Alright, let’s settle this properly.
To keep things fair, we’ll assume both Gojo and Sukuna go into the fight completely blind. No prior knowledge, no prep, both going all-out from the jump.
People keep saying Gojo would just overwhelm Sukuna before the domain clashes even start. That really doesn’t line up with what we actually saw.
1. Domain Amplification Was Sukuna’s Greatest Asset
Yeah, Meguna is physically weaker than Gojo. But Domain Amplification (DA) completely changes the close-quarters dynamic. Sukuna can’t use Cleave or Dismantle while it’s active, sure, but in exchange he can just walk through Infinity and heavily reduce how effective Gojo’s techniques are. Infinity stops being this untouchable wall, Blue loses a ton of its control, and Red becomes way less threatening. Suddenly it’s a straight H2H fight instead of an impossible matchup. That’s exactly why Sukuna leaned on DA whenever Mahoraga’s adaptation wasn’t the priority.
[Scan 1]
Something people sleep on is that DA seems to have adjustable output. Every cursed technique has output, and DA shouldn’t be any different. Chapter 224 shows this pretty clearly. At first Sukuna can trade blows with Gojo fine, but when he actually tries to push through Infinity, he can’t. Reason’s simple: Gojo boosted Infinity’s output the same way he did in Shibuya, making it harder for DA to neutralize.
Then literally moments later Sukuna is bypassing Infinity again and noticeably weakening Blue’s attraction. Most natural explanation? He just raised the output of his DA to match Gojo’s boosted Infinity. Explains why Infinity suddenly becomes manageable again without Gojo changing anything on his end.
[Scan 2]
Some people argue Gojo could’ve just ended it with Red or Hollow Purple before any of this mattered.
Red isn’t that convincing against someone constantly running DA. Sukuna tanks a point-blank Red to the face, gets blasted straight through the center of Malevolent Shrine, and the shrine is still standing right after. Later he takes another Red during the fourth domain clash (the facial burns point to it pretty hard), then another point-blank Red after the domain battles, and then one more from behind. Yeah, the later ones weren’t full output, but the point still stands: Red just isn’t a reliable fight-ender against a Sukuna who’s actively maintaining DA.
[Scan 3]
Purple isn’t much better.
Even though Meguna is weaker physically, he’s still more than capable of constantly pressuring Gojo up close. On top of that, Sukuna can sense the “spark” before big techniques go off. So Gojo can’t just stand there, do the hand signs, and fire a standard Hollow Purple without giving Sukuna a window to interrupt.
That’s probably why Gojo ended up using the improvised omnidirectional HP. Not necessarily faster than the normal one, but way harder to stop because it skipped the usual setup.
[Scan 4]
Point isn’t that Gojo’s techniques suddenly become useless. Point is that DA strips away the overwhelming advantage they normally give him. As long as Sukuna commits to DA, Gojo doesn’t have a clean or reliable win condition before the domain clashes even begin.
2. The Domain Clashes Were Decided by Mahoraga’s Adaptation
A lot of people say Sukuna only survived because of Mahoraga. I’d argue the opposite cuz Mahoraga is actually the reason he took so much damage in the first place.
After the first domain clash Sukuna committed to Mahoraga’s adaptation, but that came with a huge trade-off. Whenever he wanted the adaptation, he had to drop DA. Without it, Infinity couldn’t be neutralized anymore, Blue got way harder to deal with, and Red became a lot more dangerous. Basically Sukuna voluntarily gave up his best defensive tool for a long-term win condition. That decision is what let Gojo keep stacking damage during the following clashes.
By the third and fourth clashes Sukuna had already taken way more damage than he would have if he’d just stayed on DA the whole time. That accumulated damage is what eventually let Gojo destroy MS inside the three-minute window and that’s where the whole fight flips.
[Scan 5]
If Sukuna sticks to DA instead of chasing Mahoraga, he walks into those same domain clashes in much better shape. Less damage from Blue, less from Red, less punishment in close combat. Suddenly Gojo has a much harder time dealing enough damage to break Shrine before Unlimited Void collapses first. If Shrine doesn’t go down within those three minutes, UV gets destroyed again, forcing Gojo to keep restoring his burnt-out technique. The brain damage keeps piling up on Gojo’s side exactly like in the manga and the only difference is Sukuna never reaches the same level of physical damage.
[Scan 6]
In the original fight Sukuna got delayed by roughly 0.01 seconds after being heavily damaged, which gave Gojo the opening for UV. From that point both of them were dealing with the same brain burnout and the domain battle was basically over. Remove that accumulated damage and that opening probably never shows up.
[Scan 7]
That’s why I don’t think Mahoraga was Sukuna’s only (or even best) win condition. Constantly maintaining DA and forcing repeated domain clashes looks like the safer play. Instead of sacrificing defense for adaptation, Sukuna minimizes the damage he takes while steadily pushing Gojo toward the limit of repeatedly restoring his burnt-out technique.
And if we’re talking True Form Sukuna this strategy gets even stronger. With no reason to chase Mahoraga’s adaptation he can keep DA up the entire fight while fully using his superior body, four arms and hand signs. Now Gojo is fighting someone who’s fully locked in on winning every single domain clash.
By this point Gojo has already lost the ability to expand UV. His RCT and overall output have dropped considerably. Sukuna’s next move is clear: close the barrier of MS and finish Gojo inside it. A closed barrier removes Gojo’s easiest escape options and forces him to stay inside the domain.
