#Literally one of the strongest ninja

[iloveacronix]

Dragons Rising s2 is coming out next week(In english YAYYYY), how we feeling?

[hehelegos]

can we talk about how crazy strong cole has gotten? he went from barely being able to move a rock he couldnt touch in MOTM and now he is literally sprouting a full blown cave with not alot of resistance??

[denkilightning]

every single character focused season has been about the ninja finding new ways to use their powers and rising up to whatever the challenge as elemental masters. All Except For Jay. both skybound and prime empire put him in places where theoretically he should have the biggest advantage because of lightning and electricity (the sky+a literal game) except the circumstances take his power away from him completely. because his mastery over his power is completely unquestioned and unconquered. his seasons and each and every character arc he has is about him as a person.

jay never in all 15 seasons had any issue with his power that he himself needed to overcome. never in all 15 seasons did jay receive or need any guidance towards his power. hes the first to learn spinjitzu and airjitzu from the og 4, he figures out how to cleanse the nunchucks of lightning on his own and does it in a second with no struggle at all.

even after losing all his memory and training he can go toe to toe with nya, arguably their strongest fighter with his loss being a strategic one.

each trick and move we see of his is developed by himself off screen because he is the one character whose power was never brought into question. the only way he ever lost his power was when all the protector's powers were taken from them.

that boys elemental mastery is fucking unmatched.

and thats not even counting all the different weapons weve seen him use, and how he excels at gymnastics (bro did back to back to back and back again backflips as stimming)

in conclusion, FSM had to make that bitch crazy and traumatised and obsessed with a single person who didnt like him or he would be too powerful because when others has to fight against their own powers multiple times just to control it, jays only enemy has always been his mind.

[taddymason]

Thinking about Jay’s role in the team, and I know I’ve mentioned before that Jay’s main themes are family, and that if given the choice between his close circle of loved ones and the greater good he’ll choose the former, but also another thing that sets him apart from everyone else is the reason why he’s a ninja. With characters like Zane and Cole it’s mentioned multiple times that their purpose is to take care of others, those who can’t protect themselves. Nya and Kai also have this duty/responsibility theme that makes a lot of sense considering the circumstances they both grew up in, and that they both have in common that they want to prove themselves at first and then focus on the role that “they’re supposed to” play (aka; Kai accepting that his role isn’t to be the green ninja and that his duty is to protect Lloyd, and Nya accepting to stop being the samurai X which was her way of proving herself even without being a ninja and in the end becoming the water ninja). Lloyd has a mix of all of this because he's constantly the chosen one in every situation since he was 10, and it's all he knows as a way of life, but back to the topic:

Jay has nothing to do with this.

And I'm not saying that Jay doesn't care about helping people, or anything like that. It's just that it's very interesting that he's the furthest away from having this motivation to be a ninja. Even Wu, in one of the books, confirms that Jay in the pilots saw the opportunity to be a ninja as an excuse to have exciting adventures after a rather humble life in which Jay was going from one hobby to another.

And while the other roles in the team always come back to the theme of protecting others and all that, the reason why Jay is chosen instead is because he's a dreamer. In the flashback and the Ninja of Lightning book Wu explains that the reason he chose Jay was precisely because he had this ability to think outside the box and motivate others with his sense of humor. In almost every first season there is an instance where Jay quickly adapts to a situation just by seeing the other side of things that others don't see, and having this amount of skills: He's the one who discovers how to do spinjitzu, who finds the temple of light, who adapts first to space/digiverse, who does best in the Ninja Roll episode, etc. It's not that Jay is the smartest or strongest, but give him anything and the guy, in some unconventional way, will try to take advantage of it and build a spaceship out of literal scrap metal.

There aren't really many examples of this in the later seasons, BUT, it's worth noting that Wu also chose him because Jay knows how to motivate others with his sense of humor. And what does he do in S12 when he's separated from the others and trapped in a video game? He makes a resistence to oppose Unagami and inspire people who were also trapped in that game.

With all that being said, I just wanted to point out how distinct Jay's role on the team is and his motivation for being a ninja in the first place. It's not like he has this heroic duty, or necessarily wants to do justice, he's just a guy with a normal life who wanted to have exciting adventures and tap into this creativity of his and do some good in the process if it ended up working out. Which is sad with how things are right now but whatever…

[absolutelynotsanebaby]

I was talking to my mutual about Cole when I had a surge of Thoughts so per usual you all have to hear them now. I was considering a couple things, namely his development and place as the "strong guy" on the team and his masculinity (and how it presents in the show vs in fanon).

Cole's pretty often typecast as the gruff strong guy in a lot of fan-media (from fanfics to fanart etc) which isn't wrong because he was like that, especially within the early seasons. The way he spoke, the way he acted, his place as a sort of leading force. In season three you even see him in that stupid lumberjack fit (said affectionately), it's all very traditionally masculine. Which fits his whole Strong and Big guy of the team role (the five man band archetypes etc etc). However, it's interesting to say because at his core, he's very emotional and very driven by a strong sense of internal compassion (with a canonical affinity to children). Which obviously none of that is opposed to masculinity but these traits begin to show more as the gruffness pulls back. The first real example of that I think is in ToE with his fight with Jay. I don't read him as being invested in their fighting the same way Jay was. Jay was fueled by insecurity and a very strong sense of jealousy and possessiveness. Cole? I think he was just reacting to Jay's aggression, which didn't put Nya in a better position but it is a difference. 

So when their match rolls around, he's the first one to realize what they're doing is stupid and give in. He reaches out emotionally to Jay. However, Jays still is a friend so that is easy to write off as a symptom of friendship. And then following ToE we have possession and DOTD which I think are where he really begins to develop, and have the strongest examples of what I'm getting at. I'm going out on a limb and saying that I really see his prior gruffness as a sort of armor, to be good enough for the team (insert that one Wu note of him staying up late before missions) and also there his whole rebellious streak against his father trying to force him to be someone he's not. (Note: I wouldn't be surprised if how Lou raised him really had a impact on all this) Then, we get to Possession and both his self worth and self image are shook badly by literally dying. He outright says he's not a ninja anymore, which I think he based a lot of who he was on (<- which is why struggling with it hit so hard).

Finally DOTD comes up and I think we see the strongest example of where his compassion really become a core trait. It's his fight with Yang. He had no reason to reach out to him, to be honest he had the right not to, but he did and it worked! He didn't get out of DOTD in the end with brute force, he got out of it with emotional support (his team showing up), a stubborn adherence to his moral code, and reaching out to Yang with empathy. From that point on, I think he's softer and more prone to being emotional, it's like there was a very real shift. To circle back to Jay, because I think he makes for a good comparison, he does not develop like that post ToE. Actually, the issues carying from s3 (though, they do exist prior just not as starkly) all the way to Skybound where it gets violently (literally) addressed. Jay fans can probably say it better than me but the season is about his insecurity and treatment of Nya and there's a reason both Nadakhan and Cliff are like that (read: they're parallels). It's just interesting because both Cole and Jay have issues with self worth and image but they present and develop very differently. 

