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[lizard-tail]

A thematic aspect of being The Strongest, Sukuna and his fight

It's interesting that overall Gege has always portrayed being the strongest as a negative thing. Gojo had his issues with isolation and dehumanization, Kashimo felt isolated as well and was dissatisfied with how his life turned out, many of the other incarnated sorcerers who were proclaimed as the strongest had similiar feelings of dissatisfaction. They were still tied down to human feelings, desires and wants, leading them to not be fully satisfied with their lives, feeling as if they were lacking something integral, despite their strength and status as the strongest.

Enter Sukuna: His presence shows that you need to let go of your humanity and your ties to other humans entirely to be satisfied as The Strongest™. Sukuna understood the bonds between humans but rejected them as unnecessary. That's also why he called Gojo and Kashimo greedy. Because to be the strongest and be fulfilled by it one needs to let go of things like love. Even at his end he rejects it and calls himself a curse. So being the ultimate strongest by rejecting humanity and bonds to other people makes one the Bad Guy™ and very inhuman.

Gege either portrays being the strongest as isolating and unfulfilling or as inhuman. IMO he straight up criticises the position as the strongest/best/number 1 and people striving to be in that position or seeing it as the only worthwhile achivement in life.

In contrast Sukuna loses to the students, who value and work on their bonds, work together and even share their techniques with each other. Many of their attacks needed to have great teamwork to pull off the timings. They make sacrifices so others can live or attack, noone is focused on being the best to showcase themselves and individual glory, they focus on being the best they can be to help each other. (It's also why I don't care about not being able to power scale the students now with many of their powers being ambiguous. It just straight up doesn't matter anymore)

Gege is basically saying that it's okay to not be the strongest, the best or be number 1. That as long as you have love and other people in your life, you'll have a good and fulfilled life. And he is saying that in Japan, a country where people are always pressured to be on the top even at the expense of others, even friends, sacrificing personal bonds for an impersonal ranking (see their school system for example). In many ways he is straight up saying that just striving to be and then being number 1 may give you power and money, but it results in giving up your humanity and an unsatisfying life due to a lack of bonds and love.

TL;DR: Gege uses Sukuna, the title of The Strongest and the resulting themes of isolation/dissatisfaction/dehumanization to criticise japanese society and their pressure to be the best even at the expense of others.

[lizard-tail]

Hey, I'm the original poster of this comment (originally on reddit) and anon seems to have straight up copied it, so I hope you don't mind jumping in:

I do think it's rushed because I think everthing could have used a few more panels or pages to smooth things out. Some space for the characters to take a breather and really acknowledge how their own world has changed, as well as a bit more regarding the world building/Culling Game/current state of Japan/reactions to the reveal of Curses or Tokyo as a No-Go area. All of it was touched on, but I think some more could made it feel less like a checklist/cliffnotes. And some more details (eg. Megumi regarding Tsumiki or Sukuna) would IMO smooth over many of the conflict resolutions you listed.

Regarding the genre switch: tbh it is a shounen manga published in SJ. So the ending being quite happy is very standard for it. And we should not forget that JJK0 ended with the genocidal villain being defeated by the Power of Love. Which is straight up the most shounen it could get.

It's just utterly rushed. It seems everything are just straight up cliffnotes. Gege could have really needed a few chapters more to actually execute the ending.

Some of the important info storywise in this chapter are:

- Tengen being found in the remnants of Sukuna and allowing the barriers to remain for now. But it seems they are in a running clock about that and the barriers will fall in the future if they don't find a solution.

- The incarnated players are getting slowly hunted down to free their vessels, or in the case of Sumo and Katana guys, are allowed to fight the curses in Tokyo until they are released as well (they want Maki to do it)

- Tokyo is basically ground zero and a No-Go Area

- As curses are known now, non-sorcerers who experience weird stuff can turn to sorcerers for help with no Trouble

- the new players who got new powers return to their lives but use the growth they had to better their lives or start to make amends

IMO that sets up the solution of teaching non-sorcerers about curses, cursed energy, maybe even ways to control it, integrating both societies into one (as Yuki proposed to Geto in their talk, the other solution being removing CE, which she concentrated on during Shibuya). Meaning one of Yuki's solutions is within reach and can be done. It additionally solves one of the major factors of Geto's downfall which was the thanklessness and sometimes violent prejudice against sorcerer

I'm not quiet sure I would call this ending rushed, I'm going back and forth with it, but I would call it cut off but like you said its kinda like checking off notes and putting a ✔ at the end of it.

