❅ summary refusing to cancel your romantic skii trip after your boyfriend broke up with you just days before the holidays, you decide to go to the remote lodge by yourself. luckily, or unluckily for you, you seem to have caught the attention of another infuriatingly handsome tourist
❅ content mdni!, real world au, enemies to friends to lovers, fluff, pining, slow burn kinda, yearning, angst, eventual smut, cozy holiday vibes, lowkey bitter reader lol, reader is going through a break up, hurt and comfort
❅ a/n a cozy little holiday mini series! also you guys i've never been skiing lol but this is my little wholesome white winter fantasy and i hope you enjoy!
i love how the devil wears prada 2 seems to tackle society losing touch with analog media like magazines, journalists getting laid off in the name of optimization and profit, and this growing collective delusion that ai can replace the deeply human, deeply soulful thing that art has always been
i love how the devil wears prada 2 seems to tackle society losing touch with analog media like magazines, journalists getting laid off in the name of optimization and profit, and this growing collective delusion that ai can replace the deeply human, deeply soulful thing that art has always been
the quiet strength of satoru gojo: why parts of the fandom underestimate the strongest
time for a deep dive into one of the most misunderstood characters in jujutsu kaisen—satoru gojo—and why the fandom's persistent framing of him in comparison to suguru geto reveals something deeply uncomfortable about how many people process strength, trauma, healing, and emotional resilience. this isn’t just about two characters. it’s about the narratives people choose to uplift, the pain they validate, and the quiet courage they ignore.
the empathy gap that drives me insane
here’s the thing that’s been gnawing at me for months: this fandom will go to wild, mental-acrobatic extremes to empathize with suguru geto. people say things like: “he was traumatized by watching his friends die,” “he was exhausted by the expectations of protecting non-sorcerers,” “he was too young to handle the burden of being powerful,” or “the system failed him and pushed him to that point.”
and listen—none of that is untrue. trauma is real. the curse of empathy is real. grief and pain can twist even the most grounded person. suguru’s fall is tragic. the world he inhabited was cruel and unrelenting. he was pushed to a breaking point. his descent into villainy wasn’t born out of malice, but anguish.
but here’s what boggles the mind: the same people who empathize with suguru’s unraveling turn around and paint satoru gojo—who endured every single one of those agonies and then some—as emotionally shallow, arrogant, naive, or even emotionally dependent on suguru to keep him human. as if satoru only had worth when filtered through suguru’s emotional lens.
the double standard is staggering. the math isn’t mathing. the logic unravels when you actually sit with it.
the uncomfortable truth about relatability
here's what i think is really happening: people empathize with suguru because his response to trauma is relatably human. giving up when things get too hard? most people have been there. choosing cruelty when the world feels endlessly cruel? they can imagine that spiral. breaking under pressure and lashing out at the world that hurt you? that's a very human-sized reaction to human-sized pain.
suguru's villain arc follows a pattern people recognize: good person faces trauma → trauma overwhelms their coping mechanisms → they break → they choose a path that hurts others. it's tragic, it's understandable, and most importantly, it's something many can see themselves potentially doing under the right (wrong) circumstances.
but satoru represents something that makes people fundamentally uncomfortable: incomprehensible resilience in the face of circumstances that should have broken him.
he had every single reason to become exactly what suguru became—isolated, bitter, convinced that non-sorcerers were beneath him, willing to burn down the system that failed him. the fact that he didn't isn't just impressive; it's almost alien in its strength.
and because many can't relate to that kind of resilience, they diminish it. they rewrite his story to make it more palatable, more human-sized. they make him dependent on suguru for his moral compass. they act like his principles came from somewhere outside himself rather than from an internal strength most people can't even comprehend.
a personal perspective: why suguru's actions are inexcusable
as someone who tends toward pessimism about the world and human nature, i find it fascinating that i can't muster even a shred of empathy for suguru's choices. i understand being disillusioned. i understand seeing the worst in people and systems. i understand feeling like everything is fucked and meaningless.
but genocide? murdering innocent people, including children? deciding that an entire group of humans deserves to die because some of them are awful? that's not a trauma response—that's a moral failing. that's choosing to become the exact kind of monster that makes the world darker.
