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secretlystephaniebrown · 9 months

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I Read Nearly Every Appearance of the Lazarus Pit Before Flashpoint and All I Got Was A Headache: A Meta Commentary

So! The Lazarus Pit!

The Lazarus Pit is obviously an iconic part of the Batman Franchise. We encounter it everywhere, from the Under the Red Hood movie, to the Lazarus Planet event which just ended.

But has the Lazarus Pit always been this way?

It's comics. Of course not.

Very long comic rant with citations below!

The Nu52 and following reboots obviously overhauled Lazarus Lore so completely they're functionally a different thing, so I'm not talking about them. Today, instead, we're talking about post-crisis/pre-Flashpoint Lazarus Pits, their contradictions, and what we can make of them.

The Lazarus Pits have been around nearly as long as Ra's and Talia have been, and even before they appeared, it was clear that Ra's had some method of extending his life.

Batman (1940-2011) #235

The first Lazarus Pit itself seems to be in a chalet in Switzerland, and it's very different than what we will later associate it as. It is instead, a mortuary slab that lowers itself into a pit of "bubbling liquid"

Batman (1940-2011) #243

In these early versions, the Lazarus Pit is portrayed as a medical invention that Ra's has used to extend his life.

It is shown to have consequences, which fandom has, of course, latched onto.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Here, we see the Lazarus Madness described as including "the strength of ten men", and he is able to be able to resist nearly all attacks from Batman and Lo Ling.

In addition, Ra's claims that he has used the pit too often, which is shown to be the driving force behind his interest in Bruce and his legacy.

Batman (1940-2011) #244

Later appearances of Ra's and the pit throughout this era add a few more interesting tidbits.

He claims that only he can use the Lazarus Pit... but puts Talia in it in that same issue, claiming that it's okay if it's just a quick dip.

Batman (1940-2011) #335

Is Ra's lying about no one else being able to use the pit? Almost certainly. He will start putting anyone he wants into the pit soon enough.

Those with a keen eye might notice that the Lazarus Pit is already going through some aesthetic changes: we're still seeing a slab being lowered into a small pit, but now the liquid within is orange! This will come up a lot!

Next up we have the storyline Grant Morrison refused to read: Son of the Demon.

In Son of the Demon, Ra's claims that there was an earlier version of the Pit, before the final version Bruce has already encountered. In this version, he claims that Mellisande, Talia's mother, was pushed into this proto-pit, and it killed her.

Batman: Son of the Demon (1987)

Denny O'Neil will later retcon this in 1993, claiming that Talia's mother died of a drug overdose, and Ra's refused to bring her back.

But it is consistent in early versions of the story that Lazarus Pits, if not entered with proper care and with the right preparations, can be dangerous.

Bride of the Demon is the next storyline, and Ra's BRINGS the Lazarus Pits in this one. Ra's finds himself a hot MILF girlfriend and puts her in the Pit to make her younger so she can give him kids.

Batman: Bride of the Demon (1990)

This Lazarus Pit is shown to be more experimental than past versions, with Ra's and Dr. Weltmann attempting to prevent the Lazarus Madness factor.

Ra's later puts a child in the pit as a bribe to his father, but the kid had possibly been dead too long, and it was hinted there were going to be long-term consequences for the actions... which were dropped. As was the wife, who was supposedly pregnant at the end of this story. Comics!

This is the first time that limits on the Lazarus Pit are presented, but it is certainly not the last. This idea that there's an upper limit on how long someone can be dead for before a Lazarus Pit doesn't do anything will come back again.

Batman: Birth of the Demon finally brings in a more mystical aspect to the Lazarus Pits, which so far have been vaguely scientific. In this story, we are introduced to the fact that Lazarus Pits are located on the convergence points of leylines (which in-universe have something to do with the electro-magnetic field). Ra's's approximate age is revealed, and it is shown that Bruce and Ra's have been fighting a real-estate battle over sites where Lazarus Pits can be built.

Batman: Birth of the Demon (1992)

In flashbacks, we learn that Ra's figured out how to build a Lazarus Pit, and was not actually the first person to use it. Instead, it was for the son of the Sultan Ra's worked for as a physician.

After the Sultan's son went mad, killed Sora, and blamed Ra's for it, Ra's had his vengeance... by putting the son in a false Lazarus Pit.

This pit was sabotaged by not being built on a Leyline. So uh... be careful with those, I guess!

So in short: by the end of this era of Denny O'Neil/Mike Barr Lazarus Lore, we know that anyone can use a Lazarus Pit, but Ra's controls them with his knowledge of how to create them. Bruce can find where they should be by tracking leylines, and will pass this knowledge on to others over time.

We then enter a new era! The Chuck Dixon era, to be specific.

Chuck Dixon has surprisingly few retcons for us. We first really encounter his take on Lazarus Lore in his mini series Bane of the Demon, where Bane works with Ra's and co.

We get a brief recap of the lore here:

Batman: Bane of the Demon #3 (1998)

We are now introduced to an interesting new layer: the Lazarus Pits can be predicted, not just detected. Ra's has headquarters set up all over the world, in places where Lazarus Pits not only are, but will be. Some pit locations appear to remain the same throughout the years (Ra's has built numerous pits on the location of the first site: at least three that we know of), but generally, Lazarus Pits seem to be a one-time deal.

Ra's clearly has dedicated most of his life to these pits; to acquiring their locations, to predicting where they will be, experimenting with how to make them better... so obviously, he guards the formula for how to make them extremely closely, right?

Well. Not according to Chuck.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989-2007) #145

And if you've noticed that head of green hair on the ground there, that's right folks! BRUCE WAYNE PUT A DEAD JOKER IN A LAZARUS PIT HE MADE HIMSELF.

Bruce justifies it by telling Alfred that if he does this, it means Ra's can't use it later. However, it does not change the fact that Bruce put the Joker in a Lazarus Pit. No I'm not going to be over this ever. Jason might have a point, actually.

Ra's decides, after this, that he wants another wife. And he picks Dinah Lance! But whoops, as it happens, Dinah was tortured and can't have kids (also lost her Canary Cry), way back in Green Arrow, before Ollie died! So Ra's decides to throw her in a Lazarus Pit. It... doesn't go well. Lazarus Madness + Restored Canary Cry = one destroyed building.

Birds of Prey (1999-2009) #33

Oh look! We've got locations! And of course every other Lazarus Pit we've seen or will see except Birth of the Demon is nowhere near any of these convergence points!

So! To recap the current state of the lore: Lazarus Pits are a combination of science and magic. They are an alchemical creation, built on leyline nodes. Generally, they are one-use only, or at least they require centuries to be re-usable. They can resurrect the newly-dead, but but Ra's is very cautious about letting other people use them, probably because he's a control freak, and he doesn't have too many of them left.

We depart the Dixon era and enter... the Nyssa Raatko era.

Nyssa is introduced in Death and the Maidens, with Greg Rucka, who is a huge fan of Denny O'Neil, still sticking pretty close to the original lore.

Here, we see that Bruce has still been on his kick of preventing Ra's from building more Lazarus Pits by buying up real estate where they could be. This forced Ra's to try to reconcile with his daughter Nyssa, who he gave a Lazarus Pit to sometime in the 1700s.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #1

"But hey!" I can hear you say. "Isn't part of the thing that you mentioned earlier is that they're one-use?"

Well they are! For Ra's.

Nyssa, however, is a smart lady.

Nyssa, at some point in her life, figured out how to make a Lazarus Pit reusable. So she's been getting a lot of mileage out of this baby, and has been since the 1700s.

This story also presents an explanation for why the Lazarus Pit is sometimes green and sometimes orange: Nyssa's is orange and Ra's has green ones. I guess maybe the earlier orange pits that Ra's had were him trying to make them reusable like Nyssa? Hmm.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #4

When questioned about it, Nyssa tells Talia that there used to be more pits, so he was less protective of them when he gave her this one.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #6

At the end of this storyline, Ra's is dead, Nyssa is the new Ra's al Ghul, and according to Bruce, she has the only Lazarus Pit left.

Batman: Death and the Maidens (2003-2004) #9

Nyssa pops up again in Batgirl, facing off against Cass, and brags about her special pit again. Cass and Shiva both get dips in it. Fun times!

Batgirl (2000-2006) #69

Yes, the torture hooks are a reoccurring feature of Nyssa's pit. I don't know why.

But wait! A brief interlude!

Jason Todd came back to comics in a storyline: Under the Hood, in 2005, which wrapped up in 2006. We weren't told how Jason came back in the story itself, but a few months after Under the Hood ended, we get Batman Annual #25, which shows Talia shoving Jason into a Lazarus Pit while Ra's was using it.

Batman Annual #25 (2006)

There's no discussion about if this is a weird dip. He's got brain activity again though!

This is revisited again in Red Hood: The Lost Days, but it doesn't really add anything from the point of Lazarus Lore, except that Ra's posits that Jason, having already been resurrected, could have suffered some long-term consequences, unlike literally anyone else who had a dip.

Red Hood: The Lost Days (2010-2011) #2

Anyways, enough Jason! Nyssa gets killed off-page in OYL, so she's gone now, Talia's running the show and oh fuck it's Morrison-era. And Morrison never bothered to read any other Ra's or Talia story because it wasn't Silver Age or something. So... retcon time!

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul attempts to retell Birth of the Demon, but with a few retcons. The pits were discovered, not made, being the official point in which the Lazarus Pits become purely magical phenomena, rather than a work of alchemy.

Batman Annual #26 (2007)

Bruce also mentions that the Pits are connected to actual waterways, which is a massive difference from the shallow pits from earlier eras.

This era does however confirm the concept that older bodies, further along in the decay process, probably shouldn't be dipped in the Lazarus Pit. At least, Dick convinced Tim of this fact after a little while.

(Also White Ghost wants a perfectly healthy, alive Tim to bathe in the Lazarus Pit, and this is never explained. Maybe it was a distraction?)

