Parentage of the seven sisters = mystery

This huge contradiction in 5 season of “Samurai Jack” bothered and buffled me pretty long time. Genndy Tartakovsky in all interviews stated that the seven sisters are humans, and one of the main points in 5 season was exactly the fact that Jack kills exactly humans. But for some reason in 9 episode the sudden cliche happens, where the author and his team try to make Aku to be their father. Simple question — if Aku is allegedly their biological father (not even just a creator at best), then how they can be humans, if they are demonic mutants then? Might I remind you, that Aku is a supernatural, genderless, asexual and always lonely creature, who despises humans, other mortals and needs no one. Moreover, although I can easily debunk the perception of Aku as “irredeemable pure evil”, but if to consider this one-dimensional and absolutistic worldview of 5 season, it’s easy to not notice pretty hypocritical narrative “Aku is the evil and must be destroyed, because he was born from a part of the Absolute Darkness (then Aku was born that way and didn’t asked for this, he has no choice from the beginning, from the start of his existence, but nobody cares about this tragic aspect of the character — might I remind you that Jack’s father accidentally created Aku and rejected him, causing his aggressiveness; and Aku must be destroyed only because of his origin and nature/past, great — i.e. nobody cares about Aku’s tragedy), while the seven sisters are poor and innocent, they are not like their bad daddy, who even didn’t know about their existence, they are good even though they are born from a part of the evil (if Aku is the evil, then how he can beget/create a life? Moreover, the life, which can choose a path and be good-natured?)”. Another huge contradiction is the behavior of their fanatical mother. If to assume that her seven daughters are Aku’s, then why she was incredibly cruel to them instead of mad adoring and boasting? Why she never told to them, who their father is, and how he is awesome and hence they are awesome? Why she never claimed for Aku’s throne as a mother of his heirs? She sadistically abused her children psychologically and physically. She always referred to Aku as “OUR lord and master”, she told to her girls that they are (she, the cult and her kids) are just servants. Her daughters also referred to Aku only as to a deity. And they had no superpowers and no supernatural traits (they look like regular humans, they have red blood, they don’t feel pain during death of their other sisters, Aku’s blood doesn’t leave their corpses to return to Aku, Aku’s blood doesn’t transform their corpses into some necromorphs also, animals don’t show fear or aggressiveness toward them, while they did it toward Aku and infected Jack). Then what a hell is going on?! The funniest thing is that this “twist” is absolutely impossible, if you remember the canon of the classic four seasons. Aku’s blood is deadly and poisonous, it easily melts a metal and iron, it absorbs a living being from inside and kills. Shortly saying, Aku’s blood would kill this fanatical mother and her daughters, i.e. absolutely no “hybridization” or giving superpowers or whatever. This guy worked with Tartakovsky and gave some answers about it, and... it is unstated, whether Aku’s blood, drunk by the fanatical mother, created the seven sisters or just infected them during their mother’s already existed pregnancy. Hence it is unstated, who their father is. More plausible some unknown human.

Old Japanese book about Balto

2-4 years ago I collected various interesting stuff (and I can prove it, I discussed and shared them with friends in 2021, for example, so I knew about it back then), and pages from some vague Japanese book were one of them. I thought it is something similar to White Fang. But there's more. I don't know, whether somebody discussed about it already, so why not to publish an article about it? Still it is about Balto.

Yukio Togawa, the Japanese writer, can be familiar especially for Ginga Nagareboshi Gin fans, since one of his books was the huge inspiration for creators of Ginga manga and anime in 80s. Another Togawa's book "Aurora no shita de" (Under The Northern Lights), written in 1972, is less known, especially outside of Japan. And this book was about Balto. And in this book Balto was a white/silver wolfdog. His mother was a fierce husky named Yukon, who was a leader of her sled team, while Balto's father was a leader of a wolf pack (the book refers to him as The King). Balto was born in the wild and lived among wolves, his birth name was Fubuki (Fubuki is "Blizzard" or "Snowstorm" in Japanese, while in Inuit/Eskimo it will be Pirtuk), he and his family fought against a bear, he had wolf rivals etc. After some time Fubuki and his dog mother return to humans, who give to him the name Balto, and he becomes the leader of the slead team, which brings the medicine to sick kids of Nome.

That's the saved pages of this book from my "collection" or whatever, I discovered and saved it in 2021.

Very weird that this book didn't get anime adaptation in 70s or 80s, because it apparently had manga adaptation.

From another side, if it happened, Balto 1995 movie would share the same crazy burden TLK 1994 or The Little Mermaid 1989 had due to some deranged bonkers (until YMS restored justice in 2020). So, Balto is lucky. On another hand, it is funny, because Yukio Togawa clearly knew something. As if he has foreseen it. Pretty similar thing with the Japanese merchadise stuff about Balto 1995 movie, made in 1996, I partially discussed here. Because... people, who wrote those presskits/booklets, simply could add details from Togawa's book instead of this crazyness, which has nothing with the movie and its authors' intention. The chain of funny coincidences.

