Strawpoll

>>92636901
I will never forgive Genndy for this unspeakable evil he calls an "ending".

Considering the prior 6 episodes, the finale was about all I could hope it was.

Now if the final season had actually been good, then maybe Jack would have gotten the ending he deserved.

>>92636901
http://www.strawpoll.me/13027207/
I posted this one all over /co/ 30 minutes ago.

>Goes back to the past
>Defeats Aku

That's all that was required for the ending to be satisfying and the show did both.

>>92637008
>http://www.strawpoll.me/13027207/
sorry I didnt' notice
It kinda of show that they do need to do more,

also my poll is getting a different result than yours.

>>92637012
Reminder that only brainlets who can't fathom the moral consequences of erasing an entire timeline filled with your friends and people you've helped will like the ending.

I was okay with the story, but I expected a big Jack vs. Aku showdown. The last good action scene of the season was in episode 3.

Reminder that >>92637126 is a crybaby bitch.

>>92637114
It's pretty close to 50/50 on both of them, mine just accounts for those that don't really care

>>92637012
So if they had ended the series with cartoon cutouts of Jack and Aku where Jack says "I AM GO BACK TO THE PAST", then the scene changes back to the past, then Jack bonks his sword against Aku, who in turn goes "I AM NOW DEAD", that would have been satisfying to you?

>>92637126
It's for the greater good you consumerist pig.

>>92636901
I'm fine with the writing, it was the pacing and some questionable choices that made it not great.

>>92637228
The greater good = Jack gets to see mommy again.

No jk the greater good would've been to rebuild the future you mong.

Really the only thing that kept the ending satisfying to me was that we didn't get a flash forward to see mostly everyone Jack met living in an Aku-less world. Although I would have liked to see Jack married and have a family of his own, his smile at the end made up for it.

>>92636901
Nope. I can't believe they actually sent him back to the past. I mean that seemed so simple and stupid I didn't think they would actually do it. Plus the whole Ashii plotline was very poorly done. Those first 3 episodes were worth everything though. That was some real top tier shit.

>>92637236
The problem is, with a bittersweet ending, regardless if it was planned from the beginning, if it isn't paced well or foreshadowed, it just feels like it came out of nowhere for a cheap shot at your feelings.
The only hint at Ashi being erased was her saying "I'm okay, I felt him leave me" but based on everyone's reactions, that conveyed the exact opposite feeling.

>>92636901
I wasn't satisfied with the ending at all.

All those time and bonding with characters in the future doesn't even exist. And killing off Ashi doesn't help one bit.

Overall, I just feel empty.

>>92637170
>t. Brainlet

File: Ashi_waiting_Jack.png (1MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1920x1080px

>Ashi shares the role of lead protagonist
>her struggles in the season are as important as Jacks
>She has an absolutely brutal and unforgiving upbringing
>still manages to find hope in the world
>saves Jacks life multiple times
>is directly responsible for the destruction of ultimate evil
>deserves a happy ending
>get's fucking wiped away so that Jacks ending doesn't feel too happy.
>even after it happens, most of the viewership just focuses on how cruel this was to jack, and looks past how cruel this was to Ashi.
No I'm not fucking satisfied. She deserved a better ending, and she got an even worse fate than Aku.

>>92637498
>most of the viewership just focuses on how cruel this was to jack, and looks past how cruel this was to Ashi

Of course they do, this season would've been better without her. I'm more upset over Genndy's atrocious writing.

>>92637679
As much as I love her, I would rather have not had her then to have her and see storyline treated that way.

>>92637710
*her storyline

As a major SJ fan and a Genndy apologist, I can't say I can completely defend Genndy for this ending. I was hoping for a 44 minute episode, Jack and future Aku face off battle then getting back to the past and kill past Aku, Ashi to disappear right after Aku dies, not having that cheesy wedding/anime scene and Ashi's last words were pathetic, not a simple "Goodbye Jack". There's probably some other stuff bothering me but the biggest is wondering what type of future did past Jack go to? Is it a peaceful future since Aku was killed? Does he want to still go back? What if he does, he will find future Jack. Honestly, throughout the season I felt so upset it was so short and that it would take a while until I move on from the fact Jack is over forever, but with the finale being disappointing I moved on right away.

>>92637218

Yes.

>>92637218
More so than Ashi disappearing.

I found it satisfying

It wasn't the best thing ever, but it if it aired when Samurai Jack was being aired, young me would have though it was the greatest thing ever

>>92637679
This honestly.

>>92637844
Genndy's said he's had this sort of idea as an ending in mind for quite a while now. It's a bit of a shame that it's taken this long to realize it.
I may have my problems with it, but I'm still overall satisfied that it's finally gotten a conclusion

>>92636901
The ending was trash, but given how shitty the last few episodes leading up to it were, it actually turned out better than I expected.

