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So I finished Dragons Rising Season 2 today and... I did not like it very much. Without a doubt my least favorite season in all of Ninjago.

I have so much to say but in order to keep this little review brief I'm going to focus on what I think was the biggest flaw with this season and the series in the general, the characters.

For me the characters are the most important part of Ninjago they're why I love the series so much. But the writers of NDR don't seem to interested in the characters they're more focused on the plotlines. What they've created. They're so invested on learning HOW the characters are going to defeat this foe that they neglect the why. The relationships feel half baked especially in comparison to the series that came before.

For an example of what I mean let's compare Geo from NDR to Vania from MotM. Both of them are side characters who were fans of Cole and grew to be close friends with him but Vania is just so much better than Geo in almost every conceivable way. Geo spends most of his time talking about Cole. He misses Cole, he loves Cole, he and Cole are such good friends, he and Cole are family, and that's about it. That's his personality he's even stuck with three other people in the junkyard and I don't really believe he cares about them because he spends all his time talking about Cole. Meanwhile yeah Vania liked Cole but she had other interactions beside him. She had interactions with her father, Chompy, Wu, and we got to see her troubles of being undermined and overprotected. In season 1 we heard about Geo's troubles of being a mixed kid but we didn't see it. That makes Vania's character arc of turning into the wise kind leader Shintaro deserves all the more impactful because we got to see the full journey instead of just the end. Honestly the junkyard crew made extremely frustrated every time they were screen they kept saying how much they were family, but I felt like they were lying to me. Outside of a cute hug or hand holding you have shown me nothing to show that you care about each other. I mean I've been picking on Geo in this review but he's barely in this part the focus is on Bonzle who barely got any focus in Season 1 so her rise to stardom in Season 2 felt really underwhelming. (By the way is Wu just allergic to telling the Ninja about occurrences in his life he met Bonzle while he was WITH THE NINJA and he still didn't tell them. Didn't he have a whole character arc in season 7 about how stupid he was for keeping secrets from them?)

Anyway back to the main plot, the older characters don't feel right either. This is a complaint I've had since Season 1 Pt. 1 but the ninja seem to be acting against what we know about them. Remember how devastating the endings to Seabound and SOG were because the ninja were separated? Not anymore! For all they know Kai is dead and sure Nya and Wyldfyre are sad but Arin is just happy he's becoming a better ninja, and Cole, Zane, and Lloyd Kai's surrogate brothers are just fine with this news, I guess.

The treatment of the characters really frustrate me because I think these writers can do it. Wyldfyre has had great moments building bonds with both Kai and Egalt. (I mean I still think they should be doing more her building bonds. She calls the rest of the ninja "Kai's friends" not "her friends" and two seasons in I think this bond should already be set up but whatever I'll take what I can get.) It just seems like the writers don't care about building character relationships which is really frustrating to me because that's what I love about Ninjago.

This season isn't terrible. I still love the design of the merged realms, the sorceress was a lot of campy fun, I really liked that scene with Wyldfyre and Egalt and that flashback with Kai and Nya, the action was top notch-I mean seriously every punch thrown by Cinder really felt like it hurt, oh and Cinder. Cinder is by far the best thing about this new season.

Frankly I'm not sure how much longer I'll stick with NDR. I'll watch the next part just to give this season a fair shot, but this season really drained me. I want to like this new series but why should I keep up with a new series that annoys and frustrates me when I could just rewatch the first 16 seasons that make me happy? Oh well I guess only time will tell.

Yet again, if you read all this you're a trooper.

Description
So I finished Dragons Rising Season 2 today and... I did not like it very much. Without a doubt my least favorite season in all of Ninjago.

I have so much to say but in order to keep this little review brief I'm going to focus on what I think was the biggest flaw with this season and the series in the general, the characters.

For me the characters are the most important part of Ninjago they're why I love the series so much. But the writers of NDR don't seem to interested in the characters they're more focused on the plotlines. What they've created. They're so invested on learning HOW the characters are going to defeat this foe that they neglect the why. The relationships feel half baked especially in comparison to the series that came before.

For an example of what I mean let's compare Geo from NDR to Vania from MotM. Both of them are side characters who were fans of Cole and grew to be close friends with him but Vania is just so much better than Geo in almost every conceivable way. Geo spends most of his time talking about Cole. He misses Cole, he loves Cole, he and Cole are such good friends, he and Cole are family, and that's about it. That's his personality he's even stuck with three other people in the junkyard and I don't really believe he cares about them because he spends all his time talking about Cole. Meanwhile yeah Vania liked Cole but she had other interactions beside him. She had interactions with her father, Chompy, Wu, and we got to see her troubles of being undermined and overprotected. In season 1 we heard about Geo's troubles of being a mixed kid but we didn't see it. That makes Vania's character arc of turning into the wise kind leader Shintaro deserves all the more impactful because we got to see the full journey instead of just the end. Honestly the junkyard crew made extremely frustrated every time they were screen they kept saying how much they were family, but I felt like they were lying to me. Outside of a cute hug or hand holding you have shown me nothing to show that you care about each other. I mean I've been picking on Geo in this review but he's barely in this part the focus is on Bonzle who barely got any focus in Season 1 so her rise to stardom in Season 2 felt really underwhelming. (By the way is Wu just allergic to telling the Ninja about occurrences in his life he met Bonzle while he was WITH THE NINJA and he still didn't tell them. Didn't he have a whole character arc in season 7 about how stupid he was for keeping secrets from them?)

Anyway back to the main plot, the older characters don't feel right either. This is a complaint I've had since Season 1 Pt. 1 but the ninja seem to be acting against what we know about them. Remember how devastating the endings to Seabound and SOG were because the ninja were separated? Not anymore! For all they know Kai is dead and sure Nya and Wyldfyre are sad but Arin is just happy he's becoming a better ninja, and Cole, Zane, and Lloyd Kai's surrogate brothers are just fine with this news, I guess.

The treatment of the characters really frustrate me because I think these writers can do it. Wyldfyre has had great moments building bonds with both Kai and Egalt. (I mean I still think they should be doing more her building bonds. She calls the rest of the ninja "Kai's friends" not "her friends" and two seasons in I think this bond should already be set up but whatever I'll take what I can get.) It just seems like the writers don't care about building character relationships which is really frustrating to me because that's what I love about Ninjago.

This season isn't terrible. I still love the design of the merged realms, the sorceress was a lot of campy fun, I really liked that scene with Wyldfyre and Egalt and that flashback with Kai and Nya, the action was top notch-I mean seriously every punch thrown by Cinder really felt like it hurt, oh and Cinder. Cinder is by far the best thing about this new season.

Frankly I'm not sure how much longer I'll stick with NDR. I'll watch the next part just to give this season a fair shot, but this season really drained me. I want to like this new series but why should I keep up with a new series that annoys and frustrates me when I could just rewatch the first 16 seasons that make me happy? Oh well I guess only time will tell.

Yet again, if you read all this you're a trooper.