" I am not a courageous man, I don't have any big lasting plans. " Kakashi speaks casually, gaze heavy as he works on fastening the armor on his forearm. Kakashi was born & bred to deal in death, he had given up on the idea of shining any light into the shadows of Konoha. He was much more comfortable hiding in the darkness, where no one could see him. It wasn't like he could change anything; that much had become clear by the incessant cycle of death that plagued his life. Itachi was wise, with ideology beyond his years. Kakashi had left thoughts of a better future behind him long ago. Kakashi may have lost the will the change but Itachi still had the power to walk any path he chose.

There was still darkness in Itachi that existed inside every shinobi, but he was stronger than the weight on his shoulders. He pushes a breath through his teeth. Kakashi doesn't often like to admit to his shortcomings; they were ugly, terrible things that taunted him. Where he fell short, he often found a flicker of hope when he looked at Itachi. Kakashi mused, at times, that Itachi may make a good Hokage one day. If he survived the journey of growing up, that is. He wasn't sure why he had been entrusted with such a valuable life. His team was capable, yes, but they were kids. There were young lives in his hands now & the thought was terrifying beyond all else.

Perhaps that was why it was so hard to look at Itachi now, as they readied themselves for another mission. Any day could be the day they died; it was difficult to look to the future," I'm too cowardly to take a stand, I wanna keep my nose clean. "

@fowleyes || brave as a noun.

is naruto emotionally damaged? what about sasuke?

Both are. But their damage and its reasons are different and it's different the way it affected their personalities, which are opposites.

Like I wrote here, Nar was an orphan, living all alone in an apartment with no one taking care of him except for the occasional Third Hokage giving him some money and Iruka, I guess later. He was shunned by the whole village because of Kyuubi, no one wanted to be close to him, and he was an extravert person, who needs to interact with ppl. So much that to have some attention he did mischief, because being scolded was better than being ignored. In his child mind he saw the Hokage as the one who got more attention, the one who got the most and the one who was most loved, because in his orphan mind, attention and respect were love. So he decided to become a Hokage, so that everyone would respect and 'love' him. So that he would have everyone's attention, finally, he would no longer be the child everyone shunned and ignored.

This, and its lonely childhood, turned him into a self-centered person, and a selfish person, because he had nothing but himself, to compare what others felt and to just make reasonings. That's why he always makes everything about his own experience, and that's why he's so selfish and dominant when he wants something. Or someone. Not just like Sasuke but also like wanting to bring someone to his side. After that, he kind of becomes uninterested and those 'friends' become more like fanboys or subordinates. And that's why he wanted so much to become Hokage. Respect, attention, power even, he doesn't exactly tell them from being loved.

About Sasuke I wrote countless posts in this tag. He was born a shy, aloof child, he had a family, his mother's love, but his father compared him to his genius brother, to whom he lost always and whom he loved immensely. He was more interested in spending time with his own brother than in making friends in the, and he wanted to obtain his father's praise and aknowledgement more than he wanted to be praised by his classmates and teachers. This made him develop a low self-esteem even though he was a hard worker who obtained good results. The massacre destroyed everything: he lost his beloved family, he lost the possibility to show to his father that he would have become better, he lost his brother, both physically, as he left, and emotionally, being told by said brother that he had massacred everyone on a whim, basically. He also lost his self-worth, being told that he wasn't worth killing. He became focused on revenge only, on getting strong to be able to obtain it, like Itachi wanted, but Sasuke couldn't just live a normal life in Konoha and get stronger until the time would come to face him...because Sasuke had already a low self-esteem so he was ready to die more times, or he just didn't care about his own safety instead protecting his comrades. And ofc because Orochimaru manipulated him into following him to obtain a greater strength.

And later his certainties were destroyed again learning the truth about Itachi, so the boy with such a low self-esteem that he could recklessly fight the strongest opponents, not caring about his own safety, who had done everything to become strong enough to defeat his brother and give his family and clan the revenge they deserved, realized he had 'killed' the brother who had always loved him and who had tried, in his own way, to create a safe path for him. This enhanced the aforementioned characteristics, and fueled his anger and his desperation to extreme levels. Only meeting Itachi 'calmed' him, and only then he decided to help Konoha because it was what Itachi's dream. Even his final goal to unite the world against him, basically, was an attempt to emulate his brother, which shows how emotionally damaged, but also not caring about his own self, Sasuke was.

And in the shitty ending and more, when Nar is a powerful Hokage and Sas is his shadow, I still see the attention seeking child and the low self esteem child in them.

(nar fans who think he's a selfless ball of sunshine don't interact pls)

i honestly genuinely truly loathe how often sasusaku is lumped into this realm of toxic ships where boys treat girls poorly for no good reason whatsoever like it just speaks to this egregious misunderstanding of sasusaku’s dynamic let alone the context of naruto or its characters in general.. sasuke isn’t some dickhead rich boy who’s grown up entitled his entire life. he came home at the age of six to see that his entire immediate and extended family had been slaughtered by his older brother and then he had to spend years after living in the remains of that compound with no concept of therapy or proper support available to him all while he relived the nightmare of that day repeatedly. he was a twelve year old child at the start of the series and there was a repeated stress on how his untreated trauma and resulting emotional volatility made him easy to manipulate. he was manipulated not only by itachi but also by orochimaru and obito bc all of them viewed him as nothing more than a product of trauma and power to be exploited. where sasuke’s behavior and closed-off attitude with naruto and sakura even began to improve in the land of waves arc it was thereafter thwarted bc orochimaru literally bit him and as mentioned previously preyed on his trauma to extract power. itachi came back to the village near right after and showed sasuke once again that he was utterly powerless and that he could potentially lose everyone he cared about all over again. the fact that naruto had to save him infuriated him bc he felt helpless in the face of the person who literally massacred his whole family. later in part two when he tried to kill sakura it was near immediately after sasuke fought danzo and found out that the latter literally had all of the eyeballs of his dead family implanted into his arm. prior to that fight his relationship with taka was stable and while sasuke was driven to exact any means to defeat itachi he acted respectably with his teammates and even compared the bond he was developing with them to the bond he used to have with team seven. his reaction to sakura expressing care for him right before his final fight with naruto was to wonder why she had any feelings for someone like him bc he didn’t even believe he was worth loving. he compared her love to the love that he used to have with his own family and how it was utterly futile in the face of violence. all of sasuke’s violent and condescending reactions to expressions of care by naruto and sakura are inherently contextualized in light of that trauma and that’s not to say naruto and sakura deserve that from him but none of this is sasuke going on some abusive power trip like fandom so often loves to peddle when they’re arguing as to why sasuke and sakura’s relationship specifically is terrible.. sakura is someone who cares for a teammate seriously trying to reach out to him bc she sees how that trauma has impacted him and sasuke not being susceptible to that initially bc he’s so deeply traumatized isn’t equivalent to assholes in shoujo manga and romance novels simply acting like bullies bc they can. i’m tired of people acting like sakura was somehow disserviced in narrative for loving someone who was a victim of state violence (the same way that naruto loved sasuke and that is so praised in comparison!) and that her trying to help sasuke without physically fighting him was a weakness on her part. i think there is a lot about naruto that is worth criticizing but the constant condescension to sakura’s kindness and empathy and the selective ignorance of the impact of sasuke’s trauma when it comes to naruto but not sakura is genuinely infuriating like PLEASE LEARN TO READ.. 

I would like to ask your opinion about 3 views I have.

First is the idea of how Shigaraki, even when he was groomed to become a destruction machine, the moment AFO and Kurogiri (the ones he obeys no matter what) are out of the picture, he instantly thinks on protecting. Protecting the league, not as an organizationz but as the individual members he lates veiw as family. This leaves me thinking that any good in him is not only from Tenko (the pure but traumatized kid), but that Shigaraki Tomura (the vengueance-thirsted villain) also is by nature a relatively good person, just needing GUIDANCE (not fix nor correction) to project his ideals, which are even correct.

Second is how Toga said in the manga that she had a normal life, and I believe, in one way, she has. She has what she WISHES, was a normal life. She can be herself comfortably, people around her don't treat her as a freak or a monster (she even HAS FRIENDS), adults around her care and even parent her (as much as a group of walking disasters with no means to confront trauma can actually parent). Shouldn't that mean someting?

The last thing will be shorter, as, have you watched Naruto? Because a good amount of people liked to imagine Touya as Itachi (the older brother complex guy that sacrificed everything, accepting all the evils of the world, for a better good), when he actually was like Sasuke (the brother that wasn't as talented, so neglected until a tragedy, wanting revenge when wronged, mentable unstable as he discovers he is being used again and again, leading him to form a revolution so he doesn't have to suffer at hands of others anymore).

I would love to see your coments on these ideas as they aren't as developed as yours tend to be. Thank you for the attention, and sorry if you don't understand as english isn't my first language, besaides is too long.....

Your english is perfectly understandable! And your thoughts are interesting so I don’t mind answering.

I definitely agree with your take on Shigaraki! leadership-wise, he’s very different from the model AFO projected and tried to mould him as. I think that AFO’s plan was to raise Tenko in isolation and in constant exposure to his trauma triggers to instigate violence as a coping method, so that he would be more unstable and “broken” when he finally faced off against All Might. What he didn’t expect was for that isolation to serve the opposite effect: once Tenko grows up, once he has trusted comrades, the ties he forms with them are genuine. He does want the best for them, and protects them fiercely in that ruthlessly revengeful way of his. He’s a character who not only has known loss, but whose entire life has been shaped, moulded, distorted by it; so the few bonds he has, he hold on to.

The fact that he cares about his comrades as more than just pawns to use for his own purposes is also what makes him the opposite of AFO as a leader. AFO only seeked out blind devotion. He posed as a messiah, as a saviour. He gave powers away in order to gain followers who would be indebted to him, who would look up to him as an almost god-like being granting them mercy. Ujiko even went as far as comparing him to a buddha. The religious undertones are put there to emphasize that AFO positions himself as several steps above the masses that follow him. He doesn’t see them as individuals, only as a faceless army he can use and abuse at his will.

On the other end of the spectrum stays Shigaraki, who... well.

who is so up and personal with his comrades he lets them grab him, point a knife to his throat, yell at him... Lmao imagine someone grabbing AFO’s collar like that and shouting at him. You’d dream of doing something like that without getting murdered with someone like AFO. But with Shigaraki, it’s perfectly fine, because Shigaraki doesn’t think himself above them. Sure, he IS the leader and demands the respect he is owed for it, but at the same time, he’s a very community-focused type of leader.

He not only gives all his allies freedom to pursue their own goals (even when they directly clash with his), but he also makes time to listen to their needs, to talk at eye level with them. One thing I’d like to point out here is that when the chance presented itself to form an alliance with Redestro’s army, Shigaraki chose to do so specifically because he remembered Compress’ complaint about their homeless, penniless status following Kurogiri’s arrest.

so yeah, the League definitely has distinct found family elements ever since its direction fell onto Shigaraki alone, and yeah, he’s always been more than the tool for destruction that AFO tried to raise him as.

Moving on to Toga. I am 1000% convinced that the reason why she snapped and killed that Saito guy in middle school was because her family (and society) tried too harshly to convert her into something she wasn’t. They made her repress herself to the point where freedom to her ended up taking the shape of a violent rebellion, cause her life up to that point was the expectation to be a “good girl” who behaved herself and didn’t act like a “monster”. But when you take a closer look at her writing, you notice how backwards that narrative of monstrosity actually is. Ever since she joined the League, aka ever since she was free to be herself fully, free to drink as much blood without being shamed as a freak fot, ever since she was fully accepted without having to wear a mask... how many people has she killed by draining their blood? As in, completely on her own, not as a collective action with the rest of the lov? Zero. That’s right. Even Camie, who was kidnapped and held prisoner for three days as a blood bank during the provisional license exam ended up being fine. And she’s a hero in training, lol. Completely at Toga’s mercy.

The thing is, Toga showcases a remarkable ability to control herself and behave with the compassion and “normalcy” that her family demanded of her, when she’s actually treated with compassion and understanding back. She’s literally introduced through the lenses of an outcast and a freak, someone who aggressively tries to get included in things by acting creepy about friendships

cause she supposedly cannot form true bonds with people — she’s too weird, too self-centered.

And yet, she forms the strongest friendship bond of the League all on her own. And it has nothing to do with her obsession with blood, with the fascination for violence that makes her “crush” on people.

Her story shows that what makes people monsters is not nature but nurture. Her own parents called her a deviant, a monster, a demon child, they tried to make her feel shame towards a literal part of her own biology, tried to tell her to suppress it, put her through quirk counseling which is basically an in-universe version of conversion therapy, and then acted suprised when she had a breakdown and killed a kid because her biological need to drink blood became too much for her to suppress anymore. Quirks are just body functions. They could’ve let her explore her powers in a controlled way, but instead chose to treat her as a monster until she internalized that it was okay for her to be violent. She could be the monster everyone treated her as.

But it’s in the League that she learns true compassion and empathy, enough so to actually connect to someone — unlike her failed attempt with Tsuyu and Ochako at training camp. It’s when Twice treats her like a friend, that she learns what actual friendship is like, and is able to give Twice comfort in his moment of need, offering him her hankie so he wouldn’t fear ‘splitting’ anymore.

So yeah Toga is already living a normal life. All she needs is for society to finally give her the freedom and the understanding that the Lov already offered her, cause that’s the true key to make her “stable” and “normal”. Not violent suppression.

As for naruto, yes I’ve read it! And I agree with you, Dabi’s more like Sasuke than Itachi. Itachi believed in a superior state of things, unlike Dabi believed in institutions over individual morals until his very death, not to mention he was always a golden child, while Dabi was the scapegoat and the disillusioned kid.

I honestly agree with a lot of your opinions, and even when I don't, I think that your arguments are always well structure and respectful to other people.

But I have some questions (and I'm sorry if you have already answer them), (also sorry for some of my English, it's not my first language)

How do you feel about narusaku?

How do you feel about people changing certain aspects about Sakura to try to improve her character?

How would you improve Sakura?

How much do you think Sakura being a good character could affect the story?

What was the moment you really started to ship SNS? And what are you favorite moments?

(Sorry if there's ro many questions)

I honestly agree with a lot of your opinions, and even when I don't, I think that your arguments are always well structure and respectful to other people.

Aww!!!! Thank you, Anon. This made my day. 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

I will start from my favourite question (The one in the last)

What was the moment you really started to ship SNS?

I never wore any shipping lens, Anon.

Literally, I started to ship SNS only after Episode 478 or Chapter 698. Before that, I always had these doubts in the back of my mind.

