redbrunja | Drive-By Update

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Drive-By Update

It is clearly the final month of school; I'm stressed, my to-do list needs two sticky notes to get everything on it, etc.

So if I haven't replied to your comment, it's probably because you wrote something that will take me more than two seconds to respond to; don't worry, I'll respond. Just... not right away.

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Secondly, the latest fandom_secrets post was so incredibly wank-tastic and troll worthy, that it deserves it's own WTF commentary. I'm not going to go into details, except that I have something brief to say about the Sasuke/Sakura/Hinata/Naruto (not in the fun orgy way) secret, since people on my flist are already talking about it:

1.) Sasuke/Sakura and Hinata/Naruto ARE NOT correlated variables: one can happen without the other.

2.) Stepping back from the details of the pairings themselves (since I think everyon already knows my opinion on that), wouldn't it be incredibly problematic if they both happened? Doesn't that send a horrible message to both girls and boys about how girls should just endlessly pursue the object of their desire? And boys should just go 'oh, okay' regardless of who THEY want to be with, because those girls spend so much energy on them? It takes (or it SHOULD) two to tango and neither Sasuke nor Naruto has shown that they are romantically interested in Sakura and Hinata, respectively. Which leads me to point three:

3.) Kishimoto is not writing a romantic adventure manga. Arguing about which pairing will be canon at this time is pointless because Kishimoto has not given us ANYTHING CLOSE to a clear canon signal about what relationships will end up being canon (one-sided crush does not equal 'will be canon'). This is not Avatar: we don't know how Team 7's romantic lives will work out and it's actually somewhat probable with Kishimoto's emphasis on nakama that we WILL NOT get a bunch of pairings in the epilogue (please god).

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Thirdly, I watched Star Trek on Sunday and it was the most awesome movie I have seen since Iron Man. Longer post to follow... sooner or later.

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Am I the only one who thinks that NONE of these pairings will become canon? It's a shonen manga! No one hooks up in shonen! Especially given how Kishimoto has really dropped all the romancey stuff lately, what little there was to begin with.

I hate this argument with a burning passion, so I'm turning it right back at you:

If that's how it works, what would it mean if NaruSaku's canon? That it doesn't matter if both girls' feelings have been shown as much stronger than one male's crush, his is still far more important, for no clear reason besides the fact that "hero deserves vagina of choice, while girls are silly and don't understand their own emotions"? That their happiness (and yes, a girl's happiness relying on the guy they like IS lame, but it's obviously important to both of them) is meaningless compared to a guy deciding he "sort of likes" a girl in a chapter three, and never pursuing it seriously since, aside from trying to trick her into liking him? Has he ever even thought of her in any context besides "she's cute" or "let's get Sasuke back"?

Sakura and Hinata's feelings for Sasuke and Naruto have been a driving force of their development, whereas Naruto's crush on Sakura is nonexistant when she's fighting Sasori alone and only matters when all is well and done. Compare this to Sakura, who ran in to help Sasuke during the Forest of Death, and Hinata, who was willing to give her life to keep him safe, and even all the MANY times Sakura's tried to stop Naruto from turning into Kyuubi.

Naruto LIKES Sakura, that can't be argued. But that's about it. He thinks she's cute, and doesn't tend to notice if she's upset. He can comfort her, but never in any way aside from "I'll get Sasuke back". He's had more of a meaningful relationship with Gaara or Jiraiya, and definitely Sasuke. He seems to understand them, but he really doesn't seem to understand Sakura. So, why is it that he automatically is entitled to her vagina?

Even if Sakura no longer romantically cares for Sasuke, what about Hinata? How would that narratively make sense? "Sorry, even if you knew he had potential since the beginning and Sakura didn't see it until the last minute, and you even had the courage to admit it before she even realized she liked him, you're still awkward and 'not normal' and didn't stand out as much as she did, so too bad"? It's not as if it's impossible for Naruto to ever like Hinata. He even says the reason he likes Sakura is because he understands her need to be accepted, which Hinata has in a way that's FAR more similiar to his situation. Unlike Hinata who downright loves him, he seems to have little more than a fidgety crush on Sakura where he can't even have a conversation with her without trying to hit on her.

I've not even touched the Fandom Secrets wankfest, though I may look into it when I don't already have a headache, but I will say I think I'm kind of in the middle on this one. On the one hand? I think series which end everything with various characters pairing off (Digimon, Harry Potter) tend to, well... have shitty endings that don't ring true. And given the way Naruto is already written, I could unfortunately see this happening.

