Romeo, or Tenebrae or mostly known as the Dark Reaper is the main antagonist of ABM4 Studio's LEGO Ninjago Stop-motion series.
He is the firstborn son of the First Spinjitzu Master, the brother of Wu and Garmadon, the uncle of Lloyd and the father of Claire. He is an extremely powerful being, so powerful that many consider to be as powerful as his father. He is Lloyd's evil uncle and true archenemy. He is also the pure evil reflection of Lloyd.
He serves as the unseen overarching antagonist of Season 2: Light Vs Darkness and Season 3: Wrath of the Overlord, the overarching antagonist of Season 5: Cursed Age, Season 6: Rage of Nadakhan, Season 8: Time Crisis, Season 9: Game of Masks and the miniseries, Resistance. He serves as the main antagonist of Season 7: Revenge of the Villains, Season 10: Freedom and Season 12: Rise of the Spinjitzu Masters. He serves as the posthumous overarching antagonist for Season 14: The Great War.
He also serves as the main antagonist of the cancelled Ninjago: Fallen Brotherhood prequel series.
Personality[]
When first seen in Season 5 to 7, Romeo was seen as a mysterious enemy. But as the series progress, the Dark Reaper is shown to be in fact a murderous, arrogant, deceptive, treacherous, manipulative, sadistic and megalomaniacal psychopath. His goal is to create a world of peace, but in reality all he truly desires is ultimate power.
In the beginning, he was known to be violent and bloodthirsty, however, after the Elemental Alliance's betrayal completely changed his world views and made himself cold and heartless. His sadism increased, along with his paranoia. He also became manipulative. However, the signs of this sinister monster have always been there. He already had little remorse and empathy.
Although he did have feelings for Princess Ria, in the end he did kill her and was deeply affected from her death. But as time went by, he viewed not a big deal.
Romeo has a strong hatred for the Serpentine, the Oni, his father and the world itself, as he believes the world gave him an empty heart and for those he believed are weak. He has an extreme god-complex and is incredibly arrogant. As he believes himself as a god and saviour of the world and believes that he is the most powerful being in history and that he can’t do anything wrong. However, his arrogance and his sadism is his ultimate downfall.
It doesn’t matter to the Dark Reaper if the Sons of Garmadon or the Eternal Empire gets destroyed. In his eyes, the SoG regime or the Eternal Empire without him shouldn't be "allowed" to exist. It shows how power-hungry and selfish he is.
Romeo is able to make alliances, but he isn't loyal to any of his allies or followers. This has being seen throughout the course of the series: Morro, Yang, Pythus, Chen, the Nindroids, the Time Twins, Garmadon, Harumi and the Sons of Garmadon. Romeo sees all of these people as nothing but pawns and if they betray him, he will kill them, but if their usefulness comes to an end, he will kill them as well.
Romeo is very intelligent, as he is able to come up with plans that seem reckless, but actually strategic. His plan for the gathering the villains in Season 7 and joining forces with the Time Twins seem to be reckless, but he did it intentionally to deceitful his enemies. He even hid the Eternal Order for decades. He does express a cowardly nature: this was seen in Seasons 5, 6, 7 and 8, when his plan fails, he teleports. Although, it could be argued that Romeo also used the threats that he created in these four seasons to manipulate people into accepting a military dictatorship. His intelligence is seen in Ninjago: RESISTANCE, Romeo became careful not to anger people and became annoyed with his brother's lack of understanding of what happens if the people get angry. He decided to kill a thousand people and arrested hundreds to sent a warning to the people and the Resistance. The massacre of the thousand people, was to spread fear to the Resistance, while the arrests were used to scare others from helping the rebels to overthrow his totalitarian regime. It worked for a few days, before Lloyd captured the radio tower and encouraged people to rise up against his rule. This caused the Dark Reaper to use actual military force, instead of psychological warfare (which he was better at).
Romeo is shown to be remorseless and holds no empathy for anyone. Although he did have someone that he cared about, but after her death he viewed it as not a big deal. He doesn't care about his family at all. He manipulated Garmadon, killed his cloned children and put a curse on his vessel's wife in the sake of creating a perfect vessel or potential pawn that would execute his plans. However, it is because of his manipulation, sadism and lies, as well as him no longer understanding what family, friends or love is, is what brings his true downfall.
