Daughters of Aku

"You are seven, but you wear the face of one; the one purpose for which you were born: to kill the samurai!"

- The High Priestess to the Daughters of Aku

The Daughters of Aku were a group of seven human-demon hybrid women who were born and raised by their mother, the High Priestess, for the sole purpose of killing Samurai Jack. They are from a cult of the same name dedicated to Aku and appear during the events of Season 5. As of Episode XCV, only Ashi was confirmed to be alive. It was confirmed in Episode XCVIII that all the Daughters, minus Ashi, did indeed perish by Jack according to the High Priestess. In Episode C, it was revealed that they were indeed the daughters of Aku with their mother having taken the essence of Aku and birthing them as a result.

After Jack and Ashi time-traveled into the past shortly after Aku originally hurled Jack into the future, Jack finally triumphed in destroying Aku. With his demise in the past, Ashi (and the rest of her sisters) are rendered non-existent and thus were never born. In Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, the time pockets the demon himself created of the future not only affected by space or time, but prevents their non-existence allowing Ashi to be the only survivor in the game's alternate ending as Jack's wife.

Appearance
Being septuplets, they all shared very similar physical traits consisting of black hair, narrow eyes and what appeared to be pitch-black latex-like suits. It is later revealed that their "suits" are in fact solidified tar as a result of being pushed into a hot, tar-like substance from the Pit of Hate by their mother. The only distinguishing trait among them is their varying hairstyles. When out on their mission, they wear white masks with black horns made to resemble Aku's.

Background
The seven daughters were birthed by The High Priestess of an all-female cult of Aku sometime after she consumed Aku's essence. After birth, the priestess had them raised as assassins to succeed where many others have failed in the mission of killing Jack. They were put through the most brutal of training, designed to sculpt them into the ultimate ninja warriors, such as facing a hulking, muscle-bound opponent when they were mere children. Even more, they have been utterly taught to think that Aku is the true savior of the planet and Jack seeks to destroy all that Aku has "created". When their training was complete, they donned their masks and head coverings and set out to fulfill their mission. (Episode XCII)

They eventually found Jack and proceed to lay a trap after he deals with a large Beetle Drone. They manage to destroy or steal most of his equipment and armor but the Samurai is able to escape their grasp briefly using explosives and flee towards an abandoned temple. After a long search, the sisters manage to locate him and engage in a running battle with him throughout the temple. Eventually, one of the Sisters manages to corner and wound Jack, but at the cost of her life, a fact that leaves Jack horrified as he realizes he has been fighting a living human being instead of another machine as he had initially thought them to be. After snapping out of it, Jack then manages to escape them again by recovering the tuning fork blade he took from the assassin Scaramouche from the now dead sister who stole it and used it to seal the temple hallway behind him as he jumped into the river below. (Episode XCIII)

While Jack recovered from his wounds, the Daughters broke out of the ruined temple and continued the hunt for Jack, leaving the corpse of their dead sister behind. Following the river to the forest, the sisters spent a moment observing a female deer in the woods, mistaking her mate for one of Aku's minions due to its antlers. After one of the Daughters scared the deer off and it began to snow, Jack revealed his presence to them. He offered them an ultimatum: leave, or face their destiny. When the Daughters refused and rejected his words of wisdom, Jack emerged from his hiding place in the snow and impaled one of them with a wooden spear. Jack then proceeded to dispatch the rest of the daughters until only Ashi remained, hanging from a fallen tree over a valley. Ignoring her threats about Aku, Jack simply unwrapped her kusarigama from his arm, sending her to her presumed death. Unfortunately, the tree finally collapsed from the fight and Jack followed her into the valley below. (Episode XCIV)

The Daughters of Aku were erased from the timeline since Ashi and Jack altered the future with the defeat of Aku in the past. (Episode CI)

In Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, most of the Daughters of Aku get killed in combat by Jack, except Ashi, who is the only survivor and does not fade away from existence.

