lizard-tail

[lizard-tail]

Megumi Rant bc I'm So Tired

I was gonna talk about 271 and the ending chapters of JJK in general, specifically focusing on how Shonen Jump puts a hard end date on each series it publishes (which are based on conversations with the mangakas, sure, but with no leeway once it’s determined because SJ wants to keep cycling through new publications in order to keep making money - and those hard line end dates cannot possibly account for, say, sudden illness that would prevent a mangaka from releasing a chapter) and how it’s the best end to the series that many fans could have asked for given that info, but I’m tired and I don’t feel like yelling at a wall, so here’s a rebuttal aimed at a lot of Megumi hot takes™ I’ve seen since, really, 269 dropped.

Obligatory thing up front bc I know the JJK fandom hates reading and critical thought more than anything in the world, and that it operates on a very "but what about me" mentality: It's totally fine if you are dissatisfied with JJK in general or even just the ending. It's totally fine if you have mixed feelings about the way the story was wrapped up. It's totally fine if you think it could have been handled better even given the above information in the link above on how SJ operates. I'm not telling you to feel a certain way, but I'm walking you through the end of the story (read: Megumi's character specifically) bc I am so fucking tired of reading bad takes about "Gege hating Megumi" or whatever.

Holding everyone's hands as I go through these. Let's take these steps in shedding directionless rage together.

(Forewarning that this is long as hell. Gomen.)

Common Argument Number 1: Megumi didn’t have a character arc/didn't grow as a character

The first thing that needs to be understood to realize why this is wrong is that all of the characters in JJK have arcs based around power - gaining it, losing it, being overwhelmed by it, and so on. This is not new information as of the last few chapters; we've known for years now that JJK isn't a story that's focused on deep introspection nor prolonged emotional development. Power. Cursed Techniques. That's where Gege kept his focus. However, it's impossible to write a story with heavy themes of loss and fear and love without touching into a character's emotions at all, some of which become central enough to turn into arcs. (We'll circle back to this in just a moment.) The second thing that needs to be understood here is that, in the general sense of All Media (and not just JJK), not all character arcs have to span the entire length of a story. A full and complete character arc (which is to say, the movement that happens while a character is actively changing) can happen in half of a story or less, and it is no less satisfying for having done so. Now, what does all of that have to do with Megumi? Very explicitly, it means that Megumi not only experiences growth as a character, but that he also goes through not one, but two character arcs. ((He's not the only character with two arcs, but he's the reason for this post, so you guys can track down the others on your own.)) Both of his arcs are complete, in my opinion, even if they're not 100% satisfying. But satisfaction isn't the argument here, so we can touch on that later. Maybe. Megumi's first arc (his power arc) starts right out of the gate, but it doesn't begin to take shape until the chapters at the detention center (I would argue it specifically starts to become an "arc" [which is to say, experiences movement] right at the point where Yuuji dies - this is the inciting incident in Megumi's story), and it concludes during the Culling Games (the exact place of it's conclusion is a little waffle-y for me but it's between either the moment he is able to use his technique to beat someone solo within the depths of his shadows OR the exact moment that Sukuna looks at him and thinks that he's strong enough now to be Sukuna's vessel). This arc follows Megumi coming to terms with the reality that if he wants to save people, he needs to get stronger and he needs to get more in touch with the side of himself that is/creates his CT. And he accomplishes that. Is there more growth in this department that he could have had? Yes, absolutely. Taming Mahoraga, a fully realized domain expansion, etc. All of that could have happened, but none of that needs to happen in order for this arc to be complete. He sought power, he got power, and he used it to save people. That's a fully realized and completed arc. Megumi's second arc (his emotional arc) happens during the time Sukuna is wearing him like a suit. This arc has nothing at all to do with anything that happens before this point in time (it has nothing to do with power, nothing to do with fighting, nothing to do with saving people). Before this, Megumi's emotional state is fairly stagnant; any goals and/or momentum that he has outside of wanting to become stronger are usually skipped over or not acknowledged at all. Once his bodily autonomy is stripped from him, all that's left is emotion. And we get to see a complete emotional arc here - starting in stagnation, inciting incident of being possessed, and then the slow chipping away of his resolve as Sukuna kills his sister and performs a ritual to suppress Megumi's soul completely. Megumi is at his lowest point here, but he overcomes it and chooses to live. That's a complete arc. That's a conclusion. No amount of wanting him to mourn Gojo or of wishing for This, That, or The Other things change the fact that his arcs do in fact reach natural conclusions within the story.

Common Argument Number 2: Megumi didn't have a satisfying conclusion

I think this argument is a bit of a pull from a misunderstanding that revolves around argument number one. People are looking for an arc that is wrapping up in the final chapters, and they're upset that they're not finding it. And the reason they're not finding it is because, as mentioned above, Megumi's arcs concluded before he regained consciousness post-Shinjuku. Also, this may come as a shock to some people, but "satisfying" is relative. Which also means that I can't exactly argue against what people are feeling, because in this specific instance, it's all feelings based. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try!! I already covered that Megumi fully concluded both of his arcs, so it's not that he's lacking in power or emotional development. I think what people get stuck on is what Megumi says before he begins to fight back against Sukuna: that he wants to try to live for someone else. A lot of readers seem to take this as a step backwards for him, a return to who he was before everything in the story, but I disagree. I think it's actually a large step forward for him and, beyond that, I think it's realistic beyond simply satisfying the narrative. At the beginning of the story, Megumi is living for nothing. It's common for the fandom to think he's living for Tsumiki, but she's fully comatose and cursed; I doubt that he's living for her. At most he's living just in case a miracle happens and she wakes up, but that's not living for her. He's in what I think of as a transitional space, and he's stuck there. He's the only one in his year at Jujutsu Tech, he's not trying to develop his CT, he's just existing - going on missions and rolling his eyes at Gojo and doing school work. At the end of the story, Megumi actively chooses life. He had a way out, he felt that in many ways he was already dead - or at the very least, that he was irredeemable and better off dead. But he chooses to live. He chooses to fight back. And, more than that, he chooses to become an active participant in life. Yes, for him that means living for Yuuji, but even that still requires wanting to keep going, wanting to keep putting one foot in front of the other. He wants to face the world and all it has to offer - despite all the bad, and maybe in spite everything he went through. That's a satisfying character conclusion in my eyes. Everyone wants realistic representation of the struggle surrounding mental illness and how victories with them are not as "grand" as for neurotypical people until they're actually presented with realistic representation. Then all of a sudden it's "bad writing" and "unsatisfying" because the character didn't end the story without any gaps or holes and with a perfect little bow wrapped around their neck. God forbid there be an implication that a character gets to continue to live and grow beyond the last page. Anyway, just because he didn't have the conclusion you wanted for him that you built up in your head after years of living with the fanon version of Megumi you created doesn't mean his conclusion was bad or unsatisfying.

Common Argument Number 3: Megumi's characterization went right back to how it was during the Culling Game arc

...Duh??? I mean... where else was his personality and his behavior supposed to go? He spent a month completely suppressed by Sukuna. The only thing he was going to do without intervention is regress, not progress. What happened to Megumi when Yuuji reached out to him was him coming back to himself - and the only "himself" he had in recent memory was who he was immediately before Sukuna took over. Character progression cannot happen in stagnation, and stagnation is all Megumi had while he was suppressed in the bath™. Expecting any of that to change him for the better or to push him in any "forward" momentum is, quite honestly, ridiculous. The only direction Megumi could have gone is backwards, and he is (which means also we are) just lucky that he was able to be dragged into the version of himself that had already grown and that was waiting for his return.

Common Argument Number 4: Megumi didn't do anything during the fight against Sukuna

What gets me about this stance is that it seems to be the only one shared between the "shonen bros" who only read manga for the fight scenes and the hardcore Megumi stans who wish so desperately that he was the main character of the series. But like... what do you want him to do, here, exactly? Somehow find within himself the urge to get up and fight what seems to be a losing battle after watching his own hands kill not only his sister but the most prominent adult figure in his life? Resist all on his own (with no prior arc moments to support it) whatever mystical magical bs makes the bath™ work in keeping his soul suppressed? Do you want a good and well-structured character arc with logical emotional weight, or do you just want your favorite character to defeat a villain that is not "his" villain? I'll wait. Megumi's struggles during this story arc are internal, and his inability to fight is reflective of that. If he were to be resisting against Sukuna the whole time - trying to wrest control of his CT back or attempting to attack Sukuna's soul himself - then we would still be sitting in his power arc during this time. Megumi's inaction is physical representation of the inner turmoil and struggle that he was in during the fight, and I don't think that's very hard to understand. He is fighting; it's just that he's fighting himself. And he wins that fight. And he does do something in the fight against Sukuna. I firmly believe that Megumi choosing to live sealed the deal on Sukuna's death. Why else would Sukuna have been panicking so hard and doing everything he could to keep Megumi depressed and stuck in the ruts of his mind? If Megumi hadn't chosen life, hadn't decided he wanted to keep fighting in that moment, Sukuna would still be kicking. I don't think it's a stretch, actually, to say that Megumi delivered the blow that weakened Sukuna to Yuuji's kill shot. Megumi was integral to the fight - he just needed to go through his emotional arc first.

