Ninjago Dragons Rising Season 2 Rewatch
Mannn, this series means something special to me, man. I really felt it when I was on the finale, but just in general I love this balance the series is currently in which has legit pretty dense mysteries, engaging characters and future hooks. Its clear that people working on the series are just having a blast with it.
Dragons Rising is the series re-inventing itself whilst still keeping the core of what people love about Ninjago as a story, as a long time fan this just makes me so happy to see.
Like, I’ve already praised Arin and Ras here, but on rewatch you really get to see just how many seeds are planted here: Arin is more focused on power than Sora or Wyldfire. He has the struggle to measure up with the others, he struggles with lies and social cues - there’s tons of hints sprinkled throughout which make his desperation by the end of the season feel like such a natural place to put his character.
And I’m so excited to see more of their dynamic, there’s so many directions this master-student relationship(?) could develop. Because while Arin is desperate, his line about not being Ras’ buddy makes it clear to me that he’s not just going to forget everything that Ras has done just because Ras can (supposedly) help him find his parents.
As a whole, this season was a ton of fun. I like how the first half was all in preparation for the Blood Moon, and those skills kept being relevant by the time the Tournament of the Sources came about. Splitting the season into two arcs works surprisingly well!
The Blood Moon Arc
This first arc was overall pretty solid with some high highs and some rather strange lows(?) like, it never gets bad but there’s moments I’m not super keen on.
But first, positives: Rising Dragon as a technique feels so much more thought out than other ideas this series has when it comes to a cool signature technique. It feels like a struggle for the characters to learn both the motions but also the methodology which Egalt and Rontu tries to hammer into them.
It’s all about harmonising yourself with the universe and letting yourself sync with your surroundings - basically the total opposite of Ras’ “force the universe to work how you want it to” idea that helps his minions learn shatterspin.
This comment on my Arin video put it better than I could. Arin is so focused on getting his parents back that he can’t let himself just follow the universe’s motion, he feels he needs to force the world to work how he wants it to work rather than letting things come naturally.
I really love that Spinjitzu has evolved from a cool but gimmicky martial art to a full on philosophy of life.
Honestly everything surrounding these opposing philosophies could get expanded further in the writers want to. There’s already a ton here and I like that Egalt and Rontu - despite being great teachers and warriors - are also pretty stuck in their ways.
Egalt has a distaste for humans in particular, but in general both of them seem adamant that there’s only one way in which people can learn Rising Dragon - but Kai and Nya only manage to succeed by viewing the whole situation from the angle of their childhood game. They use their sibling connection to help them excel.
The Blood Moon itself was shot beautifully, there was such strong theming in the violent reds and purples set alongside this forest. The Arin and Ras fight was peak Ninjago, and the start of a beautiful dynamic that I’m fiending to see more of! Cannot overstate how much Arin’s “Ninja never quit” line being cut off and Ras showing any amount of vulnerability and personal connection excited me. Legit has top 1 potential if it stays at this amazing level.
The sound and animation of Shatterspin really sold it as this deadly technique. The bittersweet ending was unexpected, one of Ninjago’s best “finale-esque” episodes.
But now for the stuff I wasn’t so keen on: Cinder and the Wolf Warriors. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t need them to be super fleshed out like Imperium, but it feels so weird how little we learn about this faction that’s gathered around Ras.
You can infer he bumped into/sought out elemental masters to train for the Tournament but even just a throwaway line would have been a cool way to explain how Ras has so many people on his side now.
Cinder was great as a bully - I loved seeing Kai stunt on him and generally watch Cinder be a spiteful ass towards Wyldfire, but I would love to get a better clue as to who he is or why he does what he does.
Other thing I didn’t really like was the Sorceress’ stuff, the humour just wasn’t for me and felt a bit misplaced compared to everything around it but maybe that’s just my personal taste talking.
Tournament of Sources Arc
Honestly surprised its taken this long to do another tournament arc! I’m a sucker for the format so I found it incredibly enjoyable on premise alone.
