This is likeone of my top 10 favourite scenes/panels of Gaara. (Posted from one of my favourite blogs pls follow @everygaara)
In the beginning of the series, Gaara’s depicted through the lens of everyone else. His siblings are scared of him, Baki treats him like a bomb about to blow, Sasuke and him are sparring off in the “there can only be one lonely person left and it’s me” Olympics, all the genins from the other villages think he’s this overly powerful, creepy guy who they’re terrified to be matched against.
Framed in how the rest of the world sees him, Gaara is a absolutely a villian. He’s mean, selfish, violent (SpOoKy and CreEpY), and the narration tells us this over and over and over again. However, Gaara’s character - in the OG series and in Shippuden - has always been about the nuance in his actions.
If Gaara was truly a blood-thirsty psychopath then why did he…
Not kill his siblings or Baki much sooner (or everyone else for that matter) - Why would he always warn his siblings with “shut up or I’ll kill you” instead of just, well, killing them? Why did he listen to them in the forest of death when they told him that they wanted to go to the tower? Why did he tell Temari to get lost when Gaara was about to fight Sasuke in the forest after the invasion started?
Speaking of Sasuke…Why offer him a far fight, anyways? If Gaara was so evil, he could’ve just taken Sasuke out before he learned Chidori and have that be the end of it: Existence confirmed. Mission Accomplished. Time to move on to the next kill. Yet no…He didn’t. Why? Likely because Gaara wanted to be proved wrong, even if he didn’t know this is what he was hopeful for. This would only make sense as to why Gaara, once beaten by Naruto, wasn’t like “my god, my existence is ruined.” No, he adapted to begin thinking “existence is friendship” because up to that point, the “thrill” of killing was likely a panic response mixed with relief that the threat on his life was over, but we’re not gonna talk about that *sips tea*.
Listen to all of the adults? He’s only a blood-thirsty lunatic, so long as he’s back by the time curfew rolls around. Seriously, why wouldn’t he run away from his village? Why did he stop when Might Guy busts into the hospital room and was like “AYE, DON’T TOUCH MA BOY LEE.” Why did Kakashi successful tell Gaara to go pound salt when he interrupted Sasuke’s training. AND DON’T @ me with that “well Kakashi and Might Guy are stronger than the rest of the genins so Gaara wouldn’t fight them” because that would mean Gaara would want to fight them to “confirm his existence.” But he didn’t! WHY? Because he just wanted friends :’) and he clung to Sasuke because it was probably the first time in his life that he found someone who he saw could relate to him, but instead of being like “oh my god, you are like me, we can be friends,” Gaara had no clue how to socialize, so he was like, “I guess we could try killing each other later, if you want?”
I could rant forever. BUT I won’t. Really what I’d like to say is that this panel is one of the moments where you can see the pain of Gaara’s inner self - that pure hearted little boy who’s yearning for love - fighting with the persona he has put on. He can’t kill Sakura here because he knows it’s wrong. He can’t kill her because it reminds him of the person that made Gaara feel good about himself. He can’t kill her because he’s not bloodthirsty…He’s just some lonely boy who was given powers he never asked for, never wanted, and was shown time and time again that the only way he was allowed - or could - interact with people was by killing or hurting them.
This moment here shows exactly the type of person Gaara really is.
That’s why this is one of my favourite panels.
AND THAT’S WHY I’LL BE VOTING GAARA IN THE NARUTOP99 CHARACTER POLL.
turnnoffyourmind
yousharknotpass
dededos
andulkaphoto
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