Samurai Jack - THE FOOLISH SAMURAI WARRIOR RETURNS!

[Rogar Demonblud]

Yeah.

It's also possible, going by a recent exemplar of rewriting 'history' (Flash/Legends) that it may have simply taken a few weeks for the time ripples to move far enough into the future to undo the creation of Ashi and her sisters.

[Giggling Ghast]

It would have taken MONTHS to rebuild the kingdom sufficiently, send out invitations to the wedding and give time for the guests to arrive. They were coming from all over the world, after all. Africa isn't a hop, skip and a step from Japan.

[DemonicAngel]

I think the best way to see the amount of time passsed is how spiffy Jack's father looks. if i remember correctly, in episode 1 (the one where jacks is cast into the future) his father is old and seems just about ready to croak...

[Razade]

I think we can just sweep it up as an attempt to make the ending more bitter sweet and stop trying to rationalize it. It didn't make any sense outside of the context that Jack can't have a happy ending. Which ya know, that's fine. Ashi "dying" had about as much emotional impact as a hair cut.

[Lemmy]

Well...

That was... Ok.

A bit rushed, as usual, but otherwise pretty decent. The "twist" didn't have much emotional impact, IMHO, but it wasn't awful either... It was... Ok.

[Hiro Protagonest]

So why did she vanish? Because her life was literally tied to that of Aku. He was a part of her, and when he disappeared, it was like losing the function of a vital organ. She needed Aku to live, and when he was destroyed, she was living on borrowed time.

This was literally my first thought, because I watched Gurren Lagann.

Time paradox didn't even cross my mind once it was like "welp she's here now." >_>

[Draconi Redfir]

Presumably, the same way she used the shapeshifting and the Eye Lasers.

Well i mean, she visibly SAW aku shape-shifting and possibly eye-lazer powers. or she used them in her aku-ified form. so those are more beleivable. I doubt she was even aware the time-scream existed.

Also, to be fair, Aku did say that he "tore open a portal in time" shortly before that, so she would know that he's capable of it, and thus, that she, having his powers, also is.

suppose that works... never mentioned anything about screaming to do it buut... *shrugs*

[Grim Portent]

Asking how Ashi knew how to use her powers seems a bit like asking how Aku knew how to use them to me. Aku went from being a nonsapient space goo, to a lake, to a humanoid tree monster, and then he burned a city down with eye lasers with no time to learn who or what he was inbetween. He also just randomly knew how to throw Jack forward in time despite never doing it to anyone else before him.

My assumption is he and Ashi just instinctively know how to use their abilities, it's just part of who they are. Ashi needed it awoken in her and then to realise that she literally has all the powers Aku does before she could do it herself, but afterwards it's as natural to her as it is to Aku.

[Giggling Ghast]

A comic in which (burp) R-R-R-Rick Sanchez saves the day.

http://nalemart.com/post/16094162294...e-samurai-jack

[t209]

Just realized something.
Jack isn't just mourning for Ashi, he might also be mourning for everyone that won't exist in that timeline.
Scotsman, the Dogs from first part, and maybe the baby too.

[Lacuna Caster]

I would write it such that Jack never goes back. Ashi using her Aku powers to send Jack and herself back seemed a little too Deus Ex Machina for me.

I think it would've made the show's overall message more memorable if Jack needed to accept he never could reverse the future. Obviously this also would've preserved Jack's world and his friends.

I really agree with that, as it is we got a horrible ending, with Jack erasing everyone he meet during his travels from existance.

I'm actually think that idea, in principle, could work- it just wasn't a decision given the appropriate gravitas, or really a decision at all. But I quite liked the bittersweet quality of Ashi being erased.


Okay, here's my version. It's crazy over-detailed, not very original, and a lot of elements could be tweaked for preference, but Guardian is included, daughters are less suddenly gimped, and both Aku, the Omen and Jack's allies have more sustained involvement.

Spoiler

Show

Ep 1: We start off maybe 5-10 years after the fourth season, with the Guardian's portal intact, but no others. Jack finds a ruined village where children were abducted by Aku's cult and crops were burned. He handily destroys the last robot pillager/s, but abandons the survivors to their own resources. He has his first internal monologue with the Omen and alt-self. After he leaves, there's his first battle-by-ambush with the daughters. This was already done perfectly and I wouldn't change a thing, so same result: Jack kills one of the daughters but is badly injured and narrowly escapes with his life.


