- [Narrator] Long ago in a distant land,
I Aku, the shape shifting master of darkness,
I'm not Mako, I can't do this justice.
But you know the story.
I wandering samurai seeks to undo the future that is Aku.
That's right, today we're gonna be going through
Genndy Tartakovsky's hit Cartoon Network show, Samurai Jack.
The show took a pretty long hiatus
after it's fourth season.
A teensy-tinsy little 13 years,
but the fifth season finally came in 2017
to complete the story of Jack and Aku.
The birth of evil, the before time.
At the beginning of time, there is nothing,
only vast empty space and the potential of the future.
A great explosion occurs.
Immediately after, I giant black mass
known as the ultimate evil is created.
The ultimate evil sets off to make a meal
of the newly created universe,
but three gods rise up to challenge the black mass,
Odin, the All Father from Norse mythology,
Ra, a powerful god from Egyptian mythology,
and Rama, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.
The three gods chase after the black mass
and engage it in a fierce battle.
Using their divine weapons, the three are able
to burn away the darkness, thus destroying
the black mass for good, or so it would seem.
One fragment is able to slither away quietly,
hiding itself on a tiny planet you might have heard of.
It's called earth.
It crash lands in Japan with an impact so powerful
that it triggers the extinction of the dinosaurs.
The black mass absorbs their bodies
and it grows jagged tree-like spikes.
Aku takes form around 1700.
Over the next several millennia,
life on earth evolves, and so does the black mass.
Humans clime out of the primordial soup
and the black mass devours them
in an attempt to regain its lost power.
Still, humanity establishes itself
on earth and centuries pass.
The show seemingly takes place around the Edo era,
so I'll place the beginning of this tale around 1700.
The black mass approaches its new target,
the Imperial Palace where a young emperor lives.
The emperor is determined to destroy
this great evil once and for all.
The empress, who is pregnant,
pleads with him to not fight the source of the evil,
but he's determined to protect his people.
With an elixir of poison in his hand,
the emperor and his cavalry ride into the forest.
But the black mass is there first.
The forest comes alive and spikes impale the cavalry,
leaving only the emperor alive.
As he reaches the heart of the forest,
he laces an arrow with the poison
and shoots it into the sky
while uttering a sacred chant.
The arrow lands in the heart of the black mass.
At first it appears the beast is slain,
but just the opposite has happened.
The emperor's plan backfires,
and the elixir actually gives the mass life.
It mutates and grows out into a gigantic creature
with horns, flaming eyebrows, and jagged teeth,
a creature known as Aku.
He thanks the emperor for giving him life.
The desperate emperor shoots several arrows
into Aku's dark void of a body,
but they all melt away.
When the emperor plunges his sword into him,
it too melts away into nothing.
Aku then binds the emperor to one of his spikes
and forces him to watch helplessly
as he rains evil upon Japan.
Aku destroys the palace, massacres civilians,
and incinerates the city.
The emperor has lost all hope
when Odin's horse Sleipnir frees him.
The horse takes him to a temple on a high mountain
where he meets Ra, Odin, and Rama.
The gods explain what Aku is
and then forge a mystical katana
using the emperor's pure spirit.
With a new sword, silver armor,
and a wicked cloud to ride on,
the emperor charges back down to Japan
to do battle with Aku.
The sword slices through Aku,
leaving him confused as to how any weapon could harm him.
After an intense battle full of transformations
that would put all of the Animorphs to shame,
the emperor defeats Aku and seals him inside the katana.
He thrusts it into the ground,
causing a massive black tree to grow in its place.
As he returns to his ruined palace,
he finds his wife still alive
and with his newborn son.
Filled with relief, the emperor and the empress
device a plan, should Aku ever return.
But, c'mon, I mean, the emperor just sealed him away.
It's not like we're ever gonna see him again, right?
The return of Aku, 1708-1725.
Well, that didn't last very long.
