#and i am thinking about sasunaru again

[tbartss]

the way i literally couldn't sleep last night because i was daydreaming about sasunaru and their eternally evasive love for each other uggghhhh that shit got me GOOD

[carmenserenity123456]

So funny that Gaiden is supposed to be about sasusaku but it mostly shows narusasu XD

Gaiden is only about SS to show how disfunctional this family is. The rest gives us strong grounds for Sasunaru. How can it be that Sasuke did not want anything to do with his family for 12 long years but when Naruto is involved he starts to change his behaviour towards his daughter. Naruto was again the link that saved this family. If it was not for him SS situation would end very badly. Sasuke would not go after Sarada when she cried, Sarada would leave the village and Sakura would not do anything about it. I bet she would be kidnapped and Sasuke would not go after her and this is not my speculation but it actually happened in the manga. He did not even flinch when Shin took Sakura. He was talking about time space ninjutsu. It was Naruto who was trying to find her all the time because supposedly Sasuke did not have enough chakra to sense her like wtf? Even Naruto was like 'I am not buying it'. Sasuke could have sensed Naruto in the other dimension in the Boruto movie but he could not Sakura who was kidnapped somewhere in the cave on the Earth. And after arriving to the cave Sasuke said that he leaves sensing to Naruto lol.

Coming back to Sasunaru scenes. The first one is when Boruto gives Sarada a luchbox prepared by Hinata for Naruto. Sarada delivers it but Naruto has this kind of dismissive expression but then he thinks about Sasuke and the time when he shared his bento with him. He did not think of Hinata, his wife, and he knew that she made it for him.

In the next scenes Kishi drew Sasuke sitting with a nostalgic face and the focus on the headband that Naruto gave him. This headband is a symbol of love for Naruto, hope and the most precious thing that Sasuke carries. More about it here. Sasuke did not carry anything associated with Sakura or Sarada. Not even a single photo of his daughter.

We got many scenes where Sasuke and Naruto are teasing each other and acting like an old marriage couple. Naruto even complemented Sasuke to Sarada.

Not to mention Sasuke was so horrified when Naruto got stabbed. He has shown all of his emotions even though he knew that Naruto has Kurama. He will heal right away but Sasuke loves Naruto and no matter how strong Naruto is when something bad happens he will be worried. Again you can read more about it here.

Lastly, there are two scenes that clearly refer to their feelings for each other. When Sarada wanted to leave the village because she learned that she is not Sakura's daughter, Naruto stops her and says very beautiful words 'bonds are not merely made up of blood, there's something even stronger than this... it is love, that's all you need'. Naruto goes into his heart and sees two people there whom are Iruka and Sasuke. He did not see Hinata. She is not related to him by blood so he should have thought about her but he did not. The second scene is when Naruto wants to go with Sasuke on his Kaguya mission but Sasuke gives a petty answer 'after all that's the "cooperation" that you've desired, is it not?' The cooperation is in quotation marks so it does not mean working together as the Hokage and the Shadow Hokage but it refers to their feelings for each other and something that might have been but it cannot be anymore because of their circumstances.

[guidaozongshi]

Naruto Ships popularity in the Chinese fandom

There are many charts made with the omission of data to exaggerate a ship's popularity, especially so in the case of Sasuke/Sakura where they spread misinformation about it being the 'most popular' in the CN fandom, this couldn't be further from the truth.

I have statically reviewed the tags for particular ships across the most popular Chinese platforms and will provide the findings for the same.

1. Starting with Douyin, it is the China exclusive parent of tik-tok and one of most widely used app.

Data Sources :

I don't think people can see the tag information in Douyin without accessing the app so I am pasting the screenshots here.

Sasuke/Sakura aren't even on the same scale, it's kind of funny.

2. Weibo

Data Sources : [1] [2] [3]

SasuNaru and NaruSasu are considered separate tags in the Chinese fandom and aren't used interchangeably like in the West , they rarely overlap which is why I have combined them for 'SNS'.

Regardless, Sasuke/Sakura don't have nearly as many supporters as their Sasuke-Naruto counterparts.

3. Lofter

Data Sources : [1] [2] [3]

Once again Sasuke/Naruto/Sasuke beat Sasuke/Sakura in both participants and views.

4.Overall

Sasuke/Naruto/Sasuke near more than 4 Billion views, Sasuke/Sakura are nowhere near it.

Btw, You can download the complete notebook where I have compiled all the information as well as generated the graphs

TL;DR Sasuke and Naruto are by far the most popular pairing in the CN Naruto fandom

[nohara-rin-dot-mp3]

the tenten infinite tsukuyomi fillers are soooo fun. her bedroom is full of swords. she sees neji and is like "??? that's weird i thought that guy was dead" and then does not have any sort of emotional reaction to him being alive here. hashtag coworkers!!! drops another stone in my pile of "tenten not reacting to neji's death wasn't a side character/misogyny thing she just didn't care" evidence.

sasuten screenshots. genjutsu!sasuke looks like a puppy but tenten does not give a fuck..... she is busy thinking about killing madara.

i find it interesting how tenten does not grapple with the idea of a 'perfect' world at all here. like, obviously part of that is because this world is not tailor-made for her, but also many people would and do consider it better than reality (the movie set in this universe demonstrates this). there is no fourth war. less death. ect. i can only assume that this is a downside to tenten because she pouts about the fourth war not being here an awful lot. this perfect world SUCKS where is the MURDER??? it's simply not for tenten i say. it's not it.

also um the entire last part of the episode makes her sasuke for some fucking reason??? it's played entirely straight. i'm. i'm fairly certain that half of this dialogue has been taken directly from sasunaru confrontations. tenten tries to kill hinata with a big fucking axe after hinata takes a scroll from her and then naruto shows up and stops her and then everyone goes "tenten this isn't who you are..." and tenten goes "FUCK YOU" except unlike sasuke. the narrative sides with her. which is. um. uhhhhm. that's so masc !!!! also i'm like 70% sure i've heard the track they play over this moment used in "sasuke rejects friendship" moments before but i can't verify any of the background music in this ep so. idk.

anyways i don't doubt that some of that's undone in part 2 which i will not be watching tonight because i am EEPY!!!!! but uh. yeah. the naruto narrative's special treatment of tenten STRIKES AGAIN!!!

[justahungrydango]

I would like to ask abt sasunaru migrated memories!

hi!! c: it's one of the ones that have been bouncing on my head for a long while!

basically, they lose the war (in a different way from my other wip!), everyone is gone, sasuke is dying and he does a last minute desperate act with a technique he found a couple of years ago. in theory, it should bring him back to a moment before everything went to hell for a chance to fix things, but it's not exactly what he expects: "he" dies, but his memories and thoughts travel back :D

have a snippet below! it reads p angsty, and there's some blood and quick descriptions of deaths (nothing too detailed, but still!). honestly it's probably as angsty as this fic will get, it'll actually be more heartwarming/comical (with some angst) as it goes, but sasuke is put through it at first 😭

(if anyone else is curious about another wip, you can go to this wip meme post and pick one to ask about!)