Powers and Abilities
All seven sisters were trained rigorously for all of their lives to become ultimate assassins, solely to kill Jack. As a result, they are not only highly skilled in the art of assassination but also void of emotion, shown in how they pursued Jack effectively and unflinchingly even after one of their own died, being raised to believe that "death is failure in the eyes of Aku". After years of training, the daughters of Aku became very tactical and analytical, as seen when they strategically stripped Samurai Jack of his armor and weapons during their first encounter. The depth of their training and skill is further revealed during their attempts to kill the Samurai, in which they would attack without mercy, striking with fast-paced coordination, trying their best to ensure that Jack wouldn't have any time to respond or recover.

However, despite their training and numbers, they were only able to stand against Jack with surprise on their side; the Samurai finally overpowered them after a lengthy struggle. Furthermore, due to them spending their lives being trained in isolation, they possess little to no knowledge of the outside world, having never seen other animals such as a doe and assuming a stag was Aku's minion because of its antlers. Ashi in particular was intrigued by the outside world, but her mother refused to allow her to be distracted.


 * Supernatural Physical Ability: During training, the seven sisters were able to run on a cliff as if they were running on flat ground. They even managed to engage in a combat and slay the cultists while doing so. They were able to smash Jack's set of armor pieces as though it was made of paper with mere punches and kicks. During the battle with the orc army, Ashi single-handedly broke through their lines by using one of the soldiers as a battering ram and survived the battle with minor injuries. Amazingly, after completely decimating the large army, Ashi still had enough stamina to not only immediately hold her own against her mother in combat, but to defeat her. The seven sisters' training throughout their entire life has honed their skills as being very fast and has amazing jumping and parkour skills which can arguably be seen as on par with, or even better than Jack's. They can run extremely fast, they are quick enough to dodge arrow and machine-gun fire. Also, the seven sisters were trained to honed their senses to be able to react to dangers, such as archer fire, by instinct. It is possible that their physical ability is somewhat superhuman due to Aku's essence in them, even without having their true power unlocked.
 * Corrupted Form: Being the biological daughters of Aku, it is safe to say that all seven sisters carry Aku's essence and as such they can be controlled and corrupted by Aku, gaining more powerful forms.
 * Superhuman Strength: The suit increases their physical strength. This was shown when Ashi was strong enough to penetrate metallic objects with a sword and shatter the ground with one kick.
 * Elasticity: In their corrupted form, the seven sisters can stretch and expand their limbs in any direction. Their limbs can also act like a whip that can easily rip through metal.
 * Pyrokinesis/Infusion: The seven sisters' bodysuits has flaming eyebrows similar to their father. They can also infuse weaponry, such as a sword, with fire.
 * 360-Degree Neck Rotation: They can rotate their head without snapping their necks.
 * Shapeshifting/Weapon Creation: They can turn their forearms into blades.
 * Eye beams: They can fire energy beams from their eyes.
 * Time Portal Creation: Much like their father, the seven sisters has the ability to create time portals using their vocal cords. For example, Ashi used this ability to send herself and Jack back in time to defeat Aku once and for all.
 * Indomitable Willpower: All seven sisters seems to possess a strong will to correct their mistakes and help them persevere through hardships. This made them into a powerful and cold assassin. As described by their mother towards the seven sisters, "Aku's fire stirs through all of you."
 * Hammerspace: The seven sisters' outfits allowed them to store their weapon of choice when not in use.
 * Ninjutsu: They are trained in the art of ninjutsu, each of the seven skilled with a different weapon.
 * Stealth: They are masters of stealth and camouflage. In the temple where Jack attempted to hide, they were able to beat him at his own game, vanishing into the shadows to ambush the samurai. However, they were not trained nor equipped for snow concealment, and Jack was able to outmatch them in a snowy forest.
 * Trap Masters: They are capable of creating effective traps.
 * Master Assassin: All seven sisters are trained to be highly skilled in assassination (solely to kill Jack).
 * Weapons Master: All seven sisters were masters in their own weaponry, mostly relied on their own weapons and use them very effectively against Jack.
 * Expert Combatant: All seven sisters were highly trained in hand-to-hand combat. They have become more skilled at close-quarter combat than even their trainers.

