#Itachi is not my favorite character but he’s cool

[allons-y-doctor-who]

[llegato]

having 1 am naruto thoughts again .... ...

[tossawary]

You know, I didn't dislike the Kaguya battle as much as I thought that I might. I'd probably have different, more interesting feelings on this if I'd been reading "Naruto" properly instead of skipping over a bunch of stuff in the middle, but I'd already been spoiled on her as a villain and expected her appearance. And also the story has dropped so many threads and fumbled the landing of so many character arcs by this point that the vibes were kind of like, "Sure, this might as well happen next."

My favorite parts of that excruciatingly long final battle were anytime the fight involved ugly, complicated personal histories between characters. So, I liked "Hashirama versus Madara" and "Tobirama versus Madara". (I initially went looking for the "Senju versus Uchiha" flashback chapters (622ish; 619-ish is where Orochimaru resurrects the previous Hokages) and kept on reading from there out of curiosity.) And I also really liked the "Kakashi versus Obito" moments and "Minato (+ Naruto + Tobirama) versus Obito".

Thinking about it now, it seems really weird that there wasn't a bigger emotional confrontation between Sasuke and Madara, or else one between Sasuke and Obito. Sasuke seemed kind of checked out for most of the battle until it was time to him to fight Naruto after Kaguya was defeated. I guess he's just done with most of this shit after Itachi died. But Madara and Obito are partially responsible for a lot of the tragedy in Sasuke's life? I guess yelling at the villains for being shitty people and shitty family is already Naruto's job...

There's a lot about Kaguya that I actually think is kind of cool. She's pretty scary. I think the lore is pretty neat, actually. And even though she has basically zero personal connection to any of our heroes (Sasunaru being reincarnations of her descendants do not count as "personal" connections in my eyes), the Kaguya battle FINALLY cut the cast down to a far more reasonable number of people so that the story stopped being split in half-a-dozen different directions.

It's just Team 7 plus Obito! We're down to like 6-8 characters (depending on whether or not you count Zetsu, and also the Sage of the Six Paths, I guess). Nicely focused! I liked seeing Team 7 reunited and struggling forward together to save the world all on their own. I thought that this narrowed focus helped the pacing a lot, especially because the fight with her specifically didn't actually drag on for very long, and so I found it surprisingly easy to get through her part of the super long final battle compared to some of the earlier waffling back and forth between Madara and Obito and Zetsu.

[narutocharacterpolls]

ROUND THREE

MAITO GAI vs UMINO IRUKA

Reasons for submission under the cut

Gai

was instrumental in the success of the story - he may not have won against Madara, but he put fear in him and had it not been for hacks, he would have decimated him where no one else could

believes whole-heartedly in his student to the point of dedicating his life to making him a splendid ninja

came from nothing, worked his way up from nothing, and is now considered to be one of the greatest shinobi to have come out of the Hidden Leaf. People know and fear him

made Itachi bail. That man was ready to fight everyone else, but packed it up when Gai came on the scene

kicked Jiraiya in the face and never properly apologized

great salesperson - always has a spare jumpsuit to give to passers-by and hook them on his favorite brand. True influencer and fashion icon

had a bowl cut before it was cool

was a great friend to Kakashi, and was there for him during the highs and lows of his horrifically stressful life. Arguably saved Kakashi's life with his constant support, and the story could not have happened without him. Is considered by Kakashi - one of the most powerful and infamous shinobi in the world - to be his equal and his best friend

loves kids. Supports his own students like he was their father, and equally takes pride in Naruto and protected Sasuke after Sasuke's first run in with Itachi

in the anime, he is shown to be hard on the outside but clearly permissive in that he would sneak Chouji food in the middle of a mission and try to push Naruto into figuring out who Minato was

confident in himself and confident in others - he is everyone's biggest cheerleader and he isn't just talk; he'll work hard with you. When he says he'll do something, nothing will stop him and he will follow his promises even when no one is watching.

hot. Man has pretty privilege

amazing, supportive teacher and friend

he is always trying to be positive in such a dark world and cheer up those around him

he's so good to Lee, Tenten, and Neji, you can just tell how much he cares about those kids

his speech to Lee was super moving. He knew Lee was scared and made sure to be there for him

he was ready and willing to die to defeat Madara in order to save the others

an actual decent upstanding father figure

unbridled whimsy

excellent tits

Iruka

he is kind-hearted and soft and has a big heart

he always has a watchful eyes over his students. But he can also be stern if needed. He knows how cruel the world can be and wants to make sure his students are properly prepared for the dangers they'll face

he doesn't have prejudices against his students. No hostility towards Naruto who was often the victim of misplaced anger due to the Nine-Tails who was sealed within him. Thus, Iruka came to be one of the only adults Naruto respected in his youth as well as the only person who could control Naruto's behaviour to some degree

due to Iruka's more nurturing, protective and compassionate nature, Naruto views him as a mentor and Iruka in turn, views Naruto as a younger brother

he treats Naruto to ramen whenever Naruto returns from a mission, where Iruka gets to see how he is developing as a ninja

his refusal to allow Naruto to graduate at first was not out of spite, but merely out of caring strictness and a desire for Naruto to work harder and reach his own potential

has a great sense of duty, honour and selflessness as seen when he protected Naruto from an attack, suffering a shuriken wound in his back in order to protect him

he regards the children of the village as the backbone of their village, even being willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure their safety

Iruka to Naruto: "Stop acting like a baby! You want to know what I really think of you?! I think you're one of my most precious students… and… you're like a little brother to me."

he is Naruto's first mentor figure. He deserves more credit and screen time!

he's the only adult with a working brain

one of the few adults who sees Naruto as a human being not a God savior

is the only one who actually apologies to Naruto for treating him badly

one of the reasons Naruto turned out the way he did

he deserves a Reise

a nice father figure

[team7-headquarter]

Kishimoto suffers from fucking up his power scale so bad he needed to start killing characters with loopholes and making other characters weaker out of nowhere and he needed gods and aliens to start giving powers to the protagonists so they could fight better the antagonists.

At least in Naruto Classic the fights were more coherent in terms of power and resolutions. Sure, half of them came to an end because Naruto used the talk no jutsu, but it made sense!!!! Naruto was a dirty fighter and he used his enemies traumas to gain the upper hand and then exploited that weakness. It was Haku's memories what defeated Zabuza, it was Neji's pride that made him blind to Naruto's insane tactics, it was the jinchuriki issue what connected Gaara and Naruto, etc. There was logic in those moments.

