#this is not ship centered btw
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we all need a good sleep
#study found that the later u sleep the earlier you die 💀#i'm so sleepy fuck#this is not ship centered btw#tho if u want to use ship tags to sort out ur own posts go for it#interpret it in whichever ship u like cuz i love em all#hetalia#aph#aph face family#aph england#aph america#aph canada#aph france#doodle dump
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I do not understand why HanaKou, Aoinene, and Terukane shippers always act like their ships are so unpopular when they’re some of the most popular in the fandom😭 This isn’t a callout to any single person btw bcuz I’ve seen like half the fandom do it atp, it happens every day. I know it’s harmless but like c’mon guys. Ya’ll would not survive being a Terunene or MeiAoi shipper
I’m not even joking to me it sounds exactly like if someone called SatoSugu a rarepair
#just bcuz aoinene is yuri doesn’t mean it’s not popular#it’s among the most written for ships on ao3 and unlike most yuri ships most of those fics center them#terukane is top 3 on ao3 btw and infinitely more popular than most canon ships besides hananene and mitsukou#hanakou may be a bit frowned upon but they still have tons of edits and fan arts compared to the other fanon ships#no hate to any of these ships or the shippers obvi but like guys. guys have some self-awareness#it’s okay to like popular things you don’t have to pretend you’re part of a niche#i am proud to say that my favorite ship for this fandom is one of the most popular#aoinene#hanakou#okay a little bit of hate towards them some of ya’ll piss me off#(she said affectionately)#terukane#much love towards ya’ll <3#my girlfriend loooves terukane <3#toilet bound hanako kun#tbhk#jibaku shounen hanako kun#jshk#shipping
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Bakudeku getting extremely more popular and normalized bothers the shit out of me a little bit because I did not spend years of my life hiding that I like that ship out of fear of getting harassed for everyone to now shift so quickly over the last chapters. You like Bakudeku? MY Bakudeku? The one ship a lot of people had to pretend they didn't like in case they got attacked? For a fictional ship????? THAT Bakudeku???
#like don't get me wrong i'm glad people are seeing the ship in a better light now#and i'm happy that people who ship them now can say it publicly#but i did not get death threats and was actively insulted in IRL conversations too for y'all to suddenly act like that didn't happen lmao#again don't get me wrong this is coming out as very selfish and self-centered and i'm happy people are shipping them publicly now#but i'm a bit bitter#and bakudeku was already extremely popular and famous btw i'm not saying it wasn't BUT#it was also frowned upon by A TON of people#so uhhh idk maybe don't attack people over fictional ships that's kinda my only message here tbh#bnha#boku no hero academia#bakudeku
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You know, what else would be hilarious?
You know, in AtLA the "Ember Island" episode? The one with theather? Imagine: After Doriath, the remaining Feanorians (M&M, A& maybe A depending on what you prefer) go spying among the refugees in one or another city (no, IDK how Maedhros is not recognizeable, elven illusions, ok? Maglor does it) and there is a theatre and it does a play about Feanor and his sons (mostly about the sons) and it has the budget of a Czech musical and historical accuracy of the Amazon series.
Most of the men are played by girls (because boys and adults are mostly dead or fighting), Maglor is the main character, portrayed as weeping all the time and talkieng about hope (see: Katara in the episode) and hating his brothers (also, a strong suggestion that he's actually Fingolfin's son). Maedhros is portrayed as an orc-like monster but also has a lot of evidently artifical muscles which he flexes all the time in a flirty way. Celegorm is shown eating people, beating his dog, and still somehow is a comic relief. Curufin is played by the same actor as Feanor, only wearing heels (yes, they do the "short Feanor" thing) and is basically the same character, only he screams less and speaks in whole sentences (yes, they somehow make Feanor dumb). Caranthir is somehow turned human to marry Haleth (who is an evil witch). Amrod and Amras are one character.
Oh, and the actor playing Maglor cannot sing well (for an Elf at least).
And they need to sit there unnoticed in order to gather information about the Silmaril later, or something.
#silm#silm crack#silm fic ideas#sons of feanor#btw I'm sure Feanorian side also had some cringy propaganda#not the brothers themselves they are too sophisticated#but their soldiers making a play about B&L or Doriath in general?#especially the ones centered around Celegorm#we know they were ...well we know how some of them were#so I won't go into details how their B&L would look#but someone more decent just misinformed and having a lot of emotional investment in the feanorian side?#it would be also hilarious#but with a play about Feanorians we can have them watch it#also you know what???#Celebrimbor taking Annatar to a B&L play#it's a comedy#with a big focus on Sauron getting defeated by a dog (it's a normal sized lap dog in the play)#and missing Gondolin while flying over it#[a fic written from Annatar's PoV]#[no I don't ship them]#[they go to a romantic comedy because the plot demands it ok?]#[unless I find another way to force Sauron to watch a play about him and keep a straight face]
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Sometimes a pairing is just a pairing you vibe with because you think they’re funny and they give you endless shitpost ideas other times it’s because the pairing mirrors each other, what one person is the other could’ve been given the separate circumstances, the mirrors cracked but it’s still a mirror. Do you get the vision.
