How to Not Write a Main Villain - Lord Ras breakdown

[00:00:00]This video was written with the help of my good friend Gino to thank him for the massive shift he put in in helping me make this video. All of his socials are in the description of this video, so please go check them out. With that being said, enjoy.

[00:00:12]Lord Ras is, in theory, my favorite villain that the Ninjago franchise has to offer. He's far and away the most engaging villain the show has ever had, in my opinion, and he's a perfect mix of strong, intelligent, charismatic, and mysterious to get interested in him. In theory, Ras should greatly benefit from Dragons Rising being a fully serialized and planned out story, as he could be developed and characterized over the course of multiple seasons. Ras would be as much of a subject of exploration as the Merge Lands themselves, and while he suffered from some unfortunate screen time issues in the first season, season 2 gave us a metric ton of characterization and involvement within the story, building off of his season 1 portrayal to present him as someone very sympathetic to Arin's plight. Ras and Arin's partnership gave us the opportunity to explore a very different side of Ras compared to what we had previously, and it was a perfect opportunity for us to get to know Ras better through his mentorship of Arin come season 3. But, I think it's at this point in the story where some cracks started to show in Ras's writing. It is completely normal and even expected for Ras to not lay all of his cards on the table right away. However, I would argue that there is far too much time between the reveal of each card.

[00:01:17]Season 1 presents Ras very competently and gives us a very strong showing for him in the first few episodes. He dispatches Arin, Sora, and Ryu effortlessly, one-shots multiple dragons, and even drives his hovercraft into one. And then, he jumps to a barely trained Arin and Sora come episode 10.

[00:01:35]Well, you know, maybe he can make up for it in part 2, and then he spends all of it in a jail cell and essentially sits out for the rest of the season. You could argue this is for the benefit of fleshing out Beatrix, which does work well, but I want to say that this isn't even that necessary. If I absolutely had to choose, I would always want our main overarching villain to get the more substantial focus over the introductory villain who will never even appear Oh, never mind, she's back for season 4. But one good thing that does come out of a prison arc, and the reason why I'm even recapping this season one material at all, is absolute power. Here we get our first real teaser of Razz's backstory, and his first showing of his manipulative side. And in that, we get to see him arrive at Imperium and stage a coup. This is some good stuff, and it really makes you wonder what this guy was doing beforehand, and what his mysterious master is planning, the one that he mentions at the end of season 1.

[00:02:24]Moreover, it sets the stage pretty adequately, and while I do wish he had more to do, I can judge season 1 as a fine enough introduction to Razz, and it lays some groundwork for what's to come, even if it is a little bit shaky in places. Unsurprisingly, season 2 is absolutely where Razz shines the brightest. We get an even more substantial look into his past, his motives, and what makes him tick. Again, I want to attribute this to the flashback we get of him in episode 9, which does wonders to elevate him as a character. Much like season 1, season 2 once again sets up for Razz to have some solid exploration for the next batch of episodes, especially now that he's a protagonist, and then we get nothing.

[00:03:02]Don't get me wrong, I do like what's there. Finding out that all of this is to bring his people back is some really good characterization that further cements his parallels with Aaron. And I want to say that their scene together at the Land of Lee is probably one of his best showings to date. It's shockingly intimate and the gentlest Razz has ever seemed with Aaron, but other than that, we don't have a proper exploration of Razz's dynamic with his own master, any further revelations of his past, and again, it's fine to play the long game, as it were, but you have to maintain the build-up and keep the mystery going, because you can't just rely on past seasons to carry this in its entirety.

[00:03:37]It's especially unfortunate because his partnership with Aaron was a perfect way for this to come up organically. I've seen it proposed that the arcade subplot in season 3 episode 3, the Spectral Land, should be completely cut in favor of a dual narrative, contrasting young Razz with current Aaron. Show Ra's on an adventure following his master's bidding and getting into a battle that he wins with a returning blade, which would help him on his journey as a warrior before he eventually gets his hand over a warhammer. He passes the blade onto Aaron of the present because even in his dying moments, he sees himself in the young ninja and hopes that returning blade can help Aaron in his journey much like it helped him. You get a super easy way to paint Ra's even a little bit sympathetically. You explain where he got the blade from and you give us a snippet of his backstory to avoid the useless arcade nonsense which contributes to nothing. You don't even have to reveal the master's identity, but giving us even a small peek into his past after he began his journey would go such a long way for Ra's and his master.

