“	This evil must be destroyed.	”
—Ra in Episode XXXVIII: The Birth of Evil, Part 2

Ra is a powerful god in Egyptian mythology who made his first appearance in Episode XXXVII: The Birth of Evil, Part 1. He, along with Odin and Rama, is one of the creators who forged a Magic Katana given to The Emperor and later Jack to destroy Aku.

Character Outline

Ra, otherwise known as Re, was one of the most prominent deities in Egyptian Mythology and the god of the sun, specifically the midday or noonday. His form changed during the course of the day: he began as the scarab Khepri (An amulet of whom was used to summon him), Ra in midday and Amun-Ra at dusk.

Ra is outrageously powerful, being capable of ergokinesis, heliokinesis, photokinesis, matter manipulation, shape-shifting, size alteration, clairvoyance, telepathy and avatar infusuion.

Background

Episode XXXVII: The Birth of Evil, Part 1

In the distant past, Ra, Odin and Rama battled The Black Mass, the progenitor of Aku, in space.

Unfortunately, a small fragment of the Black Mass escaped from the sight of the battle and went unnoticed by the gods. For countless eons, the fragment tumbled through the void until it crashed into the prehistoric Earth and caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The fragment then became a pool of black tar-like substance and a black forest soon appeared around it.

For untold years, the black forest devoured any living creature that wandered too close by drowning them in the tar or impaling them. The forest grew at an alarming rate that it started to destroy settlements and people. The Emperor, Samurai Jack's father, decided to destroy the evil at its source. With a magical elixir that was given by a Buddhist Monk, The Emperor and his cavalry charged into the forest, only to have his entire army slain by trees that suddenly sprang out from the ground and impaled them. Continuing his journey to the black pool, The Emperor recited a sutra, dipped his arrow into the elixir and then fired it towards the Sun to ignite it. When the arrow plunged into the pool, it seemed that the elixir had worked when the trees that grew from the pool withdrew to the pool's depth and then re-merged, only gave it a humanoid form. Thus, Aku came into existence, and declared that he was the new master.

The Emperor attempted to slay Aku with his arrows and his katana, only to find them useless. Aku then had The Emperor tied to a gargantuan tree from the pool and proceeded to destroy his kingdom, much to his horror. The gods then sent Sleipnir to rescue The Emperor and brought him to a temple on a mountaintop. From the purity of his spirit, the gods crafted a Katana for him to destroy Aku. After he successfully defeated Aku, The Emperor sealed the demon into the Earth and an evil-looking tree then emerged from the ground. Knowing that Aku would return one day, The Emperor then told his wife, The Empress, that he would have a plan to prepare for that.

Episode XCVIII

Ra made his return in this episode along with Rama and Odin to help Jack be reunited with his katana after he had vanquished the angry consciousness that was inside of himself, Mad Jack.

Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time

In the game, there is an item called Gift of the Gods you can buy from Da Samurai's shop for 10,000 Gold. If the player would perish while the Gift is in their inventory, the item is consumed and a 2D animation plays of Odin, Ra and Rama firing eye-beams at Jack that bring him back to life with full health.

Appearance

Ra had the body of a man, but the head of falcon and wore a sun disk. He was seen riding on a crocodile, a sacred animal in ancient Egyptian mythology. Like Odin, Ra had a predominantly gold color scheme and a divine glow around his body. Ra also carried an ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life and a crook (Heka), symbol of kingship in ancient Egyptian royalty. In his first appearance in Episode XXXI: Jack in Egypt, Ra had a mostly golden-brown body and green eyes.

Powers and Equipment

Ra was an incredibly powerful deity. His power was so great that he could actually injure the Black Mass, which he did so through the use of his crook:

• Crook (Heka): Similarly to how Odin used Gungnir and Rama used his Sharanga, respectively. Ra channeled his power in the form of ancient Egyptian hieratic verses via his crook.

• Eye Beams: Ra had the power to fire intense beams of light from his eyes. Ra, along with Odin and Rama, used that ability to extract the strength and purity of the Emperor's spirit in order to forge his katana. They also extracted the purity and strength of Jack's own spirit and then infused it to his katana, which made it more powerful than before.

• Shapeshifting: As a God, Ra was able to change his form and appearance at will, e.g. a Buddhist Monk.

• Omniscience: Ra was aware of Aku's rise on Earth. He assumed the form of a Buddhist Monk and forged the Emperor's virtues into a katana, which showed his knowledge of Japanese culture and Buddhism and also his respect of them. Another possible reason was that the benevolent teachings of Buddhism was in harmony with Maat.

• Immortality: As a god, Ra was immortal.

• Astral projection: During the forging scene, Ra was capable of projecting his spirit as the form of a Buddhist Monk in order to forge the katana, while his main body was seen behind and glowed in blue.

• Transmutation: Ra and his fellow gods transmuted the Emperor's virtues into a katana.

• Precognition: As a god, it was likely that Ra possessed that power that allowed him to see future events.

Quotes

• This evil must be destroyed. (The Emperor)
• It possesses the power to destroy this evil force. (The Emperor)
• To stop a force of Ultimate Evil. (Samurai Jack)

Trivia

• Ra is the only god of the trio who defeated Aku to encounter Jack personally. Though they do not speak to each other, Ra aids Jack immediately and gives Jack a curious look before ascending back to the Heavens.
  • Ra is also the second of the three Jack has interacted with in any way, with the first being Odin by helping the Warrior ascend to Valhalla.
• Ra rode a crocodile during the battle against the Black Mass. In Mythology, he rode on two solar barques, Mandjet (The Boat of Millions of Years) or morning boat and the Mesektet or evening boat.
  • Crocodiles were mostly associated with Sobek than Ra. However, Sobek has been periodically syncretized with Ra as Sobek-Ra and was even depicted with a solar disc.