By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
On Teletoon Canada
Sundays 6:30am PST/ 9:30am EST
Spoiler Alert
The latest pairing of Ninjago is a very welcome one. “Papergirl” shifts the tale to Antonia, a newspaper carrier. She doesn’t think she’s doing enough with her life, and her co-worker (and friend) Nelson tries to dissuade her from leaving. The Storm Crystal that the ninja team and Kalamarr wants lands in Antonia’s newspaper basket by accident and she’s told to flee with it instead of handing it over. She almost bests the Prince in an exciting chase around the city.
When he finally has time to question this ordinary girl, he wonders if she’s Serpentine, Oni, Elemental Masters or Vermillion. None of them have bested him, and he feels like he’s met his match. Amusingly, her response shows that an ordinary person can do extraordinary things when they put their mind to it. It’s a terrific message. This character appeared in “The News Never Sleeps!” and “Would You Like to Enter Prime Empire?” These alternate outings shows she often get the job done whenever the city goes into hell in a hand basket. In “Game Over,” see helps a child as everyone else is fleeing. As a symbol of courage, we can all learn from her.
This character’s origins are explained in a video posted on YouTube by Brent Miller (the voice of Zane), and it’s nice to see that this character isn’t simply a background one. For Ninjago city to survive, everyone must help, and she’s a shining example of taking on adversity.
“Master of the Sea” even shows how Nyad defeated Wojira. Nothing is said about how opening herself up to the sea has made her immortal. Water can’t be fully destroyed but can be altered. Its state can be changed to ice (inertia) or turned into vapour (momentum). I’m guessing she somehow moved on–maybe even reverted back to normal–since there can only be one Master at a time. Maya admitted having never progressed that far in her proficiency before the Serpentine invasion (season one) and being coerced (kidnapped) to serve Krux. These breezy hand drawn animated sequences in this flashback make the historical significance of this realm’s origin important to note.
Interestingly, the Islanders (from the previous arc) and the Merlopians were the only species to have existed in the chaotic world alongside Wojira. Just where the normals have come from is still a bit of a mystery, but I’m guessing they may have immigrated from another realm to this one after the First Ninjitsu Master created the land to where they can live upon. Sensei Wu gets to shine in this episode as his fire is back. He never had much to do since Master of the Mountain and The Island. Here, he lives up to his father’s legacy and attempts to keep Wojira in check. If it can’t be held back, then chaos will overtake the realm again.
Even the kids have closure with their parents. It’s about time this story thread ends. They can see how their progeny take their duties as protectors of the world seriously, and it’s going to be important as the next pairing of episodes serves as the final climax to the series. “The Calm Before the Storm” says it all and “Assault on Ninjago City” will see the beast finally attack!
I love Ninjago!
I know some folks complain about these “filler” episodes that don’t focus on the main Ninja team, but Papergirl is one episode that does it very well. The sentiment echoes a line from one of the Bionicle chapter books from back in the day. To modify it to Ninjago: “You don’t need to be a Ninja to be a hero.” Also loved all the callbacks to previous season, even if I’m a bit puzzled by Kalmaar’s awareness of the Oni and Vermillion. For a guy who hates the surface world so much, he seems oddly well-informed…
Are you sure that’s the video? I know Brent Miller talks about getting a letter from a fan named Antonia, but after watching the entire thing and reading the video description I didn’t catch anything acknowledging that it had anything to do with the origins of the character.
I’m thinking Water and Wind may work differently from the rest of the Elemental powers so far as the whole inheritance thing. Since they were evidently derived from Wojira, as opposed to mastered by the First Spinjitzu Master and then taught…bestowed?…upon the first generation of Elemental Master, I figure they may not be exactly the same. I have some thoughts on how Nyad’s powers may have been passed on, but I think I’ll save it until your comments on “The Turn of the Tide”. It would be nice to figure out how Morro’s ancestors ended up with Wind powers, and whether there’s any way they could be passed on to a new wielder following Morro’s demise, but I rather doubt it will ever be touched upon.
I have wondered a bit about the origins of humans, Serpentine, and the various other “surface dweller” species in the Ninjago world myself. I think you may be right that, in the case of humans, they may have come to the realm with/after the First Spinjitzu Master. There are apparently humans in the Never-Realm and Cloud Kingdom, if nowhere else. Seeing Wu take in action was pretty awesome, and I’m sure folks who were mad about how easily he got taken down in Prime Empire will be pleased. Ray and Maya’s goodbye was nice too, even though it seems a bit odd/sad for them to take off right as we’re about to hit the final battle.
I’m guessing the Kalmaar encountered the Oni when they were invading Ninjago during March of the Oni. Other divisions had to be out there to deal with other parts of the realm, as an invading force can’t focus on trying to get rid of the ninja (well, until the finale at least). The Vermillion is more of a mystery as I don’t see Krux wanting to send them out to take over any water worlds…
And my bad on the video link. Had the wrong one on my cut and paste board, and have corrected.
Ah man, Aqua Oni? That sounds pretty cool-makes me wish those guys had gotten more attention than they did. Sure, we wouldn’t have seen Merlopia back in 2019, but it would have been cool if we could have gotten more out of March of the Oni than a three-pack of Oni figures. At any rate, it occurred to me that there is a simpler explanation for Kalmaar’s knowledge. He could have learned about the Oni from the First Spinjitzu Master telling his history to the ancient Merlopians.
As for the Vermillion, a rather darker possibility suggests itself to my mind. We know that Kalmaar has a history of sinking ships, which Trimaar repeatedly condemned. It seems possible that he may have learned about the Vermillion from materials left aboard the vessels he brought down, or from the crew…before he disposed of them.
Here’s a thought. Was rewatching Season 13 last night. I don’t think the tease with D&D style episode and having a certain lich around was a one time thing. If this arc is to tie with the rest, and whoever the Vengestone buyer(s) are, then wherever all these rocks are being shipped to can be used to build some crazy temple headquarters (a certain AD&D game module comes to mind) where whatever the new threat is, no elemental user can enter to thwart without losing his or her ability in the process! It keeps to the style of the early seasons, where the Ninjago team had to learn a new ability in order to deal with the season’s encroaching villain.
An interesting possibility for sure.