>>92637256
Leaving everyone he ever knew believing he failed them

the romance was dumb

File: 1465405715744.png (345KB, 628x486px) Image search: [Google]

345KB, 628x486px

>devote half the final season to developing a romance arc with a newly-introduced love interest
>piss off half the fandom
>make it so that the love interest doesn't even die but CEASES TO EXIST after blueballing Jack with a wedding
>piss off the other half of the fandom
>every other character also ceases to exist
>fandom anger increases

What was Genndy thinking??

Naw, there were way too many flaws and stupid decisions. I wont even single out something i disliked, because i honestly believe nearly all other alternatives would be better and more consistent. It seems he deliberately choose the least consistent and unfulfilling ending he could. It wasnt happy, it wasnt sad, it wasnt bittersweet, it wasnt inspiring, it was just "there"

>>92637963
>Parents are shown in afterlife in OG show
>"aku's victories are not your failures, son"
>implied that the demented hallucinations of his parents he is having in s5 are a product of mad Jack

I've had a couple of days to think on it and let it sink in, and I'm gonna go with 'no.' I don't like that there was no closure to what happened with the peoples of the future or how Jack felt about it, and the 'fuck you, she dies' ending still strikes me as just vicious.

Genndy said he hoped the ending would leave us feeling love, and while I still do love this series and respect the immense work done in it, the end just left me feeling hollow. Aku got the last blow in.

>>92637710
>>92637679
This.

Despite what people said, I was glad that the writers added Ashi as a new protagonist to the series. But after seeing the ending I hate the fact that they added her since all of the development she had is fucking useless now.

I really want to know why Genndy did something completely unnecessary at the end.

>>92637498
I was so certain it wasn't going to happen, considering her entire arc was about hope and new life from the ash (hue), It's just fucking brutal.

>>92638136
i remember the episode where he finds his old home, and at the end he sees the memories of his parents but finds a robot screaming for help and decides to go after him. then we see his parents move and look proud so what we assumed to be just jack's memories of his parents were actually spirits, still looking after his son.

I always assumed that ep was basically foreshadowing/symbolism for an ending where he laments not being able to return, the ghosts of his family appear and tell him to move forward, and he decides to help the future.

>>92638092
>every other character also ceases to exist
How could you not expect this to happen if Jack goes back to the past and defeats Aku? Would you rather see Jack fail to do the one thing he lives for?

Do y'all not remember the beginning of the season when Jack was haunted by his parents and countrymen, and they told him that he forgot his purpose? If he went "No, the future is where I BELONG because FRIENDSHIP!!", that would have been a hamfisted bullshit twist, the kind that you see in countless other media. Seriously, how many other fucking movies, games, etc. have trotted out that "actually, I like it here" shit? Jack managing to go back to the past to undo the future that is Aku when he's at his weakest, FINALLY succeeding at his goal and reuniting with his family was great. Having the person who he found love with die as one last middle finger from Aku was perfect.

File: 1486443697589.png (516KB, 1052x848px) Image search: [Google]

516KB, 1052x848px

While there's been a lot of threads shitposting about how several minor plotholes are huge issues, the fact that there are so many small inconsistencies with the ending does weigh on me some.

I'll admit I was caught up in the realization that Genndy was pulling a Gurren Lagann to fully take in the final scene, but I do have to say, in and of itself, it's pretty beautiful and a great final visual for the series. The final episode started tremendously, sped up quite a bit to get to where it wanted to go, but ended on a note I'd consider fitting.

All-in-all, I enjoyed the final season more than most of /co/ seemed to (8/10 overall, not one totally bad episode), but various minor issues that can't really be ignored did combine into nagging issues.

Some part of me thinks that some people (not all) that didn't like the season & ending didn't really get some of the themes it was going for, but then I realize the moral that the first season began setting up is the opposite of what I expected after Episode 9. Instead of "Don't dwell on the past, and find hope for the future", it's "The journey is what matters, and even if somebody is gone, their memory will live on in you forever as you go through your life". It's not that far off, but the distinction is that the ending celebrates the past's positives instead of telling us that to move beyond the past's negatives, and given the show's entire premise, I think that makes sense.

tl;dr I liked it, I get why some don't, but some of you are being a bit too harsh despite the fact that it does have legitimate flaws.

>>92638324
>Do y'all not remember the beginning of the season when Jack was haunted by his parents and countrymen, and they told him that he forgot his purpose?


Do you not remember the OG series where Jack's parents reassured him that Aku's victories were not Jack's failures? Jack wasn't haunted by his lost loved ones, he was haunted by guilt and a creeping sense that this was all his fault, haunted by an inability to change anything.

