The old man was right jack did need to earn it since hes kept his rage in for too long it basically has a conscious form but as a friend of Mine once told me rage can truly blind a person if u let it consume u ur destroying urself but if u learn to let go u basically achieve a step in happiness
Its metaphorical, the monk knows jack would be pissed off, but jack controlled his violent outburst within himself and swallowed it down. Keep in mind just how much the man has been through, he had a temper before and it got worse before this, the Monk just wants Jack to have a clear head when the time is needed.
@@sonicdahedgehog9213 Because he was beating himself up over his failures, I know the series has magic involved but I'm pretty certain Jack can't materialize parts of his conscience into existence lol.
“After everything I’ve done?! Everything I’ve been through?! The chores, the homework, the lack of video games!! *WHO ARE YOU TO DENY ME WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE?!?!*
It's pretty heavily implied that it is Mad Jack again, and that the "ghosts" he saw earlier were manifestations of him. Notice how he has the same voice, is colored red and black, and gets defeated the same way.
You know that's kind of how depression and trauma work. They try to destroy you but when you try to overcome it your mind tells you you need them, I know that from first time experience been dealing with it for years
I've heard some people say that's a different part of his psyche, since he was blue. That was sad Jack and the red is mad Jack. However I'm not sure myself, you could totally be spot on
I love the emotional intelligence behind this show. It wasn't just morals or compassion, it was also the teachings of internal struggles and how to go about them sincerely.
Dude its just a show, doesnt really apply to the real world. The world sucks, people get dperessed so they show this kind of episode to make you ignore everything but all in the worth while its still sucks and getting worse.
George Ivory but he can’t be a “normal” Human is he wishes to make it to the past Because no normal human could do that task It’s the basics of humans but not the results of a abnormal human or a improved human
Those in this lifestyle of constant fighting lose themselves. It’s why war vets tend to have various mental problems. Its more surprising he didn’t fall farther given the 50 years he suffered.
The thing about Jack's negative side is the fact that he did need it to survive for a while. It was that killer instinct that he needed to not hesitate Everytime he swung his sword. Wether it was for defense or for offense. However, over time that inner demon that has helped keep him alive was also the very thing that was causing his internal body to become unbalanced. Having a cynical side is needed to defend yourself but too much of can cause someone to become disassociated with life. Learning to come back from it is like trying to come out of a well that you dug yourself in.
Your right, ultimately. In fact, I can think of many things that aren't bad, if one thinks about it. Anger, desire, passion. That's to name a few. Hell, some of what would be called The Deadly Sins are actually not bad in moderation. Wrath. Lust. Sloth. All things, in moderation, can actually be a good thing. However... Letting them get too powerful, or too big, leads to them becoming Toxic. That's when they become bad. And that's when they become Deadly. You start seeing everything as an enemy if your anger and Wrath get too much of a hold on you. You start to live only to make money if you let Greed take control. And Lust, if left unchecked, might be the worst, in some ways. But in the end, I think a song from _Alan Wake: American Nightmare_ says it best: _In the end, it's never just the Light you need/the Dark you seek._ _When Balance slays the demon, you find peace._
@@thegameknight8916 Precisely. You cannot know peace without wrath, relaxing without sloth, humility without pride, or even selflessness without Greed. The point is, even the bad emotions is what makes you human, and coping with those faults is often a great achievement. But the bad thing that you shouldn't do, is that you must never let those bad emotions wield/control YOU. It's why I'm now going to recorrect certain subjects that goes with "That person is greedy!" while I would said more like "That person has to not let his own greed control him.'
@@user-pi3hd2bt3f it’s because monks in their wisdom are not allowed to interfere with others in terms of the latterly personal fights against their demons. Meaning they allow the ones with demons to conquer said demons
I love how you can take the “this is terrible” line in different ways. When you first hear it, you assume the Monk’s insulting the tea, but on later viewings it feels more like he’s sympathetically calling the situation Jack’s in terrible. You mistake kindness and help for criticism when you’re so focused on your anger and frustration.
@@digitaldigdug7811the intent was to draw out the frustration so that Jack could face it. The whole point was for Jack to become aware of what he already knew: the sword was never lost.
@@digitaldigdug7811 philosophical statements, especially in specific context, are filled with many meaning. eliciting one form of thought from one mindset and the polar opposite in another.
I always loved how disproportionate and distorted Inner Jack is physically. I feel like it's meant to show how out of control he is as Jacks emotion. He's unstable to the point that, as a (metaphorically) physical manifestation, he's literally warped and skewed.
" You are my inner demon. You have been born from the hatred within me but now that hatred is no more and thus, you do not exist!" - Jack ( Samurai Jack ep 8).
Jack spent so long saving others, helping. But theres was a breaking point when he lost the sword 50 years later. His internal struggle won't allow him to forget or forgive himself. He needed to allow himself to see his anger and calmly relieve it.