Eight years later, a rare solar eclipse occurs,
allowing Aku to break free from his prison.
Meanwhile, the emperor tells his son
the story of Aku's reign of terror and eventual defeat.
He ends with a warning: always be alert to evil,
as Aku could return any day.
Unfortunately, because he was kind of distracted
by story time, he's pretty surprised when Aku returns
to ravage his kingdom about 10 minutes later.
The imperial army does their best
to fight Aku off, but Aku wipes them all out
while setting the countryside ablaze once again.
The emperor rushes to grab his katana,
but is captured by Aku before he can reach it.
The empress does what she must.
She sends Jack off on a ship to get him away from Japan.
He'll spend the next 17 years training.
While aboard the ship, Jack learns astrology
from the Japanese captain.
He then arrives at camp of an Arab sheik
where he learns horseback riding.
A few years later, he travels to Africa
where a chieftain teaches him the art of stick fighting.
During his time in Africa, several bounty hunters
come searching for Jack on Aku's orders.
Jack puts his new skills to use
and rescues the villagers who are captured,
completing his training.
His next destination is Egypt,
where he learns how to read hieroglyphics.
He also discovers a temple that tells the story
of how the three minions of Set,
the god of Evil, were defeated and sealed away.
Before he learns how exactly they were defeated, though,
his teacher orders him to return to his studies.
After becoming proficient in reading hieroglyphics,
Jack travels to Greece to learn the art of wrestling.
He learns marksmanship in Europe,
seamanship on a Viking ship,
ax throwing in Russia, spear throwing in Mongolia,
and Kung Fu in a Shaolin temple.
You know, a standard liberal arts education.
At the Shaolin temple, he meets a young boy
named Tan Zang, the son of his teacher, Master Chu.
The two become good friends during his time at the temple.
Jack is around 25 when he completes his training.
He reunites with his mother,
who has brought him the mythical sword and a white gi.
After another brief training stint with his new gear,
Jack returns to his homeland to face Aku.
He finds his people enslaved and working in mines.
His father is among them.
Just as Aku's minions are about to dole out
a harsh punishment to the emperor,
Jack arrives, whoops ass, and frees his father.
The emperor warns Jack of Aku's deception
and tells him that the katana is nothing but a tool.
It's true power lies in its wielder.
Jack sets off to Aku's tower to face him,
wielding the magic sword.
After a fierce battle with even more shape shifting,
Jack defeats Aku, who is reduced
to a pathetic little shadow on the floor.
But the ultimate evil won't be defeated so easily.
Before the final blow is struck he says,
"You may have beaten me now,
"but I will destroy you in the future."
With that, Aku tears open a portal in time
and flings Jack into it, sending him
into the far-off future, where Aku's evil is law.
The Future, around 4700.
That's a bit of a time skip.
Jack finds himself in a high-tech city
several thousand years in the future.
Jack sees all sorts of terrifying futuristic stuff,
including flying cars and three alien teens
who give him the nickname Jack
and that's why we call him Jack
because he wasn't named Jack in Edo period Japan.
The teens explain that Aku is basically
the supreme leader of the whole world
and he uses his power to push his agenda of evil and misery.
Jack can see Aku's presence everywhere he looks,
from frustrated citizens to billboards
emblazoned with Aku's face.
So he does the natural thing,
he goes to a bar to calm his nerves.
After a good old fashioned bar brawl,
three talking dog archeologists approach Jack.
They need help freeing their colleagues
who've been enslaved by Aku.
They also let Jack know where and when he is.
Jack agrees to help and they set off,
unaware that a spy has been eavesdropping
on their conversation.
The spy goes to Aku to inform that Jack has returned.
Infuriated, Aku sends an army of beetle robots
to take care of the samurai.
At the excavation site, Jack and the dogs
learn of the robots' imminent arrival
and prepare for battle.
After a long and grueling fight,
Jack defeats the robots and saves his dog friends.
