Sukuna Analysis - Tumblr Posts

JJK is going to look different again since seeing Yuuji, Sukuna and Kenjaku (Gojo too ig) in this light so strongly [spoilers if you're anime only ig, no chapter leak spoilers tho]

Sukuna hates Yuuji (and is uncomfortable around Kenjaku) bc his body is a cage. Kenjaku designed Yuuji that way. I wonder if he spent generations experimenting (his grandpa telling Jin that he'd die, around whoever his dead wife was and the way Yuuji was born w Sukuna's finger in him - but it was sealed, so Sukuna didn't possess Yuuji or have awareness of this until he hate more, unsealed fingies).

Sukuna and Yuuji were both robbed of their autonomy by Kenjaku, in almost the same way. This gives them something very unique and personal to relate to each other with, but they don't try to find common ground. The closest thing is Yuuji saying "I know you don't want to die, too" but he never asks Sukuna for his motives. Everyone seems to assume that it's about power and killing everyone without reason. The only times when Yuuji interacts with Sukuna are to get something from him. I think that Yuuji trying to bribe him into healing Junpei felt awful - imagine being trapped in a kid's body, who has total control, and then he tries to manipulate you. Sukuna hates being touched so being thrust into this state must have been hell.

Uraume seems like the only one who respects Sukuna's boundaries.

Yuuji matches everyone's energy, and usually comes around to understand them. Megumi's reason for saving people, Nobara's reason for becoming a sorcerer etc, Junpei's reaction to his mother's death.

But he's never tried to understand Sukuna - at first, he told Gojo that he kept hearing Sukuna's voice, that he was annoying. Which means that Sukuna was trying to initiate conversation. Yuuji just ignores Sukuna, never giving him a consideration of humanity. The only way of connection Sukuna is ever granted seems to be through violence.

In the first hour of knowing about, seeing cursed spirits, Yuuji was told that Sukuna is a curse, a monster. Gojo said that Sukuna was once a real person. But Yuuji never tried to connect with any humanity that might there.

I think it has to hurt on some subconscious level, at least, that Yuuji gives anyone else some compassion, some empathy, but doesn't bother to have a conversation with someone who is forced into sharing his body, but not able to control it.

I believe that Sukuna went through the process of mummification while still alive because it was a way to prevent Kenjaku from using his body, (it might have also been a way for him to see more about consciousness, without any peers in his era. It might have been convenient since there was a famine at some point - he mentioned that his mother might have been starving and that's why he ate his twin in the womb. Idk) to reclaim it as his own.

I'm starting to wonder if Sukuna's motive for everything is to regain some autonomy, to have a body of his own again. And maybe he had to become a monster to do that, by transferring into Megumi.

And Sukuna doesn't seem to consider himself human, either, but did in the past. He's only considered human by others when it comes to calling him a cannibal. Despite that there were likely circumstances leading to this - a famine, a sign of respect to the sorcerers who challenged him to the death.

But he's so isolated from the world, from being called a child that should have never been born, to not fitting into clothes etc. bc the world wasn't built for him, and the loneliness that comes from being aro/ace, from being an object of fear or a deity to use in rituals that might prevent natural disasters.

Sukuna has no peers until it comes to Gojo, but they communicate in different styles, and remain isolated by misunderstanding.

A sukugo parallel I think deserves attention - they both had to become the monster. Thrust into this position by birth (held responsible for the shift of the world), and by the reactions of the people and powers around them.

The difference is that Gojo became the monster by letting someone else take over his body.

Sukuna became the monster by intentionally taking someone else's.

Sukuna never attacks without reason, I was rly mad at him for Mimiko and Nanako but I think he had a trauma response and felt gross like they were trying to manipulate him the way Kenjaku had.

But when he kills, it's fast and merciful. It's an instant death.

