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linkspooky · 2 years ago

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JUJUTSU KAISEN, CHAPTER 219 THOUGHTS.

Corruption arc Megumi truthers unite!!! In all serious the recent despair and tragedy Megumi is facing is a part of a long-running arc Gege has set up for him from the very beginning. A character arc does not necessarily mean positive growth, it just means a change in who the character was at the start of the story. A corruption arc then follows the change between a place of moral strength to moral weakness. So underneath the cut let’s see how Megumi’s changed from the start of the story, and where he may be going in the future.

1. Harboring Jade

Megumi is introduced to us as someone who is perhaps, not as completely and totally selfless as Yuji, but someone who has a strict moral code he adheres to. For example, one of his earliest arguments with Yuji is that he doesn’t want to go out of his way to save a prisoner in a reform school who killed a little girl in a car accident. While his thinking is a bit black and white, Megumi also has reasons for thinking this way. In respect to society’s laws this man was being punished. It was also a corpse, and Megumi made the argument that there were two more people in the facility who they also didn’t know was alive or dead yet.

He’s not as altruistic as Yuji, but he’s capable of employing moral reasoning. He knows society has rules, and mechanisms for enforcing them. He also has a point that Jujutsu Sorcerers aren’t superheroes, or even police men, they are there to exorcise curses. It’s an extremely hard job and they have to do it while making tough decisions.

Megumi’s morals are basically this, life is unfair for everyone so people make rules in order to try to create things like justice and fairness. There are institutions created by people, the justice system, and Jujutsu Sorcerers are examples of two such institutions. Megumi’s not a superhero, but obviously he believes you’re supposed to follow these rules, and he’s obligated to do his job to help people by exorcising curses even if he can’t save anyone.

Megumi presents himself as someone more thoughtful and mature for his age, at least in comparison to Yuji and adheres to soceity’s rules. He is also willing to make exceptions to those rules for people like Megumi and Tsumiki when he feels like it’s unfair to them. He’s not so lawful he would kill Yuji just because sorcerer society’s rules demand it, so there’s nuance there.

Afterward stating his motivation is to “selfishly choose who to save”, in that same fight Megumi is not strong enough to force Sukuna to back down enough to heal Yuji’s heart and give him his body back. Not only is Megumi too weak to do it, Sukuna practically tells him that he SHOULD have been stronger than he was currently. If Megumi was able to use his power correctly, then he never would have gotten into that situation where Yuji had to die.

This imbues Megumi with a sense of helplessness he’s practically felt all of his life. Starting with his father, when Toji abandoned him and Tsumiki practically to the wolves he offered Megumi no choice. Megumi was helpless before the whims of the adults in his life. Afterwards, the adult that came and should have been his salvation by keeping him away from the hands of the Zen’in Clan Gojo Satoru was really just there to recruit him for a job

Megumi didn’t want to become a sorcerer in the first place, he expresses that in his flashback in the fight against the Death Painting Bros, but the choice Gojo offers him is not really a choice. Choose to become a sorcerer under Gojo, or choose to become a sorcerer under the Zen’in. Rock and hard place.

Megumi still makes his choice anyway, believing if he becomes a sorcerer under Gojo’s wing, even if he’s miserable Tsumiki will be happy. Yorozu’s brief dialogue where she’s pretending to be Tsumiki even seems to indicate that Tsumiki never knew about sorcerers, or why Megumi often frequently disappeared with Gojo to go exorcises curses, so Megumi might have cut her out of that part of his life entirely.

(This is just a guess based on the fact that ancient sorcerers who take over modern day bodies have all access to their memories. Yorozu could probably access Tsumiki’s memories and see that Tsumiki had no idea about anything sorcery related in Megumi’s life).

So, that’s the deal Megumi made. He sacrifices himself and his own freedom in part so Tsumiki can live a normal life, or at least one where she won’t be mistreated by the Zen’in. As stated above Megumi’s not exactly altruistic so he didn’t become a sorcerer to save random strangers, it’s clearly for Megumi and yet the one person he’s supposed to protect gets cursed.

Sorcerers fight curses. Megumi became a sorcerer, not only that he has one of the strongest technique in the Zen’in, and he’s been mentored by Satoru Gojo for most of his life. This is the one thing he should have been able to protect Tsumiki from, and she gets cursed anyway. Megumi is helpless again and scrambling to understand what happened, all we knew was that we didn’t know anything.

Satoru is a lot of things but it’s not like he wouldn’t try to help search for a cure for Tsumiki’s condition, which means with Megumi’s abilities and Gojo’s knowledge they still couldn’t do a single thing to help Tsumiki’s condition. However, Tsumiki isn’t dead so even though he’s lost his reason, Megumi still has that single thread of hope she might come back again if he finds the curse that made her sleep and exorcised it. Megumi still has a reason to be a sorcerer.

Not only is he too weak to save his sister, Megumi’s continually reminded of the fact despite only choosing to selfishly save others, he’s still struggling against much stronger opponents.

