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Season 1
The Emperor
"The decisions you make and the actions that follow are a reflection of who you are, you cannot hide from yourself."
Voiced by: Sab Shimono (old), Keone Young (young, "The Birth of Evil" episodes), Jeff Bennett (The Shadow of Aku)
The father of Samurai Jack. He was a Japanese king and general who tried to destroy a puddle of primordial evil, but accidentally granted it sapience instead, creating Aku. The gods Odin, Ra, and Rama forged the sword that would later become Jack's from his righteousness. He manages to seal Aku, until he returns once again to unleash evil. Apart from the first episode and the two-parter covering him awaking and sealing Aku, he mostly appears in flashbacks.
- Action Dad: Jack is born right after he defeats Aku. And a flashback in "Episode XCIV" shows why you can't mess with him or his family.
- Annoying Arrows: Clearly disregards having been struck by some arrows during his fight with Aku.
- Art Evolution: In his first appearance, he's a carbon copy of his adult son minus the bald head and wrinkles. Later on, while the resemblance to his son is still strong, he's also gained a Gag Nose.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Appearently being the strongest warrior in Japan runs in the family.
- Back for the Finale: He and his wife are still alive and well in the past when Jack returns. They have non-speaking appearances, however.
- Badass Normal: "The Birth of Evil" shows him taking on the demonic shapeshifter Aku and winning, and this is without the decades of special training that Jack had. Needless to say, he's every bit the badass his son is.
- Break the Badass:
- A very tragic case of this. The Emperor was once a very skilled fighter who managed to defeat Aku, though he failed to kill him. But when Aku later returned, he made sure to abduct the aged Emperor to prevent him from grabbing his sword again, allowing Aku to conquer Japan. Years later, we see that the Emperor has become an old and emaciated slave, thoroughly weakened in both body and spirit.
- As we see in the Origins Episode, Aku does this to him in their first fight as well. Crucifying him to a tree and forcing him to watch his beloved kingdom be destroyed while he's left only able to scream impotently. By the time he's rescued, he's given up hope of stopping Aku and is slumped down in utter despair.
- The Chosen One: He was the previous chosen one by the gods before Jack to defeat Aku.
- Cool Old Guy: "The Birth of Evil" shows him when he's in his prime, but in his other appearances he's in his forties or fifties; a man of dignity, confidence and boundless courage.
- Create Your Own Villain: Sort of, in an accidental case. The black blob monster he was fighting was already very dangerous, but his attempt at destroying it with a magic arrow instead turned it into a sapient evil-doer named Aku.
- Dark and Troubled Past: After Aku's return from his imprisonment, the Emperor was captured and made a slave, being forced to separate from his wife and son.
- Death Glare: At the climax of his battle against Aku, after he finishes wiping out the remainder of Aku's clone army he turns to the last one with a truly epic one. Aku promptly tries to flee rather than keep fighting..
- Determinator: Destroys the evil pool despite the seeming loss of his entire personal guard: then fights Aku to a standstill, whittles him down to a mere hateful specter and immediately begins planning in case this evil should ever return. Five years later, and he willingly goes to his destruction - fighting to the end - in order to give his wife a chance to enact that plan.
- Disappeared Dad: Aku kidnapping and enslaving him when his son was only eight made him to this trope by force.
- Dwindling Party: The sortie he is part of that charges forward to destroy Aku's base form is gradually killed and absorbed by the abomination, leaving him its Sole Survivor.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Jack destroys Aku permanently, he successfully reunites with his family and goes on to rebuild Japan.
- The Emperor: Of ancient Japan.
- A Father to His Men: When his pregnant wife tried to discourage him from fighting the proto-Aku monster, noting that he has a family, he replies that he regards all his subjects to be like his family.
- Forced to Watch: Aku tied him to a tree and then forced him to watch as he destroyed his kingdom and slaughtered his subjects.
- Gag Nose: In the Pilot Movie, his nose appears unremarkable, but Art Evolution caused him to have a big red nose like some traditional depictions of people in Japanese mythology.
- Good Is Not Soft: In "XCIV", a flashback to Jack's childhood shows the Emperor killing several bandits who tried to murder him, after giving them only one warning to leave.
- Good Parents: A loving, protective father towards Samurai Jack, especially when Jack was a little boy.
- The Good King: He obviously cares about his subjects, and takes on Aku to protect them.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: By the time Jack returns in the first episode, Aku's despotic rule has reduced him to a thin, decrepit old man, a far cry from the Cool Old Guy emperor he once was.
- Impoverished Patrician: After Aku's conquest, he was instantly reduced from a king to a slave overnight.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Of course the only reason this one is better is because it's forged by the gods from his righteousness. His original, mundane, katana fails to do any damage to Aku and melts from contact with Aku's essence after the first slash.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Apparently it's hereditary.
- Made a Slave: He suffered this fate along with most of his surviving countrymen under Aku's reign. While enslaved, the former emperor was given little food or water, turning him weak with age.
- Nice Guy: Like his son, he is very kind and open to all innocent people.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- On the upside, the pool of evil is no longer inexorably destroying all life. However, now it's got a consciousness, all of eternity to find a way to return, and a personal grudge against the family. Great.
- Besides accidentally sort-of creating Aku (see Create Your Own Villain), the Emperor failed to kill Aku in their first true battle. Granted, the man fought with his best effort and trapped Aku inside a tree, but the series' entire conflict wouldn't have happened if he had successfully destroyed the demon.
- No Name Given: Much like his son.
- One-Man Army: He was able to fight and defeat the many clones of Aku.
- Papa Wolf: In a flashback from Season 5, he defensively fought and killed some assassins who had threatened to kill him (and presumably his wife and son, who were travelling with him at the time).
- Posthumous Character: Except for certain episodes that take place in the past, he's long dead in the present timeline. However, Jack manages to save him once he returns to the past.
- Properly Paranoid: After he imprisoned Aku in the tree, he knew there was a very good chance that Aku might escape, so he set up a network of friends all over the world for the sole purpose of training his son to be the warrior to defeat Aku.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Among other things, he won't intercede to stop bullies from bothering his young son (in "Jack Remembers"). That would be an abuse of his authority.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He's actually an emperor, but that doesn't stop him from charging into battle when his subjects are in danger. Now you know where Jack gets it from.
- Samurai: Like his son after him.
- Screaming Warrior: More so than Jack.
- Shipper on Deck: Whether or not he is aware that Ashi was born from Aku if Jack or Ashi told him, he clearly supports his son's marriage to Ashi as his daughter-in-law.
- Tranquil Fury: When he returns for round two against Aku with both the sword and divinely forged armor he hears his kingdom being destroyed, Aku's laughter and the screams of his people, briefly shocking him for a moment before his expression clenches into an even more determined one than before.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He hits as fast and as hard as Jack, but due to his age and comparative lack in training, his fighting style lacks his son's acrobatic finesse and possesses far more holes in its defense.
- Wrecked Weapon: The armor the gods gift him undergoes immense Clothing Damage from protecting him from Aku's attacks. Its helmet and tunic are completely destroyed by the time their battle is over.
The Empress
Voiced by: Lauren Tom
The mother of Samurai Jack, and the queen consort of the Emperor. Apart from the first episode and the two-parter covering her husband awaking and sealing Aku, she mostly appears in flashbacks and reminders of encouragement.
- Action Survivor: She escapes the kingdom while Aku is annihilating it, in order to get her son to safety.
- Back for the Finale: She and her husband are still alive and well in the past when Jack returns. They have non-speaking appearances, however.
- Badass Normal: She may not be a fighter, but that doesn't stop her from doing what needs to be done to get Jack on his quest. Not to mention she gives birth to her firstborn, in an age with no epidurals, on the ground in front of the charred palace with what looks like only her handmaidens to assist her!