Animals of ancient era

Once I discussed (here and here) about the fact that Aku never had intentions to corrupt and to destroy the world or specifically the wild nature, and in the classic seasons we have seen lots of stunning landscapes with wild nature, while various animals from Jack's era (apes, deers, wolves, tigers, leopards, dogs, cats, lyzards, birds, alligators, snakes etc) either still existed or evolved and became sentient (I even can assume that Woolies are evolved elephants or their long descendants), as well as even 5 season itself demonstrated lots of various landscapes.

Plus, 5 season itself still shows to us animals from Jack's era.

And that makes Jack's claims about "Aku has devastated this world and destroyed the mother nature!" stupid, nonsensical, contradictional and hypocritical.

Strict, but supportive

Although I covered certain aspects from the show, which demonstrate specifically bad traits in Emperor's personality (you can read about it here, here, here and here, for example), but here's another moment.

What I noticed (and in the context of Middle Ages it actually makes sense), if Empress demonstrates tenderness and support to Jack openly, hugging him pretty often,

Emperor is more strict and acts more like a distant teacher, and you can notice it especially in 6 episode of 2 season and partially even in 1 episode of 1 season.

At the same time, in 4 episode of 4 season, whether it is symbolic inner discussion, mixed with Jack's memories, or Jack really reached for his dead parents, being near death himself due to the demonic blood that almost devoured him, and this scene is incredibly emotional, powerful and personal (I legitimately get goosebumps every time I watch this sequence), it's one of the best scenes in one of the best episodes, but this moment (through Jack's view) indicates Emperor as really supportive and loving father.

Yes, Jack can idolize him, but not in such important moment of despair and death. In the comics Emperor shows more support and kindness to his son. I think this scene is very emotional, because it is personal. It happens between two characters. No eyewitnesses, no watchers. And it also can be tied with the scene in The Infection episode.

Also, what I noticed, from one side, Emperor doesn't create a line between "peasants and nobility", because Jack plays with boys and girls and goes to school, and there's no indication of separating of children with different origin, and that's good. From another side, for some reason Emperor is okay with bullying (like, who those bullies are? Are they children of generals? Soldiers or peasants? why are they allowed to bully the royal son? Are they Jack's cousins or what?). I understand, he wants to teach Jack to stand for himself etc, but it is still weird. Another moment of Jack's memories with his dad, showing Emperor as a loving father:

So, yes, he is a character, a person with flaws, and it seriously affected the story and the main conflict, but you really can see that he is not a bad person.

Lazarus's real crimes

Looking at the parade of dirty jokes in 8 episode and the mention of feromones that caused Jack's and Ashi's lust (really, looking at how they moaned and yelled the names of each other, when worms of Lazarus stuck to them, and then kissed without any reason, it is a carnal desire and orgasm straight up), you can really tell, for what Lazarus was imprisoned

for forcing his victims to f*ck with each other (or specifically to experience the carnal desire in all stages) most likely to death, so he experiences their lust and flesh intercourse as his own.

I have no idea, whether he devours his victims after s*x, because Lazarus most likely is omnivore, since visually it is stated that he eats plants, but at the same time there's no other prisoners, even no bodies or bones, what kinda implies that Lazarus devoured them as well. We basically see the serial killer, but more importantly, the serial s*xual predator. Very weird that he bit Ashi and ate her grass clothes, if he could... well... get into her in that very specific sense...

He clearly lived in hentai previously. What raises lots of questions to Tartakovsky. Because that very thing with feromones that cause lust is the very basic sh*t in hentai with monsters.

Weapons and tanks from nowhere

Once I already covered, how 5 season also butchered Scotsman and especially his wife by adding lots of sudden daughters (hence killing the wife off-screen in the role of incubator) and forcing him basically to kill his entire army in the most stupid way, since he arrived with the army to Aku's castle (how he was able to find it, if Aku's castle always teleports?) and started to attack it, despite that Jack has the only weapon that can harm Aku (well, he lost it in the stupid way, but still) and is not in their team. They somehow didn't see him all these 50 years.

But there's another aspect — who is the supplier of these tanks and other weapons?

Because if it is some kingdom or watever, it is the blatant declaration of war to Aku, attacking his castle.

Hence Aku had to find out the suppliers and decimate them and their entire kingdoms to ashes. They can't harm him, yes, but he always punished, if someone dared to oppose him. Simply saying, Scotsman with these dudes on tanks and triceratops-like beasts took into danger families and kingdoms of these armies by this unmotivared bullsh*t.

