Samurai Jack - Back to The Past

  • 🔧 Site instability resolved. You can report double-posts and broken attachments. For bigger issues, use the Technical Grievances thread.
    🇵🇦 Nuestro primer dominio localizado está en español en kiwifarms.pa. Our first localized domain is on Spanish on kiwifarms.pa.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
I thought at first when Jack rode that horse to the middle of nowhere that he was going to try to bring back Aku so he could have Ashi back.

Glad they didn't go in that direction.

With all the mist, I thought it was going to be the seppuku scene all over again, only he goes through with it. THAT would have been a downer ending.
 
Call me a sap, but I'm a bit bummed out that Jack and Ashi didn't get their nice happy ending together.

Honestly, even though the world is technically saved, it's a bit depressing to know that all the characters we got attached to are the ones that end up not existing or having completely different fates as the result of this ending. With all that time portal destruction talk, I honestly thought Jack was gonna end up staying in the future.
 
Última edición:
Ashi was a great character and I'm glad that Genndy included her. She proved to be Jack's equal and was just as important in getting Jack to the past as Jack was himself. It sucks that in the end she became what Jack feared--a memory. But she was nonetheless vital to the entire season. So RIP.
 
I knew the ending would be bittersweet, but I thought it would be something like Jack realizing that he can't go back but that he would find new hope and a new life with Ashi and his friends in the future where he would help to rebuild it and bring the world into a new age of blessings, or that something like in the comics would follow. Instead, it was something way sadder, which made me love this series more I guess.

Also, I miss Aku. Fuck, I'm gonna miss them all. God bless you master Genndy...


Yet despite it all, /co/ and tumblr still won't stop bitching.
 
On a more analytical note, I think the episode was fine for what it was given the route they decided to go, but I have a few critiques.
  1. The first and major complaint is one others have already stated; the episode could've really benefited from being an hour-long special if not a 2-parter. The time constraints really showed with the pacing of the final battle. Most of the other critiques relate back to this one in some way.
  2. Aku wasn't as impressive as I had hoped. He mostly just stood there cracking jokes or getting frustrated. I'm fine with him being a comedic bad guy, especially coupled with Jack's serious demeanor, however he still more or less an evil demigod who enslaved earth and thus should be much more interesting in combat. I mean, compare this episode to some of the other times he's fought Jack:
    Imagine if the final battle was more like this one, with Aku actually making full use of his shape-shifting powers.
  3. Ashi learning to use her Aku powers seemed a bit spurious. I mean, you just now gained full control over your sense of self and yet you've already mastered the art of creating time portals? Also, if your gonna have her get Aku powers you could devote a little more time actually showing them off a bit. I mean, this is a lady who defeated an entire orc army with just her fists, I want to see what she can do with shape-shifting and laser eyes.
  4. I realize it's kind of stupid to bitch about time paradoxes, especially in a show like Samurai Jack. Still, doesn't the whole, 'Ashi ceasing to exist' thing kind of throw a wrench into the whole Jack returning to his own time period thing. I mean, if she is the sole reason he was able to return to the past, and she ends up never having existed once he killed Aku in the past....then how does that work?
 
On a more analytical note, I think the episode was fine for what it was given the route they decided to go, but I have a few critiques.
I realize it's kind of stupid to bitch about time paradoxes, especially in a show like Samurai Jack. Still, doesn't the whole, 'Ashi ceasing to exist' thing kind of throw a wrench into the whole Jack returning to his own time period thing. I mean, if she is the sole reason he was able to return to the past, and she ends up never having existed once he killed Aku in the past....then how does that work?
LjBfZOX.png


I just kinda whipped this up real quick for my thoughts on it. Samurai Jack has to operate on multiple timelines or otherwise it doesn't make sense. The main timeline is represented by A, where it's the standard timeline. Jack and Aku have their battle, Jack almost kills Aku, Aku flings him into the future. There are two timelines created from this, the first being the rest of A, where Aku turns the world into what we see in the show leading up to its climax, and then B, which is the timeline that gets created when Jack and Ashi return to the past moments after Aku sends Jack away.