Then Shippuden came and people could basically turn back time, travel to other dimensions, which is cool, but??? The fights involving izanagi are not my favorite for a reason. It's a cool tool to have if you, the author, want an outcome regardless of who would actually win. What is the point if one of the participants can shape reality out of nowhere? And yeah, some of the crazy powers were given to the Uchihas, but it's a double edged sword. In the end, Kishimoto had to invent excuses to kill them because he made them way too strong. Like Madara and Obito, who had to be defeated by the appearance of Kaguya in the story, or Shisui and Itachi, who basically suicide in their own ways.

Hell, even Fugaku allowed Itachi to kill him...

The way Rock Lee went from crazy potential to nothing? Or the way Neji got killed? There are so many examples of what I'm trying to explain.

I love Shippuden for the characters, for having amazing emotional moments and the way those were handled. The characters were fantastic, the art style and a bunch of the designs, the pieces of story and the expansion of the map. The potential of Shippuden is what shines the most. It's Sasuke and Naruto's internal journey which attracts and holds the narrative in place.

It's kinda depressing to think how much more it could have given us.

[bansq]

i'm rewatching naruto with my sibling who's never seen it and i gotta say..

THE PACING IS DOGSHIT.

I can't even begin to imagine what it was like watching it when it was airing on TV..... a fight that could easily be 1 or 2 episodes is stretched to 6, and like 50% of the content is recycled and constantly getting showed as flashbacks.. WE WOULDN'T NEED A FLASHBACK FOR THIS THING IN THE BEGINNING OF THE FIGHT IF YOU DIDN'T STRETCH IT OUT FOR 5 EPISODES

anyway i love naruto (spoilers for the extremely popular manga/anime that's been around for decades), the plot is all over the place and doesn't really make sense and the author seems like he's never spoken to a woman before which leads to all the female characters (excluding tsunade and MAYBE temari) being ASS. I also really hate how often naruto (the show) does the "this character is a dick but then heroically sacrifices themself so it's all okay actually (looking at 3rd hokage, jiraiya, pain, obito, itachi kind of, these are just off the top of my head but there's probably WAY more) and like, i get it that naruto is not gonna go "the 3rd and jiraiya sucked ass, actually" because they meant the world to him (the bar was low) but the story does nothing to imply that they were even wrong in the first place, which is very frustrating. also obito should not have died, he should have faced the consequences of his actions and reconnect with kakashi instead of fucking traumatizing him AGAIN, FUCK.

but i really do love naruto, it's awesome and cool. ninjas are cool. tobirama is my favorite character. and iruka. and kakashi. and tenzou. sakura is not THAT annoying (she is 12) and sasuke is the most annoying (he is also 12). i don't really like itachi but he's the favorite character of my best friend so he's sort of my character-in-law. he is cool even if his morals don't make sense. thank you for your time.

[kankuroplease]

what do you think of the uchihas (the most important. madara. izuna .sasukr. shisui. itachi...+your OCs the brothers of madara) '' your opinions and your thoughts '' just to know 🤭

I’m going to stick to canon Uchiha simply for time and idk what to say about my own in the same context

Madara

Like it or not, he was kinda right 😬 interesting idea, TERRIBLE execution. He’s a bit cocky (rightfully so) but i love him and he has one of my favorite smiles, look at him 😆

Izuna

I can’t stand him. To me, he’s the devil and angel on Madara’s shoulders and he wants problems, always 💀

Itachi

I’m not going to sit here and act like he didn’t do some horrible and dumb things, causing more harm than good. This guy could have solved a lot a things by opening his mouth. But he looks cool and I’m stuck to the few good things we did get from his true nature

Sasuke

I have strong feelings surrounding Sasuke and I’m going to try not to rant. Out of all the Uchiha, I understand his motives the best and his anger towards Konoha is more than justified… but him being continuously shown displaying a lack of communication skills irks me to my core. I also would have been all for movie with more of his POV, but that’s just me. It’s complicated because I either, don’t care or care too much depending on the day/specific grievance 💀

On a brighter note, I think he has one of the best character designs in the whole series

Shisui

A mischievous sweetheart. 1000% deserved better. He also had a horrifying ability that would have been great for a villain and he has the best lashes in Konoha. I like to believe he survived and is living life as a blind old man somewhere leave me alone 😭

Obito

My Uchiha Husband, you forgot him 😌 sure he’s got a laundry list of problems and he’s a red flag, but I’m an Obito apologist lmao. Unpopular opinion; I don’t think he started a war simply over Rin, I think Rin’s death was just the last straw as he had old man Madara brainwashing him for a good bit. Also he’s the hottest Uchiha imo

In conclusion; they’ve all done a lot of things wrong, but they weren’t necessarily wrong for feeling the way they did. This is the problem when you’re a lover and fighter 💀

[liss-art]

Hello! I just saw your Shark!mer Kisame/Itachi pic, and I really love it, especially the details that went into the gills! Kisame is one of my favorite characters (since sharks are my favorite animal of course), so I'm glad he's getting attention and that people still enjoy drawing him.

To show my appreciation, I wanted to share a cool shark fact! Some species of Catsharks (like the Swell Shark and the Chain Catshark) have biofluorescence. Biofluorescence is a bit different from bioluminescence; in bioluminescence, a chemical reaction occurs that produces light (think of it like a glowstick!). In biofluorescence, light is absorbed by pigments -in this case, specific cells on the shark's skin- and is then re-emitted as a different color. Scientists have hypothised that the sharks evolved this to help identify each other as the same species to make it easier to find a mate.

What I'm saying is, it is totally possible that your Shark!mer Kisame glows in the dark ;)

I FINALLY DID IT!

Thank you for support, dear!

[thwackk]

Mav I have to know your naruto character opinions pleek inquiring minds (me) want to know

uuhhmmm idk what exactly to say cause this is a bit vague. but i can talk abt my favorites a bit 😭

Naruto Sakura and Shikamaru are some of my favorites, with Naruto being my number one favorite🫶 he’s very special 2 me in ways i cannot even say because everytime i think abt him there’s not words it’s just colors and feelings and sounds so idek what to say abt that uuuh yeah! I think he’s one of the most human shounen protags ever written and it irritates me when ppl lump him into the stereotype because of his high energy and silliness, they ignore literally every prominent and important aspect of his character and growth throughout, i’ll say that. he really stands out among most of them to me

when i was a kid tho i identified with shikamaru the most, we were practically the same person (i am definitely not that smart tho 💀) so he’s been a longtime favorite too as i feel like i understand him on a much more personal level than other characters. And i’ve been a sakura lover since DAY ONE‼️‼️ AND PROUD TO SAY IT 🗣️🗣️ sakura haters could never fathom, i need them all to explode immediately she’s literally so cool, she’s just a girl how could you hate her 🤨

it’s hard to write a character that’s supposed to be smarter than you tho and kishimoto kinda fumbles the ball with this one a bit. and then ofc the women of naruto also suffer from being written by a male shounen jump mangaka which is not unexpected but always dissapointing. some of naruto’s writing is ROUGH. we all know this 😭

