81 replies to this topic

[TokehGecko]

I was a Sakura-basher once... Simply because I don't like the people who hated Naruto. I didn't like Shikamaru and Chouji either, because they bashed Naruto during the Second Test of the Chuunin Exam, when he was knocked out after they fought those three Sound-nins.

But after a while, you learn about the characters. I mean, after a while, you can even appreciate Orochimaru! A little....

And now I'm a big NaruSaku, SakuNaru fan!

I bashed Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura because in my opinion, they were lousy comrades to Naruto. But I revised my opinion and now know they weren't THAT bad. I mean, Tsunade almost killed Jiraiya during their time as a team. (I'll ignore the Sasuke almost killed Naruto reply)

[Vyse]

Noob writers use character bashing as a plot device so they can piss off the readers and thus gain more reviews. The worst thing is that it's always the same thing that happens, the same kittening bash. Naruto comes back from VoTE with Sasuke on his back, and Sakura slaps him and tells him how much she hates him and that he's a demon yadda yadda yadda... Then after Sasuke gets of by a slap on the wrist and gets his ass back on Team 7, Naruto goes emo because he notices how his team hates him and that Kakashi never trains him in favor of the last Uchiha, which Sakura is fine with really... That's where their stories will (maybe) get a real plot (if any), but it's mostly something like a change of teams or he bails from Konoha (leaving a crying Tsunade as usual... damn them!).

I remember reading a fic where the author wrote KONOHA bash, and that means EVERYONE in the entire village. It was more than hatred... more like cruelty knowing no bounds. Even Tsunade got bashed because she punched Naruto through a couple of walls... hell, even Ayame was evil. That was where my first ever flame was born! ^^,

[Tohno Shiki]

Sakura bashing nets reviews. Sad though that might be, it's true. Many people simply don't understand that shallow and weak Sakura is a thing of the past. They have her acting as though she's a five year old on steroids who stalks Sasuke and screams at Naruto. This attracts other Sakura bashers who encourage them to continue bashing Sakura, which in turn leads to the author continuing his/her pointless bashing to continue netting reviews. It's a cycle of mediocrity that will never end unless someone breaks it by giving some constructive criticism.

EDIT: Sorry for the bashing, I think I've removed about all of it?

[Vyse]

OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH SHALL PURGE THEIR UNYOUTHFUL ACTIONS FROM THIS WORLD ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Or we could just stop caring, and not read bash-fics? Either way works fine for me! Question: is it possible for a basher to write intelligent bash-fics? Does that even exist? How come Gai's eyebrows fits his head better than Lee's?

[No WhereMan]

OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH SHALL PURGE THEIR UNYOUTHFUL ACTIONS FROM THIS WORLD ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Or we could just stop caring, and not read bash-fics? Either way works fine for me! Question: is it possible for a basher to write intelligent bash-fics? Does that even exist? How come Gai's eyebrows fits his head better than Lee's?

Yes, I hate Sasuke with a passion that knows no bounds, but I'm able to make a good story with him in it. Also it's because Gai's had more years to adjust.

[Nick Soapdish]

The thing is people that Sakura have no idea that it's not canon Sakura they're hating. It's just that the version of Sakura they made up that they are hating. It's like an OC shaped like Sakura, it's pointless.

The reasons they give are pretty lame sometimes, though they do have valid points. Canon Sakura can go both ways. BUt to outright say she does something is stupid. So Sakura bashers basically are a bunch of dumbasses with nothing better to do.

Damn it, been arguing with Andrew and Rick for ages. Lol. XD

Noob writers use character bashing as a plot device so they can piss off the readers and thus gain more reviews. The worst thing is that it's always the same thing that happens, the same kittening bash. Naruto comes back from VoTE with Sasuke on his back, and Sakura slaps him and tells him how much she hates him and that he's a demon yadda yadda yadda... Then after Sasuke gets of by a slap on the wrist and gets his ass back on Team 7, Naruto goes emo because he notices how his team hates him and that Kakashi never trains him in favor of the last Uchiha, which Sakura is fine with really... That's where their stories will (maybe) get a real plot (if any), but it's mostly something like a change of teams or he bails from Konoha (leaving a crying Tsunade as usual... damn them!).

