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shoyosoneandonlywife · 3 months ago

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Yoshida Shoyo's Origin and his Path to Salvation

I will be covering a lot of topics pertaining to the character and events that took place in Yoshida Shoyo's life, from birth till death. This will be a very long post and I hope you enjoy it. I've tried to NOT make it as sad as possible and pertained to a practical approach.

Note: I know there will be people who raise doubts before completing this(personal experience) so let me say this, if you have any questions, there is a 99 percent chance I've already covered it in this essay itself, so please do try to read the whole study if you would like to build on this subject. If you would only like answers to a specific topic, you can lmk and i will try to highlight that certain segment for your convenience. And if you do read this and still have questions, do feel free to lmk

Yoshida Shoyo's Birth:

I would like to clarify that in my previous posts, I had discussed that Shoyo may have been born a human and then infused with Altana somehow by naturally being exposed to it. But afterwards, I had some more discussions and revisited the manga several times to get a better picture of his origin. Based on the facts from the manga itself, here is my research.

You can refer to the last Silver Soul arc and the Rakuyo arcs in case you would like to see them for yourself. I think they explain his origin very clearly. I draw many parallels from old folktales, myths, and history—whatever you choose to believe—but beings that have been born from the Earth herself are, in fact, a lot of recurring stories, which I’d like to point out (I’ve included just one example; otherwise, it would take too long to explain every single one).

So here it is: Yoshida Shoyo's creation began in the dragon veins running throughout the Earth. It’s established in Gintama how there are various dragon holes/outlets throughout Japan. Shoyo was born directly from Mother Earth and had been pushed out from one of these dragon holes.

I had previously tried to theorize how Shoyo's genesis began, and I came to the conclusion that this is the way he was born. These panels from the manga in the Silver Soul arc state that he had been reborn from one of the dragon holes governed by a temple. In this panel, it shows that at first, he had sprouted as a mass of meat out of the ocean and then had generated to become a human.

Nonetheless, this may have been how his life originally started as well. OR, he could have sprouted as a fully formed infant, like how a human is born from their mother's womb. I’m including this idea as well, as "Takasugi's Rebirth" had also been like that. Matako had found him as an infant floating in one of the water bodies in a dragon hole at the end of Silver Soul.

I still consider Shoyo as a human, though he may not have been born the normal way. More than human, I think the most accurate term to describe him would be superhuman. In the Silver Soul arc, when Nobume reveals the truth to Yorozuya and Katsura, she explains how the Altana, which is the life source of the planet and is vital for survival and advancement, is what led to the creation of their teacher, whose blood is Altana itself, and he is the literal embodiment of Altana, the Earth's life source.

So how did these dragon veins, the Altana running through the East, suddenly have the capability to produce a whole human baby with superhuman qualities? One theory is that every planet in the universe with life on it produces at least one such being. This can’t be backed up with confirmation for now, as the only other being like Shoyo is Kouka from the planet of Yatos.

So I can’t say this for sure since we only have little data. Maybe they are special cases since the Yatos are considered a very strong species in the universe, and the case for Earth can be a different reason altogether. Or simply for the plot. Either way, this is how his birth came about.

Another example of the same case is a hindu folktale/myth/history is Sita from the Ramayana(a mythology, whether it is historical or mythological is up to everyone's opinion). To summarise it quickly, Sita's adoptive father, who was a king, was struggling to solve the problem of his land suffering from having no rain and the crops of his kingdom were suffering.

After some advice from scholars, he attempted to plow the land in hopes of it being the start of his solution. He had struggled to move the plow for some reason or not been able to move his plow at all, and then dug up the ground to see what was holding up. It was a child in a burrow.

That child was Sita, and her mother was the earth herself. So, Sita was born directly from the earth, which resembles the origins of Yoshida Shoyo, who was born from the earth, but via the dragon veins and with the altana as his base.

And rather than being found in the soul, he had sprouted from the dragon holes, in a body of water. There are many interpretations to how she ended up in a furrow in the first place, but this is the most widely accepted interpretation.

Alike to Yoshida Shoyo, Sita had immense strength right from infancy, an event where she had displayed superhuman strength was when he kingdom held onto an ancient bow that was once utilised by a mighty god. It had been laid to rest in her kingdom.

When a accomplished saint had come across Sita, playfully lifting the bow effortlessly as a child, he was surprised by this brute strength of hers, as even the gods in heaven were not able to wield that bow other than the highest level of god who had originally been its owner.

Of course one of the reasons behind her skill is due to being a blessing from the gods, specifically from the the goddess of the earth, however, even though she was considered and looked human. She had still possessed qualities that surpass the average humans, and even mighty warriors and deities.

Now i want to clarify that I'm simply drawing parallels, and that such cases of interpretation of beings born directly from the earth has happened before, I'm sure this isn't the only example akin to Shoyo's origin. So take it with a grain of salt.

I believe Yoshida Shoyo also possesses the same magnitude due to the nature of his birth. His parent is Mother Earth and the blood running through his veins, his DNA all stems from the altana and dragon veins, which contrasts the brith of humans who carry the DNA, genetics and bloodline of their ancestors.

Shoyo's ancestor/parent/origin comes from the Earth herself. TO reiterate, he is the child of Mother Earth, yes all of us are made of the earth, but we descend from humans, while he had directly descended from the source herself.

My theory can further when he has been said to be, its not a direct relation to him but it does attribute to how his strength is akin and massive like that of the very earth herself. His superstrength can be attributed to the fact that he wasn't born normally and is the literal embodiment of the life source of the planet, So his power should be no surprise. (refer to manga panels below)

This was supposedly said by one of the strongest characters in the verse. Many others have said something along those lines as well. As for these strongest characters, they may accumulate an immense amount of strength, travelled and gain many things to build on themselves. But in the end, they were still descending from people of their own kind, their strength, their body has limits, depending on their ancestors.

As such, a being born from the earth herself, the planet that can swallow up these strong people without hesitation, as people, humans depend on the planet itself for sustenance, for protection, for resources, for life.

So imagine if the very thing you had relied on at least unconsciously turned against you so suddenly, even the strongest person alive wouldn't stand a chance against the very ground they stand upon. That's my take upon Shoyo's strength, as far-fetched as it may seem. But I think there are many many parts in gintama which elude to his undeniable brawn.

To summarize, Shoyo is a child of Mother Earth, and I would mainly label him as a superhuman. As to what makes a human, I'll be exploring it a bit more later on as well. (Immortal beings being produced from the planet herself is also mentioned in the manga)

Traits similar to the earth

Going by the connotation of him being a direct representative/offspring of earth, we can observe all the undeserved torture, abuse, ostracization, KILLINGS, he had faced just because he was discovered to immortality, to which he was subjected to by none other than his fellow humans.

I would see the theory of humans treating anything they do not understand or anything stronger them as something to be feared/demonic and finding ways to kill/ make them weaker somehow, mostly I'm adhering to the fact that humans would carelessly hurt or destroy anything they can't handle or understand. Which is what has been going on for the last few centuries, such as pollution, global warming, ecosystems being destroyed.

Basically torturing earth is someway right? which is kind of the same treatment Shoyo has been receiving, as he had been docile and had not retaliated when being subject to such abuse by humans, he had tolerated it, held the weight of it, like earth actually. Which is why I would say he has traits that are familiar with the earth herself.

Now this is just me drawing parallels and it doesn't mean that Sorachi did this with this idea in mind, is what id like to clarify. This is just an observation of mine, and it can be purely coincidental. And is purely speculation

Docile nature during torture phase

Since I'm on the subject of his docile nature during his torture phase(approximately 500+ years), I've always had the question, why did he not fight back?, For 500 years he had remained passive, let himself be subjected to cruelties beyond what any person would ever be able to handle. Why? He has super strength, super speed, he's superhuman, so why did he stay quiet? What was the reason behind his actions of not resisting? As far as I have seen, he was discovered by humans when he was a young child, a few years old, able to walk and act independently.

Or, another theory is that people have been seeing him ever since he was an infant, but had discovered his immortality when he was a few years older. For example, he could've died and then people witnessed him come back to life, thus coming to the conclusion that he's immortal. During the silver soul arc, the priests monitoring one of the dragon holes had discovered Shoyo reborn as an infant and took him in.

Until Gintoki had come to collect Shoyo, so possibly, when he was originally born and came out one of the dragon holes, a few priests might have taken him in, and raised him for a while, and when he was around, well I'm guessing definitely above 6 years old, his odd origin and traits would have been noticed by the people around him, thus leading to the fear and ostracisation, ultimately leading to centuries of torture.

Now begs the question, he has enhanced capabilities, inhuman strength, and speed. Yet, why did a man of such strength get tortured for so long, or to be more accurate why did he remain docile throughout his centuries' worth of agony, there are many points that I can backup this segment with.

One, humans are not violent by nature, mostly at least, Shoyo being subjected to extreme mutilations and tortures had been happening to him since he was a very young age, so one fact is that he had become indoctrinated to accept it, the way people treat him so cruelly had become the normal for him, in the final in that one flashback of Shoyos past, it can be shown how as a child and while growing older, he had stood with fear or was seen trembling in fear.

The depressing truth is due to the fact that as a child you would not be able to comprehend or understand how to save yourself from such problems, especially when in his case, the whole world apparently was out to get rid of him or villainise him as a demon.

After those two phases, we see him sprout as an adult, but this time he starts running away as much as he can, signifying that as a child he was unaware of how to handle his situation, but after reaching adulthood he had started thinking of ways to get out of his situation.

So he started to run, hide, anything to get away from humans, but as you can see he was cut down, burned and scorned once again, or to be accurate, the torturous cycle continues regardless. Now going back to my question, why did he not fight back? Granted he was more than capable of getting rid of or stopping anyone from even getting close to him, let alone viciously killing him repeatedly, so why?

As mentioned before, humans are not born violent, it is nurtured, even if there are times where we may act in times of dire needs or for survival, self-defense, etc, that is due to our evolution of over a billion years, from the stone age all the way to the current era. So that would explain our need to protect ourselves or rid of what we may label as danger in dire times.

However, if we go by that logic, Shoyo should have been fighting for his life everyday, killing or at least immobilising people left and right everyday to save him selves. Yet he didn't, yes he was unable to know how to do so as a child while growing up when he was first born, but after adulthood, why did he choose to run, when it would rather have been much easier to rid of his problem once he found himself capable?

He is afraid, he's tired, he's not violent by nature, even when I am able to say that humans, that have gone through survival and evolution for millions of years, when we have such ancestry and are not violent by nature, it's important to note that Shoyo is human, but was not born and did not come into origin the way a human being does, he came directly from the earth, from the planet's life energies itself.

The planet's energy, its life source, the altana, is something that every being in authority, every organization, was out to get from their own planets after discovering its existence.

The planet's substance that could possibly grant immortality, cure diseases, wounds, any physical problems, enhance your physical prowess and many other healing properties. As shown in Gintama itself. Some of its properties include, rejuvenation, regeneration and of course as we know, unlimited energy.

That very life force of the planet itself, had created a man from its very essence, coming directly from the altana itself, the very essence of the earth, the energy of the planet, comes Yoshida shoyo himself, every pore exudes altana, every single atom in his body is from altana, it is not alien, it is depicted to be as the very substance that allows planet earth to persevere and flourish till today.

As aforementioned, the life force of the planet. That every energy, has taken on a small form of a man known as Yoshida Shoyo, or to be more accurate.

The life force that has given life to every being on the planet, including humans, has produced Yoshida Shoyo as a special phenomena. He is generated from the very altana itself, the bloodstream of the earth I could even say.

He comes from the altana, the water bodies, and thus is pushed out via one of the dragon holes, that can be found all over the world, especially many in Japan, which is how he was born in (probably) Heian era Japan(which era he came into existence is a convo that should be discussed but as far as I can salvage I can gather than he has lived up until 1700+, [give or take] years old till the Gintama finale, as per the calculations I've made).

After the centuries worth of damnation, he then gets imprisoned far away, on some mountain perhaps, away from civilisation far away from humans, for the humans safety I'm presuming.

