#🍒｡ villainess vocals

[villainessdoll]

Lady Henrietta ﾉ Rita 🎀 She ﾉ Lace ﾉ Shi

A queen, in its harshest form ｡ ｡ ｡

name, pronoun, title requests - open

Ext.

[psychewritesbs]

HI ! another anon here, unfortunately I saw many (or not many but very vocal) express joy at the possibility of Megumi being completely erased by Sukuna. And I don't know if I'm simply in denial but I refuse to believe that this is the ending that Gege would give his deuteragonist, and leaving pending points like? not even a closure like he has even given to side characters? Megumi is my fav, I know there is a possibility that he dies, but not like this, not now. u still have positivity? :')

HOLA dearest Another Anon, 

I mean... what can I say. I was, quite literally, boasting about wanting to see Megumi suffer like the massive idiot that I am. I even busted out with the tacky Mexican telenovela villainess laughter. 

Seriously, I am insufferable... 

... And then I saw what Gege did... it broke my heart because I wasn’t expecting it to be so damn cruel. Gege. is. a. fucking. sadist. Just you wait you damn cursed cat, I’m coming for you just so that I can ask you how poetic it is to have “Victoria” carved on your forehead. I'll be your Goddess of Victory alright.

That said, I can see why someone would be overjoyed at seeing Sukuna overpower and obliterate Megumi’s consciousness. Either they don’t care about Megumi or they are excited by the implications. 

But for us Megumi-lovers... I totally get it. Not only is it hard to ignore that Gege has killed off or “put in the corner” so many important/major characters already, but if “Megumi” is gone and only his body remains with a different consciousness within it... well, even if he looks like it, he’s not really Megumi any longer, is he? 

And honestly, this whole experience made me realize that, as much as I love JJK in general, I’m here for Megumi and Megumi’s growth as a character. 

Anyways. Yeah. I am cautiously optimistic under the cut for several reasons, but mostly because Gege gives meaning...

I am cautiously optimistic

Cautiously optimistic because as much as my brain can’t help itself, I don’t want to try to predict JJK anymore. I think some of my headcanons have come to pass in a different expression of what I had in mind. But that’s the thing with “Archetypes”, Archetypes are an empty shell until they are given meaning.

So at this point I just want to enjoy what’s left of this roller coaster ride. Read this to mean that I’ll probably won’t be able to help myself and will continue trying to guess how things progress.

JJK is beautifully unpredictable even with all of the foreshadowing that Gege dropped along the way.

I’m also cautiously optimistic because Gege has shown us at least a couple of times that the original body’s consciousness can still awaken and take over.

Finally, I am cautiously optimistic because the kanji in Megumi’s name can be said to symbolize a light in the darkest of shadows. A blessing in a cursed world.

After all, does light not shine brightest in the darkness? 

I personally HOPE that this poetic justice comes back into play later on. The power of names is a trope after all.

There’s also thoughts that have been shared with me by others...

Like ma 🍒, who keeps reminding me that we don’t know how this is going to play out yet and that there’s details we can keep in mind that might mean that this isn’t the end for Megumi.

I think moving forward you might also start hearing more evidence about why this is just temporary because, as has been largely theorized, Sukuna just needs Megumi’s cursed technique to make him a new body. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that...

Gege is good at manipulating emotions

Like... reeeeeal good.

Just look at the current state of the Megumi fandom or how any time Nobara is mentioned the fandom goes into an uproar. 

This is a culmination point and it has been beautifully executed in the sense that it’s got you and me and millions of other people lamenting whether this is “it�� for Megumi.

So the way events flowed could all very well have been crafted for the sake of emotional impact.

But we simply won’t know for some time.

This is a call to trust the process. We have no choice but to let the cat cook.

If this is, indeed, temporary, then we will get our closure.

If this is “it”, however... well...

I have to say there’s something larger at play here, and that is “the kind of story Gege is writing” and “the kind of writer Gege is”.

So keep in mind that...

Gege is an existentialist

To your point about how unsatisfying Megumi’s death would feel if this is “it”... yeah. Totally. 

So that should tell you that you have to think of Gege as either an existentialist or a nihilist mangaka.

Since I’m not sure whether you understand what these concepts mean, what I’ll say is that life is what you make of it. It’s up to you to decide whether life is inherently meaningless and chaotic, or whether there is meaning and order to the chaos that is life.

An existentialist author is someone who writes about characters navigating the meaninglessness of the chaos that is life, and who seek to give meaning and purpose to said chaos.

On the other end of the spectrum you have nihilism--the belief that life is meaningless.

SO... if Gege was feeling pretty nihilistic on the day he came up with Megumi’s death and the JJK ending, then we can expect that Megumi’s death is indeed anticlimactic like a certain someone’s death...

Not sure if you read my response to Recurring Anon about JJK’s writing in which I confess that I am not a fan of Chainsaw Man’s brand of existentialism because it feels a bit too much on the “navel gazing” end of the existential spectrum, and anti-climatic to boot because it’s nihilistic at the core.

Similarly, CLAMP’s writing is also existential, anti-climatic, and can err on the nihilist end of the spectrum too. i.e. I understand that the art style and overall lack of screen tones in xxxHolic is meant to reflect and evoke a sense of vacancy and emptiness because that is how the mc experiences the world. Something like that.

My other beloved existentialist is Shinichiro Watanabe who will shred your heart to bits and pieces with inconclusive but optimistic existential angst.  

Bang. See you space cowboy.

You can watch a Watanabe ending and walk away both heartbroken and inspired. The man is a genius. 

I bring up all of these examples because you can more or less organize these authors into neat little boxes.

If I had to compare mangaka, I’d say Fujimoto and CLAMP are nihilists, whereas Gege is more like Watanabe, an existentialist who chooses to give meaning. That’s why Gege’s character’s deaths have always felt very poetic despite how brutal they can be--there’s meaning to them.

Megumi’s “death” in the larger JJK-scheme of things, with the rather limited information we have right now, feels nihilistic af. 

So let’s assume for a minute that he doesn’t come back... like yeah, I’m in denial and cautiously optimistic, but we have to prepare for the worst because Gege is unpredictable af and I wouldn’t put it past him to have killed Megumi because that’s how he rolls. SO...

If Megumi doesn’t come back, what meaning will Gege give to Megumi’s death?

How will the events that follow create meaning around Megumi’s death?

I think what worries me right now is that Megumi has a bit of a nihilistic view of life. And if Gege is the kind of author who lets the characters write themselves because he wants his characters to be true to their nature, then... this death is fitting. It’s just as meaningless as Megumi believes the world to be.

Makes sense, right?

Honestly, existentialism is hard to explain, so hopefully this makes sense. But right now any mental gymnastics I do to delude myself that Megumi is getting out alive all hinge on Gege being a tortured existentialist who seeks to give meaning.

After all, as a piece of literature, JJK is underscored with a sense of poetic justice that is everything but devoid of meaning.

So basically yeah... This is the tiny bit of positivity I was able to share with you? :') Hopefully it helps!

idk what kind of ending we’ll get. I am picturing something very meta from Gege but don’t ask me to elaborate. I just feel like something very spiritual and big is coming.

But I do hope we get a Watanabe type ending from Gege...

Because the truth is... I don’t believe in happy endings. I believe in Watanabe endings because Watanabe endings capture the existential dread at the core of life simply moving on, with or without you.

And if the ending turns out to be super meaningless and nihilistic, know that there’s only 5k miles between Los Angeles and Tokyo and if we start swimming now we might arrive by the time JJK ends. 

Thanks for stopping by!!!