It's possible, narratively, to have an ending where Jack accepts that he won't get back but can still make the world better for the people who come after, and I think it would have been perfectly acceptable. It's nothing about changing his attitude or feelings, just letting Jack's usual "the innocent here comes before the innocent that's hypothetical" morality play out.

>>92637963
He wouldn't have failed them if he avenged them by destroying aku and paving a better future for all. Then he could just go to the afterlife.

>>92638279
Jack lives to defeat aku, not go back to the past necessarily. Besides, what's wrong with a character arc where he realizes going back to the past has its own consequences?

I would have wanted it where they needed to stop Aku in both the Past and Future.

>>92638137
>Genndy said he hoped the ending would leave us feeling love
This, he said it would be bittersweet, with both love and sadness. What we got was ashi having TERRIBLE writting and an ending that feels so overly dramatic i cant possibly feel sad about it. It was hollow. It felt like genndy was just torching the series to the ground.

>>92638324
Oh yeah, his torturous visions caused by depression and mad Jack? Yeah he should totally follow the wills of his murderous psycopathic suicidal counterpart.

File: samurai hack.png (1MB, 1704x1520px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1704x1520px

L O L

>>92636901

I got what I wanted. Just Jack going into the past and wining, I didn't expect to end the way I wanted it so it felt good.

>>92638506
Paving a better future for all would involve going back to the past and ensuring that all of the oppression and death that Aku created NEVER HAPPENS.

>>92638562
Yeah, that's a problem. Genndy fucked up there.

>>92638242
This. Going back to the past was never a job given by his father, his mother or his teachers. It was entirely self imposed, and he could drop it any time he wanted with no penalties if it was what he truly wanted.
His job was to slay aku, no matter if in 20 years or 10000.
He had one of the worst, most depressing and stressful lives on the world. He had the right to choose his own path. I feel robbed for not seeing he make the decision himself of going to the past or staying in the future.

>>92638618
>NEVER HAPPENS

Just like all the lives Jack touched, befriended, or were living in relative peace before he took it all away. Yes death sucks but existential death is even worse.

>>92638324
That was his insanity alone, not the real souls. His parents and friends would no way in hell ever blame him for his decision. Are you forgetting the emperor is the OG "most righteous man"?

>>92637126
It sure is a good thing he lost Ashi and had a chance to mourn her erasure(along with the erasure of all the people he met from the future), then weighed that loss against the fact that Aku's evil would never take over the world.

Of course, if you didn't notice that was what happened and just thought Jack was being sad about Ashi and then saw the pretty nature and felt better, it might seem that the writers didn't address it.

It's weird that you apparently had the thought about how Jack should consider if his journey was all worth it, but instead of thinking back on whether or not they already addressed that in the episode, you chose to assume they didn't so you could feel superior.

Or I guess you would have preferred this show known for it's simplicity and brevity, spent five minutes with Jack talking about his feelings to spoonfeed it to the audience. For someone so smart, you have trouble reading between the lines, huh?

>>92636901
Definitely not, and I'm someone who would be willing to defend this up until ep9.

I don't think I can find anything satisfying there, honestly. I though the "I met someone" joke was OK and that's about it. So yea, all I liked about the final episode of SJ was a joke they made it there.

1. The top one problem with this season was not that they didn't have enough time. It was the fact that they used the time they had in some pretty inefficient way. Ep10 was the prime example of that. Character cameo intro is probably the longest scene in it and here are my daughters joke is probably longer than final Jack vs Aku fight.
2. The final dialogue line in SJ is "I'm now explaining the audience what is happening while looking into the camera". So bad.
3. Going with actual time travel to finish it is stupid. Time travel is always stupid and pretty much impossible to do in a satisfying manner. And oh boy, here they didn't even try.
4. I didn't feel any message from how it ended and i didn't really see any reasoning behind it, apart from very immature fishing for cheap drama and "ha! we did it when you thought we won't!".
5. Speaking about the very end. It was supposed to be bitterSWEET and the authors are suggesting that we should feel happy for Jack, he is smiling, an upbeat final shot etc, but I completely do not feel it. Imo he is objectively in a worse position then when the season begun (and there he was supposed to be at his lowest).
6. The entire show did a real lot to suggest that Jack not only will stay in the future, but in fact SHOULD stay in the future. This is completely waved away by some weak foreshadowing in ep9 when he tells Ashi how he thinks about his home everyday.
7. Aku was super lame in this ep. The spike rain was ok-ish and that's it.
8. All the characters show up to help Jack and all that we learn is that some of them die and later the show suggests that none of them ever existed. Uh, ok?

>>92638903
There is a difference between a well excuted bittersweet ending and what we got.

For fuck sake, ashi last words were stupid obvious exposition. There goes your "simplicity and brevity" down the drain.

We didnt even got jack to make the big decision himself, or his friends to accept their fate. It was, again, another poorly executed action from ashi.

