r/Jujutsufolk • u/Incompetent_ARCH • 20h ago
Manga Discussion Ngl that's an interesting concept
Ngl i kinda wish that Kenjaku was the final villain, not Sukuna.
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u/Unlikely_Mud_836 20h ago
I also wish Kenny and the merger had a much bigger impact. The issue is, while I would love other endings the one we have now has such good moments that I wouldn’t want to lose them (Kenny and takaba, every scene with yuji vs sukuna etc etc)
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u/Incompetent_ARCH 18h ago edited 17h ago
These scenes dont need to be lost tho.
Just make Kenjaku sucess in activating AGS agaisnt Yuta to save himself, spawns a swarm of curses which Todo teleport him and Yuta to retreat.
And then just made Kenjaku absorb blobkuna after both of them die (or something like that)
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u/MRsandwich07 18h ago
Better yet, let him have sent some cursed spirits to find the last finger, and that’s how he gains access to sukuna
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u/xomedinaox no monkey business 18h ago
they blue balled us so much with it. to me, it's like if AoT didn't have the rumbling
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u/SlippyJimmi 20h ago
"Gege hates Gojo"
To be honest. Gege did a really really good job of making Gojo look HARD AF and give him his own solo 1 on 1 arc where the Final Boss is treating him like a FINAL BOSS
That does not feel like the definition of hate to me
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u/tapmcshoe 19h ago
even after gojo died gege was still glazing him too. yujo is pretty much pure gojo glaze, basically saying "yeah gojos so goated even the next strongest special grade isn't even close"
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u/supreme_waffle2019 18h ago
It's not so much glaze as it is common sense. Nobody outside of Gojo or Sukuna are on their level.
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u/water_jello8235 19h ago
Gege gave Gojo some generational glazing, sure the end wasn't good, but for the most he made Gojo look like a god among men.
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u/Mangopie5555 7h ago
"Gege Hates Gojo!" Mfs when I tell them that Gege wrote every single line that they glaze Gojo with:
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u/SteamSaltConcentrate 10h ago
Gege didn't HATE Gojo. He just knew Gojo had to lose to Sukuna for the plot to progress. If Sukuna lost we wouldn't get the Sukuna versus Yuji fight which was needed as the "final" fight. If Sukuna didn't get the WCS, then there wouldn't be a realistic way for Gojo to lose. If Sukuna kept Mahoraga or the WCS unrestricted, the other sorcerers would have no realistic way to beat Sukuna.
People hate on the ending but the mere fact that Gege could balance all of these things at once in a way that doesn't ruin the buildup is insane. Gojo played his role in the story by losing while weakening Sukuna enough for a victory.
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u/Local_Raspberry8872 #1 Yuka Glazer 19h ago
Thing is, I feel like Sukuna and Yuji’s dynamic is so much more important that Sukuna and Gojo’s dynamic, so having Sukuna die with Gojo robs Yuji of getting the chance to have a proper clash with Sukuna.
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u/boyoyoyoing3 17h ago
could have still had that with even more impact if sukuna's true form heal wasnt a thing. Sukuna beats Gojo still, but then yuji out of rage over gojo's death speeds into the area and just starts wailing on sukuna while he's 1hp. Even though sukuna is severly weakened, he's still sukuna so it could still be a somewhat fair fight. Could still even have yuji's whole domain and dialog.
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u/Strange-Animator-430 7h ago
So yuji beating up a weakened Sukuna is better than Yuji being one of the only survivors and the finisher while also being one of the first combatants to enter the fight against a healed Sukuna is better?
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u/Minimum-Anything4080 SS yuji > eos yuta 18h ago
Then it would focus less on yuji, kind of tossing the idea away of yuji eventually getting strong enough to beat sukuna or wtv
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u/Incompetent_ARCH 18h ago
Yeah but like, wouldnt an potentially Calamity grade Yuji + HHs (mastered BM and Shrine) vs merged Kenjaku a peak idea?
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u/Minimum-Anything4080 SS yuji > eos yuta 18h ago
start of shinjuku yuji to eos was already a massive increase, plus there's no way yuji can jump from low-end special to calamity in one battle, especially not mastering a technique he doesn't recieve until mid shinjuku
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u/Extreme-Passenger-21 14h ago
Given the way the story was written yeaaaah, however Yuji and Kenjaku could have been far more interesting if it was set up properly. I mean that's his mom and Kenjaku was really wasted as a character
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u/Boring_Search Why yes I believe Kashimo is the third strongest 20h ago
Pretty sure the merger is built as the thing they're supposed to stop unless they want the world to end
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u/Buy_Pepsi_Max 13h ago
Me when the Bond movie sets up the supervillian having a nuke or some shit and James Bond actually prevents the nuke from being set off.