At first, he fully believes that he finally went insane.

For all that he’s been self-sufficient since the massacre, Sasuke will be the first to admit that the whole experience left him with less-than-stellar mental health. Sure, he won’t admit it to others, but to himself he can.

Still, waking up with a completely new set of memories is not anywhere near his panic attacks, trauma responses and general sense of dread.

Right after his initial fear that he finally lost his mind, he thinks this has to be something that man did. The Sharingan has many uses, and he has experienced first hand what Itachi’s Tsukuyomi could do to someone. But this is different; way too merciful, and also too painful.

It’s fortunate that those memories crammed themselves inside his brain on a weekend, because the intensity of it leaves him out of commission for a whole day.

All of it starts as a jumble of images flashing before his eyes, so fast and insistent that it triggers his worst migraine in years. Nothing makes sense, but it all does at the same time. He’s 16 years old, he’s 23, he’s 18, then he’s his own 12 again. The immense toll this takes on Sasuke ends up with him collapsing in bed, shivering and dizzy.

Once the memories settle enough for him to weakly sort through them as he lays in bed, that comes with its own ordeal. He’s surprised by how many of them directly, or indirectly, revolve around Naruto, but at the same time his very soul tells him that it’s how it should be. It’s all confusing, he barely talks to that boy and they’re not exactly nice interactions. He’s always been intrigued by him, but he didn’t know it could be to this extent.

(I am blessed to exist in his world.)

At first, most of the scenes running through his mind are normal or only mildly upsetting. Seeing himself almost die in the Land of Waves makes him nauseous, Orochimaru disturbs him, Gaara and Shukaku scare him. However, the image of his arm punching clean through Naruto’s chest (my fault my fault I’m sorry) has him stumble on shaky legs to the bathroom. He barely manages to lean over the toilet bowl before dry-heaving, only just avoiding making himself sick with a few quiet sobs.

It’s for nothing, because the phantom sensation of Itachi’s bloody fingers on his forehead as he died (for secrets for the Village for me FOR NOTHING) makes him throw up his breakfast anyway. There’s a minor pause before the guilt of seeing an older Naruto’s arm missing in a pool of blood results in him emptying whatever is left in his stomach.

The horrors don’t end there, but there’s nothing for him to throw up anymore. Overwhelming guilt over his older self’s foolishness floods him, because he put them at a disadvantage when the threat wasn’t over yet.

He’s too weak to stop the tears running down his cheeks from coming down faster as he sees older Sakura (strong respect kind I’m sorry I miss you) get ripped in half. The sobs turn to choked screams while he feebly attempts to stand up, the picture of Kakashi (leader guardian parent I miss you please) with his throat slit making him grip at his own hair in despair he can’t comprehend entirely.

Sasuke manages to get up on his feet, his breathing fast and frantic as he stands in the middle of his bathroom. Desperation and numbness completely overtake him when he gets to the memory of Naruto (warmth happiness love please don’t leave I love you I’m begging) getting Kurama ripped out of him and then his body torn to pieces. His blood all over him, all over Sasuke’s hand.

Blood. There’s blood on the floor. Sasuke brings a hand he half-expects to be bigger up to his face, the trembling of it almost too violent to wipe the blood running down his cheeks.

He’s crying blood. Naruto is dead.

Not mine. Not mine, not yet, not mine-

Naruto is dead. Itachi died for nothing. The shaking of his entire body can’t quite prevent him from turning to the mirror on top of the bathroom sink.

Sakura is not here. Kakashi is gone. Naruto is dead. There’s blood on his hand and his face and his eyes-

Not mine, they’re okay, they’re alive I haven’t lost them I haven't lost him not yet not mine-

(You cannot fail this time around.)

Crimson flower pinwheels meet his gaze in the mirror right before darkness creeps up on him.

[angelsovary]

𖹭 angels roleplay request

🪦🕊

hello! Are you looking for a rp partner? desparate as me but no one you find matches your freak? Please read below! you must be at least proship and okay with any paraphilia or dead dove themes. Im also looking to even make some friends that align with my interests but if you like anime and dark subjects in general, a degen like me and youre profic/paraphile then please be my friend or chat me up, im so desperate aah!

~If i dont reply immediately, i might be busy or asleep. PM ME IF INTERESTED

my name is angel, im 19, and female. Ive identified as profic for some years now, and I've been getting back at wanting to roleplay, but its really hard to find someone who matches me and around my age— but you dont have to be!

I'm into really dark things, and i have no boundries— i mean it! Im a paraphilia freak and i like anything gross , illegal, just downright gross (necrophilia, zoophilia, grooming, necrozoo, emetophilia, hardcore gore, forcful suicide, any fetishes involving death or suicide, cnc or noncon ect.).

*THESE ARE STRICTLY FICTIONAL!! I DONT CODONE

I hope by doing this i could possibly find someone who matches my freak if ykwim ;p

I have roleplayed before many times but not enough to be consistent, but i am experienced, i would say! I am semi literate but i can get into detail (novella ect), and im hopefully looking for someone who can write in a long paragraph, and keep the flow going, but im totally okay with lazy lit or normal one off pragraphs! I'd love for the plot to be slowburn but it can be straight up erp, or something slow that leads to smut. Honestly can be whatever as long as theres action~ ^_^ if your preferance is making a private discord, i can totally do that! I'd even love to have a few rps going at once!

I prefer cc x cc but i can totally do oc x cc as long as im the canon. I have no preference for either character if theyre dom or sub. and i really like ooc and headcanons! Please discuss them with me!!!!

MY MAIN FANDOMS ARE: Naruto and Jujutsu kaisen!

I'm super hyperfixated on those two right now, and im mainly looking for people who are also as brainrotted as me about naruto and jjk, but i can be open to similar anime fandoms, i also like darker fandoms such as mouthwashing, cry of fear, dangonronpa, ect.

I ship literally anything within naruto, and i love all the characters. my main ships are: kakamina, minanaru, kakanaru, kakasasu, sasunaru, sasusasku, gaanaru, itasasu.. and way more.

and as for jjk: goyuu, gofushi, itafushi, choita, sukuita, sukufushi ect...

my main pairing are: mlm, fxm, and fxf. And i love various tropes! im super obsessed with teacher x student, and cheating themes, or angst, and we can totally think of other dark themes. I also love when one of the characters is trans and it can go both ways but of course it doesnt have to be!

this is the jist if it. again, please send me a dm, comment or interact if this fits your criteria and dont be scared at all! And if you dont rp but youd like be friends or talk about any fandoms or any of your fandoms please dm! Please please! I hope this reaches the right person.

[rosellerivers19]

@umbrulla The importance of noncanon shipping

I ship Ram and Bheem but the thing is I ship it as a headcanon because it is a headcanon it isn't meant to be canon kind of like Gaara and Naruto people ship them because they see ways they could've ended up together but in the end it wasn't canon.

