Characters / Ninjago - Ninja

Ninjago Main Character Index
Ninja | Allies | Elemental Masters | Villains (The Serpentine, The Overlord's Army) | Others

In General

• Animal Motifs: Each of the Ninja have animal symbols that reflect their personalities and elemental powers. See their character folders below.
• 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, which unlocks his True Potential.
    "You will not hurt my friends!"
  • If you hurt one of the Ninja badly or attempt to kill them, the others will react badly and hold a grudge.
  • Nya, between Jay and Cole, throughout most of Season 3 and the first three episodes of Season 4.
  • Lloyd, regarding Garmadon sacrificing himself, and in turn, leaving him forever in "The Corridor of Elders."
• Breaking the Fellowship:
  • They split up in the time between seasons 3 and 4, partly because of grief over Zane's sacrifice (though in the case of Cole and Jay, it's also because they refuse to speak to one another).
  • Again in Season 15, after Nya becomes one with the ocean. It lasts over a year.
• Brother–Sister Team: Kai and Nya work best alongside each other, best shown in "Day Of The Departed" when they fight together to successfully defeat the resurrected Master Chen and his cronies. Season 7 also has both of them as the main focus, working together to retrieve the last Time Blade and using their elemental powers to create the Fusion Dragon.
• Color-Coded Characters: They're all associated with a particular color to the point that (with the exception of Nya) they're sometimes referred to as "[insert color here] Ninja".
  • Lloyd: Green.
  • Kai: Red.
  • Jay: Blue.
  • Zane: White.
  • Cole: Black.
  • Nya: Initially light blue and dark red, then silver.
• A Day in the Limelight: Each Ninja gets a storyline or two devoted to them:
  • The Pilot episodes and Seasons 4 (The Tournament of Elements) and 7 (The Hands of Time) focus on Kai.
  • Seasons 2 (Legacy of the Green Ninja) and 8 (Sons of Garmadon) focus on Lloyd.
  • Seasons 3 (Rebooted) and 11 (Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu) focus on Zane.
  • Seasons 6 (Skybound) and 12 (Prime Empire) focus on Jay.
  • The Day of the Departed TV Special and Season 13 (Master of the Mountain) focus on Cole.
  • Seasons 7 (The Hands of Time) and 14 (Seabound) focus on Nya.
  • Seasons 1 (Rise of the Snakes), 5 (Possession), 9 (Hunted), 10 (March of the Oni) and the Island Mini-Series are the only storylines that don't focus on a particular ninja.
• Dark and Troubled Past: All the Ninja qualify as this.
  • Kai and Nya had their parents kidnapped from them when they were very young by Krux, who threatened to harm Kai and Nya if their parents did not help build weapons for him.
  • Jay's biological father, the actor Cliff Gordon, abandoned his son at Ed and Edna's Scrap N Junk when he was just a baby for unknown reasons, leading to him being adopted by Ed and Edna and raised as their son.
  • Cole's mom died of an illness after being bedridden for many years, and his father's coping mechanisms drove Cole away and resulted in him meeting Sensei Wu.
  • Zane, a nindroid, was built by Dr. Julien, who raised him for decades happily, before dying from old age and resetting Zane's memory to spare him the grief of his "father's" death, leaving him with no memory of his past.
  • Lloyd was the son of Lord Garmadon and Misako and was born shortly before Garmadon was consumed by evil and banished to the Underworld, leading Misako to leave Lloyd at the Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys while she searched for a way to prevent Lloyd from having to fight his father.
• De-power: In the Season 15 finale, the four original Ninja sacrifice their elements in order to give Lloyd the power to put an end to the Overlord for good. While the elements do vanish to return from whence they came after the final battle, the Ninja do have hope their elements may return one day. As shown in the Quest for the Lost Powers book, which takes place after the events of Crystalized and before Dragons Rising, they did.
• Determinator: Their motto is "Ninja never quit!"
• Family of Choice: Most of the Ninja are not related by blood (with only Kai and Nya being such, being brother and sister), but by the end of Season 1 have grown into a tight-knit family who will do anything to help each other.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Kai is choleric. He's arrogant and stubborn with a Hair-Trigger Temper, and tends to overestimate his abilities and dive into action headfirst without thinking things through. He's also very confident, Hot-Blooded, and loyal to his friends and family.
  • Jay is sanguine. He's cheerful, talkative, and just plain fun to have around and be around. He's also weak-willed, covers up his problems and insecurities with a smile, and can be emotionally unstable at times.
  • Zane is melancholic. He's The Smart Guy, who is also devout to Master Wu's teachings, very polite, and organized in his battle plans. He's also shown to be emotionally distant, stoic, and disheartened at losing his father, Dr. Julien, who built him as a defense droid.
  • Cole is phlegmatic. He's steadfast, patient, and very dependable, as he is the former leader of the Ninja until Lloyd took over. He's also stubborn when he puts his mind on something, and is shown to have a fear of ghosts, which leads him to be timid and scared at times.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Green Ninja, Lloyd, is also the least experienced of the Ninja - literally making him a 'green' ninja.
  • Kai means "strong," "victorious," and "recovery," in three Asian cultures, all of which fit his hotshot attitude. His name may also be derived from the Japanese word akai, meaning "red".
  • The name Jay means 'to rejoice' in English tradition, fitting well with his jovial personality.
  • The name Zane means beloved in Arabic tradition; and he certainly is by his father, P.I.X.A.L., his fellow ninja, and his hoard of fangirls.
  • The name Cole, aside from being a play on the word coal, means warrior in Irish tradition.
• Official Couple:
  • After spending three seasons being uncertain about their relationship, Jay finally gets together with Nya at the end of Season 6, as confirmed by their Big Damn Kiss.
  • Kai with Skylor as of Season 15.
  • Zane becomes this with P.I.X.A.L, with both stating they love each other at various points throughout the series.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Zane and Jay (Sensitive) and Kai and Cole (Manly). Lloyd joins the team as the in between, being less gentle than Zane and Jay but softer than Kai and Cole.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While it is true that they've butt heads at the beginning, it's only out of constructive criticism and that they're still just trying to work together. But in recent seasons, not only are they at each others' throats more often, but also acting like even bigger jerks to each other to the point of mocking and even bullying one another.
• True Companions: All of the Ninja, especially the original four. They don't always get along and will argue, but at the end of the day, they all care for each other deeply and will do anything for each other.
• Vague Age: We have no idea how old they actually are. In Lloyd's case, we know that he's a kid who went through Rapid Aging. Jay mentions that he and the others are "grown-up teenagers" in Season 9. But the fact that years have passed by seems to suggest that they are older. Possibly even being young adults as of Dragons Rising. However, Word of God does confirm that they are teenagers. Although they don't go to school. Not to mention that whenever their parents go missing or are captured, child services and social workers aren't mentioned. At the very least, Kai, Jay, and Cole were 15 to 16 years, Nya was 13 to 14 years, and Zane was 40 years old during the pilot and Season 1.

Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon, the Green Ninja and Master of Energy

^{Click here to see Lloyd's appearance prior to Season 8}

^{Click here to see Lloyd's appearance prior to "Child's Play"}

Debut: "Rise of the Snakes"
Voiced by: Jillian Michaels (Seasons 1-7), Samuel Vincent (Season 8 onward)

The son of Garmadon and Misako, nephew of Sensei Wu, and grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master. Once a bratty kid who sought to follow in his father's villainous footsteps, Lloyd changed his ways, helping the Ninja and realizing his destiny was to become the Green Ninja. As the Ninja trained Lloyd, he reunited with Misako and faced Garmadon and the Overlord. During his long, difficult journey, Lloyd has grown from a young, childish prankster to a strong, wise, and capable leader.

