#12 year old me didnt think so (switched to it for the final chapter of conquest) but 12 year old me had no idea what she was doing

[devotedlystrangewizard]

started sacred stones. watched franz dodge otherwise lethal attacks for 3 chapters straight. closed sacred stones

[raveneira]

Friendly reminder these are feats Sarada was pulling at 11-12, this isnt something new or groundbreaking & definitely doesnt scale her to Otsutsuki. If that were the case then that'd make her stronger than B0ruto who had to flee from them 😑 which your crazy if you think she is

A Chidori is not hard to dodge if you have the sharingan and reflexes to match it which Sarada does, why I bring this up is because yall were the same ppl who attacked me and anyone else who said she was more than capable of fending for herself against Kawaki both here & here

Yall said he was too fast, that she would've died, and my favorite 'what did you expect her to do?'

I dunno, THIS?

Dont even try to argue that base Kawaki without karma, and V1 karma Kawaki was stronger and faster than a 10 tails Rinnegan amped Sasuke.

Also just wanna point out yet another glaring power scaling flaw, which is why the hell is her chidori weaker than it was when she was 12? she grabbed a whole chunk outta Boro but 3 years later she just gives bee stings? Hidari should be missing part of his abdomen.

For the record heres the damage Chidori typically does if you think Im just nitpicking no, this is a literal power scaling flaw.

Dont get me wrong Im glad shes doing something, but she was always capable of doing this all along so its not really impressive but more of why'd it take yall so long to show her actually use her arsenal & fend for herself like she always could? where was this in 58? 78? 81? 82?

It took 4 years, 4 YEARS for her to do what shes always been able to do again, shes done this since Gaiden, Sasuke has done the same at 12, yet for 4 years all she did after Boro was stand there or cry and yall response was 'what could she do?' stfu.

THIS is what she could do, if a 12 year old Sasuke could dodge a semi Kurama amped Naruto then Sarada can handle a base karmaless Kawaki and a V1 Karma Kawaki.

And before anyone mentions, the only reason Sasuke stopped being able to dodge is because Kurama had a mind of his own, he could predict Narutos movements and dodge accordingly but he couldn't predict Kuramas.

Now yall wanna gas when yall didnt even believe she could do THIS much, the bare damn minimum, DODGE, yall didnt even think she could do that but now all of a sudden when she does its this incredible feat? but I thought we were the haters for sayin she was always able to do this?

Isnt it ironic that the ones who were called haters are the ones who were saying Sarada was better than that, and the ones who were called 'real fans' were the ones saying she was too weak and slow to even dodge with her 3T sharingan? funny how that works.

See how fast ppl switch up and forget their own narratives they put out there. Be honest, you knew she was always capable of this, you just made excuses either because of a ship or because it made your goat look good.

I already know Im still gonna get branded a hater for literally saying she's always been this strong and capable of fending for herself, but Im not gonna pretend this is some impressive feat when it isn't, 3 years ago yea, but 3 years later? this SHOULD be light work for her now.

If next chapter we see some MS abilities then we can talk about impressive feats, but this? thats how I know yall didn't think much of her and still don't if you think this is a big moment just dodging an attack and doing a low damage chidori 🤦‍♀️

This is what yall clowned Naruto for when he came back in the timeskip still using his same arsenal he left with, so lets not pretend this is any different for Sarada, everything shes done in TBV so far she was doing in part 1, there's no difference YET but hopefully in 11 we'll finally see her growth, OR a dodge and chidori is all she gets and will immediately need saving now.

As long as Boruto stays outta the way then the odds are higher for her to actually hold her own, but if Boruto is coming back to the scene its game over for her so here's hoping his ass has to take a back seat the entire invasion so everyone else can actually do they thing without him draggin them down.

For context, what I mean by that is whenever Boruto is involved everybody else gets dragged down to make him look good by comparison, for example in 58, 78, 81, and 82 Sarada for some reason completely forgot how to move, dodge, react, or activate her own sharingan, but as soon as Boruto has to stay away hiding, suddenly she remembers she has the sharingan, reflexes to dodge, and defend herself. I used Sarada as the example but this is a problem with the entire cast not just her, but since this post is about her thats why I used her for reference, but everybody immediately got better as soon as Boruto was written out of the way.

I said it before and I'll say it again, HES the problem, not from any fault of his own, but because the writers cant seem to make him shine and stand out on his own without draggin everybody else down so he looks cool and badass by comparison, rather than him just standing out on his own merits.

