Lucifer: Charlie, Sweetheart, Remember When You Said You Weren’t Going To Interfere With My Love Life?

Okay, we've got height headcanons, face headcanons...but you know what we need? Name headcanons.

Okay, yes, I know, the ninja already have names. But their names originate from Earth cultures and Earth languages, which, uh, don't exist in Ninjago. Like!! The name 'Lloyd' is Welsh, but Wales isnt a place on the Ninjago map! And 'Zane' is German - but again, Germany doesn't exist in this fictional fantasy world either. How can Zane's name be German if Germany is nowhere on the Ninjago map?

Realistically I know this is because this show has painfully messy worldbuilding and they gave all the main characters simple European names that their young American audience would be able to easily identify and pronounce. BUT I love to overthink things so that's what I'm gonna do.

Logic would dictate that although their names have specific cultural contexts within our world, they have different contexts and origins within the world of the story. Their names would logically have some kind of different meaning in relation to the cultures, languages, and dialects that exist within Ninjago itself.

This is already canon, to some extent. The name 'Nya' already has a canon in-universe origin, with her being named after a legendary Merlopian hero - from this we can assume the name Nyad and its derivative Nya are Merlopian in origin. Which suggests the idea that the same is true for all the other characters as well, we just haven't gotten the chance to get backstories for their names yet. And there is so much untapped potential in exploring what their names could mean in-universe.

Here, I'll start with my own personal headcanons about the subject:

Most names in this series come from 'Classical Ninjargon', the ancient dialect that was spoken in the time of the FSM but gradually evolved into Modern Ninjargon, which is the dialect commonly spoken by the characters to this day. However, a lot of words, terms, and names still rely in some part on their classical roots.

'Kai' isn't really a name, so much as it is a noun. It's commonly used in the names of towns and villages. For example, Jamanakai Village. 'Kai' means 'shelter' - or, more specifically, 'a form of barrier or protection that defends against cold weather.' It's not a very common name to give to children, though, but it appears in the names of villages and settlements all across Ninjago. It seems fitting, considering the kind of person Kai is. His parents gave him that name as a reference to its more specific meaning. Shelter from the cold. During the Serpentine War, Ray and Maya's dreams of starting a family were what gave them comfort and kept them going. Kai wasnt just named as a shelter from the cold, but a shelter from despair as well.

Nya's name has its obvious origins - she was named after Nyad, the storybook hero who befriended whales and defeated Wojira. Nyad was also Merlopian, where her name means 'courage'. Likewise, Nya's name has similar connotations. Of course, Maya hadn't known that meaning when she named her child, as Merlopia was just a myth and its language much the same. She did know of the fairytale, though, and Maya's own mother had told her that story as a child, so she wanted to give her daughter a name that was meaningful in that same way.

'Jay' comes from a regional dialect of Classical Ninjargon that became prevalent in the Sea of Sands. The name itself originates from the term 'jairu', meaning "blessed storm." Some historians speculate the name goes back further than that, with the term 'jairu' originally meaning "Wojira's favor"...but there is much debate about that. Both Jay and Jairu are pretty popular names in the Sea of Sands. Jay was an unexpected but highly valued gift to Ed and Edna, just as a rainstorm is in a desert.

'Cole' was originally the word for earth/dirt, but over the centuries its frequent use in Classical poetry led to it acquiring a myriad of more specific meanings - 'solid foundation', 'stable ground', 'dependable and reliable', 'steady and unshaken amidst conflict', etc. The word itself has a lot of very poetic, very vivid interpretations, and when most people name their children 'cole', thats what they're referencing. But not Lily. No, she knew the name historically meant 'earth', and she wanted his name to be a pun. It was 100% intentional

'Zane' isnt so much a name as it is a colloquial term, from the Birchwood region. Even though the word has Classical roots, it still remains widely used in that region. The word 'zane', a noun, is in reference to the constant, unmelting snowcover that blankets the region year-round. In Classical Ninjargon the term means, "endlessly persevering" - but over time it became repurposed as their term for their endless snow. Dr. Julien always thought the snow was beautiful, and named his son after its remarkable endurance

