Jack Overall Series discussion

I think Jack has been on a downslide since Episode 3, but honestly I didn't think that finale was too bad.

The pacing I think was the biggest issue. What transpired in the episode itself was sort of OK, might have all even worked but the first 10 minutes were just spent on LOOK AT ALL THESE CHARACTERS, which is nice, it's a nice callback too but when you have 22 minutes you have to hurry that shit up rather than go room by room looking at the people Jack helped be shocked and upset.

The little battle that ensued was nice, maybe a bit of a generic all vs evil battle but I mean, it fits so I can't really complain. That all sort of transpired fine, and then it just became a clusterfuck of pacing.
Jack broken out immediately (he suddenly doesn't care about all the innocent deaths around him? Their lives not as important? And why would Jack even give up his sword last episode? He didn't have to do that to not kill Ashi). A quick, generic, I love you, random Ashi has Aku powers, immediate Portal, immediate Aku death, immediate cut to past, wedding got a little build up, immediate Ashi death (though randomly delayed till wedding lol) and then an immediate lone wanderer scene. Poor fight scenes too.
The events themselves could have worked in a better context, but all in all even that said I don't think it was that bad of an episode. Ashi wasn't forced hard in to it initially and honestly I'm mostly relieved she wasn't the one to kill Aku. Her being able to fight off Aku smells like bullshit though. She just gained her powers and she shouldn't be on his level.

Tl;dr events of the episode weren't that bad, pacing was. I'm actually surprised people are so negative here because usually it's the opposite where I feel more negative

People excusing this by saying muh 10 episodes aren't helping at all either. He had 10 episodes to plan exactly what he wanted. He could have used them more effectively, rather than spending an entire episode on eww girls lmao forced romance jokes.

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youtu.be/iwnFArALbXI?t=30s
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Oh and uh, what did you guys think of Season 5 as a whole and shit. Rather than just the last episode
Hit character limit


I enjoyed it, but think it sort of started off too strong setting an unrealistic tone of what's to come. It's like they worked really hard on the first 3 episodes and then sort of didn't as much for the rest.

Season 5 started good and ended like shit

S4 > S3 > S1 > S2 > S5

Fuck you Genndy, I wanted Ashi to die and for Jack to go back and I was still disappointed by the execution.

Cross posting since it got buried

9/10 as a whole season.

I'm sorry but we're going to need a MASSIVE director's cut of the ending episode. I honestly thought the ending itself was fine, but holy shit, I don't know how the fuck CN looked and said: "yeah this didn't need to be an hour".

The emotional beats would have struck with me amazingly well if they had more time to settle in. But it didn't. Jack is all about the slower moments and letting them sink in and this episode went by so quickly, I know I wasn't the only who had to have felt: "That's it?".

Still I'm thankful we got this season at all. I just really want to know the production behind this season. It definitely felt kinda off to me.

I honestly think Genndy blew the majority of his budget/resources/time on the first few episodes and realized too late there wasn't enough left for the big finale.

That or he was promised more and got cut short at the last minute. He's clearly capable of making great episodes.

I'd say it's the latter. He clearly loves slow buildups and timing, the fact they really weren't present near season's end shows to me he just wanted to condense his true ending with what he had. A damn shame. If it was paced better I'm almost positive I would have cried during the finale.

It would have been better if he rewrote his shit after he realized he was getting 10 episodes instead of 20 or whatever.

He had 10 episodes though. It's a case of planning accordingly so it DOESN'T feel like "this should have been an hour"

I think 220 minutes is plenty of time to get the story done better.

Yeah the first 3 just seemed so well though out, so cohesive and just had some nice really nice ideas in there.
Amazing fight scenes too, whereas everything that came after had a much quicker pace, hurried animation and it just didn't fit together as well.

I don't reckon it's a case of poor management in terms of not handling his budget and time properly, but I'm not sure what else it could be

>I think 220 minutes is plenty of time to get the story done better.

Structuring those 220 minutes so they fit in 22 minute segments is kind of difficult though. CN probably wouldn't have wanted entire episodes devoted to buildup with no payoff, not to mention that buildup would be lost since we'd all forget it before the next episode rolled around.