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• Adorably Precocious Child: And still pretty cute when he gets older, too, albeit in a different way.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Lloyd mentions that he hates the time he spent at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys, heavily implying that he was frequently bullied there. The Lloyd Garmadon's Blog at LEGOClub.com confirms that he was indeed the Chew Toy of the school.
• All Your Powers Combined: As the Green Ninja, he can use the four main elements - earth, fire, ice, and lightning. He later loses this ability when the Overlord steals most of his Golden Power and he shares the rest of it with the other four Ninja, leaving him with just the element of Energy.
• Animal Motifs: Dragons, which represent his energy element and part of his lineage.
• The Atoner: He shows genuine remorse for releasing the Serpentine after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Authority in Name Only: Gets "promoted" to master in Season 7, if only because Wu is indisposed. Half the time, he can't get the other ninja to actually listen to him. In one instance, they ignore what he says, but readily agree with Wu when he says the exact same thing. He's finally properly fulfilling the role as of Dragons Rising where with Wu missing and him mentoring a new generation of Ninjas he's forced to truly take up the responsibilities of a master.
• Badass Adorable: He is adorable in every way. But don't forget, he is the most skilled Ninja who is capable of holding his own against all evil threats.
• Badass Normal: He is this after Season 8 thanks to Garmadon beating the crap out of him. Despite losing his powers, he becomes the leader of La Résistance and manages to hold his own in fights. He doesn't get his powers back until the Season 9 finale and by the time that happens, he has already tired out Garmadon and won by resisting his onslaught of attacks.
• Big Bad Wannabe: In the first season he wanted to become a fearsome and recognized Evil Overlord just like his father so he could follow in his foosteps by unleashing the Serpentine and making them his servants. It didn't go so well, as every single tribe he unleashed wound up betraying or throwing him out eventually. At one point, when Fangtom and Skales are discussing what to do with him, Fangtom suggests turning him into one of them, but Skales says "Nah, the little tyke's pretty useless."
• Birds of a Feather: With Princess Harumi. Both are/were orphans at one point in their lives, both were pushed into roles they didn't ask for and both had a tough childhood and difficult family situations, although she deliberately tries to manipulate him by playing off of this.
• Boomerang Bigot: As of Season 15, he sees all Oni as heartless beings incapable of positive emotions, despite being part Oni himself. He gets partly over it once he sees Garmadon's genuine efforts to change to a degree, though still fears his Oni heritage by the end.
• Bratty Half-Pint: As a child, he had a mischievous streak that led him to frequently pull pranks on others. Obviously, he gets better.
• Break the Cutie:
  • After Harumi's true colors are revealed, Lloyd initially keeps himself together, but then begins to blame himself for not seeing through her sooner. When Misako tries to comfort him by saying that all he did was see the best in others, Lloyd turns away and darkly replies, "Not anymore".
  • Although he seems to get better after Misako warns him not to let the pain consume him as it did with Harumi, Lloyd absolutely snaps when he sees his father return in the flesh and attempts to reason with him. As Harumi deliberately made Garmadon come back wrong, it doesn't work out well for him, and he is left utterly broken and humiliated even further.
• The Chosen One: He is the Green Ninja destined to defeat the "ultimate evil" (in this case the Overlord, not Lord Garmadon, as it was previously thought) and become the savior of Ninjago. He succeeds in the climatic battle against the Overlord, reducing him to almost nothing.
  • In Dragons Rising, after being empowered by one of the Source Dragons, he becomes the Conduit, being capable of channeling the Source Dragons' reality-sustaining power, and later throughout Season 2, he's beset with visions warning him of events related to the Blood Moon.
• Chrome Champion: His suit turns golden after becoming the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master in Season 2 of the original series.
• Cosmic Plaything: He tends to go through the most suffering out of any ninja in the WILFilm era, be it his father's death, getting possessed by the Big Bad, turned old, emotionally abused by the Big Bad, beaten to a pulp by his Came Back Wrong father, etc. Season 3, however, both downplays and plays it for laughs. It seems to have completely died down in the WildBrain era, where he more often than not ends up without a major trauma during the season but then gets picked back on for Seasons 8-15, most notably:
  • Season 8 has his father resurrected as a heartless Oni with barely any of his good qualities even before his purification, who nearly kills Lloyd several times over, disowns and leaves him badly wounded and then hunts him down to finish the job. All of this orchestrated by a girl he had fallen in love with, who reveals she blames him for her parents' death at the hands of the Great Devourer.
  • Season 9 has him lose one of his allies, Mystake, to Garmadon; sees Harumi, who he still loved, die redeeming herself, then is forced to fight his father once again and is nearly tempted to finish him off once he prevails before backing out.
  • Season 10 sees his father's Hazy-Feel Turn being muddled by his inability to empathize or treat anyone with decency shatter any hope he had of getting the Garmadon he knew back pretty much breaking his previous idolization, briefly thinks he and the others lost Cole and has to watch his home nearly be destroyed by the Oni, who never fail to remind him that he is technically one of their own.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was abandoned by both of his parents (not that they had any other choice) and left at a boarding school for kid villains. He was heavily bullied at said boarding school and got expelled for not having the drive to commit actual evil. He tried to prove his worth as a villain after that, only to fall into Humiliation Conga over and over again courtesy of the Ninja and his own general lack of evilness. Fortunately, he was taken in by his uncle, Master Wu, and the Ninja, and was made to see the error of his ways.
• Deadpan Snarker: While not much, Lloyd is shown to have a sarcastic sense of humour. This became more common in the WildBrain era.
  Akita: You know I can turn back into a wolf anytime, right? And bite you?
  Lloyd: Maybe you'll get lucky and he's allergic to pets.
• Demonic Possession: Morro pulls this on him for most of Season 5, using his body to carry out his plans. He tries to break free from the possession a couple of times, albeit briefly.
• Determinator:
  • He refuses to quit during the Final Battle, which is ultimately what unlocks his true power as the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master.
  • Even more so in the Season 8 finale, when Harumi and Garmadon seemingly kill his friends save for Nya, Misako, and P.I.X.A.L. Even with Harumi talking him down he refuses to surrender and swears to defeat her and Garmadon one day. Sure enough, he makes a resistance against Garmadon with the help of his remaining friends and the elemental masters and by Season 9 turns the tables and defeats his father.
• Distressed Dude: The Serpentine kidnap him when they find out that he infiltrated the City of Ouroboros.
  • Lampshaded in "Double Trouble".
    Lloyd: Why do I always get tied up?
  • Again in Season 5 when Morro takes over his body.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Montgomery, which is implied to be his mother's maiden name given that his father only has one name.
• Evil Is Petty: All of his evil deeds revolved around stealing candy and pulling pranks. He was also kicked out of boarding school for not having the drive to commit actual evil.
• Foreshadowing:
  • His shirt has a green number five on it, pointing towards him becoming the Sixth Ranger.
  • He was bullied and eventually kicked out of the Boarding School for Bad Boys because he didn't have the drive to commit any actual evil. Turns out, he became the strongest hero in Ninjago. Go figure.
  • The Music video for the show's theme song features the four band members, who are dressed in T-Shirts matching the colors of Kai, Jay, Zane and Cole performing the song in what appears to be a garage. Near the end of the video, they are joined by a pre-teen boy wearing a green sweatshirt jacket.
• Freudian Excuse: The bullying he suffered back at his boarding school spurred him to become a villain like his father.
• Friendless Background: During his time at Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys. Brad was his Only Friend who taught him the art of revenge, though only in secret.
• From Hero to Mentor: In "Dragons Rising", Lloyd takes in Arin, a Spinjitzu prodigy, and Sora, the Elemental Master of Technology, as his first students.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: In "Never Trust a Snake", Wu calls him by his full name for the first time in the series.
• Golden Super Mode: When he realizes his true power during his battle with the Overlord.
• Half-Human Hybrid: As Season 8 reveals. The First Spinjitzu Master wasn't human, so by extension Garmadon, Wu, and Lloyd aren't 100% human either. Apparently, the First Spinjitzu Master was actually half-oni and half-dragon with a human form; and as such Lloyd, Garmadon, and Wu all have human, Oni, and Dragon genes. Season 15 goes deeper into this, revealing he could transform into an Oni form coated in golden colors, much more powerful than his human one, his father's own Oni form or any other Oni for that matter; unfortunately he rejects this very side of himself so it never does much.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: His Oni bloodline's ability to change (which manifests in Mistake as Voluntary Shapeshifting), is identified by the latter as a key part of what allowed him so much Character Development so fast.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Extremely downplayed. He doesn't outright hate females, but he did put a "No Girls Allowed" sign at his fortress. Children just usually think the opposite gender is weird. Though, it's also possibly a result of his mommy issues due to being abandoned by her. Obviously, he gets better as he matures. Lloyd develops a deep respect for Nya, PIXAL, Misako, and the other women in his life through Character Development, especially Harumi after her redemption.