pessimistic people often have the clearest view of how broken systems and circumstances can be, but recognizing that the world is cruel doesn't make cruelty acceptable. if anything, it should make you more determined not to add to the suffering. the fact that people can empathize with "i'm hurt so i'll hurt others" while struggling to understand "i'm hurt but i'll try to heal others" says everything about what kind of strength they can imagine themselves capable of.
satoru saw the same darkness suguru did—saw it even more clearly because of his isolation—and his response was "i'm going to try to make this better." that's not naivety. that's choosing hope as an act of defiance against despair.
the myth of suguru as satoru's moral anchor
this might be one of the most persistent misreadings in the entire fandom: the idea that suguru was responsible for satoru’s humanity. that he grounded him. saved him. kept him kind. that without him, satoru would’ve become something monstrous.
but let’s actually look at what canon—and context—shows us.
suguru's background: he had a loving family, recognition, camaraderie, a sense of purpose. people looked up to him. his morality was affirmed and echoed back.
satoru's background: born into isolation. groomed for a title, not a life. dehumanized from the moment he displayed power. forced into leadership before he was ready. no one taught him how to care—he just did, anyway.
and here’s the key difference: satoru didn’t learn restraint from suguru. he didn’t need a moral compass handed to him. this is someone who, as a literal child with godlike power, never misused it—not even out of spite. he had every reason to lash out, to fall, to become everything the world feared he would—but he didn’t. he made the choice not to. over and over. alone.
people point to lines like “should we kill them?” and treat them as some crisis of ethics, as if he was one breath away from becoming a villain. but that was a teenager processing grief and asking for a second opinion—not a boy on the edge of darkness. the fact that he even asked proves he already had the conscience people think he lacked. and when suguru fell, when he committed atrocities, when word reached satoru that his best friend had massacred an entire village—he didn’t believe it. he couldn’t. not because he was blind, but because he didn’t want to believe it was true.
that denial wasn’t proof of emotional dependence. it was grief. real, raw, deeply human grief. but grief doesn’t erase autonomy.
because here’s the truth: if satoru had truly needed suguru to stay good, then he would’ve broken right alongside him. but he didn’t. he chose to keep going. he didn’t become bitter. he didn’t turn cruel. he became a teacher. he started reforming a system everyone else accepted as immutable. he chose the future.
their bond mattered—but it wasn’t his foundation. people reduce satoru to “the boy who lost his best friend” as if that’s the most interesting thing about him, as if that one rupture defines every action after. but that flattens him. suguru was significant, yes. but significance isn’t destiny. and grief isn’t identity.
satoru's emotional arc isn’t about trying to rewrite the past. it’s about refusing to let that past define him. his love doesn’t rot into vengeance—it turns into action. he protects kids who could end up like suguru. he shoulders responsibility others run from. he teaches. he reforms. and he does it despite the pain, not because someone pulled him back from it.
he’s not a weapon on a leash, held back from destruction by a single lost friendship. he’s the one who disarms himself. every time. not because anyone taught him how—but because he wants to do better. because he knows what he’s capable of. because he cares, even when the world doesn’t care back.
so no, suguru wasn’t his moral anchor. he was a companion, once. someone who could relate to the burden. someone he loved. but satoru’s principles were never borrowed. they were born in silence, held together through loneliness, and reaffirmed with every act of kindness he chose after he lost suguru.
and that’s the kind of strength people keep refusing to see—because it's the kind they can’t imagine themselves having.
the empathy that never arrives
and that’s maybe the most frustrating part: that satoru—despite carrying more weight than anyone else in the story—rarely receives the empathy people so freely extend to others. the fandom will analyze every angle of suguru’s pain, dissect his fall, explain his choices, mourn what he became. but when it comes to satoru? the same kindness isn’t offered. people praise his power, his technique, his fights—but they rarely sit with how hard it must have been to stay soft. to keep choosing others. to keep choosing hope.
it’s like he’s too strong to be seen as vulnerable, too capable to be comforted. even fans fall into the same trap the jujutsu world did: they assume he’ll always endure, so they don’t bother asking if he’s okay. and they certainly don’t pause to understand how lonely that endurance must feel.
