#nor many must-have's

[heterochromatica]

This can be done in a romantic and platonic way (platonic kisses exist, okay) further explanations and a blank sheet under the cut! <3

can cook - because Shoto can't for the sake of his life and he loves people that can cook because he's very food motivated

reliable & honest - Shoto hates nothing more than being lied to, he needs someone he can trust to tell him whats up even if it's uncomfortable

family drama - because that is going to haunt him and it's always easier if you got a partner to rely on when things go south

physical affection - it's easier for him to express affection through touch, gestures and gifts than through words bc words are difficult for him

silly questions - because he likes to ask stuff that some people might categorize as trick questions or silly but oftentimes he has been genuinely wondering about the answer

museum dates - because he loves to learn new things and loves natural history, animals, rocks, plants, stars and space

protective type - because he never had someone to stand up for him and he deserves to feel safe and at home with someone

star gazing - some might think of as boring, it's just something he really likes to do, either in comfortable silence or while talking about everything and nothing

promise keeper - he's been disappointed enough in his life, he would love someone that he can be certain that if something is promised, it will be done

eliminate bugs for him - critters with more than four legs are essentially evil and he needs someone to either politely escort them outside OR smash them, there is no in between

good with his friend - obviously if you want to be with him (romantic or platonic) you gotta get along with the people he values the most

never give up - he likes people who are headstrong and determined, who don't back away from a challenge and can stand their ground

loud and proud - he likes those people because opposites attract and it allows him to remain in the background (which he's comfy with)

decision maker - Shoto sucks at making decisions and it's easier if he's got someone at his side that knows what they want or what options there are, helping him out

clingy - he is clingy, sticking at his friends/partners side, will absolutely follow them around the house like a duckling, listening to whatever you have to say - happily!

being patient - he's been traumatized multiple times, isolated and abused and it shows, the people around him gotta be patient

training partner - because he would love someone he can spar and work out with since maintaining his from is important as a hero

Blank for whoever wants to do this:

[comikadraws]

Sorry, but there are some misinformations in your latest ask, which i would politely correct (I'm not attacking you).

Itachi in general is a more loved character than Sasuke, by the general public and naruto's fans. For example; on tiktok (a very popular app used by billions of people on daily basis) he is the only naruto's character that gets viral every week here with everybody loving him (hardly the otherwise happens) meanwhile Sasuke there is not that much popular or loved, in general he is very much slandered here and ignored unlike Itachi. For the daily accounts on Twitter you have to put in consideration that the daily Sasuke account has been active since 2022, meanwhile the Itachi's one since months ago and just in these recent months they started to blow up. For the Naruto's polls; Itachi was #1 in a poll in which japanese people's favorite character is and Itachi was #1 and in the 99 poll Itachi was #2 not because his fanbase mass voted, But because has too many stans and in general he is loved [ i should inform myself on more polls ].

And for tumblr.... Most naruto's fans on this site are frighteningly chronically online, Most of their takes are awful and almost every character suffer from getting horrible takes on their name.. and Sasuke stans found their way on this site. Also Tumblr is is not even remotely close to the popularity of Twitter and Tiktok and Itachi stans are not chronically online to do the shit Sasuke stans do on daily basis on this site. And Sasuke lost so many polls on this site, which i find it funny, They're always in every character's business and yet they can't even get their fav to win a poll.... That's hilarious.

Thank you for reaching out, though I actually have to disagree with you on a couple of points there. I hope you don't mind.

Purpose of the Statistics

First of all, I admit that my post was very Tumblr-centric and that experiences might vary a lot between platforms. Tumblr is currently my primary social media platform due to its versatility. This is also why most of my experiences relate to this platform, on which Itachi hate is rampant, and Sasuke endorsement is the standard.

My previous post was mostly focused on Sasuke being a beloved character (in opposition to fandom's perception that he is hated). This is especially true for fandom spaces (ie. Tumblr, Ao3, and Twitter to a degree - I explain why these spaces in a minute) and how his fans act like victims on this platform while, ironically, victimizing other characters and their fans. They seem to believe that hating on one character somehow uplifts the other and that they are "justified" because Itachi doesn't receive "enough hate".

And of course, of all the platforms to unload their frustrations on, they choose Tumblr. The one where they are the furthest thing from being a victim.

How to Measure Popularity?

