Neon (therearenooptions) and I had a bit of a discussion after ep12. (warning: swearing)

Neon: i love how ur hopelessly in love with kalmaar despite the fact that the all time best character is easily our girl harumi... just goes to show how terrible seabound is and how one piece of metal can really shine in a pile of shit.

oh wait, they might ruin her next-

Squidney: You know, objectively speaking, Kalmaar isn't even that great. He's a carbon copy of Scar from the Lion King who had a few of his lines smudged so it didn't look like Lego was copying Disney's homework. His backstory is meh. His cause for his actions is justifiable, but could just as easily just be seen as villainy.

Harumi was good because she was complete. You understood her motives. You empathized with her backstory. You were probably tricked by her master manipulation. Here is a villain who was created BY the Ninja, who was smart enough to not only take over Ninjago, but also emotionally wreck the Ninja team in the process. And even better, she was a great villain because she inspired character growth in Lloyd. That's what the best antagonists do: help the protagonists grow.

I don't see Kalmaar helping Nya (or anyone, in that matter) grow in character. He's a whiny villain built to have people dislike him. 

Kalmaar is a meh antagonist. But I'm going to root for him anyway.

Neon: ok yeah i didn't remember him being that good and hearing u gush about him i was like wait did i miss something lol