#trulysasuke

I'm still salty about Sasuke’s ending. He was written to be the bad guy... konoha and the real shinobi system destroyed his entire life but the boy must ask for forgiveness? 

Giving him a marriage to a girl he never romantically cared about is total nonsense, but as if that wasn't enough, they had an overrated child...

Cool to see that Sasuke is still badass with his disability, and I'm pretty sure he could still kick Naruto's ass without a doubt.

No Sasuke is not an overrated character. He has so many flaws, he's totally imperfect but perfect in a very complex way.

I would have been sad for sure if he had died after the war if Sakura's healing hadn't worked but when I see what they decided to do with Sasuke in Boruto, I'm really hurt. It hurts so much.

Now he has become a watchdog for Naruto and Konoha, a village of traitors, in which he never really had a place, even when his clan was still alive, because since the dawn, the Uchiha were just wild beasts that scared everyone with their Sharingan ... but what about the Hyuga, Byakugan and the condition of slavery imposed by the Sôke to the Bunke? But now, who will dare to say anything about this when Hinata is married to Naruto, the current Hokage?

No, it's just normal for everyone that Sasuke has (and not HAD because he still is) to atone for his sins but Orochimaru, one of the biggest criminals that Konoha never sheltered is free to move around without any problem... (wait Konohamaru, who is always salty about Orochimaru being free because he killed his grandfather...).

The thing is, nobody ever asked about Sasuke's opinion or feelings. People always think for him as if he wasn't emotionally/physically able to say something.

His own father, Fugaku, could only see him as a failed copy of his eldest son, and only changed his mind when Itachi started rebelling.

Itachi only pushed him away, perhaps with good intentions, but his actions were completely wasted.

Sakura only sees in Sasuke the object of her personal desires ... a kind of trophy to be won, because it's so cool to be married to the handsome guy from your prom.

Naruto, despite all the things we can say about him, he's just as selfish as Sasuke, even worse. Was it really vital to chase Sasuke across different countries and for so many years to bring him back to your shitty village and make him do the shit that nobody wants to do because Sasuke must atone for his sins after all ... OMG, stay in your office and eat your ramen, leave Sasuke alone.

Kakashi... so much to say about the relationship between Kakashi and Sasuke. Kakashi seemed to respect Sasuke at first, he even admitted that Sasuke was his favourite student and unfortunately, it's often the favourites that disappoint their teacher the most. Then, Kakashi was clearly fed up with Sasuke's emotional state and moods, telling him that he also had lost all the people he cherished and that he had never rebelled against the system... So who did that little idiot Sasuke think he was? Yes, of course, Kakashi, you preferred to stay faithful to your village like a good doggie and cry alone when no one's watching... That was Kakashi Sensei's advice, thank you Kakashi.

And people are starting to be mean to the Hebi / Taka team but if you're really a fan of Sasuke, you know that Karin, Suigetsu and Jūgo are the only ones who really helped Sasuke, were willing to die to save his life, because they trusted him, because he saved their lives and set them free.

I sincerely think that Karin, Jūgo and Suigetsu are the only ones who understand him, because they complement each other. They have shared a lot, both on their personal lives and on their journey. (I could redo a little post to make the parallelism between the Taka team members and why they are so connected to each other, if you're interested).

Well, I'm still salty by Sasuke's ending, and what they dared to do with the Taka team, for using them as a comic relief over and over again, when they really were part of Sasuke's development  and his story, much more than Naruto and Sakura combined...

“Sasuke is made into an emotionally unavailable man”

Uh, what? Sasuke didn’t JUST suddenly become emotionally unavailable. This has been building up for years because NO ONE takes Sasuke’s emotions seriously and tells him he’s acting/feeling wrong and he should do something else, including YOU, OP. You are the exact kind of person who would damage a man so badly he no longer feels comfortable with sharing how he feels, and then you have the nerve to bitch about it as if it’s his fault. 

“The wife has to do all the emotional labor and compromising on the relationship.”

You act as if she isn’t happy to do it. There is no ~labour~ going on here. Face it, suck up the fact Sakura’s happy in her marriage. Most anti SS people with two brain cells can admit that. 

“Sakura isn’t even allowed to get a public goodbye kiss because ‘Sasuke’s not like that’.”

Wow, I wonder why the man chased and coerced into a marriage and a child isn’t comfortable with giving his wife a kiss. 

“Sasuke’s a live wire.”

Sasuke’s literally the tamest he’s ever been in the series. If this is still too much of an apparent time bomb for you, that’s your problem. 

“The whole choice to not get a replacement arm is selfish in the narrative.”

Sasuke makes one (1) choice about his own body and this still isn’t good enough to you. You just want him to be a bot. This is the only place and time where he can exercise his autonomy, and you want to rip it away from him.

“Sasuke should accept the prosthetic, it works fine for Naruto!”