Jack: you have lost, the battle is over. Mad jack: What?! Jack: you are my inner demon. You have been born from the hatred within me. But now, the hatred is no more. Thus, you do not exist!
0:45 he completely stops looking human, next to jack. beat red nose off center, eyes completely inhuman shapes. he looks like a true oni. you could almost compare it to the oni mask jack has on his armor at the start of the season
The idea to draw rage as this very exaggerated cartoonish form was a really good touch. It perfectly displayed visually that it's extreme and far from human ideal. Samurai jack has always had great art taste. The show taking on an M rating for it's second part was the last little boost it needed.
It gets even better when he yells "YOU'RE A FOOL!" Very similar to Aku's very own mannerisms, in addition to the inhuman proportions and everything it represents: Hatred, rage, ego, pride.... At this point, Jack is treading the line of becoming the very thing he swore to destroy.
0:56 _Subtle detail:_ The Monk looks directly to Mad Jack, he's indeed aware of his presence and if he could hit Jack, I'm sure he would've threatened him to death just to get the sword back.
Ah, the greatest battle of all. A quote kinda came to mind for situations like this. "Many enemies you might make in life, but be wary, the greatest enemy could be yourself. Everyone has their inner demons or a dark side. Sometimes you gotta confront them in order to balance yourself. Without balance, your downfall may be guaranteed."
To be fair Vader is a split personality of Anakin, one made to cope with the horrors of Order 66, the horrors Anakin committed. Anakin couldn't handle the intense betrayal, the cold blooded murder he committed, thus Vader was born. Something I'd like to see is Anakin struggling to take back control of his body from Vader on Mustufar in front of Obi-Wan and getting so desperate he creates a new Force technique that rips Vaders personality out of him into its own entity.
"EAARRRRRRRRRNN! AFTER EVERYTHING WE HAVE DONE!! EVERYTHING WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH!! THE STUDIES!!! THE REVISIONS!!! THE DISCIPLINE!!! WHO ARE YOU TO DENY ME WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!!!!!"
01:26 The soundtrack here is perfect, it feels like it's out of control, unstable, unbalanced, once Jack realizes he's not truly in control and his anger is to blame Mad Jack looks so full of anger and the soundtrack reflects that
Yes and no. Which is really funny to say if you think about it. His inner demon is completely incorrect. The anger makes complete sense as to why it happened, losing the sword and suffering only to be told you are still at fault. Being angry continues to make you unworthy, it’s what lost it in the first place and there is no reason to believe he wouldn’t lose it again if he had the same issues that caused it to be lost. What I’m trying to say is the anger is wrong in its existence, but it does make sense why it was formed. The anger is a denial of self responsibility. A justification of Jack’s own flaws. The rage at being told what you have sacrificed not being enough, and that still he must be balanced as a person despite losing everything. The monk asks Jack to look past the voice in his head to point out “why do you deserve the sword if you have lost your way?” The anger is a refutation of him changing and how he still deserves the sword despite his own personal failings. To be honest? It’s an entirely unreasonable thing to ask of someone. That’s why Jack is a hero. I highly doubt most anyone could look at Jack’s situation and conclude he isn’t worthy even if he I don’t know, pissed on the sword. Again, the fact he still found humility even when he seems really justified is heroic.
I didn't interpret as him destroying anger but re-absorbing it and putting it back into the proverbial backseat with the other emotions where it belongs. Which is the balance.
@@RustandRedemption If you put an emotion you are meant to feel in the moment to the back seat, then you aren't really balancing anything. Balance a great failing that most don't understand. And people who have this Jedi ideology of squashing how you feel about anything to become something better is a great lie. It makes you a lesser version of who you really are. Learn the self, and you wont have to hide your emotions to reach balance.
Damn....1:06 really struck a cord. Any one else with depression feel the same way when you talk to yourself. Sometimes the only one who can get under your skin worse than anyone else, is yourself.
Angry jack had a very good point......he spent his entire life trying to fight an evil the gods should or destroyed themselves, and yet jack isn’t thrown a bone? Not even a hint? The guy has lost everything that mattered to him, and seen things that would break or kill most people and still is asked for more?
But would that really help him? Isn't the enlightenment that something is off and Jack finding the problem on its own a way better approach. Overall the mad side of Jack could just easily blame the monk and talk over normal jack again that he needs him. The reality of mad Jack standing in his way let's him root out the problem, as instead just cutting it down and coming back later.
@@LordTyph He also let it consume him for a while. Remember earlier in the show with the woolies or the triseraquins, he helped them and then had a bit of a goodbye. when it came to the people at the start of season 5, he saved them and left without a word. He isolated himself, if he wanted to he could have turned to the Scotsman, Rothchild, the Triseraquins, the woolies, anybody for help. but he didn't, he stayed alone, he never even picked up another sword to use, he used a spear, a gun, even a motorcycle, daggers, pretty much everything aside from a sword. Isolated and forcefully removing something that had been part of his identity for so long was him basically drowning in his own rage. we see him get angry before and he's still fine, it's only when he stays angry not just at the world, but at himself when everything goes belly-up.