He decides to travel the land
searching for a way back in time
so that he may undo the dark future that Aku has created.
Jack comes across a group of beings
known as chritchellites who have enslaved
a race of creatures known as woolies.
When Jack discovers that the woolies
are sentient beings he helps free them.
In return for their freedom, the woolies tell Jack
to travel north, where a magical land may hold answers.
In the land to the north, Jack finds
a fortuneteller who tells him
of the existence of the desert oasis jewel,
which possesses many magical abilities,
including time travel.
As he searches for the jewel,
he encounters a woman named Ikra
who seeks the jewel to get revenge on Aku.
The two forge a strong bond as they travel together,
but when they finally reach the jewel, Ikra destroys it.
It turns out she was Aku in disguise all along!
What was that your dad said about Aku's deception again?
With his hopes dashed, Jack has no choice
but to continue his search for a way back in time.
His journey takes him all over the world.
He ventures deep into the ocean,
into the mouth of an active volcano,
and even has a fight with an evil clone of himself.
Eventually he finds himself on a seemingly endless bridge.
He comes face to face with a Scotsman
who refuses to step aside to let him pass,
especially not before he can hurl a ridiculously long
string of incredibly creative insults at him.
The two fight until a group of bounty hunters arrive,
forcing them to unite against their common foe.
They defeat the bounty hunters,
set aside their differences, and Jack makes
his first true friend in the future.
He continues to search for the time portal,
but eventually Jack runs into the Scotsman again.
This time he begs Jack to help rescue his wife.
Jack agrees and they succeed in saving the bonny lass.
Jack's quest continues with yet another series of fights.
This time it's more bounty hunters,
a soul collector named Demongo and zombies.
He even ends an evil rave that had been
brainwashing teens and becomes a chicken
and streaks through the city for an entire episode.
If nothing else, Jack is living a rich,
if constantly imperiled life in the future.
One day Aku and his minions journey to Egypt
and unleash the followers of Set,
ordering them to destroy Jack.
Jack is able to defeat the minions
with the help of the sun god, Ra,
but is no closer to finding a time portal.
Eventually, he meets a group of traveling creatures
who guide him to a portal.
The portal's guardian tells Jack
that only the man who is prophesied
to defeat him can use the portal.
They dual, but Jack is defeated
and whisked away by a flying creature.
The guardian says that Jack cannot use the portal,
at least not yet.
I'm sure this scene won't become
a major point of contention in the fandom.
(coughing)
Yeah, absolutely not.
Back on the road, Jack is attacked
by Shaolin monks, whom he realizes
are part of the same order that he once
trained with many years ago.
They take him to see their master.
Jack is surprised to see that their master is
actually his friend Tan Zang,
who is now absolutely ancient
and kind of stuck in a tree.
He tells Jack of another time portal,
but upon arriving there, Jack is forced
to choose between saving the lives of the monks
or escaping through the portal.
He chooses the former and his journey
back in time eludes his grasp yet again.
Back on the road, Jack fights a wannabe samurai,
helps a city full of robots,
and duals a ninja in what might be
the best use of color in any animated fight scene ever.
Seriously, props to this entire animation department.
This episode is an absolute work of art.
Watch it right after you finish this video.
I am not joking.
It's so good.
At some point, Jack loses his memories
and becomes a waiter under the name Brent Worthington,
but the Scotsman finds him and helps him
regain his memories through questionable methods.
With his memory back, Jack continues
to wander to lands searching for his way back home.
The daughters of Aku, around 4725.
In the many years between Jack's initial fight with Aku
and the future, an all-female cult
simple known as the Cult of Aku forms.
These women worship Aku, hold ceremonies in his honor,
and even dress like him.
Impressed by their devotion,
as well as the nifty statue they erected in his honor,
Aku bestows a blessing upon the cult.
He drips a portion of himself into a chalice.
Their leader, the high priestess, drinks from it,
thus impregnating herself with human demon septuplets.
