Well... I finished seasons 8&9... my review...

Everything from the introduction of the characters, Zanes ability to change back to "normal", the animation, music, story... it was just amazing.
I would have liked a more detailed explanation as to how Pixel came back "online". There wasn't any explanation... which isn't huge at all... just makes you think.
Harumi's relationship with Lloyd and betrayal was so disappointing... yet I wouldn't have had it any other way really. That's what makes a good story, when things don't go the way you hoped they would. Still, you feel for Lloyd. Plus Harumi was like the perfect female character (imo) before she showed her true colors. She was strong, yet still feminine, encouraging, yet had struggles of her own. I at first wished they had given her more of a chance to reconcile with Lloyd in the end, before she died, other than just staring at each other from across the city... but really, it adds to the uniqueness of the story. Though, I might have put a bit more grief on Lloyds part... maybe... it's hard, which is why it's so good.
I also liked Nya's character change... she seemed more different than before... less bratty... and Lloyd's voice change, and looks, were VERY MUCH NEEDED.
I didn't like the worldview... or Mistake (or however you spell her name) being an Oni. Oni are evil, and just having one as a good guy seems a little sketchy to me.
As far as Hunted goes... I mean from Wu's and the original ninja's perspective... it was good. Nothing really spectacular, but it was good. I don't really have that much to say about it. Except for Jay... he was great 😂. "It's my new video game console, I built it myself." 😂.
Having the elemental masters return was great, and the reference to the master of form being bad was believable. I never liked her... however, I felt like they could have broken out of Crypteriem prison much earlier... because, I mean, they didn't need any help to do it. They just had to bang on bars and they eventually came loose.
I also loved how Dareth got a bigger role... and actually was a hero. Even though he is kinda a noob... he does more than you realize.

Anywaaaaays... that's all for now... and no, I didn't spell check all this 😂

Glad you liked it!

Yes I was glad to when they returned. I do wish though that they do a spin off season with them as the main characters...

Harumi is still, three years after her debut, the most debated character 😂

actually, it's kinda sad... 😦

Greenie: A beautiful summary. I see what you mean about Mistake . . . is does detract from the Oni's persona quite a bit, though I personally really enjoyed her character. I also really enjoyed Dareth's character arc. 😄 That and the return of the Elemental Masters and Dragons is what makes me enjoy Hunted more than Sons of Garmadon. Jay's . . . lapse in character (?) was so much fun. 😂 I love how nothing goes the way you want it. Wu still gets old, Harumi still dies, Garmadon is still evil, Darreth doesn't get to keep his Brown Power (😞), and things we root for overall just don't happen. Still, that's what sets it apart, and makes it so memorable. It (Hunted, not SoG) reminds me somewhat of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in the way that nothing goes right until the end. Even then, it's still not entirely what we want.

Just know that there are no seasons better than 8 and 9. 😉

13s pretty good

@OperatorAndEveryoneElseReally😂 Thank you! I can already tell that no other season so far has matched 8&9... they were just too good. Perhaps they will make another that good someday... March of the Oni was also good. I mean, it was short, but still good. The only things about it that had my scratching my head was...

1: In season 4 Cyrus Borg tells Lloyd that if he couldn't reach the golden armor through his test security, no one could do it through his real one. Well, all they really had to do was go down an elevator, some vaults, bust through some walls, and there is was. Really, it was kinda easy.

2: I though they had to go to the golden peaks to melt down the armor... but Kai just did it with his power... not really any explanation why he was able to do it... shrugs...

Other than that it was still really good... though... I would like to know what happened to the Golden Weapons... and will they play a huge role in the future.
Also, I have a theory about Garmadon. My personal belief is that he wean't to find himself, not to create havoc. I believe he will come back in a later season, either have found a great evil and returns to tell the others, is captured by that evil and must be rescued by Jay... (I mean Lloyd), or actually... if he was rescued by Kai that would make an excellent plot twist, because Kai seems to have the biggest grudge against Garmadon... but anyways, either that or the evil will control him, using him for bad yet against his will. After all, if Garmadons going to be evil, he's going to be in control 😉. That's just a theory, but I kinda think he won't return as an evil lord seeking power. It's just too predictable, and I think they want to do something special with his return.

Also... like everyone I'm going to admit that I was disappointed in the personality change after season 10... they wen't from being heros to dimwits 😂, sorta. I feel like their old selves are slowly coming back... but I don't know fore sure.

#NoSpellCheck!

Yeah, Maybe why it was so easy for them to break through was because of the Oni invasion knocking out all the other security stuff.

Also Maybe the reason Kai was able to melt it was because he had the element of fire... but idk 😉

Yeah... I've considered those, sorta... 😂. Perhaps the element fo fire was the only other solution, yet Kai had not reached his ability to melt things down yet when Garmadon turned the weapons into one.

