#glo's analysis

Sorry if this is a bad question it's hard to come up with a good one lol. I just like audhd Gojo

Breathed.

It's been three months and that's all I can come up with, anon. I just find it really hard to talk about this topic in a concise manner and I'm also indecisive, so I'm struggling to choose one thing without being deeply unserious. Same as I can't identify one thing about myself probably (it's the fog horns). It's a collection of traits and behaviours that combine to make up the individual, isn't it?

It's really just *waves hand* the way that he is, but I don't want to give you a cop out answer, so let me list several things across four categories, beginning with the least serious! To avoid this getting really long, however, I'm thinking of answering your question about Over the Threshold Gojo in a separate post. The short answer is "it's woven into the very fabric of the story", but I have a lot I could talk about! Would any of you like to read that post?

For now, what do I think is the most neurodivergent thing Gojo ever did in canon? Well, before we get into it, a quick note about something that I've never seen anyone mention in their discussions or depictions of autistic/ADHD/AuDHD Gojo, at least on the English speaking side of the fandom.

I think it's really important to judge Gojo's character within the context of his own culture (and, indeed, the culture of the person who created him). This research article (which is well worth a read!) published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology posits that we should adopt a sociocultural model of disability on the basis that "the neurotypical world in which an autistic person is situated varies considerably depending on the cultural customs and values unique to the pocket of the world from which they originate", i.e. people experience autism differently depending on the cultures they grow up and live in.

Gojo is a Japanese person, born and raised in Japan. He is also a man. I always keep these factors in mind when analysing or writing his character, but it seems especially important when looking for neurodivergent traits. Okay, let's begin!

Fun things to support AuDHD Gojo

He's always late. Man can teleport, there's literally no good reason for him to be late except for ADHD time blindness.

According to Gege, he eats sweets to stimulate his brain. It makes me wonder how Gojo would fare on stimulant medication with the Six Eyes, but it's both illegal and highly stigmatised in Japan. Of course, that doesn't mean he couldn't have tried it...

He's impulsive, especially when it comes to teaching opportunities for his students. However, his impulsive decisions always seem rooted in logic so it balances out. He's a logical guy on the whole, honestly, which is another point for autistic Gojo.

He supposedly has a "bad personality". People find him annoying and he often clashes with authority figures because his behaviour is deemed disrespectful. This is a big ADHD mood, but it also works through an autistic lens, especially in Japan. Let's dig into this in the next section!

Less fun things to support AuDHD Gojo

According to the article I linked earlier, the structured nature of the language and clear "rules" for communication based on social hierarchy and context in Japan could make it easier for autistic people to follow scripts, which are used more readily in everyday Japanese communication with the goal of minimising uncertainty. However, you have to know the scripts in order to be able to use them!

In a country with a system of honorific speech (keigo), deviation from social norms is noticeable and even alarming in some cases, which is why we often see deliberate deviations used in untranslatable ways in manga, sometimes emphasised with katakana or bouten to draw attention to how out of place they are. This is why Geto tells Gojo he should change the pronoun he uses, much to Gojo's surprise and chagrin. The deviation from social norms and expectations communicates something all by itself, even if the meaning is the same, and Geto recognises that where Gojo doesn't.

We don't have a keigo equivalent in English, so we do a lot more with tone of voice instead. However, we are also capable of adjusting our language to convey different intentions. An example is something like "Move over!" vs "Excuse me, please could I just squeeze behind you? Thank you! Sorry!" (a very Bri'ish example). Both can be either appropriate or rude depending on the circumstances and the person you're interacting with.

You only learn how to navigate these types of social situations "appropriately" as you get older, but until it's pointed out to them directly (usually after a "blunder"), autistic people often aren't aware of unspoken "rules", especially those which seem inefficient and/or illogical. For similar reasons, autistic people are sometimes seen as "childlike", simply because they don't know a certain behaviour is perceived as childish until someone tells them, and that's how I always saw this moment during the Hidden Inventory arc.

Geto is essentially saying, "You shouldn't talk like that anymore, you're too old to get away with that kind of overfamiliarity now". Gojo is socially unaware — unaware how he comes across, how he sounds, maybe even that he's "grown up" (I like this reading in the context of JJK and protecting youth). My autistic king.

