Episode XLVII: Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess

Jack and the Flying Prince and Princess
Season 4
Episode 47
Prod. code	408
Roman Numeral	XLVI
Airdate	November 19, 2003
Episode Guide
Previous	Scotsman Saves Jack, Part 2
Next	Jack versus 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 story similar to his own.

Plot

The episode starts with a view of another planet, named Chrystalis. The inhabitants are humanoid moth aliens called Lebidopterins. Suddenly, shark shaped space crafts appear and start firing. They are flown by the dreaded Squoomians, their mortal enemies. They have come to seige control over the capital. The Lepidopterins try to fight back, but they're no match for the Squoomian ships. The King and Queen are worried. They decide to 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. They find out that they can't fly because Earth's gravity is greater than their planet's. Chitron prepairs to fix the ship when Aku's drones appear. Chitron tells them of their problem, but then a minion takes 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. Aku asks why they have come. 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 wonders if he should help them. Instead, he has their ship confiscated and has them put in irons to be taken into the mines. Chitron tries to reason with Aku, but Aku just squashes the robot.

He then orders the prince and princess to be taken away. Jack distracts Aku while he stops the minions. He defeats the minions and frees the sibilings. 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 doing 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. 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.

Trivia

• This episode has many homages to Star Wars.

  Examples:
  * 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' 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"
  * 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 all six 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 a little short for a Stormtrooper?"
  * 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.