Unreachable. That is how Gojo Satoru’s image has been imprinted in our minds since the start. He is the strongest jujutsushi, from his cursed technique to his beliefs. It is incredible how tall he stands above the others from any generation.

Gojo Satoru is the pinnacle of strength that even scares antagonists into recalculating their moves. Strongest as he might be, he still stands alone at the apex of the jujutsu world.

However, he had someone else accompany the lonely #1 place with him not so long ago. Not so long ago, someone was at par with Gojo. Not so long ago, he was not as unreachable as his technique makes him. This person was Geto Suguru.

Gojo’s relationship with Geto as a classmate, comrade, rival, friend, and the eventual enemy took a rollercoaster ride. From the strongest duo to formidable opponents, they have one of the most heartbreaking dynamics in the story.

We’ve witnessed it on our own, but how would it look like from Gojo’s all-seeing eyes? We delve into it in this article.

Satoru & Suguru – the strongest duo, the best friends

While the world feared the name Gojo Satoru itself, Geto was the only one who saw the person behind it. For someone whose reputation so strongly preceded him, it seems like there was hardly anyone who knew Gojo at all.

And who would know how it was being the strongest anyway? Gojo himself had (and still has) a God-complex, let alone other people who are far weaker than him. In such a situation of oddities, along came Geto Suguru.

The story’s introduction to Geto and Gojo itself firmly established how close both of them were; they referred to each other by their first names, Suguru and Satoru. Japanese people only refer to each other by their first names when they are extremely close to each other.

The bitter end be it may, they still referred to each other by that. It told us a tale we don’t need to elaborate on: they meant a lot to each other. However, I believe this first-name basis referral was a mere result than a cause.

Perhaps what truly bound them together was that Geto and Gojo were strong. It might have been the first time any name could be used with Gojo’s name when it came to strength. Geto was Gojo’s equal, even if it was for just a brief period.

Geto’s perspective of being someone who could take on Gojo made the latter all the more human. There was a sharp contrast in how the world treated him and how only Geto, his best friend, could.

On the one hand, he was a showpiece for the world to see since childhood. He invoked shock, if not terror, in adults like Toji and Ogami alike. Gojo was the target of it all: despise, fear, hatred, protection, assassination, admiration, envy, you name it.

On the other hand, Gojo was nothing more than another ordinary brat for Geto. Geto’s friendship reduced Gojo from that godly inhuman pedestal to simply Satoru.

There is no need for me to tell you that Gojo and Geto were strong, and that too, not just in battles. Even as teenagers, they both had strong beliefs, although clashing. They often seemed to land in fights over the simplest of things.

But that was because they could.

Only Geto and Gojo could randomly challenge each other to feisty duals. Not even Shoko and Mei Mei, who were also close to them, could do that. Their strength that rivaled each other’s was the most significant factor that held them together.

It was an unconventional friendship for sure, one that arose out of unusual circumstances. It was just a matter of how nobody else could see the things Gojo could see other than Geto. But if I had to say, this friendship was something both of them cherished the most too.

All being said, Geto and Gojo were the unstoppable strongest duo who complemented each other. Gojo was practical, Geto was emotional. One was from a big shaman family; one was from a non-shaman family.

The strongest duo was a title that belonged to them rightfully because they fit right in that role. Gojo and Geto being the strongest duo and best friends wasn’t all exclusive. They were best friends because they were strongest; they were strongest because they were best friends.

If they had each other’s backs, they could even go against the jujutsu society itself if needed.

Gojo’s peculiar birth

As we spoke earlier, Gojo and Geto had pretty contrasting principles, despite being great partners. Even something as fundamental as the reason for jujutsu differed for both of them.

Gojo was a victim of an abnormal childhood (heck, an abnormal youth too, but that is a different conversation). We know how he goes over and above to ensure children like Itadori don’t lose out on anything that makes childhood and youth worthwhile.

