#had to give up on fixing it

[jessfandrawer]

"If you wanna buy me flowers, just go ahead now." - Two Princes, The Spin Doctors

Hey, it's finished! In addition to liking the story/moment idea, it's a bit of a style test to see if doing a longer comic like this is feasible. I think it is? But yeah, it would take me a long time. Drawing, coloring, and lettering everything was a ton of work! It's nice to get some comic making practice though.

This is pure sugar, so I apologize for any dental work you may need after reading.

Edit: Variegated tulips mean "beautiful eyes" in flower language in case nobody was wondering.

Link to the bonus page 😉

#my art #fan comic #hellcheer #eddissy #fluff #digital art #special guest #wayne munson #that post-gig glow #the sparkles are Chrissy-vision #drawing consistently? #who's she? #I'd like to get to know her #his nose looks different every time I see it #what's wrong with me #eddie x chrissy #munningham #two princes #also 3/4 Eddie was a freakin' nightmare this time #had to give up on fixing it #for my sanity

[raepliica]

(content warning: blood)

Sewed Up Heart

[ID: A Trigun comic done in grayscale with red accents. First, an anatomical heart gushes blood, forming a puddle which shifts into Vash's coat. Vash's gloved hands can be seen sewing up a tear at the hem.

Vash raises his hands, which are now bare and covered in blood. He looks sweaty and distressed, and he raises his coat to his face and cries into it. His clenched hands rip the sewed portion apart, and the red thread leads to a heart whose own stitches are tearing apart. The background gets darker and darker, and the red looks brighter and starker against it.

Then the background returns to white, and brown-skinned hands using embroidery scissors snip a red thread. Wolfwood holds up Vash's repaired coat, grinning proudly, and does a happy thumbs-up in Vash's direction. Vash lifts his head, seeming distant.

Wolfwood holds out the coat. As Vash puts out his hand to take it, the cloth is replaced so Wolfwood is dropping a sewed-up heart in Vash's hand. Vash rubs the coat against his face with a teary smile. End ID] ID CREDITS

#trigun #trimax #cw blood #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #vashwood #my art #his coat as an external representation of his emotional wounds🤌 #a coat riddled with bullet holes tells so many stories #also wolfwood hc of him being good at sewing bc he probably had to patch up many clothes when he was at the orphanage #and now his hands are bloodied but he still has this one thing -this one skill- that helps him make things a little better for once #and it doesnt fix everything but at least he's giving back a bit of the kindness he's being shown #ww actions over words love language *explodes* #i cant stop rotating these thoughts in my head i need to make a comic focused on his pov #image described #thank you for the id!! #raepliica_art

[sheerakk]

#was looking for some fics with these two #I imagine this is one of their first interactions and Hunter is already fed up with Darius #but Darius is just trying to get to know the successor of his mentor and check if he's at least a little bit capable of doing his job #he's also a little weirded out by the similarity between these two #basically I imagine Darius gave him a couple of vibe checks that Hunter had failed #and Hunter takes it as questoning his place in the coven #god darius design is so pink and awful #it's so jover uni starts tommorow #it's like the most boring drawing ever but I'm just still in my I have to get better at backgrounds era #and also if I'll draw 100 awful things I get a decent one eventually #it's like inktober but lasts your whole life and devours your soul in the process #no caption just pure tags now I understand those few people who keep reblogging all my tags cuz I give all the fucking context there #there's probably like 10 things I would spot tommorow that would fix the drawing a whole bunch but I just ...don't want to ig #the owl house #sheerak #the golden guard #darius deamonne #hunter toh #toh hunter #hunter deamonne #toh fanart #the owl house fanart #dadrius #not yet but #you guys most fellow toh fanartists moved on and fanart fiona and cake but I keep brainrotting the same stuff over and over #good old toh trashpile

[kathonyy]

KATE SHARMA in BRIDGERTON 2x04 VICTORY

#bridgerton #bridgertonedit #bridgertonblr #bridgerton gifs #katesharmaedit #kate sharma #dailybridgerton #simone ashley #netflixedit #tvedit #was meant to go to bed early but instead stayed up making this ooops #pls give opinions is this too many big gifs for one post or is it an okay length? #if i had more time i'd try to do more to fix the colouring but alas i am impatient and want to post right now lol

[deafening-radio-silence]

I think that Dr. Christina "I was an excellent soldier" Raynor needs to deal with some personal things before she's anyone's therapist, because she strong-armed more of Bucky's autonomy away from him than Zemo did within the series.

