Serpentine War

History[]

Prelude[]

Over millennia of living in Ninjago, the Humans and the Serpentine lived separately, but in a fragile truce with no intentions of attacking one another. Centuries ago, the Serpentine tried to warn humans of the coming of the Golden Master. When humans refused to listen, the Serpentine tried to terrify them with the Great Devourer, who was ultimately defeated by the people of Ninjago and imprisoned in Ancient City of Ouroboros.^[2]

Garmadon was at that time in the teachings of Master Chen along with Clouse. However, Chen found the peace between the humans and Serpentine boring and wanted to pull some strings to provoke a conflict, which Garmadon disagreed with and subsequently left his master.^[3]

Chen and Clouse decided to continue their pursuit and collected numerous Anacondrai artifacts and clothes to imitate the Serpentine tribe, attacking human villages and stealing their supplies. By doing so, they intentionally encouraged the humans' distrust for the Serpentine. Wu and Mystake soon learned of these covert attacks and started recruiting Elemental Masters for an alliance that would fight the snakes if necessary.^[4]

For centuries beforehand, the Serpentine tribes, namely Hypnobrai, Fangpyre, Venomari, Constrictai and Anacondrai, were at war with each other.^[5] Chen, who did not give up his plan to start the war, realized that the only way to start it was to unite all the tribes.

Soon, Chen realized that some Serpentine were trying to warn the humans of the Prophecy of the Golden Master who would destroy the world. One of these Serpentine, Strike, was approached by Chen who lied to her and told her the prophecy could only be prevented by studying stolen Serpentine artifacts, supposedly hidden by treacherous humans who stole them along with the snakes' culture. Strike believed him and met with all the Serpentine tribes' generals but the Anacondrai, including the Hypnobrai, the Fangpyre, the Venomari, and the Constrictai. Together, they decided to send some soldiers to Jamanakai Village due to its symbolic importance as a home of stories. However, they were only supposed to peacefully retrieve their artifacts from the villagers, not start a conflict.^[4]

Battle of Jamanakai Village[]

When the Serpentine came to Jamanakai Village, Clouse deliberately provoked the snakes, disguised as a villager, thus starting the first battle of the war. The Serpentine, in response to this, started plundering the village and burning the buildings until the Elemental Alliance arrived to stop them.^[4]

However, before the first battle began, one of the Anacondrai, Pythor, persuaded his tribe to oversee the march and join a conflict should one arise. After they saw the Alliance's arrival, the Anacondrai decided to mobilize against them to help the other Serpentine. After the fight, the Anacondrai won the Battle of Jamanakai Village and the Alliance had to retreat to their camp.^[4]

Small Battles[]

Following the Serpentine's victory in Jamanakai Village, the Serpentine invaded Headstone Road, Tanaka City, and the Moon Springs, only for the Elemental Alliance to fight back and win victory over them. At the Battle of Black Cliffs, the Anacondrai won the victory, forcing the Alliance to retreat once again.^[4]

Battle of Birchwood Forest[]

Garmadon then joined his brother and formed an alliance with other Elemental Masters. The decisive battle of the Elemental Alliance alongside Ninjago soldiers and rice farmers against the Anacondrai took place in the Birchwood forest, with a near victory for the humans. During the battle, Garmadon discovered that his former ally, Mogra the Tengu, had defected to the side of Chen and the Serpentine. Enraged, Garmadon fought against his former ally, fighting alongside his brother to defeat and capture him. Later, as the humans pursued the fleeing Anacondrai, they discovered that Chen had managed to turn some of the masters against the others, such as the Master of Earth, who he manipulated by utilizing Clouse's Dark Magic, turning the Elemental Alliance against itself and allowing the Anacondrai to resume their attack against their divided foes, resulting in their victory.^[3]

Defeat of the Serpentine[]