#wanderer genshin impact#yes he’s at the center of this#most ships of him I fw are either shitpost generators or actual relationships#sometimes you’re inbetween chiscara and scarabedo because ones funny and the others actually super fun to analyze#/pos btw#I like wanderer did I mention wanderer#idk what else to tag#chiscara#scarabedo
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How did the bond between Moon and Pebbles change before and after the big incident?
Before the incident, they never truly got to be siblings. Moon would be estatic to have Pebbles as a sibling and at this point feared messing up their relationship. 'I have someone to be my sibling now, someone i could talk to, i'm no longer alone in this life anymore'. So she's way too lenient and fussy over him, she overly worries about his feelings, doesn't correct him when he's acting out, and offered to do work if he thinks its too hard. Pebbles being on his stubborn phase would think Moon is too constraining with her attempts to bond and... underestimating him for not giving him adequate work. Which leads to him being distant, and their relationship remains professional despite Moon's attempts to bond.
After the collapse, Pebbles got ALOT of time to think about Moon's intentions. Sig confronting him helped him realize 'look how much she cares, shes not perfect, but you never gave her a chance' to add to the 'i caused her collapse' guilt. So the first thing in his mind when she wakes up again is 'make it up to her make it up to her make it up to her'. Moon on the other hand is freed from her can, she feels less constricted. Both in a 'im no longer stuck there' and 'i no longer feel alone since i can go meet new friends out here' way. Now its Pebbles' turn to be the fussy one out of obligation to repay his sin and fear of losing one of the only people who cares for him, even if it means getting subjected to her fussing. And along the way even if it took a while, they'd come to an understanding, set boundaries, and maybe Moon's liveliness rubbed off on Pebbles too and they can start building a more genuine sibling relationship.
#as much as i wanna believe moon is truly and purely altruistic#being senior for a long time with almost noone to be close with#itll be a lie to say she cared for pebbles JUST because of unconditional love#it is difficult to be altruistic when the people youve been nice to#are either out of sight or self centered assholes#but in that desperation for SOMEONE to care#she neglected how pebbles needed space#her being off the string gives her a sense of relief#like being physically free made her mentally free as well#does that make sense?#they both got issues and should talk about it#close relationship in any form is good but we all need space ya know#this is purely sibling relationship btw#who the hell ships pebbles and moon ew#travel puppet au#lore text
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On that trojan war au thing you're writing. 1. What are the tags for it, cause I'm super interested! And would love to read what you have so far! 2. "And Odysseus is a much grimmer darker man due to his home being one of the places that were first swallowed up by Erebus" - I wanna know more about this. Please tell me more.
Oh , wow, I'm so flattered! I'm very happy it sounds appealing to you <33 This work is a huge passion project of mine so I'm always glad to talk more and more about it, especially since there are many aspects occurring in the background (such as the alternate fates of the main players of the Trojan Conflict) which I cannot properly cover or even explain within the events of the novel itself.
That said: 1) If you mean tags as in ao3 - unfortunately, this work isn't on ao3 my friend :( As I said above, these are elements and concepts in the greek mythology based-fantasy novel I'm currently writing (the concept of which I outlined here in the introductory post of my novel concept!) As for wanting to read whatever writing I currently have available: I currently have three fics available on ao3 that are written in my Pursuing Daybreak verse!
The Prince and Princess series deal with a young Apollo and Artemis and the many consequences they face after Apollo has slain Python. The two works uploaded right now are Exeunt Phoebus Apollo which covers the murder trial of Python and Manent Apanchomene Artemis which covers the intense feelings of helplessness and alienation Artemis experiences after Apollo returns from his banishment and is completely changed. Both of these have themes of family, grief and relationship exploration at their heart.
