Are you worried about the direction the season is going so far...

Are you worried about the direction the season is going so far? Is everything meeting your expectations or are you already disappointed?

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I think I was expecting things to be on a larger scale, or have Jack making peace with his fate and wrapping up loose ends with the friends he made along the way.

The creator of Usagi Yojimbo said the last story he may ever make will just have Yojimbo trying to save a baby and dying along the way; not some epic clash or final grudge match. I feel the Samurai Jack guys are going on a similar route. They are focusing on Jack's fractured mind and trying to save Ashi, who is herself a symbolic result of the world that Jack has failed to save.

It's not what I expected or initially wanted, but I think I get what they are going for, and I think it will be a better watch when all the episodes are out.

For the most part the season has been fantastic. Episode 5 was the only bad episode for me, but beyond that it's been good shit.

I'm loving it and having no issues with Ashi or her potential role as a love interest.

Still pure KINO to me overall.

I don't have a problem with Ashi, but there is no reason to make her a love interest. She can't just simply love Jack after he killed her sisters. It's forced and rushed.

I'm not worried at all. I'm very excited for the future episodes and the conclusion.

I don't mind it but I can understand people being pissed off there's too much focus on Ashi

They could have set up Jack choosing to spare Ashi a bit better too. He literally voluntarily dropped her off a tree when she was the last one remaining and wasn't even a threat and minutes later chooses to keep her with him.
I know he had his very brief self reflection moment after falling but still, could have used a better setup.
I wasn't too fond of the Ladybug thing either. It caused doubt within Ashi and for the most part I'm fine with that, but her whole life has been brainwashing to kill the Samurai. Her liking ladybugs as a kid making her doubt ~20 years of training is a bit eh. She was literally brainwashed and knew nothing else, her love for Ladybugs would likely have ended as soon as she was told. I mean, she showed no compassion towards her own sisters dying, so I think that could have been set up a bit better too.

If going forward there's too much focus on Ashi I might be a bit more disappointed, since I like Jack and while I don't mind Ashi I'm not particularly fond of her either, even if her character is by and large fine

>I don't mind Ashi I'm not particularly fond of her either, even if her character is by and large fine.
This is probably the best description of Ashi and some people's anger of the new season. She feels like any other one episode side character that only appears once in the previous show, but for reasons given a larger role. And as a one shot character, the show had far better. For a grand finale it just seems a bit odd.

If she was replaced with Da Samoorai I don't think anyone would mind.

I am pretty happy. I like Jack's character twist, Ashi isn't really half bad and the relationship between the two of them is really starting to flourish. I say flourish because I don't think it's reached its true potential just yet. We need more interactions of the two of them in order to get a full grasp of their connection.

>If she was replaced with Da Samoorai I don't think anyone would mind.
As interesting as that would have been, the tone for this new series wouldn't really fit with Da Samurai. Just look at the first scene of the Scotsman in Season 5; the death of hundreds of men was played for laughs, and while it was indeed pretty funny, it seems a little out of place in a world where every death and act of violence has been taken very seriously.

Not a huge fan of pacing. I think it would have been as a movie instead of series.

If someone were to combine all of Season 5, you'd get a movie. Didn't Genndy want to make a movie as a finale initially?

>Didn't Genndy want to make a movie as a finale initially?
He did

I love this season

10/10
10/10
10/10
8/10
7.5/10

It's mostly promising. Genndy's good and I don't mind the Ashi thing. My only fear is that she's going to outlive Jack and be the slayer of Aku or some awful shit like that.

She is younger than Jack; she'll probably outlive him given that Jack is bound to die at the end if anything to complete his journey and giving the poor man some rest.
Ashi slaying Aku though; they'd better not pull that shit off.

>She can't just simply love Jack after he killed her sisters.

Any sort of compassion she had for them was beaten out of her as a child. Though they should address this if the love route is taken.

>It's forced and rushed.
And the one episode burgeoning relationship with Ikra wasn't?

The second episode has definitely been the peak so far, it was the most intense and told it's story well, the rest of the episodes are disjointed and paced poorly.

I feel like 20 episodes might have been more suitable for the stories they are trying to tell, we got almost no prior development of Ashi or the sisters and then they're all killed off and Ashi is jammed into a MC role out of nowhere.

If they'd put more focus on the effect not only Aku, but Jack, has placed on the future it would feel more fleshed out.

I'm glad it's happening and I will always tune in, but I don't think it's going to end a masterpiece.

>Any sort of compassion she had for them was beaten out of her as a child. Though they should address this if the love route is taken.
I wouldn't be surprised if in the next episode when she treks the world alone looking for Jack she stumbles across a group of siblings, be it aliens, robots, humans or even a family of birds that make her remember her sisters and feel hurt at having never experienced something like that. Maybe even bring up in a future conversation with Jack how she wishes she could feel bad for her sister's death but still can't bring herself to do so.

