Ninjago (Western Animation) - TV Tropes
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Western Animation / Ninjago

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ninjagoheader.png
The Wu-Cru, pre- and post-redesigns.note 

♫ We just jump up, kick back, whip around, and spin!
And then we jump back, do it again!
Ninja! Go! Ninja! Go!
C'mon, c'mon, we're gonna do it again! ♫
— Ninjago's theme song "The Weekend Whip" by The Fold

LEGO Ninjago, formerly titled Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, is a franchise of LEGO products and media, introduced in 2011, and is the brand's longest-running uninterrupted theme amongst its original-narrative toylines.note  It was the first original LEGO toyline to have a full television series since Fabuland,note  a successful multimedia effort that would see many other LEGO themes Follow the Leader, though none have retained Ninjago's staying power.

The premise is founded almost entirely on Rule of Cool: A group of Ninja with Elemental Powers fight to defend their homeland of Ninjago from ever-persistent, varying group of bad guys, from undead skeletons and serpentine armies to biker gang cults and rogue video game AIs. Aside from their powers and martial art trainings, the ninja utilize the titular art of Spinjitzu, spinning at high velocity to channel elemental power tornados, to fight back against their enemies. When that's not enough, the ninja can fall back on both tamed and energy-form dragons, their wise tea-loving sensei Master Wu, and a plethora of allies and former enemies to aid the good fight against evil in its many forms.

The series began with a made-for-TV movie, split into either two or four pilot episodes depending on where you live, was shown on Cartoon Network, making such an impact that a full TV series soon followed, currently totaling at 15 seasons (though some are closer to mini-series length) and two feature-length specials. A feature film adaptation, part of the The LEGO Movie franchise and titled The LEGO Ninjago Movie, was released in September 23, 2017, featuring Jackie Chan as Master Wu. Though an Alternate Continuity to the show, it left a long-lasting impact as both the toys and animation chose to adopt the theatrical redesigns of the main characters from the eighth season onwards.

In 2022, the first 11 years were capped off with the fifteenth, Crystalized season, marking the End of an Era as the series would be handed over to a new creative team. The next series, Ninjago: Dragons Rising, would debut the following year in the Summer of 2023, described as being neither Season 16 or a reboot, but a new adventure when a massive status quo change hits the Ninjago world...

The series has had plenty of video game entries as well, starting with LEGO Battles: Ninjago on the Nintendo DS in its first year, along with Nindroids (adapting part of the third season) and Shadow of Ronin (a non-canon adventure) for the Nintendo 3DS, and a multitude of miscellaneous games on mobile and web browser platforms. The series featured prominently in LEGO Dimensions as both toy packs and part of the main campaign, and The LEGO Ninjago Movie tie-in game released on PC and all consoles gets credit for featuring parts of the TV continuity not covered by the film.

WARNING: Late Arrival Spoilers like the true nature of Zane, the identities of Samurai X and the Green Ninja, and Nya's true nature (Basically twists about the Ninja from Season 5 and prior) will no longer be spoiler-tagged. Browse at your own risk.

