Vulnerability - Blog Posts

Im writing an expanded essay from my post about Love, Vulnerability and Blindfolds in jjk.

I need help answering these questions

Love

What is love?

How is love seen in (mainstream) society?

How is love thought of by allo people (people who're not a-spec)?

How is love thought of by a-spec people?

How is love represented in jjk?

What do the characters of jjk think of love?

What do they say about it?

Blindfolds

What is a blindfold?

What does it do?

How is it used?

Who wears them?

Why are they important?

Who do the characters of jjk associate blindfolds with?

Why is it/that character important?

Vulnerability

What does it mean to be vulnerable?

How does mainstream society see vulnerability?

Who seems to be (the most) vulnerable in society/jjk?

What does the protag/mento Gojo Satoru think of vulnerability?

What does Ryomen Sukuna think if vulnerability?

What does he do when faced with vulnerability?

Has he ever been vulnerable before?

Answer any and all questions youd like. I'm just gonna write an extended essay on the topic

Do you dislike me?

Is the question that won’t stop pervading my heart. My senses. My rationality. Slowly disintegrating my internal defenses.

Stoic. That’s what I used to think I was. But I don’t know how I can appear that way. Whenever my gaze settles on you, I can feel all sense of logic start to decay.

I might seem like a pervert, But I’ve been looking at you. No matter how many times I try to find fault, I end up falling deeper – what a fool.

I don’t have time for a relationship.

There’s so many, too many Barriers in the way. But my thoughts of you, of us, They seem to hold far too much sway.

You’re so out of my league, But still, my delusional mind, Can’t help but imagine what it’d be like To have our fingers intertwined.

You and I can’t manage. Won’t manage. We won’t have any time.

What am I saying? Why do I assume you’ll say ‘yes?’ It’s unreciprocated, where I know you are for whom I pine.

I’m hanging on your every word. And I know this isn’t great or healthy. But I keep thinking about you, And it turns my legs into jelly.

After a year of thinking, Of squirming, All this aching and burning. I’m finally readily admitting.

I’m absolutely smitten with you.

✦•····························································•✦•····························································•✦

Whumpee, after miraculously surviving a WEEK of being held captive, suffering unimaginable torture and trauma being dropped off, literally dropped off - limp and lifeless on the ground outside caretaker's home.

Caretaker, who has been worried sick while whumpee was missing, discovering the mess they're left in. Calling out all their housemates to help check for a pulse and gently pull whumpee indoors and care for them.

Questioning Butterlfies

“After the determined caterpillar climbs its heights and death defyingly dangles from its limbs and commits to a CrossFit Games effort to cocoon itself… there is nothing to say that its cocooned transformation is painless. In a state too vulnerable for the everyday elements it exists in, left with a shield like barrier and itself, it submits itself to a process that literally resculpts its entire being. And there is no evidence that it just slumbers peacefully; or basks - spa like - im a sauna of in-depth and intrinsic and intimate transformation. Physically and mentally. This being is being equipped to fly. One, that could only walk, is now expected to be adept to and have the awareness of one whose means of transports is inexperienced and virtually unfathomable. And there is no evidence that this transformation is painless. As such, I no longer imagine or anticipate my transformative moments or years to be pleasant, or calm, or comfortable. I now prepare for the fears of vulnerability; the burns of recasting my metaphorical heart; the blunt traumas of forced change; the spasms of exhaustion; the fatigue of trying to understand and link past, through my present into my future. And there is no promise that I can even fathom the awareness, comprehension, and/or the innate instinct that i will become. I wish that I could ask the transforming caterpillar: ‘What keeps you going? Do you even know what a butterfly is? Do you even want to change?’ Because I have been burdened, I have climbed and begun to cocoon myself (out of instinct, off of reaction) and amidst being fully committed to seeing this transformation through - I’m finding myself vastly under-aware and under-prepared… and that is slowly becoming okay. I remind myself to, ‘Trust your Nature’... and then… forcefully Trust my Nature , again… until I have transcended form - anew.” - Pati3ntWo1f (09132019)

Via Brendan Durrell ☯️

Longing is not a wound, it’s a sign of your humanity ☯️

Honesty in your vulnerability takes strength, courage & an understanding that everything you feel is ok at any point in time. Whether we know it or not we can sense when someone isn't being honest & it's then when a sense of energetic separation between us begins to occur.

