#bisection

[ruushes]

guy getting his lunch break interrupted by a group of lunatics murdering members of the local mafia in broad daylight: at least it's not the fucking bone pit

[crowshuh]

It is calling to me from below. The song of a god that whispers to the sleeping. A dark sun setting over black ocean. A red eye in the sky staring, unblinking, forever. And deep below the Earth await answers to questions yet unasked. (a dream about dreaming)

[mizushidokoro]

"Ryuurin, Hanpatsu, Tsugai no Ryuusei" -- the incantation for World Slash, and an epitaph to Gojo Satoru.

In JJK, incantations are supposed to boost power of a particular technique. When Sukuna used World Slash to kill Gojo, he imposed a binding vow that allowed him a single-use activation without the requirement of a hand sign, in exchange for using incantations and directing the attack for all subsequent uses.

In this post I'll examine the specific phrases in Sukuna's incantation and argue that each phrase of the incantation corresponds to an application of Gojo's Limitless technique. Then I'll briefly relate this to the binding vow requirements to argue that Sukuna's promise to never forget Gojo for the rest of his life is one of the conditions of that binding vow.

1. "龍鱗"

First, "ryuurin" (dragon scales) describes the basic application of Limitless, a strong defensive barrier like the scales of a dragon. This one is the most obvious, hinted at by Sukuna's words at the beginning of the fight, telling Gojo he plans to "strip away his scales." More will be said about the dragon references, in the discussion of the third phrase.

Less relevant but still interesting - there’s also a Buddhist reference here, according to this forum post:

At surface, straight value, it is just the literal scales of a dragon. The word can also be used to mean "a large quantity of things". Ryurin is also a metaphor for the power/authority/influence of heroes and of the Heavenly People (the residents of the Japanese version of the Devaloka, where devas and gods reside. Just a heavenly realm, basically.) Lastly, Ryurin means a dangerous condition/situation or a dangerous thing. So. For Sukuna, its basically 'dangerous divine power/authority'.

2. "反発"

Next, "hanpatsu." Hanpatsu means recoil, which is the equal and opposing force of an action. This describes Purple, which is the rebounding damage created by the collision of Red and Blue. At first I thought hanpatsu described Red, because Red is a “repulsing” force. Except “recoil” is not the same thing as repulsion. Another possibility was that hanpatsu described the relationship between Red and Blue — Red as the “equal and opposite” of blue, and vice versa. But we know the two aren’t equal in power, and neither technique is accurately described as the “recoil” or rebounding force produced by the other.

3. "番いの流星"

Finally, "tsugai no ryuusei." A few things here. First, the wordplay and translation. Like ”Ryuurin”, this term references dragons. Here Ryuusei, meaning meteor or comet, is also pun on the word dragon, ryuu (which isn’t novel, see the Japanese word for Pokémon move Draco Meteor, et al.). So a plausible English translation could also be “Twin Dragon Meteors.” Second, how dragons are relevant to Sukuna’s mythology. In Hida, there is a temple Senkoji said to be founded by “Ryomen Sukuna … approximately 1,600 years ago. A central architectural feature of the temple it Dragon Ceiling, a portrait of two dragons painted by Kano Tansetsu on the ceiling of the main buliding. From the website,

According to temple legend, a general of the Sengoku period committed suicide there by seppuku, staining the floor with blood. For the repose of general’s soul, the floorboards were incorporated into the ceiling of the main temple. Some time later, Kano Tansetsu visited Senkoji and painted the dragons on the ceiling. At Senkoji, the objects of worship include not only the main temple and the priest’s quarters, but also the entire temple complex.

According to this Reddit post, the temple’s founding tale describes how Sukuna fought off a dragon god living in the mountain and built a shrine in its place. So — from the fact that dragons are the mythological enemy of the figure Ryomen Sukuna, we may infer that the words of the incantation refer to an enemy or target of the World Slash technique.

What could "twin meteors" refer to other than the related techniques of Limitless, the twin floating spheres Red and Blue?

Another potential connection to Red/Blue rooted in dragon mythology is the tide jewels — the tide-ebbing (a repelling force, like Red) kanju and tide-flowing (an attracting force, like Blue) manju, possessed by Ryuujin, the Sea King.