Ep 2-3: Jack finds refuge with, say, one of the Archers. The daughters regroup and track him down to the archer village while he gets medical treatment. The daughters coordinate a second assault but are beaten back by weight of numbers and a mostly recuperated Jack- another 3 are killed, 1 (Aki) flees, and 2 (Ashi & Avi) are knocked out by a rockfall trap and taken captive.

The captives receive first aid from the villagers while under Jack's watchful eye. However, Aku gets wind of Jack's involvement minus the sword and assaults the village soon afterward. While he's busy razing the place, Avi breaks her bonds and appeals to Aku, who doesn't notice her- she's killed as random collateral while Ashi looks on. Meanwhile, in the wilderness, Aki is bleeding to death, but suddenly manifests some minor shapeshifting to close the wound.


Ep 4-5: With the village destroyed, Jack, a surviving Archer and Ashi have to flee while fighting past some of Aku's peripheral hench-creatures (orcs, beetle-bots, whatev.) Ashi demands that they at least give her a weapon and the Archer reluctantly obliges. His plan is to make contact with the Scots and other remaining allies, so they fight through a company of mooks and escape.

Jack hooks up with the Scotsman, but with the sword destroyed, feels any resistance is pointless. They hear a rumour that Aku, infuriated by his inability to destroy Jack, is planning to deploy super-weapons against the resistance, and has stepped up mass abductions to swell the ranks of his cult. Jack has another internal monologue with the Omen and his alt-self.

Aki finds her way to her mother and Aku, as the 'infection' begins to consume her. Her mother explains that for all Aku's accomplishments, he had never before succeeded in creating life, or a reliable minion as strong as himself. Having done so with the daughters, he will soon have no need for other slaves. Aku completes her transformation, and we see thousands of other acolytes in the temple.


Ep 6-8: We get a flashback to when the sword was destroyed. Similar to before, except that he's guided to the last free portal by an old man, who's in the middle of apologising for betraying him to Aku, when Jack executes him for it. Then the sword cracks and turns grey at his feet.

Ashi is taking some time off to explore the hills, and we get that segment focused on natural beauty. The Scotsman is on his death-bed, and summons Jack to his side. Clutching his 'celtic rune-sword', he remarks that he can see the Omen and offers to accompany Jack and Ashi (with her 'spooky aura') on a spirit quest.

Stealing directly from the comics, the Omen brings the Scotsman, Jack and Ashi on a series of three tests: One is intellectual, set by Vishnu (a series of riddles.) One is physical, set by Odin (ripped viking warriors.) And one is ethical, set by Ra, who agrees to re-forge the sword, but only if one of his companions is willing to sacrifice their life (to atone for Jack's act of murder.) Jack (natch) insists on nominating himself, over loud protests by Ashi and the Scotsman. 'You pass the test, etc.' the sword is restored, and they return to the mortal world... except that the Scotsman is dead.

In the end scene, Aku has used a poison gas to sterilise a random city, after taking whatever captives were useful to join the cult. Aki is busy skewering the last few resisters. Dude is evil, folks.


Ep 9-?: Jack is greeted by the Guardian, some distance apart from the group. He says that Aku will sterilise the world if that is what it takes to end Jack. He says to bring the battle to him, and they will end it.

Jack splits his forces. One group will go and sabotage Aku's headquarters, to destroy his factories and liberate the cult's captives, while the other fortifies the Guardian's position and broadcasts a challenge from Jack across the planet. Infuriated by the sabotage, Aku is too much of a showboat to turn down a dare.

There's a huge battle between The Guardian, Jack, Aki, and Aku, plus a metric ton of minions great and small, with Ashi starting to manifest her aku-powers after a punishing beat-down. Jack plays hide-and-seek with Aki while Ashi fights the infection and tries to talk her down, and the Guardian holds Aku at bay.

Ashi 'merges' with her sister, and they have their own internal dialogue on their past within the cult and Ashi's own experiences. She brings Aki to a standstill, but Aku stabs her fatally once he sees her loyalty waver. Ashi goes completely berserk. She and Jack pile on to destroy Aku, but by now Ashi has lost control of the infection, and appears to be 'merging' with Aku's shattered remains. In a moment of clarity, Ashi begs Jack to kill her.

More of Jack's allies arrive from the ruined spire, including some beefier customers (such as the giant stone samurai), who pin down Ashi with some experimental cryo-weapons designed to combat Aku. Jack realises that the infection is partly a defence mechanism, hands his sword over to a friend, calls off the attack, and approaches Ashi unarmed. Her blades stop inches from his face, and the infection slowly retreats.

