#yoshidashoyo

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Why is Gintoki's Wooden sword so resilient?

The tenacity of Lake Toya

Before I begin I wanna say that I have a few theories regarding this and after doing some research I would also like to cross over a few other analysis I've seen of this topic as well to provide a wider scope for you.

Fundamentally, we can infer that the reason gintoki switched to using a wooden sword is due to the sword ban imposed as well as his choice to not take lives anymore and would use this sword as a way to immobilise or injure his oppenents without necessary killing them, unless the situation becomes dire.

Originally, it was mentioned and I quote that his wooden sword is, "created from a ten-thousand-year-old tree from an unknown planet. The sword wields the power to cut through anything like metal swords, boulders, and even a meteor." So from, this my analysis can be cut short since it clears the question of how a wooden sword is able to be used efficiently even in battle.😭😭

However, lake toya has been broke multiple times throughout gintama, so this contradicts this so called origin of Lake toya. Moreover, It was also shown how Gintoki had come in possession of Lake toya by simply ordering it online and requesting for lake toya to be inscribed on it after he had previously broken his wooden sword. So going by that, I would like to base my analysis on the theory that his sword is simply an ordinary wooden sword.

Moving on from the creation of it, I would mainly like to focus on how an ordinary tool is able to be used even against the most formidable enemies with iron swords, the alien masses, and even against the final boss and considerably the strongest man on the planet, Utsuro. All of which Gintoki had fought with his lake toya while they had actual swords with them. Which should have been disadvantageous to gintoki, yet he was still able to go toe to toe with his opponents.

So how does he do it? Eventually I would relate it back to his unyielding spirit, but before that we would need to look through some other of his traits as well.

Gintoki's past:

His parents are unknown, and as far as we know, when he was a child, the war was still ongoing. And he wandered around the battlefields, swiping food from the dead soldiers and even using one of their swords as a defence. From this, I can assume that he had no safety or a sheltered life due to his mystery of family and lineage, and no protection from anyone.

He can be seen as a child who was outcast and left to fend for himself. Due to which his way of life was that he had grown accustomed to because there was nobody ready to guide him, up until shoyo had met him. Which shows how similar, Shoyo and Gintoki's beginnings had been.

So right from the get go he had been able to adapt to protecting himself from any sort of person opposing or posing a threat to him, as seen in a part where he immediately jumps away from Shoyo and draws a sword that is much bigger than himself to defend with ease. Which is surprising for a kid who I assume was less than 10 years old at the time.

Thus, due to his solitude he had been put in a situation where it was a survival of the fittest which led to him being able to wield a sword, albeit with inexperience yet enought strength to defend himself, even as a child. Due to his peculiar environment for growing, he had cultivated a good sense for survival as well as unimaginable strength and adaptability for a mere child.

This laid the groundwork for him to be able to be one of Shoyo's disciples, someone who is considered unbeatable till the end, and hone his already blooming skills in a more knwoeldagble environment with a guide to aid in his journey of becoming a genius swordsman.

After training under Yoshida Shoyo for years, who he had himself called a monster and was unable to beat. He was bound to expand his skillset and strength to a higher than ordinary level automatically, paired with his natural talent.

As Gintoki had said himself as a kid to shoyo, that he was able to win over any opponent, young or old, but only up until he had met shoyo.(And afterwards takasugi as well given that they both had an almost equal amount of wins and losses against each other).

So from the very base itself, given the way Gintoki had started off in this world, he can be considered a naturally gifted man in this aspect or was forced to cuktivate these skills much sooner than normal. And since he had the right conditions to be taught in and improve his skills, he continued to go on to become a formidable warrior in the joui war, and even afterwards, right until edo had settled into peace again after the silver soul arc.

So ranging from him being forced to adapt to survive and cultivating a strength that is higher than average as a young child, to being able to have the chance to hone his abilities under arguable the strongest swordsman in the country. It gives him the perfect environment to expand his abilities to his maximum potential. And grow into a genius of swordplay and various other combat.

"For the capable, even a blade of grass can be used as a weapon" is saying which means that, for a person that is strong and competent, they will be able to use anything that is available to him at the moment. Gintoki is a perfect example of this saying.

This is given with how he is able to hold his ground and even win against his enemies with a mere sword made of wood, while going up against opponents with the same level or even much more brute strength or skills than him with the higher chance of being killed off in a fight. Even though his opponent may not lose their life due to his bluntness of his sword.

However, in the hands of this great warrior, he is very much capable of killing them. But yet he makes the choice not to. (Of course, there are exceptions like aliens and that guy from the grim reaper arc I forgot his name woops)

In short, due to his strong mind and body, he is even able to use a wooden sword with ease as his strength stems from his very own spirit and physical prowess, rather than the weapon itself. It falls in line with the saying, "it is the wielder who makes the weapon strong."

Shiroyasha:

As we know, the definition of Shiroyasha is the white demon. White is to refer to his silver hair and white outfit he wore during the war, a every odd choice given the bloodshed. Yasha can also refer to the term Yaksha, where it means demon, which can also be described as oni and asura.All that points back to the basis of supernatural beings.

The reason as to his moniker is due to his impressive display as a warrior/swordsman as well as his remarkable capabilities. He had dominanted the battlefield due to his talent and fantastic skills, which earned him the name as his skillset had been so great it was considered inhumane/superhuman. As anything we see to be incredibly amazing or talented, we tend to calm them a beast at it or something like that.

From where I'm from when a person displays an immense amount of talent, we usually call them as a someone who is a supernatural being/possesses a demonic skillset within them as a compliment to show how their output crosses the ordinary level of expertise. Or to give it another title would be that they are superhuman.

He was considered to have the prowess of a deity on the battlefield which earned him fear and respect as well as being infamously known as this mighty swordsman participating in the war along his friends.

Even after the war, his friends had still kept actual swords in their possessions despite the sword ban, while Gintoki was the one who changed his sword to lake toya and rebranded the way he was from Shiroyasha to Yorozuya Ginchan. Yet he was still held to be as equally tough as his fellow friends he grew up with despite the change in weaponry.

This blatantly points to how his physical, mental, AND even through his soul, he had still remained robust and adept despite his exterior of being a lazy man.

From his childhood all the way till his adulthood, throught all adversities and struggles to survive, Gintoki had prevailed. And the fundamental reason for him to be able to pass all these obstacles despite his disadvantages, is his very soul itself.