Aku's invisible advisor

I already told about how 5 season made Aku stupid, paying attention to Aku's castle and acts especially near the end of 5 season (examples of this you can read here, here, here, and here). In 2 and 5 episodes of 5 season you could notice that Aku chills in his castle with some unseen advisor, who notifies Aku about something, whether it is arriving of somebody or attack etc. Whether it is a demon or a robot or some magical AI, this aspect raises a question — where this dude disappeared in 9 and 10 episodes of 5 season, since he didn't notify Aku about Scaramouche's arriving and also about the arriving and attack from Jack's allies?! Like, this advisor should notify Aku about it immediately, as soon as how they have become seen far away from the castle! Why he didn't do this in 5, 9 and 10 episodes?!

Don't tell me that this guy was fired as well.

Devalued arcs and erased character growth

It is some kind of addition to this post (and partially this post as well), where I discussed about the bad endings, but here I want to dive deeper a bit, because the aspect of 5 season I noticed also in 2 season of Primal (my frustration about this season you can read here), hence I'm afraid that Tartakovsky will be able to finish Titan Sym-Bionic and hence destroy this awesome series in the same way he destroyed Samurai Jack and Primal.

You can notice that mostly the protagonists in Tartakovsky's works (if to know his biography, no wonder, although he probably adds this element unconsciously) are more or less restless lonely outcasts, thrown into an unfamiliar and alien world where they feel like strangers in the beginning of the story at least, so they need to adapt. In Titan Sym-Bionic it's Lance, Ilana and Octus, since they escape on Earth from their planet and try to adapt in the new home. In Samurai Jack both Jack and Aku are these restless lonely outcasts in cruel world.

And if to look at Titan Sym-Bionic and the classic seasons of Samurai Jack, you can notice that the main characters evolved and made progress in this new world, learned everything, overcame something (for example, Lance learned to trust and started to open up to others and work in a team etc), i.e. they became better, they also took the best and affected the new world in positive way. Jack started to learn the new world and to affect positively, helping to habitants etc. In Aku's case there's also the interesting aspect — he learned more and evolved in his abilities and also affected the world (not only in negative way, there's also positive), he created cool (not perfect, but still cool) multicultural world. Aku stepped forward, but at the same time he faced with the painful past in the form of Jack, and here is Aku's struggle with "You will pay for my pain of the past with your pain in the future!", getting rid of Jack as the threat to himself, but it's also Aku's battle for "the future in the form of himself and what he's been working on for centuries" ("The fool seeks for return to the past and undo the future that is Aku!"), as well as it is a kind of message "Don't run from the past, face it and eradicate it, otherwise it will still torment you", so basically Jack and Aku walk the same path and the conflict.

In 1 season of Primal Spear and Fang overcome the tragic loss of their families and become friends, their bond is strong, they travel and evolve, learn new and also affect positively (for example, in 4 episode there's a clear hint that the tribe that lived near giant spider and bats will learn how to protect themselves and oppose to these beasts). It is about their progress and character growth through travelling and adventures.

And in contrast to this, SJ 5 season and 2 season of Primal literally turn the stories backwards, diametrically backwards, in fact zeroing them out and looping them around, but with a dirty spit into face for the sake of alleged "tragedy". Simply saying, everything returns to the starting point, to the beginning, as if all these adventures were just a dream. Like, in 2 season of Primal, Spear and Fang SUDDENLY find themselves in a new world and begin to feel like strangers and outcasts in the new world (there was no such thing in 1 season), and just as SUDDENLY they begin to think about and to make a couple and children — that is it, they returned to the starting point, where they were at the very beginning (Fang is a widow with two baby dinosaurs again), but with the only difference — Spear dies, and Mira and/or Spear-Jr. replace him (I would argue that it's some kind of arc "Previously Spear wasn't able to save his family, now he did it, but died himself, but looking at how bad-written and forced it was, I can't praise such aspect, because it is a plot device again and Tartakovsky's fetishes for pregnancy and childbirth and "saving genes" crap). And this is the same spit in face for the sake of "bittersweet end".

In SJ 5 season "the starting point" is the returning to the past and killing Aku (against the logic), while the spit in face is the genocide of the inhabitants of the future and ignoring Aku's tragedy (in Tartakovsky's worldview, strictly Ashi's death — he doesn't give a f*ck about the habitants of the future).

And in SJ 5 season, at first, Jack and Aku first lose their identity (in a moronic way, but no matter), but after they "regain their identity" and become pale parodies of their former selves (not to mention, how they butchered and disgraced Aku in this 5 season, especially with what have done the f*cking 9 and 10 episodes), not to mention also the forced return to the past and the solution of everything there, i.e. it is reset and erasing of The Infection episode, the classic seasons and the first 7 episodes of SJ 5 season itself, which were about the struggle against death, despair and the desire to die due to guilt and unfulfilled destiny and finding strength and will to continue fighting for the future, since habitans were alive and remembered Jack's positive influence. And what I noticed, all these endings happened NOT by the will of the protagonists. In SJ 5 season Jack returns to the past and erases the future NOT by own will and decision, he didn't think about that. In 2 season of Primal Spear has a daughter NOT by own will and decision, he didn't even think about that. They were forced basically, the sudden and shoehorned love-interest does this decision actually (without even asking).

