u/Deep-Management6567

For this one I'll be talking about something that still somehow causes confusion in the fandom. Even now I still see people asking why Gojo didn't just kill the higher ups years earlier. The answer is actually pretty simple, and I hope my post can clear up any possible and future confusions.

The first thing people need to understand is that Gojo was never trying to solve the problems of jujutsu society by brute forcing it.

This is something that the story goes out of its way to tell us. When Gojo talks about changing the world, his solution is never "I'll kill everyone in charge." In fact, he explicitly rejects that idea himself. As Gojo says himself, it would be easy to kill everyone who's in charge. The problem is that somebody else just like them would just take their place and no meaningful change will haven been created.

That line is arguably one of the most important statements in understanding Gojo's character in regard to his desires for the future.

A lot of people both in universe and out continue to view Gojo merely as an overwhelmingly powerful sorcerer who should simply force the world to obey him, but that's exactly the kind of mindset he opposes. Gojo understands that lasting change cannot be created by one strong individual beating everyone else into submission.

Even if he killed every conservative leader in jujutsu society, the system that created them would still exist. New leaders would emerge, inherit the same beliefs, and continue the same cycle.

Gojo's answer to this problem is education. That’s fundamentally why he decided to become an educator of young sorcerers.

A lot of people treat Gojo teaching at Tokyo Jujutsu High as something he does on the side, but it’s arguably the most important thing he’s ever does. After all, his goal is to create a generation of sorcerers who are strong collectively and capable of surpassing the current system.

Thus, rather than forcing change from the top down, he wants change to occur naturally through the people who will eventually inherit the future.

This is why he places so much faith in characters like Yuji, Yuta, Hakari, Megumi, Todo, and the rest of his students. They aren’t simply a powerful generation of sorcerers. They’re the bedrock for the jujutsu society that he wants to create.

Gojo understands something that many people criticizing this aspect of the story don’t seem to themselves, that real change itself must be cultural before it can become political.

After all, if the next generation rejects the values of the old system, then the system eventually dies. However, if the next generation embraces those conservative values, then killing a few leaders accomplishes nothing meaningful.

This all ties into the reason Gojo killed the higher ups after being unsealed. Which is that the situation had fundamentally changed.

Afterall, by that point the old jujutsu society had essentially collapsed.

The higher ups had ordered Yuji's execution, killed his teacher, tormented sorcerers he protected and supported decisions that directly contributed to chaos throughout Japan, and completely failed in their responsibility to lead during the Culling Game crisis.

More importantly though, Gojo had already spent years building the next generation he believed in. His students were no longer just potential successors. They had become capable of standing on their own without requiring his protection.

The true difference is that before, killing the higher ups would’ve been an attempt to force change through violence. But after his unsealing, the old system was already falling apart and the new generation were ready to step up and take their place.

At that point removing the higher ups was less about forcing change and more about clearing away the remnants of an old failed system.

TLDR: Gojo didn’t spend years refusing to kill the higher ups because he lacked the power or capabilities to do it, he didn’t do it because he wanted to create something to replace what was already there.