Awesome / Samurai Jack

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JACK IS BACK.

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Season 1

The Beginning

• The whole episode is Jack's origin story, how his legend was forged. From a mere boy to a grown warrior, here is the man destined to fight Aku!
  • Generally, the great lengths he goes before he completes his training. Arabia, Africa, Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, England, Russia, Mongolia, China, etc.; each location taught him a new skill. And unintentionally, each skill also prepared Jack for his inevitable journey through the future.
    • In Britain, Jack's trainer there is implied to be Robin Hood.
    • The fact that Cartoon Network trusted the showrunners enough to include nine straight minutes without any dialogue at all in the first episode's 22 minute runtime, something that was unprecedented at the time and is still unheard of today. It tells the viewer right away that this is going to be a visual show and you're not going to miss the dialogue at all.
• The Empress herself gets a brief moment in the introduction. Not only does she stop her son from risking his life to try and save his father, but when the Emperor reminds her of the plan they've established, what does she do? She gets a determined look on her face, sweeps her son up in her arms, grabs the enchanted sword and manages to smuggle her son out to the bay where a ship awaits to take him to his first teacher as the palace (and the city) burns down around them. Talk about Silk Hiding Steel!
• Once ready to return home, Jack comes to the rescue of his father and his people, who have been enslaved over the years.
  • Afterwards, the Emperor sets the record straight for his son and tells him he must use the sword for justice, not revenge. This is an old man we're talking about here who has been a slave for years, emaciated and weakened beyond recognition, broken in spirit. And he still has the spitfire to reprimand his son for mistaking vengeance for justice.
• Jack's first duel with Aku. After spending about a decade or so fleeing his home, the scared little boy has now returned as a brave man. And much to the almighty Aku's surprise, this mere mortal can kick his unholy ass. Unfortunately, the wounded Aku pulled out a cheap trick just before Jack could land the final killing blow on the demon.

The First Fight

• Jack and the sapient dogs preparing for Aku's incoming robot horde.
  • The first half details said preparation, which is awesome in a subtle way: Jack, being from the distant past, has little knowledge of the machines around him and how they work, with even something like a psuedo-ballpoint pen confusing him at first. However, years of training means he's smart enough to understand their basic purposes, and given some thought he starts using everything around him in creative ways. Scraps get remade into armor (both for himself and his battle steed), certain parts give him makeshift spears and a bow-and-arrow, the natural crystals make for excellent spear/arrow points, and the various machines are capable of setting up traps.
• Followed by the second half, ten minutes of awesome action: bow-and-arrow, spears, himself and his battle steed working in unison, alone while setting off ambushes on the machines as he "retreats", before finally being surrounded by the last hundred beetle drones. For every 2-3 he slays, he suffers wounds in return, becoming increasingly gritty and bloody as they fight.
  • Then Jack has single-handedly reduced this entire army to a scant handful, staring down the remaining forces while soaked entirely in oil. One of these battle robots, which probably aren't programmed to understand the concept of "retreat", hesitates... then takes a step backwards.
    Jack: "No. There is no escape."

Jack, the Woolies and the Critchellites

• After Jack and his Woolie friend destroy the Orb, freeing the other Woolies, they all stand up on two legs again for the first time in decades. The Critchellites try to scare them back, but the Woolies just snap their tridents in two.
  Woolie: Your weapons are worthless now! This is our home!

Jack and the Three Blind Archers

• The Three Blind Archers are the guardians of a well that grants a single wish to anyone who can defeat them in battle. Earlier in the episode, we saw these guys destroy an entire army of robots with complete ease — yet Jack takes all three of them on by himself while blindfolded and wins.
• And at the end of the episode, when Jack learns what the well did to the three men who wished to become invincible, he's furious.
  Jack: "Evil spirit of the well! You will not claim another innocent! I wish thee... DESTROYED!"

Jack vs. Mad Jack

• The episode starts with Jack going into a Bad Guy Bar, and as he sits down the bounty hunters bring up the price on Jack, and he promptly defeats them all in a split-second.
• Let's not forget Mad Jack himself, who, being Jack's equal and opposite, fought him so hard that the surrounding forest was set ablaze, and could only be defeated by Jack dissipating his own anger.
  Jack: "I know you're watching, [Aku]. These tricks are starting to annoy me."

Jack and the Lava Monster

• Jack is attacked by a Norse warrior who was turned into the titular Lava Monster by Aku. At one moment, Jack decides that their fight is pointless and decides to leave, but the the monster pleads him to carry on, as to fall in fair combat is the only way for him to rid himself of the curse and ascend to Valhalla. Jack agrees.
  Monster: (having smacked Jack away) "Rise, warrior, rise! Honorably I must be defeated! I cannot let up!"
  Jack: (ominously) "Do not worry. I have only begun to fight!"
• In fact, Aku didn't turn the warrior into the Lava Monster. Aku trapped him in an unbreakable crystal and tossed him into a volcano. He managed to turn the crystal into a monstrous mobile 'shell' through sheer force of will.
• Even though he lost in the end, which was good, the Lava Monster is one of the few beings who came close to actually beating Jack in a fight (especially since Jack was not holding back, as he sometimes will do). No wonder the Valkyries personally came for him.

Jack and the Scotsman

• The two fight on the bridge for rights of who gets to pass, but they're so evenly matched that it ends in a draw. To further drive the point home, they fought for at least three days straight, driving them both to the point of exhaustion.
  The Scotsman: (barely able to lift his sword) I'll give ye one more chance to give up.
  Jack: (barely able to stand) I...am not beaten...and so will stand my ground.
  The Scotsman: Hold yer ground?! Ye can barely hold yer sword!
  Jack: Then come get me!
  The Scotsman: (at a loss for words) ...Ergh, seeing as how I'm a sporting man, I'll give ye a moment to recuperate...
• On this note, any battle featuring both Jack and the Scotsman is considered awesome, because it serves as a way to compare their different fighting styles.
• Boss Hog (the lead bounty hunter) shackles Jack and The Scotsman together using a shotgun projectile, effectively preventing them from fighting back. And of course, the two breaking free of the shackles using the same giant bullet Boss Hog fires at them from a massive cannon.

Jack and the Gangsters

• An understated one: the story behind Neptune's Jewel. The Goddess that made the jewel curb stomped Aku. While it might have been a shortened battle, it's clear whoever this gal is, Aku is no match at all for her, which is pretty impressive.
  • When he tries again, her Elementals give him more of the same.
• Jack beating the aforementioned Elementals to get the Jewel — i.e., a Badass Normal doing what a God of Evil couldn't.
  • And then, once he tracks him down, he follows up by beating said God of Evil. Had the gangsters not misunderstood the situation and knocked him out to save him, Jack would have killed Aku then and there.

Aku's Fairy Tales

• After Aku failed to brainwash the innocent children, the kids decide to tell their own, surprisingly much better story: of how Samurai Jack climbs a castle bare-chested with his sword in his teeth, and then he has a final duel with Aku that results in the latter's demise. A likely hint towards the inevitable real ending...
  • Generally, the children exemplifying their own creativity by thinking up Jack's finale. They even understand the concept of suspense as they keep delaying until the right moment for Jack to engage Aku in one last battle.
• In general, the fact that Jack is already giving people hope for a world without Aku.