The little detail that the Tournament of Sources inspired imitators like Chen’s tournament is a fun detail. Chen WOULD shamelessly rip off an idea from history for his own image, lol.
ToS is overall a much more solid tournament arc than the Tournament of Elements was - they absolutely stuck the landing of the ending which is an element I’ve found kinda sucks about ToE - after the game ends it becomes a fairly traditional Ninjago finale.
The main thing which ToE has over ToS is the PRESENCE. Chen’s island and its various locations and the downtime we get really sell me on this as an actual place. I think the different arenas really helped sell me on that. The City of Temples just feels a bit smaller on that difference alone.
I do like how ToS is a lot less precious with keeping our characters in the tournament, since their main priority is trying to find the Dragon Matriarch killer, the tournament is a lot more of a means to an end which was fun. There’s less weight given to the loss of powers which does lower the feeling of stakes but allows for the story to go in a different direction instead which is nice.
And god I just love seeing this show have fun with elemental powers/masters. The glowing hands is a great little shorthand for elemental powers and all of the new ones are so visually engaging to look at.
But I should talk about the plot too! It’s fun with Arin/Ras and Sora being the obvious standouts, but Lloyd, Cole, Nya, Wyldfire and Frak all get fun stuff to do!
I’ve already talked about Arin/Ras so I’ll spare my usual spiel. But Sora?? Continues to be such a good character. I really feel for her trying to fix both her relationships with Arin and Jordana but just being unable to make any progress with either. Poor kid. Her managing to basically outsmart Nokt and almost beat him was so badass. I love that she got to win the tournament even if the victory is bittersweet.
Frak gets a couple of really fun fights, I love how despite subscribing to Ras’ philosophy he still seeks advice from Cole about using his earth abilities. Dude has so much integrity and humbleness. I loved how good of a sport he was when fighting Sora. Honestly hoping Cole gets to be his mentor going forwards.
The Forbidden Five are definitely one of the less interesting presences here, but I loved how weird and disconnected they felt in the Netherspace. Overall they feel like those pure evil for pure evil’s sake type of villains, but the little flashback of them calling Zarkar “a souvenir” was a great way to show just how evil they were.
Nokt’s fight with everyone was so much fun too!
Characters
Lloyd has some great stuff this season, I love how he gets to basically go through two arcs at once - with his role as the conduit to these visions which impact his sleep and health so badly and his slow growth as a teacher to finally being given the title of “Master Lloyd” (man that scene gave me chills!)
His acceptance over the visions is a great analogy for mental health and anxiety, how the “what-if” futures can be so scary and paralysing but you just have to face them sometimes. I like that it is a really natural extension of “the calm inside” lesson he learnt back in Season 1, about finding inner peace even if the world is out of his control.
Then there’s him becoming a master. Frankly, it feels long overdue, but it was so worth it. Lloyd’s journey to become a successor to Wu has been an idea hinted at ever since Possession, so getting to see the two dragon masters respect Lloyd and big him up was such a cathertic feeling!
Wyldfire had some fun stuff this season - I like this underlying change she’s undergone where she goes from a complete wild child to someone with a little more patience and respect for others, whilst still never entirely abandoning her roots as a girl raised by dragons.
Her growing fond of Kai is really sweet, and I love how its not just Lloyd that gets to have this position of being a mentor to the next generation. I’m not exactly crazy about her stuff with Roby but they’re a cute little duo, its fun that the kid raised by dragons and the most gen alpha kid end up together lol.
Sora’s stuff this season is understated but keeps her at this consistently entertaining level. Even if she struggles with Spinjitsu/Rising Dragon, there’s that sense that she’s really growing in confidence and her abilities throughout. Accepting her ability as her own and cutting ties to her shitty family has really done wonders for her confidence.
I do like that she’s not without anxities and flaws though, the way she reflects on her lying to Arin and her treatment of Jordana was both really well done. You could chalk her and Arin’s friendship fragmenting to be a bit of a miscommunication plot but I think it was done perfectly.
