History Fridge / SamuraiJack

[[folder:Fridge Logic]]
[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* Jack (possessed by Aku) takes on a tribe of little red newt-like monks with his sword. They're knocked around like crazy, but it's nothing like the bloodbath that should have resulted. Only if you've seen an earlier episode do you realize that the sword ''cannot harm the innocent'', so only the monks that suffer at his fists and feet are actually being hurt.
** The sword didn't cut anyone in that episode besides the robot. It was being used like a bat. It didn't cut anyone but that wouldn't stop the force of the impact from taking place. As demonstrated before, the sword can still touch the innocent, just not cut them.
** However earlier in the same episode, the Aku-possessed Jack uses his sword to slice through a civilian robot, [[DisproportionateRetribution in retaliation for accidentally bumping into him]]. Assuming that the robot was innocent, how could it have been harmed by Jack's sword? (This is also discussed in [[Headscratchers/SamuraiJack Headscratchers]].)
*** At the end of the day, a robot is not alive. It can not be innocent or evil. It's just metal, wires and oil.
*** How does that stop them from being alive in a meaningful way?
*** If the robot has self-awareness and states it's alive, it's basically alive. Scaramouche is one such example because he indicates he's alive when he reactivates. If a robot has meaningful life, it has a will. And if it has a will, it can be good or bad. And if that is the case, the sword can judge it accordingly (not to be confused with people's souls; the essence of someone's spiritual being). However, keep in mind that the robot that got bashed was talking in indecipherable beeps, so no hints as to whether it was good or bad-natured, but it probably wasn't a saint.
*** Maybe that sword-strike didn't kill the robot? [[FromBadToWorse ...Wait a minute.]]

* In episode 2 of season 5, while Daughters of Aku are pursuing Jack, he was able to hide within one of the coffins before they entered the tomb. They spend some time wandering around, until they all stop and turn, heading towards the same coffin-the one Jack was in. How were they able to pinpoint where he was hiding? [[spoiler: As we find out in episode 9, the Daughters of Aku are his ''literal'' daughters, having been born of his essence that the head priestess drank from. Much like Aku, they gained the ability to sense Jack's presence when he's in close proximity.]]
** As shogun of sorrow himself said [[spoiler: "I can smell your blood!"]]
* As it turns out, Da Samurai hung up his sword soon after his Jack-caused CharacterDevelopment. Why couldn't he have taken those lessons to heart in another way? Why couldn't he have become a more honorable ronin in the vein of Jack himself? (maybe develop his own style during a 50 year journey of redemption, open up a school for budding samurai).
** Da Samurai seems to have taken on more of a respectful backseat as a bartender who caters to and favors clientele who have crossed paths with Samurai Jack, so he's got his own spiritual samurai fan club going on.
** He isn't nearly strong enough to fight off Aku's bots alone, and opening a "samurai school" would paint a pretty massive target on his back. He wouldn't have lasted to the current season.

* If Ashi [[spoiler: ceased to exist because Jack killed Aku when they returned to the past, then how could Jack have traveled back to the past to kill Aku in the first place if Ashi was the one who returned him to the past?]]
** Jack was suspended from his original timeline, and he became a missing piece of the past. [[spoiler:He fit right back into the old one and reasserted as a part of it while everything that didn't got wiped away. Ashi was a hanger-on from the negated future timeline, so away she went when the DelayedRippleEffect of changing time reached back to her, while Jack remained in his proper place.]]
** It wasn't Ashi. The future timeline was almost like an illusion. As such, Ashi and the whole future timeline was the result of a distortion in time created by Jack being kicked out of his proper timeline in the first place. Had Jack never been sent to the future, the future timeline would have never existed. Therefore it was ultimately Jack and not Ashi who was responsible for everything that happened to him. When Jack returned to his timeline, with the exception of his memories, [[NoOntologicalInertia the distortion was reset.]] When he killed Aku, [[RetGone the timeline ceased to exist and in fact never happened]]. Jack himself is not a product of the distorted future timeline, rather he is the cause, so he cannot be bound to it's fate.

* Aku's initial attack on Jack's village occurred while Jack was young. We see Jack spending years training and growing up soon after. By the time he's sent into the future, his parents have aged many years. His mother is even depicted with grey hair when she gives him his sword just before his first confrontation with Aku. By the end of season 5, Jack returns to the exact moment Aku cast him into the future. When Jack meets his parents again, his father is alive and they're both suddenly the same age they were when he was a child.
** It's quite likely some time has passed since Jack returned to the past, and in that time, Jack's parents have regained their vitality after no longer being oppressed by Aku, whose abuses rendered them weaker, aged, and sickly-looking.