>>92636901
Should have been a 45 minute episode to fit some extra character moments in, maybe a short epilogue explaining the Guardian (we can dream). But overall I'm ok with it. The 5th season overall was great and I'm amazed it even happened.

File: m bison.jpg (115KB, 459x581px) Image search: [Google]

115KB, 459x581px

I guess it was an unforgettable ending like Genndy stated.
The thing is, I was first content, thinking it could've been really better but could live with it.
Went to bed, then got really pissed about it all of a sudden. Then went into a funk.
I'm eh, a bit satisfied he saved his past and destroyed Aku, but dissapointed with the cheap death and rushing with no mention of his friends in the future. Or his reunion with his family. Or rebuilding.
Could've been better honestly, but most of it was due to hype making it worse than other endings.

>>92636901
I'm not exactly satisfied, but it's an ending.

>>92637165
>The last good action scene of the season was in episode 3
Seriously, did they just blow the entire budget on the first three episodes or something? The Jack vs. Aku fight was severely underwhelming.

>>92637165
>but I expected a big Jack vs. Aku showdown
This. This is all season 5 should have been. Everything else is basically filler. That's what people wanted to see.

>>92639110
>We didnt even got jack to make the big decision himself, or his friends to accept their fate.

>ashi creates the time portal
>portal covers jack and ashi
>jack looks around him, confused
>scotsman gives him an approving nod
>the portal then transports jack and ashi
>aku says oh no

this addition would have taken less than 5 seconds and would have covered it, mostly

>>92637498
You deserve this Ashi, don't pretend that you don't.

>>92638092
>What was Genndy thinking??
That you will still watch the next shit he makes.
And the next.

>>92638562
Different ages and malnutrition, you schmuck.

>>92639181
>I guess it was an unforgettable ending like Genndy stated
I will forget this in a year, that's the sad part. I won't remember Samurai Jack as a fantastic show from my childhood, but rather a fantastic show from my childhood that went on a 13-year hiatus only to be rushed to completion in a poorly-paced 5th season with a disappointing and unfulfilling finale.

I don't care what anyone says, the finale needed to be a two-parter. You could have cut most of episode 5, the pointless shadowy horseman subplot, and stapled what's left to episode 6 and then used the extra space to properly conclude the series.

Another problem is the complete lack of tension or suspense when Jack kills Aku in the past. He just slaughters him because he's been already weakened by past Jack. They don't even address Aku in the future, just ignore him.

From the moment Jack says "I love you" the episode pretty much goes to shit. Until Ashi dies, that was hilarious.

>>92638279
Even if Jack HAD to go to the past, which certainly isn't the case and would have sent a much better message if he hadn't, there's no reason why the time travel had to erase everybody. There are multiple ways to handle time travel in a story. Ashi's disappearance also created a paradox wherein Jack shouldn't have been able to get to the past since she didn't exist.

>>92639196
Green tiger fight was good. Parasite swarm was also good

>>92636901
mlp is having a better season then this shit

>>92639196
>>92640047
Rewatch jack vs aku-ashi in episode 9. It had amazing animation.
I dont know why episode 10 was so boring. Did they spent everything on the flying akus vs ravers?

File: Aku btfo.webm (1MB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1280x720px

>>92640097
How did you not like this?

>>92640121
I immediately remembered the robot after posting. It was great, but still such a short scene. For a "final battle episode" it is so underwhelming.

>>92638903
He *is* just being sad about ashi. The ladybug, a symbol of ashi, is the only thing that makes him happy, and the tree he's under is in the shape of a broken heart. The writers never addressed if the other characters were wiped or not. I feel superior because I know I'm right and you're literally making shit up.

File: 1495470136743b.png (3MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

3MB, 1920x1080px

>>92640205
It really is a sombre visual.

Totally, got everything I wanted because i didn't go crazy with headcanons.

Don't really get all this complaining about time travel paradox's since the intro said "Return to the past and UNDO the future that is Aku.". Which is what he did, people being surprised is their own fault.

>>92640121
The opening half of the episode was perfect. The latter half was a fucking rushed piece of shit.

I don't get the problem
By getting back to the past and defeating Aku, he created the best timeline possible

>>92640331
What about a final battle for Jack and Aku? You didn't get that.

>>92640331
People are surprised Jack didn't go through a logical character arc. Erasing the existence of his friends just so his society can live again is selfish and out of character.

>>92640366
By sacrificing the existence of his friends and everyone who he's touched or imparted wisdom to, often selflessly and at the cost of a time portal, you're right!

Oh btw he could've made a great timeline in the future as well, without an existential genocide.

>>92640384
Over the course of the whole show we've seen them duke it out so many times already, many of them could serve as final battles on their own.(Swamp Episode). I didn't mind seeing a final battle because there's been so many variations of battle already. Plus I think it's neat that their first battle is also their last as Aku gets no time to recover. So technically to watch their final battle you just have to watch the first episode.

