#geto analysis

i’ve talked about this before, but the reason suguru did what he did was because he cared too much. he was deeply empathetic toward the people around him, and that’s exactly why he ended up becoming what he became blablabla

i really don’t like when people paint him as this cold fuckboy who’ll cuss you out or act like he hates people. i know it’s for fun but like… suguru is not a mean guy at all.

he’s not a cool edgy emo boy and he doesn’t hate people.

suguru is a person willing to die for his ideals and unfortunately, his ideals went against everything—against jujutsu society, against his friends, against the world as it exists.

maybe it hits deeper because if i were suguru in the story, i genuinely would’ve done the same thing.

the reason curses exist in the world is primarily because of non-sorcerers

the reason all of suguru’s friends are dying, being used, being discarded like tools, is because of curses and sorcerers can’t create curses. only non-sorcerers can.

so yeah. kill the non-sorcerers. LOL

to me, it makes complete sense within his logic and he was the only one willing to follow through, to go against everyone and to die for his ideals.

to see real change in your life, in the world, you have to be willing to die for it and to do that, you need a very strong conviction but you also need a very strong love for the world.

only with that kind of love can you uphold an ideal like that. only then can you be okay with the weight of killing human beings for what you believe is right.

I've been thinking about this shot for a while. At first it didn't make sense to me, why Gojo was in the red and Geto was in the blue, I thought it should've been the opposite but after seeing some others talk about it, I think it makes a lot of sense.

Because of Gojo's powers and how it directly relates into this. At the near end of Hidden Inventory, Gojo and Geto are spending less time together, Gojo is going out on missions alone, he is training and refining his techniques multiple times over and is leaving little to no room for friends. He's essentially isolating himself from others to be able to become strong enough to go on as many missions as possible. He's pushing people away, like how his ability Red repels. Thus, Gojo is in red, like his ability, pushing away those around him.

Geto on the other hand is in the blue, by the near end of Hidden Inventory, he is depressed and consistently consuming curses. I think Gege was great at showing his depression, Geto’s got heavy eye bags, like he either can’t sleep or sleeps too much. He hunches over, resting on his knees like sitting up straight is just too much work. When someone talks to him, he blinks slowly and takes a beat too long to respond, like even that takes more energy than he has. And like Gojo said, he was losing weight, meaning he was eating less. Like Gojo's ability blue, which attracts, he is absorbing curses, wallowing in his negative thoughts and feelings to the point he developed a hatred for most of humanity. He's pulling in all the negativity into himself just as how blue attracts.

And it also fits in nicely with the openings of season 2. Ao no Sumika (Where Our Blue is) is imo showing that they were together and happy. Where Our Blue is, in this case would also translate to Where Our Attraction is because Gojo's blue is pulling and attracting. The title to me means "Where we're together" for them. The rest of the opening is mostly blue as well, emphasizing it further. The second opening of season 2, is mostly red, and akin to reversal red presents a push. Gojo and Geto are no longer united anymore, they stand against each other.

Also these two frames put that nicely.

For Geto to do what he did so abruptly & for Gojo to have felt “left behind” in the monstrosity vs strength where he couldn’t “catch up” to Geto’s ideals... he realised Geto had been hurt & changed as a result.

How could someone so kind & righteous change like that? To chase such a dream that was so difficult & unconventional? He thought there had to be another way. He chose to become a teacher. To prevent the same &/or to pave another way forward, for change. Maybe to prove a point too. (Hence the character song, “Come Back Home”).

Gojo was the purest person Geto knew who was now becoming a monster w/o a purpose besides jujutsu.

He felt left behind & disillusioned. The Gojo he knew saw the weak as tiresome; if he was lonely he should go alone; hated righteousness.

But meaning helped give Geto purpose.

It was what helped him put up with his CT that was intimate w/ shit, vomit, curses.

When he made up his mind to embrace “meaning & purpose”, all he could do was leave. Coz he respected Gojo & his views. There was no way in his mind they could have discussed things to compromise.

