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thepersonperson · 1 month

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Thoughts on Sukuna and Kenjaku’s relationship as of JJK 258.

Before we start I want to clarify some things.

1) This analysis deals with topics of nonconsent and reproductive manipulation.

2) I will be mainly using the TCB scans because of their accessibility.

3) This analysis is based on Sukuna being aroace.

(Click pictures for captions/citations.)

On Sukuna being aroace...

There’s a strong case for this given how he responds to both sexual advances from Yorozu and romantic advances from Yorozu and Kashimo.

Rejecting Yorozu

Sukuna does not like Yorozu. This is rather obvious. His official updated character description states that he is "Turned off with Yorozu's excitement".

He dislikes her the most when she comes onto him romantically or sexually as shown by the panels below. Otherwise he regards her with a mild annoyance.

It should be noted that in the rules of Heian Era courtship, showing passive disinterest is how you properly turn someone down. Sukuna is someone who is a stickler for propriety when it comes to conduct associated with the upper class so this speaks volumes.

Rejecting Kashimo

Kashimo has much more tact when coming onto Sukuna but he's still pretty forward. He brings up love and laments how it's impossible for them to love people weaker than them. Sukuna is the first person Kashimo believes he is capable of loving. He even calls him beautiful.

Sukuna is not a fan of this. He straight up says he understands what love is, he simply does not care for it. Going onto express additional irritation at Yorozu while looking rather bored with the conversation.

Sukuna does go onto explain how the strong express love with their violence, but his entire demeanor mimics that of his one with Yorozu. If we go by the Heian Era courtship rules, this once again is Sukuna turning Kashimo down.

Sukuna also declares he does not need another person to satisfy himself directly to Kashimo. (And later internally.) This sounds rather silly given that he needs people to eat and fight, so we can infer he's speaking on relationships. Especially since this was a response to Kashimo talking about love.

What's fascinating about this declaration is that also notes most people do not understand him when it comes to love. Other people think he needs it, but he is content not having romantic or sexual relationships. This is a common problem aroace people experience.

His wording "never crossed my mind" also suggests he doesn't experience attraction outright instead of not having opportunities to act on it. (Yorozu has given him plenty of chances to do so.)

What's more is Gege stating Sukuna never had a wife or children via the official fanbook. Sukuna is strong enough to do whatever he wants and that includes forcing people to be with him. The fact he has no direct descendants and is not a rapist despite seeing humans as playthings really shows how uninterested in sex Sukuna is.

In conclusion? Sukuna is probably aroace.

Wait what about Gojo?

As an aside, I want to emphasize that out of the “fighting for love trio” Gojo is the only one who did not try to force love on Sukuna. (Which aligns with this character pretty well. He consistently respects boundaries when it comes to love.) These panels here are not Gojo. This is Sukuna recalling what Yorozu said to him and is projecting that onto Gojo. At no point did Gojo bring up love to Sukuna.

I think this is important to note because Gojo winds up being the only person Sukuna deeply respects by the end of the battle. He is also the only person who Sukuna consistently smiled at during the fight. There wasn't a single panel where Sukuna gave Gojo the passively irritated look. (Good job Gojo you did right by an aroace.)

What does this have to do with Kenjaku and Sukuna's relationship?

Bear with me this is going to be a lot.

On Kenjaku...

We know that Kenjaku has achieved semi-immortality with a Cursed Technique (CT) that involves corpse desecration. Though it’s a bit more severe than that. The brain transplant just doesn’t steal the body, it also steals their memories and their privacy. When most people die, they take their most personal secrets with them. Kenjaku’s CT takes away that last remaining bit of dignity.

Kenjaku exists and survives by violating others physically and emotionally. The search for entertainment to relieve boredom comes at the cost of empathy for all other living things. Everyone is just a toy for Kenjaku to play with. (Not unlike Sukuna.)

We also know that Kenjaku wants to evolve humanity through cursed energy no matter what. Mainly for the lolz. It’s an interesting idea to Kenjaku so it’s being pursued to sate that curiosity. No more and no less.

Kenjaku is crafty and wise enough to have backup plans. The culling games can bring about this evolution, but so can Sukuna by merely existing.

When Tengen is forcibly evolved because of these plans through cursed energy, they start looking more like Sukuna. Kenjaku explicitly makes this parallel.

Kenjaku also raped a poor woman 9 times with a cursed spirit to experiment on how cursed energy could evolve humans. Though all her pregnancies were aborted, it is heavily implied she died from them.

What does this have to do with Sukuna?