Your last point about being closer to realizing Yuki's dream is interesting and not something I thought about. Honestly, I've only been thinking of this from the opposite end: Gege took out every piece of conflict from the story in a single chapter.

Culling Games: no more. Reincarnated players: their cursed object will be removed the nice reincarnated players: get to have fun after accepting their future deaths Tengen: is not imprisoned inside Megumi, isn't dead, her barriers don't fall Yuta: has his body back Higuruma: won't be tried for manslaughter Megumi: doesn't have any lasting trauma from Sukuna Tsumiki: nice grave Abducted sorcerers: we'll get them back The invasion: ?? instability after the big clans fall that was talked about last chapter: ?? Change of the status quo of jujutsu after the Six Eyes died: ??

For me, it feels like JJK suddenly changed its genre in the last three chapters...

[lizard-tail]

Chapter 270 and Yuki's solution

In Yuki's talk with Geto she mentions 2 solutions to the CE/Curse problem:

The extraction of CE in non-sorcerers

teaching non-sorcerers to control CE

Yuki concentrated on the second possibility at that time, because Toji died. (In Shibuya she mentioned returning to solution No.1) And what is needed to teach non-sorcerers about CE? The knowledge that CE and curses exists. Meaning this solution needs the reveal of jujutsu society by default. And this has happened after Shibuya.

Some of the important info storywise in this chapter are:

Tengen being found in the remnants of Sukuna and allowing the barriers to remain for now. But it seems they are in a running clock about that and the barriers will fall in the future if they don't find a solution.

The incarnated players are getting slowly hunted down to free their vessels, or in the case of Sumo and Katana guys, are allowed to fight the curses in Tokyo until they are released as well (they want Maki to do it)

Tokyo is basically ground zero and a No-Go Area

As curses are known now, non-sorcerers who experience weird stuff can turn to sorcerers for help with no trouble

the new players who got new powers return to their lives but use the growth they had to better their lives or start to make amends

IMO that sets up the solution of teaching non-sorcerers about curses, cursed energy, maybe even ways to control it, integrating both societies into one. Meaning Yuki's solution within reach and can be done. It additionally solves one of the major factors of Geto's downfall which was the thanklessness and sometimes violent prejudice against sorcerers.

That's IMO a nice way to end things regarding Jujutsu society, non-sorcerers and the battle against curses.

[lizard-tail]

A really interesting piece on Geto.

There are quite a few parts where I really agree with you concerning your thoughts, like his saviour complex or his lack of self-reflection and his black-and-white thinking regarding his 'Strong protect the weak' philosophy and how it easily switches when it doesn't fit into his world view anymore.

It's interesting to see your headcanon regarding his family, because sadly we know basically nothing about it. We all can only extrapolate from the few scant info we get. Tbh I also think his family is middle class, secure and educated, though I don't think they are Tokyo-based and more small town based. The disappearance of his parents was only noticed days after the village massacre and I think if they were Tokyo-based (meaning really good jobs) their coworkers would have noticed them going missing and an investigation would have been launched from the non-sorcerer side which would most likely include talking to their underaged son that also resides in the same city. But that's only me extrapolating things a bit differently than you.

I also love the fact that you talk about Maki, the main injured party by Geto, not getting any kind of closure. Which is actually a nice parallel to Geto himself, who couldn't get any closure about Toji. And both than wield the same weapon of their personal antagonist after.