You can disregard the canon ending from your mind and sit in your fantasies if you want thats fine I'm a sasunaru shipper I know that but the only problem I have with you @umbrulla is that you actively stated misinformation you in the beginning of my reply chain with you stated that Sita isn't Ram's fiancee which is untrue she is his fiancee/lover

Second this post you state that Rajamouli said in an interview that there's a romance/bromance between Ram and Bheem only but thats untrue again Sita is Ram's canonical lover and in an article Rajamouli states that his intrepretation of the work was that Ram and Bheem were meant to be a male FRIENDSHIP. The LGBTQ interpretations are okay I have no qualm with that but thats all they are representations Rajamouli never stated them to be a romance between only Ram and Bheem he gave those two love interests in the movie Sita and Jenny.

Since you can't see the article I will show you

Also to support the fact Rajamouli interpretted them as a male friendship Ram and Bheem in Rajamouli's head were a brotherly bond both Bheem and Ram often call eachother bhaiya or brother in the movie and there's a scene referencing Bheem to Ram's brother before he died when both his brother and Bheem eat with their left hand.

Another piece of mis information both Ram and Bheem are Heroes of the stories its not uncommon for their to be double heroes in telugu cinema RRR is a portrayal of that. People have headcanons and ship Ram and Bheem that is true but Bheem never marries Ram actually no one gets married in RRR and the closest thing is sita being Ram's lover/ fiancee that is why she is sent a letter to collect Ram's body when he is sent to be killed because she is his closest family member and fiancee this was set when they were young.

Also Bheem states Ram to be Sita's fiancee

Further more Ram confirms to Bheem that Sita is his lover/fiancee in this scene

Einthusan didn't translate it exactly but the word can also be interpretted as lover/fiancee.

*Ram nods*

Another thing Seetha and Rama are one of the most popular love stories and reincarnation stories of Lord Vishnu this Rajamouli's way of stating they are true lovers.

Ram marrying Bheem is your interpretation but can also be incorrect. In Hinduism people to get married by tying the nuptial thread around one's neck however in this case Bheem is a reference to Hanuman a sacred servant of Rama from mythology his job is to protect rama and reunite him and Sita this reference is made very openly clear in RRR. Ayyapan is a interpretation that isn't as clearly stated can be used for headcanon shipping material though. Bheem gave Ram the necklace to save him.

I don't have a problem with shipping Ram and Bheem the only thing I have a problem with is you repeatedly stating misinformation to prove that I'm wrong now this might just be that you weren't able to get a clear understanding of parts of the movie because of the language barrier or you don't remember them but I also am allowed to defend myself I hope you read this post and get a better understanding of what I was trying to say, I'm wrong in parts as well during the previous argument I accept that.

Edit: One thing I'd like to add to my response I think Rajamouli made the movie seem straight on the front because he was scared of rejection thats why he added the whole Sita being Ram's fiancee and Jenny kind of being Bheem's love interest. This is because Telugu cinema doesn't openly accept LGBTQ cinema however with the overwhelming support from Westerners about this Cinema being about Gay lovers RRR could be a turning point in Telugu cinema. Rajamouli making Ram and Bheem seem Hetero was for his OWN Protection so his cinema wouldn't flop. that doesn't mean you can't make headcanons.

[undercover-stories]

Sasunaru Vampire au

Sasuke knows what it's like to starve. A byproduct of being a homeless orphan at the ripe old age of 12. He knows how it can feel like the lining of one's stomach has been scrubbed raw by a dull knife. How it burned and knotted and had bile crawling inch by inch up a person's throat. How that hollow burn would spread to every limb to weigh it down till lifting a finger felt like a task even Atlas couldn't carry. Walking was to feel like a marionette with frayed strings and worst of all was how at some point even the thought of food felt vile.

Being blood-starved seems to more or less feel the same. Or at least he assumed it would continue to be. It's been 9 days since he's been turned and 8 days since he's fed and he's yet to enter the stage of being too weak to move or walk so he likes to think he's doing quite well. Though he doesn't intend to ever feed at all so this slow pace towards his decided demise is just torture. He'd step into the sun himself but Naruto is watching him like a hawk in the daytime so there's no chance of attempting any form of suicide. Still, he knows from experience that lying down can make it feel worse so when he wakes at dusk after passing out a nap he steps out of his room to try and walk around the apartment for a bit before halting by the doorway to the living room, where he see's Naruto on the couch scouring over a very thick book on the coffee table with a cup and a knife placed on either side of it.

"Naruto, what are you doing?"

The blonde doesn't even bother raising his head, "Reading Anatomy."

Sasuke narrows his eyes, "Why?"

Naruto flips the page, "Trying to figure out which vein is the best to cut open to fill a cup of blood without making too much of a mess."

"What?!"

"Well, since you won't feed on me I figured maybe you'd feel better about drinking blood out of a cup. That or I could just force-feed it to you"

"I am never going to let you force-feed me blood," the Uchiha bit out hotly. Gritting his teeth when the blonde just replies with a shrug.

"I was going to do it the next time you passed out," Naruto finally raises his head, "Ya know, like how the last time you passed out it was for 3 whole days and by the fourth I thought you were going to die. Again."

His friend nonchalantly says it all but the memory of it makes Sasuke shrink back with guilt. Remembering how when he finally woke up it was to his best friend sobbing and whimpering his name by the edge of his bed.

"Naruto- ", he starts but his friend has already turned back to the book.

"Shut up. I'm reading," he snaps and Sasuke sighs.

"Naruto, I don't want this to be our new norm"

It's the blonde's turn to sigh and he raises his gaze but this time there is a softness in his cerulean blues, "Sasuke whatever norm we had before is already gone. I don't know about you but whatever new norm I’m going make now is going to include both of us."

"Naruto you still have a life outside of me! As a hunte-"

"No," Naruto cuts in, the edge of his words sharp, "That's not what I am anymore. If being a hunter means leaving you behind or hunting you down, then I'm not a part of that anymore. Sasuke even if you did somehow manage to leave me behind do you really think I'm just gonna go back to that? I can never go back to the life we had and I don't want to if it doesn't include you. So you can either make this-" he gestured to the book, knife, and cup, "-easy or I'm gonna have to get messy."

Naruto stares at him. Unwavering. Unflinching. Sasuke knows with complete and utter certainty that his best friend would follow him through the 7 rings of hell if he had to. His friend who'd been by his side when his parents died and when his brother disappeared. The little boy who'd split moldy bread in half with him on days when there was nothing else to eat and still do it with a smile. The teenager who followed after him when he joined the Hunters Guild because 'If anyone’s going to be your partner it's going to be me!'. The person who saw him get bit and chose to ignore almost a decade's worth of training and experience to drag him back to their home. Who sat outside his room for 2 days waiting for him to finish his change, hearing every wretched scream and howl of agony, and still immediately coming in after to hold him when he cried.

