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Samurai Jack Season 5 |OT| But Yeah, I’m Thinking I’m Back.

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I LOVE the design of this lady:
tumblr_oouxpjarjv1s0fe9eo1_540.png
The UPA influence is so strong in Genndy's work.
<3
 

Tsunamo

Member
All those throwbacks were neat, but then they put Demongo in there and I freaked out. I was literally just going to my friend earlier in the episode "I'd be cool if they did a nod to demongo" and there it is.

Scaramouche was amazing as ever, glad he didn't die.
 
Good episode overall, but incredibly....indulgent. Both because of all the callbacks and the gratuitous fan-service. I don't know if I'm just becoming an old man, but I'm just straight up not as tolerant of pointless titillation, and I feel I shouldn't be since I'm only 27. I'm fine if it were character based, but as it was, it just comes across as juvenile.

It was mostly character based though. It makes sense to have a bunch of old characters in it because those are the people who Jack has affected and so its more meaningful to illustrate his deeds to Ashi through characters the audience has actually seen him interact with.
 

Veelk

Banned
It was mostly character based though. It makes sense to have a bunch of old characters in it because those are the people who Jack has affected and so its more meaningful to illustrate his deeds to Ashi through characters the audience has actually seen him interact with.
I'm talking about the titillation.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Great episode. That random Demongo appearance though, lol. Wonder why the decided to show him. I mean, he was one of the cooler bad guys but it was a little too fan servicey.
 

caliph95

Member
Great episode. That random Demongo appearance though, lol. Wonder why the decided to show him. I mean, he was one of the cooler bad guys but it was a little too fan servicey.
Guessing he is going to play a role later and his sudden appearance later won't feel jarring
 
I'm talking about the titillation.

Oh you mentioned callbacks as well in your post. Are you talking about Ashi getting naked in her rebirth scene? Or Scaramoush trying to hide himself in the hair of the voluptuous lady? Because I'd say both of those were character driven moments.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
So it just hit me now after watching the episode and recalling past stuff, was the person who guided Ashi towards Jack the ghost girl from the haunted house episode? It would make sense.

Guessing he is going to play a role later and his sudden appearance later won't feel jarring

One can hope. Wonder which side he'll be on. I always thought one of the reasons he was so eager to take Jack was because he could use him to overthrow Aku.
 

caliph95

Member
So it just hit me now after watching the episode and recalling past stuff, was the person who guided Ashi towards Jack the ghost girl from the haunted house episode?



One can hope.

I mean other than fan service i feel his appearance was set up so they won't be accused of him coming out of nowhere by making him come out of nowhere
 
I can see Demongo teaming up with Scaramouche, but I don't know if that would be too much fanservice as a lead up to the final battle for what has been a pretty mono season.

Probably just there for the callback. This episode's all for the folks who wanted that.
 

Thank you! I came in here hoping someone might have posted this...new phone wallpaper get!

Fantastic episode. I really enjoyed seeing the impact Jack has had on the world around him, the good, the bad...it was great.

One thing, who was the guy in the tavern? The one who came for the souls?
 
Thank you! I came in here hoping someone might have posted this...new phone wallpaper get!

Fantastic episode. I really enjoyed seeing the impact Jack has had on the world around him, the good, the bad...it was great.

One thing, who was the guy in the tavern? The one who came for the souls?

Demongo, a villain from season 2 episode 10.
 

Veelk

Banned
Oh you mentioned callbacks as well in your post. Are you talking about Ashi getting naked in her rebirth scene? Or Scaramoush trying to hide himself in the hair of the voluptuous lady? Because I'd say both of those were character driven moments.

No.

The entire scene with Ashi was pretty blatant titulation. Even her new outfit is needlessly skimpy. Even though it's made out of leaves, apparently it still skin-tight enough to show off her nipple. And no, it wasn't character driven, because that just required the visual transformation. It didn't need to be accompanied by a male gaze camera.

The lady was less egregious because she was a background character, but it wasn't necessary either. The joke wouldn't have been any less funny if this was a normally dressed woman.

The callbacks were only annoying in how long they dragged on. Threaten Ashi, discover she's a friend, recount past episode with visuals, be thankful for Samurai Jack. That should have happened once at most, and then the rest been a Montage.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Probably just there for the callback. This episode's all for the folks who wanted that.

Everything except the ONE callback everyone has been begging for since the new season was announced :(

Either they won't mention it or they feel it's too important to simply just glance over like the other references here.
 
D

Deleted member 102362

Unconfirmed Member
Everything except the ONE callback everyone has been begging for since the new season was announced :(

Either they won't mention it or they feel it's too important to simply just glance over like the other references here.

Genndy said
the Guardian
will be addressed at some point this season. I don't think he wanted to spoil anything by being more specific.
 
