[waeirfaahl]

Parentage of the seven sisters = mystery

This huge contradiction in 5 season of “Samurai Jack” bothered and buffled me pretty long time. Genndy Tartakovsky in all interviews stated that the seven sisters are humans, and one of the main points in 5 season was exactly the fact that Jack kills exactly humans. But for some reason in 9 episode the sudden cliche happens, where the author and his team try to make Aku to be their father. Simple question — if Aku is allegedly their biological father (not even just a creator at best), then how they can be humans, if they are demonic mutants then? Might I remind you, that Aku is a supernatural, genderless, asexual and always lonely creature, who despises humans, other mortals and needs no one. Moreover, although I can easily debunk the perception of Aku as “irredeemable pure evil”, but if to consider this one-dimensional and absolutistic worldview of 5 season, it’s easy to not notice pretty hypocritical narrative “Aku is the evil and must be destroyed, because he was born from a part of the Absolute Darkness (then Aku was born that way and didn’t asked for this, he has no choice from the beginning, from the start of his existence, but nobody cares about this tragic aspect of the character — might I remind you that Jack’s father accidentally created Aku and rejected him, causing his aggressiveness; and Aku must be destroyed only because of his origin and nature/past, great — i.e. nobody cares about Aku’s tragedy), while the seven sisters are poor and innocent, they are not like their bad daddy, who even didn’t know about their existence, they are good even though they are born from a part of the evil (if Aku is the evil, then how he can beget/create a life? Moreover, the life, which can choose a path and be good-natured?)”. Another huge contradiction is the behavior of their fanatical mother. If to assume that her seven daughters are Aku’s, then why she was incredibly cruel to them instead of mad adoring and boasting? Why she never told to them, who their father is, and how he is awesome and hence they are awesome? Why she never claimed for Aku’s throne as a mother of his heirs? She sadistically abused her children psychologically and physically. She always referred to Aku as “OUR lord and master”, she told to her girls that they are (she, the cult and her kids) are just servants. Her daughters also referred to Aku only as to a deity. And they had no superpowers and no supernatural traits (they look like regular humans, they have red blood, they don’t feel pain during death of their other sisters, Aku’s blood doesn’t leave their corpses to return to Aku, Aku’s blood doesn’t transform their corpses into some necromorphs also, animals don’t show fear or aggressiveness toward them, while they did it toward Aku and infected Jack). Then what a hell is going on?! The funniest thing is that this “twist” is absolutely impossible, if you remember the canon of the classic four seasons. Aku’s blood is deadly and poisonous, it easily melts a metal and iron, it absorbs a living being from inside and kills. Shortly saying, Aku’s blood would kill this fanatical mother and her daughters, i.e. absolutely no “hybridization” or giving superpowers or whatever. This guy worked with Tartakovsky and gave some answers about it, and... it is unstated, whether Aku’s blood, drunk by the fanatical mother, created the seven sisters or just infected them during their mother’s already existed pregnancy. Hence it is unstated, who their father is. More plausible some unknown human.

[waeirfaahl]

The problem of Threads of Time subplot

Let's talk about pre-2017 SJ comic series again (my critiques on post-2017 comics are here). Cartoon Network series had both really good stories, even if they share similarities with few classic episodes (Jill moment, for example), still they add something interesting, the characters keep their personality, the humor is mostly good and funny, some stories also explore certain themes and give message, especially looking at something from different sides, what is also cool. The Aku Fairy Tales is the best segment of these series for sure. But these comic series had some weak, very naive, absurd and weird stories (the one with teens and eggs and the one with Greek gods are the brightest example that comes to my mind) as well, not to mention Aku's weird (I guess, temporary and caused exactly by Jack's presense) collaborations with some secondary bad guys and stuff. I am not sure, but these comics came out along with the classic seasons, not after all 4 seasons, hence that's where some inconsistencies of early stories toward later episodes come from most likely. Then there were really good and strong comics from Jim Zub and Andy Suriano in 2013-2015 (for example, I praised them here and here, yet slightly nitpicked here). And they are really more superior and their ending in 20 volume is the truly canonical ending of the classic seasons. Yes, unfortunately, these comics don't bring up and don't explore the aspects of the classic seasons I analyzed in details for like 10+ years and dedicaded to them tons of posts in this my blog, but overall they were great and had really good humor, suspense and drama and stakes. Yeah, again few weaker stories, which mostly make no sense and in some senses copy the classic episodes (the one, where Aku just throws the capsule with Jack into cave of dopelgangers instead of just crushing the capsule with Jack in his hand, or the one where Aku happens in Jack's head and devours his memories instead of just eating or piercing his brain and skull — like, Jack slept in both these stories and was easy target for successful and fatal blow), but still bring something new, while Jack's character development and character growth were the best and the strongest part of these comics, how he decided to stay in the future with his friends and free this future from the tyranny, as well as the lost sword segment and its return was the most epic and powerful plot segment. And these comics in 99% remember the classic seasons and keep the characters in canon. But there's the one story, which I find really the worst. And it is the first 5 volumes aka The Threads of Time. Yes, you get it right. I didn't like this subplot since the beginning (since the first reading back in 2015) for many reasons. Because at first you think it expands the lore and the story, but in fact it only raises more questions to both the established lore of the classic seasons and the comics subplot itself. You know, it is the case, when the initial story had pretty wide-open window for interpretation and imagination due to pretty basic explanation on surface level, and now we have some sort of a prequel, which explains certain moments of the past and the lore, but in fact contradicts and adds more holes and questions. So, let's talk about this story in 5 chapters, I guess?

Before diving into this, I'll praise in this subplot only this moment. Aku literally kills Jack and pretty brutally (like, wow!), so our hero is near death, but the threads of time give him the choice — either return to his era, but die, or prevent death, but stay in the future, and after this the magic (and hence life) of these threads will fade away, so Jack makes hard choice and survives, staying in the future. That is really good scene.

So, now to the problems of this plot. Some old wise monk tells to Jack the backstory of how Aku got and mastered the time-travelling ability, finding and stealing and then destroying the ancient rope of eons, created by gods, but some threads survived and still keep the magical power, so, tied together, they can help Jack to return to his era. So... what's wrong here, if this moment explores and explands the lore? Well, many things.