Fighting Naruto when he's made up his mind was a losing battle and he can't help but feel guilty at how the thought made something warm inside float him out of orbit.

It shouldn't be this easy but Naruto always had a way of making it so.

Finally, he approached the table and closed the book with a loud thump.

"We're going to make some rules first," he warns. Eyebrow raised when Naruto leaned back against the backrest with palpable relief.

"Thank God. I had no idea what I was doing"

[explainslowly]

it is fun to contemplate like the, fandom significance of ships, looking at that poll, significant ones seem to me as:

Spock/Kirk OBVIOUSLY

Mulder/Scully again, obviously.

Watson/Sherlock kind of cosmically, generally, has to be there right? Sherlock Holmes obviously has fandom significance outside of shipping primarily.

OK, controversial one but - do we think any Harry Potter ship makes it? Was any one ship specifically significant? Or was it the general vibe? And the bloody shipwars, of course. I am a wolfstar guy but wolfstar does not feel significant to me. Nor Drarry nor the het ships that had people sending death threats to each other.

Larry OBVIOUSLY

Jack Harkness/Ianto I remember this one making people soooo insane. Example of ship that is both canon and significant, imo. Perhaps for it's canonicity.

10th doctor/Rose probably. IDC.

Jensen/Jared might belong here. Unfortunately. For originating both the omegaverse and the original male dog tag on ao3. For the sheer evil energy.

Reylo search your heart you know it to be true.

Those Les Miserables twinks. Probably? Maybe. IDK. Discuss.

I don't think any MCU ship makes it, but tbf if any would, it would be stucky.

I am paradoxically very removed from anime shipping. If any made it probably Sasunaru would be the one. I feel like anime shipping has it's own world that does not communicate with live media fandom. Therefore the significance is like. Shrug.

Girl where is Xena/Gabrielle. GIRLLLLLLLL.

Carlos/Cecil probably, right? The breaking open of the fiction podcast flood.

With heavy heart I have to say, probably not Proffesor X/Magneto. Even if they sooo divorced and we are missing divorce representation in this poll.

I don't think Klaine was significant as a fandom thing. Case of canon giving you pretty much all you could possibly want from a romance storyline and then possibly a bunch of stuff you didn't, lol.

Destiel this, more than anything, is the Destiel website. 113k fics on ao3, baybee.

Will/Hannibal I don't know. I'm torn. It's so good and Fannibals are little freaks. But I feel like they are doing their own thing in their little corner.

Sam/Frodo - or some tolkien shit? Probably?

I am like under-studied on rpf ships (more probably belong here) and femslash. The poll itself also has heavy recency bias as does my memory (I wasn't a shipper until my mid twenties). See my confusion about tolkien shit.

Consolation prize #1 - migratory slash fandom - hiiii Sterek, Rodney/John, Phlint, etc, I hate youuuu alllllll <3

Consolation prize #2 - pair the spares - hiiiii shit like Sabriel, you make my eyes bleed <3

Anyway, feel free to discuss <3

[cartoonrival]

So, how was Naruto?

ok im using this ask as my full review post. it was simultaneously tear-your-hair-out garbage and world-alteringly incredible. would i recommend watching it? NO. am i glad i spent two weeks doing basically nothing other than watching it? yes. idk how much detail i went into initially about why i wanted to watch it to begin with, but (and im not SUPER sure how accurate this is) from my perspective the impact that naruto has had on fandom culture seems absolutely MASSIVE, and i HAD to experience it for myself because of that. sasunaru was absolutely a large part of that, considering they are something of the poster child of shipping rival leads (especially in anime fanbases), so even though i knew that they would be shipped together regardless of how much they actually cared for each other in canon, the MASSIVE popularity and the tiny snippets of them that i'd seen made me kind of crazy desperate to see how real it was.

the strongest aspect of the series is ABSOLUTELY naruto and sasuke, and sasuke and itachi. really what i loved most about naruto was that the author pulled NO punches in demonstrating how deep these characters love for one another actually ran. this isnt extrapolation or exaggeration when i say that i have NEVER in all my days seen "love that ruins" like how these characters love each other.

naruto on his own isnt a WILDLY unique character. without watching the show you could guess what sort of person he is and probably be right. BUT his biggest strengths def come in how he interacts with other people, and his endless dedication to sasuke is a PRIMARY example of that. one by one, EVERYBODY is giving up on sasuke. hes doing terrible things, no one has seen him, they just catch wind of the awful things he's done, but naruto still REFUSES to let him go. and it is TEARING him to pieces. he's losing sleep over it for YEARS. he grovels in the snow for sasuke's honor, he dreams about him he cries over him all his friends turn on him over sasuke and he fucking refuses to accept that sasuke's too far gone. sasuke is desperate to forget the bond he had with naruto , his one and only friend (direct quote), not just because he feels like the weakness of having that bond is holding him back but also because he doesn't feel like he deserves it. he doesnt GET why naruto loves him so much and its making him crazy. he's desperate to make him stop, even if that means killing him just to be alone again, to bear the hate of the world alone so that the world can find peace in his place. they love each other so so so deeply and understand one another like no one else could ever dream to, and i've never seen such unfiltered devotion in my LIFE.

the lore of the series itself is quite muddy and overcomplicated, particularly everything relating to historical conflicts. the specifics of itachi's story, to me, are kind of contrived and feel sort of like the author himself didnt know exactly what itachi's real motivation was going to be when he initially wrote him killing all the uchiha. the lore dumps are dense and dreadful to wade through. i personally deeply hate the idea of sasuke and naruto being the reincarnated souls of two brothers who've been at each others throats for lifetimes grappling for their own ideas of peace. now part of this is because i do not think sasuke and naruto's relationship is particularly brotherly, but mostly its because i hate the idea that STILL their lives are being dictated by fate and the reason that they care for each other so deeply is because their souls are tied by a cosmic bond instead of because they are two people who chose to care for one another independently.

i personally feel there is a valuable simplicity to just. these two love each other, and their story is reflected by the past relationships between madara and the first hokage whos name i forget, and also by two guys before them, and it has created a cycle that repeatedly fails but maybe the strength of the bonds that have been built by naruto and sasuke and the people close to them can finally break free of that. like things can reflect the past, and i think that means more than it actually BEING the past. this is def an opinion that i dont expect to be widely agreed upon because i know complex lore and prophecies and shit ARE popular, but i personally feel that the complexity of everything with kaguya and her sons and the sage of six paths couldve been watered down and made for a stronger story. CHOOSING to live how you are means so so much more than living that way because fate dictates that you do. and i know there was an element of self determination in sasuke and naruto being able to break free of that cycle, but the fact that they were in it to begin with was because of reborn souls and shit. which i dont like.

along with the lore dumps dragging on, fights can also drag on like craaaaazy. not even just fights that are very plot significant (im fine with those being long, fights between naruto and sasuke are beautifully animated and i could watch them for hours), but literally just random ass conflicts with minor villains and minor characters take for fucking ever and its exhausting. like there is a lot of shit that we didnt need.

and obviously. the series is DEEPLY sexist. worst ive seen in a LONG time. the shoehorned romance made me want to scream, it is genuinely demeaning watching hinata and sakura pine after naruto and sasuke. i dont think ALL the girl characters suck (i do actually like sakura even though her crush on sasuke makes me want to kill someone, tsunade is genuinely one of my fave characters, i think temari is really cool and fun, i wish we'd gotten more of tenten), but it is POTENTLY obvious that kishimoto doesnt see women as people and it makes a LOT of scenes DEEPLY painful to watch. ive talked about this quite extensively so i won't rehash it all here but it is BAD. i was honestly surprised by how little the girls are sexualized, but he makes up for that by only having three personality traits that girls are allowed to have. and one of those is "obsessed with naruto or sasuke to the point of it being a health concern."