I love pretty much all of the konoha 11 deeply and dearly, it feels like we’ve grown up together (i was exactly 12 when i started naruto) so i dont wanna say i HATE any of them, that’s too strong of a word but if i had to rank them from favorite to least favorite it would probably look like this:

Naruto

Shikamaru

Sakura

rock lee

ten ten

choji

ino

kiba

neji

shino

hinata

other favorites are kakashi, gai, gaara, itachi, izumo & kotetsu, kushina.. uhmmm what else. Oh i think jiraiya is overrated asf i never liked his ass.

i would talk abt sasuke and some of the others a little bit more but my memories of them are too old yk? i dont really trust 12 yr old me’s judgement on some of these things so i’m just rereading/rewatching it all again rn as well as boruto which so far i am greatly endeared by and frankly i have alot to say about it. but i’ll save that for when i finish it

[thrudgelmir2333]

About Phoenix Ikki

This post is partially copied from a response of mine on Reddit, but I thought I'd expand on it here on Tumblr, where I can structure my ideas better. There's some thoughts I've had about the character of Phoenix Ikki for a while that I wanted to get out there. If you ask around the Saint Seiya fan community which character is their favorite, there's a relatively solid chance they're going to answer 'Phoenix Ikki'. In fact, you might even get told Ikki 'inspired' a lot of Saint Seiya fans. He's one of those shounen symbols of 'badassary' and 'uncompromising attitudes', like Takamura from Hajime no Ippo, but also of emotional distance, like Itachi from Naruto. In a lot of ways, if you grew up with Saint Seiya characters, there's a powerful possibility you looked forward to seeing Ikki show up and beat the crap out of some villain for hurting Shun, his little brother. It was an effect intensified by how much Ikki was usually withheld from the story. The absence of Ikki in a lot of ways made you want to crave this supposed member of the protagonists to show up.

Shun himself reinforces this interest, being adoring and forgiving of Ikki and his distance in every instance. This means all the reinforcement you get as a reader/audience is that Ikki is someone you're supposed to admire, to look forward to showing up, to be an example of how 'brutal and badass but also protective' a Saint could be.

I'd like to offer an alternative point of view on all this. I think Ikki is, well, actually a bad character. I also think that his absence had more to do with that poverty of personality to his character than any kind of perceived 'coolness' to him.

Maybe I'm the one off here. Maybe I just don't identify anymore with this sort of character. If you wanna conclude that from my post, that's fair. But I wanted to ask, though, "Isn't it about time we acknowledge Ikki is... kind of a bad character? And a terrible role model for young boys? And probably a sign of things that were to come in anime fandoms, even in the early 90s?"

Pictured above; Phoenix Ikki, deeply contemplating how little effort he has to put into the story

First, let's talk some technicalities.

This is where you'll see most of what I wrote on Reddit.

First off, I'd like to establish that I think Phoenix Ikki, in technical terms, is NOT the worst Bronze Saint, but he's definitely the worst after Seiya. And also that the way some of the other Bronze Saints, mainly Shiryu, outshine Ikki as quality characters should really expose how poorly written Ikki is to more people.

People rightfully talk about how Seiya's character stopped growing after a certain early point in the story. There's no denying that. Ikki, however, as a character, doesn't trail far much behind Seiya in my opinion. This is such to the point that I got a theory that maybe somewhere in Kurumada's mind he intended to kill him off after the Black Saint Arc, or ideally against Shaka.

I believe this because all of Ikki's involvements in the story past his battle with Shaka (and perhaps some of them during the Silver Saint Arc itself) have been needless interventions that either only reinforce how his character hasn't changed from his Black Saint days or steal the spotlight away from other characters, usually Shun.

Before we continue, another important technical note, this time on action, and this one goes especially to those concerned about how can such a strong character like Ikki be 'needless'. One important thing to retain here is that action can be written in a lot of ways, which is to say SCALING OF FICTIONAL CHARACTER IS A FABRICATION YOU DERIVE FROM HOW THINGS ARE ALREADY WRITTEN and not some kind of result from a scientific analysis of inalterable story facts.

So its not that Shun needs Ikki to save him, but rather that a choice was made by a human being for Shun to be written that he needs Ikki to save him. He could have been written, instead, to do it on his own, and even then something ridiculous like winning the Japanese lottery, just to add to the triumph of, idk, beating Capella.

Sorry for the earlier caps, I just always feel I have to remind people of that important fact whenever discussing action, become some people think that the usefulness of a character is derived from fights they win. Like they're real life wrestling competitors or something. The reality is, Ikki interferes in the events he does because he's written as such and he gets the results he does because, likewise, he's also written as such. They are choices by Kurumada.

And the reality of those choices is that they are open to discussion on weather or not they caused more harm than good to the plot and its remaining characters. This goes beyond the mere antipathy aspect in Ikki; the character is flat in a CREATIVE sense, being what the author of Rurouni Kenshin called "a joker card".

This means a character designed to counter the villain's respective 'joker'. AKA, Ikki exists to not to advance the plot in important ways (slaying main villains, help friends overcome trials, add to the story message) but to occasionally show off during an episode or two to deliver the audience the red meat of a high-octane action scene against a giant ogre or something.

What does Ikki actually DO in the story?

To understand the reason why I call Ikki a 'joker card', it is important to put his character's role in review. If you do, you'll find that most of his interventions in the story don't contribute to the plot's overall progression or the development of any of the characters, including himself.

So, just to quickly sum up his role; in Sanctuary Arc, after 'sacrificing himself to defeat Shaka' (which is where Ikki's character should have come to and end) he battles Saga only to stall him so that Seiya, a worse character, can reach Athena's Statue. This is something that can easily be written around to bolster Seiya instead, or have the lesser Bronze Saint character group that had just rejoined the story take on (instead of sitting back 'guarding Saori'). Ikki then contributes to a combination attack against Saga, but its mostly done by lending his Cosmos to Seiya, which means in terms of a physical measurable character choice, it's too abstract a gesture to feel emotionally impactful.

Yes, that's all he does in Sanctuary after Shaka. He then fucks off cause he's too cool to hang with his little brother and his friends. Moving on.

He comes back in Poseidon to show off to Caça, saving Shun, Hyoga and Seiya's life from him. The battle climaxes with Ikki defeating Caça but declaring that "Caça would have won if he had used an illusion of Esmeralda instead". It sounds touching, until you realise that it shows how Ikki is STILL not over Esmeralda, this despite his redemption arc. This is because, without that permanent grief, Ikki has no good reason to justify being away from everyone else other than just that he's an anti-social douchebag. Then Ikki, again, contributes nothing to the battle with Kanon and Poseidon that Shun couldn't have been written to do on his own. All of his involvements are in Shun's presence and taking away opportunities from the story to write Shun heroically.