But I do disagree on some things. You say you disagree a lot with the thinking of Geto being maternal/feminine Codes, but it's something explicitly mentioned by Gege and others (Gege stating twice that Geto could get pregant [https://www.reddit.com/r/Jujutsufolk/comments/1bipkq7/reminder_that_homosexualsquared_has_talked_about/?rdt=35365])

(Geto's love being described as maternal [https://x.com/strabrrykiss/status/1792168602130387301?s=46&t=fRFF_o0I99NKUvzHwQHykA])

So the maternal-codedness comes from official sources and is, despite how you may feel about it or its execution, actually authorial intent.

You also mention how he never reaches out about being lonely or needing help, and while I do understand what you feel, in my opinion it's straight up real to life regarding mental illness. Because when you do suffer from mental illness the most difficult thing you ever have to do is reach out for help. It's fake it, 'til you make it, but sadly you'll never make it and will only reach rock bottom.

But yes, I hate that many shove the responsibility on Gojo or Shoko. Because it was 100% not their responsibility or fault. It's a complete failure of the system and adults, especially the teachers, around them. In many ways it was Yaga's responsiblity (and if course Geto's but I'm not talking about his individual actions right now, but how the system around him failed to support him). And in some ways he acknowledges that after the baseball game in his talk with Gakuganji. In comparison to the present times it seems to Gojo/Geto/Shoko times the students were absolutely unsupervised and left without any support system. Geto's massacre and absconding was noticed only 5 days later, meaning 5 days without any kind of contact between Geto and others was normal (even between Geto and Gojo/Shoko). And it was the past but cell phones still existed. I mean around that time the first iPhones came on the market. And no matter his strength or saviour complex, Geto was still an underaged child. And teachers have a mandated responsibility towards their students, especially if they are still underage. The absolute carelessness of the teachers, adults and higher ups is mindblowing. I guess it's more suprising that child soldiers completely going ax-crazy on a murder spree did not happen more often. (Sidenote: Gojo deserves all the praise that he actually changed that, and serves as a great support person for his students)

I'll join you in lighting up a cigarette, I can never get enough of writing and reading up on Geto and how others view him and his actions.

Thoughts on Geto and the dichotomy between how he's perceived and how he acts

While in the middle of a fic, I had to put some thoughts together because I use Geto as the main POV character, and I simply have a lot of thoughts about him and the way he's treated, both by Gege himself, and the fandom.

First and foremost, obviously this is a fictional character who commits entirely fictional crimes and violence and everyone is allowed to play with him, project onto him, and empathize with him in any way they prefer. That said, I get to ramble and air out some thoughts because out of all characters in JJK I feel like Geto is the most contentious and I'm never happy with how either the likers or haters address him.

I've always thought how interesting it is that Geto comes from a normal family (and I would assume comfortably middle class and based in Tokyo - so very well-off and, well-liked, with educated parents and a secure household) and is born with a power of this caliber.

Often, I feel that the fandom talks about him being repressed by non-sorcerers and jujutsu society alike, but I personally think there's a lot of parallels to be made between him and men's entitlement in a societal aspect (please don't call me a misandrist just yet, stay with me!!)

Call this a huge reach, but it's like, for one - Geto understands how rare it is to be Special Grade, and there's no way that kind of title doesn't go to your head. Especially when you learn this as a teenager and find out you're not only Super Duper Ultra Special but that there's thousands of people who come from generations with special powers that will never come even remotely close to your level, no matter how hard they try.

I believe it's mentioned in an interview (with Namakura Yuichi I think?) where it's stated Geto is first classified as Grade One and works his way up, which yes, does imply that he works for his position. But he's also momentarily put into a classification that very few other sorcerers can ever get to. Not to mention as well that his power is simply strong by design. Yes, if he has no curses, he's defenseless, but when he starts gathering a supply, the sky is the limit. And apart from the unpleasant taste and sensation, Geto is never shown to struggle obtaining any curse. He does work for his position, but he already starts at a level that for tons of others is the very top of the ceiling.

He also talks very confidently about who 'the weak' are. Which is often framed as him being Gojo's opposite in high school, being the levelheaded and kindhearted one. But to me, it seems more like being condescending rather than genuinely philanthropic. Even if, to himself, he is.