And Sasuke fights better than Naruto without his left arm. Clearly he’s not in any real need of it. The only state that Naruto beats him at is raw chakra reserves.

“Sasuke only cared about the aesthetic of his atonement, instead of actually doing it, and that’s selfish.”

Or “Why it’s not the same,” an essay by me.

I’ve seen the arguments. They’ve been there since 2015, when Gaiden was fresh and new and we all learned Sasuke hadn’t seen his daughter since she was born. How could he? How could a man so torn by having his birth family ripped from not even deem to see his own flesh and blood for twelve long years?

Well, I could end it right here and say it’s because the family was forced upon him instead of him choosing to settle and have children when he was ready, but okay, let’s go a little deeper, because this also has to do with the translations of the new novel I’ve seen.  But now both sides are arguing that Sasuke somehow has no room to be an inattentive/absent father. And man, does this ignore a lot of things that have happened to Sasuke as well as the exact nature of the relationship with his own Father as opposed to his current relationship with Sarada.

First of all, there are some things to keep in mind that I have seen repeated elsewhere but I feel the need to repeat them again.

Sasuke had his family killed as a small child.

Sasuke wasn’t a parent. He was a child. He was seven. Children aren’t done forming social bonds yet and suddenly, he was all alone.

The dynamic of the OG Uchiha family wasn’t perfect and serene, and Sasuke was going through a self-esteem struggle when his family was killed.

There was the looming threat of Danzo and the village. The clan pressuring Fugaku to take action. Fugaku and Itachi not Seeing Eye to eye. Sasuke felt ignored and not strong enough to get his Father’s attention. And when he began getting his Father’s attention, he was suddenly told not to follow Itachi (like he had been before) and to take a different path. He’s confused.

Sasuke feels that his “conflict” with his Father was posthumously resolved.

It’s kind of hard to continue to feel neglected/ignored by your own Father when he dies. Sasuke was never allowed the ability to fully process this, and he never gets to speak to his Father personally again. Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, this isn’t an anti Fugaku post, Fugaku had his own problems that resulted in the conflict and neglect of his two sons and there’s nothing we can really do about that. It wasn’t done on purpose or maliciously.

But what happens to Sasuke here is that he forces a resolution by himself. His Father’s a victim now. His Father died, Sasuke would feel like shit if he tried to put any sort of blame/wrongdoing on his late Father’s part.

Add in Itachi’s memory of Fugaku asking Itachi to take care of Sasuke? There just isn’t any room in Sasuke’s mind to even begin to accept the notion that his Father did him any sort of harm. You could say it to his face and he would get pissed at you. How dare you? He died for me. Etc. So on.

Note how, in this snippet, it isn’t Sasuke who compares his situation with Sarada to that of Fugaku…..it’s Sakura. (How she knows is a different question, but…) If Sasuke should already know better because he’s the one with the family why is it Sakura who’s telling him “this is exactly like the problems you had with your Father”?  

And this brings us to point B: Sasuke already is using his actual feelings RE his Father in regards to Sarada. Sasuke would, and has, twice, (perhaps once in the novel since it’s not clear if this is post  boruto movie or pre, but it will be twice if pre), used his body as a shield and stood in harm’s way for her. This is how he shows he cares, even if it doesn’t translate in that exact way to Sarada. He would, if it meant she would survive, lay his life down for her. Like his Father did to him.

But yes, look, I understand. Sasuke does value family. You guys aren’t wrong here. But all of your complaints fail to understand that this family was forced upon him. Did we all forget that Naruto and Sakura have been trying to drill it in Sasuke for the longest time that all he needs is “love uwu” and a new family to replace the one he lost and things will be “fine”?  A relationship and a child do not function as therapy. I am happy that the writing reflects this even if it’s not word for word. He disassociates. He struggles. This was a “rebound”, something new to fix something he lost and had not had the proper time or help to process and move on from. It was a rebound other people said he needed.

No one should be surprised he’s struggling. He’s not out-of-character. He is a product of his loss at seven, at his loss at seventeen years old and everything people have been teaching him since then. He’s had his ability to trust in his own decisions when it comes to domestic/family matters seriously degraded, and no, it will never be the author’s fault.

Sasuke: You are annoying.

Translation: Unlike me and Naruto, you have no idea what is it like to be an orphan. You have no idea what the hell you are talking about, and it pisses the everliving hell out of me.

Sakura: Omg Sasuke-kun if you leave me I’ll be just as lonely as you!!!

Sasuke: You really are annoying.

Translation: You are equating me not returning your feelings to my entire clan having been massacred and been taken from me, while at the same time taking your own family for granted yet again. You have no idea what the hell you are talking about, and it pisses the everliving hell out of me.

Sakura: Sasuke I love you so much it hurts!!11! etc etc.

Sasuke: You really are damned annoying.