* The gods of ''Samurai Jack'' seem to be the hands-off type who don't meddle in the affairs of the mortal realm unless called upon to do so, which is why they let the disposal of the black mass that later became Aku fall upon mortals (or perhaps cast the blame on them for reviving it in a new form when the Emperor accidentally created Aku but saw fit to enchant a sword with their powers after facing the threat themselves and sympathizing with the humans' plight). Ra refused to acknowledge Jack with conversation in their first encounter, and the gods only presented themselves to Jack and his father if absolutely necessary, when they proved their worth. If forced to appear otherwise, they mostly ignored their summoned. It gives off the impression that they are silently judging the mortal world. [[spoiler:Notably, Ashi was shown killing many individuals across her lifetime no matter if she was fighting under villainous or heroic pretenses. Her final fate to disappear may have been the gods' way of evening the score for all the lives she took as punishment, as there are at least three gods in the universe of ''Samurai Jack'' who possibly had the power to intervene when changes to the timeline plunged Ashi from existence, but chose not to.]]
** This also implies that the black mass that became Aku was cast out of the realm of the gods and into that of the mortals. Or was a transcendent form of evil that accidentally got tossed into the mortal domain.

* Though the changes to the timeline make it irrelevant, there would logically be more members to the Cult of Aku that the High Priestess and the Daughters' trainers. After all, someone had to either raise or gather and hunt their food, for example. A self-sufficient convent (which the Cult seems to be) would need at least a few dozen members.

* In the pilot movie, the canine archeologists are surprised to learn that dogs used to bark and walk on all fours, yet such dogs are seen in the future... (Lulu comes to mind.)
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* "Jack and the Warrior Woman" is the last time in the series until the 5th season that Jack has a traveling companion on his mission. Under suspicion that anyone he could come across could either be Aku or one of his minions playing him for a fool like "Ikra" did, Jack would reject anyone who might join him if anyone offered. Plus, there are few people who would be capable enough to not be more of a liability than a help.

* Lazarus-92 may be a PlotIrrelevantVillain, but it shares many characteristics with the Black Mass that spawned Aku. It is a malevolent mass that consumes everything in its path, will restore itself if it takes damage. With any part of itself at all surviving meaning it will recover and return, just like Aku can never actually be destroyed unless every last part of him is obliterated.

** FridgeBrilliance: if the High Priestess was already a terrible person, how could Aku's essence make her worse? [[CloningBlues By making more of her.]] Note that not only does she only have daughters, all her daughters look and sound alike.

* In Season 5 Episode 6, [[spoiler: The return of Demongo may also explain why Samurai Jack began losing hope in the span of 50 years. Not only did he feel his deeds weren't helping good people anymore, but he felt it was futile to fight the bad ones if they kept coming back. This brings the feelings of futility and entropy UpToEleven.]]

* I realized late one night that “Aku’s Fairy Tales”, airing all the way back in S1, possible foreshadowed events that happened much later in S5 and flips some things around. To start:

*** It does and doesn't, even if he did visit [[spoiler: the lava monsters city]] and the [[spoiler: curse he placed on the lava monster Was broken when he died in the past, then there is no way his death would have been considered "honorable" enough for valhalla.(he would have died of old age or the rocks falling into the hole the crystal left)]]

** The Powerpuff Girls episode "[[https://http://powerpuffgirls.wikia.com/wiki/Speed_Demon Speed Demon]]" shows the ruins of Townsville, fifty years in their future. All because they disappeared from the timeline. If Samurai Jack is the prime timeline, it leads to a more horrifying thought: "the Powerpuff Girls, Dexter, and every other CN hero" made no difference to the outcome; Aku dominated.

* Who's to say Aku didn't [[spoiler: Attack the lava monsters city]] while jack was training all over the world? what if [[spoiler: he is now trapped down there until he gains his rock magic again]] without jack in the future, will anyone be able to defeat him?

* Yay, the blue alien children weren't killed! ...[[AdultFear Except their village is rubble, and only one adult is alive]].

* Re-watching the series, during "Jack and the Rave", I was puzzled why Jack hesitated to fight the children when his sword would have brought no harm to them (being innocent, even if mind-controlled). Then I realized, chronologically, Jack had forgotten about that particular ability of his weapon until the subsequent episode "Jack and the Zombies".

* Ultimately, it was suiting that [[spoiler: Ashi disappears after the past is changed. It fits Season 5's overall theme about [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped killing and consequences]]. Although he had it coming to him for a long time, Aku's death did result in a consequence, namely saving countless lives but at the cost of Ashi's eventual death. It may almost merit as a SpaceWhaleAesop, but once you grasp the concept, it makes the BittersweetEnding all the more meaningful.]]

* On a meta-level, [[spoiler: the flashback of young Jack [[BloodSplatteredInnocents witnessing]] his father kill the bandits could be an allegory for how some fans feel about [[DarkerAndEdgier Season 5's darker tone]]; as well as some fans' mortification at seeing Jack [[WhatHaveIDone kill someone]], even unintentionally. On that note, the Emperor's wise advice could be the show's way of comforting the audience that if he must kill, it won't make Jack less of a hero. [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped He just needs to learn the maturity and responsibility to live with it]].]]

* [[TraumaCongaLine After all the crazy, horrific, and traumatic events that he's seen and experienced]], it's more likely than not that [[ShellShockedVeteran Jack]] is probably going to suffer from some level of anxiety, depression, and PTSD ''for the rest of his life''. Just because he [[spoiler:finally returned home and killed his hated nemesis]], [[RealityEnsues that doesn't mean he can just instantly or permanently recover from all his emotional traumas]], [[spoiler:especially after seeing [[DidNotGetTheGirl his first true love]] [[YankTheDogsChain getting cruelly snatched away from him]].]]