#this entire chapter is a flashback

[degenerateshinji]

tragic backstory when fujimoto

[nyaagolor]

Knowing now that Krauss was on a business trip from the time Natsuhi was given Lion until after Lion's "death" and has No Idea about Lion makes the entire situation uproariously funny to me because it implies one of three things:

Everyone assumed Krauss was so obedient to / scared of Kinzo that he would accept the situation without question, so they just didn't bother telling him because they didn't want to deal with him until he got back

Kinzo and Genji had so little faith in Krauss' intelligence that they figured they could just convince him that Lion was his Actual Biological Child and that Natsuhi had just been hiding a hidden pregnancy for the past 9 months

Genji and the other servants were so busy dealing with Kinzo's grief and Everything Else that they just Forgot

[last-hourglass]

Mercy killing.

Got possessed by the art demons again and they demanded I draw the most Fucked Up event that occurs in the Bad Future of Last Hourglass

[defeateddetectives]

still absolutely baffling that these panels are amongst the closest things we get to third person limited matoba seiji pov WHAT WAS THE REASON!?!?!?!?!?!

[omg-ame-chan]

i read mizu5.

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[mushroompollution]

Chapter 45: Queen of Hurts

previous chapters: Sablier Arc Masterpost(35-42) || 43 || 44

read the manga: imgur || mangaread (ad warning)

As the heroes make their way back through the woods, a powerful earthquake shakes the ground, bringing trees and branches crashing around them. Oz immediately recognizes the tremor, and the feeling it causes inside him, as the same thing that had happened in Sablier.

The Sealing Stone they had gone through so much triuble to find and protect

was broken, and the Headhunter is back.

Elliot tells Gilbert that the other siblings are all pretty pissed about it, but he's happy for his adopted brother. He asks Gil what it was like to form a Contract with Raven, and we get a fun little flashback within our flashback.

After entering the total darkness of the family's Abyss Gate, Gilbert is tangled in chains that bind his arms and legs. Raven strikes him, leaving a bloody wound on his neck, as it speaks to him. Raven reminds Gilbert that he's tried, and failed, to form a Contract with it already. But he was just a child then, and had wandered into the Gate mostly out of curiosity. This time, Gilbert grabs those chains that bind him, steels his gaze, and demands to form a Contract.

This time, Raven obliges, and says that, once again, it will be bound to Gilbert's left hand. A statement that surprises Gil.

And then...

Gilbert apologizes suddenly for not letting Elliot have a chance to make the Contract as a legitimate Nightray successor. Which of course, pisses Elliot off. He says he doesn't need Raven, he will support their family in his own way. That's why, he insists, Gilbert must do his part as Raven's Contractor-- and as his big brother.

Their conversation is interrupted by frantic banging on Gilbert's door.

As Leo tells him the Headhunter has struck again, the scene changes.

Vincent and Ada Vessalius are on a date, walking through a beautiful park as they also discuss the Headhunter. Ada says she's worried about Vincent and his brothers, and Vincent cups her face and pulls her close as he tells her not to worry. It's all very rosy, there's three pages of Ada trembling and blushing.

Ada asks if that's why Elliot hates Gil so much, and Vincent explains that it's a little more complicated than that. Gilbert was worried if he was the next target, those around him would get get killed again. But Elliot convinced himself that Gil left out of fear.

He calls Elliot stupid, and Ada looks up at him with a pitying look that makes him sick.

yeah, Vince is a pretty awful guy.

anyway

over at Pandora Headquarters, Oz has locked himself in his bedroom. Gilbert finds Alice moping outside his door, and drags her away to give him some space and rest.

It's been a week since they visited that mansion. And Oz has been too depressed to get out of bed.

Alice seems confused by the question, but finally says that it would have been pointless for Oz to kill Marie back then. Gil asks what she means, and Alice thinks a moment, and finally says she doesn't really know, but it pissed her off.

Gilbert pats her on the head and thanks her anyway.

[eruhamster]

hua cheng is insane. imagine you have a gay awakening at 10 years old where you nearly die and get saved by a guy a few years older than you who's so hot and fancy and magical-looking it makes you decide to worship him and not just your entire life, but your entire afterlife is spent trying to be as perfect as possible so you can marry the guy one day. 800 years of looksmaxxing and perfecting your life until you get the chance. insane levels of commitment

[ruinreads]

sorry hot take or smth but this's a man who has been looking for clues of his friend's death for a decade and holding a grudge and dragging around living corpses of at least 2 former order members for that purpose, he is just barely hiding that he's not normal, like i feel he wouldn't just nonchalantly accept this? like where did all the intensity and gravitas go? point no. 46339 of why trios just don't sit right w me. some1 is always shafted in some way.

[sophiethewitch1]

what did you read/watch to get into the batfam? my only knowledge about them is from you and other fics

i mean i sorta just picked through most of the rebirth stuff at my leisure, but id definitely recommend reading/watching death in the family because its pretty crucial to the characters and their dynamics

[toastedsmoreo]

I gotta be less terminally online bc every time I think about jjk’s ending I get annoyed

[cosmicrhetoric]

wano is so good tf

[coridallasmultipass]

.

[gentil-minou]

how do this chapters keep getting longerrrrr

[aralana765]

AND NANOWRIMO IS COMPLETE 50,131 WORDS!!!!!

[tmntkiseki]

Now that I have the first chapter of Rest in Red finalized and posted, ideas for the remaining six chapters in terms of plot, character interactions, and structure are flowing a lot easier. (Seriously, it's never middles or endings that are the hardest for me, but beginnings.)