The third bit of writing I have up is quite outdated but does cover the immediate aftermath of Hyacinthus' death. It's called A Petal Falleth and features Apollo making one of those Big Silly Decisions that have completely unintended but extremely important consequences: namely, instead of the larkspurs being made of Hyacinthus' spilt blood, Apollo anchors the boy's soul to the flowers so Thanatos wouldn't take him. Like the Dawn is also set in this world but because it is nsfw in nature, I wouldn't recommend it as easily as the other three bits of writing. If you don't mind the whole naked men thing though, I'd definitely suggest reading Like the Dawn for a better idea of what my current writing is like (along with eventually getting to see characters like Hector, Andromache and Cassandra/Helenus) Like the Dawn's themes are also different to the other three works with it focusing more on the power dynamics of a god/mortal relationship, exploring masculinity and masculine sexuality and self discovery.
The running theme here, of course, is that all of these bits of writing are centered on Apollo/Artemis or Hyacinth because my novel itself is centered around them. There are, of course, other important characters and figures like Eros, Psyche, Penthesilea and Iaso (one of Asclepius' daughters) but while there is the definite presence of characters from the Trojan War they most certainly aren't at the center of the novel (and the ones that are aren't the Greeks but rather the Trojans i.e Hector, Alexander, Andromache, Cassandra, Helenus, Aeneas, so on and so forth.)
2) The basis of the apocalypse in my work is cosmological! Due to Apollo's err-- untimely departure, there's no longer anyone maintaining the axis of the heavens or the navel of the earth. Because of this, Erebus - whose darkness is usually kept firmly in the spaces between the realms - begins to spill out into both the heavens and the earth. The beasts of Erebus (referring primarily to the Seven Curses - Old Age, Misery, Deceit, Violence etc etc) consume, torment and destroy whatever is inside of Erebus' darkness and Ithaca, as one of the islands on the far edge of the world, was one of the very first places that were devoured in this manner. Odysseus was visiting the Argives at the time for a festival and had left the pregnant Penelope at home since he didn't want her to suffer through the voyage in discomfort. He only finds out about the destruction of Ithaca after it had already been consumed when Athena personally interrupts a feast to warn both him and Diomedes. Needless to say, Odysseus, like everyone else, assumes that everyone on Ithaca has died and thusly is a very, very different man in terms of humour and comport. A part of him still stubbornly clings to the belief that Penelope managed to escape - that she was smart and resourceful enough to see the end approaching and do her best to escape - but that doesn't stop him from being dour for the majority of the time. Diomedes does his best to keep his spirits up in the meantime. Without him around, Odysseus is something of a black hole when it comes to the oppressiveness of his discontent though he does manage to lighten up when in the company of Helen, Clytemnestra and even Menelaus on occasion.
#ginger answers asks#ginger chats about greek myths#Diomedes did a lot to coax Odysseus out of his initial shock when Athena delivered the news#Pretty much the only thing that stuck was Ody getting into the habit of whittling wooden horses and ships#He used to speak to Penelope's stomach and tell a bunch of stories about his youth and adventures#Now he speaks to himself while he's whittling because it makes him feel like he's still speaking to Telemachus#Ody doesn't grieve Penelope at all btw He refuses to behave like she's dead until the gods personally tell him or he sees a body#DIomedes very much thinks it's unhealthy and is very worried for his bestie but he's very deliberately left that topic for Helen#and Clytemnestra to deal with. Like he punches things he can't really do that for Ody's mental health alas#pursuing daybreak posting#The Seven Curses all have names btw#And Erebus isn't really doing anything malevolently either#The gods carved the world sky and ocean out of the darkness - it's their responsibility to maintain it#Of course Nyx and Himera originally held the job of keeping Erebus' darkness at bay#But that power is one that's been broken up and passed down between the generations to prevent precisely this event from happening#Nyx's Night and Himera's Day was first given to Ouranos so he could govern the boundary between the world and the darkness without fail#Ouranos' daughters received Night - specifically Theia and Phoebe#and his sons received Day - namely Hyperion and Coeus#Apollo - ever the overachiever however - ends up being overwhelmingly endowed with these attributes and then some considering#he also gets Delphi - the center of the earth - when he slays Python#So when he errr left to get some milk so to speak - the entire order of things went with him#The remaining balance-keepers are Hecate and Artemis and both of them are Night which is too close to Erebus anyway#So y'know things aren't good like at all LMFAO#Anyway I talked a lot - thank you very much again for asking!! If you have any more questions let me know :D#ginger rambles#odysseus#apollo#erebus#diomedes#greek mythology
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im actually never going to be over how horribly sapphic couples are treated in like 90% of media ever. like ever
#and on here too honestly#the ships that are always trending are the mlm ships. never wlw ones#and yes obv i know i cant talk i talk abt mlm couples all the time but it's mainly because there havent been enough Good mainstream sapphic#-couples. and when there are no one bothers to talk abt them or just complains abt them.#i cant properly articulate how mad this makes me as a sapphic person but . ugh. this is also part of the reason why i want to be a#-screenwriter - i want to write a multi season tv show centering around a sapphic couple because my god do we fucking need that#think like. heartstopper except sapphics. and less lighthearted because it needs to be interesting#<- no shade to hsr btw i love that show.#anyway#bee.txt
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What does a girl have to do to find some good Jasiper fanfiction in these trying times?