Season 2

Jack Learns to Jump Good

• After spending the whole episode going through Training from Hell to learn how to jump really high, Jack removes his training weights and just... ascends.
• Jack's combat training for the Wild Man and his Tribe pays off as well. They use their new skills to finally get the better of the red gorillas, who had been tormenting them for god knows how long, beating the holy hell out of them with various nonlethal traps and fighting moves. Throughout the fight, Jack never shows himself, so the confidence and skills are all their own. The final kicker is when the Wild Man has the last few gorillas tied to a tree, ready to sling them away.
  Wild Man: "Hungry? Here food!" (stuffs fruit in the gorillas' mouths) "Still hungry?! HERE MORE!! TAKE IT!!" (stuffs in more) "Never. Come. Again." (signals to the Tribe to cut the rope, sending the gorillas flying far across the treeline)
• The beginning has Aku in a field taunting Jack by playing keep-away with a time portal. The ending sees Jack returning, only now having gained the ability to jump very very good.
  Aku: "Samurai fool! Your efforts are in vain again. This gateway to the past is once more beyond your —"
  (Jack lunges 50 feet in the air at Aku)
  Aku: "—rea- YOU CAN FLY?!"
  Jack: (with a badass smirk) "No. Jump Good."
  (Cut to credits)

Jack Tales

• With these five words, Jack gives up a chance of getting home, freeing the fairy who's trapped in her prison (which his hand is inside too).
  Jack: "I wish we were free."
• Jack coming up with a good solution for the classic "One Liar, One Truth-Teller" riddle of the Two-Headed Serpent. Unfortunately, in this case, both of them were liars, but still.

Jack and the Smackback

• Jack is caught off guard, captured and enslaved for a gladiator sport known as the Dome of Doom, where captured slaves are effortlessly slaughtered by experienced challengers. Jack proceeds to spend the entire episode mopping the floor with every last one, swordless, before the arena boss sends the last six champions to attack him in unison... but Jack decides he's had enough playing around, and dodges all their attacks and makes for the weapons wall where the organizers put up various weapons for the challengers to use (including Jack's). This allows Jack to get his sword back, effortlessly curb stomp all six champions and force the arena boss to free the slaves, killing one of the robotic slavers (who went out of his way to abuse the captives the whole episode) on the way out. Badass does not begin to describe it, particularly when he defeats a 700-ton alien sumo wrestler by tickling him.
  • Jack's reputation going from an in-universe hated Dirty Coward ^note The announcer gave out wimpy/off-putting names to the slaves so the crowd will cheer for the champions, and called Jack "Two-Sandals The Treacherous". to a fan favorite over the course of the episode. When he fells the final champion, the cheering crowd is solely behind him.
  • Jack, who of course disdains the idea of being forced to fight, announces this at the climax:
    Jack: (to the audience) I will not participate in the senseless violence any longer! You will have to get your entertainment elsewhere.

Jack and the Scotsman II

• When Jack visits the Scotsman's village and watches a traditional competition where men test their strength by throwing heavy stones, he is forced to face their champion Hamish, a hulking brute easily twice the size of even the Scotsman. Jack is unable to so much as lift even one stone. He then turns to his opponent and politely asks "How many stone do you weigh?", with his competitor answering "Twenty stone". Jack declares that this man is "a mighty fellow" and shakes his hand... then promptly uses a judo throw to hurl Hamish head-first onto his own flung stone. Jack doesn't have the raw strength his opponent has, so he uses a simple martial arts technique that turns an opponent's weight against them, allowing him to toss the huge mook.
  • Even better, the Clan briefly pauses before cheering wildly. They don't mind that Jack won in an unorthodox way; they still found it awesome. They now see what the Scotsman sees in the diminutive stranger and accept him as one of their own.
• The Scotsman's Wife punches an elder Celtic Demon in the crotch and headbutts him, then follows up by ripping the entire demon army to shreds with her bare hands, and in a couple of cases with her teeth. She doesn't hesitate or pause in her rampage once... well, except for a funny moment where she rips off a robot's face, revealing an organic brain and goggling eyes, and she just gives a "WTH" look before continuing the devastation.
  Jack: Impressive.
  Scotsman: (proudly) Aye, that’s me wife!

Jack and the Ultra-Robots

• The climax of the fight: Jack doesn't retreat when his powered gauntlet runs out of juice, the last robot approaching and raising his sword, but kneels and prays to the gods that made his sword. The true power of Jack's legendary sword is unleashed by the gods' response of divine intervention, and Jack cuts the robot in two in a single blow.
  Ultra-Robot: "Unbelievable." (starts to glow, then explodes)
  • Not to mention, most of the episode has the seemingly unstoppable robots trouncing Jack and taunting him; but when Jack's sword powers up, the sword-wielding robot starts to back away, and even meekly raises his sword to defend himself against Jack to no avail.
• C'mon, you gotta give some credit to the Ultra-Robots. They were among the most dangerous enemies Jack faces, with their cool designs mixing with their threat level beautifully.

Jack Remembers the Past

• There's a cameo appearance by none other than Ogami Ittō and his son Daigorō from Lone Wolf and Cub. Ogami handily defeats four men on a bridge, and it's implied that watching this fight made a young Jack fascinated with swordsmanship; meaning that whenever Jack's fighting seems straight out of Lone Wolf and Cub, it's not just a meta-homage, but could very well have an in-universe justification.
• A smaller one, but young Jack outwitting his bullies in order to get his ball back. It took some time (and advice from his father) to come up with a plan. But it's not every kid who can come up with a sound strategy to distract their enemies.

Jack and the Monks

• The mountain monks of Fatoom appear just when Jack was despairing at his 'impossible' quest. They present Jack with another 'impossible' task, and when he is about to despair again, they appear to him in a vision: "Do you give up? Will you abandon their hope? Can you not feel their desperation? Will evil forever rule the world? Have you forgotten?!" Jack thought he was at the end of his strength; but his parents, his people, his whole world rely on him. He goes on, conquers the mountain, and renews his vow.
  Jack (calling out to the sky from the summit): "Aku! I will never give up! I will return to the past and destroy you!"
• Also, Jack's three fights with each of the mountain's monsters.
  • First, he encounters a race of angry goat men. Jack doesn’t want to kill them, so he manages to precisely and cleanly cut off all their horns and disarm them.
  • Next, Jack is attacked by a golem, and the fight is a Free-Fall Battle as they plummet down the mountain. Jack is able to grapple onto a branch while the golem plummets down to his certain doom.
  • Finally, he encounters a yeti. By this point, Jack is tired from his climb and doesn’t fare nearly as well against him as he did the previous two. But he ultimately comes up with a clever way to defeat the yeti when all seems lost- by yelling, he causes some snow to fall down and bury the yeti alive.

Jack and the Hunters

• The Imakandi, a group of four lion-like hunters that Jack feels he's no match for. Yet when faced with the prospect of being turned helplessly over to Aku, Jack leads the Imakandi on a mighty chase from the depths of a futuristic city to its highest towers. When they finally take him alive, the Imakandi refuse to hand their prey over to Aku: out of respect for their Worthy Opponent, they teleport Jack to safety before returning to their distant world.
  • The hunt for Jack may have been so great, the Imakandi might pass down the story of their greatest prey, the only prey worthy of being set loose.
• Throughout the whole series, only the Imakandi were successful in capturing Jack while he was focused, without resorting to dirty tricks or ambushing him. Sure, they used a snake arrow towards the end, but they did it with sure confidence that they would still catch him. Out of five seasons, the Imakandi were the only group to successfully track, corner, and capture Jack while he was still in a position to fight on equal terms. THAT’S a feat, and it gives credit to Aku’s “greatest hunters in the universe” line. Furthermore, every other time he ends up caught, he manages to escape due to some blunder on his captor’s part or by sheer skill and willpower. The Imakandi let him go, simply because they were satisfied with having to capture such an impressive warrior that managed to last so long against them.

