#scaraku

"Yeah, baby! I really made it! Whoo!"

Cheering and running in excited little circles is not a normal reaction to approaching Aku's tower. The usual reactions are terror (most visitors), wrath (Jack), or cold professional detachment (Aku's actual underlings).

even taking into account that Scaramouche is one of the few visitors who's on Aku's side, we never see anyone else express happiness to be in the heart of Aku's domain—much less such unrestrained glee.

"Wait. What's that up ahead? Aku?! What a welcome! Aku, baby, I'm back. Scaramouche has returned!"

See that face? That is not the face people about to fall beneath the shadow of Aku make.

Aku has ruled the planet for millennia—every person in the world has known who he is since childhood. Amongst his loyal subjects, we see him interact with demons, mad scientists, evil spies, obedient robots, shadow soldiers, cult worshipers, and misguided but grateful refugees.

Of those loyal to him, the only ones who seem even a little bit cheerful in Aku's presence are one demon (Demongo—who's only happy the first time he sees Aku), a few of his mad scientists, and some mudlike alien refugees (who quickly flee when Aku gets mad at them).

Not a single one appears to be his friend.

Not a single one is ever delighted to see him.

And then in comes Scaramouche. Just look at that face. He's the ONLY character, across sixty-two episodes, who's excited to see Aku.

"What the—"

"Hello. You are now hearing the voice of AKU! Unfortunately, I will no longer be available for any more appointments. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you. NOW, GO!"

"Oh, no, baby! I did NOT come all this way for NOTHING."

And here we see: Scaramouche deciding to disobey a direct order from Aku, who's known to kill people with laser eyes when he's displeased.

This is unprecedented. Every other character we see defy Aku has done so either out of self-preservation or as an open act of revolt. But Scaramouche is bringing news about Jack's lost sword. Scaramouche is risking his life at Aku's hands, for Aku's benefit.

"Luckily, Scaramouche knows scary much about all the ins and outs, babe."

Why is Scaramouche an expert on sneaking into Aku's tower. How many times has he done this? and been allowed to get away with it??

"AKU!"

"Go away. Didn't you hear the recording? Leave me alone!"

"Oh, but, Aku-kachoo, I got some info on Jack-o that's outta this world, babe!"

"Ugh."

Scaramouche defies Aku a second time. no hesitation, no fear

Aku does not kill Scaramouche for defying him.

He doesn't even scold him.

"Aku-kachoo."

note: Aku's usual nicknames are more along the lines of, like,, "master," "my lord-master," "dark lord of all darkness," "evil shapeshifting wizard," "cowardly shadow," "tree ogre," etc.

Aku does not kill Scaramouche for calling him Aku-kachoo.

It's worth noting that right now in the series, Aku is deeply depressed. Like, "has given up trying to kill the guy who's trying to kill him (a.k.a. passive suicidal ideation)," "no longer takes joy in any of his usual hobbies like slaughtering armies," "got himself a therapist," "hasn't left his tower in YEARS" depressed. The last time we saw him receive visitors, he barely dragged himself out of bed to grumpily address them—and that was before he banned all visitors.

But even though he'd rather rot on his throne than talk to anyone, and even though he wants so little to hear about Jack that his therapist has banned saying his name, he doesn't kick Scaramouche out, much less punish him.

"WHAT?!"

"Feast your ears on THIS. I mean, do you even have ears? Like, can those antler things even hear?"

Scaramouche is the only character we've ever seen express an interest in who Aku is and how he works. He's the only character to ever ask Aku about himself.

"Get on with it!"

And Aku gets impatient—but, as mentioned, he's hella depressed. He still doesn't punish or even threaten Scaramouche.

And Scaramouche sure don't look terribly frightened to have Aku growling at him with fangs bigger than his entire body/head. Up to this point he hasn't demonstrated any fear of Aku at all. Even Aku's most devoted and indispensable underlings get at least timid when Aku is mad at them. Not Scaramouche.

"Dig this, boss. Jack-o... has lost his sword-o."

"Are you sure?!"

"Yes! Yes! I'll bet my life on it!"

"What joy!"

This about the happiest we see Aku in the entire show. Not even the times he personally captures Jack and/or his sword have him looking this ecstatic.

And although Scaramouche isn't what he's happy about, I would like to point out that he's happy because of Scaramouche. And that Scaramouche hopped/swam halfway around the world to make it happen.

"Yeah! I'm back, baby!"

this is the ONLY time we see Aku reward one of his minions on screen. when his subjects help him capture Jack, Aku reneges on his promise to aid them. when his most powerful minion loses his power, Aku crushes him and casts him aside. when Scaramouche hops in missing his entire body to merely bring news that Jack could be beatable, Aku fully repairs him.

note that Scaramouche didn't even ask for a reward. either he took it on blind faith that Mr. Backstabs Everyone would reward him, or else being rewarded doesn't even matter to him and he did this all for Aku.

(in an earlier scene he does tell someone that "Aku will give [him] anything once he hears the news"—but it seems like Scaramouche was using that as a bribe to get this guy to help sneak him on a ship. we never hear him say anything about wanting a reward for himself.)

"Oh, yeah! ♪ Unh, unh, doo-doo-doo doo-doo ♪"

"Oh, yeah! ♪ Doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo ♪"

(really dumb out-of-sync "doo-doo-doo"-ing)

It cannot be overemphasized just how unwhimsical Aku is in nearly every other appearance. Even his most memed scene is so funny in part because he never drops the Ancient Wizard-King voice or the harsh villain laughter. At his ABSOLUTE MOST whimsical, he spends an episode reading fairy tales to children; but he does it with gravitas, hostility, and unspoken death threats on par with that of Darth Vader.

Aku doing a silly little dance where he wiggles his butt? Nigh unthinkable.

Aku—the utterly antisocial, without a single character he's EVER treated like a friend—being coaxed into a silly little dance by somebody else, without even having to be asked? Mind-blowing. Throughout the entire rest of the show, every other pseudo-cordial moment between Aku and another character COMBINED don't match 1/10th of the energy in the gif above. Nobody in the entire show can bring out that side of Aku—except for Scaramouche.

And the whole time Aku's doing his silly little dance, he never stops watching Scaramouche.