There's also the fanon aspect with those two that's really funny. I think everyone's aware of the infamous fanon-bruise, the 2010s-yaoification. Uwu Jay, Big Strong Man Cole, and how weirdly racist it is. It's just funny to note because the issues projected onto Cole in fanon are ones Jay has, like, in the show. Cole's the more emotional and compassionate one of the two, but because of the strong guy role, it gets flipped around in fanon. Going by the 'traditional' (read: toxic) masculine standards, in terms of personality and character, I think Jay more closely aligns. It reminds me of this post I saw once, it was of Hunted where Jay was making the plane (?) and Cole was with baby Wu. It called Jay the 'mom' and Cole the 'dad' which I find kind of funny because if you look at it through that hetero-normative lense, it really should be the other way around. Cole's the one caring for the baby pretty consistently, Jay's the one making a machine and Working. Did Jay just get called the 'mom' there because people think of him as smaller and weaker and therefore more feminine? Did Cole get called the dad just because he's strong and considered bigger? It's interesting. Fanon does Cole really dirty sometimes.

To get back on topic of Cole's narrative development, then we get to MOTM (like a bajillion years later which no I'm not complaining except I am). Cole's characterization in MOTM is so fucking good. MOTM does a fantastic job at tying together several of his strings. It ties in Lilly, his self esteem, his staunch morality, affinity towards leadership, and compassion into one, pretty bow. MOTM puts Cole back into a leading role, and it gives him several groups to reach out to (Vania, the munce and geckle, the uppily). It draws back the insecurity present in him, letting it show again to be addressed. It even ties in his relationship to Wu in a really lovely way to me. MOTM is the season where Cole finds who he is, his identity and his place as his mothers son.

Speaking of that, I have a very strong love for male characters who exemplify who their mothers were and what they taught them. The scenes with Lilly really put his entire character into a different perspective. At the start he was this tough kid fresh off grief and pressurized so strongly by his dad and himself and he goes through loops and hurdles of strength and identity and by the end he finds himself exactly where he needs to be. Where he's the strongest and it's in his mothers footsteps, as someone both emotional and strong. It's a really lovely character arc to take him on, and though I haven't watched DR, I've heard they continue that on. 

Anyways, consider it positive masculinity, consider it anything else. I just had a lot of thoughts to share and hope I don't sound too 'reading-too-deep' about it. Bye bye Kar ramble over.

[localvillagecryptid]

Continuing the line of SVSSS/Naruto ideas, Liu Qingge as a kirigakure ninja will not leave my mind. Aside from the appeal of him in ninja hunger games, I think he'd honestly thrive really, really well in kiri. Honestly, maybe too well. Depending on when he's born, he could be one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. Actually, I fully believe he'd become one regardless of the timeline. Little baby lqg will come across a guy with a sick ass sword and decide to fight him and take it. He doesn't realize he's just taken a legendary sword off the corpse of a dangerous jonin who might even be a nukenin depending on the era. Or maybe he does, but he doesn't care abt it besides the fact that he now has a sick ass sword.

Actually I think lqg would unintentionally solve every problem in kiri. His philosophy is to just stab his problems until they go away, and unlike SVSSS, naruto DOES actually run on that kind of logic and is in fact the perfect place for that kind of thinking. They're definitely on that "stab it first and talk later" timing (except for naruto himself, but this ain't about him). So lqg would not only fit in, but be very efficient. In fact I believe he'd be so efficient that he ends up gaining influence without even realizing it. He'd stab his problems so good that the other ninjas will be like "Oh my god, he's so good at stabbing problems" and then they'd direct him to the Big Problems and suddenly he's killing the mizukage and freeing kiri. And he doesn't understand the implications of this until there's a mizukage hat on his head.

Which is a Big Problem, because the prize for being the strongest guy in the village is desk work. Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan could've warned him about the downfalls of being the most efficient worker in the company- that being, you're rewarded with more work- but unfortunately he was not aware of this premise, and they're probably in konoha or something, so by the time he realizes this, he's already behind the desk. This would be a Big Problem, because unlike every other issue in his life so far, punching or stabbing paperwork doesn't make it go away.

But also, kiri is in such shambles that I honestly don't think there'd be many other candidates available to replace him, especially not one with such a strong reputation inside and outside of the village. Because a random guy killing the kage and usurping him WOULD make international news. And that would mean they're both wary and intrigued, because they don't know this man or his goals + the possibility that kiri is now just unstable enough to possibly be taken advantage of, especially bc they don't know what kind of kage liu qingge would be. If he abdicates immediately and hands it to an even lesser known guy, that would cause more unrest and attention.

Lqg wouldn't care, except he does in fact have some level of affection/care for his village and the people in it, and also just knows pragmatically that abandoning everyone would be a kind of shitty thing to do. But I also think he would Not Give a Shit about being kage and would resent this decision every day. Kiri will have to find an assistant for him (to be secret actual kage) FAST so he can go back to stabbing things.

I think obviously the akatsuki will also have an issue, because the mizukage decimating kiri is like, Super Important and so they either have to find a way to get rid of Liu qingge or they gotta find a way to use him. Which I think honestly wouldn't work. I'm not gonna say liu qingge would be able to overpower them all, but like I said, naruto logic is very much on that "stab first" timing and I fully believe liu qingge would literally just do that. Random akatsuki break into his office? Stab. They try to sneak in in disguise/as a spy? Stab. They try to become or pretend to be a friend? Stab. Lqg has 3 friends and 2 of them are from scum villain and the other one is his sword. They hit him with a sharingan? Stab. He's probably run into demons with similar abilities back in svsss and can recognize a genjutsu. He'd learn by then how to break out of it. Hell, knowing him, he mightve taken the fight to the akatsuki even without realizing it- he's probably memorized the bingo book so he can systematically seek out and beat the fuck out of the people in it back when he was still a genin or something. He's probably tangoed with some of these people before becoming mizukage. They probably tried to recruit him at some point, in which case he attempted to stab them until they left. Basically, kiri is in safe hands. Kind of.

