#friendship/bromance analysis | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rainbowsky · 2 months

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Hi rainbowsky! I'm a new-ish (autumn 2023) Yizhan fan - it's been so much fun to explore and read everything available, your blog included! I really enjoy your opinions and insights. I have a question and a request. Question: When CQL first started airing, what were people saying about the relationship between WWX and LZ in the show, and about the actors playing them? Did the CP start right away? Request: Then later on, when the BTS started appearing (when was that - after the show finished airing, right?), what were people saying about the real interactions between the two actors? Were people shocked? Amazed? Even more curious? I can imagine social media was on fire! But I'd like to hear from someone who "lived" through it in real time. Please give me a description of what it was like - especially what your thoughts and feeling were as you saw it happening. I wish I could have been there! Thank you!

Hi Blbrave! Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog!

This is all a very, very long time ago, but I'll do my best to share what I can remember.

Actually, the CP started before the show began airing. The supertopics were opened during filming in 2018. I think this was inevitable, given that the series is based on a BL story. Of course fans of the novel will go into all of this with an eye toward the two characters and, by extension, GG and DD.

Similarly, as the show was airing of course there were a large number of viewers who knew it was a BL and viewed it as a BL at that time, even though it was being billed as a martial brotherhood series. There was a lot of analysis from fans trying to spot various ways that the production team managed to get around censorship and signal the queer romance between WWX and LWJ.

Others have done far better, more comprehensive analysis of all that than I could ever do, but it's so long ago I don't know where those posts might have gone. Some of this was discussed in my post about queerbaiting, so you can look there for more info.

As I said in that post, one of their smartest ways of highlighting the queer relationship was to downplay romance between the straight characters. We never see a straight couple doing something that we don’t also see LWJ and WWX doing. The wedding happens off camera, yet we see LWJ and WWX do their bows on camera. There’s never a kiss or any kind of PDA between straight characters, yet we see LWJ and WWX in each other’s arms throughout the series.

We got a gay kiss:

We got gay sex:

There was also the headband repeatedly being described as the domain of only family and spouses, and the various ways they connected it with WWX. WWX grabbing it when he was possessing the paperman, and also at one point being tied to LWJ by the wrist with the headband - all of this signalling that WWX was a spousal figure for LWJ.

There was the drunk scene with LWJ giving WWX chickens (a wedding tradition in China).

And many more examples I won't get into.

There were many of those types of things in the series, and they were discussed enthusiastically at the time. However, I don't think there were many bystanders who made those connections. It was primarily fans of the books/show (i.e. those who appreciated it as a BL story and not as a bromance/friendship story) who saw and discussed those hints.

I know the idea that anyone could be so oblivious to the gay subtext throughout the story that they miss the queerness entirely is hard to get one's head around, but straight viewers usually just see WWX and LWJ as best friends and sworn martial brothers. The show could never have been made or aired if that wasn't the case.

In fact, newer fans might not be aware that there was a lot of controversy during filming because of leaked early attempts to create a straight romance between Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing. Some relationship-building scenes between them were filmed, and at one point in the BTS GG is heard complaining about the straight romance and saying that all those scenes should be deleted.

In the production team's defense, there was doubt at the time about whether the show could air given its source material as a BL novel. They likely had investors and backers pressuring them to make sure that the story was unambiguously straight.

Fans of the novel made a massive uproar about it, threatening to boycott the series. The backlash was so extreme that it became a bigger threat to the success of the show, and the straight romance was killed. We all owe a lot to those agitators! 😅

The BTS

The BTS clips were first discussed in an Untamed press conference (that section of the interview starts at around 36:30). The producer said that in the future some of the behind-the-scenes moments would be shared. GG and DD exchanged a glance and looked extremely uncomfortable with it.

A lot of turtles find that clip funny, and laugh about what GG and DD might 'have to hide', but I have never understood how fans can find GG and DD's discomfort funny.

It might surprise some newer turtles to hear that there were moments where GG and DD appeared to be uncomfortable with the BTS, but there were.

Another moment happened in an interview where GG and DD were asked to explain a BTS scene of the two of them in the boat, where GG is lying in DD's lap. DD turns to the interviewer with a shocked and displeased look on his face and says, "They released this?"

There were other moments as well, but I haven't kept a comprehensive record of all that. This happened long before I clued in on how quickly clips can disappear in this fandom.

I believe that it is totally normal to have mixed feelings about the BTS, and I believe GG and DD are no exception to that. No doubt they enjoy some of the clips and feel uncomfortable about some of them, just like many turtles (myself included).

There were official BTS clips released during promo, but the unofficial BTS clips didn't come until later. I talked in more detail about the unofficial BTS and how they came to be released here.

The unofficial clips began being released by fansites in the fall of 2020. It would be hard to overstate how different the atmosphere around them was to what it is now. Now it's quite common to find BTS clips all over the place, both in C-social media and on international sites like YouTube and Instagram.

However, back in 2020 they were extremely hard to get ahold of, and sharing them outside of where they were initially released was strictly forbidden and frowned upon by fans. In fact, if you dig back through my 2020 posts I'm sure you'll find many posts where I admonish people not to share the BTS clips, and where I bitch about people sharing them without authorization. I also answered a lot of asks about these issues at the time (just one example).

Times have changed a lot, and now everyone is sharing them all very freely without any concerns.

The situation was a lot different back then:

GG and DD had gained a tremendous amount of popularity from the show, but their reputations and careers were not yet fully established and secure.

227 was still an active concern that was still making news and still impacting GG's life directly. He had not yet recovered from any of it and was still mostly lying low. He was constantly being attacked and antis were constantly out to get him.

The Untamed was still fresh and current, and being discussed regularly in the media. Because filming was still fairly recent, what happened during filming would still run the risk of impacting GG and DD's lives and careers.

Fans were coming under very close scrutiny because of 227 and other fandom-related scandals. The government was starting to crack down heavily on fandom culture.

This was all uncharted territory. No one knew how the BTS might be received, or how it might impact GG and DD. Fans were very freaked out about the possibility of anything compromising getting leaked and harming the boys.

No doubt fansites were also worried about how fans might respond to some of the releases, and wanted to ensure they didn't upset or anger fans, or stir up more excitement than could be safely contained within the fandom.

All of this contributed to a climate of extreme caution and secrecy around the release of BTS clips.

We never knew when one might be released, and when they were released they were typically only put online for a few minutes, then deleted. This was all done in an effort to limit the exposure of these clips primarily to turtles who have GGDD's best interests in mind.

The clips were heavily watermarked and overlaid with visual and audio curses that 'reuploaders must die!' ('banyun biss', which I'm sure most of you have encountered in some of the clips you've seen).

Early clips were heavily watermarked.

Those who missed out were out of luck. It was extremely socially unacceptable to re-share clips once they'd been deleted. Those who missed out would have to rely on recaps and transcripts from those who had seen the clips. Fans took to staying up all hours watching and waiting for a release.

Back in those days people tried to save every clip they could, hoarding them greedily. Turtles' phones were filling up with large video files. It's funny to think about now, because the clips are everywhere and so easy to find these days, but back then it was a whole Thing.

The initial releases were sporadic and quite tame as fansites dipped their toes in the water of how all this would be received. Gradually over time clips became more frequent and stayed up longer, and some of the more salacious stuff began being released. Those clips were often accompanied by hilarious intro images.

(For those who don't get it, it's the PornHub logo).

Of course all of the clips were heavily discussed as they came out, and a clearer picture of GG and DD's relationship and of their experience of filming began to take shape over time. Some of the fake rumors (such as the 49 fake candies and the CPN that GG designed a racing suit for DD) were gradually proved to be true as these clips were released. However, that was mostly confined to fandom circles.

There were occasionally times when these clips or their content would cross over into the mainstream and start trending on Weibo. In many of those cases, the hotsearches would be bought and pushed by antis of GG and DD who want to see them cancelled. At those times turtles would jump into action to wash those topics and replace them with mundane, unrelated content.

There were fan theories and fake rumors about GG and DD's reaction to the clips. Sometimes when new clips were released GG and DD would be seen online and turtles assumed they were watching them. Of course, considering the clips featured them, it's highly likely that they did eagerly await releases just like the rest of us.

A large percentage of BXG light banners and slogans came directly out of the BTS, some of which you can see GG and DD discussing in LRLG rumors.

I suspect that it was likely a mixed bag for them. Some clips might have really stressed them out either upon initial release or after reactions began to emerge, while others likely made them laugh and feel nostalgic about filming.

Dumplings, rice noodles, 3+2 biscuits (cr @knivescharade in this post), discussed in this LRLG rumor.

There were definitely a few scandals and close calls that came out of the unofficial BTS, and solos and antis frequently tried to use them against GG and DD and tried to spin negative narratives about their relationship based using disingenuous takes and edits of them (they still do to this day).

For example, the clip where GG tells DD that he prefers a natural look to idol makeup was used against GG at the time, and antis tried to make it seem like GG was homophobic and that GG was against men wearing makeup. Some of the clips where they were playfighting or bickering were used to try to create a narrative that they hated each other. That kind of thing.

BTS and fan service

One of the most common questions I've gotten about the BTS - and I still often get this question - is, "Aren't the BTS just acted out/scripted as fan service to promote the show?"

There are a few reasons people have this question in their minds.

Solos #1 narrative about GGDD is that their CP was just for the show and the BTS was all fan service, and nothing about their relationship is real. They push this claim very aggressively on social media anytime GGDD or The Untamed is discussed, and new fans will almost always encounter those claims in this way.

CP fan service is a normal part of how dramas are promoted, so people familiar with Asian dramas will often immediately jump to that assumption about GG and DD and about the BTS.

Heteronormativity leads many people to immediately dismiss the possibility of a gay relationship, which leads them to try to come up with other explanations for those clips.

People naturally have a hard time believing what they're seeing with some of those clips. Some of it is pretty jaw-dropping and it's understandable that some people will be skeptical.

However, there are a lot of really good reasons why these clips are obviously not fan service.

For one thing, the show was billed as a martial brotherhood, not as a romance. Some of the official BTS clearly did try to appeal to CP and MDZS fans and could be counted as fan service, but those weren't even the ones BXG are most excited about. (There is a playlist of some of the official BTS clips here).

The most exciting stuff was never released during promo, and almost none of it is overtly romantic. A lot of it is really crude and totally unreleasable as promo. GG and DD are lewd, crude and often rude in ways that only two people who are really close could ever get away with. In many cases it's the casual way GG and DD constantly cross polite social boundaries with each other that shows their intimacy, rather than anything overtly sweet or romantic.

A lot of it is also totally incomprehensible to regular audiences. You have to be a turtle digging deeply into GGDD to understand the significance of most of it. For example the way GG took care of DD on his birthday, or the way DD constantly bargained and haggled with GG to get him to eat more.

Most importantly, if it was all fan service then why did GG and DD never do any joint CP endorsements? The entire point of doing that type of fan service is to make a buck. Other drama CP - including BL - do this all the time.

And it doesn't make sense that a production that was as low budget as The Untamed could afford to have the two lead actors learn a whole second set of lines and do a whole second performance that never ended up getting released.

And of course, none of that explains why the bulk of the BTS clips ended up in the hands of fans and released years after the show finished airing. A lot of it still has never been released to this day.

I've often joked that if the BTS were scripted they were far more complex, more melodramatic and better written than the drama itself. You just can't come up with this stuff in a writer's room. 😅

Anyway, this post got a bit long but hopefully it gives you a bit more of a picture of what it was all like at the time. Sorry, I guess I didn't talk much about my own feelings/reactions, but hopefully you can get somewhat of a sense.

Overall it was exciting, but I also had some deep reservations about it all (and got a lot of hate mail for voicing those feelings, too). Keep in mind this wasn't long after 227, so I think it's understandable that I was feeling very wary about everything.

But that's all water under the bridge now. It's been many years, and if the BTS were going to harm GGDD it would have already happened. I think it's all pretty safe territory now.

Edit: some more of my thoughts and feelings at the time:

One of the most exciting things for me about the BTS clips was seeing so many of the fake rumors being proved true. There were a lot of rumors (including the 49 fake candies) that I totally scoffed at when I first heard about them, only to later find via the BTS clips that I had been totally wrong about them and that these things had actually happened, and even crazier things were gradually revealed.

Things were changing pretty rapidly for a while there now that I think about it.

Learning more about their relationship and seeing just how much they looked out for each other was another big one for me. Also the timeline. The BTS really reinforced my belief in The Devil's Timeline (the belief that they got together prior to filming).

But overall that was a very different time in the fandom as well. There were always so many candies coming out, not just BTS clips but things that came out of GG and DD's activities and social media posts. It was a really really busy time in the fandom.

Since then there has been a government crackdown on fandom culture, on the entertainment industry, on LGBTQ etc. in China, plus DD's split with Nike and him having to delete a lot of his GG candy posts from his Weibo account.

Things are so different now, and unfortunately a lot of it for the worse. Being a turtle is not always easy, and I'm sure being GG and DD can't always be easy either. We make it work, but I do sometimes look back wistfully on the freer, more exciting times in the fandom.

More such times could come in the future. We just have to keep moving forward and hope for the best.

Somewhat related: I did a semi-comprehensive post about GG and DD's reaction to turtles here.

#bjyx #yizhan #untamed bts #the mysteries of yizhan #thanks so much #ask

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one-squash-one-end · 1 month

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>1.6k words on bi Gansey

Hi! This belongs to my big Raven Cycle analysis, click here for the masterpost.

Today we are diving into all the reasons why I think Gansey is a bi king (and then some more). Enjoy!

(I think there might be mild spoilers up to trk, nothing too bad though, more character interactions than plot)

b) Gansey

Alright hear me out. This man. There is nothing this rich boy can do to beat the fruit allegations. He is a bi king, through and through. Everyone but him knows, including you, because what I have to say is the absolute truth and I am great at convincing. I once saw a tumblr post that said “Gansey has to physically restrain himself from kissing all his friends” and there has never been anything more true.

And it’s important to note that this is really not only reader interpretation. Or, at least, reader interpretation includes other character’s interpretations, which are sometimes incredibly straight(lol)forward.

After doing Adam a big favor, Gansey’s sister Helen (who is aro-ace btw, because I said so) immediately assumes he is sleeping with him, which is a conclusion she jumped to way too quickly if Gansey has never previously shown any interest in Adam or other boys. Like, she seems to know him quite well, and for her to just think he’s in a relationship with Adam says a lot about the homoeroticism prevalent in Gansey’s friendships with both Adam and also Ronan.