Simply saying, it's wildly weird crap, when the beginning and middle of the story were all about overcoming difficulties and conflicts, evolving and moving forward, long adventures with character growth and so on, while the ending is about spontaneously winding down everything and zeroing out, devaluing, returning to the starting point of the very beginning, and with a tub of sh*t. But this destructive and ugly stuff is presented as something wonderful and beautiful for some reason. Reminds me about the horrendous How To Train Your Dragon 3, whose ending was from the books (where it worked well in the context of its lore and story and conflicts) and shoehorned into the animated films with own different (widely different from books) unique story, lore and conflicts, where this ending doesn't work and goes against of what was in the first two movies and the series.

So, I'm afraid, if Tartakovsky will ruin Titan Sym-Bionic in the same way ending. Like, butchering Lance with either forced death or degradation and ruining Ilana etc.

Brown bubble = hot

Nice attention to details in Birth of Evil. The bubbles in the black lake are brown, that means the lake is hot. Very accurate.

If the bubbles were gray, that would indicate the black lake is cold. P.S. Although some people immediately started to connect this black lake and the potion from 5 episode of 1 season of Primal, they are not connected — the potion is dark green, and its green bubbles confirm this.

No demonic blood

Here I pointed out all plot holes and contradictions, pointing out the largest plot hole and logical hole of 5 season, so this post also can be a small addition to that. As well as here I debunked the idea of Ashi being infected all this time. If Ashi is infected by Aku's blood, why Lazarus didn't feel that and still attacked her? Why there's no reaction at the bite and venom? This one moment single-handely demonstrates that until 9 episode there was nothing, Ashi was just a human.

Ashi is a regular human, a human with bones, blood and wounds. No infection, no demonic blood.

Bloody rocks

Some kind of addition to these posts (here, here and here). I noticed the big blooper in 3 episode of 5 season. First of all, the river water would wash this rock from blood, so there would be no Jack's bloody trails.

Really, why this rock is in blood, if Jack even didn't touch this rock?

And second — how this rock far away from the river happened to be in blood, if Jack went into the forest many miles far from this place?

He didn't walk on this riverbank, he couldn't leave the blood here!

I even don't want to talk about these blood trails and the handprint on a tree, which come out from nowhere (really, the sisters notice them only after the scene with deers despite they would notice it before the encounter with deers). After many hours and also snow all these trails would disappear.

It was already forced that the six sisters confidently moved to waterfall and at the bottom to the woods. No way they ever could find Jack.

Geez, during the review editing it is already not so funny to notice bad visual storytelling.

Long prank instead of blatant reveal

Small addition to this post, but from different angle. In 7 episode of 5 season, Aku could just not tell Jack about the "presumably the last portal" — on the contrary, Aku would destroy the portal, laugh at Jack and fly away, and along the way he would laugh at Jack and his unawareness, watching through the mirror at Jack's despaired attempts to find the time portals. Aku could even create many fake maps, paths and artifacts for these pranks throughout the years and make fun at Jack, who has no idea that it is over.

And maybe only decades suddenly to reveal "the last portal was destroyed decades ago", morally crushing Jack. Although, still, better to not reveal that to Jack. At best only the fact of paradox and mass murder of habitants of this future after changing the past.

Balto's wolf song

This sudden moment actually caught me off guard. We know that Balto never howled before the White Wolf scene, he wasn't able to howl until the White Wolf scene (in the script the White Wolf even taught him how to howl, Balto failed many times before this melodic and epic howl we see in the final movie — this one aspect immediately debunks the idea "Maybe Balto howled as a pup, but was mocked and bullied for this and hence he himself oppressed it and lost this ability due to self-hatred and denial"),

hence Boris couldn't know that Balto could howl, and how his howl would sound like. So, how Boris could know that the howl was exactly Balto's? He knows wolf language? Maybe, during these few seconds of realization Boris thought "It can not be a regualr wolf. They don't walk near Nome that close. No way they'd come close to the town. And no way they'd howl near Nome. Because it will be death for them." or something like that.

I mean, the sled dogs were terrified, when they heard Balto's howl and thought it is wolves.

Same thing with Jenna. She knows wolf language? Intuition? Fast building of logical chains?

While Doc clearly discovered that from Morse, who himself heard about it from surprised and cheered humans for sure.

Sure, it is a minor nitpick, but still I can't explain that. I have only the theory — Boris and other characters couldn't know Balto's wolf parent at all, hence they couldn't know his voice and howl, but Boris and few other characters could know Balto's dog parent and hence her voice. Maybe, Balto's husky mother howled like a wolf and interacted with wolves this way (especially with her beloved, and that's what Steele mocked on, parodying a wolf in love), so Balto inherited from her tembre and vocal, so his howls are incredibly similar to hers, her voice and the way of howling, the singing, if you well. In some senses it is also a symbol of inner freedom and the union of a dog and a wolf, since Balto finally finds out that who he truly is — he is a wolf — and embraces his wolf nature, howls like a wolf, but in his wolf song there's still a presense of his husky mother and her voice and song.