I remember reading a fic where the author wrote KONOHA bash, and that means EVERYONE in the entire village. It was more than hatred... more like cruelty knowing no bounds. Even Tsunade got bashed because she punched Naruto through a couple of walls... hell, even Ayame was evil. That was where my first ever flame was born! ^^,

Sakura bashing nets reviews. Sad though that might be, it's true. Many people simply can't get it into their thick skulls that shallow and weak Sakura is a thing of the past. They have her acting as though she's a five year old on steroids who stalks Sasuke and screams at Naruto. This attracts other Sakura bashers who encourage them to continue bashing Sakura, which in turn leads to the author continuing his/her pointless bashing to continue netting reviews. It's a cycle of mediocrity that will never end unless someone breaks it by constructively FLAMING the heck out of said basher.

Just because people are bashing Sakura doesn't make it ok to bash the bashers. Rein it in or we'll close the thread.

[Tohno Shiki]

Right, didn't mean for it to get out of hand. I edited the post to make it less offensive.

[Sakura Blossoms]

Right, didn't mean for it to get out of hand. I edited the post to make it less offensive.

Thank you

[No WhereMan]

Yea keeping along the lines of our overseers. To be honest you can't change someone's opinion. All you can do is present counter-agruments to their points but in the end, its up to the individual to decide if they want to believe you or not.

My opinion the best way to deal with Sakura bashing fics or any bashing fics for that matter is broken up into two ways. We all can either write constructive reviews to these fics, stating our opinion where the author erred or suggestions for where they could improve. And just leave it at that. If the author decides to say "screw them!" and keep doing what they want, we've done the best we can.

My second option and I think a more productive one, is to continue to pump out quality fics. To counter-act the bad ones. So eventually those authors will have no choice but to step their game up and not restort to low-brow antics in their fics for reviews.

[Tohno Shiki]

Yea keeping along the lines of our overseers. To be honest you can't change someone's opinion. All you can do is present counter-agruments to their points but in the end, its up to the individual to decide if they want to believe you or not.

My opinion the best way to deal with Sakura bashing fics or any bashing fics for that matter is broken up into two ways. We all can either write constructive reviews to these fics, stating our opinion where the author erred or suggestions for where they could improve. And just leave it at that. If the author decides to say "screw them!" and keep doing what they want, we've done the best we can.

My second option and I think a more productive one, is to continue to pump out quality fics. To counter-act the bad ones. So eventually those authors will have no choice but to step their game up and not restort to low-brow antics in their fics for reviews.

I tried the constructive review thing for a while, but was totally ignored. It doesn't work out, simply because the sheer number of people who call for Sakura bashing outweight the few who call for it to stop. It's not a productive way of doing things.

Pumping out quality fics, while a good idea in theory, is going to be difficult since there are some people who prefer to watch their least favourite character degraded than to actually read a well-written fanfic. Not to mention that some writers just aren't that good (myself as an example) and can't simply pump out quality fics.

To be honest, I can't see a solution to this issue. All we can do is grin and bear it.

[Wilson]

I already apologized for the bashing, will go change it later.

And well, the thing is, the reasons they sometimes give for hating Sakura...is a bit, i dunnoe how to put it, bias in a way? They are looking for something to hate in the manga. And well, Sakura seems to be a very easy target.

See, many think that Naruto is too weak for his own good. Even now, and honestly, seeing the main character keep getting beaten by a super duper female punch to the head can't feel gd.

So in my opinion, Sakura's a scapegoat for the frustrations of Naruto's lack of strength at times.

[Vyse]

I'm sure many Sakura bashers write bash because they wouldn't be able to resist NaruSaku if they wrote Sakura as anything less than a horrible person. The power of the NaruSaku side is seductive, and shall not be ignored!

