long, beautiful shadows

if you're interpreting "top/bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as in "the one who's physically performing all the action / the one who's receiving the action," with both terms divorced from the concept of "the one 'in scene' with authority+decisionmaking power / the one who by obedience+force submits to the other's authority,"—or, with "authority/obedient" being added to "top/bottom"—then yeah, it makes sense. Questions of who's sticking it in who aside—Aku would just lounge back and make the other party do all the work for his amusement.

on the other hand though, i interpret "top bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as "the one with in-scene authority/the one who in-scene submits to the other's authority." i specify "in-scene" because, in ethical BDSM*, out of scene the power dynamic can be equal or opposite—like the sub-to-be tells the dom-to-be exactly what they want and how they want it and the dom-to-be takes notes and goes "got it boss, tied up and spanked until you cry, i can make that happen. do you want me to act paternal or sadistic. sadistic? no problemo." (*and i specify "in ethical BDSM" because with aku involved there's no guarantee ethics are being observed so I feel like with him the lines would be blurred.)

and i wonder if that's the angle you're coming at it from—that aku's "subbing" because he's not exerting effort "in-scene" even though "out of scene" he decides what they're gonna do?

but while i do think aku's lazy tree rooted-to-one-spot ass would be inactive, i can't imagine he'd submit.

like, the one who's wielding the whip is the dom and the one who's tied to the x-cross and crying is the sub, and in that case the dom's active and sub's inactive. But also, the one who's lounging in a recliner reading a magazine is the dom; and the one who's frantically running around the house doing chores for fear of being forced to sleep on the kitchen floor if they don't finish, and serving dinner on a tray kneeling before master while they're ignored, is the sub—and in that case the dom's inactive and the sub's active.

I can't see Aku as the one with the whip (too much effort) or as the one being whipped (letting somebody else bind him?? giving them the power to try to wound him, even if they can't??? as if he would lower himself so before a subject). I also can't see him as the one serving another. But, I can see him as the one sitting back, doing absolutely nothing, waiting and expecting to be served and ready to get mad if he isn't.

So, for me:

Top/bottom? On a watsonian level, he's a shapeshifter, we've got no indication what kind of genital configuration he personally prefers wielding or what he'd rather use it for, could go either way; on a doylist level, this show operates on very broad and simplistic fairy tale/mythical archetypes, and gun to Genndy's head forced to choose one or the other, I don't think he would try to get any more adventurous than "penetration = power" "penetration = domination"; so, top.

Active/inactive? Like you say, Aku's lazy. I think he'd prefer to exert minimum effort as often as possible. Make the other do the work and cater to his needs.

Dom/sub, though? I can't imagine him ever putting himself in a position of obedience/powerlessness to somebody else. I can't even imagine him getting a thrill out of roleplaying being out of power—unless it's with the intent of reversing it and overpowering his opponent (not "partner," opponent) (and since the shedding of the facade is what Aku's being thrilled by I'd consider that part of the scene rather than the end of the scene). Regardless of who's penetrating or who's exerting more energy, I can't see Aku willingly being anything but dominant.

And I explain all that to say: I wonder if we're basically in agreement about Aku's sexual preferences, and just using the words "dom/sub" with slightly different definitions? That's what I assume is going on.

But on the other hand if you DO mean you interpret Aku as a "sub" in the sense of the one beneath the lash, the one being tied up, the one obeying orders, the one who (in scene) is being compelled to serve the other's whims—the servant, the slave, the victim, the masochist, the prey, the prisoner, the little, the pet, whatever... then I'm very curious about your reasoning and I wanna hear more.

while they can be interpreted as dom, its the hopelessness of their obsession and the lengths that they go to serve someone which i rly love.

oooh okay okay okay, out of your examples i'm only directly familiar with POTO and with the Bluebeard legend (not opera), but I see the vision. although he's something of a different character it makes me think of that quote from Labyrinth—"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." Except with something of a threat underlying it: "let me be your slave... or else." the flinging himself utterly at someone else's feet to the point it's pathetic, anything to get what he wants... but if he doesn't get what he wants, that patheticness can turn dangerous very fast.

lotta overlap with the yandere archetype—not specifically the "cute/loving but scary/crazy" dichotomy yanderes have, but the "love to the point of obsession, obsession to the point of madness; love so intense you'll kill everyone in this room and then your beloved and then yourself if you can't have them"—which is really where I find the appeal of the trope.

