"Death is failure."
Samurai Jack - Easter Eggs & Hidden Details
Easter Eggs
In Season 5, Episode 6, when Ashi is searching for Jack, she encounters many of the characters and races Jack helped in the first four seasons, including the Woolies, the three blind archers, and the kids from the Rave episode.
This sequence serves as a powerful collection of callbacks and a testament to Jack's legacy. It visually reinforces the theme that his long journey was not a failure, as he saved and inspired countless people who now remember him as a hero.
In the episode "Jack and the Spartans," the plot and visual style are a direct homage to Frank Miller's graphic novel '300,' which tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae.
This is one of the clearest examples of the show's cinematic and comic book influences. The episode mimics the visual composition and epic tone of Miller's work, which itself was later adapted into a famous film.
A ruined city skyline seen in one episode is the city of Townsville from 'The Powerpuff Girls,' another show Tartakovsky worked on.
This is a fun visual gag and a nod to Tartakovsky's previous major success at Cartoon Network, suggesting a possible shared universe where Aku's evil has even destroyed the home of the Powerpuff Girls.
In the second episode, one of the talking archeologist dogs is visually a reference to the main character from '2 Stupid Dogs,' an earlier Hanna-Barbera cartoon on which Genndy Tartakovsky began his career.
This is an early-career inside joke, paying homage to one of the first shows Tartakovsky worked on professionally.