#what on earth do you mean

[lawboy-bloodfreak]

“Supernatural is well liked by certain kinds of people”

[theburdenofresponsibility]

Harry Prince and the Philosopher's Stone - Chapter 4 - Into The Badgers' Den

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read on AO3 | word count: 3,096

--

It’s only a moment before the noise starts back up. One quick pause of pin-drop silence and then people are gasping, yelling, cheering.

The whole yellow table jumps to their feet, yelling out in victory like they won a great prize. It’s… not really an experience Harry knows how to feel about. While the tables cheer for every new student within their ranks, this is something else and Harry isn’t sure how to react under this attention.

A glance at the professor over his shoulder, as she lifts the hat from atop his head, gains him a reassuring smile. And so Harry pushes to his feet and shuffles his way to the celebrating table. Some students shuffle around and Harry drops himself in the nearest vacant seat. The fact that Hannah is close enough to talk to, should he need, is something of a reassurance.

When the noise starts to die down, Harry looks back up to the top of the hall, face flaming. The teacher Harry assumes to be the headmaster is already looking at him, an expression Harry can’t understand on his face. But then the man is smiling and pushing himself to his feet to call for quiet. 

Reluctantly, all the students settle down, though a glance suggests that the other tables are a little put-upon that Harry didn’t end up with them. It’s a dizzying thought. But the rest of the names go by easily enough, all getting sorted into their houses with suitable applause. Zabini is last and ends up in Slytherin, much to his pleasure if the smirk he wears is anything to go on.

After the last bout of celebration that brought drew to an end, the probably-headmaster rises once again to his feet and surveys the hall with a wide smile. 

“Welcome!” he says. “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you”

Harry and Hannah exchange bemused glances, quickly distracted by the appearance of food beneath their noses. Platters are piled high with any and every food Harry could possibly think of; he doesn’t know where to start!

“This is all mental,” he breathes to himself, overwhelmed by everything around him.

An older student smiles at him and leans across the table to stage-whisper.

“That’s what makes Hogwarts so amazing.”

Harry laughs a little nervously before glancing up towards the professors’ table. A breath steels his nerves and then he turns back to the person who addressed him.

“Is he… a little mad?”

“Professor Dumbledore?” they ask, dishing themselves up roasted carrots and then offering the serving spoon to Harry. “A little. He’s a genius, though, and a great Headmaster. Everyone loves him, and you get used to his eccentricities.”

“Ah,” Harry nods with a grin. “Yeah, okay.”

Another older student nudges at Harry’s side, catching his attention and then gesturing towards the hesitant chatter amongst the other first years.

“You’ll want to start chatting with the other first years,” he says with a knowing smile. “It’s always a little easier to get friendly with people on the first day, when everyone’s feeling a little shy.”

“So I can’t be friendly with you?” Harry jokes.

The boy huffs a laugh, spearing a potato with his fork.

“You can, I’m Cedric.”

“Harry.”

“I caught that, funnily enough,” the other boy grins, making Harry flush. 

“Ah, yeah,” he manages, ducking his head and busying himself with piling food onto his own plate. “Usually I go by Harry Prince, though so… That hasn’t really happened before.”

When he dares a glance back, Cedric offers him a sympathetic smile. 

“Well, you handled it great – I nearly fainted during my sorting just as it was, I was so nervous.”

“Really?”

“Really,” he laughs, nudging Harry again; “so try talking with everyone else – I promise they’re nervous too, and will want to make friends.”

Harry offers a last shy smile, before sucking up his courage and turning to the other first years, noticing for the first time how all their robes are solely black. Maybe they’ll have to hand them in to someone to get them changed to their house colours?

“I thought I might’ve been put in Ravenclaw,” one of the boys is saying. “At least, that’s what me mum thought, cause I were doing real well in school before this.”

Another kid grins at him.

“That’s so cool! Do you think that’s why you were up there longer than me?”

“Well, duh,” the first returns with a teasing smile.

“You weren’t gonna be anywhere other than Hufflepuff, Kev,” a girl with long black hair leans in to tell the second boy, before turning to Hannah and another girl. “Y’know, Kevin used to just come home with stray animals… all the time. Should’ve started his own shelter.”

“That’s cute,” the red-head next to Hannah smiles shyly.

“You know each other, then?” Hannah asks the dark-haired girl.

“Hmm? Yeah – live in the same town, don’t we?”

Kevin nods back at her.

“I’m stuck with her.”

“Oi!” She huffs, good-naturedly.

It makes Harry’s chest ache, longing for his friends back home already.

“So… are you all raised magic or…?” he finds himself asking, genuinely curious.

Hannah grins at him, nodding although he already knew about her.

“Me and Megan were, yeah,” Kevin says, and Harry makes a mental note of his friend’s name.

The red-head nods, and the boy next to her grins a gap-toothed smile.

“I was half-raised magic. Mum’s a muggle, but dad made sure I knew all the basic stuff,” he agrees.

“I wasn’t,” one of the last first years says, not meeting anyones eye. “My family isn’t magic”

Everyone, seemingly satisfied with the answers already given, turns to Harry.

“What about you?” Megan asks, waving three skewered green beans at him with her fork. “I haven’t heard about you at all!”

“Oh, uh,” Harry flushes. “I was raised with muggles, but by a wizard.”

Unconsciously, his eyes dart to Snape where he’s whispering to the Professor that did the sorting. Harry realises, suddenly, that he’ll actually be able to put faces to the names of the friends his dad talks about. He also realises how weird it’s going to be knowing the gossip about the teachers – though Snape is adamant he doesn’t gossip, that is exactly what he does.

“So, um,” he continues, turning his gaze quickly back to the group, “I don’t actually know a lot about magic, but I’ve known that I have it for a while, y’know?”

“And you’re friends with muggles?”

Harry manages a bitter-sweet smile. It’s only been a day and he feels the distance between them already.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Neat,” a boy who hasn’t spoken yet is saying. “What’s everyone’s names, by the way? I’m Justin.”