The humans of that time would have finally come to the conclusion that Shoyo just cannot be killed, after centuries of torture, wow a very bright and intelligent group of people aren't they. So they lock him up, he stays at the same one cell for 500 years, he never bothers to walk out, to break free, to escape.

As I have discussed, why would he do so? he will be persecuted just for the sole reason of breathing, so of course it explains why he chose to stay within his cell for centuries, away from humans, away from society, away from cruelty, away from agony.

I don't want to hear anyone saying oh did they give him food or something everyday as a prisoner... bro he was incarcerated for just breathing, they labelled him as a devil, do you think they're gonna bother whether a devil gets his daily bread or not? Especially one they've continuously KILLED every day? I don't think so, and it definitely isn't so. He was seen and treated as a literal demon that should be feared and chased away, or even not let him walk on this earth, because he was seen AS A DEMON.

People did not want him to be alive, as letting him even live or given the minimal amount of space, or even being in the same area as him, would pose a risk to their lives.

Hence they actively tried to get rid of him, but they couldn't, they didn't understand what his real nature was and what he had actually been born from. They were trying to destroy the embodiment of energy that comes form the very core of the planet that they walk upon and depend on to survive.

I don't know how many times I want to emphasize this, they did not want him to even be alive, much less even try to go anywhere near him unless they were attempting to end his life, as repeated many times in Gintama, his mere existence caused fear and anxiety to take over all of their senses, you can even see this as an example when Okita started to tremble by the mere presence of Utsuro, who was still much farther away.

Him being in the same vicinity had already struck a chord of terror in everyone. They either wanted to run or get rid of the problem all together.

So yes, he lives in isolation for over 500 years in his little cell, tucked away in a cave, that's in some mountain range, no humans, no words, nobody, just the man born from Altana. Like they have shown in Gintama, he doesn't choose to leave, he is forced to leave his abode of centuries after the jail cell fucking ROTS AWAY...

So it goes to show that his home I guess, has collapsed, he has no proper shelter, hence he is forced to leave, and walk out into society yet again. Now before we move onto him moving out, let's discuss what went down during those 500 years when he was all alone, secluded, isolated, yea everything that concerns loneliness.

I want to start off this whole theory by quoting that "an idle mind is the devil's playground" now I want to make this clear, I am NOT saying Yoshida Shoyo being diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, going on killing spree, does NOT mean he was possessed by a demon or the devil. NO. That's not what the quote means in my eyes.

That is very much his own actions and choices, as much as he was mentally unwell. He was secluded, he was stuck in a little cell, for CENTURIES. Human ourselves, if we were locked in a room or cell with nothing to do, no entertainment, nothing to keep us occupied. We will without a doubt go crazy within a few days.

Now this man was locked away for centuries, just imagine the magnitude of what he was subjected to, what he had to experience. If we can go crazy, then for a man that was locked for centuries, he's bound to lose his mind.

When the mind is not kept busy, all sorts of thoughts will come in and inconvenience or upset us, and given the agonizing life Shoyo has lived, I'm positive of the fact that literally, not even a single thought of his was able to make him happy or peaceful, it will only serve to make him spiral into madness further along with his traumatizing past.

Now going onto why he had become the victim of multiple personality disorder, I mean of course its given he will be subject to mental illness after what he's going through in his life without a doubt, but why specifically MPD? Multiple personality disorder stems from the branch of dissociative identity disorder.

Due to his repetitive abuse from childhood, is one of the reasons that led to it. Moreover, despite his physical strength, he did not defend himself, or at the very least, could not defend himself, as he was unaware of how to do so. I mean come on he was persecuted from the very age he gained conciseness and was never taught anything, all he had was himself to learn and grow, and his ever-persevering altana body of his.

His stress, his fear and rage and not being able to change his situation for himself, to be finally allowed to live I peace, also caused this man to spiral into disassociating to a certain extent. "the disorders form in children who've lived in environments where they went through frightening times or they never knew what to expect. The stress of war or natural disasters also can bring on dissociative disorders.

When you go through an event that's too much to handle emotionally, you may feel like you're stepping outside of yourself and seeing the event as if it's happening to another person. Mentally escaping in this way may help you get through a shocking, distressing, or painful time." Well, this perfectly explains's shoyo's past doesn't it.

He was subjected to killings and torture ever since he was young, and he was only able to escape this treatment when he was locked away from civilisation, alone and rotting away, mentality wise. So he truly was unable to reach any environment or situation where was at the very least comfortable or content with the way he was living, it was pure anguish everyday.

As they have mentioned in Gintama itself, he had developed multiple personalities as a way to coper with his extreme trauma. And it was not just 2 or 3 personalities, it was hundreds of them. Which is fitting that if a person, that has an average lifespan can develop 20 or more personalties, as such cases actually exist. It makes sense that an immortal man who's ONLY ever experienced pain throughout his life from birth till incarceration, had resulted him in developing hundreds of personalities.

To quote my paragraph from another post of mine to provide a little more relatable and just a basic understanding of MPD and how it starts and develops:

"To help provide an easier understanding, The average human has many voices running in their minds, and are always contradicting one another like there are different personas living in our heads, however it is to a controlled level and we are able to distinguish these to a certain extent when making decisions and taking actions.

Multiple personality disorder stems from that same phenomena of the brain but multiplied by many many more folds due to psychological trauma, PTSD, and repression of emotions as a method to cope with said trauma."

Another theory is that he has been subjected to various methods of mutilations, like he himself says, at one point he had his eyes gouged out every day for decades, which is what forced him to adapt his senses to perceive his surroundings, even without his eyes. which is what causes him to accurately move around and be precise in his actions like swinging his blade or walking/running/ defending/attacking etc.

So due to this various torture treatments from humans, I'm sure he had thought of various ways that he wanted to escape or stop it as in the act or humans themselves.

Like stopping them forcibly, cutting them down, talking to them, crying for help, simply running away, scolding them, killing them, and various other ways he would have wished he could have done to stop his unfair treatment. But he wasn't able to do so, he had to bottle up his emotions and thoughts, and it ate away inside of him.

Eventually, when he was incarcerated all those emotions, all that trauma, all the pain, agony, rage, desperation, that was bottled up, had bubbled up to the surface, or to be more accurate, erupted completely, due to how he was always constantly killed and tortured for CENTURIES, ON END.

But now suddenly. Nobody is around, not a single soul, it's just him, his cell, the cave, the wind, and the little insects crawling around.

That drastic change itself is also just a fucking slap to the face, which serves the purpose of his bottled up emotions of rage and agony exploding much more faster and in a destructive way for his state of mind. So the various ways that he wished he would help himself, the ways to escape, to stop, to find peace. This can also explain why he had developed HUNDREDS of personalities which is such an extreme amount, to of course with his said extreme trauma.

So when his cell finally rots away, he walks back into the outside world, to civilisation, with all of these personalities warring within his mind, but even with all of these personalities, what his brain knows, what every single personalities of his knows, is pain, murder, torment and violence.

This was all of what he was only subject to for as far as he can remember since he was born, he was not allowed even a moment of peace, his sudden seclusion in a cell after being subject to such horror did no good in helping him become peaceful, as by then all his trauma would never let him stay at peace, would never let him get a wink of a good rest, a glimmer of happiness, a spark of hope, he was deprived of all of them, to be more accurate, he was not even given the chance in the first place.

His history is truly unfathomable with the way it was crafted. So when all those personalities within him, are struggling to find an outlet to quell his rage with, he comes across society once again, and this time, he puts his natural capabilities to use destructive use. Like how this also was discussed in Gintama, he simply displayed the nature of what he was exposed to throughout his whole life, death and violence, terror and misery.

Which is why this explains why before his incarceration, he was a very docile creature, letting his larger-than-life body with astounding physical capabilities, be subject to abuse, as I have explained before, due to his exposure and cruelty being the only thing he was faced with, and the label that he himself is a demon.

Which was the label for him the humans had used to justify their behaviour. Hence, this explains why such a docile and mild man, had suddenly turned into the beast of killing with amazing physical prowess that he finally chose to use.

I mean given how he had 500 years to grow into this type of man, maybe it isn't a very sudden change, but for the others it will be a very drastic change and unexpected one, as Shoyo has now truly turned into a monster. Or we can also say, the beast finally shows its fangs. And then when he goes on a killing spree, truly wishing to kill every human in sight, he then heats captured by the soldiers and is dragged to the emperor.

Now he could have easily broken free as we all know, but maybe after being alive for so long and becoming numb to literally everything, he wanted to see what they were going to do or let him see since he was continuously killing people, maybe he just wanted to see what else they were gonna do now, just for his curiosity, since it would be a contrast from the cruelty and horror he had faced up until that point. Not saying he was finally given peace, no, the problems were just starting when he was brought to court actually.

But for him it was just a change of events, and he was just going to let them act to see what going to happen. I strongly suggest this as he is very much immortal, and he is already beyond what the average human does or goes through in life.

So being brought to court was just another Tuesday for him or something, and he was just playing along because why not, if he wanted to he could easily break free and make a run for it. But the problem lied in the fact that if eh did run again, they would again repeatedly try to kill him and persecute him.

Only this time he's different, he won't take it like the docile man he was anymore, he would fight back, kill, and slaughter, anyone that came to harm him.

Working for the Naraku

It is said that the Naraku was founded by Utsuro (Shoyo) himself, I want to make it clear that yes by name, the naraku did come into existence after Shoyo was brought to the monarchy, however they were the ones that had assigned Shoyo to become a "grim reaper" or an assassin. They had seen the crimes Shoyo had committed and had realized a means to an end had become available to them, to destroy or slaughter their enemies in a way that won't tarnish their name.

The Naraku is literally a secret crime organization that's working for the government all along. Which is canonically stated. So yes, by name, "Utsuro" founded the Naraku(hell), since he was known as a devil himself. However, the idea and the execution of Naraku being implicated was done by the government of that time, by the monarch of that time. If Shoyo was the leader, it guaranteed that Naraku would stand for a very long time due to his immortality as well as his physical capabilities that further proved to enhance his skills in murder and assassinations.

Thus, in name Shoyo is the one in charge, however, he simply had become a pawn in the government's hand. Now I know people will say why did he let himself be restricted to such authorities.

In spite of that, I need you to understand that he had no concept or care for higher authorities or morality, he simply wanted to give back all the pain he was given, he wanted to eliminate humans if he was given the chance. If he had refused the government, he could kill people but he would still be chased and hurt again and again, maybe even more so than he was in his past, for defying the government. So if he could continue to take out his wrath on humanity, which he was expected do to, as by the government, for a long time, don't you think he would just take the easier option.

He can continue to hate humans and yet spew his hate onto them when the occasion arises. SO at the time he would have let himself become the government's grim reaper due to the convenience at the time.

It is canonically stated about the assassination group Naraku, that "They consist of lawless people or orphans that were thrown out from society and were taken in by the group and trained." Now there are so many things that can be inferred from this statement itself.

Humans that were considered outcasts/ had no one to protect or take care of them/abandoned/ ostracised, were all taken in by the government secretly to train them as assassins instead. in a sense they took in humans that were treated the same way as shoyo, OF COURSE not to the extent to which he had been treated, but treated very badly or had nobody to back them up nonetheless. People that very similar to Yoshida Shoyo fundamentally.

Oboro was an orphan as far as we know, going by how he talked about his past as a kid, he was a working as a child labourer/ servant for a clan/family. Most likely a family in power, as they were powerful and troublesome enough that the government had sent the naraku to get rid of them fully.

At that point is when Shoyo had met Oboro and revived him by giving him his immortal blood. Making him semi-immortal (and his first blood related son lmaooo)

Nobume was also an orphan taken in and trained by the Naraku, as well as Hitsugi who had worked for Oboro and Shoyo, where he was also semi-immortal, making Hitsugi another son of Yoshida Shoyo technically.

The member off the naraku were trained to act like Yoshida Shoyo when he was an assassin, when you watch/read Gintama, the Naraku is seen as people who are emotionless, lifeless, and follow orders robotically, basically being devoid of emotions, being empty, so it would be safe to assume that Yoshida Shoyo was taken as a role model in how they should behave as an assassin(slave to the government).

