So, it starts with a silent walk of Jack, cold, huddled into his clothing. The landscape is depicted as bleak and desolate, and just gets worse as he travels further. Suddenly, there is the barest hint of a voice on the wind. Not really sure what it was, he shrugs it off and keeps walking. The voice continues, getting stronger and stronger, until it is clearly a voice, beckoning him forward..."cooome.....COOOME." He follows the voice, deep into the heart of the desolation. He sees the ruins of a civilization, now decayed and half-buried. He sees a glint of light at the heart of the realm, and the voice calls him again. "COME TO ME!" He approaches, and finds a dungeon. Not being an idiot, he doesn't go into the dungeon, however he's already stepped into a trap, and the exit is blocked by sheer death, so with no other option, in he goes! He proceeds past a drove of dead warriors, previous victims to the traps he must now overcome. Finally, after much platforming and swinging of sword, he makes it to the heart of the dungeon, and the Boss Monster appears.
Without preamble, the monster attacks him, but Jack strikes him with a skillful swing. The creature cries out in pain, but instead of becoming enraged, he does something...odd. "Yes! At long last! A worthy opponent!" Jack, now skeptical of what is going on, refuses to fight any further. He's not there for this monster's amusement! There is no honor in pointless battle! This...THIS angers the monster. "HONOR?!!? What do THEE know of HONOR?! A millennia has past, and my goal, is FINALLY in my grasp!" *summons big ass mace to smash face* "This battle will continue, to the END!" *cue round 1.5* They fight, and it's glorious, but while the Monster shows he can injure Jack, it's clear that Jack has the upper hand, at least at the moment. Again the Monster falls, but Jack refuses to fight any further, and even says the Monster can slay him if he must, but he will fight no further. He sheathes his blade, and sits down, refusing to be a combatant. The Monster, now sounding grief stricken, says he can't strike him down defenseless, that this battle must be concluded by the Warrior's Code. He BEGS Jack to continue the fight, and Jack asks why. "For Freedom" he says, voice desperate. Jack eyebrows at him, indicating he is listening.
The Monster then tells a story, of who he was Before. Long ago, he was a Hero of a proud nation. His people were happy, and lived in relative comfort. They had sufficient food to thrive, and life was good. Then a shadow came, that blotted out the sun and sky. A very familiar evil to Jack (something he commented on at the beginning of his trek into the wasteland). It's clearly Aku, as shown later when the image of the beast that attacked his kingdom, is indeed, Aku. His people fought, but failed to harm the beast, and they were all slain, but for him. He stood alone against Aku, but unlike Jack, he was unable to pervail, and was struck down. Aku, being the dickbag that he is, didn't kill the Hero, instead he trapped him in an unbreakable crystal, and trapped him in the core of the mountain, to live forever in perpetual darkness and isolation, unable to join his people in Valhalla, the resting place of all warriors.
BUT, instead of going insane after eons of darkness and isolation, this Hero, was boss enough to maintain his sanity, gain control of the crystal imprisoning him, and turning it into a living body that he could manipulate and control. Having gained a small amount of agency again, he does the only thing he can think to do, given his people's beliefs. He has to die, so he can join them. But, he explains to Jack, the only way he can enter Valhalla, is to die in combat, to a worthy opponent. So he made a dungeon, full of traps, to ensure that those who reached him, were the most powerful, and strongest of warriors. The ones with the greatest chance of actually slaying him. And Jack...is the only one, to have survived to the center.
So he stands there, alone, beaten, and tired, SO tired, wanting nothing more than to join his family and people, but prevented from doing so by the dictates of his faith. He then turns to Jack and simply says "My fate is in your hands."
Without a word, Jack draws his weapon, and faces the Monster, now Trapped Hero. "Prepare yourself." And with a voice, of pure relief and anticipation, the Hero says "At laaaast, the gates of Valhalla, OPEN to me!"
Then they go at it, HARD. Drums kick in like a beast, the two warriors clash blades, each giving and taking damage. Jack, with speed and agility, the Hero, with overwhelming strength and reach. The Hero gets a strong hit against Jack, knocking him to the ground. He calls to Jack, voice full of fear and desperation. "Rise warrior, RISE! Honorably must I be defeated, I CANNOT let up!"
