Cole: Ninja of Earth

Official description[]

Masters of Spinjitzu: a new force to save the world! The next chapter book in the Ninjago series!

Cole is the leader of the team. As the Earth Ninja, he is (perhaps unsurprisingly) the most grounded of the four. And the strongest. There is no physical challenge Cole cannot overcome. Now is his chance to use his skills to save the world!^[1]

Blurb[]

Sensei Wu has gathered a powerful team of ninja warriors. Now he must train them in the ancient art of Spinjitzu. If he fails, Lord Garmadon and his evil skeleton warriors will destroy the land of Ninjago and all of its inhabitants.

Solid and steady, Cole—Ninja of Earth—was destined for the challenging role of leading his fellow ninja on their dangerous missions. Now it's up to Cole to unite the team while utilizing their different strengths. But can Cole keep each ninja's ego in check before someone gets hurt . . . or worse?

Plot[]

The Real Hero[]

The ninja are telling Master Wu about how they got the Nunchucks of Lightning. All the ninja helped in different ways to get them, with Cole just leading the group. Wu says that the best hero is the one who lets others be heroes.

The Phantom Ninja[]

The ninja all ignore Cole's plan for fighting a group of Skulkin and everything goes wrong. The next morning, the ninja discuss choosing a new leader instead of Cole. For his part, Cole refuses to partake in the discussion and storms off, leaving the other three to conduct a vote. Unfortunately, each of the others voted for themselves, rendering the vote moot.

The next morning, the ninja have been robbed. They find Cole unconscious and a note from the "Phantom ninja", who Cole says was an old enemy of Wu. Cole refuses to lead the group. who then attempted to set up a trap for the Phantom ninja. At midnight, the four concede that their trap has failed and set up camp for the night. Before they could rest, however, the others overheard a cry from Cole and rush to his aid, only to discover his ninja hood pinned to a tree with another note.

After much squabbling, each of the remaining three ninja used their skills to follow clues from the Phantom Ninja. Eventually, they discover that the Phantom Ninja is Cole, who was trying to teach the ninja that they must appreciate each other's skills. As the ninja return to their campsite, they are ambushed by the real Phantom Ninja, who defeats them all with ease. Eventually, the ninja follow Cole's plan and defeat the Phantom Ninja, who reveals that he was not enemies with Wu, but was a bandit who Wu converted. In fact, the Phantom Ninja was trying to give the ninja a common enemy to teach them to work together as a team. Although the other three ninja are concerned about allowing the Phantom Ninja to roam free, Cole orders them to stand down, emphasizing that they had skeletons to track and that they can always find the Phantom Ninja again if he were lying to them.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

• Cole
• Garmadon (mentioned)
• Jay
• Kai
• Nya (mentioned)
• Phantom Ninja
• Rocky (mentioned)
• Samukai
• Shard (mentioned)
• Wisp
• Wu
• Zane

Items[]

• Nunchucks of Lightning
• Scythe of Quakes (mentioned)
• Shurikens of Ice (mentioned)

Locations[]

• Ninjago
  • Floating Ruins

Species[]

• Dragons
• Humans
• Nindroids
• Oni/Dragon hybrids
• Skulkin
• Spiders

Trivia[]

• The Intro explains what happened before King of Shadows’ short scene in the Floating Ruins.
• The main story is set after the ninja learn Spinjitzu and before Samukai is killed and before Wu goes to the Underworld. This only works either between the first and second weapon or between the second and third weapon as several nights pass but only one passes between the third weapon and Wu's departure.
• This book marks the first and only appearance of the Phantom Ninja, though another character of the same title would later be introduced.
• Like the other books, this story can be considered canon unless the series contradicts it at some point.^[2] When asked whether this book in particular is canon, Tommy Andreasen responded, "Not sure! But there nothing in it that contradicts the main story."^[3]
• This is the only Pilot character book that can not be found on Apple Books.
• Weirdly, Google Books has a digital preview for this book, though no ebook is available to purchase anywhere.^[4]

References[]