Jack vs. Demongo, the Soul Collector

• Jack is pitted against the titular Demongo, a sort-of necromancer who enslaves the 'essence' of every warrior he's ever defeated, and can call up these bound souls to fight to the death over and over again. Faced with a demonic wizard armed with an endless army of highly skilled warriors, Jack travels into Demongo's soul-prison realm by seizing one of the defeated, and uses his holy sword to shatter the bonds of all Demongo's captured souls, restoring them to life and demolishing Demongo's power. It ends with the resumption of the musical "walking the land" motif, with Jack striding on as if the whole deadly struggle had been no more than an interruption in his day.
  • The entire army of Demongo's former slaves surrounding him and laying a well-deserved No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on him. The scene cuts away just as the army closes in on him.

Jack is Naked

• In-Universe: Jack accidentally ends up in a play ("Princess of Hearts") as the titular character. When he mistakes a monster prop for Aku, he grabs the closest thing to a weapon and starts beating the creamed corn out of the monster! While left speechless, the audience is duly impressed to see a "princess" who can fight "her" own battles.
  • The fact that even without his sword, Jack was willing to face "Aku" with nothing but a play prop.

Jack and the Spartans

• The Spartans shoot missiles from their spears, facing off against robotic minotaurs that could repair themselves endlessly. The final battle of said episode had Jack throw his sword to the Spartan leader, and shows that even the Spartan leader could use a katana pretty well. In return, the King then gives Jack a second shield and they group up, with Jack blocking off the monster's attacks while the King takes arms off - the scene is so fluid, you'll likely do nothing but gawk at how awesome it is. It ends with Jack "sacrificing" his life to save the Spartan Leader.
  • Also, there is a scene with the Spartan King stabbing one of the robots in the back, pulls off its arm, and then bludgeons it into a wreck with the severed arm. And just after that? He punches a robot, in the face, bare-knuckled. And seeing as the robot is still embedded around his fist, he lifts it and shakes it off into a bunch of incoming robots, blowing them all up.

Jack's Sandals

• When Jack tries out a pair of running shoes, they make him fast enough to keep up with the robot biker gang under his own power. He's essentially running as fast as the Imakandi were when they caught up with the hover speeder he hijacked a few episodes ago!
• The last pair of shoes Jack tries out is a set of extra-cushioned sport sneakers. They're so bouncy that Jack loses control of his movements... until he figures out how to use them to his advantage. With these shoes, Jack is able to propel himself across an entire cityscape. He went from "jump good" to "jump fantastic" (jump-tastic)! It's too bad one of the aerated shoes popped, otherwise he would have been really agile in his future fights against Aku.
• Jack finally receiving a pair of authentic, handcrafted geta that allow him to kick the ever-loving crap out of the bikers who have done nothing but taunt him relentlessly until now.

Season 3

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

• The entire train sequence, as Jack is being chased by two bounty hunters on top of a moving train is amazing, and one of the times we see Jack fighting two very competent and very different opponents for a long time. They actually manage to capture him too, but it takes a LOT of fight.

Jack and the Rave

• Admit it, even though it's meant to hypnotize teenagers into acting as Aku's minions and causing destruction, that music is catchy!
• While trying to blend in at the rave, Jack executes some dance moves of his own, in the form of his martial arts. Two other teens begin imitating his 'dance moves', and Jack wasn't even trying to start a trend.
• The battle between Jack and Rave DJ.
  • One commenter on YouTube could only describe it as "Genji versus Lucio".
  • At one point, Jack is nearly beaten by the DJ. The former looks up in despair at the crowd of rave-hypnotized teenagers, broken by their evil glares as though they were wishing for him to lose. But when his gaze falls upon Olivia, the missing daughter of the Inn Keeper, Jack realizes he's got to win this battle for their sake, and gains a second wind!

Jack and the Zombies

• Watching Jack take on and destroy virtually an entire graveyard full of zombies — all by himself — is a thing of beauty.
• Aku himself had been dominating that episode by really showing off his might: he provides quite a bit of awe. And on the opposite scale, the sheer tenacity with which Jack fends off Aku's attempts to kill him.
• Then the dramatic shift in power when Aku nearly kills Jack with his own sword. After the reveal that Jack's sword won't hurt the innocent, and is unable to kill him, Jack gives a Badass Boast.
  Aku: "How?! HOW?!"
  Jack: "Even I had forgotten that the sword was forged in purity and strength. It can only be used for good. In the hands of evil it could never harm an innocent! And so, Aku, it cannot harm me... but it can harm you!"
  • Not only was Jack's boast awesome, the following curbstomp of Aku comes very close (possibly the closest Jack ever came in the original run) to actually killing Aku, to the point Aku can't even muster up his normal flying form to escape and has to turn into a tiny mouse to scamper away.

Jack in Egypt

• The Minions of Set are among the most dangerous enemies that Jack has ever faced. How dangerous? They're damn near invincible and he could not actually defeat them by himself.
  • The Minions' introduction. Aku and a battalion of his Mecha-Mooks locate the Minions' chamber in Egypt. When Aku releases the Minions, they immediately spring into action and shred all of Aku's robots into pieces within a few minutes. This should already let the viewer know that they're just as (if not more) deadly than Jack.
  • When the Minions find Jack, they start a very frantic chase, hopping around to beat down Jack, who finds that he cannot even kill them with his sword. Jack has to run as fast as he can to find another solution.
  • Jack finally summons Ra, the Egyptian sun god. Now the tables have finally been turned, as the Minions of Set are helpless against Ra vaporizing each of them with his Eye Beams.

Jack and the Traveling Creatures

• This episode takes Jack on a mystical journey that ends at a very well-guarded time gate. The clash with the mighty Guardian becomes five minutes of epic battle.
  Guardian: "Only one man has been prophesied to defeat me. And you my man, ain't that man."
• To give perspective on how insanely powerful the Guardian is, he's surrounded by a landfill of broken robots he personally defeated, big and small alike, and he's done this for countless eons.
• The Guardian's answer to Jack drawing his sword on him.
  Guardian: "Oh, you goin' all old school on me, huh?! Well, I got me one of those!" (pulls out a katana of his own with a sick-looking red diamond-studded black hilt)
• The Guardian pulls out a gun and begins shooting. Jack tries to throw attention off of him by throwing some ninja stars left over from a previous fight at him. The guardian's response? Pull out another gun and shoot the stars out of the air, a bullet apiece, all while keeping the other gun pointed at Jack.
• After having the missiles from his rocket launcher gun redirected at him, the Guardian emerges without a single wound. However, his black suit is wrecked. Up until that moment, the Guardian wasn't taking his fight with Jack very seriously, but that is enough to send him over the threshold.
  Guardian: "That was my favorite suit you just ruined! ERRGGHHYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
• Jack tries to guard himself against attack with two shields scavenged from fallen warriors. He tries to hit the Guardian with one, and what does the Guardian do? He wolfs it down in three bites like a pizza and grins triumphantly.
• Even after all the fighting they've done so far, the Guardian gives Jack a final chance to quit fighting before he really gets hurt. When Jack doesn't agree to this, the Guardian nearly puts Jack in the ground.
• Jack only manages to land a few punches on the Guardian, who brushes it off effortlessly. On the flipside, the Guardian lays a smack-down on him so brutal that Jack loses consciousness, with cuts and bruises all over his body. And after all this, the Guardian doesn't draw a weapon on Jack to deal the finishing blow, because that would be cheap, fast, and dishonorable. He chooses to do it the prehistoric/gladiatorial way by picking up a great big rock.
• The ending, where the Guardian is set to crush the unconscious Samurai Jack with a rock, but the time portal communicates with him... and then he gets Jack out of there, looking back at the portal...
  Guardian: You can't use it yet, Samurai Jack. (Vision shows a much older Jack, as a leader in the fight against Aku) "Not yet... not yet."
• For how tough the Guardian was, give Jack credit- he put up an admirable fight against him. If this were any normal villain in the series, Jack would have handily won, but you can’t say the Guardian wasn’t trying his hardest, either.

