This Is Lovely! And For The Most Part, I Agree.

This is lovely! And for the most part, I agree.

But I think the reason we aren't shown Sasuke's eyes and the entirety of Sakura's face during the 2nd "thank you" scene is because it was an intimate and special scene, so we aren't shown how Sasuke looks at Sakura when he said "thank you" and we're instead shown the emphasis of him thanking Sakura.

And likewise we aren't granted to see the entirety of Sakura's face when we see the reaction of Sasuke's forehead poke and "thank you" had on her, the half of her face shown was enough to convey her reaction.

Chapter 181: The Star Crossed Lovers - Sasuke’s “Thank You”

Out of all the chapters in Part 1 of the series, Chapter 181 is by far the most emotional chapter in regards to Sasuke and Sakura’s love story. It was at this point in the series that we get our first glimpse into Sasuke’s feelings towards Sakura in it’s purest form. For she’s the only one in the village who gets to see Sasuke’s gentle side before he hardens himself to everyone. 

Sakura’s feelings for Sasuke had grown exponentially from infatuation to true love. She didn’t want him to suffer because of the curse mark and she didn’t want him to be consumed by hatred or revenge. While Sasuke had allowed her to present her argument to him without running away, knocking her out, or killing her immediately. Instead he tried to reason with her and listened to her feelings once again before hinting to her that he remembered her first confession just like she did. 

When Sakura threatened to scream in order to warn the village, Sasuke came up close behind her and softly said: “Sakura…Thank you.”

Here are some of the Data book descriptions about this scene. 

“Growing distant, towards darkness.. the one to appear before him as he began to leave was Sakura. To the back of a Sasuke that tried to face away from what was left behind, Sakura desperately conveys her feelings. Bright and earnest feelings - feelings that did not want to lose Sasuke. The one who filled his lonely existence with the emotion called love was Sakura. But as expected, Sasuke cannot respond to those feelings. Sasuke was only able to leave a single word of thanks as a parting.”

“Sakura, who needed him to the last. His words are not a deceit but his true feelings.”

“Sasuke is trying to leave the village, and Sakura implores him to give up that idea. In response to her wish, Sasuke answers her with a simple ‘You’re annoying.’ They are the same words that he uttered back when Team Kakashi was formed… but so many missions have passed since then, and now the meaning that he puts into those same words differ greatly. Even though he understands the love that she feels for him, in order to sever all his connections Sasuke turns his back to the village.”

I’d also like to point out Sasuke’s first expression as he walks past Sakura: 

His eyes are closed. his eyebrows are furrowed, and his expression isn’t indifference: it’s pained. 

I counted how many pages their conversation lasts and it goes on for 14 pages. Translate that into time during this moment and Sasuke listened to Sakura for around 5 to 7 minutes tops. Would he give Naruto this much attention? Or Kakashi? Or literally anyone in the village? No. He would later go on to fight Naruto almost to the death and he already threatened to kill Kakashi back at the hospital. But Sakura? He cursed because he thought it was too late to stop his attack when she interrupted his fight on the rooftop with Naruto, he didn’t shove her away when she hugged him in the hospital, he didn’t threaten to kill her or physically harm her at any point leading up to his departure. 

As Kishimoto states “Sakura was the last person Sasuke ever wanted to hurt.” 

We can see this is still the case in Shippuden when they meet again for the first time in years when Sasuke uses his Chidori Stream to attack Sai, Naruto, and Yamato but doesn’t use it against Sakura. 

Sasuke’s eyes were hidden when he said “Thank you” and hidden when he walked past her. Love comes in at the eyes and if Sasuke had looked her in the eyes as he past would he have been able to leave? 

Chapter 181 was a scene straight out of Shakespeare’s plays. It was almost like Hamlet’s “I LOVED OPHELIA!!” scene or the infamous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. 

If they were not considered a couple or their feelings weren’t considered romantic for each other, would this scene carry the lasting impact that it does today for Naruto fans across the board? 