Nightwing (1996-2009) #139

In this era, and the Batman: Reborn era following it, the Lazarus Pits are pretty absent, but the few references we do get from this point forward (including in Red Hood: The Lost Days, which are published in 2010-2011), tend to use the Morrison-era canon that the pits are natural. And also we're back to having a lot of them, instead of just Nyssa's singular one in the Balkans, and, since Ra's has a new young(er) body, there's no sense of urgency to buy up/prevent him from making new pits. Potentially, Dusan/White Ghost took advantage of the fact that the Bats thought Ra's was dead to buy back the real-estate and make new pits, but that's using the pre-Morrison lore. I guess in Morrison era, the Bats just... don't know where Pits are until they find one, and then they blow it up.

We also no longer see any one-time-use limitations. One could assume that Talia figured out the formula Nyssa used to keep the pits reusable and told Ra's, if we're trying to merge the canons.

And that's not even counting whatever is happening in the post-Flashpoint era. Lazarus Planet gives me a headache. Let's not talk about it just now.

Anyways, in short: I think the artificial, single-use Lazarus Pits are way more fun. But anyways, here's the citations to help you decide what YOU think Lazarus Lore should be!

#Steph Speaks #Steph Reads Comics #The Lazarus Pit #Ra's al Ghul #Bruce Wayne #Talia al Ghul #Bane #Nyssa Raatko #Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Dick Grayson #Barbara Gordon #I had more images but there's a 30 image cap so you guys don't get to see Ted and Babs dealing with Lazarus Mad-Dinah #DC #I will go back and add the rest of the image descriptions

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blughxreader · 1 year

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Platonic Yan!Superman

Summary: An afternoon-in-the-life of Superfam's kidnapped darling CW: post-kidnap, chains. relatively tame, Clark is a good daddy. ambiguously aged reader. ft, mommy lois. WC: 624

When it comes to you, Clark's strength and self-control sit in a precarious balance.

It takes monumental discipline not to break people's ear drums from the blast-off towards home or to flatten Smallville's crops when landing too suddenly. The frenzied excitement at seeing you after a long day makes him forget his powers, but he's generally mindful.

---

Clark landed in a gust of air that rattled the house, hand on the doorknob before the windows even vibrated. It took him a second to remember to be human.

Clark inhaled deeply through his nose and went through his checklist.

Human strength?

Breathing?

Feet on the ground?

Calm and collected?

Warm air and the delicious smell of dinner greeted him like a hug. Clark took a step inside, carefully measuring the weight behind each step until he comfortably distributed his usual 235 pounds. Tension bled from his muscles when he narrowed in on your frantic heartbeat upstairs.

"Hi, baby," Lois called from the kitchen.

Clark migrated towards her voice, spotting Lois at the table with her head ducked behind her computer screen.

"Hi, you." Clark smiled.

His eyes skirted over the pot of soup simmering on the stove as he walked to the table. With feather-light fingers, he guided Lois's face up for a kiss. Comforting serenity did away with the last of his nerves, and Clark took a second to appreciate how perfect his family was.

They parted, faces lingering close.

"So..." Clark started, voice an absent hum. Your heartbeat seemed to echo through the house, but Clark knew only he could hear. "Mind if I ask how your day was, then get back to you in a few minutes for the answer?"

Lois rolled her eyes with a smile, pushing his chest away. "Go on, you awful worrier."

Shooting her a sheepish grin, Clark hurried out of the kitchen towards the stairs.

Finally. Clark worried about you at all hours of the day. Thoughts of you escaping or accidentally hurting yourself were an ever-present concern, despite his thorough precautions. Worrying wasn't all he did, though. Clark also just longed to see you.

Clark's foot landed on the squeaky step, followed by your sharp breath from down the hall.

It was no secret that you didn't want to be a part of their family, and Clark understood. He did everything to make himself as predictable and gentle as possible, hoping that one day you would be happy to hear him come home.

Clark carefully approached your door, listening to you move. Thumpthumpthump, your pulse fluttered.

Rasping a knuckle on the door, he said, "Kiddo?"

He didn't wait for an answer. Time slowed as the door slid open, revealing you in all your precious glory.

You were sitting at your desk, back straight and hands in your lap. Despite your fear, your face was as pleasant as you could make it, save for the small quivers in your tight smile.

Clark’s eyes crinkled from his smile. “Hey, kid. I missed you.”

“Hi,” you said meekly, rising to greet him.

Clark crossed the room with more speed than he intended and swept you into his arms, pulling you off your chair. The chain around your ankle rattled at the disturbance.

Your shaky arms wrapped around Clark's back, and his heart swelled with love. His sweet kid. His unending joy.

Clark kissed the crown of your head, drawing out the hug for as long as possible. He looked out your window, seeing sunny, blue skies past the iron bars that caged the glass.

Now that he thought about it, it was beautiful weather on the flight home.

Clark settled you down on your feet, arms still wrapped around your small frame. With a smile that matched the sun's light, Clark asked, "Want to sit outside and wait for Jon's school bus?"

For more yandere superfam content, visit my batfam & superfam masterlist!

#yandere superman #yandere superfam #yandere clark kent #yandere superfam x reader #platonic yandere superfam #platonic yandere #yandere x reader #superman x reader #platonic yandere superman #yandere oneshot

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whimsicalwritingsandmore · 30 days

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Ateez soft hours: Choi Jongho

Pairing: ateez x reader

Genre: soft hours with choi jongho <3

Word Count: 235 words

a/n: three posts this week!?! omg who am I?? aha, I'll be taking a little break next week so I wanted to share as much as I can this week. To close off the week, here's a soft hours with Jongho! Enjoy! <333

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Like Jongho, you weren’t too fond of physical affection at first. But as time went on and you both became comfortable around each other, being affectionate came naturally for the two of you.

And Jongho is a very romantic person. So when he visits you in the late afternoon, he’ll come from behind and hug you, wrapping his arms around your waist and swaying you back and forth before placing chaste and tender kisses on your temple, cheek, neck and shoulder. Sometimes he’ll just throw his arms over your shoulders and seek your attention. Then when you turn to face him, he’ll pull you in the sweetest kiss you can think of, the both of you smiling and giggling in unison.

And sometimes, he’ll give a harmless scare from behind before presenting you with the prettiest bouquet of flowers. Jongho will playfully seek your hand and then intertwine your fingers together in a tender and silent confession that he’s comfortable with you and that he’s here and he loves you a lot.

Because all Jongho needs sometimes is simply your presence. It instils a reassuring and authentic feeling in him that brings him peace after a long day.

Choi Jongho can be serious 99% of the time but that 1%, when it’s just you and him, he’s a giddy, goofy and happy human who fell in love with the best person the universe has.

You.

#ateez x reader #ateez series #ateez fluff #ateez scenarios #choi jongho x reader #jongho x you #jongho x y/n #choi jongho fluff #jongho x reader #ateez jongho x reader #ateez soft hours #ateez soft thoughts

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fushiglow · 8 months

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Gonna lose?! It’s Gojō Satoru!!

Karma and consequence in Jujutsu Kaisen

With the release of chapter 235 of Jujutsu Kaisen, the King of Curses has been defeated and Gojō Satoru has cemented his title as the 'Strongest’. The war isn’t over yet, but the battle is won, and I think the outcome of this fight is by far the most interesting for both characters.

Truthfully, at the start of the Shinjuku Showdown arc, I wasn’t particularly rooting for Gojō or Sukuna to win. However, as the fight developed (alongside the release of the anime adaptation of Hidden Inventory/Premature Death), I found myself becoming more and more invested in Gojō Satoru as a character and, consequently, theorising about what a ‘satisfying conclusion’ to his story might look like.

Shortly after the release of chapter 232, I saw an interesting post suggesting that ‘gain and loss’ is the theme of the Gojō vs Sukuna fight. Of course, ‘Gain and Loss’ is the title of chapter 221 when Gojō finally gets out of the Prison Realm only to learn that Sukuna has taken over Megumi’s body. I’d like to go a step further and suggest that ‘gain and loss’ — and by extension, karma and consequence — is actually a key theme of Gojō’s character (and maybe even Jujutsu Kaisen on the whole).

For full disclosure, I wrote about 90% of this before chapter 235 was released, operating on the belief that Gojō would eventually win this fight. It is a long post, so buckle up and let’s get into it!

Gain and loss in Jujutsu Kaisen

The idea of gain through loss was developed very early on in Jujutsu Kaisen with the introduction of binding vows. From Nanami’s ‘overtime’ to Sukuna's open barrier domain, a self-imposed binding vow offers a sorcerer an advantage in combat in return for an increased level of risk. In other words, sorcerers can ‘gain’ strength in exchange for a ‘loss’ of security. When it comes to binding vows, the bigger the risk the bigger the reward.

The idea of gain through loss was further developed through the introduction of Heavenly Restriction. Similar to a binding vow, a person with a Heavenly Restriction is ‘gifted’ with enhanced abilities in one area in exchange for limitations in another. However, unlike a binding vow, Heavenly Restriction exists from birth (although it remains unclear whether it occurs due to mere chance).

There are numerous powerful examples of both binding vows and Heavenly Restriction throughout the series. For Gege Akutami, they are key to maintaining a balanced power system where intelligence and tactical thinking can lead an underdog to prevail in the face of a more powerful opponent — think Yūta beating Getō or Toji beating Gojō. Through these mechanics, we can deduce that understanding gain and loss, give and take, risk and reward — however you want to put it — is crucial to mastery of jujutsu sorcery.

Naturally, if gain and loss are embedded in the laws of the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, it makes sense that the theme exerts a heavy influence over the narrative, too. Of course, consequences are an important way to create compelling characters in any story, but this rings especially true for Jujutsu Kaisen which draws deeply on Buddhist themes and traditions.

In Buddhism, karma is not a deterministic system of retribution, but the natural law of cause and effect. It is directly referenced in Jujutsu Kaisen when Fushiguro Megumi explains his personal ideology using ‘因果’, a Japanese Buddhist term meaning ‘karma’ or ‘fate’ which can be more literally translated as ‘cause and effect’. The second kanji means ‘fruit’, hinting at the underlying agricultural metaphor behind karma in Buddhism: plant a seed, later receive a harvest — or, to use a saying derived from another religion with an important role in Jujutsu Kaisen, ‘you reap what you sow’.

