Episode XLVII: Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess

Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess
Season 4
Episode 47
Created by	Genndy Tartakovsky
Production company	Cartoon Network Studios
Prod. code	408
Roman Numeral	XLVI
Airdate	November 19, 2003
Episode Guide
Previous	The Scotsman Saves Jack, Part 2
Next	Jack vs. Aku

"Episode XLVII: Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess" is the forty-seventh episode in the fourth season of Samurai Jack. This episode featured Jack meeting two alien royal siblings with a story similar to his own.

Plot

The episode starts with a view of another planet, named Chrystallis. The inhabitants are humanoid moth-like aliens called Lebidopterins. Suddenly, shark-shaped spacecrafts appear and begin firing. They are flown by the dreaded Squoomians, their mortal enemies. They have come to seize control of the capital. The Lepidopterins try to fight back, but they are no match for the Squoomian ships. The King and Queen call for reinforcements from the Royal Navy, but the robot Chitron 6 points out that the communication system has been destroyed.

Desperate, they decide to send their children, Prince Astor and Princess Verbina, into space to find and recall the Royal Navy. They take Chitron and charter a space craft. While they're leaving, they are ambushed by Squoomians. They manage to evade them but lose power to their ship. They decide to land on Earth to make repairs. While they crash, Jack witnesses and decides to follow. Astor and Verbina find out that they can't fly because Earth's gravity is greater than their planet's. Chitron prepares to fix the ship when Aku's drones appear. Chitron tells them of their problem, but the minions take them to see Aku.

Jack hides under the vehicle to find out what happens next. They arrive at Aku's palace. Jack defeats a minion and takes his uniform. When they arrive inside, Jack hides while the aliens have an audience before Aku. Verbina respectfully introduces herself, her brother and Chitron. She tells Aku that their planet is under attack and they need reinforcements. Jack hears this and it reminds him of when he had to train to stop Aku from destroying his home. Afterwards, Aku pretends to have sympathy for the prince and princess's plight before he has their ship confiscated and has them put in irons to be taken into the mines. Chitron futilely tries to reason with Aku, but Aku just crushes the robot.

He then orders the prince and princess to be taken away. Jack is about to strike at the unaware Aku, but cannot bring himself to leave the prince and princess to their fate. He defeats the minions and frees the siblings. He introduces himself and offers to help them escape. He tries to drive, but reveals he doesn't know how. But he does know where their ship is, so Verbina drives while he navigates. Astor and Verbina are making repairs while Jack watches out for danger. He asks how the repairs are going and they reply that they're almost done. Jack is glad because a horde of drones are on their way.  Jack keeps them at bay while they continue repairs. They finish when they look outside in concern. They tell Jack to hurry up, but he says the drones would swarm the ship and tells them to escape. They decide they can help him by expanding the ship's artificial gravity to engulf the horde. They succeed and fight off the drones with little trouble. Astor and Verbina are amazed that Jack helped them even though they are strangers. They ask how they can thank him, and he says they can do so by saving their planet.

He explains that their stories are very much alike, like them he too is a prince seeking to save his world from a great evil, in his case Aku. They tell him everything will be alright, and that his story is not yet over. Astor and Verbina go to summon the Navy for their people. They defeat the Squoomians and peace returns to their planet. The Lebidopterins decide to erect a statue of Samurai Jack in his honor.

Credits

• Written by
  • Paul Rudish

• Directed by
  • Chris Savino
  • Genndy Tartakovsky

• Storyboards by
  • Paul Rudish
  • Chris Savino

• Voices
  • Phil LaMarr as Samurai Jack / Captain / Guard
  • Makoto Iwamatsu as Aku
  • Matt Levin as Astor
  • Tara Strong as Verbina / Queen
  • Tom Kenny as King / Chitron 6 / Chamberlain

• Casting by
  • Collette Sunderman

Trivia

• This episode has many homages to the Star Wars film series.
  • The first planet shown in the opening Crystalis is depicted in a binary star system (two suns). In "A New Hope", Tatooine occupies a binary system.
  • Chitron 6's personality and physical appearance resembles C-3P0.
  • Astor and Verbina are similar to Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo with the exception they know they're siblings.
  • Astor and Verbina's starship they use to escape physically resembles the CR-90 Blockade Runner in "A New Hope"
  • Astor and Verbina escape by flying through an asteroid field, in "The Empire Strikes Back" the protagonists escape the Empire through an asteroid field. Astor and Verbina also damage their faster-than-light drive.
  • The Squoomian's make use of large fighters when they attack Crystalis, the pilots helmet and mask appear like TIE fighter pilots.
  • The Lepidopteran cities float in the clouds. In "The Empire Strikes Back" Cloud City is a huge city floating above the clouds of a gas giant.
  • When Astor and Verbina are arrested, Astor says "I have a bad feeling about this". A quote spoken at least once in seven Star Wars films.
  • When Jack rescues Astor & Verbina, she asks "Aren't you a little short for a demonic minion?" which parodies Leia's asking "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?". Jack's response is the same as Luke's, near verbatim.
  • When Aku hears Jack's sword and turns towards him, only to find no one there, he comments that that was strange, he thought he sensed a presence. This parodies Darth Vader in Episode IV, when he senses Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Death Star.
  • Aku makes use of robotic drone warriors, in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, the antagonists utilize robotic soldiers.
• The premise of this episode is similar to Sym-Bionic Titan, which is also created by Genndy Tartakovsky, in which two aliens and a robot escaped from their planet occupied by an evil force and land on Earth.
  • The female protagonist of both the episode and Sym-Bionic Titan are voiced by Tara Strong.
• This episode is one of the few that verbalizes Jack's royal heritage.
• Lepidopterans are the name of the people. Under animal taxonomy, Lepidoptera is an order of insects represented by moths and butterflies which they resemble.