The Hands of Time

The Hands of Time is the seventh season of the Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu series. It was originally released on May 15th, 2017. Kai & Nya are the focus character for this season and the Time Twins is the main antagonist. The Vermillion serve as the villainous faction.

It is the sixth and final installment in the Master Trials arc. It focuses on Kai & Nya and their journey to find out what happened to their parents and learn to embrace the past and future. Special minifigures of powered up Kai & Nya were released for this season. The collectible weapons for this season are the Time Blades.

In May 2017 shorts titled Operation Heavy Metal in that the events occur during the seventh season and before the event of an episode were released.

In 2021 a special eleventh episode titled Golden Hour was released as part of the Ninjago: Reimagined line of shorts.

It is preceded by Day of the Departed and followed by Sons of Garmadon. A midquel between this season and Season 8 was released to tie together the loose ends that remain after changes made because of The LEGO Ninjago Movie titled Way of the Departed was written by Tommy Andreasen starting in 2017. It is considered "could-be-canon," as it doesn't conflict with canon, and serves to answer the remaining unanswered questions that The Hands of Time left.

Plot Summary
Acronix, one of the Hands of Time, passes through a time vortex and is challenged to a fight by Master Wu. After the arrival of the Forward Time Blade, Acronix hits Wu with a Time Punch which accelerates his aging one day per hour. Even with the intervention of the ninja, Acronix escapes and reunites with his brother Krux, who had been patiently waiting in the Ninjago Museum of History. Now the two Hands of Time have a plan that could change history and revert Ninjago back to its old-fashioned roots. They control an army of Serpentine known as Vermillion, from the eggs of the Great Devourer, who can form into Samurai using metal. The Vermillion began capturing Ninjago builders, including Cyrus Borg, and stealing metal. All to build the Iron Doom, which can travel time, using the Time Apparatus to utilize all four Time Blades. With Master Wu unable to fight, P.I.X.A.L. offline, three other Time Blades scattered throughout time, and a mysterious new Samurai X to learn the identity of, Lloyd leads the team to stop the Time Twins and save Master Wu. The adventure soon proves personal to Kai and Nya, when it turns out their parents could have ties to the villains.

Characters

 * Acronix - Ian Hanlin
 * Blunck - Brian Drummond
 * Cole - Kirby Morrow
 * Cyrus Borg - Lee Tockar
 * Dareth - Alan Marriott
 * Krux - Michael Daingerfield
 * Ed Walker - Colin Murdock
 * Edna Walker - Jillian Michaels
 * Gayle Gossip - Kelly Sheridan
 * Jay - Michael Adamthwaite
 * Libber - Kelly Metzger
 * Kai - Vincent Tong
 * Karlof - Scott McNeil
 * Lloyd Garmadon - Jillian Michaels
 * Lou - Kirby Morrow
 * Misako - Kathleen Barr
 * Machia - Kathleen Barr
 * Maya - Jillian Michaels
 * Nya - Kelly Metzger
 * P.I.X.A.L./Samurai X - Jennifer Hayward, Michael Donovan
 * Raggmunk - Michael Adamthwaite
 * Ray - Vincent Tong
 * Ronin - Brian Dobson
 * Skales - Ian James Corlett
 * Skales Jr. - Alyssya Swales
 * Skylor - Heather Doerksen
 * Wu - Paul Dobson
 * Zane - Brent Miller

Battles

 * Wu vs. Acronix
 * Ninja vs. Acronix
 * Ninja vs. Vermillion warrior
 * Nya & Kai vs. Krux
 * Ninja vs. Vermillion (x3)
 * Ninja, Wu, & Samurai X vs. Vermillion
 * Samurai X vs. Nya
 * Kai vs. Ray
 * Kai vs. Krux & Acronix
 * Kai & Nya vs. Lava monsters
 * Kai, Nya, & the Past Elemental Masters vs. the Iron Doom
 * Wu vs. Time Twins

Locations

 * Ninjago
 * Ninjago City
 * Ninjago Museum of History
 * Vermillion Swamps
 * Mountains of Impossible Height
 * Monastery of Spinjitzu
 * Sea of Sand
 * Samurai X Cave
 * Ed & Edna's Scrap N Junk
 * Ignacia
 * Four Weapons Blacksmith
 * Temple of Airjitzu


 * Endless Sea
 * Boiling Sea
 * Temporal Vortex

Sets
Kai and Nya were the mascot ninjas, and the promotional art was appropriately focused on the Vermillion Swamps. The collectible items were the Time Blades. The sets mostly consisted of locations and Vermillion vehicles.


 * 70621 The Vermillion Attack
 * 70622 Desert Lightning
 * 70623 Destiny's Shadow
 * 70624 Vermillion Invader
 * 70625 Samurai VXL
 * 70626 Dawn of Iron Doom
 * 70627 Dragon's Forge

Continuity

 * This season was foreshadowed at the end of Dark Island Trilogy, Part 3 when Master Wu has a vision of Kai and Nya's parents forging something alongside the "twins lost to time".
 * The fate of Kai and Nya's parents, Ray and Maya, was revealed, after being alluded to since the pilot episodes. Master Chen's taunts in Season 4 about the truth of their parents foreshadowed the sinister secrets.
 * More details on post-Serpentine War are revealed.
 * It is revealed that Krux and Acronix, the Masters of Time, also fought in the war. After defeating the Serpentine, the two brothers believed that they had the right to rule the world and rebelled against the Elemental Masters. They were defeated, and their powers were absorbed into the Time Blades. One of whom was foreshadowed in Day of the Departed as Krux was under the disguise of Doctor Sander Saunders.
 * It is revealed that the cause of Kai & Nya's parents' disappearances was because they were kidnapped by Krux to make armor for their Vermillion Army.
 * It is also revealed that the Great Devourer had offspring, and Krux has been cultivating them since her death to create the Vermillion army.
 * Jay's mother, the Elemental Master of Lightning, is also revealed to have been in the war as well. She married Cliff Gordon and is said to be going on her honeymoon with him after the war is over.
 * Lloyd officially reaches the status of Master at the end of this season, since his training began in Curseworld, Part II.
 * In the Temporal Vortex at the end, several shots of past events are shown.
 * In Golden Hour, the sequel episode released in 2021, Wu's final battle with the Time Twins is shown.
 * It is confirmed that the effects of the Reversal Blade on him caused him to de-age as he battled with the Time Twins.
 * The crack created by Wu's head when he hits the monastery wall resembles the Royal Family of Ninjago's lotus symbol. This is a reference to the fact that the Royal Family seemingly appeared out of nowhere in Season 8, and it suggests that their existence was caused by this change to the timeline.
 * Wu's teenager and child design are the same as the forms he takes as he begins to age again during the events of Hunted.
 * It is implied in Season 8 that the time travel shenanigans from this season caused the Ninja's designs to be changed, but this is not the case.
 * P.I.X.A.L. finally gets her body back after having been compressed to be in Zane's brain since Tournament of Elements.
 * She becomes the new Samurai X, taking the mantle from Nya. Her identity remains a secret until the next season.
 * The ancient Hypnobrai sarcophagus returns in this episode since it first appeared in Child's Play.
 * Karloff reappears in this season after having been captured by the Vermillion.