Unlike Gojo, who lashes out because he's a little air-headed and cocky, because he's a teenager that wants to slack off and isn't used to having responsibilities, Geto seems to have a savior complex.

He's the one with the powers, they're the ones who need to be saved.

And it's not like he has a lot of mercy or respect for other sorcerers either - he talks poorly about Utahime. Unintentionally, which might be worse because he both thinks he's doing her a favor but doesn't even address her directly. He treats the other curse users like annoyances, not threats, he eliminates them in much more visceral ways than Gojo does (compare the way Geto beats the living shit out of the old curse manipulator using his fists and raw physical power and the cartoony/ethereal way Gojo's fights are shown before the Toji fight). And at the first sign of non-sorcerers not being the idealized image of a helpless civilian in need of saving who will bow down and thank him for his service, he detaches completely from having any sympathy or even viewing them as human.

[I know, of course, that in the narrative, Geto's downfall is more an explanation for why he was the villain in JJK0 instead of organic character progression, but for the sake of character exploration as I see it happen, suspend your disbelief please]

So really, I think Geto has the potential to be a very believable and excellent villain, but in a completely different direction from how he's represented in canon. Not to get too dark here, but his character arc is almost incel-like. He doesn't jump into supremacy because he just has these beliefs, but there's hints that he already has biases and preconceptions about the world and his position in it. Coupled with the idea that he's never particularly struggled in his personal life, or at least isn't ever shown to, means he's never had to build the self-reflection and neutrality about the world around him.

And yes, Geto does go through a traumatic event, absolutely, but the way he grapples with it is not by addressing being lonely, or being hurt, or overworked, or having his ego-wounded, which does seem really in-line with how a lot of men lash out at the world around them for their disillusionment. Geto admits to himself that he's lonely, but he never reaches out and only isolates further, practically indulging in his own misery. Likewise, a lot of the backlash, from the fandom side, is on Gojo and Shoko for not being the ones to come to Geto and essentially save him, even though they're dealing with their own shit. Even the canon indulges in this subtly, because Gojo's own narrations and flashbacks constantly show how much he regrets losing Geto.

The whole situation is very close to a mirror of the conflict men have when it comes to dealing with rejection as opposed to a lot of women/POC/queer folk, who have to build up their own defense mechanisms, accept the possibility of rejection and how to manage yourself from a very early age. And then that whole thing leads to a state of arrested development and resentment of the world.

To that end, and this is one of the most terminally online things I have ever written down, I feel a very jarring disagreement with all the takes about Geto being a maternal and feminine-coded character. There's nothing wrong with wanting that characterization, naturally, people can do what they want.

But the more I think about Geto and see the way the narratives treats his character, I can't help but feel there's nothing feminine about it. The way Gege writes and treats female characters by and large lacks the mercy and ambiguity Geto receives. The women in JJK are killed, defeated and humiliated, usually with their only purpose in the narrative being helping a man or making a man feel sad, and they're almost never brought up again once they're out of the narrative.

Riko is not her own character - she's a plot device. Her death is mentioned to be pivotal to both Gojo and Geto, but she's never mentioned and never considered. She's basically an afterthought that makes Geto's tragedy sadder.

Geto and his impact on Gojo come back, again and again, without a single mention of what a horrible person he really was and how many people he ended up hurting. Yuuta, who personally saw Geto's cruelty in demeaning Maki and nearly killing her, wants to give him a mercy death. Gojo never moves on from him, even though the very last words Geto shared with him were how much he hated non-sorcerers and how little remose he has for being who he is. Maki, on the other hand, never gets any narrative fulfillment against Geto or Kenjaku (sure, she has an arc where she gets to be a powerhouse and beats Naoya, but we never even get input from her about Geto when she is the one that has arguable been the most hurt by him from the main cast).

So bottom line, I do think Geto is really fascinating, and I think he's just, interesting to extrapolate from. Frankly, to me, the worse he's admitted to be, the worse he acts and the more hated he is, the better he shines as a character. I got pretty much everything out that I wanted to say with that, if I was in a sitcom I'd be lighting my post-coital cigarette right about now.

