JJK Modulo Should Have Ended on a Fucking Cliffhanger
Tejas GK| (4d ago)
I didn't hate the ending of Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo because it was happy.
I hated it because it was too complete.
Too clean.
Too:
okay guys everything is fine now ❤️
And that's weird to me because this is fucking JJK.
This is a universe where solving one problem usually creates three more.
You kill Sukuna?
Cool.
Curses still exist.
You destroy the old jujutsu system?
Cool.
Someone eventually has to build a new one.
You prevent a war between humans and Simurians?
Cool.
Now these two completely different civilizations have to actually live with each other.
THAT is where I wanted Modulo to end.
Not with everyone dying.
Not with another Sukuna appearing from space.
Not with some cheap:
MODULO PART 2 COMING SOON
I wanted the immediate conflict to end.
I wanted our characters to survive.
I wanted humans and Simurians to genuinely have a chance at peace.
And then I wanted the final chapter to slowly make me realize:
Oh fuck.
This world is nowhere near finished.
But before we even get there...
I need my fucking tiger.
WHERE THE FUCK WAS MOURNING TIGER?
This is probably the biggest thing I wanted from the final fight.
We have Ten Shadows.
We've seen Mahoraga.
We've seen Nue.
Divine Dogs.
Rabbit Escape.
Round Deer.
Piercing Ox.
All these different applications of the technique.
And there's still this giant question mark:
Mourning Tiger.
You're seriously going to finish this story without properly showing me the fucking tiger?
NO.
If I'm rewriting the ending, Mourning Tiger is absolutely appearing.
And I've already decided what it does based on absolutely nothing except what I think would be cool.
It has two forms.
A tiger form.
And a humanoid form.
Tiger form
The normal form is exactly what you'd expect.
A gigantic shadow tiger.
Fast as fuck.
Four-legged.
Built primarily for speed, hunting and ranged attacks.
And this is the part I've always wanted Ten Shadows to have:
a dedicated ranged offensive shikigami.
Ten Shadows is insanely versatile, but so much of its strongest offensive potential ultimately involves getting something close enough to fuck you up.
So Mourning Tiger fixes that.
Its mouth opens.
Shadow starts concentrating inside it.
And:
BOOM.
A compressed ball of shadow energy gets launched across the battlefield.
Not cursed energy like Ryu.
Not Sukuna slashes.
Actual shadow manipulation.
Maybe the projectile even behaves strangely because it's technically part of the user's shadow.
It hits the ground and instead of simply exploding, the shadow spreads across the surface before erupting upward.
You dodge the projectile?
Congratulations.
You're now standing on it.
Maybe Mourning Tiger can even travel through the shadows created by its own attacks.
Now suddenly you're fighting something that can attack you from 100 metres away...
and use those same attacks to reposition itself.
THAT feels like a Ten Shadows ability.
But then there's humanoid mode
This is the part I would've gone completely fucking insane with.
Mourning Tiger gets pushed.
Its body starts changing.
It stands upright.
Shoulders widen.
Front paws become arms.
Still obviously a tiger.
Still covered in fur.
Still has the claws.
Still has the head.
But now it's built like a fucking warrior.
Basically:
Battle Beast from Invincible.
That kind of energy.
Not literally Battle Beast.
But that feeling where this isn't an animal anymore.
You're looking at something that clearly understands how to fight.
Tiger mode is the hunter.
Humanoid mode is the warrior.
And the fighting style completely changes.
Tiger mode keeps distance.
Runs.
Ambushes.
Shoots shadow projectiles.
Uses the battlefield.
Humanoid mode?
Fuck all that.
Now Mourning Tiger wants to throw hands.
Claws.
Elbows.
Knees.
Grappling.
Raw strength.
And it can STILL use the shadow attacks.
Imagine Dabura blocks a punch...
Mourning Tiger opens its other hand...
and there's a compressed shadow sphere sitting in its palm.
Point blank.
BOOM.
BRO.
I needed to see this thing.
And this is how Mahoraga should've died
Dabura already showed us his Domain.
So I don't need another:
OH MY GOD DABURA HAS A DOMAIN
reveal.
We've seen it.
We know this man is ridiculous.
Instead, use the ending to show exactly HOW ridiculous he is.
Let him fight Mahoraga.