Of course, this exchange takes on extra meaning later, but at that point in the story, I think it's just Geto quietly making him aware of something that will impact how he's received by others for his own sake as much as theirs. The fact that he says "I've been meaning to say this for a while" suggests that Geto has been watching Gojo's interactions for some time, second guessing whether to say something before finally deciding he needs to intervene when he sees that he isn't picking up on those unspoken social cues.

As an aside, I love that Geto's ability to make himself seem unthreatening by following social norms is completely at odds with how threatening he actually is, while the opposite is true for Gojo (unless you're a curse or curse user). Gege cooked with that. To me, it really feels like a criticism of the emphasis on conformity and politeness in Japanese society, especially in light of chapter 236 which brings us nicely onto the next section.

Much less fun things to support AuDHD Gojo

To me, chapter 236 of JJK is Gojo’s “unmasking”. I wrote an analysis of Gojo’s character in 236 and though I didn't mention autism explicitly, it was implicit on my end. Aside from the fact that I think Gojo and Geto sitting back to back with Nanami and Haibara is a lovely visual representation of the double empathy problem (which I touched on in this post about empathy), I've said everything there so I won't repeat myself.

This post (and especially its tags) from right after the chapter came out says it in a much more concise way, but Gojo’s upset pout when Nanami says "You never cared about protecting people!" breaks my heart, especially in light of everything he had just said to Geto about how he was never truly able to connect with anyone after he left. For me, the panel below just summarises the experience of being autistic in this world.

Not fun at all things to support AuDHD Gojo

Well, the way that Gojo is infantilised by a huge part of the fandom, despite being a highly competent, intelligent, and responsible adult. It's rife in depictions of Gojo across his ships (with a correlation to his t/b configuration) and it bothers me enormously. I can't think of a more AuDHD experience than being infantilised even when you're the most accomplished person in the room, so I'm taking that as evidence all by itself.

—

And that's all! For the longest time, I've been thinking about writing a series where Gojo is explicitly autistic. I'd like to bring a different perspective to the table and address some of the less "palatable" aspects of being autistic head on without compromising on his canon characterisation (to the best of my ability) and without putting him in a box. However, I'm reluctant for so many reasons. We'll see!

Perspective and empathy in Jujutsu Kaisen

Once again, I see accusations that Gojo only cared about people in relation to their strength. I can't believe that 236 and 261 haven't put this idea to bed already, but let's go over it again for the class. Here are some thoughts on the importance of perspective and empathy in JJK. Spoilers for chapter 266 ahead!

What the quiet transformation of Megumi's leitmotif in "Strong and Intelligent Allies" reveals about his relationship with Gojo

A leitmotif is a recurring melodic motif associated with a particular person, place, or idea. In music for film and TV, composers use leitmotifs as an audio cue to evoke the thematic subject whenever e.g. a character appears on screen or is referenced in the narrative.

We first hear Megumi's in episode 4 when he faces down Sukuna. Our introduction to his theme is "An Unfair Reality Granted to All Equally", played as he reflects on his approach to saving people. It's then showcased in full in "Jujutsu Sorcerer, Fushiguro Megumi" as he prepares to summon Mahoraga.

Meanwhile, "Strong and Intelligent Allies" plays over a key scene in episode 5 where Gojo tells Ijichi about his dream for the future, then again much later in episode 23 when Megumi narrates the events that led him to become a jujutsu sorcerer, including how he met Gojo. Importantly, in the latter half of the piece, the composers interpolate the electric guitar riff from "Jujutsu Sorcerer, Fushiguro Megumi" in a syncopated ostinato played on strings beneath the main melody, as demonstrated in the video at the start of this post.

It's very subtle, which is almost certainly deliberate and all the more interesting for it. I would bet that very few people without musical training have ever even noticed it, and that's precisely why it captured my attention.

The use of Megumi's leitmotif in "Strong and Intelligent Allies" establishes a connection between Megumi and Gojo, and suggests that Megumi is an integral part of Gojo's dream. It's an auditory symbol that identifies Megumi as the first "strong and intelligent ally" Gojo sought out. This is later confirmed at the end of Premature Death when we recount the first meeting between the characters from Gojo's POV, immediately before Megumi wakes him from his dream.