No. I hold on to anger and fear because they're reactions to threats. Letting go of anger and fear, especially towards things that specifically torment me the most, is to the anxious brain like ignoring the lion sitting right there waiting to kill you. It goes against everything I feel, and it's harder to do when the thing I'm afraid of is a genuine, actually stressful thing or source for fear. You need it, because it's fear of scary things or anger towards real problems. Question is what's your solution? If you feel you need it, then you probably can't simply let it go. For me, what I somehow need to do, is simultaneously accept that the things I'm afraid of are valid things to fear, yet not feel fear and move on. I have no idea what the right solution is because I'm still stuck.
Being afraid of something means that you acknowledge what kind of threat it poses to either yourself or someone else that’s related to said something. Jack was pretty much running away from his insecurities, because he’s never experienced the kind of failure he went through when those baby goats were killed by his hand or losing the sword because it spilled the blood of innocent living creatures.
Ur not alone in that honestly I had fear of a darker version of myself tbh basically like a dark conscious like Jack has here with the rage but I nvr really liked being angry but when it happens it's like I become a whole new person that no one is ready to face
@@YukonHexsun There is a difference between knowing how you feel and clinging to it. Fear is for the moment of. Anger is for the moment. When the moment is passed (and you have to accept that the moment has passed), you need to ask why. When you know why, then you act to change things. If you do not know how, ask for help.
No. I don't picture my anger as a literal persoality who looks like me but crazier, but a lot of times I feel guilty about being so quick to anger, but then think back to how it literally saved me so it's really frustrating.
I love that the show's initial episodic format really played to the strength of Jack's anger arc. You watch him encounter frustration after frustration, and Mad Jack becomes a completely justified perspective. Even in this final confrontation, everything Mad Jack is saying is completely sensible... but ultimately unproductive and unhelpful. Jack confronting those unprocessed emotions is so powerful.
I think balance is definitely a good term to use in regards for Jack. He by all right is allowed to feel anger for all that is happened to him, but he cannot use it as his excuse for everything that has happened to him just as he can't let it consume him and be the only thing he feels or way he thinks.
I see a lot of comments saying that Jack's pride and arrogance got him here. It's not pride or arrogance at all, where are you guys getting that from? The man's been stuck fighting for his life for 50 years. Fifty FUCKING YEARS. Constantly on the run from place to place, seeing death all around him, trying to help those in need but always are of the fact that as long as Aku is still alive, it's basically all a moot point because all he's doing is mitigating damage in a future where Aku has already won. He's a one man army, and every person in his family is dead. When he was so close to getting home, already halfway through the last time portal in existence, Aku snatches that away from him (we see him sprinting for the portal instead of being more cautious, he REALLY just wants to go home when Aku yoinks him out). When Aku makes him kill innocents that cannot control who they are because Jack get's so pissed he forgets about not spilling innocent blood in his fury and self defence, he loses the sword, the one thing that would let him kill Aku. Thus he switches over to survival instinct for the next few decades, using whatever he can to stay alive. I know veterans who have severe mental health problems after serving for just a few years in conbat zones. The fact that Jack has been in a high stress combat environment for 50 years plus his previous years where he still had the sword...he's tougher than any of us considering he's only really lost the will to live near the end of those 50. Losing the sword is also losing a reminder of what he is fighting for and some of his personal values. He's the embodiment of "fed up with everyone's shit". He's tired, he's depressed, he wants to go home. He wants it all to be over. This scene with the monk and his conscience is demonstrative of how Jack is literally at the breaking point. He wants the easy way out (just being given his sword back) because he's so fucking done with everything. Everywhere he turns it's just obstacles, obstacles, obstacles, for fifty years, whether it's his survival or just trying to help the helpless (again, he tries to help who he can, but there will always be endless suffering unless he can stop Aku, which he can't without the sword. It's demoralizing and demotivating). Think of something you've done where you felt like it was all for nothing. Now throw in everything Jack went through (watching innocents suffer, knowing he's their only hope and no one else will save them).His inner thoughts of "after everything we've been through", he feels justified in saying that. He FEELS like he's paid the price a million times over in being forced to endure for half a century. He tries to push away these thoughts earlier in the final season, in which he outright says "I don't want to talk to you". He's avoiding confronting these bad thoughts he has in favor of trying to ignore them (which is something we all do when we encounter something unpleasant, we don't want to think about it). But in the spirit realm, where he's safe relatively speaking and the only thing to do is to reflect upon himself, he is able to clash how he feels against what he knows is right. The monk was probably trying to coax his conscience out.
