Anonofthemys - The Collective Unconscious - Tumblr Blog
FORTE! FORTE! FORTE! BASS!
FORTE.EXE
MM X~Z
the people yearn for turn of the century sonic gijinkas
here are my many inspirations
The way hazbin hotel fumbles it's premise is so weird to me. Like, a show about a hotel and recruiting new residents is the PERFECT OC showcase show. Bring in a new sinner every episode and start redeeming them. Have the B plots be about the main characters, have the A plots with new sinner residents either mirror or contrast the main cast. This premise is so much fun, it is baffling that it got abandoned so flippantly.
Another project for my class
Day 257 | id in alt
O'Beast of singing iron,
It begged for my throat,
so I asked for it's claws.
Sukuna: Hedonism and Short-Lived Pleasure
I’m going to start this off by saying Sukuna, at least from what I’ve seen, is possibly one of the most misunderstood JJK characters, alongside Yuji. Because of how he’s treated narratively, and the position he holds within the story, it’s very easy to take everything he says as the truth and nothing more, even moreso when he’s commonly rewarded for his mindset, it being praised as the correct one to have.
He is the pinnacle of Jujutsu society in both body and in mind. At least, that’s what we’re made to think, up until 248 that is, where the cracks in his mind become apparent.
These cracks didn’t come out of nowhere either. Once you examine both his words and actions closely, especially in recent chapters, the weak points in Sukuna’s mentality are almost always on display. These weak points are most obvious within Sukuna’s fundamental ideology: Hedonism.
To give a brief summary, hedonism is a philosophical theory about human behaviour and our motivations, regarding the avoidance of pain and longing for pleasure as the most important factors in the decisions we make and how we choose to behave. Pleasure, in the concept of hedonism, is typically a broad term that encompasses any good experience that gives a person a sense of happiness or fulfilment - the opposite of pain.
There are a lot of different branches of the hedonistic theory, all with their own interpretations, but this is about the gist of it. Hedonism is a philosophy in which we live life based on the search for pleasure, whatever that means to each individual. Pleasure is a priority, and pain and displeasure is something to be avoided at all costs.
In Sukuna’s case, his hedonistic mentality is a highly self destructive one, baring similarities to the concept of folk hedonism - stereotypical hedonism - wherein the individual will seek pleasure at any cost, without regard for others. So long as pleasure is achieved, the means towards it don’t matter, and in such an extreme case like Sukuna, this has major flaws. Sukuna seems to always be chasing after a new high, a fact that becomes evident after the death of Gojo, as he tries to find someone, anyone, who can rival Gojo, and thus satisfy his need for pleasure. This falls into the Paradox of Hedonism, a counter-theory where the search for pleasure and defining happiness and pleasure as the same thing actually interferes with one’s pursuit of it, leading to dissatisfaction, and, in turn, pain.
Sukuna actively trying to derive some feeling from his battle with Higuruma, pressuring Higuruma to evolve in that moment, displays this flaw perfectly.
And then there’s this:
The way he talks about other people really places emphasis on the fact he relies on them for his source of satisfaction in life. If it entertains me, I’ll throw it a bone.’ ‘The perfect thing to slurp up to pass time until I die’. It’s interesting that he speaks of his main source of pleasure in this way, like they are dogs, or food, something lesser than him or something that won’t last as long as him, an acknowledgment of their fleeting nature, which he also directly acknowledges. In that sense, Sukuna is very self aware - to an extent. He’s a poet, a philosopher, an artist in every sense of the world. In 248, we see he’s capable of deconstructing his own behaviours and understanding them deeply, but he will always come to a biased conclusion due to his refusal to change.
If Sukuna is a seeker of pleasure, then Yuji is a seeker of pain, and if Sukuna is refusal to change, then Yuji is change.
Sukuna’s hedonistic mentality cannot survive because it relies upon remaining unchanged, and thus repeating the same journey to pleasure over and over, whether as Yuji, someone who often seeks pain - the opposite of hedonism - is able to get back up again and again, because he accepts change, accepts pain as a part of life, and grows from it, becoming unbreakable.
Sukuna’s pleasure is also not a long-lasting kind, which again links with the Paradox of Hedonism. You cannot equate a happy life with a pleasurable one. Sukuna will simply never be content with the life he has, always searching for something better than the last, something that will satiate him longer, and that is another reason as to why he will lose to Yuji, who once lived by similar principles, and tried to avoid pain, but was punished for it. If Yuji paralleling Sukuna in that way doesn’t say anything about Sukuna’s inevitable downfall, I don’t know what does.