However, an important characteristic of karma which is commonly misunderstood is that the relationship between a cause and its effect is not necessarily linear, but rather part of an intricate network that spans past, present, and future. In other words, the ‘consequences’ of one’s actions might arrive much later.

This can lead to mistaking the effect of one cause for the effect of another, creating a reality where ‘bad’ things happen to ‘good’ people and vice versa. The resulting circumstances may make it easier to do ‘bad’ deeds but, importantly, the freedom always remains to choose the path of ‘good’.

Thus emerges a system where liberation from suffering (in Buddhism, the endless cycle of rebirth known as samsara) is not determined by the judgement of some higher power, but by an individual’s continued choice to do ‘good’. In other words, you can create your own destiny, but only if you understand karma.

The beginningless karmic cycle is rooted in actions performed in ignorance. Therefore, breaking free of it — enlightenment — can only be achieved through knowledge.

Gojō Satoru: the embodiment of enlightenment

As a character, Gojō Satoru is symbolically tied to these concepts. We’re told that his birth altered the balance of the world, causing curses to grow stronger in response to the sudden injection of power into the ecosystem. However, while Gojō’s birth might be the cause of the imbalance, his very existence is itself the effect of something else.

Supposedly, the Star Plasma Vessel, the Six Eyes, and Tengen are all connected by fate. However, the term that Tengen uses — ‘因果’ — is the same one that Megumi uses for ‘karma’, suggesting a cause and effect relationship. This is confirmed when Tengen implies that the Star Plasma Vessel and the Six Eyes always appear in response to the merger — the irrepressible effect to the merger’s cause.

Kenjaku cannot contend with the immense strength of the Six Eyes nor the universal law of cause and effect. However, Fushiguro Toji, who possesses no cursed energy due to his Heavenly Restriction, is not bound by fate and is thus able to interrupt a cycle of cause and effect which has existed for at least a thousand years.

Tengen actually suggests that karma (因果) and cursed energy are one and the same so — if we take Tengen’s words at face value — Toji is an anomaly who is free from its bindings.*

However, the characters whose lives he touches are not. Toji sets another chain of cause and effect into action when the events of Hidden Inventory lead to Gojō’s ascension to 'the Strongest'.

There is much debate in the fandom about whether Gojō’s moment of ‘enlightenment’ is legitimate, especially in light of his fight with Sukuna — the only other character associated with the phrase supposedly uttered by Buddha Shakyamuni at birth.

However, if enlightenment is understanding of reality that transcends conceptual thought, then Gojō Satoru is its physical embodiment in Jujutsu Kaisen.

His given name, Satoru (悟), is a verb meaning ‘to know’ or ‘to understand’, and the root of the Japanese Buddhist term for ‘enlightenment’. His innate domain — a representation of one’s innermost self — is a flood of infinite knowledge that constitutes the ‘truth’ of the universe. His Six Eyes are reminiscent of the all-seeing Eyes of Buddha or the Six Transcendental Powers or the Five Eyes — or perhaps all three!

Gojō is steeped in symbolism not only relating to Buddhist enlightenment, but to the founding Buddha himself, right down to his world-altering birth — the divine event which sets the modern-day story in motion.

Although he may have spoken Buddha Shakyamuni’s words in a moment of euphoria, the suggestion Gojō had reached a higher state of being was never intended to be called into doubt. The pertinent question, instead, is why the unimaginable strength that accompanies his ascension to almost godlike status seems to bring Gojō more loss than gain — especially when, in a twist of irony, he was only able to gain that strength through loss.

‘The Strongest’ : an allegory for enlightenment

As the two strongest sorcerers battled it out in Shinjuku, the question on everyone’s lips during the weekly chapter discussions was, ‘Who will win?’ However, Jujutsu Kaisen has already established that ‘winner’ is not necessarily always interchangeable with ‘strongest’. Perhaps that’s why, in the aftermath of the fight, the discussion has turned to arguments about which character is the strongest instead — from cursed technique to battle IQ.

Even now, we don’t know much about Sukuna’s abilities nor his character, so it’s always been difficult to accurately judge his strength against Gojō’s. However, a surprising number of people went into this fight believing that Sukuna would win without much trouble.

Some made the reasonable argument that ‘the strongest sorcerer in history’ using the Ten Shadows technique while inhabiting the body of his dearest student presented a no-win situation for Gojō. Others made the much less reasonable argument that Gojō’s claims about his strength were little more than arrogance born from a cushy life in an era of ‘weak’ sorcerers.

Indeed, Sukuna himself echoes that sentiment in chapter 230, going as far as to call Gojō ‘unenlightened’ (凡夫) — before being immediately humbled.

This isn’t the first time that Gege Akutami has directly challenged readers’ assumptions through his characters. However, Gojō in particular lends himself to reader speculation, because Akutami deliberately makes it difficult to know the character by maintaining a narrative distance from him that mirrors his Limitless technique.

This leads to a wonderful phenomenon where the reader falls into the same trap as the characters in the series by assuming that, while other sorcerers are struggling dreadfully, Gojō is having an easy time of things — because that’s what it looks like most of the time. Nanami might be right when he suggests that Gojō could take care of everything by himself. However, just because he could do it, does that mean he should?

The problem is, with Gojō kept at a distance, it’s easy to forget how he became 'the Strongest’ in the first place. It’s true that, even before he becomes a fully realised Six Eyes user, Gojō’s abilities dwarfed those of any other living sorcerer. For people like Getō and Megumi whose techniques require a very steep learning curve to master, I can imagine that it feels like Gojō’s unimaginable strength was handed to him on a silver platter at times.

However, both things can be true: Gojō was born with innate strength that most sorcerers can only dream of and Gojō is an exceptional talent in his own right.

We all saw the suffering and sacrifice that Gojō went through on his path to becoming a sorcerer strong enough to face the King of Curses. In a series where the primary power source is born from negative emotions, perhaps it makes sense that tragedy promotes strength. Yet, Getō — whose technique is the epitome of strength through negative emotions — experienced the same tragedy as Gojō. So why did they head in opposite directions after the events of Hidden Inventory?

If Gojō is the embodiment of enlightenment in Jujutsu Kaisen, then Getō is his opposite. Where Gojō achieves understanding, Getō is blinded by ignorance which shackles him to a cycle of suffering — the marathon game of jujutsu sorcery.

In blaming non-sorcerers’ inability to regulate cursed energy — rather than the negative emotions that generate cursed energy in the first place — Getō mistakes one cause for another. Following the natural law of cause and effect that is karma, the solution should lie in shedding negative emotions altogether — just like Gojō at the moment of enlightenment.

Sadly, in his quest to find liberation from suffering, Getō actually condemns himself to it. Where Gojō chooses to let go of hatred and anger, Getō chooses to cling to them. This is ultimately why 'the Strongest’ changes from plural to singular. However, all of this assumes that Gojō did things the ‘right’ way when it’s very possible that Gege Akutami actually seeks to criticise a religious doctrine that separates the ‘honoured’ ones from everyone else.

Getō’s response to the horrors he endured evokes sympathy because it feels fundamentally human. In contrast, enlightenment seems so unattainable to the average human being that it becomes almost inhuman — the reserve of gods.

Indeed, Gojō is often accused of having a ‘god complex’, and Gege Akutami’s continued references to the divine don’t do anything to help. However, the series more often paints its strongest characters as closer to weapons of mass destruction or natural disasters, making the reality of ‘the Strongest’ less like reverence and more like dehumanisation.

Although Gojō achieved ‘enlightenment’, he’s ultimately still a human being — something that’s easy to forget. In fact, one of my favourite things about Gojō’s character is how he exists on an almost metatextual level. Too often, characters and readers view Gojō Satoru as 'the Strongest’ first and a human being second — a notion embodied by this notorious panel.

Thus, rather than having a ‘god complex’, I interpret Gojō as a character who struggles with his place in the world. His strength is what keeps him at a distance from the people around him — from the literal distance maintained by his technique to the metaphorical distance that separates him from the ‘unenlightened’.

Even the blindfold he wears to avoid discomfort hides his eyes, shutting off the ‘window to the soul’ and making him a less approachable figure. Thus, the thing that makes Gojō more comfortable around other human beings is ironically the thing that makes others less comfortable around him.

With the power at his disposal, Gojō is frightening at times, and Gege Akutami goes to great pains to show us the brutal potential of such strength — for example, in Shibuya when he ruthlessly dismantles 1000 transfigured humans with the precision of a machine in less than five minutes.

However, this display of violence comes off the back of Gojō’s most compassionate moment in which he bends the laws of jujutsu sorcery to preserve as many human lives as possible. Each time the curses attempt to force his hand, he does the inconceivable, even going so far as to limit his own strength by fighting without his technique to avoid collateral damage to humans caught up in the chaos.

Importantly, he doesn’t agonise over his decisions like the curses expect. Instead, when presented with a choice between two options that fundamentally violate his ideals, he forces another path without thinking. This is Gojō’s ‘overwhelming sense of self’. His commitment to upholding the ‘meaning’ he inherited from Getō is so unshakeable that it’s instinctive; so engrained that it’s unconscious.

Despite his inhuman strength, Gojō’s actions in Shibuya exemplify his firm stance on the side of ordinary human beings. From his technique to his blindfold, he removes the physical barriers that separate him from the rest of humanity. The result is that, although his display of power in Shibuya is godlike, Gojō never seems more human.

Of course, it’s his humanity that ultimately makes him vulnerable to the Prison Realm, and many suggested that this ’weakness’ is why he would lose to Sukuna — a character who has wholly relinquished his humanity.

Humanity in opposition to strength

The unexpected appearance of his ‘best friend’ in Shibuya causes Gojō to falter for a heartbeat, but it’s long enough to make his brilliance look like foolishness in hindsight. His decision to save innocent people at B5F ultimately leads to the deaths of many thousands more over the course of October 31st and the following Culling Game. Among the casualties of the chaos are some of Gojō’s friends, colleagues, and students — as well as the Fushiguro siblings who were under Gojō’s personal care.

