Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu TV Show Thread

[DuckBricks]

4 minutes ago, Puffle Pal26 said:

So apparently Day of the Departed premieres today in Canada! https://t.co/ppNWL9AtGS

Wow! Hope somebody records and posts it up. 

[Ordinareo]

Lucky Canadians haha.

[Takanuinuva]

On another note The Fold has 3 songs available to preorder on amazon. I hope they'll be available on itunes

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MDN3F03/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M6XM3QE/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M25D9R7/

And  a youtube preview if the amazon links don't work for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc18ouOMGsI

[GarmaFan]

They've... made better songs.

[Aanchir]

Those preview clips of the new songs sound excellent to me. If the full songs are as good as these samples, then they might be among my favorites!

[Mandate]

Like most of their remixes, can't say I like them. I'd love to see Jay Vincent and Mike Kramer have a shot at making some songs though.

[DuckBricks]

Tried looking for the episode online, but couldn't find anything but horrible cam job clips...

As far as the music goes, I don't get the hate for it - the sneak peeks have me excited, especially for the track titled Day of the Departed.

 

Edit: alright, I caved in and watched the first 30 minutes or so. I'm liking it alright so far, but cam jobs make everything look worse and it does seem a bit rushed. However, the villain interactions are spot-on and hilarious, and Pythor is entertaining as usual. Looking forward to seeing the rest!

 

Edit 2: just watched the entire thing - without getting too much into the details, it did feel very, very rushed, and almost like Shadow of Ronin - since Cole is telling us the story, things are truncated and summarized to tell a concise, campfire story.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2016 by legozebra

[Mandate]

Wait, DotD is out already? I didn't even notice we were on a new page!

Edit: Can't find anything but cam-jobs. I'll wait, good thing Civ VI's just come out.

Edited October 22, 2016 by Mandate

[Ninja of Fire]

I've found a low quality one too. Watching it now...

[makoy]

Ok. Overall, I am happy with the outcome but if you have watched the clips online and read all those trivias or confirmation from Tommy then that's like 80% of the story already. I'm not expecting a deep storyline but I hope that they have developed this as few episodes (half season) instead of just a special because the story is so short, it unfolded in less than half a day. The vehicles only appeared like an advertisement for the sets and that's not good at all... 

[Mandate]

I've been expecting it to be rushed. Morro, Samukai, Chen, Cyrptor, Kozu and Yang all having their own plot over the course of forty minute special that probably only exists to fill the void left by TLNM's delay? That's going to be difficult for any writer.

[gamejutzu]

10 hours ago, Mandate said:

I've been expecting it to be rushed. Morro, Samukai, Chen, Cyrptor, Kozu and Yang all having their own plot over the course of forty minute special that probably only exists to fill the void left by TLNM's delay? That's going to be difficult for any writer.

Well, Tommy did say that if this film felt rushed, then he personally apologizes and states that they failed in making good content.

Yeah, it's getting crazy... Someone posted DoD's ending on Youtube... Of course in a shaky cam, but still. Anyways, i'm done watching Ninjago stuff with shaky cam and/or different language. Even if I get spoiled any further, it'll be worth it to watch in 720p.

10 hours ago, makoy said:

I'm not expecting a deep storyline but I hope that they have developed this as few episodes (half season) instead of just a special because the story is so short, it unfolded in less than half a day. 

Well, say we didn't read anything Andreasen posted, or the Ninjago website's spoilers. I'd say if I didn't see any of that, the plot would be really interesting and some nice surprises (like Morro). I kinda wish I didn't now...

10 hours ago, makoy said:

The vehicles only appeared like an advertisement for the sets and that's not good at all... 

To be honest, that's kind of LEGO's fault. I mean, they're the ones who made all those sets in the first place. And trying to showcase majority of the sets could only result in something like that.

Also, Why do the instrumental sneak peeks have lyrics in them... That's not fair...

Edited October 22, 2016 by gamejutzu

[DuckBricks]

In other news, The Rift Whip was released today on itunes, but the other songs are yet to be released.

[gamejutzu]

Yeah, I hope the instrumentals don't have lyrics in them though.

Also, it might not be my favorite version (i'd love an instrumental of Rebooted) but I do like it. It's different.

And also, things are getting crazy on Youtube, endings and 30 minute videos in shaky cam are everywhere just by typing up "Ninjago". While the ending is pretty... eh, judging by the thumbnails, i'm still really hyped for the special, especially for my dude Cryptor. besides, HoT already sort of gave it away...