Ninjago provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 
    Tropes A - D 
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: In "Dragon Form", the Ninja manage to achieve the titular form when all of their allies arrive at Ninjago City to help fight the Crystal King’s forces.
  • Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: "NINja, GO!" is a battle cry used by ninja. "NinJAgo" is the name of the land where most of the action takes place.
  • Acid-Trip Dimension: Spit from Venomari will make you see some strange things.
  • Acoustic License: All the time. The only thing more mind-boggling than how much noise these ninjas make when attempting to be stealthy is how much of it goes unheard by their foes.
  • Action Girl: Nya is the primary example of this trope in the series, with her exhibiting combat abilities as early as one of the shorts - where she single-handedly defeats Chopov, Wyplash, Krazi, and Bonezai before Jay realizes something is wrong. She's tough, independent, and doesn't like being perceived as weak. Her frustration of not being able to contribute to the team led to her creating a samurai alter ego with a Mini-Mecha, which allowed her to outshine the ninja on several occasions, sometimes even saving them. Her eventual promotion to ninja and discovery of her water powers finally cements her as an equal to the other ninja.
    • While she isn't a ninja herself, Skylor shows herself to be just as competent as the ninja in terms of fighting skills. Her Power Copying element also gave her an edge in the Tournament of Elements.
    • While Misako is largely non-combatant, she does have the ability to use Spinjitzu and is generally able to hold her own in a one-on-one fight. For example, she was able to defeat a Vermillion warrior by herself using a Frying Pan of Doom.
    • Maya was one during the Serpentine War. As the then-Master of Water, her team-up with her husband Ray presented quite a challenge to the Time Twins.
    • Ultra Violet, the Dark Action Girl general of the S.O.G., is a constantly cackling Blood Knight who's built up to be fearsome by her lackeys even before her introduction.
    • P.I.X.A.L. after she becomes the second Samurai X.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: In LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers, the titular explorer is at times selfish and unwilling to work in teams, but is overall a good and motivated explorer and does change his ways throughout the course of the film. When a (different) version of the character appears in Ninjago, Clutch is much more notably arrogant, more selfish, a liar, a thief, and a fraud, and only cares about attention and taking credit. And when introduced in season 11, he hasn't even explored in 10 years.
  • Adopted into Royalty: Season 8 reveals that Ninjago has a royal family, and that their Jade Princess, Harumi, is adopted. It later comes out that Harumi was orphaned back during season 1's Great Devourer incident, so her adoption very well could have been politically motivated. Harumi resents being an orphan, resents the Emperor and Empress simply for not being her biological parents, and resents the ninja for not stopping the Great Devourer. Therefore, she uses the resources she's gained by being a princess to start a biker gang set on resurrecting Lord Garmadon and ruling Ninjago. Oops.
  • Advertised Extra: Despite having a set and promotional art dedicated to the form, Lloyd's Oni form in Season 15 is used for less than thirty seconds in the last episode.
  • Age Cut: Happens several times:
    • Wu in "The Hatching" when he begins recounting the Serpentine War.
    • At the end of the flashback in "Pause and Effect" that explains what happened to Kai and Nya's parents, a shot of the oblivious young Kai and Nya fades back to their present-day selves.
    • Cole, Zane, and Jay at the end of their flashbacks of when they first met Wu in "The Jade Princess", "Snake Jaguar", and "How to Build a Dragon" respectively.
    • At the end of Harumi's flashback of her parents' death at the hands of the Great Devourer in "Game of Masks".
    • At the beginning and end of Milton Dyer's flashback recounting Unagami's Start of Darkness in "The Prodigal Father", with the dissolve back to the present day taking place with his reflection in an arcade screen.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Nya's excited responses to Bizarro Jay's jerkass behavior.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: "Mr. Buddy" by Scorpio is the ending theme song for the Japanese version of the TV show.
  • Amusingly Awful Aim: In "Wishmasters", Lloyd inflicts this on Flintlocke using one of his wishes, causing Flintlocke to miss his targets every time even at point blank range. Flintlocke gets better thanks to a Rousing Speech from Jay in the finale.
  • And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In Season 8, when they see an old foe on TV, Jay declares "If that's Lord Garmadon, then I'm the Lord of the Jig." After it turns out Jay's wrong, Cole refers to him as Lord of the Jig.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Jay catching up Sensei Wu in the episode "The Green Ninja".
    Jay: Zane is a Nindroid, Nya is the Samurai, and Cole's a dancer.
  • Artistic License – Paleontology: Despite being identified as a dromaeosaurid theropod (i.e. raptor), the Grundle barely resembles any theropod let alone a dromaeosaurid. For starters, it has a head like a fish.
  • Artistic License – Prison: Kryptarium Prison. There you'll find everyone dressed in the same clothes, terrible food, and despite the prisoners frequently escaping, hardly anything happens to them except for their sentences being increased a bit.
  • Art Evolution: With Season 11, due to the change in animation studios, the series looks noticeably different, with characters and environments being more detailed, with the tradeoff of the shading being less complex. The series' fight scenes also became much faster paced, dynamic, and fluid.
  • Art Shift: Starting in Season 11's Ice Chapter, some flashbacks have an "anime" art style, this applied for two episodes in Season 11 (as mentioned earlier), and one episode in Season 13. This was also accompanied with a change in studios from M2 Films to WildBrain.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Serpentine Tribes decide their leadership in this fashion.
  • Attack Its Weak Point:
    • A giant robot attacks Zane; to 'disable' it, it required attacking the robot from behind. Specifically in the upper part of its back.
    • The Great Devourer has one on its forehead. Garmadon ultimately destroys it by attacking this point with the four Golden Weapons.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Sensei Wu:
    Sensei Wu: Iron sharpens iron, perhaps— [licks cotton candy] —this Samurai will encourage you to find your true potentia... *GASP* FERRIS WHEEL! [runs towards Ferris wheel]
  • Backported Development: In a few of the Tales from the Monastery of Spinjitzu shorts, flashbacks to new Season 1 and 2 era adventures show the ninja in their current forms. Lampshadeed and justified in "Elemental Rider" where the memory is shown via "enhanced visual augmentation" (see the quote below). It's also explained by one of the creators that "the stories are memories, fantasies, dreams, visual augmentations which means they are saturated by the ninja's current state of mind and self image."
    Kai: Hey, we didn't look like that back then.
    Zane: I told you, it was an enhanced visual augmentation.
    Kai: Whatever.
  • Back to the Early Installment: The Season 2 episode "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" has Kai, Cole, Zane, and Jay being sent back in time to the pilot episode in order to stop Lord Garmadon from altering the future.
  • Badass Pacifist: To make up for his past, Sensei Garmadon swears to never pick up a weapon again and fights (when forced to fight) using a style called Silent Fist; using the opponent's force against them without hitting them himself. He eventually screws this method when his son Lloyd gets kidnapped by the Digital Overlord.
  • Badass Teacher: Sensei Wu, who taught the ninja everything they needed to know in the first two seasons.
    • Also Sensei Garmadon to a lesser extent in Season Four, who imparts wisdom onto the ninja in place of Wu during the Tournament of Elements.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Season 8 ends this way with Garmadon defeating Lloyd, causing him to lose his powers, Garmadon creating the Colossus to devastate Ninjago City, and the Colossus nearly killing the original four Ninja and Young Wu. Meanwhile, Nya, Lloyd, and Pixal, who are the last hopes for Ninjago are forced into hiding. The revived Garmadon meanwhile, finally completes his long-lasting dream of taking over Ninjago, and proclaiming himself "Emperor". Although it is clearly obvious the Ninja will defeat him in the next Season, this is still the only time a villain has won at the end of the season.
  • Bad with the Bone: Skeleton weapons include golden bones, axes with bones for handles, golden axes with golden bones for handles, and plain old bones.
  • Bait-and-Switch: In "Never Trust A Snake" when the Ninja capture and suggest punishments for Lloyd an angry-looking Master Wu assures them that he knows exactly what to do: he puts Lloyd to bed and reads him a bedtime story about not trusting snakes.
  • Beach Episode: The beginning of "The Last Hope" from Season 2 is this.
  • Beard of Sorrow: Jay gains a fake one after Nya merges with the Endless Sea.
  • Berserk Button:
    • In "Double Trouble", when Jay found out his evil double kissed Nya.
    • Anything to do with Nya in trouble for both Jay and Kai.
    • Never, NEVER ask Nya out on a date within earshot of Jay or Kai or both.
    • A threat to cake or somewhat his father for Cole.
    • His friends being in danger for Zane.
      "You will not hurt my friends!"
    • Don't try to hurt Garmadon's son. Seriously, don't.
    • Nya, between Jay and Cole, throughout most of Season 3 and 4.
    • Lloyd, regarding Garmadon sacrificing himself, and in turn, leaving him forever in "The Corridor of Elders."
  • Big Bad: Has its own page.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Samurai X gets one on "Pirates vs. Ninja".
  • Big Good: Sensei Wu.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Zane in "Tick Tock" after he discovers he's a robot.
    • Skales in "The Day Ninjago Stood Still" when the Serpentine are sealed underground. Again.
    • Kai when the Overlord's portal bridging the Island of Darkness to Ninjago closes.
    • The Overlord the first time he's defeated.
  • Bland-Name Product: In Season 7, Cyrus Borg's company, Borg Industries, becomes a parody of Apple, with product lines including BorgPads, BorgPods, and the recently released BorgWatches.
  • Bluff the Impostor: Sensei Wu tells the Bizarro-Ninja about how Lloyd must be having a good time at an amusement park when Lloyd is at the boarding school.
  • Body Horror:
    • A flashback of Sensei Wu's reveals that Garmadon looks like he does because, just before falling into the underworld, he got struck by lightning, which pretty much fried his skin and exposed his bones. Even in LEGO form, it's quite disturbing to see.
    • Garmadon being possessed by the Overlord and the resulting transformation.
    • The transformation of Chen's followers, plus Skylor and Garmadon, into Anacondrai.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: The victims of the Hypnobrai's gaze and the Overlord's dark matter.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Lloyd comes off as one before "Never Trust a Snake".
    • The entirety of Darkley's Boarding School For Bad Boys. Most noticeably, Gene.
  • Breaking Old Trends: Season 12, Prime Empire, is the first season to feature an overarching plot with no ties to mysticism, with Unagami and the titular Prime Empire being a wholly digital threat. While the franchise at large has dabbled with science fiction, prior examples such as Season 3 (Rebooted) still have a supernatural Big Bad.
  • Brought Down to Normal:
    • After losing their Golden Weapons, the Ninja, while they still have Spinjitzu, have lost the majority of their elemental powers along with them.
    • Garmadon, once he's been purged of the Overlord and the evil in his body.
    • Lloyd at the end of season 8 after Garmadon literally beats his power out of him.
  • Built with LEGO:
    • Played straight, being a LEGO toy line — all the characters are LEGO Minifigures. However, in some media, it's subtler than in others. For instance, most of the scenery in the TV episodes is stylized heavily so there are no obvious LEGO elements.
    • LEGO Battles: Ninjago plays this straight as a tack.
  • Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Several within the series.
    • The pilot episodes have Kruncha and Nuckal, Skulkin warriors who make infrequent reappearances in later seasons.
    • Season 4 has Chope and Kapau, two Anacondrai cultists who serve a similar role to Kruncha and Nuckal.
    • The male Vermillion generals in Season 7, Raggmunk and Blunck, are allegedly the most tactical members of their faction, but they're too stupid to do anything correctly. They are a part of a Terrible Trio with Supreme Commander Machia.
    • In Season 8, Chopper Maroon and Mohawk are examples of this trope. However, they are slightly downplayed examples because they are put in more serious situations than previous examples of this trope were.
  • The Bus Came Back: The dragons return for the first season finale, having merged together into the Ultra Dragon.
  • Bus Crash: Sadly, the Ultra Dragon was killed by the Dragon Hunters between Seasons 2 and 9, seeing as the throne the Iron Baron sits in is made from its corpse.
  • Cain and Abel: Garmadon and Sensei Wu are brothers and the sons of the first Master of Spinjitzu. Garmadon is the older brother; Wu is the younger brother.
  • The Cake Is a Lie: Cole laments this in "Double Trouble" after being lured to Darkley's School with a promise of cake.
  • The Cameo: During Lloyd and Morro's struggle for the Realm Crystal, they end up being transported to the realm of Chima for a brief moment, getting spotted by the main cast of that world before they both warp away.
  • Central Theme:
    • Throughout Season 8 masks play an important role. There are the three Oni Masks. There's the mask Zane took to infiltrate the Sons of Garmadon (Snake Jaguar). There's the mask Harumi wore as the Jade Princess which she took off, thus revealing her true colors. And during his fight against Lloyd, the newly resurrected Lord Garmadon states that he wore plenty of masks throughout his life, from father to husband to brother, but only one mask was bought back: Destruction.
  • Cerebus Retcon:
    • At first it seems that the Great Devourer crisis ended without much mishap, then Season 8 shows that people did DIE on that day, including the seasons Big Bad's parents. Lampshaded when Harumi asks Lloyd if he was naive to think that no one was hurt that day.
    • Also in Season 8, Cole's mountain climbing in the pilot episode is revealed to have been an attempt to cope with the death of his mother.
  • Chained to a Railway: Jay poses as a damsel in distress to find out the identity of Samurai X, AKA Nya.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang:
    • "Art of the Silent Fist" has Garmadon teach the ninja the titular move, or basically baiting the enemy into beating themselves. The move is used at the end of the episode to bait the Nindroids into causing a blackout that shuts down the Overlord-possessed technology around Ninjago. It goes unused for the remainder of the season as well as the next 6 seasons, at least until Lloyd uses it in "Green Destiny" to beat none other than Garmadon himself. Garmadon, having Came Back Wrong in Season 8 after a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Season 4 and his death in Season 5, has his powers fueled by fighting, and by not fighting him Lloyd manages to exhaust Garmadon and drain him of his power, allowing Lloyd to apprehend him.
    • The Four Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, important for the pilot and first season, were lost halfway through season 2. They return late in season 3, getting melted down and enabling the Overlord to regain physical form as the Golden Master. They disappear from the story until season 10, when Kai reforges them to use against the Oni, and season 15 as the Crystal King/Overlord corrupts them for his council to use, with the Ninja getting them back, and ultimately using the function of making the weapons touch: Freeing the elemental power within them for Lloyd to use, at the cost of destroying the weapons and sacrificing their own elements to parts unknown.
  • Chekhov's Classroom: At the beginning of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" Nya is giving a lecture theorizing that Fangpyre venom in a person's body can be counteracted by the victim increasing their heart rate, which is how Jay cures himself later on.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • "Ninjaball Run" has two: first Nya puts a feature in the Ultra Sonic Raider that allows the cockpit to detach and become an airborne vehicle, which the ninja use to catch up to Lord Garmadon after he creates a fissure to stop them. The second is Jay's lucky piston which he attached to the front of the Raider and allowed them to technically pass the finish line before Garmadon.
    • The tea shop uniforms in season 5, of all things, which allow the ninja to infiltrate Stiix without arousing suspicion.
    • When the Bounty is rebuilt in season 10, one of the switches is wired wrong, causing it to fly backwards instead of forwards. Nya reflexively guns it the wrong way, causing the thruster to knock Cole into the Onis' darkness.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Kai's background as a blacksmith is briefly seen in the Pilot Episodes, but is barely elaborated upon until March of the Oni, where his blacksmithing skills in conjunction with being an Elemental Master means Kai is the only one capable of reforging the Golden Weapons, which prove to be key against the Oni.
  • The Chosen One: A prophecy states that "One ninja will rise above the others and become the Green Ninja, the ninja destined to defeat the Dark Lord." Throughout the first season, the four ninja compete and argue about who deserves to be the Green Ninja. It turns out to be none of them and instead is Lloyd Garmadon, Lord Garmadon's son. While he was originally a Bratty Half-Pint, by the time this is revealed, he's been taken in by the ninja and wants to be good, and after that, he matures into a brave hero and becomes the most powerful ninja. Additionally, the "Dark Lord" the prophecy was referring to turns out to be not Garmadon but the Overlord, a Greater-Scope Villain who was around since the dawn of time and who ultimately manipulates Garmadon for his own plans.