He’s the first to go down against Hanami. He’s half of the reason Sukuna rampaged in Shibuya, due to his decision to summon Mahoraga in a suicide attack. It’s not like Megumi’s getting lazy with his training or anything, or stagnant, after Gojo gives him that advice that removes his mental block Megumi is making steady progress with the Ten Shadows technique every time he fights and he’s the first student besides Yuta we are shown figuring out how to use a domain technique.

No matter how many blessings or advantages Megumi is born with, or how much progress he makes on his techniques though, it’s not enough. Megumi’s victories are quickly followed by defeats that undercut him. However, he still has that spider’s thread of hope in both Yuji and Tsumiki as a reason to keep going into the culling games after the disaster that was Shibuya. Megumi in particular, unlike Yuji doesn’t give up or become suicidal because Gojo is in the box and they’re in a desperate situation, he recruits Yuji and helps get everyone mobilized BECAUSE he has Tsumiki in the culling games.

Megumi’s phrasing here is interesting, he asks Yuji to save him, but at the same time he says what he needs Yuji’s help with is letting Tsumiki leave the culling game. Therefore, saving Tsumiki is saving Megumi.

Which is pretty much true, the spider’s thread that’s been dangling over him the entire time was the small chance that Tsumiki might wake up from her coma. She’s awake now, in a dangerous place yes, but awake. Megumi might have failed in Shibuya but now he can serve his purpose. We have an entire culling games arc, where basically everyone, Yuji, Megumi, Yuta, Hakari, Maki they all come together for the common goal of saving Tsumiki but, Megumi’s small progress is dashed again.

Sukuna takes Megumi’s boy because he feels helpless. Gojo’s logic is that if you’re strong enough you should be able to protect the people you love, that he could make Tsumiki happy if he became a sorcerer but once again all of that amounts to nothing. What makes Megumi’s soul break is the realization of how helpless he is in this situation. Tsumiki’s body is taken over and there was nothing he could do from the start.

Then, Sukuna takes Megumi’s body and he becomes even more helpless, quite literallly because he cannot control his body or stop Sukuna from using his body to hurt the ones he loves. Even his paltry resistance in cutting off Sukuna’s cursed energy while fighting Yuji goes away after Sukuna suppresses Megumi with the bath.

Then, what’s the end of this? Megumi’s going to give up and the final boss will be Sukuna in Megumi’s body? I’d argue the opposite actually. Sukuna thinks that using Megumi’s body to kill his own sister will stifle his resistance permanently, but it’s more likely he’s pushed Megumi off the edge. Megumi’s corruption arc has reached a point of no return now.

2. Broken Jade

Megumi has parallels with two characters who went through similar corruption arcs, the first Toji, the second Geto. We only meet Toji when he’s at his lowest point, but we watch Geto’s corruption arc practically as it happens.

Geto’s corruption arc follows the same pattern that Megumi’s follows now. They both start out as lawful, they have stated morals that they believe they follow. For both of them I’d point out there morals are external as well. Megumi believes that society enforces justice, Geto believes that society should protect the weak therefore the role of sorcerers is to exorcise curses to protect non-sorcerers.

Now, a common misconception with Geto is that he hated humans and non-sorcerers all along, or that he never believed in helping the weak and his corruption arc just revealed his true self. I’d argue against that, because the whole point of a corruption arc is a change in a character’s morals, if Geto never believed in anything he said from the start then there’s no real change there.

Besides, is there such a thing as internal goodness or internal wrongness? Does some internal goodness, or internal wrongness, negate the choices you make on the outside or what you decide to do? The idea that Geto was corrupt deep down inside or he was always corrupt really simplifies his character. I do believe that yes, Geto was following society’s laws therefore his moral reasoning was external rather than internal, but that doesn’t negate the fact his belief was that society’s laws protected the weak and therefore by doing his duty he was doing something good. If he tries to follow the laws every day, if he acts responsible and lawful than isn’t that an extension of his true self. Kurt Vonnegut says we are what we pretend to be.

I’d argue Megumi and Geto argue under the exact same principle of “Fairness”. They are seeking a more fair society, so they follow society’s laws at first because the created laws of human beings are supposed to make the world a fairer place. Megumi of course, makes exceptions against those rules right away when he wants to save people like Yuji. However, Geto himself seems to make exceptions like that too when he decides to defy orders with Gojo in order to help Riko Amanai.

Geto’s met with the same realization that Megumi is. The moment where it counted the most, he’s unable to protect someone he said he would protect. Not only that, he is supposed to be the strongest, but his strength isn’t enough.

That’s when the Jade broke.

kaigyoku “壊玉” (hidden inventory) and gyokusetsu “玉折” (premature death) both use 玉 could be translated as “jade” and have metaphorical meaning. while kaigyoku means “harboring jade” and could be a reference to idiom: “被褐懐玉” (covering jade with brown clothes/rags), about being poor/not gifted but has a high skill; gyokusetsu means “broken jade”, about a talented person who died young before their time.

i know hidden inventory could refer to the spv but when gege dropped this panel, i was just so convinced that getou was the jade (along with gojou, a pair of jade) but in the end the jade broke, inciting getou’s first death of his virtuous being as a sorcerer and leading him to a new path, far from he was meant to be.