- Dark and Troubled Past: Aku returned and subsequently took over her home and kidnapped her husband. As such she and a young Jack were forced to leave, and the Empress had to leave her son with allies because of his training to defeat Aku.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Jack destroys Aku permanently, she successfully reunites with her family and goes on to rebuild Japan.
- Good Parents: While she unfortunately had to leave her son in the care of allies, she was a loving mother towards Jack.
- Impoverished Patrician: After Aku forced the former Empress and her son into exile.
- Mama Bear: While she doesn't engage in violence, the Empress made sure that whenever there is a threat of danger, she protects her young son from it.
- Missing Mom: She had to leave her son in the care of allies when he was eight so he could prepare himself to face Aku one day.
- No Name Given: As with the rest of her family.
- Posthumous Character: Just like the Emperor, she's dead in the present timeline. At least until Jack returns to the very moment he was sent forward into the future, defeating Aku and thus saving her from whatever terrible fate bit her.
- Pregnant Badass: An off-screen example. But she somehow managed to survive Aku's terror of her home, including the demon setting fire to the castle she and her assistants were in at one point. All the while pregnant with Jack.
- The Quiet One: She does not speak in most of her appearances in the series.
- Shipper on Deck: She's seen smiling proudly helping Ashi dress up for her wedding with her son, showing she's fully supportive of her son's relationship with her.
The Arab Sheikh
An Arab Sheikh who taught Jack how to ride horses.
- Adipose Rex: He's a stout, short fellow and is more than likely to be of a royal background, giving his elegant clothing and the presence of guards besides him.
- Big Fun: He's fairly rotund, and a very good person.
- The Cameo: He reappears in the final episode.
- Friend to All Children: He was quite gentle to Jack during his upbringing.
The African Chief
Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
The leader of an African tribe that Jack can be briefly seen training with in the Pilot Movie during the montage of Jack growing older and learning different combat techniques around the world. The encounter was later expanded upon in the episode "Young Jack in Africa".
- Action Dad: His second appearance reveals he has a son and how he can kick butt with only a wooden staff.
- Back for the Finale: After Jack returns to his family, he goes to Japan to attend to Jack's wedding.
- Bald of Authority: He's bald and the leader of an African tribe.
- Cool Old Guy: His white beard indicates his age. He's still as skilled and nimble as the wild beasts he imitates in his fighting style.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He and his village were defeated by a rival village quite easily at first. When Jack frees them at the episodes end, the Chief quickly saves Jack and easily trounces the rival chief.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: The lither Chief managed to send the more muscular rival chief flying.
- No Name Given: Like most of the characters, he has no official name.
- Papa Wolf: He sent the Evil Chief flying when the latter went after his son and a young Jack.
- Posthumous Character: Since Jack was trained by him before his eventual first battle with Aku, he's obviously long dead by the series' present time.
The Shaolin Monks
Monk A voiced by: Quinton Flynn
Monk B voiced by: Matt Levin
Grandmaster Tan Zang voiced by: Peter Renaday
Chinese Buddhist monks who practice the martial art of kung fu, hidden away in an ancient temple. Their order is in fact the same that once trained Jack, and their Grandmaster met Jack himself thousands of years before. He's still alive, now being sustained by the very Earth itself, and offers sanctuary to Jack, as the temple is shielded from Aku's view.
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: Well, these monks know it.
- Creepy Good: The Grandmaster looks like an emaciated corpse but is wise and noble leader of the monastery.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: A benevolent version. The Grandmaster was just a boy in the original shaolin temple but eventually became an immortal being with powers capable of hiding from Aku's sight.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The monks aiding Jack were willing to die for him since the beginning. It's this fact that convinces Jack to choose rescuing them over entering the portal, as Jack realizes that he wasn't as ready to sacrifice them for his goals as they were to sacrifice themselves.
- Hidden Elf Village: Their dojo is undetectable, but they use it as a sanctuary and a place of training, not a base: they aren't actively fighting Aku.
- Remember the New Guy?: The Grandmaster met Jack when he was just a child though unlike the African Chief who was shown in the pilot before coming back for an expanded role; the Grandmaster was retconned in as having met Jack in between his sparring matches.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: More significant to Jack than most, since they're one of the few surviving bits of the Earth he remembers.
- Warrior Monk: Eastern variants.
- You Shall Not Pass!: The two young monks order Jack to flee back to his time line while they hold off the mooks, and would eventually fall in combat. Jack, of course, later decides against this.
Homeslice, Cole Lampkin, and Brobot
Homeslice voiced by: Phil LaMarr
Cole Lampkin voiced by: Rob Paulsen
Brobot voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
Three punks our hero encounters shortly after he first enters the future. They address him as "jack", which later inspires the samurai to adopt Jack as an alias.
- All There in the Script: Their names are only shown in the end credits.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Homeslice is magenta, Cole Lampkin is pale green, and Brobot is blue.
- Ambiguously Human: As humans of natural skin color appear in the series, it's not known if they're humans or aliens that look human.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Homeslice's color scheme is reddish (with magenta skin and orange clothes), Cole Lampkin's is green and Brobot's is blue.
- Jive Turkey: In addition to calling the samurai "jack", their dialogue is just filled with urban slang.
- Small Role, Big Impact: They only get one scene, but are the reason the show's main character goes by "Jack". They also explain to Jack that Aku has taken over the world in his absence.
The Canine Archaeologists
Rothchild III voiced by: Rob Paulsen
McDuffy and Dreyfuss voiced by: Jeff Bennett
Three anthropomorphic dogs are dedicated to studying legends that their ancestors were once animals. They convince the samurai to save their land from a coming beetle droid invasion. Their names are Sir Dreyfuss Alexander (Bulldog), Sir Angus McDuffy (Scottish Terrier), and Sir Colin Bartholomew Montgomery Rothchild III (Dachshund).
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Despite being civilized, these dogs only wear hats, neckties and/or glasses.
- Back for the Finale: Rothchild is among the allies of Jack who come to his rescue in the final episode. By then he's lived long enough to have many grandchildren.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Dreyfuss is a big bulldog, Rotchild is a thin dachshund and McDuffy is a short terrier.
- The Bus Came Back: A very elderly Rothchild is among the army that goes after Aku in the series finale. His younger self reappears as an ally in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time.
- Catchphrase: Rothchild has one: "Oh, dear."
- Civilized Animal: They're descended from dogs that somehow evolved to become sapient. Jack is at first very surprised to hear them talk, explaining that back in his time, dogs only barked.
- Mr. Exposition: The dogs tell a summary of future history to Jack, saying that after Aku conquered the whole planet, he expanded his empire across the galaxy; which would explain the dystopian metropolis filled with flying cars, and inhabited by aliens and other non-humans.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Despite being well-mannered and British, they are still dogs, and enjoy sticking their heads out of the window of their flying car while driving.
- Nice Guy: They're all very friendly, helpful and polite.
- Non-Action Guy: Unlike the Tribe, the dog-people don't get trained in self-defense. However, they do everything they can to sculpt the battlefield and provide Jack with the armor, steed and additional weapons he needs to triumph. It's just barely enough.
- However, Rothchild does directly join in during the final battle in the series finale.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: McDuffy and Dreyfuss are not seen again, suggesting they might have died in the 50 years that passed.
The Woolies
Voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson, Brock Peters (Woolie Elder)
A race from a peaceful, utopian society who were conquered and enslaved by the Chritchellites, using the power of the Black Sphere.
- And I Must Scream: The Black Sphere forced the Woolies into walking like animals and prevented them from speaking.
- The Bus Came Back: They return in season 5.
- Back for the Finale: They appear as mounts for the Blind Archers' descendants in the siege of Aku's fortress.
- Gentle Giant: Unless properly enraged, such as being enslaved for generations.
- Red Herring: Zigzagged. The dream Jack has presents a freed Woolie as a towering monstrosity, implying that there might be a reason why they need to be subdued, but nope - while they are monstrously strong, they are gentle and kind.
