History Trivia / Ninjago

* FoilerFootage: Tommy Andreason, on AprilFoolsDay 2022, revealed a [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1509866469982572547 picture]] regarding ''Crystallized'', which [[TeasingCreator hinted]] this trope in action, albeit with the caveat that two bits of information in the picture are true and one is a lie; the lyrics to the Weekend Whip will be important, an insignificant potted plant will help the heroes save the day, and that the writers and toy-designers collaborated to include characters and objects in the sets that will ''not'' appear in the season. [[spoiler:Turns out the first two were true, as Garmadon's attachment to a plant he was raising to learn compassion and care helped him help the Ninja, and the lyrics to the Weekend Whip "Jump up, kick back, whip around and spin" were part of the instructions to unlocking the Ninja's [[EleventhHourSuperpower Dragon Forms]]. It's very likely this was done to attempt to cast doubt on how accurate ''Crystallized'''s sets (which had been the victim of numerous leaks) would be.]]

** In the 2020s era of Ninjago, CN was no longer seen as a reliable way to watch new seasons and the fanbase stuck to just watching the episodes screen-recorded from other channels from maybe countries on [=YouTube=]. Airing schedules for Ninjago were becoming huge messes due to battling channel source options, and episodes would become very difficult to watch for fans, with them either being uploaded in poor quality, other languages, or, in the case of season 13, even ''out of order!''. All of this would go on through the entire Creator/[=WildBrain=] era of the show. Two of the most guilty examples would be in the cases of seasons 14 and 15.

*** Season 15's release schedule was the most doomed out of all of them. At the very least, trailers and sets started getting revealed ahead of time before the season premiered. But even before the season started airing

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Every time there's a new season, Cartoon Network barely attempts to promote it. Once it's done showing the new season, the show goes back to the grave.

* InMemoriam: The 2021 episodes were dedicated to Kirby Morrow, the dedication being seen in the ''Seabound'' finale, "The Turn of the Tide".

** For the Latin-American dub, the pilots up to season 7 aired on Disney XD in Mexico. Seasons 8-9 never aired on television and were first released on Platform/[=YouTube=], while season 10 premiered on streaming. After that, seasons 11-14 and The Island miniseries aired on the Mexican version of Cartoon Network, like in the US. Disney XD still aired reruns of the whole series up to season 7 from time to time until the channel closed in Mexico in March 2022.

** LEGO mostly did a good job with [[spoiler: Harumi in regards to her identity as the Quiet One, with her princess attire being the only minifigure of hers released in the "Sons of Garmadon" sets, keeping her true identity hidden, while her "Quiet One" attire was exclusive to the later "Hunted" sets (AKA Season 9).]] However, one mistake strongly implied [[her actual villany, with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey44uhPP0dY this set animation for the Temple of Ressurection set]] showing Harumi (alongside Hutchins, who didn't even survive that long in the season's events) trying to prevent the Ninja from stopping Garmadon's ressurection.]]

** Averted with [[spoiler: Harumi in regards to her identity as the Quiet One, due to her princess attire being the only minifigure of hers released in the "Sons of Garmadon" sets, keeping her true identity hidden, while her "Quiet One" attire is exclusive to the "Dragon Hunters" sets (AKA Season 9)]].

* [=CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer=]: Episode descriptions for Skybound episodes originally referred to Nadakhan as "Azad", which was actually [[OrphanedReference his original name before being completely changed late into production]] due to sounding too similar to real-life Sirian dictator Bashar al-Assad. The descriptions in services later changed the name correctly to Nadakhan.

* CreatorBacklash: Tommy Andreasen, when [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1527708490290053125 asked]] how he felt about LEGO releasing the first twelve episodes of Season 15 online on their own Youtube channel, said he wasn't informed about it and feels it wasn't "optimal", and later became frustrated when the second half ended up being leaked.