Jack and the Creature

• The Creature is a Totoro-looking, big teddy bear with intelligence inversely proportional to its size. It follows Jack around, unwittingly destroying the time travel artifact of the week, and still follows an ever-more exasperated Jack. But then when a gang of robot bounty hunters incapacitates Jack, the Creature goes completely apeshit, transforming into a giant raging murder beast that the Hulk would be jealous of, and slaughters all the terrified robots.

Jack and the Swamp Wizard

• The episode appears to be going in the same direction as "Jack and the Warrior Woman", with Jack oblivious to Aku's Paper-Thin Disguise and going along with whatever scheme Aku has up his sleeve. But Jack then goes on to sabotage Aku's plot at the crucial moment, revealing that he knew all along and was just waiting to strike, and a Curb-Stomp Battle ensues before Aku eventually flees. And surprisingly enough, the episode ends with Jack still in possession of the still-functional MacGuffin of the week.
  Jack: "Run, you cowardly shadow! For you know your destruction is at hand. It is just a matter of time."

Jack, the Monks, and the Ancient Master's Son

• The entirety of the episode; kung-fu at its finest, ladies and gentlemen. Extra credit goes to the creators from using an incredible number of martial arts styles in this episode, from Tai-Chi and Wing Chun, to Eagle Claw and Southern Fist. Hell, they even included Water Beetle!
  Shaolin Monks: "Brother!"

The Birth of Evil

• Jack's father, the late Emperor, gets several awesome achievements. In the first part, he tried to fight Aku with normal weapons, and was crushed. For the rematch, he shows up with magic armor (that he created himself), a flying cloud, and what would become Jack's sword... and wins.
  • The magic sword? It was forged from the strength of the Human Spirit and Human Righteousness... both taken from him. That's right: the one thing that can hurt and destroy Aku was forged from his soul.
  • There's more to it than that. Aku grows to the size of a Kaiju and at first is completely confident in his invincibility. Then Jack's father slashes him with the sword, and Aku screams. The demon sorcerer turns into a dragon, a giant spider, and with each transformation grows more desperate. Jack's father actually decapitates the dragon form and cuts off all the spider's legs, so finally Aku turns himself into an army of clones, at least dozens if not over a hundred strong. They charge, and Jack's father rips them all apart. Aku, all pretenses at dignity forgotten, flees like a coward. For someone without the training Jack had, inducing a Villainous Breakdown of that magnitude is a tremendous accomplishment.
    • After being pelted with arrows from all sides by the army of armored Aku clones, instead of giving in to the pain, the Emperor bellows with a mighty war cry.
  • He has defeated and sealed Aku, and has no apparent reason to think Aku will return, or that he won't be able to take him on again if it happens. He still immediately starts setting up Jack's training, just in case.
    • In a way, Jack being born right after the Emperor defeats Aku could count as this. Even though the episode was called "The Birth of Evil", it ended with the birth of the one who would grow up to destroy Aku once and for all. One commenter on YouTube put it best:
    "And on that day, all the minions of evil cried out in despair, for though he was not yet even one day old, they knew that their greatest nemesis had entered the world."

Season 4

Samurai vs. Ninja

• Jack's final encounter with the Ninja inside the tower. Jack realizes his samurai techniques won't work against this kind of opponent, and opts to fight fire with fire. He takes off his gi to refashion it into a white ninja robe, revealing that he also is trained in ninjutsu, except he is trained to "use the light". The subsequent ninja duel, itself a breathtaking piece of cinematography from Tartakovsky, shows off what Jack means. It's one thing to be almost undetectable in dark places, it's a whole other level of elite to be able to hide in broad daylight.
• Jack wins in the last few moments of twilight when the Ninja gets too confident and attempts to attack Jack from behind, accidentally making a slight creaking noise on a wooden beam. Jack hears it, blinds the Ninja by reflecting the sunlight on his sword, and in those few fractions of a second, throws the blade right into the Ninja's chest.

Robo-Samurai vs. Mondo-Bot

• The title itself. Giant robot samurai vs. giant killer robot with a billion weapons. What more do you want?
• The first half of the episode. The titular Mondo-Bot is several hundred feet tall and has a massively destructive Death Ray. Jack is a normal human with a sword. The final outcome of their first battle? A draw.

Samurai vs. Samurai

• Jack showing Da Samurai the error of his ways, not with a sword fight, but a basic duel with bamboo rods. The advice he gives to Da Samurai during their fight can also count as real-life lessons.
  • Generally, Jack remaining as patient as he can in the presence of Da Samurai. Even when the latter defiles Jack's tea, the act is only met with Tranquil Fury. Jack truly is the bigger man in this situation.
• Jack's battle with the robot assassins. This is what ultimately proves to Da Samurai that a true samurai isn't about being a flashy, intimidating, compulsive joke. By Jack's example, it's about discipline, courage, humility, and honor.
  • Even Da Samurai gets a moment of awesome, when after he admits that he's not so badass, and then proceeds to take a laser that was meant for Jack.

The Aku Infection

• Jack's inner fight with the darkness infecting his soul at the climax. When all seems lost and Jack is slowly being swallowed by the evil, the voices of his mother and father remind him of his accomplishments against Aku, as well as the friends he's made in the future, building his will until he becomes a master samurai of light within his heart, vanquishing the evil of Aku from within. It is all just pure brilliance and a heartwarming tearjerker.

The Princess and the Bounty Hunters

• Six of the world's greatest bounty hunters end up in the same place to try and take down Jack. Ultimately they combine their individual plans into a master one, making sure it has no flaws Jack could exploit, seeming like it might actually work. They all ambush him at the same time... yet Jack utterly defeats them all in the time it takes a drop of water to fall from an icicle and hit the ground, with no more effort than if they'd attacked him individually. One bounty hunter (the Princess) is still alive/conscious and draws her back-up weapon, a small knife. Jack stands motionless with his back to her; realizing the futility of attacking Jack, she drops the knife and then drops to her knees. Jack walks on down the road, not having said a word or shown his face in person during the entire episode.

Jack vs. Aku

• Pretty much the whole fight, easily topped by how Jack manages to drive Aku into having a panic attack with his genius gambit. Let's repeat: Jack manages to drive Aku into sheer panic. The smug look on Jack's face and his swagger as Aku's panicking is the icing on the cake. He may not have vanquished Aku in that episode, but he most overwhelmingly won that day for certain.
• Minor one for Aku when Jack recovers his sword and leaps for the strike. Rather than run, Aku still faces him in human form, lunging forward to meet him mid-air.