- Slave Race: The Chritchellites forced all of them to act like livestock.
- Space Jews: They even wear yarmulke-like hats in the flashback to their golden age.
- Took a Level in Badass: After being released by Jack, they stomped the Chritchellites easily.
- You Can Talk?: Jack is surprised and realizes what's wrong when one of them pleads for help.
The Astronauts
Frederick and Sergei voiced by: Jeff Bennett
Technician voiced by: Jennifer Hale
Idealist and Analyst voiced by: Tom Kenny
A tribe of technology experts who were enslaved by Aku and forced to design and build his robotic forces. They've been constructing a secret escape rocket when Jack accidentally leads Aku's forces to their hideout. Jack promises to help protect the group, and in return, they promise to try and help Jack return to his own time.
- All There in the Script: Besides Sergei and Frederick, they are not named on-screen and their designations are only given in their episode's end credits.
- Ambiguously Human: They look human for the most part, but are never seen outside their suits even when grounded on Earth, and each of them is only about half Jack's height.
- Doomed Contrarian: Subverted. While one middle-aged astronaut argues against the younger astronauts that there is no point in continuing on, he does improve his attitude later, and even survives.
- Ludicrous Precision: Sergei, the guy with the calculator, calculating the odds of survival. Jack doesn't trust the math.
The Three Blind Archers
Click here to see their true forms.
Three incredibly skilled archers who guard a magical well at the top of an old tower.
- Ambiguously Human: They're very off-looking people in their true forms, having oval-shaped heads and very long necks. It's unclear if they're aliens or just stylized humans. Complicating matters is their reappearance in Season 5, where unlike many other characters they've barely aged and live with a village of similar-looking people.
- Annoying Arrows: Inverted. These are some serious, robot-puncturing, tank-demolishing arrows.
- Back for the Finale: Their descendants return to help fight at Aku's fortress.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The archers are actually three wanderers who made a wish to the Spirit of the Well to become "the greatest of warriors". The Spirit granted the wish, but in the process bound them to its will as mindless, sightless guardians.
- Bottomless Magazines: The three of them can fire hundreds of arrows in seconds, and never run out. (They don't carry quivers either, so in all likelihood, their bows magically create arrows.)
- Brought Down to Badass: In Season 5, they are no longer capable of single handily wiping out entire armies, like they did when cursed due to the loss of their sonar like hearing and ability to magically generate arrows. They are still more than capable of turning Beetle Drones into pin cushions, however.
- The Bus Came Back: They reappear in Season 5.
- Deadly Dodging: Jack breaks their curse by ducking when they all shoot an arrow at him, causing the arrows to deflect and hit them.
- Handicapped Badass: The three archers are blind, but still wipe out an entire army with no problem.
- Hijacked by Ganon: 49 episodes after they appeared, the curse that came over them is revealed to be Aku's doing. Because of this, the archers have taken up arms against Aku.
- La Résistance: While not a full blown fighting force like the Scotsman's forces, the three archers have banded together to resist Aku's forces come Season 5. When Ashi encounters them they'd just defeated a squadron of Beetle Drones.
- Loincloth: Apparently, the race to which they belong dress lightly, as this is all they wear after they get turned back to normal. Later, in Season 5, we see them at their home village, and the rest of their race are all dressed lightly, too.
- More Dakka: How on Earth does a blind man function even remotely passably as an archer, you ask? Why, with a magic bow that has the fire rate of a machine gun!
- No Name Given: We never learn the individual names of each of the three archers.
- Rain of Arrows: They demolish an entire army in seconds with this in the first part of the episode.
- Sense-Impaired Monster: The Archers are completely blind, but have incredibly acute hearing; they don't react to Jack waving his straw hat at them, yet are able to perfectly pinpoint his location just from the rustling of his clothing. He's able to defeat them by blindfolding himself to hone his own hearing to their level, evening the playing field.
- Slave Mooks: They were forced by the magic wishing well to guard it for who knows how long.
- Space Romans: Subtle, but they have very Ancient Egyptian-like beards in their true form, and their cursed form is very reminiscent of how Egyptians depicted their gods. Their resemblance to either Anubis (god of death) or Set (god of evil and catastrophe) in addition to mice is fairly appropriate.
- Super-Senses: The Archers have incredibly sensitive, sonar-like hearing that gives them astonishingly accurate aim despite being completely blind. Their hearing is so acute they were able to fire arrows through Jack's sleeves just by listening to them gently flapping in the wind and could pinpoint Jack's position from behind a tree merely from the sound of him sheathing his sword. It also helps that the tower is surrounded by a field of snow, which would make any direct assaults very difficult.
- Took a Level in Badass: They became true exemplary archers of their own skill and not magic during the Time Skip.
- Visual Pun: Why do the archers have large upraised ears and a very long nose jutting out of their face like some kind of rodent while they were enslaved to the well? No doubt because of the nursery rhyme the Three Blind Mice
.
The Triseraquins
Connery voiced by: Jeff Bennett
Guiness voiced by: Mark Hamill
Ringo voiced by: Jess Harnell
An alien tribe who live in an aquatic city. Their city is menaced by Aku, who demands a simple price for sparing them...
- All There in the Script: Guiness, Ringo and Connery are only named in the episode's end credits.
- Back for the Finale: They return in the series' final episode.
- Crazy-Prepared: They have an army at the ready in the event that Aku betrays them. It doesn't work.
- Easily Forgiven: Jack doesn't hold anything against them, knowing that Aku can manipulate anyone with a deal just too good to pass up.
- Et Tu, Brute?: They aren't inclined toward villainy, but they're being blackmailed.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Their pupils take the shape of exclamation points when Jack begs them to trust him like he previously trusted them.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Jack points this out to them that Aku cannot be trusted. Unfortunately, this is justified due to Aku's power keeping their city under water, and thus he is the only one who can lift it. Predictably, he doesn't.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Their three most prominent members' names and voices are most likely references to UK celebrities Sean Connery, Alec Guinness, and Ringo Starrnote .
- You All Look Familiar: They all look exactly the same as one another, with Guiness being the only one out of them whose clothing is a different color from the rest.
Odin, Ra, and Rama
From left to right: Ra, Odin, and Rama
Odin voiced by: Richard McGonagle (Seasons 1-4), Aaron LaPlante (Season 5)
Ra and Rama voiced by: Daran Norris
The three deities that fought and exterminated the Black Mass that spawned Aku eons ago. They are the ones that crafted Jack's sword: the one weapon that can harm Aku. Ra is also summoned to save Jack from the Minions of Set.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Implied. The only times they interfere directly are if there is a universe-level threat (as was the case with the all-consuming Black Mass) or if divine power is already involved (like when Ra destroyed the Minions of Set). Otherwise they seem content to work through mortal champions like the Emperor and Jack.
- All-Powerful Bystander: Perhaps the greatest mystery in the universe is why these gods can't (or won't) kill Aku themselves, considering how they destroyed the Black Mass that Aku was made from, or how quickly Ra eliminated the Minions of Set.
- Ambiguous Situation: It is implied they may have been the Monks that were with Jack when he was to climb the mountain, but nothing has ever been confirmed.
- Big Good: They're the only thing Jack has to offer prayer to, and they crafted his sword.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Averted with Rama who is a benevolent deity and if his words to Jack's father is any indication might be the nicest of the three gods.
- Cool Horse: They each appear riding an equally epic mount: Odin rides on his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, Ra rides on Sobek, the Egyptian crocodile god, and Rama rides in on an elephant (which could be Gajendra, the elephant that Rama as Vishnu once saved from the crocodile Makara). Sleipnir also appears to guide The Emperor to the heavens to have the magic sword forged.
- Creepy Good: Ra was downright terrifying when he appeared to destroy the Minions of Set.
- Crossover Cosmology: Odin, Ra, and Rama are deities from different religions. They also show up to give the sword to Jack's father, a Japanese emperor, rather than someone from that pantheon, like Amaterasu.
