Naruto Reaction Shots: Invasion of Konoha and Return of Itachi arcs
I am actually well beyond this, but I'm catching up the recaps! No spoilers plz.
Reaction shots beneath the cut. As always: I am enjoying the series tremendously, and I mock because I love. Especially Sasuke, who is so freaking easy to mock. Oh, honey.
So, when last we met, Orochimaru and the Third Hokage were playing tug-of-war with Orochimaru's soul v-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-y slowly; Gaara was having trauma; Gaara's trauma was going thermonuclear on everyone around him; evil ninjas were attacking the village; and Naruto was proving to actually be kinda badass when sufficiently motivated, which fact pissed Sasuke the hell off.
We now resume our show, already in progress!
So they do go further into detail on the points of Gaara's backstory, which makes me clutch my head in my hands and go "what the HELL were they THINKING?" As far as I can tell, a) Gaara's father the Fourth Kazekage made the choice to sacrifice his wife's life to bind the sand spirit thingy into Gaara, b) he did so without the blessing of said wife, which takes it from 'kinda questionable' to 'OH NO YOU DIDN'T', c) the wife, who was really pissed off and I can hardly blame her, cursed the whole freaking village with her dying breath with the hopes that Gaara would turn out to be a bloodthirsty sociopath and make them all really regret the whole spirit-binding thing (which, as I said, I am totally on her side wrt thinking her husband was an evil fucker, but that's kinda hard on Gaara!), d) the wife dies, e) the wife's brother (who I thought was a girl for a while) is seriously peeved by the whole killing-his-sister business (again, understandable!) but blames, not the Fourth Kazekage, but Gaara, and f) joins the rest of the village in ensuring that Gaara, one of the most powerful beings in the world, hates them all, along with g) the Fourth Kazekage, the very dude who made the brilliant 'let's kill my wife in order to bind a powerful, ancient, amoral spirit into my son,' and therefore the whole hateration h) happens, although Gaara turns out to be not so much anti-Suna as just anti-everyone-in-the-world, in a sort of repressed and introverted obsessive sociopath kind of way.
At this point I go, "Not smart! You are not being smart! NOT SMART. SUNA, THINK MOAR."
But, as rachelmanija pointed out, this dynamic, while still OMG NOT SMART, is a very believable one if you look at it as an abusive relationship. Gaara, though physically very powerful (and, honestly, apparently totally invulnerable), was very emotionally vulnerable: his father, the very head of the village, had decided he was a mistake; his uncle, the one person he thought cared for him, actually hated his guts and pretended not to purely in order to fuck with him; his siblings appear to have been kept from him, possibly because everyone was afraid of him; his mother, although legitimately angry, deliberately thoroughly screwed him in order to effect her revenge. And in an abusive family situation, it's not uncommon to transfer one's anger at a powerful figure (the Fourth Kazekage, responsible for most of the bad and WFT and morally wrong decisions in this scenario!) to a more vulnarable one (Gaara, physically powerful but emotionally defenseless), even if in doing so you simply perpetuate the problem to another generation.
(Wow, I thought Konoha's ninja society was pretty screwed up, but Suna makes 'em look like a bunch of happy hippies.)
But I digress.
Anyway, as we have seen before, Naruto requires no tactical ability because if you beat on him long enough (or, even better, threaten the people he cares about), he'll eventually freak the fuck out and manifest some fox-demon chakra, pop out some tails, and kick your ass. Which happens. Only Gaara manifests some... something-demon chakra (tanuki?) and then we have an epic battle of epicness.
(Me: OH. The tanuki thing has rings around its eyes, too. That must be why Gaara's eyes are all dark! It's like Naruto's fox-whisker markings! That's way better than my prior hypothesis.
The boy: I may regret asking this, but what was your prior hypothesis?
Me: ...Gaara spends too much time at Hot Topic?
The boy: ....
Me: What? I didn't have any other explanation for the eye markings! And his sister wears mesh, and his brother is all about the black clothes and makeup! WORK WITH ME HERE.)
Aaaaaaanyway. So there is an epic battle of epicness. Meanwhile, the Third Hokage gets tired of playing tug-of-war with Orochimaru's soul and merely whacks off the parts he had already yanked out, resulting in Orochimaru still being alive but with no soul in his arms or something. This is surprisingly effective, as it removes his ability to make hands signs, and also makes him look stupid. Well. Stupider.
In the aftermath of the Epic Gaara vs. Naruto Battle of Epicness, Naruto and Gaara are both, literally, beaten and exhausted to the point where all they can do is lie on the ground and stare at one another... and Naruto, still afraid that Gaara will hurt his friends, starts crawling his way toward Gaara using his chin, which may be the most badass thing I've ever seen. Naruto has, at this point, already overcome Sasuke for badassery in my book. Now he just has to master 'keep your damn mouth shut and everyone will be able to recognize that you actually are badass,' which, let us say, I'm not holding my breath.