And then Ikki fucks off again after posing for the arc ending picture.

Notice how, once again, Ikki's appearance is entirely predicated on taking action away from the main characters against a villain written to be particularly dangerous. Caça and Kanon act as the Poseidon Arc's joker cards; characters designed to give the cast a big giant obstacle to look cool overcoming, except it's really all fed to Ikki instead, who looks cool doing it but otherwise does nothing in the plot.

Finally, he stays away from Hades for the most part, thankfully, only to then show up to get the story rid of Aiacos (which was written to the point of being a non-character at the time, just a big Judge Joker) and have a fruitless battle against a Hades-Possessed Shun that ONCE AGAIN is all about drawing tears from the audience about how Ikki can't get over himself and do his job.

It's Saori, the character EVERYONE calls useless, that actually saves Shun, not Ikki. If Saori is a "useless", like everyone always says, what does this make of Ikki?

Oh, and then Ikki returns in Elysium for one final coolness shot; he takes a blow from Thanatos so that the story can reinforce the idea of "Oh, no, trust me guys, Ikki is TOTALLY special. Thanatos says so. Cause he took a hit and wasn't written to just fall over."

And then the story ends with him contributing to another abstract combination attack, instead of making any character choices. We don't even get a personal confrontation between him and Hades for, you know, HAVING POSSESSED HIS PRECIOUS LITTLE BROTHER THAT IKKI IS SO MOTIVATED FOR.

Oh, and guess what, thanks to Next Dimension, we know that after all this, with Seiya crippled and Sanctuary in ruins, Ikki fucks off yet again, cause apparently nearly losing Shun to an evil God taught him nothing about the need to stay by his loved ones.

The Terribleness of Ikki

I don't know if you've noticed by now, but all Ikki ever seems to do is pop in front in the camera, talk about how cool he is, and then whine about how "Death Queen Island was SO hard" until he Genma-Kens someone. And then fucking off.

Does he have a life? Can we imagine that he goes to a bar or something to drink his sorrows, or works in a farm like Shiryu, when not fighting a Holy War? Or does he just stalk Shun, looking for opportunities to swoop in and look like the big pathetic attention-needing loser emo older brother that he really is?

It's almost like the character doesn't exist for any other reason other than to show up and look cool, like a decoration. Almost as if, bear with me, the story of Saint Seiya didn't really have anything planned for him past a certain point, so they couldn't give him any meaningful contributions to the story.

Meanwhile, just to compare, Shiryu has a whole character arc about overcoming his crippling blindness, which he manages to do:

A) Without using it as a prop-trauma for how cool he is;

B) Without pushing away his friends;

C) Without neglecting his duty as a Saint;

D) Without disrespecting all the struggles everyone else go through;

E) And without making it the sole defining characteristic of his personality, unlike Ikki "My-girlfriend-is-dead" Kido;

Which is frankly hilarious considering that the reason Ikki told off Seiya early in the story and left the group to be on his own was because, I quote "he doesn't work well in a team", cause he's such a hardass, right?

Sorry, Shiryu. You had that whole 'character development' thing going, but look how cool I look.

Yeah, well, everyone in Seiya's team does a better job at being a Saint than he does, so maybe Seiya was on to something when he almost punched Ikki that night for saying such a dumb thing. This, of course, without going into all the things Hyoga and Shun also go through to show upstanding and emotionally strong they can be. I only mention Shiryu because if I talked about them as well, I'd be writing this post all day.

So you might be asking "That can't be it, right? You have to be acting reductive, Thrud. This can't be the extenct of such an influential character's contribution?"

No, seriously, it really is. Ikki never grows past his distant, traumatised self, he never learns to overcome his pain and personality problems and all of his contributions to the story's challenges is to act as the sleeping giant behind Shun's smiley face.

We're pretty much at the end stretch of ND, and Ikki is YET to show signs of change. He's just done a bit of fighting and hasnt had any friendly interactions with anyone. It's 2024 and Ikki is STILL a giant asshole.

Even the thing he's most beloved for, his contribution to action, ultimately falls flat in story terms because most of the antagonists he takes on, with the exception of Shaka, are written to be just temporary obstacles to the story (like Aiacos) or are people Ikki saves Shun from (like Caça). Shaka has a whole thing involving challenging the Bronze Saints conceptions of evil, and in the manga he even has his manipulation of Ikki, but everyone else Ikki defeats look like they were written in just so that Ikki could have someone to look cool beating on.

Which is to say you could probably envision a version of Saint Seiya WITHOUT Ikki, and you wouldn't lose that much, story wise.

So why is Ikki so beloved? What is going on here?

Well, because simply put, the fandom identifies with how macho and action-oriented he portrays himself. They like him BECAUSE he's an anti-social prick who tells you "You can replace having healthy emotional development by just being a badass". And to some people, especially in shounen circles, that's the ultimate power fantasy, giving you a bigger trip than being reincarnated as the most overleveled slime demon princess.

But don't take my word for it, peruse the internet yourself and try to find someone defending him who doesn't talk about how "badass" he is.

The fact is, not just in anime but in media in general, a lot of people love identifying with assholes who put down everyone else's contributions to the group, act like they are above it all and fall back on a fantasy that "they don't need anyone" and "are secretly the best". They reinforce the idea you don't have to put in effort to make others like you, because you can just be violent and dismissive and that's somehow automatically worthy of admiration.

Yet, put anyone problem in the story that cant be solved with punching, or put anything too complicated in the story to solve with a Genma Ken, like Hades' possession and Poseidon about to kill Seiya at the Main Breadwinner, and chances are Ikki won't know what to do about it. His contribution will be to put a strong face about how he wishes he had a way to fix it, but what a shame, this will just be "another trauma to add to the pile, poor Ikki"

There are terms for these kinds of role models that teach you to dismiss emotional problems, that teach you to admire those who see their self-imposed solitude as a curse, or even strength.

They're called sigmas. You know, those assholes infesting male media who blame everyone else for their problems and think mysoginy is super cool? And look at that, people LOVE how Ikki told Pandora "he ain't feminist like Seiya and WOULD hit her if she stood in his way". What a badass! Ikki isn't gonna let this goth girl stand in the way of him... failing to save Shun anyway. Wow!

So cool, guys, right? Right?

This is where my point just devolves into a rant.

Ikki isn't just one of the worst Bronze Saint characters. He is, in fact, a terrible character just in general, who gets by on having a cool power suit and reinforcing his audience's pre-conceived notions about the world. Ikki teaches you from a young age that your problems are to be dug deep down, only to be brought up to shield yourself from criticism.

His staleness ends up rivaling Seiya's, and only fails to meet it cause Seiya's case is so comically bad. Ikki happens to make a good Bronze Saint action figure, so he remains popular.