[00:04:34]While Ra's was certainly very manipulative in season 2, it is quite hard to not at least feel a little bit of sympathy for him given how he started off as a small frightened child and how he was set onto this path and such. If they don't want you to feel any kind of feelings towards him whatsoever, they would not show you this scene. By the end of season 2, Ra's is evidently still a bad guy and Aaron is evidently still a good guy, but as Ra's said, there's light in the darkness and darkness in the light. Much like how Ra's brought out some of Aaron's worst traits, Aaron should have brought out some of the long dormant good traits in Ra's. The problem, however, is that Ra's in season 3 is seen as an asset to Aaron's arc first and as an independent character second. To this effect, only Aaron really gets to develop from this and Ra's remains the same amoral warlord from beginning to end. This is a good time to circle back to something I discussed in a previous video, which was Ra's versus Nokt. Now, look, I understand that in theory Nokt is stronger than Ra's, yada yada, we get it. But, I am not saying that Ra's should just thrash him with absolutely no effort, but really Ra's should have won that battle even with Aaron's assistance. Our main villain from the last season, who is now a protagonist and who they have taken some pains to present you in even a small sympathetic light, is now pit against this irredeemable warmonger who has systematically shattered all of his goodness. His fight with Noc should have been a combination of his journey with Aaron. Though he still isn't a good person, nor is he likely to reconsider his entire worldview and ideology immediately, through the one sliver of humanity that remains in him, he perseveres and defeats someone who was well and truly irredeemably evil. If we even continue this hypothetical thread into season 3 part 2, you could change some dialogue around and Casket of Bones and the following episodes to make it clear that he did not even think about sacrificing Aaron and that being alone again afterwards is actually taking a toll on him.

[00:06:22]He already looks like he's somewhat disassociating at the beginning of episode 16, so lean into that. Instead of having him be an aura farmer, have him look like he's just going through the motions and maybe even wishing that things could have gone a little bit differently. They even laid some groundwork for this in episode 14 by having Ross show an expression that feels like it's trying to convey a bit of shock and hurt faced with Aaron switching sides and standing against him. If Aaron knew that this small shard of goodness in Ross despite everything, it gives him some more interesting material to reflect on in season 4 instead of "Gra, Ross is pure evil. I should have never trusted him."

[00:06:56]Again, I'm not advocating for Ross to be with us as it were, but by season 3, it's just my thinking that villains with small slivers of humanity are far, far more interesting than those without. After all, we saw how the villain 5 turned out. On the topic of Casket of Bones, while we do get some tidbits about Ross's past and dynamic with his master through Aaron, along with a motive that drives him to do what he does, the show rushes the Ross and Aaron plot line to conclude on a random episode 14 afternoon for no apparent reason other than the plot needing it to happen. While I do still firmly believe that their split is well-written and executed in the lead up to it happening, the follow-up we get to it is kind of weak in a lot of places.

[00:07:36]Aaron gets some stuff pertaining to his split with Ross and how it affects his dynamic with the ninja team, but absolutely none of that is explored after season 3 wraps up. And in Ras's case, we are nearly 20 episodes out from the Casket of Bones ordeal, and we have absolutely no idea how this has impacted him. And over the course of the last 16 episodes, he has gotten absolutely no substantial characterization or plot relevance outside of being an apathetic warlord who carries out his master's will.

[00:08:03]Aaron's partnership with Ras, while good and I'm overall content with what's there, is unfortunately cut short by the plot and has left Ras in a really awkward position within Dragons Rising story. I think the most apt place to start dissecting this current issue with Ras is with his presence in the show and his lack thereof. Since the whole Casket of Bones ordeal, Ras has been carrying out his master's will with seemingly very few hiccups, claiming someone's life to get another icon, getting some swanky new bone armor from the resident's garden before forge, and then heading over to the monastery where he traps his orbs in a box, which on paper is all some really compelling stuff for Ras to do. And in theory, allows him to have some space from the rest of the narrative to flesh out the dynamic he has with his master, all while he carries out the plan before their identity is inevitably revealed to us, building out that mystery just a little bit more.

[00:08:50]In practice, however, everything I just said happens off screen and is something that we do not get to see him do. All of his presence within the story has been whittled down to him showing up, saying some stuff to his master about getting another icon, and then disappearing again for another few episodes.

[00:09:06]Ras not having much of a presence within the show is something that absolutely could work in theory, but the problem is in its presentation.

