redraw of this sketch of mine:

which was inspired by casgirl’s post:

I was surprised too. The actual "oh it's his fault, I will never forgive him for what happened to Shen Jiu and Luo Binghe" is the most common comment on TikTok and AO3. But on Twitter and Tumblr, they usually blame him for shen jius actions and the fact that the man with PTSD was unable to communicate.

We won't talk about the amount of mischaracterization because apparenlty people think he's not a nice person he's evil he's just a politician so he's forced to be nice as if he wasn't caring and calm since childhood

And I'm confused, because right now Sakura is facing one of the worst fears that came from his trauma and was the one that made it hard for him to accept he was loved, and it was people abandoning him, so essentially, Suo leaving the way he did and it being revealed he was part from another gang all along was a direct hit to Sakura's trauma.

This arc is already about it, and I know for a fact Nii-sensei is about to cook some complicated dynamics in Red Chanpuru for Suo.

The potential for finally getting our parallels from the keel and Gravel arcs with Nagato and Shizuka, even Suzuri, the very clear chance for Sakura to be the one to reassure Suo that he belongs with them and he can rely on them now like Suo did for him during the Noroshi arc. Nirei finally getting to step in and tell Suo they want hin there, to be the one reassuring him instead of the other way around.

We might get Umemiya telling Suo he "doesn't have to forgive them" like he did to Kotoha, or even Sakura himself "you don't owe them anything".

The way some people still fail to understand that no matter the arc, Sakura is the MC and he learns from every single arc, that they intersect with his trauma and his growth.

I honestly don't think Sakura's father being present in the arc would contribute anything, in fact, I think it would be quite absurd. And maybe part of that is people wanting for Suo and Sakura to be connected somehow, that Sakura's father would be part of Bankoku-Gai, but they're not even from the zone close by.

I honestly think Sakura's father being directly implicated in this arc wouldn't be good writing. Sakura's father is supposed to be a figure that haunts Sakura's narrative but is never physically present.

And honestly, I don't know why it's so hard for people to understand that Suo is smart enough to put two and two together and guess who the new student is, because he clearly keeps an eye on everything happening in Makochi as much as he can, and the moment he decided to join Furin he was probably analysing everything. It really is not that hard for him to figure that the only kid whose name he hadn't heard before was the clear outsider who stands out with a unique appearance he saw in the street fight.

Suo wouldn't join Furin for Sakura, he legitimately was attending school in Makochi since he was 12, and he enrolled in Furin before anyone even knew of Sakura's existence, because he came into town like 2 days before classes started.

Why is it so hard for people to grasp the idea that Suo helped Sakura because he's kind and helpful like that and he might have recognised parts of himself in Sakura. Why does it have to be some convoluted "Sakura's father sent him there to watch over Sakura" (the man who hates his son wouldn't do that to start with), "Red Chanpuru was interested in Furin" (in a gang 2 hours away that is just interested in their own town? They wouldn't even be on their radar please) or some other convoluted bs I've seen.