Aku is surprised at this result,
but what did he really think would come from,
and I quote, "dripping a portion
"of himself into a chalice"?
It's like this guy's never heard of a metaphor before.
The septuplets are named the Daughters of Aku
and are raised with the sole purpose
of killing Samurai Jack.
The girls are put through brutal training
and are brainwashed into believing
that Jack is a scourge on the world.
When their training is finally complete,
they're pushed into the Pit of Hate by their mother,
where searing tar melts onto their bodies
to give them their black body suits.
The immortal samurai, around 4750.
50 years have passed since Jack was flung into the future.
And yet he does not age.
Time has lost its effect on him.
The portal that Aku sent Jack flying through warped him,
causing him to become immortal.
But this is no blessing.
It's very much a curse for Jack.
Over these long 50 years,
Aku begins frantically destroying
every time portal he can find in order to prevent Jack
from ever being able to return home.
After destroying the last portal,
Aku mutates three innocent ram together
into a ferocious monster, which Jack is forced
to fight and kill.
Horrified at what he's done,
he drops his katana in shock,
losing it in a dark pit.
Unaware that Jack has lost his katana,
Aku retreats into his lair,
giving up on facing his foe head-on.
Instead, he sends countless waves
of bounty hunters after Jack.
The two are locked in an eternal stalemate.
Both Jack and Aku fall into a deep depression.
Aku even starts seeing a therapist.
Meanwhile, Jack, now sporting a beard,
is tormented by visions that urge him to give up his fight.
An ancient samurai ghost also haunts him,
beckoning him to commit the act of seppuku,
ritual suicide.
In spire of this, Jack still fights
to free the people of the world from Aku's rule.
One day a robotic bounty hunter
named Scaramouche massacres an entire city
in an attempt to draw Jack out.
When Jack arrives to confront him,
Scaramouche notices that Jack is missing his katana.
He whips out his phone to call Aku,
but Jack destroys it and challenges him to a fight.
Jack defeats Scaramouche by cleaving him in two
and leaves the city of corpses in silence.
If you couldn't tell, this was after
Adult Swim picked up the show
and Samurai Jack was allowed to get
a lot more real with their storytelling.
Back on the road, Jack hides out in an abandoned temple.
It's there that one of the Daughters of Aku ambushes him.
He fights her off, slitting her throat in the process.
He's kicked a lot of monster butt over the years,
but this is the first human he's ever killed.
He's horrified.
He realizes that she'd managed to stab him before she died.
He's lot a lot of blood.
Jack falls into a river and floats downstream.
Jack limps into a cave and spends the night
recovering and preparing to face the daughters.
When they arrive, Jack offers them an ultimatum:
leave or face their destiny.
They don't pick the first option.
The daughters gang up on Jack in a brutal snowy battle.
Ultimately Jack strikes them all down.
When Jack falls into the valley below,
he learns that one of the daughters,
a woman Ashi has survived.
But they've got a bigger problem on their hands
when they're suddenly swallowed up by a giant monster.
Inside the beat, Jack tries to convince Ashi
of Aku's true nature.
Later, she's almost devoured by another creature
when Jack's back is turned, but he saves her just in time.
The pair make it out of the beast alive,
building a bond in the process.
Ashi begins to question everything she's been taught.
Meanwhile, the Scotsman, now an old man,
is leading a rebellion attack on Aku,
along with his 100 daughters.
The old man is slain by Aku,
but he lives on as a ghost,
thanks to the Celtic runes in his sword.
He realizes that beating Aku is impossible without Jack,
so the rebellion agrees to find him before they continue.
The next day, Jack shows Ashi
the cruel reality of Aku's world.
They visit a factory whose labor force
is made up of enslaved mind-controlled children.
Jack is then led to believe that the children died.
He runs off.
Soon enough Ashi finds them alive
and goes in search of Jack.
While on her hunt she meets people Jack has helped
over the past 50 years.