The Four Seasons of Death

• The "Fall" segment, where Jack pretends to drink from the poisoned well, and when the Mad Scientist who made the poison sneaks up to check on his victim, Jack turns around, and spits the poisoned water into the villain's mouth. Said villain promptly withers into dead leaves and is blown apart by the wind.
• The "Winter" segment depicts the epic forging of a Cool Sword. Crystals, lava, icebergs, dragonfire, lightning, runes, trial by combat... you name it. Sure, it's all the buildup to a "Shaggy Dog" Story, but it was mighty impressive while it lasted.

Young Jack in Africa

• In this flashback episode with little Jack, Jack's mentor and his village are captured by evil men wielding better weapons than their staffs, with only Jack escaping. Jack is miserable for a while, until you see him train with the enemy weapon, giving you a glimpse of the man he will become. He ultimately goes to the evil men's village and frees his mentor/people, who all use the sticks that made up their cage as weapons, defeating the evil men in their own homes.
  • Special mention to Jack's mentor who curb-stomps the evil men's leader (a giant brute who dual-wields his weapons) who tore through Jack's own commandeered weapon like it was paper.
  • Not to mention how Jack ends up adapting to use the evil tribe's weapon, a kind of club/sword fusion presumably made from metal (likely bronze). Jack, being a mere child at this point, isn't strong enough to lift the weapon properly, so instead he invents a kind of spin move, using the weapon's weight as an advantage to take down the slavers.

Jack and the Baby

• Just like the Emperor before him, we see that Jack inherited his Papa Wolf instincts when he protects a lost infant from the robot trolls. Like father, like son.
• Although it's Played for Laughs, when the baby is returned to her mom, she displays a serious scowl. Jack believes that all the robot carnage the baby witnessed may have "stirred the spirit of a samurai." In other words, we witness a future hero being born!

Season 5

XCII

• Fifty years of ennui and futility hasn't dulled Jack's skills one bit, even without his sword.
  • For the entirety of the series, we've seen Jack walking everywhere he goes. When he appears at the start of the new season to rescue a family under attack from Aku's robots, he shows up on a badass motorcycle with spiked wheels. Not only that, but he's wearing some slick armor, and wielding new weapons, including guns and a staff with a claw on one end and an electrical prod on the other. Even a samurai needs to adapt to the times, apparently.
  • Also can be seen when he decimates a rock golem and Scaramouche with slim to no effort before taking Scaramouche's tuning fork sword for himself. Even better, that last detail indicates that all those other weapons listed above that he now wields were likely taken from previous assassins.
    • And how does Jack land the final blow? With a bit of cunning on his part. Scaramouche's tuning fork sword causes whatever it strikes to vibrate at a rapidly increasing frequency until it explodes like a grenade, so when Scaramouche strikes Jack's dagger, Jack just waits... and then throws his dagger grenade.
• When he's not being hilarious, Scaramouche is pretty impressive in combat. His main abilities include a "magic" flute that lets him manipulate objects into projectiles and massive golems. Even without the flute, he can still use these powers simply by scatting. Probably his best weapon is his sword, which opens up like a tuning fork, upon which any object he strikes with it vibrates at such high intensity that it promptly explodes. It's such a Cool Sword that after Jack defeats him, he keeps it.
  • That's not even what makes him such a formidable fighter. Rather, Scaramouche is no slouch in swordfighting, able to match Jack in speed, reaction time, and strength. He uses his musical powers in conjunction with his swordfighting to keep Jack on his toes, such as using the flying blade he controls by scatting as something of an invisible third arm.
• Evil Laser Guided Tykebombs though they may be, the Daughters of Aku are scarily competent and utterly badass in their mannerisms and skills. How badass? They kill every other member of the cult (save for their biological mom) as part of their graduation test!
  • Their mother is rather badass herself, especially considering how quickly she was back on her feet after giving birth to seven children!
• After everything that's changed and all the time that's passed, both in-universe and out, what do we get at the very end of the episode?
  "Watch out!"

XCIII

• A gigantic one for Jack? He made Aku just give up on trying to kill him. Aku tried to destroy all time portals that Jack could use to get home, and then just let old age kill Jack for him, but finds out his displacement of Jack through time travel (which turned him biologically immortal) made that plan impossible. Aku hasn't appeared to Jack personally in years because he's given up on actually killing him.
• Jack casually destroying the latest model of the Beetle Drone in a couple seconds.
• We could narrow the list down by saying "The ENTIRE first battle with the Daughters of Aku", but in its honor we'll present a list of highlights.
  • Starting off with an explosive tripwire, and then following up with a Speed Blitz so brutal even Jack can't see the daughters move at first. Yes, Jack, the most badass samurai in TWO generations, can't get a bead on them.
  • One of the daughters bursting out of a tree to smite Jack. The best part, Jack actually jumping from the tree seconds before the Daughter can stab him.
  • After detonating an entire grenade belt in order to Smoke Out the assassins, Jack eventually hides inside a ruined temple. The daughters chase after him, hunting for him in a tension-filled scene...before revealing that Jack hid himself in a crack in the ceiling to avoid them.
  • A brief sequence where the only lighting is the sisters' Sword Sparks.
  • The mausoleum scene. One would assume that a crypt would be bleak and depressing, but the lighting, music, and animation all complement each other perfectly, delivering a beautiful scene in the midst of a truly dire situation.
  • Jack hides in a coffin, awaiting the sisters...and just when they surrounded him, he bursts free from an attack by all seven of them. Mind you there was no indication before the scene that they know which coffin he was hiding in. Turns out all of them accurately predicted which one and attacked it at once. And what does Jack do? Similar to the tree scene mentioned above, he jumped out with an acute sense of timing before getting hit by each and every one of them. It's really amazing how all of the daughters manage to get the right coffin and Jack manages to still escape right before they hit the coffin.
  • To cap it off, while it's sad due to the tragic nature of the Daughters, Jack managing to kill one of them during the drastic situation he's in is also very impressive.
  • Jack's final escape: after reclaiming Scaramouche's dagger, he scrapes it against the temple's walls, detonating it and allowing him to dive into the river to escape...all while slowly bleeding out.
  • The fact that for 90% of the fight, the sisters had Jack on the run; the only other enemies to do that since the Minions of Set and the Imakandi. All while being normal humans.
• The lone white wolf shown in the episode's subplot. It encounters a pack of alien tigers... and manages to kill all three of them!

XCIV

• Remember the Wolf from the previous episode, and his apparent Dying Moment of Awesome? It turns out that he survived! Much like Jack, the Wolf could withstand near-fatal, massive blood loss.
• The flashback to Jack's childhood, where his father confronts a band of assassins who murdered his bodyguards and tried to do the same to him and his family. We see that the Emperor was still as lethal with a blade as he was when he fought Aku.
  • If you look carefully, you'll see that he began the fight by redirecting an arrow into the head of another bandit. After that, it is literally a kill per second until half a dozen bandits are dead on the ground.
• Jack vs. the Daughters of Aku, Round 2. Unlike their previous battle, where they greatly overwhelmed him and forced him to flee for his life, Jack manages to regain his fighting spirit and turn the tables on his adversaries.
  • Jack announces his presence and warns them not to fight him, intentionally invoking the words of his father from his past fight.
    Jack: I will give you a new choice. Leave here now, and live. Or stay, and face your destiny.
    Ashi: OUR destiny is YOUR death!
    Jack: Very well.
  • After the threat above, Jack immediately springs out of the snow and slays three more Daughters, by impaling them with a spear and sword. It all happens in the span of a few minutes and is over with just as fast, instantly showcasing that Jack's stopped messing around.
  • This is followed by Jack luring the last three Daughters to a high tree branch in order to force them to come at him one at a time. He manages to throw one off without much fanfare, and another was immediately taken out with a strong hook to the face that snapped her neck and caused her to spin out off the tree branch.
  • The last Daughter, Ashi, is left hanging by her chain from the branch. When she blows off into a typical evil rant, Jack shows little patience for her meltdown and just drops her mid-sentence.