But back on topic. Measuring popularity is a complicated thing. As you correctly pointed out, popularity varies in nature (ie. quantity and quality), and between platforms (influenced a lot by the platform's features and target audiences). This can also impact social media statistics, which is why character polls are probably the most reliable data to work with.

But not all polls are equal, are they? Look at that one popularity poll on Tumblr in which Sasuke lost to Ten-Ten or the one where Itachi lost to Yamato. It is not always the intention of respondents to measure popularity. Sometimes it is to troll. Sometimes it is to chase a reward.

Naruto 99

While it is an official poll in which Itachi managed to outrank Sasuke in terms of popularity, the Naruto 99 poll is also peculiar due to its voting conditions. Respondents were permitted to vote once EVERY DAY (giving fans both the ability to vote for multiple characters or pile votes on a singular character).

Additionally, fans were given an incentive to vote, which is the promise of a designated one-shot manga. This is what, in the end, caused minor characters like Sakumo and Shisui to show up in the top 10. It's because they are characters with grand reputations and/or importance to the plot but a severe lack of content.

However, Sasuke is the deuteragonist of Naruto and still a major character in Boruto, regularly receiving content. The blanks are 99% filled for Sasuke - with official manga content, even! With Itachi, content is so scarce that people are completely capable of distorting his intentions of being a Konoha bootlicker and a genocidal sociopath.

So it was most definitely not just popularity that influenced the poll results - It was curiosity.

Other Official Popularity Polls

It becomes more apparent that the Naruto 99 poll results likely don't reflect reality very well when looking at previous Naruto polls. In all previous polls, Sasuke has consistently gotten better results than Itachi.

Itachi's popularity usually improved alongside his plot involvement (most notably his debut in chapter 139, Sasuke's memories starting chapter 220, Itachi's battle with Sasuke starting chapter 383, and Itachi's reveal starting chapter 396). While there's been a sharp decrease during the Tenshi Bridge Arc (likely due to his lack of plot relevance), Itachi's popularity largely appears to be mostly stable during the latter half of the manga.

Aside from plot involvement, Itachi's popularity was also influenced by sympathy, as it managed to climb up the furthest (excluding chapter 107 because it was before his debut) after the truth reveal. Sasuke's popularity experienced a similar improvement after the Uchiha Massacre flashbacks.

But now, ever since that last poll (and especially since the manga's conclusion), Sasuke's character has only become more sympathetic with his return to Konoha and mentoring of Boruto. Itachi, meanwhile, didn't appear in the manga in the past 10 years. It is rather unlikely that, of all things, Itachi's popularity increased rather than decreased in comparison to other characters.

Fandom vs Fanbase

Now, even assuming that Itachi's general popularity is, indeed, higher than Sasuke's, this does not have to reflect the fandom experience on every site (which is what bothered me so much in my previous post). The reason is that there are multiple types of fans more common on different platforms - namely "fandom fans" and "fanbase fans".

Fandom members are those who interact with other fans regularly by contributing their creativity and/or expertise. But that requires space for discussions, writing, and posting pictures. Tumblr fulfills all of those criteria! Platforms like Ao3 and Twitter/X also allow for worthwhile fandom interactions. Ao3 allows for posting fanfic. Twitter/X allows for discussions and sharing fan art.

Additionally, neither Ao3 nor Tumblr are known for any form of algorithm, meaning that fans need to make a conscious effort to seek out content. It requires effort and involvement that not just any fan has.

Then there are casuals and, how theheirofthesharingan likes to call them, "dudebros". They are mostly consumers. And even when they are creators, they take less of an interest in characters as "people" (ie. their personality, psychology, etc.) and therefore usually don't really interact with the fandom platforms to analyze and appreciate them. They are part of the greater "fanbase" but not the "fandom".

This often causes them to adopt the ideological standpoint of the source material. Characters who are not outright explained may end up misunderstood. Real-world parallels remain unnoticed. Ask a dudebro whether the Uchiha Massacre (a genocide) was justified and they might just answer "yes".

Like you said, Sasuke fans are way more active contributors to the fandom. Itachi fans are more active consumers. What I and other Itachi fans perceive is that, usually, Itachi has more "casual" and "dudebro" fans, likely due to his characterization as a "hero" or "martyr" by the narrative. Sasuke, meanwhile, suffers under the stigma of being an antagonist with complex trauma responses. To understand and appreciate him, a lot of effort is required, actually.