The group goes round introducing themselves and Harry finds out that the boy who might have been a Ravenclaw is called Ernie, the red-headed girl is called Susan, and the boy with the gap-tooth smile is Wayne, and Roger is the last and most quiet of the lot. Including Harry that makes nine Hufflepuff first-years, which doesn’t strike him as a lot considering this must be about a quarter of his whole year-group and this school supposedly holds the whole population of school-aged British witches and wizards. Harry’s year group was larger than this in his primary school, and that was just for Cokesworth.

Still, though, there’s enough of them that they manage to bounce through conversations that aren’t actually that awkward. Harry likes these kids, he thinks. He definitely likes Hannah, at least, and he’s very glad he got to get to know her a bit already on the train so he feels less alone in this group. He just hopes Neville and Zabini are making friends at their own tables, though he can’t quite seem to spot them through the crowds of students even as the good food and late hour starts to subdue them. 

It seems that the teachers seem to notice that the students are finishing up their desserts – Harry had a pretty large piece of treacle tart that he absolutely didn’t have room for, but that was unequivocally worth it – and are growing tired. After a dip in the chatter, the headmaster pushes himself back to his feet once more, all eyes swinging round to him. 

With final words of warning from the Professor and a, pretty confused on the part of the first years, rendition of the school song, students were dismissed to file out of the hall.

“You guys’ll want to follow Gabriel, he’ll be the prefect who’ll show you to the common room,” Cedric leans over to tell Harry before hurrying off to catch up with the other older students waving him along.

Gabriel turns out to be a tall, stocky boy who seems to be practically vibrating with excitement to be giving them the tour. House pride, Harry assumes, but his sleepy mind and heavy limbs aren’t nearly as on the ball as their guide’s.

“Right, hi, firsties!” the guy beams. “You’re lucky, it’s really not far to the Hufflepuff common room so you’ll be settling in to rest in no time.”

Harry and the rest follow after him, docile from exhaustion, as the prefect continues on.

“Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both have entrances to a tower somewhere, so that’s a lot of stairs for them.”

They descend a set of stone stairs not too far from the entrance to the Great Hall.

“Slytherin’s a bit better since they’re only somewhere in the dungeons, but still not great. Whereas we…”

There are a few turns down corridors before they stop before stacks of huge barrels, each of them that Harry could probably stand up in were they open. In fact, Gabriel mightn’t even have to duck too far to fit through.

“Ha!” the prefect exclaims, throwing them all a grin. “We’re right here.”

He pulls a wand from a pocket in his robe and raises it to one specific barrel.

“Now, pay attention, cause this is how we get in–”

And then he taps the tip of his wand against the wood, making Harry think back, briefly, to his venture into Diagon Alley. It wasn’t all that different from the entrance there, he supposed.

“Hel–ga… Hu-ffle-puff…” Gabriel mutters under his breath to the rhythm of his tapping, a little smile still on his face.

That smile widens as the wood of the barrel lid rolls aside to reveal not the inside of a barrel… but a bustling room full of Hufflepuff students. Even as tired as they are, there are some gasps of awe and surprise as Gabriel ducks into the opening to the space on the other side.

“C’mon!” the prefect coaxes and everyone scrambles to follow him inside.

The space, Harry has to admit as he looks around in awe, is pretty damn amazing. The room is pretty huge, as he figures it has to be to house all of Hufflepuff in their down time, and has beautiful stone-brick walls. The space isn’t cold, though. The room itself forms a large and yet snuggly cluttered circular space. There are tapestries and moving paintings adorning the walls, and shelves upon shelves of books and potted plants. The floor has overlapping rugs, all in various states or wear but feeling beautifully lived in. The furniture, too, looks cushy and inviting. The space is full of plush sofas and armchairs, all piled high with soft-looking cushions and discarded blankets. 

Everything is warmed by the roaring fireplace and further lit by the candles mounted to the walls and cluttered on beautiful wooden side-tables. It gives the room a bright, cosy feel that only accentuates the personality of the mismatched furniture. And, on the other side of the room, is a large glass window taking up most of the wall-space. Light must pour through that in the day to keep all the plants thriving; though, now, all that can be seen is an ocean of night.

Harry glances at Hannah, who seems to be taking this all in with a great deal of awe, too. In fact, all the first years are looking around with a kind of sleepy wonderment as the rest of the house tiredly say their goodbyes and shuffle off to what Harry assumes must be their beds. 

“Welcome to the Hufflepuff common room,” Gabriel grins. “You’ll get the proper speech from our head of house tomorrow morning before breakfast, but this is where you’ll probably spend a lot of your evenings.” He gestures to two wooden doors, one on either side of the room. “Through these are the student dorms – girls on the left and boys on the right. Some of the other houses have preventions against boys or girls going in the wrong dorms, but Hufflepuff doesn’t for reasons you probably don’t care about. Either way we just need to wait for….”

Gabriel trails off, looking around until his eyes fall onto an exhausted looking girl who makes her way over to them. 

“Ah! Tina,” Gabriel grins at her.

Tina, Harry notes, is wearing the same ‘P’ badge attached to her clothes that Gabriel is on his school robes, despite the fact she’s already changed into a pair of soft pink pyjamas. She nods, blinking through evident exhaustion, before turning to their group and putting her hands on her waist.

“Right, hello!” she tries for cheerful. “I’m Tina, and I’m also a Hufflepuff prefect.”

Even through everything, Harry feels a sense of ease with both the prefects. Gabriel and Tina, outwardly, seem to be quite opposite. Gabriel is a tall, lanky boy with dishevelled, dirty blonde hair and a dusting of freckles who is vibrating with energy and excitement, smile wide enough to show both rows of his teeth. Tina, on the other hand, is a plump girl with beautiful ochre skin and wide downturned eyes who seems a lot more calm, at least right now, and wears a much more subtle smile. Despite all that, they both feel oddly approachable and friendly. That’s probably, thinking about it, how they both ended up both in Hufflepuff and as the prefects greeting the first years.

“Tina’s gonna show the girls to their room. Just cause we can go into the girls area, doesn’t mean we do so for no reason.”

The boys all nod. That’s fair enough. 

“Right, girls,” Tina announces sleepily, waving a hand over her head, “to bed! This way.”

The girls and guys wave a quick goodbye before they trail after Tina and the boys are led to the other door by Gabriel. The hallway behind is is simple and quaint, with doors at various intervals on either side, each with a name plate dictating which yeargroup’s dorms lie beyond. It’s the second door on the right with a sign proclaiming ‘1st Years’.

