< Die for Our Ship
Die for Our Ship/Naruto
There are very few people in Naruto who don't get bashed for one reason or another in terms of shipping.
In general, most of this sheer amount of Die for Our Ship arises from Naruto being one of the longest Shonen series in recent history, and there being a lot of filler (in the anime) and a fair amount of Narm in the storytelling as a result. Hence the annoying traits of the characters are drawn out and emphasized along with their good points. As Character Development tends to occur over a looong time frame with many points being hammered in hard over time, this results in relationship development being delayed to coincide with character growth (It also helps that Sasuke is gone from the village and Naruto unwilling to end up with Sakura until he brings Sasuke back, preventing two of the key players in the Love Dodecahedron from acting on anyone's feelings). This isn't a criticism of the series, it's just a consequence of its long life, serial nature, and Shonen audience. However, as a result it gives ample time for the fans to examine the canon material with a fine tooth comb and dwell extensively on examples and aspects of characters they don't like or simply find too annoying and plot and scheme about slow-growing relationships. Hence why if you look through any 4chan message boards you'll not only find enough fanfic to keep you covered until the end of the known universe but you'll also need a very very large container of Brain Bleach. No, really.
- Sakura Haruno gets it the worst, having the dual misfortune of being a girl that hangs around boys shipped together (Naruto/Sasuke) and standing in the way of the major Fan-Preferred Couple (Naruto/Hinata). It didn't help that for the first half of Naruto, she was a Clingy Jealous Girl to Sasuke, which makes fans deliberately ignore her subsequent Character Development -- which started while she was still a Clingy Jealous Girl. It doesn't matter to the fanbutts that Sakura's will to stop being The Load gave her motivation, or that she came to care for Sasuke as the utterly damaged person he is/was instead of just mooning for "Sasuke-kun", or that she did toughen up to become an true Action Girl, or that she shows realistic reactions to all the shit that befalls her and Naruto: she's still "The Pink Roach" to them. And even if she was designed to (initially) invoke This Loser Is You, she still does not deserve the shit that fangirls give her. Unfortunately, the bashing has spread to this very wiki, particularly in the light of Chapter 469, which is apparently a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Sakura-bashers and "fandom feminists" who enjoy bashing every Naruto female except for Temari or Kushina.
- An even more extreme case is Karin, Sasuke's team mate, who gets bashed from both SasuSaku and SasuNaru fans, although the former are more virulent about it. Fans often make Karin into an oversexed nympho with constantly opened legs (when she's almost the exact opposite) who tries so hard to "steal Sasuke from his rightful lover Sakura and/or Naruto", especially if the fic's setting is High School. True, Karin's infatuation with Sasuke was unhealthy and obsessive -- she did plan to drug his teammates and rape him. But the shippers' attitude towards her still carries a whiff of this trope, since they ignore that most of her antics are Played for Laughs and as more of a character flaw than a marker of being "a bad person", that Sasuke knew about all this when he recruited her for his team, and that beyond this she does genuinely care for him.
- All of which is ultimately rendered moot by later events in canon, like Sasuke crossing the Moral Event Horizon by trying to kill Karin and Karin being saved only by Sakura's intervention - which is followed by Sasuke stabbing her In the Back. There's probably something to be learned from all this.
- Yes, 'that Kishimoto can never be trusted'. Because after all that Sasuke has done to her, Karin still goes back to loving him less than 100 chapters later. *rolleyes*
- All of which is ultimately rendered moot by later events in canon, like Sasuke crossing the Moral Event Horizon by trying to kill Karin and Karin being saved only by Sakura's intervention - which is followed by Sasuke stabbing her In the Back. There's probably something to be learned from all this.
- There's a fair amount regarding the Ino/Shikamaru/Temari triangle. Shika/Tema fans often turn Ino into a shallow and shrill bimbo who only thinks of her looks and is way too stupid for Shikamaru. Shika/Ino fans often bash Temari by making her a domineering and cruel Yandere-bitch who stops at nothing to make Shikamaru hers. Now, a new girl named Shiho has taken a romantic interest in Shikamaru, becoming the triangle's Third Option Love Interest; both Shikamaru/Temari and Shikamaru/Ino fans want her to die in a fire.
