Scaramouche the Merciless

"Samurai Jack! Man, it is good to see you, babe. What took you so long? I decimated this village days ago, just for you. Oh wait, this is you, right? I mean who could recognize you with all that gear, and ruggedness, baby? I'll tell you who: Me! Be-bee-ba-boo-bo-da... Scaramouche the Merciless! The Pied Piper of Ruination, the Crooner of Carnage, the Ambassador of Annihilation, the Eradicator of All, baby! Also known as... Aku's most favorite assassin, babe."

- Scaramouche introducing himself.

Scaramouche the Merciless (simply known as Scaramouche) is a recurring antagonist in the fifth and final season of Samurai Jack. He is a robot assassin who is capable of controlling objects with a flute and his voice.

He was voiced by Tom Kenny.

History
In "Episode XCII", by the time Samurai Jack reached a plume of smoke, he arrived at a ruined city, filled with rubble and the corpses of its dead citizens. Jack met Scaramouche, who destroyed the city and claimed himself to be Aku's most favored assassin and remarks on Jack's nigh-unrecognizable appearance, including the loss of Jack's sword. In a flashback, Jack recalled his signature weapon falling down a pit as he looks in horror. Laughing, Scaramouche declared that Jack is no threat without his sword, and called Aku on his mobile phone to make a report, but Jack destroyed the phone with a thrown kunai before he can talk about his discovery.

Satisfied with this turn of events, Scaramouche began to fight Jack, first by playing a magical flute that formed a golem out of the city's rubble. Jack quickly discovered that Scaramouch can rebuild the golem easily by reanimating more rocks to replace any part he broke off. Landing among a pile of rocks after destroying the golem, Jack was once again swept up in another hallucination, this time seeing the rocks around him as the children of the city, begging him for help. The mysterious rider (prevalent in his other visions) universally looks down on the scene. Jack pleaded for their understanding, which made Scaramouche thought Jack has gone "beaucoup cuckoo". Eventually, Jack destroyed the flute, but Scaramouche revealed that his voice was the true source of his magic. The robot proved his point by scatting. This impromptu singing animated Scaramouche's sword to continue the fight against Jack.

While Jack barely dodged the sword's attacks, Scaramouche brought out another blade which opens up like a tuning fork, demonstrating its ability to vibrate at a frequency powerful enough to shatter Jack's own knives. As Scaramouche fought Jack to a standstill, he gloated over his victory, but Jack threw his remaining sword at Scaramouche, still vibrating from clashing with the tuning fork sword. The sword exploded at the last second, severely damaging Scaramouche's vocal chord equivalent, leaving him unable to fight. Scaramouche admitted defeat as Jack cleaved him in two with Scaramouche's first blade, after which Jack kept the tuning fork sword for himself as he left.

In "Episode XCVII", it's revealed that Scaramouche survived in reality as a head all along. Upon awakening in the ruined city, he cheered up himself about being alive but found out his phone was broken and he was unable to contact Aku to tell him about Jack having lost his sword. As Ashi is traveling to find Jack meeting with people he helped back in the past on her way, Scaramouche traveled as a bouncing head trying to find a way to communicate with Aku and found a boat which he decided to use to reach Aku, but is delayed by a sailor because the rules were only those who have a body can board the boat. It also turned out that Scaramouche was only #3 on Aku's Current Top Assassins list (he is behind Deathblow and Da-Bomb). Scaramouche managed to get on the boat after many failed tries by having another guy with a head small enough to fit Scaramouche to be "his body".

Scaramouche then found a telephone booth (somehow in the future) and went to call Aku. Aku does answer, and as Scaramouche told him that Jack's lost his sword, Aku can't heard him because of all of the incessant chatter going on the boat carrying crowds. Frustrated, Scaramouche lashed out at the dog passengers talking to shut up already, and before he can finally tell Aku, one of the dogs grabbed Scaramouche (Aku hanged up the call afterwards) and threw him off the boat into the water.

In "Episode C", some time later after be thrown overboard, Scaramouche somehow took control of an octopus and arrived at the Pit of Hate but by the time he got there Aku has completely isolated himself from everyone. This doesn't deter Scaramouche, who still crawled into Aku's volcano to call for his master, who refused to talk to him but after Scaramouche promised that it was good news, Aku reluctantly gave in. Scaramouche proudly informed the Master of Darkness that Jack was without his sword. Suspecting it's too good to be true, Aku starts crushing Scaramouche to force him to bet his life that he is right. As a reward, Aku restored his body and both danced together. Unaware that Jack had recovered his sword, Aku and Scaramouche confronted Jack and Ashi, but after seeing Jack with his sword, Aku quickly turned to Scaramouche with anger, and before Scaramouche could explain himself, Aku exploded his head with his eye beam, killing him once and for all. However, in spite of his death, Scaramouche indirectly caused Aku to realize that Ashi was his biological daughter and corrupted her which caused Jack to admit defeat.

In "Episode CI", after Jack returned with Ashi's help to the past and killed Aku, Scaramouche was presumably erased from existence as the Evil Scientists, who likely never became evil due Aku's absence, would have never created him to serve Aku as Aku would have never ordered his construction due being deceased by that time. However, if the scientists indeed created him, it's possible that Scaramouche still exists in the new future, but as his encounter with Jack never happened, his purpose and possibly his personality were most likely changed.

Appearance
Scaramouche has a similar appearance to X-49, but with turquoise eyes instead of red, a longer neck, and a larger functional mouth with teeth and a tongue. He wears a black kasa hat, an orange scarf, maroon high-heel boots, a long purple coat with a red interior, and a large black belt.