As to who his right hand would be... I honestly don't know. Probably some rando. Maybe the guy who works with terumi. It'd be funny if it was shang qinghua, though I can't imagine him doing very well in kiri. Like I don't think he'd die, but he'd be very, VERY unhappy and somehow even MORE paranoid than before, if that's even possible. He probably clung to Liu Qingge's thighs throughout their second life the way he did to mobei Jun in canon. I think he'd be better off in konoha or kumo or something. Tho speaking of which: mobei Jun would be related to Haku 100%. In fact I can imagine him getting along w zabuza lowkey. That being said, he would NOT do well as mizukage either, at least not without an assistant. Idk, maybe lqg passes the baton to Haku, if bro survives. I'd believe it - Haku was a very smart boy! I think he'd know to use that pretty face to his advantage as well. Let people's guards down, etc etc. Idk that's all I've got for now.

[ipostwhatiwant1202]

More Headcanons: Personality Quirks

Leo:

• calm and collected but also very stubborn. it's his way or the high way until you prove him otherwise

• feelings aren't foreign but definitely aren't something he's particularly good at. he's guarded when he's confronted with someone who's heart is on their sleeve

• feelings, that being said, aren't a sign of weakness in his eyes. go ahead, be angry or be sad, but get it together cause shit needs done

• only truly comforting if you're full blown sobbing, and depending on your relationship, big bro leo or soft boyfriend leo come out

• best at de-escalation unless he's the one fighting with the other person

• hates, hates, hates being wrong (i don't make the rules) but weirdly not afraid to apologize for being wrong, in his own way of course

• he hates the word sorry and believes it's just a word. since he's a man of few words, he prefers to show he's sorry. (i've mentioned it before and i'll die on this hill, king of acts of service)

• can dish advice like it's candy but for the life of him can't take his own advice

• the patience of an absolute saint, unless you're one of his brothers

• confrontation is his middle name

• sarcastic but very thoughtful and very appreciative

• besides mikey, he gets the most depressed because he feels like his only identity is a leader at times

• he strikes me as the kind of guy that just comes up out of nowhere and says "need some help with that?"

• willing to try anything once, open minded to an extent if it's not dangerous

• extremely trustworthy and loyal

Raph:

• hothead but the most sensitive out of all the brothers. very quick to cry

• feelings, like mikey, are shown on his sleeve. he makes it everyone's problem

• bad at communication...that's all i gotta say on that

• unhealthy projector of feelings but is willing to hear tips on how to do better

• the type to start crying if you start crying

• not the most patient in the world but if you're new something he tries (keyword: tries) to be as patient as possible

• he gets awkward if he knows he hurt someone's feelings and has to apologize. very bad at words and not the best at showing he's truly sorry

• horrible at advice

• chronic gaslighter in some situations (i don't make the rules)

• he truly does try to better himself if you call him out on his bs, he's able to hold himself accountable..in his own way

• even though he's a hothead, once you start crying, immediately he stops. the first sight of your lip quivering and he's shut up cause he crossed the line and he knows it

• doesn't mind confrontation

• loyal, loyal, loyal

• type to hold a grudge forever and never forget

• the "where's my hug at" guy

Donnie:

• his intelligence is his strongest suite but sometimes it goes to his head...literally

• very awkward with feelings and has no idea what to do in situations that call for comfort

• unless he's very comfortable with you, he will send you to someone else if you're upset so he doesn't upset you more

• not emotional but also not not emotional

• doesn't like confrontation at all unless you're nice about it

• best at communication out of all the guys because if he's bothered, he makes it very known

• besides mikey, he's very easily manipulated

• chronic overthinker

• very insecure in his abilities as a ninja

• hates to talk about his feelings and bottles them up until he explodes

• not one to get angry but he is the passive aggressive king

• germaphobe (no elabortion...he just is)

• he's very kind and very helpful when the situation calls for it

• he's the most gentle of all the guys

• definitely on the spectrum (not sure which, but he's definitely on one)

Mikey:

• number one most emotional out of all the brothers and doesn't show it

• jokester but is able to have meaningful and deep conversations the best

• most empathetic and compassionate but too quick to trust

• explosive temper that only comes out when his family or friends are in life threatening danger

• feelings are worn on his sleeve and he isn't ashamed to show them

• boundaries are an extreme work in progress (do with that what you will)

• sometimes is unable to decifer when not to make a joke

• will take jokes as far as they'll go to the point where the offense level is very questionable

• apologizes until it gets incredibly annoying

• will never be afraid to share his opinion but will always be quick to point out the good

• he cries all the time with no shame

• actually a very analytical and extreme outside the box thinker

• the "i had him/her first" friend if you get into a relationship

• very good listener when needed, but selective hearing most of the time

• he has adhd. nothing further needed.

[jinnaizaemon]

Originally I wanted to write about both Oshitsu's mask and Shousei's face... but then I kept thinking of things I want to talk about regarding both Oshitsu and Shousei separately, so for now let me just ramble about Tasogaredoki's niche guy and I'll save A Shousei Post for later lol. While I won't be spoiling key story elements, I'll mention his role in the third movie, The Strongest Tactician, so be warned!

The guy of the day!

Let's get over his profile quick. I'll be translating his description from The Strongest Tactician's visual book:

Oshitsu Osaretsu of the Tasogaredoki ninja army!

He's one of those characters that has a very small role in canon but still benefits from relative popularity among fans. Especially after the third movie, in which he plays a part, people got really curious about him mostly because of his voice actor. If we consider Zatto and Sonnamon the "main" characters of Tasogaredoki, all their supporting cast is dubbed by relatively small voice actors (so much that they are somewhat inconsistent), yet somehow Oshitsu has the luxury to be consistently dubbed by Nakamura Yuuichi, who has had so many of his roles break into the mainstream by now that even casual anime watchers across the globe are bound to have heard his voice before. Pretty funny given how little appearances Oshitsu makes in the anime!

Oshitsu Osaretsu, subleader (kogashira) of the Black Eagle squad of Tasogaredoki's ninja army, tasked with infiltrating and investigating the enemy. He wears a soriko paper mask.

If you want to read more about how Tasogaredoki ninja army is organized and about the role of each squad, you can read about it from kumigashira himself here.

Unlike Zatto, Sonnamon, Yamamoto and Jinnaizaemon, his age, star sign, and blood type are unknown, so there's not much to add in term of purely canon fact, except that as subleader of the Black Eagle squad, he's on equal footing with Yamamoto in term of hierarchy, and he has Shiira Kansuke, Soriya Souta and Gojou Dan under his command.

His name is spelled 押都 oshitsu 長烈 osaretsu, with characters that are mostly used for phonetic purposes. 押 oshi is used in the verb 押す osu, "to push". 都 tsu means capital or big city. 長 osa means long, and 烈 retsu means fierce, vehement (blushing emoji).

But really, the intent is for his name to sound like 押しつ押されつ oshitsuosaretsu, "push and pull", or more literally "pushing and pushed."

In the anime, he makes his first appearance during Hama Shuichirou's introduction arc, the holding the fort at Hodohodo Castle story. It starts on 23-22, but Oshitsu appears from episode 23.