I just wish we got 13 episodes like the other seasons, 20 sounds like too much and I believe three episodes would be all that's needed. Then again it's hard to tell how many episodes we really needed when we haven't even seen the last episode.

>The second episode has definitely been the peak so far, it was the most intense and told it's story well,
Agree, but I don't agree with the latter part of the sentence. Pacing has largely been fine. People criticise the last episode for its pacing but honestly I thought even that wasn't too bad. He thought he just saw masses of children die, le IT IS TIME man had been appearing in pretty much every episode, it fit well enough that Jack would go off with him if you ask me. He'd been losing his sanity as it is and never really found his purpose.

Disjointed? Can't say I've thought the same.

>she stumbles across a group of siblings, be it aliens, robots, humans or even a family of birds that make her remember her sisters and feel hurt at having never experienced something like that.
I like the idea, but when you're locked up for your whole life knowing nothing else, having any of this sort of compassion feels off. That was my problem back when Ashi decided not to kill Jack when he had the chance.
But then again, she's always thought she was the "good" side and I remember boss lady telling her about the beauty of what Aku has built and all that so I suppose she's not inherently bad. Maybe even had the same ideals as Jack but was just vouching for the wrong horse, which makes her conversion make more sense desu

Ashi definitely is a force of good; she's been indoctrinated into doing good. The thing is, her views on good and evil were ridiculously twisted. As soon as she realized that Aku was the evil one instead of Jack she regained a purpose. It's actually pretty interesting.
The whole "KILL THE SAMURAI" hasn't gone away at all, she has just traded it for "KILL AKU". For all means and purposes, Ashi's still a tool of vengeance, except this time she's being pointed at a different target. I wonder if the show will acknowledge this after Aku is dead, how her life has no significance at all without a constant assassination target to aim to.

>Samurai Wick

There has never been a show or cartoon where every episode is good. I'm not expecting every episode of Samurai Jack's final season to be good. Having a mediocre episode or 2 doesn't mean the show is going to shit.

I kind of doubt that will happen. Ashi has always wanted to stop and smell the roses, to play with ladybugs and watch sunsets and shooting stars, but just never been allowed to because she was pushed into being an assassin. Once her target is out of the way she'll finally be allowed to stop and appreciate and learn about all the beauty in the world, and I doubt she'd be dissatisfied.

Yeah I agree in that she just had a twisted version of reality, and you've phrased it better in saying KILL JACK just became KILL AKU.

The thing is though, despite thinking she was on the good side, she was never taught compassion, love and basically any of the good emotions. Her entire life was training for Jack with nothing in between. She had no compassion for her own sisters dying, so I still struggle to believe the whole ladybug thing. At the very least it should have been set up better.
Her whole life is a brainwash, one experience of liking Ladybugs as a kid is significant, but if she's been brainwashed her whole life that experience would ultimately be meaningless since the ladybugs were considered "bad" and really that should be the end of it

With no concept of family, no real love inside her, would it really fit for her to feel remorse over some sisters getting along?

Episode 1: Loved it
Episode 2: Great
Episode 3: Good, but heading in the wrong direction
Episode 4: No
Episode 5: No stop

Hopefully the rest of the season will make up for it.

I agree with . The final season seems more intimate than I expected, but I don't hate it. Episode 2 hasn't yet been topped, but there's still plenty of time. I really like Jack's development, though Ashi's character arc feels really rushed.

I am a little bit.

The first few episodes were pitch perfect. Tense, nicely slow and paced to give a real sense of tension, Scaramouch was the perfect blend of entertaining and threatening, and watching Jack Vs the sisters, both fights was downright nail biting tense.

Things just seemed to grind to a halt after that, though. Nothing inside the beast felt particularly tense, the banter isn't really funny, and then it sort of ends.

I can't criticize the most recent one because it was worldbuilding and establishing the current place, and Ashi is a nice standin for the audience there, but she's not interesting, she's not funny, and she's not really connecting with me, and that entire previous answer meant Jack just did nothing for an episode but escape. If we continue focusing on this not-very-interesting character instead of Jack's attempts to finally be himself again and finally win, it'll be very disappointing.

>With no concept of family, no real love inside her, would it really fit for her to feel remorse over some sisters getting along?
My idea was more along the lines of Ashi wondering what having a family would have been like. Or even just wanting to feels something for the family she lost but being unable to. Wanting to feel would make for a pretty interesting character development, at least, in my opinion.

Yeah. I guess actually being exposed to normal functioning families would create not only some of the wonder, but also some of the remorse.
It's not like she's seen any of this before, she doesn't know typical Sister bonds. I think as of the last episode she doesn't really care about her Sisters, but seeing something like you mentioned might sting her a bit.