• Hero Protagonist: An unusual version of this trope. He initially started out as an antagonist while Kai appeared to be the protagonist. However, after his Heel–Face Turn and Plot-Relevant Age-Up, he quickly becomes the true main protagonist and uses his status as the Green Ninja to protect Ninjago from evil threats.
• Heroic BSoD: All the Ninja are hit hard by Nya's sacrifice, but Lloyd blames himself and refuses to lead the Ninja again, taking a job as a window washer.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrifices his childhood to defeat the Grundle, being aged up to adolescence with no turning back.
• Improperly Paranoid: He's reluctant to trust Princess Vania after what happened with Harumi. However, she turns out to be on the level.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The only people who don't know he's the Green Ninja either have no interest in Ninjago or have been living under a rock.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: He rises above the others and becomes the Green - later Golden - Ninja who successfully defeats the ultimate evil in all of Ninjago. Even after being depowered, he remains the most powerful member of the team.
• The Leader: Takes over Cole's role after he Took a Level in Badass as a result of a Plot-Relevant Age-Up in the last episodes of the second season. By the fifth season, it is even lampshaded by many characters, including Cole himself, that he is the leader of the Ninja.
• Love at First Sight: Implied, with Harumi. At the very least, he seems to be intrigued at first sight. Of course, this doesn't go well for him.
• Mentor Archetype: In Dragons Rising, with Wu and the other ninja (save Kai) missing, Lloyd is forced to mentor the new kids. He's out of his depth a first but grows more and more into the role as the plot progresses.
• Meaningful Name: Lloyd derives from the Welsh adjective llwyd, which can mean "gray-haired" or sacred" and probably is also a name that can entitle someone respect. Indeed, Lloyd's blonde hair can look grey in some camera angles (especially noticeable after the design change) and he is also sacred, being the legendary Green Ninja and the one prophesied to defeat the Overlord, as well as the direct descendent of the First Spinjitzu Master.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Lloyd's powers are pretty inconsistent, although more often than not Lloyd loses powers as the plot demands rather than acquire new ones. Initially, Lloyd had an All Your Powers Combined stint going on, but this was replaced with Energy (his official power) after the first few arcs where he was The Chosen One. Chen refers to his Element as "Power" during the tournament of elements, and the way Lloyd's powers work is even more confusing. In Season 8, Cole even admits the Ninja have no idea how his powers work.
• No Social Skills: In Dragons Rising, thanks to spending five years mostly on his own, Lloyd's no longer quite so good in a crowd as he used to be.
• Not So Above It All: The guy is definitely much more serious than his teammates (going through so much drama didn't help), but it doesn't mean he never laughs at their jokes or has an awkward moment or two himself.
• Overlord Jr.: He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his Evil Overlord father, to the point of modeling his attire after him. He wore a cape, had an evil laugh, and sided with the most despicable creatures in Ninjago. Fortunately for the heroes, he was awful at it.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up:
  • He was left with no choice but to use the Tomorrow's Tea and discard his childhood in order to save the child-ified Ninja from the Grundle.
  • Happens again in "Wishmasters", when Lloyd wishes to be wise like Sensei Wu. Not only does he gain increased agility and intelligence, but he also "becomes like him", rapidly aging him to an old man. He returns to being a teenager in "The Way Back" when Jay's wish erases everything that happened in the entirety of Season 6.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: Come the second season, after the reveal of him being the green ninja, he joins the other ninja in the roll call. Interestingly, he got two versions: One in his child form where he clumsily tries to do Spinjitzu and falls on his rump, and another where he's now aged up and uses all the ninjas' elemental abilities.
• Prophecy Twist:
  • Lloyd is the Green Ninja destined to defeat the Dark Lord. The "Dark Lord" isn't Garmadon, as was originally believed; rather, it's actually the Overlord, and Lloyd must save his father from his clutches. Once the Overlord is defeated, the evil in Garmadon's blood is destroyed along with him, and Lloyd and his father are able to reconcile.
  • As the Golden Ninja, he's also the subject of a Serpentine prophecy regarding the 'Golden Master' who will begin a reign of terror over Ninjago. It's actually the Overlord again, who becomes the Golden Master by stealing Lloyd's Golden Power and forging armor from the remains of the Golden Weapons.
• Punny Name: Lloyd Garmadon, son of Lord Garmadon. This initially confuses the Ninja, who mistook him for Lord Garmadon when they learned that he was terrorizing Jamanakai Village.
• Pure Energy: Lloyd, as of becoming the Green Ninja.
• Rookie Red Ranger: While he definitely isn't the main character, he is the most inexperienced of the Ninja at the time of joining them. He later becomes the Green Ninja.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Princess Harumi initially it becomes muddled when she reveals she was just using Lloyd as means of resurrecting his father as a heartless evil, but after some trials, tribulations and Harumi's turn to good in Season 15 they appear to be back on track on having genuine feelings for one another.
  • He gets some with Akita due to the two growing closer during their fight against the Ice Emperor, ending in Akita giving Lloyd a goodbye kiss once he leaves.
• Sixth Ranger: While he first joins the team following his Heel–Face Turn, he officially becomes the fifth ninja once he learns of his destiny as the Green Ninja.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He's the spitting image of his father in both childhood and youth, with the exception of him having blond hair instead of Garmadon's brown. And again when aged up in Season 6.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Season 15 reveals he has the power to channel the element of Destruction when he's enraged enough, as well as access an Oni Form through pure anger. However, he's not exactly happy about the possibility he could end up like the worst version of his father or a species who he's mostly only seen when they were trying to destroy all of Ninjago, and when he does access the Oni Form in the final battle with the Overlord, he backs out of it immediately upon seeing what he's become.
• Sweet Tooth: He really liked candy as a kid. Heck, his first appearance involves him threatening to unleash the Serpentine on a village if they didn't give him all their candy. When he does succeed in raiding said village, he gets a sugar high from eating too much candy. And, as shown in Season 14, he still loves mint candy, and Maya apparently knows about it.
• Tagalong Kid: Post Heel–Face Turn, except he isn't really The Load. The kid part soon becomes subverted.
• The Un-Reveal: It's never revealed why Lloyd lost his powers at the end of Season 8, after his beatdown from Garmadon. It's also never revealed how he got them back at the end of Season 9.
• Took a Level in Badass: He slowly becomes more and more skilled as the series goes on, especially in season two when he undergoes intensive training to control his powers and prepare him for the final battle against his father, and later, the Overlord.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Because of what happened with Harumi in Season 8, he started to have trust issues. This was shown in Season 13 as he was very mistrustful towards Vania. Though, by the end of said season, he got rid this mistrust and apologized to her for his lack of faith on her.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Season 15 he's much more bitter, confrontational and outright mean to his father, having had enough of his prior instances of jerkassery and villainy post-resurrection and especially feeling any trust he had on him crushed by the end of Season 10 after Garmadon's repeated insensitive actions while Lloyd still was trying to give him a chance back into his life. Despite still loving his father deep down, Lloyd becomes unwilling to think he has changed in any way when they meet again and isn't amused whenever Garmadon shows care towards Christophern or someone else. Luckily, he gets over it in the finale
• Took a Level in Kindness: He becomes nicer and more open towards his uncle and fellow ninja post-Heel–Face Turn.
• Unwitting Pawn: All throughout Season 8. His stint with Pythor in Season 1 counts too.
• Vocal Dissonance: Until Season 8, he retains his younger self's voice after being aged up, although it's slightly deeper than when he was a child. The trope still applies in the Japanese dub, however.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl:
  • He always seemed reluctant to fight Harumi and preferred to dodge her attacks and twist her arms behind her back instead. Although, this is probably due to him liking her since he has fought female villains. Though, Harumi does say in Game of Masks "The damsel in distress. You ninja really are from another time" lamenting on their old time period thinking women being fragile and needing a hero love interest.
  • Averted in Season 11 where he doesn't hesitate to attack Aspheera.