His steadfastness and will to thrive(to live somehow) is what kept him alive on the battlefield as a child, wandering around corpses and scarcely able to gather food.

His unyielding soul is what had made him able to be mentored under the strongest man in the world and one of the most incredibly skilled swordsman, maybe even the best of that time, and take after his legacy of monstrous strength and genius craft.

All of this attributes to his willpower and his inner strength stemming from his strong-minded resolve as well as a pure and unbreakable soul that refuses to back down in the face of trouble, and even death.

To be able to withstand or even flourish in the environment controlled by a man so powerful like Yoshida Shoyo right from the get go, in Gintoki's case(excluding other memebers of shoka sonjuku as they have different strenghts and talents) only gintoki's bizarre growth and backstory had been able to prepare him for the upcoming events of training and evolving his body and power of his throughout hsi training and improving as well after Yoshida Shoyo had been arrested/executed.

Gintoki's Swordsmanship:

Despite the nature of his soul, how the hell does it empower a wooden sword? Maybe it still remains an ordinary sword, or Gintoki is very well versed in swordplay that he is able to determine the weak points of a person or where exactly he can spar with an iron sword considering it's vulnerable points or any other variety of a sword while not breaking his own weaponry.

It is nearly impossible, but if he is observant enough, he may just be able to pull it off, Gintoki is canoncially a beast at swordplay, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was so. In the end, like I had mentioned before, it is the wielder that determines how the weapon will perform.

But that may only take him so far, against brute strength his lake toya will break. So what then? His confidence in himself and unwillingness to back down from a fight despite the odds and high chances of losing already display that he is ready to face the extremes in order to protect and overcome.

I would sound cheesy, but people that have the hearts to overcome any adversity are already incredibly powerful and adept in my mind. Gintoki himself, with the amount of struggles and trauma and loss of loved ones he has faced in his life, still refuses to let his soul break. And that energy, that tenacity, is what I think is reflected in his trusty sword as well.

The hardships of Gintoki,Katsura and Takasugi faced are immense that it drove one of them to mercilessly kill for a certain period of time(for his own ambitions that are revealed later on) and Katsura to resort to terrorism to battle the shortcomings of the current monarchy.

However, Gintoki had taken such a turn from the rest of them that he had simply settled down and opened up a job for freelancing. Despite his calm and relaxed demeanour, I would call him an absolute beast that chooses to sleep. This line itself is mentioned in gintama if I recall.

But since he's such a goat, he knows when to act accordingly to the situation needed. You need to fight your longtime friend to get him to stop? You got it? You need to fight some mf from another planet to save yoshiwara? You got it? You gotta defeat an evil master to help a friend of yours? You got it. You have to defeat your resurrected master or else he'll destroy the world? You got it.

And what astounds me the most out of all of this is that in need of the situation he could have, by all means, switched to an actual sword for combat. But he didn't, he stayed true to himself, true to his heart and soul, his idea to not take a life anymore but rather fight to protect what's his. No matter how dangerous the situation was, it is what truly makes Gintoki stand out as a wonderful and unique lead.

(I would like to clarify in the final fight of silver soul, technically Utsuro's consciousness channeling thru Takasugi's body didn't realise at the time that he was dying, as in Takasugi was already injured gravely and would have died either way if his wounds had not been treated, or maybe even if they were treated he would die, due to Oboro's ashes and Utsuro's immortal blood he was able to sustain for a certain time.

Yet as stated in silver soul, he had already died and was now running out of time. So I can say that Gintoki(alongside takasugi) defeated Utsuro, or Takasugi's body. But he didn't necessarily play a part in killing him. Even if Gintoki had not fought him, Takasugi would have died anyway)😭😭😭

(Arcs like benizakura are the exception as he had to use a specifically made sword to defeat the sword rather than the wielder itself) Another example is towards the end of the grim reaper arc

Lake Toya's Strength:

As much as I have discussed how lake toya was able to hold its ground against actual swords and other weaponry, we should also look at how it was able to overpower other swords. One example is below

HELLO??? LAKE TOYA LITERALLY BROKE AN IRON SWORD??? THIS IS FROM THE TAKASUGI VS GINTOKI FIGHT BTW.

NOW WE CAN THINK "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE????" Gintoki may be able to use his strength and cleverness to his advantage when fighting against an opponent with stronger weaponry, but how did he BREAK it. In this fight can see takasugi slowly going into a breakdown and revelling in the past and his trauma during his fight against gintoki, taking out all of his rage on Gin and blaming him for somewhat of the pain caused.

And yet Gintoki had held strong and proclaimed that no matter what he will protect the soul of Shoka Sonjuku and bring back Takasugi with him as his loved one that he learnt together with, atleast as a fellow student of his loved teacher, Yoshida Shoyo.

Even though he went through as much struggle and damage as Takasugi, he still refused to become purely destructive and strive to protect rather than conquer or destroy the world where Shoka Sonjuku had existed.

At the very least, if not the world, atleast the soul and sanctity of Shoka Sonjuku and their teacher. Takasugi had shown the broken sides of him, unhealed and agonized, while Gintoki, even though not fully recovered, just like Sugi, had still wanted to try and overcome his past. No matter how difficult it seemed.

That mighty spirit of his is what had enabled him to break Takasugi's sword, as Takasugi was slowly metling with a breakdown and was gradually losing focus as well. Giving into his own sorrows and rushing into ending Gintoki? Ending the fight? Ending his suffering? It may be none or all idk.

Thus, Gintoki's unyielding spirit and refusal to give up is what enabled him to overpower Takasugi in that fight and literally break his sword(which can symbolise how he broke his endless cycle of trying to destroy or self destruct) and save him. His affection and need to protect his fellow schoolmates, his loved ones, his friends, his school, his master's legacy, his lessons, his ideals.

All of this combined with his unwillingness to let it die, let it perish, is what let him win the fight, and ultimately and importantly commit the impossible act of breaking an actual sword with a mere wooden lake toya.

Another remarkable feat of his is when he had broken a sword with his TEETH(Oboro vs Gintoki), this aspect can also be categorised under the points I have listed above. And with the additional fact that warriors trained are already on another level of strength(slicing bullets, incredible strength and speed) and tenacity. AND given how he was trained under Yoshida Shoyo, considerably the strongest man on the planet x2. I think we shouldn't be all that surprised by that feat anymore. 😭

This was more of an analysis than a rant im sorry😭😭😭 I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THOUGHTS ON LAKE TOYA AND THIS🥰🥰

I'll try an edit in more pics in my reblogs as an example or proof later on and add in the links to some posts(they were very short so I think I have already covered the same points as well here briefly). Thank you and I hope you can add onto this meager rant of mine!!