Because then we have Kavinsky, another canonically queer character, who thus might arguably have some sort of gaydar, assuming Ronan and Gansey are in a romantic (but most of all, sexual) relationship. Admittedly, this has largely to do with Kavinsky assuming things about Ronan and his sexuality, as is explicitly mentioned in the book. However, you can very easily speculate about someone’s sexuality without knowing their (previous) partners, if there have been any at all, so to correctly believe Ronan is gay does not have to randomly entail relationship speculations. So somewhere, even from not interacting with them so much, Kavinsky must have gotten that idea. That somewhere is the deep affection the two of them share, which is absolutely palpable for everyone around. Yes, I know their relationship is described as brotherly (please note I do not condone incest!), but also somewhere within “they’re bros” lies the implication they are gay. Two bros chilling in a hot tub. They’re having a bromance. Let bros kiss.

Another person who seems to believe in a Gansey romance above bromance is Henry, who at that point of book three had only interacted with him at school very superficially. We can assume the way Gansey behaves with Adam and Ronan at school is very much homoerotic, or elsewise Henry would have no reason to be surprised about seeing Gansey with Blue (“a chick”). He can’t be surprised about Gansey pulling… someone, considering he is apparently super good-looking, he just never had reason to assume Gansey was anything but achillean.

Now this was mostly people who don’t know Gansey that well, or at least people not part of the inner circle, so it can’t mean that much, right? Surely there would not be anyone who truly, deeply knows Gansey, who would assume he is queer. Right? Wrong. I have since forgotten the context of that quote, but Adam, someone who is very close to both of them, thinks that Ronan and Gansey could date. Make of that what you will, but I will it to be homoerotic subtext. (Or text, as what Adam says is what he says, no room for interpretation there.)

Lastly, Adam’s father called him the f-slur. Ok, I will admit that it’s not completely confirmed to be that, but what else would a censored word with f stand for? Again, it’s hard to tell, because my two options would be the slur and just straight-up “fucker”, but both “f*g” and “fuck” are used directly in the following books. The f-slur was used directly in Ronan’s narrative though, in that of a character who talks very obscenely in general, so I have no trouble believing Gansey just wouldn’t have wanted to repeat that word, especially if it’s just a memory.

The line between romantic and platonic interactions is thin enough in this series as it is, but Gansey seems to blur it especially. I am going to touch on that at a later point, but platonic affection is given a very important role, so much that in some parts it carries as much significance as romantic actions do (as it should- relationship anarchy rules), if not more. With Gansey that seems to be especially strong, a lot of the things he does with his friends seeming romantic.

First of all, he is co-parenting with Ronan. Yes, it is a bird, but Ronan loves her like a human daughter so the point stands. The two of them even squabble about it like an old married couple, Gansey’s legendary “this is exactly why I didn’t want to have a baby with you” speaks for itself.

Then there is the insomnia quality time, as I like to call it. We, as the readers, are probably supposed to focus on the late night phone calls and drives with Blue, the fact that “she makes [him] quiet”, and that he can sleep after talking to her. But what I find equally important is the time he spends with Ronan at Monmouth during those sleepless nights, them getting orange juice at three a.m. While it might not be something super comforting that makes them both fall asleep, this routine they seem to have fallen into, just spending time while not expecting anything from the other, is something that means a lot to me; they are very much giving platonic soulmates, but also what if they kissed?

Of course I cannot not mention “While I’m gone, dream me the world. Something new for every night.” That boy is being unnecessarily dramatic about going away for literally one weekend. And why? Because “they had been a two-headed creature for so long, Ronan-and-Gansey. He couldn’t say it, though. There were a thousand reasons why he couldn’t say it.” What are those reasons though? Is it because he is actually in love with Ronan but admitting to that would make the friendship super fucking awkward so he whips out a dramatic, half-romantic metaphor quote? Yeah, that makes total sense.

Staying on my Ronsey bullshit, let’s not forget the glorious, deleted pool table scene. In case you are not familiar with it, or have forgotten the way it sounds (probably the reason it was deleted), I’ll just let two quotes speak for themselves. “There was something suggestive about how [Ronan] wore the suit” Oh yes, of course there was. Sometimes you wear clothing with a certain intention, and in Ronan’s case, that intention is to be bent over the pool table by Gansey. This becomes even clearer here: “Gansey was well aware that Ronan rather fancied the way he looked while he played pool, and the way he reached across the felt now, intentional and elegant and coiled, indicated that he was fancying himself at this very moment.” Once again, everything is super intentional, and Gansey wants to fuck him so badly. Not even kidding at this point, the way Maggie wrote this scene really makes it look like Gansey finds Ronan super hot; even as an aromantic asexual person I have to say, this is a lot more than “bro appreciating his best friend’s glow-up in a completely heterosexual way”. This iconic scene is gay brainrot, which is exactly why we did not get to experience this masterpiece within an actual, published book. The Ronsey shippers would have gone too wild.

[Speaking of which, I’d like to clarify that I do not ship Ronsey in the way some other people do, I do prefer them with their canon love interests, however I clearly see the potential of them having had some kind of mutual attraction in the past, I just think it makes the dynamic a lot more fun and interesting, sort of like how Jesper had a crush on Kaz in Six of Crows.]

Gansey has received at least one (1) dick pic of Ronan. The circumstances do not say anything about either Gansey or Ronan, but I think it’s funny, it builds character, so I chose to include it in this.

Perhaps the strongest evidence for him running with the lgbtq+ is the fact that he goes to an all-boys school. Come on, what is he supposed to do, surrounded by all those guys rich enough to afford good haircuts and a private trainer? Should he just not have gay thoughts? Impossible.

Now all this was mostly evidence for Gansey swinging that way, somehow, but of course he’s one of those doors that open both ways. Yes, he has a girlfriend, but there is even more proof for him being specifically m-spec, just you wait. To begin with, apart from his friends Gansey has two true loves. Henrietta (the town with a female name, who his sister refers to as his girlfriend- the same sister who assumes Gansey is sleeping with Adam; Helen is a bi Gansey truther) and Glendower, the dead, male king. Obviously, this is totally serious business. Additionally, I have talked through to a very full extent how he is in love with Ronan, but of course he is also in love with Henry, I do not have to elaborate on this. He is also very much jealous when Blue and Adam are dating, as is described multiple times, but we don’t find out exactly who he is jealous of. Yes, he likes Blue, and he is sad that his best friend is sort of being stolen away etc., but what if he also just wanted to hold hands. With both of them. At once.

It’s not only Gansey being in love with all of them, it’s also all of them being in love with Gansey. His bi swagger. It was this: Blue finding him irresistible. It was this: Ronan wanting to smash his fist through a wall because of how hot Gansey is. It was this: Henry saying Gansey is a “Caucasian with great hair”.

Bi Gansey is the truth and I will defend that until the day I die.

However, I will admit that he is absolutely a cis guy, no question. At no point in his life has he had to be afraid to take up space or anything, but that man supports trans rights of course. He would not wear a crop top on his own, but considering how he is in love with them, Blue, Ronan and Henry could bully him into it and he would rock it.

#trying a catchier title with this one #trc #the raven cycle #the raven boys #the dream thieves #blue lily lily blue #the raven king #gansey #ronan lynch #adam parrish #blue sargent #henry cheng #bi gansey

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i-guess-im-into-this-now · 25 days

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Brave Bang Bravern

Friends.

I've finished watching Bravern and I have some thoughts and questions.

First of all, I love parody. In fact, I love commentary and analysis of stories in many forms, but parody is fun. Mecha anime is very far outside my wheelhouse so I'm coming into this show purely as someone who enjoys unhinged stories.

Also, I love gay shit.

If it's gay + 🍌🍌🍌 now we are where I like to be. I was told Bravern is both.

And it is.

I should preface any of my analysis of queer content with the fact that I am not well educated in queer or gender studies and am in fact just some person on the internet with uninformed opinions. I often struggle to understand and explain how I think and feel about media. So please feel free to share other analysis with me, I love to learn.

Okay.

There may be spoilers ahead.

Bravern is gay. The show, the robot, Smith and Isami. It's gay. I watched it on Crunchyroll and to my bafflement, some people in the comments disagree. An argument can be made that the homosexuality in the show is overt at times, but even if you take the stance that it's subtext or metaphor, it's still prevalent.

Some of that has to do with the fact that Bravern is a parody of Mecha anime. Pilots riding inside a combat robot becomes a metaphor for sex. And in Bravern that comparison is pushed about as far as it can go without becoming tiresome. I'm on the fence about whether this joke about the homoeroticism of it is made with fun wink to the gay community or whether it is at their expense. I'd love some other opinions on this.

Also going to take a moment to insert that I'm also not Japanese so I don't have a perspective that is informed about how culture may play into this topic.

Overall Bravern is really fun. It pokes fun at ideas like the power of friendship and the roll of bravery in anime.

The robot is called Bravern and is an amalgamation of a robot of lust and the spirit of a fallen solider, Smith. Smith has an interesting relationship with Isami. Smith is inspired by Isami's bravery and envious that he is able to "ride" Bravern. They are also friends who have complicated feelings towards one another. Smith's lifelong dream was to become a hero and he tries repeatedly to merge with one of the sentient robots so he can be like Isami and Bravern, but fails. Eventually he dies, bravely I might add, and is able to fuse with a dead robot to become Bravern and travel back in time. Back in the past as Bravern he was able to have Isami ride in him and feels a sense of deep fulfillment. The plot is convoluted which is probably also parody, but plot is also not the point.

Bravery comes up constantly in this show. It's the name of the robot. It's Smith's motivation. It's Isami's character arc. It's a mystical power that can empower Bravern/Isami (by the end I'm not sure what the difference is between the two) to evolve into his most powerful form and defeat his opponent. The roll of Bravery in this show is deliberately over-the-top.

Another theme that is poked fun of it the power of friendship. The bromance between Smith and Isami is made homoerotic, and the friendships of everyone else are used as way to empower Isami/Bravern, sometimes psychologicaly, other times quite literally as a magical power source.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments and a lot of action, which make it fun to watch even if you just want to enjoy it casually without trying to analyze it. The deadpan looks of the people who witness Braven and Isami's absurdity are hilarious. Also, some of the one liners are just 💋🤌

I'm sure I'm missing some key themes because I haven't even mentioned Lulu or Superbia. But that's my two cents for this show. I would love to hear someone else's take on it.

#bang brave bang bravern #bravern spoilers #bravern #brave bang bravern #ao isami #isami x smith #isami x lewis #isami x bravern #lewis smith

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verycharismaticdragon · 1 year

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17, for the ask game? 👀

*for svsss

[ there should be more of this type of fic/art ]

(funny as hell that this came right when i started to compose the previous answer btw)

Oh I have a LIST:

Binghe POV. There's simply. not. enough.

Sopping wet cat Bing-ge as previously mentioned

Whoever actually explores assault survivor Bing-ge in fic will have my entire soul fr fr

Literally anything that would capitalize on the conflict (lit analysis meaning) built into SQQ and LQG's relationship - that one of them treats it as a regular friendship and the other as an epic xianxia bromance (at the very least). I think it would be cool if LQG was given more role than just "a loyal guy with unrequited feelings" from time to time. And I would be especially interested in the iteration where LQG's feelings are entirely platonic and still this intense.

Less pressing than previous because I've actually seen a fic referencing it, but a similar situation in cucumber/plane friendship, where SQQ unquestioningly takes SQH as an ally based on their shared background, but SQH is actually. not at all more loyal to him than to anyone else? Like he'll help, but he'll also sell him out without suffering much guilty conscience too. I think it's a fun discrepancy!

Explore SY!SQQ projecting his older siblings feelings onto YQY. (In more detail than canon does, because this is literally. canon. I've been rereading and there are at least two lines referencing this in early chapters.)

Anything about the parallels between ZZL's loyalty to SQQ and SQQ's loyalty to LBH. I might write meta about this myself one day, but I wish someone else did, I'm lazy okay. The tldr is that in both relationships one person's loyalty hurts rather than helps the other, ultimately because they are trying to do what they think is right for the other without understanding them first.

Shen Yuan's family, esp in reverse transmigration or Bing-ge comes to modern world fics. This is clearly something that shaped SY's character a lot and I think you could get a lot of fun interaction out of it.

For fics that have both Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan without them being siblings: more SY being a bitch to the guy who was mean to his blorbo. Not necessarily for the entire fic, but I think shen vs. shen dynamic is vastly underrepresented, we gotta get onto that. (Also a bit of an aside, but I've seen the idea in fic that SJ is much more powerful than SY as a cultivator, and that... listen, while I agree that SJ would have the benefit of experience, I feel this kinda ignores the fact that SY fixed SQQ's damaged cultivation in several months - before being nerfed by Without a Cure for his efforts, ofc, but still, this implies some level of talent.)

Oh, and last but not least: fics that would explore Binghe's love for SQQ being complicated and not-unfaltering. I tried to imply that a bit in Transmigrator Time Traveler, but I would love a more direct look from someone with more love for angst than me, maybe.

#choose violence ask game #svsss #luo binghe #luo bingge #original luo binghe #shen qingqiu #liu qingge #shang qinghua #yue qingyuan #zhuzhi lang #shen yuan #shen yuan's family #shen jiu #the real choose violence was me tagging everyone in the end but please. i actually want to read all these things okay?#mxtx

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inchidentally · 6 months

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@watehry asked for me to a carlando zodiac analysis like my landoscar one <3 (reminder I am not Lando levels of expert at astrology so this is me taking from a bunch of sources)

this one got kind of weird for me though bc the astrology is crazy black and white simple and gave maybe a little too much insight for comfort?? anyway proceed if you still want but also skip past if the parasocial stuff is too weird (it rly kind of was for me in places)

Scorpio and Virgo are a slam dunk as a match in friendship. simple as. Scorpio is ambitious with highly changeable super-charged moods and pretty damn needy. Virgo is all about "optimization" of themselves but extremely forgiving towards other and so self-reliant that it's easy for others to rely on them (sometimes more than they should).

this worked out perfectly for them bc Lando has had so many different needs throughout his career: an extremely young rookie needing a strong leader, a struggling teammate who needed someone to provide all the fun and reassurance, then no longer a teammate who needs a friendship that fits around his crazy schedule and existing friends, and a competitor who would honestly be a lil devastated if Carlos didn't still try and look out for him on the track. Carlos has been able to cater to all of those different things without ever losing himself. he finds Lando fascinating and fun no matter what.

honestly with Scorpio being a Fire sign and Virgo being an Earth sign there doesn't need to be much digging beyond that. their equal passions balance out beautifully and has strong enduring power.

