Samurai Jack - "That guy looks like a talking penis!"

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Samurai Jack - "That guy looks like a talking penis!"

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

420 Gank Mid posted:

But if he just went to the past, slew Aku, and freed his father's empire from slavery he would still likely be the greatest hero of humanity

He'd mean more to the people who personally witnessed both him and Aku. If Jack succeeds, he either fades into a faceless legend or people don't give proper credit to preventive action. (They don't.)

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 15:58

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 04:19

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

420 Gank Mid posted:

I don't know.

For at least a decade and probably closer to 15-20 years all of Japan (and probably more) was occupied by a towering flaming inferno of shapeshifting evil. If someone showed up after two decades of exile and slew that. I mean come on, Gilgamesh ain't got poo poo on that

Sure, for the people who experienced it. It's human nature to be highly adaptable and part of that is forgetting quickly. We've already push some horrific events of the early 20th century behind us and there are already different perspectives and versions of events even though people who experienced it are still around. Imagine what a thousand years can do. For example, Italians no longer have the same reverence for Augustus, who was literally deified and worshipped after his death. And who in the common public knows who John Enders is? Not even 100 years out from issues that had ravaged humanity since time immemorial.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 16:42

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

But... Scaramouche is great? :psyduck:

# ¿ Apr 25, 2017 05:09

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

RareAcumen posted:

Yeah, this show already has its Vegeta.

Excuse me, all those buildings were clearly evacuated!

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 10:47

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

biracial bear for uncut posted:

An image drawn by somebody that couldn't decide whether the person was hanging like a mannequin or standing like a normal person.

You know, I find it exceptionally strange that porn artists are the worst at rendering human anatomy. Like if you ever run across someone who draws particularly terrible boobs, they might as well be waving a flag.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 01:23

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Crabtree posted:

Realistic anatomy often times isn't what they're interested in. But isn't like Ashi is the perfect model of body types anyway.

Even stylized anatomy should feel like its weight is distributed properly. She's pulling a Liefeld spine.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 03:14

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Nah, I mean the positioning of the spine to where it looks like it juts the rib cage out awkwardly. The curve itself is fine, but the angle makes her look off-balance.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 04:28

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I'm kinda feeling weird about the fight scenes here in comparison to episode 2 and 3. These were really static and the movement far too clear, almost slow. 2 and 3 were exceptional in their framing and pace, forcing you to try to keep up with the momentum. It made for an engaging scene. I felt really removed from this, which should have been a pivotal showdown against an emotionally weighty character.

Bit bummed.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2017 08:50

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

TheGamerGuy23 posted:

I feel like the army should've been cut completely, giving more time for the Priestess fight, along with more time for Jack to deal with Red Jack. We would've taken out a Looney Tunes fight sequence and the balance thing wouldn't have felt so rushed.

This. Have Ashi watching Jack's back when she catches a sudden arrow from the darkness. Intro Mother, carry on.

# ¿ Apr 30, 2017 18:49

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I want Scaramouche to accidentally banana peel Aku into a time portal and become humanity's incidental savior. Five seasons, seventeen years and one shaggy dog story.

# ¿ May 1, 2017 22:40

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Jack getting his clothes obliterated is funny as hell and am glad they kept it in this last season.

# ¿ May 2, 2017 03:04

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I'm not opposed to Ashi taking out an entire army. But it came at the expense of her fight with Mother, which had waaaay more potential and suffered from the constraint.

# ¿ May 2, 2017 20:56

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Oh, that reminds me- Mother had a line earlier saying Ashi was always the weakest. I thought at the time that was a pretty interesting choice, making it not so much that she was the best of her sisters but that she was left by merit of not being the most imminent threat. I thought it'd be neat to have a main character be the worst of the best along side the best of the best.
But I guess she was actually the best, she just had a thing for ladybugs.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 06:57

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Metrofreak posted:

I believe the rationale is that she was the strongest and most deadly pupil, but the 'weakest' emotionally. That the training took well but the brainwashing didn't.