TL;DR, naruto has very strong character relationships and themes of how love can make you stronger but also ruin you, but the lore is terribly muddy and the way its presented makes a lot of it very boring. kishimoto hates women so much its insane. ive been changed on a fundamental level. every m/m rivals ship that has come after this is a sorry attempt to recreate sasunaru whether the people shipping those characters realize it or not

[carmenserenity123456]

Hello, I am so happy that finally someone is not afraid to say the truth about Sarada's appearance. Reading your post about Sakura and Karin I wonder if kishimoto wanted Karin to be with Sasuke? Thanks

Hi, thank you! Well Kishi clearly has his favourite ship which is Sasunaru/Narusasu but he could not make them canon because this is shonen and the publishers would not let him. That is why Sasunaru is written for more observant minds who will notice the clues and put them into the big picture. He probably wanted to go for open ending but unfortunately Kishi sold most of his rights to Naruto and now he has to bear the consequences. I think Kishi intended mostly for Sasuke to be alone. Sasuke is a type of person who likes to be alone, works individually, does not like people in general and he only accepts Naruto in his life. But again this is the same situation with Sasunaru. Kishi was pressed to pair Sasuke with someone and in my opinion he would rather choose Karin to be with Sasuke over Sakura. Sasuke acknowledged Karin, awaken his new power just to save Karin, he many times stated that she saved him and even told her that he needs her. He thought she was the strongest Kunoichi. Now look how he treated Sakura. He never acknowledged her, never awaken any sharingan for her, always talked to her showing his back, left her to die many times and called her useless during the war. He did not even want her on his journey. She had to chase him because he lied to her about coming back and in the Gaiden Sakura put her picture on Karin’s face because she felt insecure as she should be because Sasuke wanted to work with Karin and never with her. She did not even told Sarada about Karin and Sarada looks like Karin. If Kishi had to choose a woman for Sasuke, it would be Karin. Kishi made SS because he was pressed by his publishers because SS was more popular than SK and also Sakura is the main female character and Karin is not. Lastly, I do not like Karin. I think she is very skilled and strong but her behaviour towards Sasuke, which was similar to Sakura’s, is just too creepy to me. Both Sakura and Karin sexualize and objectify Sasuke and they just want him because of his looks which is shallow.

[guidaozongshi]

I can give an overview on how popular SNS is in comparison to other het pairings in some East Asian fandoms :

Japan

I don't think the number of works on Pixiv would be an accurate assessment as many Sasunaru/Narusasu artists deleted their artworks while Sasusaku rose in popularity post Naruto ending. Additionally, in recent years many JP artists have twitter as their primary platform. So I am unsure about this.

China

Most fandoms in China are concentrated in LOFTER and Weibo

LOFTER is considered the main platform to post fanarts and fanfiction

1. Sasunaru (佐鸣) is the most popular ship tag in the Naruto fandom with 87k+ participants and 42 Million+ views

( interestingly in the early days this was actually the less popular SNS variation in China, it only recently surpassed the Narusasu tag )

2. Narusasu (鸣佐)is the next most popular tag with 67k+ participants and 49 Million+ views

*People take pairing configuration very seriously there so the two tags can be considered to have almost separate followers

3. Sasusaku (佐樱) is the most popular het ship in the fandom with 29K+ Participants and 29 Million+ views

Weibo is equivalent to twitter, but also widely used to share fanwork

* Note, the 'Posts' refer to the number of posts made in a year NOT the total number of posts

1. Sasunaru once again tops the Naruto ship list with 110k+ participants and 57k+ Posts

2. Narusasu comes next again with 82k+ participants and 22k+ Posts

3. Sasusaku is once against the most popular het pairing with 64k+ participants and 55k+ posts

I wonder how many SNS fanfictions are out there...

In Ao3 there are 14.840 and we know for certain because the platform informs us.

In fanfiction.net there could be anything between 4.4k (the amount of fics where the author selected "pairing" in the tags) and 49.3k fics (there's 59.7k fics that include Naruto and Sasuke but once you exclude Sakura, Hinata, Karin and OCs it gets down to that)

Then there's this very popular Spanish based platform called Amor-Yaoi with 7.282 sns fics posted

You also have wattpad but that one is kinda sketchy because not every story posted is an actual fanfic but a collection of stolen fanarts and doujinshi. But based on my (terrible) calculations there's around 67k sasunaru and narusasu stories posted on Wattpad.

Just on these four platforms we have an aprox of 138,400 sns fics posted.

We're still missing all the other platforms (like those fics posted here on Tumblr and DeviantArt) and forums across the world in different languages, like I know most of Asian fandoms don't post their fics in the same platforms we do.

Although to be fair we must also consider there's authors that post the same fic on multiple sites, like there's this one author I like that posts on wattpad and ff.net and another one that posts on ao3 and ff.net

[oxydiane]