The only thing is up until now the only emotion she's been taught is literally hate. Any concept of morality she even has comes through hate too
>Samurai Jack is bad because he hurts
innocents (and that's bad)
>Samurai Jack is bad because he hurts nature (and that's bad)
>Samurai Jack is bad because he does X (and that's bad)

It's very twisted and only provided her with a basic grasp of right and wrong from boss lady hating on Jack. So fuelled with rage her whole life, it could still be a tough sell making her seem compassionate, since no one's taught her anything about it.

Still, in order to integrate the idea that hurting innocents, nature and evil in general you have to teach goodness. And with that, you also have to explain what differentiates good from bad.
Ashi seems more personally motivated to kill Jack because she has a deeper appreciation of the beauty of nature that she has to protect. So,
>nature is good because it makes me feel good
>what hurts nature is bad
>the Samurai is "hurting nature"
>the Samurai is evil

Same thing might end up happening with Jack. Jack does seem to appreciate her, saving her life numerous times and even telling her stories like a dad would do to his child.
It's only a matter of time, if it hasn't happened already, that Ashi makes the connection
>Jack makes me feel good
>Jack is therefore good
>whoever hurts Jack is evil
>then my sisters and I were evil

For the moment, I feel that would be her first conclusion because she has the mindset of a child. With time and more exposure she could develop into a functionally moral woman.

At some level, you gotta be able to let the story teller tell his story how he sees fit.

I'm not saying there isn't a basis for criticsm, but I am saying there is a basis for consumer entitlement.

That being said, I don't mind Ashi or the pacing. I have maintained pretty realistic expectations in this regard; I would love to see Jack get to be happy at some point given his trials and tribulations.

>Ashi seems more personally motivated to kill Jack because she has a deeper appreciation of the beauty of nature that she has to protect.
Eh I don't agree with this. While she's shown to like nature as a kid, that was never what she was taught as the main reason to kill Jack. Like I said, I don't think she was taught good and bad, instead just a basic concept of it through hate. Anything boss lady told her that Jack did, was considered evil and that's all she knew.

>Anything boss lady told her that Jack did, was considered evil and that's all she knew.
I agree, but in order to know of evil you need to know of good.
Jack was the bad, Aku was the good. That was practically the main consistent truth she was taught.
However, she was the leader of the group and she was the only one to show true appreciation for the world around her as we show in instances such as looking through the crack in the cave wall, staying up to watch the stars and such.

>Aku was the good.
Fair enough, but only in a basic sense in that she was told he made everything and did everything which Jack is out to destroy. I suppose you could infer from that she was taught Aku is compassionate and so did learn a basic sense of it, but then that would sort of go against the complete lack of compassion or any sort of good will she had to her sisters death. Even just showing she was the last one to leave when Jack killed the first would have been enough. Had that happened it'd make more sense if she again were to show compassion later in the Season

>she was the leader of the group
There was no leader
>staying up to watch the stars
Oh, was that her in Episode 2 taking watch?
I still think it could have done with better build up because the two other scenes we saw of her appreciating nature was as a literal child, which is something that really could have been beaten out of her with the rest of her life spent training. I mean, it's easy to think she kept the love in spite of boss lady, but again it just wasn't set up too well imo. Two scenes as a kid isn't enough, especially when the one where she wandered to the crack could simply be put down to childish curiosity.

Not sure how I quoted myself. Meant to quote Confused the shit out of me

I don't think there's been a bad episode as of yet desu. 5 might not have been the best but I still enjoyed it and things progressed quite a bit

bump, i like this thread

>10 episodes
>22 minutes each
>Almost 4 hour long movie
Your math is off user

Be-beep-be-ba-do-bump! Guess whose back next episode, babe?

>Ep 1-3
fucking kino
>Ep 4 & 5
great

I hope you're not just toying with my emotions user

imgur.com/a/CsDOT

Based Genndy is a god. Why did we ever doubt him?

Same

You clearly never saw the Benicio Del Toro Che Guevara movie

O FUG

>The blind archers are back

>That Ashi

Muh dick.

>next episode is just going to be a nostalgia trip.

Well might as well get it over with and make it somewhat relevant to the progression of the story.

I really hope aku doesn't kill best bot. Let him live at least.

>yfw Ashi travels back to the past and becomes Jack's mother

I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure he'll find a way to come out ahead

Loving it. Putting off my suicide to see the rest

She will never be a love interest. If anything I find the theory that she will be jacks successor to be most likely.

I don't know about that. Because if she were to become Jack's successor she'd be going around undoing the evils of Aku. And with only 5 episodes left in the series there's not enough time to develop that

Every LotR movie is 4 hours long.

I remember there was a marathon on some channel one time, they started at 6 am and finished at 8pm

Their job is to stab jack, not to debate him. They don't need any more of a working definition of evil than does a dog.

Evil is bad. Bad is what you are when you do something I don't like and I have to hit you for it. Samurai Jack is evil. Samuai jack is bad. Go hit him.