#oh and also danzo appears in this arc too

[jibanyans-chocobar]

Watching Naruto Shippuden's first filler arc atm and I uh. Have some questions even though I know none of this is canon

- Why is Asuma denying that he has something going on with Kurenai like DUDE. We know YOUR OLD TEAM KNOWS Kakashi knows EVERYONE KNOWS

- What the heck is wrong with Sora (/gen like what is wrong with him is he okay)

- Why are the bad guys surfing on graves. Just. Why

- Fym Asuma was part of a 12 people (if i remember correctly) squad made to protect the feudal lord or something like that

- Why did Naruto basically say "I'M NOT GAY" to Sai out of nowhere? Like I mean I get why but did he really have to say that "he doesn't go that way" lies lies LIES

- Why did they animate one of the best openings in anime history EVER for a freaking FILLER ARC (and it happens again. And also happens with endings. Like. Diver or Broken Youth or U Can Do It orrrr idk what else)

(Spoiler warning under the cut for the arc that follows this one)

- Is this a filler arc to just say "oh look at Asuma he's so cool he was part of that organization and stuff LOOK AT HIM AND START LIKING HIM because we're about to kill him" or what

[inrainprose]

Naruto and/or the untamed

Je t’ai grillé boloss x)

Naruto

the first character i ever fell in love with: i have to say Sasuke. i was litterally in love with him at 13. still am.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: i guess i liked the third better at some point. before i started thinking about it all.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: i am steady in my allegiance, I don’t drop ships like that.

my ultimate favorite character™: GAARA 5EVER

prettiest character: Neji i guess, I really like the idea that he has the prettiest hair and everyone knows it, to his endless mortification.

my most hated character: arf, Danzo I s’pose? i hate him both for what he’s done and for how shitty a vilain he makes.

my OTP: NARUSASU 6EVER the otp to end all otp i owe them my fanfiction career seriously where would i be without this ship…

my NOTP: sasuke/sakura. the very worst.

favorite episode: naruto 101, “Gotta See! Gotta Know! Kakashi-Sensei’s True Face!”

saddest death: the characters’ will to change their world for the better, sacrificed to the glory of the military state, like everything else.

favorite season arc: chunin tournament arc

least favorite season arc: i guess it’s the one where naruto goes to the island to learn to control kyuubi or something, on account of me being so infuriated at how he resolved his latent resentment by saying like “nope no anger only happy” that it made me drop the anime for good lol.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: i don’t hate him per say but i’m really not a kakashi fan.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: well. sasuke i guess. they’re all trash tho

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: NEJI. GODDAMMIT. dunno about the cinnamon part but he definitely desereved better u.u

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: i really don’t know, i’m pure of soul and free of shame.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Ino/Sakura and Sakura/Karin. and a lot of small ships you stumble upon here and there and go “oh, nice”.

The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi (i watched the anime first so)

the first character i ever fell in love with: Wei Wuxian. he appeared and i was done for.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: none, i kept loving all of them

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: no i’m good.

my ultimate favorite character™: wei wuxian, once again, main character stan.

prettiest character: jiang yanli. also smartest and most deserving of surviving but. well.

my most hated character: probably jin guangshan, the wen were terrible but at least they were open about it. the guy was a passive assholed but he caused so much shit solely by being his shitty self i’m. yeah, me no like.

my OTP: for the sake of originiality and also because they’re the ones i actually wrote about and read the most, i’m gonna say lan Sizhui/jin ling.

my NOTP: wei wuxian and lan wangji with anyone else but each other

favorite episode: pfff i dunno. the one where they’re happily starving on their shitty mountain and lwj pays a visit.

saddest death: Jin Zixuan. freaking hell. i knew it had to happen but still.

favorite season: going anime to say second one cause i prefer the present timeline.

least favorite season: well, the first then. there’s only two lol.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: again no hate in me but i guess i’m not as taken with lan xichen as the rest of the fandom seems to be.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: who’s the biggest trash between nie huaisang and jin guanyao lol

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: jiang cheng. honestly the pain in this boy. unreal.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: that’s too strong a wording but i imagine the closest is lan xichen/jin guanyao.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: jiang cheng/nie huaisang. a lil’ something sweet for them both, please?

