Crrryy - My Fancies

reblog to give your headache to elon musk instead

The Un-Chosen One

I've talked again and again on the parallels between Yuji and Geto, so what about Megumi and Gojo? If Yuji and Geto are both deconstructions of "The Hero", ie: they both want to be the hero of the story, but the story doesn't let them play hero. Then Megumi and Gojo are both a deconstruction of the chosen one. They are characters who both demonstrate realistically, what having all that power thrust upon the shoulders of what is otherwise a normal teenager would do to that person.

1. Being the chosen one, sucks.

There's a lot of visual parallels [taken from this tweet.] between Megumi and Gojo, especially of them as children, because they were both born into a similar situation in life. Gojo as a child inherited both the six eyes, and the limitless, he didn't do anything special really, just by being born he was already the strongest and disrupted the balance of the world.

Megumi despite being an outsider to the Zenin clan, not only inherited their strongest technique, something that could defeat the limitless, he also is the son of the clan's black sheep Toji. It's nothing Megumi did specifically, it's just something he was born into.

Gojo as a teenager isn't shown being exactly Mr. Altruistic good guy, he's not really Luke Skywalker in that he's all that excited about being the magical chosen one of the force.

Both Gojo and Megumi fall into conflict with their best friend who is much more interested in using Jujutsu Sorcerer as an oppurtunity to play hero and save people.

However, their attitude makes sense if you consider that they were born into the Jujutsu World and it's controlled basically their whole lives. Toji was going to sell Megumi to the Zenin clan, and when Gojo showed up on his doorstep, it wasn't to save him, it was to recruit him as a JUjutsu Sorcerer on his side. Megumi is considered a prodigy, but, just like characters like Mechamaru no on ever really asked if he wanted to be one.

I mean, Gojo shows up on his doorstep looking like this and making grabby hands, Megumi knows to an extent that Gojo's motivations aren't entirely altruistic he's being used. He has the potential to be the strongest sorcerer, but it's not like he asked for that. The things that Megumi actually seems to want, a normal dad, the love of both parents, his sister's safety, are all taken away from him.

Which is where we get to the next parallel between them. Gojo and Megumi, despite being given the strongest technique, are surprisingly agenciless characters. Yuji always runs to save someone. Geto literlaly breaks free from the entire sorcery world to become it's enemy. However, that's not really an option for Gojo. Can Gojo even quit his job? Of course he could if he wanted to, but rhe sorcerery world would collapse without him.

Gojo has the weight of the world on his shoulders, and it's something that holds him back and limits his options, and it's not like he can shrug his shoulders either (get it atlas shrugged joke) because the world really would collapse. Gojo is, callous, but he's not irresponsible. Which is another thing he shares with Megumi, even if Megumi isn't interested in saving everyone, he still thinks hard about who he can save. While Yuji and Geto are off trying to save the whole world, Gojo and Megumi are characters who at least think long and hard about the people they can save. It's precisely because they are not interested in being heroes, that this is just a job to them, that they can do this.

While they can seem callous, and even selfish, they both are responsible and feel the weight of their responsibility. They try to carry that responsiblity to some extent. They also go through very similiar arcs. Gojo isn't the strongest at first, but he nearly gets beaten to death by Toi, and experiences an awakening when he's fored to fight all on his own, and when he wakes up he goes just a little bit crazy. Megumi does the same thing in Yasohachi bridge, after holding himself back for a long time, he nearly fights to the death one on one. The same way Gojo was defeated by Toji, Megumi was handed a defeat by Sukuna at the very start of the story. However, being pushed to the edge rather than dying both of them come back stronger.

They have the strongest Jujutsu techniques in the story bar none, but even when they start to live up to the role of the chosen one, they're uncomfortable in the role, it chafes them. That's why they adopt a selfish attitude to protect themselves. Gojo can't save everyone because he's too busy being the world's support system. Megumi is literally a kid with no parents, and no support system, raised by the Jujutsu World, he's not really interested in being a savior because he was roped into all of this because who his dad was.

Megumi takes a very self involved attitude with these things, something he even admits to. He's only trying to be the hero for a few people. It's funny because Megumi pressents himself as the opposite of Gojo, Gojo is loud, noisy, constantly attention seeking boisterous and confrontational, Megumi is quiet, subdued, and avoidant.

However, it's Sukuna who takes an interest in Megumi's potential. Yuji bores him. They are opposites in their behavior, but they are both self involved in the sense that they place their goals and their ideals as more important than altruistic ideas of good and evil. Wielding that much power, they don't really feel like they are the good guys even. For Gojo, Geto was the good one, the responsible one, the one with ideals, not him. Gojo saw himself as someone willing to massacre the crowd and who probably wouldn't feel it, and he asked Geto what to do. Megumi always puts other people on pedestals of being the good one, Tsumiki is good, Yuji is good, Megumi never considers himself a good person either. It's because they look at themselves that way, Megumi is much more willing to make sacrifices unlike Yuji.