[orangedelusions]

doodling with my old #copic ... Shoyo-sensei with his alter (read: "seme") 💕💕💕💕💕 dan- masih gak bisa pakenya dgn benar 😭 #doodle #sketch #gintama (c) #SorachiHideaki , #shueisha #yoshidashoyo #utsuro https://www.instagram.com/p/BqdpSdXhFbK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15chmz3o8ppas

[kureha-yue]

whatch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVuimWkS74 #gintamaamv #gintama #shoyosensei #shoyo #shouyou #shouyousensei #yoshidashouyou #yoshida #yoshidashoyo #animefeels #anime #manga #amv #samurai #gintokisakata #katsurakotaro #takasugishinsuke #oboro #oborogintama #utsuro #utsurogintama #zura #takasugi #gintoki #breakingbenjamin #anthemoftheangels

[so-lll-blog1]

#anime #art #gintama #utsuro #yoshidashoyo #銀魂 #虚 #吉田松陽

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Yoshida Shoyo's Origin and his Path to Salvation

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

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

Yoshida Shoyo's Birth:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Traits similar to the earth

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

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

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

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

Docile nature during torture phase

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working for the Naraku

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resurrection and buddhism

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

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

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

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

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

Truth of Suffering

Truth which is the cause of suffering

Truth of the cessation of suffering

Truth of the path that leads to ending our suffering

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

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

Wisdom

Right understanding

Right thought

Ethical Conduct

3.Right speech

4.Right action

5. Right livelihood

Mental discipline

6. Right Effort

7. Right mindfulness

8. Right concentration

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

Drishti

Vichikitsa

Silabbata-paramasa

Kama-raga

Vyapada

Rupa-raga

Arupa-raga

Mana

Udhacca

Avidya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monk attributes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crossing worldly desires

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

Unable to cross over MPD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shoyo is a smile Utsuro let slip

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Significance behind Utsuro parting his hair

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

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

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

Fight with Gintoki

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

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

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

Fight with Umibozu

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not going all out in one or both of these fights

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

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

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

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

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

Shocked with Gintoki, not shocked with Umibozu

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

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

Fight with everyone in silver soul arc

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

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

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

Gintama Finale fight

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

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

Only let his guard down with his students

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

Yearning for inclusiveness and happiness

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

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

Significance behind different birthdays for Shoyo and Utsuro

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attaining nirvana despite trying to be saved by students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Going back to the source, the earth

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

Helping Takasugi to be reborn

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

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

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

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

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

Not humane but has human qualities that make him human

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gintoki & Lake Toya

Oboro Analysis

Takasugi breaking down in the finale

Nobume the goat

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

I think people gloss over the significance of this scene, and it's often misinterpreted. Commonly in asian cultures, educators are held with very high regard, almost as high as parents and doctors. Even in gintama, they previously talked about how impactful teachers were in the lives of students and how they shaped the crux of their minds

E.g. when it was exposed to everyone that gintoki wasn't able to save his teacher(i forgot the arc name but where oboro first appears), it was considered a big deal cuz typically u are meant to serve and revere ur teacher's due to the impact they bring

So automatically in these cultures, since the teachers are held with very high expectations, they are to be treated with the same respect and dignity too. So that's why it was a very big problem when shoyo died. Since he was a monumental role and as their mentor, he was supposed to be helped in times of need as gratitude from the students. Which they failed at first. Which is why takasugi had talked about how all of them wouldn't fail this time and protect their teacher, and that he would serve him.

As in these cultures as we know, it's a norm to follow whatever ur elders say or do, especially if it's your parents and teachers. As they play the most important roles during the growth of a person. Commonly, ur expected to hold them with the highest respect and help them out/serve them as a child who's learning from them in a way to show gratitude and display your courageous personality(to adhere to tradition). Regardless, education shaped a person's life. Hence, the educators who take up these responsibilities are also universally revered. Hence, the meaning of the dialogue behind this scene.

I hope this helps people understand the context and background behind this whole school in general. Since its kinda common for a lot of people to take this scene out of context and shape it with different interpretations. But gintama does make a lot of japanese references where international audiences won't understand right away. So if you know the basic context, I think it will be much more obvious to understand the story behind shoka sonjuku. (Long live takasugi)

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Rewatched rakuyo and silver soul arc and I realised out of all the shoka sonjuku disciples the child that has understood shoyo completely is actually nobume she's the one that bridged the gap between the students' understanding of shoyo's past and his true nature

AND she didn't just treat him as 2 people too, she was the one that explained his past & what led him to become such a different man in different eras,even in the silver soul fight she was the one to shake utsuro's resolve, gintoki used that opportunity to crack down & weaken him (Just youngest daughter things frl)

Moreover she was the disciple that knew him for the least amount of time,but she had enough experience in the naraku & personally,to learn the reasons & origins of yoshida shoyo,she literally explained how he was born up to why he acts like this now, girl is truly sensational🗣

Oboro knew shoyo's nature too but he learnt it at an older age & alot of tragedy had already happened by the time he got it,but nobume was exposed to it from a young age, which shaped her in a way that she can see the true story unlike e.g. gin who only knew 1 side of his teacher

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

The absolute and ever persisting mischaracterisation people have for Oboro

This mostly comes from me constantly seeing people treat Oboro as a mindless underdog who's just obsessed with validation from his dad(yoshida shoyo) and I had recently wanted to put my thoughts into words so here it is☝🏽

Misunderstanding Oboro

The fandom, like 99 percent of the community, reduces him to a jealous character that ruined everyone's lives when even before his resurrection, he was living a tough life (servant) and when he met his dad, he felt understood and happy he got an actual parental figure and for that to be ripped away at a very young age affected, nay more like traumatised him along with the fact that he was viciously killed in front of Yoshida Shoyo.

Oboro's depressing past

Yet he could not die for a 2nd time as he was resurrected due to his dad's blood, he couldn't run away again either to join shoyo as he felt the consequences 1st hand, and wanted to protect the one man that treated him like his own child instead of brushing him off (it is often shown and stated in the flashbacks how he was ill treated and cast off).