In my previous post, I told in details about the most plausible explanation of time portals and especially Aku's ability of time-travelling, and I am confident it wasn't inborn ability of Aku, that Aku himself invented own spell, using inner energy in his own body. The comics state it too that Aku learned it, but they understate Aku and just give more questions and contradictions. One of the problems is in marking Aku as a thief instead of conquerer and inventor, and even as a thief Aku was belittled here, 'cause he did that without using sharp and calculating mind, manipulation, deceit and cunning, ingenuity and resourcefulness or own fight experience, skills and abilities and magic. No obstacles, no struggle, no demonstrating talents for reaching and getting it. Not to mention tons of plot holes. Who is this monk? How can he know not just about The Rope of Eons and its survived threads of time, but also about the event with Aku, which happened centuries before the monk's birth? Who told him that? How the monk can be so sure the survived threads still keep the power of time-travelling? Like, Aku mastered the ability of opening time portal and time-travelling exactly after conquering Emperor's kingdom, but before Jack's arrival for the battle and sending to the future. And it's one thing to know some magical scrolls, rituals and spells and their secrets, another thing to know such details and to tell about potentially epic event with lack of details and epic, ironically. What is The Rope of Eons, if Cronus conquered the entity of time, and it looked like some sort of golden river in cosmos? Apparently, there are two different entities, since the threads have mind. Who created this Rope of Eons? Who were these gods? Why they created the Rope in the first place, if they apparently abandoned it? Where were these gods all this time? Why nobody guarded the Rope of Eons? It's in some heavens... what kind of mythology are these heavens? Why these heavens have only the Rope? Where are any habitants, gods or souls etc? Where are any divine sentinels? Why these gods did nothing after Aku arrived and stole the Rope from their realm? They should attack him immediately after he appeared and took away the Rope and clearly studied it in his castle some time before destroying it for being useless anymore! Why didn't they prevent it? Did they create the new Rope of Eons? How did Aku discover about these heavens and the Rope of Eons in the first place? How did Aku reach the path to these heavens? How Aku, in 1 episode of 1 season being less experienced and less powerful and growing his power before conquering the world, wasn't afraid to fly to the territory, where various powerful divine beings can live, which would kick him and even kill?! Why did Aku meet no guardians of the Rope? Or you imply Aku killed these guard gods, being younger, weaker, less experienced and living in Jack's era, but wasn't able to defeat the White Spirit and her three elementals-daughters on Earth in the future, being very experienced older ruler for thousands years?! Why Aku just tore the Rope apart instead of burning it with his laser vision to nothing?! Do you imply Aku travelled beyond Emperor's kingdom into space? How didn't Aku encounter the three alien gods, which earlier killed Aku's ancestor in the prologue of The Birth of Evil? How didn't Aku notice the survived threads of time in either these heavens or in own castle? Why these threads were in different places in ownership of different characters, if they should either stay in these heavens (or at best to be in different galaxies and planets) or in Aku's castle? How can't Aku know that the threads survived and can still keep the power, if he interacted with it and should know and notice the unique aspects of the Rope and its fibres? I can do it for eternity... That's what I mean by saying "It kinda expands the lore and gives some answers, but in fact only gives more questions and creates more plot holes".

And through the first four volums Jack fights various mighty warrior bandits, who somehow found and used the threads of time for... great speed, power, fight skills, youth and immortality, what we can see on the example of these bat-like twins

and the snow queen tyrant, which usurped power over a snow city and ruled there for centuries, abusing the true ruler, who's now old man. And it implies that after Jack took the thread from her, she won't live that long and soon will become a dust.

While this spider-like guy for whatever reason didn't discover some valuable and cool powers of the thread and just kept it like a trash (ah... who was the previous owner of this thread, and how the spider guy defated him/her?), i.e. during these years he was unaware of what this weird golden hair is and what potential it has... HOW?! He'd use it himself for decades already, so Jack would struggle more to fight him!

And this noble warrior ghost was basically trapped by the thread in happy illusions-memories due to the strong feeling of guilt, 'cause he wasn't able to protect and save his people from Aku's army. His story is tragic and sad, but how the thread reached for him? So... has this thread reached him, when he already was a ghost? Looking at his skeleton, apparently it happened after his death, and just like Jack he probably had fatal wounds, and vast majority of his people were dead already, so he had no chances etc. Because if he got the thread before the battle against Aku's army, then there's the question, why the thead didn't make this warrior stronger, so he'd be able to destroy all scarab-robots of Aku. Not to mention that if the warrior had this thread before his death, Aku would discover another thread of time, because chronologically Aku moved outside of Emperor's kingdom to conquer the world after he sent Jack to the future, i.e. Aku already had the ability and the spell of opening time portals and time-travelling. But the main and the craziest thing is that — WHY the thread trapped the ghost warrior here alone instead of sending him into some sort of heavens to his people, so he'll reunite with them, and they'll rest in peace together? In fact, that's what the warrior should wish in fact, that's what he should ask the thread to do. I don't think he never thought about it. Why to torture him for eternity?! These threads are sentient, they talk with Jack, but they allow to various bad guys to use their powers to commit various crimes and trap the good soul to suffer for eons until he accepts his loss, past and grief and hence finds peace and rest. Just wow. Such thing with imprisoning and dooming someone somewhere literally or metaphorically to long or even eternal suffering was more in Aku's nature, recalling Jack's father, the lava warrior and even Jack himself.

And... WHY do these threads, which were made for time-travelling, also have these abilities of empowering, curing, rejuvenation etc?! How and why nobody of these villains thought about getting more power, more other threads (like, really, there should be thousands of them, not just eleven or whatever! I'd even argue that they could fall also on other planets or galaxies etc!) and use it against Aku and hence becoming new tyrannical rulers of the world?!

Like, the threads whispered to Jack the path to others!

Like, if the threads can feel the nature of a person, good or evil etc, and choose to communicate with them or not, then they should never give them powers in the first place and never imprison a ghost in his nostalgia. The Rope itself should kick Aku out of these heavens. Some very selective threads.

And most importantly — Aku has no idea about that! He doesn't know! HOW?! He can feel and sense such magic waves, the thread whispers and can lead to potential others, he'd notice and smell these threads in this sudden ice witch usurper Crystall, for example. Not to mention that he'd burn and destroy even the smallest threads in the space, so they wouldn't fall on Earth! And watching on Jack though his magic mirror, Aku should notice that Jack fights some warriors and creatures and takes away some weird golden shining threads, similar to his floss! He had to suspect Jack collects some another magical artifact for using either against Aku or for time-travelling! WTF?!

And I can not for the life of me understand, why he kept this small thread for himself, and how he can't know certain nuances of the rope of eons, while some monk can. Not to mention Aku's weird reaction at the rope of time in the style of vampire toward a garlic or crucifix, if he easily destroyed it previously, and if only Jack's sword can harm him. In fact, Aku should care about preventing Jack from time-travelling here. The most bizarre thing is that this scene implies Aku all these centuries didn't know that this floss for teeth cleaning was the thread of time... WTF?! HOW?! He interacted with the rope of eons! He can sense magical thing! He would feel or hear something from this thread! And he had to know how the threads look like! WTF?!

Also this weird moment. Like, did Aky hide behind the throne or what? If he felt the chrono-magic, why he doesn't panic that Jack used the threads of time and hence survived?! Like, the threads only saved Jack's life, they didn't erase Aku's memories about the fact that Jack came to him with the rope of eons, which is another way of time-travelling!

So, yes, among specifically these "story-driven" segments The Threads of Time is the worst in terms of writing, logic and lore. Really, I praised the comics, but this beginning wasn't good. It's not that horrible in comparison to 5 season and Battle Through Time game, but it's pretty close to them in badness.