Personality
Scaramouche is a haughty and remorseless psychopath who loves slaughtering villages to lure his enemies out for his own enjoyment. He is extremely straightforward, empathetic, and loyal to Aku, as he always wants to please him and become his favorite assassin and servant by any means. Unlike other robots who were sent to kill Jack, Scaramouche is very boastful, talkative, spiteful, villainous, and presumptuous. Upon noticing that Jack was without his sword, he proceeded to mock him for it, to the point of calling Aku to boast that Jack had lost the weapon. He also has a tendency to call anyone he meets as "babe" or "baby", even his boss Aku. He is also extremely deceptive, cunning, arrogant, duplicitous, and overconfident, since he self-proclaims himself as Aku's favorite assassin, while his power is vastly inferior to many of Jack's old foes like Demongo or even DJ Stylbator.

His supercilious arrogance leads to his downfall since he lets his guard down long enough for Jack to use his knife, which was imbued by Scaramounche's own magnetic force from his own knife, against him and cripple his neck (the source of his ability) as well as heavily injure him. Scaramouche is also incredibly rude, impolite, argumentative, and egotistical, as even with only his head did he bark at a bunch of anthropomorphic dogs to keep quiet while he did his phone call for Aku, only realizing when it is too late that the dogs are unfriendly and antagonistic to egomaniacs.

In the face of death, he praises Jack's fighting skill, likely a weak attempt to talk his way out of his fate, before Jack chops him in half with his own sword, showing a cowardly act when losing.

Powers and Abilities

 * Enhanced Speed and Agility: Scaramouche is remarkably proficient and agile. He is able to leap tall structures in a single bound, quickly dodge Jack's attacks, and massacred an entire village filled with children in only a day.
 * Musical Telekinesis: Using a "magic" flute, Scaramouche can levitate objects and create golems to fight opponents. When the flute is destroyed, he can continue to levitate objects by scatting, indicating this power comes from his voice and the flute merely amplifies his ability, since he only needs to control his sword through his voice. His power depends on his vocal chords, and he becomes helpless after Jack damages his neck, nullifying the ability.
 * Enhanced Swordsmanship: Scaramouche is a masterful sword fighter, easily holding his own against even the experienced Jack, and carries multiple blades on his person, including a heavy scimitar and a special "tuning sword" that destroys objects on contact.
 * Multilinguist: Scaramouche appears to understand French, as he taunts Jack with au revoir, which is "goodbye" in the language. However, he sarcastically remarks it as French for "You're dead, babe".
 * Observant Analyst: Scaramouche is shown to be very conscientious and observant, as he is able to point out that Jack has changed his appearance a lot and he even noticed that the samurai doesn't have his sword anymore.
 * Maneuverability: Scaramouche can get around anywhere at a quick pace even with only just his head hopping around everywhere, despite how he complained it is hard for him to do so.
 * Water Immunity: Scaramouche is shown to be able to resist water, as shown when he was thrown out from the cruise when he messed with a gang of dogs.

Quotes
"Ohohohoho! No, no, no, no, NO babe! Don't tell me, you-lost your sword!"

- Scaramouche realizing that Jack does not have his sword anymore.

"Nice choreography, babe. You haven't lost a step. Well then, let's dance."

- Scaramouche begins his confrontation with Jack.

"Hey, babe, I told you, I'm Aku's favourite! No one plays the blades like I do-NO ONE! Dala-bala-boo!"

- Scaramouche after using his sonic dagger.

"Oh, baby, I've come down in the world. How do you like that? One day you're the star of the show, the next you're the third act of a two act play. Well, this star is a headliner, babe, and once I tell Aku Jackie-o' lost his sword-o', I'll be numero uno once more-o'!"

- Scaramouche's plan after his first defeat.

"Hey, babe. Be a doll and fetch us a drinkie-po!"

- Scaramouche before getting beaten up by a passenger aboard a ship.

"That Samurai Jack has lost the one thing in the entire universe that could destroy Aku! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

- Scaramouche's claims of seeing Jack without his sword.

"Oh, but master I-"

- Scaramouche's last words.

Victims

 * Hundreds of human children (slaughtered to draw Jack's attention)
 * Possibly similar numbers of non-human living beings who opposed Aku's dictatorship (assassinated to impress Aku)

Trivia

 * Scaramouche's name is derived from a stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell'arte.
 * He is among the most popular enemies Jack has encountered.
 * He was voiced by Tom Kenny, who is best known for his best portrayal as Spyro in the classic Spyro the Dragon video game franchise, the Mayor in Powerpuff Girls, and SpongeBob SquarePants in the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise.
 * Out of all of the robot enemies Jack has fought and killed, Scaramouche is the only one to survive after his encounter with the samurai.
 * Scaramouche's speech pattern is based on late American singer Sammy Davis, Jr.
 * His name was erroneously spelled as just "Scaramouch" without the "e" in the end credits of both "Episode XCII" and "Episode XCVII".
 * His phone has a speed dial that allows him to contact Aku immediately. This allows him to communicate with Aku anytime he wishes while the Cult of Aku have no access to any means to do so.
 * He is the fourth Samurai Jack villain to use music as a weapon after the Sirens, Jujunga, and DJ Stylbator.
 * The way Scaramouche sings while fighting Jack is a possible reference to Scatman, a song done by the late John Paul Larkin (known as Scatman John).