#AO3 sucks ass because all I can find are breakup fics or fics centered on other ships#I'm trying to IGNORE canon#and focus on my babies tyvm#I'll read anything btw#please 🤲#jasiper#Jason Grace x Piper McLean
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not me googling what whump means bc I still haven't been able to parse it from context clues
#im old guys#and everytime i come back to fanfic every 3-4 years everything is DIFFERENT#formatting rp on tumblr in 2013 was a particularly hellish time#IM NOT NEW#im not even new HERE#i think what happens when you get old is you just lose the ability to format things in an aesthetically pleasing way#im 32 😭😭#when my about me says since 2003 i mean thats when i started reading fanfic#ON QUIZILLA#QUIZILLA#do any of yall even KNOW WHAT THAT IS#oh and it was jack sparrow and the viva la crew#and#bloodhound gang#specifically jimmy pop#fucking QUIZILLA#also the RP in question in 2013 was obviously AHS season 1/tate langdon centered#and i shipped tate/young!moira#dont get me started on that relationship dynamic ill never stop#this ehat i meamt by crackposting btw#shh just let me do stuff
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slams my head violently against the wall /neg
#the yapper#sighs.#gonna rant in the tags for a bit. (feel free to respond‚ i dont mind. i just need to get my thoughts out there)#also if you see any ships/characters censored its not because i hate them. its because i dont want them to pop up on the main tags !!#i fucking hate. hate hate HATE it when people shit talk certain design choices and ships and aus in the fandom#well. in any fandom really. but this is my ppt blog so this is what i'm gonna be talking about#but anyways back on track#i dont care if someone doesn't like something. thats the not the problem#the problem is when they don't like something and start being super fucking mean about it#i dont care if you hate d*ynap or p*ppyn*gs or oc x canon or tall c*tnap or skinny d*gday or [x] au or etc. i respect your opinion.#i DO care however‚ when you start being a dick about it. i dont respect you anymore when you call an au bad or shit when it doesnt feature#your favorite ship. i dont respect you anymore when you get mad at/disrespect an artist for drawing a character in a way you dont hc#or when you go under an artist's drawing to say 'cute.... but [x] is better ^_^' (boils my fucking blood. just say its cute or look away.)#or when you get mad at them for not centering their au around the ship you like. all of this includes when you do it behind their back‚ btw#i'm not asking anyone to engage with content they dont like. but good lord.#can you not talk about the stuff you dislike without putting them and the people who enjoy them down?? you sound like a jerk.#hrfhdg idk dude. it just makes me so angry and sad. please do better you guys.#sorry if this came off as too harsh. i'm just really sleepy and upset right now. so sick of this entitlement and these fuckass ship wars#it's so draining#im gonna take a nap and see if it makes it better#i'll also start drawing when i wake up !! sorry for anyone who was waiting in my askbox. my mind's just been occupied lately
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or maybe Lou was just a bad coworker. He filmed cameos, didn't interact with the cast, gave self-centered interviews praising himself and putting down the plot points, leaked spoilers, etc.
If cameos are such a problem, why didn't anyone raise a fuss when Jennifer filmed one supporting Buddie because the fan wanted her opinion? Or when someone just asked a CHILD his thoughts on the very same ship? Riiiight. Cameos are only a problem when someone makes them about a non-Buddie ship. If he was answering questions about Tommy helping Buck realize he's in love with Eddie, y'all would be putting money in his bank account for ALL his headcanons. Please. "Didn't interact with the cast." It's literally in print that Kenny has stayed friends with him through the years and Oliver decided to let everyone know he and Ryan get along well. The rest of the cast has never been the topic of discussion here. It's always been the guy who can't even say his costars didn't deserve to be harassed. (And this is not about Lou alone. It's about everyone who came before him because of what Oliver said.) "Putting down the plot points"? You mean disagreeing with someone's choices? The same way Peter didn't understand why Bobby was showing up at the firehouse in the finale last season, but just went with it? Or when Aisha said season 5 didn't feel right with all the missing/moving pieces? Or Ryan having to advocate for more scenes of Eddie with people who are not Buck? Or Jennifer saying in a podcast that she needed more excitement in Maddie's story lines because she's been happy for too long and happy is boring? (That one was on video, btw.) And leaking spoilers? Jennifer Love Hewitt filmed a fucking story with Maddie's engagement ring on before the episode was gonna air. She also posted that part of 7x04 that confirmed the basketball scene??? But that was okay, right??? Because she's not Lou??? Oh, wow, look at that. All you did was put your double standards on display!
