The battle for good and evil. I can do this for eternity, but can you? Your friends can't help you now. You are all alone.
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I was trapped in Lord Garmadon, then I was trapped in the Digiverse. Now I am free! Bow to your Golden Master!
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Go where, doomed ninja? The Golden Weapons are too powerful for you to behold. Your survival chance is zero!
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~ The Overlord after Zane begins to sacrifice himself
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Fools! All your existence, you have been powered by a lie...that the good guys always win. Sadly, they don't. I have the power now. Technology has made me infinite! The Golden Ninja is mine!
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~ The Digital Overlord to the Ninja
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You still hope? Destruction comes from the eternal struggle between light and dark. I will destroy the balance! There will be peace in the dark.
The Overlord is the source of all Darkness in Ninjago and the creator of the Stone Army. After The First Spinjitzu Master created Ninjago as a world of balance and light. Since this new world needed dark to counter the light, The Overlord rose from the shadows to challenge the light and challenged The First Spinjitzu Master in a battle to control Ninjago. A battle for all Ninjago erupted, and it could have lasted forever. The battle initially grew to be a stalemate, with neither side winning.
To turn the tides of the battle, The Overlord created the Stone Army out of a mysterious substance found only on the dark half of Ninjago. The Stone Army was an indesctructible army and quickly started to help turn the tides of the war. Realising he would soon be overcome, The First Spinjitzu plunged his weapon into the ground and severed the landmass of Ninjago in two. One half continued as Ninjago, becoming a world of prosper. The other half of the land evolved into the Dark Island, banishing The Overlord and preventing him from entering Ninjago as the Dark Island slowly sunk under the water. Stuck on the Dark Island for thousands of years, The Overlord patiently plotted and planned for his return.
The Overlord finally got to enact his devious plan once the recently betrayed Lord Garmadon washed up on what was left of the Dark Island's shore. He appeared before the Master of Destruction as a pink orb of energy, promising to fufill his dream of recreating Ninjago in his own image while guiding him through a forest. Under The Overlord's instruction, Garmadon raised the rest of the Dark Island from the sea, disrupting the balance in a major way for the first time in thousands of years.
With his Dark Island restored, The Overlord guided Garmadon to the Celestial Clock, a device intended to count down to the Final Battle once someone took the Helmet of Shadows from its pedestal. The Overlord manipulated Garmadon into taking the Helmet of Shadows, starting the countdown to a battle The Overlord intended to win at all costs. As the Final Battle grew nearer, The Overlord and Garmadon worked to build the ultimate weapon - a tank that could fire the corruptive Dark Matter to Ninjago, corrupting it piece by piece.
Unfortunately for the Ninja and forced of light, The Overlord managed to corrupt Ninjago with his Dark Matter, revealing his plan and the fact that Garmadon was merely a pawn in his millenia-old scheme to return to Ninjago. To Lloyd Garmadon's horror, The Overlord possessed and took Garmadon's body for himself. A fierce battle between Dark Lord and Green Ninja broke out, but Lloyd's unwillingness to hurt his own father proved to be his undoing, and The Overlord broke Lloyd's leg, winning the battle. Weary of his interference, The Overlord opened a portal to Ninjago and took his army with him, stranding the Ninja on the Dark Island.
The influx of Darkness spurred on The Overlord's metamorphosis, allowing him to regain his original form. A corrupted, dark dragon. The ultimate weapon became a tower of evil. When the Ninja returned and attacked the tower, The Overlord fought back with his minions with equal vigor. When the Brown Ninja Dareth took control of his own Stone Army, The Overlord attacked the Ninja directly, corrupting every Ninja with Darkness - except Kai and Lloyd. While Kai was busy defending the city, an injured, unarmed Lloyd confronted The Overlord, unlocking the Golden Power hidden within him and becoming the Ultimate Spinjitzu Master, destroying The Overlord in a flash of light.
Although almost reduced to nothing, The Overlord survived his battle with Lloyd. When the technological foothold of Borg Tower was built on the site the Overlord was defeated at, he infected the technology as a digital virus.