Tonight On "Boring Worldbuilding Theories Only I Care About":

Tonight on "Boring Worldbuilding Theories Only I Care About":

So characters are often seen saying things like "gee" and " jeez", which doesnt really make sense at a surface level bc both of those terms have Christian roots, being short for "jesus." Similarly, words like "gosh" and "golly" are a euphemism for "god", and exist as an alternative to "saying the lord's name in vain" - a concept that originated from the Bible and is to my knowledge exclusively Christian/Christian-adjacent.

The problem is, Christianity doesnt exist in Ninjago (outside of that one time Kai went on an acid trip and invented Christmas with the power of hallucination). So that means jeez/gee and gosh/golly had to have entered their lexicon in a different way.

"Gosh" is perhaps the easiest to explain. It probably has a similar linguistic function in Ninjago as it does in our world - after all, it doesnt seem too outlandish to conclude that there are religious rhetorics in-universe that discourage the speaking of godly names. Of course Ninjago does seem to be a predominantly secular society now - relying on religion for tradition and culture, but the actual observance of faith seems largely restricted to monks and select demographics - so it's likely that the practice of godly euphemisms may have over time disseminated from religious praxis into broader cultural colloquialism.

Although that does certainly raise the question about cultural variation in the characters who swear by the FSM's name like Wu and I think Pixal once, whereas characters like Ed and Jay use godly euphemisms - gosh, golly, etc. Were these religious sects more prominent in some regions than others? Ed and Jay, who use the euphemisms, both hail from the Sea of Sand - was this desert once within the territory of one of these euphemistic groups? And did these groups all follow the same faith but as part of different sects, or were they different religions altogether? Much to think about.

But as for gee and jeez...well, what if they're shortened versions of "wojira"? We know she was the prevailing deity back before the FSM showed up and defeated her, and is still worshipped in places like the Island of the Keepers. Perhaps, when her acknowledgement was more ubiquitous, her name was similarly used as a form of exclamation - but over time, due to cultural and linguistic evolution, the exclamation became shortened to things like "jeez" and "gee".

...yeah, i warned you this was gonna be boring. Dont come crying to me if you fell asleep halfway through.