(no subject)
I got into the Naruto series almost six months ago, and didn't enter fandom for a while because I heard how scary it was. I wrote a few fics with my OTP, SasukexNaruto, and then decided to read others because I was so obsessed with them and...yes, I found absolute garbage about "the slut."
It's a prerequisite for me to read authors who have a Sakura I like, and a few weeks ago I ventured back in.
I really thought the Sakura-bashing would be over, especially since the anime's Sakura vs. Sasori aired for those who don't read the manga. I mean, when I read the chapter with the new bell test I was all HOLY SHIT with Kakashi when she punched a hole in the ground. She took down a member of Akatsuki with an old lady! I would have wet my pants and hid behind the old lady and been all TAKE THE GRANDMA JUST DON'T HURT ME YOU SCARY DISNEY REJECT! And just how's she's dealing with Naruto, honestly, what's to bash?
Yeah....no.
Today I found on the youtube showings of the fight: "I HATE SAKURA SHE KILLED SASORI AND SHE RUINS MY SHIP. SASODEI AND SASUNARU 4EVER! >("
............seriously. Seriously, I want to beat these people with a stupid stick. "If Sakura LOST," I wanted to say, "then your precious Sasori would have hunted down silly little Naruto, kidnapped him, and killed him. This makes SasukexNaruto a bit difficult don't you think?"
Makes my OTP rather difficult. *grumbles*
I love Sakura. I started to fall in love with her in the small moments Kishi gave her to us: when she was the only one to have measured chakra to run up the tree, it was like another message she's the only normal, balanced one of her three...four...five completely insane teammates. When she kept her emotions in check by a thread when Sasuke "died" by repeating textbook lines with a hysterical, desperate dedication, I saw a little girl, again normal and clinging to something like Hermione or a friend of mine would do. During the forest of death, I saw a little girl who stole my heart completely: a little girl who needs to know she's loved, needed, and acknowledged...badly, and with a capacity to love even she doesn't understand. To me, Sakura is lonely. It's a different loneliness from Naruto, who doesn't understand the emptiness in his heart because it was never filled, or Sasuke, who knows exactly what the emptiness and it kills him every day with blood dripping out the pipe. She's lonely because she can't connect emotionally to very many people despite her determination to: it's the cliched "lonely in a sea of people" and for her the blandness makes it even more painful. She's the girl who wants to be told she's good enough, but probably never was at home. She was surrounded by people, but not necessarily by people she loved or was loved by, and it's a loneliness ironically the main character can't fix. Again, because he doesn't understand it.
They say Sakura has only a shallow crush on Sasuke, that there's not point, etc. I believe that Sakura initially "fell in love" with Sasuke because he was everything she wanted to be--she supressed Inner Sakura so much it became a freaking different identity, until Sasuke left and Inner and Outer merged. I think she loves him in a sense she believes by saving him she can prove she has control over her life, that she can protect someone--ANYONE--she cares about if she tries hard enough. And in that she becomes obsessed and will never stop chasing him until she gets that confirmation. Unfortunately Sasuke has had two years of brainwash, is too angry, emotionally stunted, confused, and tired to give it to her, if he ever will be able to, that poor boy. Accepting Naruto left him traumatized (his face at VOTE's conclusion is shattered), this is a kid in need of years of therapy to accept a group of people without having a panic attack. And we are all familiar that these episodes lead to joining up with terrorists. AND THEN THE TERRORISTS WIN. D:
They say Sakura stalks him, and I want to scream at them because they don't see the point--they don't look past the end of their noses as to answer WHY a girl would risk making her body explode to see him again. EXPLODE, PEOPLE: Chiyo was like "WTF is the matter with you?" while Sakura just kept fighting even when she was hit multiple times with POISONED BLADES. I know Sasuke's the prettiest guy I've ever seen, but that's not why she won't give up on him people! (If it were...actually she'd still be awesome, because that would be hilarious and prove she has a wayyyy longer attention span than me. xD) Yes, it's an obsession, but it's different from Naruto (who is, IMO, getting kind of creepily obsessed with Sasuke). It's reluctant and human, the way she looked at him during the Reunion was disappointment, guilt, and regret. Because she wasn't strong enough or selfless enough when she was young, she didn't see how selfish he was until she saw Naruto half-dead in the hospital. She couldn't brush it off anymore. And because she's been obsessed with him for so long, she can't stop, and probably never will.
They say that Sakura is useless. Um...Naruto was the one in the reunion who's brain seemed to be on autopilot, the one who went completely batshit insane, and was the one a broken wreck on the ground when Sasuke left again. And who was telling Naruto to pick himself up and stop crying ? Sakura. How is this useless? Without her,...look, Naruto's really psychologically messed up, has a horrible temper, and I really don't know how long he would have stayed like that if she hadn't snapped him out of it--she was shaken a bit and crying, but Naruto was going all out in depression. If anything this "season," it's almost like Sakura and Naruto are trading places: Naruto so obsessed with him it makes him lose his mind and barrel right at Itachi (*headslap*), Sakura is the one who -isn't- an emotional trainwreck or lose brain function.
And some the wince-worthy examples of SasukexSakura fandom...it's like subtle bashing, that she can't exist on her own, and unlike the manga where she changes and gets stronger, the pairing "happens" because she's this innocent, submissive, helpless damsel in distress?. How is that supposed to impress Sasuke? When most of Sakura is trying to make it so he'll see her as an EQUAL? Or even having a story where she "hates him with a passion"? It's a pivotal part of her character and her development to me that she is fascinated by him as a cure for her loneliness. And then DOES something with it by helping him feel loved again.