@soulsmileyoga

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Whenever I wait for you

whenever I wait for you, you never show. whenever you say you wanted to talk, you never ask.

whenever I asked for you to be there, you never came.

whenever I gave you a gift, I never got one. whenever I made time for you, you were too busy.

and maybe— i do this to myself because i hate myself. maybe i'm just meant to be unloved by people i want to love me. maybe i just overthink every little thing, and at the end of it all i'm just not meant to be with you.

I bare myself under the light of the moon.

Vulnerable, open, I give you my all.

The Thimble of an Elf

I wear a thimble to protect me from blows I can't see the enemy, But I got to fight anyway I suppose.

My thimble's a bit battered Worn down by old wounds I might need to get a new one Till then this will do.

My kingdom depends on me I guess so, Haven't heard from them in many moons.

I fight, waving about a needle I feel the enemy's presence They wonder why I haven't given up hope.

I cut down through a couple of bushes And there are the foes standing tall They don't look all that scary Just a bit tired, that's all.

I recognize them I think I've heard their voices before I take off my thimble Strangely soothed by their song.

They say they're my demons Trying to help me find a better end I believe them For they are my only friends.

They accept me, make me feel safe, So much so, without my thimble I still feel brave.

I don't think I'll go back to the kingdom For the foes are now my friends No matter what someone says I'll stay with them till the end.

“Loneliness does not come from having no people around one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”

— Carl Jung

People always think you gain trust first and then you’re vulnerable with people. But the truth is, you can’t really earn trust over time with people without being somewhat vulnerable first.

Brene Brown (via samxcamargo)

being soft, gentle and warm is a different kind of radical. the ability to allow yourself to be vulnerable is very powerful

Nights vulnerability...

The night, in my opinion is beautifully and wonderfully vulnerable. It is like a woman, spread out, waiting to be devoured. As a woman, spread out and waiting to be devoured, every whisper is like a shout, and every touch is intensified that even the most feather like touch will leave you gasping and aching for more, arching and pleading for some kind of connection. Night is honest in its utter silence and reserve. Even though the world is dark, you have to open your eyes and be focused, and let your eyes adjust to the majesty. As the creatures of the night come out to prowl, there is a presence, allowing for the hunt, the vulnerability of spirit, allowing truth to be set free. Freedom comes at 2 AM, when happiness is abound, and feet ache from wandering aimlessly, that they take you to refuge in the comfort of home where Morpheus wraps his arms around you, welcoming you to heaven. The day comes, a respite for night, until vulnerability is upon us again, promising passion, love, and honesty.

She learned to carry her softness like armor. Not as weakness, but as proof she made it through.

Georg Wilson (British, 1998) - Spring Usher (2025)

~ Do not show weakness, do not expose yourself. Not everyone can handle your soft side. Not everyone meant to see it. Most people would only use it against you. Harden your shell and do not wear the content of your mind and heart on your sleeve.

/ Look at what you've turned me into! /

submissive Musing | Vulnerability

submissive Musing | Vulnerability

submissive Musing | Vulnerability ~Little Kaninchen~ What is a “muse” you ask…. Well most think of it as a thought or a period of reflection. I want to share some submissive thoughts that are sure to inspire other subs out there to think upon their D/s-M and their submission. What does it mean to be vulnerable? Definition, easily hurt or harmed physically, mentally, or emotionally. To be open to…

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Thank you for writing this.