[lizard-tail]

Gojo Satoru’s attempt to change the Jujutsu society was sadly always doomed to fail

Now, first lets get some things out of the way:

Gojo, after Nanami, is one of the best supporting adults for the students. He helps them and protects them during missions, is in general a good mentor that gives them helpful advice, and wants them to fare better than himself and his contemporaries.

I do not criticise Gojo’s attempts to change the Jujutsu society. It needs an absolute overhaul and he does it to make the lives of children better.

His strategy of change through teaching is very commendable and absolutely  needed overall, just so the children can have a functioning adult support system.

But all of that does not change the fact that it was overall always doomed to fail, as it was barely holding the unforgiving nature of the Jujutsu society in check.

Jujutsu Society

The Jujutsu society itself seems to see themselves above non-sorcerers and their laws. I mean they are all normal residents of normal, democratic, modern Japan, right? But they absolutely do not care about Japan’s laws in the slightest. They can and do execute whoever they want, are beyond the judicial system and have child soldiers. And that’s just the absolute major laws of non-sorcerers they ignore. At the same time, it seems they see it as absolutely normal to just exist in Jujutsu society, and recruit every child with a Curse Technique to their fight, as if they all inherently must do it.

Gojo and his place in the system

Gojo, maybe more than anyone else, was the ultimate product of the Jujutsu society. He was at the same time treated like 1) an idolized sign of strength with powers of a demi-god as “The Strongest”, while also 2) the greatest sacrificial lamb raised up for the slaughter as “The Strongest”. It’s a paradoxical position, but a position utterly entrenched in the system. And not only in the system but in Jujutsu existence overall, because his birth changed the balance.

No other character is so integral interwoven into Jujutsu itself and its resulting system as he is. They way the society is now (curse users hiding, more stronger curses…) is because of Gojo, and Gojo is a product of the society (held up as the strongest, him stemming the whole society on his back…). He was raised in it, lived in it, it’s the only society he experienced. So many negative aspects of the Jujutsu society are so normalized for him, he doesn’t even pay it any mind. Because IMO for Gojo those are not aspects of a society that can be changed, but are facts of life.

Normalized endorsement?

Because lets be real: Gojo wants to change the life of the students for the better. That they are not so isolated as he was. That they don’t lose their innocence so soon. All very great things. But he does NOT question the existence of child soldiers!  

Child soldiers and being a child soldier is so normalized for Gojo, that he does not acknowledge/mention the fact that joining a Jujutsu High School and becoming official Jujutsu sorcerers is, by default the loss of their innocence, because they become child soldiers.

(Yes, I know it’s a shounen manga and of course teenagers are the protagonists/heroes, but that’s just a lame and too easy excuse. Especially because JJK plays, deconstructs and subverts a lot of normal shounen tropes at the moment by giving a horrifying insight what it means to be a child soldier. Don’t bring up the horror of child soldiers and then don’t commit)

Gojo himself, despite his good intentions and good actions, often still falls back onto the methods and the system of the Jujutsu society by not really monitoring their missions despite info that it’s not going as planned (Megumi and Sukuna’s finger), sending his students into danger to unlock Yuta’s potential, and most of all, still training children to be child soldiers. Being a child soldier is so ingrained in himself and his surroundings that despite his overall positive actions to better their lives as child soldiers, he does not mention making meaningful changes to lessen their existence as child soldiers.

Lessening the Burden

Because there are changes that the Jujutsu society overall could arrange that would lessen their burden as child soldiers:

Not letting them be unsupervised on missions without an experienced adult sorcerer

Age restriction for the different sorcerer classes despite their innate power and abilities

Only allowing a certain number of missions per month/week

Of course, now there will be people saying that they have to little sorcerers for that, and they need them otherwise more people will die. And yes. There would be most likely more people that die by curses. But at the same time it’s possible that better adjusted sorcerers who were better protected and supported as children have a better rate of survival leading to more sorcerers and saved lives (that would need an impossible case study).