Behind this door is yet another, much shorter corridor. There are five doors branching off this corridor, though only two have nameplates on currently. At the end of the corridor, almost stretching from the ceiling to the rug that runs along the floor, is a canvas of a greying, red-headed wizard sat up a chess board.

“Ah!” the painting greets. “Evening boys.”

“That’s Lucien,” Gabriel introduces. “He was a Seer who attended Hufflepuff… was it three hundred years back, sir?”

“Three hundred and four,” the man nods agreeably, stretching his legs out.

“He’s sort of security for these dorms, but he wanders off from time to time.”

“Is an old man not allowed friends?” the painting teases in the background.

“You’ll be in these dorms for your years at Hogwarts – the sign will be changed between the years to match what year you are in when you return. This’ll be your home for as long as you’re here, so take care of it!

“That door at the end–” he gestures “--is your shared bathroom space. You can check that out in the morning. For now your cases have been put in your respective rooms. Feel free to debate which beds you all get, but they should all be about the same.

“Have a good night, guys! You’ll need to be up for half past six tomorrow to meet Professor Sprout in the common room.”

With that, the older boy lets himself back out of their corridor and off to his own room. For a moment all the boys just blink at each other tiredly.

“C’mon then chaps,” Lucien smiles. “Spit spot! To bed with you.”

They startle slightly and then peer at the doors around them. It seems the six of them have been split evenly between two of the four dorm rooms. Harry finds his own name – ‘Harry P.’ it reads, which is a little relieving since being Harry Potter has already been such an overwhelming experience – on a door alongside ‘Roger M.’ and ‘Justin F.’.

The inside of their dorm is as round as the common room, with canopy beds pushed with the heads against the walls somewhat-evenly spaced apart. They hang with muted yellow curtains – a colour that had been seen in abundance in the common room. It seems the whole of Hufflepuff is adorned with yellows, blacks, greys, and earth tones as well as a splash of green from plants. Even here they can’t seem to escape the pop of a new colour. Each bedside table has a potted plant standing proud. 

On the wall directly opposite the door is a little fireplace that makes entering the room warm and cosy.

“Who wants the bed nearest the fire?” Justin asks, yawning as he makes his way over to their cases left neatly to the side of the door.

Roger doesn’t say anything, but shifts a little, eyes darting towards the bed longingly.

“You want it?” Harry asks him and the boy nods.

“If – uh – if no one else does? I get a bit cold at night.”

“Cool with me,” Justin says, tugging out a pair of pyjamas from his case. “You mind if I have the one closest to the door, Harry?”

“No, that’s cool,” he agrees, moving to haul his bed over to the last remaining bed.

They change in comfortable silence before burrowing into the comforters and pillows on their new beds. Eyes heavy and belly full, Harry thinks he won’t last long at all before slipping into the embrace of sleep. Even so, he can’t help muttering out a little:

“This all feels so strange…”

Roger hums in agreement as Justin snorts in amusement.

[bruciemilf]

“Jason would be a firebender” “Jason would be an earthbender” Jason would be a kyoshi warrior, you indefensible fools

[claraoswalds]

#mrs flood who are you: time lord edition

[lelelego]

waiting and waiting

[morganofthewildfire]

I want to make something or write something or answer questions or something agh

Help me please 😭 I’m tired but I’m not and it’s a very odd mood

Maybe questions would be the best - anything you’ve been dying to know about me or my work??? I’m happy to answer 😊

[kagoutiss]

din’s champion

[chawliekin]

and if I said that dennis’ insistence on being the breadwinner/provider despite literally being a pampered princess who dgaf about traditional roles of masculinity in every other regard (aside from ego) is because his mom only stayed with/chose frank for his wealth and dennis is highly aware that he’s difficult to love and unable to show his emotions openly so he has to be contributing something to the relationship materially in order to feel like he’s worth staying for… and mac grew up with parents who were extremely ambivalent to him and eachother so he has to overcompensate by proving his worth at every given moment and seeking praise/validation from people (and religious icons) who will never demonstrate the same amount of dedication to him but he has no idea how else to desperately keep himself close to those he loves other than by eroding himself into something they’ll approve of… dear god they’re both exactly what the other needs — someone who can’t and won’t leave them even if they try — and they don’t even see it…

[ghosted-jazz]

A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth in its orbit. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and bigger than normal

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 119

Another divine twitch chat Au? Another divine twitch chat Au. With a bit of a twist. 

Billy would like to say it is in fact not his fault. It’s really not. Who hits someone with magic they obviously don’t know how to use? Well okay maybe he had done that before, but it’s not like he ever did it around other people where they could get hit! 

But someone was an idiot and now he’s here, as his normal ten-year old self kicking his legs while sitting in the Watchtower as the others argued. Apparently the League thinks he’s been de-aged, which is good as his secret isn’t out. 

The uh, issue is that something about the spell might have um, partially manifested the gods- or as he called them the Mediterranean Magic Men, if only because of how annoyed it made Zeus. Now everyone can see the chat that’s usually only visible to him and apparently it’s concerning. 

He doesn’t see how it’s an issue, Zeus has been silenced for the next hour and Hercules has been dying of laughter for the last three. Oh, wait, it might be from Mercury’s constant attempted flirting with Flash. …Or the fact they’re trying to convince him to commit a crime and he’s honestly down for doing so seeing as he’s a homeless ten year old who is down for getting clairvoyance and super speed for the next thirty minutes in exchange…

[truffletripper]

Finished the Poly Bugs drawing before McLennon so here it is

I like to think they kept that scarf from the movie

[merlins-strawberriesandroses]

The thing no one ever considers while writing up character analyses about Merlin is that. he must have been sooooooo sleepy.

[thepersonperson]

Sukuna’s Loneliness Part 4 (Sukuna’s Negative Rizz)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Some warnings before we start.

1) This analysis deals with sexual topics.

2) I will be mainly using the TCB scans because of their accessibility. Raws are from mangareader(.)to.

3) This was written as of JJK 262 266. (I'm just going to keep updating this until I stop finding things I should've noticed earlier.)