But unfortunately his influence casts a long shadow. Saint Seiya isn't nearly as popular as it used to be, but there are tons of storytellers and story followers that have been influenced by him as a character. Bleach, by Tite Kubo, drew heavily from Saint Seiya in not just story telling, but story structure and characters.

Who do you think Byakuya, Rukia's stoic, overpowered older brother is modeled after, my lovelies? And look at that, he's just as overrated as Ikki is, to the point the author didn't have the courage to truly kill him off in his final story arc, even though his arc was done and done.

Rukia: Nissan, there's some weird guys in armor staring at us over there. Byakuya: Don't pay attention, Rukia, those are just the characters our author subconsciously based us off from. Just focus on your sand scuplture of how pretty I am.

And honestly, it's tiring to see people my own age still thinking and saying that the pinnacle of character design and development is characters like Ikki, and the long trail of 'stoic badasses' he has left behind.

I don't respect this kind of anti-social glorification any more. You might even say I think it's toxic. Obviously Ikki is just a character, a bunch of ink on paper, but when you take a step back and you look at the characters that have copied him, or the legions of people online making unhinged rants about 'strong masculinity' that would think Ikki IS inspiring (especially when he slaps the hell out of Pandora), and then you combine it with the 'hate' directed at the weak characters? Then he becomes more than that.

I just think that characters like Ikki make people miss the point of stories like Saint Seiya. And if you have a character that makes you miss the point of the story, who just stick around because their toys sell?

Then they're not good characters. Not in my opinion, anyways.

[sunbeamah]

If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from JJK? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

I don't mind you asking at all!! Actually I'm very glad you asked! :) I love talking about jjk and I think I've annoyed everyone I talk to irl far too much about it at this point!

Oh and please put your top 5 favourite characters and scenes in the replies!! (That goes for anyone reading this as well-- I'm curious to see what everyone's is!)

MANGA SPOILERS (UP TO 255) BENEATH THE CUT!! (ALSO IT'S LONG AS HELL UNDER THERE!)

My favourite characters (you can all probably guess but I'm going to list them anyway!!)

Choso

Chances are, if a character is an eldest brother and has dark hair and eyes, he'll be my favourite! Dick Grayson, Uchiha Itachi, Portgas D Ace, Iida Tensei (favourite male chara based on vibe alone haha), Kamado Tanjirou, Mori ohshc (it's old ik ik but I was in love w him!).

But beyond that, I just adore Choso. His devotion to his brothers, his awesome use of blood manip, how intense he is and how tired he looks-- he's awesome!

2. Yuuji

Again completely unsurprising! I also tend to go for upbeat, spunky and happy characters as my favourites. He goes through so much, but still manages to maintain an iron resolve and hold onto others, and to create and protect special bonds with others. I truly admire this about his character-- and I hope he gets the happiness he deserves. If not, I'm always willing to write it for him hehe.

3. Maki

Maki is so cool to me, I enjoyed the chapter with her and that sumo guy so so much-- imo he was her first real mentor! (Sorry Gojo!) I love how relentlessly strong she is, how tough she's had to become and how, no matter what was happening, she held onto her own resolve. Everything she did being for Mai absolutely stole my heart.

4. Nobara

Nobara saying she "only has so many chairs for people in [her] life", vs seeing just how many chairs were there, waiting for her to find special people to fill them absolutely broke me when I saw it animated. I was legit crying. I love how assertive and aggressive she is, and how she's still a very sentimental and protective person. Her admiring Maki was so cute, I could never let those scenes go!

5. Sukuna

I have to give it to him, he's a great villain. I was skeptical about this at first-- I love Nanamin and Gojo and Miguel and Yuki and so many others so much! -- but looking through the screenshots of the manga I have, 70% of it is Sukuna. He's very attractive, so relentlessly evil and just so strong, too.

Now for my favourite scenes!! Sorry if this is way too much to read!

Red Scale

The entire episode. I've rewatched it so many times and screamed at all the same parts. I love the fighting, the animation, blood manipulation coming in clutch, the memories that don't exist-- everything! It's just such a fun episode to watch! And on top of that they're my two faves, of course I love it!!

2. Higuruma Hiromi saying "let's have a retrial"

Listen-- I don't know why, but something about that panel is SO attractive to me. I was screaming at his later scenes (I wanted Sukuna's head on a pike and his ass on the executioner's blade), but that early shot of him just refuses to leave my mind.

3. Maki sumoing with Miyo

IMO he was her first proper mentor, and I love the growth that we see in her, and the insight into her mental state since losing Mai. My heart broke for her in that scene, so getting to see something more personal of her, how she struggled with everything that had happened to her and all her responsibilities, and how she was able to overcome it by focusing on the present, on what she could and could not see-- rather than everything she had to do.

4. Yuuji, Nobara and Megumi going crazy at the end of s1

I will never get Megumi's crazy smile and laughter out of my head-- he let LOOSE!

Nobara's "game of chicken" had me giggling like mad, yelling at the screen, cheering, everything!

Yuuji and Nobara's black flashes cemented this scene pack for me-- I just love it! Their powerups, their growth in this short period and their teamwork! I love to see it hehe.

5. Todo's locket opening to reveal Yuuji and Takada-chan

Todo is so genuinely special to me. I have never seen a more delusional character, and I don't think I ever will. I've loved him since he asked Megumi what his type of woman is, and every time he's on screen I can't help but laugh. This scene in particular made me cry with laughter-- the whole episode I was clapping and cheering, mimicking his poses, texting incomprehensible messages to my friends. Todo is everything man.

[naruko-hyuga]

Itachi should have stayed a villain and not a poorly written character that is a tragic hero even though his actions don't reflect that. Honestly if you go back to early Naruto and look at Itachi and pay attention to how the character looks and acts he was a psychopath he felt like a genuine ninja so when he didn't want to fuck with. When I got into Naruto when I first saw Itachi for the first time back when the Naruto manga was in syndication I loved Itachi. He was an amazing villain he looked cool he was scary and I was looking forward to see how his storyline would end Itachi was my favorite villain.

I was such an Itachi fanboy it was one of the reasons I read so many fanfiction involving around Sasuke because, I was looking forward to their eventual battle. Course mostly fanfiction I read at the time were SusHina a post for a different time. He was so coo for those who have read the Manga or watched the anime after it ended you're not going to have the same point of view I do. The anticipation for Sasuke and Itachi's showdown was one of the things I was looking forward to the most.

