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My biggest problem with Ninjago’s writing is how meaningless death and sacrifice are.
The first major character death is Zane’s sacrifice, which is still cited as one of the saddest Ninjago moments, because it was expected that he had died at that moment and the audience doesn’t go into the sacrifice the idea of him coming back. Even afterwards, there’s no strong indication that he’s going to be completely remade and rejoin the ninja team— he lives on, but differently.
Next season, Zane is remade and rejoins the team. The idea of nindroids coming back from the dead is introduced to the audience and the stakes of life-threatening situations are removed for Zane— as long as technology exists, he can be remade.
At the end of Possession, Morro sacrifices himself. This “death” (really his second death) is portrayed as final and irreversible. The quote about Wu only being able to save those who want to be saved seals it: Morro is going and he doesn’t want to come back.
Morro is brought back from the dead for Day of the Departed.
Also, Cole is made into a ghost, which is initially portrayed as something permanent, but Day of the Departed makes what reads like a few quick excuses and undoes it. Between Morro and Cole, it is demonstrated that death is not permanent for ghosts.
At the end of Possession, Garmadon sinks with the Preeminent. He passes on his leadership, lessons, and robes to Lloyd and they sail away. Lloyd goes on to honour his father’s memory and become the leader Ninjago needs.
Garmadon is brought back by Harumi, just as Lloyd has moved on. He demonstrates that death is not permanent for Oni.
In Skybound, Nya is killed, but Jay’s wish undoes the events of the season brings her back to life.
When Cole falls from the Bounty in March of the Oni, he somehow defies the properties of the Oni cloud and returns to the ninja. The show doesn’t even elaborate on that.
Lloyd is crushed in the battle at the end of March of the Oni and meets the FSM, who brings him back.
Prime Empire deaths are reversed at the end of the season.
Harumi, Vangelis, and Aspheera are clearly defeated and Harumi’s “death” was read as heavily implied.
They return, as well as Garmadon, for Crystallised.
Nya sacrifices herself and turns, irreversibly, into the ocean in Seabound. She also returns in her normal form for Crystallised.
Overall, the way the series repeatedly refuses to make character death and character sacrifice meaningful and give these things real, appropriately far-reaching consequences creates a mindset of “oh, this character is dying. They’ll be back.” and makes it difficult to convey the full emotional impact of a beloved major character giving their life in the pursuit of their goals because there’s a heavy precedent of characters almost immediately having their death reversed. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that keeping something like this up will get boring after a few seasons (I acknowledge that Ninjago is ultimately just 22-minute advertisements for Lego toys, but I think I can still care about the plot).
It’s also not just that the characters are immediately brought back, it’s that their death has absolutely no effect on the plot moving forward other than “Ninjago wasn’t destroyed last season”. Sure, Zane is silver sometimes and Cole briefly had a scar, but the characters don’t mention that they literally died (or equivalent), it has no psychological effects*, it doesn’t lead into the next season’s plot points, and it doesn’t affect the narrative at all. Each season that was resolved with a character sacrifice or each arc that ended in a character death could very easily have been resolved any other way without significantly altering the plot in the long run.
*I acknowledge that Ninjago is for kids, but if Ninjago can have fantasy violence, it can have fantasy consequences of violence. I fully believe that there is a way to discuss mental health in an age-appropriate way if a writer wants to put in the effort.
There’s another post to be made about how Ninjago handles side characters’ achievements in this exact same way.