gojo satoru & connections to mania
satoru my poor little mew mew whoās also an evil problematic princess
mania is best described as an elated levels of energy ā it's a possible mood swing during bipolar disorder.
in the beginning of the fight between hanami and jogo in Shibuya, satoru's face is very calm, even when declaring to kill hanami and condemning the both for their weakness. while telling hanami to fight him his face is still neutral, and while eye shining can be a sign of mania ā satoru is a character whoās eyes naturally shine.
the real mood switch occurs when the two curses begin to fight him.Ā
suddenly, satoru's overcome with this expression is tied to raw enthusiasm. his eyes are blown wide as he seems thrilled to be able to fight with the two curses hanami and jogo, along with that his grin is wide to the point of deeper smile lines than heās ever amassed before. satoru's gained a boost of energy that rivals the slightly more laid back version of himself like a flashing off and on switch.
Even in the fight, when heās walking down jogo and smiling as he rips the curses arm off, for a split he is smiling regularly and you would assume heās come down from his high ( which is possible ) for a split second, only to see the energized look on his face when he finally looks back at jogo.
Satoruās energy and activity heavily increases as heās going hand combat with the two curses and is actually having fun, heās smiling as he toys with these two curses like itās nothing and is hyper in movement.Ā
this is best explained as satoru's ikigai. he loves to fight, he's good at fighting ( and everything else canonically) ā the world ( at this moment at least ) needed him to fight and fighting is what pays for him. according to ikigai, that would be gojo's meaning of life, to be a fighter.
This is not the last time we see Satoruās eyes blown in a fight out of enthusiasm ā heās under the same emotional outlier when heās fighting sukuna, aka sukugumi in the more recent chapters. The people yearn for someone āho is you cool?ā is ass atleast once.
SINCE Iām talking about gojoās extremely active energy, thereās nothing better than talking about hyperactivity when heās getting to teach ā even in animation, he stands out with even more exaggerated movement and poses to his younger studentsĀ
even in masking your emotional vulnerabilities, nobody can switch this fast from killing their bestfriend to cheering because heās related to his student. gojo has a great amount of emotional shifts; from laid back, to silly, to serious, to utter ruthlessness in so many situations, which is comparable to manic traits.
the way he teaches, and talks with his students and those around him a lot can be related to pressured speech, not to mention the long amounts of infodumping on random poor souls. he does it especially in hidden inventory, yapping his enemies to death.
it goes so far to even be mentioned in the first light novel by megumi, who has been around satoru for a lot of one another's lives
it implies satoru's an avid and extreme talker, often going off the rails and turning the conversation into a quickly one-sided speech, talkingĀ ATĀ you ā adding to the evidence of pressured speech
yet, after the elevated sense of elated moods, he crashes.
Satoru especially after his enlightenment in Hidden Inventory ( which i count as the manic episode ) where he was on top of the world and couldnāt feel any sort of sadness over a child he was looking after and relating to just died.Ā
but after defeating toji, satoru deflates into a dazed state where he cannot regulate his own emotions, turning to suguru for guidance. this is the stage after a manic episode, the depressive episode that leaves one anxious, sad or in satoruās case; hopeless.
he could not save riko and is now carrying the childās body throughout a building of people celebrating her death. He cannot do anything to bring her back, for her to enjoy longer days at the beach. All he can do at this moment, in his state is ask suguru if he should kill.
isolation after the manic period
before i talk about this satoruās loneliness and issues with being understood are not self inflicted as itās impossible to reach out to people, especially with the end of jujutsu kaisen showing how little heās been regarded by his peers.
but at the same time he does push away those that want to understand him. spefically yuta, yuta's desire to reach satoru actively combats satoru's want for his students to not to be subjected to anything that could desecrate their youth as it desecrated satoru's youth, riko's and geto's.
often people with mania will isolate themselves so people cannot experience the 'worst' parts of them. that's what i believe satoru is doing ā isolating himself and his experiences so yuta cannot experience the worst parts of the being a 'monster' first hand, which he'd be able to relate to satoru's own experiences.
this thread was based off of my idea of satoru's infinityĀ looks from the eyes of curses exercised by gojo: i imagine it being kind of like the visionary of what a human would hear an alternate say before dying in the mandela catalogue