In the end, who is the Dark Reaper? He's a person who wanted to be prized and acknowledged, however after the betrayal of the Kingdom, death of the person he cared for and his loneliness, he became an egomaniacal monster. He would cause many conflicts that brought destruction to a global scale. When he takes over Ninjago in Season 9, for a year, the world becomes a personal playground of this diabolical entity. This evil would have a massive mental impact on the Ninja, larger than any villain they have encountered.
Cruel, sadistic, manipulative, deceitful, ruthless, bloodthirsty, genus, egotistical, selfish, arrogant, psychopathic, unforgiving, remorseless. All the terrible traits that can be found in a person are in the Dark Reaper. This is a villain who is terrifying and despite having no irredeemable features. Of all the actions he committed are for one purpose only: increasing his power and he is willing to sacrifice anything, even family and 'friends' to achieve that unlimited power. Every single ally he had, are all nothing but tools to achieve that goal. This type of personality makes him one of the most evil and most dangerous villains ever to be seen on LEGO stop-motion history.
Villainy:[]
- Unlike most villains of ABM4 Studios' Ninjago series who have tragic backstories and some regret their actions and seek redemption (such as Garmadon, Morro and Harumi), the Dark Reaper has no redeemable features at all. In fact, he is never portrayed sympathetic at all, even after his backstory is revealed, it was never presented as an actual tragic backstory.
- This clearly means even the ABM4 Studios saw the Dark Reaper as an irredeemable monster.
- All actions he commits are all taken seriously. There is never a moment where he is portrayed as comic relief.
- He murdered his entire village and his adopted father, brother and sister when his biological mother was killed by his adopted father. Although, he was abused by his adopted father and the entire village and saw his mother get beaten up and later murdered. However, none of those people deserved to be brutally killed by Romeo.
- He would manipulate his master and eventually he would brutally murder Uruk.
- Killed his enemies with such brutality.
- After the Elemental Alliance’s betrayal, when he was in prison, he threatened the Emperor of death.
- Broke out of prison and formed his own organisation which is called the Shadow Hand organisation.
- Although he does love Ria, he gladly killed her to gain his full power (although, she did accept it). But the worst thing of this, is that later, Romeo gradually doesn't care about her death and views it necessary for him to get greater power which will help him in his conquest to "save" the world.
- He attempted to use the Mega-Weapon to recreate the world under his image.
- Despite being banished in the Realm of Madness and the Cursed Realm, Romeo’s hatred for his father increased and decided to chose a new tactic to get what he wants which use manipulation and corruption.
- After being banished to the Realm of Madness, he ordered the Foreseer to destroy Ninjago from the inside, hinting that he is responsible for many conflicts and the deaths of hundreds of thousands or even millions.
- Romeo would torture his 9 cloned children mentally and physically tortured. All 9 of them died from his brutal treatment.
- He would manipulate Morro, by breaking him mental and physical abuse:
- By torturing him.
- Romeo manipulated him into thinking that Master Wu never cared for Morro. He also manipulated him into believing that he's the chosen one.
- And telling him lies that the world is filled with hate (which ironically, Romeo too believes in his own lies).
- After returning from the Realm of Madness, his original body's life chakra was disappearing, so Romeo transferred his essence into a wealthy businessman. He cleverly manipulates the man's wife that he loves her and gets a perfect child who has the powers of both the Oni and the Dragon and makes her his supreme apprentice and vessel.
- He would place some golden power spell on her which makes Claire inherit his power, but also creates a disease which kills her - revealing he is behind Claire’s mother’s death (this was revealed in Episode 119 of the Rise of the Ninja).
- Romeo placed a ritual on his own daughter, which would increase her pain and hatred for people.
- Romeo is directly responsible for the Time Twins’ uprising. Which means, it's because of him why Kai and Nya lost their parents.
- Been a secret voice in Garmadon’s head, which made him commit terrible acts, which led the Elemental Alliance to distance themselves from him.
- Although, he rescued his brother. He would plant seeds in Garmadon’s head.
- Jacob is responsible for Misako being killed, he was a member of the Eternal Order, meaning that Misako’s death is in fact on Romeo’s hands. He even ordered Jacob to kill his younger brother and Misako, so Garmadon would descend into darkness further.
- Through Romeo's manipulation, Garmadon murder the Elemental Alliance.