Interestingly, the second part of 23-22 (and then most of the rest of the arc) takes place as night, and even before Tasogaredoki is physically introduced into the arc, the sound of a owl hooting can be heard in the background. It's a sound effect that could seem incidental if it wasn't associated with Tasogaredoki on multiple occasions.

Zatto makes hooting sounds himself in the fifth musical:

Zatto: (hooting sound) Takiyashamaru: What was that, just now? Zatto: It's~ a~ se~ cret~!

(in the encore, there's another scene where Zatto does it in front of Isaku, and you can hear some hooting back. Isaku reacts "these aren't the cry of birds, they are people!")

In the second movie, more hooting and an owl is physically present when showing us Isaku and Rantarou, just before Zatto can quickly pinpoint their location and attack them:

In the third movie, Tasogaredoki initially works with Ninjutsu Academy and seems to have no problem going in and out, and Oshitsu is seen running across the school without seemingly being bothered by Komatsuda (in the novel version, there's a part where Zatto explains that only Sonnamon got bothered by Komatsuda at the entrance but everyone else managed to sneak in lol, and Oshitsu's sudden appearance startled Yamada-sensei, who couldn't sense him). That is to say that they make little effort to hide themselves from Ninjutsu Academy in the first part of the movie, but events lead them to stop working with the school later on. In the second half of the movie, an owl can be heard and seen again, this time spying on the fifth years getting some info from Dokutake:

His profile mentions the soriko mask he wears. You might have seen similar ones in other Japanese media, probably most famously in Spirited Away? I also assume that in Kimetsu no Yaiba, the paper mask worn by Tanjirou's father during the Hi no kagura ritual dance takes inspiration from such masks.

I'm not randomly talking about owls lol, my point is that even though Oshitsu rarely makes appearances, him and his squad, in charge of spying, collecting intel and reporting back to Zatto, might be much more omnipresent than they appear.

It's evident that Tasogaredoki uses hooting sounds as their yabane, or secret code, but I think the visual of the owl itself representing Oshitsu becomes the most explicit in the third movie, where he physically disappears from the story (up until the very end) but Tasogaredoki manages to continue keeping tabs on Ninjutsu Academy anyways. These owls (and their cry) never show up at random times too, it really shows how efficient and scary Tasogaredoki can be, Zatto is always ahead of everyone huh!

hoot hoot hoot... hoot hooooot...

Then again, in 24-23, when Oshitsu makes a fool of Bouta, he does it with a certain enthusiasm for the performance, so maybe he's just really into the arts!

This kind of paper mask is called zoumen, and it's used in bugaku, the dance and choregraphies performed with gagaku, the traditional court music of Japan. Gagaku became a tradition for the elite as early as the 8th century, and was developed after the court music of China and Korea (respectively yayue and a-ak) were introduced to Japan, along with others influences from India and south-east Asia at large. The repertoire involves highly codified religious dances with slow, stylized movements repeating itselves in patterns, with performers wearing sophisticated costumes and masks depicting characters that can be animals, humans, and gods.

While most bugaku masks are carved from light wood and such solid material, zoumen are made with a thin layer of silk glued to paper, then decorated with near abstract, geometrical shapes meant to look like a human face.

The mask Oshitsu wears has a design unique to the soriko zoumen. It takes its name from its associated dance, Soriko, which you can watch for yourself on Youtube. Imported from Korea, it seems to be tied to rites in festivals tied to the brewing of alcohol, and gods of the hearth in Buddhism and shinto alike ; gods that are always linked to purity and cleansing by fire, but really the idea of alcohol brewing and worship of the hearth is to be associated with the safety of home, isnt it?

All in all, the history of this mask is blurry, the certainty of its meaning is lost to time, and all that's left is its eerie design and the otherworldly dance that accompanies it.

Now given how little we know about him, I'm not sure how does all that ties to Oshitsu's character, but it's good food for thought...

...Though the ideas of Tasogaredoki and fire together doesn't really bring ideas of safety to me.

Doesn't that make you curious what the man actually looks like under the mask?

In the meantime, Amako Soubee showed just "just a glimpse at his dandy beard" in The Strongest Tactician's visual book! Oh, he's not just an amateur of the arts, he's also into the latest men fashion in the west... Dreamy... Just who are you, Oshitsu??

[comikas-fandom-dump]

Opinion on sasu saku ?

I know that many of my mutuals and followers dislike SasuSaku, but personally, I don't have the strongest of feelings about the ship. If you ship it, that's fine and I support you. If you don't, that's fine too and I support you as well (as long as you don't harass the shippers). My feelings about it aren't strong enough to have any feelings about both critics and fans, just enough for me to have a personal opinion on the ship.

Sakura: Loving a Shadow

To me, Sakura is loving a shadow. For those of you unaware, "loving a shadow" is a trope describing a character's wishful projection onto a love interest. They have fallen in love with a fantasy rather than the person themselves.

A young Sakura fits the description perfectly as her feelings for Sasuke don't appear to be tied to Sasuke as a person but rather the misinterpretation she has developed of him. For example, she listens to Sasuke having no likes - hobbies or otherwise (depression?!) - and plotting the murder of his brother, and rather than recognizing it for what it is (trauma, obsession, and self-destructiveness), Sakura thinks it's "cool". There's not even an "I can fix him" attitude about her because, to her, this is desirable behavior in a cool, brooding guy.

But no, Sakura doesn't know Sasuke. She doesn't even know he is an orphan and she doesn't express any curiosity about him - to get to know him and learn about those things - either up until it's too late. Instead, it's like she already knows him (except she doesn't) and she proceeds to daydream about the generic forms of affection any boyfriend at all could provide, such as kisses and meaningless flirting. This very early version of Sakura views Sasuke as nothing else but the desires she projects onto him.

And yes, I'm aware that it's unfair to shit on Sakura for not grasping the seriousness of Sasuke's trauma with the psychological understanding of a licensed therapist at the ripe age of 12 or having childish romantic fantasies. But that's the point!

Sakura is not being malicious. She is literally a 12-year-old child whose concept of romance is too underdeveloped to realize that even she herself is not a product to be advertised and that romance is more than just a transaction between two parties. Arguably, she objectifies Sasuke in the same way that she objectifies herself, which is evidence of her immaturity and insecurity. Her mind judges the both of them by each of their respective aesthetic appeal and not their value as people.

Sakura is a child and allowed to have those flaws. But that also means that she is living in a flawed, childish fantasy.

Later on, it can be argued that she has escaped that fantasy as she learns about Sasuke's past and her own role as a ninja, but she still hinges what seems to be her entire emotional well-being on this boy she claims to love. She begs Sasuke to stay, tells him that revenge will only further hurt him, claims he is more important to her than friends and family, and, in the end, shows herself willing to leave it all behind so long as she can stay by his side. Nothing else in her life seems to matter if it isn't Sasuke. Needless to say, this reads as an unhealthy obsession.