Think about it, name one 'cool' or 'badass' moment he's had in the timeskip that hasn't been handed to him at someone else's expense

His win against Mitsuki came with Mitsuki was already wavering and feeling doubt and willing to die

His win against Code came after he just rescued Sarada who just stood there

His win against Kawaki came after he had spent the last 8 chapters being easily knocked out and knocked down

The entire invasion everybody was getting sneaked, caught off guard, barely holding their own, and needed saving, while Boruto was just casually beating Code and his grimes with zero effort.

Now? with Boruto removed? Inoshikacho holding their own against Jura and Hidari, the strongest two clones

Shikadai done restrained Jura and pulled his branches apart to free Himawari

Inojin saved Himawari and bought them time to get away from the village

Chocho pushed Jura out of the way to make his bijuu bomb miss and expanded herself when Inojins bird was hit to cushion everybodies fall.

Himawari awakens Kuramas power

Sarada remembers shes an Uchiha with the sharingan who can dodge and react accordingly

Kawaki got his brain back and prioritized Himawari's safety over hunting down Boruto.

The difference between when Boruto was involved and when he wasn't is night and day. Again its no fault of his own, but it seems like the writers cannot make Boruto shine without dragging everyone else down, and the only way everyone else will shine is if Boruto is FORCED outta the way.

[faerielleart]

GIRL GGFJFJVGDJD OK UMMM let me see... what do you like about levihan? or do you have any unpopular opinions? or headcanons!

oh boi i hope i won’t rant too much, i don’t want this answer to be a thousand miles long i don’t want to seem boring-

OKAY let’s start

What i like about levihan: i have to start with a lil background a say that levihan is my longest ship i’ve ever had, it’s the only one who survived time and the only ship i have never stopped shipping/lost interest into, which is kinda rare for me since i switch interests a lot and go through hyper-fixations, so i tend to lose interest quickly in something once i’ve found something else to pay attention to

this, however has never happened with levihan: started shipping them when i was 12, still trash 7 years later skdjdjfjf i didnt start shipping them for special reasons tho, at the time aot was my first ever still on air anime and i was completel new to the community, plus i didnt really speak english well and the first episodes i watched confused me A LOT. However, amidst all that confusion and trying to remember names and plot points, episode 9 came, i got introduced to this character who apparently is named levi, the first information the scene gives the watcher is “this guy is a grump” based on his reaction to the crowd, the second information the scene gives to the watcher is “this person next to him, despite him being a grump, isn’t afraid to tease the shit out of him and we still don’t even know their name” which i found ??? Cool??? I immediately paid attention to this lil dynamic, then the next scene was the hairgrab scene and,,,,,, yeah my 12 year old braincells went into overdrive and i was completely sold

i just needed them to interact once and BOOM

but OBJECTIVELY i still find extremely telling, years later, how these were the first informations of these characters. In a narrative, character’s introduction is absolutely crucial to the story, you can understand millions of things just by the way a character is presented and says their first lines and honestly choosing to introduce levi and hanji together was imho very, very telling of what role they’d play in the story/what role they play in each other’s lives.

isn’t it strange that the very first infirmation we get of these two is that the grumpy one is okay with this person teasing him? that means there’s gotta be a level of familiarity among them, right? and the hairgrab? requested by isayama himself? in the official book of season one it also says that the scene was added to “show their relationship”??? i mean 2+2 is 4 where i’m from 👁👄👁✨

so yeah my dumb 12 year old brain had FORESIGHT apparently-

as i picked up the manga and read through the uprising (and got older and my english got better) i noticed more and more things about them and i just really freaking fell in love with their relationship okay it wasn’t “oh cool grumpy and sunshine who teases him”, more like “holy fuck grumpy has a sad backstory, seems unapproachable but is the kindest person ever, just wants to be a hero and save everyone, has the most tender heart, sunshine is a multi dimensional character who has fears and doubts and they work so well together despite being polar opposites but at the same time their oppositeness results in somehow them being completely in sync with each other and almost thinking with the same brain as if they were one person split in half”.

since they’re grown adults and they’re so close, their relationship has something that i always seek and almost never find in other ships, which is emotional maturity. You never see them purposely tearing each other down just to hurt the other, they work out their problems and C O M M U N I C A T E ✨ they don’t act childishly around each other, they tease and bicker but it’s completely different than full blown arguments where both parts disrespect the other just to prove their point. They are willing to listen to what the other has to say and their judgment is precious and welcomed, since the basis of their relationship is complete trust. levi is rough with words, but he means something else entirely despite what he conveys, as seen during the aftermath of eren’s first hardening experiments, and hanji totally understands what he wants to say, which is why they never reprimand him or take offense to what he says.

