#sasuke coded

[deathandnonexistentialdread]

Jonochi ensuring that Kaiba won't go alone is really sweet of him

[ninjacat-uchihaparrish]

My pfp and username came from when we just had that first image of the graphic novel and they gave Adam those under eye bags?? Lines?? Idk but they looked like what itachi Uchiha has so I was inspired. But if quite a few characters have them, I may have to change my pfp to Declan cause I have never seen a more itachi-coded character in my life… like the older brother burdening the struggles of his family at such a young age… the protectiveness over his younger brother… there’s something there I promise

(Naruto and trc r my most long-lasting hyper fixations i will try to find a link where there is none)

[vendetta06]

all my favorite anime characters have something in common. 1 special eye. extreme power. insane amount of trauma

[sasudou]

[achilleslyre]

i feel that so many people seem to take the basis of naruto and sasukes characterization and switch them…. i see too many people infer naruto is made of happiness and love while sasuke of hate and anger but i have always seen naruto as a character that is full of hatred and anger and he has to let go of that with the love of others. sasuke as a character is so full of love yet he has to follow that through with grief and anger and learn to bear others hatred.

naruto never really had the heaviness of love in his heart until he went through the process of controlling kuramas chakra and had to confront the hatred inside him. frankly it says it blatantly that he had always held hatred in his heart for the situation he was forced into and the way the village treated him because of it, until he was able to accept and move past that hatred and have love for kurama and his dad and the people of his village. so i genuinely don’t understand where this notion that naruto is just pure sunshine and happiness came from. sasukes whole story starts out with wanting revenge on his brother because he loves his family and his clan so much. it’s a constant clear notion that he hurts so bad from his brother’s betrayal because he loved his brother, and that his rage against konoha is because he loved his clan that konoha sanctioned a genocide of. it’s constantly stated that the uchiha hold intense love in their hearts.

it’s sasukes connection with the people around him that formed his love where it’s the lack of that connection that formed narutos hate…. the way they expressed their emotions is very different because they’re both in insanely different scenarios no matter how much they understand the others pain. narutos hatred makes him want to finally receive the love that the village never gave him, but sasukes love makes him want the village to experience the pain that they inflicted upon him and his clan… maybe sasuke expresses his love more negatively and maybe naruto expresses his hate more positively, but that doesn’t change the fact that sasukes actions came from a place of love and narutos actions came from hate. they just needed each other to balance the other out….

[dreamyeuphoricll]

Old designs vs final designs. Pt 2

[moonlight-xxs-stuff]

Sakura: Everyone, synchronize your watches.

Naruto: I don’t know how to do that.

Sai: I don’t wear a watch.

Sasuke: Time is a construct

[whosyourfavevoicedby-polls]

[teamsasukes]

Was Itachi's forehead poke to Sasuke a sign of distancing himself and not wanting Sasuke to get involved, rather than just a mere sign of affection? I saw a few people talk about that and how it's weird that Sasuke does that to his family considering the original meaning.

yes, you've got an accurate handle on the original meaning of the Forehead Poke. fundamentally it is an expression of distance that itachi wields at times when he cannot be with sasuke. and it seems to be a throughline of his childhood: sasuke asks itachi to do something as mundane as train together but itachi continually refuses on account of his duties as a shinobi.

it is not a gesture devoid of love -- it's not as though itachi ever delights in dismissing sasuke (on the contrary, he is always regretful). but there's a cruelty in the uncertainty of it all: the most direct translation is "maybe next time", so itachi fails to provide even an assurance that they can, like, hang out next week or something. this chasm between them is then widened by itachi promising, on the night of the massacre, that he might allow a final battle between them if sasuke ever proves competent enough to bother fighting, leaving sasuke in protracted pursuit of the looming specter of his older brother.

this distance is really only bridged (barely) in their final scene when itachi lays bare the truth of his motives, his regrets (which are lacking, to put it mildly, but for sasuke this is nonetheless momentous), and his unconditional pride in and love for his little brother. the Forehead Poke is notably absent here because textually, the enforced distance wrt sasuke is framed as itachi's greatest wrong. (seriously, itachi says something to the effect of: i shouldn't have done All That because maybe you, my 7-year-old brother, could have brought change to our clan... thereby reducing inconvenience for konoha, of course. the paucity of virtue in massacring the uchiha doesn't really register for him even during this reconciliation, and it's deliberate... because the author doesn't see it as much of an issue either!)

anyway, it might seem odd for sasuke to repeat this gesture with sakura in chapter 699, then, particularly because it seems to be invoked in a manner identical to itachi in his neglect. kind of an odd way to signify a happy ending for these characters, right...?

well, it works for me solely because it is not identical! and naruto's english dub is my worst enemy. i would grab a couple of manga panel screenshots in the original japanese to prove it, but it's easier for me to just plug these scenes from the anime. here is an itachi Forehead Poke (0:51) and here is sakura seeing sasuke off at the konoha gate (0:33). there's a subtle but meaningful distinction in the phrasing: "mata kondo da" vs. "mata kondo na". which, in effect, alter the meaning from "maybe next time" to:

(there's an excellent tumblr post from years ago which performs a substantive analysis of the japanese in both contexts, but eludes me now. pls send if any of you have a link to it!)

so personally i adore its inclusion in chapter 699 specifically. it obviously carries a great deal of weight for sasuke and it's meaningful he chooses to express it to sakura specifically despite leaving the entire team behind -- in lots of ways, and more than any other character, i think for sasuke, sakura is the anti-itachi. (that would require another post to elucidate.) so not only is it an expression of regret at unintended distance, but, more crucially, it's a promise of return. i think it's incredibly sweet that sasuke can repurpose the gesture from something soul-rending to something hopeful.

(also deserving of another post lol but this scene also achieves a neat and, crucially, subversive callback to sakura's foundational insecurities... it's like poetry it rhymes)

all that said, i understand why it reads as something different once we are then given the context of chapter 700 and gaiden... i dislike both of these installments, primarily for the implication that distance becomes a love language, so to speak, between sasuke and sakura/sarada. these relationships are ruled by distance and sasuke accepts it. it's disappointing! his journey to learn about more of the world in chapter 699 jibed with the character's arc until that point. this does not.

my unpopular take is i think this has just about nothing to do with sakura or the sasusaku relationship and everything to do with authorial outlook on sasuke's actions in part 2. and for the record, i maintain that these crimes ultimately amount to very little -- violence and death are occupational hazards if one is a shinobi. konoha is also foregrounded by a cold calculus on the worth of human lives; i'm sure sasuke's indispensable role in saving the world outweighs the killing of a few samurai. i just think kishimoto needs sasuke to atone, somehow, forever, via endless service to the village. and he also cannot sensibly write a kakashi- or naruto-headed government that would impose any meaningful punishment, so sasuke is relegated to a state of permanent rootlessness in some dumbass quest. it's a sacrifice on his part, but contrived for a number of reasons, chief among them being that the sasuke we came to know in the original series would literally never internalize konoha's ideals in this manner. so even though the Forehead Poke in gaiden and boruto retains the elements of promise and anticipation of eventual reconciliation, it feels kind of... lame and weightless. there is a superficial signal at growth but materially, for the parties on the receiving end of the Forehead Poke, very little seems to change.

frankly, i think we are meant to view sasuke's love as noble (and sasuke himself as penitent, suggested by the ascetic quality of his life). sasuke is still doing things differently than itachi, insufficient though it may be: he is honest about the reason for his travels, he does not rush to dismiss sarada when she needs emotional support, his motives are selfless rather than selfish (sasuke guards against the threat of the otsutsuki; itachi... wanted sasuke to kill him, in no small part as a desperate ploy to end his own suffering, notwithstanding the subsequent damage that would be inflicted on his thoroughly traumatized little brother). gaiden is surprisingly candid about the distance as a source of distress for sarada, sakura, and even sasuke, but by the end everyone understands why it must be as it is. the state above all! (you'll notice even itachi's apology to sasuke held this precept intact... there is a reason the series closes with sasuke accepting his old hitai-ate.) it is admittedly vexing, considering the totality of evidence here, to see sasuke's nomadic status in boruto pinned on how much he hates his dumb bitch wife and not, you know. the shockingly bad politics underpinning the narrative.

i appreciate the attempts of sasuke enjoyers to explain his distance as natural aversion to konoha, but this isn't canonically backed by any interiority (which seems to be absent in boruto-era team 7 at large) and moreover it requires miscommunication between sasuke and sakura (or even naruto) so great as to be unbelievable. i've accepted that post-pt2 sasuke is an unfortunate victim of kishomoto's nationalist views. his weird takes on how a man like sasuke would behave in a loving relationship and likely desire for a continued revenue stream don't help either. yes i will weep forever...

TLDR: i think the Forehead Poke fits in chapter 699 precisely because it diverges from itachi's. i resent its recurrence suggesting distance from loved ones is an inevitable condition of sasuke's life to which he's stoically acquiescent.

[whoishotteranimepolls]

"Who's Hotter?" Battle of the Electrical Powers

[lovelucilfer]

One of the first times that Sasuke candidly mentions his family to you, and subsequently sees you tear up, is when — after watching you interact with a group of wide-eyed, eager genin-in-the-making, reminding them to be sure to complete their homework, and answering their questions with such gentle care and attentiveness — he tells you wistfully, with a small smile and soft eyes, that he thinks his mother would have loved you.

[everyitachi]

[dnana-2809-blog]

Some of my favorite (non canon) ships ever....

[dreamyeuphoricll]

Which plot twist shocked u the most?

