The Merge: Part 1

Synopsis[]

LEGO's YouTube channel[]

Full episode[]

One year after “The Merge,” Ninja-fan Arin and his friend, Sora, risk everything to save the life of a hunted young dragon named Riyu.

After a cataclysm changes their world forever, new and old Ninja must team up to save all the realms from high-tech villains bent on domination.^[1]

It all started with The Merge...[]

There is no going back from The Merge. But ... how will it change Ninjago? Is it an ending? A new beginning, or both? Only time will tell...^[2]

Meet Arin![]

Just another ‘wannabe’ ninja? Or something more? Things got shaken up by The Merge, and nobody felt it more than ninja superfan Arin. One thing is for sure, epic adventures await him and his new buddy, tech genius Sora.^[3]

Introducing Sora[]

“Why go anywhere when the best of the realms are here. For example...me!”

Skilful, independent and definitely not lacking in confidence, Sora seized her chance to leave the shadowy city of Imperium when The Merge hit. Now she’s struck up a friendship with Arin that could take them both to new heights...^[4]

New Show...New Villains![]

Good luck, ninja. These bad guys don’t even know the meaning of the word weakness...^[5]

Streaming services[]

Netflix[]

After a mysterious event known as "The Merge" shuffles the universe, an aspiring Ninja teams with a smart techie to navigate a new and unfamiliar world.^[6]

HBO Max[]

One year after “The Merge,” Ninja-fan Arin and his friend, Sora, risk everything to save the life of a hunted young dragon named Riyu.^[7]

Extended synopsis from Now TV[]

It’s been one year since The Merge when all 16 realms united and the Ninja disappeared. Arin is a self-taught Spinjitzu amateur living in Crossroads, a blended community, with his inventor friend, Sora. They enter their mech in a race that’s interrupted by a young dragon named Riyu being pursued by dragon hunters from The Imperium. Sora bonds with Riyu and discovers latent elemental powers, Arin and Sora are rescued by Lloyd, the Green Ninja.^[8]

Plot[]

Arin, an ordinary young boy and fan of the ninja narrates how he always wanted to become one and help protect Ninjago. While practicing on his house gate with his parents watching, strange cracks in the sky suddenly appear and open portals with images of other realms before the portals' presence causes many objects and people to be pulled up, Arin included. As he was pulled along the debris, he was suddenly saved by Lloyd before seeing the other ninja helping others caught in the catastrophe. After they were brought to safety, Arin asks Lloyd to find his parents, and he complies before the Destiny's Bounty and Jay's mech head for the portal, only for it to immediately disappear and a shockwave to occur.

Upon the shockwave's fade, Arin finds himself in a field with little debris, and an unfamiliar city in the distance, which led to one thing: all the realms merging together. Concerned, Arin turned to try and find his parents, but gets no response, and Lloyd's ninja mask lands in his hands.

Several years after what was called The Merge, Arin became determined to carry on the Ninja's legacy, believing they were gone. Currently, he was in a junkyard, explaining the events to some dogs as well as wearing Lloyd's mask while his friend Sora was looking for parts, until she manages to find them, just as Security Bots catch them, but they manage to subdue them with Sora reprogramming them to dance, and they leave a pie as payment for the junkyard owners.

Returning to Ninjago City's greatest neighborhood, the Crossroads, which had been built for all of the realm's creatures to live individually. Arin and Sora live in a penthouse, where it was revealed they were using the parts to participate in the Mech Master 5000, both of them hoping to use the prize money to fund their dreams. Meanwhile, in Imperium, Rapton reports to Ras about the Claws of Imperium's latest dragon capture, with the latter telling him his overconfidence is a weakness, which he disbelieves before looking at the cage containing their capture.

The following morning, Arin and Sora arrive at the track, where Arin bribes the registrar, Alfonzo Frohicky, with a pie to participate in the race, unaware that rival racer Kreel has a Whack Rat remove a component from their racer. Back in Imperium, Rapton sees one of the dragon cages shaking before it opens, revealing a baby dragon, who makes his getaway. At the racetrack, Sora and Arin take out the competition to reach Kreel and intend to use their booster, only for a blast to occur, knocking Kreel's racer down, and Arin and Sora discover it was the dragon, who is being chased by the Claws of Imperium. Abandoning the race, Arin and Sora move to rescue the dragon before the early sabotage on their racer, knocks them off the bridge. As they fell, the dragon faces Sora before passing something onto her, which made her hands glow pink and touches the pieces of the racer. As the hunters ponder on their fate, the racer, now a mech, rises up, before taking them down. Before they could escape, however, Ras appears, knocks them out and orders Rapton to imprison them.

