im not the only one! yay.
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We all know that it was supposed to end in 2013, and to me, Season 10 felt like it could’ve been a good ending. But we’re getting more and more and more, not that that’s inherently bad. The newest sets have been really good, in my opinion, and I’d be down for more of them. It was confirmed that Ninjago would last until 2022 at least, but at this point, Ninjago is an evergreen theme. It’s just gonna keep on going, with no end in sight.
But then again, Bionicle didn’t appear to have any end in sight, either.
It’s possible that Ninjago could end at some point in the next five years. But when it does, I don’t want it to be an abrupt ending like Bionicle’s. With Bionicle, it felt like the end of 2009 opened the possibility for the story to keep chugging along in new directions, only for it to come out in 2010 and say “Hey, sorry, but it’s over now. This is the grand climax that was totally planned out for years.” Granted, I found the climax to be fairly grand. But I digress.
Back on point, I think Ninjago should build up to a major “final battle.” Not the skimpy half-a-year wave we got in 2013, but an actual, fleshed-out ending. Since Ninjago is such a juggernaut of a theme, and it’s had such a grand ride, I think it should go out with a major bang. As was said in the topic I created last night, a good ending could be the ninja becoming sensei and maybe settling down with their true loves. That, and finally defeating the ultimate ultimate villain.
And if we go back to people’s original response to Ninjago’s cancellation in 2013, and how that was the reason for Ninjago continuing this long…
That was 2016.
I did, too, for a while.
The weird thing is that I have autism myself, and I never realized that Zane’s character arc was meant to be an allegory for autism. Wow.
At around 2014, I started to become indifferent to Ninjago. Maybe it was because I didn’t watch the show after Season 2, but there was just something about the sets that caused me to lose interest. They just kept throwing new races at us, all of whom were supposedly retconning the timeline. Even though there was the occasional set(s) that I liked, I didn’t take the story seriously. And I wondered when the heck Lego would cancel Ninjago.
Then, about a year ago, I was feeling nostalgic, and I rewatched the pilot season, along with the first two actual seasons. Then I decided to start watching Season 3, just because. Once I did, I just couldn’t stop. I watched every single episode, no lie. And I regretted not watching them sooner. It surprised me how compelling the storylines were, though admittedly, some of the seasons were weaker than others. And when Season 13 airs, I plan on watching it.
I mean, I kind of agree with you here. The 2011-2013 years just felt like a trilogy. Even though I like the subsequent years, looking at them for what they are, they were just add-on stories. It eventually built up to something big with the Oni, but…yeah, where DO we go from here?
I want Garmadon to return sometime soon. Come on, they can’t just have him leave the ninjas and never show his face again. He has to be out there somewhere, plotting a new scheme!
I think part of the problem is that those themes were trying to replace Ninjago, and the Ninago fans were unhappy about that. As for Monkie Kid, well, that was meant to be Ninjago for a Chinese audience. So maybe it’ll stay going in China?
Except with Bionicle, the sets’ sales were declining. As for Ninjago…it still seems to sell like hot cakes. Honestly, at this point, Ninjago is ingrained into my mind as a part of Lego. When it does end…I think I might end up missing it.
Me too, actually.
Yes, please!
But the show hasn’t aired yet (to my knowledge). Maybe we shouldn’t judge before we watch?
Maybe they can, with Monkie Kid selling well in China, and Ninjago selling where everywhere else, but maybe they can’t. It’s hard to know.
Are you kidding me here? Do you have any idea how many fanboys would be angry at that? Lego should only do that if they want immense backlash.
That’s…actually not a bad idea.
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I hope it ends soon. I don’t dislike the series or characters. I just want something new. I want to see what comes after Ninjago. Of course the ending I would want won’t happen. The end for me would have to include a classic villain, like Garmadon, the serpentine, etc. Problem is, they’re all either dead, or practically good guys now. So, instead Wu should die. At least Wu, maybe some other main characters.
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Well, fun fact… That seems to no longer be the case. Ninjago was a top selling theme in 2017 and 2018 (most likely because of the LEGO Ninjago Movie), but in the 2019 LEGO Group financial report, there was no mention of Ninjago whatsoever. They even went on to give a honorable mention to Hidden Side for being satified with how it sold, but nothing about Ninjago was said. That may indicate that Ninjago is no longer selling “like hotcakes” like it used to.
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But that doesn’t mean its sales are abysmal. Maybe the other themes were just THAT successful, and Ninjago wasn’t doing much better or worse than average.
Still, that clearly indicates that the sales have started to decline, and they will probably decline even more in the future.
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I’m pretty sure Racie was joking … kinda like a parody of the way Bionicle ended? that’s how I took it but maybe I’m wrong. Knowing me, actually … 
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I believe someone on twitter leaked info that they’re planning on reaching 20 seasons
judging by the fact we are getting 2 seasons per year nowadays my guess would be it’s gonna end in 2024
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finally
hey, thats when I graduate…
and I grew up with the theme
hmm
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I’d prefer it if it didn’t end.
