Now that the dust has definitely settled, what went wrong?

Now that the dust has definitely settled, what went wrong?

Bryke syndrome 2.0

To much focus on Ashi, not enough focus on characters we actually cared about (Aku, Scotsman, etc.)

Also, the first three episodes set such a high bar that I don't think the other seven could have ever lived up to them.

Genndy ripped off TTGL.

>muh first three episodes

That shit's as tired as Hillary Clinton's excuses for losing.

It needed 3 more episodes. Other than that, nothing.

Everything

First two episodes were kino just like the fans dreamed. They exceeded the hype. Third one was very good but had flawed pacing and some only good moments.
After that the show took a nosedive and died with nostalgia episode with Ashi saving Jack and cringe rave.

Jack's waifu. Instead of focusing on Jack and his solitary adventure, aka doing what the show has always been about, they focus pretty much half of the short, time-precious 10-episode season on a poorly constructed romance. Like, damn, Gendy, all you had to do was write some good Samurai Jack ep.s, something you had successfully done 50 time before this new crack season; you must've had some ideas brewing in your head for all those years.

Instead we get the most half-baked shit imaginable, that also slaps us at the end for good measure by trying to be deep with Ashi's vanishing, even though we gave not two fucks about her, leaving Jack solitary again because of shit writing.

Yes I'm mad.

>no king jack
>horrible final battle
>guardian don't survive
>obnoxious love interest that ruin jack character
>no closure about what happened to the future.
>barely explain why jack don't age
>most budget went to the first four episodes
>end with jack smiling for no reason.

>Most prominent promo image is bearded Jack with the sword
>Bearded Jack never held the sword in the actual show
I was seriously hoping the finally battle with Aku would be a one on one between him and Jack in the rain, the way Aku actually died was so fucking disappointing.

They didn't have enough time to tell the story they wanted to tell, but they tried to tell it anyway by squashing the season and as a result they butchered what could've been a great story, just like what happened with the Netflix Death Note.

Destroying bearded jack and his armor in 3 seconds was the most retarded shit possible

Samurai Jack didn't need an ending, it didn't need a serialized story, it didn't need a clumsy attempt at character development, it didn't need edgelord violence, and it CERTAINLY didn't need a fucking love interest.

Season 5 was a mistake on a conceptual level and it sure as hell isn't Samurai Jack.

Bryke? Is George Lucas not trending anymore?

>>muh first three episodes
But they were nice!

Whole story about the first Avatar was the biggest slap to a franchise's setting i ever saw. Not even Star Wars prequels come close to that.

Nothing/everything.

You see, it took me some time to realize, but season 5 was not any worse or better than what came before. Samurai Jack, since the very beginning, was style over substance, emotions over logic. That's what the show ALWAYS was, and you either like that or not.

/correct opinion

>season 5 was not any worse or better than what came before. Samurai Jack, since the very beginning, was style over substance, emotions over logic
Well, sure. But the first 2-3 episodes of S5 seemed to be better than what came before so people kinda expected the whole season to stay on that level.

the last 15 minutes

it's like Genndy didn't know how to end it, so he went home, banged Lauren a couple times, then binged on TTGL

You're wrong.
S5 focused more on shitty dialogue and a new character instead of visual storytelling we got so used to in previous seasons.
First two episodes were great because it was a silent Jack on his adventure. He barely said anything during the first episode.

It was always kind of shitty and overrated, if that is what your "/correct opinion" means. It was slowly paced, reused the same few sound effects lifted from Dexter's Lab, and had too many episodes that quite frankly were better off not happening. The only difference was the edgy "look at us showing kids getting beat up and teenagers getting massacred because we AS nao!!" that John F Gennedy ended up shying away from after a few episodes anyway.

Autistic anger at the fact that dumb Internet headcanon didn't turn out to be correct

It peaked early and slowly got worse. Not killing both future and past Aku was a major bummer for me. Also Sacramouche's sub plot was very anticlimactic.

the armor was hard to draw mang

Ashi, it's all her fault

That's not Sup Forums.

I already wrote down the reason in another thread, but I'm fine with doing it again.

Samurai Jack has an style of its own that is very easily recognizable, and is in fact what helped it gather its following.
When the new season came along, we got more of that during the first three episodes. Why do you think everyone and their mother loves those so much? Because it's exactly what we were promised; Samurai Jack for adults.
It was the same as the original four seasons; long silent moments, focus on atmosphere, beautiful backgrounds, goofy characters like Scaramouche and Aku and great action scenes. Only this time there was blood, and greater sense of danger, our hero talking about suicide... It was all in all more mature, but it was still Samurai Jack.
Episode 4 had this as well; it really knew how to keep that pacing. After that, however, the problem this season faces starts showing its face. And before you start, it's not Ashi, at least not her directly.
After this, the show takes on a different tone. The first three episodes felt like a short movie; the had their own arc, characters and situations. After that, the "real" plot kicks in and we get the story moving. And narratively speaking, this is a story that just doesn't fit Samurai Jack's method of storytelling. It becomes too complex when Samurai Jack was always fairly simple and straight forward. It then becomes the story of two characters instead of one. And a story with two characters usually requires much more dialogue, pauses and development, something that was much more lacking in Samurai Jack until now. It's another narrative style. However, they didn't want to create a new season that had only Samurai Jack in the title, so they tried to adhere to the original's spirit despite all the changes, creating a mix of slow and methodical sequences with some very rushed scenes because of the time that needed to be devoted to the dialogue.
1/2