And let him win.
I actually want Mahoraga to die here.
Because imagine what that does to the reader.
Mahoraga has basically become synonymous with Ten Shadows.
When Mahoraga appears, everyone goes:
Oh.
This is the big one.
The wheel turns.
Adaptation begins.
Dabura realizes what's happening.
He changes his strategy.
Mahoraga adapts.
He changes again.
Mahoraga adapts again.
And eventually Dabura realizes the obvious:
I need to kill this fucking thing before it finishes adapting.
So he goes all out.
Not another power reveal.
Just everything we've already seen pushed to its absolute limit.
And eventually...
Mahoraga dies.
Silence.
Dabura is standing there.
Completely fucked.
But standing.
He actually did it.
And I'm sitting there thinking:
Okay.
That's it.
Ten Shadows has lost its ultimate shikigami.
Then something behind Mahoraga moves.
Not Mahoraga.
The shadow underneath it.
Dabura notices.
Something starts walking out.
First a paw.
Then another.
Then the head.
Then this absolutely gigantic tiger crawls out of the darkness.
Mourning Tiger.
BROOOOOOO.
That's the reveal.
And Dabura has to fight AGAIN
This is what makes the fight work for me.
Mourning Tiger should NOT be stronger than Mahoraga.
That would make Mahoraga feel pointless.
Mahoraga is still the strongest shikigami.
The difference is timing.
Dabura fought Mahoraga first.
Mahoraga forced him to burn through an absurd amount of power.
He's injured.
He's exhausted.
His output has dropped.
And NOW he's fighting something completely unfamiliar.
Mourning Tiger immediately enters tiger mode.
It doesn't even give Dabura the close-range fight he wants.
It runs.
Shadow projectile.
Dabura dodges.
Another.
Blocks.
Another.
The battlefield is slowly becoming covered in shadow.
Dabura realizes:
Wait.
The tiger is controlling where I can stand.
Then:
gone.
Mourning Tiger disappears into one of its own shadows.
Dabura turns.
Too late.
CLAW.
He gets launched.
Now we're cooking.
Dabura adapts to the tiger's fighting style.
Starts closing the distance.
Finally corners it.
And you think:
Okay.
Dabura figured it out.
Then Mourning Tiger stands up.
Humanoid mode
Imagine the panel.
Dabura looking upward.
Mourning Tiger now towering over him.
Standing on two legs.
Massive shoulders.
Claws hanging at its sides.
Tail behind it.
Completely calm.
No screaming.
No dramatic transformation speech.
Just:
Oh.
It can do that too.
And then it punches him in the fucking face.
Now the entire fight changes.
Dabura has spent all this time figuring out how to hunt the tiger.
Suddenly the tiger is boxing him.
And I want this fight to be BRUTAL.
No giant techniques every three seconds.
At this point both are damaged enough that we're basically watching two monsters beat the shit out of each other.
Dabura breaks one of Mourning Tiger's arms.
Tiger claws open Dabura's chest.
Dabura lands something devastating.
Mourning Tiger grabs him.
Shadow blast directly into his stomach.
Eventually...
Dabura wins.
Again.
Mourning Tiger falls.
And this is important:
Dabura went 2–0.
Mahoraga?
Dead.
Mourning Tiger?
Dead.
Dabura is an absolute fucking monster.
But look at him afterward.
He's barely standing.
Blood everywhere.
Body destroyed.
Output basically gone.
He physically cannot fight another battle.
Someone prepares to continue.
Dabura looks at them.
Looks around the battlefield.
And realizes:
It's over.
Not:
Humans were right ❤️
Not:
I have discovered friendship.
He just understands reality.
He won both of his fights.
But those fights took everything he had.
So Dabura accepts defeat.
I LOVE that.
He isn't defeated because someone stronger appeared.
He isn't nerfed.
He isn't suddenly stupid.
He proves how insanely powerful he is...
and Mahoraga + Mourning Tiger still successfully remove him from the board.
Maru and Tsurugi?
Tie.
Same philosophy.
Let them beat the absolute shit out of each other.
I don't need every matchup to give me an official power-scaling answer.
Maru looks like she's winning.
Tsurugi comes back.
Tsurugi looks like he's winning.
Maru comes back.
Eventually both prepare one final attack.