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I’m in the camp of people who feel that it ought to have ended a long time ago, like, when they originally planned to. I get why it didn’t, but none of the plots they’ve done for a good while now are particularly interesting or original - yes, there are some good moments, but they’re so scattered throughout the rest of the show. It honestly feels like a fanfiction of itself at this stage, although that’s kind of been the case even since Rebooted (at least that season had a solid ending, though…).
Also, people talk about Bionicle being convoluted (and yes, it was, no argument there) but it’s got nothing on Ninjago. The timeline looks like spaghetti at this stage - characters change age (and indeed, whether or not they happen to be alive at any chosen point) seemingly on whatever whim the series wants to go on for the next tangent. It’s worse than the X-Men movies.
I think the reason it’s lasted as long as it has is the fact that the entire story is communicated in one medium - the TV show (which is probably also why people describe it as being less convoluted than Bionicle.)
Sets are… meh. I like some of the minifigure designs, but there’s only so many bikes/cars/jets (that have nothing at all to do with ninja) before one inevitably gets sick of it. Lego’s creative diversity is getting crushed, because the only original story they have is trampling over all their other attempts (a problem I’m sure they’re not entirely bothered by).
But Ninjago does not have longevity. It’s working for the opposite reason Bionicle did - it hooks new fans easily, but unlike Bio, it struggles much harder to keep them (there are some, but I feel that very few of the people who watched the pilots when they came out are still “fans” now). I feel like there’s only so long it can go now before the tangled mess of plot Ninjago has created finally tightens in a knot around it’s own neck.
I also suspect that when it does end (be that in a year, or in ten years) the backlash will be huge compared to what Bionicle experienced, so expect whatever theme pulls a hero factory and tries to fill the power vaccum to fail abysmally regardless of any fault of its own.
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Getting rid of all the fantasy/sci-fi elements of Ninjago and making it like Ninja 1999 would be a breath of fresh air. No magical spinning powers, no golden weapons, no skeletons, demons, robots or dragons, just feudal ninjas on horseback with historically accurate boats and fortresses. It’d be like the Scooby-Doo franchise where you have some versions with fantasy and others without. If you’re old like me and remember Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, it takes place in modern day Louisiana where the supernatural is not supposed to exist, so when it does, it’s a big deal. In Ninjago, magic happens all the time, so who cares.
So in short, Ninjago should continue, but be reimagined in a realistic way like Ninja 1999 with very restrained fantasy elements, like Adventurers Orient Expedition.
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Not necessarily. Ninjago does have a few die-hard fans, sure, but I don’t think there is enough of them to cause a “huge” backlash whenever the theme ends. As you pointed out yourself, Ninjago is good at bringing in new fans, but it has a hard time keeping them around (I was actually one of such fans myself). So with that in mind, I’m fairly certain that when the theme ends, most of it’s fans would just move on.
As for what will replace the theme, there is no guarantee that it would fail “abysmally”. Sure, some angry fans might hate it, but if that theme is good enough to stand on it’s own, then it doesn’t really have to care about the angry fans and can focus on attracting a new generation of fans. Love it or hate it, that’s actually exactly what happened with Hero Factory. The older Bionicle fans completely despised it, but the theme completely succeeded in bringing in a new generation of fans. Had it not been replaced by Bionicle G2, I have a feeling HF would have lasted even more then it did (and even the 5 years that it did last was quite impressive, considering how most LEGO themes never get passed their third year).
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How large do you think NINJAGO is? This theme was scheduled to be cancelled, and when that was made public, LEGO received enough global feedback to keep the theme running. The theme has now existed for nearly a full decade.
There are not just “a few” of anything when it comes to NINJAGO. It is massive.
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I’m curious, I don’t deny the fact that Ninjago has a large following, but I can’t really picture the size of the fandom, much like I could with Bionicle. Is there a Ninjago equivalent of the TTV message boards? (Back in the day when the boards was dedicated to mostly Bionicle, to be exact)
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There isn’t, but the amount of marketing, longevity, type of marketing (TV series, movie, large and full set waves, BIONICLE-level promo material, etc), view counts we can see, audience counts we are told of from the networks, and the continued discussions surround the theme on so many social media platforms attests to its size.
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I would like something like this for its last year and have it go back to its roots. When it got all its vehicles and mechs was when its started losing me. When it ends a theme everyone has wanted shall arrive: Exo Force G2.
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I’d love that. You have idea how much I’d love that.
I doubt they’d do that though, because there isn’t as much appeal to younger audiences if their toys can’t shoot fireballs and ride sick motorcycles.
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Ninjago should become Exo Force G2, at least for one wave.
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