"extremely feared powerful in-control character undone by an obsessive need that knocks them off their throne and on their knees before the object of their overwhelming desire" is a top tier character trope to me.

its rly his manipulation and obsession which i am playing on when i interpret him as a sub. he is not performing tasks of submission in a traditional bdsm scene so much as he is desperate for attention and actively makes the other person's life worse by these acts of wanting. i think me saying he is a sub is more closely related to a 'brat', someone who pushes someone on purpose and is then faced with the consequences of it because thats the fun of it.

it's like. dom subbing. yeah i'm submitting to you but i'm calling the shots. you don't get a choice. like petplay but the "pet" is a strange wolf you found standing in your kitchen one morning after it broke in through the doggy door and you can't get it to leave. character dynamic where one character's wearing a collar and the other character's got the leash but the "collar" is just a string tied in a simple bow you can undo with one tug and the "leash" is a handcuff locked around the alleged master's wrist.

but lastly i think that i advocate for sub because it's the subversion of aku's character, it is easy to look at him and interpret him as a dom and that is why it will always have a place in my heart and why i love him in that way as well. so him being a sub i think it offers an exploration to his character and how he is able to feel pain in addition to his manipulation and obsession.

🤝🤝🤝 you're speaking my language. "i think he'd always be dominant" is my Strict Canon Reading, i sincerely don't think he'd ever willingly do otherwise, in canon... but that's exactly WHY it's so fascinating to imagine but what if he did. what would have to be buried in the deep dark pit of his heart in order for that to be what bubbles up when he feels obsessive desire? why, when he's already happily stolen the entire world and everything within it, would yearning inspire him to debase himself in front of another rather than simply steal them away too? what would it take for the Master of Masters to allow himself to be mastered by someone else. I've got a friend (who i Will be linking this conversation to) who refers to The Sub Aku Experience as "master in the streets mastered in the sheets." it's about that contrast.

bc the sword is the only thing which genuinely harms him so this may be something which is entirely new for someone who otherwise has everything and can do anything

someone who otherwise has everything... except love. admiration. affection. always the object of fear, never the object of desire. There's power in repelling everyone you meet, oh, sure—but when you've repelled everyone, it leaves everybody very far away from you. and perhaps aku doesn't care. perhaps canon aku doesn't care. but like—what if he did tho.

after all that time, what would it feel like for someone to so doggedly chase him down.

sorry i shouldv specified jaku in the beginning bc i said this originally with jaku in mind, not counting for other possible characters

with samurai jack, having wildly diverse fanon interpretations and queering everything in sight is my passion, so i am a submissive bottom aku enjoyer. but i get like, So niche and specific about it, because i also have a transfem reading of aku. i haven't started posting this art series yet because i haven't finished drawing it, but i'd like to introduce you to oiran aku

so perhaps unfortunately, my penchant for high romance, my jaku tendencies, and my japanese women's history nerd inclinations have coalesced to form an au whereby everything is the same except aku has a secret identity as a kabuki-style tragic oiran. specifically, he wants to be the kabuki-style tragic oiran to jack's stoic and uncaring kabuki-style samurai. aku is telling Nobody about this okay this elaborate fantasy is between him and him, alone in his lair on a friday night.

despite what the figure of the oiran represents i think the horny element is only half of it for aku. the other half is a desire to be desirable, to be chased, courted, fought over, fought for. in his outside life everyone flees from aku as they flee from the pit of hate. the deliverer of darkness is something revolting, a corruption to be feared, a source of horror. but in the privacy of his own thoughts, aku's terrible horns become elaborate kanzashi, his monstrous face obscured by a richly embroidered uchikake sleeve. in this secret floating world, he's a priceless treasure. warriors and nobles eagerly forfeit their inheritances, their reputations, their lives, for the mere suggestion of his favour. and of course aku's samurai, the one great passion of his heart, spurns and rejects him even in his own imaginings. he's a tragic oiran, remember. the weeping and lamenting and threatening to tie his nonexistent knees together is all part of it for him.