>Structuring those 220 minutes so they fit in 22 minute segments is kind of difficult thoug
That's literally his job. I'm not saying it's easy, or that the format was more than adequate, but I am saying for what he was given a better job could probably have been done.

A lot of the time in the later episodes sort of went to waste. The pacing as a whole could have been handled better as well as the events that unfolded so we didn't end up with a finale that tries to cram everything into 15 miutes.

First 3 episodes were literal GOAT/kino/savior of western animation tier.

Quickly spiraled into mediocrity before finally jumping the shark with the stupid inner-conflict resolutions in episode 7.

Overall, the new Korra; pretty much a total disaster.

Season 5 was fine, but I can't let this go, Ashi was just Poochie from the Simpsons.
Jack and Aku are on their way to the fireworks factory, where they decide to stop and pick up Ashi because they need a new character to rejuvinate the series.
The show started following her, with the audience asking "where's ashi?" when she wasn't on the screen.
In the finale they made Ashi Louder, Angrier, and have access to a time machine, and then ended the episode with Ashi having to go back to her home planet

>stupid inner-conflict resolutions in episode 7.
While I think the episode wasn't great I actually don't take much issue with how quickly he got over Mad Jack.

For one, Ashi had restored the hope back in him at that point. He felt better about everything. For another, he literally started to meditate, which is an exercise that brings peace and balance, and allowed him to do some soul searching. In that he realised Mad Jack was doing more harm than good, and since Mad Jack was just an extension of Jack's own mind, it makes sense he was dispelled quickly rather than some drawn out fight scene.

It was like a moment of realisation, spurred on by the hope Ashi brought to him moments before. He went from suicidal maniac to smiling.

>the new Korra
Come on, it didn't have an asspull ending. Just a terrible paced one.

Unless you count Ashi not dying straight away as an asspull

>"LE BASED GENNDY!!!!!"

terribly*

Went back to the wrong past the retard

Ashi had no idea what she was doing but Jack had to play along to not hurt her feelings because he's a sperg

Nothing in subsequent episodes came close to this.
Honestly I was hoping we'd get Jack just killing all sorts of shit to the point where we'd have a compilation webm of all his fatalities.

But nah he kills then decides he doesn't like it anymore

It bugs me that only after Ashi survived do we see hints of her "caring" side

What about her other sisters? Who's to say they didn't equally hate it? Who's to say they didn't care? Yet they were all killed with no remorse from Jack, Ashi or their Mother

he certainly pulled something out of his ass, and it just happened to be gurren lagann

This, what a fucking bait and switch. Advertised Punished Jack and then we got some horribly paced romance and rushed ending.
Fuck Genndy, Ashi was the biggest mistake. Some other existing character could have righted Jack's path but instead he went for le cliche forbidden love and executed it awfully.

>executed it awfully.
Yet everyone was lapping it up at first because le tumblr mad xDddd

Lel
A lot of things were a bit cliche or generic desu. I don't mind him using TTGL, mostly because it's still a nice idea and I didn't really remember the TTGL ending, but he didn't execute it very well. I mean, especially in comparison to what he's emulating, but even in itself it was poor.

I just didn't care for Ashi. He never did anything to make me care. The romance wasn't written well and it was incredibly contrived. Ashi as a character is constantly doing stuff like saying Sorry when she's been raised in a cave for 20 years. And she dresses like a literal fairy.

>That or he was promised more and got cut short at the last minute
Would be a bit stupid to agree to revive a dead show and then do that, no?

nice consistency there, Genndy

Season 5 is the best simply because of its first three episodes.

"Then I demand you to use your paltry powers to send me home!"

youtu.be/iwnFArALbXI?t=30s

I kind of wonder if this parody episode had the answer the entire time?

>I think Jack has been on a downslide since Episode 3
you tell me

7-8/10 for the whole season. Still wish it was a true 13-ep half-season instead of 10, because historically SJ's most successful scenes are the ones that are allowed to breath; I'd have liked to see what could've been done with extra wiggle room.