Both land.
Both collapse.
Neither can continue.
That's it.
Tie.
Now Reddit can argue about who actually would've won for the next fifteen years.
Perfect.
And now the war ends
Not because everyone suddenly loves each other.
Because nobody can fucking continue.
Dabura is finished.
Maru and Tsurugi are finished.
Yuki is badly injured.
Everyone has seen what happens if this escalates further.
So both sides finally stop.
Not peace.
Not yet.
Just:
Enough.
And honestly, that's much more believable to me.
A lot of conflicts don't end because everyone agrees.
They end because eventually everyone realizes continuing is worse.
Now negotiations begin.
And THIS is where the actual ending should start.
Yuki survives
Yuki is getting healed.
She's fucked up, obviously.
But she's alive.
And during this whole sequence we finally get an update about Yuji.
Yuji has effectively taken Tengen's place.
He's the new Tengen.
He's become part of the infrastructure holding jujutsu society together.
And that's it.
Please.
Yuji, it's done bro.
😭
Don't bring him back again.
I've never been a huge Yuji fan.
Even in original JJK, almost every side character interested me more.
Gojo.
Yuta.
Maki.
Todo.
Higuruma.
Megumi.
Toji.
Choso.
Sukuna.
The world around Yuji was always more interesting to me than Yuji himself.
And Modulo somehow made my problem worse.
Because now this motherfucker has EVERYTHING.
He's like 6'3-ish.
White Gojo-like hair.
Sukuna-like scars.
Sukuna's abilities.
Ridiculous physical strength.
Experience.
Presence.
Power.
Bro opened the JJK character creator and selected:
ALL LEGENDARY ITEMS.
Where are the flaws?
At some point he stopped feeling interesting to me.
So making him the new Tengen actually solves the problem perfectly.
He's important.
Extremely important.
Probably one of the most important people alive.
But he doesn't need to be in the next fight.
His story is done.
Let the world move past him.
But WHERE THE FUCK IS HIGURUMA?
THIS is someone I wanted an update on.
Higuruma might have one of my favourite techniques in the entire series.
And the crazy thing is how quickly he learned.
This dude had barely been a sorcerer and already had Deadly Sentencing.
So what does Higuruma look like after decades?
How far has he taken it?
Can he change the conditions?
Has his understanding of jujutsu completely transformed the Domain?
Has he become some legendary senior sorcerer?
Did he return to law?
Is this motherfucker arguing a constitutional case at 11 AM and exorcising a Special Grade at 3 PM?
I don't need ten chapters.
Give me two pages.
Just show him.
Let me see where that insane potential eventually went.
And then there's Ui Ui
Now we're entering the part of the ending where everything should start feeling slightly wrong.
Ui Ui finally gets his original body back.
He swaps his soul back.
Nice.
Resolution.
Except...
something came back with him.
His sister's technique.
At first everyone thinks it's some weird consequence of soul swapping.
Maybe cursed techniques leave information engraved into the soul.
Maybe spending enough time inside another body changes you permanently.
Interesting.
Then later we realize:
Ui Ui knew.
He intentionally brought it back.
Because Ui Ui and his sister have always had one of the weirdest relationships in this entire fucking universe.
So lean into it.
He loves his sister in a twisted way.
She loves him in her own twisted way.
And after literally inhabiting her body, Ui Ui becomes obsessed with the relationship between:
body,
soul,
identity,
and cursed technique.
He eventually returns to his original body.
But now:
Ui Ui has both techniques.
His own.
And hers.
That immediately creates a terrifying question.
If he can bring ONE technique back...
why only one?
And I would absolutely throw in one completely insane joke before making him terrifying.
Somebody finds Epstein's customer records.
Number one customer:
Ui Ui.
😭
I'm sorry.
Then immediately stop joking.
Because Ui Ui disappears.
And nobody knows what he's doing.
Now Lori
THIS is where I'd set up the next real ideological threat.
But Lori doesn't suddenly become evil.
No black cloak.
No:
I WILL DESTROY THE WORLD
bullshit.
Give Lori a friend.
Someone with a Future Sight cursed technique.
Not perfect future sight.
That would be stupidly overpowered.
They see possibilities.
Fragments.
Events.
Maybe probabilities.
And the further into the future they look, the less context they receive.