Scorpio's birthstone is Topaz and gemstone is Citrine. Virgo's are Blue Sapphire and Topaz respectively.

a lot of the usual Virgo traits don't uhhh rly apply to Carlos as a beautiful cis man born of extraordinary privilege who has a rarefied hyper masculine sport as his job (he is never 'in his own head' and never over-intellectualizes lmao) he wants? he gets.

Carlos is a solid extrovert with a seemingly undrainable social battery which also counteracts more stereotypical Virgo qualities. but he is also an extremely hard worker who shows intense focus and mastery over whatever he pursues. very very Virgo.

he's also endlessly curious which makes him a great people person as well as a student of his sport and nothing is more attractive to him than someone who is fully open and vulnerable. he would have absolutely no idea what to do with an Oscar for example. they'd both be very happy and respectful in each other's company but only if someone else provides a common topic. otherwise it would be radio silence.

but little rookie Lando Norris who has been starved of the superstar attention he had in his junior career while he toddled around after Fernando? he and Carlos fit together like chicken and breading.

"Virgo wants order while Scorpio wants power" says a whole lot about how compatible they are. they want the same things but in completely different ways. it's why Carlos can factor in helping Lando get a podium and Lando has no problem admitting that Carlos helped him get there.

pitfalls of their relationship are down to the fact that they are so complimentary yet both are strong-willed. Virgo thinks far more logically and doesn't want to compromise by factoring in Scorpio's ever-shifting ambitions and emotions. it's honestly a very good thing that they've chosen friendship/bromance over anything else. they can keep that sweet aspect of romance but without having to suffer the restrictions and complications of a romantic relationship.

and um it might also explain why Carlos was the one to push Lando into finally having a girlfriend. from what I vaguely know Carlos himself had a longtermish gf ? for his McLaren years ?? and he'll have found it easier to deal with Lando's neediness with a gf for Lando to focus on.

not to get too parasocial about real life stuff here but we can all kind of agree that Max F's girlfriends have to accept that his friendship with Lando comes first. or at least equal to them. that's because once Leos find someone happy under their control and protection it's an absolute lock for life. Scorpio Lando wants attention and reassurance, Leo Max wants to be the leader and the rock. Scorpio needs to be in their feelings at will and Leo loves living in the moment. they sort of already found their person in each other oops. but since cis straight people relationships already center around ferda culture it works just fine.

by contrast, Carlos as a Virgo would have his own strict ideas of what his relationships should look like and I'm gonna take a wild guess that his family have inscribed ideals of wives and babies and being a provider into his DNA. when Carlos gets married it's going to have to be Lando who works around the schedule and makes good friends with Carlos' wife. fortunately he seems to be able to do that just fine with Max's partners so I don't see any issue there. (this is what I mean when I said this got very weirdly intuitive about real people)

as long as the Scorpio/Virgo friendship is free and easy for each party to come and go as they need to, they'll literally be bonded as family til they die. I can't read Lando's actual feelings well enough bc he uses so much deflective sarcasm but Carlos and his family absolutely adopted him as one of their own. Lando might take a little bit more of Carlos' generosity than he gives back but that's just their way. I'd say Max F is the bff who will always be there and Carlos is the bff that Lando can meet after months apart and it'll be as if it was just yesterday.

as Lando said they're much better off not being on the same team because they were juuuust on the cusp of the teammate rivalry not being fun anymore. I miss the challenges together but we'll always get carlando content anyway and won't have to see their relationship erode, fail and then heal but never be quite the same again (sorry but like w Daniel). it's also why the landoscar astrology reinforced everything we feel about Oscar being tailor made for Lando as a teammate.

ship/fic-centric stuff

let's get the rough stuff out of the way first: long term romance between Scorpio and Virgo is… tricky. especially both of them being men. I'll go ahead and say that they're much better off having a steamy hot affair for a while but then letting it settle into platonic but extremely deep friendship. you could easily have Lando's main love interest having to accept that Carlos has the same role w Lando that Lando does w Max F.

that being said! the sex is fire. Virgo Carlos would be a confirmed masc top (literally wants to do "power play") bc a feeling of control is so fundamental for him. Scorpio Lando would be raw arousal and want someone he could fully trust. he'd be over the moon to do anything and get as kinky as Virgo wanted.

Carlos would want to shower Lando with gifts and big expressions of love and adoration. while Lando would eat all of that up he wouldn't see it as the same as spending quality time together and sharing the same bed etc. definitely would need to be a chapter dedicated to communicating of needs etc.

Carlos would break very quickly in a secret relationship. it would sap him of everything he wants to bring and receive in a relationship. Lando wouldn't last much longer because his partner denying him romantic love in public would eat away at him. it would either end them or be a catalyst for deciding to be open and damn the consequences.

carlando angst is a whole other level because of how much they both want to remain bonded together. but there's also plenty of juicy fodder: miscommunication (Carlos' fault) jealousy (Lando's) possessiveness (Lando's) a need to be in charge (Carlos) lying for the other's protection (Carlos) wanting more freedom (Lando) caving to societal/familial pressure (Carlos) cheating born of passion or dissatisfaction (Lando) silent treatment (Lando) dismissal of feelings (Carlos) angry words that they wish they could unsay (both)

or the most complicated of all which would be Carlos VERY likely assigning Lando the "woman" role and being unable to have a romantic relationship not based on heterosexuality. don't worry he'd gay sex it up bc sex is His Thing but there'd be specific no-go things for him in bed. this is because of the whole rules obsession and occasional lack of emotional connection problems. this could go really sweet and involve negotiation and self-exploration or it could just be super kinky or it could be really angsty and lead to Carlos almost losing Lando entirely. just know that it'll need solid work shown to bring Carlos out of mainstream gender norms if he even does. he will resist efforts made to rattle the world he's built for himself. if it's dark fic that features social homophobia/internalized homophobia then it could be left as is rather than trying to fix it (as in, they're fighting for their lives or live in constant peril so their relationship doesn't get the attention it needs)

the power balance will always be in favor of Carlos so you'll need to take very good care of Lando and stay in his head most of the time for him not to lose himself completely. think of how Lando always mirrors the vibes of the men he is with at the moment and that a lot of carlando is Lando following Carlos like a puppy.

Carlos will never back down and won't have the capability to deal with fights but he will never EVER reject Lando. if he needs to walk away from a fight he'll state the fact first and do it as a way to clear his head. but he'll always come back. literally Lando could have walked away from him and married someone else but it would just take Carlos seeing his number calling for him to drop everything and be there for Lando like nothing had happened.

Carlos may need to hold all the cards but life without Lando is impossible for him. they'll either be intensely loyal friends in a multiship fic or on a steady track to Carlos putting a ring worth the gross national product of a small country on Lando's finger.

#carlando #these are so fun #mine #f1 astrology

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nadziejastar · 6 months

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Absolutely love your akusai analysis stuff its so good omg.

Do you have any more thoughts on them?

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it! As for my thoughts on Akusai, well, after beating Fire Emblem Three Houses recently, I do have a few thoughts. I know, I'm late to the party on 3H. (I actually loved 3H and would love to write metas about those ships lol). But anyways, regarding Akusai. It's a bit of a rant and there's minor spoilers for FE3H, so I'll put it under the cut.

Okay, so Sylvix felt like it was everything Akusai was supposed to be. It touched on all the same themes, too. In 3H, you've got a childhood friend trio. The standard two males and a female. On the surface it seems like the girl and the outgoing redhead goofball are a thing. But they treat each other more like bros. He and the quiet blue-haired sword guy had a much more intimate bond with each other, complete with a special promise™ to always be together and redhead being protective of blue. The redhead never wants to grow up and change because he doesn't wanna fulfill the heteronormative life script of getting married and having kids.

He is longing to go back to his childhood days but is sad at how much blue has changed since they were kids and has apparently outgrown their closeness. He hides his angst behind a smile and womanizing. Blue was once a meek clingy crybaby but now he is surly and obsessed with growing stronger. Deep down he is still an uke who secretly longs to be redhead's waifu. But he has a lot of shame related to his sensitivity and gender nonconformity. He distances himself from others, but boy does he get irritated if redhead flirts with anyone else.

I do wish the game would have just come right out and tell you that they're gay for each other (and so does this gaming site). I get why it didn't. Still, it didn't really hide it too much. They have a paired ending where they spend their whole lives playfully teasing each other like just when they were kids, never get married, and die together in each other's arms. It's the most romantic ending in the whole game, if you ask me. And Sylvix is SUPER popular and well received by the fandom. Both in Japan and the West. They have soooo much fan content. There are still some dudes who say they're just friends because ew icky gay. But most people in the fandom are able to tell they're queer-coded and are fine with it. In fact, the fandom was so fine with it that they released an overtly queer dude in the DLC, strictly due to popular demand.

3H is not a slam dunk with gay romance since much of it (particularly MLM) relies on subtext. But it still had more balls than most JRPG series and it definitely was a step in the right direction. We all know that Soriku is the most popular ship. The end of KH2 was total fujoshi fuel. But Soriku never had any chance in hell of being canon. KH is a video game shonen anime. Sora/Riku bromance is "safe". They can capitalize on shipteasing them to their female fans, but they won't alienate their male fans because Kairi is still very obviously the love interest for Sora. I found Akusai to be a lot more compelling because it was legitimately queer-coded.

Axel was queer-coded from the very beginning. His close friendship with Roxas in KH2 made people question his sexuality all the way back in 2006 and Akuroku rivaled Soriku for a time. And I do think that Axel always meant to be queer. Although personally, I did not get the impression that he was in love with Roxas. I got the sense that he probably had a best friend back when he was a human. And it was this dead best friend that he truly yearned for. The sweet and innocent Roxas reminded Axel of his human best friend and he latched onto him to help him forget the memories of days long past. That was my headcanon back in 2006 when KH2 first came out.

So, I was really happy when Days/BBS came out and it basically confirmed my theory that Axel was truly hung up on his human best friend and saw Roxas as a kind of replacement for him. And Isa was also very queer-coded. BBS!Isa has a more distinctly feminine design than any other boy in the series. He had very girlsh eyes and lips, small hands, long hair. And Saix's Mystery Gear is very cutesy-looking. Traditionally, the moon is viewed as a feminine symbol. And Saix's weapons in 358/2 Days were named after moon goddesses. They could have easily picked male moon gods, but they chose female goddesses like Selene and Artemis. It signifies to the player that, "Hey, this character does not follow the conventional gender stereotypes."

When you play 358/2 Days, and you get to the part where Axel is talking about love, you realize he's talking about his most precious memories from his human life, just like with all the other stuff like summer vacation and the red sunset. Akusai was not just superficial fujobait. Even if it was all subtext, it was a genuine depiction of two queer male characters who loved each other romantically. Axel is not straight. That’s a big reason why I was so mad that KH3 pushed their relationship off to the side and treated saving Isa as so much less important compared to saving Roxas. And it was so annoying how Saix had to mention Subject X whenever he might have seemed a little too obsessed with Axel otherwise.

Last year, Nomura said that he intended to show more of Lea and Isa's backstory in the future, so I've just been waiting for more content. I hope that we can get their story without Subject X overshadowing them like she did in KH3. I'm...cautiously optimistic. I expect this subplot to be included in Missing Link, since it is quite literally a missing link of the story. Axel is super popular and a queer-coded backstory with his childhood best friend would be very well received by the modern KH fandom, IMO. People are a LOT more accepting of gay content than they were in 2006. We've come a long way. And personally, I just love the idea that the tough cold asshole Saix's human self was actually a super sweet cutie who was in love with Lea. I really think the KH fandom would love that idea, too, if the writers were ever allowed to actually explore it. And a niche mobile game is probably a safer medium for that type of content than a mainline console game overseen by Disney, I guess. At the very least, if they ever put an Isa figurine into ML, I will whale for it if I have to.

#kh akusai #kh leaisa

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thebibi · 11 months

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i never thought of those 3 old man/young man parallels before! and they happen one right after the other... (though the seward/van helsing one has a backstory spanning years before the novel)

and it's a variety too! old abuser/young victim with drac/jon, old victim/young abuser with ren/jack, old equal/young equal with helward

I wish there was more analysis about this. But honestly you could read the same book a million times and not see what's right in front of you. As I said before, the first 1/5th of the novel has an insane grip on people, so theres a lot of introspection on Drac/Jonathan's relationship and not a lot on the other two. Then usually people discuss Mina and her relationships with Dracula and Van Helsing, or Lucy, but really not so much Renfield. Like I could go find a post about the same three relationships and someone would interpret entirely the opposite of me.

Like, last year I was really uncomfortable in discussing RenfieId because reading the novel alone by yourself vs reading it together collectively on the Internet are very different things! Like I just didn't feel as empathetic towards him, and ultimately I had to reflect on why I felt that way. Also last year I was less involved in DD during the summer months because everyone was so cagey about RenfieId and Jack, it felt like I had no voice on the issue. But the truth is I was more that comfortable with my own assumptions and didn't realize how much more I needed to learn.

Even helward, I geniunely loved their bromance pre- DD and I did mourn the fact that no adaption has captured their friendship, but I didn't think about it too deeply (also tumblr dracula fandom pre 2020 was like, tiny). Its only when I slowed down and read each entry day by day that I realized how important their relationship is to the plot! Not only that, it really grounds the book as being about the spread of information, of what qualifies madness, there's a lot that doesn't even need to be about romance or sexul tension. And I'm kind of baffled at the lack of interest, to be honest. Especially since Jack is literally one of the main characters and voice of the story and Van Helsing went on to become the iconic figure we know today.

So yeah, thank you for liking my little essay. I am really happy you liked it, and I hope to see more people discuss these points in Dracula more!

#dracula (novel)#dracula daily #dracula spoilers #not entirely sure how I should tag this #thebibi answers

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hopepaigeturner · 10 months

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It's me again! I was watching a reel on ig about Benedict and Will and I remember how we want them to be friends (and Sophie and Alice too). I was thinking that in a way both of them have succeeded but not in the most honest way. Like we know what Will had to do to get his club and we all understand him. But it still weighs on his conscious because he's a good man. He feels horrible when Benedict praises him. Similarly, Benedict doesn't feel like he deserves the Academy because of Anthony. Even if he tried to do it by himself, Anthony's actions stained his achievement.

