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FZeroRacer
Apr 8, 2009
There's a really funny/awful continuity error too that you'd only catch if you rewatch the first episode of Samurai Jack.

Jack's parents are far younger than they're supposed to be in the final episode. It's really glaring.

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mycot
Oct 23, 2014

"It's okay. There are other Terminators! Just give us this one!"
Hell Gem

FZeroRacer posted:

There's a really funny/awful continuity error too that you'd only catch if you rewatch the first episode of Samurai Jack.

Jack's parents are far younger than they're supposed to be in the final episode. It's really glaring.

Emaciated slave Emperor would probably kill the wedding mood.

Nerdietalk
Dec 23, 2014

What's so frustrating about this, is like, all the problems are so easily fixed? Cut the romance, fix some pacing issues, expand the Aku and Priestess fight

Asuron
Nov 27, 2012
It's really, really evident to me this show needed more episodes

The first three episodes of the show match the pace and tone of the original show perfectly. It's very ponderous and slow going, with lots of focus on quiet moments with little to no speaking and it felt perfect.

It's not possible to keep that style when you only have ten episodes to wrap things up though and the show suffered for it. Like this finale, I liked it but it honestly didn't feel satisfying after all these years of waiting. I don't even think the fights even came close to matching the cinematography and choreography in those first three episodes and that's just kinda disappointing. We don't even get a farewell to all the characters that showed up, he just gets taken back and that's it.

The story going the way it did, that's fine. It works perfectly that way, but there was no buildup to it. It just kinda happens and it's just a hollow feeling left behind because there's so much left unsaid.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

nerdman42 posted:

What's so frustrating about this, is like, all the problems are so easily fixed? Cut the romance, fix some pacing issues, expand the Aku and Priestess fight

I can't restate enough that he had ten years worth of off time between projects to get feedback and revise this entire season's script and storyboard. There's no excuse here that can possibly be sufficient to explain such glaring oversights.

nerdbot
Mar 16, 2012

It's not even really fair to say that everything after the first 3 or 4 episodes was complete garbage. There were some genuine good ideas across the entire thing--which is what really makes it heartbreaking to me. If it had been all bad I could've written it off, if it had entirely fell to poo poo after episode 4 I could've written it off. The fact that it still showed promise right up until there were 15 minutes to go is what really sucks about this.

FZeroRacer
Apr 8, 2009
I'm not really sure Samurai Jack needed more episodes.

What it needed was to slim down a lot of the stuff that was bringing down the core experience. The Ashi romance being a huge part of that since it feels like she was invented in attempt to give Samurai Jack a reason to hunt down Aku. With the first 6 or so episodes dedicated to Jack recovering from his downward spiral that would've left the remaining episodes for the setup and a two-parter for the final battle.

anime was right
Jun 27, 2008

death is certain
keep yr cool

Annointed posted:

I can't restate enough that he had ten years worth of off time between projects to get feedback and revise this entire season's script and storyboard. There's no excuse here that can possibly be sufficient to explain such glaring oversights.

it could have been he had like 16 episodes worth of material and had to cut it into 10 once they handed him the budget.

but

nerdman42 posted:

What's so frustrating about this, is like, all the problems are so easily fixed? Cut the romance, fix some pacing issues, expand the Aku and Priestess fight

this. romance ep could have been mostly cut. ashi could have died right after aku did. jack could have returned home a lone and sad king and done the ladybug thing in a 2 ep climax. ashis sacrifice even without the element of love would have worked fine. she now wanted to help and see all these cool living people move on.

Bobbin Threadbare
Jan 2, 2009

I'm looking for a flock of urbanmechs.

Didn't someone say Tartakovsky was trying to make a Samurai Jack movie for a while? Maybe that's why the first three episodes feel different and so closely interlinked.

Also, the left column is a bingo since the music change counts as a different outro.

Bobbin Threadbare fucked around with this message at 06:53 on May 21, 2017

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

anime was right posted:

it could have been he had like 16 episodes worth of material and had to cut it into 10 once they handed him the budget.

but


this. romance ep could have been mostly cut. ashi could have died right after aku did. jack could have returned home a lone and sad king and done the ladybug thing in a 2 ep climax. ashis sacrifice even without the element of love would have worked fine. she now wanted to help and see all these cool living people move on.