- Hinata Hyuga is bashed a lot for liking Naruto or (according to some fans) her cousin Neji. There are several fics where Hinata finds out that Naruto has the Kyuubi trapped inside him and proceeds to hate or fear him, only to be slapped into shape by Sakura. (The idea was Jossed in Ch. 355-356, when she doesn't react when it's mentioned around her). There's also the hate she receives for her characterization as a Shrinking Violet and a developing Yamato Nadeshiko, with such fans saying that "she's too weak and shy and doesn't deserve Naruto". Naruto/Hinata and Naruto/Sakura pairing wars get ugly; it's always assumed that Naruto/Hinata fans bash Sakura (a majority of them don't), and Naruto/Sakura fans bash Hinata (again, a majority of them don't).
- Has become specially ugly lately, since Naruto has saved Hinata's life in the middle of the Shinobi War and has aknowledged her as a strong person. The Sasuke/Naruto shippers on several places (specially Tumblr) have gone berserk at that, pouring tons o shit on poor Hinata and the Naru/Hina shippers.
- Naru/Saku shippers prefer to attack Sakura's mother! She's had about two lines in the anime and has made no appearance in the manga, but Naru/Saku shippers unleash the fury of Hell upon her.
- Everybody attacks Sakura's mother.
- Shino is badly treated in the few fics about Kiba/Hinata. This is odd because Shino seems to have no romantic designs on Hinata at all.
- It's bad enough that so many characters are treated to Die for Our Ship in favor of the virtually asexual and very troubled Sasuke, but the equally virtually asexual Shino is treated to this for a ship on a much more minor scale… seriously. If there was something called shipping dissonance, the Naruto fandom would have it covered.
- Many yaoi fangirls tend to to pair Kiba with Hinata at first only for him to realise in the end that she is a manipulative bitch and have him fall in love with Shino or another male character in the end.
- Kiba often gets characterized as easily jealous and overprotective of Hinata.
- Fics that pair Hinata with someone other than Naruto tend to have to explain at some point why she is not pursuing or with him. Some may indicate that Hinata decided that she wasn't actually in love with Naruto, but others kill Naruto off or have him reject her in favor of Sakura without any regard for her feelings.
- Neji is sometimes treated poorly in fanfics that pair Hinata with someone else (especially if that someone else isn't Naruto), and he is sometimes portrayed as hating Hinata even after his Heel Face Turn. Oddly, Neji rarely suffers in Tenten/Lee ships.
- If she is paired with Naruto chances are he all look at her the wrong way and you die.
- Even minor characters get it. Matsuri appeared as one of two Gaara fangirls in the manga. In a Filler arc of the anime, she had the misfortune of being introduced as the only one willing to accept Gaara as her teacher during a training session. Raging fangirls hate her guts because of the possible Hot for Student-like Ship Tease moments she had with Gaara, something NO other girl on the show ever had. This page shows just how far Fan Dumb can go...
- Then there are the Unfortunate Implications that these Gaara "fans" want the only person (besides his siblings, Naruto, and maybe his mentor) that would give him a chance to die. Apparently, they want Gaara to have more reasons to morbidly depressed, lonely, and suicidal. Let the guy have a companion, people. He really needs it.
- Sai not only gets criticism from Shika/Ino shippers, but also gets lots of flak from Naru/Hina shippers for telling Sakura how much Naruto loves her, even though it's shown later that he's no Shipper on Deck, in fact suggesting that Naruto's promise to bring back Sasuke for Sakura's sake is causing him no small amount of pain. This is partly because Sakura initially assumes that if she offers Naruto her love (sincerely or falsely), he will give up on Sasuke, although this most likely was not what Sai had in mind.
- It doesn't help that he was emotionally repressed and he feel into total stoic mode because the only person he cared for like a brother died. He reads books on relationships and love because he can't understand it by himself. In the real world, he would have to undergo intense therapy (actually a lot of characters need to). Then there are the fan fics that depict him reading porn that makes him decide to capture a female cast member and try it out on top of the fact he doesn't know sexual assault is wrong, effectively calling him an ignorant rapist. This is despite the fact that he must already know what sex is because we see him insult Naruto by stating that his "package" must be small. That just indicates that he probably knows what "packages" are for and why it is an insult in the first place.
- Asuma, one half of the few offical couples in the series, gets treated poorly in some fics that pairs Kurenai with Kakashi.
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