#mvp for the episode is edna

[bobbie-robron]

Edna reckons more Dingles have descended on the dales.

Oh, they’ll take over this village one day and then it REALLY will be time to up the stakes.

Val and Paul show off the new drapes in the Sugden home. Edna, Pearl and Betty are in fine form gossiping about the new Dingle baby and Edna (MVP of the episode) is very spot on about things. Hearing all the gossiping from the trio, Jack PROUDLY announces Andy is the dad and he’s thrilled (Robert is far from that),

13-Jun-2005

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

So I was supposed to be doing secretarial work for my mother tonight. She’s doing degree-level work on mental health and I was scheduled to type up her research on Schizophrenia. But since the college has contacted her to make her aware of an extension, that has been postponed to tomorrow. But what can a working adult forced home do to fill the time void left by that?

Watch season 3 of Ninjago for the first time? Erm, okay.

So the narrative have definitely started to get heavier now. Eh, so far this is probably the weakest season for me to be honest. Like, the story writing is getting there but this season was bland in terms of entertainment. Let me just start.

-So the main ninja are back to being more active as characters now that they’re rushing a storyline, but the writing quality for them is all over the place. Kai suffers the least (that isn’t Zane), although he has the least focus in the season. The technology is a bit shaky considering that he uses the jet (in S1 and S3) and even got control of Samurai X in S2, but out of all the ninja he probably would be the least tech-savvy probably (being raised in a village as a traditional blacksmith) so it’s acceptable. What isn’t acceptable is how he was characterised in Project Arcturus. Seriously, what the fuck happened in that episode? He’s suddenly super obnoxious, ignorant of the mission Pixal is trying to drill the importance of in, and he outright endangers innocent people. And then this characterisation is ignored for the rest of the season. Were the writers asleep for the wheel for it? -Might as well get the elephant in the room out of the way now; The Love Triangle was pretty unbearable. Honestly, the biggest reason is the season seemed to try and use that as a crux for the entertainment side and it just fell flat. Nya generally really suffers as a result of it though because this shit wouldn’t be happening if she didn’t instigate it (yeah Jay blows up over Pixal’s recollection of it, but she wilfully keeps the fire burning by playing them both). One could argue that her youth means that she’s making some really foolish decisions, but it makes her come off as a bit of a bitch to put it frankly. At least she also gets more to do outside of it.  -Cole...I don’t know what to think about him. With the straight-forward love triangle perspective at the time, it would have definitely have been a douche move on his part to move on Nya even if it was instigated by her since it was clear in the second half that he was doing that and Jay and Nya hadn’t split. With the hindsight that he was never interested in her, the question is why he would this at all? Well, the first half of the season that reading is pretty easily justifiable since he seems more oblivious than anything, but it’s much harder after Project Arcturus. The reading I choose to take is that, given the later info that Jay and Cole were supposed to be prior best friends, Cole took it badly when Jay seemed to attack him out of nowhere so was just generally anti-Jay for the first half, then in the gap before the Overlord came