#smtv

susanoo is associated with ne-no-kuni as its ruler after being banished there by izanagi. sometimes ne-no-kuni is equivalent to yomi, but there does also exist a distinction between them where yomi is associated with death and ne-no-kuni with rebirth specifically. there is some overlap given both are stated to be where izanami resides, so it's kinda unclear. that being said, there is also an association between 'death' and 'transformation' and sometimes 'transcension' as well, especially accompanied by 'rebirth'.

susanoo, being a rather contradictory god with both good and evil qualities, seems to commonly undergo some sort of 'transformation' and 'purification' or 'atonement'/'redemption' within his myths. his destructive acts are considered heavenly sins causing ritual impurity that must then be purified, and susanoo himself 'transformed' and 'redeemed' through some process of purification/atonement. there is some talk about a process of exorcism being performed on susanoo, through a process of "cutting off his beard, fingernails, and toenails". this is also sometimes seen more as a process of corporal punishment, through the likely painful and torturous process of *removing* his fingernails and toenails. this was a fun bit of trivia for me because it also features in higu :) ripping off your own nails as punishment.

either way, punishment can be related to atonement. through enduring a punishment through pain and torment, you are 'purified' and absolved of your sins. and with the impurities removed from susanoo in this process, he 'transforms' into a more benevolent and 'heroic' deity. so there are i guess also themes of sin and punishment and redemption within susanoo's myths.

there is also the concept of a cyclical process of life, death and rebirth such as samsara, the goal of which is to reach a state of enlightenment and liberation from the cycle through nirvana. orphism is also a similar concept where our dual nature as material (body) and spiritual (soul) means that the soul must escape material existence in order to achieve salvation. this is done through a process of 'ritual purification' and suffering, connected to dionysus and emulating his suffering, dismemberment, death and rebirth to be freed from the cycle of reincarnation. there are those shared themes again of purification, death, transformation, rebirth, and eventually, salvation, liberation and enlightenment.

each cycle of death and rebirth is another process of transformation and purification that leads you closer to salvation, or something like that. i'll also note the element with dionysus of being 'torn apart', which gives the imagery of being broken down to your fundamental pieces and then being put together again and reborn. also a process that resembles the creation of the aogamis through the sundering of susanoo. he was, in a sense, torn apart and put together again, and then reborn.

so i got this idea that perhaps susanoo underwent multiple cycles of this process, being broken down and unmade, then put together again and reborn, each time an attempt to 'cleanse' him of his sins and impurities. i suppose he could have also only needed to undergo it once with the creation of the aogamis. but my headcanon or whatever is that he was taken apart and reborn over and over again throughout history as attempts by his siblings to mold him into who they needed him to be, each time failing to fully remove his willfulness, but each time closer to that goal.

and the end result is aogami, the final step before attaining 'enlightenment' and 'transcension' as the nahobino. in this sense, maybe you can say that aogami was the 'perfect ideal version' of the protofiend susanoo who came to be after millennia of purification. the final perfected version of susanoo. a being that has become fully pure and empty (as in the sense of the concept of sunyata, an intrinsic state of emptiness that allows for the creation and rise of the 'true' or 'higher' self, a state of enlightenment), with the nahobino being representative of the end state of that enlightenment and transcension. so maybe it isn't even nahobinos themselves that represent 'enlightenment', because the components that make up the nahobino fusions have to also attain a perfect state of 'purity' and 'emptiness' in order to reach enlightenment and liberation. otherwise they'd still be fettered to various earthly things like desire and resentment and the past and all. so maybe that's also why the nahobino was based off a deity of purification, as a being that has become fully pure itself.

additionally, the irony of aogami actually being the 'perfected' version of susanoo is obviously that hayao, and by extension aogami himself, viewed him as the exact opposite of that lol. a broken, imperfect abomination that was just a mockery of the REAL susanoo.

but if susanoo was also reborn over and over again through a long, cyclical process of death and rebirth and purification, the idea is that the goal would have been to mold him into a pure and empty being, devoid of intrinsic self and will, so that he could be fully obedient. the ones to remake him would have been his siblings, perhaps tsukuyomi specifically. and this goal would have been what they wanted. so then it's extra ironic when tsukuyomi realizes Too Late that this ISN'T what he wanted after all, as he comes to resent the aogamis instead.

i don't know i just really like irony lol. tsukuyomi might come to gradually realize then the horrors of just what he had done to his brother all this time, and that he was maybe wrong all along. but that's too scary too confront now!!! so it's time to sunk cost fallacy to the end and project his own guilt onto aogami as resentment and disgust :). in general i don't think tsukuyomi was someone who understood responsibility at all and only begins to do so in his current incarnation as hayao, because things have Changed now and he has no choice but to confront his own responsibility, though he continues to struggle with it.