I'm sure I'm missing things, I'm sure I forgot things. But this isn't college and I'm not writing for a grade. What I am is tired of both Megumi hate and Gege hate. Megumi is a well-written character who is good representation of depression (at minimum), and who is also not the fucking main character. Like, I'm sorry that the character you project your mental illness onto acts mentally ill, and I'm sorry your favorite character is a side character who is written like a side character. These things tend to happen.

Yes, obviously, more could have been done with him and the wrapping of his character (and all of the characters) if the ending wasn't rushed, but that's not Gege's fault. Blame capitalism if you want to point fingers. JJK isn't the first manga with a rushed ending for exactly that reason, and it won't be the last.

Okay, I have to force myself to stop talking or we'll be here forever but:

The ending of JJK is not "bad writing," it's the best outcome that could have happened given the time constraints and publication constraints.

I agree that it would have been nice to see acknowledgements from the characters of the trauma they went through, but also I think that those things realistically take time. I don't think it's unreasonable that their first instinct would be to pretend that everything is normal for as long as they can. However, Megumi was not handled poorly, and he was not abandoned by Gege, and Gege does not hate him. He was well-written start to finish, and he was given a lovely ending that leaves his future wide open for possibilities.

Take a deep breath and stop trying to be the loudest voice in the room. Look at the text and supplement it with reality and the hard truths of a really shitty work culture, and understand that being upset is valid, but it's not valid enough to justify seething hatred for a mangaka whose entire work you probably read for free <3

[lizard-tail]

ONCE MORE, I THINK I'LL LIVE FOR OTHERS

So of all the characters in Jujutsu Kaisen Megumi has turned out to be one of the most controversial and hotly debated characters. There's nothing the internet hates more than a boy with trauma, I guess. Jujutsu Kaisen is a controversial work in general so it's not surprising that the ending wasn't super well received by the fans, especially in the way it decided to conclude Megumi's character arc.

There are many people accusing Gege of giving Megumi no character development. Of Megumi just choosing to replace Tsumiki with Yuji. Lots of complaints about Megumi never finishing his domain expansion among other things. Of Megumi being nothing more than a damsel for Yuji to rescue in the end. I'm here to say I think Megumi does have a complete character arc even if it didn't end the way I would have liked, and under the cut I'll be giving my thoughts for Megumi's ending and JJK's ending in general.

I CAN ONLY SAVE THOSE WHO ARE PREPARED TO BE SAVED

If you were to ask me what the most important arc in Jujutsu Kaisen is, it would be Hidden Inventory. Hidden Inventroy covers the inciting incident which leads to all the conflicts in the main story, Riko's death, Geto's defection, Tengen's merger failing, and Gojo's decision to adopt Megumi.

However, it also shows us what motivates Gojo in the main series, mainly his desire to raise this generation of students into strong and intelligent allies because of his inability to save his closest friend when it most counted.

If the quote that summarizes the central theme of Jujutsu Kaisen Zero is "Love is the most twisted curse of them all."

Then I put forward that the quote that summarizes the theme of the main series is what Gojo said to Yaga post Geto's defection, "Being strong isn't enough, I can only save those who are prepared to be saved."

Just like Hidden Inventory is centered around Geto and Gojo's relationship in their youth, the main manga itself centers around Megumi and Itadori's relationship. The manga itself starts with their first meeting. Yuji devours the finger in order to try to help Megumi. Megumi requests Gojo help save Yuji from execution because he didn't want to see another good person die.

Megumi and Itadori are also a deliberate parallel to Geto and Gojo's friendship in the past. To begin with Gojo tried to nurture these relatoinships in his students so they COULD get along and enjoy their youths the way he remembers doing so with Geto in his three springtime of youth.

He not only encourages Megumi to selfishly try to save Yuji even though it is against the rules of sorcery and poses a risk to other people, he also encourages them to socialize at every opportunity.

The strong and intense friendship that Megumi and Yuji enjoy is not only a clear parallel to Geto and Gojo's special connection with one another, but also the fact that a strong reocurring motif in Megumi and Yuji's friendship is their strong desire to save each other. Which is a clear parallel to Gojo's inability to save Geto in the past.

As I said for a long time Yuji and Megumi were being set up as this generation's version of the "strongest duo" except they were going to be able to break the cycle. Whether it be by Megumi saving Yuji, or Yuji saving Megumi, they wouldn't be driven apart by the corruption in the Jujutsu World the way that Geto and Gojo were.

As I said the central question of Jujutsu Kaisen especially in regards to Megumi and Yuji's friendship is if it's possible to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Which is why Megumi and Yuji both wanting to save each other is something that happens again and again at different parts of the manga. Whether it be the ending of Origin of Obedience where Megumi and Yuji are both unable to talk to each other because they want to try to protect the other from information that might harm them. Megumi hiding the fact that he knows resonance between the Sukuna fingers awakened the curses. Yuji hiding the fact that Megumi's decision to save Yuji has caused strong curses to awaken and kill other people.

Just as often as these two try to save each other, they fail. Megumi watches Yuji die early on when Yuji takes back control from Sukuna and decides to die without a heart.

Megumi spends the entirety of the culling games clinging to Yuji's side no matter how Yuji tries to push him away because he knows Sukuna has plans for him. However, Megumi is afraid to leave Yuji alone because he knows Yuji is in a dark place after the Shibuya massacre and that if he's left alone Yuji might just find some way to off himself in a heroic sacrifice to try to atone for the people lost at Shibuya.

Only for Megumi's insistence on clinging to Yuji to backfire because Sukuna ends up taking his body from him in a critical moment. When Sukuna takes his body their circumstances swap and Megumi is the one who's body is being used to kill people by Sukuna. When Megumi has to live with the guilt of Sukuna using his body to kill both his sister and his teacher, he's not able to live with it anymore.

Then their positions swap completely and it's Megumi who wants to die to atone for the guilt, and it's Yuji who doesn't want to let go of Megumi and will do anything to save Megumi from both Sukuna and the other sorcerers even if the right thing to do is just kill both him and Sukuna and letting him live means putting the whole rest of the world at risk.

As you can see not only is saving each other a common theme of Megumi and Yuji's relationship, but at different points of the story both of them are trying to save the other even when the other doesn't value their own life.

Gojo's relationship with Geto is defined by his inability to reach his friend in time, and how he was "left behind" in the end.

Gojo explicitly waited a year after learning about Megumi being sold to the Zen'in clan to do anything, and only decided to intervene after Geto's defection. Gojo's decision to mentor Megumi was inspired by Geto leaving. He even said "Don't get left behind."

His hope in taking in students like Megumi, Yuta and Yuji was twofold first that he'd be able to handpick and raise several strong students who would eventually replace the elders and reform the Jujutsu World. The second and more personal motivation is that he wanted these students to be able to support each other and be strong allies to one another so they wouldn't end up alone like Gojo did in his youth.

Gojo's intentions were good however, Gojo has a very flawed understanding of how people and relationships work. In Gojo's books "strong=good" and almost everything can be solved by strength. Notice just one chapter ago Gojo said that being strong wasn't enough, he can only save those who are prepared to be saved and yet one chapter later he tells Megumi that he needs to get strong otherwise he'll be left behind.

So, even when Gojo knows that being strong isn't enough and didn't make a difference with Geto, that's still the only real advice he can offer Megumi.

A big theme of Jujutsu Kaisen is the failures of the past generation affecting the present. A lot of people in trying to put Gojo on a pedestal fail to realize one of the central themes of this manga is GOJO WAS WRONG. The way Gojo went about doing several things wasn't the right way. Gojo wants the next generation to succeed him and do better than him, because Gojo himself knows that he was wrong and he's a part of the past generation.

I think a big part of the reason the conclusion to Megumi's character arc is poorly received is that Megumi didn't end his arc the way that Gojo set out for him.

Scenes like this led the audience to believe that Megumi's character arc was going to be completed by him learning to be more selfish and living up to the potential that Gojo saw in him. That we were going to get a completed domain expansion. That Megumi was going to become stronger than Gojo because the ten shadows was the only technique to ever beat a wielder of the limitless and the six eyes.

I understand wanting to see Megumi living for himself, and how cool it might be to see Megumi's complete domain expansion after Gege teased us with this twice but I have to ask this.