Gojo was born in the eye of the storm, the limelight, the very center of the big three clans’ spat. Judging from Noritoshi Kamo’s recount and Naoya’s treatment of Maki and Mai, we can say that the big three aren’t all that ethical.

The most reputable clans are made of people hungry for power. They are misogynistic and can use any cheap tricks to fulfill their megalomania. And Gojo grew up in the same hostile and toxic environment.

What’s more is that Gojo was the owner of the most powerful combination of cursed techniques, Limitless & Six-Eyes. There were as many attempts to kill him as much protection he was under. He had always borne an incredible burden in the face of the jujutsu society’s underbelly.

Geto brought the idea of morality (which we will discuss further) and rationality to the table. He knew that not everyone was as strong as himself; some people go out there risking everything and never make it back.

Geto cared. He cared for Gojo because he could see him as a normal human being and nothing else. He would get concerned for his best friend, as we saw at the beach. It is amazing how Geto noticed Gojo was getting tired from using his powers non-stop.

Perhaps this humane concern was something only Geto could bring to him because he shared the strongest title with Gojo. And Gojo, too, felt safe with Geto; his reply was enough to prove how much he trusted Geto and both of them.

This concern was not unilateral either; Gojo also cared for Geto. Gojo noticed Geto under some sort of pressure, although he, unfortunately, missed the iceberg while looking at its tip.

Nonetheless, Geto’s presence itself made sure that the abnormal entity Gojo was not so abnormal.

Righteousness of the moral compass, Geto Suguru

Moreover, there was a certain balance that Geto provided to Gojo’s mannerisms and life. This one sentence is pretty ironic because Gojo’s birth itself irreparably influenced the balance of shamans and curses.

When you think about it, anyone coming from Gojo’s background will not embrace ‘righteousness’ as a reason for anything. And on top of that, jujutsu particularly could never be an act of righteousness for Gojo.

The people he had witnessed all his life had all been shamans.

Gojo did not care about reasoning or righteousness; he did what he had to, what he should, as his birth dictated. At least he could poke at the gaping holes in the jujutsu society and revolt through his job.

Geto’s presence gave Gojo an outsider perspective, one he probably could not have gotten from anyone else. Geto came from a family of non-sorcerers and was fixated on doing the right thing because of a reason.

When a shaman did their job at the cost of their life and dreams, there must be more to these actions than just what felt good, surely.

Geto and Gojo kept each other in check, but it was Geto who served as the moral compass for the duo. Maybe it was Gojo, or maybe it was both of them who believed that Geto would never stray from his path. Bitter laugh. So, all of their decisions certainly also involved Geto’s morality.

Their efforts to save Riko Amanai instead of her merger with Tengen was Gojo’s idea, seemingly. But at the root, it also concerned Geto’s compassion and righteousness.

Geto, at the most basic level, grounded Gojo. In the initial Hidden Inventory chapters itself, we see Geto asking Gojo to be more courteous. But this conversation went a little differently in Japanese, and that is something to take note of.

Geto asked Gojo to stop using “ore” to refer to himself and use “boku” instead. If you don’t know about all these words, I got you. Generally, older men use ore, and it might come off as haughty, arrogant, or self-confident. Gojo was using ore while being in school still, essentially thinking highly of himself.

There might have been a bunch of such situations, but another that comes across as the most striking one is after Riko Amanai’s death. Despite having defeated Toji, Gojo still was in a state of mind to kill anyone he could from the Star Religious Group.

And if he decided to do that, he actually could. However, he was aware of his unstable mindset. He also knew how to keep himself in check: by relying on Geto. Naturally, Geto stopped Gojo because there was no meaning to it. The applause was deafening but Gojo killing the people wouldn’t have fixed anything.

I think it seems a bit insignificant to people, so let’s put it this way. Had Geto not stopped Gojo then or had he not been there, Gojo would have turned into a mass murderer much before Geto did.