he never asked to be the strongest. and yet he lives every day carrying the cost of that title, quietly making the right choices when the wrong ones would be so much easier. he shows up. he gives. he believes. and still—he gets picked apart more for what he didn’t do than he gets recognized for everything he chooses to hold back.
when people say satoru gojo is emotionally shallow, or arrogant, or only human because of someone else—they’re echoing the same erasure the jujutsu higher-ups inflicted on him. they saw a weapon. fandom sees a trope. both refuse to look deeper. and maybe that’s what makes his quiet strength all the more tragic: that even now, after everything, so many still can’t find it in themselves to treat his endurance with the same empathy they give to someone who gave up.
the strength nobody wants to acknowledge
everyone talks about satoru being the strongest in terms of raw power. six eyes, infinity, hollow purple—yeah, he's op as hell. but his real strength, the one that actually defines him as a character, is something entirely different.
satoru gojo looked at a world that:
isolated him from birth
treated him as a weapon rather than a person
gave him godlike power with no guidance on how to use it responsibly
failed to protect his best friend
constantly demanded everything from him while giving nothing back
would have been perfectly fine with him becoming a tyrant as long as he protected their interests
and he said “no, i'm going to be better than this.”
not because someone taught him to be better. not because he had a strong support system. not because the world gave him reasons to hope. he chose to be better because that's who he decided to be, in the face of every circumstance that should have made him worse.
he chose to:
become a teacher who genuinely cares about his students' wellbeing and growth
work within a corrupt system to change it rather than tear it down
use his power to protect rather than dominate
maintain his sense of humor and humanity despite carrying unimaginable burdens
believe in the next generation enough to literally bet his life on them
never stop trying to save people, even people who've given up on themselves
the mischaracterization that reveals others' limitations
the way parts of this fandom consistently underestimate satoru's internal strength reveals something uncomfortable about how many people process exceptional resilience. they're so used to stories where good people are broken by bad circumstances that they don't know what to do with a character who endures and remains good anyway.
so they rewrite his story. they make him naive instead of recognizing that he chooses to see the world's potential for good despite evidence to the contrary. they make him emotionally dependent instead of acknowledging that he formed deep bonds despite having no model for healthy relationships. they make his strength into a weakness, his principles into privilege, his resilience into denial.
but here's the thing: satoru gojo spent his entire life surrounded by people who would have been perfectly fine with him becoming a monster. the zenin clan would have loved a satoru who believed in might makes right. the higher-ups would have been thrilled with a satoru who saw non-sorcerers as expendable. a corrupt system would have welcomed a corrupted strongest sorcerer with open arms.
the fact that he looked at all of that and said “i choose to be kind anyway” isn't naivety. it's not privilege. it's not emotional dependence.
it's moral strength on a level that most people can't even conceptualize, let alone replicate.
why suguru's fall makes satoru's resilience more impressive, not less
suguru had advantages satoru never did: a loving family, natural social connections, validation from others, a clear sense of purpose. and when the pressure became too much, he broke. that's human. that's understandable. that's tragic.
but it also makes satoru's resilience even more remarkable. he had fewer resources, less support, more pressure, and greater isolation. by every logical measure, he should have broken first and broken harder.
the fact that he didn't isn't a failure of the writing or a sign that his trauma wasn't “real enough.” it's evidence of a kind of internal strength that's so rare it seems almost fictional—which, ironically, is probably why it appears in fiction.
the flower quote and understanding without reciprocity
satoru once said something about being able to admire a flower without expecting it to understand you in return. it was about his relationship with regular people—how he could protect and care for them without needing them to comprehend his experience or validate his choices.
that quote encapsulates everything about his character that people miss. he didn't need others to understand his burden to make it worth carrying. he didn't need validation to know his principles were right. he didn't need reciprocity to keep giving.
most people in his world either feared him, used him, or put him on a pedestal. very few actually saw him as a complete person with his own struggles and growth. and yet he kept protecting them anyway. that's not emotional detachment—that's love so profound it doesn't require understanding to exist.
the love that bears the unbearable
satoru himself said that “love is the most twisted curse of all,” but his entire character arc is proof that love—not romantic love, but love for humanity, for the future, for people who will never know his name—is also the only force strong enough to bear the unbearable.
