- Not to be confused with Destruction, a similar power; Shadow, an element; or the Oni darkness cloud.
Darkness (also referred to as Shadow and Dark) is an elemental essence in Ninjago.[2] It is closely tied to Creation[3] and Destruction[4][5] and one of the two strongest powers across the realms alongside its benevolent counterpart, Golden Power. It is generally associated with lavender, pink, and black in color. It is a raw manifestation of the malevolent side of the Balance.
Notable uses[]
The Stone Army[]
According to Misako, Darkness came about as a natural counterbalance to Light, with the Overlord as its main manifestation. When the First Spinjitzu Master separated Ninjago into two halves, most of the Darkness (including the Overlord) were trapped on what would come to be known as the Island of Darkness.
Dark Island Trilogy[]
Clouse attempted to use the Dark Matter and Darkness to reunite Ninjago into a single landmass that he would control.
Crystalized[]
When the Overlord resurfaced as the Crystal King, he manifested his Dark powers in purple crystals with the capability of providing the user with enhanced strength,[6] bestowing them the elemental essence of Darkness,[7] or corrupting adversaries.[8]
Users' abilities[]
- Umbrakinesis - It allows the user to manipulate, control, generate, and shape darkness, including shadows.
- Umbrakinetic Flight - It allows the user to propel themselves up with darkness. As seen in "Return of the Overlord," the Overlord used this ability to combat Lloyd Garmadon by using it as an advantage to quickly head back into the battle.
- Conflict Empowerment/Supernatural Regeneration/Body Recreation - As stated by Wu in "Crystastrophe", users like the Overlord can grow stronger through conflict and regenerate/recreate their physical form drastically.
- Self-Resurrection/Retroactive Immortality - Users like the Overlord can possibly revive themselves upon their destruction, making them immortal in a sense that even if they do die, they won't stay dead permanently.
- Materialization/Animation - The user can use their dark power to create and give life to inanimate statues. The Overlord used this ability to create his own Stone Army out of materials from the Dark Island and later bring the Crystal Warriors to life using the Infectious crystals.
- Absolute Darkness - It allows the user to create a field of absolute impenetrable darkness and possibly spread darkness everywhere. As seen in "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master," the Overlord (in Dragon form) trapped Lloyd inside a sphere of darkness.
- Darkness Empowerment - The user can possibly grow stronger through darkness.
- Umbrakinetic Breath - Only displayed by the Overlord, the user can breathe clouds of darkness and shadow from their mouth to either attack or corrupt people.
- Corruption Breath - Gives the user the ability to corrupt people and their environment with their breath (as displayed by the Garmatron and the Overlord's dark breath attack). Symptoms of corruption include the destruction of morality, glowing purple eyes, and sickly pale gray skin.
- Toxic/Acid/Slime Spit - The Overlord's darkness breath can sometimes appear as a poisonous/acidic slime, as shown in "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master" when it landed on the ground and fizzled if it did not hit its target.
- Tentacle Creation/Extension - Allows the user to create tentacles of darkness which they can extend to incredible lengths. In "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master", the Overlord creates the tentacles to collect energy so he and the Stone Army can invade Ninjago.
- Umbra-Ergokinesis - The user can create and manipulate a dark form of energy.
- Umbra-Pyrokinesis - The user can create and manipulate dark fire.
- Umbrakinetic Beam Emission - Only displayed by the Overlord, the user can project beams of darkness, usually to attack an adversary.
- Umbrakinetic Ball Projection - The user can generate balls of darkness, commonly used to trap or attack an adversary.
- Dark Shield Construction - The user can create shields of varying shapes and sizes out of darkness/shadows. The Overlord used this in "Brave But Foolish" to block Wu's sword attack.
- Umbra-Electrokinesis - The user can create and manipulate dark electricity.
- Lightning Bolt Projection - As shown by the the Overlord, the user can shoot destructive lightning bolts to attack an enemy.
- Crystallokinesis - With their dark lightning, the user can create, generate, and manipulate dark crystals. They can even move them in space and use them as arrows to attack an adversary. It can also possibly be used to surf on crystals and become immune to time or parasites.
- Strength Bestowal - The crystals created are able to bestow superhuman strength to those who use them as shown by Harumi, who was able to move massive chunks of debris out of the way after using the crystal's power.
- Crystallization/Zombification - The user is able to infect anyone or anything by turning them into crystal zombies.
- Crystal Shard Projectiles - As shown by the Overlord, the user can create dark crystal shards and launch them at his opponents.
- Crystal Bomb Generation - The user can create crystal shards that explode into lightning.