what i’m trying to say, i believe in a way that nothing is half-assed about how they were written in the story as a pair, despite how i disagree with certain narrative choices *ahem*; as much as i would have wanted them to have more screentime and more interactions, i believe it wouldn’t have been “in character”, lemme explain because i realize it sounds weird and my wording probably doesn’t help: their relationship is subtle and as such it should remain subtle and in the subtext, simply because it is none of our business as readers. Show, not tell, but show in a way that it is evident only if you pay attention. levi is blunt when he speaks, but at the same time his words have another meaning than what he conveys and his actions are subtle.

isn’t it obvious with how often it was remarked that the only person who is able to understand levi completely is hanji? and this is where chapter 132 comes into play with this amazing analysis post that i’m sure we all read a thousand times and screamed over it

all this “ambiguity”, all this subtlety, all this subtext, all this wordplay, words that have more than one meaning, i believe are all indicators of one thing: us readers are not able to understand comple what levi wants to say and his words result ambiguous to us and not 100% clear, simply because the readers are not hanji. but fortunately, i believe that hanji understood that levi too wants to “stay in the forest”. this is not the reaction of someone who is confused by a sentence, this is the face of someone who finally had a realization:

what kind of realization? it’s not up to us to know (tho we know *wink wink*), because we’re not hanji and we can’t understand what levi says.

plus, 心臓を捧げよ, “dedicate your heart”, can hold a million different meanings. 心臓 is heart, を is a particle that denotes the object, 捧げよ is the verb “to offer, dedicate, devote, sacrifice”, there are no adjectives that indicate possession as you can see; levi using his own left (not right) fist and placing it on hanji’s chest instead of just taking hanji’s hand and placing it on their chest is ambiguous too. i interpet it in different ways but the conclusion is one, and i can’t honestly see it in any other way. one of the interpretations i like the most is that levi is implying that they both share the same heart, which is why he used his own left hand, meaning that both of them are dedicating their hearts in that moment to humanity, because they are actively choosing to put their desires aside to live a peaceful life away from everything (as jean too has wished in chapter 127, as hanji has expressed in 126 but in 127 too and jean seems taken aback by their confession) since they’re soldiers and duty comes first.

so yeah if i have to choose something i love the most about levihan, it’s gotta be the subtlety and the ambiguity that at the end of the day, is absolutely not ambiguous at all. everything is expressed for a reason, if an author actively chooses ambiguity, in this specific case of a relationship, he intends the result not to be ambiguous. it sounds like a brain fart but i blame it on my inability to articulate my thoughts well, i hope what i want to say can be understood 😭 and in a way, this can be considered as an unpopular opinion i think?

meaning that i get that commonly someone might want an explicit declaration that leaves no room to doubt and I honestly wish for it too, but I don’t think it would be in character, and the ambiguity (if we can call it that, i’m calling it that just to avoid backlash and controversy jshfsjdjmd) in this case speaks enough volumes to me considering both of the characters we’re dealing with, the story as a whole, the interactions with other characters.

ALSO going back to their bond, i want to copypaste something i posted on twitter regarding chapter 126 and the blush: it doesn't make sense, character-wise, for Hanji to feel in any way embarassed around Levi. They have no filters whatsoever around each other. They are close, closer than anyone in the series, the author hasn't shown any embarassment between them. Back in Uprising, when Hanji was hesitant and wanted out, Levi was the one who encouraged them. So, this thing has in a way already happened, since back then they admitted to wanting to abandon responsibilities to Levi's face and didn't blush. So, in 126's context, it doesn't really make sense for Hanji to blush "only because they were embarassed at being caught wanting to run away". It happened once already and there was no blush. So yeah, the blush means something else. And that something else is definitely much, much, MUCH deeper than "embarassment". 🙌

since smartpass stories can absolutely be taken as part of the canon universe as they’re supervised and approved by isayama and published with the manga, i am adding the rain story as further proof of what kind of relationship they have. also levi being a 30 year old tsundere is adorable but movING ON

SO YEAH MY FINAL TWO CENTS ARE : i love everything about levihan and there isn’t a single thing i would change, because wanting aot to be a huge slice of life of them doing the most random things just to watch them interact doesnt count sjdjfjdjdjfjsmdm, my unpopular opinion is that i find the subtlety and the ambiguity KEY to doing justice to what they have because it’s none of us readers’ business because only they are able to understand each other and i fucking LOVE that, my headcanon is that they totally kissed once during the timeskip, maybe on the first anniversary of the battle of shiganshina, i see them not being able to sleep alone and finding comfort in each other and in a moment of weakness and vulnerability they kiss, but pretend it never happened because things are messy and they can’t afford to get involved because again, duty first, but the YEARNING™️ and the PINING™️ only intensifies after that, but they manage not to make things awkward and they are close as ever.

my GOD i rewrote the odyssey, sorry 😭