>>92640410
True, but there really isn't anything saying that everyone necessarily died due to him killing Aku, only Ashi since she was spawned from him so I think giving him an Arc for a possibility might have chalked up to wasted time, which we had a bunch of already.

>>92640435
>sacrificing the existence of his friends
they were sacrificed for a world where Aku didn't fuck up the Earth
I don't think Jack's friends would have been mad at him.

>>92640621
>they wouldn't be mad

It would be out of character for them not to be mad.

are there seriously people who wanted them to leave the future the way it is? why? that's not an ending.

>>92637126
the moral error was committed by aku for creating that future in the first place, jack just undid it.

>>92640786
so you think everyone in the show is insane?

for god's sake, they were probably still born, just differently. in a way better future. and if not, then SOMEONE ELSE was born. and that someone else is just as good

clogdancing shitrodents, people. the intro to the show says he seeks to return to the past to undo the future
the rest of the theme song is 'gotta get back, back to the past' even in the revised theme.
Jack is unstuck from time, not aging. he doesn't belong. he has to go back
so what's he supposed to do, go back and REFUSE to kill aku, so the future still happens? that'd be pretty cold comfort to everyone being slaughtered

>>92639341
But that's just it. All along, the frustrating part is "before the final blow was struck" because he's ALMOST dead, so he uses a risky trick, and then his future self has to suffer the meddling of that meddling samurai
the return fight was ALWAYS going to be quick. it was just cleaning up the last scraps. the big battle was the one in the future. did you even play okami?

>>92640844
>that someone else is just as good

That's quite a god complex you got there.

Ignoring the morals of your god complex it's still the fact that we as viewers are more attached to the people Jack met on his journey. "Replacing" them with a bunch of Japs we don't know that probably barely wash their dicks is unfulfilling.

Also, none of the characters born it akus future can be born the way they were again, it's literally impossible.

>>92638562
... maybe Aku just aged them with magic?

>>92640885
>cold comfort
You mean the comfort they have in the afterlife? The comfort those being erased will never have?

Theme song doesn't mean shit. Characters are allowed to go through arcs.

>>92640885
>Muh theme song.
In what world do you live that ALL premisses actually happen unadulterated, specially if it isnt even that good to begin with? Where there isnt subvertions or character growth?
Its not like the gods went down and told him "jack, you must find a way back, this is your fate". There were entire chapters such as the one jack end up in the ruins of his village that imply personal development.

>>92637008
Indifferent. It was an ending, and it didn't make me angry, but it wasn't what I'd been waiting a decade and a half for, either. Better it hadn't returned, in my opinion.

>>92636901
The ending made me feel nothing and it is driving me mad.

>>92641097
>There were entire chapters such as the one jack end up in the ruins of his village that imply personal development.

Wouldn't that personal development be in favor of him being motivated to go back to the past?

>Its not like the gods went down and told him "jack, you must find a way back, this is your fate"

They did tell him when he got his sword back that he was chosen to destroy the ultimate evil, and then he and Ashi went after Future Aku anyway with intent to destroy him. her getting powers and sending him back was just icing on the cake really.

File: C-E2JkbV0AE-N7B.jpg (40KB, 960x540px) Image search: [Google]

40KB, 960x540px

>People are complaining that Jack didn't have an epic final battle with Aku

He did... before he went back to the past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGZ51MUWPjU

>>92636901
I feel ripped-off, nine whole episodes of build-up with an ending that sorta sizzled for a bit and then went-off forever.

I'm fine with it for the most part, just disappointed that we didn't get a proper final battle between Jack and Aku.

Also, we still don't know Jack's real name.

>>92641763
>Also, we still don't know Jack's real name.

Jack is his real name. Jack is what he calls himself. Jack is what the one woman he ever loved calls him.

>>92637012
Not exactly. This season has put an emphasis on the positive effects Jack has had on the future and its people.

Because of that setup, the finale needed to show what the aku-free future looked like. What had become of these people jack had helped.

>>92640561
>Plus I think it's neat that their first battle is also their last as Aku gets no time to recover
That's not neat, that's stupid. And lazy.

>>92642687
What makes it so stupid? Would it really have made a big difference if they had landed the next day or something similar?

>>92642823
No it would have been better if Jack had a final battle with the entity he was hunting for 50+ years, rather than murder him in his crib.

>>92643403
You realize all Jack did was resume the fight Aku hit pause on, right?

>>92643704
I realize that, but it had no tension because Aku barely knew who Jack was.
The future Aku was the one who had been dogging Jack for half a century, and it would have felt more cathartic to have the showdown between the two.