And that's how, for example, Jenna and especially Boris realized it is Balto.

Puppy pre-romance

The movie demonstrates that Rosie knew Balto and considered him as her friend pretty long time, but it never made clear, whether Balto ever saw Jenna before the sled race or not, because the scene gave impression of "love from the first glance" or whatever.

The official novel states clearly that Balto had romantic feelings toward Jenna pretty long time, but was afraid to tell her about that. Not to mention humans and dogs, who considered him wild only because he is half-wolf — the novel never mentions that Balto arrived to Nome from wilderness, he lives in Nome all his life, hence he crearly was born here.

Later the novel states that Jenna didn't know Balto well, i.e. she had the idea that he exists and lives in Nome, but she knew nothing about him, although she was disagree with humans' and dogs' predjustice toward Balto and his wolf heritage, Jenna considered Balto kind and good and wanted to talk with him as well.

Pretty good, how the novel gives more little details about the two main characters. At the same time, both the movie and the novel make pretty clear that Steele knew nothing about Balto (only that he was a half-wolf, but that's it, no details, so his teasings can't be some evidence or proof or whatever) and started to bully Balto only after the "ruined triumph finishing", i.e. the alley scene is their first encounter and confrontation.

The musher should be dead

It is astounding to me that despite the fact the musher was a jerk to all, apparently nobody cares about that he should be dead after lying unconcious in the snow, in the severe and frozen coldness of Alaska for several days. And sled dogs don't try to warm him, for example.

In contrast to this, the official novel again fixes certain bad aspects of the movie (the examples of the awesome changing and fixing are here, hence the novel is the best; although I also tried to fix the movie version with keeping its initial pacifist-like core, but making it more logical here). In the official novel the sled dogs warm their musher.

I have no idea, why the scriptwriters ignored that part in the story.

Always check your words for contradictions

I thought, I covered everything what's wrong with these unexplained zealots (for example, here, here and here). But I still manage to find more. Once I mentioned contradictions in the priestess's behavior — like, she erased any identity and personality and humanity from her girls, but for some reason she allowed to them to have own unique haircut, i.e. some shred of individuality; she also hated and despised Ashi since her childhood, because Ashi was always "weak, distracted, unfocused and questioned about all", but for some reason she didn't kill young Ashi and even gave to her the name (and Ashi is the only one, who had the name). Not even try to make me to repeat again all aspects of her acts and behavior, which debunk the idea of Aku being somehow related to her girls.

I noticed the one pretty ironic and amusing moment. She told to her girls that Aku is the god and creator of the entire universe, that he created the world and everything in this world (creatures, humans, stars etc). I have no idea, where she pulled out this religious bullsh*t and for what.

But at the same time the cult leader kills the ladybug, saying to Ashi that this insect is "not part of Aku's order", so it can be interpreted as "not created by Aku" — why she told exactly this contradictional bullsh*t, which goes against her weird religion?!

She simply could tell something like "This creature is a part of Aku's world, it exists in own chain of strong and respected flesh-devourers and weak and worthless grass-eaters, you don't have to even look at them, only protect them and the lands from the poison of the samurai! That's your mission!" and leave it alive and free. Plus, the cult leader clearly has no friggin idea that Aku's main robot armies were always insects (yes, the first models were humanoid X-9, but after them there were exactly various insect-like robots). And although this ladybug (and the one Jack interacted with on this island) is a symbol of Ashi... damn, this ladybug is huge!

The issue with the ending and its perception

It is a well-known fact that all what was in 5 season, at best popped out as the idea in 2007-2009, and most likely exactly in 2007-2009 there was only the idea of Jack getting a love-interest, returning to the past and losing the love-interest (although they wrote the outline of their movie or whatever in these 2007-2009). And there still were weird and vague details, which give a legitimate assumption that the animated movie was widely different from 5 season. Simply saying, nothing of what was in 5 season (and even the animated movie) was planned from the beginning, it haven't existed in the classic seasons and was never planned to be. 5 season doesn't give impression that it was planned for years and existed for many years, it looks like a rushed and bad fanfiction with Tartakovsky's self-insert Mary Sue and embodies all the most stupid and mediocre cliches from the mind of a person with bad taste and lack of talent, passion and imagination, as if it was created not even in 2012, but exactly in late-2015.

