#naruto critic

[burstsofenergy]

One of the arguments that seem to always come up when discussing Naruto with my boyfriend (who has watched naruto back when it first dropped and has knowledge about the fandom I'd argue) is that it is a Shonen.

Like I will criticise the narration, the plot holes, the inconsistency (boy how much I like to rant about the inconsistency) and the argument is nearly always that because Naruto belongs to the shonen genre, that is something of a given(?!?). And I am not a big expert in anime or anime culture or categorization or all but after confirming with wikipedia shonen is basically just the name for a special target group.

And I get it that shonen anime might be more focused on the fights and the power scaling and the action. Which are all things that I can not only understand but also appreciate, I stand firm in my believe that just because an anime is aimed at teenage boys, this should not mean that one cannot have expectations and quality requirements when it comes to world building or inner logic? Because really, boys also deserve to have animes that are packed with amazing fights and fighting systems additionally to a consistent world building and engaging narration.

And honestly, I expected a lot more from an anime that is as popular and successful as naruto really. And while the second argument always made is that the anime and the original manga aren't always aligned with each other, my argument still stands.

Despite a very sad lack of attention to detail, the world building is sloppy at best. Ideas and systems are introduced but never really realized. This deficiency has to be picked up then by the characters and the plot, I guess. And the animation/art. And really I can acknowledge that Naruto has a lot to offer for fans. There is a huge variety of characters which are engaging and interesting. And the plot is also really interesting in its basics. But I would still argue that the execution is again lacking.

[sanjipussyindulgence]

i havent caught up with bnha in a while but after hearing about the ending... i think we can all safely agree its the naruto of this generation. they both got too distracted writing an accidental gay love story for the ages to fix the fucked up corrupt society that uses child soldiers.

[chaichai-draws]

Sketch of Team 7 movie night

Sakura wants to watch a Slasher and Naruto wants to watch a Rom Com because SASUKE would be scared…. Not him though

The colored digital ver is here

[sailorplutoirl]

Blacktober Rainbow Dash!

I based it off of David Bowie and the colors from Jane Gumball’s Nightmare Rainbow Dash Art!

Also be sure to donate to Amani’s gofundme below!

[haine-kleine]

rewatching Naruto and going insane over the extremely obvious way Horikoshi copypasted the essence of that story into MHA. funnily, the ending proves that he doesn't seem to fully understand the source material.

what really makes Naruto stand out is that every character is treated as a human who is worthy to make their story known. it's still shounen so the powerscaling and violence are ever present but the humane element never goes away. it might seem downright ridiculous that up until the undead evil aliens come to assume the big bad role in the end, every big bad that has been carefully hyped up before ends up revealing their sob story and leaving the spot vacant. but this was precisely what made the characters so interesting that they still have loyal fans nearly two decades later. the audience was always allowed to sympathize with the villain, no matter how evil, violent or how long their kill list is, because what it really comes down to, is a collection of various people's stories about their trauma and how they deal with it.

all of the villains have extensive kill lists: Gaara was a serial killer at the tender age of 12, Itachi killed his best friend, his girlfriend, then his entire clan and mentally tortured his 7 years old little brother, Sasuke later goes on a killing spree and nearly murders several people who considered him heir friend, Obito and Madara killed more people than there are named characters in the Naruto universe, and so on and so forth. the story still encourages the readers to sympathize with these characters, to the point of obnoxious stubbornness, but it drives the point home. Naruto's approach to writing the villain characters is the antithesis of 'cool motive, still murder'. the story is much more concerned with telling the stories about individual characters, their traumatic backstories and how they deal with the trauma, than it is with the worldbuilding angle of 'and what legal consequences are coming for them next?'. the story would rather conveniently lean to fit the chosen narrative for each villain character than deal with realistic consequences, just so that the character remains sympathetic and/or tragic in the eyes of the audience. Gaara was known for being violent and unstable in his village, but after he had his change of heart he is allowed to become the Kazekage and is accepted and supported by his village. Nagato wipes out the entire Konoha village because he is supposed to be introduced as the ultimate big bad to date, but then magically brings back everyone to life in a disney esque move, because after unlocking his tragic backstory, we are supposed to consistently feel bad for the guy. the story would rather be ridiculously unrealistic to overstress the tragedy and trauma, because realism was never the purpose.

then, in MHA, which is a story about magic people using their individual magic skills to fight and save people, you would assume that the realism wouldn't be a primary concern here as well. at the heart of the concept, before it fell apart, MHA seemed like a perfect successor to the message conveyed in Naruto, which excused the various rip offs. it seemed Horikoshi had successfully cracked what was the problem at the heart of every single villain in Naruto: trauma and mental illness, and capitalized on it. the concept of the story seemed to be 'what if Naruto set out to save the Akatsuki?'.