#yeah man make amends for the shit that happened when you didn't even have control over your own thoughts #so she was giving him a way to “fix things” but that wasn't on him to do so #all she did was doubly reinforce what he already thinks - which is a justified but false and guilt-laden perception - about the situation #idk much about therapy but i don't think that they're sposed to do that. correct me if i'm wrong and then i'll go fight all therapists #bucky barnes #tfaws #alpine #my art #thank you for putting up with my drawings of a comic book character and his asshole cat lol #i had to put my dog down recently in a bad way and i can't rightfully get another house dog with my current work schedule #so i got a cat since they can handle being inside for the day and the shelter lady said she's super antisocial towards other cats #she's super antisocial towards me sometimes too but she sleeps on me at night and my house has never been cleaner #now that i have to vacuum cat fur and mind what i leave lying on the counter #i've never liked cats before but she's special i guess idk ain't everyone's cat special lol #anyway i'll stop using my tumblr blog as a blog now lol

[screwpinecaprice]

@glowweek Day 5 FAMILY | FRIENDS

Peridot and specially Lapis do not trust the racoons.

Specifically chose this angle so I don't draw feet. _(:,3」∠)_

Mi own connverse kids Ebony and Rohini are there! And technically Sakura and Zachary. (Please until now I don't know what else to name them. 😭)

And sorry the older Maheswarans aren't there. I don't know where to put them and I already had character overload. 😞

Hibiscus print on Bismuth's shirt is from ManMadeOfGold!

Speaking of shirt, another thing I avoided was thinking of their outfit designs. 😅 It's somewhere a little over a decade of timeskip since SU:Future and I'm sure at least one or two would've reformed during the time. So I'm gonna say they wanted to keep the vibe of a casual outdoors picnic-type event so they wore the casual themes.

#Still ..Honestly got lost on what to do with Bismuth and Pearl's forms. First tried to give the button up shirt she had in Bismuth casual #but it didn't look casual enough.... So I made it into a Hawaiian shirt. 😅 #I ACTUALLY ended up Googling 'Mom casual summer outfit' lol and grabbed the first I saw as base..... I still managed to kinda make it #look... eh. But I already spent so much time on her. Sorry Pearl. 😞 #I mean. In contrast I gave Garnet the super simple white shirt and loose pants. But like... She already looked so darn good imo. So I #just left it at that before I ruined it. #connverse #connverse week #glowweek #Bismuth SU #Ebony OC #Lapis Lazuli SU #Peridot SU #Garnet SU #Connie Maheswaran #Pearl SU #Amethyst SU #Greg Universe #Steven Quartz Universe #Rohini OC #Lion SU #Yeah. I'm late and the last two will most likely be super late as in around past the GlowWeek week. 😅 #..... Guys..... I just realized ... There should be the rest of Greg's body visible. RIPPppp sorry I'm not going back to fix anything. 😭😭 #Possible backstory of Lapis and Peri and raccoon: #https://www.tumblr.com/screwpinecaprice/141991576032/i-just-thought-it-would-be-really-funny-because-i #connverse kids #Gold TL

[jeeaark]

Oh noooooo the broken little star lamp! My heart!

I just want to hold Greyg until the pain goes away!

Greygold made sure Astarion reverse-pickpocketed a bunch of money to the previous lantern holders. Especially if they made them. Gotta support the craft-community~

Anyway, I HOPE THIS MAKES HEARTS FEEL BETTER lakdjlasdjfIfeelbad

#astarion #greygold #bg3 comic #I appreciate your concern for the lantern anon! #gives me an excuse to fix things between them a lil more ohoho #I like to think Astarion had Gale light up all the lanterns for Theatrics #I like to think if there is the opportunity for Astarion to romance Gale he HAS to like Gale's silly jokes at some point #WHICH MEANS A-STAR HAS TO LIKE GREYGOLD'S BAD JOKES TOO AT SOME POINT UHUAH

[98chao]

yall i drew these back in may when i finished the devils playhouse and just forgot to post them so im doing that now

also obligatory shitpost:

#(spoilers for the devils playhouse if you havent played it) #HIII SAM & MAX FANS im glad to officially join you all in the Extreme agony #im literally never going to get over the ending to this game like THIS FIXES NOTHING??? MAX IS STILL DEAD!!!!! WHAT! #giving him another max from a timeline where sam was the one who died does not make it better in fact i think this makes it worse! #i thought this series was about a silly dog and rabbity thing solving crimes i didnt sign up for this #sam and max #sam and max freelance police #sam and max the devil's playhouse #freelance husbands #my art #shitpost #ms paint #clip studio paint #oh funny story i drew the first 3 in ms paint on one canvas initially but did a stupid thing and cropped the first image to edit it #forgetting that ms paint has a stupidly low undo limit #so i lost the other 2 and had to redraw it in csp but i was so pissed off about it

[shu-box-puns]

I've got this image of Dad!Tsu’tey from my Father-son-shenanigans AU turning up in ATWOW during the aftermath of the SeaDragon, specifically on that one rock. And he has no idea how he ended up there, but whilst Jake and Neytiri are quaking at the sudden appearance of their dead friend (visibly aged from the joys of fatherhood), Spider pops out of the ocean.

Naturally, Tsu'tey only has eyes for his son, and immediately gets launched head first into Protective!Dad mode at the state of him. He looks like a drowned rat, has several sluggishly bleeding cuts along his body, his stripes are faded more than his Spider ever allows. Not to mention, his dreads are matted at the scalp and are in desperate need of a retwist. But most alarming of all, none of his other family members (The Sully's) seem to remember to check on him in their shock of discovering Tsu'tey's presence.

Since no one else seems to be bothering, Tsu'tey helps Spider out of the water, noting the shock on the boy's face as he hesitantly takes Tsu'tey's outstretched hand.

<"Are you okay?"> Tsu'tey asks, as he has done for countless years. And horrifyingly, instead of Spider replying with "yes Dad," or "no Dad" Tsu'tey gets a-

<"Yes sir.">

Spider has never referred to Tsu'tey as 'sir' before. It's either 'Olo'eyktan' when he's in a mood and wants to get under Tsu'tey's skin, or 'Dad'.

<"Sir?"> Tsu'tey repeats with a curl of his nose. <"Who the hell is sir? I am Dad to you. I have always been Dad to you."> And of course, Tsu'tey is dead in this universe, and Spider has no clue who this strange forest na'vi is. Not to mention he's had a very long and emotional day surrounding another father figure.

<"Dude, I have no idea who you are.">

Cue:

Tsu'tey from my Dad!Tsu'tey AU looking at Spider in our ATWOW: "Watch out kid because you're about to get the strongest and most stable support system any clan has ever seen."

BONUS:

If Spider were to admit to Tsu'tey that Quaritch is alive (he's only known the man for an hour but Eywa does he trust him to keep Neytiri from mauling him):

Side Note: Tsu'tey has it all under control, and now has recruited Neytiri to go hunt down that dead beat dad.

#I feel like he would just be really sad to see himself dead in this universe and realise that Spider had no one because of it #our Spider would be so confused #Tsu'tey is a good Dad #happy to give him his space when he needs it #content to cook for him and ask about his day #scarily protective when Spider is in even a lick of danger #it's nice to have a father figure turn up after sixteen years and it not be awkward #meanwhile Neytiri and Jake are having emotional breakdowns because thier dead friend is just THERE #Only for Tsu'tey to immediately start chewing them out for neglecting HIS son #cue confusion and chaos the entire ilu ride back to the villagr #dad tsu'tey #he'd come around of course #dad!tsu'tey #son!Spider #Spider Socorro #Father-son-duo #Father-Son-Shenanigans #jake and neytiri #atwow #fix-it #Neteyam is fine #he's just resting

[lancabbage]

I just hate it when people try to 'fix' WWX's fear of dogs.

The dude has a legitimate reason to be frightened of them after what he's been through and as long as it doesn't affect his life and make him miserable - which it really doesn't, he's scared and runs off and now he's got a hit husband to save him and make him feel safe - why make it an issue?

Not everyone likes dogs, not everyone has to compromise and face a fear because someone else has a dog.

Why is it always WWX who has to 'get over' his fear in these fanfics? Why aren't others more understanding of his fears and keeping the dog away or leaving it at home - which you'll notice canon JL actually starts to do, especially in the extra when they are on a night-hunt.

