Culling Games - Tumblr Posts

More thoughts about Kenjaku (less disturbing this time)

Anime-only friendly post [mild potential spoilers in brackets, I guess.]

-Kenjaku had to craft a cage (Yuuji) that would eat Sukuna's fingies willingly. If he'd force them, like with the Death Paintings, then Sukuna might have empathized with the host.

So Yuuji had to have the ability and the desire to suppress Sukuna. His life could not be relatable to Sukuna's. [THAT explains why he thanked Yuuji's friend from the occult club for being good to his son. Kenjaku needed Yuuji to grow up with a carefree life.]

-he could be thousands of years old. 1,000 years ago he was planning for the future - you know how as a kid, one hour feels like a lifetime? And as an adult, 10 years ago feels like last week? He already seemed old in the manga flashbacks.

-at the end of the Shibuya incident, Kenjaku said that the pacts he made with sorcerers have been nullified since he changed bodies.

[In the culling games, it seems like these sorcerers are in an uncomfortable, even coerced position. Like they had regrets, an unfulfilled life, and are taking their second chance - but they seem to fear or resent him. (tbh I need to reread this part of the manga more seriously). It's like no one knows these pacts have been nullified, except for Kenjaku himself.]

It makes me wonder if Kenjaku's karma is also reset when he gets a new body. If he was careful not to directly involve himself, until it was time to use the prison realm, because of a pact or karma-conscious approach.

My other thought on this is that Kenjaku didn't involve himself bc it was more fun to manipulate other people and curses. It was less predictable that way, more interesting, and everything is a game to him.

I wonder if Kenjaku's playfulness was intentional, concerning the idea that the universe favors play.

Yuuji's domain felt like itafushi propaganda since the end of the Shibuya incident.

This post has aged well so far (ch. 267 is out now, only 4 remain)

But I noticed something else from those scenes in shibuya!

First, that Yuuji holds a rabbit as soon as they appear.

And the rabbits can keep appearing, after they've been taken out.

Second... The dogs? I forgot about that. And I can't say with certainty what they represent, but...

This page from the culling game arc reminded me of it.

(culling game foreshadowing & ending predictions will be their own post(s) because gege is driving me insane)

Sorry that the links have links, each post is quite short though, I'm just trying to stay organized without repeating myself every day.

In summary, Yuuji's domain was always itafushi propaganda, and the cryogenic sort of property feels even more foreshadowed now, so do with that what you will.

The fact that the rabbits can't truly be killed, and the white dog (who died in the detention center in season 1) appears there first. And then the black dog (who still lives, might have represented Kenjaku in this scene, but could also represent Megumi, in reference to Ch. 266)

It you're not over Itafushi in ch. 265 and 266, then this is for you.

So this follows part 4 of the culling game arc foreshadowing, regarding flowers.

I found that they've been used as amacha in a bathing ritual for Buddhist statues. Keeping that in mind as context...

The label on Fushiguro's drink here reads midou, or meedō if we're going to translate it phonetically. It isn't in katakana, so it's probably a Japanese word, but I don't know it.

Only one definition came up, and...

That's interesting. That's suspicious.

I know the statues by Grandpa Itadori's grave represent Yuuji. And I've guessed that the origin story this ritual celebrates is about the Buddha who represents Megumi.

And I guess he's also a statue, who will be enshrined and bathed.

Tldr I assume this all is foreshadowing to the curse bath and to the figurative one, that happens in Yuuji's domain.

Speaking of Yuuji's domain.... It's peak itafushi, I should make a masterlist of itafushi stuff at this point.

I'm not an expert on flowers, Buddhism, or Japanese so any additions to this are appreciated

I think at this point that Sukuna (and Uraume, and likely all of the other reincarnated sorcerers) were under a pact to protect (or at least not harm) kenjaku.

Sukuna and Uraume were both uncomfortable with Yorozu (all 4 of Sukuna's eyes looked dead inside, dissociating in different directions, like a freeze response), and they both attacked her - during the Heian era when she had a high social status and there could be consequences. They didn't tolerate the disrespect of personal boundaries.

On that note, Sukuna wore a mask (Megkuna) in order to face her a thousand years later (I think he preferred that form not just bc he fit into the way everything is built physically, but bc it was like dying your hair to feel like a different person, a reflection less connected to your past memories). It feels intentional that Sukuna had to relive his own trauma in order to repress Megumi - continuing the cycle of abuse.

Kashimo Hajime wanted to fight Sukuna - but never seemed to consider Kenjaku as an opponent. Kashimo only agreed to Kenjaku's plan in order to reach Sukuna, since he was born 600 years too late.

Uro definitely had beef with Kenjaku, but she never sought after him. Like she would have preferred to forget that he exists - but Uro really seems like someone who would attack him if she could.

In ch. 239 (right before takaba vs. Kenjaku), a sorcerer who very much resembles Uro is raging about the way he gave them a second life just to take it away, that's cruel, what does he even want? And he kills them.

Then there's the other guy who wants to attack kenjaku, but was hoping for Gojo to come take his side after defeating Sukuna. And kenjaku is just laying on the ground, unbothered, as he does.

In the month that Kenjaku spent with Sukuna for protection from Gojo - it's clear that they didn't want him around. But they didn't have the power to even kick him out.

And... Yeah this post is bc I was thinking about the time sukuna killed Nanako and Mimiko. That no one else's head exploded like that. It felt personal, despite all their submission and fear.

The common interpretation is that Sukuna didn't like to feel manipulated or told what to do, but over the location of a finger? That's too petty, I think.

I think what really set him off was Kenjaku's manipulation, his chains, that Sukuna wasn't free enough to lash out at the one who put him in the cage in the first place. That hurt - but he also couldn't show that vulnerability. So he had to cover it up with his edgelord "I'm so evil I kill bc I feel like it" narrative.

Then he distracted himself with Jogo, who might have given him more fingers but didn't bow as low... I always thought it was weird that Sukuna offered his service to someone who didn't respect him so much.

But I don't think he was really putting himself in that position - or, like all the binding vows, it was a way to relive his trauma on his own terms. With a curse that could entertain him, but not overpower.