Of the Hidden Inventory arc, Nakamura Yūichi, Gojō’s voice actor said:

‘Even though Gojō had power, he failed his mission, he failed to protect Amanai, and he lost his best friend. He lost everything, and the only thing he succeeded at was awakening his abilities.’

So, it certainly seems true that Gojō’s choice to hold onto his humanity has brought him more losses than wins. In fact, at this point in the story, can we honestly say that Gojō has ever truly ‘won’?

Despite this, the characters in the series never stop thinking of Gojō as ‘the Strongest’. The narrative doesn’t ridicule him for his sentimentality in Shibuya, because it’s perfectly reasonable in the face of Kenjaku’s mind-boggling scheme. Even Sukuna recognises Gojō’s strength in the immediate aftermath of the event.

Aside from Kenjaku themselves — who has never suggested that Gojō is anything but immensely powerful — no one has ever criticised Gojō for his humanity. In fact, even prior to the Shinjuku Showdown arc, I’m not convinced that humanity is ever reliably situated in opposition to strength in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Many point to Uro Takako’s conversation with Okkotsu Yūta as evidence that tossing out one’s humanity is the only way to achieve ultimate strength. However, putting aside the fact that the translation warps Uro’s meaning somewhat, it’s unwise to assume that Sukuna’s is the only way to reach that level, simply because he’s the only example in history of a sorcerer with comparable strength to Gojō.

This is even more true when you take into consideration that everything about the context surrounding Uro’s assertion suggests otherwise. After all, this prideful, vicious sorcerer has just been beaten by a teenage boy who fights solely to protect the people he cares about.

‘Overwhelming sense of self’ — the more accurate translation of the above panel — is about having absolute conviction in who you are as a person. The quality of your ideals is irrelevant as long as your commitment to them surpasses all else, and this has never been Gojō’s issue.

To say that Gojō’s humanity makes him weak misses the point, because it’s never been a question of strength. There’s no need to invent a weakness in the form of his humanity, because we already know his weakness — he told us himself.

Perhaps this starts to get at the the truth of ’the Strongest’ and the solitude that comes with ultimate strength. In Gojō’s own words, ‘When granted everything, you can't do anything.’ Despite being strong, he simply cannot save everyone. So, if being ‘the Strongest’ doesn’t help Gojō towards his goals, then what’s the point in his strength?

Of course, this is why Getō’s parting words hit Gojō so hard. When the boy who taught him that ‘protecting the weak’ is important tells Gojō that he has the power to commit the biggest act of genocide in history, the title of 'the Strongest’ is transformed from a blessing into a curse. I can’t imagine that Gojō ever feels more powerless than when he realises that he’s trying to save people using a body that’s built to destroy — a contradiction that’s illustrated to us in our first introduction (chronologically) to Gojō as a character.

If that wasn’t enough to cause an existential crisis for Gojō, Getō’s follow-up question guarantees it. In challenging Gojō’s assertion that Getō’s goals are impossible to achieve, Getō simultaneously questions Gojō’s identity beyond ‘the Strongest’, unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) dehumanising Gojō by reducing him to his strength. This is especially painful coming from Getō of all people.

By the end of the conversation, Gojō’s entire worldview has been called into question by the person he trusted most. Getō, who always impressed upon Gojō the importance of meaning, leaves Gojō searching for the meaning in his strength — and, over 200 chapters after Getō asked the question, the answer still isn’t clear. This, I believe, is where the Shinjuku Showdown arc comes into play.

A reason to fight

From a narrative point of view, Getō isn’t entirely wrong to insinuate that Gojō lacks an identity beyond ‘the Strongest’. His primary role in the story has always been to act as a power ceiling from which the reader can extrapolate information about Gege Akutami’s world and its mechanics. Even his absence from the story is meticulously set up to illustrate the anarchy that breaks out due to the power vacuum he leaves behind.

Prior to the Shibuya Incident, Gojō Satoru’s overwhelming strength presented an obstacle to other characters’ growth. In order to create a more balanced playing field and an opportunity to explore creative techniques and fights on a previously unseen scale, it’s understandable that Akutami needed to get Gojō out of the way — at least until Sukuna could join the story as a fixed member of the cast.

As expected, even the strongest sorcerers we encountered during the Culling Game pale in comparison to the prowess on display during the Shinjuku Showdown. It all serves to show that Gojō and Sukuna are on an entirely different level — to the point that, even after Gojō burns out the part of his brain responsible for his domain, his strength still doesn’t dip below that of Okkotsu Yūta and Hakari Kinji.

To paraphrase Megumi, I shouldn’t try to find logic in a powerscaler’s behavioural patterns, but I can’t deny it’s immensely frustrating that week after week fans get caught up in arguments about who is the better sorcerer when it’s the least interesting thing about this fight.

The only reason ’the Strongest’ even existed as a neatly defined category up until this point was because of the lack of any viable opponent for Gojō. Now that he’s fighting someone on his level, comparing these two behemoths of jujutsu sorcery is the same as any other powerscaling exercise: reductive, vulnerable to bias, and ultimately missing the point.

Gege Akutami has never written a fight simply for the fun of seeing two characters go at it. There’s been a greater purpose behind every carefully created match-up in the series, either in the form of high stakes or an important lesson for the characters involved — or sometimes both.

While Akutami clearly enjoyed writing this back and forth between two masters of their craft, carefully balancing the scales to ensure that neither gained the upper-hand for too long, there is a great deal of character development staked on the outcome of this fight.

There are parallels between Gojō and Sukuna as characters but, more than anything, the Shinjuku Showdown arc has exposed some fundamental differences between the two — namely, why they fight in the first place. While it’s true that Gojō is fighting Sukuna partly because there’s no one else who can, it’s also true that the stakes have never been higher for Gojō. He has a lot to gain and a whole lot more to lose, so his reason for fighting feels tangible to the reader.

Conversely, Sukuna’s reason for fighting is considerably less clear. While we don’t know the nature of Sukuna’s binding vow with Kenjaku — or anything about his motivations in general — it doesn’t seem like there’s much at stake for Sukuna except for, perhaps, his pride. Beyond advancing the plot, this poses a lot of interesting questions about what Sukuna would have to gain from winning this fight.

Since Gojō’s return, Sukuna has recalled Yorozu’s words about love multiple times. Their purpose — and Sukuna’s initial reaction to them — are still shrouded in mystery. However, through Gojō, we can learn something about ‘love’ and how it relates to the ‘the solitude of ultimate strength’.

Gojō never wanted to be ‘the Strongest’ alone. In fact, his entire motivation as a character is raising up ‘strong and intelligent allies’, constantly chasing the companionship he felt as one half of the strongest duo and trying to ensure that his students never feel the same isolation that’s plagued him and Getō before him.

In the recent chapters of the manga, Gege Akutami has made it clear that Gojō isn’t really alone at all — Shōko reminiscing on their friendship in chapter 220; Gojō’s comrades rallying around him during the send off in chapter 222; the wonderful ‘my students are watching’ callback in chapter 230.

What’s more, for the first time in his adult life, we see Gojō — who’s famously in his element when he’s alone — start a fight with people at his side, leaning on three characters who we’ve previously been led to believe he looked down on.

The distance that’s always existed between Gojō and the people around him is closing. He has removed his mask and he is open to the world — the blindfold is gone; the shapeless, oversized jacket is gone; Gojō even removes his technique to let people in during his sendoff. Akutami makes it explicitly clear that Gojō’s allies have got his back, and he’s got theirs in turn — they’re his reason for fighting.

On the other hand, his opponent only has a single ally in all the world and, although Uraume is a devoted servant, there is no suggestion that they would tag in when the going gets tough. Sukuna has already told us that, for him, losing and dying are the same thing — a curious contrast to Gojō who does not put ‘winning’ and ‘dying’ in opposition, and this creates an interesting situation where both fighters could ‘win’ by their standards.

If Gojō saves the people he cares about (and the world at large) but dies in the process, he wins. Equally, if Sukuna is the sole survivor of the fight, he wins — but what would that actually mean for him?

One approach embodies overwhelming selfishness, the other embodies overwhelming selflessness, but only one of these approaches has been established as the most powerful form of binding vow in Jujutsu Kaisen. With all that said, many people believed that Gojō dying to win was the most likely conclusion to the fight — but that’s what a small fry would think!

In Jujutsu Kaisen, it has always come down to one question: how much are you willing to risk — not sacrifice — in order to win? This is the lesson that Gojō impresses upon Megumi, and it’s why I was always in the camp that believed Gojō would win and survive. I didn’t expect his victory to be quite so clear cut, but it seems obvious in hindsight — and it’s all thanks to the power of love and friendship.

In chapter 234, Kusakabe suggests that Sukuna is keeping something in reserve, because he knows that if Gojō loses, he’ll immediately have to fight a number of other powerful sorcerers. Gojō knows that there are strong allies ready to back him up if he fails, so he can go all out.

Meanwhile, Sukuna is truly alone — to the point that he has to create allies in the form of shikigami in order to contend with Gojō. In the end, the explanation for Gojō’s victory is simple. Where Gojō gave it his best, Sukuna didn’t — and that was a grave underestimation of his opponent for which he paid the price.

So, the Shinjuku Showdown arc has come to an end and Gojō has reaffirmed that he is, in fact, 'the Strongest'. However, his story isn’t over yet, so what would a satisfying conclusion to his character arc look like?

Are you Gojō Satoru because you’re the Strongest?

Although Itadori Yūji is the main character of the series, Gojō Satoru is foundational to the story — despite how much Gege Akutami jokes about hating him. Gojō’s story is the thread that ties the series together, so landing the ending is crucial for completing not only Gojō’s character arc, but also that of many other characters. For Gojō, everything consistently comes back to Getō Suguru and Fushiguro Toji, but there remain unanswered questions regarding both.