he loved his students enough to die for the possibility of their future. he loved the world enough to keep protecting it even when it gave him nothing but pain in return. he loved the idea of change enough to work within a system he could have easily destroyed.
that kind of love doesn't come from external validation or support systems. it comes from a depth of character that's almost incomprehensible in its strength.
recognizing true strength when you see it
as someone who naturally tends toward cynicism about human nature and the world's capacity for good, i find satoru's character deeply moving precisely because his hope isn't naive—it's defiant. he sees the darkness clearly and chooses light anyway. he understands how cruel people can be and decides to be kind anyway. he knows the system is broken and works to fix it anyway.
that's not the behavior of someone who doesn't understand pain or hasn't experienced trauma. that's the behavior of someone who has looked directly into the abyss and decided not to become it.
people who truly understand satoru gojo recognize that his greatest power was never his cursed technique—it was his refusal to let the world's darkness consume his capacity for love. that's a strength so rare and so valuable that it deserves to be seen and celebrated, not diminished or rewritten to fit more comfortable narratives about how people respond to pain.
the real tragedy
the real tragedy isn't that suguru fell—though that is tragic. the real tragedy is that satoru spent his entire life being misunderstood, even by people who claimed to care about him. he was seen as a weapon by his enemies, a tool by the system, and apparently, according to large portions of this fandom, as incomplete without the person who ultimately chose to become everything he stood against.
satoru gojo deserved to be seen for what he actually was: not just the strongest sorcerer, but one of the strongest people to ever exist in any story. his power was never his most impressive trait. his most impressive trait was that he had every reason to become a monster and chose to be a protector instead.
conclusion: putting respect on his name
satoru gojo might be overrated in powerscaling discussions, but he's criminally underrated in character analysis. large portions of this fandom will write thesis-length posts about why various morally gray characters deserve sympathy and understanding, but somehow can't extend that same analytical energy to recognizing the almost supernatural level of moral fortitude it took for satoru to become who he was.
his greatest strength was never infinity or six eyes. his greatest strength was looking at a world designed to corrupt him and choosing love anyway. choosing hope anyway. choosing to believe in others anyway.
if that's not the most powerful character writing in the series, then people are reading different stories.
it's time for more people to stop underestimating satoru gojo's heart and start recognizing it as the most impressive thing about him. because in a world full of characters who break under pressure, he stands as proof that sometimes—rarely, miraculously—people can endure the unendurable and come out kinder instead of crueler.
and that's a kind of strength that deserves more respect than certain parts of this fandom have ever given it.
The Details You Missed & The Context Behind Yorozu's Marriage Proposal to Sukuna
WARNING: This post contains content beyond JJK season 3 (cour 1) episode 3. Please DO NOT INTERACT if you don't want any more spoilers. Very long post; unedited
Note: I am tagging this under sukuna x reader and related tags for girlies' inspiration (marriage and proposal) for historical fics.
JJK Chapter 217 (Raws)
I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!
To start off my resurrection, we will dive deep on Chapter 217, the infamous marriage proposal to Sukuna by none other than the legendary simp of Heian era - Yorozu.
In this post, you will learn about:
Heian Marriage Customs (Nobility)
Deep dive of Yorozu's proposal (+ marriage life in Heian era)
The one translation mistake both by Viz and unofficial scans (+ a bit of poetry 101)
So, without further ado, let's go.
Dividers by @/uzmacchiato
Marriage of Nobles in Heian Era
With the exception of arranged marriages, here's how the aristocrats in Heian Era usually get married:
Man courts the lady via intermediary
The lady (and her family) accepts the man's courting and proposal
Wedding Ceremony: Man will visit the lady and spend the night for three nights
Wedding Reception: The families will celebrate the marriage
#1 & 2: Courting & Accepting the Proposal
The man will send an intermediary (usually a servant from his household) to send his poetry to the woman he wants to wed. Then, the woman's mother (and her besties) will judge the man's character through the poetry he sent [or if the woman is independent, divorced and/or working at the court as a lady-in-waiting or what not, the woman will personally judge]. Is the poem beautiful? Is his calligraphy impeccable? Is the paper high quality, and does it smell good?