Everything except the ONE callback everyone has been begging for since the new season was announced :(

Either they won't mention it or they feel it's too important to simply just glance over like the other references here.
Probably the latter. As was posted, Gennedy said that'll be addressed. Though, I'm playing it safe and now assuming it's not gonna go how we think.
 

Tarydax

Banned
Good episode overall, but incredibly....indulgent. Both because of all the callbacks and the gratuitous fan-service. I don't know if I'm just becoming an old man, but I'm just straight up not as tolerant of pointless titillation, and I feel I shouldn't be since I'm only 27. I'm fine if it were character based, but as it was, it just comes across as juvenile.

I'm also not a fan of Ashi's wording exactly. "You made me more way more than what I was." I'd have preferred "You let me be way more than I was." Minor difference, I know, but I'd rather she emphasized her gaining her own agency, not trading a cruel maker for a kind one.

But otherwise, good episode that finally has kicked Jack out of his rut.

This mostly sums up my thoughts on it.

It was a fun episode, but I would have been happier with all the callbacks if there was a sense that much time was passing at all while Aishi was going from location to location. I felt like it retroactively made the world seem really small, like Jack never actually traveled that far. A montage would have been better and could have taken up less time, more of which could have gone towards dealing with the evil spirit. He was made out to be fairly important and his part in the story ends in an anticlimactic fight that only lasted four minutes. Not a fan of Aishi not actually wearing anything, either. She was completely covered in ash, so why does her face end up being clear when nothing else does? Even for a cartoon where logic isn't important, it doesn't make any sense.
 
No.

The entire scene with Ashi was pretty blatant titulation. Even her new outfit is needlessly skimpy. Even though it's made out of leaves, apparently it still skin-tight enough to show off her nipple. And no, it wasn't character driven, because that just required the visual transformation. It didn't need to be accompanied by a male gaze camera.

The lady was less egregious because she was a background character, but it wasn't necessary either. The joke wouldn't have been any less funny if this was a normally dressed woman.

The callbacks were only annoying in how long they dragged on. Threaten Ashi, discover she's a friend, recount past episode with visuals, be thankful for Samurai Jack. That should have happened once at most, and then the rest been a Montage.

I'm not a big fan of her new outfit but the point of showing Ashi naked was that she completely cleansed herself of Aku's corruption and returned to a natural state, to quite literally signify the rebirth and parallel it with her first as a child (was it titillation to show her naked as a child too?) only this time she's being born into nature. The camera was neither gratuitous or lingering, and I don't consider it titillation just because she's naked and the shape of her body. The camera here hardly qualifies as the male gaze because it is not a POV shot we are meant to identify with a male character, and the camera has never shied away from showing Jack's body in similar states of undress.

And the point of scaramoush hiding in the voluptuous ladies hair was because he hoped her sexyness would distract the guard enough so he wouldn't notice him in her hair. You could do the same thing with a lady who just has big hair but that would lose out on a layer of the visual gag and Scaramoush's cheeky personality.
 
Probably the latter. As was posted, Gennedy said that'll be addressed. Though, I'm playing it safe and now assuming it's not gonna go how we think.

I'm really hoping Jack has simply completely forgotten about the guardian's portal. It'd be somewhat shitty for a previous season to have the guardian acknowledging that a future jack with a beard is the one that will come to take it from him only for that plot to have been completely scrapped.
 

Jarmel

Banned
Yep this was definitely an awful episode. Complete misfire. Veelk described it as indulgent and he's completely on point. The cameo stuff was atrocious. After the first two cases, it was literally referencing things just to reference them. The point had already been made so it was just a case of a show pandering to the older fans in a half-assed way. Then the conclusion of the episode is bad in how it's resolved. oof
 

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
I dunno, I understand the callbacks as a way to try and get Aishi to recognize just how good Jack was in terms of net benefit to the world as a whole, but using her as the delivery vehicle instead of them to have Jack's feelings change (and focusing on some of the weaker 'saves' Jack has done over the years, IMO) was what led to things feeling more than a little ham-fisted, for me.

The penis 'gag' was also pretty odd.
 
I think the claims of pandering to fans with the callbacks are kinda whack. You can make the perfectly valid argument that the pacing of the episode is hampered by spending so much time devoted to Ashi seeing how the characters of the world view Jack, but getting upset just because established characters pop up in this episode feels misplaced. Like, Jack's been in this world a long time, people know him. So if Ashi is going around looking for him, she's bound to run into people who can serve as lessons to her of all the good he's done in past adventures. Sure, the sequence is too long to have the same economy and momentum as the storytelling in past episodes, but they have a purpose to be in the story beyond "hey guys remember this?". It also servers as a contrast to the weary, defeated Jack we and Ashi have seen this season.

The penis 'gag' was also pretty odd.

Yeah this one fell flat for me
 

Ogodei

Member
As i said, the only issue is one of pacing. These last two episodes in particular could've been spread out into three for a 13-episode season, into 4 for a 20-episode season, or into 5 for a 26-episode season, and you would have seen the more gradual transition. The compressed timetable is hurting here.

