WMG / Samurai Jack - Aku

Index: Jack | Aku | Cult of Aku | Other Characters | Storyline | Crossovers

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Aku Himself

Aku was an inside job.

That asshole god Set created Aku. He's also the same god responsible for making the Minions of Set, enemies that Jack could only defeat with Divine Intervention. He disguised himself as a human monk and gave that mysterious substance to the Japanese Emperor, which would later turn Aku into a sapient being.

The Black Mass assimilated various humans.

The original form of Aku, the Black Mass, is a cosmic evil, but a mindless one. Yet when Aku is "born" from the poisoned arrow, he immediately possesses intelligence and a human-like personality (albeit a psychopathic one). Throughout the millennia, a number of people fell into the black goop that Aku later came from. It's possible that this is where Aku got his intellect and personality from; the various souls that fell into this Eldritch Abomination fragment ended up adding intelligence onto it, but any positive trait in their personality was rejected by this mass of cosmic evil.

Aku is the reincarnation of a human villain.

As shown in "The Birth of Evil, Part 1", Aku as we know him was born when the Emperor, armed with an arrow dipped in an enchanted poison, fired it at the Black Mass, accidentally transforming it into a new kind of monster. However it seems weird that Aku, who was literally born just a few minutes before (and came from a mindless primordial entity no less), already knew how to speak and give himself a name, and also knew how to use his superpowers to consciously inflict evil upon the world.

The reason was that in a past life, Aku Was Once a Man. His past incarnation was a Japanese evil sorcerer who was a misanthropic narcissist and sadistic sociopath with a twisted sense of humor, who had aspirations for godhood and global domination. When he died, he transferred his soul into a vial filled with a magical potion, which was (un)wittingly given by that Buddhist monk to the Emperor, in hopes of returning with more power than ever before. And he got his wish; Aku has no knowledge that he used to be human, but retained his evil personality and skills with using black magic.

Aku's Distaff Counterpart is somewhere in the universe.

She has the same body shape (maybe rounder and softer) as Aku and some of his powers and she's made of the same material as Jack‘s sword.She and Aku are the only ones who can hurt each other physically.

• Wasn't the primordial darkness from which Aku was spawned from destroyed by a trio of gods?

Aku is the Unreliable Narrator of the series.

In one episode, Aku reads fairy tales to children concerning some of Jack's adventures. Why not the whole series? Nothing else about it makes much sense.

• It makes enough. Enough to suspect that it's a better storyteller than Aku: the kids. AND THEN THEY FIGHT!
  • Possibly, he is reading the story after he's been defeated, and is being self-depreciating.
• Maybe the comedy episodes are told by Aku to the children and then the more serious episodes are told by the parents to their kids as a way to give them hope to the future. The adults know that there isn't a strong enough warrior to defeat Aku, but they can't say that to the kids so they make up stories using the warrior from the stories. That's also the reason Jack never manages to go back to the past. Because if the parents told the kids that, then they would be wandering "Why isn't the Great Big Fun Leader Aku destroyed?" which would make the kids know that their parents are lying about the whole thing.
  • So, in the show's reality, Jack doesn't even exist, he's only a legendary/mythical hero made up by the enslaved population and mocked by Aku? Hey, I like this.
• I've been wondering about this for a while and find it pretty likely. Just think about it... The whole series begins with the rebirth of Aku. He tells the opening narration. Jack, his entire family and friends don't even have names because Aku simply doesn't care about human rubbish like individuality. Even if he doesn't actually telling the stories to someone, the events could be seen from his viewpoint. This seems to be more likely to me because it could explain why do we see Jack as a positive hero: even if Aku lies about him to the children, he cannot lie to himself.
• Or alternately, He DID send Jack to the future, he just hasn't arrived yet. Aku is telling stories of a legendary hero predestined to arrive in order to crush them completely when he kills Jack when he arrives...only it'll backfire and give Jack an army ready, willing, and able to help bring Aku down.

Aku will transform into the Eldritch Abomination seen in "The Birth of Evil".

He will restore himself as the nameless evil that was destroyed by the gods eons ago. Only this time he will have a conscience and grow powerful enough to defeat the gods themselves.