The school needed the strongest. He could not stay there to be a cog in the wheel that would lead to his loved ones dying one by one. I’ve said it before, I think Geto didn’t like the idea that everyone was coming to leave it all to Gojo. He wanted to do something to change things from the root.

So it seemed like he decided for them both & he pushed Gojo away w/ harsh words to “wake him up” to the responsibility that comes w/ the strong.

Because, again, if he wanted just “power” to accomplish his dream, he’d have made Gojo come w/ him. If he just wanted “company” he’d have stayed w/ Gojo.

It hurt them both to recognise the path they were on had suddenly diverged. They embraced different values but wanted the same things.

They wanted change. They wanted reform. They wanted a safer place for everyone.

They didn’t want others to be alone anymore. They wanted each other, to protect each other & everyone.

They didn’t actually want to be alone. But they had to be because they were different people.

And therefore they loved each other from afar.

They respected & loved each other completely - including their ideals & ways - even if it differed from each other. Drew inspiration from the other.

That’s Pure Love. Absolutely Pure Love. To live for the other, for others.

Idk … it’s amazing and yet so tragic.

this post is inspired largely in part by @virgobingo's thoughtful meta on geto and monstrous femininity, which you can find here. i want to extrapolate from the trope of monstrous femininity and extend it to monstrous motherhood. (which @virgobingo also touches on; you should really check out their meta— it's awesome!)

geto's character is immediately established in a protector capacity, which is intensely reminiscent of the tropes that mothers embody in media. his whole thing is that the strong must protect the weak; it's his core belief. his character is premised around this belief, much like the way mothers' constitutions in media are premised on the principle that they'll go to any length for their children.

we're repeatedly shown his caring side during hidden inventory— he cares for riko, he expresses concern for gojo, he even asks about kuroi after he finds out toji supposedly murdered his best friend. it's made very clear that he's an outwardly caring person with a strong sense of duty. in this way, he parallels the textual role of mothers, whose function is to care and provide above all else. the repeated emphasis on his caring nature is what directly likens him to maternity, whose characteristic trait is tender love and care.

he also houses curses in his body. he unleashes them from inside of him, almost like children leaving the womb. these curses obey him and operate according to his will in a very parent/child dynamic. they are powerful, but they can only do what he tells them to do. he uses them to fulfil his duty according to his core belief: to protect the weak.

when he defects, his ideology fundamentally does not change— it just inverts. instead of the strong protecting the weak (the weak necessitating their strength because they can't protect themselves), now the strong must be protected from the weak (because the weak leech the strength from the strong, therefore rendering them weak).

nothing really changes; he still cares —fiercely— it's just in the opposite direction. he takes the tropes associated with motherhood and inverts them— he'll do anything to protect those under his care, including killing, because he wholeheartedly believes in fulfilling his duty as a protector (like a mother). his unwavering conviction and willingness to die for his beliefs (which are directly about those he's protecting) is the most flagrantly maternal thing about him.

toji's worm calls him "mommy" and it's not wrong. he takes in daughters and becomes the central figure of his "family"; his emphasis on family throughout the story (even as a youth) also speaks to his maternity, as mothers are often written as the binding emotional centres of familial structures.

after he dies, his body is taken over by someone who is Iiterally a mother. he embodies monstrous motherhood during life and after death, leading us to the question of what gege is trying to say about all of this. is caring too much a bad thing? does caring in one way open the door to caring in another? what happens when a mother's love, supposedly strong enough to lift fallen trees off their children, goes in the “wrong” direction?

there's also the fact that geto is male. i think gege is also asking us to reckon with how the tropes of maternity have been confined to women, showing us that these intense convictions and the depth of care attributed to mothers can apply to anyone, even (especially) if they are distinctly masculine. in doing this, he's also expanding the conceptual definition of motherhood, suggesting that mothers can exist beyond their provident care and one-dimensional duty to their beloveds.