If Gojo was the strongest sorcerer in the world, and that still wasn't good enough to save Geto. Then how would Megumi reaching his full potential as a sorcerer in any way help Megumi avoid making the same mistakes that Gojo did?

HAVEN'T WE HAD ENOUGH OF GOJO SATORU

I think a lot of dissatisfaction in Megumi's character development comes from he didn't really follow the path that Gojo set out for him. He didn't unlock his full domain expansion, he didn't learn to live more selfishly. They say that Megumi simply choosing to live for Yuji isn't him learning to stand on his own two feet because he's just hinging his self worth on someone else the same way he did with Tsumiki.

However, I have to ask.

How exactly would Megumi becoming more like Gojo or more like Sukuna be any better?

A big recurring theme in Megumi's arc is his lack of agency, and how many different adult figures have tried to mould him to their own selfish ends.

In the same chapter where Megumi has the flashback where Gojo encourages him to become more selfish, Sukuna has his hands wrapped around Megumi's neck in the colored page. Sukuna was never actually trying to mentor Megumi.

He only had an interest in Megumi because his ten shadows techniques was a way to bypass Gojo's infinity. Henever actually cared about Megumi reaching his full potential. He was grooming Megumi in the long term so he could snatch his body and turn him into a weapon against Gojo Satoru. The same way that Gojo only decided to take Megumi in and mentor him in the first place because his technique meant he had great potential as a sorcerer and a future ally in Gojo's crusade against the elders.

Megumi's life is defined by every adult in his life trying to mould him or use him selfishly for his own gains. His father sold him to the Zen'in clan for gambling money and abandoned him. Gojo only was interested in a strong ally against the elders. Sukuna is just one in a long line of people who are trying to shape Megumi into something he's not for their own selfish desires.

Ngl, the fushiguro girlies are kinda onto something with their characterization of Sukuna’s possession as the physical embodiment of his lifelong struggle for self determination and autonomy and how others have always pupeteered his fate for their own devices and he’s thusly never put himself first ─ his selfishness functioning ultimately as platitudes which still center others and his consideration for them. [SOURCE]

So if all of Megumi's various abusers have tried to make Megumi into something he's not and robbed him of his agency in the process, then is the best ending for Megumi really to become more selfish like Gojo or Sukuna?

If Megumi ended his character arc by using a complete domain expansion, and reaching Gojo's level of power wouldn't that be validating the way Gojo stole Megumi's entire childhood from him in order to make him a strong sorcerer. Wouldn't it look like the narrative was going, yeah, it was wrong for Gojo to groom Megumi like that, but look how strong it made him!

We already have a version of Megumi who learned to live only for himself, someone who broke the chains of fate and became entirely free.

Toji shows us a version of Megumi who lived up to his full potential as a sorcerer, became someone strong enough to threaten Satoru Gojo, and who put himself above everyone else and... Toji's fucking miserable.

Toji is the bad ending of Megumi. He's strong but that's all he is. The narration refers to him as a puppet of carnage, only living to fight the strongest around. In fact, Toji dies BECAUSE he wanted to feel validated as the strongest. The decision to say and fight against Gojo when Gojo unlocks reverse cursed technique leads to his death. Being the strongest and his desire to be validated as someone strong is nothing more than a curse for Toji and what allows him to escape the cycle is not strength, but rather seeing that his son has succesfully escaped the abuse of the Zen'in clan.

So having Megumi live up to his full potential as a sorcerer, or living selfishly the way that Gojo or Sukuna wanted him to wouldn't really be breaking the cycle, because it'd be Megumi acting the way his abusers wanted him to act. If anything it' be Gojo's long term grooming of Megumi finally succeeding.

I understand that Megumi fighting back on Sukuna from within with one use of ten shadows to create a puddle underneath Sukuna's feet isn't the most dramatic way to signal his journey of self-realization, but sometimes the flashy, dramatic, and satisfying thing isn't always the right thing.

if the central relationship of the series is Megumi and Yuji, and the central question of that relationship was "is it possible to save someone who doesn't want to be saved-" then resolving both Megumi and Yuji's character arcs requires answering that question. That's the most important part. How are we going to break the cycle and have Megumi and Yuji save each other in a way that Geto and Gojo weren't be able to.

Yes, I understand wanting Megumi to be his own person and stand on his own two feet, but before he's a person Megumi is a fictional character. Megumi and Yuji are characters intentionally designed to be each other's other half. The same way that Geto is designed to be the other half of Gojo. They both represent a yin / yang pair. They both represent the shadow and the light, the sun and the moon.

People also talk about wanting Gojo to learn to be his own person outside of Geto, but that's also missing the point. Gojo isn't a person to begin with he's a character designed to be the other half of Geto. All of those parallels that exist between them, both of them getting their bodies stolen from them, both of them becoming monsters (geto slaughtering the village, Gojo slaughtering the elders), both of them dying on the same day. Those are intentional, because they're fictional characters meant to represent the concept of yin and yang and balance. Gojo cannot exist without Geto, Geto's body causes Gojo to get boxed, Gojo dies within a year of killing Geto, because they're meant to represent the taoist concept of BALANCE in a manga that's about BALANCE. Gojo cannot achieve balance with the character that symbolizes his yin. Whereas, Megumi's way of achieving balance is to find a way to make things work with his other half Yuji in a way that Geto and Gojo failed to.

As someone who used to be the biggest Megumi Corruption Arc truther, I've come around in my thinking and I can at least understand why Gege didn't go that direction. Megumi learning to be selfish like Gojo would be changing too much of Megumi's inner nature, because as much as Megumi pretends to be selfish as an excuse he still is someone who wants to help people.

There's nothing wrong with Megumi wanting to help people, or wanting to be a team player. It was Megumi deciding to hinge his entire self worth on just his ability to help one person. It's why he couldn't go on when Tsumiki died, not just because he was grieving his sister, but because he decided to make protecting his sister his entire reason to live and genuinely saw no other reason to keep on living.

A lot of people say that Megumi is just deciding to make Yuji into an emotional crutch the same way he once did with Tsumiki, however, I don't think these lines of dialogue really indicate that.

"The world is full of people besides myself. Once more I think I'll live for others."

To begin with, Megumi says that the world is filled with lots of people. Megumi didn't want to go on because he didn't think he'd ever love someone as much as he loved his sister. That there was nothing in the world worth living for if his sister was gone.

However, now Megumi is acknowledging that there are more people in the world than just Tsumiki. That he might come to love them the same way that he loved her. That he shouldn't give up on life just because he lost one person, no matter how important that person was.

Megumi's words run contrary to the idea that he's just going to use Yuji as his next living emotional crutch, because he says the world is full of people. There's more people than just him, there's more people than just Yuji, as long as Megumi makes the choice to continue living then he can go out into the world and meet them.

Jujutsu Kaisen is a very individualist manga, and I understand we also exist in an individualist society so we want to see Megumi stand on his own two feet and live for himself, but I don't think Megumi deciding he'll live for others is a bad thing. This is just a few chapters after Yuji said that what makes life meaningful is the memories you leave behind with other people. Which is the exact same sentiment.

Yuji is able to break free from the cog mindset when he realizes that all the people he connected to in his life gave his life meaning, even if they died tragically, even if he only knew them for a short time. Choso's final words are "Thank you for being my little brother" and that connection was incredibly important even though they only knew each other for about a month. Yuji's life became meaningful because he went out into the world and made all these important connections.

Now Megumi is doing the same thing. He's resolved that even though his sister is dead the world is full of people he can connect with. That he can come to love other people the same way that he did. That his life is still worth living because he can find new people to love. Is Megumi deciding he can try to live for the other people in his life and his connection to those people even after the loss of his sister made him feel like his life is worthless and he'll never love anybody that way again, really that different from Yuji deciding that the people he made connections too gave his life value?

Jujutsu Kaisen lifts from other manga, this is pretty common knowledge. Killua and Shinji Ikari are probably the two biggest inspirations for Megumi and both are two very passive characters who are entirely reactive. They don't decide, they don't act, they react to the decisions of people around him.

Killua's ultimate moment of character development isn't beating his abusive big brother, or his abusive parents in a physical fight after getting a power up. Killua's greatest moment of character development is accepting Nanika as a part of Alluka. Something he was too afraid to do because it would mean that his family would continue to try to exploit Alluka for her wish granting abilities.

Killua finishes his arc with the resolution to protect both Alluka and Nanika from the rest of his family. Considering that Killua has been centering his entire self worth around his usefulness to Gon by this point you could call it Killua is just replacing Alluka with Gon as a crutch if you were cynical. Or you could just say that Killua, like Megumi is someone who lives for their loved ones and finds value in the bonds he makes with other people.