Members

 * Ashi (erased from existence in the show ending) ( real Ashi survives in the alternative and game-ending)
 * Avi (killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending)
 * Ami (killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending
 * Aki (killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending)
 * Ani (killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending)
 * Ali (killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending)
 * Ari(killed and erased from existence in the show ending) (killed in the alternative and game-ending)

Fate

 * Ari wielded a katana encountered Jack in the Temple. She destroyed his battle axe and after a brief struggle, Jack swiped her weapon and slit her throat with it, but not before she stabbed him with her kunai. Since Jack had traveled to the past to kill Aku, she has been erased from existence. In Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, her fate is the same, she just doesn't get to stab Jack this time.
 * Aki wielded a kusarigama. She was killed in a surprise attack by Jack with a spear. She has been erased from existence due to Jack traveling to the past to destroy Aku.
 * Ami wielded dual sai. She was killed unintentionally when Jack impaled her with a spear that was originally thrown at Ashi. She has been erased from existence due to Jack traveling to the past and killing Aku.
 * Ali wielded a kanabo. She was killed while charging at Jack, who impaled her with one of her sisters' butterfly swords. She has been erased from existence due to Jack traveling to the past and destroying Aku.
 * Ani wielded a naginata. She was defeated when Jack dodged her attack, grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her off the log they were fighting on, which resulted in her death. She also died from probably being digested by the Gargantuan creature. But she is erased from existence now due to Jack traveling to the past to kill Aku.
 * Avi had wielded dual butterfly swords. She charged at Jack and was dispatched with a single punch that broke her neck, causing her to lose consciousness and fall, which ends up killing her. Like her sister, she died from probably being eaten by the Gargantuan creature but now is erased from existence because of the death of Aku in the past.
 * Ashi was dispatched when Jack allowed her to strike him with her kusarigama. Using the weapon against her, Jack and Ashi dangled from the log and Jack managed to kick her mask off. The fight ended with Jack returning to the log and untying the chain, causing Ashi to plummet. She survived and later was reluctantly rescued by Jack in XCV. She then joined him on his quest after being shown the truth, and (because Aku tried to corrupt and control her) she gained powers similar to his and thus she was able to use time-travel to take Jack back to the past and destroy Aku once and for all. However, as a result of Aku's demise in the past Ashi (and the rest of her sisters) ceases to exist along with the timeline in which they were born. In the end, all of the Daughters of Aku ceased to exist, because, without Aku, they were never born, which happened in the original ending in Episode CI.
 * All of the daughters minus Ashi in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time get killed from combat. Ashi is the only survivor in the game's ending (although a fake Ashi is killed by Aku pushing her on Jack's sword, impaling her).

Season 5

 * Episode XCII (first appearance, raised as hunters)
 * Episode XCIII
 * Episode XCIV
 * Episode XCV (last appearance, except Ashi)
 * Episode XCVIII (mentioned)
 * Episode C (mentioned)

Video Games

 * Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time

Weaponry
Five of the seven members utilize different weapons: katana, twin sai, twin butterfly swords, kanabo and naginata, with Ashi and Aki both using the Kusarigama.

Trivia

 * They were presumably born somewhere in Japan, given their Asiatic appearance and Japanese name. Not to mention they wielded ninja weaponry and fought the same way as ninjas' do. This may indicate that the cult and its members were of Japanese origin.
 * They can be seen as an antithesis to Jack as they were raised to kill him, similar to how he was trained from childhood to defeat Aku.


 * They also serve as a parallel to the Ultra-Robots where they have hearts and blood compared to the Ultra-Robots. The Daughters of Aku also have some relativity to the Planet Four Xenomorphs and Neomorphs from Alien Covenant with their origins being much like the Alien Covenant Aliens; they were created with the assistance of black liquid, but their gestation process and blood are nothing like the Aliens with the only relativity is the Neomorphs' standard non-acidic blood and the fact that they all die.


