Reread Update: I really don’t like the way that Sasuke is written in Shippuden, acting like an angry rude know-it-all who repeatedly hurts people and makes dangerous decisions. I have trouble sympathizing with him
[[ “Acting like an angry, rude know-it-all, who hurts people, and makes dangerous decisions.”
Er, level with me here. Orochimaru is a criminal. Orochimaru has committed countless atrocities. He’s experimented on children and adults alike. He regularly kidnaps prisoners, to steal their jutsu and force them to work for him. He has groomed countless children into soldiers who die for him, while he does not actually care for them at all. He obsesses over Sasuke’s technique, blood, and body, and seeks to take Sasuke’s body for his own. Sasuke did not receive the curse mark willingly.
Pray tell, exactly how is Sasuke scolding him and calling him out on all the things he’s done (which are not justifiable in any way), work negatively against Sasuke at all? This is the second time since Itachi that Orochimaru has been put in his place.
I’m sorry, but if you think this kind of discussion works against Sasuke, I urge you to re-evaluate how you are reading this manga. Orochimaru has had a punishment coming to him for a very long time. Nothing Sasuke is saying is untrue. Or is your anger perhaps directed at the fact Sasuke was mean to Orochimaru, who you are clearly a fan of? I too, enjoy Orochimaru’s character immensely, but I do not excuse his actions, nor do I protect him from the punishment he has had long due.
Sasuke is written excellently, in my honest opinion. He too, could’ve been a victim of Orochimaru’s in the sense he gained a form of loyalty, or sympathy, but Sasuke remained himself while in Otogakure, and did not fall for any of Orochimaru’s tricks.
Orochimaru only has himself to blame for this scenario, and Sasuke had every right to go at him. ]]
Thank you so much! I’m not sure about “best” because Sasuke’s great in so many ways and it’s hard to be objective about it, but these are the first ones that come to mind when I think about this.
1. His belief in himself.
It took some time to build up, but after Sasuke left the Village (and before the ending) he never wavered when it came to his personal belief that if he wants something done, he is capable of doing it. I find it very admirable that against all odds he still fights for himself and doesn’t even question that maybe he can’t do what he wants to do.
2. His desire for autonomy.
Even though it doesn’t work out for him a lot and he ends up being manipulated I think that his drive to have control in his own life is really admirable and there’s so many examples of this but the one coming to mind right now is when Taka starts working with the Akatsuki and Sasuke’s all “Don’t forget, we’re the ones using them.” It’s like wow even in this situation where you’re literally working for other people you’re working for yourself and refusing to be manipulated. (And then he was manipulated anyway). But it’s the thought that counts!!
3. His honesty.
I’m too lazy to explain this one fully but -gestures to the scene where Orochimaru tells Sasuke he needs to be heartless and Sasuke replies that he’ll be heartless when he faces Itachi-. Like… he knows how he feels and there’s no embarrassment in it. Also he apologizes when he’s fucked up like he did to Karin after the Kage Summit Arc. Yeah.
Worst qualities…
I have a hard time answering this. I don’t mean that Sasuke’s perfect but when it comes to his “bad” qualities a lot of them like… don’t apply all the time or aren’t really indicative of his personality so much as the situation he’s in? Like I could talk about how he tends to be self-absorbed and not pay as much attention to the problems of others or think that he’s the only one with difficult trials or that his are the hardest, but then I’m also like– the only person whose trials Sasuke ever really saw are Naruto’s because he was unconscious or not present for practically the entire Chuunin Exams, then past Shippuden no one really talks about it in front of him or anything, and like he’s not the type to ask pretty much until Hashirama so it’s kinda like? Not surprising he makes those assumptions? But then again he did tell Hashirama that Itachi suffered more than him so like, lol, but by the time any of that happened he was pretty low on his ability to empathize with people just in general. Is that a flaw of his? I don’t know, it’d have to depend on if that could ever change.
And then he can be a pretty bad listener sometimes like when Karin was like “Hey Sasuke I think Konoha are after us do you want to plan something” and Sasuke was just like “no whatever we’ll just fight them if they get to us” like uh Sasuke? That’s a terrible idea. But again that isn’t true all the time so it’s like, is that Sasuke or is he just sometimes a bad listener? Is that important enough to call it one of his worst qualities?
He holds himself overly accountable for stuff like I remember during the Chuunin Exams there’s this part where he’s hallucinating that a younger version of himself is talking to him and blaming him for the Massacre and I’m like– Sasuke you weren’t even home when it happened let alone the fact you were literally seven and couldn’t have done anything but like, that’s a result of trauma.
