Da' Samurai

"Man... those robotic cats got nothin' on me! 'Cause back in the the day, I was a bad-ass sa-mu-rai! I was Da' Samurai! I was ALL about that slicin' and dicin'! Talkin' 'bout the... Funk-A-Chop! The Whack-A-Hack! And, of course, the ever famous... Turkey Carve! But Samurai Jack enlightened me to the true meaning of being a samurai. Shortly after, I gave up my blade and top knot and became the bartender here at the place where we first met."

- Da Samurai talking to Ashi about Jack.

"Da Samurai is in the house! That's right baby! Somebody's gonna get hurt bad, and Aku's gonna get it badder!"

- Da Samurai in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time.

Da' Samurai (often misspelled as The Sam-Moo-Rhai) is a character who first appeared in Episode XLII: Samurai versus Samurai as a samurai wannabe.

Character outline
Da' Samurai first introduced himself by gloating to be the best sword fighter ever, even greater than Jack. He wears outrageous purple and yellow clothes and green, high-tech sunglasses that are very expensive and have a wiper built in.

He used a robotic boombox to herald his arrival and wields a katana he nicknamed "Mama". Da' Samurai challenged Jack to duel, believing that there could only be one samurai. By the end of the episode, he sees the error of his ways and chases after Jack to learn how to be a real samurai.

Original Series
Not much is known about Da' Samurai's background. He made his first appearance when he entered a tavern in the middle of the forest.

Upon entering, he spent several minutes constantly bragging about his samurai skills and bullying the people around him. When he tried to hit on a beautiful woman, she ordered her robot bodyguards to deal with him, but he defeated them all with relative ease. Samurai Jack was in the tavern at the time, but paid little attention to these events.

Only when Aku sent a few robots of his own was Jack forced to reveal his identity, fighting and destroying them. Da' Samurai, having witnessed the way Jack easily defeated the assassins, started mocking Jack, believing himself to be the superior samurai.

Jack reluctantly accepted his challenge, and the two of them dueled outside the tavern using bamboo sticks, since Jack didn't consider his opponent to be worthy of facing his blade yet. After a very comical battle where Jack completely overwhelms and humiliates Da' Samurai, an army of sword-wielding robot assassins arrive to kill Jack. Da' Samurai tries to run back to the tavern only to get himself restrained by the assassins. A big battle ensues in which Jack destroys the entire robot army using only his bamboo stick. He then frees Da Samurai from the restraints. The destroyed robots reassemble themselves into one giant robot and take a shot at Jack with a laser beam. Da Samurai pushes Jack out of the way, and gets hit by the beam instead. After Jack permanently destroys the big robot with his sword, he tells Da' Samurai that he has taken the first step towards the true path to the way of the samurai. The episode ends in a comical way with Da' Samurai running after Jack, calling him "Sensei" and asking what the next lessons of becoming a samurai were.

Fifty years later
Fifty years after meeting Samurai Jack, Da' Samurai has become the Bartender of the bar they met each other as revealed when he crossed paths with Ashi. When she tried to ask where Jack was, due to mistakenly believing she was intending to challenge him to a fight, he and the patrons took turns warning her of how powerful and skilled he was. He recounted his first meeting with Jack, thanking Jack for enlightening him, but mostly talked about his own feats and skills. When Demongo made an abrupt entrance and then exit from the bar, Da' Samurai became annoyed and called him a freak.

After Aku's destruction in the past at the hands of Jack in Episode CI, it is unknown how Da' Samurai's existence was affected in the future. Considering that his entire persona was inspired by Jack, his existence is likely gone entirely as he never came to be the person he was due to the change in the timeline. If he still exists in the future, he would neither be the person he was or that he would have become with Jack's presence.

Battle Through Time
In the time pocket Aku created between time, Da' Samurai was restored to his original appearance, and acts as a shopkeeper to Jack. In exchange for enough gold, Jack can buy and sell weapons, ammunition, and consumables at Da' Samurai's shop by talking to him at any of the various locations where he appears, though his stock differs from location to location. Jack can also spend gold at the shop in return for repairs, which restore durability in weapons that have been worn out from use in combat, and weapon training, each purchase of which increases Jack's proficiency in one the various classes of melee weapons by one level. Da' Samurai appears in every level, often multiple times.

Skills and abilities
Upon making his first appearance, Da' Samurai was shown to be a very muscular man. This was proven wrong later on, when Jack revealed that his muscles were actually fake, and that he was a physically weak man with a prominent pot belly, instead of the athlete he tried to make himself look like. Even before this revelation, Da' Samurai had demonstrated an impressive level of physical strength, speed, agility and sword-fighting skills when he fought and defeated a group of robots at the tavern.

He has several named fighting moves:


 * The Helicopter: Da' Samurai spins very fast and uses his katana to try and slash the people around him (like a helicopter rotor).


 * The Crazy Eight: Da' Samurai used this move on one of the robots he fought. He was quickly moving his katana in the form of the number 8, then he sliced off a ceiling lantern which fell on the robot's head. Da Samurai then used his katana to decapitate the robot.


 * The Sucker Punch: just like the name suggests, this move is a typical sucker punch. Da' Samurai points into a specific direction, making his opponents turn around, then punches them hard in the face, while calling them "Sucker".


 * The Monk Dunk: Da' Samurai used this move on another robot he fought against. He used his katana to slice the top of the robot's head making it look bald (similar to a monk), then he grabbed the robot and performed a slam dunk by throwing it through a wall lantern like a basketball through a basket.


 * The Funk-A-Chop: Da' Samurai does a 90-degree split and follows up with a swing with his katana. He brags about this move to Ashi.


 * The Whack-A-Hack: Da' Samurai dances in lieu to real-life MC Hammer whilst hacking his katana wildly. He brags about this move to Ashi.


 * The Turkey Carve: Da' Samurai simply does a standard downward slash, with enough force to cut through a roasted turkey. He brags about this move to Ashi

Quotes

 * "Wassup, y'all. Da' Samurai is in the Hiz-zer-reh-ouse"
 * "D-D-D-D-Da' Samurai. That's right, ain't no bout about that. Don't call me bad, call me badder I'm the samurai dude who invented groove. Ain't no stopping this booty-kicking brother"
 * "And this here, is my Mama. Don't you be talking bad about my Mama, or she'll give you a whoopin'. Ain't that right Mama? Uhm hum. Uhm hum, that's right baby". COS! I! AM! DA' SAMURAI!"
 * "Catch, Sucker."
 * "What's up, fellas? Nice Hat. That's better"
 * "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. UMATAIALAHAI"
 * "Hey, what kind of swill are you trying to serve me? Now, you're lucky I'm in a good mood, cos Mama would knock you out"
 * Hey, man, close the damn door! You're letting all the heat out!
 * "THAT'S BECAUSE YOU AIN'T GOT NO SOUL, YA ROBOT FOOL!"
 * "Whoo, we got some straight up freaks comin' through this place."