, but he already had an actual speaking role in the second arc of this season). I know the reason is the budget, but come on! Cole hugs Vania, Zane hugs Pixal, Kai hugs Skylor, Antonia and Nelson high five, etc. Zane freezes Aspheera before she can finish saying revenge again, and Kai voices my thoughts on her out loud. At least they're aware of it and used it as a joke in this season. However, she reveals that the Overlord wants their powers for himself. They all see the oni temple moving, and Wu realizes that the Overlord doesn't want to destroy them. He wants to corrupt them and take the powers of creation for himself. It's too late to stop him. The final episode begins as we see what happened up on the temple while everyone else was fighting on the ground and in the air. Lloyd saves Garmadon from being crushed by a giant crystal, but he's in rough shape. He reverts back to his more human form, apologizes to Lloyd, and seemingly dies. This makes Lloyd angry enough to finally unlock his oni form, which he uses to attack the Overlord… but he loses it just as quickly when he sees his reflection. And he never even got cool wings! The Overlord blasts him off the temple, but he hangs onto the oni carving. The Overlord zaps the central crystal to create a giant laser. Wu tells the guys that they have one chance to stop the Overlord, but only if they unite their Golden Weapons. Instead of just blasting them back this time, this will destroy the weapons and unleash the elemental energy, which will take on whatever form it originally had. They've already lost. All they can do now is stop the Overlord from getting his hands on the powers of creation. The guys fly to a roof, say some final words, and unite the weapons, which destroys them, and the guys are crystalized. A gold laser is created to combat the purple one, and when it hits Lloyd, who fell off the temple, it creates a four headed golden dragon with all of their elemental powers, which destroys the Overlord for good. This returns everyone and everything that was crystalized back to normal. Garmadon reveals that he was faking his death to inspire Lloyd. The two of them and Harumi leave the temple before it explodes. The sun comes out and the guys return to normal. The day goes from being doomed to saved in a "battle" that lasts a little over one minute. That's even faster than Winx Club in season 4; although they still had 22 minutes to work with, so it's not the best comparison. The guys glare at Harumi, but Lloyd and Garmadon vouch for her. And that's literally all it takes to redeem her after everything she put them through in seasons 8 and 9, as well as this season. God, it's like Cass from Tangled all over again. At least Harumi started out evil. We see more side characters celebrate, like Twitchy and Hounddog McBrag. Wu, Nya, Misako, Pixal, and Skylor get to the roof and reunite with them all. Wu is proud of Garmadon. The dragon is the original four's elemental powers. It disappears, but Wu is certain that their powers will return to them eventually, because true power is never lost. Now they do what they always do: Rebuild. Jay and Nya hug, Zane and Pixal hold hands, Kai and Skylor talk, Cole talks to Misako because he's the odd one out, and Lloyd talks to Harumi. Sometime later, Garmadon has replanted Christofern on a hillside. He's realized that he can't keep carrying it around forever. A plant should have roots. He used to think that roots were a sign of weakness, but he was wrong. We're stronger together. He heads to the monastery to help the Wu-Cru rebuild it, along with many other side characters, such as the police commissioner and the new ninja, as *Inner Steel* plays again. Wu has the last line of the series, saying that it, presumably an oni like Garmadon building instead of destroying, is simply remarkable, as the camera pans back to Christofern on the hillside blowing in the wind as the credits roll.

## Review

I know a lot of people didn't like that "a generic pop song that we have no connection to" played during the credits instead of some other kind of Ninjago music, but I personally liked it. As good as the theme song is, it's meant to be an energetic opener and fight song, not an ending one, and the other contenders that I would have personally chosen are generally more melancholy and sad. I personally think that the final scene on its own was a beautiful sendoff. A lot of people in the fandom seemed to find this season mediocre at best, and I totally get why: The crazy release schedule, which led to a lot of time for unfounded theorizing and wishes, especially since it was the final season, which we didn't even know when part 1 was first released. Look, I get it, myself and other Ninjago content creators are no longer the target audience. At the end of the day, it is still a kid's show, and even with thirty episodes, there definitely wasn't enough time for everything. Which is why I would've gone back to 22 minute long episodes if it were me. Lloyd's arc in particular felt like it was all over the place, Harumi didn't earn her redemption in my opinion, the council was just one of many wasted ideas that could've gone farther and been fleshed out more, etc. I wish this could have ended in a similar way to season 10, with everyone working together to defeat the enemy, instead of just one person/thing once again being responsible for the defeat of the Overlord while everyone else either watches or fights the foot soldiers of the season. It was Lloyd in season 2, Zane in season 3, arguably Wu in season 7, and here it was just a dragon that we the audience have no personal connection to. It says a lot that the defeat of the fragment of the Overlord virus in the *Ninjago: Decoded* recap was a better final battle than this, although as a day 1 fan, I realize that my over a decade old nostalgia is probably blinding me. There were just too many ideas crammed in to give them all proper development and a conclusion. To quote Stolas from *Helluva Boss*, "Don't be gentle about it now, break whatever you have to to get it all in there." I still think this season was, at its worst, okay, and good at its best. Tommy Andreasen and Bragi Schut left after this, which I totally understand. They deserve it after everything they've given us for years. While this is the end of one of my childhood shows, it's not the end of the *Ninjago* IP as a whole, because ninja never quit. A book called *Quest for the Lost Powers* was released that showed how the original four got their elemental powers back, and LEGO even let four prominent LEGO/Ninjago YouTubers read and review it early for an official thing called LEGO Life. A new show called *Ninjago: Dragons Rising* came out on Netflix on June 1st, 2023, in the U.S. Talk about coming full circle. I don't know if I'm going to review it or not. The first season was split into two ten episode arcs. Each episode is back to being 22 minutes long (Yes!) The old main characters and their voice actors return, but the mantle is passed on to new characters, Arin and Sora. They're not terrible or anything, but they just seem really boring and generic so far. And sadly, no, Pixal does not inherit the power of wind. She doesn't even show up. Instead, wind goes to a new character, and ironically, even though she only appeared in one episode, she was my favorite, because I actually found her arc interesting and relatable. Speaking of favorites, even if you absolutely loathed this season, you probably have a favorite one. Mine are seasons 3, 8, and 13. Thankfully, this isn't a Trollhunters situation, where the ending negates and taints the enjoyment of everything that came before. Not only do ninja never quit, but they'll never be forgotten, because we'll always remember them. Thank you, Ninjago. Thank you, LEGO. Thank you to the cast and crew. We love you all. You helped shape our childhoods, our teenage years, and even some of our adult years. I think I've said everything I needed to say. Instead of saying goodbye, I'll just say "See you later."