That’s about all I have to say for now, but if you find this interesting, I’d recommend looking into the different theories of hedonism and the counterpoints to it. I have my own personal beliefs on it, but it’s always interesting to see other takes on philosophical theories!
BLEACH x JJK: espada sashisu + kenjaku as aizen. these were my extended pieces for @getoseasons! shop is still open!
drew some fanart of kenny from @wellthengetouttathesoupaisle‘s jjk/bleach AU!!
this was included in clownery PDF for @getoseasons
JJK 231 Leak Discussion
Okay so these leaks, whew boy these leaks. Imma be real I don’t know how to feel about them. Theres some things I really like and some things that make me really disgruntled.
First let me state this. I’m not mad about Yuta using Gojo’s body like this. Gojo has already stated that he doesn’t really care too much what happens to his body, and I think it fits well into this tragedy of Gojo still being used as a weapon even in death (like he’s literally being piloted as a flesh mecha). The disgust that it has caused is very intentional, because it is indeed revolting and as Yuta has accepted, an inhumane thing to do. But Hakari and Maki said that in a fight against Sukuna, a concern over what’s moral should be on the back burner.
Although he said this to Yuuji, Sukuna has already said that he will break down someone’s morals and worldview- and he is doing that. His sheer presence his pushing people to become “monsters” in hopes of beating him down. They have hope in Gojo being the “strongest” and have hope that even in death Gojo will somehow save him.
Now onto what I’m critical of. Even though Yuta and everyone else has faith, this is a “if all else fails” method, I truly think that Yuta will still fail and as a consequence he will die. While this isn’t a “power of friendship” story, it’s a story where brutal decisions do sometimes have to be made, it is as much a battle of philosophy as it is a battle of strengths.
Gojo, Kashimo, Yorozu, and Higuruma’s deaths are not just them losing battles of the strongest. It is them losing and failing to answer the philosophical question that has been looming since the culling games. What is love? What can you teach me (Sukuna) about it? What is the worth of love? Why keep going in the face of such adversity? Yuuta originally got his shit rocked for the exact same reason, while yes love is a theme of his character, philosophically he is not challenging Sukuna on anything.
Jujutsu Society and thus this new generation are still pivoted in this view of there being a “strongest”, in the need for there being a “monster of society”. But by losing their morals, by continuing to feed into Sukuna’s own philosophical views (he has a very “the strongest” view as well) the cycle just keeps continuing. Sorcerers still die, at a fundamental level society does not change. A society cannot function properly if it is constantly leaning on a pillar that will topple and crumble everything if it dies, this is as much a story about the need for community and love as it is about making tough decisions and sacrifices for future generations.
Yuuji is the only one who is challenging Sukuna on a philosophical level (even though he is not doing son intentionally). He irritates Sukuna so fucking much, because he is an exact narrative foil to Sukuna. Yuuji is someone who does not give up, he is someone motivated by love, by community, he is someone who is naive in ways that Sukuna absolutely hates. Some of the only times where Sukuna has actually been stunted or truly angered is by Yuuji and his philosophy, his absolute refusal to not stop loving and to keep reaching for Megumi.
The Mahito fight is a good example of the importance of philosophical battles and the power that a philosophical shake up has, and why it is necessary. Mahito didn’t start running in fear and crying just because Yuuji had physically beaten him down. The true fear showed when he became vulnerable mentally, when his world view was shaken. That is when Mahito finally started to run.
This is why I am very annoyed with Yuuji being constantly sidelined. And this narrative that Yuta is the “true MC” (I do not hate Yuta, I think that needs to be clarified).
“But Faust, Yuuji also has become jaded and now sees himself as a cog in a machine. He has literally changed his body to gain power-“ mhm! And that is presented as a negative thing. Yuuji losing his spark, become consumed by this mentality that it’s okay to die and be disposable (like the higher ups see sorcerers in general) is seen as a BAD thing. Jujutsu society IS unfair, it IS cruel, it is something that Yuuji needed to learn…but does it have to be this way? Yuuji’s character very much reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
This should not be a world where jujutsu sorcerers are seen as disposable. Where tough decisions must be made, where literal high school students have to be sacrificing their minds and bodies for others. In order for Sukuna to go down, for Gojo to see the world that he hoped would prosper from his students, for the youth to take control of themselves so they can be selfish (which is also a theme), this world must be philosophically shaken. The notion of a “strongest” must be challenged, if not abolished, and there must be room for community, love, and naivety.