[00:09:14]I simply do not see Ras in a position of control at this point. Whenever we see him accomplish anything, I get the impression that it's by the skin of his teeth, and even then, we don't get to see most of his feats, very much going against the show don't tell rule of television. Ras having a master with a grand plan is something that's been teased since the very start of the show, and it's no surprise that the best received season of Dragons Rising is the one where we really get to see him actually carry out his plan and all of the steps that it involves. I do not understand why they think that him carrying out of his long built plan that's been teased since the start should be relegated to off screen content. To the effect of what I said earlier, I just don't get the impression that Ras is steering the ship behind the scenes, especially when they keep introducing new villains to take center stage away from him. But we'll get to that issue later, believe me. You could argue that we're fighting these other villains because what Ras is doing isn't very interesting, but for starters, if it isn't interesting on paper, make it interesting. It is quite literally the job of a writer to make something interesting to watch, dissect, and think about. Moreover, if Ras is collecting icons, which isn't interesting to watch because he has no allies, why on earth would you write all of his allies out of the show? His lack of screen time is so deeply confusing to me in every conceivable way because it simply isn't something that's necessary for the progression of the story. Ras being off screen so much and only appearing to give us a sporadic update on where he's at in the plan has made all of his appearances feel really, really hollow because whenever we check with Ras, I'm not wondering how his character is going to be fleshed out or how his dynamic with his master is going to be developed. I'm just expecting to see how his plot is being moved along and most of the time what he's doing is of minimal importance since the stuff I'd want to see is being done off screen and he no longer has any characters to bounce off seem completely disinterested in developing his master before their reveal.

[00:11:11]Ras's absence would work a hell of a lot better if he actually had some of his allies with him aiding him in the plan.

[00:11:16]Say hypothetically that Aaron was still with him. Their appearance after a whole 10 episodes of absence would hit way harder because they're a duo that we the viewer are interested in and them toiling away at the plan behind the scenes would have some pretty big ramifications for when we truly get to explore their line again. This, however, simply cannot be the case as is because the show, for some reason, has done absolutely nothing but strip Razz's allies away from him. Now, look, I get that season 4 wants to contrast Lloyd and Razz with Lloyd having a super huge support group rather than on the starry wolf, Razz has nobody. But, I feel like this parallel would work perfectly fine even if Razz just had one guy with him.

[00:11:53]Even if it wouldn't, stripping away all of his supporting cast just to make this one point simply is not worth the trade-off in my eyes. One of the best parts about season 2 was the Wolf Clan being the first villain faction in a long time with some really interesting and fun dynamics between its various members. And it was really cool to see the team slowly build out with characters like Jordana and Sinder and eventually Frax and Jay, all while Razz was persuading Aaron to come to his side. While it makes sense that after season 2, Razz wouldn't have a lot of his allies with him due to alliance changes and failure in the tournament, not even Aaron gets to stick with him for very long. And people who would still in theory be loyal to him, like Sinder and the Wolf Clan, are either nowhere to be seen and their previously established relationship to Razz is seemingly ignored in favor of what the plot requires in Jay's case.

[00:12:40]With no allies or comrades to bounce off of, the small bits of Razz's screen time we do still get from him are just aura farming. And while I understand wanting to present your villain as intimidating and scary, season 2 was able to do all of this while giving him an actual character that I was invested in and cared about. Season 4 part 2 does seem to be introducing Zilpha as a major player, so I don't think Razz will be alone for a long time if the two do end up teaming up. But, I just don't understand why we keep writing Razz's allies away from him when the show plans to introduce new ones. It would be really cool to see Razz slowly build out his arsenal and team post tournament of the sources and really see him rebuild himself after being screwed over by Naught. But, instead, his previous allies are ignored and the ones he does have are abused and thrown away prematurely. Moreover, on the topic of Zylpha, they have to strike an extremely delicate balance to make him work. If he's just another Ras, then the issue is somewhat self-explanatory, because why didn't we just get Ras to do this stuff?

[00:13:38]But, if he's a completely noble hero, then you run the risk of repeating a story that we've already seen with Aaron, Frak, and to a lesser extent Jay, where he realizes that he's good and that Ras is evil in a climactic character moment that we've seen a million times now. The ideal for Zylpha was to have him be a hero who joins Ras to save their people, allowing Ras to have a dynamic with a partner instead of a subordinate or a superior, and actually have him stick around without him getting written off.

[00:14:03]To circle back around to a point about villains replacing Ras within the story, I have my fair share of criticism to dish out to them.

[00:14:11]I could accept Ras taking a backseat within the story of season 3, because he was being replaced with the long-awaited Forbidden Five, villains that we had wanted to see in action since the very start of season 2.

[00:14:22]While the Forbidden Five ended up being some of the worst villains we've ever seen from Ninjago, I can at the very least accept them taking away from Ras's screen time, because they were something that we had built up to and felt like a necessary foe to face off against. After they were defeated in Chaos Rising, we get this moment with Ras that is very clearly meant to tell us that he now holds all the cards. So, naturally, one would assume that he'll be the central antagonist of season 4 before his master takes center stage whenever they're introduced to the story. But, instead, the villains we're fighting are Imperium, again.

