#as someone who isn't as familiar with Buddhism aside of the basic teachings that's all I can really say on the subject

[seoafin]

still the same prev anon, and omg the sukuna one. i feel like there’s a misconception of him especially in the int. fandom bc it’s not visible in the translation but jjk is influenced by buddhism heavily. there’s no real concept of good/ evil in it. and by that the whole power system is derived from it (speaking as a buddhist), there’s 2 main things that affect our karmic law : akusala and kusala. i wonmt be going too deep but just like jjk. examples on akusala are depression, melancholy (1)

sloth, those are not considered to b evil as we know it in eng. and kusala is the opposite but is NOT considered as “good”, examples are intelligent, skillful, contented, beneficial and good. basically kusala are what most buddhist should stride for, it’s possible to achieve enlightment thru sunyata first. meaning emptiness in the sense of recognition of good n evil being 2 opposing principles but not a reality, emptying the duality of them and acheieving a oneness. Tl;dr buddhism has always (2)

been abt suffering (negative emotions) and enlightment. and i’m,,,, somewhat confused when ppl are saying sukuna is evil. he’s not at least not in the western sense of the term. he’s chaotic. just pure, unaldurated chaos. he’s human nature completely stripped of its humanity and that’s why he’s so fascinating. seeing the fandom reducing him to the “mob boss who’s only capable of loving his s/o and would destroy the world if they wish so” is disheartening for me 😞 (3/ i forgot if i wrote 2)

and to an extension, he doesn’t have the capability of being compassionate that most ppl think. i’m not gonna namedrop but someone was basically like “DO NOT write dub/non con for sukuna” bc it just (idk what the exact word was i forgot but for me it sounds close to glorify) r*pe culture in fandoms which by no means i am doing it rn but the only time manga readers saw him as “compassionate” was that time with jogo being insecure of his power after that showdown with gojo and that was ONLY (4)

related to his strength not the “yea i saw the good in u </3 that the fandom constantly potrayed. and i can’t and won’t ever see him fit in the “being gentle for 1 person” trope. not that it’ll stop ppl from writing it that way 🥴 and no matter how u look at it, content creators put a lot of effort into what they’re making no matter how dark it is b i won’t ever shit on them for having a different take on jjk characters. (5)

how do u actually view sukuna or the jjk characters doe 👁👁 i've always wanted to ask but i kept forgetting until the post. tldr = i'm rambling abt the mischaracterization that the fandom constantly do and i'm so sry for putting this in ur inbox

Thank you for taking time out of your day to write all of this anon!! You didn’t annoy me in the slightest, and everything you said is super fascinating!

everything you said is RIGHT!! You put it so well! Buddhist influences are heavily incorporated in jjk and some examples are blatant like gojo's "I alone am the honored one" quote and sukuna's four arms, however there are also underlying buddhist themes in the manga that I do think western fans wouldn’t be able to get unless they’re somewhat familiar with Buddhism.

as western fans i feel like we have to be cognizant of these cultural differences and address them with cultural awareness and nuance (which is inevitably lost if when you’re just horny about characters which hey! isn’t bad!) But there’s a level of respect we have to treat characters with which means we can’t push our western assumptions onto these characters either (that’s also a reason why lgtbq/gender discourse on JAPANESE characters in JAPAN made by western fans always irritate me like you cannot carelessly approach these things without nuance!!) (yes I am @ ing the BNHA fandom lmaooo)

but you’re completely right about Sukuna’s character!! I myself cannot write Sukuna as anything other than what he is, and that is someone who wouldn’t be nice to his s/o (? can i even call it that?) I just...don’t think he’s capable of love (in the way we think about it anyway). Fondness....maybe...if you don’t bore him but typical love? Unfortunately no. I literally don’t think any relationship with Sukuna would be healthy in the slightest, and like I said, unless the reader’s a super freak (which, hey good for them!) It probs would veer into the noncon territory lmao

Also LOL this is funny but I also saw that post you’re referencing. While I did agree with some of the points made, I didn’t agree with all of them. Dub/non con is not the same as pedo****** and in*** and I say that as someone who studies theoretical media + I’m also a lab assistant in a media lab where we regularly talk about sexualized r*pe (aka written by men) vs fantasy r*pe. (If you guys want me to make a post about it going into more depth then I will)

i think you’re completely valid for having those feelings. especially as dichotomy between good and evil is always framed in the western sense of things, because that’s how western fans make sense of these concepts. Meaning does inevitably get lost in the translation (I haven't read jjk in Japanese but maybe I'll attempt it over the break if it isn’t too hard but i have a feeling that some of the terminology is going to go straight over my head lol) 

In the end, people are writing for fun so they might not be too inclined to well, care about these differences, and like I said before people can interpret the characters how’d they like, so I don’t really think about it much. But for me, I’d like to be mindful of jjk’s themes when writing about it!