(and then of course i'm like but what if jack actually did see aku, terrible fearsome master of masters aku, as desirable, as a priceless treasure worth fighting for. secretly, by his campfire on a friday night. and what if he saw aku's secret oiran-self and recognised within it his own secret self, and they made a beautiful kabuki play together???? this ties into my 'scroll theory' which is my meta around the roles that jack and aku play in canon and how their potential romance disrupts those roles but that's like a whole other post)

in terms of oiran aku i was firstly inspired by my own (patchwork and amateur) knowledge of the floating world. i only got into samjack earlier this year, but as soon as i did i immediately started watching japanese historical drama and midcentury samurai films. (and i read the tale of heian joy and never shut up about it to ckret2 sorry secret2). but like. a rec i would actually give for understanding what i'm going for with oiran aku would be the film sakuran, from 2006, which is a highly melodramatic visual feast about an edo-period oiran's rise and fall.

since you are also a jaku op you may enjoy that it has such choice lines as 'if it's your hands i die content!' and 'you know he's a samurai, he can kill you for refusing him.' / 'let him try!'

the last aspect of oiran aku that i cannot fail to mention is that he uses oiran kotoba (alone in his lair on a friday night) to get into the spirit of it. there's not a lot about it available online in english afaik, but it was a way of speaking, and a dialect, unique to oiran. here's an example from modern-day reenactment.

if you're interpreting "top/bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as in "the one who's physically performing all the action / the one who's receiving the action," with both terms divorced from the concept of "the one 'in scene' with authority+decisionmaking power / the one who by obedience+force submits to the other's authority,"—or, with "authority/obedient" being added to "top/bottom"—then yeah, it makes sense. Questions of who's sticking it in who aside—Aku would just lounge back and make the other party do all the work for his amusement.

on the other hand though, i interpret "top bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as "the one with in-scene authority/the one who in-scene submits to the other's authority." i specify "in-scene" because, in ethical BDSM*, out of scene the power dynamic can be equal or opposite—like the sub-to-be tells the dom-to-be exactly what they want and how they want it and the dom-to-be takes notes and goes "got it boss, tied up and spanked until you cry, i can make that happen. do you want me to act paternal or sadistic. sadistic? no problemo." (*and i specify "in ethical BDSM" because with aku involved there's no guarantee ethics are being observed so I feel like with him the lines would be blurred.)

and i wonder if that's the angle you're coming at it from—that aku's "subbing" because he's not exerting effort "in-scene" even though "out of scene" he decides what they're gonna do?

but while i do think aku's lazy tree rooted-to-one-spot ass would be inactive, i can't imagine he'd submit.

like, the one who's wielding the whip is the dom and the one who's tied to the x-cross and crying is the sub, and in that case the dom's active and sub's inactive. But also, the one who's lounging in a recliner reading a magazine is the dom; and the one who's frantically running around the house doing chores for fear of being forced to sleep on the kitchen floor if they don't finish, and serving dinner on a tray kneeling before master while they're ignored, is the sub—and in that case the dom's inactive and the sub's active.

I can't see Aku as the one with the whip (too much effort) or as the one being whipped (letting somebody else bind him?? giving them the power to try to wound him, even if they can't??? as if he would lower himself so before a subject). I also can't see him as the one serving another. But, I can see him as the one sitting back, doing absolutely nothing, waiting and expecting to be served and ready to get mad if he isn't.

So, for me:

Top/bottom? On a watsonian level, he's a shapeshifter, we've got no indication what kind of genital configuration he personally prefers wielding or what he'd rather use it for, could go either way; on a doylist level, this show operates on very broad and simplistic fairy tale/mythical archetypes, and gun to Genndy's head forced to choose one or the other, I don't think he would try to get any more adventurous than "penetration = power" "penetration = domination"; so, top.