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Please can the male character of a fantasy show/shonen anime not end with a female character for once? Stop with the heteronormativity dear God.
Give the main male character more female friends instead of giving him female love interests. Male characters deserve to have female friends. They don't have to be always romantically involved! I'm tired of people always wanting to ship a girl and a boy without any other option. They could be just friends! (and this feels very close to me because I had a best male friend in high school and people ALWAYS saw us as lovers and it WASN'T true at all! It was so irritating I swear. "You look good together" "You are a good couple" "Are you two together?" Why can't you leave us alone??? He was just my friend). Because YES, a girl and a boy can be friends without feeling romantic love for each other.
Annabeth could have been Percy Jackson's first female friend and she could have been the first girl who cared about him, just like a "female version of Grover" and just a friend- but no, they had to end up together because God forbid a main male character not being the boyfriend of a girl (and the same happens with Hiccstrid, Jlaire and Anidala, they could also just have been friends)
Naruto and Hinata could have been besties instead of lovers but no- they had to make Hinata a girl whose life was only centered in "How do I make Naruto-kun love me?" (and the same happened to Iris West. She could have been more important to the plot and Barry's best female friend- but instead she was just his love interests and her development was null. And the same happened with Allura. At first she was a good character, but then she was only there to be Lance love interest, what he should have been overcome. And btw Allura's romantic love towards Lance felt very rushed. As well as Hinny was so bad developed in the movies and Ginny's development didn't exist).
Seriously people stop with these things. Stop reducing a female character to a love interest. Don't make the main male character end up with a female character because that "it's better for the plot" "it's better for the world" "people won't accept the male character dating another male character" "people won't accept the male character not dating anyone". Not everything has to be a straight couple. Actually, not everything has to be a couple! All relationships in the book/show/movie/anime could be platonic and it wouldn't be a big deal! (Although personally I like romance, but aroace people also exist and they deserve to be represented in media).
#anti hiccstrid#anti percabeth#anti jlaire#anti allurance#anti anidala#anti hinny#anti westallen#anti naruhina#tuffcup#pernico#jercy#hammerhunter#klance#drarry#ronarry#harmione#snowbarry#barrisco#coldflash#olivarry#sasunaru#shikanaru#gaanaru#sakuhina
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*chewing violently*
unlikely assist
#YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I KEEP IMAGING THIS TEAM UP#OMG#Amethio is gonna join the gang at some point I swear <- delusional#I saw Friede just show up at the Poke-Center and was stunned#THEY FR DID THAT!?!?!?!#and nothing mentioning how he got out?!?!?!!#bruh#pokémon#pokemon horizons#pokemon horizons spoilers#this isn't ship art btw#i just care abt them and sometimes you gotta make the faves suffer#<< prev tags#my thoughts exactly
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ok so bear with me here, this theory is based on nothing but vibes and dreams and delusions.
buddie is going canon in 8x12 which is also episode 118 of 911.
i still find it so interesting that they decided to make bi buck canon (i will never ever ever ever get over bi buck canon, btw) in episode 100 of the show. i know that nowadays episodes 100 of shows are not as big as they used to be (mainly because shows rarely make it to them) but they still mean something big. something big enough to warrant press and cakes and such. and what did 911 do with their 100th episode? they made it about bi buck. in a way that forever links the essence of 911 and bi buck forever. and i find that so incredibly beautiful.
it would be logical to argue that episode 8x12, which is episode number 118 of the show that revolves around station 118, has the potential to be something different and special too. i think that the best way to honor this would be by making it a mostly lighthearted team-focused episode. give me bottle episode at the station where the team receives 0 calls all shift, give me an episode from the 3rd person pov of the people that they help on calls and how they view the 118, give me a the 118 gets locked in a room silly episode, just give me something fun and heartfelt that shows the 118 as the family that they are!!! and then.... and then....
give me the first real confirmation of buddie going canon at the end of the episode. and i mean the very last scene of it.
they already connected a big episode (7x04 aka episode 100) with a very big moment that many many fans had been waiting for (bi buck). why not connect the other very core episode of the show (their 118 episode which is nothing really and yet so special of them) with the other big anticipated thing that fans have been dying for for years.