- Curbstomp Battle: Ra delivers one to the Minions of Set, quickly vaporizing them with his Eye Beams.
- Divine Intervention: Occasionally, they give (usually indirect) assistance to Jack in some dire situations.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his first appearance in "Jack in Egypt", Ra looked different from his design "The Birth of Evil, Part 1" onward.
- Eyes Always Shut: Rama only opens his eyes a few times, though he is still capable of using Eye Beams without having to open them.
- Eyepatch of Power: Odin, as is customary, has one eye sacrificed for wisdom and wearing an eyepatch. It's notable that his socket can still emit eye beams.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Odin is the fighter, focusing on melee attacks. Ra is the mage, firing beams of magic. Rama is the thief/rogue type, fighting with a bow.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: Even though they don't appear much in the series, they play an important role. They are the ones who destroyed the original Black Mass that Aku was part of, and they crafted Jack's sword as the only weapon to destroy Aku once and for all.
- Hijacked by Jesus: Downplayed, but they do display a lot of characteristics more associated with big-G God. In eons past, they defeated an embodiment of pure darkness and destruction, to which parallels can be drawn to Satan, the Leviathan, or the Darkness God created the Heavens and Earth from. In the present, when humanity is plagued by the embodiment of evil, they take a mostly hands-off, In Mysterious Ways approach and don't directly fight and obliterate Aku, but rather encourage mortals to defend themselves against evil using the goodness within them.
- In Mysterious Ways: Obviously they have a long-term plan for the destruction of Aku, and for some reason can't move to destroy him directly. There's no clue whether Jack's disappearance was seen as a failure of the "magic sword" strategy, but they're still backing him up (in ways Aku can't detect) now that he's back.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Odin is indirectly responsible for Aku, as he missed the fragment of the original Black Mass that would later become Aku.
- Our Gods Are Greater: Possibly more powerful than Aku (after all, they destroyed the original Black Mass that he came from).
- Physical God: Possibly. It has also been suggested that they are Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, but nothing has been confirmed. If anything, their power is overwhelming.
- Public Domain Character: Taken straight from mythology.
- Top God: The three biggest deities of their respective pantheons, and they’re just as almighty as they are in myth.
The Children
Voiced by: Anndi McAfee, Gary Leroi Gray, and Josh Peck
Kids who are fans of Samurai Jack and listen to Aku's fairy tales.
- Audience Surrogate: They tell Aku what the audience is thinking, particularly when they start to pick at the flaws in his stories.
- Children Are Innocent: Aku attempts to exploit this to garner sympathy and respect from the children.
- Hero Worship: The kids love Jack to the point that they (reluctantly but bravely) request Aku to speak of stories related to Jack, much to his shock.
Season 2
The Tribe
Monkey Man voiced by: Jeff Bennett
A tribe of round little white-furred apes (and a wild man who lives alongside them).
- Actual Pacifist: Until Jack trains them; then they become Martial Pacifists.
- All There in the Script: The Monkey Man isn't named onscreen.
- Back for the Finale: They show up during the final battle to help Jack alongside all his other allies.
- Badass Adorable: The Monkey Man. He's incredibly nice and friendly, plus he speaks broken english in an Endearingly Dorky way.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: The White Apes have an incredible ability to jump enormous distances due to a regimen of training that they go through.
- Cool Old Guy: Like the Scotsman, the Monkey Man has aged in the fifty years and his hairs since turned white; but he can jump as good as he could in his prime.
- In a Single Bound: Their specialty, which they teach to Jack through intense training.
- Not Quite Flight: Not flight, jump good!
- Planet of Hats: A species of ape that are incredibly good at jumping thanks to their training.
- Raised by Wolves: The Monkey Man was originally part of a group of humans enslaved by Aku's forces, but was accidentally left behind by them as a young child, and was raised by the White Ape Tribe. He's well aware that he's human and not an ape though.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The apes. They're a bunch of huggable looking little fellas who have big round eyes and smiley faces.
- Training from Hell: The training the white apes undergo to learn their Jump Good skill that they teach to Jack, which involves jumping, running and training with boulders tied to their arms and legs as well as an enormous one on their backs.
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Jack trains the peaceful apes in nonlethal combat to help them defend themselves against an aggressive tribe of red gorillas that harasses them and steal their food. In return, they train him to Jump Good.
The Wishing Fairy
Voiced by: Jennifer Hale
A small pink fairy who has been kidnapped by a gargoyle. Jack seeks to rescue her and ask to grant his wish to return home.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: She appears to be almost completely naked, yet has no detailed girly parts.
- Benevolent Genie: With a rather major drawback — only one wish, ever.
- Damsel in Distress: Her tale starts when she's somehow captured by the gargoyle.
- Our Fairies Are Different: A little pink pixie with the power to grant one wish.
- Taking a Third Option: Unable to break from her prison, and Jack's hand being stuck, Jack opts to wish for their freedom instead.
Exdor
Voiced by: Jeff Bennett
The creator of the Ultra-Robots designed to kill Jack, he made them as part of a deal with Aku in order for his home to be spared. Predictably, Aku betrays him by sending his creations to destroy his village. He seeks to redeem himself by helping Jack destroy his creations, namely evening out the odds via a power gauntlet. He returns in The Shadow of Aku, imprisoned by Aku to make a mind-controlling video game.
- Ambiguously Human: He certainly looks human, but his green-ish skin leaves it questionable.
- The Atoner: The robots he created are invincible mechanical monsters; helping Jack destroy them is his effort at atonement.
- The Bus Came Back: Exdor reappeared in The Shadow of Aku video game.
- Curse Cut Short: As Jack prepares to strike down the last Ultra-Robot "and send it back to—" "What are you doing!?!"
- Gadgeteer Genius: He's certainly a top-notch mechanical genius. His Ultra-Robots were some of Jack's toughest foes and Jack was only able to get the upper hand with another invention of Exdor's, a cybernetic power gauntlet that augmented his strength so he can cut through the adamantium-made robots.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His realization once Aku betrays him.
- Power Fist: Exdor creates a "cybernetic synaptically-linked, dynodestric, isometric polydurantium power gauntlet" for Jack's arm; it augments Jack's strength significantly and allows him to slice through the admanatium body of the robots. Shame it runs out of power when there's one bot left.
- Spell My Name With An S: The Shadow of Aku game spells his name as "Extor".
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Unsurprisingly, Aku did not keep his word and Exdor's attempt to protect his village was all for naught. Aku's betrayal motivated Exdor to redeem himself by crafting a strength-enhancing gauntlet, which evened out the odds for Jack to fight them on equal terms. Though the last robot required some other help...
The Three Monks
Monk #1 voiced by: Corey Burton
Monk #2 voiced by: Kevin Michael Richardson
Three monks that have trained and meditated their whole lives to climb a massive mountain, atop which there is said a great Truth can be found.
- The Comically Serious: They never interact with any fiends they come across, hold the same expressions throughout the whole episode, and always press forward regardless of Jack's stake in this.
- Heroic Second Wind: When Jack is down, the monks speak to him telepathically, testing his resolve.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Three passing mountaineers who wander past just as Jack needs to confirm his purpose in life? Or agents of the gods sent to remind Jack what is at stake?
- Not So Stoic: They are for the most part unemotive. However at the end of the episode when they speak to him telepathically, the head Monk barks his last question with a surprising amount of conviction, asking if Jack has forgotten what his purpose is.
- The Quiet One: They're not talkers.
- The Stoic: They don't show much emotion.
The Farting Dragon
Voiced by: Clancy Brown
A dragon with a massive intestinal problems whose daily expulsion of gas plagues a nearby city.
- Apologetic Attacker: She would love to stop inundating the nearby town with rancid vapors.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Has thick black eyebrows above her eyes.