• It's possible. And maybe, he'll do it with the High Priestess' help.
  • Jossed. This never happens.

Aku is the personification of all primal fears.

It's obvious.

• GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS symbolizes the fear of extreme heat and fire itself. Almost any being of an intelligence above that of a bug realizes that fire is dangerous, and automatically fears it.
• The dark, opaque body represents the fear of darkness and the unknown. Intelligent life forms are usually wary of being trapped within the dark, completely defenseless and unwary to any threats.
• Aku's penchant for grabbing things in his massive claws resembles the innate fear of being trapped in a small, restricting space.
• Aku's mouthful of teeth and many forms symbolize the fear of large, powerful beasts with massive claws and rending teeth.
• His magic powers represent the fear of beings much, much more powerful than you, and of mysterious nature. Think of the fear that, say, a native American felt when a colonist or soldier shot him. To him, this humanoid that looks kind of like him, but at the same time entirely different, just pointed a metal stick at him, releasing a massive noise, a cloud of smoke, and an immense feeling of pain within the poor native's body.

Aku will be killed by a Combined Energy Attack

Jack, in the final battle, will call for aid from everyone he's befriended in the entire series and lead them into a Final Battle with Aku (makes sense as they can help make sure Aku can't escape this time and deal with his minions). During the final battle, Jack is nearly defeated but all his allies (or possibly the entire planet, odds are Aku would broadcast the battle to the entire world to crush them if he won) transfer their righteous spirit into the sword (which was forged from righteousness, thus can be powered by it). Jack then uses it to completely obliterate Aku in one attack.

• Zig-zagged. Jack's friends do show up, and it's because of Aku's broadcast, but Aku's ultimate defeat doesn't happen this way.

Aku won't be killed in battle but instead suffer a Villainous BSoD

Jack realizes physically attacking Aku can't destroy him, but figures out a way to copy his moral personality into Aku. With a conscious, Aku suddenly is overcome with guilt for several eons of causing pain and suffering across the universe and begs Jack to finish him off. Seems like something Jack would do.

• If his "therapist" is any indication, Aku is only one step away from this. (Bear in mind, talking to yourself is not therapy.) To Jack's surprise, Aku will surrender and allow a portal to the past, because Jack's endurance has outlasted Aku's drive to exist.
  • Jossed. Aku is indeed killed in battle—twice!

Aku's humanoid form is simply a Type B Shapeshifter Default Form.

He remains in it because its easier and he can maintain control. His true form has a drawback that makes it not a good idea (like losing the sentience he obtained from Jack's father's arrow) and he's saving it for a One-Winged Angel transformation in the final battle (if we ever see it).

• It may simply be the massive, amorphous sea of darkness he transformed into in Jack And The Zombies. He does transform into something similar in the final battle, simply raining sharp parts of himself onto the battlefield and instantly wiping out most of Jack's allies.

Ikra is not another personification of Aku, she is Aku's daughter.

She is Jack's opposite, not unlike Ying and Yang. She is both good and evil, she got the evil from her father and the good from her mother. In fact, Jack has to turn her against her father in order to finally defeat Aku. She may even be Jack's soulmate.

• Uh, no. It was outright shown that Aku and "Ikra" are one and the same person. Unless Aku decided to disguise himself as a real female warrior named "Ikra" whom he already killed.
• Weirdly enough, Season 5 reveals that Jack's soulmate... is Ashi, who is actually Aku's daughter.

Greg Baldwin will replace Mako as Aku's voice actor if they make The Movie.

He's the natural go-to choice, being Mako's understudy. Baldwin knows how to replicate Mako's unique voice patterns, and he did a fine job as General Iroh in the final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Anyone else is preposterous, really.

• Confirmed. Baldwin voices Aku in Season 5.

Aku hates himself.