Shinji Ikari spends the entire 26 episode run of Neon Genesis Evangelion not making a single decision, and his final moment of character development isn't really that much character development. He simply makes the decision to reject instrumentality and try again. To go back to the real world and try to be a person in the world again, because as long as you're alive there's still a chance to be happy.

Megumi like Killua, never really changes. It's in Megumi and Killua's nature to be a protector / a nurturer. They want to take care of the loved ones in their lives. Megumi and Shinji both have an arc where it takes the entire anime / manga to take the very first step. Their arc is there to depict how hard it can be to take that first step on the journey to change when you're as traumatized as someone like Shinji or Megumi.

Megumi's arc especially is about him making his very first decision in the whole manga. As I said the central question of Megumi and Yuji's relationship is can you save someone who doesn't want to be saved and Yuji eventually finds you that you can't.

Yuji's greatest moment of character development and empathy for Fushiguro is realizing he can't force savlation on Fushiguro if Megumi doesn't want it. He can't force Megumi to live. He can't just tell Megumi to be stronger.

In doing so Yuji does something that no one has ever done to Megumi in his life, and offered him a choice. Gojo expected Megumi to be as strong as him and saw him as a mini-gojo never once taking his opinion into the matter. As I said above Gojo sees being strong as the soliution to all of life's problems. His adivce to Megumi was don't be weak, otherwise you'll be left behind.

Yuji allows Megumi to be weak. He says that Megumi doesn't have to be strong and suck it all up. The metaphor of Yuji and his grandfather works well to show how Yuji truly understood Megumi in a way Gojo never did. Gojo expected Megumi to be as strong as him. Gojo encouraged Megumi to grow up into another Gojo. Gojo failed to understand Megumi in many ways because he wasn't Gojo, and enjoy Jujutsu and being a sorcerer the way that Gojo did.

Yuji relates the story of his grandfather rejecting chemo treatment. At the time he didn't understand why his father would refuse the treatment just because it was painful, because Yuji being young would have been very easily able to handle the pain. However, after Yuji went through trauma and started dealing with suicidal ideation in the aftermath of Shibuya he understood why some people wouldn't want to keep fighting.

Yuji knows what it's like to be weak and want to give up so he doesn't want to force Megumi to be strong. Gojo projected himself onto Megumi and expected Megumi to always be strong and to love Jujutsu like he did, and didn't understand the ways Megumi was different than him. Yuji on the other hand accepted Megumi for who he was with those words, even though Megumi was weak and didn't want to continue living Yuji didn't crticize him he accepted that Megumi was different from him. He accepted the fact he didn't really understand Megumi's pain. He validated Megumi's pain and didn't try to dismiss it.

This parallel to Gojo and Megumi's first meeting is so important, because Gojo showed up in that child's life only to exploit him. While Yuji gave Megumi a choice. Even if it meant that Yuji would be lonely and heartbroken, he still gave Megumi a choice on whether or not he wanted to live.

In the end Yuji gave Megumi a choice, and Megumi made that choice to keep living. Just like Shinji, Megumi's entire character arc was just leading him up to taking the first step on his journey. Just like Shinji, Megumi's entire arc is defined by his choices being taken away from him but the very first choice he makes is his most important one: the choice to live.

So yes, a Megumi corruption arc would have been really cool but I think the answer of "You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved, but you can still love them" is a beautiful one.

[lizard-tail]

hey, i was just wondering what are your thoughts on the final chapter of jjk…

The End

This is gonna be a little detailed. I am gonna first give a short answer and what I liked and disliked, then a little more detailed one. This is about ending as a whole.

I remember I did quite some research during my college time on post modernism and existentialism because i had to write an essay (it isn't about that) but I will be referring to what I researched here and there, when put forth my points.

Short answer- I am content with the ending. I am also surprised since this is the first time gege wrote a full manga for the first time, but he still managed to give an ending better than most. And any gripe that still remains, I will not hold it against the author cause the story and characters aren't real, Gege is.

Yuji, Sukuna, and Gojo's character have some of the best conclusions within the story (unpopular opinion probably 😮‍💨). The way they were written and the consistency with regards to their characterization was amazing.

As for what I am conflicted about or have any gripes with, well, it's Megumi's character. I don't know how to say it, I liked it his conclusion, but I wish there was more introspection to how he reached there. But alternatively, I talked with a moot of mine, and they think the lack of introspection from Megumi is quite in-character. He decided to live for others once again (i.e., he didn't address his problems at all) and he is finding peace and comfort in the cage he is stuck at, it's such simple decision from his part, cause he is very clueless about his own psychology, and this is the beauty of it, that we as readers know what caused him to make that decision-according to my moot. I highlighted this one, cause this interpretation stood out the most. I also talked with other people, who seem to hold dislike for the lack of introspection from Megumi's end. While I am still conflicted, maybe I will address in some other posts or not at all, idk, but right now, I haven't formed my opinion on it.

Detail:-

I like that it's more about evolving and coexistence rather than breaking the cycle or one conclusive solution. Regardless of Sukuna's or Yuji's existence, the curses will always continue to exist. It's humans' negative emotions that create curses in the first place. If the negative emotions of humans can't cease to exist, then curses won't either. Jujutsu Kaisen in a way rejects the idea that life can just have a start, middle, and end, or that one single truth/solution can provide closure. Maybe things can get worse in the future, maybe things can get better, that's up to you to decide, in that particular sense, it's open-ended.

You may ask what was even the point then? Well, let me offer a perspective, although it's just my interpretation, you don't have to agree to it...

When characters within a story accept a belief, perspective, or solution as the only truth, it can lead to their failure, especially if that belief oversimplifies a complex reality. But, one character who comes to understand the complexity can find a way to coexist with the chaos or ambiguity, though not necessarily "fixing" things.

In narratives such as these, the answer isn’t just a rejection of truth but a recognition of multiplicity, the presence of multiple perspectives, interpretations, or meanings within a single work or the idea that one truth or solution cannot account for the full stretch of experience. The character who realises the absence of a single "fix" often ends up navigating the challenges in a more nuanced way. They may not succeed in traditional terms, but they endure by accepting life’s complexity.

Many characters within JJK try to find some single "fix" to the system or the problem of curses and cursed energy and each of them had very flawed solution which we see failing--Yuki/Kenjaku/Geto were all extremists in that sense, one of my friend mentioned this in twt, Yuki wanted to completely break away from CE but also she didn't have any concrete plan, and Kenjaku who wanted to optimise it, but never really knew what merger could do, himself. Even Geto knew that killing all non-sorcorers is not possible.

Sukuna/Gojo-- both their ideals were extremely flawed. Many people have written amazing analysis on this, so i won't go in detail. But we see in the story how strength was the reason for both their solitude and which led them to path of their own death. But Sukuna perfected what Gojo didn't, sukuna completely threw away his humanity and was content living as a curse. A hollow human, who only ever cares about strength, he deemed love worthless, like Gojo deemed love to be the most twisted curse. However, gojo still wanted connections at the end of the day, and this kept him a little more humane than sukuna, who became a monster who clung to life wanting to stay at the pinnacle.

I liked that in the end Gojo realised that Yuji and other should follow their own path rather than just following his goals (although he would've like that) and I am glad they didn't follow his footsteps.

This conversation between sukuna and mahito just added so much to their characters.

Sukuna is the man who perfected his ego. He discarded his humanity till his last breath. Sukuna says he was an unwanted child (maybe cause he ate his twin in his mothers womb, someone on twt pointed out that this is similar to biological condition called "fetus in fetu") and he internalised this all and lived his whole life as a curse, only ever caring about his pleasures and displeasure and being the pinnacle. But even a perfected ego gets humbled in death, and the same happened with him. He acknowledges that he could have taken a different route, and if there is a next time, it would be nice to walk on a different path. Beautiful, honestly.

Now, Mahito is the literal manifestation of humans' hatred for others. He is a true curse, and he wasn't able to reconcile with his humanity after death because, unlike sukuna, he has none, he is not human. He is the manifestation of the same cycle of human hatred, he didn't change, he is the only one left sulking like a child. As I mentioned before, if the negative emotions of humans can't cease to exist, then curses like mahito won't either.

You could then say - well, then nothing changed?

I mean, is it really nothing? Tengen is no more, and this is the curse user Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara caught, and what happened to him?

Earlier, he probably would have been executed, but now Yuji offered him a chance to change.

Yuji turns out to be the person who learns to coexist. He is, for me, the best written character within the story with the best conclusion.

Now, let's just say that doesn't mean anything, nothing changed at all, there was no point...

However, the idea that "nothing changed" often misses the deeper layers of such narratives, which are less about external change and more about internal realizations, the acceptance of ambiguity and even the rejection of simplistic resolutions.