And then! Naruto teaches Gaara the true power of friendship! No, really. And it's surprisingly emotionally satisfying. I think we need to arrange for Naruto to meet up with Sora from Kingdom Hearts. They could solve all the problems of the multiverse with benevolent violence and the Power of Friendship. ...I actually really appreciate this, because it's like Gaara wields the Power of Being an Unrepentant Sociopath, and Naruto wields the Power of Caring About People, and Naruto wins! And Gaara rethinks his strategy! And anything that leads people away from self-destructive sociopathy is good! At this point, Naruto is a more effective therapist than anyone else in the story, and that's a terrifying thought, really.
...Meanwhile, Sasuke emos more, because Naruto has out-badassed him. I feel like one part bad for him and about ten parts "ha, suck on THAT," because honestly, if you're going to equate superiority to martial prowess, I am not going to feel so much bad for you if you discover that the person you've been denigrating has gotten better than you.
Especially if they did so with the Power of Friendship.
***
So then, Itachi comes back. They actually did quite a good job here of making Itachi look severely badass: we've already had it established that the jounin sensei are super-powerful, and even more than one of them, working together, have a hard time with Itachi. But my favorite part of this was... well, I shall paraphrase:
Itachi: I have returned.
Sasuke: Brother! I have been training to defeat you, on the chance that you would come back for me! Now we will battle!
Itachi: Actually I'm here for Naruto.
Sasuke: ...............
Itachi: PSYCHE.
Sasuke: .....bawwwwwwwwww.
(I make fun of Sasuke so much. But he should not make it so easy for me!)
Anyway, they all run around a lot trying to warn one another of things, and at the culmination of this Sasuke does his, "Itachi! I have prepared myself for you! Now we fight!" and Itachi, very appropriately, mops the floor with him without much effort. In all fairness, Itachi and his sharklike counterpart mop the floor with everyone except Jiraya. (Side note: I was very pleased to see Jiraya holding his own against the two Akatsuki, because he's portrayed as something of a buffoon and with good reason-actually I think he cultivates the buffooon thing deliberately becasue being a badass is exhausting and lonely, but I digress-but he was one of the Sannin and he is a sage and, ergo, he really is that good, he just doesn't whip it out very often. So to speak.)
The fight itself happens inside a toad... Mouth? Organ? Something fairly gross, anyway.
And then we transition to the Search for Tsunade, which will be another post!
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.
Reaction shots beneath the cut. As always: I am enjoying the series tremendously, and I mock because I love. Especially Sasuke, who is so freaking easy to mock. Oh, honey.
So, when last we met, Orochimaru and the Third Hokage were playing tug-of-war with Orochimaru's soul v-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-y slowly; Gaara was having trauma; Gaara's trauma was going thermonuclear on everyone around him; evil ninjas were attacking the village; and Naruto was proving to actually be kinda badass when sufficiently motivated, which fact pissed Sasuke the hell off.
We now resume our show, already in progress!
So they do go further into detail on the points of Gaara's backstory, which makes me clutch my head in my hands and go "what the HELL were they THINKING?" As far as I can tell, a) Gaara's father the Fourth Kazekage made the choice to sacrifice his wife's life to bind the sand spirit thingy into Gaara, b) he did so without the blessing of said wife, which takes it from 'kinda questionable' to 'OH NO YOU DIDN'T', c) the wife, who was really pissed off and I can hardly blame her, cursed the whole freaking village with her dying breath with the hopes that Gaara would turn out to be a bloodthirsty sociopath and make them all really regret the whole spirit-binding thing (which, as I said, I am totally on her side wrt thinking her husband was an evil fucker, but that's kinda hard on Gaara!), d) the wife dies, e) the wife's brother (who I thought was a girl for a while) is seriously peeved by the whole killing-his-sister business (again, understandable!) but blames, not the Fourth Kazekage, but Gaara, and f) joins the rest of the village in ensuring that Gaara, one of the most powerful beings in the world, hates them all, along with g) the Fourth Kazekage, the very dude who made the brilliant 'let's kill my wife in order to bind a powerful, ancient, amoral spirit into my son,' and therefore the whole hateration h) happens, although Gaara turns out to be not so much anti-Suna as just anti-everyone-in-the-world, in a sort of repressed and introverted obsessive sociopath kind of way.
At this point I go, "Not smart! You are not being smart! NOT SMART. SUNA, THINK MOAR."
