#Naruto had decent coping skills but he could use it too

[setsunasknife]

I’m still in my watch of Shippuden and with every episode all I keep thinking is:

Damn these people need therapy

[juana-the-iguana]

Headcanons about Sakura:

- Her parents were not ninjas. Maybe they went to the academy, but if they did, they never passed the genin exams. No halfway decent ninja would let their daughter diet, let alone the night before a crucial, physically taxing exam.

- Her family leaves much to be desired. It's one thing to say, "I'm better than blank, because my family is better," but it's another thing to say "I'm better because I have a family." And the haughty way she spoke too seemed a bit like she was overcompensating. I don't think she was abused, but I think there was something seriously dysfunctional. To elaborate:

-Her father was either distant, disapproving or even left her family at some point. I don't think there is anything atypical about her feelings toward Sasuke in their full progression. I also don't think that her desire to stand back-to-back with her teammates is unusual. Still. She values her relationship with them to the same degree, if not more, than the ones she has with the women in her life who had been there for her for longer, and more consistently (her mother, Ino, Tsunade, etc.) Part of this is because Naruto is a very sexist society and Kishimoto does not know how to write women whose lives don't revolve around men, but part of this is because she lacked male approval growing up and seeks validation from men to compensate. (Yes, this is a very cliche explanation for why girls go for "bad boys," but it works in my head.)

- She trained a lot before the Forest of Death. She exited the Forest bloodied, beaten and traumatized, yet still able to keep up with Ino—one of the best ninjas in their academy class, who also improved a lot since the Academy—and tie with her in a fight. She also had fine enough chakra control to channel chakra into her fists. Those skills didn't appear after her fight with the Sound nin.

- Kakashi never trained her, but she never held it against him. He was surprised by her progress in the preliminary matches and seeing as she improved drastically since the Academy, that's a hard thing to miss. Also, the only time we see him praise her is to use her success as a way to goad her teammates on, and he specifically mentions the fact that she is a girl (before Shippuden at least; during the time skip they did not keep in contact at all).

Kakashi was a young, traumatized man in his mid-twenties who was suddenly and put in charge of an emotionally unstable Sharingan user and an equally emotionally unstable (but in other ways) jinchuuriki, both of whom showed tremendous amounts of potential. Kakashi didn't know what he was doing, but he knew that Sasuke and Naruto needed a lot of attention. Combine that with a dose of casual sexism and Sakura got pushed aside. She understood this and never held it against him.

- She never thought about being from a civilian family until the Chuunin Exams. In the Academy, she was so focused on passing her classes and competing with Ino that it she never gave any thought to the that. Once she was placed on Team 7, she was with: the last Uchiha, so she had no reason to believe that his skills were anything but a result of practice and innate talent; Naruto, who was believed to be clanless/Uzumaki was not a well known clan among their generation; and Kakashi who also has an elusive family history. She didn't even know about the Sharingan and the Byakugon until witnessing them firsthand, despite the fact that she is one of the most well-read ninjas in her generation.

Then, during the exam, it became clear in the test portion that so many of the successful ninjas relied heavily on kekkai genkai or clan jutsus (the latter of which she fell victim to), in the Forest of Death Orochimaru was hunting Sasuke for his Sharingan, and during the preliminary matches, every single clan-kid relied heavily on their clan techniques/blood limits. Of the four (in her mind) ninjas who did not have clan techniques—her, Naruto, Lee and Tenten—only one of them advanced to the next round, despite the fact that they were all very capable ninjas. Ninja clans went from a thing she had no reason to pay attention to, to one of the most determining factors in which ninjas progressed in their careers.

- She wouldn't have actually abandoned the village for Sasuke. I think she loved him and was saying anything she thought would make him stay, but I don't think she would have followed through on that spur-of-the-moment comment.

- Inner Sakura existed to cope with her frustration toward her teammates, because she felt like she couldn't be angry at them. She stopped caring about childhood bullies after she joined Team 7, but her anger from being overlooked, condescended, abandoned and, in general, not being able to keep up with her team kept Inner alive. She could never take these emotions out on her teammates (except in small bursts) because she understood that they were dealing with bigger things and didn't hold their actions against them, so she bottled them up.

- She trained a lot in genjutsu. No one's "immune" to genjutsu. She progresses from falling for a simple genjutsu during the Bell Test to brushing off s-ranked genjutsus like they're nothing for the majority of the series.

- She was good friends with Hinata and Shikamaru. There is a photo of her, Naruto and Hinata as kids in the Uzumaki mantle in Boruto (I know, I know), which leads me to believe that Hinata and her were good friends, because we all know that Sakura would have been the one to arrange a hang out between those three. As for Shikamaru, after Sakura rekindled her friendship with Ino and began spending time training with Team 10 before the Chuunin Exams, Shikamaru became a regular figure in her life. They're vibed with each other, because they're both smart and analytical.

- Sasuke only had so many photos and he really wanted to hold onto that photo with Team Taka, which is why Sakura put it in the family portrait frame and kept it intact. There has to be a reason.

[heka-write]

Six of Crows Thoughts and Discussion

Just finished this book a week ago. 

Not doing a review because I find that boring. The book was amazing. That’s all you need to know. Definitely recommend for buying if you can. 

A solid 4.5/5. 

I thought I’d do my thoughts on the book and story as a whole, since that’s more fun and would love to open it to discussion. 

