OH HELL NO (482 spoilers)

[cynchick]

THIS SHIT

Had better be fake.

[Btw, I am aware that this is probably another sekrit ploy by Sakura (like the bogus love confession to Naruto) in order to get close to Sasuke and kill him, but I'm also sick of her pulling this selfish, underhanded bullshit with everyone. Not to mention she's being incredibly stupid lately, which we know she's NOT. All this nonsense is ruining her character and making her unlikeable. And I think we can all agree she doesn't need any more hate from the fandom.]

Comments

[eldrfire.livejournal.com]

Uh oh, sounds like he did something bad this time!

Can't follow the link, though-- forbids access to the protected entry. D:

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

you dont subscribe to chuunin?

well it says (and has pics) that sakura catches up with sasuke and says shes leaving konoha and wants to join him.

[eldrfire.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have access to that

BUT HOLY SHIT THAT HAD BETTER BE A LIE

I would officially declare my Sakura permanently OOC from now on if that is the case. *dies*

Except for when we write her older. Then she's "seen the error of her ways".

Dammit Kishi, and just a couple chapters ago you had gotten my hopes up when you had Kakashi say that he had better talk to Sakura personally to convince her not to go!

DAMMIT NOOOO

Gah, I must find a link to these pics somehow!

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I would officially declare my Sakura permanently OOC from now on if that is the case.

That or /quitfandom...

[keysotosoto129.livejournal.com]

dislike :(

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

Immensely.

[keysotosoto129.livejournal.com]

Your icon says it all.

[devimelete.livejournal.com]

Has to be a troll. Has to be. This is how Kishimoto rolls, right? Remember that time when everyone was pissed at Sakura when she "declared" her love to Naruto? See how that fell apart?

God, Kishimoto, stop fucking with us GOD. >:/

[anat-astarte.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I hope so. I mean the "translation" seems pretty oversimplified, like some badfic writer made it up.

But I still think all these psych-outs Sakura is pulling are tarnishing her character and potential.

[strange_quark]

Oh, I'm hoping it's not, because I think it's a ploy to get Sasuke to trust her enough to get close to him so she can kill his ass. I don't think she'll succeed, but y'know.

C'mon, it perfectly mirrors her deception of Naruto however many chapters earlier.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

If the spoilers aren't fake, then I think (aka, pray with all my fingers and toes crossed) that's exactly what she's up to. But you and I give Sakura far more credit than Kishi does, so.... >:/

[rapturesmusic.livejournal.com]

...god I'm glad I got out of the fandom. had a feeling Kishi-fucker would do something like this.

[kate7712.livejournal.com]

Seriously, if this is fake then I will be most upset. Could Kishimoto mutilate a perfectly good character anymore?!

[plural-entity.livejournal.com]

If this is real, I refuse to read the Naruto Manga anymore, and I'm just going to stay sequestered in my own little world of fandom where Sakura is strong and not boy-crazy (or at least, not utterly and completely SLAVE-LIKE DEVOTION!Sakura.

I saw your tags and literally felt my stomach bottom out.

[netheb.livejournal.com]

I'm contemplating leaving the fandom. The Sakura I've liked never existed.
I'm so fucking sick of her acting like her selfish and lovesick thirteen-year-old self. I'm so fucking sick of Naruto having shit in his eyes and not being able to realize what's really up with his so-called friend. I'm so fucking sick of Sasuke for obvious reasons.
And I'm fucking sick of Kishimoto ruining my favourite manga. It got worse and worse after Deidara and Itachi's deaths. I should have quit reading then. Really should have... :(

[crazzy-green.livejournal.com]

Agreed. :D

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, if it's true, then it's gong to be a new form of "kagebullshit"... but

if it's a lie, I don't think that it's selfish... I think that even if is a arrogant, Sakura knows that she is not going to survive, so she is putting herself on the line and in a way (stupid maybe), is protecting her teammates...

She tried to take Naruto out of this, and it did not work... so she is going to take Sasuke out.

If what Kakashi said is true, she is planning on killing (let's stop being realistic here, and let's think this is some sort of fairy tale for young boys), the person she loves the most, so that he doesn't hurt himself and doesn't destroy Naruto or Konoha.

This is quite similar to what Tsunade did with Orochimaru... and we thought she was awesome at the time (she doped Jiraiya and after that went to Orochuimaru to "help him")...

She prefers to be treated like a traitor, to be hated by Naruto for killing Sasuke, that risking others. I don't think that's selfish... I think that there is a paralelism between Sakura and Itachi... He killed everything he loved for Konoha (but Sasuke), She is saving everything she loves (but Sasuke), and if the thing that Kakashi said is true, Sasuke is very dear to Sakura. Kishimoto said that Sakura would be heroine in this year, and the Kishimotian hero... is a guy/girl, that sacrifices everything for others... even his/her identity.

Oh!, and remember in chapter 187 i think, Neji said that shikamaru, being a smart guy, thought that "the best way to make an enemy believe a lie, is making your teammates believe it"

[tamgelb.livejournal.com]

interesting points!

[(Anonymous)]

great, the spoiler IS true!
what is she thinking?!
kishi has so messed up everything with this...