[00:14:53]Now, don't get me wrong. I liked Imperium in season 1. They were effective enough introductory villains to the show, and I think that the faction had some pretty neat storytelling in places. But, I cannot fathom what on God's green earth made them compelling enough to be season 4's central antagonist. Beatrix herself is just more or less repeating her Dragons Rising season 1 crash house at all times, and the new loyalists and the row are simply not interesting beyond the surface level. They don't have any sort of real depth in my opinion, which is a criticism I also levy towards the Forbidden Five, except they, at the bare minimum, felt like they were built up to and are part of a natural building of a show's stakes. Imperium and its loyalists do not feel like the natural follow-up to the soul-eating dragon who wanted to kill gods in any metric. And as a villain to buy time for Ra's story to be where it needs to be, they are simply not interesting enough to replace him. The question, what would happen if Beatrix came back to take Imperium, is not interesting, and I do not care about it nearly as much as any of the questions I could ask about Ra's right now, which is the final point I want to make.

[00:15:59]Ra's is a character with so many unanswered mysteries surrounding him, and the show just doesn't feel interested in answering any of them.

[00:16:08]We don't know why the Shadow Dojo was sent to this location in particular, and while we can label the place with a name, we don't really know anything significant about it. And we don't know who this master is because we haven't gotten any significant build-up to their identity or what they mean to Ra's. And we still don't know why they want to reverse the merge aside from bringing back the Tiger Clan. It feels like every question and mystery surrounding Ra's has come to a screeching halt recently, and that absolutely nothing is happening with him. I don't understand why these other villains are needing to be introduced to replace him when we have more than enough questions surrounding Ra's and his master that need to be wrapped up before the show ends, which, quite frankly, I strongly believe is enough to carry us for the rest of the show. On the topic of Ra's master, I get the impression that they currently only exist as a plot device more than anything else. Their only presence within the show for a while now has been to give Ra's whatever item or piece of info he needs, and that's it. I am not invested in Ra's or his master because, quite frankly, Ra's has absolutely no screen time or characterization right now, and his master only exists to serve the plot and to get Ra's out of whatever situation he's in when convenient. It's really hard to invest in Ras as an autonomous entity when so many of the questions surrounding him likely will and have the answer of his master gave it to him or his master told him. Ras's master seems to be a threat in the sense that they can challenge the plot and change the course of the story, which is all well and good, but when they don't seem to challenge the actual characters beyond the broad statement that they taught Ras about strength, something's wrong. Challenging our characters in a purely plot and narrative sense is important, yes, but you also need to challenge them as characters and as personalities to be a truly great villain. Doc recently made a statement on Blue Sky about fights that are too one-sided being boring, which most likely explains why the fight felt weaker than what was hyped up in season 2. This post Doc made does somewhat worry me because I think it's a possibility that the massive threat Ras's master poses won't be executed to its full potential.

[00:18:09]If you don't want your villains to challenge the characters in a purely physical sense, they need to challenge them as people. But Ras's master so far has essentially been a plot device to give Ras info or items whenever he may need them. This tangent has been focused on Ras's master, yes, but the two of them are absolutely a package deal at this point, so if the master Ras has been hyping up since season 1 falls flat, I feel that a huge part of Ras's character will, too.

[00:18:33]All of these issues surrounding Ras are definitely a symptom of a larger issue to me, being that Dragons Rising has lost its focus in my eyes.

[00:18:41]I spent a lot of time trying to determine where and when this happened, but the exact point doesn't really matter if I'm being honest. Sometime around the latter half of season 3, I think the show lost pretty much all of its luster and momentum because the last quarter tried so hard to wrap up every single plot thread we had running.

[00:18:59]I previously said that Dragons Rising season 4 was a strong return to form for the show, and while this is a statement that I stand by and my praise of the season still stands, I don't think that the fourth season of a serialized story is the time to be finding your footing again. For reasons that I just do not know, it seems like Dragons Rising has almost had a soft reset of sorts for season 4 to get us to the end of the show, and Raz's absence from the story is very indicative of that. I think it's definitely possible for them to pull Raz back into the limelight and reach the heights of season 2, but with presumably 30 episodes left of the show, I can't help but feel that the last 20 of his absence will be forever damaging to his character, and that the glorious villain we once had was just stripped away from us prematurely, much like his allies.

[00:19:43]With all that being said though, I hope you've all enjoyed this video. As I said earlier, this video was written with the help of my good friend Gino, so all of his socials will be in the description, and if you want to see what Gino himself works on, he writes a fanfic called Brutality, which addresses pretty much all of his issues that I have with Raz.

[00:19:59]There's a chapter coming out pretty soon with a lot of Raz focus, I hear, so if you want to catch up, now's the time.

[00:20:05]With all of that said though, thank you all again for watching, and I will see you in the next one. Goodbye for now.

[00:20:10]>> When you >> [music] >> feel down, look at yourself.

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