Kai, the Red Ninja and Master of Fire

^{Click here to see Kai's appearance prior to Season 8}

Debut: "Way of the Ninja"
Voiced by: Vincent Tong

Kai was once a blacksmith who owned the Four Weapons shop along with his younger sister Nya. Ever since the disappearance of his parents, he had taken it upon himself to keep the family business going and vowed to surpass his father's smithing skills. With the Skulkin Army invading his village and taking Nya hostage, Kai is motivated to accept Master Wu's offer to learn Spinjitzu. He eventually teams up with the other Ninja to seek the four fabled weapons of Spinjitzu to stop Lord Garmadon.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: As a result of the Ninja achieving celebrity status by Season 6, the fame goes to Kai's head and causes him to develop a bigger ego. He indulges his fangirls by constantly flirting with them, enjoys merchandise styled after his image, and is addicted to using Chirp (the in-universe version of Twitter).
• All Your Powers Combined: Very briefly gains hold of the Elemental Staff in Season 4, thus gaining hold of every element stored within it.
• Animal Motifs: Lions, which represent his fire element and Hot-Blooded personality.
• Anime Hair: His hair is so spiky it couldn't properly translate over to his physical Minifigure, requiring it to be toned down. Even after the movie-based redesign, it's still kind of absurd.
• Badass Biker: He owns a pretty mean bike that he loans to Nya during his ninja training.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • For Nya. He's been taking care of her ever since the disappearance of their parents when he was five years old. His immediate thought of action when she gets kidnapped in the pilot is to save her, which motivates him into becoming a ninja.
  • Also has this for Lloyd after settling into Big Brother Mentor mode with it getting more pronounced as the seasons go on.
• Big Brother Mentor: He acts as one towards two certain people younger than him:
  • Lloyd, due to having sworn to help him train. This comes to a head by the time Season 5 rolls around, since he acts more brotherly towards the green ninja after the latter lost his father and is heartbroken when he learns that Morro took over Lloyd's body.
  • Wyldfyre, due to having similar elemental powers. In contrast to how he handles Lloyd in his Ninja training, Kai being with The Berserker is a rather different story. Nonetheless, Kai is able to reshape Wyldfyre's common sense to fully understand patience and wisdom as a Ninja-in-training. This doubles as Fire-Forged Friends.
• Brains and Brawn: Along with Cole, Kai is also the Brawn to Nya, Jay, and Zane's Brains.
• Butt-Monkey: Kai's not the biggest example but in later seasons, whenever the Ninja, alongside him, get into a big battle, he's usually the one to get the most hits.
• Casanova Wannabe: Downplayed. Even after becoming Skylor's boyfriend as of the end of Season 4, Kai tends to flirt with other girls, especially during his 15 Minutes of Fame with the Ninja. After a sudden encounter with Nadakhan, he made his second wish that involved girls who were crazy for him.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Cole reveals that his father is "a blacksmith," Kai fails to see the problem since his father was a blacksmith too. Of course, Cole's father is a Royal Blacksmith, a dancer, not a metalworker.
• A Day in the Limelight: The pilot episodes focus on his training as a new ninja. Season 4 focuses on his unresolved jealousy over not being The Hero (as well as his ever-growing crush on Skylor), while Season 7 focuses more on his past before he ever became a ninja in the first place.
• Decoy Protagonist: He is the main focus of the pilot, and indeed, is set up to be the main character early in the series. This was all intentional misdirection to hide Lloyd's true role.
• De-power: In Season 11, when Aspheera steals his powers. He eventually manages to restore them while in the Never-Realm, as it's pointed out they weren't stolen permanently.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: If one of the Ninja is getting mocked, it's usually Kai people tend to pick on.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: In the pilot, he dons armor and fights like one, and Sensei Wu mentions that his shop sells weapons well suited for them. He also has the moral/honor code of one and his sister is the first Samurai X.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Wyldfyre, literally.
• Flanderization: In seasons 8-12, he went from a protective hothead who was cocky, but cared about people, to being overly egotistical, whiny, and having his leadership traits removed in favor of sarcasm. He also had a lot of Jerkass Ball moments; hesitating to risk giving up his powers to save Lloyd just because he'd feel weak without them (when in early seasons, Kai would be among the first to risk such a thing in the exact situation) and berating Wu for Aspheera taking his powers away, because he's the one who she wants, when he's had his powers taken away because of Wu's history with a villain before.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: This is what triggers his True Potential. After obsessing over the idea of being the Green Ninja for most of the first season, when faced with the decision to either save the third Fangblade or Lloyd from volcanic lava, he chooses the latter - finally understanding that he was meant to protect the Green Ninja instead.
• Generation Xerox: His future self looks remarkably like his father (sans the facial hair), from whom he also inherited his fire elemental powers.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a scar running through his left eye and brow on his mini figures in the sets, and is clearly heroic. Curiously, he does not have said scar in the show but retains the split eyebrow as part of his character design. Starting with The LEGO Ninjago Movie, his scar is moved to go over his left eye.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: His temper is equally as hot as his element of fire.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: While he performs most activities with his right hand, Kai seems comfortable using swords with either or both hands. In Sons of Garmadon, he uniquely gets the dual-sheathe armor piece that all the ninja had during Skybound.
• Informed Attribute: His power of Fire being one of the elements of creation and that official The Book of Elemental Powers stating it to be the most spectacular of all Elemental Powers suggests his power to be one of the stronger powers. Despite the fact that in some cases, when Kai shoots fire, the flames barely hit an opponent. Though it's worth noting that this is a kid's show and the writers can't show anything as violent as burning someone.
• Ironic Fear: Season 5 reveals that Kai is afraid of water, even Zane pointed out that the former had no problems early on. This suggests that he developed said fear after his fire powers are taken away by Morro.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's arrogant, hotheaded, and has repeatedly overestimated his abilities, but he genuinely cares for Nya and the other Ninja.
• Katanas Are Just Better: A Flaming Sword is even better!
• Leeroy Jenkins: He has an alarming tendency to dive into action headfirst without much thinking, which can endanger the success of the team.
• Love at First Sight: With Skylor. He develops a massive crush on her when he first sees her and openly admits to having fallen for her after her betrayal is revealed.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: He shows hints of this concerning Jay's crush on Nya in the pilot, although he ultimately accepts it when they start dating.
• Mr. Fanservice: Second to Cole, Kai also has a muscular appearance, but not as prominent as the former's.
• Official Couple: With Skylor.
• Personality Powers: Kai is hot-headed, impulsive, and quick to anger - which matches his element, fire.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: He and Nya are trained blacksmiths, but never seem to put those skills to use (partially because Kai was apparently rubbish at it), not even to build weapons for their fellow ninja. That is, until Season 10 when Kai's skills allow him to reforge the Golden Weapons for the Ninja to use against the Oni.
• Playing with Fire: Kai possesses pyrokinesis (ie. being able to create fireballs, propel himself upwards using fire, create a shield out of fire, etc).
• The Quisling: He appears to have been swayed to Master Chen's side in the Tournament of Elements. It was a ruse to get the Staff of Elements away and he destroys it in order to give everyone their elemental powers back. Though he is briefly swayed by its power.
• Red Is Heroic: Is the Red Ninja of Fire.
• Shonen Hair: Incredibly improbable spiky hair that no one else has? Check. Reckless and stubborn? Check. The main character? Well...
• Supporting Protagonist: He is neither the hero, nor is he the Green Ninja. He's still the main character, but only for the first season and the pilot episodes. It's subverted and then deconstructed in Season 4. His story gets the most focus here, making the point that he can be self-centered and is overall disappointed in the fact that he wasn't the Green Ninja. The Big Bad himself tries to exploit this in order to try and draw Kai to his side, though it fails due to his loyalty to his friends.
• Tooka Level In Kindness: As the series went on, he starts to become more levelheaded and his anger begins to tone down.
• Undying Loyalty: Kai is consistently dedicated to the people he cares about - once someone earns his friendship, he will stop at nothing to protect them. Much of his stubbornness and recklessness stems from his desire to help his loved ones, either directly or by becoming strong enough to defeat anyone who might threaten them with their plans. In turn, they balance out Kai's more extreme traits, causing him to become a levelheaded mentor for Lloyd.

Jay Walker, the Blue Ninja and Master of Lightning

^{Click here to see Jay's appearance prior to Season 8}

Debut: "Way of the Ninja"
Voiced by: Michael Adamthwaite

Jay was raised in a junkyard with his parents, Ed and Edna, from whom he gained his inventing skills. He eventually abandoned them and went to Ninjago City at some point to test out a flying contraption. He ended up crashing into a billboard and met Master Wu, who offered to train him as a ninja. He took up residence at the Monastery of Spinjitzu and began his training, meeting Cole and Zane in the process. He is the first to learn Spinjitzu at the Caves of Despair and helps the others learn it as well.

