#scrolling thru my own blog for old times sake

[chattegeorgiana]

I ran out of space, I still thought Sakura would finally move on from Sasuke because it made sense for her to and because despite her weirdly not believable behavior, she was smart enough to realize she should move on from him. I was scrolling thru your blog and found that it might be due to cultural differences of how men/women in Japan view marriage though, but my point is when I really stopped to look at the story, her being hung up on Sasuke made less sense and I started liking her again lol

Haha, it’s okay, we can take it from here.

Well, yes, at least she is showing acknowledging in the war arc when that nin comes with a letter, that Sasuke is really not that great of a guy, though. And who could blame her. By the morale code she went given she was a Konoha nin, he wasn’t a great guy. But you see, that’s the problem here. If she would’ve been more involved in Sasuke’s path, like Naruto was, she probably wouldn’t have this view. She would have conflicting ones. What if Sakura knew the information Naruto knew? And this is where SS also lacks, imo.  If Kishi really wanted to go down the SS path, he could’ve involved her more into his narrative from the Uchiha clan massacre perspective. This one here is a big missed opportunity imo. I’ve always said it. Because of my SS background, one of the problems I saw was that. Because if you remember, back when she tells him this revenge won’t bring anyone happiness, despite being a child at that time, she does say something really good. Because it didn’t. Killing Itachi didn’t bring Sasuke happiness. On the contrary. Just more misery and mind torture given the newly arised moral questions in his head.  And if Kishi would’ve wanted to play well the SS card, he could’ve had her in that subplot. But he didn’t. On the contrary, she’s more involved in subplots regarding Naruto. His jinchuuriki state, his loss of master, his dream and whatnot. For a pairing that wasn’t intended to happen, Kishimoto sure put a lot of development in it. And for one that was intended to, he surely let a lot of plot holes in it. And yes, seeing her in different instances regarding Naruto, she seemed to move. Of course, it wouldn’t have been that easy because there were still her lingering feelings for Sasuke. Those had to be resolved. Loving Sasuke was always part of Sakura’s character. No question there. It was just that said love seemed to fade, and another one bloomed. But then, of course, Kishi killed it off because market decisions dictated so. It would make her a terrible woman, apparently, if she moved on from Sasuke to Naruto. Despite the fact that Sasuke did hurt her, and Naruto was really shown to be there next to her, supporting her, at all times. Many people take Sakura’s confession as fake. While yes, it has elements you could call fake - like her denying her feelings for Sasuke, the others were true. And she didn’t just switch to Naruto from Sasuke, like Kishi stated that it would’ve been.  It was all gradual, slowly built. From now standing her in her way - to wanting to kill her said love for Naruto’s sake. And in between all the history they shared together. So no, it wasn’t sudden nor fake. But alas.

Regarding the cultural differences yes, I see what you mean and I did take that into consideration. But you see, that was the thing with Naruto as a manga when it first started. It seemed to go against the status quo. To break barriers, limits and cultural norms.

Take shinobi system for example. I addressed this in an old post of mine. NaruSaku: The Grave, The Silent Vow, The Shinobi World

The status quo is presented to us here. But on their way to becoming ninjas, these are the guys who want to break that status quo. To defy it, to build their own way. Sasuke does that, too. Just differently than Sakura and Naruto.

On the other side in terms of relationships, Kishi also had something else in mind. And we see his authorial intent through Sai and the books he reads. He observes Sakura’s gentleness towards Naruto, her worry, their closeness. There’s even that chapter where he explains the whole -kun and -san honorifics and talks how these should be dropped in order to have a more heartfelt and closer connection. So we as readers see that as an author, Kishi had the intention to break those cultural norms.

But, at the same time Naruto was a brand. And the brand needs to have a market to sell to. And said market, well... you know the story from thereafter. But in my honest opinion, he should’ve stayed true to his own intentions. And he did so until Pein Arc. Maybe it was because of his old editor, Yahagi or so. Can’t recall the name right now. But as a story, Naruto was consistent up to Pein Arc. It turns into a mess right after that. Which coincidentally, is right after Yahagi left.

And even if we take it by cultural norms... said cultural norms say that the girl has unwavering trust in her partner. Well, like we talked in the other post, sadly it’s not the case, since Sakura’s faith in Sasuke crumbles time and time again. It is Naruto the one who builds her trust in Sasuke once again. 

But anyway, like we said before, it is what it is.

#sakura haruno #naruto #narusaku #anti-sasusaku #i like sakura too #she's still my fave #but there are some problematic things going on with her tho' #but alas...