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: While Tommy Andreasen often [[WordOfGod explained]] certain aspects of the setting, he noted that it was likely to be overridden by other canon material. He also requested fans no longer ask questions to him about the show after ''Crystallized'' ended, due to having left to work on other projects, and thus has no say over the direction of later entries such as ''Dragons Rising''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/Ninjago Has its own page.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** One very early design concept for the Ninja has a quintet that includes a moon ninja, a storm ninja, and a water ninja, the lattermost of which was eventually worked into the final show in the form of Nya gaining water powers.
** Zane's name was originally going to be Whitman.
** Likewise, Kai was originally called Dante.
** Nya was going to be called Aya and she would have been the master of air.
** [[https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/938136860152360960 A beat sheet]] for the pilot episodes from January 2010 has a similar plot structure to the version that aired a year later, but still has drastic differences.
*** Cole is the only character whose name is finalized. Kai, Nya, Zane, Jay, Samukai and Garmadon are instead called Ash, Aura, Wynn, Rayne, Grim and Demic; Wu goes unnamed in this draft.
*** Reaching the Scythe of Quakes would have required solving a "riddle of crest", as opposed to just noticing that the Skullkin are searching in the wrong place.
*** The dragons would have been tamed in the third act of the story instead of the fourth. Notably, Cole takes the lead in getting the Earth dragon under control; in the final version, he's afraid of dragons and it's Kai who has the idea to befriend them.
*** Instead of the Ninja letting the Golden Weapons-created portal close on its own, they follow Demic/Garamdon through it and end up in a futuristic city. Wu is left behind to tell Kai's sister that he isn't returning.
** The Scythe of Quakes was originally going to be a hammer. While the show remained consistent with the Golden Weapon being a scythe, after Season 8, he would [[RefittedForSequel wield a hammer]] to have synergy with the 2017 film adaptation, and sporadically wields it as the show goes on.
** Lord Garamdon was originally planned to be the one to release the Serpentine instead of his son.
** [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1158409151246213121 Originally, the show was considered to end with Season 7]], and would have ended differently than in the actual show. Rather than Wu sabotaging the Iron Doom and sending the Time Twins to an unknown point in time, the Time Twins would have willingly gone centuries into the future in an attempt to find an era where the Ninja have long since died off. However, they not only end up just ''forty'' years in the future, but end up right next to a visibly older Kai (who is near-identical to his reflection from the Tomb of the First Spinjitzu Master in Season 5), who quickly disables the Iron Doom and locks them up in a technologically-advanced successor to Kryptarium Prison (that would have been laced with chronosteel, the same material the Time Blades are made from, in order to render the Time Twins powerless once more). The rest of the Ninja (also resembling their reflections) appear, and the series ends with them discussing their past adventures as they walk off[[note]]It's not been specified whether this idea was scrapped due to the show's popularity, the recent release of the movie, or the creators simply having second thoughts on ending it[[/note]].
*** In addition, the Ninja (sans maybe Zane given he's a Nindroid) were planned to [[BabiesEverAfter have children who'd appear after the 40-year]] TimeSkip. Said children would have developed their elemental powers by now.
** For "Dead Man's Squall" in Season 8, a new track was meant to be made to fit the tone of the ColdOpen and intro with Zane nearly being beaten to death by Mr. E, but was [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/977500419659313153 ultimately decided against at the last second]] after a realization that "Built to Protect" (The song of Zane's sacrifice in Season 3) would fit as a CallBack to Zane's death back then, and even synchronized with the opening.
** Mr E. was originally going to be revealed to be Echo Zane, upgraded by [[spoiler:Harumi]], but it was cut from Season 9 due to so many major plot developments taking place in that time span and being too difficult to fit in. Tommy Andreasen didn't care much for the idea anyway, thinking it wouldn't have made much sense for Echo Zane to defeat Zane.
** The main show writers, the Hageman brothers, contemplated having Hutchins return later in season 8 and the Ninja would've concluded that he was The Quiet One but he was only a RedHerring and that he "would've made a killer ally".
** Among Garmadon's proposed names were the name he got and "Demic" (derived from "Pandemic"), the latter of which was the name the Hageman Brothers and Tommy Andreason wanted to use, but they [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1164196883524390912 couldn't get legal clearance to use it]], and thus they were stuck with Garmadon.
** Jay's mother was [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1254764492313034752 considered]] to have a major role in ''Prime Empire'', powering the game in some way, but this idea was never implemented in the final show.
** Tommy Andreasen revealed in an interview that a slightly different, DarkerAndEdgier ending was originally planned for the final season. [[spoiler: Garmadon would actually die instead of having a fake-out death, and Lloyd, consumed by grief, would assume his Oni form, destroy the Overlord all by himself and take his throne, [[FaceHeelTurn becoming the show's final antagonist]]. The other ninja would eventually defeat him and turn him back to light, and the rest of the ending would be roughly similar to the final one]].
** [[spoiler:Harumi]] was supposed to [[BackFromTheDead come back]] as a cyborg with spider-like elements. This was scrapped when the crew learned of the Spider Queen from ''WesternAnimation/MonkieKid'', with the character instead being revived as they originally were.
** Tommy Andreasen also revealed that [[spoiler: Nadakhan]] was meant to be part of the Council of the Crystal King, but this was dropped due to his return being "too complicated" to explain. [[spoiler: Eventually, the plan was that Clutch Powers would drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and thus, freeing Nadakhan, allowing the djinn to join the Council.]]

