#dc dissertation

i feel like i need to post this because some ppl just dont get it and i need them to GET IT.

the easiest way to explain why i don't like clois is that it's basically for the same reasons i don't like sasusaku and i say this as someone who DOESNT hate lois or sakura. like at all. i actually like both of them individually.

i also understand that these are two VERY different couples, scenarios, experiences, and all that but just LISTEN--

my problem is that in both cases i feel like the canon romance is asking me to care about a relationship that just isn't the most emotionally interesting relationship either man has.

with sasuke and sakura, i understand WHY sakura loves sasuke. the story makes that extremely obvious. what i struggle with is believing that sasukes relationship with sakura is somehow supposed to be the emotional endpoint of his story when naruto is quite literally the person his entire character arc revolves around (it also works the other way around, naruto spent literally most of his time dedicated to finding sasuke. its what the show is about. ((basically)).) sasuke can leave everyone behind, reject team 7, reject konoha, reject basically every bond he has, but naruto is the one person he can never fully cut off. naruto spends YEARS chasing him, sasuke acknowledges him as his closest friend/bond, they understand each other's loneliness, they are constantly paralleling each other, and their final fight is basically the emotional climax of the entire series and what ultimately saves the goddamn world. so then when the story goes "anyway sasuke married sakura" and me and the rest of the narusasu/sasunaru truthers are just like. okay????

and that's basically how i feel about clark and lois vs clark and bruce.

i LIKE lois. i think she's funny, smart, stubborn, brave, and genuinely one of the most important people in superman's world. i completely understand why clark would love her (they give great spiderman and mj vibes, too). i just personally find clark and bruces dynamic more layered, complex, and emotionally interesting.

because once again you have these two men who are written as opposites and equals at the same time. hope vs fear, alien who is deeply human vs human who constantly pushes himself beyond normal human limits, sunlight vs darkness, metropolis vs gotham, etc. they clash constantly but still understand each other in this incredibly specific way that almost nobody else can. they're two of the most powerful/important figures in each other's lives, they're constantly being used as narrative foils, and depending on the continuity they trust each other with things they would trust almost nobody else with. AND for god-sakes clark remembers his HEARTBEAT (almost as well as he knows lois')

and THAT is what gets me about both ships.

its not "sakura sucks so sasuke should be with naruto" or "lois sucks so clark should be with bruce." NO!!!! free my successful, hardworking and talented girls from this conversation!!!!

its that sasunaru/narusasu and superbat give me the specific kind of relationship dynamic that makes me insane: two people whose identities are fundamentally tangled up in each other. rivals/foils/best friends/equals who challenge each others entire worldview but still keep choosing to come back to each other.