Sai is not a good source here, being that he is quoting information he gets from books and is socially stunted himself.
Acknowledgement and believing he can become Hokage are not the same thing here. We're talking appreciation here. Sakura's grows leaps and bounds, but in her initial portrayal it was not there. I.E., the argument is that she does not fit the appropriated quote the best. That said, I still disagree in the context that she believes in the dream of Hokage at this time. But I'll move on from this one.
Sai not being a good source because he is quoting information he gets from books is head canon on your part. Nothing in canon has ever framed Sai's perspective in that fashion. Instead, later scenes simply pretend these scenes don't exist. And you're missing the point here. Sai's characterization of Sakura's mentality is consistent with her behavior (be it friendship or romance) and that's that her rough demeanor does not actually reflect how she really thinks and feels towards Naruto.
If acknowledgement and believing Naruto can become Hokage not the same thing here, then there is no proof that Hinata believed in Naruto's dream, therefore making the same criticism applicable towards HInata. But yeah, I don't mind moving on.
Correction: I find the view feasible that Naruto is a Protagonist, and every character supports him, I.E., Kiba is a supporting character. We're not talking power levels, or anything else, we're zooming out, pointing at a protagonist, and declaring everyone supports. How much prominence they have varies, but the view is not wrong, there are not multiple protagonists in the story.
If that is what Kishimoto is talking about, then him making the distinction is superfluous. In other words, Kishimoto is basically saying "
Hey guys, I've got this HUGE announcement to make. *clears throat* Just like every other character besides Naruto in this manga, Sakura . . . is NOT Naruto! I know it's confusing, but the name of this manga is not Sakura; it's Naruto! Shocking I know!"
For that matter, why even phrase it in that fashion? Why Kiba specifically? Why not mention a more memorable character such as Sasuke, Kakashi or Jiraiya? Are we really to believe that Kishimoto was simply telling us that every character not named Naruto is a supporting character? Why does he even need to mention Sakura by name? C'mon, you're
grasping at straws.
Or, accounting for language barriers, the interviews are consistent. I.E., he planned for something, and committed to it at this time. I fail to see how that is not understandable.
Language barriers might be persuasive if not for the fact that middle and early are two blatantly different terms no matter what the language we are dealing with. And since the translations are trustworthy, we're right back at step one. Either Kishimoto is engaging some enigmatic use of words or the interview is inconsistent. Given the reliability of the translation, the latter conclusion makes the fewest assumptions and is therefore the one most likely to be correct.
Except it's said that was the primary reason, it's shown there's a competitiveness to it. The ground they have in common is actually acknowledgement from Sasuke, (Which is actually the flaw in the early establishment of the NS bond, that was their sole common ground). Further, Sakura and Sasuke and Naruto were on the same team. So it makes sense why he would press for this one over other ones, plus when you add in the pretty aspect.
You're missing the point. If Naruto has any reason to like Sakura beyond wanting to beat Sasuke, the theory put forth in
The Last does not hold. I don't think Naruto is particularly enthused about Sakura wanting acknowledgement from Sasuke specifically, but even if that's your interpretation, the bottom line is that there are legitimate feelings here and that he's not trying to one-up Sasuke. This is shown to us again during the hospital scene with Tsunade, again when Naruto makes the promise of a lifetime and again when Naruto expresses to Sai the reason he wouldn't confess his true feelings to Sakura. We see a consistent thread of legitimate feelings and not the petty rivalry Sakura is talking about.
You say it's a matter of them being teammates as to why Sakura was picked in particular, but that doesn't explain why Naruto was wanting Sakura to be on his team prior to the teams even being announced.
The Sai Flashback is resolved, the Fake Confession establishes that NS was not going to happen. That -is- the resolution.
Which is satisfactory, I suppose, to the reader concerned with nothing beyond her pairing goggles. But to the reader actually wanting a story, she is left confused about why Sai and Naruto said what they did and why it never goes anywhere. Sakura's fake confession doesn't erase Sai's observations about Naruto nor Naruto confirming these observations. And simply pretending that scene never happened afterwards wastes the reader's time. If you don't want NS to happen, fine, but make your scenes matter. Respect the reader's time and patience.
Except the scenes are specifically carried out non-seriously, I.E., humor in chapter 3, sinking in the Fake Confession, humor in the Girlfriend comment. Sure, the readers are not entirely at fault, but if you go back and look to understand what you missed, the outlines of the other major canon couples are there.
The "Now I know why I like her so much" scene in chapter 3 is not humorous. Sakura blushing as she witnesses Naruto's ingenius strategy against Zabuza is not humorous. Naruto being driven to protect Sakura no matter what is not humorous. Naruto's scene in the hospital is not humorous. Yamato's scene with Sakura near the Tenchi Bridge is not humorous. Obito's eerily similar love for Rin is not humorous. Jiraiya's eerily similar love for Tsunade and how it's played up as one of his big regrets in life is not humorous. That and it's a fallacy to suggest to humor makes something irrelevant when we look to comparative works in this genre. Humor is almost always a large component of tsundere romances, so what you're saying doesn't follow.
I've gone back and looked again by the way and all I see are scenes that are summarily forgotten and disregarded after a certain point. And as I've said before, that's not just the case with stuff regarding NS.
Because they add humor, and play up a possibility. No, they do not have relevance to the plot at hand, they play towards things in the background, but readers drew interest to this.
See above. There's an abundance of non-humor. Go back and read for yourself. Playing up a possibility is pointless. It actually has to further narrative in some fashion. The scenes I cited don't do this. It's the equivalent to adding a bunch in the scenes in the
The Dark Knight that suggest that Commissioner Gordon and the Joker are one in the same, only to summarily abandon this plot thread once the Joker is captured during the second act. Complete and utter waste of time.
Edited by ThroughWithLove, 28 August 2017 - 12:39 PM.