(Spoilers are a given)  

Again, I loved this book. It reminded me a lot of The Lunar Chronicles in the sense that this book was a archetypical revenge/heist plot set in a fantasy world and The Lunar Chronicles was a traditional fairy tale plot in a fantasy/sci-fi world. 

I also did not read the original Grisha Trilogy but was still able to read the book and understand the story completely. There was plenty of world-building that intertwined seamlessly into the story, and while a few details went over my head, I was still able to have a decent understanding of the environment and politics and enjoy the story. You don’t have to read the original series to understand the spin off, and that’s another reason I would recommend the book. 

(Though, now that I have read this I am quite interested in going back and reading the original series. )

I especially loved the cast. The morally grey, chaotic neutral characters are my favorites. The ones that are victims of society and rebel against it to survive, but still have heart and care about each other. They are Bad and ruthless but sympathetic and forgivable. They are the type of Bad that you wanna be. #SquadGoals. 

They remind me a lot of Team Taka from Naruto, a team of people that were also victims of their societies and taken in by a bad crew, but learned to care for each other. Unfortunately, the author dropped the ball on those characters so the “good” characters could have their happy endings, but I’m glad I get to experience that dynamic in this book. 

I loved all the characters, but I think my favorites would be Kaz, Inej and Nina. Nina was great throughout the novel but her ending was so hardcore. I’m hoping we will get to see her struggle in the next book, and she won’t be out of commission for too long. She’s sassy and her relationship with Matthias reminds me a lot of Anastasia and Will from Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (another spin-off series! Much better than the original imo). Both these relationships are about a couple who loved each other making mistakes and working to forgive one another. The tension between them sliced through the page and I really felt their struggle. They have a great reason to love each other too; each taught the other about the common humanity among people. Matthias showed Nina kindness that she didn’t receive from her oppressors, and Nina showed Matthias friendship that he didn’t see in the propaganda he was taught. The flashbacks and progression really helped solidify them as a believable couple. I think what works the most about fictional couples like them is that you are shown how much they care despite being mad at each other. That’s how real relationships should be like. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by Jesper and Wylan as a couple. Growing up it was pretty much impossible to see gay relationships in mainstream books (only in the LGBT genre could you really find them), so I was pleasantly surprised. At first I saw Wylan as very young (for some reason) and probably a little brother figure to Jesper, but I’m glad I was proven wrong. They are hilarious together, and it was really heartwarming to see someone care for Wylan after witnessing his father reject him. 

Even though I did like these two couples I wasn’t a fan of the need of having everyone paired off. I mean seriously? Can no one be single in fiction? 

I feel this was especially since I did not see Inej and Kaz as a strong couple. I love them both as characters. Inej is a tough girl who had to work through her insecurities and heal from her past. Not to mention her cool skills. Kaz is the intelligent boy prodigy who is dark and out for revenge. They are both badass with tragic pasts, but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason for them to be together. Kaz is the bad boy type character that I usually would rather see stay a loner than have a romantic interest. If he has troubles keeping friends, how would he be ready for a romantic partner? I’m glad the author addressed that in the book, when Kaz asked her to stay and she said she needed commitment and he was too cold to give it to her. Bardugo did a good job of addressing that at least. 

But the flashbacks and longing looks didn’t really convince me for this couple as they did for NinaXMatt. They both have tragic pasts, and can sympathize with one another, but nothing of what I saw gave me reason to believe that Kaz would bond with her more than Jesper or any of the other characters. 

What really annoyed me about their relationship was that it seemed that all the moments used to show how much they cared about one another required Inej getting kidnapped or hurt. Kaz shows how much he cares for her by torturing the person who hurt her. The author shows how much Kaz cares by having a villain kidnap Inej and making Kaz go to his worst enemy for help. I’m not against female characters ever getting hurt or needing help but Inej didn’t even get a chapter in her POV after getting kidnapped. It doesn’t sit well with me. I know another book is coming, so I’ll reserve my final judgement for then. 

Again, I liked seeing Inej overcome her fears and achieve her goals. The chapter where she was able to climb up the chimney was the most empowering to read, personally. Even though I’m glad she got her revenge on Tante Heleen, I’m annoyed that we had to repeat the trope where women have to sexually please men to survive. I know the author was trying to do a subversion, because Nina and Inej were working undercover (and seductresses are staple in the Heist/Revenge plot storyline) but men are never put in this position in fiction unless it’s a joke (if anyone can come up with serious examples I’d still stand by that women are subjected to it more). Yes, I’m glad that this plot point was brought up in the issue of poverty (the author is very cutthroat about the dark aspects of the book, which I like), but I don’t understand the need to put females in this position after they escaped it. 

It was an especially frustrating point in the book because Inej spent so much of her dialogue talking about how girls were trafficked into the pleasure houses, how much abuse she suffered there, and how she left for the Dregs because it was so awful, and then says something about someone “choosing” to do it. I think the author was trying to paint that she hoped someone would choose it so it was less horrible (this is a real tactic that women in these positions use in order to cope with abuse, btw), but the fact is women in these lines of work in third-world countries rarely choose it.

 (Speaking of Inej, here’s a fun fact: My friend rented the book from the library and someone was kind enough to leave their artwork of Inej, I’ll post it if I ever get permission to). 

I think those are my most solid opinions just based on the first book. Kaz turning to Rollins for help was interesting...to say the least. I think I’ll need to see what happens next to really understand if he has given up his Revenge for Inej or if he does intend on coming back to fry that evil man’s ass. 

Let me know your thoughts ~