Active/inactive? Like you say, Aku's lazy. I think he'd prefer to exert minimum effort as often as possible. Make the other do the work and cater to his needs.

Dom/sub, though? I can't imagine him ever putting himself in a position of obedience/powerlessness to somebody else. I can't even imagine him getting a thrill out of roleplaying being out of power—unless it's with the intent of reversing it and overpowering his opponent (not "partner," opponent) (and since the shedding of the facade is what Aku's being thrilled by I'd consider that part of the scene rather than the end of the scene). Regardless of who's penetrating or who's exerting more energy, I can't see Aku willingly being anything but dominant.

And I explain all that to say: I wonder if we're basically in agreement about Aku's sexual preferences, and just using the words "dom/sub" with slightly different definitions? That's what I assume is going on.

But on the other hand if you DO mean you interpret Aku as a "sub" in the sense of the one beneath the lash, the one being tied up, the one obeying orders, the one who (in scene) is being compelled to serve the other's whims—the servant, the slave, the victim, the masochist, the prey, the prisoner, the little, the pet, whatever... then I'm very curious about your reasoning and I wanna hear more.

while they can be interpreted as dom, its the hopelessness of their obsession and the lengths that they go to serve someone which i rly love.

oooh okay okay okay, out of your examples i'm only directly familiar with POTO and with the Bluebeard legend (not opera), but I see the vision. although he's something of a different character it makes me think of that quote from Labyrinth—"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." Except with something of a threat underlying it: "let me be your slave... or else." the flinging himself utterly at someone else's feet to the point it's pathetic, anything to get what he wants... but if he doesn't get what he wants, that patheticness can turn dangerous very fast.

lotta overlap with the yandere archetype—not specifically the "cute/loving but scary/crazy" dichotomy yanderes have, but the "love to the point of obsession, obsession to the point of madness; love so intense you'll kill everyone in this room and then your beloved and then yourself if you can't have them"—which is really where I find the appeal of the trope.

"extremely feared powerful in-control character undone by an obsessive need that knocks them off their throne and on their knees before the object of their overwhelming desire" is a top tier character trope to me.

its rly his manipulation and obsession which i am playing on when i interpret him as a sub. he is not performing tasks of submission in a traditional bdsm scene so much as he is desperate for attention and actively makes the other person's life worse by these acts of wanting. i think me saying he is a sub is more closely related to a 'brat', someone who pushes someone on purpose and is then faced with the consequences of it because thats the fun of it.

it's like. dom subbing. yeah i'm submitting to you but i'm calling the shots. you don't get a choice. like petplay but the "pet" is a strange wolf you found standing in your kitchen one morning after it broke in through the doggy door and you can't get it to leave. character dynamic where one character's wearing a collar and the other character's got the leash but the "collar" is just a string tied in a simple bow you can undo with one tug and the "leash" is a handcuff locked around the alleged master's wrist.

but lastly i think that i advocate for sub because it's the subversion of aku's character, it is easy to look at him and interpret him as a dom and that is why it will always have a place in my heart and why i love him in that way as well. so him being a sub i think it offers an exploration to his character and how he is able to feel pain in addition to his manipulation and obsession.

🤝🤝🤝 you're speaking my language. "i think he'd always be dominant" is my Strict Canon Reading, i sincerely don't think he'd ever willingly do otherwise, in canon... but that's exactly WHY it's so fascinating to imagine but what if he did. what would have to be buried in the deep dark pit of his heart in order for that to be what bubbles up when he feels obsessive desire? why, when he's already happily stolen the entire world and everything within it, would yearning inspire him to debase himself in front of another rather than simply steal them away too? what would it take for the Master of Masters to allow himself to be mastered by someone else. I've got a friend (who i Will be linking this conversation to) who refers to The Sub Aku Experience as "master in the streets mastered in the sheets." it's about that contrast.