So to be clear, over this span of 500 years, the people taken in to be work for nark were already traumatised or in extreme struggle as mentioned before, and had nobody to take care of them, which could explain why the government was successful in making sure these kids disappeared from society without a trace, and were then trained to become robot-like. Im not even exaggerating as in Gintama itself, the members of Naraku simply act as mindless and emotionless assassins, and have always been killed left and right, like dolls, pawns, robots, devoid of life, this is due to the tenets they would have set in the beginning which allowed the Naraku organization to be longstanding for over 500 years, up until it was dismantled finally after Shoyo died and Edo was being rebuild under a new government.

Many characters from Gintama can be seen killing or cutting down the members of Naraku without any hesitation, as that's just how much these people of Naraku were detached from their lives and were simply trained an indoctrinated to follow orders and numbly kill as told.

A very sad predicament for the people who have no one in society and were orphaned as a whole if you think about it. Fated to have your basic humanity and qualities sealed away to become a soulless, lifeless, dumb pawn, until you are eventually cut down by someone, or even by your own organization if you defy them, and then to die nameless, the fact that is isn't even an exaggeration an if anything, its an understatement. Gintama itself is a good example of displaying the dark sides of the monarchy as well as capitalism.

The Naraku were indoctrinated to reject their humanity and only have killing as their profession, without any discrimination. Like when Shoyo escaped to start Shoka Sonjuku, he was chased down despite being their leader for centuries, as that is what their tenet was, whoever betrayed must be cut down. And it does make sense as they are the ones who do the most horrifying murders and dirty work of the government (the dirty work is just slaughter and wiping out whole families, clans, maybe even towns, judging by how vital they ere to the government)

SO it makes sense that Shoyo was hunted down, he was their leader, he has seen and witness every single crime of the Naraku, and in connection, the government itself, so he had to be put down, importantly. Even if they were indoctrinated, maybe the Naraku members had some semblance of humanity, but them being constantly sent on missions to murder so many humans, authorities, families, could have ventrally lose that little hope of humanity too.

Which is what essentially leads to them being seen as the soulless machines they have become in Gintama.

This explains why when Shoyo came cross the townspeople about to attack his kids, he had interfered and said he would topple the government itself had anything happened to the children.

This is because he knows the government has been the root of all the problems, bloodshed, slavery that was deep-rooted into the country, and the branches of theirs was widespread and everywhere, even in the small spaces.

Cutting down the branch won't stop the tree from growing another one, so for a man who has seen just what the government, the monarchy, the injustices they have been committing behind the screens, he realises if the country were to flourish and truly become a space where every civilian regardless of their background can live well, the roots will have to be crushed first. And those roots are the government itself as I have alluded to.

Resurrection and buddhism

Now we come to the bane of Shoyo's existence, his ability to resurrect. And BOY, does he hate it, yes it is no secret that Gintama and especially Shoyo drew many references from Buddhism, and his life in a way is a representation of the cycle of life.

Consequently, I'll be talking about a few parts of the cycle and how he was an inescapable victim of this miserable cycle of life, and how he managed to escape it, at least for a certain while (or did he?) This cycle of life is called samsara, and this whole ordeal is known as the wheel of samsara/ the wheel of suffering(Living itself is suffering).

Breaking this wheel of samsara is what is called nirvana/salvation. Let me give a brief rundown of this cycle before I explain. Samsara is something every living creature is held under, everything that breathes will come under the laws of karma. All of those beings, and their worlds, are categorised in this wheel, each with different representations. Those are The Realm of 1. Gods, 2. Titans, 3. Hungry Ghosts, 4. Demons, 5. Humans and 6. Animals.

This whole cycle is controlled by Yama, the God of Death. Suffering is prevalent in our lives, and it is believed that the reason for our sufferings is our attachments, whatever they may be.

So by detaching, in turn our suffering will lessen and in due time allow us to break the cycle of samsara, this is a very, very watered down summary. And in order to go beyond our suffering, or in essence stop our suffering, it is said for us to realize the Four Noble Truths, which is said to be one of the most important teachings in Buddhism. These four truths are

Truth of Suffering

Truth which is the cause of suffering

Truth of the cessation of suffering

Truth of the path that leads to ending our suffering

And now very importantly, The Noble Eightfold Path is automatically connected to these 4 Noble Truths, as it serves as a guide to terminating a human's suffering.

The 4th Noble truth, which is the journey to the cessation of suffering can also be called the middle way. During this middle way, adhering to the Noble Eightfold Path is what will lead us to our ending of suffering. As said in the name, there are mainly 8 aspects to follow to embark on this journey.

Wisdom

Right understanding

Right thought

Ethical Conduct

3.Right speech

4.Right action

5. Right livelihood

Mental discipline

6. Right Effort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

Adhering to these rules is believed to lead us to resolutely end our sufferings and achieve enlightenment and/or break the samsara cycle. Now in the first place, what are these attachments that cause suffering this life we call samsara? Yes there are many but in Buddhism it is mainly categorized into 10 shackles that tie us to samsara.

Drishti

Vichikitsa

Silabbata-paramasa

Kama-raga

Vyapada

Rupa-raga

Arupa-raga

Mana

Udhacca

Avidya

These are mainly called the 10 fetters, its important to keep in mind that the first five mentioned are known as the Lower fetters, as they are tied to the realm of senses/sensuous world. While the next five are called the Higher fetters as they are oriented with the immaterial world in mind. I will try to expand on these without taking too much time afterward.

For a better understanding, individuals who have crossed a certain umber of fetters each have a name attached to them, fro example, One that is free from 1-3 is called a Sotapanna, One, who is already beyond 1-3, and has now overcome 4 and 5, is called a Sakadagami.

And, One who is fully freed from 1-5 fetters is known as an Anagami. Lastly, One who is freed from all 10 fetters is called an Arahat. under these circumstances, as I have briefly explained, Shoyo (I mean the whole man himself, I'm not differentiating at all, Shoyo, and Utsuro are all the same man and mind, which I will delve into more specifically later on), fit into the category of Anagami.

Now as much as i would love to explore all of these manacles of samsara. I am mainly going to focus on the chains that strongly binds Yoshida Shoyo specifically to the wheel of samsara. And these fetters are Vyapada, Arupa-raga, Udhacca (most predominant fetters in his life) and some little dabbling into Mana and Avidya(essentially the Higher fetters).

To start off ill explain these terms, Vyapada in summary means ill will, or wishing harm upon others. Vyapada can also go hand in hand with Dvesha, which literally means hatred. Displaying vyapada includes, killing, destruction, ruin, evil design and malice. All of which this immortal man has done for centuries on end. Vyapada typically has 3 categories of varying vyapada, and is also considered as "wrong intention" in essence.

Those 3 are Vyapadasankappa(intention of ill will), kamasankappa (lust) and vihimsasankappa (intention of harm). NOW I CLARIFY, Shoyo had only committed to vyapadasankappa and vihimsasankappa, NOT kamasankappa, im emphasising this as i will explain why this anomaly is done so. Shoyo did have vyapada prevalent in his life but it was only the 2 aspects i had mentioned, excluding the kama one, like i said, i will explain after i briefly flit through the other shackles of samsara in Shoyo's life.

As mentioned before, this comes under the implications that in the 10 fetters found within the wheel of samsara, only the higher fetters were the challenges Yoshida Shoyo had to overcome, this leap in fetter can be contributed to the fact that his life was not allowed to be normal as he did not live like how the average human should, both in lifespan, social acceptance and treatment, as well as inability to live on his own terms.

Now, Arupa-raga, in a nutshell is defined as the craving for immaterial existence... yea i think you can see where im going with this, call it death, samadhi, moksha, nirvana. You name it, in essence, its the end of the cycle, or desire to attain heaven, dissolving the soul, salvation, there's many terms for it.

But to wrap it up in short thats what arupa-raga is. Rupa-raga is a fetter which is one step below arupa-raga, like how their names are similar, both are the cravings for the unknown, or samadhi, heaven, whichever interpretation you may have. Rupa-raga simply defined means the craving for fine-material existence. To summarise, it means the want to have a peaceful mind, with tranquility and serenity to become one's core.

And for the mind to become one-pointed, or more focused to a purpose. In this regard, its possible that we would try to conclude that Yoshida shoyo is suitable to this category, due to the way he lived his life in around those 15 years of time he was Yoshida Shoyo. However, it should be clear that even when he was Yoshida shoyo or all of his previous years before that, and afterward too after his "execution" in the war.

But yet, he had longed to become human, and wanted to embrace his humanity, despite his origin, so that can be considered his quest through rupa-ruga He had explicitly, stated he wanted to become human, embrace his human nature and compassion, but it did prove to not be fruitful as his journey with shoka sonjuku did not last very long. This is before he crosses the threshold to arupa-ruga.

Moving on, throughout his whole life, his Arupa-raga had always remained strong, however, due to his immortality, atleast when he started shoka sonjuku he had to adjust to being one fetter below, rupa-raga.

The difference is, that arupa-raga is not the end goal, it is still a fetter to overcome, so his arupa-raga was one of the strongest fetters in his life.

Nonetheless, staying stuck to it will not lead him to his salvation, which could explain why it was put off for thousands of years. Because at the end of the day, even though it is a non physical craving, it is still a mental image conjured up, thus it leads to an illusion, which is why arupa-raga is also a fetter to overcome, not indulge in.

His path as Utsuro proved to be an obstacle as even though his end goal was salvation, his craving for samadhi, freedom from samsara, desperation to end it all, it is also what caused him to get stuck in arupa-raga for a certain period of time.

Which explains his grandeur plans to end himself, the universe and vice versa. In simple terms arupa-raga is the yearning for bliss and crossing your physical limits, aligned with spirituality and the soul, possibly, it can also point to wishing for enlightenment.

I'm going to digress a bit to explain something important. If, speculation that this is, if yoshida shoyo demonstrates the path through rupa-raga, arupa-raga which is the next stage, is where utsuro, the final boss, extremely nihilistic personality, was born.

Now bear with me, if you rewatch/reread the Silver Soul arc, you will realize that in the instance where Utsuro goes to meet the space elders or whatever u wanna call them, the Harusame geezers, Utsuro had clearly stated that throughout his whole empty life, now has come to this form, this personality, born from him to finally and resolutely put an end to it all.

In essence, Utsuro is mainly his mantle, more than his name, as it was used throughout his time in Naraku. However, as much as all the personalities he took on during were violent and wished death towards, well anything in general. All those personalities didn't wish for the extreme end of the world and the universe, nor were any of them trying to speed run his death and finding options to kill himself.

Utsuro however, the moment he rises after the joui war, had actively worked towards securing the route of ending everything. In the scene of Yoshida Shoyo's beheading, Utsuro shows up among a pile of Shoyo's corpses(executed personalities) and tells Shoyo," There is no need to suffer anymore, I will put an end to everything".

So in short, Utsuro is truly the grim reaper he created, the all-encompassing destroyer that had risen within himself to finally end everything that caused him pain. I need to explain this more elaborately so ill do it in another segment below sorry.

Now back to Arupa-raga, so it goes to say that arupa-raga was the undoing that had more resolutely began Shoyo's path to salvation and nirvana.

Even though it was self-destructing in many ways. i say this as his desire to go beyond his body, to finally wear off his lifespan and end himself, is what had sealed the absolute nature of him finally attaining nirvana. As through this heavy yearning and rush to end things no matter what anyone or anything comes between his path, is what solidified his absolute end, after over a millenium of reincarnations.

After Arupa-raga, comes mana, mana means conceit, pride and arrogance. i realise that the more i elaborate on each of these steps, we can realise it also comes in line with how Shoyo had behaved until his death. If Shoyo is rupa-raga, utsuro is arupa-raga, and after that the next fetter is conceit, and as you may realise, yoshida shoyo, at the very least, did not show himself to be a gloating arrogant man, he was very much down to earth.

Nevertheless, after his birth as Utsuro, Utsuro is often shown as conceited and smug, especially when he was arrogant in the finale that he had deceived the students of Shoka Sonjuku, but his arrogance and impatience are what ultimately lead him to lose miserably to Gintoki and Takasugi (i HATE saying this cuz he is literally my majestic goat).

See how these fetters align with his life? mana along with arupa-raga is what sped up his demise, which is what he was wishing for, but the nihilistic side of Shoyo's did fail, as Earth had survived. Alas, Utsuro did come to terms with himself and finally stopped hiding from embracing humanity, in his last moments.