Plus, if it seems that Geto’s nagging was fleeting, you are wrong. Gojo did take what Geto said to the T, if not immediately.

Geto’s downfall and betrayal were a shock for Gojo, undoubtedly. It may also be his worst fear come to life, and we get quite some nuances to substantiate that.

In Gojo’s first meeting with Megumi, we witness Gojo use boku to refer to himself for the first time. Gojo continued to do so even until the present. This was even though he not just grew up but also became much stronger from when he used to use ore.

Another instance of the same is from Gojo’s conversation with Ijichi in the Cursed Womb arc. He could kill all the higher-ups of the jujutsu society, but he chose not to. Gojo understood that he had to nip the root, not the bud – something he probably learned from Geto.

The curse of the strongest

The most devastating incident of Gojo and Geto’s relationship affected them very differently. Gojo went on to become the strongest from the strongest duo, while Geto spiraled to rock bottom.

It was also effectively the end of a beautiful friendship, the blue spring of Gojo’s youth. Gojo’s out-of-character pause at Shibuya to think about the three years he spent is proof enough of how much it meant to him. Sadly also the last memory he thought of before getting locked up in Prison Realm.

Since the meaning of jujutsu was so different to both Gojo and Geto, their massive failure also translated differently. Gojo found a chance to grow and rise to the top, unlocking the Reverse Cursed Technique at the verge of death.

Nobody could keep up with him.

He jumped without any bounds to a height no shaman could scale, not even Geto. Geto, one-half of the strongest duo, could no longer reach out to Gojo. He was pushed into a corner, witnessing himself losing sight of not only Gojo but also himself.

This chasm was a crack at the start, but it only kept growing. Gojo started going on individual missions, leaving Geto behind. While Gojo was exorcising more and more curses, he did not realize that he had truly become lonely.

Eventually, Geto went astray. Geto was Gojo’s one and only friend, his best friend. He could not comprehend how and why Geto did what he did. To him, his best friend turned into a genocidal maniac in the blink of an eye.

When Gojo went to see Geto after his betrayal, he could see for the first time what he had missed. Side note: this meeting is also the first time Gojo is not covering his eyes outside fights. It is poetic that he wanted to see Geto for himself, with no barriers, nothing. See what laid behind the feeling he had sensed earlier, finally.

There is also a theory slash observation that says how Gojo never covered his eyes while meeting Geto after the incident anymore. Even when he went to kill Geto, he did not cover his eyes. It was as if he had sworn never to miss something ever again.

However, Gojo’s little rendezvous with Geto also ended with one of the most impactful and heartbreaking dialogues. This conversation is perhaps the most famous but complex one from Jujutsu Kaisen.

Are you the strongest because you’re Gojo Satoru? Or are you Gojo Satoru because you’re the strongest?

– Geto Suguru, Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 78

AH, PAIN. Geto, the one who had seen Gojo as a human being first and foremost in all situations, said this. He dehumanized Gojo for the first and last time using a single line. He, too, had evidently joined the group of people who did not see him as anything other than the strongest.

There was no Gojo Satoru; there was only the strongest.

Gojo just could not understand where Geto was coming from; he found the whole reasoning pointless and impossible. It is quite ironic when you look at it from Geto’s eyes: a man who could do precisely what he deemed impossible is definitely arrogant.

After all, he was half of the strongest duo once, was he not? Geto was basically asking Gojo if his strength was unique to himself in this conversation. The kind of strength Gojo had could only exist because he was Gojo. If he were anyone else, he could not have that strength.

OR was it that Gojo’s identity, and hence, his arrogance comes from the fact that he is the strongest. If Geto were to become as strong as Gojo himself, all his ideals could come to reality. The name Gojo Satoru held so much weight BECAUSE he was the strongest.

This question was purely rhetorical; Geto’s entire purpose was to hint that Gojo was the latter. In a flash, Geto (although skillfully) brought down Gojo by saying that Gojo’s very identity is strength.