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this took me so long because if I think too much about mitski in general I can’t breathe😜

I highly suggest listening to the song on repeat while reading this, it enhances the comprehension and suffering <3

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A Burning Hill - Lyrics:

"Today I will wear my white button down

I'm tired of wanting more, I think I'm finally worn.

For you have a way of promising things

And I've been a forest fire; I am a forest fire,

And I am the fire and I am the forest and I am the witness watching it,

I stand in a valley watching it, and you are not there at all.

So, today I will wear my white button down.

I can at least be neat, walk out and be seen as clean.

And I'll go to work and I'll go to sleep and I'll love the littler things.

I'll love some littler things."

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ANALYSIS

"Today I will wear my white button down"

This is the KFC breakup. Today, Suguru is healing. He is giving up everything he's ever had and defecting from Jujutsu Tech. It's his turning point. He's letting go of his old life, closing all the doors to open new ones. His white button down is this new, free version of himself that isn't controlled by the system & forced to watch his friends die anymore. The tone and mood of the song is melancholic and bittersweet; Suguru has been/is grieving over this loss that he is about to experience by leaving, but the point is not to be happy, but to be free. Of his own inhibitions as well as the higher ups. This violent change, this new path he is forging for himself is the opposite of linear, and in leaving, he is letting go of his soul mate. It's hard. But necessary.

"I'm tired of wanting more, I think I'm finally worn."

Suguru is so emotionally and physically drained. Shifting the timeline to before his defection, Suguru was having a horrible time. This life he led at the school, it was slowly enabling his death. He was rotting from the inside out. All there was to life as a sorcerer was cruelty, death, and the inevitability that tomorrow would be no different than yesterday. Exorcize, Absorb, Repeat. Suguru was bone tired. Tired of seeing his friends die. Tired of not being able to do anything about it, even as a special grade. Tired of being told that it was all in the name of saving the helpless. This sickness, this rotting within him had finally crossed a threshold after Riko (rip).

"For you have a way of promising things"

Satoru was the last thread holding Suguru to Jujutsu Tech. Satoru was Suguru's person. His one and only. How nice life would've been with Satoru at his side. The yin to his yang. The two strongest sorcerers. This dream of a future with his other half was beautiful and so, so tempting. But the reality was that this future was never possible. Not as sorcerers in their timeline. Not when they were being used and thrown around by the system. If there was any one person who could've stopped him from defecting, though, it would've been Satoru. In the end, Suguru's love for him took precedence over his need to be together. Suguru chose love. Love over the promise of a future with his soul mate.

"And I've been a forest fire; I am a forest fire,

And I am the fire and I am the forest and I am the witness watching it,"

Flashback again. Suguru was rotting from the inside out. He was losing control. He was depressed and descending into madness. Riko’s death, combined with Gojo’s death & resurrection, had completely flipped his life over. His mind capsized and he lost faith in his once strong ideals. The anger and confusion and negativity were pouring out of his body and suffocating him everywhere he went. He had no control over his life, his friends' lives, and even some of the non-sorcerer's lives (Riko). He was becoming every cursed spirit he absorbed. He was inhaling the negative energy. He became the negative energy. He was surrounded by the negative energy. He was watching the negative energy eat at others, too. Everything was out of his control and he couldn't take it anymore.

"I stand in a valley watching it, and you are not there at all."

While Suguru descends further into madness after Riko's death, he compares his grieving to Satoru, who used his trauma to get stronger and develop new techniques. Suguru knows that Satoru compartmentalizes by hiding his feelings behind playful smiles and silly remarks, but it doesn't make it any easier to watch. Satoru can get through this, but Suguru feels as though he cannot. He cannot put himself through another friend's death on account of "justice" or finishing jobs the "right way". This is where he realizes that their paths must diverge. The end of their time together as the top sorcerers is in sight. Suguru knows he must leave Satoru behind. Satoru is strong enough the push past this and make a difference as a Jujutsu Sorcerer. Suguru being there would only be a hindrance, a complication that would hold Satoru back. Satoru is no longer a part of his future in the way he wants to be. Satoru might hate him, but it's for the best.

