So I've been thinking on some things recently and something hit me about why SS is possibly so popular in Japan despite having no positive traits whatsoever. Anyone ever heard of the Bastard Boyfriend genre? here's the description.
[topic='http://tvtropes.org/...astardBoyfriend'][/topic]
Anyway the idea is that the bastard boyfriend is SUPPOSED to be cold, cruel, abusive and towards his romantic partner and it's supposed to be a fetish of sorts. Maybe that's why SS ranks so high in Japan cause there an many more female fans than male from what I heard before (not sure how accurate that is now) and the Bastard boyfriend is supposedly popular in Japan (though I 'm not completely sure so don't quote me on that). I'm not excusing SS at all just to clarify I'm just thinking of a possible explanation.
Any thoughts on this?
Although the idea of the 'Bastard Boyfriend' is out there, I wouldn't classify SS as that...simply because there is no SS in this manga outside of part 1. The only hint of it being a thing is in Part 1. Sasuke unequivocally stomps SS into the ground in the end. And that's long after Sakura has been living and acting as if Naruto is her number one. I would be more likely to believe in the 'bastard boyfriend' trope if there was some real evidence of it. Yes Sasuke is still just as much of a bastard as always. It's Sakura who has changed.
To me, SS didn't happen, the manga just ended that way. Sakura may have had some connection to him in part 1, but in the end of the story, it was Karin who had the connection, not Sakura. If anything SK would support the 'bastard boyfriend' trope, not Sakura. SS is simply a bait-and-switch so that NH could get together and their children could be the next gen NaruSasu.
As for popularity in Japan of this trope, I agree I think it might be more popular than in other countries. But after reading about gender roles in modern Japan, I'll just say I think there is a crisis in gender equality there at the moment. Younger generations are veering away from the traditional roles, and the older generations are pushing back against that. I think Kishimoto started writing Naruto with a young/modern viewpoint, but when he ended the manga, he was completely backing the more traditional view. in the end, Naruto didn't surpass the older generation...he went the opposite and folded himself into the most traditional clan in the manga. I think it says more about Kishimoto changing his views from a 20yo to a 40yo rather than lazy writing. So yeah, I think the influence of Japanese gender roles shouldn't be dismissed as being a reason behind the ending. Because if Kishimoto was completely focused on Naruto and Sakura creating a new, greater generation, he never would have given them such stereotypical roles in the end.
Ah this is pretty much confirmed by Ramen, I think
SS is popular because the trope is famous amongst women, but back in Japan few people actually thought it had a chance on canon because the obvious way the manga was heading was NS
Yeah, like I said, SS was never developed in the manga. It only ended that way.
SS meant to happen? never
kishi didnt plan anything in this story, if anything it pointed more to NS until he somehow changed his mind to NH, SS was just there to give Sasuke some child for part 3 since kishi doesnt even know how the couple got together yet
That illustration of Naruto and Sasuke above Bolt and Sarada made it crystal clear: BS isn't about NS, it's about wish fulfillment for NaruSasu.
was once a SS shipper when I was a little girl, yes kill me now, so:
-Sasuke and Sakura look good together in terms of appearance.
-Initially if you were the typical hardcore Sakura fan, you would want to support her and since she loved loves Sasuke... yeah. (Oh and also you would hate Karin).
-Sasuke is a handsome man = fangirl fantasies. If Naruto was a shoujo, and Sakura is the protagonist, Naruto and Sasuke as her love interests, fangirls would immediately root for Sasuke cause he's the bad guy with the cold attitude. It's all shoujo cliches. Even now, the cliche is still alive. You know bad guy always gets the girl *shivers*, typical shoujo. And of course every series has fangirls.
P.S. Nope, not a fangirl, never hated Karin, but had my shoujo fantasies, a long long long long long time ago. Besides putting myself into a SS shipper's shoes, there's no way I could appreciate the ending. I mean what kind of author tells you that he has no idea how they ended up together and still paired them together. What's the point? 
Rereading the manga and rewatching the anime, SS was definitely there in the beginning. NH wasn't. Sakura and Sasuke definitely had a connection and shared moments in which both reacted to the other in some way. NH didn't have that: Hinata might have brought Naruto some healing balm, and Naruto might have vowed on her name when fighting in the chunin exams, but other than that he never noticed her at all. And none of those supposed NH events radically transformed neither Naruto nor Hinata. If you removed Naruto and Hinata's interactions from the story, the story would still remain the same. Not so for Sakura, and for Sasuke. Sakura pushes herself to be acknowledged by Sasuke (and to support Naruto. Sasuke gets a feeling of family or of a bond from Sakura that he believes is a dangerous weakness that he must sever. And his jealousy of her support of Naruto spurs Sasuke to want to fight Naruto even more. It's not necessarily romantic, but the Sasu/Saku interactions are integral to the story. If SS blossomed later on in the story (as a result of Sasuke saving Sakura, etc.), then the foundation was laid in Part 1.