I just think it's really inconsiderate of people to down play WWX's fear and make him "get over it" so he can play happy families as some double uncle team with JC - which is less likely to happen than WWX getting over his fear of dogs! Then again, considering the plot dynamic of these "fix it" fics, full of ooc shit they wouldn't do... I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wwx doesn't need to be fixed #i love how jc stans cling onto that one scene where he has to give up his own dogs #because the orphan they had brought to live with them had a deliberating fear of them due to being attacked by them for years #JC never even gets anymore dogs after wwx died!!! #because he didn't give a shit about them really #that's the whole point #not some bs about him making sure wwx could return to lp if he wanted to lmao #he was hunting down and torturing anyone that might be wwx fgs

[magnusbae]

On the rare occasions when Hob is actually mad at Dream— he refuses to sleep. Coffee, energy drinks and the God forsaken awakeness pills? All fair game. If he has to inject caffeine directly into his vein, he would. Hob doesn't often get mad, but when he does, he likes to make a point. Dream and Hob match in more than one ways, really, they do. And so it is that the Dream Lord must come out of his realm personally to sprinkle sand into his lover's eyes because he'd be damned if Hob refuses his gift for more than two nights in a row. Not speaking for 100 years? Easy. Hob refusing sleep? Unacceptable.

#Dreamling #Fixed tags: #Dream creating Hob an entire GALAXY in the Dreaming to placate him but Hob has none of this— he refuses to enjoy it. #Dream getting offended that his lover does not appreciates his good graces is like— Well I can also give you a nightmare :| #And Hob just: #'Maybe just don't say that I will eventually stop loving you 🙄🙄🙄 Hob about that- huh.' #Dream: I meant not to insult you— it is merely how humans /are/. Most entities cannot stay with me for long. (The will not is unsaid) #Hob: You're such an idiot. #Hob would cross his arms and try to stay mad with him but he simply CANNOT. #Dream is being genuine— perhaps a genuine idiot— but genuine nevertheless. #He would sigh and finally come over to Dream and he'd take his hands into his and pull him close to himself. #He has to stand up taller— because here in the Dreaming his lover is taller than in the waking. #It's nearly at his tiptoes that he lands a soft kiss at Dream's lips. #Hob: Just because you had /shitty/ exes doesn't mean /I/ have to be #For the matter— I rather not be your ex at all. #Dream attempts denying all his exes being bad but Hob just keeps on kissing him insistently #Like hell he's allowing his lover dwell in the feeling that no one stays— EVEN IF HE DID SPIKE HIS ANGER METER LIKE HELLA #Dream: You will leave me because you're human Hob's anger: 📈📈📈📈 #But he's not really mad he just wishes Dream to trust him is all. #I mean Dream is JUST the center of his entire world #but you know #anyways those tags are meant to be read separately I was just having some crack fun #the original tags gotten horribly out of order and were an absolute mess so I had to rewrite it for it to make any sense at all #so some of the chaotic insanity been lost XDDD #anyways yes XD #buns.hc

[grumpyghostdoodles]

Some grown-up Dreemurrs fashion!

#Frisk is 17 and Ree and Chara 21 #had to check my references bc for the like of my i cant never remember their ages #I think my favorite outfit is frisks! #is the more simple of the three #but i had fun using the magenta. I dont usualy use strong colors so i enjoyed it! #and im in LOVE with thier shoes #theyre platforms btw an if i could grab them for m yself id do it instantly #Charas bag is literally nicknamed trashbag #bc it so busted #but my god they refuse to give it up #patched with ducktape on the inside. multiple patches tp fix the outside. the zipper has been changed 5 times #Toriel wants to burn that bag so badly #but nay it shall remain XD #myart #frisk undertale #undertale #ut #chara dreemurr #chara undertale #chara ut #asriel dreemurr #frisk dreemurr #frisk ut #had a couple of very rough days #and playing dress up with dolls always cheered me up #no longer have my dolls #but i can draw characters in all the silly outfits instead!

[fujii-draws]

OKAY! Chatot rant in tags below! Read at your own discretion.

