JJK 265: The Role of a Sorcerer
one of the focal points of jjk since the beginning has been the roles and responsibilities of jujutsu sorcerers. it's a question that gets thrown around a lot between different characters: as sorcerers, what is the right way to live? it's a driving force behind many of the major events of the story, and the cause of fragmentation, where different paths could have been taken, but weren't. and in one chapter, yuuji dismantles it all.
as much as i'd love to talk about this when it comes to every character, i picked a few that i think are interesting (to me) and carry a lot of weight throughout the story to discuss, including gojo & geto, megumi, yuuta, and, of course, the man of the hour, yuuji.
Gojo & Geto
the main difference between them right from the start is the way they view their roles as sorcerers, and this fragmentation influences their trajectories going forward, and the trajectory of jjk as a whole.
at the start, geto believes that his role as a sorcerer is to protect non-jujutsu sorcerers. as someone who is strong, he must protect those who are weak, and he must keep those who are also strong in check. he accepts this as his role without much question, and he takes it seriously.
in contrast, gojo thinks that idea is, well, garbage, and he argues with geto about it, calling him self-righteous for thinking that way. where geto focuses his concept of his role on those who are weak, gojo focuses his on those who are strong. his role is simply to be strong. he acts to get stronger and prove that strength.
another place where their opinions diverge in conceptualizing their roles as sorcerers is when it comes to finding meaning in their actions. where gojo doesn't think there needs to be meaning in their actions, geto disagrees.
ultimately, his search for meaning leads to his downfall, as he reaches the conclusion that being a sorcerer is a thankless job, cleaning up after and saving the humans from their uncontrolled cursed energy. he decides that sorcerers are the ones who need protection from humans, because they are subjected to the horrors that humans generate, while those humans live in ignorance.
meanwhile, as gojo matures, he doesn't ditch the idea that strength is what matters as a sorcerer, but he shifts his idea of role to raising a generation of strong sorcerers who can rely on each other. and ultimately, these leads to his downfall too. thoughts on this here under point 1.
regardless, their ideas of their roles are major driving factors of their decisions, and therefore the plot of jjk. their roles are what doom them to their respective fates.
Megumi
megumi has made damn sure we know what he believes his role is. he's a sorcerer, not a hero. he doesn't save people because he has to or because it's the right to do. he saves the people he wants to save. that's all.
he uses his conscience to decide who he wants to save, and that is his decided role.
and this is what dooms him too. his decision to save yuuji is what left him vulnerable to sukuna, and his desire to save tsumiki from the culling games left him open to be manipulated by yorozu, as she pretended to be his sister in order to take advantage of what megumi was willing to do so she could play her own version of the culling games. that shock and hurt is what let sukuna latch onto him so easily, and submerge his soul in the depths of his body.
Yuuta
yuuta decides that his role is to not let others be alone. of course, this is most notable when it comes to gojo, but it's shown throughout jjk0 as well, such as when he refuses to let inumaki go against the curse that geto planted alone.
he also expresses this to yuuji after he fake executes him. he makes sure yuuji knows that he isn't alone in his feelings, and that he's not to blame. empathy is one of yuuta's strongest traits, and he makes it his role.
this is why he is willing to go as far as taking gojo's body, because he knows how gojo has to toss aside his humanity to fight all of these special grade curses (for example, when he used his domain expansions while humans were around despite knowing it would cause damage to them), and he doesn't want him to be alone in his inhumanity.
and while yuuta isn't dead yet, his role has doomed him, because, well...
Yuuji
now we come to yuuji, the sorcerer who shakes this concept to its core in jjk 265.
he's someone who'd decided his role before he even became a sorcerer. he wants to help people, and he wants to guide them to proper deaths.
he also accpets his role as sukuna's vessel, and tries to maintain those two parts of his chosen role simultaneously. however, as we know, he fails to balance being sukuna's vessel and saving people in shibuya (i hesitate to use the word fail because it was not a failure of yuuji's, but i hope you know what i mean).
this causes a shift in his idea of his role, especially once megumi asks for his help in the culling games. he embraces this role as a cog. he will help out fushiguro, he'll help unseal gojo, and then he will die. that is his new role.
quote from yuuji in 265:
until recently, i thought i should simply live to fulfill my role as i understood it. i thought if i died like that, i could at least consider it a proper death. but now, i feel like that's not entirely right.
...
just the tiny fragments of memories that make up a person drifting elsewhere give value to a human life.
...
people aren't tools. we aren't born with any set roles
yuuji completely rejects the idea that people are defined by theid roles at all, whether they are jujutsu sorcerers or not. he sheds his mindset that he needs to help people, or give them proper deaths, or fulfill a role than die in order to be worth something. instead, he accepts the value of his life as a collection of all the things he's experienced and the people he’s known.
and in doing this, he shakes the world of jujutsu kaisen to its core, and creates another crack in the cycle.
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➳ minors / ageless / blank blogs dni ➳ tags: angsty; hurt/comfort; mentions of riko’s death; girl dad suguru; trauma
I have this hc that suguru is a bit sensitive about being a father to his daughters, but it definitely has to with the trauma of riko’s death.
this girl, who he only knew for three days, lingers around him like a ghost. she stands over his shoulder when he first sees Mimiko and Nanako trapped in the cage and whispers in his ear to “take them home”.
she stands over his shoulder when he holds his newborn daughter in his arms, and reminds him to “take her to places, and let her see everything”
sometimes you’ll notice his emotional reactions - like how his eyes brim with tears when his daughters tell him that they love him, or the way his voice breaks whenever he sees them overcome with immense joy. but he holds it all in, keeps everything bottled up because he’s too afraid to release the dam and allow these feelings to drown him out.
however, on one particular father’s day, he finds himself overwhelmed beyond reasoning. maybe it was seeing the multiple hand crafted gifts the twins made him, each girl parceling him present after present like they are trying to return his love tenfold. maybe it was the act of his three year old daughter feeding him pieces of the cupcakes that “she made” together with you, in the same way that suguru mindlessly offers her tidbits of fruit at the dinner table.
he’s finds himself sitting on his bed afterwards, taking in all the love, but he can feel riko by his side. time moves forward but she always stays the same, frozen in her youth. she leans her cheek onto his shoulder and sighs with content as she whispers that “this is how it should be”.
for whatever reason he feels like his immense love for his girls is also the atonement for the one he couldn’t save.
so when you step out of the shower, you’re a little taken aback to find him staring blankly at the floor but are even more surprised when you notice tears streaming down his pretty face.
it’s so rare for him to let go - so, you sit by his side while cradling his cheeks in your palm as you face him towards you. you swipe away the tears and peck against the trail while asking with concern if he’s alright, if he’s upset about anything...
he just reaches for your wrists, his forehead kissing yours as he allows himself to be tenderly held between his past and present. there is so much that he represses, plenty of things that toils around that beautifully vast mind of his. it would take more than these few minutes for him to completely unravel before you, but he deeply cherishes your patience with him.
“I just...” he starts to say, but decides to stick to the most basic answer he can find. “I just don’t realize how much they love me”
“it’s immeasurable,” you coo with a smile, leaving a sweet kiss on the corner of his mouth, “you’re an amazing father, suguru. you would give them the world in the palm of their hands if you could...”
“I’m trying my best,” he exhales with a tiny sniffle but the front of his brows knit together in slight agony, with his memory flashing to when he held out his hand to Riko and tried offering her the very same thing.
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