The exception to this would be during his fight w Mahoraga (and maybe Jogo I forget rn) but they were caught in it by chance, by accident. Sukuna limited his range to spare Megumi, but he wasn't in a position to be aware of every person's location and keep them out of the crossfire. He wasn't intentionally hurting them, he wasn't finding joy in their suffering, he wasn't standing around to watch.

It's my opinion that when Sukuna first appeared and said it'll be a massacre, he was hinting at the merger. I can't think of a single time when he went after anyone who did not approach him first.

To make things even worse:

We can look at Sukuna and Kenjaku's relationships with Mahito.

Kenjaku gets along with Mahito - though he is just using him for his CT and to manipulate things in his own game. He still called him over when Geto's body fought back. "hey, Mahito, look at this," like he wanted to share a joke w a friend, and listen to his interpretation of the phenomenon. It was so friendly, that interaction always weirds me out.

Sukuna does not like to be touched. He seemed to get along with Mahito at first, when Yuuji called him out - but generally he prefers to be away from that in his innate domain. I think that Sukuna was creeped out by Mahito, once he became aware of the situation - actually, I think the only one who wasn't disturbed by Mahito was Kenjaku.

Kenjaku and Mahito constantly cross boundaries, manipulating bodies and souls without their consent, and it is fun for them. I'm not sure whether Kenjaku enjoys to watch people suffer, but he loves games and seems to see everything as a part of one, and doesn't hesitate to hurt anyone - unless it interferes with his plans.

Sukuna doesn't hurt anyone unprovoked, but Kenjaku and Mahito don't save anyone without reason.

I'm going to be as vague as possible here, with only implied csa, heavier content warning for all the linked posts.

A while ago I was thinking about how Mai and Sukuna seemed quite similar. Secretly very hurt people who put on this edgelord show and pretend not to care or feel.

Since reading these posts about Mai, it got me thinking even more like. The triggers that caused sukuna and Mai to act in ways that made them unloveable characters.

Like when Nobara said "trouble sleeping? You've got open pores", I think that hit a nerve because Mai probably had insomnia and recurring nightmares. Her family would have scapegoated the victim (which is really common irl - somehow it's more shameful to acknowledge a predator in the family than it is to defend them).

And Sukuna with Mimiko - that always drove me insane. It made me resent sukuna for a long time, but gradually I grew this fixation to understand him. Anyway, I'd said before that it was feeling manipulated and told what to do that triggered Sukuna - but I don't think that's it.

Mimiko was terrified of him. They both were. But God, when else have we seen someone's head explode like that? Haruta got one slice. Nanako got cubed. Even the fingie curse that was afraid of Sukuna and attacked him instead of joining forces - that thing got five slices (and he intended for three).

Whatever reactions people had to Sukuna when he lived as a human (and in his current life), whether he was deified or demonized or enslaved, he was seen as a threat to restrain, he was an object of fear. I think the twins' fear of Sukuna hit a nerve.

The fingie curse wasn't trying to use Sukuna - it directly attacked him. But to be feared and told what to do, I think that mix really hit some unresolved trauma.

Edit to add:

another idea I forgot to include is that Sukuna would have known the twins were asking sukuna to kill kenjaku. I think part of him really, really wants to, but due to a pact or something he can't, and that also made him feel helpless. (tbh I don't totally understand this - kenjaku seems to have a covercive relationship with the reincarnated sorcerers. Not only are they taking over someone else's body without being invited to - but they seem rly uncomfortable with him. And it's like they try to get past that... But at the end of the Shibuya arc, Kenjaku said that the pacts he made w those sorcerers were voided when he changed bodies. I assume that, even someone who makes pacts often (like Sukuna) doesn't know that they become nullified when kenjaku changes bodies (how could they know? No one else does that). Or maybe they are only canceled on Kenjaku's end, but the other sorcerers might still face consequences (which I find less believable, as their old bodies are also gone, though maybe eating themselves was also a way to retain that bond).

If you want a deeper read w even more context (especially on sukuna), here's a link. (this post got me thinking so much, half of my drafts are in reaction to it probably)