The Real Fall

“It's not the falling I'm worried about, it's the landing!”

— Vania

The Real Fall
Air date	July 14, 2020 (Australia) October 4, 2020 (US) November 22, 2020 (Canada)
Written by	Bragi Schut
Directed by	Shane Poettcker
Episode guide
Previous	"The Skull Sorcerer"
Next	"Dungeon Party!"

The Real Fall is the eighth episode of the thirteenth season of Ninjago and the 152nd episode overall. It aired first in English on July 14, 2020, in Australia. It aired in the US on October 4, 2020, paired up with "The Skull Sorcerer."

Synopsis

Cole, Princess Vania and Master Wu fall down a seemingly endless tunnel, into the bowels of Shintaro Mountain.

Cartoon Network Asia: Princess Vania attempts to catch the falling Master Wu and Cole, but their combined weight tears her wings loose. All 3 friends find themselves plunging into the mountain.

Extended: Princess Vania attempts to catch the falling Master Wu and Cole, but their combined weight tears her wings loose. All 3 friends find themselves plunging into the mountain. As they fall, they encounter various bizarre threats and creatures before they are swept over a waterfall and tumble through a sinkhole to wash up on the shores of a subterranean cavern called Rock-Bottom.

Plot

After Vangelis watches Vania go after Cole and Wu by using a pair of Shintaro Wings, Vangelis reverts into his civilian outfit and demands the guards to enter. He makes up a story blaming Chompy for pushing Vania into the hole and commands the guards to lock up the "beast". At first, Hailmar and the guards are confused since Chompy is Vania's pet, but Vangelis orders them again. They then pick up the weak dragon and take him away.

While Cole is screaming and falling, he spots Wu who is above him. Cole shouts to Wu, but Wu cannot hear him. Cole then screams even louder to see if Wu is alright and Wu says he's okay for the moment. Cole then tells Wu to accelerate so he can hear Wu, but Wu tells Cole to slow down his fall. Cole doesn't know how to stop, and all he gets from Wu is to flap his arms, but Wu yells for Cole to use his Elemental Powers. Cole flaps his arms anyways, but it proves to be useless.

Wu then hears Vania from above. She hollers at Wu to slow down his fall by flapping his arms, but it doesn't work. Cole then spots some vines, so he grabs onto a couple, but his momentum causes the vines to break. Realizing it doesn't work, he is able to grab Wu's hand and they wait for Vania. She is able to get into their range, and she tells them to grab onto her as he uses the wings; however, they break and all three fall.

With no end in sight, they all scream until landing onto a spider web. All three of them are stuck because of the spider web and Cole starts to freak out. Vania tells Cole to calm down and talks about reading a book by Clutch Powers. Before she could finish her sentence, she screams in horror as an enormous spider approaches them.

The spider takes Cole and wraps him in webs. Another spider decides to join and fights for Cole. While both are fighting, the one holding Cole drops him, but a third spider takes Cole. Vania is able to break free and distracts the spider by throwing objects at the spider which causes it to drop Cole. The spider then goes after Vania, so she finds some weapons to fight. She throws a spear at the spider, but it continues to head for Vania. She then climbs onto a ledge and when given the chance, she jumps onto the spider and gives Wu a spear to free Cole. However, the three are surrounded by the three spiders, so Cole decides to cut the web causing them to fall.

Cole, Wu, and Vania starting sliding down the caves before landing in a stream. They try to hang onto rocks but continue to drift. They then find what they thought was another rock, but it turns out to be a stone turtle. They continue down the stream before encountering a whirlpool. Wu tells Cole to use his powers to break a stalactite, but Cole doesn't know how to do so. Wu tells Cole to concentrate and after a bit of difficulty, he causes the stalactite to break off the cave and stop the whirlpool.

The three climb to the top of the stalactite tired and exhausted. Suddenly, the stalactite breaks, and they are sucked into the whirlpool and are spat out to a small lake. Cole drags Wu and Vania out of the water, observes, and lies down. That's when Fungus approaches him and introduces himself. The other members including Plundar, Korgran, and Adam greet Cole, but he faints. What they don't realize is they are at Rock-Bottom.

Appearances

Characters

Cast

• Cole - Kirby Morrow
• Fungus - Ian James Corlett
• Hailmar - Brian Drummond
• Hazza D'ur - Michael Adamthwaite
• Korgran - Paul Dobson
• Plundar - Adam Trask
• Vangelis/Skull Sorcerer - Deven Mack
• Vania - Sabrina Pitre
• Wu - Paul Dobson

Items

• Naginata
• Shintaro wings
• Skull of Hazza D'ur

Creatures

• Adam
• Chompy

Locations

• Ninjago
  • Shintaro Mountain
    • Kingdom of Shintaro
      • Palace
        • Throne room
          • The Pit
    • Dungeons of Shintaro
      • Rock-Bottom

Species

• Giant spiders
• Humans
• Oni/Dragon/Human hybrids
• Shintaran Ridgebacks
• Sky Folk
• Stone turtles

Transcript

For the transcript of the episode, click here.

Trivia

• Narrator: Cole
• The title was revealed by Tommy Andreasen in the live-chat of a stream hosted by Joshua Deck on YouTube.
• It seems that Wu's hat always lands on top of someone's head when it falls off Wu's head. This is shown when it falls out to Cole's, Vania's and the stone turtle's head during the episode.

Cultural references

• The way Vania throws a shield at a spider is similar to how Captain America from the Marvel franchise throws his Vibranium shield at people.

Continuity

• This episode was based on "The Fall" and was somewhat of a reaction to the fans' critiques of Cole's fall in that episode.
  • As such, this is the second episode in which the word "Fall" is used in the title and the third to include Cole falling, the second being "The Cliffs of Hysteria".
  • This is the second episode to use an existing episode title and add one adjective, the first is "Wasted True Potential" with "True Potential."
• Bragi Schut stated the "episode was a blast to write".
• This episode is somewhat the opposite of "The Ascent," as one focuses on the group falling to Rock-Bottom and the other focuses on their traveling back to the palace.
• Vangelis tricking the Army of Shintaro into believing that Chompy attacked Vania', is very similar to how in "Long Live the King," Kalmaar tricked the Maaray Guards into believing that the ninja killed Trimaar.
• There is a scene where Vania,Cole and Wu are sliding through the caves of the mountian. parts of it bear a resemblance to scenes in Grave Danger, where the ninja slide through through tunnels of ice

Errors

• When Vania is fighting the spider with the spear, it makes a clattering sound when it hits the web, however this would not be possible as the web is soft and wouldn't have made any sound.

Gallery

For the gallery of the episode, click here.