- Bigger on the Inside: A rare case where this applies to a living creature. When Jack crawls down her throat to deal with the problem, he finds a Womb Level that's as big as a decent-size cavern system, clearly bigger than the dragon seemed outside.
- Ear Fins: The fins on the sides of her head could be her ears.
- Fartillery: Her flatulence is absolutely noxious. Every time she blows her booty the village beneath her cave nearly suffocates.
- Gasshole: Though not by choice; it's thanks to her baby being stuck inside her body and blowing flames under one of her intestines.
- Larynx Dissonance: She has a deep, masculine voice, but it turns out she's actually female.
- Samus Is a Girl: Her voice seems masculine at first, until Jack discovers that the problem is a partially-hatched baby dragon in her womb.
- Visual Pun: To the Bruce Lee film, Enter the Dragon.
The Spartans
Brotok voiced by: Brian George
Kurtok voiced by: Danny Mann
Spartok voiced by: Daran Norris
An army of Spartan warriors protecting their secluded homeland from an unrelenting force of robotic monsters.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Spartok, who's the 5th king of the 300 (plus one) Spartans is a powerful and formidable warrior who fights alongside Jack to put an end to their everlasting war.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Both Jack and Spartok engage in this pose when they traded each other's weapon while they battle The Beast within its lair.
- Back for the Finale: The other Spartans return as one of Jack's many allies that storm Aku's tower at the end of Season 5. Chances are the king we see leading the troops into battle is actually the sixth king in his late sixties or early seventies.
- The Bus Came Back: One of them not only appears in Da' Samurai's bar in Season 5 Episode 7, but also the entire army comes back for the finale.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: If being in a Forever War has made them highly conditioned to slice minotaur-shaped robots to pieces with swords, shields, and spears then this definitely counts. Their king can tear apart robots by hand.
- Determinator: Their response to the very real threat of a Forever War? Hold the Line.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: As to be expected, the Spartan Army is equipped alongside their high-tech spears but also round shields that is not only incredibly durable but also has the ability to extend parts of its edge and then spin like a buzzsaw.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Their spartan spears double as rocket launchers.
- Proud Warrior Race: They realize that they are doomed, and they are committed to dying well. The King mentions that he is the fifth king to fight in the war.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Spartan King leads his men from the front lines. His son does as well.
- Super-Strength: One of the Spartan warriors skewers his spear straight into a minotaur bot and easily lifts it completely off the ground right before he fires his rocket launcher with the bot still attached to it. Another Spartan warrior blocks a ramming blow from a minotaur bot and flips it over dozens of feet away with just his shield as it explodes after hitting the ground. Spartok himself also seems to possess this power as well. He yanks out an arm from one of the minotaur bots with no effort and uses said arm as an Improvised Weapon to beat the robot into submission, punches another one in its face, picks it up by the head, and tosses it into an entire group of the other robotic minotaurs. If that's not enough he also grabs one of them by the horns and twists its entire head off.
- Sword and Fist: While many of them are naturally proficient at using their weapons in combat, Spartok takes it bit further by showing unarmed hand-to-hand skills without the use of his sword.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Essentially how The Beast is destroyed when Spartok chucks Jack's blade right through its body so hard it causes it to go off in a ginormous explosion.
- War Is Hell: Especially one that can't be won.
- Wrecked Weapon: The Beast manages to break apart Spartok's only sword, leaving him briefly defenseless. Jack decides to toss his katana to him without hesitation, and in exchange, Spartok gives him another shield to defend himself.
The Tengu Family
A Japanese family whose patriarch runs the Tengu Jet Repair shop.
- Appeal to Tradition: The family makes a point of conducting much of their lives in accordance to traditional Japanese culture in order to honor their ancestors.
- Fanboy: The son spends half his on-screen time running around shouting "I saw Samurai Jack!".
- Fangirl: The daughters squee and swoon over how handsome Jack is, and ask him to sign the wanted poster of him they keep in their room.
- Good Old Ways: Despite living far in the future, they still practice traditional Japanese customs as a way of rebelling against Aku. Jack also appreciates it, seeing as he's from ancient Japan himself.
- Hospitality for Heroes: The family shares their dinner with Jack and the father makes Jack a new pair of sandals by hand. They make a point of expressing their appreciation for his good deeds and rebellion against Aku's evil.
- Squee: Both girls do this as soon as the see that Samurai Jack is in their house.
- Valley Girl: The two daughters talk this way, despite their parents clearly speaking with Japanese accents.
The Shoe Salesman
A very enthusiastic shoe salesman who tries to help Jack find a new pair of shoes after his sandals are destroyed.
- Hospitality for Heroes: The salesman offers Jack free shoes for saving him from being beaten up by the biker gang. Too bad none of the shoes are as good as his sandals...
Season 3
Olivia and her Father
Olivia voiced by: Kath Soucie (young) and Grey DeLisle (old)
Olivia's father voiced by: Michael Patrick Bell
Two of the townsfolk affected by DJ Salvatore's dance beats.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Olivia is mind-controlled by DJ Salvatore to become a thief.
- The Bus Came Back: Olivia reappears in Season 5, 50 years later, revealing that she's become the new DJ for the raves.
- Cool Old Lady: Olivia's appearance in Season 5, where she's DJing the raves well into her 60s.
- Disappeared Dad: Olivia's father doesn't reappear in Season 5. Chances are 50 years was well past his expiration date.
- Hairstyle Inertia: As shown in her Season 5 appearance, Olivia still has the same hairstyle she had as a teenager.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Olivia's father incessantly bawls over his daughter leaving him and being controlled by the DJ's music.
- Like Parent, Like Child: Olivia cries just like her father the moment they reunite, though her display is simply Tears of Joy.
- Missing Mom: Olivia's mother never appears, nor gets mentioned.
- Ruritania: Their village is vaguely Bavarian.
- Tears of Joy: Both Olivia and her father cry with joy after they reunite at the end of the episode.
- Wham Line: As soon as Jack launches into an attack against the ravers, Olivia's father yells at him to stop for one good reason:NO, WAIT!! THEY'RE CHILDREN!!!
The Creature
Voiced by: Jeff Bennett
A hulking cartoony-looking creature of limited intelligence but benevolent nature that Jack finds and unwittingly befriends during his travels. Whilst it is initially annoying, when it sees Jack in pain at the hands of a band of robot bounty hunters, it reveals a far more violent side of itself and rescues him.
- Ambiguous Gender: Whether this Creature is male, female, a Hermaphrodite, or has No Biological Sex is not made obvious at all, so the pronoun 'it' is used instead.
- Ass Kicks You: Destroys the female Greaser Bot by landing on her rump-first in a Ground Pound.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Seems to be a harmless, if annoyingly dim-witted, goofy big oaf. Tick it off, and it transforms into a killing machine.
- Cartoon Creature: It looks something like a bear, something like a cat, and it's light blue all over. At best, one can say it looks vaguely like a blue Totoro with three daisies on its head.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Fittingly for such an odd creature, it has a weird personality.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: For such a ridiculous, dimwitted creature that (normally) wouldn't hurt a fly, it proves to be very fearsome as it protects Jack from a gang of robotic bounty hunters.
- Cute Giant: It's taller than Jack, but no less adorable in both appearance and personality.
- The Ditz: Not very intelligent, which leads it to annoying Jack on several occasions.
- Extreme Omnivore: For some reason, it had a strange craving for a magical crystal that Jack wanted to use for time travel.
- Gentle Giant: It's normally sweet, docile, and inoffensive, if annoyingly dimwitted. But, for the love of all that's holy, do not tick it off!
- Hulking Out: When Jack is in danger, it undergoes a terrible transformation, growing several times larger, sprouting immense claws and a huge array of fangs, turning red with mad-looking eyes, and having its daisies replaced by dead-looking tree stumps. See it here.