So I always feel like, way above NH shippers, SS shippers actually have ground to stand on. If Sasuke had shown interest in her sooner, or given a steady dot-to-dot of empathetic actions toward her, then I could see SS sitll being a thing that was supported at the end. But Sasuke has been so actively agressive toward Sakura, so hateful, and Sakura has focused so fully and completely on Naruto, that I will never see SS as a supported ship. The manga just ended on SS, but it wasn't developed in the story.
And now in Part 3, Sakura's role in the Team 7 dynamic has been completely erase. The BS ship that will inevitably come is about Naruto and Sasuke, not Naruto and Sakura.
People are bashing shojous here, but in shojou it's very much romance centred where from a narrative perspective it makes SENSE that the two have inclinations toward each other, and it is often not the man's question of whether he loves her or not, but the female in choosing from her harem of options. No, romantic conventions don't often translate out into great relationships; this has also been criticized of the tsundere trope that Sakura is part of, but the narrative often has an internal logic that allows for a plausible relationship. SasuSaku had barely that, even when we consider the whole 'girl saving the guy from himself'. Unlike usual shojous, this was not Sakura's role but Naruto's. Maybe the shippers did want it to be her role, but the narrative argued against it. The bad guy also doesn't put the female lead in danger, rather protects her from it. People who shipped SasuSaku in Part 1 weren't so crazy for doing so; Sasuke may have been a jerk, but he never hurt Sakura, and it was ambiguous but reasonable to assume that he cared about her. Part 2 had complicated this beyond the point of plausibility.
This is so true, and that's where SS confuses the reality with what people want to romantically ship. Naruto was the most important in Sasuke's life. He's the one who gave everything to save him. Not Sakura. By having SS be a token relationship in the last gasp of the manga, we are expected to believe that there was something in the story that led to that event. But there isn't.
I completely agree with what you said about Part 1 Sasuke — it is plausible to think he cared about Sakura. He cared enough not to hurt her. He even cared enough to actively protect her. Not so with Sasuke at the end of Part 2. He didn't care about anyone except Naruto, and even that is shaky ground. He saved Naruto only to save himself, and he leaves Sakura and Kakashi to die. (And lest the reader was in any doubt of how cruel his actions were, Naruto and Sasuke actually talk about it!) And once they were out of danger, Sasuke fake-kills Sakura to then try to kill Naruto. In the end, it is Naruto who saves Sasuke, not Sakura.
The SS relationship at the end makes no sense, none at all. Like I said, I thought BS was going to be a NaruSaku redux, but I am fully convinced now that BS will be NaruSasu instead. And that Sakura's character was sacrificed for that to happen.
Persona 5 hype 
It's only bashing characters or other pairings just to justify your love for your pairing that we don't tolerate. It's perfectly fine. SS WOULD be fine it it weren't developed the way it was. It seriously makes the actual "Bastard Boyfriend" genre LOOK GOOD. Sasuke was emotionally abusive and down right murderous towards Sakura and it was't even supposed to be treated as s****l excitement. And he comes up with a flimsy half-assed apology at the end and that's all it takes for her to swoon over him again(like Karin), marry and have a kid? SERIOUSLY? Like is this man truly promoting domestically abusive relationships as positive?
Yup, that is why for me SS died the moment Sasuke tried to kill Sakura. I don't really understand how you could end up with a man who tried to kill you and treated you like kitten most of the time, not to mention just a few chapters ago he stated honestly that he had no interest in her, even criticized her love for him; what was that about, red herring, another mislead? Even when he stated with a cold, evil glare that gives no room for hope? It's like Sasuke married Sakura out of pity as well, a reward for loving him all this time after how much of a bastard he came to be which should not be the case. (That's why I also don't see him with Karin, I mean he almost killed her, someone enlighten me about this pair.) And it just so happens that SS goes really well with NH. Kishi was like, "Hmm now that NH is done, I can't let Sakura be alone, oh that's right! There's still Sasuke! Doesn't matter if he goes away, as long as she'll be paired! *laughs* I'll even give them a daughter to signify their oh-so loving relationship!" And then he was asked how they ended up together, "I... I don't know! *laughs* I never thought about it!" There goes your credibility. Kishi's not unpredictable, he's just a plain bad writer.