- Crystal Constructs - The user can create objects out of dark crystals (blades, bludgeons, pillars, walls, etc).
- Crystal Spike Creation - As seen with the Overlord when he was fighting Wu, the user can create spikes of dark crystal from the ground.
- Crystal Shield Construction - The user can create shields of varying shapes and sizes out of crystal.
- Crystal Imprisonment - The user can possibly imprison opponents in crystal.
- Crystal/Metal Armor & Power Bestowal/Augmentation - In "The Coming of the King," the Overlord shoots dark lightning at the central crystal that would spread upon the Crystal Council, bestowing them with crystal-encrusted metal armor and new powers, and even upgrading their already-existing power and already-equipped gear (e.g. the Mechanic's Robo-arm).
- Body Alteration/Crystalline Shapeshifting - In Aspheera's case, the Overlord was able to alter her body when enhancing her power, turning her scales dark gray and forming crystalline structures on her hood.
- Conversion Immunity - Despite their armor and parts of their body being covered in infectious crystals in their empowered forms, the members of the Crystal Council appear to be immune to their abilities to turn them into crystal zombies.
- Crystal Blast - The user can release crystals over a specific target area, causing great damage and/or delivering great shock waves of pure force.
- Crystal Wave Emission - The user can release waves, spirals or rings of crystals, causing damage by the hit or the cut, or even imprison the target.
- Control over the Crystal Island - By using the central crystal, the Overlord also used his dark lightning to control the Crystal Island.
- Metamorphosis - With this ability, the user can undergo a metamorphic transformation. Depending on what they change into, they would gain beastly traits, such as sharp/extendable claws and feet, scales, a rotating head, enhanced eyesight/telescopic vision, strong/sharp teeth, etc. The Overlord was able to slowly change Garmadon's body into a giant dragon (which was his original form) in "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master" and his own body into a huge Centaur warrior in "Dragon Form".
- Portal Creation - As shown in "Return of the Overlord", the user can open portals to travel to different places. The Overlord used this to transport himself and his army to Ninjago City.
- Possession/Mutation - The user can possess and mutate their targets. As stated by the Overlord, he possessed the Great Devourer, causing a mutation that turned a little green serpent into an all-devouring monstrosity. It is often useful for transferring their consciousness, ventriloquism, and moving around digital realms or controlling its functions. If the user is strong enough, they can possibly suppress or remove the victims' consciousness for a long period of time. This ability also extends to objects and the undead.
- Remote Possession - The user can possess another being from a distance, as seen when the Overlord possessed a Nindroid at the Tomb of the Stone Army in "The Curse of the Golden Master".
- Machine/Vehicle Possession - The user can possess machines or vehicles, as seen when the Overlord possessed the MechDragon.
- Vengestone Immunity - Darkness can't be affected by Vengestone, as the Overlord was surrounded by it but his powers still worked and the Crystal Council was still able to use their powers.
- Resurrection - The user can resurrect souls from the Departed Realm though it is unknown if it only works on newly-departed souls or ones that have been departed for a while. The Overlord used this shortly after Harumi's death when she vowed to serve him.
Notable users[]
- The Overlord
- Garmadon (while being possessed by the Overlord; formerly)
- Rufus McCallister (while being possessed by the Overlord; briefly; non-canon)[1]
- Shadow Army
Creatures[]
- Great Devourer (deceased)
- Dragonides (destroyed)
Helmet of Shadows[]
- Garmadon (formerly)
- Dareth (briefly; formerly)
Infectious crystals[]
- Council of the Crystal King (formerly)
- Crystal Warriors
- Vengestone Warriors
- Vengestone Brutes (non-canon)
- Vengestone Guards
- Crystal zombies (formerly)
Tools/Objects[]
- Helmet of Shadows
- Dark Matter
- Great Devourer's venom
- Garmatron (destroyed)
- Crystal Spiders (destroyed)
- Aspheera's staff
- Infectious crystals (destroyed)
- Crystal weapons (destroyed)
- Weapons of Destruction (purified; destroyed)
- Vengestone spears
- Crystal katanas
- Robo-arm
- Crystal gun
Locations[]
- Dark Island
- The Overlord's void
- Dark Fortress (destroyed)
- Crystal Temple (destroyed)
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- It is nearly identical to Destruction even though they are separate.