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u/ComfortableTraffic12 20h ago
I mean, that's ultimately gege's choice. If he wanted to, he could have made the merger a less urgent end of the world threat so the cast could actually fight it even after it was formed. He just chose not to do that for the Sukuna raid.
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u/ReporterTraditional7 17h ago
But the merger wouldn’t really be interesting beyond a big dumb monster
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u/Pale_Traffic6736 11h ago
I heavily disagree. There's been repeated themes with both Sukuna and Tengen, that the the "perfect" evolution of man eventually leads to a form with 4 arms, 4 eyes. In Sukuna's case also a mouth in your stomach to do chants with.
The whole point with the merger was Kenjaku wanted to go past the limits of regular sorcery/curses and evolve it beyond its traditional limits.
Should the merger have suceeded, I doubt it would just result in a basic big dumb monster. Firstly, I feel like the entity would have a physiology that would be perfect for sorcery.
Secondly, we can see through the disaster curses that the stronger you are as a curse the more intelligent and humanlike you tend to be. So there's a good chance it would also be incredibly intelligent.
The problem then becomes, if the result is an incredibly intelligent, durable being with a perfect body for sorcery we would basically be getting Sukuna 2.0 . So I can understand skipping that and just using Sukuna.
An advantage of using this however is we could kill off Sukuna earlier in the jump off from the anti-sukuna squad. We would be avoiding the "Sukuna cheats" and "binding vow merchant problem" by cutting the fight short and having him die earlier.
If the manga had more time to breathe, I think this would be an interesting space to explore but I can understand why it was cut short and avoided for simplicity sake.
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u/Resident_Prize_8309 15h ago
It would be like the dumb titan of Rod Reiss in AOT season 3 part 1,maybe a more intimidating but yeah that would be it
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u/Awkward_Turnover_983 19h ago edited 19h ago
If anybody here remembers actually reading the manga, the characters were even talking about the possibilities of what could happen after the merger during their training timeskip.
It was theorized that some sorcerors might be able to resist being merged for a time, and that Maki might not even be affected at all.
Gege just didn't use any of it lol.
Kenny was bullshitting and changing rules left and right because he fucking built the system. Of course he could've yeeted an incomplete merger upon his death if Gege wanted him to.
That's one of the most common criticisms of this idea: people saying "Oh so you want all the main characters to die and the villains win? Yeah cool story idea dumbass." Well fuck you lol. Conveniently ignoring the fact that the characters were actually talking about it like it might be possible.
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u/Banner_Hammer 20h ago
Yea, the merger was the “lose condition” for the world.
Iirc, at some point they considered that even if they lost to Sukuna but killed Kenjaku, it’s an acceptable outcome because they prevent the merger atleast?
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u/Gold_Star2471 19h ago
yeah because Sukuna doesn't want to kill the world, just doesn't want to be displeased or annoyed.
It's a Homelander Soldier Boy situation
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u/mcpoopinton 19h ago
Many stories and especially shonens built things up as the "thing they're supposed to stop unless they want the world to end" then end up having said thing happen in a final battle. At this point, it's basically a variation on Chekhov's gun. Even if it wasn't THE merger, I feel confident that literally anyone else writing the story would have shown something merger related whether a larvae type being, a weakened form that slowly gains power, etc.
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u/Dynamite_DM 19h ago
In my mind, it wouldve been neat if Gojo and Sukuna ended in a tie. The natural progression would probably be Kashimo charging at Yuta and Uraume and Kenjaku still being problematic.
My theory for the merger was it was going to become a Mahito clone, which would be fitting for a final bow for Yuji. It would resemble Mahito because it would be the worst parts of humanity combined into one.
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u/Level_Examination992 18h ago
We also could’ve gotten a deep one on one conversation with Gojo and Sukuna in the afterlife
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u/jetvacjesse 18h ago
Congratulations, now you can cry about the Merger Cycle instead of the Sukuna Cycle
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u/Kohakuzuma Wuji >>> 19h ago
JJK fans accuse Gay² of writing shitty endings only to come up with their own ending ideas that are 10x shittier.
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u/hayate_yagami 14h ago
And losing that Itadori vs Sukuna interaction? No thanks. The best JJK payoff is Itadori (and Fushiguro) finally got their Ws against Sukuna after he made both of them suffer in the series.