The guardian, along with several allies, is fatally wounded, but says Jack has technically 'defeated' him by getting Aku to do the work- he just has to finish him off. He arm-wrestles Jack, and the Guardian throws it. 'Good enough. The portal's yours.' Jack says he's in no hurry, and waits until his eyes close.



What I imagine happens here depends on whether you want the past saved, the future saved, or both saved:

Past is saved: After some discussion, Jack's allies agree that centuries of Aku's tyranny have to be averted. Jack goes back with Ashi and kills Aku. Ashi fades.

Future is saved: After some discussion, Jack concludes that he has no right to erase so many lives, even if centuries of Aku must be endured. He becomes king and marries Ashi.

Both are saved: Jack becomes king and waits for 30 years for his scientist allies to find a way to preserve both timelines (possibly with Ashi's help.) They go back and kill Aku, but Ashi disappears afterward, just as Jack regains his previous youth, as Aku has ceased to exist in this timeline.


Either way, in the past, Jack raises a small monument to Ashi and his other allies. In the future, his allies have raised a monument to both. And we fade out.

[Hatu]

Hmm, thought experiment. How would you write the final season of Samurai Jack?

It's a good question, and I'm not really sure what I'd do.

My first instinct would be to try to recapture the classic Samurai Jack: be generally episodic, then have a three episode finale to bookend the series. But the more I think about it, the more I appreciate the need to take a more serialized approach to Season 5. Times have changed, and it would be hard to recapture the feel of seasons 1-4 now - especially when you're trying to wind down the series at the end. Given that, it just makes sense to bend with the times and use the whole season as an extended story.

That said, I'd still stick with making each episode a complete story, and I wouldn't want to completely focus on a few characters constantly. So going with a series of 'threats of the week' would be a good way to start. But then I'd want to start transitioning to the end, so one of those threats would need to kick off some sort of change in the status quo. Since I love Episode XXXII, that would probably be something to do with the Guardian and his portal.

This would lead into the finale, where Jack would concoct a plan to finally force Aku to face him. The penultimate episode would be the fanservice episode where Jack reconnects with old allies, ending on the eve of the battle. The last episode would have the epic defeat of future Aku, then a quick chance for some touching goodbyes before Jack traveled back to the past to defeat Aku for good. We'd end with Jack beginning to tell his tale to his family; rather than learn his actual name, I'd probably have him explain that after all this time, he's gotten used to Jack.

Obviously, that's a pretty bare bones concept, but that's what I'd start with. Looking at it, it certainly has a lot of similarities to what we got. The major difference is that I wouldn't have had Jack suffer from PTSD and it wouldn't have occurred to me to give Jack a love interest.

Frankly, I can see advantages to both of those ideas, so I see why they wanted to use them. But having contemplated all this again, I think trying to cram both of them into the season was the real mistake. They just didn't have time for both, so as a result Jack's redemption felt trivial and the romance felt mundane.

So if I'd somehow had a chance to edit Genndy's Season 5, I'd probably have cut the sub-plot of Jack losing his sword. He'd still have that slightly shell-shocked feel at first, but it would be purely because Aku had destroyed the portals and was flat out hiding from him.

Use the time saved to focus on the relationship between Jack and Ashi, then restructure the end so the battle with future Aku has a satisfactory ending. (Oh, and a better resolution for the Omen, since that was a criminal waste of a memorable character).

Personally, I'd still prefer to make the end match Episode XXXII, but I'd be a lot more willing to accept the retcon if the character work resonated more.

Anyway, that's my two cents. Or rather, my vague promise to eventually pay the bearer two cents.

-H

[Draconi Redfir]

all i know for sure that I’d change is keep Jack how he was in the first episode for just a bit longer.

Keep the beard, keep the armour, keep the non-sword weapons, preferably keep the bike, etc. After he gets the sword back he'd preferably keep the beard and the mane, and preferably still have some practical armour to wear and a pistol or other secondary weapon handy for when the sword isn't needed.

I'd make the search for the sword more physical then spiritual, preferably he lost it in a battle with some of Aku's minions or unrelated raiders, not Aku himself. so he goes back to where he lost it, find that oh, people have been there. maybe they saw it, so he tracks them down, they saw it or sold it to someone, he tracks them down, etc etc, short little Montague of this.