- Indirectly, Romeo is responsible for why most of the Ninja have no parents (Garmadon killed Jay’s parents, Skylor’s mother, Zane’s parents, and parents of several Elemental Masters).
- Ordered the death of his wife’s sister to get his daughter, Claire and use her as a new pawn.
- Behind Morro’s fall to darkness, Romeo is truly the one behind Lloyd being possessed and the deaths and suffering of hundreds of people from the Ghost Army.
- He had one of his highest ranking servants to become Prime Minister of Ninjago, so he can create a military dictatorship.
- He would continue to cause new conflicts: such as in Season 7 when he brought all the past villains as his pawns and to achieve more political power and to regain his Great Goddess’s power (that was given to him by the Great Goddess) that his father stole from him. This was succeeded as he gained more political power but failed to gain his full power.
- He would kill Yang’s apprentice and sadistically laughed.
- He would torture Yang and enjoy it.
- The Dark Reaper manipulates Harumi into joining him. Like Morro, he lies to her, saying that the Ninja are the reason why Ninjago will never have true peace. Although, he somewhat treated her like his daughter he only did that so she would trust him. In truth, he only used her for her wealth, so he can finance the Sons of Garmadon.
- When he realised that Lloyd and Harumi might have feelings for each other, he quickly took advantage of it and used Harumi to cause psychological torture on Lloyd's mental state.
- Manipulated both sides in a civil war between the Sons of Garmadon and the Kingdom of Ninjago, which had thousands of people dead. Which makes him a hypocrite.
- Resurrect his brother, Garmadon again only to use him again as his pawn. He then manipulates his undead brother to fight his own son.
- He launches a coup d'état where he turned Ninjago into a totalitarian military dictatorship and placed Garmadon as a figure head and himself as absolute ruler.
- His regime imprisoned thousands of people and because of the Dark Reaper's cruel mindset, its most likely many of those people in his prison camps were killed.
- Its implied that Romeo is racist and that his regime committed ethic cleansing:
- His regime also committed slavery:
- Enslave thousands of people (Serpentine and Orcs).
- Ordered a genocide by burning over a thousand people, to weaken the people's hopes that the Resistance can beat him and his regime.
- Mentally abused Garmadon by mocking his feelings for his wife.
- Causes horrifying experiments on ‘test subjects’ to find the secrets of immortality.
- Use the Foreseer as a fake spy for the Resistance to lure the First Spinjitzu Master into a trap and to kill him.
- However, when he sees Lloyd unleashing his Oni power the first time, he starts tormenting him for his feelings for his father (this scene was seen in a flashback as the First Spinitzu Master to Wu in Season 14).
- Imprisoned his own nephew and forced him to fight his friend, Nya for his twisted enjoyment.
- Killing Harumi in front of Lloyd and enjoying it and trying to make Lloyd use his Oni powers again.
- Despite his cursed body being destroyed, he continues to live with his spirit guiding his pawns.
- He commanded more experiments, which caused Harumi to be resurrected by these horrific experiments.
- Use Yang again so he can possess a new body which he succeeded.
- Absorb an entire town’s people’s life force, to boost his power and immortality.
- Manipulate his brother again by using the incoming Oni invasion.
- Kill Morro in cold blood.
- After gaining his full power he takes over Ninjago City by another coup.
- Try attempting to destroy the world by using the Golden Weapons to create a new world which will be filled with oppression and rule as a god.
- Tried to kill his own daughter, just because she wouldn't join him.
- Killed Garmadon and mocked his sacrifice in front of Lloyd.
- Try to kill Lloyd but failed and finally met his true death.
- He narcissistically views himself as the saviour of the world and as a god. Although his goal is noble, as he wants to create a world of peace and end all wars and corruption. However, ironically, Romeo is responsible for more deaths, chaos and corruption than any corrupt individuals in the government or in companies. He corrupted many people’s lives (such as Morro, Garmadon, Harumi and Yang) and caused several wars, which got millions of people killed just so he could create his twisted vision of peace.
- Despite being dead for good, the regime he created continued the Second War for Freedom and continued their tyranny within the east of Ninjago. The Eternal Order would finally be destroyed in the end of the series.
- His actions even resulted in weakening the balance that made it easier for the Overlord to return in Season 11 and the Oni arriving in Ninjago.
- While a lot of his heinous actions were motivated by a somewhat understandable fear of death and desire to become immortal and also somewhat loneliness, it's not at all redeeming since he thinks he is the only person who deserves immortality and doesn't care if he has to murder the entire world to obtain it.
