Echo Zane is a challenging character. And no, I'm not talking about him becoming Mr. E.
Echo Zane, for all of his sweet, heartwarming antics in Skybound, forces us to reevaluate Dr. Julien. Zane's father, as charming and endearing as he appears in Seasons 1 and 2, was not only willing to make a replacement for his son, but to also abandon this apparently sentient replacement as soon as the true Zane came along. We could absolutely create some kind of excuse- maybe Echo Zane chose to stay behind in the lighthouse, being locked up alone for years would make anyone do insane things etc.
Maybe this is just me, but it does leave a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. I love Dr. Julien... but he's got some serious issues (just like basically almost other ninja parent in the show...)
However, Echo Zane does set up a very interesting parallel between Dr. Julien and Nadakhan, and, by proxy, Echo and Nya. What Echo Zane is to Zane, Nya is to Delara. A fabrication designed to replace the better version, only to be shoved aside possessed when the better version becomes a viable option.
About a year ago I wrote a very long analysis comparing Dr. Julien and Lord Garmadon as fathers and I find it fascinating that once more, Dr. Julien, or at least the implication of Dr. Julien, is less of a character in his own right, and more a mirror of the season's enemy.
Both Dr. Julien and Nadakhan find themselves trapped and alone for a significant amount of time.
Both Dr. Julien and Nadakhan attempt to create/ control someone who looks identical to the person they love most in the world.
And both Dr. Julien and Nadakhan replace their replacement as soon as the original person comes along.
Dr. Julien and Nadakhan certainly aren't a one to one comparison. Dr. Julien never kidnapped and tortured anyone, never ripped apart Ninjago to create his own empire, never sexually assaulted a teenager (at least, I hope not...) But I think the similarities still stand.
In a nutshell, Echo Zane symbolizes the horrors Nya endures in this season, as Nadakhan's vessel to contain Delara. And while Dr. Julien dies, and Nadakhan is trapped in a teapot, Zane remains oblivious and Delara goes back to the Departed Realm...
Echo and Nya are both left to deal with the consequences.
I REALLY believe Zane’s hair piece and the diversity in how he is depicted in fandom and different media (movie and fortnite) is a testament to how versatile Lego can be
I got to thinking about this because Zanes look in fortnite is ambiguous but doesn’t scream black man like the movie did and it’s concept art. Zanes hair piece reminds me a lot of old cartoons from the 90s and 2000s like Rugrats and King of the Hill where so many characters would have this box like hairstyle
On the other hand! His hair looks a lot like 90s black flat tops! I think this is what the ninjago movies inspiration was for Zane.
Going back further in history before we get to modern hairstyles— Since Zane would probably have a more dated style anyway. The—infamous flat tops of the 50s
For both Cyrus Borg(who I HC as black) and Dr. Julien, I think these 1930s hairstyles would fit their hair pieces. Even when their hairstyles look more for straight hair you can find real hairstyles that can fit cultures and ethnicities across decades.
Even me as a mixed person with mixed hair, I can find lego pieces that were obviously more straight Or curly to fit myself in LEGO. At the same time, nothing beats the feeling when media has a hairstyle especially a black or mixed style, that looks EXACTLY like you! Sadly not quite there with lego yet. Anyway—
As for a more modern take, I think a buzzcut can work with Zanes hair piece. The left is what I use for inspiration for Dragons Rising Zane since I headcanon him as Mongolian!
That being said, it’s important to have solid and non ambiguous hairstyles and lego characters but I do enjoy the creativity you can have with LEGO. It’s why I got into drawing and storytelling in the first place
Season 9 was genuinely so good. Instead of having S8 and S9 battling for the top space I’m merging them both together as one ultimate season, since they are directly hand in hand anyway. But S9 was one of the best.
What a heavy season. I LOVED it so. It carries on what S8 started and took it to the next level. Everything was dangerously real and serious, and the characters themselves knew the gravity of the situation. A lot of my thoughts are pretty much the same for S8, since it’s essentially just a part two, though everything good about S8 was just a bit better in S9.
What I LOVE the most was how it portrayed the villains. S8 gave us complicated, though deliberate and malicious villains, whereas S9 gives us insight into who these villains are. The groups are split into two different worlds with two different goals, and still experience a similar hardship.
Garmadon and Harumi, although still cruel, both experience moments of hesitation and doubt regarding who they are. In the scene where Harumi offers herself as his daughter, she pretty much manipulates Garmadon into believing they are in the right when Garmadon begins to doubt, even though he knows only the worst of him has returned. Harumi has her own doubt when the building collapses, where she couldn’t stand and watch another children go through the same fate of loosing her parents, despite her largest motivator wanting to make others suffer the same as she did.