Then he finally gets the sword again, maybe it's old and rusty by now, or it shatters in his hands since he's unworthy to use it due to abandoning / forgetting his purpose as the Omen and his hallucinations have been telling him. Go through a bit of a trial of the gods to get it back (ideally; Not making tea.) Maybe battle mad-jack one-on-one with no deus-ex-machina eye-lazers involved.

And by the time the various armies attack, I’d really prefer it if Aku had some more mortal minions for them to fight. beetle-bots or robots or some such that the army can actually defeat and be effective against. Maybe the whole thing is more get-jack-to-the-tower rather then free-jack.

Heck maybe Ashi isn't taken over until after she and jack make it through Aku's forces with the help of the scotsman and the others, and then Ashi is taken, then she fights jack, ghost-Scotsman gets involved or jack manages to save her without surrendering, heck maybe he just avoids her and kills future Aku in order to save her.

brief celebration post-aku death, Jack regroups with all the friends he's made over the years, then either Ashi learns about or figures out how to use Aku's time-scream ability, or they make or find some other time portal, (Heck, maybe Jack ran into battle wearing armour that looked like the armour the Guardian's portal depicted him in, and some kind of thing happens where the guardian's portal reverses time on itself to a point where it's fixed and he can go through.)

Then after a celebration / goodbye, jack goes back in time, kills past Aku, and either Ashi comes with him and it's a two-timeline thing where nobody is erased out of existence, or the whole romance thing never happens and Ashi just starts travelling the world in Jack's old samurai getup, fighting off anyone still loyal to Aku and doing her best to live up to what Jack taught her.

OR alternative ending: After killing Aku Jack feels Time kicking in for him and having an effect on him. He'll age normally from this point on. And since there are no more time portals, and presumibly Ashi never got all of Aku's powers (Maybe just the shape shifting, or she lost them, idk.) he just moves on and lives in the future, with the past stuck under Aku's rule and unable to be re-written.

[endoperez]

Hmm, thought experiment. How would you write the final season of Samurai Jack?

Spoiler: for length

Show

Most of the writing could stay. I'm mostly happy with the big picture, but I'd want to tweak some of the pacing and many of the scenes, so that the end result is mostly the same but has more of an emotional payoff. Linger a bit longer on the beautiful scenery, and perhaps show Ashi getting distracted by beautiful things while she's with Jack.

Since there's limited time, I'd have to cut something, so that I can put more focus on other things.

I'd cut:

1. The green samurai-ghost thing
He was eerie and spooky, which fit some of the early episodes, but the payoff wasn't worth it. I'd replace him (in the scenes where he just stands off in the distance) with a more generic, recurring hallucination. Some sort of Aku-like figure, perhaps wielding the sword.

2. Change the kids into robots, and change the suicide thing by changing the resolution from a fight into a talk
I'd like to try out if, instead of making it a struggle about killing children, it'd be a struggle about killing innocent robots. I mean, Jack usually mows down all robots without mercy, and him having to avoid killing robots would be an interesting twist. Also, him having to come face to face with that would be an even more interesting cause of suicidal thoughts than the thing about children. It'd still work pretty much the same way - the sound overriding their programming, electricity sparkling above their heads when they "die"/shut down, and them "reviving" without Jack realizing they would. That could even be worked into a joke about him not understanding technology:
A: They're fine, Jack. You didn't kill them. They're okay.
J: I'm grateful for your comforting words, but I saw them fall down, and then they stopped moving. I saw them die. I caused their deaths.
A: Jack, are you...? Jack. They're robots. They were rebooting themselves.
J: Re...booting?

Instead of a fight against a glowy green samurai, Ashi and Jack would just talk, and Ashi would instill Jack with some home and some sense of purpose. He'd still feel a bit down, but would agree to look for the sword. However, he'd already imply he feels he's not worthy of wielding it.

3. Cut down the details and the time spent on the Sam-moo-rai and the rave people. Instead, show Ashi interacting with a few more different groups Jack has helped. In the episode as-is she was shown first not being sure if she is Jack's friend, and in the end, being sure about that. The show could do a bit more with that, by showing her being accepted and helped (e.g. by some animal carrying her) more directly.

4. The Scotsman's army's fight against Aku. Ashi could meet him or one of his daughters while searching for Jack after his breakdown (kids/robots "dying"), and there might be a short flashback, but that whole fight scene wasn't really necessary IMO.