Edited October 23, 2016 by gamejutzu

[DuckBricks]

Took a while to collect my thoughts on DoD, but here's a summary of good and bad.

As a summary, I understand that the project was started really late, and I commend the writers, design team, and animators for putting out a great story. I only wish there was a final villain team vs ninja team battle at the end, which would have lead to increased interaction among villains and ninja. While it felt really rushed, I understand there was only 45 minutes to convey a new story, which was done more than adequately.

 

What this really hypes me for is Hands of Time - Tommy A has been really championing it as a really great story, and it seems that a lot of effort is being poured into it, which makes me very, very excited.

 

 

Bad:

- the story was very, very rushed. They even explain this by revealing that Cole was narrating the story over a fire at the end, explaining the hurried narrative.

- After being hyped so much as a ninja ally, Morro appears for a brief second to spook Wu, then warns him and the ninja of Yang, and then leaves. That was it. There was no action sequence with him fighting off the villains to buy the ninja time, and he didn't even interact that much with the other ninja at all. There's a two second clip of him turning into a statue again which seemed to be only there to ensure the character would not return

- The Stone Army and Kozu do nothing. They chase around Dareth for a bit until he finds the Helmet of Darkness and commands the warriors to turn against Kozu. As a side note, why didn't Kozu fall under the helmet's command? Probably because then Dareth would use the army to help the ninja, and the writers needed them out of the picture.

- One thing I would have really liked to see and kind of expected to see was a villain versus ninja team-up at the end. After each villain pursued individual ninja and fail, I imagined they would regroup and challenge all the ninja sans Cole underneath the floating temple. That way, we would have more villain interaction, more villain versus hero interaction, and more fun scenes and lines. Instead, we got some filler scenes like Lou's "Revenge Will Be Mine" performance. While I really liked it, I personally would have sacrificed most or all of it for a villain team-up battle at the end. DoD promised a big past villain revenge story and instead had each big bad of previous seasons pursue individual ninja and get defeated rather easily

- Fight Choreography. The fights here in DoD were really, really mixed in quality. Some shots were quite impressive, like the circular shot of Cole fighting Yang's pupils. Others, like Pythor vs Lloyd, were made up of glorified swipes and dodges and some points. Since DoD sacrificed a lot of story for action, it would have been nice for said action to be solid, Tournament of Elements-quality all throughout.

- Vehicle use. Even more so than usual, the vehicles had no purpose in the story - there wasn't even a throwaway Dark Island Trilogy reference as to where they came from, no functions besides the USR combination were shown off, and they were used so sparingly that it wouldn't have mattered if they weren't in there at all. Worse of all, Samurai X Cave Chaos makes no appearance, something I had been looking forward to.

 

Good:

- Yang's backstory and motivations. The writers really fleshed him out as a character, making him just want to be remembered and famous. Believing eternal life was the key to this, he based all his actions on that belief. And, best of all, in the end, he understands his mistakes and is redeemed, now looking over the ninja in the Temple of Airjitsu. Also, we learn his first name! (Korokumo? Kotokuto? Korokumo? Komokuro? Komo-eh I'll just as Tommy A)

- Villain Interaction. This was what I was looking forward to most from DoD, and it did not disappoint (well, not really - more on that soon). Pythor's instant attitude change from exuberance upon seeing Cryptor again to cold animosity towards Chen was spot-on, as well as Cryptor's rude remarks to Kozu. Even Morro's remarks to Wu were great, as well as Pythor to Lloyd, Cryptor to Zane, and so on. My only disappointment ties in with something mentioned above - with no final team battle, there was no more opportunity for increased interactions - Samukai couldn't taunt Kai for beating him the first time around, Nya couldn't get revenge on Kozu for turning her evil, and Morro couldn't surprise the other villains by turning against them. Bringing them all back just to have them individually destroyed by the ninja seemed like a missed opportunity, and time certainly could have been scrounged up to include a final battle.

- Lloyd's resolve in the Corridor of Elders. When Lloyd is determined his father is with him and the classic Family Divided/Fall of the Green Ninjago audio cue started playing, it was a really powerful and nice moment.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by legozebra

[Ordinareo]

41 minutes ago, legozebra said:

Took a while to collect my thoughts on DoD, but here's a summary of good and bad.