[watermelonsloth]

“Queer Coding” in Naruto

(Disclaimer: I’m putting queer coding in air quotes because I don’t think Kishimoto intended anything in Naruto to be read as queer. A more accurate title for what I’m talking about is “my personal experience and opinions on reading queerness into the Naruto text through both individual characters and ships”. But that’s way too long. Also, despite using the umbrella term “queer”, I don’t really talk about heacanoning trans identities into characters. I originally was going to, but the post got longer than initially planned and it isn’t directly relevant what I want to talk about. I may make a future post or reblog to talk about trans identities, since that’s just as important a conversation to have.)

I had a post that has since been deleted off my blog about my headcanons about the sexualities of the Konoha 12. This is the only post I have deleted even though it’s not the only post I no longer agree with. I deleted it for two reasons: 1. I wasn’t being completely honest in it and I don’t want to keep purposely dishonest posts on my blog and 2. It made me uncomfortable with my own opinions. It made me ask myself, “What am I basing these headcanons on?” To cut a not so long story short, I didn’t want to risk feeding into stereotypes anymore than I already did and deleted the post.

I bring this up because I’ve recently watched a video about Tim Drake coming out as bisexual and it made me revisit the topic. Specifically, it made me wonder why so many people, including myself, read Tim as being bi despite not necessarily being queer coded. At least not in the traditional, stereotypical way. Inevitably this made me think about that post of mine and some of my Naruto headcanons.

As I implied in my disclaimer, I think there are two main ways queerness is read into a text (in my experience): headcanoning that a character has a queer gender identity or sexual orientation and headcanoning a relationship between two or more characters to be queer (usually through reading romance subtext into what would otherwise be a platonic relationship). An important note is that you can have one without the other. You can headcanon that Sasuke is gay without shipping him with any men and you can ship SakuHina without having an opinion on their sexualities one way or another. (There are more ways to read queerness into text but these are what I’m focusing on.)

When it comes to reading into the sexuality and relationships of characters as queer, it’s usually based on your answer to a very subjective and deceitfully simple question: “What’s the difference between a romantic and platonic relationship?”

I can’t answer this question for you and my answer likely won’t align with yours, but my personal answer is the level of intimacy (emotional, casual, and sexual) and vulnerability in the relationship. I have three headcanons surrounding the sexualities of Naruto characters—Naruto is bisexual, Sasuke is demisexual, and Shino is asexual—and all of them come back to this idea.

Naruto gets incredibly attached to and has close relationships with both women and men, Sakura, Sasuke, and Gaara specifically. These relationships involve Naruto not only being a good friend who will go to great lengths for them, but also him being emotionally vulnerable with them in a way that encourages them to become more vulnerable people (Sakura embraces her more tomboyish/less acceptable side, Sasuke cries, admits defeat, and starts introspecting, and Gaara opens himself up to others again because of his influence). Sasuke is shown to take a while to warm up to the people in his life—it wasn’t until the chunin exams that he showed open respect to Naruto and Sakura and took until the fight with Killer B for him to really warm up to Team Taka. Basically all of Shippuden was also about Sasuke eventually returning Naruto and Sakura’s feelings (however you choose to interpret those feelings) and letting them into his life. Shino is the only member of the Konoha 12 who never has a love interest of any kind, implied or explicit feelings for anyone, or a moment of meaningful emotional vulnerability.

This also applies to what I ship and, incidentally, what relationships I see as queer coded. Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship revolves around them learning to be vulnerable with each other, so I read it as having a lot of romantic subtext. Meanwhile, I never really got into InoSaku because—despite it being very similar to NaruSasu on the surface and the two being close friends—they never really shared the vulnerability or emotional/casual intimacy that would’ve actually convinced me their relationship was anything but platonic. This is also why I was never sold on NaruHina. There was plenty of admiration and unconditional support between the two of them, but they never had a moment where they connected over something deeply personal or important to them nor a moment where they fully dropped their walls for each other. The closest they got was the “proud failure” moment during the chunin exams.

Is my answer to the question actually good at determining whether or not a relationship is romantic and does my measurement—for lack of a better word—work at identifying people’s sexualities in the real world? No. Platonic relationships can be incredibly close and romantic relationships can come across as emotionally distant from an outsiders perspective. A person being more comfortable with one gender over others isn’t indicative of sexual orientation and people on the asexual spectrum aren’t guaranteed to have trust issues or problems being vulnerable. Nonetheless, this is a bias I have and thus it’s a bias I read into the media I consume.

When it comes to the larger conversation of why certain characters read as queer despite not being queer coded and why certain relationships read as more romantic than others, I don’t think this idea explains all of it but I think this is a larger part of it. Or at least it’s a more specific foundation/explanation than “vibes.”

[vinnystarman]

Gay ninjas again (kemonomimi edition)

This was supposed to be new years drawing but I forgot to post it, my bad

SNS brainrot is wild, anyway, catboy Sasuke is a valid opinion that I agree on