Thank you for reading my rant lol.
i now step back upon my “taokaka should have been the main character of blazblue” soapbox (though truthfully i never leave it housing prices are surprisingly reasonable on hills you choose to die on) to give another reason as to why her being the MC would have been really fun.
Specifically, she would have been the fighting game equivalent of Kirby. Allow me to explain.
Alright, so the biggest thing about Kirby games is that the lore is surprisingly deep and dark and full of ancient evils and long dead heroes and wish granting living stars and all that junk, while Kirby himself remains blissfully oblivious to all of it.
The reason being that he’s a basically good hearted kid with a relatively simple view of the world who is, coincidentally, the latest, and possibly last, in a long long line of super powerful warriors. So he just sees a bunch of jerks who steal his cake or wreck his house or make his friends sad so he just saddles up to make ‘em quit it. And he does make ‘em quit it. Every single time.
And because he always makes ‘em quit it he continues to be his happy jolly oblivious self, while he makes the lives of the people around him better just by being positive and friendly. He’s surrounded by people more serious or selfish than him, but they all defer to and trust in him because he’s proven himself, over and over, as a good and capable person. He’s their friend, Kirby, he’ll find a way to sort this all out just fine.
There’s a bunch of similarities between Tao and Kirby; they’re both big eaters, neither of them have any clue about the wider lore of their setting (Kirby because he’s a naïve kid and Tao because she’s naïve but also…kinda dumb), both of them are a part of a lineage of great warriors (Kirby is a Star Warrior while Tao is the clone of Jubei, one of the Six Heroes who fought the Black Beast), and both of them take a relaxed view on life.
If Tao had been the main character of Blazblue; the story would have shaken out something like so: Taokaka goes out from her village to find a way to get money to buy food. She meets Ragna, who she remembers from a wanted poster, and goes to fight him for that money. Problem; she’s hungry, so she forgets that first thing and says that if she beats him he has to buy her food.
Ragna is like, “alright fine whatever, weird cat…”, because this is just this random weird cat girl he can beat her just fine. And than she beats him. Trounces him, really, and he can only lay on his back in disbelief. While the cat girl cheers about her victory and impending meal, Ragna can only think that that beating was…oddly familiar.
He buys her food, cause he promised and he doesn’t want to get beat up by the cat girl again, and she’s really happy about it. Really happy. Oddly happy, They finish and he leaves…and the cat follows him.
“…you got your food, what else do you want?”
“Huh? Waddya mean Good Guy? Tao wants to hang out with Tao’s friend!”
And so Taokaka hangs out with her friend. And suddenly she has to deal with a bunch of weirdos trying to fight her friend, so she steps in every time and gets them to quit it. NOL officers, Noel, Jin, all the way to Nu. She just beats them all up because they keep trying to hurt her friend and nobody hurts Taokaka’s friends.
Just, imagine she gets to Hazama/Terumi, and he takes off his hat and does his laugh and he goes on this big speech about his plan and AMATERASU and all that anime villain shit…and Taokaka just scratches the top of her head befuddled and asks “…sooo, Tao didn’t get most of that, but are you saying you’re the reason Good Guy is grumpy and sad all the time?”
And Terumi can only really blink at her slowly and go, “heh, you know what? Yeah, that’s basically the gist of it.”
And Taokaka nods cheerfully, “Okay! Tao gets it!”
And than she beats him up. Beats the absolute shit out of him. And Terumi is a mix of rage, panic, and terror. Because this is like fighting Jubei. No, this is like fighting Jubei if he had no regard for his own physical well being or for the integrity of his environment and was somehow both utterly stupid and completely mental.
And this repeats for every major villain in Blazblue. All the other Arcade Modes have each character struggle against their inner demons and these cruel villains, while the Canon Story is Tao’s Eventful Afternoon where she meets a bunch of weird guys, befriends them, and then meets a big scary nightmarish villain who she beats up with her big puffy sleeves (full of knives) until they quit trying to hurt her friends.