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • Zane comes off as a bit spacey to the other ninja.
    • Sensei Wu might count as this. For example, he asks a Serpentine to pour him some tea. In the middle of a high-speed chase. Keep in mind, though, that he then punches the snake off the vehicle he's riding on.
  • Colour Coded Armies: Hypnobrai are blue and gold, Fangpyre are red and white, Venomari are lime and dark green, Constrictai are black/grey and orange, and Anacondrai are violet.
    • Colour Coded Elements: The clothes of the ninja and skeletons: red is fire, blue is lightning, white is ice, and black (or dark grey) is earth.
  • Complete Immortality: As the embodiment of darkness, the Overlord's spirit form can never be truly destroyed, as his existence is necessary to maintain the balance between light and darkness, although his physical form can be destroyed and has been three times.
  • Continuity Nod: Throughout the whole series, which has pretty tight continuity overall if you ignore the timeline of events occurring before the show.
    • A special shout-out goes to the Ninja and Garmadon discussing the events of "Wrong Place, Wrong Time," a second season episode, in season three. The climax of said episode proves to be crucial to the second half of the third season.
  • Continuity Cavalcade:
    • In Season 4, it’s shown that Master Chen has a hall of fame full of this, having a scale of the Great Devourer, Captain Soto’s peg leg, a cog from the Celestial Clock, the skeleton of a Grundel and Zane’s Pink gi.
    • There's also Borg Tower’s vault, which has artifacts from all throughout the series, including the Realm Crystal, the Sword of Sanctuary, three Serpentine Staffs, Master Yang’s portrait, a Vermillion sword and suit of armor, the Helmet of Shadows, the Golden Armor, a Fangpyre skeleton and countless other artifacts, on screen or not. A few of these artifacts become incredibly important in Season 10, with the Realm Crystal allowing the Oni to enter the realm of Ninjago, the Sword of Sanctuary being used by Lloyd to destroy the Realm Crystal, and the Golden Armor getting melted down and reforged back into the Golden Weapons, which ends up becoming part of the Ninja defeating the Oni.
  • Conveniently Empty Building: At first this seems to be the case, with the Ninja causing plenty of destruction to buildings with no loss of life. Season 8, however, reveals this is not actually the case and people actually die as a result of the Ninja's battles with Big Bad Harumi's parents being casualties of the Great Devourer fight. Since then, Civilians frequently show up inside buildings and the Ninja give rescuing them just as much, if not more, priority as stopping the bad guys.
  • Cool Bike: Kai's sword can transform into an awesome motorcycle.
  • Cool Car: In Season 1, Cole gets the Tread Runner, which basically amounts to a ninja-Batmobile.
  • Cool Gate: The Ice Temple has a giant torii gate made of ice at its entrance.
  • Costume Evolution: There are new outfits given to the Ninja in every season.
    • The original and DX suits in the Pilots.
    • The ZX suits in Season 1.
    • The Elemental Robes in Season 2.
    • The Techno Robes in Season 3.
    • The Tournament Robes and Jungle suits in Season 4.
    • The Deepstone suits in Season 5.
    • The Airjitzu suits in Season 6.
    • The Honour Robes in Day of the Departed.
    • The Fusion Robes in Season 7.
    • In Season 8, they get suits remarkably similar to the ones used in The LEGO Ninjago Movie, but some parts have the color scheme inverted.
    • In Season 9 Lloyd and Nya get outfits befitting their new roles as Resistance leaders Whild Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane get tattered versions of their Season 8 outfits.
    • Season 10 gives them outfits resembling updated versions of the DX Suits.
    • Season 11 updates the suits again but this partially sticks, becoming the default outfits they return to after each season's upgrade.
    • Season 12 gives them nifty digital avatars when they enter Prime Empire.
    • Season 13 has them don some combo knight-ninja outfits.
    • Season 14, taking place underwater, gives the ninja aside from Kai and Cole scuba gear. Despite this, the sets still feature figures of Kai and Cole wearing scuba gear.
  • Coordinated Clothes: The ninja's love interests all wear clothes that match theirs (Nya wears blue in some parts like Jay's, P.I.X.A.L.'s body is silver like Zane, Skylor wears a golden shirt that matches Kai's red and gold gi and Harumi wore a green kimono and green overalls that matched Lloyd's gi).
  • Covered in Gunge: After the Great Devourer is destroyed, Ninjago City gets covered in green slime.
  • Cue Card Pause: When they meet Chen for the first time, he does this deliberately.
    Chen: Welcome to the Tournament of Elements. Now everyone can DIE!...rect your attention to me.
    Garmadon: I forgot to mention, he has a penchant for theatrics.
  • Curbstomp Battle: The Great Devourer straight up ate the Destiny's Bounty. The Ninja have finally met their match.
    • Garmadon has demonstrated this many times. Once he obtained his extra pair of arms, throwing Master Wu into a pit of mud monsters was a piece of cake. Taken up to an eleven when possessed by the Overlord's spirit. Additionally, his quick thinking and mastery of Art of the Silent Fist allowed him to get the better of his son and former friend Clouse, turning his magic against him and sending him to the Cursed Realm through his own portal.
    • The Overlord turned the new Master of Golden Power, Lloyd, into mincemeat once he possessed Garmadon, using his element of Darkness. Lloyd however, returned this when he discovered his true potential. Once the Overlord became the Golden Master, his newfound telekinesis and Spinjitzu said it all.
    • They're not called indestructible Stone Warriors for nothing. Their strength allowed them to defeat and abandon Skales and the rest of the Serpentine in their tomb, and Kozu's army proved to be more than a match until the Ninja received their Elemental Blades.
    • Same goes for Cryptor and his Nindroids, although they can easily be taken through surprise and long-range attacks.
    • Master Wu defeats his students rather quickly and easily when turned into a cyborg, with his agility and electrokinesis.
    • Master Chen basically toys with Lloyd before swiftly defeating him with the combined Elemental Master's powers. The same goes for the Anachondri cultists who easily resisted the elemental warriors until they were all united.
    • Morro, a superior combatant along with his wind/ghost powers possessed Lloyd and got the better of Wu's students, disabling their powers and Spinjitzu.
    • Nadakhan's magic and manipulation allowed him to quickly defeat his foes both verbally and physically. In the final battle, he turns all of the Ninja into gold, which wouldn't have been reversed if not for Jay's quick thinking and his former first mate's Flintlocke's shot.
    • Acronix toys with the Ninja when he has the Green time blade, allowing him to fast forward time and partially absorb their powers.
    • Mr. E, once he wore the Mask of Vengeance, swiftly defeats all six ninja and absorbs and deflects their powers at each other.
    • For a brief moment, Mystake holds Garmadon at bay with her rage.
    • Garmadon and Lloyd together are no match for the Omega and retreat hastily till they seize the Golden Master's armor.
  • Cute Little Fangs: When a victim is bitten by a Fangpyre, the first sign of change is a pair of tiny fangs.
  • Cyberpunk: The third season has Ninjago City rebuilt into a futuristic city named New Ninjago City, complete with flying cars and robots. Unfortunately, the Overlord's spirit infiltrates the computer network and turns all the automations evil.
  • Cyborg: Cyrus Borg and Sensei Wu become this temporarily under the influence of the Overlord in season 3.
  • Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You:
    • Lloyd's father, Lord Garmadon, left his family out of a combined desire to conquer the world and to shield Lloyd from his own dark destiny and assure that Lloyd was free to choose his own path. Lloyd's mother, Misako, abandoned Lloyd at a boarding school shortly afterward in order to dedicate her time to seeking a loophole in the prophecy that said Lloyd and Garmadon would have to fight each other to determine the fate of the world. Lloyd holds particular resentment against Misako and outright tells her that she doesn't deserve to call herself his mother when they meet again, but after hearing her out and taking some time to cool down, he forgives her.
    • Zane witnessed his father's death, then found him alive on a distant island years later. Turns out he had been revived and abducted in order to make weapons and vehicles for the skeleton army and had been trapped on the island and unable to communicate with the outside world for years. He's afraid Zane will hold this all against him, but Zane is just happy to see him again.
    • Kai and Nya's parents, Ray and Maya, were presumed to have died when Nya was three and Kai was slightly older, until Kai discovered hints that his father was still alive and assisting one of their enemies. Turns out the enemy, Krux, had abducted Ray and Maya and forced them to work for him by threatening Kai and Nya's lives.
    • Jay hopes this is the case in regards to his biological parents, who abandoned him on his adopted parents' doorstep when he was a baby, but he hasn't received any explanation for it (yet).
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The Scrolls of Forbidden Spinjitzu make one's Spinjitzu more powerful but corrupt the user's personality as well. It is one of these scrolls, combined with amnesia and Vex's manipulation, that causes Zane to become the tyrannical Ice Emperor for decades in the Never-Realm.
  • Darker and Edgier: As the series goes on it gradually grows darker, starting with Season 3: Rebooted and Season 8: Sons of Garmadon being the darkest season yet.
    • The final two seasons are much darker than the proceeding three seasons.
  • Dark Is Evil:
    • Whenever Garmadon is in his Lord form he has a black color scheme and is, of course, evil. When the Devourer's venom is purified from his body, he appears as an ordinary elderly man wearing a black gi with white sleeves.
    • The Constrictai have black skin.
    • Dark matter is almost entirely black, has "dark" in the name, and is a Psycho Serum.
    • The Helmet of Shadows has a dark color scheme, has "shadows" in the name, and is used mostly by villains.
    • The overlord has a black color scheme, is referred to as "the embodiment of darkness", has the elemental power of "darkness" and is a Greater-Scope Villain who's literally Made of Evil.
    • The Oni have a black color scheme (again) and they're (except for Mystake) an Always Chaotic Evil race. This also extends to the smoke the Omega creates which is entirely black and turns whoever it touches into stone.
  • Dark Is Not Evil:
    • The ninja occasionally wear primarily black suits, since that's the most iconic color for ninja to use.
      • Cole in particular has black as his primary color.
      • Nya also uses primarily dark grey suits from season 8 onwards (except in March of the Oni) to match her appearance in The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
    • Despite his compulsion to be evil thanks to the Devourer's venom corrupting him, Garmadon (at least from the pilots to season 2) is more of a Tragic Villain because he doesn't WANT to be evil, he just can't help himself. His black and purple color scheme comes from his time condemned to the Underworld by Wu.
    • Despite their appearances and the fact that one of them has shadow powers, Karloff and Shade are currently allies and friends of the ninja (though neither were on the best terms with them at first).
    • Despite being an Oni, Mystake is an ally of the ninja.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Most of the seasons focus on one sole ninja.
    • The Pilot episodes focus on Kai.
    • Season 2 focuses on Lloyd.
    • Season 3 focuses on Zane.
    • Season 4 focuses on Kai.
    • Season 5 focuses on Nya, to a lesser extent.
    • Season 6 focuses on Jay.
    • Day of the Departed focuses on Cole.
    • Season 7 focuses on Kai and Nya.
    • Season 8 focuses on Lloyd again.
    • Season 11 focuses on Zane again.
    • Season 12 focuses on Jay again.
    • Season 13 focuses on Cole again.
    • Season 14 focuses on Nya again.
  • Dem Bones: The skeletons.
  • Death Is Cheap: Zane's father is revealed to be alive in episode 22. Though he's dead again by Season 3.
  • Demonic Possession:
    • In episode 25, the Overlord reincarnates himself in Garmadon's body.
    • Morro spends most of his arc possessing Lloyd.
  • Demoted to Extra: Nuckal and Kruncha appear as extras in several episodes before fighting the Serpentine alongside the other skeletons in "All of Nothing".
  • Denser and Wackier: The first half of Season 11, the first season of the Soft Reboot, is much more comedic and goofy than Seasons 8-10 (which were notable for their more serious tone), with the Ninja being a bit more exaggerated, and showing that at this point, the Ninja's fights with evil are more or less part of everyday life now, though the tone becomes a bit more serious in the second half, when they arrive in the Never Realm. The later seasons tone down some of the humor, with the jokes largely becoming more characterization-centric.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    Nadakhan: "You ungrateful INGRATES!"
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: To defeat the Cursed Realm ghosts without using water, the ninja use the Aeroblades, which are made of deepstone, a material they're weak to. They also have deepstone armor to prevent them from becoming possessed like Lloyd was by Morro.
  • Devour the Dragon: The Overlord taking Garmadon's body in episode 25.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • In season 5, Nya drops the trope name when she shoots a bomb onto the Allied Armor worn by Morro... who's possessing Lloyd. Ronin has to point out the problem with it.
      Ronin: You're going to blow up your friend?
    • In season 8, Lloyd says this after disabling a corrupted Samurai X, who was carrying Lloyd and Harumi through a storm.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The Weekend Whip frequently appears on radios, as a Karaoke song, and is even played by Lego versions of the Fold during a celebration of the Ninjas' victory.
  • Disaster Dominoes: While building docks in "Stiix and Stones", Zane swallows a fly and starts flailing around trying to get it out. Kai interprets his flailing as a cue to swing a crane around; the attached log hits Zane and damages his voice module, resulting in him only being able to speak backwards. This renders Zane unable to tell Cole that some Strangle Weed is trying to grab him, and he resorts to gesturing at the seaweed. Kai thinks these gestures mean he should drop the log; when he does so, it destroys the dock they've been working on and nearly squashes Cole and Jay.
  • Diving Save: Cole saves his father in the episode "The Royal Blacksmiths", allowing him to gain his true potential.
  • Downer Ending: Season 8 ends with the Ninja traveling to the Realm of the Oni and Dragons, leaving Lord Garmadon unopposed in his conquest of Ninjago.
  • The Dragon: Each Season has one:
    • The Pilot episodes have Samukai and the Skullion army for Lord Garmadon
    • Season 1 has Lloyd attempting to make the Serpentine "his" dragon but fails. Pythor and the generals of the Serpentine army become this to the Great Devourer.
    • Season 2 has Garmadon and the Stone Army (for the Overlord)
    • Season 3 has Pythor and Cryptor (for the Digital Overlord)
    • Season 4 has Clouse (for Master Chen) and Skylor (until her Heel–Face Turn)
    • Season 5 has the ghosts from the Cursed Realm acting as this for Morro but turns out Morro is one for the true Big Bad the Preeminent
    • Season 6 has the Sky Pirates first mate Flintlocke for Nadakhan
    • Season 7 has the generals of the Vermillion army being the dragon for the Hands of Time, Krux and Acronix
    • Season 8 and 9 has the Sons of Garmadon (specifically Harumi) in the role for Lord Garmadon
    • Season 9 has Heavy Metal for the Iron Baron, she is replaced in the role by Jet Jack
    • Season 10 has The Omega's army acting in the role for The Omega
    • Season 11 Fire Chapter has Char for Aspheera
    • Season 11 Ice Chapter has General Vex for the Ice Emperor
    • Season 12 has The Mechanic for Unagami
    • Season 13 has Grief-Bringer for Vangelis
    • Season 14 has Gripe for Kalmaar.
  • Dragon Ascendant: After the death of the Great Devourer and the disappearance of Pythor, Skales tried to become this and lead the Serpentine, but Lord Garmadon won them over before he did, leaving Skales with only the other generals.
  • Dragon Riders: The Ninja.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: A favorite tactic of the Ninja.
    • Season 1: Lloyd impersonates a Serpentine.
    • Season 2: The Ninja impersonate Stone Warriors.
    • Season 4: Lloyd, Cole, Kai, and Jay impersonate Chen's cultists and Nya impersonates a Kabuki servant.
    • Season 6: Cole, Nya, and Lloyd impersonate pirates.
    • Season 7: The Ninja impersonate Vermillion Warriors.
    • Season 8: Zane and Cole impersonate Sons of Garmadon.
    • Season 9: Cole and Young Wu impersonate Dragon Hunters.
    • Season 15: Lloyd dresses up as the Mechanic so he can infiltrate the Council of the Crystal King.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The poor Ultra Dragon.....it returns to the First Realm only to be killed off-screen by the Dragon Hunters.
  • Dwindling Party:
    • Season 6 revolves around a djinn coming after the ninja for his plans. To do so, he gets them alone and tricks them into making three wishes to which afterward he absorbs their souls into his sword. While they are brought back in time for the final battle, they're quickly dropped down in party numbers again as Nadakahn starts using his infinite wishes to turn each of them into golden statues. Near the end, only Jay and Nya are left. Nya is killed and Nadakhan has Jay in a position to use his final wish either wish her well or make him mortal. Only for Jay to thwart it by wishing that Nya had taken his hand at the start of the season which didn't delay them going after Clouse and no one found the teapot that sealed Nadakhan in the first place, undoing the entire season.
    • Season 12 steadily pulls this off throughout, though with an interesting twist as each of the Ninja have multiple lives before they're reduced to a cube. Cole and Kai both lose their final lives at the same time in a Heroic Sacrifice to help Lloyd, Nya, Jay, and Racer Seven win the Speedway Five-Billion. Lloyd loses his last life in a battle, defeating a digital Harumi to obtain the last Key-tana. And then Nya loses her last life protecting Jay from Sushimi.

