Satoru Gojo and the Infinity That Sets Him Apart

Throught the flashback arc that opens JJK'S second season, the story goes to great lengths to make us sympathize with Geto. We are privy to the inner workings of his mind when he faces personal catastrophes of his youth, and it grants us a profound insight into how his mental/emotional state deteriorates in response to a painful realization that later comes to define his entire life. Gege found a way to turn Geto's tendency to internalize his experiences into a narrative tool, the mechanics of his Cursed Technique becoming an apt metaphor for it, and that's one truly astonishing writing.

But what about Gojo? After all, it's his memories that play out before our eye as he daydreams, and Geto is no longer an active force in the narrative, so the arc should be introduced in the first place to shed some light on Satoru's character and highlight certain aspects of it. However, while the narrative goes out of its way to humanize Geto by exposing his interiority to the audience, it seems to bit by bit deny readers access to Gojo's mind until Satoru is entirely closed off emotionally at the end of Hidden Inventory Arc. From that point on, any reading of his words and actions can be as good as the other since personal interpretation is all that is left to us to try and understand what lies behind the appearances (I guess that's precisely why there are so many widely different, conflicting interpretations of Gojo out there). What process Gojo's character undergoes throughout his past arc is, essentially, dehumanization.

Let's take a look at Gojo as he is in the main, present timeline. Pretty much as any other person in Gojo's vicinity, the audience can only observe him from the outside, always held at an arm's length away from his interior thoughts and emotions. Whenever we do get an insight into his mind, it's mostly for a solely practical purpose of keeping the readers informed about the direction which the fight is about to take, with Satoru's internal monologues consisting almost completely of him dryly strategizing against his opponents.

Even Gojo's design is set to dehumanize him, teasing the audience with how much it conceals and how little it allows us to derive from what we see. Plain black clothes, long sleeves, long trousers, high collar. Barely any skin exposed, scarce detail, completely colourless expression. To crown it all, his blindfold -- we do not get to see his eyes. Eyes mirror the soul, they communicate emotion which our words fail to. Eye contact is a primal tool of non-verbal communication because of how much our eyes alone can give away about our feelings. With Gojo's eyes perpetually hidden under his ever-present blindfold, there's an additional layer of protection, another hindrance to our understanding of his state of mind. A simple piece of cloth adds to the distance preventing access to Gojo's direct perspective, as impenetrable as trying to look through a blindfold would be for anyone but Gojo himself. The same could be applied even to his height: people around him are required to reach up with their gaze in order to look him in the face. Once again, this choice in his design strives to communicate one thing: you cannot meet him at his level, there is a palpable distance between where he stands and where you are. Everything about Gojo feels almost impersonal, evasive, further increasing the extent of his alienation.

There's an interesting connection found between Gojo's technique, his need to cover his eyes and the narrative distance that does not allow us to get any closer to his character. It's precisely when Gojo puts his mind to perfecting his usage of the Limitless that an unbreachable impediment settles between him and the people around, resulting in him and Geto from that point on being forever unable to get through to each other. With his technique taking a toll on his body by becoming more overwhelming to use after such a rapid increase in power, it's also when Gojo starts to wear his shades all the time. And whereas before we were allowed to look past the tanned spectacles and see his eyes, read the emotion in them, now we're denied even that much. It's probably a short after Geto's defection when Satoru switches to a blindfold, indicating how he completely shuts off emotionally. Just as Geto's Curse Manipulation stands as a metaphor for him repressing his feelings till the breaking point, Gojo's mental state is reflected through the physical appearance, too. Him physically distancing himself from everything within the world around him with his Limitless technique sustaining an uncrossable invisible barrier around him and his blindfold hiding his eyes from the viewer is also how his emotional detachment is established on the meta level of the narrative.

Since Geto's defection, Gojo's defenses are breached in the main timeline just once, and that is during Shibuya Incident Arc. It's barely a coincidence that, as the Limitless falls short and the ever-present physical distance is crossed sharply with the Prison Realm reaching Gojo, the emotional distance is immeadiately eliminated, too.

All defenses down and the memories of his youth flooding through the cracks, Gojo suddenly isn't numb to all the hurt of his past mistakes and what it cost him and the people around him; all the ache of losing his best friend not once but twice and being utterly unable to do anything about it still weighs on him. Neither is numb to all of it the reader, not anymore. The narrative 'catches up' to Gojo at this moment. It was an alienating, almost inhumane experience to never get a sight of Gojo's emotions when it mattered the most, at the pivotal events of his life which come to shape him as a character and as a person. We were simply denied that intimacy. But with Satoru's physical body made within reach and his mind suddenly transparent, laid bare, the delayed heartbreak is alive and present as ever. The weakness of his human heart is exposed, but it required crossing the Infinity to get to his heart.

