Beric Dondarrion Has Nothing on Kendrick Lamar’s Flaming Ninjas At The VMAs

Unless you’ve become too occupied by the Game of Thrones finale, you might have also caught wind of a little thing called the MTV Video Music Awards, which was also on early this morning. In keeping with tradition, this year’s VMAs were lined with celebrities and packed with the kind of high-production value performances that make the awards night an annual big moment in pop culture.

At this year’s VMAs, Taylor Swift debuted the music video for her new song, “Look What You Made Me Do,” which marks a thoroughly embarrassing new chapter in the erstwhile country darling’s career. Katy Perry hosted the event, and kicked it off with an awkward opening monologue about how the world has gone to shit. P!nk accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and performed a medley of her hits, including 2001 discotheque banger “Get This Party Started”. And Miley Cyrus—in what might just be the biggest shock of the evening—delivered a totally sane, fully-clothed performance.

But there’s no doubt that the real winner of this year’s VMAs was Kendrick Lamar, who came in with eight nominations, making him the most nominated artist of the night. And by the end of it all, the music video of his song “HUMBLE” took home the awards for Best Hip-Hop, Best Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects; as well as the top prize, Video of The Year.

On top of that, K-Dot’s performance at the VMAs was arguably the evening’s best one. He starts it off dressed in a blood-red outfit, surrounded by an elaborate laser-lights show. Then towards the middle, just before he transitions from “DNA” to “HUMBLE”, he unleashes a flaming ninja on the stage. After that, he heats things up even more with a literal fire wall on which even more ninjas climb up and down.

The VMAs have been known to spawn some of the biggest moments in pop culture, like Miley Cyrus’ foam finger twerking, the whole Kanye-Taylor “Imma let you finish” fiasco, and just about all of Beyonce’s VMA performances. But if we’re going to remember anything from this year’s awards night, it’s probably going to be the flaming ninjas.