And also: people die. That sounds harsh, but it is true. I mean we all know the articles and studies about world hunger in some countries, and food waste in industrial countries. Horrible working conditions for fast fashion or getting resources. How man-made climate change effects will lead to massive changes and most likely a lot of death and so on. Just massive, horrible failures of systems and societies that take deaths and pain into account. And in contrast to the real-world issues, the Jujutsu sorcerers are not responsible for curses and the subsequent deaths of people. Especially not the children that have a right to be protected.

Now again, that’s not the fault of Gojo at all. But it noticeable that he does not question the existence of child soldiers and does not attempt to make systematic changes. Instead, he focuses on individuals to leave a lasting impression on them.

The issue of class and hierarchy

The power of the Jujutsu society lies in the higher ups made up from very old, established clans and family lines. Gojo’s rank as clan head means he has also a lot of political power. He is basically empowered two times over. So he can throw a lot of power and influence around and force a lot of things his way (eg. Protecting Yuta and Yuuji from execution, taking Megumi from the Zennin…). But as with his sorcerer powers, he is mostly isolated from the others around him regarding his political powers. Noone else close to him has as much political influence as he does, in many ways it’s the opposite as his closest allies and students are despised by the higher ups.

Yuta and Yuuji were to be executed, Inumaki is from a clan that’s despised and hunted down, Hakari was suspended, Maki is hated by her clan, Panda is an abomination, Nobara is from the country. Megumi had greatest chance of getting political power, but was basically booted out as soon as possible by the established clan. The adults also wield barely any influence. Nanami and Shoko are high ranking sorcerers but have nothing to do with politics and the system and rather keep out of the way. Yaga has the political power but was regarded as a dangerous and killed off as soon as possible. Tokyo Jujutsu High is basically a ragtag group of unwanted sorcerers. As soon as Gojo was out of the way the Jujutsu society at large did their best to boot everyone around him into insignificant positions and the edges of the Jujutsu society, having no influence on the wider scale of it.

It's a contrast to Kyoto High, especially in the beginning (before Gojo was sealed and everything got complete chaotic). Gakuganji is a very trusted and influential sorcerer, all the students at the Goodwill Event were trusted to execute their kill orders, the clan members are maybe not valued by the clans (and treated like shit) but they were accepted by them as long as they did not step a foot out of line. They are overall political and social better positioned in the Jujutsu society.

And that matters a lot. Because long-lasting reformation of a societal system through teaching can only really happen if you have continued access to the society and can inform and influence a major group of that system. As it was everything rested on Gojo and Gojo alone. We don’t know the exact numbers, but overall the Jujutsu society while seemingly small is a lot larger than the small group of students we follow. Larger in number than the individual students Gojo teaches and influences. Even if all of his students would hold on to his teachings and teach others as well in the future, it would need decades to permeate the Jujutsu society and meaningful change it in ways that would not be easily changed back. And because a lot of it hinges on the continued presence and power of Gojo, it was sadly always a very shaky house of cards. Or like the meme showed, a flex tape trying to hold back water.

Conclusion: Gojo Satoru did make meaningful and needed changes especially for the life of individuals and showed aspects of the Jujutsu society that need to be overhauled. But it was never enough for long-lasting, permanent change as it did nothing to the inherent brokenness of the Jujutsu society and its use of child soldiers and its hierarchy of classism. Without breaking those things all of his efforts were generally doomed to fail. (I guess everything post-Shibuya achieved something at least)

[lizard-tail]

Women and mothers in Naruto

In the last weeks I had time to catch up on the anime and some things were really pissing me of, so I decided to write them down.

The most important thing in my opinion is the behaviour of the women in Naruto, and I mean women. Not the new generation (Sakura, Ino, Hinata…), but the older generations.

The ones who lived and fought in the last war(s). The ones who remember the Kyuubi attack.

It all started when I watched the episode 246. The episode where Naruto meets his mother Kushina and she tells him about her past.

I have to say to say: I love Kushina. But her portrayal in the anime, especially that episode is problematic.

  First of all: What do we know about Kushina before the meeting?