I know. I was just hoping they meant overall weakest because that's be a pretty neat route to take. That the weakest sister survived.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 07:27

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Alright.
Okay.
You got me.
Samurai Jack, I can't defend you on this one, buddy.
gently caress.

FUUUUUCK.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 04:52

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Why even do it if you can't do it right?!

# ¿ May 7, 2017 05:20

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I'm remembering some weeks back when that second episode premiered and how I was just floored at the quality. The cinematography, the choreography, the pacing, the backgrounds, the music. I watched it several times and admired everything that went into it. How cool is it to do this tier of quality in a TV show, where you don't have the constraints of a movie? You can develop better characters, deeper atmosphere and take the time to build suspense without worrying about wrapping up the plot in 90 minutes. And all the cool, meditative, artistic shots can fit in with room to spare for comedic scenes. gently caress, this is great!

And then here we are. :geno:

# ¿ May 7, 2017 08:31

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

RareAcumen posted:

lol

I'm going to finish out the series and I'll still consider those first three episodes excellent, but MAN it hurts catching a glimpse of what might have been.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 16:24

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Augus posted:

Most of that stuff was in this episode, come on dude. The shots of the desert and the interior of the ship and the fight choreography were all amazing. So it was a lighthearted romantic subplot, if you don't like that I can understand. But it's not like the show suddenly became Nutshack for an episode

It's a Gestalt thing, friend. Same reason Sucker Punch didn't work.
And I'm not exactly sure why, but the fight choreography has been far more static and less dimensional than in the first three episodes. There was this great momentum they had going where it outpaced you and you felt harried by how quickly you had to respond to the action. The movement was dimensional and supplemented by the camerawork. If you look at the fights outside episodes one and two in particular, you'll notice the vast majority take place on a flat plane and there's more panning than actual moving in regards to the camera.

The shot that really comes to mind is Jack trying to escape the tomb and the camera keeping OTS as he's grabbing the corners and propelling himself forward. It puts you in his frame of mind exactly; you don't know any more or less than he does at that moment. That's why when the sister appears from around the corner, you feel that jut in your senses because you become aware of her at the exact time he does.

Actually, did someone else storyboard for episode two? It's really on another level.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 19:09

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Literally Kermit posted:

Edit: also hi Das Boo how's things

DIIIH-SAAAAH-POIHN-TIIIING.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 19:31

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

mycot posted:

I'm not on Das Boo's level of despair yet, but I'm definitely a little resigned to lowering my expectations for the finale, and that's kinda sad.

Das Boo's Despair should be my alt. And it'd be an avatar of Mad Jack.
Honestly, I'm just disappointed after being so impressed. And like others have said, when you're a lady it really sucks to have 90% of female characters be shoved into the "can I gently caress her" category. It's refreshing when a woman's in a platonic relationship and I'd hoped for it, not gonna lie.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 23:07

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Literally Kermit posted:

Seconding this

Woah.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 23:17

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Oh, yeah, the naked leech thing: I had an immediate flashback to a YouTuber who would do one-off LPs of awful dating sims. One of them was fantasy-based and kept coming up with more and more convoluted reasons the monsters were only destroying the girls' clothes. And one was leeches that, yes, only eat fabric.

Samurai Jack made me think of a Japanese dating sim. It was not the pigeon one and therefore, it is not a good thing.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 07:34

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

So for the folks saying Jack otherwise had no reason to stay in the future without a physical relationship with Ashi... Wasn't it a connotation of her journey that there are a poo poo-ton of people who love and respect Jack, who needed him and owe him their happiness? Do all those people he affected not matter if he doesn't personally get something out of it? Like the fluff ball said?
50+ years of saving lives and you decide not to undo hundreds of years of terror because you got a new girlfriend and man, that tang is sweeeeeet!