Bear with me here. While it's hard to believe that the ultimate embodiment of evil and darkness who has so much power at his disposal could possibility possess self-loathing, many moments in the series seem to suggest that Aku is not only battling Samurai Jack but also himself. Many instances where Aku had the upper hand and could have ended Jack's life and come out victorious are constantly thwarted by his own evil nature. For example, there were so many ways Aku could have disposed of Jack when he arrived in the future. Being the ruler of the fricken world and surrounding space, he could have easily gathering the largest army he could find and shoot down the culture shocked Jack while he was at his most vulnerable, tiring him down until he could no longer fight back. Even better, he could have convinced Jack that the future he was sent in is an illusion and trick him into endangering and killing innocents so that when the truth is revealed to him, he will be sent straight into a Despair Event Horizon. Yet he doesn't do this - by the time Jack makes it to his destination, Aku is just lying on his throne doing nothing but engaging in bits of petty evil here and there with a look of stern boredom on his face, almost like he was waiting for someone to arrive and challenge him. No matter how much he tries he just can't keep himself in check. His self aggrandizement and spite is almost like an addiction he can't kick off. Evil is often shown incapable of love, kindness, or mercy, so if Aku is Made of Evil, then he probably shouldn't expect his own evil to treat him in that way either, such as allowing Jack to defeat him by exploiting his sadistic tendencies. He probably knows deep down that he's deliberately making himself miserable, but his vileness prevents him from being consciously aware of it and may even try to thwart such awareness if he were to reach an epiphany at some point in his eternal life. And even if he did reach that epiphany, like Tzeentch he would probably be instantly wiped from existence since he would have no more purpose to do evil, even for its own sake.

The birth of Aku is a "fixed point in time"

Jack can never return to the past to defeat Aku because the events depicted in "The Birth of Evil" are so important to the future history of the universe that altering them in any way would cause reality to break down and come to a halt. Jack's constant failures at using the available portals to return to the past are merely the universe's way of protecting itself and maintaining order. Even the Guardian's portal will probably fail somehow, in the end.

• Zig-zagged. The Guardian's portal has been destroyed, but Jack does eventually get back to the past.

Aku will have no comedic tendencies in Season 5.

Due to the Darker and Edgier plot treatment Season Five will be given, Aku will be played completely serious (more like he was in the Pilot for example) and have absolutely no redeeming qualities.

• Jossed. The first time that he makes a full appearance again, he provides the only comedy in the entire episode.

Aku is NOT pure evil. Well not cosmic evil at least...

The question has come up many times in the past; why did the gods not simply destroy Aku instead of leaving the humans to fend for themselves? After all, they destroyed the being who originally spawned him, and Aku is just the one piece that escaped. The answer is that quite simply Aku is not a being of pure evil anymore.

When Jack's father set out to destroy Aku he brought with him a bow and poison to try and kill the pool of evil that was consuming everything in its path. However, rather then destroy it, he gave it sapience and in effect created Aku. The result is Aku is a being of celestial evil, mixed with the evils of man and the elements of the mortal realm. The very tools used in the attempt made it so. Poison, the tool of treachery that kills in secret. The bow, a weapon of death and destruction that in truth has not left us but had its core concept refined into modern guns. Fire, the force that can consume all that it touches not out of malice but simply by its very nature, which we still struggle with to this day.

The only way to counter that was to forge a weapon made up of the good inside of men that could destroy the evil Aku had become. Thus the holy blade formed from the courage and spiritual purity of humans was made, a perfect counter for Aku being made from the good in humanity and the celestial powers of the gods.

Aku is torn between fear of his mortality, and wanting to go out in a blaze of glory

The information out suggests Aku is suffering from depression, telling his therapist he is weary of dealing with Jack. But really, what's Aku going to do if he beats Jack? Go back to ruling the world, which he's done for centuries anyway. Aku is terrified of Jack finally finishing him off, but he doesn't know how to exist without Jack anymore. When he and Jack finally face off again, Aku will feel alive again, fight Jack with everything he's got and will Go Out with a Smile.

Aku himself will pull a Heel–Face Turn.

He will get so miserable trying to defeat Jack that he will eventually discover meaning in life when Good Feels Good. He will then help Jack get back to the past to stop Past!Aku from starting the chain of events leading to his misery. If the future timeline remains, he will become a benevolent ruler.

