Phantom_999

I feel that even beyond ignoring Sakura in terms of fights Kishi was just ignoring her in general. That is what the issue is for fans. While you can't downplay Sakura's significance to the plot the fact remains that she disappears from the plot for chapters and chapters at a time too, and while her bonds to Naruto and Sasuke is what arguably holds them together there is not enough focus on that aspect. Kishi focused on Naruto and Sasuke's bond to almost the exclusion of everything else, and that is what hurts the story because you can't revolve a theme on bonds and emotional connection but make that story only about the bond and emotional connection between two people and leave everyone else out as an after thought, that is just contradictory and I've said a million times and I WILL say a million times more, Naruto and Sasuke's bond is not believable or functional as a friendship or anything meaningful if you look at RL friendships or even friendships in other WSJ series. I've said so before but Gaara seems like more of a genuine friend to Naruto because it shows how Naruto's influence impacted him and how it affected and changed him for the better and he even shows gestures showing he considers Naruto his friend when he pulls Naruto's hand towards his own for a handshake. That gets brushed aside for Naruto's so called brotherhood with Sasuke which boils down to Naruto wants Sasuke back home with him BECAUSE HE SAYS SO, and Sasuke clearly did not value friendship or familial bonds with anyone outside of his blood family because avenging them is all that matters and not even Naruto holds that much water by comparison at least at the time. I'm going off tangent here but my point is that if there was focus on Sakura more, even the emotional aspects of it, there wouldn't be this opinion that she is useless I feel. There is too much emphasis on fight scenes and not much else for a FC to be considered strong when that is clearly not the case with a huge example I can think of is the dichotomy between MCU Black Widow and Captain Marvel for instance.

Waiting for an epic comeback!!!!

 

That's true Naruto and Sasuke DID connect initially, but obviously not enough to make a believable friendship that would entail Naruto's obsession with Sasuke and Sasuke did not value it enough to change his mind. That is also what I have issue with, it is not really treated like a friendship in the sense that you could actually feel any camaraderie them. Looking at other shonen series, in WSJ especially and their so called "friendship" comes across as demented. Besides When I said that they never actually connected, I meant that in childhood they sympathized with each other in secret but never reached out or talked to eachother DESPITE knowing just how lonely the other boy is, so again how believable is their so called bond? And I agree on the the target demographic thing and how by nature it is contradictory to the message he wanted to portray, BUUUT my point on the matter is that again if he wanted to do that message he should have committed to it or not write it at all. I suppose he did realize he wrote himself into a corner at some point which is why he abolished the idea, meaning he had to end the series as a whole or continue it. I think he should have ended the series then and not consider any future sequels or projects if he REAALLY wanted to go for the world peace thing. Either way he did not commit, and that is what is so wrong with the series in many aspects.

I wouldn't be so critical and negative about Naruto's unrealistic and overhyped ideals of bringing world peace if it weren't for the fact that he is a complete hypocrite and liar about it. He hasn't changed anything during his position as hokage. and let's not forget that " IF I CAN'T BJ MY BEST FRIEND THAT I NEVER ACTUALLY CONNECTED TO, I RATHER NOT LIVE ANYMORE." mentality H rather do a double suicide with Sasuke than change the world for the better like he promised the villain disillusioned by the ninja system and did what they did because of it. I'm not calling him incompetent for bringing a childish unrealistic goal into the story, more than I am calling him incompetent for not carrying it out. And also regarding any double standards that involve Sasuke. WHICH IS EVERYTHING. Plus let's not forget the bane of any good story, written or otherwise. When you let real life biases get in the way of writing it the way you want.

I'm assuming that like in Japan, Sakura is probably very popular in NA and the west in general. It's only that her haters tend to be VERY VERY vocal about it . I could be wrong but maybe that could be the case from the look of the popularity polls. Either that or Sakura isn't hated so much anymore because Naruto already married Hinata. Although that depends on how large the fan base still is. 

 

Yeah canon material. Without Hinata he lost his will to live or even give a kitten about anyone. This is why viewers called him the worst scumbag, this contradictory behavior to his canon nature that had fans rooting for him in the first place

Oh I don’t deny that it is actually neglect post chapter 699. You’re right about that. How can he abuse Sakura when he won’t stay with her for more than a few minutes?

Does Sakura hurt Naruto's feelings? Does she actually do any long lasting physical damage to him? In contrast not ONLY does Sasuke damage Sakura's self esteem, he tried to kill her. There is a difference. I'm not making it up either, it was literally in the manga.

I hope it puts her higher than when she was at with her Saint Valkyrie dress with Undine

Not only does he not concern himself with her problems, he shuts off her concern with his own, Like when they were doing the third round preliminaries for the Chuunin exam tournament, he told her what happened with Orochimaru putting the cursed seal on him is not her concern. Meaning he does not open up to her. that is already a death flag

 

Nobody wants to admit the excessive amount of hate she received throughout the years made Sakura an extremely popular character and helped Sakura fandom to grown bigger and vocal  as ever while less controversial  and perfect characters like Hinata simply died.

 

 "All publicity is good publicity" as the saying goes.

