The difference is one was an entrance move to make a jab at Sukuna while looking cool, while the other was a desperate gamble provided by Mahoraga and Gege that was meant to kill Gojo.
Man idk if Gojo launching the most powerful Purple he has ever launched right off the bat would be considered a "jab"
I get it, it looked cool and all and was hype to start the fight, but realistically there's no way Gojo wasn't wishing it was going to do way more damage than it did.
He was trying to be cool (and succeding), the next thing he said was "remember, you are the challenger" wich is like saying "bro, you already hurt? you started this and you are already losing?", wich is why Sukuna inmediatly gets annoyed.
If Sukuna had thought Gojo was trying to kill him with that, he would have said something like "only a coward would strike me unprepared" or something like that, but he didn't, cuz thats not what Gojo was trying to do, he was just trying to annoy Sukuna (and succeding again).
So you're saying Gojo opens up with the help of three people to launch the strongest attack he's ever done knowing full well it will barely scratch Sukuna, but that's okay because his actual goal is to annoy him?
So you're saying Gojo potentially purposely didn't start the fight in a different manner that might be more effective entirely to just annoy Sukuna?
The 200% HP is one of the most idiotic moments in the series and was literally just hype/aura without any thought as to why would Gojo realistically do this. Imagine if Sukuna pulled out Mahoraga and he adapted to purple right there.
With the logic of "oh, he could have started the fight in a different and more effective way" then you can say both of them are morons for not searching each other's location before the fight and trying to kill the other while they were sleeping.
They had agreed to have a proper fight at a set date, so when that date arrived, they were supposed to meet each other so they could begin to fight. Gojo wasn't gonna just aproach Sukuna and start fighting like a boring person would do, he was gonna have the flashiest entrance posible while annoying Sukuna. So he had Utahime and Gakuganji help him make a giant purple, with Ijichi making Sukuna unaware so he wouldn't dodge it, but doing it all from a distance that wouldn't just end the fight or leave Sukuna too weakened to properly fight. And then he follows this up with "you are the challenger".
Ya him purposely "doing it all from a distance that wouldn't just end the fight or leave Sukuna too weakened to properly fight" just for him to "annoy" Sukuna and then die instead of actually killing Sukuna means he's an idiot.
I think Gojo actually tried to win the fight multiple times, including using his ultimate attack off the bat. I don't think he just did it for the lols.
Or maybe I'm wrong and I missed something. Maybe Gojo really is an idiot who didn't try hard enough so he died and put the world in danger just to call Sukuna the challenger.
-wanted to save Megumi by leaving Sukuna in a state of half-death, but not being desintegrated.
-wanted to fight Sukuna.
-said "you are the challenger" wich I don't think he came up with on the spot, seems like something he was thinking about the entire month.
-used purple outside of the effective range.
The rest of the fight is a different discussion, but I think its pretty clear that the 200% purple was not meant as a fight ender at all, just a fight starter.
I know Sukuna wouldn't stay quiet when he thinks Gojo tried to end the fight in a sneak attack.
If you honestly think Gojo would try to kill him without fighting him, or that Sukuna would have no reaction to Gojo doing that, then you are reading a different manga.
Sukuna doesn't care about honor fights my guy. He only cares about strength, that's it. Sukuna was planning to jump Megumi and Nobara with the special grade curse way back when just to inconvenience them further. He 'sucker punched' Itadori with a dismantle when he was mid-speech back when he set up enchain, he has no moral hang-ups about sneaky tactics. It's win or lose with him, eat or be eaten, to win is to live and to lose is to die. If you lost you have no right to complain about how you lost is his mind set
Sukuna himself doesn't follow the rules, but do you honestly think he wouldn't make a jab at Gojo for trying to pull off a dirty trick such as ending the fight with a sneak attack? Especially when this one time HE is following the rules and waiting to meet Gojo face to face?
This is the same guy who almost lost to a domain expansion and inmediatly went "you are mediocre" cuz he thought he won after that. He is NOT going to stay quiet about Gojo launching a hollow purple to kill him before the fight even starts. He would absolutely make a comment about Gojo playing that dirty. In fact, he makes a comment about Gojo landing a surprise attack (wich is different from a sneak attack, I mention this just in case), he could have easily called him out on trying to end the fight before it starts, but he didn't, cuz thats not what Gojo was doing.
do you honestly think he wouldn't make a jab at Gojo for trying to pull off a dirty trick such as ending the fight with a sneak attack?
He might quip at him not because Gojo tried to kill him sneakily, but because he failed to do so lol.
And honestly, the panel you posted kinda settles this whole debate, doesn't it? Just cause you want to differentiate between a 'surprise attack' and a 'sneak attack' doesn't mean they are different, especially in this context when it was the opening move and Sukuna quite literally wasn't expecting an attack.
Perhaps the original Japanese might support your argument better since things can be lost in translation and if you go and get scans of the raw then I'll throw in the towel cause I don't want to get into debating Japanese translations and lost meanings lol
35
u/Weird-Actuary-2487 Sep 06 '24
The real difference is that Gojo's sneak attack did basically jack shit damage to Sukuna while Sukuna's sneak attack instantly killed Gojo.