Ranting about jjk fandom stuff again
I don’t really understand the insistence I’ve seen around that Geto’s kindness was always kind of fake/performative and Gojo displayed true kindness/care to people despite how he acted as a kid and that’s why they went down the paths they did. First of all, it doesn’t feel backed up by the text other than a surface level look of “well, Geto becomes a villain and Gojo becomes a teacher”. But like idk, isn’t that such a boring way to look at things? “Oh, this character was actually just kind of naturally inclined towards evil and this character was just kind of naturally inclined towards good”.
I guess it’s true in some stories where one person chooses a “good” path and one chooses a “bad” one but JJK is a story of very gray morality, which Gege said he wanted to achieve. Like I’m pretty sure the only 100% evil character is Mahito and even that’s literally just bc he’s a creature made of the worst of humanity so even then, his evil is meant to reflect what humanity itself is capable of.
Like, I don’t think Gojo being generally more inclined to selfishness and Geto being generally more inclined to selflessness is just bc “they were born like that it” either, but makes sense when you look at the implications of how they were raised. I know JJK itself is a bit of a “show don’t tell” and “put the bare minimum details necessary to make things make sense” kind of story but with that and Word of God, I think you can get a pretty good understanding of the intentions behind the characters.
Gojo, for instance, grew up spoiled and revered as the strongest for his abilities. But he didn’t have any friends or people who really understood him, so he was lonely. So all he had was his strength and abilities, which is why he loves jujutsu so much. So it makes sense he wouldn’t have as much knowledge or understanding of others and maybe not be as naturally empathetic. And tbh, the clans kind of suck and Gojo was raised as someone at the top of the totem pole. I think it makes sense he may be more naturally inclined to care about his own feelings first based on those experiences.
We have less details on Geto and I think some people assume his childhood must’ve been great in comparison to Gojo bc he was raised outside of the jujutsu society. But I think it’s pretty clear that there’s drawbacks to living outside of jujutsu society with the powers he had. His powers would’ve been more of a curse to him rather than a gift the way Gojo’s was viewed because he didn’t grow up around people who could see curses, so I imagine he felt very isolated from others. Even if he had parents that actually tried to support him unlike Gojo’s, they would simply never be able to understand him and I imagine that’s why he seemed to become the kind of person who always tried to put on a smile regardless of how he actually felt. He had to get used to pretending things were fine so his parents wouldn’t worry and others wouldn’t think he was insane when he saw curses throughout his life.
And not only that, but his power was the kind of thing that made him inherently feel like shit, which would be even more of a struggle without understanding why he had it. It’s likely why he was so obsessed with “meaning” and using his powers for the sake of helping others: he felt like he had to justify why he had something that made him miserable. If the reason he has these powers is to help others, then there’s a reason for him to exist as he is and a reason for him to continue living even if he can’t find a reason to be happy.
I suppose you could argue there’s a selfishness on that as well, but I think it’s a pretty human selfishness. And I don’t think that necessarily contradicts the fact that he cares about others as well. He wouldn’t be so affected by watching other’s suffer if that was the case. I think he learned to accept his own suffering as long as others could benefit from it.
I think they both bonded over their shared loneliness that developed over living with being “strong” but it still affected them both in different ways. I think that’s why Geto’s defection and the differences between them aren’t really a clash of morals, but a lack of understanding based on the parts where they differ. The biggest difference between them, shown right from the beginning of the arc, is the contrast between how Gojo doesn’t care about meaning or purpose and just does what he wants while Geto is obsessed with it to the point it drives him insane. Their mindsets are both flawed in their own ways.
And overall just from their behaviour, I wouldn’t say it comes off like Gojo is “naturally kind” or w/e and Geto isn’t. Gojo does try to help give Riko more time before the merger, but even then, he only seems to start noticing when Geto points it out when they’re at her school. Gojo originally just said they should take her straight there. He did seem to at least recognize that she shouldn’t be forced into it if she didn’t want to, but it’s kind of difficult to tell who even brought the subject up first and he still seemed to accept she was fine with going through with it at the end. I don’t think he doesn’t care abt her or anything, but I don’t know if he would’ve asked again to make sure she wanted to do it the way Geto did if he had been the one to take her.
Meanwhile, Geto is shown noticing things about others a lot just from observing them. He asks again to make sure Riko really wants to go through with the ritual, as I said, but he’s also shown noticing Gojo hasn’t dropped his technique the whole time and is tired, and picks up on that Kuroi is Riko’s only family.
I think this is meant to show that Geto is generally more empathetic than Gojo. Which isn’t a bad thing! It just shows they have different strengths and weaknesses. Like when Geto gets in his own head when he messes up and Gojo is the one who’s able to stop and think logically and make a new plan on the fly. And even then, Geto’s strengths also kind of end up being his downfall when he can’t handle watching his comrades suffer and feels he has to do something about it, even if his solution isn’t great. Even his hate for non-sorcerers is specifically tied to their treatment of and how they affect sorcerers.
Idk, I could go on, especially about how these traits manifest when they’re adults, the ways they change and the ways they don’t. But I think Gojo and Geto are kind of supposed to have some traits that go against what you’d expect from a “hero” and a “villain”. Obviously Gojo still does more good things at the end of the day and Geto still does more bad. But it helps to add depth to their characters and is what I really like about them.