(and it is impossible to deny the heavy inspiration, because s1 Shigaraki is literally chuunin exam era Gaara. they are the exact same character)

as a fan of Naruto and not much of a shounen enjoyer, MHA seemed to take everything i loved about Naruto and amplify it. the kids characters got to spend more time together as a clas, rather than being paired randomly during filler episode missions. we got to spend more time with the Akatsuki League of villains and got to see how they interact with each other as a group and what their individual relationships are like. they got to build up their tragic backstories early on, to be dramatically revealed later, and not immediately die afterwards. Shouto got to actually talk to his older brother, and discover his tragic backstory from the source instead of hearing about it after his death and being powerless to do anything but cry about it.

but then, around the final arc, the story, or rather the author, seems to realize that it has become too big for a shounen. and his way of dealing with the issue was abandoning everything he has been building up for years. the comparison with Naruto really highlights how the issue lies not in the characters and their irredeemable actions but in the story straying too far from the main theme and eventually getting lost completely.

that is not to say the execution or the plotline wholeness were not an issue in Naruto, it's riddled with plot holes and retcons. but where it lacks the logic and stability, it makes up with the sincerity and compassion the author never fails to have for his characters. the uchiha massacre was a really shitty plot line from a political standpoint, but it's not there as a part of the plot. it has always served as a background for Sasuke, first and foremost, to the point Itachi's character was reshaped and retconned twice to fit what Kishimoto had going for him. the plot, the world are a stage for the characters, not the other way around.

and what made MHA's writing fall apart was switching the focus from the characters as the driving forces for the story to the sociopolitical plot starting to use those characters as tools. before the war arc, it wasn't meant to be realistic, the 'reality' was a playground for the characters. just look at the MVA arc (the best MHA arc). what about a malnourished insomniac Shigaraki defeating a CEO who happens to be the leader of a terrorist organisation so hard said CEO is so impressed with him that he gives up his spot for Shigaraki is realistic? alternatively, what about the Sports Festival arc makes sense? nothing! the students of the most prestigious hero academy having the competition where they show off their quirks and all of its drawbacks for the entire country to see on live TV is the opposite of sensible, and during the licence exams the students of the other schools even point this out! Horikoshi just wanted to have his own chuunin exam arc, and can you fault him for that? it was cool as hell.

the thing about MHA is that it was never meant to be too realistic. it can't be, because the realism hurts this kind of story. shounen isn't meant to be realistic, it's meant to be flashy, cool, over the top dramatic, perhaps tragic, but realism really has no place in shounen. most importantly, because shounen is supposed to tell the story of the main character, whose epic journey is as enjoyable as it is inspiring.

but the main character's journey is supposed to have an end purpose, and successfully achieving it would be the culmination of the story. Naruto's purpose was saving Sasuke, who was taken in by the Big Bad Orochimaru, when everyone else has given up on him. Izuku's purpose seemed to be saving Shigaraki, who was taken by the Big Bad All For One, and the entire world has given up on saving him when he was just 5 years old. thus, Izuku would become 'the world's best hero', because he achieved an unprecedented fit of saving a villain. hell, he would have been even cooler than Naruto, who mastered the therapy talk jutsu on all the villains he had successfully reformed, but still had all of them die on him.

but no. funnily, Izuku fails spectacularly at achieving the purpose he had set for himself. Izuku doesn't save Shigaraki, he actually kills him. not even on purpose, Tomura's death was entirely an accident. (to really drive home how ridiculous that is, can you imagine Naruto murdering Sasuke on accident during their final battle, and then moving on with his life? an even more accurate example, imagine Naruto killing Gaara instead of giving him a heartfelt speech in s1)

by simple shounen logic, this means Izuku failed as a shounen character. he doesn't get his happy ending, because he didn't deserve it through consistently written and developed hard work towards a singular goal the character had chosen for himself. this also means Izuku didn't become the world's greatest hero. he lies to us in the prologue.

but we can't have a tragic ending to such optimistic and hopeful story now, can we? so the story does a very awkward and forced job of switching the perspective to drive the audience attention from the reality of the tragedy the ending brought on it. to drive attention away from Izuku and his failure, we have the public aggressively blaming Shigaraki for the destruction. his story is never made known and Izuku is not particularly interested in making it known, putting this responsibility on Spinner. Allmight, who felt personally responsible for Shigaraki's kidnapping by AFO back when he was alive is suddenly unbothered by his passing. the epilogue has nothing to focus on because every hero character had failed at achieving their personal goals and thus peaked. it is also weirdly stubborn in its refusal to seriously view the aftermath as tragedy, following the characters (acknowledged!) failure to save the villains they intended to save. the explanation was still warranted however, so the chosen strategy was focusing on the outside world and how it was affected by the consequences. but it simply won't work because the story was never focused on this before! it's no Avengers Civil War, The Boys or even MHA Vigilantes. MHA was always about the characters and their individual experiences. the world leaned into the characters plot points and shaped itself accordingly, not opposed the various socioeconomic and political problems that the concept of heroes would bring. the heroes ranking and HPCS are the highest authorities we know of in MHA. who is the president? who are the politicians? why is so much budget spent on the heroes, to the point the devastated and ruined after the war country deems it important enough to build various statues of them? the issue of quirk racism is consistently important, but why aren't any anti racism organisations brought up? isn't there any legal punishment for violence against mutants? does the law just permit harming or even killing mutants? shouji had his damn face cut up as a kid and his parents never went to police or made a lawsuit about it? we do know that police exists separately from the heroes, but how does law work at all in this universe? the answer is, it doesn't, because Hawks has a footage of him committing a murder shown on national TV and he doesn't face any legal repercussions at all, and is in fact promoted to a HPSC president shortly afterwards.

i hope the above paragraph conveys how utterly cartoonish MHA's 'realism' is. and what makes it bad isn't the illogical inconsistency or even the double standards, it's that the realism is used as a coverup for the author smashing the core theme of the story he took from another manga with hammers and setting it on fire. it's 400 chapters too late to make the core theme of the story the society in general and various social issues as concepts. it was supposed to be a story about Izuku saving Shigaraki, Ochako saving Himiko, Shouto saving Dabi. i don't have to reach to get that message from the source text itself, because no one forced Horikoshi to repeat the world 'save' 27363279 times throughout the story. it was supposed to be a story about saving traumatized people who had no one to save them. it didn't have to be, Horikoshi could have easily continued with Kishimoto's established trend of having his villains die immediately after finishing their therapy session. but he didn't take that direction, and capitalized on the theme of saving people, even those who don't seem to deserve it, even those who say they don't want to be saved. and in the final, crucial moment, he didn't carry through.

this is the story of how Izuku didn't become the greatest hero.

my not-hero academia

[kathrahender]

One of the things I dislike most about fandoms is the hypocrisy of their fans. And this is about ships again, yes (it's about characters too ngl).

