Do You Ever Think About How Poetic The Scene Of Gojo Being Sealed In Shibuya Is? I'm Not Just Talking

Part of why I dragged my feet on ever checking out JJK was the reputation I heard was that it's a BRUTAL grimdark story where ANYONE can DIE in a snap and the author says FUCK you. And after finally catching up with the anime that just... Isn't the tone at all?? Like, Game of Thrones, Gantz, Attack on Titan, etc other cornerstone grimdark reference points, I think one of their defining hallmarks is not just that characters die suddenly and violently, but that human life is nasty, brutish, and meaningless, and it's your own fault for being stupid enough to get attached.

Jujutsu Kaisen on the other hand, I don't know how you can look at one of the most recent casualties circa S2Ep20 of the anime where that character gets a full entire episode reminiscing about their childhood, and the moments and people that meant most to them, and come away thinking the author's intent was to treat life as meaningless. The amount of screen time devoted to the following character who gets badly maimed, the audience gets enthusiastically shoved neck deep into their insane kaleidoscopic passion that is never once undercut or subverted. Both of these characters, far from being callously snuffed out and dumped in the trash, were shown immense love. What we got was not a statement of their life being disposable, but a celebration of life, a reminder of who they are, what they cared about, what made them special, who they loved and who loved them and will remember them in turn.

This is a story about curses born of misery, hatred, and malice. It is also a story deeply concerned with dualism, especially when it comes to attachment and desire. Misery stems from worldly attachments, but it is not weak or foolish to become attached to things in this world. To love something is to set yourself up for the pain or anger of losing it, or sadness of having it denied. But that love is what makes life worth living anyway, and what makes it worth it to keep fighting. We as the audience are sad because we are attached to these characters who have met terrible fates. We see enough of them to be able to clearly picture the whole rich life they could have lived surrounded by friends and feel the sting of that path cut short. It is a story about how it was worthwhile knowing them well enough to be attached anyway, even if it meant unavoidable heartbreak.

This is true of both the human protagonists as well as the curses! Volcano Man and Mahito are ruthless killers who cruelly take lives without a thought. They also have hopes and dreams that they earnestly try to protect and follow through on, and face heartbreaking despair upon defeat. They feel pain just like we do, but must nevertheless be killed. Humans face pain through the very act of living, but nevertheless must live.

In true grimdark fiction there is rarely anything good in life for characters to return to once the battle is over. In Jujutsu Kaisen, on the contrary, there is enough good in life that we see it even amidst the battle. I can see that no other way than an expression of genuine affection. Truly bleak fiction leaves me wondering why everyone involved doesn't just put a gun in their mouth and be done with it. JJK provides an answer--because you'll get to laugh about ruining an expensive shirt, because you'll meet an acquaintance's hot mom, because the next human earthworm movie is coming out, because your favorite idol is doing a meet and greet this weekend, because maybe someday you'll finally go to Malaysia. There are many answers, and none of them are stupid.

Yeah Katniss Is Lucy Gray’s greatest revenge on snow

But Peeta is how she haunts him. 

Katniss is Lucy’s anger. She’s the retribution. 

Katniss is fire. Katniss used her songs as a warcry. As a call to arms. 

Katniss is the fight. 

Katniss is the revenge. 

Peeta is Lucy’s kindness.  He’s the reminder. 

A boy in love with a songbird. A boy obsessed with with a victor from twelve. 

Peeta is the good that Lucy was. Peeta believes in that fundamental kindness Lucy gray did. Peeta is her memory. The reminder that Snow crossed that line into evil. 

Even after being high jacked, peeta warns people. He tells them to flee the danger. Run like Lucy did. 

Peeta knows how to hide. He can disappear in the woods. 

Just like Lucy did. 

Peeta is charismatic, someone the capitol fell in love with, like they did with Lucy. 

Peeta is the memory. 

Katniss was there to end Snow, to stop him to make sure everything he built was burned. 

Peeta was there to torment him. Be the ghost of Lucy. Make sure Snow was in pain over the woman he lost. 