    Tropes E - H 
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After the Overlord's first defeat, Garmadon is made good again and is able to truly bond with his son.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • During "The Green Ninja", Jay suddenly uses Wind during the team's battle with the Serpentine. Word of God stated this was a mistake, and it should be forgotten.
    • In a few rare parts of the show when Nya uses Spinjitzu, it's a red color, though once she starts to learn she's the Master of Water, it becomes a blue color.
  • Easter Egg: In the season 7 finale, shots from previous episodes can briefly be seen both times the Iron Doom travels through the Time Vortex. A few of these are moments from season 6, which is interesting because those events were erased at the end of that season.
  • Eating the Enemy: In the season 2 finale, Lloyd, being the legendary Green Ninja, confronts his dad who had transformed into the evil Overlord Dragon, a barer of darkness and evil. In the climax, the Overload envelops Lloyd and his Golden Dragon in darkness and tries to consume him. But within his mouth, Lloyd and the Golden Dragon combine their bright energy to to blast the Overload into oblivion.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • The Great Devourer, which was worshiped by the Serpentine Tribes. It's said that if unleashed, it'll consume the world in The Night That Never Ends.
    • The Preeminent, the Dimension Lord (and actual dimension) of the Cursed Realm, who's by far the most alien-looking of all the villains. For added Lovecraftian vibes, she even has tentacles.
  • Eldritch Location: Apparently the site where the Overlord was defeated. Building the Borg Industry headquarters on it allowed the Overlord to reform as a computer virus, which starts the conflict of the third season.
  • Elemental Powers: The ninja, skeletons, dragons, and the Serpentine (according to the toys) each have one of four elemental powers: Fire, Ice, Lightning and Earth. In the first two arcs, each element also had its own magical golden weapon. Arc 4 reveals that there are a lot more elements than previously thought. Elemental powers are passed down through generations tracing back to the first Elemental Masters.
    • Playing with Fire: The ninja Kai, Master of Fire, and the Sword of Fire.
    • Shock and Awe: The ninja Jay, Master of Lightning, and the Nunchucks of Lightning.
    • An Ice Person: The ninja Zane, Master of Ice, and the Shurikens of Ice.
    • Dishing Out Dirt: The ninja Cole, Master of Earth, the Constrictai Serpentine, and the Scythe of Quakes.
    • Light 'em Up: Sensei Wu and Paleman. The latter is able to manipulate light in order to turn himself completely invisible.
    • Casting a Shadow: Lord Garmadon uses this sort of magic against the ninja until the end of Season 2. As of Season 4, Shade, who is the Master of Shadow.
    • Green Thumb: Bolobo, Master of Nature.
    • Extra-ore-dinary: Karloff.
    • Pure Energy: The ninja Lloyd, Master of Energy, as of becoming the Green Ninja.
    • Poisonous Person: Toxikita
    • Make Me Wanna Shout: Jacob, Master of Sound. He relies on his abilities in order to see since he is completely blind.
    • Gravity Master: Gravis, Master of Gravity. He manipulates gravity to allow himself to float as well as hold people down.
    • Mind Manipulation: Neuro, Master of Mind. He is able to read other people's minds as well as send psychic messages to them.
    • Making a Splash: Nya, as of Season 5, is the Master of Water as well as a Ninja.
    • Blow You Away: Morro.
    • Super-Speed: Griffon Turner, Master of Speed.
    • Power Copying: Skylor, the Master of Amber. She can absorb other people's powers by touching them. This becomes a plot point when Master Chen decides to use her in place of the destroyed Elemental Staff to turn himself and his cult into Anacondrai.
    • Shapeshifting: Chamille, Master of Form.
    • Time Master: Krux and Acronix, the (former) Masters of Time. Acronix could accelerate the flow of time or force people/objects into slow motion. Krux could reverse time or freeze people/objects by stopping time. These powers were later taken from them and sealed inside four "time blades."
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: At the end of season 2, Lloyd becomes the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master, turning his uniform gold and allowing him to form a dragon out of light to annihilate the Overlord.
    • In the episode "Curse World: Part 2" (the LAST EPISODE of Season 5), Nya unlocks her full potential.
  • Endless Winter: Long before the events of Season 11, the Ice Emperor took control of the peaceful Never-Realm and trapped it in an endless winter.
  • Enemy Mine: Wu and Garmadon do this when the former needs the latter's help to save Lloyd.
    • As does Pythor in the season 4 finale. Being mortally offended by Chen's army of fake Anacondrai, he chooses to help the Ninja and even shouts their battle cry. It seems to turn into a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Environment-Specific Action Figure: A few group suits created for the spinner and flyer sets never appear in the show itself. Also, some Minifigure packs include characters in outfits they never wear in the show, such as Lloyd DX and Tournament Zane.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Lord Garmadon genuinely loves his son Lloyd.
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending: In the episode "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" after the ninja realized they were successful in setting right what once went wrong.
    • Really, you'd have an easier time listing the episodes that don't end with everybody laughing, at least in the first two seasons.
  • Everybody Lives: The conclusion to Season 15 ends with all of the heroes (As well as a resurrected Harumi who underwent a Heel–Face Turn near the end) alive and well.
  • Evil Cripple: Cyrus Borg is this both times he's possessed by the Overlord.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Garmadon and Pythor are rather hammy at their most devious. But Master Chen out-hams them ALL. Only one can remain!
  • Evil Tainted the Place: Several months after the defeat of the Great Devourer in episode 13, its venom began to seep through the ground, turning anything it touched evil. This results in the revival of the Stone Army in episode 20.
    • The ultimate evil Overlord was defeated by the heroes in the middle of a crowded city in a major "final" battle that apparently destroyed the Overlord forever and created a clearing about the size of a small park. Following a one-year Time Skip, they come back to this site and discover that an eccentric tech genius has built a sky scraper right on top of the clearing. Through this fine fellow's Genre Blindness a remnant of the ultimate evil becomes a virus in the network of his systems.
  • Evil Tastes Good: During the montage of Garmadon's stay with the ninja in "The Green Ninja" he is shown eating "condensed evil". Apparently, it's low-fat.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Garmadon against the Serpentine.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: The climax of the first season sees Garmadon face off against the Great Devourer. Although Garmadon wants to take over Ninjago, the Great Devourer is a mindless beast that will eat everything in Ninjago if it isn't stopped.
  • Evolving Credits: In seasons 1 and 3 the intro changes to match the ninja's new suits. Lloyd's appearance in the intro also changes halfway through Season 2 to match his Plot-Relevant Age-Up.
  • Exact Words:
    • When his students ask if one of them will become the Green Ninja if they prove themselves better than all the others, Wu replies "If that's what it takes to get you motivated to train..." He never outright says any of them will be the Green Ninja, and sure enough, the eventual Green Ninja isn't any of Wu's students.
    • When Cole claims he doesn't fear anything from this world, Zane points out Cole's afraid of dragons. Cole reminds him that dragons aren't from this world.
    • In the events of "The Titanium Ninja", Zane sacrifices himself to stop the Overlord, who says "The Golden Weapns are too powerful for you to behold, your survival chance is 0!" to which Zane says his final words: "This isn't about numbers, it's about family." and sacrifices himself to save the others.
    • Nadakhan's wishes can fall into this. Since he's a Jackass Genie, he's very capable of twisting one's words, even if the wisher tries to wish that he can't do so. It bites him in the tail when Jay wishes Nya had taken his hand as they were using Airjitzu to hurry to stop Klouse finding Nadakhan's teapot, and that no-one had found the teapot in the first place. As Nya had refused to do so out of stubbornness and Nadakhan also can't force people to fall in love, he's forced to rewind time, but preserve Jay and Nya's memories, as they had confessed to one another after he was awakened.
  • Expy:
    • Samukai is similar-looking to General Grievous. He even has similar fighting moves and four arms.
    • [Zane shares quite a few traits with Data.
    • Morro was raised and trained by a great teacher to become a great warrior, but when he learned that it wasn't meant to be, he left in a fit of violent rage to "prove himself", by any means necessary. Hmm...
    • Lloyd and Garmadon are pretty blatant expies of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader — the show goes so far as to reveal a comic book cover that shows said father and son in duel poses with lightsabers that are a rip-off of Luke and Vader in Cloud City.
  • Extreme Omnivore: The Starteeth (monster starfish) in "The Last Voyage”. They eat ships and even metal!
  • Eye Open: Every intro up until Season 11 opens with one of the main characters doing this.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • Sensei Wu does this in Season 3 when he's turned into a cyborg by the Overlord. He eventually gets better.
    • Also played with in Kai in season 4. He fakes it at first, but then he almost actually does turn evil while holding the Elemental Staff, Lord of the Rings style.
    • Kai believed this to be the case regarding his parents, Ray and Maya, after the Serpentine War. This is subverted later in the season.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Though it already seemed pretty clear, episode "Dread on Arrival" establishes that the Ninjago City Police Department carries no lethal firearms, just tasers.
  • Fangirl: In the episode "The Last Voyage", before sailing off Sensei Wu points out that Zane has fangirls as well as fanboys. This happens again when the Ninja gained 15 Minutes of Fame on the beginning of Season 6.
  • Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: The "Book of Ninjago" on the official website lists exotic flora and fauna for most of Ninjago's key locations. Their exotic qualities are often wildly unrealistic and Played for Laughs.
  • Fantastic Racism: Kalmaar hates the "surface dwellers" to a genocidal degree.
  • Fantasy World Map: It's in the shape of a dragon's head.
  • Fighting Across Time and Space:
    • In the season 5 finale, Curseworld, Part II, Lloyd and Morro battle for the Realm Crystal while teleporting through various realms seen in previous episodes, as well as the realm of Chima.
    • In the Ninjago: Reimagined short, "Golden Hour", Wu and the Time Twins travel through various past moments from the TV series, with the twins wishing to interfere and alter the timeline before Wu stops them and they all teleport away again.
  • Fighting a Shadow: While he was sealed in the Underworld, Lord Garmadon could project his shadow to the real world. The only way to fight it is with your own shadow, otherwise, it can hit you but not the other way around.
  • Filler: The first half of season 2 consists of highly episodic adventures where the Ninja foil Garmadon's latest scheme, as the writing team had to stall for time until they were told about the new villains. Tellingly, this half of the season doesn't have any tie-in Lego sets and the only episode that furthers the Myth Arc about the prophecy of the Green Ninja is the one where Lloyd receives a Plot-Relevant Age-Up.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: And earth.
  • Five-Man Band Concert: The third episode of the Wu's Teas series of shorts features the Ninja performing to advertise Wu's Tea Shop. The Chosen One Lloyd is the singer, The Ace Nya is on the drums, Big Brother Mentor Kai and Large Ham Jay are the guitarists, and The Big Guy Cole plays the electric bass. Notably, Zane is absent.
  • Flashback: In "Tick Tock", after activating his memory switch, Zane remembers his past and his father.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In "Only One Can Remain" if you look closely as Kai is spying into Skylor's room, the painting on the wall is of Master Chen. Later, it turns out she's his daughter.
    • Early in season 5, Kai, Zane, Cole, and Jay ride yak-like wallopers and one of their mounts is turned into a ghost. A few episodes later, that creature's rider is also turned into a ghost.
    • The opening of season 6 manages to tell us who will be sucked into Nadakhan's Sword of Souls, and the order in which it happens. Even when there are shots showing two characters, the distance between them and the screen also count as well.
  • Forgot About His Powers:
    • The Ninja don't use their True Potential (NRG) forms at all between "Darkness Shall Rise" and "The Last Hope".
    • For most of these episodes this makes sense, as they have lost their Golden Weapons, and with them most of their elemental powers, but even after they have regained their elemental powers from the four Elemental Blades, they don't think to enter these forms. And there are a lot of instances in "The Last Hope" when magic levitation would have really come in handy...
    • Airjitsu and the Elemental Dragons are conspicuously absent from the series during Seasons 8 and 9.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Kai is choleric, Jay is sanguine, Cole is phlegmatic, and Zane is melancholic.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Near the end of "The Green Ninja" when the Fire Temple is flooding with lava and about to erupt, Kai is forced to save Lloyd and let the third Silver Fang Blade be lost.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: A couple of them, including:
    • Signs that are extremely similar to a KFC sign are found on Dareth's dojo building in "The Day Ninjago Stood Still".
    • Again, on top of the building in which Dareth's dojo is situated, there's a billboard that you can see at one point in "Pirates vs. Ninja". Take a good long look at it and think back: Who rode a rollercoaster in one episode? Hmm...
    • In the episode "The Royal Blacksmiths", you can catch a brief glimpse of the announcer's notes◊ in the talent competition. They're very... interesting, to say the least.
    TONIGHT NOTES
    - OPEN W. JOKE ABOUT
    CONDUCTOR'S BOW TIE
    - PRESENT JUDGES
    - ALT. TREBLE MAKERS
    - DON'T SOUND LIKE AN
    AS S HOLE THIS EVENING
    REMEMBER!
    CHARM!
    CONFIDENCE !
    DELICIOUS HAIR!
  • Fun with Acronyms: P.I.X.A.L. (Primary Interactive X-ternal Assistant Life-form)
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In "The Surge", Kai gets his foot stuck in Borg Industries' automatic sliding door. He stays stuck for the duration of P.I.X.A.L.'s introduction scene and can be seen trying to free himself in a few shots.
    • When the ninja are in space and gather around the view-screen to talk to Wu, Lloyd has some trouble navigating in zero gravity. Just as he manages to 'swim' over, Cole swings his arm to accentuate a statement, knocking Lloyd back. No one notices.
    • At the end of Skybound, while the rest of the team is discussing their final plan, Zane is trying to remove the gag that's attached to Jay's face. At one point, Zane climbs onto Jay for better leverage.
  • Future Imperfect: A museum artist's rendition of the ancient Serpentine gives them giant spikes all over their bodies and actual snakes for arms.
    Skales: (amused) Boy, did they get that wrong.
  • Genius Cripple: Cyrus Borg is usually this.
  • Genius Loci: The Cursed Realm is revealed to in fact be its leader, the Preeminent, an Eldritch Abomination Oculothorax whose goal is to curse all sixteen realms.
  • Glowing Eyes: When a ninja's true potential is unlocked.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The Great Devourer is so great a threat that giving Garmadon the Golden Weapons is the only option to destroy it.
  • Grand Finale: Season 15 is this for the original Ninjago TV show.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The Overlord appears directly as the Big Bad in multiple seasons, but even when they aren't in focus—or even mentioned—they turn out to be a major driving force which is fitting, considering they're basically the personification of evil. Turns out, they're responsible for corrupting the Great Devourer, who would go on to corrupt Garmadon and inspire the Quiet One, making them directly or indirectly responsible for 8 seasons worth of villains. Great Devourer in season 1, Garmadon/Overlord in season 2, Digital Overlord in season 3, Vermillion warriors in season 7, Sons of Garmadon in season 8, Garmadon in season 9, Skull Sorcerer in season 13, Crystal King in season 15.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Lloyd early on in season 1, after being betrayed by Pythor.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door:
    • Lord Garmadon. Though it's not actually his fault, considering he literally has evil in his blood thanks to being bitten by the Great Devourer. He does a true Heel–Face Turn after the first defeat of the Overlord purges the venom from his body.
    • Pythor seemingly reforms in season 4, mainly because he doesn't like that Master Chen is making a mockery of his once noble race. He goes back to being a villain in "Day of the Departed".
  • Heel–Race Turn:
    • The Serpentine do this after being sealed away again, having started families, and generally trying to become better people and live peacefully. The Ninja are naturally surprised by this.
    • Averted with the Anacondrai; they were a race of noble warriors and Pythor is actually a Black Sheep. After Pythor helps the ninja in season 4, the ghost of the past Anacondrai generals praises him for "finally" being a true Anacondrai. Unfortunately, this doesn't last.
  • Heist Clash:
    • When the Ninja arrive to steal the Scythe of Quakes from the Caves of Despair, they find Samukai's skeleton army has beaten them to the site. However, Samukai was holding the map upside down and had his men start digging in the wrong location, giving the ninja the opportunity to head to the Scythe's actual location before being spotted as they leave.
    • The Ninja and Serpentine clash when trying to find the first three of the Four Silver Fangblades:
      • The Serpentine dig up the Hypnobrai Fangblade at the Mega Monster Amusement Park and the Ninja arrive to keep them from leaving, only for Zane to accidentally freeze everyone when he enters NRG Mode for the second time. Samurai X arrives to steal the Fangblade from the Serpentine but is eventually disabled and the Serpentine escape with their intended haul.
      • The Constrictai Fangblade is found out to be used as part of the trophy for an annual competition Cole's dad has won multiple times. The Ninja decide they will have to steal the trophy before the Serpentine can (though the Serpentine end up entering the competition for real and blackmail the judges to give them high scores), but Cole's dad is disappointed in his son's plan so the Ninja enter and win the competition through legitimate means. In the end, Pythor attacks the ninja and steals the trophy.
      • The Ninja arrive at the Fire Temple to interrupt the Serpentine stealing the Fangpyre Fangblade, and the fight ends up making the volcano unstable and necessitating everyone to evacuate. The Fangblade is left in the volcano, but Pythor ends up finding it in the lava flow outside.
    • Unable to negotiate with Ronin to hand over the scroll of Airjitzu through accessible means, the Ninja decide to steal it from him. Morro beats them to the heist, though Kai finds out from Ronin that there is another scroll in exchange for giving him their shares from Sensei Wu's tea farm.
  • "Hell, Yes!" Moment: The Ninja getting their upgraded Elemental Powers, meaning the Stone Army's Nigh-Invulnerable status just expired.
  • Henshin Hero: The series goes all over the place with this. The ninja's NRG forms are tied to their true potential, and Llyod's Golden Ninja status requires him to possess the Golden Power, aka the elemental powers of Kai, Jay, Zane and Cole.
  • Heroic BSoD: Zane in "Tick Tock". See Big "NO!" above for why.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: It's mind-boggling how the ninja' multicolored outfits don't immediately give away their presence on occasions when they choose to act stealthy. Particularly when Zane's attire turned pink due to being washed, which actually worked to his advantage later on.
    • Usually when the ninja are caught when trying to be stealthy, it's because they couldn't keep their mouths shut, making them 'Highly Audible Ninja' as well.
    • The New Ninja from Season 15 are almost worse. While they manage to be stealthy sometimes it seems like they go out of their way to use the flashiest and most noticeable moves possible.
  • History Repeats: The Serpentine hid underground when the series started, then they escaped, then they got sealed underground again, then they escaped again.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: The Serpentine during "The Royal Blacksmiths".
  • Humongous Mecha: Nya has her Samurai X mech, and in Episode 26 Lloyd has a golden mech that belonged to the First Spinjitzu Master.
  • Hydro-Electro Combo: Jay, the Elemental Master of Lightning and Nya, the Elemental Master of Water often combine their powers to fight enemies. Season 6 even has both of them combining their powers to create one Elemental Dragon to ride on.
  • Hypnotism Reversal: Played for Horror and Laughs simultaneously when Lloyd Garmadon accidentally hypnotizes the leader of the Hypnobrai tribe via ducking when he was standing in front of a reflective surface, gaining him total control over the Hypnobrai. He then forced them to steal candy from the nearby town.