File: jack ashi facerub.gif (262KB, 782x694px) Image search: [Google]

262KB, 782x694px

>>92643773
Eh, your mileage may vary, I suppose.

I would've been fine with a stay-in-the-future ending. Something like Ashi goes to open a portal, Jack notices all his friends still fighting, says 'it can wait,' kills Aku, and Ashi can't open a portal any more.

It would have been a terrible thing for Jack to deal with, to throw away his true last chance, but very in-line with the man as we've come to know him. I think there may be a reason Ashi didn't ask.

>>92637126
Jack just undid what Aku ruined when he send Jack to the future. It's almost impressive how no one brought this point up for years, and for the months before the finale. In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone was rooting for him to get back to the past. Where did all these people that didn't want him to go back to the past come from anyways.

>>92644260
A lot of people assumed that he wouldn't get to go back and would learn to make the best of it and heroically rescue the post-Aku world from itself. That's more or less the conceit the comics went with, too.

File: Thomas Wayne flashpoint.jpg (21KB, 720x400px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 720x400px

>Barry, how dare you erase our war-infested, dystopian shithole of a timeline? If you restore your time the way it should be, you'll erase all of these frightened people caught between super powered warlords! Shame on you for not letting us live our miserable existances while denying billions more (In which we could possibly be included) the possibility of a better life!
>>92644452
Honestly, I thought the same, because Phil said that it was the finale "viewers didn't know they wanted". For me that was a dead giveaway that he wouldn't return to the past. If anything, I was expecting /co/ to throw a tantrum if he stayed in the future, probably while blaming Ashi. Now the opposite happened, and they did it anyway.

>>92644544
There's a major difference between flashpoint and aku's future and you know it, namely that Aku's dystopia is held together by HIM, and only him, if he is destroyed, then the general populace could salvage it.

>>92638279
>How could you not expect this to happen if Jack goes back to the past and defeats Aku? Would you rather see Jack fail to do the one thing he lives for?
Why couldn't Jack accept that he couldn't go back to the past and kill Aku in the future?

>>92645408
I think it's doable to have an ending like that, and I almost would have preferred it. End on a scene, say, of Jack and Ashi digging up a field and planting seeds, get visited by an old friend calling to get them to help with a remnant of Aku's forces, they follow and we pan up to see the field from E5 being replanted with saplings which are slowly taking seed. Or something schmaltzy like that.

>>92645512
It IS doable! That's the actual problem with erasing Ashi. There are so many better ways to end the show, and one of them(staying in the future) already has a level of bittersweetness and unavoidability built in at the start of the season.
Going back to the past comes off as a plot twist, especially after showing the guardians portal destroyed.

>>92641656
I guess I've never eaten a cake laced with icing that's filled with trillions of non consenting lives doomed to no existence before.

>>92645817
It's also a lot more hopeful and in-line with the repeated themes of rebirth and new growth to have this young couple as a metaphor for the planet generally.

Of course, you're left with the 'Jack is immortal' problem, but that's easily solved. The show never says WHY he was immortal, just choose in this alternative that it was do to Aku's magic. No Aku, no spell, no unintentional immortality. Jack gets to rejoice when he notices his first grey hair or knee pain in a decade.

>>92644544
Their dystopian future isn't nearly as bad as you claim it to be, especially since afterlife exists.

>>92645885
You don't even really have to justify shit when you avoid realism for a happy ending.
But as this is clearly showing, if you cherry pick one thing to be realistic for the sake of a gut punch, it opens up a whole can of worms that could have been left closed.

>>92645979
Thinking of it, the future ending is EASIER to write, since you have to answer way fewer questions and acknowledge way fewer paradoxes. You gotta deal with Jack finally accepting he can't go home again, which is tricky, but if you do it right you get a genuinely uplifting ending with the characters you'd come to love.

I was kinda hoping for a dynamic battle between Jack and Ashi vs. Aku, with Ashi having more difficulty leveraging her powers while Aku focused mostly on Jack. Have it end with Aku trying to flee and Ashi using her connection to the severely-weakened Aku to pin him in place long enough to kill him. If you want, you can have a scare here for Ashi getting hit with the backlash.

File: Guess which kind of magic.png (77KB, 584x764px) Image search: [Google]

77KB, 584x764px

>You go back in time and save your family and everyone that lived on the time from a Demon Lord

>retroactively ALSO undo countless suffering, slaughter and slavery across THOUSAND YEARS that literaly destroyed entire planets

>Not only that, you create a brighter future, you are RESPONSABLE for thousand years of a world much more peaceful and hopeful

>You are somehow the bad guy for it

>for giving peace and a better world to countless generations on multiple planets

>If PPG and Dexter are on the same world as it seems, they just exist because Jack saved their timeline.

>Other characters go back in time and change timelines all the time (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Justice League, PPG, Dexter) but it is only an issue when Jack does it.