we talk a lot about how sasuke and naruto are so crazy about each other but there’s never enough attention on how the rest of the naruto cast Also thinks they are two fucking lunatics. like we are not alone on this. you have jiraiya telling naruto he needs to not go and chase a mf who tried to snatch his heart out his ribcage and naruto is like no i’d rather be a fucking moron for the rest of my life honestly. you have naruto leaving a mission and saying sory i cannot stay i need to go home and wait for sasuke and the fucking platypus looks at him ???? like he even had me confused where are you goin g to wait? ? why are you saying that like sasuke is coming back the fuck did i miss??? you have the kage summit arc which is just a whole bucket of ice being dropped onto you because you come in and immediately get slapped in the face by naruto letting himself be beat up because he won’t tell them where sasuke is??? like he has any fucking idea where sasuke is. and sai tries to make him come to his senses like naruto??? naruto WHAT ARE U DOING. it’s so bad they need an intervention. right after that naruto faces the raikage and gets on his knees saying i know my almost boyfriend almost killed your brother but i promise it wasn’t on purpose he was just being silly please don’t put a bounty on his head a war will literally ensue. and like. there’s LAYERS to this. 1. even RAIKAGE is like BOY what are you doing. STAND UP. 2. at this point you can count the people who like sasuke on the fingers of one hand like WHO is gonna start a war over him… naruto out there moving a war against a whole country by himself over his bf ok you go girl i guess. after this it gets even worse like gaara has to go up to him and be like SASUKE DOWSNT CARE ABOUT YOU. HE DOES NOT WANT YOU. and naruto just slaps his hand away in front of his family like rude?????? ignoring anything it is hilariouuusssss and then sai is like sorry. sakura lied to you they are actually off to kill sasuke and naruto gets a panic attack so severe he passes out. like i am not joking it was so bad his friends tried to kill sasuke behind his back. and then naruto escapes bedriddenment (is that a word?) after passing out from his panic attack to run and make sure NOBODY kills sasuke. like he’s on a RUSH leaping those trees he’s a boy on a mission. then after he gets there he’s like kakashi DO NOT TOUCH HIM. they launch themselves at each other bla bla gay monologues did you see what was in my heart and then. and then naruto is like. wait sasuke. and sasuke waits like sorry that’s such a little thing but it’s so funny to me like sasuke was just acting a lil murderous crazy manic wtv but naruto told him to wait and he waits. ok good boyfriend. anyways moving on naruto is like do you get it sasuke. if we fight again we will BOTH DIE! (everybody gets a ?????? bubble) i am the only one who can shoulder all that hatred. i will CARRY THE BURDEN OF YOUR HATRED AND WE WILL DIE TOGETHER! and . absolutely Everybody in that room just goes ???????????? what the FUCK is he TALKING ABKHT. everybody except sasuke. sasuke smirks and he’s like sure. they just talked about dying together and meeting each other in a different life where they’ll be free of their burdens and they’re just Fine and all ok smiling at each other and everyone is so fucking confused. like the entire supporting cast is with us side eyeing sasuke and naruto and thinking what in the everloving FUCK is WRONG WITH YOU????????

[im-still-watching-anime]

person before meeting naruto and sasuke: they’re both so strong they must be SUCH a power couple

person after meeting naruto and sasuke: or you know, they’re just cringe fail losers instead

[littlechinesedoll]

🍅🍥

I can’t understand everything so this is the best I can do with this page. my japanese is like, super basic and i struggled. ugh. I’m so tired. but I wanted to do it because it’s SO cute I love the babies the and the domestic SasuNaru. Ugh, Naruto makes such a gorgeous mommy I can’t take it.

This is [SORANO Natsumi] Sunny Family – Naruto dj [JP] doujinshi and I think this is how Naruto should have ended. 😂

here are some things that I couldn’t really understand but gave meaning to anyway. I scoured through the whole doujin with my pathetic japanese and can’t understand or see what the babies’ names are, sorry.

from right to left, my explanation on my incompetent attempt at translating this one page of this doujin:

panel 1, baby naruto: before you give me shit, baby naruto calls naruto kaachan (母ちゃん) which is closer to mommy.

panel 1, baby naruto: he said something about octopus (tako ・タコ), and naruto in the next panel has a sausage with one end cut with a knife to make it look like an octopus

panel 1, baby sasuke: he says something about Kani-san (カニさん), which means crab. so this is me guessing he’s asking for crab in his bento.

panel 4, sasuke: he’s asking naruto if he’ll make it on time because they still have the drop off the kids at the nursery, but i had to shorten/give meaning and keep the words few enough to fit in the bubble

panel 4, naruto: he actually says “no more time?” in the raw, I think, but that doesn’t make sense translated literally.

panel 5, sasuke: the text near his face, i’m not sure what it actually means, but he’s sort of saying that baby sasuke wants to imitate baby naruto and wants the “up.” I think.

edit * panel 5, sasuke’s bubble: he says let’s not get in naruto’s way, but I sort of gave meaning that he’s cooking so the kids shouldn’t bother him.

panel 6, baby sasuke: he literally says, “Daddy! Do that!” idk what the fuck that means but sasuke probably knows what it means. However! The kanji is different. baby sasuke says chichiue (父上) which is a more formal “father.” But I put in daddy because baby naruto calls sasuke in another page touchan (父ちゃん) which means daddy.

panel 6, sasuke: in the raw sasuke says something about having to change clothes, so I think he still has to change the babies’ clothes before they can go out.

panel 7, baby sasuke: the sfx above baby sasuke, is sooo weird idk what it means so i just put swing there.

panel 7, baby naruto: it’s not an sfx but it says “ore mo!” which means “Me too!” but why would a baby use “ore” huhu babies refer to themselves in third person. would’ve loved to see the baby say his own name.

panel 8, babies: it says “kyaaa” which means they’re having fun being swung around by their strong daddy.

panel 8, sasuke: There’s kanji and katakana down in the lower left where Sasuke is getting frustrated with the kids being naughty when they’re running late to the nursery, and cannot for the life of me read it.

anyhoo I hope you enjoy staring at jounin!sasunaru being domestic and raising their babies together. Naruto is gorgeous and I love his long hair. Sasuke is just as handsome and I miss this hair on him so bad. in the doujin they’re very responsible parents, even though they didn’t really plan on the children in the first place, and sasuke sort of didn’t want them. **edit: they do however, raise them into good young boys and capable genin, and they love them very much.

once again I am sorry for my shit japanese and whoever sees this who can actually read this thing: 申し訳ありません。私がでかいなばかです。🙇🏽‍♀️

[firesmokeandashes]

Alright! Let's start from the beginning!

In the year 2022, I began my anime watching journey. I had heard about the animes of Naruto, DBZ, and One Piece via clips on youtube shorts and various people around me.

So after much deliberation and inner turmoil abiut whether or not I should watch anime, I finally caved and began to watch anime.

But I didn't want to start with a series because I knew those were long and would take me even longer to get into. So I watched a movie called Whisker Away (10/10 100% recommend) and thus, I was hooked.

I watched anime movie after anime movie, and after some research on different animes, I began to watch Naruto. I loved it!

I needed to know more about it and its fandom!

So I deep-dived into the Naruto fandom and discovered the ship SasuNaru (this is important for later). After more deep-diving, research, and fanfiction, I 100% shipped SasuNaru and was just as upset as the rest of the shippers that they weren't canon.

I watched clip after clip of Naruto online, spoiling many plotlines for myself, hyping the show up even more in mind as I waited for the day I finally watched the episodes with these amazing scenes!

And then it happened.

I stumbled upon a clip of mha.

I was immediately intrigued by it, and I wanted to see what happened next. But me being the cautious little shit I am, I had to do more research before I decided to watch it.

So, I researched the show, its fandom, and character analysis and watched different clips of the anime on youtube. And, once again, I was hooked. Yet, I was still cautious about starting another another series before I'd finished Naruto. So I held off on watching it.

But I had enough knowledge in my head about the show and certain ships that I could hold a decent conversation with someone about it if the show ever came up in conversation. Eventually, it did come up in a conversation with someone.

(Before we continue, it's important that you know two things. 1. In all the research I did on the show, almost every single video and article I read bashed Bakugou and his character. So I kind of hated him.