4) The raws broke me in ways you cannot possibly imagine.

(Click images for captions/citations.)

Fighting as Communication

Baki the Grappler. This is a manga where men destroy each other’s bodies as a test of strength. It’s poorly written but the art is terrifying and I love it so dearly. Between fights of extreme violence and body horror the characters eat. And that’s it. That’s the manga.

I bring Baki up because Gege is a huge fan of Fujimoto Tatsuki, the creator of Chainsawman. Fujimoto is a fan of Gege too, but more importantly, he is a huge fan of Itagaki Keisuke, the creator of Baki. (His daughter made Beastars btw.) In a way, this means Jujutsu Kaisen has been influenced by Baki. But that’s not a surprise, a lot of manga is.

Itagaki’s work is so massively influetial on Japanese media that it’s kind of hard to grasp since it’s not as popular overseas. When listening to interviews from various Japanese creators, Baki will often be cited as a major influence. And the thing is, you can tell when a creative has read Baki. There’s nothing quite like it. If you’ve read Baki and consume Chainsawman, you will see its bones everywhere. I feel the same about Jujutsu Kaisen.

The main antagonist in Baki is Yujiro Hanma. He is the strongest creature alive. So much so that he has no one to call a rival. He’s bored. He causes trouble. He kills his wife to motivate his son, Baki into becoming stronger. His son, Baki, who he grooms into becoming a fighter that might beat him in combat one day. Kind of sounds like Sukuna, right?

But that’s not my point here. My focus is how Baki doubles as a discussion about strength and manhood. It’s aggressively bisexual. Men love each other with their fists. Straight up the main character says having sex with women is the same thing as fighting men.

And it just doesn’t stop there. The homoerotic nature of the fights is never shyed away from. Here’s an example of my favorite.

He grabs his balls and compliments their size. That’s pretty gay, right? Well there’s this reanimated prehistoric caveman called Pickle that fights Baki’s brother Jack. And how do they fight? They kiss.

I didn’t call it a kiss. Itagaki did. I didn’t say they melded together. Itagaki did. This mangaka overtly calls attention to the homoerotic nature of men fighting men, and how men communicate their love for each other through violence. And yes, it’s sexual. Itagaki wants you to read it that way.

But sometimes he doesn’t want you to read it that way. Sometimes the fights are a dialogue, an emotional conversation. Like one between father and son.

Itagaki is a master of narrative framing. When he wants you to feel a certain way, you will feel it. He also tells his readers that there’s more to the fights than just fighting.

Those are the ideas that help me see the bones of Baki in other works. Men loving men with violence. Men communicating with men through violence. I see these ideas in Jujutsu Kaisen too.

Jujutsu Communication

I’ve gone over how Yuji commucates with other people on their own terms. And a lot of it is through fighting. A conversation without words, learning how someone works. Yuji is good at using fights as tool of communication.

But he’s not the one who tells you that there’s more to the fights than just fighting. Maki does in her spar with the sumo guy.

Just like Baki. Fighting is a means of communication. Gege has told you that there can be more to the fights than fighting. It's a tool used to understand the self and others.

With that in mind, I want to reexamine a particular fight under the lens of Baki rather than Umineko.

Sukuna vs Gojo

Baki tells you that homoerotic readings of its fights are intentional. If you ask me, this probably stems from historical stances on masculinity and homosexuality in ancient Japan. Men loved men and women differently, but both were ok. That’s how Baki can have a girlfriend and his gay fights. Peak bisexual optimization.

What does Jujutsu Kaisen have to do with this? Well it has been extremely queer friendly. We have a multidue of canonical trans characters, non-binary characters, and other flavors of queer characters not disparaged for their identities, Gojo Satoru included. It may not be stated outright, but Gojo and Geto do love each other in a gay way. The subtext is so persisent it’s basically text.

In other words, Gege has already told us, yes please have queer readings of this text. It’s the same way Baki tells you, yes this is straight up convoluded gay sex. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to reread the Sukuna and Gojo fight as some ridiculous mating display between two men who are fighting over can miscommunicate their intent the hardest.

Framed as Courtship

Let’s start with the framing. The pre-fight set up. How does text tell you queer readings are allowed?

Kenjaku does. It’s romantic. It’s a date. This reading has been made valid explicitly. And if there’s room for doubt because of the sarcasm? There’s still additional support for it.

We already know how badly in love Gojo is with Geto. The fight is on the 24th of December, the most romantic day in Japan. And in a fun little Geto parallel, who declared the start of war on this day, violence underlines this new romantic venture.

That doesn’t include Sukuna who recalls Yorozu’s words about teaching love in the context of marriage.

Gojo never heard that conversation which is why the next point is absolutely insane.

The outfit Gojo initially is in resembles that of a groom at a Shinto wedding.

Shinto weddings were implemented after the Heian era. Part of the ceremony includes a priest and a shrine maiden who respectively stand to the right and left of the altar. A purification ritual will occur, lead by the priest, to cleanse the shrine before vows are exchanged. Gakuganji is the priest and Utahime is the shrine maiden. To the right and left of Gojo respectively.

The bride at a Shinto wedding wears mainly white. After the 200% Hollow Purple cleanses the area, the dark shawl is removed and Sukuna remains in mostly white.

How interesting that this battle has been framed as one between groom and bride.

The thing is, marriage in the Heian era was far more lax. There were no major ceremonies. If a man was interested in marrying a woman, he would visit her for 3 nights after receiving approval from her father. Upon the passing of their 3rd night together, the family would have an informal celebration of their union in private. Even after marriage, multiple partners were allowed and sometimes encouraged.

Yorozu’s big celebration proposal to Sukuna and banning of concubines was quite improper by Heian standards. Though it is in line with modern marriages. If Sukuna did not consume any Shinto wedding literature, he probably didn’t recognize that Gojo was dressed as a groom.

But did Gojo dress this way for Sukuna intentionally? The Toji fit served an entirely different purpose. It’s the robes and pre-fight ceremony that catch my attention. So I propose the following:

1) Gojo dressed up as a groom to die and be wed with his one and only Geto in death.

2) Gojo dressed up as a groom in part as an offering to Sukuna. And because Sukuna is from the Heian era it went over his head entirely.