Better if 5 season was a stand-alone and self-contained independent reboot/remake with own separated canon and universe. Or as a separated show with different setting, universe, characters and with Ashi as a protagonist, because everything about her feels like from another cancelled show and shoehorned into Samurai Jack universe. And although in interviews about 5 season Tartakovsky told that he had no ending in mind during working on the classic seasons and came to the idea several years later, certain classic episodes hinted the vague ending with pretty clear thematic shade — Jack will stay in the future and fight for this future and his friends, avenging his family and all tormented victims of the past. The episode with the Time Portal Guardian hinted that pretty well and clear, 'cause it looked more like a test for Jack, rather than irrefutable prophecy.

Plus, you could notice that in 4 season, specifically after the Aku Infection episode (and this episode really was felt like a character growth and arc), there were no episodes with Jack trying to find time portals or artifacts with time-travelling ability.

And, well, maybe it will sound cynical, but for Jack it makes zero sense to return and to save his parents and kingdom — Jack's parents and people of his kingdom are literally sick and exhausted old people with irretrievably undermined health, who will die a day earlier or later anyway, there is no point in saving them.

By this logic, Jack has to move to the friggin time of the "Birth of Evil", when the newborn Aku was innocent, weak and inexperienced, and nobody was harmed. The idea with returning to the past and changing the past and hence the future is wrong and immoral in all senses, it makes Jack literally a murderer, who commits genocide of all habitants of the future, his friends, who considered him as their savior, and such ending erases the classic seasons, as if they never existed and were just a fever dream (like, as if Jack was knocked out by Aku for a second and saw all these adventures, but woke up and defeated him or whatever), devaluing the classic seasons and Jack's character growth and progress. Not to mention that after creating the time paradox Jack should disappear himself as a paradox.

And back in early-2015 Jim Zub and Andy Suriano have realized and understood that. They themselves considered the "Jack returns to the past and defeats Aku" ending very banal, happy, childish, immoral due to creating time paradoxes and erasing all Jack's growth, friends and adventures in the future. They wanted the mature ending with respect to the classic seasons. That's why they developed the idea from the episode with the Guardian, and that's why they created the bitter-sweet yet hopeful ending in the comics. The ending is open, Jack could defeat Aku, Jack could just imprison Aku either in the stone tree or even inside of himself (hence there's a chance for Jack to learn more about Aku's past and hence lead the demon to the path of light or whatever), or both Jack and Aku could die in the final battle — it doesn't matter, the core of this ending is in Jack's growth and his positive affect on this world, on this future and Jack's friends, how Jack himself decided to do this, he gave hope to them and power to not give up and fight for the happy life and this new world. I am not a fan of the comics, but I respect and enjoy its certain story moments, because they are really strong and fit to the character and his arc. And they actually keep the main duo in-character, without sucking out sudden love-interest or bastards or infected fanatics etc.

Not to mention the awesome arc with the lost sword, which was way better, epic, logical and emotionally powerful than in 5 season. I find pretty ironic and amusing, how Tartakovsky always insists that his ending is the right, mature, bittersweet and tragic one and with the great sacrifice/loss, and how he tries to redeem and to excuse his ending in 5 season, and that in his vision everything else is very banal, happy and not-fitting to Jack and his story. Seems to me, he had a chip on his shoulder and was offended by the ending in the comics, and how their authors told everything what's wrong with that idea and actually respected the original seasons. So, what's wrong with Tartakovsky's ending? It literally happens accidentally and popps out from nowhere, it happens NOT by Jack's will and decision, it is anticlimatic and stupid and treats audience like idiots, it gives no respect to Jack and especially to Aku, degradating them, it is purely immature, chilish and happy, because Jack's family, habitants of Jack's kingdom, Jack's teachers and classmates from the past (i.e. Jack's era) are all young and alive and healthy (even his parents), the kingdom suddenly is not destroyed, i.e. Jack got all what he kinda wanted. Sugar-coating happy ending! And on another side of a coin we have immoral and morbid crap — because Tartakovsky doesn't give a single f*ck about the mass genocide of the future with all its habitants (including Jack's friends). For him there's nothing wrong, because most part of habitants are not humans, I guess. In his paradigm it is good and okay, as well as okay to turn Jack into a fanatic, who never doubts and always thinks he's right in everything he does and has absolutist worldview (not to mention that if Jack is not immortal anymore, he and his adventures will be forgotten and erased from history, there's no global impact especially with the fact that humankind still will commit crimes no matter what; and if Jack is still immortal, he himself will become dictator — the most dangerous and terrible evil is the evil under the guise of virtue). Such ending could work only if the message was "Don't trust, always doubt, watch and check. You have to be careful. The one, who claims to be the savior from the forces of evil, can be this evil or even worse than the previous dictator." (especially on Ashi's example, since she idolized Jack and died for him, also killing the entire world), but there's nothing of it, no condemning, the author presents it as the saving of the world and that "Jack is the only one who has memories about them" (i.e. about the ones who never existed). So, where's the tragedy, sacrifise and loss?!