Every anti-Bakudeku/Catradora fan says things like "How can you ship couples like these? It's so abusive! It's disgusting! Catra/Bakugo were so mean towards Adora/Izuku! Catradora/Bakudeku is so toxic and you shouldn't like it!" and then, when talking about Hiccstrid people always love them together. Even if Astrid was also a bully to Hiccup. Even if her development was null (don't say she had development, her "redemption" arc was shit and she needed more time in screen and more scenes between her and Hiccup to change from "I hate all the dragons" to "I was wrong about them". And one scene with an OST called "Romantic Flight" is not enough to make her redemption believable). Talking about development, do I really have to say that you hate Catradora/Bakudeku, but at least Catra and Bakugo apologized to Adora and Izuku? Astrid didn't say sorry to Hiccup for bullying him/hurting him. And you should be aware of that.

Bakugo and Catra didn't redeem in one day, they didn't get up one day and decided to be nicer. No, they had to work in their redemption and they also had to work in their relationship with the people they hurt (Izuku and Adora). Astrid didn't do that. All she needed to change was flying in a dragon with the person she used to hate.

Having all of that in mind, tell me, which relationship would be more healthy, logical and believable? The ones where the bully had to work hard to make amends for their mistakes, to heal their scars to make it better for the MC? The ones where the bully apologized to their victim, to the people they hurt? Or the one where all it took to change from "I hate you so much" to "I like you" was one scene, and they didn't even apologize for being a bully/being a bad person? Think about that.

And think about another thing too. A girl hurting a boy is bad. "But she-" No. "But she's not being cruel and she-" Enough. Don't fucking justify female-on-male violence. Violence is violence. If you hate Bakugo/Catra so much for hurting Izuku/Adora, then treat Astrid the same way, because she was not an angel before changing. She's not innocent. She was a bully too. And if you despise Bakugo/Catra's past actions, despise Astrid's past actions too.

Where I also saw Double Standard in media is in shows where there's a female character stalking a male character. Two examples that come to my mind right now are Hinata Hyuga from Naruto and Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug.

The thing about them is that a lot of people love them. A lot of people love a female character stalking a male character. Dear God, Marinette learned the daily schedule of Adrien, and she even traveled to another country for him. Because she couldn't bear thinking he was in another country where she couldn't see what was he doing. That's not freaking normal, you guys. "She was a girl" "She didn't know what was she doing" "She's just in love". Excuse me- What. the. hell. Okay. So you're saying you're okay with a girl being so jealous that everytime her "crush" talks to a girl she needs to be around. You're okay with a girl entering her crush's house without permission (Do you know that's a crime, right?). You're okay with a girl having her bedroom full of photos of her crush (and I'm not talking about a fictional character from a show she likes. I'm talking about a real person. Because in Miraculous Ladybug's world, Adrien is Marinette's classmate, not a character from a show). I'm sorry, but if you think that's okay, there's something wrong with you. People can like someone and have a crush, sure, but what she has is an obsession. What she's doing is not normal. (And she can do that in the show, after all she's a character, but don't act like she's a nice person and an innocent person because she isn't. And definitely don't see her actions as a normal thing).

People, please, don't think what she's doing is "iconic" or something like that. If you're watching this show, please, don't do the same as her with your crush because is awful and disgusting. She's not "cute" for doing this. She has a problem, I'm being serious.

If she had a better love story with Adrien, like she did in the movie, I would understand the Adrinette ship because in the new movie it's just beautiful and wholesome and it's actually healthy. But when it comes to the show, the Adrinette ship can't be nothing more than toxic. So stop acting like Marinette's actions towards Adrien are okay (Yes, Adrien's actions towards Ladybug weren't okay neither, but this post is about female characters).

What Hinata Hyuga did -in comparison with Marinette- is not that bad, but even then, following her crush (Naruto Uzumaki) everytime he's with his friends/classmates is not nice. It's not cute. It's not something people should do. And the Naruhina ship honestly makes no sense. Okay, I get it. It's the type of romance we all want to have. We all want our crush to fall in love with us. We all want to have a relationship with the person we used to have a crush on. But if you want to include that trope if your story, if you want them to end up together in a show/book/movie, give them development. The ship has to feel natural.

We have to feel/see the chemitry. And I saw (and still see) no chemistry between Naruto and Hinata. Sasunaru, on the other hand, has a lot of emotional moments together and moments when they bond (their chemistry is right there). And it's not for my own preference, but they would have made a better couple. Mostly because they shared more screen time with each other. Even though Shikanaru and Gaanaru are also good options for a canon ship. Because they also had chemistry. But Naruto's love for Hinata in my opinion didn't feel natural. It was forced.