IDK, maybe I’m just biased but I find it hard to list off his “worst” qualities without taking context into consideration and whether or not those behaviours are persistent. Sasuke’s pretty malleable and adapts to different situations so pinning down particular qualities and being like “Yeah that’s Sasuke all the time” can be hard although there’s a few ones that I can think of that are consistent that way and they’re all positive lol
[[ Sasuke X Justice OTP. (If you want to go further back, it was Sasuke x Vengeance.)
However, I don’t think he “shipped” himself with anyone when talking about an actual person, and assuming shipping means a romantic/sexual relationship. That kind of stuff simply wasn’t on his mind and was completely unimportant, since he was so heavily obsessed with his goal of killing Itachi, or getting revenge for Itachi later. Romance was forced on him. ]]
[[ Things you try not to think about:
Juugo probably followed Sasuke all the way back to the village gates after the end of the war, trying to keep his promise to stick by his side. ]]
Business As Usual
Redemption Knows No Haircuts
I Guess I Have To Hide The Eye™
10/10 Dead Inside Status Achieved
[[ This is funny to me. ]]
[[ Sasuke’s sword post war: a bunch of rambling by me.
Alternatively titled: In which Esu thinks too hard about Sasuke’s weapon. ]]
So this morning I got to thinking about Sasuke’s switch from his Grass Cutter Kusanagi (his signature Chokuto) to….whatever sword he has in Gaiden.
Originally, I thought Sasuke lost the entire sword in the lava while fighting Kaguya.
This is somewhat of a relief because I was slowly losing my shit over the fact Sasuke has the sword (and a new scabbard) in his reference sheet for The Last. I pulled up an anime reference sheet first but I generally don’t trust those, not with how many edits they made to Kishimoto’s original sketches.
Right, so, he clearly still has Kusanagi. As in he picked it back up, it was given back to him, etc etc, one can kind of freely headcanon how he got his sword back but he made a point of traveling with it and get the scabbard replaced with an identical one.
This, however raises the question of…..when did he choose to give this one up? More importantly, why? What would drive Sasuke to pick up an entirely new sword? We’ve seen how durable and useful his Kusanagi is, what’s so good about the sword he’s using that he gave up his previous one completely?
My running theory, for the when, at least, is he started with the new sword around the time of his novel, but, the only image I can find by Kishimoto doesn’t even properly depict a sword.
(That still doesn’t answer why, I guess that is lost to the ages.)
Unfortunately this is….unclear. It certainly seems to look like his new sword, as the scabbard doesn’t have the black line running through it like his Kusanagi did. We also have little way of telling if this end of the sword is the hilt or the blade, ugh. (It does extend slightly under his cloak, between the foot and the cat, so this is a sword scabbard.)
Now, about that new sword….
AFAIK, Sasuke’s novel (the original text) doesn’t go into detail about the sword. Not in the sense of “this sword is new and different.” It only mentions when he’s using it. So for someone who doesn’t know Sasuke has switched swords they could very well visualize him using his original Kusanagi.
But the animated version of Sasuke Shinden absolutely depicts his Adult Sword. Granted, I did choose not to watch Sasuke Shinden because they shifted story elements around. I did some googling and was completely unable to find screenshots/stills of Sasuke’s scabbard during the duration of his animated novel (if he even has one in the animated version).
More about the scabbard….
Top Photo: Official Reference sheet of Sasuke from Boruto The Movie. His scabbard is a dark red.
Middle Photo: Official Kishimoto Illustration of Sasuke’s scabbard during his novel. It is a dark blue/purple.
Bottom Photo: Screenshot of Sasuke mid-fight with Kinshiki in Boruto The Movie. Scabbard appears Maroon– but this is due to the overall color palette in the scene. The scabbard matches the top photo I twould be a dark red.
Now for some colors from Ikemoto, Boruto’s current artist.
This sword has a black scabbard.
Ikemoto has currently updated Sasuke with a new outfit and this probably means a new scabbard.
Conclusion: Sasuke just changes scabbards pretty often.
The sword itself is exactly the same, just with a shiny new scabbard. Makes sense, since he loves to change outfits, too.
Now….what exactly is this sword? I honestly just keep calling it Kusanagi because that’s what I’m used to, but this sword doesn’t have a name and as outline above, we have no insight as to why Sasuke chose it and replaced his previous chokuto with this one.
Let’s see what the actual Kusanagi sword looks like…