    Tropes I - O 
  • I Am One of Those, Too: When Cole uses the fake name "Rocky Dangerbuff" in the First Realm, he discovers that there's an actual Dangerbuff clan. Luckily, running away at the prospect of being introduced to other Dangerbuffs who could blow his cover is apparently in character.
  • I Am the Noun: In volume nine of the comic books, Zane boasts to Jay by saying "I am power."
  • I Know Karate: In the episode "Snakebit", the lights turn off in the junkyard, leaving Jay's parents Ed and Edna in darkness. Feeling danger about, Ed musters up the courage to yell to the darkness: "Whoever you are, my son knows Spinjitzu!"
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
    • Lloyd has one with Lord Garmadon in Season 2 when his body is stolen by the Overlord. He fails.
    • Kai had a couple of them with Lloyd over the course of Season 5, when Lloyd was possessed by Morro.
    • Lloyd again, facing the Ice Emperor aka Zane in Season 11.
  • I Lied:
    • Young Wu pulls this on the Iron Baron in Season 9, after promising to lead him to the Dragon Armor and assuring him it would control Firstbourne.
    • The Skull Sorceror in Season 13 after promising to release the Geckles and Munce if the Ninja surrendered themselves.
  • Idiot Ball:
    • Sensei Wu sending the four ninja away so he can face Pythor alone, because "it's his destiny". Yeah, letting yourself be killed in front of your students and friends is kinda stupid. Not to mention that all of them together against Pythor alone would've been a Curb-Stomp Battle, all but guaranteeing that the Great Devourer wouldn't be revived. Of course, his students then proceed to pick up the Idiot Ball themselves, by forgetting that they've got their own vehicles and a Humongous Mecha which can fly, instead of waiting for Lloyd to show up with the airship several minutes later before chasing after Pythor and Wu.
    • He does so again in Season 7, going alone to face Acronix when he knows specifically when Acronix is due to return and doesn't tell the ninja, resulting in being defeated and struck by accelerated aging in the process. Notably the ninja actually call him out on this one.
    • A minor one in Season 10. Lloyd sees one of his friends frozen by the Oni and wants to save him, trying to convince Garmadon to help carry him. While it's a noble desire to want to save civilians, Garmadon rightly points out that carrying him would render them both incapable of defending themselves. The idiotic part? The friend is Cyrus Borg, who is in his wheelchair. There's no need to carry him. Lloyd would only have to push the chair.
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction:
    • When the Vermillion Warriors are rounding up all the scrap metal they can, they take Dareth's trophies.
      Ronin: What, why would anybody take your trophies? They're fake.
      Dareth: I know! They're irreplaceable! That's why I'm here. To replace them.
    • In Season 9, Wu confidently assures Faith that he knows the location of the Dragon Armor.
      Kai: And when has our master ever led us astray? [to Wu] Why are you leading us astray?
  • Informed Ability: According to the product description for her spinner set, Nya has psychic powers. This is never even hinted at elsewhere— the closest suggestion is the official website's statement that her specialty is "intuition." This was later shown, but only when she had been turned evil.
  • Instant Flight: Just Add Spinning!: Basically what Season 5's Airjitzu is for the user.
  • Instant Sedation: In "Can of Worms", Samurai X does this with her Knockout Gas.
  • It's Been Done: Jay when Mr. E puts on the Oni Mask of Vengeance.
    Jay: Really, four arms?! Pfft! Like that's new!
  • Jackass Genie: Nadakhan in Skybound. That is, except for Jay's final wish.
  • Jail Bake: When the ninja are imprisoned following Nadakahn framing them in "Infamous," they ask Dareth to get them out (presumably via legal means). He tells them he baked some tools into the cake he'd sent. Most of them didn't even know he'd sent a cake because Cole had eaten it right when it arrived, tools and all.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: The mayor is a complete asshole but he does have a point that the ninja cause a lot of property damage.
  • Journey to the Sky: In the fifth episode of Season 5, "Peak-a-Boo", the ninja use their mechs to climb the tallest mountain in Ninjago, the Wailing Alps, to reach the "Blind Man's Eye", a storm cyclone which is one of the only ways to travel to the alternate realm known as the "Cloud Kingdom".
  • Just One Second Out of Sync: In Stone Cold, one of the tie-in graphic novels, a villain known as the Time Ninja lives a second ahead of everyone else because he once exposed himself to the "Chrono Crater" in an attempt to become immortal. As a result, he is unbeatable in hand-to-hand combat and knows everything one will say before one says it. Wu is able to defeat him by setting up a trap that takes longer than a second to escape from.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: At the end of "Can of Worms", Lloyd attempts to apologize to Cole for a prank by giving him a can of nuts. Cole declines the can, as he's pretty sure the can has a bunch of fake snakes inside that'll fly out when it's opened (and Lloyd has opened such a can in front of him before). Cole then opens the refrigerator and gets startled by a bunch of fake snakes that fly out.
    Cole: Don't think I don't see what this is. When I open this, a bunch of snakes are gonna pop out, right? Yeah, no thank you.
  • Kent Brockman News: The focus of the episode "Snaketastrophy," which is presented as an NGTV broadcast. Highlights include Fred Finely conducting on-the-street interviews in the middle of an attack and calmly responding to a man screaming in terror with "That's an interesting perspective," and the anchor assuming Gail Gossip is continuing to cover a puppy-petting contest while flaming snakes are raining from the sky.
  • Kids Hate Vegetables: In "Rise of the Snakes," Bratty Half-Pint Lloyd Garmadon appears in Jamanakai Village and demands all the candy in town, but the villagers boo at him and throw fruits and vegetables, to which Lloyd exclaims that he hates vegetables.
  • Kill It with Water: Ghosts are especially weak to water; being exposed to too much of it disintegrates them and sends them back to the Cursed Realm. The Cursed Realm itself is also weak to water; its physical embodiment (the Preeminent) is destroyed by being dragged underwater by a tidal wave.
  • Last-Name Basis: Garmadon is only ever referred to by a title, then his last name. Lord Garmadon when he was evil and trying to take over the world, and later Sensei Garmadon. He has a son named Lloyd Garmadon and a brother, who is only ever called Wu. (Wu Garmadon? Who knows.)
    • Consider this: Garmadon and Wu, sons of the First Spinjitzu Master who created Ninjago, actually predate last names and each has Only One Name. Lloyd, born much later into a world where last names are established, uses his father's name as a patronym.
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: The Green Ninja, the being destined to defeat Lord Garmadon.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • Sensei Wu says in March of the Oni that everything has an ending eventually, and that all you can do is try and make the ending a good one. The Hageman Brothers announced they were leaving the series sometime before March of the Oni had promotional materials, indicating the end of their tenure and hope to end it with a bang.
    • When recurring character the Postman makes his (only) appearance in season 8, he tells Kai "See you next season." When Kai questions it, he clarifies that he means season as it "spring, fall, etc." He does make an appearance in season 9, but he doesn't actually interact with the ninja.
  • Left the Background Music On: In the episode "The Last Voyage", Cole begins to hum the Ninjago Overture (the show's main leitmotif) and gets stared at by Kai, to which Cole replies "What? It's catchy!"
  • Lethal Joke Item: In the "Spinjitzu Scavenger Hunt" iPhone game, the outfit with the second-highest defense rating is a set of pajamas. The second strongest weapon is Kai's toothbrush. It may be worth noting that, in the pilot episodes, Kai defeats three fully prepared, well-armed, and stereotypically clad ninja (who were actually Jay, Cole, and Zane in disguise) while wearing his pajamas and wielding his electric toothbrush.
  • Light Is Good:
    • Sensei Wu has white hair, generally dresses in white or at least bright colored suits, and has the creation elemental power which is represented by light.
    • Zane's primary color is white and is definitely heroic, being a ninja.
    • Golden power gives the user the ability to throw bright energy beams, a glowing Golden Super Mode, is sometimes referred to as "light" and it can literally erase any evil it touches.
    • Paleman's element is light and he's an ally of the ninja.
  • Light Is Not Good: In his Golden Master form the Overlord has light powers and shining golden armor but is no less evil
  • Lighter and Softer: The 11th season, "Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu" is more comedy-orientated compared to the extremely dark seasons that preceded it.
  • Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: Jay and Kai. Kai is rash and impulsive like fire, Jay is... erratic and spontaneous like lightning (in contrast to the usual for this trope).
  • Logic Bomb: In "Child's Play", Zane begins to fritz when presented with a question with no obvious, logical answer. After all, how can a robot can be turned into a child?
  • Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: In the fifth graphic novel, (which is an AU type of thing) the Serpentine capture Nya and puts her to work blacksmithing weapons. What does she do with all the scrap metal? Why she builds her iconic Samurai Mech of course!
  • Love Triangle: In the third season, Nya uses a matchmaking machine and learns that her perfect match is Cole. Problem is, she is Jay's girlfriend. This causes her to have second thoughts about their relationship.
  • Lower-Deck Episode: "The News Never Sleeps" and "Snaketastrophy" in season 11 both focus on normal people in Ninjago City reacting to yet another emergency while the Ninja are otherwise occupied. The former episode focuses on a group of determined paperboys (and papergirls) making sure the news gets delivered, while the latter episode focuses on an actual news broadcast and shows how the media covers the chaos.
  • The Magic Goes Away: Downplayed as the end of Season 15 has the four original Ninja sacrificing the Golden Weapons and their elemental powers to help Lloyd defeat the Crystal King, and once the final battle has ended, the elements scatter off to parts unknown, though the Ninja do have hope the elements will return one day.
  • The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Played with in "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" when Kai poses as his past self's reflection to distract him while the other ninja kidnap Nya.
  • Mask of Power: The three Oni Masks. The Mask of Hatred (purple) grants the user Nigh-Invulnerability, the Mask of Deception (orange) grants the user telekinesis, and the Mask of Vengeance (red) turns the user into a master swordsman with two additional arms.
  • Meaningful Name: The theme name itself. The meaning of "Ninja GO!" is obvious, but it's also a portmanteau of Ninja and LEGO. The skeleton names also have fairly obvious meanings.
    • The Serpentine tribes all have names referencing their racial traits; Hypnobrai can hypnotize people, Fangpyre (a portmanteau of "fang" and "vampire") can use their fangs to create vehicles and transform people, Venomari can spit venom into people's eyes to make them hallucinate, Constrictai are, well, constrictors (though their main talent seems to be burrowing and Skalidor is the only one with a tail to constrict, so they may be the odd one out), and Anacondrai are the largest tribe just as anacondas are the largest species of snake in real life.
    • The Green Ninja, Lloyd, is also the least experienced of the ninja - literally making him a 'green' ninja.
    • Cole. Sounds like "coal", which is both of his element (earth), and his color.
    • According to the show's staff, Morro was so named because "he always wanted more."
    • Nadakhan the Djin might seem like his name was picked just to sound foreign, but it hits at how he deceives others. Even his name tries to convince you that he's 'not-a-con'!
    • Acronix, the younger Time Twin, is named after the computer program used to animate the show; foreshadowing his love of technology.
    • Krux, the elder Time Twin, is a play on the word 'crux', which means "a climactic or decisive moment"; which foreshadows the fact that he's the source of most of his arc's plot twists.
    • The Vermillion Warriors from the same season have three commanders: Blunck, Raggmunk, and Machia. Blunck and Raggmunk, with silly-sounding gibberish names, act as comic relief. The third one, named for Machiavelli, is much more competent as a strategist.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The villains of the 2014 line. In the third season of the TV series, the Overlord takes over New Ninjago City and creates an army of Nindroids to track down the ninja. They're surprisingly powerful and are more than a match for the ninja.
  • Mechanical Animals: In season 1, Zane comes into possession of a falcon that turns out to be robotic in nature, which is eventually used to act as a form of long-range scout. It's eventually upgraded to resemble Zane's new titanium appearance and then even further into a more drone-like appearance
  • Merchandise-Driven: Being that this is a Lego series... yeah.
  • Mid-Season Twist: "Tick Tock" reveals that Zane is in fact a Ridiculously Human Robot.
    • "The Curse of the Golden Master" reveals that Pythor is alive and working alongside the Overlord.
    • "A Spy for a Spy" reveals that Skylor is, in fact, Master Chen's daughter and accomplice.
  • Mind Screw: In "The Oni and the Dragon", Cole mentions the Metallica song "Creeping Death". What's so weird about this, is that "Creeping Death" is based on the events of the Book of Exodus, which doesn't exist in the Ninjago universe.
  • Mirrored Confrontation Shot: In "Powerless", the ninja are fighting to get the Scroll of Forbidden Spinjitzu at the museum before Aspheera does. The scroll ends up in the middle of the room and the ensuing shot has each side running to the middle of the room, with each of the ninja fighting Aspheera or one of her giant fire snake creatures.
  • Mistaken for Santa: In "Can of Worms", Kai gets sprayed by Venomari venom, which causes him to hallucinate about Christmas. When Samurai X arrives to rescue the ninjas, Kai says, "Santa?" after seeing her.
  • Monster of the Week: The first half of season two was largely just Garmadon throwing random monsters at the Ninja Saturday Morning Cartoon Style (and sometimes not even that, with one episode being the Ninja competing against him in a race with zero evil schemes). Once Cerebus Syndrome hit for the second time and things became more plot driven this format was never used again.
  • Mood Whiplash: In "A Sinister Shadow", Harumi makes a string of corny jokes. Eventually, she yells at Lloyd for not looking for her following her death. After Lloyd reveals that he did search for her body, we cut to a flashback of Lloyd fruitlessly searching the rubble of the collapsed building for Harumi's body.
  • Morality Pet: Garmadon's protectiveness and love for his son Lloyd is generally the only thing that can make his original, good personality apparent.
  • Motion Blur: This became common when the show switched to WildBrain for its animation. For example, the Prime Empire short "Let's Dance!" utilizes it to show the dance instructor moving quickly around the room and into different poses as well as Nya and Jay spinning around. In fact, Nya appears twice in many frames at one point.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The series has a penchant for this, owing to usually having four collectables and thus allowing the villain to wield them all.
    • Samukai has four arms, indicating his superiority over the other skeletons.
    • Garmadon grows a second pair of arms later on so he can hold all four Golden Weapons at once. Unlike Samukai, he isn't destroyed by attempting to do so.
    • Kozu, leader of the Stone Warriors, also possesses four arms, leading to two four-armed warriors leading them when Garmadon takes control of the army.
    • Nadakhan has four arms, though he only has one sword (the sets included different variations to represent different people sealed within).
    • The wearer of the Oni Mask of Vengeance has this happen to them, by which point it's lampshaded.
    • The Crystal King has four arms at some points.
  • The Multiverse: The "Ghost Army" arc reveals that there are other "realms" besides Ninjago, apparently 16 in total, one of them being Chima.
  • Mundane Utility:
    • The first episode of the series has Kai use the Sword of Fire, which was originally used to create Ninjago itself, to reheat a slice of pizza.
    • Garmadon's Mega Weapon can create anything from thin air once per day. A few Serpentine earnestly suggest using it to make a giant ham sandwich because they're hungry, only to get thrown off their ship by Garmadon because he thinks the idea is stupid.
  • Mushroom Samba: Happens to victims of Venomari venom. When the combined forces of the Venomari and Constrictai are attacking the ninja Kai sees them as angry elves and gingerbread men, and also becomes convinced there's a rope they can use to get to safety (though then an actual rope appears). Later on, when they get back on the ship he sees Wu's beard moving.
  • My Future Self and Me: Happened in the climax of the episode "Wrong Place, Wrong Time". Even though they tried Never the Selves Shall Meet, it didn't work.
  • My Greatest Failure: Wu seems to regard Morro as one.
  • Mysterious Middle Initial: What exactly does the P stand for in Pythor P. Chumsworth?
  • Mythology Gag: In "The Royal Blacksmiths", Cole mentioned that the Silver Fang used for the Blade Cup was found by someone named Clutch Powers.
  • Nature Equals Plants: Bolobo, Master of Nature, has plant based powers, being able to rapidly grow and control them.
  • Near-Miss Groin Attack: Kai narrowly avoids getting stabbed in the crotch by a booby-trap triggered stalactite in the episode "Grave Danger".
  • Never Say "Die": Season 5 involves ghosts, so this comes up a bit. There's a ghost archer whose spirit arrows never miss that turn whatever they hit into a ghost. One episode has the Ninja trapped in a Haunted House that they must escape before sunrise or else they'll turn into ghosts.
  • New Season, New Name: Every season since Season 3 has had this.
    • Season 3 is named Ninjago: Rebooted because of its cyberpunk setting. Also possibly because of how Season 2's ending could have served as a series finale.
    • Season 4 is named Ninjago: The Tournament of Elements because of, well, The Tournament of Elements.
    • Season 5 is named Ninjago: Possession because of the season's supernatural theme, more specifically Lloyd being possessed by Morro for most of the season.
    • Season 6 is named Ninjago: Skybound because of the Sky Pirates.
    • Season 7 is named Ninjago: The Hands of Time because of its focus on Time Travel.
    • Season 8 is named Ninjago: Sons of Garmadon after the latest group of antagonists.
    • Season 9 is named Ninjago: Hunted referring to how both sides of Two Lines, No Waiting are on the run from their respective group of antagonists.
    • Season 10 is named Ninjago: March of the Oni referring to the latest villains
    • Season 11 is named Ninjago: Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu referring to scrolls containing dark magic.
    • Season 12 is named Ninjago: Prime Empire, after the titular video game the ninja enter.
    • Season 13 is named Ninjago: Master of the Mountain, set within a...well, mountain.
    • Season 14 is named Ninjago: Seabound, taking place largely underwater, and was preceeded by the miniseries Ninjago: The Island, set on a smaller island.
    • Season 15 is named Ninjago: Crystallized, hearlded by the Crystal King and his Crystal Council, with crystals being a strong motif throughout the season.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • In season 2, after the ninja steal the Overlord's helmet in an attempt to stop the showdown between Lloyd and Garmadon, Nya convinces Jay not to wear it under the suspicion that it will turn him evil. Only it turns out that whoever wears the helmet controls the stone army. Had Jay kept the helmet on, the battle might never have happened, and would have been much easier on the ninja even if it had. To make matters worse, Nya winds up (temporarily) turned evil thanks to her decision.
    • In season 11, the ninja wind up accidentally freeing Aspheera while exploring a tomb, leading to her attacking Ninjago City seeking revenge on Master Wu and ultimately banishing Zane to the Never Realm, setting off the events of the Ice Chapter. Oops.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • So Lord Garmadon, because Lloyd is your son, rather than kill him, you wanted to prevent him from reaching his full potential by killing his ninja bodyguards, and in trying to do so, you bring about a monster who only gets defeated by a method that...ends up having Lloyd reach his full potential fast. And he does so in an unwelcome method no less.
    • While fighting Garmadon, the Overlord brags that he was the one who corrupted the Great Devourer so that her venom would corrupt Garmadon in the first place, in an attempt to break Garmadon's spirit and demonstrate that he controls Garmadon's fate. Unfortunately for him, his dragon Harumi was turned to evil in the first place because of the destruction the Great Devourer caused. Cue change of heart.
  • The Night That Never Ends: A mural in the Constrictai's tomb predicts that if the four Serpentine Tribes unite and find several Artifacts Of Doom, they'll be able to summon the Great Devourer to trigger this.
  • Ninja: The central selling point of the show - it's even in the title!
  • Non-Verbal Miscommunication: The ninja spend a day building docks to earn money to buy the Scroll of Airjitzu, with Zane using arm signals to tell Kai what to do with the crane he's operating. Kai misinterpreting an unrelated set of gestures as directions to swing a log around leads to Zane's voice getting damaged. Zane consequently has to point at some sea life that's threatening Cole instead of warning him verbally, and Kai thinks his pointing means he should drop the log attached to the crane. Cole and Jay are nearly crushed by the log, the dock they were working on gets destroyed, and the team doesn't get paid for any of the work they did.
  • Not Actually the Ultimate Question: When Zane meets P.I.X.A.L., another nindroid without his emotional capacity, she introduces herself as "Primary Interactive X-ternal Assistant Life-form" and asks what Zane stands for. Zane starts giving a speech about standing for honor and justice, before Jay points out that P.I.X.A.L. just assumed his name is also an acronym.
  • Not Now, Kiddo: This constantly happens when the ninja-turned-kids try to warn people about the beast on the loose.
  • Not So Stoic: Zane after he discovers he's a robot.
  • The Nth Doctor: A non-actor example. As of Season 8, the ninja are redesigned to match their movie counterparts. It's implied in "The Mask of Deception" that time travel effects from the previous season caused this. However, the ninja still sport their old designs in photographs and flashbacks from before Season 8, calling this explanation into question.
    Cole: If someone goes back in time and alters the past, our reality as we know it would change. We could look totally different and not even know it. (Takes off the mask to reveal the new face and hair design)
    Jay: But we don't. (Also takes off mask to reveal new design)
  • Oculothorax: The Preeminent is an eye with tentacles coming off of her. When she crosses over into Ninjago, she becomes a Kaiju Eldritch Abomination and uses ghost-ified houses and buildings to enhance her physical form, giving herself limbs.
  • Official Couple: A few:
    • Jay and Nya, who got together in Season 2 then broke up in Season 3 before getting back and staying together from Season 6 onward.
    • Zane and P.I.X.A.L who got together in Season 3.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
    • Kai escaping a volcano and saving Lloyd, gaining his true potential in "The Green Ninja".
    • The Ninja taming a giant scorpion and riding it back to Ninjago City.
  • One-Winged Angel:
    • Becoming the leader of one of the Serpentine Tribes results in taking on a more snake-like form.
    • The Overlord reverts into its true form, an enormous dragon, in the season 2 finale.
  • Only One Name: Almost all of the main characters and villains except for Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon and Pythor P. Chumsworth. Only two ninja have their last names revealed: Jay's is Walker/Gordon, revealed in season 6 to be his real last name since he is adopted, and is the son of Cliff Gordon aka Frintz Donnegan, and Zane's is technically Julien since that was his creator's name.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Jay occasionally slips into either a Southern or Bronx accent in the pilot episode and Season 1.
  • Orbital Shot: Used in a flashback in "The Hatching", toward the end of Wu and Garmadon's battle with the Time Twins.
  • Our Dark Matter Is Mysterious: Here, dark matter is a Psycho Serum found on the Island of Darkness.
  • Our Dragons Are Different:
    • The elemental dragons that guard the weapons of Ninjago. Each of them can utilize a different element based on the weapon they guard. Later, they perform a fusion dance off-screen and become one four-headed dragon.
    • Lloyd is able to summon a golden dragon from his energy powers. Later on, in season 4 the other Elemental Masters are shown to be able to do this as well by facing their fears.
    • The Overlord's true form is a monstrous black dragon with four long feelers on its face, massive, tattered black wings instead of arms, and a broad, toothy mouth.
  • Over-the-Shoulder Carry:
    • In "Rise of The Snakes", When the then 9-11-year-old Lloyd tries to steal candy, Cole and then all the four original ninja carry Lloyd away like this and hang him up on a signpost.
    • In "The Temple on Haunted Hill" Ronin throws Nya over his shoulder when she refuses to let Lloyd possessed-Morro steal her suit.
    • In "Green Destiny", Lloyd carries the unconscious Skylor over his shoulder as what's left of the Resistance seeks refuge.