After all of this, let me say something more. You probably don't care about a girl stalking a boy in fiction. You're probably like "She's not doing anything wrong" "She's a teenager" "Stop being judgmental, she's a good character" "She's a nice person". If what they do it's okay for you, let me ask you a question. What if their gender was reversed? Yeah. Imagine if Marinette and Hinata weren't girls. Imagine if they were boys. Imagine if a boy went to another country to control the actions of another girl. Imagine if a boy entered his crush's house without permission. Imagine if a boy stalked the girl he likes to see if she's talking to another boys. Imagine if a boy had pictures of the girl he likes in his bedroom. What would you think then? Oh- You would think it's disgusting? It would be disgusting for you, right? Why? Because it's a boy?

People, have this in mind:

👏👏👏 If a boy does something bad and a girl does the same thing they both need to be treated the same way 👏👏👏

A girl hitting a boy isn't funny. It shouldn't be played for fun. As well as a boy hitting a girl. Neither of them is funny. And neither of them can be justified.

A girl stalking a boy isn't funny. As well as a boy stalking a girl. Neither of them is funny. And neither of them can be justified.

That's why I ask you to stop being two-faced. If you despise someone's actions, you despise someone's actions, whether it is a boy or a girl. You want equality? Then fucking stop with the double standard.

A bad action is a bad action, no matter who makes it. Period.

[phantomchick]

Naruto and being the Underdog

Okay so recently I was discussing naruto's characterisation in the comments section of a fanfic and the author was explaining that they don't like/never vibed with Naruto's character (which is totally fair). But then they explained how they felt the supposed underdog setup was contrived and didn't really work because Naruto never actually starts at zero thanks to his jinchuriki powers and being the yondaime's son. (And so here I am, on my soapbox to discuss how Naruto and the concept of being an underdog relate.)

On a physical level perhaps this applies, but Naruto places an equal (if not larger) amount of focus on the emotional action as it does on its plot action.

On an emotional level he has to work for each and every one of his personal relationships.

He wants to be hokage a role he can only take if he is both respected by his village and powerful enough to protect it. It''s a twofold goal. And in terms of the social aspect this is clearly stacked against him due to the hatred and exploitation of jinchuriki as well as shinobi in general, achieving emotional connection and dialogue between people who are used to might makes right or who are pre-disposed to look down on him or want to kill him puts him firmly at a disadvantage narratively.

With the notable exception of Hinata whose love is unconditional, whether it's Tsunade, Neji, Sasuke or Gaara or even Kurama the respect and attention that naruto craves are things he actively pursues in both good and bad ways and he earns them through his own effort.

He does this both by striving to understand these very different people and where they're coming from as well as surviving all the shit the world throws at him. Emotional and physical tasks.

In terms of being a jinchuriki and getting the rasengan easily thanks to his shadow clone bullshit / birthright connections to the yondaime It must first be acknowledged that the jinchuriki power is more of a disadvantage than a boon to him at first. First, because of kurama actively going out of his way to mess with his chakra control as a kid while doing the leaf exercise he was unable to learn the regular clone jutsu; it also results in him experiencing the trauma of discrimination and isolation from a young age which could easily have led to festering self-hatred and alienation if not for Iruka's intervention, it results in multiple S ranks who are fully capable of killing even shippuden level Naruto targetting him, and while the trade-off of boundless energy and survive-ability is immense those same boundless resources have the potential to burn him alive if he loses emotional control/gives into his most negative emotions - that's basically making the subtext text at that point, the story is about his emotional development and growth, something his "OP buffs" don't earn for him. Let's talk about boundless chakra resources for a moment. At the end of the original series, he only knows the rasengan; the rasenshuriken, the shadow clone justu and sage mode/yinyang mode by the end of the series and that's like 5 justu tops if we're counting yin/yang/bijuu mode and sage mode as jutsu. The majority of what he learned from jiraiya for three years seemed to be taijutsu only with a side of failed bijuu control. Naruto has his jinchuriki chakra from the start but that doesn't translate to an ability to use it, he has to spend hours working out how to do the shadow clone, he did not figure out how to do the jutsu because of his chakra even if that was the reason he was able to use it at all, and when it comes to the rasengan I will cite [someone who deleted their reddit account] here:

Naruto completed the first stage in three days and one night. He figured out how his chakra needed to move to burst the water balloon (thanks to a cat) but because he didn't have the necessary chakra control, he improvised by using another hand. He completed the second stage in three weeks or so. The next day(?), Jiraiya gave him a hint to improve his focus which allowed him to finally complete it. And the third stage was completed seven days later to win his bet with Tsunade. Once again, Naruto didn't have the control to focus his chakra the correct way despite his continuous efforts. It wasn't until he came up with another improvised method by using a shadow clone to focus the chakra that he was able to complete the final stage.

Meaning he is the one who comes up with unorthodox methods, such as also using his other hand, or using a shadow clone to focus the chakra, to learn it in four and a half weeks but he still had to figure out how to do it all himself. The shadow clone would've been useless without his understanding of the jutsu or his ability to do the individual parts of the jutsu. He earns the jutsu and could conceivably have learned it the old fashioned way were he not under an artificial time limit as both Jiraiya and Kakashi, both without jinchuriki power, know it and can use it.

