#ask toad

[narutoad]

🔥 love your opinions

oh thank you friend!

unpopular opinion: Shikamaru should have a daughter; either in addition to Shikadai, or they could have written his character as a girl.

why i think that: because it would be hilarious the father-son dynamic has been a huge theme for Shikamaru’s character for the entire time he’s been onscreen. i would have loved to see how he approached fatherhood if he didn’t have a son.

furthermore: we know it was originally in Shikamaru’s goofy little “life plan” to have two kids and then that just never happened. (I like to think Temari was on board until she actually had to give birth, and then she said “I’m not doing this again.”) (Realistically, he decided that before knowing how significant of a status any kids of his would have by default. Heaven help the fools like the clan elders and Amado who try to use any Nara kid as a political bargaining chip.)

it’s weird that everyone except Naruto and Hinata only had one kid; it’s not too late for Temari to be like “surprise I’m pregnant” (though to be entirely honest, given certain similar events in Shippuden… I’d fear for Shikamaru’s life span if this was an actual plot point. History repeating itself and whatnot.)

send me a 🔥 for an unpopular opinion!

[narutoad]

Even NARUTO UZUMAKI himself reads as gay coded bc kishimoto was simply too sexist to give his actual love interest any depth

oooohhhhhh a chance to talk about h*nata let’s GO

i cannot get over the fact that she wasn’t an actual character. hinata was a plot device from the moment she was introduced. her team was stunted the most, she lost every fight she was in, her few moments of bravery were always bolstered by her crippling crush on naruto, and she didn’t even have her own “ninja way.” she heard naruto’s and was like “yeah that sounds good!” the absolute lack of effort put into developing hinata hyuga is astounding and equally upsetting and hilarious.

and there’s nothing wrong with her goals in life or where she wound up. there’s nothing wrong with being peaceful, or softspoken, or a wife and mother, or gentle, or anything like that. but if you’re going to have a character like that in a world that is not peaceful or gentle, you cannot make them a throwaway character until you need your main man to get married. (very similar to how tenten’s story is not a tale of feminism even though she’s the only one of her peers to not get married and have children; it feels more like her lifestyle is an explanation of her absence than a definitive choice for her character.)

just imagine if they’d given any of sasuke’s storyline to hinata, or at least expanded on those themes with her as the central figure. easiest example is “bonds.” she has so many ties to other characters (re: plot device) and could have been an excellent model of why those bonds are so important, how to repair breaking bonds, things like that. imagine if we saw the revolution of the hyuga clan through her eyes in contrast to the infamous downfall of the uchiha clan. the parallel that could have been drawn between hinata and sasuke, ultimately making her later relationship with naruto more plausible.

instead she has a fruity husband and a demon child and a small clone of herself

[narutoad]

you ever think about how kishimoto made sakura and ino gay and just fucking sucked at it? like not on purpose but they just read as two lesbian teenagers who let the comp het get to their heads

all the time

i think there’s actually something to be said about how a lot of the characters and relationships are interpreted by queer viewers (including myself) as also being queer, and for how strongly these arguments can be made. usually you can look at a show and play spot-the-gay-coded-character and get a lot of mileage from that, but i feel like that can be done with the majority of the characters in the ncu (naruto cinematic universe)

sakura and ino in particular. they’re besties. they’re rivals. they need each other to make themselves better. they’d sell each other to satan for one corn chip. they’re obsessed with the same guy who doesn’t like either of them for 99.9% of the series. who’s to say they can’t be lovers too?

[narutoad]

all im saying is a beautiful moment in the chunin exams would've been if hinata just surrendered. just said "No, I'll sacrifice the title of Chunin, because you don't deserve to be my underling" and it would've perfectly set up Neji realizing people can defy destiny. the strong rejecting their strength is just as important as the weak rejecting their weakness and it would've perfectly set up her conflict as the heiress and im just saying the same thing but with different words

(miss girl wasn’t about to become a chunin anyway but this is indeed a Thought)

“the strong rejecting their strength” i’ve been thinking about this for days. hinata never even got to reject her “strength” because she was the heir to a powerful shinobi family. she HAD to become a ninja. even if neji was right (and i think he was) when he said “you don’t even want to be in the exams right now, you just didn’t want to let down your teammates and prevent them from participating in the exams” hinata CLUNG to the “strength” she was given (aka a few words from her sponsor, Naruto) and didn’t walk away from the future she was not cut out for and likely did not want to pursue until she became a housewife and mother.

props to her for using misogyny to her benefit and being like “oh no how could i possibly ever be a shinobi when i have kids to take care of” at her earliest convenience… but i wish that hadn’t been the case.

[narutoad]

also hinata should've gotten way more intense and self-respecting she should've told her dad she was gonna whoop his whole ass and she should've said it in front of neji to make it hit different

PERIOD

we all know she couldn’t whoop hiashi’s ass (she could really rip into him verbally though) but you know who probably could? neji. so like. idk they could have made a pretty unstoppable team.

[narutoad]

kind of hate how kishimoto never bothered to like. let hinata and neji come to an understanding. it would've been much needed depth for neji, to find some person who is in control of him who refuses that station, and while he could rightfully call hinata out for still having power over him, it would've done wonders to his character development to see that the strong can, in fact, reject their place, just as the weak can. and it would've tied in so much better to hinata's theme of refusing power if she genuinely sought reconcilliation with neji, if she was GENUINELY horrified at how her family treated his

^^^

we all remember when that boy got his world turned upside down by naruto saying “hey that thing you’re mad about? stop being mad about it and do what you want to do!” so imagine if hinata just… validated him. if (instead of, or in addition to Naruto) she was like “yeah our family sucks and they’ve been awful to me too, we should Do Something About It Together” his head would have actually exploded at the thought. that would have made WAY more sense and been a real eye-opener (haha) for Neji.

and then Hinata would have been relevant to the plot and Neji would have had a reason to start captaining the Hinata Protection Squad (other than “sorry for being a jerk because of my preconceived notions about you”) and both of them would have gotten some justice

[narutoad]

Idk if this is a hot take but it annoys me that we never see Kushina rlly pursue being Hokage even though that was her childhood dream. But I guess husbsnd and son get to live out the dream for her right? Right 😑 I could talk about how all the Uzumaki women get some really short-hands with minimal healing for self (i.e. Karin) but that's a discussion for another day.

yeah what was up with that?? child kushina got in a fistfight with child minato on sight over it (if i’m remembering correctly oops) and then she decided, what, she’d rather just have minato’s baby than his job because he was just that cute?

and KARIN?? hellooooo. alas, another underdeveloped female character. they kept her around for the comedy, the drama, and to be bitten. (her Moment during the war was badass; i’ll give her that)

[narutoad]

im trying to come up with naruto hot takes but it's just shit you agree with. "neji's death was a total disservice to his entire character arc" yeah we know. "all the girls ending up married or dead with only ONE exception who's running a failing weapons shop is sexist as hell" YEAH WE ALL KNOW. LIKE the hot take mill is there but we all agree on this shit!

you get me

but fr i don’t even know what other controversial opinions i have to share and get semi-canceled over