| “ | Seeking… Searching… Scouring… Stalking… | „ |
| ~ The Jabberwalker hunting its prey. |
The Jabberwalker is an antagonist from the web series, RWBY. It is a dangerous creature that resides in the realm of Ever After that is feared throughout the realm. It is one of the secondary antagonists of Volume 9.
The Jabberwalker was first encountered by Team RWBY. After a short skirmish with the huntresses (minus Ruby, who got separated from Crescent Rose), they retreated into a dark, stormy acre. But after it encountered Neopolitan, it was captured by and cloned by her.
After Neo chose to ascend via the Great Tree near the end of the volume, it most likely ascended with her.
They were voiced by Richard Norman in English and Hinata Tadokoro in Japanese.
Appearance[]
The Jabberwalker is an extremely tall, humanoid creature with a dark purple, almost black body. Its physique appears emaciated with a pronounced spine, collarbone, shoulder-blades, ribcage and pelvis. There are two sets of purple and dark-yellow striped horns sprouting from the back of its cranium and lower skull. There are dark-yellow stripes on its hips and on the forearms. Their hands and feet are the same dark-yellow color as the stripes. It has four digits on each hand and three digits on each foot, each ending with a pointed claw. It has a long tail that starts thin and fans out close to the tip, adorned with more dark-yellow stripes. On its face it appears to wear a grey lupine or reptilian masque with white highlights.
It also moves in an unnervingly quick and jerky manner. Its mouth does not visibly move when it speaks, although it does open when they are ready to devour their prey.
Personality[]
The Jabberwalker has the mindset of a simple predator. It constantly hunts its prey and attacks any living thing in sight. It is capable of speech, but only states words that narrate its own actions. However, it is smart enough to know to retreat whenever it is overpowered.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a unique type of Afteran, the Jabberwalker has displayed a few unique abilities to itself. As showcased from its encounter against Team RWBY, they have above average speed, strength and agility, allowing it to put up a fight against the four girls with some difficulty and later was able to quickly flee from them.
- Ascension Disruption: The Jabberwalker has the ability to prevent Afterans from ascending by devouring them whole.
Weaknesses[]
The Jabberwalker does not excel in combat against multiple opponents and can be easily overwhelmed when its enemies coordinate their attack. It has a habit of attempting to retreat once it recognizes that it is being overwhelmed.
History[]
Encountering Team RWBY[]
In "A Place of Particular Concern", during their search for something or someone, they encounter Yang offscreen and begins fighting her. However, sensing the presence of Ruby, Blake, and Weiss and decides to after them instead. When Yang reunited with her team (except Ruby) and attempt to attack Jabberwalker together, they retreated.
Captured by Neo[]
In "Rude, Red, and Royal", after retreating, they reside in the dark part of Ever After. They spotted a pink light falling from the sky and follow it which turns out to be Neopolitan. As they about to attack Neo, her Semblance evolved and can make multiple clones of herself. They got scare and begged her to stop before shouting “no” as Neo commands her clones to attack them.
The Jabberwalker’s fate is unknown after their encounter, however Neo was implied to have made several copies of them to presumably hunt down and kill Ruby, as seen in both "The Parfait Predicament" and "The Perils of Paper Houses", implying that the Jabberwalker was defeated or perhaps even subjugated by her.
Later on, in the Paper Acre, after the paper people committed suicide and ascended, Jaune snaps and blames Ruby for what happened at the Garden Acre, telling the depressed huntress that they attacked because Neo hates her.
The Jabberwalker clones, then reappear when Neo uses her Semblance to kill the Curious Cat in revenge for Possessing her.
Trivia[]
- In “Of Solitude and Self”, it was revealed that the Jabberwalker was a creation of The Gods, being made after the Curious Cat. The Jabberwalker in particular was created to be the Cat’s antithesis, with its job to “finish” what the cat started, alluding to its role in killing Afterans and preventing them from ascending.
- Because of this and its hostile nature towards Afterans, the Jabberwalker could be seen as a precursor to the Creatures of Grimm, given how similar it appears to them and how it was favored by the God of Darkness as he constantly resurrected it every time his brother destroyed it. He also may have based the Grimm off of the Jabberwalker, as a way to remember his original creation.
- The Jabberwalker alludes to "The Jabberwock", a creature that is featured in the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll which was also in "Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There".
- It was designed by Larissa Angus.
- It is unclear is the Jabberwalker can destroy the entire soul of an Afteran preventing them from Ascention. When Ruby Rose was in the tree she sees Souls of Afterans choosing their next life so it’s pretty likely that The Jabberwalker can destroy souls.