His overbearing strength is a privilege that he cannot grasp, which is why he could call someone’s ideal pointless. Gojo was hollow other than his strength in Geto’s eyes. Such is the curse of the strongest; Gojo could not kill Geto despite his crimes and how he’d hurt him.

Gojo’s experience reminds me of Levi from Attack on Titan. Both of them are the pinnacles of strength, humans above humans. Even then, this sparkly-looking strength comes at a tremendous cost to their owners.

For Levi, it was his dear friends from childhood and countless survey corps members, including Erwin and Hange. And as for Gojo, it was his best friend, and eventually his friends Nanami and Yaga, and even his students like Nobara to some extent.

It is unfair that sometimes the strongest are unable to protect what they want to protect the most.

Gojo’s loneliness began and ends with Geto

Gojo is goofy and extroverted, even easy-going and happy-go-lucky. But there have been moments where he is ruthless, like his domain expansion against Jogo. Sure, he is arrogant even now, but not in a disproportionate manner.

Throughout the story, even if not explicitly, it is hinted that Gojo is the loneliest character out of all. Take his lesson to Megumi in his flashback, for example. Gojo switches from a goofy tone to a dead-serious one for a moment. He tells Megumi that no matter how many allies you find, you die alone.

Such moments emphasize how Gojo stifled everything he felt from his past. Geto took it out as a genocide, but Gojo never even touched upon the whole thing. As much of a brat he is, it is evident that he is not emotionless.

It is not even wrong to say that his strength and goofiness might just be covers for his fragile state of mind. To add, his loneliness arises out of his relationship with Geto, out of everything else.

Geto’s downfall and death shifted something in him in an unimaginable manner. Even after standing on different ends of a battle, Gojo still called Geto his only best friend. He knew that there really was nobody else who could understand his perspective.

I think I can count a total of three times that Geto proved to be the reason for Gojo’s loneliness. First, Geto went rouge, taking away Gojo’s only friend. The one person who saw him for himself and nothing else.

Geto’s label of a traitor showed us Gojo shaken up and hesitant for the first time too. He realized that he was all alone at the top and he couldn’t achieve anything with his fancy title. Being strong on his own wasn’t enough; he needed to make sure no more Getos (and Gojos) suffered.

Secondly, Gojo had to kill Geto with his own hands – marking the end of the young and carefree Gojo that ever was. What’s worse is that Kenjaku took away even Geto’s dead body so that Gojo could be tormented further. Interestingly, the only two times Gojo stopped dead in his tracks were solely because of Geto.

We know how well Gojo knew Geto; his crushing exchange with Kenjaku proves that. He had to go through the pain of losing and killing Geto all over again, while someone who did not share any of it had control over the body of his best friend.

I am pretty sure the last thing he wanted to see was Geto alive because of a parasite. In his last moments, Geto seemed that he had accepted death already and just wanted peace. Even then, Gojo failed to do that by not destroying Geto’s body.

And lastly, it isn’t Geto but his body at least, that took away his precious friends and students from him. He could do nothing but wait in a box for the same people to save him as the world around them crumbled. Who knows how few allies will he come back to.

It is said that darkness seems even darker after a flash of light, and that is what Kenjaku did with Gojo. It was cruel to Gojo in the simplest form. Hence, Kenjaku or Geto if you would, is the natural enemy of Gojo. He will once again have to kill his friend although in a different form.

I wonder what will happen when Gojo does come out of Prison Realm. He will certainly be mad at Kenjaku, but will he finally go berserk with his suppressed emotions?

Nevertheless, I can say that Gojo and Geto’s relationship was one of the most beautiful and painful ones in Jujutsu Kaisen. It is also a personal favorite because of the nuances and small details. Well, they both deserved better. In another universe, Gojo and Geto never part ways.

What do you think of the strongest duo and their crumbling? Let us know in the comments if we missed anything!