#also you can take it as when geto defected is when gojo decided to 'delay' nirvana or Buddhahood to teach (save) others | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

movedkagen · 3 years

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hey so before i get to working on replies again i do want to analyze gojo ( what’s new ) and discuss some aspects of his healing process. tbh i could never properly analyze the stages of thinking that gojo underwent during geto’s defection and afterwards in one post, but i ranted about it a bit on discord and I’m hoping to get it to make sense here.

what namely sparked this analysis was me finding two different translations of the same panel, which is a flashback from when gojo approaches megumi and takes him in. at one point, megumi asks if he’ll have to become a sorcerer ( in order to keep tsumiki happy ), and gojo said yes, but the translation is wildly different depending on which you read.

GIGANTIC ANALYSIS OF GOJO’S GRIEF POST STAR VESSEL ARC / GETO’S DEFECTION UNDER THE CUT.

the first is close to the gojo we've been seeing all throughout this past arc, the gojo that doesn't really care for people weaker than him: it continues to frame gojo as this unreachable glass sealing, this limitless individual who believes only the strongest will survive.

however, the second has a far different meaning, and is closer to the gojo we met initially:

the second is close to the gojo we see now, who is faithful and even hopeful in the next generation's ability to surpass him. the second translation is also really important not just to how gojo in general is characterized, but also in the way that i perceive gojo's healing process and what him seeking out megumi meant to his character.

in order to take that apart, i first have to address how i view the famous kfc breakup scene: i don’t think it was the moment gojo and geto realized they had opposing ideals. i think, purely because geto didn’t clue him into why he felt the way he did, gojo was forced to get ideals of his own.

gojo was in ethical limbo after geto left. geto was, according to gege, gojo's moral compass. and geto just walked off a ledge that he himself pulled gojo back from just the year before. in essence, it's not an opposition of ideals at all, because honestly, at that point, gojo doesn't have any ideals of his own. call it coping, call it neurodivergency, call it the fact that this is the only type of life he ever expected to live having come from a powerful sorcerer clan, but gojo never seemed to care much about the purpose in his work or what it meant to himself or others. it was just something he did because he had the ability to, and because at that point in time it was simply what sorcerers like him did.

there's a BIT of delinquency before the star vessel arc, but it's more in him wanting to do things HIS way because he's been under his family's control all his life before coming to tokyo tech. however, at the end of the day, gojo completes his jobs and his tasks without much second thought to it. he doesn’t question why he does jobs, and almost treats them like a game to show his own strength. geto even tries to convince him there's purpose in what they do and gojo laughs it off and says that sort of philosophy is for the weak and that he thinks it’s a load of self - righteous crap.

fast forward to when geto leaves. he's been following either the school or geto's lead in terms of intent for years now and he's been comfortable that way. so when geto leaves, gojo can’t understand why. he says things like "you can't" and "that's crazy talk" but he has no other reasoning to support that:

he just says it because what geto is doing is so outside of what the normal duties are, which is why geto pretty easily argues against it and gojo has no rebuttal. geto very easily turns that entire argument upside down, and shakes gojo’s entire sense of self with a single counter:

and gojo can’t understand it. he can’t argue it. gojo is less arguing because he opposes his ideals and more arguing that he can't break away from the system because he's never thought to himself. it's like a child refusing to accept something simply because they don't understand it, like if they deny it entirely then it isn't real and can't bother them.

this is also why i think he made the motion to attack him; he was never going to fight him, it was more about doing whatever was possible / in his power to try and force geto to stay because he didn't want to accept he was leaving. and if geto had stayed, gojo would have found a way to absolve him of his crimes because at the end of the day, it wasn't that he was opposed to geto's mindset. he was opposed to geto leaving.

geto was the single person who ever made him think about his motives and stopped him from doing things he knew he was capable of. with geto gone, gojo is totally lost and he is not coping effectively. he wouldn't empty out geto's room at all because that would mean he really left, so he didn't. not for weeks, or months, or even a year after it happened. he refused to do it and he threw a tantrum if anyone else tried to go near the room at all. there was a surplus of rooms, so that room was left alone almost like a grave for a long time.

during that intermediate period, gojo wasn't even sure where he stood anymore. he really questioned if he even wanted to be a sorcerer because if geto didn't do it anymore, why should he? he's never had compassion for non - shamans like geto did. what was he doing it for at all, then?

gojo was at a crossroads where he was between being a weapon for the higher ups that he didn't even like to begin with or following someone he did care about and respect, down a path that he knew to be wrong but realized he'd never once asked himself why.

gojo was moody. sometimes he'd be too reckless on jobs, and other times he would rebel and outright refuse to go on missions because he was lashing out at the control he let them have over him. he was a loose cannon and while he had yet to start actively being an enemy to the higher ups ( at this time i hc he never really threatened them or demanded to know their every move ), he was still powerful enough where they knew if they couldn’t get him under their control, they might lose everything ------ and frankly, if geto and gojo defected, they'd never be able to recover from that. at that point if they had a way to kill him, i truly believe they would have and i'm sure there was at least an attempt, which i have a separate headcanon for.

but healing has to start somewhere. he clearly does have a shift in mentality where he does care about protecting those weaker than him, and that's the first step. it's gojo accepting he can't go geto's route because he doesn't hate the world like geto does. he hates the people who oppress it. the next step is accepting geto left, which is hard. after about 2 years he and shouko clean out geto's room and it's really hard on him, it's a very emotional event and it's a very delayed acceptance that he is gone.

the final step in his decision to heal ( heal being a strong word since the man never gets therapy and is clearly still traumatized ) is investigating those final words toji left him with, that "do what you want" regarding his child.

i have said that i don't hc he went there to get megumi, but he just went there to see him and see what the big deal was. but then he found out about the deal and something compelled him to go and investigate, and when he met megumi, he didn't find toji's "trump card" or some secret weapon. he found a child. a child that was abandoned and destined to turn out like himself or geto or toji and he very impulsively decided to take him and tsumiki in and stop the deal entirely.

that was the first time he opposed the higher ups for real. that was the first time he said "i'm getting in the way of this and if you try and stop me i WILL attack you and kill you all" and while he's an outsider with seemingly nothing to gain from that, they have no choice but to let him because no one can stop him.

that second translation of "become strong enough to leave me behind" speaks volumes about the way i perceive gojo's shift in perception over one of the hardest segments of his life ... how i view the process in which he went from not caring about the weak at all to becoming a man who "won't forgive anyone who takes another person's youth", which would have happened to megumi and tsumiki if toji's deal went through.

maybe he didn't understand protecting the weak out of a sense of nobility, but protecting one's youth? one's right to be happy? he DOES get that. and that is what guides him towards compassion. it's a really good line in what i saw as the "final step" in him moving on from the events of the star vessel arc and moving towards becoming the person and teacher he is now, and of course his road there is neither linear nor perfect, but this is his turning point.

#* GOJO » hc.#2000 word hc on gojo? sounds like i'm back in the groove

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