countdown to Karin's bd; day 4
My favorite tsun!Karin moment: chapter 363
This moment will always mean a lot to me, because it was the moment that turned Karin and SasuKarin from a character / a pairing I was interested in, to my favorite female in PII and Sasuke OTP respectively. While Karin had already chided Sasuke for acting as the leader from the get-go, it wasn’t until this moment that it dawned on me that, yes, the girl I had been waiting for to pair up with Sasuke had come at last - and not solely as theoretical potential, like say, Ino, but in actual practice. In factual canon.
But leaving that aside, this moment is my favorite because it serves as a nice overall summary of the dichotomy of Karin’s character and of her dynamic with Sasuke.
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傷だらけのサスケもカッコイイ。。。 Sasuke is cool/attractive even when he's all bruised up...
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I find it worth noting that, unlike how the anime handled the scene (by having Suigetsu address her, thus unknowingly making her snap out of her dereness), Karin switches from dere to tsun without any outside prompting whatsoever. Unlike in the anime, she doesn’t do it to save face; she does it because a reminder to Sasuke is in order.
What I mean is that, even while she is admiring his coolness and/or his psyche, Karin is still perfectly capable not only of noticing Sasuke’s mistakes and short-comings but of pointing them out to him whenever. As a matter of fact, she is prone to doing it - and that's great because considering how self-centered and arrogant Sasuke can be, he needs someone like that by him.
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だらしねエ！！それでも大蛇丸をやった男かよ！ How careless!! And yet you are the man who beat Orochimaru!
The only reason Sasuke is in such a state is that he underestimated Deidara. He was reckless and paid the price; Karin rightfully points this out to him, without hesitation and without mincing her words. She doesn’t fear whether Sasuke will like what she is about to say or not, and she means what she is saying because she is right.
Notice how Sasuke himself can’t deny it; so rather than reacting rudely or dismissing her words altogether, he yields by admitting that Orochimaru was already weak and that’s why he beat him in the first place.
So, I love this moment because it goes to show that Karin isn’t blind nor to Sasuke’s virtues nor to his flaws. She acknowledges both sides of the coin and gives each its rightful value as the circumstances call for it. She doesn’t downplay one in favor of the other and accepts Sasuke as he is, for what he is.
Also, I love how upfront Karin is towards Sasuke. It’s seriously refreshing, and it only makes me appreciate her character even more because she doesn’t let her romantic feelings for him drive their interactions; she is perfectly capable of putting him in his place and knocking his ego down a notch or two while being head-over-heels in love with him. She doesn’t see him as love-interest first and person second; she simply sees him as Sasuke, the person she happens to be in love with.
Truly:
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