Perhaps...
I must say, according to the creator, since the Golden Weapons were not reforged at the Temple of Light, they did not hold onto their power and were drained by the Tornado of Creation.
And if the first two episodes are anything to judge by, Season 15 will be either almost, as good, or better than the Oni and Dragon trilogy

PS
Cyrus Borg moved the armor there after he had rebuilt his tower with much more security -apparently not robot dogs, though.

PPS
I predicted the Tornado of Creation finale from the start...

Anyways, I just realized that seasons 13, 14, and 15 are all connected. At the end of MotM, Wu says he'll go wherever the wind takes him, so that explains why he went to the Island out of nowhere. Of course, season 14 is a prequel to Seabound, and so far, Seabound seems like it'll be awesome. I can't wait to see more of the Smith family relationship come into play, and the darker side seems like it'll be much more fun than The Island.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v😛z2f-rkK9D0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjGAvNnS-Rs

Those are the first 2 episodes, BTW.

Tommy Anderson said that season 15 was going to be REALLY good, and DuckBricks pointed out that the last time he said that we got Sons of Garmadon and Hunted.

Kinda sad about the golden weapons... but, oh well 😂. They were still cool though...

P.S. Yeah, I'd thought tat... but, Idda know 😂.

P.P.S. I did (sorta) as well. Those things are fairly essay to predict.

Guys... what the toenail was the point of episode 117 "The Absolute Worst"...? That was literally the dumbest Ninjago episode I've EVER seen in my life... like... the dumbest... even the 2D animation, was just annoying. I want to put a laughing emoji of some kind, but I don't think it even deserves that much respect... I don't know of any point in that episode... except to add the character fo Fugidove... again, that (especially compared to any episode in season 8 or 9) was just terrible.

ikr but it was nice to see new anamation. all the story goes out the window... 😉

Just wait until later in the season, they do a super cool animation episode that will make up for it!
(kind of a "Into the Spider-Verse" vibe with a mix of Gundam too, though the rendering for that episode isn't as good...)

[Bearing in mind that you have stated in the past how you don't like 2D animation] I can see how you would dislike it. I personally kinda enjoyed the different art styles, but I feel that it could have been included in more of an anthology or filler time, rather than in the intense and well-developed plot of the Ice Chapter.

In fact, this goes for the rest of Season 11 as well. The filler actually is normally fine, it just comes at a time when we'd prefer to-the-point episodes instead of an episode purely based in an in-universe newscast. The season just had too many episodes, period.
Tommy A said that they need to reinvent the show and get new fans in every 3 years or so (uh oh 2022 😁 ) but I don't think that jettisoning good storytelling will do that. Actually, I think if they extended the Fire and Ice chapters and made the character development more consistent they actually could be really good stories.

@Operator, I actually have a bit of a theory here... It almost feels like there was a bigger time-skip between MotM and The Island. I base this, not only on the fact that Wu was literally going wherever the wind took them in the last episode of S13 [EDIT: I guess I was wrong about this - see below reasoning], but also the line that Wu said to PIXAL about the Hydro Bounty.

"Wu: Didn't you build a submersible capable of deep sea exploration a number of years ago?"

Our (relavent) season timeline up to MotM is as follows:
S8: 1 Year after S7 (I think that festival at the beginning may have been Day of the Departed)
S9: a couple weeks after S8
MotO: A few weeks after S9
S11: At least 6 months after MotO
S12: A couple months after S11
S13: A couple weeks short time after S12
The Island: A month after Level Thirteen in Season 12

bringing us to around 2 years after Season 7, or 1 year since Season 8.
This is of import because PIXAL's identity as the Samurai X (and thus her physical existence) was unknown prior to Season 8. If the Ninja didn't know she existed, they couldn't authorize her to build a vehicle of such size as the Hydro Bounty (not to mention the fact that as a lone operative she wouldn't need to.)
Hopefully that was clear enough to follow that there is at least a 3 year distance from Sons of Garmadon Hunted to Seabound. (That being aside from the fact that Kai is now "a grown man" rather than the "grown-up teenagers" they were in Hunted.)

Now, I don't have any idea why there is such a big timeskip anymore than you do. But it does intrigue me...

EDIT:
Apparently, The Island is set one month after the episode Level 13. Now, this doesn't mean much, however, where I was in error, I crossed out and/or replaced with italicized amendments.
This just has to put our time skip forward a chapter.
However, this now makes sense why there is such a time skip. They arranged the two stories of the Amulets topically (obviously).
I stand by what I said that PIXAL could not have built the Hydro Bounty before Season 9, as she was either in hiding, missing, digital, or in Zane's head. While she could have designed it, she could not have been said to build it before then.

Wait... MotM is before season 11??!! I didn't know that...

I didn't say that... March of the Oni is... but I guess MotO and MotM look quite similar in abbreviated state 😄

Now I'm really confused... 😆