However, the contrast of mana is that this superiority complex also stems from inferiority complex, it can also mean, how can you think you know more than me? This can be shown when during the silver soul fight, Utsuro said something along the lines of "Can you defeat this dragon tho?"(LMAO) where he was referring to himself.

NOW BY ALL MEANS, he is truly a dragon, and the strongest man in the verse. But his blatant statements and goading during this fight goes to show that he had grown arrogant when his plan was very close to fruition. Thus this concludes his crossing of the 8th fetter, mana.

Then comes the 9th fetter, udhacca, restlessness and worry is the simple definition of it, it also defines guilt and regret. Udhacca is also a hindrance to nirvana, as it diverts the mind from reality, this is a truth for Shoyo, as his whole ordeal of multiple personality disorders, was ultimately his undoing, and is what led him to lose all the things and bonds he had built.

MPD is just ONE of his problems, his regrets, his sins he wished to wash away, his bloodthirst he had abandoned, as Yoshida Shoyo, can also be seen plaguing his mind as Yoshida Shoyo, as Katsura had explicitly stated," looking back, the vacant look he would sometimes have in his eyes, might have been him staring at the giant shadow of his past." another event that took place before this when Oboro had suggested opening a school and Shoyo had stated that he has nothing to teach, and would rather learn along with the students, of how to wash his bloodstained hands.

This shows how he demonstrated immense guilt and regret for all the murders he had committed for centuries along with how he had said that even though his sins are immense, he will try to atone for them as long as he lives(happened when he escaped from Naraku and was talking to Oboro of how he would lead his life as Yoshida Shoyo, his true nature).

Next it showed to be predominant... remember how i talked about Utsuro being very conceited during the silver soul fight especially, yea, and right after that, he had such a big inner turmoil when he realised that gintoki would be able to bring an end to him, as lo and behold, Utsuro, or more to say Shoyo, was the one that enabled Gintoki to become capable enough to end his life of hate and suffering.

Utsuro struggles and loses focus of a fight 10 v 1 that he absolutely had in the bag (still held up like a champ against the strongest characters) while thinking back on how his life as Yoshida Shoyo, such a small time spent compared to his thousands of years of living, is what had resolutely led him to almost be defeated and have his universe destroying plan busted,all because his life as Shoyo, in those 15 years approx., crafted all these students capable enough to stop and end him.

Moreover, in the silver soul fight, his inner conflict, is what led his udhacca, his worry, his anxiety to skyrocket once again, as Shoyo he was calm and collected till the end, as Utsuro he was smug and cunning, he was only ever anxious and restless before he was Yoshida Shoyo, where he was living in guilty and worry over the murders and agonizing life he has lived. An emotion that had remained dormant for over 15 years and more, finally returned during his fight in Silver Soul.

As he realized just the magnitude of his deeds and the small smile that he had unwillingly let slip, created such a wave of changes in so many people, from Shoka Sonjuku all the way to Edo. And by that, his own deeds to change himself, even though he returned to emptiness afterward, is what ultimately halted his plan of destruction.

Blatant examples are when he had hesitated to fend off Gintoki when he reminisced of him when he was a child and was teaching him, and also when Nobume had confronted him and he finally started hesitating. Yes he mostly was taken aback by the tenacity of the human spirit, but Nobume was able to stunt him for a while too, she has due credit that should be given to her.

And by that explanation, his udhacca is what stunted his success, and had let him to falter and eventually give up and jump into the dragon veins to at least get one upper hand and recollect himself. To then return in the finale and attempt to destroy the planet once more. That is how Shoyo had crossed the threshold of udhacca, the 9th fetter to reach the last fetter, the 10th manacle, Avidya.

We have finally reached the last stage, the last obstacle, shoyo's last hindrance to nirvana, and it was longggg overdue. In buddhism, avidya, or called ignorance to make things easier for us, points NOT towards lacking the knowledge to know things, but rather means our misconceptions/misunderstandings of reality. Like assuming that the wrong things are right. In this regard, ignorance is considered one of the biggest fuels for the three poisons demonstrated in buddhism. By this flow, ignorance is considered one of the, if not the hardest obstacle to overcome before attaining nirvana.

This is due to the fact that this ignorance is extremely common among humans, and is indoctrinated into us since young, a person's ego also contributes to this. Ignorance is without a doubt the most difficult manacle to break, as it involves shaking the very fundamentals of our thoughts, our personality, our morals, our ideals and beliefs. Overcoming ignorance or abandoning avidya, can very much shatter one's existence, which is tow is what nirvana also means when it points to breaking the wheel of samsara, and thus freeing ourselves from rebirth/ reincarnations.

Now, where did Shoyo demonstrate avidya? Where did he show himself to be ignorant? One such instance is well, of course, back to the Silver Soul fight. After showing Udhacca, in the end when he jumps back and talks while everyone is distracted, with only Gintoki listening in, even though he admitted that he knew the strength of humanity and that it was even capable of erasing his eternal hate.

Along with how his short life as Yoshida Shoyo is what led him to realise that that aspect of him is what he truly was and that his hatred becomes a mere fragment in front of the life of Yoshida Shoyo, no matter how cut short it was. This goes to sow that he had come to terms with himself, and was very well aware of the truth.

But yet, he still chose to go ahead with his plan, risking everything to accomplish it. When he starts losing the upper hand, mere moments before jumping into the dragon vein, he says that the humans can cry and be anguished over this state, he says that this isn't the end, and eventually, they will also be experiencing agony beyond measure, and all will be for naught. Pointing to how he also wants to make them feel the sadness and emptiness he did.

His ignorances becomes clear her as he had clearly reflected upon himself and realized humanity cannot be defeated, but yet, chooses to stick with his beliefs that humans are horrible and irredeemable, despite his sudden introspection. This goes to show that even though he was aware of the truth, very much so with first-hand experience, still chose to believe that no, humans are not worth living, and they should suffer in sorrow and then perish along with me.

This clearly shows us how he chose to stick to his nihilistic beliefs and was adamant in his hateful judgement of humans, refusing to back down from his planet-destroying plan. THIS is the ignorance that contributed to his ultimate loss. This ignorance is what made him stir up such chaos in line with killing himself along with the world, when in the instance that he didn't fall victim to his ignorance, he may have attained a much more peaceful and honest solution where he could finally attain his goal of ending his life.

Therefore, ignorance, the most troublesome ordeal to come out of, was what was stopping Shoyo from reaching nirvana long ago. I say this as of course, there are ways to overcome this ignorance, a few of them being ethical conduct, where you put the wellbeing of others beyond yours and cease doing harm to others and ourselves.

Second is Meditation, where we balance out the emotions and turmoil within ourselves, one of them is learning to let your anger go, or stop being enslaved to it, and practicing patience. Meditation essentially helps to cultivate our perception and clarity. Overall, it just makes our mind more relaxed and our life easier.

Thirdly, wisdom also plays a role in defeating ignorance. This is training the mind to be mindful of our speech, actions, thoughts and experience. Can you see where im going with this lmao, Yoshida Shoyo is a clear example of how, in his short time of running Shoka Sonjuku, had strived to overcome his ignorance.

All these traits are predominant in the character that is Yoshida Shoyo, he was by far the wisest and most broad-minded individual, and was also extremely self-sacrificial and caring. Hence, this elaborates how he DID attempt to overcome his ignorance, the last fetter, before finally attaining freedom.

Now your question may be, then how tf did he become such an evil character, Utsuro? Simple, despite his efforts to overcome his sorrow, it was just too immense for a person to handle, even though he isn't ordinary, the abuse and torture he faced for SO LONG. Is what deflected him from staying true to this path.

Even though he was very much aware of his nature and his soul, he was still a victim of Multiple personality disorder, and it is very unpredictable and uncontrollable, for the average person. Hence, even though mind-wise he did attempt to change, his pain was just too immense, that his MPD had reacted when he was executed.

Now to put things in perspective, imagine you lead a life of hate, and then you realise, that you don't want to live like this anymore, you want a life of light and happiness, and mostly peace. And you did that so, you tried your best to be kind and considerate, changing lives for the better as you go. But it only lasted a short while, before your past caught up to you, before the ignorance and ego of humans caught up to you. Now for the problems of some damn government and other species, now YOU are the one paying for their crimes. By having your children watch you die, knowing that you will cause irreversible trauma to them.

And whats worse, the child you raised, the child you wanted to do better for the world, for himself and his people that he cares about. Now he is the one who has to behead you, and god knows what damage that will cause to him. How would you feel? Hopeless? Tired? fed up? Angered? Saddened? Mostly negative emotions isn't it.

EVEN THOUGH it clearly shows Shoyo turning to smile and thank Gintoki, it also shows that he knows his mind would not stand for this insolence, this absolute bullshit that even though he tried to be true to himself and turn over a new leaf, the world didn't let him, it still spat at him, still persecuted him, and is now also torturing the people he took under his wing, innocent lives also now suffer.

Even though he was wise enough to know that Gintoki and the rest would eventually be better, From his personal perspective, deep down, wouldn't he feel wronged? that all his efforts were in vain? That he wasn't allowed to live a peaceful life even when he tried his best to?

Thus, comes the birth of Utsuro. He vanquishes all the other personalities conflicted with turmoil and finally puts down Shoyo, stating that even his kindest side, couldn't reform these arrogant humans. He finally comes to the conclusion that no matter what he tried, including overcoming these fetters, it ultimately didn't help him, and his hate for humans sparked again. This hate eats away at him, and finally, Utsuro rises(literally, from the ashes).

In my opinion, i think Utsuro would have gone about destroying the world even if the Naraku didn't accept him as their leader again, He is very much capable of acting alone, but as the cunning and shrewd man he is, he probably thought of the bigger picture, what if the surrounding forces turned on earth and humans, destroying them, wouldn't that satiate his hate for them? and in turn the universe will also perish in the war he will orchestrate. It would be a win-win for him.

So, he then embarks on this journey, enjoying his own nihilistic beliefs and turning away from the noble eight-fold path, abandoning his efforts to overcome ignorance and attain freedom, rather choosing to indulge in his hatred and fuel to destroy whatever exists. Now bringing an end to the universe itself is also pointing to breaking the cycle, he clearly does so nobody will suffer. So it was more of a universal nirvana lmao.

And even though he chose to fall back into hate, apathy, nihilism and ignorance. HE had still yearned for freedom all the same.

Which is why it is important to realise that multiple personality disorder is just one aspect of this man, regardless of the extreme spectrum of his personalities, they all stem from one mind, one brain, and hence, are all just parts, puzzle pieces that build up Yoshida Shoyo's soul. A human is made up of love and hate, apathy and compassion, light and dark. Shoyo is the example of the extremes of a human's psyche, and how his experience can orient how they live their lives through out time.

Thus, With these 5 higher fetters his only obstacles, i hope i provided better understanding of how he struggled with each of these and tried to overcome them. As for the lower fetters, they are known as sensuous fetters. As I've discussed many times before, they were no problem, as Shoyo was always yearning for death, to leave his body and wasn't the least bit concerned about physical indulgence in anything, that just how his character is crafted and made into. Sensuous points were just useless to him and he had no interest in any of them whatsoever.

The only indulgence he did however have was food, now food is the most vital thing for humans, so that is an exception, along with the fact that he has a very advanced and strong body, with the stamina that can rival the earth, it can explain that he also has a big stomach. There are actually many monks, saints, or heightened beings, who have crossed many fetters, but still favour food largely and love to eat.

So, Yoshida shoyo, had no trouble with the lower fetters, scratch that it wasn't even a concern for him, he had knowingly or unknowingly already crossed them during his first few years when he was persecuted and tortured unfortunately. As him dying repeatedly will just make him detached from his physical body.

Which is why I have said statements like Yoshida Shoyo is truly a virgin, and theres an essay for that too I'll link it here as well. Now in vyapada i had mentioned how he did not in any way indulge in kamasankappa, this is because he has already crossed the wants and needs in physical ways, which includes lust, so yea there you have it. Ive already made many posts about this so i will link it below.

