Crystal King: I was trying to destroy the Ninja, but that would only unleash their powers, which, in time, might find new champions. But if I corrupted them instead, then the very powers of Creation would be mine!
Kabuki Mask: Then I must find a way to bring the Ninja to you.
Crystal King: No. I will handle that.
Kabuki Mask: How?
Crystal King: I will strike at their precious city. They will do what they always do. They will come to me.
Kabuki Mask: Then I must find a way to bring the Ninja to you.
Crystal King: No. I will handle that.
Kabuki Mask: How?
Crystal King: I will strike at their precious city. They will do what they always do. They will come to me.
— "Crystastrophe"
The land of Ninjago and the Sixteen Realms have been host to many a maniacal villain. A select few of these enemies stand out from the rest as far darker and depraved in their ruination of the realms.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Western Animation
Original series
- The Overlord, also known as the Golden Master and the Crystal King, is the Big Bad of the series and the greatest primordial evil to haunt Ninjago, awoken with the realm's very creation to relentlessly war upon the First Spinjitzu Master before being banished. Desiring revenge, the Overlord possessed a small snake and had it bite the young son of his nemesis; both were corrupted by his evil, making him responsible for years of misery, death, and devastation from the omnicidal hunger of the Great Devourer and Lord Garmadon's undying thirst for conquest. The Dark Lord resurfaces in the present and possesses Garmadon in order to warp the minds and souls of everyone in Ninjago into his wicked servants, then steals Lloyd's Golden Power upon being converted into the Digital Overlord so he can subjugate all life under his apocalyptic might. Reemerging years later to turn Harumi into his latest follower, the Overlord assembles the Crystal Council and constructs a Vengestone army to begin his conquest anew, setting out to both corrupt the powers of Creation itself and crystallize the people of Ninjago into his zombified slaves. Endlessly desiring to upset the Balance and overrun the realm with his nightmarish rule even when the Golden Power of Light floods his veins, the Overlord will always return to complete his vicious purpose, using and exploiting whoever he can in order to reduce existence to black nothing.
- Season 9 (Hunted): The Iron Baron is the master of the Dragon Hunters, the current inhabitants of the Realm of Oni and Dragons. Leading an expedition into the Oni lands years ago only to find the demons mysteriously gone, the Iron Baron killed everyone in his party to keep this a secret, using the fear of the Oni to keep the rest of his ignorant followers in line. The Baron, threatening exile or worse to any who disobey him, leads the Hunters in subjugating the dragons, cruelly hunting the sapient creatures to either enslave them or eat them after cooking them alive. The Hunters' campgrounds are littered with hundreds of bones from slain catches, and when the Ninja are stranded in the realm, the Baron tries to use them to capture more, before relentlessly pursuing his servant Faith for daring to betray him. Ultimately aiming to claim the Dragon Armor of the First Spinjitzu Master, the Iron Baron intends to use it to control the Firstbourne—the "mother of all dragons" whose children he has been butchering for years—to secure his rule for all time, while making "every night" into a feast of dragon meat.
- Season 10 (March of the Oni): The Omega is the nightmarish leader of the Oni, a race of beings who live only for Destruction. The Omega desires to reverse Creation itself and has plans to raze the Sixteen Realms down to lifeless wastes. Having already invaded the First Realm, the Omega releases his demonic soldiers upon Ninjago City to petrify the citizens into statues, intending to expand his shadows across the entire world in order to inflict this agonizing corruption on every living thing. Facing off against Lord Garmadon, the Omega mocks his insecurities about his struggles between good and evil, dismissing him for not embracing the impending destruction of everything like a "true" Oni and declaring that he will perish with the people of the realm he has chosen to protect.
- Season 11 (Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu)—The Ice Chapter: General Vex "the Formless" is a formling from the Never-Realm who lacked his people's shapeshifting gift. Leaving in resentment yet blaming his tribe for his "exile", Vex attempted to goad the noble King Grimfax into war with his people before encountering a stranded Zane. Vex wiped Zane's memory and transformed him into the Ice Emperor, manipulating him into freezing the formlings and forcing Grimfax into their service on pain of death. Enacting a tyrannical reign of the Never-Realm for over six decades in his role as the Ice Emperor's supposedly loyal advisor, Vex is responsible for atrocities such as murdering an entire family of yetis, save one survivor; creating an endless winter that has left the land too frozen and barren to support life, forcing many tribes to flee lest they starve; and sending Grimfax to kill the people of the Great Lake like he has with many dissidents before, resulting in the Hearth Fire being extinguished and the villagers, including the children, almost freezing to death. Petty and vindictive, Vex even attempts to kill Zane after he regains his memories in a final act of spite.
- Season 13 (Master of the Mountain) & Season 15 (Crystalized): The Skull Sorcerer, in truth King Vangelis, and Hazza D'ur are the titular tyrants of Shintaro Mountain. The king of the Ivory City and an ancient necromancer whose soul was bound to his skull, respectively, the two united when Vangelis sought a way to ensure his prosperity. Together, they raised an undead army to hunt down the Geckle and Munce tribes living beneath the mountain, enslaving and abusing them to mine Vengestone for the Overlord. Any interlopers are thrown into the sprawling dungeons and death traps constructed centuries ago by Hazza D'ur, which the necromancer had previously used to claim countless lives from beyond the grave. When the two tribes begin to unite against the pair, Hazza D'ur resurrects the vicious dragon Grief-Bringer so that Vangelis can threaten to slaughter them all unless the Ninja surrender, only to re-enslave the tribes even after they accept their offer. Vangelis even rejects his own daughter when she attempts to stop their cruel reign, and goes so far as to join the Crystal Council after losing power from Hazza D'ur's destruction. Helping summon the Overlord to ravage the realm, Vangelis is content facilitating the destruction of everything using the army created from their Vengestone so long as he can forever sate his greed and vengeance.