But again, Sakura is also a very insecure character who used to get bullied and gained confidence not on her own but through the confidence of others. Defining one of your main characters by an unhealthy obsession won't ruin them but the self-damaging nature of said obsession needs to be addressed and/or outgrown unless you want to upset your audience and/or supply them with unhealthy role models.

So, was it addressed? Not really.

And did she grow out of it? Uhm. Somewhat?

Toward the end of the manga, she is still begging and crying for Sasuke to stay but at least she no longer offers to betray her values and loyalties for him anymore. Also, during the Kage Summit, her intention to kill Sasuke proves that Sakura is willing to detach herself from her dependence on Sasuke. That gotta count for something, right? Right?? (Not really)

Then, as an adult, Sakura's relationship with Sasuke is nothing like the childish scenarios she once made up in her head. All of a sudden (or perhaps through years of practice) she can do without constantly being in Sasuke's presence. She can do without kisses and compliments. She now knows that Sasuke was never a "cool guy" but instead a deeply troubled youth. So if her relationship doesn't revolve around her childhood obsessions, then what is it?

Perhaps Sakura has actually grown up (though off-screen). Perhaps she has found the confidence to define herself beyond the attention and acknowledgment that a romantic interest may or may not give her. Her love for Sasuke might no longer be a matter of dependency but one of understanding. She might finally have broken out of her fantasies. Their new relationship dynamic could showcase this growth.

But does it?

Sasuke: Disinterest

(This is a much shorter part, simply because there isn't as much to be said)

Symbols of affection don't define a relationship but that doesn't mean they are merely superficial. Time, effort, and physical presence are not superficial.

In Boruto, Sasuke is out on missions all the time. He can neither provide time nor physical presence. Instead, Sakura must have decided to forgo her need for affection to accommodate Sasuke's lifestyle. All of this begs the question: Did Sasuke also change anything at all about his lifestyle to accommodate Sakura and her needs? Is there some sort of effort he is putting into the relationship at least? Or is their marriage just that one-sided?

Yes, I know that Sasuke isn't an absent father/husband because he wants to but rather because he is bound by guilt and duty and I'm sure there's some canonical reason as to why he was unable to pay a visit to his child even once. But Sasuke has been unable to stop by his own home, say hello to his own daughter, or see his wife outside mission briefings for 10 whole damn years. However unwilling Sasuke may be to spend time away from his family, relationships still need maintenance and their marriage is entirely void of it.

And then also please consider that Sasuke has never definitively (and unambiguously) expressed any romantic interest in Sakura right until the epilogue decided that they should have a child together. And now that the two are married, their relationship seems to run on the bare minimum. So fans have begun asking the question: Does he actually love her?

My Opinion on SasuSaku

You see, I am neither criticizing Sasuke nor Sakura as people. I am criticizing Kishimoto's decisions as a writer because SasuSaku is not believable as a functioning relationship. Really, it is so bad that fans have unironically gotten into conspiracy theories about how Sasuke and Sakura are in a fake marriage and that their child is secretly a SasuKarin ship child.

When I look at their relationship, Sakura is as dependent on Sasuke as ever so that she will accept any scraps she's offered whereas Sasuke himself simply just ✨exists✨ as the other party of their marriage. Not that this is necessarily what Kishimoto intended, but it seems like Sakura doesn't have her needs met and Sasuke doesn't need their marriage. Hence, due to its execution, I dislike SasuSaku. I don't think that their relationship is inherently doomed - I just think it was poorly written.

Sometimes, however, you can instead like/support/respect a ship conceptually because the concept itself has potential, and I believe that SasuSaku is one of those ships. After never feeling safe enough to depend on others for nearly his entire life, Sasuke should've been given the chance to develop a healthy degree of dependency on the people he loves. Meanwhile, after years of making herself miserable chasing after Sasuke, Sakura should've learned that over-dependency is actually quite harmful. Those two journeys could've complemented each other.

I don't know what caused Kishimoto to write SasuSaku's married life to be what it is today instead. I can only guess because maybe he was projecting his own married life of busy schedules and tight deadlines onto his characters. Maybe he just likes his female characters to be loyal. Maybe he just wanted a little more drama in his story. Maybe he thought that this was actually good character development. Either way, it sucked and, much like all of the Next Gen content, the decision ended up harming existing characters.

[berrythep4nda]

Since back when Ninjago was still new I've always had cole as my favorite, but back then I always thought that Cole's true potential was literally the most boring one out of everyone else

Like Zane discovers his true nindroid self, reaches his true potential, fights some giant ass monster in the snow forest where he supposedly comes from

Jay flies and stops a moving roller coaster, saves nya, turns back from snake to human, discovers her as samurai x, and saves the amusement park

Kai literally survives the active volcano, protecting and saving the supposedly green ninja, and discovering his purpose in the team with Lloyd

Nya finds her power, becomes a ninja after being samurai X for so long, MOVES THE TIDAL WAVE to defeat Wu's first student and their strongest villain at the moment,

And Cole's just.... Just make things right with his dad, dance around the stage, save his dad by lifting fallen lights- in a back stage and just.... Move on, that's it

I mean now I see how his relationship with his dad connects with how his character grows throughout the series(I love analyzing the brookstone family connection), and saving his one and only parent from death (he prevents another brookstone death) is deep and emotional but still, I always feel he was being so underrated, and now the only time he's being the focus character is 12 season later

[craftydragonperson]

Happy Birthday, Sacchan 🎉

Happy Birthday to one of my all-time favorite characters. She's a fantastic character, and I thank Yū Kobayashi for doing her character justice. I cannot imagine anyone else who could pull off such comedic timing and convey such powerful emotion to bring a character like Sarutobi to life as she has. I always loved how there is a woman who can keep up with the men of the series in the dirty jokes department. That's something impressive when you consider the strong male ensemble of Gintama.

Sadly, Sorachi did not go through with the Ninja arc he initially intended for the Oniwabanshu. I wish he had honed in on her skills and interest in Gintoki more frequently, since that's how she came into the series by literally crashing down into his life, and why she continues to play a consistent role in his life. Her confidence in her skills and her unwavering devotion to Gintoki deserved to be taken more seriously than what ended up being written in the end.

She puts on a front to combat whatever she assumes has been going on between Otae and Gintoki; however, her bravado and composure, which make her appear to be the "better" woman, makes her rare moments of vulnerability even more notable to me.

I wish the ninjas had gotten the initial arc they were supposed to, because this aspect of her character would be more evident to fans. I admire how much she truly ended up caring not only for Gintoki but also for the rest of the people around her in the end. She ended up loving and appreciating her friends and how they would laugh together.