[Wilson]

now THAT's an explanation i like. XD

[Tohno Shiki]

Sexiest explanation ever. I'm convinced!

[jim1982]

Also i think some tend to bash sakura as a way to get naruto over his major obsesion with seeing her happy. I honestly have state that i hated sakura at first, simply because i thought she gave naruto the shaft everytime. but she grew up and i find her to be one of the more believable characters in the series.

Now if the manga had it where naruto and sakura just had a "shut up and kiss me" moment that would cut some of the bashing i bet!

[roninmedia]

It's easier to end the NaruSaku dynamic by making Sakura to be a b*tch than writing Naruto suddenly dropping his love for her. I have to say, so many NaruHina fics have this type of dynamic.

[Wilson]

Now if the manga had it where naruto and sakura just had a "shut up and kiss me" moment that would cut some of the bashing i bet!

I so agree with that. XD Yes, if only Naruto could just....'trip' and like....Accidentally land, i dunnoe, er....near Sakura's face, or more precisely, her lips, yeah, that would do. XD

[Blue Jeans]

Wow! Am I always late for these types of Sakura discussions.... character discussions in general. Anyway, since I'm pretty much on hiatus these days, I guess it's only expected. There were, however a few things I really want to touch on, whether people agree with my interpretations or not is up to them.

First of, people, they're 12 years old! Why authors or readers or fans expect Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura to act like adults - of any great depths - is beyond me. The fact that all three managed to grow at all so quickly in the first year of their genin training shows that they are people of caliber. Seriously, outside of our inner perspectives, how many deep twelve year olds do you actually know? And even if they experienced great pain and tragedy, as many of the Naruto characters have shown, their youth limits their ability to interpret their losses - Sasuke, Neji, Gaara... need I say more? A lot of people expected Sakura to some how not treat Naruto badly, but look how the adults of Konoha behaved - and they are ADULTS! The fact that no adults were shown to have defended Naruto - until Iruka realized his own errors, and he didn't even care for Naruto until that fateful night Naruto stole the scroll, despite being Naruto's TEACHER for at least two years, how many times have Naruto flunked his genin exams? - proves to me that the expectations for Sakura are way beyond normality. She knew him how much? (And let's be serious here, Naruto just had a crush on Sakura, he didn't know her any more than she knew him until they were a team! It was simply that it gave him more initiative to build a relationship with her in the future, as they grow up.) All she knew about him was NO ONE in the Village liked him, he was a flunky in school, he sucked at everything, and he bothered her whenever she tried to make the moves on Sasuke - as in, she believed for a VERY long time that Naruto didn't like her and did all he could to test her patience and annoy her! (Here was the boy who stole the first kiss of the boy she threw Ino's friendship away from, she's not going to treat him logically.) And please, as if you've never disliked someone for completely shallow reasons. First impressions are true for characters within the stories as well, and we all know Naruto's a sucker at that.

The man Sakura idolized was Sasuke - who was skilled, smart, and handsome. The point is that Sakura, at that point in her life, idolized those who she saw was better than her - don't we all? Unfortunately for Naruto, he wasn't any of those things to Sakura. I like Naruto's character because he rose above that despite everyone's beliefs that he wasn't worth anything. That makes him a likeable character - though not always a realistic one. I like Sakura because she embodies all the flaws inside normal people, not just a twelve year old girl. She didn't have gifts from birth/blood/clan, or even an evil demon cursed and sealed into her. She didn't have a tragic past to motivate her to be more. Everything she has ever done was to be more than what others saw her. She's the human version of Naruto. She got made fun of and bullied like many people were in their childhood. She chased after people who never had that problem, like Ino and Sasuke, and wanted to be like them. In fact, let's be honest here, she, like Naruto, only had a huge crush on Sasuke before becoming a team member with him. But plenty of people have done a lot for people they crushed on, including throwing away friendships, family, wealth, status, etc. The fact is that Sakura is an obsessive type, like Naruto, and has always been; and like him and like Sasuke, she would do anything for what she believe in - give up happiness and valued things in her life for what she thinks is worth the sacrifice.

