long, beautiful shadows

vee // jaku enthusiast // once again i will be back in two weeks & once again it's a threat

[ckret2]

ohh no, this reminds me of a message exchange I had with someone today (shoutout to you for lowkey helping me find a friend?) I was thinking about him being half naked. If Aku knows that Jack is half naked...? Does he know his enemy is running around half naked. (Does Jack... Himself know? Maybe he gets the sensory ick for the inner layers of a kimono or smth)

like,, jack did grow up in japan. he was eight years old when aku attacked. an eight-year-old knows what underwear is. a three-year-old knows what underwear is.

my headcanon is it's some made-up ritualistic thing that only exists in his universe—purity and humility represented by a minimal covering of undyed unadorned fabric; as befitting his quest to destroy evil itself, he is armed not with a weapon made of natural steel but rather made of spiritual virtue, and he is armored not with a suit of iron but with a robe of RIGHTEOUSNESS. so until his quest is over he's got to wear this outfit, like, symbolically.

i have this headcanon because there's no other damn reason he'd be dressed like that.

my headcanon is also that aku thinks he looks like he's in his underwear

[ckret2]

Thinking of a scenario post canon where a tree/forest grows at the spot of Aku's old lair and Jack goes to die there when his time comes. Last meal for the long perished pit.

@shogunofyearning this tastes like your flavor

[shogunofyearning]

this is Strongly my flavour thank you anon & puff :) personally i take the romantic view that jaku cannot survive without one another Despite Everything, so i love to inflict torture upon that samurai by concluding that after he finally manages to kill aku he's not going to be able to Go On. what that looks like is dependant on the specific au i'm concocting (i have several). generally i'm team Make That Samurai Fall Upon His Sword, usually under some kind of symbolic black tree with red leaves, or under falling white blossom if you want to get all vintage bl about it.

i really like your forest idea anon, and also it's very kind of you to let jack live to old age aha. maybe it takes him a while to get to the forest. these old bones aren't what they used to be, after all. he wouldn't tell anybody at the palace where he was going, and i like to think nobody would ever find his body. isn't it so midcentury samurai film of him to just disappear into the sunset? nobody knows he's stopped for a little rest among the huge, embracing roots of a patch of woodland, where the forest floor is carpeted with red spider lilies like flames in the low autumn light, and the branches cast long, beautiful shadows.

[shogunofyearning]

they're dancing <3

[shogunofyearning]

apple blossom

[shogunofyearning]

@timelessconundrum i use bright red flowers a lot to represent aku, particularly spider lilies, camellias, & apple blossom, so that's the main one. then there's the aku-shaped menuki in jack's sword hilt, & the kumihimo weave in red & black adorning it. the tenugui tucked into his kimono is aku-vantablack (to get really esoteric, the reverse side, not shown at all, is embroidered with flames) & the plain paper cover of his book is also aku-black. C:

[shogunofyearning]

apple blossom

[shogunofyearning]

autumn breeze & sapling

fankids aren't really my wheelhouse but the Mere Thought of jack tenderly cradling he & aku's infant child sends me into the vapours so here we are

[ckret2]

holding his sword in his teeth because he needs BOTH hands for holding baby.

violence violence VIOLENCE VIOLENCE— now I've got part of a guess (tree → sapling), but the autumn breeze part? 👀

[shogunofyearning]

@ckret2 sO glad u asked!! :} as the vintage bl head i am i was like well. if aku is Tree then might not his samurai be the wind among his branches?? classic kazeki reference for my own enjoyment kgghkk. & then i was like well what kind of breeze?? not spring or summer that's too cutes for (gestures at whatever that fuckass worm off the string & his little 2d sticker of a guy have going on). maybe a storm?? jack forces aku to 'bend' & lashes his branches body as a storm would a tree. u can even roll this out a bit further & compare the sword itself to lightning. nature metaphors!!! & yea okay but i was referencing 'lone wolf & cub' with this art & i needed the title to match. i was thinking about my favourite Imageries of jack falling upon his sword under a red maple & about aku calling jack his Death. so i was like well what's an autumn breeze if not a rumour of death?? don't the trees all shiver & shake when they feel it?? but isn't it also a necessary death, a kind of rest?? do the trees perhaps yearn for autumn, even knowing what it brings?? & there u have it ~

[shogunofyearning]

autumn breeze & sapling

fankids aren't really my wheelhouse but the Mere Thought of jack tenderly cradling he & aku's infant child sends me into the vapours so here we are

[shogunofyearning]

dtiys of this very charming comic panel by @ckret2!! i'm a really new samurai jack fan so i haven't figured out how i want to draw anybody yet, but i have a strong need to put jack in Proper Dress. more of this sort of thing soon i hope <3

[shogunofyearning]

the red sleeve

[shogunofyearning]

low res moodboard of some of my favourite moments from the graveyard fight aka jack & the zombies. red tentacles & boob window not included because we all know them <3