We know that Sukuna’s body is perfect sorcery and cursed energy. He has 2 mouths and 4 arms. On top of that he learns and adapts to all things sorcery with scary speed. Sukuna is the pinnacle of human evolution through cursed energy. Tengen's evolution via cursed energy making them resemble Sukuna also indicates this.

In other words, Sukuna is Kenjaku’s ideal specimen for evolution via cursed energy. There’s just one problem. Sukuna is aroace and very fudging strong. Unlike Tengen or Choso’s mother, Kenjaku can’t force Sukuna to go along with these plans. Sukuna will simply kill whoever doesn’t respect his boundaries. So how do you work around this? You build a cage.

Yuji is the perfect cage for Sukuna and I’m pretty sure Kenjaku did that on purpose. As Sukuna stated, Kenjaku would not have a child for no reason. He also says that Jin is basically a fragment of himself. In JJK twin’s souls are treated as the same person. So in a way that makes Sukuna both Yuji’s uncle and his father. But that’s not the problem here.

(Please note that there are a lot of translations floating around because of how confusing this lore is. In every variation Sukuna seems to consider Jin a piece of himself.)

We know for a fact Kenjaku has been genetically manipulating people for a very long time and has found ways to capture souls and stuff them into an unwilling host. What this implies to me is that Kenjaku has been selectively breeding the Itadori family to get the perfect cage for Sukuna. (This could be as simple as manipulating who the Itadoris pair with or as gross as Kenjaku being the “mother” every step of the way. Which would make this particular panel insane foreshadowing.)

Wasuke says something a bit weird here when Kenjaku is in Kaori’s body that might make this the case.

How does he already know this? It feels like he has fallen victim to Kenjaku’s manipulations before and is trying to warn his son.

Now it’s not clear if Jin got turned into a cursed object and was reincarnated forcefully or if he naturally reincarnated. I lean towards the former because of how meticulous Kenjaku is with planning. The end result is the same though—Kenjaku created a version of Sukuna that was willing to have sex and children, despite Sukuna’s clear wishes not to.

Kenjaku has been a very rapey character from the start, but this takes it to another level for me. There are so many asexual individuals who are the targets of unwanted sexual desire. When discomfort is expressed, people take it as a challenge. There’s this kind of entitlement to our bodies and sometimes our refusal to bear children.

As of chapter 257, people have started to read Kenjaku as someone in love/obsessed with Sukuna and not willing to give up on it. Those implications make me deeply uncomfortable, but they have merit to them.

(The link may die because Twitter but hopefully this credit is enough.)

Kenjaku seems to have spent centuries coming up with the perfect plan to trap Sukuna and keep him as a lab rat forever. Even going as far as to force a pregnancy on Sukuna after death with a binding vow.

Sukuna’s unyielding hatred of Yuji becomes something a little more than opposed ideals with Kenjaku’s involvement. Yuji is essentially a constant reminder that someone else has control over him and might force him to engage in things he really does not want to do. (And under this interpretation, Sukuna has been forced to coexist with what is his unwanted child. Which is honestly pretty fudged up.)

Sukuna seems to be rather neutral to disinterested in Kenjaku despite sharing similar ideas about other people, loneliness, and a desire for entertainment. But when he realizes how Yuji was made, he refers to the action as gross/twisted. Since Sukuna is ok with murder, cannibalism, and stealing people’s bodies, you can infer he’s referring to the sex and pregnancy. (This might also explain why Sukuna tries to speak to Kenjaku as little as possible. Someone getting with your twin after you turn them down is weird behavior.)

I think Uraume’s hostility towards Kenjaku should also be noted because they’re the only person who seems to understand and respect Sukuna’s boundaries at all times. Sukuna likes keeping Uraume around for a reason. They have a knack for telling people to piss off when they’re encroaching on his space (See naked Yorozu and trying to shoo away Kenjaku when the yapping starts.)

Whatever the case, Kenjaku is someone who causes others to relive their traumas and violates their autonomy for entertainment. I think Sukuna is a victim of this too.

As for Yuji having Sukuna’s actual power? Maybe he inherited it. Maybe Jin was turned into a cursed object and fed to Yuji as a baby. We don’t know yet and I’m sure whatever it is will probably be gross.

#cactus yaps #Sukuna being aroace is a hill I'm going to die on.#This is a long one but I've finally pinpointed why Kenjaku weirds me tf out.#Shoutout to Uraume for being the only person that treats Sukuna right. Gojo gets headpats for trying too.#Stay tuned for me ranting about how Sukuna is secretly a pathetic wet cat and how Gojo is the best and worst dad at the same time.#jujutsu kaisen #jjk spoilers #ryomen sukuna #kenjaku

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