Jujutsu Kaisen spoilers ahead...if you've managed to find yourself to this extremely. long. blarf.
You know what kills me most about Gojou-Getou?
First, a tangent hahaha what is good writing structure:
Gojou isn't stupid. He knows what he "lacks" in comparison to the average pleb human, on the emotional front, especially. He knows he’s an amoral asshole whose attachments run shallower than the average person. This is actually a blessing in disguise for the indomitable machine that the jujutsushi world calls “the strongest.”
Another person in Gojou’s position who feels as one normally would along the emotional spectrum would be crushed by the pressure that comes with being the strongest. The sheer guilt that would hit you from the gross amounts of people who die because of the simple fact that you exist would be too much for the average populace.
Because where does the fault stop being his and just start to be simply a neutral fact of life? How far do we go? Are all the people who died simply because Gojou was born strong, thus unbalancing the world’s curse power, his fault as well? How about all the people who died because he can’t be everywhere, everywhen, all the time? At some point, all the people who died because he happened to take a nap must certainly also be his fault. It never ends.
Hence why I think it’s such a nuanced understanding of human nature for Akutami to write Gojou in this particular way. Gojou isn’t evil. He just can’t afford to care more. Gojou’s heart is small. He cares for very few. It only makes too much sense that someone that strong would begin to loathe the weak humans around him. He’s only trying to live his life like “all of you.” Why must you all be so weak as to die so easily? Why must you all abandon him? 淡い夢 喪失の地平 --- 広い世界 --- 置いてきぼりさ いつでも
You don’t want someone with Gojou Satoru’s power and sheer strength to be unbalanced by emotionality. We had that scenario played out in Getou. Understandably and tragically, he went insane from the pressure and guilt of watching all his friends die for undeserving, oblivious trash humans. Why? ‘Cuz Getou cares like a normal human. The other option is nervous breakdown -- also not optimal, seeing as Gojou is the nuclear deterrence against curses.
And here’s where it begins to wreck me:
And so Gojou’s moral code isn’t particularly strong. He doesn’t care too much about the rightness and wrongness of situations and, generally, is unbothered by any chivalrous responsibilities the strong would hold in relation to the weak. Because why should it be his increased responsibility to expend that much effort for others for something out of his control? It’s not like he asked to be this strong.
Gojou was never one for sticking to a strong moral code, but he cared immensely and, dare I say, admired that Getou stuck to Getou's own moral standards unfalteringly. His own moral compass was faulty, but there had to be something blindingly admirable that someone similar to him in strength and ability took on what Gojou never had the desire or courage to. Despite always being in verbal and ideological conflict with Getou all through their relationship, Gojou seemed to defer to Getou in final matters of moral decision-making.
In one of the arguably most chilling scenes with Gojou, he calmly and softly asks Getou whether they should slaughter the room of brainwashed cult members after their failed mission, while “reassuring” Getou he probably wouldn’t feel a thing over it. He doesn’t just choose to do it. He asks Getou whether they should. Gojou recognizes his moral compass is off and so checks with Getou’s unwaveringly strong one. And sure enough, Getou affirms Gojou’s tired “does it really need a reason” with a strong “yes.”
And that's what Gojou couldn't accept on hearing Getou went rogue. Because if even Getou’s moral compass could fail, then what hope would he have? He couldn't do this alone. He didn't want to do it alone. Who would keep him in line and watch his back for him? The writing for JJK is just..so subtle. Gojou wasn't upset all those people had died; he was upset that Getou, of all people, was the one to slaughter them all for seemingly no reason. Getou! Of all people! Killing someone with no reason! Getou, who insisted all throughout their relationship that it was imperative that they and especially they, as the strongest of the jujutsushi world, should take on the added burden of protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves and should stick to ironclad strong moral codes, regardless of the unequal sacrifice involved. That Getou Suguru had just slaughtered a village full of people and his own parents seemingly without so much as a second thought, an action that you’d attribute more likely to be committed by Gojou, if anything.
As mentioned above, Gojou’s heart is incredibly small. There’s only space in it for one, and the one he let in was Getou. Getou’s his lifetime ride or die; his one and only one. Gojou took Getou’s “betrayal” especially hard because he had been the one person Gojou had let in, the one person he could count on to have his back, and as usual, Gojou was left behind.
It's not so much a physical dependence. In all the ways Gojou lacked emotionally, he could always count on Getou to rein him in and keep him grounded. He wanted someone to have his back, someone to see him as just an overly powerful human and not the monolith machine that is "the strongest". He needed someone to ask if he was okay from time to time. I think this is the bit of their parting that gets me the worst, that ever since Getou, Gojou has never found another person he could say this to: “Besides, I’ve got you, right?”
Are you Gojou Satoru because you're the strongest or are you the strongest because you're Gojou Satoru? That's what you asked, Getou, but you forgot the third option: He's Gojou Satoru, the strongest, because he has Getou Suguru.
The Gojou of today wouldn't exist without Getou. Gojou's amoral nature is so plainly obvious to everyone that quite a few of the other jujutsushi consider Gojou going rogue and mass murdering people not to be an overly surprising option for Gojou if he so chose to. Mei Mei points this out; Ijichi isn’t particularly surprised or shocked when Gojou offhandedly states it out loud. He’s just nervous.
The Gojou we see today is not his first instinct. You want to see unbridled, pure Gojou? Toji vs. Gojou. That's Gojou in his element. That's Gojou free of everything, just flexing his power in psychotic, giddy glee.
Ten years later, the Gojou today is a meticulous and deliberate choice. He stuck to the Gojou that he was when Getou was around. He kept to all the restrictions and codes Getou placed on him and did so to machine-like perfection. He works himself to exhaustion, trying to keep a curse tsunami from flooding in. He chooses the soft, patient route of nurturing the next generation into healthier and more progressive mindsets. And he did so all on his own.
And it all coalesces to that moment Getou appears before Gojou in Shibuya, and Gojou chokes and freezes.
Ten long, long years later, and Getou checkmates the all powerful Gojou Satoru because Gojou remained purely and unfalteringly the same Gojou that Getou had left behind all those years ago.
Ah, this kind of writing, Gege... the strongest's weakness was simply that he was too human. I hurt.
That's what kills me. This amoral asshole took everything you gave him, held fast and true to it and soared, not because he had changed, but because you had simply meant that much to him.
Gojou chose to honour the short, short time he had spent with Getou by dedicating the rest of his life to dismantling the system that failed Getou and rebuilding it so it'd never fail someone else, all the while carrying the burden of being the strongest.
Please tell me you're a little proud of him, Getou.
