“I have no memories from before that fateful day. No memories of my real father, or my real mother. I remember only the family who adopted me, the father who took me in.”
The Tale of Benthomaar is the eighth episode of the fourteenth season of Ninjago and the 172nd episode overall. It aired on April 25, 2021, paired up with "Escape from Merlopia."[1] It released in the US on November 19, 2021, alongside The Island and the rest of the episodes of Seabound.
The tragic tale of Benthomaar is revealed, a tale filled with treachery and betrayal, but also a glimmer of hope.[2]
Extended: A flashback tells the tragic tale of Benthomaar - King Trimaar finds Benthomaar as a baby and adopts him as his own, and as Benthomaar grows older, he tries hard to earn his brother's affection, but Kalmaar has no interest as he's obsessed with finding Wojira. Kalmaar eventually betrays Benthomaar's trust by tricking him into swimming through dangerous sulphur vents to find Wojira's Temple.[3]
Plot[]
A younger Kalmaar and Trimaar travel along the sea, until they come across a sunken ship. Kalmaar becomes excited about it, and Trimaar tells him to be careful. But Kalmaar accuses him of trying to detour their conversation of Wojira. Trimaar tells him that he wishes not to talk about her and about the threat she posed to the surface and ocean. Kalmaar asks if the serpent could be awakened, until Trimaar sees two eels heading somewhere and chases after them. Kalmaar is annoyed that his father keeps trying to change the subject and follows as well.
They are surrounding Benthomaar and Trimaar jumps in to help. He fearlessly fought the eels and scared them off. He gets the young Benthomaar out of the coral and adopts him. As time passed, Benthomaar was treated as if he was Trimaar’s own son. Benthomaar was always trying to get his brother’s love but was always denied and started worrying that he may never get it. One day, Kalmaar met with his father in the throne room and asks if the Temple of Wojira is real. Angry, Trimaar forbids him from going to the Tartarus Trench.
In his room, Kalmaar is talking with Gripe and is angry with his father. Gripe tells him that the king may have a point and that the Tartarus Trench is dangerous. This gives Kalmaar the idea of tricking Benthomaar. Benthomaar is practicing his shots and Kalmaar comes in. He tells him to that he is sorry, for denying him love and that what he did was silly and asks for forgiveness. Benthomaar agrees and hugs him, to Kalmaar’s disgust. He convinces Benthomaar to go traveling with him into the trench.
Benthomaar has some worries about going in there, but Kalmaar manipulates him into going forward. During the travel, Benthomaar almost gets hurt when a geyser hits him and defending Kalmaar from an eel. They make it to the temple and Benthomaar asks what they should do now, Kalmaar shows his true colors and tells Benthomaar that he was never nor will he ever be his brother and sends him off.
An upset Benthomaar hopes whatever is in the Temple makes Kalmaar happy, but before saying ‘brother’ he cuts himself and says ‘Kalmaar’. In the present, Benthomaar is sad that Trimaar is the only one who ever cared about him and that he is dead, but Nya and Lloyd promise him that he isn’t alone and that they care for him. Benthomaar is happy at this, and the ninja continue their journey to the Island of the Keepers.
At the end of the episode, Lloyd says to Benthomaar, "We can't pick our family, but we can pick our friends. And I'm proud to call you a friend." This is very similar to what Lloyd said at the beginning of "The Day of the Dragon" to console Kai about Skylor's being capture, that being, "She wasn't able to pick her family, but she was able to pick her friends. And since you're her friend, that means so are we."
It's also similar to the scene where Lloyd tells Okino that he's their friend in "The Glitch."
This episode is similar to "The Last of the Formlings," as both episodes take place almost entirely in a flashback that shows the life of a new ally of the ninja.
This is the first time Nya refers to Kalmaar by his real name.
This episode marks the second time a character in the series reuses a ninja's redesign hairstyle.
The first character is P.I.X.A.L., who has shared her hair design with Nya since "Dead Man's Squall."
In this case, Benthomaar in his adolescence has Kai's current hair.
Errors[]
Although not necessarily an error, the synopsis says that Benthomaar was a baby when Trimaar found him, and his behavior in the episode confirms this. However, his appearance is not based on the LEGO baby model such as the one used for Baby Wu, but is a classic minifigure with short legs instead.
Babies did appear in this way in "Never Trust a Snake," but the reason was that the LEGO baby model was not yet available in 2012.
Videos[]
LEGO NINJAGO - Season 3 Episode 12- The Tale of Benthomaar
Ninjago - Benthomaar's Origin Story - Cartoon Network UK