Lloyd's name has an interesting history to it. In the time of the Stone Wars, when the FSM initially split Ninjago and sealed away the Overlord, the people of that era celebrated the occasion by turning it into a holiday. They called it "belloid", which Classically means "victory over darkness." Eventually a new tradition emerged where children who were born on the holiday were named after it - and so the name "lloyd" came to be. And although the holiday evolved and is now more commonly known as Festival Day (yes, thats a canon holiday), with its history and origins fading out of public awareness, the tradition still persists. But heres the catch: Lloyd wasnt born on that holiday. His dad's reasons for naming him Lloyd were twofold. First, because he made a promise to himself to resist the venom's corruption for the sake of his son, and the name "victory over darkness" served as a testament to that promise. And second, because 'lloyd' sounds like 'lord', and giving his child a pun name sounds exactly like something Garm would do

And of course, since the ninjas' rise to fame, they have inspired some increasingly popular baby names. 'Lloyd' has been the baby name of the year for four years in a row now, which is something the others tease him relentlessly for.

All these little guys together + not very pleased Morgana

inhales ok

THIS is a mega folder containing literally everything rwby-related that is available right now on roosterteeth (+v9). rwby, fairytales, world of remnant, the grimm campaign, ice queendom (sub and dub), vtubing, all the behind-the-scenes stuff. everything.

plus soundtracks for every volume + IQ, and drm-free epubs.

i will add any additional rwby content released during the wind down period as it becomes available. V1-8 have an english subtitle track embedded in the files, V9 does not because it came from CR. IQ dub has english subtitles. and for the sake of completeness i pulled all the non-english subs available on CR for V1-9 as well, those are in there as loose .ass files for the time being.

whenever possible, buy physical media. learn how to strip drm out of digital content that you own and make it a habit to do so.

archive responsibly 👍

Context

Lloyd's powers don't exist in nature by default like the others', so he can't surround himself with it like they can

Thankfully the alternative isn't half bad :') <3

The funniest thing about the ninja being color coded to me is the fact that they’re color coded down to their underwear and, as of season 11, weapons.

So basically:

Kai’s katana has red accents:

Jay’s kusarigama has blue accents:

It looks like the markings around Cole’s first initial on his hammer are orange, his main secondary color:

Zane’s shurikens are gold and white with cyan accents; notably, since Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu, Zane’s belt color has been cyan:

Lloyd’s sword has green accents:

And Nya’s spear is mostly gray with a wave pattern near the top:

It’s ALSO notable that Kai’s always been partial to katanas and swords, Jay’s always been partial to chained weapons like nunchucks and his kusarigama, Cole’s always been partial to weapons he can hit the ground with (scythes and hammers), Zane’s always been partial to shurikens, Lloyd’s always been partial to swords, and Nya’s been partial to spears since season 8.

What I’m saying is there is literally absolutely no reason for the ninja to have color coded weapons (and, for Kai and Lloyd in season 8, weapons with their names engraved on them!!!!!) because their weapon preferences are so different. The only time they use each other’s weapons that I remember (not counting Kai’s use of the Scythe of Quakes in the pilots) is briefly in season 15 with Jay using Cole’s hammer.

Dissonant Melody: Part #7

Deductive reasoning is really not the inkling species’ strong suit…..

Comic Archive

ALSO! I’m planning on posting Part #8 on Aug. 8th! It’s going to be a….somewhat unconventional update. Definitely not the standard 4 pages haha. I don’t want to say too much, but hey, y'all only need to wait 2 days to find out what it is! 

What do you mean it's doesn't happened in the game?

Gotta love it when the gang splits up into two groups which are usually these guys

who are mature and responsible whenever they’re together, always stay on task, and generally go about things in a sensible way. And yet somehow they never get anything done.

While on the other side of town it cuts to these idiots

Doing some random-ass shit, being incredibly stupid and inefficient and yet somehow doing everything they were supposed to do and more just by pure luck.