The Prophecy of Hat Sword

"The Prophecy of Hat Sword" Season 2, Episode 39 Premiered: June 1, 2015 Credits Written by:   Nick Confalone & David Shayne Storyboard by:   Max Lawson & James Lopez Directed by:   Sean Petrilak Episodes ← Previous Episode "The Fresh Principal of Norrisville High" Next Episode → "Fake Fight For Your Right to Party"

"The Prophecy of Hat Sword" is the thirty-ninth episode of the second season (and ninety-first episode overall) of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. It premiered on June 1, 2015.

Synopsis

When Principal Slimovitz threatens to split Randy and Howard up unless they improve their grades, the boys try to convince him that an apocalyptic prophecy will come true if he does.

Plot

In his office, Principal Slimovitz reveals that due to Randy and Howard's poor grades, he has no choice but to separate them "for the rest of high school" as he believes them to be bad influences on each other. This horrifies Randy and Howard, but Slimovitz adds that if they pass their upcoming English test, he will rescind his decision to separate them. Although Randy is grateful for the second chance, Howard is reluctant since neither of them enjoy studying.

At Howard's house, the boys find themselves thoroughly unmotivated to study the test material, "The Prophecy of Hat Sword". Even a 700-hour long audiotape narrated by Brock Octane doesn't help. Left without ideas, Randy shloomps into the NinjaNomicon for help, which tells him;

"The answer lies in the book"

This gives no reassurance to Randy until he starts leafing through "The Prophecy of Hat Sword", which speaks of a prophecy where cauldrons boil, dead walking, the silent speaking and the appearance of a blue beast. Combining this information with the Nomicon's advice, Randy decides to use the prophecy to scaring Slimovitz into changing his mind. That night, as the Ninja, Randy reads the "prophecy" to Slimovitz, declaring that if Randy and Howard are separated, the blue beast shall appear. Slimovitz, however, doesn't buy the story.

The following day, Howard is furious that Randy failed to convince Slimovitz; since Randy promised to scare Slimovitz, he hadn't studied the book. Randy decides that they'll have to scare Slimovitz by making the prophecy appear to come true. Randy hurls a Ninja Fire Ball into the pot of chili at the cafeteria (fulfilling the "cauldron boiling" portion), while Howard runs around with Jerry Driscoll's skeleton tethered to him (fulfilling the "dead shall walk" portion). In the library, Randy sneaks a Ninja Electro Ball into Stevens' sock, causing the normally-silent student to jump around, swearing out of pain (rendered as trombone sounds). Slimovitz, realizing that three of the four signs the Ninja mentioned to him have come true, becomes terrified that the prophecy might be real.

Desperate to prevent this, he accosts Randy and Howard before they can take their English test and brings them to the school basement. In order to prevent the boys from separating and fulfilling the prophecy, Slimovitz decides to effectively imprison Randy and Howard in an unused classroom, even going so far as to ban Howard from going to the bathroom alone. As Slimovitz leaves to get a bucket for Howard to use as a toilet, Randy and Howard begin arguing about how the plan backfired. Angry, Randy puts on the Ninja Mask and blows a hole in the ceiling to leave. Upon his return, Slimovitz sees Howard alone in the room and lets out a scream of rage over the prophecy; the Sorcerer hears this and Stanks him, transforming Slimovitz into the Blue Beast from the story.

With Howard grasped in his claws, Slimovitz attacks Randy in the school hallway, forcing him to go Ninja. Randy is unsure of how to de-stank Slimovitz; destroying Slimovitz's car and appealing to Slimovitz love of rules has no apparent effect. Randy is sent flying into a locker, but as the Prophecy book lands on him, he realizes what the NinjaNomicon's lesson meant - Slimovitz wanted the boys to study so they could improve their grades, so the only way to de-stank Slimovitz would be to study the book and score well on the test. Much to Howard's dismay, Randy has Howard study the book while he holds Slimovitz off. To Howard's surprise, he begins enjoying the book, and studies enough for both boys to take the test. Slimovitz, still Stanked, grades the boys' performance and gives them both good grades. As the boys cheer, this is enough to de-stank Slimovitz, much to the Sorcerer's disappointment.

As they leave school, Randy and Howard note how bizarre the day's events turned out to be, and wonder if it might be a good idea to separate for a while - that is, until they both decide to go to the Game Hole to hang out, together.

Characters

Main characters

• Randy Cunningham
• Howard Weinerman
• Principal Slimovitz
• The Sorcerer

Secondary characters

• Stevens
• Doug

Background characters

• Mrs. Dempsey
• Cass Simonson
• Cynthia
• Glenn
• S. Renisewn
• Nameless Boy with Blue-Green Shirt
• Nameless Boy with Freckles
• Nameless Boy with Glasses and Blue Shirt
• Nameless Girl with Green Shirt
• Nameless Girl with Mauve Dress

Series Continuity

• When taking Randy and Howard to the class of gifted students a blackboard can be seen on the floor, it appears to have the plans to create Otto, Viceroy's robot assistant.
• Slimovitz brings up that he's a car owner, as previously seen by his "best cat ower" mug in, "The Fresh Principal of Norrisville High."

Trivia

• This is the first time Stevens has spoken, but it is censored.
  • When Stevens speaks, it sounds like a muted horn, similar to the adults' voices in the animated Peanuts cartoons. (This will be repeated later in the series with a bus driver in "Ball's Well That Friends Well.") This may be a reference to Stevens' trombone-playing.
• This is one of the very few instances where a Ninja Ball is used outside of the Ninja Suit.
  • This also means that any type of Ninja Ball can be taken out of the suit for the de-suited Ninja to use in their civilian form.
• Slimovitz transforms into the "blue beast" from the prophecy, which heavily implies a self-fulfilling prophecy, as he greatly feared its appearance.
• On the library shelf when Slimovitz is talking about "no good books in the cats section", there is a book titled "Secret Power of Cats", which is a parody and reference to the Warrior Cats franchise.
• Otto's prototype design is shown on the chalkboard in the Gifted and Talented Classroom, implying that Viceroy is an alumni of Norrisville High.
• An implied ADHD symptom of Randy's is shown in this episode, when he is already falling asleep during the audiobook while Howard manages to be barely hanging on. This strongly indicates that Randy has an involuntary and severely short attention span which is even worse than Howard's, and that he might been having this issue for a long time even without Howard's occasional bad influence. (See more symptoms in his trivia)

Goofs

• In captions, Jerry Driscoll is spelled "Gerry Driscoll."

Gallery

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