That said, there's definitely ways to cut the fat from the 10 episodes we did get, also rearrange some key events to make it all run smoother:

>Episode 5: cut Scotsman siege (save it for later). Use that time to play up Ashi's visions of her mom, mirroring Jack's hallucinations. Second half of the ep remains the same

>Episode 6: Scotsman siege here, but with more past allies as soldiers. Cut back to Ashi searching for Jack/meeting past allies. Remove all flashback sequences and replace with hints at the Scotsman siege; even now, they continue to fight Aku's tyrrany. Make Omen another facet of Jacks insanity rather than a literal ghost, forcing Ashi to beat some sense into Jack so he doesn't commit seppuku.

>Episode 7: Flashback needs some of the same green lighting as it had in earlier episodes. Get rid of magic shave/haircut/tailoring (but keep skintone revert).

>Episode 8: some quick jump/smash guts of Jack shaving, tidying his manbun, & bartering for a new gi during their time at the desert marketplace. No other changes.

>Episode 9: no change

(cont)

anyone have a link to the sticky thread as it was happening? I missed it

I think people are first going to have to unpack that it wasn't the direction they expected the story to go. Most of the naysayers seem to have wanted a completely different story in the final season.

Finale:
>needed to be a two-parter.
>Battle turns into a massive game of keep-away as allied reinforcements arrive to save Jack, attempting to fetch his sword whilst fending off Aku and evil-Ashi.
>Instead of "I love you!" being the trigger-phrase that frees Ashi of Aku's grasp, have it be a swirl of overlapping audio, including but not limited to: Aku's laughter, mother's scorn, Jack's pleas - latter including the "I do not want to see you become just a memory" from the previous episode.
>Ashi breaks free and goes beastmode on Aku like she did on orc army
>"Ashi, you have Aku's powers!"
>game of cat-and-mouse occurs as Ashi makes multiple attempts to open a portal long enough for Jack to get back to the past. Aku is flipping the fuck out like pic related and stopping them at every turn.
>Ghost-Scotsman gives Aku a taste of 'is pipes long enough for Ashi to get a portal open.
>"Jack! You have to go back!"
(cont)

>brief pause, then pic related
>"No. This ends NOW."
>Jack goes apeshit on Aku, slicing and dicing
>slivers of darkness flung everywhere
>Allies take the hint, corner/corral any pieces of Aku as they are trying to escape.
>accelerating smash cuts of Aku's bits getting slashed with that trademark SHING
>quiet over the battlefield, save for Jack & companies labored breathing
>It's over.
>cheers erupt all around
>"But how will ye get back to the past, laddie? with that blitherin' numpet Aku gone, there ain't no way of gettin ye home!"
>Ashi still has some Aku inside her, can still make portals
>opens a portal, albeit with much more difficulty this time around. Literally holding the portal open with her hands, breaking a sweat.
>Bittersweet goodbyes-
>"GIT ON WITH IT YOU CALLY_BREEK TATTIE! AHAHAHA"
>Jack jumps in the portal, Ashi slips in too as portal snaps shut behind them.
>rest of the episode unchanged, aside from a more climactic final blow to past-Aku

Oh and I forgot: Finale should've just began with Samurai Jack's original opening instead of the new one, then segueing into Aku's broadcast.

I'm not sure why people said that everything went downhill after episode 3. I mean, I guess its technically true because its going downhill from perfection to not that, but I really feel like the quality dip was pretty slight all the way through Episode 7. The last three were a BIG drop, I'd agree with that (though I wouldn't call them total shit, there was good stuff in there that just going buried by several factors), but what do people dislike about 4-7?

What annoys me is that previously Jack has chosen to not abandon his friends in the future when presented with the option to either leave them and go back to the past or fight with them. But this time he just fucks off back to the past and that's the last we hear or see of the future.

It's the same in a tl;dr sense, but skipped more than half of the described events.

Guys, does anyone know if there's a way to see the full finale thread? All the posts from when it was airing are gone.

>we will never get to know who ashi's mother was
>the tuning dagger stopped being relevant after episode 2
>we will never get to see demongo and scaramouche team up and wreak havoc

>we will never get to see demongo and scaramouche team up and wreak havoc

Demongo tried to take Scaramouche's essence once.

Problem is, Scaramouche is a scatting' machine with no soul. Only style, babe.