Toji’s presence during the clash of the strongest sorcerers is too large to ignore. Aside from the allusions to Toji himself, his son plays a pivotal role in Gojō’s story as the human representation of gain through loss — the blessing born from Gojō’s curse. Taking Megumi under his wing marked Gojō’s first step towards a brighter future after the tragedy brought on by the failed Star Plasma Vessel mission, but there’s one major plot thread left unresolved.

I wouldn’t have thought that Megumi learning the truth about his father was important after he dismisses Gojō’s attempt to tell him during the Hidden Inventory arc. However, the combination of Megumi’s interaction with Toji in Shibuya, his visible cluelessness when Tengen mentions Toji, and the numerous ways Gojō references Toji during the Shinjuku Showdown arc has convinced me that Akutami plans to follow this up at some point.

Right now, Megumi’s fate is still hanging in the balance. Although many people are waiting for something terrible to befall Gojō — losing his Six Eyes; burning out his technique permanently; dying — I’d like to believe that, if we look at Jujutsu Kaisen through a karmic lens, Gojō isn’t owed any more losses. At the very least, he certainly doesn’t have to die to progress the story as some people have suggested.

Our heroes, including Gojō himself, have been on a major losing streak for a long time now. Gojō being freed from the Prison Realm represented a shining beacon of hope at the lowest point in the series. To extinguish that light by killing Gojō almost immediately after he’s returned to the story would be another major blow to the characters and the readers.

I wouldn’t put it past Akutami to send some more pain our way before the end of the story, but if Gojō is going to die on December 24, I don’t think it’s before a number of other things happen.

If Gojō inherited Getō’s ideals in a symbolic ‘passing of the torch’, then his death before he has confirmed the safety of the people who depend on him is a depressing end to his best friend’s legacy. Additionally, up until now, Gojō has never had the opportunity to answer Getō’s question once and for all.

I would argue that Gojō has proven multiple times during the fight against Sukuna that he’s 'the Strongest' because he’s Gojō Satoru, but is he Gojō Satoru because he’s the strongest? He can’t discover that unless he experiences what it’s like not to be 'the Strongest' — either by losing his strength or by sharing the burden with the strong and intelligent allies he’s been raising for the entirety of his adult life.

Of course, there’s one more glaring thread to tie up, and it might be the most important of all when it comes to the completion of Gojō’s character arc. His first thought when he bursts out of the Prison Realm is a desire to lay Getō’s body to rest — a desire to rectify the mistake which threw the entire world into chaos.

As we’ve already discussed, despite his strength, Gojō has racked up a collection of costly failures. Thus, his entire character arc is about learning from the mistakes of his past. He’s taken every cruel loss that the universe has sent his way and, instead of lashing out with all that power at his disposal, he has grown from his experiences and chosen the path of ‘good’ time and time again.

If Gojō dies before retrieving Getō’s body from Kenjaku’s clutches, he has failed his best friend at the very last hurdle, and this would be a truly bleak way to end his story.

Concluding thoughts

At the conclusion of the Shinjuku Showdown arc, I’d like to see Gojō Satoru step back from the fight after inspiring hope in his students by delivering a final lesson in the form of his win. It is impossible to predict what Gege Akutami will do next, but I would like to see the reins handed back to the students for a while, as I feel Gojō has played his part against the King of Curses.

It is Sukuna, not Gojō, who presents the most interesting possibilities for character development after the conclusion of this fight. I am genuinely excited to see how he grapples with this loss that has the potential to challenge his entire view of himself and others. He disrespected Yorozu and treated his fight against her as a ‘test drive’, and thought he could get away with treating Gojō the same way. I think Ryōmen Sukuna might be about to learn some important lessons, and I would love to see him in conversation with Gojō before the latter bows out of the story.

Of course, we can always trust Gege Akutami to surprise us, and it’s entirely possible that the story will veer in a completely different direction than I expected. However, I have faith that he will deliver something profound, no matter what lies ahead.

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*This is a very interesting concept in and of itself, especially in relation to the goal of the Culling Game, Yuki and Kenjaku’s battle of ideals (i.e. ‘breaking free from’ versus ‘optimising’ cursed energy), Maki’s ‘enlightenment’ in the Sakurajima colony, and the understanding that true enlightenment lies in breaking free from all karma — both good and bad. After all, golden shackles are still shackles. Perhaps I’ll write about this another time.

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eregyrn-falls-art · 4 months

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2023 Tumblr Top 10

1. 2,261 notes - Jun 29 2023

2. 2,155 notes - Aug 31 2023 - “Trouble” lyric comic - long post with all the art.

3. 918 notes - Mar 10 2023

4. 716 notes - Jun 15 2023

5. 645 notes - Sep 27 2023 - “Trouble” lyric comic - video post

6. 592 notes - Feb 15 2023

7. 581 notes - Dec 22 2023

8. 467 notes - Sep 8 2023

9. 292 notes - Nov 25 2023

10. 235 notes - Sep 5 2023

Created by TumblrTop10

#tumblrtop10 #my art #gravity falls #(since the fancier one doesn't seem to have been made available this year?)

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shurislover · 7 months

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A Look into Letitia’s Spam

- i honestly think Letitias spam would consist of things revolving around you honestly. i wanted to add more but i couldnt. let me know if i should do a part 2 or do a “ a look into y/n spam “

- in here tish spam is public but she still has her comments limited !! and also not everyone knows it exists. but i hope you enjoy

tishspams

liked by therealyn and 367 others

tishspams surprised her after being gone for nearly a month

therealyn better not leave me for that long again

tishspams i promise i won’t

issarae here they go y’all 😒

tishspams you love us

dominiquethorne i’m surprised you lasted that long without y/n

tishspams you and me both

view all 28 comments

tishspams

liked by issarae and 289 others

tishspams posting just because

kosarali__ you only posted cause y/n told you

therealyn exactly ! idk why she out here playing lol

tishspams not you both trying to gang up on me

therealyn don’t let her fool y’all, i told her to post this

tishspams 😒😒 bye

view all 12 comments

tishspams

liked by tishsgf and 689 others

tishspams for her ears only

jojovandalkidd i bet she in her ear whispering a wack ass pick up line

officialsheiks nah it’s definitely something about grillz

therealyn y’all are so off it’s funny 😭

view all 23 comments

tishspams

liked by therealyn and 523 others

tishspams y/n on here ! don’t my wifey look good? anyways on a date kinda nervous ☺️

shionat simp at its finest

therealyn atleast you know

winstoncduke when y’all gonna start posting the cringy pictures that’s what i’m here for

therealyn i’ll dedicate the next one to you

tishspams

liked by dominiquethorne and 235 others

tishspams and she say she not clingy ???

therealyn y’all i was hacked

issarae get a room 😒

winstoncduke this why i like y/n she bold !

jojovandalkidd now where you get this meme 😂😂

view all 20 comments

tishspams

liked by therealyn and 634 others

tishspams she spoils me 🥺

therealyn you deserve princess treatment everyday baby i love you

ryandestiny i second this

danaigurira i’m so happy you found y/n she truly loves you

therealyn i love you mama

view all 35 comments

tishspams

liked by ayrastarr and 367 others

tishspams RING THIEF !!

jojovandalkidd so this where my yellow ring went ?

tishspams so she steals yours too ?

therealyn ILL DO IT AGAIN

winstoncduke ain’t that your shirt too ??

therealyn so you snitching on me ? you supposed to be my best friend ? YOURE BLOCKED !

view all 5 comments

tishspams

liked by jojovandalkidd and 421 others

tishspams i told her i got my new grillz

therealyn it’s been 3 days and i have yet to see them

tishspams baby you’ll see them when everyone else does 😭

therealyn don’t hit my line until i get a picture of them or see them in person 😒

tishspams SHE BLOCKED ME ! let me go show her my grillz

jojovandalkidd that’s what you get

tishspams 😒😒😒

view all 10 comments

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i just might do a part 2 lmao this is fun

#letitia wright #letitia x reader

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nateconnolly · 4 months

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Hozier Reading List of Free Texts You Can Finish in Less Than A Week

Another Hozier reading list is floating around the Internet, and it’s very thorough. Huge respect to @notmysophie for putting that together, they put in a lot of effort and research and it really shows. This is an alternative reading list for people who are too busy or tired to read all the entries on a complete list of Hozier’s literary influences. This list is incomplete—even after finishing it, there will be some very prominent literary references in Hozier’s music that might go over your head. But this will definitely help you appreciate the depth of thought in his songs, and if you read just five pages a night, you’ll be able to finish this reading list in less than one week.

ONE: ICARUS

Hozier puts the myth of Icarus to song in I, Carrion. You could very easily argue that Sunlight is also a response to Icarus. Many classical writers have told or mentioned his story, but I’ll let my own personal tastes shape this list, and recommend Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He tells the story of Icarus in Chapter 8 Lines 183–235. If you can afford it, I love the Charles Martin translation. You could consult the free Brookes More translation, or the one by A. S. Kline. Remember, you don't have to read the whole chapter--just find the part named "Daedalus and Icarus"

TWO: DOOMSDAY CLOCK

The title track Wasteland, Baby! is such a gentle love ballad, I almost have trouble remembering it’s about the apocalypse. Wasteland, Baby! finds hope and love in the face of annihilation. Hozier wrote this song as a direct response to the Doomsday Clock moving two minutes in 2018, one year before the album was released.

THREE: GENESIS 1-3

I also recommend reading Genesis Chapters 1-3. You’re probably familiar with the plot, but I think From Eden is such an ingenious twist on the familiar story that you’ll appreciate it even more after consulting the original. Hozier takes the symbols of Genesis 1-3 and uses them to make his own radically different point. The stories of Eden also come up in Be.

My favorite translation is by Robert Alter, but it’s currently not free online, so you might want to check out the Sefaria translation or the New King James Version (NKJV), both of which manage to capture the beauty of Genesis without becoming difficult for the average English reader. The King James Version (KJV) is also roughly the same level of difficulty as a Shakespeare play. I definitely think the KJV is beautiful, but at the end of a long hard day, you might be better off with the Sefaria, the NKJV, the NIV, or the NRSV. You can Google “Genesis 1” followed by any of those names/abbreviations, and you’ll find it right away.