* CreatorBacklash: Tommy Andreason, when [[https://twitter.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1527708490290053125 asked]] how he felt about LEGO releasing the first twelve episodes of Season 15 online on their own Youtube channel, said he wasn't informed about it and feels it wasn't "optimal", and later became frustrated when the second half ended up being leaked.

* IKnewIt:
** Kai being a DecoyProtagonist with Lloyd becoming TheHero was the first ever thing predicted on our own WMG page.
** Most of the fanbase didn't need [[SpoiledByTheMerchandise the toyline]] to spell out that the [[LegacyCharacter second]] Samurai X was [[spoiler:P.I.X.A.L.]]
** Practically everyone was able to predict that [[spoiler:The Crystal King was actually the Overlord long before it was actually revealed]].

* RecastAsARegular: Creator/AndrewFrancis, who played Shade and Morro, [[TheOtherDarrin replaced]] Kirby Morrow as Cole after he passed away.

** Tommy Andreasen also revealed that [[spoiler: Nadakhan]] was meant to be part of the Council of the Crystal King, but this was dropped due to a lack of potential reasons behind his comeback. [[spoiler: Eventually, the plan was that Clutch Powers would drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and thus, freeing Nadakhan, allowing the djinn to join the Council.]]

* GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld: While Tommy Andreasen often [[WordOfGod explained]] certain aspects of the setting, he noted that it was likely to be overridden by other canon material. He also stopped answering questions after ''Crystallized'', due to having left to work on other projects, and thus has no say over the direction of later entries such as ''Dragons Rising''.

** Tommy Andreasen also revealed that [[spoiler: Nadakhan]] (the main antagonist of Season 6) was meant to be part of the Council of the Crystal King, but this was dropped due to a lack of potential reasons behind his comeback. [[spoiler: Eventually, the plan was that Clutch Powers would drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and thus, freeing Nadakhan, allowing the djinn to join the Council.]]

** Tommy Andreasen also revealed that Nadakhan (the main antagonist of Season 6) was meant to be part of the Council of the Crystal King, but this was dropped due to a lack of potential reasons behind his comeback. Eventually, the plan was that Clutch Powers would drop the Teapot of Tyrahn and thus, freeing Nadakhan, allowing the djinn to join the Council.

** The Skull Sorcerer's mask in the toyline does not resemble his toyline counterpart, with the mask just having two eyeholes, compared to the show having complex skull indentations and glowing eyes.