bc the sword is the only thing which genuinely harms him so this may be something which is entirely new for someone who otherwise has everything and can do anything

someone who otherwise has everything... except love. admiration. affection. always the object of fear, never the object of desire. There's power in repelling everyone you meet, oh, sure—but when you've repelled everyone, it leaves everybody very far away from you. and perhaps aku doesn't care. perhaps canon aku doesn't care. but like—what if he did tho.

after all that time, what would it feel like for someone to so doggedly chase him down.

sorry i shouldv specified jaku in the beginning bc i said this originally with jaku in mind, not counting for other possible characters

with samurai jack, having wildly diverse fanon interpretations and queering everything in sight is my passion, so i am a submissive bottom aku enjoyer. but i get like, So niche and specific about it, because i also have a transfem reading of aku. i haven't started posting this art series yet because i haven't finished drawing it, but i'd like to introduce you to oiran aku

so perhaps unfortunately, my penchant for high romance, my jaku tendencies, and my japanese women's history nerd inclinations have coalesced to form an au whereby everything is the same except aku has a secret identity as a kabuki-style tragic oiran. specifically, he wants to be the kabuki-style tragic oiran to jack's stoic and uncaring kabuki-style samurai. aku is telling Nobody about this okay this elaborate fantasy is between him and him, alone in his lair on a friday night.

despite what the figure of the oiran represents i think the horny element is only half of it for aku. the other half is a desire to be desirable, to be chased, courted, fought over, fought for. in his outside life everyone flees from aku as they flee from the pit of hate. the deliverer of darkness is something revolting, a corruption to be feared, a source of horror. but in the privacy of his own thoughts, aku's terrible horns become elaborate kanzashi, his monstrous face obscured by a richly embroidered uchikake sleeve. in this secret floating world, he's a priceless treasure. warriors and nobles eagerly forfeit their inheritances, their reputations, their lives, for the mere suggestion of his favour. and of course aku's samurai, the one great passion of his heart, spurns and rejects him even in his own imaginings. he's a tragic oiran, remember. the weeping and lamenting and threatening to tie his nonexistent knees together is all part of it for him.

(and then of course i'm like but what if jack actually did see aku, terrible fearsome master of masters aku, as desirable, as a priceless treasure worth fighting for. secretly, by his campfire on a friday night. and what if he saw aku's secret oiran-self and recognised within it his own secret self, and they made a beautiful kabuki play together???? this ties into my 'scroll theory' which is my meta around the roles that jack and aku play in canon and how their potential romance disrupts those roles but that's like a whole other post)

in terms of oiran aku i was firstly inspired by my own (patchwork and amateur) knowledge of the floating world. i only got into samjack earlier this year, but as soon as i did i immediately started watching japanese historical drama and midcentury samurai films. (and i read the tale of heian joy and never shut up about it to ckret2 sorry secret2). but like. a rec i would actually give for understanding what i'm going for with oiran aku would be the film sakuran, from 2006, which is a highly melodramatic visual feast about an edo-period oiran's rise and fall.

since you are also a jaku op you may enjoy that it has such choice lines as 'if it's your hands i die content!' and 'you know he's a samurai, he can kill you for refusing him.' / 'let him try!'

the last aspect of oiran aku that i cannot fail to mention is that he uses oiran kotoba (alone in his lair on a friday night) to get into the spirit of it. there's not a lot about it available online in english afaik, but it was a way of speaking, and a dialect, unique to oiran. here's an example from modern-day reenactment.

if you're interpreting "top/bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as in "the one who's physically performing all the action / the one who's receiving the action," with both terms divorced from the concept of "the one 'in scene' with authority+decisionmaking power / the one who by obedience+force submits to the other's authority,"—or, with "authority/obedient" being added to "top/bottom"—then yeah, it makes sense. Questions of who's sticking it in who aside—Aku would just lounge back and make the other party do all the work for his amusement.

on the other hand though, i interpret "top bottom" as "penetrator/penetrated" and "dom/sub" as "the one with in-scene authority/the one who in-scene submits to the other's authority." i specify "in-scene" because, in ethical BDSM*, out of scene the power dynamic can be equal or opposite—like the sub-to-be tells the dom-to-be exactly what they want and how they want it and the dom-to-be takes notes and goes "got it boss, tied up and spanked until you cry, i can make that happen. do you want me to act paternal or sadistic. sadistic? no problemo." (*and i specify "in ethical BDSM" because with aku involved there's no guarantee ethics are being observed so I feel like with him the lines would be blurred.)

