Scientific Evaluation of Aku's Effects on Planet Earth that Allowed Spartans to Persist

Summary: …Plus Jack gets to smash some girls in chapter 2.

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Observing the effects of the spread of radioactive material from both Chernobyl and Japan's 2011 earthquake, radiation can spread from wind currents and sea. Genetic radiation risks are shown to have endurance for up to two generations. Japan's 2011 radiation and Chernobyl have both diluted in radiation, as an active source for newly generated gamma sources is no longer available. Chernobyl still has an active half-life but as time goes on, eventually the radiation will disappear. This was not the case for Aku.

The Great Black Mass had existed since the time of the dinosaurs. Its radioactive properties had not diminished since being introduced to Earth. The Great Black Mass, similar to tar pits, emitted toxic gas along with its radiation. This could have been carried hundreds of miles away thanks to the strong currents that Japan is exposed to as well as contaminating the sea. It contaminated the land, thus contaminating the animals that lived there.

When the Great Black Mass was shown to land, Brachiosaurus and Pterodactylus were seen. This puts the Great Black Mass's landing at around 150 million years ago. Originally it was thought that Pangea split up pre-200 million years ago, but recent fossils have shown that Pangea existed as late as 130 million years ago.1 This means that the Great Black Mass had existed during the time of Pangea. Its radiation would spread much more easily worldwide to every land organism.

In Season 5 of Samurai Jack, there were four instances of unusual fertility rates being shown. The Scotsman's Daughters appear to be of similar age, meaning they might have been born within a few years of each other. At least twenty-eight daughters are named. A single woman is shown to birth seven children at once with the Daughters of Aku. In season 5 episode 5, furry blue alien children were introduced. All of them appeared to be the same age, implying that they were born around the same time. It is not known how many parents there are, but historically, bipedal animals, especially large ones, carry only one to two offspring per pregnancy. This would indicate there were either many parents, or many children per pregnancy. In 'Aku's Fairy Tales', we're shown a shot of the audience. There are many children who have the same design.

This could be attributed simply to design recycling, but considering the unusual amount of children that look very similar in the other examples listed, one could assign the Aku radiation theory to these children as well.

Humans as a species were genetically evolved to only produce one or two children, hence why females in the series still have two mammary breasts. A female that is genetically evolved to host more children would naturally have more breasts. This demonstrates that humans' genetics evolved to naturally have one to two children, indicating that Aku's radiation may not affect the gametes on a genetic level but instead on the level of physical properties. The radiation could affect the mechanisms of the fertilized egg to split more often, causing many monozygotic twins, which would explain why so many of these daughters look similar to each other. The radiation could cause hyperovulation, where more than one egg is released during ovulation, allowing for multiple pregnancies. This radiation would also impact the birth rates of other species, too.

Given that humans can naturally only care for one or two children, it was likely that many more children died during human evolution, for humans then couldn't take care of a full litter of children.

How does this relate to the Spartans?

One of the greatest reasons that Sparta met its end was because it experienced a gradual population decline. With the amount of wars that Sparta waged and how oft it spread itself out, it would lose many men. Too many men. Enough that their helots [slaves] could dominate them in their final wars. In Samurai Jack, Sparta is shown to still be flourishing. This means Aku had a direct impact on the success and survival of Sparta through increased fertility.

Spartans were encouraged to procreate, albeit in secrecy, as a 'more difficult' path to copulation was said to produce stronger and more fit offspring. The males were subject to scrutiny at birth, abandoned in the forest if they were seen to have defects or not seem so strong and fit. The females were rarely abandoned due to the necessity of them being the producers of Spartiates [the 'Equals', aka every Spartan citizen]. Once Spartan men reached seven years, they would go to agoge, a military school to train to become a Spartan warrior. All Spartan males [and bastard males of Spartan and non-Spartan] were required to go through this. If they failed, they were habitually mocked and were seen as lesser. Both men and women were required to stay fit. They'd exercise with each other in the nude. Women in their prime child bearing years [considered to be 18 to 30 to Spartans] would be well fed and expected to carry children.

Spartan men were allotted farmland and helots once they passed scrutiny. The families of helots were expected to stay together during their lifetime, and they could reproduce all they wanted. Some texts say the number of helots compared to Spartans was seven to one. This meant that Spartans lived in a constant state of anxiety of helots overthrowing them. They held annual 'festivals' of torturing and killing helots not only to remind them of their place, but to help keep the population numbers of helots to a reasonable and manageable number. There wasn't a census count for helots, but Spartans encouraged the same eugenics practices that they did unto their helots to produce healthy offspring. Not too healthy, though, for those that tried to escape were killed by Spartan's secret police when the helots attempted to escape. Helots consisted of anyone they had conquered in other cities.

With Aku's radiation in effect, Spartans could effectively boost their own numbers, since a Spartan male's entire obligation was to train, exercise, be a warrior, and have sex. That's all they were realistically allowed to do. Most humans of that time wouldn't be able to take care of six or seven children in one pregnancy. Spartans were so well off that they could easily afford to manage that. It would give them more reason to turn away bastard children as anything more than spear fodder as well, since Spartan-Spartan children were considered 'Equals', aka Spartiates, the best. They would easily dominate other cities despite non-Spartan females' ability to create multiple children from one birth, because these women wouldn't be as able to support their children. This allowed Sparta to continue existing well into the twenty-first century and beyond, long enough for Jack to witness them in his own time. Without Aku having been introduced to Earth, the Spartans would no longer exist.

Citations

1 2018/05/25/130-million-year-old-fossil-provides-new-insight-pangea-division

Author's Notes: Thanks for coming to my TED talk. In the next chapter, I will write about Jack getting Spartan pussy as a reward for his hard work [The king omitted it because it wasn't a favourable move at the time for him to allow non-Spartan genes into the Spartan gene pool but I DON'T GIVE A TIT I'M WRITING IT]