[waeirfaahl]

Aku the experimenter: about time-travelling spells and tools and natural portals

At first I wanted to make small section about it in one big post, but after thinking longer I realized it deserves own separated post.

I want to focus on the aspect I once covered in this post. The largest plot hole of the classic seasons is the existence of the time portals and various artifacts with the ability of time-travelling. Like, who created them, how and why, why Aku ignores their existence, if it is literally the deadly risk of paradox and erasing the universe, which will kill Aku and whole world. Looking at small details of the classic seasons, the only explanation I have is in three parts.

First one — in universe and on the planet there are lots of invisible and intangible rifts/cracks in time and space, so only various supernatural creatures, magical beings, spirits, gods and some mortal sorcerers and monks (lyzards from the Infection episode, for example) can sense them and interact with them, building physical gates for these cracks and hence turning them into portals,

sometimes even using energy of sun or moon for empowering them,

but it isn't neccesary that they themselves successfully travelled and survived or could interact with habitants of the past and make some changes, and most likely they did that in secret from Aku

while some of these "portals" could be simple fake and traps, disguised as portals.

Second one — some of these cracks/rifts/holes (smallest ones) naturally can get physical "body" as either some time-travelling gems or "fruits" with such ability, i.e. wild nature, a tree or a mountain or lava/volcano, for example, "birthed" them as magical anomalies into physical world, if you well.

(some of them even can have some kind of intelligence and create own physical humanoid avatar for self-defense and communication; about the Guardian and his special portal with some sort of intelligence I told here, and in 6 episode of 1 season the jewel and its green giant guardian can be of similar kind)

Third one — some spirits or sorcerers discovered them and experimented with them, consuming their energy and planting into jewels with various abilities and functions in similar way the White Spirit did with the Neptun Jewel or Demongo with soul skulls on his body. And that can also explain the Egyptian jewel from the Jigen episode.

Yet I still think the portal from 1 episode of 2 season and the gem from 13 episode of 3 season are fake ones. Now about Aku's ability of time-travelling and opening time portals, which is the second (but first in terms of appearance in the show) plot hole or unexplained element. Once I told that the time-travelling is NOT Aku's inborn ability. The classic seasons state clearly that it is exactly the spell, and Jack's Fairy Tales episode hints through the giant worm twins that everyone can learn magic spells, including time-travelling and the fast and sudden teleportation, demonstrated in 13 episode of 1 season, 1 episode of 2 season, 4 episode of 3 season, 1 and 9 episodes of 4 season (for example, along with Aku also in 10 episode of 2 season Demongo had the ability of teleportation, i.e. it's widely known ability/spell among supernatural creatures).

And Aku learned this spell exactly after conquering Emperor's kingdom, but before exactly Jack's arrival and the battle against him, i.e. during these 17-20 years of Jack's absense and training — or else already in The Birth of Evil dilogy Emperor would experience wandering in the distant future under Aku's reign, not to mention that Aku's ancestor didn't have this ability. Aku sat in Japan valley aka the territory of Emperor's kingdom all these years, Aku didn't come out from this place until he sent Jack to the future, and there's no sorcerers or demons in his army of guards, only shadow warriors, which are either some lesser demons or spirits or former ghosts of human warriors, there's no scrolls or books about some magical artifacts of some deities etc. Plus, there's no hints that Aku travelled himself back and forward in time, since he had no idea about the future events and fails and obstacles and struggles etc (Aku had no idea, when Jack will arrive and that he will become Aku's pain in butt for years, hence no foreseeing and travelling to past and future), what can hint that Aku either didn't master it for own travelling or Aku understood why it is so risky and deadly idea for him and the entire worlds/universe, or the ones with ability of time-travelling and opening time portals can't travel themselves, only send someone else.

So, I have few versions. Could someone (whether spirit or monk) teach Aku this ability and then die (thanks to Aku for being only the one master of this knowledge)? Well, possible, but I find it unlikely and non-interesting. Or maybe Aku ate some "jewel/fruit" with this ability just like the Totoro-like creature, but normally consumed its energy and hence got its ability? That is much more plausible, and I kinda like this explanation. Or maybe Aku invented own spell? I prefer this explanation, so I'll deep dive with this.

Personally, I confidently think Aku himself invented his own spell of time-travelling and creating time portals. Why I think so? Because Aku created these white rings exactly from own mouth, hence from his throat and chest, where he generates own inner energy, full of radiation. In fact, in the same way Demongo and especially the dragon-like entity made own bodies into inner dimension aka the prison for lots of souls, Aku could make own body the source of time portal or most likely the energy, which creates temporary rings-rifts, which with their speed just together cut through the temporary rift for making a time portal into the tunnel of time. Aku made own spell and way of time travelling. And at least on Earth Aku was the first being with this ability. It wasn't something inborn, Aku indeed learned, trained, experimented, aquired and achieved this ability. Plus, probably it takes too much energy in focusing, producing and generating it with quick thinking about the vague distant future, especially in situation, when you are severely weakened, exhausted, wounded and near either death or another imprisonment.

Huh... Imagine, Jack jumps into some portal and floats in the tunnel, only to be spat out by Aku in his castle. And both are "What?! WTF?!". And with these facts, looking at how much of inner energy he needs for this, no way a regular human, even infected by his blood, had a chance to create a portal — their body would be burnt to ashes before how Aku's blood would devour them to death.

[waeirfaahl]

Satire in the future

The future under Aku's reign clearly has literature and cinematography, art and music, advertising and theatres. And, surprisingly, it's pretty free and open, the show doesn't demonstrate some propaganda or censorship stuff, what's actually pretty neat. Only one or two comics briefly focused on it on a surface comedy level. Although, it is unclear, whether Aku's future has Internet or not, because films, literature, stage plays, games and computers and other technologies exist for sure. I'd assume the internet in Aku's world is something between middle-1990s and late-2000s from our world.

In any other way, Aku's reign isn't that authoritarian, he also did many cool and positive things and legitimately can be called as the rightful prince and heir (in fact, here, here and also here I told in details about it, and especially here demonstrated villains, which really are destructive totalitarian dictators — also small addition to this team of villains with their totalitarian distophia; also here's the compilation of posts with additionaly analyzing Aku isn't that ruthless tyrant).

From another side, I wonder, whether someone created in poetry, drawing or films some sort of satire and caricature of relationships between Aku and Jack, mocking on how Aku is afraid of Jack etc (or maybe even shipping them with each other as a couple).

Like, imagine a mockery paintings of how Aku (in the style of, I don't know, madame Medusa from Rescuers 1977 film, which hugs and kisses two large crocodiles) jumps in fear on a chair from Jack (of a mouse size near Aku), pulling up his "robe" like a skirt all the way to panties and squealing in tears and terror.

I mean, although in the classic seasons Aku had no problems in admitting his mistakes and fails, learning lessons and hence becoming better next time, he butthurted at random kids for cosplaying him and Jack during simple innocent games like any dictator with vulnerable ego, stuck in 1st grade school, so, caricatures of higher level would piss him off even more, and it would look both creepy and hillarious.