But when he saw that shoyo was able to adopt more kids and being happy with them (not really, like we the audience know.), he got jealous like any child/teen would when their parent gives their siblings more attention, his helplessness to come to terms with the fact that he was not able to join them (cuz of naraku and the dangers) along with the fact that Shoyo was able to find peace without oboro, ate away at his conscience which instigated his salty attitude towards his own school/family, Shoka Sonjuku.

A petty feeling like jealousy causing a snowball effect

The feeling that "that shouldve been me, but I can't even join them when they're right infront me" in his mind solidifed the idea to HIM, that they could find happiness.

But in the end he couldn't give up and run to his family, due to what he had sacrificed and the predicament of him being in naraku in the first place, when he should've died young and long ago.

So that could cause him to spiral into self pity and jealousy which ultimately pushed him, in the span of a few years, to rat them out to the Naraku, "if I can't have happiness then neither can they" mindset had taken root in his heart, and anger towards Shoyo, for somewhat putting him in that predicament in the first place(in his eyes) ,-

like being semi immortal, not able to die normally, enslaved to the naraku alone and bloodstains on his hands as well due to his killings, when he could have just died without going through any of this, had shoyo not resurrected him.

Oboro learning of his dad's history

That grief is what led him to fully go through with his plan to burn down Shoka Sonjuku, after Shoyo gets executed and he literally was burning in his pyre. To Oboro's unfathomable shock, Shoyo comes back as Utsuro, his guilt was now at the forefront of his mind, he may have justified it before (while shoyo's head was severed) as justice for him, and seeing his death would have helped him push down his guilt by claiming its all over.

However, he soon became one of the first students of his to learn of his immortality and traumatising past(like takasugi later on). Moreover, seeing his parent alive when things should have been done and wrapped up completely due to the predicted death of his,

As well as not being to close the chapter of shoka sonjuku in his life, like he saltily wanted to in a moment of anger. These were ideas he was not able to accomplish due to this unforeseen twist. He then realised the true nature behind Shoyo's being/existence as well as his agonising past.

Oboro would have come to the conclusion that had he just approached Shoyo, maybe things would have been better, Shoyo could have protected him along with the others. Shoyo was more than capable to take care of his children that he took under his wing, but Oboro had realised it too late.

That guilt of betraying the one man that was like a father to him and nurtured his growth, taught him the good of the world despite going through such horrible things like Oboro threw him into a flurry of self sabotage. In my humble opinion, Shoyo was a crystallised resolution of a father for Oboro(and very much canon), definitely. As Yoshida Shoyo's blood being directly passed down to Oboro to have him be reborn, and let him live again testifies this.

This further solidifies the idea that Shoyo had accepted him as his own child. EVEN FURTHER confirms that they are blood related, like they actually are. That's a father and his first son your honor.😭

What guilt propels a human being to do in dire circumstances, an example is Oboro. (Power of Guilt)

The fact that such a kind man himself had become resolute to destroy the world, which was propelled partially because of Oboro. If Oboro hadn't ratted out Shoka Sonjuku, he could have continued to live as Shoyo, but his execution by gintoki, and schemed by Oboro, all of this emotional turmoil realised by Shoyo, triggered a trauma response and caused him to regress back to being a killer, ultimately trying to end the world, along with Oboro's juniors.

Oboro BLAMED himself for Shoyo becoming Utsuro once again and for the upcoming plight of the world, he couldn't bring himself to fight the man that saved him and rebirthed him to even live in the 1st place, his guilt is the ultimate and strongest reason as to why he swore loyalty to utsuro.

When he fought with his juniors he constantly brought up Shoyo and how he had died, what he taught, repeatedly, projecting his guilts onto them, and constantly repeated the fact that he was also a pupil of Shoyo towards the end, to both students and teacher, for example, "what would your teacher think? How do u keep up with y(our) sensei not around?" are things he has said to them.

Which can also be taken as introspective for him, but Oboro so desperately wants to connect and find someone (specifically somehow connect with his juniors deep down) that feels the same way as him, his loneliness and lack of a loving foundation that was snatched away from him is what caused him to so viciously fight his juniors/family.

Another fact is that after Shoyo left, the first thing Oboro did was disobey his teachings and kill people, he ultimately decided to become spiteful and violent to protect himself (in hindsight, it was done to protect his shoka sonjuku too) which is another thing he could have been very felt very guilty of, as he had not realised the truth behind many things that went down in the past and was too late to realise already x2.

In a way he was trying to make them realise what really went beyond what they knew of Yoshida Shoyo, and make them feel regretful of what had went down, but it is more of self-projecting from him in the end. Since he also blames himself for the demise of Shoka sonjuku and Yoshida Shoyo.

During the rakuyo arc, when Oboro realised his time is going to run out, he realises that his guilt is what caused him to blindly follow his father, even if he wanted to stop him he couldn't, which is why during his fight with Takasugi, he ultimately smiles and monolgues with Shoyo about how in the end he (Oboro), is very much caring towards his juniors and proud of them just like Shoyo is.

He finally makes peace with his guilt and pain that he had projected onto others, and attempts to try finding someone(shoka sonjuku juniors) to relate and bond with, as Shoyo turning to Utsuro had turned him into an emotionless void as well which was like rubbing salt to the wound.

Which is something he also blames himself for, people tend to go to many extents when they truly believe it is their fault and feel incredibly guilty, especially when it involves a loving family member, which is why, while he dies he tells Takasugi everything and that they should stop Utsuro, which majorly contradicts what he had done up till that point.

He went into the battle with Takasugi knowing he would die, as seen by the audience, when he was already coughing up blood before the fight. Before his fight with Takasugi, he also proclaims and reminds Utsuro that he is also a disciple of Yoshida Shoyo (Hes not implying utsuro is different he literally says I am YOUR pupil as well if I remember correctly).

Oboro's atonement and last advice to his juniors

This solidifies the idea that he wanted to die as Shoka Sonjuku's senior and a son/disciple of Shoyo, not as an underdog who aided in the destruction of the planet. Takasugi understanding Oboro's sentiments(like the good brother he is) and burying him in Shoka sonjuku also supports this idea.