3) Gojo intended for both of these things at the same time and left who he would end up with to fate.

Regardless of what Gojo was going for here, it’s a visual cue combined with the knowledge of it being Dec 24th that encourages the reader to perhaps consider the fight as something other than just a fight. A date perhaps? Kenjaku made the connection and neither Gojo or Sukuna really denied it. Gojo gave the weak excuse of a death anniversary confusion. But much weirder, given how hostile he was to Yorozu, Sukuna did not object to the romantic framing in any capacity.

Am I reaching? Is this reading intentional?

When I start getting this confused by how a translated work wants me to read it, I try to refer to the original language text and anyone who knows it for missing context. Sometimes localizations add things that weren’t there or push readers towards one interpretation. So for the rest of this analysis, I’m going to be focusing on the raws.

I’m going to be honest. My Japanese fudging sucks. I can barely read kanji and can’t reliably translate anything. Feel free to correct me if I got something wrong. That being said, with what little I do know, I have discovered something interesting.

In this post I talked about how weird Sukuna’s manner of speech is. I focused on his you pronoun usage of お前 (Omae) for everyone else and 貴様 (Kisama) for Gojo since this is a strong indicator of how a character views their relationship to someone.

Here's a summary of the two points I made in that post:

1) Omae is informal and either a casual thing amongst peers or indicates the speaker's higher status. Since Sukuna is arrogant, we can reasonably assume he's talking down to people.

2) Kisama historically was a formal show of respect, but in modern times it is a hostile insult, much more rude than Omae. Since Sukuna is 1,000 years old and hates Yuji (who he uses Omae with), we can reasonably assume Sukuna was being friendly to Gojo when he used Kisama.

With that pronoun usage in mind, while examining the raws for the infamous “You Cleared My Skies” speech I found this:

Kisama. Sukuna is very happy and lavishing Gojo with praise. The assumption it was formal from the start seems to be correct. It's hard to read this any other way.

Though Japanese can easily be dubious in its interpretation, there are instances where context can cut off all other readings. I truly believe this one of those cases.

Now, to confirm Sukuna is still only treating Gojo this way I started looking at his you pronouns as he got excited post-Gojo death. Maki is the person he seems to admire the most.

He’s still just using Omae. What does that mean? Gojo is in his own fudging category for Sukuna and he has been there since the start of the manga. (For more on why this is significant, refer to this post.)

Wow ok. That’s pretty intense! We’ve got Gojo dressed up as a groom on December 24th and Sukuna treating Gojo different from anyone else. I read their fight again under the lens of explicit courtship and focused in on these specific panels.

Satisfaction. Now that’s a word that can easily carry a sexual connotation. Love as well. The parallel syntax fascinated me in English. So I decided to look at the raws and see how close they are.

Pretty much the same except for "the one who will teach you love" and "the one satisfying him now". Since the one being satisfied is Gojo by Sukuna, it really seems we can assume the one being taught love is Gojo by Sukuna.

Time to learn some Japanese again!

Kanji has multiple readings. Most have at least two. The Onyomi (Chinese) reading typically used for nouns and the Kunyomi (Japanese) reading typically used for verbs. (This is not always the case but it’s the basics.)

That’s probably why 満 is read as まん (man) when Gojo and Geto are talking about “satisfaction” using the On version and み (mi), the Kun version, when the narrator is talking about who “satisfies” who.

However 満 on its own does not mean satisfaction. It means full. To be filled. Or fullness. 足 (zoku) is added as a modifier after 満 to be read as satisfaction 満足 (manzoku). 足 usually means feet, but it can also mean to be sufficient. Manzoku therefore has a direct translation of being sufficiently full. It’s not a surprise a lot of food places in Japan use Manzoku in their names or advertising.

But what’s this? Why is this sentence written as 満たして or Mi(tashite) instead of 満足して or Manzoku(shite)? The addition of Zoku is what transforms Man into "satisfying". Without the Zoku, it’s just "fill". The means this sentence can be read as “The one filling him up now is—”

We’ve already established that the blank is Sukuna. The new problem is that he’s filling Gojo up. And boy, does that sound homoerotic to put it lightly. But perhaps I am reaching.

So I did what any sane person would do in this situation. I read hentai.

Surely if the phrase 満たして (mitashite) can carry a sexual connotation I will find it in hentai.

...

I immediately found a yaoi doujin called Fill me with your Big Love aka おっきな愛で満たして (Okkina Ai de Mitashite). Honestly, I found too many doujins about creampies specifically. (You have internet access verify this yourself.) When you search Manzokushite the results are much more in line with life satisfaction than sexual satisfaction. ...So Gege decided to use the more frisky phrasing.

Manzoku is also the name of an active sex toy manufacturer (I’m not linking them use a search engine.) and a discontinued adult entertainment news company. So the satisfaction Gojo and Geto talk about, along with Geto using 妬 (ya), the jealous kanji often used between lovers, is definitely probably carrying a sexual connotation too.

So, I’m not reaching. What the fudge did Gege mean by this?

Now that we've established that I am NOT reaching. What do we do with this information?

Well, we ruminate on the fight with the knowledge that Sukuna, of his own volition, decided to get Gojo off, probably.

I have forgiven Nanami for calling Gojo a pervert. If I watched someone bust a nut after being cut in half by his sworn enemy instead of saving the country, I too would be like what the fudge.

Anyways, the typical phrase used for an orgasm in Japanese is 行く(iku). It translates as to go. And yes it can mean to die, as in going to the other side. To die and go to heaven if you will. Which is what Gojo did with a big old smile on his face.

There’s also the term 心天 (tokoroten). It refers to a dish were a semi-opaque white substance is pushed through holes to create noodles. Literal translation using the kanji for heart 心 (kokoro) and the kanji for heaven 天 (ten). (Don’t ask me why them being smack together turns the Koroko into Tokoro. I don’t know.) Which in slang refers to prostate orgasms. This has nothing to do with this analysis I wanted to drop this fun fact in here. …And this image of Sukuna clutching his heart while looking at someone he sent to heaven.

(This is a reach but the idea of this being an elaborate gay pun amuses me greatly.)