And, well, like any normal person Aku hates, when someone exactly insults him.

[waeirfaahl]

Immunity to the sword

Some sort of a spiritual sequel to this and this and partially this posts. Another thought came up to my mind after I recalled Aku's line in 6 episode of 1 season about how before fighting Jack he wants to find the way of opposing to the sword and defeating it, but for whatever reason later Aku forgot about this idea even with the fact that the grave witch was totally immune to Jack's sword in 4 episode of 3 season, as well as the Seth's servants and many other hostile and fierce supernatural creatures.

(like, even in the cursed fanfic aka 5 season he somehow had no idea about the lost sword, yet still for these 50 years he didn't try to find the way to make the sword useless and hence safe for him through some spell or whatever).

Treat it like my joke theory mostly, similar to this one. I noticed, Aku pretty quickly weakened after being wounded by the sword in the "Birth of Evil" during the battle with the Emperor. And what's ironic, exactly in The Birth of Evil Aku had the longest resistance (about 6 minutes in 12 episode of 3 season). Then 20-25 years later Aku also quickly weakened during the battle against Jack in the 1 episode of 1 season, especially after Aku was sucked into the sword (and in 1 episode of 1 season it spent around 4 minutes). Then about 4000 years passed, Aku didn't interact with the sword for a long time, and in 1 season Aku got wounds similar in number and strength from the sword and also quickly weakened in 9 and especially 12 episode of 1 season. In further episodes, Aku stayed a bit longer, but even now he couldn't tolerate it more than 20-35 seconds, and his longest resistance was about 3 minutes in 8 episode of 3 season. Sure, Aku has vulnerable parts and places on his body, how I pointed out here, but it is still pretty interesting detail. Does it mean that Aku could theoretically develop immunity and resistance to the sword with more frequent interaction with it? Well, in similar way how some people and animals develop resistance and immunity to bee, wasp or snake venom, allowing wasps, bees and snakes to bite them.

Aku's ancestor did not have such a chance, both because it had just emerged from a star and was harshly attacked by the three powerful super-beings with such powerful weapons, and because of its own death. And its resistance to the gods' weapons was about 2 minutes.

Like, Jack in some senses became immune or at least became close to having immunity after he defeated Aku's blood that infected and nearly devoured him to death, and he overcame it without the sword. As well as Emperor could get immunity without even knowing. Sure, it seems unlikely, because the sword is programmed to attack Aku because of his origin, not deeds and morals, but as a fun theory... why not?

[waeirfaahl]

Whistle of death

I never hid my admiration toward the graveyard fight scene and especially Aku's line "Oh, samurai! Where are you, samuraaaai? You can run, but you can not hide, because I smell your blood!". Not only because of tension and great performance in voice acting, but also because this scene perfectly nailed Aku's playful nature, the nature of a predator, who plays with his prey before killing and devouring.

Plus, there's another badass aspect — how Aku's line effective, natural and informative is. There's no "As you know" thing, it subtly informs an audience about Aku's ability, established back in 1 episode of 1 season — Aku's sharp sense of smell, he can smell blood, learning a person's heritage and also a person's place of hiding, how far or close a person is. And it is presented through this awesome and creepy hide-and-seek playful mockery line of the intimidating creature, which likes to play with prey.

And continuing the idea of hide-and-seek, imagine if Aku whistled an eerie melody (his theme from the two battle scenes in 1 episode of 1 season) during this deadly play.

Visit Original Link

His whistling would be really otherworldly and animalistic. If I imagined his whistle, I'd take as an inspiration sounds of a barn owl and great potoo, mixed with cassowary's vibrating low growl-breath, especially with the fact that once Aku made animalistic avian-like sound.

And he has this feline "killer hunter mode", if to look at his pupils.

He adores playful hunt.

[waeirfaahl]

I always return

Yes, I always come back. The reason, why I didn't post Samurai Jack related posts for like 6 months is because I was severely exhausted after days without sleep due to long editing of long detailed reviews and writing the SJ fanfic and also certain other article-like analysis posts on other topics and fandoms (some of them I posted during these 6 months here for any activity), so I wanted to take a break, to relax a bit and then return with fresh mentality and ideas, sharing some from review and maybe my long-made fanfic. It really nearly killed me, for a while I lost the ability of getting positive emotions and feeling something in general, I was empty (plus, never eat and never drink during reading and editing, or you have a huge risk of death from choking, and it happened to me like thrice, so I even fell from my chair). So I needed recovering and to be in something else for a while, what resulted also in 100% Silksong and also in winning all radiant bosses in Hollow Knight (all 5 pantheons I won in 2023), including steel soul. So, now I am kinda okay, yet I guess some subscribers left, thinking I am no longer in SJ fandom. Kinda sad, but no matter. I still have what to say.

Current new posts, if you haven's seen: 1, 2, 3. The last one I made before taking break is here.

[waeirfaahl]

Vague presense

The last time I told about these true villains of the show here and partially here, but in this small post I kinda want to mention two small facts about them, based on the creators' commentaries, and cover certain thoughts after listening these commentaries and checknig the comics. First of all, the reason they have traits of Egyptian, Indian and Scandinavian gods is because Genndy and the crew wanted to make the parallel to 1 episode of 1 season in terms of Jack's mentors and teachers from various cultures, who trained him. By this logic, there should be also African and Slavic deities, for example, but no matter.

Second, the authors had two explanations to the gods and monks in this temple in the ghostly mountain — either the three gods are these three monks in disguise, i.e. in just human form, or the gods simply possessed these monks, which lived and guarded the three statues, which awakened or came to life and hence interacted with Emperor. And they did several variations and chose the best, yet they thought in the entire episode it is still the weakest sequence of the encounter with the gods, they would like to explore it and give more details, if it was in full-length animation format or whatever. And I understand them, because with all this cool atmosphere and visuals, mystery and scale, creepy and eerie monumental creatures, it still seems they cared more about visual easthetics and hence hommages rather than inner story logic, since it happens just because it's beautiful and mysterious without explanation how it all works in the lore of the show. I mean, why to sleep or to hide, I guess, in the form of the statues? Or why not to communicate with Emperor in the first place through the statues without the monks? I have only one explanation. Like, looking at Emperor's reaction, he doesn't know the three alien gods, i.e. he has no idea about similar looking deities from other human cultures and myths (the show even implied he started to communicate with other cultures and tribes after the events of The Birth of Evil dilogy). I guess, they took form of the monks, because they were familliar thing for Emperor. From another side, since Aku didn't notice this bushy white fog and strong beams and rays of light towards the Emperor, which then became the Odin's stallion, they could do everything here and quickly, severely minimizing potential victims of Aku's wrath. There's no point in this long travelling to their domain. They could do for Emperor everything here and do all themselves, as I told tons of times.