'Something seems to be very weird between these guys',

'Why are they behaving differently compared to other friends?',

'Why Sasuke is behaving totally different towards Naruto?',

'Why Sasuke agreed to honour Naruto's promise under the bridge, despite having no shred of affection towards his other former Team Members?',

'Why Naruto is so obsessed with Sasuke?',

'Why Sasuke felt Naruto's chakra in Konoha and bothered by it?',

'Why Sasuke is protecting Naruto like a precious treasure only to end up wanting to kill him?',

'Why Sasuke has this weird obsession that ONLY I CAN KILL NARUTO but not someone else?',

So, I had all these questions piling up one by one inside my mind as the series progressed and I can't simply jump into a conclusion because I don't know what Sasuke was thinking. I hate one-sided ship and I want reciprocation. So, I usually put all these questions on the back burner and started to focus on the story. Damn!!!, The story was equally captivating and emotionally daunting. When Sasuke finally confessed his feelings towards Naruto in Episode 478, I simply couldn't believe myself but ship them. Because, in no world, Friends would behave this way towards each other.

So, to answer your question, it's after Episode 478, I started to ship them. But if you want me to say when exactly I started to doubt their level of friendship??

It's this moment,

Now you may think, 'Yeah, you saw two boys in a close proximity and decided to ship together. It's nothing strange'.

I have to say, Close proximity was the last thing, I felt from this scene. My reason was those heart breaking scenes that happened before which led to this specific moment.

I will make it as short as possible. I'll start with this

God!! I wanted to punch Sasuke so badly when he said this with a deadpan expression. It looks like he was lying just to get power. I thought, 'Sasuke!!! What a lying piece of crap you are!! If you want to kill Naruto, Just do it. Why doing a fake confession? '.

It doesn't help as the fight progressed because Sasuke was really playing football with Naruto and when this happened,

I was shell-shocked because, the Sasuke we saw so far is no more. It even confirmed my thoughts about the fake confession. Which sane person will ram Chidori through his Close Friend's body?.

After many blows were exchanged, I simply wished for one thing. Naruto should win and Sasuke should be stopped no matter what. When the final Rasengan vs Chidori happened, I couldn't understand what was going on inside that power ball. Naruto and Sasuke look at each other with pained expression and we see the younger version of them smiling at each other.

And then finally we see a knocked out Naruto with Sasuke standing and looking at him without any expression and was about to say, 'Naruto.... I' which was interrupted by rain and when Sasuke felt a stinging pain in his arms and falls down on his knees. He coughs up blood and then this iconic scene happens.

That scene conveyed many things

Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto but couldn't.

Sasuke meant what he said. Naruto is his closest friend, it’s not a lie.

Sasuke couldn't severe his ties completely with Naruto.

Sasuke's pain of saying 'Goodbye' is greater than the stinging pain in his arms.

Sasuke deliberately, I repeat deliberately and not accidentally, came close to look at Naruto's face and experiencing something that, we, audience don't know. 

So, you see, Anon. The emotional train wreck that led to this scene made me really doubt about their depth of feelings they had towards each other for the first time. That's when I thought, 'Something seems to be very weird between these guys, what is it?'

And what are you favorite (SNS) moments?

There are two moments which shows how Sasuke is playing an emotional battle within himself. 

1. Sasuke, Susanoo, Naruto, Minato

This happens right after Sasuke said to Obito, “Not you.... The one who is going to sever the past is....me”.

In this moment, Sasuke can pretty much let Naruto to die, because nobody is trying to kill Naruto. Still, he saved him with a 3 layered protection. The best part is Sasuke acted quicker than Minato, the fastest shinobi, to protect Naruto. Surely Minato wouldn’t want to blow up near his Son, for whom he gave his life once. It’s just that Sasuke is extremely quicker at this moment. 

2. For some reason, My Sharingan deactivated on it’s own

If only, Sasuke maintained his Sharingan, he could’ve traced Naruto’s movements and deflected his upper cut and would’ve successfully landed his Chidori through him. But he just couldn’t. 

Both these scenes happens in a span of a day but Sasuke’s emotions fluctuates a lot when it comes to killing Naruto, protecting Naruto, can’t kill Naruto. 

How much do you think Sakura being a good character could affect the story?

To be Honest Anon, Storywise ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Yes, I agree with her amazing performance in Gaara retrieval Arc where she tagged along with Granny Chiyo and almost killed Sasori.

After that ????

She did nothing in the Sasuke Reunion Arc. It was all about Naruto vs Orochimaru, Yamato’s Wood style jutsu, Sai’s betrayal towards Orochimaru. Geez!!! I liked her attitude in this arc but totally spoiled when she was standing simply like a wooden doll when Sasuke was about to stab Naruto. It was Sai who blocked Sasuke.... I was like, ‘Girl!!!! You said you will save Sasuke for Naruto when he went into 4 tails mode. What happened now??? Why are you not stopping him???’

She was just making Food Pills in the Rasen Shuriken Arc.

She was basically climbing from one tree to another in the Sasuke killing Orochimaru to Sasuke joining Akatsuki Arc. Even Naruto’s role was very minimal in that arc except he met Kabuto, Dead soul of Jiraiya, Itachi, a split second meeting with Sasuke where he got Chidori’ed and fought with Tobi. 

She was just a spectator praying for Naruto in the Pain Arc. Yeah, she did healed few people and punched some monsters. But it just doesn’t matter. Even Konohamaru killed a Pain in that arc. 

She turned into an Asshole by making a fake confession towards Naruto and decided to kill Sasuke in the Kage Summit Arc. I think, this is where Kishi decided to shit on her mercilessly by making her into someone who was going to hurt both of her team mates mentally and physically. Basically Kishi transformed a clever medical Ninja who can find an antidote in a matter of hours to an asshole who believed Naruto did everything for her and even more of an idiot by planning to kill Sasuke with just a poisoned Kunai. Isn’t she the one who told Kakashi that Sasuke was given forbidden drugs to improve his strength after their Reunion??? Can’t she put 2+2 together to know Sasuke would be immune to poisons because of his days spent with Orochimaru??? Yeah, she did impacted the story. But it was not for her development. Sakura’s foolishness made Naruto and Sasuke to meet each other again and made a promise. So, you see, she was just a tool that pushes the narrative development of other characters, not her own. Her development took a big blow in this arc.

She was non-existent in the Naruto-Killer Bee Training Arc.

She was just healing people and punched some zetsu during Powerful Edo-Tensei Shinobis vs Allied Shinobi forces Arc. I expected her to have a special fight. But Nope. Even Ino, Shikamaru and Choji fought Asuma, Kakuzu and Kinkaku, Ginkaku brothers. 

She was non-existent in the Uchiha Madara vs 5 Kages mini arc

She was non-existent in Obito vs Naruto, Kakashi, Might Guy and Killer Bee mini arc.

She was non-existent in the Sasuke & Itachi vs Kabuto mini arc.

She was non-existent in the Edo Tensei’ed Hokages and Team Sasuke arc.

She was punching some Juubi Clones in the Official War Arc which will never make a difference to the story. At the same time, her character was transformed from an Asshole who hurted her teammates to an horny biasshhhh who wants only Sasuke’s D. She summoned Katsuyu and was healing soldiers. But there were an army of Medical Ninjas too. So her absence will not affect the story in a big way. She did Lip to Lip CPR for Naruto though. Again, that would never help Naruto in a major way unless he was helped by Obito by placing Bijuu inside him. Again, Kishi didn’t make her the sole saviour here. Instead, she was used as a medium to facilitate Obito’s transformation from a bad guy to good guy. Kishi made Obito as the Saviour here. 

She was useless and was not able to destroy Obito’s rinnegan in the Reincarnation of Indra and Ashura vs Rikkudou Sennin Madara arc.

She was useless in the Kaguya arc. [Sorry, that punch won’t make any difference because Kaguya must be stupid to not use her 360 degree vision to see Sakura from behind. With Naruto and Sasuke has already become a demi god at this point, her clown show is incomparable].

She was useless in the final Naruto vs Sasuke arc.

So, you tell me Anon. Did she make any impact to the story that served as a major twist?? 

The story revolved around Naruto and Sasuke. 

Itachi, Obito, Jiraiya, Madara, Hashirama and other Hokages were the game changers of this story. Meaning, their presence or death will change the story by a huuuuggge margin.

Tsunade, Orochimaru, Team Nagato, Kabuto helped our protagonists in a BIGGGG WAAYYYY.

Akatsuki were just amazing who gave us the sense of thrill as well as fun. 

Even Sakura being good will never impact the story because she had no dedicated arc written for her.

But, if she were written as a good character, my viewing experience would have improved in a relaxing way so much so that I don’t have to press my fast forward button whenever she appears and I wouldn’t be writing this post explaining why I hate her.

How would you improve Sakura?

Simple, By writing her similar to Rin Nohara.

No obsession but a simple love towards Sasuke.

No toxicity but caring friendship towards Naruto. 

That’s all.

How do you feel about people changing certain aspects about Sakura to try to improve her character?

Well, that means they would qualify as a fanfiction writers, aren’t they??.

Also, this inherently proves that she is a piss poor character and people wants to change certain aspects of her which they find annoying. But it will 100% end up being OOC. And I’m not into reading those OOC stuffs, Anon.

I always believe in accepting what the author has given rather than trying to fix their work. Because the author writes a character deliberately to make the readers feel what he intended in the first place. Kishi could write a redemption for even someone like Orochimaru towards the very end. Like, he literally made him to help Sasuke, not as a human predator, but as a former Master and an admirer. He wrote him to help Tsunade and other Kages. So in the end, Orochimaru was not hated like he was hated in part 1. If he can write something for Orochimaru, why not for Sakura??? 

You know how I can redeem Sakura in just 3 or 4 panels?

Let me tell you.

After that fake confession, Sakura could talk to Naruto,

“I am very Sorry, Naruto. I know you will never take things in your heart. But still I shouldn’t have used Love as a tool to make you not to do something. I was an Idiot to not realize how badly you want to save Sasuke. It wasn’t just for me. But it was for Sasuke and also for you, as his friend and also for us as Team 7. So, how about we go to Ichiraku, for a nice lunch??” 

While confessing Sasuke for the second time,

“It seems you still want to go on to that dark path, isn’t it?. I am not the most powerful ninja in this world and I know I can’t trade blows with you. But still.... if you try to hurt my friend, Naruto and my master, Tsunade. I will fight with all my strength to kill you..... Even though I love you”

I am pretty sure, if Sakura confessed something along these lines, everyone would have admired her and it shows her emotional maturity as a Kunoichi who wants to do something to this world as well as a person who is ready to kill someone she loved in order to protect the people she holds dear.

In chapter 699. Before saying Goodbye to Sasuke,

“I am very Sorry, Sasuke. I never really understood what was going on inside your heart. And, I always forced myself on you because of my selfishness. I really feel bad for those things. I never really became your friend in the first place. How about we say farewell as ‘a good friends’, before your redemption journey??” (Shakes hands.... End of Scene)

How is this???

Is it pleasant to read?? Of course, Yes.

I am pretty sure it wouldn’t take more than 4 or 5 panels. Kishi could’ve easily did something like this. Am pretty sure readers would’ve been satisfied. Her fans too. Even I would’ve forgiven her mistakes.

But Kishi didn’t and I am very sure it’s deliberate. Because, this very same Kishimoto could able to write Konan, Tsunade who acts with so much maturity without whining like a little girl.

Which shows Kishi clearly hates this character and never wanted to redeem her. 

So no matter how many people improve this character, it will never be believable.

How do you feel about narusaku?

Naruto always placed Sasuke as his priority, Anon. That’s always the case. So, apart from SNS, if you want me to say whether NaruSaku had any potential?

I would say, yes, NaruSaku had potential. I will not deny it. Naruto had some liking towards Sakura compared to the absolute indifference towards Hinata.

There are some moments Sakura genuinely cried for Naruto without anyone’s influence. I liked it. Say, the scene where she cried on hearing ‘A Jinchuriki without Bijuu will die” and with Yamato she told, “I can only do little things for Naruto”.

These are all coming from her own heart. No one instilled inside her.

[[[ That’s why I will not accept her realization of ‘Annoying, huh? So, this is how Naruto must have felt too. Maybe I should be a little nicer to him next time’ as genuine in Episode 3. Because she realized only after Sasuke roasted her. I want feelings to emerge subconsciously rather than instilled by someone. ]]]

Unlike the asshole Sakura she was in part 1, Sakura started out good in Shippuden. I was surprised with her development in Gaara Retrieval Arc and was not at all annoyed by her presence. (Except when she said she will save Naruto and Sasuke from Itachi.... Grrrrr.... Biashhhhh.... Do you know Itachi’s abilities first of all??? He can crush you like a meatball with his Susanoo)

I started to feel, ‘Wooow!!! She has improved a lot. Great!!!!’.

Even though, she was useless in Rasen Shuriken Arc, She still made an effort to make food pills for Naruto. She even hugged Naruto much to his surprise, before all the villagers and especially before, ahemmm Hinata after defeating Pain.

Despite all of these moments that had happened between them, I could only see them as a pair formed of mutual tragedies rather than mutual attraction, Anon. In their case, Losing Sasuke. I wasn’t 100% sure whether Sakura moved on from Sasuke or not. Because When Sakura was looking for Sasuke with Kakashi’s Tracking dogs, she was still in love with him. So Sakura fluctuates between her obsession with Sasuke and some genuine feelings towards Naruto. 

Kage summit Arc is where everything changed and finalized. Sakura was crying like an annoying shit when she heard that Sasuke joined Akatsuki and was wanted by Raikage. This clearly shows her obsession has flared up again and ‘Poof’ all the development she had with Naruto was thrown into drain. 

On top of it, the fake confession. Grrrrrr.......

Plus, Naruto officially closed the possibilities of this ship by saying, “Sasuke, I know the Truth of Itachi from a guy named Tobi. I don’t know whether it’s true or not. But whatever you’ve been doing so far (hunting Killer Bee, ruckus in Kage summit conference, trying to kill Sakura, Kakashi).... It’s all understandable”.

If Naruto truly, wholeheartedly, deeply loved Sakura, he wouldn’t have said something like, ‘It’s understandable why you tried to kill Sakura”. He should have beaten Sasuke into a pulp. Or atleast shown some intense anger. Instead, Naruto was talking to Sasuke and making promise by saying ‘We will die together’. It’s like Sakura playing cupid for Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto was okay with someone trying to kill Sakura whereas he was not okay with someone trying to kill Sasuke and even went to the extent of hyperventilating. This is why I feel any other ships are incomparable with SNS. 

After that Sakura started to behave rabidly towards Sasuke in the War arc which I can’t help but feel disgusting. So, anything she did for Naruto in the War Arc was overshadowed by her crazy obsession towards Sasuke. That’s why her CPR doesn’t matter, Sakura healing Naruto doesn’t matter. [Naruto has his own regenerative abilities, so whatever she does will not matter much for him]

So, NaruSaku was closed officially by Naruto and Sakura. It couldn’t sail because of the presence of Sasuke. 