There's a much more profound discussion there, but I can't do it right now.

Hiya! I love your asks and comments it's so good to hear from you :)

I honestly think you've got it spot on with the analysis. I think this similarity is the perfect foundation to establish mutual respect.

For this similarity and feeling show that both are men of morals who share the desire to prove themselves on their own merit.

But ofcourse there is one big difference--their social statuses. See Will was forced to be dishonest to rise above the very strict social hierarchy of society. There was very little option for him unless he wished to subject his family to poverty once he was unable to perform in his boxing matches.

Benedict's privilege meant that he had a choice either to be a nepo baby or not, and he still chose to reject Anthony's assistance. Such an action shows integrity and some self-awareness of his privilege.

I think Will will be able to empathise with Benedict but this will also make him respect Benedict. I think it will make him see Benedict as more than a privileged posh boy and a man who Will can trust for they share the same ideals. I think it is almost neccessary for Benedict to tell Will about Anthony & Art School because it will create a great first step in establishing a deeper friendship between the two. (Already I can picture Ben being a recurring figure lounging at Will's bar in S3, but this will make them friends)

*~*~*~*~*

Not neccesarily profound but a little bit of a splurge inspired by your comments :)

I would be intrigued to know whether the writers inteded this or not...either way LET THEM BE FRIENDS!!!! WE NEED THE BROMANCE!!!

#hope answers #bridgerton #benedict bridgerton #will mondrich #an offer from a gentleman #bromance goals

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alexi-01 · 1 year

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not to be that person because i actually think they probably will get along? but both have had close competition with teammates (carlos for lando, logan for oscar) and still kept it extremely respectful before, i don't know why now would be any different? but i also feel like people need to recognize it's a competitive sport where you're measured against your teammate. i know you're not a carlando person, but there's loads of people who tout them as like the "epitome" of what teammates should be and both of them have even discussed how they used to hate being outperformed or whatever by the other. that's the nature of competition. i do think there's some genuine friendships on the grid despite that competition, but most of those drivers also knew each other outside of F1. lando and oscar are just meeting, frankly theyre both introverts, it's going to take time. I don't get it anyway. most of the content I have seen, they seem pretty happy to be around each other? oscar's a pretty mellow guy, and I feel like I've seen him smile more in the limited content with mclaren/lando than his entire junior career. i really think as long as fans don't ruin it (I think the fan speculation with "he'll destroy him and send him to FE" is what made lando kind of prickly with daniel at first tbh), they'll get along fine. and even if, for whatever reason, they don't become friends, as long as they're able to work together on track and for the advancement of the team, who cares? that's ultimately their job and what they're paid to do, not push a "bromance" or something. idk sorry for the rant I just hate this weird analysis of "lando didn't smile in ONE photo, he hates oscar" even though there's literally a photo taken around the same time where he is genuinely smiling. or people saying oscar has no charisma or whatever. people need to let both of them breathe!!!!

THIS! PEOPLE THEY ARE BOTH INTROVERTED PERSONS

like yeah lando is probably less introverted then oscar but both are still awkward people

oscar is coming into his first year in f1 and in a new team, he’s not going to feel completely comfortable right now and that’s totally understandable

give them time, give them breathing space and stop putting these expectations on them to be besties straight away

#ask response

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elainemorisi · 3 years

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periodically I will remember the two sets of very directly parallel episode plots and I am just... were they actively trying to make the bromance from hell look bad or like what. what were the thoughts. how did you write the same plot twice and make such a nasty, unsympathetic hash of the friendship you were actively trying to push, twice

IT IS! JUST! HOW I gotta assume this is a different symptom of what I am now FIRMLY convinced is the case, namely “WOW your definition of sympathetic and mine do NOT align”, but what IS these writers' definition it is just!!! so????

so like look right. first parallel which is more obvious in that the two episodes are close together. (second parallel is more obvious in terms of literally verbatim lines). first plot goes like such: Julian and Friend suddenly trapped in a life-threatening situation for both themselves and everyone around them. only two options: abandon and so kill everyone else or put full faith in Julian's cleverness, Julian picks door number two Friend picks door number one. When Julian puts his foot down that it will be door two Or Else, Friend We're Supposed To Prefer henceforth FWSTP not only fully ignores that and carries right on toward door number one, but refuses even Julian's offer to let him, FWSTP, actually get out alive, sabotages his work and dooms everyone else. Then follows up by claiming he had no choice and that Julian is the one who should be more sympathetic. Meanwhile Friend We're Not Supposed To Count: makes his argument, heads for the door, and when push in fact comes to shove begins cooperating IMMEDIATELY. And ends by admitting he was wrong without any prompting whatsoever. The fact that one episode had to end well and one badly is insufficient explanation, it’d have been perfectly easy to force Julian to outwit or overpower Garak in OMB, and give Miles reasoning a lot heavier on 'I love you and don't want us to die' and a LOT lighter on the nonsensical space racism (love you AND TRUST OR RESPECT YOU LITERALLY AT ALL).

And that's just wtf enough! AND YET! what do we then do. We ripoff another friendship arc from two seasons ago, down to Friend taking issue with Julian's smug face, only again! one LITERALLY cannot make the sentence a complete insult and the other says it so convincingly that Julian LEAVES. And sure he comes back but there's a pretty large emotional difference between resolving the Traumatized Friend Gets Help plot with a conveniently-timed “literally be interrupted mid-suicide attempt and carefully talked at until you talk yourself down and accept the help everyone has been waving at you the whole time” and “consciously, willfully, with a plausible option (or, arguably, options, plural) to not, not only actually ask for help but reveal closely-held personal secrets in so doing”

#cut for grumpy overinvested analysis lol #I just am so perpetually disgusted about the bromance from hell and also like???#twice! you wrote episodes that asked his friends: do you love trust OR respect Julian literally one of the three will do #and twice! once really very loudly but the other frankly not that quietly either #(it's a fine to good episode conceptually + wrt its other plots it's just the bromance from hell thread I dislike)#one friend's answer is 'not really no' against the other's 'with my literal life if you must know'#and I just????? did they think that was a good friendship? because it really seems like they did think that #like god bless and by all means write fucky ones but I get no vibes that the nastiness is remotely understood by this writing #garashir is wonderfully and hilariously dubious (at best) as a romance #but in terms of actual onscreen friendship? it's like... really quite a good one #and could you make a more generous reading of the BFH #given its immense amount of material yes of course the whole friendship I'm sure youcould #(I'd probably still be skeptical of such a reading but it can be made)#but these two very parallel sets specifically?#fuckin' a man #these dudes truly do think that if One Man says a relationship exists then obviously it does what more proof do you need #(the One in the BFH being Julian if that's not clear)#the sympathy-definition conviction being borne out at the moment primarily by the sinking realization #that these fuckers not only seem to have no good answer to the Odo character assassination they performed at the start of season six #I'm not even sure they plan to attempt to give a bad one en route to what is truly the CROWNING jewel in the #'Trek writers cannot write the obviously well-founded romance that is right in front of them to SAVE their LIVES' collection #Kira/Odo WOULD have worked! for ages! for ages they DID have the ingredients #but no! truly they had to take their tray of perfectly lovely ingredients and take a dump on it and THEN attempt to prepare the recipe! wow!#you have to admire that degree of commitment to being bad at writing the relationships you mean to write #ds9 tag

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writingonesdreams · 2 years

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Wip introduction: Tears of Iron

Themes: • bromance • painful & conscious magic • found family • learning to be gentle • acceptance of imperfection • mistakes friendly • what is power • academy setting • flying islands • dragons and dragon knights

Synopsis: Hal, Zephyr, Skye and Leander founded the new Dragon Knight Academy on the Flying Islands. Between keeping peace with the dragons, finding candidates with earnest hearts, defending their right to research and preserve the unique magic, they also have to find a way how to be there for each other and their dreams at the same time.

A fateful incident leaves Zephyr struggling with lasting damage he can't admit to, Leander with bitterness he can't handle, Skye with consuming fear and Hal with paralysis of doing something wrong. Again. At least the dragons are helpful, when they aren't attacking you out of friendship. Welcome to the club.

•••

✨Read on wattpad✨

Story development

Magic: rules • types • soulfire vs mind magic • approaches

Main trio analysis & sorting & art

•••

Tears of Iron AUs

Snippets (chronologically)

What makes a person good? (Intro Zephyr's family)

Hal, Skye and the dragon (anchoring before disappearing & fear & comfort)

Bright spark (Skye watches Zephyr train)

Allowed to fly (Zephyr, Hal and dragon riding)

Best thing I never planned (Zephyr thinking about love and Skye)

Far from perfect (Zephyr fusses over hurt Leander)

For the dancing and the dreaming (Zephyr comforts Skye and they dance)

Not today (Skye and Zephyr space vs comfort)

When you aren't here (Skye contemplates dependence and staying in the present with Hal)

And the bridge is love (Telepathic link exercise on a summer trip with the gang)

Like the sun and the moon (Leander and Skye trying to get along)

Only the most powerful (backstory flashback to Zephyr's childhood training by his father)

The Perfect Brother (Zephyr meets his estranged older brother Zoltan)

Skin and Soul (Leander trying to force Zephyr to let him take care of him)

All the way (Leander and Zephyr emotional comfort)

What you show me (Skye and Juno talk about vulnerbility)

Shadow of the wolf (Zephyr fights with Kieran & tries to recruit him for the school)

The wolf cub argument (Zephyr argues with Hal, Skye and Leander about whether to take Kieran in or not)

Special connection (Cameron and Skye talk about honesty and closeness)

Sky of shards (how Skye, Zephyr and Hal met for the first time)

Snake Charms (Skye meets Cameron, a man who can read the mind reader)

•••

Extra posts

Fanart

Change announcement

Crossover AUs

In Bloodless Heir One | Two

In Tears of Iron One | Two by @bloodlessheirbyjacques

With Laila in Tears of Iron Here | Dynamics by @aninkwellofnectar

Flash fiction friday:

Storms and thorns (hero AU with mind sharing of pain)

Meeting of the minds (mind witch and revenge driven mage)

•••

Tiny scene prompts (1)

Other cool posts

Characters

Characters • Impressions (ZxS) • Meta discussion ZxSxL

• Character associations • Character dynamics

Showing affection: Skye

OC favourites tag: Skye | Zephyr

Worldbuilding:

Aesthetics

Dragon Knight order

Belief system

•••

Wip tag list: @thewalkingnerdx @diphthongsfordays @crazybunchwriting @myhusbandsasemni @circa-specturgia @muddshadow @beacauseiamalive @avrablake @wip-nook

#writeblr #wip intro #wip introduction #my wip #fantasy #romance #science fantasy #new adult #wip: sky of shards

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captnjacksparrow · 3 years

Text

SNS Dynamics - Sasuke's Perspective

Lengthy post ahead

On completing my rewatch of Naruto part I and part II, many things which never made sense started to make sense. One among them is the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke. I used to ask why Naruto is going so far for Sasuke. And why Sasuke is helping out Naruto even though he wants to kill him. And I used to think that Episode 478 was retconned to make the final battle ends in a draw and Sasuke somehow made to reconcile with the titular character. Yet, I instinctively felt, ‘Something is very different about them’. But on careful rewatch, all the clues which consolidate their relationship was there. The way they love each other is totally on a different level and the creator very carefully planned this from the beginning of the Manga.

Though I really don’t like the ending for making every characters into a child rearing machine at an age of 20 to make way for an abomination called ‘Boruto’, I still loved everything till Episode 479.

I wanted to discuss about both Naruto and Sasuke's perspective. But that cannot be accommodated in a single post. So, I decided to start with Sasuke. Since Naruto's side of SNS is very open and vocal, we clearly knew what is going on in his mind. But Sasuke's side is usually very subtle but much more intense than Naruto which makes it worth analyzing.

Before getting to that, for most of the characters in the Naruto universe (I mean 99%), Sasuke is a person who looks cool, aloof, rude, overbearing, blunt, genius and emotionless. And that’s the truth. Except for Itachi and Naruto. So when I say he is rude or arrogant, it is from the people’s POV. And since I always see myself in Itachi, I see Sasuke as that adorable innocent child who is very honest but forgiving.

I strongly feel that Sasuke has some innocent enchantment towards Naruto ever since he lost his family which later transcended into a bond which cannot be put under Friendship or Bromance. Enchantment, here I meant by, is not in a sexual way but more like the unconscious need to be in the presence of other person. Like walking beside each other eternally. Or even warming up next to a campfire near a chilly beach. You don’t want to fall into the fire but just enjoy the warmth. It maybe totally a platonic love like many claims to be. But his absolute disinterest in any other characters (even just as a friend) and the following traits he shows only to Naruto are clearly not just distinctive of platonic love either. It’s completely beyond platonic.

The following are the traits which Sasuke shows only towards Naruto, could have been avoided or delegated to other characters if the creator really wanted to assert their relationship as just friendship. There are lot of subtexts and emotions which I cannot accept it under the guise of bromance or friendship. It’s just not possible. If someone you like shows all these traits to another person, you should stop thinking about that person and move on.

The traits are :

Preferential Treatment

Attentive

Protective

My body moved on its own

One and Only

Powerful Eyes

Unconscious Closeness

Preferential Treatment

This is the very basic and first thing you show to someone whom you love. Meaning, I will treat this person much different from everyone else. When I was exploring this trait, I couldn’t stop laughing in many places. Because Sasuke is such a trolling machine who mercilessly trolls people who are in his way. He also inspire certain amount of fear which makes him even more unapproachable.

He has this cold bearing where people find it extremely difficult to manage or approach him. It comes off as very rude most of the times. One such example is Sai told Sasuke that he will get along better with him than Naruto. Sasuke put a Genjutsu on him for comparing himself with Naruto. LOL.

What's more funny is most people (Sakura, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sai, Hinata) usually talk to him politely with honorifics like 'Sasuke-kun'. But he didn't give two shits about them and shitted them all mercilessly.

Here is the infamous proposal from Sakura in part 1.

Well she deserved this one to be honest. Throughout the entire conversation Sasuke never saw her face and responded very bluntly even though she was pouring her heart out crying. There was no visible distress or sadness from Sasuke’s side.

Whereas with Naruto, in the final Valley of The End, we saw him turning towards Naruto and answer him properly when Naruto asked the same question of what Sakura asked. There were so many emotions throughout the battle and Sasuke’s pain of leaving Naruto was clearly shown. Which explains the difference of where Sasuke keeps Naruto in his heart.

