Ashi

Ashi is the secondary antagonist turned deuteragonist of the fifth season of Samurai Jack on Adult Swim. She started out as one of the Daughters of Aku who were trained to slay Samurai Jack. But later, after being rescued by Jack and seeing the truth about Aku, she decides to tag along on Jack's quest.

Biography
Ashi and her six younger sisters were birthed from the High Priestess, leader of an all-female cult of Aku, and raised as assassins by them to do what no other fighter could do: Kill Samurai Jack. The High Priestess named them the Daughters of Aku and raised them with the most brutal of training throughout all of their childhood and youth, attempting to sculpt them into the ultimate warriors. During her training as a child, Ashi found a hole in the wall to gaze upon the outside world. The High Priestess told her that the world was a creation of their master, Aku, and that it was under threat so long as Jack lived to oppose Aku's rule. She was then thrown back into training and received punishment. When their training was complete years later, they donned the masks and head coverings, and set out to fulfill their mission. Later on, Ashi and her sisters set up traps for Jack in a forest, and successfully destroyed his motorbike and started an intense battle with the samurai, forcing him to hide and later escape to an abandoned temple. Ashi and her sisters looked for their hiding enemy, tracking him to the temple's underground crypt. Here they had another intense battle with the samurai, but he succeeds in killing one of Ashi's sisters and blew up the temple with the others still inside.

Ashi fought Jack again in the next episode. Unlike their first battle, she found herself and her sisters overwhelmed as one by one Jack killed the other Daughters until only Ashi was left. Seeing her sisters perish and having been bested, Ashi had a momentary breakdown as she ranted and swore that she would kill Jack, even as he dropped her to her presumed death.

Ashi survived the fall and tried to kill Jack again numerous times, despite being chained up, eaten whole by a monster and Jack's numerous attempts to save her life, undeterred from her purpose. Eventually, after escaping the monster, Ashi attempts to kill Jack with her sickle by sneaking up on him, before noticing a ladybug fly by. This triggers a flashback to when she was a small child and training with her sisters, when a ladybug flew into her hand and she observed the beauty of it, before it was unceremoniously squished and killed by her mother, calling it a distraction and "not part of Aku's order." Ashi continued to hear these words until she sees Jack hold the ladybug in his hand and releasing it unharmed. After being saved by Jack from the belly of a colossal beast (despite her constant animosity towards him and continued attempts to kill him) and watching his humble and honorable nature to the most simple of life, she starts to question her ways. Finally realizing that Jack is not the enemy, she drops her weapon and reconsiders her purpose, eventually meditating along with Jack on an island from a distance, which implies that she has made peace with the Samurai. After Jack revealed the true nature of Aku, she sees the error of her ways and became his ally, going against her mother and her cult. At the same time, she no longer sees Aku as a god but a demon needed to be destroyed. She was then finally convinced after being shown proof by Jack that Aku is truly evil. She helps him save some kids who were being mind-controlled by implanted chips, but is worried when he dissappears, and sets off to find him. At this time, Ashi is finally able to see the true nature of Aku and how wrong her mothers, her cult and her sisters have become. In "XCVI", Ashi is angered when the Dominator gloats about turning the children into weapons due to being naive and vulnerable, to the point that she is able to break free of her restraints since it reminds her too much about how she was turned into a living weapon for no good reason. She is later shown to be relieved when the children wake up free of mind control. However, she notices that Jack has mysteriously disappeared and decides to go look for him.

When looking for Jack on a blimp, Ashi finds herself being targeted by two mysterious figures. When they reveal themselves to be friends of Jack they ask her if she is a friend to Jack as well, which leaves her lost in her thought. She explains that she wants to help Jack and after hearing the story about how Jack saved the Woolies, the blimp driver tells her that Jack got off at their current exit, to which she hurredly hops off the blimp. After landing she ends up meeting the Three Blind Archers who tell of Jack's nobleness as well as the Children of Aku, who dance upon being reminded of Jack to which Ashi excitedly joins in on as well. Upon heading towards cave with a waterfall Ashi is reminded of how her mother forced her to jump into a pile of hot coal, which is how her bodysuit was made. Ashi at first walks away from the cave, but then jumps in and starts scraping the bodysuit off of her body with a rock. When she jumps out of the cave she realizes that she is naked, to which she creates herself an outfit out of leaves. Later on when she arrives at a tavern in the forest she meets Da Samurai who explains that he gave up his samurai life after Jack enlightened him. Ashi meets a shadowy person when walking out of the tavern and is asked if Jack is her friend, to which Ashi assuredly says yes. The shadowy person then tells Ashi to follow the path north to which she finds Jack in a ritual site about to commit seppuku. Ashi tries to snap Jack into his senses yet The Omen fights to keep her from interfering. Eventually Ashi is able to get to Jack when she tells him the children in the factory are still alive, which allows Jack to save her from the Omen and defeat it. With Jack's mojo fully restored, Jack and Ashi continue their journey to find the magic sword.

(to be completed)

Similar Heroes

 * Kovu (The Lion King)
 * Zuko (Avatar The Last Airbender)
 * Minerva Orland (Fairy Tail)
 * Peridot and Lapis Lazuli (Steven Universe)
 * Finn (Star Wars)
 * Thorax (My Little Pony)
 * Ryan Mitchell (Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue)
 * Catwoman (Batman comics)

Trivia

 * Ashi has a similar hairstyle to Princess Ilana from the cancelled, incomplete cartoon show, Sym-Bionic Titan, another show created by Genndy Tartakovsky. The notable exception is that she has one bang instead of three.