SasoDei

Truth be told, I still have no idea how to go about populating a shrine page. I love these two for so, so many reasons that it's a bit difficult to smush all my feelings down into a cute little webpage. This is why everything is written out in a long-form stream of consciousness, lumped into sections for your viewing pleasure.

Sasori

Sasori is an impatient, tragic puppet man who was fucked over by his ninja village. When he was a teenager, he made himself into a puppet, killed the Kazekage¹, made him into a puppet, and dipped. Now he's stuck looking seventeen for the rest of his life. This is absolutely his decision, because all that's left of his original body is a vaguely root-vegetable shaped cylinder with purple tentacles with his name on it so that his lab partners don't confuse it with a soil sample. He has dozens of clones of his original body that the tuber can attach to at will. I have 0 idea how his body works, but that doesn't stop me from tirelessly theorizing.

and

Deidara

Deidara is an extremely enthusiastic terrorist bomber artist who joined the Akatsuki because he lost a bet. He has three extra mouths -- was he born with them? Are they attached to his digestive system? Are they part of his art? Nobody knows. Deidara is a very polarizing character. Most of us tend to agree that he's annoying, but, while many of us consider this a plus, a good portion of the fandom hates his guts. I personally think that he's cute and funny, but I don't have to spend all of my time with him like Sasori does.

Why?

For the love of foils

Sasori's ~terminally done with everything~ energy is turned up to 100 with Deidara. Deidara's impulsivity is tempered by Sasori's inexplicable care. It's a miracle that Sasori hasn't killed him yet. They are a comedy of errors and a tragedy in the making.

Endless flavors

The SasoDei fandom is characterized by high school AUs. I'm not really sure why, it's far from my genre of choice, but even within canon there are lots of ways for them to go.

Do you want to focus on Deidara? Got it! How about those mouth hands we mentioned? Sure, go wild. What the fuck is going on with Sasori? Let's explore! They're just fleshed out enough in canon to give the audience a peek into their dynamic, but there's still plenty that's left to the imagination. Whether SasoDei is your comedy or your tragedy, whether you see them as friends, coworkers, or lovers, on some level, they just make sense.

Aesthetic appeal

They're both pretty, which ended up taking the 2012 Naruto fandom by storm. If you go looking for SasoDei in any depth, you'll find endless Deviantart doujinshi authors who were enchanted by their twinkish wiles.

For the love of art

They're both artists. They are equally passionate about their conflicting opinions on art². They argue about it like an old married couple. It's charming and hilarious and sometimes entirely out of place³.

"Sasori, my man" and "danna"

Deidara calls Sasori "danna". A lot of people translate "danna" to "husband". I love this translation, but generally when "danna" is used in that context, it's for referring to other peoples' husbands. However, that doesn't mean that its other use, "master", packs any less punch⁴. This title means that Deidara respects Sasori as a superior and as a fellow artist. For a flippant character like Deidara, this is a huge honor, especially because of the conflicting opinions they hold.

Surprisingly, I also love the English dub's "my man". It makes Deidara sound like a surfer sometimes, and other times it's so out of place that it feels like he's addressing a partner. The bottom line is that it's cute and it feeds my delusion. Especially because of. Well. See for yourself how the actor says it and tell me I'm out of my mind.

Japanese version here

English version here

And they were coworkers

They have been stuck together for YEARS. There's some flavor of affection there, or else Deidara would be dead. It's not like it hasn't happened before -- this is the Akatsuki. Sasori doesn't suffer fools, and there are very few people that Deidara respects in any capacity.

Personal

SasoDei and me

My flavor of SasoDei is bittersweet and born of convenience. I don't see them as people who could find each other in any universe, and that's the beauty of them. They're been pushed together by their circumstances and they make the best out of it. They're similar enough to have common ground, and different enough to be interesting. Sasori is someone Deidara greatly respects. Deidara is persistent enough to carve through the layers that Sasori needs carving through. They're a mess -- maybe that means they're in love, maybe that means that they're not. Whatever they are, it always ends in Sasori's death and Deidara's decline.

I like multiple interpretations of SasoDei, but my favorites involve Deidara being his flippant self with his canonical level of respect for Sasori. My Sasori is more variable than my Deidara -- he can either be in love with Deidara despite the way he "doesn't feel things", or he can be fascinated by Deidara for one reason or another (his unique jutsu, what a pretty puppet he'd make, whatever). From there, he can either accept these feelings, or push against them, catching Deidara in the crossfire. Either way, my SasoDei is very much an exploration of Sasori -- he's such an interesting character to me, and I especially enjoy imagining how his peculiarities would transfer over to a relationship. His neuroses are so unique, it's fun to get into his headspace while trying to make wiggle room for love.

More than anything, their banter is so much FUN! Their bickering, squabbling, and all the hints about what lies beneath the surface. There was a scene where Deidara ran out of his exploding clay mid-fight and he noted in passing how mad Sasori would be that he wasn't careful to pack enough, and this has stuck with me forever. HE CARES! THE PUPPET CARES!

Do they deserve better? No. I will make them worse.

Memes

Footnotes

¹ Essentially the sand ninja mayor
² Deidara finds beauty in things that are fleeting, and Sasori has abandonment issues
³ Arguing while lounging on Gaara's dead body, anyone?
⁴ I've also seen it translated to "sir" in Yu-gi-oh, but that's neither here nor there.