5. Ashi's fight against her mother.
I'd just skip it. Maybe there'd be an assassin that had slipped past her, but it'd be some no-name minion. Instead of the fight, the scene would focus on her brutality, and on how she feels after the massacre. Her dialogue with her mother would turn into another hallucinated monologue with the sun-shown-as-mask that we saw once before.


I could see the Jack-Ashi romance being shown as a father-daughter relationship instead. That'd also make a lot of sense - Ashi abandoning her biogooical (?) father for her adoptive one, still an emotional bond and a feeling of loss, etc. I'm rather ambivalent on that as a whole, but I understand many people would've liked to see that, and it'd mean there wouldn't be that silly song-and-kiss to end one of the episodes, so, yeah.

[Morty]

I think the season was going perfectly well for the first six episodes, myself. It's only afterwards that Jack's character art was completely abandoned, things started to happen too quickly, and the god-forsaken romance reared its head.

I don't like playing armchair screenwriter (...come to think of it, many a screenwriter probably does write in an armchair), and the general direction things were heading until then seemed fine. I'm also not really sure if anything could be done about it in the time we had. What it needed was treating Jack's trauma more seriously, not resetting him back to the way he used to be, some believable circumstances for him to lose his sword, and no romance. So... a lot, really.

[Giggling Ghast]

Hmm, thought experiment. How would you write the final season of Samurai Jack?

Put in wall-to-wall sex scenes. Like, make Wicked City look like a nativity play in comparison.

Spoiler

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I'll preface this by saying I'm pretty happy with what I got, even if that ending left a hole in my heart that I'll never be able to fill. This is just how I would have done it personally.

I'm with Morty in that I think the first six episodes were perfectly fine. In Episode 7, however, I would have changed the circumstances of Jack losing the sword to not actually involve Aku at all, but rather some other nasty beast in an underground tomb that knocked the sword away from him in its death throes. (Shortly after, he explains, the Omen began appearing to him: a demon sent to claim Jack's soul for his failure.)

Jack still does his meditation thing and Ashi still guards him from the army of orcs, but it only tells him where the sword is located, which he learns was actually taken by the Daughters of Aku. (The vision shows the Priestess recovering the sword from the bottom of the pit.)

In Episode 8, Jack and Ashi have to recover the sword from the cult. They succeed and kill most of the cultists, though Ashi decides to spare her mother. At the same time, Scaramouche finally arrives to inform Aku about the sword, so he rushes to find Jack. Unfortunately, by the time he gets to the cult, he discovers Jack is gone. For having kept the sword hidden and allowing it to fall into Jack's hands again, Aku does something terrible to the High Priestess. (The scene fades to black, though we do hear her scream.)

Naturally, Ashi is experiencing some emotional turmoil after this encounter, but gets comforted by Jack. This is where the romance really becomes apparent.

In Episode 9, Jack is going to confront Aku at his fortress with Ashi in tow. I'd use the scene with the watermelon tigers here to show their relationship developing.

They meet the Scotsman. The joke from Episode 10 gets thrown in here, with the Scotsman running through the list of his daughters and offering one to Jack. Ashi, meanwhile, has to contend with the brawny daughters' mockery.

Anyway, the Scotsman lets Jack know Aku has retreated to his fortress and has built up such a large force to defend himself Jack will never get through without an army. So Ashi lets him know about how all the people he's helped are willing to help him.

In Episode 10, the final battle ensues. As Jack's forces battle Aku's beetle drones — notably, Ashi has to fight her mother, who's either a reanimated corpse or some half-machine abomination — Jack confronts the demon lord, who's cowering away in his fortress. Before they fight, Aku reveals that Ashi is his daughter and will die when he does. Jack is conflicted but ultimately destroys Aku, which also fells Ashi. He is heartbroken afterwards to see Ashi dead, but the Scotsman sacrifices his ghostly form and uses CELTIC MAGIC to revive Ashi. Fast forward a few years later, Jack is living together with Ashi. In a voiceover, he noted that while his quest had been to return home, but he thinks he's built one in the future.

And as Tumblr goes ape****, the final credits play.

[Draconi Redfir]

Put in wall-to-wall sex scenes. Like, make Wicked City look like a nativity play in comparison.

Spoiler

Show

I'll preface this by saying I'm pretty happy with what I got, even if that ending left a hole in my heart that I'll never be able to fill. This is just how I would have done it personally.