Megumi and Gojo are currently the only characters with prominent leitmotifs throughout the series. Gojo's "Limitless Cursed Technique" theme is littered all over the second season, including in "You Better Get Strong" which plays over his meeting with Megumi, bridging the past with the present day. The composers have given each of these characters a strong musical identity and they've clearly gone to great pains to connect the two of them in the score for Jujutsu Kaisen.

Here's the interesting thing, though. A leitmotif is one of the few ways a composer can influence the narrative explicitly. Usually, they want viewers to hear those cues and make those connections — think Darth Vader's iconic theme — so what does it say that the composers chose to tuck Megumi away in the audio representation of Gojo's dream? What does it suggest about the characters and their relationship to each other?

I think this is very clever, very lovely writing on their behalf. To me, the final section of "Strong and Intelligent Allies" speaks to the distance Gojo maintains between him and Megumi, but also the genuine feeling there if you look closely enough — much like their relationship in the text.

Played staccato, Megumi's leitmotif sounds almost tentative, as though it isn't sure it belongs. However, rather than standing out among the legato piano and strings around it, the other instruments act like a soft cushion. That's why its integral place in the accompaniment goes largely unnoticed.

It feels very much like Megumi's character to me. He won't "be greedy", but instead puts himself in a support role. He hides in the shadows. He speaks of his relationship with Gojo only in terms of the debt he owes (恩人: benefactor, saviour), overlooking his inherent value as a person.

On the other side of things, Megumi's quiet yet critical presence in the music speaks to the hands off way Gojo cares for people — loving them from afar, never letting them into his inner world — such that they never even realise how much they feature in the soundtrack to his life.

I'm often frustrated when people downplay Megumi and Gojo's relationship. Their unique connection is woven throughout this story, from the first chapter all the way through to chapter 270, "End of the Dream". It's even present in the music, and I expect more on that front before the anime ends.

If you know how to interpret it, music can really enrich your understanding of a character or a story through the hidden depths it reveals. Unfortunately, musical literacy is a profound privilege, which is why I'm always sad about how many thoughtful details get lost in translation for most viewers. For this very reason, I've been wanting to share some music analysis for Jujutsu Kaisen for the longest time. There's so much to talk about, but it's hard to judge the audience. If you don't take the time to untangle the terminology required to analyse music, there's a really high barrier to entry.

Gojo says 一人は寂しいよ to Yuta, but only 寂しいよ, an expression of loneliness, is present here.

However, Yuji uses the close pronoun お前 and Gege uses katakana オマエ to emphasise it. Where else has he done that exact same thing? 😭

I believe 寂しいよ could also be interpreted as "I'll miss you" which are definitely the kind of "embarrassing words" Geto might have been referring to here. It also fits the "three words in English" criteria.

This morning, I made a post on Bluesky that said:

OTT Sukuna is a pansexual genderqueer person born thirty years too early. I will not elaborate on this.

Two people said they'd like to hear more, so obviously I immediately caved and elaborated on it. I thought folks here might also be interested, so I'm transferring the Bluesky thread into a post with a few more references.

Please note that I wrote this off the cuff and in brief based on my memory of my research and analysis of Jujutsu Kaisen over the last three years, but I don't claim anything I say here is objectively correct. This is simply my reading of the character in relation to my fanfiction, Over the Threshold. Hope you enjoy it!

I largely agree, more with the logic than with the conclusions, but I think OP comes to valid conclusions, too!

I don't have any simple answers when it comes to Jujutsu Kaisen. To me, anyone trying to ascribe "right and wrong" or "black and white" to any aspect of this series is missing the whole point. From my perspective, it's first and foremost a story about perspective, funnily enough. People interpret the characters and the actions they take in very different ways, and this is especially true of Gojo — and that's the single biggest strength of his character for me!

Chapter 261 is among my favourites for all sorts of reasons, but this page and, more specifically, this line is one of them:

I think that about sums it up. Gojo Satoru is just a man doing his best to make good decisions based on the information and experiences he's accrued — the things that shape his perspective. It just so happens that the information and experiences he's accrued are rather different to everyone else's, owing to the fact that he is basically unique in every single way.