2. At the time of this conversation, I didn't really ship anyone, but I knew about most of the main ships, and had a preference for Izu*cha, I also knew about bkdk and its increasing popularity)

In the conversation, the inevitable question about ships came up, and me being the validation seeking teen that I was, I said the first ship that came into my head that I thought might help me be seen in a more positive light by the person I was talking to. Without missing a beat, I said I shipped BakuDeku.

That's right, in order to seem more approachable and possibly get some validation, I lied about the ship I shipped, and it was the one ship with the only character I disliked in the show. Saying this didn't even get the kind of response I wanted! Turns out the person I was talking to despised bkdk and thought it was toxic the conversation quickly fissled out after that.

But because I had said that lie, my anxious mind quickly came to the conclusion that we were gonna have to have a conversation with that person again at some point. And that person might bring up BkDk to me thinking it was my favorite ship.

Not wanting to be labeled as a liar, I began another deep-dive into Mha. This time researching all things bkdk. I watched every ship edit, gacha life (😖), and ship analysis videos I could get my hands on. With every video I watched, the ship began to look less and less toxic and more like a complicated rivals to lovers' story. But the ship didn't fully click until I watched a ship analysis video that compared BakuDeku to SasuNaru (told you they would be important later).

Then, after seeing all the parallelas and simularities between the two ships, I was officially a BkDk shipper.

I began to read bkdk fanfiction after bkdk fanfiction. I saved all the fanart I could get my hands on and watched all the edits that popped up on my YouTube feed.

I then discovered the manga at my local library and began reading it from the very beginning. If I was hooked on mha and bkdk before, I sure was now! I read volume after volume, near well catching up to the manga. During this time, somewhere around when I was reading the UA sports festival arc, I began to watch the anime (in sub because I couldn't stand anime dubs TwT).

I fangirled over every episode I watched, each animated scene cementing my love for the series and my ship.

By the end of the year 2022 (yes this all happened in the span of a year) I was full on my hero academia fan.

Then, in the year 2023, I discovered tumblr and joined the community here. This led to me joining a couple of discord servers that were mha themed, I posted my first bkdk fanfiction and have continued to be a part of the community to this day!

I know no one asked, but I have exactly zero (0) people to talk about bkdk with irl so here you guys go

My BKDK Journey

Yes, this sounds stupid, but my god it’s been almost three years of an absolute rollercoaster of feelings and denials and tears and revelations…

and if you don’t mind, I’m gonna rant about it.

(not spoiler free)

_____

May 2021

To start off, i wasn’t always a bkdk shipper.

I shipped izu*cha at first (not saying it’s a bad ship btw; it’s actually quite cute. im just afraid people’ll be mad if I accidentally invade their tag lol), primarily because I assumed that would be the ship that became canon.

But also, my veryyyyy leasttttt favorite character… was Bakugou Katsuki.

When I tell you that I would’ve loved nothing more than to somehow spawn into the bnha universe and punch that brat in the face— AGHHHHHHHHHH

Now this wasn’t all his fault: A) I watched the dub first lol, and B) he reminded me of someone that i was not in a place to stand up to at the time, and his constant anger, yelling, and harsh treatment of Izuku—who i began to relate to—made me hateeee him.

There was a time when I literally said “if he died, I wouldn’t miss him.” <- this was later proven false lol

So, I was watching the anime dub with an absolute animosity for our resident deuteragonist, but on top of that…

I was watching it with a friend with a crunchyroll account who lived in another state that I was visiting and staying with for two weeks, so by the time i had to go back home, we’d only gotten up to the part where All Might was getting Inko’s permission to let Izuku stay at the UA dorms.

Anddddddd in my drive to consume more bnha once I got home, i somehow stumbled across an Instagram account that posted bnha sub episodes divided into parts,

but they only had season four and onwards.

Sooooo I never saw the second half of season three… more importantly,

I NEVER SAW DEKU VS KACCHAN 2!!!!!

(I will say that I had seen a couple photos/edits/etc, but I never knew what had been said, or why they fought)

_____

June 2021

At this point in time, I’d been exposed to a lot of the fandom. My fyp on both IG and Pinterest were filled to the brim with all things bnha (because this is what happens when one has a hyperfixation), so I saw a lot of stuff.

Especially fanart.

This is where I started learning about the different ships.

I saw a lot of the side character ships and thought they were adorable (kamijirou, todomomo, even kiribaku), but then I saw some with Izuku.

Izu*cha was a given for me. I didn’t think there was a single person that didn’t ship it. But then I started seeing fanart of ships like tododeku, shindeku, and bakudeku.

And my first reaction to finding out that people shipped my beautiful baby sunshine boi with the person who bullied him for years?????

HELLLLLLLLLLL NO

So with my (unknowingly) limited knowledge of their relationship, i was very much an anti (i never spoke out or anything, i just reallyyyy didn’t like the ship lol)

(And then, you know, I started to see all the bkdk hate online and kinda went “okay not touching that”)

But that began to change…

_____

August 2021

…after I saw a manga leak for the first time.

I was scrolling thru my feed and all of a sudden. BOOM!

I was like 😧

IS THAT IZUKU?????

And i looked in the comments and yes it was.

I checked out the page and found that they had an entire account of manga leaks and was so happy.

I quickly began to read from the very bottom of that account, and it started from right about where Izuku first began his vigilante arc (i had no idea how much was in between then and where I left off on the anime, but I was willing to read it lol)

And so I waited diligently for the leaks every week (a practice I have continued to uphold lol), until one day, i came across an untranslated series of panels from the latest chapter. I looked at it and it was of Katsuki and Izuku, facing each other in the rain (you know the one). I knew the leaks would be coming a day later, but I wanted to look through them anyways, so I did.

I didn’t understand a word they said, but the pictures and imagery of them as kids then middle schoolers then where they were now seemed so touching…

And then I came across a pair of kanji that I recognized.

I was like “wait WHAT???”

I zoomed in and went “that— isn’t that—? That’s part of Midoriya’s name, right???”

And then I was like “wait a second… omg that’s Izuku, isn’t it. That’s the freaking kanji for Izuku.”

And it was!!!!!

So inside I’m having a mini freakout cuz—

Bakugou just called him IZUKU

Fast forward to the next day, and I looked at the translated version, and found out that not only did he call him Izuku,

He

Freaking

APOLOGIZED

And I was like “huhhhhhhh”

What happened between now and the most recent anime episodes for this to occur???? For Bakugou to do a complete 180 and apologize????????

Well, I finally got my answers…

_____

November 2021

…when I started reading the manga.

I started from the beginning, cuz I wanted to see Horikoshi’s art style and the extra drawings and all the other stuff…

And when I tell you that Katsuki became a whole new character to me—

First, I read everything about early-on Bakugou— without hearing him yell in his dub voice—and realized “oh wow he really is just a kid with issues and a worldview that he’s now having to change.”