One day...
they see something.
We don't see it.
They tell Lori.
And Lori changes.
Not instantly.
Slowly.
He starts preparing.
Collecting people.
Collecting knowledge.
Building something.
Eventually Yuta and Maki discover what it is.
Lori is rebuilding the Zenin clan
Imagine telling MAKI this.
😭
She'd crash out immediately.
But here's what makes Lori interesting:
He doesn't think the old Zenin clan was good.
He thinks destroying the clans without replacing their useful functions was a mistake.
Technique preservation.
Training.
Knowledge.
Organization.
Protection.
Passing jujutsu knowledge between generations.
Lori's argument is basically:
The clans became corrupt. That doesn't mean the concept of organized sorcerer families was useless.
Maki obviously thinks this is fucking insane.
She destroyed the Zenin for a reason.
Lori tells her:
"You destroyed a family. You didn't destroy the reason families like it exist."
And now I want Yuta involved.
Because Yuta can actually understand parts of Lori's argument.
That's what makes the disagreement interesting.
Lori isn't 100% wrong.
Maki isn't 100% wrong.
Yuta isn't 100% sure.
And then Lori tells them something they don't know.
He has seen what's coming.
Or rather:
his friend has.
Something happens in the future.
And according to Lori, jujutsu society as it currently exists is completely unprepared.
That's why he's rebuilding.
He isn't trying to restore Naoya.
He isn't nostalgic for the old Zenin.
He believes he's creating the institution humanity will need next.
And maybe...
he's right.
That's the scary part.
Give Lori some absolutely ridiculous technique
If this guy is becoming one of the next major antagonists, don't give him:
BIG PUNCH 2.
Give him something weird.
Something where the first time you hear the explanation you're like:
Okay?
And then you watch him use it intelligently and realize:
OH THIS IS FUCKED.
I don't even want the ending to completely explain it.
Just show Yuta and Maki realizing Lori has become MUCH stronger than they expected.
And more importantly:
people are following him.
That's when Lori stops being one dangerous sorcerer.
He becomes political.
A movement.
An ideology.
The new Zenin clan isn't five people in a house.
It's growing.
Now give me the happy ending
And I mean ACTUALLY happy.
I want humans and Simurians living on each other's planets.
Not just diplomats.
Normal people.
Human students studying there.
Simurian researchers living on Earth.
Businesses.
Technology exchange.
Jujutsu exchange.
Friendships.
Relationships.
Mixed families.
Kids growing up around both species and thinking absolutely nothing of it.
Show me ten pages of this.
Make me believe it worked.
Make me think:
Okay.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe this actually IS the happy ending.
Then turn the page.
Politics
Human politician:
"We welcomed them as guests. Now they expect to shape our future."
Crowd cheering.
Oh.
Next page.
Simurian politician:
"Humans call it cooperation. Look how quickly they expand wherever they're welcomed."
Crowd cheering.
OH.
There it is.
Because of course.
Did everyone seriously think two civilizations would meet and prejudice would disappear?
Bro.
Give humans another intelligent species and we'll invent new slurs before lunch.
So show me both.
Human + Simurian children playing.
Then an anti-Simurian protest.
A human and Simurian scientist making a breakthrough together.
Then someone vandalizing a Simurian-owned business.
A mixed couple.
Then a politician demanding immigration restrictions.
A human moving permanently to their planet.
A Simurian politician demanding restrictions on humans.
Friendship.
Hatred.
Love.
Fear.
Trade.
Nationalism.
Curiosity.
Everything.
THAT is coexistence.
Not perfect.
Not doomed.
Messy.
And meanwhile...
Lori is rebuilding the Zenin.
Quietly.
Recruiting.
Training.
Collecting techniques.
Preparing for whatever his friend saw.
And Ui Ui?
Missing.
Someone finally finds where he's been working.
Bodies.
Experiments.
Soul research.
Technique research.
We don't completely understand what we're looking at.
Then Ui Ui appears.
Original body.
Uses his technique.
Then his sister's.
Confirmation.
He has both.
Someone asks:
"How many techniques can one soul hold?"
Ui Ui looks at them.
Smiles.
Cut away.
DON'T ANSWER IT.
The final pages
Now give me the fucking cliffhanger.
Earth and the Simurian planet are connected.
