Minions of Set

Minions of Set
Information
Species	Divine demons
Allies	Set Aku
Enemies	Samurai Jack Ra

The Minions of Set were powerful beings who appeared in Episode XXXI: Jack in Egypt.

Character outline

The Minions of Set were three dog-like demons with black skin, golden heads, and glowing blue eyes, a trait that was shared with several other beings of divine origin. Despite appearing in just one episode, the Minions of Set were shown to be some of the most powerful opponents that Samurai Jack had ever faced. Their weapons resembled traditional weapons from ancient Egypt: one had a curved, sickle-like sword called a Khopesh, one had an Egyptian battle axe, and the third had two, short clubs or rods, one in its right hand and one that was attached to its left bracer. The weapons glowed with magical blue flames.

Their level of sentience was questionable. Although they were seemingly capable of understanding and comprehending the meaning of speech, they themselves did not speak; they only ever growled, barked, and roared. They also appeared to be capable of understanding that Jack's only hope against them was to complete a magical scarab. They attempted to thwart his efforts to do so, and one of them even attempted to ingest a part of the scarab. Additionally, when Jack retrieved all three pieces of the scarab, they seemed to realize the implications of what he had accomplished. They were also capable of feeling fear, as evidenced when the last of them fled before Ra's Eye Beams.

Given that they were servants and possibly creations of Set, the enemy of Ra, they harbored a strong hatred towards the Sun God. When Ra descended from the sky, they barked viciously and assaulted the Sun God, which then resulted in their total destruction under Ra's divine power.

Biography

According to an ancient Egyptian prophecy that was read by Jack when he was a child, Set, the Egyptian God of Disorder and Violence, unleashed his three evil minions upon Egypt and the Pharaoh's armies were unable to stop their rampage. Eventually, the Pharaoh called upon a great power and imprisoned the Minions of Set in a tomb, upon which the prophecy was inscribed.

Many years later, Aku heard of the prophecy and believed that he had found a new means of destroying Jack. He managed to find the tomb and freed the Minions of Set, who promptly displayed their prowess by annihilating the robot minions that Aku had brought with him. In exchange for freeing the Minions of Set, Aku ordered them to destroy Jack, who approached the temple at the time.

The Minions of Set hid near their former tomb and awaited Jack's arrival as night fell. Jack had just enough time to realize what had happened before the Minions of Set attacked and soundly thrashed him while they proved to be invulnerable even to his Sword. Utterly outmatched, Jack remembered the prophecy that he had read as a child, and proceeded to the tomb of the Minions of Set. Inscribed on it was the rest of the prophecy, which instructed Jack to collect and assemble the three pieces of a scarab, the symbol of the God Khepri, and use it to summon Ra. After a long and tiring chase with the Minions of Set throughout the temple, Jack finally managed to assemble the scarab. After he appeared, Ra easily destroyed all three Minions of Set with his Eye Beams.

After Jack destroyed Aku in the past, the Minions of Set possibly, albeit unintentionally, came back into existence; since they were never freed to hunt Jack and destroyed by Ra. Fortunately, with no Aku to release them, the Minions of Set remained sealed in the tomb forever.

Powers and Abilities

Regeneration: Possibly their most useful ability, the Minions of Set were capable of almost instantaneously regenerating from virtually any damage that was inflicted upon them. This ability extended even to the effects of Jack's Sword, which was specifically forged by the Gods to destroy Aku. They were eventually destroyed by Ra's Eye Beams, which could have meant that they were either vulnerable to the divine energy of Ra himself.

Supernatural Endurance: As part of their divine nature, the Minions of Set appeared to have limitless endurance and were able to fight indefinitely without food, water, or sleep.

Heightened Senses: The Minions of Set were shown to have very keen senses. Their senses of hearing and particularly smell appeared to have been very enhanced, as they were able to track Jack, even while he hid, by smell, and in one instance, were alerted to Jack's location when he accidentally tapped his sword lightly on a pillar.

Superhuman Strength: The Minions of Set were capable of cutting stone pillars to pieces and broke the temple walls just by slamming into them. Their punches were strong enough to throw Jack tens of feet through the air.

Superhuman Speed: The Minions of Set were also very fast, as shown by the fact that they easily destroyed Aku's robot army before the robots even had time to react. Their running speed appeared to have been more or less equal to Jack's own most of the time, as he was able, with him and the minions running, to maintain his distance from them on several occasions on straight paths. However, on one occasion, one of the minions managed to run along a ceiling from a position significantly behind Jack to a position in front of him. They often alternated between running on two legs and running on four legs, though they tended to run on four legs when they needed to cover a significant distance.

Superhuman Agility: During battle, the Minions of Set constantly jumped at their opponent like animals, and were capable of performing flips while in the air as well as leapt great distances.

Limited Gravity Manipulation: The Minions of Set were capable of running on walls and even upside down on a ceiling.

Master Combatant: The Minions of Set were each immensely skilled in the use of their particular weapons. However, Jack was, with great effort, able to hold his own against all three after their initial ambush. Additionally, the minion who wielded the two rods threw one of them at Jack at one point, and it tracked him around a corner (though whether that was an intrinsic property of the weapon, or a skill of the minion itself, was unknown).

Gallery

Khopesh

Battle Axe

Swords (Note: The left sword attached to its wrist bracer; it is not in its hand).

The Minions of Set.

A Minion coming out of nowhere and sucker punching Jack.

A Minion punching Jack in the stomach.

A Minion giving Jack a swift and brutal uppercut.

The swords the Minion used hits Jack in the back of the head like a baton.

Whenever Jack successfully parried one of their blade strikes, the Minions just punched him in the face instead.

Trivia

• They were designed after Set animal, also known as Sha. Interestingly, they shared similarities in terms of appearance and abilities to Anubites in Age of Mythology, a video game developed by Ensemble Studios .
• They were one of the few enemies that could not be defeated by Jack's Sword, which forced Jack to use other means in order to defeat them.
  • Though it's possible that the upgraded version of Jack's Sword from Season 5 may have been able to harm them.
• The reason why Jack's Sword could not vanquish them could be explained by the fact that they were created by Set personally (not unlike how the Elementals were created by the Goddess of Water); therefore, only Ra or possibly other Egyptian deities (or divine beings) could vanquish them for good. Alternatively, their divine nature meant that Jack's Sword didn't have the same regeneration-inhibiting effect on them that it did when it was used on Aku, which allowed them to recover from his attacks endlessly.
• They were one of the few characters that bested Jack in combat.