Don't moan over poor Ino. Until Sakura threw away their friendship into Ino's face, Ino probably would never have saw Sakura than as an equal (or even a rival). Friendship for those two would never have been one between equals if Sakura always relented because it did not start on the basis of equals. It shows in that moment that Sakura, selfish or not, was not someone who would bend to the will of others just to be accepted. To Sakura, there were things that she would give up everything for. Those people, depending on life or luck, either become fools or heroes... luckily for Sakura, she grew up to be a hero (and here, I breathe a sigh of relief).

Of course, everyone wants evidents.

Sakura accepted Naruto as a teammate before the Chuunin exams. She was reluctant at first, only following Sasuke's lead, but at the time NOTHING she did pointed to the fact that she believed Naruto liked her. She wasn't being deliberately cruel to him, she just treated him like the pest she thought he was. Not because he was a demon, though maybe her opinions of his motivations may have been due to how others viewed him, but everything Sakura said to fake-Sasuke (Naruto disguised) pointed to her belief that Naruto didn't like her and was trying to thwart her efforts to gain Sasuke's approval because he didn't like her and liked to see her suffer. Now, a lot of people are going to be like: Why would she think that? But come on, considering how little contact Sakura had with Naruto - and how she didn't get to know him as the readers have done and how MUCH time she spent with EVERYONE else that didn't like him, and what she HAD seen of him - is her decision really that far fetched? (He had been a prankster, notorious for causing trouble to others and enjoying it!) But, after they became teammates, she began to respect him. When she saw that Naruto had more will than she ever had, even more than Sasuke at times. When she saw his determination, not once did she turn a blind eye to Naruto's efforts. Sakura was the one to tell Naruto how to focus chakra into his feet when he asked her for help, she didn't reject him then (even though she could have refused him), though she still didn't think too much of him - but it was already the beginning of their changing relationship. When they fought Orochimaru for the first time in the chuunin exams, she shouted at Sasuke for not being braver than Naruto, and she was the one who saved Naruto from falling after falling unconscious from Orochimaru's attack. She took care of both Naruto and Sasuke, as a teammate, and a friend. And though she was startled at Sasuke's declaration that Naruto was the one who saved her, I think that had been due to the fact of both her romanticized image of Sasuke (and the fact that he did try to protect her while they were teammates) and the fact that it was the first time her previous assumptions that Naruto liked seeing her suffer were challenged by actions she didn't even witness. And there were images of after-missions, where it was shown that Sakura was helping carry Naruto after a mission, even before the chuunin exams - a show that she helped and supported him as a teammate, even if she never really considered him a buddy-buddy friend. At the very least, by the time they entered, the three of them relied and believed in each other enough to protect each other and risk pain and death and fears for each other. At that time, Kakashi deemed the three of them strong enough to try out the Chuunin exams (along with the other rookie nine), an action that was unusual at the time, as shown by the surprise these recommendations inspired. Hell, even Gai waited after the first year before signing up his own students for the exam! The relationship between those in Team 7 vastly improved in the year they were together, and they were only twelve-thirteen at the time they took the exam... give her some slack. Sakura didn't have "must kill gifted, psycho brother" or "must prove myself worthy" to drive her, but she never denied Naruto's growth. In fact, she was the first to acknowledge how much he had grown as a ninja, thinking to herself that both Sasuke AND Naruto were leaving her behind and running ahead of her.

That sense of helplessness inside of her, BEFORE the chuunin exams, show that her respect for Naruto had grown vastly and that she had never let the opinions of the village or her former classmates prejudice her to Naruto's own growth. She never denied or turned a blind eye to his weaknesses - as shown when they took the written part of the chuunin exam - but Sakura at no point in time was illogically cruel to Naruto and she was willing to change her mind about him - which cannot be said of everyone else. In fact, at the time that Sasuke was taken, Sakura was the only person who did not fight with Naruto but trusted him whole heartedly in his ability to bring Sasuke back. Pre-cursed seal Sasuke would have been brought back too, but that didn't really work out and hence, why we have season 2, so no one's really complaining.