The final reason I think the incantation refers to Gojo’s technique is because of Sukuna’s explanation in 236 for World Slash — he describes the process of developing the technique as figuring out how to target Limitless with Dismantle. So it makes sense that the incantation to power World Slash operates by describing its target, not World Slash itself.

It also lends significance to the order of the incantation — first visualizing the most generalized application of Limitless (ryuurin), then passing through Purple (hanpatsu) to finally arrive at two separate applications, Red and Blue (tsugai no ryuusei) — a conceptual "bisection" of Limitless into two discrete components.

4. Binding Vows

Isn't this pretty romantic? But wait there's more. We know now after Chapter 255 that in exchange for unleashing the World Slash that killed Gojo without using the hand sign, Sukuna now has to recite the incantation every time (+using the hand signs and directing the attack with his palm) he uses World Slash.

Assuming what I've previously argued is true (the incantation describes Gojo's Limitless), this gives Sukuna's last words to Gojo another layer of significance. When Sukuna tells Gojo he will never forget him, it's not just an expression or a promise, but a statement of the binding vow Sukuna has to make in order to land the killing blow. In other words, the cost of killing Gojo is having to remember him forever, to integrate him into Sukuna's own technique through a verbal invocation that must be made every single time Sukuna uses the world bisecting slash. Yeah, that's pretty romantic.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

I understand the intent of the writing, but I'm choosing to interpret this as Mortarion perceiving like three dozen potential genders specific to Barbaran culture

[brodorokihousuke]

just(ice) another day in the life

[intertexts]

prime defenders post-s2!!

[kelocitta]

Perhaps a more literal "Clerk Lover" than most abnormalities playfully given the title; Rat King shows significant variance in hostility when faced with high level employees vs. low rank ones. Teams otherwise completely decimated by its rampages may find themselves with stragglers who were merely forced out of the way in favor of more enticing prey, at least in the moment.

Naturally, Managers should take care to discourage any dangerous ideas about 'mercy' 'favoritism' or "kindness" lest they find abnormality containment units suddenly prone to failure.

[howgalling]

ambulon and first aid!!! more of a cyber look than my previous designs for them, hehe. first aid is a first responder- and considering its cyberpunk, the body armor is ESSENTIAL lol/

[cheecats]

No other wc death will ever hit me as hard as Stonefur's death did when I first read the series

[dr9com9ge-ix]

*walks up to gray and funbot while my head was bit by black* do you guys have any ideprophin~ I got a headache

Okay so heres the actual drawing of that- But alas Tenebrae does not take bites that small.

TW: For Gore, Blood and mild Emetophobia for comic below.

[lampfaced]

very random thought that I may be way off base on, but entered my head.

So @queenie-draws-stuff posted some awesome close-ups of The Gaslight District poster, and a very interesting looking mantis person in the background on a tower with fly people.

They look feminine but I could be wrong. Anyways, with the amount of flies around them...

and the gift tag they pointedly showed on the frozen fly corpses in Ken's meat locker...

could that be Xenora? that same name comes up on Diligence's list amongst the VIPs mentioned.

my other guess is they could be whoever F. Cicada is on the same list, categorized as a shedim, a kind of spirit/demon.

idk I'm just spitballing and I am very excited about whoever this mantis character is. :v

[ploridafanthers]

Hey! Don't get dead in a hurricane, ok?

it's the only way to go to floridian heaven

[downthesea]

SIR BERTRAM BERTIE MACGUFFINGHAM WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

[semisolidmind]

I understand the caution, but I feel really bad for both CatNap and DogDay if they both survive. DogDay has to live with the toy who tortured him sharing his space, and CatNap's is just forever othered (for good reason but still)

yeah. it'd likely end in death for catnap one way or another. either dogday finds a reason to finally kill catnap, or catnap takes the initiative to go off on his own and the cabin crew never see him again.

peace is tentative, and y/n won't be able to stop dogday from taking revenge once he reaches a breaking point.

[crowshuh]

wip um… waturday?🩻🧿⛓️‍💥

have been tagged in this by a few mutuals and have just… not had anything of substance to share but we persevere !

if you see this consider this me tagging you um checks watch 3-4 days in advance (accounting for time zones) yay

[sincerely-sofie]

Narinder (better wool) and Fox (death maiden) share a type: SHE CAN KILL ME (into it)

Yeah :>