At the end, I felt like Sakura used Naruto for getting her man back ready for romance rather than a killer mode Sasuke. I couldn’t feel the friendship they once had or any familiarity. 

I just hate people who don’t value friendships, anon. Sakura was not even a good friend, first of all. Yeah she had her friendly moments here and there. But, at the end of the series, she was not. A war has just ended, many people lost their lives, her supposed ‘best friend’ Ino lost her father. Why can’t she help her out emotionally? Why can’t she do some fucking good stuffs for this Shinobi world like her other teammates?? Instead, what she did was ‘let’s go and persuade Sasuke-kun to lend me some D by going along with his journey. Because I am so horny’. 

It not how you were in the beginning, It’s how you ended up being. She started this series as a worst friend and she ended up as a worst human being for me. How can I ship such a person with Naruto????

Do you think Itachi or Sasuke or Shisui are self conscious about certain aspects of themselves? Can be physical, emotional, etc.

This has been sitting in my inbox for a while now, tbh I have no idea. I'd have to project like with almost everything else, but it would feel random to me. Maybe I have to develop that aspect a bit more, but from what we've seen in canon, they all don't have obvious insecurities and don't seem to give themselves a hard time even about shortcomings.

Take Itachi for example, who arguably has reasons to be very ashamed of his backfired efforts to manipulate Sasuke into doing what he thought was best for everyone. Instead of being guilt-ridden, he seems to be pragmatic about whatever situation he's in at any time, adjusting his actions as needed depending on his respective goals without obviously doubting himself. Of course, he could still feel self-conscious on the inside, which might be an interesting twist to write.

I think you could construct any insecurities for them if you can make them credible from the context, especially smaller everyday things. S/ex is always a great field for insecurities, or when you want to emphasize a difference between those characters bugging one of them when they compare themselves, or a good old imposter syndrome. But overall, I see all these characters as rather confident.

Kakashi & Da Boyz: Lab Updates

Introduction

Approximately two years ago, I wrote this pairing lab report which compared Kakashi’s manga interactions with his top five AO3 pairings (excluding sensei/student and original character pairings). Since the numbers have shifted a lot for AO3, here’s what they look like in 2020. 

Materials

2018 Lab Report Data

A vague understanding of how math works 

A slowly dwindling grip on my own life

Methods 

See prior work for methods on manga interaction count as published in Keepyourpantsongohan, 2018. 

It is worth nothing in this section why AO3 was chosen rather than FF.net or any other fanfiction website as a point of comparison: AO3 has the ability to filter character relationships by romantic pairings. While FF.net has developed this filter in recent years, its history and use is much more sporadic and would be unlikely to produce a representative sample. 

Data

See prior work for raw data of manga interactions as published in Keepyourpantsongohan, 2018. Only total interactions are included as a comparison point. 

Total Interactions with Kakashi 

Iruka: 4

Obito: 37

*Obito’s interactions with Kakashi under an assumed identity as Tobi: 11

*Total (if including Tobi): 48

Gai: 50

Yamato: 29

Itachi: 6

Total Number of Interactions for Any Pairings Listed Above: 126

*Total: If including Tobi: 137

AO3 Pairing Story Count (as of 08-June-2020)

Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka: 3,453

Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito: 1,808

Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai: 888

Hatake Kakashi/Yamato | Tenzou: 669

Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Itachi: 151

Total Number of AO3 Stories for Any Pairings Listed Above: 6,969

Analysis 

Figure 1: All Pairing Interactions by Percentage (exc. Tobi) 

Figure 1 Numbers:

Iruka: 3.2%

Obito: 29.3%

Gai: 39.7%

Yamato: 23.0%

Itachi: 4.8%

Figure 2: All Pairing Interactions by Percentage (inc. Tobi)

Figure 2 Numbers:

Iruka: 2.9%

Obito: 35.0%

Gai: 36.5%

Yamato: 21.2%

Itachi: 4.4%

Figure 3: AO3 Pairing Stories by Percentage (as of 08-June-2020)

(Note: Figures 2 and 3 marginally exceed 100% in order to both round and maintain the same degree of accuracy as the previous chart. For Figure 3, all figures will be rounded down to control the excess of 100%.)

Figure 3 Numbers:

Iruka: 49.5% = ~49.0%

Obito: 29.5% = ~29.0%

Gai: 12.7% = ~12.0%

Yamato: 9.6% = ~9.0%

Itachi: 2.2% = ~2.0%

Percentage Difference from Manga Interactions (Fig. 1 Numbers) to AO3 (Fig. 3 Numbers raw data)

Iruka: +46.3%

Obito: +0.2% (or Fig. 2 inc. Tobi: -5.5%)

Gai: -27.0%

Yamato: -13.6%

Itachi: 2.6%

Figure 4: Annual Rate of Growth in Fics from Aug 2018 to June 2020

Overall Increase in Fics on AO3 Since 2018 (Npast - Npresent)

Iruka: 3,453 - 2,298 = 1,155

Obito: 1,808 -  667 = 1,141

Gai: 888 - 391 = 497

Yamato: 669 - 371 = 298

Itachi: 151 - 111 = 40

Annual Rate of Growth (((Npresent - Npast) / Npast x 100) / Number of years) 

Iruka: ((1,155) / 2,298 x 100) / 2 years = 25.1%

Obito: ((1,141) / 667 x 100) / 2 years = 85.5% 

Gai: ((497) / 391 x 100) / 2 years = 63.5%

Yamato: ((298) / 371 x 100) / 2 years = 40.1%

Itachi: ((40) / 111 x 100) / 2 years = 18.0%

Conclusion

As compared to the 2018 analysis, Iruka, Obito and Gai all got closer to proportionally matching up with their manga interactions, though this is most significant for Obito, who is nearly on par with his manga interaction percentages. In other words, Obito is almost exactly as popular as you might expect him to be based on number of chapter appearances interacting with Kakashi. The annual rate of growth for Obito (85.5%) is also by far the highest. I would be curious to know what factors made this increase so high. 

Iruka, like in 2018, is most prevalent as a pairing, and furthest from manga parity (in the positive direction). It is worth noting that the pairing no longer represents the majority in Kakashi’s top five pairings, going from representing 56.7% of fics, to 49.5% of fics. This seems to be a consequence of the rate of growth, because while there were the largest number of fics for Iruka in the past two years (1,155), there was also the second lowest annual growth rate at 25.1%. Even so, the raw numbers do speak to the popularity!

Gai has moved slightly closer to manga parity, with a 2.5% increase in representation. However, the pairing still experiences the largest percentage decrease in presence from manga to AO3. Still, the rate of growth for Gai is significant, being the second highest at 63.5%.

Yamato moved slightly farther away from manga parity, but only by a difference of 0.3%, which means the pairing has more less maintained the same level of popularity as two years ago. The rate of growth is middling, not anywhere near as high as Obito or Gai, but significantly higher than Iruka or Itachi. 

Itachi was as almost close to manga parity as possible in 2018, so the pairing will likely only get further away with more fics being written. But as there have been such a small amount written (20 per year) it would be a slow increase in discrepancy. 

Having acquainted myself with the commentary on the prior report, it might be theorized that “attractiveness” is a factor in popularity of character ships. However, this premise is flawed, because in my experience as a reader, the act of loving a character makes them handsome. See: The Once-ler phenomenon, as described by Ed Helms on Funny or Die (Fealasy 2012):

“I heard there are people who have a sexual predilection for my character in the Lorax [...] And that is very odd, because he’s not a real person. I do agree, however, that he’s extremely sexy. But I don’t condone sexual fantasy about the Once-ler. I don’t condone it.”

So in this case, we can assume attractiveness is a relative condition, superseded by the way that readers choose to love their characters. Personally, I think it’s very sexy of me to love Tenzo. All this to say, don’t worry about it. Who cares? I just made you read a quote about people wanting to have sex with the Once-ler. Think about that. 

The number of fics at the time of my making these charts was 6,969 though, so I think we’re all winners here. 

Limitations 

As I used the manga interaction counts from 2018, bias in my methodology then is still present here. 

In my original calculations, I actually had Obito at 35.8% instead of 35.0% for Figure 2, in a case of human error of inputting 49/137 instead of 48/137 in my calculations. This error has been noted and changed, but the potential for more human error is present in all of my calculations. 

I am aware of there being an event going on for Kakashi and Iruka as I write this, so it is possible that by the time this data is analyzed the number of AO3 fics will have increased. 

I will reiterate that I exclude sensei/student pairings (Sakura and Naruto being two of Kakashi’s top five pairings on AO3 in general; currently third and fourth respectively) because of my own discomfort and the fact I am making a comparison with their manga interactions, which take place when both students are 12-16 and Kakashi is 26-30. Minato would currently be the next highest after original characters, excluded for similar reasons. I also include Itachi with reluctance due to their age gap, but as he is at the very least 18 when returns to Konoha to speak to Kakashi, and he is the next highest in Kakashi pairings, he acts as the fifth pairing. So, in short: I am most certainly biased in what I included and excluded in my 2018 and 2020 data. 

Again, this analysis does not examine a number of variables, like the Naruto anime and ongoing sequel anime, other types of pairing content, etc. But it’s still very interesting to see the tide of fic on AO3. I would like to look at the anime specifically at some point, but this was already an incredible waste of time. 

Seriously, why would you read this? Why would I write this? Are we human, or are we dancer? We will never know. 

Literature Cited

Keepyourpantsongohan. (2018, Aug 19). Kakashi & Da Boyz: A Lab Report. Tumblr. https://keepyourpantsongohan.tumblr.com/post/177174079767/kakashi-da-boyz-a-lab-report

Fealasy. (2012, April 26). Once-ler. Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/once-ler

Why think Sarada have 3 tomoe in manga but not anime? She have 1 in anime.

Heyo!

So, I’m glad that you sent me this ask for a number of reasons, but the primary reason is that it gives me an excuse to go on a tangent about Sarada’s Sharingan and the light novels. I will, however, answer your question first before I actually go on my tangent, out of respect for the ask. But, if you are interested, buckle up cause it’s gonna be a long one!

Okay, so, the anime and the manga are very far apart in terms of where they are in the story. While the anime is slowly catching up and is finally moving into the Kara arc, it is still way behind in comparison to the manga. The manga favors the main story line and doesn’t like to diverge into more detailed territory, instead relying on the anime and the light novels to supplement the story, provide the missing details, develop the characters, and expand on the off-screen activities of the characters. There are also a couple of one-shots out there by Kishimoto-Sensei, particularly one about Mitsuki that is amazing, that do this, as well. In the manga, they don’t discuss how and when Sarada acquired her 3 tomoe- which really bums me out- and they haven’t talked about it in the anime yet either. They also didn’t bother to show or explain how/ when Sarada trained with Sasuke to learn the Chidori. They just kinda threw it in there with little explanation, hoping that the fans would know to turn to other mediums, such as the light novels, for further clarification. I do not expect the manga to tell us about Sarada getting her 3 tomoe and it seems to me like they’re just retconning it into the story to keep the plot moving and hoping fans will just accept it as is. As I said, the anime is behind on the story, however, I do expect the anime to dive into Sarada gaining her 3 tomoe Sharingan in place of the manga, so I urge you to stay tuned for that.

Put simply, just by going off the manga alone, there really is no explanation as to how Sarada got her 3 tomoe and the anime isn’t caught up enough to explain it either. And this is where I tell you not to rely on the manga alone for the full story. The light novels are canon material, too, and they are a great place to start- if you can find them- to get more of the story than you would from the manga or even the anime. Particularly look into the Sasuke Sunrise light novel, the Parent and Child light novel, and the Sasuke Shinden light novel: The Teacher’s Star Pupil. Hopefully, that answers your question.

And, now, I’m gonna go on my tangent. We’re not gonna be given a direct explanation of Sarada getting her 3 tomoe in the manga. They’re gonna shove that off into the light novels and the anime, which I find completely disappointing because it would be great to see that development of her character in the manga, especially to see how the creators handle it. HOWEVER, I believe, 100%, that the manga will show us Sarada getting her Mangekyou Sharingan at the very least and it’s gonna be a major part of the story. I know other people think that she will get her Mangekyou Sharingan from Sasuke’s or Naruto’s deaths and I can see that as, maybe, a possibility considering the apparent direction the manga is going in and that they said it was gonna take on a darker tone, but I don’t agree with those predictions. I don’t think either of them are going to die anytime soon, if at all.

Sarada’s Sharingan awakened from love, not loss or hatred. It awakened out of her love for her parents (mostly Sasuke) and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise. I honestly think that Sarada’s Mangekyou Sharingan will awaken out of her selfless love for someone she deeply cares about. Whether that turns out to be Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Cho-Cho, Mitsuki, Kawaki, or Boruto is yet to be seen, although I do think it will be someone other than Sasuke and Sakura and I will explain my reasoning later. With that being said, I think it will awaken in one of three ways: either Sarada is going to be gravely injured protecting someone and realizing that she was so willing to do so out of her love for that person, someone she loves will be gravely injured in her presence or to protect her, and she will awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan out of pure love and desire to save/ protect that person, or the Village will be almost entirely destroyed in Pain-like fashion if the fight manages to spill back over into the Village and upon seeing the destruction her love and devotion to the Village, her devotion to the Will of Fire, will awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan. I also have a theory/ prediction of how her Mangekyou may awaken based on how the manga is laying things out, but I’ll explain that later, too. 

To me, it doesn’t make sense to have the Mangekyou awaken out of loss due to the fact that it has long been established as being driven by her love. Sarada isn’t like the other Uchiha when it comes to her Sharingan. She isn’t bound by the Curse of Hatred and as such it has no effect on her Sharingan’s abilities. One of the light novels delves into this in a conversation between Sasuke and Sakura in which they talk about how caring and sensitive Sarada is, how observant and curious she is, and how she loves deeply. I don’t think you can suddenly change that facet of her because it is an important part of her personality which distinguishes her from the Uchiha before her in a way that breaks away from the established norm and defines her as her own person. You certainly can’t change that just so she can level up in a “believable way,” because that isn’t believable at all based on how her character has been established. For example, if they were to have Kawaki, in particular, kill Sasuke or Naruto or Sakura and Sarada was to hate him for it, thus introducing the Curse of Hatred to her, I think it would completely diminish her character by devaluing the fact that her growth is based on love, not hate. Of course, you could argue that she could develop from learning to forgive him for doing something like that and moving past the hate, but the relationship between Kawaki and Sarada isn’t built up enough to make that believable on top of the fact that Sarada isn’t a character who hates anyone in particular and suddenly putting that on her just to establish that she is someone who can overcome hate for love would literally be far too similar to Sasuke’s story and that’s not how this series is doing things. Sarada being a character devoid of hate and full of love is literally what sets her apart from the Uchiha before her, as I said, and introducing loss and hatred as a way to awaken her Mangekyou just doesn’t make any sense to me and seems like a complete and total retcon.