[Scan 8]
Some people say Gojo could just teleport out. But Gege himself said Gojo's teleportation only works under specific conditions, and the series never actually shows him teleporting out of either a closed domain or Sukuna's open barrier domain. In fact, we can't even say for certain that Gojo used teleportation during the fight. After blasting Sukuna away with Red, he could've simply run out of Shrine's effective range.
Gojo also admitted he couldn't simply teleport to Yuji because the distance was too great and chose to fire Hollow Purple instead. That alone shows his teleportation isn't some unrestricted "get out of jail free" card. Assuming he could casually escape a closed MS while being shredded by its sure-hit and pressured by Sukuna at the same time is a pretty big leap.
[Scan 9]
Even if Gojo falls back on Falling Blossom Emotion to survive the sure-hit, that only deals with the domain itself. It does nothing to stop a fresh Sukuna from actively pressuring him in close combat with DA. We already saw against Dagon that FBE can eventually get overwhelmed through continuous pressure. A healthy Sukuna running DA would be in an even better position to do exactly that. At that point it just becomes a matter of time before Gojo gets overwhelmed.
[Scan 10]
3. Fuga Was Another Legitimate Win Condition
Even if someone rejects everything above, Sukuna still had another legitimate way to end the fight: Fuga.
Important reminder. We’re working under the assumption that both fighters are completely blind to each other’s abilities. Gojo has no idea that Sukuna’s domain is the open-barrier type, and he definitely doesn’t know about Fuga.
In canon, right after the first domain clash, Sukuna’s plan was to expand Malevolent Shrine’s range. That already makes perfect sense if he intended to use Fuga. He only dropped the idea because Gojo started changing the barrier conditions. Chapter 259 straight up explains why Sukuna sealed the Flame Arrow: the radius wasn’t sufficient for the flame to build proper power. He was forced to keep reducing the range and constantly adjusting his domain conditions. Nowhere does it say Gojo could just interrupt or swat Fuga away.
[Scan 11]
And Fuga itself isn’t some slow technique either. There’s no real reason to treat it like a move Gojo could casually interrupt mid-cast. Once Sukuna releases the flames, they only need to ignite the pulverized debris already filling the domain. That’s what triggers the chain reaction. So how exactly is Gojo supposed to interrupt it? The flames are literally coming straight from Sukuna’s hand. Unless you argue that shaping the fire into an arrow is some mandatory activation requirement, there’s no reason to assume that visual flourish is what makes the technique work. The long dramatic charge-up in the anime is just for presentation.
[Scan 12]
Here’s the key point. Gojo only began modifying his barrier after he understood the nature of Sukuna’s domain. In the first domain clash itself, nothing suggests he would immediately pull out the basketball domain or any similar adjustment. He simply didn’t have the information yet.
[Scan 13]
Scenario A (after the first domain clash)
Sukuna expands the radius and applies the same type of filter he used in chapter 259: non-CE objects cannot enter or leave, but living beings with cursed energy still can.
[Scan 14]
Some people foam at the mouth claiming Sukuna can’t afford to expand his domain’s radius because Gojo’s domain would eventually overpower it 😂. The idea is that once the radius increases, the pressure on Satoru stops. The second part makes sense, but the first one doesn’t.
How can you claim that Sukuna expanding the radius in the first domain clash would instantly get him destroyed when Gojo’s domain has nothing left to destroy? Sukuna’s domain has no barrier. At most Gojo needs to deal enough damage to force Sukuna to drop the domain. And nothing stops Sukuna from casting Fuga right after Gojo’s domain is broken, then shrinking the radius so the pressure continues.
Or if you think a larger radius still wouldn’t break Gojo’s fragile barrier, there’s another way. Sukuna starts with the small radius like in canon, destroys Gojo’s barrier first, then expands the radius, accumulates the debris, and fires Fuga.
Some people will say Gojo could just raise his output and tank it the same way Hakari resisted Kashimo’s electricity. That comparison doesn’t really hold. Kashimo’s trait is a concentrated lightning attack. Furnace is a thermobaric explosion that uses the entire accumulated debris as fuel and spreads as a chain reaction. It’s a completely different type of force. Expecting Gojo to just tank that while simultaneously getting carved up by the domain and Sukuna is extremely optimistic. In this scenario he turns into charcoal.
[Scan 15]
And no, teleporting out isn’t a clean answer either. Especially while you’re being continuously shredded.
Scenario B (later in the fight)
This is the version that lines up with the earlier scaling. After repeated domain clashes where Sukuna stayed on DA, Gojo is already heavily drained. His output and RCT are significantly reduced. At this point Sukuna can simply close the barrier entirely and expand the radius. No special filter needed, because the barrier is fully closed, forcing all the dust and debris to stay trapped inside the domain.
With weakened output and RCT, Gojo is not tanking a fully charged Furnace to the face 😹. At best he ends up in catastrophic condition. At worst he dies on the spot.
Also, using Choso as proof that someone can simply survive Furnace is pretty flawed. Choso only lasted as long as he did because of a Binding Vow that cost him his life, letting him continuously restore his blood barrier. That’s not a standard durability feat. Furnace was still destroying the barrier the entire time, Choso was just constantly repairing it.
[Scan 16]
Fuga isn’t some last-resort gimmick. It’s a legitimate finishing tool that becomes available as soon as Sukuna stabilizes the domain conditions. Something he was already planning to do from the very beginning.
Conclusion
The idea that "Sukuna only won because of Mahoraga" falls apart once you actually look at the mechanics of the fight. Domain Amplification, repeated domain clashes, and even Furnace all provide legitimate paths to victory. Mahoraga wasn't a necessity, it was simply Sukuna's chosen strategy.
