So, at the risk of sounding dense, I legit liked the ending.
Since SJ excels in visual storytelling, and places value on it over dialogue, that's what I soaked in the most with this ending.
I felt that it was conveyed that Ashi suspected that she would die when killing Aku. Knowing this, she still went through with the plan, and in dying, she restored the world to the beauty and wonder that Jack once knew and believed that he would never see again. Making the world beautiful again as her last gift to him is something I found to be incredibly romantic. In that sense, I felt that it was genuinely bittersweet, rather than a cheap tactic to induce feels like most people are of the opinion.
And I feel that the scene at the end under the tree was really beautiful and captured the sentiment well, particularly being a callback to the scene where Jack first shows Ashi the lone tree in Aku's wasteland, except now surrounded by vibrant life instead of death.
So that's my two cents. For the very few of us that seem to like this ending, are there any other reasons you did?
The ending was great, I liked it too. Bittersweet and beautiful.
William Hill
I want the detractors to challenge this. Not because I want to start a shitfest, but because I think we're focused on different things in our critiques and I want to know if they legit think this isn't a beautiful way to look at it.
Nathan Sanchez
but who was she? the girl from the haunted house?
John Wilson
>her last gift to him is making sure all his friends are wiped from existence against their will
Epic I'm glad she made that decision for everyone.
Dylan Cook
I just think that it goes against what the series has been building up. Jack has helped so many people and made many friends in the future, even going so far as to turn away from portals to protect the innocents of the future. They all showed up for this final battle and a bunch of them just died without any emotion from Jack because "muh romance subplot" was more important. Not to mention that Jack went through that portal never saying goodbye to any of the friends he's made over the past 50 years. Ashi is a complete Mary Sue and should have died with the rest of her sisters. She exists only for the shitty romance subplot and as a deus ex machina plot device to send Jack back to the past. Hell, her final line was exposition that only serves to further complicate the already existing paradox.
Dominic Walker
They never existed in the first, they were part of aku's future. The centuries of aku's dominance needed to be undo, which would've saved lives
Hunter Miller
Except that future wasn't all that horrible. There were plenty of people working to make the best out of it and that was the beauty of it.
Adam Flores
I just didn't like how much time was wasted. That long ass Scotsman bit about his daughters, everyone getting in front of their TVs or whatever (should've just opened with the original intro)... I appreciate the callbacks but that could've been done in the final battle. Plus Jack never really said goodbye to any of them... :(
Not to mention the whole "power of love" saving Ashi bit. And the Guardian was completely dropped? Not even mentioned once? Jack had a beard in this season I guess...
Camden Diaz
>they never existed Yes they did >undo to save lives Those lives are literally all chilling in the afterlife. Who gives a shit, us as viewers weren't even acquainted with them. Jacks wedding should of been surrounded by characters that weren't only in 1 episode.
John Foster
>Except that future wasn't all that horrible
Mason Sanchez
>even going so far as to turn away from portals to protect the innocents of the future This is what bugs me the most. What was the point of that when Jack was just gonna go to the past and undo everything anyway
Anthony James
If they are chilling in the afterlife then what is everyone waiting for? They should all kill themselves
Levi Walker
I am of the belief that when people complain about work of art, it is because they do not understand it. Or, at least, they have no desire to understand it. They don't see the connections, the motifs, the beauty of it all. But that's OK. Anons like you and me do. And that's fine.
Nathaniel Thompson
Because suicide usually bars entrance to the afterlife? Are you retarded?
And Jack does contemplate suicide back when the episodes were good, if you recall.
Joshua Butler
You mean everyone other than all of Jack's friends who came to save him from Aku, knowing full well what that would likely mean EVEN IF he didn't get back to the past?
Nicholas Smith
My most disliked thing isn't even the past, it's the future. And it could've been solved so easily, just defeat future Aku first, THEN send Samurai into the past with goodbye from his friends. No need for second fight with Aku, just get it over with nice death scene. Might as well abolish the bullshit death for drama, since that would reinforce the fact that people from future are still alive.
Austin Hughes
Everyone Jack touched was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for him. They wouldn't have fought Aku for his sake if they weren't. The future being lost was always going to be a cost.
And Jack sacrificing his quest for others was kind of an ongoing theme. He needed people willing to sacrifice themselves for his quest instead for him to go back.
David Phillips
>Because suicide usually bars entrance to the afterlife? Are you retarded? where is this stated in Samurai Jack? As you even said, Jack was about to do an honorable death.
Connor Brown
Because helping them was the right thing to do.
Justin Allen
His friends in the future knew that he would go back and undo the future that is aku so they knew that they will be erased but still saved them.
Henry Rogers
He probably went back because it was his last chance EVER - remember, all of the portals were destroyed at that point. It was now or never in terms of fixing things.