People travel between them.
Most ordinary people genuinely want peace.
Yuki is recovering.
Maru survived.
Tsurugi survived.
Dabura survived.
The immediate crisis is over.
For a moment:
everything looks okay.
Then Maki receives a message.
She reads it.
Her expression changes.
Yuta:
"What?"
She hands him the message.
We don't see it.
Cut.
Earth.
Politician giving an anti-Simurian speech.
Thousands cheering.
Cut.
Simurian planet.
Politician giving an anti-human speech.
Thousands cheering.
Cut.
Children from both civilizations playing together.
They don't care.
Cut.
New Zenin compound.
Modern.
Different.
Nothing like the old compound.
But the symbol is unmistakable.
Zenin.
Sorcerers everywhere.
Training.
Organizing.
Preparing.
Lori stands looking over them.
His future-reading friend approaches.
Lori asks:
"How long?"
Pause.
"Not long enough."
That's it.
Don't explain what they saw.
Cut.
Ui Ui.
Unknown location.
He activates his own technique.
Then his sister's.
Then...
something else.
A third phenomenon.
Ui Ui stops.
Even HE wasn't expecting it.
He looks at his hand.
Smiles.
Cut.
Earth at night.
Simurian ships moving overhead.
Nobody even looks anymore.
They're normal.
Human walking beside Simurian.
Restaurant packed with both.
Someone arguing.
Someone laughing.
Someone kissing.
Someone protesting.
Someone selling something.
Life.
Narration:
The war ended.
Lori.
The struggle for power didn't.
Ui Ui.
The old jujutsu world died.
The new Zenin compound.
The ideas that created it didn't.
Human politician.
Simurian politician.
Two civilizations discovered they weren't alone.
Children playing together.
Now they had to decide whether they could actually live together.
Final spread.
Earth.
The Simurian planet.
People from both species now living on both.
Trade routes connecting them.
Two worlds becoming intertwined.
And somewhere inside that enormous new civilization:
Lori knows something about the future.
Ui Ui is becoming something nobody understands.
We don't know what Lori saw.
We don't know what Ui Ui discovered.
We don't know whether the new Zenin clan becomes something better than the old one.
We don't know whether humans and Simurians eventually become one civilization.
We don't know whether they eventually go to war.
Maybe Lori saves everyone.
Maybe Lori becomes the reason everything falls apart.
Maybe Ui Ui is about to completely change what a cursed technique even means.
Maybe humans and Simurians figure it out.
Maybe they don't.
Final panel.
Human child.
Simurian child.
Looking at Earth together.
One asks:
"Do you think it'll last?"
The other looks at everything happening around them.
Long pause.
"I don't know."
END
BRO.
THAT'S WHAT I WANTED.
Don't bring Yuji back again.
Yuji, it's done bro.
Don't invent another random stronger alien.
Don't resolve every fucking relationship.
Don't tell me who becomes strongest.
Don't tell me humanity solved prejudice.
Give me Mahoraga dying.
Give me Mourning Tiger walking out of its shadow.
Give me Tiger Mode firing shadow energy across the battlefield.
Give me Humanoid Mode standing up like fucking Battle Beast and beating the shit out of Dabura.
Give me Dabura defeating BOTH and being so brutally injured afterward that he physically can't continue.
Give me Maru and Tsurugi tying.
Give me Higuruma.
Give me Ui Ui doing horrifying soul shit.
Give me Lori rebuilding the fucking Zenin clan while Maki is still alive to watch it happen.
Give me Yuta and Maki arguing with him because Lori's ideology actually makes enough sense to be dangerous.
Give me humans and Simurians living together.
Give me politicians trying to tear them apart.
Give me kids who don't understand why their parents hate each other.
Give me progress.
Give me regression.
Give me hope.
Give me reasons to think that hope might be completely misplaced.
Because the best final villain doesn't need to fall out of the sky.
The next problems are already here.
Lori.
Ui Ui.
Politics.
Power.
Fear.
The clans.
The consequences of combining two civilizations.
The heroes won.
They genuinely won.
They saved people.
They stopped the war.
They gave everyone a chance.
But a chance is all they won.
Maybe everything works.
Maybe it doesn't.
Don't fucking tell me.
Close the manga.
Let me wonder.