- The Millstone: At first, Jack sees The Creature as an annoying load he could do without, then he grows somewhat fond of it, then he is infuriated when it eats the magical crystal he was hoping to use to return home. It later redeems itself by saving his life, though.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: It has a chunky, vaguely bearlike body, but its face looks more like a cat's.
- Nice Guy: It's a sweet and empathetic creature. It annoys Jack and causes him a few problems, but it doesn't mean any of it.
- No Name Given: It's never named in the show. It's just called "the creature" in the title of its episode, so that's the name it goes by here.
- Unstoppable Rage: Utterly mangles the robots who hurt Jack.
Kuni
Voiced by: Lauren Tom
A Japanese girl whose family was captured by a demonic spirit when it possessed their home.
- Ambiguous Situation: The short woman who leads Ashi to the graveyard where Jack is contemplating suicide is implied to be Kuni. However, it's not clearly stated.
- The Bait: The reason the demon spared her was so that she could be used to lure more victims.
- Blatant Lies:Jack: What is wrong, little girl?Kuni: Nothing.
- Break the Cutie: Her family being attacked and imprisoned by the evil spirit.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The demonic spirit could have easily devoured her too like it did with her family but decided to keep her alive to use her to lure in more victims for it to devour. Given how malicious and sadistic this thing is, it could be an act of Cruel Mercy / Kick the Dog as much as it is for its main goal.
- Children Are Innocent: She's probably the most innocent character in the series...
- The Cutie: ... and the most adorable.
- Damsel in Distress: Jack assumes she's this when he first encounters her, and she sure is, and her family even more so.
- Girlish Pigtails: Her hairstyle has pigtails.
- Traitor Shot: Lots of them; she likely knows she's luring Jack into a trap and feels guilty about it, but she's too terrified of the demon to tell Jack the truth.
The Labyrinth Thief
Voiced by: Rino Romano
A nameless expert thief who is after the same magical diamond that Jack is.
- Actor Allusion: Who better to voice a Composite Character of Jigen and Lupin in the Japanese dub than Jigen's longtime voice actor?
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Does his burgling in a white suit.
- The Bus Came Back: He shows up in the IDW comic note to enlist Jack to help him with something.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Leaves Jack for dead, trapping him with an endless supply of the labyrinth's guardians. Some exchanged blows and an exhausted samurai later, a grappling hook drops from the ceiling for Jack to escape with.
- Enemy Mine: There are a couple of occasions where they have to cooperate against the pyramid's defenses.
- Friendly Enemy: He seems to regard Jack as an interesting complication in a job that might otherwise have been boring.
- Hidden Eyes: His eyes, like Jigen's (who his design is based after) are obscured by his hat... until he gets made a fool.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He quite literally helped break the diamond he and Jack were arguing over after a tug of war went horribly bad.
- No Name Given: Just known as a thief, he never gives Jack his name.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Throughout the episode, his eyes are hidden under his hat to accentuate his cool and aloof personality. The second the prize he's after gets broken, that's when his eyes pop out in full view, his cool-headed demeanor shattered along with it.
- Shout-Out: Based on Daisuke Jigen of Lupin the Third, though he doesn't seem like he's as skilled as using guns as he is.
Season 4
Andromeda Robots and the Robo-Samurai
Max of The Andromeda Robots
Click hereto see the Robo-Samurai.
Max voiced by: Daran Norris
Female medic voiced by: Grey DeLisle
A city of robots that were forced to live underground after their Giant Mecha defender went berserk.
- All There in the Manual: Max was not explicitly named on-screen but in the credits.
- Back for the Dead: Of all the characters who came Back for the Finale, Max and his friends are the only significant characters to be killed during the fight with Aku.
- Back for the Finale: Max, along with a number of his friends, return to assist Jack, this time piloting the Robo-Samurai.
- Everything's Better with Samurai: The Robo-Samurai chose Jack as its pilot by mentally linking their minds to obliterate the Mondo-Bot.
- Magitek: While the Robots seem to be just regular robots, the giant Samurai Bot does seem to have a mystical aura about him especially with how it locates and merges with Jack. During the finale, it's one of the few things that can actually seem to hurt Aku to an extent.
Da' Samurai
Click here to see Da' Samurai as of Season 5.
Voiced by: David Alan Grier (young) and Keegan-Michael Key (old)
A loudmouthed samurai wannabe who challenges Jack to a duel to prove he's the better fighter. Their duel is a comical mismatch. Watching Jack fight a real threat, and his humble personality and behavior, sets Da' Samurai down the path towards true enlightenment.
- Adaptational Badass: Battle Through Time has him return for the final battle with Aku as a full fledged samurai, alongside some of Jack's other friends.
- Ascended Extra: He becomes a reoccurring shop keeper in Battle Through Time and appears in the climax to assist Jack in fighting Aku's army.
- Attention Whore: He is constantly obsessed with people thinking of him as a samurai. Even as a cranky old barkeep, he still loves to boast about his time as a samurai and his encounter with Jack.
- Boisterous Weakling: He loves to talk a big game, but his combat skills are mediocre, at least compared to pretty much every notable character. He did take out a couple of guard droids by himself (though with some dirty tactics), so he does have *some* genuine combat prowess.
- Bling of War: He wears a really shiny outfit for a samurai, and his sword has a gold-plated pommel. His upper layer of clothes - which he deliberately rips off - even has strobing lights, so does his hat!
- Break the Haughty: His duel with Jack and the humiliation that followed it made him change his ways and try to become a genuine samurai. He doesn't quite get there, but fifty years later the encounter with Jack still holds special meaning to him.
- The Bully: He was introduced as this until Jack taught him a lesson.
- Bullying a Dragon: Picked a fight with Jack despite having heard about him (and seeing him gracefully demolish some of Aku's new assassin robots). Even after Jack tries to simply politely ignore him, he goes out of his way to antagonize him until Jack finally agrees to a fight. Predictably, his 'fight' with Jack amounts to Jack causally blocking his attacks and humiliating him without even trying. With a piece of bamboo, considering him unworthy of an actual sword fight.
- The Bus Came Back: He briefly returns in Season 5 as a bartender in the bar he first met Jack. His younger self returns in '' Battle Through Time".
- Butt-Monkey: His actions make him this.
- Character Development: He hung up his sword sometime after meeting Jack, mellowed out somewhat, and became a bartender, according to Season 5.
- Chewing the Scenery: He loves attention.
- Clothing Damage: Deliberately tears off his outer garb as a display of power in his first appearance and dumps aside a rather expensive-looking light-up hat like it means nothing to him. Then, in his fight with Jack (if you could even call it that), Jack slowly ruins the rest of his clothes until he's down to nothing but his polka-dot undies.
- Combat Pragmatist: In his fight with the guard droids, he drops a lamp on one's head, blinding it and leaving it open to a finishing strike, and blindsides the other one with a sucker punch.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: To his credit, he did take out a group of robot soldiers with relative ease. He's not completely unskilled, rather a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond who became full of himself due to never fighting anyone stronger than him.
- Defeat Means Friendship: In this case, defeat brings humility, which brings respect.
- Dirty Coward: Once an army of Aku's android assassins come between him and Jack, he attempted to flee, but gets restrained by one assassin's headlock for all his trouble.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His real name is never given. As if in parody of this trope, he shows up in season 5 working as a literal barkeep who no longer goes by Da Samurai.
- Fake Muscles: Wears padded armor and a corset to make himself look strong, when he's actually a scrawny guy with a big gut. Nevertheless, he's still at least strong enough to slice through robots with a sword and to punch robots without any pain to himself.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: He learned this the hard way. Seeing Jack in action, though, kept him encouraged, and while he hasn't been a samurai for a long time after that he's far more humble than he was before Jack.
- Fat Bastard: Da' Samurai's entire outfit is just stylish clothes wrapped around a fake muscle suit, which hides a big-ass gut that pops out after Jack exposes it.
- Formerly Fat: He was revealed to have a large gut in his debut. He's become more fit (albeit scrawny-looking) in Season 5, even with his advanced age.
