Eat or Be Eaten

**Eat or Be Eaten** is the second part of the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of *LEGO Ninjago & My Little Pony: Living the Pony Life*, and the 162nd episode overall. Along with "The Seaheart Market", it aired first in English on April 29, 2021, in the UK, paired with "The Night Setter" and "A Seastarry Sleepover".

## Synopsis

*The team went into Sparkle Reef to research about Food Chain for the Biology project, but Gleam got swallowed by the huge whale! Nya and Caralisa have to rescue her while cleaning up the belly of the whale with plastic.*

**Extended**: *After a hearty meal made by Miyu, the team went to the Sparkle Reef where they research and study about the food chain. It is also where the Rainbow Tuna and the whales are having their migration. However, Gleam was amazed with the krill, but unintentionally she got swallowed by the whale! Nya and Caralisa have to rescue Gleam and realized that Nyad once relax inside the whale when she was asleep.*

**Tiny Pop**: *During the research at the Sparkle Reef, Nya and Caralisa have to rescue Gleam by going inside the belly of the whale.*

## Plot

At the Crystal Coral Castle, the ninja, the young ninja, the Mane Six and the Williams sisters are having lunch with the nymphlings and Tamaru's aunt, Larissa. Miyu served them her signature Sparkling Stew, a stew made of Sea Sparkling Essence with sea cucumber, scallops, prawns, salmon slices and kombu, and Kelp Pancakes for the Mane Six. Jake and Rainbow Dash loves the food for the first try, and their friends also enjoying the taste of Miyu's cooking. Lloyd complements Miyu that she is a good chef, although she was an amateur cook. After a hearty lunch, Nelson tells the others that Ms. Eileen gives an assignment to him and the young ninja, about the Biology project on ocean food chains. Zane mentions the food chain where producers like green plants are eaten by primary and secondary consumers. In order to study the ocean food chain, Miyu suggests them to go to the Sparkle Reef where many small creatures exist. It is also where whales and Rainbow Tuna are having their migration. With that, the team and the nymphlings are going on a field trip.

The team and the nymphlings arrived at the Sparkle Reef via the *Hydro Bounty*, although Nya warning the nymphlings that the *Hydro Bounty* is not a playground. While appreciating the beauty of the reef through the corals and aquatic plants, Kimberly and Ava discovered green scums, which are revealed to be phytoplankton. Fluttershy shrinks herself down that phytoplankton are producers, like green plants do. The phytoplankton is eaten by the zooplankton and Fluttershy slightly grows bigger where zooplankton acts as primary consumers. The zooplankton were eaten by tetras, which are secondary consumers. The tetras are eaten by the Rainbow Tuna and a scallop was eaten by a crab. The team enjoy the beauty of the creature eating food from one to another. Gleam saw some krill, which also feed by the phytoplankton. She then saw the whale, as it feeds on the krill. Unfortunately, the whale swallowed Gleam when eating the krill. Nya and Caralisa didn't notice about Gleam's whereabouts. Rarity notice a glow inside the whale's belly, showing that Gleam was alive. Nya and Caralisa attempt to rescue Gleam by opening the whale's mouth. Using fish telepathy, they signalled the krill as food for the whale, which later swallowed Nya and Caralisa.

Inside the whale, Nya and Caralisa able to find Gleam while walking to the whale's throat. They squeeze its throat and crawl through. They managed to find Gleam inside the belly of the whale, so they slide down. After reuniting Gleam, Nya and Caralisa found a mess filled with plastic inside the whale's belly, so both take an opportunity to clean up the belly of the whale to save it from certain death. Then, Nya remembers the time when Nyad becomes the water spirit, she sleeps inside the belly of the whale to relax herself. Caralisa then got a call from Nelson that she and Nya able to find Gleam inside the whale's belly. Nya and Caralisa use the Water Lyres to escape Gleam and themselves out of the whale, which turns out to be successful. Rarity and the others are relieved that Nya, Caralisa and Gleam have survived inside the whale.

After much research, the young ninja finally managed to finish the assignment. Nelson told Miyu that the ocean food chain can form a food web, based on their observations, with whales are top consumers. Caralisa really knows that they are having a whale of good time.

### Friendship 101

**Nya**: Oh, hi. In today's episode, my friends and I are exploring the food chain in the ocean.

**Caralisa**: We know that a food chain starts from a producer, then it was eaten by a primary consumers, then a secondary consumers, which follows until top consumers in order to survive.

**Dover**: Food chains are important because they show the intricate relationships in ecosystems. They can reveal how each organism depends on someone else for survival.

**Tamaru**: Aside from the producers and the consumers, decomposers also play their part in an ecosystem. They feed on dead matter from plants and animals. An example should be the zoosporic fungi.

**Caralisa**: However, food chains often get disrupted, when people threw litter into the ocean. Most of the litter we throw are plastics.

**Nya**: Globally, 100,000 marine mammals die every year as a result of plastic pollution. This not only includes whales, but other marine mammals like dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions. A plastic bag ballooned with water can look a lot like squid, or other prey, to the seals and marine mammals that hunt them.

**Caralisa**: In order to maintain the ecosystem and balance the food chain, we need to recycle our plastic so that it don't go into waste. Ask your friends to go for a beach cleanup every year to keep the oceans and beaches clean for everyone to live in.

**Nya**: Let's play our part to maintain the ecosystem and save innocent creatures from certain death. Until then, sayonara, minasan.