Charles Rivera
If the future was worth getting rid of and absolutely devoid of value and beauty then there shouldn't have been anything left to convince Ashi to doubt her beliefs and switch sides.
Kevin Mitchell
The ultimate sacrifice is death. I'm sure people were ready to die for Jack, but have there existence erased? Clearly not because Scotsman still cares about his daughters and even offers to marry one off, and everyone is shocked when ashi disappears. What do you mean? Do you know anything?
Eli Hall
>They wouldn't have fought Aku for his sake if they weren't. Do they actually know he's going to change the past or do they just think he's trying to defeat Aku?
Cooper Wilson
Clearly not, they don't acknowledge this as all and even the Scotsmans reactions during the fight prove this
Zachary Kelly
God, I hate you people grabbing on the words from intro. Clearly the words that are told from villain's perspective, and written at the very beginning of series must come true. But you're not even saying that you think it should be true, you think CHARACTERS IN THE SHOW believe what Aku says.
Michael Smith
You are literally making shit up.
Grayson Watson
Or maybe we just think it was better when Gurren Lagaan did it.
Aiden Ward
Saving a handful of lives
Xavier Lopez
It's like you never watched jack, he says it here himself
Sacrifice without knowledge of the sacrifice or choice to make it isn't actually sacrifice, it's just being screwed.
Justin Murphy
Who is the "he" in your post referencing?
Levi Perry
You forgot to link time faggot. And in this very episode Jack goes back to save people. Why would he go to save someone when they will be undone? Either it was planned for future to stay the way it is after Jack leaving or Jack himself thought this way.
Caleb Smith
Samurai Jack
Bentley Nelson
I liked her journey. She was preprogrammed to eliminate Jack like so many of the robots we saw in the original run, and artistically I loved watching her transform from that to what she became at the end. Again, going back to the whole beauty thing in OP, I found it poetic that someone born in darkness that secretly yearned for the beauty of the world to restore that beauty.
I appreciate it way more by looking at it from an artistic perspective rather than purely plot-related perspective. And I feel that with SJ, we're supposed to do that to some extent.
David Gutierrez
>by erasing a universe of people Then why go back at all? I think you're misunderstanding me here. I'm saying that, if this was how the ending was going to be all along, then having Jack not use the portals earlier is shitty writing. If the end goal was to have Jack stay in the future like it seemed to be building up to, then it might have made more sense. I'd have preferred the latter.
Jose Brooks
Where's the guarantee he would be able to kill Aku in the future? Where's the guarantee Aku wouldn't kill Ashi somehow and destroy Jack's only way of getting back?
Luis Wright
That was the purpose of the original intro in the beginning expect fanservice,to explain to everyone jacjson story and what is his goal. You are fucking stupid
Andrew Ross
Okay, then you screwed up your link, just FYI.
Mason Martinez
Shinto has no problem with suicide, which is why Seppuku was used to keep your honor. Pretty much only Abrahamic religion, not part of Samurai Jack, has a problem with it.
Easton Bell
>Where's the guarantee he would be able to kill Aku in the future? Well, there's the fact that Aku is terrified and hides and runs away from him even in the future.
The dialogue. Instead of explaining what's happening she should of made her last moments silent. >She collapses at wedding. Held in Jack's arms. >"Ashi what's wrong?!" >She looks at him fatigued. She smiles a tired smile. Gently grabs his face kisses his jaw. Fades away. Then the Cherry Blossom lady bug ending.
Or
>No wedding. She grabs Jack by his hand. "Ashi," Jack smiles. "Where are we going?" "Shush it's a surprise." >She leads him up the hill to the cherry blossom. >"Remember this?" Ashi smiles her voice slightly weaker. She slowly leads his hand to the trunk of the tree. He stares at her a hint of sadness in his eyes. >"Yes..." He stated his voice even. "Let's lay here just for a moment." Ashi requests. >They sit. She relaxes her head on his shoulder. Sitting in a beautiful white kimono. >"Ashi..." >"Yes, Jack?" She asked her eyes closed. >"Is this the future how you've envisioned it?" Jack tears up. >"Jack, this is the future I've always dreamed of. Thank you." >Camera goes behind them. Ashi is no longer there just her clothes laying on Jack. Cherry blossoms float away in the breeze.
Liam Scott
>Where's the guarantee he would be able to kill Aku in the future? I mean, he's already defeated Sky several times. Now he's at Aku's HQ. He can't exactly run off this time. >Where's the guarantee Aku wouldn't kill Ashi somehow and destroy Jack's only way of getting back? This is actually a valid point but if he was gonna kill Ashi, why didn't he already do it after she freed herself?