>they made Ashi Louder, Angrier, and have access to a time machine

Nice user

Ashi had a purpose. She had to make Jack regain hope. Jack was too depressed to see all the good he already did, so she was their to be his final leap home.

I just rewatched it. I found it a lot more enjoyable the second time around. I think I was expecting things that I shouldn't have like Aku going out in the midst of an epic battle. It's more fitting for Aku to die scared and trying to run because that's who he always was. Or a happy ending when the entire show has always had a theme of self sacrifice. I still believe the wedding scene was weak and Ashi puffing out was closer to hilarious instead of emotional but it was a decent ending

That's what they said about poochie.

To be fair this is Cartoon Network we're talking about

ABSOLUTE KINO

CAN'T WAIT TO MARATHON IT ALL

>Overall, the new Korra; pretty much a total disaster.

No but Sup Forums will push this hard

>Celtic

Those are fucking Vikings mate

Shouldn't they be blonde and not ginger?

Probably but they're still vikings

The show was amazing.

The episode 3 meme exists because 2 and 3 were the only episodes that function like the original series, a slow and powerful execution of a simple idea.

A story oriented final season was never going to be the same style as the original, if it did the story would have been shallow.

I was astounded at how much character and story we got and couldn't be happier, Genndy's only mistake is going arthouse for episodes 2 and 3, should have just not gone that route for consistency.

>celtic laddies
>it's Norsemen
You know red hair isn't just for the Irish, right?
"Russia" translates to "Land of the Reds" because northern groups like Slavs and Nords are very commonly daywalker-tier gingers.

Should've ended with Jack finding the Guardian in the past (his real timeline), and then going through the portal back to the future, or just fade to black.

What was the point of that 10 second Demongo clip anyway? "Haha remember this guy he died but we brought him back because he had a funny voice, but he doesn't have any relevance to the storyline now, and this is the actual last time you'll see him."

>Back to the future

That future no longer exists

Yeah it was just a bit of fan service. This season has been full of it

I liked all of the episodes (though episodes 4 and 5 were kind of weak), but I must say very few things have well-done endings and this is no exception. It was great to see Aku with energy and the whole broadcast sequence was spectacular, but everything else happened the way it had to happen and was all the more unengaging because of that. Doesn't help that the people of the future are infinitely more interesting than the picturesque wood painting world which Jack came from and returned to.

It ended how and where it started and I guess that's closure.

But great season all around. Revealed how horrible vocal Sup Forums's taste is if nothing else.

>but I must say very few things have well-done endings and this is no exception.

I bet Sup Forums couldn't name 5 cartoons that had a good ending.

Ed Edd n' Eddy

Nice 5 you have there man

Megas XLR
Justice League
Ed Edd n' Eddy
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Someone else come up with the fifth.

I get Genndy wanted to try new things to keep things fresh, but clearly spending so much of the limited 10 episodes on Ashi was a mistake. There was no room for anything else to be done properly.

why do you have a picture of this jew fuck?

Hey guys remember me? Remember how I was set up to be an ominous figure in Jack's psyche only to turn out to be some ghost? Yep, good thing all that internal strife got sorted out with Jack making tea it meant we had more time for Ashi!

That's nothing compared to this 5

Honestly, all the ending needed was one scene where Ashi is struggling externally, not just internally, and then Aku saying something like "Be a nice girl and obey your daddy. You wouldn't live long without me and my magic anyway". Boom, disappearing ending now makes sense.

I don't get people who are butthurt about The Omen.

>Justice League

Not really since Darkseid and Luthor just kinda fuck off. Did Megas even have an ending?

no, but it was the american gurren lagann and it needs an ending

but sadly it can't be done ever

While my heart of hearts knows that this and korra are in two totally different boats, the sting feels very similar.

The idea that he was the ghost of Jack's ancestors was great, but the execution in the end wasn't very interesting. They needed to interact more I think.

Megas had a satisfying two parter where Coop fought evil Coop with the Glorft's help. It was a fine point to end the series.
But I know you aren't interested in cartoon's that ended in their prime rather cartoon's which had a dedicated conclusion wrapping up the story. This is criteria which can't be met because most cartoons are episodic and just run until cancellation.

Kids next door

Prophetic.