Blah blah blah, basically the moral of my story: Sakura is a character that people have to be more careful about writing than Sasuke, Naruto, and all the other characters combined. Because she's an archetype for weakness and she's the only freaking one besides Lee who will admit it. And she's normal. And makes mistakes and.... <3
It's a prerequisite for me to read authors who have a Sakura I like, and a few weeks ago I ventured back in.
I really thought the Sakura-bashing would be over, especially since the anime's Sakura vs. Sasori aired for those who don't read the manga. I mean, when I read the chapter with the new bell test I was all HOLY SHIT with Kakashi when she punched a hole in the ground. She took down a member of Akatsuki with an old lady! I would have wet my pants and hid behind the old lady and been all TAKE THE GRANDMA JUST DON'T HURT ME YOU SCARY DISNEY REJECT! And just how's she's dealing with Naruto, honestly, what's to bash?
Yeah....no.
Today I found on the youtube showings of the fight: "I HATE SAKURA SHE KILLED SASORI AND SHE RUINS MY SHIP. SASODEI AND SASUNARU 4EVER! >("
............seriously. Seriously, I want to beat these people with a stupid stick. "If Sakura LOST," I wanted to say, "then your precious Sasori would have hunted down silly little Naruto, kidnapped him, and killed him. This makes SasukexNaruto a bit difficult don't you think?"
Makes my OTP rather difficult. *grumbles*
I love Sakura. I started to fall in love with her in the small moments Kishi gave her to us: when she was the only one to have measured chakra to run up the tree, it was like another message she's the only normal, balanced one of her three...four...five completely insane teammates. When she kept her emotions in check by a thread when Sasuke "died" by repeating textbook lines with a hysterical, desperate dedication, I saw a little girl, again normal and clinging to something like Hermione or a friend of mine would do. During the forest of death, I saw a little girl who stole my heart completely: a little girl who needs to know she's loved, needed, and acknowledged...badly, and with a capacity to love even she doesn't understand. To me, Sakura is lonely. It's a different loneliness from Naruto, who doesn't understand the emptiness in his heart because it was never filled, or Sasuke, who knows exactly what the emptiness and it kills him every day with blood dripping out the pipe. She's lonely because she can't connect emotionally to very many people despite her determination to: it's the cliched "lonely in a sea of people" and for her the blandness makes it even more painful. She's the girl who wants to be told she's good enough, but probably never was at home. She was surrounded by people, but not necessarily by people she loved or was loved by, and it's a loneliness ironically the main character can't fix. Again, because he doesn't understand it.
They say Sakura has only a shallow crush on Sasuke, that there's not point, etc. I believe that Sakura initially "fell in love" with Sasuke because he was everything she wanted to be--she supressed Inner Sakura so much it became a freaking different identity, until Sasuke left and Inner and Outer merged. I think she loves him in a sense she believes by saving him she can prove she has control over her life, that she can protect someone--ANYONE--she cares about if she tries hard enough. And in that she becomes obsessed and will never stop chasing him until she gets that confirmation. Unfortunately Sasuke has had two years of brainwash, is too angry, emotionally stunted, confused, and tired to give it to her, if he ever will be able to, that poor boy. Accepting Naruto left him traumatized (his face at VOTE's conclusion is shattered), this is a kid in need of years of therapy to accept a group of people without having a panic attack. And we are all familiar that these episodes lead to joining up with terrorists. AND THEN THE TERRORISTS WIN. D:
They say Sakura stalks him, and I want to scream at them because they don't see the point--they don't look past the end of their noses as to answer WHY a girl would risk making her body explode to see him again. EXPLODE, PEOPLE: Chiyo was like "WTF is the matter with you?" while Sakura just kept fighting even when she was hit multiple times with POISONED BLADES. I know Sasuke's the prettiest guy I've ever seen, but that's not why she won't give up on him people! (If it were...actually she'd still be awesome, because that would be hilarious and prove she has a wayyyy longer attention span than me. xD) Yes, it's an obsession, but it's different from Naruto (who is, IMO, getting kind of creepily obsessed with Sasuke). It's reluctant and human, the way she looked at him during the Reunion was disappointment, guilt, and regret. Because she wasn't strong enough or selfless enough when she was young, she didn't see how selfish he was until she saw Naruto half-dead in the hospital. She couldn't brush it off anymore. And because she's been obsessed with him for so long, she can't stop, and probably never will.
They say that Sakura is useless. Um...Naruto was the one in the reunion who's brain seemed to be on autopilot, the one who went completely batshit insane, and was the one a broken wreck on the ground when Sasuke left again. And who was telling Naruto to pick himself up and stop crying ? Sakura. How is this useless? Without her,...look, Naruto's really psychologically messed up, has a horrible temper, and I really don't know how long he would have stayed like that if she hadn't snapped him out of it--she was shaken a bit and crying, but Naruto was going all out in depression. If anything this "season," it's almost like Sakura and Naruto are trading places: Naruto so obsessed with him it makes him lose his mind and barrel right at Itachi (*headslap*), Sakura is the one who -isn't- an emotional trainwreck or lose brain function.
And some the wince-worthy examples of SasukexSakura fandom...it's like subtle bashing, that she can't exist on her own, and unlike the manga where she changes and gets stronger, the pairing "happens" because she's this innocent, submissive, helpless damsel in distress?. How is that supposed to impress Sasuke? When most of Sakura is trying to make it so he'll see her as an EQUAL? Or even having a story where she "hates him with a passion"? It's a pivotal part of her character and her development to me that she is fascinated by him as a cure for her loneliness. And then DOES something with it by helping him feel loved again.
Blah blah blah, basically the moral of my story: Sakura is a character that people have to be more careful about writing than Sasuke, Naruto, and all the other characters combined. Because she's an archetype for weakness and she's the only freaking one besides Lee who will admit it. And she's normal. And makes mistakes and.... <3