Also, he has died way too many times like he died multiple times in one day, especially during his first few centuries. So his libido stays dead too. In short, lust is for those who hold a strong attachment to their bodies, so the average human, however, Yoshida Shoyo strays much much MUCH away from it. So yea there you have it.

For a more clear explanation you can refer to my post here. It isn't extremely elaborate and is much shorter, but i do get my points across. Do refer to it as necessary as you find it.

Monk attributes

Now comes my favourite part lol, Yoshida Shoyo definitely acts like a monk, and i would even say he strived for it, exempting the bloodshed lmao sorry, he did strive to live like a monk, and man do i have so many examples for it. Oboro was also aiming to act like a monk, i have short post about it but delving into the topic anymore regarding the students of Shoka Sonjuku will be done another day. For now lets focus on this monk, Yoshida Shoyo LMAOO. In a literal sense, I'm not saying he was a full fledged official one, mostly I'm adhering to the fact that his characteristics were that of one, is what I'm getting at.

One of those conditions is that he recollects his past lives, for humans it normally means of remembering your past incarnations, as much as it may vary, this itself takes practice, however, Yoshida Shoyo did get reborn multiple times, but not in the same way humans did, it was the same physical state, same body, and same conditions, as his body can regenerate regardless of whatever death or destruction he may face.

Therefore, with this upper hand, along with his immortality through out these phases, recollecting his past lives is no issue for him. As much as monks can also be views as priests, saints, people who prioritise god in their lives. In many cases, monks can also be seen as people who try to cross the boundaries they have in their lives, striving for a higher purpose, or simply set themselves free. In Buddhism, nirvana is considered the highest priority, as experiencing the wheel of samsara, the wheel of suffering, is expected to strive to break that suffering.

Hence the come about of nirvana. In short, the goal of buddhism is to reach salvation/nirvana, or enlightenment. Or both, but usually if enlightenment comes nirvana will also follow. This is a whole conversation for another time. yes of course there's the obvious fact that Shoyo wished for a definite end, which is essentially nirvana. This is one of the qualities expected when becoming a recluse, ascetic, monk, whatever you name it. Since it has already been discussed, I'll try to focus on the characteristics now. Very basic qualities are wisdom, humility, and compassion, all of which I believe Yoshida Shoyo displayed everytime we see his life as Yoshida Shoyo.

Moreover, for a man that resorted to murder for over centuries, had suddenly dropped his weapons and violence when he ran away from Naraku. For example, when he was telling Oboro of how they would deflect the Naraku members chasing them, he strictly said they will not resort to killing. This shows to go his discipline and his conscious decision to step away from violence and brute force.

Even though Naraku members were indoctrinated to be emotionless and not care about themselves, as i had discussed a few segments ago. even for those emotionless, soulless, dead inside beings, Shoyo had decided that they shouldn't be killed, even though they were at the receiving side of violence. This shows that Shoyo, despite his past, had turned over a new leaf and decided, that no matter who they may be, a life is still a life, and that life force should not be harmed.

That is one of the fundamentals of buddhism. And when he does find Gintoki, he suggest he strives to protect his soul, rather than his body or defeat his enemies. This displays the notion that one should always strive to remain true to their soul, without finding the need to put down others. Shoyo's teachings were considered radical during that era, as he advocated for individualism and free will, rather than adhering to social norms, and only finding purpose in serving a master, a clan, or a higher authority.

This would end up in posing a threat to the government, as it will destroy the submission people give to the government, and can incite rebellions, due to the mistreatment and docile nature they are expected to have.Which is why Shoyo was branded a traitor and accused of spreading propaganda, which was the excuse they used to subdue and arrest him for before the war.

Coming to Shoka Sonjuku, its no secret that in Gintama, Shoka Sonjuku was said to be a temple school, Shoyo himself had stated it a few times. This is of course, referenced from history, as a temple school, or also known as Terakoya, was something that came up during the period of Edo, the literal definition of Terakoya is a temple school, which is categorized as a private school too. Which was also said to be what Shoka Sonjuku was, where Shoyo was running it for free.

Temple schools branch out from buddhist temples and were educational facilities which descended from them. While samurai were expected to learn in a public school, other groups of people were more oriented towards going to temple schools, now at the time some samurai ran temple schools, a fictional example is Yoshida Shoyo of course.

And temple schools did last for a while up until they were abolished in the Meiji period, where public schools were then made compulsory. With the historical context, it can point to how Shoyo chose to run such a school given that the rules were strict and that he could only have some leeway to teach what he wanted to teach after establishing a private school, which was also completely free, and welcomed any type of individual regardless of their background, which was considered radical during that period.

However i would also like to believe as i mentioned in the first segment, that when Shoyo was born he was most likely taken in by one of the shrines monitoring the dragon holes, and grew up there till a young age, which could possibly explain his reason for leaning towards Buddhism and its connections when it came down to him wanting to lead a simple life.

His past experience with buddhism and temples is what could have made it much easier for him to choose to establish a private school, a temple school, rather than fighting against the laws and confronting the rigid and strict public schools that were domineering at the time. So his connections to temples, buddhism, to spirituality from the get-go, considering dragon veins were also a big spiritual belief way before its existence was established in the Gintama verse, goes to show his deep-rooted connection to these aspects.

Moreover, as a educator adhering to the branches stemming from buddhist temples. He is also expected to dedicate himself to his work and improving the lives of others, teaching them the ways of life, and prioritising the wellbeing of others, especially the upcoming generation above his. Especially in a. time of war and crisis at the time. With propaganda and indoctrination soaring and dominating the field.

Thus, this makes me see it as that Yoshida shoyo's life did resembles that of a monk in a very similar way Hell, I think that if he came back or somehow lived after the finale he would just go back to being a recluse and running a quiet temple school yet again, this time really becoming a monk to detach himself from all the unnecessary problems he had in his life and with people frl.

Crossing worldly desires

Ive already discussed this before, but the gist of it is that throughout his whole life we can observe that he never really shows a care for anything materialistic or banal, of course due to the life he lived, which contributes to this. His whole character arc shows him striving for something more, or to become something more, which many people in the verse itself couldn't really grasp and it took them a long time to understand how he was the way he was. So since I've already explained it previously this is just a short summary.

Unable to cross over MPD

This was also discussed before, as even though he had so much wisdom and knowledge given his age and more. It still leaves a blank to the audience for a while on why he regressed to such a hateful personality. Like i mentioned, before, it could be due to the fact that deep down he felt wronged yet again, he may have been hateful, vengeful and violent at first, which would explain his consequences, but now, when he finally changes for the better, quells his rage and tries to walk the noble path.

He gets shunned yet again, ending up in ending his life yet again, regardless of what cool demeanour he may show outside, emotionally he would have still been in a whirlwind. Which explains why his hate burst out yet again to consume him and in turn point his rage towards everything in existence.

MPD basically starts off when a person tries to control their emotions and thoughts too much, bottling up these feelings will eventually burst out in some ways, this is a very much watered-down definition of what MPD is, but you get the gist.

However he does not have MPD the same way victims usually do and is incredibly self aware and remembers himself.

Multiple Personality disorder is very much uncontrollable to a human, it also includes not remembering what your personalities do if it takes over. A common sign is that one personality may not remember what the other personality did, so basically memory loss or amnesia. However, in this regard, Yoshida Shoyo differs. As he can clearly remember all the events in his life, as long as it may be. There's proof of this in literally almost all of his appearances in Gintama.

The first one literally being when he fights Gintoki in the Farewell Shinsengumi, and he says the exact same lines he had said as Yoshida Shoyo decades ago, to taunt Gintoki and make him realize it is truly his teacher that stands before him yet again. It was also to catch him off guard to cut him off. So he had known exactly what words to use due to his memory. So the difference im bringing here is that usually, victims don't remember what they do, however, Shoyo remembered it all, regardless of which personality he was.

Next example is when he is on a spaceship observing the Joui 4 students and he tells Oboro how he would have to teach his students(children) a lesson yet again, now this can serve as mockery, but it also goes to show that he is still very much familiar with them, even though they never knew this vengeful side of him. Oboro also realises, as he also bids his farewell as his student(child) from Shoka Sonjuku before heading off to fight off Takasugi and eventually die.

Another blatant example is during the silver soul fight yet again, when he reminisces about Gintoki as a child when Gintoki rushes to cut him down. It's literally how parents view their children when they do something in Infront of them, they can't help but see them as the children they used to be, since well, they are the children he raised. And no matter how many of them change or may drift apart, their bond and history will still remain the same.

Like this there are many more examples, and i hope i can compile them together soon to make a post.

Shoyo is a smile Utsuro let slip

This was in fact a very well-know dialouge from Gintama, said by Nobume, Shoyo's last student from shoka sonjuku. As this suggests, this line encapsulates of how utsuro(shoyo) did not intend to let the wish to be happy deep down, to seep through the cracks and show itself.

He wished to keep it buried and fuel his hate for as long as he could, and give back all the bloodshed the humans had caused him. All the deaths to hit them back. However, he could only hold it back for so long, as this yearning for peace had also bursted through at some point, leading him to abandon his life of Naraku and pursue his own path.

Shoyo was a glimpse of happiness that had slipped through his endless agony called life, and since it was held down for so long, his smile lasted for a few years, and it would have lasted till the end, had the war not happened, and had the government not intervened in his path again. Which is why i constantly want to drive the point home that Shoyo and Utsuro are no different, it is all the one and same man.

This displays the complexities and extremes of what a human can do and feel. And completely disregarding that to treat hm as two different people, completely misses the whole point of what his character stands for.

Why it is lowkey incorrect to call Shoyo as Utsuro(in terms of legitimate name) or Shoyoutsuro and why I always call him Yoshida shoyo even when he is Utsuro

You would have noticed that i called Yoshida shoyo as Shoyo even when he was working under the name of Utsuro. Fundamentally, it should be understood that Utsuro means emptiness, void, hollow and vice versa. However, it isn't a name truly. It can be seen as more of a mantle.

It goes to show how he has abandoned his humanity, or more so of wasn't even able to embrace humanity, due to his nature and life. However, the whole thing of his smile slipping and Yoshida Shoyo suppressing his centuries worth of hate, shows how he had finally had enough of himself, choosing to change himself for the better. So it is a journey of self-discovery, and learning, despite his bloody past.

After which he chooses the name of Yoshida Shoyo. He himself blatantly states this in silver soul when Gintoki raises him for a short while. He says that he has taken on many names, but this is who he was truly who he was. You heard it from the man himself everybody. And in other parts too it suggest how Shoyo was his true self and his fundamental self. Detaching all of his past and actions too in some instances.

So when people call him Utsuro, it really just refers to his mantle, it shows how he wants to make the universe void too, make it empty after destroying it. It mostly adheres to that goal, and himself at the moment when he renounces his entire existence to achieve his deadly goal.

There are people who call him shouyoutsuro, which is to likely drive the point home that its the one and same man, however, i feel like calling him Shoyo would suffice. As even during the end, when he returns to destroy planets and earth, I see it as the man named Yoshida Shoyo taking on the mantle of Utsuro to solidify his role as the grim reaper of the universe. This is mostly because Yoshida Shoyo was specifically a name he chose for himself.

Significance behind Utsuro parting his hair

This is just a small fun detail to think about, from the beginning up until the end of his life being shoka sonjuku's teacher, Shoyo had his fringe covering his forehead. However, when the final boss Utsuro is born, he pushes back his messy fringe, leaving his forehead bare. Now this could pertain to the fact that he wanted to show that he wasn't the same anymore, he was no longer going to be nice to humans, nor was he going to be out for blood and start killing like the assassin he used to be.

He resolved to destroy earth in a more orderly manner, and by having earth destroyed completely, instead of settling for more smaller ways to execute humans. It shows how he was truly done with his previous ways of life and wanted to end everything as soon as possible.

An interesting way we could see this is that the third eye is located on the forehead, so him finally uncovering forehead and pushing back his fringe, could also possibly mean on how he thinks he is no longer blind to the truth anymore and that he is finally clear on the true nature of things and humanity, which explains his unshakeable resolve to end life itself. A bit of a thought-provoking thing to ponder about hmmm.