and i wonder if that's the angle you're coming at it from—that aku's "subbing" because he's not exerting effort "in-scene" even though "out of scene" he decides what they're gonna do?

but while i do think aku's lazy tree rooted-to-one-spot ass would be inactive, i can't imagine he'd submit.

like, the one who's wielding the whip is the dom and the one who's tied to the x-cross and crying is the sub, and in that case the dom's active and sub's inactive. But also, the one who's lounging in a recliner reading a magazine is the dom; and the one who's frantically running around the house doing chores for fear of being forced to sleep on the kitchen floor if they don't finish, and serving dinner on a tray kneeling before master while they're ignored, is the sub—and in that case the dom's inactive and the sub's active.

I can't see Aku as the one with the whip (too much effort) or as the one being whipped (letting somebody else bind him?? giving them the power to try to wound him, even if they can't??? as if he would lower himself so before a subject). I also can't see him as the one serving another. But, I can see him as the one sitting back, doing absolutely nothing, waiting and expecting to be served and ready to get mad if he isn't.

So, for me:

Top/bottom? On a watsonian level, he's a shapeshifter, we've got no indication what kind of genital configuration he personally prefers wielding or what he'd rather use it for, could go either way; on a doylist level, this show operates on very broad and simplistic fairy tale/mythical archetypes, and gun to Genndy's head forced to choose one or the other, I don't think he would try to get any more adventurous than "penetration = power" "penetration = domination"; so, top.

Active/inactive? Like you say, Aku's lazy. I think he'd prefer to exert minimum effort as often as possible. Make the other do the work and cater to his needs.

Dom/sub, though? I can't imagine him ever putting himself in a position of obedience/powerlessness to somebody else. I can't even imagine him getting a thrill out of roleplaying being out of power—unless it's with the intent of reversing it and overpowering his opponent (not "partner," opponent) (and since the shedding of the facade is what Aku's being thrilled by I'd consider that part of the scene rather than the end of the scene). Regardless of who's penetrating or who's exerting more energy, I can't see Aku willingly being anything but dominant.

And I explain all that to say: I wonder if we're basically in agreement about Aku's sexual preferences, and just using the words "dom/sub" with slightly different definitions? That's what I assume is going on.

But on the other hand if you DO mean you interpret Aku as a "sub" in the sense of the one beneath the lash, the one being tied up, the one obeying orders, the one who (in scene) is being compelled to serve the other's whims—the servant, the slave, the victim, the masochist, the prey, the prisoner, the little, the pet, whatever... then I'm very curious about your reasoning and I wanna hear more.

while they can be interpreted as dom, its the hopelessness of their obsession and the lengths that they go to serve someone which i rly love.

oooh okay okay okay, out of your examples i'm only directly familiar with POTO and with the Bluebeard legend (not opera), but I see the vision. although he's something of a different character it makes me think of that quote from Labyrinth—"I ask for so little. Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave." Except with something of a threat underlying it: "let me be your slave... or else." the flinging himself utterly at someone else's feet to the point it's pathetic, anything to get what he wants... but if he doesn't get what he wants, that patheticness can turn dangerous very fast.

lotta overlap with the yandere archetype—not specifically the "cute/loving but scary/crazy" dichotomy yanderes have, but the "love to the point of obsession, obsession to the point of madness; love so intense you'll kill everyone in this room and then your beloved and then yourself if you can't have them"—which is really where I find the appeal of the trope.