And in the First Realm, I wouldn’t even count the Dragon Hunters as a group villains- strictly antagonists. It was nothing personal at first, their culture and beliefs are their own survival. Even as it progressed, it was just control and power, which is completely normal, if not necessary, to those that were raised around it. The Hunters only lived in fear under Iron Barron, who reigned with a selfish hand, and switched up unanimously once they learned the truth.
Although Iron Barron is First Realm’s “Garmadon” here, he did make a good point to Wu; the world they lived in is cruel, power is everything. He knows that if he has control and respect, his group grows bigger and stronger, and it allows them to have a chance. Had this belief not turn him into a selfish leader, he could’ve seen that the dragons didn’t need to turn down such dark ways in order to survive, and he doesn’t learn this lesson until he finally confronts Firstbourne.
Both of which bleed into the seasons biggest themes- unity and collective support. There is no solo villain, or solo hero. Every character relies on others on all sides, and it feeds the lessons the season is teaching us.
While it is easy to fall into fear and blind control, there is hope, there is comfort in knowing others around you are besides you. Throughout the season, Lloyd is blind to see that he still has support after loosing most of his family, and he has to overcome it to help unite the city. The Ninja still have each other, but they are completely out of their element and the only person they could go too for support is Wu, who can’t help them in the way they’d expect him too. Instead, it’s the Ninja who are helping Wu, since he doesn’t regain his memories until his elemental power is triggered, and it’s that giving back that gives the Ninja the trust and hope they needed. Not to mention, the theme of change and transformation is where growth comes in.
In regards to Wu, this was truly a necessary reset for his character. Wu is so grateful for the Ninja in the end, even when he does regain his sense of self, he credits the Ninja as the ones who taught him all he needed to know, and I find it to being such a beautiful full circle moment. He is LITERALLY pure of heart no matter how flawed.
And it contrasts with Garmadon so sadly. The fishing flashback and it’s symbolism so accurately describes them ( and the season itself ) and the situations they are in. They’re both in the right, they’re both hungry, but whereas Garmadon takes Wu’s bait to utilize all of whats necessary for his own survival, Wu only uses what he has and hopes that good things will come his way without the need to sabotage others for it, and even in their youth, it’s a concept Garmadon couldn’t understand.
Hope expects nothing, power expects everything.
There is nothing inherently wrong with either side until people start to get hurt, and S9 proves this.
Hunted was so impactful, and the review barely grazes the surface. I have to rate this a 10/10.
every day i am filled with deep regret that crystallized scrapped the evil oni lloyd ending because not only would it have been so beautifully painful, but also, narrative-wise, crystallized (and the entire show tbh) really set it up.
mostly because these two things were happening at the same time
(this analysis ended up really long so um. its below the cut.)
Oh hm! the original four turning into dragons! while lloyd is turning into an oni! that wouldn't be important in any way now would it? not symbolizing the eternal conflict that gave birth to the realm they're trying to save or anything, yknow, the conflict that has corrupted and destroyed people who were once so passionately caring, the conflict that turned families into the bitterest enemies, families who thought they were strong enough to overpower the destruction in their blood.
nah doesnt sound familiar to me (*aheM LLOYD'S ENTIRE LINEAGE SINCE THE LITERAL DAWN OF CREATION*)
also, remember how lloyd's always tried to prove that he's part of the family in a sense? and how he's blamed himself for a lot of their problems? and was always afraid of being left out and hated when the others told him to stay back? itd be kinda full-circle, don't you think, if he did go evil in the end
and then there's this, which i'm pretty sure everyone picked up on
yeah buddy idt that mirror showed your greatest fears. more like your future. because nya saw herself as a powerless normal girl, and what happened in crystallized? she was drained of her element and depressed because of it. zane saw himself as just code, nothing human, and what happened in crystallized? he turned off his emotions - the human part of him - because he couldn't deal with grief.
lloyd saw himself becoming his father and what happened in crystallized? not only did he simply turn oni, and here's the important part, he changed at a very specific time. his father just supposedly died, and lloyd immediately became a four-armed oni warrior fighting against the overlord for the sake of the family the overlord took from him. sound familiar?
then following the parallel logic, wouldn't it make sense that oni lloyd would have to fight his dragon brothers??? and that the self-loathing and regret for the countless mistakes he's made would turn bitter and twisted? wouldn't it make sense if he couldn't fight them and he hurled himself into isolation, in some dark hideous place - maybe he feels like somewhere like that the only place he deserves to be, which could also be translated as don't you see, brother, here i feel at home - until the world forces him to return and face them? might the hatred for himself gradually twist further and become corrupted in the dark that's eating away at him, until he sees it as hatred for others, hatred for the world, hatred for what's in his blood that made him this way?