The defeated alliance withdrew to Jamanakai Village. However, Garmadon noticed that one of the villagers was playing the flute and hypnotizing a snake in a basket. After being joined by Strike, the Elemental Alliance hoped to use similar flutes to impose a state of understanding and peace between the humans and Serpentine, and invaded Chen's library to find the remnants of a Sacred Flute. After doing so, Brook and Sono used their powers to make replications, soon discovering that the flutes didn't foster empathy, but rather immobilized the Serpentine who held a desire to control humans in their heart. With the help of these flutes, they managed to control the Serpentine and seal them in five separate tombs in different places in Ninjago. The war ended and the trial began with the Anacondrai generals. Although they begged for mercy, Mystake, who was one of three judges, rejected their request for mercy. Garmadon therefore used the Book of Spells and expelled the generals to the Cursed Realm so that they could no longer threaten Ninjago. Chen and Clouse were charged with their crimes and were exiled to a secluded island. The war ended, and peace ensued in Ninjago.^[3]

Consequences[]

Over the next decades, humans completely forgot about the Serpentine and began to consider it just a legend.^[6] The Elemental Alliance disbanded, and after Garmadon was completely controlled by the Great Devourer's venom, Wu banished him to the Underworld.^[7] However, almost forty years after the war, little Lloyd Garmadon wanted to follow his father's example and released Serpentine from their tombs.^[6] Pythor, who was only a low ranking opportunist during the Serpentine War,^[8] united Serpentine tribes and took the title of Snake King. Then he released the Great Devourer to avenge the humans for imprisoning them in tombs.^[9] However, the Great Devourer would be killed instead by the likes of Garmadon who then subsequently took over leadership of the Serpentine.^[10]

Skales would then succeed Pythor as the new Snake King after usurping Garmadon only to trap the Serpentine in the Tomb of the Stone Army.^[11] During their imprisonment, the Serpentine had made peace with humans and committed themselves to living underground in isolation.^[2]

However, Chen prepared a plan on his island and later organized the Tournament of Elements,^[12] where he got all of the current Elemental Masters and their Elemental Powers, which he needed for the spell of transforming into Anacondrai.^[3] After this transformation, Chen began the Second Serpentine War, which ended with Garmadon's sacrifice and the exchange of his soul for the souls of the Anacondrai generals in the Cursed Realm.^[13]

Participants[]

Humans side[]

• Elemental Alliance
  • Sons of the First Spinjitzu Master
  • Ray
  • Maya
  • Hibernus
  • Libber
  • Benton
  • Dusk
  • Levi
  • Leo
  • Sono
  • Brook
  • Time Twins
• Ninjago soldiers
• Mogra (formerly)
• Strike

Serpentine side[]

• Serpentine
  • Anacondrai
    • Anacondrai generals
      • General Arcturus
    • Pythor
    • Strike (for the truce)
  • Hypnobrai
  • Fangpyre
  • Constrictai
  • Venomari
• Chen
• Clouse
• Mogra
• Benton (briefly; involuntarily)

Known battles[]

• Battle of Jamanakai Village
• Battle of Headstone Road
• Battle of Tanaka City
• Battle of the Moon Springs
• Battle of Black Cliffs
• Battle of Birchwood Forest

Appearances[]

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu[]

Season 1: Rise of the Snakes[]

• 1. "Rise of the Snakes" (mentioned)
• 4. "Never Trust a Snake" (mentioned)
• 5. "Can of Worms" (mentioned)
• 6. "The Snake King" (mentioned)

Season 3: Rebooted[]

• 30. "The Curse of the Golden Master" (mentioned)

Season 4: Tournament of Elements[]

• 36. "Only One Can Remain" (mentioned)
• 40. "Spellbound" (flashback)
• 41. "The Forgotten Element" (mentioned)
• 42. "The Day of the Dragon" (mentioned)
• 43. "The Greatest Fear of All" (mentioned)
• 44. "The Corridor of Elders" (mentioned)

Season 7: The Hands of Time[]

• 66. "The Hatching" (flashback)
• 67. "A Time of Traitors" (mentioned)

Graphic novels[]

• Tomb of the Fangpyre (vision; non-canon)
• Strike of the Serpentine (flashback)

Comics[]

Garmadon[]

• 4. "The Snake in the Garden" (flashback)

Shatterspin[]

• 1. "The Wyldness" (pictured)
• 2. "The Lycan King" (mentioned)
• 5. "Homecoming" (mentioned)