Fundamentally he could've aided Utsuro because he also lost faith in the world, but reminiscing about Shoyo and Shoka Sonjuku is what led him to fight Takasugi till his blood dries up, to lose to his dear junior and atone for the mistake of uprooting their lives in an act of petty jealousy, which ultimately fast forwarded the return of Utsuro and the destruction of earth.

Bringing Oboro down to earth as the complicated human he is

Conclusively, Oboro was through and through the perfect example of a child/sibling, growing salty and jealous towards their parents when they treat their younger or older siblings better or favour them more(more susceptible to this at a young age like Oboro was), this is a more destructive path, MUCH more destructive and violent, of course, but it makes us realise how a petty feeling like jealous could even really lead to so much destruction and pain if we yield to it.

Even the the most kindest and softest beings like oboro (initially he was and a very grateful person) had led him to resolutely destroy the lives of his juniors and his teacher that he should have protected, especially in their culture where Their teacher is supposed to be held in the highest regard, Shoyo was not only a teacher but a father that protected and guided him during his most toughest times, atleast up until he had felt abandoned and neglected by his father (who was unaware).

That's it really but people always hate on him for being very salty & unreasonable, yappa yappa when I found his actions understandable, not justified of course but I understand where he is coming from, due to his very tough past & a painful life he led until the end (his blood slowly drying up over the years)

Conclusion

So yea he is just like Utsuro, just like how the oldest child resembles their father the most, it applies for Oboro as well, both led very tough lives that majority wouldn't be able to tolerate, which is why he sympathised with Shoyo even when he became Utsuro. So people should see Oboro like the complex and multifacted character he is, just like his father.

Both were led astray due to their pain that they understandably couldn't get over and which they still tried to alone for until their ends. Of course people are free to hate the character but hate o him for the accurate and right reasons not your own shallow perceptions of him being a braindead obsessive underdog smh media literacy is at zero percentage.

But I mostly said this because people just label him as someone that was obsessively and blindly following around his dad like a dog which is wrong imo, he's fully grown and is very capable of perceiving things most of the others couldn't, along with being able to go toe to toe with the rest of the gang.

Oboro's unspoken talents

Oboro is a clever man too, he was the most heavily ostracised and demonised person in the nark, even after Shoyo left, but was still able to become the Skilled and accomplished leader of the nark despite the odds and enemies against him even within his own group. He was still able to rise to a certain high authority.

I think that alone speaks volumes on his capabilities and his intelligence. Because at the end of the day as Yoshida Shoyo had predicted, he was the most advanced student in Shoka sonjuku due to his early starting.

But all I see is people seeing him as an underdog that doesn't think for himself which is what is the biggest mischaracterization of his is, his guilt is what made him decide to support shoyo, he continously made the choice out of GUILT Is the point I want to drive home, not that he just out of nowhere followed Utsuro because he has no brains or anything.

Which is what ive seen people assume automatically in this fandom, hating him for shitting on gintoki and the rest is valid, atleast that means he's held accountable for his own conscious actions.

But along with that fact they unnecessarily lump in the false characterization dat hes just dumb and follow orders like the obsessive servant he is, really irks me. As that is what the treatment he went through was, like see him as the cool senior that he is, not dumb & dumber.

So this ultimately confirms the fact that Oboro is a heavily misunderstood character/antagonist. And I hope people are able to appreciate his multidimensial characteristics more just like how we celebrate Takasugi and the like.

***

That's it thank you for reading and if you wanna read about Yoshida Shoyo's character analysis too I'll link it here. Have fun, take care and bye bye!

Yoshida Shoyo: Part 1, Part 2

Gintoki's Lake toya analysis

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

INCOMING RANT

Yoshida shoyo should be treated as 1 whole man rather than 2 distinct characters.

(with manga panels and light analysis)

I will be exploring multiple personality disorder to a certain extent and the pivotal role it plays on his character as well as in gintama.

when I see people treating this man like he's twins or just legitimately viewing this man as two different people as if it is the right interpretation genuinely gets me tweaking so I need to put forward the facts of my case your honour😭😭😭

RANT BELOW:

I have to get this off my chest, Utsuro and Shoyo are two different PERSONALITIES, not two different men. Up until now, about like 50% of the fandom treat him as if he's two whole separate beings which is completely WRONG AND DUMB. He has multiple personality disorder, which is the reason why he started a whole ass school for free, but also somehow wanted to destroy the world. Why? Because he's mentally deranged, are you with me?

And these are the same people, the ones that see him as two different characters, sometimes ship these two personalities together, even that is not that important but what's more pressing is that ive seen them end up condoning the problematic ships in the fandom, like you just got to ship him with someone and they end up shipping him with his students from Shoka Sonjuku.💀

I'm including all of his disciples from oboro all the way to nobume, he has played parental figure for all of them.

Even though he may have disappeared for around a decade or a lil more, and then returned after they've all grown into adults, it doesn't change the fact that he played a crucial role in raising and influencing the ways they view the world as a parent would.

I'm emphasising on this because ive seen mostly oboro and gintoki as the victims, just because oboro may be a little near to a decade older than the rest of his shoka sonjuku juniors does not mean he was way more mature

Oboro was as young as gintoki when he had met shoyo and had since been learning from shoyo as his teacher/parent.

(oboro is technically blood related to him too since he had shared his blood the moment he saw oboro was dying so that amounts to accepting oboro as his son to me���🏽‍♀️ I said the truth didnt I)

Further emphasis on the fact that it was canonically discussed that Utsuro is a grandpa even to incredibly old geezers and he sees them as youngsters, so his shoka sonjuku disciples are technically fetuses to him😭😭😭

This is a man that cannot be shipped with anyone that's just the type of character that he is. I'm not even biased if you look at it from a general perspective you have no choice but to agree.

This particular idea/headcanon or whatever the fuck you wanna call, is a very common conception and dulls HIS(SINGULAR) character to a large extent. Seeing him as the character that he truly is, a mentally ill man that has a profound amount of knowledge, yet is unable to heal himself would make someone appreciate gintama even more, for its habit to cover many topics that are diverse in it.

A man who is torn WITHIN HIMSELF WE ARE SEEING IT THROUGHOUT GINTAMA AND IT GETS KNOCKED INTO OUR HEADS ALL OF THE TIME. And I promise you his character will appear to be much more dynamic, amazing and explosive I guarantee it.

I'm being so honest when I say that seeing him as an individual who's, like, not okay in the head, and how he went about handling these issues, is a much more fun and interesting perspective as well, in my opinion.

