Little-chaos-arts - Clubs Are Rough

3b. Gege and Gojo's Answer to Conservatism: 'Changing the System from the Inside' Doesn't Work

Overall thesis for this project: Godzilla and Mothra create the cultural context of creatives using powerful monsters (or kaiju) to disrupt Japanese bureaucracy and society, usually to make some larger criticism.

Manga spoilers below!

More than anything, Gojo hates a conservative government. Gege argues that only a monster can destroy the (conservative) bureaucratic system; that destruction takes both immense power, and the resolve to wield it. Maki, Gojo, and Sukuna perform massacres against the system after having to overcome systemic hurdles before they achieve their goal. Maki was first killed by the patriarchal powers of the system. Sukuna's power was suppressed by the sloppy, but effective tactics of the Higher-Ups to keep his fingers separate. Gojo played by the system's rules and became a teacher, but was ultimately betrayed by the Higher-Ups after being sealed; they branded him as a traitor and tried to turn his students against him. Gojo fought for years as a teacher to change the system from the inside. He held onto the belief that he would be enough to change the system that hurt his friends in the past, but not even his power could effectively defeat the conservative powers without getting his hands dirty. With all his strength, Gojo was forced to make the hard decision to destroy the system, much like Maki. For Gege, a monster, or kaiju, uses their immense power to disrupt the rigid systems set by the conservative bureaucrats afraid of change.

When I think of Gojo, I think of the students he fought to protect and nurture. Yuta was a cursed child who the Higher-Ups and Geto wanted to kill. Hakari was an outcast unable to use normal cursed techniques like anyone else. Maki was an estranged Zenin without cursed energy or a technique. Megumi was an abandoned child with no one but the Zenin to go to. Yuji was another kid with nowhere to go, and was constantly targeted by the Higher-Ups.

Gojo protected all of the previously mentioned students while teaching them to defend themselves. He taught as a teacher with the sole purpose of his students some day surpassing him and changing the system. His hope for his students to surpass him could beread as an indication of Gojo seeing his own shortcomings as an effective apparatus for change from within the system. Here, "the system" means jujutsu society, and Japan at large.

Gojo tries and fails to change the system from the inside. He plays by the system's rules and hopes that with all his power, he can protect his students, but the Higher-Ups prove him wrong. Despite all the power he wields, he can't protect Yuji from the powers-that-be. Both Sukuna and the Higher-Ups manage to kill Yuji at least once.

Gojo stretches himself thin trying to fill in all the gaps that the Higher-Ups create, save as many lives as possible, while also swearing to change the system from the inside out. Maybe by raising a new generation that goes beyond the boundaries set by the Higher-Ups, Gojo thought he would finally change the world.

For the teacher that relies on his students to be the means in which they make a difference (be it to the system, or the world), the students become their greatest weakness. The Higher-Ups use the system to weaken his students, and ultimately Gojo as well. Imagine the difference someone like Hakari might have made in Shibuya if he hadn’t been discouraged from seeking an education? Gojo sending Yuta away could be read as his attempt to save his student from the bureaucrats’ meddling. Comparatively, Gojo hid that Yuji was alive from everyone to train him in secret, away from the eyes of the Higher-Ups; when Yuji did return, the Higher-Ups proved Gojo right by immediately trying to have Gakuganji’s students kill him again.

Gojo's fight was less about the force of his strength, but more so his ability to protect his students from the systems of power threatening their lives. That's the thing about Infinity: Gojo might be untouchable, but his students don't have that luxury. Even worse, what happens when the infallible teacher makes a mistake? The students have to step up and finally fly on their own. Yuta, Maki, Hakari, and Yuji's trusted with carrying on Gojo's fight, but only after he finally makes the tough decision to get rid of the Higher-Ups. For Gojo, killing the Higher-Ups, dismantling that conservative system, was a necessary step for his students to have their freedom.

Notes:

Did not know this would be split into two(?) parts but okay lol. I needed to set some groundwork for my personal reading of Gojo because I don't see anyone talking about Gojo like I have in this post. No one ever focuses on his role as a teacher being the most important aspect of his character, so I felt that really needed it's own space first and foremost. Next part will be more about the kaiju reading and Gojo's anti-bureaucracy. I'm really interested in looking into Japan's teachers' education movements against the ministry of education. I feel like Gojo would be a valuable comparison at the very least.

Hope you guys enjoy this one

I have such a niche idea for an AU but I still struggle so much drawing the main trio that I went back to screen redraw sketches to get more comfortable with their features.... only got one sketch of Yuji far because I'm on a triptan and incredibly tired....

i wonder what it's like to be emotionally stable. anyways [thinks about fictional characters to survive] i am fine

I love the message this chapter was sending.

It's so cathartic to see Yuuji, a character who had embraced the worst parts of the cog mentality, realize that there is more to life than what he could do for the machine that is life and a society like ours.

It's also such a great message; to enjoy the mundane in life, to live in the details and the memories you had. It might not amount to anything at the end of the day. Hell, it might not even amount to anything at the end of your life, but at least you can say that you lived, not as a cog in the machine, only designed to fulfill your role in society, but made to fill your existence with the experiences and people around you.

That's why his grandfather told him to die surrounded by loved ones.

oh, its nothing, just thinking about itafushi trying to hold back tears during what they think is their last chance to talk to each other..........just thinking about itafushi telling each other the thing they needed to hear most, which also happens to be thing they needed to say most, in what might be their last moments together................just thinking about megumi telling yuuji he was worth saving, and yuuji telling megumi he still matters to someone.....im fine (im sick)........

i will... draw for fun... the things that..... bring me joy ...

Or when there's only a dark chocolate cookie or a cranberry one left WHICH ONE DO YOU MEAN WHITH 'THE NORMAL ONE '?!

My Tav in Act 2!

I really liked the part in the shadow cursed lands and that is also where I got to know her character better.

Moonbeam and my new fancy staff saved my life (along with Shadowhearts spirit guardians)

Also it settled the green/turquoise colors for her....

My laptop just died midway into a really nice sketch 😭