Ninjago S11 E2

## Plot

This season is very different from past ones. For one thing, episodes are only eleven minutes long, like Angel's Friends, so I'm going to do the summarizing thing every two episodes and just treat it as a normal 22 minute episode instead. This season also starts going back to the far more comedic roots of the earlier seasons, but it goes too far in the other direction in my opinion. The comedy just seems more juvenile now. Things that would be cool or interesting or funny to explore occur offscreen. The ninja also seem like they forget some lessons that they were supposed to learn in previous seasons. Plus it definitely feels like mood whiplash after the much darker seasons immediately preceding this one. There are *thirty* episodes this season, and they're split into a fire chapter and an ice chapter. The title cards are a lot blander now in my opinion, and different characters say them. The first episode starts with Zane having a vision dream about a female Serpentine on fire who wants revenge, and then about Jay and others being frozen solid by a dragon. Jay tells him to wake up, because Cole is about to beat his high score in a video game. Zane tells him about his nightmare, and when Jay dismisses it, he reminds him that all of his other visions came true, like the one about the titanium dragon, and the one before that about the green ninja. Everyone decides to spend time in a hot tub, and Kai uses his powers to heat up the water. Wu has another new outfit, and a new design, probably to better match his movie counterpart. He even has hair just like his father, but instead of an actual LEGO hairpiece, it's just printed on the back of his head, which really breaks the immersion. He expresses his disbelief that we're back to this again. I know, right? He scolds the ninja for being lazy and going soft since they defeated the Oni months ago. He claims they do it after every major victory. He tells them that since ancient times, the hills around the monastery have been home to extremely aggressive predators. The monks built the walls extra high to keep them out, but they failed. Wu has one of the predators in a box. In order to survive, the monks became ninja. To this day, it is a test that every ninja must face. To prove their courage, they must survive five minutes in a room with… a chicken. A *lightning* chicken. You'd think Jay or Nya could easily handle this with their powers, but after a few seconds of mostly offscreen hijinks, they get the chicken back in the box. Wu tells them that a ninja's guard is always up, and they always expect the unexpected. After a montage of pranking them, they decide to talk to him, and ask him if there's anything they can do to prove to him that they haven't gone soft, so he can stop booby trapping stuff. They have to best him in combat. Cole tries to use his RX power, but it barely even cracks the ground. Wu tells him that his elemental powers no longer obey him. Jay tries to zap him with lightning, but hits Zane instead, and then Nya hits him. A rather impressive but short fight ensues, with Wu easily defeating them every step of the way. They admit that he might be right, and decide to go on a quest. The new intro is boring. It just shows scenes from the previous episode. The good news is that the theme has changed again… and it's a new Weekend Whip remix! Yes! The bad news is that the new intro is less than twenty seconds long, which is zero time to show it off. While trying to think of a quest, they bring up old villains. Ultra Violet and Killow are both in prison. Master Chen is still in the departed realm, because he died after the Preeminent was destroyed. The whereabouts of Pythor and Garmadon are unknown. They wonder if they're aiming too high. Maybe they don't need a villain. Zane suggests checking in with the commissioner to see if there's a crime they can help prevent, but things have been pretty quiet lately. After about *nine minutes* of "comedy," they get back to the monastery and turn on the TV. Gayle Gossip is interviewing… Clutch Powers! Not the same version as the one from the movie though, and voiced by someone else. He's discovered a pyramid buried deep in the Desert of Doom, but he has no plans to explore it, despite his job as an archaeologist, because there's bound to be loads of dangerous traps inside, and it would take a ninja to get past them all. The gang decides to go inside the pyramid. However, they leave before they notice a stone tablet with the fire Serpentine on it.