## Cast

* Ava - Anna Cathcart
* Dover - Brian Drummond
* Gleam - Marÿke Hendrikse
* Kitonaru - Andrea Libman
* Larissa - Cherami Leigh
* Maylia - Grey Griffin
* Megan Williams - Kelly Sheridan
* Miyu - Kazumi Evans
* Molly Williams - Chantral Strand
* Scuba Caralisa - Tabitha St. Germain
* Scuba Cole - Kirby Morrow
* Scuba Damien - Andrew Francis
* Scuba Jake - Nicholas Holmes
* Scuba Jay - Michael Adamhwaite
* Scuba Kai - Vincent Tong
* Scuba Kimberly - Shannon Chan-Kent
* Scuba Lloyd - Sam Vincent
* Scuba Nelson - David Reynolds
* Scuba Nya - Kelly Metzger
* Scuba Zachary - Gavin Langelo
* Scuba Zane - Brent Miller
* Seapony Applejack - Ashleigh Ball
* Seapony Fluttershy - Andrea Libman
* Seapony Pinkie Pie - Andrea Libman
* Seapony Rainbow Dash - Ashleigh Ball
* Seapony Rarity - Tabitha St. Germain
* Seapony Twilight Sparkle - Tara Strong
* Tamaru - Ali Liebert
* Wade - Ian Hanlin
* Whale - Brian Drummond
* Zale - Kelly Sheridan

## Locations Visited

* Endless Sea
	+ Ninjago
		- Koraru Bay
			* Ocejago
				+ Crystal Coral Castle
				+ Sparkle Reef

## Spells Used

* Seabound Rhapsody - Used by Nya and Caralisa to escape out of the whale's mouth.

## Trivia

* **Narrator**: Caralisa
* This episode was first broadcast in the UK on April 29, 2021.
* A sneak peek of the episode featuring Nya and Caralisa finding Gleam inside the belly of the whale is shown on Tiny Pop YouTube channel on April 28, 2021.
* The original title of the episode is "The Belly of the Beast".
	+ Though this episode title was already used in Rainbow Roadtrip in the original series.
	+ When the episode aired in Poland on MiniMini+, it retains the working title in Polish.
* The plot of the episode is similar to *The Magic School Bus* episode "Gets Eaten". Both feature the topic about the food chain.
* Nya, Caralisa and Gleam being eaten by a whale alludes to Pinocchio and Mr. Cricket being eaten by Monstro in the 1940 Disney movie, *Pinocchio*.
	+ Caralisa breaks the fourth wall by telling the viewer that they are eaten by a whale like in Pinocchio.
	+ It also alludes to Aquaman and Mera hiding inside the whale after escaping from Atlantis from the 2018 DC Comics film, *Aquaman*. Both featured the main characters lying down inside the whale, thinking it was relaxing.
* When Nya and Caralisa found out that there are a bunch of plastic inside the belly of the whale, they felt that whales are social animals and wanted comfort. Nya and Caralisa are deeply care on animals, notably the marine ones. Lloyd, Zane and Fluttershy are also caring for animals.
* In real life, whales may die when ingested plastic, as it can poison the whale's digestive system. This also affects other marine mammals such as dolphins and seals.
* The calming and gentle spell, Seabound Rhapsody, is a reference to the alternate title for Aquarium Dreams and the original Ninjago season, *Seabound*.

### Friendship 101

* **Host**: Nya, Caralisa, Dover and Tamaru
* This episode explains the importance of the food chain and the effects of plastic that cause the disruption.
* **Moral**: Let's play our part to maintain the ecosystem and save innocent creatures from certain death.

## Continuity

* Eileen was mentioned throughout the whole episode when she gives the young ninja an assignment on the Biology project on food chains.
* This is one of the few episodes where someone other than Applejack breaks the fourth wall, for instance, Caralisa.
* This is the second episode where the ninja went inside the creature's stomach to retrieve a person or an object. The first is "The Belly of the Beast", where Zane went inside Beohernie's stomach to retrieve the inverter.
* This is the third episode in the season where the Ninja are in their Scuba suits for the whole episode. The first two are "What Drama May Come" and "The Seaheart Market", since the entire episode take place underwater.
* Tamaru's aunt, Larissa, appears in this episode when she, Tamaru and the other nymphlings are having lunch with the team.
* The ninja and the ponies enjoyed Miyu's cooking, as most cuisines in ocean realms found it disgusting, except they have unique flavors.
* It is revealed by Nya that Nyad sleeps inside the whale to relax herself while asleep.

## Changes

### Changes from the Pony Life cartoon

* This episode is a filler, as none of the events happened in the cartoon.

## Errors

* Just like in "The Costume Mindset", it is unknown how the Ninja and the Young Ninja eat while in their Scuba suits, since removing from their hoods may cause a person to drown. It may be implied that the Ninja and the Young Ninja drank the Aquatic Breather Concoction that Nya and Caralisa previously shown to Vania and the Upply in "A Seastarry Sleepover" earlier in the episode.
* When the nymphlings are playing at the *Hydro Bounty*, Maylia lacks her shell hairband.
* In one shot where Nya and Caralisa found Gleam, Caralisa's eyebrows are changed to Kimberly's.
* When Miyu served the ninja the stew, her Mermling necklace is missing in one frame.
* As Nya and Caralisa escape out of the whale, Nya was in her Armor suit instead of the Scuba Suit.
* After Caralisa said "You know, I was having a whale of good time", Seapony Twilight doesn’t have transparent wing-like flippers.