I have another fun slang term: 賢者タイム (kenjataimu) which directly translates to sage 賢者 (kenja) time タイム (taimu). This refers to post-nut clarity sending someone into a meditative-like state.

Oh that’s a bit familiar. Sukuna was giving sagely advice to Kashimo and reflecting on satisfaction and love.

And what’s this? Mitashite has made a reappearance! Sukuna is saying “I’ve never thought about needing another person to fill me up.” Which 1. further supports the 'The one satisfying/filling him (Gojo) now is—Sukuna.' reading and 2. suggests Sukuna is a top suggests Sukuna really doesn’t have sexual interest in people. (Since the context of this convo is relationships and love.)

By the way. Acts of eating in Japanese can be modified to carry sexual meanings. It’s a bit more suggestive than English, but it carries over pretty well I think? 肉食系 (nikusokukei) refers to someone who aggresively pursues romantic or sexual relationships. Composed of the kanji 肉 (niku) for meat, 食 (ta) for eating, and 系 (kei) class. If you noticed, 食 isn’t usually read as Soku. It becomes Soku when paired with Niku for some reason. (I don’t know why someone please help me.) Side by side the kanji 肉食 (nikusoku) means meat-eater.

食 is still interesting on it’s own. The 食べる (taberu) reading is normal eating. The 食う(kuu) reading is an innuendo. It can mean to devour someone, like a cannibal, or devour someone sexually.

Sukuna has made it very clear that his eating of people is literal. There’s no innuendo. In fact, if you read into it, he’ll kill you (rip Yorozu and Kashimo).

Gojo, however, appears to be his sole exception to this rule. When Sukuna tells Kashimo not to spoil his pleasure he uses the kanji 興 (kyou). This of course can be directly translated as pleasure, but the Chinese reading of it can also indicate intense excitement or sexual arousal.

Sukuna is pretty good at double-entendre wordplay if his earlier stunts with the kanji for Enchain doubling as Megumi Activities if read a different way is anything to go by. He's a fan of Chinese literature. It's not a stretch to assume there's more going on here.

And if notoriously homophobic Reddit dudebros are posting things like this. Maybe there's a lot more merit to this reading than I can currently grasp.

I’m still pretty convinced Sukuna is aroace. That of course doesn’t bar him from pursuing romantic or sexual relationships. Sometimes there’s the one exception. Sometimes the desire to be with and please an allo partner allows for engagement of activities they aren’t into. Sometimes the actions are pursued without the emotional attachment because they physically feel good. There’s also the gray-scale and demi labels to consider.

With that in mind, I want to emphasize this all points to how important Gojo is to Sukuna regardless of sexuality. He tried to engage with and understand Gojo on terms he won’t for anyone else. And he’s been pursuing this connection relentlessly since the start of manga.

Sukuna’s Negative Rizz

Ok I established that reading the Sukuna vs Gojo fight as unhinged courtship is supported by the text. That doesn’t really say anything about Sukuna sucking at it.

But, my dear reader, that in of itself is proof of his negative rizz. I had to sit down. Learn about Heian era and Shinto wedding rituals, learn more Japanese, splice seemingly unrelated manga panels together, read hentai, and know that Gege is into yaoi to come to this conclusion. I had to rip every little shred of characterization and context apart and rearrange it into something comprehensible.

You know who can’t do that? Gojo.

As far as Gojo is concerned, Sukuna hates him. Kisama is an extremely hostile you pronoun in modern times. And if Gojo can’t tell Shoko (his closest friend after Geto) is stressed over him being used like a meat puppet by her visibly falling back on her addiction, he’s going to default to the assumption Sukuna hates him just as much as everyone else.

And Gojo does just that. He assumes he failed to reach Sukuna. Despite how often they did hand to hand combat and weaponized their knowledge of each other, Gojo believes they never had proper conversation through fighting. He dies not understanding Sukuna, convinced the other was not trying to communicate with him at all.

And if you recall, all of this fight occurred while Sukuna was wearing Megumi’s face. That boy is pretty much Gojo’s adopted child. From my experience, most single parents do not go looking for clones of their kids as partners.

If someone wore the skin of my family member I would assume they were trying to torment me. And torment Gojo Sukuna does. He draws attention to Megumi’s soul being used as collateral and attacks him with the 10 Shadows. We as the audience know this is all for the sake of getting past Infinity using his Shrine. Gojo doesn’t know that. He’s fighting an evil dude who is puppeting the body of his son for god knows what reason.

Seriously, Sukuna sucks at communicating intent.

In Part 3 of my examination of Sukuna’s loneliness, I said Dismantle is a tool Sukuna uses to understand. And that him upgrading it by making Gojo the center of his world was indicative of his desire to reach him. I also said his refusal to use it on Yorozu was him expressing how little interest he had in her.

Yorozu is pissed by this. She sees it as Sukuna rejecting her and I don’t think she’s wrong. Sukuna saved his special Cursed Technique (CT) for Gojo while turning Yorozu down. If we’re considering all the wedding imagery and references that started with Yorozu, I’m certainly allowed to read that as him saving himself for Gojo. (Think of how he lied to Gojo about being the first one he killed.)

There’s also the fact that Yorozu saw their battle as an expression love and lust—that the usage of CT is a type of foreplay under certain circumstances since it is an extension of the self. Combine that with the established premise that fighting is a type of a communication thanks to Maki vs Sumo Guy and you can start to see the courtship logic behind Sukuna’s treatment of Gojo.

If we are to read “The one who will teach you love is…Sukuna” there’s another adorable caveat. Yorozu uses the you pronoun あなた (Anata) for Sukuna.

It’s an informal you pronoun used by people learning Japanese. Native speakers try to avoid using it as it can come across as rude. But in the context of love? This is colloquially called the wife pronoun as its often used by a wife to her husband.

If you wanted to localize its usage in the way Yorozu means it, Anata might become “you, dear”. So here we have Sukuna dressed in white, like a bride to Gojo’s groom, thinking of him as Anata.

The problem is, Gojo doesn’t know that. Sukuna never bothered to open his mouth and say this was an act of love. Sure he told Kashimo in the most roundabout way possible, but Gojo was the one who needed to hear that. If a courtship is going to be this diabolically complicated, there has to be clear hints for the other party. JJK is not Umineko where there’s a witch that can revive the dead over and over until the idiot finally understands this was all for them.