Sakura's not a saint. She didn't see Naruto for "who he was", but hell, Naruto's not even that self-aware... they're too damn young to be so introspective. That's what authors are for and why most good authors like to write about older Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke, who has less reaction and more inner thoughts going on about their heads. They're complicated people and they started complicated young, so lots of material to work on.

I think Sakura was a pretty cool character since season 1. She's got more flaws than most authors/manga artists are willing to give to a main character, especially if it's the main (and only) female character. Sure Hinata's sweeter, sure Tenten's got cooler weapons, but Sakura is the only one constantly changing and the only one who is human enough to never be the same. She changed from the weak, bullied girl who hated her forehead and needed Ino's protection, to the brash and selfish graduate, smartest in her class and with enough false bravado to never show once how intimidated she still was of herself and her place in the world, and grew to be a strong, capable young woman who still has room to grow and knows it, but loves so much the boys in her life and appreciate others for who they are. She has more capacity to grow, to with-stand the tragedies of a shinobi's life, and to believe than anyone - and the only one who believes as much as her is Naruto.

Hell, I love the two, because they have a relationship ripe with the potential for real intimacy. They already love each other, as people their age and with their experience can. What label you want to put on that love, does it really matter? She would die and hurt and fight for Naruto, just as he would for her, and neither of them would do it with regret... not many people today who are "in-love" can do that for each other. And she loves Sasuke too, just as Naruto loves Sasuke... but I think I'll leave it to the manga (for now) to show where canon will go with that. But Sakura is as shallow and as deep as everyone has the capacity to be, but her actions have always shown that she is someone who is constantly trying to grow up and to grow strong for the people she love, and for the person she wants to be...

What's there to look down at her for?

(Can you tell I'm a big Sakura fan? I really adore NaruSaku, but I'm not going to bash anyone for liking SasuSaku. Sasuke's.... complicated - to put it nicely.)

[Leney]

Blue Jeans, that was an awesome post. Too bad I can't hand this to everyone before they think about writing Sakura in their fics.

Don't moan over poor Ino. Until Sakura threw away their friendship into Ino's face, Ino probably would never have saw Sakura than as an equal (or even a rival). Friendship for those two would never have been one between equals if Sakura always relented because it did not start on the basis of equals. It shows in that moment that Sakura, selfish or not, was not someone who would bend to the will of others just to be accepted.

You know what, I've never looked at the Sakura/Ino break up that way before, even though this should have been obvious.

[Derock]

Wow! Am I always late for these types of Sakura discussions.... character discussions in general. Anyway, since I'm pretty much on hiatus these days, I guess it's only expected. There were, however a few things I really want to touch on, whether people agree with my interpretations or not is up to them.

First of, people, they're 12 years old! Why authors or readers or fans expect Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura to act like adults - of any great depths - is beyond me. The fact that all three managed to grow at all so quickly in the first year of their genin training shows that they are people of caliber. Seriously, outside of our inner perspectives, how many deep twelve year olds do you actually know? And even if they experienced great pain and tragedy, as many of the Naruto characters have shown, their youth limits their ability to interpret their losses - Sasuke, Neji, Gaara... need I say more? A lot of people expected Sakura to some how not treat Naruto badly, but look how the adults of Konoha behaved - and they are ADULTS! The fact that no adults were shown to have defended Naruto - until Iruka realized his own errors, and he didn't even care for Naruto until that fateful night Naruto stole the scroll, despite being Naruto's TEACHER for at least two years, how many times have Naruto flunked his genin exams? - proves to me that the expectations for Sakura are way beyond normality. She knew him how much? (And let's be serious here, Naruto just had a crush on Sakura, he didn't know her any more than she knew him until they were a team! It was simply that it gave him more initiative to build a relationship with her in the future, as they grow up.) All she knew about him was NO ONE in the Village liked him, he was a flunky in school, he sucked at everything, and he bothered her whenever she tried to make the moves on Sasuke - as in, she believed for a VERY long time that Naruto didn't like her and did all he could to test her patience and annoy her! (Here was the boy who stole the first kiss of the boy she threw Ino's friendship away from, she's not going to treat him logically.) And please, as if you've never disliked someone for completely shallow reasons. First impressions are true for characters within the stories as well, and we all know Naruto's a sucker at that.