The physical distance is only breached because the emotional one is eliminated beforehand. However, we finally get to catch a glimpse of Gojo's true feelings because something within the world was able to reach him physically, penetrating through his Limitless technique. The two are the sides of the one coin, they go hand in hand within the narrative, ultimately rendered inseperable by it. At the end of the day, the body is the soul and the soul is the body.

I've started writing all this well before the spoilers for the last chapter came out, but what we see in it, at least how I personally take it, speaks in favour of pretty much everything I've been talking about above. It's somewhat notorious how little emotional impact Gojo's fight against Sukuna lands. Until now. Until Gojo's Infinity utterly fails to prevent his body from taking the damage. Once again we gain insight into his interiority the instance he's physically exposed to the world. With Gojo's invulnerability ultimately overcome, the narrative grants us access to his inner feelings and thoughts one last time. Satoru's heart is an aching wound split open one last time.

The colour of death🥀-julius novachrono

May be some spoilers ahead...!!!

it was a nice and quiet day in clover kingdom like almost every other day. the only thing that was perceived as disturbing was the stormy wind that grew more and more from hour to hour and dark clouds, from distant lands, brought with it - announcing disaster. nobody could have guessed that this auspicious day would go down in the history of clover.

(Y/n) was one of the magical knights and was accepted into the strongest and most honorable of all magical orders, the crimson lion. and so it happened that the king of magicians also became aware of her,because her magical power was to be able to create black flames, a very rare gift that was considered by many to be ominous. but julius novachrono was blown away by this elegant and threatening power. so it happened that (y/n) and julius became friends - at this point nobody could have guessed that unconditional love should develop from this initially pure friendship. (Y/n)was on her way to the city when her new group leader lady mereoleona instructed her to help the black bull and their members to help them, who were just fighting the eye of the midnight sun and not doing very well. So she got on her broom and flew, through airy winds and clouds, as quickly as possible to the battle site, which turned out to be a cave and found the elves and their leader Licht,bound and defeated leaning against the rocky wall of the cave. the other knights were very exhausted and struck by the battle, apparently the elves had been stronger than expected. but the elves and their leaders didn't seem to be doing very well either. when asta saw (y/n)he came running towards her: "oiii, (y/n)! finally reinforcements came. These damned elves were really strong - we would have really lost a hair." (Y/n) laughed encouragingly to asta: "I'm glad that nothing coarser happened to all of you. However, I don't think your prisoners will survive back to the castle. Their injuries are quite serious and they seem to be in a very bad condition! I will go healing them while you take a little break. " So she marched lightly over to the elves, who looked at her pejoratively and spitefully.

she bent down to her leader and looked at him appraisingly: "I heard your name should be called Licht. I think that suits your magic very well. You are all very badly injured and as a magical knight it is not our kind of prisoner bad to treat or to suffer unnecessarily. I will heal you. " (y/n) eyed Licht but did he did not resist her gentle touch. she gently laid her hand flat on his forehead and began to heal him with the healing magic of the black phoenix. when (y/n) was done she held out a bottle of water. however, licht did not really seem to trust her. only after a long convincing did he finally drink the water and seemed visibly relieved not to have been poisoned. whereupon (y/n) just rolled her eyes. Unfortunately, the rest of the elves didn't seem very happy that their leader was captured and so they freed all the prisoners and declared war on the kingdom and all people. her hatred was so great and satisfying it didn't seem to solve the problem. the hatred of the elves had a much deeper reason, it seemed to have solidified in them.

unfortunately your mission was a complete flop. they had prisoners but they were liberated and it was even worse that they had to admit that the elves were damned powerful and dangerous. thanks to their hatred of the people, they were capable of anything, without taking into account excessive losses. and so (y/n) had no desire to tell julius about her failure. but unfortunately there was nothing to be denied to the king of magicians and certainly not to be ignored. Even if she had also decided to skip the reporting, her beloved Julius would surely have found her somewhere and squeezed her out after her assignment. julius was a good and honorable king - shamelessly handsome - but in terms of magic he was like a little child who had been given new toys. he was always like that, and that was what (y/n) liked about him. he was just totally adorable. but she had only had these feelings recently and she wasn't sure if julius thought that too.

