![[Casual] These two characters were severely robbed in order for the plot to lazily progress](https://preview.redd.it/8h5uz392o6hh1.jpeg?auto=webp&s=28cec3e9da3a7885091bf496cad88533cd5c01c1)
[Casual] These two characters were severely robbed in order for the plot to lazily progress
While it should be no surprise to anyone at this point that the Dagon predicament is full of Gege boiling straight shit in a kettle, one thing that bothers me in specific is how it just completely jumps what should've been very natural and sensible powerups for these two characters, who also just so happen to be some of the most overlooked characters period in the entire series as far as that aspect of growth goes. Besides just adding more to their arsenal and helping them keep up in a powerscaling sense, it also would've made the fight SO much more interesting and engaging than the dogshit we were handed because Gege felt it was time to wrap Shibuya up.
There is absolutely no reason for why Megumi wouldn't have tamed Round Deer by this point in the story. We are picking up almost 2 months after the events of Yasohachi Bridge, where Megumi was faced with a direct mortality risk to his sister, had a 1 on 1 encounter with a Special Grade Curse which he won, almost died, and had a huge mentality shift thinking back to his conversation with Gojo and pivoting more towards rivalling Yuji rather than just complimenting him. All of this lead to him within that very arc to cast a Domain Expansion, even if it may have been incomplete. This is something basically no one of his level could ever even dream about doing.
Prior to this point, Megumi had tamed 6 out of the 10 Shikigami of 10S. You're telling me that the Megumi that was willing to give up his life at the earliest convenience managed to tame everything up to Max Elephant without Totality, proved to himself that Totality was enough for the bigger boys by taming Max Elephant in GWE, and then after everything he went through during the Death Paintings Arc, hunted every rabbit for Rabbit Escape and... called it a day? Maybe Piercing Ox and Tiger Funeral would've been too much as they also have (presumably for the latter) offensive capabilities, but all Round Deer does is expel RCT and make Cursed Tools unstable. Megumi could have up to 3 Shikigami active by GWE, and somehow he never considered leaving his sword at home, casting Chimera Shadow Garden and hitting Round Deer with Totality, Nue and Max Elephant just to crush it and add it to its arsenal? It does not follow with his character development at all, especially considering the fact that he did go out of his way to tame something following that arc, that being Rabbit Escape. So he just arbitrarily decided to stop there and return back to his previous self?
Nanami on the other hand really should have learned Simple Domain by this point in the story. It makes sense why he doesn't have it from the start of the series; domains are hardly common, you literally pay for SD with your life, and he believes in only exerting as much effort as is required, no more. However, since the start of the series we have seen the manifestation of 3 visibly interconnected intelligent curses, all 3 of which have confirmed Domain Expansions, all 3 of which have intended to or successfully have compromised the safety of children in said DEs, which we know is a soft spot for Nanami. The third one actually had Yuji entering a domain without knowing what it was specifically to save Nanami, putting a child in imminent danger directly because of Nanami's incompetence.
Yes, it is a convoluted technique (in lack of better words), but in practice Ui Ui and Miwa have had no issue learning it after accepting the vow, and hell Todo and Mechamaru are shown to have learned it just by witnessing how other people do it. I'm sure Nanami could at the very least have learned to cast a basic SD without Miwa-like Binding Vows, even if he wouldn't be able to do all the other sword drawings someone like Kusakabe can. Ultimately, it just doesn't track with his character at all to not have learned SD after recent events; he should have learned it the minute he recovered from the Mahito Arc, but there was literally no reason as to why he wouldn't after Gojo's illegitimate promotion of his students to Grade 1. Nanami's paternal feelings towards young sorcerers should really need no introductions, but they also show themselves in his professional life; he's the only Grade 1 we see involved in an active promotion campaign (Ino), he takes up Megumi for Shibuya making him the only Grade 1 to enter Shibuya with two promoted students instead of one (Naobito too I guess but he's clearly only there for Maki), and later treats Yuji as part of his group after he departs from Mei Mei. It's just absolutely idiotic to think that same Nanami would be going around without a smidge of anti-domain protection after getting word that every enemy worth their salt now has a domain.
With those two simple changes we could've gotten a Dagon fight that looked more like an actual fight and less like a rush commission to end as many characters still present in Shibuya at once as possible. If the fight begins with Nanami having SD, now Dagon faces three enemies that can fend off his surehit. In this scenario the tide still shifts majorly in Dagon's favor but it's not like he just presses a magical "I Win" button by drawing on his chest, as he now has to deal with each enemy independently, taking into account that the unattended two would be able to apply pressure. Even if all this does is buy time, it literally takes Megumi ~1-2 minutes to make it to the domain and turn off the surehit going off of how much time Dagon says Nanami spends in the surehit.
And let's not forget that Nanami getting SD wouldn't have been the only change! Any damages they might've sustained, which would've been FAR less than what they got in the manga, could have been patched up by Round Deer. That could've come as simply as just allowing the group's initial plan of leaving to work, but I think a domain tug of war would've been infinitely more interesting. Dagon would've sustained damages of his own in this scenario, and we could've seen a battle of attrition between the two sides running on fumes until there's enough of Megumi's domain overlaying Dagon's where he can cast Shikigami, showing us Round Deer for the first time, healing the sorcerers and having the tables turn once again. All of a sudden, not only are the stakes that much higher but we don't need Toji to run in and save the day with his epic aura anymore do we?
But we had to let all that go because Gege decided he let his beautiful husband leave too early, and had most likely made up his mind on both killing Yuji's mentor figure and showing us Mahoraga before Shibuya had even began getting published, without paying much mind as to how he would achieve either of those things coherently. W toji winter arc aura moment