Wait, you ship ZabuHaku? Wasn't Haku like 14/15 and Zabuza 30 something? No offense. I'm not here to argue. Just for my sanity I don't like to interact with blogs that ship questionable stuff (like huge age gaps, incest, etc.).
I'm pretty sure Zabuza didn't like Haku the way Haku liked him. I hope he didn't, that's gross. (Whatever ancient tales of young boys being with old men that ZH may resemble is irrelevant). This isn't about a ship argument, "I like Zabuza or Haku better with [insert other characters]", no it's not that. It's just that age gap ships where someone is a minor or has been cared for/watched by the adult are sick. Even if that was Kishimoto's intent (I hope it wasn't), doesn't make it right.
Anyway, I'm definitely not gonna harass you or anything. I'll just block and move on.
Anyone who has known me for quite sometime knows that I don't ship them... Which I have talked about here and here
Not only in this post... I've mentioned about it in more than 10 posts but I couldn't find all of them... And as time went on, people started to ask questions related to that bond and I answered it accordingly... Because of the parallels it has with SNS. You could read here if you want to. I can't be making such disclaimer in every post, you see. It's tiring.
Writing about their bond or listing them in Top 10 ships doesn't mean I ship them... It means I acknowledge the nature of their bond despite my opinion and that's all. Just like I hate Sakura but I never fail to acknowledge her fight sequence with Sasori for 10 chapters whereas Naruto got just 6 (??). And yet I can't be going on about her Sasori fight in every Anti-Sakura posts of mine like, "Hey, I hate Sakura... But her Sasori fight is something I acknowledge"...
Also, please know that Kishimoto wrote Zabuza and Haku in a certain ambiguous way to be coded as 'Romantic'. Just because you don't like it or approve of it, it doesn't make their existence unreal, you know. In Game of Thrones, Jaime and Cersei are twins... But they bang each other in the very first episode... Just because I get disgusted with Incest, it doesn't make their bond as 'unromantic' you know???. In the final season, they die together in a twisted and tragic way... And all I felt was 'pity and sadness' even though I was disgusted with them in the beginning not because I ended up shipping them but because I ended up liking their characters individually.
As for the huge Age Gaps... I talked about it in the above attached posts... But still I want to add some more... I assume you are definitely not from Eastern Fandom... So, Let’s talk about Taboo topics and Fandom perspective, Shall we??
Read this A++++ post from another Blogger who talked about the difference between English speaking fandom and Chinese Fandom. I’ll requote the Interesting bits here...
In the Very first paragraph OP says,
Because of course there is, different cultural context, different things people find abhorrent, and so one must take extra care not to go all “if you don’t also find the things I find disgusting, then you are being disgusting” when one is entering into a fandom that was not of your culture. *nudge* *nudge*
This is my stance as well, in regarding to this post.
There is a clear cultural context, preference between Western and Eastern Fandom. We simply can’t be saying, “Ewww.... You are a pedophile because you are shipping it...”. Naruto was written by a Japanese Author and he simply wrote it for his Audience.... So, Your point about, It's just that age gap ships where someone is a minor or has been cared for/watched by the adult are sick. Even if that was Kishimoto's intent (I hope it wasn't), doesn't make it right.
Simply doesn’t make sense.
I assumed that you are not from Eastern Fandom because if you were, you wouldn’t be bringing up this argument in the first place. Because Chinese/Japanese/Korean or any other part of Asian Fandom don’t usually bother with Age Gaps.
Case in point: Chinese fandom, does not really care if you ship incest, or underage. They really don’t give a shit. Yeah the shippers wouldn’t do it in real life, but if someone does an incest side-pairing in a fantasy webnovel the readers wouldn’t bat an eye.
This I know all too well.
I’ve read a fair bit of web novels (hetero and homo) from China... Out of which 2 had couples with extreme age gap... AND THEY ARE CRAZY POPULAR... Even to the extent of adapting it into an Anime. Scum Villain Self Saving System (SVSSS) is one of the novel which is all about the romance between a Master and his Disciple... Same with The Husky and his White Cat Shizun. They are the 2 popular Yaoi Novels in China.
Now, Are you going to call those Authors, Millions of Fans and myself to be Pedophiles or Morally wrong doers... Just because we read them and liked it???? I liked these novels because the Plot was freaking strong and it has so much going on in it... The Age factor never bothered me (or anyone who liked it) at any point...
And why is this Western Morality Projection onto an Eastern Media, I wonder???
On the other hand, Chinese fandom does not take to polyamory or polygamy or even “I had previous relationships before I entered this one where the plot things started happening.” They do not like it. The ship must be exclusive and monogamous. One of them can have some previous relationships but the audience will hold that as a black mark against their soul forever onwards. Seriously. To the point where a character who had several previous romances is often used as a narrative shorthand to show how horrible a person they are.
This is also veryyyyyyyyy true... I’ve never come across a single novel which had a character who was with more than 1 character.
Polyamorous Relationship is a strict NOOOOO even in their smut novels. It just that concept doesn’t appeal them because of the cultural reasons which the OP mentioned in that post.
However,
When it comes to Western Fandom.. Ahem Ahem.... Why do I find Threesome and Foursome, Gang bang in Ao3 Naruto related Explicit fics???? That too very frequently???? There are so many Team 7 Gangbang fics in Ao3 but I never found such things from Asian Fandom though. Does it means can I say (for Argument’s sake) Western Fandom is full of gangbangers in real life????
Anyways, I know that’s not true.
So, Can we just agree that different fandoms has different kinks and we just have to acknowledge/respect it and move on????
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To Conclude,
The only two ships (non-canonical) I actively ship in Naruto is SNS and HashiMada. Haku/Zabuza is something, I acknowledge their nature and that’s all. I don’t ship them... I won’t be arguing about it with anyone or I won’t make headcanons about them (Heck! I don’t even do this for SNS)... Or I won’t be writing glorious singular posts about them like I do with SNS.
But I suggest you to block me anyway. I don’t want anyone to follow me if they are this sensitive and I can’t be making Disclaimers in every one of my posts.
Wait, what's going on pixiv? I don't mean anything negative, I sensed that there was something problematic there, I'm not going to judge, but I'm interested
well, people post art there, you see, and some people like to harass people who make art of things they don't like 🫡