Although hopefully these are the only two episodes that suffer for it (and "suffer" is pretty loose because both episodes were great despite the rushed feeling), because episodes 1-4 had good pacing.
 
The penis line feels like something they put in when Tom Kenny was fooling around in the booth.
I'm really hoping Jack has simply completely forgotten about the guardian's portal. It'd be somewhat shitty for a previous season to have the guardian acknowledging that a future jack with a beard is the one that will come to take it from him only for that plot to have been completely scrapped.

I'm half-expecting a short flashback where Jack defeats the The Guardian and is about to enter the portal, only for Aku to surprise attack and destroy it. Thus, beginning Jack's spiral into depression.
 
Let's just agree that outside of perving out, this episode didn't provide much. Well, possibly showing some more allies that Jack will have in the future.

Well, Ashi rid herself of the last vestiges of Aku's influence and Jack finally defeated his inner demons, which are both pretty big character moments so I wouldn't say that. The scaramoush plotline went nowhere though, as fun as it was to see him again. He should have made it to Aku and told him about Jack by the end of the episode
 
There were better ways to have Ashi get rid of her last affiliations to Aku, and for Jack to get rid of his inner demons though. Neither was done well, particularly mixed in with one of the most awkward flashback episodes I have ever seen.


I am giving Genndy the benefit of the doubt that with only 10 episodes he wanted to get these three plot line events done in a single episode so the last 4 episodes have very specific goals.

We need an episode or two where he finds his sword, considering Aku is soon going to learn he doesn't have it. We need an episode we learn about the Guardian, but it doesn't necessarily need to be an episode by itself. We will likely need an episode where he finds a plan to defeat Aku and possibly go back in time, alongside calling upon all of his allies to battle.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Well, Ashi rid herself of the last vestiges of Aku's influence and Jack finally defeated his inner demons, which are both pretty big character moments so I wouldn't say that. The scaramoush plotline went nowhere though, as fun as it was to see him again. He should have made it to Aku and told him about Jack by the end of the episode

I'm pretty sure he'll arrive at Aku's doorsteps in the last couple of episodes, that bot is tenacious. I mean, who even expected him to come back after the first episode?
 
I hope he arrives after either Aku already found out or Jack gets his sword back

I'm betting what'll happen is that he'll tell Aku the news just before Jack gets his sword back, so that when Aku races over to try and finally finish off Jack, he sees him returning with his sword in hand.

Bonus points if Aku takes it all out on what's left of Scaramouche afterward.
 
After the initial high of seeing some old faces return has worn off, I agree that the episode could have been better structurally. I think Ashi meeting callbacks to previous episodes in order to see Jack's effect on the world, and use that to convince him there's something worth fighting for, is a great idea.

However It could've used more forward momentum, perhaps by connecting the characters and having one lead to the other instead of a stop/start approach that can get repetitive. I didn't hate the episode, but I definitely think it could've used some tightening.
 
Yep this was definitely an awful episode. Complete misfire. Veelk described it as indulgent and he's completely on point. The cameo stuff was atrocious. After the first two cases, it was literally referencing things just to reference them. The point had already been made so it was just a case of a show pandering to the older fans in a half-assed way. Then the conclusion of the episode is bad in how it's resolved. oof

Or...they're showing all the different people who will join his final fight against Aku.
 
I don't think they're showing us these people in Jack's past to foreshadow an army that Jack will lead against Aku in the end. The previous episode shows that you can have any sized army against Aku and it still still gets decimated. The point is to show that Jack's legacy has endured these past 50 years, contrary to what the spirit rider is telling Jack and Ashi in the episode's climax. Ashi's message is now part of what helps Jack regain his spirit and reclaim his sword.
 
we saw the army get decimated when they are SPECIFICALLY fighting against Aku, but Jack is going to need allies if he storms Aku's castle because he can't take on all of his minions by himself.
 

Tubobutts

Member
I don't think they're showing us these people in Jack's past to foreshadow an army that Jack will lead against Aku in the end. The previous episode shows that you can have any sized army against Aku and it still still gets decimated. The point is to show that Jack's legacy has endured these past 50 years, contrary to what the spirit rider is telling Jack and Ashi in the episode's climax. Ashi's message is now part of what helps Jack regain his spirit and reclaim his sword.
That episode had the Scotsman say that he was going to find Jack and then gather an even bigger army to fight Aku. This one had people Jack previously helped tell Ashi that they would come if/when Jack needed them.
 

Jocund

Member
Much of the wonky structural shit might've been allieviated if we got a better sense of Ashi's moving through the world.

I know we only get 22 minutes and all, but a couple more shots of her alone, traveling, camping, etc. before the next cameo would have gone a ways to selling us on how far Ashi's willing to travel for Jack, and reinforce that these communities he's helped aren't fifteen minutes' walk/flight away from each other.
 
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