Demongo

"The more essence I take, the more powerful I become, my mast-aa. I cannot be defeated."

- Demongo

Demongo, also known as The Soul Collector, was one of Aku's strongest minions and was a soul or essence collector. He was sent after Jack after he managed to stay alive after Aku's constant attempts on his life.

Personality
Demongo is similar to his master, Aku, as he is completely evil, but is more cowardly than his master is. He does not fight his own battles, but summons the essence of mighty warriors to fight for him. Demongo is obsessed with collecting the essence of powerful warriors and beasts in order to increase his own power. Demongo does this by unleashing the warriors already in his possession in wave after wave of attacks. If an enslaved warrior is defeated by its intended victim, that warrior simply reverts to spiritual form and is returned to Demongo's spirit prison, where he or she can be immediately released for another round of combat, until the target is exhausted. The victim is then enslaved and added to the collection, and can be summoned and commanded to fight the next target. Thus, Demongo grows more powerful with each warrior he adds to his collection.

Despite his preferred tactic of fighting by proxy, he likely did have some capacity for direct combat, as he most likely had to defeat at least one powerful warrior to begin his collection. He sees Samurai Jack as just another potential addition to his collection. It's possible that he hides aspirations of succeeding or even overthrowing Aku, as suggested when he claims that Jack is too great for his master to destroy, but not for him. His voice is quite high-pitched and whenever he says "master", he says it like "mast-aa", with the final syllable almost in a whisper.

Synopsis
Like Aku, Demongo was spawned from the Pit of Hate. He was likely created by Aku to collect the essence of warriors, as some of them were once "thorns on Aku's side", and then enslave them to do their captor's bidding as obedient minions.

In their battle, Demongo unleashed unique and powerful warriors against Jack. Jack bested them in combat, but each defeat was only temporary, as upon death their essence would return to Demongo and could be released again immediately. Jack realized that it was only a matter of time before he would be too tired to continue fighting. Jack observed that an opponent was defeated its spirit would flow into Demongo's interior on a stream-like path of energy. He grabbed onto such a stream, which took him inside Demongo's body, whereupon Jack found himself in the spirit prison. Jack promptly liberated the warriors' spiritual essences from Demongo's control; they materialized back in the real world and turned on their former tormentor.

Demongo manages to survive a little longer than other villains (besides Aku) in the series. After Jack frees the souls entrapped within him, they are resurrected as flesh and blood warriors, rendering him weak and powerless. The only power that might remain is his teleportation. When this happened, he was confronted by the now-living warriors and was quickly overwhelmed and killed. His essence was then absorbed by Aku into a glass skull. Demongo (as an essence) begged Aku for forgiveness, but Aku refused, crushed his prison and vowed to find another way to defeat the samurai. (Episode XXIII: Jack versus Demongo, The Soul Collector)

Demongo returns in Episode XCVII having somehow survived when he enters the Da Samurai's bar while he explains his story to Ashi. He states that he is searching for the essence of powerful warriors to steal, but upon seeing the deteriorated state of the bar's occupants, comments that there were none at the bar and leaves. (Episode XCVII)

He was presumably erased from existence after the destruction of Aku in the past, since he was seemingly his creation.

Battle Through Time
Jack encounters Demongo many different times in various areas throughout the pocket Aku created between time, once again voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. But he isn't featured in any cutscenes. He just shows up as a boss, floats high up in the air, summons several generic enemies Jack had previously fought, and occasionally shoots bolts of lightning that temporarily stun Jack if they hit him. Demongo can be damaged by double-jumping and attacking him in mid-air, shooting projectiles at him, or by defeating his summoned warriors and attacking the cloudy souls they leave behind until they're purified. When Demongo's HP bar gets low enough, he and all his remaining summons simply despawn, and Demongo vows to destroy the samurai later. It is not until his final encounter in Aku's Tower that the player can deplete his entire health bar and end him for good.

Powers and Abilities

 * Soul Absorption: Demongo's main ability allows him to absorb the souls or "essence" of defeated warriors. Each soul manifests as a skull on his upper torso; when he wants to call upon a warrior, he detaches the skull and strikes it with a beam from his hands, causing the stored essence to form the warrior's body. As long as the victim's soul is bound to him, Demongo can manifest and reabsorb their essence as many times as he wishes, effectively giving him an immortal army that can wear down his foes through attrition.
 * Soul Binding: Demongo controls his captured souls by trapping them within his body. When Jack enters the villain's body by piggybacking on the essence of a defeated warrior, the souls are represented by blue-tinted images of their living selves, sitting in a circle of blue fire. By breaking the circle (presumably with the help of his evil-destroying sword), Jack was able to break Demongo's control over the souls, forcing him to release them.
 * Teleportation: Demongo is capable of teleporting from one place to another at astonishing rates.
 * Resurrection: When Jack released Demongo's hold on his victims' souls, they were restored to life rather than passing on. It is unclear if Demongo could do this willingly or not. Demongo himself was shown to be back in the world of the living in Episode XCVll, long after Aku executed him for his failure; this may be a trait of his demonic nature and it took him a long time to regenerate.

Quotes

 * "What is thy bidding, my Mast-aa?!"
 * "The more essence I take, the more powerful I become, my mast-aa. I cannot be defeated."
 * "Samurai Jack? A prize indeed. The greatest of all warriors."
 * "It is as good as done, my Mast-aa!"
 * "You are mistaken."
 * I am the dealer of destruction the merchant of doom and I seek you, Samurai Jack."
 * "Aku has sent me to destroy you."
 * "No, Mast-aa. Please, forgive me!"
 * "I have returned!"
 * "I, Demongo, have come to collect the souls of the greatest warriors!"
 * "But, I see, I have come to the wrong place!"