FOUR: A MODEST PROPOSAL

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, written in 1729, might be the most gutting satire in history. UCLA students put together a very thorough explanation of the economic suffering and the proposed “solutions” that inspired Swift. References to A Modest Proposal form the skeleton of Hozier’s Eat Your Young.

FIVE: SEAMUS HEANEY

Before learning about Seamus Heaney, you’ll need some background information on the Troubles. I recommend this National Geographic article. I also recommend looking through these Chris Steele Perkins photographs of life during the Troubles.

During the Troubles, Heaney wrote a series of poems about bog bodies. His poetry directly inspired the corpse imagery in Work Song, Like Real People Do, and In a Week.

Disclaimer: I cannot read Hebrew or Latin. I am evaluating these translations solely by 1) how difficult they are to read and 2) how beautiful they sound. I cannot independently review them for accuracy. Just know that all the translations I’ve listed are widely respected among academics and/or religious leaders.

Anyways if you liked reading this go check out my Substack where I originally posted it.

#hozier #reading lists #original post

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antimony-medusa · 1 year

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MCYT on Ao3 — April '23

The state of MCYT on Ao3, just for fun. Yes I do this every month, I like numbers.

The Cube SMP (8 works)

Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (10 works)

iDots SMP (14 works)

Legacy SMP (26 works)

30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (28 works)

Art of Survival SMP (30 works)

Cogchamp SMP (31 works)

Dominion SMP (31 works)

Epic SMP (31 works)

X Life SMP (37 works)

Shady Oaks SMP (39 works)

Area Unknown SMP (47 works)

IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (50 works)

Bear SMP (54 works)

100 Hours Hardcore SMP (57 works)

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (81 works)

Magic Animal Club (85 works)

WitchCraft SMP (101 works)

House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (122 works)

Rats SMP (191 works)

SMPEarth (204 works)

Outsiders SMP (235 works)

SMPLive (265 works)

Yandere High School (Web Series) (303 works)

Mianite (Web Series) (343 works)

Afterlife SMP (355 works)

Evolution SMP (402 works)

MindCrack RPF (484 works)

Fable SMP (588 works)

Karmaland SMP (680 works)

Lifesteal SMP (864 works)

Origins SMP (1,278 works)

Empires SMP (4,471 works)

3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (5,819 works)

Hermitcraft SMP (14,757 works)

Dream SMP (74,046 works)

Minecraft (Video Game) (106,444 works)

Video Blogging RPF (244,330 works)

Some notes:

Everything italicized is new, and we have six new SMPs this month! Some of them, like Mianite, are a long time coming, whereas some like Witchcraft are new arrivals to the scene. QSMP does not yet have a canonized tag, but has over 120 fics, so that's got to be coming soon.

Fics are still primarily in english, with the one exception being Karmaland.

Epic SMP has decreased in fics for two months running, and both Cogchamp and Bear SMP also saw a decrease.

In the smaller fandom side, HBG, Outsiders and Rats all saw 14-fic increases (I happen to know the HBG increase is mostly attributable to the 48-hour exchange), but the real standout was Magic Animal Club, the Stampy fandom, which posted an impressive 18-fic increase.

In mid-size, Fable SMP continues to turn out a remarkable amount of fics for a fandom of its size, increasing by 47 fics after last month's 48. Lifesteal continues to take the crown of growing fandom though, with 117 new fics beating last month's 91.

For the first time in a while the major fandoms actually saw more fics this month than the month before. Dream SMP increased by 1744, beating the previous month's 1,703, though less than early 2023 at 1,978 and 2,614. Hermitcraft increased by 596, beating the previous month's 497, and the month before thats 558, but not beating January's 665. Third Life continued to blow everybody out of the water as regards increase by size though, seeing 671 fics this month, 351 in March, 251 in Feb, and 246 in January.

Detailed breakdown of increases under the cut

The Cube SMP (8 works, 8 works last month, 0-fic increase)

Slamacow Minecraft Animations (Web Series) (10 works)

iDots SMP (14 works, 14 works last month, 0-fic increase)

Legacy SMP (26 works, 25 works last month, 1-fic increase)

30 Day SMP | Free Trial SMP (28 works, 28 works last month, 0-fic increase)

Art of Survival SMP (30 works, newly canonized)

Cogchamp SMP (31 works, 32 works last month, 1-fic decrease)

Dominion SMP (31 works, 27 works last month, 4-fic increase)

Epic SMP (31 works, 32 works last month, 1-fic decrease)

X Life SMP (37 works, 33 works last month, 4-fic increase)

Shady Oaks SMP (39 works, 38 works last month, 1-fic increase)

Area Unknown SMP (47 works, 41 works last month, 6-fic increase)

IvoryCello's Prison Escapes (Web Series) (50 works, newly canonized)

Bear SMP (54 works, 55 works last month, 1-fic decrease)

100 Hours Hardcore SMP (57 works, 57 works last month, 0-fic increase)

Slimecicle Cinematic Universe (Web Series) (81 works, newly canonized)

Magic Animal Club (85 works, 67 works last month, 18-fic increase)

WitchCraft SMP (101 works, newly canonized)

House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP (122 works, 108 works last month, 14-fic increase)

Rats SMP (191 works, 177 works last month, 14-fic increase)

SMPEarth (204 works, 196 works last month, 8-fic increase)

Outsiders SMP (235 works, 221 works last month, 14-fic increase)

SMPLive (265 works, 257 works last month, 8-fic increase)

Yandere High School (Web Series) (303 works, newly canonized)

Mianite (Web Series) (343 works, newly canonized)

Afterlife SMP (355 works, 343 works last month, 12-fic increase)

Evolution SMP (402 works, 366 works last month, 36-fic increase)

MindCrack RPF (484 works, 481 works las month, 3-fic increase)

Fable SMP (588 works, 541 works last month, 47-fic increase)

Karmaland SMP (680 works, 648 works last month, 32-fic increase)

Lifesteal SMP (864 works, 747 works last month, 117-fic increase)

Origins SMP (1,278 works, 1,234 works last month, 44-fic increase)

Empires SMP (4,471 works, 4,090 works last month, 381-fic increase)

3rd Life | Last Life SMP Series (5,819 works, 5,148 works last month, 671-fic increase)

Hermitcraft SMP (14,757 works, 14,161 last month, 596-fic increase)

Dream SMP (74,046 works, 72,272 works last month, 1,744-fic increase)

Minecraft (Video Game) (106,444 works, 105,720 works last month, 724-fic increase)

Video Blogging RPF (244,330 works, 240,148 works last month, 4,182-fic increase)

#MCYT on Ao3 #fandom stats #ao3

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moneeb0930 · 9 months

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ORIGINS OF HAPI (NILE) VALLEY CIVILIZATION

The progenitors of the Nile Valley civilization were Nilo-Saharan peoples who migrated to the Hapi (Nile) Valley from the Green Sahara, Nubia and Northeast Africa. The cattle cults of Het-Heru (Hathor), spiritual beliefs, iconography and cultural motifs associated with the old Kingdom can be traced to these regions prior to the unification of the two lands. The science of mummification began in Libya with the 5600 year old Tashwinat Mummy, known as the “Black Mummy of the Green Sahara''. The Black Mummy predates the oldest Kemetic mummy by over 1000 years. Astronomy and the study of the procession of the equinox began in South Africa at the site of the Adams Calendar Stone Circle and continued at the Napta Playa Stone circle located in modern day Sudan. This 7000 year old ceremonial center dried out around 3400 BC and they transferred their knowledge into the Nile Valley. The earliest images of Pharaonic Kingship were found in Nubia at the site of Qustul were the oldest depiction of Pharaonic Kingship is shown on the Qustul incense Burner. The original populations of the Nile Valley were no different than modern Sudanese, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali populations of today with a mixture of western Eurasians via the Levant whom for the most part settled in the Delta region. The cultural overlap of Kush and Kemet existed from the very dawn of Hapi Valley civilization and the cultural fusion was expressed in the customs and spiritual beliefs of its early inhabitants. These ancient traditions are continually practiced in Africa to this day.

Below are the results from a genome project conducted by Dr. Shomarka Keita, a Research Affiliate and Biological Anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. A. J. Boyce, who works at the Institute of Biological Anthropology and St. John's College

Oxford University.

PROJECT MUSE

Genetics, Egypt, and History: Interpreting Geographical Patterns of Y Chromosome Variation

IV, XI, V=Nilotic African

VII, VIII=Near Eastern

235 S.O.Y. Keita and A. J. Boyce

Early speakers of Nilosaharan and Afroasiatic apparently interacted based on the evidence of loan words (Ehret, personal communication). Nilosaharan’s current range is roughly congruent with the so-called Saharo-Sudanese or Aqualithic culture associated with the less arid period (Wendorf and Schild 1980), and therefore cannot be seen as intrusive. Its speakers are found from the Nile to the Niger rivers in the Sahara and Sahel, and south into Kenya. The eastern Sahara was likely a micro-evolutionary processor and pump of populations, who may have developed various specific sociocultural (and linguistic) identities, but were genealogically “mixed” in terms of origins.

These identities may have further crystallized on the Nile, or fused with those of resident populations that were already differentiated. The genetic profile of the Nile Valley via the fusion of the Saharans and the indigenous peoples were likely established in the main, long before the Middle Kingdom. Post-neolithic/predynastic population growth, as based on extrapolations from settlement patterns (Butzer 1976) would have led to relative genetic stability. The population of Egypt at the end of the pre-dynastic is estimated to have been greater than 800,000, but was not evenly distributed along the valley corridor, being most concentrated in locales of important settlements (Butzer 1976). Nubia, as noted, was less densely populated.

