hoo boy, well, let's get the finale of the Battle of Bullshit out of the way. this is going to be the peak of absurdity and Kishimoto bending all the rules possible for Sasuke to earn the aura points on Deidara, so buckle up
I've been taking notes of Sharingan's abilities and discussing the interactions of the basic elements specifically for the magnum opus of unfiltered bullshit that is the end of Deidara vs Sasuke. while going through the end of the Akatsuki Supression arc, I pointed out how Kishimoto tried and completely failed at establishing the elemental rock-paper-scissors as the cornerstone of the battle system which is why that concept will start to be phased out as soon as this fight is over and be replaced with "bigger explosion = winner". that cool little experiment ended up creating two huge powercreep victims one of whom already got his own battle ended unclimatically because his defense was, funnily enough, weak to Kakashi's Chidori, and that is Kakuzu. and what we saw during that encounter was Kakuzu using Doton seal (whatever that is supposed to mean as seals don't actually correspond to any of the elements explicitly in the lore), Kakashi used that Sharingan-sourced knowledge to deduct that Kakuzu's skin hardening jutsu is Doton, thus managed to strike through it with his Raiton and win the rock-paper-scissors
the second victim of Kishimoto's proper fighting system establishment experiment is Deidara, and the exact same logic is attempted to be applied to him.
except Kishimoto had managed to write himself into the corner so spectacularly in this fight that nothing in Deidara's example and case ends up actually fitting with explanation he tries to peddle in his scrambling attempts to make Sasuke win this encounter with his "swag and smarts😎😎😎😎"
ladies and gentlemen, let us go over the fourth and final one of the debuffs that Deidara receives specifically for this fight - the weakness of his jutsu to Raiton and how it just straight up completely breaks the logic of the battle system on so many levels
and stating this straight away: the more explicit explanation for Deidara's abilities would be given in a databook that would be released some time after Pain's Devastation of Konoha arc, so Kishimoto and co knew perfectly well what they had already done with Deidara vs Sasuke. they still chose to introduce those endless contradictions into the lore, and the fandom's and powerscalers' interpretation of the interactions of the powers involved has been entirely based off the information in that databook. if you see something on the page that directly contradicts that - well, I did warn you, nothing about the bullshit that just occured in that fight makes sense :)
starting off with THE SAME FUCKING SHIT THAT WAS PULLED DURING KAKUZU'S BATTLE - Deidara's seals somehow revealing the nature of his jutsu
there's three (!) gigantic issues with this one panel
Sasuke's first phrase - while serving as a nice reminder to the audience of one of the rare examples of Sharingan's actually consistent abilities - reveals a pretty huge fucking question to the writing: why would Deidara not be aware of the importance of keeping your seals secret from the Uchiha dipshit you're fighting?
mind you, Deidara spent 7 goddamn years preparing for his rematch with Itachi. he reverse-engineered Onoki's fucking kekkei tota using his own art. he literally trained his eye to gain immunity to the Sharingan, and while the current battle shows it has 50% chance of succeeding, it's still better than 0% that people usually get when looking at the Sharingan head on. later we will learn that Akatsuki worked with Iwa for a time - and they have as little love for Uchihas as Deidara does - and overall Deidara's relationship with his ex-comrades is pretty chill, he really only hates Onoki. Deidara had Sasori with his huge everspanning spy network and who served in Suna during the Third World War. Deidara knew fucking Kakuzu who is older than some of the rocks he knows, and Kakuzu absolutely hunted some Uchihas back in the day. there's approximatelly seventy ways for him to learn of the OTHER BASIC ability of the Sharingan, so why doesn't he know it?
oh wait, but he does. remember the "Sharingan Kakashi-sensei" line from the Kazekage Rescue arc? you wanna tell me Deidara knew the nickname of the only other relevant Sharingan-possessing ninja at that time and yet never managed put two and two together? Deidara, the teenager who has spent half his life on training himself to be the biggest fuck you to the Sharingan and almost succeeded?
