The Art of the Silent Fist

*“Close your mouth and open your ears. Tonight's lesson is the Art of the Silent Fist. To fight without fighting.”*

— Garmadon

**The Art of the Silent Fist** is the second episode of the third season of *Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu* and the 28th episode overall. It follows the Ninjas' efforts to evade the Digital Overlord's Nindroid minions while learning the secrets of the Techno Blades, which are the only way to save Ninjago from the technological menace.

It first premiered on January 29, 2014, in the United States on Cartoon Network.

## Synopsis

*The ninja, pursued by Nindroids, retreat to Sensei Garmadon's monastery. While Zane is guarding the Techno-Blades, he captures P.I.X.A.L., who was attempting their theft. After hacking her, the team is ambushed by Nindroids. After escaping the ambush, Lloyd and Garmadon escape to Nya's Samurai X cave, while the ninja head to Ninjago City's power station, infiltrating the city using a circus train. Once inside, they are met with the Min-Droid. The ninja manage to use the Nindroids' lasers to destroy the power station, but this comes at the momentary loss of P.I.X.A.L., with her last words at the time, "we are compatible?" to Zane, who was by her side and responded yes.*

## Plot

The streets and parks of New Ninjago City are nearly deserted, its citizens fleeing in droves after the previous battle. An unlucky citizen that didn't make it out of the city spots a vending machine that offers him a drink. Suddenly, a Nindroid helicopter comes and scans the civilian. Identifying the man as not being one of its ninja targets, the helicopter moves on to the next sector while the civilian runs away in fear.

Meanwhile, in Borg Tower, P.I.X.A.L. extracts the Golden Power that Lloyd used on a Security Mech, but it is not enough to create a body for the Overlord. Infuriated by his current condition, the Overlord, now in control of Cyrus Borg, turns his attention to the captured Master Wu, probing his memory to find out where the ninja are hiding.

Just outside of Garmadon's monastery, the ninja are busy hiding their vehicles. Nya gives Lloyd a techno suit to disguise him from any aerial drones. Misako then greets them and shows them to the monastery, but Zane offers to stay behind with the Techno Blades, as Garmadon (who is now "Sensei Garmadon") forbids any weapons in his monastery. While the ninja hang out with Garmadon's students, Misako catches Nya staring at Jay and Cole.

As night falls, Garmadon arrives and teaches the ninja and his students about the Art of the Silent Fist. His son Lloyd volunteers to battle him, only to be defeated in a training session. Garmadon uses the technique to defeat his son by avoiding his blows. The lesson continues when everyone practices the martial art in pairs.

Meanwhile, outside of monastery, Zane discovers that the Techno Blades are gone. He searches the area and soon finds P.I.X.A.L., who had stolen the blades. Zane manages to catch her and tie her up, then returns to the monastery as the ninja come out to see what is going on. Zane then uses his Techno Blade to hack P.I.X.A.L.'s systems, freeing her from the Overlord's control. Grateful to Zane for saving her, P.I.X.A.L. tells the ninja of Master Wu.

Suddenly, P.I.X.A.L. realizes she did not come alone and Nindroids surround the place. During the battle, the Nindroids break off a part of Zane. The ninja successfully defeat the Nindroids by trapping them into a mill wheel which then rolls out. However, General Cryptor destroys the ninja's vehicles. After that, the ninja decide to split. Jay, Zane, Cole, Kai, and Nya stay together while Nya sends Lloyd and Garmadon to her secret Samurai X Cave where they find vehicles to use. She also gets an idea to shut down the power in the city to stop the Overlord's virus from controlling all the machines in Ninjago.

After the Overlord saw that Cryptor was unable to catch the ninja, he activated the Nindroid MechDragon to destroy them.

The next day, the ninja use a circus truck as a transport to the power station. During the trip, Nya talks to the boys about rebooting the system, but Jay says that if the shutting down the power turns off the Nindroids, P.I.X.A.L will also stop working, then Cole tells her not to say Zane if he doesn't know about it. Kai asks everyone where Zane is.

Meanwhile, P.I.X.A.L. repairs Zane who is damaged after the battle. Suddenly, she notices his heart, a technology unfamiliar to her. When she tries to examine the heart, it hurts Zane. The female android apologizes to him stating that she is curious as to why he is so different. Zane tells her that everyone is different, but P.I.X.A.L. dismisses it and leaves.

Lloyd and his father see Zane's falcon land on the dragon's skeleton. When Lloyd presses the button with the Samurai X sign, the door opens. As he and his father enter inside, they pick an all-terrain vehicle named Proto Sam-X and drive away to expedite their travel.

As night falls, Nya talks with Cole and gets caught by Kai. A few seconds later, they arrive at the station but guarded by Nindroids. P.I.X.A.L. decides to stay back as she isn't designed to combat. Later, Kai, Cole, Zane, Jay, and Nya manage to get inside but can't find a way to break the power charge protecting the power source. When Zane notices that P.I.X.A.L. has started fighting the Nindroids to help the ninja, he decides to go out to help her. The other ninja try to stop him, but they fail. While Cole opens the door and Zane exits the power station, Min-Droid jumps inside and starts fighting the ninja.

