Current: One Piece & AFTG& WHA & Windbreaker & TLT

the humble cctv camera:

What if Sakura doesn’t fight Suo like he has other people, what if he takes a page out of ume’s book and lets suo fight him?

What if Sakura lets Suo use him as a punching bag to get his feelings out like ume did for choji? What if he takes on a defensive roll? One he hasn’t really taken in the series yet and let’s Suo hit him? I mean their fight has been set up since Sakura asked Neiri how he could get Suo to fight him for real.

I think there is a very good chance here that we see a whole different type of fighting from Sakura! Him saying that he wants to basically kidnap Suo really makes it seem to me that it’s the case. He doesn’t want to fight him, he doesn’t say he wants to have a conversation with him, he says in his own way that he wants to just bring him back to Furin.

So what if we see a raging and irritated Suo taking things out on Sakura.

His punches become less and less precise and his movements easily readable the more he gets pissed off. Sakura dodging easily and without fail as Suo just gets more and more annoyed. Because why won’t he just go away? Why can’t they just leave him alone? What does he have to say or do to get them off his back?

I’m thinking that Suo’s mask won’t be broken by a hit or a punch but by a genuine connection to Sakura.

Something that truly connects them a way for Sakura to show that he cares, that he genuinely appreciates Suo, that he understands the pain even if he doesn’t experience it the same.

I personally would love to see a hug, I’d love to see Suo’s rage and anger met with his own compassion. Suo, the one who’s wise and mature and shows no falter, finally throwing his own tantrum, finally lashing out, but instead of being met with dismissal, or punishment, it’s met with kindness, with understanding, with a genuine love and care.

for example, the series' constant emphasis on the fact that fighting = communication, sets up the suo-nirei fight to be the most honest suo has ever been except we all know it was actually his biggest lie. so on and so forth.

i'm now thinking about how, multiple months into suo's character arc, we are yet to see much of his pov. the little we've gotten of his pov has also been entirely removed from his internal mindscape and has been moreso about introducing bkk-gai to us as a setting.

and now, there is a growing focus on sakura's pov of the situation which, for the record, has always been a bit of a thing in side character arcs—he is the series mc after all—but what's different this time is the nature of sakura's pov.

whether it be togame, anzai, kiryu, momiji, or any other character whose arc sakura has been involved in, we've always gotten his pov as an agent of change. he is invested and involved while still being removed in a sense, allowing for his pov to work independently, in a way that introduces spark and movement into a story that might otherwise feel stuck and tragic.

this time though, we get sakura's pov as the person most directly and significantly impacted by suo's arc. if anything, it's closer to the tone that his pov tends to take when we're exploring arcs that are integral to His character development instead of somebody else's—and that clearly is the intention like, for better or for worse, sakura Is meant to learn something and grow from it here. this is a main story arc as much as it is a side character arc.

which means a guy like suo, who probably never intended to be anything but ephemeral, is inseparable from sakura's own arc. where he is found stuck and tragic, so is sakura. his life cannot unfold without rippling out into sakura's and the storytelling structure is proof of it.

anyway.

wondering if nirei's relieved that sakura never had to hear suo's last message.