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• Animal Motifs: Octopuses, which represent his lightning element and active nature.
• Battle Couple: With Nya. They combined their elemental powers to create the first Fusion Dragon seen in the show, and figured out how to fight the Vermillion together.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He’s the most lighthearted and humorous of the team, but he’s still a skilled ninja and a powerful Elemental Master.
• Blue Is Heroic: Is the Blue Ninja of Lightning.
• Brains and Brawn: Along with Nya and Zane, Jay is the Brains to Cole and Kai's Brawn.
• Character Check: "How to Build a Dragon," Episode Four of Hunted, mainly served as a reminder of the early seasons when Jay was good with machinery and inventing. Unfortunately, he goes back to being just the goofy comic relief after that.
• Comical Overreacting: He does this a lot to the point where him being unusually calm at the beginning of the Hunted arc worries the others.
• Cowardly Lion: He's usually reluctant to fight enemies directly, frequently makes up excuses not to do so, and is typically the first to panic in stressful situations. That doesn't stop him from being a hero, however.
• A Day in the Limelight: As the focus character of Season 6, his tendency to hide his true feelings is highlighted, and more emphasis is put on his insecurities regarding his relationship with Nya's relationship. He also undergoes a Trauma Conga Line in order to learn that actions have consequences.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Cole. They spend a lot of time being mad at each other over the Love Triangle with Nya, but reconcile during the tournament of Elements and come to see one another as best friends.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine. Jay is cheerful, talkative, and just plain fun to have around and be around. He's also weak-willed, covers up his problems and insecurities with a smile, and can be emotionally unstable at times.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Given that he grew up in a junkyard with access to spare materials, it's no surprise that he picked up a knack for creating inventions and gadgets from the eccentric Ed and Edna.
• Genius Bruiser: His lightning powers can be quite versatile, especially when it comes to technology, of which he is the most knowledgeable about (aside from Nya and maybe Zane).
• Genius Ditz: Jay is highly knowledgeable with technology like Nya and Zane, but he can be dimwitted at times. A couple of examples include wasting two of his wishes while he was suddenly and reluctantly in cahoots with Nadakhan in Season 6 and being unable to maintain stealth while rescuing the workers of Ninjago with Cole in Season 7.
• Grew a Spine: In season 6, as Jay wanted to win back Nya's heart, he called Nadakhan out for the latter's selfish will of marrying his so-called lover (whether it's Nya or Delara (which happened to resemble her), or rather both when Nya's body was possessed by the soul of Delara) to gain infinite wishes.
• Happily Adopted: Ed and Edna aren't Jay's biological parents. He's actually the son of the famous actor Cliff Gordon, who played the role of his favorite character Fritz Donnegan, and the Elemental Master of Lightning. Despite this, Jay still loves and cares for them especially after the reveal, as shown by him spending time with them on the Day of the Departed.
• Identity Amnesia: In Dragons Rising, it's revealed in the second season that after the events of The Merge, he no longer has memories of his past, only remembering his time working with the Administration. At most, he's aware of his elemental power over lightning, but he's unaware that anyone else knows about it, and refuses to tell the Administration about it.
• Irony: Loud alarms can affect Jay's sensitive ears (as mentioned in "The Hands of Time"), which contrasts his tendency to scream and shout over certain dangerous situations.
• It Runs in the Family: You only need to be around Ed and Edna for five seconds to see why Jay might be the way he is. The Season 7 finale shows that a lot of Jay's mannerisms come from his biological mother, who was just as chatty and goofy as he is.
• Kid-Appeal Character: He's the most childish of the Ninja, retains a love of video games, provides comedy in the most serious of moments, and can be very mouthy.
• Large Ham: Natch. Jay is loud, cheerful, humorous, and mouthy to a fault.
• The Leader: While he normally isn't one to take up this role, he briefly does so out of necessity in Season 6 when he puts together a team of backup Ninja involving Skylor, Ronin, Dareth, Echo Zane and Captain Soto in order to crash Nadakhan's plans to marry Nya and free his friends from the Sword of Souls.
• Meaningful Name: The name Jay means 'to rejoice' in English tradition, fitting well with his jovial personality.
• Motor Mouth: He's by far the chattiest of the Ninja, and once he starts ranting, it's difficult to get him to stop. Lampshaded by Cole in both the very first episode, "Way of the Ninja".
  Cole: More like mouth of lightning.
• No Indoor Voice: Combined with Motor Mouth, Jay tends to shout and ramble at the same time over every dangerous situation he deals with, especially being stranded in the First Realm with Wu being held hostage.
  Jay: Agh, why does Zane always have to be right? Can't it just be enough that we're tied to giant poles in the middle of the desert? And don't forget, Wu is being held hostage, forced to steal Iron Baron the Dragon Armor, so he can be invincible! Can't that be enough?!
• Official Couple: With Nya.
• Only Sane Man: He frequently points out problems that the other ninja tend to overlook - especially in Season 6 when he's the only one who realizes the Ninja shouldn't be trying to defeat Nadakhan with his own wishes.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: At the start of Season 9 he has become disturbingly calm and accepting of the teams' bad circumstances and it's implied that seeing how bad things got in the last season finale drove him to this point. However, after about a week in the realm of the dragon and oni and being surrounded by Dragon Hunters, he reverts back to his usual complaining and wisecracking.
• Plucky Comic Relief: His main role in the team. He's the most light-hearted character who is always telling jokes, even when no one else finds them funny or while he's in danger. His presence never fails to lighten up tense or dramatic situations.
• Punny Name: His name is an obvious pun on "Jaywalker"since his name literally is "Jay Walker". He also wears blue, making him a blue jay.
• Sad Clown: As noted by Nadakhan, his wisecracking tendencies are usually a cover for his fears or anxiety. This is especially obvious in Season 6, where it's shown that he's increasingly being pushed to his limits but still keeps up a silly and cheerful façade.
• Sanity Slippage: A week after becoming stranded in the First Realm, Jay lost his sanity to the point that he accepted the situation, much to Kai's chagrin. This, however, becomes averted when his sanity finally returned during a showdown against a dragon in the pit with Kai and Zane.
  Kai: Argh! We're never going home.
  Jay: So it doesn't work. I'm telling you guys, I've been feeling so much better now that I've accepted our situation. This is our new home.
  Cole: You don't sound yourself, Jay.
  Jay: I'm just saying you don't have to freak out about it. It could be worse.
  Kai: Worse? WORSE?! A strange tea lady just marooned us in the Realm of Oni and Dragon! A realm, mind you, we know nothing about with no hope of getting home, and no clue as to what else is out here!
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Jay rarely wears a suit and tie. One time was when he took Nya on a date shortly before unlocking his true potential. After the Merge, Jay ended up being in the Realm of Madness where he began working as a manager of the Administration, looking Badass in a Nice Suit.
• Shock and Awe: Jay can shoot lightning from his hands and/or weapons, and is able to manipulate electricity in order to reprogram technology.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: While most of the Ninja are missing in Dragons Rising anyway, it might not be a coincidence that Jay's whereabouts are one of the bigger unsolved questions until episode 17 of the series, where he works for the Administrator in the Realm of Madness, which is now combined with other realms after the Merge. This is likely due to the stakes of the series getting higher episode after episode.
• Skewed Priorities: A lot of the team's problems in Season 12 start when Jay discovers a shiny new video game and has to play it, leading to him being the first to get sucked into Prime Empire.
• Suddenly Shouting: Prone to shrieking when things are dangerous. Which is a lot.
• Unusual Eyebrows: He's missing a chunk of his right eyebrow for unknown reasons.
• Vocal Evolution: In the pilots, his voice was deeper and had a bit of a New York accent. The accent went away overtime and his voice became more loud and high-pitched as the seasons went by. Then, when the WildBrain era came, it became squeakier and younger-sounding. Then in Dragons Rising, it went back to being a bit lower, but still sounds a little high.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Shortly after the Day of the Departed, Jay called Cole out for accidentally unleashing the spirits of the enemies that the Ninja fought in the past.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He had some kind of Brooklyn or Jersey accent going on in the pilot episodes. It doesn't carry over into the rest of the series though.
• Youthful Freckles: Gains a set in the Season 8 redesign, helping to highlight his general lack of maturity compared to the others.

Zane, the White/Titanium Ninja and Master of Ice

^{Click here to see Zane's human disguise}

^{Click here to see Zane's appearance prior to Season 4}

Debut: "Way of the Ninja"
Voiced by: Brent Miller

Zane had no memory of his past or his parents, believing that he was a homeless orphan all his life. Sensei Wu found him "testing" himself underwater and brought him to the Monastery to train with the others. Gifted with a sixth sense, Zane appears to have the wisdom to tell the future and is the wisest of the Ninja. But then, something very stunning reveals the truth behind his past and personality: he discovers a workshop that holds blueprints of himself, proving he's actually an android. Afterwards, he remembers he had a father: Dr. Julien. He had unfortunately outlived him, but his father switched off all of his memory right before collapsing on his deathbed to spare him the pain of heartbreak. This leads to him being the first Ninja to unlock his True Potential.

