Ninjago: Absolute pt. 4: Secrets of the Serpentine (S1) / Lloyd
For “Season 1”, we’ve got an adaptation of Rise of the Snakes, but also with elements of the Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu. And yes, I finally got around to posting this! It’s been sitting in my drafts for a hot minute… (btw warning: this is very long. I mean, I'm talking about an entire season's worth, here!)
Before we talk about the season, we need to start with Lloyd. In canon, his mother, Misako, somehow “just knew” that Lloyd would be the Green Ninja, and decided to send him to Darkly’s, in an attempt to postpone the prophecy.
Well, here, Misako didn’t try to prevent it; she tried to prepare Lloyd as best as she could. Thus, Lloyd grows to resent the prophecy, causing him to run off as a teenager in search of something to help him grow in power, resolving to become an ally of the Overlord in the Final Battle, rather than his opponent.
This search leads to a discovery: a mass of life energy (oh yeah, he can use his Elemental Power now, cuz Misako kinda forced it out of him. She’s a bad mom, even here 🤷♂️). It leads him to the discovery of an underground Empire: the fabled Serpentine Empire, Ninjago’s opponent in the Serpentine War, one thousand years ago.
He is captured and taken to their leader, Empress Aspheera, a Serpentine sorceress from back during the war itself. She’s kept herself and her right-hand man (snake?), Pythor, alive using dark magic.
If you remember, in canon, Aspheera’s attempted coup on King Mambo V failed; but here, she bode her time, allying herself with Pythor to amass a much larger army. Having taken complete control, she managed to take Wu’s Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu, and began the Serpentine War.
Well, anyways, Aspheera asks Lloyd why she shouldn't just kill him now, and he brings up the prophecy of the Green Ninja. He convinces her that if they ally together, and Aspheera lends her army to the Overlord during the Final Battle, then she could rule under him when he takes over. She agrees, and this leads to her taking Lloyd as a general in her army, and commanding her troops into the lands above once more: their first objective? Unearthing the original city of Ouroboros, once the capital under Aspheera's reign, to figure out how to awaken the slumbering Great Devourer.
When Wu hears of sightings of bipedal snake-people, he realizes that the time is now to pull together the individuals that he's had his eyes on for quite some time now: Kai, the unruly teen who's been staying with Wu for around 2 years now; Zane, who, alongside Pixal, stumbled across the Monastery on his own just a few months prior; Jay, the adopted son of EdTech's power-hungry co-owners, who Wu can tell has much different priorities than his "parents"; and Cole, a runaway who's been living on his own (with much struggle) for a year.
They don't exactly mesh well. As I mentioned in Jay and Cole's post, they both resent each other for their parents: Jay things Cole is insane for not liking how much attention his parents give him, while Cole is jealous of how little Jay's parents look over his shoulder. Meanwhile, Kai tends to act very animalistic, which easily gets on the nerves (circuits?) of Zane, who thinks very rigidly.
Pixal actually acts as the core of the team: she handles fights between Kai and Zane, trying to open their minds to each others thought processes, while simultaneously encouraging Jay and Cole to at least ignore their animosity towards each other.
Wu manages to rally them together into a fighting force, which is immediately put to the test while facing the sudden appearance of Serpentine. Thanks to some clever spying devices provided by Pixal, the Ninja learn what the Serpentine are looking for: the four Fangblades, ceremonial daggers from the age of the Serpentine that each lie in different museums, collections, etc. across the country. It's a race to locate them.
To cover the search and recovery of the Fangblades quickly: The first, contained within the Ninjago Museum of History, is swiftly retrieved by the Serpentine. Another was kept by Ed and Edna Walker in their vault; Jay and Zane worked together to steal it, but on the way back, were confronted by Serpentine soldiers, who managed to take the Fangblade. Simultaneously, Kai and Cole attempt to retrieve the third from a secret vault hidden within the Caves of Despair; while a troop of Serpentine manage to retrieve it before they can, it is here that Cole discovers the Scythe of Quakes, one of the powerful Golden Weapons. Lastly, the final Fangblade was already owned by Aspheera, who had come into ownership of it when she took over from King Mambo V.
Ultimately, the Serpentine have managed to bring together the four Fangblades at Ouroboros. The Ninja move together to stop them, but they are too late; just as they arrive at the Serpentine city, Aspheera awakens the Great Devourer, using her magic to take control of the giant snake; the Ninja are forced to retreat.
They take to the skies in the Destiny's Bounty (btw, Zane and Pixal fixed up the Destiny's Bounty at some point between Zane's escape from EdTech and their arrival at the Monastery, so the Ninja have had it the whole time). They can only watch as Aspheera wreaks havoc below, but Pixal has an idea: if the Fangblades could be used to awaken the Great Devourer, then could they not be used to put it back to sleep?
The Ninja go back to Ouroboros, this time to steal the Fangblades, but are faced with Lloyd and the Serpentine generals (Slithraa, Skalidor, Acidicus, & Fangtom). This is when Wu's relation to Lloyd is revealed, but no mention is really made of Lloyd's father (who we know is Garmadon). In the end, they manage to escape with the Fangblades.
After a tough fight in the middle of Ninjago City, the Ninja manage to stab the four Fangblades into the weak spot atop the Great Devourer's head, knocking it unconscious once more. They manage to capture Aspheera and a large amount of her Serpentine army, but Lloyd, Pythor, the generals, and the remainder of her army escape, to fight another day.
The Ninja are left with a massive, hibernating serpent stretched throughout the city and questions as to where the remaining Serpentine have gone.
Additionally, after Cole discovered the Scythe of Quakes, Wu tried to locate the Shuriken of Ice and Nunchaku of Lightning (as Kai already has the Sword of Fire). However, he discovers that both have gone missing from their hiding places...
And that's Season 1! This really did turn into quite the long post... but yeah. Lloyd remains with the Serpentine, the Shuriken of Ice and Nunchaku of Lightning have gone missing, Garmadon himself has barely been mentioned, and still no sign of Nya... what can this mean?
This has been sitting in my head/little bit in my drafts for quite a while, but it's done now! I've got a couple ideas for where the story is going next, but I'm not sure what'll be when. However, I'll get it out eventually! See you then.
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