The man Sakura idolized was Sasuke - who was skilled, smart, and handsome. The point is that Sakura, at that point in her life, idolized those who she saw was better than her - don't we all? Unfortunately for Naruto, he wasn't any of those things to Sakura. I like Naruto's character because he rose above that despite everyone's beliefs that he wasn't worth anything. That makes him a likeable character - though not always a realistic one. I like Sakura because she embodies all the flaws inside normal people, not just a twelve year old girl. She didn't have gifts from birth/blood/clan, or even an evil demon cursed and sealed into her. She didn't have a tragic past to motivate her to be more. Everything she has ever done was to be more than what others saw her. She's the human version of Naruto. She got made fun of and bullied like many people were in their childhood. She chased after people who never had that problem, like Ino and Sasuke, and wanted to be like them. In fact, let's be honest here, she, like Naruto, only had a huge crush on Sasuke before becoming a team member with him. But plenty of people have done a lot for people they crushed on, including throwing away friendships, family, wealth, status, etc. The fact is that Sakura is an obsessive type, like Naruto, and has always been; and like him and like Sasuke, she would do anything for what she believe in - give up happiness and valued things in her life for what she thinks is worth the sacrifice.

Don't moan over poor Ino. Until Sakura threw away their friendship into Ino's face, Ino probably would never have saw Sakura than as an equal (or even a rival). Friendship for those two would never have been one between equals if Sakura always relented because it did not start on the basis of equals. It shows in that moment that Sakura, selfish or not, was not someone who would bend to the will of others just to be accepted. To Sakura, there were things that she would give up everything for. Those people, depending on life or luck, either become fools or heroes... luckily for Sakura, she grew up to be a hero (and here, I breathe a sigh of relief).

Of course, everyone wants evidents.

Sakura accepted Naruto as a teammate before the Chuunin exams. She was reluctant at first, only following Sasuke's lead, but at the time NOTHING she did pointed to the fact that she believed Naruto liked her. She wasn't being deliberately cruel to him, she just treated him like the pest she thought he was. Not because he was a demon, though maybe her opinions of his motivations may have been due to how others viewed him, but everything Sakura said to fake-Sasuke (Naruto disguised) pointed to her belief that Naruto didn't like her and was trying to thwart her efforts to gain Sasuke's approval because he didn't like her and liked to see her suffer. Now, a lot of people are going to be like: Why would she think that? But come on, considering how little contact Sakura had with Naruto - and how she didn't get to know him as the readers have done and how MUCH time she spent with EVERYONE else that didn't like him, and what she HAD seen of him - is her decision really that far fetched? (He had been a prankster, notorious for causing trouble to others and enjoying it!) But, after they became teammates, she began to respect him. When she saw that Naruto had more will than she ever had, even more than Sasuke at times. When she saw his determination, not once did she turn a blind eye to Naruto's efforts. Sakura was the one to tell Naruto how to focus chakra into his feet when he asked her for help, she didn't reject him then (even though she could have refused him), though she still didn't think too much of him - but it was already the beginning of their changing relationship. When they fought Orochimaru for the first time in the chuunin exams, she shouted at Sasuke for not being braver than Naruto, and she was the one who saved Naruto from falling after falling unconscious from Orochimaru's attack. She took care of both Naruto and Sasuke, as a teammate, and a friend. And though she was startled at Sasuke's declaration that Naruto was the one who saved her, I think that had been due to the fact of both her romanticized image of Sasuke (and the fact that he did try to protect her while they were teammates) and the fact that it was the first time her previous assumptions that Naruto liked seeing her suffer were challenged by actions she didn't even witness. And there were images of after-missions, where it was shown that Sakura was helping carry Naruto after a mission, even before the chuunin exams - a show that she helped and supported him as a teammate, even if she never really considered him a buddy-buddy friend. At the very least, by the time they entered, the three of them relied and believed in each other enough to protect each other and risk pain and death and fears for each other. At that time, Kakashi deemed the three of them strong enough to try out the Chuunin exams (along with the other rookie nine), an action that was unusual at the time, as shown by the surprise these recommendations inspired. Hell, even Gai waited after the first year before signing up his own students for the exam! The relationship between those in Team 7 vastly improved in the year they were together, and they were only twelve-thirteen at the time they took the exam... give her some slack. Sakura didn't have "must kill gifted, psycho brother" or "must prove myself worthy" to drive her, but she never denied Naruto's growth. In fact, she was the first to acknowledge how much he had grown as a ninja, thinking to herself that both Sasuke AND Naruto were leaving her behind and running ahead of her.