Jack, still fully clothed, with only scuffed up hair, clearly hasn't reached his maximum level, as known by anyone who is a fan of the show. "Do not worry." He says, rising and taking up his blade. "I have not BEGUN to fight!" And round 3 begins. More awesome blade work, drums...the drums. The back and forth is just great.
And then, one swing from the Hero, and an opening. In a triple exposure speed cut, they show Jack's blade in an increasing level of closeup, moving towards the left of the screen, and from the left, facing right, a profile of the Hero's monstrous face, now gasping in shock, with a small fleck of blood like rubble, escaping his mouth. He cries out in obvious pain...and it all goes silent. He collapses to his knees, clutching his stomach. "At last." he gasps, eons of relief in his voice. "My freedom....has arrived." He begins to glow from the strike point, he then holds out his arms in defiance and screams to the sky. "ACCURSED MONSTER!! YOUR SPELL, IS BROKEN!!"
And then he goes critical mass, becoming a pillar of light, screaming in what sounds like pain, as his Monster body is destroyed. The scream, reaching a fever pitch, ends with a burst of blinding light, forcing Jack to cover his eyes. The scream transforms from the monstrous voice, to one of a human, a regular human, now screaming in victory and relief. In the place of the Monster, now stands the Hero we saw in the flashback, holding his blade and roaring in triumph.
"At last! My flesh is my own!!" His body, quickly begins to age, in front of Jack's eyes, as the magic that sustained him fades. "The..curse..." a weakened voice, of an elderly man says "is...lifted." He then collapses to the ground, unmoving. Jack rushes over, feeling guilty for what he did. The Hero, now a wizened old man, frail and fading, just smiles at him and says weakly. "Do not grieve my friend. Please, hand me my sword." Jack gives it to him reverently, knowing the importance of a family blade to a Warrior. "Thank you." the old man says, smiling, and then dies. Jack rises to his feet, sheathes his blade, and pays respects to the fallen Hero. Before he can do this for more than a few seconds, a pillar of light descends from top of the cavern, illuminating the Hero. Two Valkyries appear, riding on horses, descending the light as a if it were a bridge. They land, paying no heed to Jack, and gently scoop up the body of the Hero. They remount their steeds, and fly up into the sky. Jack watches, clearly dumbfounded, and the Hero, now a spirit, looks back at Jack, and gives this big grin, before fading into the light in the heavens.
Jack, goes over to the slab of stone, the Hero used to record his history while he was a Monster, so he didn't forget it. And chisels a small image of the Hero, smiling and victorious, and puts the word FREE next to it. Putting a victorious end to the tragic tale etched above it.
He smiles, and walks away. The camera pans up to the sky, and cuts to a stereotypical viking depiction of Valhalla, with a lot of weird beings that look very much like the Norse gods, and you see the Hero, back in the prime of his youth, standing in front of them, smiling. Cue credits.
I mean, holy fuck is that some REALLY good storytelling! I attribute all of the love I have for that episode to the voice actor for the Monster/Hero, Richard McGonagle. He gave that performance his all. SO much emotion and anguish, conveying beautifully, the way that person would feel in a horrible situation like that. Jack was honestly just a side character in that episode. It was ALL about the Viking.
And I loved the setting they created. This one man, trapped and denied his afterlife with his loved ones, all due to the spite of a cruel being, who thought it was funny. And so he has to endure, to overcome, only so he can die in the one way prescribed by his faith, to allow him entry. Which is still ultimately out of his hands.
And, regardless of the fact that the cartoon was forced to imply he died due to accelerated aging, he HAD TO DIE IN BATTLE, or else he can't get into Valhalla. So Jack killed that person, that actual human. Which up to that point, in the original run of the show, they avoided by it always being robots. But he killed that guy, there is no other way to actually read that, based on the conclusion. It was just, so powerful. I fucking love it. So yeah, great episode. Really damn solid storytelling and acting, highly recommend everyone watch it if you haven't, and watch it again if you have.