In Tartakovsky's eyes — the death of Ashi is what makes his ending so powerful, bittersweet, mature and tragic "We can't be entirely happy", so he sacrifices the logic for the sake of this. Simply saying, 5 season and its ending focus strictly on Ashi, making her Mary Sue, plot device, the main character, the true chosen one, the sudden bastard princess of Earth (although I still refuse to think that these seven b*tches are somehow related to Aku, they are just infected humans, nothing more; and 5 season itself debunks the idea of Aku being their father/creator, not to mention Tartakovsky himself stated the seven sisters are humans, so leave Aku alone), and she's the one, who throws into the conflict she knows nothing about and had nothing with it and resolves it. She is the center of 5 season and its ending and "drama" — for example, there's no scene of how Jack hugs the parents he finally met after 50+ years, he and all other characters mourn the f*cking Ashi. I remind, Ashi erased the future and genocided all its habitants (including Jack's friends from the future), and she perfectly knew what she is doing. Yep, Tartakovsky legitimately wants the audience to feel bad for the fanatical murderer, who killed thousands and erased the entire world in favor of the guy, who killed her sisters couple of days ago. And what's ironic, in 6 episode Ashi gave the hope to Jack by saying that he helped to lots of habitants of the future, and this aspect raises even more questions to why she decided to send Jack to the past and to allow to him to kill Aku and all Jack's friends (she even smiled during opening the time portal).

Here, here and here I covered in details what's wrong with Ashi, and also covered double standarts, how the tragedies of Jack and Aku were totally ignored, and how all their backstories, arcs and attention were given to Ashi. And that it is okay to doubt only specific selective dogmas and "higher forces", I guess. And "forcefully tragic or bittersweet" is also what ruins stories, because it devalues what happened previously and also treats audience like idiots, cheating emotions. As well as it is a total absence of respect to especially own story, when you treat it like "I want audience to either adore or hate it". I can not for the life of me understand, why audience enjoyed it and why Tartakovsky sees nothing wrong with the finale and contradicts to both the classic seasons, to own words and to what happens in the friggin 5 season itself. It is a degradation. So, the fact that Tartakovsky makes the new canon ending, where Ashi somehow doesn't die, and she lives with Jack as an empress happily without any punishment for her crime (honestly, now it doesn't surprise me at all, since Tartakovsky considers as poor innocents the friggin tribe of murderers, enslavers and conquers in interview about 2 season of Primal — because they're humans and have children, I guess).

I roasted the game here, here and here. Honestly, looking at how they butchered Aku in 5 season by creating the sudden cult from nowhere and the seven sisters, it will be hilarious, if they come with the idea that even in the past (i.e. Jack's era) some cult still exists and some crazy female zealot prepares her "hybrid" sons/daughters against immortal Jack and Ashi in the style of Simba's Pride. 5 season already looked like a Simba's Pride clone, so I won't be surprised to that madness.

Not part of the order

Some kind of partial sequel to my previous post. My personal interpretation of Aku's decision of making his robot army look like bugs is connected with two aspects — he respects animals (in contrast to sentient beings) and uses image of a scarab bug as a cleaner of planet (a cleaner in Aku's world), but at the same time in some senses Aku identifies himself with such carnivore and omnivore animals and insects and empathizes the idea "Humans considered such creatures scary, bad and dangerous and saw nothing beautiful and useful what these creatures do for nature, because these creatures don't fit in humans' world and worldview and don't want to obey to them" or whatever, i.e. humans think with stereotypes, so Aku makes this "food chain" as a mockery and cruel lesson for mortals and especially humans. There's no wish for "returning pre-historic times with big insects", because if Aku wanted, he'd do this before Jack's arrival — no humans, no animals of Jack's era, nothing modern or technological (honestly, it would look more like 1 season of Primal, but only with insects and dinosaurs, supernatural creatures, mammals that appeared before humans' ancestors, and aliens at best, also magic). And, well, Aku's entire core was to destroy the past and to be the future ("Now the fool seeks for return to the past and undo the future that is Aku!").

Plus, here I already discussed about the "deep layer" of "Birth of Evil" — the rivalry of two sides for living on Earth and ruling Earth (humankind vs Aku's ancestor, the fragment and then Aku, rejected by the world), how both humankind and Aku claim their right for being rulers of Earth. Aku claimed his right to rule only Earth, i.e. he is a heir, he is a prince, if you well, at the same time Aku never claimed that he is a creator of all species that live on Earth, he never claimed that he created the universe etc. He never portrayed himself as some god, but he gave knowledge and created pretty cool technological multi-cultural world.

And now I want to cover the one interesting aspect I probably either never mentioned or discussed not deep enough. The discussion under my previous post gave me some thoughts, so I want to go a bit deeper. Some people apparently can think (or simply share a theory/perspective that can lead to this idea — and in 5 season Jack mentioned the similar message) that Aku went against the natural order, corruped and destroyed the natural order and the nature itself etc, that Aku's existence is the mistake what goes against the natural order. And that maybe the three alien gods allegedly want to restore the natural order by preventing Aku and his future to happen and killing him by Jack's hands for good. Really?