Hannah Montana is fucked up because its entire POINT as a show is that children should be protected from fame and exploitation, but it stars a REAL little girl that's being exploited. Nearly every episode carries the looming threat of Miley being outed as Hannah and losing her peaceful teenage life to the ravages of fame. Her father in the show (played by her own father in real life) wisely protected her from the trauma of fame by making her wear a disguise and live a rather quiet, interview-free life. Meanwhile the REAL Billy Ray Cyrus sold his daughter to Disney Channel when she was 11 and forced her to read dialogue about how terrible it would be to face the public eye. Like... Jesus, dude. The fictional Robby Ray is 10x the father, and it's not even close. (It's also IMMENSELY funny that her dad doesn't use his real name in the show, while she does. Almost like he wanted a bit of a disconnect between his identity and his character. Something Miley didn't get.)

"Gojo should've gotten to live as a person-" THAT’S THE POINT. That is the ENTIRE point of JJK. Every single character who died was someone who "should've gotten to" do a lot of things. Riko should've gotten to live for herself, Geto should've had the chance to be a teenage boy given support and safety, Junpei should've gotten to live without fear, Nobara should've had the chance to let people in without fear, Nanami, Yuki, Mai, Higurama, EVERYONE.

Here's the thing, Gojo is on this list. Gojo isn't the exception because JJK at its core is a story about how overarching systems destroy people; bullying, capitalism, sexism, etc. And this system does not need people to run it. Which is why killing Kenjaku didn't stop shit because yeah he started this mess but its grown beyond him. Fuck, it was there before him.

This is also why despite Sukuna & Uraume being the only ones who are actual threats, nothing is better. The cast got rid of the higher-ups, jujutsu tech as it is, is no more. The major families are dismantled. This should be a victory. This is what the Sashisu gen pointed out as the problem but things have never looked more bleak.

Why? Because the problem isn't Kenjaku, Sukuna, curses, sorcerers or curse users. It's the existence of Cursed Energy itself. This has been pointed out multiple times by Yuki. Its the system and Gojo has been complicit to the system for a long, long time. He's also it's victim. Gojo says he's the exception a lot, but as everyone has rightfully pointed out, he was nothing more than a weapon to jujutsu society.

JJK has followed a very clear pattern to every character right from Geto to Junpei to Riko; characters are representatives of systems of suppression, and they will not escape it. I can't recall a single character that's escaped unscathed, much less alive.

Is it disrespectful? Yes. Is it demeaning? YES. There has not been a single character death that's been dignified in JJK. It's all on a scale of bearable to absolutely horrifying. It is genuinely wild seeing people resort to threatening the author AGAIN. Calm the fuck down. You are entitled to feeling upset about how Gojo has been treated but Yuta stans are being calm despite Yuta arguably suffering the "he is a weapon" thing WORSE. It's still a fictional character and JJK's narratives never treated Gojo with any exceptions despite the character saying otherwise.

Hunger Games fanfic blurb:

I sipped the last of my water, slow as I could, hoping it would tide me awhile through the heat of the Hobb. Business was slow today. Not that we make much on other days, selling trinkets and scraps of metal and cloth in a district where most people could barely buy bread. But we scrape by.

But today, I hadn't a single body come by to look at the wares. Although, I s'pose, when you've got a Reaping tomorrow, you're probably not in a buying sorta mood. Even Greasy Sae is selling her stew for half price today for the youngins that usually come around to her corner.

Speaking of the youngins, one of them walks my way. The one with stern eyes who brings fresh game from the woods. The butcher's wife says she hunts 'em with a bow and her arrows never miss the mark. Must be nice to have a useful trade like that. Sometimes, she trades me berries for balls of yarn. That's probably what she's making her way over for.

Never got her name. I call her "Stern Eyes" and word around the Seam is she sings like a songbird. My Gammy Maude would've liked that. She gives me berries wrapped in cloth, and I give her the yarn. But she doesn't walk away.

She reaches her hand into one of the boxes, the one with old pins for hair and clothes that might've been pretty once but had gotten rusty and dusty since. Then she pulls out that pin. Gammy Maude's pin that used to belong to her friend. The friend with bad luck in love and even worse in life. Some say she ran away, and some say got shot in the woods by her lover. Gammy said her friend used to sing too. Like a songbird.