- Glory Days: He considers his life as Da' Samurai as his glory days, and says how great they were until Jack came in, leading him to decide to put those glory days behind him.
- Goofy Print Underwear: They get exposed by Jack, and they have polka dots on them.
- Grumpy Old Man: In Season 5, he's now an old, loudmouthed bartender.
- Heel–Face Turn: He was never evil, but he bullied the people he protected and forced them to give him things for free in return for defending them. After Jack shows him what a real samurai is like, he starts to try to act more like one.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: Da' Samurai acted like a jerk because he thought that it made him look like a samurai. Jack proved him wrong, which made him realize that he wasn't "so bad after all".
- Humiliation Conga: His entire fight with Jack knocks him down a few pegs. He ends up down to just his underwear.
- I Hate Past Me: Downplayed. In Season 5, he is grateful that Jack was able to teach him humility. Nonetheless, he does enjoy boasting about his old life as a samurai, but adopts a more heartfelt tone by describing the impact Jack had in his life.
- Important Haircut: He cut his topknot before taking up a job as a bartender.
- Incoming Ham: Just as Jack is quietly sipping some tea by the fire at the tavern he's staying at, a large robot boombox kicks the door open and proceeds to belt out a really loud Leitmotif before the man himself enters in an appallingly gaudy outfit complete with turban and coloured lights.Da' Samurai: Wassup, y'all?! Da' Samurai is in da hizzle re yeahouse!
- Jerkass: He has no manners towards others.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not a bad guy, and Jack seems to recognize this. By the end of the episode, he seems eager to be a better person.
- Jive Turkey: Biiiiig time. He even called one of his moves the "Turkey Carve".
- Just Toying with Them: Jack does this to him. For starters, Jack refuses to use his actual sword and chooses to use sticks of bamboo and the first two moves would've ended the 'fight' had Jack not let him up. The rest of the battle consists of Jack systematically humiliating him until he's fighting in his underwear and either blocking or doing a Nonchalant Dodge to everything he throws at him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Da' Samurai, despite taking Jack's lessons to heart, stopped trying to improve himself and instead became a humble bartender instead of anything particularly grand. Although it's possible that he simply realized that he would never be as powerful as heroes like Jack or the Scotsman, and decided to quit adventuring before he was killed.
- Leitmotif: Da' Samurai has a hip-hop jingle whenever he appeared. He even brought his own stereo for this. Averted in his appearance in season 5.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He was the strongest guy in the area that he lived in, which caused his ego to swell and make him believe that he was the strongest guy in the world. Meeting Jack and experiencing firsthand just how far from the truth that was causes him to change his ways.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Being a moderately skilled warrior means all of nothing in this setting. While it's able to earn him minor fame and power in a small community of noncombatants, he loses it all the second Jack enters the scene.
- Precision F-Strike: His appearance in Season 5 has him saying dammit and badass.
- Scary Black Man: While the audience sees him as a comical character throughout his episode, he was viewed as an intimidating bully by the local populace until Jack knocked him down a peg.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: This is combined with Oh, Crap!. When he sees the army of robots that surrounds him and Jack, but fails when they install metal on his neck to keep him from running away.Da' Samurai: Later, Jack.
- Signature Move: The Crazy Eights, where he wildly swings his sword around in the shape of an "8".
- Small Name, Big Ego: He's decently skilled, but nowhere near as much as he thinks he is. He even thinks he's strong enough to fight Jack himself and win. Jack thoroughly proves him wrong. While he's mellowed out in his old age as of Season 5, he still loves to boast about his prowess back in his youth.
- Smug Snake: This leads him to losing a fight to Jack. He was too confident in his skills, and never thought that he would lose.
- Taking the Bullet: A non-fatal example. His first step toward being a true hero was pushing Jack out the way of a stun beam. Jack acknowledged him for it.
- That Man Is Dead: Over time, he abandoned the path of being a Samurai after Jack gave him a wake up call, and he abandoned the street moniker Da' Samurai.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By the end of his episode.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He can slice through robots with his sword, and was able to lift and slam an assailant through a lamp. He was still no match for Jack's prowess.
The Lizard Monks
Master Ning and Brother Shu voiced by: Tom Kenny
A group of small reptilian monks who live in a cave temple on a tall mountain. Jack seeks to visit them, mostly for help with finding a cure for his "Aku infection".
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: They seem to know some self-defense skills, though it doesn't help that much when an Aku-possessed Jack beats them all up.
- Cool Old Guy: Despite the scowling face in the image, Master Ning himself is a wise and kindly old priest.
- Lizard Folk: Though benevolent ones as well, averting Reptiles Are Abhorrent.
- Lovable Lizard: While not as cuddly as other examples, the lizard monks are still benevolent reptilians who help cure Jack from the "Aku Infection".
Prince Astor and Princess Verbina
Prince Astor voiced by: Matt Levin
Princess Verbina voiced by: Tara Strong
The royal sibling heirs to the throne of a humanoid moth-like race called the Lebidopterins.
- Badass Adorable: Their designs are more traditionally cute than other characters, but that doesn't stop them from fighting alongside with Jack.
- Badass Bookworm: They are intelligent and very capable in a gunfight.
- Commonality Connection: Hearing their story Jack instantly relates it to his, and later he spells it out. He too is a prince sent away after an ancient enemy reappeared and attacked, charged to save his people, and he's unwilling to let their story end like his, though the Princess immediately insists that his story's not over yet. Unstated, but like he's done in previous episodes, they refuse to just escape while he fights off waves of attackers and come to help him, and he's clearly pleased.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: They're more polite about it than this trope normally gets, but when Jack gets them into a getaway car and then almost gets them all killed demonstrating that he has no idea how to drive, they physically pull his foot off the accelerator, ask if he even knows where to go, and the Princess tells him he'll navigate and she'll drive.
- Flight: Given they are moth-like aliens, they can fly when in low gravity.
- Insectoid Aliens: They are Lebidopterins, an alien species that look like humanoid moths or butterflies. At one point, Aku even mocks their resemblance to bugs (telling his minions to "shoo these moths away").
- Lightworlder: Their home world has less gravity than Earth, making them seem weak on Earth. In their own environment - or when creating a low-gravity bubble - they are great fighters.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Sent to bring back their people's reinforcements. They're also just about the only people Jack saves who turn around and refuse to let him do battle alone.
The African Prince
Voiced by: Adrian Diamond
The son of the African Chief and one of Jack's childhood friends.
- Badass Adorable: He's a cute (if initially bratty) child who ends up protecting a young Jack from the Evil Chief.
- Big Brother Instinct: Takes on a brotherly role to Jack and even protects him from danger.
- Big Brother Mentor: After warming up to Jack, he spends most of their non-training time showing Jack all of Africa.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Downplayed. While Jack didn't defeat him during their spar, the African Prince gained more respect for Jack during said spar.
- No Name Given: His name is not touched upon.
- Posthumous Character: Like all other contemporaries of Jack, he's long dead in the future.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Goes from being a bratty jerk to Jack to a true brother-in-arms.
The Baby
Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker
A baby Jack rescues from being eaten by ogres, then looks after until he can return the child to her parents.
- Badass and Baby: Jack has to deal with a robot assassin with a French accent and the same ogres that tried to eat the baby while simultaneously seeking out the baby's parents.
- Innocence Lost: After being exposed to Jack's noble but brutally violent heroism, the baby ends up receiving the "spirit of the samurai" and becomes stern-faced. Unlike most examples, the story treats this as a positive (or at least hopeful) development as it heavily implies that the child's destined to grow up into a strong, heroic figure in her own right, inspired by Jack and the stories of legendary Kid Hero Momotaro that she heard from him.
- No Name Given: Even after being returned to her mother, the child's name isn't revealed.