Trivia[]

• Three parts of the Serpentine War's story have been told in the series.
  • In Rise of the Snakes, it is explained that the five tribes of Serpentine all fought against each other for rule over Ninjago.
  • In "The Curse of the Golden Master", Acidicus explains that all five of the tribes tried to warn the people of Ninjago about the coming of the Golden Master, but they thought the Serpentine were the enemy and that started the wars.
  • In a flashback from "Spellbound," all five of the tribes are seen working together against the Elemental Alliance, later revealed to have been tricked by Chen into fighting them.
  • The concept of the five tribes battling against each other is not mentioned in the later explanations of the wars.
    • Tommy Andreasen later clarified that the tribes fought amongst themselves before Chen united them.^[14]
• Strike of the Serpentine combines all previous versions and lore drops about the war and corrects/clarifies some inconsistencies between versions.
  • In Season 1: Rise of the Snakes, it was stated that the Serpentine were not united before the war and were fighting each other. Although this is not really the case, it is shown the Serpentine tribes were brought together because of the war and because of Strike's attempts.
  • In Season 1, it was also stated that the Sacred Flutes are as old as the Serpentine themselves and were created to combat them but in Season 4: Tournament of Elements it was implied they were already created beforehand while Garmadon got the idea to use the flutes when he saw one being used on a snake. This novel combines the two as the original flutes were made centuries before the war but they were lost and broken until Brook and Sono repaired them.
  • In Season 3: Rebooted it is stated that the war was caused because the humans did not listen to the Serpentine who tried to warn them about the the curse of the Golden Master. However, in Season 4 this was retconned/ignored as it was Chen who manipulated the Serpentine and the humans to fight each other. This novel again combines the two as Strike was trying to warn the humans about the curse and indirectly caused the war after being manipulated by Chen.
  • Characters from flashbacks from other installments (not just Season 4) also appear in this comic, including Libber, Acronix, and Krux from Season 7: The Hands of Time, and Mogra from Garmadon.
• While the conflict was referenced in several episodes of Rise of the Snakes, it was not referred to by name until Tournament of Elements. Similarly, its place in the timeline was not confirmed until it was revealed to have taken place 40 years ago in "The Hands of Time."
• The conflict is referred to as both the "Serpentine War" and "Serpentine Wars" throughout the series. It can be assumed that "Serpentine War" refers to the conflict as a whole while "Serpentine Wars" refers to the conflict as a series of battles, though there is not much difference between these two.
  • The war was also known as the Anacondrai Wars, as Lloyd called it that way in "The Forgotten Element."
• When asked if Misako fought in the Serpentine War, Tommy Andreasen said "[she] may have been involved in some civil resistance, but the EMs were in charge."^[15]
  • Misako's implication in the war was finally confirmed and shown in "Strike of the Serpentine".
• The war serves as a very important event in Ninjago's history and the storyline. It serves as the backstory for Season 1, Season 4, and for some events in Season 7. It also helps to explain the Golden Master in Season 3 and serves as the motivations for the majority of Serpentine villains.
• The events of this war are taught to students in Ninjago's schools.^[16]
  • It's possible that it was added to the curriculum after the Ninja had finished their educations, as they were largely unaware of the events of the war prior to its introduction in the show, and had debated whether or not the Serpentine were real in the first place before encountering them for the first time.^[6]

• Tommy Andreasen had previously explained in a tweet that the Serpentine tribes were constantly at war with one another before Chen united them under Arcturus’s command. Strike of the Serpentine slightly alters this account by showing that Chen urged Strike to unite the Serpentine tribes even though they did not get along, and later in the war, these tribes placed themselves under Arcturus’s command following the victory at Jamanakai, which was secured thanks to the intervention of the Anacondrai.^[14]
  

Gallery[]

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In Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu[]

Season 3: Rebooted[]

Season 4: Tournament of Elements[]

In Tomb of the Fangpyre (non-canon)[]

In Garmadon[]

In Strike of the Serpentine[]

Translations[]

Language	Name
French	Guerre des Serpents
Japanese	ヘビヘビ戦争 (S4) ヘビヘビの戦い (S4, S7)

References[]