#okay starting from the beginning of where ppl usually dislike him. apple woods chapter. #he doesn’t give hero/partner the CHANCE to explain themselves despite them being relatively good recruits up until that point. #and that legit might be my only gripe with that chapter bc!!! stories need conflict! I LIKE the conflict in apple woods!!! #hero and partner being punished so something they didn’t do! #the misunderstanding! how team skull (Skuntank) actually outplays the main duo with a clever yet rotten trick. I LOVE that it segways into- #one of the more sweeter scenes of guild members looking out for eachother. I LIKE APPLE WOODS CONFLICT. #but chatot just. not giving them a chance. is so dumb. #I’d personally fix this by having a lil montage of hero/partner fucking up on jobs. A LOT. and chatot giving them a pass every time. #and let the perfect apple incident BE the one where he puts his foot down and doesn’t listen to them. bc he’d given them loads of chances. #and doesn’t want to hear any excuse. #but yeah. I legit dont mind him during that chapter except for that really stupid and frustrating moment. #NOW. CHAPTER 17. #UGGGGHHH WHERE DO I BEGIN #Him not believing hero and Partner about Grovyle and the future being in ruin? FINE. ACTUALLY GOOD. BC CHATOT WOULD BE SKEPTIC. #IT FITS HIS CHARACTER!! #BUT WHAT DOES SUCK. IS HIM GOING ‘Dusknoir isn’t the bad guy. he didn’t do anything wrong’ #WHEN HE LITERALLY KIDNAPPED HERO AND PARTNER RIGHT I N F R O N T OF HIM. #(​NO LITERALLY. HIS CHARACTER IS IN THE FRONT ROW WHEN IT HAPPENED.) #and him. having the GALL to tell hero and partner they must’ve been ‘seeing things’ and downplaying the HELL they went through. #despite them being missing for hours/days. his own guild recruits. and his angry sprite showing up. #like. I think that’s when I genuinely despised him. #that and him going ‘OH I BELIEVED YOU THE WHOLE TIME HEEHOO :)’ shit was so fucking annoying. #just playing it off as a joke the second the guild started to believe hero and partner. #IMAGINE IF HE W A S ACTUALLY TESTING THE GUILD’S TRUST. SHOWCASING HIM AS THE MORE RESPONSIBLE AND RESPECTFUL RIGHT HAND OF THE GUILD. #and yes. Brine cave he saves hero and partner. but at that point I just didn’t care anymore. #he fucked those two over so much. that I didn’t care what ‘valiant’ sacrifice he had. #and he grills Team Skull for what they did OFF SCREEN. they couldn’t even give us THAT. #<<< THAT or him outright saying sorry would’ve been nice. IKIK his ‘actions’ or whatever but. #eughh again this is all imo. I’m not trying to make people hate him or change their mind. #I’ll get into positives in the second post cause I’m running out of tags

[bonefall]

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

#I wish I had more succinct and practical advice to give you besides the woman beam trick #Honestly I just kinda feel it out because I like telling stories about girls #I made it fun for myself by clapping and cheering and whooping and hollering whenever a girl does something #because it's not fun to write like a monk in a monastery #With the spectre of Brother Smockbimble looming over your shoulder telling you to Write Perfectly Every Time #Characters aren't real people. You can just fix it if you happen to fuck up or do better next time with what you learned. #Making mistakes is just part of acquiring skill #and writing is an art just like painting or drawing. #So don't make a fun OC project into homework! You should be enjoying making your own art! Express yourself! #Please understand that when I'm ripping into the series I'm being so harsh because it's bestselling corporate media #Read by HUNDREDS of thousands of kids worldwide #Raking in millions of dollars a year. Written by a TEAM of professionals. #So I have higher expectations of it than of a fandom rando on the internet. Or even a self-published author who's just One Guy. #Hence why I'm infinitely more charitable to Ratha than I am to Battle Cats #bones gives advice

[utilitycaster]

I don't begrudge anyone their campaign preferences, and I think there's plenty of valid reasons to like Campaign 3 the best and this is not directed at people who are genuinely having a great time with it, but it feels like virtually all the nostalgia and wishful thinking I see surrounding Campaign 3 is screaming "you guys want Campaign 2." You want more slow travel and downtime and interparty conversations and slow-burn romance? You wish their main focus was fighting governmental corruption? You want a party that only semi-settles down at the end and keeps adventuring and remains very close? You're frustrated by how everpresent and overarching the moon plot is? You miss when they were just fucking around in a city? I genuinely believe you want Campaign 2, or at best you love a specific ship or a character from Campaign 3 but aren't happy about basically anything else, and would vastly prefer the tone and events and plot of Campaign 2. And I don't really care if you watch Campaign 2, or if you think I'm being annoying here; I simply genuinely believe you'd be happier watching Campaign 2 than Campaign 3 and are so deep in a sunk cost fallacy well you can't see it.