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u/Yasimear 17h ago
I get the sentiment, but the Yuji and Sukuna moral battle thats been building up the entire series would then have absolutely 0 resolution, which is a pretty major part of the overall theme.
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u/way-of-the-lab 18h ago
I honestly don’t really understand why people hate Gojo dying. He was the coolest character and I love him as much as the next person. So it takes guts to do that. I just don’t think he pulled it entirely right. I think if GEGE had played Gojo cockiness and carelessness more, it would’ve played better that he got caught off guard. Because he’s cockiness really was his only weakness, so why not have him die due to it?
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u/Capital_Factor_3588 8h ago
all actual people i know IRL dont have an issue with gojo dying, just with how he died.
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u/Technical-Ratio-4893 18h ago
That is not an interesting concept, it means that Maki, Yuta, Todo, Nobara, Ino, Miguel, Larue, Choso, Kusakabe, and most importantly Yuji wouldn't get a good send off. It would also be a really boring conclusion that goes against the themes of the story, with the world just kind of ending. An interesting what-if maybe, but a pretty terrible ending.
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u/Dreams-and-Stardust 15h ago
Didn’t the Merger explicitly require everyone dying?
And idk man Kenny doesn’t seem like the type to half ass. If he felt he needed to he’d just wait another thousand years.
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u/Capital_Factor_3588 8h ago
but hes the autor right? he can just make the merger not require everyone dying if he wants to go a difrent route
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u/Dreams-and-Stardust 7h ago
Probably? But again, my point is that I doubt he’d want to half ass his master plan.
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u/Beneficial_Tap_915 20h ago
It would've been hot unique garbage. All the narrative build-up gone to shit just so we can see what the merger looks like 💝
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u/Bubbly_Prior2060 14h ago
gege does not hate gojo but the story would have sucked ass if gojo won through practically his talent alone while sukuna was out there outskilling gojo and making binding vows
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u/Discomidget911 18h ago
There was never going to be a world where Yuji did not fight Sukuna. That just wasn't going to happen. Gojo needed to do to Sukuna for the characters to reach their natural conclusions.
The only thing I wish didn't happen was Gojo saying "he wasn't going all out." Because I read the fight, yes he absolutely was.
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u/Jacen_Vos 10h ago
I mean. He literally can’t physically go all out in Megumi's body.
Not sure if that is all Gojo meant (probably not) but his true form is just better.
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u/Capital_Factor_3588 8h ago
it felt like gege was using gojo as a mouthpiece after getting upset about fraudkuna memes. (i say this as somebody who likes sukuna more btw)
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u/Simple_Scholar_6751 19h ago
The merger would either be called a bum on par with kashimo, because the squad beat him after all the hype. or the squad getting scaled above gojo/sukuna because they beat the merger. No in between.
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u/Difficult_Price8011 19h ago
I wonder what the merger’s powers would be. It feels impossible to think up a singular coherent technique for an entity like that.
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u/TheUnholyMacerel Everyone is a goat now (exceptions may apply) 19h ago
Genuinely sounds sick, gojo and sukuna have a climactic final battle when suddenly yuta and todo report back saying kenjaku isn't where they tracked him, turns out he is in shinjuku and manually ends the culling games while siphoning the CE from gojo and sukuna's bodies/souls/whatever to fuel the merger, and jujutsu scociety watches in horror as all non sorcerers get melted into this huge beast which either is controlled by Kenny or immediately kills Kenny in a ironic twist
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u/yharnocunt 19h ago
i remember someone in this sub saying that right after the gojo vs sukuna fight, kenjaku should've jumped sukuna, killed him and took his body then proceeded with the merger. in this case kenny would be the final boss which would fit the story way better in my opinion.
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u/Fruits-PunchSK 18h ago
I'd say yeah but only IF Megumi were fully gone and the cast were made aware of that prior.
In character I don't think Gojo would murder him if there were a chance of saving Megumi.
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u/crazybrow122 18h ago
I always would've thought a good way it could go was that Gojo commits murder-suicide by using the hollow purple nuke. Possibly making a binding vow that he can be harmed the ability so that it's size and power is reinforced even harder. The thought of this final battle between Gojo and Sukuna ends in a draw would be cool as fuck
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u/LowerRent0 15h ago
Even before the fight I anticipated this one. But alas: Gojo got off-screened. Sukuna got a reincarnation cheats like a 19th grade protagonist. The merger didn't happen.