But I think a lot of people can't wrap their head around the fact that he has multiple personality disorder. I've seen a lot of people say, "oh, he's a bad character, his character doesn't make sense, especially when he comes back as a villain." However it's understandable since Multiple personality disorder is a very complex and tricky issue to understand

To the theories that Utsuro's plot and actions don't make sense, YES it doesn't make sense, and it doesn't make sense because he's unpredictable. Why? Because he's not okay psychologically and psychological imbalance can lead to irrational decisions(to put it in a summary)

Multiple personality disorder is one of the disorders that's considered like the apex of instability because the person themselves do not have control over it, due to how affected the person has been. And MPD IS ALSO UNPREDICTABLE ASH.

(Shoyo did claim he was planning to run away for a while to Oboro but a man that's been running this organisation for centuries suddenly taking this decision in a span of a few short years can contribute to this MPD)

Even the characters in the show couldn't tell what he was gonna do at all until the end(at least up till the finale). They couldn't tell what he was gonna do. Why? Because he's unstable and, the distinct contrast between the era where he was their Sensei to becoming the destroyer of the universe is like a slap to the face.

He's not okay in any sort of way, actually, which is why he's more traumatized than the average human could ever be. So it makes sense that he's very unpredictable and his actions don't make sense.

His whole character is actually a genius, sorachi was cooking when he introduced him because there are so many underlying facts that stem out to many aspects surrounding human suffering all the way till the cycle of life that intertwine with his character

AND so much intricacies to the way his character is shaped, which is considered complex. THAT is the reason why he's underrated and half of the time people call him a bad character/two different people because they have zero media literacy and they won't accept anything else beyond what they already know

(for example the variety and different ways psychological repression can be expressed)

I just know the reason he is not as famous or talked about often like aizen, sukuna, johan etc is because of his complications and so many many many aspects to his character that needs more research and more observation to be understood. The perplexity in this aspect of his contributes to him being overshadowed and underrated.

These mentioned characters are amazing villains in and of themselves but what makes utsuro specifically stand apart is his absurd backstory and the disorder that he had developed due to said past lives. It's not common for us to see villains with multiple personality disorder is it?

Hence my reason as to why people should probably take more time to understand his character, scratch that if you just watched it with an open mind at first I think you'll get his character's purpose and actions fast enough.

The same applies for gintama as a whole, the best way to watch it is with an open and empty mind, especially so that you won't miss the nuances and other areas that build gintama's characters.

In this case Shoyo requires us to really observe his actions and be able to understand why he is taking such drastic and contradictory measures no matter what he does.

It's just that Sorachi never really bothers to tell it to our faces or really jumbles it up here and there and we're left to pick up the puzzle pieces😭

E.g. The finale where it was only confirmed in an interview that it was takasugi reborn and it has other metaphors in it as well or smth😭

Shoyo's backstory and trauma leading which ultimately lead to the state of his psychological state:

When some people are like, "yeah, yeah, it's just two different characters". It takes away a really important aspect of his character. Believe me or not, his mental illness plays a really important role in the major events of Gintama.

That's due to the fact that THIS IS THE SAME MAN, THE ONE AND ONLY ONE, that raised the main characters and antagonists of the show, but also was the one who committed mass genocide, wanted to destroy the universe, etc. Why? Because of his multiple personality disorder.(STAY WITH ME)

And why did this MPD come about? Because of his extreme suffering and trauma, And to cope with that, he got MPD. So when people are like, "yeah, it's just two different people". You're missing an extremely vital part to his character,

and putting up a wall from understanding the various intricacies to his characterization including when you treat this mentioned miserable man like he's split into half and somehow is a pair of twins now like be fr w me💀

(it is much less entertaining than how his character is actually portrayed and it ruins his character, it dumbs down the unique qualities of him and lumps him in with the rest of some mediocre villains in shonen manga.)

(It somehow also dims the fun and variety of gintama and majorly makes shoyo ooc, like I said, seeing his character the way he has been given is without a doubt the one and only best way to view him and it's much more fulfilling)

Sorachi himself has joked about how this one man's confusing character can be mistaken as two different people due to their contrasting traits, but as explained in this panel as well,

in any media actually a character with MPD is often treated as if the person is two separate entities for a more easier understanding and mostly comic relief (in this instance as well in the 3-z segment). However it is still enforced that these oddly contrasting sides came from one singular brain, it is already enforced in the very same sentence of this dialogue in the panel shown above as well.

Sorachi already summarizes up his whole characters misconception in that dialogue for you 😭 Bro really wrapped it all up with an abrupt bang

it's just one singular man, who has multiple personality, or in this case just two personalities warring with each other that leads to the self sabotage hes doing rn in this panel😭😭😭

it is One man who has split his mind into many segments which have manifested to become two polar opposites of his mind, yet both are HIS thoughts,emotions and ideals.

To help provide an easier understanding,

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

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

✯Yoshida shoyo is without a doubt an S tier character and villain as well

Hmmm not to be political or anything😭, but you're really undervaluing and undermining the issues of someone who's extremely mentally ill and deranged😟, and the fact such individuals need professional help to overcome their trauma and recover.

But then you're just twisting this problem into your own superficial convenience at the expense of an incredibly full-fledged character and a unique characterization. I truly think some media which has been as long-standing and entertaining as gintama should be appreciated at a straightforward and honest level.

Especially when the topic touches on mental health and trauma, trauma recovery. Gintama covers a lot of other topics like LGBTQ, beauty standards, Social outcasting, etc as well and I don't see us talking too much about it.

However I also think sorachi himself also could have dealt with the topics more extensively instead of glossing over in some places, still, this is mostly a comedy manga and is for shits and giggles, so I can't really expect a thorough run through of every topic covered. This can also be seen when he has many side characters that are loved but we still did not get enough screentime of time.

E.g. Katsura, Sakamoto, Nobume etc

Open your eyes and process the information you're receiving please🙄. Blatant disregard of the trauma here can come off as inconsiderate and insensitive, you're just treating him as two whole different people, like he's possessed or something, your honour.🤨

(Very derogatory to people affected by MPD by rejecting their inner turmoil as just another human being coming from them out of nowhere instead of addressing the complexities of the human brain that are still yet to be uncovered)

This isn't the 16th century where mental illness is treated like you've got a ghost in you or you've secretly been replaced by a clone.