I especially wished for a Ninja arc because, unlike many fan favorites, she never gave up hope or wavered in doubt when things were at their worst. We see a good example of this in the silly Monkey Hunter arc when everyone grows frustrated to the point of doubting that they will ever get back what they lost. She presses forward and inspires Gintoki to continue the search, rather than accept the current state of things.

In Be Forever Yorozuya, she breaks down in front of her rival Otae, expressing a rare showcase of vulnerability and dissatisfaction. Maintaining the same appearance and composure until the man she loves returns, and unable to accept how the strongest foe she's known could accept that lying down. Regardless of the inevitable and melancholy, she refuses to let go without a fight and chooses to hold onto hope and maintain the status quo as best she can.

As I understand it, the Shogun Assassination arc was something Sorachi had in mind in the early lessons of Gintama. The Ninja arc was mainly scrapped, but elements of what he had planned for Zenzou and Sarutobi made it in. Sachan, almost from the beginning of the arc to the end, takes a serious initiative in the mission and makes it her number one duty to make sure the leader of the Oniwaban makes it out alive. As things become increasingly bleak by the second, she continues to affirm that everyone will make it out alive and things will return to the way they always were. A proper arc that she has earned never came to be, but I wish it had because she epitomizes what Gintama is known for, promising to return home no matter what, so that everyone can continue to smile.

Happy Birthday to the underrated queen of the ninjas 🥷 💜 👓 🎉

[desceros]

sometimes i think about the future symphony "i should have married you" post you made and it makes me so sad but the other night as i was falling asleep i was struck with absolute agony by the awful idea of "i should have married you" because marrying her would have made her hamato and maybe just maybe then she would have been able to become a hamato spirit. and the brothers most likely would have been able to make contact with the hamato sprits like they do in the series. and because if he married her at least he would have been able to contact her spirit. hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh anyways thought i should share hope your day is going fabulously captain desceros

oh, this is awful. allow me to make it even worse :)

we’ve seen in the series that you dont actually have to have the hamato name to be ‘a hamato’ as april demonstrates. we’ve also seen varying levels of. hm. ninj-oscity? ninpo skills? from the boys. like raph and leo doing a ninja mind meld. just. just mikey.

and we’ve always seen that donnie struggles with ninpo the most.

his ninpo is mechanical. when he uses it at its most conscious level, we see it manifest as blueprints coming together. literal pieces, as if constructed with real material. when he panics or doesn’t go through this process, it’s a vague shape that isn’t as strong or as defined in purpose.

so let’s take this scenario you’ve brought to us.

viola-chan would have, unquestionably, been a hamato. and for that reason, i can definitely see her having a hamato spirit.

…..but i dont think donnie would ever be able to communicate with it.

mikey would be the most likely, since he has the strongest ninpo. but he’d be in high demand since he’s so strong, so i think it would tire him and i dont know how much time and energy he’d have to talk to anyone. not to mention the stress he’d feel when donnie would come to him like Hey Can I Talk To My Dead Girlfriend and mikey’s like…. dude i just got home from 24 hours of straight ass kicking i’m about to pass tf out.

and raph, i imagine, died not too long after viola-chan, so whether he could or not is moot.

leo. well. i dont think leo could communicate with viola-chan either. leo is rather avoidant when he feels guilty or ashamed, and (without going into too much of spoiler territory) he’d feel largely unworthy to talk to you, i think. and since we’ve seen that it takes an open heart to use the technique, it wouldn’t work.

and donnie. god. donnie would try. he would try so, so hard. he would try, hours upon hours, every free moment, banging his fists on his thighs as he’d meditate until he’d collapse. reaching out. seeking. already not as strong at this whole ninpo nonsense. unable to calm himself from the need to see you need to see you please just let me see you one last time please please please that would make it impossible to focus. he’d start thinking about tech that could bridge the gap. that’s how his ninpo works, after all. modeling his blueprint. so if he can design a machine that can talk to you. his ninpo can bring it to life.

but he doesnt exactly have a lot of time to dedicate to a personal project like that, let alone one so fucking insane in scale, so actually impossible to do. and as the time passes he grows more and more obsessed with thinking about it. yet simultaneously more and more sure it’ll never happen. i feel like his last moments, alone, bleeding, staring up at the rust-colored sky, he’d be smiling. because of course he he has some kind of death drone army set to go the moment his ninpo cuts off, and it’s one last middle finger to krang. …but also i think he’d be a little relieved. hoping his spirit will find yours and lavi’s.

(do they? who knows. no more hamato exist in that timeline to find out.)

[team7-headquarter]

Naruto and Sakura are so babies to me BECAUSE they are fucked up off-putting little menaces.

They're the same and it's so funny how they can't recognize it. There's literally no reason for it, there is no connection between them except that they are both protagonists so the story went "Listen, I'm gonna make a pair that is sooooo ridiculously enjoyable to watch because they are sooo weird."

They listen to voices in their head?? Canonically? Both of them were bullied as kids for not being like the rest?? Naruto has freaking whiskers and Sakura pink hair!!! They are so bright and colored it's like a joke to know they want to be ninjas!!!!!!!! They are impossibly loud and bitchy, always up to beat anyone including kids and old people, don't hold back when it's time for mean comments or rejecting people they find ugly or weird, share a total of zero braincells between them sometimes, refuse to see themselves as being less than other people—

I genuinely laugh so hard with them. Remember that time after Kaguya got sealed when Naruto and Sakura panicked over how they'd go back to the real world? They had just saved the world and somehow still had time for their silly antics.

Their summons are (let me check ...) MULTIPLE frogs and a giant snail that can divide into many little versions of herself. They got those summons from their mentors, who happened to be an old man perverted to no one famously known for his erotica writing and a woman known by all for her alcoholic tendencies and being a giant loser that refuses to stop gambling.

You need more convincing? Okay.

Naruto and Sakura are a little perverted as teens and spend 70% of the manga crying. They are so lame in some of their speeches, epic losers from the very beginning because they were the dead last shinobi and kunoichi of their class. When they face a problem, their solution is "I'll beat it up with my own hands". Them in Naruto classic? For sure the stupidest duo around.

Half (or more) of their plans are the worst plans ever and the rest miraculously work so well you have to admit they were cool. They are obsessive and short tempered and even when they are the strongest shinobi and kunoichi duo around, you can't trust they will complete the mission without making it worse first.

... I correct it, they will make it worse first.

On the other hand, you have to win their respect, because they sure as hell won't give it to you out of the goodness of their hearts. They are the best representation of the Will of Fire of the younger generation. No one ever thought Naruto would befriend Kurama like he did, no one ever counted on Sakura becoming a world renowned medic nin, no one thought they would reach that far. They're naive to a fault and they don't fit the shinobi life at all and if they weren't the protagonists, they'd be the first to die or something, but they are the mcs and they are absurd as they come.