# ¿ May 8, 2017 17:46

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Mom and river of corpses: You never came back! You were the only hope we had! We died hoping you'd save us!
Jack: SHUT UP, MOM, I'VE GOT A GIRLFRIEND AND WE'RE IN LOVE!
*Pointedly makes out with Ashi as Dead Mom floats by*

# ¿ May 8, 2017 18:00

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Augus posted:

his personal relationship with Ashi represents the culmination of all those other relationships or something

I accept this more than the "but he has no reason to stay unless he's in a romantic relationship" nonsense.

E: Wait, when did I complain about future episodes?

# ¿ May 8, 2017 18:18

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Fionordequester posted:

Hmm...well, this is the possible theory thing I was talking about, and I didn't want to share it in case it didn't turn out to be true, but...what if Ashi's life is tied to Aku's? And whatever her Mom did to her turned her into a sort of horcrux for Aku? Jack literally cannot kill Aku unless he kills Ashi too? It would even fit in really well with Episode 9's summary, which states that Aku "finds out a truth about Ashi that puts her in danger".

How would you feel about THAT sort of drama?

It would really, really depend on the execution. I'm finding myself more hesitant to trust not so much the ideas of the writers, but the way they're presented. Ashi confronting Mother as Jack recesses into his own mind to retrieve the sword were both excellent concepts with poor execution.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 18:43

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

my dad posted:

I thought it was a series of flashbacks catching up to the present in which they hunt him.

I wasn't aware anyone could take it any other way.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 15:18

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

The first three episodes had Scaramouche, Dr. Aku and wolf-bonding in between cultists, sword fights and internal conflict. poo poo was feng shui as gently caress.

# ¿ May 11, 2017 21:26

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

There's very little here that convinces me a student/mentor relationship wouldn't have been more respectful, sensible, appropriate and overall more functioning. It would have spared us an episode of clumsy pacing and more importantly, the past couple of pages of discussion.

And yeah, it really does suck for protagonist girls to be primarily relegated to love interests of the main character. Give me your outlier examples and for every one I'll give you ten of the status quo.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 15:55

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Fionordequester posted:

Does it count if the main character of a story is a woman? Because they can't, technically, be relegated to "love interest" in that case.

I wasn't counting those,. 'cause I honestly agree. They can be done lovely, but you'd have to pull off some amazing loops to make the protagonist the Love Interest Character.

I bet anime's done it!

# ¿ May 12, 2017 22:20

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I guess I have commonality with the Lord of All Evil now.

# ¿ May 13, 2017 19:38

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

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

# ¿ May 13, 2017 19:44

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Nice to see a fight that had dimension to it again, though I still long for the choreography/camera/setting/music combo from before. My big complaint here would actually be the setting, just kind of an ugly junkyard of muddled browns and greys. But I enjoyed the anatomical distortion on the Aku-Ashi and the final illustration was very nice.

And to be a good sport, even if I still don't agree with the choice: Jack's comment on "You are not your mother, you are not your father." gives some credence to the use of a romantic relationship over a mentor/pupil as the former is meant to be a partnership of equal standing and Jack's driving home the point that she's her own person. Still would have preferred a platonic relationship.

# ¿ May 14, 2017 07:50

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

A Space Ghost CtC-style show with Aku hosting. The Scotsman is Moltar. Scaramouche is Zorak.
Jack is Brak.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 06:36

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Acebuckeye13 posted:

The first three episodes alone are probably one of the greatest pinnacles of television animation so I'm pretty happy with the series no matter how it ends.

This, pretty much. If I had to wade through a little over three hours of Eh for that hour of gold, I'd gladly chance the odds.

# ¿ May 15, 2017 23:37

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

It's kind of a shame Ashi was never given the chance to evaluate her sisters. There have to be some interesting questions floating around in her head, recognizing that they had hints of compassion beat from them and wondering if they might have had the same chance for a turnaround that she did. Seems like even after the fact, realizing how your hosed up childhood killed your sisters might result in some survivor's guilt.

