
A Samurai in Hell Cover Picture
A Samurai in HellSee also A Samurai in Hell SHORTS
, a series of short stories by the same author set within the fic’s universe.
The story has a link to Archive of Our Own here.![]()
Just before the Samurai could end the life of the beast known as Aku, Aku pulled a sneak attack and dumped the Samurai into the depths of Hell. How can a righteous samurai fight his way back home while maintaining his courage in the place of the damned?
A Samurai In Hell contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In the original series, Aku was born on Earth from a fragment of a purely evil being that fell millennia ago. In this fic, he was a resident of the Hazbinverse’s version of Hell and was able to escape.
- Adaptational Heroism: Enforced. Since Jack needs to let I.M.P. keep running to stay in good graces with Prince Stolas, he imposes rules that prohibits harming children, causing collateral damage and only true Asshole Victims Beyond Redemption may be slain by them.
- Adaptational Species Change:
- In the original series, Aku was a fragment of a purely evil being that fell on Earth millenia ago. In this fic, he isn't just a demon from the Hazbinverse's version of Hell, he is also the Eighth Deadly Sin.
- The Scotsman is a sinner in Hell, though his appearance is largely unchanged. The author justified this as his rather cartoonish build—coupled with the presence of more human-like sinners like Rosie and Mimzy—means he can still plausibly look mostly human.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Jack manages to get a meeting with Verosika, she assumes he wants to bed her and tries to seduce him, brushing off his refusal as simply wanting to approach sex in a different way. When Jack finally gets a word in edgewise and explains why he's actually there—that he's a Samurai seeking to return home to slay Aku and that he thinks she knows a way to return to his home dimension—Verosika assumes he just has a role-playing kink.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Not exactly “dragged off,” but Aku’s spell forces Jack to remain bound to Hell.
- Dragon with an Agenda: When Aku recruits The Vees to serve as his Co-Dragons, Vox immediately starts using every bit of leverage he has to manipulate Aku into revealing more about himself and his plans, carefully withholding and selectively revealing information about Jack to keep an edge against the most powerful demon in the room.
- Everyone Has Standards: Samurai Jack finds Verosika's hate party of Blitzø exaggerated just because of how awful the latter is, even though Jack doesn't think highly of him.
- He Who Fights Monsters: During his first stay at the Hazbin Hotel, Jack has a nightmare of being surrounded by the corpses of all the demons he's encountered, people who he's recently started to accept are not Always Chaotic Evil, afflicted with wounds that could have only come from his sword. The vision ends with a nightmarish vision of Aku taunting Jack over this before Jack sees his reflection transform into Aku.Aku: How long can you survive this, samurai? How much longer can you stand to be here? Or better yet…How much longer…Until you are no different from me!
- I'm a Humanitarian: The first demon Jack converses with warns him to steer clear of Cannibal Town since they’ll want his genuine human flesh.
- Irony: Despite Lucifer's Adaptational Heroism presumably still applying in this story, he was forced to put down a rebellion by a rogue subordinate, Aku, by banishing him from Hell. This puts him in the role of God and Aku as Lucifer in more traditional depictions of Lucifer's fall.
- Japanese Politeness: Jack maintains his composure and compassion even in Hell. Even when a crocodile demon attacks him, he apologizes for unintentionally starting the confrontation by rudely staring at him.
- Jive Turkey: DJ Stylbator's speech patterns are riddled with outdated slang that annoys the hell out of everyone who listens to it.
- One-Man Army: Jack single-handedly dispatches a gang of mercenaries at a Bad Guy Bar.
- Pet the Dog:
- Smoker is just as mean-spirited and unsympathetic as any resident of Hell and doesn’t care much for Jack’s dilemma, but he does give him a couple of pieces of advice: don’t give a demon your true name, and don’t go near Cannibal Town.
- A more literal example occurs when Jack tries to steal the Grimoire from Loona. When she looks ready to attack him, he stalls her by petting her behind her ears, which puts her into a trance-like state long enough for Jack to get a head start on his escape. When Loona chews him out for it two chapters later, Jack apologizes, saying he thought it would have been preferable to a brawl.
- Poor Communication Kills: When Jack finally reaches the Hazbin Hotel and asks to see Charlie, Vaggie assumes he's an assassin sent to kill Charlie. Jack's vague statements and refusal to part with his sword only magnify her suspicions until they eventually come to blows. It's justified as Jack is tired, hungry, and frustrated with his situation and is not thinking clearly enough to explain himself before the fight happens. Thankfully, Charlie eventually deescalates things.
- This Cannot Be!: Jack bellows this when he realizes Aku has sent him to Hell. Smoker, the first demon he converses with, sarcastically comments about having heard this spiel so many times before.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: In the Hazbinverse is easy to count how many people don't swear but above all of them is Blitzø, swearing like a drunken sailor.
- The Starscream: Aku was originally one of the Eight Deadly Sins, and tried to launch a coup against Lucifer. Lucifer responded by destroying two of the nine rings of Hell just to get rid of him, and it did work...for a while.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jack does not get along with I.M.P. Blitzo least of all. But at Stolas' insistence he does accompany them on one of their assassination missions to see if they're as truly despicable as he assumed. He finds them more nuanced than previously thought.
- Tsundere: Loona's dynamic with Jack is built around this. Their first encounter began with him petting her to distract her from him stealing the book, something she enjoyed in the moment but is incredibly embarrassed by. It colors all their interactions going forward.
- We Will Meet Again: Just before dumping Jack in Hell, Aku assures Jack they will cross paths… but makes it clear he won’t go down easily.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Smoker quotes this almost word for word when Jack asks if there is a portal out of Hell, muttering that most denizens of Hell would’ve escaped by now if they did find one.
’’A Samurai in Hell: SHORTS’’ contains the following tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: Vaggie becomes increasingly incredulous when Jack mentions he's been to Africa and (Ancient) Greece despite being native to Edo Japan. The last straw comes when he tells her he learned Archery from Robin Hood.Vaggie: WHAT THE HELL EVEN IS YOUR LIFE?
- Armor-Piercing Question: Jack breaks Vaggie’s reluctance to learn a new fight style by sincerely asking her if she wishes to protect Charlie.
- Crack Fic: One chapter sees Jack and I.M.P. butting heads with Jason Voorhees. Initially it's played straight, with the samurai and assassins fighting a nigh-unstoppable Implacable Man, until Jack remembers fighting a similar creature in a dream and Jack remembers needing a sandwich to defeat him. When the sandwich is assembled, Shaggy shows up to eat it, only for Jason to swat it out of his hands. This causes Shaggy to go Ultra-Instinct. While the subsequent Curb-Stomp Battle occurs offscreen, Jack and the imps are so dumbstruck by what happened that they refuse to describe to Loona what exactly they witnessed.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Angel is genuinely attracted to Jack’s masculine build and good looks.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Vaggie is incredulous at the sheer amount of travels he’s been on, including training with Robin Hood, of all people.
- Unskilled, but Strong: While Vaggie is a formidable fighter, she has faced few genuine opponents, meaning Jack can slap her around, even without his sword.
- Willfully Weak: During training seasons with Vaggie, Jack purposefully uses less powerful weapons. Even then, he can still beat Vaggie in a fight.