Despite that, Gojo remains an extremely human character. He's flawed and he knows it. However, because of his strength and the immense weight of responsibility he bears, characters and readers alike expect more of Gojo. When he makes mistakes, he is judged more harshly because the consequences of said mistakes are that much higher. That's not his fault though. Why should Gojo know what the hell he's doing any more than any other human being alive?

Ultimately, he's just a guy trying his best and I think that's respectable for someone in his position. If anything, his almost decision paralysis is a direct result of the power he wields. He's in an unimaginable position. Yes, he loves jujutsu, but I actually think Gojo is very cautious about how he uses his strength when you consider what was possible for him at any point in the story. It's what Geto says to him:

"You could do it, Satoru."

There's a reason Gojo remembers this moment in the very same chapter he says, "I'm not even sure this is the right thing to do". Gojo is not careless with his strength because he's acutely aware of how easily he could reshape the world to his liking if he chose to use it for that purpose.

The fact that he defers to weaker people — the moral values that Geto impressed upon him as a teenager — seems like a good thing when you consider that, in the opening chapters of JJK, Sukuna positions himself as a proponent of a hierarchy based on strength, criticising the way jujutsu society is structured to Gojo's face! However, I don't think JJK offers an answer regarding which approach is the right one. I don't think Gojo has an answer either, and I love this apparent paradox in a character who's effectively named "enlightenment".

In short, I don't think Gojo is perfect, but I think his heart is in the right place, and that counts for an awful lot. This applies to how I imagine his politics, too. It's essentially what we saw with Miguel. He's ignorant owing to his privilege, but willing to learn, which is infinitely more important in my opinion.*

So yes, I think it's fair to say that OP and I largely agree but arrive at different conclusions, and I enjoyed reading OP's perspective! The only point we really differ on is where Megumi sits in all of this, but I tend to take a different perspective on this matter to most of the fandom, it seems. People tend to fall into two camps with Gojo and Megumi: either they're family or Gojo was simply using Megumi as a means to an end. I am not in either camp.

I don't think Gojo held saving Tsumiki over Megumi's head. I think he did the only thing he could have done in that situation, and he tried to preserve Megumi's agency as much as the circumstances would allow, for better or for worse. I don't think there was much choice for anyone involved (more on that here) and, from my perspective, Gojo's biggest "mistake" with Megumi was waiting two years to find him. However, I think there are very reasonable explanations for that too, other than "he only started caring when Megumi's potential as a sorcerer and strong ally became apparent".

Unrelated to OP's post, for what it's worth, I also don't think Megumi hated being a jujutsu sorcerer. I never saw the ending of JJK as evidence of that. Again, I don't think it's black and white, and I think it does his character (any character) a disservice to reduce him to such simple truths. Would he have preferred a different life? Probably, but that option was never available to him. It's not even worth considering.

Megumi is a jujutsu sorcerer, and a strong one. We have seen him enjoying the thrill of a fight, exactly the same as Gojo. He was born with the Ten Shadows and it is intrinsic to who he is as a person, exactly the same as Gojo. We are all shaped by our experiences, and in the world of JJK, that includes your experience of jujutsu — your individual technique, your ability to use cursed energy, your ability to see cursed spirits, whether you were raised by sorcerers etc.

No matter how much Megumi wants to reject those things, he can't. His inability to accept that is in direct opposition to Gojo, who can't envision an existence without them. That's why I love them. That's why I care about their complex, messy, heartbreaking relationship so much. It doesn't have to be clear cut and, if it were, it probably wouldn't interest me half as much as it does.

Alright, I yapped. No surprises there. Thanks for the unexpected opportunity to talk JJK, anon. I've missed this.

*I headcanon that Gojo probably commits a lot of -isms. He's a perpetrator of microaggressions born from ignorance about the harm of such microaggressions at a societal level. He'd say something awful and then say "it's just a joke!" when called out, but ultimately consider other perspectives and apologise for the harm caused where he sees fit, as we saw with Miguel.