 

 

Vocal hate, yes. Excessive is debatable, since It is hard to gauge the actual number of haters from comments alone. And while Sakura is popular with or without those vocal haters, the hate comments towards her did not help with Kishimoto's esteem in writing women so that is a circular problem if you know what I mean. Kishi did not bring Sakura into the forefront of the plot more because of the criticism towards her and then because he's not involving her more, the haters going even harder on her. So I don't think "all publicity is good publicity" applies here. And even if it did, he's not even doing much with her at this point anyway. Sure she was in the Sasuke spinoff but she wasn't the focal point 

Well I never said it was a good thing    

its largely true in the case of Naruto. Virtually all the main girls are motivated by love I'd argue that the only difference between Sakura and Hinata is that Sakura's extends a lot further. She doesn't just love Sasuke, she's not just willing to die for him alone. Sakura will sacrifice herself for almost anyone. Some random old lady she just met, Naruto...  Actually--when we really boil Naruto down, the entire main cast is motivated by some form of love. 

 

Did he though? Sure, Obito loved Rin GREATLY but it didn't change her own feelings and then she died. If we're talking about how the two of them went off to the after life together, how do we know that's what really happened and not just Obito's dying brain dreaming it up? 

Maybe I'm being cynical but in light of the ending, how can I not be? 

I don't think he had a heart for this outcome either but its still what we got, regardless of all the romantic parallels he built up. 

 

Oh don't mind me, that comment wasn't directed at you. I meant just in general, the double standards of it. It's fine to subjugate the women to that mentality but not the men it seems. But yeah I understand the reasoning, I'm just saying it is rather hypocritical and again sexist if anyone was to abide by that reasoning and then flip it around saying women are not defined by being mothers and home makers 

Simple reason; Hinata and Sakura are women, therefore their feelings are given more weight. 

It'd be wrong and CREEPY of Naruto to force his feelings on Sakura but its okay for her to do so to Sasuke and for Hinata to stalk Naruto because by and large, the two genders have different rules. It sucks but that does seem to be the case. 

 

YEAAAAH, notice how sexist that is?    the women are defined by their romantic relationships, that's why their feelings take precedence over the men's 

Okay if I am to be completely honest, there really is nothing to fix. Sakura's character has never been the problem as I've said, it is the fans' perception of her and nothing will change someone's mind except for the person(s) themselves, when you get down to it. It wasn't that Sakura wasn't kind and caring, she wasn't kind and caring to Naruto when he needed it the most. Every negative feedback on Sakura is fully dependent on how she treated Naruto and Sasuke and that was because of their respective circumstances. Sasuke already was popular and talented as is so to have the MC's love interest as one of his fangirls when said MC was an ostracized social pariah and an orphan on top of it is what her haters find infinitely more unforgiveable. As I've said, I've recently been watching and reading these manga on YouTube or from the manga sites about how the mc is being treated like garbage by this snooty arrogant and selfish girl or woman and gets dumped/divorced if they are dating/married and rejected if they are not already a couple but miraculously before or after the breakup or rejection he finds this sweet compassionate and understanding girl or woman instead and they are the ones that lift the MCs' spirits and they become a couple. Then usually something terrible happens to the ex/former crush and they come trying to take back the MC but the MC tells them off and keeps to their new, wonderful and better girlfriends/ wives. I imagine that is what Sakura's most extreme haters REALLY wanted to happen to her too, judging from the comments I see with those types of stories. BUUT that didn't even happen in "The Last", I'm just saying.

 

I've no doubt in my mind that really is the case, because developing Sakura as a character did not solve the issue and it never did as long as She still has Sasuke on her mind. Have more fight scenes? She is better treated than many other females in the series when it comes to action scenes, lets not pretend. Who else can claim to have won against an Akatsuki member when they were only a chuunin and a teenager at that? Emotional strength? She has  shown that time and again throughout the series, being one of Naruto's emotional pillars and arguably the significant of all of them, and extends her kindness to strangers (children particularly), yet she gets no credit for it. But all Hinata does is stutter "N-Naruto-kun!", and they CALL THAT emotional support. Character development? She went from a normal girl with the "typical girl problem" of trying to get her crush's attention to a strong and capable kunoichi that could cure a then-believed incurable poison and again, fought one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Again, it means nothing to her haters because she is not the sweet patient childhood friend with the "cute puppy love feelings" for Naruto in their youth. "HOW DARE SHE!?" says her nay-sayers and again nothing with "writing Sakura better" was changing their minds until after Naruto married Hinata. Notice that? 

 

Now that is not to say Sakura is not popular because contrary to the negative feedback she is very popular and loved as a character I'm just saying that if you did not like her character from the start and are rabid in how much of a B* you think she, is well writing better things for her character probably won't change your mind. I've noticed it for the longest time

It's not wrong to ship or appreciate SS. But to say that Sakura is a worthwhile character only because she is married to Sasuke, or that theyre a good couple because they are popular is just straight up disingenuous.
 
Again I'm not complaining about Sasuke and Sakura being a canon couple more than I'm spitting on the CIRCUMSTANCES of them being a couple, more so "the lack of". If there was genuine bonding that was not one sided moments form Sakura's end which were not up for debate, interpretation or speculation, I wouldn't even have a problem with them. And just writing this is giving me a headache, so I'll just leave it at that.