Fight with Gintoki

As Yoshida shoyo, we never see him fight anyone seriously, and as utsuro, we have the fight with Gintoki (backed up by Nobume and Okita), the fight with Umibozu, and then the silver soul fight, Edo vs Utsuro, and then 10 v 1). In this fight against Gintoki, its his first immediate fight after he reveals himself as the final antagonist and gintoki fights against Utsuro. In this fight Utsuro almost kills Nobume when Gintoki rises from the rubble to fend him off.

This does serve as his purpose to rid himself of loose ends, as Gintoki and anyone else from shoka sonjuku are the ones who can truly find out his weakness and bring him down. This is just speculation of course.

He also showed himself to be a smug and cunning man, taunting Gintoki as much as possible while also sneering down on all of them, ridiculing them of their weak wills and how predictable they were. However, for the strongest man in the world, and has remained unmatched thus far, he seemed invested in the fight against Gintoki, given how he was the one that trained Gintoki and now it has come to a time where his child himself will have to try and cut him down seriously, there is no more sparring anymore.

Fight with Umibozu

The fight with Umibozu did seem a bit shallow to me, mostly because Utsuro wasn't really locking in like it was life and death akin to Umibozu. Yes it did show a lot of introspective from Umibozu, stating his regrets with his wife and how he had still not gotten over her. he still calls her his wife, and he is her husband. So that was one thing that made Umibozu stand out, as he was a very much dedicated husband, who was trying to atone in ways to pay back his wife for all the pain he had caused her.

Even though she willingly left her planet with him. He tries to salvage what gift he had for her to try and bring down the immortal who posed a danger to earth, and in turn his kids, especially Kagura, his daughter. Yea Utsuro was gonna destroy the whole universe too yes thats a reason too of course.

And i digress, about that whole boner thing its kinda obvious that it was for comedic purposes and to show how endangered the Yatos were, from my reading, i mostly read that Umibozu already had a boner when fighting the Orochi, before meeting Kouka, and when he did meet her his ding dong stood up again, but this time with a more conscious reaction lmao.

So his fight with both Orochi and Utsuro was just a survival instinct for the Yatos due to them being an endangered species, Umibozu does view Utsuro as a unfathomable and fearful monster as stated by himself, much like the Orochi, or even more terrifying than the Orochi themselves.

Given how he was very much sure he was going to die and was describing Urusro as this unpredictable phenomena who was much too emotionless and monstrous. While kouka is the anomaly here as aforementioned as Umibozu deeply valued her from the get-go and literally worshipped the ground she walked on.

Since Umibozu fell in love with Kouka immediately. So in this case the Orochi and Utsuro are in the same category, Kouka being the exception and becoming his wife. Now back to the battle of these decomposing corpses, Utsuro is be shown acting nonchalant, aloof, and smiling half-heartedly, once again taunting Umibozu.

I feel like his actions were more of like trying to see if he could actually "kill" him. Given how the last time he "died" was when he was beheaded by Gintoki and then burnt on the pyre, after which he rose out of the ashes. So it would have been more than a decade since he last had his body die. When Umibozu wrongfully assumes that the altana crystal will kill him, he tricks Umibozu and regenerates to cut him down again, in which Umibozu finally becomes immobilized.

Not going all out in one or both of these fights

I will stand by this and will die on this hill, Utsuro was not going all out in his fight with Umibozu, yes umibozu is very strong, considered the strongest, but with the way Utsuro was acting it seemed like he was still unserious about the whole fight, while Umibozu as prepared for the consequences of dying.

He was aloof and smiling through out the whole ordeal, even when he was killed, and regenerated. He finally says that he's grateful that he was able to die again after so long, a mere glimpse into what the end of the cycle would look like for his immortal body. And then speaks in a complacent manner about how he would meet them all in the afterlife, considering Umibozu was very close to being dead.

As it shows right after of how he was ready to join Kouka, his love that he has never gotten over of and dearly misses, but she didn't let him, which is a metaphor for how his duties as a father isn't done yet mostly. ANOTHER fact i have to back up the claim that Utsuro did not go all out on the fight is once again during the silver soul arc fight, when he is fighting off both Umibozu and Kami, and he still fends for himself like a king(yes I'm glazing).

Even the strongest Yatos could only act as a cog in this whole organization of bringing down Utsuro along with many other people like Gintoki and the gang, Shinsengumi and his other two children, who were also extremely powerful, even all of them combined struggled to bring down Utsuro.

SO, this solidifies my statement that Utsuro INDEED was not serious during his fight with Umibozu, just like his fight with Gintoki, The only place where he did lose composure and felt like losing was in the silver soul fight, before that all his fights were simply battles that were a guaranteed win for him or just took it as an opportunity to make them suffer or taunt them, mostly to sneer down on them.

Shocked with Gintoki, not shocked with Umibozu

In the first fight against Gintoki, Utsuro was shocked to see Gintoki come back to fight him. This could be due to the fact that Gintoki will soon become aware of who he is and how their lives have already been connected. He’s literally his dad in a sense and taught Gintoki everything he knows.

Meanwhile, Utsuro is unserious and aloof until the very end, brushing it off like nothing happened, just as he acts in every other situation. The only scenarios where Utsuro was actually caught off guard were those involving his students. This could reflect that even though his personality as Utsuro was present, there was still inner turmoil going on—his different fragments fighting against each other and his past still haunting him despite his resolution to destroy everything. This is just my observation.

Fight with everyone in silver soul arc

This fight was the one where we finally got to learn more of Utsuro's thoughts, as before that, it had been stated that no one could predict or understand his actions or the reasons behind them. But when his plan came close to fruition, his arrogance caused him to fumble, which led Gintoki and the gang to crack down on him and foil his initial plans of exploding the planet, lmao.

This is the only fight, before the one in the finale, where he slips up and hesitates. He was such a formidable and unpredictable opponent before; he was considered someone against whom it was useless to fight, as it felt like kicking down on the Earth itself.

But now, he was weakened and having second thoughts, doubting himself once again and becoming agitated after realizing just how much all these humans and his past bothered him. This led to the crack down and his trying to save face by jumping into the dragon veins to regenerate and come back with a better plan, riddled with cunningness, in the finale.

Gintama Finale fight

Utsuro obviously didn't have the upper hand here, his consciousness was in Takasugi who was actively rebelling and throwing off Utsuro, along with Oboro's little help. Takasugi taking over control is what allowed Gintoki to finally defeat Utsuro. If it was Shoyo's original body, it is without a doubt that he would clear out anybody.

Which is mostly the reason Sorachi made Utsuro get stuck in this situation, so that his ignorance and arrogance cane be shown of how it led to him messing up and finally using that crack to defeat him finally. Gintoki himself states how Takasugi did the most work in defeating Utsuro as he was the one reining in control over his own body and threw Utsuro off his senses.

Only let his guard down with his students

Utsuro was caught off guard by both Gintoki and Nobume, who were students of his, in terms of dialogues they were the ones that strongly challenged Utsuro's beliefs and brought back the same self-confident energy that Utsuro displayed. The others were trying their best to bring him down and was more of a way to rid themselves of the danger that could destroy them, and overcome their fear of the form of death himself, Utsuro.

Yearning for inclusiveness and happiness

This Silver soul fight also drives home the point of how Utsuro, no matter how much he tried to hate humans, he still deeply wanted to connect with people and wanted to be included, he wanted to allowed to be human and wanted to be treated as such, but he had never once gotten the opportunity even as Yoshida Shoyo he was shunned and ridiculed, chased away from towns for his "radical views", only people who were also abandoned and shunned like him, Gintoki, Oboro, Takasugi, Katsura, and Nobume, and his other students, were able to see him as the human he was and gave him the respect he deserved.

They valued him as their guide and teacher like how they normally do in their cultures, and that is what alllowed him to be human, for a short period of time. He was content with leading a quiet life, raising his children, and taking people under his wing who suffered injustices and outcasting as well as poverty like him, But he was only able to attain peace for so long.

Significance behind different birthdays for Shoyo and Utsuro

Shoyo has two different birthdays, one is on August 4th(Shoyo) and another is on October 27th(Utsuro). I think that neither of these are the dates where he was actually born, as in where he was born as a baby through the dragon veins and being popped out of the dragon holes near the shrines.

I think august 4th is the day "his smile he let slip" and he changed his ways, abandoning Naraku and starting Shoka Sonjuku. While October 27th is the day he was beheaded as Yoshida Shoyo by Gintoki, or to be more accurate, removed by Utsuro, his hateful side of him, taking over and Utsuro being born after destroying all his other personalities.

So it was the day his hate was born anew returning back a hundred times stronger to finally put an end to it all, nothing worthy enough to stop him anymore. SO, Utsuro was born on the day his body was beheaded at the end of the war.

Proof is the silver soul arc where he says he is neither Shoyo nor Utsuro now

In the end, Yoshida Shoyo is his true self, but according to other people's views, shoyo was just a teacher, while Utsuro the Shinigami. So in the finale when Takasugi asks him to return as their teacher to Shoka Sonjuku. he states how he is neither Shoyo nor Utsuro now, this could be because even though he had been a teacher before, after his execeution, his mantle as Utsuro and the crimes he did during that time was just too immense, riddled with blood and pain. So it would be very difficult for him to return as their teacher when he was so close to ridding the entire universe, and in turn, killing his students too.

So it shows how that regardless of all these identities, he was just a being that came from the earth. he says this when the Harusame or Tendoushuu capture him and find out his past, he says the same line there too. That he is neither Utsuro nor Shoyo, or both at the same time. Regardless of his name, he had no name given to him and was only called a devil at first.

Him repeating this statement at the finale goes to show how he believed he was truly at the end, and that there was no going back for him, he just felt remorse and regret for causing hell and chaos for his students, his children, that he cared about the most, to also be the ones to suffer the most because of him.

In the end, he was just a human who had the misfortune of immortality, and had tried to make the best out of his suffering for a while and had also committed genocide afterward, which goes to show how he was unforgiving of himself and refused to let any of this problems go any further when he sacrificed himself and apologized to his child.

His consciousness is able to spread just like the dragon veins rooted into the earth

In the movie, Gintama the final, the animation shows Utsuro looking up at Yoshida shoyo when he takes over Takasugi's body, however this differs vastly from the manga, in the manga it shows his shadow being shown behind takasugi, so the more accurate showcase would be Takausgi smiling an evil smile at Shoyo before Attempting to stab him again. As this was the scene that gave many misconceptions to the audience of Utsuro and Shoyo being two separate beings, because at this scene>>>

Utsuro was simply a shadow, his conciousness was acting, Takasugi's body had still remained the same. Even in the final fight against Gintoki, physically Gintoki could only see Takasugi as he was fighting. Showing Utsuro there was just to make it easier for us to understand it was Utsuro acting out in Takasugi's physical self. Only Oboro's depiction was shown accurately, where he was beside Takasugi and helped him push back Utsuro for a while.

So i think this is where the movie screwed up, i made a small post about it too here. Discussing how he has this skill can strike up a whole new debate, so we will just assume it's one of his many supernatural, abilities and move on.

Majority tend to forget that this single man can only have one physical body at a time

As mentioned in the scene above, it was depicted inaccurately in the finale. I'm emphasizing this as Utsuro didn't change Takasugi's appearance and only showed himself to have his consciousness remain active in Takasugi's blood. The only physical body that was actually there at the time was Yoshida Shoyo's—his true self's body. I mean to say that Shoyo can only have one physical body at a time, contrary to the common misconception.

For example, in the Rakuyo fight, after his heart was stopped and he dropped dead, his decapitated arm, which was detached from his body with his heart that stopped functioning, allowed him to regenerate his body again. We can see him standing by his dead body; there was only another body, but it was already dead. This goes to show that only if the current body drops dead can he regenerate again.

Another example is in the Silver Soul fight when he willingly cuts off his arm to throw everyone off and focus on destroying the arm while he regenerates out of sight again to jump-scare his opponents.

Finally, in the finale, Utsuro was not physically Utsuro; it was simply him taking over Takasugi's brain, and Takasugi still looked like himself throughout the whole altercation with his teacher and Gintoki. Now, even though he is the same man, why did Shoyo get caught off guard by Utsuro's consciousness in Takasugi's body, and why did Utsuro trick him and try to kill him?

