Odin

“	You have been chosen. A force of Ultimate Evil has resurrected itself on thy world.	”
—Odin to The Emperor

Odin
Information
Gender	Male ♂
Species	God
Allies	Ra Rama Samurai Jack The Emperor
Enemies	The Black Mass Aku
Voiced Actor	Richard McGonagle (Season 3) Aaron LaPlante (Season 5)

Odin was a God in Norse Mythology.

Character Outline

Odin, or Woden, first appeared in Episode X: Jack and the Lava Monster, and was portrayed as the powerful Norse God of War, Wisdom, and Battle. He was the leader of the Norse Gods known as Aesir, and the ruler of both Asgard and Valhalla.

History

Millions or billions of years before Samurai Jack was even born, Odin, along with his fellow Gods, Ra and Rama, battled The Black Mass somewhere in the vastness of space. Their divine weapons injured and burned the Black Mass in the same way that Jack's Katana did, but given the self-regeneration powers that the entity possessed, it could not be defeated in a few blows, since its substance was difficult to destroy even through the use of their collaborative attacks. In the battle, Odin cut off a part of the entity with Gungnir, but its divine power did not burn away the severed part completely, which allowed it to drift away from the scene and seemingly went unnoticed by them.

For countless eons, the fragment floated in space until it crashed into the prehistoric Earth and caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The fragment then became a pool of black tar-like substance and a black forest soon appeared around it.

For untold numbers of periods, the black forest devoured any living creatures by drowning them into the tar or impaled them from the ground. The forest grew at an alarming rate that it started to destroy settlements and its people. The Emperor, Jack's father, decided to destroy the evil at its source. With a magical elixir that was given by a Buddhist Monk, the Emperor and his cavalry charged into the forest, only to have his entire army slain by trees that suddenly sprang out from the ground and impaled them. Continuing his journey to the black pool, the Emperor recited a chant, dipped his arrow into the elixir and then fired it towards the Sun to ignite it. When the arrow plunged into the pool, it seemed that the elixir had worked when the trees that grew from the pool, only gave it a humanoid form. Thus, Aku came into existence, and declared that he was the new master.

The Emperor attempted to slay Aku with his arrows and his katana, only to find them useless. Aku then had the Emperor tied to a gargantuan tree from the pool and proceeded to destroy his kingdom, much to his horror. The Gods then sent Sleipnir to rescue the Emperor and brought him to a temple on a mountaintop. From the purity of his spirit, they crafted a katana for the Emperor to destroy Aku. After he successfully defeated Aku, the Emperor sealed him into the Earth and an evil-looking tree then emerged from the ground. After he knew that Aku would return one day, the Emperor then told his wife, The Empress, that he would have a plan to prepare for that.

In Episode XCVIII, Odin made his return along with Ra and Rama to help Jack be reunited with his katana after he had passed the test by vanquishing the angry consciousness that was inside himself: Mad Jack.

Appearance

Odin's appearance was similar to a Viking: he had a blond beard, an empty right eye socket, and dressed in a tunic of white and gold, with a large winged helmet. He had an air of benevolence and wisdom as well as respect and awe for the power that he wielded. As an immortal deity, his entire being shone with a divine yet serene light, just like Ra and Rama. During the battle against the Black Mass in space, Odin was shown to ride on Sleipnir, his eight-legged horse.

In his first appearance, Episode X: Jack and the Lava Monster, Odin had a predominantly blue color scheme.

Powers and Equipment

As one of the most eminent Gods of the Norse Pantheon, Odin wielded a tremendous amount of divine power, enough to destroy a supernatural being as powerful as the Black Mass; something only his fellow Gods could accomplish:

• Gungnir Blasts: Odin wielded a powerful spear called Gungnir, which he could use to fire blue meteor-like blasts that were capable of damaging even evil entities with self-regenerating abilities, like Aku.
• Omniscience: Odin was able to sense Aku's rise to power on Earth. Along with Ra and Rama, he greeted the Emperor during their first meeting while he assumed the form of a Buddhist Monk, and later forged the Emperor's essence of virtue into a katana. Those demonstrated Odin's knowledge of Buddhism and Japanese culture, as well as his respect for them.
• Shape-Shifting: As a deity, Odin was able to change his physical form at will, as seen by how he first appeared to the Emperor as a Buddhist Monk.
• Eye Beams: Odin, along with Ra and Rama, used that ability to extract the strength and purity of the Emperor's spirit and forged his katana. They also extracted purity and strength of Jack's own spirit and then infused it to his katana, which made it more powerful than before.
• Astral Projection: During the forging of the katana, Odin was shown to be capable of projecting his spirit out from his body - he projected his spirit in the form of a Buddhist Monk to forge the katana, while his main body remained behind and glowed in blue.
• Transmutation: Odin and his fellow deities transmuted the Emperor's virtues into a katana.
• Immortality: As a deity, Odin was immortal.
• Precognition: As a God, it was likely that Odin possessed that power which allowed him to see future events.

Quotes

• "You have been chosen. A force of ultimate evil has resurrected itself on thy world." (The Emperor)
• "This blade was forged from the righteous energy within thee." (The Emperor)
• "Like your father, you have been chosen." (Jack)

Trivia

• Odin was the first of the three Gods that Jack interacted with, albeit indirectly, by assisting the Warrior to pass into Valhalla.
• He was the only God that had one eye, and the spot in which his right eye used to be was an empty socket. In Mythology, Odin gave his right eye to Mímir so that he may drink from Mímisbrunnr, a well that its water gave any drinker immeasurable wisdom.
• He is the father of Thor in Norse Mythology, though it is unknown if his son exists in the series.

Odin and Sleipnir

Odin (far right) in his first in-show appearance alongside the Warrior, Thor and other Norse Gods and Goddesses.