Had this in the drafts for a while my first proper megumi analysis hope you enjoyed and I hope I have a new perspective on his character 🙏🏿

JJK fans when a teenager is sad about everyone they love dying (he's a bum fr)

As much I love to hate on Megumi, in the story he’s only like 15 or 16. It’s a normal thing to want to give up after everything Gege put him through. Just because people like Yuki, Maki, Yuta, Yuji, Todo and Gojo all have this insane drive to push through everything that comes their way. Doesn’t make Megumi any less of a character just because he can’t be like these people with indomitable wills. It just makes him more realistic in my eyes but that’s just not the character I want to see especially in a series like JJK. I want to see characters that fight back!

Everytime I see Megumi get hated on I can only figure they're either young and/or haven't experienced that moment of "I wish I didn't exist"

No matter what anyone says I guarantee you one thing:
"No one hates Fushiguro Megumi more right now, then Fushiguro Megumi"

I always think of Megumi as a main character that wants to live as a side character.

Public perception does not equal one forum best known for memes, crying, and slandering characters. Megumi is a tragic character who had shaky foundations that were absolutely toppled by Kenjaku (Culling Games) and Sukuna (killing his sister, bathing him in evil, using his body to kill his mentor and friends).

Just like a character is not "weak" if they are not as strong as Sukuna, a character is not "weak" if they don't have the moral conviction of someone like Yuji who was already selfless before growing more and more so as the series progressed. Yuji also had plenty of help from others to get him through his own tragedies, help that is only just now coming to Megumi - and to which he has responded to

Megumi is the one having potential but it’s unexplored. Unlike others who died before

megumi’s my favorite character so i appreciate this analysis!! the whole “trauma makes you strong” trope feels so insufferably convenient. sometimes it works, but sometimes i feel it betrays a character’s humanity for the sake of making them useful. like their trauma is only worth exploring if it ultimately serves as a benefit. i LOVE how megumi’s trauma response was written. i love that it was realistic and not convenient for everyone else. it was such a powerful display of vulnerability, weakness, and humanity, especially from such a young child. it made me love him SO much more than i already did. megumi’s strong, and he’s a fighter, but he never asked to be the strongest, and he never had a choice in any of this. his character was very well written! :))

Yuji was knocked down, but got back up in Shibuya. This is Megumi's lowest he's going to get back up or his entire story is the ONLY one who lost to Gege's suffering cycle.

He's an insanely relatable character, and I absolutely love his character's arc. He's not done or gone. He's just been put through true hell.

I'm 100% a Megumi hater but it's all fun and games tbh. Megumi's reason to live is completely gone so I can understand why he's giving up. It's a flawed reason to give up but it's his own distinct reason. It may even be a Japanese society thing because they are very socially oriented. To be a Sorcerer you have to sort of be antithetical to being social and be more individualistic and we can clearly see Megumi's only reason for doing anything was not for himself but for others (who are dead, on the verge of death, or will most likely meet a gruesome death in the future anyway). Yuji is socially aware of all this so he's like yeah I can't really argue with your reasoning megumi...

The parallels that you drew between his character's behavior and the psychology of a trauma Survivor so spot on, abandonment of self, martyrdom for others lack of a sense of self, agency and esteem.. his deep introspection, intelligence and natural born talent would have made him a peerless prodigy if not for growing up being completely disfigured by trauma and neglect 😢ugh I have a new respect for him 😢

i think he's a potential man not for his power but as a character, he had a lot of connections like with his "step father" gojo, his relationship with yuji and nobara that is was not bad but not good either, his sister has no screen time to show her, he was the leader of the zenin clan for a moment, toji killing himself in front of him, all those plots had the "potential" to help him.

It's actually very easy to resonate with Megumi's mentality when you've gone through childhood trauma. Sense of foreshortened future, learned helplessness, a blasé attitude towards death, etc.
It's hard to put into simple words but... It's basically a lack of agency, that encompasses one's worth as an individual. If all the inherent attributes that make any human worthy are removed this is what you get: utter utilitarianism.
When your opinions, emotions or wishes do not matter as you're growing and learning of the world around you, then this must be a fact. There is a lack of consolidation over one's identity and one's experiences. To compensate a child will often internalize the message these experiences translate into. With proper care and guidance, children can properly integrate these emotions and memories into something more positive (i.e, "dad passed away because he got sick and sometimes people get sick", instead of "dad got sick and died because I was an awful kid"- which is a common cognitive distortion in traumatized folk). Megumi never had such a figure to help him orient himself in the context he was born into. And as you said, he attached so much to Tsumiki as a replacement for any parental figure he so desperately needed, but it wasn't enough to make up for his earlier life experiences.

Another thing to note for me, is how Yuuji told him he couldn't tell him to live if he didn't want to. again, the theme of agency. Taking one's lives is the most extreme gesture to gain a sense of agency one can do, and when people try to apply their own will on top, it can intensify the negative emotions. Instead, radical acceptance can help alleviate a lot that pain. Being told "I get it", "I don't blame you", or "You can do what you want" made me actually step away from the ledge.

This is an insanely brilliant deep dive into all the little elements in the story! You blew me away at the bunting in baseball analysis! Never thought past it being a filler scene 😅 subbing!

Saying a character sucks is the point is the worst defense I've ever seen on YouTube. heck, anything I've seen on the Internet. 😂

6:30 he coined it 🙏🏾

Great vid bro as always! I want Megumi to live because it would be great to see the guy who gave up on himself /tries to sacrifice himself, be the one to survive because others were willing to sacrifice themselves for him, which would reinforce yuji's speech to sukuna about things having value beyond some grandiose purpose and also force Megumi to change his ideology to value himself.  It would also make Gojo's and Higaruma's deaths more impactful that these genius' he'd probably consider more valuable than himself  thought he was worth risking death for.

Maybe the fans have this mindset I called "trauma makes a person sTrOnGeR". Yeah I know it's ridiculous but this is a common trope that used in manga, manwha or anime; that trope is when a person lost his love ones, or something bad happen in their lives, using that  traumatic experience as a motivation to get stronger, or  as an sole emotion (hatred) to seek the path of revenge, etc..making that person do such an extremes to achieving his goal.

Maybe they are so used to that trope to the point that it is the only way they think or the only "right way" to respond in the trauma. When in real life, that's not it, some will succumb to the depression, not having the will to live, and Megumi experience that.

That's why I don't like them calling Megumi "weak", that's normal response, his struggles, losing love ones, that's reasonable. And I know our boy Megumi will overcome the biggest battle in his life someday.

This analysis is spot on with what gege ponder in the chapter that was released today. You cooked.