The fight with Itachi and Sasuke was great at least until the plot twist which completely ruined the fight and not to mention killed all tension when you go back to it a second time. The problem with the plot twist was it makes no goddamn sense and all sense of logic is dropped and not to mention Sasuke's character suffers as a result of this stupid twist. Gone was the badass villain that was first introduced that was someone that was scary gone was the mysterious character and what we had in his place was a goody little Two-Shoes Itachi which doesn't make any sense because Itachi's actions earlier in the series contradict what the plot twist tells us.

The twist turns one of my favorite characters at the time into a complete fucking idiot and made Sasuke into a Simp and someone with stockhold syndrome. I don't care what the story says what Itachi did was completely fucked up. He tortured his brother mentally twice forcing him to see the murder of his family and clan and I think him learning the truth should have made him hate Itachi more. I would argue the Itachi plot twist ruined Sasuke for me for a while because of how idiotic the plot had to make Sasuke in order to justify the twists existence okay I think I've ranted about this twist a little too much but I have to make it known that I do not like it and I have valid reasons why.

[maoam]

I hope you're alright.

U know how the fandom view kakashi right? The guy with the most tragic past in the whole show, one of the best senseis in anime history and is extremely wise and and wins every battle. yeah?

But not everything they claim him to be is true right? Like he's called wise but to me I never really saw that, the times he was meant to be wise like when he told twelve year old sasuke to give up on revenge... yea, wasn't the best advice to give since their pasts are different? As for them claiming he is op, didn't he have to be saved from Zabuza, which was like the first serious battle of the arc and part 1 of naruto?

Him having a tragic past yea I agree w that, but it never made him think of the system and how it was wrong? He's just content to follow with whatever.

And him being one of the best senseis in anime history, like I'm sorry but he didn't understand any of his three students, was blind to sakura's faults, didn't help sasuke with anything ( apart from teaching him chidori), projected on sasuke waayy too much, knew the truth about the massacre and did nothing w that information? ( unless I missed a bit where he did).

Idk this is just my opinion. What do you think of him? Thanks.

Him as a teacher is whatever for me, I mean he teaches Sasuke some things in part 1, and teaches Naruto couple things in part 2, but he is admittedly lacking in that department. The sannins take over his role in part 1 already.

As for why he is popular, one reason is because he is superficially a cool character, he is hyped up a lot, he has "1000 jutsus", he has sharingan, he has a tragic backstory, he also hides his face so even that is a mystery about him. Him reading erotica books is something people find funny, because it seemingly contradicts with his outer appearance. He is also a mentor character and those tend to become popular since young people find mentors reliable figures they would want in their own lives.

But yeah he doesn't really fight much despite all the hype, some fanboys also point out that his track record during the story is small compared to what one would expect.

What I dislike about his character is that he's a passive victim who never questions their system. His father killed himself because his community was brainwashed by Konoha's mentality, one of his teammates died as a child soldier, and another seemingly died as well. And that's not all, one of his students was a victim of a decades long alienating policy and a genocide and another of his students was a human container for monster that were seen as tools used for war so that the villages could profit from it. Yet he accepted it and submitted to it. And of course the fandom glorify this because what they care about is drawing flower crowns on their favorite characters and pretending the story is about kittens and puppies and not oppression. They don't like to see characters negatively and uncomfortably affected by injustice, unless it lasts like one arc and they are back to cracking jokes.

What makes it worse is that he does see it, he sees why Sasuke is the way he is, because of their world, yet his solution is to get rid of Sasuke instead of the system.

Generally, I don't think there is anything admirable about letting oppressors walk over you and putting up with it. It's sad if anything.

He is also hypocritical. When Sasuke's revenge was only consisting of killing Itachi, Kakashi was already against it, despite the fact Itachi killed not only Sasuke's family but his whole clan. And yet when Team 10 wanted to avenge Asuma, he was all for it, he even went to help. Is it because Asuma is someone Kakashi personally cared for? Because that's not a good look.

I also hate how he handles Sakura with kid gloves. I understand a character was needed to do this, because despite the fact Sakura is supposed to be an unlikeable person she is still part of the main cast and can't be outrightly condemned. There needs to be someone justifying her nonsense. But it doesn't change the fact it's annoying and doesn't make me favor Kakashi's character. A good example is when he tries to speak for Sakura, and he says to Sasuke that Sakura wants to save him eventhough he tried to kill her. He is of course conveniently omitting the fact Sakura came there to kill Sasuke herself. Lol.

Sakura isn't the type to brag or hurt others?

First arc.

Last arc. Yeah, no bragging to be found...

I don't think I need to add every single scene where Sakura has beaten Naruto up or berated him.

And to add to Kakashi's passiveness, he became a Hokage to warm the seat for Naruto because Obito wanted him to, like come on.

[kikaichuno]

What drew me to your blog, other than being a Naruto rp blog, was the fact that I had never seen anyone writing Shino and that immediately interested me! And what makes me stay is the fact that you give him such depth and such an interesting, detailed, and layered personality. I never knew how much I needed Itachi unofficially adopting Shino as his younger brother. ♡ (also #NerdMusesUnite)

What drew you to my blog initially, and what, so far, has made you stay?

SHINO IS SO COOL He was always in my top 2 favorite characters (the other being Obito) and I DON'T KNOW WHY I WAITED SO LONG TO START WRITING HIM!! I had been writing Obito for years. I suppose the amount of content is very different, I only get crumbs with Shino and now that I've grown as a writer and artist, I can make my own content. Even with the little screentime he got, there's so much to his personality. Canonly, he's not shallow at all, I never feel like I go off track with my headcanons, his little personality quirks are very clear to me, and his little problems are so relatable...

Itachi was always a hit or miss muse for me in the rpc, I must admit that he's not a character I'm drawn to in the serie to begin with but I do love your take of him! And I never knew I needed Itachi and Shino to bond over their nerdiness and bugs before now as well, they are so cute and the background conflict of jealous Sasuke is so funny! I'm looking forward to more - if I can reply to our threads consistently! OTL

[team7-headquarter]

On wasted years of teenage girls and what's beyond them:

A Sakura Haruno quick character study.

⠀

⠀Ignoring Kishimoto's possible implications or even his intentions for the character, I think one of the coolest facts about Sakura is that she wasted so many of her Academy years in superficial stuff.

And you'd say: “How is that good? Or cool?”

Listen, most 12 years old have their lives figured out. They don't have a clear path to follow, they haven't lived a traumatic experience that altered completely their core and the paths they'd follow for the rest of their lives. They don't attach their personal growth or maturity process to stuff like revenge or proving to my homeplace that I, a 12 years old kid, deserve basic human treatment.

There are kids like that, of course. Kids like Naruto and Sasuke, like Neji and Rock Lee, like Itachi and Kakashi and so many other kids that worked hard for years to become strong in their system 'cause they knew what they wanted, needed even.

⠀

But pre-teen girls with a relatively normal life?