[cultofdecay.livejournal.com]

haha when i read that last night, my absolute first thought was 'oh shit, cynthia's gonna have an aneurysm'.

i'm actually way more pissed that karin is being slightly redeemed by kishimoto. i kinda preferred her as a two-dimensional sociopath/bitch.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I know. Now shes just the same generic example of genderfail as every other female character. I don't even know where this series is going anymore. Its getting hard to stay interested, but Ive spent too much time and effort to not see how it ends. :/

Btw....

HI LADYFRIEND! Where have you beeeen?

[cultofdecay.livejournal.com]

Haha, yo! Yes, long time... I'm a full-time student again and I want to apply to grad schools in about a year, so I sit in the library all day long. I don't have that much time for fandom anymore. I do keep up with the manga as best as I can, though.

Sakura doesn't bother me so much because I recognise that she is 16 and that she epitomises many things about how 16 year olds in Japan are expected to behave. I also think she's using whatever devices she can. I wish she was a different, stronger archetype, but there are realities about the society Kishimoto both comes from and writes for, and the fact that this is a manga oriented at boys. Within that framework, I think Sakura actually does pretty well for herself.

I had to stop reading Bleach for a long time, though, because that's a remarkably sexist manga. Whereas there is never any illusion in Naruto that Sakura is as strong as her teammates (Sasuke, the forever one-upper, and Naruto, the demon fox's container... tough competition), in Bleach, it is implied that the women who have achieved captain/vice-captain/arrancar class are equal to their male counterparts. And yet they are consistently picked off first and with embarrassing ease, or end up requiring a male hero to intervene (Ichigo, Byakuya, whomever).

Actually, I tried reading a current chaptered kakasaku fic recently and it was the most degrading thing I'd read in awhile, much more so than the manga. Essentially, Sakura has a bad sexual encounter and ends up trying to reclaim her identity/sexuality. She tries to go about it via Kakashi, who rebuffs her, and so she resorts to promiscuous behaviour and complete erraticism. This writer consistently follows a pattern in her fics where Sakura suffers a humiliating sexual experience at Kakashi's hands and the rest of the fic plays out with him trying to restore himself in her esteem. Ignoring that no man actually follows Kakashi's logic (typical flaw of a woman writing a man's psyche as a woman sees fit), it's debasing insofar that Sakura is made 'pathetic' and is 'saved' by Kakashi, her older male teacher (there is a postcolonial reading in there, somewhere). I read through some of her comments and she was being lauded for writing something so realistic, which really blew my mind. If I had to pick between the Sakura of the manga and the Sakura of this fanfic, manga Sakura stands up as a bastion of feminist resilience.

That said, I have to give you kudos. Your fics usually do a pretty bang up job of inverting the patriarchal male gaze.

(Can you tell that I am DESPERATELY avoiding an assignment right now? Hahaha)

HOW ARE YOU? What are you up to? Sometimes I creep you on Facebook... and it's obvious you don't use it at all.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I've gone back to school fulltime too. It's great and kind of sucks too. I want to be a writer and work on my novel, but I don't have time because of school, but I need to finish school so if writing doesn't make me a living I can do something besides serve coffee the rest of my life. At least I don't have to work right now.

And yeah, I don't expect any shounen manga (or shoujo for that matter) to be shining examples of feminism (though Soul Eater and FMA deserve honorable mention). And the more I think about it, the more I conclude that its not what Sakura is doing lately that bothers me so much, its the delivery. A middle aged man from a patriarchal, chauvinistic culture has no idea how to handle strong female characters, though he should be credited for at least making an effort. The problem is I don't trust Kishi, and I'm always worried that it's not an act, that she actually does want to run away and join Sasuke or whatever other nonsense she's pulling, you know?

I know the fic you're talking about. I'm still reading it. It's an uncomfortable read and hugely out of character, but I think that's the point. Sometimes girls DO act like that after what basically amounts to rape. It makes no sense, but the workings of the psyche rarely do. It's definitely not one of my favorites, and I'm not defending her pattern of stereotypical romance-novel characterizations; I've actually critiqued her about that before. But I still think she's one of the more talented writers in the Naruto fandom. I have very little time (or interest, really) to read fanfic anymore, and there's a very short list of authors I will follow because I know they won't waste my time. I was always a bit of an elitist anyway. :P

Did you ever get around to reading my ItaSaku fic, Vespertine? It's one chapter from finished, and I'm writing an epic KakaSaku next. Wink wink nudge nudge. XD

Masashi Kishimoto said...

[celebnen.livejournal.com]

This whole thing with Sakura is how he writes a "realistic female".

Basically Masashi Kishimoto is a sexist pig. He said the above in an interview. He also said he personally cannot stand Sakura - well, more or less. I believe said "that chick" disgusts him.


He also said that NONE of the characters save folks like Tsunade, Asuma, Kurenai, etc (basically folks who have clearly been in a relationship) will have relationship interests. As far as he's concerned, they're all asexual. Including Hinata, despite her recent confession to Naruto.


I dont know what he's smoking as of late, but whatever it is is making him write the series straight into the ground.