If you’ve been keeping up with Ninjago Dragons Rising, there was a lot to take in during season three. That’s because there were many story arcs going on. With twenty episodes, two big narrative arcs, a dragon apocalypse, and several reveals, an evidence board is required to make sense of how it all relates. I even got lost on occasion and had to rewatch and look up episode summaries just to remind myself where the ninjas have gone, who is back, and why Ras matters.
And with the help of online forums and other applications, I offer this guide before the next season debuts. It’s required reading. But for those looking for the quick two-sentence version of what matters most: Ras has the soul of Sensei Wu, and the Source Dragons say that things are much more fractured than they already are. With one of their kind gone, and their agreement with the First Ninjago Master broken, even they are at a slight loss.
As for a recap, what I offer is the following:
For much of the first half, Jay is still missing, and Arin, one of the new-generation ninja, has ditched the group to search for his parents alongside Ras. That’s a lot of trust issues for one team to manage. Meanwhile, the Forbidden Five, a group of ancient and seriously dangerous elemental masters, have been freed from the Nether-Space. Their plan is to hunt down five legendary Prismatic Blades scattered across the Merged Realms and use them to unleash Thunderfang, the Chaos Dragon. He’s been chained for a long time, and with him freed, he promises these warriors even more power. That deal does not go the way they hoped.
Each member of the Forbidden Five knows that to maybe control this primordial creature, they’ll need the blades. Rox invades Djinjago, Nokt breaks into a prison train to steal a blade from Zane, and it’s basically a season-long scavenger hunt for ultimate power. They eventually succeed, and in episode nine they free Thunderfang, who immediately devours their souls, reclaiming the power he’d lent them. It’s a classic double-cross, and we should cheer, but when he turns on the ninjas, Lloyd is in over his head.
It takes Arin using a healing elixir from the Well of the Lost, with some guidance from, of all people, Morro’s spirit, to finally defeat the Chaos Dragon. And when he says Wu isn’t here, therein lies a mystery. All seems good when Lloyd’s soul is returned, and Thunderfang is sent to the Spectral Lands in his departed form.
Running parallel to all of this is Arin’s journey with Ras. The boy is carrying serious doubt about the ninja team after learning that Master Wu played a role in causing the Merge, and Ras has been using that doubt to pull him closer. It looks like Ras is guiding Arin toward his parents’ graves, but the bigger picture is much more complicated. The bombshell comes in episode ten when Jay, back with the team after accidentally revealing himself, confirms that Arin’s parents aren’t actually dead.
They have been relocated by the Administration, some inter-dimensional company that keeps tabs on the multiverse. It’s much like Loki, the TV series, and not too much is being said about why this MIB-type operation exists.
The second half of the season shifts focus as the Spectral Dragonians emerge as the new threat, and the scope widens into stranger territory. P.I.X.A.L., who had been trapped in a techno-cocoon since earlier in the season, is finally freed by Zane and gets back into the fight. Sora, after Thunderfang’s defeat, makes the personal decision to leave the team and join Arin and Ras on their ongoing mission to reverse the Merge. The team does eventually reunite, and Arin finds his parents, who have been alive but “sorted” out of the conflict thanks to Jay. But for this character, he has no memory of his former life.
He thinks the team is weird, and although he’s willing to help, there’s still one big mystery that needs answering: just what does the Administration represent to the whole multiverse? It’s a subplot that some fans want answers to.
Then comes the gut punch. After everything the ninja sacrificed to stop Thunderfang, it’s Ras who delivers the season’s most shocking moment. In the finale, Ras completes a Source Dragon Icon, uses it to imprison the spirit of Sensei Wu, and then scatters the ninja across three separate and distant realms. The team is completely divided, cut off from each other, and leaderless. Wu, the one person everyone has always counted on, is now a captive. And when he’s serving an even greater evil, the question is what it is, and just how much worse things can get.
As for what we can expect when the first half releases, we will likely find out the ultimate fate of Wu, Lloyd’s future, whether Jay will regain his memories, and who Ras is ultimately serving. Some say it’s himself, but I suspect there’s a greater force at work.
Ninjago Dragons Rising Season 4 Trailer