Unless this news was so late in development that any script and storyboard revisions would not be possible giving Genndy this much leeway doesn't seem right.

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

Didn't someone say Tartakovsky was trying to make a Samurai Jack movie for a while? Maybe that's why the first three episodes feel different and so closely interlinked.

This is the original rumor that was on during the 10 year hiatus. Originally everyone thought that Samurai Jack was on a break so Genndy could finish the entire series with a movie finale.

Annointed fucked around with this message at 06:54 on May 21, 2017

Sankara
Jul 18, 2008


Thaaaaaaaat kinda. Ehhhhhhhh. Hm.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

Doctor Reynolds posted:

Thaaaaaaaat kinda. Ehhhhhhhh. Hm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OrS5Ym6vzU

Glagha
Oct 13, 2008

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

Man, I'm not as down on this season as some people have been and I've genuinely been pretty positive on it as a whole, even with some of the slightly weaker later episodes but even I'm saying that ending was suuuuper rushed and felt real weak.

Sankara
Jul 18, 2008



Yeah.

Das Boo
Jun 9, 2011

There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.
I had to go look up the last episode of Gurren Lagaan and the loving wiki for that one loving episode was a mile long and I'm just so mad at you fuckers.

This sincerely kinda hurts. I always hate catching a glimpse of what might have been and there's just... so much here that could have been ever so slightly tweaked into being something great. The rush on this last bit was just awful and it made the emotional core completely melodramatic and undeserved. It was telling me how I should feel rather than making me feel it. It's SAD. I'm making it SAD. Look how SAD this is. Don't you feel SAD? Also lol at "Woah, wait, aren't I tied to Aku?" *Dies*

She Wile E. Coyote'd herself out of existence.

Tyberius
Oct 21, 2006

First half of the final season was drat good, but it just couldn't stick the landing with the rushing of developing a romance between Jack and Ashi rather than using the existing extended cast of characters Jack already rescued to assist with getting him back in time.

I honestly thought it would be Cletic Magic getting him back after losing Ashi to Aku and driving Jack to leave the future behind to undo the future that was Aku.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

Das Boo posted:

I had to go look up the last episode of Gurren Lagaan and the loving wiki for that one loving episode was a mile long and I'm just so mad at you fuckers.

This sincerely kinda hurts. I always hate catching a glimpse of what might have been and there's just... so much here that could have been ever so slightly tweaked into being something great. The rush on this last bit was just awful and it made the emotional core completely melodramatic and undeserved. It was telling me how I should feel rather than making me feel it. It's SAD. I'm making it SAD. Look how SAD this is. Don't you feel SAD? Also lol at "Woah, wait, aren't I tied to Aku?" *Dies*

She Wile E. Coyote'd herself out of existence.

Unlike the Gurren Lagaan ending which was hypocritical in its message of "do the impossible" into "do the impossible, wait making Niia live past her connection to the Anti Spirals? Nah that's just impossible" which was bullshit and a cheap emotional shot. This finale was just disappointing. This ending has the hallmarks of what everyone expected was gonna be the ending to Samurai Jack during it's original run if the crew was told they had to wrap up the season as the show was gonna get cancelled.

Das Boo
Jun 9, 2011

There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Annointed posted:

Unlike the Gurren Lagaan ending which was hypocritical in its message of "do the impossible" into "do the impossible, wait making Niia live past her connection to the Anti Spirals? Nah that's just impossible" which was bullshit and a cheap emotional shot. This ending just has the hallmarks of what everyone expected was gonna be the ending to Samurai Jack during it's original run if the crew was told they had to wrap up the season as the show was gonna get cancelled.

As with everything in this season, I'm way more troubled by the execution than the ideas.

ThisIsACoolGuy
Nov 2, 2010

Shaped like a friend

Why did jack have his eyes closed when he killed Aku?

Like he came back in time closed his eyes and never opened them.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

Das Boo posted:

As with everything in this season, I'm way more troubled by the execution than the ideas.