But, as rachelmanija pointed out, this dynamic, while still OMG NOT SMART, is a very believable one if you look at it as an abusive relationship. Gaara, though physically very powerful (and, honestly, apparently totally invulnerable), was very emotionally vulnerable: his father, the very head of the village, had decided he was a mistake; his uncle, the one person he thought cared for him, actually hated his guts and pretended not to purely in order to fuck with him; his siblings appear to have been kept from him, possibly because everyone was afraid of him; his mother, although legitimately angry, deliberately thoroughly screwed him in order to effect her revenge. And in an abusive family situation, it's not uncommon to transfer one's anger at a powerful figure (the Fourth Kazekage, responsible for most of the bad and WFT and morally wrong decisions in this scenario!) to a more vulnarable one (Gaara, physically powerful but emotionally defenseless), even if in doing so you simply perpetuate the problem to another generation.
(Wow, I thought Konoha's ninja society was pretty screwed up, but Suna makes 'em look like a bunch of happy hippies.)
But I digress.
Anyway, as we have seen before, Naruto requires no tactical ability because if you beat on him long enough (or, even better, threaten the people he cares about), he'll eventually freak the fuck out and manifest some fox-demon chakra, pop out some tails, and kick your ass. Which happens. Only Gaara manifests some... something-demon chakra (tanuki?) and then we have an epic battle of epicness.
(Me: OH. The tanuki thing has rings around its eyes, too. That must be why Gaara's eyes are all dark! It's like Naruto's fox-whisker markings! That's way better than my prior hypothesis.
The boy: I may regret asking this, but what was your prior hypothesis?
Me: ...Gaara spends too much time at Hot Topic?
The boy: ....
Me: What? I didn't have any other explanation for the eye markings! And his sister wears mesh, and his brother is all about the black clothes and makeup! WORK WITH ME HERE.)
Aaaaaaanyway. So there is an epic battle of epicness. Meanwhile, the Third Hokage gets tired of playing tug-of-war with Orochimaru's soul and merely whacks off the parts he had already yanked out, resulting in Orochimaru still being alive but with no soul in his arms or something. This is surprisingly effective, as it removes his ability to make hands signs, and also makes him look stupid. Well. Stupider.
In the aftermath of the Epic Gaara vs. Naruto Battle of Epicness, Naruto and Gaara are both, literally, beaten and exhausted to the point where all they can do is lie on the ground and stare at one another... and Naruto, still afraid that Gaara will hurt his friends, starts crawling his way toward Gaara using his chin, which may be the most badass thing I've ever seen. Naruto has, at this point, already overcome Sasuke for badassery in my book. Now he just has to master 'keep your damn mouth shut and everyone will be able to recognize that you actually are badass,' which, let us say, I'm not holding my breath.
And then! Naruto teaches Gaara the true power of friendship! No, really. And it's surprisingly emotionally satisfying. I think we need to arrange for Naruto to meet up with Sora from Kingdom Hearts. They could solve all the problems of the multiverse with benevolent violence and the Power of Friendship. ...I actually really appreciate this, because it's like Gaara wields the Power of Being an Unrepentant Sociopath, and Naruto wields the Power of Caring About People, and Naruto wins! And Gaara rethinks his strategy! And anything that leads people away from self-destructive sociopathy is good! At this point, Naruto is a more effective therapist than anyone else in the story, and that's a terrifying thought, really.
...Meanwhile, Sasuke emos more, because Naruto has out-badassed him. I feel like one part bad for him and about ten parts "ha, suck on THAT," because honestly, if you're going to equate superiority to martial prowess, I am not going to feel so much bad for you if you discover that the person you've been denigrating has gotten better than you.
Especially if they did so with the Power of Friendship.
***
So then, Itachi comes back. They actually did quite a good job here of making Itachi look severely badass: we've already had it established that the jounin sensei are super-powerful, and even more than one of them, working together, have a hard time with Itachi. But my favorite part of this was... well, I shall paraphrase:
Itachi: I have returned.
Sasuke: Brother! I have been training to defeat you, on the chance that you would come back for me! Now we will battle!
Itachi: Actually I'm here for Naruto.
Sasuke: ...............
Itachi: PSYCHE.
Sasuke: .....bawwwwwwwwww.
(I make fun of Sasuke so much. But he should not make it so easy for me!)
Anyway, they all run around a lot trying to warn one another of things, and at the culmination of this Sasuke does his, "Itachi! I have prepared myself for you! Now we fight!" and Itachi, very appropriately, mops the floor with him without much effort. In all fairness, Itachi and his sharklike counterpart mop the floor with everyone except Jiraya. (Side note: I was very pleased to see Jiraya holding his own against the two Akatsuki, because he's portrayed as something of a buffoon and with good reason-actually I think he cultivates the buffooon thing deliberately becasue being a badass is exhausting and lonely, but I digress-but he was one of the Sannin and he is a sage and, ergo, he really is that good, he just doesn't whip it out very often. So to speak.)
The fight itself happens inside a toad... Mouth? Organ? Something fairly gross, anyway.
And then we transition to the Search for Tsunade, which will be another post!
Posted on LJ and DW, reply here or there. Currently there are
comments at DW.