Now I'll talk about his supposed privilege as the yondaime's child: Sasuke gets chidori and later kirin thanks to HIS connections but that's never remarked on in the same way. And in fact most people in the naruto-verse learn a big jutsu from their clan or parent; see Might Gai, the genius of hard work, learning the eight gates thanks to his father. The rasenshuriken is something he's only capable of learning thanks to his chakra and shadow clones I hear you quote Kakashi, but it's again, something he couldn't do without actually putting the work in to learn the jutsu. Naruto is on a time crunch because of Akatsuki, the fact he is capable of learning the jutsu once he has advice on wind chakra from Asuma and has practiced forming the rasengan and doing windblades enough means he didn't need the extra chakra to do it, having the chakra didn't automatically make him capable of the rasenshuriken all it did was speed up his chakra control practice exponentially, it would have taken him more time practicing but he could have learned the jutsu eventually even if he wasn't a jinchuriki. Now summons. Being the Yondaime's child might get him an in with Jiraiya to let him have the toad contract, but Sakura and Sasuke also get summoning contracts thanks to personal connections with Tsunade and Orochimaru and Jiraiya only gets him the opportunity. It's Naruto who has to use his willpower to stay on Gamabunta's back and it's Naruto who has to form relationships with his summons like Gamakichi, (a bond that becomes instrumental toward the end of the 4th war). Additionally learning Sage mode wasn't just a result of Naruto getting the contract because neither Sasuke nor Sakura achieved it despite both having contracts (and despite Kabuto managing it where Sasuke didn't) Sasuke with the Hawks as well as the Snakes. And importantly Naruto was unable to use clones or his extra chakra to speed up his training in this. In fact the clones only come into it after he has successfully mastered sage mode and function as a limited extra resource that's can't go beyond three shadow clones meditating and this doesn't function as more sage powah but as a means of extending his sage modes duration, a workaround that's only needed because his being a jinchuriki gets in the way of him gathering sage mode in real-time with the toads on him. In conclusion while his chakra lets him practice jutsu to learn them faster, this is not the case in either his sage mode or the yin yang release and only applies to the shadow clone, rasengan and rasenshuriken - all of which he had to actually learn and understand the mechanics of otherwise the jutsu wouldn't have worked no matter how many shadow clones he had try it and that with the exception of shadow clone he demonstrably could've learned them without being a jinchuriki. And in the case of rasengan and rasenshuriken he is under artificial time-limits imposed by Orochimaru and the Akatsuki.

So that's shadow clone, rasengan, rasenshuriken and sage mode covered but what about bijuu mode. An overpowered special mode he only gets for being a jinchuriki, that B only bothers to teach him because he's a jinchuriki, surely that's LEGIT op bullshit. No? No. At least not in comparison to the Sakura's forehead seal from Tsunade, Sasuke's Mangekyou abilities like izanagi, giant purple warrior and amaterasu, Obito's mokuton, Madara's sage of six paths abilities or the rinnegan's everything, anyway. Not to mention what the edo tensei are capable of.

The only reason bijuu mode works is that he earns Kurama's regard on an emotional level, it's not something which being a kage's kid or having jinchuriki chakra levels actually does fuck all to contribute to. He was that all along but Kurama still hated him and tried to take over his body. It's Naruto himself who has to reach out and make that effort to understand this person who he's always seen as a burden or a curse or an annoying tenant who doesn't pay rent, a monster who tries to kill him and take his body. It's Naruto who has to put in the emotional labour and see Kurama as a person, no matter the harm he's done.

Naruto is the underdog in spite of being "the chosen one" and having the strongest bijuu and a kage father because emotional labour is never easy and in a world like his it seems insane to even try. It's why everyone except him was prepared to give up on Sasuke, Naruto recognises his anger at Itachi and desire to avenge his family as valid, Naruto when he finds out the truth about Itachi from Danzo tells Sasuke he gets it, why he wants to destroy the village, why he's so angry, when Sasuke changes his mind and decides to become hokage instead of destroying it so he can change it, Naruto understands WHY even if he still wants to be kage himself. The problem with Sasuke is that his anger is self-destructive and self-isolating, not that it exists, it's when Naruto fights him one last time and makes Sasuke realise that he's only hurting himself and his loved ones at this point, that "talk no jutsu" finally works and Sasuke is able to listen to Naruto and come home.

It's also why Naruto earns being hokage; in a world full of killers, someone who is capable of acknowledging the harm done and not ignoring or forgetting it (like how he tells pain he can't forgive him), but who is also capable of looking past that and understanding the motivations and feelings of the person he's dealing with and talking to them on that level as equals hits so hard. It just felt like a fantastic set up for a diplomatic hokage capable of dealing with other kages and achieving a peace in spite of the fact they're all to the last, untrustworthy ninja mercenaries who are generally very ends justify the means. In a world of kill or be killed Naruto is still willing to kill, but he's also willing to understand and to talk. And he wasn't born with that, he worked for it and failed often, especially with Sasuke, it was never easy, it often appeared hopeless but he kept trying.

And we rooted for him because of it.

[thinkingfandoms]

Why are masked characters so hot?

only it becomes more and more weird

[burstsofenergy]

Honestly... I did not expect so many biblical references in Naruto... I was simply watching the anime and in the middle of this epic battle I am suddenly confronted with the story of Eve eating the damn apple in the garden of Eden?

I am not a theology student, so I don't know much about the theological value or theological interpretations... but I know about the philosophical implications in this story, especially from a feminist viewpoint. And really, I feel as if Kishimoto is trying to pull all possible strings here. As if he is begging for a deep feminist discussion of his writing.

And I am not even looking into the logic of this sudden reveal or how it fits into the established world that he had built up 'til this point. Or how he introduced this to the reader/viewer

[commander-revan]

I have unfortunately realized that my type seems to primarily consist of traumatized goth men with daddy issues.