Yes, of course! I'm going to try not to yap too much about this (edit: lmao) because I think this is part of the problem. It's a fandom space and it's simply not reasonable to expect people to use precise terminology and provide academic sources for their arguments at every turn. Sometimes you just want to say "Gojo is a low empathy character" and trust it'll find its audience so you can talk about it with people who can intuit exactly what you mean when you say "low empathy".

I think it's important to preserve this type of low stakes enjoyment in fandom spaces, which is why I don't want to insert myself into other people's discussions about this. However, the fact remains that the internet is a public space. I am choosing not to insert myself, but there's nothing stopping me except for a moral code.

This is where the problem lies for me. Even if we don't realise it, the things we say are always being perceived by people outside the target audience. For that reason, I really value precision, especially when it comes to language about sensitive and/or poorly understood topics like this one. For example, if someone thinks Gojo has low affective empathy but high compassionate empathy, I think they should say exactly that. Otherwise, "low empathy" comes bundled with a whole lot of tricky associations for people who aren't aware of these different models for empathy, which is actually the vast majority of people who will stumble across it.

However, despite always trying my very best to articulate myself as carefully and precisely as possible, I have been misinterpreted enough in this fandom (wilfully or otherwise) to know that precision rarely matters in online discussions, in which case, why bother putting in all of that extra effort when you're simply trying to have a good time? I'm torn on the matter. The more your reach grows, the more important precision seems to become, but it's also unfair to place that kind of burden of responsibility on fandom creators. I often feel that, yet I find myself trying to act responsibly at the cost of my own enjoyment anyway.

Once again, I digress. To get back to your question, yes, I am familiar with these models. However, while "cognitive empathy" and "affective empathy" have been around for a long time now, the concept of "compassionate empathy" is even less recognised than the double empathy problem. Research on empathy and compassion and their relationship to each other is constantly developing, but as things stand, I consider empathy and compassion to be separate motivators for prosocial behaviour.

That said, I find "Gojo has low affective empathy but high compassionate empathy" far more agreeable as an assessment than simply "Gojo is a low empathy character". However, it's still not my personal take on the matter. My point was not that there are different types of empathy, but that empathy looks different in different people.

When looking into research on empathy (honestly, all research), we should always keep bias in mind. I only feel confident discussing this matter in relation to autism research, which is undergoing a slow deconstruction as more and more people who aren't white European/Anglo-American cisgender men enter the field. I'm not going to go into that at length here, but it's why we should be careful about talking in absolutes. Even concepts such as the theory of mind hypothesis of autism which have underpinned clinical approaches for decades are now being challenged for the way they dehumanise autistic people, as well as the fact that the original research has roots in racism and sexism (obviously).

All that in mind, I don't believe empathy is purely innate, but mostly learned. Rather than something you have or don't have from birth in high or low quantities, I believe that, like most things, empathy is a trainable skill. However, I also believe that it's largely circumstantial. In the replies to my original post, @/thequeenofsarcaasm said:

I believe, to get work done in their field, compassion is more important than a strong sense of empathy. Finding solutions is impossible if you can’t “distance” yourself from the pains of others (as a doctor would).

I think this sums it up perfectly. For me, "high" and "low" are pretty much irrelevant. In high pressure situations (like, for example, the high pressure situation Gojo faced on platform B5F of Shibuya station on October 31, 2018), open displays of empathy simply don't serve anyone involved. However, just because empathy isn't immediately obvious, doesn't mean it isn't there. It's just that, in those high pressure situations (in all situations, if you ask me), rather than how people perform empathy, it's how people apply empathy that matters:

Geto was full of empathy but where did it get him?

Like many things, empathy exists on a spectrum. There are evidence-based techniques to increase empathy, at least within existing measurement frameworks. However, it doesn't necessarily follow that increased empathy towards one person means increased empathy across the board.

This is why I don't think breaking it down into types and amounts is particularly helpful, for the same reason I reject the notions of "high functioning" and "low functioning" autism. I think it is reductive to categorise people by their ability to meet certain criteria according to a framework that may not apply to them, especially without taking into account the wide array of individual experiences and circumstances that informs outcomes, many of which are societally enforced and outside the locus of their control.