and like y'all, bi buck is important in and of itself and i hope we all know that. but bi buck is so intrinsically connected to buddie too. and i mean both in fandom and in the canon as well. like we know what subset of fandom has been reading buck as bisexual for seasons now and it's not most of the casual viewers (though i hope some did). it was the buddie fandom. and in 7x04 the way that buck's realization arc was so incredibly connected with eddie and their friendship is astounding. like i still can't believe that it went that way. and that is a deliberate choice. there were a thousand ways in which they could have done it and then said "we are putting eddie diaz, evan buckley's best friend and the guy that everyone who wants bi buck ships him with, in the center of it." so it would be very on brand for producers and writers to give us the actual buddie of it all in episode 118 which could be an episode to touch the core of the show -found family, the firefighting aspect, the hope- which at this point includes buddie as well.
now we know NOTHING about s8 right now so this is where more vibes just get added but it would also make sense that it happens in 8x12 because that it the second half of the season. i feel like s8 is gonna start a little "dark" (and i just mean sad) for the 118. gerard is gonna be ruining their lives and making everything wrong. and eddie is gonna be doing badly, y'all. of course he is. so we can use the first 8 episodes to "solve" these things. eddie can finally be in therapy again for more than his ptsd. the 118 can be fighting to get bobby buck. the bucktommy relationship can be worked towards a break up that moves buck to the next stage of where he's going. and then s8b starts. and we have a "lighter" feeling. hopefully chris is back. bobby is back. buck and eddie are single and we can see that there is something there but for now it has been things that still maybe not everyone can catch on to. so then 8x12 happens and BOOM. buck and/or eddie realize/aknowledge/voice the truth of it all: it's always been about buddie. and then we have 6 more episodes in the season to explore that!!! which is a pretty fair number, i think.
so yeah, that is my-based-on-nothing-but-i'm-now-convinced-is-happening theory for a buddie canon confirmation in 8x12 aka episode 118 of 911.
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what are your thoughts on the “kishi based off naruto and sasuke off him and his brother so it’s weird and morally wrong to ship sasunaru.” IMO I’m like…you know what else is weird? kishi making the two characters that are supposedly based of him and his brother kiss accidentally and not only did they accidentally kiss but that scene is replayed multiple times in the manga and anime. So yeah…
Well I many thoughts.
For starters, the interview in question (and I'm still not sure of the source) states that the bond between Kishimoto and Seishi, his brother, was based on the aspect of feeling mutual pain.
Now let's look at another interview, from Kishimoto the lying liar. In it he states that his wife might secretly realize that Hinata isn't the real model for his wife because his wife is quite strong, which the interviewer noted was kind of like Sakura. Isn't that interesting.
In this interview he also implicitly acknowledges the implicit similarity between Sakura and his wife based on the particular aspect of strength. And yet, sasusaku's wouldn't use this interview as an indication that Sakura was in a romantic relationship with Naruto. Nor would they claim that Kishimoto (who frequently acknowledged that Naruto was a reflection of him) was writing a manga in which his wife (Sakura) was romantically in love with the analogue of his brother (Sasuke) Why?
Because while fiction is a reflection of life, it is in no way an exact representation of life. People in real life are complex multi dimensional beings and have complex and multi dimensional relationships; in other words, people and relationships have dimensions and depth that extend beyond one singular aspect, especially characteristics that are as common and generic as strength, and shared feelings of pain. Thus, Naruto and Sasuke, who also have additional depth in their bond beyond feelings of shared pain (let me know when brothers have feelings of uncertainty regarding the nature of their relationship btw) aren't a perfect analogue of Seishi and Kishimoto.
But I also want to note that they never extend this logic to the reverse. For example, Naruto and Sasuke are explicitly likened to Izanagi and Izanami, who in the Japanese mythos Kishimoto drew inspiration from, on the basis of perfect complementarity, were married. Surely, according to their logic, since basing the fictional dynamic between Naruto and Sasuke of of one aspect of the dynamic between two Gods who were married means that Naruto and Sasuke had romantic feelings for eachother, right? And yet something tells me those hypocrites who are triggered by Naruto and Sasuke would disagree. Because even they can intuit that fictional depictions don't necessarily have a perfect 1 to 1 relationship with the things they derive inspiration from.
But, additionally I need to add that Kishimoto could say that Naruto and Sasuke are the most brotherly of brothers and that it would be a crime to ship them — he could even have them end the series affirming they were like brothers — and it still wouldn't matter for two reasons.