The following is the one from Chunin Exams prelims where Sakura is begging for him to quit with tears. The response is an usual 'Stay out of my business'.

Me: Sasuke!!!! Even I don't know how to approach you!!!! I understand you don't like to talk unnecessarily so you just shitted on Sai. But Sakura is your teammate, isn't it?

And then there is this little orange blonde who literally trolls Sasuke.

I really thot Sasuke was going to trash Naruto too, like he could have easily said, 'Naruto, you should also stay out of my business'.

But then

These words are something precious for Naruto. He wished for these words to come from Sasuke someday in his lifetime. But not at that time. And he was truly shocked and very excited. Believe me, when watching that scene, it was really great. But while making analysis like this, it’s absolutely hilarious.

This dynamics is similar to

Sakura: *cries unbearably* Sasuke-kun, I am worried about you. Don’t act so strong.

Sasuke: Shut up. Mind your own business.

Naruto: Bastard! She is worried about you.

Sasuke: Alright, I love you. Now shut up.

ROOOFFFFL :-D

I thought all these childhood bickers were over by part 1 and we will never see it in part 2.

Nope. I was wrong. Kakashi and Sakura were the scapegoats here.

Here's another round of applause from Naruto.

And I honestly cannot comprehend what was going on in Sasuke's mind and why he is really rude to Sakura and Kakashi. It seems he was really irritated by their presence or he maybe thinking they were useless or both.

When Naruto asks him something, he responds without any insults. What baffles me most is that during Infinite Tsukuyomi, Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto for his Revolution and awaiting his fated battle. And yet he answers him properly.

Can you see the pattern here?

He shits on people asking some question even with an utmost polite attitude but when Naruto asks the same question he was like "Alright Sweetie, Am gonna answer anything you want and say anything you like".

The following is the beginning of everything where Naruto can't even swear properly but still Sasuke couldn't even bother.

In short, the way he treats Naruto is quite different and hilarious when compared to the others. With his cold bearing, he absolutely has no need to put up with Naruto's outburst but he still accepts without a care every time. RIP to those souls who got the short end of the stick.

He must have an extreme tolerance towards Naruto's tirades to the point where he can never insult him back. And I also believe 100% that, nobody dares to make such frequent insults on Sasuke to his face except Naruto.

I know SK shippers jump in here to say Naruto is not the only one. But still the dynamics between Karin and Sasuke is simply a mirror image of Naruto and Sasuke, probably she reminded him of Naruto and hence made some exceptions for her because Sasuke never gives a damn about any other clan other than his own, but when Kabuto tells him Karin belongs to Uzumaki clan, he was shocked. I am pretty sure the only other Uzumaki member he knew is none other than Naruto.

Now, does this means he is in super love with Naruto? No.

But the way he treats every other characters and how he treats Naruto exclusively speaks volumes and this trope shouldn’t have existed in the first place. The creator should have made Sasuke treat both of his teammates equally which could’ve deflected the shipping angle.

Attentive

Am not talking about how attentively he analyzes his enemies in the battles. Of course, in that department, Sasuke flies high. This is about how attentive he is to Naruto to the point where he can deduce what Naruto thinks and how Naruto looks without the need to communicate with him.

I know Sasuke suspected Sakura was acting strange before Chunin Exams when she said 'Good Morning' with some hesitation. But the difference here is that Sasuke can identify Naruto without even talking to him.

Funny thing here is that Sasuke was sitting somewhere far behind from Naruto and yet he could pick up Naruto getting freaked out without seeing his face.

Who could forget about the famous ‘Where’s real Naruto?’ episode during Chunin Exams?. It would’ve been fine if this happened once. But the creator went ahead and made this thing happen twice under entirely different situations. And everytime Sasuke can find fake Naruto without fail. This scene conveys Sasuke is very observant towards Naruto’s appearance & fighting skills (the way he evades an attack).

Now, being attentive to someone is not a special thing which attributes to love. But considering Sasuke’s personality who is aloof and focused on his own world, knowing Naruto like the back of his hand is way too descriptive. Only someone who really understands the other person or constantly paying attention can find out such subtle changes. It doesn’t end here.

This is the battle between Gaara and Naruto. Where Naruto was literally confused about how to save his friends from Gaara who is much more powerful. And yet Sasuke can find Naruto’s mood just by seeing him.

Me: Yes, Sasuke!!! Gaara happened to pass by Naruto and forgot to kill him on a whim!!! So, Naruto is scared to the shit!!

Also Me: You guys always bicker with each other and are not best of friends. Sasuke!!! How could you analyze his mood just by looking at Naruto????

In Shippuden, There’s no inner monologue like the above, but whenever Naruto appears before him (Orochimaru’s hideout, Bridge, War arc), Sasuke gives his undivided attention to him. He even went so far as to advice him to pay attention to the battle. And I was like “Wait!!! you wanted to kill him... why pay attention to him at all? Geez”.

As much as you want to think that Sasuke doesn’t care about anyone, he does care about Naruto to the point where he doesn’t want him to be worried. How thoughtful just for a ‘teammate’.

How did Sasuke knew that Naruto would worry about him?, I wonder.

But all these things started from this

This boy has been noticing Naruto from way back when he was around 7 when he lost his family. Of course he would know every little things about Naruto because for some undefinable reason he couldn’t stop paying his attention to Naruto. A lineup of girls vying for his attention because of his cool appearance, whereas Sasuke simply loved Naruto without any reservations but because of his childish and warm personality which reminded him of his family.

‘I couldn’t stop paying attention to you’ and in some translations the words were ‘I couldn’t take my eyes off you’. Either way, these words are not for someone you see just as a friend let alone a brother.

Protectiveness

I can go on and on about how protective Sasuke is towards Naruto. I can write a separate post about it. This is the most important aspects of this ship which makes it sail higher than any other ships.

Of course, this is the Ninja world where people wants to protect each other and at the same time kill each other too. Sasuke protecting Naruto and Naruto protecting Sasuke is not too special. In fact, one of the weak and pathetic character like Sakura was saved once in every three episodes by Naruto or Kakashi or even by Sasuke sometimes.

And yet here I am mentioning protectiveness as the most important aspect of this ship. So what differentiates?

The way Sasuke protects Naruto is one of the intense thing I’ve ever seen. When I watch this series, I gained this immense ability to put myself in other characters mind just like Naruto. When I put myself in Sasuke’s mind whenever he tried to protect Naruto under different conditions, I simply cannot put their relationship under Friendship.

Here, Naruto is fighting Gaara in part 1 and Naruto was repelled by his own attack from the paper bomb. Sasuke being already battered by his curse mark bruise and he couldn’t move an inch. And yet he is shielding Naruto even though it is completely unnecessary because Naruto bumping into a tree log is completely normal. The creator even went under a lot of pain to draw that panel which took 40% of the page.

Now you may question, many characters even died protecting someone. What’s so special with just shielding?

Like Hinata jumping in for suicide before Pain, Iruka blocking Mizuki’s attack, Tsunade blocking Orochimaru, Neji dying as a ‘Love Cupid’ for hinata and Naruto.... I can cite many things here. What’s common among them all is that they were all perfectly capable of moving around and yet decided to save Naruto.

But that’s not the only point.

Is there any need for him to save Naruto? No.

Will Naruto die if he didn’t shield him? No.

Then why? He could have spent that energy trying to do something for Sakura rather than do a pointless shielding.

And then there is Kushina.

Naruto’s mom was already on the verge of dying as she had Kurama extracted from her body and Jinchuriki without a Tailed Beast will die. Because of Uzumaki clan’s strong life force, she could hold off for a bit longer. When kurama attacked Naruto, she shielded him with her body and saved her son from an imminent death.

Even though Sasuke didn’t die shielding him, but there is a semblance.

Both protected Naruto even when their body condition is worse. That is, Protect at all cost attitude.

I intended to put Land of the Waves arc here as it is very similar to what happens with Kushina. But that’s for an upcoming section.

Now, as a Mother her instinct to protect Naruto is very strong.

But who is Naruto for Sasuke? What makes his instinct so strong to protect someone who is not even related by his blood? Until and unless you love that person dearly you won’t do it.

That brings me to the next thing.

Yeah, it kind of looks ‘very friendly’ to give a 3 layered protection to someone who is already powered up like you and most importantly you want to kill him.(Can I say that looks really romantic?). Anyways my point is different.

What really happens here is this

It is a well established fact that Minato, the Yellow Flash is the fastest shinobi in Narutoverse. It wasn’t surpassed yet. He uses the Hiraishin No Jutsu to teleport at the speed of light. It was invented by none other than Tobirama Senju who is the fastest shinobi of his time.

We basically have two fastest shinobi in the battlefield here. And Minato being the fastest among them, definitely don’t want to blow up near his son for whom he died protecting him once. He wanted to teleport somewhere away and before he could do it, Tobirama teleported the bomb back to Obito.

What many fails to notice here is that all these things are happening in mere seconds. But Sasuke realized it real quick as usual and protects Naruto in an instant. How fast his instinct you may ask? Quicker than the two fastest shinobi on the battlefield and one among them is Naruto’s dad.

What I want to say is Sasuke’s protective instinct is quicker than Naruto’s father and similar to Naruto’s mother.

And you know, I questioned myself during the Chunin Exams arc “I think in the Zabuza arc, Naruto conveniently happened to be near Sasuke, So he protected him at the cost of his life. What if Sakura happens to be there? Would he have done the same? Maybe he would’ve died protecting her too.”

But all of my questions were thrown into drain by Sasuke as if he was able to read my mind. The answer is “Hell! I don’t care if she died. That’s her loss. I will not die for her sake.”

This is really confusing, hilarious and romantic at the same time.

Me: Sasuke!!! I understand why you want to save Jugo... Even though you abandoned him in the Land of Iron. LOL. What are you going to do with Naruto anyway when the whole world is blasted off?

He proved this again in the Kaguya’s Lava dimension too. Before you tell me that he saved Naruto because he needs him to seal off Kaguya, the previous scenario nullifies your argument.

And SS wankers shamelessly defending that Sasuke don’t want Sakura to die by Kaguya’s hands, that’s why he left her to die. Geez!!! Who the hell is Sakura to Kaguya anyway? Even if she were to die by Kaguya’s hands, it would almost look like how Obito died. It’s not bad at all. But falling into the lava pit, burning, screaming.... sssshhhh. Wake the f**k up!!!

Now how can you convince me that this is just Friendship? What’s more funny is Sasuke wanted to kill Naruto later at some point. Throughout the War Arc I was always confused as to why Sasuke even care about Naruto at all? He didn’t care about him ever since he left him 3 or 4 years ago and he doesn’t have to. After all everyone have their own paths to walk on.

Even if I put myself in Sasuke’s mind and see Naruto just as a friend whom I want to kill, I wouldn’t go under so much pain to save him. I would feel like it’s better for him to die by something else rather than me. Because I can’t bring myself to kill someone I know well.

These scenes are not just put there by chance.

Such a strong reflex to protect someone is only possible when you consider that person’s life more than yours.

Does any other ship has such things to show? I’ll wait.

Yeah Sasuke protected Sakura from Orochimaru and Gaara. But he also went so far to wait for Karin and awakened a new power to protect her. So does this means he love those girls?? No. He was just showing a team camaraderie. But it’s funny that later, he tried to kill those girls knowing full well they are unprepared to fight him. While with Naruto, it always comes with a warning. Try to understand this difference. Which is exactly why I didn’t put Sasuke saving Naruto during his Chakra training, or falling from the waterfall and many more. Because they are just a team camaraderie.

I don’t even have to compare with other ships, did Sasuke ever protected anyone like this in the whole series?. These are the things which could’ve been avoided or handled in a different way, like there was no need to emphasize on saving Naruto alone while ignoring others.

My body moved on its own

I don’t need to explain this any deeper. There are many people who says Sasuke is incapable of showing his true feelings. He is cold, rude, aloof and stoic so he always hides his feelings for everyone (mostly this line was used by Sakura wankers who wanted to portray that Sasuke always loved Sakura deeply but never shows). But they fail to understand the irony that one of the most beautiful line in this entire series was told by none other than ‘Sasuke Uchiha’, “My body moved on its own”.

Yet I find Sasuke shows his honest and heartful emotions before the people he loves. If he can show that to Itachi and Naruto, why not with Sakura?

I know those wankers try to say Sasuke repressed all his feelings until Chapter 698, so he has some romantic feelings for Sakura too. Bullshit!!!

Even though he repressed those feelings in his mind, his body always betrays him in the end and his feelings pours out from time to time. That is what this section explores about.

Man, this is the most painful GIF I have ever made.

In his battle with Itachi, he was completely consumed by the feeling of revenge and hatred for his brother. But when Itachi approached him in his final moments with an intention (seemingly) to snatch his eyes, he still couldn't push Itachi away though he could have. Sasuke just looked into his eyes and let him do whatever he was about to do.

Why?, Because he loved his brother so much once that he don't know what to do but simply embrace that moment. These are the moments your mind says to close your eyes or even run away (he totally could have) but his body will not allow him to.

This is what I meant by your body betrays yourself. Even in your darkest moments, you cannot fake. You always show your true emotions towards the person you love. The more you suppress, the more it will burst out.

Here Sasuke’s hatred is glaring through his eyes because Sakura is persuading him to not do something he wants to (as always). His only motivation is to kill that man. His resolve is a real deal.

But in a matter of minutes after giving that long hateful speech with some heavy determination, when he saw that hungry blonde boy who was tied up for trying to steal food, Sasuke just acted on his own and served him food even though he was told not to which could jeopardize his career.

This bipolar dance is something to notice throughout the series and is always interesting to explore. When Sakura tries to dissuade Sasuke from something, he always retorts to insults or an angry stare. But when Naruto accidentally stands in Sasuke’s way, he always involuntarily helps him out.

In short, towards Sakura he was like “Even you cannot take that path away from me” but when turning towards Naruto, he was like “Well, I can risk everything for you at the cost of my path”.

This seals the real deal for SNS ship.

At this point, for us viewers, Naruto is just an orphan who has no friends but always carries his life with a positive spirit hoping that someday he will be accepted by everyone.

Unbeknownst the fact that he already has one person who was willing to die for him and putting all his dreams into fire.

Important thing to notice, It’s entirely at Naruto’s fault for them being in this situation. If Naruto had used a bit of brain to attack from outside the mirror, they wouldn’t have been in this situation. But still Sasuke plunged into the trap without any regrets. That’s the beauty of this scene.