• Jossed. Aku is pure evil. He can never reform or redeem himself. End of discussion.
  • Very, extremely Jossed - Jack simply kills Aku without him ever having displayed even a shred of redeeming qualities.

Aku will step back into the villainy game, and in a major way.

Come on, this will likely be all too easy to predict. Aku will probably find out at some point that Jack lost his sword, which will give him the courage to confront him again. Also, Aku has probably gotten really bored of ruling the world and barely trying to pretend to be some sort of half-way decent authority figure, so he will decide to commit atrocities on a grander scale than before — perhaps he'll even try to destroy the world or the known universe.

• We will probably see this in action as soon as he discovers Jack does not, in fact, have his sword. It will be a mad chase to reach Jack before he finally does recover his sword, during which Aku will make everything he did in the previous seasons look like child's play in sunshine; the new rating would allow him to go full-blown Lovecraftian horror.
  • If that's so, he'll out-right kill everyone standing between him and Jack, with his bare claws. EVERYONE, from the Scotsman to Da Samurai to the Wishing Fairy to the Totoro-like Creature. Even Ashi. All the more, it only serves to motivate Jack to reach his sword so all his allies will not have died in vain.
  • Dear God, has this been confirmed... well, sort of. Aku doesn't kill any of the aforementioned characters (except for the Scotsman). Aku does gets back into the villainy game after Scaramouche tells him that Jack lost his sword (though that information is already outdated, as they don't know Jack got his sword back). Though Aku does make up for it by exploiting his daughter Ashi's love for Jack...

Aku's depression is a case of Serendipity Writes the Plot.

In this case, playing to Greg Baldwin’s abilities. Much like Iroh back in Avatar and Korra, Greg Baldwin covering for Mako is always a little bit scratchier, rougher and doesn’t usually have quite as much range tonal range as the original performance. Baldwin is better at playing Mako’s roles in a lower register, while Mako could more easily go from lower to higher. So, because Baldwin’s range is better suited to Aku in his more frustrated, even upset moments, Aku is written as more melancholic.

Aku will assume the form of an Orochi during the Final Battle.

Jack and Aku are from Japan, and Orochi is a huge cultural thing there, often even being used as a demon king in fiction. That and The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon was one of the chief inspirations for Samurai Jack, and, no surprise, that film dealt with a battle against Yamata no Orochi. So Aku turning into Yamata no Orochi as a One-Winged Angel form would be fitting.

• Unfortunately jossed.

Aku's last words will be a Big "NO!".

Aku has always been a massive stereotype of Evil Is Hammy, so it would be strange for him to say anything else in his final moments.

• Surprisingly, it's actually a little "oh no" (future) and an equally little "no, wait!" in the past.

The sword can't kill Aku, just imprison him.

• Jossed, or at least he seems quite dead as of the finale.

Aku will go utterly berserk when his apparent victory over Jack is undone.

Aku's been tormented and left a nervous wreck for 50 years to the point he's too terrified to even leave his lair, but then finally manages to seemingly win for once... imagine how he's going to react if something happens to ruin that. He might get his 'Ratigan Moment' as Jax Blade puts it.

Aku's time travel screech utilizes Only One Me Allowed Right Now.

Aku's ability to utilize time travel has always been a potential plothole, as he never attempts to go back and kill Jack in his childhood and doesn't follow Jack and Ashi back in time to try to protect his weaker past-self. It's most likely that Aku isn't able to time travel to a point he already exists in, which is consistent with Ashi returning Jack to a few moments after Aku flung him into the future.

Aku will return someday.

While his past self may have been killed and his future self wiped from existence, the former will somehow return from the dead. And more powerful than ever.

• Well, probably not. Season 5 was the series' Grand Finale, so...

Aku was not born from a fragment of the ancient darkness, he was born from a fragment of that

The fragment's arrival on Earth killed the dinosaurs, but the impact crater is in Yucatan while Aku was born in Japan, and the dead area from the pool of darkness that would become Aku is extremely small for something with the mass and speed to cause the K-T extinction event. It's possible that the impact released so much energy it managed to do what would otherwise require incredibly powerful magic and destroy the fragment of evil, but also dislodged and threw into orbit a small piece that would later land in Japan, and that eventually became Aku.