Gojo also doesn’t have access to the kanji Sukuna uses to describe certain techinques or words. He hears the phonetics and runs with whatever best fits the context. This means there’s no way for him to catch the double-meaning unless he’s a certain type of lingust, which he is not. His manner of speech and personal interests don’t line up with the flowery language of the Heian Era. The types of written works Gojo is into are historical war politics from the Sengoku period (known for violence more than the fine arts), Shonen manga, and physics/math.

And what's this? According to CFYOW (the canon light novels): JJK Thorny Road at Dawn, Chapter 3 Asakusabashi Elegy, Gojo doesn't even like ancient poetry. You know, the thing Sukuna enjoys and tries to communicate with.

The Kokin Wakashu Gojo off-handedly disparages is a compilation of Hiean Era poetry known as Waka. This was the primary means of communication amongst the noble class and spiritual leaders at the time. And the thing is, this poetry is supposed to be read into. Down to the quality of stroke and paper, not just the kanji written. Especially for courtship.

It’s not that Gojo is stupid. He just doesn’t specialize in the studies that would give him a more critical ear to Sukuna's words. And Sukuna doesn’t seem to understand that no one in the modern era communicates like this anymore.

If you didn’t know, this is why Japanese characters introduce themselves they often describe what kanji their name is spelled with. Take for example: Satoru. He uses the kanji 悟 meaning enlightenment. This kanji can be read as Go instead of Satoru. Additionally, the name Satoru can be written in kanji as 聡 for smart, 智 for wisdom, 知 for knowledge, 了 for understanding, 哲 for philosophy, 聖 for virtuous, or 暁 for daybreak. That’s 8 different kanji possible if you hear the name Satoru.

This is why Sukuna’s wordplay for everything else can be easily missed by other characters. They hear the words and cannot read the kanji like us. Context decides what Sukuna means for them. And since Sukuna’s context for most is violence and insults, it’s very hard for them to think about his words in any other way.

And boy howdy does Gojo miss it. Sukuna straight up calls him his husband and it took me several rereads to catch it. While mocking Gojo for being unable to open his domain, Sukuna calls him "painfully ordinary". This is localized from the word 凡夫 (bonpu) which can also be translated as unenlightened. (A layered insult! Sukuna is pretty much saying Gojo's sorcery is so boring he shouldn't even call himself the Honored One.)

The thing is...Bonpu is comprised of the 2 kanji 凡 for mediocre, and 夫 for husband. (Please note that there are many other ways to call Gojo a ditz without using the kanji for husband.) And an update from the Replies: Turns out there's layers to the gayness too.

It's come full fudging circle. Gojo came dressed as a groom for a wedding and Sukuna thinks they're already married. The miscommunication is off the rails.

But wait! There's more...

Earlier I mentioned that the kanji for Enchain doubles as Megumi Activities. Let's break that down more. (Unfortunately the Twitter account of the person I referenced may or may not be nuked so here's this screenshot I've doctored.)

So we have the translation of Enchain from 契闊 (Keikatsu), which might be better localized as Separation.

This term comes from a Chinese poem about lovers who are husband and wife in The Book of Odes, Section I (Lessons from the States), Chapter 3 (The Odes of Bei), Poem 31 (Banging the Drum). (Here's a link to the full poem and context of it.)

In summary, it’s about a soldier who is on the brink of death, having lost nearly everything after being abandoned by those in power, lamenting the happiest days of his life with his love are ones he can never get back. (Hey that sounds just like what Sukuna did to Yuji!)

Keikatsu specifically comes from this passage:

“Our vow is beyond death and life”, I and you are together I always remembered. I will hold your hand, And together we grow old.

Too pitiful we are faraway apart, The distance separates us to meet again! Too miserable this takes forever, And it does not let us fulfill our vow!

Keikatsu is used to exemplify how the physical distance between the husband and wife prevents them from fulfilling their wedding vows. And that's just what Keikatsu/Enchain does to Yuji and Megumi, it causes painful separation neither of them wanted.

Keikatsu also tells Yuji exactly how Sukuna plans to do it. 契(kei)闊(katsu) can be written as 恵(kei)活(katsu). The kanji 恵 can be read as Kei or...Megumi. (It's the literal kanji used for his name.) The kanji 活 (katsu) can mean "activities", which is how we get Enchain=Megumi Activities.

A two for one special! Sukuna mocks Yuji for being so close with Megumi while telling him exactly how he's going to destroy their relationship.

It seems this has nothing to do with Gojo until you consider the 3rd possible reading from wordplay with 契闊 (Keikatsu). The kanji 契 when read as Kei refers to a promise, pledge or vow. When 契 read as Chigi? It can refer to sexual intercourse, especially between husband and wife.

So we have 契闊(keikatsu, separation), 恵(kei Megumi)活(katsu, activities), and 契(kei chigi, spousal sex)活(katsu, activities). It's no wonder he erased Yuji's memory of it.

Keep in mind, that when Sukuna uses Keikatsu, the only vow that he has made at this point is his promise to kill Gojo. He eventually does that using Megumi's body during a fight framed between groom and bride. And for reasons beyond their control, Sukuna and Gojo have been unable to fulfill that vow through lengthy separation.

Notes from poem "Banging the Drum" Sukuna references include the following:

"And during the operation, he lost his horse, which was a desperate situation (horses in ancient time carried soldier supply and weapons, are life companion for soldiers in advance or retreat), he lost his horse, his supply, maybe his armor and weapons, and the road he was facing that we may lose his life so he may never go back. In all these mess, he started searching, and somehow at this hopeless moment he started to revisit his happiest moment, when he together vowed in marriage ceremony with his wife, and he was even afraid that he might never see his love again."

"And His last statement for his true value is his home, his love, his fulfillment of his vow is his true duty. Hero's duty is to pursue love."

In Buddhism, which JJK is heavily influenced by, horses are a pretty big deal. Horses can represent the path to enlightenment, especially since The Buddha's horse is what takes him on this journey away from his wife and children. They separate in the end though, the horse dying of a broken heart.