What’s more thrilling is that the creator told us Sasuke loved Naruto in the very next chapter itself.

How?

By making Haku jump before Zabuza knowing full well that he is going to die which is not very different from how Sasuke shielded Naruto.

And not only that, but by making Naruto say “He really loved you”. I got to say the creator may sucks at writing Sakura and Hinata for God only knows for whatever twisted reasons. But when it comes to male characters like Naruto, Sasuke, Itachi, Obito... he was just amazing and on another level.

How?

By indirectly drawing parallels between Sasuke and Haku in a matter of successive chapters.

By dropping indirect hints and crumbs like these to tell us, the audience, the motivations of the characters.

I always had the thought why did he risked his life for a boy who always fights with him? This became more emotional when we get to know the real reason for why Sasuke risked his life much later in chapter 698.

Having faced all the turbulent things in his life, somehow seeing Naruto doing all those childish stuffs made him feel relieved. That warmth was what he needed at that time. He wanted to escape from it but couldn’t. That’s why he embraced his warmth unknowingly in his Team 7 days by constantly reaching out to him starting from asking tips, concerned about having breakfast and training with him to climb the tree.

Sasuke even come to like Naruto more than himself and that’s why he was willing to die for him.

This feeling is definitely not a bromance or friendship. It’s an innocent enchantment you hope to last forever. Which again explains why he tolerated Naruto’s insults and hostility all those times. Because Sasuke knew those childish things were the ones he got attracted to him ever since his childhood. Rather than saying tolerated, I should use the term enjoyed. He really enjoyed those moments being bugged by Naruto for no reason.

Because just like Itachi said to Sasuke once, ‘If you are excellent you become alienated and arrogant even though you were sought after at the beginning’ . But Naruto pestering him means he is very curious about Sasuke which no one else tried. He was adored by those girls for his coolness and revered by those boys for his excellence but nobody really tried to befriend him. But Naruto tried to befriend him through Rivalry. That’s why Sasuke unconsciously started to like him. This also explains why he roasted Sakura for badmouthing him even though Naruto attacked him and tied him up earlier.

If Sasuke can show all these feelings even though he was trying to suppress it towards Naruto and Itachi, Why can’t he show a single normal feeling towards Sakura??? Because there isn’t one. Except for an old Team 7 camaraderie where he saw her as an acquaintance and nothing more.

Many NH shippers claims, but Hinata loved her ‘Naruto-Kun’. She jumped in front of Naruto to save him from Pain, when in reality she just acted selfishly and couldn’t pull out the Chakra rods. Meaning she failed whatever she was about to do.

Another interesting thing to cite for NH shippers, they claim for Naruto, Hinata is the most important person his life. Since when? With that shitty movie called ‘The Last’ with shitty retconned stuff? In all the 699 chapters he always claimed Iruka Sensei and Sasuke were the important people in his life. And you know what? For Hinata to like Naruto, he has to jump in to save her from the bullies. But for Sasuke he just saved Naruto without any validation. He saw Naruto and liked his presence and just did it.

When you could accept that failed attempt as a love, why not accept Sasuke loves Naruto when in fact he succeeded in saving him and that too unconditionally?

This is one of the tropes which should have been avoided if the creator wanted Sasuke and Naruto to be just friends.

One and Only

This is something very special that is offered to that one person in his life. That is Naruto. Even Itachi knew it. That is the Power to influence Sasuke’s heart. This is the fact even Sasuke himself knew it and that’s why he wanted to kill him.

Now don’t compare this with the manipulation shit which Orochimaru and Obito were doing. It’s not that. Many Sasuke fanatics always blame Naruto that he is also manipulating Sasuke just like everyone. That’s totally wrong.

Manipulation is something you do by talking about some twisted facts and make the other person to do what you want to.

Naruto never did that. Ever. Whenever Naruto and Sasuke meet, they always talk about themselves and how they feel. Not the world, not Team 7 or anything. Which is exactly why Sasuke himself willingly left that space in his heart for Naruto when he left him in the Valley of the End which he badly wanted to destroy. Sasuke, of all people, know Naruto is also very honest.

Sasuke lost all his rationality when he went into darkness by stabbing Karin who was helping him in his battle with Danzo. She even replenished his chakra many times. He not only just stabbed her, after when he found her still alive, he decided to finish her off with his Chidori.

And then the pink haired bitch appears before him and started to concoct lies with malicious intent to kill him. This provoked Sasuke more and more to reach this point.

Believe me, when you are lost in darkness, all you need is a small light which can show you a path. Someone who can extend helping hands to lift you up with honesty.

Sakura, being a crass woman, riled up Sasuke further with full of nonsense.

If you want to picture the darkness,

This is exactly how Sasuke feels. He is in so much pain and don’t know how to face it or deal with it. So he started to destroy everything he sees. For him Karin, Sakura, Kakashi are all just some pebbles in his way and want to trample them as he goes. His entire life has become farce after knowing his beloved brother’s real pain and miseries. Now he has no one left from his family.

Until Naruto appears.

He may not be his family, but he is the only person left for him in this world. Which is established in many Naruto endings and even Sasuke himself accepts this with Sage of Six Paths.

But my Cherry Blossom queen really loved Sasuke, she only wanted the good of him. My question is ‘Then why the fuck she tried to kill him? She looked at Sasuke and find that he changed. She didn’t even bothered to find out what’s going on from his side.’ Then how is this considered as wanting only good for him?

Surprisingly Sasuke calmed down a bit, the moment Naruto appears and even started to respond to him which he didn’t before with Kakashi and Sakura. Deep down Sasuke himself knew in his heart that the path he is going through is Self-destructive. Just like Kurama tells Naruto ‘Destroy everything you see’ in the Pain arc when he sprouted upto Eighth Tail, Sasuke’s traumatic mind tells him to ‘Destroy Konoha’.

All he needed was someone to extend an helping hand to tell him what to do without any malice. Naruto did that. Just like what Minato did for Naruto in Pain arc.

After clashing Rasengan with Chidori ,they meet inside the White bubble space and Naruto talks to Sasuke which evoked all his past memories which he never wanted to awaken.

That’s why Sasuke was visibly shaken with Naruto’s words. Because those were the words which mirrors exactly how Sasuke feels too. He was surprised and shocked that Naruto also felt the same way without him ever openly confessing those feelings.

When everyone tried to kill him for his monstrosity, Naruto is the only person standing there seeing him as his friend. Just like how Iruka saw Naruto way back in 1st chapter.

Believe me, even at the depth of darkness, when you see the person you love so much, you will stop and rationalize.

That is exactly why Itachi left Sasuke in Naruto’s hands. He even admitted to Sasuke that his words will not reach him no matter what.

Sasuke may not have abandoned his ambitions at that point. But Naruto gave him a clear path. That is ‘Show all your hatred on me’ and then do whatever you want.

I know SS shippers will claim that back hug from Sakura changed his murderous behaviour during the Chunin Exams. Yes. That’s true. But right after that, when Sasuke was fighting Yoroi in a one-on-one combat, his Cursed Seal flares up again. He retracted that seal out of his sheer will and thought about both Sakura and Naruto who was freaking out without even knowing about the seal. So, it’s not only a Sakura exclusive moment. The creator even went ahead and drawn a panel asking Sakura to not say anything about the Curse Mark to Naruto. Why do that?

As far as I understand, Sasuke saw Naruto and felt the warmth of his family. He singled that out in chapter 698. When Naruto was placed in the same team as him, he started to extend his good side to his other team members as well. But the moment he decided to leave the village, he severed the ties with Sakura (was there ever one apart from considering her as a teammate?) by saying Thank You. Meaning, you helped me many times so thanks for all of that. What’s more pitiful is, he didn’t even look at her face for the entire conversation except for saying ‘You are really annoying’. There is nowhere in the manga where Sasuke singled out Sakura for making him feel anything and did something for her exclusively. It’s all in the context of Team 7.

If Sakura is the most important person in Sasuke’s life, he should have stopped the rampage the moment he saw her but instead he got riled up more and more. Which explains where Sasuke kept her in his heart. Literally nowhere. He threw her into the trash. LOL.

If Hulk can calm down after seeing Betty Ross and you call that love, why not accept Sasuke loves Naruto??

Powerful Eyes

You know, Even in real life, Our eyes always reflects our true feelings, just like how your body betrays your mind , your eyes even betray your body.

Just like how Itachi could never fake his evil brother act in his final moments.

Just like how Sasuke couldn’t turn away from Itachi when he was approaching him to seemingly snatch his eyes.

Uchiha boys being a romantic bunch, always expose their awakening/ reawakening/ evolving their Sharingan in a most distressed situation. Just like Madara and Sasuke exposed their brimming eyes for Hashirama and Naruto. But in this department, Madara is wildly romantic as always. LOL. Despite losing 3 brothers, he awakened his Sharingan only when he was breaking up with his ‘friend’. And Sasuke, he reawakened / evolved Sharingan when trying to save / breaking up with his ‘friend’. Such a Biological defect!!!!

Poor Sakura pathetically fails in this department.

Anyways this part is not about Sharingan anyway. It’s about how such a powerful eyes becomes powerless before those Blue Eyes.

Eye Symbolism is something I really enjoy exploring in this ship.

Like I mentioned earlier, Sasuke has never shown his emotions atleast starting from Part II. He usually never shows any positive emotions like happiness, laughing, pouting, love, excitement (although he has shown all these towards Itachi and Naruto) and is known for negative emotions like anger, annoyance, hatred.

Look at how Sasuke is glaring with hatred for her insensitive words. She deserved this to be honest.

Now, is there any need to show your fury towards Kabuto?

Since the beginning of the Shippuden, some facts have been established strongly:

1. Sasuke has changed by leaps and bounds in terms of his attitude and hatred.

2. Sharingan is pretty dangerous. Many characters including kurama acknowledges it. Sasuke is very adept at using his Sharingan.

Orochimaru maybe right. But he doesn’t know the weakness. LOL

His hatred has reached to a point where he couldn’t think anything rationally and started to kill everyone, just like how Naruto kicked Sakura in his 4 Tailed Kyuubi Mode engulfed with the hatred of Kurama. Meaning, to reach his goal, Sasuke will kill anyone in his path without any hesitation. This shot is the representation of this.

And yet when he saw those particular Blue eyes, he stops his rampage immediately and visibly shocked even. That’s the look of ‘why is that blue eyes here?’

You have every right to accuse me that I am over exaggerating this scene. I am not. Even I wanted to think that way too that I am deluding myself. The creator has only consolidated my view pretty strongly.

There’s no need to emphasize on eyes at all. The anime team has went under so much pain to animate this scene in a satisfying and compelling way.

What’s more? The creator even went under further extent to draw a whole page in the manga focusing on their eye contact after the Rasengan vs Chidori clash. Meaning, Sasuke has calmed down visibly and became very easy to reason with.

Trust me, even in your darker / vulnerable moments, your eyes will reflect your true feelings to the person you love. You cannot be stubborn.

Now did it stop here?? Nope, it happened again in the Final Valley of the End battle too.

Sasuke is usually confident of his Sharingan (rightfully so) and likes to flaunt his eyes just like Madara. He was very sure that he was going to win.

While Sasuke had a clear resolve to kill Naruto when he was showing his back, but the moment he comes close with those Blue Eyes, his heart even pounded strongly (in the anime), and lost the resolve completely which made his Sharingan retract itself unconsciously. Meaning, his eyes betrayed him.

It’s funny that not even a minute ago he was very proud of his Visual Prowess as an Uchiha and his victory is inevitable but the moment he saw those Blue eyes, he just lost. You think I am again exaggerating?. Nope!!!

Oh Dear!!! This doesn’t get more romantic than this. An inescapable gaze from those blue eyes he loved all along.

Sasuke!! What happened to your proud Uchiha eyes?. You just stole Chakra from Naruto, isn’t it? Hints like these are really heartwarming, to be honest.

My entire point is, every character from every arc hypes up Sharingan starting from Zabuza, Haku, Rock Lee, Orochimaru, Kabuto, Kurama and many more, but why put a weakness for Naruto’s eyes?

What I really loved exploring is the way Sasuke totally expressed everything through his eyes in Episode 478.

Sasuke shows his vulnerability towards Naruto with just his eyes. These are not something you show to everyone. Even when Itachi departed finally after releasing Edo Tensei, Sasuke looked sad, shocked and pained but didn’t cry. He accepted the reality of it. The last time when we saw him crying, it was after knowing the truth of Itachi, facing towards the beach and was weeping unbearably because there was no one else for him in this world. But this time, he is next to the person whom he feels truly loved and he doesn’t mind showing it with his eyes.

Well, on multiple rewatches, the clues for their love was already dropped in the 1st Valley of the End fight itself. Sasuke already lost his resolve to kill by balling his chidori fist rather than ramming through his chest. So the feelings inside the bubble are their honest emotions like always.

The pain on the verge of their separation inside the white bubble is clearly evident from their eyes even in their monstrous form. Even in the manga it was mentioned that ‘I can’t turn my back Vs I am not letting you go’

But what they really wanted to be from their childhood was this.

Look at Sasuke, how entranced he was on looking at that innocent boy. Now put yourself at Sasuke’s mind. Will you ever look at your friend like that??? Now, they are probably just 7 here, am not romanticizing. But Sasuke looks enthralled innocently.

But somehow, their paths separated them for who knows how long. But the pain in both their eyes is unbearable. Even the databook, mentioned that separating from Naruto is like ripping half of his body. Well, this proves it.

Now, if they really wanted to portray this as friendship, they never should have given Eye symbolism at all. They should have gone with ‘I was always jealous of you’ thing, like they portrayed in that filler episode 450.I would’ve gladly accepted it as friendship. Because that’s how friends behave when they are jealous and I wasn’t feeling any romance at all. There’s no need of that lengthy monologue on how he was always looking at Naruto and felt pain.

I am telling you, I won’t be looking at my friend like this.

Unconscious closeness

Remember, I’ve written in the beginning of the post that Sasuke enjoys the warmth from Naruto. Meaning, he likes that person’s presence unconsciously and want to be near him. Sasuke proved this many times.

This is the most intense and confusing section I have to dissect for this post. But it’s the most entertaining nonetheless, atleast for me.

Starting from the Land of the Waves arc, here Sasuke is speed walking to match up with Naruto.

Initially I thought, he is trying to be competitive. But instead of walking ahead of Naruto to show who is faster, he just walks beside him. I find this really hilarious and adorable. This just shows Sasuke likes Naruto’s presence so much so that he wants to walk beside him.