Meanwhile, in Ninjago's Highway, Lloyd is drinking water in a lake while his father rests. Suddenly, he is shocked when he notices that MechDragon comes and spots him as the Golden Ninja. He quickly gets into the vehicle with Garmadon, and they start getting away. While the Dragon starts attacking, Lloyd fires weapons at it, but still can't destroy it.

Outside of power station, Cryptor captures P.I.X.A.L. who climbed to the station to help ninja. Zane decides to help her but fails as Cryptor throws his Techno Blade one stage lower. Inside the station, Cole fights Min-droid who fires the laser at the charge, which damages the power source's protective glass shell. Then Kai remembers Garmadon's lesson of fighting without fighting so they decide to lure Nindroids inside to destroy the charge.

When Nya opens the door, Nindroids start firing lasers and break the glass. Min-droid later tries to kick him but hits the glass falling into charge, which then explodes and all the power disappears, including P.I.X.A.L., who gets shut down.

Lloyd and Garmadon then escape the MechDragon which falls down, because of power source disabling, and gets destroyed. After that Lloyd thinks that he should return, but his father tells him that the balance is shifted. At the episode's end, the father and son continue their journey on foot.

## Appearances

### Characters

* Cole
* Cryptor
* Cyrus Borg
* Garmadon
* Jay
* Kai
* Lloyd Garmadon
* Magician
* Man
* Min-Droid
* Misako
* Nindroid Warrior
* Nya
* P.I.X.A.L.
* The Overlord
* Wu
* Zane

### Items

* Techno Blades
* Artificial limbs
* Underworld helmet (flashback)

### Locations

* Ninjago (realm)
	+ Ninjago
		- Ninjago City
			* Borg Tower
		- Garmadon's monastery
		- Sea of Sand
			* Ouroboros (flashback)
			* Samurai X Cave
		- Storm Farms
* Realm of Madness (flashback)

### Species

* Humans
* Nindroids
* Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids

## Trivia

* The stud on Wu's head is slightly visible when he is wearing the memory device.
* Garmadon's assistant has the same hair piece as one of the pirates, originally used on characters in LEGO's *Islanders* theme.
* The clown on the train is the Circus Clown from Minifigures Series 1, while the Magician resembles the Magician from the same series.
* When searching for the button to shut the power source down, Jay hits a wrong button that plays the song "The Weekend Whip."
* Footage from this episode is used in the music video for "Digital Love."
* The Wilhelm scream is heard the fifth time after "Home," "The Rise of the Great Devourer," "The Last Hope," and "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master" by a Nindroid kicked off the cliff by Lloyd, and again faintly by another being knocked away by the water wheel.
* In this episode it is shown that there were two identical Samurai Mechs stored in the Samurai X Cave. It is unknown whether this is an error or whether Nya had two identical mechs.

## Continuity

* While the Overlord searches Sensei Wu's memory, him losing the katana as a child, meeting Kai, fighting Garmadon in the Realm of Madness, being eaten by the Great Devourer, emerging from the snake's remains unharmed, seeing Lloyd become the Golden Ninja, being hugged by Misako, and being reunited with his purified brother can be seen.
* The Samurai X Cave is introduced in this episode, explaining where Nya kept the Samurai Mech and arsenal following the move to Ninjago City.*[ When? ]*
* This marks Misako's only speaking role in Season 3.
* Misako recognizing Nya's struggle of "Two boys, one heart" is a reference to her past with Wu and Garmadon.
* Golden Dragons fly in a circle around Lloyd's head after he slams into a pillar in Garmadon's monastery, which is a play on the common animation trope that often involves birds or stars circling around a character's head to indicate a temporary head injury. This technique is also used on Brad Tudabone with dodge balls in "Double Trouble" and Cole with barrels in "The Last Hope."
* Zane's robotic elements appear differently than they did previously:
	+ His chest interior now has a visible power source and the old-fashioned switches and gears (last seen in "Return of the Overlord") have been replaced with a more modern, wired look. This is presumably the result of upgrades over time.
	+ When P.I.X.A.L. is repairing Zane, "skin" of his face appears as a hard shell rather than the more cloth-like substance it was previously shown to be in "Darkness Shall Rise."
* P.I.X.A.L. asking Zane "Are we compatible?" would be paralleled in "The Titanium Ninja" and "Versus," with Zane asking the question the latter two times.
* The area where Lloyd and Garmadon are chased by the Nindroid MechDragon later appears in Fenwick's illusion in "Kingdom Come" when he explains the concept of the Sixteen Realms to the ninja.

## Errors

* When Cole says "Thanks, Zane" after the ninja give Zane their Techno Blades, he says it in Kai's voice.
* When P.I.X.A.L screams, she screams with Nya's voice.
* When Zane is mourning for P.I.X.A.L., the other three ninja have their bandanas on, despite taking them off after the power shut down.