alive again Jay didn’t patch it up and Cole found out why Jay attacked, so he decided to spite him even further. Which may be even more douchey. Ack. -Poor Jay. He seems to get a lot of shit this season, but wouldn’t you be confused if your seeming girlfriend suddenly just decided she had feelings for your friend out of the blue? And over a machine? No wonder he lashed out. And the only foreshadowing to any trouble in paradise is when he offers her Kai’s pudding cup and he does it a bit too close to her face, prompting a talk about boundaries. That’s really not enough. And given that Jay gets the most stuff outside of the main plot too (his interest in Borg Industries and the first emphasis on him being into video games, him sticking a middle finger to Child’s Play’s moral by getting into Lloyd’s comic, and even the interest in the bugs on the meteor), his biggest black mark is having to share the flat humour with Cole. -The best bits of humour were mostly the S2 characters cropping up again; while Dareth and Ed and Edna didn’t get much screentime at all, what they did get was great.  -Skales was also still the MVP for what little screentime he had. That said, the kinda retcon to the whole deal with the Serpentine’s past didn’t quite gel for me. -Sensei Garmadon seemed fairly eh at first, mostly espousing lessons. Kicking Pythor’s ass after he took his son really kicked him up a notch. -Speaking of, Pythor’s back...but he wasn’t as good as in S1. He had his moments, but generally playing lackey to the Overlord was a step down.  -I have nothing to say about Wu since he didn’t get to do that much (75% of his time was as a cyborg under the Overlord’s control). I also don’t have much to say about Lloyd "FUCKING STOP IT NOW" Garmadon since he really got no material to work with outside of bonding with his father. But most of that was in the form of lessons anyway, how is that different to what Wu did in S2? -Not any new additions outside of Cyrus Borg and Pixal, but they sure did put in the legwork. Cyrus does a fuckton of heavy lifting with the plot, he’s amusing to have around and he even got a great diet gag in the very last episode. -I actually want to talk about Pixal and Zane together because their story was really the main one. Zane is as sweet as ever, undamaged by whatever character weirdness was going on with the other ninja, and is a joy to follow. The romance between Zane and Pixal I feel was a little rushed, but the story at least tried to give some justification (since Zane is fascinated by the progression of tech and how it differs from himself). Thankfully the rest of the story is solid, and Pixal is a very good new addition (gradually learning to experience outside her programming through Zane and her need to help). For me, their story is able to hold it all together so there was still a good investment there. And I can understand why the Titanium Ninja was so shocking at the time; you expect Lloyd to pull something out as the Golden Ninja, only for Zane to step in and give his own arc some closure with sacrifice.  -I do have one quibble with the ending, but I’m saving that for the next season. You’ll see why.  -The baddies aren’t worth writing about. They’re so uninteresting. And the Overlord here is a real cardboard cutout.  -When I heard about the Digiverse I thought it was going to be this big place we got to see for several episodes, but it’s one room that’s there for one episode? And it’s not even that imaginative? Wow that’s kinda lame. I’m glad Prime Empire is taking full advantage of the concept.  -At least the pacing was fine here and the action was good. But the slow-mo is still annoying. 