Alas, this is the research problem. We categorise and systematise with good reason. It helps us to make sense of the world, and individual and collective understandings are constantly in development. However, we should just keep an eye on who gets to carry out the categorising and systematising at a research level and how the impacts of that trickle down to the rest of us.

And that brings us full circle! If you don't want to put Gojo in the very broad category of "low empathy" for the sake of considering every angle, you end up writing 1000 words in response to an ask on your fandom Tumblr blog. Most people have neither the time nor desire to pour this kind of effort into a post about their headcanon and nor should they have to! Most of the time, I don't bother either, but I feel like your question invited this kind of in-depth discussion and I do enjoy talking about this in the appropriate circumstances.

With that in mind, please feel free to share more of your thoughts on the topic if you feel inclined, anon. As I said in my post yesterday, I don't think there's any right or wrong here. I'm just adding a different perspective into the mix for the sake of diversity, because I think diversity is really important both in and out of fandom. Back to the responsibility thing again, argh!

I'm refusing to let myself seriously entertain the possibility that Gojō can come back after chapter 236. However, that's because I'm trying to protect my future self from disappointment, not because I think it's implausible — and I really want to talk about this image!

A couple of days ago, @runabout-river shared an interesting theory about what might happen next for Gojō. The post itself is well worth a read, but it was the choice of the above image that really set my mind alight. This scene is fresh in our minds after the anime adaptation of Hidden Inventory, and timing is clearly never an accident with Gege Akutami. So, why is it relevant now?

We see Gojō giving himself over to his past, lost in his happy dreams of his youth, only for Megumi — Gojō's first student and a symbol of the future that he envisions — to bring him back to the present by telling Gojō, "You're the one who called us here, please don't go dozing off."

In other words, "You're the one who dragged us into all of this, don't go pretending this isn't reality just because it's nicer in the past."

In my immediate reaction to 236, I said:

Gojō's dying bloody smile shows he's at least happy in his final moments. [...] Although, if Gojō actually is at peace in death, maybe that's the reason Gege will bring him back. He'll *never* let that man be happy, I swear.

It was just a joke, but seeing @runabout-river's post made me realise that Akutami has already set a precedent for 'punishing' Gojō for looking backwards. When he's dreaming about his past, Megumi scolds him and brings him back to the present. When he 'lets his mind wander' to his blue spring in Shibuya, he literally gets locked in a box where time doesn't pass, only to immediately find himself at the bottom of Japan's deepest ocean trench when his students bust him out to fix the problem he created.

As a side note, in both of these moments, the anime adaptation played a melancholy version of Gojō's Limitless theme — the audio representation of Gojō's youth. I'll eat my hat if it doesn't play again when chapter 236 is eventually adapted (I shared some more insights into some of the easter eggs hidden in the season 2 score in my mini review of the Hidden Inventory soundtrack if you wanna read).

If Gojō dies here, looking backwards to his youth, then he's taking the easy way out and that's what I find hardest to swallow about 236. Gojō leaves what is potentially the most difficult conversation he'll ever have — telling Megumi the truth about his father — to Shōko. He leaves his students to deal with the fallout of his failure to cremate Getō's body. He's saddling the people he loves with the responsibilities he leaves behind, and that's not fair.

However, we won't know if that's what's happened for sure until the whole story is told. Gojō doesn't mention his students in this chapter, and lots of people were bewildered that he seems unconcerned about their safety in a world without him. While that could simply be explained by his faith that they've "got it from here", there's a chance that he genuinely didn't think about it and he's about to get a rude awakening as his punishment — hence, "I pray that this isn't just a delusion".

I would *adore* it if Shōko dragged him back to life kicking and screaming, hauling him away from his pleasant fantasy of youth to tell him, 'No, you and Getō don't get to leave me behind to pick up the pieces again'. Because isn't that Shōko as a character? The one who's left to pick up the pieces in their wake? The one to heal the wounds and lay the bodies to rest while everyone forgets she's even there?

It would be the most character development she ever receives, and I'd love to see how Gojō and Shōko's dynamic changes when he's not the 'Strongest' anymore. So, in Shōko's own words: