Ronin (Ninjago)

"“If you want the sword, that’s one thing, but I’ll never hand over my friends!”"

- Ronin to Morro. Ronin is the main antagonist in LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, a recurring ally in the fifth season of LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. He is a selfish, yet skilled and intelligent mercenary, who was hired often by Master Chen for important tasks such as capturing Zane and releasing the banished master from the Cursed Realm.

Up until the destruction of the Obsidian Glaive, Ronin was a memory thief known to remove people's memories and replace them with lies about their past.

Appearance
Ronin’s distinctive armor was, like most of his possessions, gained through dishonest means. It was forged by Eboshi, one of Ninjago’s greatest and most noble armorers, who Ronin tricked into helping him by implanting false memories with the Obsidian Glaive. After Eboshi created the armour for Ronin, he once more used the Obsidian Glaive, this time to wipe all of Eboshi’s memories so that he could never reveal Ronin’s identity.

Shadow of Ronin personality
Ronin is a self-centered greedy character, willing to cause chaos and destruction, just so that he could get paid. He shows little, if any, compassion to his victims, and cares little for his own henchmen, seeing them as nothing but tools to further his own plans. He often cracks jokes and mocked the Ninja throughout their encounters, which also showed him as being full of himself. But he was no fool, he was shown to always stay one step ahead of the Ninja and his foes.

LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu personality
In the series, Ronin has a more sympathetic backstory, as his motivation for in the game was actually to save his cursed soul. Eventually, his more sincere personality comes through in the episode, "Curse World: Part 1," when he arrives in his airship R.E.X. and promptly dumps every amount of money he ever made on the building Morro had lifted with his elemental wind power, giving Lloyd the chance to defeat Morro. From that point on he is the Ninjas' friend and ally.

Trivia

 * Just like many characters in the Ninjago series, Ronin resembles a Star Wars character, in this case Han Solo. Both are older men, without special powers, relying on weapons to defend themselves. Both also have debts to pay, and they do dirty work as long as they get paid. They are neither good or bad, just people who do jobs for either side, but ultimately they choose to fight beside the heroes. They also have a fast ship that they fly around with.
 * It's hinted that Ronin is rich.
 * His past with the Soul Archer is similar to Jack Sparrow and the debt he made with Davy Jones, the difference is that Ronin must pay in money, where as Jack had to pay in souls, either his or other people's.