"So, today I will wear my white button down.

I can at least be neat, walk out and be seen as clean.

So, flashing forward to KFC again, their paths separate. Suguru has salvaged and remade some small part of himself. He is no longer Satoru's moral compass, he can't be. In doing so, he has let go of expectation and started listening to his heart instead. Suguru's being seen as clean is him finally standing up for his true self. He knows that this road he's heading down will lead to his death, but at least he is fighting for himself and those he truly cares for. For Satoru. This truth is all he needs to accept his inevitable death.

"And I'll go to work and I'll go to sleep and I'll love the littler things.

I'll love some littler things."

After KFC. Suguru starts his cult and gets the cogs moving for his plans. He pushes himself like he always has, but instead of saving those helpless against curses, he's against them. In this, he believes he is saving Satoru. Suguru's new life will go on until it doesn't anymore and he has come to terms with it. His life is his now, he can make his own decisions, and that is what matters to him. In the end, he had to let go of the biggest part of his life. The biggest love of his life. It was not easy to leave, and there is a gaping hole in Suguru's heart where Satoru belongs, but Suguru can deal. It's worth it if he can try to save Satoru instead, even if he despises him. He also started to love some littler things (mimiko and nanako) before he passed. In the end, he was driven by anger and hate, but amongst it all was the creation of those feelings: love.

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Wow okay everyone please go drink some water, head outside & reconnect with nature after this (I need to)

hiii. thank you for your kind words <33 it's time *cracks fingers* for a little...

Analysis on Suguru Geto's Powers

first of all. let's remember together what a special grade in jujutsu kaisen means~!

— a power so unpredictable that it's labeled as a calamity

— somebody powerful enough to overthrow a country on their own.

so far so clear? great.

let's also look a bit into what suguru's abilities are.

CURSE MANIPULATION

as the name implies, he can absord curses and manipulate them according to his needs/ desires, with no limit on how many at a time.

doubting him comes easy now that we know what gojo suguru's full strength is, but back in their highschool days they were called the strongest for a good reason: they were on par. on balance. gojo's birth caused cruses to go crazy and the one with the most efficient skill against curses was geto. he was so powerful in a way because gojo caused so many curses to exist, widening his range of possibilities. beautiful parallel imo.

MARTIAL ARTS

no secret that my man can throw hands. not only does he have good curses, he can also fight alongside them/use them as a distraction since unlike most shikigami users, he goes into full offensive mode. that poor old man was DONE. you've also seen how well he handles cursed weapons in jjk 0 and in general how high his battle iq is. geto was a menace.

he beat this dude so hard his literal life flashed before his eyes. and look at how casually he does that 😭 i can't. kenjaku ain't ever gonna excude this type of MAJESTY.

even if his fight against toji wasn't as flashy as gojo's, let's not forget that he actually did have a moment where he caught fushidaddy by surprise.

considering the fact that toji is literally a battle genius, that's very much something.

*clears throat.*

anyway.

the destructible power of his curses is also insane. he killed a whole village like it was just play time, no advanced plotting needed. you can say whatever you want, but being able to act on a whim like that... this absolute freedom of choice only comes from strength.

tell me that shit's not scary af.

and let's not forget that he got deemed so dangerous by the jjk society that he got put on par with a curse and even in the jjk 0 movie 'he had to be exorcised'. you know how in the manga they talk about saving riko and how because they're the strongest it doesn't matter what aftermaths they get? yeah. that's the perks of having power, the perks of being 'the most powerful'.

geto wasn't in hiding mode after his silly spree— he was easy to find at his temple and he was sentenced to death on sight yet in 10 years no fkin sorcerer was able to kill him.

they fr knew his whereabouts.

gege also shows him in his full splendid strength through his art.

geto was more than powerful— he was a low-key beast.

his only holdback was the world in which he lived, all the anguish and misery it brought him. he started doubting himself. he started losing faith in himself as human and a sorcerer and so he sought other paths through which he could find meaning, dooming himself beyond salvation. (his cursed technique is so shitty he can't live without giving it a meaning and clinging onto a meaning, let's not forget that manga panels about the awful taste and everything).

mentally he reached stagnation and from that point...he was meant to die.