XCV

• Ashi tries to attack Jack again... and he restrains her almost effortlessly.
  • Ashi gets props for simply not giving up. Jack restrains her? She rants at him about what a "threat" he is to the "order" of Aku's dominion. She ends up being swallowed by a massive beast along with Jack? She's satisfied that Jack supposedly won't be escaping death this time. She's got her arms bound, with monstrosities closing in? She tries kicking Jack into the path of the creatures. She may be thoroughly wrong in her beliefs, but you've got to admire her persistence.
• There's something inherently awesome about the fact that Jack's reaction to being Swallowed Whole by a giant monster... is to be mildly annoyed because he's a pro at surviving this very situation by this point.
• After finally getting fed up with Ashi's rants about Aku's "generosity, kindness, and understanding," Jack delivers an epic Shut Up, Hannibal! speech to Ashi about how wrong she is.
  Jack: Enough! Every thing, every word, every thought that you know... is wrong. Aku?! Aku is the one who has laid waste to the beauty of this world! He has destroyed Mother Nature! (gestures around them, at the beast's insides) Where do you think we ARE?! Aku has unleashed these monstrosities upon our world, and they feed off his carnage!
  Ashi: LIAR!!
  Jack: Believe what you may. But if you open your eyes, and let go of the hate...you will see the truth.
• Jack's final escape from the monster; even after 50 years of hardship, Jack still remembers how to "Jump Good!".
• The last scene is a subdued documentation of a gentle epiphany that the entire episode had been building up towards, and it is utterly beautiful.

XCVI

• In the beginning, a large insurgent army riding rhinos and tanks launch an all-out attack on Aku's lair. While this is extremely brave yet stupid, those men (and women) have a lot of balls to try something like this.
  • To say nothing of what Aku, who had hidden himself for around 50 years, resolves to do:
    Aku: Perhaps annihilating this scum will break me out of my... malaise...
    (Aku leaps out of his tower and turns into a giant rolling ball of death, crushing everyone below.)
  • The leader of the rebel forces, the Scotsman himself, sadly turns out to be unable to do much, not even escape from Aku alive. But despite his physical weakness, he proves that he still has his badass personality.
    • After Aku has massacred all of the Scotsman's troops (except for his daughters), the old man resolves to distract Aku long enough so that his children can escape with their lives. How does he do it? Without any fear at all, the Scotsman yells out a long-winded rant against the Master of Darkness himself.
      The Scotsman: HOLD IT! (Aku glances down and sees the Scotsman in his wheelchair, brandishing his sword) Ye're not goin' anywhere, yeh big buffoon!
      Aku: (bends down) I'm sorry, old man, I think you're lost.
      The Scotsman: I ain't 'lost', yeh tree-ogre! I might be old, but I've lived long enough t' see the world rise against yer tyranny. Admit it, yeh big oaf! You're scared! ^note And this gets a response out of Aku. The Samurai is still out there, inspirin' people by the thousands! After all these years, you're powerless against him! You've been shiverin' like a wee baby hidin' in yer crib, afraid to show yerself, 'cause you know he's out there — and you can't do anything about it! (gives a hearty guffaw) You're just a big baby! Why don't you go cry to yer mama?!
    • The best part of his insults is that they're completely accurate. If Jack wasn't alive, then Aku would still be acting like his personality before Season 5, and would still be happily harassing the citizens of Earth for his own amusement.
    • Unfortunately, this ends exactly like one would expect, as Aku kills the Scotsman for his irreverence. But fortunately, the Scotsman succeeded at offending Aku so much that he leaves feeling totally unsatisfied by today's carnage. Even better, the Scotsman manages to rise from his ashes as a ghost, feeling much better than when he was alive. He pulled out a (minor) victory against Aku through Celtic magic and pure spite.
    • On a lesser note but still great is the fact that The Scotsman died exactly how he lived: insulting the ever-loving fuck out of someone. And this time, he insulted just the right person.
    • Aku was right on the verge of breaking out of his malaise by taking on the army. Just by mentioning Jack, the Scotsman knocked him right back in again.
    • On a related note, speaking of the Scotsman and his family, someone should give props to his wife for birthing so many daughters to populate an army!
• The way Jack and Ashi leave the island: Jack jumps into the sea... and comes out riding a sea monster that brings them to the mainland. And the travel to the mainland is an absolute gem.
• Ashi escapes from her restraints while she is being electrically shocked, and then beats the ever-loving crap out of the power-armored man doing it. Before then, he brags to her about how children are so easy to manipulate. The look on her face is sheer fury at hearing this, because it hits far too close to home, considering her own experience with the Aku cult. Jack succeeded in convincing her that Aku is a destructive force that preys upon the innocent, but this experience further cemented it in, thus ensuring that Ashi will likely never be fooled by Aku's deceptions ever again.