At the very least, this is the explanation that makes sense in my mind. It is a fact that the sites most known for fandom activity (ie. Tumblr and Ao3) have more Sasuke content than Itachi content, even if the general public might hold different opinions.

Itachi's Popularity on TikTok

TikTok is actually what I personally consider to be a space for "dudebro" or "casual" fans. The videos I see there are primarily song edits, focusing on vibes and aesthetics. They are cool but they are not deep or particularly big additions to the fandom. This is perfect for dudebros and casuals who are not looking for complex, in-depth content (or maybe not even fandom content at all but just canon content). Same dudebros and casuals who have a hard time getting to like Sasuke.

While this is just a hypothesis of mine, Itachi's popularity on TikTok might also be the result of "market saturation". Two types of market saturation, actually.

First, there is actually a great supply of Sasuke content already thanks to the manga and anime alone. In the case of Itachi, the manga ended 10 years ago. The anime 7 years ago. There has barely been any official content, hence the desperation for fan-created content.

And second, while I cannot confirm with 100% certainty (because TikTok's search feature sucks and always hides posts from me), Itachi content might go viral more often than Sasuke content, but Sasuke content might still get uploaded with greater frequency. Hence the #sasuke tag has 6.2M posts and the #itachi tag has 3.7M posts.

While this might also instead just be the result of Sasuke offering more source material to make edits with, the unequal amount of Itachi vs Sasuke content might create a certain "exclusivity". This might pile Itachi fans on just a few TikToks rather than spreading them out over multiple posts, causing disproportional view numbers.

There's a similar phenomenon on Ao3. Fandom content there does not rely on canon material for its generation. Its frequency mostly relies on popularity, not source material. Yet, the amount of Sasuke-centric fanfics stands in a 3:1 ratio with Itachi-centric fics.

Here you can see the amount of Sasuke- vs Itachi-centric fanfics uploaded each year to Ao3.

However, the first couple of most recent Itachi-centric fanfics still have more kudos than the Sasuke-centric ones. But that only applies to the first couple of fanfics. The obvious explanation here is that Itachi fanfics are scarce, hence fans don't get to be choosy (the other explanation is that people just really like crossover fanfics, because that's what the two most popular Itachi-centric fanfics happened to be, haha).

Itachi's Popularity on Twitter

It is absolutely true that the daily Sasuke account is older than the daily Itachi account. The claim that the daily Itachi account has only been around for a couple of months is incorrect, though, as it has been around since August 21st of last year. So more than a year, actually. Doesn't change that daily Sasuke has been active since March 2022 (2.5 years), but I felt like pointing it out.

Of course, follower counts might develop in either direction. Maybe the daily Itachi account will gain an additional 35k followers on top of its current 6k within the next 1.5 years. Regardless of which, I've actually got another source for comparison to offer, which is the daily Naruto account.

I looked at Sasuke and Itachi posts between August 1st and September 16th (today) and compared like counts. On average, Sasuke posts received 8488 likes, whereas Itachi posts received 5569.

Either way, the fact remains, namely that on Tumblr Sasuke content is more popular both in terms of consumption and contribution. And the disproportionate hate is what I am hoping to get rid of.

If not... blocking spree. I am no longer willing to deal with people who find that bullying and shit-talking is a fine behavior while also being hypocrites about it.

[of-fear-and-love]

Glenn Howerton in Must Love Dogs (2005)

[fluffypotatey]

everyday since Aug. 30th i say, “i’ll just listen to Legendary because i would rather not get stabbed from God Games”

………..AND YET

[choixsimple]

when saying "I just don't understand why this level of aggressive violence, supply blockade, and civilian casualty is necessary in 2024" results in people saying to your face that you "support terrorism and want the hostages to die" you start thinking maybe the human race wasn't built for any level of nuance

[natsukaishii]

twt if i see one more “zhongli and tighnari’s eng vas are zionists don’t support them” tweet i’m deleting the app

[dudenastii]

sometimes u literally break down bc ur life is so meaningful if its not the way u want it even if u suffer there is art this is music there is love even when theres no food no shelter and almost no hope. with everything going on in the world there is still hope. theres still love and theres still ways to find a reason to go on. literally just broke down in a sob bc of this. like we're all so lucky to be alive let alone comfortable.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

.

not sure it's my post to make particularly, but I do fucking hate how the concept of white guilt gets weaponized within white people ingroups to throw at each other in order to goad each other into emotional passivity, detachement and inaction, it's just so extremely not what the concept is about initially and is actually still an extension of white guilt it turns out!!! as it's still reacting to that idea and concerned by trying to sever oneself from its perceived effects, regardless of what those are and what they do and what bigger picture they exist in!!!! anyway.