So (y/n)made her way to Julius' office, whether she liked it or not. once there, she was received by marx, the head of mushrooms, and further piloted to the king of magicians. Julius's office was in one of the towers of the castle and was a huge, bright but musty room full of bookshelves with magical writings and relics. when (y/n) entered the room through a large carved wooden door, she was greeted by the all too familiar smell of old books and forests mixed with the incomparable smell of Julius. Dust whirled up by the draft floated in the sun glittering through the chamber of wonder and gave everything a magical shimmer. julius sat at a large wooden desk in the middle of the room and looked up from his writings: "ahh (y/n) !nice that you have returned safely and unharmed. i was really worried. yami did however report the result of your mission ... even if it was not a victory this time, we will surely make peace with the elves and live happily ever after in the future.I know that! but now to the really important question: how do you find this light magic of the leader of the elves? I would have loved to watch this beautiful things too! ", Julius eyes sparkled with excitement and joy. (y/n) grinned at the sight of it - it was simply incorrigible. "hahaha, yes his magic was really impressive and as pure as his soul. however it could still be a problem. the elves didn't seem to be in a very peaceful mood!" julius eyes eclipsed and he felt the great burden of weighing all the people in safety, on the weight of his shoulders every day. (y/n) walked over to him and gave him a gentle hug from behind. julius sank into her embrace and enjoyed the safety of the hug. he had really worried about her and almost hurried to the cave himself to help them. Julius couldn't bear the thought without having to live with her. without her smile, her hugs and without her uniqueness. when he saw (y/n) for the first time he was enchanted by her. Julius looked up at her: "we will survive this crisis somehow, as we have survived many others. Nobody will have to die and we will find a solution." he smiled encouragingly at (y/n) and kissed the back of her hand.

that was a few weeks ago. now the kingdom of clover was facing an ominous battle that might not have been manageable. (y/n) had passed the royal knights entrance exam and was about to set off with the others. but since that day the sun had risen high over the mountains, she felt that something was wrong. she couldn't say what it was-it was just such an uncomfortable feeling that completely took over her body. so (y/n) decided to stay in the castle anyway, for all cases. And it came as it had to come. the castle was suddenly hit by a tremor and shake and parts of the main towers seemed to collapse. something terrible must have happened. (y/n) was looking out the window and did not like what she saw at all. julius was about to fight the leader of the elves, licht. suddenly the sky darkened. millions of swords of light adorned the sky, so that the whole kingdom was under attack. Julius stopped the attack with the help of his time magic, but thereby neglected his defense and protection and licht stabbed Julius with his sword of light. (y/n) could not believe what had happened and screamed-shaking. she screamed until her lungs burned and ran to Julius as fast as she could. that couldn't be. that couldn't happen. Julius was the king of magicians, the strongest among them. he couldn't be defeated just like that. (y/n) ran and fell over and over again because her eyes were covered with a veil of tears. she had to say so much to Julius - he must not just die. not before she confessed his feelings - she couldn't live without him. he was the light that brightened her everyday life. her star in the sky that shone her way at night. he just couldn't get out of her life like that - she wouldn't allow that. and so (y/n) ran as far as she could still carry her feet. when she finally reached julius it was not good for him. he was lying in a pool of blood and his blond hair was slowly taking on the red color of death. she lifted him up and gently laid his head in her lap. Julius smiled fondly at (y/n) and she stroked his cheek. he seemed to have to pull himself together and started to speak softly: "no fear (y/n)! everything will be fine, you will see. I have great confidence in the other knights. together you can make it and lead us to a longed-for peace . " she looked at him and tears rolled down her cheeks until they finally fell on julius face. "stop talking like you're about to die any moment, julius! i won't let you just leave me here alone. i know not if you ever felt the same for me, but I love you julius. I can't live without you. I can't stand that. So please stop it! ", (y/n) cried and cried and let her feelings run free. julius looked at her and raised his hand to wipe her tears away: "believe me, (y/n) , i love you too. very much. it hurts to see you unhappy.", julius sat up laboriously and kissed her with all his emotions . he lay down in her lap again and closed his eyes. he was suddenly so tired. "someday we'll see each other again, I promise, my love," julius gave her an encouraging smile, as he always did, but his last words were as quiet and thoughtful as a breath of wind. (y/n) shook him gently and called him by name. but his time in the world of the living was over and julius had fallen asleep gently. her heart was torn. Julius was dead. Deep grief overwhelmed her and she cried over Julius and howled in his chest.

——> oh myy goodness-i can’t. Thats too dramatic. I am crying.......