This is NOT a yuji and Sukuna situation. Hes just one man, one soul, one mind, that mind is just broken into many pieces(personalities), because of his extreme suffering.

So please understand that okay just appreciate the mentally ill men representation smfh. I LOVE BROKEN TRAUMATISED MEN REPRESENTATION PLEASE

***IMPORTANT NOTE

TO CLARIFY multiple personality comes under dissociative disorders, considering how his life was, his mind coping with his trauma using this method makes the most sense

Of course trauma can cause many disorders like schizophrenia and what not, but this kind of like the apex of it

Makes sense given the amount of unimaginable horrors he has been put through. Therefore to put it simply he's completely torn within himself, but its just one source NOT a whole new other identity/man coming outta nowhere

And that same persona is DEFINITELY NOT something that shoyo himself cannot understand, he VERY WELL knows himself and all his different identities

(As shown when he clearly has his memories with all of his shoka sonjuku disciples even when he became utsuro) -> e.g. uses his past personification and sayings to taunt gintoki during a fight

He is completely aware of his nature, its just out of his control because of all the overwhelming psychological trauma (this leading to the reason on why he switched back to utsuro after his execution)

NOTE: MY ANALYSIS POST ON WHY SHOYO IS A VIRGIN ALSO COVERS THIS TOPIC TO AN EXTENT IT CAN HELP GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING THATS ALL BYE BYE GO CHECK IT OUT

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

I GOT A QUESTION: was shoyo originally born a human (had parents) and then got altana induced into him/absorbed it somehow OR was he born from the altana of the earth herself. I assumed he was originally human at first & got exposed to altana or came outta the womb with altana in his bloodstream somehow but idk MY BRAIN'S STUCK HERE HELP

idk if its a mistranslation on the manga's part or not I genuinely donno cuz the manga kinda states to me he could have come out directly from the dragon hole and then taken the form of a human but yet again idk this is smth i wna hear theories on bcuz IDK WHICH ONE TO BELIEVE NOW😭

I need to reiterate my question my brain cells are fried: was shoyo born like how humans are born through the mothers womb OR was he created from the earth herself because of the altana the earth has and had also ORIGINALLY sprouted from a dragon hole(earth's hole💀) like in the SS finale

because yes for regeneration he does get reborn from the dragon hole and veins BUT WHERE DID HE O R I G I N A T E FROM.

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

INCOMING RANT

Yoshida Shoyo is a virgin and I stand by that😤

(with proof and analysis)

I definitely could have added more info on why I think that this is so cuz I have many more things that would stand as proof so ill add on a bit more. Read below 👇🏽

this is the same text but in video format but the scenes at the back in some places can be considered as back up for my post😭

MORE ANALYSIS BELOW 👇🏽

1. Total ostracism

He was ousted since he was a kid and it lasted for centuries. He was literally TORTURED for simply existing my man did nothing to warrant this hell but oh well that's humans of the past for you. It should be known that his whole 1000+ years of life, not one soul had bothered to help or stand up for him, because nobody knows what it's like to be in his state and never bothered to sympathise with him.

2. Disgusted by humans

He has literally called humans disgusting many times, and yet it's not even the most insulting thing he has called humans. He's a certified hater to the point that he could be considered a racist(discriminates the human race and kinda every other life form in the universe)

Mostly someone would say oh but he's been alive for over a 1000 years something definitely happened. Yes something did, hate and pain and agony is what happened😭😭😭 first few centuries, were different methods of killing and torturing him, then for about 500 years I think, he was rotting away in a cell in a cave.

And then the next 500 years he was killing mfs left and right. I can safely assume that after his break from jail, when he immediately started killing the first group of humans that he met, he literally means he wanted to get rid of anyone he laid eyes on💀 Man didn't just despise, he was REVOLTED.

An important qns that could come up is what if when he was yoshida shoyo (for around 15 years). It's a very short amount of time compared to his lifespan isn't it☠️ Also not to forget the fact as I mentioned before, he was still heavily discriminated and feared. Also He was chased out of every town or village he travelled to, hence the title that he's a wanderer(along with gintoki).

(This could possibly have been the fact that the people recognised him as either the immortal demon or as the leader of Naraku) However it could also contribute to the fact that his revolutionary teachings were bothering the townsfolk's norms, thus the community unrest resulting in chasing him out.

Idc what anyone says a man who was so intensely and ruthlessly tortured would have a dead libido, man has literally experienced death like a daily occurrence. It was frequent ritual to come back from the dead, he has literally seen death and had tea with it, and is used to it he would NOT gaf about his dick which probably stays dead too with how many times he's been killed.

I could say the same for physical attraction because, firstly, his deep hate,more emphasis on DISGUST and DISCRIMINATION he holds for humans as well as for living beings on every other planet in the universe as Utsuro is well known. But as for yoshida shoyo, the compassionate man, I would consider him a man above worldly pleasures, as his immortality, past lives and wisdom(along with how tired he is of everyone) can attest to that.

3. Man beyond societal pressures and standards

Considering that he's a certified menace to society from birth till death, along with the menaces he trained. Safe to say he would not give any fucks about being socially acceptable even as yoshida shoyo he was still a force to be reckoned with, he was in no way submissive(the scene where he rushes to protect his kids amd threatens a bunch of men that he'll collapse the whole government because HE COULD).

With the way he has lived his life and all the events he has gone through, societal expectations/cues would actually mean nothing to him(along with his lifespan), He had become numb to the minds and behaviours of humans long ago. He has no need to go out of his way to do or say anything that does not please him and has no one to appease to. The only reason he surrendered when the Naraku came for him was to not jeopardize the safety of his students.

He COULD have easily fought them off, but after twenty years or so he probably got tired again of constantly running from the naraku(he did say at one point he was tired of running). And he was also confident in the beginnings of revolution and strong spirits he had sowed into the students he taught.

His teachings were considered as revolutionary and forward thinking, he took a new approach to life that breaks away from the stigmatised version of what was initially taught to young people and his method encouraged individualism and soul searching along with self sufficiency and inner peace, atleast to pack all of his teaching's purpose in a nutshell(definitely encapsulates much more than these ideas).

The new outlook he had begun to teach was seen as rebellious and as a fire that had to be snuffed out before its influence could spread. This further solidifies the idea that he was rather more taken with the notion that each individual pursues their own ambitions and their own rules of life, rather than conforming to the society's expectations upon them at the time he was a teacher. The principle of a man following his own rules set upon his own soul can be found in Gintoki as well, which were the concepts of individuality Shoyo had passed down to his students.

