Gotta talk more about the latest Villainous episode! Despite all the jokes and silly stuff that I don’t take seriously, the episode was on the mark about Aku’s flaws.
1) He doesn’t use the full potential of his powers. Most likely because he’s too overconfident in his abilities and because he underestimates his foes.
2) He’s a scaredy who runs away or sends minions to deal with Jack. Aku really doesn’t want anything to do with that sword. During those 50 years he missed major opportunities to kill Jack after the samurai lost the sword but Aku was too busy trying to pretend like Jack didn’t exist.
3) He sealed his fate by sending Jack into the future. Impulse decisions are his true downfall. Bear in mind this time portal stuff may have actually worked on someone other than Jack… or at least someone who wasn’t a Chosen One.
There’s still one fault that was missed though:
4) Aku gave a piece of himself away to a cult without realizing how potent his essence could be. That’s what really sealed his fate. Without Ashi, Jack would not have survived his own demons. I sometimes wonder if Aku even fully understands his own powers.
Good as fuck post
When you gotta figure life out for yourself from birth, you tend to make really stupid mistakes that people wouldn’t otherwise normally make.
Compared to what he used to be, having a voice and a full range of weird powers probably makes Aku feel all-powerful, even though he can get his ass kicked. When he lost to the Elementals, he stopped trying to get the Neptune Jewel because it hurt his pride and his sense of power.
Like with mortals, the survival instinct is what drives Aku, not power. Power is a means to an end. Being “evil” – deceitful, mainly – comes from fear. Aku is full of fear, afraid of death. He’s a coward. He runs from his problems.
Procrastinating will make you a king in the short term, but eventually everything comes crashing down. Aku lives in the moment, as opposed to Jack who is tethered to his past, so he has naturally poor impulse control.
I doubt Aku understands his powers, for the same reason he doesn’t understand much else. He learns things on his own, but he lacks the willingness to learn outside of direct experience or threat of immediate death. He has a lot of weird powers, like pulling a massive plateau up from the ground in the graveyard episode, that we never see again. He does what feels right in the moment, but won’t know what it is until that moment comes. If that makes sense.
This is an excellent response and I love everything about it.
The Shogun of Sorrow 