On the other hand? I do actually think a woman pursuing/achieving her interests should be empowering/encouraged by the narrative, even if those interests are romantic in nature. I don't like the message that, oh, she should just put her sexual desires aside because LOL NARUTO'S SEXUAL DESIRES 4 SASUKE MATTAR SOOO MUCH MOAR -- well, okay, so the narrative says that's a brotherly relationship, but I mean, the whole series centers on a guy pursuing the guy he's interested in, platonic or not! And then we're told girls should just get over it if they have feelings like that? I don't know. I think that's potentially an even more toxic message about the importance of male desires v. female desires.

Sakura/Sasuke and Hinata/Naruto aren't necessarily correlated values, but given Kishi's love for neat endings...I honestly think it's likely that if one happens, the other will as well. Sadly. But I really hope there are no pairings at the end, seriously. I'll have to take a vacation from the internet due to shipping insanity if Kishimoto pairs them off.

And yeah...I'm with you on #2. I hate the idea of both these girls getting rewarded at the end with the affection of guys who have mistreated/ignored them throughout the series. Not what I consider a romantic ending. And it's not because I hate Naruto and Sasuke, but because I hate that particular ideal - that the way to true love is being loyal to your significant other no matter what happens/how they treat you. Nice thought, but...not so much. Especially if it's only the girls who get their romantic happiness that way. I would especially hate it if the couples are shoved together in a Harry Potter style epilogue without showing WHY or HOW it came to be.

Sakura ending up with Naruto is, in my opinion, slightly less crazy-making, but not much. I don't want him to have, like, 'earned' her by becoming the STRONGEST NINJA EVER, and I'm afraid Kishi will frame it that way if it happens. And then that leaves Hinata alone and unhappy ~~and ripe for Neji to swoop in~~ and that's no good either.

NAKAMA, Kishi. GO NAKAMA.

PS - I started watching Avatar, and it's really, really addictive.

This is a large reason why I really, really don't want them to get together. Because she and Naruto are in the exact same place with Sasuke, and I love how she was all 'I'll save Sasuke for you!' and... I just feel like putting them in a relationship would cause that to be lose. I want the manga to end with Team 7 bffs, not romantic, you know?

I agree completely with this.

I just find SasuSaku to be incredibly unhealthy; with NaruHina, Naruto is oblivious of Hinata's romantic feelings, yet even so he's always had a positive, supportive relationship with her as a friend. Sasuke, on the other hand, is openly dismissive of Sakura when they're younger, and the reader is more or less encouraged to empathize with Sasuke during those moments. This just bugs me tremendously. It's a major problem for SasuSaku that Kishimoto had intended Sakura's obsessive interest in Sasuke to be a character flaw, as hieronymousb says. I think it does send a negative message if they end up together, as it seems to imply that Sakura's personal growth throughout the series is really just all about making her 'good enough' for Sasuke's standards (this was one thing that bugged me about Harry/Ginny in HP as well, that Ginny was transformed into practically a Mary Sue to be 'worthy' of Harry.)

...And well, I adore SaiSaku, even if it probably won't happen. ;)

I hope no pairings happen in Naruto canon so I can continue writing fanfiction for whichever ones I like. -_- I mean, you know what I ship, for god's sake. If I wanted a manga where I root for a ship until it happens, I'll go pick up something with "shoujo" on the front of it. And even then, I'll crackship random characters anyway.

I really don't see why it's so important for pairings to ever become canon anyway. Is your imagination so barren that you can't imagine how a romantic scene would go between two characters without the medium of the series' creator, fandom?

[/rant]

Plus, I have been burned by pairings I love becoming canon that I totally don't understand most of fandoms OMG IT MUST BE CANON ATTITUDE!

OMG. SAME HERE.
As I do ship NaruSaku, pairing wars and blah blah blah just literally burn me out. Hell, the Naruto fandom itself burns me out. I mean, at this point, I almost don't care whether NaruSaku becomes canon or not. @_@ ~~Maybe crack pairings are the way to go... hmmmm.~~ But, really, it'll all just go to hell whether pairings happen or not. :/

Er, wow, that secret. Sasuke/Sakura is about fifty different shades of problematic, whereas Naruto/Hinata is, like, only five or so. I never really understand why people find a need to pair these two, because each of them are about two completely separate things. Each relationship would be completely different! I guess it ties into a need to make sure everyone gets their happy ending and make it all nice and neat, without any hurt feelings, but I feel no such need. In my opinion, some things would work and other things wouldn't.

Besides, I'm really starting to think that there aren't going to be any definitive endgame ships.

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