 * All the Daughters have names that start with "A" and end with "I." Also, Ashi's the only one of the Daughters to have four letters in her name, as all six of her sisters have only three letters in their names.
 * This is the first time Jack takes a human life, as it is confirmed by Genndy that all the bounty hunters Jack fought in the past were heavily injured by his strikes but never died from their injuries.
 * However, Genndy may have forgotten about Jack's encounter with the Lava Monster, as he was really a human underneath the lava shell and Jack's defeat of him directly lead to his death (which is confirmed by him being carried into the afterlife). So officially speaking the Daughters of Aku are the second time Jack ends up taking a life.
 * The weapons used by them are inconsistent. There is a scene that shows two of them carrying the same weapon, the kanabo, and another scene showing two of them carrying a katana, and another scene that shows two of them carrying sai, and then another scene shows two of them carrying the kusarigama. One Daughter of Aku may have wielded multiple weapons, as the other 6 daughters had the same weapons throughout every scene.
 * Only 3 Daughters of Aku are known to have which weapons. You can see in Episode XCII when they were fighting the cult members on the rock that a Daughter of Aku has butterfly swords and another daughter of Aku has a katana. In Episode XCIV, you can hear the Daughter of Aku with the butterfly swords scream, “Our destiny is your death!” with a voice similar to Ashi's, though Ashi and Avi have the same voice actor.
 * They are extremely naïve about what goes on in the outside world, as they become curious when they see a doe for the first time. They even mistake a stag as a minion of Aku due to the fact that the beast possesses a pair of antlers, and assume that the stag will devour the weaker doe. When the pair of deer begin their courting ritual, the girls are baffled and one of them voices in disgust that it is "madness".
 * Their training parallels Jack's in that while he traveled the world in preparation for defeating Aku, they instead were kept secluded from the world as a whole, leaving them surprisingly unprepared and uneducated about anything beyond their mission. This is in contrast to Jack, who studied not only martial arts and tracking and survival techniques, but also history, philosophy, horsemanship, astronomy, and more. This shows that while they may be gifted as warriors, they were vastly incomplete as anything more than living weapons.
 * Their trainers are also the complete antithesis of Jack's teachers. While Jack's trainers were a variety of cultures all over the world, their own are only limited to the cultists of the Cult of Aku that kept them secluded from the outside world, thus narrowing their views. During his training, Jack had developed a familial bond with his trainers, e.g. the African chief had taken Jack as his own son and one of the members of his tribe. Jack had also socialized with his fellow apprentices and students during his long years of training, while the Daughters of Aku are not allowed to even aid their own siblings and are taught that failures of any levels are not tolerated, and are subjected to physical abuse during their training. Jack's teachers not only trained him physically but also spiritually and mentally, whereas the Daughters of Aku know nothing but their purpose as living weapons.
 * This is what leads to them failing their mission to kill Jack, as they are lacking in teamwork skills and only Jack is effective and has the knowledge in using the environment to his own advantage.


 * Ironically, while the Daughters of Aku were raised to kill Jack, Ashi (the leader of the seven daughters of Aku and the sole survivor) is responsible for saving Jack multiple times. Had the High Priestess not raised her daughters to kill Jack and make contact with him, Ashi may have never met Jack, which would've left Jack shell-shocked and possibly vulnerable and suicidal, as she is the one to save him from the Omen, remind him of his duties, and even helps defend him while he looks for his sword.
 * Aki, one of Ashi's sisters, could be a nod to an appearance to an unknown girl from Johnny Bravo's episode "Witch-Ay Woman" where said character sings the song "Girls R Smart".
 * During the second battle with Jack, as Aki, one of the Sisters throws her sai into a crow, she somehow regains both her sai whilst being impaled by Jack, therefore dropping both onto the ground rather than one.
 * When one of the sisters was impaled with one of the sisters' butterfly swords, the sister that was originally wielding a naginata had a kanabo instead. That also gives a hint that that would be the next daughter to die.
 * When Jack kills the kanabo-wielding daughter, the blade impales her in her chest, but the next shot it's in her midsection, and then it's in her chest again.


 * In Episode XCIII, Jack believes that the Daughters are "Just nuts and bolts", but he is sometimes shown physical hitting them (such as kicking and punching them a few times), therefore making skin to skin contact (since the Daughters 'suits' are revealed to be ash), so he should have immediately realized that they were organic/human. However, it could be that his mind was set on seeing them as robots since that was what he has been fighting mostly throughout his 50+ years in the future.
 * It is extremely strange that, despite being conceived by the essence of pure evil, they are capable of human moral values, such as familial care towards each other (initially) and, in Ashi's case, redemption. However, six of the daughters swore absolute loyalty to Aku, one did not.