Genji's son Yūgiri (夕霧; "Evening Mist") reads a letter. Genji Monogatari Emaki, 12th century handscroll, Gotoh Museum.
If he fails in one of these criteria, forget marriage - the family (or the woman) dumps him. Hey, but if they see that those three are at least satisfactory enough and they approve, then they give the poem to the woman who is the intended recipient so she can see and if she likes it, she or a female member of the family will send a reply via her servant from her household. If the man sees the reply to be satisfactory, then he will continue courting the woman.
This courting period can last for months or years. Once the woman accepts and all parties agree to the marriage, the wedding ceremony goes through.
#3: Wedding Ceremony: Spending Three Nights Together
Once the proposal is accepted, they move to the next step - the wedding ceremony. At this time period, the ceremony isn't something like the Shinto wedding that we see these days. The wedding is basically unceremonious and doesn't need any documents to register it.
So, the man visits the woman at her home - almost always her family's - at night, goes to her room, and spends the night with her. This is basically a 'secret' visit [both families of the groom and bride are aware lmao]. The first night is the first opportunity for him to see what she actually looks like because now, there's no screen or blinds hiding her from him.
(Also, the man uses his hakama or whatever the outermost jacket part of his kimono is called as the futon for the two of them)
So this goes on for three nights, with the man leaving the woman's home at dawn in the first two nights and sends a morning-after poem to her through a messenger. The family, then, offers wine and presents to the messenger who delivers these poems.
During these three nights they spend together, they...... indulge in passion..... and have sex........ at least that's what was expected of them...... yeah.......
You can basically say that the ceremony is mostly...... them having sex and doing the lewd things like making out........ unless you also count talking while holding hands????
Anyways, so on the third night - called tokoroarawashi or "exposure of the event" - the he stayes by her side until daylight, where he would be 'discovered' by the woman's parents. Then the couple would be offered breakfast with rice cakes called mikayamochi or "third night cakes", which the family prepared during the night. These mochis represent the married gods Izanami and Izanagi.
And that's it for the wedding ceremony.
#4: Wedding Reception
Even though everyone in the streets should know about the marriage between the man and the lady because word travels very fast, the couple (with the help of their families, mostly the lady's side though) would tend to host a feast some time over the few days after the ceremony just to show off. That is, if they can afford it.
So a wedding reception includes a simple Shinto rite conducted by a Shinto priest, and other rituals related to marriage. The man, the groom, 'officially' meets his in-laws in this occasion.
So pretentious
That's it for the most part..... aside from the food, I can imagine they would also have group poetry session, dances, music, games, contests, archery, or whatever the families could afford.
That concludes the marriage of nobles in Heian era.
Sources: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]
Chapter 217 - The Marriage Proposal of Yorozu to Sukuna
Now, I'll start actually translating and analyzing, using our knowledge of Heian era and the info you just learned above.
#1 & 2: Courting & Accepting the Proposal
So we know that Heian marriage starts with courting initiated by the man.......... but we know that's not the case here because Yorozu took on the role of the man for this role.
Yorozu: It's love. Love. [Refers to Yorozu recognizing Sukuna in his vessel instantly] Within the precepts and the loathing that comes from it, nothing could surpass love.
Yorozu: Say, Sukuna. I want to be the one to kill you, I want you to be the one to kill me. Even so, if you are still alive after I win, what will you give me?
Sukuna: Everything. It's an impossible occurrence, but if it's the case that I lose, I might as well be dead.
Yorozu: *pauses* Then, then. Even something like ma- ma- ma- ma- ma- marriage?
Sukuna: Do what you want.
Basically the courting is a battle to the death, and the condition of the marriage is if Yorozu and Sukuna are both alive, which both parties have agreed to.
I mean Yorozu's love goes back to Heian era in the year 1000s, as depicted in chapter 219, so who knows if she had proposed to him or sent letters to him sometime after this:
JJK Chapter 219
I won't be surprised if this was the culmination of the years Yorozu courted Sukuna in their lifetimes and the 'revitalization of love after more than 1000 years of separation from each other' (-Yorozu, probably).
Also, she also has another condition in her marriage proposal:
Yorozu: I'll be the primary wife!! Concubines or anything similar are not allowed (ever or else)!!
