The Ending of Samurai Jack

[Jedi]

After 16 years, Samurai Jack has concluded, as a long time fan I figured i'd give my thoughts on it.

Season 5 has a more structured narrative than the previous 4, while the previous 4 had like a general goal, usually they were fairly episodic, only a few reoccurring characters and such, also with a more mature rating (Tv-14 instead of PG we got blood and a dick joke among other things in these surreal 10 episodes). 

This season introduced Ashi, a so called daughter of Aku along with several others... But now this goes into spoilers so allow me to put this in the proper place. 

 

Note this is supremely abridged but the episode was fast anyways

Through the season Ashi developed from a blind zealot Aku worshiper to that of Jacks friend, and lover. They were kindred spirits and she brought back Jacks hope after 50 years of failure, and allowed him to regain his sword. After he had helped her realize the error of her ways in a really great pair of episodes.

However Aku comes in (after a romcom episode of sorts) and decides to try to end Jack finally after getting news he lost his sword (a running gag was a minion of his trying to tell him he lost the sword). 

He reveals Ashi is born of his essence which her mother drank and got pregnant with. The final battle begins and Ashi's body gets used against Jack since she and Aku basically share an essence, Jack loses his hope once more and is captured because he can't bring himself to kill her, cue cliffhanger. 

Cue all of the friends and allies Jack had made in his travels storming Aku's base distracting him as Jack tries to reclaim his sword, Ashi getting in the way but after the POWER OF LOVE she regains control and suddenly realizes she has access to Aku's abilities, using this, they travel back to the past finally, and he slays Aku, with the world of the future now gone everyone Jack met is now gone as well. 

Aku has one last moment to troll Jack, on their (Jack & Ashi's) wedding day, Ashi falls and vanishes on the way to the altar, telling Jack before she does, that without Aku she can't exist, Jack weeps as she fades and he clutches the robes, all his teachers & family from episode 1 of the series looking dumbstruck and sad. 

Jack rides depressed into a forest, sitting against a tree, when a lady bug, something Ashi had seen in her childhood and also the bug that she saw Jack be kind to when she was still in her "evil" phase lands on his finger, he looks at it, and then smiles, the shot pans out to the tree he took Ashi to in the future, with the trees and a beautiful landscape. 

Cue Credits... 

In short the ending felt like it had to be bittersweet for the sake of being bittersweet, the season had been overall strong besides episode 8 and this ending, as someone who's been watching the series since 2001, I felt it would have been proper if Jack had moved past the past and just slew Aku in the future and rebuilt the world. 

However I had an feeling this is the direction they were going for, since Ashi was built up as Jacks partner, I'm just a bit irritated that they pulled it in the last 2 minutes of the final episode. An anime in particular that I quite like ended in a very very similar fashion, and I didn't like that ending either. 

I'm glad Samurai Jack finally got its conclusion, but i'm also partly miffed at how it did finally conclude.

Farewell Samurai Jack, i'm glad I got to see you once again... Despite my grievances. 

Edited May 21, 2017 by Jedi

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Spoiler

They Gurren Laganned us.

It did feel a bit rushed. I feel like the show could have used like, two or three more episodes.

[Jedi]

Just now, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

  Reveal hidden contents

They Gurren Laganned us.

It did feel a bit rushed. I feel like the show could have used like, two or three more episodes.

Yeah same here, but I think this was the most Gendy could have gotten after all the years trying to get a movie off the ground, who knows though.

[Harvey]

Personally, I feel that its a bit too rushed. All of that hope lost thing, trying to fight back thing got way too short. The same goes for the romance thing till end.
There are also a couple of plotholes here as well.

Spoiler

 

How is the Scotsman aging compared to Jack? How is it that after all these years, Jack hasn't aged?

 

And then there's the Aku slay thing. How is Jack at the end able to kill off Aku like that in the end by simply slicing him off when that's the same thing he's been doing to him time to time?

 

Then there's Jack's dad and mom issue here..in the time that Jack was to face Aku the first time, they were like this

 

http://www.haibane.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/vlcsnap-5503598.png

 

 

 

But yeah...I guess I can understand why they ended it so fast since they didn't think of the ending itself to begin with so I guess I can be fine with it.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Harvey

[Flee Fleet!]

I'm kind of sad.

 

I would have wished for more episodes. 

 

Anyways, there comes a happy end for a series I love, and it must now rest peacefully, in it's grave.

 

[Jotari]

Jumping late on the band wagon but overall I thought the final season was fantastic. I absolutely loved how the show matured with its audience and was actually made with 20 and 30 year olds in mind. My biggest complain with western animation is that there's very little actually targeted towards a mature audience. Sure there's some absolute fantastic shows aimed for all ages but a show that's actually made for someone older is rare and far between. I love how Season 5 was able to do things like have Jack kill people and actually make it meaningful. It wasn't gratuitous or over the top either. It was just handled so well.

I agree that it probably would have been better if they killed Aku in the future and just lived to deal with it but my bigger gripe is that they got Jack and Ashi together. Throughout the show he had acted like a father figure to her. Teaching her about the world and guiding her on the path of righteousness. He's also like sixty years older than her and much more worldly. It just doesn't feel like there's actually romantic chemistry there to me until they shoved hard in episode 8. Even given more episodes to develop it I just don't think I'd have liked the relationship. Jack being a surrogate father would have worked much better to make a parallel to Aku too.

On 5/26/2017 at 1:45 PM, Harvey said:

Personally, I feel that its a bit too rushed. All of that hope lost thing, trying to fight back thing got way too short. The same goes for the romance thing till end.
There are also a couple of plotholes here as well.

  Hide contents

 

How is the Scotsman aging compared to Jack? How is it that after all these years, Jack hasn't aged?

 

And then there's the Aku slay thing. How is Jack at the end able to kill off Aku like that in the end by simply slicing him off when that's the same thing he's been doing to him time to time?

 

Then there's Jack's dad and mom issue here..in the time that Jack was to face Aku the first time, they were like this

 

http://www.haibane.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/vlcsnap-5503598.png

 

 

 

But yeah...I guess I can understand why they ended it so fast since they didn't think of the ending itself to begin with so I guess I can be fine with it.

Did you miss the opening of each episode where it says Jack doesn't age? It's been fifty years so the Scotsman's aged fifty years. As for why he doesn't age, Aku says it was due to the initial time travel that sent him to the future.

Jack never sliced and diced Aku like that. Aku always ran away because he's actually pretty smart. And even in the end Jack had to go at him quite a few times after he'd already been weakened fighting the past version of Jack.

Haircut and a new suit?