Thanks for asking ma vie

[realitachifacts]

hi! ooc question (for the mod!), what do you think about itachis role/story in the show/manga? 💞💞

oh thank you so much!!! i love answering questions like this aaaaaaa

TL;DR: a ton of missed potential ):

okay so i’m gonna take this in a slightly different direction and also write about how i would have written itachi’s narrative alongside my analysis/opinion of it. this is DEFINITELY going to be long so it’s under the cut.

it’s pretty evident that the characters given the most focus in the show are naruto and sasuke. this is pretty much indisputable, with naruto as protagonist and sasuke fitting into the more complex role of antagonist-protagonist-antihero (which wasn’t given fair treatment by the narrative itself but again that’s another story). regardless, sasuke’s arc has a strong dependency on itachi, all the way back from the character’s introduction. and thus, this makes itachi one of the most important characters in the story, despite somewhat limited appearances. all of this can be pretty easily gleaned, but still, i think it’s worth repetition in an analysis like this.

while sasuke’s arc has strong dependence on itachi, itachi’s arc has an equally strong dependence on sasuke; at his point of introduction, kishimoto literally had planned no backstory for him, only that he wanted to “attribute to itachi some violent action that would have sasuke wanting to kill him”. though, later on, “when itachi was introduced, kishimoto had the idea to make itachi konoha’s secret agent who killed his clan under their orders” (which accounts for all of his character’s inconsistency throughout the series, and i personally have a hard time believing the decision to change was made at the moment of his introduction). itachi was introduced as a source of sasuke’s ambition and trauma, giving his character a driving arc. which, i mean, is fine. for a shonen story it’s a pretty average/decent goal and fits well within the universe and plot. as a character itachi’s design is solid, especially for playing the role of villain. his powers are cool. he’s interesting. 

and i think the biggest problem is that his story was over-complicated and just not thought out from the beginning; arguably, there was some foreshadowing early on to his position as an actual good guy. sasuke mentions in the forest of death that itachi is likely pushing him because he feels bad for what he’s done, and wants someone to kill him as justice. but… there was no weight for that and it seemed like a pretty baseless accusation on sasuke’s part, who appeared to harbor nothing but hatred for itachi and nothing even remotely resembling any form of sympathy or willingness to understand his older brother (i actually totally believe that sasuke could have guessed at itachi’s true motives, but the concept was pretty much immediately dropped after that statement- which, again, annoying lack of consistency). i love the relationship him and sasuke have as children, as i’m sure i’ve stated before. older brother as a villain to overcome/turned evil is interesting, turning out to be good all along even more so; but the second half is handled poorly, what i mean by missed potential. plus, itachi more or less needed to have hidden motives to push sasuke’s story in the direction it went in after the pein arc- sasuke wouldn’t really have anywhere to go after that and would probably struggle with a lot of internal conflict. and again, as i’ve talked about in a previous ask… the small amount of reconciliation provided wasn’t enough for either of them (especially sasuke).

so, here’s what i would have done.

in terms of canon adherence, there are pretty much only three options: 

1.) have him die a villain (admittedly killing his clan to test his abilities wasn’t the most believable goal, but eh, he’s an anime bad guy so whatever). as much as i don’t like this (i’m sort of a sucker for character redemption, but they pulled it off very badly), it would have made more sense within the storyline. it would’ve been nice if they pressed what sasuke believed on “he felt bad so he wanted sasuke to kill him” to the point where he was sympathetic but not good or redeemable. their final battle could’ve ended the same, with the forehead poke and all that, and just flashback scenes of things we haven’t seen in canon (that sasuke will never see) that prove his assumption was correct, and itachi did want to be martyred. it would keep him a pretty bad person but it would make both his and sasuke’s arcs feel more… conclusive, i guess. i personally believe the primary antagonists should have been the akatsuki and after pein’s death, the series should have wrapped up. was sasuke a little too messed up emotionally to just go back to the village at that point? …yeah. but him returning to the village voluntarily would’ve been more satisfying, and i’m honestly sure that, if the story was put in the hands of someone with plot-writing capabilities, it could have been done. this is supposed to focus on itachi so i’m not going to hypothesize on a hypothetical canon “story ends after pein arc” ending.