However, Megumi is also self-centered in the fact that much like Gojo he tends to be apathetic. When the leadership of the Zenin clan gets handed to him, he for the most part doesn't really care. It's interesting because it's all Maki would ever want, but Megumi doesn't want it, because it was just handed to him.

Megumi cares about, helping the people who are closest to him. The same way Gojo cares about helping his students. They both do their jobs, but they don't go out of their way to play politics or play nice with the elders, because they are for the most part uninvolved. They have to be, the crushing weight of responsibility and everything, if they weren't just a little bit selfish it would be too much for them.

It's why Sukuna is such a clever foil to both of them. Megumi and Gojo both have the potential to have the strongest techniques, but they're also not as selfish as Sukuna is the strongest sorcerer ever because there is something holding them back. Gojo is responsible to the sorcerer world, Megumi is responsible towards his friends and his sister. They're selfish, but they can't be all the way selfish either. By Sukuna's logic they would be the strongest if they were all on their own. Sukuna's quote is "He alone an the honored one, all he sees is his pleasure and his displeasure."

Megumi and Gojo are characters who occasionally toy with that attitude. They can get close to acting like all that exists is their pleasure and displeasure. Sukuna maybe, believes he can make Megumi become more like that. Gojo believes Megumi's true potential will come out when he learns to be more selfish, instead of acting like he has to take sacrifice bunts. There are times when Megumi does act this way and only think about himself not the consequences of his actions, such as him summoning his ultimate monster in Shibuya.

However in the end Megumi and Gojo are also not as alone as they think they are. They are human and being human they actually do want to be closer to other people. They can't be all the way selfish like Sukuna, or go full monster and care only about power. Even when Gojo tries to be a sorcerer all the time, Gojo is tricked by his human connection to Geto, and Megumi tries to summon Mahoraga and go out in a suicide attack all alone, but the story doesn't let him. The two of them are not alone, even when they want to be. Megumi has within him the potential to become all powerful like Gojo, the chosen one of the Jujutsu World.

However, I don't think that Megumi even wants that. While him and Gojo both share the role of the chosen one, Megumi has the potential to surpass Gojo by learning to work with others rather than being a one man show. Instead of carrying the weight of the responsibility of the whole world on his shoulder, Megumi can learn to share that responsibility - and therefore ultimately subvert his role of the chosen one.

It’s not funny.

It’s not just competitiveness

It’s not just imitation.

It’s not just respect

This is the face of devotion.

This is not just some plain-old rivalry.

Izuku has rivalries, he has friends.

But Bakugou Katsuki is not just a rival, not just a friend, and not just a bully. Certainly, not just some childhood friend.

He is Izuku’s inspiration, the person closest to him who was put on a pedestal next to fucking All Might, Who was basically considered a god in the MHA universe before his retirement.

It’s not funny to say that Izuku’s admiration for Katsuki is just ‘Hero Worship’.

Because if Izuku ‘worships’ All Might, you should damn well Fear what he will do for someone closer than All Might, for Katsuki.

All Might asked Izuku to step into his shoes in the next Symbol- hewas ready to break his bones in the tournament to win

All Might said he always saves the people within his reach - Izuku nearly killed himself to secure Kouta and save Kacchan

All Might knows Izuku’s spirit and desperation is a fearsome thing. And Katsuki is threatened by it.

Izuku trying to save Kacchan…repeatedly, at the cost of his own damn life…

How he cried like his damn soul was ripped out of his body after Kacchan was taken away.

Tell me one more time that Izuku hates Katsuki, and I’ll show you a devotion beyond words.

Now…Imagine what Izuku would do if Katsuki asked something from him.

But you know what? Katsuki is never going to do that because he is the one person who is intimately aware of everything Izuku can sacrifice in the name of devotion.

And I for one, am really thankful that Katsuki will never dare ask anything of him.

You can call it his Pride. I’ll call it his Fear.

Because the one thing Katsuki fears above everything else is ‘Izuku’s Spirit’

My understanding of the themes and narrative arc of Jojo based off years of observation of Tumblr posts.

“for seven thousand years, we, the noah clan, have repeated the reincarnation process, and fought against the detestable innocence alongside the millenium earl” 

An Analysis of the Nature of Izuku and Katsuki’s Relationship

Recently, I caught up to Boku no Hero Academia. I know nothing of the BNHA fandom, but I will say this: I’m disappointed by the fact that the relationship between Katsuki and Izuku isn’t generally considered to be the most profound. When I say profound, there are no positive connotations. Izuku and Katsuki are, as of now, not friends. When I say profound, I simply mean that I have a heck-ton of content to discuss. So yeah, this relationship is definitely the most complex in the series, albeit a flawed one.

Fortunately, this relationship is undergoing a transformation. By the end of the manga, it will have evolved into something that is complex, mutually supportive, and beautiful. In this post, I aim to examine and accentuate its intricacies. If you aren’t exactly a fan of Izuku and Katsuki’s relationship, I hope this post brings you to appreciate it as much as I do. (Please ignore any typos, by the way. I didn’t look over what I wrote.)

Keep reading