@SolarDTM: short thread on my theory of i...

short thread on my theory of ioris disappearance (which is honestly very textually grounded)🧵

I'm going to begin this by saying I dont think Iori was in a Toji situation here whatsoever, we have to consider the fact his parents were loving and he definitely had their admiration, yet I still do think the Gojo Clan had somewhat of an influence on his life (especially since he likely went to school)

That being said, inheritance in jjk is a big thing, namely to children of the Zenin and Gojo clans. Iori in the intersection of two important clans (one eradicated now) makes it clear that his skills would be neccessary to the betterment of the clans hes involved within.

In addition, its also worth noting the genetic brutality of JJK, Yuta has a great cursed technique, as well as an ancestor from a millennium ago giving him crazy boosts. Furthermore, Yuta's an atavism, meaning he contains reappearance of a lost ancestral characteristic

Maki, as we know, is also quite statistically rare, a twin, no cursed technique and heavenly restricted, by logic she is anomalous and is strong because she fits outside of Jujutsu Logic.

So how does this relate to Iori? basically we know nothing of Iori's cursed technique, but due to the fact both of his parents are statistically rare, we can assume he probably got something that is weak or something that wouldn't be useful to sorcery in general

We also know that he believes his generation of sorceres are weaker than his parents.

Not saying that it's impossible for him to have a busted technique, but its highly likely that if he did he would actually be present within the story (and likely making sure society is still in tact, similar to yuji)

but lack of a great curseds technique would make something clearer:

If he only manifested an average or highly limited technique, his deep-seated depression and obsession with generational weakness make perfect sense. He felt like a genetic failure.

His fixation on cursed techniques almost feels like an insecurity, and when you center your life around insecurity something bad happens.

So now we get into interesting terrority, which is the actual theory.

Basically, i believe Iori disappeared because his daughter (Yuka) inherited ten shadows and he saw that his children could forge a path he couldn't, something he was obsessed over greatly and allowed to eat away his life.

The moment his daughter Yuka is born and immediately manifests the legendary Ten Shadows Technique, he likely felt extremely conflicted.

Instead of feeling joy, his logic likely viewed her insane talent as proof of his own irrelevance.

He didn't just leave out of spite; he likely believed a child destined for amazing power didn't need a mediocre father holding her back. He fulfilled his biological purpose of passing on a top-tier technique, and then he removed himself from the equation.

This completely recontextualizes that final conversation with Yuji, his saying "It Doesn't Matter" is likely him reassuring Iori that genetic luck does not define your worth, and Iori completely misunderstood.

He took Yuji's words to mean his own life and presence didn't matter, prompting him to vanish into the ruins of Tokyo.

So what do I think? I think Iori let his insecurity affect him deeply, I honestly do generally believe this is a very human touch to JJK if it is true, and its a beautifully tragic explaination on why he would just up and leave (and why it made his family extremely sad)

Iori's essentially an inversion of Toji, rather than having zero cursed energy, hated the sorcery world, and abandoned his kid because of his own trauma. Iori had a great sense of duty, took himself incredibly seriously, and desperately wanted to stand proud as an Okkotsu-Zenin powerhouse.

When he realized his own limitations and saw Yuka inherit a legendary technique like the Ten Shadows, his pride completely shattered. He convinced himself his entire purpose was just to act as a biological stepping stone for a greater generation, choosing to walk away

Another angle is that instead of leaving because he believed he was irrelevant, he may have left because he became convinced that his obsession with strength itself was harming his family
In other words:
- He spends years comparing himself to his parents
- He becomes fixated on bloodline and talent
- He sees those same ideas beginning to affect his relationship with his children
- He leaves because he thinks his worldview is poisonous

This explains why his diligence may have been "his very undoing," because his dilligence leads him to overthinking and comparing himself to two anomalies while he was a normal kid with no special traits

To conclude, I think this is honestly a very great touch to the legacy inheritance aspect of JJK and what Modulo is trying to do with the future of generations, I think overall its really neat and makes Iori sadly very human, most people will compare themselves to their parents if they happen to be extremely successful and one-of-a-kind, they'll always want to try and meet their levels to the point that their entire life goal feels like a mission of doing so, when he saw his daughter had ten shadows it likely felt like a slap in the face to him

extra: people also like to theorize how Iori likely has a foresight ability and that would likely be an interesting aspect if thats how he knew she had it or not since it manifests after the age of five or six apparently, it would make this theory definitely more fatalistic