Naturally we all know that this in no way excuses August's literal crimes he's committed against other children, and simultaneously I do think the context is important. Abusers don't just *poof* materialize out of nowhere -- they're created and made by the influences / forces around them. (And then the newly-created abuser is responsible for the choices they make and actions they take afterwards, of course).

I've actually been thinking about the trauma August has experienced (at Hillerska + pre-Hillerska) a lot, ever since Young Royals season 1. We had two striking examples there of times August was about to try and open up (strangely to Wille, of all people) before being immediately cut off and ignored.

First example, S1E4: After the Society initiation for Wilhelm, before he ends up on the football field. August and Wille are outside peeing, and Wille is intoxicatedly expressing his guilt, grief, and conflicted feelings to August after his brother's death. August begins to open up as well, saying he *too* felt guilty after his father's death (suicide) and that he was somehow to blame. He doesn't even get to finish that sentence before drunken Wille cuts him off mid-thought. The look on August's face at that point is one that always cuts me to my core & brings me sorrow.

The second time was in S1E6, after August had already uploaded the video. Wille knew about it, but didn't know it was August's doing. In either a show of remorse, or as a kind of play-acting fakeness, August shows up to Wilhelm's room to offer him (fake or genuine?) consolation and advice. He begins to thank Wille for helping him with he tuition fees before Wilhelm cuts him off and says (essentially) that no one will ever be as helpful as Erik and he'd rather be talking to him, hearing Erik's advice. This isn't technically a "rehashing of trauma" moment at all -- but it is a moment where August was about to show vulnerability to someone who helped him, and August isn't used to being helped. Both of his parents abandoned him: his father to death, and his mother to Hillerska. Now this little cousin he's been hazing and betraying actually does something kind for him -- and he isn't able to access sufficient airspace to acknowledge it and share a moment of gratitude. Wilhelm never acknowledges that he heard August at all. His face, again, seems to communicate something really complicated and dejected then.

All this is to say -- I've just been spending a lot of time trying to understand August and meditating on the complicated, conflicting ways he shows up, and especially about his relationship to vulnerability. Not in order to forgive him! The crime he committed was truly evil and inexcusable. But I do want to understand. I want to know. How did he come to be this way? Where did all of this evolve from? And he always really fascinates me for these reasons.

August's story is not "good boy turned bad at Hillerska" but something so much more complicated.

I've been thinking a lot about August and the revelations in S3. About how Erik and co played an even bigger role in his indoctrination and development into a toxic mess of a young man than I had imagined - but how it's also important to remember that didn't happen in a vacuum.

The new information doesn't cancel out the old, it just completes it.

August will have still grown up in the highly patriarchal, misogynist, elitist system of the aristocracy, with a very specific view of the world and his place in it. Idolising his father, whose tux he is fittingly wearing when he gets "awarded" the bad boy trophy. A man who taught him by example that death was preferable to failure - and seemingly turned him against his mother, as we could infer from S1E3. A mother who then essentially dumped him off at Hillerska after his father's death and left him feeling like the only woman in his life failed to support them both.

It's precisely these kinds of views, values and experiences from his early life that will have primed him for the culture of abuse at Hillerska (which his father will have also attended back in the day). Made him so desperate for the older boys' approval, vulnerable to their abuse, and susceptible to the awful patterns they impressed upon him. Erik and the others' part in messing him up is horrible and bigger than we thought, but that doesn't cancel out his parents' part any more than his own victimhood excuses his victimisation of others. He's got many intersecting and partially overlapping cycles to break, and I really hope we see him take more steps down that road on Monday.

I may write a longer meta post on him after the finale. For now, though, I'm just going to engage in some shameless self-promo and point to my old analysis post with more thoughts on his upbringing and worldview as well as the backstory one-shot I wrote in the run-up to S3. (It's set two and a half years before his arrival at Hillerska and focuses on his father's horrible influence, as well as his parents' marriage as a possible model for his seemingly contradicting views of women and romance. It remains compatible with canon apart from a few details - please check the tags for content warnings, though).