Interactions between Nubia and Egypt (and the Sahara as well) occurred in the period between 4000 and 3000 BCE (the predynastic). There is evidence for sharing of some cultural traits between Sudan and Egypt in the neolithic (Kroeper 1996). Some items of “material” culture were also shared in the phase called Naqada I between the Nubian A-Group and upper Egypt (~3900-3650 BCE). There is good evidence for a zone of cultural overlap versus an absolute boundary (Wilkinson 1999 after Hoffman 1982, and citing evidence from Needler 1984 and Adams 1996). Hoffman (1982) noted cattle burials in Hierakonpolis, the most important of predynastic upper Egyptian cities in the later predynastic. This custom might reflect Nubian cultural impact, a common cultural background, or the presence of Nubians.

Whatever the case, there was some cultural and economic bases for all levels of social intercourse, as well as geographical proximity. There was some shared iconography in the kingdoms that emerged in Nubia and upper Egypt around 3300 BCE (Williams 1986). Although disputed, there is evidence that Nubia may have even militarily engaged upper Egypt before Dynasty I, and contributed leadership in the unification of Egypt (Williams 1986). The point of reviewing these data is to illustrate that the evidence suggests a basis for social interaction, and gene exchange.

236 S.O.Y. Keita and A. J. Boyce

There is a caveat for lower Egypt. If neolithic/predynastic northern Egyptian populations were characterized at one time by higher frequencies of VII and VIII (from Near Eastern migration), then immigration from Saharan sources could have brought more V and XI (Nilo-Saharan) in the later northern neolithic. It should further be noted that the ancient Egyptians interpreted their unifying king, Narmer (either the last of Dynasty 0, or the first of Dynasty I), as having been upper Egyptian and moving from south to north with victorious armies (Gardiner 1961, Wilkinson 1999). However, this may only be the heraldic “fixation” of an achieved politi- cal and cultural status quo (Hassan 1988), with little or no actual troup/population movements. Nevertheless, it is upper Egyptian (predy- nastic) culture that comes to dominate the country and emerges as the basis of dynastic civilization. Northern graves over the latter part of the predynastic do become like those in the south (see Bard 1994); some migration to the north may have occurred—of people as well as ideas.

238-239 S.O.Y. Keita and A. J. Boyce

After the early late pleistocene/holocene establishment of Afroasiatic-speaking populations in the Nile valley and Sahara, who can be inferred to have been predominantly, but not only V (and XI), and of Nilosaharan folk in Nubia, Sudan, and Sahara (mainly XI and IV?), mid- holocene climatic-driven migrations led to a major settlement of the valley in upper Egypt and Nubia, but less so in lower Egypt, by diverse Saharans having haplotypes IV, XI, and V in proportions that would significantly influence the Nile valley-dwelling populations.

These mid-Holocene Saharans are postulated to have been part of a process that led to a diverse but connected metapopulation. These peoples fused with the indigenous valley peoples, as did Near Easterners with VII and VIII, but perhaps also some V. With population growth the genetic profiles would become stabilized. Nubian and upper Egyptian proximity and on some level, shared culture, Nubia’s possible participation in Egyptian state-building, and later partial political absorption in Dynasty I, would have reinforced biological overlap (and been further “stabilized” by ongoing population growth).

Source:

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/187884

HEAD to HEAD: Ancient Egypt Reconstructions COMPARED (Bas Uterwijk vs TKM): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8iN6EFVTbQ&t=35s

Visit A Virtual Museum:

https://www.knowthyselfinstitute.com/museum

"I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds." ~35th & 36th Principals of Ma'at

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codenamesazanka · 2 months

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thoughts on the latest leaks ?

Sorry for taking so long to reply, but I wanted to want until the official translation was out before saying anything definitive!

So, all my thoughts:

-> Remember when Yoichi about 100+ chapters ago spoke of Shigaraki Tomura as a 'boy' and 'child' that AFO was taking advantage of, that he was raised to be filled with hatred and anger (Chapter 287, 305)? And people thought that Yoichi, as like, the first victim raised by AFO himself, would of course be one of the people to sympathize with Shigaraki Tomura?

Of course, now Yoichi's all in on facing the "mighiest villain, with armor forged from untold malice and hatred", to put a stop to his evil acts, because this is the reason for One For All to have existed for so long. Shigaraki is essentially the same as AFO, and saving Shigaraki has turned into 'let's see how much and hard we can punch this guy to literally break down his psychological walls until he throws up the right tragic backstory for Deku to truly care' so that luckily, that doesn't technically contradict what Deku said of OFA as a power to save (not kill).

It's really unfortunate that Yoichi has sorta turned into a character that does/is what's most convenient for storytelling. He's the Pure Goodness to AFO's Innate Evil, so that we can't totally blame the twin's horrific childhood environment for why AFO turned out so bad, some babies are just born that way; he's there to be fridged for both AFO and Kudou, so much so that his most significant speech in the flashback chapters is about wishing how AFO used his power for good is a flashback-within-the-flashback from AFO and Kudou to jump start their journeys of being One For All Chain and All For One; he's got nothing to say about the 'lump of lead' so Kudou can be the one to notice it and get his cool strategy and sacrifice moment;

and now he's just saying things about ~Evil~ to hype up the attack on Shigaraki (his brother's victim) as an amazing thing... because it will allow Deku to dig out the foundational cruelty AFO forced onto Shigaraki, presumably so Shigaraki can regress to a five-year-old and cry about it, and Deku will step up all heroic to dry his tears.

-> I am happy to see memories of USJ Shigaraki. <3 Him about to disintegrate Tsuyu. <3 Him working with A+++ coordination with Kurogiri. <3 The original Noumu. <3

-> Shigaraki Tomura's will being so strong that he can reject being given OFA. I love him so, so, so much.

-> Judging by the clothes that giant memory Tenko is wearing - gray shirt, dark pants - it does take place on the same day that Tenko's memories starts in Chapter 235, when a stranger in a nice suit took Tenko home.

-> 'AFO gave Tenko Decay' theory is a separate post.

-> It's a pointless, losing battle, but I will still roll my eyes at how we had to cut to La Brava just for her to talk about how cool Deku is, for throwing her boyfriend into jail and turning him into a better person. Gentle already had a heart that beat for others, La Brava! Deku helped him realize this, but the decision to surrender and atone was all Gentle.

#thanks for the ask!#anon #anonymous #answered #ask #asked #nalslastworkingbraincell

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atolua · 22 days

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𖥻 SPECULATIONS ABOUT STRAY KIDS' HAN AND ATEEZ'S LUA ARISE !

❪ 240405 ❫ / published on april 4 , 2024

have stray kids' han and ateez's lua reconciled their relationship?

members of the online community are eager to gain answers regarding the relationship status of the two idols. these speculations come about shortly after han opened his personal instagram. while his feed are currently filled with short vocal covers, two posts have roused curiosity among stays.

four days after covering until i found you by stephen sanchez, han posted himself singing beautiful things by benson boone. both are known to be songs surrounding longing and adoration—themes that can be associated with his previous relationship with lua.

to add fuel to the fire, lua had just celebrated her birthday on april 1. from what can be discerned in the photos uploaded on her own personal instagram, she wasn't alone on her special day:

both idols and their agencies have remained mum on the speculations.

❪ WHAT DO NETIZENS THINK ? ❫

[ +72 , -127 ] if they're not together then that's the worst late april fools joke in the history of aprils

[ +153 , -65 ] on a silly little side note this is an excellent way to promote han's new instagram account

[ +88 , -14 ] i love my parents but lua could have easily spent the day with anyone like inka or one of the girls from pandora or any other close friend or family

[ +235 , -92 ] it's not that i'm nosy or curious but like............... what if they had never broken up in the first place ??

[ +316 , -119 ] gonna go back to hibernation wake me up once they're out of their divorce era

❑ TAGLIST .. @stealanity @ateezivy @cixrosie @alixnsuperstxr @lost-leopard-beanie @fairiepoems — send an ask / dm to be added !

#ficnetfairy #୫ ⋄ … articles ˖ better an oops than a what if #ateez 9th member #ateez addition #ateez additional member #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #fictional idol community #kpop addition #fictional idol oc #idol oc #stray kids x oc #skz x oc

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yorshie · 8 months

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I had a question about the weight for the turtles in my personal head canons, and when I started typing out the answer I realized it was a bit long to just sit in the reply section of the post, so I decided to treat it like an ask and make it it’s own little post.

To recap here are the weights in question

Leo: 670lbs (height 6’4”)

Donnie: 680lbs (height 6’10”)

Raph: 720lbs (height 6’7”)

Mikey: 640lbs (height 6’2”)

Please remember these are head canons and everyone is allowed to have difference in opinion, I do not care if you disagree with me as long as you keep it civil- if you have your own head canons about the turtles, cool! I’d love to read them, I think it’s interesting what people come up with and how they get there.

I came by my weight head cannons for the bayverse turtles by looking at two things- weightlifters and the higher end weight scale for Galapagos tortoises.

Arnold was listed at 6’2” in competition and on season (cut) he was billed in at 235, off season (bulk) he clocked in at 260-ish, and all that while being a bodybuilder which means he was more concerned with the aesthetics of the human body and not training necessarily for strength. If you start looking at men that don’t adhere to a strict cut season and train primarily for strength, that number will of course be different.

The other end of that spectrum is of course power lifters which looking at Eddie Hall, who is billed in at 6’3”, and weighs over 310lbs in an interview he did for greatest physique. His wiki page lists his weight between 314lbs-434lbs which I assume is over the course of his career but I know he battled health factors that went along with the weight on his diaphragm and rib cage. The turtles of course, do not have to worry about that.

The upper weight scale for Galapagos tortoises is in the 500lbs and they get up to 6ft long, that shell weighs a bunch not to mention their bones. Granted I do not know nearly as much about the tortoises as I do weightlifting, but even with Donnie being the tallest at 6’10”, it’d stand to reason the weight would be similar and even if their shells were smaller long wise they’d offset some of that with the greater width- well, except for Donnie.- I simply cross multiplied and divided how big I “thought” their shell would be to get a handle on what it might weigh next to that mentioned turtle shell. I came up with Raph’s weight first as the biggest and burliest, and then settled the others around him. I might even tweak them a bit more, as looking at it now Mikey might be a bit low for me.