Overall, the central idea is done well, but the stuff around it isn’t up to the same standard, which puts a dent in the enjoyment. Combine that with the fact that it just isn’t up to snuff on the more humourous side, and this has become the Ninjago season I enjoy the least so far. On the bright side, Pixal more than justifies why she got the privilege of being brought into Ninjago’s main cast much later.  But this is just the start of Ninjago’s story developments. I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to spiel on about when we get deeper. 

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

I need to actually stick to what I say for once.

I was going to do S2 on Monday, but then I got the realisation that after watching NS12, I was already running out of things to do. So, I did it tonight, and it’s...certainly an eclectic collection of thoughts. Hmph.

-The biggest point I have, and one I think really damages the season, is the pacing. You can tell the writers were aware that Ninjago was going to be cancelled (indeed, it was actually cancelled for a year) so they jammed two seasons’ story into one season. As a result, the last...say, five episodes are pretty strong since it seems the story beats were fairly set in stone (heh), but it takes over half the season to get there and before that you have some pretty meh writing. I know they didn’t exactly have full control over that, so bear in mind I am aware of this and assume I’m giving some leeway for it where appropriate, although I will still criticise it. -Lloyd Montgomery "For Fucks Sake Stop Grounding Me" Garmadon is the best character in this season. However, the fact we spent just seven episodes with young green Ninja Lloyd is a waste of an idea in hindsight.  -Skales remains an MVP before he’s written out of the story.  -I see now that S2 Garmadon is the basis for Movie Garmadon because he was great, and it was especially hilarious watching him bounce off his boring pilot self. -Wu is still the worst character. I’m sorry, he was bad enough when he was being too harsh on four teens, Lloyd is one kid and Wu is already like “I’m shoving the weight of the world on your shoulders”. Fuck you Wu. -The non-elemental parents do no get enough due credit. Ed, Edna and Lou are all great in their own way, and Doctor Julien is a badass considering he’s on death’s door.  -And yes, this does mean I like S2 Misako overall. She’s a victim of the rushed pacing though; her motive for leaving Lloyd at Darkley’s could have been way more smooth if she just had five seconds longer to speak, like “I left him to go and research the prophecy...and make sure the dark forces would not attack him”. You could answer at least three potential hangups with those few extra words. Otherwise, the idea of old regrets is one with potential, and it’s handled pretty well here. I am aware it gets fucked up later, but what else is new. -The bizarro ninja are about as good as early Archie Evil Sonic. Which means they’re terrible. Hopefully they don’t show up again.  -Wow, Captain Soto is an early one! I’m glad his contribution to the season actually had serious ramifications. -I like the way the first part of the season built up the new civilian cast, even if most were unnamed. Started to really give life outside the ninja, something season 1 was short of. Also Dareth wasn’t that great at first, but the mini-arc he had warmed me up to him.  -Nya...existed. Outside of being turned evil and using Samurai X once this was not her season. Kai used Samurai X more than her, even! -I don’t know how to vocalise my thoughts on the main four, their treatment was erratic. For the first eight episodes they were honestly pretty weak, basically being shoved into the mentor role and not being given much material beyond that. Jay managed to just about counter that with his obnoxious personality (actually acting as a positive rather than a negative). Zane doesn’t counter it, but because he’s generally like that anyway he adapts well to it. Kai and Cole suffer for it. I know I didn’t like them in S1 due to being abrasive and not my thing at all, but now they’re basically the other extreme; revolving around their mentor role, taking out a lot of the personality. All of this is probably because of said rushed pace so they had to get them as mentors lickety split. Then five episodes from the end the story’s like “Whoops, we left the personality nodes off, let’s just switch them back on” and suddenly all four of them were improved. Zane had his own arc to go through, Jay was electric, and Cole was apparently just unleashing the energy not used in the first half (How did we go from him being so stoic to doing the Moonwalk over Stone Soldiers???). Even Kai got moments back, and it finally genuinely felt like he’d become protective of Lloyd without it being forced in by the plot needs.  -Jaya has a bit of a stumble in S2 thanks to Double Trouble (thanks for nothing, Bizarro Ninja), but overall it’s still cute.  -Whoever said that the Stone Army isn’t treated with any comedic elements is a filthy liar. Even the Overlord got sassy at one point.  -The plot ends up being an overt Star Wars homage and I am okay with this. -I should have mentioned this with the first season but I hope the once-an-episode slow-down bits stop soon. The choreography of the fighting has improved though!

So overall? I honestly have pretty mixed feelings towards this season. In terms of quality it’s more consistent than S1, but at the same I feel it’s brought down more, mainly because of that omnipresent pacing issue. The last five episodes suffer less from it, but that is far too late to be kicking in. Not that the first part is bad, but you can tell they’re skimming content to get to the good stuff. That being said, said good stuff is good. 

I want to add a little extra though, because the way it ends only makes me more conscious of how the next few seasons take the story. The story here does feel like an ending point, and that was fine for the time. But hindsight has shown that this was not the case, and there’s definitely some corners that have been written into. So with that, I can at least understand why the Hagemans and Andreason might have thought at the time that creating new drama for all the main characters (that weren’t Lloyd because he needed a rest) was the best way to try and give themselves an out. But man, there are going to be moments where I am gonna legit fume (there’s a moment in S2 that makes the upcoming love triangle so much worse, and I think the bit I’m dreading the most now is actually Kai’s green Ninja drama in S4). 

Also poor Lloyd get schtick for hogging the limelight, when it seems in most instances it’s been circumstances that did that. S2 was trying to rush its story so it had to focus on Lloyd to tell it, and S8 was probably LEGO’s way of continuing the film inertia, and it just happened to be an arc that needed three seasons to resolve due to the way it was structured. For once, S11 is the most guilty since that one didn’t need to be Lloyd. 

Okay, so next up whenever I decide to do it are Rebooted and Tournament of Elements...oh joy...at least all the seasons are shorter this time.