so, yes, big hole in the Kishimoto-sourced Sasuke's victory yap number one - Deidara mysteriously not knowing the basic feature of the thing he sought to surpass👍
but gosh golly, there's a second issue that actually arrives from the first one: why the fuck is Deidara even using seals to cast his jutsu? "well, Showa, you mad bastard" you say "that's because all jutsu are cast using seals, duh!" and to that I say: Deidara literally doesn't need to use seals for his jutsu, at least based on what we literally see him do in the previous arcs and the information from the databooks. The logic behind his art is: chakra inside him -> use mouths to inject chakra into material aka clay -> use handsign (which is not part of the actual seals Sharingan recognizes btw) and set off the chakra in the clay. That's it, no seals necessary. Okay, then, let's imagine he needs them for higher level jutsu like C4 (which is what the flashback to Deidara's seal refers to) but not the weaker ones like C1
because Sasuke explicilty says a panel earlier that his hecking based seals reading began from the literal start of the fight, and the Raiton weakness was figured out as soon as Deidara's second attack. those attacks were done by C1s, Deidara started increasing the output with the dragon hitting the field
"okay, then, but still, all jutsu are cast with seals, your own interpretation of Deidara's jutsu doesn't mean shit, if manga in this fuckass arc says Deidara is using seals, then he has to use them, even if it's C1!" - and to that I say, hey, guys, remember one funny thing that happened to Deidara during the first arc he appeared in? a certain injury he got in the fight with Gaara?
yeah, his arm getting crushed. and the seals Sasuke can recognize are done by two hands. so either Deidara had literally no way to cast any jutsu since the Suna fight and was completely defenseless throughout the rest of the arc - which we know for a fact is not what happened lmao - or Kishimoto literally made up Deidara needing these seals as a way for Sasuke to not get his fucking shit obliterated specifically for this fight👍
and, finally, the biggest question of the three: what the fuck is Sasuke is seeing in those seals and how does it correspond in any capacity to what Deidara is actually doing?
in all fairness to Kishimoto, I believe in that particular example above Deidara does use the same seal as Kakuzu did shortly before getting Chidori-stabbed through his heart, so I guess the consistency is at least there, and let's presume that one seal does correspond to Doton. the issue is, once again, Deidara and Kakuzu using the same ONE FUCKING SEAL that leads to the jutsu of the SAME ELEMENT and somehow ending up with wildly different results. how do people do the same steps and arrive at completely opposite ends? only Kishimoto's endless wisdom knows.
and even if we take a step back and assume that Kakashi recognized Kakuzu's jutsu based off one seal because he's the copy ninja, knows a bajillion jutsu and their effects, while Kakuzu is 3849384 years old and people have recorded his abilities in some manner, that explanation just doesn't fucking work for Sasuke and Deidara because a) Sasuke is not Kakashi and his specialty is not copying and knowing a thousand jutsu b) Deidara is LITERALLY THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who can use the jutsu he uses + could use it for what, 7-8 years by that point? There's no feasible way for it to become common knowledge
then, finally, the funniest thing that will reveal the crux of the bullshit this entire fight is based on: Deidara can not be casting Doton seals for the purpose of Doton jutsu because the jutsu he uses are not Doton at all :)
Sasuke mansplaining the elements chart, wooooow he's soooo cool, clap clap
here's a later admission by Sasuke that we're talking specifically about Deidara's jutsu being classified as Doton and thus is susceptible to his Raiton
welp, here's the deal: that's a complete and utter bullshit. Deidara's explosions are obviously not of Doton (earth) element, they are of Bakuton (explosion) element. Deidara is using his Kekkei Genkai to make his artworks :3
and now you can see the entire house of cards that this fight's logic is falling apart. Sasuke's victory condition entirely hinges on a false equivalence between what Kishimoto wanted Deidara's element to be and what he ended up putting it in the databooks and later lore in. my guess as to why this asspull ended up happening? Kishimoto probably realized after getting rid of Deidara that hey, giving the ENTIRE basic ass element of earth the ability to be highly explosive is a tad unbalanced and very, very counterintuitive😁😁😁so Deidara post-mortem ended up getting a Kekkei Genkai, which ended up utterly obliterating the foundation for Sasuke's victory in the previous fight😁😁😁
so, let's walk through why "Raiton > Doton" is not applicable to anything that is actually happening with Deidara's explosive arts. for one, obviously, the element wheel of strengths and weaknesses does not apply to Kekkei Genkai - they exist outside of it. this is why if you check any fan content discussing Bakuton you see the Raiton weakness tag slapped on it - it has to be shoved in because of this battle, even of the chapters concerning it EXPLICITLY talk about the element wheel and Doton's weakness.
