Ninjago 15: The Sons of Garmadon

The ninja become a regularly operating team in Ninjago and continue to search for their lost mentor Wu. But their objective is delayed when a powerful and organized criminal syndicate is slowly dominating Ninjago City.

Three years after defeating the Time Twins, the Ninja have grieved for Wu's disappearance and have had no luck finding him. They have aged into adults and found that the temporal change somehow affected their skills, erasing their ability to conjure dragons or perform airjitzu. The Ninja have been tasked with combating a terrorist group called the Sons of Garmadon. Lloyd had tried and failed to stop one of their members, Mr. E, from stealing the Oni Mask of Vengeance. He summons Hutchins, the advisor and general to the reclusive Ninjago royal family, who explains that the masks are the remains of three generals of the Oni, a species of interdimensional demons that attempted to conquer Ninjago. Each mask gifts powers and is dangerous in the wrong hands. The Ninja stay as guests to the royal family as they protect the Mask of Deception, and Lloyd quickly gains feelings for and befriends the princess Harumi.

The palace is attacked that night and despite the Ninja's efforts they're overwhelmed. Lloyd quickly suspects Hutchins as a spy due to him disappearing but is mistaken, and the Ninja conclude that an insider was helping the Sons. They rescue Harumi and evacuate before the Sons bomb the palace, killing Harumi's parents and Hutchins. The Ninja vow to retaliate and seek help from Mystake about where the masks could be. Mystake tells Lloyd that the First Spinjitzu Master comes from The Realm of Oni and Dragon which inhabits both species. Since they were at war the FSM left and created Ninjago to put and end to it by restoring the balance. FSM is a child to an Oni and Dragon pairing so Wu, Garmadon, and Lloyd have Oni genes, enabling their slow aging and also giving shapeshifting and the destruction element. Mystake also states that the Oni built a temple capable of resurrection, and she fears the Sons will resurrect Garmadon using the Oni masks. Elsewhere, Zane infiltrates the Sons to gather information but is eventually caught and confronted by Mr. E, who defeats and damages him, revealing that he's a nindroid modeled after Zane like Cryptor. In the meantime, Cole rescues a baby that was abducted by the Sons and adopts him. Mr. E plants an explosive spider bot on Zane, so when the Ninja save him the bot is discovered and destroys the Bounty, causing it to crash. The mysterious new Samurai X reveals herself to be Pixal and helps the Ninja hide out and repair the Bounty. During this the Ninja realize the baby is actually Master Wu, who had been de-aged by the temporal energy of the Doom and is rapidly aging back to adulthood as the energy wears off.

Lloyd accompanies Harumi to find the Mask of Hatred, and the rest of the Ninja are ambushed by the Sons and captured. Harumi and Lloyd find the Mask temple in the forest of Primeval's Eye and find it's guarded by a mechanism requiring Oni genetics. Harumi knows this despite not knowing about Lloyd's Oni heritage, causing Lloyd to realize that she is actually the spy and secretly the leader of the Sons. Harumi tells Lloyd that they intended to use Wu to steal the mask but he was taken. She turns on Lloyd stating that the Ninja are failures as heroes because they failed to stop the Devourer, who killed Harumi's birth parents, leading her to be adopted into the royal family. Harumi takes the Mask of Hatred and nearly kills Lloyd, but he escapes. The Ninja confront Harumi and the Sons at the Temple of Resurrection, located near the palace and find Misako imprisoned by the Sons. They put up a fight and manage to subdue Harumi, but fail to see that Garmadon has been summoned upon leaving. The Sons are arrested at Kryptarium and Harumi in the town jail, but Garmadon causes destruction throughout the city setting them all free. Lloyd confronts Garmadon at Kryptarium alone and in a prolonged duel, Garmadon discovers his Potential and gains the powers of the masks and destruction element. He beats Lloyd to submission and drains his element, absorbing it into himself using elemental conversion. Garmadon subjugates Ninjago by using creation to build a stone golem called the Colossi, who grabs the Bounty and crushes it with the four main Ninja and Wu inside. Any resistance to the Sons is crushed and Lloyd, Nya, Pixal, Misako, and Dareth go into hiding. Garmadon announces on news camera that he declares himself emperor and that Ninjago belongs to him and the Sons.

In the end credits, the four main Ninja and Wu find themselves alive recalling that they jumped through a portal of Traveler's Tea. They find themselves in the realm of Oni and Dragon.

Ninjago 16: Hunted

The ninja find themselves trapped in the Realm of Oni and Dragon and confronted by hostile company in the form of ruthless dragon hunters. Back in Ninjago the remaining allies of the ninja must come together to overthrow Garmadon in his cruel new reign.

A week since Garmadon's takeover, the remaining Ninja go into hiding and unable to fight back particularly with Lloyd still being injured. They call for help from the elemental masters when they find the Sons are hunting their allies, including Ronin and the Comissionor who are imprisoned. Mystake eventually arrives with the masters who help Lloyd escape capture and they take shelter in a garbage collection facility and live among the homeless. Garmadon angrily destroys Mr.E for his failiure and threatens to kill Harumi if she repeats it. In the Realm of Oni and Dragon, the four main Ninja and Wu are captured by the native tribe of Dragon Hunters led by the tyrannical Iron Baron who makes them fight for his entertainment. It's also shown that he slaughtered the Ultra Dragon. Zane realizes their culture revolves around consuming and exploiting dragons and that they're also at war with the Oni whom Iron Baron helps protect them from. In Ninjago Lloyd becomes more independent and comes to term with his power loss, allowing the Ninja to partially regain theirs and use it in their fight against the dragons Iron Baron releases on them. His leutenent Heavy Metal fights the Ninja with the enchanted Dragonbone Sword which absorbs elemental powers.