"extremely feared powerful in-control character undone by an obsessive need that knocks them off their throne and on their knees before the object of their overwhelming desire" is a top tier character trope to me.

its rly his manipulation and obsession which i am playing on when i interpret him as a sub. he is not performing tasks of submission in a traditional bdsm scene so much as he is desperate for attention and actively makes the other person's life worse by these acts of wanting. i think me saying he is a sub is more closely related to a 'brat', someone who pushes someone on purpose and is then faced with the consequences of it because thats the fun of it.

it's like. dom subbing. yeah i'm submitting to you but i'm calling the shots. you don't get a choice. like petplay but the "pet" is a strange wolf you found standing in your kitchen one morning after it broke in through the doggy door and you can't get it to leave. character dynamic where one character's wearing a collar and the other character's got the leash but the "collar" is just a string tied in a simple bow you can undo with one tug and the "leash" is a handcuff locked around the alleged master's wrist.

but lastly i think that i advocate for sub because it's the subversion of aku's character, it is easy to look at him and interpret him as a dom and that is why it will always have a place in my heart and why i love him in that way as well. so him being a sub i think it offers an exploration to his character and how he is able to feel pain in addition to his manipulation and obsession.

🤝🤝🤝 you're speaking my language. "i think he'd always be dominant" is my Strict Canon Reading, i sincerely don't think he'd ever willingly do otherwise, in canon... but that's exactly WHY it's so fascinating to imagine but what if he did. what would have to be buried in the deep dark pit of his heart in order for that to be what bubbles up when he feels obsessive desire? why, when he's already happily stolen the entire world and everything within it, would yearning inspire him to debase himself in front of another rather than simply steal them away too? what would it take for the Master of Masters to allow himself to be mastered by someone else. I've got a friend (who i Will be linking this conversation to) who refers to The Sub Aku Experience as "master in the streets mastered in the sheets." it's about that contrast.

bc the sword is the only thing which genuinely harms him so this may be something which is entirely new for someone who otherwise has everything and can do anything

someone who otherwise has everything... except love. admiration. affection. always the object of fear, never the object of desire. There's power in repelling everyone you meet, oh, sure—but when you've repelled everyone, it leaves everybody very far away from you. and perhaps aku doesn't care. perhaps canon aku doesn't care. but like—what if he did tho.

after all that time, what would it feel like for someone to so doggedly chase him down.

sorry i shouldv specified jaku in the beginning bc i said this originally with jaku in mind, not counting for other possible characters

with samurai jack, having wildly diverse fanon interpretations and queering everything in sight is my passion, so i am a submissive bottom aku enjoyer. but i get like, So niche and specific about it, because i also have a transfem reading of aku. i haven't started posting this art series yet because i haven't finished drawing it, but i'd like to introduce you to oiran aku

so perhaps unfortunately, my penchant for high romance, my jaku tendencies, and my japanese women's history nerd inclinations have coalesced to form an au whereby everything is the same except aku has a secret identity as a kabuki-style tragic oiran. specifically, he wants to be the kabuki-style tragic oiran to jack's stoic and uncaring kabuki-style samurai. aku is telling Nobody about this okay this elaborate fantasy is between him and him, alone in his lair on a friday night.

despite what the figure of the oiran represents i think the horny element is only half of it for aku. the other half is a desire to be desirable, to be chased, courted, fought over, fought for. in his outside life everyone flees from aku as they flee from the pit of hate. the deliverer of darkness is something revolting, a corruption to be feared, a source of horror. but in the privacy of his own thoughts, aku's terrible horns become elaborate kanzashi, his monstrous face obscured by a richly embroidered uchikake sleeve. in this secret floating world, he's a priceless treasure. warriors and nobles eagerly forfeit their inheritances, their reputations, their lives, for the mere suggestion of his favour. and of course aku's samurai, the one great passion of his heart, spurns and rejects him even in his own imaginings. he's a tragic oiran, remember. the weeping and lamenting and threatening to tie his nonexistent knees together is all part of it for him.

(and then of course i'm like but what if jack actually did see aku, terrible fearsome master of masters aku, as desirable, as a priceless treasure worth fighting for. secretly, by his campfire on a friday night. and what if he saw aku's secret oiran-self and recognised within it his own secret self, and they made a beautiful kabuki play together???? this ties into my 'scroll theory' which is my meta around the roles that jack and aku play in canon and how their potential romance disrupts those roles but that's like a whole other post)