In fact, the first version of explanation (alien gods are the monks in disguise) is the most logical and plausible (and I always thought exactly this way) for many reasons — the white stallion is normally in human world on Earth (later other supernatural creatures too) and hence was ordered by the three alien gods to help Emperor and bring him into the domain of these alien gods,

the temple is totally empty, the monks don't wait and don't interact with Emperor for leading him or whatever, there's no monks, they (exactly and only three) appear with floating with this eerie supernatural vibe from the darkness near the statues, the alien gods themselves aren't in some "astral spirit world", they were in space, in physical cosmos, if you well, looking at the prologue of the episode,

and this whole high and distant "mountain in clouds" really gives these vibes of something supernatural and from another world, just temporarily seen and open for a mortal to visit (similar to the tunnel portal into the spirit world in The Spirited Away — you can notice it looks different in the beginning and in the finale of the anime), i.e. the three monks were these three alien gods themselves no matter what.

While Jack's father could interpret for himself that the monks are real, but were conduits for the gods, i.e. were possessed and somehow teleported Emperor into space to the gods, allowing him to breath in space, and then returned on Earth with the sword or whatever, so he even transformed it into a legend for Jack with even more new details he made up.

Like, really, more sense, if the alien gods did that themselves, being in human form to not scare Jack's father at first encounter, so they softened it through the monks form. Since not every human, especially from Middle Ages, will be okay after first encounter with ancient and monumental supernatural creatures. From aonther side, Emperor trusted to the white stallion, so they really could communicate with him through this divine animal and do all here, so Aku wouldn't notice. In fact, the white stallion could hurt Aku as well with one touch, if to look at how the black spikes burned to ashes after the fog and then stallion interacted with it.

I guess, they tried to explore the "possessed monks" version in the comics, yet even there it's Emperor's interpretation, since Jack was brought to the mountain temple by the raven. Because if it's real, it doesn't make sense.

I mean, after centuries the "allegedly real" mountain is still there and in secret, i.e. Aku didn't find it and didn't destroy it with the statues (even through it is far far away from Emperor's kingdom and hence Aku's birthplace) and somehow these "allegedly mortal" monks still are alive like some isolated prisoners and along with the three alien gods are totally okay with whole crap that happened to Earth and its habitants etc, i.e. they again do nothing and just chill in this temple or whatever.

And after the tests and hints to Jack about finding own soul as the weapon and hence new sword they just kick him out to fight Aku similar way they kicked Jack's father just with the sword and without any instructions. Although I love The Broken Blade subplot in the comics and consider it as the strongest and the most epic along with the ending with King Jack, this minor nitpick wasn't able to hide from my eyes.

[waeirfaahl]

Aku-cinema?

I never thought about this small moment of the Aku's Fairy Tales episode before. Like, what is this place? It has this large throne for Aku specifically along with TV with various cartoons. Is that some sort of a cinema room? Or is it some sort of a conference hall? What is that?

Like, Aku can discuss something with others through his magical mirror or any other magical and regular technology from his castle. There's no need for him to teleport exactly to this building. From another side, maybe it is indeed some conference hall, which can be some sort of a cinema during free time, especially for kids, and also a special hall, where citizens can discuss something with Aku, while he rarely can teleport to there for more intimidation or whatever (if he wants), but mostly he'd look like a hologram, sitting in his castle. Maybe also some stand up thing in George Carlin style or whatever.

By the way, it seems, this building has several flours, so it really can have many functions.

[waeirfaahl]

Jack the T-Rex rider

Huh, accidentally noticed this funny coincidence. Jack rides blue stripped T-Rex against giant spiders like 5-6 years before 1 season of Primal. Maybe just an easter egg, I don't know.

I don't know, why Tartakovsky said Jack will be either killed by Spear and eaten by Fang. With their personalities, they would end up as friends.

[waeirfaahl]

Mothers and teachers

Small addition to this, this, this, this and this posts, where I analyzed the morbid aspects of Balto-2, Aniu and the husky-father, Aniu's nature and the whole Balto's past and parents in the sequel's version, also analyzing the information from interviews with the writer. For short reminder: Aniu is very ancient white wolf deity, revered and worshipped by wolves, in ancient times she was a regular grey wolf, who loved her pack and pups, but after death she became this white totem spirit aka The Great Mother of all wolves, much later she mated with random stray mutt and left him (i.e. the stray mutt has no idea about Balto's existence and never cared about possibility of offspring), she gave birth to Balto and was with him few time until young Balto accidentally got lost and was adopted by Boris, and all it was a part of a grand design and prophecy. And, yes, Balto is a demigod, a half-spirit, and the writer of Balto-2 confirmed that Aleu inherited her abilities from Aniu, making her part-spirit as well, i.e. Aniu's death and Balto's accidental separation from her have zero connection, since Balto was her only cub and was only with her, these events are two separeate events and happened in different and distant time moments.

Here I want to focus on the small moment in the conversation between Aleu and Balto. Again, the writer of Balto-2 most likely simply didn't write a backstory of the reason for Balto accidentally getting lost (storm, avalance, flood, wild animals etc), since the writer doesn't remember and didn't give a proper answer in the movie itself.

However, what caught my attention is Balto's wide knowledge that hunters hunt and kill wild animals for meat and fur and then Aleu's sarcastic and actually disgusting question "Did the wolf teach you how to know, when a human wants to kill you?"

(I mean, did this brat think about that Balto saved her life the same way this "wild animal grandmother" potentially saved Balto's life in the past, for example?!).

(from another side, looking at this thing on the bag, the event with the hunter was planned by Aniu and the spirits for their prophecy to happen, so Aleu was safe...)

Like, yes, if to look at the context, Balto just explained to her the nature of hunters (what is weird, because he should explain it much earlier and that hunters can do the same with own sled dogs), and his such reaction was 'cause he worried about Aleu's life, while Aleu said it with emotions after being near death and due to reaction at "horrible reveal".

Plus, through the line "I was accidentally separated from her when I was young, so I never spent much time with the wolf" Balto himself debunks the idea that hunters killed his wolf-mother and even took away her fur, by this line he debunks and that she taught Balto to understand the intentions of humans this way, he debunks that humans were the reason of why Balto was separated from Aniu and hence became orphan. Or else he'd mention all this directly. He doesn't even mention that hunters could chase him and Aniu, Balto fell into something, while hunters didn't notice him etc. Not to mention that in such conditions Balto would hate humans and dogs even more than he should in the sequel, he'd never deny his wolf side, he'd never want to be a sled dog and to be accepted by humans and dogs, he'd go away with a wolf pack and would be proud of his wolf heritage. Or else he's a disgusting hypocrite.

And in this scene his facial expressions show no fear, no pain, no trauma and no grief. Just sadness that he accidentally got lost at the very young age and nearly never knew the she-wolf. In fact, if you watch the whole scene, Balto always turns away with shame and disgust, when he needs to discuss that he's part wolf and that his mother is a wolf, he even never calls her as "mother".