The Boruto series, according to Ikemoto-Sensei, is about the kids breaking away from inherent families bonds. It’s about them making their own way in life and not defining themselves based on the families they come from. They choose their own paths, create their own destinies, and are not defined by their inherited traits. Sarada, for example, is not defined by the Uchiha history. She isn’t bound by the Curse of Hatred like Sasuke was and like the overwhelming majority of the other Uchiha were- I give exception to Itachi here, in particular. She has fully embraced the Will of Fire and the connections that she has to others and her desire to become Hokage shows that. She is taking a different path from her family and making her mark in her own way. Boruto, likewise, is taking a different path from his family, too. While he tried desperately to gain Naruto’s recognition, he never wanted to be defined as the son of the Hokage. He wanted to be his own person and break away from the idea that he, like his father and grandfather before him, would become Hokage, which is why he admires Sasuke so much and wants to follow in his footsteps. In Kishimoto-Sensei’s Mitsuki story, we see him also work to establish his own path in life. None of them want to follow in their families footsteps and that’s an important aspect of the series to consider when you look at things like Sarada’s Sharingan. 

Now, going back to what I said earlier, I don’t think Sarada will awaken her Mangekyou because of her love for her parents. I think we’ve reached a point in the series where it’s time for her love to be displayed towards someone else in the same way that it extends to her parents. We have seen her love for Sasuke (and Sakura) awakening her Sharingan and based on what I’ve read in the light novels, it develops further due to her love for Sasuke. And now I think we’re at a point in her development where her love for others needs to be displayed to further her development and put her on the path of understanding the importance of her connections to those around her and what that means for herself, as Naruto did. And I compare her to Naruto here in that to become Hokage, she needs to be recognized by the Village, as Naruto did before her. She needs to understand her connections to people outside of her family to truly recognize the importance of those connections in order to harness the desire to become strong enough to maintain those connections and to fight to protect everyone. If she doesn’t do so and show everyone in the Village that she has what it takes to protect them and bring them together, then she will never become Hokage. Just having the desire to do so isn’t enough. And that’s why I think her Mangekyou will awaken because of someone outside of her family. I honestly think her Mangekyou will awaken from love towards Naruto or Boruto. I say towards Naruto because we know the lengths he will go to protect the Village and if the fight returns to the Village, he is willing to risk everything to protect it, and if Sarada were to witness this it may awaken her Mangekyou in her love and admiration of Naruto as Hokage and her desire to want to help him and protect the Village. Now, that’s just a vague, rather un-thought-out idea that I’m not entirely committed to, but I could see it happening. Then, there is the possibility that it will awaken because of her love for Boruto and this is where my theory/ prediction based on how the manga is going comes into play. 

So, remember way back when Sumire asked Sarada if she was bothered by other girls liking Boruto, if she liked Boruto herself, and Sumire admitting that she likes Boruto? Then Sarada gives her this weird look when they leave after denying she had feelings for Boruto and that she didn’t really care if other girls liked him? I think that’s setting us up to see Sarada realize that she does have feelings for Boruto. Now, remember when Boruto asked Sasuke to borrow his headband before the fight? Also, remember when Sasuke told Boruto that he and Naruto are willing to do anything, even die, to protect the Village? All of those things tie into my theory. Here’s how I think it’d play out: Sasuke and Naruto are beaten up pretty badly and are incapacitated, leaving Boruto the last one standing and unable to stop Jigen from returning to the Village. Jigen starts destroying the Village to find Kawaki and easily fights off everyone in his way before Boruto also returns to the Village to try and stop him, at the behest of Sasuke. Sarada’s still in the hospital, of course, but can hear what’s going on and decides that she’s gonna join the fight despite her injuries. At this point, you’ve got just about everyone mobilized to stop Jigen, which I think will lead to some character deaths that will also be important to the story. So, Jigen is stomping people left and right just as Sarada joins in the fight. Boruto, Sarada, and Mitsuki go all gung-ho and use their strongest abilities, including Sage Mode for Mitsuki (yay), and while they manage to injure Jigen, they’re nowhere near strong enough to stop him, especially because they are all injured at this point. Jigen’s getting ready to take them all out and either Boruto will get seriously injured protecting Sarada or vice versa, causing Sarada’s Mangekyou to awaken because of her desire to protect him, and I think she’ll later realize it’s because of deep feelings for Boruto that it awakens. Now, either Sarada is going to take full advantage of her new abilities and completely wreck Jigen or Boruto’s gonna go bananas and inflict some heavy damage on him- which might include Momoshiki-Boruto making another appearance. Then, you have Kawaki who can also hear what’s happening, escapes, and joins the fight and says that he’ll go with Jigen if he’ll stop attacking the Village and stop hurting his friends. Jigen agrees and as they’re leaving, Boruto tries to stop him and Kawaki retaliates, giving him his scar.

That’s my prediction of how things are gonna unfold and I’m willing to bet money that at least some of that happens, whether how I described it or not is yet to be seen, as I think the manga is leading up to it. But I also think this is the point where Sarada is going to awaken her Mangekyou Sharingan because it is definitely going to be the most emotional point of the story thus far and is a prime opportunity to have it awaken. And they better not waste this opportunity.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with me and reading and thank you, anon, for the ask! I hope this all makes sense to everyone and you’re all as hype as I am for the coming chapters/ episodes!

@cosmicconundrum now u got me, cause even though ive watched the start of kakashi’s anbu arc several times, ive never actually finished it cause i always drop it when it starts focusing on itachi sjsjsjs... i was saving it for when i reached there w/ my gf

What i can say abt it is that ANBU really was... A Time for Kakashi

Afterall, when Kakahi joins up he joins freshly out of murdering rin, he’s traumatized and he’s called fucking Friend Killer Kakashi, which is... not good... he’s violent and kills without having to and has terrible episodes thanks to his trauma and he closes off to his friends a lot.   Minato dies and we see kakashi so full of that “darkness” that he really almost goes along with murdering the fucking hokage. But kakashi is loyal , and thinks for himself so he doesnt.

Still, after that it seems kakashi is a bit at loss, navigating the world by himself. He’s tense and stuff a lot but he seems to mellow out compared to his beggining days in anbu. We see that when he spares tenzou’s life (claiming it to be an asset for the village) but we truly see him just.. calming down and basically lose that aggressive violence stored up from his earlier years at anbu when he meets with tenzou while chasing after orochimaru (how he decided to lie to protect tenzou).  kakashi is anbu at the beggining because they didnt know what to do with him, and kakashi stays anbu because he thinks thats all hes good at, destroying things. But kakashi goes out of his way to protect ppl he calls comrades and thats how tenzou comes to respect him so much (and so does his other teammates in anbu).

 Kakashi doesnt really baby his team, they are anbu after all, but he makes it clear that he’d sooner die then let anything happen to any of them, and with time i guess that trait of him became clearer and clearer, and thats why Kakashi is Kakashi of the Sharingan instead of Friend Killer Kakashi.

In the end, kakashi just wants his team to trust each other and rely on eachother. He wants them to be their best and he will do what he can for them to get there. He’s their guide but he doesn’t think of himself worth of any praise or as someone to be looked up to, just someone who’s giving the tools he has so they can shine On their own. Like ive said before, seems like kakashi thinks of himself as someone whos bound to die and be forgotten eventually, and thats how he goes through life. again, havent seen much abt him and itachi but like i said, he doesnt really seem to baby itachi despite his age, we see him gt dissapointed at his team for distrusting the boy, and see him bet his opinion out as to why they do what they do as anbu in the hopes itachi understand, but he carries on with the mission like “this is what we must do, and you can count on me to get it done”

He thinks himself a tool to help others and he thinks being anbu is just a curse he must carry on, so getting pulled off anbu really must felt like someone pulling the carpet out under his feet. Losing that routine and that certainty that this was his Life until the end must have put him in a really strange position.

But like, i say kakashi “mellows out” but kakashi was still traumatized and not coping with it.... i feel like just.. the anger died down and he was just left out fedling tense and depressed, he was shut out from his friends outside of work and i believe he’d barely even show up eithout the anbu mask, to the point his friends felt the need to intervene. So like, he still wasnt ok, though i feel like his connection with tenzou put some focus in his life for a while

Wow this is probaly confusing coming from my brain nonstop at 4am so i’ll try to make a few quick points or something like that of some random thoughts

- kakashi went through some character changes in anbu, from the aggressive, hurting kid at the beggining, to a mellowed out, friendlier man we know today (though of course his skills were still very much honed, and we also know lots of times he coukd never get off the tense, high alert, assassin mindset, which was very bad since it wasnt allowing him to heal completely)

-  kakashi  cares for his subordinates but somehow doesnt expect them to care for him, and shows to be uncomfortable by being looked up on

- he’s really accepting of their fates of tools of konoha and doesnt question it that much, but offers his assistance to keep his team alive no matter what

- tenzou was def important to kakashi. I feel like thats one of the first times he gets invested in someone for a long time, and tenzou is someone he managed to help in the end, like, a thing he did good instead of ruining, and i love how they developed their friendship and im pretty sure tenzou just being there helped slow kakashi’s descent into a further depression

Am i even making sense

002|| Sasuke XD

Well, I wasn’t expecting Sausage but I have A LOT to say about him. So thank you @toxicdeathboy this is going to be fun, at least for me. 

How I feel about this character: 

Even though this isn’t even the most problematic out of all the points to answer in this list but I got to say I feel quite conflicted with Sasuke. 

Unlike many people that saw Naruto since they were toddlers and grew in parallel to this anime I watched it when I was quite older, more exactly when I was sixteen. So yeah, that framed a lot my perspective a Sasuke and how I view his character (and takes away the nostalgia factor of having watched the show all your life)

At the beginning of the anime Sasuke was in within my top favorite characters. He was just a cool smart-ass, an almost stereotypical fuck-boy but that had some depth in him: a clear moral conduct, a genuine care for his team mates and abilities that not only made him look incredible but that also where backed up by logic and didn’t break the manga apart (yeah!). And although Sasuke little by little started falling in the charts either because of  new characters appearing and basically dominating the higher positions or because of little things that surrounded the character that I wasn’t completely fond of (like every character except from Hinata automatically falling for him or being obsessed with him, or getting help either from the script of other characters whenever he was in real trouble) I still appreciated his character.  

He is a well-written character I can deny that but there was one moment that throw me completely off. (What I am going to say following this is completely subjective and can be discussed so if you got another opinion I would love to hear it, just a disclaimer because it maybe sounds way to harsh)

In the middle of the Fourth Great Ninja War, Sasuke is reunited with Itachi. That was a pretty good moment, filled up with emotions in with Sasuke is finally able to understand the intentions behind his brother’s acts. He finally understands that everything he had done was to protect both Konoha and him, that he had basically lived a man of criminal in order to protect the integrity of them both. So what did Sasuke decide to do? A revolution through which he’ll destroy himself and Konoha. 

Did I missed something? 

That would make completely sense if he hadn’t met Itachi and therefore stayed in the same psycho-mode as he was but it’s completely nonsense that after being talked down by Itachi and learning everything he still decided to do that. In my point of view this completely broke the consistency in his characterization and hence, generated my conflicted feelings towards him. 

On the one hand we have a composed, serious and consistent Sasuke with almost every appearance he has is f***ing cool and that has logical drives and it’s heavily positive input in his manga/anime. On the other hand we have a completely illogical Sasuke that basically only says he is going to have a revolution because Kishimoto needed an excuse to have his fight against Naruto being the end of the manga and a Sasuke which is highly favored by his author. 

Hence the word conflicted being the best word I can choose. Sometimes I like him a lot, sometimes I dislike him a lot. I can’t decide on one. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

Shipping and Sasuke. Like, Sasuke was so obsessed by revenge, specially during the whole of Shippuden, that I can hardly say I genuinely ship him with almost anyone, nor I cared that much. Sasuke x Revenge and Naruto x Ramen are clear OTPs that no one can deny. 

Well getting a little bit more serious I’ll try to dive a little bit into each ship that I had considered during my experience in the fandom: 

Sasuke x Sakura: To be  honest I was almost  100% spoiled of every mayor event in the anime before starting to read it. Thanks, brother. You call it, Jiraiya’s Death, checked. Minato and Kushina being Naruto’s parents, checked. Tobi being Obito, checked. And so I was spoiled both NaruHina and SasuSaku. So when I first started to see the series I was looking forward to see both of this relationships developed. Unluckily I didn’t got that much. But I got to say I  liked the idea of a possible relationship developing between Sasuke and Sakura during Part I, where a grown-up Sakura’s feelings will develop from obsession to a genuine care and Sasuke will open up to her. But none of this happened and then all absolutely fell into pieces in Part II when Sasuke almost killed her. That in my world is a big no, and despite I like their interactions in Boruto and I genuinely ship them in this period of time as they seem to have an honest feeling towards each other. However, I can’t get behind that he did almost killed her (despite Sasuke being in a state of mind that we can hardly call sane) so I ship them but not that much. 

Sasuke x Anyone from Team Taka: I could easily ship them with anyone from the Team, despite I don’t have a particular interest over any other romantic pairing in particular. I think that with anyone of them, given a little more of development could have made a good pairing for Sasuke since they show a great care for him and their friendship even when they didn’t necessarily needed to. Beside that, I don’t have that much to say and repeating more or less the same things for Karin, Suigetsu and Jugo just seemed to match.  

Sasuke x Ino: I just like who their personality match at the end of their respective arcs all through Naruto Shippuden with a mature and calm Sasuke and a caring and witty Ino. However there’s little to no evidence of Sasuke even caring for Ino so I can only see it as more of a crack ship. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

Naruto x Sasuke: I know everyone sees incredibly romantic undertones between them, and you’re probably right, I just don’t see it. I see them more as they would feel the void of the family they had lost acting as each others brother. They compete, they help and they relate to each other (in my point of view) more as brothers than as lovers. 

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

If what said in before wasn’t already unpopular enough (I think it already was) I have another one that I think it’s even more unpopular. 

I don’t find Sasuke THAT attractive, physically speaking. 

I mean he is just a good-looking person, nothing less and nothing more. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: My OTP:

Duh, Sasuke x Revange. 

Well I’m sorry I can hardly think of which ship I prefer over the other. I can really have an OTP for this character but if I got to say one it’ll probably NaruSasu, like idk. This is hard. It’s completely irrational since I have just explained why I don’t view them in a ‘romantic way’ but if I got to stay with the most significant relationship of Sasuke that got to be his bond with Naruto. I have no doubts of that. 

My Cross Over Ship:

You got no idea how long I been thinking about this. 

This might be a little weird, specially considering that I had already made a post  comparing her to a Naruto character which I could never ship with Sasuke but I think it would be interesting to see her with Kagura of InuYasha. 