I almost entirely agree with you. But I feel like there is some severe depression going on with Jack as well. notice how when we first see him in this season, what is he using to fight? A motorcycle, a spear, a gun, and throughout he uses daggers, clubs, pretty much every weapon he knows how to use, except a sword. He's also hiding his face, something we only see him do when he's trying to be stealthy, never when he's just out and about. (although the armor legitimately seemed practical since we see him use armor the the second episode of the entire series). He cuts himself off from a huge part of his identity, the sword, and hides his face. He's angry at the world and what it's taken from him, but ashamed at his own failures as well.
@@DBfan106 Oh for sure the man is depressed. It's been fifty years of witnessing death and misery all around him, with no real way to stop it since he doesn't have the sword. He can't even die of old age. He's using every weapon he can to just survive.
0:43 The sad part is that he has every reason to be that angry. Any other person would lose his mind and slip into insanity if he went thru what Jack did.
And yet, the sword requires its wielder to be greater than normalcy. Jack is at fault for losing the sword, regardless of whether others would also lose it in his stead. He must earn it back by regaining control of himself.
You know, this isn't the first time Jack's had to confront the darkness inside of his own heart. This inner demon is strikingly similar to his evil clone in that one episode and Jack's way of beating him is exactly the same, letting go of his hatred.
The best part is that there are times when you can actually SEE Jack struggling with his anger. In Jack and the Smackback, he nearly kills the Aqualizer and it takes stepping back for a moment before he remembers who he is.
I just realized something, this is Jack’s Fight Response manifest. It has literally kept him alive all this time, but now it’s misaligned and holding him back. When this happens, a typical outcome is that minor inconveniences elicit rage and possibly violent emotions.
It makes sense. By saying no, he rejects his claim to the "right" to be angry. He accepts that he is at fault, and is stating that he Will Do Better from this point on. It takes repeated reaffirmations to break the rut, often over weeks and months. But you can change even the worst parts of you eventually.
When the monk said "it is not for me to show you yor path" and "that is something you must earn" it means not the usual definition. The "path" the monk was talking about was the path peace,or at least, relieving of pain of the past, because Samurai Jack feels driven by it. The monk knows he can't show it because he actually can't; he might be able tell but he can't make Jack walk that path. While "earn" didn't mean in the way of transaction, but more of an exercise. Mad Jack (who is also Samurai Jack) missed the point of what the monk said, he thought of otherwise. For someone who is raised in such a culture he should have known what the monk meant. He missed the point because of his attachment to his failures resulting to anger.
Would it have been so hard to say, "you are too angry and frusterated with your quest to finish it." Also Jack had all that bottled up and never really did affect him, so what was the point??
I could never imagine what it must have been like for Jack. Losing his home, training for years, nearly defeating Aku before being flung into the future, spending who knows how many weeks or months or years before we get to the premise of this season. Countless avenues of potentially sending him back to the past, all removed from the board, until Aku himself destroyed the very last one, causing Jack to attack him with no control, no patience and no balance, just blind, frustrating rage. The result; he lost both his sword, and his way. Then later, he finds that he doesnt age. 50 years go by, with him becoming no more than a shadow, fighting Aku's forces from the fringes or appearing to destroy an army before disappearing just as fast, hiding the fact that he doesnt have his sword anymore, knowing that if he learns this, he will scorch the earth tracking him down and ending him. 50 years of no hope, no sword, just running off of training and instinct until the day comes he just falls...
That was pretty darker and intense than any moment in any episode of the show's previous four seasons on Cartoon Network in the 2000's (Early more precised).
Jack: Go away. Mad Jack: Go away?! *mad laughing* Jack: I hate you.... I hate you. Mad Jack: Where would you be without me?! -I- saved us! It was me! We survived, because of -ME-! Jack: Not anymore... Mad Jack: What did you say? Jack: We don't need you. Mad Jack: What? Jack: Leave now, and never come back. Mad Jack: Nooooooo Jack: Leave now, and never come back! MJ: *angry noises* Jack: LEAVE NOW, AND NEVER COME BACK!
Jack needed Aku the same way Batman needed the Joker. I think this is reflected by how he fell inlove with Ashi, DAUGHTER OF AKU!! and how she became the key to bringing him back to the past and fulfilling his destiny. Very tragic ending though. I'm still not over it. I loved Ashi.
When I see this, this is in fact an inspiration that I've been needing as a Google Docs typer. Each book is meant to represent the Seven Deadly Sins, and when I'm thinking about my upcoming Wrath book, I see this in my main character. Thank you, Genndy for being such an influence for me.
The funny thing is there's no achieving balance in this scene. Jack does nothing to understand or accept his rage or the issues behind it, the calm side just casts it aside effectively repressing his negative emotions and combat instincts treating them more as an external force than a half to the whole.