    Tropes P - Y 
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
    • In "The Snake King" Lloyd disguises himself as a Hypnobrai with a cap (which happens to look like the one on the Rattla figure), pair of glasses, fangs, and two maracas. Surprisingly it fools Skales, who was shown to be quite competent before, and his disguise isn't blown until he drops his maracas watching the Slither Pit match in Ouroboros.
    • The Serpentine during the talent show in "The Royal Blacksmiths".
    • Zane as "Snake Jaguar".
  • Parental Favoritism: As Garmadon points out to Wu before he leaves the Underworld "You were always [their father's] favorite".
  • Patchwork Map: The world of Ninjago has a lot of adjacent locations with stark, unexplained contrasts. Despite a couple of official maps being released, not much is known about how all these locations fit together.
  • Pet the Dog: Lloyd can generally make Lord Garmadon's original, non-evil self shine through for a while. After all, Lloyd is Garmadon's son.
  • Pirates vs. Ninjas: There's literally an episode in Season 2 with this title. And it's also the main focus of Season 6.
  • Plot Coupon: The four Silver Fang Blades, needed to summon the Great Devourer. The ninja and the Serpentine race against each other to obtain each of them. Unfortunately, the latter succeeds.
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Lloyd is aged to adolescence by a magical tea in "Child's Play".
  • Power Nullifier: Vengestone. Fortunately, it's only found in one place. Unfortunately, it's also imported to be used in prisons, making its surprisingly easy to steal and/or smuggle.
  • The Power Of Potential: The ninjas from can only use their Elemental Powers after unlocking their True Potential. As acknowledged by Master Wu, the ninjas normally achieve peak physical prowess, but they can only use their powers by surpassing a mental or spiritual block to be able to use their powers.
    • Zane unlocks his True Potential after discovering that he is a Nindroid and discovering his missing past. By coming to terms with his past, Zane is capable of using his ice powers.
    • Jay unlocks his True Potential during his first date with Nya. Despite turning into a serpent monster, Nya tells him that she likes Jay for who he is rather than how he looks. This causes Jay to use his lightning powers to save Nya from a rollercoaster accident.
    • Cole unlocks his True Potential by coming to terms with his father. After his reconciliation, Cole can use his earth powers to protect his father.
    • Kai unlocks his True Potential when he lets go of his obsession with becoming the Green Ninja. Apart from unlocking his fire powers, Kai realizes that Lloyd is the Green Ninja as well.
  • Prison Episode
    • "Enkrypted"
    • "Ninjago City vs. Ninja"
    • "Kryptarium Prison Blues"
    • "Hounddog McBrag"
  • The Prophecy: In the Crystalized season, after much searching, the protagonists discover an old prophecy stating that it is possible for the ninja to achieve dragon forms at a crucial moment. However, unlike many examples, we do know who made this prophecy, a man named Quanish, and unfortunately, Quanish had a reputation as being crazy, so this prophecy is taken with a huge grain of salt.
  • The Psycho Rangers: Lord Garmadon creates a team of evil ninja in the second season using the Mega Weapon, but they're destroyed at the end of the episode.
  • Psycho Serum: The dark matter on the Island of Darkness.
  • Punny Name:
    • Cyrus Borg. Appropriately enough, he gets turned into a cyborg while under the Overlord's influence.
    • Nadakhan = 'Not a con'. Describes his modus operandi pretty well.
    • Ulysses Norville Trustable = Untrustable
  • Put on a Bus: The ninja team's dragons leave for an indeterminate amount of time for what's basically dragon puberty before showing up in time for the ninja to begin battle with the Great Devourer.
  • Put on a Prison Bus: When the villains aren't either killed, sealed off, some horrific fate or outright leave before they can be caught this trope is what usually happens to them. Among these villains being Pythor in Season 3, The Sons of Garmadon in Season 8, and Lord Garmadon in Season 9.
    • Putting the Band Back Together: Season 4 and Season 15 start with the Ninja having to be reassembled, as they had drifted apart after Zane's Disney Death in Season 3, and following Nya's departure to become one with the ocean at the end of Season 14 respectively.
  • Really Dead Montage: In both the Season 3 and 4 finales, when Zane and Garmadon sacrifice themselves to defeat the antagonists, there's a flashback sequence of previous scenes with them, in Zane's case with Zane remembering his life and in Garmadon's case with Lloyd remembering moments from their relationship. Subverted both times as both characters return in some capacity after this.
  • Recurring Riff: The opening of the Ninjago Overture regularly appears in other background music throughout the series as well as in-universe on radios and as elevator music.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Quite a lot of the villains in the series have red eyes, including the Skulkin, Lord Garmadon, the Hypnobrai, post-Season 3 Pythor, The Overlord in his Golden Master and Digital Overlord forms, the Nindroid Army, Chen’s cultists after becoming Anacondrai, Mr. E, the Dragon Hunters and Aspheera.
  • Regained Memories Sequence: In "Saving Faith", "Awakenings", and "The Call of Home" respectively, Wu, Zane, and Nya regain their memories after several episodes (Or one in Nya's case albeit with a year-long gap) of Identity Amnesia, with several moments from previous episodes playing over in their minds (With Nya having memories from all across the series in her case).
  • Relegated Mentor: While he remains on hand to dispense advice, by the end of the first season Sensei Wu feels there's nothing more he can teach the boys about fighting. The focus shifts from Sensei Wu training the boys to the boys training Lloyd to become the green ninja. This ends up being Deconstructed in Season 7 when Wu's unable to lead the Ninja due to the effects of Acronix's Time Punch aging him rapidly, forcing Lloyd to take charge as a master-in-training... To varying degrees of success.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Humans have had a bad history with Serpentine, leading to the oft-repeated saying "never trust a snake". The Serpentine also serve as villains for the first and second seasons, and a recurring villain, Pythor, is also one of them.
  • Ret-Canon: Season 8 came out after The LEGO Ninjago Movie, and implements several touches from the film: the ninja's faces and hairstyles now resemble those of their movie counterparts, their uniforms are more personalized and distinct (such as Cole's lack of sleeves and Nya's armored skirt), Ninjago City is now near the ocean, and the Asian-style ciphers are prominently on display. The Destiny's Bounty is also redesigned to match its movie counterpart.
  • Ret-Gone: This almost happened to Lloyd in the Time Travel Episode.
  • Retraux Flashback: In seasons 8 and 9, Cole, Zane, and Jay have flashbacks to how they met Wu.note  Despite the main cast getting redesigned in Season 8 to match their movie counterparts, they sport their original designs in these flashbacks. This makes less sense when you consider the explanation given in "The Mask of Deception" that time travel effects from the previous season may have been what changed their appearances.
  • Reused Character Design: Tox and Paleman, two Elemental Masters competing in Season 4's Tournament of Elements, use the designs of Toxikita and Invisable from the LEGO Ultra Agents line.
  • Reversible Roboticizing:
    • In Season 3, Cyrus Borg is converted into a cyborg servant by the Overlord, remaining this way until the ninja shut down the power. He becomes this again in "Codename: Arcturus", only for the Overlord to change him back once he has no more use for him in "The Titanium Ninja".
    • In the Season 3 episode "Blackout", Sensei Wu is turned into an evil cyborg by Pythor after being captured by the Overlord. After the ninja seemingly destroy the Overlord in "Enter The Digiverse", Wu winds up returning to normal before saving Garmadon from falling from the top of Borg Industries.
  • Ribcage Stomach: The inside of the Preeminent is shown to be a ribcage structure◊. Justified since it's more of an Eldritch Abomination than a realistic creature.
  • Ridiculously Human Robots: Zane is revealed to be a Nindroid that can feel and express emotions almost as well as humans.
  • Rookie Red Ranger: Lloyd is The Chosen One and is destined to become the most powerful ninja despite initially being the youngest, newest, and least experienced member of the team.
  • Rule of Funny: The main reason why the Skulkin can feel pain despite being skeletons.
  • Rule of Three: Kai, Zane, and Cole consecutively losing their jobs in "Darkness Shall Rise".
  • Running Gag: In both Day Of The Departed and Season 15, Jay’s primary enemy gets selected simply because he’s the only one left (Samukai goes off to kill Jay since Zane was taken by Cryptor, Pythor gets the Nunchucks of Lightning because they were the only Weapon of Destruction left).
  • The Runt at the End: In season 3, the last nindroid off the line was made with the leftover material and wound up half the size of the others. Cryptor dubs him "Min-droid."
  • Samus Is a Girl:
    • "Samurai X has come to help the ninja fight off the evil snakes, but won't reveal his identity." Of course, the official images of the set didn't exactly do a good job hiding the character's identity.
    • Later on, in season 6, we have Dogshank. Odds are you don't expect the enormous Sky Pirate Samurai-ogre-thing to be a gruff cockney Dark Action Girl.
    • Season 9 brings us Heavy Metal, real name Faith, who was ordered to hide her real gender by the Iron Baron.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: Zane. Justified in that he's a robot, and his humor switch is usually set to "off".
  • Scenery Porn: The land of Ninjago has plenty of amazing scenery, particularly the areas where the golden weapons are hidden.
  • Science Fantasy: Mythical enchanted weapons turn into high-tech vehicles. The armies of the underworld drive around in monster trucks and motorcycles. An ancient Eldritch Abomination uploads itself into a supercomputer. You get the idea.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can:
    • Lord Garmadon was initially sealed in the Underworld but manages to escape at the end of the pilot.
    • The Serpentine were sealed away as punishment for starting the First Serpentine War. The Anacondrai generals, the most dangerous of them all, were instead sent to the Cursed Realm.
    • The Great Devourer.
  • Secret Identity: Cole kept his secret of being a ninja from his father in fear of telling him that he did not become a dancer.
    • spoiler:Nya as Samurai X. Well, for about one episode.
    • The second Samurai X P.I.X.A.L. manages to keep their identity secret for a whole season.
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains:
    • The ninja are typically wrapped up head to toe, with Nya being the only protagonist with an even marginally revealing outfit (her arms are exposed). The skeletons usually have body armor, but other than that tend to wear nothing but a colored loincloth and maybe a hat (granted, they ARE skeletons). Lord Garmadon seemingly has no clothing but a purple belt.
    • Being snakes, the Serpentine usually wear little to nothing unless you count their weapons.
    • Averted with the Nindroids; being based on Zane, each one is fully dressed in a black ninja suit. Even Pythor wears a full-on robe.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Kai and Cole are the Manly Men of the team with Kai being the arrogant hot-head and Cole being the team's muscle, while Jay and Zane are the Sensitive Guys with Jay being the light-hearted comedian and Zane being the quiet, reserved Smart Guy.
  • Series Fauxnale: There have been several examples of this in the show's run
    • "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master" was originally intended to be the series finale, until the immense fan outcry and demand caused the show to be renewed for a third season.
    • "Endings" has all the trappings of a series finale, right down to the title, complete with "The End" emblazoned on the screen in the series' Conlang as Masters of Spinjitzu comes to a close.
  • Shared Universe: Season 5 reveals that Ninjago shares one of these with Chima with both being a part of the Sixteen Realms, with Lloyd and Morro's battle briefly taking them there at one point, and the Beavers even appear in the Season 11 episode "The Kaiju Protocol".
  • Ship Tease:
    • When Jay first learns that his team will be rescuing Nya, Kai's sister, his interest piques...
      Jay: You never said anything about a girl! Is she hot?
      Kai: She's my sister.
      Jay: Hey, just wanted to know what we're getting ourselves into. Does she like blue?
    • In the third season, Zane gets a love interest in P.I.X.A.L. the Fembot of Borg Industry. You can see the interest in their eyes when they first meet.
      • Well, you can see the interest in Zane's eyes. P.I.X.A.L. needs an emotion upgrade before she starts returning it.
    • As soon as Kai sees Skylor, he gets all dreamy and awkward around her. This pretty much continues for the rest of the season.
    • Lloyd only gets one glimpse at the princess and already the others are interested.
      Zane: I believe Master Lloyd has spotted something of interest.
      Kai: Looks like he's got an eye for the princess.
      Jay: I guess green is her favorite color.
      Lloyd: You do know I can hear you, right?
    • This is boosted even more in the next episode when they both have a heart-to-heart about their roles and responsibilities. Eventually, the rest of the team give their own advice about talking to her. Zane's is to be logical, Cole's is to be strong, Jay's is to be funny, Kai's is to be cool and Nya's (the only girl) is to just be himself.
  • Shooting Superman: In "Dread on Arrival", the New Ninjago City police attempt to taser Ultra Violet. However, it's when she's wearing the Oni Mask of Hatred, which makes her invincible.
  • Sibling Team: Wu and Garmadon (mostly in flashbacks), Kai and Nya, Krux and Acronix.
  • Sibling Triangle: Lloyd's mother, Misako, had the attention of both Wu and Garmadon. She chose Garmadon, married him, and had Lloyd, but years later she admitted to Wu that she should have chosen him instead. It's eventually revealed that the reason she chose Garmadon over Wu in the first place is because of a love letter Wu wrote but Garmadon signed. That said, when Garmadon is present and purged of his evil, she settles back into her role as his wife, with any Ship Tease with Wu relegated for when Garmadon is out of the picture, either evil or dead.
  • Signs of Disrepair: In the episode "Snakebit", there's a brightly lit sign reading "Ed & Edna's Scrap N Junk." The S in "Scrap" flickers out.