I really would like to see Sasuke with someone who is able to match him in his own game. Someone that is also mature, calculating, confident and that won’t let him manipulate her while still having a softer side. Or maybe is just because I like female characters like this and I am just tricking myself into believe this will work. So, yes, I genuinely don’t know who this would work but I consider it’ll be nonetheless intriguing. 

A Headcanon Fact:

Sasuke is a proficient writer and has a notebook in which tends to write while he is on his journeys across the continent. He usually writes more whenever he misses his home, his friends or family. No one knows what he writes in there, not even Sakura as he is too ashamed to show them. Maybe too personal? 

-

Well here you got it. Late in better than never. Thanks again for the ask. I am sure this is not what you wanted but Sasuke is quite a problematic for me to analyze and write about but I hope that at least it was somewhat entertaining.  Have a nice day!

~Sasusaku analysis ~

                               ~~ Sasuke and Sakura - - pair analysis ~~                                            ~THE BRIDGE SCENE~                            (Team 7 Reunion - - after the Five Kage Summit)

                                           ---   PART 4---

How would anyone act when given an impossible choice: be a shinobi or a lover.

This scene suggests that one can't be both (Zabuza states that they can't be both and the human wins every time, albeit Naruto begs to differ and state that it is realistic and achievable to balance the two antithetical perspectives).

"Kill her and I'll accept your offer." Sasuke gives her a pill of her own medicine. Because he doesn't speak randomly for the sake of conversation, cruelly with seemingly no remorse lingering in his heart, Sasuke gives Sakura one example of how her life would be if she were to join him; the life of an outlaw where murder and disposing of people like nothing would be ordinary.

Plus, the scene is also symbolic; Sasuke asks a famous medic - - his following sentence is more than revealing for he knows very well that Sakura is a medic - - to kill a suffering person, when the very essence of her jobs nature AND her symbolism in the manga as the representative of rebirth and regeneration  is to heal, to cure, to lessen one's pain.

By joining him, Sakura would give up on her own self (Naruto answers to her shrouded confession that no sentient bring should event lose himself and betray his own morals, principles and feelings "I hate people who lie to themselves"). Hypothetically, Sasuke shows Sakura a glimpse into how her future beside him would look like.

Albeit is kosher and nuanced, barely noticeable, Sasuke still has a good nature and he proves he cares; he doesn't snap at her, he doesn't launch an attack, he takes his time to lecture her in his own blunt and sarcastic manner.

In the light of the most recent events - - Itachi’s death, the Kage summit, Danzo, Obito and his confession about Uchiha - - Sasuke might arguably have his ration altered, with interlaced moments of lucidity and madness, triggered by the emotional trauma, extreme stress and because he is being provoked. And that makes his moves seem mad, unusually erratic and exaggerated (his famous mad  laughing moment when he shouts to Kakashi that no one could ever bring his family back and restore that status quo - - a doctrine that the manga embraces).

But that's not the case; not with Sasuke and not in this scene.

The overly popular consent postulates that "Sasuke went mad/ he is crazy". Which isn't the truth at all, but it's so facile to superficially judge a character with no proper introspection.

He is not mad at all. Nothing in his demeanor reveal that Sasuke lost the clarity or the ration and his furious state must not be mistaken for insanity.

Sasuke is perfectly lucid. He's, calm, composed, enigmatic, his words have double meaning, he is coherent, analytical, tactical and he knows perfectly well what he is saying; he has complete control of his thoughts.

The fact that his following  conversation with Team 7 steals exacerbated reactions from him is due to the fact that he's more emotionally attached to them and thus his emotions would be pushed to extreme; he'd be more expressive and his rage would be more evident.

Sasuke is less reserved with Team 7 because he's emotionally involved; it’s very personal. But that doesn't make him a mentally deranged man.

He even kept his lucidity and perfectly placated Danzo with a sparkling strategy; he had enough lucidity to analyze Danzo's attacks and outsmart him, despite the emotional trump card of psychological upper hand that Danzo supposingly had on him. Even Obito himself thought at some point that Sasuke has lost it and he's only launching at Danzo erratically, aimlessly in his crazed mind, like Juugo. But it wasn't the suicidal rampage of a crazed man. Sasuke fooled everyone into thinking that he does not know what he is doing / that he lost it.

Nowhere in his attitude or his manner of speaking does Sasuke seem crazy and that's luckily to Sakura because she exposed herself to a ridiculously deadly situation. She came before him like it's a cakewalk with a confusing and conflicting strategy - - if it even existed.

That's the beauty of this pair. It's refreshing and novel, the dynamics are exciting, it lefts the reader constantly guessing and the finale isn't predictable. They aren't a cliché couple. Their movements, the inner feelings, the evident indecision and introspective turmoil is fabulous.

Sakura's ambiguous intentions and Sasuke's personal manner of speaking, his body language, her evident conflict and bedraggled approach are confusing and enigmatic. We keep in guessing what did she hope to accomplish?

Her presence alone holding a lethal weapon that she plans to use on Sasuke and the mention of the word "kill" on her lips when talking about Sasuke the man she loves might be symbolic for how much she treasures the bond with Naruto and how much she regrets for her innocent, naïve plea to bring Sasuke back.

A bond of blood, pain, rancor and emotional torment that she created, a harpoon of tm emotional trauma and torture for Naruto who didn't deserve it. Her present alone with murder intent is an attempt to free Naruto her best friend from this curse (a repentine decision taken after her "confession" failed - - her attempt to free Naruto from that promise failed because Naruto suggests that the supposed burden of her promise was also a conjoined personal motivation).

And maybe Sakura wants to confirm her own feelings and proceed from there: does she love him now when he's gone to this lengths or did her feelings changed for this new Sasuke and she'll be able to fulfill her shinobi duty?

That's how her disarrayed moves and the lack of any proper prior plan could be explained. She wanted to confront her own emotions and the best way to do so was to meet Sasuke herself and assess the situation with her own eyes and her suspicions coupled with the rumors about him lead to the verdict: he is not the same Sasuke that she fell in love with.

Solidifying Sasuke's role as a character with great development in the Manga (a Bildungsroman which follows the evolution of a character from childhood to adulthood, which emphasizes and supports the moral of the story). In antithesis with Naruto who is a linear character who didn't change in the bit, Uchiha is a dynamic character who evolves and never stays the same.

Both Sakura and Karin make it perfectly clear that Sasuke is not static like an unperturbed lake with no ripple to break the mirror-like stillness of its surface. He's a vivacious ocean - - unpredictable and fulminant with constant vicissitudes between tranquility and serenity and turbulent storms.

Sakura confronts her own feelings by approaching Sasuke and realization almost costs her life - - her heart gives us the painful confirmation that she loves him, still helplessly loves him ardently, in a moment when there's no safe turning back.

A moment of hesitation is lethal for a shinobi. A moment of indecision or unfortunate choice comes with devastating consequences.

She reveals her poisoned kunai from under her clothes while indecision takes control over her reeling emotions and fogged lucidity. Simultaneously, Sasuke prepares his Chidori and prepares to strike his attack.

The manga is very descriptive and suggestive. The transitions denote melodious cursively and the flow and cohesion of their interplay is assured by the constant introspection into the characters minds and hearts as the silent face expressions and body language emphasize their dialogue.

Sasuke sees Sakura's internal turmoil. He notices how she reviews her own feelings for he did the same when he heard the truth about Itachi. She's analyzing her feelings for him as he silently allow her to make a decision, up to the very last moment - - he wait for her to get close to him while he won't let any other enemy with murder intent to get so close to him.

Waiting for her to decide, to make up her mind, to choose the road to take and dictate the course of action. Up to the last moment when she reveals her kunai and her mind decides that "she doesn't matter", meaning that she won't comply with his request to kill Karin and "prove" her loyalty and feelings to him.

The implicit dubiety in Sasuke's voice has a moral purpose behind: in a couple, trust is fundamental for a healthy relationship. Love isn't enough when it’s not coupled with trust and respect.

When trust misses, there can't be any romance between two parties and that's what Sasuke's ironic and daring words mean when he dares Sakura to prove her loyalties and back up her confession.

Yes, she might love him but she won't do everything he asks and she does not NEED to comply to his requests. Sasuke tells Sakura that she does not BELONG to his world now. To this version of reality, according to the script of this play he can't be her lover, the one she dreams of.

His eyes, the mirrors of the soul as the symbols of the Third Eye in Buddhism - - the omnipotence of the one who beholds all the wisdom and knowledge / the spiritual part represented by Sasuke's Yin avatar - - are always scrutinizing and introspective. Sasuke is following Sakura's mimics, gesture and reactions with hawkish diligence, attentive and meticulous.

He sees right through her deception; he might not have accumulated enough life-experience, wisdom and information to unravel Itachi's truth ("how far can you see with that Sharingan of yours, Sasuke?"), but he sees right through Sakura's soul, reading her like an open book, every page and every line. She's transparent in front of the man she loves.

It can't be any different because romantic bonds are unique; nothing can begin to compare or come close to. There's nothing else tangible to compare romantic love with, nothing that can offer such a complete body and soul experience.

It's very difficult to draw a kokeshi doll mask on the face of a lover because primal instinct makes one react differently, in a peculiar manner in the presence of the loved one.

Is primal, animal instinct to entice and attract the attention of a potential match and thus it makes it difficult to fight against such strong innate reflexes.

For both Sasuke and Sakura, the primeval instinct to be a couple is very difficult to placate and hide. Sasuke makes it obvious from his tempered gestures, for how he allows her closer to him than anyone, and from he way he talks to her - - the syntax of the phrase and the choice of words are all very intimate, very personal.

And Sakura's pendulating actions shine with confusion and indecision, the inner turmoil revealing as theatrical and dramatic: she alternates between blubbing and shouting, rasping and barking at him and getting emotional and mellower with him.

The look in their eyes is one of this pair’s most symbolic feature. Since Japanese people aren't overtly extroverts with displaying emotions in public, subtlety is the key of this representative pair. There is an entire repertoire that composed the aria of love songs between this pair. There are heated glances, angst stares, incredulity and confusion. This time Sakura does not eschew her eyes from Sasuke; she doesn't glance shyly and flirtatiously aside from him like she does at the end of the manga. She holds Sasuke's gaze, leveling his piercing gaze as she knows she risks a lot because this man's eyes can see through everything.

He... Was always capable to see right through her deception. She can never hide from him.

Sasuke instead can perfectly mask his emotions, but chooses not to.

Considering how this couple's love story is embroidered into the tapestry of scorching passion, it’s no wonder that Sasuke is the one who initiates most the innuendos between them. No pronouns are more idoneous than the repetitive "Me" and "you" and the syntax of their dialogue; the flow of the conversation, the order of the words and the feelings elicited are extremely intimate.

There is history behind this couple and their now earmark stares and glances exchange support it.

Sasuke and Sakura are subtle but their body language is unique and a expressive. No fustian description can give their story justice, for it's far too complex.

That's why passion and intimacy scorch like a pyre with this pair. Every feeling, every emotion and every sentiment is augmented and exacerbated.

While he's clearly deranged by the women's litany of flirts and attempts to seduce him, he listens to Sakura's every word. He doesn't brush off her confession, he doesn't ask her to keep her distance from him, and he doesn't repay her confession with brusque scowls or growls (like he does to Karin, Ino and Mei).

Sasuke and Sakura's love story is very reminiscent to the compelling elements of Shakespeare drama in terms of its characteristic elements: the tragic hero who's suffering is the product of a peculiar  trait of fate or an extraneous force (the Uchiha curse/ manipulation and lies that surround HIM); his inner struggle (the struggle between good or bad), darkness and hatred and evil  that destroys any iota of goodness in the hero's heart, the stupendous internal and external conflict and the effect of catharsis that their feelings produce.

The strong, Naruto-esque happy ending is the only thing that differs, as Sasuke and Sakura don't end in a veritable tragedy, emphasizing the triumph of good in the manga.

I'd end by citing Obito and Hagoromo's hermeneutics:   "When a man learns how to love he must shoulder the burden of hatred."

The negativism and pessimism that attributes a negative connotation to life and suggests that pain and suffering are inherent to life and win over positive emotions - - the reign of pain and suffering.

... In conjunction with:

"I hope that this time is hatred which turns into love."

The positive overview of the humanist manga conclusion.

The positive, idealist triumph of peace, love and happiness, with love winning over pain.

It's Sakura who returned the lost peace and gave Sasuke happiness. It's her love that turned his hatred (Sasuke set on redemption journey because of lingering Uchiha demons he's scared to hurt people).

Biggest wasted potential in Naruto

Killing off Zabuza and Haku. Like come on. Zabuza could’ve either went on to become a Jonin at Konoha and fought against Kisame, or if Haku were alive. Zabuza and Haku would’ve eventually become powerful enough to pull a successful coup and otherthrow Obito’s puppet and Zabuza would become Mizukage with Haku by his side. Naruto could’ve inspired to turn the Hidden Mist into being better, Naruto did get to Zabuza’s heart so it is possible, it worked for Gaara and it damn well could’ve worked with Zabuza. And we could have Zabuza and Haku taking on the entire Swordsmen of the hidden Mist. We could’ve also gotten Haku finding out more about his clan and becoming more powerful in his abilities. We could’ve seen feats in his powers far more powerful than the demon ice mirrors.  

The Hyuga Clan. Building up the Hyuga Clan as one of the strongest clans  in the first half and barely using them to the point where they are underdeveloped and barely acknowledge the Byakugan. Remember when the Byakugan was supposed to be more powerful than the sharingan (and the sharingan was originally derived from the byakugan)? Such a powerful blood trait that the main branch of the clan would enslave the side branches to keep it safe? Yeah that went out the window pretty quickly.

The White Fang. Kakashi's father who is even more famous and powerfull than Kakashi. Who is at least famous as The Sannin. The White Fang of Konoha. There are no games, no Gaiden, movie or anything about him. We could’ve seen The White Fang brought back to fight against Kakashi and Kakashi could’ve been brought closure. It’s a damn shame.

Shino. Shino Aburame was the strongest Genin and he was the most myterious one and one the coolest among all Genins. He was as smart as Shikimaru, skilled as Sasuke and resilient as Neji. He is from one of the noble clans of Konohagakure and Clan Leader's son. After shippuden he completely ignored and only seeing in filler episodes. Even Akamaru and Tonton has more screen time than Shino. And making Shino a Chunnin as Class Teacher at the end? Shino should be a wanderer, a researcher, a S-Class Jonin as sensor or a duty at central intelligence.

The fact that we never learn anything about Konohamaru’s parents. Could they have just been Jonin or Anbu or Ninjas who died in the Kyuubi attack? We will never know.