The Black Mass that predated Aku was created by Apep.

Being the Egyptian god of chaos and darkness, Apep was disgusted by the very concept of life itself and set out to destroy it all. One such action included creating the same nameless evil that would eventually become Aku. Effectively making Apep the true Greater-Scope Villain of Samurai Jack.

Tim Curry was a candidate for the role of Aku.

Possibly as an homage to his role as Hexxus from FernGully: The Last Rainforest. But when he auditioned for the role, his performance was deemed too frightening by Cartoon Network and turned down. (Much like when he tried to play Judge Doom) As a result, he only got a one-shot role in the episode "Jack Tales" while Mako ended up voicing Aku.

Aku and Jack

Jack is Aku.

What, don't look at me like this! There's a possibility that Jack got corrupted by himself, thus, creating a Time Paradox and putting so many different timed and placed characters in an unique setting. Jack/Aku just had ripped the fabric of Time and Space apart, somehow or another. First hint is his true name never being revealed. Maybe The Scotsman went through some rip and is the true hero, as he'll save Jack from being corrupted through Power of Friendship.

• This unregistered troper went to this page expecting to see just that. He was not displeased. I think that maybe Aku is Jack Evil-Side (that was created by Aku in a episode). Maybe when Jack walks through a portal (or before that), he will be divide into two forms. He "normal side" and his "evil side". While his "normal side" manages to return to the past to defeat Aku, his "evil side" manages to return to the beginning of time (maybe by the use of some really powerful Black Magic and turns into the giant black mass that is shown in the beginning of the story.
• Alternatively, Jack is an alternate universe Sentry, and Aku is his Superpowered Evil Side, the Void.
• It's also possible that Jack will get back to the past and defeat Aku, whose last evil act will be turning Jack into a New Aku, who'll be the one who created the Bad Future. New Aku's actions through the series were his way to be sure Jack will get back to the past to become him.
• As showcased in the Season 5 trailer, Jack cannot die of natural causes. He's not human anymore. He's become immortal thanks to time-travel, even when he grows a beard. There were two episodes that focused on the Samurai's evil side, the second was born of a direct infection from Aku. Jack's story is basically a story as old as time: the eternal struggle against your own inner demon.
  • Actually, although Jack cannot age to death, he's technically still human.
• His existence as the evil one is a Predestination Paradox. Travelling forwards in time is easy, travelling backwards, is dangerous. If he succeeds in getting to the past, he'll cause a Time Crash, Jack will become a chaotic mess that the gods have to deal with in the beginning of time. And his remains impact Earth, destroying the dinosaurs, causing untold misery and suffering and, oh man, this troper is getting depressed just thinking about the profound implications of this WMG.
• His father's impact on him cannot be understated, as a chaotic mess he was unable to take on a monstrous form, until his father attacked him. And to top it off, the magical sword is a manifestation of Jack/Aku's father's love. His father's love for him literally is the only thing that can hurt him.
• Jack might have been corrupted by Set himself. Seeing the gods send the Samurai back in time for the greater good, the trickster deity interfered, transformed Jack into (mindless chaos) Aku, thus made the warrior his second in command, that spawned the whole predestination paradox. This would explain:
  • Why the minions of Set obeyed a command from Aku.
  • Why the archers, corruptions of Aku, strongly resembled Set.
  • Why the gods cannot destroy Aku on Earth - they're trying to save the fallen Jack.
    • Jossed. The finale has no indication that any of this is true.

Jack will stop Aku in the future and the past.

But he'll learn that there are hundreds, if not thousands of alternate dimensions. Driven by his desire to ensure that no one ever suffers Aku's terror, Jack will find a means to endlessly travel time and space, fighting Aku for all eternity. Yea, definitely a bit of a downer ending, but it would show how bad ass Jack is if he were willing to sacrifice any chance of peace just to ensure that Aku never exists in any dimension.