And any dark-haired woman who looks like she could kill me with a thought.

[bibibbon]

The funny thing with Bakogou getting so many votes, is that he isnt even really the "Sasuke" from Naruto - who atleast got so much attention, some fans even got angry cause one wouldnt see Naruto for many chapters lol.

Hell Sasuke actually kept up with Naruto, while Bakogou, after his weird win in the rematch fight, never really caught up again, especially not after the 7 qurik thing - not even getting a real villian fight against AFO

And even the AF0 defeat seemed lto me like a way to say "oh shit, I have to make Bakogou Dekus rival, so lets him blow up an evil baby" lol Hell maybe thats why there was that random murder of Kurogiri - to make it look like Bakugo saved Deku and the battle in the end?

This is out of topic but I hate seeing people say that izuku and bakugo are sasuke and Naruto in a different font because they are not!!

First of all bakugo and izukus rivalry is one sided. Izuku's character once used to admire bakugo and while I do believe that bakugo was supposed to be a challenge for izuku, Izuku ended up outgrowing him but hori still had to make sure that bakugo was relevant so he gave him power ups and made him kill kurogiri and watch AFO die. Bakugo's character revolves around izuku and in a badly written way (it's not like Narutos character that very much circles sasuke and learns from his experiences) and it's bakugo who ends up being extremely aggressive towards izuku while that's not reciprocated. Izuku simply takes the hits and moves on (this is unlike sasuke who actually got his comeback on Naruto when Naruto tried to trap him in the early arcs)

Both Naruto and sasuke get development outside of eachother and are able to feel good and bad emotions about one another but Izuku can't feel bad emotions about bakugo. Both Naruto and sasuke are well developed (to a certain extent kishi drops the bar when it came to the last arc) and kishi takes time to properly develop and delve into their characters while giving the perspective of both characters equally unlike horikoshi who robs Izuku of intropsection and agency while bending bakugos character so far that he seems ooc in some moments like the 'apology' he gave.

Both Naruto and sasuke have their own feats and accomplishments outside of one another's help but I can't say the same for bakugo and izuku.

[naori-is-nidaime-hokage]

I'm so upset that Naruto didn't try to relate to Sasuke's traumas. Both of their clans were slaughtered, and in both cases Konoha was to blame (I know damn well that the Hokage could have helped the surviving Uzumaki instead of using them as weapons), but Naruto didn't do anything about it. Just think, together against the cruel system that destroyed both of your families. Against the system that killed your parents. But noooo, It seems that if you want everyone to love and respect you, you must join the system and not go against it.

Or, as Sasuke already said, Naruto just doesn’t know what it’s like to lose ALL of your family, which is why he couldn’t understand Sasuke's traumatic experience. I don't know, I'm not a psychologist.

[doveywovy]

i do actually think its weird how often people talk about fandom source material like its extremely bad and all of it is bad and the author is stupid, and how they only like one or two aspects of it + the fandom creations/headcanons based off it.

[faerie-fang]

sasuke is trans bc when he was 12 he fought a woman in the woods who shed her skin to reveal a gender nonconforming shapeshifter who sasuke later found out was really into medicine and bodymodding ppl so he went evil so he could get top surgery and hrt and stab trees in the woods and then three years later he was like okay slay no tits looking masc as hell but also still a prettyboy, gender goals MET fuck yeah let’s kill that geriatric they/them pronoun user

[kathrahender]

Female Characters in Media and how they should write them better (and their relationship with other characters too)

One of the things that upsets me is how women are depicted in media. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike some female characters for being female (like someone could think), I'm not a misogynist person. I dislike them for not being good characters. For being poorly written (in my opinion). If you want to keep reading, prepare yourself, because this would be long (?

First, the "girl with a crush" type of female character.

Some of the female characters are always following their crush wherever he goes, sometimes saying his name a lot of times in the show, and her life is almost centered in living for her crush and nothing else. Like they have no purpose except being around her crush. They (the female characters) care about her crush more than they care about anyone else (even their own family). Sometimes they care about their crush more than her own future. They care more about having (or not having) a future with her crush than they care about having a degree/a job.

And I hate those kind of female characters, because a woman's life shouldn't be determined by a man. They should be independent people centered in being successful in life, not being centered in having or not having a future with the man they like. And if the man they like doesn't feel the same/doesn't pay attention to them, then leave him alone (after all, he's not the only man in the world, is he?) or don't force the situation, just let it flow. If the man is meant to love them back, then he would do it. If he isn't meant to love them, they shouldn't waste time thinking about how their relationship could work. And if they are dating another person, they definitely shouldn't try to separate them (or actually separate them) because then their "love" towards the man they like wouldn't be "love" but obsession or the "if I can't have you, no one can" type of love.

Secondly, the "girl who is just the love interest" type of female character.

This is the type of character who is weak, dependent, and everytime they need saving. They add nothing to the plot except being the love interest. You could remove them and the only thing that would happen is that the hero wouldn't have a love interest. That's all. They are the type of character who do nothing important in the plot. They are in the show just to fullfill the "male character ending with a female character before the show ends" trope. They aren't strong, they aren't "useful", their existence is basically based in having to be saved, crying, or making stupid things to make the audience "laugh" or feel sympathy for her.

