A reply to i_smile’s comment to my blah about father issues. Except we somehow got on the topic of Sasuke, and I honestly don’t know how it got to this size, so, I post it here. And yeah -_- Go read her Sasuke discussion.



To begin off with; of course I still adore you (you and your gigantic brain).

But is hostile, controlling and homicidal better? I honestly don’t remember Sasuke whining during the series (and this can be my complete and utter blind spot to things I don’t want to see *koffs* -_-;;) I found him unbelievably self-centered, blind, and too much of a prick, except those things don’t irritate me that much. I could never compare the situation of Gaara and Neji with that of Sasuke. Gaara has been dealing (I can’t believe I’m saying ‘dealing’?) with his uh, ‘situation’ as far as he can remember, he either had to adapt or die. He never had love, except with that bitch who tried to kill him, and that was an ‘abnormality’ rather than a norm. It impacted heavily on his life but the way he dealt with it was to revert back to, ‘I don’t care. Hurt those who hurt me.’ It might have been shock but not to the point of omfg my world has ended. In addition, he still had family, sure he only figured out that he might actually like them chapters into the manga, but he figured it out, and they are still there. Naruto opened his eyes to everything he has missed, I mean here was Naruto, someone who is equally hated by all but hey, loudmouth don’t care, because he’s going to change the world and makes it better (damn I love Naruto). Neji is different from both Gaara and Sasuke. Neji believes in fate, and yes there’s an abundance of anger, but a lot of it he channeled into, ‘I can’t change anything this is who I am, blah, blah, blah.’ And despite all the shit that happened he still had his clan, sure the situation is pretty shitty, but he has family and as Naruto said, he’ll change the Hyuuga clan for Neji, and Neji believes in Naruto because Naruto can change the world.

Complete agreement on Sasuke being stuck in a loop of personal development, but I want to ask a question; how is Sasuke suppose to move on? No, I’m not kidding, I’m really interested. Because based from my POV (and it is definitely my own POV, and you know for once I actually was authorial intent,) Sasuke can’t move on. For all purposes he is stuck and Naruto can’t help Sasuke in the way he helped Gaara and Neji. Naruto/don’t/ know what it feels like for Sasuke. I probably sound completely and utterly heartless here but the bottom line; the pain from having no parents, and the pain of having /everything/ a family can offer and then to have that love be taken away by the closest person to you in the world, well, that’s slightly different. And Naruto can’t make that better. He can’t say ‘I’ll create something better for you,’ because Itachi (for whatever reason) had taken it all away.

It isn’t that I don’t think Sasuke had made mistakes, he has, but I never saw his decision for leaving Konoha as one. He made a decision, it might have been the wrong one but when he fought Naruto (left him alive) and walked off, he knew exactly what he was doing, for the first time I could see what Sasuke can be like the future, and it isn’t happy, but it is someone that he chose to be. And OMFG! I love your BRAIN! Your whole paragraph on the reason as to why Sasuke decided to leave Leaf! Perfect! Exactly what I think! And you see that is WHY I’m all the Sasuke LOVE! But that’s like the reason why over half of the fandom hate him. For once he makes a decision that he thought through, and the fandom is all ‘Bad Sasuke. Bad.’ And complete agreement on the anger toward Naruto, it isn’t focused on the blond so much as at himself, at his own complete and utter uselessness. Dead-last had beaten him, and Itachi doesn’t give a shit about him. Hello, breaking point. Sasuke walking into the forest; happiest moment in my ‘Naruto’ reading time. I’m so glad someone thinks the same as me.

I would have liked him better if he'd realised that there was nothing that would ever make what Itachi did right, and that the only thing he could do is keep on living and fighting beside his friends.

See, I’m completely opposite on this one. (Your brain has failed me :P) Probably because I’m not the forgiving kind -_-;; But I would seriously kill anyone if they killed off any member of my family (over-identification with fictional characters, maybe I should take up a new hobby.) Revenge is one of those things in fiction that makes the reading experience that much more interesting. Forgiveness of killers has always been one of those touchy things for me. An author better be damn talented before they attempt to go, ‘Oh, I’m such a nice person that I’ll forgive you for murdering my family.’ Bull. See, this is why I like ‘Blade of the Immortal,’ Anotsu is not a bad guy, Rin is not a killer, but that didn’t stop Anotsu from leading a pack of killers that killed and raped their victims. And Rin being a nice, clumsy girl chose vengeance. There are things in life that can’t be forgiven (we are human), and sometime no matter what other people say, you can’t let it go. Saying it and doing it are completely two different things. Sasuke choosing revenge had always been one of those things I saw as a given. He could not choose any different. If for some reason K-sensei had decided to let him get over the massacre of his whole clan, staying to fight beside with his friends, well, I would have stopped reading ‘Naruto’ right there and then. And what makes the whole situation worse is that it wasn’t some random person that killed off his whole family, it was /his/ brother that he trusted, admired, and loved. I cringe every time I think about just what Sasuke must be thinking.

I think I have said this sometime ago, but I truly believe that Sasuke can’t live his life without first killing Itachi. It isn’t about being whiny, or angsty, or whatever. It is about feeling betrayal, anger, and so much hatred that there is no way for Sasuke to move on without killing Itachi. And the problem is I don’t know what Sasuke will do afterward.

I still have my Sasuke-angst icon. MWAHAHAHA!

[i_smile, I'll reply to you tomorrow. Brain hurt. Need to do work.]