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.