>>92646203
Leaving aside the argument over 'preserve the people of the future' vs. 'save history' which has been done to death, I wanna say the old Cartoon Cartoon crowd confirmed in an interview that the references between cartoons are just that - winks for the fans, not intended to imply direct continuity of any kind.

>>92646253
Which interview?

A better ending would have been them showing us the Akuless future with versions of all the people Jack has met in his journey living their lives in this world he saved.

>>92646387
If I find it, I'll paste it here.

>>92646151
>way fewer paradoxes
There are literally zero paradoxes to address if you stay in the future. and you can even have Jacks ancestors smiling from heaven in approval

>>92646417
Cool.

>>92646203
It's trading lives for lives, something a villain would do, not a morally righteous person like Jack. He wouldn't even sacrifice a single life to go back to the past. Not anymore, because Jack isn't Jack anymore.

>>92646203
i never liked this idea because the dexter and ppg world seemed like a more sublte shitworlds of their own.

why is this shared universe interpretation so popular anyways? i've even seen people act like is canon. scooby doo also appeared in grim adventures you know

>>92646555
Undoing horror and destruction is a thing that a vilain would do.

Let me guess, you would have jumped in front of Aku to protect him, letting the shapeshfting master of darkness to rape the world for thousand years.

>>92646729
Because same creators, similar art styles, literal cameos and even same tone in some parts.

Things like Townsville being show, some alien races from Dexter, confirmation that Dexter and PPG are the same universe since Major Glory showed up there, being implied on the comics that Talking Dog from PPG is the progenitor of the talking dogs of the future...

>>92646885
That's just how the old crew at CN rolled, especially Craig and Genndy. Do you think that fucking Two Stupid Dogs, the Jetsons, and all the other Hanna-Barbera cartoons that are directly referenced in Jack and Dexter and PPG share those settings, too?

File: But+it+has+nothing+of+the+good+things+about+metroid+_e710bc3d9a7ec74625678896eb768651.jpg (6KB, 122x200px) Image search: [Google]

6KB, 122x200px

You know this whole ending reminds me of that episode of Duck Dodgers where they parody Samurai Jack, the scene where Dodgers is directed to a portal by an inhabitant who tells them that if he just goes back to the past he won't be able to save them from the suffering they are currently in. But honestly everything felt rushed about this after episode 5, the way that Jack got his sword that whole romance with Ashi, it's not just the ending.

>>92647202
For extra laughs, that inhabitant is styled after Genndy Tartakovsky....voiced by Genndy Tartakovsky. And he explains how the portals were basically a prop to up moral stakes for Jack.

>>92636901

>Assuming there will be no epilogue

Genndy himself said this was it for him and the series. Anything written by anyone other than him and his team would essentially be fanfiction. What has ever made you think there would be any kind of epilogue to a show with a definitive ending?

File: aku face 6.jpg (15KB, 449x319px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 449x319px

>Jack finaly goes back in time to kill Aku, when he is ready to give the final blow, finaly, after ALL of these years he will avenge his family, free the world of Aku and his reign and prevent the atrocities that he saw in the future!

>Them a at NEET quickly get up from his chair and rolls in his direction

>Putting his big fatty body between Jack and Aku he says "Jack you cant do this! This is wrong!"

>Surprised, Jack can't react quickly enough, and Aku get up again taking the form of a flying creature

>"HAHAHAHA" Laughts Aku, as he flies away while Jack can only screams in desperation

>Aku them procedes to continue his conquest on other places, killing billions on multiple planets, enslaving generations and destroying an insane number of lives for thousand years

>Anon gets personaly the oportunity to see he destroying a viking village and impriesoning its king in crystal for thousand years on agony

>Jack faces anon directly and ask: "Why? Why you let this monster do all of this atrocity?"

>Anon says "I couldn't let you kill people! Killing people is wrong!"

>the poll is exactly 50/50
I hate being on the wrong side of a coin flip.

File: Closure with Scotsman.png (2MB, 1194x868px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1194x868px

Funny how Season 5 never brings up the moral dilemma of whether it's worth sacrificing everything to undo the future. Sure, Jack was pretty depressed at the end of CI, but the way it was presented seemed more to do with Ashi disappearing than never seeing the Scotsman or any of his other companions again.

File: disappearingscotsman.gif (354KB, 470x353px) Image search: [Google]

354KB, 470x353px

>>92649860
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0imv3K7owdE

File: jack poll.png (7KB, 301x251px) Image search: [Google]

7KB, 301x251px

>>92636901
Truly, we are a house divided.

File: HAMstervil.jpg (10KB, 210x240px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 210x240px

>>92649860
90% of anything doesnt care about this dilemma.

Do you considered it on the episode of pic related? Or when the JL went back in time to defeat the Nazis? Or when PPG avoided the future where Him takes over?

