Disclaimer: I d not own or claim to own Naruto or anything else mentioned in this piece of fiction in any way, shape, or form and I am making to or attempting to make a profit from this work of fiction in any way, shape of form, all recognizable trademarked material belongs to their respective owners in every way, shape, and form in accordance to the law.
AN: Okay, a rant here that got way off topic so sorry about that one guys but enjoy the parts that are on topic at least.
This is going to be a rant instead of a theory and this rant is going to be about the one, the only, the too damn common, and too damn annoying topic of….
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BASHING!
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Now, I have no idea why bashing has become so common in Naruto fandom but I can't stand it and I've been on this site for several years. At first I, like I guess everyone else did, liked seeing Sakura and Sasuke bashed and generally grew to believe they were both terrible characters. Sakura was a screaming worthless banshee of a teammate who constantly beat up Naruto because she was just terrible. And Sasuke, oh I can't even begin to start on Sasuke and just how much I grew to hate him. He was a power hungry, egotistical, and arrogant little brat that deserved to get beat by Naruto at every opportunity because the arrogant and power hungry Uchiha brat had it coming every time.
Looking back on this, I can't believe how stupid I was.
While writing this little piece I, instead of looking at how characters are mainly portrayed in fanfiction, looked into their personalities on the show and looked for comments on them from Kishimoto himself and found the truth I was overlooking for so long. Kishimoto actually admits that he can't write female characters and the reason Sakura is either portrayed useless or pushed onto the sidelines in the manga and anime is because of that, the man simply can't write her well and doesn't want to screw her character up. Sakura had her moments through and no one can deny them even if you hate her, she had character growth like in the Forest of Death where she is willing to risk everything to protect her unconscious teammates. Now please remember, Sakura was very vain and focused on her looks before this and willingly cut her hair off, a rather nice sign of character growth and the episode was nicely titled as "Sakura Blossoms" but people tend to ignore this and just endlessly bash her in almost every Naruto story I see. Another example of good character growth is the Sasori fight in Naruto Shippuden where Sakura didn't stand on the sideline and was generally an awesome badass female character during the fight who defeated Sasori in the end despite all odds against her and Sasori generally being borderline immortal against her and Chiyo.
Of course this is understandably as the site is so populated by stories that bash her that people simply grow to hate her for no reason and make a crucial mistake and move from being people I like to people I abhor. They begin to view fanfiction, key words being FAN and FICTION, as canon. Yes, people become so use to the bashing that populates stories on this wonderful site that they completely ignore the fact that it is fiction. Yes people, this site is just fiction made by fans, kind of in the name of the site but hey, I'm not talking about that right now. So, I stay in this majority for a while before I really begin to see, and I mean really see what the hell I was doing. I mean, taking fanfiction as canon? Completely ridiculous but sadly far too commonly done as I see the same thing every time I click on a Naruto story, almost all of them hold bashing the same way I've seen it in another story.
A perfect example of this is my brother, I introduced him to the site a while back and over time I observed the same thing I saw happen to myself. He began seeing fanfiction and canon as one and the same. I didn't let this happen and constantly stressed to him the simple fact of this: Fanfiction is not canon. You won't believe how many times I had to tell him before I think he got the message. Still hard to hold a nice conversation with him but he's great to argue with and actually helps me clear up my rants and theories when we talk.
Now, moving on, I've strayed off topic with this example enough as it is, I'll move onto Sasuke bashing and just how stupid it is sometimes. I don't know who started this but if I ever find out I will try to talk sense into them. Sasuke, is in actuality, a complex character who's, like I said about Dan Phantom in a Danny Phantom theory, just batshit insane. All of this depicting him as power hungry and arrogant and just a brat overall is untrue. The kid is simply a basket case who never got any of the help he desperately and I mean desperately needs. First off, his entire clan was slaughtered by the idol of his childhood and that same idol freely admits to doing it and even shows him a twisted version of it using his Mangekyou Sharingan and Tsukuyomi. He's told to hate him and grow stronger in order to avenge the clan while gaining the Mangekyou Sharingan, a goal he latched onto and refuses to let go of until he can do it. Now you may be seeing right now "So, what's the big deal? The guy is still an asshole?" Right? WRONG! Very fucking wrong!
Sasuke, in the simplest terms, needs an obsession to keep his fragile mind functioning. He will latch onto anything that he thinks will do it ranging from killing Itachi to changing the Shinobi World because he needs to. It's not something that can be broken because his entire life has been filled with goals, first to gain his father's attention and later to kill Itachi only to later to destroy Konoha. His need for obsessions control him in every way, shape, and form I can think of as all of his actions can tie back to them. Look at him taking Itachi's eyes after the Five Kage Summit, he did it in pursuit of his goal to destroy Konoha or simply look at his defection to Orochimaru, done simply for power to kill Itachi as Itachi told him to do. With his needs for obsessions come the fact that he is highly easy to manipulate by anyone who can talk so basically every villain in Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Just look back on his past and see that his goals have always been created by others no matter what you may think. His goal to gain his father's attention, set by his father. What about his goal to kill Itachi? That goal was actually set by Itachi himself. How about his goal to destroy Konoha for the suffering Tobi told him his brother was put through because of him? Set by Tobi/Madara/Obito as part of his plans to get more power to the Akatsuki and eventually capture the Tailed Beast.