What I'm thinking is what basically happened is that, after branching off from timeline A, the things created in A only manage to stick around for a limited amount of time, but because they didn't come from B they can't continue to exist. You can still remember something, it did exist for as long as it did, but it's not able to stick around.

Probably the most fucked up thing about the show operating like this is that Aku most likely completely curbstomps the entirety of the forces attacking him because the only weapon capable of killing him fucked off to the past. :sighduck:
 

  1. I realize it's kind of stupid to bitch about time paradoxes, especially in a show like Samurai Jack. Still, doesn't the whole, 'Ashi ceasing to exist' thing kind of throw a wrench into the whole Jack returning to his own time period thing. I mean, if she is the sole reason he was able to return to the past, and she ends up never having existed once he killed Aku in the past....then how does that work?

Because Terminator Rules.
 
I kinda guessed it had to be an alternate timeline thing, seeing as that's one of the go to excuses for any time travel in media. I guess it was just the idea of having his very means of getting to the past disappear that pushed the envelope for me.

But hey, I guess alternate timelines were pretty much unavoidable given the core concept of the show.
 
But hey, I guess alternate timelines were pretty much unavoidable given the core concept of the show.
But then that means that...

a) Jack left all his alternate future friends and allies to suffer for all eternity under future Aku...

b) They either got erased due to the butterfly effect

c) Or they're still destined to be born as themselves but with happier lives and Scotsman not missing a leg or being dead in this new timeline, which is good.

If its a) then the only hope I can see for them is that since now the sword is completely gone in their timeline, maybe the gods will pick a new hero's spirit to forge a sword from to stop Aku, but until a proper hero shows up, they're still pretty fucked until then.
 
I was thinking of that as soon as Jack jumped in the portal. It was a loose end which could've been tied pretty easily: Jack kills future Aku and then travels to the past to kill Aku again.

It'd make more sense if Ashi started to die as soon as Jack delivered the final blow to Aku instead of vanishing into thin air during their wedding.
 
I was thinking of that as soon as Jack jumped in the portal. It was a loose end which could've been tied pretty easily: Jack kills future Aku and then travels to the past to kill Aku again.

It'd make more sense if Ashi started to die as soon as Jack delivered the final blow to Aku instead of vanishing into thin air during their wedding.

Not gonna lie - THAT is a valid criticism. Because if Jack hadn't succeeded... Yeah. It definitely would have made more sense to kill Aku there and then, in case Ashi couldn't do what she did to get Jack back to the past to the dirty work there.

However, if with Ashi's new-found ability, it would have made for some good bonus points to this finale to truly save the future by killing Aku there (in the future) and then again in the past, just to ensure that future timeline doesn't have to worry about Aku anymore, as well as the risk of Jack (and Ashi) not ending up where they needed to be.

Even more so, there is the risk that he (Aku) could always come back at anytime. After all, evil is never defeated that easily, which Aku is the ultimate embodiment of. But, this series is over now, so there's nothing too much to worry about here or anything to really do about it, honestly.
 
a decade and a half and we still never new his name
There was one episode (forget which one), where he starts to introduce himself with it, but corrects himself and says "Jack." I think it was the one with the green sea people.

He says "I am Ge...Jack."

In my personal headcanon, it was "Genji." Sounds like "Genndy."
 
Japanese princes have a title they use as a name in their childhood and abandon it for their given name after reaching adulthood.

A common theory I've heard in many places is that the Samurai, never going through his rite of passage, feels awkward using his real name (either his childhood name or his given name) and just rolls with "Jack" because of it.

Edit: oh yeah, by stopping the wedding Genndy not only fucked Jack over, he denied the viewers of their only chance to hear Jack's name.
 
Última edición:
I was going to say how wonderful it is that games can perfectly ape such a distinct art style, but then I looked at actual gameplay and fuck me is it ugly.
 
Atrás
Top Abajo