File: sjendingstrawpoll.png (21KB, 950x292px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 950x292px

>>92636901
>The most truly divisive topic /co/ has ever seen

>>92649860
Funny how people with your argument always gloss over the hundreds if not thousands of years of suffering the world's inhabitants endured before Jack was shat out of the timestream, only focusing on the last fifty years before he managed to return to his era.

File: 1495120557000.png (80KB, 475x455px) Image search: [Google]

80KB, 475x455px

>>92636901
>mfw the poll was tied at 242 a piece and i broke it by voting 'no'

File: water beetle.gif (2MB, 512x384px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 512x384px

>>92650837
>>92650933
Well there was that one episode where Jack chose to save a couple of schmucks instead of undoing the future that is Aku.

File: 1492312060187.png (109KB, 550x550px) Image search: [Google]

109KB, 550x550px

>>92650969
>mfw it was then tied at 243 and then I broke it by voting 'no'.

We should hang out and be buddies.

>>92649860
And his happiness before that seemed to have more to do with saving/marrying Ashi than FINALLY succeeding at his life mission and returning to his home/family/time

The emotional focus around the finale centred on Ashi instead of Jack getting back to the past and that's what drives me nuts

>>92638376
This completely, it's not the best ending but it worked for me. I still love the series and will remember it fondly.

>>92637498
>http://www.strawpoll.me/13027393

This. I enjoyed Ashi's character... alot. I empathized with and rooted for her as much as I did Jack. As much as I liked Jack and Ashi together, them getting to be together in the end wasn't something that was necessary for me to enjoy the ending. But fucking scrubbing Ashi (and everyone else from the future for that matter) from existence? Fucking really? Spend damn near an entire season building this character and getting viewers invested in her part in the story, just to literally scrub her from existence at the end. What the fuck!?

it was competent, but that's about as backhanded as I can make the word. It lacked the focus the original series had, and even the focus that the first three episodes had.

Ashi threw a massive wrench in things, not because she was an inherently bad idea, but because her presence diluted a lot of the things the show did well just by having to support two characters rather than one. Less slow movement, more talking, twice as many character beats to hit. It needed twice as many episodes to pull off the Ashi arc in a way that would have been satisfying and not feel breakneck compared to the prior four seasons.

And goddammit, this season really shows how much fucking runtime is absolutely wasted on dialogue. Jack was a REMARKABLY efficient show, and the ambitions of this final season were too much to both be authentically Jack and support twice as many protagonists.

>>92636901
More or less, he defeated Aku and did what he was supposed to, though Ashi's death felt a little contrived. Fuck all the buttmad fags talking about "muh erazed frenz" though, given this was Jack's goal from the start this was going to happen anyway if he succeeded.
>ohhh why couldn't he have stayed
because he didn't belong there and it'd be a real dick move to everyone who ever suffered and died before his entry to that timeline to stay because muh waifu. Seriously, all of life and history corrupted by Aku's grasp, and the one guy who could ever create a better world for those people as well as his present companions decides he'd rather stay for pussy and bros is somehow a better ending? The truly satisfactory ending is Jack fulfilling the will of the gods, which he did.

>>92651839
>Ashi is infinitely more important than any friends he had, they don't deserve a mention!
I'm exaggerating, but you get my point. I'm not too keen of Ashi, but they wrote a bullshit death for drama when there's a plot point asking to be resolved in a dramatic way.

>>92651982
Well we can already agree about the death, but an open-ended finish where the future is uncertain isn't exactly bad. Given it's the same tree that stood the test of time and Jack is seen smiling with the ladybug, it's implied the future is bright which would probably mean his buddies are doing more than fine in the new world compared to the world with Aku as ruler.

>>92651789
Fucking this

You cannot make a 10 episode season, throw in a romantic subplot halfway, and expect it to turn out well. Ashi was more of a plot device than an actual character. I had no problem with the direction of the story, but it was so rushed that I felt nothing in the end.

not to long ago in this very land
I, Gendy, mundane storyteller extraordinaire
unleashed an unspeakable ending to a beloved series
but a mildly competent writer with an adobe trial did some sick edits and effects
before the final video was exported, i updated his computer to windows 10


damn writing is harder than i thought

>>92652106
We're both speculating, but for me Ashi's death just reinforces grim outcome for his buddies. People talk about symbolism and shit, ladybug as soulmate, but that's just more stuff for Ashi. In the end everything is about her.

>>92652210
I don't see it that way though considering the tree. The tree exists as a symbol of hope and perseverance, while the ladybug is reassurance Jack could perhaps love again in time.

File: Wojak.jpg (28KB, 601x508px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 601x508px

>>92650809
>>92650859
>its now at 51% unsatisfied
T-TAKE THAT GENNDY! WE SHOWED YOU