• Jack's not immortal.
  • You say that like he actually cares. If he realizes his own mortality, he'll find a successor, or have a son.
  • Besides, this is Jack we're talking about. He can jump good and fight armies and only get a little winded. Who's to say that Jack might not be able to live to be a Really 700 Years Old man?
  • Potentially canonically possible, even, given Jack and the Monks - one of the monks from his own time manages to survive until Aku's future through sheer spiritual adeptness.
• I could agree with the first idea, only a little bit TMNTized. Jack will find Aku prime, where Aku is the original form of himself, and through all the powers he has obtained will destroy Aku with his sword. The reason he remains to fight this particular Aku is to test his ability with the most powerful foe he has ever faced, so that he can be a steel trap when it come to Aku prime.
  • Zig-zagged. Jack destroys Aku in both eras without alternate dimensions being brought up.

Jack will seal Aku within himself.

The last time Aku was fought, Jack's father was only able to weaken him and have him sealed, but not for very long. Given all the damage Aku has caused each time he's come back, Jack would seal Aku within himself, prepared to keep him in check for all eternity if it's required. This would also play into the names of both characters: Jack + Aku = Jaaku, the Japanese word for "evil".

• This sort of already happened in one episode, when a piece of Aku got inside Jack and infected him, slowly transforming him into an Aku clone. It doesn't sound like a good idea to repeat this incident with a similar idea.
  • Jossed.

Jack has achieved a partial victory over Aku.

Aku is not seen in the first episode, and does not know Jack has lost his sword, the one weapon that can slay him. In fact, the Daughters (whom he is never seen communicating with) seem to indicate that the efforts he is taking to eliminate Jack have been stepped up. It is thus possible that Aku has been hurt or imprisoned somewhere and cannot influence the world the way he used to, possibly due to an unseen battle with Jack.

• Especially if, at that time, Aku was actually reduced to a form smaller than his mouse form he used to escape in "Jack and the Zombies", causing Aku to never leave his lair ever, in fear that should he encounter Jack outside again, he'll be vanquished.

Aku is aware that Jack cannot age and is taking advantage of it.

While both immortal, Aku's mind seems a lot better adapted to the stress of eternity than Jack's is. Once Aku figured it out he slowed down his provocations of the one man whose blade can harm him (hence 40 'episodes' in 50 years), simply waiting out his eventual mental collapse.

• Semi-confirmed; he knows Jack is The Ageless, but this has propelled Aku himself dangerously close to the Despair Event Horizon.

When Jack deals the final blow on Aku in the past, the scene will suddenly cut to the future, where everything is fading away into the light.

• Jossed. We never see what the Aku-free future is like.

In a moment of desperation, Future Aku will follow Jack back to the past.

Jack almost defeated Aku in the past, so it would only be truly dangerous if the final battle in the past is Jack versus two Akus.

• Jossed.

Jack will get back to the past and destroy Aku, however...

He will not survive the final battle, perhaps because Future Aku decided to come back as well to protect his own past self, or something like that. Jack won't be around to see it, but at least he made the world a better place...

• Zig-zagged. Jack defeats Aku and survives, but has to deal with a different bittersweet ending.

Jack and Aku will make a bargain

When the inevitable confrontation happens, both parties will acknowledge they are tired of the unending battle, and Jack will make a bargain with Aku to return to the past.

• What kind of bargain though, exactly? Aku had his reasons for not wanting Jack to get back to the past.
• Jossed.

Jack killed Aku at the end of "Jack Learns to Jump Good".

The rest of the series is Aku's, you guessed it, Dying Dream. It would also explain why the episode ends so abruptly.

Aku will snap out of his funk and concentrate all his efforts on destroying Jack.

Jack and Aku have constantly been shown as foils to each other, and since Jack is gradually overcoming his doubts over defeating Aku and returning home, there's no reason for Aku to not get over his moping about his plan of destroying all the time portals and letting Jack die of old age not working. Also, it would be rather boring if the Grand Finale had Jack engage in battle against an apathetic and worn-out Aku.

• Confirmed.

Aku himself will be the one to send Jack back to the past.

There are no time portals left, but Aku himself possesses the ability to send others through time, as that is how Jack ended up in the future in the first place. In his final confrontation with (future) Aku, Jack will somehow trick or force him into returning Jack to his own time.