Heavy Metal secretly reveals to the Ninja to be a woman named Faith, who helps them escape Iron Baron. She explains that Iron Baron is a controlling dictator and that she wants him gone, and that their best hope is Firstbourne, a multi elemental dragon queen. She can be commanded by an ancient golden armor the FSM wore. In Ninjago Harumi and Garmadon lead an attack on the resistance and imprison all the elemental masters, leading only Lloyd, Msytake, Nya, Misako, Dareth, and Skylor to escape. Once they hide Mystake tells Lloyd about her shapeshifting abilities, that she was an Oni who appreciate the power of creation and betrayed her people to be in Ninjago. Faith also trains the Ninja to use the Dragon Hunter weapons and leads them on a quest to find the golden armor, all the while Wu slowly grows up and regains his memory. They make a shocking discovery that Iron Baron killed his own warrior friends just to tell a story about how he saved them from Oni, when in reality the Oni have apparently disappeared from the area. Iron Baron eventually catches up with them and captures them, forcing Wu to lead him to the armor. In Ninjago the remaining resistance capture Lloyd to use her as a hostage and send Mystake to spy for them impersonating her, but she escapes and blows Mystake's cover. Mystake furiously fights Garmadon but she is killed protecting Skylor, who escapes. Wu manages to awaken Firstbourne, who turns on Iron Baron for his evil nature and kills him.

Faith takes charge of the Dragon Hunters and vows to lead them down a path of reformation, and the dragons ally with the Ninja and portal back to Ninjago. They meet Lloyd, Nya, Dareth, and Skylor, the latter has managed to use Garmadon's powers to take control of the Colossi but can't hold onto it. The imprisoned masters and Ronin escape and come to Lloyd's aid, all of them fight the Sons and manage to destroy all of the masks. Harumi is killed saving a family from the Colossi and is crushed by building debri. The rest of the Ninja arrive in Ninjago and use the dragons to fight the Colossi, and Lloyd and Wu confront Garmadon. Wu is defeated but Lloyd finds confidence and reabsorbs his powers, weakening Garmadon with them. When Garmadon is overwhelmed the Colossi is destroyed, and the police and military come to aid to incarcarate Garmadon and the Sons. The Ninja rejoice in their victory but Lloyd tells Wu that Garmadon gave him a warning before being arrested, and that he suspects the missing Oni are coming soon.

Ninjago 17: March of the Oni

The Oni invasion that Garmadon fortold is real and the ninja are forced to set him free in order to counter them.

Months following Garmadon's defeat, Lloyd is summoned to his cell at Kryptarium where he repeats his warning that since he was incarcarated, he won't be there to fight the Oni when they come. Despite his protest Lloyd refuses to release him, but a dark cloud manifests in the middle of the city coming from Borg Tower. The cloud petrifies civilians nad produces tentecles that drag them in. Faith flies to Ninjago on Firstbourne to warn Wu and the Ninja that the Dragon Hunters were attacked by Oni and that they're heading to Ninjago next to lay waste to each of the realms. Lloyd reluctantly releases Garmadon and they survey the city on the Bounty. It's also revealed that Jay wishes to propose to Nya. Garmadon explains that his Oni nature will help travel into the cloud and he challenges the Ninja to a duel to reactivate his destruction element. He and Lloyd enter the cloud and fight some Oni in order to find the Realm Crystal located in the tower to cut the Oni off.

Despite destroying the crystal the leader of the Oni, the Omega manifests and states he has enough Oni to destroy all 17 realms. Garmadon and Lloyd find themselves outnumbered and they flee, eventually finding a depowered fragment of the Overlord's armor. Showing that Lloyd can touch it, they use it to repel the Oni as they're frightened and weakened by the gold element. The Bounty picks them up, but when they fly away a tendril grabs the bounty leading to Cole falling off. The Ninja presume he died but he lands unconscious on the ground. Garmadon disregards this causing the other Ninja anger and he's told later by Vinny, the cameraman for Ninjago City's news crew that friendship and love during the time of life can be considered more important than survival. The Ninja travel to Four Weapons and melt the armor, molding it back into weapons to fight with. The weapons lack much of their original powers but the gold still works against the Oni. Elsewhere, Cole has regained conciousness and finds the Earth Driller he drove earlier, using it to escape the Oni.

The Oni army converges on Spinjago and the Ninja, Faith, Ronin, Garmadon, and a handful of Elemental Masters join the fight. Cole arrives and helps but they're all overwhelmed. The Ninja are forced to barricade themselves in the monastery, but Wu suggests that a powerful dose of creation will counter the Oni. The Ninja all perform the Tornado and Garmadon joins in, effectively killing the Oni in the blast. The Ninja rejoice in victory but find that Lloyd has passed out from exhaustion. Lloyd wakes up in a strange vision where he meets the FSM, who later prepares to depart and asks Lloyd if he wants to join. Lloyd chooses to go back, and finds himself waking up. The Ninja decide to rest and Garmadon leaves pardoned by Wu, but with a warning that he'll be watched. Garmadon begins to reconsider his evil nature and leaves.