⠀You mean to tell me it's not common for them to fall prey of the social obsession over physical appearance? Specially little girls who were bullied for not being up to the standard, girls who crave attention from someone well-liked or popular because that would make them worthy or visible to the others. The reason they are so many books and movies and stories about how awful is to be a teenage girl, is not for fun. The expectations are crushing: from your parents, from society, from the people at power even.

And if you were one of this girls, only to wake up one day after a reality check, let me tell you it hits you so, so hard. You'd obsess over the lost time, terrified it's too late, you'll never be able to catch up with the others. You fell into the trap and now it's game over. Except is not, but no one will ever stop reminding you of that mistake you made.

Even if it was on a period of your life when things were changing so fast you could barely follow the flow of it all. Your body was changing, hormones betraying you. You were expected to be sincere but not overly vulnerable and be pretty but not superficial and be joyful but not annoying and be quiet but not utterly submissive and— you get it.

⠀

⠀My favorite part is that Sakura, a late bloomer, never gave up on herself. For all the people who wasted years of their life caring so much about things that didn't matter at all in the end, Sakura is good representation of what it feels to try and recover. Honey, you can still achieve your dream. Stop beating yourself up, stop destroying yourself over mistake you knew because you didn't know better. You know better now, don't you?

It's not gonna be easy, but you can still work for it, go for it, train for it, you can change. Humans are allowed to change. If you had a slow start, if you found your purpose years after you were expected too, if you find it hard to understand what to do or even understand yourself, if you crumbled under the pressure, if you weren't as strong willed or if you didn't have it as bad as others, breath, it's okay, don't punish yourself any further.

⠀

⠀And it brings me to the question of why do we confuse obsession with passion. Why do we turn innocent actions into something with ill intentions?

Naruto was passionate about being Hokage the same way Sasuke was passionate about revenge. Sasuke's thing wasn't negative before Orochimaru put in his head that he was wasting time. Sakura was passionate about getting recognition from Sasuke at first, which is not so different from Naruto wanting recognition from the village or Sasuke wanting his brother to acknowledge him.

And it was not until the Forest of Death that she realized she doesn't want recognition of that type anymore. That's the symbolism behind her cutting her hair. She wants Naruto and Sasuke to see her as someone they can truly trust in, as an equal not in terms of power, but as reliable teammates. There she shows that she has grown to the point she cares about them both, about what both of them think of her, about their well-being and approval as her friends. She's done wasting time, and even when we see she's every inch as weak as she was before, what changes is her actitud.

⠀

⠀If you read her interactions with this in mind, it makes more sense.

In the beginning of the Chunnin Exams, Kakashi makes sure she will participate for herself and not her teammates. She does. And Kakashi's worries are confirmed twice, when she almost raised her hand after the writing exam because she was concerned about Naruto and when she almost raised her hand after the Forest of Death, because she was concerned about Sasuke. She wanted to be there but she was willing to give it up if it was to protect her teammates dreams or well-being.

She tries to stop Sasuke from leaving the village because that's her first big loss. That's her first time facing a tragedy. It is traumatic, just not so big when compared to her team experiences. But she just realized how much they mean to her and how much she wants to be better for them and now it's over, too late, too late, too late.

She asks Naruto to retrieve Sasuke because she does know she was weak, she wasted her time, she should be better. And when Naruto comes back so beaten, she swears next time she will be able to go with him. At least strong enough to be considered to go on the mission, to be considered useful enough, skillful enough.

Her reason to train with Tsunade is because she wants to be capable of resisting the conditions of a fight. Being a medic nin made her irreplaceable, being a combat medic nin gave her the freedom of following her team around and withstanding more than the common medic nin.

She fights Sasori and learns mid-fight to deal with him without Chiyo'd help, all not just for Gaara, but for a clue of Sasuke's whereabouts. And she got it. In that sense, she reached her goal in that moment. She proved she had it in her.

⠀

⠀From there on, it was a struggle. Almost every decision she made, it was thinking of how she could help or what was (wrongly assumed) her responsibility to her team.

She confessed to Naruto her fake love because she believed it was her responsibility, when it was not. Naruto's feelings were their own, his promise to take Sasuke back to Konoha maybe started with her, but became his own quickly. She didn't have to lie to him and to herself in order to fix only temporally a situation that would get out of their hands anyway. Was it something awful to do? Yes. Was she wrong? Yes. Should it be excused? No. But there is a reason to her actions.

She tried to kill Sasuke because she thought she had a responsibility to him as her teammate (to stop him from descending more into darkness), to Naruto as her teammate and friends (to spare him of the hurt of being the one to kill Sasuke) and to Konoha and the shinobi world (to stop his acts, to put at end to the madness).

When she jumps to their side at war and says she has finally reach them, she means this, the fact she has a reason to stand beside them even if it's not in power or fighting skills. Her invocation is as useful as theirs, she's the best medic nin available so she needs to go with them, even if only for a second or even if only on one thing, she can still do something for them. Let it be keeping Naruto's heart beating, or giving Obito chakra to keep his Mangekyou running longer to find Sasuke, or hit Kaguya in the head so Naruto and Sasuke can seal her.

She even says it. If with her life she can help them at least a little, if she can change things to their favor at least a little, if she can heal them at least a little, she'd be satisfied with that.

⠀

⠀Isn't it amazing that the girl who wasted her Academy years in being pretty and spend years upon years trying to be accepted by society, a girl so weak and helpless, became a woman capable of helping so many people. Someone strong and reliable, top on her field, compared to the best of the kunoichis. She didn't know what she wanted in life at 12 years old (she rambled nonsense when Kakashi asked), but when she finally figured out, she didn't stop until achieving it.

And I think that's good, right there. I don't like how the story execute this concept, I don't like how certain things were portrayed, but it makes sense when you consider her core as a character.

I love her going from true zero, (just knowledge, stuff anyone could adquire with proper studying), to the top. I love that she had a bad beginning, that she was annoying and naive and ignorant, that she had so much room for growth and she did grow into it. Kishimoto's writing aside, I'll give him this: Sakura is a needed character in the plot and he gave her the necessity for being a great character. He just,,,,, well, like he said it himself, he struggled a lot with her, writing her, portraying her properly. And it'll forever show.

[kiigan]

canon questionnaire.

what made you pick up this character?

Itachi was actually my first ever rp muse! Allllllll the way back when, when we didn't even know the truth about the massacre and Pein was only a silhouette and believed to be Minato but actually called Uzumaki Arashi. Good ol' days. But also - I picked him because I was just so drawn to his backstory, or lack thereof. At the time we only knew he was Sasuke's older brother who apparently had gone psycho out of the blue, and I just had this hunch that there had to be more about that mess. Also because, honestly, do you realize how cool Itachi's first appearance was.

how did you get into this franchise/fandom?