“I gave everything I had, and it failed. It all crashed in front of me. And nobody did anything— not before me— not now. I’m seeing something nobody else sees. I’m sitting in these shadows and nobody cares about me. And here Gojo is, not doing a thing— and they praise him.” - my interpretation of Geto’s thought processes post Riko Amane’s assassination.

Crying about Geto because he went through so much. Geto was caring and idealistic before he defected. After such intense, prolonged trauma caused by the darkness of humans, and after growing disillusioned towards the world due to how unhelpful jujutsu society was— Geto felt utterly confused, resentful, and abandoned. The very system that was supposed to represent goodness (Jujutsu Society) simply prolonged the cycle of pain and suffering. It failed everyone— it failed him. Everything he’d believed was a shattered mirror, reflecting the cracks and flaws of humanity— and Geto saw that. Jujutsu Society praised Gojo for his innate talent, whilst neglecting the cracks in its system and the world, and neglecting Geto. In Geto’s turmoil, Geto was overcome by disenchantment— losing his faith and shedding his past sense of self— his good nature replaced with bitterness towards Gojo, simultaneously accompanied with a developed, narrow perspective on normal humans. (As we see with “Are you the strongest because you’re Satoru Gojo, or are you Satoru Gojo because you’re the strongest?” — Geto brings up the age old question of nature Vs nurture. He’s essentially asking Gojo if his power is the reason for his success, or if his power shaped his identity. Who is Gojo? Did he get any choice in defining himself? —He didn’t. Gojo’s whole personality is based off of his power, which determined how he was treated— the Strongest, seen as a functioning tool. —And regarding Gojo’s power: What was once a deep admiration towards Gojo, turned into resentment and envy from Geto’s end, as Geto realized Gojo wasn’t changing the corrupt systems, nor did Geto have the luxury of power to have made a difference. Geto felt spurned, and also believed normal people were unworthy of ruling, and the only way to save the world from its already unjust systems was to overthrow everything and use power to rule. After all, power is all that matters in terms out how you can change the world, which is your worth in the world— and Geto wanted that. He wanted power. He wanted to be worthy the way Gojo was— he was hurting. Maybe if he had Gojo’s level of power, he wouldn’t be in this much pain. Maybe he would’ve been able to stop other people from being evil and actually have had footing in this world. Maybe people would be listening to him, appreciating him. —Or maybe, Jujutsu Society was just a phony, after all. And normal humans were useless to change anything— all they did, in Geto’s mind, was feed into the evil nature of the world. …Geto became resentful, callous, cold, evil because of the wrongdoings inflicted on him, which resulted in his misinformed beliefs about humans and his behavior run wild with blind spite. He truly believed that the pain he inflicted on humans was justified, and he reveled in it because he had been hurt so deeply and saw it as reparations, even.

Do I believe what Geto did was okay? Absolutely not. He had much too rigid a way of seeing humans— as all bad— and that was a fallacy. But he was only 17 when he faced such confusing, extreme, difficult circumstances, and it distorted his worldview. I can’t blame him. He WAS good. But being around constant darkness wore him down, thus he descended into a callous man devoid of empathy. His actions after defecting are deplorable and not okay, however, he truly deserves compassion too. Many others, had they been in his situation, would’ve ended up horribly warped too.

How could Geto have done better, so as not to become the evil, rigid and disillusioned, cold and harmful, person he became? This is an important question. I’m still figuring it out myself. This analysis is to be continued. For now I’d say that he was unable to empathize with humans beyond his own pain and suffering, and it’s a cautionary tale about how wrapped up we can get in our own trauma and suffering— which leads us to being incapable of seeing and understanding things beyond our own individual pain, which leads us to inflicting undue injustice into others. It’s crucial that we take the time to understand the depth and complexity of humanity. The inherent value in humans.