- When asked if Darkness and Destruction are the same, Tommy Andreasen said, "Can’t get into that. Too complicated.[9] Bragi Schut said, "They are different in my opinion. The Oni power of destruction is more of an opposite to the dragon power of creation. The overlord is an embodiment of evil and darkness."[10] During Crystalized, it is heavily implied that Destruction and Darkness are closely tied to each other, as the Overlord stated that Lloyd and Garmadon's powers were a gift from him.[11]
- Tommy Andreasen's personal theory was that the Stone Wars never happened, and that the Overlord is the living embodiment of the First Spinjitzu Master's Oni side which the latter literally cast aside. In addition, the Great Devourer's venom gave Garmadon the power to use Destruction and even to Lloyd as he's the son of Garmadon and inherited the same power.[12] However, as he stated, this shouldn't be considered official canon info unless stated in the show.
- Doc Wyatt confimed that Darkness is in fact the combination of Creation and Destruction.[5]
- When asked if Darkness and Destruction are the same, Tommy Andreasen said, "Can’t get into that. Too complicated.[9] Bragi Schut said, "They are different in my opinion. The Oni power of destruction is more of an opposite to the dragon power of creation. The overlord is an embodiment of evil and darkness."[10] During Crystalized, it is heavily implied that Destruction and Darkness are closely tied to each other, as the Overlord stated that Lloyd and Garmadon's powers were a gift from him.[11]
- When asked what was the Overlord's element, Tommy Andreasen said, "Probably darkness."[13] The words "darkness" and "shadow" are used both in a literal and metaphorical sense, such as the many times when "darkness" is mentioned in the series, and as a proper name for the force of power connected to the Overlord, such as when "Darkness" is written in the Dark Island Trilogy and The Book of Spinjitzu.
- Darkness appears to have the same ability as Dark Matter of corrupting people. Dark Matter turned Nya evil in "Return of the Overlord" and the Overlord's Darkness attack did the same thing to Cole, Jay, and Zane "Rise of the Spinjitzu Master."
- In Tomb of the Fangpyre, it is implied that the Overlord was responsible for creating the Great Devourer by corrupting a snake with darkness.[14] Years after the novel was released, this theory was officially confirmed in "Dragon Form," in which the Overlord revealed that he corrupted the Devourer so that it would bite Garmadon, making other catastrophic events happen because of it.
- Darkness appears to be a raw manifestation of the Balance and isn't directly linked to Destruction or Creation, rather, it is a more abstract and far more malevolent force; the embodiment of evil and shadows.
- Darkness appears to be more malevolent and evil than Destruction as its main embodiment, the Overlord.
- Due to the fact that Dark Matter is "pure concentrated evil," it is likely that Darkness is a manifestation of evil itself as well.
- Darkness, for an unknown reason, has a weakness to Destruction even greater than that of its weakness to Golden Power, to the point that Destruction is capable of fully destroying it (allegedly) unlike Golden Power, which merely temporarily extinguishes its power.
- This is probably due to Lloyd and Garmadon's powers being enhanced by the Overlord (through the Great Devourer's venom), giving Darkness a disadvantage against Destruction.
Gallery[]
In LEGO form[]
In Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu[]
Season 2: Legacy of the Green Ninja[]
Season 15: Crystalized[]
In other media[]
Translations[]
Language | Name |
---|---|
Czech | Temnota |
Finnish | Pimeys |
French | Ténèbres |
German | Dunkelheit |
Russian | Тьма |
Spanish (LA) | Oscuridad |
Ukrainian | Темрява |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Dark Matter Comics
- ↑ https://x.com/TommyAndreasen/status/799724783453642752
- ↑ "The Book of Elemental Powers"
- ↑ "Dragon Form"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://bsky.app/profile/docwyattbeyond.bsky.social/post/3ldm2qtabxk2d
- ↑ "A Sinister Shadow"
- ↑ "The Coming of the King"
- ↑ Crystal zombies
- ↑ https://x.com/TommyAndreasen/status/1296731863416016901
- ↑ https://x.com/bragischutjr/status/1398730811260637186
- ↑ "Dragon Form"
- ↑ https://youtu.be/uwvezZyxItw?t=1843
- ↑ https://x.com/TommyAndreasen/status/827788358273363969
- ↑ "The darkness touched the common snake with its power..." Page 31, Tomb of the Fangpyre
Elemental Powers | |
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Elemental essences |
Creation · Darkness · Destruction · Golden Power |
Elements of Creation |
|
Other elements |
Amber · Balance · Brute Force · Decay · Energy · Fear · Figment · Form · Fusion · Gravity · Heat · Imagination (non-canon) · Light · Metal · Mind · Misfortune · Nature · Plants · Poison · Propulsion · Quake · Reflex · Shadow · Shockwave · Size · Smoke · Sound · Speed · Surface Tension · Swarm · Technology · Time · Water · Wind |
Creation · Earth · Fire · Green · Ice · Lightning · Surprise · Water |