As a summary, I understand that the project was started really late, and I commend the writers, design team, and animators for putting out a great story. I only wish there was a final villain team vs ninja team battle at the end, which would have lead to increased interaction among villains and ninja. While it felt really rushed, I understand there was only 45 minutes to convey a new story, which was done more than adequately.

 

What this really hypes me for is Hands of Time - Tommy A has been really championing it as a really great story, and it seems that a lot of effort is being poured into it, which makes me very, very excited.

  Hide contents

 

Bad:

- the story was very, very rushed. They even explain this by revealing that Cole was narrating the story over a fire at the end, explaining the hurried narrative.

- After being hyped so much as a ninja ally, Morro appears for a brief second to spook Wu, then warns him and the ninja of Yang, and then leaves. That was it. There was no action sequence with him fighting off the villains to buy the ninja time, and he didn't even interact that much with the other ninja at all. There's a two second clip of him turning into a statue again which seemed to be only there to ensure the character would not return

- The Stone Army and Kozu do nothing. They chase around Dareth for a bit until he finds the Helmet of Darkness and commands the warriors to turn against Kozu. As a side note, why didn't Kozu fall under the helmet's command? Probably because then Dareth would use the army to help the ninja, and the writers needed them out of the picture.

- One thing I would have really liked to see and kind of expected to see was a villain versus ninja team-up at the end. After each villain pursued individual ninja and fail, I imagined they would regroup and challenge all the ninja sans Cole underneath the floating temple. That way, we would have more villain interaction, more villain versus hero interaction, and more fun scenes and lines. Instead, we got some filler scenes like Lou's "Revenge Will Be Mine" performance. While I really liked it, I personally would have sacrificed most or all of it for a villain team-up battle at the end. DoD promised a big past villain revenge story and instead had each big bad of previous seasons pursue individual ninja and get defeated rather easily

- Fight Choreography. The fights here in DoD were really, really mixed in quality. Some shots were quite impressive, like the circular shot of Cole fighting Yang's pupils. Others, like Pythor vs Lloyd, were made up of glorified swipes and dodges and some points. Since DoD sacrificed a lot of story for action, it would have been nice for said action to be solid, Tournament of Elements-quality all throughout.

- Vehicle use. Even more so than usual, the vehicles had no purpose in the story - there wasn't even a throwaway Dark Island Trilogy reference as to where they came from, no functions besides the USR combination were shown off, and they were used so sparingly that it wouldn't have mattered if they weren't in there at all. Worse of all, Samurai X Cave Chaos makes no appearance, something I had been looking forward to.

 

Good:

- Yang's backstory and motivations. The writers really fleshed him out as a character, making him just want to be remembered and famous. Believing eternal life was the key to this, he based all his actions on that belief. And, best of all, in the end, he understands his mistakes and is redeemed, now looking over the ninja in the Temple of Airjitsu. Also, we learn his first name! (Korokumo? Kotokuto? Korokumo? Komokuro? Komo-eh I'll just as Tommy A)

- Villain Interaction. This was what I was looking forward to most from DoD, and it did not disappoint (well, not really - more on that soon). Pythor's instant attitude change from exuberance upon seeing Cryptor again to cold animosity towards Chen was spot-on, as well as Cryptor's rude remarks to Kozu. Even Morro's remarks to Wu were great, as well as Pythor to Lloyd, Cryptor to Zane, and so on. My only disappointment ties in with something mentioned above - with no final team battle, there was no more opportunity for increased interactions - Samukai couldn't taunt Kai for beating him the first time around, Nya couldn't get revenge on Kozu for turning her evil, and Morro couldn't surprise the other villains by turning against them. Bringing them all back just to have them individually destroyed by the ninja seemed like a missed opportunity, and time certainly could have been scrounged up to include a final battle.

- Lloyd's resolve in the Corridor of Elders. When Lloyd is determined his father is with him and the classic Family Divided/Fall of the Green Ninjago audio cue started playing, it was a really powerful and nice moment.

 

 

So is it a must watch if you are a Ninjago fan, or should i skip it then?

[DuckBricks]

9 hours ago, Ordinareo said:

So is it a must watch if you are a Ninjago fan, or should i skip it then?

I would say, despite the criticism, it is a must watch. I like most of the action and the interactions between characters are ready spot-on, especially if you're familiar with the past characters which it seems that you are, given your fan status.