  • Skewed Priorities: In "Home", when everyone's upset by the monastery being destroyed, Jay is fixated on the fact he's lost all his high scores.
  • Sky Pirates: A crew of 'em are season 6's Arc Villain, and boy do they play up the Fantasy Kitchen Sink setting for all it's worth. The main crew includes a Djinn, a human, a mechanical monkey, a Serpentine, an enormous female samurai ogre, and what appears to be an oni with two faces.
  • Slow Doors: The metal doors surrounding the vault in Borg Tower which contains the Mask of Vengeance after the six Sons of Garmadon thieves accidentally activate it fall quickly next where the mask is held, but fall slowly on the other side of the room where the hole the thieves sliced in the wall earlier is, giving all six thieves just enough time to escape.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Shows up in season 7. Zane is shown to be skilled at chess, and his confrontation with Nadakhan occurs during a chess game. Zane loses the game and the confrontation. Meanwhile, Echo Zane also seems to enjoy chess, but he isn't smart enough to realize his opponent is blatantly cheating.
  • Snake People: There's a whole race of them called the Serpentine, who are for the most part scaly humanoids with snake-like heads. Generals have snake-like tails in replacement of legs, which appears to be symbolic of their position; as soon as a different snake takes dominance in a tribe, its legs turn into a tail and the conquered Serpentine will have its tail replaced by legs. The Anacondrai Tribe is the only exception in which every member has tails. Predictably, all of them speak in Sssnake Talk. Season 7 introduced the Vermillion, a unique take on the trope due to being formed from small snakes that manipulate humanoid armor and larger mechs, while Season 11 featured the more traditional Pyro Vipers, a lost tribe of Serpentine. The non-canon villains from the EVO line are also Serpentine, due to this trope's association with the series.
  • Soft Reboot:
    • Season 2 was meant to wrap up the show, but the series ended up getting a third season. As a result, Season 3 takes place some time after Season 2, the series tweaks how Lloyd's powers work to prevent a significant power gap, and puts more focus on the Elemental Masters, with the Tournament of Elements introducing many new ones, Possession revealing Nya is the Master of Water, and three major villains (Morro, Crux, and Acronix) all being Elemental Masters.
    • Season 11 is described as this. The show even drops the subtitle and gains a new studio, writing team, and animators.
  • Something That Begins with "Boring": On multiple occasions, Jay has gotten bored enough on a mission to start playing "I Spy". He also has a tendency to only mention objects he's surrounded by.
    • In "Kingdom of Shadows", the team spends hours aimlessly drifting on a frozen sea in search of the Ice Temple. Jay comments that he spies something white, resulting in Cole asking him to quiet down so he can focus on steering the boat. The boat them bumps into something, resulting in Jay exclaiming "I spy something broken!"
    • In "Island of Darkness", Zane takes a while to retrieve his Falcon from the Stone Warriors' forest camp. Jay looks through the medallion the team was given to find the Temple of Light with and says that he spies another tree, causing Cole to question how Jay became a ninja in the first place. Fortunately, Jay discovers the Temple's location while idly looking for more stuff to spy.
  • Spectacular Spinning: The main gimmick in both the sets and the show. Basically, Spinjutsu involves spinning in an energy tornado of a Ninja's respective element.
  • Sssssnaketalk: This is a trademark of the Serpentine race, and one of the first signs that someone has been infected by Fangpire venom.
  • The Starscream:
    • The skeleton general Samukai tried to overthrow Lord Garmadon. It didn't work.
    • Skales acts as a Starscream to three people; Slithraa (challenges him for control of the Hypnobrai and wins), Pythor (stands by as he screws himself over), and Garmadon (throws him into the ocean and becomes the leader of all of the Serpentine).
  • Steal It to Protect It: The second Fangblade is part of the trophy for a competition Cole's father has entered and won multiple times. The ninja decide to enter the competition so they can steal the trophy before the Serpentine can. Unfortunately, Cole's father overhears their plan and is very disappointed in Cole for trying to steal the trophy, prompting the ninja to win the trophy through fair means. The trophy still gets stolen by the Serpentine afterward. There is some solace in Cole's father accepting him again.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • The blue ninja is named Jay, like the bird (blue jay). And the 2012 line adds Xtreme Kool Letterz to the characters' names, so Jay becomes... Jay ZX.
    • The black earth ninja is named Cole. Guess what else is black and comes from the earth? Coal, geddit?
    • The red ninja is named Kai, which is the shortened form of Akai, the Japanese word for Red.
    • Zane is...well, zany.
    • Lloyd is the green ninja. He's also the newest and least experienced ninja.
  • Sticks to the Back: LEGO ninja headwraps include a clip on the back for swords, so this was inevitable in the toyline. Later sets and thus the characters featured propoer sheathes.
  • The Stoic: Zane, despite him being a cloudcuckoolander, very rarely shows inflection in his voice. :He becomes more expressive after finding out he's a robot.
  • Story-Breaker Power:
    • The Ninja, in general, became this once they unlocked their True Potential, able to wield their elemental powers without the use of weapons and making things much easier on them. Since then, many seasons have had to give them a Drama-Preserving Handicap, either having said powers get taken away or having the Ninja with powers specifically catered to taking down the Season's Big Bad disabled until the 11th hour.
      • Lloyd himself was up to eleven in earlier seasons, being able to use all four Ninja's elemental powers in addition to his own Energy element during Season 2, making the other four Ninja redundant. After becoming the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master, his power skyrocketed enough to match the Overlord's and defeat him, which would've ended all future conflicts easily. Season 3 had the Overlord drain him of most of his Golden Power while the Ninja got the rest, leaving him far weaker and with just the Energy element, but still having him as the most powerful Ninja, taking him out of this territory for the most part.
    • Skylor's Elemental Power of Amber is also one of these, allowing for the copying of any Elemental Power, potentially allowing for her to have the powers of people like Lloyd and Wu should she ever try to copy them and learn how to use them proficiently. This is likely why most of her future appearances have her not using her power often, or in the case of Garmadon, have the power she copies end up hurting her to the point of it almost killing her. It's later revealed in Season 15 that she can only use her copied powers for a limited amount of time before they wear off.
    • Nadakhan once he gained infinite wishes for himself, with his only weakness being a poison that kills normal humans in seconds and merely temporarily weakens him, and the fact he still has to grant wishes to other people. It takes wishing the events had never happened to stop him.
    • Word of God specifically coined the Ninjas' Energy Dragons and Airjitzu as this, which is why they are kept out of the show from Season 8 onward, so as to not make the Ninja too overpowered. It's not hard to see why as the former gives the Ninja a powerful weapon and uninhibited air travel while the latter also allows for uninhibited air travel, which would turn most searches and conflicts into a cakewalk. Airjitzu does appear once in Season 12, but only as a power-up in the video game the Ninja are trapped in, and it doesn't last long.
    • The Reversal Time Blade, the only one the ninja kept after Hands of Time, was presumably returned to the Boiling Sea, given it gives effective Combat Clairvoyance to its wielder.
    • Similar to the Energy Dragons, the Ultra Dragon provided the same boons as the Energy Dragons with the added boost of being able to wield four elements as opposed to just one, with power only matched by other beings of great power (The Great Devourer). This is likely why it returned to its homeworld following Season 2, didn't show up in any of the following Seasons and was revealed in Season 9's opening to have been killed by the Dragon Hunters and had its remains made into the Iron Baron's throne, preventing it from showing up anymore.
  • The Story That Never Was: At the end of Skybound, Jay uses his final wish from Nadakhan to erase the events of the entire season, which saves Nya's life and prevents Nadakhan from ever being released at all. However, he and Nya still remember the events, likely due to the conditions of his wish.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Lloyd has traits from both his father and uncle. As seen in "Tick Tock", young Wu and Garmadon◊ had a bowl cut hairstyle, blond for Wu and brown for Garmadon. Young Lloyd uses this hair piece in blond like Wu, while he has Garmadon's face design. When he becomes older, he has a blond version of teenaged Garmadon's hair as seen in "Battle Between Brothers".
  • Superhero Team Uniform: The ninja have different suits every season that their individual colors are applied to.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • During the beginning of the second season when the ninja lose both their weapons and home to Garmadon, they have to live in a rundown apartment, get part-time jobs (that they quickly lose), and ride the bus.
    • Season 8 reveals that people died during the Great Devourer's rampage, including Harumi's parents.
    • Seabound has Jay stuck inside the heavily damaged sub car. By the time help has arrived, he's already run out of air. They manage to get him to the surface so he can breathe again, but he choked on seawater on the way to the surface and now its stuck in his lungs and is slowly killing him. He needs to go to the hospital, but with the city flooded, there is no way to conventionally save him.
  • Swirly Energy Thingy: The Time Vortex in Season 7 is a colorful vortex roughly the shape of an infinity symbol, and past events (and even events from Alternate Timelines) can be seen on the "walls" if you look close enough. While it was originally created by the combined absorbed powers of the Time Twins in order to banish them from Ninjago, the brothers later set out to design a machine that used those same powers to allow them to travel through the vortex at will.
  • Take a Third Option: In Season 3, a minor subplot is Nya being torn between Jay and Cole. When they put her on the spot and force her to choose between them, she declares that her choice is... Joel. "Joel" is a custodial robot who happened to be within reach. It's no happier with Nya's option than the other two.
    • Jay erasing the events of Skybound in lieu of either making Nadakhan mortal or saving Nya is also this.
  • Technicolor Ninjas: The main cast - red (Kai), blue (Jay), black (Cole), white (Zane), green (Lloyd), and light blue (Nya).
  • Temporal Paradox:
    • Garmadon uses his Mega Weapon to try and change time so that Lloyd doesn't become the Green Ninja. The Ninja undo the changes brought about, both by his involvement and theirs, by sacrificing the Golden Weapons of that time period to destroy the Mega-Weapon. The episode strongly implies that by destroying the Mega-Weapon, the Ninja were able to stop the time-travel adventure from ever happening, and thus prevent the alternate timeline from even being created. It's still a paradox, but if you accept that this consequence is possible, it makes sense that the actions up until the morning before the time travel adventure, as well as everything after, would still have taken place.
    • Come "Codename Arcturus", it turns out that the paradoxed Golden Weapons of the past were shot into space, putting the whole issue into confusion yet again.
  • Terrible Trio: The Vermillion Army's three generals in Season 7, Machia, Raggmunk, Blunck, serve a minor role, but a villainous role nonetheless.
  • That Man Is Dead: After the Quiet One's identity and backstory are revealed, they state that they died the day their parents did.
  • The Centerpiece Spectacular: Seasons 8-10 is widely considered to be the show's peak from both a writing and animation standpoint, and it is almost exactly in the middle of the show's fifteen seasons.
  • Third Act Stupidity: Used in a harsh case of the show's frequent usage of You Can't Thwart Stage One. During the Season 7 episode "The Attack", it seems that the Ninja have successfully warded off Acronix and Krux's titular raid on their base and have acquired both Time Blades that have shown up so far, celebrating quite early as soon as it seems they have won... Completely letting their guards down as Wu's too late to warn them (Outright stating to himself that their overconfidence would most-certainly lead to loss before trying to warn them), allowing Machia to fly in to steal the Time Blades, slow down the Ninja, and letting the Time Twins kidnap Wu as well.
  • Tick Tock Tune: Season 7 is time-themed, so "The Temporal Whip", the season's remix of "The Weekend Whip", appropriately uses a ticking clock sound throughout.
  • Tie-In Novel: The "Way of the Departed" (different from but related to Day of the Departed) is an ongoing novel by Tommy Andreasen, who releases the chapters on on his Twitter as he writes them. He's stated that it's non-canon but that it provides possible explanations for various unanswered questions from the series. The story itself takes place within the one-year Time Skip between seasons 7 and 8 and is explained by Andreasen to be "the untold story of Cole's scar". Andreasen uses the format to create a darker and more mature story than what can be done in the series. For example, it gives some depressing introspective insight into Cole's character that isn't explored much in the show. See the Tear Jerker page for more info.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: Season 1 has the ninja unlocking their inner potential. Kai and Jay become their respective Elemental Embodiments, Cole becomes Nigh-Invulnerable, and Zane gains the ability to fire a powerful Freeze Ray.
  • Time Travel Episode:
    • "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" sees Garmadon traveling back to the pilot episodes to make it so the ninja team never forms, and the ninja follow him back to stop this.
    • The climactic episodes of Hands of Time featured Acronix and Crux travelling back to the battle where their powers were stolen and they were sent into the future, with Kai, Nya and Wu following on the former's Fusion Dragon.