Remember how Sukuna called Gojo unenlightened? He sort of guided Gojo to enlightenment using Mahoraga, whose Eight-Handed title is a reference to the Eightfold Path to be followed for enlightenment. Buddhist enlightenment is centered around liberation from suffering. (Just check the wiki entry to verify this.) Infinity was the source of Gojo's suffering and Sukuna cut right through it.

Sukuna has been running around with a broken heart for a good chunk of the post-Gojo fight. And if you take that into consideration with this poem and all the other symbolism, he's somehow a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, the dying husband, the widowed wife, and the heartbroken horse all at the same time. Not unlike his wordplay taking on every possible meaning at once.

But my point here is that Sukuna might’ve seen his fight with Gojo as consummation of their marriage. (There's probably a joke in here about the husband reaching climax while leaving his wife unsatisfied.) Remember in the wise words of Itagaki Keisuke, "Fighting and sex are exactly the same!"

In Conclusion?

This is possibly one of the most bizarre and elaborate expressions of love I have lost my mind over. Sukuna gave everything Gojo ever wanted from Jujutsu violently. He did it in such an unpleasant and cruel way that the target of his affection thought there was nothing between them. Sukuna also hid his intent under social norms that no longer exist. Unless Gojo happened to be into ancient literature, there was never a scenario where he would catch onto this. Sukuna's failure is critical on multiple levels.

It’s impressive. It really is. No one knows how Sukuna’s strange little brain works so he’s stuck being loner without anyone that fully understands him. (I’m still thinking about how Uraume didn’t know Sukuna was a twin for over 1,000 years.) He’d have to let people in and tell him outright, but he’s just like Gojo so I guess that’s never happening.

[toubledrouble]

You know what we should bring back?

Older christianity. I mean the anti government, anti military, community based christianity. The one that cared the most about peace, equality, mercy, kindness, and radical love. The one with shared property. The one that didn't conform to society but instead existed mostly outside of it. The one where noone considered one sin worse than another because in the end, we are all sinners trying our best to be better.

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

JADE: what do you think of the moon? :D

KANAYA: I Hope It Stays Where It Is

JADE: erm... well i

JADE: i dunno how to tell you this but it moves a little sometimes

KANAYA: What The Devil Are You Talking About

[sergle]

(re: sssniperwolf and jacksfilms) It's laughable that she escalated it that hard. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure stalking him like that is illegal and it's terrifying regardless, but Jack said in a stream (can't remember which one) that he wasn't about bringing up past controversies of hers or cancelling. And now she shows up outside his house (wtf!!!). Like he was willing to only call her out for stealing and freebooting but she's gone and stalked him and Jack doesn't seem like the type of guy to take that shit. Actual WTF moment from her part. wild

omg long post below bc apparently I have opinions: YES!! THAT'S WHAT'S SO INCREDIBLE ABOUT THIS... Jack has been genuinely diligent about keeping things on-topic in his streams, and hasn't brought up any of her other Stuff, or anything Personal. Despite the fact that she kickstarted the whole thing by making it INCREDIBLY personal and attacking his physical appearance... His goal has been to call out and bring attention to content theft, and he's stuck with it. Dude's also cared about this for years, and she's not the first content thief he's criticized. He just hates the way that freebooting has become so accepted-- to the point where youtube praised her for "coming up with such creative video ideas"? Hey! Ew! Dude wasn't trying to get her cancelled though, there was no smear campaign of her character. He's been rallying to get her to CREDIT the creators that she relies on for all of her content. It would set a precedent for all other "react" channels on the platform for one of the biggest channels on youtube to actually give credit where credit is due. Or, god forbid, get permission first? It's not hard. It's already done the job of making some other people who do "react content" self-analyze whether or not their content is transformative, and to maybe care about crediting the creators they rely on for their genre to work. There is a way to make this kind of video that isn't so slimy. And making fun of her lackluster-at-best reactions is so far from even being a big deal. Bc she literally does just sit there and say nothing. Plus, his goal has a clear End built into it: if she started shouting out the creators she takes content from, and put links directly to their pages in her video descriptions, the job would be done! That's what he's asking her to do. Real bare minimum stuff. It legit would have been easy to steer away from the content theft and to also talk about her history of lying to her audience! her ghosting a dying kid with cancer who was a big fan of hers! the fact that she's been arrested for armed robbery! her history of transphobia! He would also get more clicks that way, which is what she claims is his sole goal- to get more clicks. I'll bring it up though! She's been a terrible person the whole time, and has kept a steady course of manipulating her audience of young children and/or, let's be completely honest, simps- into thinking that she's a Wholesome creator. (And now, into thinking she's an innocent victim.) All of the actual effort put in by her has gone toward optics, not the content she puts out. A carefully constructed online persona, for one, but also literal appearances. Jack totally can't say this, bc she already went off the handle and said the only reason he doesn't like her is bc he Hates To See A Woman Be Successful. But I can! That was a cheap shot for her to use that argument when, for once, it's not applicable! Much the opposite, even! Dudes online wouldn't go to bat for her if she didn't look the way she does. And it weakens any case she'd have against him by making baseless claims like that. She banks hugely on being an attractive woman to get her clicks/following. A massive amount of effort is put into her appearance. The makeup, the lip fillers, putting her hair in little pigtails, the chokers and tube tops, the big non-prescription Nerd Glasses, the thumbnails where she has her mouth open in That Expression?

I don't even have to say anything. But making a weird facial expression and putting your hair in pigtails aren't moral failings. Showing up at someone's real life home (whose address you shouldn't even have access to), filming the front of their house at night, doxxing them to your audience of millions of people? Because you were mad at them online? That is fully scary! Yeah girl I'm pretty sure that Jack can press charges! There is absolutely no way to take the moral highground now that she's literally stalked him, and doxxed his home. She tried to goad him and Erin (Jack's wife) out of the house, also, which creeps me out even more-- because what was she planning to do? The fact that she's been arrested for violent crime before does pop into my mind! lmao! Jack was streaming a game at the time that she was outside his home, and these clips of him, his friends, and Erin reacting in real time to what is genuinely a scary situation have been taken down in case he needs to use them in legal action. Shit is legitimately serious!