And I also hate this type of character. A female character shouldn't be in a show just to make the audience laugh. They shouldn't be in a show just to be the love interest. What you're implying with those type of characters is that a female character can't be nothing else than a non-important sub-plot. They can't be strong, they can't save the day, and they can't be fighters because "Oh my god, they're women, how could they be an important part of the war? 😡😡". And that's bullshit. Women can be strong and should be strong in media. Women should be and deserve to be important in the main plot. Women should save the day and they deserve it. Women deserve to be more than a "always crying" character.

Thirdly, the "female warrior who is more powerful than everyone else" type of female character.

This female character is strong, tough, resilient, brave, and more things. It's basically the reverse of the "girl who is just the love interest" character. She doesn't need saving, she doesn't cry (or at least she has just a few "weakness" moments) and she is important to the plot because without her there wouldn't be a storyline (whether she is the main character, one of the main characters, or the love interest of another character).

Sometimes this trope is handled well. This type of character can be well-written and be an awesome powerful female character, but there are some cases where the writers/showrunners/producers don't do it well (in my opinion). The thing is that in some shows/movies, to make the female character strong, brave, and intelligent, they make the male characters more weak, more "coward", and more dumb. And that's what I hate about the writing of this type of character. Women can be strong, brave and intelligent without making the male characters the opposite. A woman and a man can be the same, and you don't need to make one look bad to make the other look better. They both should be strong. They both should be powerful. They both should be though. They both should be intelligent.

And fourthly, the "female tough character who doesn't show a lot of emotions" type of character

This type of character is similar to the previous one, except that she isn't considered the "most powerful" character in the book/show/movie. She's strong, tough, resilient, brave (probably more things) and she doesn't need saving (most of the times), but she's not the most powerful character of the show. Yes, she is one of the strongest characters, but she isn't the strongest.

The problem I have with this type of character is that sometimes they appear with another trope. The malewife/girlboss trope. And two of those malewife/girlboss pairings seriously upset me because they're seen as "beautiful" "wholesome" and "awesome" when they aren't. The fans of that ship act like it's "healthy", but I have news for you. It's not healthy. It's not healthy to call your partner with mean nicknames. It's not healthy to hit your partner "as a joke". If it was the reverse, if the man was calling the woman with mean nicknames and he was hitting her "as a joke", everyone would throw hands. If "X" male character treated the "Y" female character like that, there would be no one in this world who wouldn't get angry at him.

But if it's the reverse? "Oh, she's not really hurting him" "Oh, she's so funny" "Oh, she's so silly" "Oh, she's so cute". And that's what I hate about this trope. That the female-on-male bullying is not treated seriously. And you can like these ships, okay. But at least don't pretend they are something they aren't. It's kind of toxic/abusive, and you can still like it, as well as you can like... I don't know, Buffy x Spike (?, but don't act like those ships are healthy because they aren't (this is me talking about the canon because some writers can write those ships as healthy).

Now, after all of this. I'm gonna mention some female characters that I think are well-written, as well as some straight ships that are good (again, in my opinion).

First, the female characters.

Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls. Lila Rossi from Miraculous Ladybug. Valerie Gray from Danny Phantom. Karai, April O'Neil from TMNT (any version). Katara, Toph, Korra, Asami Sato from Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra. Sabine Wren, Ahsoka Tano, Hera Syndulla from Star Wars Rebels. Nancy Wheeler, Robin Buckley, Eleven/Jane Hopper, Max Mayfield from Stranger Things. Chloe Decker, Ella Lopez, Maze, Linda Martin from Lucifer TV. Allison Argent, Lydia Martin, Malia Hale, Kira Yukimura from Teen Wolf. Alina Starkov, Nina Zenik from Shadow and Bone. Shado, Felicity Smoak, Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake, Sara Lance, Thea Queen, Caitlin Snow, Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers, Lena Luthor, Samantha Arias, Ava Sharpe, Zari Tomaz, Nora Darhk from Arrowverse (The CW). Regina Mills, Emma Swan, Snow White, Ruby, Mulan, Aurora, Ashley Boyd from Once Upon a Time. And more. I don't know what makes these characters so likeable, but I can't help but love them. Compare them with the characters I criticized, and see what I mean with the good/bad female character writing.

Secondly, the straight canon ships (I'm just gonna say my opinion about a few of them and mention the others because if I explained why I accept all of those straights ships and not others, the post would be very very long and I don't want that)

Gray Ghost from Danny Phantom. They had better development and better chemistry than Amethyst Ocean for me, and although Amethyst Ocean is not a bad ship, the way they ended up together at the end of Phantom Planet felt so rushed. With more development? Amethyst Ocean could have been a ship I would have liked.

Kataang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I will always prefer Zutara/Zukka over this ship, but you can't deny they objectively had development and chemistry. The ship didn't feel rushed or forced, you could actually see they loved each other. And the two of them are powerful, the writers/showrunners didn't make one look bad to make the other look better (in my opinion).

Makorra from Legend of Korra. Their relationship at the beginning of the show was honestly beautiful, and although I like Korrasami, I wouldn't have minded Makorra being the Endgame ship in the show. For me they had good development, chemistry, their romance didn't feel forced or rushed, and their hurt/comfort scenes were so wholesome and heartwarming. And that without saying they also didn't make one of them more weak or more dumb than the other because yes-

Casapril from TMNT 2007. Although in this movie we couldn't see how Casey and April ended up together, what we saw was enough to make me think they were a good ship. I don't know if it was because their relationship seemed healthy or because it seemed like they loved each other so much, but I loved them.