[elephantbitterhead]

As if Japanese sewing patterns were not problem enough, now I'm developing an unwelcome interest in Japanese knitting patterns.

[minai28]

At this point I'm tempted to write an essay on spirituality and gender just to SHUT MY MOM UP.Ma'am idk what you thought you raised but it wasn't a daughter, so please stop referring to me as such!

We were visiting my father's grave, well the tree his ashes were buried under, he doesn't have tradition headstone. My mom being my mom talked to him, as if the ashes feeding the tree could talk back. And she kept referring to me as his daughter. Ugh. I'm not even sure if she remembers me being trans or if she suppressed that conversation so hard she completely forgot but it's getting on my nerves.

[jugsjules]

Tbh if netflix had just paid for a normal trailer ad to show up when I was scrolling tumblr, same as the mobile match three ads or the ai anime boyfriend chatbots, i probably would have barely noticed. But if one piece started trending on its own bc folks were watching it and talking about it being good, I’d probably go “huh, i wasn’t into the anime, but that was more about the art and the pacing, maybe the live action show will suit me better”

Instead, mobile has been oversaturated with the logo and the character tabs and the promoted posts from netflix and the trailer and apparently on desktop people are being harangued by a clown??? So all I see is people going “I am sick of seeing one piece” and all i’m feeling is “i would like to stop seeing one piece” and that’s BEFORE factoring in that the only reason netflix has resorted to marketing like this is bc they are desperate to gain traction in the ongoing strikes and tumblr is enabling them, against the spirit of the striking workers

now to a lot of tumblr users, their association with the one piece live action is “oh yeah that’s the show that kept trying to corner me in an elevator on tumblr during a strike”

I haven’t seen a marketing campaign backfire so completely since the itunes u2 incident tbh

[lobpoints]

Very funny the first thing Carmen said to Angela after directly appear in front of her face in person is that "you are supposed to be like me and think like me but here we are (disagreeing with each other over our chosen path)" especially with how the writer themselves answered in the QnA that Angela is not anything like Carmen even from appearance alone is on purpose because A simply couldnt do it and would also never make Angela like her in the sense because he view an act itself as inherently disgusting nor was Angela's conflict deep down is she wanted to be like her (rather that she wanted to be valued for what she is) like she doesn't even consider the possibility ig

[acaciapines]

been in a Huge owl house mood n I haven’t written in a week so it’s prompt time babey!!!

send me a number 1-1270 and I’ll write a drabble based on whatever song that happens to be in my playlist! if you want a specific character/topic feel free to send that along as well, but if nothing is specified im going Entirely off the vibes of the song

[mcrmadness]

Random language memory from my childhood:

I am from Finland, so I have gotten used to TV showing stuff in Swedish too. As a kid I had no concept of languages let alone Swedish, so every time there was something called "TV Nytt" on tv, I thought it meant "TV now" because "nyt" is Finnish for "now".

But actually "Nytt" (kinda) means "News" in Swedish. It was "TV News" in Swedish, and somehow my child brain never questioned it. I thought it'd just show stuff on TV _RIGHT NOW but somehow never paid attention to the fact it literally looked the same as Finnish news but just in Swedish.

[blissfulalchemist]

Also while I found out how to not have armor showing all the time while you play I also realized why I don’t like that for at least Thea and it’s because it’s too much chest and I’ve been finding it odd this whole game. However might steal Astarions casual clothing for Aza because pirate…..

[clubpenguist]

friendly reminder that even if youre open about something on your blog, even if you think its so obviously right in your about/description/pinned/whatever, most of the people who will interact with you are not even looking that far at your blog. they dont know your name or your pronouns or your disabilities or your interests or your credentials or whatever you think is just *so obvious* that they *must* be intentionally ignoring it just to hurt you. ESPECIALLY not if theyre a random stranger who youve never interacted with once before, has never interacted with you once before either, and has absolutely zero reason to care about you. its not a personal attack, its just a fact. this is literally the internet