But let's assume for a second that hunters (or one hunter?) could be the reason of why Balto was accidentally separated from Aniu. Not death of the mother, not kidnapping of puppy Balto from the den etc, not chasing him and the mother, just the reason that led to Balto getting accidentally lost.

And even with such scenario I see nothing what could and would make impossible for young Balto and Aniu to reunite. Aniu is a spirit for centuries, she can disappear and turn into a mist or fog, hence there's nothing dangerous for her in encounter and confrontation with hunter(s), the encounter with them is deadly for exactly young Balto, so she easily could distract hunters and lead them away from Balto (and the den) for long and safe distance, then disappear, maybe merging with trees or rocks and hence hiding, and return to Balto and move him into another safer place, so no one will notice them, Aniu has no scent and no tracks just like other totem deities.

Like, Nava is still a living mortal wolf, not even a spirit, but he can avoid wounds through becoming a fog and hiding in trees, for example. That means, even as a mortal she could do that.

Plus, there's question, why Aniu made a den and raised Balto in areas with huge chances of meeting a hunter (ah, yes, grand design...). Like, Nava's pack lives far far away from humans and stuff, they started to suffer quite recently due to hunger and lack of food.

So, even in such tiny moments the sequel fails and raises tons of questions, again only confirming my thesis that the idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side is the worst idea and decision of the sequel, where her divine nature is the final nail in the coffin. And Aniu is the main villain of this all, she never wanted Balto, she never loved Balto, she abandoned Balto and ignored him all his life and ignored all his suffering and pain.

As well as I still don't understand, where the fan-theories about Aniu's death due to hunters and Aniu's death in general as the reason of Balto's being orphan come from, if both the interviews with the writer and the movie itself debunk it.

[waeirfaahl]

Wolf upgrade

Some sort of a small addition to this post. Recently I realized how actually strong Balto's jaws, neck, paws and body are thanks to the wolf blood in him. Boris is a snow goose, and their weight is 3 kg, and Balto easily lifts him up, holds and transports in his jaws and very gently, without harming Boris. And Balto clearly trained long time.

The medicine box weighs 20 pounds (9 kg). A single wolf can carry and drag 10-18 kg in its mouth without any struggle and for long distances. That means, Balto would have zero struggle with carrying and dragging the medicine crate alone.

Again, there's no need in the sled team at all. In fact, Balto wouldn't be dragged down by the box, 'cause it's not heavy for him at all, but let's explain that he was a bit weakened after falling from the mountain for a while.

Plus, he was strong enough to drag and pull 15 kg leg of the grizzly bear (370+ kg) to its falling, and he wasn't afraid to attack the bear. So, another aspect Boris could roast in Steele's tragic and contradictional ballad about Balto.

The reason why Balto fell from the mountain is because he jumped on this ice part of the mountain on full speed and stopped on it with the stopped crate in his teeth.

I.e. the thing isn't in weight of Balto or the box.

[waeirfaahl]

The language barrier

I never thought that deep about such simple detail, added mostly for comedic lines, but if to tell seriously, there's interesting layer and several questions. And it blew my mind after realizing. And it is something what the sequels forgot, even pretty good Balto-3 Wings of Change (although in Balto-3 it is a minor nitpick, because it doesn't affect the story).

The original movie hinted several times that if not all animals, but wild carnivore animals have own languages other species don't understand. For example, the grizzly bear only roars, wolves only howl (and most likely growl), moose only grunts or whatever these sounds are. Sled dogs sometimes bark (in scenes from humans perspective, while among each other it is a human-voiced sounds of bark mimicking — in fact, the same thing about Steele's growls and Balto's growls, what cements it as exactly dog language), Boris the goose once honks. The young polar bear Luk only softly hoots and grunts, i.e. he speaks in bear language,

so his older brother Muk often translates Luk's words for others, speaking both in own bear language with his brother (especially under water) and in some "common" language with Balto and Boris.

And all animal characters of Nome understand humans. I have no idea, what this "common" language is, but in the context of the original film it is something connected to domestic animals, i.e. in wilderness there's no such "common" languages. Boris even sarcastically jokes with facepalming that he starts to understand bears, not only dogs.

So, does it mean the goose and the bear cubs speak in dog language like Balto? Huh... interesting... We will return to this later. With these aspects the thing is that wild animals have own languages, so they don't understand each other. This moment actually raises the question, how Balto's parents met each other and started communicating and bonding in the first place, if logically they don't understand each other due to different languages,

and in the original film sled dogs were afraid of wolves, and despite all those jokes about wolf language toward Balto they don't know and don't understand wolf language at all, so they think it is hungry and ferocious wolves howl,

when it was Balto who howled like a wolf after self-acceptance and embracing his wolf nature.

As well as it is unclear, when exactly Muk and Luk were adopted by Boris, and when and how Boris and Muk learned the dog language or "common/domestic" language is another story. The only reasonable explanation is that they learned this language from Balto. And if Balto knows and speaks exactly the dog language, and he speaks very good and confident, how we can see in the movie, and he helped to Boris and the cubs to learn his language for better communication, it is another great hint that exactly Balto's mother was a sled dog, and Balto was born in Nome and never lived among wolves, hence he doesn't know wolf language, what also rhymes with the early White Wolf scene, where the symbolical White Wolf teachs Balto to howl.

Plus, the tauntings from Steele and his gang with mock howls with dramatic yearning and parodying a wolf pack really get several layers — as I told before, in its core it was the cruel dirty joke toward Balto's husky mother for having a pup with a wolf (what also was confirmed by the director of the original film), but the jokes about specifically wolf language hit Balto from two sides in such context — it is both cementing stereotype "Hey, you are a half-wolf! You have to know the wolf language! Translate that for us!" and also belittling and devaluation "Oh look at that! He is half-wolf, but doesn't know his inborn wild savage language! He doesn't even know how to howl! He's defective and deficient wolf! Shameful abomination!".

But what we have in the sequel? For whatever reason wolves normally speak instead of howling and growling, i.e. for whatever reason they speak in dog language, so Balto and Aleu understand them and can communicate and speak with them, when the pack lives miles away from human territories near the ocean... WHY?! How can wolves speak on this language?!

Plus, let's dive a bit deeper, because in addition to the crucial contradictions and questions and morbid aspects I brought up, for example, here, here and here, there are even more. In the sequel there was this idiotic idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side, Balto lived only with wolf-mother and never had a father, and then young Balto accidentally got lost and was taken in, adopted and raised by Boris the goose, while the mother-goddess literally abandoned him and didn't try to find and to return him, and Balto himself didn't leave Nome to find her and join a wolf pack.

And Balto described the she-wolf's voice and then joked that it is miracle that he barks instead of honk like a goose...

WHAT?! In the context of the original film with these different animal languages it gets way crazier. First of all, in the sequel it only cements the version that Aniu (aka the ancient great white wolf goddess) simply mated with the random male stray mongrel and left him with thought he simply experienced a vague surrealistic dream vision and it wasn't something real, i.e. she made Balto with him through deceit and without his knowledge, will, permission and wish.