XCVII

• This episode, in general, was nothing but a sendoff to the early seasons that made this show great. We see what's become of some of Jack's old friends that he saved (along with a few old foes he fought) and were never seen again, leaving fans wondering of their fates.
  • This entire episode makes it a point of showing Jack is not just literally timeless, as it hits home one simple fact: we will never forget you, Samurai Jack.
• Scaramouche is back, babe! True, he's only a head at this point, but the fact that he's still kicking is pretty badass. Not to mention that he's dead set on telling Aku that he found out that Jack's sword is missing, despite numerous obstacles in his way.
• While Ashi is onboard an airship, two of the Woolies believe that she's another one of Aku's bounty-hunters, so they try to fight her while proclaiming that they won't let her hurt Jack. After the mix-up is cleared up, they proudly state that they are Jack's friends and part on good terms.
  • The Woolies' flashback to when Jack rescued them from slavery, by beating the utter crap out of all the Chritchellites.
  • Without warning, Ashi jumps from the airship and skydives without a parachute, breaking her fall only by using her chain to swing from a tree and land.
• The Three Blind Archers' reintroduction. They're still pretty damn deadly with their arrows even after 50 years, as they drive away a large swarm of Beetle Drones.
  • Then they fire an arrow through a tree that Ashi is hiding behind, demanding that she leaves. A proper introduction later, and Ashi is taken to their village... complete with a towering statue of Jack built in his honor.
  • The Archers have clearly joined the fight against Aku's forces, promising Ashi that should the day come, they will proudly stand by the hero who saved them. It looks like The Scotsman's Ghost will have some pretty good volunteers for his army...
  • The Three Archers originally came upon the well to wish for the ability to become the greatest warriors in the world, and when they were freed it was implied that they also lost their tremendous skill. This episode showed that, inspired by the example set by Jack, the three men trained themselves to become warriors just as great as they were under the curse, but now it's of their own hard work and determination.
• Traveling through the forest, Ashi hears rave music and stumbles upon a large dance party. Ashi asks one of the dancers about whether Jack had passed through... and the party immediately comes to a halt. A spotlight shines on Ashi as the DJ demands to know what she wants. After Ashi, on a big screen for the whole crowd to see, explains that he's in danger and she's looking to help him, the DJ comes out of the shadows. The old woman reveals herself to be Olivia, and she leads the crowd in doing an S-shape salute, and then a musical number of how the Samurai saved Olivia and her friends many years ago.
  • The Rave is really the cherry on top of this episode: it includes the dance moves Jack originally used to blend in at the time, with Ashi joining in at the end. The chorus sings how they will never forget what Jack did for them.
    • During the dance, some of the ravers perform a shadow play of Samurai Jack fighting Aku.
• When visiting a Bad Guy Bar, Ashi meets the bartender: Da Samurai, who's aged pretty well (especially when compared to The Scotsman). He's long since hung up his sword after his humbling experience with Jack, while all the bar's patrons (a bunch of ex-bounty-hunters) show their battle scars courtesy of Jack.
  • Despite Da Samurai's ego when he recalls what an awesome dude he was, he has developed the humility to admit he may be a cool guy, but Samurai Jack is COOLER.
  • Goes further when Ashi never clarifies that she's Jack's friend and ally. Meaning that either they were either trying to warn her away from fighting Jack, or just giving her some warning about what to expect. Given that Demongo had no interest in taking on any of the bounty hunters, it makes you wonder if the Da Samurai's Bad Guy Bar is more of an ex-Bad Guy Bar.
  • The fact that, somehow, Demongo is still alive after all these years, after seemingly being killed by Aku, is awesome.
    • The reason he doesn't steal the souls of everyone in the bar? Well, he came looking for the greatest warriors, and everyone Jack's ever fought no longer counts. So unintentionally, Jack saved everybody in that bar by defeating them, one way or another.
• The mysterious nature of the stranger who finally gives Ashi helpful directions to Samurai Jack. Whoever it is, it makes you hope it's somebody we knew from the previous four seasons. And even if it's someone new, this must be a really important character if all we see are their silhouette and their exotic blue eyes.
• Two episodes ago, Ashi hated Jack and would have liked nothing more than to see him dead, by her own hand or someone else's. The tremendous growth she had since then has been exponential, which naturally culminates to a head: Ashi becomes the Hope Bringer to Jack, who is this close to committing seppuku in a graveyard, overseen by a council of ghostly samurai from ages past. Even as The Omen (the spirit who haunted Jack throughout this season) attacks her, Ashi keeps reminding Jack of all the lives he had saved across the decades — including herself, claiming that she's become a better person because of him.
  • It can't be understated of just how awesome this is; from the moment he first appeared, the Omen was a figure of dread that terrified even Samurai Jack. But when this nightmare comes after Ashi, she doesn't just dodge its attacks for a good while — she succeeds in kicking his head, hard enough to make him reel from the impact.
    • The kicker? It's Ashi's revelation that the children from the last episode survived that snapped Jack out of his suicidal despair. She, the person who was meant to kill Jack, is the ultimate reason he saves his own life.
  • Jack finally fights back against the Omen, and he wins. He does it with only two blows; the first to stop the Omen's sword from hitting Ashi, and the second to slice him in half. Just like the Daughters of Aku before him, the Omen was doomed to fail once Jack's Heroic Resolve kicked in.
    • Crossing over with a heartwarming moment: the moment the Omen moves to deliver a killing blow on Ashi, Jack's on his feet and blocking the ghost's sword in a flash. This is the point where the old Jack, the one who will never hesitate before helping others, really comes back.
    • Right after Jack dispatched the Omen, the music turns ominous, and there are shots of the four other samurai spirits surrounding him. His response? Giving them a Death Glare. They very quickly and wisely leave.
    • The stinger of the episode:
      Jack: It's time... to find my sword.

XCVIII

• If we're counting villainous actions, Aku achieved his greatest victory over Jack during the flashback at the beginning. Just when Jack finally managed to jump through a time portal (apparently the last one on Earth), Aku grabs and pulls out Jack with his own claws, destroys the time portal, and taunts the poor samurai over his loss. Aku didn't stick around to see it, but he caused Jack to fall into his 50-year-long depression that almost killed him.
  • Even though it was a flashback and Aku isn't as active in the present, this is also a wake-up call for the audience. For most of the season, Aku, the Big Bad and the living embodiment of evil, spent it as Plucky Comic Relief over his Arch-Enemy not dying, while other villains served as the main opposition for Jack. Even his killing of the Scotman was rendered as Black Comedy because of Aku's apathetic demeanor, and the Scotsman immediately coming back as a ghost. Then Aku reminds the audience in the most brutal manner possible that while he may be Laughably Evil, he's still the sadistic monster that has caused everything horrible in the show, even now.
• Ashi's one-sided melee against an orc army that tried to kill Jack while he was meditating. Mostly using her bare hands, she clears most of them from the mountain path in 10 seconds flat, and proceeds to beat her way through the rest. She may have been unable to defeat Jack in a one-on-one fight, but her Training from Hell makes her nigh-unstoppable to anyone else.
  • Her opening statements before the fight, sporting an intense stare the whole time:
    Orc Captain: So a little thing like you is gonna stop this whole army, huh?
    Ashi: Yup.
    Orc Captain: We're gonna rip you apart into a bunch of pieces, and then we're gonna take those pieces, and rip them apart into even more pieces!
    Ashi: I'm waiting.
• Which is soon followed by Ashi having a duel to the death with her own mother.
  • Ashi's rant to her mom was awesome all on its own.
    High Priestess: How could you betray your family?! He killed your sisters, and you let him live!
    Ashi: No, you killed them! We were made for one purpose: to kill! Our fate was sealed the day we were born!
  • Generally, Ashi accepting that her sisters' death wasn't Jack's fault. It hints a lot of emotional growth on her part, as opposed to episode XCV where she spat insults at him. By Jack's example, she too is learning to accept responsibility for her choices and the consequences that follow. Also, bonus points for showing courage in the face of her mother.
  • The High Priestess herself proves to be a very capable fighter. At first, it seems like there's no way this older woman could be any kind of match for her younger daughter... But she sheds her cloak, revealing to be wearing the same kind of ash suit as the Daughters. She then fights Ashi one-on-one while tearing solid stone apart with only some clawed gloves, and overall gives Ashi a much tougher fight than the entire army she had just demolished with ease. All this as a middle-aged woman.
  • Before she commences her duel with her mother, Ashi breaks off one of the horns from the skull of the dead goats Aku tricked Jack into killing years ago. She uses it as a dagger to fight against her mother's own Aku-themed dagger. In a sense, this is a posthumous The Dog Bites Back moment for the poor sheep.
  • And finally, here's how Ashi wins this fight: she catches and grabs an arrow fired by her mom, and then throws the arrow (bare-handed like a spear, without a bow) with enough force that it impales her mother clean through her body, sending her falling off the very-tall mountain.
• During his spiritual journey inside his mind, Jack once again conquers his inner demons — almost literally. Jack's selfish dark side, which is basically a return of Mad Jack, tries to goad him into giving into his anger again. Realizing that Mad Jack has been clouding his judgement for decades, Jack ignores and purges him.
  • After passing this Secret Test of Character, Jack is deemed worthy of once again wielding his sword by the gods themselves. They reward him with the holy sword, while also changing him back to his classic appearance from 50 years ago. The scene itself is almost an exact mirror of when Jack's father first got the sword.
    Odin: Like your father, you have been chosen!
    Ra: To stop a force of ultimate evil!
    Rama: You... are worthy!
    • Just seeing Jack return to his old self is satisfying in its own right. This isn't the gritty new Jack, but the Jack we knew and grew up with is back. Sure, the armor and beard were cool and all, but it wasn't the real, true him we know and love. That was him all wild and untamed, not refined and composed. The gi and sandals look will never go out of style. Having that version of him around is even more badass, because you know it's the way things should be. THIS is why he's the Big Good, ladies and gentlemen, and THIS is why he's Aku's Arch-Nemesis. Stay it with us, folks: JACK IS BACK!