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• The Ageless: He is unable to physically age due to being a robot, which causes him to outlive his creator. He's implied to be the oldest out of the Ninja (around 40 years old at most) but still looks like a vaguely-aged teenager.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: When Lloyd finds his recording in the Never-Realm, Zane states that he loves Pixal before the recording cuts out.
• Animal Motifs: Tigers, which represent his ice element and intelligence.
• Art Evolution: Other than his post-timeskip appearance in Season 8, his titanium body appeared as matte in Season 7 while it was shiny from Seasons 4-6.
• Badass Bookworm: He reads the most out of the four main ninja.
• Battle Couple: He gets to be one with P.I.X.A.L. in the third season. She becomes a Voice with an Internet Connection from then onward after Zane uploads her consciousness into his body after her original body is destroyed.
• Bequeathed Power: It's not until Season 8 that we get a hint as to how a robot could gain the elemental power of ice in the first place: The Elemental Master of Ice stumbled upon him and Dr. Julian, and passed his powers onto Zane before he died, which also caused Zane to start acting as odd as he did.
• Brain Uploading: When his original body is destroyed to defeat the Overlord, P.I.X.A.L. builds him a new one. It takes him a while to get adjusted and he suffers from temporary amnesia as a result, but ultimately gets better and re-fashions himself as the Titanium Ninja because his newer body is more high-end due to being built by Borg technologies.
• Brains and Brawn: Along with Nya and Jay, Zane is also the Brains to Cole and Kai's Brawns.
• Broken Ace: When P.I.X.A.L. was destroyed after the fall of the Nindroids, but quickly recovered when he found her in Chen's prison.
• Brought Down to Badass: After giving P.I.X.A.L. half of his power core, he is unable to use Spinjitzu by himself like he used to. However, he can use Spinjitzu with P.I.X.A.L. because she gained some of his power and fighting ability from his core. This stops being mentioned after Season 4.
• Cloudcuckoolander: In the first season, he is unaccustomed with societal manners and appears to be in his own world.
• The Comically Serious: He is this whether his humor switch is on or off (even before realizing he is a Nindroid).
• Cool Bike: His snowmobile from Season 1 and his Snake Bike from Season 8.
• Cool Plane: His Ninjacopter in Season 3.
• A Day in the Limelight: Season 3 focuses a lot more on him than the other Ninja as he learns about the limits of his technology and grows closer with P.I.X.A.L, a fellow robot.
• Designated Victim: Almost every season has him suffer in some sort of way.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He destroys the Overlord in Season 3 by absorbing the latter's Golden Power and then releasing it alongside his ice powers to freeze and shatter him and most of the Nindroid army, all at the cost of losing his own physical body. He gets better.
• Disney Death: In addition to the last trope above, Zane sacrificed himself for his friends to destroy the Overlord with his ice powers. However, he was revived as the Titanium Ninja.
• Do-Anything Robot: He's been used as a battering ram and a lamp - in the very same episode!
• Dreaming of Things to Come: He has a habit of doing this, despite being a robot, including foreseeing all the events of Season 11 at the start. As he points out to Jay, he's got a good batting average with dreams.
• Face–Heel Turn: In Season 11 he falls under the control of Vex and becomes the Ice Emperor. Luckily, he gets better.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the third season finale, he single-handedly destroys the Overlord at the cost of blowing up with him. His mind, however, lives on, and he's found out to be alive in another robot body.
• An Ice Person: Zane can spontaneously create ice and freeze water to his advantage.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Chances are you've already seen the commercials heavily featuring Zane with part of his face torn off, showing off his robotic body underneath, or just his very metallic appearance. Most of his toys don't even bother to hide it.
• Light Is Good: Is the White Ninja of Ice.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: He gets a few over the course of the series; such as his Shurikens of Ice (which can be put atop a staff to make a sort of mace) and his Techno Blade.
• Monster Progenitor: In a sense. A copy of his schematics is used by a brainwashed P.I.X.A.L. to create the Nindroid Army for the Overlord in Season 3.
• Nice Guy: He's typically the nicest of all the ninjas and never bears anyone ill will. Interestingly, later seasons also make him a bit of a Deadpan Snarker.
• No Sense of Humor: Zane typically doesn't understand when his teammates are joking around, and even has to be prompted when to laugh at times. He actually has a sense of humor, but his humor switch is normally switched off.
  • Although it should be noted that he can be humorous and amused by things, even with his switch turned off. His sense of humor is just on a different page than everyone else's most of the time.
• Really 700 Years Old: He was built around 40 years before the events of Rebooted, and the additional 60 years he spent in the Never-Realm make him in total over 100 years old.
• Rei Ayanami Expy: A male example. Zane is a stoic Nindroid who originally displayed a lack of emotions until he eventually get more emotional after discovering who he truly is, including his mysterious past being revealed via his backstory. In addition, he was created by Dr. Julien before the latter's (assumed) death. In terms of his disappearance in season 6, his rusty lookalike, called Echo Zane, took the titanium version's place as one of Jay's temporary replacements for the Ninja.
  • Regarding the inverted part of this trope, Zane is the original Nindroid built by Dr. Julien, as PIXAL (who was corrupted by the Overlord at the time) created an evil army of red-eyed Nindroid clones based on his scan, although none of them exactly resembles the original version appearance-wise.
• Resized Vocals: His brief exposure to Gandalaria's size potion, where he grows or shrinks also affects his voice.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Seeing his own blueprints served as the catalyst for his Robotic Reveal. This came across as a huge surprise because up until that point, he behaved mostly like a regular human (albeit without a sense of humor) that could eat and sleep, and even had a prophetic dream involving the Green Ninja. There was some subtle foreshadowing prior to this, however - Zane was capable of holding his breath underwater for amounts of time which wouldn't be possible unless he didn't need to breathe, for starters.
  • Other bits of foreshadowing include: he was only mildly affected by the dropped dragon door on his head. He was able to play the ancient anti-serpentine flute while being strangled. He had out ran all the other ninja the episode this revelation was revealed, even outlasting Cole who casually climbs mountains, and Kai who is very stubborn.
• Robot Wizard: He is capable of using elemental attacks and using Spinjitzu despite him not being originally designed to execute either action.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: After he is regressed into a child during a sequence in Season 2. Don't ask how a ''robot'' can be reverted "back" into something he never was - it's magic, OK?
• The Smart Guy: His intellectual knowledge bypasses the rest of the Ninja (helped by the fact that he's a robot), allowing him to make the most logical choices for the team. According to Master Wu, he is also the wisest and most spiritual ninja, thus allowing him to keep his cool in a rough situation.
• The Spock: Sometimes it's spoofed, such as during Season 15, where he's actually shut off his emotions entirely after Nya's sacrifice. When the others finally get fed up and he switches them back on, all the repressed grief and horror hit him like a ton of bricks.
• Supreme Chef: He is very good at cooking and is usually the Team Chef by default.
• Team Chef: Zane is usually in charge of the cooking. And he's pretty good at it!
• Took a Level in Badass: His new body from Season 4 onwards is far stronger than his old one, giving him better reflexes and access to an even bigger arsenal of functions to use in and out of battle.
• Waking Non Sequitur: After getting whanged upside the head by the Time Twins in Season 7, he starts suffering from a bad case of aphasia for a while.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Zane's consciousness survives the blast that destroyed his original body and is re-uploaded into the Borg computers. With the knowledge that Zane is still alive, P.I.X.A.L. quickly builds a new nindroid body made of titanium for him. However, it takes a while for Zane to fully adjust to and accept his new form.

Cole, the Black Ninja and Master of Earth

^{Click here to see Cole's appearance prior to Season 8}

Debut: "Way of the Ninja"
Voiced by: Kirby Morrow (2011-2021), Andrew Francis (2022-onward)

Cole was originally sent to the Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts by his father, who hoped that he would follow in his footsteps and become a dancer. Unwilling to do so but reluctant to displease his father, Cole secretly ran away from the school. He first met Master Wu while climbing the highest mountain in Ninjago as a test of strength. Learning that he had great potential, he followed the old master to the Monastery and began training to become a ninja alongside Jay and Zane. With the addition of Kai to the team, Master Wu sent the Four Ninja on a quest to defeat the plans of his evil brother and to find the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu.