That sense of helplessness inside of her, BEFORE the chuunin exams, show that her respect for Naruto had grown vastly and that she had never let the opinions of the village or her former classmates prejudice her to Naruto's own growth. She never denied or turned a blind eye to his weaknesses - as shown when they took the written part of the chuunin exam - but Sakura at no point in time was illogically cruel to Naruto and she was willing to change her mind about him - which cannot be said of everyone else. In fact, at the time that Sasuke was taken, Sakura was the only person who did not fight with Naruto but trusted him whole heartedly in his ability to bring Sasuke back. Pre-cursed seal Sasuke would have been brought back too, but that didn't really work out and hence, why we have season 2, so no one's really complaining.

Sakura's not a saint. She didn't see Naruto for "who he was", but hell, Naruto's not even that self-aware... they're too damn young to be so introspective. That's what authors are for and why most good authors like to write about older Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke, who has less reaction and more inner thoughts going on about their heads. They're complicated people and they started complicated young, so lots of material to work on.

I think Sakura was a pretty cool character since season 1. She's got more flaws than most authors/manga artists are willing to give to a main character, especially if it's the main (and only) female character. Sure Hinata's sweeter, sure Tenten's got cooler weapons, but Sakura is the only one constantly changing and the only one who is human enough to never be the same. She changed from the weak, bullied girl who hated her forehead and needed Ino's protection, to the brash and selfish graduate, smartest in her class and with enough false bravado to never show once how intimidated she still was of herself and her place in the world, and grew to be a strong, capable young woman who still has room to grow and knows it, but loves so much the boys in her life and appreciate others for who they are. She has more capacity to grow, to with-stand the tragedies of a shinobi's life, and to believe than anyone - and the only one who believes as much as her is Naruto.

Hell, I love the two, because they have a relationship ripe with the potential for real intimacy. They already love each other, as people their age and with their experience can. What label you want to put on that love, does it really matter? She would die and hurt and fight for Naruto, just as he would for her, and neither of them would do it with regret... not many people today who are "in-love" can do that for each other. And she loves Sasuke too, just as Naruto loves Sasuke... but I think I'll leave it to the manga (for now) to show where canon will go with that. But Sakura is as shallow and as deep as everyone has the capacity to be, but her actions have always shown that she is someone who is constantly trying to grow up and to grow strong for the people she love, and for the person she wants to be...

What's there to look down at her for?

(Can you tell I'm a big Sakura fan? I really adore NaruSaku, but I'm not going to bash anyone for liking SasuSaku. Sasuke's.... complicated - to put it nicely.)

BEST. M***ERF*****. POST. EVA!!!!!!! I totally 100%, scratch that, 1000% agree with you!!! :thumbs: