9.4 KiB
[D] Nooooooooo... why, Samurai Jack, whyyy?!?!?!?
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Author: u/None *
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URL:
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Score: 23
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Created: 2015-07-30T19:15:39
Post:
[deleted]
Comments:
u/CubedDimensions [+12] (4 hours later)
In going back to the past, in my mind one of three things can happen.
1, the timeline Jack was in will disappear, eliminating all life and existence in that timeline, Jack saves the past.
2, Jack goes back in time creating a new timeline and leaving the 'old' one intact (two timelines now exists), however the 'old' timeline has no way of defeating Aku, leaving them to forever exist in a dystopian world, Jack saves the 'new' timeline (past).
3, Jack goes back but time is fixed and nothing changes, everything happens like it did before.
In my mind saving the world he currently is in seems the most logical thing to do, since timetravel is an unknown variable that can strongly negatively effect the dystopian world of samurai jack.
u/None [+5] (10 minutes later)
[deleted]
u/eaglejarl [+5] (an hour later)
Seems appropriate to me. It's a piece of fiction and you're analyzing how it fails at being rational. Typically this sub wants fiction that is rational, but it helps to occasionally review the antithesis as a "what not to do" lesson.
u/None [+3] (21 minutes later)
I remember watching this episode when I was much younger, and having the same reaction you are having now.
On the other hand, my current reaction is "Man, what the hell ever. A 'time portal' is nothing but a bridge between time lines, and every possible outcome to every possible scenario has already occurred at some point in the 4-dimensional existence axis anyway, so let's forgive Jack some irrational but internally consistent nonsense, because nothing he does will really ever change anything anyway.".
u/FeepingCreature [+2] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (2 hours later)
Yeah but by that sense the point of decisionmaking is figuring out what worlds are consistent with what goals. So Jack decided here that wishing to travel back to the past is consistent with not doing it. I think that's grounds for us to decide that Jack is inconsistent with basic reason.
(Didn't watch the show.)
u/Transfuturist [+3] Carthago delenda est. (8 hours later)
So Jack decided here that wishing to travel back to the past is consistent with not doing it.
No, the point of it is that he's a Hero, and Heroes save people.
u/Kishoto [+3] (4 hours later)
From a rational perspective? Even with the power of Jack's ancient magic sword, Aku beats him. 999 times out of 1000.
"Oh. You have a sword perfectly crafted to slay me. How is it different from a regular sword?"
"It harms your flesh. You'll regenerate much slower. I can even kill you with this."
"So, excluding me, it's a normal sword in every way?"
"Well, yes...."
"Alright then."
He then proceeds to mob Jack with demonic mooks, because Mooks aren't Mooks in a rational Samurai age setting. Even if he demonstrates the aptitude needed to slay them continuously without injury, he WILL tire before Aku runs out of forces to throw at him. Guaranteed.
And, assuming Jack and his men (assuming he has them) retreat and try for some guerrilla warfare, he'll never be able to get close enough to Aku with his sword. Having an unassailable fortress, especially as an immortal demon with no need for supplies, would be trivially easy in this time period. No sufficiently easily deployed long range artillery. No cloaking technology. No flight.
Long story short? Jack keeps trying until he missteps and gets fucked up by Aku's forces. Aku has them seal the sword away in some unremarkable location far from him (a la Quirrelmort's horcruxes) and continues his campaign. The only play Jack could make would be to force Aku's presence somehow, most likely by tempting his arrogance or devising something only Aku could break/win/move, with it standing in the way of something Aku wants enough to venture out. Even then, Jack would need to ambush him so rapidly, Aku has no time to shapeshift into a bird and fly away. And, based on the show, his shapeshifting takes little to no time, and is much faster than an adult male's run.
u/DCarrier [+7] (5 hours later)
It's not an otherwise normal sword. It can cut through any mundane substance, given enough force. Which I guess mostly just means it's unbreakable. But he has no trouble stopping Aku's robotic mooks with it. Why would demonic mooks be different?