(gosh that makes lloyd's first introduction so dark and tragic. the child who wanted to be like his father, who didn't understand the world. well kiddo if we look at the cyclical nature of your family's messed-up generations, you might darn well end up a lot more like your father than you thought)
Now back to the oni/dragon things happening at the same time. another set of related events is the ninjas' elemental dragons flying up right as lloyd falls. (real quick, I know lloyd wasn't oni form anymore at this point (a true shame) but this is more narrative analysis on why i 1000% thought they were setting up evil lloyd.)
Okay now think about this for a moment. ninjago has always been really rich in symbolism so i really don't see how that was a coincidence. the ninja turn into dragons. the dragons fight stronger because of their change, but it isn't enough. they give their lives and their powers instantly soar upwards.
meanwhile, lloyd turns into an oni. he fights stronger because of the change but backs out because of fear. he gives up his oni form and almost instantly falls from the heights.
so the dragon power brought them up, and the oni power tore him down
not only that but then they collided
you get the vision?????
ALSO. may i please point out that, prophecy or no, timing or no, the ninja weren't able to get anywhere in their dragon form training while lloyd was with them. however, when he was gone, first try. and yeah ik it's because they needed people around them but still. (honestly, i would be willing to fully analyze that prophecy and i could probably come up with an interpretation that would make poor lloyd even more doomed lol)
ahahaha yeah this was so dang long and with hecking long paragraphs sooo probably nobody will read it but hey. if you did, *bows in respect* i am shutting up now
With the reveal of previous green ninja, this further solidifies my theory that Ninjago and the other realms are part of a cycle (like the one in LMK s5).
The Source Dragons have mentioned a cycle. Wu knew the coalescence would happen, meaning it might have happened in the past. There have been other green ninja before Lloyd.
Maybe the coalescence is literally the end of the world. All the realms gather together and the energy is used to remake the reality, starting the cycle of the formation of realms again. Like when a star goes supernova and the leftover dust begins forming a new star.
Wu says it came too soon. Somehow, the coalescence was triggered early (perhaps by the death of a Source Dragon). Nya remembers Wu saying "I don't know if I can do it" or something to that effect. Wu might have caused the Merge in an attempt to stop the cycle from restarting too early. That's why when Arin asked him if he caused the Merge, Wu said yes. Yes, he caused the realms to merge into one, but he did it to save everyone across all the realms.
Perhaps the coalescence was the temporary gathering of the realms before a big restart, but the Merge itself was not meant to happen. The cycle was supposed to begin again
I have some theories about the what this mural means.
It's decently obvious that it's probably showing the past em of fire turning into a giant centipede monster.
However, there's probably more to it than that. An infinity symbol, as it's name suggests, implies that something goes on infinitely, never ending. (Also it means autism, we support our neurodivergent king, the giant, man-eating centipede.)
My theory to this is that the mural depicts what happened to the last fire em (obviously). They fought against the centipede, but they may have actually succeeded. By killing the original centipede they became cursed to become one and take its place. An unending cycle.
But what does this mean? The bug Kai fans may be very right. While it's highly unlikely that he turns into a full man-eating centipede, he may still fight the previous em. However, instead of becoming a monster, he escapes the curse, because of his love of his family. He does the impossible and breaks the cycle.
The previous scene is Nadakhan coming back from Cliff's mansion (aka from trying to manipulate Jay into making his second+third wish and snarl him to the blade, obviously didn't go as plan.) For some reason, I think this (and the mansion scene), is the start of Nadakhan's interest in Jay.
Rewatching Enkrypted & Misfortune Rising, I've easily noticed how impatient Nadakhan is with Flintlocke. He doesn't like his eyes wandering places he doesn't want them to be, and while that's the reason Flintlocke's his first mate, he's very sharp and holds a lot of power (in this same scene, Flintlocke is the one suggesting to attack Ninjago City to separate the ninja, ending in a successful way for the pirates, capturing Kai).
However, in this scene, as Flintlocke approaches Nadakhan, he doesn't seem annoyed, he isn't impatient, he doesn't go off to a corner to talk to a watch with a picture of his dead fiance, no. He holds a face that is rather, intrigued. Curious.
Listen to his tone. Usually, raspy and violent. But, in the clip it's different, softer. Thoughtful.
I think one of either two things.
Nadakhan thought of Jay as an easy target (from his evident feelings, lack of control of words, and childish aura), and was surprised to see him so stubborn to not make a second and third wish, making Nadakhan feel like he was off his A-game. Or,
It's bee a long time since someone resisted his words, interested, surprised Jay out of everywhere was the one who could see through his heavenly tune.