  • Title Scream: The theme song "The Weekend Whip" uses the lyrics "Ninja GO!" in a song that otherwise has no obvious connection with ninja. The Spinjitzu gameplay instructions included with the toys also instruct players to shout this as they spin their characters.
  • Token Aquatic Race: The only multi-member sapient sea species are the Merlopians from Seabound, though there are two distinct types, one resembling black Snake People and the other resembling humanoid squids.
  • Token Heroic Orc: Season 9 reveals Mystake, the tea lady to be an Oni who came to love humanity and settled down in Ninjago rather than join her fellows in destroying it.
  • Tournament Arc: Season 4, "The Tournament of Elements", centers around the tournament between Elemental Masters organized by Master Chen and taking place on his island.
  • Toyless Toyline Character: The First Spinjitzu Master, Jay's parents, Dr. Julien, Cole's father, the Darkley's students, Mother Doomsday, Misako, some of the Elemental Masters, and a number of others do not have Minifigures. The Overlord's dragon form was this until the Legacy line released a set based on it. The Preeminent is another notable example.
  • Toyline-Exclusive Character: The "Temple of Airjitzu" set includes two characters, Jesper and Claire, who never appear in the show.
  • Tragic Villain: Garmadon is revealed to be this over the course of the series; the Great Devourer corrupting him was his slippery slope towards evil and he literally couldn't fight that side of him. Despite this, he wanted to be a good father to Lloyd, which made it all the more sadder that his own fate had been decided despite feelings towards his family, whom he had to fight.
  • Trailers Always Spoil:
    • The teaser for episode 26 clearly depicts the Overlord having become a giant dragon and Lloyd's uniform having turned gold.
    • TV promos for Season 5 very clearly show Nya, as the Master of Water, creating a giant water vortex, a scene which comes from the climax of the season finale. The show didn't even reveal Nya having elemental powers until that season.
    • During LEGO Con 2022, a trailer for the second half of Crystalized was shown, revealing a large amount of major plot elements, including but not limited to the Crystal King being the Overlord, Garmadon being a major part of the story with a new Oni form design, and the goal of Lloyd having to prepare to use his Oni abilities to destroy the Overlord.
  • Trapped in TV Land: The premise that starts off Season 12 is that the video game "Prime Empire" is transporting its players into the world of the game once they reach a certain level.
  • Trash the Set: The Monastery of Spinjitzu gets destroyed in "Home", after which the Ninja adopt the Destiny's Bounty as their base, and doesn't get repaired until Season 10. It gets destroyed again in Crystallized, with the final episode ending with the entire cast coming to help repair it.
  • Tricked into Escaping: When Jay is held captive by Nadakhan, Flintlock pretends to arrange a mutiny to provide a Hope Spot to break Jay's spirit. Nadakhan laughs at Jay for being naive enough to fall for it.
  • Tunnel King: The Constrictai tribe of the Serpentine are notable for having the ability to easily burrow under the earth.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: Season 9 is told in two storylines. One focuses on Lloyd and his resistance against Lord Garmadon and the So G, the other focuses on the original four ninja and Wu stranded in the Realm of Oni and Dragons. The two plotlines converge at the beginning of "Green Destiny" when Wu and the original four ninja return.
  • Unable to Cry: Surprisingly averted by Zane. Despite being a robot, he still sheds a Single Tear when all his memoris come back to him.
  • The Underworld: The base of operations for Lord Garmadon and the skeletons, which is presumably where the latter originate from.
  • Unobtanium: There are a number of these:
    • Vengestone, which dampens one's Elemental Powers.
    • Chronosteel, which goes a step further and is able to absorb one's powers permanently.
      • A type of blue crystal, which can work in conjunction with Chronosteel to absorb and contain multiple powers at once.
    • Deepstone, which harms ghosts and prevents possession, as it's mined from the bottom of the ocean and the ghosts' weakness is water.
    • Clearstone, the hardest known substance.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
    • The Ninja end up becoming this in Season 11 (Secrets of Forbidden Spinjitzu), as while on an adventure to try to keep in-shape for action, they not only end up unintentionally freeing Aspheera, but the incident ends up spiraling into Zane being banished to the Never Realm and becoming the Ice Emperor, setting up the events for the Ice Chapter.
    • Meanwhile in the start of Season 12, Jay, in a curious desire to play Prime Empire, ends up inserting the motherboard of Unagami into the arcade cabinet the Mechanic was planning to use, kickstarting Unagami and the Mechanic's plan.
  • Vague Age: It's hard to place whether the ninja are young adults or teenagers, especially since Word of God doesn't give them any official ages.
    • Zane's real age is even harder to figure out since he is actually a robot who outlived his father and should be several decades old, judging by his creator's own age in the flashback.
    • It gets more difficult when you look at Lloyd. He starts out as a vague-aged kid, then gets physically aged up via Applied Phlebotinum to a vague-aged teenager who is at least two years younger than the ninja. He's technically still a child mentally but certain events have caused him to mature at a quicker pace.
    • Season 9 states that they're older teenagers.
  • Victory by Endurance: The general theme of Season 9. Mistake tells Lloyd that the only way that he will be able to defeat Garmadon will be to endure until the Ninja and Wu return from the Realm of Oni and Dragon. In the end, The Resistance just barely holds out when they finally do return in "Green Destiny". Even the final battle uses this as Lloyd wins against Garmadon by resisting him until he uses up all of his power.
  • Villain Decay: The Serpentine get hit with this hard after episode 14, losing their menace as they were quickly overshadowed by Lord Garmadon. Partially justified since season 2 does not focus on them as much as season 1 did.
    • The remaining members of the Sons of Garmadon suffer from this after Garmadon is overthrown in "Green Destiny".
  • Villain's Dying Grace: In the season 5 finale Wu tries to save Morro from being pulled underwater. Morro thinks he just wants the Realm Crystal, but Wu tells him that he values him just as much as his other pupils, and begs him to take his hand. Morro does so, saying "You can only save those who want to be saved. Goodbye, Sensei". He passes the crystal to Wu before letting himself get dragged under.
  • Villain Override: The Overlord takes control of Lord Garmadon's body near the climax of episode 25.
  • Villain Team-Up: The Overlord teams up with Pythor after the snake rescues him.
  • The Virus:
    • The Fangpyre's venom can create snake-themed constructs or mutate organic lifeforms, though with the former it's instantaneous and with the latter, it's extremely slow-acting. They do this in episode 3 to Jay's parents and some of the vehicles and piles of junk his dad made, out of which is a wrecking ball (which also appears in one of the levels of the "Rise of the Snakes" game) and a giant ninja robot (which Ed claims he made in Jay's honor).
    • Later in "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" Jay becomes afflicted after getting his hand pricked on a fossilized Fangpyre skull. It's suggested that the time it takes for it to affect organic lifeforms depends on their complexity since shortly after Jay leaves a fly drinks the venom from the skull and instantly mutates.
  • Virtual Sidekick: Zigzagged. After P.I.X.A.L. is dismantled offscreen between seasons 3 and 4, Zane imports her memory drive into his head so she can live on and advise him in battles and so on. In season 7 she disappears after Zane is injured in battle but reappears in season 8 in a similar role but this time advising everyone on the ninja team. It's later revealed that she's the new Samurai X, a mysterious vigilante introduced in season 7, so she was technically invoking this trope to hide her identity of being Samurai X.
  • Visual Pun: In "The Royal Blacksmiths", Zane got butterflies in his stomach... literally.
  • Water Is Womanly: All shown Elemental Masters of Water have been female, with the most prominent being Nya, who obtained her power from her mother Maya.
  • Water Magic Is Ice: Ice and Water are typically considered two separate elements. Then in season 11, when Zane (Ice) is out of commission and they're trapped in a realm too cold for liquid water to exist for long, Nya (Water) spends a great deal of time learning how to manipulate ice. She doesn't have anywhere near the control over it she does over water, and there's no indication that Zane would also be able to manipulate water, but there's definitely some overlap.
  • Wham Episode:
    • "Tick Tock": Zane is revealed to be a robot and is the first of the ninja to unlock his true potential.
    • "Child's Play": Lloyd is aged up to a young man and is now almost ready to fight his father.
    • "The Titanium Ninja": Zane sacrifices himself to defeat the Overlord for once and for all, and is seemingly dead... until the end, where he is apparently rebuilt by P.I.X.A.L.
    • "The Corridor of Elders": Garmadon chooses to go into the Cursed Realm, effectively killing him, and Morro slips out in the process.
    • "The Temple on Haunted Hill": Cole is unable to get off Yang's Haunted Temple on time, permanently becoming a ghost.
    • "Lost in Time": To ensure that Ray is returned to normal, Master Wu removes the Reversal Blade from the Iron Doom's core and gives it to Kai and Nya, sending them back to the present while he stays behind to fight against Acronix and Krux, becoming lost in time with them.
    • "The Quiet One": The baby Cole found is revealed to be Master Wu, and Princess Harumi is the titular Quiet One!
    • "Game of Masks": Harumi's motives are revealed, the Sons of Garmadon have all three masks, Lloyd is captured, and the Ninja (and baby!Wu) are stranded in the jungle with a giant crustacean monster right next to them.
    • "My Enemy, My Friend": The Ice Emperor is revealed to be Zane.
    • "The Council of the Crystal King": Lloyd is captured by the titular council, and Kabuki Mask is reveled to be Harumi!
  • Wham Line:
    • "The Green Ninja":
      Kai: That's when I realized. All my training to become the best ninja wasn't in preparation to become the Green Ninja. It was... to protect him.
    • "The Titanium Ninja":
      Zane: [to Pixal] Are we compatible now?
    • "The Way Back": Jay's last wish, which ends up saving Ninjago.
      Jay: I wish... you had taken my hand, and no one ever found that teapot in the first place.
    • "The Quiet One": The Ninja realizing that the baby is Master Wu.
      Toddler Wu: Ninja never quit.
      Jay: Guys, I don't think that's Cole, Jr. ... That's... Master Wu.
    • "My Enemy, My Friend":
      Lloyd: [to the Ice Emperor] Zane?
    • "The Council of the Crystal King": After capturing Lloyd, Kabuki Mask begins singing a familiar lullaby.
      Kabuki Mask: Spider's in the house, Sleep, sleep, Spider bit the mouse, Sleep deep, Don't wake up or else, You'll find a spider in your mouth
  • Wham Shot:
    • "Tick Tock": Zane opening his chest, revealing he's a robot.
    • "The Curse of the Golden Master": After the hooded stranger blocks Lloyd's power, he removes his hood, revealing himself as Pythor.
    • "The Way Back": The Ninja have managed to hit Nadakhan with a Tiger Widow Venom dart, which slows down a djinn and kills a normal human, Jay tries to wish that Nadakhan was not a djinn, as he is too weakened to twist Jay's words. But to his horror, Jay sees that Nya has a green stain on her chest, meaning she was hit with the venom too.
    • "Dread on Arrival": So, the Ninja have stopped Harumi's plan to revive Lord Garmadon. The Sons of Garmadon are arrested, and all is well- wait. Why did the torches from the revival ceremony suddenly reignite in purple flames? Is that Lord Garmadon's HAND coming out of the alter!?!?
    • "My Enemy, My Friend": When Lloyd finally meets the Ice Emperor, his ice staff is shown to have the Scroll of Forbidden Ninjitsu encased in it, which only Zane had on him.
    • "The Council of the Crystal King": Kabuki Mask removers their mask, revealing themselves to be Harumi.
  • What Are Records?: Lloyd doesn't know VCRs by name, but he does recognize them as "those things Wu watches old ninja movies on" and knows how to work them.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Like almost all LEGO properties, the good guys are usually humans and the bad guys are usually inhuman (skeletons, snakes, robots, ghosts, djinn, etc). Averted in the first half of season 4 in which the villains are cultists, as well as the fact that Zane and P.I.X.A.L are heroic despite being robots.
  • Wind Is Green: Played With. Morro is the Master of Wind and his primary color is green. However, this is due to his desire to be the Green Ninja, which is actually assigned to the Master of Energy, and later due to the fact that ghosts are green. There's no indication of what color naturally aligns with wind.
  • Wise Serpent: Acidicus, the Serpentine General of the Venomari tribe, became a storyteller and a librarian following the Serpentine's Heel–Race Turn. He tells the Ninja Serpentine legends regarding the Golden Master and the backstory of Aspheera.
  • World-Healing Wave: Lloyd lets one loose the first time he destroys the Overlord, purging most of its traces and returning Garmadon back into a normal human.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: With the reveal that Zane was in the Never-Realm for decades, it's implied that time moves at a slower rate in the Never-Realm.note 
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: Constantly. More often than not, the series revolves around the Ninja trying hard to keep the villains from getting a MacGuffin to halt their plan. While they get some small victories like temporarily getting one over their opponents, ultimately the villains will get what they need to carry out their endgames.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Zane

The ninjas are as shocked as Zane is at the discovery that the latter is actually an android.

Example of:
Robotic Reveal

Ninja vs Chicken

Ninja unlocking...

Ninjago split i...

Ninjago

Lloyd vs The Ov...

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

Zane

The ninjas are as shocked as Zane is at the discovery that the latter is actually an android.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (15 votes)

Example of:

Main / RoboticReveal

Media sources:

Report

Zane

Ninja vs Chicken

Ninja unlocking...

Ninjago split i...

Ninjago

Lloyd vs The Ov...