#the number of people who SCREAM if you imply campaign 3 is not the greatest campaign but also openly resent the moon focus is. high. #i've had my complaints about the people from c1 who would shit on c2 but i'll give them this: they actually do love c1. #it feels a lot of people just want bells hells at a chuck e cheese birthday party and like. that's not campaign 3 babe. #i actually have grown to really like the moon plot once it finally took off #and c3 has had some satisfying lore resolutions and new places #but it feels like the people who showed up to ship kind of hate the core plot of the campaign which. is the core plot of the campaign. #cr tag #this is intended to be read in conversation with the post from earlier about things not being deep too #like it's ok if your blorbo or otp is in c3...but if that's the only thing you love do you love the campaign or do you just love them #also. i also don't begrudge anyone their reasons for watching a show #but I've seen like three people i follow try to watch wot solely bc Lanfear is hot and give up bc there's so much lore #and people get mad candela didn't give them a happy ending for their ship #it really is like did you show up for c3 or did you show up for a blorbo delivery system #not realizing this is prix fixe instead if made to order

[mixelation]

One thing that really gets my goat about how Sakura is written is that she does occasionally start to do something, but the narrative shuts her down. Like this:

Sakura goes to leap into the arena to see Lee after his fight with Gaara. Kakashi shuts her down. Contrast this to the panels that immediately follow this one:

Naruto does the exact same thing and no one bats an eye!

It’s not that I think characters shouldn’t be stopped from doing what they want— it’s just that when it’s a consistent pattern it makes reading about the character really frustrating. When Haku traps Sasuke in his mirror prison thing, Sakura hurls a kunai to help… and Kakashi tells her to guard Tazuna. She does this obediently for the rest of the fight, INCLUDING when she literally thinks Sasuke is dead (Tazuna has to offer to go to Sasuke with her to get her to move). Sakura’s willingness to do this is actually an interesting character trait, but because it’s couched in this weird lack of agency, it makes her seem complacent and cowardly, especially when the take away of a lot of fights seems to be “try no matter what.”

Here’s another example: in the first part of the chunin exam, they’re all told they can pick to answer a final question and risk being banned from promotion, OR they can back out now and take the exam again later. If Sakura were alone, she’d take the question because she’s confident in her abilities.

However, she starts to raise her hand to back out because she wants to protect Naruto.

She backs off when Naruto gives a speech about never giving up, even though her making them all back out is arguably the more mature choice (why would you drag a teammate along on a mission you know they’ll fail?). She also tries to pull them out of the prelim tournament because Sasuke needs urgent medical attention, and he shuts her down AGAIN. Like, looking at this with the wisdom of an adult, Sakura was definitely in the right there.

To be clear, I don’t mind Sakura being a cautious killjoy to Naruto’s “Believe it!” Shonen protag energy. It’s just that whenever she tries to exercise that caution, it gets shut down and that makes it seem like a negative trait to have. (Also: contrast this to Shikamaru being REWARDED for exercising caution and knowing when to back out). I’m not even arguing that the scenes I cited need to be changed, because they do character work for Naruto and Sasuke. I’m just saying that Sakura could have gotten a few more scenes where her choices were plot relevant, and she’d be a more fleshed out character.

#nardo reread #she does get two fights but they’re not consequential to the plot #although interestingly she lies to Naruto about what happens with the oto trio #he asks why her hair is shorter and she says she just felt like a new look #and then later there’s a flashback where Sasuke tells her not to tell Naruto about the curse mark so she doesn’t #if only any of Sakura’s decisions (here— lying) had consequences! #wouldn’t that be fun!! #anyway I wrote this up bc I think this is one of the big flaws I. how kishimoto writes her #and I feel like a lot of people think she’d be ‘fixed’ by giving her a battle axe or something but no!! #just let her actions have consequences!!!