That was pretty much my entire thought process during this run once we got each passing episode. There is an edited video where a person synced Genndy's verbalizing the entire storyboard of the final season's premiere episode years ago at a con, to the episode in question. It was pretty much a one for one conversion aside from a few pauses and slows to match Genndy's words. That video kind of made me think that if Genndy has this much forethought and desire on the first ever sequence, what he didn't tell must have been so good that telling it would spoil the fun. Once we hit episode 8, thanks to years of media, that was when I knew exactly what was going to happen. Honestly now that the damage is done it'll be a while before the diehard fans with Stockholm Syndrome and Sunk Cost fallacy admit that it could have been done a lot better.

Annointed fucked around with this message at 07:19 on May 21, 2017

nerdbot
Mar 16, 2012

Would it have been stupid if Ashi had used her powers to mass exodus everyone at that final battle out of Aku's future and into the safe past? Because now I'm thinking about how weird the ramifications of them just leaving everyone there are. At the very least the future deserved better closure than Jack and Ashi ollieing the gently caress out. They couldn't even kill Aku there first and say goodbye?

Mostly I wish the Scotsman was at the wedding somehow.

nerdbot fucked around with this message at 07:35 on May 21, 2017

Dolash
Oct 23, 2008

aNYWAY,
tHAT'S REALLY ALL THERE IS,
tO REPORT ON THE SUBJECT,
oF ME GETTING HURT,


Man, I have to say I was really surprised about the direction the last two episodes went. After the season started by deconstructing the whole premise of the show, I was sure the finale was going to present Jack with the choice to go back and he'd choose to stay in the future, especially since they built up the people he'd saved and any ending where Jack erases them would feel weird tonally. But they just went ahead and did it anyway.

I'd assumed if they were going to send Jack back they'd at least do something like a split timeline to deflect the consequences rather than just accept them outright. If this was the direction the season was headed, they probably should've embraced the darker angle of all Jack's friends having died over the 50 years so the future didn't seem worth saving anymore. Ending with a Grandfather Paradox was a little weak too.

It's even a little disappointing that he doesn't actually beat Future Aku before he goes back. Strictly speaking he didn't have to, that Aku was erased with the rest of that timeline, but it's sort of unsatisfying to have the final confrontation with an Aku who isn't the same one from the rest of the series.

It feels like in the end, Jack didn't learn anything from his experience. He returned and completed his mission exactly as he'd always meant to, and seemingly resumes a life he would've had before Aku showed up. The season arc may have started him in the gutter and followed him getting back on track, but that just led to Jack being his normal self again. Losing the love of his life is something he comes to accept and he seems ready to carry on. It's sort of the plainest way the series could end that adds nothing you couldn't already have guessed before they did the final season.

RandomPauI
Nov 24, 2006


Grimey Drawer
I wouldn't have minded if he left some minor gaps loose ends in the show for a tighter story. Maybe they could have gone the Better Call Saul route where there was a comic about stuff not shown in the show.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

Dolash posted:

Man, I have to say I was really surprised about the direction the last two episodes went. After the season started by deconstructing the whole premise of the show, I was sure the finale was going to present Jack with the choice to go back and he'd choose to stay in the future, especially since they built up the people he'd saved and any ending where Jack erases them would feel weird tonally. But they just went ahead and did it anyway.

I'd assumed if they were going to send Jack back they'd at least do something like a split timeline to deflect the consequences rather than just accept them outright. If this was the direction the season was headed, they probably should've embraced the darker angle of all Jack's friends having died over the 50 years so the future didn't seem worth saving anymore. Ending with a Grandfather Paradox was a little weak too.

It's even a little disappointing that he doesn't actually beat Future Aku before he goes back. Strictly speaking he didn't have to, that Aku was erased with the rest of that timeline, but it's sort of unsatisfying to have the final confrontation with an Aku who isn't the same one from the rest of the series.

It feels like in the end, Jack didn't learn anything from his experience. He returned and completed his mission exactly as he'd always meant to, and seemingly resumes a life he would've had before Aku showed up. The season arc may have started him in the gutter and followed him getting back on track, but that just led to Jack being his normal self again. Losing the love of his life is something he comes to accept and he seems ready to carry on. It's sort of the plainest way the series could end that adds nothing you couldn't already have guessed before they did the final season.