• Well, Aku only destroyed all known time portals. There are possibly a few that he missed, like maybe the Guardian's portal.
  • "Episode C" confirms that Aku did not miss the Guardian's portal; he killed the Guardian and destroyed it. However, Ashi uses the powers she got from Aku to create a portal for both Jack and herself, so Aku is indirectly responsible for Jack's return to the past.

Aku will LET Jack kill him.

When Jack arrives to finally face Aku, Aku will simply let Jack kill him, tired of years of trying to kill each other with no success on both parts. Jack will be shocked by this, obviously.

• Jossed.

In "Jack and the Warrior Woman", it was not Aku/Ikra who failed the Jewel's test, but Jack.

Any human, even one as kind-hearted as Jack, will have some "impurity" in them. Aku, by contrast, does have a pure heart. It's just pure evil.

Aku deep down has a gay crush on Jack.

I mean think about it, he fooled Jack twice (if you count the comic) with female disguises. Aku probably has the hots for Jack deep down, due to always revolving his mind around Jack. Most of the scenes of the show have him speak so much about the Samurai. He wasn't even disgusted when Jack showed any romantic interest towards his women forms (in disguise, of course). Heck, he even had a whole funk in Season 5 due to his inability to beat Jack, and his mind was so occupied around Jack that he talked to a therapist version of himself. It also makes the show funnier to watch.

Aku and his Cult

The Daughters are literally Aku's biological children.

He got his nasty on with that She-Aku that's voiced by Grey DeLisle, or he just conducted some sort of juju to create magic-test tube babies that have his blood or whatever. That kind of thing.

• Confirmed. The High Priestess drank a cup full of Aku's liquefied essence, which conceived the Daughters.

They weren't kidding about Ashi and her sisters being "The Daughters of Aku"...

There has to be some reason why the High Priestess was pregnant with a bunch of kids with jet black hair, right?

• What? That is a very weak argument for your theory. Aku doesn't even have any hair. And besides, most people from Asia have black hair, there's nothing unusual about that. And if the "Daughters of Aku" were the literal offspring of a giant devil, they wouldn't look or act so human.
  • No no silly, I meant that their hair was the same shade as... most of Aku's body.
    • That's still quite a great leap-of-faith conclusion to jump into though.
• This troper doesn't think it's weird for Earth's supreme ruler to have consorts, at least for killing boredom. Having his way with women of any species, human or not, shouldn't be a problem for a shapeshifting sorcerer. A tree is only his default form. He's taken human forms before.
  • Aku has never shown any real interest in sexuality or mating with mortals. The closest was when he fooled Jack with his disguise as an attractive woman, and that was simply to troll him for his twisted sense of humor.
• Surprisingly, this has been confirmed. Although it should be noted that the Priestess got pregnant through indirect means, not by having sex with Aku.

Aku knows about the Daughters, he's just never seen a reason to care.

As an alternative to the idea Aku knows nothing about the cult or the Daughters of Aku: As a living fraction of the ultimate evil, Aku has never been especially impressed by humanity. Jack is only a Worthy Opponent because of the sword; Aku is largely dismissive of his impressive abilities even without it, and has the rest of humankind under his control. Considering it looks pretty easy to get into Aku’s fortress to do him homage, the High Priestess probably came in raving about him and swore to supply him with a task force of ultra-loyal warriors in seventeen years’ time. Aku then probably rolled his eyes, said, "Sure. Whatever. Thanks." and sincerely hoped Jack would be long dead by then.

• If this is the case, Episode 3 would seem to have proven his doubts to be well founded.
• Oddly enough, Confirmed, but now he sees Ashi as a benefit.

Ashi will be the one who finally destroys Aku once and for all.

• Zig-zagged. Jack kills Aku, but he couldn't have done it without Ashi's help.

Aku and the High Priestess will meet at some point.

It would go kinda like this:

High Priestess: (Explains her cult, what her Daughters went through, and her undying love towards Aku)

Aku: ...You are a crazy woman. (awkward pause) ...I like it.

• Zig-zagged. Aku and HP already did meet long ago in the past, though they didn't have any conversation like that.