[gamejutzu]

19 hours ago, Ordinareo said:

So is it a must watch if you are a Ninjago fan, or should i skip it then?

DoD is kind of like an OVA of sorts. While it's not as important to see as just about any other season, it still fills in a few gaps you'd miss if you don't watch it (like Cole's ghost status, and probably some more things, like the HoT setup).

So, would you watch an OVA (a little movie or special of sorts) for other shows? I feel like this particular special is important because it's taking place in between two seasons.

20 hours ago, legozebra said:

What this really hypes me for is Hands of Time - Tommy A has been really championing it as a really great story, and it seems that a lot of effort is being poured into it, which makes me very, very excited.

Well it is a full season after all (most likely the usual standard of 10 episodes). Also, this season features a lot of past events, and probably some time travel too. So Tommy and friends would have to write the story very carefully and account for all the lore, otherwise they'll come out with something convoluted and plot-holey. But this doesn't seem to be the case, as Tommy actually calls this the best Ninjago plot he's written.

Edited October 24, 2016 by gamejutzu

[DuckBricks]

New info from Tommy A - the next season after HoT is going to delve into Cole's family past, especially his mother, and the HoT episode "A Line in the Sand" will center around Jay, surprisingly. He's also given what he's seen of HoT a 10/10, making it better in his mind than all other outings of Ninjago. This makes me very excited...

[makoy]

On 10/23/2016 at 4:17 PM, Ordinareo said:

So is it a must watch if you are a Ninjago fan, or should i skip it then?

If you're a Cole fan, absolutely.

If you're just a casual fan and don't mind skipping the episodes then it's okay to skip. Like @gamejutzu mentioned, this is like an OVA and some of the setup for the next season is embedded in this special.

 

With regards to the length of this special -- I feel like they have not developed the character of Cole compared to other ninjas. Next season we'll have Kai and Nya as the focus of the story once again. Lloyd enjoyed so much character development for several seasons and even Zane and Jay had been devouted 1 season each for their story arc. Cole on the other hand only got a scanty 45-minute special... 

[Mandate]

So... Hands of Time is going to be heavily focused on the past, or the ninja in general. Kai and Nya's parents, Cole's parents, something about Jay... fingers crossed for a Zane episode.

[DuckBricks]

5 hours ago, Mandate said:

So... Hands of Time is going to be heavily focused on the past, or the ninja in general. Kai and Nya's parents, Cole's parents, something about Jay... fingers crossed for a Zane episode.

Cole's parents are actually going to be in the season after Hands of Time, and Zane's past will be explored past Hot as well...

[Mandate]

6 hours ago, legozebra said:

Cole's parents are actually going to be in the season after Hands of Time, and Zane's past will be explored past Hot as well...

Sorry, misread your post. Well, that's good to hear.

[gamejutzu]

On 10/24/2016 at 2:20 AM, legozebra said:

New info from Tommy A - the next season after HoT is going to delve into Cole's family past, especially his mother, and the HoT episode "A Line in the Sand" will center around Jay, surprisingly. He's also given what he's seen of HoT a 10/10, making it better in his mind than all other outings of Ninjago. This makes me very excited...

I noticed you used the word "delve", and not a stronger word, like "center around" or "focus on". Would that mean that the season itself isn't about Cole and his family? If not, then who'd it be about? Zane or Lloyd?

Well, hopefully it will, especially Zane. Since we aren't getting any background info on Zane in HoT, and they said they'd go into Zane in better detail some other time, this could very well be it. The infamous origins of Zane, along with Cole as a bonus. I do like how they're doing a lot of this stuff touching on past events, it's really building on the world, rather than maybe just introducing new things every season, and never going back to them. 

Also, i'm gonna avoid all spoilers for this special (well, from this point on (looking at you LEGO.com)), after all, i'd hate to get spoiled when DoD is pretty much 3 days away.

Edited October 26, 2016 by gamejutzu

[Mandate]

Zane and Lloyd have had a lot more time in the limelight than any other character, Kai's the only one that comes close. We've had at least three "Zane-themed" episodes, Tick Tock, The Last Voyage and Rise of the Golden Master, as much as I want answers to the questions about Zane (especially since they're bigger than Cole's) it's time for the other ninja to have some time being focused on.

 

edit: ayyyy, 2000 posts

Edited October 26, 2016 by Mandate