what are your thoughts on gojo? most of the fanfics on tumblr mischaracterise him, i.e. atp he's become a caricature
how do you see him?
would someone like him thrive in a romantic relationship, or feel suffocated by it? I feel he'd need someone on/close to his level when it comes to strength
also, i have a feeling he can be creepy, or unsettling at times, like coraline's other mum. that feeling when you enter a supposedly haunted house, and you suspect you're being watched? that's HIM
this is SUCH a dangerous question because i could genuinely sit here and write an essay about satoru gojo and i did, i have to be honest. i had to cut this down a lot because i realised i was typing a psychological thesis and not an answer 😭 i might do that one day but, for now, the short answer is that i think fandom often makes the mistake of treating "satoru" and "the strongest" as separate people.
i don't. i think he is the strongest because he is satoru gojo.
his power doesn't create his compassion, arrogance, cruelty, humour or capacity to love. it magnifies the man who already existed. the tragedy of him is that everyone else encounters the power first and spends the rest of his life trying to locate the person somewhere underneath it.
i also don't think that suguru ever understood him as completely as fandom likes to imagine. he came closer than anyone, but their eventual fracture is built on the fact that they stop understanding one another precisely when they need it most.
your coraline comparison genuinely fascinated me because i think you've identified something people rarely talk about. satoru has an uncanny quality that doesn't come from malice but from perception. he's always noticing things more than anyone else, he occupies space strangely, he jokes while remaining fundamentally untouchable. there's definitely something almost haunted-house-like about him. i don't think he's secretly monstrous exactly in the other mother's way, but i think being perceived by someone who experiences the world as he does, with his eyes, is inherently a little unsettling.
as for romance, i disagree. i don't think he needs someone on his level of power. i actually think that's the wrong question to ask.
he needs someone psychologically resilient enough that they won't be absorbed by his strength. someone who sees satoru without pretending the strongest doesn't exist; someone who can admire him without worshipping him, accept his protection without surrendering their own autonomy, and tell the most powerful sorcerer alive that he's being an avoidant idiot when necessary 💀
i also don't write dangerous men as though love magically domesticates them because i think that does a huge disservice to their characters. love doesn't erase who they are. satoru wouldn't stop being overprotective, arrogant or convinced he can shoulder impossible burdens alone simply because he fell in love. if anything, those instincts would become more personal, which is exactly why his partner would need to be capable of standing up to him when his protection starts to become control.
satoru doesn't need someone powerful enough to rival him, that's an impossible ask. no one else exists on his level unless you're considering sukuna. he needs someone who can survive the gravitational pull of being loved by the strongest and still remain entirely themselves.
so i don't think satoru's tragedy is that he's incapable of love. i just think he's spent SO much of his life believing that love looks like carrying everything alone that he'd have to learn someone choosing to stand beside him isn't the same thing as asking him to carry them too.
as for whether he'd thrive or suffocate in a romantic relationship... to be honest, i think both outcomes are possible depending entirely on the relationship itself.
i think satoru would absolutely thrive with someone who allows him to be loved without turning him into either a god or a project to be fixed. he needs someone who can stand next to him rather than beneath him, doesn't expect him to carry every burden alone and doesn't mistake self-sacrifice for romance.
i think he'd suffocate in a relationship where he was expected to be everything. the strongest, the protector, the emotional anchor, the person making every impossible decision. he's already spent his entire life being treated like infrastructure, he doesn't need to come home and become somebody else's.