>This is criteria which can't be met

Isn't it sad that we cant get 5 good endings though?

I feel like keeping future Aku alive was a good decision. That "Oh no" when he realizes that he just lost in the blink of an eye was really good.

These are my feelings 100%

Most of the series was awesome. I even liked how the final episode went down. But it was ridiculously rushed, no character moments aside from maybe the wedding (even that was too fast). Just the minimum amount of screentime for each plot point to sprint to the end.

He was underwhelming

Not really.

Overall, the season was really good; first half was god-tier, but the second half suffered badly due to pacing issues. Genndy really needed a 13-episode season to give the series a proper send-off, but I'm satisfied with what we got.

After sleeping on it, I'm much more okay with the finale. I was on Team Jack Stays In The Future, but for all of his friends and allies to (knowingly or not) sacrifice their timeline after the dozens of times Jack sacrificed his chance to go back in time for others, it's a pretty fitting end.

Ashi's role in the season's plot is still something I'm fighting on a bit, but I did like her character and her development (and the fact that a child born in darkness 'died' enrobed in pure white). Again, she needed more episodes for smoother character development.

I'd give the season a 6.5/10 overall, but that might change once I marathon the whole thing.

To fix up plot holes, I think Aku should have revealed: "Oh, didn't you know? You can only travel into the FUTURE with time portals! ;^)"

Any story that involves traveling backwards in time is doomed to plothole disaster.

How?
He was built up to be important for 5 episodes and then he gets killed with zero explanation who he was or why he wanted Jack to commit suicide so badly.
Everything else is just fan speculation.

That is, unless it's already been revealed in an earlier episode that you can use the time portals to travel backwards in time. Has that happened?

>Any story that involves traveling backwards in time is doomed to plothole disaster.

When was Samurai Jack ever a show that cared about these kinds of things?

>Oh yeah, the series will have a bittersweet ending

Fuck you Genndy, that wasn't bittersweet

That was bitter with the smallest drop of sweet

This

I wanna fuck Jack's Mom

Biggest problem was trying to introduce Ashi and making her relevant so the finale had any kind of impact.

Season should have been longer if you wanted to insert your dream waifu, or sticking with the actual setting you had from before.

It's a reaction image don't think too hard on it

I saw a lot of people complaining so evidently the fan base doesn't know about that.

Plus, it seems like Jack barely cares when Ashi disappears so they can more quickly have him reach resolution before the end of the episode. Came off as strange.

In episode 9 why did Jack give up his sword to Aku anyway?

He didn't have to do that in order to not kill Ashi. It's like he just went "oh whatever you've won fml", then in the finale with all his lads dying around him he didn't care and got his hope back

Someone asked this in the sticky

Jack's Dad was only able to contain Aku in the sword, how come Jack was able to remove him altogether just by slamming the ground?

>Korra tier
Jack didn't free and empower Aku, then let entities even more dangerous than him roam the world freely. He also beat the main baddie.

Overall season was an 8/10 for me, no bad episodes but definetly weaker ones. Episode 2 was by far the best episode and just plain incredible

The ending felt and was rushed but Genndy only had 22 minutes so what can you do? Adult Swim should have given him an hour for the finale

But overall i'm really happy with it. Considering this is the only show that'll ever be rebooted/remade and actually be good and not complete dog shit like Power Puff Girls was

I was expecting to be a sad/bittersweet ending but I didn't thought it would be that predictible and cliche

Even if it was a "just ok ending" it doesn't make justice to the series anyway. It should be more than just ok for a series like this

I expected Genndy to come out with something better than this having all those years to think about it.

Where is the god damn fucking chart?

I missed it in the sticky yesterday and the bloody thing just vanished, what did it look like completed?

Jacks dad slammed it into the ground and it created the Aku tree.
I have literally no idea what jack did differently to kill Aku, or if Aku is even fully dead

Season 5

Or "how to troll your own audience"

>Weaker than Jack
>Saved by him several times
>Gets fridged
>Her solo episode is mostly about praising Jack's achievements

Ashi managed to complement Jack without overshadowing him, she had flaws and the show was ultimately still about Jack. She's not a poochie by a long shot.
Well the intro always said "before the final blow was struck", so he was probably on his death throes already.