I love them sooooo much for all they are and all they are not.

[rkaln]

• akatsuki!Lee propaganda

txt

> gaara really feels guilty. in general, it looks like Lee literally found himself in the position that Gaara has always been in, and which he is trying so hard to fix. so a one-time dialogue with an apology should end with an unspoken

"you can come if necessary, and you will be accepted/ not handed over"

> So over time it becomes a safe space and a place where one might not be "akatsuki given that, definitely, over time, Lee may have thought that he would like to return home, but understanding how impossible it is now does not give reason to consider such an option

***

a little offtop, but DO YOU REMEMBER THIS FILLER? I know that filler is not canon, but it fits so well into this AU. because my reasoning boiled down to the fact that orochimaru perfectly manipulates emotions and, in fact, there were no guarantees that Tsunade would have been found at all, but Guy? if before the filler, I put it into the fact that Lee could reason that he would prove to him that it was the right decision. And she will only show herself to him when she can prove it. then AFTER this filler, I consider it one of the main triggers for making a decision.

(ok, no one will deny that Lee is very emotional, and in fact there are enough moments in the canon when it acquires an aggressively dark character, but a really difficult emotional state also plays a role here, and if to a huge offense towards Sasuke and doubts about the life position that "really everything can be done with the help of your own work." ADD THIS MOMENT FROM THE FILLER TO IT?? moreover, he is still, you know, a teenager)

s o, this is one of the reasons why I don't consider that he would return to Guy. if at first it was anger and resentment, then with time and the realization of some other things, it would just come down to shame and guilt.

***

> so Gaara and Lee have much more understanding of each other in this AU at the level of life experience.

So even taking into account the fact that they had no interaction here except for the arch of the exam (because the arch with Sasuke's persecution is already superimposed on the time when Lee left), gaara would still be ready to provide unconditional acceptance to him, because he knows that if you do shitty things and everyone around sees only this, matching something else is too difficult

-> running into the "safe space" becomes something quite stable over time

> what about sex? here it is for me the same "slowburn, but they fuck regularly"

AU, in which I believe that sex appeared before "relationships" because:

- no one ever knows if there will be a next meeting at all, because this is not the case when you will receive a letter telling you what happened

- it is also a more "simple" way of interaction, where you do not need to put everything into words or think about social norms

as part of the speech about rough sex, here is a little more detail.

The longer Lee stays in Akatsuki, the more he returns to the fact that, according to his worldview, he is still a bad person.

There was no such dialogue between them, so sooner or later Gaara must turn away from him too.

"he just didn't understand."

"he hasn't seen what kind of person I am yet."

"I don't deserve to be accepted and treated like this."

... and Gaara's absolute indifference to these facts even starts to anger to some extent.

"he just doesn't believe in what I can be."

(actually, it's funny separately, because generally remembering that they are ninjas in the canon, is it that "I will become the strongest ninja who cannot use chakra" actually sounds like "I will be the best at killing on my own," you know)

so one day it will come to Lee's attempts to cross the line, to grope for the boundary of this acceptance. (so sex is involved in this too) "now he'll understand and push me away" "after that he won't be able to accept me"

It's clear that this is pretty stupid considering Gaara's experience.

of course, it doesn't work. more precisely, it works as a confirmation that there were no borders there.

so rough sex is also a separate tool of interaction, in which Lee can be convinced of acceptance, not to mention some other things like personal emotions, feelings of possession, etc., and for Gaara, it's just something in which he (FINALLY) can not be responsible for his actions. (here I'm talking about the fact that Gaara's whole life is surrounded by responsibility for others, and responsibility for what you did in the past), not to mention some other things like personal emotions etc lol

[secret-engima]

Kumo Thoughts

So this will hopefully be quick but the most common take I see for Kumo in the Naruto fandom is that it's a overly militaristic hellhole (pardon the language) that kidnaps and forcibly breeds any bloodline it can get its hands on and like.

I get it?

the Naruto ninja world is absolutely messed up enough to accommodate a village like that. Especially with- *waves at Kiri*, *waves at ROOT*, *waves at Ame*, *wa-*. But I feel like personally I think that's. The shallowest take? Like if that's how you wanna world build it! You can! Lots of angst and interesting subterfuge down that way.

But we seen in canon that shinobi who live in Really horrible villages do tend to go missing-nin en masse; Kiri is the poster child for this, but Iwa and Suna both have some ... pretty noticeable defections. On the flip side the only REAL Kumo missing-nin we see, iirc, are the Kinkaku brothers.

From The First Shinobi War.

Like- what are things we know about Kumo *really* from the show/s?

and the one everyone harps on in worldbuilding- they tried to kidnap Hinata and Kushina.

HOWEVER. The rest of the things we know about them are:

2. Their Raikage is allergic to doors. He refuses to acknowledge doors. He can and will smash through any wall, window, or other non-door entity in order to exit or enter a room when at all possible. This is not the behavior of a Strict Rigid Militaristic Man this is the behavior of a feral gorilla someone stuffed in an office and expected to do paperwork. Which, granted, A is fully capable of doing his paperwork, by all accounts he's actually really good at running his village. But again. This man is allergic to doors or manners and anyone who is willing to arm wrestle Senju Tsunade to get medical assistance for his own men can't be all bad let's be real.

3. Killer B exists. I feel like he alone is enough evidence against the "military breeding program hellhole" fanon but to break it down. This "brother" of A is not actually his brother. In canon, B is literally just- *some kid*, AT BEST a cousin of the previous Jinchuuriki but that is not confirmed iirc, that was among several other kids that were all lined up and told "we need a new Jinchuuriki and A needs a fighting buddy, run at this training dummy and see if you can help him decapitate it" and when B was the one who succeeded they went "congrats you're his brother now, here's your complimentary octopus monster". And like everyone just accepts this? Not a SINGLE person calls B as a fake brother or points out that he and A are not actually related. Not to mention B has the strongest and most stable relationship with his Biju until Naruto and Kurama work out their bromance, and B was rocking that friendship with his biju *years* before Naruto even knew Kurama was a Thing That Existed.

4. B is also beloved by his village. BELOVED. The people adore him and his weird rapping nonsense. And yeah there's flashbacks in the anime to that not being the case when he was first introduced but B was actually able to work on changing their minds. You really think "small feral child rapping at civilians to make them warm up to him" would have flown in Kiri? In Iwa who canonically keep abusing their jinchuuriki to the point of running off? Nope. No sir. B is also allowed to have a team of his own, and seems to not only be an accepted member of the village but also a much trusted and beloved one who is even allowed his own team? Even Konoha doesn't have that good a track record lbr. It took Naruto face punching the guy who just committed genocide on the entire village for Konoha to go "you know what? We like you now".