Not much. We only had a short conversation between Tsunade and Jiraiya about her and the little flashback of Jiraiya. That means we know:

Her name, that she looked beautiful when she grew up (coming from Tsunade one of the most beautiful women in canon) and the fact that Naruto is exactly like her in behaviour and in their preferred fighting method.

Naruto is oblivious, stubborn, hardworking, head-strong, loving, forgiving, quite powerful and he rather acts than thinks. He never stops and he lives on being a shinobi.

That means Kushina is oblivious, stubborn, hardworking, head-strong, loving, forgiving, quite powerful. She also acts more than she thinks and most likely loves and breathes being a ninja.

When the episode began we can see: She really is like that.

She shouts about being Hokage, beats others up and is also carrying quite a burden. Naruto got shit, because he is the vessel of Kyuubi, and Kushina, because she is an outsider. Both have at first no real friends.

After the whole introduction and her daily life comes THE scene. The kidnapping scene. I have no problem that she was kidnapped. I mean she was only around 12/13 and just a genin or for a short while a chuunin. The problem I have is her behaviour.

The scene in the anime shows her coming home, calling out for the others living there. (whoever that is) Then she notices that nobody is there and she slowly becomes nervous. That is the first thing.

Why would she become nervous, just because xxxx is not there? When I come home and nobody is there I think that my family is off meeting friends, getting something to eat…

After that she sees shadows closing in to the window and she seems almost scared. Slowly foreign ninjas come into the room and Kushina begins to scream and runs terrified out of the room calling for help. That was the scene where I thought: Where is Kushina? What have you done to her?

That little instance, a scene not in the manga, goes against everything we know about Kushina.

We have a similar scene for Naruto. He is alone in a room and suddenly two foreign and antagonistic ninja appear. Kisame and Itachi. He doesn’t run away screaming. He is scared, of course, but at the same time he seems more confused why there is a Sasuke-look-alike with a Sharingan, when he knows that Sasuke is an orphan without any family. And after that he still seems baffled why they are here and what they want from him.

NOT. TERRIFIED.

Sasuke appears and they are both trying to attack Kisame and Itachi, even without Chakra (Naruto) or a broken hand (Sasuke).

That would have been an appropriate response for Kushina. Not that screaming. After that we see the normal Kushina. The one who gets a child, while a demon tries to rip out of her body, the one who survives getting the Kyuubi sucked out of her seconds AFTER THAT CHILDBIRTH, the one who throws herself in front of kyuubis claw to protect her son (and husband).  Just being herself, being a total BAMF!

But it doesn’t end here. Minato dies. Kushina dies. Naruto is an orphan. And as so many others did I wondered what life Naruto could have had, if his parents had survived. To do that I thought about the other known families and I almost exploded. Because Naruto would have a normal and rather boring life similar to Asuma or Konohamaru. Minato would have stayed Hokage and everyone would be happy. Right? Right?

NO!

Because what would have happened to Kushina, who proclaimed to be the first female Kage, who was proud to be a ninja, who loved that lifestyle? She would have, as every other women in Naruto over twenty with a child, become a housewife.

Not that I have anything against it. I believe everyone should choose what they want to do. Whether not have children. Have children and care for them, have children and as soon as they are old enough go back to work or have children and go back to work while breastfeeding them.

 The issue I have can be explained with Naruto. Can you imagine Naruto, at last a chuunin or jounin or Hokage, getting a child and just quitting his job? Stopping to protect every last one of his precious people (now all citizens of Konoha)? Stopping to run after Sasuke and fulfil his promise? Stopping to run over all the countries to help his friend from other villages and countries?

NO! No, you can’t!

How could Kushina do it? The Kushina who is EXACTLY like Naruto? She couldn’t. But that is exactly what would have happened.

And she is not the only one. If you think of all mothers in Naruto: How many were kunoichi and how many went back to work, after they had their children?

The total number of: ONE!

Just one example. Inuzuka Tsume (more to her later).

That in a village where every child in the academy is indoctrinated, that you have to fight for the good of the village. That your body is only a weapon. It seems they forget everything they are taught, as soon as they get knocked up.

