Overview History Image Gallery
The Jabberwalker is a creature residing in the Ever After that Team RWBY fights in "A Place of Particular Concern". It is a major antagonist of Volume 9.
After its encounter with Neopolitan in "Rude, Red, and Royal", it was somehow cloned in order to hunt down Ruby Rose. Following her Ascension in "Of Solitude and Self", its current status is unknown.
It is later revealed by the Blacksmith that the Jabberwalker was created by The Gods to be the antithesis to the Curious Cat.
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 is sealed shut and does not visibly move when it speaks, though it can break open when it prepares to devour its prey, revealing a set of jagged black teeth.
Image Gallery[]
Personality[]
The Jabberwalker has a peculiar habit of speaking in single-word present participles, nouns and base verbs to actively narrate its actions. Despite existing to be hostile only to the Afterans, it will also attack Humans and Faunus if they show hostile intentions towards it in return.
Despite its terrifying appearance and the fearsome reputation it has amongst the other Afterans, the Jabberwalker itself ironically appears to be rather easy to intimidate or scare off as after realizing that it was outnumbered by Team RWBY, it chose to flee rather than stay and fight and later when it stumbled across Neo, it originally attempted to attack her due to her seemingly being alone and vulnerable, but it later cowered in fear when she ordered her copies to surround and attack it.
The Jabberwalker appears to be constantly searching for something or someone as it often travels from one acre to the next whilst muttering aloud that it is searching. It is unknown what the Jabberwalker was looking for or what they intend to do with it if or when it ever finds it.
Fulfilling its purpose, the Jabberwalker terrorizes the Afterans
Its innate hostility to the Afterans and disturbing habits make it initially appear akin to the Creatures of Grimm. However, unlike them, the Jabberwalker is shown to be sentient and displays intelligence given its ability to speak and not attacking Humans/Faunus on sight unless given a reason, plus seeing as it can show signs of fear and will retreat for its own self-preservation proves that it isn't a soulless killing machine on the same level as them.
As revealed in “Of Solitude and Self”, the Jabberwalker was created to be the Curious Cat’s opposite and was designed to “finish” what the Cat started. This signified that the Jabberwalker was created specifically to be hostile to the Afterans and was made in order for them to have a way to truly die and prevent Ascension. The Jabberwalker was noted by the Blacksmith to be highly efficient and effective in its role despite it displeasing one of its creators.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a special type of Afteran, the Jabberwalker has displayed a few unique abilities to itself. In 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 unique ability to prevent Afterans from ascending by devouring them whole, thus making it the only thing in the Ever After that can actually kill them. It is unknown if an Afteran that is eaten by the Jabberwalker goes to any form of afterlife or if they simply cease to exist entirely.
Weaknesses[]
Since the Jabberwalker primarily targets Afterans, who for the most part can't defend themselves against the creature, it does not excel in combat against multiple opponents who are capable of fighting back; because of this lack of experience against those with experience in fighting, it 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.
Trivia[]
- The Jabberwalker alludes to "The Jabberwock", a creature that is featured in the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, which is also read by Alice in "Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There".
- It was designed by Larissa Angus.[1]
- In "Of Solitude and Self", it was revealed that the Jabberwalker was created by The Gods to be the antithesis of the Curious Cat, its job being to “finish” what the Cat started, alluding to its role in devouring 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 likely also based the Grimm off of the Jabberwalker, as a way to remember it.