# ¿ May 16, 2017 04:32

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

raditts posted:

I think the scenes of them as children were meant to imply that she was the only one of them that had such hints of compassion.

I saw it differently, I guess. Stopping to help her when she slipped, their shared horror at one sister getting thrown across the room, stopping for Ashi's ladybug...

They was good kids! :saddowns:

# ¿ May 16, 2017 06:37

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

I very much agree with the sentiment that the more dialogue there is, the worse the episode is. With very few exception.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 18:51

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 04:19

Das Boo: Jun 9, 2011; There was a GHOST here.
It's gone now.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Incoming "if i were genndy":

-After the escape from the beast Id have them go their seperate ways, throw a slightly cliche "need to find my own way for a while" from Ashi, Jack is left with sliver of more hope.

-said sliver summarily crushed next episode as alien children are knocked out and he murders not-sundowner in a hot rage. Cue ghost samurai.

-Ashi travels round, inevitably running into the people and places jack helped, meets elderly scotsman, "Lass, im an old man, and id like to see my dearest friend one last time, would ye help me find him." Meanwhile, Scaramouche.

-Ashi and scotsman find Jack about to do himself in, they fight the ghost, scotsman gets killed, ashi gets overwhelmed by thing she cant hit, CELTIC MAGIC GHOST DUEL, they save Jack. Hes still depressed as hell tho, but a good old scotsman insult reminding him what he did snaps him out of it, alongside Ashi saying she believes him now. Lets get that sword.

-Scotsman is off back home, Ashi accompanies jack to meditation spot. Id keep the goats thing. Jack does his thing and ashi fights the cultist army lead by cult mom. Angry jack knocks the tea out the monks mouth when he says teas terrible. Same time Ashi is getting worn out and is down to last few including mom. End episode.

Yes i would have the tea ceremony last all episode dont judge me.

-Ashi fights mom in extended back and forth as Jack battles angry jack in the same way, he eventually does the persona thing and accepts him and his failures as part of himself and the path and choices he took, meanwhile ashi is fighting to standstill with mom but id have the dialogue be less about Jack and more about Aku being UNSPEAKABLY EVIL, the monk acknowldges jacks balance, and pulls the sword out of ball of light on jacks chest, just as Ashi and mom do the showdown cut. Cut back to Ashi completely worn out but triumphant, Jack helps her up. "What do you do now" "Now i must finally end this nightmare and destroy aku" "Id gladly help". Cut to scaramouche getting to Aku, end on the dance.

-Jack and Ashi travel, come across the graveyard of champions where the guardian is, hes not dead, but hes emaciated and in rags. Aku could not defeat him nor the guardian could Aku, but Aku managed to destroy the pillar nonetheless, leaving the guardian without purpose. Guardian invites Jack to one last duel, saying that he needs to know before he goes, that she was not foretold.They fight and jack wins. Guardian smiles and dies, getting reabsorbed into the remnants of the pillar.

"Awwww, FOOLISH SAMURAI LOST HIS SWORD?" "aku!" cue the same as this last episode.

tl;dr:
Its probably poo poo

Let's squeeze in some space for Ashi to reflect on her sisters' deaths so she can hurl it all back at Mother during their fight. And I wanna see Mad Jack go full-on distortion, to the point of abstract during his fight with Jack.
But yeah, by and large I think this would definitely solve a lot of the weak plot points and pacing issues. There are also quite a few elements you added that would sync nicely into a more cohesive narrative, like The Scotsman v. Death Ghost thing. OOH! Come to think of it, you could segue into Ashi's feelings about her sisters and mother by introducing her to the positive relationship that is The Scotsman and His Valkyrie Daughters. That'd allow her to reevaluate both sibling and parental relationships.

e: Also keeping Scruffy Jack around for continuity's sake.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 23:06

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Samurai Jack - "That guy looks like a talking penis!"

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