Second, how Balto can know and remember her voice instead of howl and soft growls?! Balto should remember her howling she made in his nightmares, in the forest before encounter with the fox spirit and in the sequel's finale. Third, if Balto's mother was a wolf, why does Balto speak in a dog language instead of a wolf language and partially goose language, if his parental figures were exactly the wolf and the wild goose, who raised him, and there were no dogs and humans in the sequel's lore, who would take him in and care and teach?! Balto should severely struggle with speaking in dog language, meeting constant teasings and mockery from bully dogs about being bad in a dog language and speaking only in wolf and goose languages.

And fourth, if Balto remembered Aniu's voice, that means she spoke with him in a dog language in the den... why the hell she spoke with her young son in a dog language instead of a wolf language?! And this question grows bigger especially in the context of those fan-theories "Aniu was mortal and died, and that was the reason of why Balto is a lone orphan" (ah, then why the spirits chose exactly her? She's stupid and irresponsible, since she decided to mate with a random unknown dog and raise her offspring alone instead of a pack, and there would be tons of potential candidates in ancient times), because logically she would want him to be a wolf and to live in a pack.

Okay, as the revered ancient deity she can know tons of languages, especially with the fact that Aniu herself is a part of the Great Guardian Spirit, whose other forms are other totem spirits, but why to speak with your own son in a dog language instead of a wolf language, unless you prepared to abandon this unwanted nameless half-breed bastard for greater plans to suffer among humans and dogs for the prophecy and the grand design with birthing the chosen one Aleu?!

And it is even funnier, if to go with the idea of Balto-2 fans that the metaphorical male White Wolf from the original film and Aniu are the one and the same character — like, she spoke with her young son in a dog language, so thanks to her he doesn't know a wolf language, she abandoned him and ignored him all his life, so he suffered among humans and dogs, rejected own wolf nature and refused to go with friendly wolf packs that accepted him, but during the encounter at the bottom of the ravine "she" howls to him, i.e. speaks with him in language he doesn't know, and "she" demands from him to speak and answer her in wolf language, i.e. through howling, and she left him again (instead of revealing herself and comforting him) until he answered with howl.

By the way, in this context it looks like in the sequel she took pity on him and switched back to dog language in his dreams and in the sequel's finale, yet even this way Balto for whatever reason didn't recognise her voice he remembered since deep puppyhood…

What is your f*cking problem, Aniu?! And that's another example, why the idea with a wolf-mother, a white wolf-mother and a deity-parent are the worst ideas of Balto-2.

[waeirfaahl]

The weird fixation

I never thought about it before, but it is really something very weird. Speaking again about Balto's sniff abilities. When Balto and the friends travel in wilderness, he sniffs the air for finding the lost sled team. Later he does it again and stuff (also for returning home with them). And here's my question — why does Balto always point out "Steele!" after catching the scent of the team?! Like, seriously, he calls exactly Steele's name thrice. Why not to say "The sled team" or "The sled dogs" or just "The crate/box"?

And I checked the official novel, and there's nothing of these "Steele!.."-fixed callings at all. Because it gives the weird implication that either Balto has hidden obsessive crush toward Steele (yeah, truly the face of a person unencumbered by intelligence, but we discovered it already, for example, here and here)

or Balto caught exactly and only Steele's scent all this time...

Ah, WHY?! And I don't even want to go further with the mad idea that Steele walked in the ice cave Balto will lead the team later.

Like, this idiot told with boasting to other sled dogs something about how he swam in cold river or whatever (huh... imagine, if Steele really walked on this ice bridge and then just fell into the abyss with the river and still survived...)

By the way, in this particular scene Balto should notice the red/pink/orange/yellow warm color from the lantern in the first place and much earlier.

There's no need in sniffing etc. Balto would notice this warm shining from long distance and much earlier. I mean, Balto for sure sniffed various scents — wolves and grizzly bear, for example, i.e. he can see and understand that these scents are familliar and these aren't, they're different and new.

Plus, at first you could argue that Balto simply memorized exactly Steele's scent, because (aside of Jenna) Steele was the only dog Balto interacted closely the most, but no, before his journey Balto was close to other sled dogs during the run,

he was near their dredger as well, and he lives since his puppyhood in Nome, so even if he didn't come close to them and didn't interact with them, he still perfectly knows the scent of nearly every dog and human of Nome.

I can buy the idea that among the whole sled team Balto knew the name of exactly Steele, yet since Steele's team wins for 4 years already, it is still hard to believe the other teammates aren't famous at least in terms of names (and Steele briefly meantioned the names of the trio near Balto at least). Yes, they can be unaware of Balto's name and heritage, but he can't with all his love to sled races. Or else humans and dogs really worship only to Steele, so only his name is so widely known, I don't know.

The only logical explanation to this is that Steele is just extremely fetid, so his strong stink distracts Balto from scents of others. What is the source and the reason of such stench, I don't know, maybe his fried ass.

[waeirfaahl]

Minor moments of Wings of Change

Some sort of a logical addition and a sequel to this, this, this and this posts, where I debunked various things about Balto-3 some fans misinterpreted or made some misconceptions about.

At the start, let's find the chronology of the events in the trilogy about Balto. The original film happens in between January and early-February of 1925 (IRL the first victim of diphtheria died in 28 December of 1924, while the epidemy came into active and official/noticed state in middle-January, especially since 21 January of 1925, Balto's sled team arrived with the medicine to Nome 2 February of 1925).

The beginning of Balto-2 happens in late-April of 1925, while the finale of Balto-2 happens in somewhere between September-October of 1926 (orcas or killer whales live in Alaska since April until September or at best mid-October and then migrate through Bering Strait, and since Balto points out the winter will be way earlier at this time, it is September for sure).

Balto-3 happens in somewhere between middle-March and early-May of 1928 (snow geese appear on Alaska in May to make nests and lay eggs exactly in late-May).

Now about minor visual bloopers: 1. In the original film Rosie's dad had brown hair, while Rosie's mom had black hair.

In Balto-3 Rosie's mom suddenly has red hair instead of black.

From another side, technically, such color change is possible, if Rosie's mother had genes of red hair in her family, but I still think it is a blooper. Or this woman from Balto-3 is Rosie's paternal aunt, I don't know. 2. I remind, Balto-3 happens 3,3 years after the original film. During these 3+ years Rosie and the bear cubs should become older and look older.

Polar bears leave their mothers, when they become 3+ years old.

In the original film Rosie was 8 y/o, according to the official novel,

hence in Balto-3 she's 11-12 y/o.

Now let's talk about few moments, which can be seen as a missed opportunity, as if these characters were forgotten and lacked a potential etc, when they actually aren't. 1. Rosie should have more screentime in the story, it would be great, if she had more cute scenes with Balto and Jenna, not only small opening sequence. But let's not forget that now Rosie is healthy and goes to school (remember Dixie's line to Steele after the race that her young owner girl is still in school?), so she is older now and hence spends more time in school for understandable reasons.