2.) have him be redeemed. this just… literally had to have been done from the beginning. unconditionally. in the previous ask i talked about how the characters are all displayed as wholly “good” or wholly “bad” and making a wholly bad character like itachi “good all along” just isn’t really possible with the way good characters are framed. it puts him in a middle ground that’s inconsistent with that categorization and fans are more or less forced into picking a side for him based on personal opinions. that alone could’ve been fixed by better characterization but again, off-topic. the torturing sasuke thing would have to go. sasuke could have returned to the compound either after itachi had left already (and was given some sort of clue or learned later that it was him) or itachi could’ve noticed him and left without speaking; very clearly not hurting him but he also just killed the rest of the clan so you can mark it as “okay, he’s a bad guy, but he spared sasuke entirely. why?” and there’s already suspicion he had an ulterior motive. sasuke could have decided on revenge on his own; made hateful through pain and loneliness along the lines of gaara or no-iruka naruto (it would make gaara’s communications with sasuke later around their battle/attack on konoha more chilling or get through to him more). i feel like it also would have made it easier to convince sasuke to return to konoha because naruto is pretty able to get through to people like that. in the hallway scene, itachi would still refuse to take on sasuke but eventually do so, and should have been clearly going out of his way not to hurt him; ending the battle by making him unconscious with the sharingan or something, i dunno. the indifference would (unintentionally, on itachi’s part) fuel sasuke’s choice to get revenge; which he would have made apparent that that’s what he desires (though of his own volition this time). itachi probably wouldn’t be expecting that, but as he’s dying later in life, he’d give in to a final battle with sasuke, both feeling himself being redeemed throughout it and giving sasuke the satisfaction of killing him. but if it was super clear he went out of his way to hurt sasuke at any cost, the “itachi was good all along” thing would make so much more sense. however…

3.) this is a subset of 2. for 2 to exist and itachi to be painted as a good guy, the reason the clan was killed would need to be different. so, canonically, it’s stated that the uchiha are oppressed, they want more rights, threaten a coup d’tat if they don’t get them, and so danzo the third hokage orders them to be killed by itachi. this is where we get into trouble. as i’ll repeat time and time over, the narrative frames people as being unconditionally good or bad. in the eyes of the average fan, the uchihas fighting back against the leaf village- konoha is always shown as good- for more rights is morally gray at the absolute best, and more likely to be seen as bad, as with most revenge/opposition to the system motives in fiction. which is another unfortunate product of the very morally polarized lens the characters are placed under. but, more in theory, it is very hard to make itachi and sasuke “good” at the same time. if you’re going down a fighting oppression arc in a story, you want the character fighting against it to be viewed positively (like katniss, right?). so, by extension, itachi or sasuke gets to be the bad guy, and it’s 100% reliant on what the uchiha clan’s motive was. frankly, a lot of the uchiha get painted as villains (with the curse of hatred, it makes partial sense)- madara, sasuke, itachi, obito, etc, so pretty much all the main ones are “bad” at some or all points of their story. what would’ve worked best in my opinion is to go back to madara’s time and the initial interactions between the uchihas and the hidden leaf village. basically just… make them bad/a threat from the beginning; no government oppression, they were always just villains/in the “bad box” (note that this is in terms of canon adherence and i’ll get to my own personal “if i wrote this” in a second because eh, i don’t like framing the hidden leaf village as good at all lmao). they were just bad and going to take over the village, so they were killed by itachi before they killed everyone else. after obito got to sasuke, he could have constructed an elaborate lie about what the village was “secretly” doing and made it convincing to anyone watching, as well. so you think itachi is bad again, and sasuke is justified in wanting revenge against the village, learn later that itachi was good, but then it’s also hard to fault sasuke, since he was only working with the information that he was given and had the right idea at heart. but basically with what we’re given it’s almost impossible to make everyone “good” so it’s probably not even worth it. i mean it’s: itachi, sasuke, hidden leaf, uchihas- pick two to make redeemable at most. i don’t think telling a thirteen year old to just kill his whole family is really ever justified and i’m super biased so i’m going with itachi and sasuke.

in terms of what i would have done if i had full control (and the massacre HAD to happen), here’s what i’d do:

1.) itachi explains to sasuke at the beginning what happened and basically tells him to grow stronger through friendship/bonds to prevent this from ever happening to someone he loves; sasuke’s narrative then revolves around revenge against the government instead of his brother, which would be a good parallel to naruto’s wanting to be hokage, since the two are so paralleled in general. they could both learn something from that. plus i would want the words of “grow stronger from love” (instead of from hatred) to impact him and he has a deeper desire to grow closer to people and make friends, i guess. (this is my most preferred outcome not gonna lie)

2.) i also wouldn’t be opposed to itachi just taking sasuke with him but that would usurp most of the actual story.

3.) the writing is good and itachi lives and gets more time to reconcile with sasuke. he returns to konoha and becomes hokage and takes care of his crows and chickens and spends time with his niece sarada and his nephew-in-law boruto and niece-in-law himawari who all adore him. admittedly this is INCREDIBLY self-indulgent but hey, i have control of the story now. and there’s no reason this and 1 can’t exist at the same time, haha. 

god that was so long i’m so sorry anon but i hope you like it!!!! i like… am not gonna read this over to edit it so sorry for typos. ): thank you again for asking!!! aaa if you read it and would like to please let me know what you think!!!