So yea that’s how I got the number for My Personal Head Canons. I like big turtles. I like muscular men. I wanted a plot point of them having to be extra careful with their weight around humans. I’m a sucker for the big strong men being careful trope.

I know exactly how I got to this here hill lol.

#ask away!#deep racoon thoughts #tmnt bayverse headcanons

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sirnerdbird · 1 year

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A post to illustrate just how insane the Golden Grizzco Point badge is

One of the major additions to Splatoon 3 was the Splashtag system, which brings with it a lot of extra customisation for the player. Maybe the most interesting part of this new system is the fact that you can attach up to 3 badges (splatoon's new form of achievements) to your Splashtag to demonstrate your prowess in different aspects of the game (pictured here is my splashtag with my badges for "10 tricolour defender wins", "rank 50 in tableturf" and "S+ in anarchy battles").

A lot of these badges come with different tiers of completion (like the "turf war wins" badge which gives you a normal, silver and gold variant as you get to 50, 250 and 1200 wins respectively) and one of these sets of badges is tied to accumulating Grizzco Points across your Salmon Run matches.

Grizzco Points are a form of progression tied to your performance in Salmon Run and are what's used to determine your progression through the Bonus Meter for that rotation (the thing that gives you the different coloured capsules, the points are referred to here as "p").

These points are calculated using for following equation (where X is taken from whether you completed every round [X=1], completed every round and defeated a King Salmonid [X=2], or lost a round [X=0]):

(Golden Eggs + Power Eggs / 200)(Pay Grade / 100) + 50 * X = Grizzco Points

There are three badges tied to accumulating Grizzco Points over time; a bronze badge for 10,000 points, a silver badge for 100,000 points and a gold badge for collecting a grand total of 9,999,999 points.

The purpose of this post is to illustrate the extent to which this last requirements is (genuinely) unlikely to be reached by anyone legitimately before Splatoon 4 is released.

To understand why, let's take a look at just how many points you can get per match, then craft a best-case scenario to demonstrate how long it would take in hours of playtime.

The highest recorded number of eggs in a S3 Salmon Run game so far that I could find was this run posted by Brian with 241, however in the video it's mentioned that 250 is possible (and/or the current record? couldn't quite make out what was said exactly). Lets also take their number of Power Eggs collected in that run as well and generously round it up to 8000 to represent what you might get with a WR 250 egg run.

Using this and the 235% Paygrade you get for playing at Eggsecutive VP 50 and above, we can find out the number of points that you could get for an "optimum" run (if a King Salmonid does not appear)

(250 + 8000 / 200)(235 / 100) + 50 = 731.5 (lets call it 732, idk how Splatoon treats decimals so I'm just going to round it to the nearest whole number).

(Given that my average game as a pretty mediocre Eggsecutive VP player gets me about 270-330 points per win, I hope you can see the extent to which 732 is a pretty unsustainable "optimum" value, but let's carry on)

Salmon Run is made up of 3 rounds that are 100 seconds long ("0" is counted as a whole second iirc, so even though the timer shows 99 seconds you have 100), with about 10-15 seconds between waves. If you want to play multiple games one after another there's also about 1-2 minutes of waiting for a lobby + the opening helicopter cutscene + the end screen. As a rough estimate, lets say it takes an average of 7 minutes between joining the freelance queue and starting the queue for your next match afterwards.

9,999,999 / 732 = 13661.20082 (so 13662 games in total)

13662 x 7 = 95634 minutes = 1593.9 hours = 66.4125 days of solid playtime

Cutting our points per game to a more sustainable 360 points per game at Eggsecutive VP level, then adding a 75% win rate to the equation gets us to 4050 (.925...) hours of solid playtime for this one golden badge.

To put this into perspective, in an equivalent timeframe you could watch Shrek 2700 times and be just over half way through the 2701st viewing when the timer ran out.

Very illuminating example aside, I hope I've demonstrated why this badge is effectively unobtainable for those of us not in possession of a hacked switch. I would honestly almost bet a sizable amount of money that nobody is going to get this badge by the end of the decade (and/or when Silksong is relea.... wait that's coming in 2023 isn't it nvm)

(if I've got any of the maths wrong feel free to bully me in the tags)

#splatoon 3 #maths #tumblr deleted 90% of this post when I accidentally pressed ctrl z

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fushiglow · 7 months

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Who the hell is Gojō Satoru?

Some thoughts on his character in 236

Seeing everyone arguing about Gojō’s characterisation in 236 over the last week makes me realise just how good the chapter is, no matter how dissatisfied I am with Gojō's death.

When you're upset about something, it's hard to judge accurately whether something is 'bad' or whether you simply don't like it — and they are different things. Interestingly, 236 presented me with a conflict I've never experienced when following a story before. I'm really disappointed with the way Gege Akutami chose to end Gojō's story, but I think 236 will go down as one of the most beautiful chapters of Jujutsu Kaisen. In that sense, my feelings about the chapter after a week of sitting with it aren't too unrecognisable from my initial feelings — just with all of the big emotions that were colouring my judgment stripped away.

I think there *is* value in immediate reactions, and I think much of the initial outrage about the chapter was simply people grieving what was an intentionally shocking end to a beloved character. I hate that people tried to police social media reactions to the chapter, because I think everyone should be allowed to process their feelings in their own online space (as long as they don't bring harm to others, of course).

Aside from the outpouring of emotion, there have been countless arguments about 'who' Gojō was as a person in the end, and that doesn't sit right with me either. I think many artists would be disappointed to hear fans of their work insist that there is one 'proper' interpretation — because the value of sharing your art with the world is in how different people receive it based on their own experiences.

To me, that's Gojō Satoru as a character.

I know lots of people have already shared some variation of the post below (and everyone has moved on to 237 now anyway) but this was sitting in my drafts so I thought I may as well hit post before 237 is officially released!

In my analysis of Gojō's character after 235, I talked about how Gege Akutami keeps Gojō at a distance from both the readers and the characters around him, making it deliberately difficult to know who he is as a person. Despite that, everyone in-universe and out has something to say about Gojō's character, but we've never really known how Gojō views himself until this chapter.

For maybe the first time in Jujutsu Kaisen, we get to deep dive into Gojō's interior world and hear his innermost thoughts when he's at his lowest and most vulnerable. As a result, something fascinating happened across the fandom.

Even when Gojō literally tells Getō that the 'wretchedness of isolation' is something he shares with Sukuna, that he gave everything he had so that Sukuna might understand him and be understood in turn, and that he knows not everyone will get it, some people called Gojō 'out of character' in 236.

And isn't that just so damn meta?!

Akutami loves challenging readers' assumptions through his characters, so while the chapter is shocking, it isn't really surprising. I'd even go as far as suggesting that the journey of emotions the reader experiences while reading 236 is the exact same journey Gojō is going on in-story.

The thing is, I've seen tons of people arguing about whether Gojō was selfless or selfish, whether he fought for the love of his students or for the love of the fight, whether he took strong young sorcerers under his wing from a place of care or simply as a means to an ends — but I think the point is that it's always been all of those things at once.

Because he's human, and humans contain multitudes.

I think we were meant to have our view of Gojō shaken by 236 — the same way Gojō's view of himself is challenged in this chapter. However, just because we can find some truth in Nanami's criticism of Gojō, doesn't mean that his interpretation of Gojō's character is the correct one — especially when it's entirely possible that what happens in the airport isn't even real.

Getō listens with empathy as Gojō confesses his self-doubt and regrets, the solitude of his strength, and the dehumanisation he experienced as the 'Strongest'. He even expresses jealousy when Gojō admits he had fun fighting someone strong enough to understand him. Then, only two pages after Gojō says, 'You can cherish a flower and help it bloom, but you don't ask it to understand you', Nanami appears and calls him a pervert for his approach to sorcery.

It's actually really funny.

Importantly, Nanami isn't exactly wrong for saying the enjoyment Gojō gets from fighting is a little disturbing (and, to be clear, I *adore* this about him) — it's just not the whole picture of Gojō Satoru.

Akutami actually gives us some lovely imagery to visually represent the gulf between those who understand the solitude of strength and those who don't — Gojō and Getō sit on one side of the bench while Nanami and Haibara sit on the other, with each duo facing in opposite directions.

I don't think Akutami is implying that either side is wrong or right — it's just two different perspectives. Nevertheless, Gojō is pictured side by side with someone who understands him, and back to back with someone who doesn't understand him but who cares for him all the same.

Recognising this, he pivots to asking Nanami about something they can both relate to and receives an important lesson in return. What Nanami means and what Gojō takes from it is deliberately ambiguous, like everything that's discussed inside the airport:

Could Sukuna have won without the Ten Shadows?

Who does the 'flower' represent: Gojō, the people around him, or both?

Did Gojō reach Sukuna like he hoped?

Why exactly is Getō jealous?

Does Gojō feel satisfied?

Is Nanami's assessment of Gojō's character correct?

What is the relevance of north and south?

Which direction did Gojō choose?

Is it all in Gojō's imagination or is it real?

Whether we'll receive answers to those questions remains to be seen, but I highly suspect that most of them don't even have a definitive answer.

Once again, it's just a matter of perspective, and I think that's Gojō's character in a nutshell. Whichever side of the bench you're sitting on, whatever you see in Gojō says more about you than it does about him — and that's exactly why it's so fascinating to see the fandom erupt into arguments about who's interpreting the character correctly.

I can honestly say I think the chapter is really beautiful even though I hate what happened to Gojō, and that's an entirely new experience for me. For that alone, Akutami has my praise. Whatever happens in the rest of the story will determine whether 236 becomes my favourite chapter in the whole of Jujutsu Kaisen — isn't that bizarre?

By the way, I found a really thoughtful post about some of the word choices in 236. The poster shared some really interesting insights across a series of posts and they convey the tone of the chapter really well. Well worth checking out!

#i forgot to post this until now ooooops #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #jjk 236 #呪術廻戦 #gojo satoru #jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #jjk meta #jjk analysis #jujutsu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen analysis #my writing #fushiglow

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