- Samus Is a Girl: Jack calls her "he" - and changes her diaper at least once! - but in 2016 it was revealed that the Baby is a girl.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Jack apologizes when the child's mother notices the big scowl on her face, explaining that she has seen death and now has "the spirit of the samurai" in her.
Season 5
The Emoji Family
An alien family of a mother, a daughter and a baby rescued by Jack from Beetle Drones in Season 5 opening.
- Cute Mute: A very innocent alien family whose inability to speak (conventionally) makes them even more vulnerable.
- Disappeared Dad: The patriarch is not seen. Either he was somewhere else when his family was attacked, died before, or was killed a few moments ago before Jack came.
- Face Death with Dignity: As they are surrounded by Beetle Drones that have destroyed their village, they tell each other "I love you" as they are about to be killed. Fortunately, Jack arrived just in time to save them.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: The name of their species or their individual names for that matter is never uttered. They are referred by an unofficial nickname given by the show's creator and the show's wiki lists this as their name.
- The Quiet One: Even though they are technically The Speechless and only capable of communicating using their antennae, they "speak" in very brief sentences and emoticons.
- Strong Family Resemblance: The mother and daughter look a lot alike.
- Telepathy: They use their antennae to form emojis out of electric static to communicate with others.
- Wolf Man: They are a blue-skinned race of humanoid dogs with antennae.
The White Wolf
A wolf that Jack meets after his first battle with the Daughters of Aku. It survived a gruesome battle of its own and finds shelter in the same cave Jack does.
- Badass Adorable: An incredible badass that can fight several alien tigers, and it looks absolutely precious cuddling up to Jack to keep him warm.
- Badass Normal: Just as Jack is an ordinary-looking man fighting aliens, robots, and demons in the advanced future, the White Wolf looks like an ordinary wolf that killed three monstrous tiger-like beasts.
- Berserk Button: When Jack tried to return the favor after it licked his wounds with a splash of water on its bleeding paw, the White Wolf yelped and barked in his face very angrily.
- But Now I Must Go: Once it sees that Jack has fully healed, and it has also healed from its wounds, it gives Jack a calm stare and then returns to the wild.
- Determinator: Faces off against three large predators and refuses to back down.
- Disney Death: We're initially led to believe it died in its first episode. As it turns out, it managed to survive and lick its wounds.
- Heroic Dog: A canine who helps nurse Jack back to health.
- Light Is Good: It is a wolf with white fur and proves to be quite friendly with Jack when they meet.
- Made of Iron: Much like Jack, the Wolf is ridiculously resilient to harm. They both survived massive blood loss, but eventually recovered fully.
- Mysterious Backer: Despite the symbolic nature, the wolf seems to be real, and clearly isn't a common wolf. Who or what it is, or what connection it has to Jack, isn't clear.
- Noble Wolf: The Wolf is a fierce fighter, but it's also very noble; it allows Jack to hide in its den and recover from his wounds, shares its food with him, and provides him with warmth at night by cuddling up with him.
- No Name Given: Being a wild animal, it has no name.
- One-Man Army: In its debut, it goes up against three large tiger-like creatures and while it doesn't get away unscathed, it manages to kill them all.
- Rule of Symbolism: The wolf is meant to be a symbol of Jack's determination and will to survive. Much like Jack and his battle with the Daughters of Aku, it manages to survive despite its injuries, representing Jack's resolve.
- White Wolves Are Special: As a white wolf, it immediately stands out as being symbolic of Jack's determination to keep surviving.
Blue Alien Children
Small, blue-furred alien kids who were abducted from their village by the Dominator. They were brutally experimented upon and enslaved with mind control devices to attack Jack.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: They were forced to act like savage beasts, biting and clawing at Jack.
- Children Are Innocent: Under normal circumstances. The Dominator exploits this against Jack, knowing that he wouldn't want to harm them.
- Disney Death: When their mind control is undone, they're seemingly electrocuted to death, but fortunately they were only briefly incapacitated. However, Jack assumed the worst and decided to attempt suicide.
- Mind Control: The Dominator implanted sound-activated microchips in their brains that make them go berserk.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Giant fangs spring forth from their mouths when they turn feral, which allow them to gnaw away at Jack's clothes along with their hidden claws and shred them to bits.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Their eyes glow bright red while chasing after Jack.
- Zerg Rush: There's at least a few hundred of them, so they use their numbers against Jack and almost overwhelm him.
The Three Little Sheep
A trio of rams that assisted Jack in finding a time portal to return back to the past, many years before the start of Season 5. However, Aku intervened just in time to destroy the portal, and transformed the three animals into massive monsters. Jack butchered them while consumed with his anger at Aku, instead of running away or trying to save them; and as a result, he lost his sword and was consumed by extreme guilt.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Another effect of Aku's magic on them immediately turns them against Jack.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Not them, but rather their remains. Ashi uses a piece of one of the deceased ram's horns to fight off her mother and later save the meditating Jack from getting stabbed.
- Forced Transformation: Aku transforms them into larger, monstrous versions of themselves to attack Jack.
- Good Shepherd: In a clever twist, they are both the sheep and the shepherd. The three are benign keepers of their respective time portal, guiding lost souls with good hearts to it.
- Last of His Kind: Heavily implied by the carvings in the monoliths that these creatures were the last remaining of their kind. With their deaths, their race is presumably extinct.
- Kill the Cutie: Even though they were turned to monsters by Aku, they were the very first innocent beings that Jack had ever killed.
- My Greatest Failure: Their deaths essentially led to Jack losing his weapon and being consumed by despair for at least five decades.
- Nothing but Skulls: A very cruel example. Jack never buried their remains because he was too distraught over what he did to them, and one of the sheep fell down the cavern Aku made where the time portal used to be. When Jack returns to the mountaintop where he lost his sword with Ashi 50 years later, their corpses have rotted away into crumbling skeletons, with only their now jaw-less skulls and a few bones left, and Jack is given a sickening reminder of what he did. Ashi is also forced to desecrate one of the slain sheep by tearing off its horn. It also seems that one of the sheep is outright gone, possibly totally disintegrated or swept off the mountain by weather or some bird of prey (we know at least one lives nearby- the one Jack and Ashi befriended).
- Posthumous Character: They only appear in a flashback scene in Season 5 after being long dead. They never even appeared in previous seasons while they were alive.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: They are utterly adorable and friendly creatures that help out Jack in his quest. Which makes their deaths at his hands even more tragic.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Both figuratively and literally. Their deaths by Jack's hands helped trigger his fall into depression.
- Small Role, Big Impact:
- Despite appearing for only one scene and seeming like inconsequential beings in the grand scheme of things, the fact they were innocent beings killed by Jack in a fit of anger and despair led to his own sword abandoning him.
- Posthumously, one of them also provides Ashi an Improvised Weapon in the form of one of the horns on its skull, in order to fight off The High Priestess and save the meditating Jack.
- Sweet Sheep: They're three adorable little sheep who help Jack find the last remaining time portal. Unfortunately, they end up getting Brainwashed and Crazy by Aku and turned into larger, more monstrous sheep.
- Stealth Pun: They're scapegoats.
- This Was His True Form: The sheep revert to their normal forms from their Aku-twisted ones after their deaths.
The Buddhist Monk
Voiced by: Keone Young
An ethereal blue monk that lives in the spirit world. He puts Jack through a few tests of character, so that he may earn his sword back.
- Our Spirits Are Different: He's a blue phantom, presumably the ghost of a long-deceased monk who reached enlightenment.
- Secret Test of Character: When the monk mentioned balance after Jack made him tea, the truth was that the former wouldn't give the latter his sword until Jack has properly balanced himself.
- The Stoic: Even from all of the Angry Inner Jack's outbursts (who is later revealed to be Mad Jack himself), he remains absolutely unflinching. This is because, being a wise mentor, he is at peace.
- Trickster Mentor: Not surprisingly, the advice he gives is rather vague and cryptic. Jack has to learn the answers for himself.