Kurenai. Youngest of the 4 Leader Jonin of Konoha. Even at her young age she is stated as roughly equal to other senseis’ such as Gai, Kakashi and Asuma. Her genjutsu was so powerful, she was good enough to stunt instantly a guy like Kisame with her fundamental genjutsu and also she was good at breaking Itachi's genjutsu by her own. Where would this go from here? Who from the Akatsuki will she face? What role will she play in the war? And she’s reduced to Asuma’s love interest and made pregnant for the rest of the series. We don’t even see if she was replaced and see if Team 8 even got a new Sensei. We don’t even see Kurenai interact with Hinata, Kiba or Shino. Literally no interaction between any of her students. Kurenai deserved so much better.      

Tenten. Tenten was the only one not interested in boys. Tenten is the only girl who has a big ideal goal. And that is "Becoming a great kunoichi just like her role model Great Sannin Tsunade" Compared to Sakura, Ino, Temari and Karin, Tenten was the only Kunoichi who got the least amount of screen time. And why is that? Kishimoto didn't wanna write any self-reliant teenage girl.

Uzumaki Clan. Not having Naruto use his clan’s powerful sealing abilities in the war. Hell, we REALLY could’ve learned more about the Uzumaki Clan from Karin. Karin would have been a great opportunity to be the one who lets us know what the clan was really like. This could’ve made Sasukarin work cause both clans being restored really would’ve worked. Like we have both Nagato and Karin and we never learn anything about the Clan from either of them. How do you not use your main character’s clan???  Hell, Naruto could’ve used what he inherited from Kushina to seal away Madara before Madara could possess Obito to bring him back. 

Hinata. If there was a picture in front of the definition of wasted—Hinata would be there. Hinata started to become one of my favorites during her fight with Neji. Kishimoto never really utilized Hinata Hyuga in any real manner. The only times she stood out was when the plot needed advancement. Usually, during a high intense, emotional situation. Hinata outside of extreme life or death moments…is static and seemingly inconsequential. Her existance never affected anything, whether she was living or dead…it wouldn’t of changed a thing. Hinata’s popularity rose, because of her love and obsession w/ the main character. She became a “underdog” in theory, because here’s this shy girl, disowned by her clan, and basically kicked to the curb like yesterdays garbage. The cousin that was raised to protect her—HATED—her and she was cute, pathetic, and terribly shy. Quite a few fans gravitated towards this character, because of these events. The terrible tragedy that was Hinata Hyuga evoked pity, the fulfillment of her dreams, and fans who in some cases sympathized or viewed shades of themselves in this shy gal. Unfortunately, as a by-product…most fans simultaneously used the tragic backdrop and her position of birth right in order to create this image of a “Tragic Princess”. Hinata was elevated not because of merit or depth, but for representing a figure that could be shaped into something that resembled very little of her original form. Hinata lost any potential real development or sovereignty to become one half of a pair, a princess, and a damsal in distress. She became a caricature. It’s rare to see fan art portraying her as the Hyuga head, a keen leader in her own right or as a mature woman, NOT infantilized or glorified for being somebodies or Naruto’s waifu. Most of this characters identity is tied and overshadowed by her love interest. Hinata is a dreamy character that looses tremendous glamour when gazed at objectively. To be truthful, Hinata never really had an identity, nor was she allowed to naturally build up one on her own. Kishimoto undercut her severely in that department. Hinata could’ve been something fantastic! She could’ve grown to be discarded by her clan and viewed as the lesser child, to growing to improving herself and become equals with Neji and grow to move past her crush/obsession with Naruto to both Neji and Hinata becoming the heads of their respective branches and changing the Hyuga Clan together. Hinata, in my opinion was never a strong character physically. Sure she could fight to defend herself, and she had the Byakugan. Yet despite that…she’s just one of many Hyuga. Hinata isn’t nor was she ever a spectacular fighter in her own right. Quite often she was overwhelmed and fatigued easily. In battle she failed, but if given a real voice. She could’ve been influential and endearing in a completely different way. This girl is the odd one out in her family, weak and soft, but despite all of that….Hinata has heart. The traits she expressed, while rarely separated from “N-Naruto-kun” is that of hesitancy, shyness, ineptitude, a rare softness that could easily be kind, but also bloom into complete indifference, selfishness and a one track mind. Hinata is caring until she goes cold. Specific traits like her indifference, selfishness, and complete apathy to another’s situation seem to stem from general Hyuga decorum and behavior. To be apart of such a clan…these traits would be needed to endure the cruelty, tragedies, and fear that hide behind the poshly royal exterior. The Hyuga are about saving face and Hinata is a pro at hiding her own. I think, Kishimoto could’ve shown Hinata at war w/ herself, her clan and the life expected of her in general. She’d be someone w/ an active inner life, but pretty much a dead fish on the outside. The fans would’ve seen a shy female stalking a boy in order to relieve herself of her woes and worries. To forget for a while. Naruto w/o ever knowing it could’ve been a catalyst for a far stronger transformation w/ future implications. We should’ve seen her gradually change shyness into reserve, hesitancy into patience, unprotected softness into emotional strength, and her indifference into engagement. This character could’ve been a nice counter-balance to the constant might makes right scenarios. Hinata shown doing anything other than stalking, obsessing, and worrying over Naruto would’ve been amazing. I’d rather see her slowly, but surely altering the views of the clan by maturely engaging w/ them in a holistic way. By showing having a heart and being aware of others in a intimate nature was not weakness. She’d develop tenacity, a spine and voice her concerns gradually. Linking and working w/ Neji who serves as a teacher in more ways than one, but who also becomes a student, because Hinata in her peculiar way teaches him a thing or two. To see them both mingle and wind themselves through the complexities of the Hyuga clan. Working to attempt change. To simply see Hinata become a better sister. One who shows Hanabi through self sacrifice and unconditional love a different way. Hanabi may detest Hinata’s weakness, because she’s been brought up the traditional Hyuga way. Or even flashbacks of Hinata’s mother…who I feel she’d miss dearly and would’ve had a closer relationship to. Someone which whom she truly felt safe and cherished by. To portray generational cycles through a feminine scope. One of submission, bondage and freedom. “The Hyuga women are like water…we take the shape of whatever container we’re put into.” —Quote from Lady Hyuga, Hinata’s mother Lastly, in fanfiction, Hinata is actually portrayed in ways she should’ve been. For those writers who truly cared for THE CHARACTER and not the waifu…I give props. They present a slow to smile, pearly-lilac eyed women who’s reserved, a wallflower and damn impressive. Hinata always seems to carry a hint of bittersweetness. People ruined all of her wonderful possibilities by keeping her static and a princess. Hinata thrives in difficult times. She blooms when rough roads are ahead and she’s sacrificial….even to her own detriment. In order for her to move on…to become something golden…Hinata has to give up on certain things. This is often true in well written stories concerning her. The obsession for Naruto is only meant to last to a point. Just enough to begin to reveal who Hinata Hyuga really is. To stay pass it’s welcome—means she’ll be forgotten once again…even if the dream unfolded and she got her wish…as canon portrays. Little Hinata Hyuga will be ignored, unknown, and relegated to washing dishes and dusting shelves; as someone else lives out their dreams at her expense.

Lee and Neji being shafted and Neji being killed to justify a ship. The fact we never got to see Sasuke and Neji fight in either the Chunin Exams or in Shippuden is downright insulting. Rock Lee is one of the greatest characters in Naruto, period. He has a great origin story, great setting, very emotional and passionate bonds with others. He had the best fights against Gaara and Kimmimaru and kicked Sasuke’s sorry ass. Then, Kishimoto decided not to develop anyone who didn’t have a Sharingan, not on Team 7 or  Formation Ino–Shika–Chō. We never able to see Rock Lee's development his rough journey to fullfil his ninja way. We don’t even get to see a friendly match between Lee and Neji to show that Lee has FINALLY surpassed his rival or even show Lee fight Sasuke. Such a shame that a fan favorite was wasted. And, no I am not done bitching about Neji. Neji was a perfect candidate for who is gonna build up new Konoha Village and Shibobi System with Naruto as the head of Hyuga Clan. Cuz this is the deal between that promised by 'em long way ago. Neji is the only prodigy type character who died so easily. He has a great history and origin story and has a great bond with Naruto. Naruto once said "when ım gonna become hokage ım gonna chance Hyuga and ım gonna get rid off from family branches and you will be the leader of hyuga" That was the promise of the series. Neji stated even better prodigy than Sasuke. Neji was the most potentially skilled person and Neji had a real bond and story with protagonist. And we never able to saw his development. He never faced with Akatsuki....seriously? His dad came back, but didn’t have any scene with his son???? We could’ve even had Neji and Lee teaming up against Sasuke. Lee and Neji deserved so much better.

Dosu. He was so damn cool and it was such a waste that he was killed off so soon. He could’ve been by Orochimaru and Kabuto’s side. You could’ve even had Dosu become so damn powerful enough that Dosu replaces Kimmimaru as part of the Sound 5. Hell, just keep Team Dosu alive. Dosu, Zaku and Kin should have lived and become apart of Team Hebi/Taka with Sasuke, Karin, and Jugo(in the case of Zabuza living, Suigetsu is not needed) Zaku could’ve gotten past his ego and learn to use his abilities better. Kin could have been developed more and improve her abilities and Dosu could’ve been an untapped powder keg. Team Dosu could’ve been Sasuke’s strongest allies. 

Orochimaru. Orochimaru was built up as the big bad of the series. He betrayed his village and friends for knowledge of all jutsu and immortality. He killed Sarutobi and Gaara’s father and finally he had Sasuke. And Shippuden retconned him into a punching bag for Sasuke. He never reached to his potential or never able to show how much he developed in terms of jutsus and power after killing Sarutobi, I honestly would’ve preferred if Orochimaru was successful in taking Sasuke’s body. It could work. if Sasuke was not strong enough to over power the ritual. what would have happened is Orochimaru would've granted Sasuke his one wish to kill Itachi and Sasuke's strong intentions and desires would have remained as part of Orochimaru's subconscious while he was in control of his body. Plus Sasuke was willing to do this if he was able to see Itachi die. Orochimaru already was a pretty powerful ninja and having the Sharingan definitely would have helped. To unlock Mangekyo he might have had to kill Kabuto which I don't have a problem with. And Kabuto would have no problem with since he wanted his master to succeed. Orochimaru would have mastered Sage Mode(snake sage mode would look awesome tbh), and probably unlocked the Rinnegan (he had enough DNA of the First Hokage to Edo Tensei him after all) The Akatsuki view this news very problematic. Orochimaru was already a problem but with confirmation that he succeeded makes him as much as priority as capturing the tailed beasts. Naruto would have asked Tsunade to order a team to hunt Orochimaru down for him to pay for pretty much killing Sasuke and knowing Jiriya wanting to keep a close eye on Orochimaru and wanting to stop him, he would put investigating Pein on hold and join Naruto. Eventually I think Naruto and Itachi would form an alliance and together fight Orochimaru. I believe Itachi knows that if he could get Orochimaru's chakara low enough, he could force his brother out and use Susano to seal Orochimaru. Then Sasuke would kill his brother.

Hi you have a great understanding of Sasuke's character and awesome blog. Could I ask you for tips on how to write Sasuke right in fanfiction? When I try I never seem to get him right

Hello and thanks Anon. First of all, y’all don’t get offended if I’ll destroy some of your fave tropes in fics...I don’t judge ppl writing what they want in their fics, it’s their own fic so ofc they write what they want and how they want it and if they have fun with gay-uncle-Izuna, CEOItachi and sluttySasuke good for them...but when ppl impose their OOC Sasuke (or Nar or Itachi&co) as the real thing, and boy if they do....well. Nope.

Anyway I replied to similar asks here, here and here, so I’ll copy-paste some parts. My Sasuke tag. More Sasuke meta. More headcanons. More essays tag.

Sasuke is not dominant. He’s not bossy. He’s not assertive. He’s very passive in relationships and he values individual freedom, his own and other people’s. Ppl mistake his determination in pursuing his goals with assertiveness but it’s a totally different thing. He never makes the first move with ppl, unless he has a goal and he needs them, and even when he needs them, like Taka, he never imposes his will on them. He first freed them then he asked their help for his own goal, saying that he would accept if they refused. He never imposed himself on his brother (a child wanting his big brother’s attention is not being dominant, it’s natural) and he never did it on Nar or anyone else.

Sasuke is not selfish, he is the most selfless character in the whole series. He respected people, he didn’t see himself above them. He didn’t see himself as a genius or anything. He worked hard because he had a low self esteem, he was always compared to Itachi and he always lost. He was humble enough to ask others’ help, like asking N*ruto how S*kura was able to climb the tree with chakra in the beginning, or asking Team Taka’s help to find Itachi, asking Kakashi to make him stronger and following Orochimaru for more strength. And during all these, he was thrown in his face parts of the tragic truth about Itachi and his clan and he always had to get back on his feet and fight more. His world crumbled so many times on him and yet not only he reacted but he always was able to help those around him. Not with big words like N*ruto but really, freeing Orochimaru’s prisoners, Taka, and earlier protecting his team from Gaara, protecting N*ruto from Haku, and later proitecting N*ruto from Kaguya and then protecting the whole world from her, protecting Itachi’s ideal, his sacrifice from those who threatened to make it useless. He was ready to become the world’s only enemy to keep them together, following what he thought Itachi had taught him indirectly.

Sasuke is neither possessive nor jealous. He never showed any sign of possessiveness or jealousy towards anyone. He protected Taka and N*ruto. He defended Itachi’s name, unlike too many like to think: when he threatens Danzo to stop talking about Itachi it’s not because he’s jealous but because he doesn’t want that bastard to talk shit about his perfect brother, especially cause that bastard was the reason of his ruin. He was defending his name from an enemy and it was pure and selfless, not possessive at all! Proof of this is when Hashirama praises him instead, Sasuke is happy. He likes people to speak about his brother in a good way! When they were children Itachi always dismissed Sasuke who pouted but never got really angry or jealous at Shisui for example. And at the end of the fight vs Kabuto he aknowledged Itachi’s resolve to leave even tho it broke his heart to lose him again, and he let Itachi go with the saddest face but the utmost respect.

Sasuke is not arrogant. He has a low self-esteem. He was raised in the shadow of his genius brother, he suffered for his father not noticing him, he later developed an inferiority complex towards N*ruto as well because of his quick progress, compared to his own that he perceived as slower and not enough (that’s why he joined Orochimaru). When he brags it’s not because he’s the bragging type (aka N*ruto, Kiba &co) but it’s because he’s either making fun of N*ruto, since they were rivals/friends (not to mention it’s a shounen trope) and, even more so, because he is proud of his achievements. He worked so hard always and when he created a jutsu or smth he says it. Because he has low self esteem but he’s not socially awkward or shy or whatever (see later paragraph). So he is proud of his own results. (which is also a very TE thing, for those who care about mbti stuff).