From Utsuro's perspective, since his consciousness has spread by getting rid of his original body, if he successfully kills Gintoki, he would have blown up the Altana core and, in turn, also destroy Takasugi's body and Edo along with it, accomplishing his goal. Now, how did both of his personalities war with each other?

Simple: at the time Utsuro's consciousness had possessed Takasugi, he was the nihilistic personality, Utsuro, while Yoshida Shoyo had literally regenerated over two times—one being born out of the Dragon Hole again, and then sealed in a chamber in his child form, regenerating very fast yet again in the finale. Since he was reborn, he stepped onto the land as his true and original self, Yoshida Shoyo.

The consciousness of Shoyo that runs in Takasugi's blood predates back to the Silver Soul arc, which is approximately 2-3 years before going by the timeline of the Gintama verse. So Utsuro's personality is the one that retained itself in its unoriginal and salvaging way in the blood of his student, while Yoshida Shoyo was born anew in his own physical body like he always was for the last few times.

Now, the consciousness in Takasugi wasn't exactly strong nor useful, given how Utsuro had remained hidden for all this time—3 years—and yet he could only get the upper hand for a few minutes.

He believed he killed himself, his original body, but it was an illusion orchestrated by Takasugi taking control again. He lost the fight against Gintoki when he wasn't even able to see clearly.

So his consciousness is outdated and weak; this is also due to the fact that his original body has risen, thus explaining the weakening of control. But I think he never had that much control to begin with, since it was just a small blood manipulation to extend Takasugi's life, and Utsuro himself was waning out and dying. So i'm sealing the canon idea and reminding that Yoshida shoyo(Utsuro) is indeed one and the same man and both are only the 2 extremes of the one and the same man. With further proof that he can only have one physical body or regenerate one single body for himself since he only has one brain and one soul

Attaining nirvana despite trying to be saved by students

Oboro died, and soon after Takasugi finds out the truth and attempted to free Shoyo from the hands of the world, as that was the time immortality was rising as a religion, and Shoyo was starting to be heralded as a god, basically a cult was rising fast. Gintoki also finds his own way of learning the truth about Shoyo, as he was the last person who saw him, and he was the only one who saw Utsuro willingly jumping into the dragon veins, while everyone remained oblivious. Takasugi and Gintoki both use their own methods to get to the bottom of this centuries-lasting problem. Soon they both band together to free their teacher from his suffering, Katsura joining in, and Nobume also aiding.

Now this is where interpretations can become more than one. When Gintoki and Takasugi talk about saving their teacher and putting him out of his suffering, did they mean to save him from the cult and bring him back as their teacher(and parent more like) and family, or did they mean that he can finally die.

I think they mostly were ready for both paths, as when Takasugi saw Shoyo, he talked about making Yoshida Shoyo reunite with all of them again and going back to being their teacher, however, he must also have been aware that death was the only way Shoyo could finally be given some freedom and salvation from all these people vindicating him.

But i think all these students of Shoka Sonjuku had small hopes, of a better more happier world, where they can all reunite together as Shoka Sonjuku. However that wasn't possible at the moment, given how Oboro died, Takasugi was going to die regardless, and Shoyo's sins were too heavy fro him to forgive himself and go back to his old life like nothing happened.

A parent's sins will soon torture the children they raise. And Shoyo must have been well aware of this, as his kids had already suffered enough. If he did somehow manage to return, they might have been happy, but the world would not let Yoshida Shoyo live in peace once again. It's either death or persecution and propaganda. And Shoyo knew that sacrificing himself and empowering future generations was the best solution.

Hence why he chose to rip out his heart and save everybody when none of them expected him to sacrifice himself. By putting the wellbeing of humans, of his loved ones, his family, and future generations above his own survival, and his final admission of all his crimes and inner turmoil. He finally returns to the noble eight-fold path, fulfilling all the conducts mentioned in this path sprouting from buddhism.

And thus, being able to finally, FINALLY, die in peace, with the comfort that at least the children of his that still lives, and all the future generations of humans, will be doing fine, and that he has made up for all his world-destroying methods and goals by saving humanity, most importantly the people that came together because of him in the tower, by sacrificing himself and all his ignorance, his restlessness, his ill-will, and his grief and hate. Most importantly, his remorse and regrets.

He was finally able to lay them all down, lay down all of his personalities, his identities that spanned for over a thousand years, he had worn down all of these identities, these false conceptions of reality and nature. And by ridding himself of all these thoughts and ignorance, the storm in him finally calms and he lets go.

Finally and at last, being able to reach nirvana and break his wheel of samsara. Going out with a smile on his face. That despite his agonizing life, there were moments where he shined through, and he finally acted out successfully by saving the planet from which he was born. This is what ultimately let this man riddled with sorrow and bloodshed and pain, finally reach salvation, attain nirvana, and freeing himself from the cycle of birth and death.

Going back to the source, the earth

After Shoyo subdues the exploding altana with his heart, we can see the altana flow back into the earth from the terminal, and since Shoyo was a child of the earth herself, meaning his existence literally sprouted out of the earth and the dragon veins, I'm assuming his body crystallizes and disintegrates, and eventually joins the altana flowing back, while his soul dissolves and frees himself from the wheel of samsara, which is what nirvana essentially means.

Helping Takasugi to be reborn

Sakamoto says saving the students is simply a teacher's duty, and isn't a miracle, which just points to the fact that Takasugi's body must have also fallen into the dragon veins and been destroyed, And with the dragon vein which is capable of regeneration and curing diseases and rehabilitating life.

When it is shown that Takasugi is reborn once again it gain pertain to the fact that he was able to have a rebirth due to falling into the altana veins, as well as with the blessings of his dad/teacher/guide, Yoshida Shoyo, as he himself would have been depressed that both Oboro and Takasugi had died in lieu of trying to save their Mentor/Dad. So if any of the upcoming projects in Gintama features Shoka Sonjuku, I hope Oboro and Takasugi come back. And that they will grow up fast at the same rate Shoyo did when he regenerated in the Silver soul arc. For the reunion.

Can be considered a deity considering he had a whole religion threatening to spread universe wide due to his nature

This is ME just dickriding, but Shoyo was turned into a deity and treated like one in his absence when the cult was rising an a religion getting popular with him as the catalysts directs us to the fat that he was on his way to being truly immortalized as a deity, given his immortality mostly and his superhuman abilities. They did briefly cover this in silver soul, which is why the students of Shoka Sonjuku were pressed for time and had to act fast to quell this rising cult and save their teacher's name and free him from this misery. And they did succeed in the end.

However, there are countless cultures where a human who has showcased outstanding qualities during their time have also been worshipped as deities long after their death. Considering Shoyo's immortality and his superhuman qualities, along with his longstanding mental qualities and tenacity, I wasn't surprised when they were planning to make him a deity or see him as one, he definitely deserved such a title, but he had no need nor wishes for such things, he just wanted freedom. But he is basically, built different (yes im glazing).

Not humane but has human qualities that make him human

I am reiterating my statement here for reference, Shoyo is human, yes he wasn't born like how ordinary humans are, but all humans body is made up of the earth, and he is all the same. The difference is that he was directly born from the dragon vein's the life source of the planet. He is the embodiment of this energy, which explains his extreme superhuman strength, speed and vice versa. Supernatural abilities along these lines too. However, he was still every bit as human as the next in my opinion.

"Humanity is not a physical state but a mindset" given how many non human characters in Gintama have also been portrayed as having humanity and compassion

As much as he was persecuted as a monster, he displayed immense compassion and humanity for a certain period of time. His pain and sorrow, his agony of being unable to cope with the life he was living, were further proof of just how human he was, despite being such a special being with a much different origin.

All the aliens, Yato, or even animals, like Sadaharu shown in Gintama, also display humanity. In summary, being human isn't just a physical condition; showing humanity and compassion isn't something only humans do. If anyone has a heart, they are considered human—not in a literal sense, but more in a metaphorical way, as they can display heart-touching humanity and care.

Essentially, the point is that humanity lies in the heart, and compassion and enriching each other's lives is a choice anyone can make. Even though Shoyo displayed his humanity for only a very short amount of time, that spark caused a domino/butterfly effect, changing the lives of so many people for the better and altering their views on how their once strict and cruel world had been. He became a light of hope for a better future and present when we are willing to change ourselves and enrich the lives of those around us along with our own.

P.S: This essay got longer than expected but i did try my best to cover as many topics as possible, i still think there are many more scenes to breakdown on so i'll see if i can work on a different essay. Writing wise, this only took me a week, but this took months for me to finish as I wanted to do my research and had to find enough time to sit down and grind on this. Which explains the delay.

I hope this helped provide a clear dive into Yoshida Shoyo's character and made things easier to understand as in some parts his actions are difficult to get or just overall not explored on.

I know i linked some posts above already related to Yoshida shoyo so i'll link my other analysis posts below just for perusal. Don't worry they are much much more shorter than this essay lol, Cheers yall.

Gintoki & Lake Toya

Oboro Analysis

Takasugi breaking down in the finale

Nobume the goat

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lowlylux · 4 months ago

Text

Run With The Devil (And Dream)

1.1 | djdlqdjdlqdjdlqgrlwdjdlq

Word Count: 3k

Status: Ongoing

Ship: BillFord

Rating: M (graphic depictions of violence)

Description:

In the endless loops of time, Bill Cipher finds himself trapped in a cycle of death and destruction, orchestrated by the Axolotl, an enigmatic cosmic being who delights in his chaos. Each loop sees Bill wreak havoc on Earth, only to be reset when his plans inevitably fail. Despite his malevolent nature, Bill begins to sense the futility of his actions and the unchanging nature of his existence.

As the cycles progress, small changes occur—subtle shifts in events and new interactions with key characters that challenge Bill's perception of himself and his purpose. One particular loop introduces a significant change: Bill regains his empathy and ability to fall for another.

Based on the restoration AU by Nev_284

Ao3 link

The stars shimmer and sing, their celestial voices echoing across the vast expanses of countless universes. These distant orbs of light, bound by premonitions far beyond the grasp of mortal understanding, observe all with an eternal gaze. They witness the genesis and culmination of countless narratives, peering into dimensions unknown, silently bearing witness to the myriad forms of existence as they wane or clash.

To a star, death is an intriguing enigma. It is a certainty, an inescapable truth. Yet, given their enduring lifespans, entire species can vanish before their own light dims. Thus, the cycles of rise and fall among different beings seem particularly enchanting to them.

The stars, being passive observers, do not intervene. They watch with focused interest, drawn to the most captivating lives. Some existences are tragically brief, their lifespan far too fleeting for a star’s taste. In response, the stars revisit these moments repeatedly, delving into every tiny detail with unending curiosity. They seek new lives, hoping to find entertainment that rivals their previous fascinations.

Occasionally, they discover a being that seems perfect, embodying all that they yearn for. Their radiance intensifies with delight as they watch over this newfound source of intrigue. However, as with all things, the light of even the most compelling subjects eventually fade, either through the being’s own choices or external forces.

Being a star can be a solitary existence, yet it holds profound fulfillment when they encounter another who shares their quest for entertainment. A star’s role is to observe indefinitely, to theorize, but never to intervene. For any action would irrevocably alter their status.

There is a significant distinction between those who merely observe and those who actively shape events. While stars continue their silent vigil as their chosen entertainments perish, those who influence events face different fates. They may become stars themselves or gain the power to effect even greater changes.

Stars are significant, and those that fall are particularly notable. How can one craft entertainment without experiencing the thrill of watching other examples unfold? Thus, falling stars, whether fleeting or enduring, hold the potential to impact the very fabric of the worlds they long to create.

Their twinkling intensifies as their chosen entertainment returns, hoping it will persist for a while longer. Yet, uncertainty looms. Their universe—and their very existence—might be obliterated, leaving them to witness their own inevitable end. Stars remain solitary, awaiting the birth of new worlds, even as they brace for the inevitable destruction that will come.

Because once it’s gone, it’s gone…

Isn’t it?

-. . -..- -

Ever knowing, the Axolotl remains patient until the trial completes, the vents unfolding at a rapid rate. It sees everything, from the faintest tremor of atoms to the profound sorrow of the tiniest creatures. It senses the devastation sure to follow anything that lives for too long, as life itself has an expiration date. It hears the many followers it has accrued since its creation.