Scallison from Teen Wolf. Okay, Scott McCall had a crush in Allison Argent at the beginning of the show, and some of you could say "Oh, so you accept a character having a crush as long as it's not a girl having it 😡". No. That's not true. Scott McCall had a crush on Allison, yes, but unlike Hinata and Marinette, he didn't stalk Allison, and he talked to her. And unlike Naruto and Adrien, Allison liked Scott almost since the beginning. Then, no, it's not the same situation. Scallison is very different from Naruhina and Adrienette. Scallison actually had development and chemistry, and you could see they both were down for each other since the start of the show.

Gweter from The Amazing Spider-Man. Their relationship is beautiful. The way Gwen got into Flash-Peter's fight and defended Peter, the way they slowly fell for each other, the way the connected so well... Everything between them was wholesome. And again, you could see the chemistry, you could see both characters were well-written without making one look worse than the other. They both were strong (in different ways, but they were), they both were intelligent, and they both were so in love with each other. Their romance wasn't rushed, or forced neither.

Snowing from Once Upon a Time. They're the couple of Once Upon a Time. Their relationship in the Enchanted Forest was beautiful, and although they had to work in their relationship in Earth, you can't deny they're soulmates. Their love is pure, even connecting them across realities, and if there's true love out there, they surely have it. You can ship other ships in this show, sure, but the chemistry between these two is undeniable. As well as their development.

Other straight canon ships I think they're well-written are Stricklake (Trollhunters), Entrapdak (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), Aelita x Jeremy, Ulrich x Yumi (Code Lyoko), Hank x Shay, Lotura (Voltron Legendary Defender), Obitine (Star Wars), Jancy, Lumax, Mileven, Jopper (Stranger Things), Deckerstar (Lucifer TV), Scalia, Scira, Chelissa (Teen Wolf), Darklina, Helnik (Grishaverse), Petermj (MCU), Olicity, Barricity, Westhawne, Snowstorm, Quickwest, Captain Canary (Arrowverse), Danali, Damiko (Karate Kid), Samguel, MoHawk (Cobra Kai). As you can see (and if I'm not blind lmao) none of these ships are based in the tropes I previously said I hate. There are some of these ships that I don't like for personal reasons, but they are good ships and objectively well-written ships. So... yeah.

To end this post, I want to thank you for reading this, and if you support one of the characters/ships I criticized, please, keep it to yourself and block me or block the "Anti Naruhina/Percabeth/Adrienette/Hiccstrid" and "Anti Marinette/Hinata/Astrid/Annabeth" tags. I didn't make this post just to get hate comments.

If you think the same as me about this, thank you for your time! I'm glad you made it to the end of the post ;)

[archer3-13]

I dont think there's ever actually any confirmation on what Rasa [fourth kazekages] relationship was like with his other children, cause thinking on it i dont remember any commentary from the other sand siblings on what their relationship was like with their dad.

certainly they don't seem too aggrieved that hes gone, but at the same time thats because originally the fourth kazekages death was a complete afterthought. relevant only in the sense it was an out from further suna konoha conflict, and by the time the sand siblings showed up again other things were more important/relevant to the story. when rasa showed up as an edo tensai could have presented that opportunity of learning what those relations were like, but rasa showing up again is solely for the gaara therapy hours so he can get some closure. in that moment rasa might as well not have had any other children and gaara might as well not have had any other siblings.

not that i think rasa being a shit dad to his other kids is unreasonable fanon [cause that is technically what it is with the main story being reluctant to comment any which way], as interesting as I find the man he is much like chiyo a cock, cause everyone in suna projects as much asshole energy outwards as possible. and his handling of gaara as a human being was deplorable, even if it also highlights the very real and unaddressed problems of the shinobi world and its values where human individuality, liberty and rights are sacrificed in the name of village prosperity and nation statehood [as opposed to just him being a cock].

but by that same token, I think all thats really confirmed about how he treated the other sand siblings is that he kept gaara forcibly separated from them. and if you separate gaara from the fandom woobification of him and think about it from the perspective of a military nation states leader it makes sense to keep your dangerous ticking timebomb unstable murder weapon away from the easily breakable children that represent the villages chances of future success. I'd almost call it good parenting even [bar that gaara is also his kid] to keep the children away from the unstable murder weapon that keeps accidentally maiming anyone it gets close to.

but i think a lot of that is kinda irrelevant to the actual discussion fandom seems interested in on this matter, because I don't think most people headcannon rasa as a bad father to temari and kankuro based on the patterns of his characters behaviour. I think most people do it out of this idea of "sand sibling solidarity". gaara's the baby woobie of the naruto fandom [its most widely accepted one anyways], and the sand sibling dynamic is a popular one. so its cathartic to blame any of their earlier problems/dysfunction and distaste for gaara on the big ol mean rasa/fourth kazekage.

and I think thats entirely too lame, cause it turns the sand siblings and their dynamic into temari and kankuro being gaaras generic yes men. a problem that does kinda intrinsically infect the original work mind, given that after the chunin exams the sand siblings disappear up until the sasuke retrieval missions ending at which point they're all suddenly buddy buddy with each other. but thats something that was a consequence of time and narrative flow, keeping the story focused and all. but fanfiction offers the opportunity to flesh these things out, and theres some real interesting ground in how the sand siblings transition from being completely fucking terrified [for fairly understandable and reasonable reasons] of gaara to being his pillars of support as kazekage following the [partial] failure of konoha crush. reducing it to rasa being the evil bad man who kept them separated when they actually wanted to be gaaras friends all along, is such a waste though.

anyways, feel free to crucify me now for being mean about the writing around the sand siblings.