Christ, that's terrifying. Yeah, it's hard to deny that imagining kid having to navigate today's media landscape is... tough. Good on you for addressing it, and I wish you luck going forward!

When I was growing up (2000's/2010's), online safety & responsibility were very heavily emphasised, at home and at school. I don't know what its like right now, but it certainly seems to me that it's shifted away from teaching kids to be safe, to trying to make everything safe by default?

He has no right to be this adorable

I do love this fight so much for so so so many reasons, but I gotta say I still laugh when Sarada pulls out a CHIDORI against Chocho, like, SARADA that is an LETHAL ASSASSINATION technique, WHAT ARE YOU DOING-

I'm not expecting the manga to tackle the subject, buuut... there is some gender commentary you could read into it, right? Throughout the series (and real life tbh) in general guys are often expected to rise to the challenge and girls to let others handle stuff.

I reckon that there’s some guilt/resentment that her mangekyou manifested in defence of one of her goals, but in opposition to the other. Maybe Yodo’s words retroactively soothed that guilt. As you said, Boruto’s not here now. Now she gets a chance to use her power for something other than just him.

I don’t know what my theory is yet, but I have my own thoughts, forgive me while I rant;
- Sarada currently has two main driving goals; Becoming Hokage, and saving Boruto. These two goals are in active conflict, as she’s been held back (or even demoted?) due to her vocal defence of Boruto.

I LOVED this chapter!
It had the emotional punch I’ve been looking for, especially in the Konohamaru & Matsuri stuff. The ART for that scene was incredible!
And apart from being so damn excited to finally see what unique ability Sarada’s got, the conversation between her and Yodo is fascinating.

I've had similar thoughts! Though admittedly my optimism regarding the handling of female characters in Boruto has been... put to the test, as a lot of tropes that I had been hoping would be avoided haven't been so far. But if they decide to surprise me, I am HERE FOR IT

Sooo many!
I often think about Fenris in DA2. He's already a fascinating character, the way his trauma informs everything he does and the dynamic he has with other characters, and then in his romance scene in act 2 he gets so overwhelmed he straight up breaks up with you for three years.
It's great

They're E V E R Y W H E R E

Huhh, that's a side to it I hadn't considered. Still annoying ofc, for multiple reasons, but might be interesting for me to do a reread with that in mind.

This is so cool! I absolutely love this design for Poison Ivy