2/2
I fear that the season's plot was too big for its own good. Now, I am optimistic, and I think that had they had more episodes they would have been able to both tell the story they wanted to tell as well as keeping the original's spirit; there would be plenty of ways to get around it.
The way I see it, season 5 was an experiment, an strange blend of elements that under normal conditions shouldn't work together. And, subjectively speaking, I don't think it was as much of a disaster as many people here says it. Despite the season's many flaws, I do think they managed to tell a cohesive story even though they had to a lot of bumps along the way. However, people who don't agree with me also have a ton of reasons on their side to be right; it really is rushed and depending on your tolerance, many elements don't fit in as they should.

Perhaps this is just me, but I think that if you look at each episode individually instead of as a part of a grander story they do improve a lot. And this is coming from someone who doesn't have that many issues with the direction the season went. But those are just my observations and my probably flawed conclusions.
All in all, I'm just happy to be able to talk about Samurai Jack again.

>Third one was very good but had flawed pacing and some only good moments.
Really? This is the first time I've seen someone criticizing the third episode here. Would you mind to elaborate? I'm genuinely curious.

Too short, not enough episodes to handle the tonal shift between the first episodes and the latter. No real satisfying handling of the whole erasing the future part. Killing Ashi. Jack just getting his sword handed bcak to him and his robe lasered on. Lack of interaction between Aku and Jack.

>Lack of interaction between Aku and Jack.
I actually liked this part. Jack is so done with Aku's shit that he doesn't even address him. I thought it spoke of how tiring the conflict had gotten for the two of them.

Actually, I'm pretty sure he knew how to finish; keep Jack in the future and have him deal with the loss of the past, but probably got cold feet at the idea of not sending Jack back, back to the past after 13 years and wrote a pretty rushed ending sacrificing Ashi just to keep it bittersweet.

Waifu shoulda been one of scotsman's daughters, shouldn't have had such a copout ending, Jack should of stayed in the future and realised this was his home now, and it needs about 3 more episodes of build up

Also we should've learned his actual bloody name.

>Also we should've learned his actual bloody name.
Unnecessary. Names are not important.

>several absolute stinker episodes in a season that was already strapped for time (Callbacks: The Episode and Lost in Space With Monster Who Kept Using the Same Sound Effects come to mind)
>had mature themes in the first few episodes but quickly did away with them and it was back to killing bugs and robots
>Scatman plot went nowhere
>Scotsman appears and then gets killed and brought back out of nowhere just because
>Aku's lethargy plot went nowhere
>Aku suddenly caring about Jack's sword being gone when he's lost it before really didn't feel like the catalyst it was made out to be
>Ashi's mother's death was so poorly executed it was risible
>no showdown with the Guardian was a big fat mistake
>"Oh hey I have Aku's powers and can open time portals, peace out" was a deus ex machina
>Ashi's exposition death was crap
>Ending felt like an attempt to tug on heart strings that fell flat on its face
>no Josie

I thought it was great

>>several absolute stinker episodes in a season that was already strapped for time
I disagree; every episode had something of value on it. An episode could me mediocre at best.
>>had mature themes in the first few episodes but quickly did away with them and it was back to killing bugs and robots
This one's a hard one, because you also have people saying that the robots should have never been gone to begin with
>Scatman plot went nowhere
Who do you mean?
>Scotsman appears and then gets killed and brought back out of nowhere just because
Agreed; that was handled poorly
>Aku's lethargy plot went nowhere
What do you mean? It's the same as Jack being tired of fighting. It also made sense and was in character.
>Aku suddenly caring about Jack's sword being gone when he's lost it before really didn't feel like the catalyst it was made out to be
Because Jack would be defenseless without it? And Aku has never learnt of Jack losing his sword before?
>Ashi's mother's death was so poorly executed it was risible
Not risible, but very underwhelming.
>no showdown with the Guardian was a big fat mistake
Could have been great; I'm fine with it not happening
>"Oh hey I have Aku's powers and can open time portals, peace out" was a deus ex machina
If people can call it out from a week before the episode airs based on evidence it's not a Deux Ex Machina
>Ashi's exposition death was crap
They really could have done something better
>Ending felt like an attempt to tug on heart strings that fell flat on its face
Worked for me, at least the final scene
>spoiler
Good taste

*An episode could me mediocre at worst.

Ashi didn't die with the rest of her sisters. It was all downhill from there.

...

Ashi a cute :3

Story. Otherwise it is quite alright.