Aku and the High Priestess/Cult have already met once.

After all, the High Priestess mentions Aku gracing them with his presence "once again". However, it'll turn out that there's a reason for Aku not appearing before them. It'll be the same reason the cult never thought to simply visit his fortress to provide him tribute: the High Priestess and the Cult of Aku were actually way too creepy for the Shapeshifting Master of Darkness to handle, and he actually issued a restraining order on the annoying cultists to make sure he doesn't have to deal with them.

• Confirmed, sort-of. A flashback confirmed that they did meet about two decades ago, although Aku never met the cult again, not because he found them annoying, but simply because he didn't care enough to remember them.

The High Priestess' obsession with Aku... is an extreme sexual fetish.

She's always dreamed of marrying and fucking Aku for her entire life. The fact that she refers to her own daughters as if they were Aku's daughters would imply this. Going with with the above theory that Aku finds his cult to be too weird and creepy, he cut off all ties with the cult because he's asexual and never had any interest in sexuality (especially if it involves lowly, pathetic mortals that he considers beneath him).

• Jossed. Aku is the father of the Daughters, but he conceived them without actually having sex with the High Priestess (what really happened is something similar to... artificial insemination?).

Aku and Other Characters

The demonic entity from "Jack and the Haunted House" is yet another shard of the primal evil mass from "The Birth of Evil".

Only, unlike Aku, it hadn't been dealt with by humans. Or if it was, the method was different. Maybe an exorcism instead of a poisoned arrow. As a result, instead of a malicious and sapient tyrant with a human-like personality, it's a horrifying spirit with a completely alien mind.

Aku killed the Guardian and destroyed the Time Portal.

• Jack tells the vision of his father in flames that Aku "destroyed the way home"; the Guardian's time portal is the best bet for a reliable way for Jack to return to the past that we know of, and is most likely what he's talking about. And while the Guardian may be more formidable than Jack in combat, unless his sword is also divine in nature, he wouldn't be able to beat Aku.
  • OP here. Somebody had better pick up that phone. Because I f*cking called it!
    • Hold the phone there. The portal is indeed destroyed but the Guardian isn't confirmed dead; just strongly implied.

The Horseman is an offshoot of Aku.

One of Aku's titles is "The Shogun of Sorrow". Perhaps the Horseman is a physical personification of that description, regardless if it's real or a figment of Jack's imagination.

• Jossed, the Omen has nothing to do with Aku.

The Scotsman's ghost will haunt Aku.

When Ghost!Scotsman isn't recruiting more troops, he spends his free time trolling Aku.

• This would be a very funny counterpart to all those imaginary friends/enemies who are haunting Jack.

Aku recreated Demongo in response to the Scotsman's "The Reason You Suck" Speech.

Aku realized he can't deal with going out to fight warriors only for Samurai Jack to be used as a rallying cry by them and depress him more, so he created Demongo to deal with them for him. Hence why Demongo was looking for a new collection: he was only just recreated by his master.

• Also, Demongo was created by Aku in the first place (he does vaguely look like his master after all).

Scaramouche will be Aku's Unwitting Instigator of Doom.

In his bid to serve Aku as best he is able, Scaramouche eventually will reach him and inform him Jack lost his sword. Aku will then frantically go out to face Jack in the hopes of finishing him off... after Jack has retrieved it, leading Aku into a final battle he isn't prepared for.

• Confirmed, but Aku has coped rather quickly.

Aku can be hurt by certain things, but only divine magic like Jack's sword is capable of dealing lasting damage.

The Scotsman's magic bagpipes and the Robo-Samurai were both capable of causing Aku pain, but Aku only attributes the sword as being able to kill him.

The gods don't kill Aku because they are too powerful.

They were near the size of a sun. If they came to purge Aku, they'd blow up the entire planet. Hence why they work through proxies. Aku isn't a threat to the entire universe and they can keep him contained, but it's unfair to the inhabitants of the Earth to just leave them out to dry.

• We don't know the exact extent of their powers, however Ra seemed quite capable of killing the three Minions of Set without any collateral damage (though of course, they're not as big or powerful as Aku).

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