One, intent does not equal impact. It would not matter if Kishimoto intended for Naruto and Sasuke to have a brotherly dynamic if what we were shown in the text is NOT a brotherly dynamic. People put a lot of stock in information from interviews, but while that paratext can help enhance our understanding of the text, ultimately, it is seperate from the text and the text is king — in other words, the purpose of a system (in this case, the Naruto text) is what it does.
But let me talk about a funny example first before I discuss Naruto and Sasuke. In 2009, Folgers Coffee released an infamous commercial that made the relationship between a brother and sister take center stage.
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Now I suggest you watch the video for yourself, but for people who want the TLDR: It received a ton attention and backlash as a result of the very obvious incestuous undertones.
Now the video was obviously meant to depict the dynamic between a normal brother and sister. I mean, taboo themes in a commercial for a brand that has consistently utilized rhetorical appeals to wholesome conservative family values makes for bad business. And yet, despite the commercial making it obvious that the main characters in the ad were brother and sister by having them explicitly indicate as much, that line didn't do much the quell the underlying tension that viewers picked up on when watching the coy flirtation and intense gazes.
Which brings me back to Naruto and Sasuke. Most people that interact with media do so casually. Many are looking for simple minded entertainment. They aren't going to comb through the internet to look for cherry picked interviews to discern the nature of Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. They'll simply look at what's presented in the narrative to do so, and what the narrative presents is that of an overwhelmingly romantic dynamic between Naruto and Sasuke.
Romance is a "social structure that's biologically potentiated." This will receive more elaboration in another post, but at its core much of what we consider to be romantic has been shaped by shared socioculturally produced conventions (that can be specific to particular cultures/societies or more globalized). And when it comes to determining what is romantic in a narrative, the shared conventions and expectations are further mediated by the values that the text promotes.
People who interact casually with Naruto won't see Kishimoto's interviews, but they will see things like...
The classic romantic kiss/almost kiss intimate moment in the rain
Sakura stating that all she wants from Sasuke is acknowledgement in an explicitly romantic context (which is an example of a convention/ideal being promoted in the text as romantic), Naruto internally identifying with Sakura in this regard, and Sasuke giving Naruto the acknowledgement that he wants but not Sakura
Naruto getting tingles in his lower parts when thinking of said acknowledgement from Sasuke
Sasuke thinking about his kiss with Naruto and Naruto's dream during what he believed to be his final moments, and indicating it was one of the many reasons why his body decided to move on its own to save Naruto, a moment that was explicitly paralleled with Haku's sacrifice for Zabuza's dream a mere few chapters later, the same Haku that was implied to have subtextually romantic feelings for Zabuza [and a quick interjection, acknowledgement of what is presented in the text does not equal promotion. Moral critiques are important and just as valid as more stylistic analyses BUT they are distinct things. "Haku was never implied to have feelings for Zabuza because that's gross" is not a meaningful analysis]
Naruto making a proposal that significantly resembles the structure of shinju (double suicide), (a concept that has great significance in Japanese and Western popular culture, hello shared cultural conventions, hello Chikamatsu Monzaemon, hello Romeo and Juliet) a concept that was invoked by Omoi at the beginning of the volume that Naruto's proposal was in. This concept is promoted as a romantic value in the text via Omoi, and of course, is accords with popular sociocultural understandings of what we know to be Romantic.
And make no mistake, Kishimoto was intimately aware of the history of the romantic convention he drew from.
Naruto being Sasuke's tether to humanity in the same way that Rin was Obito's tether to humanity as well as Naruto being visually framed in Sasuke's memory in the exact same way that Rin was framed in Obito's memories in back-to-back chapters.
And there's more, but there's no need to continue because even just these moments highlight how far beyond the het dynamics Naruto and Sasuke are in terms of mutual, romantic implications. Naruto and Sasuke's dynamic is shown as romantic which it why it wouldn't even matter if Naruto and Sasuke weren't intended to be romantic.
Now, the second reason why it wouldn't matter if Naruto and Sasuke were intended to be non romantic brothers is that.... they aren't brothers. Like the most surefire way to make a bond be brotherly is to make the characters related. [And not have their first pivotal interaction be a classic "accidental kiss" ship bait moment that was iconic enough to be recycled by their kids who are now love interests.] And further, the trope of two people (gay people in particular) who aren't siblings but have a unique, powerful and intimate bond that's metaphorized and/or euphemized as sibling-like doesn't inherently negate romance.
But let me provide an example. There's a show called Breaking Bad, centered on a man who ostensibly turns to a life of crime in order to protect his family, but he's not important here. In the show, we're provided with the backstory of the primary antagonist in Season 4, Gus Fring. And the viewer gets to see that the reason Gus decided to devote his life to getting revenge on the cartel was because the loss of someone that was particularly close and precious to him, a man named Hector.
