Zane: Ninja of Ice

Official description[]

Masters of Spinjitzu: a new force to save the world!

Sensei Wu wants Zane to become a Master of Ice — but he's already a master of snow. There's no mountain anywhere that's a match for his snowboard. But he'll need more than his passion for sports to master Spinjitzu. . . .^[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.

Each Ninjas' training has its own challenges. And Zane, the most mysterious of the ninja, might have the most difficult time of them all. While a dedicated member of the team and an avid learner, Zane has no memories of his past, but a powerful desire to recover them. Could it spell disaster for the whole team?

Plot[]

Getting the Joke[]

Zane gathers sticks for a fire on their way to the Caves of Despair. He thinks about how he does not experience any emotions like a normal person. He encounters Nuckal and convinces him that Zane was part of Nuckal's imagination and not to tell anyone about the encounter. Believing him, Zane and Nuckal part ways, heading back to their respective camps.

The Choice[]

Zane meditates at the bottom of a lake. He wonders if it was worth joining Wu’s ninja team. He only joined because he wanted to learn about his past. Zane hears someone call from a cave. It is Garmadon. Zane follows Garmadon into the Underworld, where Garmadon offers answers about Zane’s parents. Garmadon shows Zane a vision, explaining his past. He claims that Wu was just afraid to use the weapons and they should have been used to defeat evil people. Zane eventually wakes up and finds himself not in the Underworld and hears Garmadon speak to him again. Zane goes back to the team where he is told to train with the Shurikens of Ice.

When he goes to train, Samukai ambushes him and Cole, demanding the Golden Weapons. When Zane offers the weapons to Samukai in exchange for answers about his past, Samukai at first refuses, believing it to be a trick. After some persuasion from Zane, Samukai gives in and Zane is told by Garmadon to return to the cave for the answers he sought. Garmadon then shows Zane his parents, insisting that his father was a woodworker and his mother was a seamstress and that they struggled to provide for themselves and their only son. Years later, in Zane's adolescent years, Garmadon claimed that he was struck by a horse-drawn cart while journeying to a neighboring village for supplies, and when Zane finally woke up, he had lost his memory. The end.

Unimpressed with Garmadon's story, Zane demands more, but Garmadon taunts the Ninja of Ice, stating that he would have to work for more before ultimately revealing that he made up the story in an hour or so. In response, Zane gave Garmadon a defiant smile and revealed that he too had lied and that the Golden Weapons that he gave away were fake. Enraged by Zane's deception, Garmadon summoned a shadow ninja to fight Zane, who at first struggled with this opponent until Cole came to his aid. Together, the two ninja were able to defeat the shadow, which retreated deeper into the cave as the ninja returned to their camp where Wu waited for them. Upon their arrival, Wu deduced that Zane had realized the Golden Weapons he and Cole had been given to train with were replicas, though he asked if Zane had not discovered this fact, would he still have given the weapons to Samukai? Although Zane did not answer, Wu gave him a knowing smile and offered Zane some comfort, admitting that while he may not know Zane's origins, he is certain that Zane is pure of heart. The ninja then prepare themselves to search for the third golden weapon, with Wu noting that they would need to journey to the edge of the world to retrieve.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

• Cole
• First Spinjitzu Master (visualized)
• Garmadon
• Jay (mentioned)
• Kai
• Kruncha (mentioned)
• Nuckal
• Nya (mentioned)
• Samukai
• Wu
• Zane

Items[]

• Golden Weapons (mentioned and replicas)
• Shurikens

Events[]

• Battle Between Brothers (visualized)
• Search for the Golden Weapons

Locations[]

• Ninjago
  • Monastery of Spinjitzu
• Underworld

Species[]

• Humans
• Nindroids
• Oni/Dragon hybrids
• Shadows
• Skulkin

Trivia[]

• The Intro is set on the way to the Caves of Despair.
• The main story is set between getting the Shurikens of Ice and the Nunchucks of Lightning.
• The book's official description mentions Zane's early concept idea as being a snowboarder.
• This book can be considered canon unless the series contradicts it at some point.^[2]
• Lord Garmadon reveals a fake origin story for Zane claiming that he's a human with amnesia.
• This book can be found on Apple Books.
• Garmadon claims that he was for a “millennia trapped in the Underworld”, yet he was only in the Underworld for about a decade.^[3]
  • This is because Lloyd had not yet been conceptualized as a character when this book was written.

References[]