Sasuke doesn’t value his life much. This is a result of his low self-esteem, which leads to poor sense of self-preservation (to prove that he’s strong, like when he was a genin and he trained so hard,and later to pursue his goals, for which he’d give his body to Orochimaru and his life over and over). Also he is so determined to achieve his goals that he’d do anything for them. He was ready to die on many occasions in canon for this and even later, after the ending, he’s seeing himself as a tool. Also, he never really got over the sense of worthlessness first caused by his father and then by Itachi’s words the night of the massacre. Not in a real life trauma-like thing, but as a way to see himself. this means that all those stereotypical rocking back and forth, cutting, whatever behaviors are not like him, who always got back to his feet and lived, although not for himself but for his goals.

Sasuke is not bitchy or spoiled. If he was he would have a great self esteem, and he clearly showed to have a very low self esteem instead. He never made anything about him actually, as all his goals were about others, his family, his brother, and so on. He was the one who did better teamwork in team7 actually, and he protected his friends and comrades, not to mention he freed Orochimaru’s prisoners and fought for the village and its people. How is this spoiled or bitchy, and btw, bitchy ppl do get offended and he never paid attention to offenses towards him, only towards his brother.

Sasuke is neither the haughty élite type nor the shy/socially anxious/‘emo’ type. He is neither Neji nor H*nata. He is aloof, he is always lost in his own thoughts and he doesn’t care about socializing because he wants to become strong, because he cared more about his family and goals, because he cared more about their opinion than the opinion of classmates. He valued strength since the beginning, being raised the way he was raised, so he valued the praise of strong people and not of the others, unlike those who seek praise from everyone. On the other hand his being aloof doesn’t mean he can’t have normal interactions, and the fact that he doesn’t use honorifics doesn’t mean he has socialization problems. Only that he doesn’t pay attention to these things anymore. He was always pragmatic, and after the massacre he became pragmatic to an extreme level, cutting off all unnecessary things, manners included. It doesn’t mean, though, that he doesn’t respect some people (=those he deems strong. Including Team Taka). He just shows it through actions.

Sasuke is not se/xually aggressive/dominant/whatever. He is too busy with his own goals to have se/xual or romantic thoughts (unlike other characters both male and female, not just Karin but also S*kura, Ino, and ofc N*ruto). I wouldn’t define this being asexual tho, because their universe is not ours and I’m sick&tired of all the real world/Nar universe parallels. He’s passive in relationship and on many occasions he showed indifference to se/xual anything, not disgust. Just, it wasn’t his thought. Because he is on a different wavelength. So even when he told characters to not be so close to him or smth, he didn’t move away, he just told them, which kinda proves my point once more of how passive he is towards ppl and relationships, he just lets them be. On the other hand, aceSas is better than hornydominantSas that is so OOC it hurts, be it with Itachi, Nar, S*kura or whatever other girls/boys.

Most MAIN characters didn’t understand/didn’t try to understand him. The ones who understood him more are unexpectedly not his friends. Not counting Taka ofc.

Sasuke is passive. He is the yin and N*ruto is the yang. In case this isn’t clear. It’s canon. Kishi used a yin/yang parallel for him and N*ruto, so while N*ruto is yang/sun/warm/ positive/active/male principle in nature/masculine, Sasuke is yin/moon/cold/negative/passive/passive/female principle in nature/feminine. Passive doesn’t mean weak. It means receptive, adaptable, flexible, which Sasuke is, since he’s the one who adapted his life and goals to new events, truths and changes, unlike most others who just kept going their own way no matter what (see N*ruto or Itachi). Many see him as assertive because he faces every situation in a very determined manner, taking actions and deciding everything independently. But being an independent thinker has nothing to do with being assertive or passive. I say he’s passive because he actually always reacts to what life (or Itachi) throws at him, every time. His reactions are quick and strategic, so it’s easy to miss this, but still, again, Itachi or N*ruto actively engage the environment and life, and influence other people, not Sasuke. He’s also passive with people, in relatioships. He never seeks anyone unless it’s for practical reasons, he only reacts to them approaching him. And he reacts in a very calm way, quite mild compared to how determined and detached he is, considering that a lot of characters invade his personal space or more, in the whole series. When he chases after Itachi it’s because he’s his younger brother and it’s natural for them, and mostly because Itachi set up his life so that he would focus on him, still it’s Itachi who is assertive, and he reacts in return. He makes a deal with Orochimaru, to obtain strength and give him his body in return. When he forms Team Taka, before asking their help, he first gives them freedom and only then he asks them to join him, making it clear that he won’t force them if they’ll refuse. He gives them something before asking something in return. This is not just a passive thing but something more because he is not selfish, like I said before.

Sasuke is an independent thinker. Unlike other smart thinkers like Itachi or Madara, to whom the story associated him, Sasuke was kept in the dark about many things, so he developed his own view of the world later, but when he did it was original and unique, just like his fighting style and strategy.

Sasuke is private about his thoughts and feelings but he’s also honest about them. Itachi is mysterious and not honest about his feelings, not him. He is aloof, it’s different. Just because he doesn’t trust many people and he’s lost in his own thoughts it doesn’t mean he is a shoujo mysterious character lol.

Sasuke is goal oriented. He does whatever it takes to achieve his goals. He would have given his body as a vessel for Orochimaru, not caring about what would happen to him, as long as he could have his revenge. He would have lived an eternity in solitude so that the world would have lived in peace. And, again, his goals are never about himself.

Sasuke wanted to die after he killed Itachi, but then when he woke up and was told the truth he had another purpose, and so he lived on.

Sasuke admires and respects strength but he’s not power thirsty. He wanted to become strong because he wanted to be worthy of Itachi and his father, than because he had to avenge his clan, then he had to avenge Itachi. It’s because he had low self-esteem and was selfless that he sought power. He wanted to be beside his father and brother, not to surpass them, actually. It’s Itachi who talked about surpassing.

Sasuke is very smart and logical, but he is easily manipulated with the right arguments. Like using Itachi, or appealing to his low self esteem, his feeling of worthlessness, his emotions. Because people who are logical are actually not emotionless. In fact they have a hard time controlling their emotions when they feel strongly, and this can be seen clearly every time Sasuke loses control. He becomes more impulsive than N*ruto who instead gets calmer, because he’s more in touch with his emotions (lol ofc he is, everything is always about his own emotions and feelings). Sasuke puts his feelings and emotions aside to reach his goals, he acts logically and pragmatically, he observes, makes plans, finds the better ways to do things, no matter how hard or dangerous for him they are. He has logical arguments even though they appear ‘crazy’ to other characters, and it’s sad to see how in the end he was belittled by N*ruto, as if his arguments were meaningless, they were not addressed at all, just deemed wrong, not with counterarguments but with illogical emotion based words that just made him feel unstable, as it happens when you have logical arguments and they tell you ‘you’re just depressed, you don’t get things right’.

In the end, he was tamed into submission. He was defeated, put in jail, isolated, guilt tripped and berated because of his ideals and goals, denied the justice he rightfully demanded.

All these can be observed directly. Others, more subtle things about him I wrote here, towards the end of this long post.

2019 T.v. show Tracker

Part 2

Animes

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Finished it. Read the novel. Checking out the Cdrama (The Untamed). Obsessed. Watch it, it’s worth it. 

Currently watching season two! Jing Ling is so precious and all the chibis are SO CUTE!

Dororo

In progress (~episode 20) - Love it so far! Excited to see where it goes!

Update: Dororo was always precious but I just appreciate this child more and more as the episodes continue. I really enjoyed the lighter episode with the opposite village and the swordsmaster. Also, I am glad that Itachi finally died... but tbh I can’t hate him. Dororo is soo forgiving, my precious child. 

Edit: Completed. Enjoyed the story and the way that it was wrapped up.

My Roommate is a Cat

Completed - Loved it! Super cute, fluffy and touching. Fun to watch! Really enjoyed the show and REALLY want more! Please make a season 2!!

Fruits Basket 2019

It’s definitely doing its job of hitting the heartstrings true to Fruits Basket lore (I loved the manga). That opening (1) tho is so depressing really setting the mood for the show I guess... I’m excited for more and aware of the pain that is yet to come. But I am excited (and hopeful) to see them do justice to the plot this time. Update: s1 is almost over and I really enjoyed it! 

One Punch Man

Loved it!! Finished season one! It was way too short... Will watch season two when all the episodes come out! I actually found the show to have a lot of parallels with The Disastrous Life of Saiki which could be the reason that I enjoyed it so much. I really don’t know how all the fans who watched it when it was first released could have waited so long for season two.

Ruroni Kenshin

Randomly started it cuz I was planning on watching it for a while and it was on Netflix so I thought - why not. Liking it so far but I haven’t gotten very far yet so it’s hard to form an opinion atm.

Dramas

Bad Guys

Completed - Good Binge. 

It was very addicting, very interesting premise that captured my attention initially. It’s a good binge, but around episode 10 the show, the show sort of fizzled out for me. The hitman’s storyline (Jung woo) was a bit too melodramatic for my taste and was a bit off-putting, however I absolutely loved the psychopath’s story. That definitely kept me hooked throughout. One huge plus of this show is the action, and it is a lot of fun to watch if you don’t think about the show too much.

Gibo to Musume no Blues

Completed - Loved it!  I’d highly recommend it!

This show was so adorable and so sweet and fun to watch from start to finish. I really enjoyed this slice of life and the warm stepmother and stepdaughter relationship throughout the show. It was very heartwarming to watch. I loved how all the characters were treated with respect and didn’t seem like hollow caricatures, I liked the relationships portrayed in the show and the general warmth that this show had throughout.

I am still not over what happened to Ryoichi :( , but I can say that I absolutely loved every single character in this show. The baker definitely grew on me more and more throughout the later half of the show and he became very lovable. Overall, this was a great drama that I am glad I checked out!

Children of Nobody/ Red Moon Blue Sun

Completed - Loved it! 15/10 would recommend!

This drama was really really gripping. I like how the story didn’t feel very formulaic, and I admit I was quite unsure what was going on in the first 2 or so episodes. But once the plot line was set in motion, I was along for the ride. One huge reason for that is probably the main character Cha Woo Kyung, she won me over very quickly and her backstory was very intriguing. I also really like Yi Kyung’s character as well as his team, though it did take me a while to warm up to him. The children all did a phenomenal job as well - I especially like Ha Na and Si Wan’s acting.Si Wan is another huge factor that kept me watching, the child actor did a great job!

One thing I definitely appreciated with this show was how morally grey all the characters were, it made them more relatable. If I were to compare it to similar mystery/crime kdrama’s I’ve seen, I think so far this would rank the highest - the plot was engaging, the characters were interesting, there was absolutely ZERO focus on developing a romantic relationship and the topic - abuse (child primarily) was handled well.

Her Private Life

Really loving Ryan Gold so far!! He’s actually super considerate and kind? Love it! Quite like the female lead as well. Love her relationship with her best friend, they are absolutely adorable! Not too happy about what I heard about the Eun Gi thing where they did the Reply staple of making the viewers assume that he’s her brother only to find out he’s interested in her romantically and that they aren’t blood-related... why is this trope so popular? This reminds me a lot so far of Reply 1997. 

Update: show is moving on in a very cliche way... extremely predictable so far. Will maybe stick w it bc I love Ryan’s character and the couple are adorable. TBH I didn’t start this for the plot. Another gripe that I have is just why do kdramas always do the thing where the main couple are meant to be and met during their childhood? I don’t get why that’s so popular... But I do respect the fact that Ryan’s real mom did not abandon him and that arc was resolved quickly.

Overall, it was better than a lot of other dramas in this genre and it was done with much less unnecessary drama. I appreciated how the side characters were handled and liked that they were given time to have their own sub-plots. A decent show all in all.

The Fiery Priest

Loved it! I like the mix of the action and comedy that was showcased in the show. I found this show to be very similar in the plot structure, comedy (to an extent) and characterizations to Chief Kim so I enjoyed the show a lot and had a pretty good idea of what to expect from the show. It’s a fun show that keeps you hooked for more, and like Chief Kim don’t expect any romance between characters to really develop.

Angel’s Last Mission: Love

Shin Hye Sun is just gorgeous, omg. She’s also a really good actress. I really liked seeing her in this role coming out of watching Still 17 to see the sheer difference in personality. I am enjoying the contrast. Also, I like her chemistry with Myungsoo. I don’t care for the second lead nor can I bring myself to empathize with him. I also am somewhat disappointed with her family sub-plot because so far it seems pretty cliche so I’m hoping for a plot twist or two. 

DNF. 

Project S The Series: Spike

I FINALLY finished it! Really loved it. Great acting, loved the pace of the show and how realistic it felt. I really liked watching the team come together and grow together. The few female characters were a delight - Jern is so lovable and adorable. Bright is very sweet and does a lot for the team. Puen’s relationship with the entire team was interesting to see - his strong bond with Singha and now Than, his relationship with Jern and ofc his friends. Than’s relationship with his dad was also portrayed realistically right til the end. It’s a good watch, and I’ll definitely re-watch the series. 

Ao to Boku

So addicting, waiting for the last episode to be subbed. Please get subbed!

Update: it was subbed! Finished it! Enjoyed the drama overall. A nice mystery/friendship/slice-of-life one. Be warned that although there is a bit of mystery it is mainly a slice-of-life/friendship drama.

The Untamed

I enjoyed it overall (tho I did end up skipping over some episodes). I thought that it was a faithful adaptation to the novel considering the censorship issues. I love how they took out a lot of the explicit gay but still somehow made parts of the show gayer. Also I LOVE fairy. Fairy is an adorable fluffball that owns my heart <3.

DNF - He is Psychometric

Melo Suits Me/ Be Melodramatic

So... they really made one of the cutest love stories tragic huh. I’m really enjoying the show so far, I love the friendship between the main 4 leads. I am interested about the industry and I like the balance that the drama has with its humour, friendship, love and slice-of-life elements. I really like the actress and her manager couple they are so cute! I kind of wish I have more cute mother-son moments with the kid so hopefully in a future episode.

Update: Finished it! Liked the ending overall, had one minor qualm. I really liked the Director (Yeller) that was introduced. He was an unexpected delight and I love his dynamic with Eun Jung. I did like that they did end up subverting a romantic relationship and left it platonic. That was unexpected.

T.v. shows

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 6 - Finally finished it! Lot of fun, and enjoyed watching yet another season of the show. I really enjoyed their Cinco de Mayo heist this year and thought that was a lot of fun. I personally didn’t really feel Gina’s absence too much though her going away words were cute near the beginning of the season.

Broadchurch

Completed - Completely binged season 3! I love this show! 