then, besides his own Kekkei Genkai Deidara is using two other things that complete his artistic jutsu: the kinjutsu of Iwa and the material he combines the two with, clay. can the kinjutsu be the source of the Raiton weakness? well, it doesn't seem really logical to be that way, after all, the kinjutsu is just a way to mix a person's chakra into some material and keep it inside in a sort of "passive" state until the owner of kinjutsu will put it back into an "active" state (which in Deidara's case means setting off the Bakuton chakra). kinjutsu's definition seems to lack any obvious tie to Doton, like, at no point it seems like the use of Doton is mandatory for its activation + Sasuke's Raiton never actually interacts with the kinjutsu in Deidara, only its products, so I do say the kinjutsu is not the source of the weakness. well, surely the clay must be the mysterious source of Doton to be disabled for Sasuke's Raiton, yes? and here we arrive at another problem which is that clay that Deidara keeps on himself is literally just clay. it's not made with Doton (Doton jutsu can, similarly to Suiton and Katon, produce its element out of nothing, so it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine a Doton jutsu used to summon some clay), it's not transported with Doton, at no point does it get to interact with Doton. the reason why we know it's just your old regular clay is because, if you remember the Kazekage Rescue arc once again, Deidara was complaining and getting a lot of flak from Sasori for "not bringing enough clay" and overall being underprepared - an issue which would not exist if Deidara could just shit out more clay as long as he had enough chakra. so unless Kishimoto in this particular instance was trying to imply that every naturally existing element has chakra in it - and as of right now chakra is a thing exclusive to living beings, so literally how - that clay also can not be introducing the Doton weakness for Sasuke to exploit, it's just a naturally existing material of his choice
you see why? you see why this entire fight is such rage-inducing bullshit? Deidara's jutsu is a combination of three goddamn things and NONE of them by their definition gives this fucking Raiton weakness. the entire foundation for Sasuke's victory - even if we close the eyes on like 5 different debuffs Kishimoto threw at Deidara just for him to give a shit about fighting and losing to Sasuke - is one gigantic asspull that contradicts everything the goddamn power system has, the only way one can accept the justification currently being shoved into readers' faces is if you shut your eyes and ears and just accept that Deidara's Bakuton-powered bombs are just fucking weak to Raiton because fuck you, this is a glorified Sasuke fanfiction we're writing, babyyyyyyy
so, let's take a heavy huff of whatever Kishimoto was smoking while making up this fight, and say: okay, Bakuton is weak to Raiton, even if it's a Kekkei Genkai which exist outside the funny element wheel, whatever, sure. now, we're opening pandora's box here, so let's ask the obvious question: which Kekkei Genkai are OFFICIALLY stated to be weak to basic elements or did Kishimoto specifically fuck over only Bakuton users?
and, as far as I know, yes, in the manga, only people with Bakuton are weak to a basic element :) if we were to break my usual rule of not taking anything anime-related into consideration - yes I am that willing to break my own kneecaps to show how Deidara's final battle is about him getting fucked over by author's will - then we also get Scorch Release which is a combination of Katon and Futon (Fire + Wind), officially used by one Edo Tensei girl from Suna and is weak to Suiton (Water). considering how it's shown to be a literal glorified fireball, fair point, and this, from the element wheel's standpoint, creates a situation where two elements are mixed and a third element overpowers them
this leads us to next question: so what are the basic elements of Bakuton?