So, after all this, do I have to bring up anything else to convince you that Sasuke and Sakura bashing is unfounded and both annoying but also everywhere you look and steadily taking over and beating down all of the good stories without them here on this site? Of course I need more! I know right now you're saying or thinking to yourself that I'm just a Sasuke fanboy but I'm not. I hate him with a passion over the general stupidity he shows. I mean really? Destroy the village your brother gave everything to protect? Is that really anything someone with even the cognitive functions of a three year old would even think of doing? Sasuke is just a completely stupid character who doesn't even have a half decent reason to hide behind for the horrid actions he constantly partakes in and the crimes he commits. But all of this still isn't a reason to see the constant bashing of his character, simply fix his personality in the story you write. You are the author, you do not need to conform to what others write as this site is about expressing your views and what you want to happen!
So please, start writing things that don't include heavy bashing. I've actually stopped reading Naruto fanfictions because that is pretty much all I find now, next to Godlike Naruto stories and mostly the two are one and the same. But godlike Naruto is a rant for another day…
Or is it?
I say no since I'm going to include it in here too so enjoy this double rant.
What makes it so good for people to write these stories? I mean all Godlike Naruto stories are is when some group of hot goddesses come down and give him unlimited power because he's had a terrible life and they just want to take pity on him. Listen up people! Gods don't care about mortals, well most gods don't and if this is insulting you I deeply apologize because this is not my intention in this rant and just relates to what I generally see in these stories and my personal opinion when it comes to the gods/god and a single individual.
The Gods in Naruto obviously don't care if they still haven't stepped in with Madara's insane plan to put his eye on the moon, showing Madara as the crazy old man your parents tell you to stay away from at all costs. Now moving on, why? Why does this happen in every story I read that deals with Naruto? I mean come on people! Get creative and take on challenges like 'What if Naruto never learned the Shadow Clone Technique?' or 'What if Naruto didn't want to be a Ninja" or even the far too common 'What if Naruto was beaten as a child?', a thing, by the way, that isn't canon but seen far too much in basically every story I've ever read. And this isn't even the worse thing as on top of Godlike Naruto stories, I almost always see him having every Nature Transformation, every Kekkei Genkai, the Rinnegan, Sharingan, Byakugan, and some super powerful Dojutsu because he somehow turns out to be the descendent of every clan ever through some unexplained bullshit reason.
And this isn't even to go into the ever popular Banishment plot popular after either of the attempts to retrieve Sasuke. I mean really? What type of military village banishes the ultimate weapon at what is basically their beck and call? Really? All you say is your orders and the you'll be Hokage afterwards and he'll already be finished before you finish your sentence. And the fact this Banishment storyline always happens because of civilian councils that somehow spring up in what is basically a dictatorship and…I actually can't do this right now, I will just keep going and going and going if I keep this up so I'll focus only on Godlike Naruto stories and not the Banished Naruto stories or the Harems that are in both of these stories.
Now, moving onto Godlike Naruto stories and why I just loathe them at this point because at first they were okay, a good but easily predictable read before they turned very annoying after the thirtieth one I skimmed through on the site. Now, I am not insulting the authors, I'm just sick and tired of these stories at this point as the all follow a basic format. All of them are goddesses, because let's face it, it's always goddesses because they always have crushes on Naruto and they always give him amazing power for no reason and the promise themselves to him as a Harem or help him help destroy Konoha or some combination like that. All of this and more now is all over the Naruto section of the site and it isn't limited to just the main section as most crossovers have the same or him simply having a massive Harem when he has no business being in that particular fandom.
But, once again, I'm off topic here as Harems are a topic for another rant and one that will be extensive on just how much I hate them, it's actually gotten to the point I won't even read a story with a Harem at this point. Naruto does not need twenty or something women just because he has some horrible life, which, newsflash people, others have it worse than him and I don't see goddesses coming down and offering themselves to these people, and then he sprouts some worthless trash about it not being a Harem or they were all just one big family, which is wrong and stupid for too many reasons. Let's not even delve into how many times Naruto has a sister or mother or both that just wants to get into his pants. That is wrong people! Get that into your perverted minds!
I actually just searched for the Naruto section of the site with Naruto and Kushina on the character filter on an M rating while I was writing this piece and I've come to a decision regarding the Naruto fandom. The sheer amount that simply read Godlike, Harem, and just generally common things that I discussed before and I am going to be taking a brief hiatus from all Naruto related fanfiction which includes any stories I have on it.
Since I've gotten so off topic by this point I'll finish it up in this last paragraph or at least get close to the main point.
Now, Godlike Naruto stories and massive Sasuke and Sakura Bashing now make up most of Naruto fanfiction and because of it the good Naruto stories that are out there are simply ignored as they are buried under the constantly repeated storylines that many fanfiction writers have begun taking as near gospel. Bashing holds no support in either the anime or the manga for the reasons I've listed of Kishimoto himself admitting he can't do female characters well making up for Sakura's poor performance in most things and Sasuke being a psychopath that needs an obsession to hold himself together to at least try to remove the urge to bash them from your minds. Godlike Naruto stories are a completely different thing through as most of them are simply Harems where Naruto is simply god and they've filled up the Naruto Fanfiction archive with them.
So, I hope you enjoyed the rant, hopefully me going off topic so much didn't bother you, and please take at least some of this into consideration the next time you want to write Godlike Naruto stories, bashing of any character, and Harems in general.
AN: Well, I want to apologize for a moment as this rant was so off topic because my mind was drifting the entire time I wrote it and wouldn't stay focused without going into a super rant on Naruto stories in general.
P.S.: I do not mean to insult any author on this site with this rant, I just wanted to rant and try to change how much of the same stories are posted. All authors on this site have the right to their own opinion and I am not trying to disrespect you or how you write, I'm simply expressing my own opinion.
Anyway, hoped you enjoyed it and leave a review if you disagree or are confused or just have another point to bring up and I'll respond to your review through PM.
Peace.