Now many SS shippers tries to make this scene for themselves, when it is clearly not.

If you notice Sasuke in the Bell Training, he compares his strength difference with Kakashi and determines to get stronger. Same with Might Guy, he compares Might Guy’s speed with his own Sensei. Meaning, he respects people with strength. Naturally, he should’ve asked her and Sakura would have given him tips wholeheartedly. Because she really succeeded in that training.

Why bother to ask a deadlast?

The only reason I could find is that he wants to befriend him in his own stubborn way. But Poor Soul!!! He didn’t get the tips anyway. LOL. But despite getting the short end of the stick, he never hold it against him. Just like he never held anything against Naruto when he tied him up in Episode 3. All he did was just flaunt how he escaped.

Pretty cool for a 12 year old kid. Because If I were Sasuke, I would hold it for sure.

Once again Sasuke proves how he can care Naruto in his own adorable way.

He could’ve said ‘I am going to train too” if he really intended to train. There is no need to say ‘Going for a Walk’ and ask Naruto about breakfast. This explains that Sasuke simply missed the boy’s prolonged absence and reached out to him in his own cute way.

Now all these doesn’t mean he was in love with him. It’s just a childish attraction which makes him act like that involuntarily.

I just added this GIF to compare with the next scene.

Now Shikamaru falling on Naruto in an unconventional way doesn’t look anywhere romantic. Instead it’s the opposite. They are pretty friendly here.

But Sasuke’s approach to Naruto does looks undeniably sensual and I couldn’t deny the sexual tension that brings with it. (Even when I watched it for the first time having no idea of shipping anyone, I lowkey got creeped and thought, ‘Sasuke!! What have you become? ’)

This scene is something even I can’t dissect. Because honestly I don’t know. Sasuke is a person who never appreciates physical touches nor does he initiates either.

I get this crazy femme fatale vibe when seeing Sasuke with his sexy costume landing at a speed of lightning with his hands wrapped around Naruto and taunting near his ear about what was he doing there? The only reason I could think of is that maybe he missed him for 3 years which made him go unconsciously so close near Naruto. It’s also funny that he could’ve shoved his sword into Naruto’s heart before landing and no one could’ve batted an eyelid.

Damn you, Kishimoto!!! Is this scene absolutely necessary??? What are you trying to convey? Why do you give Sasuke, a sexualized aura?? I understand you love this character so much and you want this character to be desirable among women. Yeah, you succeeded by making Karin behave like a woman in heat, the moment they met. But instead of letting her get close to him, you made Sasuke to say ‘You... Don’t get so close’ whereas with Naruto, you made Sasuke to go willingly touch him in a half hugging stance. Geez!!!

Here comes the most interesting part in this section.

It may seem irrelevant at the beginning but trust me, it will make sense later.

Before that, I would like to appreciate the creator and especially the anime team to bring the battle sequence so lively and different in its own way. If you notice the purpose of every battle that happened in Naruto series, each carries it own meaning and deliberately distinguished. How you ask?

The fight between Deidara vs Sasuke.

Logically Deidara should be dead in the Gaara retrieval arc itself. There is no point for him to chase Sasuke who killed Orochimaru to whom Deidara had nothing to do with. It didn’t impact the story in any way. But the purpose of that battle is to show how far Sasuke has grown up in those 3 years. The way he can use his Sharingan to analyze his enemies abilities and weakness so quickly and take multiple steps ahead, the way he can use Genjutsu and other incredible jutsus in his arsenal were a visual treat.

Now, let’s analyze Sasuke’s arsenal of Jutsus. He can do Teleportation Jutsu, a decent Genjutsu, Chidori Senbon (needles), Raikiri (Chidori sword which ranges to 5 metres), Chidori Nagash (Chidori from his whole body), Transformation Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu Shuriken Jutsu with wire works, Kirin, Gokakyu No jutsu, Sword fighting, basic Hand-to-Hand fighting (I’ve never seen him do it ever since the Chunin Exams with Orochimaru), Archery fighting, Susanoo, Amaterasu and all the Rinnegan abilities.

Based on the jutsus he learned so far and how he applies in every battle, it all confirms two things:

Sasuke is a Medium-Long Range Shinobi

Sasuke’s battles are usually based on his Cleverness

Let’s go for Naruto. He can do Teleportation Jutsu, Sexy Jutsu, Harem no jutsu, Rasengan, Rasen Shuriken, Oodama Rasengan, Biju Dama, Tailed Beast Mode, Kage Bunshin No jutsu, Sage mode jutsu, Frog Kumite, Better Hand-to-Hand combat skills (better than Sasuke), Transformation Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu and all his Six path abilities.

Compared to Sasuke, Naruto’s jutsu variety is very less. But for every 4 punches from Sasuke equals 1 powerful punch from Naruto. Analyzing all of them,

Naruto is a Close-Range Shinobi except for his Rasen Shuriken

Naruto’s battles are usually based on his Jutsu Timing and Unpredictability

Now, Let’s rewind back to 3 years and look at the 1st Valley of the End battle. That battle was cleverly choreographed which carried very intense emotional baggage. Things we never knew about those boys until then were openly admitted and acknowledged. That is, for Sasuke, Naruto became his closest friend. For Naruto, he always wanted to be Sasuke’s friend way back when he was 6 or 7. For both, they already have some unexplainable bond by just looking at each other and smiling secretly.

The theme of that battle started as Am going on my own path vs I can’t allow you to tread on that dangerous path and ended up with I want to break our bond vs I don’t want to.

Now, this posture represents, Naruto is the one who pursues Sasuke to stop him from whatever he was about to do. Meaning, Naruto is the one who is constantly reaching out and Sasuke as usual kicks him out violently, that is he is pushing him away. That’s the essence of the whole battle.

Considering all the battles in the Naruto universe, I categorize them as follows:

Best Calculated (and emotional) battle - Itachi vs Sasuke

Best Hand-to-Hand combat - Kakashi vs Obito (what a fight it was!!!)

Best Mega Powered Up battle - Hashirama vs Madara

Best Emotional battle - Naruto vs Sasuke (1st valley of the end)

Best Unpredictable/Entertaining battle - Naruto vs Pain

Despite having all the potential to fulfill the above categories, The Final Valley of the End Battle never bested in any of them.

As analyzed before, the boys have grown up to greater heights. I expected a battle between Cleverness of Sasuke Vs Unpredictability of Naruto

But what I observed was something so intense. That is Unintentional closeness.

This battle symbolizes one thing: I am going to kill you to get lonely vs I won’t let you kill me because you will be alone.

Being a long range fighter, I expected Sasuke to go for this.

If you have to kill someone you love, it is best to keep your distance. Sasuke knows this full well when he battled with Itachi. Except for some Sword fighting, he maintained a certain distance to fight Itachi throughout, until the very end.

But when fighting Naruto, all I got was this.

That’s when I finally understood that this posture means, the fight is very personal. Which means, Sasuke or Naruto won’t be fighting by sitting on top of each other with their enemies or anyone else. That’s just between them alone.

There was no analysis or cleverness from Sasuke’s side or any Unpredictability from Naruto. It was very bland and Sasuke looked clueless throughout the fight.

It started with some boxing style combat, including stealing hand seals and then some power punches. Very quickly it propels to Susanoo vs Tailed Beast mode. I expected some Hashirama vs Madara level power battle.

But all we saw there was this.

I mean, Come on!!! Man. Even the most Crazy and openly Romantic Uchiha, Madara himself never fought like this in Susanoo with Hashirama (Though Madara must be thinking ‘Damn Hashirama! I should’ve tried this with you’. LOL). Those mega battles carried variety of tactics.

Another thing I noticed was, Sasuke is the one who does lots of talking and constantly pursuing Naruto. Whereas Naruto is uncharacteristically quiet for the most part.

And finally it leads to this.

Sasuke was unconsciously getting closer and closer to Naruto which is the opposite of what he wants to do. Because of that very closeness, he couldn’t look at his eyes with his Sharingan and eventually got an uppercut. It’s like Sasuke was screaming, ‘Hate me’ and Naruto was like ‘Keep talking’.

Every jutsu he had for attacking from a long-range were forgotten. He didn’t even try to put Naruto under Genjutsu. I mean with his Rinnegan, he was capable of putting all the 9 Tailed Beasts into a powerful Genjutsu. Why didn’t he try that with Naruto? There was no Chidori Stream or Lightning Blade.

I can imagine Naruto doing close range fights with someone or even sitting on top of the enemy. Example, part I, Naruto head bumped Gaara. He was literally fighting with his Shadow Clones against a Monster so he had to get closer. Naruto monstrously punching Deidara not knowing the fact that it was a clay clone.

But Sasuke??? Can you imagine Sasuke sitting on top of the enemy and punching to pulp??? No way. Not a chance.!!!

In one way or other way, Sasuke was always in the close proximity with Naruto throughout the battle and touching each other which is totally uncharacteristic of him when compared to his other battles.

Every battle he ever fought was always at a distance which is the clear representation of his own character. He is calculative, analytical, precise and moves fluidly with a flair like a true Ninja unlike Naruto who is always reckless, noisy, powerful and clumsy.

Sasuke is someone who never lets his emotions get ahead in the battle, unlike Naruto. This is evident from the War when he was yelling at Naruto to stop worrying about Hokage as they were Edo Tensei who can regenerate. Even when fighting with Itachi, he calculated every move and attacked Itachi without any emotions except at the very end. Sasuke in this final battle forgot who he was and telling us viewers “Am just gonna get closer to Naruto and punch him hard”.

In short, Sasuke completely forgot all his battle tactics he had with Itachi and let his emotions get ahead of his cleverness and got himself closer to Naruto which eventually ended up weakening his resolve to kill him. This is what I meant by Unintentional Closeness.

Anyways, what I understood was, the creator didn’t put all this by without any meaning. It’s all very deliberate and drawn carefully.

Moving onto the final and the most defining moments of SNS.

When I watched this scene for the first time, I can’t comprehend the exact meaning. And I forgot about this later because of my excitement to know what happens next. But what I understood on my rewatch is that, the feelings exchanged here is very pure and innocent but distressing.

Sasuke already lost his resolve to kill by not ramming Naruto with Chidori instead balled up his fist. So he is not contemplating whether or not to kill Naruto.

Sasuke made every effort to leave Naruto and succeeded in it too. But somehow, accidentally, when faced with a person whom he considers so precious in such a close proximity, despite have a stinging pain in his arm, he is feeling the warmth he once felt. He just wants that warmth to prolong for some more time and he can’t able to evade it. So he totally gave in to that desire and feeling it unconsciously. Sasuke always watched Naruto (unbeknownst to him) and felt warmth, relief and weakness. This scene is the symbolic and innocent representation of all those feelings when he saw Naruto and he is exeriencing it for the final time.

Does this means, does Sasuke wants to kiss him? No.

But every symbolism of that being happening is there. It’s just all open to interpretations. The creator could show us how Sasuke fell on his knees and staring at Naruto intently but never intended to show when he got up and left. I don’t understand this twisted mind of the creator.

Added to that, Sasuke was about to say ‘Naruto, I....’ God only knows what he was about to say. But every possibility of Sasuke confessing and kissing is there.

I know the creator cannot approach this directly considering the situations he worked under. But is there any necessity for such an intense scene? Even the anime creators loved this scene and made their own version of making Naruto’s eyes wide open and even more closer.

I wont be watching my friend or sister like that.

That explains all the way back to this fated accidental scene.

There is nothing special about this scene. It’s all very clear that the kiss was accidental. It was really funny. But my point is why Sasuke never beat him to pulp or even push Naruto away like he did with Sakura and Karin? Why did he stood up for Naruto before Sakura? Why did he let go off Naruto even though he tied him up? Too many leeway for a single person in a single episode. And the most important part is, Sasuke thought it was intentional and remembers the taste. LOL.

Does this means he enjoyed the kiss? Not at all.

Most probably he was shocked to see Naruto in such a close proximity after seeing him from a distance for all those years. And he enjoys this as just another prank from Naruto in his own innocent way. But he won’t mind getting another one from Naruto either.

So, to conclude

I believe I made this post from an objective standpoint without making crazy theories and I don’t have to..... since canonical resources were plenty. Obviously my own bias will also be there which is unavoidable. But I tried to question the creative choices of why this scene even exist in the first place many times. Because those are the scenes which made the most impact inside me.

My first watch of Naruto gave me the benefit of doubt that ‘Are they in love? Nah... They are friends. Maybe I am just overthinking... but why does it feel different??’ and that too only after finishing episode 478. After rewatching it again and again, it only consolidated my view.

For Sasuke, his worldly ties are pretty thin and runny. He was always a loner from the beginning even when he had his family. He never bothered to make any friends nor did anyone tried to befriend him. He was pretty close to his family especially Itachi. When he lost everything, somehow he got attracted innocently to Naruto and started to like him. But beyond Naruto he never bothered to add anyone in his heart. He considered Kakashi and Sakura were like his acquaintances who helped him a lot and that’s all.

Then after using Orochimaru, he gathered some high skilled shinobi for killing Itachi. But he made it clear that there don’t need to be any understanding but just co-operation would be enough. But along his way, he just abandoned Jugo, Suigetsu somewhere. He openly said to Karin that she is nothing but a burden to him. When his hatred reached upto a maximum boiling point, he didn’t even hesitate to kill Karin, Kakashi or Sakura. But the moment Naruto appears he calmed down. The proof? He was shocked to see Naruto at first. Then Naruto calls, ‘Sasuke!!!’, to which Sasuke responds with, ‘What?’. Despite becoming a maniac, he could find it in his heart to listen to Naruto.

It took an Edo Tenseified Itachi to bring him some rationality to question his beliefs about destroying Konoha. When Jugo and Suigetsu appear again, he casually asked them, ‘What do you want with me at this point?’, I mean, Come On, Man. LOL. Even during the war arc, when things were about to blast off he only cared about Jugo (who helped him many times, so understandable) and Naruto (Geez!!! LOL).

Even after their final battle, the anime went so far as to create a scene where they were alone in a bright Konoha. But Sasuke looked very peaceful and listening to Naruto intently. When Naruto freaks out about Infinite Tsukuyomi, he casually laughs off and says ‘you still care about the world’. Meaning, he is happy there spending time alone with the person he loves. Doesn’t give a rat’s ass about missing anyone else. (How romantic!!!). Honestly, Sasuke wouldn’t mind if they were to stay that way forever. He would gladly listen to Naruto all day. But when Naruto disappears he freaks out and starting to make up his mind about joining his brother.