Yorozu wants to be the only wife and the primary wife at that. Being the primary wife means she will be the priority in his visits. You see, in the Heian era, the wife doesn't move into the husband's household.... they live separately for a long time. They live in their homes where they grew up in. The husband usually visits the wife/wives (whether primary or secondary) and his lovers at night in their households, then leaves at dawn.
As the primary wife, the husband would have to visit her the most out of his wives and lovers, and if the time comes when they decide to live together (usually years after their marriage), the husband either: moves either into his primary wife's residence, or to a separate residence that's usually provided by either the wife's or husband's family (or the husband himself if he is rich, which is rare). Very rarely the wife moves into her husband's home. If not, they can choose to live separately until the end.
So if Yorozu was, hypothetically speaking, the primary and only wife, then Sukuna would have to visit her very often, and obviously would have to eventually move into her house, if we're going to follow the nobility customs. As his primary and only wife, Sukuna's clothes would have been made by her, and economically he would be dependent on her (not that it mattered).
But knowing Yorozu, she'd be the one visiting him and moving into his home....... if he has one. [did Sukuna even have one, though, when she met him in Heian era?] And clothes? Forget it - Sukuna is a minimalist and Yorozu loves being naked.
And no concubines meant no secondary wives, so that meant his attention to her won't be divided and he won't need to leave her, worry about whether he'll visit her at sunset, nor would she have to kill to maintain her place as the primary wife.
#3: Wedding Ceremony: Spending Three Nights Together
Now this is where it gets........ disturbing.......
Yorozu: For our wedding ceremony, let us destroy three villages at the very least.
We still remember the traditional Heian wedding, right?
They would have had to spend three nights together. So, while in this panel, Yorozu proposes that they destroy three villages at the bare minimum, it has disturbing implications.
So for one, as part of the wedding ritual, they would have to destroy one village per night. BUT, Sukuna is the strongest jujutsu sorcerer in Heian era and Yorozu is a strong one, too, so destroying villages won't take long at night. So for the rest of the night after........... you get the gist.
This is the one time where I'm so, so glad Sukuna clocked her and beat her ass up. The fact that their vessels are step-siblings makes this interaction pseudo-incest.
So.... yeah..... glad it didn't and will never happen.
That One Translation Mistake by both VIZ & Unofficial Scans
Remember that we are still looking into Yorozu's marriage proposal.
#4: Wedding Reception
This is a bit of a feature because I need to clarify what Yorozu was talking about. The translators, both official and unofficial, have made mistakes.
So let's first look at the English translations:
JJK Chapter 217Left: Viz Translation (Official ENG TL)
Right: Unofficial Scans (Unofficial ENG TL)
These are both the right in that Yorozu was talking about the fun part of what would be their wedding reception, that they'll have the shrunken head or decapitated head of the handsome man, and that they'll write poem. But here's where they messed up: that they would only take the most handsome man in the village, and that they'll write Haiku, which is what annoys me the most.
Here's the translation of this panel - I will feature MegKuna's face because it's so funny:
Yorozu: For the entertainment part [of the wedding reception], we should make shrunken heads of the most handsome man in those villages, and write poetry with everyone about their appearances that gradually changes.
It's funny how the unofficial scans captured almost the entire meaning/translation of this panel better than the official translations, but yeah, there are just a couple of mistakes.
So first off, one thing that you have to keep in mind is that the Japanese language relies a lot on context, and ir almost always don't indicate plural words in their sentences. Also, when the context is obvious or people know what they're talking about, they can omit stuff like in this panel - they omitted three either for villages or the handsome men (三つ for villages, 三人 for handsome men).
We know that Yorozu was talking about destroying three villages for the wedding ceremony, so we should already know that when she started talking about the shrunken heads part, we readers should have already understood that she would take the heads of the most handsome man in each of the three villages for the poetry session.
Which is why the illustration of Yorozu's poem featured three human heads:
Speaking of poetry, both translations said 'write Haiku'. Haiku DID NOT exist in the Heian era. It didn't become a thing until hundreds of years later.