Arin FINALLY gets a win to his name before getting told “nope, your best friend did it and lied to you” - the worst part is that Sora explaining her reasoning for why she did it basically told Arin she didn’t have faith he could do his object spinjitsu when it mattered most. No wonder he didn’t want to talk with her. Sora withholding information is something you can pick up on in Season 1, but its only really here where we see what kinds of trouble that can cause. Also god both Devin Mack and Sabrina Pitre both killed it this season, such good voicework.
Bonzle was really fun, an unexpected star of the Blood Moon - I love her dry sarcasm, and that she has this beautiful little story about loneliness and finding acceptence through a group of misfits. You can really easily take a trans-reading of Bonzle worrying her creator won’t like the form she chose for herself. Its sweet that the two hit it off instantly.
Egalt was definitely the most interesting of the two dragon masters - his grouchiness and relationship to Wyldfire was great. I love how Wyldfire shows so much empathy towards his wasting sickness - Ninjago is often a series that goes for the fantastical but I love it when it allows characters to feel more real.
Like, I’ve not seen shows for kids tackle topics like sickness in this way. It’s really cool.
“So, they named a mountain after me huh?”
Nya’s stuff relating to Jay is minimal but so good. The love of her life being ripped away from her and becoming someone who straight up loathes her is such an interesting twist to things.
Honestly props to the show for keeping Jay at arms length here, I feel like they’re really building up to something with him. He’s shattered his goodness so what that means for him going forward is really interesting to me. I feel like Jay being the first one to know Spinjitsu back in the pilot might come back in relation to Arin learning spinjitsu - I don’t know if I’m reaching here but they wouldn’t dedicate so much build up to Jay being evil without some kind of rhyme or reason to it.
And finally Kai - god this is so cathertic as a Kai fan. For years its felt like he’s been shafted from getting a proper role beyond being a source of gags and filling space. Him straight up being THE hero to everyone for once really makes me happy.
Honestly the shift to make the series much more of an ensemble piece with Arin/Sora/Lloyd as the mainstays is such a fun shift. Hoping for some Cole and Zane stuff next season.
Visuals
Visually this season is some of the best Ninjago has ever looked. I don’t know what might have changed within Wildbrain’s team but they are KILLING IT with the environments, they feel so distinct and vibrant. The brief shots of pre-Crossroads Ninjago City just look so much less visually interesting by contrast to how effortlessly they play with colour, light, composition and tone now.
I’m always a sucker for how Wildbrain uses extreme perspective to really emphasise fight scenes and this is no exception. The angles we get of the characters alongside the way the models get stretched and smeared really adds to the dynamism of the series. Some of the best fights in the entire show.
I love all of the little micro-expressions too. The lego figures aren’t all too emotive when you think about it - there’s the facial expressions and gestures they can do and that’s about it. Unlike more human characters, you have to be really creative with these limits to sell emotions but they have so many great little scenes:
Sora and Wyldfire silently sharing smiles to imply they’re both going to not tell Arin about his false victory, all of Arin’s little expressions of disapproval or disinterest when Lloyd makes promises he might not keep, Bleckt’s little smile when he sees Nokt about to win a round of the tournament and RAS.
God, Ras is such an expressive character. Him having a non-lego head rig gives him the ability to have such an expressive set of emotions - obviously its enhanced by Brian Drummond’s amazing voice, but you can see when the gears are turning in his head when he wants to say the exact right thing to make Arin doubt his friends, or when he’s smug, or when he gets pissed off.
If we’re going to be getting MORE of him and Arin next season I feel like there’s going to be so many opportunities to see what makes him tick - is he genuinely wanting to help Arin or does he view him as just another tool for his own gain like with Beatrix and Nokt? They’ve done so much to have his attitude be portrayed both in writing and the animation.
Conclusion
This series is so good man. legit got me so hyped here.