On route aboard a train, Arin and Sora review their situation with Arin still skeptical about the Ninja's survival, until they hear noises and the hatch on the ceiling coming off, revealing their savior: Lloyd.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

Cast[]

• Alfonzo Frohicky - Andrew McNee
• Arin - Deven Mack
• Claw Hunter - Deven Mack
• Jenny - Kelly Sheridan (flashback)
• Kreel - Kelly Sheridan
• Lobbo - Brian Drummond
• Lloyd Garmadon - Sam Vincent
• Rapton - Giles Panton
• Ras - Brian Drummond
• Riyu - Brian Drummond
• Security Bot - Sam Vincent
• Sora - Sabrina Pitre

Non-speaking[]

• Barry (flashback)
• Bone Guards
• Sentry General
• Cole (flashback)
• Jay (flashback)
• Kai (flashback)
• Maaray Guards
• Mezmo
• Nya (flashback)
• Whack Rats
  • Richie
• Zane (flashback)

Mentioned[]

• Lobbo's mother

Creatures[]

• Dragon Matriarch (flashback)

Items[]

• Gis
  • Core (flashback)
  • Urban (Arin, Sora)
  • Fugitive (Lloyd; pictured)
  • Merge (Lloyd)
• Grapple Gun
• Imperium Swords
• Lloyd's golden sword
• Icon of the Source Dragon of Strength
• Sora's headphones
• Snowberry Pies

Vehicles[]

• Destiny's Bounty (flashback)
• Golden Dragon Jet (wingless)
• Hover chariots
• Kreel's mech
• Lobbo's mech
• Prison trains
• SA Mark 01
• Titan Mech (flashback)
• Underworld Mech

Events[]

• The Merge (flashback)
  • MergeQuakes
• Mech Master 5000

Locations[]

• Imperium
  • Kingdom of Imperium
    • Imperium Palace
    • Imperium Prison (mentioned)
  • Land of the Three Mountains (flashback)
• Land of Madness (pictured; flashback)
• Never-Realm (mentioned)
• Ninjago
  • Arin's neighborhood (flashback)
  • Crossroads
    • Arin and Sora's penthouse
    • Capture bay
    • Junkyard
  • Ninjago City
    • Borg Tower
  • Mountains of Impossible Height
    • Monastery of Spinjitzu (mentioned)
• Dark Island (pictured; flashback)
• Underworld (mentioned)

Species[]

• Dogs
• Dragons
  • Mountain Dragons
• Frogs
• Geckles
• Humans
• Merlopians
• Mucoids (mentioned)
• Munce
• Nindroids
• Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids
• Raccoons (mentioned)
• Rats
• Seagulls
• Serpentine
  • Hypnobrai
• Tigers

Trivia[]

• Arin is shown to have skills in cooking, being a pastry chef who can bake Snowberry Pies, which he often uses as payment.
  • The fact that one of the scenes shows Arin using a pie as payment to Mr. Frohicky confirms the first of Kevin Burke's two truths, one lie statements.^[9]
  • It's likely that this aspect of Arin's character is based on his voice actor, Deven Mack, who is also known for baking pies.^{[10][11][12][13]}
    • Mack previously voiced the character Super Dinosaur in the show of the same name, who is also known for his love of pies.^[10]
  • Mack ad-libbed Arin's line about raccoons getting to eat the pie.^[11]
• The Destiny's Bounty was remotely controlled by P.I.X.A.L..^[14]
• This is the only premiere of Dragons Rising to not have an opening sequence.

Cultural references[]

• Ras' line, "Your overconfidence is a weakness, Rapton." is similar to what Luke said to Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, in which Luke says "Your overconfidence is your weakness."
• Lloyd's line to Arin, "I think that mask belongs to me." is a reference to Hydraxon's line to Jaller, "I believe that mask belongs to me." from the Bionicle Mahri commercial.

Continuity[]

• This is the first season premiere in the franchise where Kai, Jay, Zane, Cole, and Nya do not have speaking roles. It's also the first premiere where Wu does not appear since "The Mask of Deception".
• This episode, along with "The Merge: Part 2", marks two episodes as a two-part episode for the first time since "Curseworld, Part I" and "Curseworld, Part II" of Possession.
• This is the first episode to have a 22-minute runtime since "Endings".
  • By extension, this is the first episode animated by WildBrain to have a 22-minute runtime.
• Kreel's sabotage of Sora's SA Mark 01 is similar to the Darkley's students' sabotage of the ninja's Ultra Sonic Raider in "Ninjaball Run".
• This is the first time a spark is used.
• This episode marks the first time since "Return to Primeval's Eye" where Lloyd wears a Green Ninja suit.
• This episode marks the first time a Ninja suit from the original series has been featured, that being Lloyd in his Fugitive suit from Season 15: Crystalized, it can be seen on a poster inside of Arin and Sora's penthouse.

Errors[]

• In the shot of his face after grabbing Lloyd's mask at the beginning of the episode, Arin has his teenage design rather than his child design, as he has scars on his face, stubbled sideburns, and his eyes are smaller.
• The extended description of the episode and Cartoon Network Asia says the time skip after the Merge was one year. But it was said by the characters that it was years ago.
• Nya's mole is missing during Arin's narration of the Merge.
• Jay appears to be missing his freckles during Arin's narration of the Merge.
• When LEGO released the episode in Korean on their YouTube channel, it did not have finished animation, as Lloyd wore the Core/Dojo suit at the end of the episode, instead of the Merge suit.

Videos[]

Translations[]

Language	Name
Arabic	الاندماج: الجزء الأول
Chinese (Simplified)	大融合：上集
Chinese (Traditional)	融合上集
Czech	Sloučení, první část
Dutch	De Versmelting, Deel 1
Finnish	Yhdistyminen: Osa 1
French	La Fusion : Partie 1
German	Die Verschmelzung: Teil 1
Hungarian	Egyesülés, első rész
Indonesian	Penggabungan: Bagian 1
Italian	La fusione: Parte 1
Japanese	それは突然! マージが起きた世界 その1
Polish	Fuzja: Część 1
Portuguese	A Fusão: Parte 1
Spanish (Latin America)	La Fusión: Parte 1
Turkish	Birleşme: 1. Kısım

References[]