Tag: Episode Analysis

In the Hall of the Mountain King with LEGO NInjago: Masters of Spinjitzu

After watching this latest Ninjago season, it’ll be up to the Ninjas to unite the people to bring villainy down. The spirit of LEGO is never far.

LEGO NInjago Universal LogoSpoiler Alert

Television networks in North America are very behind in keeping pace with the animated LEGO Ninjago property. In Asia, Master of the Mountain, season thirteen of the Masters of Spinjitzu series, is now available. It may well head west, to broadcast in Europe next before crossing the Atlantic for the Americas.

In SDCC@Home’s programming lineup, I hoped the LEGO Company would make some mention. No recent announcements were made since season twelve is now broadcasting in the States. Whatever the reason is for the delay, fans will have to wait or subscribe to  foreign streaming sites to watch this latest chapter.

The series is showing no signs of slowing down. A new direction for the boys (and girl) in red, white, green, blue and black is to see them leave the Ninjago kingdom and explore another. Perhaps this time much further away. They’ve done the trip to other dimensions enough times. These other realms are simply representations of other cultures or are aspects of the paranormal.

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Enter the Jayster in LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire

LEGO Ninjago: Prime Empire is a tribute to everything I love in video games.

LEGO Ninjago Prime Empire PosterEpisodes 1-6 available through Cartoon Network app / on demand

Airdate:
North America – July 19, 2020
Other Territories – Repeat

TT Games can learn a lot from Prime Empire, the latest season of LEGO Ninjago finally airing in North America. I’ve played enough of their products to see their licenced products from this toy line have hardly ever changed. The platform puzzle solving coin gathering engine rarely includes concepts unique to each franchise. For the most part, players are blasting or punching enemies in a non-violent manner rather than fully reliving highlight moments—ranging from racing simulations to martial arts fighting—from their favourite movie.

The story for season twelve offers a lot of ideas I wish to see in a game and in a TRON: Legacy sequel. Unagami is essentially MCP. He’s a self-aware program created by Milton Dyer to deliver players the ultimate experience and he’s also feeling very confused. He wants to find his creator and go mono a mono.

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Is Garmadon the Oni One in Season 10 of LEGO Ninjago?

NinjagoBy Ed Sum

(The Vintage Tempest)

It’s an end of an era for LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu Videos. March of the Oni, the latest season, is essentially a movie split into four episodes. It brings the Oni arc (which started in Sons of, season eight) to an end. In what keeps me coming back, despite a retcon of this villain is in how the good guys value brotherhood above all else. Bad guys rarely give their fellow warriors their due and, as a result, consistently fail in a fight.

Jay, Zane, Nya, Cole, and Lloyd have seen how brothers can turn upon brothers in season four, Tournament of the Elements. With season six, Skybound, the pirates whom the Djinn Nadakhan enslaved were not truly honour bound. Even the serpents, skeletons and ghosts they faced had snide remarks amongst the ranks. Even when Lloyd was trying to do bad things, the Serpentine clan recognised problems and did little because of a misfired attempt by the leader to hypnotise the tyke.

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What Else is in the Future for DC’s Legends of Tomorrow other than Kamandi?

legends-of-tomorrow-poster

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

After one massive binge watch of the last few episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, “Aruba” is a satisfying end to the season. I was more interested in Rory’s story than Sara’s. The former rogue offered more to like because he slowly started to care for his teammates and learned to think for himself; that’s a tale to enjoy. Sara’s story is just as important, but most of her saga would be lost if fans did not see how she developed as a character in CW’s Arrow. Although her problems were recapped in Legends, to understand it did not feel the same as seeing Rory and Snart thrust into roles they initially did not like.

I am disappointed in the fact the Legion of Doom is a small group. Instead of a large organization and handing out parts of the world to fellow criminals (Black Mantis can own the sea and Grodd own the jungle), I did have to wonder why other time sensitive individuals did not show up to fix this aberration. The Legends can not be completely alone in this massive universe. Although the heroes who could do something were killed after the alteration by Eobard Thawne, surely someone from out of time can help. Even the villain Epoch, Lord of Time, should have taken notice and say, “You can’t do that!” as he wanted to rule all of reality.

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Where are the Ties that Bind the “Fellowship of the Lance” in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow?

Ninjago

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

There are times DC’s Legends of Tommorrow is simply coasting on a riptide of fun bits for geeks to take interest in. Tried as I might, to see if there was anything great about the last two episodes “Land of the Lost” and “Moonshot,” there was not much to truly write about as special. All it did was show how the team still needs to figure themselves out, spotlight Victor Garber’s musical talent in more than one episode and retrieve parts of a mystical weapon. The latest had something which spoke to me since I am a King Arthur enthusiast and I wondered who would play J.R.R. Tolkien. Jack Turner (Stitchers) does a great job at bringing to life an interpretation of this author whom I’ve admired since reading Lord of the Rings in high school.

Like the seminal books, some series require a Deux et Machina to give a saga a particular focus. After a slow start, the season unveiled an item to focus on. In the aptly titled, “Fellowship of the Spear,” the team is still divided like the fragmentary weapon and there’s more development in seeing what Rory (Heat Wave) is going through. I love his backstory and the obvious parallels he has with Gollum/Sméagol is a huge easter egg I’m sure many have picked up on. The way it is being handled suggests he has it in control in one episode and others, there’s not enough to see he is still struggling with it. Is his hallucination real? Apparently so, and I’m wondering at which point in history did the Legion of Doom take Snart from? My guess is that it was sometime in the past, before he and Rory joined the Legends. He’s all snark, pardoning the pun.

Also, the pieces of how each episode ties in (aside from searching for the spear) as a whole looks better when seen in sequence than left to viewers to wait week after week. I’m looking forward to seeing how the final two episodes are going to play out in the next two weeks. “Doomworld” will obviously look at a remade world but is “Aruba” in reference to a particular island in the Caribbean or something else?

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Is “Camelot/3000” Out of Left Field in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow?

nick-zano-and-brandon-routh-in-legends-of-tomorrowBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

In this late commentary, I thought last week’s DC’s Legends of Tomorrow episode “Camelot/3000” was disappointing. After three more viewings, there were tiny moments to enjoy, but the overall revisionist concept just did not jive well with the established Arthurian lore I adored when I studied it multiple times in my scholastic life. There are many alternatives, ranging from T.H. White’s The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlin to BBC One’s Merlin. Most of them stay faithful to what’s established, and some even have feminists take. All of which I liked, but there were times this Legends version forgot what it should focus on. Only one character knew.

I read the graphic novel to which I thought the story might take inspiration from. The 12-issue comic book series saw Arthur awakening far too soon. Although he saw to rebuilding Camelot, soon both he and his knights get called to action when his country needs him to fight against an invading alien threat. Ray explained the heart of the episode best, “Camelot is not about history, or a dusty old book that got a lonely kid through childhood (to which I can relate, as The Legends of King Arthur and his Knights compiled and arranged by Sir James Knowles K.C.V.O. was given to me in Elementary school to enjoy). It’s about one noble idea.”

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