(PS: Please don’t remove anything from this post. Thanks) 

sasusaku stans will never ever get over this and should never get over this. this was an unforgettable moment. this was the moment .

I agree, I like their friendship and I don't ship Giyu with anyone in the show.

Although I do want to know who Giyu ended up with and how.

I just basically want to see more of the characters after their battle with Muzan.

Am i the only person who doesn’t ship Giyuu and Shinobu??

Like i see them as friends but i can’t imagine them as anything more

I’m getting kinda annoyed how they keep not addressing the growing power imbalance between Ladybug and Chat Noir, setting aside Personal feelings, Ladybug is now in charge of the miraculous and the duo but has been making unilateral decisions that effect both of them and has been growing more and more liberal with making decisions for people, trying to take Chat Noir’s identity in ephemeral without his consent being the most egregious example. I understand why she does this and the narrative always makes it clear that she does these for a reason but they refuse to address it head on.

Chat Noir is not being treated as a partner that he’s called his consent and agreement assumed instead of acquired. This isn’t just a personal issue and even with minor things like retrieving the miraculous Ladybug’s automatic response in to keep Chat out of it even when it’s inconvenient to do so like when she snapped at him when he offered to collect the Miraculous.

Obviously the best time to address this is the season finale but it’s worrying that so far this has been subtext instead of being talked about. He’s being treated as a employee instead of partner.

This is not Ladybug salt by the by while ill conceived Marinette’s actions are always shown to come from a reasonable place.

Yeah, this is one of the main points of contention I've seen about Kuro Neko so far. Not what it's done, but what it DIDN'T do. It addressed the whole "Chat Noir feeling left out and shunted aside" issue, and showed that Ladybug DOES care about his feelings, though she has trouble grasping his mindset. But it didn't really address the inequality between them, or all the secrets Ladybug's been keeping, or like you said, the whole consent issue. (Still trying to figure out why she was so snappy with Chat Noir about him retrieving some of the Miraculous...)

I guess a lot of it comes down to whether this is the start of the healing process for Ladynoir, or the end of it. If this is the end of it, then yeah, it's really not enough as it doesn't address a lot of the core incidents that led to relations breaking down between them in the first place. It addresses some of Adrien's deep emotional concerns - not being wanted or needed - but not the incidents that led to him feeling like he isn't wanted or needed anymore, or even trusted at all (beyond Ladybug just being able to call on heroes to fill in for him). There's a fear that'll be like Hack-san, in that the secrets will be smoothed over just by Ladybug affirming that she cares for Chat, without there being any actual change in their dynamic - something that helped in the moment, but we saw how well that held up, with Rocketear taking place next episode.

If it's the BEGINNING of healing the Ladynoir Conflict, I think that it works. It deals with the biggest emotional hurdles between them, some of the core conflicts, so hopefully they can actually talk things out later. But that will depend on whether there IS a "later".

I'm enjoying Kuro Neko right now, especially with Marinette finding out that Chat IS badly affected by things, and showing that she does care about Chat's feelings and wants HIM, not just a Black Cat Holder - he's her friend. Plus, Adrien got some development and went through some self-discovery about who HE is, about his identity crisis. But there does need to be more than that, and a fundamental shift in the way their partnership functions, to bring it back to something a little more equitable. Chat Noir being kept in the loop at least.

This is 100% canon.

I know because I said so.

Because you exist, Sarada

idk if i have brains to comment properly right now, but i'm sure that i don't understand why we need to have this same scenario over and over; where ladybug neglects her partner for one reason or another, he gets depressed, she realizes she actually "needs" him, chat apologizes (for some fucking reason???) and then she tells him he's irreplaceable.

why is this scenario happening again and again without things actually changing?

i mean we have 15 superheroes in penalteam

i don't understand the point of all of this and i don't understand why is the show making adrien apologize for just feeling things and nobody even tells him he should stop doing that.