It would have been rad, is all I’m saying.
Sukuna has nothing and IS nothing. That's what a lot of people don't get. Everything he is results from his power and people's worship of said power. Hell even Uraume might only be sticking around because Sukuna is the strongest. We often say that Uraume is the only person Sukuna has on his side but is that even true? Would Uraume be there if Sukuna wasn't the most powerful sorcerer? I want to see Sukuna's reaction if Uraume dies....or maybe Uraume's reaction to Sukuna losing. I'm so curious about their relationship and what'll happen when the chips fall down.
Are you the strongest because you're Sukuna? Or are you Sukuna because you're the strongest?
I did wonder how sukuna would react to uraume's death but Ive never entertained the idea of what would be uraume's reaction to sukuna not even dying but just loosing... it's honestly hard to tell. their relationship is quite an unusual one for an evil "god-like" master and his loyal servant. sukuna defiantly has a soft spot for uraume and the same thing could be said about uraume but then... we don't know for sure. there is a possibility that uraume's affection and devotion towards sukuna are only or mostly due to sukuna being the strongest, but just like sukuna, uraume might be fooling themselves thinking it's only because sukuna is a deity that they chose to follow... again we don’t know for sure, we can only assume for now (hopefully).
and I think sukuna already has an answer (or at least he thinks he has) to that oh-so-infamous question
he genuinely believes he’d be nothing without his strength, just a walking corpse and knowing sukuna he’s probably right but at the same time he’s one the least self aware characters in the story. I mean, let’s not forget that in the manga, it took him MONTHS to realise that he finds yuuji annoying so you know… when it comes to understanding his own feelings and himself in general he’s uhmmm.. not very good at it lol.
A really common take is that JJK is a story about the good guys never winning, about good people (or people trying to be good) failing no matter what— and Imma be real, I kinda disagree with this take!
Obviously you can interpret this story however you want and I see how people would come to that conclusion. But I don’t think Gege is passively nihilistic, or making a story like that. I think that Gege is just someone who is pretty critical of modern society and has just personified those critiques in the form of curses and a grimey setting.
Heavy stories or dark stories like JJK kinda fall prone to this “ah it’s just a nihilistic all hope is lost” story viewpoint, and while that can be true sometimes these stories usually are about holding onto hope, brutal but steady change, inner or societal reflection, fostering new generations, or persevering through it. Horrible things happen in these manga, at times it really does seem like a pointless endeavor— but there are always characters that move forward and hold onto hope. Always a flourishing forest after the large fire.
And I think JJK is definitely one of these stories, a story where after that storm there will be new life afterwards. Not everyone will be alive, but it will be bittersweet.
Gege is an author that has never really been afraid to critique Japanese society. Maki and Mai and the result of the Ze’nin are critiques of sexism and heavy traditionalism. Toji, Maki, and Mechmaru could definitely be seen as a critique on ableism and how disabled people are treated in society. Nanami is a critique on the brutal work system. Higuruma is a critique on the justice system in Japan. Hell, a lot of our main characters are the social outcasts of society (due to physical traits or just philosophical outlooks). And the recent critiques of racism, especially anti-blackness, in Japanese with society with the situation with Miguel.
The higher ups of the Jujutsu Society are definitely a way of dissecting the disconnect older politicians or generations often have with younger generations, passing laws that will not better future generations and being stuck in conservative ways (hell Gojo blatantly calls them idiot conservatives).
Suguru Geto is an example of how lost youth without any support systems can get lost in the cracks. He gets so consumed by his depression, the tragedy he witnessed around him, and his anger that no one is doing anything about the fact that youth are dying that he turns to cults and extremist ideology.
While these events seem fantastical due to the existence of curses and people causing city wide destruction via cool martial arts combat, these situations of societal collapse and failing do indeed happen, and are happening and becoming worse at an alarming rate.
Even the nature of curses themselves can be seen as a personification of the anxiety and fears literally consuming and killing humanity, most notably the younger generation. Snuffing out hopes, or any motivation that the world will become better. Curses are literal manifestations of people’s fears and negative emotions, whose strength depends on the amount of fear humanity has of the concept. This literal and emotional consumption of the youth is even seen in the entities from the Heian Era.