I'm with Morty in that I think the first six episodes were perfectly fine. In Episode 7, however, I would have changed the circumstances of Jack losing the sword to not actually involve Aku at all, but rather some other nasty beast in an underground tomb that knocked the sword away from him in its death throes. (Shortly after, he explains, the Omen began appearing to him: a demon sent to claim Jack's soul for his failure.)

Jack still does his meditation thing and Ashi still guards him from the army of orcs, but it only tells him where the sword is located, which he learns was actually taken by the Daughters of Aku.

In Episode 8, Jack and Ashi have to recover the sword from the cult. They succeed and kill most of the cultists, though Ashi decides to spare her mother. At the same time, Scaramouche finally arrives to inform Aku about the sword, so he rushes to find Jack. Unfortunately, by the time he gets to the cult, he discovers Jack is gone. For having kept the sword hidden and allowing it to , Aku does something terrible to the High Priestess. (The scene fades to black, though we do hear her scream.)

Ashi is experiencing some emotional turmoil after this encounter, but gets comforted by Jack. This is where the romance really becomes apparent.

In Episode 9, Jack is going to confront Aku at his fortress with Ashi in tow. I'd use the scene with the watermelon tigers here to show their relationship developing.

They meet the Scotsman. The joke from Episode 10 gets thrown in here, with the Scotsman running through the list of his daughters and offering one to Jack. Anyway, the Scotsman lets Jack know Aku has retreated to his fortress and has built up such a large force to defend himself Jack will never get through without an army. So Ashi lets him know about how all the people he's helped are willing to help him.

In Episode 10, the final battle ensues. As Jack's forces battle Aku's beetle drones — notably, Ashi has to fight her mother, who's either a reanimated corpse or some half-machine abomination — Jack confronts the demon lord, who's cowering away in his fortress. Before they fight, Aku reveals that Ashi is his daughter and will die when he does. Jack is conflicted but ultimately destroys Aku, which also fells Ashi. He is heartbroken afterwards to see Ashi dead, but the Scotsman sacrifices his ghostly form and uses CELTIC MAGIC to revive Ashi. Fast forward a few years later, Jack notes that his quest had been to return home, but he thinks he's built one in the future. Tumblr goes ape****. THE END.

i like this. this would be acceptable.

... can he keep the beard and armor though? :P

[Giggling Ghast]

Yes to the beard, but the armour is destroyed. However, he could suit up again in Episode 10.

The last scene with Ashi, however, has him clean-shaven and wearing his old Gi to symbolize Jack having made peace with his new life.

[Lacuna Caster]

...Obviously, that's a pretty bare bones concept, but that's what I'd start with. Looking at it, it certainly has a lot of similarities to what we got. The major difference is that I wouldn't have had Jack suffer from PTSD and it wouldn't have occurred to me to give Jack a love interest.

Frankly, I can see advantages to both of those ideas, so I see why they wanted to use them. But having contemplated all this again, I think trying to cram both of them into the season was the real mistake. They just didn't have time for both, so as a result Jack's redemption felt trivial and the romance felt mundane.

I think the season was going perfectly well for the first six episodes, myself. It's only afterwards that Jack's character art was completely abandoned, things started to happen too quickly, and the god-forsaken romance reared its head.

I still reckon that time constraints weren't the real problem here. The problem was trying to jam in elements that had nothing to do with the core premise (like scaramouche and the prison ship), not delivering on the core premise (such as Jack not really having anything to feel guilty about or atone for), or not using plot-elements economically (e.g, if you wanted Jack to reconnect with old allies, I would not have him recuperate with some random wolf-dude or get transport from a random sea-dragon.) They're fine in and of themselves, but Genndy was writing half the episodes as episodes, and he really didn't have that luxury.

I would say I'm partial to keeping the Guardian myself (if only for the sake of continuity), and I think that Ashi's arc is structurally fine, just compressed and perfunctory. I was largely okay with the first six episodes as well.

Put in wall-to-wall sex scenes. Like, make Wicked City look like a nativity play in comparison.

Spoiler

Show

I'll preface this by saying I'm pretty happy with what I got, even if that ending left a hole in my heart that I'll never be able to fill. This is just how I would have done it personally.

Very nice. I rather like that twist for Ashi's mother.

Personally, I could imagine the Scotsman going on a 20-minute insult-rant against the Omen until he allows Ashi to return to her body.

[Giggling Ghast]

One final thing: if you guys ever wanted to hear Aku's voice actor Greg Baldwin sing a modified version of My Way from Frank Sinatra, consider your wish granted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-8llqE6om4