Within Gus' backstory, there's really only one scene of note that implies the two are gay. When a previous antagonist named Hector crudely pees into the pool, in the presence of Gus and Max, and is chastised by a fellow associate, Hector remarks that the two men won't say anything because they like what they see and makes suggestive kissing noises at them.
But there's something interesting about the way Max describes the relationship between himself and Gus. He explicitly states that he knows Gustavo like a brother. Hell, the name of the business that he planned to start alongside Gus was called Los Pollos Hermanos (translated in the show as The Chicken Brother's) and even the episode in which their story is expounded upon is named "Hermanos." And yet, many viewers picked up on the romantic subtext between Max and Gus, subtext that the showrunner confirmed was intentional. In the viewers minds, the subtext wasn't wholly negated because they knew eachother like brothers.
And that's because, the metaphor of the sibling, is often merely utilized to invoke desirable traits of idealized siblinghood (like friendship and trust) while setting aside the biological limitations of actual sibling bonds. Hence, in Japanese and Western media, this invocation of the sibling-like bond often occurred (and still does) in tandem with romantic subtext, and this is especially common in gay narratives when characters are trying to understand the nature of their feelings.
But this is a nuance that is lost by people that only chronically consume battle shonen. If you showed them the scene of Max talking about his dynamic with Gus they'd decry the people who dared to call it gay and make some fake deep statement about how people want to undermine pure brotherly bonds by making everything romantic. Because only in the Naruto fandom will people complain about you bringing up the fact that maybe it's gay to think about a kiss when you're about to die or to feel special butterflies when you're acknowledged by your rival. They'd combust if you tried to explain that idealized characteristics present in particular relational categories (like friendship and brotherhood) can overlap.
And if you go back to the interview, in which feelings of intensely shared pain are regarded as brotherly, you'll see that Kishimoto notes just that. He states that feelings of brotherly love and friendship are the same exact thing. Which means that in the period when Sasuke considered Sakura a nakama, something that obviously ended after he left the village, according to the very same interview that narusasu antis foolishly claim debunks our ship, it would mean that Sasuke also had fraternal feelings for Sakura as he did for the rest of Team 7 and thus was morally wrong. But you can't expect logic from het shippers.
Which brings me to my final set of points. I've already reached the 30 image limit so I can't post more images on this post (and will probably save it for another ask) but my post this far has only adressed the demographic that genuinely believes in the narusasu are like brothers argument. But, you need to understand that a significant portion of the people that push that argument don't even believe in it themselves, and I'm not joking. Search any narusakusasu account or popular "poly Team 7" art post and I can guarantee that at least 7 out 10 times, if you click on the profile of a someone with a cherry blossom and tomato emoji pair and search "incest" or "brother" on their account, you'll find a post of them speaking negatively about narusasu. It's almost funny how consistently it turns out to be true, but again, I'll address that in another post (along with the behavior of naruhina's because they tend to use different argument against sns). The point is that their issue with narusasu has never been about "moral wrongness" but about the fact that Sakura (and Hinata in the case of SasuHinaNaru's) isn't involved in their dynamic.
In fact, many Sakura stans are multiSaku's that have no problem shipping her with every man that ever breathed in her vicinity (Madara, Sasori, Itachi, Kakashi, etc.) and even the ones that didn't (Shisui).. I mean they're even publishing reworked fanfiction, [see this ItaSaku novel]. And yet they only bat an eye at Naruto and Sasuke. That's why ultimately, you shouldn't take them seriously, because they aren't looking to engage with you in good faith. They just want to undermine narusasu while stealing our tropes for their ship.
But since the word of Kishimoto is law to them, just bring up any one of the interviews in which Kishimoto's mocked Hinata, Sakura NH and SS, like him calling Sakura detestable, or his reaction to someone liking Hinata being "so you like girls with big boobs," or him initially agreeing that SS and NH were unrequited, or him stating he didn't know if Sasuke and Sakura would last, or him stating that Hinata isn't a regular heroine that stands at the main character's side but the type that watches him from the shadows (when her entire goal during the manga was to stand by Naruto's side), him laughing at an interviewer that stated Sasuke dealt with Sakura by leaving, or Kishimoto stating that he didnt have any devotion to the love story between Naruto and Hinata and he didnt plan to write it until Studio Pierrot suggested it, or Kishimoto stating that he avoided writing the reason for Sakura's love because it would sound too contrived, or — well, you get the point.
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