Yeah pretty much, the entire themeset they were setting up just kind of, was completely ignored.

nerdbot
Mar 16, 2012

Annointed posted:

Unlike the Gurren Lagaan ending which was hypocritical in its message of "do the impossible" into "do the impossible, wait making Niia live past her connection to the Anti Spirals? Nah that's just impossible" which was bullshit and a cheap emotional shot. This finale was just disappointing. This ending has the hallmarks of what everyone expected was gonna be the ending to Samurai Jack during it's original run if the crew was told they had to wrap up the season as the show was gonna get cancelled.

I somehow never stopped to think about how bogus Gurren Lagann's ending was until this post and now my night is just terrible.

EatinCake
Oct 21, 2008
Rushed as gently caress but man I chuckled out loud when Ashi wasted no time doing a time portal once they figured out she had Aku's powers. Even if it was done to cut time, that was brilliant and perfect. Also playing the intro again was a nice touch.

Shame they didn't make this an hour to stretch out the build up and give us more time with the farewell. This show has been defined by it's patience, and it's weird to see it go out in such a hasty way.

Also, bummer to not see any real playful visual styles akin to what we saw with the snowy woods fight or the archer tower.

Ape Has Killed Ape
Sep 15, 2005

Time is kind of a bastard, letting them think everythings fine for the presumably months or even years it took to rebuild the kingdom, then plan and hold the wedding, only to yank the rug out from under them at the last moment.


Super rude.

Fionordequester
Dec 27, 2012

Actually, I respectfully disagree with you there. For as obviously flawed as this game is, there ARE a lot of really good things about it. The presentation and atmosphere, for example, are the most immediate things. No other Yu-Gi-Oh game goes out of the way to really make
So apparently, Aku is SUCH a jerk, that he's STILL able to screw over Jack and everyone he loves. Some guys, man :( ...

Fionordequester fucked around with this message at 07:51 on May 21, 2017

moosecow333
Mar 15, 2007

Super-Duper Supermen!
I liked the ending. It wasn't perfect but I was happy with it.

Cran
Mar 23, 2011
Caught the west coast simulcast. Sad, now.

Annointed
Mar 2, 2013

nerdbot posted:

I somehow never stopped to think about how bogus Gurren Lagann's ending was until this post and now my night is just terrible.

Let me make it more terrible for you. Most of the main cast get shafted hard. Yoko doesn't even get her face shown on the ending and implies she dies alone and sad. Simon despite being younger than Yoko somehow is reduced to a 40 year old hobo. Rosseu gets to be president of the drat universe. Yeah way to make things positive about making things better for the future generations by implying that doing so will gently caress you and everyone you love over by either killing him, leaving them worse for wear or only having a few people have anything resembling an optimistic future.

Dolash
Oct 23, 2008

aNYWAY,
tHAT'S REALLY ALL THERE IS,
tO REPORT ON THE SUBJECT,
oF ME GETTING HURT,


It really felt from the start that they were showcasing an internal conflict between Jack's guilt over failing his family in the past and all the good he'd achieved in his 50 years. Scenes like seeing people he failed floating down the river contrasted with a whole episode revisiting all the people he had since saved. It was really clearly shown when the crucial realization that Ashi brought him which kept him from killing himself was that he had done good after all even if he couldn't finish his mission.

Why did it matter that he actually saved the kids in the weapon factory, if he was only going to erase them in the end anyway? Why did it matter through the whole run of the series that Jack went the extra mile to save and protect people even if that ran contrary to his whole goal? He lost the sword for lashing out at the innocent, but that judgement really rings hollow if he can erase his crimes.

In this situation, a romantic subplot can work to be the catalyst that gets Jack to reevaluate his mission. I assumed right up until the end that they'd make the choice be between letting her die (and by implication, the whole future) or going back. The Scotsman also provides an obvious comparison where he's happy to die to protect his daughters' future, and could've made that argument to Jack, but as is he's just another cameo.