5. One of the only other jinchuuriki we see that has fully mastered their Biju state and is on good terms with their Biju while also not being a missing-nin (or brainwashed and then immediately dead) is ALSO a Kumo ninja. Namely the holder of the Two Tails. Now on the wiki it says that she was put through a "detestable" training program but we all know how inconsistent Kishi is with... everything worldbuilding ever. And if we go off behavior alone from the brief scenes with her, Yugito Nii is?? Really stable??? And solid with her Biju??? She gave her pawprint for an Uchiha child's book of cat paw prints for crying out loud.

6. throughout the entire show, Jinchuuriki are consistently treated as the lowest class citizens. In basically every village. Naruto in Konoha, Kushina cried when she realized Minato was going to make Naruto a Jinchuuriki and put him through what she went through growing up as one so you know she didn't have a great time either, GAARA is his own entire dissertation on Jinchuuriki treatment and stability, Fuu was raised by the village leader of her village but had zero friends and was canonically super lonely and isolated, Han and Roku straight up ran away from Iwa because of whatever they were put through, a maneuver only repeated in another village by Utakata from Kiri. But in Kumo we find two jinchuuriki who have mastered their biju, are well respected by their peers and fellow citizens, and are basically treated like any other really weirdo ninja from the village barring needing to be monitored with bodyguards in B's case, which is mostly because he keeps running away to go train under rap artists so you can understand why A is ready to go frothing at the mouth feral at his brother sometimes.

All I'm saying is that if even the village's "monsters" are treated that way, why does everyone stick with the fanon that they're a breeding, bloodline stealing hellhole?

Imo it would be WAY more fun to world build Kumo as the feral mountain ninja-mandalorians of the Elemental Nations, who have a reputation for bloodline theft because they keep finding Actual Strays, Refugees from other villages, and Illegitimate bloodline children and going: YO ANYONE GONNA ADOPT THIS? and not waiting for an answer. Your a missing ninja from Kiri and you're fed up with both them and missing-nin life and want to come work for us? Great. Oh you also have a valuable kekkei genkai that can be inherited? Awesome have you heard of our red light district and child support program or better yet our tax deductible program for marrying one of our lovely civilians and raising a family here where no bloodline purges will ever happen ever. Oh you're a stray Uzumaki on the run from bloodline hunters? Well we may have been involved in destroying Uzushio (depends on your fan interpretation since canonically we do not know which villages did that other than Not Konoha) but we also have hot food, good housing, high ninja standards of living, and free weekly entertainment in betting when our Raikage is going to launch his desk at his brother like a high speed missile because B's rapping got too cringy.

Let Hinata's and Kushina's kidnapping either be the exception to their usual playbook of how they acquire bloodlines (hey it's not their fault if the other villages can't keep it in their pants/can't inspire loyalty) OR have it be seen, culturally in Kumo, as something more akin to a rescue mission. Yes these two girls are useful and have useful bloodlines, that's tactically wise, but also have you SEEN how Konoha treats their jinchuuriki? They have seal master princess and are treating her like a dog on a leash! And literally everyone knows what the Hyuuga do to their own kids if they aren't main branch, and we can't rescue any of those kids without their eyeballs exploding and them dying but hey we can snag the heiress and then any kids she has won't have to be branded so-.

Like I feel that would be so much more INTERESTING? Instead of having Konoha be the only "nice" village and make this weird tonal dissonance for how the "nice" village has the most incompetent leadership (Sarutobi) and underground atrocities (Danzo and Orochimaru) while every other village is Horrible All The Time For Everyone why not have Kumo be actually Really Functional and treat their shinobi and Jinchuuriki well and their horrible reputation is *mostly* (not entirely, because. Ninja.) be cultural clashes between the feral mountain ninja and Everyone Else and propaganda from the other villages who would like their shinobi to STOP DEFECTING TO KUMO PLEASE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY HAVE DENTAL.

Seriously I feel like there is so much more you could do with that angle than just "yet another shinobi village that is Bad and Awful and Needs The Power of Friendship yet somehow has this really stupid goofy jinchuuriki man who loves his brother and his village shut up don't think about it".

[shantechni]

there was an episode where the turtles (+ april and karai) split into teams and mikey named said teams and i feel the names reflect how mikey perceives them

team awesome (mikey and raph). obviously mikey would name any team he’s in like that because he thinks highly of himself but raph is there too (who would probably also name a team he was in like that) and i’m pretty sure mikey has some sort of bias towards raph, or at least thinks he’s really cool. (plus i like the idea that the sunset twins think they’re great shit and flaunt their general awesomeness at people)

team brainiac (donnie and leo). this one’s pretty easy, donnie and leo are very clearly the smartest of the turtles, leo mostly with planning, leading and various ninja techniques, while donnie is generally just a genius (though his strongest point is his skill in inventing and science). brainiac is more a mocking term though so either mikey is a bit jealous of the fact they’re always the ones with an answer, or he’s just being a classic younger brother and teasing them (affectionately).

team beat butt babes (karai and april). i don’t know how to put my thoughts into words here,,,, i suppose it’s because the two of them are super strong, capable and badass and mikey looks up to them both?

i’m not great at analysis so you may have to assist a little here lmao

(i also really like the choices for the teams,,,, team brainiac is a bit dysfunctional but makes their interactions interesting)

This initially doesn't seem like anything to dwell on, but you bring up a good point about how Mikey classifies and labels others (his brothers in particular lol).

"Team Awesome" is such a basic title, but it's very descriptive of what Mikey thinks of Raph and their combined efforts during battle. He boasts quite a bit about Raph's strength and recognizes that he utilizes much more than his short temper to get the job done, as well as his talent when handling his Sai. We see on many occasions that their close combat style of fighting work well together (e.g., their brief fight against the Hamato clan ninjas), and they're the most likely to pull of combos (e.g., when they had to utilize whatever was around them to fight).

"Team Braniac" is yet another basic yet accurate title, and you said it best: Leo and Donnie often concern themselves with the technical aspects of the missions and bounce off of each other with their respective strengths. I wouldn't say Mikey's jealous of their smarts considering how he easily outclasses everyone in Dimension X (sometimes outside of there too) and will never let them hear the end of it when he does something they can't. He's 100% just mocking them for laughs, though he could be using the term in a more literal sense with no intention of mocking them.

"Team Beat Butt Babes" is so out of left field that I totally forgot he called them that💀but it's somewhat fitting and also a partial tease in a way. He's obviously bringing up the fact that they're highly capable of taking someone down, and they're literally the only girls he's personally known until Shinigami is introduced late in the game lol.

Your little analysis was just fine btw, I liked it🤝