while there is no official declaration of that, based on the other available information, there have existed a very very safe bet for many years. first, with HOW MUCH FUCKING YAPPING THERE WAS ABOUT DEIDARA'S WEAKNESS TO RAITON BECAUSE OF DOTON and Bakuton only known to be present in Iwa, one of the elements has to be Doton, which means Bakuton has to one of four possible combinations that Doton has with the other elements. and, with a simple process of elimination as a bunch of other Kekkei Genkai have been confirmed to be a mix of something and Doton, we know what Bakuton's basic elements are!
ladies and gentlemen, Bakuton is a Kekkei Genkai that uses DOTON AND RAITON as its base!
it's honestly amazing how the state of the lore and power system gets driven to absolute shit simply because Kishimoto was this sloppy and in a rush to fix the outcome of His Favorite Boy vs Deidara. absolutely fantastic, just how did we come here
and there are some obviously hilarious implications coming in from Bakuton being a mix of Raiton and Doton. chakra mixing operates on vibes and approximate percentages, so how exactly does this idiotic Raiton weakness work? can the Bakuton owner just mix and match the wrong amount of Raiton and Doton and just accidentaly turn off their own Kekkei Genkai? do they cripple themselves permanently like what Sasuke does to Deidara's bombs? or is it a 5 minute debuff for lols and nothing else?
how the hell does that weakness even work for people who are not Deidara? like, we do realize Bakuton in its regular form does not operate the same way Deidara's art does? the genius behind the Iwa twink adapting what he had at his disposal is that he actually managed to take a Kekkei Genkai working in melee (Gari is our other reference of a Bakuton user and his speciality is taijutsu imbuing Bakuton ffs) to ranged. Bakuton without the kinjutsu doesn't exist an any reasonably stable form, it's a fucking explosion, how would you hit it with a Raiton attack? and why would you be insane enough to do that? if you're getting hit with a Bakuton attack, that means you're already in user's immediate range, and brother, you've got bigger issues than trying to deactivate the explosion that is already aimed to blow your shit cleanly off. you're pulling a Raiton? you'd be better off using it to cut the arm or head off whoever is about to send your ass home in a matchbox
so, to summarize: Kishimoto broke his own rules by treating a Kekkei Genkai as a base element, he made a Kekkei Genkai that is weak to one of its own goddamn parts, and the way the weakness operates fucks over only Deidara specifically as the only guy capable of handling his Kekkei Genkai in a form that last longer than a second👍
but hey, what a strategic fight, ey. so fun. so interactive. Deidara is playing checkers, while Sasuke is playing chess. yahoooooo
man I'm just tired. do we have anything else to add onto this steaming pile of puke?
well, there's this here I suppose. I am not sure how Sasuke managed to fry the mini bombs inside without frying his own brain, but honestly whatever, he doesn't need it anyway, Kishimoto will give all the characters in the verse lobotomy if that happened. I am also not sure if the body has enough conductivity to actually evenly kill all the mini clay chudlings, but I'm just throwing shit at this point, I am not a chemist or biologist to know if that's reasonable or not
and this one (that's Sasuke's answer to Deidara's question as to how the fuck he could see the mines underground). which is. just. lmao. hahahaha. another random power up to the Sharingan I guess and "waaaahhh Sasuke so edgy and sugoi🥹🥹🥹" moment
so remember how I said Sharingan always had the ability to recognize chakra usage, but not the chakra inside the body until Kakashi Gaiden? well, there was an asterix to that, actually: Sharingan always could see chakra if it was in the open, so no obstructions in the way. the epic GoPro 360⁰ vision through everything and cool chakra analysis is a Byakugan ability, and I suppose for this specific fight Sasuke should get it. as a little treat. because the ground should have ensured he had no vision of the mines' actual location. we love Sharingan buffs over here, don't we?
man, this post took me so much time to write and now I am just feeling empty. this fight is so ass and I have 340 chapters more of Sasuke's insufferable bitchface to go through. let's get on with it and see our sweet little prince try to go out in a blaze of glory