The laws Geto believes in are external, and now Geto has bore witness to the fact that the laws he’s believed in all of his life are not fair. It’s not just Riko Amanai’s death, he’s also shown repeatedly scenes where young sorcerers are butchered far between their times. I’d argue Geto comes to two separate revelations, number one that the laws in society are tilted against sorcerers because sorcerers are expected to continually sacrificed themselves and die young to protect a public that not only does not have to know about their sacrifices, but sacrifices basically nothing. The second is that Geto always believed that because he was the strongest, he could protect people that are weaker than him.

This is a separate issue that still has to do with Megumi, but basically Jujutsu Society and Gojo Satoru preach a “might makes right” philosophy. Geto’s following the laws of Jujutsu Society of course, but he also believes the reason he has to protect people is because he’s strong. It’s the duty of the strong to protect the weak. So, even when he’s being virtuous it comes from a place of being above others. I wouldn’t argue that Geto was always immoral from the very beginning, but rather that he always had a superiority complex towards non-sorcerers. He just no longer believed that he was duty bound to help them.

Anyway, when Geto is shown that “Might makes Right” is wrong, that even as a part of the strongest duo there are times when he is helpless like with Riko, he doesn’t try to cope with this revelation he just doubles down.

What is Geto saying here if not “well, if I had your strength Gojo, I would be able to do X, Y and Z.” Geto still believes in the philosophy that might equals right, and if he just had more power, he’d never be subjected to the helplessness that he faced when he failed to save Riko Amanai. Notice, immediately after that scene Gojo says the line, “but it looks like just me being strong isn’t enough. I can onyl save those who are prepared to be saved.”

In the light novel the prose describes Geto as becoming a curse because he was too sincere and therefore unable to deviate from his true self. Gojo’s words here are admitting that sometimes strength isn’t enough, he’s adapted where Geto hasn’t.

There’s lots of parallels between Megumi and Geto. They both have incredibly strong inherited techniques, their cursed techniques involve summoning things to fight for the, they both have black coloring and are associated with the yin aspect of their partnership with another main character (who’s colored white, or I guess pink in Yuji’s case).

Gojo’s quote “Love is the greatest curse of them all” could apply to both of them at this point. Gojo unleashes the curse named Geto on the world because he can’t exorcise the friend he loves, and Geto also is too sincere in his feelings and emotions he can’t deviate away from them and therefore from a virtuous person a curse is born.

Megumi is at a similiar crossroads as Geto. He’s been shown that the external laws that were supposed to protect his sister were false, he’s even lost his original motivation and reasoning that Geto has. This is something they were always vulnerable to, because like I said they rely on external things. Megumi doesn’t fight for himself, Geto doesn’t fight for himself, they do everything for people around them.

Another part of Geto’s existential crisis is him asking, why he’s going through the horriblejob of becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer. If he can’t protect Riko, if the public is ungrateful, then who exactly is he doing all of this for?

Megumi’s at this stage right now, if everything he did was for Tsumiki, then with Tsumiki gone, even if he frees himself from Sukuna what is the point? Who is he enduring this suffering for? Who should he use his power for? This is where we get to the Toji parallels, when Toji lost Megumi’s mother, his response is to become completely amoral.

Literally, all he had after that was to try to discredit and crush the Jujutsu Society that turned its back on him. The only thing left was just gaining power for its own sake. So, not only is Geto’s reponse to just always try to double down and get more power, Toji when robbed of everyone he wanted to protect also just tried getting stronger for no purpose or reasons. Then used that strength to kill two seventeen year olds, and slaughter a teenage girl.

Megumi’s bad ending has always been Toji. Maki already became a Toji clone with the loss of her sister, and went on a massacre (though the story has yet to say that mass murder is bad for her in that case...). Remember, despite Gege’s massive crush on him Toji is not a good person. You don’t want to be like him!

Not only does he run the risk of being Toji, Megumi has also been taught all his life that getting stronger is the solution tohis problem, if he’s strong he can protect the people he wants to protect, because he’s strong and has the ten shadows technique he has worth. In a way Megumi always believed it, the same way Geto did, that might makes right. In fact, he was borderline about to kill a girl in the culling games just for betraying him, and because he saw her as a weak person and literally the only thing that held him back was the idea Tsumiki might disapprove.

Whenever Megumi is put in a corner, he also tends to go berserk with his powers. At those moments he’s drawn like Toji. He’s even drawn like Toji when he exits the bath.

So this is the end result of Megumi’s corruption arc. He’s only ever used his power to protect others until this point, but what happens when there is no one left to protect. Sukuna tells Jogo that what he should have done from the beginning was burn everything in sight rather than try cooperating with other curses. Ishiguro says that true strength is a calamity that disregards everything else. Most likely what we will see is when Megumi regains control of his body, him finally reaching his full potential of strength. He’ll become strong at the cost of everything else. When everything is gone, he’ll have no one left to fight for but himself.

#megumi fushiguro #itadori yuji #tsumiki fushiguro #toji fushiguro #ryomen sukuna #jjk meta #jjk 219 #jjk 219 spoilers #jujutsu kaisen 219 #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #jujutsu akisen 219 spoilers #jujutsu kaisen meta

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