So in Yorozu's dialogue, we see the kanji 句 (pronounced as ku). which literally means stanza. So Yorozu literally says 'make stanzas' and I cleaned that up to writing poetry. Because she said, 'write poetry with everyone', this means that the second [the first being decapitating heads] fun part of the wedding reception would be a collaborative poetry session with the guests. There's only one kind of collaborative poetry that is popular in Heian era.
It's called Renga (連歌), the predecessor of Haikai, which was the predecessor of Haiku. Basically the grandparent of Haiku.
Originally, it began as a two stanza poem that involved two poets or writers, which is categorized as Tanrenga. The first writer writes the first stanza in a 5-7-5 form then the second one writes the last stanza in a 7-7 form. As Tanrenga became more and more popular, it became more complex and intricate that it gained popularity as a game, and events were held to create the best ones. Eventually, because there were more participants, other forms like Chourenga (Long Renga) and Hyakuin Renga (100 stanza Renga) were created, with the 100 stanza Renga eventually becoming the basis for what we know as Renga today. [basically this is the summary of the Wiki page]
In this collaborative poetry, the first to write poem has one job - write the first stanza (called Jouku 上句 in tanrenga and Hokku 発句 in Hyakuin Renga). The first stanza has to be the only verse in the entire poem that can be considered to be a stand-alone poem. It also must illustrate the ba, which is the location (e.g. garden), the season, and so on. The structure is basically the same as Haiku - a 5-7-5 verse with a cutting word (Kireji, see the Reddit post here for some examples) and a seasonal word/reference (Kigo, see this site for examples of Kigo used in Haiku). It is the hardest to write, so usually the most experienced and talented poet starts it off.
Which makes Sukuna's face even funnier:
Yorozu was basically proposing that the most entertaining part of the wedding reception would include doing a Renga session with the guests, where they would write about the three shrunken heads of the most handsome men from the three villages destroyed. Then she wrote this verse and showed it to him:
Even handsome men
If dried out, becomes flaky
Truly exquisite
– Yorozu
It is in the 5-7-5 form and has a cutting word (し) at the very last line. It sets the topic. Also, I love how most of the vocabulary are modern Japanese words except いとおかし, which are Heian-era words with いと meaning 'very, truly' and おかし holding various meaning like 'beautiful, funny, interesting, awesome, marvelous, cute, lovely, amazing, and so on'. Though she should've written the sentence as いとをかし, the original way it was written back then.
BUT it doesn't indicate the location (e.g. garden) and IT DOESN'T HAVE A SEASONAL WORD.
The word that would've illustrated the season and would've allowed the participants to determine the words they should use [Yes, there are rules in poetry that all the nobles follow].
That's why Sukuna is alarmed that there's no seasonal word because what Yorozu wrote would have been the first stanza of the Renga poem, and it's a disaster!
Also knowing how people judged others' poems during this era, as you've seen how poems of men sent to the lady he was courting in the Heian marriage section, I don't think Sukuna was only horrified at the lack of the seasonal word.
This man must've been judging her poem. He'd be looking at her penmanship [she must've used a pen not ink], the vocabulary she used, and the substance of what she wrote........ and safe to say, he doesn't like what she wrote at all. It's funny to us, but at an objective standpoint, it's crap. Basically, brainrot in Heian era standards.
So you can't blame Sukuna's expression here.
But given what we know about Yorozu, I'm not surprised she's breaking all the rules even in writing poetry. What's surprising, though, was that Sukuna, the most hedonistic man in JJK, respects tradition and rules (in the arts and jujutsu, at the very least).
That's about it. I'm glad Sukuna killed Yorozu or else we'll see some pseudo-incest sh*t going on even though the ones inhabiting Megumi and Tsumiki aren't related at all.
Plus, we don't need to eat Monkey Brain Potage at a wedding reception..... can't believe Yorozu chose this as the main dish for a wedding reception:
Yorozu: Let's have them [Uraume] be responsible for cooking. Monkey Brain Potage is a must (no matter what)!!
It would've been hilarious if Kenjaku in Geto's body had eaten this, ngl.
here’s an old jester i did a few months back. might revisit and redo but gosh do i love how she turned out :3 (laura bailey liked this on twt im screaming-)
Thinking about the Blue-Red symbolism surrounding SatoSugu
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.
and then there is Jonas @jestersloverre - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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