Yet, the Axolotl waits, fully aware of what is to come.

A creature appears before it, its yellow hue clashing with the Axolotl’s pink. This entity, composed of three interlocking facets, is a demon in fragmented form. Blocks build upon themselves, the form slowly repairing itself as much as it can. Yet the blue fissure prevents that from becoming a possibility. It threatens to completely tear him apart. The gash glows, casting a brilliant light into the Axolotl's gaze.

The Axolotl had been awaiting yet another confrontation with the demon. The terms of their arrangement were straightforward: the demon must prove that he can make a change. The Axolotl ensured that the demon’s memories were kept safe until he would inevitably return back. The sheer amount of defeats this singular demon has endured is simply beyond comprehension.

What usually resulted in the demon threatening the Axolotl was instead replaced with simple silence. The demon floats there, his singular eye vacant and void as he stares at nothing. The Axolotl finds this unsettling.

“I wonder,” the Axolotl muses, staring down at its friend, “have you shifted your perspective? Your melancholy speaks volumes.”

The stars above twinkle with more intensity the more distressed the demon looks, as if personally gaining amusement from his pain. They observe the scene silently, refusing to budge as they stay forever detached from the world that they observe.

The demon remains mute at first, still lost in contemplation. But he eventually looks up, staring at the Axolotl in complete and utter defeat. “Why?”

The demon’s singular, enormous eye fixates on the Axolotl. Overall, he looks rather panicked, the one with an all seeing eye having quite the dilated pupils, making the already black irises even larger than usual. The demon is bewildered, lost on exactly what he is continuously seeing.

“Hmm?”

“Why do they always help the others? I don’t…I don’t get it.”

The Axolotl nods knowingly, not quite expecting such a question but welcoming it nonetheless. If this inquiry is a step forward toward the demon’s salvation, he deserves to have answers to his questions without ridicule. The Axolotl is not so cruel to deny him, at least in this moment.

“Humans are capricious beings, driven by the innate kindness of their hearts. Why do you wonder? Bill, do you finally understand your mistake?”

“No.”

The Axolotl pauses, staring at the triangular demon with a measure of confusion. Given his preoccupation with the Pines family’s unity and their mutual support, why does he fail to recognize the truth before him? For a being with practically infinite knowledge, the naivety is shocking, even to the Axolotl.

“They will always aid those they cherish, even amid conflict. Expecting a different outcome after all this means you are only avoiding reality. Do my lessons hold no value to you? How many trials must you go through? This was meant to help, yet your previous convictions persist. Have my lessons truly been an unfounded attempt to assist you?”

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to make different choices if I don’t have my memories!” The demon snaps out, immediately averting his eyes away from the Axolotl. “I don’t know if I would make the right choices even if I had them.”

He descends slightly, his floating form lowering a few feet. He cannot go far, the large gash preventing him from leaving the domain of the Axolotl. For it keeps him alive as long as he remains here. That is the deal, one forged in blood and flames. And if one were to go against their end, either side, devastation is sure to follow. Ruin would be inevitable.

Although, the Axolotl doubts anything like that will happen, especially not at the rate the demon seems to improve. It will be at least a thousand more incarnations before he even thinks about betraying the Axolotl, that much it is sure of.

“There is one way to find out. Your chances are not exhausted just yet. We can always attempt this again.”

“Do I have a choice?” the demon inquires with a hint of irony. He chuckles to himself at what he believes is a wonderful joke about the situation. The Axolotl remains silent, simply deciding to not encourage the demon with unneeded humor.

“No.”

“Amazing,” the demon responds bitterly. He crosses his arms, still in the midst of attempting to figure out the humans as best he can. The idea of them and their actions being far too complex then he wishes to admit to himself. However, it is not like it matters. He will not remember this conversation, therefore any of his ideas are lost until he no longer needs them. “Can I…stay for a few minutes? I want to think.”

The Axolotl ponders his request for a moment. It is a rare moment for the demon to actually think about his actions, at least reflecting thoughtfully. There has been an insurmountable amount of times where the demon has physically attempted to harm the Axolotl after all. This moment of introspection is unusual for the celestial being.

The Axolotl nods, granting the demon his request. It is a minor concession, not at all difficult to do, especially if the demon continues to be composed. So they sit there, the stars twinkling as they silently observe the two beings float in the infinite void silently.

Bill feels as though they are laughing at him and his misfortune.

-. . -..- -

Stanford Pines stumbles through the forest of Gravity falls with the ungainly grave of a sea creature stranded on land. Clutching his journal tightly, he scrawls hastily, desperately attempting to scribble all that he can into the pages. He is desperate to document every small detail, an indication of a mind that works far too well for its own good. Though his search for the Hide Behind had grown cold, Ford is not one to easily surrender.

He tracks the fleeting shadows, keeping a close eye on what is just beyond his eyesight. There are a few quick close calls, ones that cause him to swivel in the direction of his elusive target. But it does not work, his efforts are in vain. This creature, this unknown monstrosity, is beyond Ford’s reach and he knows that.

Driven by his ego, Ford presses on. He ignores how the terrain becomes far more dangerous. The path twists and turns, pulling him in every direction to throw him off. By the time he realizes that the Hide Behind has vanished, it is far too late to turn back now. This is an adventure, one he refuses to let go of just because he has lost his way. The adventure has become an obsession, and Ford’s egoistical brain will ensure he sees it until the end.

Seemingly hours go by until he is face to face with the entrance of a cave. Embracing the unknown, with resolute curiosity, Ford trudges forward, ready to jot down anything of interest. It takes a while, stalagmites obstruct his way. Ford is sure he will have strange cuts and scrapes from the rocking, yet he does not bleed. A stroke of fortune indeed.

But as he goes further into the abyss that is the cave, he notices the engravings. Though the language is unfamiliar, he is determined to learn or eventually. No, he knows he will learn it one day. He hopes he can return in the future, to decipher the ancient writings and learn the secrets of the cave.

He finds a circular carving adorned with eleven symbols. Ten smaller symbol as form a border around a central, prominent triangle—a large eye that seems to follow his every movement if he thinks about it hard enough.

Ford places a hand on the wall, his six fingers tracing over the ancient inscriptions surrounding the strange symbol.

“Triangulum, entangulum,” he murmurs, reading out the words etched in stone. He knows he shouldn’t, he knows he should turn around and get out. But he could learn so much from this if it is a summoning circle, exactly what he hopes it is.

“Meteforis dominus ventium.” Based on the carvings he can bring so much information and insight. The triangle floats above all, the symbols seemingly showing him as an equivalent of a divine presence.

“Meteforis venetisarium!”

The circle begins to glow.

“Egassem sdrawkcab!”

It’s like he feels insurmountable power, the rush of power enveloping him like a blanket.

“Egassem sdrawkcab!”

The air around him crackles with energy and prickles his skin, causing goosebumps to appear. The hair on his arms to raise, as if equally anticipating the end like he is.

“Egassem sdrawkcab!”

Everything in his entire being is telling him to stop, telling him that this is a bad idea. His logical brain warns him of imminent danger if he continues. But, his thirst for knowledge outweighs the fear, and truly is his one failing.

Perhaps not the only one.

“Egassem sdrawkcab!”

He’s nearly finished. Honestly, he’s shocked he is able to pronounce such ancient and arcane phrases. It is almost as if it is fate.

“Egassem sdrawkcab!”

Shrill laughing erupts from nowhere, the cave echoing the noises to the point of pain. Ford grips onto his ears, the pain from the laughs seemingly moving around in his head and refusing to leave. The laughing becomes him, wrapping around his very being and refusing to let go. He winces, falling to the ground, unintentionally kneeling directly in front of the engraving that caused all of this.

And then it stops as quickly as it started. Ford stares at the wall in confusion, completely dazed, uncertain if anything will happen. The cave remains silent. Ford is left with his thoughts, wondering if he was indeed an idiot.

And truthfully, he was.

-. . -..- -

Bill eagerly peers at his windows into Earth, now that the shaman’s spell is finally lifting. It has been far too long since he has last graced the minds of humans. He had anticipated a fool—after all, who else reads words on a cave’s wall? Yet what he finds is someone intelligent, at least by human standards.

Yet he is as much of an idiot as the humans who summoned him previously. An inflated ego overtaking everything, clouding his judgment, allowing the man to not think clearly. While Bill can appreciate a thirst for knowledge, this is utterly hilarious.

He has found the perfect human for him and his plans.

Clever enough to avoid portal radiation, but naïve enough not to betray him. From what Bill can see, the human even thinks that he was meant to read those words, as if he were special.

The notion of being ‘special’ amuses Bill greatly.

Indeed, he is special. He will be the one who causes the Armageddon. He will be the cause of the destruction of his world, as he will be the one who brought it. He will bring Bill and his Henchmaniacs to Earth, paving the way. And if Bill must pretend as if he were destined to do this, he will.

Destiny…it is just a humorous term for foolishness. The future is never set in stone, forever shifting and moving. Even Bill, who is able to many possibilities, is unable to truly see everything that will befall him. The all seeing eye is only as effective as the beholder, Bill being the best wielder.

And if he were to entertain the idea, he can easily be worshiped like the god he should be. Although he is an all powerful demon that is feared by many, he wants to rule his own world that is not collapsing in on itself. Yes, the stability of a new world is key. The Nightmare Realm is great, his child, his creation in its own right. But it’s flawed and failing. He needs a new alternative before he is consumed by the chaotic world of his own design.

And the idea of being a god, even to one, is tempting. Especially with how the human seeming perfected suited to be kneeling at his feet. If all goes well, perhaps Bill will keep him around. A six-fingered human is an oddity, even if the extra digits are nothing to Bill. He has always wanted a pet. If a human worships him enough, it could be a dream.

Stanford Pines…he is truly in for a world of chaos.

“You didn’t visit him?” Pyronica asks, gazing at the window with confusion. Bill looks at her, observing how the fire she wields threatens to burn him if he were not careful. But he is far too observant to let such a small issue affect him.

“It is better to wait.”

“But Bill-“

“Are you doubting me, Pyronica?” Bill questions, his form expanding to attempt to cease her ridiculous ramblings. He doesn’t like people doubting him, much less when it is a mere henchman. “I said we will wait.”

Pyronica averts her gaze, nodding in response. “Of course Bill, you know best.”

“Glad we came to an agreement,” Bill says with a laugh, his form glowing when he does so. “I sure do hate it when people act as if I don’t know what I’m doing.” Bill says, getting back to his normal size before staring her down. “Don’t you agree?”

“Bill I didn’t mean-“

“I suggest you get out of my sight,” Bill says callously, refusing to look at her. The demon nods, even if he cannot see her, before scurrying off to do who knows what. Bill does not care, nor will he ever. He stares at the window into Earth, his excitement growing.

Yes…waiting is the best way to go about this.

-. . -..- -

The Axolotl stares at the scene in growing disappointment. It had hoped that with Bill’s recent personality change after the last loop would carry over into this one, yet he continues down the same broken path. Death and destruction await him, that much is sure. If it continues, so will the loop.

The Axolotl wonders if it is time to put an end to such a farce. If Bill is truly incapable of change, what is the point of him using the Axolotl’s power for his own gain? It makes no sense. It just seems meaningless in the end.

Yet the Axolotl hesitates to bring it to a close.

It hates to admit it, but cheering for the demon’s growth has become a source of entertainment. It truly would not know what to do with itself if the loop would end. Would the Axolotl find another being to somewhat toy with? Perhaps one easier to manipulate?

It truly does not know.

The Axolotl can only hope that Bill will learn eventually. There are a few small changes to this cycle so perhaps this will be one of the most interesting. Perhaps it will launch a change in the demon.

But the Axolotl is getting ahead of itself, needing to wait for the two key players to interact for the first time once more. The stars overhead twinkle in agreement, waiting to see the story untold for their own sick satisfaction.

>> 02

Masterlist

#lowlylux #fanfiction #gravity falls ford #gravity falls bill #gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #billford #bill x ford #book of bill #the book of bill #bill cipher #restoration au #nev 284 #archive of our own #ao3

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