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• Ambiguously Bi: Given his brief feelings for Nya in Season 3, and how many fans and tweets online support this as well as his relationship with Geo.
• Animal Motifs: Gorillas, which represent his earth element and Super-Strength.
• Artists Are Attractive: Nya once described Cole as "handsome", and he is skilled at drawing.
• Badass Biker: In season 5, Cole has a Cool Bike built by Cyrus Borg to take down Morro's army of ghosts.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: His main defining facial feature, amplified by his tough personality and physical strength. It appears that it runs in the family since his parents have them as well.
• Big Eater: Although a terrible cook, Cole has a huge appetite when it comes to food; an example would be during the second episode of Season 4 where Cole immediately wolfs down all of the food given in his room. Justified as Cole is very muscular and requires the extra carbs.
• Brains and Brawn: Along with Kai, Cole is also the Brawn to Jay, Zane, and Nya's Brains.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Very temporarily by one of the Hypnobrai, until Master Wu breaks him out of it.
• Calling Your Attacks: Whenever he performs the titular Triple Tiger Sashay move. He follows it up with a tiger growl at the end.
• Character Tic: According to Season 8, he tends to climb as high as he can when working through grief.
• The Comically Serious: For a Ninja who is much more serious in contrast to the Plucky Comic Relief Jay, Cole has many moments of this, particularly his interrogation with Luke Cunningham and then his infiltration plan with Zane to gain the Sons of Garmadon's trust.
• A Day in the Limelight: Aside from being a focus character in "Day of the Departed" special, he finally gets a season with him as the main focus in Season 13.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Is the Black Ninja of Earth.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Cole can create earthquakes and fissures, throw rocks and dust at his enemies, and even bury things in rapidly rising mounds of dirt. Super-Strength is also part of the package deal.
• Disney Death:
  • Cole was thought to have not made it through the rift in Day of the Departed and was assumed to have died/faded away as a ghost, but it was revealed it was not the case, thankfully.
  • It happened again when he was blasted off the ladder of the Bounty while trying to get away from the Oni's Fog of Doom, ultimately plummeting to the grounds below and was considered dead by his team.
• Dueling Scar: Cole earns a ghostly scar after the Day of the Departed incident, obtained from his battle against Yang and escaping through the Rift.
• Exposed to the Elements:
  • Justified as a ghost. On his way to climb on top of the Wailing Alps to reach the Blind Man's Eye with Kai, Jay, and Zane, Cole did not wear a parka hood as he is not affected by the strong cold wind (according to Soul Archer) and Deepstone armor as it is an element used for weapons and protection against ghosts.
  • While in the Never-Realm, his outfit is entirely sleeveless. The Never-Realm is perpetually in a state of winter, but Cole, aside from commenting how cool he is when the team first arrived, doesn't seem to notice.
• Friend to All Children: Cole is quite popular with children, especially the students of Sensei Wu's Academy as of the end of "The Surge". He even took care of Young Wu and recently the kids who were stranded in the Land of Lost Things.
• Friendly Ghost: Partially averted as of the end of "Day of the Departed" TV special. Unlike the hostile ones such as Morro's army, Cole is a Lovable Jock, whether he is a ghost or a human.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He gained a sickly green one on the upper left corner of his forehead after barely passing through the rift in Day of the Departed. It faded away by Season 8, only reappearing as a soft glow when he activates his Earth Punch.
• Heroic BSoD: At the end of the episode "The Temple on Haunted Hill. See The Undead below.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: He sings a song so badly and off-rhythm that the entire bar of evil bikers, whose group he and Zane were trying to infiltrate, laughed at him until they became sick of his singing. He used this to his own benefit afterwards against multiple goons in the same season, from annoying them to distract them from allies.
• Hunk: With his handsome appearance (as described by Nya) and muscles courtesy of his Ninja training and elemental powers, this trait fits him well.
• Improvised Golems: A new ability he achieved after the Merge, which he can become a golem, and thinks it's enhanced by Geo's Fusion.
• Intangibility: As expected of being a ghost, although this becomes averted after turning himself back into human.
• Invisibility with Drawbacks: Averted after turning back into a human. As a ghost, Cole possessed an ability to turn himself invisible. Other than water that instantly kills ghosts, its drawbacks include leaving visible footprints with ink and being seen via Ronin's thermal vision.
• It's All My Fault: Suffers a massive amount of guilt through Season 11, because he dropped the Traveler's Tea as the team were abandoning the Land Bounty.
• The Leader: While he was never officially considered the leader of the Ninja, he has displayed traits associated with leadership in seasons 1-3, particularly of the levelheaded variety. He often develops the Ninja's plan of attack against their foes, remains calm during missions for the most part, and reminds the others to stay focused on their task. This pretty much disappeared after Lloyd took the role but did briefly come back in Season 13 when he had to rally the Upply (then Lowly), Master Wu, and Vania, as well as at the start of Season 15 when he has to bring the Ninja back together a year after Nya had merged with the sea.
• Lethal Chef: He seems to be the one who does most of the cooking for the group, though unlike Zane, he apparently isn't very good at it.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Cole possesses earth powers from his mother, which is the reason why Wu recruited him as the Black Ninja of Earth, but his father, on the other hand, is part of the dance quartet who was disapproving of his son for lying to him and being unable to follow his footsteps as a dancer prior to unlocking his true potential.
• Like Parent, Like Child:
  • Cole inherited the elemental power of earth from his late mother.
  • He shares the same style of bushy eyebrows from his father. In real life, they shared the same voice actor prior to his death in 2020.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed since his hair reaches almost to shoulder length, although it's long enough to style half of his hair in a man bun as part of his Island gi outfit.
• Loud of War: After getting over his fear of singing, he used this for his advantage to distract the Sons of Garmadon.
• Lovable Jock: While he's physically the strongest and most athletic of the team, he clearly also cares for them and can be quite sentimental at times.
• Magma Man: He gets a lava arm.
• Missing Mom: His mother is never mentioned by him or his father anywhere in the show until Master of the Mountain. It's possible that she died since his father waited for him to light a lantern together on the Day of the Departed in her memory. Season 8 seemingly confirms that he lost his mom as a young teen and as a result he developed a serious personality and became distant from his father.
• Mr. Fanservice: Of all members of the Ninja, Cole deserves a special mention because of having a muscular appearance (as seen in "The Last Hope" with his beachwear).
• My God, What Have I Done?: On the Day of the Departed, Cole accidentally unleashed the spirits of the villains that he and his teammates fought from the past.
• The Nicknamer: Frosty and Pinky for Zane, Slickster and Greaseball for Kai, Mr. Fancy and Master of Blabber for Jay, Green Machine for Lloyd, Water Lily for Nya... At some point or another, he's referred to nearly everyone by a nickname of some sort.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: Played for laughs. After Garmadon turned the Ninja into kids, Cole can't stand being a kid for several reasons. Although, this suggests a connection of his tragic childhood where his mother died from an unknown illness and his father left to perform with his quartet, leading Cole to run away from home and climb the highest mountain, where he first met Wu.
  Cole: Aw, I can't be a kid again, I hated being a kid! You can't drive, nobody listens to you. Oh no... BEDTIMES!!
• Non-Uniform Uniform:
  • Justified as a ghost due to the nature of the Deepstone Armor.
  • As of the 1-year timeskip between Season 7 and Season 8, Cole started wearing sleeveless Ninja uniforms as a preference until the Dragons Rising sequel.
• One-Note Cook: Can only cook very basic meals, but is very ecstatic to try new ones.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Took the disappearance of Master Wu particularly hard and has become very serious and responsible, in contrast to his lighter personality in the past seasons. We find out later that he has trouble coping with the loss of loved ones.
  • He rejects a piece of cake offered to him by Jay even though previous seasons established that he has a very strong sweet tooth.
  • He threw an uncharacteristic tantrum at Jay after waking up from a nightmare about failing to retrieve the Traveler's Tea for his teammates and falling to his death inside a broken Land Bounty. We find out that he also has a habit of suppressing his fears and worries until he eventually explodes.
• Out of Focus: He's not as prominent in Season 14, getting very few lines, if any, when he appears in an episode. The reason for this was, as explained by the writers, largely because of being the protagonist of Season 13.
• Papa Wolf:
  • He is really protective of baby Wu even before he finds out who the kid really is.
  • He becomes quickly attached to Krag after discovering his Dark and Troubled Past. While he's not as parental as he was with baby Wu, he still lectured Krag and threatened to take away his video game if he didn't buckle his seat belts.
  • In Dragons Rising, he is one to the young runaways who live in the Land of Lost Things, as a gigantic monster-like mech hunts the area. To keep them safe, he used one of the three Dragon Cores to repel it.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Although Cole is seen to wear disguises that are able to bypass enemy territories such as the Sons of Garmadon as Rocky Dangerbuff, he himself said that his disguising skills didn't eventually work out well before.
  Young Wu: (sees the Dragon Hunter outfits with a spyglass) There. We can use that. We can use disguises!
  Cole: Uhhh... I don't know. Disguises haven't worked out so good for me in the past.
• Punny Name: His name is a pun for "coal". Also doubles as a Meaningful Name when "Cole" means "swarthy" and "coal-black" in English.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He seems to like cooking and dancing (after he got over his resentment towards it due to his father).
• Sacrificial Lion: Non-fatal example; he's the only Ninja not to make it to the final round of the Tournament of Elements. Additionally, his elimination comes rather early into the tournament (he doesn't even make the top ten), showing that none of the Ninja are guaranteed to make it to the end and placing more urgency on their participation.
• Shout-Out: A couple of scenes so far was inspired by Michael Jackson:
  • After beating a few Stone Warriors with his Elemental blade, Cole finished it off with the famous moonwalk.
  • During his infiltration at Laughy's Karaoke Bar that is surrounded by the Sons of Garmadon, Cole recreated a scene where he is about to sing on stage based on the "Smooth Criminal" music video (although he did not sing that song, he reluctantly sang Glow Worm by the Mills Brothers instead of the one he requested: Creeping Death by Metallica).
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Post-redesign, most of his outfits lack sleeves.
• Super-Strength: Cole gains this as part of his Earth elemental powers after unlocking his True Potential (even though he is proven stronger prior to this by lifting a heavy dumbbell with Jay and Nya on each side). It gets an upgrade in the form of his RX powers, which allows him to turn his arms completely rock solid. However, it's later shown that he can't necessarily control it.
• Trademark Favorite Food: He really loves cake, which has become a Running Gag. Apparently, he can't even resist eating it while on the run, and the trail of crumbs left behind leads to Ronin discovering his location in "Public Enemy Number One".
• The Undead: He becomes a ghost in Season 5 as a result of dropping the scroll needed to learn Airjitzu on the way out of Yang's haunted temple, causing him to not get out in time for the curse to be lifted. Reversed as of "Day of the Departed", in which he recovers his human form with a new scar for his troubles.
• Vibrant Orange: His lava arms glow orange when it's powered on.
• Vocal Dissonance: A Japanese dub-only example. Despite his role as the muscle and as a more masculine member of the Ninja, he is voiced by a woman, making him sound more girly than what his appearance and demeanor make it seem, which is similar to Lloyd being voiced by one without any replacements in said dub.
• Volcanic Veins: Cole first unlocked his Earth Punch or Lava Arms during the final ghostly battle with Yang.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He feels great shame over lying to his father for not following in his footsteps to become a dancer. This is worsened when his father learns of the truth in addition to the fact that he's a ninja. Essentially, his father's approval had been holding Cole back from unlocking his true potential. After being saved from potential death, Cole's father accepts his son's life choices and the two go on to repair their relationship.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Initially, he's afraid of dragons, but getting one of his own helps him overcome that. In Season 5, he is shown to be afraid of ghosts which he overcomes after accidentally becoming one. Season 8 adds the ironic fear of singing.