Actually, in the show the wild nature was fine. I discussed about that here. So, let's dive deeper into such perspective. First of all, the three alien gods are hypocrites in this case. Before Aku's birth humankind as species/race already went against the natural order — unlike other species of Earth they evolved, they became sentient, they changed things for own comfort, they created art, religion, languages, technologies, they tamed animals and created new breeds either for own joy or use, they sent invasive species to the new lands, destroying ecosystems and endemic and native species, they marked some animal species as good and some as evil that must be destroyed, they caused the extinction of many animals species only for tropheys or meat or their fur or feathers. The creating of something what can save billions of lifes (of both humans and animals) or something what can destroy the entire life on the planet (or even the planet itself) is already the destruction of the natural order, isn't it? Humans did that before Aku. If you argue "But Aku conquered people and their territories!" — well, humankind did that their entire history, so, what's different between Aku's acts and humans' acts, if morally it is a crime no matter what, and if it is a natural order, since animals (who have no moral in contrast to sentient creatures) kill and eat each other and fight for territories, leadership, females and leaving offspring, what is basically a natural order or whatever, just without attempts to excuse it with morality? And... aren't the changes in a food chain the opposing against the initial (previous) natural order? For a dinosaur (if it was sentient and could spread ideology, for example) the extinction of own kind and the replacement by mammals it is a destruction of natural order, if you well.

Second, the three alien gods are hypocrites, because they mark humankind as some superior race and as the only one that has the right to rule the planet, since they marked human soul as the pure and righteous one and the only one that can defeat the evil, and they see nothing wrong with the genocide of the entire multicultural world and don't judge Jack and especially Ashi for this, but allow to them to live happily in the past.

And third, the three alien gods are hypocrites, because the emergence of humankind is indeed the destruction of the natural order. What's ironic, might I remind, specifically in the show's lore exactly the falling of the survived fragment caused the extintion of dinosaurs, what gave to mammals chance for domination on the planet and other aspects etc, hence humankind emerged exactly due to the fall of the "evil shred".

Not to mention that exactly the human (Jack's father) has created Aku — and I'd even argue that the poisoned arrow can be a metaphor of how a human corrupted the initially friendly and innocent creature with own hate.

So, why the three alien gods don't treat humans as some kind of "The Evil's creation" or "Abomination, corrupted by The Ultimate Evil"?

I guess, because the alien gods can argue this as "Well, the evil shred fall on Earth due to us, because we killed the giant evil void and somwhow missed its part, which somwhow survived and even gave the new abomination that must be destroyed. So, we can have claims for humankind, so humankind is our and is good and righteous!" or something like that (and, well, they are mistake that goes against the natural order too). Double standarts and twisted morality, I guess. I thought, my brain will explode during writing this post.

Aku's favor to insects

Recently I noticed interesting trait in Aku's relationships with insects. He despises humans and other mortals, sometimes referring to them as insects (or worms/grubs). But at the same time, surprisingly, his robot armies have the look of exactly insects. So, why?

Well, if you notice, Aku's robot insects are either predators or parasites — mosquitos, mantis, wasps (also Aku himself always took forms of either carnivores or omnivores, not to mention that Aku himself, looking at especially his blood, is actually a parasitoid-like lifeform)

and... suddenly scarabs, which actually feed on dung. Well, mostly. Scarab beetles also eat carrion (decaying corpses of living organisms) and decaying plants/fruits and sometimes even other insects, so scarabs are technically omnivores too. Plus, they are known as cleaners of Earth, they keep the planet clean, so this aspect also can be the reason of why Aku chose exactly the look of scarabs for his main robot army.

As I pointed out once, Aku respects animals, but despises sentient organisms.

No hope, no consistency

Previously here and here I covered the inconsistency and contradictions in acts and behaviour of Jack and Ashi in 5 season. Now I want to pay attention to the two moments in the graveyard scene. So, it can be some kind of small addition to those two old posts. The core fact here — Jack abandoned Ashi several times, she travelled alone. So, what a "Jack gave her hope and Ashi became better thanks to him" heck is she talking about? Pure and blind fanaticism, 'cause they knew nothing about each other and interacted pretty short time. And also it is shocking and amusing at the same time, how Jack doesn't give a single f*ck at the fact that some ghostly dude brutally attacks and tries to murder the girl, who travelled many miles only to find Jack.

By the way, from another side, if in 5 season Jack still so wanted to return to the past all along (until 6 episode and before bullsh*t in 9 and 10 episodes), what's a point to rescue everybody or to mourn on their death, if he kinda thought "I'll undone Aku's evil before he started to corrupt this world", i.e. he genuinely thought that after changing the past they still will exist, just live happilly or whatever?