Then, I finally read what happened in that space between moving into the dorms and the beginning of season four (most importantly, DvK2).

Cried.

Then, oh then, I got up to where season five ended and the rest of the manga began.

. . .

Funny thing: back when I read the leaks to ch322, I remember thinking to myself, “huh. what did Bakugou mean by Shigaraki making swiss cheese outta him?”

😦

THE WAY I GASPED

AND THEN CRIED

OH MY FREAKING GOD

That was the moment where i truly ceased to hate Katsuki cuz holy character development batman

Then, of course, we see them in recovery

And then the vigilante arc and apology scene *sobs*

And then I was caught up.

(Btw I finished the entire manga up ‘til ch334 in just over a week. I read for nine days straight. During the school year. My emotions were all over the place goodness gracious I could barely concentrate.)

So that’s how I went from being a Bakugou hater to going “you know what he’s a complex character and he’s slowly becoming a better person” and realizing that he was now one of my fav characters and therefore cursed to die but I’ll talk about that later

Was I now a bakudeku shipper?

Hah nope.

_____

December 2021

I began my dive into the true essence of any fandom: fanfiction.

Over the course of winter break, I had started off with fics that had no romantic pairing (I just wanted to see my boi Izuku), but then somehow stumbled across Mastermind: Strategist for Hire and then read the entirety of the For Want of a Nail series (shoutout to Clouds btw ❤️) cuz I was like “ok whew no bkdk fics” which was my mindset at the time.

But somehow (I can’t even remember how I found it) I came across a bkdk fic. It was called For Want of Izuku’s Toe Joint by Talavin (okay now that I think about it there’s probably a simple explanation lol).

I don’t quite know what compelled me to start reading it, but I did.

And I really liked it.

But not in the “I’ve been converted” kinda way.

It was like an “I shouldn’t be enjoying this why am I enjoying this?” kinda feeling. Like my head says no but my heart says yeah.

A really really really really guilty pleasure.

So, from that day on, whenever I came across any form of bkdk media, I would simultaneously feel discomfort and yet an odd sense of satisfaction.

A snippet of my daily life:

Me: *comes across bkdk fanart on pinterest*

Me: eww

Also me: *stares at it for like five minutes straight*

Me: who even likes this?

Also me: *saves pin to my mha board*

Me: not my ship

Also me: *scrolls down to more like this*

Bless my heart I was in such denial.

_____

July 2022

Bit of a timeskip, but nothing of note really happened in those last six months so here we go.

We’ve gotten to the point in the manga where the final arc is underway and Bakugou is about to KICK SOME BUTT

He’s revealed his Panser Strafe support item and I’m gushing about it to my friend (she kinda fell out of the fandom but still tolerated my rants bless her)

Oh, side note: it was then that I also expressed my concern for Bakugou’s “alive” status

Evidence:

For reference, some of my favorite characters are:

Beth March (Little Women)

John Reese (Person of Interest)

Joss Carter (Person of Interest)

Leonard Snart (Arrowverse)

Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

Fantine (Les Mis)

Eponine (Les Mis)

Jean Valjean (Les Mis)

Simon (Lord of the Flies)

Piggy (Lord of the Flies)

Grace Stone (Manifest)

Bubaigawara Jin — Twice (BNHA)

Wanna guess which of these guys died?

Trick question! It’s all of them (:

Yeah so anyways those following chapters really made me excited and nervous cuz YEAH KICK HIS ASS BAKUGOU but also IZUKUUUUU WE NEED YOU

hah hah.

_____

August 2022

Utterly gobsmacked. Cried. Disbelief. Horrified. Confusion. Anger. Went through the five stages of grief and then some.

Sometimes I hate being right 🥲

But the good thing that came from this was that my positive view of Katsuki only grew after seeing his utter faith in Izuku (and his thoughts being on him in his final moments???? 🥺🥺🥺)

And it was at this point in time where I could admit to myself “you know what? i see it. i see the appeal. i wouldn’t mind this actually becoming canon.”

Did I think that it would actually become canon?? No.

_____

September 2022

I don’t know how I thought Izuku was gonna react to seeing Katsuki’s body on the ground, but GOOD LORD IT WASNT THAT

Even sweet little blind me realized “oh wow he like really feels intense stuff for Katsuki huh”

(But some things I missed—cuz I was still a bit wired for izu*cha—were shigarakis implications “yeah u looooove the present I got u” and the freaking HEART that blackwhip caused??? when Izuku reeled himself back in???? like how did i miss that i read that chapter like fifteen times??)

So this is all to say that I’ve missed any and all actual bkdk hints up until this point. I finally lifted my head out of the izu*cha fog when…

_____

July 2023

…Ochako and Toga had their chat about romance.

The first actual hint was when Ochako had told Toga “I’ll give you my blood for the rest of my life.”

Little blind me became a bit less blind that day, cuz I was like “um. ochako? that— that sounded kinda like a proposal. like. a marriage proposal. ochako??”

And then those chapters just kept getting better!!

Bebe Ochako’s determination???

The Spirited Away moment?????

“I’m envious of your smile”????????

“YOU REALLY THINK IM CUTE?” “THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD” LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭

For the first time, I was looking at the manga without the assumption that izu*cha would be endgame. And it only got better after I…

_____

August 2023

…got Tumblr!!!

Everything was downhill from here folks.

In the best possible way.

I came across some analyses of what was going on with togachako, and consequently led me to some bakudeku analyses. I read them and my goodness they made so much sense.

Like not even just personality-wise!! Those metas brought in actual things Horikoshi said about wanting to go outside the norms of shounen (and about not liking the Naruto ending 💀), and compared bkdk to tropes in different works of fiction, and even discussed how bkdk made sense narratively. They properly convinced me of the ship.

And then for good measure, I reread the manga in its entirety thru a bkdk filter, and lo and behold things took on new meanings and my eyes were opened.

I totally and irrevocably shipped them! And I actually thought they had a chance at being canon!!

(And then I binged so much bkdk fanfiction omg you wouldn’t BELIEVE like I read the ones with the highest kudos first and then just picked the biggest collections I could find and read down the line

It was like being on drugs like each fic gave me more dopamine than the last I was so happy oh my god)

_____

October 2023

And then finally, the day came.

The answer to “is bakugou alive yet?” became a yes.

We screamed. We cried. We jumped for joy. We told bakugou antis to suck it. But most of all, out bkdk hearts soared to see our boys make eye contact with each other for the first time in over a year 🥹

And from that moment on, I truly began to believe that bkdk would indeed become canon.

_____

And so, this concludes my 42672288 page rant about how I came to be a bkdk shipper.

Thank you for reading, and before I go, I want to ask:

How did you guys get into bkdk?

Did you convert over from izu*cha? Or perhaps tododeku? Or maybe kiribaku? Or are you one of the few who have shipped them since the beginning??

In any case, I’m happy you’re here. And while it may have taken me a couple years, I’m happy that I’m here too :)

(and thank you @animelover32456)