I got into Naruto because my first boyfriend was a big fan and introduced me to it lmao. And then I introduced my best friend and we started writing together just for funsies, and then suddenly our whole group of friends joined in and it became a glorious mess and so much fun.

what’s the best thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

I mean... it's the typical shonen anime? So it provides super cool battles and action sequences, as expected. But, not to be biased, I totally am the Akatsuki are one of the coolest antagonist groups ever created. I put them on legendary levels such as the Ginyu Force from Dragon Ball.

what’s the worst thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

Probably the ungodly amount of fillers. I understand why they happen but, personally, I would much rather wait and go for a few months without content than to be presented with low-effort ideas and plots that, often, only ruin the pacing and even provoke continuity errors. And I gotta say, Kishimoto's treatment of female characters is questionable at best.

what’s the best thing about the fandom?

The fandom itself! Fandoms are what we make of them, and especially on a website such as tumblr where you are responsible for curating your own dashboard experience (...if we do not count the stupid tumblr ads and recommendations). Meeting new people with similar interests, the possibility to make friends that live literally on the other side of the world, getting to write with super talented people that develop your own muse so much, watching people get passionate about their muse(s) and creating such wonderful headcanons and metas.

what’s the worst thing about the fandom?

Again, the fandom itself. There are nice people and toxic people everywhere and that's unavoidable. In my humble opinion, what matters is to focus on the good ones.

what’s the best thing about the canon you are writing?

Itachi's whole story breaks my heart. At the same time, there is A LOT about him that was never disclosed in canon (even with the Shinden novels) and I love to explore those parts. I love to imagine stuff like what would his hobbies be, how would he react to [insert situation], how would he get along with [insert character] if they met. One of my favorite things, at the moment, is to create headcanons for my post-war verse and to create my own canon about how Itachi would adapt to things such as now being practically blind, having to properly monitor his illness, his thoughts and emotions about returning to Konoha, how to try to fix things with Sasuke, etc etc - it's been so much fun!

what’s the worst thing about the canon you are writing?

Uhhh nothing really? I mean, there are the general issues about Naruto as a whole, but regarding Itachi specifically I can't really think of any huge problems right now. Other than him being dead T-T

have you tweaked the character from canon? if so, what did you tweak?

No and yes. No, because I try my best to be as in-character as possible and to be faithful to Itachi's nature as a character. But, yes, because I write a lot of canon-divergent verses and those obviously require adapting. Even in purely canon settings, I'd say I tweak some stuff in that, for example, I love writing Itachi as a quirky child (and then teen and adult) and as a very caring and nurturing person, even when he cannot openly show it. It's totally fine if not everybody agrees with my interpretation but, to me, it makes a lot of sense and gives me a lot of joy to write.

are there some things you dislike about how the show/series/etc. portray the character you have picked up? if so, what?

I wouldn't say I dislike... but also because, all in all, Itachi doesn't have much screen time lol. So there isn't much of a chance for Kishimoto to screw him over. I would, however, have loved a chance to see Itachi ponder on the circumstances that led to the massacre - for example, does he grow to regret his choice as he gets older? He does this reflection a bit when talking to Naruto during the Edo Tensei period, but that wasn't enough for me damn it! Also, while we're here, I'm gonna be forever salty that, in that same period, we were denied a chance for Itachi to reunite with Kisame and with Shisui.

what would you say is the most unique trait about your character?

Itachi has a lot of idiosyncrasies, which is one of the reasons why I love him. Little quirky nerd weasel~ Perhaps the most unique trait, however, is his idealism. He was severely traumatized by the third war and that is the basis for his idealism but, at the same time, he truly believes in what he preaches. He truly believes that he can get strong enough to make this world a better place and this is the sort of undying motivation to do good that, for example, I only see in Shisui. Of course, a lot of other characters have their own strong motivations (Naruto himself being the easiest example), but these two Uchiha idiots are mostly the ones who commit to the there's some good in this world and it's worth fighting for mindset.

are there any other characters from the franchise you’d like to play?

On discord, I have written little bits and pieces of Kimimaro, Temari, and Rock Lee.

are there some characters from the franchise you can’t stand? 

I can't stand Danzo for all the obvious reasons, but that's also exactly why I love him as a villain. And, um... the same applies to Hiruzen, in a way. I do believe that Hiruzen is a man with good intentions, but he always falls victim to his own passiveness. The way Itachi goes to him after having literally just murdered his parents and traumatized his little brother for life and all Hiruzen can say is I'm so sorry this happened. Hiruzen is just a gutless Danzo, resting on the laurels of the whole Will of Fire spiel.

what are your thoughts on the canon ships for the character, if any?

Honestly, I'm not even sure if Itachi has a canon ship? Izumi is supposed to be his girlfriend but at the same time it can easily be taken as Izumi having an unrequited crush. Personally, I think they are very cute together but I would have loved to see more development other than to make it like "let's give Itachi a gf because he's cool and needs a girl to dangle as a trophy".

what is your personal ship bias for your canon character?

I am dying on the Kisame/Itachi hill and unapologetically so. Their bond is so special and precious to me, the way they grow from not-so-veiled death threats upon first meeting to genuinely respecting each other. The way Kisame, known as the Monster of the Bloody Mist, lets this scrawny Uchiha kid take the lead and trusts him without reserves. The way Itachi cares, even if he must keep up his detached psychopath persona, and keeps Kisame out of harm's way whenever he feels a battle won't go in his favor. THEIR MATCHING RINGS, IN BOTH THE FINGER POSITION AND THE SYMBOL MEANING. And the way Itachi is literally what Kisame thinks of as he's about to offer himself to his sharks. All of this is so *CLENCHES FIST*

are there any ships you can’t stand, why?

...Um. Sasuke/Itachi.

how long have you been writing the character?

Technically, for almost two decades. Not continuously so. If we are talking about this blog only, then it's been since January 2024.

should people get into the franchise you're writing from, yes or no?

I mean, sure? If they like the franchise and have characters they would like to write? I don't see why not.

if you could sum up your character with one sentence, what would it be?

I already did it above, so: Little Quirky Nerd Weasel

which song do you feel describes your character the most and why?

I have a few, actually! For some examples: "Gasoline", by Halsey, "Second Chance", by Shinedown, "The World of Mercy", by DIR EN GREY (this one is particularly👌👌👌for my villain verse). I think they're very Itachi-coded in both lyrics and melody. And, of course, the song in my pinned post: "Scarlet", by Yamaoka Akira. This song is peak Itachi vibes, especially when you look into his eyes. And, uh. Generally, almost all DIR EN GREY songs inspire me a lot to write his replies, because a lot of them are also the songs that I started writing him to, all those years back.

tagged by : @sagemom ♡ tagging : if you're reading this you're tagged by default~