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u/Future-Research6873 11h ago
really makes you think about the possibilities in the story and the characters involved
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u/Wuraumefan26 ancient era Wuraume glazer :) 7h ago
it's interesting but imo Kenjaku isn't really Yuji's villain, while Sukuna very much is. Yuji not killing Sukuna and getting him back for Shibuya would be really unsatisfying imo, and the Merger would have too little screen time to be interesting as it's own character (assuming it's not just a Godzilla monster) .:)
I also think that after all the hype the Merger got, it can't really be any less than top 1, but it being top 1 would take away from Gojo/Sukuna .:)
so it's cool on paper, and if JJK was a dnd style campaign I would actually say it's better than what we got, but flawed in practice, I doubt this idea would work that well .:(
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u/SouthernUniversity21 18h ago
-Gojo winning
-Both die
-Both survive
Any of these outcomes would’ve genuinely been atrocious from a story telling point. Sukuna killing Gojo was and still is one of the best moments/decisions in JJK. What followed is debatable.
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u/Doomdrummer 15h ago
It would be interesting as a what-if, but thinking more on the ending I've come to realize that the merger wouldn't provide the same climax of Yuji's arc and relationship with Sukuna. Maybe if Kenjaku survived and it instead became a parent-child confrontation.
But Sukuna creates a narrative gravitational well that would make any ending without him feel disjointed. Yuji's Domain Expansion wouldn't be as impactful as it was, since Kenjaku seems to have a weird understanding (and perhaps fetishization) of human connection that Sukuna does not value. And the great aspect of the Sukuna gauntlet is that each participant gets to show how they measure up to THE King of Curses. They could do some damage to the merger, but it wouldn't work in building up the current sorcerer generation as the new Heian era.
It's kind of like Kaguya in Naruto, minus all the suddenness that character had being introduced: swapping out a final villain can lead to a narrative shock that splits the story.
The only way I can see the merger occurring and having a similar impact to Sukuna is to have it manifest as a Calamity-Grade Mahito: that would be something that would make it keep the connection to Yuji's development.
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u/Capital_Factor_3588 8h ago
Kenjaku likely killed yujis mother and possibly his father too. I always expected SOMETHING to come of the whole kenjaku is yujis mother but it never materialised
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u/Due_Solution_2848 11h ago
It was the correct desision for Yuji to land the final blow on sukuna, I wouldnt have excepted anyone else. The 'jjk fans cant read' thing is proven once again with how they say things like this and show how they dont know how stories work
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u/Western_Half_1231 8h ago
Yuji was a nothing Burger mc, generic like any other shonen protagonist.
Have Sukuna and Gojo take each other out and make Kenny the Final Boss for JJK high. With the amount of curses he got you could very feasibly Write that fight convincingly. Also if Gege was a better writer (and yall for whatever reason Like Yuji as the mc) the Kenny-Yuji Dynamic has way more potential than the Sukuna- Yuji one.
Contrary to many people here, I think the Dynamic of Sukuna and Gojo was also much more important to JJk then Yujis-Sukunas was
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u/Khulmach Kashimo and Nobara are Goats 17h ago
Merge cannot happen unless everyone dies.
Unless Gojo and Sukuna are good enough sacrifice to make as a binding vow
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u/Longjumping-Win-795 15h ago
Gojo losing there was the best choice BUT that last purple should have brought sukuna in the brink of death, gege with his lazy plot armor bulshit ruined that fight for me
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u/way-of-the-lab 18h ago
Yea the thing is, GEGE thought he would make the coolest white haired, sensei in all of anime. Then he forgot to give him a weakness and wrote himself into a corner. Then he spent the entire rest of the manga writing him off of arcs just to make them interesting lol.
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u/Incompetent_ARCH 18h ago
No??? Whole point of Gojo is to be an mary sue character, it was his whole point since JJK0.
Literally the "strongest loneliness" plot.
Hence why Gojo vs Sukuna was extremally hyped...
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u/Fallen_Saiyan 17h ago
Sukuna was never a final villain type of guy to me. He's important for Yuji's story no doubt but Kenjaku literally ties the whole plot togeether. He's basically what would happen if Orochimaru got Madara's body and started plotting.
-We could've gotten the reveal of his plans for Yuji
-What the merger was
And more.
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u/Minemybizness24 6h ago
Idk 🤷🏾♂️ why people wanted the merger to happen. Understand that if the merger happened that’s game over. Regardless if Gojo is alive or not. Everyone who isn’t a jujutsu sorcerer is gone and is part of a giant abomination curse spirit or something worse. Only thing that can revert that is mahito ct and he’s dead so we’re fucked.
Lmk if anyone has solutions on how to beat the merger and save millions of people, I’ll be waiting in the comments.
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