We get to see lots of familiar faces,
like a couple of Woolies, the three blind archers,
a girl from the rave, and the wannabe samurai.
Ashi eventually finds Jack in a cemetery
sitting in front of the ghost samurai.
Just as he's about to commit seppuku,
Ashi intervenes, reminding him
of all the people he's saved.
She reveals that the children from the factory
are alive, giving him the strength to go on.
Jack defeats the ghost samurai
and Jack and Ashi set out to reclaim his katana.
But it's not gonna be easy.
They soon learn that the katana
has left their plane of existence.
It no longer deems Jack a worthy master.
Jack decides to meditate so that he can
search for his katana in the spiritual plane.
While he meditates, the high priestess attacks Ashi.
They dual, and Ashi eventually kills her.
In the spirit realm, Jack defeats his inner demons,
leading him to Odin, Ra, and Rama,
who deem him worthy once again.
They give him a new more powerful katana,
and he and Ashi set off to defeat Aku once and for all.
As they travel together, fending off
bounty hunters the whole way,
they fall in love, of course.
Meanwhile, the head of Scaramouche
finally makes it to Aku's layer
and reveals to him that Jack has lost his sword.
Overjoyed, Aku restores his body
and does a little jig.
While camping in the desert,
Jack and Ashi are confronted by Aku and Scaramouche.
The second Jack pulls out his katana,
Aku obliterates Scaramouche out of anger.
Aku then reveals that since Ashi is his own flesh and blood
he can control her like a puppet.
Knowing he can't kill Ashi,
Jack surrenders his katana to Aku.
Aku forces Ashi to land the final blow,
but before that can happen,
the rebellion breaks into Aku's layer and attacks.
Jack breaks free and grabs his sword,
only to be confronted by Ashi,
who is still Aku's puppet.
The rebellion takes a beating
until the ghosts of the Scotsman and his daughters
show up to save the day.
Jack confesses his love to Ashi,
giving her the strength to break free from Aku's control.
Upon breaking free, Ashi realizes
that she has all of Aku's powers,
including the power to create portals in time.
She rips open a portal and the two jump through,
finally going all the way back, back to the past.
Back to the past, around 1725, part two.
Now, the whole back to the past thing
creates an alternate timeline.
Even though this is technically in the past,
it's Jack's personal future,
so we're gonna treat it that way.
Jack and Ashi return to the moment
after Aku sent Jack into the future.
Stunned and exhausted from his battle
with the original Jack, Aku is no match for this Jack,
who has had an additional 50 years of training.
Jack slices through Aku and seals him with the blade.
He thrusts his blade into the ground,
destroying the great evil that is Aku,
once and for all, probably.
At last, Jack can rest.
He reunites with his family.
The future that is Aku is no more.
Sometime later, Jack and Ashi get married.
However, in the middle of the ceremony,
Ashi collapses, revealing that since Aku
never gave birth to her in the future, she no longer exists.
She fades away, leaving Jack alone.
Jack mourns the loss of his love,
but with the memories of her living within him,
he's grateful.
Jack peacefully reflects near a forest,
which has had its beauty restored,
after defeating the evil that was Aku.
And that's the Samurai Jack timeline,
but it might not be such a complete timeline for very long.
At the end of February Adult Swim announced
that a brand new Samurai Jack game,
Battle Through Time, would be releasing this summer
for pretty much every major consol and PC.
Details are pretty scarce, other than
it'll be official canon, but because of how much
time travel is gonna play a key element,
it probably takes place during the series finale,
the episode titled 101, even though
it's only the 62nd episode.
Don't worry about it.
The Roman numerals are different
to account for the time skip.
Anyway, we'll just have to wait until the summer
to see exactly how it'll all fit together.
As always, thank you so much for watching.
Be sure to subscribe for more timelines like this one.
I've been Jacob, and remember that as always,
no matter what the future may hold,
Frederator loves you.
(epic music)