On Teletoon
Sundays 6:30am PST/ 9:30am EST
Spoiler Alert
In LEGO NInjago, the latest episodes show the team are in rough waters in Seabound. The broadcast of this series has been quick, and hopefully there’ll be no lull while waiting for the next season. To pump out new stories requires drawing from various literary sources and this series is no stranger to adapting Arabian Knights or even Shakespere, to which I believe this latest version is taking inspiration from.
In last weekend’s episodes, “The Wrath of Kalmaar” gets the team blamed for the death of a beloved king as a coup destroys the peace in Merlopia. This aquatic world has lived in relative obscurity and not everyone agrees to King Trimaar’s decision to be a peaceful civilization. As long as the surface and underwater realms are blissfully unaware, the coexistence is only marred by Prince Kalmaar’s general hate for the other.
This squid-man’s mention of the human realm polluting the oceans is almost missed. I caught the reference and think the writers are missing an opportunity to teach viewers an ecological lesson. This realm may have been a playground for the serpentine before the The First Spinjitzu Master arrived, and comparisons can be made–who has the right to reshape worlds in their own image? “The Tale of Benthomaar” may say more, and I hope one day, a spinoff series can further explore the details.
Instead, it’s more likely this episode will reveal how this adoptive citizen will explain his arrival in this underwater realm. My guess is that he was rescued by Trimaar, one of the first Kings of Ninjago (by way of the sea) in the past. If we’re getting a LEGO take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest when this episode airs, I’ll be beside myself!
Plenty of questions are raised, and the story tones make this outing perhaps the most exciting to date. It’s tough to beat the season six storyline (“Skybound”) not by title alone, but also with how it establishes the love between Jay and Nya. The sacrifices these two made, and their story arcs is one reason I keep on watching!
It’s likely Nya will have to sacrifice something to save the world from Wojira. The battle is inevitable. Kalmaar needs the second crystal in order to control this serpentine beast. Without it, he won’t be able to conquer the world. But if we are to recall how the dragons are revered in this series, it’s doubtful this squid-man can rival those titans. He’s no Kraken either, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some mad science to raise more monsters from the deep is planned.
The good news is the UK will get daily back-to-back broadcasts of this season’s finale at the end of this month. The Canadian dates have not all been confirmed, though it’s likely it’ll conclude in May. No details have been given for American broadcast according to the sources I’ve consulted; perhaps there’s not enough LEGO products to go around, but when the sets are in stores I’ll be hunting for Wojira myself!
It’s probably a stretch to say that Ninjago-or “proto-Ninjago” as the case may be-was anyone’s playground. The Serpentine believe themselves to have been created by the First Spinjitzu Master, or at least they did back in season three, so wouldn’t have been around in that period. Even if this is simply a matter of corrupted history-like how they think Aspheera was led astray by Wu rather than tricking him-there’s other factors to consider. I rather doubt that the First Spinjitzu Master was responsible for the various dangerous creatures that live(d) on the fringes of Ninjago civilization-grundles, treehorns, leviathans, dire bats, etc. Seems as though the place was pretty hellish before the FSM arrived-particularly given the turmoil of Wojira-and that his alterations are about the only thing that’s made at least a good chunk of Ninjago island a decent place to inhabit.