In the current years as far as I know nobody really judges you for your sex life but hookup culture was more "normalised" a few decades ago, cough cough millennials cough cough. E.g. sorachi making constant cherry/virgin jokes. No matter how normalised or societal standard anything maybe, shoyo was FARRRR from normal, bet that he would be the polar opposite of any type of expectation society normally has. And society does largely normalise as men sleeping around or even encouraged to sleep around, some reasons for that is to prove they have a sex drive yappa yappa bunch of bullshit.

Further emphasised by my point that Yoshida Shoyo is a Man that Never conforms to societal expectations, no matter what personality he was in, from his original birth till his last death(1,700+ years when he died) in silver soul and I stand by that. As to why he would never even bother to get involved in romantic or sexual intentions is also explained in this post.

The ordinary person who has been through many struggles in their life would already stop caring about what society thinks or says even when we would have been indoctrinatedfrom young, at one point. And as for Yoshida shoyo who has been treated nothing but cruelly and inhumanely from the start, a treatment to an extent no other being would ever be able to experience. And then found compassion and humanity within himself to go forward, even if it was only a mere 15 years, would never even stop to think about what other people expect or would say and criticise, always.

Moreover, despite shoyo being human, he is not ordinary as I have repeatedley stated, and the way he was born human is also not the way anyone else has been created and come into existence.

It's clear for us throughout gintama that shoyo viewed being alive and having a body as a burden, immensely. So it's obvious that a body that pains his soul to have would not be worried about pleasure in a physical sense. As aforementioned in the first part(twitter post), he would not even bother to think about it given his life incidents.

And as an individual, for 1. he is very mentally ill and at war within himself,

2. he's seen too many things in life and is traumatised to an unimaginable extent.

3. nobody would ever be able to truly understand or sympathise with him.

4. with the way his character is he seems self sufficient and independent, thus losing the need to find gratification in anyone else physically, emotionally and mentally.

Instead he had a lot of wisdom and knowledge to share and demonstrate to the world instead, hence his choice to become a teacher(starting/working in a temple school).

4. Not human nor programmed to be humane.

Shoyo was born human(but born directly from mother earth and came out of one of the dragon holes which each shrine monitors), but due to unforeseen circumstances he ended up becoming a being of altana or was born with altana in his blood. So from a very young age he was programmed to be much different from the average human. He himself, due to all the abuse and visceral disgust aimed towards him, stopped considering himself a human and instead became a monster, not human, and was even deprived from any sort of human normalcy. As Yoshida shoyo, he would have not valued anything the average person would, he is not normal. (in a good and bad way).

Moreover gintama has many references deep-rooted into Buddhism and Shoyo was basically akin to a monk during his teaching era.

He chose to run his private school as a TEMPLE school and I have a theory that since gintoki had found shoyo reborn and being taken care of in one of the shrines near the dragon hole, I assume that when shoyo had first come into origin, he was also taken in by the monks in the shrine at first, and raised for a while until he was discovered to be immortal, to which he was then subject to endless torture and deaths by the common populace during that era.

None of his personalities via his split personality would ever delve into pleasurable ways, because, exempting his personality of yoshida shoyo, every other personality was an extension of Utsuro, who wanted nothing to do with humans and wished for the extinction of them. So excluding his hundred other extensions of his mind(personalities), his singular personality, can definitely be perceived and considered as a zen master/monk.

Heres a link to a shoyo analysis(at the end of the post), it delves into the life and character arc of yoshida shoyo, along with his connections and references to Buddhism. And importantly how his death signifies nirvana, nirvana means to break the cycle of life, and to do that, some points to achieve this are to go beyond the worldly/materialistic aspects of life, which shoyo has already mastered in my opinion. Atleast as yoshida shoyo, excluding his other personalities.

The only thing stopping him from being freed was his suffering and absolute pain which even resulted in him becoming mentally deranged. His suffering was the only thing stopping him from absolution.

In a way, Utsuro yearned for nirvana too(shoyo is no different from utsuro in the ways of his soul no matter the amount of personalities, hes still just one soul, one man), but went about it in a more "all encompassing" method💀 because his nihilism was at its peak within him, with his history of genocide as a fuel to his ambitions. He wanted to truly end not just his existence and consciousness but everything that exists as a whole. As he believed as Utsuro it would be a more fitting way to end ALL cycles once and for all (perpetuated agenda by his hatred).

In the end, obviously as he has repeatedly stated, he yearned for death, the end of the cycle. And a man who yearns for death, would not consider anything else in his life other than leaving the very body that is nothing more than a burden to him. And vehemently strived to dissolve his soul to put a full stop to the endless agony that he knows and calls life.

Link: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSFGagoWo/

I greatly recommend u check out my other post too! where I delve into Shoyo's mental illness, Multiple personality disorder and how that made his journey tougher to make peace within himself and finally die as yoshida shoyo.

End of my post I hope that everyone realises I'm always right when it comes to my love, shoyo😝.

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Late post I love a man that knows jackshit about parenting but then goes and adopts 5 kids

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Him and takasugi even more so

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

GRRRR I LOVE THE FINAL ADAPTATION BUT I WISH THEY FOLLOWED THE MANGA MORE THIS ONLY LASTED A FEW SECONDS BUT I FEEL LIKE ITS SO SIGNIFICANT AND SHOULDVE BEEN DONE THE EXACT SAME WAY AAAAHHHH

The way he was maliciously smiling over takasugi's shoulder displays his cunning nature and smug attitude at "winning" that impacts so much more in the manga than in the movie like it just shows he took over takasugi's body but at the start to be more accurate his consciousness was taking over takasugi's.

Showing how takasugi's appearance is what stabbed shoyo idk its just much more menacing and it would've taken this scene in the movie to a whole another level imo

Like they did it accurately for Oboro who appeared beside takasugi when resisting but even that scene was shown for like a split second please give my son more screen time please at least in the end😭😭😭😭

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

Wat was sorachi on and why was hijikata the victim

I will never forget about mpreg hijikata its etched into my mind

[shoyosoneandonlywife]

HIIII IM GNA BE WORKING ON AN ANALYSIS ON LAKE TOYA I HOPE U LIKE IT