Jayden Evans
>Where's the guarantee he would be able to kill Aku in the future? I mean, he's already defeated Aku several times. Now he's at Aku's HQ. He can't exactly run off this time. >Where's the guarantee Aku wouldn't kill Ashi somehow and destroy Jack's only way of getting back? This is actually a valid point but if he was gonna kill Ashi, why didn't he already do it after she freed herself?
Bentley Anderson
Can't wait for fans to make a Ashi-free cut of the series. She dies after the first three eps, Jack meditates his sword back and forces a portal out of Aku with the help of everyone he's saved on his journey. The final shot is him smiling because his last season was good.
Henry Anderson
I actually really want to make an alternate ending myself. I've got Flash, but it's the drawing that's the tough part
Lucas Williams
hopefully user
Adrian Ramirez
>if he was gonna kill Ashi, why didn't he already do it after she freed herself? Because he didn't have enough time! The fight was cut off when Ashi realized she had Aku's powers.
Gabriel Jones
Meant to reply to
Bentley Martin
This.
I don't get why people are so bogged down in technicalities and trying to analyze every single minute detail to rationalize how they could have their cake and eat it too if Jack just played his cards this way or that way. That's not what it was supposed to be.
Landon King
Fanservice was THE purpose. No one acknowledges sacrifice, no one says anything about past or time travel. They just see Jack hostage and that they need to help him to defeat Aku. >ay jack, see my daughters, you really need to marry one of them >and by the way, I know you're planning to undo us all
Ian Lewis
>Because he didn't have enough time! The fight was cut off when Ashi realized she had Aku's powers. Okay, but there was like a whole 30 seconds where Aku realized that she had his powers. If he had some kill switch or something to finish her off, why didn't he use it then and there? Fact is, he probably didn't have a fail-safe and, since Ashi looked to be on equal footing with Aku (despite only having a few drops of his essence compared to Aku being the source himself) combined with the fact that Jack (who has already defeated Aku countless times) was there, there's not much of a chance monkey face would buy the farm.
Nathan Smith
Because that's totally what people are hung up on, minor details. Not the fact that every part of it was terrible both in concept and execution.
Note how Jack mourns some whore he just met but the Scotsman never existing doesn't cross his mind.
Hunter Kelly
I like those as alternatives, but regardless of whether or not you think it would be better executed, they would ultimately lead to a similar kind of ending, which is what most of the fans have a problem with to begin with.
Aiden Rivera
Probably because, as many, many people have pointed out, this ending and entire concept was done better ten years ago.
Samuel Cooper
Brak from Space Ghost
Lucas Brown
I don't think Ashi NEEDED to make a sacrifice, narratively, for the ending to work. I don't think her foreknowledge was too well-communicated, either. Most importantly, I think the ending leaves it too ambiguous as to what happened to the future people, how it effected Jack, and whether Ashi was utterly erased in body AND soul. I tend to think she wasn't, since her soul has nothing to do with Aku and you have the lone ladybug, but it seems pretty fuzzy. I also find it to impact the ending badly that Ashi and Jack never get a farewell, and Ashi doesn't get to affirm her love to Jack. We can infer it easily, but considering how short the denouement is, I think it would have made the scene feel less bitter.
When writing an ending, I feel like you kind of have to ask WHY you're doing that ending, what are you trying to say with it? Showing that Ashi and Jack were so selfless and still painfully parted despite their fears and reassurances hands Aku a victory of a sorts that he really does not deserve.
Levi Cook
>which is what most of the fans have a problem with to begin with. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan.
Execution does in fact make a difference.
Joseph Campbell
Why do you guys ignore the fact it was going to happen ..we saw this season Jack jumped right into a portal without a second thought. His goal was to go back he wasn't forced. and everyone we met will still be born just in a better timeline
Logan Bennett
>I found it poetic that someone born in darkness that secretly yearned for the beauty of the world to restore that beauty. Her entire character development could have been done in a single episode if Genndy didn't want to impose his masturbatory fantasy character on the audience. Hell I'd even accept her showing up in the final fight too, but other than that, she does absolutely nothing for the plot that other characters couldn't do better.
Juan Bell
>wait Jack without aku I am nothing also palpatine is a Sith Lord!
David Smith
>everyone we met will still be born just in a better timeline fanfiction.net
Hudson Gomez
Not saying it doesn't, and admittedly I also wish her last words to Jack were something more romantic than "without Aku, I never would have existed," but the whole going back to the past and disappearing because time paradox thing seems to make up the bulk of complaints.
The callbacks to the evolution of her character and the beautiful imagery that compliments it were what made it for me, but that's just me.
Connor Green
Claiming the opposite is also fanfiction, though. We simply DO NOT KNOW, and perhaps it's better to end the series that way. Let your imagination run wild.