XCIX

• Jack's and Ashi's fight with the green tiger men, even intertwining arms at one point. And they manage to beat them down without having to resort to lethal force.
• Ashi effortlessly throwing glass shards like shuriken. Anyone inexperienced who tried to do that would be begging for injury.
• After a great deal of confusion and trial-and-error, Jack and Ashi activate the device that and electrocutes Lazarus-92 to death.

C

• Unfortunately, Jack is unable to accomplish anything great in this episode. But his old nemesis Aku got his own moments of evil awesomeness.
  • About 50 years ago, Aku had seemingly murdered the Guardian, the very same badass who had once defeated Samurai Jack, and then destroyed his time portal.
    • More likely than not, the Guardian probably put up a lot of resistance against Aku, however futile it may have been.
  • Back in the present day, the old Aku is back, and badder than ever before. If you thought how he destroyed the last time portal in front of Jack was cruel, he now manages to top that with an even greater victory that is twice as humiliating for Jack.
    • As terrible as Aku taking control of Ashi is, the fight between her and Jack is really impressive to look at. Especially when Ashi gets covered in Aku's darkness and moves faster and with more flexibility than before.
    • With Jack being totally unwilling to kill Ashi, he personally surrenders to Aku. Aku then takes away Jack's sword to complete his enemy's defeat.

CI

• The long awaited Final Battle between Jack and Aku takes place. Of course it's this.
• The way Aku began his presentation of Jack's execution. By playing the original opening to Samurai Jack.
• As Aku reveals Jack, each of his allies express concern or worry (including the usually fearless Scotsman), except the archers. When we cut back to their reaction, all you see is grim-faced anger. Remember when they said that if Jack ever needed them, they'd come? Well, Jack needs them and here they come.
• It's the beginning of Jack's end, Aku has decided that he will die by Ashi's hand, and there is nothing that can be done. But then, Aku hears a great disturbance outside his fortress. Once he takes a look, we see practically everyone, from the ravers and dog archeologists to Scotsman and his army to even the Spartans, coming to Jack's rescue!
  Spartan King: The three-hundred fight for one!
  • As the original Spartan King was already shown to be on his deathbed without ever finding out that Jack has survived their encounter with the mechanical monster, this means that the Spartan King featured is his son (who is shown to have succeeded him). Same can be said for the Ravers, who were only teenagers when Jack rescued them. Even through generations, the people whom Jack has touched has not forgotten him and will rush to his defense.
• The Scotsman leading a literal army of his daughters into the Final Battle at just the right moment to turn the tide. He compounds this by proving he can use his ghost powers and bagpipes to repel Aku, something that nothing short of the power of gods has been able to do before. And on top of that, his daughters are following him mid-air on the trail created by his Celtic magic, atop deers. Riding into battle with style.
• The Mecha-Samurai from Robo-Samurai vs. Mondo-Bot arrives at the battle last, piloted by the robots that helped Jack in the same episode, and directly confronts Aku. Unimpressed, he proceeds to taunt it and, as a result, ends up on the receiving end of one of the most brutal beatdowns ever delivered to him in the show as the Mecha-Samurai proceeds to punch him repeatedly in the face, grab his antlers and rip them off before kicking him against the wall of his own fortress and drawing its sword for a finishing blow. While this doesn't cause Aku any permanent harm, and ultimately ends up leading to the below mentioned moment, it's the only time we've ever seen Aku really getting his ass handed to him by someone other than Jack.
• Not to be easily outdone, Aku gets one himself. When the Master of Darkness is finally fed up with these pesky heroes showing up on his doorstep, he turns himself into a truly titanic black mass hovering above the battlefield, then unleashes a literal rain of spiky death onto the good guys. It takes out a gigantic chunk of their forces, including Robo-Samurai, in moments.
  • However, this is followed by a Moment of Awesome for Flora and her sisters, who manage to save themselves by holding up their shields against Aku's falling death spikes until their father the Scotsman uses the aforementioned ghostly powers and bagpipes to repel the death spikes and drive them out of the fortress.
    Scotsman: Fear tha call... of tha Phantom Pipes 'a Lagavulin!!
• Ashi, after breaking free of Aku's control, fights against Aku with his own powers, causing her to realize that she can also open a time portal. Aku has a look knowing how screwed he is once Ashi grabs the sword and transports herself and Jack back to the past before Aku can stop them.
• Phil LaMarr and Greg Baldwin recreating the scene of Aku sending Jack to the future word for word.
• When Jack gets back to the past, he makes mincemeat of the far weaker Past-Aku, dicing him to pieces before impaling him through the head and stabbing the sword with Aku's essence into the ground, destroying him for good. Instead of sealing him away like last time, it causes all of his essence to explode, and his tower to go with it.
  Jack: NO... MORE!!!
  • Even better? Not only does Jack annihilate Past-Aku, Past-Aku spends the entire 'fight' running away. Not in his normal 'I'll get you next time, Samurai!' way, no. Aku is genuinely terrified of Jack in every sense of the word, knowing if Jack catches him, he's dead. Seeing this monster who has subjected so many to terrifying deaths go out just as terrified as any of his victims is rather satisfying.
    • Overall, the catharsis of seeing Aku defeated once and for all! Fans were haunted by the series being left with an open end and no solid conclusion to the story of Jack and his friends. Now, IT! HAS! ENDED!
• Seeing all of Jack's old mentors and family all gathered together, reunited and rejoicing at Aku's final defeat.
• Ashi putting on a brave face the entire time she and Jack returned to the past, likely aware that she will be erased from existence after Aku is destroyed for good. She manages to get all the way to a wedding with Jack before finally fading away, and even in those last moments, she shows no fear in disappearing.
• If you think about it, after Ashi disappears on their wedding day, it's epic how Jack somberly rides into the fog on horseback. Because he's doing so in a similar manner as the Omen warrior, upon a horse, surrounded by fog (albeit not wearing armor). In a sense, it's a subtle representation that Jack is the master of his own fate.
• Jack has a bright future ahead of him. Ashi may be gone, but aside from that, all his adversity in the Bad Future has served to make him a promising ruler for his people. After facing evil tyrants, monsters, aliens, and robots, nothing's going to phase this future emperor of Japan.
• The ending itself. Although it is a profoundly Bittersweet Ending, it marks the long-awaited conclusion of a series 13 years in the making.

Comics

• When Jack's sword breaks, he is brought before Odin, Ra, and Vishnu to prove that he is worthy of wielding it in the first place. He goes through hell and back to pass the gods' tests, ready to give his life if necessary, but still wakes up empty-handed, convinced that he had failed. In this moment, Aku catches up with him, but instead of fleeing, Jack steels himself and attacks him no matter what... and that's when he gets the sword back, good as new, this time reforged from his own power instead of his father's.
  Jack: "Yes, Aku. I am the weapon."

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