2. I heard how some people complained that Nikki, Kaltag and Star and their teammates don't participate in the race against Duke's plane and just were small easter eggs in few scenes. However, logically it can be explained in fact.

(among easter eggs you also can notice Morse and Doc, Sylvie and even Scotty dog from Balto-2)

First of all, they are now way older than in the original movie. Balto-3 happens nearly 3,5 years after the events of the original movie. When in the original film before 1925 aka since 1921-1922 they already won 4 years, i.e. they were 5,5-6+ y/o in the original film already.

Second, after the deadly Nome-Nenana-Nome relay they're most likely severely exhausted in cold and run (compare Nome-Nenana-Nome from the original film to Nome-WhiteMountain-Nome, which is 1/5 of Nome-Nenana path or even smaller and shorter, some maps even show White Mountain much closer to Nome than the map in Balto-3),

it affected their health, so they experience it all these years and hence can't run that fast and in long distances anymore (IRL relay as an example). I.e. they are veterans in some senses.

Ralph and Kirby after fast run from Nome to White Mountain and back were exhausted and felt pain in paws and back.

3. Some people, apparently Balto-2 fans, were curious, why Balto-3 totally ignores Aleu, as if she never existed, since nobody mentions her, nobody worries about her fate etc. Well, better to kick Aleu and her film into full oblivion, so Wings of Change did the right thing... At least, Aleu was briefly remembered in 2-3 small scenes of You Don't Have To Be A Hero song, that's enough.

But let's try to look at it a bit more open-minded. Balto-3 happens 1,5-1,8 years after Balto-2, i.e. the characters reflected it all already. And if there's no surrealistic nightmares and ancient creepy totem spirits with vague riddles and dark messages, everything is fine with Aleu and the wolf pack.

Not to mention that the characters have own personal life and stuff, so they don't need and don't have to think about Aleu 24/7 and always bring her up, there's no point in it and in remembering Balto-2 at all.

So, here are my thoughts on it.

[waeirfaahl]

Mirror of the "one side of the family"

Once I made the theory about Balto's wolf song, now I want to discuss another element. Treat it like a theory or interpretation, if you want. Let's return to the wolf pack, which was ready to accept Balto as a part of their family, and once I even told about a possibility of them being Balto's family, and that the leader could be Balto's father. Too bad Simon Wells gave no commentaries about them, because this particular small scene tells a lot, and it would be very interesting to see the early versions of this scene in storyboards and scripts, maybe some extended and deleted scenes. The only weird thing about them is this pup, which couldn't be born during winter, and it is unlikely the pup would survive such winter. Maybe the pup didn't exist in early versions, so there were three or four adult wolves instead, and they had bigger role. Because in the final version it is pretty hard to identify them. Like, the leader is obviously a male, and he is pretty different in fur color and the largest in the pack, the other three wolves... maybe all three grey ones are his offspring, maybe the light-grey wolf is the leader's mate, so the grey-wolf and the cub are their pups, maybe the grey wolf and light-grey she-wolf are a couple, and the pup is their, not the leader's. I once saw the workprint of this scene from the Amblimation crew video, but it was in pretty low quality, so it was really hard to tell, whether it had the pup or not, although I personally didn't notice it, I noticed only three adult wolves.

Previously I mentioned (here and here) the interesting parallel and symbolism. Balto wants to be a dog, denies his wolf nature and refuses to join the friendly wolf pack, whose male leader offers Balto to become a member of their family. Boris is Balto's father figure, who supports Balto and helps him to find and to accept his true (wolf), and Boris is white. And later Balto encounters the White Wolf, who is a male, white and the symbol of Balto's true (wolf) nature and self-acceptance, and in the scene with the White Wolf Balto recalls the crucial words of Boris. Simply saying, Balto's adoptive father helps him to accept his wolf half, Balto's wolf side is portrayed as the large magnificent male white wolf, previously rejected by Balto in during the interaction with the wolf pack, who has similar movements the White Wolf had.

And let's go a bit further with it. Whole Balto's adoptive family, his father (Boris) and two brothers (Muk and Luk), is white and of different species — the goose and the polar bears, and they are exactly wild animals. This moment is pretty interesting subtle hint that Balto's mother was a sled dog, while Balto's father was a wolf. And together they are four, and the wolf pack has exactly four members.

And even if this particular wolf pack isn't Balto's family, but just the mirror for Balto's family (and Balto's adoptive family), what if Balto had one or two siblings? Then what happened to them? They could die at the very young age, or they were adopted, because they looked more like dogs, while Balto wasn't adopted due to looking like a wolf.

If to assume initially the wolf pack was conceived to be Balto's family, there could be another idea — the siblings were more wolves than even Balto, who was a runt in his litter, the smallest and the weakest in the father's eyes (although, I still think he would survive), and they went with their wolf father instead (or they left Nome themselves), while Balto stayed with the husky mother (and/or with Boris) in Nome. The family separated, after the husky-mother's death Balto didn't want to have anything with the wolf-father and the siblings, they nearly forgot about him, but still were ready to accept him into their pack, although thinking he won't survive in wilderness. And during Balto's darkest time they helped Balto, seeing and admitting he isn't a weak link, he is worthy and strong, he is brave and noble, he is still a wolf. But in the context of the final film I personally prefer the idea of Balto being the only pup (and really in some senses a runt) in his litter, who was born in Nome and never lived among wolves, hence never had a father (wolf parent), but had only the husky mother as his only parental figure and later Boris the goose as his adoptive father figure. It is the only logical and reasonable version.

[waeirfaahl]

Waiting hero together

Small addition to this post. We all know the mesmerizing moment under the hospital, where Balto comforts Jenna with the Northern Lights trick, made from the light and broken color bottles.

Whether Balto discovered this trick himself or Boris (and/or Balto's husky mom) taught him this and used to cheer him up in his puppyhood, it doesn't matter.

Later Jenna uses this trick for Balto as the act of hope that never dies, the hope he is alive and Rosie and the kids will survive.

Personally, I think, this scene would be much better, if Boris and the bear cubs participated with Jenna in bringing the broken bottles and the lantern for creating the Northern Lights and stayed together in this scene.

Such moment would work perfectly both for nailing this symbol of love and hope, for growing bond between Jenna and Balto's three friends and for demonstrating Boris's paternal love toward Balto.

Because, in my opinion, it is the wasted opportunity, the movie gave impression as if it forgot that Boris and the bear cubs watched and heard all those bad news along with Jenna, and that Jenna could need help with her wound. They should be with her in this scene, and we'd feel they find and learn more about each other.

In one of the early versions of the script there was a deleted scene, where Jenna finds Balto with hurted paw and helps him to move most likely to his ship, and they discussed Boris and the cubs, and this moment kinda explained, how Jenna can know the names of the bear cubs near the lake scene.

In the final movie it was unclear, whether she knew Balto, Boris and the bear cubs very well and spoke with them or not before the events of the movie.