It’s very clear that the people he adores are Itachi and Naruto. Towards Itachi, it’s super understandable, because he is his own brother. But Naruto??? Why should the creator go so far as to make Sasuke adores Naruto even after breaking up with him?

And why make Sasuke possessive about Naruto’s life? When Obito was about to kill Naruto with that Black Orbs, Sasuke blocked him and said ‘You are not the One to sever the past, I am’. I understand the logic behind Sasuke’s possessiveness on Itachi’s life because he destroyed his family, childhood and even Itachi wants Sasuke to be the one to kill him. But why possessive on Naruto? He is not related to him by blood. Naruto never did anything wrong to Sasuke to warrant any hate either. You will become possessive on something only when you truly hate it or wholeheartedly love it. There is no middle ground. My point is why put Naruto here at all in the first place?? Believe me, If Sasuke never paid attention to Naruto in the War arc, I would be the first person to jump out of this ship.

Just to give you a basic example, Imagine you are living in a place far away from your family, friends and that loveable person. When Corona hits everywhere and forced Lockdown to travel outside the city, and the situation is getting worse day by day. Whom would you desperately reach out first? You would reach the person whom you are connected well in your family and that loved one. You will prioritize your friends only later. This is the Universal truth. Sasuke was seen showing that same instinct in the War arc towards Naruto whom he was not related by blood. And you all just want me to believe Sasuke sees him as just a friend?? Give me a break!!!

If all those traits I’ve mentioned above have been avoided to a greater extent, I would be happy to believe that they are friends. If not all, at the very least delegate some of the tropes to other people or share some of the tropes with other people along with Naruto. But dumping it all on Naruto alone makes me only curious and incredibly romantic too.

It’s no wonder, Naruto would go so far as to reach out Sasuke even at the expense of his life.

Oh, Did I forget about the cutest and most exclusive trope to SNS?

U-SU-RA-TON-KA-CHI, the most personal word which carries its own meaning and is only for Naruto. So funny that Sasuke has to spend a certain amount of energy to call Naruto using a 6 syllabic word rather than NA-RU-TO, a 3 syllabic word which is much easier.

Disclaimer: This post constituted everything from from Chapter 1 to 699 or Episode 1 to 135 (part 1) + Episode 1 to 479 (Shippuden) excluding fillers. Though Sasuke shinden novel was made into anime, I don’t want to consider that here. As much as I loved the prologue in that novel, I still don’t want to cite that here, as I consider everything after 699 is $$$$ making bullshit.

FUN FACT:

If you put yourself in any character in the Naruto Universe except for Naruto, and ask them, ‘What do you think about Sasuke?’. You know the answer from Sakura, she will say ‘Sasuke-Kun looks very cool and acts aloof, that’s why I love him’. Kakashi will say ‘My favorite student’. And all the other people will say somewhat similar, ‘He is an excellent Shinobi who belongs to the proud Uchiha clan and Naruto’s rival’

But Naruto will be the only person to say this.

“Lot of fun to be around” ....... LOLLLLL.

Me: No, Naruto!!! Clearly not. No one in your universe can have fun with him except you. Go and Ask Sai, Team Taka or your own Team 7. They adore him for being Cool and Talented. But Fun is not the word that equates with Sasuke unless there is no You, Naruto.

Thanks for reading :-D

#sasunaru #narusasu #sasunarusasu #sns #naruto #sasuke #naruto uzumaki #sasuke uchiha #anti sakura #itachi #anti sasusaku #anti naruhina #naruto analysis #naruto and sasuke arent brothers as they never shared a womb #if you see your friend with all these traits then you are no longer just friend

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bogkeep · 2 years

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i wanted to write another blog post about my relationship to Stories again, and this time i'm revisiting the topic of Shipping. it's not the first time i have written about my relationship to it, and it PROBABLY won't be the last, but maybe i say something i haven't said before, hey? and don't worry, this isn't about The Discourse. or not that discourse, anyway. this is more about how i went from a bitter aroace "I HATE SHIPPING" kid to creating elaborate relationship dodecahedrons with my own characters for fun and personal fulfillment. this one was actually pretty hard to write and also pretty personal, so i'm readmore'ing it!

i've changed, the internet's changed, of course my feelings about it have changed over the years. i had a lot of stuff to work out and i still probably have! sometimes it feels like i'm just shoveling shame from one side to the other. why do i have so much shame i'm not even catholic!!!! so back when baby haiz found out he's aroace, it was still very niche. i think awareness about asexuality was juuust starting to pick up on tumblr, aromanticism was still thought of as a subgroup of asexuality rather than an identity in its own right, and the worst discourse going around was people denying its existence and making amoeba jokes. simpler times. i was a fresh fledgling aroace who didn't know i was autistic yet, i was a teen, i found anything sexual DEEPLY uncomfortable and was wrestling with that in a heavily sexualized society and also high school where everyone is making dumb sex jokes and trying to trip you over with stupid innuendos, and i was STARVING for any kind of acknowledgement that i'm Valid. i was so very very lonely about it! i'm still mutuals with the first irl ace person i met, and i think i went several years between picking up that identity and sharing a ticket booth at the convention we volunteered at. shipping culture at that time had a completely different vibe, too. the attitude was like, if you're not shipping anything, why are you even bothering with media? how do you have FUN? (i didn't like drinking or partying either, so i was already pretty familiar with that attitude). people would deliberately put on their shipping goggles and my feed would be full of analysis about THESE TWO CHARACTERS ARE SUPER DEFINITELY IN LOVE LOOK AT THIS 0,2 SECONDS WHERE THEIR EYES MEET. OH MY GOSH THEY HUGGED!! of course that rubbed me the wrong way - i had spent years trying to explain to my classmates that nO, my best friend and i AREN'T A COUPLE, STOP READING INTO IT!!!! and then i would log on and everyone would keep reading romantic intent into every single character interaction. it drove me up a wall. i was already so anxious about saying something that could be taken as innuendo in some way, and then i ALSO had to worry about how anything could be read as romantic? exhausting. and yes, NOW i know that's not the worst thing that can happen. people will assume wrongly all the time and sometimes there's nothing to do but accept that i can't control how other people percieve me. suffice it to say i used to be really really uptight about the whole shipping deal, haha. even worse when i latched on to pretty much any vaguely ace-coded character (yes yes i joined tumblr because of bbc sherlock leave me alone) and had to make peace with the fact that thousands of other people were extremely insistent that these characters were actually super gay and super sexual. which is silly in retrospect - those characters were never confirmed to be canonically ace or gay (or both!), so there would be all that fighting about what headcanon is the best representation. that's not how headcanons work!!!! it sucked when you just, really crave a depiction of a close friendship that never turns romantic - and no, not just the queerbaity bromance ones, at the time i would've killed for a girl/boy friendship that got to stay that way. it really pains me to admit to just how much i relate to all the "why can't they just stay friends" guys. i don't have that attitude anymore, but it was never because i didn't want canon queer relationships on tv, it was never because i thought there was already lots of gay representation, i knew there wasn't. but it was so lonely and disheartening that every single time i could relate to anyone on a screen, every other watcher would go "oh yeah those guys are totally fucking". i know!! we were fighting over the same breadcrumbs!!! we all wanted different things from the same show and NONE of us got what we wanted! it was such a stupid thing to clash over!!! it was so hard to explain the othering and the loneliness and the absolute dismissal i felt as an aroace person in a world that put romance on a

pedestal above everything else - even before the acecourse took a turn for the worse. i don't really want to go into details about it, as it was frankly traumatizing to me. but there was something about the way people would act as if real people's actual identities were good or bad representaiton in some way, as if we were all characters in a tv show - and being ace was bad representation. somehow. it was cringy and reflected badly upon the rest of the "community". i hate hate hate how ashamed i became of my own identity and myself. i hate how much i would just accept my own friends trashing a core part of my identity right in front of me, and felt too wounded and vulnerable to take a proper stance. i can't say i handled everything perfectly or even gracefully - that i've never had stances or said things i now regret - but i was a teen still trying to figure out how to be myself. i suppose the same goes for everyone i knew at the time. i think something about being 19 sets you on fire and you're just burning a lot of anger out before you lay back in a bed of ashes. or maybe that's just me. i don't think i've ever stopped being aroace. there is no point in my life where i woke up and thought, i'm a different person now. yes, i'm different than who i used to be, but what's turned the wheels inside me is the experienced i've had that i didn't have before. even stubbornly aromantic and asexual i still craved companionship, or at least, to try it, figure out what the big deal is. i'm still very happy i got to try it out with my first girlfriend (and now my close friend). it was a lovely time, and i don't think either of us did any of it 'wrong' - but i really did pressure myself into being someone i'm not capable of being. i got crushed under the weight i piled on top of myself. even with all the acceptance i was given for my identity, even with all the ground rules figured out on day one, i was still so ashamed of not feeling things the 'right way'. and with the horrible acecourse dangling the carrot in front of me, that i was only allowed to Belong as long as i was a REAL gay, it wasn't helping, you know? (sidenote that isn't really relevant to the topic, but one thing i DO regret is how public i was about my relationship. i mean it's no wonder, it was very exciting and it was fun, but it very quickly became less fun when people would comment things like "omg u two are relationship goals" or "i'm going to live vicariously through you". it's already so incredibly hard to break up with someone you do actually love and care about, and even harder when other people take it as some kind of personal offense or make all kinds of wild assumptions about it. sometimes things just aren't working as they are! it's nobody's business but ours either way!) i'm still in relationships. i've had brushes with crushes. i don't really care to put a word on what my exact identity is anymore, it just is what it is. i'm definitely somewhere on the aromantic spectrum. i'm non-monogamous. i'm definitely asexual - i've had to reclaim my own identity from the claws of shame and discourse, all the while i've reclaimed my own personal sexuality from years of being turned into 'sweet innocent cinnamon roll, too pure for this earth' by my peers in the past. do you know how humiliating it is to be in your mid-twenties and still struggle with this stuff?? so often i have to remind myself i'm an adult, it's NORMAL and OKAY. and like, it's nobody's fault that i'm Like This. i'm not gonna blame high schoolers for my weird brain prison. for all my bitterness, i don't hold anything against people in my past. we were all messy. that's just what being a teen was like. what i have really really done is this. for one, i accepted that the way i'm going to do relationships is never going to be the "normal" way, and there's no point in trying to, or forcing myself through motions that goes against my grain. for second, in doing so i've just... dismantled and deconstructed what a 'relationship' is. you take all the pieces apart, keep the ones that make sense to

you, and reassemble it to a new structure. it might not even be that different from what you started with! maybe you just delete all the bloatware. here's the big thing. at the very core of it, all interpersonal relationships are the same. it's a Connection To Another Person. so many mechanics are the same. circumstances differ - family member, coworker, friend, acquaintance, romantic partner, sexual partner - of course these aren't the same, but also, no familial relationships are the same, all of your friends will mean different things to you.. i don't know, we all exist in this huge world and there's so many people, and we create so many bonds. there is so much overlap. maybe a marriage doesn't depend entirely on whatever tingly feeling you get from being in love. a sexual partner can be a stranger or a friend, not just your One True Love. where does the line between really really loving your best friend and being in love with your best friend go? for all the attention the concept of a 'romantic partner' is given in our society, i think it's a thinner slice on the pie chart than what 'friend' might be. do you know how MANY different kinds of friendship that one category has to make room for? i don't know, either. and i think there's a huge slice that exists between 'friend' and 'romantic/sexual partner' that just... there is no language for it (or when people do try to find language for it, there is so much backlash), most of the time, or gets placed in a category that's easy to explain to others. it's like... the expected structure buckles under all the variety of love and connection we actually experience in our life. am i making any sense? i think my main problem with Shipping was this - the flattening. for the longest time, it seemed to me as if you Shipped two characters, you had to put them in the same mold as every other Couple. it didn't matter what their dynamic was in canon, if you shipped them you'd just slap them onto the pre-made relationship dynamic you already had lying around. i KNOW that's not universal. nor do i have anything against the vocabulary of shipping - it's very useful and it's important fandom culture. but as that culture has evolved, i do think there's this kind of dissonance, where Shipping A Thing might mean A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS FOR A LOT OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE. everything from "to me these two are soulmates and they love and respect eachother so much across every timeline" to "yeah they tried to kill eachother several times and they're both awful wrecks but it's hot" to "these two are extremely divorced" to "person A pines for person B endlessly and they never end up together" and a million other dynamics and outcomes. between you and me, i think a lot of shipping wank happens because the term 'shipping', like a lot of other terms, can have such broad meaning. hard to be on the same page when you're reading different books! there are SO MANY STORIES TO TELL!!!! and i LIKE stories. interpersonal relationships are incredibly fun to explore. and yes, i have over the years finally managed to make peace with Ships - it was difficult because i never wanted to be a hypocrite (sometimes you are a hypocrite!! it happens when you change your opinion about something! it's fine!), but i finally accepted that i Did in fact ship some things. it was also a lot easier when it didn't feel so mandatory, when i could ship things out of my own volition rather than "how else are you having fun". when i can delight in a specific dynamic rather than Standard Relationship. but for me it's also like, the Story. now that i'm focusing so much on my own characters i am having a Fantastic Time exploring rejections and pining and weird friendships and awkward family. i don't care if it's Good or Bad representation, because that was never the point. people experience things, people change, people grow close and grow apart, the boundaries one draws, the reclaiming of the self, the holding of a hand, the holding of a heart. you know? i used to groan at the Mandatory Romantic Relationship in every story, but

now it's like, yeah okay, sell me on it. give me something interesting. tell me how it happens. because i think a lot of these feelings, a lot of these experiences, they aren't exclusive to any one identity, or any one type of relationship. if you ship for the sake of shipping because that's how you have fun, by all means! have fun. here's a fibre cloth for your glasses. my way of reading things isn't Better or More Sophisticated. it's just how i prefer to read my stories and watch my shows. i'm having a much better time now that i've grown up a fair bit, relaxed a whole lot. i don't even entirely know what "my way" is. i just deconstructed a whole lot of words and concepts and im poking at the debris. as you do.

#this is a personal post please don't reblog #too long for twitter #ive been wanting to write this for a while but i havent entirely known HOW #i dont think i managed to collect Every Single Thought but it's getting late and i have work in the morning #good night folks #(sorry about the weird paragraph splits??? i cannot get rid of them :( thanks tumblr)

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