sukuna and gojo: two sides of a coin
(these are some very unorganized thoughts but i can’t be bothered to sort them)
i find it incredibly interesting how sukuna and gojo are set up as foils for each other. it would be easy to contrast the mentor figure and antagonist, both in power level and in personality, but it goes deeper than that.
sukuna and gojo are both immensely powerful figureheads of their respective groups — curses and jujutsu sorcerers — with enormous egos and the strength to back it up. but the ways in which they differ are very strange. if you were just looking at it objectively, you might mistake sukuna for the mentor and gojo for the antagonist.
both of them have a direct parallel in the line “throughout the heavens and earth, he/I alone is/am the honored one.” but it’s presented differently. sukuna’s comes in the form of impartial narration, showing how “only his pleasure and displeasure exists” and that he cares only about his whims and desires, but also that he has no need to brag about it. meanwhile, gojo’s is spoken by himself in the midst of a power high and enlightenment. it shows that he has achieved a higher realm of understanding, but it’s also a boast, directed towards the enemy that had him on the brink of death moments before. it’s somehow closer to and farther from the original meaning of the phrase.
sukuna comes off as, hilariously, more humble than gojo. it establishes that, although gojo is probably stronger than him in terms of his techniques, sukuna is stronger emotionally and mentally. he doesn’t need to belittle his opponents or those he considers weaker than him. he doesn’t go mad with power when he fights. why would he need to? he’s the king of curses, revered as a god. all he asks for is the respect he is due.
in general, sukuna and gojo defy a very old trope in media — that heroes work together, and villains work alone. gojo is painfully alone, his very technique alienating him from the people around him, and he embraces it as just the natural state of things. he fights best alone because he can disregard the damage he accrues around him. he doesn’t have a single person who stands on his level, whom he can rely on. (we all know how that ended last time.) while sukuna actually encourages his opponents and gives them advice in his pursuit of an entertaining fight, gojo mocks them. literally just
gojo, to jogo: after all, you’re weak.
sukuna, to jogo: stand proud. you’re strong.
and besides that you have proof, time and time again, that working with others to cover your own weaknesses works. and it’s something gojo hasn’t realized! he lost, more than once, to teamwork and planning! toji had a network of bounty hunters wear down at him before confronting him. hanami distracted him for long enough to rescue jogo and get away. getwo and the disaster curses worked together, even recruiting others to aid in their goal, to deal several blows against the strongest sorcerer — to steal the fingers that jujutsu tech had, and to eventually defeat and seal him in shibuya. his singular strength was his downfall because he limited how he saw it — gojo doesn’t think he has any weaknesses, so why would he need to work with others? they’d just get in the way.
meanwhile, sukuna freely admits when he needs help. although he’s unconscious, he tells fushiguro, “don’t die. there’s something i need you to do.” besides that, he’s shown as willing to help, to an extent, as long as he isn’t ordered around — he was willing to hear nanako and mimiko out, the issue was when they tried to pressure sukuna into doing as they said by withholding a finger location. and he was willing to help jogo out, as long as he offered him an entertaining fight — and landed a hit on him — in return. he’s actually respectful to his subordinates, like uraume, and speaks to them as equals. (meanwhile, gojo takes advantage of his subordinates whenever he can. think of how he treats ijichi, for example.)
anyway those are my thoughts. i think that if both of them had time to prepare before a fight, sukuna would win. not necessarily though brute strength, but through cunning and teamwork. unless gojo learns that he needs to stop working alone all the time, or at least allow other people to cover his tracks, he’s never going to be able to beat sukuna, or honestly any antagonist with like a week of planning time and 20 bucks.
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