- He is shown to have no care about his own family members and 'loved' ones time and time again. As was mention, Tenebrae only saw Garmadon as a pawn for his plans. He saw Wu as a "fool" and has immense hatred for his father. As for Lloyd, Tenebrae wonder mentally and psychically abuse him in all sorts of ways, from having Lloyd fight his own father or using Harumi to psychologically break him. The Dark Reaper clearly shows no care for his wife or daughter either. Tenebrae only saw his own wife and daughter as pawns.
- Although his hatred for his father can be understandable as the FSM somewhat left him during the Stone Wars, Tenebrae doesn't seem to think or care that the FSM was protecting him from the Overlord's war. And also, Tenebrae seems to hate his father more for the fact the FSM imprisoned him in the Realm of Madness and the Cursed Realm instead of leaving him. Worse part is, he imprisons people of things they never did.
- Overall, the Dark Reaper is the evil reflection of Lloyd, who is a honourable, kind, selfless and generally an uncorruptible individual. While, Romeo is an irredeemable, sadistic, cruel, manipulative, deceitful, selfish and completely diabolical.
Trivia[]
- The Dark Reaper along with Seth/Vazog and Asroth is the only villains from ABM4 Studios that are in the Villains Fanon Wiki right now.
- Although, he has being deleted from the PE wiki, it is made very clear that this villain has no redeemable features and has a clear moral code.
- A lot of the Dark Reaper's character is based on Emperor Palpatine (from Star Wars), Hela (from MCU), Thanos (from MCU), Sauron (Lord of the Rings) and Madara Uchiha (from Naruto).
- He's pretty much the only villain who is quite similar to real-life people, such as: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Napoleon and some of the Roman Emperors.
- The Dark Reaper is the main antagonist of the series because he is responsible for a lot of the events that happened in the series:
- He has caused a lot of wars and chaos before he was banished to the Realm of Madness,
- He created the Shadow Hand cult that will manipulate many conflicts,
- He was a voice inside Garmadon's head, he organised political division,
- He is the main reason why the Ninja lost their parents because the Dark Reaper manipulated the Time Twins and Garmadon into killing the Elemental Masters.
- The Dark Reaper manipulated Morro which would lead to the conflicts shown in Season 5.
- He framed the Ninja of crimes they didn't commit in Season 6. He also used Nadakhan's attack as a way to increase his power in the government and made Ninjago more autocratic.
- Because of the Dark Reaper's manipulation, the Time Twins would cause the Time Crisis and attack Ninjago City, which resulted to a lot of deaths.
- He also was a voice inside Harumi's head. Like Yang, Morro and Garmadon, Romeo would manipulate Harumi further, by blaming the Ninja as the reason why Ninjago is filled with corruption and evil.
- He would lie to Parliament after Season 9, Episode 12, that the Ninja tried to overthrow the government and put in a puppet that they control. Because of this, Romeo was able to fully establish a military dictatorship with him as the ruler.
- In the miniseries, RESISTENCE, Romeo would commit mass murder by burning a thousand people.
- He is also the main reason why his own daughter's life is so messed up. As he placed a disease on his own wife so that Claire would have Golden Power.
- The Dark Reaper is the only villain that has the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy):
- Narcissism: Tenebrae is shown to be incredibly narcissistic. He is so arrogant as he boasts of his abilities and achievements. He also narcissistically believes himself as the saviour of Ninjago and humanity. He also views himself as a god.
- Machiavellianism: Romeo is shown to be extremely manipulative. He manipulates Yang, Morro, Harumi, the entire Sons of Garmadon group and Garmadon. He views all of his servants as pawns and will even get rid of them if they are no longer useful. As was seen with Yang and Harumi.
- Psychopathy: Tenebrae is no doubt a power-hungry psychopath. He doesn't show any empathy and remorse to anyone. After the death of Ria, he is no longer gets interested to have a family. In fact, his obsession of power is much that he can no longer understand love, passion and other kind traits. That's why he can't understand why Garmadon betrays him. This shows that the betrayal of Ria had a massive impact on him.
- Sadism can be added: The Dark Reaper is extremely sadistic. He is shown to enjoy causing psychological abuse to people, such as Lloyd and Garmadon and pretty much all his enemies.