#nrt meta

*through gritted teeth* ok i need you to understand that just bc a character makes a statement about sasuke's personality or whatever and they say it with a completely confident tone and everything, that does not mean they are supposed to be correct. when naruto instigates fights with sasuke bc he thinks he's being looked down on, he is wrong bc he is deeply insecure about his own abilities and self-worth and craves acknowledgement. when kakashi says sasuke is like him, he is wrong bc he is very clearly projecting and his complete misreading of sasuke's character and circumstances ends up backfiring. when sakura says sasuke must have used PEDs to get so strong she is wrong bc sasuke himself later disproves this assumption when he calls out orochimaru's methods. when itachi says sasuke is a blank canvas that can be easily painted over, he is also wrong and later admits he was wrong and can we pls just leave the sasuke was manipulated misinterpretation in 2022

i feel like in most works of fiction, it's always the main protagonist or their love interest that's the "heart" of the team, the glue that holds them together. kishimoto kind of subverts this trope by making sasuke — the deuteragonist/rival and main antagonist — the heart of team 7. he's the one that initiates teamwork during the bell test, leads the team during the chunin exams, mothers them, and inspires them to grow stronger, even in his absence. and later, he has that same role in team taka. he is their leader, their rock, their morality chain. but both teams' reliance on him have consequences. here, kishimoto once again subverts, or rather deconstructs, this trope: what happens when the heart of the team is arguably the most emotionally unstable of them all? the one most willing to cut off their bonds? what if the heart is not just a two-dimensional role, but a deeply complicated character in their own right?

another thing that makes sasuke so interesting is how everyone around him tries to manipulate him and how they think they have him all figured out, but he consistently refuses to conform to their expectations. i dont think he's even intending to rebel against what they want. it's just that sasuke is at heart a very independent-minded, determined person with his own agendas, and the people around him simply dont understand his thought process and motivations like they think they do, which is why theyre always surprised when it turns out sasuke is gonna betray them, strike out on his own, etc. his own older brother has called sasuke a blank canvas whose heart can be easily painted by others, but itachi himself later on admits that sasuke couldnt be controlled and that he shouldnt have tried to control him in the first place. i think this contradiction, the way people see sasuke vs how sasuke really is, really drives home one of the main themes of the series: shinobi are not tools, but complex human beings with their own desires and emotions that ultimately no amount of planning and calculating can control.