- Season 14 (Seabound): Kalmaar is the cruel prince of Merlopia who wishes to wage war on the surface and conquer it with the evil storm deity Wojira, uncaring to the safety of his own people—whom he derides as inferior to his royal blood—and fully willing to bring ruin to their underwater kingdom so long as he can complete total genocide. To this end, Kalmaar abuses his servants so as to find a way to awaken Wojira with a special amulet, and sinks any ships he comes across in order to satisfy his unbridled hatred for the surface dwellers. When the Ninja interfere in his plot he murders his father, King Trimaar, and frames the Ninja for it, while only keeping his adoptive brother, Benthomaar, alive out of pragmatism. Upon becoming king and finally awakening Wojira, Kalmaar takes control of it and uses its power to create a tsunami to flood Ninjago City, then has his soldiers attack to kill any survivors. When Bentho aids the Ninja in fighting him, Kalmaar attempts to kill him personally while taunting him about his adopted status, remarking that their father should've left him to die when they met him.
- Empress Beatrix Vespasian-Orus, narcissistic despot of the realm of Imperium, is a genocidal maniac who devolves into truly depraved madness. Power-hungry even as a child, Beatrix imprisoned her sister and assassinated her father to take the throne, while perverting their realm's peaceful alliance with dragons to forcibly harvest their power for infinite energy. Beatrix subjects dragons to years of sadistic torture in order to extract their life force until they're "drained to dust", all while scheming to subjugate the mighty Source Dragons so that she can conquer the Merged Realms. Enabling and encouraging her subjects to hunt down every dragon in existence, Beatrix's cruelties are expounded when she responds to an escape attempt by spitefully trying to rip the life out of Riyu. Upon learning that the Ninja seek the Dragon Cores, the Empress—apathetic to their mission to stop the world-shattering MergeQuakes—steals the Cores to create a superweapon capable of annihilating anyone who defies her conquest, with not even Imperium's own citizens safe: when they rise up against her lies, Beatrix begins indiscriminately firing her weapon to create MergeQuakes throughout the kingdom, giddily cackling as she tries to kill everyone in her way and arrogantly refusing to believe the warnings that her actions will rend reality apart.
Other Media
- Non-canon graphic novels, by Greg Farshtey & Jolyon Yates:
- Destiny of Doom: Samukai, King of the Underworld and Lord Garmadon's initial right-hand, posthumously proves himself to be just as treacherous as ever. When Lord Garmadon decided to construct a doomsday weapon to wipe out all life in Ninjago should he ever be defeated, Samukai gladly aided in the machine's creation and chomped at the bit to activate it as soon as it was complete. Samukai was denied from immediately unleashing the weapon, but contented himself with changing the design of the machine's final piece in order to impede Garmadon should he ever wish to stop its apocalyptic rampage.
- Warriors of Stone: The advisor to the mayor of Garmadon City, aware of the truth behind the stone plague, manipulates the mayor into not evacuating their people so they can be transformed into heartless, amnesiac rock beings. Remaining the only one to retain his memories and agency, the advisor intends to spread the curse as far and wide as he can, then lead his army to destroy every other soul until the only life left is stone.
- Comet Crisis: "The One Who Is Many" is a shapeshifting alien that endlessly seeks chaos to entertain itself. Centuries ago, the creature wreaked havoc on another planet by using its powers to breed paranoia and hatred among the populace, turning friend against friend until a massive war erupted and shattered the world to pieces. The monster survived on a chunk of the planet that became the asteroid Delta V, where it waited for intelligent life to arrive for it to torment. When the Ninja are stranded on the asteroid, the One Who Is Many delights in manipulating them against one another, scheming to ensure they will stay as its playthings forever.
- The Splinter in the Blind Man's Eye unofficial web serial, by Tommy Andreasen & Lachlan Jansen: Fenwick, the former Master Writer of the Cloud Kingdom, zealously sought to control the destinies of others and banished his brother Quanish when he dared to suggest granting free will instead, ruining his mind out of petty spite. After selling out the Sixteen Realms to Morro and his monstrous mistress the Preeminent, Fenwick finds himself banished from the Cloud Kingdom and begins scheming revenge. In search of followers, Fenwick has Clouse summon the pirates of Misfortune's Keep to aid him in his quest to bring calamitous Darkness to Ninjago, endangering thousands as an insane means of enslaving the pirates as his muscle in the aftermath. Fenwick uses what little power he was able to cling to in order to establish himself as "the Wishmaster", luring countless despairing souls up the treacherous Wailing Alps to pledge themselves to his service in exchange for changing their fortunes; those he finds useless are mauled to death by the vicious beast Nimbus, with Lloyd coming upon an execution pit filled with hundreds of bones. Fenwick has one devoted servant Eaten Alive to spite Lloyd before forcing the pirates to almost murder their crewmate Clancee, only relenting when Lloyd agrees to help him regain his lost power.
- Garmadon comic, by Tri Vuong: Lord Mogra is a vicious Tengu warlord who, decades before the events of the series, sold out the Elemental Alliance to the Serpentine and Master Chen for power. Resurfacing after 40 years, Mogra breaks the Sons of Garmadon out of prison and uses them to extort Two Moon village for its magical power-amplifying tea. Mogra plans to use the tea to allow him control and conquest over all of Ninjago. When Mogra ends up beaten by Lord Garmadon, Mogra decides out of spite to detonate himself and kill everyone in the village, including his own men and a massive tribe of sapient bears, just to achieve some form of victory.
