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What are the 10 things you love about the SasuKarin relationship the most? :)
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ASKED BY ANONYMOUS
I’m going to narrow this down into five so it’s conceptually clear and linked to relevant posts that expand on the various aspects in depth. This is all pretty subjective and a bit headcanon in places so proceed with caution. Also, I feel like I forgot something so I may add another category or two later lol
1. the poetry - I like how visceral it is, how carnal, how it is, at its core, about the conflation of need with want. How Karin first needed Sasuke - he saved her - and although she dismisses her want for him and could do without him he is also achingly necessary because he is achingly wanted. And maybe Sasuke’s feelings aren’t a far cry from that confused state. He needed her - that is what he said. “Karin, I need you.” And the last thing she said to him (but only in her mind) before they went their separate ways was “Is this all I am to you?” He answered her aloud, despite her silence, and his words were cruel but did not ring true. She’s still waiting for an answer from a boy whose blood isn’t curdled by ancestral malice.
2. the trope subversion - Sasuke is a character on a quest to save his soul, though he does not believe himself to be on such a quest, nor does he even want to entertain such an idea - it is the author who has entrammeled him in circumstances which make it so, and the female character with whom he associates is one of those trammels. And moreover, at times, he is emotionally and physically vulnerable - not frequently, but significantly when he is in such a state - in the presence of the female (think of the bite scenes, specifically). The female, too, has her moments - but I note the particular significance of the male being vulnerable because such is not always the case with many couples, particularly in shounen.
3. the link to what I like most about Sasuke as a character - his internal conflict: I think Sasuke is drawn to those who see the good in him yet do not worship him. They see the potential in him to be a loving person, which he despises them for because he does not want to be a good person, and yet there’s a part of him that still wants that. He hates them because they love the part of him he hates the most, the most persistent part of him that he’s never completely been able to suppress. It’s not in the cards for him to be a good person because doing so would require abandoning his quest. Yet while they will bend for love, they will not break, and I think that’s what Sasuke admires most about them. Sasuke generally bends for no reason; his lack of respect for authority and fierce independence is central to his character. Naruto and Karin both love him and have not stopped loving him but they remain true to themselves all the same (most people would argue otherwise for Karin but I am in the minority that interprets it differently [X] [X]) and do not forgo the opportunity to call him out on his shit. Sasuke bends and breaks beneath the weight of love for Naruto, for his brother, and finally, for Karin - REPRESENTED BY THE DEVELOPMENTS IN HIS SHARINGAN AND HIS SPIRAL INTO MADNESS. But these Uzumaki, Sasuke has seen, do not bend and break in this way, while the Uchiha do.
4. the atypical combination of their personalities in combination with its surprising chemistry that results in two silent partners in crime who bring outsides of each other they wouldn’t otherwise show, that they would prefer to lay dormant and remain secret
5. THE MYSTERY
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