The "point" is not necessarily achieving change or a clear resolution, but rather witnessing the struggle itself. How characters navigate or accept a chaotic/indifferent universe.

There are two examples I can think of, first one being, Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus", Sisyphus endlessly pushes a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down, its completely futile, yet the "point" is his perseverance. The second one is "Waiting for Godot" by Beckett, nothing really appears to happen in the story, and characters seem stuck in a cycle of waiting for this supposed person calles Gadot. However, the "point" is in the waiting itself. It's a reflection on the human condition, the search for meaning, and how we deal with uncertainty and the passage of time.

Thus, the point of such narratives is not in "what changed" but how we live with things not changing, how we adapt, or re-contextualise meaning of things when the world resists easy solutions or "fix its". It's reflectimg on the messiness of real life, where change is often slow, subtle, or non-existent, and simple answers are rarely seen.

So it's up to you to decide what you wanna make of this ending. Personally, I am very, very content.

(Again, this is my interpretation, I could be completely off charts, and I don't mind, maybe I will change my mind after thinking about it again, or maybe not, but one thing remains, that I throughly enjoyed all 4 years I was reading this manga. Peace✌️)

[lizard-tail]

i understand why people are upset about gojo's ending, but it definitely aligns to what gege planned for him as a character. not many people (if more than one: suguru) really cared about gojo satoru beyond the facet of being the strongest sorcerer alive, their main weapon, the six eyes.

from beginning to end, from birth to death, gojo satoru was made to serve jujutsu society.

you can count on one hand how many times the other characters are shown to really care about his mental, emotional and physical status beyond the fact that he can actually fight to protect them and the world. this is just how his relationship with others was. he was more an entity than anything else.

the few who got close (suguru and arguably sukuna) and tried to get close (shoko, yuji, yuta...) were still met with a barried he put between himself and other people, mostly because gojo himself recognized his role as the strongest, and to a point even enjoyed it. he didn't care for his family, had a few friends and wasn't even the typical mentor figure you usually see in anime. even the way megumi talks about the years they spent together is proof of that.

the people in this world mourning him as the strongest is something they need to do. but people mourning him as gojo satoru, the man, don't really exist in it anymore.

gojo only cultivated superficial relationships with every and anyone that came his way because he actually acknowledged his importance to the world. that doesn't mean, somewhere, somehow, deep within himself he didn't long for it. unfortunately, he didn't achieve that in his lifetime.

gojo wasn't written to be a happy character. he was written to show what the pinnacle of jujutsu society has to offer: tragedy, loneliness and war. however, that doesn't mean he was unfulfilled with it: he liked being the strongest, he liked fighting, he liked being gojo satoru.

people who cared about him, he acknowledged them. helping his students, his friends and colleagues. people who didn't, he dismissed. that's who he was.

so no. i don't think people "moving on" from his death is out of character. i think it's pretty much spot on to his character setting. he had his own version of a happy ending: dying in battle against his greatest enemy, meeting a loved one in the after life, and helping build a better society/world to the youth he fiercely fought to protect.

i think that, for him, in a sense, it was enough. for the fans... that's another story.

[lizard-tail]

A thematic aspect of being The Strongest, Sukuna and his fight

It's interesting that overall Gege has always portrayed being the strongest as a negative thing. Gojo had his issues with isolation and dehumanization, Kashimo felt isolated as well and was dissatisfied with how his life turned out, many of the other incarnated sorcerers who were proclaimed as the strongest had similiar feelings of dissatisfaction. They were still tied down to human feelings, desires and wants, leading them to not be fully satisfied with their lives, feeling as if they were lacking something integral, despite their strength and status as the strongest.

Enter Sukuna: His presence shows that you need to let go of your humanity and your ties to other humans entirely to be satisfied as The Strongest™. Sukuna understood the bonds between humans but rejected them as unnecessary. That's also why he called Gojo and Kashimo greedy. Because to be the strongest and be fulfilled by it one needs to let go of things like love. Even at his end he rejects it and calls himself a curse. So being the ultimate strongest by rejecting humanity and bonds to other people makes one the Bad Guy™ and very inhuman.

Gege either portrays being the strongest as isolating and unfulfilling or as inhuman. IMO he straight up criticises the position as the strongest/best/number 1 and people striving to be in that position or seeing it as the only worthwhile achivement in life.

In contrast Sukuna loses to the students, who value and work on their bonds, work together and even share their techniques with each other. Many of their attacks needed to have great teamwork to pull off the timings. They make sacrifices so others can live or attack, noone is focused on being the best to showcase themselves and individual glory, they focus on being the best they can be to help each other. (It's also why I don't care about not being able to power scale the students now with many of their powers being ambiguous. It just straight up doesn't matter anymore)

Gege is basically saying that it's okay to not be the strongest, the best or be number 1. That as long as you have love and other people in your life, you'll have a good and fulfilled life. And he is saying that in Japan, a country where people are always pressured to be on the top even at the expense of others, even friends, sacrificing personal bonds for an impersonal ranking (see their school system for example). In many ways he is straight up saying that just striving to be and then being number 1 may give you power and money, but it results in giving up your humanity and an unsatisfying life due to a lack of bonds and love.

TL;DR: Gege uses Sukuna, the title of The Strongest and the resulting themes of isolation/dissatisfaction/dehumanization to criticise japanese society and their pressure to be the best even at the expense of others.

[lizard-tail]

Hey, I'm the original poster of this comment (originally on reddit) and anon seems to have straight up copied it, so I hope you don't mind jumping in:

I do think it's rushed because I think everthing could have used a few more panels or pages to smooth things out. Some space for the characters to take a breather and really acknowledge how their own world has changed, as well as a bit more regarding the world building/Culling Game/current state of Japan/reactions to the reveal of Curses or Tokyo as a No-Go area. All of it was touched on, but I think some more could made it feel less like a checklist/cliffnotes. And some more details (eg. Megumi regarding Tsumiki or Sukuna) would IMO smooth over many of the conflict resolutions you listed.

Regarding the genre switch: tbh it is a shounen manga published in SJ. So the ending being quite happy is very standard for it. And we should not forget that JJK0 ended with the genocidal villain being defeated by the Power of Love. Which is straight up the most shounen it could get.

It's just utterly rushed. It seems everything are just straight up cliffnotes. Gege could have really needed a few chapters more to actually execute the ending.

Some of the important info storywise in this chapter are:

- Tengen being found in the remnants of Sukuna and allowing the barriers to remain for now. But it seems they are in a running clock about that and the barriers will fall in the future if they don't find a solution.

- The incarnated players are getting slowly hunted down to free their vessels, or in the case of Sumo and Katana guys, are allowed to fight the curses in Tokyo until they are released as well (they want Maki to do it)

- Tokyo is basically ground zero and a No-Go Area

- As curses are known now, non-sorcerers who experience weird stuff can turn to sorcerers for help with no Trouble

- the new players who got new powers return to their lives but use the growth they had to better their lives or start to make amends

IMO that sets up the solution of teaching non-sorcerers about curses, cursed energy, maybe even ways to control it, integrating both societies into one (as Yuki proposed to Geto in their talk, the other solution being removing CE, which she concentrated on during Shibuya). Meaning one of Yuki's solutions is within reach and can be done. It additionally solves one of the major factors of Geto's downfall which was the thanklessness and sometimes violent prejudice against sorcerer

I'm not quiet sure I would call this ending rushed, I'm going back and forth with it, but I would call it cut off but like you said its kinda like checking off notes and putting a ✔ at the end of it.

Your last point about being closer to realizing Yuki's dream is interesting and not something I thought about. Honestly, I've only been thinking of this from the opposite end: Gege took out every piece of conflict from the story in a single chapter.

Culling Games: no more. Reincarnated players: their cursed object will be removed the nice reincarnated players: get to have fun after accepting their future deaths Tengen: is not imprisoned inside Megumi, isn't dead, her barriers don't fall Yuta: has his body back Higuruma: won't be tried for manslaughter Megumi: doesn't have any lasting trauma from Sukuna Tsumiki: nice grave Abducted sorcerers: we'll get them back The invasion: ?? instability after the big clans fall that was talked about last chapter: ?? Change of the status quo of jujutsu after the Six Eyes died: ??

For me, it feels like JJK suddenly changed its genre in the last three chapters...

[lizard-tail]

Chapter 270 and Yuki's solution

In Yuki's talk with Geto she mentions 2 solutions to the CE/Curse problem:

The extraction of CE in non-sorcerers

teaching non-sorcerers to control CE

Yuki concentrated on the second possibility at that time, because Toji died. (In Shibuya she mentioned returning to solution No.1) And what is needed to teach non-sorcerers about CE? The knowledge that CE and curses exists. Meaning this solution needs the reveal of jujutsu society by default. And this has happened after Shibuya.

Some of the important info storywise in this chapter are:

Tengen being found in the remnants of Sukuna and allowing the barriers to remain for now. But it seems they are in a running clock about that and the barriers will fall in the future if they don't find a solution.

The incarnated players are getting slowly hunted down to free their vessels, or in the case of Sumo and Katana guys, are allowed to fight the curses in Tokyo until they are released as well (they want Maki to do it)

Tokyo is basically ground zero and a No-Go Area

As curses are known now, non-sorcerers who experience weird stuff can turn to sorcerers for help with no trouble

the new players who got new powers return to their lives but use the growth they had to better their lives or start to make amends

IMO that sets up the solution of teaching non-sorcerers about curses, cursed energy, maybe even ways to control it, integrating both societies into one. Meaning Yuki's solution within reach and can be done. It additionally solves one of the major factors of Geto's downfall which was the thanklessness and sometimes violent prejudice against sorcerers.

That's IMO a nice way to end things regarding Jujutsu society, non-sorcerers and the battle against curses.

[lizard-tail]

A really interesting piece on Geto.

There are quite a few parts where I really agree with you concerning your thoughts, like his saviour complex or his lack of self-reflection and his black-and-white thinking regarding his 'Strong protect the weak' philosophy and how it easily switches when it doesn't fit into his world view anymore.

It's interesting to see your headcanon regarding his family, because sadly we know basically nothing about it. We all can only extrapolate from the few scant info we get. Tbh I also think his family is middle class, secure and educated, though I don't think they are Tokyo-based and more small town based. The disappearance of his parents was only noticed days after the village massacre and I think if they were Tokyo-based (meaning really good jobs) their coworkers would have noticed them going missing and an investigation would have been launched from the non-sorcerer side which would most likely include talking to their underaged son that also resides in the same city. But that's only me extrapolating things a bit differently than you.

I also love the fact that you talk about Maki, the main injured party by Geto, not getting any kind of closure. Which is actually a nice parallel to Geto himself, who couldn't get any closure about Toji. And both than wield the same weapon of their personal antagonist after.

But I do disagree on some things. You say you disagree a lot with the thinking of Geto being maternal/feminine Codes, but it's something explicitly mentioned by Gege and others (Gege stating twice that Geto could get pregant [https://www.reddit.com/r/Jujutsufolk/comments/1bipkq7/reminder_that_homosexualsquared_has_talked_about/?rdt=35365])

(Geto's love being described as maternal [https://x.com/strabrrykiss/status/1792168602130387301?s=46&t=fRFF_o0I99NKUvzHwQHykA])

So the maternal-codedness comes from official sources and is, despite how you may feel about it or its execution, actually authorial intent.

You also mention how he never reaches out about being lonely or needing help, and while I do understand what you feel, in my opinion it's straight up real to life regarding mental illness. Because when you do suffer from mental illness the most difficult thing you ever have to do is reach out for help. It's fake it, 'til you make it, but sadly you'll never make it and will only reach rock bottom.

But yes, I hate that many shove the responsibility on Gojo or Shoko. Because it was 100% not their responsibility or fault. It's a complete failure of the system and adults, especially the teachers, around them. In many ways it was Yaga's responsiblity (and if course Geto's but I'm not talking about his individual actions right now, but how the system around him failed to support him). And in some ways he acknowledges that after the baseball game in his talk with Gakuganji. In comparison to the present times it seems to Gojo/Geto/Shoko times the students were absolutely unsupervised and left without any support system. Geto's massacre and absconding was noticed only 5 days later, meaning 5 days without any kind of contact between Geto and others was normal (even between Geto and Gojo/Shoko). And it was the past but cell phones still existed. I mean around that time the first iPhones came on the market. And no matter his strength or saviour complex, Geto was still an underaged child. And teachers have a mandated responsibility towards their students, especially if they are still underage. The absolute carelessness of the teachers, adults and higher ups is mindblowing. I guess it's more suprising that child soldiers completely going ax-crazy on a murder spree did not happen more often. (Sidenote: Gojo deserves all the praise that he actually changed that, and serves as a great support person for his students)

I'll join you in lighting up a cigarette, I can never get enough of writing and reading up on Geto and how others view him and his actions.

Thoughts on Geto and the dichotomy between how he's perceived and how he acts

While in the middle of a fic, I had to put some thoughts together because I use Geto as the main POV character, and I simply have a lot of thoughts about him and the way he's treated, both by Gege himself, and the fandom.

First and foremost, obviously this is a fictional character who commits entirely fictional crimes and violence and everyone is allowed to play with him, project onto him, and empathize with him in any way they prefer. That said, I get to ramble and air out some thoughts because out of all characters in JJK I feel like Geto is the most contentious and I'm never happy with how either the likers or haters address him.

I've always thought how interesting it is that Geto comes from a normal family (and I would assume comfortably middle class and based in Tokyo - so very well-off and, well-liked, with educated parents and a secure household) and is born with a power of this caliber.

Often, I feel that the fandom talks about him being repressed by non-sorcerers and jujutsu society alike, but I personally think there's a lot of parallels to be made between him and men's entitlement in a societal aspect (please don't call me a misandrist just yet, stay with me!!)

Call this a huge reach, but it's like, for one - Geto understands how rare it is to be Special Grade, and there's no way that kind of title doesn't go to your head. Especially when you learn this as a teenager and find out you're not only Super Duper Ultra Special but that there's thousands of people who come from generations with special powers that will never come even remotely close to your level, no matter how hard they try.

I believe it's mentioned in an interview (with Namakura Yuichi I think?) where it's stated Geto is first classified as Grade One and works his way up, which yes, does imply that he works for his position. But he's also momentarily put into a classification that very few other sorcerers can ever get to. Not to mention as well that his power is simply strong by design. Yes, if he has no curses, he's defenseless, but when he starts gathering a supply, the sky is the limit. And apart from the unpleasant taste and sensation, Geto is never shown to struggle obtaining any curse. He does work for his position, but he already starts at a level that for tons of others is the very top of the ceiling.

He also talks very confidently about who 'the weak' are. Which is often framed as him being Gojo's opposite in high school, being the levelheaded and kindhearted one. But to me, it seems more like being condescending rather than genuinely philanthropic. Even if, to himself, he is.

Unlike Gojo, who lashes out because he's a little air-headed and cocky, because he's a teenager that wants to slack off and isn't used to having responsibilities, Geto seems to have a savior complex.

He's the one with the powers, they're the ones who need to be saved.

And it's not like he has a lot of mercy or respect for other sorcerers either - he talks poorly about Utahime. Unintentionally, which might be worse because he both thinks he's doing her a favor but doesn't even address her directly. He treats the other curse users like annoyances, not threats, he eliminates them in much more visceral ways than Gojo does (compare the way Geto beats the living shit out of the old curse manipulator using his fists and raw physical power and the cartoony/ethereal way Gojo's fights are shown before the Toji fight). And at the first sign of non-sorcerers not being the idealized image of a helpless civilian in need of saving who will bow down and thank him for his service, he detaches completely from having any sympathy or even viewing them as human.

[I know, of course, that in the narrative, Geto's downfall is more an explanation for why he was the villain in JJK0 instead of organic character progression, but for the sake of character exploration as I see it happen, suspend your disbelief please]

So really, I think Geto has the potential to be a very believable and excellent villain, but in a completely different direction from how he's represented in canon. Not to get too dark here, but his character arc is almost incel-like. He doesn't jump into supremacy because he just has these beliefs, but there's hints that he already has biases and preconceptions about the world and his position in it. Coupled with the idea that he's never particularly struggled in his personal life, or at least isn't ever shown to, means he's never had to build the self-reflection and neutrality about the world around him.

And yes, Geto does go through a traumatic event, absolutely, but the way he grapples with it is not by addressing being lonely, or being hurt, or overworked, or having his ego-wounded, which does seem really in-line with how a lot of men lash out at the world around them for their disillusionment. Geto admits to himself that he's lonely, but he never reaches out and only isolates further, practically indulging in his own misery. Likewise, a lot of the backlash, from the fandom side, is on Gojo and Shoko for not being the ones to come to Geto and essentially save him, even though they're dealing with their own shit. Even the canon indulges in this subtly, because Gojo's own narrations and flashbacks constantly show how much he regrets losing Geto.

The whole situation is very close to a mirror of the conflict men have when it comes to dealing with rejection as opposed to a lot of women/POC/queer folk, who have to build up their own defense mechanisms, accept the possibility of rejection and how to manage yourself from a very early age. And then that whole thing leads to a state of arrested development and resentment of the world.

To that end, and this is one of the most terminally online things I have ever written down, I feel a very jarring disagreement with all the takes about Geto being a maternal and feminine-coded character. There's nothing wrong with wanting that characterization, naturally, people can do what they want.

But the more I think about Geto and see the way the narratives treats his character, I can't help but feel there's nothing feminine about it. The way Gege writes and treats female characters by and large lacks the mercy and ambiguity Geto receives. The women in JJK are killed, defeated and humiliated, usually with their only purpose in the narrative being helping a man or making a man feel sad, and they're almost never brought up again once they're out of the narrative.

Riko is not her own character - she's a plot device. Her death is mentioned to be pivotal to both Gojo and Geto, but she's never mentioned and never considered. She's basically an afterthought that makes Geto's tragedy sadder.

Geto and his impact on Gojo come back, again and again, without a single mention of what a horrible person he really was and how many people he ended up hurting. Yuuta, who personally saw Geto's cruelty in demeaning Maki and nearly killing her, wants to give him a mercy death. Gojo never moves on from him, even though the very last words Geto shared with him were how much he hated non-sorcerers and how little remose he has for being who he is. Maki, on the other hand, never gets any narrative fulfillment against Geto or Kenjaku (sure, she has an arc where she gets to be a powerhouse and beats Naoya, but we never even get input from her about Geto when she is the one that has arguable been the most hurt by him from the main cast).

So bottom line, I do think Geto is really fascinating, and I think he's just, interesting to extrapolate from. Frankly, to me, the worse he's admitted to be, the worse he acts and the more hated he is, the better he shines as a character. I got pretty much everything out that I wanted to say with that, if I was in a sitcom I'd be lighting my post-coital cigarette right about now.

[lizard-tail]

Gojo Satoru’s attempt to change the Jujutsu society was sadly always doomed to fail

Now, first lets get some things out of the way:

Gojo, after Nanami, is one of the best supporting adults for the students. He helps them and protects them during missions, is in general a good mentor that gives them helpful advice, and wants them to fare better than himself and his contemporaries.

I do not criticise Gojo’s attempts to change the Jujutsu society. It needs an absolute overhaul and he does it to make the lives of children better.

His strategy of change through teaching is very commendable and absolutely  needed overall, just so the children can have a functioning adult support system.

But all of that does not change the fact that it was overall always doomed to fail, as it was barely holding the unforgiving nature of the Jujutsu society in check.

Jujutsu Society

The Jujutsu society itself seems to see themselves above non-sorcerers and their laws. I mean they are all normal residents of normal, democratic, modern Japan, right? But they absolutely do not care about Japan’s laws in the slightest. They can and do execute whoever they want, are beyond the judicial system and have child soldiers. And that’s just the absolute major laws of non-sorcerers they ignore. At the same time, it seems they see it as absolutely normal to just exist in Jujutsu society, and recruit every child with a Curse Technique to their fight, as if they all inherently must do it.

Gojo and his place in the system

Gojo, maybe more than anyone else, was the ultimate product of the Jujutsu society. He was at the same time treated like 1) an idolized sign of strength with powers of a demi-god as “The Strongest”, while also 2) the greatest sacrificial lamb raised up for the slaughter as “The Strongest”. It’s a paradoxical position, but a position utterly entrenched in the system. And not only in the system but in Jujutsu existence overall, because his birth changed the balance.

No other character is so integral interwoven into Jujutsu itself and its resulting system as he is. They way the society is now (curse users hiding, more stronger curses…) is because of Gojo, and Gojo is a product of the society (held up as the strongest, him stemming the whole society on his back…). He was raised in it, lived in it, it’s the only society he experienced. So many negative aspects of the Jujutsu society are so normalized for him, he doesn’t even pay it any mind. Because IMO for Gojo those are not aspects of a society that can be changed, but are facts of life.

Normalized endorsement?

Because lets be real: Gojo wants to change the life of the students for the better. That they are not so isolated as he was. That they don’t lose their innocence so soon. All very great things. But he does NOT question the existence of child soldiers!  

Child soldiers and being a child soldier is so normalized for Gojo, that he does not acknowledge/mention the fact that joining a Jujutsu High School and becoming official Jujutsu sorcerers is, by default the loss of their innocence, because they become child soldiers.

(Yes, I know it’s a shounen manga and of course teenagers are the protagonists/heroes, but that’s just a lame and too easy excuse. Especially because JJK plays, deconstructs and subverts a lot of normal shounen tropes at the moment by giving a horrifying insight what it means to be a child soldier. Don’t bring up the horror of child soldiers and then don’t commit)

Gojo himself, despite his good intentions and good actions, often still falls back onto the methods and the system of the Jujutsu society by not really monitoring their missions despite info that it’s not going as planned (Megumi and Sukuna’s finger), sending his students into danger to unlock Yuta’s potential, and most of all, still training children to be child soldiers. Being a child soldier is so ingrained in himself and his surroundings that despite his overall positive actions to better their lives as child soldiers, he does not mention making meaningful changes to lessen their existence as child soldiers.

Lessening the Burden

Because there are changes that the Jujutsu society overall could arrange that would lessen their burden as child soldiers:

Not letting them be unsupervised on missions without an experienced adult sorcerer

Age restriction for the different sorcerer classes despite their innate power and abilities

Only allowing a certain number of missions per month/week

Of course, now there will be people saying that they have to little sorcerers for that, and they need them otherwise more people will die. And yes. There would be most likely more people that die by curses. But at the same time it’s possible that better adjusted sorcerers who were better protected and supported as children have a better rate of survival leading to more sorcerers and saved lives (that would need an impossible case study).

And also: people die. That sounds harsh, but it is true. I mean we all know the articles and studies about world hunger in some countries, and food waste in industrial countries. Horrible working conditions for fast fashion or getting resources. How man-made climate change effects will lead to massive changes and most likely a lot of death and so on. Just massive, horrible failures of systems and societies that take deaths and pain into account. And in contrast to the real-world issues, the Jujutsu sorcerers are not responsible for curses and the subsequent deaths of people. Especially not the children that have a right to be protected.

Now again, that’s not the fault of Gojo at all. But it noticeable that he does not question the existence of child soldiers and does not attempt to make systematic changes. Instead, he focuses on individuals to leave a lasting impression on them.

The issue of class and hierarchy

The power of the Jujutsu society lies in the higher ups made up from very old, established clans and family lines. Gojo’s rank as clan head means he has also a lot of political power. He is basically empowered two times over. So he can throw a lot of power and influence around and force a lot of things his way (eg. Protecting Yuta and Yuuji from execution, taking Megumi from the Zennin…). But as with his sorcerer powers, he is mostly isolated from the others around him regarding his political powers. Noone else close to him has as much political influence as he does, in many ways it’s the opposite as his closest allies and students are despised by the higher ups.

Yuta and Yuuji were to be executed, Inumaki is from a clan that’s despised and hunted down, Hakari was suspended, Maki is hated by her clan, Panda is an abomination, Nobara is from the country. Megumi had greatest chance of getting political power, but was basically booted out as soon as possible by the established clan. The adults also wield barely any influence. Nanami and Shoko are high ranking sorcerers but have nothing to do with politics and the system and rather keep out of the way. Yaga has the political power but was regarded as a dangerous and killed off as soon as possible. Tokyo Jujutsu High is basically a ragtag group of unwanted sorcerers. As soon as Gojo was out of the way the Jujutsu society at large did their best to boot everyone around him into insignificant positions and the edges of the Jujutsu society, having no influence on the wider scale of it.

It's a contrast to Kyoto High, especially in the beginning (before Gojo was sealed and everything got complete chaotic). Gakuganji is a very trusted and influential sorcerer, all the students at the Goodwill Event were trusted to execute their kill orders, the clan members are maybe not valued by the clans (and treated like shit) but they were accepted by them as long as they did not step a foot out of line. They are overall political and social better positioned in the Jujutsu society.

And that matters a lot. Because long-lasting reformation of a societal system through teaching can only really happen if you have continued access to the society and can inform and influence a major group of that system. As it was everything rested on Gojo and Gojo alone. We don’t know the exact numbers, but overall the Jujutsu society while seemingly small is a lot larger than the small group of students we follow. Larger in number than the individual students Gojo teaches and influences. Even if all of his students would hold on to his teachings and teach others as well in the future, it would need decades to permeate the Jujutsu society and meaningful change it in ways that would not be easily changed back. And because a lot of it hinges on the continued presence and power of Gojo, it was sadly always a very shaky house of cards. Or like the meme showed, a flex tape trying to hold back water.

Conclusion: Gojo Satoru did make meaningful and needed changes especially for the life of individuals and showed aspects of the Jujutsu society that need to be overhauled. But it was never enough for long-lasting, permanent change as it did nothing to the inherent brokenness of the Jujutsu society and its use of child soldiers and its hierarchy of classism. Without breaking those things all of his efforts were generally doomed to fail. (I guess everything post-Shibuya achieved something at least)

[lizard-tail]

Women and mothers in Naruto

In the last weeks I had time to catch up on the anime and some things were really pissing me of, so I decided to write them down.

