#ask toad

oh thank you friend!

unpopular opinion: Shikamaru should have a daughter; either in addition to Shikadai, or they could have written his character as a girl.

why i think that: because it would be hilarious the father-son dynamic has been a huge theme for Shikamaru’s character for the entire time he’s been onscreen. i would have loved to see how he approached fatherhood if he didn’t have a son.

furthermore: we know it was originally in Shikamaru’s goofy little “life plan” to have two kids and then that just never happened. (I like to think Temari was on board until she actually had to give birth, and then she said “I’m not doing this again.”) (Realistically, he decided that before knowing how significant of a status any kids of his would have by default. Heaven help the fools like the clan elders and Amado who try to use any Nara kid as a political bargaining chip.)

it’s weird that everyone except Naruto and Hinata only had one kid; it’s not too late for Temari to be like “surprise I’m pregnant” (though to be entirely honest, given certain similar events in Shippuden… I’d fear for Shikamaru’s life span if this was an actual plot point. History repeating itself and whatnot.)

oooohhhhhh a chance to talk about h*nata let’s GO

i cannot get over the fact that she wasn’t an actual character. hinata was a plot device from the moment she was introduced. her team was stunted the most, she lost every fight she was in, her few moments of bravery were always bolstered by her crippling crush on naruto, and she didn’t even have her own “ninja way.” she heard naruto’s and was like “yeah that sounds good!” the absolute lack of effort put into developing hinata hyuga is astounding and equally upsetting and hilarious.

and there’s nothing wrong with her goals in life or where she wound up. there’s nothing wrong with being peaceful, or softspoken, or a wife and mother, or gentle, or anything like that. but if you’re going to have a character like that in a world that is not peaceful or gentle, you cannot make them a throwaway character until you need your main man to get married. (very similar to how tenten’s story is not a tale of feminism even though she’s the only one of her peers to not get married and have children; it feels more like her lifestyle is an explanation of her absence than a definitive choice for her character.)

just imagine if they’d given any of sasuke’s storyline to hinata, or at least expanded on those themes with her as the central figure. easiest example is “bonds.” she has so many ties to other characters (re: plot device) and could have been an excellent model of why those bonds are so important, how to repair breaking bonds, things like that. imagine if we saw the revolution of the hyuga clan through her eyes in contrast to the infamous downfall of the uchiha clan. the parallel that could have been drawn between hinata and sasuke, ultimately making her later relationship with naruto more plausible.

all the time

i think there’s actually something to be said about how a lot of the characters and relationships are interpreted by queer viewers (including myself) as also being queer, and for how strongly these arguments can be made. usually you can look at a show and play spot-the-gay-coded-character and get a lot of mileage from that, but i feel like that can be done with the majority of the characters in the ncu (naruto cinematic universe)

(miss girl wasn’t about to become a chunin anyway but this is indeed a Thought)

“the strong rejecting their strength” i’ve been thinking about this for days. hinata never even got to reject her “strength” because she was the heir to a powerful shinobi family. she HAD to become a ninja. even if neji was right (and i think he was) when he said “you don’t even want to be in the exams right now, you just didn’t want to let down your teammates and prevent them from participating in the exams” hinata CLUNG to the “strength” she was given (aka a few words from her sponsor, Naruto) and didn’t walk away from the future she was not cut out for and likely did not want to pursue until she became a housewife and mother.

PERIOD

^^^

we all remember when that boy got his world turned upside down by naruto saying “hey that thing you’re mad about? stop being mad about it and do what you want to do!” so imagine if hinata just… validated him. if (instead of, or in addition to Naruto) she was like “yeah our family sucks and they’ve been awful to me too, we should Do Something About It Together” his head would have actually exploded at the thought. that would have made WAY more sense and been a real eye-opener (haha) for Neji.

yeah what was up with that?? child kushina got in a fistfight with child minato on sight over it (if i’m remembering correctly oops) and then she decided, what, she’d rather just have minato’s baby than his job because he was just that cute?

you get me