I guess I assumed their reason for having a close relationship between Jack and someone from the future at all would be to address the whole "I'd never exist!" problem before Jack actually makes the decision, when it's an interesting challenge to the character's worldview and gives them an opportunity to demonstrate how they've changed.

Miruvor
Jan 19, 2007
Pillbug
I think the ending accomplished what it needed too, Jack coming back moments after leaving, but with 50+ years of experience meant the last confrontation was supposed to be pretty quick and brutal. Agreed that this season was underdone by too few episodes.

Stealing away the happy ending right at the end was kind of a dick move considering how much was invested into it for the season. But I'm glad this series is finished and the theme song didn't lie.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I’m glad it ended and Jack got back to the past.

On the other hand, I have no idea why the final season was built around setting Jack up with Ashi just so she would die and he’d have a tragic romance.

Ashi’s biggest contributions were helping Jack regain hope and taking him back to the past, which could have been accomplished by previous allies in the case of the former and the Guardian and his time portal in the case of the latter. The 50-year time skip also feels like it could have been shorter. 20 or 30 years would have accomplished the same thing.

And if you needed a tragic romance, you could have used one of the Scotsman’s Daughters for it. She already likely knows of Jack due to her father and would already have a reason to be invested in him, she’d have battle experience due to being trained for an army, and she wouldn’t need a long period of introduction due to being tied to a previously established character.

Really, the thing that bothers me the most is that Aku just dies without any fanfare. Jack barely interacts with him the whole episode and then he just kills him off like that. And it really makes Birth of Evil look silly, because why didn’t his father just destroy the Aku tree with the sword if he could just do that? Not to mention screentime being taken away from the main villain for the whole season just to push a romance with a character who just dies at the end for a cheap emotional reaction.

Samurai Jack was a good show, but the ending felt really off to me.

Pants Donkey
Nov 13, 2011

Kinda disappointed we never learned Jack's real name. Sort of a bookend to his quest by dropping the nickname he had in the future.

Also it'd be really weird to not mention to your future wife your actual name. I actually need to check and see if anyone called him Jack after his return to the past.

Uncle Wemus
Mar 4, 2004

Aku's castle collapsing should have been at least a 4 minute sequence of walls coming down set to that one super common explosion and collapsing sound effect he likes to use and from several dozen different angles.

Even jacks dad had like a full 20 minute fight sequence against Aku.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Two-way Bingo. (Yellow Triangles are arguable depending on the watcher.)

Dolash
Oct 23, 2008

aNYWAY,
tHAT'S REALLY ALL THERE IS,
tO REPORT ON THE SUBJECT,
oF ME GETTING HURT,


Having Jack say he doesn't want Ashi to become a memory then making her and everyone he's known for 50 years exactly that is a really weird choice. Also message-wise just embracing "Your guilt was right, it was good to cling on to the failures of your past, sacrifice your present and future and you can fix it" looks bad. It even recasts Jack's decision to kill the Daughters, where it seemed like he was leaning toward being ruthless to survive but he spares Ashi and works to save her, now it looks like actually he should've listened to the voice in his head and left her behind.

TwoPair
Mar 28, 2010

Pandamn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta
Grimey Drawer
Thought the episode was nice until the end, I hated that poo poo in Gurren Lagann and I still hate it now. The ending with the ladybug was sweet though.

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Really, the thing that bothers me the most is that Aku just dies without any fanfare. Jack barely interacts with him the whole episode and then he just kills him off like that.

Of course Aku was killed off easily. Past Aku wasn't a match for Jack the first time, and throughout the series, Aku shows over and over he simply can't take Jack in a one on one fight. Now (past) Aku's only barely recovered after fighting Jack the first time and suddenly Jack comes back arguably stronger after 50 years of honing his skills on robots and poo poo. So of course he went down easy. But I mean poo poo, you want fanfare? They blew up a building! Were Odin and Vishnu and Ra gonna appear in the clouds and give Jack a thumbs up?

TwoPair fucked around with this message at 08:53 on May 21, 2017

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Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
I mean more along the lines of "He just shows up, kills Aku, and that's it." It felt like a weak send-off for the main villain.

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