Nya, First Samurai X, the Gray Ninja and Master of Water

^{Click here to see her prior to becoming the Water Ninja.}

^{Click here to see her as Samurai X.}

Debut: "Way of the Ninja"
Voiced by: Kelly Metzger

Nya is the younger sister of Kai and the former owner of the Four Weapons Blacksmith. She was initially held captive by Samukai on Lord Garmadon's orders, who saw her as a potential pawn in his conquest for power. She was rescued by her brother at the Fire Temple and eventually moved in at the Monastery with the four Ninja. She grew tired of being excluded from the team and was determined to prove that she was on equal footing with them. Hence she adopts the mysterious persona of Samurai X, a high-tech crime-fighting samurai clad in red armor and capable of piloting a huge mech. It's later revealed that she possesses the elemental power of Water, which pushes her to train as one of the Ninja.

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• The Ace: Nya is a genius and capable fighter who is good at everything she tries long before she found out she was the water ninja. Though it's later deconstructed when training to be a ninja as her natural talent at most things means that when she comes across something that doesn't come naturally to her she will give up rather than try harder.
• Action Girl: She displays a willingness to fight as early as the pilot episode, in which she fights alongside Kai to ward off the Skullkin.
• Animal Motifs: Phoenixes, which ironically represent her water element and Determinator personality.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of Season 14 Nya becomes one with the ocean itself. She gets better in the next season.
• Badass Adorable: She may be a ninja, but her appearance and ESPECIALLY her voice is pure cuteness.
• Badass Driver: Her performance with the drill car thing in "The Last Hope". Oh my God, yes.
• Badass Normal: Even before she learned about her powers, she makes up for her minimal combat experience with awesome skill and gadget-making.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She’s very kind and patient, but like her brother, even she has her limits.
• Big Sister Mentor: To Sora, a Ninja-in-training who is very skilled in inventing. As both get along very well with a fair share of their fatal flaws and their passion in inventing, Nya advises Sora to stop self-doubting due to the latter's Dark and Troubled Past in Imperium.
• Blue Is Heroic: Her ninja outfits contain blue clothing or accents and is the Master of Water. As Nya turned into a water spirit, she saved Jay's life by drawing the water out from his body and then defeated Wojira once and for all.
• Brains and Brawn: Along with Jay and Zane, Nya is also the Brains to Kai and Cole's Brawns.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In episode 25 she's exposed to Dark Matter, and the results aren't pretty.
• Brought Down to Normal: In Season 15, she is restored to her human form at the cost of losing her elemental powers via Aspheera draining them, albeit temporarily similarly to Kai.
• Compressed Vice: Has a hatred for royalty which lasts all of slightly under one episode, namely the one where the Ninjago royal family are first introduced and vanishes after Harumi gives her some compliments.
• A Day in the Limelight: The B-plot of Season 5 focuses on the struggles of her learning to use her element. She shares the spotlight with Kai as the dual protagonists of Season 7. Season 14 finally gives her a proper one as the sole protagonist.
• De-power: She successfully becomes human again in Season 15, Episode 6. However, she sacrifices her powers in the process, albeit temporarily.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Twice:
  • She destroys the Preeminent by unlocking her true potential and summoning a tidal wave to completely submerge her in water.
  • She defeats Wojira by merging with the Endless Sea and destroying the Wave Amulet, causing the ancient entity to electrocute herself to death by the now-uncontrollable power of the Storm Amulet.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In "The Way Back", the Ninja weaken Nadakhan with a Tiger Widow Venom dart, only for some of it to land on her. Since Tiger Widow Venom slows down a djinn and kills a normal human, she ends up dying in Jay's arms. Luckily, Jay's last wish ends up reversing everything that happened in Season 6, saving Nya.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • While all the Ninja got this, Nya's outfit change is the most noticeable; her ninja uniform was a darker red version of the other Ninja's outfits, particularly her brother's, just with light blue highlights. The movie and Season 8 replace the red on the outfit with a metallic hue, but keep the blue highlights, along with her uniform having a skirt, giving her a more distinct look.
  • In Season 15, she repossessed her Samurai X identity, with the new design integrating the gunmetal gray and light blue from her Ninja look with a bit of gold, contrasting PIXAL's dark blue, white, red, and gold design.
• Dude Magnet: Other than Jay (and to a lesser extent Cole), Nya attracts certain guys such as the young male students of Sensei Wu's Academy, Elemental Master of Shadow Shade, or the worst example, Nadakhan.
• Elemental Embodiment: At the end of Season 14, Nya becomes the living embodiment of the ocean. She gets better.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Her mecha-suit is shaped like a samurai.
• Fatal Flaw: Nya's greatest weakness is feeling weak. Since she's so good at so much, when she encounters something she can't instantly master she gives up without trying. She needed to learn to accept failure before she could unlock her true potential.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Not only did she build her Samurai Mech and armor by herself in the spare time she had while the Ninja were on missions, but she also modifies the Ultra Sonic Raider to incorporate a detachable flight module, and later builds Kai his own Fire Mech.
• Gave Up Too Soon: As pointed out by Sensei Wu, Nya had a very rocky time trying to do any other mundane task in her life because she always couldn't stand failing once and forcing herself to do something else, only to repeat the cycle. This comes up really hard on her when she tries to become the Water Ninja. It comes back to bite her in Season 15: she gives up on her training after losing her powers and finds herself powerless and useless without them until Master Wu convinces her that she isn't useless and is still capable to help the ninjas. This led to Nya becoming Samurai X again.
• Generation Xerox: While her brother inherited their father's fire element, Nya inherited the water element from her mother.
• Giant Wall of Watery Doom: She's able to create one to defeat the Preeminent once and for all.
• The Heart: Jay describes Nya as the heart of the team and the reason the ninjas were united in the first place since Nya's kidnapping by Samukai is the reason why Kai joined the team at first. This is the reason why the team is completely broken and/or dysfunctional up until Nya's return in Season 15. The team hasn't been that broken since Zane's Disney Death.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She merges with the Endless Sea to obtain enough power to defeat Wojira despite knowing that she will never be able to return to her physical form. She manages to restore her physical shape, at the cost of sacrificing her elemental powers for a good period of time.
• Instant Expert: Deconstructed. During Possession, Wu points out that since most things come easily to her, when something doesn't, she gets frustrated and gives up too early.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: There are not one, but two of these associated with her; not only is she Samurai X, she's also the Ninja of Water. Anyone who's seen trailers more recent than 2015 or the Movie would know this.
• Limited Wardrobe: Seems after the Merge, Nya wore the same Core suit for five years, until she met up with Lloyd and Kai again.
• Making a Splash: She currently holds the element of Water, which allows her to spontaneously shoot jets of water and make it rain.
• Mini-Mecha: As Samurai X.
• Official Couple: With Jay.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Her and Kai are trained blacksmiths, but never seem to put those skills to use, not even to build weapons for their fellow ninja.
• Power Incontinence: Suffers this in Season 14 due to Kalmaar's attempts to awaken Wojira.
• Prongs of Poseidon: Gains a trident as a weapon from Season 8 onward.
• Samus Is a Girl: She reveals to Kai and later the whole team that she is the Samurai X that has been upstaging the Ninja and getting them out of trouble.
• The Sixth Ranger: While she had always been part of the team from the very beginning, she officially becomes a ninja with the discovery of her water powers.
• The Smurfette Principle: Before the addition of Misako, she was the only girl on the team. She's still the only female Ninja in the show.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: In addition to the aforementioned Samus Is a Girl example, she disguises herself as Lloyd by using his Green Ninja outfit in Season 5 and then as a police officer and then a pirate in Season 6, completed with a fake mustache for both.
• There Is No Cure: Subverted. During the final battle of Season 14, Nya decides to merge with the ocean using her powers in order to defeat the main villains. This action is irreversible, and Nya is forced to say goodbye to the Ninja as she must stay there for the rest of her life. However, in Season 15, the Ninja gets Aspheera to take her powers away, thus breaking her connection to the ocean and making her a normal human.
• Tomboy: In her desire to prove that she's tougher than the boys, she disguised herself as Samurai X to fight alongside them. She's also a major Action Girl and Wrench Wench.
• Took a Level in Badass: Once she upgrades to being an official ninja in Season 5.
  • Also when she become one with the sea itself in Season 14.
• Trailers Always Spoil: She is shown wearing her custom ninja gi in trailers for Season 5.
• True Blue Femininity: While her signature colors alter between maroon, light blue, and gray, most of Nya's ninja outfits contain light blue clothing or accents to represent her element, and Nya herself said that blue is her favorite color, much to Jay's happines.
• Water Is Womanly: Nya is the Master of Water and is the only girl to the team.
• Wrench Wench: She was always the Ninja's go-to gal for technology, fixing up machines and new vehicles for them to use.
• You Remind Me of X: In season 6, her appearance reminded Nadakhan of his deceased lover Delara, which is the reason why he wanted to marry Nya for infinite wishes.

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