I forgot how beautiful the cinematography in the show was! Their little village is gorgeous. It’s a bit jarring to watch it after a year or so because my memory of season 2 of Broadchurch was quite hazy. Nevertheless, I absolutely love this show. This season was very different from the previous ones, and it had a good build up but the final reveal of the culprit was quite... predictable. However, there was a twist that came with the reveal that came completely out of the blue. I liked the way Alec/D.I Hardy and Ellie handled the issue at hand and set an example of how cases of rape should be handled within the police force. It was also really nice to see Beth’s growth, the vicar and what Maggie were up to! I also enjoyed seeing Alec and his daughter’s relationship grow. Too bad its cancelled... here’s hoping that one day they’ll renew it. 

Stranger Things season 3

I personally liked it a lot more than season two because I felt that it had more growth from the characters. I liked Eleven’s character growth and how the dynamic of the relationships changed and seeing the kids grow up. But, I’m definitely getting a bit tired of this show... because although I did enjoy this season, I still feel that in a way it was redundant.

Derry Girls s2

I loved it! So funny. So adorable. Love the characters and the ridiculous situations that they put themselves in (or are put in). Sister Michael is still my fave, her lines are always pure gold.

Anne with an E season 3

Trying to keep track of it as it is airing on CBC. I missed the second episode :( But I watched episode 3 and the foreshadowing for the residential schools omg

Salty Asks: 3, 5, 7, 9

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

I’m usually really good at respecting peoples opinions, so usually I won’t unfollow people if they express opinions they have (for example I follow plenty of people who don’t like Sasuke in the show, which is fine with me!). The only time I would ever do that is if they like, idk said something really offensive and disgusting.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

I don’t think this one has specifically? But I could be wrong, though nothing comes to mind.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?*

(Regarding slash ships, obviously this doesn’t apply for het ships) This is going to sound hilarious but when I was younger (like, maybe five years ago or more) I was so hardcore convinced that Sasuke was a top and now I swear to you I cannot fathom how I thought this boy was ever anything more than a bottom or switch asdfghjkl;. Obviously this depends on the ship (I still think he’d top in some) but lets say for a popular one like sns, teenage me thought Sasuke topping was the only way, and now i’m just laughing at that thought because dear god Sasuke being vulnerable is the most important thing in a ship for me anD ITS SO WELL DEVELOPED when someone that stubborn with that dominant a personality is able to let someone else take control for a little while??? 

TLDR; I used to like the idea of Sasuke being this dominant being that could never be put down and now I literally hate that mentality and put my muse through so much shit just to make him vulnerable you’re welcome asdfghjkl;

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

This is based only on the show and not in anyway on the rp community; there are plenty of characters I don’t like in the show but adore in rp, so please don’t take offense if you rp any of these!

I’m going to skip the basic baddies like Danzo or Kaguya or whoever the villains were because they were written for us to dislike anyway, I’ll focus on the people we were actually meant to like in the show.

Hiruzen Sarutobi. Lol I don’t care how great of a Hokage you were claimed to be, Hiruzen was utter trash to me and that’s all I gotta say. People hate Danzo for these reasons yet love the Third Hokage, but you don’t realize he’s literally just at fault??? Ignoring the fact that you allowed GENOCIDE OF AN ENTIRE CLAN and then let the last remaining cHILD of that clan live ALONE in the place his family was MURDERED. Like okay why was he praised so much for loving the children of the village at his funeral when literally he let Naruto, the kid he was entrusted to take care of on his parents’ deathbed,  grow up ALONE and maintain an apartment by himself??? HE WAS A CHILD HE DOESN’T KNOW HOW MONEY WORKS HE NEEDS SOMEONE TO TAKE CARE OF HIM???? I’ll fight you if you tell me him dropping off money for Naruto to take care of himself in that one flashback was a good thing because fuck no. There are two examples of children you were entrusted to take care of (Itachi technically entrusted Sasuke to you when you y’know made him a criminal for doing your dirty work), and all he did was let them raise themselves and suddenly, wow, I can’t believe they both turned out so reckless as teens!!!! I can’t explain how much I hate the Third, goodbye.

Obito. I don’t really care for any of his reasoning or any of his backstory the way it was presented in the show. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the interactions between him and his squad in the backstory, but I didn’t care enough by the time he was shown as the villain. Like, I don’t feel bad for him,I don’t care that Rin died or believe that it was a good enough reason for him to go batshit, I didn’t feel like he was that close or important to Kakashi– yes I know that he was, but I didn’t believe that he was; come on, they hated each other up until the moment just before he “died”, don’t try and compare that to other opposing friendships in the show like Naruto and Sasuke who grew over time–Gai was a better option to play the opposing force friend for Kakashi story wise. 

Sakura (SERIES 1*). I don’t hate Sakura, and to be fair one of my favorite rp partners is a Sakura. However we all need to agree that Kishi definitely wrote her terrible in the first show. I’m not claiming she’s useless because no, she’s proven herself very much as a strong ninja in shippuden and even in Boruto, but before shippuden, she was wasted potential because Kishimoto did not give her any attention in the first series. If you love Sakura you need to agree that she was done dirty in early Naruto, don’t even come at me with ‘oh it’s called development, she progresses!’ because no, even Kishimoto admits that he didn’t know how to write girls early on so he literally ignored her. I don’t think I saw her fight at all until like midway through; she was used as a narrator insert for the sake of explaining what the boys were doing at all times. “wow, hat move was so difficult that Naruto just did, he did etc etc etc! when did he get so cool?” as she watches from the bushes with Kakashi, like, why isn’t she helping? We know why, because the writers just wanted to focus on the boys advancing and she wasn’t deemed important enough to develop until late enough for the fandom to already dislike her. Which is a real shame because the main female character should get just as much care with her writing!

Again, all my opinion and you don’t have to accept that! I could write out more but I think these three are a good overview: a character I think was trash all and all, a character I think was overhyped and lacked emotional weight, and a character I think was wasted in potential.

itachi

make me write about this au | accepting always 

wow we really just are… diving right in aren’t we??? in all seriousness, thank you chai, for both forcing me to write this headcanon / meta that i’ve been avoiding doing for like a week now and for walking me through itachi’s role in it. this will contain major, MAJOR developments for my au and how it effects shippuden so please read it! 

warning under the cut for mention of death, eye trauma, etc – you know, standard uchiha bullshit :))))))

let me begin with this, as i haven’t yet spoken in detail about it: but a major, major focal point in not letting hatred —- or the curse mark — consume him is letting go of, not what happened to him, but his revenge path. this does not happen over night. 

sasuke has years, years, and years of anger built up inside him, an obsessively one track mind, and a deep ache for power that, if you ask me, started before the massacre. no doubt is the massacre what sets his tunnel vision, but he’s shown to be obsessively training even before that in order to gain approval of his clan ( specifically, fugaku, which, by the way, fuck that guy ) and ‘catch up’ to his prodigy of a brother who is, frankly, out of sasuke’s reach. sasuke, in canon, still doesn’t graduate from the academy until he’s twelve, despite genius like abilities and endless work on his part to reach unattainable status as per what’s possible for himself. 

don’t think for a second he ever forgets about how far behind itachi is from the get go, and his inability to stop comparing himself to his older brother is absolutely what holds him back for so long. my point comes back to that while the catalyst of his tunnel vision - like obsession begins with the massacre, he already was halfway there. it really comes as no surprise to me that he turned out the way he did in canon, but i rest my case on this part. 

in my au, and i’ll give this a proper spiel in another meme ask i need to answer, his path is set by a very small margin, by the doubt that is shown at the valley of the end. he stops fighting, he comes back. he spends the following years regaining trust among the village, with his superiors and peers alike, and manages to rise in the ranks pretty fast as a result of both his abilities and his emotional growth. i can’t stress enough how far he comes, and how much it takes out of him to get to that point. like, it’s the only way this au can work. 

i’ve said it before, but kakashi is a focal point in his emotional progression. in his training with him, they work out a lot of that anger and kakashi shows him sides of himself that he doesn’t really show others, shows them how alike he actually was to sasuke, and shows him that he can overcome it, even if their motives were quite different — it’s the first time someone really tries to reach sasuke deep down, and it works. in conjunction with naruto and all he’s done for him, for the experiences sasuke gains in this two year period, and his own mental legwork, he gets there. 

i should note something, though, and it’s that i don’t think sasuke can not have tunnel vision on a goal — his mindset is a set routine, it’s why he’s so stubborn, in my opinion, and it’s why he’s so (unmovable object).png. you know? so, instead of his tunnel vision focusing on killing itachi, he shifts it to re-establishing the uchiha, the uchiha name, and growing stronger without influence of his brother, on his own terms. i’d say this is firmly set in by the time he’s a chuunin, and it’s why he’s able to prove himself further, in missions, etc, as worthy of being a jounin by the time shippuden starts. 

his biggest emotional trial, or one of them, is when he runs into ‘itachi’ during the gaara rescue arc, in chapter 256, and is told by kakashi to go onward. this leaves the battle virtually unchanged, and right here, kakashi says he would send naruto onward but needs him for backup. sasuke, however, can go forward — he’s both fast enough and also, it’s the right move. a show down with itachi is the last thing he needs, and it takes all his willpower not to crumble two years of progress to go ahead and focus on the mission. he goes ahead. i haven’t worked out the exact details of his role in the rest of the mission yet, but my point is: by this time, he’s able to do something he wasn’t when he was twelve, and that was charge right at itachi, regardless of if he was ready or not. 

god… that’s just all the basics too… okay. saddle up because this is where it gets real ( yeah, i know, “reid we’re on paragraph fucking eight” but we haven’t even started on the truth and itachi, which are two whole sections frankly ) 

so… fated battle between brothers. it’s still going to happen. initially i wanted it not to, but after talking with an itachi about it, ahem, chai, we decided that itachi would absolutely create a situation closer to the end of his life to make sure it still happens —– the exact mission is up in the air until i can talk to a naruto about it, but we were thinking a diversion including him, which would be super believable given the ninetails and all. the platoon that goes out definitely includes kakashi, sakura, sasuke, and whoever else might be available. from the beginning, they know to expect itachi. this is… harrowing, to say the least, especially for sasuke who seems to have settled upon not seeking revenge, but in the event he goes up against itachi, he knows that as a leaf shinobi, it’s his duty to stop him. to save naruto. to protect naruto. to protect konoha. 

when they approach the uchiha hideout, i imagine something much different is anticipated. they’ve probably been led on a fucking wild goose chase. naruto is somewhere different entirely, and like in canon, kisame allows only sasuke to pass. sasuke goes in, like in canon. once he goes in, the game changes for the platoon, and their focus remains on recovering naruto. how exactly all that goes down is dependent on kisame’s role and naruto’s respectively so i won’t talk too much about that quite yet && i have several people i wanna consult on that matter so yeah waiting. shifting back to inside the hideout

we haven’t worked out all of the details, or done a battle breakdown, but at some point we’re planning to collab on a drabble and post that and it’ll walk through the major points. what to know for now is that the dialogue will be much different, and sasuke’s focus is completely on 1) getting information and when that inevitably fails, 2) stopping itachi, by any means necessary. 3) surviving the fight. itachi doesn’t go easy on him, and at some point, it’s not about his motive, his revenge, etc, at all anymore. it’s about getting back to the platoon. it’s about finishing the mission. the too long, didn’t read version is that itachi doesn’t let him not kill him, as he’s dying anyway, and he’ll only have it be by sasuke’s hand. remember – itachi, all along, wanted sasuke to be renowned a hero for killing him, and wanted himself reviled. 

in a real, real fucked up way, he gets that. 

side note: we still havent worked out every detail but i also just noticed itachi gets rid of sasukes curse mark here :)))))))))))))

sasuke passes out at the end of their battle, and itachi does his thing with the fucking goddamn eyes and putting them in sasukes head before keeling over and fucking dying. he wakes up with tobi, as in canon. i can’t say this exchange is much different from canon, aside from sasuke being less reactionary? he’s already feeling really… i don’t know what the word is. killing him is all he wanted, for so fucking long, but there’s nothing satisfying about what he’s done here. he sees it as a means to an end on a fucked up chapter of his life. however, he does still panic at the initial speech by tobi, learning all this shit about a coup, it’d be too much for him – he still passes out, unable to process everything he’s being told. he wakes up again, probably tied up this time, and listens to the rest. 

so, where it gets different is chapter .. 401 / 402. he has his moment of grief before recollecting himself and leaving tobi / ‘madara uchiha’ and, even with all that he’s learned, and in his less than healthy state, he focuses once again on regrouping with the platoon, and ensuring that the original mission has been completed. little does he know, its been about a day, and they surely found itachi’s dead body, but no sign of him. it’s very likely they’re searching the surrounding area for him when he rejoins them, looking… well. calm, but carrying an air about him that is definitely out of character. 

he tells naruto that he’s glad to see him, and there’s a few others he may speak to before they get home, but… he otherwise doesn’t say much. there isn’t much he can say in this state. he doesn’t know what he believes – outside of the fact that if itachi wanted him dead, he would be dead. it’s this thought process that leads him to believe that the coup did in fact form. he has a lot of doubts about the man who introduced himself as madara uchiha, at this point in this au, he is after all a leaf shinobi??? and… i think he would, honestly, privately report ( the only one i can see being present for this is kakashi, if anyone ) what he was told to tsunade herself, who would not be aware of the truth. i read that only danzo, the third, and two others were. what the two of them do with this information is beyond me and i’d hoooonestly need a tsunade to work it out with. he’s probably pretty forward in saying he doesn’t know how much of this intelligence can be trusted, but if nothing else, someone claiming to be madara uchiha is a huge fucking red flag, and regardless of how he feels about the coup / konoha’s dealing with it, his loyalty is already where it is. 

whiiiiiich brings me to that next point… where he is with it. again, he doesn’t know how much he can trust from ‘tobi / madara / obito’, but if anything, i feel like his image of his clan is very twisted and uncertain from that point on. he definitely feels distrust in the elders mentioned for forcing itachi to do what he did, but not the entire village. in the end, he pays a lot of attention to the part of what was said about itachi wanting him to be renowned a hero for coming back to konoha and being able to say he killed a vicious, serial murderer, missing nin. 

so, if it’ll give itachi some peace, he does that. he comes back with his platoon, reports him dead, and what happens, happens. by no means does he consider himself a hero, though, and there’s forever an ache in him that things happened the way they did. however, holding a grudge now would backtrack him too far in his progress, and he’s… brutally aware of his own mindset, his own tendency to tunnel vision. so, once again, he redirects it.

he redirects his will to re-establishing his family name, to bringing peace in whatever way he can, and moving forward. at a later time, probably post - war, his efforts will go towards doing something about that police force. i noticed in the explanation that it was sort of konoha’s way of… making the uchiha think they had some kind of pull in the village but actually keeping an eye on them, and sasuke’s intention would more so be to establish an actual force within the village to protect it’s own. to protect konoha. you know, like itachi tried to. 

as he grows older, sasuke accepts what happened for what it is, and he finds most of his anger and sadness directing to one simple fact: that he and his brother were robbed, by circumstance, of having so many years together that they could have been happy in. 

that’s all i got for now.