If Aku has robots that good, he should be able to do much better than you're suggesting. He could drop the sword into the sun. He could build a Nicoll-Dyson laser and melt the planet.
Which I guess means we'll have to even the playing field a bit for the rational version. Or maybe it means that Aku didn't realize Jack would come back, and now he has to stop playing around, and Jack has to stop him before Aku can get his death laser satillites up and running.
u/FuguofAnotherWorld [+2] Roll the Dice on Fate (2 days later)
In a rational world Jack is at the head of the last great army of the human world, brought together by adversity and mostly-united against the terrible demon threat. After an epic battle Jack alone manages to get through to Aku's inner sanctum to try to fight him. Aku thinks he's immortal and is arrogant, allowing Jack to gain a strong advantage before the beast rallies and uses his inta-win technique, the time throwing thing.
The rest of the show revolves around Jack trying to find a portal to go back to just before Aku was first summoned/created/coalesced and destroying him before he can gain his full power.
u/logrusmage [+1] (6 hours later)
The sword is not a normal sword. At all. And Jack is faaaar from a normal human.
u/tender_steak [+2] (8 hours later)
Even as a kid, I realized Jack's training montage in the first episode wasn't very...historically consistent. But man, was it an awesome way to show how he was a cut above your average samurai.
u/Kishoto [+3] (17 hours later)
It doesn't matter if he was a cut above the rest. What I meant was that Jack's sword, aside from being super sharp with enough force, does nothing special. It doesn't let Jack fight at range, doesn't give him superior stamina, or anything. So Jack, for all his skill, is still just your average human. Due to Training from Hell he's probably on a Batman/Captain America level of fitness, but he still gets tired fighting.
And I'm not suggesting Aku's robots are unbreakable but I'm suggesting he has a large enough supply that he can flood Jack with mooks indefinitely. Meaning Jack will get tired eventually. And he has no methods of escape, beyond running, which means all you'd need to do is kidnap an orphan in front of him, take her into a cave/building and shore up the exits once Jack barrels in. He clearly displays the type of heroism that shows he'd be easily lured into these sort of traps. Characters find ways out of those scenarios out of narrative necessity (otherwise, the show would be over) but from a rational perspective, Jack doesn't have any technological know how, meaning he'd be easy to trap, even with his sword that can cut anything (And I sort of protest this point as well, remember all the trouble Jack had fighting those basket head robots?)
u/failed_novelty [+4] (3 hours later)
Jack is also human. He cares. At this point, he has no clue if travel backwards will erase the timeline. If it does, all well and good - the future becomes hopefully better.
If it doesn't erase the timeline, two men who Jack respects are about to die. His very code of honor will not allow him to abandon them. Jack will be unable to choose to return to the past until the future is safe from Aku, because Jack can't let the future suffer Aku's tyranny either... And the past is gone. He's lived at least several months in the future, and it and its denizens are real to him.
He's too kind to be completely rational.
u/Transfuturist [+3] Carthago delenda est. (8 hours later)
He's too kind to be completely rational.
Preferences are arational.
u/gabbalis [+2] (9 hours later)
If it does, all well and good
Or if he gets really unlucky, they all get cast into the Darkness Beyond Time, the future refuses to change and
LavosAku kills them all.
u/illz569 [+2] (5 hours later)
I would also like to add that it really bothered me when, in Scooby Doo, one of the characters would try to open a locked door by putting both feet up against the door and pulling on the handle. YOU CAN'T OPEN A DOOR THAT WAY SHAGGY, YOU'LL JUST PULL THE DOORKNOB OFF!
I mean, since we're on the topic of illogical cartoons, I just really needed to get that off me chest.
u/failed_novelty [+2] (17 hours later)
If the door knob comes off, it makes the entire latch assembly fall apart. That makes it much easier to get the door open.
u/None [+1] (9 hours later)
He's doing it on the spur of the moment while being in danger.
u/mynewaccount5 [+2] (10 hours later)
I mean the whole premise is irrational because aku will just send him back to the future again. Maybe next time in a prison or something.