Julian Davis
>my fan fiction is truer than yours
Chase Richardson
We saw a deranged and murderous and angry Jack jump into a portal immediately, yeah.
Levi Adams
It was true. Look at the tree in the parting shot. It's a half-heart. (Or half-yin-yang).
Jaxson Sanders
He seeks to UNDO the future. Not make it better. Undo it.
Jace Ramirez
lava theory they say lava theory my ass Genndy you had one job ,one job
Caleb Brown
I didn't say he had a fail-safe. I said he might have been able to defeat her, even with Jack helping her.
Why would either Ashi OR Jack risk that?
Ethan Gray
>Not the fact that every part of it was terrible both in concept and execution.
It wasn't, though.
Camden Jackson
You CONVENIENTLY left out the rest of it: "the future THAT IS AKU". NOT the future in general.
Cooper Moore
>Why would either Ashi OR Jack risk that? Because it meant saving people in the future. Not that Jack cares about the people of the future, apparently, considering most of his friends were killed by Aku and he showed no emotion about it.
Grayson Collins
>UNDO the future
"That is Aku"
You forgot that one but.
Cooper Thomas
50 years of despair will do that to a person, regardless if they thought they "got over it" or not.
Face it futurefags, going back was the ONLY way.
Jayden Brown
Remember when Nia from Gurren Lagann disappeared on her wedding day because the anti spiral got defeated?
Connor Torres
Reminder that fags like this guy are in the minority.
>Face it futurefags, going back was the ONLY way. There's ways he could have saved the past AND stay in the future though
Isaac Cruz
>forgot kek
Gavin Parker
Tbh having jacks friends cope with the fact that they are a part of aku just as much as ashi is in a way would've been satisfying, and having Jack deal with that by either going to the past or sparing them.
But no, this is Samurai Hack so
Logan Cox
The ending sucked, Genndy is a hack. Also does Ashi have a soul? The afterlife is a thing in Samurai Jack and getting erased from existence would be a fate far worse than death.
Eli Rogers
No. "Saving the past" means killing Aku in the past which means that future will NOT exist as we knew it. Period. Whether Jack stays in the future is irrelevant here.
Jacob Wilson
>the only way to achieve peace is to go back to the ghosts of your past for a magic repeat
What other good pieces of fiction EVER do something like this? Usually messages are about looking towards the future, not trying to chase magic solutions to your problems.
Carter White
But does anyone have a link to the pastfag vs. futurefag strawpoll? IIRC the futurefags were winning there, much to my horror.
Gavin Turner
>regardless if they thought they "got over it" So you're saying that got over it, but he didn't. Kay. >going back was the ONLY way. Not necessarily, but I'd be completely fine with going back if they adressed it. Make the "bittersweetness" of ending come from the fact that he lost all people he knew, not just muh ashi.
Colton Lewis
The future in general is aku, see jack is under no illusion
Connor White
Ashi must have a soul, since she's a human being with a demonstrable separate existence from Aku. Hell, when Aku dies and the part of him in her does as well, she isn't harmed or changed (save losing her powers, probably).
William Morgan
>I can't comprehend good endings because I'm a retard
Jack went back to the past and nobody liked the ending. That should be proof that your opinion is fucking shit.
Bentley Hall
I really really love the idea of a lone hero and Ashi's took away from that. Yes I understand it's still Jack's show but I like him not having any traveling companions.
That's really it.
Nathaniel Brown
Aku is dead. Past, present, and future. (And due to Ashi's disappearance we know for sure there aren't any parallel timelines he could be hiding in.)
Luis Robinson
>Jack goes through the portal >Meets past Jack inside the portal >They grab arms and throw each other back the way they came >Future Jack uses his sword to tear apart the portal from the inside >Dynamic fight scene showing both Jacks fighting both Akus >Since future is separate from past now, everyone still lives >Ash still dies because Aku's dead or something and she's a terrible character Everyone's happy.
Carson Moore
Genndy has done this kind of time travel before...you know?
Cameron Cook
Someone needs to ask Genndy if Ashi has a soul and some say the hidden meeting for the lady bug is a message from a lover, and it means they will meet again in the afterlife.
Brody Hall
>Since future is separate from past now That's the part you're messing up. The future is NOT separate from the past.
Joshua Taylor
You missed the part where half of posts is someone's fanfic, because Genndy left us with nothing concrete.
Justin Cooper
>That's the part you're messing up. The future is NOT separate from the past. What part of "Jack tears up the inside of the portal with the specific intention of separating the future from the past" didn't you get?
Charles Perry
Futurefags are fucking retarded.
>But muh metaphors!
It's a show about a guy trying to get back to the past and in the end, he did that.