It was the true ending he wanted to give the determined samurai back in 2004 when the show ended on Cartoon Network. The finale is something that Tartakovsky thought about for years. ‘Why don’t we give it a happy ending?’ Instinctively, we knew that it would be wrong.” “I feel like we would be cheating if everything was happy and perfect at the end,” Tartakovsky said. In order to weave the tragic tale of Samurai Jack, his life would have to remain one of constant sacrifice. If Jack ended up walking down the aisle with Ashi, building a future with the woman who saved his life, it wouldn’t stay true to his mythology or purpose. Tartakovsky said “life is life” and they’ve always operated under that philosophy. That ending was always going to be our ending because that pain Jack feels is the most beautiful thing in the world.” Then, where there’s a tragedy, it ends tragically and people can feel that pain. “We worked really hard to make sure the audience loved Ashi, cheer for her and Jack. “The actual goal we knew we wanted to work toward at the start of the season was to illustrate love and relationships in a sincere way,” Tartakovsky said. He would accomplish his goal of defeating Aku, but the end result had to be tragic. Tartakovsky told Polygon that from the initial planning stages, the intention was always to have Jack fall in love. Shakespearean in nature, Ashi died after Jack slayed Aku and thought life, for once, would work out in his favor.
They bond over their mutual contempt for the villainous figure who loomed over their entire lives, driven by their desire to kill the unkempt beast. Over the course of Samurai Jack’s final season, Jack managed to find love and acceptance in the arms of Ashi, the daughter of his greatest nemesis, Aku.
After more than a decade, Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky gave the show’s namesake everything he wanted before ripping it out of Jack’s hands.