Tengen, Kenjaku, and Sukuna all continue to live depending on the body of someone else, erasing who this person was and would have been. Tengen needs plasma star vessels so she does not evolve beyond the form she has now, Kenjaku puts their brain in the body of another, Sukuna needs a vessel to consume his fingers and when they do he immediately subjugates their soul.
All of this to say, I don’t think that JJK is a story about good people failing. It’s about society failing good people, it’s about broken customs and rules sucking the youth out of younger generations, it’s about cycles that need to be broken that CAN be broken. It’s about society that continues to slap bandaids on a knife wound and doesn’t address the fact that it’s still slowly bleeding out—
Yuki was on the right track, finding a way to nip the problem at the root. But look at how she was treated by others, about the rumors that spread of her. She was seen as useless, a dead weight, chasing after naive endeavors. But why is it naive? Shouldn’t resources also be spent on finding a way to stop the problem at the root? Or is the power, the control, the prestige (in the eyes of the higher ups and big three clans) of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer too much to lose if they were able to find a way to stop curses at the root?
This is not a hopeless world. Gojo tried to not make it such a hopeless world, Nanami bet on the future and admitted that was odd for him, love still exists even if it can hurt. People are able to overcome their demons, Maki did, Takaba did. While Maki’s path wasn’t one without hardship, without loss, she quite literally struck down and stopped this toxic cycle in the Ze’nin clan basically for good. And when Naoya came back she struck him down once again, with some struggle, but she overcame a past demon with help from two random ass guys that just happened to be there and happened to be nice enough to want to help.
Gojo took the same action as Maki, brutally getting rid of the higher ups to ensure the chaos and pain that happened after Shibuya would hopefully not happen again. Tough and violent decisions must be made. Happiness must be fought for, a future is worth fighting for.
There is community in this world. There is benevolence. Theres still a chance and choice to hope and dream.
There’s a weird meta aspect to this, to the way readers have let the hopelessness convince them that there can be no happy ending. No one will come back to life, the ending will be bittersweet, there will be more death- but that does not mean it is the end. Maybe we, like Yuuji, have become jaded. Maybe we have also let this pain convince us that we are cogs in a machine. But if that was the case, even if Sukuna were to die, it would all be for naught. The cycle would still continue churning and churning. Have faith.
Systems can be changed, one just has to have the stubbornness to change it. Yuuji just has to realize that once again.
————
Articles to read down below about the issues I mentioned in my yapfest:
Youth Issues in Japan:
- https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article/120/827/240/118342/Japan-s-Younger-Generations-Look-for-a-New-Way-of
- https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00800/
- https://www.npr.org/2021/10/29/1050620562/low-turnout-among-young-voters-in-japan-may-mean-the-ruling-party-stays-in-power
Work Culture in Japan:
- https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/karoshi-deep-look-japans-unforgiving-working-culture
Radicalization into Extremist Ideals:
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sdr.1749#:~:text=The%20root%20of%20violent%20radicalization,72). (Root Causes of Radicalization: the Terror Contagion Hypothesis)
- https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/why-south-korea-s-young-men-are-turning-conservative.amp
- https://nuts2406.medium.com/why-we-should-worry-about-the-growing-radicalization-of-young-men-8cd6babb8bb8
Cults:
-https://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1905&context=honors_theses#:~:text=In%20contrast%2C%20cult%20leaders%20develop,disorder%20(Goldberg%2C%20n.d). (The Making of Cults: The Factors that Contribute to Membership and the Leaders’ Influence).
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8234595/#:~:text=These%20variables%20include%20(a)%20generalized,abuse%20or%20neglect%2C%20(f)
Japanese Court System:
- https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/05/25/japans-hostage-justice-system/denial-bail-coerced-confessions-and-lack-access
- Difficult choice…
read @borrelia's transfem metal sonic fic and thought it'd pair greatly with another transfem legend
(misc doodles under the cut)
footage captured by an unlucky bystander of the angel from another world, before it was captured and contained within Lab Discovera
more stuff i'm discovering i never posted here that i think deserves some spotlight... i used to be obsessed with elfilis like a year ago or so after forgotten land came out and at some point for whateve reason i was suddenly inspired to make a design fusion between it and ruiner nergigante and these were the result
ruiner elfilis posting 2024 bitch!!!
Another project for my class
Curse Nobara
mein mutter der mich schlacht’ mein vater der mich aß
art dump !!!! (frieza and goku designs by @sporrkks (hiii againnnn sporkssssss))