Gammy never liked that pin much. Said it never brought nothing but bad luck. I think it just reminded her too much of her friend and the lover who might've shot her. But she still kept the pin till she died. Guess reminders are still reminders.

It's a mockingjay pin. Might be gold, but it's too old and grimy to tell. Could've sold it for scrap metal, but after hearing Gammy's stories, I could never bring myself to melt the damn thing down. And it's not like I could just walk up to the fancy parts of town with a mockingjay pin to sell. The peacekeepers would have cuffed me before I could quote a price. Probably really is bad luck anyway.

Stern Eyes is holding the pin and askin how much. I think of asking for a couple of coins, and then I remember the Reaping. She's probably young enough to have her name in the bowl. More than a couple of times, like every Seam kid. I wonder if it'd bring bad luck to her too. Or maybe it'd bring her good luck. If I'm being honest, I just want the pin gone. Can't keep holding on to a thing like that.

I tell her she can take it. No charge. Can't ask people to pay you for what could be bad luck. Don't know why she picked that one, but I wonder if she knows anything about the last songbird who had it.

I really hope it brings her better luck than Gammy's friend.

Writer's note: I know this isn't accurate to the books where Katniss gets the pin from Madge and the pin isn't really mentioned in TBOSAS. But I remember she gets it in the Hobb in the movie and it does make an appearance in the prequel movie as well. Soooo, that's where this idea came from!

They knew what he was the moment he opened his eyes. Or rather, what he would become. What they would make him.

When the word spread, they called him different things. A sign from above. A savior. The strongest sorcerer this world has seen in centuries. The pride of the Gojo clan. The wielder of the Six Eyes.

The titles were pretty, but they all meant the same thing. From the moment Gojo Satoru opened his eyes, he was a weapon.

A weapon does not need to love or be loved. Love is vulnerability. A weapon cannot be vulnerable.

A weapon does not need to care, only kill. When they tell you to. Whatever (or whoever) they tell you to. A good weapon asks no questions. A weapon does not care.

A weapon does not need to be happy. Happiness is having friends and laughing at stupid things and playing in the sun. Happiness us for children. A weapon is not a child.

Gojo Satoru was a weapon. The best one in centuries.

Until he wasn't.

Until Geto Suguru looked at his eyes like they were beautiful. Like he was beautiful. Weapons are not beautiful. But he looked at him like he was not a weapon. And he made him want to believe it.

And then they gave him the order to execute him. But the weapon was no longer a weapon. Weapons did not have hearts. Suguru may have left it bleeding and broken in the wake of his departure, but it was still the greatest gift he had given Satoru. A weapon did not know love or care or happiness. Satoru was not a weapon.

You know what's really ironic when it comes to Coriolanus Snow? It's the fact that according to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, he garners attention and approval and finally mentorship under Dr. Gaul by pushing the idea of balancing humanity and spectacle in the hunger games. Make the tributes human enough to get attention and get people invested in the games. But make them spectacle enough that people don't look deep enough to question the games themselves. Make the competition human enough that people will pick sides and pour money. But make it spectacle enough that they don't protest their side losing.

It's the idea that paves his rise to power. But it's also the same thing that brings about his downfall. The spectacle of the hunger games gave a front and center platform to a naive but defiant girl from District Twelve to become the face of a revolution and the ultimate weapon against him. The measured humanity that he urged into the games got people to trust her word, trust her very image in ways that Snow had never anticipated. The balanced wielding of humanity and spectacle that Lucy Gray used to win her games is what Katniss used to end them, both enabled by Snow.

And here's the final kicker- the reason his brutally brilliant plan failed him in the end was because of the one thing Snow never took seriously enough to consider. The Districts. Snow had keen insight into how the people of the Capitol worked and thought. It allowed him to manipulate many of them. But he dismissed the role of the districts as inconsequential in the larger play of things. As long as they were kept suppressed, it didn't matter. And that's where his oversight cost him. He didn't consider the effects of the same humanity and spectacle when perceived by the districts. He didn't see how he was giving them the spark they were always looking for until the match had already been lit. The girl was already on fire. The Capitol was already burning. The snow was already melting.