The most important thing in my opinion is the behaviour of the women in Naruto, and I mean women. Not the new generation (Sakura, Ino, Hinata…), but the older generations.

The ones who lived and fought in the last war(s). The ones who remember the Kyuubi attack.

It all started when I watched the episode 246. The episode where Naruto meets his mother Kushina and she tells him about her past.

I have to say to say: I love Kushina. But her portrayal in the anime, especially that episode is problematic.

  First of all: What do we know about Kushina before the meeting?

Not much. We only had a short conversation between Tsunade and Jiraiya about her and the little flashback of Jiraiya. That means we know:

Her name, that she looked beautiful when she grew up (coming from Tsunade one of the most beautiful women in canon) and the fact that Naruto is exactly like her in behaviour and in their preferred fighting method.

Naruto is oblivious, stubborn, hardworking, head-strong, loving, forgiving, quite powerful and he rather acts than thinks. He never stops and he lives on being a shinobi.

That means Kushina is oblivious, stubborn, hardworking, head-strong, loving, forgiving, quite powerful. She also acts more than she thinks and most likely loves and breathes being a ninja.

When the episode began we can see: She really is like that.

She shouts about being Hokage, beats others up and is also carrying quite a burden. Naruto got shit, because he is the vessel of Kyuubi, and Kushina, because she is an outsider. Both have at first no real friends.

After the whole introduction and her daily life comes THE scene. The kidnapping scene. I have no problem that she was kidnapped. I mean she was only around 12/13 and just a genin or for a short while a chuunin. The problem I have is her behaviour.

The scene in the anime shows her coming home, calling out for the others living there. (whoever that is) Then she notices that nobody is there and she slowly becomes nervous. That is the first thing.

Why would she become nervous, just because xxxx is not there? When I come home and nobody is there I think that my family is off meeting friends, getting something to eat…

After that she sees shadows closing in to the window and she seems almost scared. Slowly foreign ninjas come into the room and Kushina begins to scream and runs terrified out of the room calling for help. That was the scene where I thought: Where is Kushina? What have you done to her?

That little instance, a scene not in the manga, goes against everything we know about Kushina.

We have a similar scene for Naruto. He is alone in a room and suddenly two foreign and antagonistic ninja appear. Kisame and Itachi. He doesn’t run away screaming. He is scared, of course, but at the same time he seems more confused why there is a Sasuke-look-alike with a Sharingan, when he knows that Sasuke is an orphan without any family. And after that he still seems baffled why they are here and what they want from him.

NOT. TERRIFIED.

Sasuke appears and they are both trying to attack Kisame and Itachi, even without Chakra (Naruto) or a broken hand (Sasuke).

That would have been an appropriate response for Kushina. Not that screaming. After that we see the normal Kushina. The one who gets a child, while a demon tries to rip out of her body, the one who survives getting the Kyuubi sucked out of her seconds AFTER THAT CHILDBIRTH, the one who throws herself in front of kyuubis claw to protect her son (and husband).  Just being herself, being a total BAMF!

But it doesn’t end here. Minato dies. Kushina dies. Naruto is an orphan. And as so many others did I wondered what life Naruto could have had, if his parents had survived. To do that I thought about the other known families and I almost exploded. Because Naruto would have a normal and rather boring life similar to Asuma or Konohamaru. Minato would have stayed Hokage and everyone would be happy. Right? Right?

NO!

Because what would have happened to Kushina, who proclaimed to be the first female Kage, who was proud to be a ninja, who loved that lifestyle? She would have, as every other women in Naruto over twenty with a child, become a housewife.

Not that I have anything against it. I believe everyone should choose what they want to do. Whether not have children. Have children and care for them, have children and as soon as they are old enough go back to work or have children and go back to work while breastfeeding them.

 The issue I have can be explained with Naruto. Can you imagine Naruto, at last a chuunin or jounin or Hokage, getting a child and just quitting his job? Stopping to protect every last one of his precious people (now all citizens of Konoha)? Stopping to run after Sasuke and fulfil his promise? Stopping to run over all the countries to help his friend from other villages and countries?

NO! No, you can’t!

How could Kushina do it? The Kushina who is EXACTLY like Naruto? She couldn’t. But that is exactly what would have happened.

And she is not the only one. If you think of all mothers in Naruto: How many were kunoichi and how many went back to work, after they had their children?

The total number of: ONE!

Just one example. Inuzuka Tsume (more to her later).

That in a village where every child in the academy is indoctrinated, that you have to fight for the good of the village. That your body is only a weapon. It seems they forget everything they are taught, as soon as they get knocked up.

I think there was a filler episode “The allied- mum forces” (or something like that) and alone the description made me almost throw up. It really seems that as soon as you have a child you can only help the village by being a mother and housewife.

 Now we can take a look at all those known mothers. How about the mothers of Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji (The known mothers of the Rookie 9)

We know…. They are there. The name of Shikamaru’s mum is Nara Yoshino. The other names are unknown. We also know that they cook and one of them has a flower shop.

Okayyyyy. Next one.

Inuzuka Tsume. Mother of Kiba and Hana, the clan leader of the Inuzuka clan and a kickass woman and kunoichi. Now that is an example. She has two kids and now fights next to them on the frontlines of the war. She also fought in the Sand-Sound-invasion and maybe even in the 3rd war.

Have we found the example that shows that you can have a happy family, while still being a working shinobi and no housewife?

Not really. Because while it is true, that the family is happy, they are not complete. The father is long gone. Kiba said once that Tsume drove him away. This shows that being a loving wife and a loving mother and a working kunoichi is not possible. It shows that you can only be two of those things. Going on a mission (to assassinate someone or spy on someone or just deliver a scroll) for a few days, coming home and just be with your whole family? A mutiny! Satan! Patriarchy did not allow that! Being away for days while the husband is home? Not possible. That way the husband has to tell the children to go to the academy in the morning. Maybe he even has to cook!!!!!!!! (Nonononononono. Even though they most likely can cook. What if the men get stuck in a cave or just a long mission? Do they starve? NO! They can cook. But only for themselves or their teammates. For his own family? Heathen!)

 The next one is Uchiha Mikoto.

She was a jounin before she retired. She has exactly like Tsume two children. She is also only one of the two women of the Uchiha clan who are known. The other being the aunt who always talked to Sasuke. Since she was a jounin we also know that she possessed the Sharingan. Obito was the black sheep in the clan, as he was a ninja who hadn’t activated the Sharingan by the age of 13. That means she had it without a doubt.

Because of Mikoto who is the mother with the most screen time we also know what mothers are doing at home. Cooking and washing.

I mean there could have been the possibility that mothers are actually important for more important things, like the training of their children. They are all accomplished ninja. They could have already taught them some things, while the men do missions and make the money. Things like holding weapons, throwing them, the shinobi lifestyle and theories for the clan jutsus.

But of course not.

Mikoto once said to Sasuke that she could help him with Shuriken, but I don’t think he even seized that opportunity. It was also his father Fugaku who showed him the fire-jutsu. Even though he was busy being the clan head, the head of the police, a working shinobi and plotting a coup, while Mikoto stood in the kitchen and boiled some rice.

 And now the mother-to-be Kurenai. As everyone knows she and Asuma got together, she got pregnant and Asuma died. Tragic, but somehow expected in a ninja-village. When she heard the news she had some heart-breaking panels. And then she was out of the story. She didn’t even get that much screen time at the funeral.

And the next chapters where all about Team 10’s grief and revenge. Especially Shikamaru’s. Poor Kurenai was just driven into a plot-corner and forgotten. Because the feelings of the students are much more important than the feelings of his wife/lover.

Nobody really cared if Kurenai wanted to kill Hidan and Kakuzu. No one really asked Kurenai what she thought about it. Okay, she was pregnant, but that does not mean that she is invalid. She is also a genjutsu specialist and an experienced jounin. I think she could have brought more to the fight than Ino and Chouji. Even while pregnant.

But she is just another example of the fact that as soon as a woman gets pregnant she has to be in the kitchen until she dies.

 The non-mothers show exactly the same. A woman can only be accomplished and successful in her job, as long as she has no family (husband+children)

Tsunade (Hokage): No family in sight

Terumi Mei (Mizukage): No family in sight

Shizune (Tsunades right hand): No family in sight

Koharu (one of the elders, lived through three wars): No family in sight

  As you can see a woman has almost no choices in the Naruto-verse:

She can either have a successful career and become one of the most-kickass characters

or she can settle down, have kids and forget every dream she had about becoming the most feared kunoichi in the world.