I think there was a filler episode “The allied- mum forces” (or something like that) and alone the description made me almost throw up. It really seems that as soon as you have a child you can only help the village by being a mother and housewife.

 Now we can take a look at all those known mothers. How about the mothers of Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji (The known mothers of the Rookie 9)

We know…. They are there. The name of Shikamaru’s mum is Nara Yoshino. The other names are unknown. We also know that they cook and one of them has a flower shop.

Okayyyyy. Next one.

Inuzuka Tsume. Mother of Kiba and Hana, the clan leader of the Inuzuka clan and a kickass woman and kunoichi. Now that is an example. She has two kids and now fights next to them on the frontlines of the war. She also fought in the Sand-Sound-invasion and maybe even in the 3rd war.

Have we found the example that shows that you can have a happy family, while still being a working shinobi and no housewife?

Not really. Because while it is true, that the family is happy, they are not complete. The father is long gone. Kiba said once that Tsume drove him away. This shows that being a loving wife and a loving mother and a working kunoichi is not possible. It shows that you can only be two of those things. Going on a mission (to assassinate someone or spy on someone or just deliver a scroll) for a few days, coming home and just be with your whole family? A mutiny! Satan! Patriarchy did not allow that! Being away for days while the husband is home? Not possible. That way the husband has to tell the children to go to the academy in the morning. Maybe he even has to cook!!!!!!!! (Nonononononono. Even though they most likely can cook. What if the men get stuck in a cave or just a long mission? Do they starve? NO! They can cook. But only for themselves or their teammates. For his own family? Heathen!)

 The next one is Uchiha Mikoto.

She was a jounin before she retired. She has exactly like Tsume two children. She is also only one of the two women of the Uchiha clan who are known. The other being the aunt who always talked to Sasuke. Since she was a jounin we also know that she possessed the Sharingan. Obito was the black sheep in the clan, as he was a ninja who hadn’t activated the Sharingan by the age of 13. That means she had it without a doubt.

Because of Mikoto who is the mother with the most screen time we also know what mothers are doing at home. Cooking and washing.

I mean there could have been the possibility that mothers are actually important for more important things, like the training of their children. They are all accomplished ninja. They could have already taught them some things, while the men do missions and make the money. Things like holding weapons, throwing them, the shinobi lifestyle and theories for the clan jutsus.

But of course not.

Mikoto once said to Sasuke that she could help him with Shuriken, but I don’t think he even seized that opportunity. It was also his father Fugaku who showed him the fire-jutsu. Even though he was busy being the clan head, the head of the police, a working shinobi and plotting a coup, while Mikoto stood in the kitchen and boiled some rice.

 And now the mother-to-be Kurenai. As everyone knows she and Asuma got together, she got pregnant and Asuma died. Tragic, but somehow expected in a ninja-village. When she heard the news she had some heart-breaking panels. And then she was out of the story. She didn’t even get that much screen time at the funeral.

And the next chapters where all about Team 10’s grief and revenge. Especially Shikamaru’s. Poor Kurenai was just driven into a plot-corner and forgotten. Because the feelings of the students are much more important than the feelings of his wife/lover.

Nobody really cared if Kurenai wanted to kill Hidan and Kakuzu. No one really asked Kurenai what she thought about it. Okay, she was pregnant, but that does not mean that she is invalid. She is also a genjutsu specialist and an experienced jounin. I think she could have brought more to the fight than Ino and Chouji. Even while pregnant.

But she is just another example of the fact that as soon as a woman gets pregnant she has to be in the kitchen until she dies.

 The non-mothers show exactly the same. A woman can only be accomplished and successful in her job, as long as she has no family (husband+children)

Tsunade (Hokage): No family in sight

Terumi Mei (Mizukage): No family in sight

Shizune (Tsunades right hand): No family in sight

Koharu (one of the elders, lived through three wars): No family in sight

  As you can see a woman has almost no choices in the Naruto-verse:

She can either have a successful career and become one of the most-kickass characters

or she can settle down, have kids and forget every dream she had about becoming the most feared kunoichi in the world.